#I'm more of a sepia guy

[maybe-murphy]

And when your 5 PM's turn Orange

Know the skies are paying homage

To the way I'll always think of you

[youneedsomeprompts]

How to write: ethnicity & skin colour

requested by: anonymous request: How exactly can I describe a characters ethnicity/skin color casually, without it sounding like a specific scene that just exists to describe the skin color? I hope this makes sense lmao… I just want to write a scene where I casually mention someone’s ethnicity or skin color

description of appearance: No matter if skin colour or hairstyle or clothes, a text is more dynamic if you don't dedicate an entire scene/paragraph to it but rather sprinkle the necessary information in here and there. However, there can be instances where it's conducive to the plot to put that entire paragraph (e.g. introducing a new important character with backstory). Otherwise, I'd say try to keep it short and put it where it serves the plot.

ways to incorporate...

... a description of appearance:

when a character makes their first entrance (describe everyone's colouring - POCs' and white characters')

the impression their complexion makes together with their clothes: "the bright yellow of their shirt complemented their dark skin"

the way their colouring interacts with lighting: "the grey weather took away the rosy hue of their fair skin"

when appearances create a contrast: "I immediately noticed them because they were the only other black person"

... ethnicity:

let the characters mention it where it makes sense

regarding the narrator you've chosen for your story, it can also be blended into an inner monologue

include parts of their culture: traditions, terms, family, etc. (this also allows to bring up their ethnicity repeatedly over the story and not only at the beginning)

show their struggles: are they affected by social struggles? then show it!

words to use to describe skin colour:

... basic colour descriptions:

brown

black

beige

white

pink

... more specific colours (try sticking to familiar/common words that can be easily visualised):

amber

bronze

copper

gold

ochre

terracotta

sepia

sienna

porcelain

tan

... prefixes or modifiers (can be easily combined with basic colours):

dark

rich

warm

deep

fair

faint

light

cool

pale

... undertones (pre-dominant colours underneath the skin - often warm or cool, sometimes also neutral and olive):

yellow

orange

coral

golden

silver

rose

pink

red

blue

... avoid food analogies as it's often received as offending, fetishising, and/or objectifying.

That's all I can provide as of now but I'm sure you guys have aspects to contribute. I'm very interested to hear your thoughts, so please feel free to add to this post whatever you like to/can share <3

And for more information, maybe also check out @writingwithcolor for more specialised posts on the topic <3

[beansprean]

I did not want to draw a weeks-or-months-old decomposing corpse so let's all just continue to hand wave any sort of concrete timeline for this comic.

My Familiar’s Ghost part 42

Masterpost

(ID in alt and under cut)

ID: 1a. Close up on past Guillermo, in sepia tones, as he looks up at Nandor with a nervous grin, cheeks flushed. He asks, 'Are...are you going to eat me?' 1b. Zoom out, close up on past Nandor in the foreground in profile as he turns his gaze away from Guillermo with an uncomfortable grimace. He grumbles, 'I was going to, but you're kind of taking all the fun out of it...' Guillermo pipes up with an 'I'm sorry!' in the background, still smiling and wringing his hands together. 1c. Back in the present, close up on Nandor walking through the hall behind the Panera counter, looking down in surprise as he steps in something wet. Past Guillermo's dialogue continues: 'Do you want me to...run or something?' 1d. Shot of the floor in front of present Nandor from his POV, showing a dead human in a Panera hat and apron laying there in a pool of blood, throat ripped out. Nandor rolls her over with his foot and says, 'Yeesh, already slacking on body disposal, Guillermo?' 1e. Close up on present Nandor in profile as he looks back up, brow furrowed and eyes shining with regret. He says, 'I proper sire would have... Would have seen you through this.' 1f. Back to the past, sepia tones. Medium shot of past Nandor squinting down at Guillermo and leaning away with a look of suspicion, as if he were contagious with something. He asks, 'Why are you so eager? Are you some kind of...death pervert?' Offscreen, past Guillermo responds, 'No, no! I just...'

2a. Back to the present. Shot behind Nandor as he walks through the hall behind the Panera counter, coming to an wall straight ahead with a few miscellaneous cardboard boxes, a metal freezer door to the left, and a wooden door to the right that says 'employees only'. The door is cracked open slightly, letting a dim light into the dark hallway. Nandor walks toward it. Past Guillermo's dialogue continues: 'I've always wanted to be a vampire.' 2b. Close up on Nandor's hand closing around the doorknob to the room. Past Guillermo's dialogue continues, 'And I figure...' 2c. Wide shot from within the room as Nandor opens the door fully, his silhouette visible in the doorway on the far wall. It appears to be a break room, or was, with a unisex bathroom on the left wall, a collection of round tables and wooden chairs, and a short counter with upper and lower cabinets, sink, and coffee maker on the far wall next to a top-freezer refrigerator. The fridge is cracked open, which is what let light into the room. In the righthand corner closest to the viewer is a nonfunctional soda machine that says 'bepis' on the front. There is blood smeared around the fridge handles, the light switches, the soda machine buttons, in shuffling footprints on the floor, congealed in styrofoam cups scattered around the counter next to an abandoned cardigan, and dripping down the cabinets. One of the tables is overturned against a wall along with a chair with several broken legs. More importantly, perhaps, the room is littered with corpses. There is a dark-skinned bald man laying in the center of the room who appears to be wearing a Panera apron and is, presumably, human. The bald corpse laying next to him with pointed ears and a long black cape is decidedly not. Another body lays tangled in the fallen table and chair, bloodied cape tossed over their head. A woman in leather and a long skirt lays on her back on an upright table, coated in blood and throat ripped apart, staring emptily past the viewer with her mouth hanging open to show her fangs. Another corpse is slumped upright against the wall next to Nandor, wearing bellbottoms and a paisley shirt. His head is tipped back, mouth open and full of sharp teeth, the broken wooden leg of a chair sticking out of his chest. As Nandor stands and stares at the carnage, past Guillermo's dialogue continues: 'It's now or never, right?' /end ID

[kisses4kaia]

BABE WE NEED MORE ETHAN CONTENT MORE WHINY AND NEEDY SHIT

IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE !! send ethan reqs u guys i’m dying over here😫🙏

(separate a/n: i'm back! i know you guys probably missed me soooo much but i missed u all so so so much more. so happy to be back. ❤)

smarty🍪- e, landry ,,

"please," he's given up, his voice was a quiet, defeated plead. you were sat on his aching cock, riding him to oblivion.

he begged permission to utilize his hands, knuckles turning white as he clenched his fists to restrain himself. they were tight at his sides, sheets in between his fingers.

"oh honey, you've been so good," you slow the rolling of your hips until you can look into his sepia-toned eyes. his pupils were blown and his eyes were glossy with tears.

he whimpered at the compliment, and also with frustration due to your lack of movement.

he looked so sad, it genuinely sent a pang to your heart. finally, you nodded. "go ahead, sweetheart." you allowed permission for his hands to land on your hips.

only, he didn't get that message. his hands flew to your hips and flipped the both of you over. the swift movement left you winded as ethan pounded into you repeatedly.

you wanted to tell him to slow down, but it felt so good that you weren't even sure if that was what you wanted.

"come on, i'm almost there. am i making you feel good, momma?" you nodded rapidly. "so, so good, e. so good, don't stop," you breathed out through your moans.

he laughed humorlessly before saying with each thrust, "over. my. dead. body,"

all your senses were so overwhelmed with pleasure that you couldn't hold your orgasm back any longer. the white-hot sensation crashed over you like an ocean tide. you couldn't even recall the moment with how pumped with adrenaline you were.

and from the way ethan's eyebrows furrowed and the way his teeth grinded against each other, you could tell he was close, too.

"c'mon, pretty boy. come inside me, it'd make me so proud," and with just those short phrases, a guttural moan tore from his vocal cords as he came long white ropes into you.

ethan slowly pulled out, watching his coated dick slip out of your cunt ever so easily. he could've come again right there.

when he flopped down next to you, finally getting a real opportunity to catch his breath, you turned onto your side to face him, a thoughtful expression on your face.

"again?"

at first his face read 'you have got to be kidding me', but quickly twisted into a smile before he spoke.

"obviously."

tags; @themostintellectualblonde @dreamtofus @wannabe-indie-sleaze @insanelycrazyanddelusional

[repairgirl]

michelle || leo valdez x fem!reader songfic

a/n: #2 in songfic series! song: michelle- sir chloe

t/w: alcohol, cursing, substance abuse, mention of vomitting, super smutty and super nsfw

word count: 1.2k

You swayed back and forth to the boom boom boom beat of the music, sipping the raw, bitter alcohol. Travis's party was just what you needed: shots, random boys you didn't care about to grind on and distract yourself with, getting blackout drunk, and basically anything to make you get your mind off of him.

Just thinking about his name made you want to vomit. You were reminded of walking in on him with that other, terrible, Nemesis girl, the half-assed breakup, never getting closure, and endless nights of sobbing and feeling sorry for yourself. Two weeks later, and his words were fresh in your mind like a fresh cut he had just re-opened yesterday. You drank more, feeling dizzy, praying the alcohol would numb your brain.

Fuck him, anyway. You'd show him you could do better. 

"Woah, calm down," a random boy said, approaching you. The darkness and flashing lights of the cabin made it hard to see his face, so you could barely make out his gleaming brown eyes and sepia skin. "You might wanna be careful with that much alcohol."

"You don't know what's best for me," you snapped, your words slurring. The bass pumped in your ears, making your head feel like it was going to explode. 

To your surprise, the boy laughed rather than acting offended. "Okay, I guess you're right. I shouldn't be talking, anyway. I just finished shotgunning this beer,” he answered, showing you his tattered-up Natty Lite can.

Lightheaded and unphased, you allowed yourself to plop on the tattered sofa, the boy crashing next to you. His breath smelled of beer and straight tequila, and you only imagined that yours did too.

"Why?" you asked, inching close to him. His hand rested on his thigh, barely grazing yours under your ripped denim shorts. 

"Why what?"

"Why do you drink? I mean, we all drink for a reason. We're either mad at someone else, or ourselves."

He paused, tapping his leg. 

When you got drunk, you got angry and philosophical. Mad at the world, hyperaware of everything wrong with everyone, the reason why many people couldn't handle you drunk. The reason you usually drank alone. 

The boy leaned back, resting his head against the seat. "I'm lonely. I'm fucking tired of being the seventh wheel, and always feeling like everyone's life is better than mine."

"Hey, I'm lonely too."

"You?" he asked. "Once everyone heard you were single again, they all wanted to get with you. Thought you would even be taken by now."

You scowled. You hated your reputation at camp: the pretty girl who everyone thought they could take advantage of just because she was from Aphrodite. You were tired of being treated like a sex object, especially by your ex, and you wanted to prove them all wrong. "That's exactly the point. All anyone ever wants me for is my body. But apparently even that wasn't good enough for... him."

The boy paused, almost looking sorrowful, and like he regretted saying anything. What was that look he was giving you? Pity? 

"He cheated? I'm sorry... That's rough."

"Yeah, but it's whatever. That's why I drink, anyway," you said, gulping down more of a Coors bottle someone handed you. He looked concerned. 

"You and me, we're opposites. I have to rely on my personality to get me anywhere. All my friends have amazing good looks to rely on.  I have to work for that shit, to even be slightly noticed."

The strobe light shined on him, and you could see his features more clearly this time. Unsure of whether it was you or the alcohol speaking, you noticed his chocolate brown hair, beautiful curls you wanted to pull. 

Most guys repulsed you, especially after the breakup. You wanted them to get their hands off of you, because no one felt right the way your ex did. But every move this boy made, every hungry look he gave you, all of that just made you want him more. He made you feel different. 

"Then we would fit together perfectly," you said, inching towards him. 

He moved his hand to your thigh, rubbing your leg with his thumb. The lights dimmed as the party entered its peak, and the sexual tension between you two increased. 

The boy inched oh-so-slightly to the left so that his hot breath was on your ear, close enough to bite it. "Maybe we would."

Agonizingly slowly, he put one hand on your waist and used another to cup your face. You stared into his eyes, mesmerized by his gaze, your ears and head buzzing from the alcohol. Finally, you both shared a drunken kiss. You didn't even think about what you were doing.

He gripped your waist, and you climbed on his lap. He bit your lip, then sloppily put his tongue in your mouth, not bothering to ask for permission to enter. You kissed back, your tongues swirling together, making out like you were running out of time, running away from the world, running away from your ex, running to each other. 

Once you slowly started grinding on him, he pulled away and whispered in your ear. "Let's take this to a room." 

Once you got to an empty room, the boy twirled you around and pressed me against the wall. He tightened his arms around your waist, and you wrapped your arms around his neck, having to stand on your tiptoes. You pressed your body as close to his as possible, sticking your knee in between his legs for extra friction. 

"Jump," he growled.

You did as you was told and jumped up so you were face to face, straddling him. He connected his lips with yours and squeezed your ass as he held you, making you moan into the kiss. 

You urgently ran your fingers through his hair, feeling his curly locks. You grinded into him, and he moaned into your mouth.

He set you down and pushed you onto the bed, never letting your lips disconnect. 

One you were on the bed, him towering over you and shoving his tongue in your mouth, he finally put his hands under your shirt, feeling and squeezing your tits. He grinded his member against you, and you shivered in delight, running your fingers over his well defined muscles. 

He started trailing kisses down to your neck, trying to find your sweet spot. Once he did, you let out a loud moan which you had been holding in, which of course only encouraged him to suck harder. Once he was done covering your neck in red spots, he pulled back, giving you that lopsided grin, then he finally hungrily kissed you again. 

Whatever you felt- buzzed because of the alcohol, eager to get a rebound to prove your ex wrong, or solely just sexual attraction, you knew it felt right.

He was taking off your shirt after already discarding his on the floor when you stopped him.

"Wait," you panted. "I don't even know your name."

"Leo. Leo Valdez," he responded, and as he did, you watched his lips, wishing they were back on yours. "You?"

"Y/N L/N."

Leo trailed kisses down your chest, seductivley looking up at you with hungry eyes.

"Y/N L/N, you are a monster from hell."

leo valdez taglist: @slytherindaughterofposeidon0​ @persephil​ @mmmelanie-blog1​ @blue-violin​ @goldengoddess​ @dee-zbignuts​ @animes-trash​ @nottherealslimshady​ @cellias​ @lovemss​

[cat-identifier]

hi hi! i was hoping you could put to rest a (joke) argument between me and my mom, regarding our little freak's pattern. he's definitely a ragdoll of some kind (we found him as a kitten in the walmart garden center, so we think someone threw him out), but we're not too sure about anything else. his name is romi and a brick is 30x smarter than he could ever be. i don't think he can even conceptualize more than 3 people in a room. thanks in advance, i love your blog! <3

Phenotype: black classic tabby mink lynx point longhair with <50% white

Lots of things going on with this cat makes for a very long phenotype and even I'm not sure I got everything in the right order XD

Breed: Likely random-bred

I wouldn't say for sure he's a Ragdoll if you just found him. Purebred cats are expensive and one just getting thrown out is unlikely. More likely he's just a sepia point by coincidence. No less adorable, though!

Interesting Features: no thoughts in that brain

Love it when cats are silly little guys <3

[wanderingcas]

title: where there is darkness pairing: dean/cas tags: historical au (1950s), angst with a happy ending, gay but in sepia

Posting a (long) sneak-peek of this fic, because I'm getting restless not sharing this. Enjoy!

***

As with most things in his life, Dean has a love-hate (but mostly hate) relationship with this lighthouse. 

It’s easy to take care of on sunny days and clear nights, but it’s grueling during a storm or fog. Sun shines through the window in the midday, providing warmth, but it’s ever-loving cold the rest of the time. 

It provides him with shelter from the outside world. 

But it traps him in, like a caged animal. 

Love, hate—day in and day out. And right now, standing against the railing of the balcony with an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips and the wind whipping at his back, it’s hate.

The light’s ready for the dusk that’s beginning to settle on the harbor. Dean’s cleaned the lens and brewed the meths. He turned on the tap, set a match to the mantle. The routine is so familiar, he could do it in his sleep. The light rotates behind him, illuminating his back briefly before turning its watchful eye to the rest of the harbor. 

Bright, dark. Bright, dark. Around and around like a carousel. 

Him and this lighthouse go way back, like a bad relationship that he can’t quit. When John moved him and Sam to Kittery and started work on this light, Bobby would bring Sam and Dean to visit during the fortnightly supply runs. Every visit was like a further punch to the gut to remind him of what he’d lost. It wasn’t like the light they’d all lived at when Dean’s mom was alive, with a cozy house that always smelled like freshly baked bread. This was a cold, sterile environment that smelled like three guys living in close quarters. And John—

He could barely look Dean and Sam in the eye when they visited. 

After a few months at Whaleback, John seemed to relax into the work and his smile came more easily, but Dean would smell the whiskey on his breath.  

After a while, Bobby stopped taking Sam and Dean at all.

The lighthouse took John and swallowed him whole. During his brief few days of shore leave, he’d just sit with a bottle at the table. Dean came to dread it, since it meant that the money he’d squirreled away in the coffee can on top of the cupboard would inevitably be pilfered for booze money.

Dean doesn’t know why he’s thinking about all of this, or about John. Maybe it’s because of where he’s currently standing. 

Muttering a curse, Dean pulls the zippo out of his pocket and lights the cigarette.

“Got you.”

Dean turns as his brother comes onto the walkway, collar popped and hands deep into his coat pockets. His cheeks are already pinched red from the cold. 

Dean adopts an easy posture, arms settling on the railing as he leans back with a grin. It hides the bitter taste of nostalgia still on his tongue. “I said I wanted to quit, not that I was going to quit.”

Sam rolls his eyes, then joins Dean at the railing. “Light all set?”

“Yup. Everything’s good. Go get some shut-eye.” 

“I thought it was my shift tonight.”

Dean shrugs a shoulder. “Not tired. I can take the whole night.”

“You took the whole shift last night, too,” Sam says with a frown. “What about that chamomile tea Bobby brought last week? Did you try that?”

“Not drinkin’ a flower. I’ll sleep the old-fashioned way.”

“Clearly that’s not working.”

“I’ll take the shift tonight.” Dean levels his brother with a stare. “Okay?”

Lips twisted into a frown, wind sweeping at his hair, Sam suddenly looks like a younger snot-nosed version that had that same miserable look when Dean tried to tell him that Dad volunteered himself for a double shift that month. Before the Coast Guard took over during the war, things were more relaxed—less regulated. John was able to take all the double, triple shifts as he pleased, drinking himself stupid with all the bootlegged liquor in the cellar. 

It always upset Sam, when their dad didn’t come home. He was a sensitive kid. 

Just like all those years ago, Dean’s heart is punched out with a desire to make that frown leave Sam’s face.

“You wanna sneak back with Bobby tomorrow when he comes for the supply run? Go see Eileen? I can cover things here.”

Sam rolls his eyes with a scoffed laugh. “That’s a pretty terrible first impression to make on the new keeper Bobby’s bringing in.”

Fuck. Dean had forgotten about that. “That’s tomorrow?” he asks with a wince. 

“Yes, and we need him to last more than a week, unlike the last guy. Otherwise the Coast Guard is not going to let us have a say in who comes or stays anymore.”

“Last guy was a pansy,” Dean grumbles around his cigarette. 

“You punched him in the face, Dean.” 

Dean glares out at the thin line of the distant shore and doesn’t reply.

“Since you’re a vet, they’re taking it easy on us,” Sam continues, “but Bobby was talking to someone up in a higher rank the other day and—I think this is our last chance.” He clears his throat. “Your last chance.”

“The hell you mean?” Dean asks, drawing up to a straight back. “They’re gonna sack me?”

“Move you, I think. To a solo light on the shore.”

Dean throws up a hand. “Well, fine. Let them. What’s the problem?”

There’s that miserable look again. Sam won’t raise his head as the unspoken words hang between them. Dean stays silent, challenging Sam to say it. 

“You know what the problem is, Dean,” Sam quietly says. 

Yeah. Dean knows. He knows that without Sam, Dean at a solo light would probably end with him hanging from the rafters. 

Blowing out a drag of smoke into the wind, Dean hunches back over the railing. “I’ll try,” he concedes. “But if he’s a dumbass—”

“Then I’ll train him,” Sam interjects. “You don’t even have to be in the same room as him. We’ll put him on the early morning shifts, make him sleep in the afternoons.”

Dean huffs out a laugh. “Make him stay in the service room listening to the radio.”

A grin forming on Sam’s face, he adds, “Tell him that shore leave is ten days instead of four so he stays off the lighthouse for longer.” 

“Yeah, the Coast Guard won’t notice that.”

“Whatever it takes for you to cohabitate with this guy, I say we do it,” Sam says with a shrug. “Get creative.” 

Dean makes a move to flick the stub of his cigarette away; Sam grabs his arm to stop him. “I just cleaned the landing, Dean.” With a scowl, Dean tosses it into the ocean instead.

Sam runs a hand through his messy hair and sighs, the disapproval evident in his frown. “Need anything before I go down to the bunks?”

“Nah. Get some sleep, Sammy.” Dean gives his brother a smack on the chest in dismissal. “I’ll wake you for the morning shift.”

“Okay, but actually wake me this time. Don’t let me sleep in until nine.”

Dean taps out another cigarette from the carton he fishes out of his pocket. “No promises.” 

“And let me actually make breakfast tomorrow, too!” Sam calls before he disappears through the door.

“I would if your eggs weren’t shit!” Dean barks back. His words are snatched up by the wind. He turns back toward the ocean, clicking the lighter as he holds it up to the cigarette butt. “Seriously, who raised you?”

Blowing out another puff of smoke, the cigarette still caught between his teeth, Dean eyes the shoreline. Their new keeper is probably staying at Bela’s place, if it’s still even running. The inn nearly went under last year after her parents declared bankruptcy. He ran with her a few times in high school before he cut town—she was sharp around the edges. Misunderstood. Just like him. 

He remembers the new guy’s resume. It had stood out to him among the rest, mainly because he seemed the least qualified. Didn’t make sense at all why the Coast Guard chose him as the new rookie, when five men before him—way more experienced, to boot—didn’t last.

No family, no money. Maybe that’s why they took him. That’s better, for these stag lights—bunch of single men with no families means there’s a better chance of them staying. It’s why the Coast Guard is itching to get a new keeper for the light, what with them eyeing recently married Sam, and Eileen, who’s in the family way.

It would make more sense for Sam to leave, get a position at a light with a house. Where he could see his family every night. 

What Sam and Dean used to have, before Mary died.

Dean runs a hand down his face, letting out a curse. Whatever the word is for wishing for a time that he can’t get back to, ever—that’s what tonight is. Memories he didn’t ask for turning around and around in his head like a wheel. That’s what the sea does when you look out into it: shimmers back at you, showing you what you want to see. And sometimes what you don’t. 

The door behind him creaks open again. With a grumble, Dean lets out a breath of smoke, a reprimand on his tongue for Sam to get the hell to bed. 

A bang echoes through the air. 

Dean drops his cigarette in surprise, whipping around to face the door. It yawns open, mercilessly blowing in the wind, banging against the side. Dean strides over to it and pulls it firmly closed before it breaks one of the windows. 

The lens, green and opaque, flashes across his eyes; he squints as the light rotates away. Turning back to the railing, spots dotting his vision, he sees a shadow. 

One taller than him, broader; stumbling toward the railing with a groan. 

Dean closes his eyes, briefly; chest constricting. A trick of the light. It happens.

“It’s haunted!” one of the failed keepers had shouted as he stuffed his clothes into a carpetbag, stumbling down the stairs. “This place is fucking haunted!” 

But that keeper had got it wrong—it wasn’t the lighthouse doing the haunting.

It was the person inside of it. 

***

(If you enjoyed this, I have a taglist! Just let me know you want to be added. Thanks for reading&lt;3)

[maniakminis]

YEEHAW!

It's been a while since I updated you guys on my Ork Stompa project, Biggest Iron. This is several applications of base colors followed by sepia shade washes and going back with the base colors. It still needs a lot of metal chipping and highlights but I'm not sure how much I want to put in the effort. This thing is so cumbersome to paint and I'm already pretty happy with how it is. I think for now I'm going to call him done and if I ever feel like it I'll go back and add more to it. Detail photos under the cut!

For those interested here are the 3d printer files I used that I got on Thingiverse. I can't tell you the exact size because I did a lot of guesswork/reprinting at different scales.

Cowboy Hat

Pistols

Stompa Arms

Stompa Hands

Guitar

Cow Skull

[tategaminu]

Seen some theories and fanfics touching the Rayllum possession plot so I'm gonna show my own thinking of what may happen. These are mixed with said fanfics‚ theories and my own thinking. I’m not a fanfic writer so this is just a messy self indulgent evil thing. They are obviously keeping the love confesion for a really important scene so I think the possession will be the one: Callum gets possessed‚ he goes cray-cray attacking people to the point Ezran and company have to flee‚ Rayla has to stop him from attacking them but she's also the only one who refuses to leave (or maybe they are both alone but her being the one refusing to leave him would be meaningful). Rayla avoids the attack and everything but freezes everytime shes about to hit him‚ she just can't bring herself to hurt him. A moment where her sword is too close to him‚ about to cut him‚ she gets another sepia montage flashback but this time with way more moments between them and tears up. She tosses her swords and decides to go with a different approach‚ once again not caring about what happens to her. She tries to talk to him but after not working and seeing an open spot she goes to hug him or pin him to the ground. We see Callum struggling inside but possessed Callum just PAM stabs her with one of her blades‚ slish takes a victim for the first time and It's her own owner :( She keeps hugging him (or pining him) and Callum eventually breaks free from possession‚ maybe by connecting to the moon or star or just by own will because she got hurt and he needs to help her. Rayla is happy but collapses cuz stabby stab wound. He tries to stop the bleeding with his scarf‚ without much success. She tries to tell him it’s fine even tho she’s bleeding a lot. He hugs her and cries, saying that he can’t lose her and tells her how much she loves her‚ and she says she loves him too before passing out, a kinda happy face because even tho she’s dying, she could save the guy she loves (oh my lord). Callum looks at the prison and talks with Aaravos‚ if Callum frees him‚ he will save her. And he does because he would do anything for her. He frees Aaravos, not because he’s possessed but to save the person he loves since she’s more important that whatever doom may Aaravos bring to the world.

(Option 2: Aaravos dips out and Rayla is saved by mushroom man who saved Zubeia but I'm not beting much in this one.)

Aravos lets them be and goes to do whatever fuckery he is up to, when Rayla wakes up a day later, Callum can’t even bring himself to look at her just like in s4, not out of anger this time but for shame and regret because “he” almost killer her. He’s kinda sadangry that she didn’t kill him and she got injured instead but she explains she could never hurt him and will always stay by his side, finally choosing him by staying instead leaving. They both fully reconcile because they express how important they are for each other, more than the world.

[catgirl-catboy]

Tumblr life tips:

(please imagine these as like, tumblr loading screens. Thank you!)

You make mutuals faster when you change your name/icon less. The easier it is to remember + spell your username, the better people will remember you.

If you block the tag for something, (say, #dogs) do yourself a favor and block the same word in filtered post content. There are plenty of posts about dogs not tagged with anything, and the posts that mention dogs that you'd actually like are slim to none.

Send the people on your dash asks when you can. If you see an ask meme during your daily scroll, send something in! Its the tumblr version of small talk.

If you want to have a slightly more serious conversation with a mutual, you can't go wrong asking about their headcanons. 99% of people will jump at the chance to geek out, and the 1% that really aren't in the mood today can simply delay or delete the ask.

If you are already having a bad day, you should take the time to go in #anti your ship and block the people that bash the ship. You probably won't want to encounter any of those people in the wild, unless they are the rare breed thats civil about things.

Don't wait until tumblr becomes unfun to block the current discourse. The moment you see figurative clouds on the horizon that you don't like, get tag blocking!

https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/crushes is a thing where you only see posts from the dudes you RB from the most often! I set it as my tumblr bookmark so I'll see the posts I'm the most interested in first.

Block annoying people, even if you agree with them on the current issue. You'll find something else to disagree on later, and you already know they aren't a fun person to disagree with.

If you see a shitty ass take, only reblog with a "WTF" if they are the first person in the reblog chain. Else, the guy you dislike won't see it but the first person in the RB chain will. That helps nobody.

If the person you just blocked is still everywhere, filter their username in filtered post content.

Tumblr Savior is basically a tumblr modpack. Look into downloading it as soon as possible if you have not already.

Also theres a firefox extension (idk if its on chrome, switch to firefox anyway it eats less ram) called Palettes for tumblr where you can make tumblr any colors you like! Mine is a nice warm sepia! :)

Please add your own tips I need to get better at tumbling.

[doubleddenden]

So I had a realization. Yeah I'm not shutting up about Unova yet, moving on to DD's Theory Corner.

In the event we get a Legends Unova or similar, I'm pretty damn sure Charizard could be the fire type starter, or at least get a variant or new form.

"Oh but it has enough forms" and? Charizard is Game Freak's favorite little nepo baby. He even got a new model way ahead of the other Kanto starters again recently.

This is what makes me think so:

This is the thing: someone at Game Freak has been going back through the Unova games for even the slightest bit of text or reference- evidence is the way you encounter Meloetta with the Sepia Filter on your camera in Indigo Disk, a reference to the guy in that Castelia cafe that says he saw Meloetta in "sepia tone memories." Another thing is the near 1 to 1 mapping of the pokemon reserve from BW2 that matches a location in the Canyon Biome, where you can find a shiny Haxorus in BW or a Stellar Haxorus in Blueberry Academy- further proof they are fine combing the games for references at this point.

If we're simply theorizing and speculating, I think that drawbridge might be a pretty likely description to draw inspiration from. Much like how Archaludon draws inspiration from the Sky Arrow Bridge connecting Pinwheel Forest to Castelia.

Here's another thing: the bridge is redder than your average Charizard, more of a Charmeleon color. In addition, it's referred to as such for its "beauty and elegance."

I understand beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but elegance? Charizard doesn't strike me as beautiful or elegant, more like powerful, cool, and ferocious. Something like that description could fit something like Serperior better, imo.

Now mind you I'm not one of those people that are like "THIS NPC SAID SHE WANTED A PINK POKEMON WITH FLOWER PATTERNS IN GEN 1!!!! THEY WERE HINTING AT MUNNA FOR 5 GENERATIONS!!!!" or "THERE'S TERA CRYSTALS IN DRIFTVEIL! THEY WERE HINTING FOR 15 YEARS!!!!" because let's be honest, GF does NOT plan that far back. Maybe 4 years at best.

BUT.

It is entirely reasonable to speculate that, in accordance to the knowledge that they are actively looking back at the Unova games for the slightest details, Charizard COULD have another new form, either in the form of a Legends Starter variant or a similar case to Blood Moon Ursaluna. If I had to guess, maybe the form of an Eastern dragon akin to Shenlong? Those are beautiful and elegant to some extent.

Of course this is just pure speculation. But, let's say on Pokémon day, or even next November or January of 2025 or something: If we see Unova and Charmander in the same location, well pick up the phone cuz I will have called it.

[thoughtsandbones]

The way you ease my trepidation

Kyle 'Gaz" Garrick x F! Black OC (Clarissa Edwards)

Because I keep seeing posts on people excluding our guy Gaz who's LITERALLY THE MAIN CHARACTER YOU PLAY IN MWI and MWII!!!!!

The storyline follows my main fanfic from Part 15 II - Simon 'Ghost' Riley x F!MedicDoc OC (codename: Blue) 💀💙

WARNINGS: Profanity, fluff, medical inaccuracies (because all my knowledge regarding medicine comes from Grey's Anatomy and that one stint I did as a first aider)

A/N: This is my first time writing a black character, I've heavily used @writingwithcolor as a guide to ensure I am doing my best to represent the characters. Please do let me know if there are any issues!

Song inspo: 'No Blame' - Christina Chong, Move - Milo Greene, Maan Meri Jaan - King and Nick Jonas, Phantom Studies - Marcel Dettmann and Ben Klock

As Kyle made his way to the RAMC building, Soap's voice echoed in his head.

"Can't feel my legs"

"Lt I'm not gonna make it"

He tightened the grip he had on his vest that he still had not taken off, tainted with Soap's blood when helped Ghost with packing the cellox into the gunshot. Checking his watch it was 12:15pm.

Doc should be done by now he thought to himself as he walked through the double doors, walking past all the medical personnel and straight to reception.

He was met by an empty desk, and looking around the wards he could not see the Doctor nor any other authority figure. Kyle slid his hand into his back pocket retrieving his keycard.

The ambush from AQ when they were in Al Mazrah was something they had not expected, especially not with the kind of hardware they were carrying. State of the art machine guns, snipers, RPGs and up armoured vehicles. All this reeked of Makarov's doing.

Squeezing his fist tighter at the thought of Makarov's smug face made his blood boil. He smacked the reception desk hoping to release some of his built up anger, but it didn't help.

It was then he noticed the big whiteboard behind the desk on the wall and moved closer to it, scanning down the list of patient names until he found John MacTavish, his eyes slid across the row and saw Dr Hari Kaur and Dr Peyton Marie as surgeons assisted by Nurse Clarissa Edwards, Nurse Jenny Mao and Nurse Mikey Way. He then saw he was in the ICU bed 12. Looking down at his all-access keycard, Kyle grinned slightly and made his way to the double doors where the sign pointed ICU.

Once he arrived at the ICU, Kyle made his way to bed 12. There he saw Soap, laying on his back, eyes still closed and intubated. Cables where attached to Soap which were connected to the machines surrounding him, beeping rhythmically. The pipe coming out of his mouth was so unnatural an uneasy sick feeling settled in Kyle's stomach as he stepped closer.

"Soap?" He said, hoping that somehow the Scotsman could hear him and wake-up.

But no answer.

"Jesus" He whispered as he rested his hands against the bed where Soap laid. "You gotta wake up mate" He said nudging his left hand slightly.

Still no response.

Kyle sighed and closed his eyes, running his calloused hands through his hair and scratching the nape of his neck.

"Excuse me, what are you doing in here?" A voice behind him said sharply. Kyle turned, his eyes met a nurse dressed in baby pink scrubs that made her deep sepia skin glow, there was a green stethoscope wrapped around her neck that was crowned by black braids that swayed as she moved closer to him. In her hands she carried a tray with a big bag of liquid with a long thin pipe coming out of it.

"Err.. came here to see Soap" Kyle said, trying to remain cool, straightening up to appear more authoritative

"Dr Marie said I could see him" he lied, hoping she won't pester him...

"Really?" She said, her brown eyes widening, a grin appeared on her face. "When did you speak to her?" She asked moving over to Soap setting aside the tray on the overbed table, and then checked his charts that was in the folder hanging on the end of the bed near his feet.

Kyle cleared his throat. Gotta bullshit my way out of this he thought

"Few minutes ago in reception" He said, smiling at the nurse, trying to look at her keycard to identify her.

The nurse looked up from the chart and at Kyle, and raised her left eyebrow.

"Now, that's a lie as Dr Marie is currently snoring her head off in the on call room."

A wave of guilt and anxiety rushed over Kyle as he was rumbled.

"Err-" Kyle stuttered as he looked around the ICU, shifting his weight before looking back at the nurse who was still giving him a cautious look.

"I'm sorry I lied, just needed to make sure he was okay" Kyle admitted, looking back at Soap.

The nurse slightly relaxed, putting away the charts back in the folder and looked at Kyle as he gazed upon Soap. Her gaze met his and his eyes wandered back to her, she gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Alright, five more minutes, I need to give him some meds so you can stay here with me." She sighed moving towards the alcohol gel dispenser, squirting the foam on her hands before rubbing them together.

"Thanks Doc" Kyle said grinning at her

The nurse laughed "I'm nurse Clarissa Edwards, not a doctor" She said "Doctors wear blue scrubs, nurses wear pink or green" She added putting on a pair of pale blue gloves.

"Ah okay, that makes sense" Kyle said, now remembering Dr Kaur always wearing blue scrubs "It's nice to meet you Clarissa, I'm Sergeant Kyle Garrick"

"Nice to meet you too Sergeant" Clarissa said, giving him a big smile. Kyle watched as she moved over to the tray on the overbed table, grabbing the IV bag and hooking it onto the IV stand, and then moved to Soap's right hand, taking the stopper out of the cannula on the front of his hand, inserting a syringe with saline to flush the cannula.

"What's that you doin'?" Kyle asked curiously, peeking over to see what Clarissa was doing

"Just doing a saline flush, making sure any residual medicine is pushed into his vein, and prevents infection." She said, briefly looking over at Kyle's curious face.

"Ah I see" Kyle says "Did the operation go well?" He asked

Clarissa looked up. It was natural and normal for fellow soldiers to be perplexed about medical procedures, especially when their teammates were involved.

"The op went well, Dr Kaur and Dr Marie did their best" She said, not taking her eyes off the cannula as she attached the line of the IV bag.

Kyle hesisted a bit, his left leg began to shake rapidly, the heel of his boot making a rapid tapping sound against the vinyl floor. Clarissa looked down at his foot and then back up to Kyle's concerned face, sensing the oncoming trepidation.

"He got shot in the back" Kyle blurted without thinking, looking at Clarissa, who narrowed her eyes and then returned to the cannula, using an alcohol wipe to clear up the dirt between Soap's fingers.

Kyle wanted to smack his head against the wall. Stupid thing to say, of course she knew that he thought, turning away from Clarissa he rolled his eyes and brought his right hand to his face, running his forefinger and thumb across his brows.

Clarissa took her gloves off, and took a deep breathe in through the nose before exhaling through her mouth.

"The bullet was removed, there was a bit of nerve damage, but Dr Kaur did a neural graft. We won't know the full extent of any damages until he wakes up" She said to Kyle who still had his back to her.

Kyle turned back around

"He said he couldn't feel his legs on the helo" Kyle said, eyes glazed with tears as his mind took him back to the moment in the helo when Soap said those exact words to them.

Clarissa moved away from Soap and then walked around the bed, facing directly towards Kyle.

"You and your team did the best you could, the cellox was a great call, it definitely saved his life" She said, placing her hand on Kyle's shoulder.

Kyle felt a ripple of warmth wash over him as she placed her hand on him, he gazed at Clarissa, who smiled at him, he was struck by her striking beauty and kindness.

"It will take time, at the moment, it is a bit too early as he needs rest to aid recovery" Clarissa stated, smiling at Kyle. "We are keeping an eye on him, and we have the best doctors and nurses around in case anything happens" She added

Kyle's anxiety eased as she continued to reassure him that Soap would be okay.

"I suggest you also get some rest Kyle, I'll give you a call when he wakes up" She said

The continued reassurance and smiles that Clarissa gave him additional comfort. Kyle felt at ease.

"Thanks Clarissa, I'm sorry for barging in and lying" He said, looking guiltily at her

Clarissa laughed and smiled broadly which made Kyle's heart flutter as she gently tapped him on the the shoulder.

"Better get going, don't want to get in trouble" She said

"Ah I won't get in trouble don't worry" He said smiling back as he headed towards the door.

"Not worried about you! I'm saying me! Only authorised personnel are allowed in the ICU, especially not those covered in blood and dirt... no offence" Clarissa said, winking Kyle.

"Shit," Kyle said, realising he dragged his dirty combat boots into the ICU, breaking the clean protocol, he hurried to the door and opened the door, allowing Clarissa to walk through first who had whispered a thank you to him as she passed.

They walked out down the corridor back towards a now busy reception area.

Kyle turned to Clarissa who moved behind the reception desk, grabbing a whiteboard pen before scribbling the names of medicine and time administered on the row where Soap's name was. She turned towards Kyle who was still standing by reception.

"Thanks again Clarissa, you were really helpful" He said, smiling back.

"No problem Kyle, I promise to call you when he wakes up and when I get proper authorisation from either Dr Marie or Dr Kaur" She said, laughing slightly as Kyle widened his eyes at the mention of Dr Marie.

"You won't tell her-" He began

Clarissa's eyes widened and she shook her head as she noticed Dr Jones walk in behind Kyle.

"Clarissa, I need you to check on Miles in ward 3" He said not making any eye contact with her and moved towards the board.

"Yes sir" She said looking at him cautiously as he scanned the board "I'll speak to you later Kyle" She said finally before walking off. Kyle watched on as she walked off

"Bye Clarissa!" He yelled at her and laughed as she turned and gave him another wink.

Kyle walked back out the doors of the RAMC and basked in the sun that shone down on base. Relief washed over him as he took a big inhale through the nose. Checking his watching it was 1:36pm, he had been up for over 24 hours, and decided to take Clarissa's advice of getting some well deserved rest as he headed back to his quarters.

He hoped to see that dazzling smile soon.

[velvet-cupcake-games]

Made Marion Development Update, November 2022

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for your patience with our skipped October update. We're in that awkward stage of development where it's a lot of writing and behind-the-scenes work, so we just didn't have a lot to show last month.

The Writing Department:

I've hit my first major milestone in Robin's route! Here's hoping that writing goes ever faster from here on out. It's been a huge struggle for me since my bout with long Covid, because my brain keeps fighting me and making it difficult for me to pull out words. But I've been writing some fanfic and that's actually been helping me make more progress on Made Marion's script as I retrain my skull-encased electrified tapioca to string sentences together. Check our socials over the next month (or maybe just Tumblr, who knows how long Twitter will be up at this juncture) if you're a fan of Gilded Shadows and want to see me playing around with the crew from Quill's route. I'll post a link when I'm done!

The Art Department:

Ysolt, on the left, may be familiar to some of you who check our Discord. She was a possible backer-designed sprite who wasn't claimed by our character design backers, so we collected suggestions from our Discord participants for her design! 

At the start of the game, Geoffrey's old Lady Chamberlain is about to get married and quit her job. He needs somebody to run Nottingham Hold, which is partly why he was closing his marriage contract with Marion's father. What happens when his prospective bride disappears or runs away with the Sherwood rebels and he never meets or is rejected by "Lady Anne"? He hires the recently-widowed Lady Ysolt to be his new Lady Chamberlain. She works for him on every route except Geoff/Gui's and Alanna's. She looks quite competent, doesn't she?

On the right is Fawzia. She is many things: freebooter turned smuggler, Meissa's friend, unsung hero of the internal revolt that ended the Nibirian War. She's the reason Meissa has so many nice Nibirian fabrics and art objects in their home. She also helps supply the Rebellion. As someone who left her native Sunjata due to her lack of citizenship status in any city-state, Fawzia is a fan of freedom movements. Fun fact: She will be a love interest in our third planned game,Fatebreaker, which is set during the Nibirian revolt. Sorry to those of you who would like to romance her now - never fear, you can romance her slightly younger self later!

The Programming Department:

Every time I swear I'm done with screens (any of y'all who have played with Ren'py know what I'm talking about), I remember that the darn things can be very useful sometimes.

Neutral endings, like the one pictured above, come with a sepia tone screen. Good endings are full color and bad endings are black and white - perhaps with a bit of blood splatter for those really bad endings.

We are Hiring!

We are currently looking for a freelance 2D Visual FX artist to join our team for a series of commissions over the rest of development. We're looking for some simple animations to spruce up the game, such as sword swing FX during combat scenes and some magic spell effects. Please see our job announcement and if you or anybody you know is a freelance artist with animated VFX skills, contact me via Twitter, Tumblr, or Discord (I don't recommend KS because we're moving quickly and it doesn't always alert me when I have messages).

That's the Made Marion news from November! See you next month!

[raid3r-r4bbit]

@fuzzydreamin thanks for the lol. ive been a little busy with life so sorry for the late response.

Favorite Color:

Green. Like Blindingly Neon almost yellow bile/acid toxic hazmat pukey green. Also black. I'm also a fan of earthy tones, warm greys and browns, rusty orangey reds, and i also unironically love that "some smoker lived here for 5+ years but i swear the walls are white" sepia color.

Last song:

Either Childish Flamingo or 1x1. I've been hopping in between really screamy and just goofy shit atm because i cant focus with anything else. 🤷 But (I also jsut got a new BMTH hoodie) BMTH's post human album has been feeding me. It's a really good (visual? no.) example of that like just angry and over it nihilist feeling and I just *MUNCH CRUNCH AAAA* like i feel like it could be just the tiniest bit angrier and louder but i think that's my headphones.

as for childish flamingo, its like that miseryxcpr thing imo. It's goofy and funny and it slaps. and it's so catchy. it's like right on the edge of aha funny and fuck you street and i love it. i hope any of that makes sense im sorry lol.

Last movie:

the Demon Slayer movie. I skipped all the way to the end to see the fight between Akaza and Rengoku because they're two of my favs ( in order from that show: Uzui (my mom calls yuzu (my cat) Uzui and its adorable) Akaza and Rengoku. I Found out the english dub is out (im way behind) and just needed to hear their english voice acting. all of it is amazing and Akaza's lil gigles during the fight make me incredibly happy. Guys who laugh/giggle mid combat? Ugh >\\x//<

Currently Watching:

Demon Slayer, Chainsaw man, Tokyo ghoul (im rewatching a bunch of animes) Steven universe. (i love all of these and full recommend them. I literally just yesterday(or the day before idk time is a blur) got a new funko pop, it's the half-kakuja kaneki and i love it.)

Other stuff i've watched this year:

Spy x Family, the Junji ito Collection, Yamishibai (if you like picture style art and horror this is great, its somewhat junji ito like, but shorter stories and ngl the zanbai ep scared me a bit) psychpass (some reccomended this to me cause im (obviously) a fan of darker more gruesome shows, and it is very dystopian, love the art work, but i just dont get it.) Given (if you havent watched this show please watch it its amazing) Yuri on ice, Banana Fish (also another fave)

(I work from home, and pretty much exist at my computer, and need to keep on music or tv to keep the bad thoughts out, so i have a lot of time and opportunity to watch stuff ok)

Shows I dropped this week:

Psycho pass. again, i just couldnt get into it. I know a lot of people seem to really like and it full seems like a show that would be up my alley. that first ep was kind of a lot though. I'm not ashamed to admit i love shows that are unafraid to show nudity and violence but the two together (ifykyk) make me uncomfortable. If this case had been a little further in the show i think it would have been fine, but it's litterally the first like ten minutes of the show. I also tried watching this a few week ago while at wasteland but we were pretty much just out the door.

Devil May Cry. I still love the games and the characters, and i remember loving the anime as a kid but its just... so different from the games lmao.

Currently Reading:

random internet stuff, fics and shit. I feel bad because i used to go to the library all the time but at the same time, i dont really have the room to store a whole bunch of books and despite being super dyslexic, i read insanely fast, so renting/buying books isnt worth it to me. (i've read entire full length series in the span of a day or two, while doing other stuff. I need longer, more conveniently packaged novels and that typically comes in the form of fanfiction. )

tagging: @snowmutant @ivanpahdrylakeracer @glaochormfitheach(idk if ur cool tagging you in this kinda stuff, if not just lmk i though it'd be fun :D) @the-soup-witch(im dragging you into tumblr culture whether you like it or not, welcome to tagging games)

[753398445a]

I feel like designing OC Endbringers, and I might as well share them.

So. How do Endbringers get made? I believe Eidolon's shard mixes concepts on his mind at the time with religious imagery he's familiar with and a powerset provided by Eden shards. This means that the "backstory" requires a specific time and that we know David's thoughts from this time period. On a more Doyalist level, I would also like to keep each one unique, narratively useful, and thematically relevant to Worm.

What if Scion killed an Endbringer immediately after Kevin said to? So like. The Echidna fight happens on June 20th, with Scion burrowing into the Earth and lasering Behemoth on the same day. Then Eidolon attends the June 21st Cauldron meeting from his flashback, and while here somebody adds on "By the way, it turns out Scion just randomly killed an Endbringer yesterday. What the fuck, right? Why did he do that? Should we tell people it happened?" The things on his mind from the fight, from the revelations, and from the meeting would be the building blocks for Behemoth's replacements (I'm giving him two for the record, no idea if that's always the result of one dying but I'll operate as if it were for the purposes of this post).

His own powers are weakening (this seems to be on his mind constantly)

He isn't strong enough to fight Scion (ditto this)

His Echidna duplicate seemed to be at full strength (this appears to have been on his mind ever since it happened)

The scrutiny caused by his clone's revelations (immediate relevance)

Shame for the things he's done (immediate relevance) (assume all unspecified bullet points are also immediate relevance)

The case-53s probably made him think about his role in abducting people, giving them powers, locking them up and/or wiping their memories and releasing them

Echidna's powers

The powers he employed against Echidna: Dessication, gravity manipulation, weird homing electric things, some sort of thinker power speculated to include precognitive danger sense and also knowledge of where to attack without harming civilians, sepia timeslow bubble, unknown power that explodes Alexandria clones

Queen 18.8 featured two Texas Wards named Young Buck and either Strapping Lad or Intrepid dying in front of him. I assume watching children you knew die of a knife to the stomach and immolation (respectively) leaves an impact for at least a couple of days.

The portal to Gimel

Echidna trying to bargain for her targets. (Imagine an Endbringer that does that. Communicates what person or thing its targeting and allows the defending capes to hunt down and sacrifice them "for the greater good". An EB that can be stopped easily harms their collective air of implacability, but also many people would do really fucked up things if they thought it would save a whole city.)

Missile strikes

Therapists

Cauldron's silencing of heroes who would leak information related to them

Being replaced

A lot of pieces to work with there... I would invite you to stop for a second and try coming up with your own Endbringers using this list before reading mine. Reblog with your ideas, even! The world needs more Endbringers (I mean, it really doesn't. But this fandom does).

Endbringer 1 is based on Worm's running idea that giving people powers hastens societal collapse. It takes the 'forcibly giving people powers' idea from what Eidolon helped do to the case-53s and mixes in an offensive power that mixes scrutiny with the shard that Hero, Citrine, and probably Softball got powers from.

Imagine an Endbringer who gives an entire city Codex's power (She was the Ambassador who shot invisible rays that permanently lower their targets intelligence for a temporary boost to her own). Imagine an Endbringer who makes 7,000 Heartbreakers. Or Svetas. Or Kings or Scrubs or Nice Guys or Tritaniums or Burnscars. Distributing a teleportation power that lets somebody chestburster their way out of any person they've ever met sounds horrible, but how much worse is it if the attack its happening on is when this fucker is attacking The Birdcage? What about giving a physically altering power to everybody that shows up to fight it, ruining their secret identities? What about making all the mundanes merge into Case-70s the next time they touch a parahuman?

An Endbringer who causes more problems in the long run is straying a bit close to The Simurgh's schtick, which isn't helped by her on-page attack involving flooding a city with parahumans and providing people with powers. The big difference is how this one fights at the time. Remember Citrine's line in Imago 21.4: 'I can use my power to cancel out the filters that keep someone's powers in their control. I can also remove the filters that keep their power from affecting them.' This Endbringer takes that horror game trope where something has a roving or flashing light, and if you end up in it there's just a cutscene of you dying with no recourse. Batman: Arkham Asylum is the first that comes to my mind, but it shows up in everything from Dishonored to WarioWare. In this case, its roving spotlights that appear to be emitted by the Endbringer's eyes (because being scrutinized by hostiles was on Eidolon's mind). Of course, the Endbringer doesn't actually need its eyes any more than the others do, and is capable of creating these beams anywhere if it wanted to stop going easy.

Now we move on to its appearance, which is a bit tricky. See, the first three used Christian imagery and the latter three used ideas from other beliefs. This could just be a weird coincidence, or it could be suggesting that at some point between The Simurgh and Khonsu David broadened his understand of faiths outside his own. I'm inclined to go with the latter, but that leaves the question of whether its happened at the point my Endbringers are created. I'm going to say it did, just for the sake of giving myself more options. Also, I would like to take this moment to point out that there is no obvious (at least to me) connection between what imagery an Endbringer is given and what their powers or M.O. are.

This Endbringer needs to have some longevity, which means its thick. It needs to be able to use its offensive power effectively: That means lots of eyes, and either being mobile/flexible enough to turn its head anywhere easily or that its eyes are all over its body. Ideally (for the Endbringer) its body should have the ability to do a lot of damage, since its powers can only directly affect people. My idea is a giant tree stump with eyes opening and closing all along the creases in its "bark", and roots that function as both flailing tendrils and as spidery legs. Against all reason I easily found a webpage that lists bible verses with tree stumps in them: the only ones with any distinct imagery are Daniel 4:15 and 4:23, which talk about having 'a band of iron and bronze around it'. This seems to mean circles of it on the ground, but making it be more like stump-bracelets makes for a good visual and obfuscates the inspiration a bit. Sadly the only named tree stump is Jesse (I'm not kidding, Isaiah 11:1 calls one that), which is an abysmal name for an Endbringer, so I had to look further. 'Irminsul' sounds Endbringer-y and was the name of a type of sacred pillar in Germanic Paganism. According to wikipedia, the oldest known description of an Irminsul referred to it as a tree trunk erected in open air. That works.

Endbringer 2: This one is inspired by the mystery aspect of Worm/Ward. It harms anybody who tries to spread information on it, even when dormant, and was naturally the result of Contessa(?) talking about offing whistleblowers in the June 21st Cauldron meeting.

On the subject of how information-spreaders die, we have several options. They could spontaneously combust (like that one Ward), but that's getting in Behemoth's way. Same for being electrocuted. They could suddenly have a knife in the stomach, but that doesn't feel like a Worm power to me and is a bit too on the nose. Likewise for using the missile strike as inspiration. They could be crushed by gravity or dessicated by heat, either of those two would feel suitably different from existing Endbringers but still like an Endbringer power. Annoyingly, I don't believe we ever saw one of these effects provided by an Eden shard besides Eidolon's, which would have made for a good selection method. (I flipped a coin, this is a gravity Endbringer now)

So I suppose that's also how it fights capes directly. Gravity manipulation is somewhat versatile, allowing for Eidolon's crushing effect, Topsy's ability to launch people skyward, even temporary black hole generation to round things out.

This feels like a very fast-acting Endbringer to me, one that shows up, crushes/elevates/black holes the area, and then leaves again (As opposed to other Endbringers, which show up further away from their targets and approach). It operates using the guerrilla strike method that all Endbringers (except Tohu Bohu) canonically adopted after New Delhi. And anybody who tries to report what happened is suddenly squeezed into a quarter-sized ball. Authorities can't warn people its going to show up, nobody can turn on the sirens, even trying to mobilize the heroes who signed up to fight Endbringers without getting crushed is playing with fire. Only figuratively playing with fire though - the coin didn't land on tails.

Its not a tank, so a smaller, nimble form is fine. Its not attacking directly, so it won't need a body that allows it to do so effectively. Its power is not connected to any body part. With no real guidelines as to what form it should take, I'm going to fall back on which religious symbol is the most religious: That's right, this Endbringer is a giant cross. Not really, that would be too silly. Its instead based on the largest religious structure in the world, which the internet tells me is Angkor Wat (its a Cambodian temple/city built in tribute to a Hindu goddess). Apparently it has five central pillars and a moat, and is covered in devatas. That's pretty easy to eldrich-up: Five arms and legs evenly spaced around a torso (the five central pillars), and instead of a head give it the appearance of faces trying to escape from all over its body (the devatas). Have it be blue because moats are blue. (I know technically water is reflective rather than blue, but shards don't care. They'd know that humans associate water with blue and go "Okay, sure. Whatever.")

That leaves the name. I get nothing for five-armed, too much for blue, and looking for religious figures assosciated with secrets only turned up Raziel from Jewish mysticism. Sure, let's go with that. I have been working on this post for four hours now.

In conclusion, my Endbringers are:

Irminsul, a giant tree stump covered in eyes that project rays that are an insta-kill (or worse) on parahumans, and ruins the world by distributing harmful powers. This is a good Endbringer.

Raziel, a five-armed, five-legged, blue torso with faces poking out of it that hit-and-runs with gravity powers that cannot be talked about without dying. I am unsatisfied with this Endbringer.

[luveline]

jade my love hi!!! hope it’s not too late for me to catch up with if it barks, all 3 parts. this is gonna be THE longest commentary ever. i’m warning you. can’t say i’m sorry <3

part 1

first of all you’re SO good at setting the scene. the first description of r with big headphones and sepia sunglasses makes she look sooo cool. and eddie!! the way his transformative smile makes him younger!! his excitement in hearing her good news like it’s his!! he’s so sweet it almost made me forget they’re gonna hate each other

"Do we know those guys?" you ask. 

Morgan grabs your hand and drags you up. "They know us," she says. "That's what matters." 

+

You're both embarrassed by her and impressed. Morgan is pretty and talented and extremely loud — she's not afraid to stick up for herself, even when she's (nearly always) wrong.

i know morgan is a meanie (ananya too sometimes but morgan is like. another level i think) but she’s kinda slay sometimes i fear

If Godless decides to keep you, it's a huge, blinking, neon-lit sign that says you're good enough. 

They chose me, and you're stupid for letting me go. 

They chose me. I'm something worth something. You didn't see it, but it's there in me. 

you know how these things go, there’s always some heart-wrenching line where i don’t really have anything to say but wanted to highlight as one of my favourites. this is the first of many <3

You often think the worst thing about Morgan is that you love her, or you could love her more, if only she felt the same way. She isn't all evil and she never will be, she's just a person. But she takes shit out on you and makes your life harder than it needs to be, so even her most endearing moments fall short.

another favourite! i love the way you write every single one of your characters, even the mean ones, as real multifaceted people

Eddie knows exactly who you are, and he hates himself for it. He remembers you, the first you, shy and sweet and so excited, sitting pretty in Indianapolis International Airport with your guitar and your huge leaky headphones pounding death metal.

NOOO HE REMEMBERS HER. i’m rereading part 1 but i genuinely forgot about that 😭

You'd been pretty and maybe you knew it, maybe you didn't, it didn't matter — what he liked most was the way your hands had moved as you spoke, hummingbird thrumming, an energy he'd seen in himself and every other musician desperate for a chance. He loved the passion and your eyelashes and the way you'd smiled as you'd waited for your plane, the two of you destined for New York, where you both seem to have looped back now. Only, he'd been cursed with remembering your every detail, and you either didn't remember him or don't care. Both sting, but he likes the second better. He'll take purposeful cruelty over the casual any day. 

HER EYELASHES HELLO?? also “he’ll take purposeful cruelty over the casual any day” </3

"If it barks like a dog, and it heels like a dog," he says, pausing, words coming out thick and slow, "it's a dog."

listen. the way i’d have slapped him like 5 min ago. i’m writing this now that i’ve finished part 3 (cause i keep notes on my phone and i come back to them to write my silly little comments) and i KNOW i like him but OH MY GOD.

"I would've said you were mean." 

His jaw drops. You look hurt, and you leave with a discomforting frown. 

it might be the influence that amy march on little women (2019) has on me but calling someone mean just HURTS. cause it’s so childish. and so honest. she could’ve said that he was a dick to her WHICH HE WAS but choosing the word mean makes it soooo sad :((

For a split-second you adore him. It's the meanest thing you can do. 

You aren't expecting him to fuck up. His hand slips down the neck and that's it, one missed second of sound. He throws himself back into it and doesn't look your way again, a storm of emotions clouding his handsome face. 

Not what you'd meant to do, and yet. There's a cruel satisfaction in knowing you'd had any sort of power over him.

AND CHOOSING TO END THAT FIRST PART LIKE THAT????? jade you’re SICK (love u)

part 2

It drives Eddie insane. He can't help it. He hates you and he wants to linger on the sidelines and watch you play. He can't stand the despondent look in your eyes when you look at him, when you look at the floor. He needs you to know that you're better than they tell you, but he can't make himself say the words. 

eddie is just SOOO. like he’s so confused about his own feelings it makes me genuinely both furious and sorry for him

He's tipsy and he won't remember, but he wants to fuck you stupid just for that (affectionately).

NOT THE (affectionately) YOURE SICK (affectionately)

Eddie worries he'd wanted to see you so badly you've appeared as a hallucination, and he hates himself and it's all old news anyways, but you turn back with a cold as ice beer in hand and press it into his arm until he whines.

sorry i cackled a bit at him thinking he’s HALLUCINATING. poor thing (im still so mad)

Your thoughts are a mess until they aren’t — hold his hand. You put your fingers against his palm and he squeezes them together like he’s collected them, tugging you out of the crowd and across the room to the slick black bar. 

LIKE HE’S COLLECTING THEM ajsjakdn that was so cute i love it when you write things like that <3 i know that must be a word for it but i can’t think of it rn

Eddie smiles at you. For the second time that night, he looks like somebody else. 

HIS TRANSFORMATIVE SMILE <///3

You deserve somebody being nice to you right from the start. Eddie’s trying to make it right but he’s said some shit he can’t take back. He wants you to have someone who’s a hundred percent sweet on you, he just doesn’t wanna have to hear the adoration in your voice when you talk about it. 

…..im not so mad anymore. (im super in love rn im so easy)

He sighs and takes your discarded pull tab out of his pocket. He thumbs the rounded edge, thinking harder than one guy should ever think about anything that isn’t metal.

another favorite <3

part 3

His fingers twitch, eager to write about you. He has some lyrics in mind. Evil wretched girl with wicked sweet hands. Heart eater. Soft around the edges. 

He wants to write about your stupid chubby thighs and how they look in skirts. He wants to write about your wrists, your knees and their ever-present bruises. Metaphors for your sickly sweetness won’t stick; cruel becomes kind. Taunting turns teasing. 

how she looks in skirts. even though morgan says she looks bad in them. he thinks about her in skirts :(((

Eddie locks the door and Wayne shuffles into the kitchen promising coffee and cake. He should protest, tell Wayne he can go back to bed and they’ll catch up in the morning, but he missed the small stuff like this, when he’d get home late from band practice or a midnight premiere of a sci-fi flick and his uncle would be sitting up waiting. 

irrelevant but coffee and cake is my go to offer when im catching up with my family too <3

Eddie hides his smile with a long sip of coffee. It’s hot and awful, ‘cause no matter how much love Wayne puts into it, dollar store coffee tastes like burnt grounds from the get go. Eddie missed it more than anything. Sometimes he’s in the back of the queasy tour bus or lying on the floor in his hotel room coming down off of something risky and all he can think about is Wayne’s coffee.

this one might be super favourite but it’s cause i really love wayne

Anyway, the memory of her face won’t leave me alone. It makes me feel like crying. So I haven’t touched anything in two weeks and I thought coming home for Christmas would make up for all the secrets I’m keeping

and this one is a super extra favourite. just cause it’s really good and it made me held back some tears.

You wince. For a moment, you’d seen something stupid, a pale face hidden in the pillow across the way. 

they’re SO. thinking about each other in random moments. like she’s thinking about him as she’s trying to think of building a home. you’re sick i love you

“Oh, you’re getting a flat rate now? Go you, superstar.”

you have no idea how much i appreciate you referencing the airport scene but you’re kinda breaking my heart here jade baby

“No, fuck you. You string me around with your hot and cold act and now you’re coming to my shows taking me to dinner,” —your voice stiffens, thickens, as you glare at him from across the table— “asking me how I’m doing? And I’m the one who has to explain themselves? You tell me, Munson. Do I think that you’re pretty?”

another favourite!!! <3

eddie kissing her arm did a number on me and i cannot comment on that without feeling insane

It doesn’t feel like admitting defeat, as he’d initially thought it might. Neither does it feel confessional. You can’t confess to a secret already known. 

He kisses you just once. A light brush of his lips against yours. Anymore than that and he knows he’ll start making promises like someone who has room for them. His eyes scrunch closed hard and he struggles not to squeeze your poor cheek as the pressure of your lips builds, as they part, as he pulls back and you chase him. He can’t kiss your mouth anymore than that, but your hands are grabbing at him, pleading and twitching and cold against the searing skin of his abdomen as they search underneath his shirt. Eddie feels the soft curve of your hip under his hand, knowing he can’t fuck you here, and undecided on whether that’ll be his ruin or his saviour. 

and

“I feel sick all the time,” you say. Your hands flex against his skin. “The only time I feel alright is when I’m playing– when I’m making something.” You press your head to his chest. “Or when I’m with you.”

Eddie thinks of all the shitty decisions he’s made. His restlessness, his bad attitude. His propensity to assume the worst. How he’d taken your thumb rubbing a smudge off of his cheek in the Prover Theatre as a jab, rather than a helping hand. 

He wraps his arms around you. 

Your head fits under his rather well. 

“I know what you mean,” he says. And out of everything he’s told you today, that’s the hardest to say aloud. 

jade, my love. you know how i feel about your writing. this doesn’t come as a surprise for you and it certainly shouldn’t come as one for me, but it does, every time. not to steal your own writing but your works have something transformative about them, where every time i feel like i can’t go back to the person i was before reading them. like poetry, you know? that inner shift you feel when something hits you deep down? that’s your writing for me. eddie and r’s conflicting feelings and mean remarks and utter honest confessions were so beautifully written and progressed so naturally. you’re so talented, but mostly you work so hard on your writing and it’s so evident that you love it so deeply, i can’t thank you enough for sharing it with us. can’t wait to see what’s coming next from you (you knew what you were doing writing that cliffhanger!!!) (also now i truly am a little bit sorry that this might too long)

i love you!! 💌 - lu

AHHHH IM SO SPOILED LETS GO

setting the scene <3 okay thank you so much firstly, I think my problem as a writer is that half of the time I don't actually REMEMBER to set the scene but I've been getting much better at that! as well as learning to include like past details / more back story for characters and I'm so happy to see it's coming through

Morgan is kinda slay <\3 I wanted her and Ananya to feel very real, and for that I didn't just want to make them like blindly hate the reader, because if they did they wouldn't keep her in their internationally famous band! I also just really enjoy writing them. Ananya is this effortlessly beautiful intelligent girl who worked hard to get where she is, and she's not going to let Morgan, also beautiful but not quite as smart (thinks she's smart lol) ruin that, but she's still someone who has her eyes on other things. In the chapter I'm writing now they've had a spat and I've tried to emphasise how much Morgan relies on her casually

Eddie remembers her!! And he's been holding on to that little tidbit for so long!!! Pencilled in, I think he's gonna bring it up in like a heartbreak moment

Oh my god!! I won't lie I thought the like a dog comparison was literally so cruel, as I was writing it I was wondering if maybe it is too far but that's actually the point, he does go too far and if you said that to somebody you knew better it would probably damage your relationship, and I needed that to give their relationship this tenuous unsteadiness so I can manoeuvre the plot in the last chapter and the upcoming one. And I can kind of use readers vulnerability against her.

EXACTLY! he's "mean" like mean is a criminal offence, and absolutely she could have said you're a dick you're a jerk but those insults could have other influencing factors, the root of the insult is that he literally was just mean he lost his temper and she wasn't as innocent as she thinks (are we ever?) but what he said was so close to the bone, it was exactly what she hates about herself and he read her for filth and I think that's so interesting, that he can see her so clearly, and a big focus or theme for me in the fic that he uses that skill in a way to hurt her, and then spends the rest of the time feeling guilty and trying to walk it back because her slight is half imagined (she WASNT making fun of him at prover theatre, and she DID honestly forget she met him years ago, but those things left him off kilter, like an ego blow he wasn't expecring)

Eddie is so fucking confused about what he wants in the second chapter. I think I was a little confused too on where I wanted to go and I think that's why they ended up meeting on good terms so quickly, but it actually worked out because I was able to show their true intentions to EACH OTHER but not yet the people reading — reader knows what Eddie told her while he was drunk/high, but you guys don't yet, and I've been seeding it in, there's a little more of it in chapter 3 and there's even more now in the current wip, and Eddie doesn't QUITE know what he told her either even though he's remembered little bits, which is an important dynamic between them between each other. In the same way, she got drunk and told him about how she worries she'll be nothing (which was honestly self indulgent) and she has to trust him with that. Trying to build their relationship!

The skirt thing! My very first rival rockstar request I got at Halloween, I answered it with a plot line about skirts! Okay so i knew I wanted to include that but didn't know if I would, and I wanted to keep the option open hence inserting those details about Morgan thinking she doesn't suit them and Eddie going crazy over them. I don't know if I'll ever include it but it was like a secret homage to the idea that turned into this fic!

Eddie and Wayne!!! I realised pretty recently that I can literally make their relationship whatever I wanted it to be and If It Barks and the new ghost fic I'm writing fell victim to that, it was honestly one of my favourite moments getting to write about them, very very enjoyable.

YOU ALWAYS CATCH MY TINY REFERENCES 😭 u have no idea what it means for me to be able to throw in a little detail wondering if anybody notices and knowing that you do.

Eddie kissing her arm was like. I wanted to show that he's losing his pride? Not that it's humiliating to be affectionate, bit I figured it was incredibly intimate to do that, it's not like a kiss to the cheek that can be explained away, and I also just wanted the imagery there. I think that's a good thing to paint, the two of them in a snug nook of the bathroom all folded in on each other and he could kiss her on the lips if he wanted to, but he genuinely just wanted to kiss her arm and couldn't really stop himself from doing it

I'm always conflicted including details like "he wants to fuck you" because I don't want to take away from the romance, but then I remember that sex is actually romantic most of the time and I feel better about it. Like, he wants to fuck you stupid (affectionately) worked for me because he REALLY meant the affectionately part! he has such a raging crush on her at that point, and at this point when he's kissing her in the bathroom, and they still haven't fucked yet and he's a real human being, of course he wants to fuck her, she wants him to fuck her too 🤧 I would have made them in the bathroom honestly but I wanted to show that they're still not on sure footing, and that reader is super not okay in the situation that she's in (not so much because of Eddie, but I hope that it's evident that she has like a levy that's about to overflow) — she means it when she says she doesn't feel sick with him (self indulgence again, I put that bit in because I wanted her to feel relatable sure but I wanted to vent about some of my own feelings at the same time, I feel good when I'm writing and when I'm with the people I love, but the rest of the time I feel fucking awful, and it's awful, and I think it's one of those things other people can't fix for you, so that's why he hugs her and walks her back and they don't fuck because I didn't want it to look like he was attempting a quick fix)

My love!! I can't believe that I get to be your friend and also someone that you read. I say it to you all the time but I genuinely just forget that you can see what I'm making and that we literally met through my bad fanfic, I'm so happy to know you're still reading me, still enjoying it, still finding all these details and I'm incredibly spoiled to get to see your thoughts like this. I really love talking about why I've written what I have and even more do I enjoy seeing what you thought was good. I'm not gonna lie I absolutely love the attention and it isn't lost on me how long this takes you every time, it's a real actual true gift not just to receive your commentary but to be your friend !!

The cliffhanger was <3 necessary! They're gonna fight so badly 😢 love you so much lu baby!!