#ahh I'm done

[the-rainbow-of-doom]

(This post was sponsored by a 1+ hour commute)

[misc-obeyme]

MC finds a large sword in Solomon's room and picks it up.

MC: What’s this?

Solomon: That would be Excalibur.

MC: How did you get Excalibur?

Solomon: People are kind of impressionable. I just did a little magic and convinced them I was Merlin.

MC: Uh huh. Lemme guess, you’ve also got the holy grail stashed away somewhere.

Solomon: Er…

MC: Is this what you’ve been doing with your long life? Pilfering significant artifacts throughout human history?

Solomon: Of course not. I’m safekeeping magical objects so they don’t fall into the wrong hands.

MC: I think it’s too late for that.

Solomon: Ouch...

masterlist | Thank you for reading!

[sysig]

Pretty clothes for you! ✨ (Patreon)

[fallloverfic]

"Nimona" movie artbook thoughts

There's so much neat stuff here. Spoilers for the movie below the cut but just dang I love this

So many neat ideas for long-haired Ambrosius. Ponytail Ambrosius! He looks so cute!

There was going to be a magazine cover with "Goldenloin bares it all" and I like to think part of this is in reference to the two pin-ups Nate drew (Pin-up 1 and Pin-up 2). It's neat to see how much they were building up his celebrity in more ways. In other concept art, he was on more magazine covers, and he shows up as part of a parade. There are lots of concepts of Goldenloin fans.

Also this Ambrosius test is amazing. The weird Todd/Ambrosius fusion in motion lol But you can tell they even modified it later to turn it into Todd. He's a bit softer here in a way and just... fun. Todd cosplaying as Ambrosius/having a nightmare/dream about it aldkjalj

It was also interesting to see more confident Ballister. There's an animation test with him fighting some Institute guards, and it's very clear in early concept art (from that popular viral test back in 2021 as well) that he was more confident in earlier production.

More adorable Ambrosius/Ballister moments, and some cute Ambrosius. They're absolutely sweet.

And unfortunately one of the biggest losses in the movie: the amazing stuff they show for Meredith Blitzmeyer. At one point she was going to be covered in magic tattoos.

"For a long time, the character of Meredith Blitzmeyer was in the film. She served many different functions in many different iterations. At one point, she had a magical van that was bigger on the inside. In another, she was covered from head to toe in magical tattoos. And in another, she was the head of a vast underground society, called the Silver Society, comprised of all the magical creatures forced into hiding by the institute. Ultimately, the story went in a different direction, but her design and model were so beloved that she wasn’t lost but repurposed into The Queen." This all sounds so cool (except the repurposed into a character who dies in the first 10 minutes of the movie part T-T).

She has an entire spread. It's neat that she got to show up in some form (when they recycled her design for Valerin), but I love the idea of the Silver Society and her place in it and also Ballister having more friends and just ugh. These designs and world-building are so cool. I wish we'd seen all of them in the movie.

Also finally an eye dings chart! With everything clearly explained lol Neat to know I wasn't imagining some in-between diamond/square shape when Ballister is changing.

And this pride flags spread! There's a drag queen club! I just love all of this!! Seeing them spread throughout the movie is fun but it's neat to see the collection here!

Also this line: "In actuality, there has not been a monster attack since the first, so the fear and belief of the possibility is the only thing keeping the populace in check." It's neat to get confirmation of that.

Also a very much more violent Nimona was in the early/late-ish production lol.

José Manuel Fernández Oli talked on his Facebook collection of concept art about there at one point being an underground of outcast shapeshifters, and I don't know if that's what we're seeing here, but we were at least maybe also going to get more magical people (which matches the Meredith plans)??

Weres? People with fire magic? Satyrs? Demons? Elves? Or just a wider range of shapeshifter people. That would have been so cool.

There are environment designs for the Institute, Ballister and Nimona's hide-out, people designs, a few more test animations they haven't put up elsewhere, more Nimona shapeshifts (more dogs and cats, a second kind of gnome, more of her bulkier, muscular design, more types of dragons, a goat, more ancient Nimona concepts, plant monster Nimona, alien(?) Nimona, etc.). We nearly had goblin Director. Older Gloreth concepts... It's all really awesome.

All in all, a lot of really cool stuff.

[orange-orchard-system]

System Ramble: reading, inner/internal voices, and our brain's continuous attempts to understand the world around us

[PT: System Ramble: reading, internal voices, and our brain's continuous attempts to understand the world around us / end PT]

I'll probably have to expand on this at some other point because it ties into how we feel our plurality is a fundamental part of how we process the world (and that deserves its own essay), but there's something interesting that happens when we read that has to do with our system.

Have you ever seen those posts that talk about "the little voice in your head" that you get whenever you read something? A lot of people are able to hear the words they read being "spoken" in their head as they read them. A lot describe the voice reading "out loud" in their brain as either being their own voice or some detached voice without anything more to it, but for us...

... it's closer to one of us reading out loud to the rest of us.

As we write this post, for example, we can identify the headmate in front who's taken on the role of the "voice" reading each word. There's no simpler way to describe it – he's the one reading out each word to the rest of us, and we can hear his own inflections and other verbal quirks as he reads. We've recently begun trying to consciously pass the role of this "inner voice" around, and we can definitely hear a change depending on who's reading, even if it's the exact same text. Eddie has a deeper voice, and reads much slower, giving the impression of a grandpa reading a book by the fire. Danny, by comparison, has a higher voice, reads quicker, and is often audibly annoyed when he has to reread something. It's a very interesting thing to experiment with.

Based on these experiments, acting as this "inner voice" is sort of like a very flexible system role for us, one we naturally fall into or out of most of the time, but can occasionally choose (which is, funnily enough, very similar to how our switches function). This phenomenon happens automatically with most texts we read, and may be part of the reason we have so many introjects; our brain may be simply creating the most fitting "voice" for what we read as it sees the need, which is frequently either the author, or a character in the text. But regardless of the reason, it's a very helpful tool for figuring out who's in front or discovering new headmates, as we have a strong sense for whoever it is that's reading at any given time, and find it especially easy to visualize a headmate whenever they're taking on this role.

On rare occasions where this doesn't happen, we often have trouble absorbing the information we read. It just doesn't stick in the same way one (or more) of us reading to the others does. Which is definitely a con; if it weren't so automatic for us and thus rarely a problem (especially now that we've identified what's going on), we'd definitely be counting it as one of the ways our DID disables us. It's not too different from how it becomes difficult to impossible to absorb information when we're too dissociated, after all. (But then, that raises a question: is the reason we can't absorb text when too dissociated because the dissociation is keeping us from fulfilling this role? Food for thought.)

This isn't the only way in which we utilize our plurality in order to process and absorb information; we also have various system members we call "captioners" whose job it is to make it easier to understand what we hear or see by creating visuals based on this sensory input. We haven't tried having these two roles active at the same time – mainly because I think it would just overload our brain with too much to keep track of and any attempts would fizzle out – but it's an interesting idea for something to experiment with in the future. The parallels are interesting, anyway, especially with how they seem to indicate that our plurality is fundamental to how we process the world and what kinds of choices our brain made when creating us. Perhaps it's all part of our brain's attempt to cope with its own dissociative disorder by creating work-arounds for the problems dissociation can cause, but... I feel like there's more to it than that. The question is where to look for answers (and if the answers are something we should be unpacking just yet).

That brings me back to the beginning. It's interesting to see how our plurality functions almost like a neurotype in some ways – I don't know if I'd call it that, but I can see some parallels in how others talk about them with how plurality functions in our brain. One day, I hope to write a collection of all the different ways our plurality affects us like this, as a sort of guide to our own processing and understanding of the world through a plural lens. For now, though, it's just interesting to think about how I'm now reading this post "out loud" to my headmates as I write it, and how my internal voice differs from those who have read it before me.

... Also, I'm just now realizing this system (no pun intended) works better when the fronter writing a text is also the headmate reading the text. Huh. That fits, somehow.

So, to recap: we get the most out of reading when we use our plurality to host what is essentially system storytime, our internal voices differ a lot more than we first thought they did, and it's interesting that our brain keeps making selves and roles just for helping us understand the world around us. Thanks for reading our ramble.

[jcwdrawskinda]

*Queue The Fountain music*

(thanks again to those who voted in my little poll on who to draw!)

[mfknart]

FA OF THE MHA CANON FANTASY AU!! 🤗

Made these sketches/scraps for a friend a while back and decided to share 🥰 Just having fun with the mechanics and designs!!

A little sweetness for the end 😩💖

[oflights]

Summary: “With my condition as volatile as it is, I fear any undue, er, excitement, may tip it over the edge. So to speak.“

“Darling, are you telling me you haven’t come since you’ve had that thing in your chest?” Astarion asks.

or:

Gale can’t come without setting off the orb. Astarion can work with that.

Notes: and we're done!! thank you SO much to everyone who read along/commented/engaged with this fic in any way. i am so grateful to you all for indulging my nonsense, and i hope you enjoy this conclusion! happy bloodweave week! 💜❤️

Day Seven Prompt: Misuse of Magic

read chapter seven HERE!

or start from the beginning now that it's all done!

[not-xpr-art]

a handful (ha!) of the embroidered felt flowers and leaves i've done over the last few months for my sister's wedding dress!

[dyrewrites]

Before Deluca -- home sweet home

There were other areas of the house important to us, of course, and we’d enjoy every one. Working for years to make them ours, years which would lead to a vast library, an art studio, and a delightful sitting room. As well as his insistence I learn to play the piano we kept in the living room—followed by an instructor growing too attached to my heat, and Lucient’s subsequent devouring of said instructor—but the yard was most important to my love.

He planted bushes in the front, but in the back he had a greenhouse installed to cover all the greenery and create his own. One with an adjustable tint, made solely in response to an increase in vampires joining society. With a simple command, a dark, translucent color would grow in all the glass to block the sun. Another command dissolved it, keeping him safe in his greenhouse throughout the day if he wished it.

And he did. He spent many mornings and evenings in that greenhouse, dressed in thick fabrics, thicker gloves, with all of his gathered curls hidden under a comically broad hat—how I miss it—tending to his flowers—as our flower does now.

Many withered and died before he was able to figure out how best to care for them, but he kept at it. Insistent that he needed to grow them, “you bring such warmth, such life everywhere you go, treasure, while I am but cold, sharp death.”

“Mm, delicious death it is,” I tried with warm lips and warmer hands.

Each he allowed, while pleading at me with eyes so chill and bright, “and I revel in it, truly. But I wish to have something pretty I can look at and say, ‘I made that, that lives because of me.’”

“Am I not something pretty you made?” I teased with more kisses to his cheeks, nose, forehead.

And he slapped at me, “Chose coquine, you horrible flirt.”

“I love you, Lucient, and your garden is glorious,” and it was, a delicious display of every flower he adored, and many more beside—for our coffin, I would learn, “whatever you need to keep it thriving, I will hunt down for you.”

“Mm,” a kiss to my cheeks, and lips, “ever my perfect treasure, how I love you.”

“And I you, my beautiful dream,” My smile earned me another kiss, and another. “Glad you made me?”

My words, however, earned a scoff and icy swat, “of course, you beast, now scurry off. If you keep near me too long I’ll tend to you and not my flowers.”

“Terrible incentive to leave,” I muttered, grinning for his narrow eyes.

But he was serious and shooed me with both hands, shoving me ever so, “Pschtt!”

“Va bene, vado, vado,” I conceded, hands up as I made for the door, “but I’m coming back…”

“And taking me with you, oui, mon amour, I’d expect nothing less.”

While I lost him often to his garden—as he lost me to my painting—we enjoyed most of our days together. Playing music or listening to music in our sitting room, reading passages aloud to one another in our library, stargazing on our roof, and countless walks through the city—or rides through the canal.

It was bliss, our life.

For years that blended beautifully into decades, seeing us into new technologies where I was able to capture his voice. To record his haunting beauty and listen to it again—and again, and again. He’d record me as well, playing piano largely but there is at least one record somewhere of my caterwauling and to whoever finds it...I am terribly sorry.

Photos as well. Newer cameras meant crisper photos without the sigils, but color hadn’t quite made it into mundane technology in our time. Still he took so many, ignoring my insistence that he had an eye for it, could make an art of it.

But you’ve grown weary of syrup, haven’t you, dear reader? You came for adventure and I’ve drowned you in sweetness so much these last chapters.

There is reason. Personal as all of this has been. I’ve been stalling, in a way. That page number is creeping into ludicrous, however, so we should get on with it.

To the night my moonlight was stolen.

Our bliss ended…

My life forfeited.

--

Full Chapters of Before Deluce Here

→Before Deluca Taglist<-

// feel free to ask to be added or removed ^.- //

@watermeezer @starbuds-and-rosedust @thespacelizard

@your-absent-father @mr-orion @cowboybrunch @olliexwrites

@rowanmgrey-author @the-golden-comet @wyked-ao3 @leahnardo-da-veggie

@lychhiker-writes @aziz-reads

[suddencolds]

~

[eightyuh]

The Vocal Synth Alarms for Executive Dysfunction - Self Care Pack now has a Megurine Luka variant! 💗🩷💜

GET LUKA HERE • GET MIKU HERE

[liquidstar]

Oh fuck tomorrow I'm going to be a little birthday boy I keep almost forgetting

[sysig]

I can't remember if you've done any drawings for this before, sorry, but I have a requestober prompt! Vargas ladyverse snake charmer au? Or ladyverse dryder au Scri, I feel like the potential for pretty spiderweb clothes is high there. I would request both, but I want to respect the rules ^^ Thank you!!

Day 27 - Skillfully spun sheer shawl

[ellalalala]

Made my OC again using this wonderful windswept oc maker :')

[there-will-be-a-way]

I have another outing tomorrow. Been avoiding outing myself to this friend for far too long out of fear it might change our relationship. But he deserves to know - and I gotta put some trust in the fact that he cares about me enough to support me being trans. It's so nerve wracking though *screams*