#and i'm feeling creative

[capriciouswriter207]

Ahem, may I interest you in a medieval fantasy au that I’m tentatively calling the Beacon AU?

The setting is your standard mcyt medieval fantasy stuff. The kingdom is made up of all sorts of humans and hybrids, living together peacefully. The capital is a thriving metropolis that has its advantages and disadvantages, its trade with neighboring kingdoms across land and sea is going well. But above all, the lands are protected by four ancient beacons that are scattered across the land and that send a beam of light into the air. It is rumored that, so long as the beacons are lit, the lands are safe. Nobody remembers a time when the beacons were not lit, so the thought that they would ever fail would never even cross their minds.

The current king is Ren - he means well, but the power (bestowed upon him too early) has been going to his head. His main advisor, Bdubs, is very much a yes-man and kingmaker who both has a lot of influence on Ren and who is easily swayed by Ren’s decisions and commands. Welsknight, commander of the King’s guard does listen and obey his king, but also tends to look at things through a more critical lens and offers more realistic advice.

Naturally, the kingdom is thrown in disarray when the beacons start failing, one by one. At night, monsters crawl out of the lush forests and rolling hills and attack poor, innocent villagers. Strange creatures appear to even haunt the people during the day. The safety of the beacons, taken for granted for so long, now endangered the life of everyone who lives in this kingdom.

Despite having recently recovered from a debilitating injury (and still kind of being on the mend), Wels volunteers to discover why the beacons have powered down, what has caused it and defeat that evil, as well as finding out how to power them again. The task ahead is difficult, but the kingdom he loves is under threat and he must do whatever he can to relight the beacons and rescue his kingdom before it is too late.

[madamemiz]

sad: falling out of a hyperfixation

tragic: watching your beloved friends and mutuals fall out of the hyperfixation while you're still in it

[welcometogrouchland]

[ID in ALT] I've made posts before about Talia/Dick co-parenting Damian moments (will never happen but let me dream) and this came to me in a vision. Took me ages to finish for some reason 😭 and then even longer to post

[saturnvs]

under the starry skies, where eagles have flown

[abd-illustrates]

✨ My book is out next week! (on the 16th!)✨

I got some early copies in the post today and getting to actually hold 'em made me cryyyyy - I'm so happy and I still can't believe my art's gonna be in actual bookstores out in the big wide world 🥹💖📖

[abyssalzones]

gf sketches of january :J

[bogkeep]

since there's an impressionist royal portrait in the zeitgeist right now, do you wanna hear about one of my fav norwegian oil painters........ his name is håkon gullvåg and he's painted portraits of the norwegian king and queen and they look like this

which were pretty controversial at the time (the year 2000), but i was too baby to know anything about it!

(the headline says "UNDIGNIFIED!")

i first heard of him when he was on the news for a completely different controversy around the years 2008/2009 - his exhibition titled 'the holy land'/'terra sancta' which was a series of paintings he had painted in a wild unstoppable rage over the injustices he had seen palestinians suffer. at one of the exhibitions in syra, two of the paintings got removed by the french embassy, and i think never returned to him? i'm finding it surprisingly difficult to hunt down the story without knowing exactly what to look for, but i did dig up this article. i was still a young teen at the time so i didn't know much about the context, but in recent times i've been thinking about these paintings a lot. i'll add the Controversial Paintings under the cut:

[sergle]

you bitches have got to watch Scavengers Reign if you haven't yet, i'm only a few episodes in and it's already completely unlike anything else i've ever seen

[lyralit]

yeah the story sucks but you gotta keep writing anyway

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

Who Wants To Talk About Japanese Orthography In Manga???

Me, it's me, I do, and I have been chomping at the bit to get the chance to.

Orthography refers to the conventions of written language to represent sounds. That may bring to mind the idea of rigid grammar rules or spelling standardization, but in a linguistic sense, orthography simply describes observable trends across language use. This isn't about authority--I am not going to talk about what schools teach or say people should write one way or another. This is about examining how real people use written language creatively to convey different things in popular media.

This is a huge topic, so I'm only going to use examples from MHA to highlight Horikoshi's style.

First, let's get a run-down of the main parts of written Japanese and how they tend to be used.

We've got kanji and kana; kanji are logograms, while kana are syllabaries. Kana refers to both hiragana and katakana collectively, but we will delineate the two from here on.

The Wikipedia page for kanji, describing this more succinctly than I'm about to.

For clarity, I'm gonna color-code each one.

Let's take a quick look at all three in action.

Chapter 65

By virtue of being the syllabary that grammar particles are written in, hiragana can get away with a lot that kanji and katakana can't.

You can write simple sentences in hiragana alone, like so:

The sentence is perfectly comprehensible like this, but it reads as casual or perhaps a bit immature, like the person is either leaving out kanji for speed or simplicity (like online) or they aren't confident using kanji. Although, the word hito (person) is extremely common and its kanji is simple, so this would probably look more natural:

But there are also kanji for the word kawaii, so you could also write it this way:

On the other hand, writing the whole thing in katakana looks weird as fuck:

bECAuSE iT kINDA reADS LIKE THis, or maybe L I K E T H I S

It seems almost alien, overemphasizing the phonetic sound of the words, implying there's something notable or unusual about them.

But what if you write it like this?

Both ways use katakana to put flavor on a specific word. The first puts it on person, which could be used in a situation where someone hasn't been named yet, but the speaker tonally emphasizes your knowledge of them--like "oh, you know who."

The second emphasizes cute, which could read as sexually suggestive, teasing/joking, or even a threatening tone, depending on the context. "Real cute, ain't they?"

Basically, the connecting grammar bits need to be in hiragana, but nouns, verbs, and adjectives can typically be written in any of the three systems. That introduces choice into the matter, and these choices may have some cultural connotations.

This is a subtlety in written Japanese that manga loves to take advantage of. Orthography contributes a lot to characterization and tone, so individual creators develop little quirks as part of their own writing style.

Now let's finally take a gander at some of Horikoshi's!

Kanji instead of hiragana for semantic emphasis

Chapter 48

Best Jeanist could have used only hiragana for the word "good" (いい, ii), which is a very common way to write it. But he's not just commenting that they are nice kids, he's talking about them as "goodie two-shoes" and even puts brackets around the idea. The kanji emphasizes the cultural idea of a Good Child™, a well-behaved, morally upright, obedient young person.

Kanji instead of hiragana denoting a serious or severe tone

Chapter 36

Katsuki's "you" pronoun omae being written with kanji comes across as markedly serious, especially compared to how his dialogue is normally written. This is actually the only time Katsuki says omae and it is written with kanji--all the rest are in hiragana, which tends to read as more casual.

Hiragana instead of kanji denoting a gentle tone or youthful/childlike language

Chapters 129 and 183

Katsuki and his omae show us how kanji use can be seen as more mature and serious; Eri's dialogue does the opposite of this by using hiragana when it could use kanji, emphasizing her youth and innocence.

Katakana instead of hiragana or kanji for emphasis or slang

Chapters 209, 207, and 2

As I detailed above, one of katakana's most common uses is similar to italics or all-caps.

But you also tend to see slang written with it, and depending on the slang, the word being in katakana can immediately clarify it from other, perhaps more standard meanings. In Jirou's case, her personal pronoun uchi can mean a couple other things, so it being written in katakana clarifies her usage. It could arguably also imply she is taking a bit of an argumentative tone--Katsuki's slang is typically written in katakana for both of these reasons!

Katakana denoting regional dialect/accent, nonstandard pronunciation/muddled speech, or confused articulation

Chapters 102, 208, 394, and 2

Ochako gets flustered and defaults to her regional Kansai dialect. Instead of "chigau wa" (Tokyo dialect), she says "chau wa" repeatedly.

Katsuki and Toga both drop the w- sound from a word. Katsuki says "ore a" instead of "ore wa," while Toga says the word "kawaiku" as "ka'aiku" and "kawaii" as "ka'aii." Notice how the katakana which represents the vocal omission/hiccup is actually smaller than the others? That's also a little stylistic detail for communicating this kind of nonstandard speech.

Izuku repeats All Might's words, chikara wo, in a confused daze because he isn't following All Might's point. By removing the kanji especially, this kind of katakana emphasizes him sounding the words out without recognizing the underlying meaning.

Basically, Japanese has some excellent ~vibes-based~ orthography because of how the language is structured!

Of course, you find this kind of thing in English as well--especially in the age of the internet, where people note that "how dare u" reads as tonally distinct from "how dare you." As you develop language fluency, you tend to pick up these things subconsciously more than anything, but it's one of my favorite things to analyze and compare.

These are just a few examples and my own interpretations of them. I'm sure there are many more uses and flavor-nuance I'm not picking up on. Since any given choice can be read a few different ways, context is very important. My examples aren't definitive proof of anything, but it can be fun to keep these kinds of details in mind while reading.

Shueisha and Shonen Jump surely have in-house standards for text, and mangaka must operate within that range. That said, I have indeed seen every one of these examples in other manga as well.

And on the independent side of things, doujinshi and online manga are basically the wild frickin' west--I have seen tons of totally crazy, highly creative ways to take advantage of the unique flexibility found in Japanese, but that's a post for another day.

I will probably write more about this kind of thing in the future when I can pinpoint some more observations, but I hope you all enjoyed the ride. <3

[thebramblewood]

Exciting news: I now have a story page and a characters page! They're pretty basic at the moment, but I'm hoping to think of some fun stuff to add later. For now, you might find a few new nuggets of insight in the character bios! I just wanted a cute little hub for readers new and old to find everything they need in one place. Let me know if you think anything (or anyone) major is missing or if you notice any errors. Here are all the character portraits. Aren't they cute? And thanks to @buglaur for the incredibly easy to modify template!

[getvalentined]

Vincent Valentine of the Elite Four from Pokémon Holy/Meteor, releasing never on the N!ntendo Switch.

I put way too much effort into this for a dorky one-off, but here we are! I have a whole backstory for this AU but I will not bore you all with the details.

[viperwhispered]

Rest

Guess what? I've got more Jamil x reader for y'all. You can also find this on ao3. No warnings, just 866 words of kinda fluffy(?) caretaking stuff with gender-neutral reader.

At this point, you know Jamil’s schedule almost as well as he does. So, when you have the chance, you head to Scarabia’s kitchen, hoping to spend some time with Jamil while he and the other students prepare dinner. 

However, when you enter, it takes you but a moment to notice Jamil’s uncharacteristic fumbling and the tired look in his eyes. The way Jamil’s chopping the vegetables has you worried about him cutting himself with that knife he’s usually so adept with, and it seems it’s only force of habit that’s keeping him on track.

You frown, and when your eyes meet Jamil’s, you can already see him put his guard up.

So he knows what state he is in, huh? And still, here he is.

It seems Jamil is reading your thoughts, all of him telling you drop it before any words are even said.

At least he still lets you lean in and give a quick kiss to his cheek in greeting.

“Hello love. Do you still have a lot on your agenda for today?” you ask, keeping your tone low for at least some semblance of privacy in the busy kitchen.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” is the response you get.

Of course.

It takes a little more pestering before Jamil actually answers your question. Your lips purse. That list is far too long to your liking.

You take a moment to think, juggling your own plans and to-do list against the urgency of the things Jamil mentioned.

“Will Kalim be eating from that?” you ask, pointing at the food Jamil is preparing.

“Yes.”

“Alright, I won’t be touching that one, then. I’ve gotta do a few things but I’ll be back when you’re done here.”

“Don’t,” Jamil says with a glare, clearly aware of what you’re thinking.

Yet even his disapproving look doesn’t have the usual weight behind it.

“Yes. I will,” you say firmly, even as your heart curls inwards with another bout of concern.

Really, when did he get so tired?

And how did you not notice it earlier?

You leave the kitchen before Jamil can protest further, hurrying through the dorm corridors to find Kalim.

Soon you have an enthusiastic – and concerned – supporter for your plans. You have Kalim point out a few reliable Scarabia students to help with a few of the most urgent matters Jamil mentioned – cleaning up the common areas, delivering some paperwork to Crowley, preparing some dorm-wide notices – while you see to Kalim getting his school supplies in order for the following day. You even recruit a couple of third years to help Kalim with his homework.

You’ll see to the rest tomorrow – after all, you do also have a boyfriend to look after.

Your conversation over dinner can hardly be called anything else than an argument – despite Kalim’s best attempts at acting as a moderating force between you two. It is very tempting to ask Kalim to tell Jamil to take the rest of the day off – it’s not like Jamil would be willing to openly disobey a direct order. Still, you really don’t need to remind Jamil of his position on top of everything else that you’re already doing more or less against his wishes.

Eventually, however, Jamil’s had a square meal, the most urgent things on his to-do list are being taken care of, and you’ve managed to drag him to his bed.

“I really wish you wouldn’t push yourself so hard,” you murmur, your arms wrapped tightly around Jamil. You’re telling yourself you really do just want to cuddle, to offer some respite to Jamil. Still, there might also be a part of you worried that if you were to let go, he’d just jump up and get back to working himself to the bone.

Yet, for all his protestations, just the fact that you’ve gotten Jamil to lay down with you speaks volumes of his current exhaustion.

“I can’t just leave my duties, albi. You know this.”

“Making yourself too indispensable, is what you’re doing,” you protest.

Oh, you know it’s not so simple. Not with his background, not with all the expectations and assumptions.

But sometimes you really wish it would be.

Jamil merely scoffs in response to your words.

Still, it is undeniable that he is slowly beginning to relax in your arms, slowly bringing his head closer to yours. His eyes are starting to flutter, too.

“I will still need to help Kalim with his homework, at the very least.”

You wonder who he is trying to convince more, you or himself.

“Amin and Khalil are helping him. They’re basically top of their classes, aren’t they? I’m sure they’ve got it.”

Still, Jamil frowns.

You sigh. He really is not letting go, is he?

“Do you want me to go supervise?” you ask.

And leave you, unsaid yet hanging there right after your words.

“Don’t,” Jamil eventually says, the word barely more than a breath.

It seems he has accepted his fate.

You softly caress Jamil’s hair, listening to his softening breathing.

And when you wake up, wholly unaware of having been lulled to sleep in the first place, it’s to the lightest of touches from Jamil’s fingers.

Tagging @diodellet @twstgo @crystallizsch @jamilvapologist @jamilsimpno69 as per request If you'd like to be tagged for any future works, let me know!

[luimagines]

Caught K-I-S-S-I-N-G Part 2

Masterlist

Part 1

Part two will include Legend, Twilight and Warrior.

Content under the cut!

Legend

You sighed, running your hands through Legend’s hair as he rested on your chest. He sighed in return and turned his head to look at you. “Rupee for your thoughts?”

You shrugged, smiling and poking his cheek. “This is nice.”

“Oh... I think so too.” Legend blushes softly and hides his face against you once more. You bury your hands in his hair again. 

The summer breeze passes over the both of you. The grasses around you whisper soft nothing around the two of you with the sun draping a soft blanket over your shoulders.

Legend moves and shift, pushing himself up. He moves up, putting his hands on either side of your face. You poke his cheek again, feeling too relaxed to be bothered. “Yes? Care I help you?”

Legend kisses the tip of your nose. “Why are you so cute?”

You bite your lip, trying to control your beating heart. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. If anything, you’re too cute. It shouldn’t be allowed.”

Legend leans down to kiss your lips softly. He whispers, resting on top of you you once more. “Impossible.... I love you.”

“I love you too.” You say sweetly. You bring your arms up and hug, getting comfortable with the change in weight placement. You run your nails over his scalp and Legend all but flops on top of you. You grunt and chuckle “Enjoy that?”

“You don’t ever have to stop... like ever.”

You laugh a little more. “That’s fine by me. I don’t plan on stopping any time soon.” You whisper back, feeling content and warm and safe.

There’s a soft crunch of damp grass and twigs being crushed as someone makes their way over to where you are. You pray they don’t find you. You had only just gotten Legend to relax enough as it is.

“Oh.” Time blinks and coughs. “I was wondering where you both went. My mistake.”

Legend groans and rolls off of you. “What is it, Old Man? Is the Captain having another hissy fit again?”

Time gives him an unimpressed look. “Vet.”

“I’m right and you know it.” Legend points at Time’s face, sitting up. “Are we needed or not?”

Time rolls his eyes. “As a matter of fact, yes. The Knight of Skyloft is looking for you.”

Legend sticks his tongue out and turns to you. He runs his hand down the side of your cheek. “I’ll try to come back.”

“It’s over.” You sigh.

“I can come back!”

“But you never do!” You pout. “It’s ok. Go see what Sky wants. He wouldn’t ask for your help unless he needed it.”

Legend seems a little put off by your words but he eventually stands. He pokes Time, hard, but Time doesn’t seem to feel it. “You owe me time with my lover, Old Man.”

“Noted.”

Twilight

You were both laying against the tree, taking some time for yourselves before the group could catch onto your disappearance. Twilight was actually the laying against the tree. You were laying against Twilight. 

You let out a contented sigh and turn around, rolling around gently on top of your boyfriend so you wouldn’t be digging into him. 

He huffed jokingly and put an arm around your waist. “And where do you think you’re going?”

You giggle and cross your arms over his chest. His eyes open and he greets you with a charming smile. “Hello little darlin’~”

“Hello.” You smile back. “Go back to sleep. I’m just looking at you.”

He snorts and moves his arms to wrap around you better as he adjusts his position against the tree. “Oh? Is that all? You tend to do that a lot. I should start charging.”

You laugh and flick his nose. He scrunches it. “Yeah? And what would you demand? We both know I don’t have rupees.”

“Kisses.” A boyish smile crosses over his face.

“Ah.” You smile wider. “I think I can do that.”

You lean in and peck his gently. “Like that?”

“Hmm...” Twilight grins. “Not enough to pay the toll.”

“The toll.” You echo incredulously. “Dork.”

You kiss him again and his hands come up to hold you gently in place as he kisses you back.

A twig snaps. “SORRY... bad time.”

You pull back and move a little ways away so you can see who just should up. It’s Wild. You didn’t even know his face could get that red. It matches his scars. “Oh, hey champion. Need something?”

Twilight is less amused. “Nope. He just said so.”

You smack your boyfriend. “Link, behave.”

Twilight jokingly sticks his tongue out at you, dissolving into a soft smile once you said his name. “I’m always on my best behavior.”

“Liar.” You hiss and turn back to Wild. The poor guys is scratching the back of his head, walking backwards slowly. “Wild? You ok?”

“Y-yeah... I’ll just... go.. get the Captain instead.” He says awkwardly. “Don’t even worry about it.”

You’re tempted to worry about it but Twilight tightens his grip on you before you can even think about getting up. You look at him for an answer but he doesn’t remotely seem apologetic. In fact, he looks quite smug. You sigh. “Alright, but if you need anything... You know where we are I guess.”

“.....sure...” Wild makes his escape.

You turn your head to scold Twilight but he silences you with a kiss before you can even get the words out. “You love me.”

You huff. “You’re lucky that I do. What if it was important?”

He kisses you again. “Like he said, the Captain can do it.”

You... can’t really argue with that.

Warrior

“Do we have everything?” You looked in the bags you had bought, trying to go over the mental list that you had.

Warrior holds your other hand in his, carrying the majority of the bags in the other “I think we do. You still have the list, right?”

You hum and stop walking. Warrior stops as well and lets go of your hand so that you can rummage through your pocket to dig out the list.

You find the tiny scrap of paper. It’s been folded multiple times and you weren’t the one to write it but you can make out what it says for the most part. You go down every item and do you best to remember if you had come across it earlier.

You more or less can recall the all items on the list with the exception of three, but was because you had already looked and no one was selling them in the area. You nod to yourself, satisfied with your work. “Yup! That’s everything.”

Warrior grins and holds his hand out to you again. You take it without hesitation.

You skip to catch up to him and land by his side. He chuckles and pulls you a little closer. “Cute.”

He pecks your lips.

You grin. “What? I didn’t do anything.”

“I just think you’re cute in general. Is there anything wrong with that?” He challenges playfully.

“I suppose not.”

“Good.” He smirks and kisses you again.

A high pitched piercing whistle can be heard from just beyond you. It last a solid three seconds before it jumps another note higher. It’s an obnoxious wolf whistle.

You both break apart with a slight jolt and look in the direction the sound.

Hyrule stands just a little ways away with a smirk on his face.

You roll your eyes while Warrior meets The Traveler’s grin with a deadpanned expression. You can hear the other hero laugh as Warrior pulls you tighter to his side. “Very funny, Traveler!”

“Thank you!” He calls back, not at all sounding remotely apologetic.

You snort.

Warrior raises an eyebrow before unexpectedly pulling you back in and kissing you deeply. You think you can hear the grocery bags falling to the ground. Warrior’s hand comes up to caress your cheek not too long afterwards.

You melt into his touch, instantly forgetting that Hyrule was even nearby to begin with.

You think you hear him yell out something else but you’re too focused on the man in front of you and the way he tenderly holds you to care. Warrior pulls back with a dazed and borderline sultry look on his face. “There.”

“Hm?”

“Don’t worry about it.” His smile turns devilish. “I quite liked that a lot.”

Part 3

[newtid]

artist depiction of what transpired yesterday during DnD with the fellas

because god forbid enbies do anything

[vaduart]

Last month I was sketching some headshots of Chloe but I wasn't satisfied with any of them, when suddenly I started drawing Chloe as a baby and then this happened! it's so relaxing to draw them. the fact that with this style you don't necessarily have to worry much about the anatomy being accurate it's liberating!