#and it kind of forms a... personality of its own? its.

[kanroji-san]

Okay, I want to explain about my Au that I came with. We all know that in Kpdm have like angels and demons. But what about other mystical creatures? Like sirens? And here the idea.

Sirens are also demons but water ones. But they are not so easy to get contract with. Sirens are know for being much more dangerous than demons or equals. Because they are not eating souls (in most cases) but human flesh. But not always. Sirens are carnivorous. They can easily eat regular fish in the seabed or even mermaids (if they stumble upon them).

Sirens and mermaids are not the same! Mermaids are known from their curiosity, romantic, kind-hearted and gentle personalities. They are living in Coral reefs. This colorful, full of life place is matching their personalities.

Meanwhile sirens are known for their seductive, mischievous and deadly personalities. They live on rocky islands, sing to lure sailors, whose ships crash when they approach.

Hunters have encountered them, too, but very rarely. Sirens can come out onto land with the help of amulets that help them maintain their human form. They use them when they go out onto land to find food. But you should never fight them in the water. It's an automatic defeat. Even the demons don't risk it. But on the land they are much more weaker and because of that many sirens have died from the hands of hunters. And after that sirens never appeared on the land again

But there were some special casesthat sirens could have children with humans/demons. But that was rare.

Gwi-Ma doesn't control the sirens! Sirens have their own ruler. The queen Nereida.

Ordinary people can become sirens in my au. The souls of the drowned go to the queen of the sirens. Namely, to her scepter. And then she decides what to do with these souls.

Okay but let get know for the Kpdm. The ecological problem reached its peak. The sirens had nothing to eat and began to attack each other from hunger. M!Y/n proposed his idea to the queen to get food on land. Namely, to create a K-pop group so that they could lure them into the sea. Nereida refused this idea for a long time because she was afraid that the hunters would catch them. But Caelis was able to convince her that the sirens had not appeared on land for several hundred years and some began to think that they were just a myth. In the end, she agreed and made them amulets. And now they start to get ready for their idea.

And meet our sirens! NYXID!

M!Y/n

Caelis

Ravelle

Queen Nereida

P.s These arts don't belong to me! I found them on Pinterest!

I hope I could make these Au clear. And please don't steal my idea! Give credits if you are planning to use it! Thank you all for understanding.

Maybe I would rewrite the au a little bit but I hope you liked it.

[vilonnie]

there’s something really interesting in the parallels between noelles arc in the snowgrave route and susies arc in chapter 4 – an arc that is kickstarted by events in the same chapter as snowgrave. ch4 susie retains her masculinity while learning to reject the shallow version forced on her, used to label her as too aggressive, unsalvagable, a danger to others; instead she wholeheartedly embraces it as a vehicle to protect her loved ones and express her incredible kindness, becoming a hero to the people who need her in a way that is uniquely and earnestly herself. in contrast, the noelle you see in snowgrave is forced to abandon all traces of gentleness within her in favor of “strength.” where she would’ve otherwise [ACT]ed towards enemies with compassion and helped them to live in peace, the repeated interference of the player instead pushes her towards ruthless slaughter for the sake of her own advancement. as opposed to gerson’s careful coaxing of susie’s positive growth, by the end of ch2 noelle is traumatized and terrified because of the “self-improvement” the player has inflicted on her. it’s a blatant parody of the idea of progression as it is typically realized in most RPGs, directly juxtaposed against the actual development that susie later demonstrates. growth as a person vs growth as a weapon.

not to mention that the character who is puppeteered into coercing noelle is kris, who is made to play viscerally disquieting games of heteronormative marriage. in having to enforce noelle’s false development, everything that they are is reduced without their consent to the traditional masculine domination that festers in the worst idea of a “hero.” and this is the same word that, in its most sincere form, grants susie a gateway to the confidence and compassion she was always capable of. with susie and noelle, the game makes a conscious effort to portray kindness and the will to care for others as the truly aspirational ideals needed for a person’s strongest self, while also condemning power over others and the selfish pursuit of individual prowess as universally self-destructive goals – and it presents, I think, a scathing criticism of what happens when destructive ideals of conventional masculinity are imposed on girls (and people like kris!) as the only path to gaining self-determination and respect

[disheveledapathy]

so a little peak behing the curtain for my world building in my post canon au for stp is that i may think toooooo much abt what the characters are and shit. like what species they are post construct cuz like in the construct theyre the idea that the two gods live thru - two gods who believe they are mortal but have no real context for what the outside world is like

like the world narator came from is not really gone into detail (cuz its obvsly not what the games abt duh) beyond that nara is bird like and based LQ on himself AND the world outside is a colorful chaos compared to simple black and white and muted tones of the construct

(while the game is in mostly black and white, red and yellow do apear to create some contrast, also i dont remember the line specifically but nara mentions the colors of things which makes me thing the construct isnt completely black and white like how in isat colors dont exist anymore - but to maintain the constrast i think the construct is prolly lest vibrant.)

we dont really know what kinds of "people" nara mentions existing (or if nara is even i bird man himself but i digress) - just that there are bird people (us) and human like people (the princess)

but judging by the vibe of the game and since nara nor the voices react any which way abt the princess being mote human like same with the princess not reacting to the player being a bird man - sooo bird people must then obvs exist.

(u could argue that neither react cuz what else could they know besides each other, and also in writing thatd prolly just be too much to add - but i posit that if the princess knows nothing abt u (as both her lines at the starting cabin and patd imply that she didnt know anything besides the cabin) that her looking down at her hands and clothes then looking at us would cause some sort of discomfort. as much as she is shaped by our perception, in the constructs form of her shes still a person. anyway)

all this is to say that post construct, each princess has to fall into something that fits in the world that they now eist in as individual creatures. for the(most) voices this is easy - avians are already implied to exist, and us as audience know of other examples in fiction (dnd, etc) - but the princesses are all so unique. so the point where they devolve from human shape entirely. or arent as corporeal like spectre and nightmare. like what would the creature beast is be called, what makes spectre and nightmare different creatures even if they both turn into wraiths, what the fuck is razor, and so on

also for the sake of my own sanity im not doing each princess chapter as their own princess. 1) thats so MANY CHARACTERS AAA and 2) for the exclusive chpter 3s theyre kinda just a continuation for the chapter 2 princess. like witch and thorn feel like the same person to me just one is later in their story ykno? same with like damsel and hea, nightmare and moc, beast and den. theyre all just an escalation where as combo routes (fury, wild, grey, etc) are more lateral movements on the themes of the first route. so in my au when deciding what, say, the beast is and what shes like post construct i look at her route and dens route and kinda pick and choose what i like from those routes

like, i love dens design, i love the six limbs the wings the horns the big expressive eyes - but i love beasts personality hair and "clothing". in the den idk if id say shes on level mentally to be a person (i mean she is in construct but post construct idk if could make her be that way cuz of her themes) where as beast 1) talks and 2) has goals beyond killing and eatting, if she wanted to just eat u getting bit in half wouldve been fine. she wants out and shes intelligent enough to know she needs u. but she also speaks in an interesting way, in metaphors and grand yet simple sentences. between her clever mind of trying to trick the cabin and her catlike nature i think a sphinx is prolly what ill end up calling her species in my au. unless anyone has other mythological cat women out there lol

now for hunted lemme explain. for all the voices they are avian except hunted for 1 reason, his route has the most becoming one with, taking on atributes of, consuming of the princess then any of them. and it goes the other way too. in beast, she describes taking his corpse and draping it over her to try and fool the cabin into thinking shes him. if she swallows u it can take u to the wild where the player and her believe they are one entity, in den with stubborn u can eat her back and become like her just as she becomes like u. in each route with hunted u can become more like her, and her like you. so it would stand to reason that whatever hunted is, its shaped (at least) more like her post construct than it is like the others. so id dome research on mythological wolves (and also incidently was watching princess monaoke recently) and learned that along with two crow/raven companions (huginn and muninn) odin also had two wolves one named freki. orginally i was gonna have hunted just be a griffon and be done w it but i felt bored with that idea and was like:

"what if in the stp world they had a similar creature to griffons instead?" and so I decided to name that species Frekninn and instead of eagle and lion, theyre raven and wolf. hunted is gonna few other animal traits like a stoats tail and a gait like a rabbit but u get the idea

both sphinxes and Frekninns are intelligent nomadic creatures but where frekninns prefer obvs to live in packs or groups of people, sphinxes are solitary. not necessarily aggressive to other beings, but ure more likely to meet a sphinx for a night ont he road and for them to move on without u then u are to have them follow you. both creatures partner for life tho (tho frekninns may have multiple life partners with in their social group). sphinxes and frekninns rarely get along, so hunted and beast are defo outliers. both creatures are massive, hunted sitting is like eye level with hero who i hc as beeing 5'11-6'1" (his first design has become like my scale ruler lol)

frekninns rarely walk on their hind legs because it can hurt after long periods of time. their wings are lower than avians, beging right above the hips. their faces have two mouthes 1st) below a beak for talking 2nd) ontop of the beak and under a wolf like snout for eating and intimidation. they also have two sets of eyes, the main pair are similar to humans and when theyre open amke the wolf muzzle and dark fur and ears look like theyre only wearing a mask. the second open when hunting or fighting and are more like a wolfs.

sphinxes have six limbs, the front most limbs are more delicate abd bird like where as the 4 others are of a lions. their small flightless wings sprout from their hips and are covered in featherlike fur. sphinxes dont wear much clothing, mostly wraps to carry trinkets and gloves of some kind to protect their more delicate hands when walking. manez are rare, and im undecided if its like w lions where the "males" have it, especially since i plan on having beast and hunted be an it/its sphinxes are collectors and story tellers - in universe this is where their supposed penchant for riddles comes from - tho beast herself isnt much for telling stories. she does like shiny and interesting objects. while nomadic, they are long lived and so may seem to "settle" in a region especially if it has v interesting things or stories. beast herself has less interest in places and more interest in people. especially her voice and the voices he meets up with. tho she keeps herself out of sight of them for a reason she herself hasnt figured out and makes long journeys away fro. hunted to watch other people. ill go more in depth later

i always worry i go too in detail abt these things, especially w stp where A LOT of stuff is up to interpretation abt the world naras from. like whatever razor is i have just as much if not more detail on abominations and where they came from that id didnt go into and dont know how id include any of it if i do write it. same with spectre, nightmare, mages like prisoner and damsel.

[crowlecroux]

Ah fun fact about Lily, she's not stuck in her own AU!! In fact I put her in pretty much every AU I make she's my silly baby OC okay. (For 9 billion percent clarification I AM CROWLIPHALE she's my oc)

That being said she does have a place in the shadow gid AU 💭 she comes in AFTER all the traumatic stuff, I have some specific discomforts with child neglect that I never wanna explore with her. So she comes in after all that, and has some cute unique interactions with Gideon.

- In his shadow form, Gideon can interact with Lily's shadow! She's the only person he can do this with. (I.e., if he can reach her shadow while they're in the same room, he can tussle its hair. In return, Lily's real hair gets tussled as well.)

- Lily looks just a tiiiiiny bit different here because of Gideon's cosmetic changes, I'll try to draw it at some point. She's got all the same vital elements tho

- Like Kremy, Lily has a bit of a link to Gideon! She can understand him clearer than most people when he's in his shadow form, and it's kinda like they can transmit Vibes to each other. If Gideon's not in the same room as her, but she really needs him, he'll get kind of a 6th sense that she's looking for him.

- when she's still a baby, Lily doesn't have the best object permanence. She thinks it's really silly when her papa turns into a shadow, but she soon starts looking for him again... Essentially Gid's shadow form works like peekaboo for her

(shadow gid masterpost link)

[clumsypuppy]

personal character design headcanons + brainrot

Note: the re-bound!au does NOT belong to me, it belongs to @chipper-smol I’m just not normal about it lol

[everythingisarabbithole]

sunflowers

I love permanent rose

[serpentface]

Do psychotropic drugs and/or ritual play a role in any of the blightseed cultures? A pretty broad question, lol

Yeah that’s a very broad question, the answer is about as much as it tends to play roles in real history. Alcohol is pretty ubiquitous (outside of cultures that abstain from intoxicants) and used for a variety of purposes, opioids are commonly used in some parts for pain relief or recreational purposes, stimulants (usually in mild, natural forms) are used to provide extra energy, and hallucinogens are most commonly used as part of a larger religious framework (rather than for recreational purposes). Any more elaborate answer kinda has to be case by case in a certain culture or part of the setting.

I'll just take this as an opportunity to talk about the one established sect that pretty much REVOLVES around psychoactive use. This is the Scholarly Order of the Root, which is a sort of mystery religion + elite community of scholars who currently occupy the Ur-Tree and its forest in the far southern Lowlands (southeast of Imperial Wardin, on the same land mass).

The Ur-Tree is the obligatory Huge Fucking Fantasy Tree (and its surrounding forest). It’s a mass of vegetation about a mile tall and almost as old as Plant Life Itself, its upper branches are primeval plants, which become more modern the nearer they get to the ground (and each 'level' holds tiny ecosystems, some containing descendants of LONG-extinct arthropods/other small animals). Its lowest branches and the surrounding forest are contemporary plant life, and all is connected and protected by an incomparably MASSIVE fungal mycelium network (which is itself a living god).

A lot of the Scholars' more secretive practices revolve around experimentation with substance use with the goal of expanding the Mind and transcending the body to fully connect to the Dreamlands, and they have a supply chain of traders and mercenaries called Rootrunners who traffic substances into the Lowlands. Most of their psychoactive use is in a very intentional capacity and not just like, for fun, but a LOT of them are just straight up addicted to cocaine (in the form of alchemically refined bruljenum, which is used for practical purposes of its stimulant effect during long hours of work).

All known psychoactives are desirable for experimentation (particularly hallucinogens), with each having properties that either allow expansion of the Mind, transcendence of the body, or outright divine communion. Their effects are logged in great detail and interpreted to form the basis of the Scholars' understanding of the natural world and reality itself.

The most important substance is Ur-Root, which is root matter from subterranean levels of the Ur-Tree that have both their own intrinsic psychoactive substances and a very, very high concentration of living god mycelium. The tree root contains DMT and the mycelium has its own wholly unique effects (being an actual living god). They alchemically refine it into a purer, more potent form, and use it to expand beyond the body and directly commune with the Giants, a group of entities they have identified as the only true gods.

An Ur-Root trip starts off with minor visual distortion, which turns into shifting fractals that slowly obscure the vision. Eventually the senses are entirely taken over by a 'tunnel' of rapidly shifting fractals and geometries. In a complete trip, the experiencer gets a sense that they have been pushed through a membrane and entered another realm, finding themselves in a distinct experiential Space.

At this point they may encounter entities which communicate to them in a language impossible to describe but wholly understood. These beings are understood to be the Giants, or at least aspects of the Giants that mortals are capable of comprehending (they often take familiar tutelary forms of the Mantis or the Snake, or appear resembling the same type of sophont that the experiencer is, all composed of ever-shifting geometries). The experiencer often feels a sense of unconditional and endless love from these beings, though the Giants may be more hostile and may appear in the form of the Trickster (usually a cultural figure regarded as malicious, be it an animal or otherwise) in a bad trip.

(^Up until this point, this has mostly just been a DMT 'breakthrough' experience ft. 'machine elves' and the like).

They are then removed from this space and returned to something that feels like the real world, but is nearly unrecognizable. They have a sense of rapidly moving through time, and will usually see 'the spires' towards the beginning, which just so happen to look like this:

(source + some context via Implication- the spires are exactly what this art is depicting)

The experiencer continues to move across an unfathomable amount of time, occasionally 'seeing' other such flashes of unfamiliar landscapes and creatures, and yet also being devoid of all their senses, the 'seeing' is pure, unfiltered experience. There is a sense of interconnectedness with all life, and that one has become the forest (or even Life) itself. The sense of time is wildly distorted, the trip lasts only about 5 minutes but feels like an eternity and is understood as literal hundreds of millions of years.

The experiencer has usually lost any remaining sense of Self and individual consciousness during this phase (in which case this time distortion is usually a neutral or even peaceful experience), but some retain a fraction of their identity, and find themselves trapped and conscious while experiencing what feels like eternity (which can be LIFE-CHANGINGLY distressing, even after the fact).

(^This latter part of the trip is the effects of the Ur-Tree fungus).

The trip ends with a sense of rushing through the ground and back up into one's body, at which point they will abruptly return to their senses and consciousness. The details are then immediately retrieved via interview and recorded in immense detail. The whole experience is understood as having been full comprehension of the Dreamlands, communion with the Giants, and then a tour through the act of creation.

This is done as part of the initiatory practice into the inner mystery-religion of the scholars, and as needed for study by high scholar-priests. It is not taken lightly, both as it is absolute communion with the gods and reality, and in that it can be a very, very difficult experience. People who have gone through this often walk away with a permanently shifted perspective, often in a positive and/or comforting way- a sense of interconnectedness with all life, a peace with the concept of death, seeing less of a point in individual ego and the concept of Self, and comfort in the sense of divine love they (may have) experienced. This heavily influences the philosophy of the Scholars and has had effects by proxy in the religious worldviews of the region.

Details of this experience are closely guarded, and initiates are given absolutely no prior knowledge and expectations for their trip. This is seen as a necessity- their naivety will allow for a true, unfiltered experience, and can be used to gauge whether they should or should not be accepted. Those that have a distinctly bad trip upon initiation may be assumed to have been 'rejected' by the giants and thus denied full priesthood, though this largely depends on How they interpret their distressing trip- those who identify this as a test and harsh lesson in a journey to enlightenment may be accepted (as this is how fully initiated scholar-priests interpret and handle their bad trips).

This inner priesthood is only a small fraction of the Scholarly Order, and its greater function is as a hub of education and repository of knowledge, and Scholar-trained doctors can provide some of the best medical care available in the setting ('best medical care in this setting' only means so much but it's pretty solid, relatively speaking). Only a chosen few Scholars ever get to commune with the Ur-Root, and most of the divine secrets revealed in the process are kept hidden (though they indirectly influence the politics and worldview of the entire order).

[lemongogo]

[icewindandboringhorror]

Pictures and things

[deggies]

[[[SPOILERS FOR SLAY THE PRINCESS]]]

Slay the Princess caught my eye after seeing a thumbnail of the game from a vtuber, and ever since I was considering playing it. Even during the steam Christmas sale I was deciding whether or not I should get it. I didn't end up getting it on sale (bought it the day the sale ended) and honestly I don't even feel bad about it. Going into the game I only knew that 1) it has elements of horror and 2) the game gaslights you. So knowing that the game was trying to trick me and emotionally manipulate me, I went in with the mindset of what would I do if I was put into that situation and— I slayed the princess. But not without her taking me out with her.

So began a Lovecraftian timeloop nightmare that ended in me getting horribly killed over and over again until I was met with a being that took the Princess's heart (literal) and claimed it needed other versions of her to become complete. So now learning what the game is about now - getting different 'endings' to feed the being life experiences - I decided, hey what the hell, let's try being nice and even try romance her, if given the option. I was still suspicious of her kind demeanor in this run, still heeding to the narrator's warnings that it was all a manipulation, but she was... pleasant. Still a little deranged, but overall a more pleasant person. And it made me realise how I wanted to get the rest of the princess endings. I didn't wan't to kill her as much as I was able to.

In the rest of my run, I did just that, only killing when I didn't have a choice and learning more about her I began to think to myself that maybe she really is misunderstood. Maybe, in a meta-sense, she was forced into the role of a villain by the creators, since although she does 'end the world' in endings where you are kind to her, it seems that the world simply ceases to exist as opposed to endings where you were a heartless killer she explicitly states she tormented the world.

So then finally, when it was revealed that the player was created to become a god to end death (the princess) and I was given a chance to talk to the now completed entity, whose goal was to bring suffering upon the world, I was given two choices: slay the princess for good and fulfill the role I was given or join her in an endless cycle to create and destroy worlds. I, was not happy with either of these choices.

Fortunately, the game has another option. You are given one last chance to speak with the princess again. Just, the regular ol' princess chained in the basement of a cabin, though she now knows everything you do. And there, you are able to free her and end the cycle of death and destruction and enter a world of uncertainty. A world where a higher being no longer dictates their every action.

I did not do the themes and emotions of this game justice, but this is more as an entry for me to remember how much I love this game. I'm not the type to replay games, so I'm really happy I was able to get an ending that I enjoyed and connected to a lot.

Play this game if you ever get the chance, it's good fun and really touching (at least, the ending I got was).

Also, here's the playlist I got at the end.

[walker-lister]

I just have to remind myself sometimes that no matter what anyone else says, the way a piece of media makes me feel and the positive impact it has had on my queer identity is valid, and that tearing myself apart thinking I have to defend it or questioning my own place within queer communities is not at all important when compared to the almost tangible sense of 'rightness' that piece of media helped me to feel about myself.

[abimee]

ruyan is literally so beautiful that i get ill looking at her

[ourstarsystem]

even though i feel like i can confidently tell when a piece of art is generative A/I, i really don't feel inclined or really even justified calling someone out for it due to the precedent it sets - especially when artists who DO make their own pieces get caught in the crossfire for being inexperienced or making the choice to be more free-form when it comes to character design / consistency...

[yioh]

I HAVE A SHORT STORY IDEA …..

[nukacourier]

I realized I REALLY need to post about Pierre's backstory since I don't post much about him compared to James. But I'm also dreading it because her backstory is very, very awful and I gotta figure out what content warnings to add before I talk about it. Plus I need to actually sit down and think of the most non-upsetting way to describe all of it since it goes in to a lot of heavy topics

[omarwolaeth]

Thinking about how souls canonically do exist in universe, and how that might correlate to seeing different people as one in the same, all because their souls are identical (pieces of a whole)