#but . sort of closer

[ciderjacks]

despite Laios low self esteem making him think that if he’d been eaten, Chilchuck and Marcille wouldn’t have helped Falin,

theres a small part of me that thinks the reason Chilchuck stayed with the party and went back in the dungeon in the first place was because he didn’t want to leave Laios alone. That Laios was moreso the reason he stayed.

[bluegiragi]

holding back (part 2)

early access + nsfw on patreon

[egophiliac]

redesigning my headcanon for Sebek's parents, based on important new information (SCALES)

(you can't see it but they're both wearing crocs)

[magicwhiskers29]

The whole gang! The lines randomly start getting thinner partway through, but whoops. I had each of these on different canvases and didn’t check the others in between :p

[danmeichael]

it's really cute when a character is completely obsessively devoted to someone they are entirely aware is toxic. submissive not because they're naive but because they are completely content with being taken advantage of.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

There is a cyclic tragedy inherent to Mori's character wherein he's actually a deeply lonely man, but it's mostly because his resolve to do morally reprehensible things and think of people as pieces on the game board is something he prioritizes over his relations with those very same people, and this inevitably pushes them away (for very understandable reasons). And it kind of sucks honestly because the most frustrating thing about Mori is that he 100% has the potential to be a fantastic teacher and mentor, and more than that, I think he loves it! Just look at Beast! But for as long as he decides he needs to be the one to make "the hard calls" to "preserve peace", then Mori will inevitably continue in this cycle of alienating all the people he has a fondness for.

I do feel as though Mori's loneliness is something he views as a necessary sacrifice that he is making for the greater good (and if he is so willing to sacrifice, then Dazai's unwillingness to do the same comes out of left field because - "what do you mean? you're supposed to be just like me!").

Anyways.

Mori voice: "I'm so alone"

Also Mori: *continues to prioritize pure logic over the emotions of his people and himself*

The people: *get rightly angry and/or become extremely traumatized and leave him*

Mori voice: "I did what needed to be done"

Mori: "..."

Mori: "..."

Mori: "I'm so alone"

Sir. You are doing this to yourself.

[ashleyslorens]

“They’re just two people that are completely alone, broken, and lost, yearning for human connection, and they’re able to be completely themselves in front of one another with no judgment. You can laugh at them and think, ‘They’re going to bake people into pies!’ But Lovett says that and Sweeney says, 'Wow, okay…yeah, we can do this together.’ I think finding a person who accepts you for who you really are…I think that’s what these two people are doing” - Aaron Tveit

[ghost-bxrd]

You mentioned that Fae Dick doesn't allow anyone near Jason while he is healing. How does Bruce handle his son being alive again, only for his other son not to allow him near? What does it take for Fae Dick to allow Bruce near the newly resurrected Jason?

Predictably, Bruce does NOT handle it very well.

For one, Dick squirreled Jason away into his own rooms and refuses to let anyone inside on the threat of being chased outside manor grounds by a murder of crows. Only regular meals by Alfred are accepted, and even he is only allowed a few supervised minutes in Jason’s presence before Dick grows antsy and shuts the door in his face.

Bruce is… both concerned and reluctantly hopeful. But mostly he’s his usual pessimistic self and assumes that Jason is an impostor trying to trap Dick in a deal, or attempting to gain a foothold in the batfamily looking like his dead son.

Dick is very much aware of Bruce’s distrust and apprehension which is about ninety percent of the reason he doesn’t allow anyone near Jason. He refuses to have anybody probe and prod at his alive baby brother. Bruce can grow screw himself. Dick doesn’t know how— and he doesn’t care— but Jason is alive. And he’d rather eat iron than make him doubt his place in the family ever again. (Dick has not forgiven Bruce for not believing Jason about Garzonas. Neither has Bruce, but that’s beside the point.)

So yeah, Dick has Jason safely squirreled away and is doting on him like a mother hen, feeding him fae magic and healing the damage to his body one by one.

Bruce only has a chance of meeting Jason if he can let go of his mistrust long enough to let himself believe that’s truly his dead son come back to life. Otherwise Dick will not allow him anywhere near Jason.

[parisoonic]

i really wish we got the tf2 tv show because i think, about your talk about how pyro ends up being a foil to the other characters, pyro is such a wildcard of a character that if you need someone for an episode to complete a dynamic it's pyro. he's designated driver. he's the mcdonalds employee. he's scout's ma. she's helping miss p dismember bodies. it's coming in through the dog door

your ask got me thinking about how i'd use pyro in a show and IDK if anyone else has seen Solar Opposites but how they split the Pupa's screentime between A + B plots in the first/second season would be spot on the money for me. Pyro could be there, in the A plot, in small ways (like you said, at the back of the bus or en rotue to the episodes mission) but then gets sucked into a 'mundane' B plot for some tonal levity within the episode. Pyro's gotta run that FTSE 500 company! They've gotta seduce the Ballicorn comic writer in order to read the never-published final issue! They've gotta earn an Astrophysics PHD in order to steal their Professor's Pokemon topped pen....that sort of thing. And then occassionaly they can show up with the deus-ex-mechina for the episode with the rest of the team being none the wiser (other than vaguely baffled as their flamethrower could've REALLY come in handy fighting those haunted scarecrows).

[sapphuric-acid]

Hey btw not having a "typical [x identity here]" coming-of-age does not make you any less of your identity

[arsenicflame]

steddyhands modern au inspired by this post:

(1828 words, themes of kink but nothing explicit, established blackhands & gentlebeard-centric. Happy Pride!)

Stede picks up leatherworking in the wake of his divorce. He's not exactly sure how it ended up being such an important hobby for him, only that he had always admired the intricate designs on his horse's best bridles, and with little else to do with his time, he decides to give it a go.

It's rocky going at first, but he's having fun working with his hands for the first time in his life, and there's a sense of satisfaction in seeing the design come to life as he works. With practice, his skills improve, and he learns how to make things that are truly one of a kind.

He starts off posting his pieces online, as a way to reach fellow enthusiasts, but quickly finds himself with a rather large audience. Stede’s style is unique, and, after many requests from his followers, Lucius encourages him to make some more basic pieces he can sell. It's not about making money for Stede, but another way to meet new people who share his interests- as Lucius keeps telling him, it's sad that his personal assistant is the main person he talks to these days. 

So Stede sets out on a new adventure, and has quite the time designing a new range of patterns for the market. He makes purses, belts, bracelets, and, most importantly, dog collars- all still with his unique designs embossed into them, of course. He rents a booth at his towns monthly craft fair, and very quickly finds himself with a new group of friends in the other regulars- Pete, his usual neighbour, who sells an array of wooden figures he carves, Roach, who runs a stand for his bakery, and Frenchie, who isn't actually a stallholder, but is almost always busking near his friend Wee John’s stand of knitted goods, bringing life to the market even in the pouring rain. There's also Buttons, another regular at the market. Nobody is exactly sure what he does there- he doesn't sell things, or seem to buy anything either, but rain or shine, he's there with the birds.

Stede’s been doing this a few months by the time June rolls around. As he's setting up his stand, he notices that the area is much busier than it’d normally be at this time of morning. Lucius, who got roped into helping run Stede’s stall somewhere down the line (despite his protests that this is not what personal assistant means… But hey, he got a boyfriend out of it, at least), reminds him that there's the parade today, too- not realising that Stede had no clue there was a parade today, and especially not that it was pride. Stede immediately jumps to fretting about the amount of stock he’s brought, and Lucius takes the cue to escape, saying he’ll go and grab them coffee (but really, he's off to flirt with Pete)

Lucius is still missing when Ed stumbles across the little leather stall. Stede’s just ran back to his car to fetch his last boxes of inventory, and by the time he returns, Ed’s already begun to narrow down his choices. Stede greets him, starting to tell him that they're not actually open yet, but before he gets more than a couple of words out, Ed’s exclaiming “You're a Kiwi!!!”

The two of them smile at the shared recognition, and Stede says he’ll make an exception, just for Ed, and asks him what exactly he was interested in. Ed tells him that he's looking for a collar “for his boy”, and points out the particular design he was looking at. It happens to be one of Stede’s favourites from this latest run of work, a fact he mentions to Ed. It leads them into a discussion about Stede’s craft, and Ed’s Izzy, and then everything in between. Ed’s listening intently to the things Stede’s telling him, completely drawn in by the process, and by Stede himself. He watches as Stede stamps Izzy's name into the collar, and Stede even lets him have a go at one of the stamps. 

Lucius reappears sometime in the middle of this- only to immediately retreat again, seeing Stede engrossed with Ed. He sets up camp at Pete's booth opposite, watching this man flirt intensely with his boss- and Stede flirt back just as hard. Does Stede even realise he’s doing it? Lucius had known Stede was gay since before Stede even admitted it to himself, but this is on a whole other level.

The pair stand there so long that Izzy comes to look for Ed- the two of them are manning a float on the parade with their crew, and it's past time for them to get geared up. He's already worked up, frustrated to have been left to set up everything alone, when Ed had just gone to see if he could get them both coffee. So maybe he's a bit of a prick, approaching with a brash “where the fuck have you been, Edward”, to which Stede brings the same energy, giving a bitchy “Ed! Do you know this guy?” Izzy tenses, ready to snap, but then Ed cuts in, excitedly telling Stede that this is “his Izzy!” Which confuses the hell out of Stede. 

Forgetting his earlier attitude, he asks Ed if he “really named his dog after his friend”, only to be met with confusion right back from Ed at where the hell Stede got the idea he had a dog from. Stede gestures at the bag with the collar in it, to which Ed has to tell him, “oh, no, that's for him.” Ed tells Stede that they're here to run a float for their local leather society, and while Stede is certainly shocked by what Ed’s saying, he's not finding himself… uninterested. It's simply that he’s never even considered any of this before, especially not that people would use the things that he made for this, but Ed sounds so enthusiastic about it all. He tells him about how his friends would love to see Stede’s work, about how classic leather gear is always so fucking boring- but not Stede’s stuff, no, Stede’s stuff is “fresh” and “fascinating” and unlike anything Ed’s ever seen before. 

Ed's enthusiasm is incredibly infectious, so when he invites Stede to come back to see their float, he readily agrees. It’s a concept Izzy’s less than enthusiastic about. He doesn’t really want to bring this man who’s dressed like he just walked out of a HOA board meeting to their kinky little corner of the world, but he is having a lot of fun watching Stede squirm, so decides not to raise a protest. He does demand he gets his long-overdue coffee first, though (Stede pays for it- as “compensation for him distracting Ed from his job”, he says, not giving Izzy a second to process before he's tapping his card)

By the time they return to the float, Fang, Ivan & Jim are waiting for them, all already geared up. Stede is stunned silent at the sight for about 5 seconds, before he starts actually looking at the quality of Jim’s harness, and proceeds to go off about the poor quality of the craftsmanship, about how the hardware is tacky and completely the wrong choice with this leather, how his “ten year old daughter could do a better job!!!” 

There's complete silence from the group, until Izzy, of all people, bursts into laughter at Stede’s audacity (and, the fact he was staring at Jim's tits completely unabashedly, like he hadn't even noticed them in the first place). Izzy's laughter sets Ed off as he tells the group about Stede’s misunderstanding- “you didn't say he was a person!” “I mean, he's my dog”- and soon everyone's having a friendly giggle at Stede’s mistake.

It's somewhere in the middle of the retelling that Ed remembers that this whole thing happened because he was buying Izzy a gift. After a moments fumbling, he presents Izzy with the collar-  It's a rich, deep black, embossed with a rolling pattern that resembles waves. It’s made from a firm enough leather to take the tooling, and to remind Izzy that he’s owned while he’s wearing it, yet still soft enough for long term comfort. Izzy's eyes immediately lock on to it, an unreadable expression coming over his face, and Ed turns it; first so he can really see the design and Izzy’s name embossed into it, and then so he can see the small “Ed ♥” on the inside of the collar, right over his swallow tattoo. 

“I did the heart,” Ed says to him softly, intended only for Izzy’s ears. Izzy's eyes flick up to Ed’s, and he raises his chin to give Ed the room to put it on. Ed buckles the collar around his neck almost reverently, a test of the tightness turning into a caress of Izzy's neck. It's a perfect fit.

It's as though something comes over Izzy; so twitchy and abrasive earlier, now silent, staring at Ed with a look akin to worship in his eyes. He obediently tilts his head for a kiss as Ed's fingers move to his chin- It's a sight to behold, and one that has Stede intrigued. He wants to know more about this lifestyle, and these men in particular. He wants to be the one to put that expression on Izzy's face.

The moment breaks as Ed and Izzy pull apart, and Ed calls for the crew to finish the last bits of set up. Izzy shakes himself a little before running off to bark orders again, but even still, there remains a softness to him that wasn't there before. 

Ed turns back to Stede with an apologetic smile, already obvious that he has to get going. Before he can speak, however, Stede jumps in -“My business numbers on the card in the box… I'll be around all day”- Ed’s smile turns more genuine at that, promising to stop by if he gets a moment, and that he’ll send his friend's Stede’s way- “if he wants that kind of business.” Stede says that he does, actually- that he's seen a whole new world already today, and, while he was a little taken aback at first, he can feel the passion Ed and his friends have for this life. If there's one thing that's ever mattered to Stede, it's other people's enthusiasm. Maybe he doesn't completely understand yet, but he would like to try.

One year later, Stede’s back at the market on pride weekend again, far better stocked for the crowds this time around. Lucius is finally free to spend the day flirting with Fang & Pete to his heart's content, now that Stede’s roped his own boyfriends into helping him run the stall- and into modelling the merchandise. Ed loves that part, while Izzy needs a lot more convincing, but the puppy eyes Stede & Ed weaponise against him make a very good argument.

[hellenhighwater]

why are you lying about being rich

ah drat, you've found me out! the billions in gold bullion that I have in my basement and swim through like scrooge mcduck have been discovered!

To be extremely clear, absolutely none of you have any right to know jack about my finances or any other detail of my life. You wanna talk about how to make your home cool on a shoestring budget, great; happy to chat. But the exact second someone goes fishing for personal information is the time I tell them to block and unfollow. You guys are not entitled to any part of my life beyond what I willingly divulge. I'm not being rude but this is a hard line for me when it comes to social media. This is a public forum and I do not have any obligation to you.

[padfootastic]

if you’re writing james & sirius in a way that atleast one person doesn’t ask ‘are those two dating’ then sorry but that’s actually two random OCs with familiar names

[mayasaura]

Call me a hopeless goth, but I kind of like the Ninth House's funerary practices and I wish we knew more about them. At least, I like what they could be: what I imagine they once were, before their culture was shattered.

The Ninth as we see it is a civilization in its death throes. It's a utilitarian horror show, hollowed out by tragedy and stripped of all dignity and sentiment, but we have good reason to think it wasn't always like that. They have a history of fine textile production and poetry, and occassionally forming hero cults to celebrate cultural icons. There used to be families who raised their children communally. Before the sea of tiny coffins, the Ninth may have known how to live, and even how to mourn.

There are glimmers of what their death culture might have been like in Harrow's prayer beads: made from the bones of her ancestors, a tangible link to her history and community. And in Gideon searching for her mother in the leek fields, imagining that a woman she never met is still present in her life.

In a living culture with a functioning community, the use of human bone as a crafting material could make mundane objects into momentos, ways to keep loved ones close after their passing. The skeleton servitors could be seen as a way individuals continued to care and provide for the community, even after death.

If their dead are routinely exhumed to be added to the chore rota, it would make sense for the exhumation, cleaning, and raising of those bones to traditionally be a cultural ritual like a graduation or funeral. Most of those skeletons would have had living friends and family working alongside them, when the Ninth still had generations. The skeleton sweeping the chapel used to be someone's uncle. People in these cultures do mourn death. We've seen them with the corpses of people they knew, and they're not completely desensitized; just very weird. There's a throw-away line once about Harrow having a pet peeve about personalising the skeletons, which means it must be fairly common to do that. What was to stop previous generations of the Ninth from getting scolded for putting funny hats on Cousin Balbus's bones? Nothing, that's what. Balbus liked hats, anyway, so I don't see how it was disrespectful.

I'm sure Wake didn't get a ceremony when she was raised as a servitor; the main beneficiary would have been Gideon, and god fucking knows no one ever went out of their way to make her feel like part of the community. I'm betting no one does raising ceremonies for anyone, anymore. The Ninth is as good as dead, and no one ever taught the youngest generation how to mourn. But for ten thousand years, the Ninth successfully lived in very close proximity to mundane natural death. It's fun to imagine what that looked like.

[scarperseus]

“he was pale and dwarfish, he gave the impression of deformity...he had a displeasing smile...and spoke with a whispering and somewhat broken voice.”

Here is my most updated Hyde design!

[aliciarose-art]

Tried out drawing Denji and Power! I’ll try to make something better next time 😔