#but I'm doing it

[carionto]

Wisdom is to seek the experienced

Your typical dimly lit bar, closing hours. Few folk still remain, fewer still conscious. The door chimes to a sprightly young man, though his eyes echo decades of witnessing the grim reality. He orders a beer, sits down next to a passed out man in his late 50s, hand still gripping his last shot glass.

The young man prods the old guy awake.

"Tell me, what do you know about Old Man Henderson?"

"What? That's an urban myth. A fairy tale. Ain't no such person ever existed. Scram, kid."

"We believe the contrary. Correction. We don't believe anything. We know he is real."

"That story is over a thousand years old. Wouldn't be the first time some fools mistake a work of fiction from three apocalypses ago as fact."

"There's more to it than that. We know that you are connected."

At this moment, the young man takes out a small binder of documents and splays it in front of the old guy. Images of excavations of an old town hall. Unidentified dirt and ash samples. A heavily damaged pilot's license. Used cigarette butts.

And a list of names, dates of birth and death, addresses throughout their life, occupations, relatives. Seemingly, no connection. And at the end of the list a Mr J. Drenshaw - the old guy.

"We know you know these people, all of them. Ever since the incident Old Man Henderson was involved in, there has been an unbroken chain of people who studied and learned everything about him and what occurred. And you did your best to erase everything from all records but your own.

Well, the one thing the first to whom this knowledge was passed on to did not do was to cremate their mentor. Instead, they received a burial at sea. Somewhere in the middle of the Pacific from a plane. Forever lost to the world, beneath endless waters and unknown beasts of below.

Or, so it would have remained, had it not been for that little explosion that has doomed our world. Among the debris the OCC cleared was a tiny, damaged microfilm. Unable to restore its contents at the time, it was stored alongside the innumerable relics recovered from the disaster, and promptly forgotten about.

Until my superiors learned of something... odd, and we got to work searching for the loosest of ends. The rest is technical details. In short - you, Mr Drenshaw, have known about the reality of the Old Ones ever since your mentor exposed you to this secretive knowledge you've been safekeeping for the last twenty eight generations. It is no longer your exclusive club.

We need your help understanding what Cthulu is, what it wants, what it can do, and most importantly - what we can do about it."

After a long pause, J. Drenshaw looked at his empty shot glass, at the young man, to the floor, and sighed.

"The reason we kept it from everyone is because you can't do anything about a being like that. That's the point."

"Old Man Henderson did do something about it."

"He was a nutjob. One of a kind."

"Still just human."

"Bah. It wasn't even the full might of anything Greater."

"Even a fraction was still a part of it. We can expand upon that."

"What do I even get out of this? Cuz I'm telling you, it doesn't matter how many Supernovas you throw at Cthulu. The material realm doesn't bother them in the least."

"It doesn't have to be a hostile relationship. Our experiences with the Galactic Coalition, despite a rocky start, show we can communicate with anyone."

"Aliens and Old Ones are not comparable. Can an ant negotiate with the Moon? That's a bullshit idea and you know it."

"We found an individual who contradicts your belief."

At this statement, the young man shows Mr Drenshaw a picture of a young woman, barely out of her teens, but even through a simple image Drenshaw can see in her eyes there is... knowing.

"Okay? That your girlfriend? Good for you."

"That is Cintra Valkeim. Though it proved difficult to ascertain, we believe she made contact with Cthulu."

"Thought you didn't believe in anything. Couldn't get her to confess?"

"We're still working on the specifics, but we do know she died several times. Either by negligence or lack of interest in us 'nothings', her resurrections left marks on the cellular level."

"Nothings..." Drenshaw slowly repeated the word, as if something finally clicked.

"That is how They view us, yes?"

Mr Drenshaw finally looked back at the young man, took a deep breath and simply said:

"Yea...

Fine. I'll talk to this Cintra. Alone. After that I'll decide if it's worth a bother to help you lot."

"Those are agreeable terms. Shall I take you to her now or...?"

"Fuck no. I got a raging headache and I need a nap. Just cuz you got my curiosity don't mean this hangover is suddenly gone. Leave your number, I'll call you in a few days. Gonna do my own investigation."

"Understandable. Here are my contacts."

Mr Drenshaw takes the card, looks at it, and bemusedly puts it away.

"Fuckin' hell. Bunch of jokers you are. Alright, I'll be sure to ring you up, Mr 'John Smith'. Now get outta here, you've ruined my nap long enough.

HEY, BARKEEP! GET ME SOMETHING THAT'LL KNOCK ME RIGHT BACK TO SLEEP!"

[twilightknight17]

I've been trying a new thing lately where I paint without lineart in an effort to force myself not to agonize over the details so much. It's... sort of working. XD But it's been a great excuse to work on a bunch of Hours art that I've been meaning to do for ages, in-between working on the new fic. So that's a win. ^_^

I am amused that Keres turned out the best of everything in this picture (sorry, Tatsuya). So, bonus Keres by herself b/c Thanatos covered up the whole background.

[stormsongandsword]

I usually get a craft Advent calendar. Partially because it's an excellent excuse and partially because my kids get so much candy and chocolate I want not for sweets (and yes they're told we take some. Never their favorites and never the last of anything unless we clear it.)

This year I got myself a spinning Advent and I was Very Excited. Which means that I would be hit with Consequences.

They came in the form of Link, the youngest dog.

Link, despite being the world's most questionable mix of breeds (most importantly Rottweiler and Dachshund) is a very accomplished vaulter and can clear the baby gate (we screwed into the wall) with little effort.

So he got out. Ate five chocolates from Youngest Child's Advent and then decided to help me open mine.

So after I finished openly weeping (y'all I was Pumped for this,) I did what any sane fiber artist would.

I went and got some goddamn hand carders and I'm doing a new skill I GUESS.

I have no idea what I'm doing. Anyways here are my first rolags.

The criminal in question

[miguelillusion]

Thats it. I'll say it.

I don't like the Crystalized poster for Ninjago.

It was a cool looking poster at first, but overtime I've grown a dislike for it. All the different gis and looks. The arrangement of the characters. Litteraly the crystal chicken that had like zero influence on the season whatsoever except for the shits and giggles.

And the fact that there is only one. When the season is drastically split into two parts.

So yeah tl;dr I'm redesigning two posters for ninjago crystalized.

[pyramid-heads-knife]

I'm never going to hear the end of this one.

[rookrock]

In First Shift, Gwen accuses Alice of nepotism in helping Sam get the job. Alice says "I learned from the best"- so "Bouchard" probably carries much the same legacy in this world as TMA. Maybe Elias is even in power somewhere up the line.

I don't know what that means, but feels like it's either important or a red canary. I mean herring.

[weirdgirlcroix]

slowly becoming the guy that reads terms of service and privacy policies for fun

[jhalya]

💍👑 An Unfinished Tale: The Deceit.

🧝‍♀️ Galadriel seeks counsel from Lúthien.

🔗Read on AO3.

[the-lore-and-art-cave-go-brrrrr]

I did it-

[give-soup-please]

i've scheduled the labs to see what the heck caused that ER visit a few weeks back and i am being so brave about it/silly

[riku-wo]

Despite Everything, it's still you ❤️️

(i hope i'm not late)

[loonsmoons]

no idea what exactly a boop is, but i'm handing them out like a whore. EVERYONE AND THEIR MOM IS GETTING ONE, I DON'T CARE ! HERE IS YOUR BOOP ! YOUR BOOP ! TAKE IT ! HERE !

[anonymous-harpy]

Okay! So it should be no surprise to hear I've been super stressed and therefore not writing a whole lot since about mid-November.

I an hate that holiday season now just because of all the stress I just felt for the last two months. I'm just barely calming down from all that.

Now having said that! I'm sorting through my projects again to reacquaint myself with them and I'm trying to get back to working on them. I make no promises especially since as we may know, I'm in the middle of being trained to be a manager, so all that extra special stress is liable to spike my anxiety and stifle my inspiration.

HOWEVER I am trying to get to the projects I have waiting on the shelf. I almost have the next chapter of Complicated Feelings done. I need to do outlining for it and I have old unsued chapters I need to sit down and revise. I seriously want it fully outlined so I have no excauses to ignore it.

I have a chapter of To Befriend A Tyrant done, but I want to try and get more ready while I'm still working on Complicated Feelings and Origins Of A Bounty Hunter, because it's the next fic on the list to get started on. After finishing that chapter I completely fell off because stressed as you know and minimal outlining.

AND I began the sequel to Blood Ice. Key word "Began" it. I have literally nothing but five hundred words and a loose outline.

Then there's the numerous half complete One-Shot entries I just need to deal with and then The Royal Lounge.... Im making absolutely no progress with the ladder for the time being. I have enough things on my plate.

Just wanted to keep you all up to date.

[chmerical]

me hating making icons (ง •̀_•́)ง vs ผ(•̀_•́ผ) me picking fcs who have little to no resources

[opulence-is-decadence]

Don't know how people who study internationally do it so gracefully. I'm driving myself insane with the visa process.

[space-cat-in-a-teacup]

OMG guys it’s my favorite TMNT ship

[Image description: A photo of an ornate box turtle and a photo white witch moth, with a simply drawn pink heart between them. /End.]