#couldn't help it though

[galavant-song-tournament]

[blvck-minou]

How could you think, darling, I'd scare so easily?

This was beamed into my brain when I read this tweet

[beebundt]

thinking a little too much abt durge/orin sibling relationship rn. 🩸ft. my durge (briar, they/them)

[tuinendraws]

A while ago there was going around an art challenge where you draw your favourite Fire Emblem character of each letter of the alphabet. Figured I'd give it a shot, let's see if I can finish this. Here's ABC.

[starcurtain]

Another Phaidei Fic I Want to Read

It's the political arranged marriage AU but make it (ooooo) complicated~

Crown Prince Mydeimos of Castrum Kremnos was born under a dark star, with a prophecy of abject despair uttered at the moment of his birth: Mydeimos will be the last king of Kremnos. The city-state will fall, her people will be lost, and the glory of Strife entirely will fade into nameless oblivion. Year after year, the prophets repeat the same warnings: Mydeimos is cursed, and he will bring the downfall of their kingdom and all its inhabitants.

But no one in Kremnos knew just how cursed their prince was until the day the regent's war council convinced their king to do the unthinkable: If Mydeimos was sacrificed, perhaps their prophecy of destruction could be averted and Kremnos saved...

Only Mydei couldn't even die like he was supposed to. No matter how many times he was mortally wounded, the boy just kept standing up--not even Thanatos would take him. That glorious death in battle that all Kremnoan warriors were expected to achieve--even this most central aspect of Mydei's own culture rejected him.

This life of betrayal and total loneliness, with the promise of eventually destroying everything he knew and cared for, seemed inescapable--until one day, when Mydeimos had already passed the age of majority (and would have long since been allowed to challenge his father for the crown if it weren't for the despair prophesied to be his reign), a new vision was shared among all of their people's seers: There was a way to avert their kingdom's impending destruction and save their people. "Only the son of Aedes Elysiae can deliver Castrum Kremnos from the dark tide and restore the true king to her throne."

Aedes Elysiae is a tiny city-state with nowhere near enough military might to defend against a full onslaught from the Kremnoans. But the risk that the Elysian prince could be harmed--and all of Kremnos' future lost in the process--is too high to engage in a traditional war of conquest. Although it runs contrary to the Kremnoans' very natures, if it means securing their kingdom's future and hiding the truth of their foreseen fate forever, they will engage in any manner of subterfuge and political maneuvering necessary.

Namely, by using the threat of war to force Aedes Elysiae to surrender their crown prince to a permanent and binding political alliance. If the Elysians want to avoid obliteration by the military might of the Kremnoans, they will tie the destiny of their crown prince to the Strifewalkers' through blood and oath--a marriage to Kremnos' own Prince Mydeimos. In this way, perhaps the curse can finally be outweighed by the glory of a savior.

Enter Phainon: the pride and joy of Aedes Elysiae, the golden sun to his people, loved by everyone who knows him. Although his heart has always been soft and romantic, rebelling fiercely at the idea of marrying someone he's never met and doesn't love, there is nothing Phainon won't do to protect his people and his kingdom--even if it means sacrificing himself.

So Phainon agrees to leave his family and homeland behind, and makes the miserable journey to Castrum Kremnos to meet his destiny... as well as his new husband.

Too bad Mydei wants absolutely nothing to do with him.

Disgusted by his father's willingness to forsake Kremnos' sacred principles of pride and integrity by using underhanded tactics and falsehoods to force Aedes Elysiae's prince into compliance, Mydei refuses to even acknowledge his marriage to Phainon, let alone look in his fellow prince's direction.

Which wouldn't be a problem, honestly, if it weren't for the fact that poor Phainon is smitten within days.

When the Kremnoans were strong-arming Aedes Elysiae's king into giving up his beloved son, why had no one thought to just tell Phainon that Prince Mydeimos was so... so... upright and honest and brave and powerful and gorgeous and straightforward and humorous and quick-witted and honorable and also gorgeous? (Phainon thinks perhaps this last point should be repeated a few more times for good measure.) Truly, Phainon might have gone willingly if anyone had just thought to show him a portrait of his husband-to-be in advance!

While Phainon struggles to catch his own husband's attention and soften Mydei's seemingly unbreakable stone heart, Mydei struggles with his father's demands to keep his curse hidden, to not reveal the omen of destruction lurking behind this sham of a marriage. Though having to lie shreds every last tatter of pride Mydei has, if this prince of Aedes Elysiae discovers the truth, that he's been brought here solely to counteract Mydei's prophesied inability to reign, Kremnos' enemies will know it within the hour. A single weakness will be all the world needs to turn on the Kremnoans, to bring Mydei's terrible destiny to pass.

And... And if Phainon learns the truth about Mydeimos, about his curse, about how he is an abomination that not even death will accept, about the misery he is destined to bring, about the failures that are sure to come, about how he is hated by his country, his people, his own family--then Mydei will lose the first person who has ever smiled freely at him, ever wanted to walk beside him, ever spoke kind words in his direction...

There is no way Phainon would ever look at him the same again.

There is no way Phainon would stay.

And that would be cruelest fate of all.

(What Mydei and Castrum Kremnos don't know is that Phainon has a secret of his own: He's not royalty by blood in the slightest. He was a penniless orphan who just got lucky enough to be taken in by the castle and end up, through twists in his own destiny, to be raised by the childless rulers of Elysiae from nothing but the kindness of their hearts.

There is no son of Aedes Elysiae to save Castrum Kremnos from its fate--and the dark tide comes for all.

But visions bestowed by the gods must not be doubted. Perhaps the combined efforts of two lonely people--the one who forsook his own land for love and the one who could only be loved by someone from another land--will see the sun of Aedes Elysiae delivered to Kremnos once more...

And put a true and honest king upon her throne at last.)

[unnatural-happenings]

Bits from the Batfam x Persona 5 crossover fic Distorted Heart that I may or may not continue!

I have plenty of ideas and willing to share them! I just don't know if ppl are that interested since it piggybacks hard off of a Persona 5 fic I have lol

[starleska]

if anyone is in doubt that Mr. Ring-A-Ding | Lux Imperator has made it as a Tumblr Sexyman: i have never, ever in my life, in over a decade of being on this godforsaken site, seen such a proliferation of OC/self-insert creation specifically for the purposes of shipping with a character in such a short space of time 😳💖 i was there when Undertale was released and the love for Sans went nuclear. i was there when Welcome Home blew up and Wally Darling got every possible variant under the sun. but i'm telling you: i've never seen so much selfship and OC x Canon made so very quickly for a new character before!!! it's so sweet and i love every single one!!! 😭💖💖💖

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

In Regards To Your 2024 Summary:

Holy shit it’s been another year????? The hell?????

Also! Your art style is gorgeous and that being found in 2023 and then refined throughout late 2023 and the entirety of 2024 really shows, as does your growth in panel layouts, perspective, and — as you said — experimentation. If you ever post your animation or video game art I’m looking forward to it.

As cheesy as it sounds, being able to laugh at funny comics and look at all the details of your art really made my 2024 brighter, even when things were hard. Including looking at your older art— it doesn’t need to be new to be enjoyable! I’m glad your art is well loved and it’s a privilege to have been here since the (near) beginning. I hope you take care of yourself in 2025 and beyond!

You and your art bring a lot of people a lot of joy never forget that <3

Thank you so much for keeping up with my art journey throughout these last two years! Two years!!! I am baffled at how that feels both too long and too short!

Admittedly, my art summary didn't manage to capture the fact that I did a lot of comic layouts that I'm really proud of. I also drew more backgrounds and made some very detailed works (*Dungeon Meshi spoilers for these examples*).

The growth is lot more evident when comparing my 'best' comics of 2023 to 2024:

Sometimes the growth is vertical, sometimes it is horizontal - and damn, sometimes it goes out of sight into the Z-plane. But it is always happening!

[star-lights-up]

the random illustrations i did in as-close-as-i-could-get-to-quentin-blakes-drawing-style for my random matilda Jean grey centric/cherik au idea (this)

click for better quality

[nelkcats]

The King's last gift

Danny was tired, tired of being responsible for protecting the world. At first it was just Amity but the ghosts began to explore more and the halfa was exhausted. He was the only hero available and it was taking its toll.

He knew he couldn't go on like this, let alone with his coronation around the corner but he didn't know what else to do. He knew he couldn't interfere with the world after the crown was on his head. The world would fear him (maybe even more than now) and protecting them with so much power in hand could do more harm than good, but if he didn't protect them, who would?

His core ached at the thought of all those people begging for a hero who wouldn't come, so Danny took desperate measures, and cheated a little.

He visited Desiree; she watched him with a raised eyebrow, curious. And Danny did what he forbade long ago, he wished. He wished for the future and for humanity itself, he uttered the words he had wanted to say ever since he knew he would not be able to visit earth for a long time.

"I wish for the world to be safe even when I no longer live in it, I wish for there to be someone who can protect it, even if it's just a human."

Desiree blinked in surprise not expecting the King who had "forbidden" her to do such a thing. She smiled and nodded. Her power grew exponentially but neither she nor Danny said anything about it. The halfa would not undo that wish after all.

In New Jersey, Thomas and Martha Wayne were celebrating the birth of their son. Neither of them noticed the spark of magic entering the baby, nor the boy's unusually blue eyes. Bruce Wayne, the Ghost King's latest gift to mankind, had been born.

And years later, when the Justice League was formed and everyone was talking to each other, John Constantine looked at the dark knight curiously, wondering if he was aware that he was death's favorite.

[coquelicoq]

[ID: Panels from chapter 101 of the Natsume's Book of Friends manga. Natsume thanks Natori and Matoba for coming to rescue him and Nyanko-sensei. Natori's serious but unsurprised expression remains unchanged over three panels. Matoba's lips are slightly parted, and in the second panel he says, "Huh…?" /end ID]

the contrast in reactions between natori and matoba...matoba and his little taken aback "what the hell am i supposed to do with this bid for human connection" face that i hold so dear. idk what's going on with natori exactly but my guess is he's just. really scared for natsume. he must have been, to have gone to get matoba. natsume doesn't get natori's affectionately indulgent look until after the danger has passed. natori's gotta get his game face on.

[0ann3]

"It's been a long time, hasn't it friends?"

"Or maybe our last meeting was only yesterday for you-"

[just a heads up but I got a whole lot of text below for some thoughts/ramblings and headcanons of the event lolol]

Ngl, I was kinda expecting that he's dead since he did give off some vibes that he's from a distant past

But I was still hoping that I was wrong and maybe he's really just from a distant or isolated island, and he'll pop up at the end of the story as one of the visitors during the Halloween event KAJSHDAKSLDJH

That or maybe he got reincarnated

The idea of Skully as one of the ghosts in Ramshackle is so nice and sad at the same time though. Like imagine if he's just hovering around the academy for years and then after some centuries or so he senses some sort of familiarity with certain students and just watches over them. Then when Yu came around he got the urge to protect them and stick around them the most.

So maybe when the students got suck into the book he also got dragged into it and he gets to see his younger self and the whole event that happened as a ghost, which is why when they finally got to leave he gets to remember the whole thing. Then he kisses everyone like he did the first time around as another greeting because he finally knows why they felt familiar! (Although they don't remember he doesn't mind-)

And he did it as a 'it's nice to meet you in the real world this time' kind of thing

...

Anyway

This is why I might try to be on a lookout for some Oc x Skully or Yu x Skully because I think it has so many potential and possibilities with this ending (Reincarnation AU? AU where Skully is a ghost in Ramshackle who's looking out for Yu and is the one who protects them, which is why they leave fights unscathed while everyone just thinks they're lucky? Modern AU or one when they meet once Yu is able to return home from Twisted Wonderland?????) 😭😭😭 His ending was kinda bittersweet ok, I want to see things turning out in a happier note

[strawberryicemoon]

I'm still thinking about Pokemon Horizons 89. I mean. Pokemon's anime just did something for the first time. Something it could never done before because it never could have been allowed to do that. Pokemon Horizons is allowed to be traumatizing.

Not that nothing traumatizing never happened to any Pokemon characters including ash before, or that death was a huge taboo bc the ghost type literally exists, but there is a BIG difference between an episode about grief due to losing a loved one to age or illness vs. a tragic accident in front of the protagonists eyes. Or vaguely alluded to neglect/trauma played for laughs. It's not about what happened so much as the impact of the event on the story going forward.

And before you say Ash has died, or that Lucario died, or Friede isn't dead, there's a big difference between the death of a character we just met, or that dies in backstory, or is brought to life right after (and also the movies just get a bit darker in general) than a character who has appeared in a majority of episodes so far and is close to the main cast. Pokemon just killed off a main supporting character. A member of the main cast. And not from something like old age, but a young healthy man. Now I don't think Friede is actually dead ofc. They would never.

But the characters do.

For a year. At least.

They're letting the characters marinate in that devastating loss.

And even if we the audience find out Friede is alive in a couple weeks, they still let his fate hang in the air for several weeks. And even if we the audience find out his fate, it will likely will still be some time yet before the characters do and their characters going forward are going to be informed by this trauma in a way that Ash never could be. Because Ash couldn't change. So anything bad that happened to him had to be something that couldn't directly, tangibly affect him going forward. Things that could be pushed into the background and ignored by the writers. The writers can't ignore Friede's death, he's too central to the plot, the kids growth up until this point and the seasons iconography. The plot is going to have to completely pivot around this event.

Like yes we are getting a Time Skip, and that is HUGE for Pokemon. But that Time Skip deeply tied to Friede's fate. The time skip is a whole year where the characters have been pulled away from the plot because of the loss of Friede, the 6 heroes, and the framing of the Rising Volt Tacklers as the villains by Spinel.

So it's kind of a big deal to me is that they just functionally killed 3 people (and a Charizard) in one episode. Two of these are definitely permanently dead. One of whom was a member of the main supporting cast. Again, its not that people (villains mostly) haven't occasionally died. The point isn't that they're dead per se, but that their absence has radically changed the direction of the story. They've traumatized those kids and there's no going back. "Roy forced to grow up", "Liko is depressed".

The kids post time skip will not be the same as before, and them witnessing their mentors supposed death is going to be the reason why. Like I don't think the show is suddenly going to be depressing either, that's where the year timeskip comes, in so the loss is less raw. But still.

Friede isn't quite a main character but still they "killed" A MAIN CHARACTER OFF.

The irony of people stopping paying attention to the anime because Ash left, but Ash's departure opening the doors for the Pokemon anime to go wild is not lost on me.

[icantdothistodaybruh]

[[Tumblr ate another Anon's ask about my way of drawing\painting I can't with this app😭😭😭 If half a year later this ask mysteriously reappears in my notes like previous I'll edit screenshot of it up here, other then that I just hope you'll still see this post, dear Anon🕯🥀]]

Hello Anon!

I made a quick timelapse of one of my old-ish work for you, under the cut I'll go into more details about the process! I hope it'll be of use to you, but don't expect some crazy insights, I'm a messy artist ahjkakhj

So, step one! When the sketch is clean enough for me, I go in with plain colours to block out objects that I'll be refining on separate layers later. At the same time it helps me take a step back from details and break down the image into bigger, simpler shapes, so it's easier to find better composition and proportions.

Step two (actual colouring) Usually my brain shuts down on me on that part too, Anon… Basically I use a very limited palette at the start and gradually build up more hues and contrasts as I go. Sometimes I do a gray scale drawing first to get my values right, but this one is simple and was more of a vent&relax piece for me so there is none of that haha Also, since I tend to work on as little layers as possible and merge sketch layer and colour layer together at literally the first opportunity I get, most of the times I have a copy of my sketch saved on a separate hidden layer in case I overdo the painting part and need some roughness back.

Step three, Details! And when I say details I mean

D E T A I L S .

There is simply something magical in squiggly lines and dots… I can never fight them…

There is not much of advise I can really give you here, just do what feels right to you, what looks beautiful to you. Make your art finished in the way you see it finished, take another step back and ask yourself "what's missing? what feels undone? empty?". Combine styles, find new patterns and brushes, most importantly HAVE FUN!!!

Sooner or later you'll find the perfect algorithm for painting and drawing, only to 5, 20, 50 works down the line realize that's something in your own style doesn't sit right with you anymore and feels rather routinish and start that journey anew.

Never stop your searching, chase after your own definition of beauty because without you there will be nobody to show it to others.

[retrowitchy]

effie doing her best to look out for haymitch

sotr makes it obvious that effie is very capable and smart and socially savvy- there is absolutely no way she got stuck being the escort for district 12 for 24 years and just was never offered any opportunity to rise through the ranks or be promoted to a "better" district.

so i FIRMLY believe that means she chose to stay with district 12 because she knew she was literally the only person who was able to look out for haymitch and be a constant kindness in his life.

[imtomiee]

HNH president abducting minors ditching local lung cancer speedrunner & biting the curb in 4k (700 viewers)