guard: sorry, can't let any animals larger than a cat into the city
Alice, rocking up with a dog, an owlbear cub, a man who feels more comfortable wildshaped into a bear, a woman who can turn into a panther, and enough jars of True Soul tadpoles that she could start a small cult of her own: Skill Issue
the rest of the cast got their new song covers, so i wanted to try putting the others in a band :>
i did want to make it look a bit like an album cover but i have no idea how those are designed so eh?? i also couldn't think of any band or album/song names so. if anyone has any ideas...
sometimes I forget that my experience has been. um. not 'your experiences are not universal' vibes but more like 'your experiences are EXTREMELY atypical'
"Sand. Dayne. Frost. If I learned one thing in this world, the name you are born with does not hold much weight. It's the names you're given during your life, the names people either love or fear, that count as much as any coin or land."
—Kathryn Dayne
(inspo 1 & 2)
tag list: @mandalhoerian @kingsroad @idohknow
[you want to be added? send me an ask/chat ❤️]
Do you ever just lay awake at night, turning over in your head the stark difference in delivery between Hewson's Van saying--steadily, unshakably--"it's just something that's happening to you...happening to us" and Cypress' Taissa saying--imploringly, whiningly--"this was not just my dream, this was our dream"?
Do you ever just turn it over and over, how often Tai tried to scare Van away, and how it only made Van set her feet more firmly? How Taissa's first love was this person who saw a problem fall into Taissa's lap, a problem that was quite literally trapped inside Taissa's body, and decided unflinchingly: No, that's an us problem now? How she refused point-blank to walk away even with blood in her mouth, how she flatly informed Tai "I'm never gonna be scared of you", and promptly turned a moment of pain into a declaration of love? And how this would etch itself into Taissa for the rest of her life? How she'd take these things that worked with Van--with the person Van was, with the bond they shared--and try so hard to run through an identical script with Simone?
Except Simone is her own person. A completely different kind of person. A person who hasn't been offered any of the context, any of the realities going on inside Taissa. So: naturally she doesn't respond the way Van did at eighteen--and will go on to do all over again in her forties. Naturally, she hears our dream as the excuse it is, not as a plea for connection. Naturally, she is scared away when Taissa pushes, and shouts, and begs. Because there isn't blood in her mouth, not yet, but there will be. And they have a son to worry about. And she isn't eighteen and a special kind of immortal, a special kind of romanticized. She's a grown woman with responsibilities, with priorities, with an understanding that you can't fix someone just because you love them. And Tai can't just perform a revival of the play she and Van had memorized twenty-five years later with a whole new performer in the works, and expect it to shake out the same.
Of course it doesn't work. But look at Taissa trying it. Look at Taissa trying to reframe her first love through a new lens. Trying to recast it. Trying to play it through again. Van taught her love was sticking out the blood, shaking off the pain, making a you problem into an us problem. Does it ever just eat at you, how tragic it is, watching Taissa try to shape her marriage around a woman who isn't even wearing a ring?
Eddie does become quite famous for his music and that means he sometimes has to go to these mind numbing events where people will sneer at him until they recognize who he is, then they’ll suddenly pretend they’re old friends, they’ll ask for concert tickets and backstage passes
he mostly hates them but whenever Steve is able to come he’s so god damn excited. Steve’s parents used to drag him along to their business events and even though it’s different industries it’s all the same. Steve knows these crowds, he grew up with them and they bring out the bitchiest upper middle class version of him, a Steve who has passive aggression and faux politeness down to an art
Eddie will watch on in delighted awe as his husband, all while smiling mildly and sipping wine, destroys people. just cuts into them and also making everything sound nice, innocuous. Most of them don’t even realize it’s happening they just suddenly find themselves gaping, searching for words, as they’re backed into a corner
and Steve will look at them, tilt his head and wait them out, but before they get the chance to backtrack he’ll hum, shrug and walk away, Eddie on his heel asking if he wants to get out of there, like right now? or maybe find a bathroom?
Now I'm curious (because I see this 100% happening at least ONCE within the world I'm writing and I think it's hilarious)--
Imagine you're a worshipper of this one amazing goddess who can do no wrong, helps and has helped a lot of people. Then, one day, you're living your life and you meet this one guy. He's absolutely covered in scars, looks like he grew up in some kind of penitentiary. And he's buff. Like, seriously buff. Built like a horse.
He introduces himself.
He shares his name with one of your goddess's old angels. This one guy used to be one of her top guys, one of her most powerful attendants... up until the day he attacked her.
Then he was cursed and cast down for his crimes.
"Ha," you say, half out of awkwardness and half to fill the air while you figure out what to say. "That was real cruel of your parents, huh? Naming you after that guy."
The man sighs heavily, face twitching.
"No," he says, barely restraining his rage, "that's me."
What do you do?
@honeybewrites (also would love to know this answer from anyone else, haha)
I know the ask is about ships but could you make a non ship one with Dean and Carlos from the Winchesters? I can't think of an exact thing for Dean to say, but the first sentence can be what Dean would say for their first meeting. Thank you if you can (*^‿^*)
"I like your hair," Dean says, staring up from where he's clinging to the bottom of Mary's winter coat, and Carlos grins wide when he adds, with all the breathless gravity of a four year old eager to impress their opinions upon a new friend; "It's swooshy and it's pretty like Mommy's hair, and your-- your beads are pretty and shiny and shiny is my favorite color."
"Swooshy and pretty and shiny is exactly what I was going for, so thank you, little buddy."
Even with almost six years between now and the last time he'd seen Mary, Carlos is relieved to find that they still have a good sense of one-another -- can still communicate silently, swiftly, like they used to when it was life or death. He meets her eye, and her face softens, and understanding passes between them before he slides one of his lucky beaded bracelets -- the bloodstone one -- free.
Dean's eyes light up when he takes it.
When he smiles, he looks just like his mother.
[for this askbox game if anyone else wants to send me a prompt]
yet another oc that only exists because i wanted to write something very specific
(middle is a little older, hence her scar healing. i like to think she gets a glass eye at some point)
anyway this is mira! (they/she) since that wip is almost 20k words and counting i won’t give away too much but long story short she’s the result of meta going “one last time, i promise” and adopting yet another kid
also galaxia kinda indirectly picked the name :)
i’ve mentioned before that i headcanon that pretty much all astrals are autistic and this is just kinda an extension of that. whereas meta tends to suppress his emotions and conform to others, mira…doesn’t. she gets uncomfortable and upset and lashes out at people easily, and working through their emotions is no small task.
the main reason i chose to write them that way was for the sake of narrative but i’ve grown attached to it because there’s a lot of ideas there i’d like to explore. stuff about navigating emotions and relationships when existing is so suffocatingly uncomfortable. it’s not something i could center around Kirby himself, but i think it makes sense with a post character development meta knight.
they are very loved (omg oldee cameo???)
kirby was definitely very excited to have younger siblings after being used to being the youngest in the room for so long!! (with the like. one and only exception being gooey.) he’s super affectionate with both of them and wants to have a close relationship one day, but for now mira is pretty unappreciative of that fact lol. they don’t like being pestered for hugs
everyone else is okay tho
(i know that’s hard to read. oops. “obvious bite marks”. siblings being siblings.)
mira also has a very love/hate relationship with the egg kid, being so close in age they kinda Have to get along but in typical sibling nature they also fight a lot. sure it’s probably rough for a while but i think in the end they’d be good buddies. maybe not as close as Kirby and Bandee but still.
anyway i have a lot of thoughts and am very busy but. i’m really enjoying writing about all this lately it’s been fun ^^
@eeveelutiontwos Xiangliu: The Azuretwo stared quietly at Vismay for a good long moment, dark pink tail swishing behind her. When she finally spoke, it was to say:
"You are very beautiful."
Another moment of silence.
"...Are you like me? I have a purpose I was created for. Do you have one?" While the sentence could come off badly in text, Xiangliu's voice held only genuine curiosity.
The old mew startled slightly at her compliment ears up before lowering in a bashful manner mouth falling into a smile, "You are too kind dearest one," one of his top paws idly brushed through the fur of his chest, "although the sun and ages have weathered my form I accept your compliment with gratitude and warmth," he moved in his float to bow to her in show of gratitude and general display of his manners paws moving in a flourish before righting himself to observe her in great intrigue.
"Forgive me if this is rude but you are a mewtwo correct?" Moving around her carefully, "my and something else yes I sense it, Eevee dna I'm sure," a paw to his mouth in thoughts before remembering himself, "ah I apologise but I believe I have not had the honor of this form of evolution in my own world, dragon typing yes?"
"You are if I may say far more beautiful than I, I am honored to be in your company. Having the opportunity to become even only briefly aware of the vast variables of evolution across the multiverses meeting pokemon that I may never meet back home, it's a privilege to always be learning so thank you." His voice carried so much wonder and warmth for having met her.
Though it was somewhat obvious they were avoiding her question using the opportunity of meeting her and a new eeveelution to keep the conversation away.
The guilt however of not answering her question when it was likely she was trying to reach out and bond with an individual she believed to be like herself caught him first before she had to ask again or believed she may have crossed a boundary. He gave a sad smile to her as he exhaled from his nose slowly.
"I'm afraid I was created without a true purpose, just like how through random variable your world has a dragon evolution of Eevee, random variables led to my existence, it was purely chance I'm here now." One of their ears moves to the side then righted itself as he thought, "I was given tasks of course and purpose but," ears flattened again in sadness their voice faltered cracking until it quietened having miscalculated how ready for the discussion he was. He offered a sad shy smile of apology.
Clearing their throat coughing into a paw they regained their voice and spoke again, "I do what I can in the meantime, I help keep the dna of lost pokemon stored," he patted his chest above his heart, "so they're never truly gone even if extinct, reintroducing older dna into species for biodiversity, typical mew work even if I'm not technically," he moved his head in sort of a wobble not finishing the sentence since it was pretty evident he wasn't a traditional mew by any means.
"While, I know that was likely not the answer you expected may I ask about your purpose? I would love to hear to be enlightened about you and the world you reside in, I'm aware of mewtwo often having, complicated origins, perhaps yours are kinder than what I know?"
Ft Vismay sketch reaction to compliment I was too lazy to finish because giving me a hard time and too cowardly to add in main post but please behold the silly getting surprised
digging my teeth into the really dark fascinating fucked-upness of helnik. they’re fascinating in being a wartime love story about an intentional victim of genocidal violence and an unintentional fuck-around-and-find-out victim of “collateral damage,” both of which are different forms of wartime violence.
nina is targeted as a grisha, she’s almost killed by the druskelle and fjerda in the books not for being a ravkan spy or agent but simply for being grisha. they will kill her for being grisha. and how will they kill her? they will burn her. and it’s fascinating when she tells matthias in a very justified moment of rage (i mean. they’re looking at the dying burned corpses of her people whom jesper, also a grisha, had to physically shoot) and says i want your family to burn i want them all to be burnt in the way my people were. and matthias says, they already have been. they already burned. and how that changes the entire dynamic between them, everything leading up to that, becuase FUCK. yeah. his whole family has already been burnt. he’s a lone survivor of something in much the same way she is, and his family was burnt not on purpose for being grisha but as a “justified accident,” the casual civilian side-damage of war. and it was her people. unlike the intentional, systemic violence that destroyed her people and left nina a shaken, traumatised survivor of a purposeful genocide, we have matthias as this destroyed survivor of one of those little sorts of accidents that’s swallowed and justified by the shape of the war and what Must Be Done to succeed. (also he serves as like, one of the only times i think it’s really faced that the first army is, you known, a national army that does national-army-during-a-war things.) one does not cancel out the other.
their relationship is difficult and fucked and that’s why it’s fascinating and has so much potential to explore. it’s so much more complicated than the tiktok “enemies to lovers” trope because they dig right at the base of what it is to be an enemy to someone else. from the ship nina is an almost-lone survivor of the damage his people did. from his village being burnt by inferni matthias is a lone survivor of the damage her people did. from the consequences of war on his people and violent prejudice against her own, nina is raised a child soldier and in many ways reduced to weaponry, something that absolutely is a form of child abuse. from the consequences of war on her people matthias is inducted into a cult and subjected to spiritual abuse. they’ve been hurt by each other’s nations, but also by their own. there’s something so brutal but also tender in the way they knock each other off the orbits they’ve been living in and force them out of the home that is burning. love may make you free, but not without drowning first.