#especially not your bones

[gagoochi]

HELp

I'm overcome with the urge to B I T E.

[ambivartence]

이젠 내게 기대 편히 쉬어도 돼 // Now you can lean on me and rest in peace 소중한 널 내 품속에 꼭 안을게 // I will hold you dear in my arms

[bonefall]

Stormclan is pretty cool, I’m glad they are a direct result of the clans and not Rouge Group 255674385 that pops up like Minecraft mobs at night

Didn’t ivypool kill beetlewhisker? Will they remember it

The mental image of playing minecraft and Darktail spawns on your roof like a spider, refusing to leave in the daylight and making annoying chittering noises, is magical thank you.

Anyway nah, that was Brokenstar. Ivypool killed Antpelt, not Beetlewhisker. I have doubts they're going to remember that though, and if they do, it'll be one of those "don't worry guys we TOTALLY remember the events in our series!" throwaway lines we've been getting recently. The type that's thought in her head or thrown out in passing, but doesn't significantly contribute to Ivypool's emotional struggle.

I think Ivypool's actually the part of this SE that I'm most apprehensive about, funny enough. StormClan's got me pretty excited, but my hopes kinda started falling when I found out Dovewing was going on the road trip. I do not like the story that the Erins tell between the sisters, and I feel like they keep getting forced together to "reconcile their differences" when it would make a MUCH more effective story for the two of them to not do that.

See, what I like about Ivypool is that she's grudge-holding and spiteful. I LIKE that she tried to leverage her sisterhood with Dovewing in ASC to try and make her manipulate her husband. I find the fact she tried to sabotage SkyClan's chances at the lake back in AVoS to halt Dovewing and Tigerheart's relationship, slighting her apprentice in the process, to be COMPELLING.

I ENJOY reading about Ivypool being nasty. Both a victim of the Dark Forest who was targeted because she felt alienated, and yet, someone who has found a way to use Clan culture's most unfair aspects to her advantage. She'll NEVER see herself as the bully she actually is, because in her eyes, she's permanently the underdog.

so... I just have absolutely no desire to see Dovewing and Ivypool be "close."

Every time it happens on the page, it feels like it's Dovewing desperately wanting her sister to not treat her poorly, or believe in her, or just stop actively sabotaging her life. Then, Ivypool realizes this after a while and displays emotional intelligence that feels unfitting for her character, and apologizes.

It feels forced.

Like it's just happening because the authors know the fans want it, and not actually what these two characters would do. You get me?

I don't want to see them reconnect. I want more bittersweet examples in WC where family members have irreconcilable differences, but now and then, there's that little twinge of love, that old spark that you pray, THIS time, could become a fire... but it doesn't. There's just nothing left to burn.

TL;DR I'm feeling overall meh about Ivypool's Heart but looking forward to seeing what StormClan's all about.

[bonebabbles]

I keep starting and abandoning posts that go into my drafts, as I try to stay tasteful about how fucking revolted this part makes me. Like, I'm legitimately unsure if the very relevant trauma I have is making me see things that aren't here

But first we see that Star Flower is trying to ingratiate herself to the group, just after she reappears from chapter 5. Chapter 5 is about how Clear Sky is still abusive towards his son, and she comes in after stroking his ego, stressing how alone she is, and appealing to how she'll be loyal unlike his child. (She glances over at Thunder, directly implying this.)

Now in Chapter 9, she's babysitting and trying to care for Milkweed's kits (in spite of discomfort from Milkweed), taking a wet sleeping space away from the others, and pulling more than her own weight "without complaint." Putting herself through harsh sitations to prove her worth.

All while trying to appear extra attractive to Thunder, and later Clear Sky. Basically every man in power who can "protect her"

Like, am I going fucking crazy? With how we later find out that Star Flower was "promised as a mate" to One Eye's subordinate Slash, is... is that hypersexualization? One of the extremely stigmatized symptoms of sexual abuse?

She goes to find Clear Sky alone to throw herself at his paws, and he's very quickly attracted to how she promises to perfectly obey him, have no needs of her own, and finally be the perfect servant that he desires

"I don't deserve your trust because I am dirt. I understand you because I also regret something. I'd die for you. I'll never betray you unlike those who have."

This isn't manipulation. She means this. The story is playing their romance sincerely. She's comparing "betraying" Thunder by telling her own father about an assassination ambush to Clear Sky's history of child abuse, physical assault, and murder

She believes she's on the same level as this; a monster who murdered a childhood friend in a fit of entitled rage. She was a victim of One Eye who really believes that the way her father used her means she "understands" this monster, deserves this treatment.

And Clear Sky LIKES that.

He likes that she will have COMPLETE FAITH in him. That she will follow him WITHOUT QUESTION. That she will OBEY his orders. That's fucking verbatim, that's THE TEXT!!!

WHILE HE'S STILL CRYING ABOUT "ive tried to atone every day" FOLLOWING THE LAST TWO BOOKS WHERE THE ONLY SHITTY THING HE DOESN'T DO IS MURDER INNOCENT WOMEN

Am I insane?? Am I wrong??? Am I missing something here???? Why the fuck is the fandom takeaway "haha sexy girl steals his dad." Did I read the same book

[the-woman-upstairs]

Favorite Horror Novels I Read in 2023:

[alexis-royce]

Y'know thanks to you I've seen probably a hundred Fallen London tagged posts and it's the one fandom(?) that I've gleaned absolutely nothing about. Just no idea even what the premise is or what's going on.

Just every once in awhile I see a post like "Going to the Wonder Emporium to spend 500 golden candelabras in order to convert my 52 cursed weasels into 51 Slightly Less Cursed Weasels and 51 Minor Weasel Curses before my elegant masquerade dinner with Mr. Rodents and Mrs. Phantasmal Goop" and it's always tagged Fallen London. I understand nothing but I also sorta feel like that's the point.

I think the main thing that's stuck with me is "Ex-disgraced Academic" is just such a good character name/title(?). Like there's so much intrigue baked in there, I wanna know more about that funny lil guy

To start: That is a better encapsulation of FL writing than I would ever be capable of, I cannot possibly express to you how much I love that center paragraph.

To sum up: In February 1862, the city of London fell beneath the surface of the earth, stolen by bats. In our current year of 1902, folks have adjusted to the horrors of living amongst devils, talking rats, and other chthonic entities.

Fallen London is a comedy gothic horror browser game. It ranks high in both comedy and horror, and it’s been running for fourteen years, so the world and mechanics have matured like a gorgeous scotch. You can play for free, but it is not meant to be binged! You can only do a very little every few hours. This bothers the hell out of plenty of folks, but for me, the slow pace is positively sumptuous. It gives the world time to breathe, and me time to ponder an abundance of esoteric and haunting mysteries. A lot of the characters in FL have appellations instead of names: “The Jovial Contrarian,” “The Loquacious Vicar,” “Jack-of-Smiles,” or “The Implacable Detective.”

Speaking of! Thank you for the compliments on The Academic’s title! Often I wish I had something less clunky for them, but I am pleased with the way it effectively communicates their fall from grace and return to prominence. I need to update it and ought to make a better write-up, but their toyhouse page is over here, and their introductory comic and stories are over here!

[theangrypomeranian]

dear film makers of the new Hunger Games movie,

if you turn Lucy Gray Baird into some master manipulator and have Snow actually be the victim, I am coming for your bones!!!

sincerely, me

[arson-09]

Im so tired of young protags (16-19) getting with or being shipped with technically older guys. Like withy rhys, tamlin, and feyre the fae technically age slower but its still a bit sus (maybe im biased but feylin is still my preferred ship if we gonna ship it) But with Alina and people shipping her with the darkling who is 500+ years old, like he aged normally, i get sooooo grossed out like. Alina is a girl! idgaf if you find mal annoying or boring (tasteless fools mal is great) but shipping a 18-19 year old girl with a man centuries older than her who ABUSES AND MANIPULATES HER is gross and i need yall to stop and think for five fucking seconds

[okkennymay]

Speaking of said dad, he went on a lil mini 10 day holiday across the country to Perth to sight see nature and go on a boat ride to see some Orcas (he's retired, it's his way of getting out the house and not turning into an old man potato, and comes back with hundreds of photos of landscapes, plants and flowers and points of historical interests to show my Mum and I, with cool facts and stories in a slideshow~)

Unfortunately i was still sick at the time and didn't get the chance to join my mum in dropping him off at the airport, let alone the chance to give him a big 'ol hug before he left- so I drew him this 💖

You can't escape the 'Ken hugs.

[dannybobany]

Fnaf au where William figures out how to actually resurrect cc and then the aftons just have to live with that— not only is cc undead now but dad is freaking victor Frankenstein !! (like, literally, I imagine William discovered how to harvest remnant from recently deceased corpses rather then killing anyone himself, thus the mci doesn’t happen and Charlie doesn’t die either)

They just have to pretend this is normal and fine

[marimeeko]

Bones I'm begging you to not be afraid of blood

[greensaplinggrace]

my love for the darkling as an antagonist and my desire to see him be more monstrous to the point of becoming an eldritch horror and devouring the world vs my critique of the racist undertones of the writing in regards to both the darkling and the setup of the grisha as an oppressed minority and the knowledge that the darkling’s dehumanization within the text is the result of prejudice against his people and especially shadow summoners. fight

[bonefall]

Do you have a design for Bright Storm? I'm fond of the wise older figure thing you're doing with her

I do NOW

Made her, as well as a revamp of my old Thunder Storm design (I last drew him like a year ago!!) in preparation for some character summaries I plan to bang out after finishing a couple drafts, but Bright in particular gets requested so much (anon you're like the 4th person) that HERE, lady girl and her son be upon ye

I'm thinking about doing the BB!DOTC character summaries in "family" posts, so they're all grouped together the way I plan them to act in the story. Every family is telling a little mini-story of its own, in a way, from the Frost family and their inventing prowess, to the Heart family and how the kits react to Bumble's exile, to the Storm family and how they grapple with Clear Sky's influence.

I wanted to make sure Bright Storm was very large and powerful looking, but in a round, kind of "humble" way. She downplays her strength, her intelligence, and even her better judgement.

So she has these big cheeks, fluffy primordial pouch, poofy tail, keeps her head low-ish. Tends to deny compliments.

I was commiserating with my partner the other day about how intelligent characters aren't allowed to be thick-bodied. So between my fat, beloved Bumble the translator and Bright Storm the wise woman battle strategist I'm feeding us both

I needed to "finalize" their stripe pattern, because I actually plan for TIGERSTAR to have the same one. I'm probably going to update my Tawnypelt and Bramblestar designs to have it too; if they don't look better with Goldenflower's.

I just like the irony and bitterness of it. That these ancient stripes, once so associated with compassion and righteous fury, turn into a "legacy" so divorced from what Thunder Storm and Bright Storm stood for.

Becoming a symbol for the idea of modern ThunderClan and the culture of the new times, not the principles it was founded on.

Also I HAD to do the design thing where Thunder Storm's stripes look like top surgery scars lmao, my beloved transmasc boy

Anyway, I've decided that Thunder Storm was a REALLY dark orange. It bugs me a little, especially in-canon, that he looks nothing like either parent. So in BB he's not too far off color-wise from his mama.

I also removed the old "mane" and replaced it with combination white chest + his father's shoulder burls. The mane is going to become a Forest Cat trait, which is why it's going to get so prominent in ThunderClan.

Instead, Mountain Cats have a REALLY high concentration of ear tufts in their genes. They're also huge and generally hairy.

Funny enough though they're also "oily." They come from the Lake Cat population which was pretty water-resistant because of constantly dealing with the lake, and they haven't lived in the Mountains long enough for natural selection to get rid of it.

It's going to become SUPER advantageous for those who move to the River Kingdom, but become less prominent in the other populations.

But for now, Mountain Cats are kinda... well, naturally 'stinky.' That's not a BAD thing to cats who are animals who LIKE strong smells, but it is a notable trait that I'd like The Wind Runner in particular to comment on.

Thunder Storm: "Well? What did she say?"

Bumble: "Ummmmmm......"

Thunder Storm: "be honest"

Bumble: "she says she smelled you coming when you were upwind. rudely."

99% of the time when I'm changing character eye colors, it's to make them NOT blue because there's too many blue-eyed characters in WC imo. BUT.

I think it was another tiny waste to have the narrative constantly stressing Clear Sky's blue, blue eyes, almost like they're hypnotizing, and then they never really comment on what Thunder's eye color signals to other people.

So I've got an idea; instead of amber, Thunder Storm has ELECTRIC BLUE eyes. Almost green, like his mother's minty ones.

Intense as his father's, but more focused. Sharp. Shocking.

Side note: in my research I actually learned it's easier for tripod cats to RUN than it is for them to walk. They can "canter" like a horse, but when they go slow they have to hop. Taking this into consideration.

I put a splash of white on the little bit of lower limb that Thunder Storm has on the leg, so it sticks out a bit more. I don't want it to be hidden I want it to be prominent

I also figured out a hilarious trick for Bright Storm to pull on Sky's Clan at some point lmao

Thunder's crew is in conflict with Sky's cats and the attacks are getting more and more frequent. They decide they need some extra time to carry out some kind of hunt or diplomatic mission, but Bright Storm only has a small group of cats to pull off a stunt with.

She knows she can't fight them head on, but she NEEDS to buy her son more time, so she hatches a plan.

Clear Sky values his intelligence and his ferocity very much. To a fault, even. He loves to outsmart his opponents and overpower them-- so Bright Storm gets all her cats to build a very large, very tall, nearly impenetrable wall out of briar thorns. There's only one way in; the well-guarded tunnel they've constructed in the front.

It would be a challenge for a lesser cat. But Clear Sky, clever devil he is, realizes they've made a fatal flaw; they've built their camp right next to the trees. His fighters don't need to jump over the wall or push through it, the oaks are their allies!

So, while Thunder's cats are all surely sleeping, he gathers his best men and come through the canopy. In well-trained patrols, they swoop down into the camp and prepare for battle.

and no one is there.

You see, there was only one way in... and only one way out.

And Clear Sky and his best fighters watch with HORROR as the tiny crew of guards seals that entrance up like the neck of a bag. There are no trees to climb INSIDE the wall, and it's too tall to hop out of. It won't hold them forever, but it will hold them JUST LONG ENOUGH.

Bright calls this little plan "Operation Timeout."

[lewishamiltonstuff]

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, CONSIDER MY BRAIN CHEMISTRY ALTERED FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY 😭😭😭

[journey-to-the-attic]

I had a prophetic vision.

as a disclaimer this is all so OOC- I get really worried about my random brain junk because I know that I mischaracterize them quite a bit but it's junk for a reason I guess 😅

so I was daydreaming about JTTA while listening to music as per usual and a specific song came up (idk the song it was classical music) and it was very dramatic and it planted this whole SCENE in my head of like. IK in some extreme danger in front of a Big BadTM or something and she's tweaking out because she knows she's about to die *again* and there's nothing she can do to stop it and she just has this moment of complete and utter pridefulness where her thoughts are like "Oh c'mon like seriously? I was killed by one of the seven deadly sins and now I'm gonna get wiped out by this lowlife? I'm so above this"

and so naturally my brain said "hmmm what if IK but cool pact magic???"

So THEN I had this vision of like. when she's having these moments of like, drowning in their respective sins, she goes Magic Girl ModeTM and kind of snatches their powers if that makes sense.....the one I saw specifically was the pride thing with Lucifer, and there's this like huge outpouring of *something* from somewhere in the Devildom, and everyone rushes over to see IK with huge, black raven wings and pitch black hair, and her irises have gone red and everything. she's EMO NOW guys she means BUSINESS. and she's flying over this Big BadTM with a ball of purple magic nonsense in her hand (AKA what Lucifer used to doink her hand!!! CALLBACKS PEOPLE) naturally she passes out from the whole thing because she's only a tiny human and Lucifer's amount of pride has the same effect as a tranq that you'd use on a rampaging elephant butttt the others are like "whoah did you guys see THAT"

anyways yeah. thought that was pretty cool, also high-key just an excuse to make IK look even more like her father

top 1 thing that make me want to draw WHAT THE HECK!!! in a more ambitious timeline i would immediately undertake drawing a Superpowered IK for each sin/brother because but for now..... i will marinate in this idea......

obviously lucifer is very worried but i feel like a part of him is also doing the pleased dad thing where he's like "haha of course my daughter would be able to wield colossal demonic power despite her mundane human body, she's just that talented"

(i think ik taking on his appearance would also make him reconsider some things about himself, because he knows he has a parental sort of affection but he still tries to convince himself that he's just being a big brother sometimes. this fully makes him go yeah i'm a father now)

i feel like the other brothers would also tease him like "wow you're SO full of yourself that ik's body literally couldn't handle it" lol

[persuedbybear]

Mal at the start of S&B: Alina? She's my best friend. Also I've been planning our wedding since I was 8. And I have been attracted to her to the point of distraction pretty much since puberty hit. In addition once we leave the army we will be settling down together, and living happily ever after... You know? Normal friend stuff.

Mal approximately one week later: Holy crap! Am I in love with Alina?