#hgstuff talks

[knight-princess]

I’ve had the start of this in my drafts for ages, suddenly inspired to finish it tonight. Might be just it’s own standalone thing or it might be chapter one, I don’t know yet. It follows the finale, with the group leaving the Immemorial City, setting off home, and is from Airk’s point of view. The header is by hgstuff

Airk trudged along in silence. Everything had fallen quiet now, weariness and grief weighing the mood down. He didn’t know if the silence was easier to bear than the quiet laugher had been, the bickering he couldn’t share. Sure, his sister had walked with him for a bit, and her worried glance often strayed to him, even as she walked step in step with Jade. But . . . they were a unit, his sister and these, who had come on the quest to rescue him. Trials and hardships had hammered them together into a whole. Even the way they moved, the way they walked, aware of each other, reminded him of nothing so much as the many limbs of some great beast. But he . . . Well. Everything was so confusing. So much had happened. He couldn’t get his thoughts to stay still long enough to sort any of them out. He wondered if he ever would.

“Hey, question,” the man’s voice seemed loud compared to the quiet the group had fallen into as they walked deeper into the darkening evening. Boorman, that was it. Somebody had called him Boorman. Did the name ring a bell, somewhere in the mess of his memory? He wasn’t sure. He didn’t ask. “How’re we getting back up the waterfall?”

Airk frowned. He didn’t remember a waterfall. But then, he didn’t remember much at all of the journey to the city. What did he remember? He forced his thoughts in order, a purposeful search of a ransacked room. He remembered claws, clutching his ribs so tightly he thought they’d crack. He remembered clouds, and cold. Whatever they had flown over, if he had noted anything at the time, it was lost to him now.

The silence stretched. Then, “I don’t know why you’re all looking at me,” Willow grumbled. It was strange, seeing him here, the Willow Ufgood, from his dads stories. Airk was having a hard time processing that, too.

“Oh I don’t know,” Boorman said. “World famous Willow Ufgood, most powerful sorcerer, fixer of all problems. No reason.”

“Boorman. Shut up.”

The Wyrm had feared Willow Ufgood. He could feel the thought, oily slick, somewhere in his mind. It horrified him, the sudden feeling of fear and resentment that thrummed through his blood. Not mine, he told himself. Deny it, hide it, cover it. Not mine. He tried to focus, to separate the feeling from his dads hero stories of the man.

Boorman was still talking. Airk knew he’d missed something of what the man had been saying, but then, nobody else was paying him much mind either. “Oh yeah,” he carried on, “let’s all jump off the cliff at the end of the world, with no idea how to get back. Great idea guys. Good planning. You know, I was kinda joking when I said that next time I should plan the quest, but now I’m really thinking -”

“Boorman, shut up.” Elora this time, and for a wonder, Boorman did fall silent. Perhaps it was the hollowness of her voice. She looked terrible, worse and worse, the longer they walked. Her footsteps dragged, and a small flute hung limp from her hand. Her hair glinted red in the sunset. That, too, would take getting used to. Her gaze met his and jerked away. Airk sighed. There was a lot that would take getting used to. So much had changed.

“Guys.” Jade’s voice cut through the weary bickering. She and Kit walked close, his sister still decked in the armour that had come from gods knew where. Another adventure he hadn’t been party to. “We need to make camp,” Jade said. “Before it gets dark.”

They did not have much with them. Airk wondered if they had travelled the whole way so light, or perhaps lost their supplies along the way somewhere. It scarcely mattered. What they had, they put to use. Soon, a small, scrawny fire began to breath in a hollow they dug to safeguard it from the wind that swept them.

“Shame we can’t magic up some food,” Boorman muttered morosely. Clearly, what little they had had not been enough to satisfy him.

“No, can’t magic up food,” Elora repeated. She passed a wan smile between herself and Willow, who chuckled softly. More inside jokes. Airk tried to crush the resentment he felt. Why did he feel so angry? They’d come to rescue him, he reminded himself. The quest they’d bonded over had been for his benefit. He was free, free of the Wyrm. Wasn’t he?

“Airk? You okay?” Kit. Kit’s voice, raised in concern. He flinched, flashes of memory racing through his head. He recalled his sword striking hers, with all the strength he could muster. He recalled how he had gone to strike Elora, sitting exhausted before him, how angry he had been when Kit stood in the way. He recalled wanting her dead, with every fibre of his being. He tried to banish the memory. He didn’t want that. He didn’t want to remember that. He didn’t want that to ever have been part of him.

“Airk?” Kit called again.

Faces, he’d always been good at wearing faces. For the court, the nobles, his mother, the girls he distracted himself with, each a different face, each a different performance. So many faces he’d worn, over the years. He sometimes wondered if anyone had ever seen him. He pulled up a smile. “I’m fine,” he said through clenched teeth. He willed himself to believe it.

“People who are fine don’t usually sit alone in the dark when everyone else is gathered around the fire,” Willow murmured, not unkindly.

“Join us, Airk,” Jade said. She’d always been a steady one. She’d always been good for Kit, a good match, the rock to Kit’s wildfire. He wondered what their mother would think, of how close the knight sat to the princess, how their fingers laced together. He frowned, focusing for the first time today on what she wore. Her armour was unfamiliar too. He was suddenly daunted. Kit was changed, Jade was changed, and Dove, Elora, Elora most of all. She had spoken fair to him earlier in the day, of how glad she was to see him again. But in the hours they’d walked, she’d sunk into a deep melancholy that even the fire couldn’t thaw. He wondered if she were angry with him. He had raised a sword against her; he had helped the Crone attempt to trap her. He wouldn’t blame her if she hated him. She certainly didn’t join her voice to the others as they invited him. She just rubbed the flute in her hands and stared into the fire. He thought he saw a tear drip off her chin, but then, it could have been a trick of the rippling firelight.

He hesitated long. In the end, Boorman sighed, stood theatrically and, easy as picking up a kitten, lifted him by his jacket collar and swung him over to the fire. He found himself sandwiched between Boorman’s tall lanky frame and Kit. Boorman flashed him a grin. “You’re welcome,” he said, and went back to poking the fire.

A ghost of a smile flitted across Airk’s face. “And who are you, again?” he asked. He wondered when his voice had got so rusty.

“Oh no,” Jade lamented. “Don’t, don’t get him started, he’ll go on forever -”

But it was too late, and Boorman had begun an enthusiastic recounting of his entire life, seemingly from the moment of his birth. Airk listened, trying to enjoy being rescued, having his sister at his side again, the warmth and good fellowship. He tried to let it drown out the memories.

As the fire sank low, his fingers drifted across the scars littering his face. He floated off into sleep, focusing in the rhythmic breathing of his companions to steady his own racing heart, and tried not to dream.

[paladinsbrainrot]

back on my mike wheeler bullshit

[hgstuff]

jade, j, jj, you’re so good at your icons. i’m so proud of your work and i love each and every pfp 🥺🥺.

go follow my luv now!

not the nicknames 😭😭😭 thank you so much, my love! they're all made with heart so this means a lot and even more coming from you 💖❤️‍🩹🩷

[hgstuff]

and with this last post i'm finally done with the stuff I had in my drafts.

now who knows when I'll post again and what it will be.

organizing your life and putting it back on track (was not sure if this was a saying in english too) takes so much time, attention and discipline.

but this isn't a goodbye, it never is with me, just wanted to say something 🤪

[hgstuff]

LOVE LOVE LOVE THE NEW THEME. IT’S TIIIIIIME (MARIAH CAREY’S VOICE)

AND I LOVED LOVED LOVED YOURS TOO!!! green is one of my fav colors 🥺 and, yes, IT'S TIIIIIIIIIIIME ✨ KKKKKKKKKKKK

[hgstuff]

I just wanted to thank you DEEPLY for your immaculate job with making "Raw" icons because I haven't seen them on any other account in such good quality. My deepest gratitude and tons of love!

🥹🥹🥹 thank YOU so much for taking your time to send me this lovely message! It really means a lot and made my day. I'm a little obsessed and in love with Raw (for two years now) and had to edit them. I'm so glad it was helpful and appreciated!

Sending you lots of love and thank you again for your kind words! 🥰

[hgstuff]

hi! 👀

so i don't know if anyone will actually read this but, i want to start saying that I'm so sorry for vanishing without a word! my plan was to post a note before stop posting for a while again but then life happened and now i'm here again.

long story short, i wasn't able to edit for a few months due to technical problems and this week these problems were solved! and i was planning on making the requests i still have on my inbox before coming back and then open my ask just for suggestions but Percy Jackson and the Olympians just came out and i NEED to edit my children! so i'll be doing a early come back for them while i work on the remaining requests and prepare everything for 2024.

i hope you guys can understand and are still here with me, thank you 💖

[hgstuff]

when you get this, you can answer with 5 things you like about yourself, publicly. then, send this ask to 10 of your followers :)

oh this is good! thanks for sending it to me 😊

1 - i like my curly hair

2 - how empathetic i can be

3 - that i'm getting really good at cooking

4 - that i'm a (good) older sister

5 - and my name! (jade)

[knight-princess]

I don’t really know where this came from, it’s just a bit of writing just cos I felt like it. A little oneshot set as they cross the Shattered Sea. Header by @hgstuff

Kit was getting real fed up with this thrice blasted sea. She was sick of looking to the horizon and seeing nothing more than an endless seascape, monotonous and unbroken save by the odd, sad, sandy little island. She was sick of the endless travelling, she was sick of the food that grew ever staler and scarcer, sick of the grating rattle of the sleigh, but most of all she was sick of waiting.

She’d lost track of how long they’d been out here. How long Airk had been gone for. How long the Crone had had him.

They’d stopped for the night, and with no convenient little island in sight, they’d had to settle for making camp in ankle deep water again, and wet feet all evening. Cooking would be fun, setting everything just above the waters reach.

She was even fed up of the sloshing sound of the water.

She didn’t realise she was grinding her teeth until Jade made her jump by setting her hand on her shoulder. “Hey. You startled me,” she said, by way of greeting.

“Yeah, you looked like you were somewhere else, up here,” Jade tapped her temple. “You okay?”

“Fine. Just tired.”

“Mmhm. Well, are you gonna help set up? We’ve still got enough rations to make a good meal of it tonight. Tomorrow. . . well, that’ll have to take care of itself, but we should be able to have a good time of it tonight.”

“I . . . think I’d like to be alone tonight.”

Jade paused, an eyebrow flicked up in silent doubt. It was a Pause, and like all of Jade’s signature Pauses, full of meaning if you knew how to read her. This one was her I know when you’re lying, Kit pause. “Okay, spit it out. What’s wrong?”

Kit turned away, her feet carrying her splashing across the uneven sand beneath her feet and the hateful never ending awful water. “Nothing. Nothing, except, you know, my brother. Being held by them. For . . . God knows how long, at a place you can only reach by doing this ridiculous journey, with some terrible old hag who Willow talks about like she’s the worst thing in the whole goddamn world. What if they’re . . . What if . . .” She took a breath that shuddered and ran her hands through her hair, which was crusty with salt and too long since it had been properly cared for. “So. Aside from all that? Nothing. I’m just tired.” She kicked the water. “Go back to the others.”

The silence was almost worse. “Kit. I’m sorry. We’ll be there soon. We’re going as fast as we can.”

“I know.”

“You heard Elora today. We’re nearly there, and she’s been training, and we’ve been training.” She sounded almost as if she were babbling, a most un-Jade-like thing. When Kit flicked her gaze to her and their eyes met, she found Jade’s deep with worry. “We’ll get Airk back.” She licked her lips, hesitating, like she was wondering if her next words were altogether wise. “I promise.”

Kit felt a spark of old anger. An empty promise, that’s all it was. How could Jade promise such a thing? They had no idea what they’d find when they reached the Immemorial City. Kit had a retort ready to go, but it died in her throat. She bowed her head, her shoulders curling in. She felt cold as the anger deserted her. And what was the point in getting angry, really? It wouldn’t get her to Airk faster. It wouldn’t undo what had happened the night he’d been kidnapped. It wouldn’t change the fact her friend was just trying to make her feel better.

She felt Jade’s arms wrap around her and leant into her. “Yeah. We’ll fight the Gales and the Crone and get him back,” she whispered. “No problem.”

“You scared?”

“No.” A beat. “Yes.”

Jade held her tighter, a steady warmth, a comforting pressure. “I’m here,” she said. She rested her chin atop Kit’s head. “I’ll be with you. No matter what we face.”

“What if it’s too late?” Kit whispered. “What if Airk . . . the Crone . . .” She trailed off, afraid to speak her deepest fear.

Jade brushed a kiss to her forehead. “Then I’ll be with you for that too.”

[knight-princess]

Willow month: TV Show (Full Series/Specific Episode) or Movie

Look you guys know the movie was a whole lot of fun and I absolutely adored the whole series, but for the sake of this event I decided to pick an episode to talk about in more detail instead of “the show was fucking awesome and made me loose my mind” (which I could do for days, and have been doing, how long have I had this side blog, six months? More? Who even knows and I still find things to talk about) and on top of that I’m gonna have to be predictable: Beyond the Shattered Sea

This is such a good episode. It was probably my most rewatched of any of the episodes of the show, with the Wildwood as a close second

All of the characters have important moments in their arcs in this episode, and the writing, directing and acting is on full display, and it’s all immaculate. From Elora and Willow’s training sessions (“so, what did we learn?”/“that you’re a little mean?”/“sure” lol have I mentioned I love their dynamic so much?) to Kit and Jade’s flirty sparring (I could watch for hours), to Boorman’s agonising over the Cuirass and the Lux (seeing him, alone, attempt to get it to work and it not work was such a goddamn heartbreaking scene) to Graydon’s beautiful love confession (he and Elora training together also: pure adorableness) and Kit and Elora jumping off the edge of the world, together, united, finally, I loved every minute of it. For the Glory instantly became a favourite song, Kenneth (“I shall name you Kenneth, after the protagonist of the romantic farce I’m writing” Graydon I love you), just all of it. Truly a stellar episode for the characters and the story

But it’s the setting that sets the episode apart for me

This. The Shattered Sea that no one has ever crossed, where all the maps end. Image credit to @hgstuff for the gorgeous headers. I cannot get enough of looking at these. From the stark and desolate emptiness to the breathtakingly beautiful, the Shattered Sea is a peak location for a pre finale episode. And then the way all the characters have to reckon with things deep inside themselves as they make their way across the vast unknown. The way they set off with the mudmander sleigh, but you can’t make it across that way: you have to walk it, on your own two feet. The journey across the Shattered Sea is your own to walk; no one can do it for you. The way it’s set up is great too. The foreboding, the ominous way it’s described and set up by Zeb, that he and his fellows walked for days, for years, till their swords rusted and they went mad and turned on each other, murdered each other . . . That the sea goes on forever. And then to be on it, the endless shallow water, far as the eye can see. The lack of discernible time. The way the unending, unvarying uniformity begins to feel oppressive - but, just as it is oppressive and smothering, so too is it beautiful

The way the starry sky is reflected in the water is one of the most gorgeous visuals I think I have ever seen in anything ever, and it’s backdrop to a lovely scene between Kit and Elora. It’s in this conversation you can really feel that connection, see it, that growing bond. The cliff at the edge of the world is wonderful and such an interesting premise, the leap of faith you have to take to get to the Immemorial City. And the way Kit and Jade have their romantic moment silhouetted against a sunset just exploding with colour. It’s a beautiful, fascinating setting and I adored every bit of it

So yeah. Fabulous episode all round really

[hgstuff]

how do you make your icons if you dont mind sharing? they are very lovely :]!

oh I don't mind at all :) i use Lightroom to edit them (the mobile apk version) and most of the editing i do in the light tab (the tools in this part makes all the difference). i also like to increase a little the quality using the sharpening in the details tab.

I'm not quite sure what else to say but I'll be happy to answer any questions you have ☺️ and thank you for the compliment 🥰💖

[hgstuff]

oi amor, o que você usa pra editar seus icons?

oii anjo!! então, eu uso um apk do lightroom e faço toda a edição na aba de luz, cor e também gosto de aumentar a nitidez e diminuir um pouco o ruído na aba de detalhe. não sei mais o que dizer mas se tiver mais alguma pergunta é só me mandar que eu respondo 😉