#i'll maybe make a better post later

[tea-cat-arts]

The donghua adding in that Lan Wangji was waiting for Wei Wuxian to come back from the dead low key makes him look like an insane person, but it's fun to combine with the book lore of "He spent 13 years grieving" and turn into some maladaptive coping mechanism like-

"Lwj flipped back and forth between full confidence that wwx would come back and crushing despair over wwx just being dead. He collected alcohol for wwx to gift on return, but the only thing stopping lwj from just consuming it himself and getting alcohol poisoning was that he had to stay together enough to raise their son. Lwj incorporated wwx's ideologies and inventions into the Lan students teachings and worked tirelessly to make the world a better place, but could never simply enjoy the results as he was still waiting for the one he wants to show it off too (even if he's kept up at night knowing wwx will probably never see any of it). His hope that wwx could come back only made their time apart hurt more and made it so he was unable to move on"

[3l91]

bkak detective au.

PI bokuto koutarou and his roommate akaashi keiji..

more thoughts (first meeting) belo w..

pplease take my pathetic attempt at narrative as i try to beam my vision to you in my brain 😊,,,

--- --- --- ---

Akaashi's legs are tired from walking.

"Do you need to sit down for a second?"

"No, I'm alright."

Despite this, he still refuses to stop moving, following at a brisk pace beside his old classmate, Konoha Akinari, who'd been living in the capital for some time now.

It was clear by the way he walked and maneuvered his way through the bustling streets that Konoha had grown accustomed to the crowds and the noise, things that only made Akaashi grit his teeth in silent displeasure as they continued their way through the city.

It hadn't started off that way, of course. Lunch had been pleasant. The atmosphere of the restaurant was different from what Akaashi was used to, but it was a good kind of different. In fact, he'd even found himself dazzled by the sights and the people.

It wasn't until they started walking towards Konoha's old housing complex that the charm of the city started to settle down on him in an unpleasant way. There were too many people, too many streets, too many noises. He isn't used to this feeling of excess, and his head is swimming by the time Konoha says, Just around this corner.

Akaashi figures he's done a great job at masking his discomfort, as the two of them don't stop for a minute until they reach the door of a single apartment building, the city's presence receding ever so slightly into the background as Konoha rounds on Akaashi, hands on his hips.

"I already warned you, my ex-roommate's a bit of a weird guy. Nice, but weird. I'm already sort of wondering why I thought this would be an okay idea..."

Akaashi blinks, nods. Idly adjusting his glasses with an index finger, he clears his throat before responding.

"I just need a place to stay for a few days while I sort out permanent housing. It's very nice of your ex-roommate to have offered the space."

"Well, I don't know about nice..."

Akaashi would only find out later that this mysterious ex-roommate was having trouble with rent.

"Shall we let him know we're here? We're already a few minutes late."

"...Right."

As Konoha takes his time knocking on the door, Akaashi's mind clears enough to recall Konoha's previous testimony regarding this ex roommate of his.

First of all, he'd told Akaashi, I'm only telling you about this place because you're in immediate need of lodging. But just so you can't say I didn't warn you, the guy is a little eccentric.

That was how Konoha had framed his warning, and while many of the things he'd stated afterwards about this roommate (that he was messy, that he was loud, that he snored like crazy, got into strange moods where he wouldn't speak to Konoha for days -- "I won't lie, those weren't bad times." -- only to shake him awake to talk about some incomprehensible subject) would have normally dissuaded Akaashi from even considering sharing a living space with the man, there was one thing that Konoha mentioned about his ex-roommate that piqued Akaashi's interest.

"HEY, HEY, HEY! If it isn't Konoha!"

With a burst of energy as loud as the bang! that accompanied the thrown-open door, comes a presence as bombastic as Akaashi had been warned to anticipate.

"And how's the great detective been doing lately?"

Konoha looks as tired as Akaashi feels the second his ex-roommate makes his appearance, giving him a wry smile and a half wave.

The man in front of them is too much to take in all at once, but it isn't his stature that Akaashi latches on to first, nor is i the shock of white hair upon his head.

It's the way the other man beams at the title that was most assuredly stated sarcastically, the one piece of information that made Akaashi's trek through the city worth it, that little tidbit that caught his eye during Konoha's 30 minute public advisory warning given several days before, that simple turn of phrase -- great detective.

"Busy! I'm busy all the time! But, hey, is this the guy you were telling me about? Akashi something or othe -"

"Akaashi. Akaashi Keiji," he says. "It's nice to meet you."

There's a small moment of silence as Bokuto looks Akaashi up and down. He isn't subtle about it at all, the way he gives Akaashi a once over from head to toe. Through it all, Bokuto's smile never once falters, and Akaashi's cool expression never once breaks. The only one who seems to have any sort of change in demeanor is Konoha, whose face is morphing into something close to panic the longer the silence continues.

This was a terrible idea, wasn't it? To allow someone like Akaashi - always composed, proper, quiet - anywhere near a loudmouthed character like Bokuto who would almost certainly drive him up the wall. Why had Konoha thought it would be okay, even though Akaashi had -- strangely -- agreed to meet with his ex-roommate, who had him out the door in a measly one and a half months?!

And yet-

"Soon as you wanna."

The question is asked too quickly and answered too quickly for Konoha's liking, because he's immediately putting up his hands and yelling, "Wait, wait, wait!!"

First, to Akaashi.

"You remember what I said about this guy, right? He keeps an irregular schedule, and he'll pop in to your room unannounced whenever he pleases, and he's not the neatest person to share a space with and-"

Then, to Bokuto, with an accusatory finger.

"You should at least let him know what he's getting into if he stays here. All the clients and the late nights and the bl-"

"Of course, of course," Bokuto says with a smile, unbothered by the picture that Konoha is painting of himself to a complete stranger. He gestures towards the interior of the apartment. "Come on in! We shouldn't talk about things like this outside. Besides-"

His eyes meet Akaashi's once again before he heads into his abode.

"- Akaashi's real tired from walking."

--- --- ---

something like that... ssomething like that!!!!!!! more notes um..

i'm not set on time period but i do like the idea of 20s-30s.. golden age.. ??? they could work in a modern setting too though-

akaashi is from outside of tokyo, but moved in order to be closer to work (udai met him while he was out on a research trip and brought akaashi on as a temp editor. after accepting a fulltime position working with udai, he makes his move to tokyo)

bokuto and konoha were college roommates but it was kind of short lived because konoha could NOT keep up with the antics and wound up living w/ sarukui .. boy best friends

bokuto would have done boxing in college :]c (i think boxing suits him well as an individual sport.. + holmes reference..)

i like the image of kenma being an informant who sends kuroo to bokuto's place to relay info (because he doesn't have the energy to talk to bokuto for long HERJSDF-)

okay thats my delulu if you read all of that hiiii 😋

[oxventure-text-posts]

I'm gonna be honest with you guys, the urge to do the same thing I did with the oitd silhouettes, aka slap text posts onto the art with no knowledge of their canon personality other than what they did in the trailer and pulling from the fandom's perceived personality for them, for the new oxventure characters revealed in that trailer is so real

[zerotosixty]

fernandoalo_oficial: hello everyone 😀

Fernando Alonso via Instagram story on April 3, 2023

[hannah-heartstrings]

            “You ever notice that no matter what happens, the stars keep shining? The sun keeps rising, the flowers keep blooming. Either they don’t know the world is ending, or they don’t care, or… or maybe they know everything will be OK.”

[theeverdream]

processing my trauma via writing fanfic

would be a lot more effective if I wrote

[wanderingcas]

extra long chapter of paradigm just posted! 🏃‍♀️💨

in a nutshell: apocalypse au (or is it?), cas and dean's paths keep crossing, EXTRA tense horny feelings between them, whump cas, and protective dean. if that's your jam you may enjoy this?? but idk i'm not your mother

[jaarijani]

Joker Out in Melkweg Amsterdam 06/12/23

[bobaat3am]

A lil something I made

[silusvesuius]

g*lmar rly has to be the best skajrim character on the real like even if you don't like him he just is . literally The best one i think......... on dat note i also imagine that he and ulfr*c despite being fairydust BFFs for lyfe genuinely have the worst communication skills ever seen

[sleepy-aletheas]

Haikaveh and their connection to Nabu Malikata and Deshret

Finally managed to write something down for my beloved Sumeru disasters. It’s a mess written over the course of 4+ hours, I have no idea if I lost the plot or not. My brain just kept going, and I’m not sure anymore if I’m actually putting in more info and explanations, or it’s edited into the text in my mind, but not physically. I’m deciding that it’s not my problem anymore.

Enjoy this mess of a word salad. Freshly picked and all.

Alhaitham is a character driven to take care of himself first before expanding any energy for someone else, not because he couldn’t care less, but because his idealism really is just a more blunt way of establishing boundaries, where to be the most efficient is to take care of his needs first before trying to help others (it does feel like a disconnect between social expectation of ‘over-politeness = good moral citizen’, and ‘straightforward boundary setting = rude selfishness’. Again, different topic for another time). He goes out of his way to help others, even to the possible detriment of himself, because it's the right thing to do, and if anything, Alhaitham very much adheres to deeds that are morally good (he saved Sumeru to keep his peaceful life, sure, but to achieve that everyone needs to have that peace too; he went out of his way to be a bargaining chip in a hostage situation when he really didn’t have to do that; he gives books to Paimon and Isak for them to learn from, and even tries to help Collei with giving select reading material for her to have an easier time with choosing a darshan — those aren’t the actions of someone who couldn’t care less about others or feels contempt at their existence). It is something that he and Kaveh very much have in common, and it’s one of the foundational pieces they mirror — that doesn’t mean they’re opposites / antonyms to each other, but they’re complimentary approaches from two directions to the same problem that need balance to work.

(And I wanna establish something really quickly here. All the God-Kings had their own idea of what Wisdom was; they had their own ways of conducting it and dealing with knowledge. Even as Nahida says that despite Alhaitham having vast knowledge, pushing others away as lesser for not reaching some ideal of genius is limiting himself and making it harder to reach true Wisdom, I do think this is Nahida’s type of Wisdom, and Kaveh fits hers specifically. That doesn’t necessarily mean he would fit with Nabu Malikata or Deshret, but it is a fun thought to entertain while cleaning dishes, that’s for sure)

To me for the longest time, Alhaitham has more in common with Nabu Malikata than he had with Deshret. Not in a visual sense (for all we know; the only thing we’re made aware of is that she had horns and was beautiful like all Seelie were), but more in the way he goes about everything.

I think people tend to fall into the preconception that him being calm and deadpan means he doesn’t care for anyone or anything. Alhaitham is called lazy and cruel too flippantly by too many people, when in-game him is very much not that (but I suppose that is a different conversation to be had for another time again), which really pushes people away from making any connection between him and NM, because she was revered and perceived as tender and sweet.

The thing with Hoyo’s narrative foil characters in Genshin is that they’re not meant to be 1:1 perfect copies that deviate because of the Traveler. It’s not just for plot reasons, but also because it’s an in-game character study and a self-critique of characters and plot development. How much of it is intentional doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes the curtain is blue because the color is neat, other times we can fish out reasons and metaphors; unless we’re directly told what the intention is, we can make all the theories to soothe our love for what the game is giving us.

Nabu Malikata was a being holding immense wisdom, something she carried from her time in the Heavens when she was a Seelie and presumably an envoy. She has a lot of names under her belt, and a benevolent perception for her desire to help and give reprieve to the ones that needed it. Her ability of premonition pushed her to create Simurgh for when the Cataclysm came around (even thought she couldn’t see past her own death, so there must have been other ways she knew that would happen, but again, different topic). She tried to bestow wisdom on her companions so they could lead their people safely and not provoke Celestia, but she did very much take a liking to Deshret’s desire to rebel against the Heavens. She did die for more than to just give Deshret a way to gain the knowledge he needed, she also made sure it was a lesson for his ambition and outright recklessness he was willing to undergo for his desires (I do wonder if she knew that it would cause Deshret to lose his mind, maybe she wouldn’t have done it this way otherwise; or maybe this had to happen so that someone further down the line, when neither of them lived anymore, would take up where they left off and actually do it right — a necessary sacrifice, so to speak).

What is most likely NM’s quote in Amethyst Crown artifact, this excerpt is fun to think about: “But ‘eternity’ is ultimately a lie. Intoxication and love could only grind memories down to broken dreams.”

Alhaitham is a very much in-the-present type of character. Lingering on the past ceaselessly won’t make the future better, and neither is running up ahead make the past less prone for regrets. Him being a rational person doesn’t mean he doesn’t take into account either past or future, but he knows that chasing either won’t solve anything. He has a very hands-on approach for external problems, and a delicate slower untangling of his inner workings; he tries to better himself from his past mistakes, but he won’t limit himself for a future what-if. NM had a lot of longing for the past, but went head-first into helping Deshret once his ambition started to sound good to her.

If anything, Alhaitham is the narrative foil of the two God-Kings that shows their recklessness, their passion and desires, and human brashness. The game keeps showing us how human the gods are, and Alhaitham is a funny mirror to put up to them, cause he’s the storyline deviation, where he is curious, but knows his limits. He helps when needed, guides people for them to find their own truths, but he wants to be just Some Guy. He probably won’t become the next Deshret or another Nabu Malikata, because his goal is a peaceful life, and unless he’s helping others, he won’t go out of his way to chase shadows of ideas that are nebulous in nature.

Then again, it would be a tragic story (or at least a very angst filled plot point) if Alhaitham became the Nabu Malikata of Kaveh’s character arc. Because he does have a penchant for demonstration of his ideas, and he is nowhere above being petty to show his point. He has a soft spot for his loved ones, sure, that doesn’t mean he won’t be more direct on showing them wrong when he deems it needed. (Really, Alhaitham is more a narrative foil to Kaveh who is a narrative foil to Deshret and Nabu Malikata. It's kinda funny to me how this works.)

Hmm, the longer I’m putting this into words, the more obvious it seems to me that he is the narrative opposite of them. He shares similarities of visual motifs (Deshret), and the relatonship dynamic NM and Deshret had (it’s interesting how it’s reflected with him and Kaveh). There is just something about Nabu Malikata that reflects in Alhaitham a lot, be it their more passive approach of situations, or them being big supports (or emotional detriments) to their close companions. It’s hard for me to directly point between their similarities, because it feels too vague to me; I just know that they’re reflected, but I’m not sure how to properly explain it so others can see what I mean.

Now the foil part of Deshret is easier to point out. There are a lot of visual motifs that tie Alhaitham to him; from the unique eyes, his best artifact set being Gilded Dreams, the falcoln/hawk/bird of prey symbolisms tied in the design and constellation. Alhaitham is well versed in many types of knowledge circles outside his primary niche (number 1 nerd of all Sumeru fr), and it wouldn’t be a shock if he let his curiosity win and toss him into a lot of trouble (if not directly overstepping a cardinal sin, deliberately or not). He has reflections of Deshret hidden in him, but the longer I think about it, Alhaitham truly is Nabu Malikata coded.

Maybe it’s also because Alhaitham’s first story quest has him dismantle a hivemind, and think it’s stupid to do to begin with, you know, something that Deshret tried to do (and kinda succeeded, but probably not how he intended). It really shows that just because some characters rhyme in the story doesn’t mean they’re one and the same.

Now Kaveh on the other hand is very much Deshret coded, and it’s fascinating to me.

Visually Kaveh fits the Deshret-inspired look. From being a visually similar (Liloupar thought the Traveler physically looked a lot like Deshret, and Kaveh also has similarities to the Traveler, so I give myself this leeway, thanks), his earrings just being a miniature of deshretian architecture motifs and colors.

Kaveh’s fiery personality could easily fit in too. He has his calm times, his depth, his guilt and self-destructive tendencies to achieve his ideals, but it also is a contrast to his more boisterous and energetic moments, his compassion and passion. He feels for others and tries to help where he can, regardless if it causes more harm to him than not. He holds steadfast to what he believes and refuses to compromise on it, even if he loses everything else in life.

Deshret had a lot of compassion and tried to make people not need gods, elevate them to become independent of divine judgment and law, and be free. He lost his companions, he lost his mind. But he believed he was chasing a good cause, his ideal where no one had to suffer and be separated ever again. He also wasn’t willing to compromise on his ideals.

Both Kaveh and Deshret are connected with the sun — Kaveh being the Light of Kshahrewar, and Deshret literally likened to the sun — and both of them had a hand with mechanisms and architecture (Kaveh created Mehrak — his little light — from an old deshretian core, and his darshan is overall more into mechanisms and technology, not just architecture; and Deshret didn’t only create the Primal Constructs, but he did try to build his ideal utopia that wouldn’t have any “worry, schemes, or slavery”, letting little kingdoms and city-states raise up, so really architecture was also related to him in a way).

With all of this, Kaveh falling down a rabbit hole of trying to help others and get into Trouble wouldn’t be weird or out of character down the line. Even if he mellowed out a bit after Parade of Providence, he is a firm follower of his ideals, and no matter how bad of an idea it would be, he most likely would jump headfirst into problems if it meant helping solve another problem entirely.

His connection to Nabu Malikata is also pretty obvious. His best artifact set is Flower of Paradise Lost, and him being connected to art makes it easy to connect him to her in that regard too. Of course then there is his constellation, Paradisaea (who could thematically fit both Nabu and Deshret, but shh), especially his c6: Pairidaeza’s Dreams, which is a direct call back to Nabu Malikata and her Orchard of Pairidaeza. It really shows that even if Kaveh has a lot in common with Deshret, NM’s dreams are more in direct reflection with Kaveh’s, who tries to make a lasting memory of himself even when he’s long gone, and to keep beauty in the world (a reoccuring theme with Nabu Malikata is the flourishing and dying of flowers, their endless cycle of life and death and rebirth; in the artifact Wilting Feast that could be linked to Kaveh’s vision story: “Dreams will always dissolve, their landscapes fated to collapse — this is the true meaning of the blooming flowers. Only by suffering through the destruction of a god’s delusions can humanity learn to rise against divine will…”, it connects the rise and fall of something precious, knowing that there will come a new one after that).

Well, I’m losing the plot now.

I wanted to dabble into some gods that connect to them from irl (Amun-Ra, Osiris, Thoth, Ma’at..) and that became a mess even to conceptualize for this, especially since it made me slip into dissecting Sumeru as a whole, and that’s a lot. I love myself, I’m not gonna do that at 4.50am, thanks.

Could I’ve been more detailed and explore it better? Yes. But I struggle with my head lately, and I’m teetering on the edge of madness, I should stop while it still makes a lick of sense. I might eventually revisit this and expand when I have the mental space, because this is fun and can go more detailed (read: unhinged), the potential is all there.

[iwakuraz]

new oc!!!!! again

[wanderingmind867]

I want to know about mythologies besides the ones rick riordan covered, but it's hard to get into it without his writing style. Or without the writing styles of some of the people he promotes. Like, the rick riordan presents books can be good. But i haven't read many of them. Maybe when the school year returns in september i'll get around to reading some of those books (i am a bit nervous for going back to school for full days, but i can vent about that again later).

Because i do want to know more about Indian mythology, Aztec mythology, Mayan mythology, Celtic mythology, etc. Because besides knowing some names from these pantheons (like Quetzalcoatl and Shiva and some others), I don't actually know much about them. And that's a shame. At the very least, I want an easily digestible guide to mythology sorted by country and continent and culture and all that. That would be helpful for someone like me.

[seaofreverie]

Wanted to start working on projects for my part-time school this weekend but instead all I have the energy to do is lay in bed and play mario kart or lay in bed and listen to music

[eyes1nthewoods]

love when people talk about pre-cazador astarion like he was this perfect angel baby that everyone loved as though he wasnt beaten to near death by a minority group.

[lolpsxd]

nightmare / can't move

^ sorry if you cant understand whats going on here and for the quality.... here is more normal version i just like how first one look