#i'm a butterfly

[glamboyl]

Anfreja - I'm a Butterfly for Lex - Enjoy my Friend!

[ctrlaltdeletebones]

Hmm... Randy Marsh, but he's Wormy... Just a thought.

[werewolf-transgenderism]

do you ever think about how a series of tiny choices like "I guess I'll watch that show" can like totally and entirely change huge aspects of your life

[blinkpen]

do u think studying how caterpillars totally liquify into living soup that somehow knows how to then restructure and solidify into a butterfly might be how we unlock the shapeshifting power-up on the evolution skill tree

[pawzofchaos]

I feel so sick to my stomach this scene has me in such a chokehold /posssss

THE WAY VAGGIE AND CHARLIE ARE LIKE- HIS WINGWOMEN?? AND SO WAS ANGEL A LITTL BIT AFTER THEY ALL WERE ENCOURAGING THEIR FELLOW NOODLE MAN TO CONFESS TO HIS CRUSH I CANT 😭😭

Him taking off his hat before talking to her as a sign of respect, and then chickening out of telling her his feelings really hits harder when you see him ACTUALLY confess that he loves her later on during the battle right before sacrificing himself because he gained so much confidence since then.

this crush is DEFINITELY not a new thing either- he complimented her bombs and explosives bc he admired them for such a long while since they became rivals and I could definitely see him thinking over and over about how incredible the bombs she made were and how incredible SHE is bc he's a nerdy dork like that <3

HIS LITTLE BLUSHES R SO CUTE TOO and Cherri definitely was feeling SMTH- her seeming a little nervous and awkward as he compliments her and the way she leaned in right before he hurriedly slithered away and the way she looked kind of upset when he just ran away UGHH💖💖

Them becoming friendly and getting along before the battle was already enough to keep me going BUT TGE CONFESSION AND THE KISS IS MAKING ME??!!????! IM NOT OKAYYHN IM DHJKDKAHHAHHENENHANJFURHNANHWHWHHB$heh))$

[brainrotcharacters]

HAND PLACEMENT

[baconmoop]

Enjoy my angst, you butterflies :)

[demonzoro]

"Out of a pure, burning sort of desire, he drew his fingers through the air and whispered a spell. Crimson sparks issued from his skin, rising into the air before coalescing into the loose shape of a butterfly."

drew a small moment from more than a portion of night by @theroyalsavage that i could picture so vividly. the whole fic is a beautifully written fantasy prince sanji au that you should definitely check out!

[mocha-illustrates]

[ID: A digital reference sheet of a Sea Butterfly-themed mer design for Sun, containing various poses. In the top left is a full-body drawing of Sea Butterfly!Sun. He has a big smile with a tooth gap, red cheeks, white eyes, and orange tentacles that mimic sun rays around his head. His body is mainly blue and translucent, and his chest, arms, and tail glow yellow and orange. He has his arms spread out, showing off his blue, translucent wings and fins. To his left is another full-bodied drawing of Sun, this time from a side view. He is swimming horizontally to the right with his left arm reaching forward. In the right corner is a small reference photo of a sea butterfly on a black background. Underneath all of that is a drawing of Sun being cradled in a pair of light gray hands. He is hunched over, facing slightly left and looking up at someone off-frame. He has a nervous expression and he has his hands up, seemingly in protest. To the right of him is a speech bubble that reads, “F-Friend… You shouldn’t go swimming after dark.” The background is a light gray. END ID.]

kicks down the door and slams this on the table

woe, sea butterfly sun be upon ye

[theminecraftbee]

okay so. hear me out. but. au concept--

joel is one of many people affected by a Vanishing. its a phenomenon sweeping the country--people simply not showing up for work, school, life one day, as though they've vanished from the face of the earth. it's almost possible to mistake for normal missing persons cases, if it weren't for the way a few of the higher-profile Vanishings have happened to people who shouldn't have been able to vanish at all, let alone in a way that wouldn't be noticed until too late. look at joel's hometown. the people monitoring the dam were supposed to be redundant, and yet--

anyway. not like he cares or anything, except for the fact this stupid disaster or whatever has left him without anywhere to live or anyone to live with, and he still has a year of high school left, so he can't just do whatever he wants. luckily there's this school in a town called new hermiton that agreed to give him a scholarship to finish his education in the name of recovery and solidarity or whatever, and it's kind of a shwankier school than he'd normally go for, but it's free and, more importantly, they're willing to pay for his lodging, and he can't really turn that down. and it's not like he has a choice but to upend his entire life now. so packing what few of his belongings survived into a bag and getting on a train and moving across the country to a new school it is, he guesses.

(he's been having nightmares that inexplicably feature swarms of blue butterflies. last time he checked, lakes don't have butterflies in them. although maybe it's a metaphor or something, on account of the butterflies saying stupid stuff about how people who are remembered can't disappear, and even a false world cannot be erased if it's watched over, and how fate depends on him holding people in his heart. thanks for saying the same stupid shitty platitudes his social worker told him, just more cryptically, butterflies. real cool.)

new hermiton, it turns out, is a small city. while new hermiton academy is a newer school, much of the city is older. he's moved into a nice enough flat in an older apartment building. he has another cryptic butterfly dream. he thinks he remembers someone trying to urgently warn him of something, but it's all... shaky. that morning, he goes to the school for the first time. he's greeted by a fellow transfer student, skizzleman, although apparently he already knows some of the other folks in town, and transferred here so he could stay with them. but it's at least someone else in a similar enough situation to joel, especially since joel can just tell by the way people are looking at him that skizz didn't have much of a choice but to be here, either, and best friends with impulse or not, he's on his own too.

so. a friend. maybe this school won't be that bad, even if joel keeps having nightmares, and even if the weather here is weirdly cold for july, and even if his new homeroom professor keeps on looking at him really weirdly. (aren't professors supposed to be better about stupid rumors anyway? what's that mr. hills's deal?)

and then, two days later, he waves skizz off at the end of the school day, and gets skizz's friend, impulse, at his door, desperate to hear that skizz had just come to stay the night in joel's shitty lonely apartment, because otherwise it looks like--come on man. joel's already having a shit time. the universe deciding to go after his one existing friend too? he promises impulse to help investigate that night, in the vain hope that Skizz isn't one of the Vanished. joel gets a splitting migraine trying to follow their path back, though, and they have to stop for the night.

skizz is reported missing the next morning. joel resigns himself to cutting himself off from the people around him, as per usual. then, strangely, mr. hills corners him as he goes home.

"you'll need this," he says, and shoves what feels like a cheap butterfly knife into joel's hands. "uh, remember, trust your heart! you'll know how to use it."

"what," joel says. "hold on. you're supposed to be a teacher. why are you giving me this. i know for a fact my file says i have like, ptsd or whatever, which is stupid, but you definitely aren't supposed to be giving me a knife, you weirdo?"

"you'll know how to use it," joe hills says again. "goodbye! believe in yourself!"

mr. hills sprints behind a building before he has to explain anything else. joel is left standing on the sidewalk holding a knife, staring after him.

so. that's weird as hell. joel shivers in the cold and continues on his way home. the butterfly knife feels heavy in his pockets. he should probably report that guy to his social worker or something, but actually talking to his social worker feels like conceding defeat. joel can take care of himself. he can prove he can take care of himself. just watch him. step one: go out to get ramen because he forgot to buy any food for his apartment.

he sees impulse putting up signs as he eats. impulse looks miserable. joel thinks about how skizz, just in the short time he'd known him, had sort of unintentionally given away that he felt isolated after his mother Vanished. that impulse was a great friend, but impulse didn't understand what it was like. he never really SAID as much, but--

it's not fair to impulse, for that to be the last thing impulse remembered of what was apparently a friend since childhood. and joel doesn't care about any of these guys, but he can still pay his check and go out and help impulse go looking. he's no good at comforting people and doesn't know this guy, but joel had been alone too, sitting on the roof and crying, when the helicopters came.

except when they go back to the path by the school, joel's head starts to hurt again.

he looks up and there's a butterfly.

"hey, impulse, are butterflies common here?" he asks, a little desperately.

"i mean, not really, why?" impulse says.

"uh," joel says, and gestures. the two of them stare as the strange yellow butterfly circles in place.

"okay, so that is kind of weird," impulse admits.

"right?" joel says. "the only way it would be weirder is if it were blue." impulse gives him a look. joel does not explain.

it starts to fly away.

"we should follow it," impulse says, his voice getting a little dull. "yeah. we should follow it."

"what? no! no we should not follow the haunted butterfly, are you nuts?" joel says, but it's a bit too late. (maybe this is what the knife is for: stabbing impulse. it would be an effective method of stopping him!) he chases impulse down, down to the river, where yellow butterflies are swarming. impulse, as though possessed, simply steps into the swarm and falls through them to the water.

joel's, uh, freaking out more than a little bit? he'll admit he's freaking out. he dives forward to try to grab him, only to realize that he doesn't see impulse anywhere.

a single blue butterfly lands on joel's shoulder. "do you hold his heart next to yours?"

"i'm going insane," joel says.

"no heart is meant to be completely alone. do you hold his next to yours?"

"this isn't happening," joel says. "this is like a stupid manga or something. it's not happening."

"there is still time to save them; you must hold your heart strong, or the consequences will be dire. i believe in you."

the butterfly vanishes.

"fuck it," joel says. "if i drown then it's nothing people haven't expected of me anyway."

he steps through the swarm of butterflies.

that night, he drags both impulse and skizz out of the river. they're all freezing cold. shadows and strange, yellowy liquid still cling to all of their skin. also, joel stabbed himself, which like, glad to know that's what the knife was for, apparently, and the scar is warm and comforting. he can feel his--persona, and don't ask him how he knows that--shifting under his skin, under the mark on his hand. it said its name is pygmalion; it says it is a piece of joel's soul.

this is all patently insane. but skizz and impulse are alive and NOT eaten by shadow monsters, so even if they're both a little unconscious, joel takes that as a win.

they lie on the ground outside the river. someone stumbles across them. "well give me some teeth and call me an alligator. you got out on your own," breathes a fellow student clutching a dagger. joel thinks he's in the class across the hall. also--

"what are you talking about," joel wheezes.

"you found it on your own. you can find them?" the student says. his eyes are wide. something in joel's soul recognizes something in the student's. something in joel's BRAIN puts two and two together and realizes why mr. hills gave him a knife.

"no. no, go away, i don't want to be involved in this," joel says.

"well, don't you think it's too late for that?" the student says, and joel passes out. he's pretty sure the butterflies have to be laughing at him. in fact, as though to mock him further, after passing out, he doesn't even get to avoid it forever, because he wakes up in a glowing blue boat. there is a man with white-blonde hair, blue eyes, and a blue outfit leaning over him, poking him.

joel takes no responsibility for punching him. he'd do it again, too, as the long-nosed man sitting next to the unmanned steering wheel welcomes him to the velvet room.

(this, joel realizes later, all rather sets the tone for what the next year of his life is about to become.)

[rubydart]

I had a big need for a fandom butterfly/moth display. Updated with an ID: Art drawn to look like a Fictional Moth/Butterfly display case based on 4 characters from The Magnus Archives on a 8.5x11" print. Big bug center top is labeled as "J. Sims": big green Luna Moth with multiple prominent eyes a bit like an Emperor Moth's markings, and holes in the wings that mimic the holes in a cassette tape. There's an eye on the mid of its body. The markings are more fantastical than the other bugs.

Labeled "M. Blackwood": Silver Clouded moth, smaller, to the right of J. Sims, with a cloudy looking pattern in greys on the wings, and two small dots.

Labeled "N. Sasha": Center-left. A blue butterfly but with markings that look like eyes and possibly claws extending across the top pair of wings. The wings are lined with black and white markings that resemble piano-keys. The lower pair of wings have golden markings that is supposed to resemble calliope pipes.

Labeled "Tim": Takes up the lower right side. A Mourning Cloak butterfly but with orange markings inside the wings that resemble flames. Mainly red wings lined with black then yellow edges, with blue spots across the black.

They are on a board with a spider web stretched across underneath them. The black tape of a cassette tape ribbons around the board in loose loops.

[cor-lapis]

all of the sumeru cast in one place = comedy the likes of which we haven't seen since Itto

redesign credits under the cut

al-Haitham and Tighnari

Nilou

Layla and Kaveh are mine, WIP

no redesign for Faruzan because I haven't found any + I think she's supposed to be Greek anyway? feel free to correct me there

EDIT: I have been corrected! many thanks to @traitorsinsalem for linking this thread about Faruzan's inspirations. no thanks to mhy for the continued colourism :I

[yutaan]

A pet portrait of @carriecmoney's adorably fluffy kitty, Cookie (plus some butterfly friends)! The room the client intended to display this piece in had several butterfly artworks already, so the butterflies were requested to help tie all the artworks together. Such a lovely idea!

[phoenxwright]

damn boy what got you blushin 🤨

[nataliesscatorccio]

Lottie telling Travis to take Javi to the bedroom so he'd be spared the violence of watching Shauna pulverize her body. Lottie's injuries driving the group to hunt. Javi facing violence anyway, abandoned beneath the ice. Shauna covering her eyes so she'd be spared the violence of watching her own hands carve his body. Lottie eating Javi to regain her strength from the same beating that was too violent for a child to watch.

[inbarfink]