#it’s almost always hidden

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Happy Valentine's Day! (and this blog's first post anniversary!)

[moonverc3x]

[non-un-topo]

hot guard summer

[capricores]

pisces/virgo placements... it's about time you took care of yourself, too, ok?

you burn yourselves out allowing yourself to be pulled by so many people in all different directions. you exhaust all your resources and empty your cup - no, your entire well - to help those around you, even people you don't know. it's such a beautiful thing, and i know you genuinely love helping others, supporting people, seeing them thrive. it's such a beautiful trait! but you constantly end up neglecting yourself, right? you don't realize that you have permission to set aside time to care for you, to cater to your needs for once. you often feel like no one puts a drop in your cup, the favor is never returned - it's exhausting; you might think if you just keep giving your all it will come back; i understand. you will find the people that give the same energy back to you one day, but regardless of whether you've found those people yet, you need to learn to step aside and fill your own cup!

setting boundaries and saying no is the most important thing you will learn to do in this lifetime. it will not be easy for you, sometimes it will feel painful. but you cannot help the world if you're constantly drained and tired! you deserve to take care of yourself in the same way you do for others. be gentle to your kind soul, nourish yourself; do the things you love to do. learn to worry about others less, as hard as it is, and focus on yourself more.

[imaybe5tupid]

P is for the painful way she makes me feel some days. U is for Utopia, the other times with her. N is for the new wave dreams she had back in her teens. K is for the kid in her, my PUNK girl.

[darydark]

Tojoctober day 5 - Sword

I kinda like Ishin Nishiki

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

"Tell me why I shouldn't arrest you right now."

Almost Paradise S01E01 Finding Mabuhay.

[juliareed]

Now Cole works for a third party. A new player on the scene. Someone he calls The Man. SIS has been trying to identify The Man for the past three years. And if this mission's a success, Cole will trust me enough to tell me who The Man is.

[hellishgayliath]

Hellii Hellooo

Ignore my previous message, my keyboard was being STUPID and submitted it-

Anyway- 1) Does Pico know or understand the concept of a 'date'? 2) If yes, do Pico & Bao go on dates? 3) & if yes again, are they rare or common occasions?

I witness ALL MOON👀👀👀

lmao hoi anyways

I'd think so yes! I'd consider Pico being the one to ask out Bao, cuz where he grew up the animals he'd see when it came to courting each other they make their point very upfront, so if he takes interest in someone he's just gonna go for it. Plus he sees his uncles Warren and Hypno all the time and can already tell how smitten they are with other, he's no stranger to that.

Also yesssss!! I haven't drawn anything yet for them cuz I wanna draw their first meeting with each other first and foremost before I do sweetsy stuff (whenever that comes to pass)

Okay Date stuff or more like outings tho. I think Bao would enjoy taking Pico out around the Hidden City, showing him all of his favourite spots, catching in the sights etc. Pico would love it, but he still is basically a farmboy, so I think he could only handle being in large crowds and the overwhelming bustling city for so long and stick by Bao's side so they don't get separated once the wonder wears off. Bao would take this into account and try to think of areas where it's less noisy and crazy. On Pico's end of setting up dates, he'd invite him out to the forest, maybe spend some time with the dogs, go on picnics or hikes/walks. It's a good break for Bao too since he's busy running the tea shop all the time and could go for some peace and relaxation once in a while.

3. Hmmmmmmm I'd say they'd happened pretty frequently :3

[deva-arts]

☆ Nathaniel Wilson ☆

I Really Like Nathaniel because the guy embodies Hope and Positivity without forcing it down the gullets of everyone around him.

He looks like he'd be a pleasant individual to actually be around at 7 am. Even before his coffee. [ Sera should be too, she doesn't seem like an unbearable person to be around in La Matinée ( the Morning ) . But still, she is alot grumpier than her other half. ]

With that said. Insert Happy music here. Nujabes or Smth.

Submitted by @mettamorphoses!

Love the way you drew Nate here! such a clean style and serious face :> He's my favorite little quadfocal guy... friendly, polite, and a good conversationalist! You're absolutely right, he's one of the easiest people to get along with. It's almost like he knows exactly what to say to people.

Sera isn't grumpy so much as she is disinterested and dismissive. She heads to work without bothering to make small talk besides a basic "Hello." if she passes you by. Not the worst outcome, really, if silence doesn't bother you.

[itssideria]

alright. i've gone to bed. i've had time to think it over. i don't hate it nearly as much as did last night (although i remain pretty fucking disappointed) because, well. i genuinely do think it was just some HORRIBLE framing lmfao. i don't think it was ctommy forgiving cdream or that it was meant to make the other characters' struggles meaningless or that it was written to disrespect the fans. i still think it was shit, but not intentionally so. there was so much love in there. those first three streams and the first half of this one were some of the best work on the smp i've ever seen. above all else, we know that cctommy loved his silly little character just as much as we did, and we will finally get to hear about him from the writer himself. and, well. i'm a writer too. gonna making up ALLLLL my own headcanons babeyyy

[universestreasures]

Shadow Checkmate (Drabble)

For @shachou

Chess. It was the first game Nii-sama ever taught me, the one that made me really love gaming. I'm not very good at it. Nowhere near as good as my brother. But...when I play it with him, it makes me so happy! It's a lot of fun to try and beat him, even if I always lose.

It used to be something we'd do every day, with other kids at the orphanage watching us. But...we don't play chess anymore. We haven't since we moved into this house.

Our stepfather says Nii-sama has more important things to do than to play with me, something about needing to work hard. That's why I don't see him most days. I only see him at dinner once in a while or at a fancy party I get to go to. Other times, I'm told he's too busy studying with his teachers, even if I ask nicely.

I miss him. I miss him a lot. I miss the days when he read me stories about dragons and wizards. I miss the days when he'd tuck me into bed. I miss the days when we played chess for fun all day. I miss the days we were together.

With him not around, I've gotten lonely and bored. That means I've had to make new ways to have fun, like Nii-sama and I always used to do. That's why I made a new game, a new game I can play that makes me feel like I'm playing it with him.

It's called Shadow Checkmate.

The rules are the same as regular chess, except you don't need a second person to play. All you need is yourself and your shadow. Though, I don't have any chess pieces. I've had to use things in my room, like buttons or pencils, instead. I drew the board out on a piece of paper, one side for the 'white' pieces and one side for the 'black'. I use the black ones like I always do, and my shadow uses the white.

I take my turns, and then I move my shadow's pieces for it. Though, when I play, I don't see or hear my shadow playing with me. I hear and see my brother. For he is always by my side, like a shadow, even if he isn't here.

"Good move, Mokie!" I'd hear him say, my brother's voice echoing in my head.

"Better luck next time, kiddo." He'd tell me after he'd win, like he always does.

"Let's play again!" That is what he'd say after each game, always wanting to play more.

I'd play Shadow Checkmate for hours and hours. I'd play so much to the point I'd fall asleep right there on the floor. It was fun and made me feel like, even just for a while, that I wasn't trapped in this stupid house. When I was back home with Nii-sama, smiling and playing together like we always did.

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

I find myself coming back to that little game I made rather recently, playing it wherever Nii-sama happens to be. In his hospital room. In his bedroom. Even outside in the mansion's garden when the doctors allow me to take him out. Wherever he is, and we'd have a moment, we'd play, just like we used to.

I'd set up the pieces, proper chess pieces his time. His were white, and mine were black. And since I long since memorized all of his moves, I gently guide his hands to the pieces, helping him move them into place. Of course, I always lose. But...unlike the last time I lost a game, I don't get yelled at or punished for losing, even if I somehow always get a little shaken when his voice in my mind echos "checkmate."

It was nice to have him here, not looking at me so coldly, at least physically. For he can't move or can't talk right now. Like this, he really had become my shadow, always there next to me, but unable to react to anything I say, outside of what I make up in my head. The real him was off rebuilding the puzzle of his heart, according to Yugi, whatever that meant.

But I promised to wait for him, and wait for him I did. Each and every day for over half a year. I played many games with him, maybe in hopes that by doing so he'd come back, but nothing had changed. And unlike when I was little, I wasn't smiling as much during these games. It didn't help ease my loneliness. If anything, it made me feel sadder. For my Nii-sama was right in front of me, and yet...it still wasn't who I was waiting for. It wasn't who I wanted to be with more than anything. It wasn't who I wanted to say "I love you, Mokuba" for real instead of in my head.

It wasn't my big brother, the person I wanted to play chess for real with.

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

I played a lot of chess with my friends while I've been at Tasuku's place. All four of them took turns playing with me, me winning against Gao and Akatsuki and me losing to Suzuha and Tasuku. I tried my best to put my all into these games, but...my heart just wasn't in. It was like I was zoning out most of the time, stuck in my own head and unable to focus on what was in front of me.

Whoever I played against, I would always see Nii-sama instead. Instead of their voices, I'd hear his, encouraging me or congratulating me on a win. It was no different than playing Shadow Checkmate all over again, except this time I didn't have to move the other pieces.

The more we played as the weeks went on, the more I kept thinking. Will I get to play chess with the real Nii-sama ever again? Will I get to ever see him again? Will he ever want to see me again? Will he...will he send me back to the orphanage, since I liked it there so much? Will I be forced to play with shadows of him made by my mind, something i did when I had no choice, forever?

My fears engulfed my shadows, transforming the images of my brother I saw during these games now, just like how he appeared in my nightmares. His voice changed too, encouraging words now distorted into the anger-filled rage he experienced that night that had been echoing in my mind since they happened as if they'd never shut up.

"I will not entertain this nonsense any longer!"

"You want no part of this ? Fine. Do as you wish."

" This conversation is over."

I put my hands over my ears as they get louder, dropping my chess pieces in the process as my eyes shut tight and tears start to flow. Tasuku and my friends come to my side to comfort me, but I can't hear them. All I can hear and see is my shadow growing into my brother, towering over me like his dragon, before detaching himself from me and leaving me alone.

All alone.

Forever.

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

Here I am. Sitting alone inside a room in this mansion, this time my brother's room, playing Shadow Checkmate once again with the makeshift pieces I made when I was five. I know I don't have to play this anymore. I had friends I could play with. I had employees I could play with. Hell, if I wanted to, I could make an AI version of my brother to play with.

But...for some reason, I chose this way instead. Maybe it was because it felt nostalgic. Maybe it was because it had worked in the past into fooling myself he was actually here. For unlike all the other times before, my brother isn't here in this dimension. He's off somewhere I can't get to. Somewhere, I don't know if he'll ever return from.

As I move my pieces into place, following suit by moving my shadows, I try to not think so hard. I want to lose myself in my fantasies. I want to escape for even just a moment, to remind myself that everything is okay and that my brother is still with me!

And yet...this time, there was nothing. No voice. No sound. No image. It was just me. Me, myself, and I. The reality of it all was too real to suppress, for no trace of my brother was left in this world other than his cards, his possessions, and my memories and mementos. I wasn't a little kid anymore who could distract myself with self-made images of what I wanted to see.

I had grown up, meaning this game...was no longer what I needed it to be anymore.

I threw all of the game pieces to the side in a swipe, gritting my teeth in frustration as I huffed and puffed. I hate this! Why wasn't it working anymore? Can't I just have a moment, even just a second of peace? The peace I thought would always be there?!

We promised each other we wouldn't ever be separated. We promised we'd always stick together. We promised we'd always be a team. And yet, just like in my visions from the past, he's left my side, my shadow seemingly nonexistent as I turn my back to look.

For there was no light to guide me. No light to warm me. No light to guide me. Nii-sama is my light. He always has been, and without him...I feel...

I feel incomplete, like part of my soul is missing; a part I need to live lest I be cast down back into the sea of despair that had almost drowned me so many times again and again. I feel worthless, knowing I can never fill his shoes. I feel numb, knowing I might never get to play another game with him....ever again.

It was suffocating as I cried my eyes out over him, left in nothing but the rubble of my childhood escape that could no longer stop me from drowning...

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

It was a miracle. A miracle I thought one day might never come. But it did. The light that protects my brother's soul, his dragons, along with a priest who resembled him, led me back to my brother. We were together at last, his light returning my shadow to me after a painful two months of separation.

Naturally, everyone celebrated his return. Kaiba Corporation was glad to have him back, a weight being taken off my shoulders. Despite doing my best, no one ran the company quite like my brother. He had a light that lead everyone to doing their jobs well and to the best of their ability, a light I sadly don't have just yet but that I hope I one day will have!

However, that wasn't what I was concerned about. I was worried about one thing and one thing only: spending time with him, good quality time outside of work. I wasn't about to let him become a workaholic again. At least...not right away. For there was something important I just had to do, a thought that had been on my mind since he first left.

I come into his lab with a box under my arms, one I had to dig around in Seto's room for. My entrance gets his attention, him turning his chair to face me. I greet him with a smile, as I always do, before I do what I have been wanting to do for so long; finally putting a nail in the coffin to my old game

"Niisama...?" I ask, holding up a box containing his personal set of a certain game, a game we haven't played together in ages that I was ready to play with him for real this time.

"Can we...play some chess? I think...I think I'm finally ready to beat you!"

[luwupercal]

hi i had an idea for a custodes oc dressed in that almost nakey pillar-stodes style so I drew him... the full pic is under the cut bc tbh the torso came out wonky, image descriptions also under the cut

please help me give him a name, he doesnt have a name yet but i want him to have one

image description: two photos of a pen on paper sketch of a man from the torso up. he's muscular and bare-chested, wearing only a skirt/loincloth and a single pauldron attached with a leather strap across his chest. he has a shaggy shoulders-length mullet, with long bangs that cover his eyes and shadow his face. he's smiling. there are design notes around the sketch with arrows pointing to different parts of him, which read: "lil smirk", "bangs cover eyes", "stubble", "black hair or dark brown", "stupid pauldron (1)", and "pillarstodes fit". end description

[pastelchad]

Ok but I love fem!Oda being a total girly girl while fem!Saga can't be bothered to do anything besides paint her nails occasionally and keeping her hair long...but she secretly finds Oda's love for all things feminine adorable so she's a little disappointed when they meet again and it seems like she's grown out of it but then some morning-after snooping reveals a stash of high fashion magazines, tons of glittery makeup and an entire wardrobe she's never seen before that looks pretty much the exact same as Oda's but just a bit more geared to an adult woman

[petrichorium]

so I think I got to that absolutely devastating thing in witch hat last night—that hurt :,)👍 literally was not expecting qifrey to wipe oru’s memory after everything the story seemed to be building up for between this hurdle for them

like….that was such an important moment for them. Oru had been so willing to help him despite qifrey become so insanely fixated on stopping the brimmed hats and….qifrey made the decision that he’d rather oru remember him as the qifrey he’s familiar with than whatever he’s become now. put me down like an old dog—that HURT

AGOKNEEEEEEEEEEEE

[cherry-pop-soda]

i want to own a pride flag, like a real pride flag, so fucking badly it probably makes me look stupid. i want to put it up on my ceiling and look at it or wave it around in my hands to be silly. i just want to hold one in my hands for real and not have to hide it right after.