#just going to take patience and time!

[baidar-oroq]

Trying to get back on the writing horse again after taking the holidays off, which is proving difficult for me because of assorted personal reasons.

Two days after I completed and posted the last parts of The Unheavenly Creatures, after all, my father had a stroke, and the second half of 2023 has seen him go through a series of complications and further hospital stays, and I've had to become even more of a caretaker for him than I was before his stroke. When I wrote my first novel, my parents were both in relatively good shape; when I wrote Unheavenly, things were less good, but I still had ample time to sit for a few hours a day and bang out a couple thousand words if inspiration hit.

The Night Does Not Belong To God has not been so lucky. And no, I'm not saying "boy, I wish my dad would feel better so I can get back to writing about my blorbos!" I'd be happy if I could write as much as I could because that means he wouldn't require as much care as he does now, so his health is in a better place. I've accepted that this novel, which is sizing up to be longer than Unheavenly (and we all know how awful I am at estimating word count) is going to be written in fits and starts. But I'm going to keep at it. I like the world I'm creating. I like the mythology of it. I like that I have all of Ancient Etheirys to play with, and I've done some really fun things with it already, and when I pay those off, wow, is it gonna be fun.

And yeah, I like that when I open a document and start writing, Venat's alive again. I've written over 400,000 words about her; the entire 6.0 MSQ is shorter than Unheavenly, and Venat only occupied a small part of it. I like that I've made her, in many ways, mine; I like that I've rather shamelessly turned Baidar into a full on shonen superhero who can fly, because why not? I'm looking at what was shown about Dawntrail and my hindbrain is wondering if I'm gonna have to send Venat and Baidar to check out Solution 9. I have actually figured out how Harvest of Souls ends. I know the last line.

It's just gonna take me a bit to get there.

[critter-covenant]

Class is in session!

Idea inspired from this that I've been meaning to draw for the past few days

[starry-bi-sky]

Blood Blossom lore for the Blood Blossom Au

Blood Blossoms -- otherwise scientifically known as rosa hemato -- are an extinct genus of flower from the rosaceae family that disappeared from the mortal plane in the late 1600s due to over-foraging from settlers during the Witch Trials. Prior to their extinction, they were already a rare breed of rose because of an evolutionary trait resulting in their main source of energy being ambient ectoplasm.

This means that blood blossoms only grow in areas where there are unusual levels of ectoplasm present. Regardless, however, only one or two bushes of blood blossoms can grow, as too many of them results in the ectoplasm being sucked out with no room of replenishing back to its original levels. This kills the blood blossoms in return. So a balance has to be met.

Blood blossoms have a mildly unsettling appearance. Their namesake, "blood blossom", comes from the blood red appearance of their petals, which start out as a vibrant red but steadily grows darker with age similar to blood drying on a page. Their stems, leaves, and thorns are, rather than green, a rich black-purple color. The center where the pistil sits is the typical yellow, however, it takes on the appearance of a yellow eye peering through the petals.

Blood blossoms emit a sweet, fragrant scent that allows them to not only attract bees, but also break down ectoplasm for consumption. See, what it does is that it discharges some of its pollen into the air, which then "latches on" to ecto. As the pollen begins to float down to the ground, the ectoplasm then sinks into the soil for the blood blossom to then draw into its roots. It gives the ectoplasm a physical body to latch onto, which it then uses to consume it.

Despite having a symbiotic relationship with ambient ectoplasm in it's natural habitat, the interactions it has with ghosts is an entirely different story. To ghosts, Blood Blossoms are terrifying, opportunistic parasitoids capable of consuming spirits whole if given the chance. Ghosts give off significantly more ectoplasm and when the blood blossoms sense that, they emit more pollen in order to consume it. Which is where the whole "blood blossoms are natural ghost shields" thing comes from.

Their sweet scents and vibrant colors made them popular upon discovery for perfumes and dyes, and when eaten taste sweet and slightly bitter, almost irony. Which is another reason for their namesake. During the Salem Witch Trials it was theorized that blood blossoms could expel the sins/demons from someone's body when consumed and prevent possession, or when surrounded by the roses, would trap the demons inside it's host body which would then be burned to banish it back to Hell along with the soul of it's host.

Which made them incredibly popular in executions, exorcisms, and Mass.

They could grow anywhere in the world so long as there was an adequate amount of ecto present.

Surprisingly enough, they do not commonly grow in or around gravesites due to a competitor flower nicknamed "rest in peace lilies" which, despite their name, are actually from the asparagaceae family and have more in common with bluebells. They're more modernly known as everlast bells. Ghosts prefer them over blood blossoms because they have a similar effect on ghosts as poppies do on the living where it sends them into a restful slumber. Hence their nickname "rest in peace lilies". The dead loove them.

In the Ghost Zone, their effects on the dead are far more potent than when they grew in the living realm due to the excessive amount of ectoplasm. They also grow much faster, so ghosts treat their appearances on islands similar to how one treats mint or kudzhu after finding it growing in their lawn: with extreme prejudice. And a lot of terror. Ghosts tend to rip them out when the flowers are not in bloom, or burn them when they are.

Their appearances in the Zone aren't much different than what they looked like in the living realm, with only a few mild changes like their thorns being sharper, their petals being more angular, and their eye-like center actually looking more like an eye. It's theorized that the Infinite Realm versions of blood blossoms gained very mild sentience, just enough that it almost feels like their eyes follow you when you pass by them, like a painting. Nobody is willing to test that theory.

To a ghost, getting caught in the hooks of a blood blossom means a slow, agonizing death akin to thousands of needle-sized mouths eating you all at once. The pollen doesn't stop until the ectoplasm is all broken down. Blood blossoms in the Ghost Zone are very much capable of eradicating a ghost entirely, core and all, with no chance of return. No passing go, no reconstruction, just complete oblivion.

Danny, prior to his poisoning, had severe allergic reactions when in physical contact with blood blossom in his human form. Rashes, blistering, hives wherever the blossom had physical contact with, inflammation, you name it. Luckily that hadn't been something he needed to worry about since they're, well, extinct.

[aeliem]

variations on dust

trying to get back into drawing after artfight, so have some random doodles in the meantime

[foldingfittedsheets]

Hnnngh. I haven’t been talking to my sister for like four years. She’s in an abusive relationship and I was trying to support her, but she radicalized as a result of her shitty husband. She tried to hide it until I confronted her and she ended up telling me she didn’t think trans people deserve rights. So I cut contact.

But it sucks. I still have dreams where she apologizes and turns back into the sister I looked up to. And I hate that her abusive husband has very successfully cut her off from any support networks.

She messaged me today out of the blue talking about His Dark Materials and she’s not allowed on social media so I know it was just a funny universe coincidence. But I started texting back.

We had a short talk about books and she said she was glad I responded because she misses me. I don’t want to start shit but I don’t want her in my life more than this small chat because it’s not like she’s stopped being hateful, but I do miss the sister I grew up with.

[waywardstation]

One last store update! After this I will begin sending emails to a subscriber list.

You can input your email of choice for my shop newsletter into this google form here.

A quick summary of some things:

I was unable to finish orders by printing their shipping labels by today, despite what I said last week, because of health issues that had to be addressed instead.

More of my product order was messed up, had enough items to fulfill every order but I’ve been left with ZERO extra stock on a couple items to put into my shop after.

I got enough interest in the Halloween keychains and stickers so I will be making them.

Full explanations below ^^

I have now packed every single order and reviewed all of their contents. However I was unable to send them out today as at some point last week I became very unwell. I’ve been going downhill for a while but it has never gotten to this degree this fast before. I still don’t really know what caused it and so I had been unable to pack over the weekend and couldn’t get all the shipping labels printed for them today.

I will be printing these labels out and taking chunks of the orders to the post office over the next few days.

But the more I’d packed the more I’d realized more of my product order had been messed up. I had ordered extras of everything and yet some of the products that I ordered just BARELY fulfilled every order — I had to use some of the initial samples to fulfill every order but rest assured they are the exact same as the products in size and quality. I have exactly ZERO of some products left over for shop stock when I’d ordered 10-15 extra of every item (as well as TOO MANY of some less popular products that didn’t need all these extras) which sadly means a few items will not be in stock when I open the store back up. I may put discounts on the unwanted extras I received because of this.

While I would expect by default to receive the products in the quantity that I ordered, I also understand that I ordered hundreds of products all in one order, and that is only one order that is being fulfilled out of the many other orders they get daily. I myself did not count out every single product to check because of the sheer amount of everything that was ordered — I had ordered over 500 keychains alone to fulfill the preorders and the entire order has taken up a full room when all spread out. But I still did not count beforehand and would only find out once I’d run out of a certain product, so I accept this is partly my responsibility too. This should not happen again as I never expect to make an order this big again, I had only done this for shop startup, and I will be making another order to restock these products. But it’s still sad it happened.

I apologize for this and I appreciate all of your patience once again. I am explaining all of this as I believe you are owed information about what is going on seeing as you’ve put money into this, and I myself said they would all be sent out by Monday. I just want to be transparent ^^

And one last thing — many of you wanted Halloween merchandise, so I will be moving forward with that! (I’ve decided they will not be glow in the dark though, as I’d have to make every vibrant color instead transparent for the glow to come through, and I believe the designs would suffer too much without these colors)

I have ordered from this manufacturer multiple times before over the years and they’ve always gotten it right with more reasonably-sized orders, so I am confident these will not have the same problems as this preorders period has.

Thank you again very much for your support and understanding up to this point!! <3

[sciderman]

You said that if you dated Peter or Wade it would make you miserable. Which– Okay fair, Wade does have a history of purposely hurting the people he loves.

But what about Peter? Why do you think dating him would make you miserable?

because I’ll always know I had the option to climb a 6’8 cyborg and I passed that up for a sweaty little twunk that I perpetually have to remind to bathe (sorry peter)

[r0bita]

I feel like Dororo adaptations are missing out on some possible twists in relation to Hyakkimaru's body that could've worked. In the original manga, Hyakkimaru's addresses his shortcomings with missing things like his nervous system to Dororo. Dororo 2019 sorta went that direction for a little bit, but I was always interested in what more they could do to step it up.

Like-

He doesn't get both arms back because he was actually born with just one.

He discovers after getting his eyesight back that he's color blind and or has astigmatism (like Tahomaru?)

I've made a post about melanin at one point and wondered whether or not he could have been naturally born with albinism or developed some form of sensitivity in the skin with or without the curse being involved.

Or, for every body part he gains back, he has to rest and rehabilitate eveytime in order to build up muscle tone again instead of just growing it back and suddenly being like "aight, let's go to the next one".

And in a way, Hyakkimaru's entire body structure isn't canonically set in stone, so anything possible could be brought up during his quest to reclaim his body. We hear that phrase "Nobody is born whole", but at the same time nobody ever stays whole their entire life, so... yeah...

[fuckyeah-bears]

I may not always succeed but I really do try my best to be a kind, compassionate person and put more kindness and positivity into the world than negativity

[northern-passage]

i haven't shared a lot of tnp lately because i have been working on a different project, but i do plan to update tnp sometime this year. i know people aren't fond of less frequent updates, and "one update a year" is not exactly what i would like either, but tnp is massive at this point and i'd be lying if i tried to pretend like i could get out monthly/frequent updates. the branching is complex & it's not easy for me to put out smaller bits of content, because my branching just doesn't work that way, and i prefer to do big, chunky updates for all of you to really have something to sink your teeth into. if i could do giant full chapter updates, i would, but then we'd really be sitting around twiddling our thumbs for a while...

i never planned for tnp to take this long or even for it to be this large, but it is what it is! as they say, the time will pass anyway

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

Of my 2% capacity to be attracted to anyone, my type is like 90% women, 5% pretty men and 5% men you would swear are super fucking manly, and never questioned being straight and cis, but are now suddenly *stressed* that they can't figure out why their attraction to me [fully socially interpreted as a woman and labelled that way up until relatively recently] feels incredibly fucking gay

[scopophobia-polaris]

I swear to God the fact that frulleboi was releasing a comic FOR FREE and bitches harassed them about not updating enough when last time I check they....

Uploaded weekly

God even if they uploaded monthly or every few months some of you people need to grow the fuck up and learn to wait instant gratification culture has ruined a good lot of people

[masquenoire]

Barring any new asks, I think that's the last of those 'icons only' memes and it was very fun doing them all! Thank you so much for sending them in everyone, I'm feeling more confident about activity again and will hopefully be inspired to write a bit more often from now on providing schedule eases up sometime soon!

[hauntingjasper]

He really doesn't like to be yelled at

[touchlikethesun]

almost every day for a month now i’ve thought that i should just go out and buy physical copies of svsss because reading it on my phone made it feel too much like fanfic (not a bad thing, i just couldn’t focus very well) and i want to be able to annotate with pen. and then i remember, in a few months time i will be able to buy the gorgeous french edition without having to pay an obscene amount in shipping and i should just wait for that. but. i want. i want it now.

[termagax]

re: "good girl" i think they say it once randomly as a joke and its just one of those things that gets him wayyy more than they expected it would. so now its their secret weapon and they use it very sparingly and every single time he gets super embarrassed about it but it works ill tell you what.