#monster of the abyss

[ilgaksu]

i'm finally in enough of a bad mood today to take it out on something by breaking my long-held promise never to write fandom meta on disability again so HEY LET'S GO.

so, go read this post first (spoilers for fullmetal alchemist, but the thesis of the post is that respect for bodily autonomy is a sign of love, even when in most modern media it's disregarded as a sign of it, especially in medical contexts. it's so eloquently and beautifully put that it's a great jumping off point.)

okay, so: did anybody else get given this kind of dilemma in early critical thinking studies at school? the example we got given is this: your wife is dying and needs a medical treatment to save her life, but the medical treatment directly contravenes her lifelong religious or spiritual beliefs. should you do it?

honestly, i think a lot about how the husband in those articles and examples is framed as some kind of unspeakable monster if he upholds her beliefs and lets her life be lived in continuous honour of those beliefs, knowing she will die in alignment with them but that she will die. he's always a monster if he does that, or backwards, or unscientific, or uncaring - as opposed to, depending on how you frame it, and you can frame it so many ways, the one person in that room truly on his wife's side, and having to make the worst decision anyone can make. and how the only compassionate thing is to have no judgement and instead pray like hell that you're never personally standing there by someone's hospital bed having to make the kind of decision like that, with a time limit on life and death, and having to war with your own wants over the explicit known desires of the person you love.

and the medical staff are trained to save someone's life at all costs. that is their remit. but what about yours?

what if it's life and death, but they're conscious? what if the person is entirely cognisant, and conscious, and able to make their own medical decisions, and is, despite their medical situation, currently able to physically live alone without support? what if they aren't, but medical autonomy and human dignity is based not on the necessities of physical support, but in the inviolable right to self-determine your own medical decisions for as long as you can? and how often are those necessities perceived as demands? what if we show, often, more respect for the dead and their burial wishes than for their final medical wishes when alive? what if we have to acknowledge that us doing that is out of love and fear and more love? that we're the person standing at that hospital bed, and we prayed like hell but it happened to us and to someone we love anyway, and now we're having to choose but what we actually want is more time and we'd do anything on our end to ensure it?

why is it easier, in that moment, to empathise with the person standing at the end of the hospital bed, and not the person in it? is it because we're far more likely, statistically, to be the former and be able to communicate our feelings on it after the event, compared to the person in it, who may pass away? is it because we're a society so afraid of death that we're afraid to meaningfully debate on what it means to die on our own terms?

what if the person shuts you down and refuses to engage on the topic, beyond being very clear about what they want? what if it's no longer up for discussion, but you have, you believe, options left that they aren't seeing or agreeing to? what if you know they won't consent to it if you ask honestly and ahead of time? do you then have the right to show up and demand it of them? do you have the right of intervention, if you know it's a decision they've already made, because you feel the decision is wrong? do you have the right to tell other people their private medical information without their consent to gain that help? do you have a right to any of it? do you have the right to override someone's autonomy like that?

what if you are their partner? what choice is you showing up for them, and what choice is you just bargaining for more time, at any cost? even if it feels like they aren't even showing up for themselves anymore?

anyway heihua movie is solely about a tentacle monster in a cave, nothing else to see here

[shpepyao]

Alive and kicking, just got a bit tired of managing several places at once An expansion for one of my old characters, maybe I'll make a ref for leviathan form in future

[theladysunami]

I had a very odd dream where a train (or bus?) I was on got yanked into another world. While my dream had nothing to do with SVSSS, it did have my waking self thinking about how hilarious and/or horrifying such a thing could be as an AU.

Imagine Shen Yuan riding the subway, train or bus one day, when something happens and his whole car gets yanked into the world of PIDW. Nobody else in the car knows anything about PIDW, so Shen Yuan finds himself with the self imposed task of keeping this eccentric group of strangers alive in a weird world full of demons, monsters, and aphrodisiac plants.

The group’s first assumption would probably be that they’re still on modern earth, and just got teleported somewhere. Their second assumption, if they come across common folk, might be they somehow ended up in the past.

Then they run into some monster, or people riding on swords with specific uniforms, or a commoner mentions a name or event only Shen Yuan recognizes. The rest of the party debates what sort of Xianxia or Wuxia world they’ve ended up in, while poor Shen Yuan sweats bullets. He knows exactly what world they are in, and they are so screwed.

I have this image of poor beleaguered nerd Shen Yuan successfully protecting and leading this group of primary school kids, their cute teacher, and a handful of grannies and grandpas, while all the other adults and older teens keep wandering off and getting themselves in trouble.

[damnwyverngems]

Puzzle & Dragons: Abyssal Lagiacrus official illustration.

[chimeride]

[zaifonart]

Description: An eldritch hivemind of shadowy creatures that have taken the form of a dapper dressed lady. Born from the literal tears of the Gremlin creature from the void known as Zaifon. Likes: Green tea, memes, suits and dress up. Dislikes: Being the parent of the parent.

[mytheetarecold]

I know it's not the right time of day to post this but hey. PC case commission, side and front, done! I'll post a mock-up of the whole thing once the top panel is also complete. The light blue area is actually meant to be a transparent part of the PC case.

Lagiacrus is a gorgeous monster. I'm a sucker for deep sea themed or Abyssal anything, though.

Going to make a desk mat out of this as well :D

Please no AI or repost, thank! (reblog is ok and appreciated)

[madcat-world]

Abyssal Dragon (Commission) - Dragolisco

[that-foul-legacy-lover]

Ok bestie ik you literally just posted the request for asks like 30sec ago but im here

So yk the Fontaine archive quest. How about that combined with sagau. Specifically the scene w the whale where FL and Neuvillette fight the whale and then FL like faints and falls back into the portal.

but what if creator reader has been like surreptitiously watching the proceedings to make sure everything goes as planned and intervenes when foul legacy falls back into the portal. They do it sneakily so no one sees them and looks after FL and nurses him back to health.

Meanwhile FL/Chile are like ahhhhhhh why is the creator healing me??????

Idk I think it would be both funny and fluffy

ohhh you're right. you're so right, this would be so wonderful

you've taken a more subtle approach to watching this world than you thought you would've, preferring to simply observe from the background rather than make yourself the center of attention- it's not worth having people hound you all day, every day. honestly, it's rather easy to disguise yourself, just having to wear a facial mask as you traverse the streets of Fontaine, and as long as you're quiet you can watch any play or performance you desire. but despite your no-interfering policy, your heart squeezes painfully when you see Foul Legacy's exhausted state, gasping as he falls back through the tear in reality. without a second thought you twitch your fingers, pulling both you and Legacy away from the Opera Epiclese, away from Fontaine, to somewhere safe and warm and filled with waving grass and flowers

the Abyssal monster whines faintly, his armor cracked and smoldering, and you hastily set to work healing and wiping away the starry blood. Legacy stirs, crystalline eye cracking open before widening almost comically at the sight of you tending to his wounds, letting out a strangled trill of embarrassment. he almost melts when you gently shush him, tending carefully to his wounds and helping him sit up with delicate hands. Legacy stares at you in awe, practically falling into your arms when you offer him a hug, purring and chirping and nuzzling against you, the Creator, the one true god. Fontaine be damned- he's right where he belongs, at your side; and by the way you happily pet his hair, you seem to think the same

[fhtagn-and-tentacles]

CRUSTACEAN SPECIMEN 

by Jordi van Hees

[abyssal-author-and-artist]

I love Monster Falls so much. Like just from a fun fluffy perspective (stay tuned for the body-horror sequel to this post)

Like imagine Boss Mabel but Monster Falls. Stan pretends like he's turning to stone and the execs look at him and go "he's a gargoyle playing it up. We'll take him." Dipper nearly kicks a person because they call his "cervitaur outfit" fake looking and say his hooves are super fake. Mabel comes in and, depending on whether she's a unicorn centaur or a mermaid, she either trots over and uses her horn to light up a hole he kicked in the drywall earlier or flicks water on his fur because "Dipper, you can't keep threatening to kick people! Your hooves hurt." Wendy is mostly the same honestly and Soos keeps dropping his hands in stuff.

Imagine what the background characters would go through for that. You walk into a store and the cashier - who isn't paying attention - is oddly hairy but whatever, you don't judge. The handyman looks pretty sickly and you could swear that his hand is backwards but he walks away pretty fast. You into the back and this kid trots up - and yes, we do mean trot because he's got a fucking deer for the bottom half of his body. He's also got little baby antlers and freckles all over his body and he can't be a real cervitaur so you tell him that his outfit looks fake and he goes "I just wrestled a Gremloblin with four legs and you're gonna tell me this is fake?" and then another kid walks in, and she's a unicorn centaur with flowers all over the place falling out of her tail or her hair. She's got a horn on her forehead and you can see where it starts around her bangs and she goes "Dipper, stop antagonizing the guests! We've gotta show Grunkle Stan that we can do this." And he chuffs like a horse and she goes "Don't you chuff at me, mister. Do your job." and then walks away.

Imagine going to a pool and watching a unicorn centaur wading into the pool, shivering as her fur gets soaked. There's a gargoyle in pool jail and a zombie is messing with the pool floaties. Or you go to Gideon's Tent of Telepathy and the seat in front of you is wet and there's a mermaid pulling herself onto the back of a cervitaur or being carried by a gargoyle man.

Like it's so cute and there's so many cute small little things you can do with it. Like I love it. Dipper wincing in Not What He Seems because his deer back gets pressed against the wall weirdly when the portal's about to open. Mabel in Sock Opera having Dipper put her on a cart because she doesn't have legs. Soos accidentally dropping body parts or slipping up and nibbling someone. Wendy taking a few days off every once in a while because she's a literal werewolf. Ford flying off as soon as he leaves the Shack and forgetting everyone else has legs (except maybe Mabel depending on your preference). Stan hitting stuff with his wings and doing makeup to look human still.

Actually we need more Monster Falls fanfic and I've been debating writing some.

[otiksimr]

Rhahuul... truly the best eldritch babysitter in existence.

They grow up so fast...

[shpepyao]

Huge artwork I did in a previous year for a zine that was never published

[no1-capitano-main]

I feel like Capitano's the kind of person who sleeps in sometimes, and everybody is just too afraid of him to wake him up so he is genuinely late and just happens to be scary enough to make it work for him

Since he's so imposing and stuff his entrance is always dramatic to the rest (they think he’s fashionably late on purpose), meanwhile he’s like,, ‘uh oh’

Bonus points for Abyss Creature/Cosmic Horror!Capi who can't be bothered to give a shit about time in general and finds the concept useless at best, since he's ageless and all that

[gravemud]

Silent Chaos

[chimeride]