#normal stoat just looks

[kitrant]

I recently remembered how much I loved inscryption so I’m planning on making a couple cards via traditional printing, here are the bases i’ve made for the first batch

[cyber-himbo]

really quick tula burrows end doodle because shes my favorite

[puppyeared]

Xin Ya is so cute and well designed! more a question than a comment but I just love your style

thank u!! im currently redoing bits of their backstory and design so hopefully ill get some more art of them up soon

[secondhandjokess]

Does anyone else think Aabria's make up is building to something?? Obviously it's normal for her to make big make up choices when she DMs and also for it to get progressively bigger over the course of the series (see that awesome growing headpiece that grew into gluing moss bits to her face too in ACoFaF) but usually I can tell how her make up choices are in line with the general vibe or aesthetic of the setting, but in Burrow's End it looks increasingly like she has a Rothko painting on her face???? Like don't get me wrong it's bold in a good way, it's just that I keep looking at it trying to piece things together, wondering what postmodern abstract art has to do with stoats or if it's just. Aabria likes red and blue this season and I should stop asking questions

[evilminji]

Back at it again with the BNHA crossover Ponderings!

Nedzu is LITERALLY one of THE smartest beings on the planet, right? Like... he's probably on some internationally recognized list of Top Planetary IQs? Which is why Japan let's him get away with so much?

Cause they REALLY fucked him over, he has the power to leave, and that would be really, REALLY bad Brain Drain wise/politically for the Japanese Government? (Also pls don't become a Supervillian we literally can not afford that, Mr. Nedzu Sir? Etc etc)

You think he has... like? Chats? With the OTHER top intellects? Some kid in Siberia with the New Super Intelligence Quirk his parents can't begin to even handle, gets put in history's WEIRDEST group chat? I like to think so.

But the REASON I ask this?

What hero do you call? For Weird Shit in international waters?

Suspicious, floating, weirdly two dimensional and HIGHLY radioactive... corrosive... green goop? Rings? Orbs? CAN it be an orb if it's two dimensional? It certainly LOOKS like there is depth to it... somehow...

A THING. In the sky.

Shouldn't be there, man. This is a shipping lane. It's scaring the people on passing ships. No one knows what Quirk could have made this. Might be a trafficking victim's call for help. Might be a first Quirk Use mishap. They need to know what it IS and how to get rid of it.

They go the normal routes first. Doesn't work. Okay, call in some professionals. Kinda pricey, but no big. Right? Doesn't work. Okaaaay, call in a SPECIALIST. REAL pricey, but this thing is holding up international trade, making people in fancy ass suit all Nervous(TM).

Doesn't Work.

Specialist tells um to not to bother with calling anyone else on their normal list. Is looking at the green goo like it spat on his mother and called his dog a whore. They would prefer he NOT make that facial expression. That is a facial expression that will get them yelled at by their bosses. Fuck(TM).

Now Politics(TM) are involved. People want to STUDY the green goo. Harness it for dubious and unknown green goo experiments. Poke it with their Quirk to see what'll happen. There's fuckin REPORTER with no concept of self-preservation, trying to get CLOSER to the RADIOACTIVE POISON GOO.

Fuckin Heros have shown up.

Why are you bastards even HERE. What? Are you peacocks gonna PUNCH it? Get off their rig! Stop posing in front of the GOO!

Then? Oh thank GOD. The SMART people show up. Certified, highest grade, triple refined, PREMIUM Nerds(TM). The WAY above our pay grade folks. We're SAVED! Can we PLEASE go home now? We are just ocean cleaners! Our job is debris! Not weird GOO!

Enter, stage Super Cool Helicopters? The Elite Nerds of Earth. Of which Nedzu is one. Since Japan is closest. And it's a school weekend! He had some time.

And?

Ha ha... Thanks, he hates it! Nedzu's stoat brain is SCREAMING and he wants NOTHING to do with...? What he is somehow CERTAIN is a floating pit of Death! Interesting effect. Anyone getting that or just him?

Then? Some hot head on loan to Korea from the states? Spots something. SomeONE. And does he TELL the newly arrived professionals? So they may do a risk assessment? Figure out a way to rescue this individual SAFELY? Of course not!

Said hot head has supposedly indescribable chains! So he just flings them rights on in! Grabbing the boy from the center of the portal, pulling him free, and in the process? Immediately destabilizing it. Causing it to collapse down towards everyone bellow.

He also then proceeds to DROP the young lad, in his alarm at this entirely predictable outcome.

Right. Into. The Ocean.

A boy, who is dressed in filthy medical scrubs, haunting familiar in a way nothing should EVER be again, and entirely unconscious. Plunge down into the briny deeps and bitter cold. Alone. Abandoned. Death, thick and viscous, losing form and raining down like bile.

Everyone saving themselves.

Ah, he rather liked this suit.

The salt water ruins it. The droplets of Green, burn like molten glass each time they touch him. He will likely have at least a few new scars, after today. Assuming this is not the end of him. But he swims fast. The boy sinking slower then his size would suggest he should. He grabs hold and arcs, dragging them both from beneath the fallout of yet another humans hubris.

He does not stop swimming. Not until he knows he is near the helicopter. He is thankful, that he dragged Aizawa along. The man takes one look at his serious expression, the state of his rescued young friend, and merely hauls them both out of the water and into the machine.

Time to go.

They saw nothing, it seems. And there is nothing to be found.

The boy does not wake. Not for quite a while. Long enough, that Nedzu, perhaps unwisely, has grown attached. Is considering adoption. If only too terrorize a few goverment bodies. And... well... the boy will need some who UNDERSTANDS. And the scars paint a very specific sort of tale. But first, the most important question, when beginning these things...

"Tea? Or would you prefer coffee?"

@the-witchhunter @mutable-manifestation @hypewinter @hdgnj

[kelocitta]

Hey I was just wanting to ask if you some tips on drawing Slugcat legs. I really want to be able to draw these little cuties and I have everything else done but the legs (specifically poses and action) is really tough for me

It'll depend heavily on how you actually wanna do their legs, but since your asking me I'll assume you like how i do them- I draw them digitigrade when in motion, which basically means that the weight of the animal is carried on the on the toes (the other is plantigrade, which means the back of the foot makes contact with the ground when moving.) This is important since it changes how the leg tends to be formed and rest, but slugcats have a lot of flexibility here.

The other thing to keep in mind is that slugcats are *sleek* and tend to be smooth no matter what pose they're in, so you can hide the specifics of the legs under this and squash and stretch them as you see fit. Think about how fur or feathers tend to hide exactly how the body looks (and thats why so many animals look weird when wet and all that stuff lays flat) As for how I do it, I try to keep slugcats to a tube or triangle shape with most of the weight/fat being in the hips and tail. In most cases, you can get away with just imaging the leg as a flexible ball, and treat the foot as a point (like your pulling on a water balloon). The further the foot from the body, the more that ball stretches. The specifics of whats going *on* in the ball can be hidden unless its its really stretched out

Mentally I don't put much thought into it, but if you need more structure think of the bones of the leg as three sections- the foot, fibula/tibia (Lower leg bones) and femur (Upper leg bone/thigh). Digitigrade and plantigrade tend to favor certain positioning, but ultimately the only major focus is on how the foot functions. Digitigrade in particular tends to favor this sort of 'z' formation even when fully stretched (Humans, in contrast, are plantigrade, and our legs can be fully straighten out even if they still fold the same way). So if your going for that you'll always want to keep a bit of a 'z' shape even if your stretching it waaay out. When at rest, I keep the foot of the slugcat flat. But anytime it's in motion or would be active they shift weight to their toes. You could keep them fully plantigrade, but personally I think digitigrade allows for easier shows of motion and more natural looking action shots with the upright posture if you dont want to stretch the leg out fully. Also i just like the look of it more. (If you want to get into biology more, this would normally be hard on the legs weight-wise, but I like to imagine slugcats are mixed tripedal rather than strict bipeds, and make use of their tails as a third grounding point.)

And heres a very quick run over some of the official cutscenes to show similar:

I personally just wing it when it comes to the sizes of those sections, but a general rule of thumb is that everything gets shorter as you go down- the upper leg has the longest bones, then the middle leg, then the foot. A lot of that is hidden in the body of the slugcat, but keeping that in mind might help keep the leg length feeling natural. (But the biggest secret is that your drawing a fake, stretchy blobby animal so you can bs a lot and be imperfect and honestly just do whatever in a lot of cases and not end up with something that noticeably wrong. This DOES get a little harder if you draw them more lithe or cat like, just because that exposes the leg more) And lastly, if cutscene art isnt helping and you might benefit from a real life reference- rather than using an actual cat I would actually recommend mustelid like a ferret, otter or stoat. They're plantigrade rather than digitigrade, but their form and posturing is a little bit closer to the slugcat and it might help with visualizing the way the legs can sink into the body. I will give a heads up that these are little predators so general search results do tend to show them hunting small animals like mice, if your sensitive to that stick to domestic ferrets for safer results.

Just remember to fatten them up- they're way longer and thinner than slugcats are

[sebastianswallows]

The English Client — One

— PAIRING: Tom Riddle x F!Reader

— SYNOPSIS: The year is 1952. Tom is working for Borgin and Burkes. He is sent to Rome to acquire three ancient books of magic by any means necessary. One in particular proves challenging to reach, and the only path forward is through a pretty, young bookseller. A foreigner like him, she lives alone, obsessed with her work... until Tom comes into her life.

— WARNINGS: none for this chapter, just Tom being grumpy and hating the world

— WORDCOUNT: 3k

— A/N: This is a fic that was commissioned by @localravenclaw as a gift for @esolean 💕 It's going to be a bit of a rollercoaster, with angst and fluff and smut galore. I plan to post twice a week, Mondays and Fridays. I had a lot of fun writing it, and I hope you will have fun reading it, my dears! 💚

I

Tom was twenty-five. It had been seven years since he graduated from Hogwarts, and just as many since he started working at Borgin and Burkes. Now, he found himself in a sweltering place with the world passing him by. Trapped, for his sins, in a moving metal coffin. If this was hell, it looked like rolling hills, houses nestled in the fog, narrow rows of poplars and puffs of grazing sheep, all set to the tune of clinking chains and carriage shuffles. He hated this assignment.

After taking the train from London to Dover, he caught the ferry that sailed to Calais, and from there took a series of coaches and trains meant to take him on to Italy. To Rome. They had just stopped in Lyon to pick up more passengers, and now they were on their way again.

He had fought with Burke regarding the logistics of the whole thing. Why couldn’t he just use Floo like a normal wizard? But the miserable old stoat said he’d sooner trust muggle transportation than Tom’s pronunciation of Italian or French — and besides, was Floo even networked all the way down there? It didn’t matter anymore.

Tom was convinced it was all done to save costs, and perhaps for Burke to not have to call in any favours. So off he went with one measly suitcase and two billfolds of franks and lira — all of which were merely enchanted oak leaves. They would inevitably transfigure back to their original form in a couple of weeks or so, but by then Tom should be long gone. Who said money didn’t grow on trees?

He tried to distract himself from all this misery by checking his notes again. His little book cracked open, snapping at the spine, and its insides were revealed to him like a cadaver cut through with a black spidery scrawl. It was a list of books and authors, with observations added vertically on the side to save space.

“The Secrets of Wisdom, N. Tamisso 1650 — high priority, any edition. The Lost Word, B. Trevisan 1661 — low priority, optional. Delomelanicon (or The Invocation of Darkness), A. Torchia 1666 — first edition, mandatory.” The latter word was underlined three times. His notes continued with the instructions Burke had given. “Check the rare book dealers, antiquaries, private collectors if necessary. If you can not find it, find out who can. If they will not sell it, take it anyway.”

Tom’s lip curled. Whatever joy there was in being away from the squalor of Knockturn Alley was soiled by what he had to do in Rome. It wasn’t the books he minded, and in fact, he quite admired Burke’s taste in this matter. But to be flung so far away from home on such short notice, and for such a length of time, was pitiful to him. The heir of Slytherin turned errand boy…

“Excuse-moi, est-ce que — Oh, bonjour.”

Tom turned his frown toward the sliding doors of the compartment, between which stood a young man in his twenties. Lanky brown locks fell into his eyes veiling the crinkles of a smile.

“Yes?” sighed Tom.

“I was wondering if this was free,” said the boy. And without waiting for an answer, he dragged his luggage inside — three suitcases, all leather with copper fittings looking ready to burst — and closed the doors behind him.

“I suppose it is,” mumbled Tom. He subtly closed his notebook and tucked it back into the messenger bag at his feet while he kept track of the stranger from the corner of his eyes.

The fine quality of the newcomer’s clothes was somewhat disguised by how carelessly they hung around him. His white and starched shirt was loosened at the top, revealing a hint of tanned skin sprinkled with sparse curls. A golden pin kept a red and blue striped tie affixed to it, and around his pinky finger was a silver ring thickly laid with marcasites and crowned with a malachite stone. His lips were full and purple-stained from wine. His eyes were a bright blue. Judging by his pressed trousers and clean leather shoes, he was a gentleman who had arrived at the station by car — or, at least, he was the spoilt brat of one.

“Clement,” the boy grinned, extending his hand.

“Tom,” he replied, giving him a firm, brief shake.

“I’m on my way to Rome!” Clement sighed, plopping down onto the seat opposite him. Almost immediately, he cracked open a cigarette case and started fishing for a lighter in his trouser pocket. His luggage lay strewn all around the floor, suitcases filled with junk, no doubt. “You?”

“The same,” Tom said and instantly regretted sharing anything at all. With people like these — the overly friendly types — it was best to not encourage conversation.

“Oh, magnificent. Vacation?”

“Work.”

“How sad,” tutted Clement as he popped a cigarette between his lips. He offered one to Tom as well.

“Don’t smoke.”

“Ah.”

He closed the case with a loud click and set it on the table between them. With a smooth, almost theatrical motion, he lit up his pocket lighter — silver, older than him, probably an heirloom, engraved with an elaborate floral motif featuring a fleur-de-lis — and let the flame dance on the tip of his cigarette until he was satisfied.

“Don’t talk much, either,” the boy chuckled. He kept his eyes on Tom as he took a drag, then started puffing away without a care. He attempted to blow rings of smoke but failed. “What do you use your mouth for, then?”

“Cursing, mostly.”

Clement laughed. “The same!”

Tom doubted it.

The compartment soon filled with smoke, and the narrow window open at the top only made it dance around inside. The muggy summer fumes were driving Tom to madness already, and he could only hope the train moved fast enough to clear the air. But as they went further into the rural parts of France, the scent of sheep took over. Maybe it’s not too late to try to Apparate directly at the station, he thought.

“So, what do you do?” asked the French boy, vowels gliding altogether in one breath between his lips. His arm extended elegantly to tap the ash into a cheap tray by the window.

It took Tom a moment to look at him and answer. “I’m in, er, publishing.”

“Truly?” he said, excited enough to lean over the table. “That’s magnificent. I intend to be published too.”

“Oh? What do you write?”

“Poesies.”

“Poetry? Ah, not my area, I’m afraid.”

“But you must know some people…”

Tom wanted to tell him that if he were any good he’d have found a publisher already, but intuition told him to temper himself.

“I might,” he said, “but I’m afraid I’m full up at the moment.”

The boy puffed away nervously as he tapped the round gemstone of his ring against the window, and kept his eyes on him. Tom turned to watch the view rolling past them, seeing without seeing. The sensation of being watched was as familiar as it was discomforting. It crawled down his thin cheeks, his narrow neck, and from there sank into his clothes like sweat. He gazed briefly at the tapping ring from the corner of his eyes in irritation, before focusing away again. For a few moments, he thought he’d successfully ended their conversation.

“Well, I’m in show business,” Clement said instead, grinning brilliantly. There was a gap between his first incisors that made him look boyish and pure. “Theatre.”

“Your parents must be very happy.”

“No,” he laughed. “Miserable. But,” he shrugged, “it is not their decision.”

Tom hummed and said nothing else.

“Your parents are happy with your job, no? You go on important business trips to France, to Rome, and… erm. Well, it is a good job, for sure. Makes them proud, yes?”

Whatever sunshine beamed through the window was chilled and clouded by the glare in Tom’s dark eyes. Why did this bothersome Frenchman have to talk to him? He wasn’t going to keep doing it the whole way to Rome, surely…

“I wouldn’t know,” he finally said. “They’re dead.”

“Oh… Oh, I am so sorry...”

“I’m not,” he mumbled. He didn’t think Clement had heard him, but he wouldn’t care even if he did.

The boy pulled the ashtray closer and put out his cigarette, then leaned his head against the glass. Fidgeting, he held the silver case in his hands and clicked it open and closed, open and closed… He did that for quite a while.

Tom could feel him staring. Could even sense to some extent the messy thoughts inside that head: curiosity, intrigue, and joy.

What could be joyful about that moment?

Well, if Tom was being honest, this wasn’t the first time he’d had such an effect on people. Memories of Burke’s clients came back to him accompanied by the customary shiver down his spine. Clement had the same flippant merriment about him that all the others did, those careless old witches and wizards. That unguarded look of innocence surrounded by the fog of greed. An airy absence of thought and feeling. Must’ve been the side effect of all that money.

Tom had once envied such people. Had even flattered himself with the knowledge that he, however distantly, was one of them. What greater destiny than to be born to glorious old blood? What greater tragedy than to be fallen from it…? He could even remember, with much clarity and shame, how he’d spent several months during his third year obsessing over the Gaunts and Riddles, chasing up on genealogies, and smattering the back pages of his diary with heraldic designs.

But the more he understood the upper classes — their uselessness, their inborn idiocy, their paradoxical sense of superiority which stood impervious to anything reality threw at them — the more he grew to hate them.

“I am sorry if I offended…” said Clement rather softly. “Sometimes, I talk too much.”

“Oh, really? I didn’t notice.”

“No, but I do, I do…”

Tom had overshot his subtleties, apparently.

“So you are not happy with your job? Forgive me for asking…”

“No, it’s quite alright.”

“A pity, you know…”

“Why?”

“To not like it.”

“Oh, it’s not too much trouble most of the time. Why? Do you like your job?”

“But of course!” he said, blue eyes twinkling.

Tom cast a scathing look his way. How strange… He couldn’t imagine enjoying any form of employment — other than the coveted post of DADA professor at Hogwarts.

“Why are you in Rome, then?” Tom asked.

“On vacation. I am, erm, meeting a friend,” he whispered with a grin.

“A girlfriend?” asked Tom with a smirk.

Clement shook his head and giggled. “A boy friend.”

Tom’s brows nearly reached his hairline. He’d never heard of such things being bandied about quite that openly before, at least not in England. Clement seemed not to care. Must’ve been a habit of his, as he seemed to not care about much at all other than enjoying life.

“You have a fun vacation ahead of you, then.”

“More than you know,” he winked.

Tom curled his nose at that and sat back, away from the whole conversation. But Clement leaned closer, arms braced over the table lazily, eyes flashing excitedly.

“We will rob this old fool, and run with his money.”

That captured Tom’s attention again. The boy was waiting eagerly for his reaction, and not a thought ran through his head that Tom might’ve been untrustworthy. Of course, far be it from him to ruin someone else’s fun, but the scenario Clement proposed was too absurd to be believed.

So what else could Tom do but laugh? The sound of it filled the cabin, and so out of use were those muscles that his cheeks began to ache. The sight of it seemed to delight young Clement. He leaned back and gave another one of his brilliant smiles.

“You can join us, if you like,” he offered smoothly.

“Sorry,” said Tom, his cheeks still flushed. “My schedule is full.”

“Oh, pity, pity… You would like my friend, I think. His name is Donatien. He is more serious, like you.”

“Is that so,” said Tom distractedly.

“By the way, what is your hotel?”

II

They entered Rome on a train that ran six hours late, and wobbled on its tracks, and stank of mouldy cheese and wine rust.

Clement talked most of the way there, and seemed to be satisfied with Tom mostly reacting with brief hums and tilted smiles. They even exchanged gifts. The French boy was enchanted by what was, in Tom’s estimation, a fairly average switchblade. He’d only taken it out to peel an orange. It was something he’d bought in London right before his seventh year, and although it was quite plain, it did have some delicate embellishments on its ivory handle of two writhing snakes. That seemed to appeal to Clement, who offered his own blade in exchange — a Swiss army knife that also had a screwdriver and bottle opener tucked in its red body. Considering it a more efficient deal, Tom shrugged and accepted the trade.

Faint details came up now and then about his plans with this Donatien, but most of it was lost in smoke and loud metallic rattles. As much as Tom hated flying on brooms, even he could agree it would’ve been preferable to this…

But at least he didn’t have to fear any Ministry or Aurors in these parts. Not any that were familiar with him, anyway. The Italians had their own Ministry of Magic, of course, but it was all the way down in Mirto, Sicily, and foreigners were a low priority for them. There were so many people from all over the world in Italy those days that it wasn’t worth keeping track of them all, or at least so Burke had told him.

The train slowed and pulled into the station, and pulled, and pulled… It groaned as if in pain. Clement took the jolt of inertia as it all came to a stop with cheerful clapping, and promptly got up to collect his bags.

“So, we are agreed?”

“Absolutely not agreed. Besides, I doubt my lodgings would be to your taste.”

“Ah Tom, you do not know my taste!”

“Very well, but best keep your complaints to a minimum once we get there.”

They struggled to get everything off the train with four suitcases between them. Tom was travelling light with just the one, about which Clement made some snide comment that he soon forgot, but he helped him anyway. His own belongings consisted of plain muggle clothes and some books that Burke wished him to barter with, if it came to that. Between the lines, and between Burke’s sparse and slimy brows, Tom understood he was expected to use his charms to get a bargain price — as per usual — but he did not intend to let some fat old antiquary put his grimy hands on him. Not this time. Besides, conversing with Clement had stained his dignity enough.

Being away on the continent had one advantage, at least: he was no longer under the vulturous watch of his employer.

Tom stepped out onto the platform, muscles sore from days of sitting down, and looked ahead as if he knew where he was going. People were chatting all around him, filling the cool hall with murmurs all the way up to its dome — some in German, some in French, others in variously accented English. Tom wiped the sweat off his brow with his sleeve and picked up his suitcase to follow Clement, who was hunting for a trolley to load his luggage onto.

As soon as they stepped out onto the street, the heat of Rome in August hit Tom in the face like an oven door and he, frail and pallid thing, was not prepared for it. He squinted in displeasure, to Clement’s great amusement.

“This way, Tom!” he said as he popped on a pair of sunglasses. “I see a taxi!”

Tom had spent most of the journey brushing up on his Italian with the help of a conversation guide he picked up at the Gare du Nord. His extensive knowledge of Latin came in pretty handy. But now that he saw Clement handle things, perhaps he needn’t have bothered. His companion could easily direct the driver to the dingy old hotel Tom was staying at, the Gallienus on Via Domenichino, and chatted a bit more besides.

“Vacation in Rome often, then?” he asked.

“I just know some phrases,” Clement smiled. “You don’t need much with these people.”

The driver pretended not to understand the slight.

“Where do you want to have lunch, then?” Clement asked.

“Lunch? I’m certainly not in the mood, not now.”

“Oh come ooon…”

“You can eat on your own.”

“We can leave our stuff and take the taxi to this place I know on Via della Mercede. They make the best seafood, the best!”

It had not been until now, with this journey to somewhere far away, that Tom realised how limited his world had been at Hogwarts. He’d once felt equal parts ashamed and at a strange advantage next to the other Slytherins, his peers, all purebloods, for knowing both the magical and muggle worlds. Now, exiled for this assignment among strangers, it seemed to Tom as if he were starting life all over again. He looked out the window and everything was new, everything was strange. The buildings, the street, the people, even the clothes were different. The city, like London, was massive, but the streets were broader, blazing white. Some disappeared into little alleyways that slithered like dark serpents. Tom could easily see himself getting lost in such a place.

It was… humbling. He didn’t like it.

[a-twistedheartslonging]

Floyd: aaaw, what a cute weasel!

Riddle: *foaming at the mouth in rage and shaking in Floyd’s grip*

Imagine how CUTE riddle is a stoat, that motherfucker puts the fear of god in any mammal 10 times his size that is not powerful or strong enough to do something about it.

Also, what if Yuu was just really likes play fighting? Imagine them going “brb gonna see if anyone in the Savannah lounge wants to throw me to a wall” and everyone is just “do fucking NOT”

Like, they’ve been injured in the past by playfighting with various dorms that just eventually toned it down a lot, except Savannah Claw, which is why it’s their fav.

Like, Yuu looks calm and composed, they speak very clear to understand and actually evade fighting seriously with students.

But Play fighting??? 👀

Play fighting is just such a normal and common thing for so many animal's. Though i think at least some of the guys are going to be hesitent since...you know..small weak human.

But aaaaaah getting to pin and bite the human would be so much fun. Research the weaknesses of the type of beast you are fighting and you might be able to win by jabbing in the right places, remember, the mers weak spot is the ribs.

Plus, if you do get hurt a common thing do to as an apology is licking the area they hurt you, which is gonna tickle.

[cosmos-dot-semicolon]

Act 1, and Leshy's relationships with the other Scrybes

There was a post on here a while ago about Leshy outright hating Magnificus more than P03, and one interesting observation was that he cuts the Wolf's stats, but boosts the Stoat's. I think there's more you can gather from Leshy designing around the other Scrybes, though:

GRIMORA:

Leshy seems to be the most amiable with Grimora. Yes, I think this probably comes a bit from the dev finding their aesthetics and gameplay styles easier to pair up, but I think's its also a little bit because she values fun quite strongly, which meshes well with his focus on lore: both things that aren't purely gameplay based unlike the weirder mechanics of the west-side Scrybes.

Similar to Leshy in act 2, none of her puzzles really cause any harm to her subordinates. It's meant to be some fun flavour plot for the player to engage their brains with before the battles. Honestly, the amount of times she says 'Marvelous!' alone should convince you of her priorities (outside of destroying the world!)

Leshy goes out of his way to design a totally new card for Grimora, which doesn't appear anywhere in act 2 or Kaycee's mod.

It's the only one with a sigil on it - it's a fragile card, but it requires more actual strategy than playing the non-sigil Wolf and Stoat.

One line of dialogue remarks that he wishes he had kept Grimora around, as she was at least a worthy challenger.

He says that the Stinkbug is weak, but other than that accepts you having it in your deck. Compare that to him absolutely hating the Stunted Wolf on sight.

If you look closely in the finale, Grimora has an insect crawling across the table in her campaign. I don't know if it's really a stinkbug, persay, but it's an interesting parallel to his choice of her species.

Someone has said before that there are notably more insect cards than any other species in act 1, which also plays into him being closer to her than the others.

Bones are literally the secondary currency in his campaign, whereas energy doesn't appear at all, and sigils are limited to a single map event.

stinkyyyy

MAGNIFICUS:

Between Leshy actively saying he hates Mag's card once you first get it (versus one line about the Stinkbug being weak), and him literally stabbing the guy's eye out, it's safe to say Leshy fucking hates this guy. I've seen different theories on this, between the clashing gameplay and Leshy being kinder to his subordinates, but the one I've thought was the most interesting was that Magnificus is arguably, the most powerful Scrybe.

He's the only one who does have a plan to get Leshy's takeover back to normal, and the other two Scrybes are desperate for you to find him in act 1 because of it. He has future vision, he writes letters to the others warning about potential takeovers, and you never see him scrounge for the OLD_DATA. correction in reblogs: i think it is mentioned that he has

I've always read Leshy's feelings towards Mag as jealousy, mixed with clashing ideologies. I don't think there's a single moment where the two agree on anything outside of act 3.

I don't have much to say on his card, gameplay-wise, as you get it very late. Honestly most of the Stunted Wolf's design is just foreshadowing that Leshy beat this guy up and stabbed out his eye, lmao, but it's still interesting to note that:

The Stunted Wolf is one of those cards that's a variant of another one (i.e. Wolf Cub/Wolf, Mantis God/Mantis), but it's notably the only one whose stats are worse than its predecessor.

At the same time, it only costs one blood, and it's the only 2-attack card to have that. Gameplay wise, this is to balance things out, but it hints towards Magnificus having been much more powerful in the past. Like it makes you ponder how fucking good it would be to start off with a one-blood 3-2 card.

Magnificus's only other gameplay feature in act 1 is the sacrificial alters (given his association with magic and sigils). These are fucking busted. God I wish I could have four sigils on a card in Kaycee's mod.

P03:

Leshy seems to not think very much of P03 (both in the sense of not acknowledging it and thinking it's not a good designer), but doesn't seem completely unwilling to work with him. I'd argue he's not really hostile towards P03, just very aggressively trying to push it into his own ideal of the world.

In Kaycee's mod, Leshy refers to him as a rival and not an enemy, which I think gives a good basis for interpreting how he views it. P03's breakup speech snapping at Leshy in act 2 is ultimately what gets him to question his intentions at all.

The mention that the stoat's suffering was real during the tutorial isn't really ever brought up again by Leshy. It's interesting to think about in hindsight, given that P03 being a robot means its the least likely to have experienced pain out of the four.

Combined with P03's remark that Leshy keeps him around just to suffer, and the later remark in act 2 that he thinks that it is noble to be a beast card, "even one as lowly as a stoat," this implies that Leshy's at the very least trying to get P03 used to his world, and almost hopes that he'll come to like it.

The unbuffed stoat is a really terrible card. All the 1-2 cards have some sort of gimmick to them to make them playable, but the normal stoat just doesn't at all. The buff to 1-3 is a gift from Leshy to P03, despite everything. It implies he at least thinks there's something that can be salvaged between them, in his own view.

And like. The buffed stoat is so so useful in act 1. The extra HP means it can take a hit from so many more cards and it's a solid foundation for basically any run.

The stoat's the only one of the talking cards without an animal family. Of course it is! Nature and technology are usually thematic opposites, especially compared to magic and death. P03 doesn't fit in here, but Leshy is still clearly trying to make it a foundational card in his campaign.

[ceruleanwhore]

People have talked about how a lot of the Ikemen games give all the suitors pets, so I thought I’d make a post of what pets I think the ikepri guys would have. 

WARNING: there’s a spoiler about Gilbert at the end, but the kind where you’d probably have to look something up to know what it is. Take that as you will.

Jin would absolutely have a small monkey that he’d wear on his shoulder into town as another way to pick up women. I could also see him training said monkey to steal little things from particular people he points out both as a way to get stuff from people for like his job but also as another, more contrived way to get women to talk to him. Think about it: Jin having his pet monkey steal a beautiful woman’s scarf so she has to chase it back to him and then he pretends to be surprised and disappointed that his pet did that and returns the object to its owner who now is falling for his charm and starting to think that maybe the monkey isn’t so bad.

Chevalier would have a cat because, as Sebastian from Black Butler once said, they do not say useless things or do them, plus they tend to be independent, clean, and kill vermin. He’d manage to find a cat that’s pretty much silent and never meows and also is fairly independent so, aside from occasionally curling up on Chev’s lap (silently) while he’s reading, it doesn’t require much from him.

Clavis would get a loud, messy dog like a rat terrier or a hound that he would deliberately not train to get rid of those typically undesirable behaviors because he likes the chaos and it annoys Chev and Sariel.

Leon would have a peregrine falcon. In older times, like the sort of time period ikepri is set in, there was a hierarchy of which birds of prey guys could have depending on what their title was as royalty or nobility, and princes got peregrines, so I think that’s appropriate.

Yves would have some kind of bird, I’m thinking a rosy-faced lovebird. I could see it being a gift one of his brothers brought back for him from another country where they’re native, since it seemed that Yves could use a friend.

Licht would have an Irish wolfhound that he’d take for very long walks every morning at some ungodly hour when normal people are asleep.

Nokto would have a ferret. Being as clever as he is, he’d do well with an equally clever pet, plus he’ll be able to properly care for it and train it. I could see him teaching his ferret a bunch of tricks, including sneaking into locked rooms and unlocking doors from the inside.

Luke would have a fucking badger. Idk it just makes sense to me.

Sariel wouldn’t have a pet of his own but, since the king’s death, he would take over the duties of caring for the late king’s gyrfalcon until a new king is chosen and that bird then goes to whoever Emma picks to be the next king. This is also coming from that bird hierarchy I mentioned with Leon.

Rio would have a bunny because it reminds him of Emma. He is a golden retriever, so it wouldn’t make sense for him to then get a dog, but something that reminds him of his beloved Emma makes sense for him. He’d ‘joke’ about how it’s to keep him company while she’s at work and how he pretends it’s her and they have long conversations or whatever.

Silvio would have something really small and cute like a stoat that’s like the dead opposite of Silvio. He would’ve rescued it somehow and from there he’s just really attached to it and protective of it.

Keith would be really fond of the fish in the pond at the Jade palace and that’s as close as he gets to having a pet because he’s a sad boi who doesn’t trust himself not to hurt the things and people he loves.

Gilbert would have a golden eagle (more of that bird stuff) and he would 1000% keep that secret from anyone outside the Obsidian royal palace, because it’s a giveaway of who he really is. Also, I feel like he would actually have a close relationship with his bird, plus I do think rather than using the bird for hunting like actual royalty did, he would use it to intimidate people and also to send messages occasionally.

[cpu-gpu-smackdown]

P03 (Inscryption) VS Squid (Will You Snail?)

About P03: WEIRD OLD MAN!!! Look at his faces!! His design!! This thing has the energy of a computer who has gone though a divorce and only drinks energy drinks mixed with coffee and orange juice!!! He was also a weird stoat (???) and may or may not be a hacker (just like a certain cat expect P03 just hates everyone also he isnt swag) HE IS PATHETIC!! HE HAS A CRANK TOO LIKE THOSE OLD FUCKING FLASHLIGHTS AND UIJKBUYDGHAIJMKLDNBHVBGUK

About Squid: this guy is a total fucking goofball, like oh my god - okay, he *might* want to obliterate humanity, but! he's funny! he makes jokes! he interacts with the player! he makes fun of you for dying! he's pink!!! he's got a dumb face but he's really good and i like him a normal amount

[the-irken-pony]

Okay but. A THSC/Inscryption crossover is So Cool and has a LOT of potential. Like Henry could 100% fill Luke's role with ease, he's the kinda idiot to go do that shit but SURVIVE actually. Alternatively, THSC characters filling the Scrybe roles? *chefs kiss*

Ooooh, YES

I just have this idea of a post-T4L thing like

Reginald goes missing without any sign of what happened, and Henry and RHM spend months trying to find him. Then someone makes a comment about how “last time I saw him he was heading to the computer room to play that weird game”, and Henry and RHM start to wonder if the game is at all connected to Reginald’s disappearance considering they found it through dubious methods (same way Luke did).

As it turns out the floppy disk is still in the computer after all this time. Since the Right Hand Man is a cyborg, the two of them decide to upload his consciousness into the game to try and look for Reginald (listen their designated brain cell went missing).

So, RHM takes the role of the player character and has in-game control, Henry takes the role of Luke and has outside control through menus, and because RHM’s body is still outside they’re still able to communicate. No one takes the role of Amanda because the Toppat Clan isn’t dumb enough to tell anyone that they stole something.

Because of the nature of Inscryption being a deck builder game, the two had some difficulty. By which I means multitude of deaths. RHM’s cybernetics have some pretty hefty antivirus and firewall software, so he’s protected from in-game death (being how he remembers everything and still has the camera roll. He can still make death cards though (even if they all look the same) and he and Henry have fun making the most busted cards they can.

After the first death, when Leshy introduces bones, he gives them the opossum card. In the following battle, they discover this to be another talking card. Yes, this card is Reginald. Same stats as the death card, but in the Opossum card rather than a death card (two bones rather than three + no sigil). The stoat gives him shit for being cocky and Reginald finds its nagging and nitpicking annoying. It’s through this exchange that Henry and RHM find out what exactly happened to Reginald in the first place (finding himself trapped in the game and losing a game to Leshy).

Things progress mostly as normal from this point on for act 1: they try to figure out how to beat Leshy, hoping that doing so will solve their problems. Meanwhile all Reginald can do is talk to the other talking cards & RHM.

But then Act 2 hits and they realize there's more to deal with.

Reginald is briefly missing but he's found easily enough (and is actually himself this time), and tags along. He can't play the game himself like RHM and Henry can but he can give commentary here and there. He wanted them to collect as many Mox cards as possible in the hopes that they could take their gems back to the real world, to which he got a "look" from RHM.

Act 3 comes around and Reginald becomes a talking card again, this time called Copperbot, with the Cowardly sigil (whenever an enemy would attack he moves into an empty space, if the option is available). RHM is strapped to the table for the first bit and is unable to leave the game until he's released.

No one dies at the end but they're eventually able to get Reginald out and the three of them all have a long nap afterwards skjfhskjf

Uhhhh fuck I don't have more ideas from this point on but here's what all I have, I'm a little bit insane about it

[alias-milamber]

It's been a bit of a strange day, and I just got home. It started off not bad for my first day back, I brewed up some coffee with cinnamon and hickory and a drop of honey, and read a chapter of my book over breakfast. For some reason the internet was out, and resetting the router didn't help, so I resolved myself to a fate of working from the office today, and - suited and booted - set out for the day.

The first hint that today wasn't going to be my day was that the floor of the lift was caked in something slick and smooth with a crust that broke easily under my boot. It smelt kind of familiar, but it wasn't until we got to the the ground floor and a lake of molten butter rose over my toecaps that I recognised what it was. The ground floor of the block of flats was apparently flooded with it, and it became both more and less understandable when I discovered the entire tower block had been subsumed into a seventeen story stalk of steamed asparagus.

The city had again slipped into the Fae overnight, for reasons I'm sure I'd find out when I could get a signal. The tower next door was a mushroom, and the cap was shading both the buildings from the glass blue sky in a way that felt a lot like the light levels of a british winter, which explained part of why I hadn't noticed, but observation before coffee was never my strong point. I sighed, started a timer for my commute so I could claim back gelt for the inconvenience from the embassy to the courts, and walked down the street to where I hoped my local coffee shop still was.

It wasn't. In its place was a generic Starpucks, with some alacritic humanoids behind the counter, cheerfully serving lattes precisely as ordered. A basket of home made fudge smelt delightful on the counter, but with the "Free" prefix to "Samples" carefully folded behind the display. I took a photo and sent it to the embassy's entrapment division with a note, mentioning that the person with a stoat for a head doing the washing up in the back indicated that this was almost certainly an active trap.

I bought my coffee and a pastry, declined any "free" extras, and exchanged a trinket for the wifi password. VPN very carefully engaged, I checked the news and local transport sites to see if there was a viable route to the office today. There was, but I wasn't going to like it.

I have never ridden a giant ladybird before. The last time they'd replaced the bus network, I'd been able to take a work from home day, but today I wasn't quite so lucky. They were relatively docile, and the harnesses well-fitted, but I'm far to wary of heights to be able to give a good description of the transformed city from above due to the overwhelming amount of "down" it contained. What it lacked in normality it more than made up with speed, however, and I got to the business park in record time.

The agency who run the business park were hastily putting up flower circles around the buildings, indicating they'd reached an agreement with the local gentry. My building was still only 80% complete, however, so it was with trepidation that I swiped my pass through the gates.

Apart from the building floors being now named after russian authors, everything seemed to be fine, and it was with a misplaced optimism that I got in the elevator to Tolstoy.

A bright light and enormous heat greeted me when the doors finally opened, and I looked out over the expanse of our newly open plan office that was very clearly on fire. Once I realised that the floor was lava, I pressed the button to return to Checkov, and from there back home by ladybird.

I'll try again tomorrow.

(This is a "Down the Rabbit Hole" short story in honour of the birthday of creepy Victorian fantasist Lewis Carroll)

[unsleepingtales]

The penultimate episode of burrow’s end! Here we go!!

Hi little guys!!

Oh noooo

Shoutout to the dome art fr

OH that’s so real Rashawn. Sometimes the character voice is not there when you think it is and you need to say your activation phrases.

The little fist bump :)

Erika’s outfit is sick

MeatWolf! Merch! When!

Ooo

THEY LEVELED UP TO TEN?????

So Thorn is now level 5 cleric and level 5 ranger. Fascinating

Just stress demolished a sleeve of jaffa cakes in under ten minutes. This is fine.

Yeah there’s a lot of humans in the world I’m sorry

Hazmat suit lore lmao

😏 humans ey

JESUS Brennan

I love the intent and thought that goes into all of these descriptions.

Okay Tula has ALSO taken cleric levels. Level 3 life domain cleric.

Everyone starts bleeding out of their ears.

This is such bad things 😭 no it’s good ✋😭 I hate this

We’re all good at the same amount!

What coin babe

Thorn’s lightning bolt is looking way more hazard/electricity/warning than natural thunderstorm this time

“It all has to be done exactly right” has never gone badly for anyone ever.

Bennet!

That’s not a great way to make your dreams come true I think

🔵 leash 🔵

🔵 fascist 🔵

Ooooh Viola level 3 fighter!

Oh damn okay

It’s EMBROIDERED

It has her NAME ON IT

I’m fine this is fine

Love the law enforcement disdain <3

WHAT

Okay I’m glad Brennan’s on board with that lol

Ava cleric levels??? Ava Grave Domain cleric????

Ahahahaha okay so Lila is back to being an arcane trickster rogue but she is ALSO a wizard

Ava actually seeking information!

Oooh the actual strawberry candies!! Those are so good I haven’t had one in ages

Didn’t Tula heal him??

He’s allergic to pet dander 🥲

This really supports the headcanon I saw that Meredith and Lukas were Bennett’s family before Ava asked if he was single and the Tula/Bennett thread started

Some incredible insight from Ava there

PANTS

(i panicked)

Pants yeah! Let’s roll!

I am really craving those strawberry candies now lmao

That’s actually very coherent

WHAT ARE YOUR SKILLS

Okay actually going to sleep right when you lay down is a skill. I would love to be able to do that.

Jasper/Thorn constantly being horrified by the children is delightful

Ooh okay that’s a brilliant use of a d100 actually. I might steal that.

Damn

What a reference Brennan

Nest-iest/NAstiest

They booby trapped the door

BARDIC?

Oh lovely just some exposed live wires now

Transcripts?

Personal logs????

Wenabocker is hot I’ve said it before I’ll say it again

Creeeeepyyyyy

21,730 stoats total is a lot. 400 dying in one week is also a lot.

Okay so resource allocation is Way more dangerous than advertised.

Who is Phoebe??

Love long lasting effects of combat!!

Hester is such a good name

Aaaa the illustration for them creeps me out so much

Hester and Phoebe were siblings ok

I’m definitely gonna need to rewatch this lore drop tomorrow

I am so curious about the naming convention

IS WENABOCKER’S BODY IN THE CLOSET RN

This is horrifying!

Fascinated by the implication that prolonged exposure to radiation causes gender shit lmaooo

Ok so there’s not a human corpse in the closet. That’s good.

Is anyone gonna read stoat pope’s journal?

Ok thank you

That’s creepy! This is fucking creepy!

Ha ha ha ha ha how fine and normal and regular

Okay so it’s not gender it’s religion and politics?

She has fireball now? Sick

Motherfucking hell indeed Izzy

They respect the badge without any context or knowledge of the person wearing it hmmmmmm

God the only phrase in my mind is she’s spreading the gospel. Is that fucked up.

Let us celebrate nuance!

Oh noooo

I need to go back and check because I thought the human stuff on the dm screen might be new I didn’t remember it being there before but also maybe I just didn’t notice it? Or maybe the screen actually changed.

Ok my wifi has just cut out for the second time in an hour so I think that’s my sign to go to sleep and finish this tomorrow :)

Ok I’m back I’m awake Henry Kissinger is dead it’s gonna be a good day

Oooh the urge to metagame

AHAHAHAAA

Awww her best friend

Ooh what’s he planning

Snacks!

All of last bast as favored terrain!! That’s so cool!

Oh rangers are cool. They always have been but rangers are cool.

OH OK

(Players lamenting another low Siobhan roll)

Everyone is celebrating Lukas’ nat20 and Brennan just looks so done 😭

The sound effect of the falling stoats aaaa

The sitcom moment

Y’all remember the eeeeeeeeeeee that Murph kept making during neverafter? That’s the noise I keep making

Another hallway?

Oh no I just remembered that the alarms go off at some point in this episode

Oh ok it’s a different exit

The crunch is time

You’re gonna cast magic on it before you’ve talked to it??

Just full astral projection out of the body

The framing I’m gone I’m dead

Oh god

Oh boy

WHAT

BABE WHAT

‘Going’ would imply that there’s a road back 😭

Yeah ofc she’s terrified oh my god

I love her

Oh she’s got asthma she’s just like me fr

Keep asking about wenabocker!

When did she say she didn’t have kids??

HES ALIVE???

Pre-read hear!

Ooh she got a you can certainly try

Ayo??

Oh my god

Oh good god

Oddly enough this is the chillest I've felt about an episode ending in a while lmao

So the alarms going off was a trailer edit and not part of the episode. ok.

I hope this goes ok.

[beepboopbupbip]

So I saw a take on Leshy/P03 and their divorce so time for my overly angst filled take on it.

Leshy (at least in my opinions) is very possesive. Agree or disagree this is important in my theory

At first leshy was, well, normal. Still a dramatic narrator with everything. Would narrate their entire dates if P03 wouldn't shut him up with kisses. But normal. Issues were talked out and they were fine.

But then leshys own manipulative and possesive behaviors came out closer and closer to their wedding. To make myself clear this wasn't a bad thing entirely, leshy wanted to keep him close because he didn't want to lose him. But it got progressively worse.

Leshy would call him 20 times a minute whenever he would leave the house and try and keep him inside for as long as possible. He would talk bad about others that P03 might have considered friends before the scrybes started quarreling and he shut himself off. P03 was with leshy, usually swearing his undying love to him to help calm his troubles, almost every hour of the day.

And P03 never spoke up, because wanting to be around your partner was love, right?

Then the wedding day had come, Both of them absolutely gorgeous. (I'm drawing P03 in a wedding dress fucking watch me) and the entire time leshy wanted P03 to go nowhere from that point on, to secure that they would never be apart for a second.

So when they got home that day, that's when it happened. Rose petals on the bed, candle lights. P03 was in awe, even back then he couldn't believe any affection, even if they were literally just married, would ever be there for him nor would he deserve it. Leshy brought P03 to the bed, and his inscrybing camera was underneath it.

This is where it gets dark, violence warning.

It starts with leshy simply holding P03, massaging him as he giggles and pokes leshy a bit back, tracing around the plating gently. Leshys eyes would begin to circle around orange, not unlike he was in a trance.

The beast took a harsher tone with the machine, as it looked confused up at them. Scraping the metal with his fingernails despite its wincing. Splitting P03s dress in two, before carving its name into his frame. Opening his chassis and plucking wires apart, as if being picked apart like meat, as the machine simply cried.

An important component lost its connection and leshy smiled, pulling out his inscrybing camera. But he was unhappy with how the photo would look, P03s screen was off. The component was sloppily powered on again and P03 awoke with a gasp. Wanting to run, but knowing his components would just fall out, wanting to scream, but he was not in his factory, no one would hear from their cabin.

Leshy took the photo, a picture and a stoat card was made. The first scrybe to be reborn as a card. Then grimora, then magnificus. (but magnificus deserved it, fuck him)

As soon as they were released from those cards, P03 has shut down emotionally, repairing himself the best he could and limping back to his factory, every trace of leshy was gotten rid of. P03 no longer had a softer side.

He had turnt himself into one without emotions, pure focus on gaining control, control means he will not be hurt. No sympathy for the workers he once praised, no focus on making his game fun for the challengers. Nothing. Because if he let no one in he would never have to force someone out, crying and broken.

[ppeachx3]

do you have any headcanons for shadow and amys kids?

OH DO I

so it actually depends on the exact setting because i have two when it comes down to them having kids... the first one i touch on a little in to be loved, where amy (TW: miscarriage) has a bad miscarriage after her body rejects shadow's black arms dna. she's only able to carry to term the next time with help from tails, and they end up having a girl.

i haven't really decided on a name for her yet? i'm a huge sucker for jewish botanical names so i'm kinda leaning towards dalia (not to be confused with the dahlia flower! means gentle, a slender branch/tendril. i think it'd be funny if she was constantly getting into debates and correcting people on her name lol) or neta (seedling).

i think their daughter would take a lot after shadow in terms of personality and looks, but she's got amy's mannerisms down and has no problem making friends (she has no idea how it keeps happening)

but!!! in my other setting, amy and shadow adopt after shadow decides he doesn't want to risk putting amy through another miscarriage. they raise two kids – their eldest daughter, camellia, who is a stoat and their youngest, eden (nickname is den) who is a shrew.

eden is nonbinary and amy teaches them how to wield large weapons like her meanwhile camellia has absolutely NO interest in fighting despite being super good at it. she just wants to go to college and become an actress and be NORMAL but every other week she gets caught up beating down badniks and it makes her so mad. she wants to be on tv for DIFFERENT reasons!!!