#solo crow old man.

[twst-drabbles]

Floyd 10

Summary: Sometimes when Crowley irritates you, you like to throw Floyd right at him.

(Really like the thought of slinging this eel around like a ferret.)

Ever since Crowley installed a number of automatic systems that basically did his chores for him, he's been coming over more and more often out of sheer boredom. He pops over in your house unannounced, hogs your television when you want to use it, and has even taken over a lot of your chores just as you were in the mood to do them.

And right now, he's watering your berry bushes like he didn't take the hose from your hand.

"Neglecting your berry bushes like this, how awful!" Crowley complained loudly like you weren't right there in your backyard, splashing your feet about with Floyd chasing after your toes. "But, because I am very kind, I shall do it for you at almost no cost!"

You pinched Floyd between your ankles and threw him to the end of the pond. He flailed and squealed as he went sailing.

You yelled back, "No Crowley, you're not watching your shows on my TV! And I'm not making you snacks!"

He has his own television! And you know he can make his own snacks! You've seen him on a cooking show once at 1 AM! He knows this stuff! He doesn't need you to do any of this. And besides, when he gets too into whatever drama he got himself into, he whoops and hollers just as you're about to enter the realm of sleep.

Seriously, you already have issues with sleeping at a consistent time and this bird-brained man is not making things better for you. You have things to do! Pets to take care of and entertain when their solo enrichment wasn't enough.

"Oh come on," Crowley scoffed in that way that never fails to irritates you. That specific scoff like you're some silly kid that's claiming things for themselves because they haven't digested the concept of sharing. "Don't tell me you have forgotten basic manners. You haven't been an adult for that long and already you don't want to show appreciation for all these things I'm doing for you."

"I don't need you to do shit for me, Old Crow," your whisper came out as a hiss.

Crowley was struck by nickname he probably thought was dead on your tongue. "Old-!"

"What I need from you," you smiled and dunked your entire arm into the pond. You grabbed Floyd just as he was about to nip at your calves. "Is for you to get a hobby!"

And like a rocket being launched, you threw Floyd directly to the back of Crowley's head. You may have thrown this eel one too many times. His posture was perfectly straight, arms sticking right out like he's one of those superheroes in a cartoon, and his face was perfectly pensive as though you're sending him off on a mission.

You didn't really mean for him to land perfectly on the back of Crowley's head. You just wanted Floyd to get, like, around his back but oh well. Too late now.

Floyd gripped his teeth and claws into Crowley's hair just as he tipped forward at the new weight.

"What in-" Then, Floyd slipped his tail under Crowley's collar, then whipped it around with no mercy! "Mmmah!"

"Ah, Floyd's slime wiping attack," you noted with a chuckle. You've been victim of that move a few times before. You're pretty sure it's not any sort of territory marking so much as he wants to gross people out. "I am not sorry."

Seriously, just because he's bored, Crowley thinks he can annoy you and not face any of your antics. If he wants to spend time with you so much, he should at least call or text ahead. Or go hang out with literally anyone else in this neighborhood. There's not a single person here that doesn't know him by name.

"Get him off!" Crowley sprinted right past you, trying to grab Floyd but his poor hands are covered in slime, "Get him off!"

"Hmm," you splashed around the pond some more. "Nah."

[fallenclan]

Ravenpaw wants to be like his dad.

Gyoza does what he wants, when he wants. Gyoza doesn’t care what other cats think. Gyoza knows the funniest pranks!

Ravenpaw talks about it all the time.

“So you’re my mentor now, Bub!” he crows, delighted after his ceremony. “You have a name like my dad, so you must be cool!”

The colorpoint simply huffs with amusement, giving the young tom a blinding grin. “I must say, I am pretty cool. But who could be cooler than your old man?”

Ravenpaw has to agree with that.

Littlepaw wants to be like his dad.

Gyoza stands up for what he believes in. Gyoza chases after the things he wants. Gyoza can lighten a room with smile and a joke.

Littlepaw doesn’t tell so many cats this.

Ravenpaw lays in their shared nest, cuddling close to him as they talk quietly through the night. “I can’t wait to show Dad the battle moves I learned today! I swear, I’ve seen him demonstrate the exact ones for me one time!”

“Raven,” Littlepaw murmurs quietly, much quieter than his brother had been. He was always just a little quieter than his brother. “What if I want to be like Dad, too?”

“Who wouldn’t want to be?” Ravenpaw asks with a flash of a smile. Cloudpaw shushes him from across the den.

The dark furred apprentice continues, only a little softer. “If you ask me, though, I think you’re more like Momma.”

Littlepaw has to agree with that.

Ravenshade wants to be like his dad.

He is now, right? He’s worked so hard, days and sometimes even nights, without much break. Even Bub had gotten tired most days, leaving him to practice on his own. And it’d all paid off.

It’s not often there’s a warrior of ten moons.

But sometimes he wonders.

How can this be like his dad? Gyoza didn’t graduate early; he didn’t graduate at all! Would he have worked this hard, or would he have relaxed more? He didn’t even take a warrior name.

Lost in thought, Ravenshade comes across a ShallowClan patrol.

It feels good to taunt them. Certainly better than being wrapped up in his head.

Littleleaf wants to be like his dad.

He likes his name a lot. Leaves are beautiful in the autumn, and they can heal so many things. His name makes up for the fact that he’s two moons behind their brother, right? They graduate with Cloudtuft, at least; expect, he’s a moon younger than him, so it’s not really the same.

This is the normal age for graduation.

But sometimes, they wonder.

Did Ravenshade miss his warmth in the nest these last two moons like they did? Gyoza never seemed bothered when Troutspeckle spent the night on a solo patrol, but every time Ravenshade went out to hunt without letting Littleleaf know, he felt very alone. Their brother would always be there for them, but sometimes, they couldn’t seem to remember.

“I know you boys look up to Gyoza,” his mother says, her eyes half-closed with something wistful. “But I’m glad you’re a little more like me.”

It feels nice to talk with her. He knows she understands what’s going on inside his head.

Ravenshade wants his dad.

He doesn’t care what he has to do. He wants him back.

Gyoza would know how to make it better, he thinks, and spirals a little further.

He is not like his dad. He is falling apart when Gyoza would be calm. He is angry where Gyoza would be making jokes. He is wandering the borders when Gyoza would be home.

Oh, he is nothing like his dad.

He is alive, and Gyoza is dead.

Littleleaf wants his dad.

They know nothing is going to change it. He still wants him back.

Gyoza would know what to do now, he thinks, and sinks a little deeper.

They are not like their dad. He is lying alone when Gyoza would be with clanmates. He is letting Ravenshade go out alone again and again when Gyoza would go with him. He is so, so tired where Gyoza would be working.

Littleleaf has never been like his dad.

And now Gyoza is dead, while they are alive.

Troutspeckle watches, and yearns for her mate.

She wonders if tomorrow Ravenshade will come back from one of his patrols with blood staining his paws.

She wonders if tomorrow Littleleaf will stop talking altogether, and simply close themself off to the rest of the world.

She loves her sons so much, just the way they are. But

She wishes she were a little more like their father.

Gyoza would know what to do.

I’ve wanted to write a Raven/Little comparison about Gyoza since Raven got his name early, but I only got up the motivation today when I realized Gyoza had been killed by the dogs too— I don’t know how I missed his name before! I wasn’t going to include the little part about Troutspeckle but it practically wrote itself lol

HOLY SHIT THIS IS SO EPIC?????????? i absolutely LOVE your analysis, it's so interesting and in character, and written so well. the dichotomy,,, the brothers.... AUGH im going to b thinking about this one for a while i just know it

[invisibleraven]

"Stupid thing to say" but it's Reggie talking to/interrupting himself (bonus points if he's practicing a confession)

Was inspired to do something Star Wars inspired after seeing this gorgeous art from @galentir yesterday!

The reflection stared back at Reggie, showing the dark circles under his eyes, the paleness of his skin, and the new scar decorating his shoulder from where he had been clipped by blaster fire. He knew he was lucky to have kept the arm-Master Skywalker might be able to function with a robotic hand, but Reggie doubted it was a look he could pull off.

Not that Reggie knew if he had much longer as a Padawan-he could swing a lightsaber with the best of them, but he was restless during meditation, his Force powers wavered at the best of times, and he was still unable to give up attachments.

He couldn't help it though, he and Luke had been friends since they were younglings, always having each other's backs. Saving each other from Storm Troopers and Hutts alike. He couldn't give him up, even if they were destined to serve different masters.

What was worse was the fact that Reggie knew his heart cared for Luke as more than a friend-a forbidden feeling that was looked down upon throughout much of the galaxy.

He had been determined to keep it to himself, he had been training too long to become a Jedi, he couldn't let something as silly as a crush screw it up right?

But then he thought of the decades of loneliness that awaited him-years of battles and study, with little companionship or affection. Was it worth it?

And even if he did confess, would Luke reciprocate or report him? Would he be willing to abandon the order to run away with Reggie?

He looked at the mirror once more, forming his confession in his mind. "Luke...my feelings for you are bigger than the deserts of Tatooine. No, that's a stupid thing to say."

"Never been a fan of sand."

Reggie whirled around, seeing Luke there in the doorway, a smug smile on his lips. "Might work on Master Skywalker though, he is from there."

"Oh um..." Reggie stammered. "No I..."

Luke laughed. "I get it man, we've all been there, crushing on the legend that is Luke Skywalker. But he's a little too old for you man."

Reggie grimaced. "You're right, silly of me."

"Always figured if you were gonna crush on a hero of the rebellion it would be on Captain Solo anyways," Luke commented.

Reggie blushed at that, as he had once harboured quite the crush on the former smuggler, but it had faded with time, unlike the still burning feelings he had for his best friend.

"You did!" Luke crowed. "You dog you!"

"You're not going to tell are you?" Reggie asked.

Luke scoffed. "Who do you think I am? You know your secrets are safe with me."

"You don't know all of them," Reggie muttered.

"Oh yeah?" Luke asked. "Why, planning on quitting the order to go join a cantina band?"

"That's more your dream than mine," Reggie joked, giving Luke a playful shove. Luek grinned back, grabbing Reggie into a headlock.

"And don't you forget it!" He released Reggie, then sighed. "One day, maybe after I'm too old to be a Jedi, I'll do it."

"I don't think Jedi retire," Reggie said. "Look at Master Yoda, he's 200 odd years old and still can kick all our butts from here to Naboo."

"Then I'll be the first," Luke said. "You and me, open up a little place together on some far off planet. You cook, I'll play music, teach the local kids how to wield a lightsaber. It'll be awesome."

"You and me?" Reggie questioned.

"Who else? You know I love you more than I hate sand," Luke said, giving him a cheeky grin.

"Jerk."

"Maybe, but you know you love me too."

Reggie's smile dropped then. 'You have no idea' he thought.

"Now come on, we're going to be late for class. Last one there is a womp rat!" Luke yelled, running off with a gleeful laugh.

Reggie rolled his eyes before rushing after him, the confession still burning in his gut, but Luke's dreams for their future tempered it just a little. It may not be what he wanted, but he would take what he would get.

And maybe... maybe by then he'd have the courage to speak his heart.

[phoenixwatchesmovies]

2023 Favorites

I'm kinda glad I was keeping track of what I watched, in retrospect, because looking back over my posts this year, I realized I forgot about a lot of stuff. XD After looking over the recaps and excluding rewatches, here's my top ten New Stuff I Watched for 2023:

10. Cabinet Of Curiosities

Bizarre nightmares unfold in eight tales of terror in a visually stunning, spine-tingling horror collection curated by Guillermo del Toro.

If GDT is your guy, give this a watch. Creature features, cursed objects, aliens, you name it. 8/8 tentacled eldritch abominations.

9. Wolf Creek

Three backpackers stranded in the Australian outback are plunged inside a hellish nightmare of insufferable torture by a sadistic psychopathic local.

Holy shit, this was intense. And as I said initially, so mean. If you're into Texas Chainsaw Massacre, try this. I'm into franchise bingo, so I'm going to look into the sequels and TV series. 3/3 heads on a stick.

8. Requiem For A Dream

The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep.

I get the feeling this is one of those that hurts so much more on rewatching, so there's that to look forward to. I've also rarely seen movies that do so much harmonizing between the music and the visuals, and it was so satisfying. 4/4 refrigerator jump scares.

7. Evil Dead Rise

A twisted tale of two estranged sisters whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.

This was probably the most fun I had with a horror movie all year, TBH. Horror exploring family dynamics will always be a fave, and this brought plenty of fresh stuff to the franchise while also holding onto the core traits. 5/5 Staffenies.

6. Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people.

This was the most fun I had watching a movie all year, period. If you know nothing about DND, it's a good fantasy movie. If you're a DND nerd, the game mechanics are baked into it. If you're a fan of found families, guess what! 6/6 stealth checks.

5. Cowboy Bebop

A ragtag crew of bounty hunters chases down the galaxy's most dangerous criminals. They'll save the world--for the right price.

I got exactly what I wanted out of this, so haters be damned. The anime is a masterpiece and a classic, but if you're not in the mood for the existentialism and other heavier themes, here ya go. 3/3 shower-bath-showers.

4. The Black Phone

After being abducted by a child killer and locked in a soundproof basement, a 13-year-old boy starts receiving calls on a disconnected phone from the killer's previous victims.

Near perfect, as far as I'm concerned. The older I get, the more kids-in-danger as a concept fucks with me, making this the most stressful movie I watched this year (though It Chapter One gave it a run for its money, and I still think they would make a great double feature). 5/5 black balloons.

3. Evil Dead (2013)

Five friends head to a remote cabin, where the discovery of a Book of the Dead leads them to unwittingly summon up demons living in the nearby woods.

It's gnarly. It's badass. I almost puked. I had THE BEST time. The story works as an effective allegory, the effects are gruesomely awesome, and the finale is metal af. Plain and simple. 70,000/70,000 gallons of fake blood.

2. The Crow

A man brutally murdered comes back to life as an undead avenger of his and his fiancée's murder.

Beautiful, sad, aesthetic for days, hella good soundtrack. *chef kiss* I still haven't seen The Batman, but they seem visually similar, so if you like that, you'll probably like this. For more in-depth thoughts, read my post. 1/1 epic rooftop guitar solos.

1. The Fall Of The House Of Usher

To secure their fortune (and future) two ruthless siblings build a family dynasty that begins to crumble when their heirs mysteriously die, one by one.

Not just a new favorite Mike Flanagan. A new favorite in general, and my number one for the year. I just screamed about this one last month, and I don't have anything more to add. I've seen Succession comparisons, and while I have no idea how accurate that is, there's my "if you like that, here's this." Holy crap. 7/7 deadly sins personified.

Happy New Year! 🥂

[elfhawk3]

A friend linked me a cohost post for an RPG that uses a tarot deck to build the city the game takes place in. I went ‘that’s the sort of GM solo play I love to do’ and grabbed one of my many tarot decks and a copy of the pay-what-you-want ‘just the city builder’ preview of the full book.

I don’t have a cohost and the area I inhabit here isn’t into RPGs, so this is going to do zero advertising for a cool-looking game,  but whatever, I’m making this for me and if you enjoy it, cool. 

Step One: The Central Power 

The first card drawn decides who rules the city. After pulling out all the major arcana per the instructions, I drew the 10 of Wands.

“The Cult of the God-King reigns. The Crow-Headed Queen will be deified upon her death, but through her sorceries she has reigned for over 120 years. The Temple of the God-Kings stands in the center of the City.”

So this is a place ruled by an immortal sorcerer. Did the Cult control the City before she took over or did it rise up around her? If the former, she might just be the latest in a line of God-Kings. The Cult might be getting antsy about her immortality. Can’t have a proper God-King if your King refuses to die and move on to their bigger duties as God. If it’s the latter, she formed it herself around her ambitions to ascend from mortal to divine. Going by some of the other text, this setting is one where magic is weird and distrusted. What effect has a century (centuries?) of a sorcerer on the throne had on the people of the City? 

I love the symbolism here of a woman holding up a city. It matches so well.

Step 2: Form the Core Districts 

The oldest parts of the city. What was the City originally like? Draw four cards and place them on each side of the Central Power card.

North - 7 of Wands - The Sidereal House

“This institution seeks to understand the lights of the sky and their significance for those who dwell on earth. The Sidereal House is home to a sect of natural philosophers. These astronomers calculate the motions and positions of various planets, their dance, conjunctions, and the timing of eclipses.”

The City’s northernmost district is astronomers on a high plateau away from the smog and lights of city life, tracking time as they watch the skies. As one of the oldest locations in the City, is it possible it started entirely separate from the rest of the City for its prime stargazing spot and the City’s growth expanded to include it? Their duties include tracking, recording, and naming new years; some previous ruler must have wanted better recordkeepers and there was a tower of detail-oriented philosophers just over there.

East - 4 of Pentacles - The Curio Curia

“Seditious materials, false coinage, human chattel, and dangerous sorcerous artifacts are never traded in the Omphalic Market. The answer to economic constraint is the black market. In the City, this takes the form of the Curio Curia, a shadow economy for any illicit good.” 

The Omphalic Market mentioned in the blurb is one of the constants of city design that gets placed after the cards decide the rest of the city layout, so let’s ignore that for now.

The City’s major eastern district is home to the blackest of black markets. I get ‘set up right by the water’ vibes from this. Easy to bring stuff in, easy for a fast getaway when you get into trouble peddling nudes of the Crow-Headed Queen. Perhaps the market is even entirely on the river, and city law stops at the edge of the piers. This would make the entire stretch of the river through the City  something of a no man’s land, which could be interesting. Also tricky to figure out which boat is just someone fishing and which is your smuggler friend’s actual contact pretending to fish.

South - Knight of Cups - The Old Queen’s Library

“Books were the singular obsession of the Old Queen. So much so that this was the one tax she imposed upon the City: any person passing the gates or docking ship must yield up any book in their possession.”

The City’s southern district is home to a major library, love it. A long-dead queen was obsessed with books and had her people collect books to copy. She’d have the copies returned and retained the originals. This is pulled straight from history- there’s Greek writing about the Library of Alexandria collecting books from ships that came into port and doing the same thing. The Curio Curia could even have gotten its start with people trying to get their first editions back and making the queen’s library keep the copy her scribes made. I imagine the library itself isn’t on the water, but on a main street leading directly from what originally was a major dock, though it might no longer be. Today the library is tended by librarian nuns and allows the Cult’s historians, scholars, poets, and lawyers to peruse their stacks. They definitely don’t lend the books out.

As a court card, this is a rich district. Considering the odds of drawing more, this might even be *the* noble district. This library is most certainly not open to the public at large. Devotees of the Cult might be able to swing a day pass, but not that often.

West - 8 of Cups - The Philosophers’ Forum

“There is a (currently popular) branch of philosophy that rejects modern educational standards, the esteem of the City’s various colleges, and even the utility of the written word. These iconoclast philosophers hang out in the district called the Philosophers’ Forum. In essence, these philosophers live as paupers (though they would use the term “aesthetic mendicant”), and make a poor living by selling their treatises, giving public recitations, and betting on rhetorical contests.”

The City’s western district is even more drawn from Greek history than the library. Turn the right corner in this district of eloquent illiterate paupers and you may bump into Fantasy Diogenes. (Be sure to wash afterwards.) Street philosophers debating anything and everything have got to make this a contender for the noisiest district. I imagine quite a few folks living here are just Something Awful forum members, egging philosophical debates into becoming fistfights. Visually speaking, I imagine most of the district is in a pretty heavy state of disrepair- the philosophers don’t brook with currency or upkeep.

It’s fascinating that three of these districts are about knowledge. The City could have gotten its start as a center for learning, but has it remained so? The librarian nuns probably beat the philosophers with sticks when they visit to debate the hoarding of books for just the Cult and the wealthy and then again when other philosophers show up to denounce reading as a crime against the natural order of the world. We’ll see what sprawl builds a buffer from the riotous thinkers of western district for their recordkeeping neighbors to the north and south. 

Step Three: Add The Sprawl

These are the younger districts, springing up as the City expands and contracts through history. The suit of each core district decides how many others have grown around it. Zero for the swords of the military, one for pentacles and the lower class, two for cups for the faithful and the institutions they fund, and three for the wands of the weirdos.

North and the Sidereal House:

As a wand district, three cards let me put the distance between the astronomy tower from the city center that I wanted.

1 - Queen of Pentacles - The Street of Beggars

“It hosts leper houses, orphanages, religious mendicants, and a vast homeless population. Despite its residents being in abject poverty, the Street of Beggars is the home to one of the City’s most powerful factions: the Beggars Guild. The Beggars Guild regulates all petty crime.”

Now this is a great card for the sort of sprawl connecting the City center to a tower on a plateau. People shoved out of the nicer districts to the south slowly growing towards the tower. And people trying to reach the City and just giving up and settling for here. I can just imagine everything sixty feet back from the king’s road connecting the administrative tasks of the tower to the heart of the City is shoddy row houses and even shabbier lean-tos. 

2 - 2 of Wands - Newt Row

“Sorcerers scoff at Newt Row. This hedge-witchery is basically junk (more or less). It’s essentially a tourist’s destination in the City: a place where folks from Far Away can get spooked by a sibyl and pay too much for a blue-eye amulet.”

So this is obviously along the main drag from the central district to our distant tower. The Las Vegas Strip where tourists spend 90% of their time because all around it is nothing. Makes sense that the Beggars Guild would take it over. The merchants probably pay the Guild for protection from getting robbed by the locals as both parties fleece newcomers for all they're worth. 

3 - 9 of Pentacles - The Lichyard Market

“The Lichyard Market is the main meat market, a gourmand’s delight, and a grotesque spectacle. It houses some of the finest taverns, popular thermopolia, and cesspools of biowaste in the City.”

Another market, with even weirder smells. I think the north gates are where most people arrive in the City, or at least this is shaping up to be where most of the commerce goes on. The river I’ve put going through the east district must go somewhere through the north district. Perhaps what separates the tower from the rest of the City is the river.

East and the Curio Curia:

1 - 3 of Cups - Stone

“Each architect displays their masterpieces in the district’s squares, forums, and thoroughfares. The bridges of Stone are colossal statues providing egress; the public fountains are instruments that play music as they burble; the apartment buildings rise as high as cathedrals.”

Oh perfect, engineers to build complicated bridges to connect our astronomers to the rest of the City. It’s amusing I’ve described the Philosophers’ Forum as dilapidated as this district offers plenty of masons and architects for fixing things up. Well, this is one of the newer districts, maybe they’re very new and have been rebuilding the whole city and haven’t made it that far yet. Which makes sense, those guys don’t have any money, whereas the librarian nuns have their Cult’s coffers. The residential parts of this district probably are safe to live in but also miserable due to the sounds of construction.

South and the Old Queen’s Library:

1 - 6 of Cups - The Madrasa of Maiden Wisdom

“Founded by the Crow-Headed Queen and renamed for the mother of Mythrys, the Madrasa of Maiden Wisdom is a public institution of learning. There are a dozen or so colleges inside the City, but the Madrasa of Maiden Wisdom is the largest and most esteemed. It is unique in that it offers free education to anybody, boy or girl, human or non-human.”

I feel like the Crow-Headed Queen founded this before she became ruler. Like it was part of her putting her name on the map. The school is split into two main parts - “the lower houses” cover general education requirements for a diploma, the “upper houses” are for your degree’s specialized main courses. Offering free education doesn’t necessarily mean everything they have is free, so I’m wondering if the lower houses is the free education and the upper houses require payment. This probably is in a buffer zone separating the rich district the library is in from their poor neighbors.

Considering the free education offered here versus ‘you must be a member of the Cult’ the library has,  I can see the two institutes being at loggerheads. Behind the scenes, of course. Both are funded by the Cult and don’t want to draw its attention to their drama. 

2 - 4 of Wands - Kobalosgaard

“The orcs consider their blood oath to the ruler sacrosanct and inviolable. They will fight to the death in defense of their charge. However, if the ruler does happen to die, they see no reason to join them in the afterlife. As part of their pact, the honor guard has the right to leave the City with as much booty from the treasury as they can carry.”

This district is dedicated to the needs of the honor guard of twenty fireblooded orcs housed in a palace here. They’re not local and thought to be completely loyal to the ruler, since they have no ties to any of the factions of the City by virtue of not being local. Side effect, though, is it implies mistrust of the citizenry. But I also haven’t drawn any swords cards yet, this isn’t a particularly militaristic city. 

I do like that they have a retirement option- leave after the boss dies with all the loot they can carry. I wonder how that works when the Crow-Headed Queen has been in charge for 120 years. How long do orcs live? Does their contract allow them an out after a certain number of years served? Or have several generations of orcs gone without the spoils this alliance was supposed to provide them and their people back home? How much trouble is simmering under the surface here?

West and the Philosophers' Forum:

1 - 3 of Pentacles - The Gambol

“It consists of ramshackle bridges spanning chimneys, attics, and garrets. Its residents spend days, perhaps even weeks, never setting foot on solid ground. There’s an old adage that runs, “People never look up.” As such, the Gambol is favored by those who want to disappear: debtors, revolutionaries, and deposed tyrants from foreign lands.”

An entirely aerial district, which means it’s built above another one, or even more. I get the feeling this district got its start with two different things- people trying to escape the philosophy discussions and people trying to hide from the Beggar’s Guild and other criminal elements. The factions make themselves.

2 - 3 of Wands - The Lotus Eater’s District

“The Lotus Eater’s District caters to lotus addicts, but also sells intoxicants of all descriptions. Many kith and kin have found surprising ways to get fucked up, and they can all be found here: dragonteeth blunts, rackety-tam, angelshit, troll spice, takalashi jelly, etc.”

The city has ended up with a lot of Greek references, huh? Stoned potheads probably make good neighbors for the rowdy philosophers. Or at least they don’t care so much as bakers who have to be up at 3 in the morning. The philosophers would be the district’s main customers were they not all broke. Alternatively- this is really why most of them are broke. The citizens of the Gambol probably try to stay off their roofs to avoid tripping in a whole different way than they usually worry about.

Step Four: Place the Constants

Every incarnation of the City has three features that never change- though the exact locations will:

The Grey is a major river that flows through the City. It’s just as important to the City as the Nile is to Cairo. It also has pirates. I think the Curio Curia just became an extremely dangerous place to do business.

The Ossuary is the City’s Paris Catacombs alternate though it’s a former plaster mine, not limestone. It’s most recent expansion uncovered a door carved of ivory that monsters poured out of. They’ve managed to seal it. This is going to go over on the plateau of astronomy, to give them lots of room. Being an underground operation, it won’t have a lot of light pollution.

The Omphalic Market is THE place to go to shop. The true beating heart of the city. Nowhere really jumps out for where to put it, so I’m just going to shove it in somewhere and call it a day.

And voila, a City ready to explore the Underground of. One that speaks of ancient knowledge and wisdom that swung towards commerce and has created a strict divide between the haves and the have-nots.

How very every college town ever of it.

Is the Crow-Headed Queen’s free college (and potential other good works) enough to keep the rumblings at bay or has she spent too long on the distant throne of her temple to remember her own days in the hard-scrabble scrum of survival?

[chunkymamatam]

Master List Shifting

A little collection of my Storytimes and Shifting Info I've posted

Have I actually Shifted?

How long did it take and how long do I stay?

Scripting Suggestions

Shifting Trauma (See Reblogs for more)

Story mix (JJK/Obey Me/Apothecary Diaries)

Please Stop Hoeing around

Stop Hoeing around Images

Old Ref sheets and Group Shifting shit

TWST and Demon Slayer dump

Demon Slayer and Genshin DRself

Sketch Dump 1

Ref sheets for multiple DRs

Are My DRs in 2D or 3D?

My favorites 1

Remixes (Crossover DRs and dragging my boyfriend and his alters away with me)

You held back?!?!?

Hunter X Hunter

POV: Local idiot attracts the attention of the bitch they were trying to avoid

Illumi chill please/The Zoldyck Parents decent grandparents???

FUCK YOU LEAVE ME FOR DEAD THEN BITCH

Accidentally Crashing a Heaven's Arena interview/Clown Whore exposes himself to his roommate

Advice for shifting here

Rumors and Speculation on Chrollo’s love of feet

Heavens Arena my Shame(Suggestive)

Dumbass interrupts a Heaven's Arena interview for a hug

Divorce Arc? /J

"I have healed you"

Stop being taller than me

Illumi with a partner(In crimes)??? I thought this was a solo act

Heaven's Arena Polaroid and my daughters

Hisoka, a weirdo? Yeah

Sketch Dump

My babies and their father/other versions of myself in my different HxH DRs

Silva being my second biggest hater/Illumi yoinks me over his shoulder

Killua, honey, you're gay

My first 3 kids and my deities are here too

Local Autistic Man loves their husband

Taller than me/Me and my friend's DRselves

Potato Sacked once again

Just let me have the cat bitch/At least the outfits were cute

Die Clown

Illumi and the babies

HxH 1999 Sketches

More 1999 HxH/Clothes for Hisoka/My 2 girls

Big Blackberries

Twisted Wonderland

Bullied awake by Pomefiore

A casual meeting with a prince/Sleep over with Lilia

Snatched by the night raven carriage

Dragon Prince Bullies his tiny human

Classes and What they entail 1

Classes and what they entail 2/Other questions

Gender in Night Raven

Experience with Rook and Leona

Gender advice/Experiences in Book 3

Beast men and gender

Sebek racist???

Sebek being my biggest hater

Humans ate Merfolk? The answer is unsurprising unfortunately

Ace/Deuce Stories

Human Fuckery???

Does it get better in NRC?

Malleus the Otome

oooooo Sebek's in troouubblleee

Religion?

Oh Vil, Guess what I'm eating

Maleficent knows I exist *Whale eyes like a nervous dog*

I've got ✨connections✨

Sketch Dump

Sorry Pookie(Vil) but I gotta dip

Snatched by Scarabia(Also art from one of my Alters)

Hypnosis isn't cool

Cuz Crowely's a bitch

Pool Time with The Tweels(and Wally's here too)

Demon Slayer

Getting Harassed by Upper 2

That bitch killed my bird

Canon event(Snatched once again)

ENMU PLEASE FOLLOW THE SCRIPT

Worst part to live through in Demon Slayer

Is it a good idea to shift here?

Zenitsu I know Girls better than you

Scared for the Infinity Castle

JJBA Part 2

Joseph.. That was my wall.

MHA

Story Collage

ROR

Poseidon please I have work to do *Hair tuck*(18+)

Pokemon

Poke tidbits

Obey Me

We joke now but-

The brothers lowkey fucking haters

Hellverse

Hazbin Ref sketches

Genshin Impact

Mini Shift and my run in with Scaramouche

The Pig Masked Shopper and Kaeya's Shitty Flirting

Taking a Drunken Kaeya Home

Complicated Feelings with Ajax

Chilling with the mels

Honkai: Star Rail

Big Sis of Star Rail

Seraph of the End

Accidentally on Purpose rocking Ferid's shit

The Apothecary Diaries

Doodles

Beast Man DR

Where's my Child Support????

Sugar Apple Fairytale

Meeting Chyme

Delicious in Dungeon

Pining by Thistle

Tiny Tam doodles

SK8

Ref for myself

I'll be adding onto advice and tidbit posts as I think of them. Have a lovely day <3

Also tell me if anything is repeating/links wrong its really late

[cosmicanakin]

K FILES ⟢

⋆ 𓂃 ݁ ੭୧ ᳝ ࣪ ﹙ 𝐃𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘. ﹚

ᯓ 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐆 𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐄𝐑.

⟡ 𓏲ּ ᥫ᭡ ִ𓂃 ⋆

C O S M I C A N A K I N ও ݁.﹒ i'm karissa 𓇼 but better known as kari. 𝓈!her ┊ twenty ┊ latina ┊ straight ┊ 𝐚 𝐮 𝐭 𝐡 𝐨 𝐫 virgo sun aries moon capricorn rising 𓂃 ݁ ੭୧

. . . 𝐇𝐘𝐏𝐄𝐑-𝐅𝐈𝐗𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 !

001. ੭୧ movies / shows. supernatural ┊ the vampire diaries ┊ outer banks ┊ pineapple express ┊ peaky blinders ┊ transformers saga┊ training day ┊ she's all that ┊singles ┊ jennifer's body ┊ that '70s show ┊ criminal minds ┊ sons of anarchy ┊ step up ┊ the great gatsby ┊ top gun ┊ top gun 𝐌𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐊 ┊ lords of dogtown ┊ american me ┊ step brothers ┊ gilmore girls ┊ spider-man ┊ fear ┊ the crow ┊ sixteen candles ┊lost boys ┊ american heist ┊ takers ┊ fast saga ┊ erin brockovich ┊ elvis ┊ boyz in the hood ┊ desperado ┊ the boys ┊ tombstone ┊ dazed & confused ┊ dawson's creek ┊step up.

002. ੭୧ celebrities / actors / characters. jensen ackles ┊paul walker ┊ dean winchester ┊ sam winchester ┊ castiel ┊ damon salvatore ┊ vinnie hacker ┊ bradley bradshaw ┊ hayden christensen ┊ zayn malik ┊ henry cavill ┊ brian o'conner ┊ beau arlen ┊ tupac ┊ megan fox ┊ jay adams ┊ sydney sweeney ┊ cindy kimberly ┊ madelyn cline ┊ drew starkey ┊ jeffrey dean morgan ┊ jessica alba ┊ stevie nicks ┊ marilyn monroe ┊ margot robbie ┊ natalie portman ┊ zoe kravitz ┊ channing tatum ┊ tom hardy ┊ miles teller ┊ matt dillon ┊ chris cornell ┊ layne stayley ┊ eddie vedder ┊ kurt kobain ┊ chester bennington ┊ heath ledger ┊ randy 'pink' floyd ┊ chad michael murray.

003. ੭୧ bands / artists. korn ┊ alice in chains ┊ led zeppelin ┊ kiss ┊ rihanna ┊ zayn ┊ metallica ┊ the white stripes ┊ the weeknd ┊ linkin park ┊ p.o.d ┊ mack 10 ┊ tool ┊ blondie ┊ the neighbourhood ┊ mötley crüe ┊ kendrick lamar ┊ the rolling stones ┊ stone temple pilots ┊ m83 ┊ limp bizkit ┊ bon jovi ┊ tokio hotel ┊ soundgarden ┊ pearl jam ┊ the cranberries ┊ foster the people ┊ oasis ┊ coldplay ┊ the doors ┊ mazzy star ┊ evanescence ┊ the animals ┊ jack & jack ┊ yeah whatever ┊ godsmack ┊ staind ┊ hozier ┊ yeat ┊ 21 savage ┊ metro boomin ┊ the verve ┊ sublime ┊ lana del rey ┊ journey ┊ u2 ┊ billy idol ┊ future ┊ aventura ┊ eminem ┊ j. cole ┊ red hot chili peppers ┊ kurupt ┊ the mamas & the papas ┊ kings of leon ┊ tamia ┊ fleetwood mac ┊ kali uchis ┊ sza ┊ misfits.

004. ੭୧ more details about kar. writing ┊ bass solos ┊acoustic guitar ┊wrist tats ┊pre rolled blunts ┊karaoke ┊coffin nails ┊iced vanilla latte ┊cats ┊deep sleeper┊ sunsets ┊late night drives ┊classic cars ┊ kim k core ┊pigtails n bows !┊vinyl records ┊lace cropped tees ┊ baggy jeans ┊graphic tees ┊penny board ┊miss dior perfume┊hello kitty plushies !┊tote bags ┊high top converse ┊old skool vans┊y2k core┊big hoop earrings ┊blurry pics ┊nose piercings┊butterfly hair clips ┊blonde highlights ┊long flowy skirts ┊bejeweled lighters ┊lip liner┊juicy lip gloss ┊cherry vanilla coca cola ┊dr pepper cherry ┊dachshund puppies ┊dilf obsessed !┊care bear plushies┊2000 nissan skyline gtr 34┊dickies 874┊black knee high boots.

[waugh-bao]

for the ask meme, top 5 photos of keith and charlie! 🥹

also! while you’re at it, top 5 keith songs (can be both the stones or his solo works)

This isn’t intentional, but every photo I ended up picking of them is from the last 30 or so years of the band.

In no particular order:

Also a bonus shout out to the best Keith and Charlie photo where Charlie technically isn’t in the picture:

For the top 5 Keith songs, also in no particular order:

Hate It When You Leave (Main Offender, 1992)

Most of Keith’s solo songs are either about getting screwed over by a woman (and deserving it) or missing somebody in a long term relationship. This is one of my favorite songs of that second genre, I admit partly because it reminds me of a very particular part of my life, but also just the lyrics, the beat, and his voice play beautifully together. It’s an aberration for me in that most of the Winos songs I enjoy are the ones where Charley Drayton is on drums, because he has a lighter touch that suits Keith better.

Alteration Boogie (Unreleased Voodoo Lounge Outtake, 1993)

Voodoo Lounge is a great album that also has a lot of outtakes from the studio sessions floating around online (there were 75 demos from the whole process which was an unusually large amount for them), but this is probably my favorite Keith solo piece. It’s a song about and sung to Charlie (who joins in on drums halfway through) and it’s the most unhinged thing you’ve ever heard. Keith composed an entire 5 minute song about Charlie’s personal, how his trousers hang, and his ass, among other topics, seemingly on the fly. It’s a really interesting insight into whatever is going on in his head.

How Can I Stop (Bridges to Babylon, 1998)

I think most of Keith’s best ‘solo’ music really comes from him doing his own thing as a vocalist within the Stones. Especially because he has a tendency to strip things down and do almost everything with just himself and Charlie, plus occasionally one or two other people (Stu, Pierre, etc). It’s an emotionally devastating song (“You look at me, but I don’t know what you see/A reflection, baby, of what I want to be/I see your face and I want to roll with it…”) and the music itself more than matches the lyrics for quality. Wayne Shorter guested on the song and the last minute, which is just Charlie and Wayne going back and forth on sax and cymbals, with a little piano backing, genuinely gives me chills. It also shows how Keith’s generosity as a musician and his love of Charlie works in his favor, because that duet between them makes the song.

Love Hurts (Tribute to Graham Parsons, 2004)

It’s a cover, not a song Keith wrote himself, but I think it really suits his style/content as a solo artist and he makes it really work with his voice here. Norah Jones also works fabulously as co-vocalist, I think he actually tends to harmonize better with women (Sarah Dash, Norah, Sheryl Crow, Lisa Fischer, etc) live than with Mick.

Losin’ My Touch (Forty Licks, 2002)

I’m a sucker for all of Keith’s ‘sad old man at the end of a long term relationship’ songs, like “This Place Is Empty”, but this song (which was one of two originals added to a 40th anniversary greatest hits album) is really lovely. It’s a very classic Keith only on vocals/no back-up, drums, piano, and a bit of guitar, and I think that’s often how he sounds best.

I wouldn’t put it in my top 5 solely because of how horribly the production of the song was mangled by Andrew Watt, but Keith’s one solo song off of Hackney Diamonds, “Tell Me Straight” has absolutely gorgeous, devastating lyrics. It’s almost certainly his Charlie song, and both more beautiful and sadder when you consider the writing in that light.

[jackwolfes]

Solo (Wylan) // Six of Crows // 565 words // E rated @kinktober2023 Day 26: Masturbation & Overstimulation

[all kinktober fills]

He likes to push himself, sometimes. 

It's never as good as when he does it himself because inevitably, always, he flinches away from pushing too far. When Jesper decides to take Wylan past the point of his orgasm he always just goes, hand stroking along Wylan's cock with his come to slick the way, sometimes fucking him, either ignoring or relishing in the way Wylan sobs. Jesper doesn't stop till Wylan cracks in earnest, safeword begged out from the lips of a spent man. Usually, that doesn't happen until after Wylan has been pushed over his second — sometimes third — orgasm. 

But Jesper isn't here tonight. 

Wylan lies in their grand bed all alone, aware that Jesper will return in a few short days and if he's patient he can get more than he dreams of. He gives it an hour maximum from the moment Jesper steps through the front door to the two of them naked, and after a week and a half apart Wylan knows to expect Jesper to pull out all the stops. He has the very same urge to offer up everything he knows Jesper likes, after all. 

At this moment, though, he's greedy, and alone, and wants to feel the lingering scratch marks of overstimulation. 

Thinking of Jesper and stroking his cock quickly, Wylan tips himself over the edge of an orgasm. It fizzes like a firework with smoke patterns lingering behind his eyelids, and he gasps. His eyes squeeze shut, feeling pleasure swell. 

But he doesn't stop his hand. That's the game, after all, and the very thing he loves most. His breathing speeds up, and although his hand stutters on his sensitive cock he doesn’t stop. The part of him that craves this gentle pain wins out against the instinct telling him it’s too much. Wylan squeezes his eyes shut, whining gently, and presses his head backwards into his pillow. His nerves are singing, hips starting to jolt, as he works his hand over his softening cock. 

It doesn’t stay soft for long, but it never does. He bites his bottom lip hard, relishing the way that pain joins the rest of his sensitive body, and before he knows it he’s half hard again. He shifts on his bed, spreading his thighs apart and arching his back. His mother is asleep in a room far down the hall but he has to be quiet, so he tries his very hardest and keeps going. 

The second time always comes around quicker for Wylan, and this time — like most times — it hurts. Just a bit. The satisfaction is endlessly, permanently worth it, though, except Wylan has to cover his mouth with his free hand as he works himself through his second orgasm. Tears spring up to his eyes, entire body twitching like he’s touched an electric wire. Ghezen, this never gets old. 

He settles slowly, grimacing a bit at the mess he made. That’s the other reason having Jesper around is better: having him at his side while Wylan tries to catch his breath, always on hand with water and a soft cloth to clean him gently, is something Wylan misses. He just misses Jesper, if he’s honest, but he’ll be home soon. Wylan takes comfort in knowing that, and smiles to himself at the idea. He cleans himself quietly, then curls up tightly under his blanket. Soon, he thinks. Soon.

[kylo-wrecked]

{ cont'd from here, because i, like some people, had no chill }

Tenements creaked like broken bones. Old bones. Their windows whistled while the Domino Sugar Factory flipped the bird across the way. Pigeons and crows roosted on the tired arms of streetlamps, shaking out their wings. Dark pinions overlapped darker pinions in a black tangle, not unlike Ben's hair. The wind could've blown them away, man and Valkyrie both. Ben and his sharp teeth laughed at the sky. The stars, ghosts. Below, the East River laughed with him, rolling and hissing endlessly.

His laugh was curt, there and then gone, and he regarded Brunnhilde, this sliver of moonlight with the hardness of a diamond, pursing his lips in thought. Ben was listening.

Maybe selectively. Maybe with what was left of his soul. Maybe he felt as the Valkyrie did. Maybe not—maybe they didn't want the same things. Maybe he didn't give a good God damn. Nor had he ever wanted glories, ashes, feathers, and fallen sisters. He didn't care for such things any more than he'd cared for flying business class.

Ben Solo was made for the travails and tragedies of fruitless human endeavor. He was made to rot. Was she? From what she described, Ragnarok seemed like another exercise in futility: it meant nothing. Even gods destroyed themselves. 

Even gods answered questions with questions. 

When Brunnhilde pierced Ben with her gaze and asked her questions, he provided a statement. 

"Home is sound and the color it makes. That's me."

Ben was also made for music. His fingers, their seemingly preternatural familiarity with stringed instruments, the branching pathways in his brain, drawing shape and flavor from things not meant to have form, taste, or tincture. 

Additionally, he might have thought he was made for reality, the state of things as they exist, even when they have wings.  

"You? You sound like a woman," he said, shrugging at Brunnhilde, her pretty pissed-off face. "Maybe you belong to yourself now. Maybe your home is being angry. How the shit should I know? You 'belong to nothing?' Then why're you so proud? You ever think of that?"

Tapped at his temple as the wind ruffled through those black locks, and the pigeons cooed, and the crows laughed along as they ascended from the sudden smell of rain. 

"Do you have feathers up there, too?" 

[pansy-picnics]

I need more next gen. I am starving. Pls. What are UD/varigo like with their niblings. Is Eugene the fun uncle. Who had a hero crush on Hugo. Stuff like that.

IVE BEEN MEANING TO DO SOME CONTENT OF THIS FOR A WHILE HEHEHE THANK U….. i’ve been collecting sketches for this for a while so it’s gonna be a long one

emery loves their aunties and uncle and rapunzel and her partners all spoil them to DEATH its so fucking cute

they’re very into botanical and herbal sciences, so she does a lot more hands-on and in the moment studies than varian and hugo, who usually stay cooped up in their lab most of the day. rapunzel especially loves going out with her on hikes or nature walks whenever her dads are busy, and they do field journals and stuff…. sometimes others will join them on their little trips but for the most part it’s just something the two of them do together. they garden a lot too, obviously, and raps listens to her infodump for hours on end

em also absolutely ADORES her aunt cassie, as she has dubbed her (it definitely got varian a few death glares at first, but he swears up and down he didn’t teach her anything). she loves hearing all the stories about her adventures and is especially fascinated by her cartography. cass also loves to collect weird things, like feathers, funny looking rocks or crystals, animal/fish bones, reptile skins or wings of insects, various things from deceased creatures she’s come across on her travels. emery finds this stuff incredibly cool, since they love animals

whenever cassandra travels out of corona for a bit she brings home lots of flowers and herbs and things for them to study, along with plenty of pretty trinkets and baubles for both them and the twins <3

that’s jusr like one of her love languages she’s like a crow. just gives people shiny rocks and sticks she found, and sometimes jewels/little hairclips/rings/generally very fancy things she definitely stole. sometimes nobody knows what to do with them but they keep them because they love her

eugene is absolutely the fun uncle but like, only when yong’s not around bc he easily solos eugene any day. no hard feelings it just is what it is

but yeah eugene always does the best storytime voices, especially with the flynn rider books bc hes been doin this for YEARS hes got DECADES of experience bro. sometimes the kids encourage him to act out the scenes in which he tries his best but fails miserably while lamenting about his old man bones

rapunzel and cassandra both laugh at him and sometimes will try to pick up where he left off

and, speaking of flynn, with another kid in the castle eugene finally gets another chance to play his favorite game: how long can i have this child convinced that i am the REAL flynn rider in the flesh

the answer is quite a while and it will eventually lead a very pissed off alchemist to storm into your room ready to beat the shit out of you

eugene definitely helps them get away with shit especially considering he’s trying to get revenge on the years varian and hugo spent being menaces to the twins. it is actually CRUCIAL that hugo and varian stay childless for a good 5-7 years after the twins are born because they get that long to be Goofy Ass Uncles and nothing more

no bc theyd literally be the worst most irresponsible mfs imaginable bc they’re both fucking around the whole time trying to impress the kids but they start getting rlly overly competitive about who they like more and fighting about it while the twins are just along for the ride

so. they DO still end up being the favorite uncles just. not for the reasons they think

they’d be like, showing the kids all sorts of projects they have around the lab but theyre just so much more hyperfocused on one upping each other- varian would do tons of interactive experiments so they can get involved and be hands on with everything. it’s just simple stuff obviously, baby science

but hugo on the other hand is more keen to giving them eye candy. fancy machines with cool lights and noises and the like. he does this with kids in town already, they always know him by name and like to play with olivia so he knows how to get the attention of children, but varian thinks it’s cheating so they get into a really stupid argument about it

varian: HAHAHA hugh you’re KIDDING right. that’s nothing they dont even know what’s going on its just a big machine that makes fancy lights and noises

hugo: ??? ok but that’s all you really need isn’t it?? it’s not like kids are all that hard to impress. plus you cant get on my case when yours is just some vial that changes color. you can at LEAST give them something cooler than that

varian: ??? HUGO I CAN ONLY DO SO MUCH THEYRE LIKE FOUR😭 at least MINE is educational. it teaches them about alchemy while helping them develop critical thinking and motor skills

hugo: oh my gods var it’s not that deep😑 like work smarter not harder you know what i mean?? it’s not like they’re our kids we don’t have to worry about that stuff

varian: IT’S NOT EVEN ABOUT THAT THOUGH it’s about captivation and keeping their attention. kids have really short attention spans, fancy gadgets may look cool but they’ll get boring in like five seconds. if you get them involved with the process and allow them to understand the craft they’ll be WAY more interested and-

varian goes into a rant before hugo cuts him off being all “ok fine well if you’re so confident lets ask what THEY think” and varians like “FINE” and so hugo turns around in a huff and realizes both the toddlers are Gone.

and he’s just “,,,,,hey um. hey var. love….where did the twins go” and varian whips his head around like “YOU FUCKING LOST THEM????”

so obviously they both freak the fuck out and are scouring the entire lab making sure they arent off drinking some dangerous chemicals or some shit but like, both of them are smart as fuck so it turns out they just walked off in the middle of their argument and went to go steal sweets from the kitchen. cass, raps, and eugene all chew them out for it later. they get more responsible when emery comes along but like….yk not that much AUDJSJDHDSNS

on the topic of stupid uncles, i should mention that though they love all of them dearly…lance is kind of the favorite like 90% of the time

cuz see eugene along with hugo still continue to be a bit overprotective and paranoid with the kids at times. varian is usually very laid back but when emery hits her teen years he starts to worry a lot more, while hugo mellows out considering that’s where vars own life went downhill LMAO. if there’s anyone who will indulge them and let them get away with ANYTHING it’s lance.

there’s such a blatant and vast difference between your first time parents who are always overthinking everything and worrying about whether they’re good parents or not and your cool, unmarried uncle who already adopted and raised two teenage kids in his 20s, is in the prime of his life and doesn’t technically have to take responsibility for you at all

granted though, the twins have had everyone wrapped around their little fingers since their birth

immediately after the twins were born, everyone in the castle (and even those who weren’t) all collectively pitched in to help as much as they possibly could. especially considering rapunzel struggled a lot mentally in the first few months of her kids’ life, the whole family was very determined to make the time as stress-free as their abilities would allow

one thing they found out quickly was that the twins absolutely adored varian. which obviously confused the alchemist and left him feeling quite helpless considering 1. kids hardly ever liked him (he usually got bullied by them) and 2. because of this he. didn’t really know what to do with kids. ryder once fell asleep in his arms and he lowkey panicked bc he had NO idea what he was supposed to do

when the anxious new parents were finally able to let people be alone with the babies, varian ended up being a pretty regular sitter. to the point where he would have little baby slings in case he needed to hold them while he was working on small projects or something. people would even frequently assume they were his and he eventually got tired of explaining they were actually his niblings so he just let people think whatever

before theyre born hugo jokes around like “lmaooo i dont even like kids” but he’s lying thru his fucking TEETH. hed die for them.

also alina thinks hugo is SO fucking cool (obviously considering he cut her hair based off of his) but also em admires hugo more than either of the twins could ever possibly comprehend. i havent drawn it enough since most of what i’ve drawn of them is them bullying each other but thats just their love language of course emery picked up on it. past the age of like 10 emery would rather die than admit how much she looks up to her father but hugo Knows <3

its not to say em doesnt admire varian, because she loves both her dads equally!!! but because hugo also came from an orphaned past being with him made emery feel a lot more safe and understood during her first few years at the castle. hugo knew what it was like to suddenly go from having nothing to having Everything and he knew it could be really stressful, especially for a little kid….having someone who understood that was really comforting to emery.

because of this though hugo tended to be the paranoid mother hen type, especially compared to varian who was a LOT more laid back and wanted to give them the freedom to trust their own judgement and make mistakes. it was tough to balance these styles at first but emery genuinely loved them both, even if hugo’s fussiness was a bit annoying sometimes

in fact the reason emery dubbed hugo “mama” in the first few months was not because they could sense his massive amounts of Gender (well like, partially, but it was about a month or so after that before the ‘are you a boy or a girl?’ question finally came up), but instead because hugo’s constant doting on her reminded them of their birth mother

varian and hugo dont know much about emery’s birth family or what happened to them, considering she doesn’t say much in her younger years and eventually forgets most of what she didn’t; but she seems to have cared a lot about her birth mother, and frequently still misses her presence.

whenever those waves of emotion are too much for her to bear, hugo is there to comfort her- and he assures her that despite never even meeting them, he still misses his birth family, too, but that it will get easier, and no matter what, she’ll always have people who love and support her

anyways thats all i have rn *opens my head and puts my brain back in it like the little frankenstien dude from nightmare before christmas* idk when ill have more content of them but the next time i do it’ll probably be that drawing with rapunzel kissing both her partners on the lips and both of them being so romantically in love with her /hj

[midwinterhunt]

Corvus

Real Name: 黒澤 からす Kurosawa Karasu

Age: 25

Gender: Male

Height: 5'6"

Weight: 174 lbs

Birthdate: Jan 1st

Profession: Pro Hero

Place of Residence: Near what used to be Okubo Park in Shinjuku, Tokyo. He lives with his little sister.

Quirk Name: Murder

Type: Emitter

Description: He can communicate with, control, and is followed by all corvids crows. They will scout for him, do him favors, keep watch for him. They will attack people for him and protect him. He is part of their murder and has a mental link with them, meaning that they share some of his intelligence, and he shares some of their instincts and impulses. More or less functioning as a hive mind. He can also transfer his consciousness into any of his birds to take full control of it. This effectively lets him have the body of a bird, but it leaves his own body vulnerable and defenseless, so it is a risky move.

Weapon: A gun that he loads with taser bullets.

He also has a cape (batman style where he can glide on it)

Family: • Sister: Torimi, 15 years old, her quirk is growing feathers • Other: The rest of his family lives in Toyama His entire family has songbird based quirks. They are all inhumanly pretty and have unbelievably beautiful and angelic singing voices.

Hero Name: Corvus

Epithet: The surveillance hero

Agency: Head and founder of the Bird's Eye hero agency

Poll Rank: he's in the 90s.

Specialty: Digging up hard to locate villains and organizations

Publicity: Everyone who lives in or close to Shinjuku knows him and has probably met him briefly, and he is also known throughout Tokyo by and a few other scattered towns.

Appearance: He has steel gray hair that he keeps styled in an undercut. His eyes are yellow edged in brown, and are extremely piercing. He has fair, smooth skin, finely tones muscles, and a very symmetrical face. All around he is an inhumanly attractive man.

Background: When he was young he seriously struggled with the side effects of his quirk, and only got a solid hold on it in his last year at school. He started his career working in Best Jeanest's hero agency. He worked there until he could get on his feet and go solo. He has had trouble in the past with his girlfriend close friend betraying him and showing her true colors as a villain. In the past couple years, he started trying to get his own agency going. So far the Bird's Eye Agency consists of Corvus and a few friends, plus the occasional sidekick. The agency works to attack and cut off villain activity at the source.

Trivia -Okubo Park has been transformed into his aviary which also serves as a safe place for citizens who are in danger are need somewhere to stay. There is a solid wall surrounding it, so a crow has to be hailed to open the gate. -He is in the top 50 Most Attractive Single Male Heroes, but he doesn't know about this himself. -He can occasionally be heard singing idly, and he has the voice of an angel. -His Quirk used to be called "Flock," but he changed it when he was a teenager to be edgy. -He is farsighted, so he wears reading glasses. -Magpies are the exception to Corvus's quirk. He may be able to bond with them and share a brain cell, but even he can't control them. -He can't drive -He spent his entire third year investigating Nezu to figure him out, and still has that file, but never found what he'd been hoping for. -He doesn't use contractions when speaking. At All. -Autism Swag for real

[mytvd]

can they fly?? is there any other way she could have been yanked vertically like that??

the zooming of the credits sent me

"i predicted obama" "can we still say 'tr*nny mess'?"

the crow on the street signs. watching. observing. the video mentioned that the crow and fog get dropped right away which is already making me so sad.

kai confuses me -- is he really making fun of jeremy for wearing nail polish?? "pete wentz (derogatory)"?? offended at the mention of carson daly?? he and jeremy look equally threatening, is kai supposed to be scarier??

the dramatic sunglasses removal made me wonder if vampires can accidentally compel people by making eye contact. or was it just to look cool

the "chill yourself" clip has been stuck in my mind since i first watched that video and seeing it in context was just ...!

why is bonnie so menacing in that shot????

i'm uneasy seeing pretty much all of these people inside a high school. i have consumed ridiculous amounts of high school media but this is really pushing it

"HAWT-E" lmao

i haven't looked into anything about the production at all but this looks like a really high-budget episode for the first season of any show, especially a teen paranormal romance

that crow noise as she enters the cemetery LMAOOOOO

literally lol'd at [i assume damon] standing by that statue. whoever came up with that shot really ate that day

does elena think "hitchcock" is the movie title

the crow sounds keep startling my cat

there's no way she wouldn't have felt that injury lol

is this the same background music from pll??

matt looks old enough to be kai's dad at this restaurant. no offense to this actor irl -- he just looks tired and his skin looks very dehydrated (vs kai's v moisturized face). why didn't they oil up this man and try another take

"when's the last time you had sex with a puppy?"

i thought it was gonna turn out that elena was lying to jenna, she is dressed for a much different occasion than her friends are

"her mom and dad died" i wonder how many more times this will get stated in this episode (edit: even more than i thought)

it looks like stefan is on a date with all three of them

i had to rewatch this scene because of the background kate bush. i didn't want it to be a cover but wow. the hits!!!

i stan this wardrobe full of diaries!!!

why is this teacher such an asshole

i don't think i ever learned about this kind of hyperlocal town history in school at any point (i also went to a small town southern public high school). i realize it's there for our benefit but lol it seems weird. what actual class is this where on day 2 of school they are learning this information??

mr. tanner quickly became even more of an asshole jfc

why is the closeup of stefan's nose pores comforting to me? (it's bc everyone is airbrushed now)

i love how supportive elena is of bonnie's psychic abilities

elena is v committed to cradling that empty solo cup

where is this?? i know they said "the falls" and i assumed this pavilion in the woods was maybe someone's private property but the bridge with the lights?? where are they lol

holy shit vicki

this is a much fancier woods party spot than the woods party spot i went to in high school. or the cow pasture spot. there are so many coolers, cans, bottles, etc, but no visible litter. wild

how is nobody calling 911 lol like why are all these kids just standing around staring as if nothing has happened?? they would be, at the very least, milling about

the zooms are non-stop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i have never seen so many zooms. slow zooms. fast zooms. credit zooms.

i know there are things like civil war flashbacks but i would love a 90s one of stefan in his "grunge look"

jenny called damon "an eyebrow heavy performance" and yeah

i can't believe jeremy is drinking a beer while there are cops in the frame???

i hope we find out more about the competition caroline believes she is in with elena

the fray. i'm time traveling

stefan wanted to "be someone new" so he returned to his small hometown, under his real name, to live in his family home??

i know that almost everyone in a movie/tv show playing a teen or young adult is older than their character but again this show is really pushing my suspension of disbelief re: damon making eye contact with caroline. in this shot just having him facing the camera instead of showing his profile and using less harsh lighting would have done wonders to not make me viscerally react to him flirting with a teenager.

elena in front of this giant un-curtained window in the dark on the cw is so pll

from the video i know the stefan is "seventeen" but i wonder if katherine was also seventeen?? or maybe katherine is older than the brothers, in apparrant age & actual age? i just had the thought, "if stefan is only here to check out elena, why couldn't he have waited until she graduated high school to meet her?" which made me think, "at what point in her physical development would it become clear that she is a doppleganger of katherine? like how young?" there is no enjoyment for me in trying to pick apart the age disparity ethics of vampire teens dating human teens so i am disregarding that for this entire show but the doppleganger thing is weird to me

just remembered from the vpd video that queen bianca lawson is on this show, just like she was on contemporary PLL and predecessor BTVS. the eternal teenager

i was committed to only watching one episode tonight but the next episode is called "the night of the comet." fuck

[becauseplot]

staring at you with my big wet eyes. please ramble about poa I am so very intrigued and would love to hear more

okay, only because you ~insist~ <-explicitly asked for this and visibly vibrating with excitement

(i feel this should go without saying but spoilers ahead for this incomplete series!) (also im running on not enough hours of sleep so apologies if this is incoherent)

Philza of Azraelin is (supposed to be) a series following 26-year-old Philza Minecraft Watson who had a mental breakdown in his flat one night so he ran away to go get lost in the mysterious, monster-infested Azraelin Forest outside his hometown. You know, like you do. While out there, Phil unwittingly befriends the local flock of white-eyed crows, who turn out to be spirits that belong to a giant, ancient being trapped in a nearby mountain who goes by the mortal name "Kristin".

Phil carries on living in the woods, spending more time with Kristin, visiting her in the mountain, chatting and getting to know her better. She's good company. She's a good friend. Maybe he likes her more than a friend. Maybe he's just lonely. He isn't sure, but man, does he love to spend time with her.

He continues exploring the woods as well. As time goes on, he gets increasingly familiar with the abandoned little towns reclaimed by the forest. But he starts to wonder: no one really knows why the people of the Azraelin Forest disappeared. Most have assumed that the monster hordes drove them out. But as Phil becomes more and more acquainted with the forest, with the ruins, discovering ancient statues and structures, thinking about the few scattered stories of the Azraelin Forest that he knows...

There is an alarming amount of evidence pointing to some sort of catastrophe. And there are some things that Kristin doesn't like to talk about. And there are some things that Kristin tells him that don't add up. And Phil realizes that he doesn't know why Kristin is trapped in the mountain---chained up, alone, bound---in the first place.

...But he starts to think that Kristin might not be as trustworthy as she seems.

And that's the basic outline of what would be the first major arc! Some more little details:

This series is mostly just Phil flying solo in the woods. Like, the crows are there, but besides them and Kristin, it's pretty much just Phil for a majority of the story. (Other characters and settings would come into play much much later.)

The crows all have names and personalities! The third installment is supposed to be a retelling of the first installment from the crows’ perspective (with some extra Lore added in of course). Fun fact, the first crow that Phil encounters is named Bidmoss, and they’ve got a sailor’s mouth on ‘em!! >:)

I came up with this idea when I was brainrotting a FUCK load of old-immortal!philza fic ideas (like so many holy shit). But, I kind of started to miss philza aus where he was more susceptible to common threats like monsters and cold and hunger, where he didn’t know so much about the magic of the world around him, where he wasn’t so invincible, so I was like “hey what if I wrote a philza au where he’s literally Just Some Guy fucking around in the woods” and thus this was born. For the record, he is fully, completely human. Not an ounce of magic, divinity, or otherworldliness in him.

The spark for this au is this animatic! Idk it was just so silly and really played into the "he's Just Some Guy" idea that was rattling around in my head. poa!Phil and the crows would definitely do something goofy like this to cheer up Kristin when she's having a bad day. This animatic was also a source of inspiration!!

There are songs that go with this au, all from The Oh-Hellos: In The Blue Hours of Morning, Thus Always To Tyrants, Bitter Water, Exunt, This Will End (yes in this particular order; for the most part, the male voice is Phil and the female voice is Kristin, especially in Bitter Water; parents duo my beloved <3)

I affectionately refer to this au as AHH! au (ex: AHH!Phil) because it's the acronym of the first installment and because he does a lot of screaming in the second installment lol

Okay that's enough of that for now. Tbh there are probably details I'm forgetting because it's just been so long and I never write any of my shit down (wails), but the story doesn't end with what I've told you. I can talk more about plot, Phil's whole deal, the crows, Kristin, and the general setting, but I think this is enough word vomiting for this ask <3

Ty for letting me ramble, poa!philza my beloved <333

[jennajaeger]

Just for fun, I thought I'd put together a little masterpost of characters that are either old F/Os from before I got into selfshipping proper, or are almost but not quite at full-blown F/O status :P

~

Past F/Os

Victor Van Dort (Corpse Bride), Jasper Whitlock Hale (The Twilight Saga), Jonathan Crane (Nolanverse Batman movies)

Viserys Targaryen (Game of Thrones), Harry Osborn (The Amazing Spider-Man 2), Balem Abrasax (Jupiter Ascending)

Pietro Maximoff (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Anatoly Ranskahov (Marvel's Daredevil), Vladimir Ranskahov (Marvel's Daredevil)

Wade Wilson (Deadpool), Chato Santana / El Diablo (Suicide Squad), Kylo Ren / Ben Solo (Star Wars)

Almost F/Os

Alastor (Hazbin Hotel), Eros (Marvel's Eternals), Billy Hargrove (Stranger Things)

Bruce Wayne (The Batman), Leon Kennedy (Resident Evil), Nathan Bateman (Ex Machina)

Paul Atreides (Dune), Kaz Brekker (Six of Crows/Shadow and Bone)

Asha of Rosas (Disney's Wish), Coriolanus "Coryo" Snow (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes)

[zot3-flopped]

This interview with Mitch is awesome: www nylon com/entertainment/mitch-rowland-come-june-harry-styles-album-marriage

THE TALENT & TIMING OF MITCH ROWLAND

The LA songwriter — and Harry Styles’ guitarist — finds a lane of his own with Come June.

by KERENSA CADENAS

Over breakfast at a downtown Brooklyn cafe, Mitch Rowland muses about some of the kismet of his life. The 35-year-old musician, who might be best known for being Harry Styles’ trusted collaborator, has been thinking about it in the afterglow of releasing his first solo album, Come June, in early October.

As he picks at a fruit bowl and downs black coffee, it’s hard to not think about the timing of it all. “That's kind of scary how life comes down to these tiny little timings,” he says.

Timing and talent are two things that have greatly impacted Rowland’s life in spades. Even if you are a fair-weather Styles fan, it's guaranteed you’ve heard Rowland in some capacity.

Aside from playing guitar on Styles’ three albums and tour, Rowland has co-written on some of Styles' biggest hits including “Watermelon Sugar” and “Fine Line.”

Both were songs that were an exercise in patience for Rowland and Styles. “Some songs happen in a day, some happen in a year. Same for ‘Watermelon Sugar.’ We carried it around. By the end, it had all this lint and sh*t from living in our pockets.”

Despite all the accomplishments he’s now put under his belt, Rowland is an introspective dude from Ohio. He grew up outside Columbus in Dublin, Ohio. He vividly remembers when music changed his life, as he gesticulates with his hands, wedding ring on his left hand, about the experience.

“My dad's co-worker, who was his best friend when I was growing up, had just bought a house. He was living alone and he turned part of his downstairs into, it wasn't a man cave, it was just, man,” he laughs. “He had a vintage jukebox loaded with current hits. What I kept selecting was early Black Crowes songs. At the time they only had two records out. All this talking about where this and that came from. It's made me realize, oh, that's got a bigger effect on me than I thought.”

He taught himself drums first because his brother would “kick my ass if I was on the drums.”

Guitar came next. Rowland’s way of teaching himself may have been primitive, but clearly it was effective. “Maybe at the time I saw it as ‘I don't know if this is what I should be doing.’

His instincts paid off — Rowland later went to the University of Cincinnati for two years and that’s where he met mixer and engineer Ryan Nasci on their second day of college.

For Rowland, meeting Nasci on that day kicked off a series of whirlwind events in his life — and retelling it leads him to order more black coffee in his soft-spoken voice at the Brooklyn cafe.

“I was his first friend too, but if he had not been there in that moment, I’d probably still be scooping ice cream at Jeni’s [Splendid Ice Cream] in the North Market [in Columbus, Ohio].”

Nasci was the first to move to LA and Rowland, who initially wanted to go to Nashville — which he now acknowledges would have been a “huge mistake” — followed shortly after.

As fate would have it, Nasci was the one who got Rowland into that pivotal writing session with Styles when another guy couldn’t make it.

During our meal, Rowland jokes about being late to artists (Nick Drake is one of his main examples), which explains why he didn’t know a lot about Styles or One Direction or his general pop-culture magnitude when he walked into that session.

He approached it in the same way he would collaborate with anyone. “It was four or five guys drinking beer, recording,” Rowland recalls. “It was just hanging out. And I think he wasn't used to that. For him to sit back and have some fun doing it with people he didn't know was maybe something he hadn't done in a while.”

Since that day, their creative collaboration has obviously become incredibly fruitful. Styles has become a close friend, even if Rowland lightly broke some band rules when he and drummer Sarah Jones got together. “For doing such a no-no, he's kind of supported anything and everything.”

Ironically, Rowland says, they see each other more when they aren’t on tour (their latest, Love On Tour, wrapped in July). “Over the years, we'll go places. We'll go on vacation or when we used to live in London, he’d swing by all the time.”

One thing that’s clear when Rowland talks about their friendship and their work relationship is that Styles is loyal to a fault.

“I never would've imagined him putting out [Come June], but it's been the most natural thing,” he says. “To have a friend support me on the level that he does, he doesn't have to. It's not about money. He doesn't need that. He could have anyone in his band. It wouldn't make a difference in the big picture. Once again, he's amazing.”

(more at link)