#superthieves au

[stellarzidal]

everything about the stanley parable already makes me want to IMPLODE. this fic took that energy and ramped it up to wanting to activate a nuclear BOMB in my organs

this belongs in a museum! by @rexila-rites was actual heat, PLEASEEE go read the first volume if you're into funny haha immortal guy being a thief and getting into shenanigans ☹️ i actually had such a fun time in the morning reading through this, especially the mascots arc (which is what is pictured!!!)

close-ups below! 🫶

[iridiss]

Fanart sketches for @rexila-rites’s Stanley Parable AU fanfic This Belongs In a Museum! (Volume 2), I love this fic very much, it’s absolutely hilarious and very cool and you should check it out, and I hope I was able to do their expressions justice lol <3

(in this there were definitely two goons speaking and this one would definitely be standing within the range of the Truth SightTM but I needed to get at least one of them in the shot without entering Nightmare Perspective Time so, apologies, that will unfortunately have to do for now o.o;)

[rexila-rites]

do superthieves au stanley and narrator ever dress up for Halloween together. this question also applies to mariella and the curator

Narrator would wear something low-effort for Curator's Employer Halloween party, like one of those headbands with festive light up antennae and maybe an equally festive pattern on his facemask.

Since Stanley's joined the team he's put in slightly more effort, adding a cape to his outfit and a facemask with fangs printed on it so he can say he's a vampire. (Curator hasn't peeked yet but she suspects Stanley teased him about showing up to a party without a costume, or perhaps accused him of having no sense of fun or 'whimsy', and this was his proof against Stanley's arguments) the year after, he probably commits more to a costume. If he and Stanley match, it's obviously because they're coworkers and it just makes sense, their uniforms already go together what's one more thing? Don't read into it.

Stanley himself dressed up for sure! And the Halloween after Mariella joined, you bet she had a nice costume too! Not too nice, of course, she wants to match the rest of the attendees in skill! It's only fair!

Curator has dressed up for every one of her Halloween parties, and thinks it's quite fun! Neither she nor Narrator ever did this sort of fancy dress party thing as children, and rarely on the clock, so she's enjoying the chance now. Originally she picked her costume based on what her employees thought she would wear, since obviously they would know more about what's expected, but in present day she has fun picking her own ideas, sometimes a little Out There but always fun! She did an absolutely incredible Ursula one year.

[deedjre]

in honor of… *stares at how much time has passed since i got the idea after chapter 2* nevermind in honor of nothing: what if they kissed @rexila-rites (sorry if you get this notif twice the first time the post landed in the ether instead of upon my dashboard nd i wanted to be safe rather than sorry)

probably preceding this they saw a couple kiss. or somethin.

my beautiful pieces of concept art/proof of concept to myself. the uh. the second one got messed up on accident while i was resizing the doodle guys. whatever

and the two parts of the image separately! no i did not feel like removing all of the watermark.

[inqrabbit]

SUPERTHIEVES - for @rexila-rites!

[lyfrassirrrrrrrr]

was toying with the idea of stanley getting narrators powers in @rexila-rites superthieves and might’ve gotten a little too silly

[dumb-hat]

alternate: What would your OC's alternate universe look be? If they're a fantasy character, what's their modern look? If they're sci-fi, what's their fantasy look? What AU would you want to see your OC in, and how would they dress themself? Bonus: Prompt an AU! (Really expecting an Exalted answer here...)

Okay, goddammit. I'll do it. I'll do the damn thing.

So here's the issue, right: I love Exalted. I really, really love Exalted. Some of my best friendships have been made across a table where we played that game. A lot of the ones that weren't made by Exalted were made better by Exalted. Aside from a few breaks here and there, the game's been a big part of my life ever since it came out in 2001. I'm running an Exalted game right now, and I'll be running more soon.

So of course I've spent a lot of time figuring out where Evander could fit into all of that. Hell, I've done that across multiple editions, at this point. I'm going to stop myself short of doing an entire Exalted-focused rewrite of his character history, but trust me, that doesn't mean I haven't thought about it.

(Okay, okay... Fine. tl;dr: Replace Limsa Lominsa with Wu-Jian, you should probably replace Ishgard with a Northern satrapy to the Scarlet Empire, but I'm gonna swap it with Whitewall because I love Whitewall, then replace Ul'dah with Chiaroscuro... again, mostly because I love Chiaroscuro. If none of that makes sense, feel free to ask me about it and I will give entirely too much context. I will give so much context that you will hate me.)

Anyway... The quickest question to ask and answer regarding an Exalted AU Evander is "What kind of Exalted is he, anyway?"

Okay, quickest isn't the right word, or we wouldn't be here. But it's the question that people would ask if we were actually talking about it, so it's the question we're going to answer. There's... There's a lot of places to go with this. Depending on which edition you're going with and how you want to slice things up, there's like... anywhere from 5 to 10 different playable kinds of Exalted, and even then, you can break some of those down into like... subgroups and stuff. My point here is... I'm going to exercise some restraint and not go into each one.

I'm going to do three and whittle it down to one.

So, maybe the most obvious option would be to say he's a Solar Exalted. Solars are the chosen of the Unconquered Sun, the King of Heaven, the god of virtue and excellence. His chosen are champions and exemplars among humanity, and their legendary deeds are backed up by ambition and limitless potential. They're just fucking good at stuff. Given how much Evander likes to design and tinker with shit, and how much he loves just knowing stuff, it'd be tempting to go a bit against type and call him a Twilight Caste, the Solars who are chosen to be sages and scholars among their peers... But nah, he's an obvious Night Caste. Night Caste Solars are the shadowy left hand of the Unconquered Sun, acting decisively from the shadows. They're your superspies, superthieves and superassassins... And if we wanted to take the easy route, your SuperEvanders.

The Solar Exalted are my favorites, but I think it might be more fun to imagine him as one of the Dragon-Blooded, whose family lines have been chosen by the Elemental Dragons to wield their elemental gifts. They differ from Celestial Exalted (like the Solars, and another type that we'll get into soon) in that their power is not passed down through reincarnation, but through bloodlines and dynasties. Individually, the average Dragon-Blooded will be less powerful than your average Celestial Exalted (if either could be said to exist), but they're way more numerous. Exalted traditionally recognizes five elements within the setting of Creation: Air, Earth, Fire, Water and Wood. It wouldn't be a stretch to make him out to be an idealistic, innovative Air Aspect, a quick-witted and passionate Fire Aspect, or a hedonistic, thrill-seeking Wood Aspect, but I don't think any of those are a perfect fit. Personally, I think if we're making a Dragon-Blooded Evander, he works best as a Water Aspect: Like water, capable of calm stillness, or relentless, torrential waves; able to adapt to any circumstances, able to find weaknesses in the tiniest gaps.

Solars and Dragon-Blooded are both pretty easy, though. Lets get a little weird. We're not going to go full weird; like, we're not making him a communist war robot hero who will eventually become a city, and we're not making him a weird hero-from-another-world-that-doesn't-exist-because-his-strand-of-destiny-was-cut-from-the-loom-of-fate, heck, we won't even make him a spite-and-fury-powered punk rock prince of Hell. We're only gonna go, like, half-weird in Exalted terms.

We're gonna make him a Sidereal Exalted.

The Sidereal Exalted are chosen by one of the five Maidens of Fate: Mercury (The Maiden of Journeys), Venus (The Maiden of Serenity), Mars (The Maiden of Battles), Jupiter (The Maiden of Secrets) and Saturn (The Maiden of Endings). The Sidereal Exalted operate out of the heavenly city of Yu-Shan, where they work as a part of the Bureau of Destiny, a division within the Celestial Bureaucracy tasked with making sure that the destinies planned by Heaven come to pass to ensure safety and stability for all who dwell within Creation.

It's like the 36th Chamber of Shaolin meets the Adjustment Bureau. It's like Journey to the West meets Office Space.

It's amazing.

And it feels like a weird fit for Evander! As far as FFXIV characters go, he's pretty down-to-earth. He's not a god-killer; hell, he's barely a people killer! He doesn't channel the vast power of Hydaelyn, he doesn't roam other reflections; he's... he's just a little guy, who mostly gets in trouble and cares way too much about stuff while trying to pretend he doesn't. He's defined more by his connections to the people and the world around him (and his desire for those connections) than he is anything else, which is why he's the perfect candidate to be a Chosen of Serenity.

Also, I apparently love making him miserable, which is why he's the absolute perfect candidate for Sidereal Exaltation, because... well, the Sidereals are kinda fucked as far as that whole connection thing goes. The Sidereal Exalted are subject to arcane fate, a curse which dooms them to be forgotten by most, as it conspires to erase memories and records of the Sidereals alike. Sure, other Sidereals, many gods, and the occasional other Exalt (or rare exceptionally tricky mortal) might remember you, but the rank and file? Nah, you'll be forever forgotten. Trying to forge those connections that are oh-so-important to him would be like swimming upstream against the current of inevitable loneliness.

Venus, the Maiden of Serenity, oversees relationships of all kinds... And it's worth pointing out that societies, in this case, are kinda just like really, really big relationships, aren't they? Venus' chosen are entrusted with making sure that things under her eye unfold according to Heaven's will. They struggle to bring joy, peace, prosperity and (of course) serenity to a world drowning in chaos.

...

So, I was originally going to actually fill out a character sheet and out that here, but then I looked and realized that it's almost 4 AM, and, like... I have to work in the morning and then actually run some Exalted in the evening, so... I'm gonna pass on that, actually.

For now.

But, uh, yeah. So, Exalted AU: Evander's a Chosen of Serenity, I guess.

Ask me stuff! oc asks: character design edition

(If anyone ever wants to talk Exalted, omg please please, I'm right here, I'll do it. I love this shit)

[jellyfishgummy]

spoilers again for this belongs in a museum

i have to make this before i do anything else

[roseprlnce]

Other characters in that AU:

- Naomi is in charge of the task force to hunt the superthieves down!! She takes it very seriously. Wedy likes her and tries to invite her to tea sometimes. She’s not engaged to Raye because who needs that guy, honestly

- Matsuda is a regular cop who is ALSO very serious about catching supervillains, but hasn't had much luck so far. Wedy and Misa love to tease him. He’s also a big fan of Misa-misa, the popular idol!! 

- Kiyomi is??? okay I’m still working on this but she’s probably a wealthy businesswoman who is more of a “white-collar thief” and has her own, larger-scale supervillain agenda. She’s used Misa and Wedy as pawns before and so they currently have a sort of rivalry thing going on. Misa can’t stand her but Wedy thinks she’s kind of hot. 

[iridiss]

Honorary Mariella sketches to commemorate the new chapter of This Belongs In a Museum! (Volume 2) by @rexila-rites because Mariella is best girl. Employee of the month every month thank you for collectively saving our asses from imminent danger girlie we love you <3 /silly

[rexila-rites]

Some consistently-sized/framed icons of the This Belongs In A Museum cast, especially since Curator and Mariella didn't have properly coloured digital art! ^^

Been awhile since I logged into my computer and uploaded some digital art! I also accidentally only gave Curator pupils; I'd drawn her first and didn't really mean to turn it into a series but then I kind of did, oops. I blame Narrator, he's the first I drew after Curator lol

[rexila-rites]

This Belongs In A Museum! Update: Chapter 2 - Emotional Lubricants

It's the night of the museum fundraiser gala, and Narrator and Stanley find themselves switching roles as they prevent thefts instead committing them. Of course, this is a world full of weird abilities and weirder people, so there's no way the night will boring! But maybe they'd rather it was...

[rexila-rites]

This Belongs In A Museum! Volume 2

Business is going extremely well for the Special Acquisitions department, which is great for their egos but terrible for staying out of trouble. Curator practices trusting other people, difficult as it may be. Mariella has time to think about what kind of person she wants to become. Narrator presses on like nothing's changed - if he keeps going forward, he'll never have to face his past.

Stanley realizes, too late, how little he really knows about Narrator.

WE'RE BACK, BABY! :D

[rexila-rites]

Some doodles of various bits from This Belongs In A Museum I've done over the past while and never got around to sharing. Most of them are from or about the amusement park arc (Mascots! Mayhem! etc), the last two are from other parts of the fic :)

(no you're not seeing double i realized I forgot a doodle and had to remake the post sorry shglkshg)

[rexila-rites]

This Belongs In A Museum! (Volume 2) Update!!

Chapter 3 - Emotional Lubricants (Part 2)

He froze as his mouth shaped an L sound.

“I - I,” he stuttered, he flexed his hands, his heart raced, and he made a noise with no articulation.

I mean. They're not the 'platonically indifferent'-bugs

[deedjre]

read a super awesome fic by @rexila-rites recently so i did some doodles of it :)

anyway those were actually just sketches so i could become accustomed to drawing them. Massive spoilers for the end of the final arc and tw for blood and knives below the read more

FIRST: some doodles of mariella :) which are under here due to the blood splatter and spoilers of. murder i guess.

NOW, we get to the real thing that i drew :)

had a fuckton of fun drawing this. bit sad that you can't see all of the blood on stanley that well due to how dark it is but oh well. the sacrifices we make. just max out your brightness real quick lmao. mariella's arm looks a bit disjointed but i didn't. i didn't want to bother in fixing it. i don't particularly know how to and there's like 10 rendering layers affecting her. pretend it's on purpose. she also had to be set a bit close to stanley for framing reasons so she's just on his leg. Also a version without the big text: