#this is the last of the winter series

[naw-sya]

[ciearcab]

red and green

[squareshiny]

old tangledz from feb

[veveisveryuncool]

half-remembered landscapes from places you can't quite recall

[fullyfazed]

I keep thinking about the possibilities for the next* life series so now you all get to be subjected to my thoughts.

*not confirmed yet, just based on hope and an implied future for the series

Like I said in my other post I would LOVE for there to be a large snow biome on the map, but that got me thinking about other biomes and land features which have been under-repped in seasons past.

So I made a topographical map. Of course.

The big feature would be the stony peaks which would surround spawn (located on an island in a lake). The mountains could be used as a wall for those living inside, a lookout point for anyone living on it, and it would serve as a natural terrain challenge when it came to brawls and inter-faction attacks.

The other large geological feature would be the cavern/ravine. Another feature which could work as a base and/or difficult terrain, but could also be a good entry point for mines and the deep dark.

As for the biomes themselves I think it would be cool to use them not only because they haven't really shown up yet, but because of the aesthetics, dynamics, and building styles associated with them would be so fun to see in a season (plus the fanart would be sick)

These are just some examples but it could be interesting if there was a tree house village in the jungle, a secure winter base in the mountains, or maybe even an apocalyptic wasteland in the badlands. Obviously there are tons of other variations of bases that could be built in these areas, but these were the first that came to mind.

But Fazed, you cry, what will the gimmick be?

Well I'm so glad you asked because I have two main ideas, both of which involve an aspect of randomness. They'd be built off the original 3rd life system, so keep that in mind :)

The first idea is that every session, there's a random server-wide event. The event could be anything, like every player turns invisible, a random green turns red for the session, or a tornado shows up. Something that will bring an aspect of chaos to the server as a whole, and could potentially increase in dangerousness as the series progresses. There would only be one event per session, and there would be no way to predict what it will be, so they'd have to be handled in a similar way that the secrets are handled in Secret Life.

The second idea steams from double life, but instead of 2 players being connected, the server is split into teams, each with 3-6 players. Teams are randomized at the start of the series, and players switch teams (also randomized) when they die. So there's a real chance that someone could be caught in a trap and then forced to join their killers teams. Health wouldn't be linked for obvious reasons, but I think there could be potential in having shared status effects, inventories, or team synergy bonuses (couple seconds of resistance if your whole team is together, strength boost when all members attack one enemy, regen when eating together, things like that).

Personally I could see both of these ideas working in tandem but I understand how that could be overwhelming when it comes to the creation and execution of the series, so seeing them on their own should also work.

That's about it, I don't really have a good name for this yet but if you like any of the ideas in here please consider adopting them into your psyche.

[jj3628]

Art and comic by @somerandomdudelmao who deserves to relax after all of this!

Song is Somewhere Only We Know by Keane

Let's do one last memory spell, huh?

I'm not gonna be shy about this: I cried! Hard! This comic was beautiful, it was funny, it was hopeful. It was everything all at once. And it means a lot to me! I won't be super dramatic but I experienced a loss around the Little Things episode and reading Cass Series was one of the things that kept me going! So I just wanna say thank you to Cass for, well, everything! I can't imagine how much time and effort and love went into all those updates! Thank you for taking us on this journey.

And thank you to @tapakah0 too. For every beautiful breathtaking thing you've created from animatics to animations to art to comics to just pure fandom joy as the biggest hypebunny for the community. I probably wouldn't have made any edits of this series at all if it weren't for you! Thank you for making the journey what it was. The ride would've been empty without you.

I've tried to post this TWICE now but Tumblr mobile gave me problems each time so now I'm trying desktop so I HOPE this works

[airborneice]

i'm late to this year’s art review thingy bc I had a reeeally busy december and then left my laptop behind when I came home so couldn’t finish any drawings or get my files 🥲 anyway I’ve been reunited with it now so!!!

it’s been a weird but mostly good year!! i started my first proper job in the anim industry and moved house twice. there’s tons of stuff i wanted to make this year but couldn’t find time for bc of the amount of. everything. going on all the time. it was actually a bit hard finding art to fill the spaces this year, which is why i had to stretch my little amount of sketchbook week stuff over two months. it’s been a little bit frustrating - i feel like i’ve learned so much from my job but i haven’t had much time to do anything to show it, but i guess that’s the trade-off. it’s cool being a small part of someone else’s idea but that means i get less time & energy for my own. i want to try and strike a better balance between the two this year and i really hope that soon i’ll be able to share the thing i’m working on i’m literally gonna die of excitement 😭

it’s been really cool getting to make more content of my ocs and see ppl enjoy it, you guys and the nice comments you leave are everything to me. i hope this new year is kind to everyone and thanks for sticking around <3

some of these i haven't posted so to give due credit -

*feb was a gift for @ewwgene-fitzherbert of our blorbos <3

*september is fanart of @the-hilda-librarians-wife’s amazing OC meiri. there will be more

[hottpinkpenguin]

The Way of Winter - Chapter 2

Joel Miller series Reader insert (gender neutral, future chapters will likely read as female) A/n: takes place at the end of episode 6 (spoilers if you haven't seen!). I took a few liberties with the location. Taglist: @missdragon-1 @this--is--music @caravelofthesun @ishouldclean Word count: 2,661 | Tags: slow burn | Warnings: none

“I thought you said you could save him!”

The girl’s shriek cut through the howl of the wind outside. You dabbed at the wound on Joel’s stomach with a rag soaked in vodka, trying to staunch the bleeding enough to see what you were stitching. 

“I said I could stitch him,” you corrected her calmly. “Now hold the light still.” 

The girl - she still hadn’t given you a name - held the kerosene lamp aloft over your shoulder next to Joel’s exposed stomach. You’d gathered his blood soaked shirt up around his armpits. His entire torso was stained with dried blood, his face so pale he looked almost corpse-like. He’d managed to stay semi-lucid for most of the ride home, but his condition had deteriorated fast within the last half hour. By the time you’d rode Rambo into the stable, Joel had been completely unconscious, his pulse faint and fluttering. It had taken all of your remaining strength to haul him in and splay him across your kitchen table. The cabin around you looked half-destroyed, dishware spread across the floor amidst dribbles of Joel’s blood.

“Isn’t that going to save him?” the girl asked, her voice rising in pitch.

“We’re about to find out,” you replied, threading the fishing line you’d soaked in alcohol through the end of a fishhook and knotting it. You were far from a doctor, although you’d stitched enough of your own wounds to know that these supplies would get the job done. With a deep breath in, you pinched the flesh near the ragged edges of Joel’s stab wound enough to pierce it with the fish hook. He moaned softly, his body tensing reactively to the pain, although he didn’t wake up fully. The light above your shoulder wavered slightly, and you heard a damp splat as the girl vomited on the floor next to your feet. You ignored her, pulling the fishing line through the wound until the knotted end snagged on his skin. You worked quickly, the fish hook weaving in and out of his skin as you knitted opposite sides of the wound together like a corset, stopping every fifteen or twenty seconds to dab away the blood. The sewing went faster as more of the wound closed up. You tied off the loose end, giving the wound an appraising look. It was crude, and would most certainly leave a scar, although the stitches seemed to be holding appropriately and the bleeding was visibly lessened. 

You let out a shaky exhale and wiped the sweat on your forehead with the back of your hand. 

“Is he going to be ok?” 

You turned to the girl. She looked ghostly in the harsh light of the kerosene lamp, her eyes wide as silver dollars as she waited for a reply. You felt exhaustion and the fading jitters of adrenaline wearing on you, your hands trembling slightly as you reached for the lamp, placing it down on the table next to Joel’s head.

“I don’t know,” you replied, standing and walking over to the potbelly stove in the center of the room. Earlier that day, you’d filled four massive tubs with water from the deep basin sink in the kitchen and let the cold water heat next to the ever-roaring stove that heated the cabin. On especially cold nights like this, you had to rely on the basins for your washing, drinking, and cooking water instead of using the sink and risk freezing the pipes. You plunged your hands into a basin of pleasantly lukewarm water, scrubbing Joel’s blood from your knuckles and from under your fingernails. 

Grabbing a clean, dry towel from the overhead clothes line that spanned the width of your cabin, you dunked it in the same basin, wringing it out before returning to the table where Joel lay on his back. He was still as pale as freshly driven snow, but his breathing seemed to have slowed and evened. You used the fresh, damp towel to sponge his torso clean, redunking it in the same now-bloodied water basin you’d washed your hands in. The girl watched you warily in the dim light. 

“How’d you learn to do that?” she asked quietly, nodding in the direction of your crude medical handiwork. 

“Necessity. Like I said, anyone who lives out here has to figure stuff like that out for themselves.” You unbuttoned Joel’s shirt and shimmied one of his arms out of it, then the next. You tossed the balled up shirt into the water basin, making a mental note to add salt to the water to help wash out the stains. 

“There’s a sweatshirt in the top drawer over by the bed,” you called over your shoulder. “Pull it out for me, would you?” You heard the dull sound of wood-on-wood as the girl opened the chest of drawers where you kept your meager collection of clothing. A few seconds later, she appeared next to you, the dark sweatshirt in her hands. You took it from her, and with her help slid Joel’s head through the neck opening and his arms through the sleeves. 

“Alright, we gotta move him.” She raised her eyebrows at you in surprise. 

“We can’t let him sleep here?” she asked, looking around the small cabin. 

“No. He needs to stay warm, I want to keep him close to the fire tonight. Besides, if he rolls over, this is a lot farther to fall than the cot. Just pull the cot over here, we can get him down onto that and then slide it over the floor.” 

The girl moved quickly, dragging the camping cot you used as a bed over from its usual corner of the cabin next to the kitchen table. She peeled back the four layers of blankets and sheets you slept with to the innermost layer, shedding the pillow from the head of the cot to the ground so as to give you both the broadest space possible to work with. The cot had a ground clearance of only a few inches, a drop of almost two and a half feet from the table where the unconscious and newly sewn Joel lay like a pile of bricks. Your arms were already screaming from the strain of trying to keep him in the saddle, and you knew that your young companion wouldn’t be able to lift a full-grown man’s weight. 

She noticed your eyes calculating the drop from the table to the cot. 

“We could tip him into it?” she offered. 

You exhaled slowly, considering the options. You couldn’t risk bending him at the waist and popping his stitches, otherwise it would be a relatively simple operation that could be done in stages. Even though you didn’t think tipping the table and letting him roll down into the cot was a great solution, it was about the best you could do. After a moment, you nodded. You moved the seating bench you’d used to stitch Joel up out of the way, replacing it with the cot. The girl circled to the opposite side of the table, her hands poised on the edge as if ready to push.

“You come over here, help keep him still and give him a soft landing.” She obliged, switching spots with you. 

“Ready?” you asked her. She nodded solemnly. You threw your weight against the edge of the kitchen table. You could feel every muscle up and down your back screaming in protest as the table slowly rose up on one side. Joel’s limp form began to slide slowly across the smooth, wood surface. The girl braced his descent with her hands, guiding him as gently as possible towards the cot. You continued to push against the table, willing your muscles to put one last push in before you let them rest. With a gentle thud, Joel rolled off the table and landed squarely in the center of the cot. You caught the table before it tipped over on top of him and guided it back down to the ground. Its surface was stained with blood and the floor around it was littered with bloody rags, your bait and tackle box, and a half-empty bottle of vodka. The place looked like a battlefield medic station, and you supposed in reality it wasn’t all that different. 

From the other side of the table, you watched as the girl gently situated Joel’s head on your pillow, pulling the covers back over his body. Her actions were tender and gentle. 

“You sure Joel isn’t your dad?” you asked. She shot you a withering glare. 

“He’s not,” she muttered sullenly. Once she was satisfied with the quality of his sleeping arrangements, you moved two of the water basins away from the edge of the stove and helped her drag the cot with him in it next to the cabin’s only heat source. When the cot was in its final position, the two of you sat back on the floor, panting with exhaustion. 

You motioned in the direction of the only chair you had in the cabin - an old fabric recliner you’d covered with multiple blankets to make up for its sagging cushions. 

“You can sleep there,” you offered. 

The girl’s eyes traveled gratefully to the chair back to you. 

“What about you?”

You motioned to the floor on the opposite side of the stove. There weren’t any other soft surfaces to find in the small, one-room cabin. 

“Who’s going to take watch?” she asked as she wearily stumbled in the direction of the chair. 

“Watch? What do you think we need to watch for out here exactly?” 

She looked at you with those dark, mistrustful eyes, and you got the distinct impression that those eyes had seen much more than her age implied. 

“For people.” There was a hollowness in her reply that made your skin crawl.

You stood and grabbed a few spare towels from the clothesline, folding them into a neat stack that you took over to the cleared space on the floor opposite the stove from Joel. You paused before laying down to add a few logs from the dried woodpile to the stove. When you finally did lay down on the floor, you could feel a shadow of the coming morning’s aches in your shoulders.

“I’ve lived here alone for six years,” you told the girl, sensing from the way her eyes bored holes in the side of your skull that she wasn’t going to let the matter drop so easily. “We don’t need a watch.” 

You let your eyes flutter close as you willed your wrenched-up muscles to relax. The girl didn’t answer you, but in a few breaths you heard the chair creak as her weight settled in it. Aside from the merry cackling of the fresh logs popping in the stove, you let the rhythm of two sets of breathing carry you off to a fitful sleep.

**read chapter 3 here let me know if you'd like to be tagged if you like this series, check out my Joel Miller masterlist for other works

[greeenchrysanthemums]

I love your GG Rivals au so much!!! I love learning about all the characters backstories and how much depth they have to them;

Also, when Etho first left to become a knight, did he want to/think it was the honourable/noble thing to do, or was it forced upon him or expected from him by his family/ the village? Feel free not to answer if it’s spoilers or anything, but I’m super curious!! ^-^

Thank you very much!! I'm super glad to hear that 💚

As the war with Coral Crest was just beginning and uncertainty was settling over the land, Wintertide offered the village protection on the condition that they fought in the war alongside them. He was the only one actually of age to join the army, so responsibility for the village's safety fell on his shoulders. No one forced him to do it, and most of them even believed he was too young to be fighting in a war so there were actually many people trying to dissuade him from leaving. However, they said it was his choice whatever he decided to do, and they would support him no matter what.

Etho was tied. He didn't want to leave; this tight knit community was all he had ever known and the thought of going away was terrifying to him. But he could tell that there was a lot of fear within the village about what would happen to them without that protection, since their population was mainly consist of children and elders. In the end he put on a brave face and decided to take the deal and join the Wintertide army. He did it out of obligation and a desire to protect his loved ones.

He kept in contact with them via letters for the first two years, but after a while the letters stopped coming and soon, they never heard from him again. They miss him every day.

[zairaalbereo]

And you’ll always be my heart

Nicky and Joe still go to the woods. It’s not as easy these days—since Joe’s hip replacement he isn’t as steady on his feet anymore—but they walk slowly. They have time, and Nicky keeps Joe steady when he stumbles. Joe has packed some seeds because Nicky likes to feed the birds, but sometimes he forgets. That’s just the way of life. Joe’s eyesight is still good, but his hearing has been declining. Both their hair has long turned grey.

All and More and Everything, a childhood friends to lovers AU (6/6) —Philia (love between equals, loyalty)

All art pieces for @theartguard monthly theme: 8 types of love according to Ancient Greece.

[differentfandomsandthings]

There is so much stuff to wrap up and there is only one episode left! Here's hoping the last episode is 30min to an hour long. If not, maybe an announcement of a sequel series?

[crehador]

hey what the fuck did they put in slf ep18

that was like. sincerely. without exaggeration. easily one of the best fight scenes i've seen in years. maybe one of the best i've seen ever. what started as "oh silly vrmmo show but looks pretty good" has gotten better and better, week after week, to the point where i can hardly believe how good it is

the animation was downright stellar in ep18, but the whole wethermon fight was excellent to me. i feel like i can say i watch A Lot of battle anime, and this was seriously among the best of the best. from start to finish the energy just never faltered (and the build-up in terms of lore was basically flawless too)

i'm just. completely blown away by how i had no expectations whatsoever for this series and it's quickly turned into one of my favorites of this (and last) season. it is silly, sure, but it is gripping! it doesn't take itself too seriously, but it's earnest in a way that just works so well

like the return of the stupid bird mask? epic fucking moment. even though it is objectively a silly ass map, it was such a !!!!!!!!! hype sequence when it returned. kickass nonsense is the best way i can think of to describe it. like sure it's nonsense, but it absolutely kicks ass

really really really hoping for another season now, 25 episodes won't be nearly enough

[fabuloustrash05]

TMNT 2012’s Wiki says that Splinter’s year of death was 2013, meaning that season 1 up until the end of season 4, and all that crazy shit the turtles went through during those 4 seasons, took place in the span of only 1 year.

[fullyfazed]

If (when) the next life series happens I really hope they include a snowy plains or ice spikes biome in the map since they haven't really included one before.

[httpiastri]

winter wonderland for that christmas oscar story you're writing? 🥰

oooo i didnt know what part to tease bcs i didnt want to spoil too much shdkdhf but here we goooo....

but as oscar walks back to the kitchen, he sees something hanging in the door frame to the kitchen. he stops in his tracks. "no way..." festive cookies isn't the only thing lando got when he went to the local supermarket. he also bought the ultimate tool for securing his master plan – a mistletoe. he doesn't know how, but he's planning to make sure you and oscar meet underneath it at least once before the holidays are over. there's no way you'll both be able to avoid it all week.

[mistermoony-blog]

Watching The last of us (HBO) as someone who has never played the games but know a little about the plot has me fucking STRESSED