#which is friendship and light

[coern]

two embers needs to release soon already so I can have a little more of an excuse to draw alef and resh as siblings and draw them to six trillion years and overnight story

[smoosnoom]

sometimes i wake up in a panic Wanting to write a strange byler grocery store au featuring employee will with a weird friendship with steve and an eighteen year-old mike who is just starting to shop for himself for the very first time

[deesi-academia]

little strangers besties on the internet on my little phone are the bestest people ever <33

[lupismaris]

Sometimes self care is having a very stern talking to with the wounded scared parts of yourself that don't want to do the hard and difficult things and reminding them that nothing will get better if the hard and difficult things aren't even attempted

And then as a reward you promise to buy those wounded parts of yourself an entirely hot pink/pastel pink practice set if they agree to do the work required, as a little treat

[sysig]

Blusters in, flusters out (Patreon)

[choices-and-voices]

Look, I didn’t use to buy into the theory that Tyril & Mal have some kind of relationship happening, even in playthroughs where MC isn’t romancing either of them. But after this chapter…

… all I’m saying is, I can see the potential 🫢

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

APPARENTLY IT’S INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS DAY AND I JUST HAPPENED TO WRITE A LITTLE FICLET ABOUT MEI AND MK OFF OF AN IDEA I HAD ABOUT THEIR FRIENDSHIP there was more i kinda wanted to add cause it felt slightly off to me and I wasn’t going to post it, BUT HECK IT HAVE SOME BEST FRIENDS CONTENT HAPPY INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS DAY 

Hype Man

Mei didn’t think all that highly of herself for a dragon.

Her parents had tried to instill some of that pride in her, a dragon descendant of oceans, she had a tall standing heritage to be proud of, but it mainly just resulted in her feeling inadequate. Like she could never quite reach as amazing as every other one of her ancestors, all dragons. Something about her felt different, felt wrong. Her family came from the ocean, but Mei felt like she was burning from the inside out some days.

She couldn’t seem to connect with her family the way her parents did, some sort of disconnect there that led her to seek connection elsewhere. She started a bit of a gaming channel, didn’t ever show her face, just mostly chatted, looking for some form of connection. She bought bikes, dismantled them, built new bikes with the parts, she stared at her creations and couldn’t bring herself to show her parents, instead keeping them hidden away, because something so important to her couldn’t possibly be important to the family.

They left her alone for the most part. They were more involved when she was younger, but once she became a legal adult, they did seem to withdraw a bit. She figured they just didn’t want to seem overbearing, but their absences just seemed to make things seem more impossible.

Mei would show them things, talk about her accomplishments quietly at dinner, voice getting meeker and milder once she said them out loud. A couple thousand followers compared to a couple thousand dedicated warriors didn’t seem like much. A few races won compared to hundreds of battles won didn’t feel worth sharing, so she mostly let them talk. If they asked she would just say she was filling her time. Sometimes it felt better to say nothing at all than to mention gaming or racing.

Compared to all of her family, sometimes Mei felt like nothing at all.

Then she met Mk.

He was… silly. A little odd at first. Nothing at all like the tall white and jade pillars of home, or the endless empty hallways. Mk was loud. He was animated. He was waving his hands about and filled every second like a firework, like he could like he didn’t have a moment left to lose.

It was a contagious sort of energy. Mei had always felt a little too energetic herself compared to her composed, poised parents, still and calm in their movements; hopping from foot to foot in place when she was excited compared to their subtle nods of their heads. But next to Mk it felt natural to bounce around a bit, talk loud, laugh louder.

He was a little jumpy at first. Something she wasn’t sure she wanted to look too far into considering what it might’ve been, but after an initial stiffness Mk relaxed into contact like a cat soaking up the warmth of the sun. Throwing an arm over his shoulder became almost as easily as breathing.

If Mei didn’t know any better, she’d say he was a little touch starved, leaning into every shoulder bump after he was more comfortable around her, seeking her out for a hug even when he wouldn’t outright hug her first until later.

She made sure to maybe hug a little more than she usually would, just because it seemed to make him smile and a little giddy, and soon that too felt just as natural, and she couldn’t help the breathless grin when he slammed into her to initiate a hug for the first time. And from then on, hugging him, holding his hand, bumping into him, felt natural.

As comfortable as she was around Mk, Mei still didn’t talk about herself all that much. After all, what was a new drifting turn trick in a race compared to turning into an actual dragon?

She did eventually let something slip.

“Wait, you're a gamer?”

Mei halted and stared at him like a deer in headlights.

Mk backtracked immediately. “I mean--I know you, like, game, like pshh, yeah obviously, we’re literally in the arcade right now. But I meant more like, gaming like, consols, VR, all that fancy stuff, and like, streaming it, you said you had a livestream--I mean you might not even be a gamer, that could have been a different kind of livestream, which in that case, this is kinda awkward and now I’m going to apologize for assuming--”

“No no,” she waved her hands a bit, then stopped and let them drop. “It’s… uh… yeah it’s a gaming channel.”

Then the enormously unexpected. “That’s so cool.”

It was?

Mei blinked. He knew she was a dragon and thought… gaming was still cool?

“How many followers do you have?” He was looking at her so excitedly, she couldn’t exactly not tell him, but it still felt weird to say it aloud.

“Uh, I dunno, like… 80k… I think? Last time I checked?”

Mk gaped at her.

“I mean it’s a big city,” she felt the need to add. She knew so many channels with millions of followers, her’s honestly wasn’t that big in comparison. “Lots of people watch streamers, so it’s not… like a super high number but--”

Then he was shaking her, hands on her shoulders and pulling her back and forth. “80k? Mei that’s so freaking cool, that’s so many followers--ohmegosh wait, what if I follow you already?”

“Cool?” Mei stammered out.

“Um yeah!” He said it like the most obvious thing in the world. He was pulling out his phone that had a Monkey King charm hanging from it and an art piece decorating the back of the case. “What’s your channel? I wanna see if I’ve watched you before.”

He had, as it turned out, been subscribed to her channel for around two years.

“Mei,” he whined, clinging to her arm.

“What,” she laughed for the twelfth time.

“Mei you don’t understand, you’re so good at video games. You’re so funny and clever, you’re so cool, how do I know such a cool person. How is this legal? How am I meant to survive?”

It made her laugh hard enough her face turned a little red.

“I’m not that cool,” she told him fondly as she got on her bike.

“YOU DRIVE A MOTORCYCLE?”

“Um…” she glanced down at her helmet, then back up at him. “Yes?”

He grabbed her face and bonked their foreheads together, squishing her cheeks. “Mei, I need you to be real with me for a second.”

“O-okay?” she managed to say, voice a little muffled by the way her face was being squished.

“I need you to tell me you didn’t build this.”

She blinked.

He stared directly into her eyes.

“Um…”

Then he was back to shaking her. “Mei. Mei you don’t understand, how are you this cool?”

“It’s just a bike--” she tried to say.

“Just the coolest looking bike I’ve ever seen,” Mk said, even louder.

“Okay, okay,” she laughed, pulling her face out of his hands. There was a heat to her cheeks and a warmth to core of her chest. She looked away. “Okay, so it’s kinda cool.”

“Extremely cool,” he corrected.

“Extremely cool,” Mei amended. “I actually did some repairs this morning after yesterday’s race--”

She stopped short at the look on his face.

“What?”

Mk put his hands together in a praying motion, pressed them against his mouth, crouched down next to her bike, one leg stretched out, leaning back on the other and looked up at her.

Mei leaned away from him a little, nervously laughing. “What?”

He inhaled.

“BOI--”

“So, let me see if I got this all right,” he said after the bike ride to Pigsy’s noodles. His hair was a mess after wearing her helmet all the way there, sticking up in every direction, some of it smooshed against his head in odd shapes, and his cheeks still flushed from whooping so loudly and screaming at sharp turns. Mei nodded along, stirring the ice in her soda bought from the vending machine down the street with her straw. “You’re a dragon.”

“Correct.”

“Like a literal descendant of the Dragon of the West, a direct descendant of the White Horse Dragon in Journey to the West…”

“Yup,” Mei said, ending the word with a pop and then leaning down a bit to sip from her soda.

“You have a million subscribers--”

“Not a million yet.”

“A million subscribers,” he said again, stressing the words and widening his eyes, as though daring her to argue, then sat back in his seat, waving his hand and gesturing to himself. “Of which, yours truly is proud to be one.” He slammed his hands down on the table. “Which is for good reason since you’re one of the best gamers out there--”

“I’m not even in the top hundred, Mk.”

“Only because every other streamer shows their face which adds to the experience of watching them game.” He aggressively slurped up some noodles before continuing.

“Not only that but you’re a freaking racer. You race a bike which you built yourself.”

Mei hummed around her straw, looking away tapping her fingers on her phone lightly, a heat to her face.

“And on top of all that you destroy arcade games like you’re going for a walk in the park.” He finally slumped back in his seat. “Did I get all that?”

Mei tapped her staw against the edge of her cup and slurped up the bits of soda from the bottom of the straw. “Yup.”

He went limp as a noodle and slumped all the way down, sliding until she could only see his hair, his knees bumping into hers.

“You’re so cool, Mei,” he whined. “Why are you so cool? I’m like… I deliver noodles.”

She laughed and lightly bumped her leg against his. “Hey, delivering noodles is cool.”

“You built yourself a motorcycle,” he hissed back.

She found herself grinning. “Okay, so it is… pretty cool.”

He popped back up just so he could slam his hands down on the table again. “Extremely cool.”

“Extremely cool,” she grinned wider.

And that… was kinda how things went.

Mei did a new trick on her bike? Mk was there across the street in the empty stands yelling about how cool it looked.

Mei beat own high score on an arcade game? He was right there jumping up and down.

When Mei hit a million subscribers she was racing to Mk’s apartment above the noodle shop in the middle of the night to tell him about it before she could even think about how a million subscribers was nothing next to a million subjects in a kingdom, and Mk opened the window with his Monkey King themed pajamas and was awake in seconds to squeal with her.

Her ancestry was still a massive thing to try and live up to, and something that was still immensely important to her. And although her accomplishments now seemed like nothing compared to their great feats… every dragon started somewhere. And right now, winning that race was a big feat, because it was her feat. Something she did.

Even if she wasn’t a full fledged dragon, Mk was right there next to her to remind her of just how amazing she was.

[fourswords]

shadow and zelda were literally sooooo funny nobody understands how much their final interaction makes me lose it. zelda was like "idk yknow i just really think you could be a good guy if you wanted. just saying." and then she gets fucking kidnapped by the dark cloud and shadow is IMMEDIATELY like Thank You For Saying Something Nice To Me. I Will Now Kill Myself To Save You. and then he doesn't even stay dead

[zathra]

aerin/valax comparisons are kinda hilarious. girl they are literally clark and malfina

[bombusbombus]

recoloured this old warmup to repost cause I had it on my mind.

If Clark is going to be in earth 19 (gotham by gaslight universe) (they're publishing more gbg and clark is going to be there), then listen to me listen to me, he needs to be a cowboy. Superman needs to be a cowboy in the big city. I am SOO serious about this. I am on my knees, DC, let me write for you, I would add so many themes about modern technology versus traditional knowledge and sprinkle in some anticolonialism PLEASE.

You could have a cute little Daily Planet that has to struggle against yellow journalism in a smoky little backroom & setting their own type, a la The Truth. You could have gentlemen's clubs. You could have a brutal war against unions in the streets and one lone titan of industry giving into their demands. You could have the exact same 3 batkids from the movie, there's literally nothing to improve on there. You could have Clark tear down a barbed wire fence with his bare hands, in a futile attempt to unravel colonialist ideas of private land ownership. Imagine the alien knows more about the earth, the real earth, than the knight in his city does. Imagine the American dream failing Clark, who has to go back east to the big city, failing Bruce, who lost his parents, failing everyone over and over until they decide to build something without it. In an era of rampant exploitation, what do real heroes look like?

Or you can make the justice league fight big steampunk robots ig I'm excited either way.

[forcedhesitation]

I finished act 2 again, but properly this time. and I cannot even begin to put into words how satisfying and beautiful all of that was. I loved act 2 the first time I played, but figuring out how to save the last light this time, properly completing halsin's quest, storming moonrise towers with jaheira and her harpers, seeing aylin reunite with isobel...all of it. I love it even more. and the beginning of act 3 feels all the more rewarding, having fixed my past errors.

[hum--hallelujah]

there's something to be said for the fact that there are two FOB songs I can think of off the top of my head that are both P2* love songs AND breakup songs to death. the thing that is to be said is that it's insane tbh.

[616nightcrawler]

its like. hard to express to people why i love US-comics so much and why i enjoy reading them without mentioning how much fun it is to be in the online communities and be able to like. discuss the themes and meaning and complain about weak writing and bad characterisation to other people that’s like literally half the fun. i LOVE reading comics all the time but its so much more fun when you can talk about it with other people for like superhero us comics. bc theyre such an alive genre that’s basically always moving so we all read our little comics over the week and then we get together and bitch about it in a little online book club. like. it’s the best

[alectology-archive]

also in general... it’s just insane how much of mat’s constructed personality revolves around rand or is a direct result of rand being the dragon reborn. and how much of his characterisation is set up to parallel the male forsaken who hated lews therin to the point where I wouldn’t have held it against mat if he betrayed rand (in a genre expectation of tragedy sort of way) - instead mat defies expectations and remains fiercely loyal to rand to the very end!!

[imminent-danger-came]

forever obsessed with the concept of MK having platonic hanahaki for Wukong

specifically with the disease being born from *perceived* unrequited love

like I generally dislike hanahaki but something about this gives me brain worms

Ngl hanahaki that could one: be involved with platonic love and two: be caused by the victims mere perception are both things that appeal greatly to me.

[moonsugar-and-spice]

Lu Da 🔼 what is the biggest secret you have kept from someone else?

7/10. This is something he has never voiced out loud, and could be detrimental if certain people found out.

A beat passes in silence. The chair creaks as the pirate shifts, leaning elbows on the table, twisting one of his rings around a tattooed finger. 

Finally, he says, “Just so we’re clear, this doesn’t leave the room.” Lu Da's eyes, so often lit with a bawdy joke or mischievous plot, flicker now with only a muted glow. A long, pointed look that says, Got it? And only upon confirmation does he proceed.

“This wasn’t long before my formal promotion to privateer, in 95 AG. Ozai was still prince at the time, our relationship still strictly business—not an inkling we’d ever be something like friends—and my first official assignment under him was to make sure that his nephew, Lu Ten, never returned from the war. I had some relevant experience up my perfectly tailored sleeve and I was savvy with a crossbow, which gave me the advantage of a long-range shot. Assuming I could get just close enough, the job would be done and I’d be outta sight before anyone knew who hit him. This was all done under the table, obviously, for reasons you can probably guess.

“I went there, staked out his battalion. But by the time I was in position, the boy had already suffered a mortal blow, half crushed beneath a shit ton of rubble. Woulda been easy enough to call it a day, bank on his injuries doing the rest, but there was too much risk in that. So I waited, fully prepared to follow through. And I would have. But I couldn’t get a good sight on him. Another soldier, Fire Nation, kept blocking the trajectory, and I have a code against killing when not strictly necessary. Once they finally moved, it was evident the target was no longer a problem.”

Lu Da pauses, drawing upon a wellspring of practiced ease as the crease worrying itself between his brows irons away.

“I went back to the Fire Nation with a scrap of embroidery I managed to snag as proof, and told Ozai that Lu Ten was dead. Those words. It was true. I just wasn’t the one to kill him. The important thing at the time was that Ozai thought I did. Our business arrangement might not’ve unfolded the same otherwise, and it was a lucrative gig, but it was also a stupid risk to take. If he’d found out that I lied about it, taken credit where there was none, odds are I wouldn’t be here telling you about it now.”

Send a △ and ask my character(s) a really invasive question.