#will answer when I get home from work

[petalpetal]

Send me a 🎵and I will put my music on shuffle and create a mini playlist with the first 5 songs that appear

[detectiveneve]

hello! i can't remember if you answered this in your wonderful astarion romance meta [THAT I CANNOT FIND AGAIN FOR SOME REASON...], but when he propositions us for a second time -- with the series of pick-up lines that we can cheekily call him out on -- do you think he's still in the 'i'm just trying to keep you on my side' stage, or is there maybe some interest in us beyond that?

Hello!! Ahh thank you, you might mean this one? I have another one where I broke down a separate scene so if it’s that one, I can dig for it! But!!!!

I’m currently phone-bound so I can’t grab my usual quotes screencaps BUT I DO have thoughts on that scene, so let me ramble—

for the scene you’re referencing in particular, I really do think there’s a degree of projection from the player (ie what you think this scene means for astarion and your tav is up to you) and personal interpretation for the pacing in here—so if someone else sees it differently or sees it paced differently for their tav, I can definitely get that. however, for me, this scene sort of represents this very interesting shift in the relationship, but not because astarion is developing interest, but because of how he’s acting around tav now that he knows he has tav’s interest secured.

in short: I do think this scene happens still mostly in “I’m manipulating you to keep myself safe,” territory BUT. What’s interesting is that astarion isn’t making any attempts to disguise that anymore. prior to this scene, his two potential propositions (both the one he initiates pre-goblin camp and the one that happens during the goblin party), while not necessarily “natural,” and most certainly not rooted in the first bloomings of a crush, or whatever, there’s a conscious effort to disguise his routine and, in essence, genuine seduction through appealing to Tav, trying to incite desire, etc. — he’s lying and when you know he’s lying it’s obvious, but there’s wiggle room for Tav to genuinely think, hey, this guy is interested in me. but the scene you’re referencing—“here’s my little treat with their cheeks all flushed…” “three little words. everyone’s favorite. I love you. (that would be a lie.) but a very sweet lie,” or whatever he says at the end there—descends very quickly into teasing (almost taunting) that is VERY heavy handed and very gleeful in how he almost …. dangles the falsehood of it in front of you.

there’s multiple ways you can interpret that. is he getting more egregious in his flirting because he feels like he doesn’t have to try as hard, but still TRIES? is he revealing the truth behind the facade because he’s starting, on some level, to feel comfortable enough to reveal THAT if nothing else? I’m less convinced by the second, more convinced by the first, but myyyy personal interpretation of that scene is one that kind of….. is within the romance but removed from it in terms of. I don’t think it’s about tav here, really. I think it’s about astarion.

to elaborate, I think that there’s a kind of thrill in this moment — astarion has been an object for sex and desire for 200 years, and he’s still doing that, still playing that role, but now he’s doing it without the overarching crushing influence of cazador behind him; his safety within the group is relatively secured now; there is less..... external (or perceived external) pressure to keep up the act, but he still does it. which I think results in him almost……. outright telling you that it’s false? like a kind of release, to say that the I love you is a lie, and you know that, and I know that, and I don’t have to FULLY pretend so, in his own way, he doesn't--he tugs and pulls at emotion, and kind of .... invites Tav into the lie, in a sense (thank god there's no option to say "I love you too," here, I worry that fans would take it and mean it sincerely. like. AUCK). maybe there's almost a vindictive thrill to getting to basically display his exaggeration. or maybe he's pushing at the boundaries of what tav & he have here, seeing how far he's sunk in. playing the role still, but at the end, you know it's at least partially an act. either way, poking and prodding like that, to me, isn't motivated by blooming squishy feelings. rather, it's something less sweet, less romance-y to boot, but more interesting for the character as a whole. or maybe that's just my own bias--I tend to find the Soft Squishy Romance to be the least interesting aspect OF the romantic dynamic. also, to be clear, I'm not trying to soften it up with elaboration here. taking away the context of astarion's history and past, what he's doing here is really just mean. it's a kind of cruel thing to so starkly display that you dont really give a fuck about the feelings of the person in front of you--enough to throw flirting and emotional barbs of "I love you," at them just for the laugh of it. it's a bitch move, but it's an interesting one, and I rarely see the conjunction of His Meanness discussed with how it manifests due to his history-- it makes complete sense and it's FASCINATING.

there is ONE thing I'll say, and that in the dialogue branch where you say, "Are you having fun?" or something along those lines, he says, "I am! It's hard not to, with you." and that, I do believe to be sincere, in its own way. I do think Astarion is having fun with Tav out on the road, being with them, being with the group, enjoying the show so to speak, and exploring his newfound freedom--all of which is wrapped up in proximity to Tav. there's arguments to be made that there's pacing issues here, but I actually interpreted the fact that we don't really have another romance-specific scene before the "you're wonderful"/drow confession to be intentional. to me, the trust bond with astarion isn't developed in moments where he's putting up the act or where you're expressing interest or attraction to him (he already knows, he's already removed from that, there's no trust to grow in these moments because sex/attraction is the last thing associated with trust to him), but rather, trust is reinforced over time on the road, through shows of support out and about during crucial, but NON-ROMANTIC moments (such as killing yurgir for him--a nonromantic act, but one that solidifies that he can trust you.)

all in all, after such longwindedness... I guess my answer is that. while I dont think he LOVES tav at all, and maybe he isn't even romantically there yet with them, I do think he likes Tav by this point, and enjoys their company and their presence. what that means to YOU is up to you! as I said, I think it's a scene where the pacing and emotional weight is partially up for interpretation. you can just as easily imagine that he's got unaddressed growing feelings there as you can not--especially since if you turn him down here, what he'll say is "I've gotten on my back more times than I can count [...] most of them I don't even remember. but you, I'll remember." <- possibly implying that there was the start of a potential something here, ultimately ended, which he isn't really sad about because it removes the overall pressure of putting up a show, but at the same time implies a fondness for tav the person; again, not necessarily romantically oriented, but positive emotion regardless.

[valyrra]

Past bedtime strolls

Ominis Gaunt [4/∞]

[somegrumpynerd]

To the people in my inbox I'm so sorry I swear I'm gonna answer those but work has been absolutely destroying me for like 2 weeks straight and I've barely been here

[coriander-candlesticks]

I'm sick so I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense, but I've been thinking about the nature of myths recently as I've been exploring hellenic polytheism.

For context: I'm ex-Mormon. I was raised in the church and, because of that, was taught biblical literalism but in, like, a more subtle way than most? I was raised believing that Adam & Eve and Noah's Ark, etc., were literally true, but that the story of Job specifically was not; I also always knew evolution and the Big Bang to be correct, despite there being a verse in the Doctrine & Covenants (a Mormon-specific religious book) where God apparently told Joseph Smith that the world is 6,000 years old- a passage I didn't know existed until my senior year of high school. I didn't realize I had believed in biblical literalism until I'd left the church, actually.

Now that I'm aware of it, it's a mindset I'm actively trying to combat while I explore Hellenic polytheism. It's definitely been a task to separate the nature of the Gods from their myths, as brutal as they often are. And it's something I've noticed within the community, too, which I think is interesting. It makes sense: Christianity, at least, has had a chokehold on much of the world for a long time, and so many of us have experienced literalism as our first interaction with any sort of holy text (though, of course, Greek myths as a whole aren't that) alongside our first experience with divinity as a wrathful God whose flaws are waved away, or ignored, or twisted into positive attributes. This also means that I'm trying to re-approach several deities with an open mind (Zeus, Hera, and Ares in particular, but many of them to some extent) while also trying to un-condition myself. I was already in the process of doing this, of course, but trying to figure out how to interact with a completely different pantheon has made that especially clear.

It extends to things like prayer and offerings, too. Prayers were very formulaic growing up, even though most of the time there wasn't a strict script to follow. There was always something you ask as part of the prayer, even if it's just 'please help me do better tomorrow' (alongside giving thanks, of course), so trying to craft a prayer without adding *everything* I'm used to including in makes it feel incomplete and, therefore, disrespectful. And daily prayer is something I'm resistant to because of prior experiences with it. I don't want to offend any of the gods by asking for something or asking for too much, especially so early on, and there's always a promised offering the few times I *have* asked. Add worries about exact obedience on top of that and it's proving to be a difficult thing to untangle. And I know that the gods are difficult to offend, figuring out how to do this takes trial & error and that's okay, it'll get better the more I do it, etc., etc.; this is more an issue with my own overthinking than anything else (hooray for ✨ mental health issues ✨). I'm not really asking for advice here, necessarily, just thinking out loud because I'm not comfortable talking to people in meat space about it yet.

[pineappical]

I always thought is very tricky to draw that wrinkle that goes from the nose and around the mouth and still male it look good, but gosh you nail it in every art, super expressive and pretty. Looking at all your drawings 🔍🕵‍♀️ to properly appreciate and study it. But wow really in love with your art style is so expressive and pleasing to look at, and the colors are so pretty 👌👌👌👌

i LOVEEE drawing wrinkles!!! it makes faces soso so expressive and i try to add wrinkles to every character i draw whenever i can. and the fact i also love drawing characters smiling (they make me happy, so i want to be able to share my joy to other people by drawing them smiling too!) which of course makes that wrinkle around the nose and mouth more prominent :-)

im not a person that can draw well from memory, i use references excessively even if it doesnt turn out the same way from the reference im copying from in the end 😊

i drew these out real quick but i have no clue how to explain any of these so i just thought about sharing it with you anyways!

call it "cheating" or whatever, but most of the time i even trace over the reference just to have a base i can copy the expression im trying to draw from. i do art for fun and if it makes my process that much easier then. well!

anyhoo, ignore the fact these are all mr lassos... i just love him a whole bunch 💛

[oceandiagonale]

Ig i'll shoot my shot lol for OC Sunday (?)

Just my Pokemon Violet AU with my oc Scarlet (on the far left), ignore the shadow person lol but ye Scarlet's my blorbo, Kalosian Blorbo who moved to Paldea and attends the Academy for a small change of pace in life :>

She's wholesome and has 3 defined moods of being on sugar rush, sugar crash and regular chill mood, although she is afraid of pyroars (specifically male pyroars, wink wonk) and doesn't like to talk 'bout her life back in Kalos... hm

(image id: character reference sheet on a purple background, captioned "Violet Buds." Penny, Nemona, Arven, and Scarlet are standing in that order, and there are bag references between Penny and the others. Penny and Nemona's outfits match canon, and Arven is wearing a gray long-sleeved shirt and gray pants with purple shoes. Scarlet has light tan skin and brown hair with black bangs and long black and red side bangs. She's wearing a purple sweater with yellow pullstrings and the Uva Academy logo, gray jeans, and black/purple shoes. She has a black bandana with a white stripe and red diamond in the middle around her neck. There's a shadowy copy (?) of Scarlet at the very end with red glowing eyes.)

OOOHHHH SOMEONE HAS TRAUMA WITH LYSANDREEEEEEEE OOOOOOO....... 👁️👁️

(gene🤝scarlet I hope she gets to deal with the trauma with these three who are also dealing with trauma. except like. nemona who's just probably got undiagnosed adhd hence the. chronic understimulation and focus on novelty. and same tbh JKFHDSJK)

ALSO

[kaminarikokyu]

@whirling-fangs said: ❛  why did you leave without saying goodbye?  ❜ (:

she falters.

zenitsu hardly ever falters. she's taken great strides to make sure that, despite it all, she was balanced. she is meant to be quick on her feet, striking like lightning and leaving behind the rumble of thunder. she does not fall, she wouldn't ever let herself fall. she's not the clumsy teenage girl she was all those years ago. yet, staring into inosuke's eyes, hearing such a hurt tone in his voice -- her cold demeanor melts. only he and tanjiro can do that, even after years of isolating herself from them. suddenly she feels sixteen again, easily drowned in the feelings of her friends.

her hands shake, balling her fists up to hide said quake. she had done so good avoiding all of this. she rarely even saw inosuke nowadays -- now, he was here. he was blocking her way, and it's not like she can just run past him. he was quick, they were on equal footing when it came to speed. she couldn't get away, not unless he let her. and she knows he wouldn't let her.

why did she walk away that day? returning from that mission, being adorned with the title of hashira, then retreating away to solitude. hiding from her grief, her pain, her friends. not wanting them to witness the pathetic creature that survived, the person who didn't deserve the title of rumble hashira. she hid to protect them, she swears.

she swears.

but she couldn't explain that. not to him. she tears her eyes away from him, shutting them tight. she can't do this -- not with her brother. (not again.)

" i won't ... i won't ask again, " breathe deep, steady yourself. " move out of my way, inosuke. i don't ... i don't want to fight you. "

EMOTIONALLY CHARGED SENTENCE STARTERS. / accepting!

[creativeskull95]

Things about Episode 5: Home

There was a real Cyn, and the Solver just hijacked her image to use as a puppet so nobody would realize what was happening.

N never went into the basement that night. And the corpses in there(who are J, N, and V) are from a separate memory.

Tessa was absolutely the only survivor that night.

The Elliot family didn't own the company, but we're probably stock holders/frequent customers.

The Murder Drones are only on Copper 9 to destroy all Solver infested drones.

Cyn absolutely blew up the core.

[dandelion-wings]

consider

rosaria and barbara roleswap

in which rosaria is basically natasha and barbara is the one kidnapped by treasure hoarders when she was a child

Okay, I don't know who Natasha is (I assumed an NPC, but when I googled got nothing but Star Rail, and if that's who you meant I don't play that), but that would be a fascinating roleswap! Though Rosaria in particular seems like she would be so different, as so much of her personality was shaped by her bandit experiences, that I'm not sure I can really get a grasp on what she might be like without them. XD;; Presumably she grew up in her village here, and... who knows where she might have gone from there, without knowing more about her family and parents. Though I suppose there's the possibility that the roleswap is that they were all killed as in canon but she was rescued instead of kidnapped, which would mean she grew up in the Church but with that trauma of watching them die, which... okay, I can see where Rosaria might go from there, and I feel like she'd be a less hardened person in the way she treats others, but probably have this core, given her strength of conviction in canon, of wanting to grow up to make sure that never happens to another child. Which is to say, Knight!Rosaria, probably.

Barbara does seem more emotionally fragile overall than Rosaria, and while some of that was probably her family situation, we know from her character stories that she struggled more even as a child, so honestly, being kidnapped by bandits would probably make her even more timid. TBH I have an easier time imagining her dying in the rough-survival situation Rosaria's lore implies, especially if she struggled with the 'training' Rosaria went through the way she struggled with her mother's, but we're assuming she survives here, so. Maybe the false-father bandit Rosaria killed in canon develops a soft spot for Barbara, too, and protects her, and she eventually ends up the group's mascot. Possibly she starts learning rough wilderness healing skills, which would help--the person who can keep you alive if a fight went bad is worth feeding and protecting--but I still can't imagine her ever becoming the kind of killer Rosaria is. Just much more calculating, aware of the skills she lacks without being ashamed of them as in canon, but rather equally aware of the skills she possesses and determined not to devalue them in any trade for those skills she doesn't have.

...and then Sir Rosaria is with Varka's party when they clear out the bandit camp, desperate for revenge because these were the bandits who killed her family. But she's injured in the fight, and Barbara, cornered by Rosaria as the surviving bandits are being chased down and slaughtered, offers those exact skills to help her in exchange for her own life. Yeah, okay, I'm into that. XD

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Month 7, day 30

Two new materials today! First up is a camouflage patterned fabric, and the second is a nice thrown clay :D

[homingpigecns]

this is like a sadgirl pathetic post but this guy i met recently at work was like, very direct and polite in being interested in me and i've been feeling him out bc i literally do not know him well enough to have an opinion but i can't like. he is so normal and nice. hes like a nice normal guy. every time i text him he doesn't say anything weird and he's extremely nice. what the hell. he's literally so nice. WHY. does he like. me???? like what's wrong with him that he specifically is interested in me????

[maiteo]

I know you said you’re not paying attention to the transfer window but neves and antonio silva have been linked with prem moves snd apparently arsenal’s interested👀

[toxycodone]

idk if you guys need sona/oc ideas but I love doing that. talk to me.

[joyfcll]

"No, I'm taking care of you today. No arguing."

talking to the caretaker ! / accepting !

𖤓°⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ oh ! well—! ... huh. it was almost sheepish, the way joy's smile instinctively curled across her features. with blue hair tousled in every which direction and her pajama sleeves rolled up to her forearms , clearly the emotion hadn't gotten much sleep. or any sleep. how could she ? there had been SO MANY EXCITING THINGS that happened during riley's road trip ! joy was practically still buzzing with excitement about all of it! and everybody knew that exciting things were meant to be thoroughly enjoyed and more importantly : SHARED ! especially with friends ! so joy had taken upon herself the task of figuring out how best to regale their friends with the trip's activities. after all , riley was going to head back to school right after the weekend after the trip ended , so that meant non-stop planning , feeling , experiencing , and , of course , smiling. you name it , joy had made certain they did it ! riley couldn't just go on a week long vacation and not have the most fun time of her whole life ! nuh uh. NO WAY ! all of riley's emotions had been in agreement about that , and so OPERATION GOOD TIMES AND SUNSHINE was put in play , and altogether a resounding success !

. . . BUT in all of the commotion , joy might have , possibly , just maybe overextended herself. just a bit . even now that the adventure was virtually over , it was still enough to make joy's fingers glitter with a deftly disguised jitter as she rifled through her doodles about their trip , each tacked onto a corkboard with shimmery string connecting the BEST ONES. ( evidently joy had meant to use her little display as a surprise presentation for the others come morning ... BUT NOW it was a surprise for one less of the crew. )

not that she was especially inclined to admit it.

❝ a w e , disgust ! you know , that is so sweet , really , but i'm good , i promise ! ❞ joy chimed , turning back to the corkboard ( that she had so hastily tried to cover up with herself ) and pinning another doodle in place. it took a couple of tries for her to pin it in the right spot. ❝ why don't you get back to dream duty instead? i'll be so quiet you won't even know i'm awake ! ❞

[drysauce]

truly a blessing that im not home right now or i don't what i'd do to my roommate. fucking audacity