#not settling for less

[seraphicalsuccubus]

want a man so obsessed w me that I make his dick twitch and throb at even the slightest thought of me

#I won’t settle for anything less #mine

[ominouspuff]

Fwoom (intimidatingly)

#fan art #artists on tumblr #star wars fanart #star wars: the clone wars #darth maul #Crimson Dawn #ganglord Maul #My friends that tag is canon #what a time to be alive #Maul’s true calling is to scare hundreds of other scary people into some kind of order b/c it’s just more convenient for him personally #And then throw a secret fit about no one being able to throw down with him properly (which would make anyone a bit blue surely) #And then remember Kenobi exists and have another less subtle fit re: the injustice of being unable to immediately DeStroy the Kenobi #Before settling back into being terrifyingly snobbishly competent starting with making himself a cup of SPOICY tea #Like an aggrieved Victorian socialite

[sunderwight]

Liushen AU where SY transmigrates into SJ's older brother, and subsequently nopes them right out of the slavery backstory by using his general knowledge of the story and actually being an adult in a kid's body to just leave (basically) with SJ and YQ.

SY carts them both up to Cang Qiong for the next sect trials. It's actually not all that hard, the trickiest part is getting enough to eat and finding safe places to sleep between leaving the slavers and taking the trials (SY manages just barely, with considerable help from his new little brothers.) Nobody bothers to go after them because it's before Qiu Jianluo and this style of human traffickers mostly operate by virtue of their merchandise having nowhere else to go. Chasing down runaways is an expense not worth indulging, given that most of them either come straight back or die of exposure.

Anyway, they take the trials, and as expected YQY gets chosen to become a personal disciple for the sect leader, and SJ gets chosen by the Qing Jing Peak Lord, but also as (kind of) expected (by SY alone) nobody wants SY. He's older the Yue Qi, so too old, and unlike YQ and SJ his cultivation potential isn't striking enough to make any exceptions for him.

SY, however, can't leave it at that. He's spent more than five minutes with the street kid codependency gang, so he's gotten attached to both of them. And he knows what will happen if they're left to their own devices and The Plot proceeds accordingly. (Also, they keep threatening to not stay at the sect if SY doesn't stay too, for some reason.) So with a heavy heart and internal candle lit for himself, SY heads to Bai Zhan Peak. Which is the only peak that accepts disciples by way of them turning up and refusing to leave.

SY's not much of a fighter. He actually really hates the atmosphere on BZP, he's not bad at physical cultivation (his health's pretty good in this life, ironic considering how much worse his situation was) but the random ambushes and survival-of-the-fittest stuff is just not his brand. But that's okay, because it turns out that BZP actually DESPERATELY needs disciples on the actual peak who are interested in things other than fighting and cultivating their own strength. Stuff like, filling out requisition requests for An Ding every time things break, apologizing to An Ding every time things break again, organizing schedules, browbeating senior disciples into actually teaching, educating disciples on virtually any artistic or social skill, hosting lectures on how to beat vicious beasts without just overpowering them, and etc.

Okay so some of this stuff isn't and has never actually been on Bai Zhan's curriculum but Shen Yuan is going to make this place tolerable. And stop these children from needlessly getting acid burns or lyme disease or scurvy or whatever. He keeps internally chewing out Airplane for designing a sect system that means there are a lot of largely unsupervised 12-year-olds running around the wilderness on a mountain picking fights all the time. (When he actually meets Shang Qinghua and figures him out he switches to doing it in person, of course, in twice-monthly bitching sessions that look a lot like budding friendship.)

Of course one of the worst offenders is the Liu kid, who SY would suspect was actually raised by wolves if he didn't know for a fact that Liu Qingge has a younger sister, and also the kinds of nice clothing and letters from home that strongly imply not only does he have a family, but that the family is pretty well-off. Liu Qingge is at first deeply offended by SY being a BZP disciple. He rarely fights anyone, and uses tricks and evasion tactics whenever a fight can't be avoided. And he does other annoying stuff, like pestering him about meals and baths and lecturing him on identifying dangerous plants and the early signs of qi deviation. This is not what their peak is about! He should get with the program already! Just fight stuff until you're too tired to keep fighting stuff!

Also SY's younger brother, SJ, is pure evil (at least according to baby Liu Qingge) even though his other younger brother (?) is cool and nice.

Anyway, Liu Qingge stops complaining about SY after their first mission together, where Liu Qingge doesn't lose a fight but does get into a kind of pyrrhic victory situation where he's really badly hurt, and it's SY who helps him win (correctly identifying the monster and then pointing out its weakness) and takes care of him afterwards and gets him safely back to Cang Qiong. SY expresses surprise at LQG actually being polite to him, and LQG realizes that he's been a colossal ass if people think he wouldn't be grateful to someone who saved his life, so the usual Liushen dynamic proceeds from there. Liu Qingge starts bringing SY fans he leaves behind and hunts down animals that are supposed to be useful for bolstering weak cultivation, SY invites LQG to tea and keeps the critters as pets, etc etc.

SY doesn't get the Head Disciple position, because that's only acquired via beating the current peak lord in combat and lol no. Also he's not interested in stealing it from Liu Qingge, to whom it rightfully belongs (in his mind). But that's fine, because Liu Qingge takes the position when the next generation ascends and then he lets SY exclusively handle all the peak duties SY actually likes (mainly teaching). It's perfect -- Liu Qingge gets to focus on his War God antics and occasional administration/meetings without having to deal with students his has no patience for, but the disciples of BZP don't get neglected because SY is actually teaching and organizing classes and student care. BZP hasn't enjoyed a golden age like this since it was founded!

Things are pretty good overall, but Shen Yuan knows that it's only a matter of time before The Plot shows up, and so he can't rest completely easily.

Meanwhile, the will-they-or-won't-they bets on Liushen have been going strong for a while now. The thing is, most of their martial siblings are convinced that these two are already "together", and just being circumspect about it. Those who know SY well (like SJ, YQY, and SQH) know better but think that SY's romantic obtuseness is to blame, whereas those who know LQG well (LMY, WQW, and MQF) are pretty sure that it's actually LQG's obtuseness that's the problem. Of course it's actually both of them, so efforts to "fix" matters by getting through one of their thick skulls inevitably run afoul of the other's.

An additional complication is of course: SJ doesn't like LQG (mutual), and now that he's the leader of his own peak, he wants to poach SY to come and live there. Not only so he can have one of the 2 people he trusts actually close at hand, but also because SJ also hates actually teaching the atrocious little brats on his peak, and would like to have SY come and do it for him. YQY is still a total pushover for him too, and is also now the sect leader, so YQY agrees that SY can change peaks if SY and LQG both agree to it.

Liu Qingge, of course, is a no, but he's a variable "no". He's not going to hold Shen Yuan against his will or anything.

As for Shen Yuan, it's... complicated. He doesn't really like BZP, but it's gotten a lot better than it was at the start. These days he's actually pretty proud of his accomplishments, and it's more comfortable, but it's still a rough and rowdy place with fewer creature comforts, libraries, or other appealing points than QJP. Also, if he goes to Qing Jing to teach, he can personally ensure that SJ doesn't go around persecuting any of his students!

But... SJ never lived with the Qiu family in this AU, and even though SY's not totally clear on what the PIDW backstory for SJ was, he knows he's a better guy now than the scum villain in the book was. He has a reputation for making cutting remarks, not for being an abusive snake or a lecher. SY's honestly less worried about him doing anything bad at all, and there are other people on QJP who can teach. It might even be good for SJ to promote more people to fill out a social circle he can rely on! That guy needs more friends, seriously.

And QJP really doesn't need more layabout literary intellectual types who get into pointless arguments, which is all SY would be if he went there. Just yet another nerdy scholar for the rich kids with middling cultivation that the peak favors to ignore. At least on BZP he's filling a gap.

SY is clearly torn, and the fact that SY's considering it has LQG upset, and LQG doesn't handle being upset very well, so of course they have an argument about it. SY storms off to cool his head and LQG is like, this is it, he's gone to Qing Jing Peak, I've drive him off by being too aggressive and he's probably remembering all those times I told him he didn't belong here and oh no what have I done maybe if I build him a heated bath and get him books he will come back???

Turns out that SY just went to An Ding to vent at SQH while SQH was like "I think you would have fewer problems if you and Liu Qingge just got married and my disciples could call you Shigu to your face instead of behind your back" and SY threw melon seeds at him and sulked on his fainting couch (which is always cold for some reason...)

Thus begins the Liushen Divorce Arc where SY tries to be anywhere but BZP or QJP, Liu Qingge tries to figure out what thing he can punch to fix this not-punchable problem, SJ is like "I don't see what the big deal is they should break up Liu Qingge is awful and I want my brother to teach my classes for me" like the spoiled youngest sibling he's finally allowed to be, YQY is trying to moderate this Hades vs Demeter situation and is all "well maybe SY could spend half the year on QJP and half on BZP?", and Liu Mingyan is going "I know my brother if this doesn't work out he is going to die single and pining like an idiot" and so keeps conscripting other disciples to y'know, lock SY and LQG into storage closets together (ineffective: LQG can punch through walls) or at least get them in the same room (underestimating SY's willingness to yeet himself out of windows to avoid awkward social interactions.)

By the time Luo Binghe joins the sect (as a Qiong Ding disciple), the drama is in full swing and is the main topic of gossip across most of the peaks.

#svsss #scum villain's self saving system #liushen #long post #sy doesn't even realize lbh has already arrived until someone mentions 'luo-shidi' on qiong ding in passing #he nearly has a heart attack #why isn't this kid on qing jing peak?! #(why would he be on QJP now though? SJ's not gonna want him not even to pathologically torment and he's promising enough for QDP) #SY: well I guess... that settles that? not enough reason to move to QJP if luo binghe isn't even there. everything can stop being weird now #LQG: then we shall have a spring wedding #I like to think the changes to the world are so substantial that the setting just shifts to a less angsty action/adventure story #now the cang qiong crowd are the colorful side characters instead of complicit in lbh's many torments

[stayatsam]

Beware the dog that bites (OC)

#art #oc #isaac #he/him for this character #i agonized over this one lol i redrew his body no less than 5 times in five different poses before settling on this #i know this hand thing is for devil horns but i like it being dog ears for him

[plasticdaisy]

i want to either have it all or have nothing at all.

#entries that nobody asked #not settling for less

[rpg-elf-girl]

OKAY BUT-!

#the owl house #toh #toh luz #toh caleb #caleb wittebane #toh watching and dreaming #toh spoilers #the owl house season 3 spoilers #the owl house season 3 #🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 #👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 #YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWE #GIVE HIM NOTHING #okay but I really love how neither spoke in either scene #👏 Belos 👏 deserves 👏 nothing 👏 less 👏 #THE ABSOLUTE DISDAIN IN THEIR EYYESSSSS #AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #I do wish there was some image of Caleb actually in the finale #but I'll settle for the parallels here

[gunsatthaphan]

"are you tired?"

#naughty babe the series #naughty babe ep8 #maxnat #yidiao #yi x diao #max kornthas #nat natasitt #domundi #mandee #thai bl #bl drama #this was.....quite a scene kdshgfjd #theyre a little uhm #too good at this #but also take notes gmm lmao #im expecting this energy from MGB #i wont settle for less djhgkf #they really said mame who #i respect them for that #the uncut version goes harder than LITA lmao #bye

[stil-lindigo]

the candle.

a comic about rediscovering passion and recovering from burnout.

creative notes:

#this comic ended up feeling so much more somber than i think i originally intended #i hope the conclusion at the end comes off more settled and happy than it does reluctant or disappointed #since i do feel that way. happy that is #its a cliche but returning to your inner child #just making stuff that YOU'D like to see more of #it does wonders for making you feel less like being a creator means giving away parts of yourself #im sorry if this is coming off as preachy #obviously you can do what you like #and im not ever gonna be the wisest person in the room #im barely into my 20s #but i spent almost a year torturing myself over what i wanted to be #deciding to just...do what i thought would be cool ended up being the best possible decision #its 10pm #this series makes me really marinate in my own issues #very pretentious but at this point its my brand #comic art #stillindigo art #stillindigo comics

[learnelle]

During my mini hiatus I fulfilled my dream of visiting Norway! The most surprising thing was hearing Lithuanian being spoken literally everywhere. My mum and I always speak Lithuanian to each other, so it was incredibly bizarre for people to overhear us and then come speak with us, or to have waiters/shopkeepers switch from English to Lithuanian. I’ve never experienced anything like it before, and I had no idea so many Lithuanians live in Norway! I absolutely ADORED this, it made all the places we visited instantly feel like home. Despite all that, I learned a bit of Norwegian and discovered that it’s literally the cutest language. Language learning is absolutely wonderful

#But fr it made me so happy 🥺 I rarely ever get to use my lithuanian so this was such a pleasant surprise!! #When we arrived in Oslo we sat down at a restaurant and were discussing how ridiculously expensive everything was - #- and then the waitress came over and asked (in lithuanian) if we were ready to order 💀💀💀💀 #We were struggling to find our hotel and we asked two ladies on a bench who were speaking lithuanian where we could find it !! #At a food festival in Bergen there was a stand for lithuanian chocolate so we were tasting there and had so many Lithuanians come and chat #And soooo many more instances like this !! #Imagine spending 99% of your time not speaking a language outside of the country / without your family #and then all of a sudden everyone speaks this language in the least expected place. Woah! #If I wasn’t so settled in France and if I was a bit less poor I would consider moving to Bergen. I loved itttt !!!! #studyblr #light academia #studyspo #langblr #norway #cottagecore

[dearabsolutelynoone]

“Heaven was a dance in the arms of one’s true love.”

Julia Quinn, On the Way to the Wedding (Bridgertons, #8)

#bridgerton #the feminine urge to settle for nothing less than a love on par with one right out of the pages of a dramatic period piece #oh they set the bar so high #saphne #kanthony #charlotte x george #simon hastings #daphne bridgerton #anthony bridgerton #kate sharma #queen charlotte #king george #queen charlotte a bridgerton story #the viscount who loved me #the duke and i #kathony #george x charlotte #simone ashley #jonathan bailey #india amarteifio #corey mylchreest #phoebe dynevor #regé jean page #julia quinn

[rottiens]

You know what I've been thinking about today? How warm and comforting Kento's chest would be to cry on. Whether you want to cry because of your work, family or your pet or your friends, or just because your hormones are over the roof - he'd have your cheek against his heart, his hand caressing your hair.

he listens to you silently as you sob into his chest, sometimes he calls and coos like a hummingbird when you babble, your words cut off by your constipated throat. other times, he manages to understand what you say by paying all the attention in the world and if he had to admit it, maybe that was his super power. nanami listens to you patiently, stroking your back, the back of your neck without interrupting you.

when you finish, he gently lifts you off his chest with both hands firmly on your cheeks. he smiles at you, as if your mascara (if you're wearing any) hasn't run, as if you're not disheveled, as if your eyes aren't two red balls surrounded by the darkness of your dark circles.

nanami doesn't say anything and you wish he would.

"what happened after that?" he asks so softly as if speaking to someone much smaller than him and you have the urge to hide back into his chest and cry, but his strength stops you. his thumbs rough from the passing years carve the mark of the tears that has run down your face and leave a fleeting kiss on your mouth. "do you want to keep telling me while I order your favorite dessert or do you want to cuddle a little longer? we can make tea if you prefer."

#asks #lovers ₊˚ᰔ #wr #nanami x reader #he would be so sweet #always listening attentively #pending on the changes in your voice #☹️ #he really is the standard #I won't settle for less #now I want to sob #nanami x you #nanami x y/n #nanami kento x reader #nanami kento x you #nanami kento x y/n #nanami kento fluff #nanami fluff #jjk x y/n #jjk x you #jjk x reader #jjk fluff

[remidyal]

Tomorrow is a very important day in the D20/Fantasy High community: It's Solstice, the day where Sol is at his weakest and we must invade heaven and take over.

#arthur aguefort would never settle for anything less #take over #fantasy high #dimension 20

[marzipanandminutiae]

man I wish there were a more nuanced way to talk about dress history’s darker sides without like.

making people feel guilty for thinking the clothes were pretty.

to be clear, I don’t mean this in the Conservative Pundit sense where literally any criticism of white/cis/straight/male privilege and its negative effects on society makes them cry about being Laden With Unfair Guilt(TM). I mean like...I don’t know. this Gotcha attitude I see sometimes that’s like

“think this dress is pretty? well IT CAME FROM A HORRIFIC SYSTEM SO THINK AGAIN, BOZO! BET YOU DON’T LIKE IT SO MUCH NOW HUH???”

obviously we should talk about the horrific systems (many many of them) in the past. if a garment was made from fibers processed by enslaved people, and sewn by teenage seamstresses making a pittance, that needs to be discussed

but I feel as if it would help to contextualize that with like

“who makes the majority of our clothing today? what conditions do they work in? what difficulties prevent us from simply opting out of having our clothes produced this way? who sets trends, and do people outside their social echelon also enjoy those trends?”

so that people get that they should be thinking about the past and how its legacy impacts us today, rather than tearing themselves up for Finding The Early 19th Century Cotton Evening Gown Pretty

there is no unproblematic period to enjoy clothing from, including the one we live in now. and it’s not productive to rip people a new one for Bad Fashion Preferences. to me, it’s the same as claiming that someone supports sweatshop labor because they said a Shein dress was cute once

#dress history #this brought to you by: the frantic thread by people trying to find a Less Problematic era to replicate clothing from than Victorian #they settled on Medieval which #J*wish people would like a word about that (censoring to avoid tag) #it's just such a pointless endeavor because no such era exists. now or in the past #you like what you like. you're human. #and just like insufferable crypto bros wear jeans so do activists fighting the environmental damage crypto could cause #also: surprise! the people making the clothes for the system that oppresses them mostly also want to be wearing those styles #it has ever been thus #so are THEY then also evil for admiring styles worn by the exploitative elite?

[silentreigns]

1 year contract with no job security? Is this not what happened to Valtteri before he went to Alfa Romeo? You can build the team up to win 7 championships but the second they "want to go in a different direction" they will kick you to the curb

#f1 #nobody better question lewis's loyalty ever #the team he gave his heart and soul to didn't want to give him the ambassadorial role he asked for? #ome of my biggest takeaways are that you should just exit the spaces you're not happy in #don't settle for less because there are going to be people who would want you #if they can try to force the most successful person in the sport out then they will definitely do it to anybody #formula 1 #lewis hamilton #don't stay in the name of loyalty as loyalty doesn't pay the bills #someone said that he wanted end his career at mercedes. but mercedes wanted to end his career #which sums up a lot of what just happened

[hellenhighwater]

Hmm....how hard can large scale mosaic possibly be? I feel like my plans for the room I'm working on could use something really shiny and impactful and maybe I want to make a fold-down cutting table and maybe I want to do it out of mosaic, even though that will be ungodly heavy.

It's a fun idea. I'm not sure if it's a good idea.

I haven't done mosaic since a one-off high school art class but I feel like the component skills are ones I already have, sooooo....

I have been keeping to a blue and gold celestial theme for both my guest room and my art workspaces, because if and when I move those spaces are likely to be combined. Cutting table, even though it would be for a different room, falls in the same vein, so I'm thinking something with a nice dark night sky and maybe some branches or leaves...

#if nothing else #I am likely to bleed less on my project than I did on the one in high school. #i sliced my arm open and bled profusely and never quite got all of it out #the third bedroom in my house is basically a junk room rn because the layout is awful #and i have been rotating that room in my head for weeks trying to see how it fits together in a functional way #it's going to still be storage but also my digital workspace/home for my modern tools #aka four ink printers #the laminator the 3d printer the laser engraver the cutting mats the paper storage #and also random crap like luggage and wrapping paper. #i think im settling on a library/bindery vibe #so loooots of built ins. #on a budget level i cannot afford to start this room for a while yet #and the same is also true on a time management scale #but for each project like this I tend to prefer to have everything fully realized in my head before i start #so im doing that now #mentally putting together lumber cut lists and figuring out if im going to have to buy a jigsaw

[veggiecorner]

I, personally, like the fact that the only reason Zelda was able to turn back to a human was because Link was too clingy

#mineru: ah...this is...permanent...she cannot return i'm sorry link.... #link: nuh uh #“it would've been more of a tragic end for zelda's character arc” okay??? #but do u realize how funny it is that she turned back because link really just said “no!” and now she did the impossible #if he wanted to he wouldve #dont settle for any less!!! #duh #totk #zelink