#the sketches I mean. not the companions lol

[hikarinokusari]

I needed to put the rough idea out of my head, so it's a quick drawing, adding to the pile of things I need to polish and have clean things with real perspective, real shadows and real work. And real cabbages. And the exact quote I've said that is recorded on my phone because I couldn't record on computer at that time.

#somehow my vistana ranger PC thought the man was a good companion to have even though he is the weirdest weirdo #vasili von holtz #my art #sketch #doodle #to polish later lol #it's strahdtober time #it's always strahdtober even though we're in november. it was on my list to draw for the 10th month #i'm just late #vallaki partially burnt down and the whole vallaki arc is chaos #and vallaki is not even finished we have all the fiona quest #victor is somewhere in barovia #izek is somewhere in barovia #we didn't have the festival #the bones are in ravenloft #my players won't go in there for a heist. they just don't want to. #my computer screen shows me everything black #the tablet shows me the very distinct shades of greys #anyway #i like that npc this means i'm screwed #my vasili is somehow not strahd with a moustache and somehow is

[monstersinthecosmos]

kacy i wanna know how much of a perv you think daniel is LOL so much fic centers on armand dragging him through an experience *armand* wants. so like what's the ratio of daniel being a freak in his nature (and knowing this about himself) vs armand nurturing this trait into him?

My friend, I’m so glad you asked.

THE THING IS IVE GIVEN THIS A LOT OF THOUGHT and in some ways it’s like, what all of my Devil’s Minion fics are about LOL. And yet! I don’t have a simple answer to this question, the way real questions of nature vs nurture are complicated in the real world in real people!

But let me sketch out a framework of the way I’ve questioned this, and everyone might come to different conclusions and that’s the fun of fandom, because there can exist several thousand versions of Daniel based on the same text! AND I KNOW YOU KNOW THIS STUFF, I HOPE IT DOESN’T COME OFF AS MANSPLAINING LMAO but I’m excited to talk about this topic. 

Here’s what we know unequivocally from the text:

Daniel is 20 years old in IWTV.

That’s it, that’s the whole list.

And here’s some fanon that people often try to extrapolate from the text: 

💦 That he met Louis at a gay bar. UNCONFIRMED, but I think it’s likely? In the short story the bar is named the Pink Baby, I think that might be a gay bar or a dick reference idk lol. 

💦 Whether or not the Pink Baby was a gay bar, he and Louis essentially cruised each other and left the bar together! Daniel has the excuse that he’s hunting for interviews for his job, Louis has the excuse that he’s an apex predator who preys on people, but ? Take this wherever you need to. (Also blah blah Ricean biting=sex symbolisms.)

💦 Was Daniel bisexual outside of the assumption that most of the VC characters are bisexual/omnisexual? The only clue we get is that when he and Armand practice voyeurism, he hooks up with men and women. There’s a lot of interesting information packed into the voyeurism paragraph, like this line: Yet he lay empty afterwards, staring at Armand, resentful, cold. and I’ve seen the “resentful, cold” comment dissected many times in fandom. Is it the general resentment of their whole relationship? Is it because he wants to fuck Armand and not randos? Is it because he only wants the Blood? Does he not consent to being used like a zoo animal? Is he gay and doesn’t want to fuck women? Is he straight (minus the orientation-defying vampire attraction) and doesn’t want to fuck men? I’ve seen all kinds of takes on this LOL. But still, no real definitive answer about his orientation in the text.

💦 What did the “roaming the bars of the world” comment mean? Sometimes I read Anne Rice’s language as being kinda lofty and exaggerated but was he ACTUALLY traveling the WHOLE WORLD or is he hyping up that he trolled bars in the Bay Area? Is he FROM the Bay Area or was it a stop in his travels? He worked for a radio station (not in the book, but mentioned in the short story + The Vampire Companion and The Alphabettery) so did he live here, even if he traveled a lot? Was he wealthy before vampires if he was traveling this much, if you think he was a traveler?

AND AFTER ALL THAT, here’s some extra questions where Daniel is FREE REAL ESTATE that every fan has the freedom to make the fuck up:

💦 How much sexual experience did he have at 20? Do we assume that by default as an Anne Rice character he probably had ample teenage sexual experiences, and if he did, is there a quality over quantity aspect to consider? Is the sex we have as teenagers like, all that to write home about LMAO. Do we really understand kinks yet, or do we need to grow up and gain some perspective first? 

💦 As an Anne Rice character, by default, do we assume he & everything else is sexually charged LOL, are the interviews and cruising and taking people home a code for bringing partners home? What percentage of his interviews were also hookups?  

💦 When we talk about nature vs nurture for kinkiness, how micro and macro is this? As a fellow Off the Cuffs fan I know you understand the “radioactive spider bite into kink” concept, and some kinks are so specific to our experiences. But BEING KINKY in itself IS nature, isn’t it? I’ve read some sex & kink theory that kink is (psychologically) more like an innate orientation. IE: in the way you can be straight or gay, some people are also by default turned on by being smacked or by whatever paraphilia. Whatever that thing is, the way it takes shape, is the nurture half. But like, many people can have the same experience and 99% of them don’t develop a paraphilia right? So I think that capability exists in kinky folks at all times, especially when so many of the radioactive spider bites are things that people discover in childhood. ANYWAY I RANTED but I say that to say; DANIEL MOLLOY IS A MONSTERFUCKER, IWTV IS THE PROOF THAT HE IS A MONSTERFUCKER. IT WAS THERE THE WHOLE TIME. 

So I bring up all those questions to encourage everyone to make up their own story with this, but I’ll tell you where I personally landed and how I approach it in my fics!!!

The Daniel in MY OWN fics is 20, single child, estranged from his parents, dropped out of college because he didn’t have ADHD support and was struggling, bisexual and promiscuous! I wonder if he went through that like college freshman thing where he got out of his parents house for the first time and partied a little too hard because he COULD! I like to read “bars of the world” as an exaggeration, I like to think he was a normal guy NOT globe hopping, sticking to the Bay Area, maybe he was out there for college, and guess what! There’s a thriving gay liberation culture there, so he finds some safe spaces to experiment with that! 

However, I think the text leaves space to think he didn’t have a lot of close friends, or wasn’t close with his family, due to the way that he simply ✨fucks off ✨ after IWTV. NOW, that’s just me! Because there’s potential here for a TRAGEDY of people looking for him or grieving him! But idk I just like thinking that he was already on the outs and the interview pushed him over the edge.

So I ask like, does the 20 year old have a ton of kink experience? Is he good at sex? WHAT DOES RESENTFUL, COLD MEAN? Was he celibate during the chase years? Are the voyeurism sessions the first time he’s had sex since his old life? Even if he had random hookups during the chase years, was this qualitatively good sex? Can you truly get into good BDSM on a hookup or do you need a trusted partner? (This is subjective, idk, but!) 

Also, how much kink is theoretical and private (to masturbate to) vs stuff you actually try? Especially if we believe that kink is nature, someone isn’t less kinky if they’re celibate, the way someone isn’t less gay if they’re celibate, or even a virgin. As Daniel becomes more and more obsessed with vampires, and with Armand, does it take over how he jerks off? Does he think about getting bitten? HE LIKES SNUGGLING WITH DEAD THINGS.

So like, there IS an element of Daniel being the unwilling witness of Armand’s rapidly shifting hyperfixations, and it’s natural that fandom pervs would extend that to sex acts and kinks. I LOVE IT, yes! It makes sense. 

But when you say like, which one of them is in charge, I wonder if it’s relevant if we assume Daniel enjoys it. (Does he? Would he? Resentful, cold?)

Here’s some points that come to mind when I imagine it as purely Armand’s doing:

💦 People sometimes misunderstand BDSM dynamics when it comes to power and control, because BDSM is a consensual fantasy between two adults. The sub is just as in control, because they allow it. In that sense: Do we believe Armand respects Daniel’s consent? Would he force Daniel to participate if he wasn’t enjoying himself? 

🩸 (How much can we compare this to Venice and how Armand was prepared for vampirism? I’m putting this in parentheses bc I’m putting a pin in this one, I CANNOT ADD A SUB-ESSAY INTO THIS POST ABOUT COMPARING VENICE TO DEVILS MINION but thinking of this too. Returning to the under-negotiated kink in Venice and how much is diegetic to the text, how does experiencing a spectrum of sexuality benefit someone’s last years alive ((sub-parentheses: does Armand flip-flop on turning Daniel as much as Marius did with Armand, does Armand subliminally know he’ll turn Daniel one day, does he go through these experiences as a precursor to turning Daniel eventually?)) are these experiences more for Armand to process the way he was groomed for asexual immortality vs being purely selfless and for Daniel’s benefit?)

💦 Armand uses Daniel as his usher into the modern age, and is it fair to assume he could sense Daniel’s kinkiness and knew that this was the person for him? 

💦 How dubious is Daniel’s consent here? How addicted to Armand’s Blood is he by the time they start fucking around? Is he already within the throes of Ricean Omnisexuality where he’s down for whatever? Does the Blood influence this as well? Is there a secret subliminal violence creeping into your body when you’ve been drinking it again and again? What about less violent kinks, like your feederism fic? Does the Blood encourage all types of excess and consumption??? 

But if DANIEL is the driving force here, I still must consider:

💦 He meets Armand and his life essentially ends when he’s 20 years old. Was he really self-aware of his kinks? Did he know himself very well sexually yet? 

💦 While exploring kinks can be mutually beneficial by sating Armand’s need for WEIRD HUMAN STUFF, maybe it IS something Daniel wants. It’s something he’s missing out on, because he checked out of regular human life when he was 20. Like, everyone’s different, so, I’m not saying that people can’t be sexually articulate at 20, but I know I fucking wasn’t! And I personally never fucked anyone that age who was good at it LMAO. So like how old would Daniel have been before he experimented enough to really know what he liked, and how much of him getting to know his sexuality involved Armand during the next decade?

💦 And this ties into Armand being his sugar daddy! That’s canon! Armand is his sugar daddy! If Daniel, at 28 years old, starts lamenting “I wish I’d gotten the chance to try watersports when I still had a normal life :( “ wouldn’t Armand have arranged that for him? 

🩸 (Again let’s talk about Venice and what did Armand learn there about being the vampire lover, how much does he process and repeat on Daniel, and for whose benefit?)

💦 If Daniel is an innately kinky person, and realizes as he’s approaching 30 that he never really got to explore it properly, wouldn’t Armand usher him through that experience? Even if Armand didn’t plan to turn him, I wonder if he saw the window of Daniel’s mortal experience closing, maybe he worried that this is the type of thing people need to be wild about while they’re still so young. And outside of stigmatizing Daniel's age, it's also about how he was becoming less and less healthy, dying of alcoholism at 32, so there was a small window here for them to have sex adventures.

So basically, I’m saying that the nature half feels very much like Daniel being a monsterfucker, the nurture half is the actual experiences he got to have. And I don’t think he’d be in this situation in the first place if he wasn’t a bit of a monsterfucker, and wasn't a innately into danger and pain. Like, we don’t get a TON of examples but Gretchen and Babette didn’t try to fuck vampires! We know that vampires give humans the heebie jeebies! What kind of sick fuck is into that?!?!?!? 

I don’t really have one single answer here. When it comes to the large library of kinks I think either of them can be blamed, and I also think it 100% makes sense to use Armand as a vehicle to write fic about them as if they’re another collection of human oddities for him to explore. But even using Armand’s weird bullshit to process that doesn’t mean it’s not mutually beneficial, and I think it gets into a fuzzier area that’s up to the writer when it comes to their take on the relationship, how dubious the consent is, how much do they actually like each other and get along? Can it be mutually beneficial in the end even if one person is driving? (see: the conversation about the second whipping scene in TVA and how it works out in the end.) Is it something they have fun agreeing to and negotiating in advance? 

I can totally see how someone might write this as a fun thing that they talk about beforehand as easily as it could be Armand forcing mystery adventure on Daniel and suddenly he’s tied up in some shitty apartment in Hells Kitchen with some man pissing on him, and did he ever even reveal this kink to Armand or did Armand pull it out of his head? 

The ship dynamic is so fucked up and coercive and resentful and toxic, even though there is real love here, so there’s this whole spectrum to use when you build your fanworks and headcanons!!!!!!! AND LIKE

IF IT’S COERCIVE AND FUCKED UP, DOES IT DRIVE THEM FURTHER APART OR BRING THEM CLOSER TOGETHER? IS DANIEL RESENTFUL AND COLD AND DOES THIS CAUSE FIGHTS? IS THIS A WAY FOR THEM TO PROCESS SOME OF THEIR COLDNESS AND RESENTMENT BECAUSE THEY AREN’T GOOD COMMUNICATORS? DO THEY DO BETTER AFTER THESE SESSIONS AND FEEL CLOSER BECAUSE THEY BROKE THROUGH SOMETHING NEITHER OF THEM KNEW HOW TO SAY?

Gosh idk.

Anyway I apologized in the beginning for mansplaining but I also want to apologize for this non answer LMFAO. I hope it doesn’t feel like a cop-out to not have a real answer, it’s just that I think there is such a rich context with a MENAGERIE of possibility !!!!!!! 

#kink meta #deep ass thoughts about vampires #devil's minion #armand #daniel molloy #armand/daniel #vampire chronicles #am i writing meta on saturday night while im babysitting yes i am

[kate-m-art]

I heard “new Link” and came running, I love people’s oc Links! Are you willing to share him? 👀

Ahh okay okay so uhhhh

Sketches of he (and his kid 👀)!

I'll add more ideas and stuff about him under the cut

Saw an OC Link generator on Instagram and w the prompts got: a hero after Hyrule on the timeline, fairy companion, age 25-34, brown or blonde hair, long hair, black eyes (took that as very very dark lol), sheikah clothing and incorporating a magic ability somewhere.

So umm idk started sketching and getting more and more ideas but gist of the guy would be that he's on the older end of the range I was given, early 30s. He'd be very skilled in stealth and archery. Link married pretty young, they had a daughter, but he lost his wife too soon. He and his girl need each other though, they're all they have. Since this is downfall timeline after Zelda 2, that means the fairy spell exists and wanna say his daughter uses that so they can stay close and travel together (magic ability and fairy companion in one TvT.)

The tribe doesn't exist in the same way it did in earlier Hyrule, but the guy has some Sheikah ancestry. He feels the responsibility of those who came before him to protect the crown, which comes into play as rumors begin to spread in the kingdom of a plot against the queen. Guys hurting a lot, but, being tied by fate w the queen, think as he works to keep her safe they get closer and help each other through things. And like who knows maybe someday there will be more to it but very close and trusted friends by the end of things for sure akskfk (plus Zelda is a sweet lady and can see Link's daughter adores her.)

I dont know I guess I'm way too attached already but Dad Link beloved TvT

(@legend-of-midna saw that you asked to hear about him on the other post I made so yeah!)

#link oc #loz oc #original characters #kate rambles #yet another one surprise #akdkff but like gosh idk i just care about him a lot already a lot of feels TvT #thanks anon for letting me ramble about he <33 #loz au #zelda au #dad link

[synthetickitsune]

In The Dark ✧ z.yx, b.bh & p.cy

Pairing: Alien X-EXO (Lay, Baekhyun & Chanyeol) x human!(gn)reader Genre: angst-ish comfort-ish something Summary: Their toy is broken and needs to be repaired. But it's no fun to wait, if only there was a way to skip that part... Word count: 4.8k Warnings: mentions of violence and being held against your will, the reader is unconscious the entire time A/N: idk what this is except a sketch of something without much plot lol and entirely @an-annyeoing-writer's fault

“Oh look - it’s sleeping!” The words fall on deaf ears as his companion pays him no mind, immersed in his game, and you’re not in the state to hear him, lying unconscious on the cold floor that further chills your exhausted body. The white-haired man-shaped creature squats down and runs his hand over your bare arm littered with marks of their fingers. He tsks at how cold you are and turns to his companion, still playing on his device and ignoring him and you both. “You went too far. Look how beat up the toy is!”

While you remain oblivious to the world around you, the whining gets the pink-haired man’s attention and he sets his device aside, walking over and nudging your form with his foot. You’re like a ragdoll, not resisting at all. He frowns. He already knows that if you were just sleeping, you might whine or make some other cute new noise, but now - nothing. He swallows uneasily. It’s quite surprising how naturally their feelings translate into the behavior of the human shapes they’ve taken on. “We just played around a little. Kāi says it likes that.”

“I don’t think what you’re doing would be considered playing among them. I think you’re just hunting it for fun,” while Baëkhyun says that, there’s no judgment in his voice and if Chanyeøl wasn’t so set on defending himself, he’d have noticed the small smirk on the other’s face.

“The toy like it,” he grumbles, rolls his eyes and crosses his arms over his chest at the smirk growing on his friend’s face, “No, really, it was screaming and all.”

“Humans scream for other reasons too. Like when they’re scared,” Baëkhyun taunts him because it’s so easy.

“I’m telling you it’s not like that!” the taller insists, his foot stomping on the ground right next to your body. Yet you don’t even flinch and they both share an uneasy look. He gets down next to his friend and shakes your limp body. Still nothing. The next time he speaks it’s softer. “It likes it.”

“I’m sure it does,” he keeps up the tone, even if it sounds fake. He knows what Chanyeøl’s talking about.

“No, Baëkhyun, I mean it,” he growls this time, the other is not surprised though, “Tell me you don't feel it. Tell me you can't smell its excitement when you chase it.”

He knows he can’t. Memories swell up in his mind, too tempting not to indulge. The scent of you spiking with something sweet when you catch him stalking after you. The yelp you let out when he suddenly throws you onto the closest surface mellowed out into a gasp that doesn’t sound entirely scared to his trained ears.

There’s a distant noise he can ignore without trying.

You used to claw at him with nothing but pure terror in your efforts to survive but nowadays it’s like you’re trying to push his buttons. And he’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy showing you your efforts didn’t leave your trace before promptly reminding you why you are the one kept by them.

“And don't try to tell me that that's not why you keep pushing it around just like me,” Chanyeøl finally shoves him with a victorious grin on his face as he watches his friend finally snap out of his daydreams.

Baëkhyun huffs, but his lips are turned upwards in a cruel smirk.

“Well after I'm done with our toy, I make sure it’s ready for the rest of you to play with,” he challenges, "Didn't Suhø talk to you about this like two hours ago?" 

It's simply impossible to resist the feeling of satisfaction upon seeing the worried frown on Chanyeøl’s face. The man in question licks his lips as he nudges your body again.

"Don't tell him," he sighs, almost pleading, "It made me do it, really. It was asking for it."

Baëkhyun would love to keep bickering but this was a fact he couldn’t disprove. He knew how you could get. Knew you had the tendency to provoke them - on purpose or on accident, he wasn’t sure yet but the outcome is the same anyway.

“What’s going-” they're joined by a third person who stops in his tracks as soon as he sees your lifeless body on the floor, being pushed and poked by the two of them, “-on…” 

He can only sigh. There are only pointless questions to ask, which therefore he won’t, and a favor to do. It’s getting tiring to count how many times he came to a scene like this. 

Baëkhyun tilts his head. “I didn’t call you here.”

“I did,” Chanyeøl says somewhat sheepishly. What was he supposed to do once he realized you’re really not getting up? It all dropped - your pulse, your breathing slowed down. You did not react to his orders, threats, nor violence. You’d probably be fine even without the intervention but after the conversation with Suhø… yeah, he wouldn’t take any chances.

“So what did you do?” Yixïng sighs as he sits down and puts his hand over your cheek. Reading your vitals, it doesn’t seem too bad, but your body is exhausted and overwhelmed. The demand for regeneration is so high in all its parts that it simply shut down and is trying to heal everything at once. It needs help. You need help. And what he wouldn’t do for his favorite toy.

“Nothing,” Chanyeøl grumbles, “You can fix it, right?”

Yixïng hums in agreement, then turns to Baëkhyun. “You don’t have anything to do with this?”

“Why are saying that like it’d change things,” he complains, looking away in disbelief.

“No one brings them to me in more puzzling conditions than you,” Yixïng deadpans and runs his hand from your cheek down your neck and over your shoulder to your arm. He keeps his touch light; there’s no need to cause you pain if you won’t feel it. 

“What’s that sup- Hey!”

He may be able to heal you, but there’s more to it than the act of having your cells repair themselves. Your current situation is not ideal for regeneration, and he’s used to his own ways of dealing with you. And there are benefits to having you content. He ponders them as he drags your body closer to his and into his lap.

They’re some noises of protest coming from the other two that he tunes out, instead focusing on maneuvering you into a position he’s seen you curl up to him before. You’re cold, too cold, and while he’s no expert on humans, he knows it’s not a healthy temperature - probably life threatening. It’s an interesting sensation, however. This cold to touch and with your body all tensed up that it feels hardened he could almost imagine you’re one of his kind. He decides that he prefers you a little warmer and softer.

Only once you’re resting comfortably, or at least he supposes the position would be comfortable if you were awake to appreciate it, does he pay any attention to the two who are still going on about something. He keeps his expression neutral in the face of them glaring at him like he's doing them some mortal offense. It’d be a lie to say he’s not amused though.

“I should be the one to-”

“No.”

And it’s all he has to say for Chanyeøl to shut up and look like he’s ready to burn up. Literally. Which only proves that he’s in the right. You’ve proven quite weak to just about everything - fire very much included.

“I’m the warmest out of us,” the fuming one argues, and while that is true…

“Yes, but I’m the one they trust and I’d prefer them not to panic after they wake up - if they wake up straight away.”

“It’s afraid of you too,” the words sound like a threat coming out of Baëkhyun’s mouth, “Just the same as the rest of us.”

“They are,” Yixïng shrugs, catching the other two off guard, which makes him continue with one corner of his lips curled upwards, “But after I finish with them, I leave them in pristine condition. I guess they know how to be grateful.”

That shuts them up pretty effectively.

They stare at him silently for a while, although it looks like both have a lot to say. He has more important matters to tend to than their bruised egos though, so since they stay quiet for the time being, he turns his attention back to you. He strokes your bruised arm slowly while he assesses the damage from your head to toe. There's a trickle of blood at the corner of your lips that he doesn't hesitate to wipe down with his thumb and suck into his mouth. Before he can even finish savoring the taste on his tongue, he has to shield your eyes with his hand from the sudden blinding brightness of the room. It almost seems like a natural consequence at this point. The low growling and rising heat too. He's not usually one to take pleasure in petty conflicts, but he can't help it as the iron-y sweetness coats his taste buds.

"You’ve had them all to yourselves this whole time, it's not my fault you didn't do anything," he licks his lips just to rub it in. He doesn't get to taste you too often - he'll wait until you offer. He knows you will, eventually, he's seen you with all of them. They all know even if you don't - even if you perhaps just don't want to admit it to yourself: you were created for this life.

"Pass it here already," Chanyeøl waves his hand towards himself, "I'll make sure it's warm and not a drop is wasted."

"Wait for your turn, this is your fault anyway," Baëkhyun says and when he sees Chanyeøl's about to protest: "Shut up and be glad no one's snitching on you to Suhø."

Yixïng is watching them from the corner of his eye just to be sure he's not gonna have another body to fix. The blood brought his attention to a hidden issue however, and he's glad the two are distracted enough to let him work. He slips his hand under your shirt and gently presses on your stomach. He's glad you can't feel it as he makes note of the damage and bruising. It's a good place to start. He guides your body to focus its efforts there, helping things move forward with his own powers. There's something satisfying about the threads of your tissue reconnecting, strengthening themselves back from the frayed mess they were, your cells getting nice and plump again.

"Just let me touch it."

He's about to deny the request, but it's not demanding and when he looks up, Chanyeøl seems unsettlingly determined and patient. The room is the right temperature again too. He quirks a brow at him and Baëkhyun snickers, not for long though.

"I won't try anything," the pink-haired man continues and Yixïng knows he's not stupid enough to lie to him. So even if he's not sure about his intentions, he nods for him to go for it.

"Hey, that's not fair," Baëkhyun doesn't take too long to complain as Chanyeøl sits closer to Yixïng and strokes your cheek with his thumb. He near enough whines when he receives a sharp glare as he also scoots closer. "I just wanna pet it too."

"You know you're just getting in the way, don't you?"

There's exasperation in his voice but fondness too, with which the two are familiar enough to know Yixïng won't mind them. At least as long as they only hinder him but don't actively add more to his plate.

Chanyeøl slaps Baëkhyun’s hand away when he tries to touch you. He ignores the threatening rumble meant for him as moves some hair away from your face and checks the side of your skull. He knows you hit it pretty hard when you fell. The bump there isn't as big as he'd expect and he's impressed. You take it so well. Under the layers of pathetic human weakness, there might be a tough core. There’s a steady progress, he feels, in how much you can handle and he’s proud. So proud that they’ve chosen you. 

His feelings translate into a faint warmth surrounding you. It’s gentle enough that Yixïng allows it and Chanyeøl is happy that he can help. It’d be a shame to lose such a precious toy. Though he does wonder if you know flames are not the final extent of his powers. He wants you to know he’s stronger than that. He will show when you’re strong enough to entertain him again.

He keeps stroking your hair carefully, aware of the spots that might be sore and where wounds are hiding. His fingers brush against a cut on the side of your head. The trickle of blood that broke through the skin there is dried already and mats into your hair. Nothing too serious. It can wait until you wake up, you always whimper and shiver so nicely when he pulls on your hair…

“No,” Baëkhyun corrects him before the healer can.

"Not right now," Chanyeøl agrees with a roll of his eyes, "But it likes it."

"Do you think so because it follows your hand when you drag it by the hair? Because I might have some news for you," just as Baëkhyun finishes the sentence he's pushed aside again. Fed up, or maybe just playful, he moves to retaliate, stopped just short of his palm colliding with Chanyeøl's shoulder by Yixïng clearing his throat.

"I will kick you both out," he warns and it's enough for them to settle. He's finally satisfied with the condition of your tummy, although while healing the underlying problem he also erased the bruise that covered most of your skin there. But that's nothing that can't be easily fixed. He allows himself a moment longer to rub circles over your soft stomach before sliding his hand out of your shirt - and this time Baëkhyun at least notices, Chanyeøl being too busy sulking still. Fortunately he only quirks a brow before snaking his own hand under to trace his fingers over your ribcage.

Thinking back over the time they own you, it's probably the first time he's touching you without you flinching away. You're not trembling, you're not just taking it. It has its own appeal that makes some complicated feelings rise up inside him. He'd rather ignore them. If the circumstances were different, he could press with his fingers just right against the bones and let them crack. That would be a nice distraction. But like this, with your lungs expanding with each breath you take in, it's almost like you're seeking out his touch. He doesn’t want to break your bones and break the peace too. He doesn’t want you to pull away with each exhale. You’re nothing but a tired little animal seeking comfort and protection, asking for it from a much stronger creature. Completely at his mercy.

Of course your respective positions can't be compared. Not at all - the notion alone is ridiculous. And yet, in a way, Baëkhyun feels similarly vulnerable. He might not be lying completely defenseless at the mercy of an alien race, but the source of his distress is his own head and that is, after all, always the most dangerous enemy. And you. Although he trusts the other two with his life, he wants to take you away, run somewhere where he'll be able to face the emotions alone. He knows it all - the feeling of your skin breaking and splitting, revealing the flesh, bones cracking, and he knows the sting of your teeth and nails. He's tasted your blood and tears. And yet he's only now getting to know the texture of your skin, appreciating how different it is from his own. He wishes he came in earlier when your body radiated the gentle heat. 

You. The one they prey on. The one to start it all. You shouldn’t have any amount of power to influence a single thought in his head. Oh, how he wishes he could drag you away, wake you up and use you like he wants to find the answers he needs or to distract himself for long enough to forget.

His reverie is soon broken by Chanyeøl’s panicked voice. There’s a finger pointing at him. When he snaps out of it and sees Yixïng’s hand on your knees, Baëkhyun can only give a proud smile that turns sheepish under the dark gaze. It’s not his fault that your knees look much better colored purple. Not his fault it’s so easy to force you down to kneel. You get so obedient with his hand tangled in your hair, you let him loll your head as he wishes. So submissive and pliant. It must be that you belong on your knees for him.

“It’s not broken,” he shrugs, “It walked just fine. Bet it ran as always too.” He gives Chanyeøl, who only turns away and clears his throat, a questioning look.

“It must’ve hurt,” Yixïng mutters under his breath. It doesn’t escape their attention that his touch is careful, only light caresses that make the bruises fade and eventually disappear. They exchange a glance and turn to the man slowly working his way all over your legs. 

His touch erases bruises, mends muscle fibers together, eases joint pain. All because you deserve it. He can only imagine how scary it’ll be when you wake up, likely without much recollection of what happened before you lost consciousness. Disoriented and held captive. If you do remember, he doesn’t doubt it’s gonna be flashes of pain and fear. And then you are sure to discover there are no marks left, no pain anymore, and you’ll remember him. You’ll come to him, willingly, and he’ll get his turn.

“So what?” Baëkhyun says roughly, but there’s a slight hesitation that ends up making it sound like a genuine question. Chanyeøl only watches with an uneasy feeling in his stomach as the bruises and whatever they were hiding underneath disappear and your breathing gets less and less labored and your skin starts getting back its healthy color. As much as he thrives on seeing you ruined and too weak to stand up, this… this isn’t bad. That he knows definitely. But he can’t delve deeper into his feelings. Not even as your body returns to a healthy temperature that feels only a little cool under his own overheated fingertips.

“Nothing,” Yixïng says simply, a small smile playing on his lips, “Just saying.”

He’s done with your legs and arms, your skin once again a canvas to paint. Only your nails he’ll keep as they are. You couldn’t hurt them if you tried, but why give you false hope. But as he moves to wrap his hand around your neck, there are again growls of protest. He looks up and truly, it’s almost comical how angry the duo looks. “What?”

“Leave them,” they say in unison. He can only huff.

“Not all of them are yours, so what do you care?” his fingers trace the outline of your windpipe as he speaks, calmly and patiently.

“The toy has to remember it’s ours,” Chanyeøl’s voice is a deep rumble. Yet you don’t seem to grow fearful. It feels empty. No one but you will be intimidated by it.

Yixïng looks around the room. It’s a place he calls home. He doubts you’d consider it with the same warm feeling or more than a holding cell, however. “I don’t think they will forget.”

Baëkhyun scoffs. “You take good care of it.”

“I have my reasons,” he shrugs, disregarding their glaring and Chanyeøl’s cursing as he heals the bruises on your neck without putting it off further, moving on to the bumps and cuts on your scalp and face.

“They really trust you,” Baëkhyun whispers and even to his ears it sounds hollow. Yixïng only nods.

“You’d be surprised what a difference it makes,” speaking as he aids your recovery, he smiles at the two, “I don’t think we’d have to train them very hard under different circumstances.”

“Huh?” again they speak at the same time, both bewildered by the revelation, although…

“I told you,” Chanyeol grumbles and gives a sharp look to Baëkhyun, “That it likes that.”

He only shakes his head but there’s a maelstrom of emotions inside his chest. Of course he fucking knows you like their games. You like to let them toy with you. Your body betrays you and tells them more than you wish to.

So why?

So why do you keep hiding without hoping to be found?

So why do you only ever search for Yixïng if he’s so soft on you?

If you take pleasure in something, you should embrace it - that’s always been Baëkhyun’s stance on things. You clearly enjoy your life here, even if they - admittedly - don’t make it easy for you. Perhaps precisely because of that. So why do you resist your desire?

“It’s time to get them to bed,” Yixïng continues as if he didn’t give his friends more to think about than they could process. He strokes your cheek, finally a healthy shade again, and admires his handiwork. You look just as you did the day they found you - if not better.

“Why isn’t it waking up then?” Baëkhyun mumbles. He would like to see the expression on your face upon waking up, surrounded by the three of them. He wonders what you’d do. Yixïng wouldn’t let them mess up what he fixed straight away. Perhaps it could be an opportunity to try a new approach.

“Because they’re so weak,” he coos at your unconscious form, “That even after being fully healed their body still needs rest.”

“I’ll carry them,” Chanyeøl announces eagerly and without hesitation. Upon seeing Yixïng’s doubtful expression, matched by Baëkhyun, he rolls his eyes. He couldn’t explain it if they asked - the closest to an explanation he has is that he wants to surprise you. Just like when you’re running from him and he chases you straight into a dead end and when you turn, he’s already behind you. The fear radiating off you then, however, is never as strong as when you look behind you as you’re running away from him and he’s not there.

And because he doesn’t have the words he needs, he just takes you from Yixïng, lifting you up easily and bouncing you in his arms into a more secure position. Baëkhyun is up just as fast and checks you over for any new marks. He gives him a warning look when he doesn’t find any. 

“What are you gonna do with them?” Yixïng asks as he stands up, a slight frown on his face. This does ruin his plans a little. 

“I’ll just take it to its bed,” he whines, “I know the rules, okay?”

“Tell that to Suhø,” Baëkhyun coughs, unbothered by the jab he receives in response. While they bicker, Yixïng sighs. Maybe it’s for the best. If at least one of them discovers just as he did that there are advantages to gaining your trust, he will get to focus on developing his powers instead of practicing basic healing again. He can tell that Chanyeøl means what he says, and if there’s something that he’s hiding in his intentions, Yixïng knows better than to pry right now.

“Fine, but if I find a single scratch on them…” he warns half-heartedly.

“It can hurt itself on anything,” the taller man whines, but ultimately he can only promise to be careful if he wants to keep you. Baëkhyun follows him as he carries you in the direction of your room. They stay silent, each thinking similar thoughts, well aware of the fact. Chanyeøl doesn’t need to ask, and for once he doesn’t stop Baëkhyun when he runs a hand up your leg and hums at your warmth and the smoothness of your skin.

“It feels different, right?” Chanyeøl sighs, experimentally rubbing his cheek against your head laid on his shoulder. Did you ever not expect him to hurt you, even if he approached you with innocent intentions? He doesn’t think so. It’s soothing, he finds, when he touches you and you don’t instantly begin to shake.

“It’s gonna go back to how it always is when it wakes up,” he sighs in response. There’s nothing that can be done, honestly he doesn’t want things to change. You should know your place, and that’s beneath him. But he also wants all of you. They all do. And they’re not going to get it if you always remain terrified of them.

“Hey, Baëkhyun,” Chanyeøl calls his name and there’s a cheeky smile on his face, “Wanna make it freak out when it wakes up?”

He doesn’t need explanation.

“It’s like you can read my mind,” Baëkhyun smirks, stepping right behind his friend as they reach your room. 

He throws himself on your bed without any worry and entertains himself by watching Chanyeøl struggle to put you down gently. It’s a new idea. He’s sure he could do a better job of it, especially as your body bounces off the bed as the tall man loses patience. 

He pulls you closer to himself, barely stopping himself from grabbing you with enough strength to bruise your skin. It’s… strange. It makes him realize how little strength he needs to hurt you and he has to stop himself from cooing aloud. Running his fingers over your spotless throat, though, he does miss the collar of marks. Chanyeøl seems to share the sentiment, grumbling when he sees the clean expanse of your neck.

They take a while to simply appreciate the almost forgotten look of you unharmed, healed to perfection. Who else would care for you as much and as well as they do? Your skin seems to be glowing, your hair is shiny and strong. They know your eyes will sparkle when you open them. 

“There’s a lot of mats in its hair,” Chanyeøl mentions as if only now remembering again, “The blood dried there, it’s a mess.”

“Let’s wait until our toy wakes up,” Baëkhyun meets his eyes, “It’s a waste to do it now.”

“It’ll hurt,” he smirks at the white-haired man and quirks a brow. He, of course, thought about it too, but the encounter with Yixïng made him want to reconsider. It remains a tempting thought still.

“Not much,” the other man smirks, “And we won’t be hurting it, right?”

Chanyeol licks his lips. Who is he kidding, it’s what he wanted to do all along. Although he didn’t plan to share the experience, it’s true it might be more fun. He can only imagine how you’ll writhe in fear between them, only able to escape from the touch of one into the arms of the other. If he could wake you right now, he would. 

You’re like this because of him… He’s not the patient kind, but this time he’s more frustrated with himself rather than the need to wait. A broken toy is no fun while it’s being repaired. He lies down fully and puts his arm around your waist. Baëkhyun regards him with a curious look.

“It’s boring without something to play with,” he comments, huffing, moving his face to the crook of your neck. And still you lay limp, completely relaxed. It makes him hesitate. You’re so soft. So easily damaged. He imagines you’re awake, lying like this. Allowing him to get so close without fear. There’s a rush in a hunt - but there’s comfort in this. As much as he looks forward to when you come to and see the position you’re in, he also considers what you’d do if you didn’t fear him as much. Would you move closer to him? Would you touch him first, unprompted?

“We should take care of our toy,” his friend joins him, mirroring his position nearly perfectly. He can’t wait for you to wake up either. It’s been a while since he had his turn with you, but even if he has to share, Baekhyun doesn’t mind. He wants to try something new. He wonders who you’ll try to use for protection. Who you’re going to turn to, hesitant and afraid, considering your chances, and who’ll get to mock you a little for it. If it’s him, then maybe, just maybe, you could strike a deal - if his good mood lasts, that is. But watching you rest so peacefully in their arms, he thinks it will.

#exo reactions #exo scenarios #exo fics #exo x reader #exo imagines #x-exo scenarios #lay x reader #baekhyun x reader #chanyeol x reader

[purupurple]

i decided that a fun idea for this month would be to show off some very old sketches and doodles of the fruity bugs that ive done over the years. there's... a lot... maybe hundreds...

starting off, this is the first time i ever drew cerise. i figured tanjerin needed some sort of companion, so i gave him a lil girlfriend that was based off of a cherry. her name comes from me misremembering bayonetta's name, meaning cerise was almost called "cereza" lol. she's mostly the same as she is now, but she had little dots on her belly pattern and i used to draw her bow much smaller. originally she was never intended to be in the game, but she was added by the devs as a token of gratitude for my husband's help with proofreading dialogue during beta testing and as a birthday gift for me per his request. i never imagined she would actually be added and just figured it would be secret lore, but i'm eternally grateful that cerise was able to make a small appearance in the game 😊

#bug fables #fanart #i feel like a mom showing off baby pictures of her kids...

[itsclydebitches]

In crafting news I've started designing a BG3 blanket. It's a simple nine panel layout with a different design for each of the companions (except Minthara. Sorry, girl lol). Barring unexpected design hurtles it'll be Clive (Karlach's bear), Gale's orb mark, fangs for Astarion, a dragon for Lae'zel, Boo (for Minsc), Jaheira's crossed swords, Wyll's eye, and the artifact for Shadowheart.

I was going to leave the middle panel blank/maybe put the Absolute's mark... until I realized I'd forgotten Halsin. So unless I decide to be very mean and ignore him he'll probably have a duck.

There are more animals in this than I was expecting

I've got the orb, fangs, Clive, and Boo sketched out on graph paper so far. I'm hoping to use contrasting colors - maybe white and a blue similar to the sky in the official promo art - but we'll see how that goes considering I haven't done stranded knitting in a dog's age...

#BG3 #knitting

[lovesickfolly]

Tag someone you want to know better

I've been tagged by @wuxia-vanlifer! Thank you so much!

Favourite color: Green. Especially lime green. I know a lot of people dislike the colour, but...I love it. XD Also, I've grown to love pink even though I didn't used to. Especially darker shades.

Last song: I've been drawing while listening to cdrama soundtracks. The last song would have been 'Chilly' from the amazing Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms.

Last movie: I honestly don't remember. I do remember watching and really enjoying The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity, though!

Currently watching: I mean...

And this isn't even all of them, because I also have Dream of Chang'an (Stand by Me), Venus in the Sky, Lost You Forever, and the Bleach anime open and ready to watch. Also, I am rewatching Mysterious Lotus Casebook because I'm making lots and lots of gifs.

Currently reading: I don't really read much anymore. (I'm sure you can tell why. XD) I have @shamera's fic open to read, though! Just need to find the time.

Currently working on: I've finished the sketch for a Fang Duobing drawing and I'm hoping to get the lineart done today. (That way I can maybe paint it this weekend.)

I'll be drawing a companion Li Lianhua piece on the same paper once I'm done with that. I recently finished a Di Feisheng drawing, but I didn't like the paper I did it on so I don't know if I want to post it. I've finished the sketch and lineart for a drawing of Tinn from Laws of Attraction. I need to find time to colour that (with markers).

I also finished and lined characters from The Legend of Anle( 1) and Heroes (2). Colouring and painting always take me much more time, so I usually leave that till later/the weekend. Other than all the drawings I'm working on my protective!Fang Duobing gif collection. As of now we're at 112 gifs from 30 episodes.

Currently obsession: LOL. Mysterious Lotus Casebook. The fact I'm working on three drawings and have already finished 100+ gifs in like two weeks should be enough of a clue, I think.

As usual, I'll tag the last few people I either followed or became mutuals with: @heyyo-heyyo , @thefakefangirl , @khahahahahahah , @purplexedhuman , @wangxianbunnydoodles , @dancing-out-in-space

(Please play if you want to!)

And anyone who wants to participate!

#mysterious lotus casebook #laws of attraction #cdrama #cdrama art #fang duobing #tag game #Youtube

[demonlikejudgeoffire]

crashes through your wall wait i got another one opal are you up to writing some Pygmalion and Galatea flavored yoohan

solca you know that I am Always up to writing yoohan and the Pygmalion myth has been bouncing around my head for months (tho I'd originally planned on doing it as a sketch lol)

(vague ORV epilogue spoilers below the cut, though this is an AU)

Writing Ways of Survival takes more out of Han Sooyoung than she'd ever expected going into it. It had been a pet project that had begun sometime in her (very) early teens, scrawled in the margins of her notebooks and handouts. She cringes sometimes, thinking back to those early chapters, written with the confidence of a child believing that they were going to be the next bestselling author—she'd been right, of course, but that had come with time and practice. 

Still, even with that self-awareness, Han Sooyoung is proud of the long nights and the years of work she's put into her novel. She's always loved her story, and it's that love that has sustained her through everything that's happened since. It's the reason she updated it regularly, even though her other novel, the one actually written under her name, was the one that everyone liked. It's the reason she kept writing even though only one other person was interested in it. But…it's not the only reason, nor is WoS the only thing she loves.

When she writes Yoo Joonghyuk, it feels like he truly does come to life, like he's the one making his own decisions. There are so many times when a scene turns out differently than she'd plotted it out, and she has to change everything accordingly. She writes, and it's like she can see his face in front of her.

And then, he is. In front of her.

His hair falls perfectly on his forehead as he looks around her room, brows furrowed. His lips slant into a frown, and his hand (broad, calloused, scarred) falls to the hilt of his sword. He asks, "A new scenario?"

His gaze sharpens when he sees her. In the blink of an eye, his sword is drawn and pointed at her. Mouth dry, she stares up the length of the blade and finds his face dark; confusion and anger war in his expression. "You. Who are you?"

"Me?" Han Sooyoung can't help but laugh, disbelieving, even as his eyes narrow. "I'm the one who wrote you."

Before she can say another word, his hands are clenched in the front of her shirt. She hangs in the air, her feet kicking uselessly. She scrabbles against his grip but is powerless to break free.

"You're the one behind the scenarios?" Yoo Joonghyuk asks darkly.

"Let me—let me down and we can talk," she gasps.

He scrutinises her face, then looks her over. Likely deeming her not to be a threat, he lets go of her shirt. Han Sooyoung grunts as she falls to the ground. "You could have done that more gently," she complains bitterly, rubbing her butt as she stands. "That's probably going to bruise tomorrow, damn it."

He ignores her grumbling, of course. Her protagonist was supposed to be an asshole, especially in the latter scenarios, and particularly towards people who weren't his companions.

He sheaths his sword, but that hardly means anything when she'd just seen how quickly he could draw it. Glaring at her, he says, "Talk."

What else can she do but talk?

The explanation goes something like this: Han Sooyoung created Yoo Joonghyuk. She wrote his life into being. Every miserable event and death was because of her. Every regression was because of her. It was a painful story, but it was one where the protagonist always survived. He had to survive.

"Why?"

Han Sooyoung hesitates here. Less verbosely, she tells the story of a lonely boy.

Yoo Joonghyuk is silent for a time afterwards, hand clenched around the grip of his sword. Then, he asks, voice quiet, "Why me? Why am I here?"

The original outline for this scene had been vaguest here. She'd struggled to fill it in, before giving up and starting to write, thinking she'd figure it out as she went, the way she always did. That hadn't happened. Han Sooyoung bites her lip.

"You're here," she says slowly, "because your story has ended."

His brows draw together. "I'm still alive," he replies blankly.

"You—you were never meant to die," Han Sooyoung exclaims quickly. "Your story isn't the same as your life. Even after books end, the characters live on. Maybe the pages are finished, but that doesn't mean that they cease to exist, right?" She doesn't even realise it, but she's halfway to pleading as she says it. "Your story ending doesn't mean that you're gone. But I didn't want—I don't want to stop writing about you. And—" she searches his face "—you wanted to see who was behind the curtain, right? To find out why you were destined to regress and struggle through the scenarios. I finished the epilogue but it felt cruel to just. Leave you there. This was just supposed to be like, a fun extra. 'Character meets the author' is a pretty popular trope nowadays, and I thought that guy might like it and—"

"Answer the question," he says, cutting her off. "Why me?"

"Because you're you," she says, before her brain can catch up to her mouth. "I mean. Uh."

Yoo Joonghyuk's still holding his sword. She squeezes her eyes shut and says quickly, "You're my favourite character."

Silence. She cracks open one eye and peeks out at him. His expression doesn't look too murderous, so she continues hesitantly. "I don't mean it the way the constellations do, I swear. I just. When I first wrote you, I was just a kid, you know? You were supposed to just be some OP power fantasy protag. I thought I'd write a few chapters and move on to some other WIP. But I loved writing you. You were so—you never gave up. Even when you had nothing, when you lost the people important to you, you had the strength to try again. You were everything I needed to inspire me to keep writing, just. Rolled into one character. How could I not fall in love with you?"

"But I wasn't...real," he says.

"I wanted you to be. Desperately. Even if it meant that every horrible thing I wrote actually happened to you, seeing you here, in the flesh—" she's shaking, she has to be "—it's like a dream come true."

Maybe this is a dream. Maybe she's finally collapsed from overwork the way her editor is always fussing she will, and this is some exhaustion-fuelled hallucination. Still, it had hurt when he dropped her, so maybe...

She reaches out. His skin is warm under her palm. His eyes track her movement. She steps closer, then closer still.

"I should kill you," he murmurs. "Why don't I hate you more for what you did?"

She laughs, dizzy and giddy all at once, and drunk on the feeling of it. Her fingertips find his cheekbones, his mouth, his tongue when his lips part. Closer. She needs to be closer.

"Every act of creation is one of love," she whispers. "How can that creation not love its creator?"

#orv #orv spoilers #yoohan #han sooyoung #yoo joonghyuk #opalwrites #solca #opalanswers

[endless-shelter]

You know there's nothing like a bit of draconic romance, with fun dragon biology influence along the way!!!

Behold a Lech in his youth and his to be wife, Okeana!!

Dragons are similar to birds of prey taking on one primary life partner, however this isn't strictly as a mate! Due to the lifespans and low number maintenance of dragons (before their functual extinction), reproduction isn't necessary, but it's an innate behaviour to be drawn to having one main companion across species, as it expands territory size and reduces competition, at least a bit. So this means it can be friends, family, or some other form of company you're trusting enough to to share space (however not all dragons do this! It's just a common behaviour, and is more common across solitary individuals rather than hoard species).

Another thing like BoP is females are usually larger than males of the same species, or equal in size, and are usually more aggressive. Lech is a the traditional fire breathing dragon (also referred to as the true dragon, and Draconus draconus* - latin name pending) so he's just naturally larger than her in general.

Okeana more commonly remains in her true form, being a semi-aquatic species, using it to her advantage for hunting in the waters. Her scars come from her hunting and fighting competition, which is why there's so much around her mouth (and in comparison Lech has more around his neck, inner wrists, ankles, and underbelly regions rather than face as his form has softer skin there).

Okeana I'm so sorry girlie that you died alongside your unhatched kids you would've been too powerful ✊😔 the plot was written before I designed you this cool you would've loved Taís

As fierce as she was she was also deeply enamoured by Lech's 'human' nature. Dragons are generally greedy which is what gives them their plural name of hoards, but Lech was uncharacteristically generous, and compassionate (even for people standards lol), but he still did not let things slide when they crossed his boundaries, becoming violently protective (which you know, she found attractive as hell, who doesn't like a man snarling and soaked in blood). Man. Would've been a great dragon dad. Such a shame she-//SHOT

But uh yeah!!! Quick sketch + coloured below and a bonus doodle of her <3

#art #my art #oc art #OCs #Okeana #Lech #dragon oc #character info #Long post #Can you tell i have dragon brainrot

[inlocusmads]

Make Me Admit Stuff #4, 17, 18, 35, 50

thank you for the ask Cari! I'll answer for Trys and Nora if that's okay (they probably have far more interesting answers than I do, lol)

> make me admit stuff

4. Is trust a big issue for you?

Nora: Sort of. Maybe.

Trystan: Kind of.

Nora: I don't trust people up front.

Trystan: I think my assumptions get in the way even if they mean well. It is a defense instinct almost.

Nora: I think it's good to have some barriers.

Trystan: I think so too. However it works out differently too. My siblings. I trusted them with my whole life. I trusted my family, some of my closest companions. I will never get that lost time back.

Nora: I hate it when they call it a "trust issue". It isn't black and white.

Trystan: Precisely.

17: Who do you feel most comfortable talking to about anything?

Trystan: My sister, Marguerite.

Nora: I'd say my uncle.

Trystan: And sometimes this one too (pointing at Nora) when she is not bullying me.

Nora: I am nice. Come on. Tell them I'm nice.

Trystan: I taught her too much of my snark. But she is a very good listener.

Nora: Yes, because I don't normally want to talk.

Trystan: So that's your reason for listening to me yap about Emily Dickinson?

Nora: No, I actually like the sound of your voice.

Trystan: Aw.

Nora: Don't make it into a thing.

Trystan: I definitely will.

18: The last time you felt broken?

Trystan: Where are the fun questions?

Nora: I think when I am grieving.

Trystan: I think the same. I do not do well with loss of anything.

Nora: Yeah. It's a tough question.

Trystan: I think I have a list that rivals Mount Everest.

Nora: Honestly same. We'll move on.

35: Do you ever write in pencil anymore?

Trystan: I prefer royal blue ink pens. There is a cathartic release in filling up the cartridges.

Nora: Yes. Yes. Pencils are great, man.

Trystan: That's it?

Nora: What more do I say?

Trystan: You have an assorted collection of pencils you nicked from hotels.

Nora: They are very good for sketching.

Trystan: You named them too, did you?

Nora: I don't name pencils. It is what they're called. HB. 2H. All that stuff.

Trystan: You called one a Headless Horseman.

Nora: Yeah. 2"H".

50. Ever used a bow and arrow?

Nora: No.

Trystan: Yes. There was this incident with an apple and a nightingale.

Nora: You've told me that story plenty of times. You shot the apple and not the bird.

Trystan: I wanted an apple. Easy. And I have told the story approximately one time. It pissed off a lot of diplomats though.

Nora: Why would they be mad you didn't shoot the bird?

Trystan: I actually did not know what they wanted me to shoot at.

Nora: This is the equivalent of learning kiddie breakdancing at school and being forced to perform for your relatives.

Trystan: Except they expected dancing and I instead played a piano with a violin string.

Nora: Still a mystery, huh.

#trystan x nora #make me admit stuff ask #askboxed! #cariantha

[castorrel]

Sketch of a future project (I mean it for this one lol)

This is Idris Demir, one of Ryxia's companion. I was really inspired to draw an art of him in a painting style of premise. Some time after the Paladin has retired from adventuring.

Also he saved Ryxia from a flesh to stone in the final session, totally won that art in my book!

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #character art #artists on tumblr #dnd character #paladin #sketch

[blazingstaro]

!! ANNOUNCEMENT !!

Experience the forging of a legend in the upcoming literature companion series to DotS, Nightfall, coming soon online!

(Periodic progress updates will be shared both on Tumblr & DeviantART)

Nightfall follows the life and adventures of Orpheus Nightfall as he discovers what it means to be a true leader, and searches for the truth behind his unusual abilities. We walk alongside and witness his greatest struggles, mightiest tests, greatest triumphs; nevertheless see the man behind the mask as he truly is.

This story is lore-packed, and is stuffed with pieces that tie into the modern day story of Dreams of the Stars! Orpheus is no mere historical figure, for he's strongly relevant even in today's age. There's much more to tell about this funny fuzzball!

Not all is as the history books scribes, after all... for fate tells a different tale. Perhaps you can solve the mysteries enshrouding the famous king's fate?

As per tradition with my birthday, here's a little something for you guys!!

That's right! There's plenty of story to tell with Orpheus, and I aim to share it with you all! oUo Exclusively for both here and on DeviantART, I'll post chapters every so often entailing the deeper side to Orpheus' tale, one that the history books never could have scribed. It'll be slow-going at first for me, since I haven't written a chapter-by-chapter basis literature in 7 years. Rebuilding the stamina and momentum to keep up with it will be a grind, but well worth the wait for sure!

Right now I'm focusing more strongly on getting these new comic pages underway, so it'll be a while until we'll get to see a rise in chapters. Following April, I should be more free to balance Nightfall and DotS!

Currently there's one chapter finished, the prologue chapter, and I'm whittling away at the following chapters little by little while I'm ploughing through bigger projects at the moment.

I hope you guys are excited to get some more intense story stuff!

Oh, and another thing I forgot to mention— each chapter will have an illustration (or more) accompanying it, so it's kinda like a web-style picture book! Art and words, yay! :D

Once I'm more freed up, I'll be sure to post lots of fun sketches and drawings showing my characters and such doing their usual things— which tend to be dumb because they lack supervision LOL

With all that said, enjoy this sweet sneak peek at Nightfall's first chapter!

#kirby series #kirby fanfic #kirby oc #kirby #hoshi no kirby #hoshi no kaabii #ocs #oc story #king orpheus #knights of the stars #dots comic #dreams of the stars

[stasisarbiter]

Tis time for the big cutscene

The maid-in-waiting is super sketch I assume this is about her abdication? Yup

FUCKING CALLED IT, oh we’re so getting framed for this shit huh. Fucking Teledji Adeledji I’m pretty sure the WoL could kill all of these guards in 0 seconds flat but cutscene syndrome I guess.

Imagine being dumb enough to talk that much shit within sword distance.

It was never gonna happen but I kind of wished Gridania and Limsa declared war on Ul’dah. Would obviously be shitty for the Ul’dahn people but seriously idk what the traitors were thinking.

I knew you were the fuckin’ rat Ilberd. Gods I wish Lolorito died too, hated him since the culinarian questline Man I liked Raubahn, wish cutscene syndrome didn’t prevent us from kicking the traitor’s teeth in with him. Who tf are they even working for? Unless it’s the literal Ascians I don’t see how anyone thought this was a good plan making the literal god slayer go against you.

Hooray we’re fugitives! I mean we’re totally going to Ishgard right? Ser Aymeric is our friend (kinda) and we have nowhere else to go, Ul’dah is out and the Crystal Braves have everywhere else covered. I rather like Yda and Papalymo, I hope they don’t die but it seems likely. Minfilia we gotta move ffs. They’re not dead yet

In the sewers baby! Even more splitting the party, I hope Y’shtola and Thancred don’t die either Ah yes Thancred the fuckboy until the end (he might still live tho) Also I noticed it in the last few quests but man whoever is Minfilia’s EN Voice is just drifting in and out of the accent at random and it’s really distracting What even is Y’shtola? Some kind of caster clearly Who Mhitra? and that looks way more like death than Yda and Papalymo

We splitting up from Minfilia too apparently. Man Maerwyn would be fucking pissed at this point, time to raze Ul’dah to the ground.

Oh yeah Alphinaud exists, he made it out somehow, who’s the tato? Oh hey it’s the guy! from the intro! his name’s Brendt apparently, funny you recognized me considering I’m an Elezen now lol. Alisaie to the rescue apparently. Nice to meet ya Pipin

Hopefully this humbles Alphinaud a bit, tbh he kind of got on my nerves a bit near the end, everything was going this way and he was really cocky about everything, the thing that comes to mind is asking the Alliance for help for Ishgard, as far as I see it the 3 leaders were in the right, saving Ishgard is obviously good but you can’t just leave your own countries undefended.

Ay Cid, to Ishgard we go! I feel like I should know who Pipin’s dad is, but I don’t, hope to see Pipin again he seems tight.

Speaking of Haurchefaunt he seems like he’s into the WoL, or maybe I’m reading into it? Doesn’t help my WoL is a female Elezen.

The Falling Snows it is. Companions? Did other people make it here then?

Ah there’s a second set of long cutscenes apparently, this is already getting a bit lengthy so I think I shall make a 2nd read more post. Away we go!

#Stasis Plays FFXIV #ARR Spoilers

[cicadaemon]

Daddy Vilkas as a state of being and literal is so sexy

Thank you! I'm using this as an excuse to talk but with only one of my player characters being the Dragonborn it means I have the space to play around with quests and stuff so things with the Companions plays out differently. Orsolla is a Companion and plays the same role as the Dragonborn would in the game, but she isn't DB and not interested in becoming Harbinger at all. Vilkas ends up becoming Harbinger, not her, and that's not till ages later. Orsolla has just as much command as him though. She eventually leaves the Companions, giving a bullshit excuse about wanting to raise a family, but in reality, she's just done with fighting. Girl's tired.

They have twin daughters together. Vilkas is a twin, Orsolla is a twin, and that shit is actually genetic. Their names are Ulrieca and Daciana. Idk where they'd settle, but it's torn between Goldenhill and Falkreath really. Ulrieca is more the fighter/hunter while Daciana gets a taste for magic. Either way, Vilkas is a great dad. Also, I totally didn't sketch the family out very quickly just cause of this ask lol

Ulrieca is on the left and Daciana is on the right ;)

#elder scrolls #skyrim #ask #original character

[bunnymajo]

Posted these OC fun facts on discord, so I'm posting them here for preservation :3

Thistle:

Favorite Color: (of all time)Mauve Pink and (currently) Acid Lime Green

Favorite Flower: Cactus Blossoms but uses, uh, Thistles as a signature flower. He likes them because it reminds him of him and Surge together (it's pink, green & spikey)

What they would take on a deserted island: A laptop & a classic romance novel (he's a sucker for the classics & old hollywood, he wildly misinterprets them, but he loves them)

Idea/Inspiration for them: based on a bumblekast question/description about a Glitch ver. Amy, but I liked the idea of Surge just having a rabid fanboy (different from Kit) and gave him a more eccentric flair. Design wise I wanted him to look like a punk version of a normal schoolboy, and tried to make his personality more feminine & extroverted (since Surge leans more masculine & Surge & Kit are both more introverted). I also pulled inspiration from few obsessive characters like Kish from Tokyo Mew Mew & Lum from Urusei Yatsura

Quake:

Favorite Color: Coral Red, but any jewel tones she think are very pretty

Favorite Flower: Shepherd's Purse, she likes it for it's medicinal values and also thinks it's cute and simple

What they would take on a deserted island: She would think it'd be a great time for meditating so probably a sketch diary to keep track of her thoughts/draw anything neat she finds

Idea/Inspiration for them: I like powerful ladies, I'm also plus sized so any plus sized rep in my favorite media is welcomed, and noticed that Blaze doesn't have a powerhouse lady companion (aside from herself) so I just kinda took it as a challenge to see if I could make it work and I think I found the right balance.

Pop & Crackers:

Favorite Color: Navy Blue & Off-white, it reminds her of her favorite sports team

Favorite Flower: "Why would I care about lame things like flowers?" - Pop. Crackers likes Gardenias, they smell nice.

What they'd take to a deserted island: Stuff to play beach volleyball

Idea/Insp: Also based on a bumblekast question lol (glitch Cream), since Cream is sweet & supportive & brings out the best in people, I wanted Pop to just have a total bratty sibling vibe. I like baseball and thought a team sport angle would be a great way to incorporate a chao teammate. Since she's also an opponent for Kit, I thought it'd be interesting if she shared personality traits with Surge. Like it's cool when Surge acts like a braggart, but anyone else I think he'd find much more annoying & be able to show no mercy to

Mimi Mint:

Favorite Color: Mint Green XD but any shade of green she likes

Favorite Flower: Any fruit tree blossoms (Apple, Cherry, Peach, Lemon etc.) she's a farmer girl, she loves any kind of spring flower, it's a sign of good things.

What they'd take to an island: a boat to leave. she would not have a good time after the first afternoon

Idea/Insp: she's based on my Forces oc so she's basically an idealized me :'D but I like characters that are just normal people doing their best

Opal

Favorite Color: Hot Pink, the brighter and gaudier the better

Favorite Flower: Pink Peonies, anything big and explosive looking like Dahlia or huge Roses she likes too

What they'd take to a deserted island: "Oh how fabulous, is there a resort there? A spa?....not even a hotel? ...oh. you mean deserted deserted, how quaint. No thank you, I'll pass" - Opal. (She would have some giant trendy sunglasses on her though)

Idea/Insp: If I don't make a magical girl fit somewhere in my favorite media I'll die

#long post #my ocs #sonic oc #thistle the tenrec #quake the elephant #pop the hare #mimi mint #opal the dove #also i cleaned up my oc tag so now i have one tag for all my ocs in general (i didn't before for some reason)

[mayspicer]

Hell yeah you're answering some of those (if you want to), it's fun! 2, 11, 28, 44, 51 for the pink bean

Aww yiss. If anyone is interested, this is about Cayden, who can be found in my posts tagged as his name or more generally pathfinder.

This is gonna be long because I'm unable to write short answers. Also I have no idea how to add a read more on mobile, so uhhh, have fun xD

2. What was your original concept for this character? How did playing them change that concept?

The whole creation story is full of randomness tbh. I wanted to try playing a face and had a rogue half prepared for that, but the GM told me to maybe not play a rogue again, so I changed my mind to a sorcerer. A friend was creating his first character ever then, and he wanted to be a typical wizard, so I looked for less combat focused options for my sorcerer and we lacked a healer, so I found that there is a unicorn sorcerer bloodline that knows healing spells and has some nice healing powers. This was my first sorcerer, so I looked for guides and turns out that gnomes are super recommended. I decided on looks and even gender when having fun in heroforge. Thought it will be super funny if a gnome that's gonna be unicorn themed will also be pink and a man. It's a little freaky how he became a serious character that took over my entire brain for more than a year now, considering how he came to existence. Gnomes, man, it must be something to them, this shouldn't've worked. I'm so glad it did tho. Even his name was super randomly chosen, as back then the party was supposed to be 3 people with others joining later, and we thought it would be hilarious if we make some kind of acronym from character names. The word "CYC" (tit would be the same in English ig) appeared, so I looked for male names beginning with C. Found Caden, thought it sounded nice, so I told the GM it's gonna be it. And he went ooooh if you spell that differently, he could be named after a god of beer in Pathfinder. I liked the spelling better, I liked the connotations, boom xD

As for his character, I remember that he was supposed to be more crazy (whatever that means, my first sketches are more mischievous looking), but after writing his backstory and actually starting playing, I think he just stayed pretty much the same. Also the rest of the party put the bar pretty high for the craziness/unchainedness level, so I automatically assumed a more mature approach to compensate lol

I wish I was better at roleplay tho, because it's really hard to try to come across as someone who is by design comfortable in most situations, talks smoothly and is confident and flirty when I'm not and I don't even know how people like this are supposed to act, so I can't even try to pretend hhhh

I just hope that the rest of my group knows how I want him to be, cos we don't really talk much about character stuff outside the game (I wish we did, but it appears that I'm the only one who's been raised in the whole OC culture and I don't even feel very comfortable around some of the people outside of the game hhhh)

11. if they have a pet or animal companion, how do they spend time with them? if they don’t have one, what sort of animal would they be interested in raising, if any?

In one of the first sessions we saved a young black cat, so Cayden had a pet for a few weeks. Named the cat Rybiarz xd (Fisher?) because he said he liked fish (speak with animals hehe). Cayden left the cat in the inn we were staying in, because the inn keeper became our friend and the cat liked it here, so Cayden decided he's not gonna drag the poor cat along with him on the two month journey and who knows what next. If he could have a pet, I see two ways. Either some magical beast, lika a faerie dragon (not really a pet tho, cos they're sentient, but I mean the vibe), something that would be comfortable being on the move, possibly something matching his own energy, or even helping him seem even more attractive to others. The other option is some kind of animal that can swim (and climb?), because the boy Can't Swim. The last session ended in the middle of combat, where Cayden spent 3/4 of it under water, as the fight was with a water elemental which raised the water level and submerged everyone. And this was not the first time something like this happened xD And with him being so smol, he starts having problems when there is like 0.5m of water and if the water covers him, it boils down to waiting for someone to fish him out. A trained animal could solve this problem xD

As for spending time with the pet, it would probably be just playing with it and chilling together. Maybe if it was some special creature, he would be taking it with him to some social situations and play harmless tricks on others, or try to impress others with it, depending on the situation and mood.

28. do they collect anything?

He currently finally got his hands on a Mnemonic Vestment he's been saving gold for, so now he's focused on collecting as many magic scrolls (and possibly spellbooks, generally written magic) as possible, because the Vestment lets him cast one spell per day from such a source using his own spell slot AND not using up the scroll itself. This is super good, because Cayden as a sorcerer has a lot of spell slots, but a very short list of spells known. A new era just begun for him hahah

44. what lies do they tell others?

This is a hard one. I'm not great at creating characters that have many aspects to them. Cayden is pretty honest anyway, and talkative, so every one of his friends probably knows almost everything about his past and about him generally. He had to tell a pretty serious lie in the past and he only confessed to maybe two people (all just in backstory). It was about how the father of his first girlfriend died. He was killed by a unicorn, when he tried to kill it for its horn. The father was hunting magical creatures in secret, so his family didn't know anything, but he wanted Cayden to help him with the "business", as the relationship with his daughter was becoming serious. Why he thought it was a good idea is a mystery, as Cayden's family's past involving a friendship with a unicorn was pretty well known. Cayden helped the unicorn escape, but not before the other gnome shot at it with a crossbow. The unicorn charged and impaled the man with its horn before teleporting away. After spending the night crying his eyes out and trying to make sense of this whole situation, Cayden brought back the father's body back to the family and lied that the man was killed by someone with a spear who tried to mug them, before he managed to scare the attackers away using magic tricks.

I think, more generally, hypothetically, Cayden would lie about his own well being, for example if it meant others wouldn't waste time on him and would be able to save themselves in a critical situation. He would lie to make others feel better if he knew there was no way to help them and if he knew that showing confidence and being optimistic would raise morale of everyone else.

As for non serious lies (I'm not even sure it counts for the question), sometimes his gnome nature comes through, and he's tempted to just mess with someone by telling obvious nonsense information when an opportunity arises, or creating illusions. He doesn't have a heart to leave someone confused for too long though, so most of the time he clears thing up pretty fast.

And of course he tells lies in typical adventurer stuff situations. False names, motivations, all that. "I'm so sorry for shooting color spray in your face I panicked, I just didn't want you to cuff me, I'm on your side I swear, I want to help deal with those people demolishing your holy stairs, I won't be able to do that while magically handcuffed!" *Insane bluff check* *promptly escapes the moment he sees an opportunity*

Currently we're trying to infiltrate some kind of a drug cartel criminal underground, so there is a lot of bluffing involved xD

51. what element of their backstory are you proudest of?

The elements my GM basically wrote for me xD

I'm not the strongest writer, not even moderately acceptable writer, so I needed a little help. We all generated backstory events when creating characters and wrote based on what we got. I couldn't think of a conflict that involved telling a lie motivated by love. This is the one above, about the unicorn. The other backstory element is to rationalize how Cayden got out of his country that was surrounded by enemy nations currently at war I think and travelled through almost half the continent to the Pathfinder lodge in Absalom. I decided he's going to go by water, sailing near appropriately named Isle of Terror. Sure the name is not nice and there are some terrible stories surrounding the place, but near the shore there are real people actively looking for vessels trying to cross the lake. Turns out Isle of Terror is no joke and during a terrible negative energy storm everyone from the crew died, if not by the storm, then finished off by a shadowy creature, and Cayden barely survived this only thanks to hiding in a barrel, and plot armor I guess (it's a backstory after all, and a random event due to my decisions to go this route).

Other than that, I kinda like the part about Cayden even having the bloodline powers he has. One of his ancestors/parents had to have some kind of closer contact with a unicorn and I decided it's gonna be his mother. Before he was born, his country was at war with basically every neighbour and Cayden's mother was helping refugees by hiding them in a dense forest near the border. She impressed a unicorn living there with her determination and pure heart and they formed a strong bond with the unicorn protecting it's forest against unwanted invaders, but allowing shelter for the needing. During those efforts Cayden's mother met his father and after the war, Cayden was born. Later, when he grew up, it turned out that some of that unicorns magic/blessing passed onto his mother and became apparent in him.

I know it's cheesy, but that's about the peak of my writing/storytelling skills xD

For someone that is 52 years old, my boy has a surprisingly uneventful backstory, with 40 years of living peacefully in his village with both parents, having a traumatic experience, and then going out to see the world, hearing about Pathfinder Society on his first big stop and making it his dream to join them. I described his journey basically by coming up with partners he had romantic relationships with along the way and elaborating a little what happened during these stops/stages of the journey. Now I face the joy of meeting this characters as NPC's one day, oof, I didnt think this through. We even met that first girlfriend already. (it was ok, but super stressful, but also super sweet at the end)

#pathfinder #cayden #monere-lluvia #ask #answer #long post