Multilingual Ghost

Thank you so much for the tag, @applescabs!!! 🥰💚

Are you named after anyone? After, of all things, a 15th century noblewoman (whom I always thought was a saint, but actually wasn't, I just found out!) My mom saw an amazing statue of her on a trip and loved it, and her name, so much that she named me after her.

When was the last time you cried? I teared up a little yesterday when I got my friend's wedding invitation in the mail. The last time I properly cried was... huh. I think a couple of weeks ago, watching TV. That's a fair amount of time for me to go without crying, so go me!

Do you have kids? No, and I don't want any.

Do you use sarcasm a lot? A bit less than I used to, and not a lot in general. Only when I think it will be funny, or when I need to make an underhanded comment about something that ticked me off but I can't do much about.

What sports do you play? None. I am a very inactive person, sadly. I hope I can at least start going on more walks as the season keeps warming up.

What’s the first thing you notice about people? If they seem friendly or not.

What’s your eye colour? A very, very dark brown.

Scary movies or happy endings? Happy endings all the way. I can't handle scary stuff very well at all. 🫣

Any special talents? I'm fairly good at languages (I learned them easily in school and I usually have a decent shot at figuring out what a word might mean if it's in a language that has at least some relation to the ones I know/have studied). Sadly, the only one I'm still fluent in (besides Italian, of course) is English, because it's the only one I use regularly.

Where were you born? Italy, smack dab in the middle of the top part of the boot, lol

What are your hobbies? Writing fic, reading fic, scrolling Tumblr, playing video games (mostly just Pokémon), playing D&D, and very occasionally drawing or weaving bracelets or assembling jigsaw puzzles.

Do you have any pets? My two cats, Sasha and Misha 🥹🥹 They're tabby-and-white twins, they're almost 5 years old, and they're the ones I come home to. 💚💚

How tall are you? 164cm, although sometimes when I'm in a hurry I just say 1.65m 😅

Favourite subject in school? All the sciences and Math, though I also liked English when I started having it as a subject.

Dream job? Writing a single novel, or a trilogy or something like that, that becomes inexplicably popular, gets a movie deal, and gives me enough residuals to potentially live comfortably while bumming around on my couch writing fanfic for the rest of my life.

I am tagging (but only if they want to answer, zero pressure, as usual!) @nicoroni, @imaginatorofthings, @zimithrus1, @thekuraning, @saltedpin, @horikoshi-secret-ao3-account, @damedanedameyodamenanoyo, and anyone else who sees this and wants to play! 💖💖💖

FORGOTTEN LAND'S SECOND ANNIVERSARY :3

I AM SOOOO BACK

I started this drawing yesterday around afternoon and finished it just a few minutes earlier.

I went with a messier type of drawing instead of more clean like the elfilin one from yesterday, i find it fun doing it like this, mostly cause i dont have to worry about making it perfectly so i dont get as frustrated as normal. Id place this one as my second best digital drawing. im pretty sure i havent posted what i consider my best digital drawing here, tho i do have it in instagram, i might post it here one day, tho these two are way too tied up, i love how this came out, its not exactly like how i imagined it but its really close to it, and also itd say that since i dont tend to play around lighting that much, this was such a joy to draw and i cant help but stare at it a lot, at least until i start hating it because i made quite a lot of errors. i also changed my elfilis gijinka just a tad bit from last time, but its not that big of a difference, mostly.

ofc i had to draw elfilis for forgotten land's anniversary, i tend to deny it in my head but yeah they're my fave of the kirby characters even tho i hate them a bit. I wanted to draw some more doodles, like, elfilis eating cake, kirby car, a bunch of other stuff (not elfilin cuz i already drew him yesterday) but when i tried i couldnt draw anything more, guess this drawing burned me out a lot, huh?

you can definitly tell i spent all the efforts on him cuz if you look a bit closer to the bottom part you'll see its almost barely detailed, but i mean, they're the focus so make sense i guess for me not add that much detail there. um also, maybe because i dunno i had OVER 130 LAYERS jeez no wonder firealpaca was slowing down so much, i need to manage my layers better next time, tho i did do something i keep forgetting, wich is naming them (most of them at least) that was a real life saver

Also, antares (fecto elfilis' spear/cadaceus), as always, was a pain to draw, but this time its probably been draw the most accurate out of every other drawing ive made with it in it, i didnt notice it was like, a little curved when it reached the blade

some close ups since his face is a bit hard to see

silly :3

fun fact! actually, this is technically a redraw, somewhere around between february and march i started a fecto elfilis drawing for the first anniversary, but i couldnt finish it in time, and i never finished it

thats...quite the improvement! (i remember being so proud of it)

also his wings are like that cuz i did not want to draw the pattern, its way too hard, i literally copy pasted it, wait, i was talking about the 2024 version but i looked at the 2023 one and i just noticed it also has the pattern copy pasted, i guess some stuff never changes since i still abuse the ctrl+c ctrl+v to this day

Also i ended up making a huge error there, i was planing to add the phantom spears from orbital pulsar (the attack he does first when you battle them at lab discovera) but theres an innacuracy, when they do the attack, they always close their eyes, i had actually sketched him (well i mean both these drawings are basically the first sketch (2023) or second sketch(2024) with some color, shadows and lighting. i didnt do lineart in the 2024 one cuz i wanted to be a bit like the og i made (too bad i sketched that one with black since the og was sketched with white due to me drawing the bg first)) with his eyes closed but them decided to make them open for a reason i cant remember, maybe i thought itd look nicer? idk

ive had the idea of redrawing this for quite some month now so it was kinda already planned

background cuz i think it came out really pretty

doesnt have the little stars since without elfilis and the structures it looks fucked up. the actual sky in game is more blue, but the clouds have some orange, in the 2023 ver. i made the sky orange, and in the 2024 ver i wanted it more accurate, but i didnt wanna loose the orange sky, so i did a gradient. pretty...

also here's a screenshot i took when i was like halfway trough it, its barely noticeable but i changed his mouth in the final drawing

I really love katfl, like a buncha whole lot, its basically almost my first mainline kirby game. 100% the demo, finished the game in almost one day, i literally play it monthly, like, every month i put the card in my switch, start it up, get morpho sword, and go shred elfilis in lab discovera. i would probably not even be here on tumblr and the kirby fandom if it werent for it. and i love it so much i genuinly cannot express how much i like it and treasure it with words or anything

Thank you for reading my unnecesarily long rambles lol

I hope i'll post tomorrow and dont forget like usual

Jambuhbye!

trace, for @jilymicro-oops (I should have posted this yesterday AND it should have been fewer words, so double oops). Titanic AU. Rated M for 'draw me like one of your french girls' mention. 1697 words.

She finds him in the third class deck, sitting by one of the benches that face the ocean, his face all wrinkled not because of the sun rising right in front of him, but because he seems concentrated. For a moment, Lily just watches his profile, all the details she noticed the night before but only now she can fully absorb: his dark hair, sticking out at the back of his neck and messy in the strong cold wind; his tanned skin, glistening under the sun; the muscles of his arm, visible through his white cotton shirt; the shape of his full brown lips, spotting dimples at the corner as if he has just thought about something amusing; and the power of his hazel eyes, framed by his glasses, now favouring more green spots than brown, as he turns his face to find her admiring at him.

No, not admiring, that would be improper.

Lily is just… curious. This stranger who saved her life the day before sparked curiosity, the first thing that Lily remembers feeling in a long time.

“Mr. Potter,” she says, nodding her head in a small bow, for once as gracefully courteous as her sister always tells her to be — except Petunia would never approve of her current company, but that’s a thought that Lily pushes to a forgotten corner of her mind.

“It’s James,” he corrects her, and then he bows as well, a smirk on his lips that displays his dimples. “Miss Evans.”

“Lily,” she says at once; someway, properness seems dispensable near him. 

“Lily,” repeats James slowly. She likes the sound of her name on his voice, which seems as dangerous as the ocean below them — that’s also a thought that she pushes away, though not for a place that she will forget easily. “Should you be here?”

A fair question, but James doesn’t sound accusing nor does he seem unfavorable to her presence. Perhaps he is just as curious about her as she feels about him.

“Probably not,” she admits. “But I’ve been known for doing things I shouldn’t.”

His gaze sweeps upon her for a moment and Lily is suddenly aware of how well-tailored her dress is, embroidered with tiny gold pieces; her skin seems too ivory, too soft compared to his — she remembers very well how calloused and strong his hands had felt the night before when he was holding her.

But James doesn’t look repelled. “I don’t think anyone could force you to do anything,” he says. 

Her heart skips a beat; everyone always seemed to look through her, seeing what they wanted her to be, not who she truly was. 

That’s not a feeling she has with James. Not after what he did last night — and that's the reason she sought him that morning, in the first place.

“Thank you,” she whispers, sitting next to him. His eyes widen. “For… yesterday. For saving me.”

“That was nothing,” he answers, a carefree smile on his lips. “You wouldn’t have jumped.” As Lily opens her mouth to discuss this, James shakes his head. “You wouldn’t—I told you, no one could force you to do anything.”

“Still. I might have slipped, though, so I am still thankful.”

He snorts, eyes shining for a moment. Lily likes it: there are wrinkles at the corner of his eyes now that tell her he laughs a lot. Is this the reason she feels so attracted to him?

But attraction is a dangerous thought, one that borders to close to things that Lily shouldn't be feeling — she’s already taking a large risk by seeking him in person, even though it could be reasonably explained as a show of gratitude —, so she finds herself lowering her gaze to the notebook on his lap.

“Wow.”

She’d thought he had been staring at the ocean, but now she realises that James had been watching a group of kids in the lower deck, playing with a ball; the drawing seems too vivid, as if she is reliving the moment rather than seeing a reproduction of the scene in chalk. There’s movement in the children’s faces, their silent laughs echoing through the doodle.

“This is amazing,” she says, lifting her eyes to find James strangely abashed for the first time since she has met him. His hand grabs his hair.

“It’s just a pastime. I am not a professional artist or anything.”

She extends her hand. “May I?”

He hesitates for a moment, but when his eyes meet hers, James offers her the notebook.

“I think you lied to me, Mr. Potter,” she says as she turns the page carefully, admiring each scene he drew—they all have the power to drag her inside as if she can be with whatever inspired him. “These are professional.”

He chuckles. “It’s not if I’m not being paid.”

“Well, but you are an artist. I had never seen anything like—oh.”

She pauses for a moment, fighting her sudden instinct of closing the notebook. It’s just a drawing, don’t be silly, she tells herself. A drawing of a naked woman, sure, but you have seen other paintings—naked female bodies were a common theme, loved by artists, so there was nothing improper in it, and still—

It was the way James drew that woman—as if he could capture the details that made the painting alive, not exactly perfect, but a body so real that she could almost touch it. The softness of the skin; the muscles and the fat layer of the body; every strand of hair; the secrets in her smile and the openess of her eyes; the curves of the woman. 

“I am sorry,” James said, pulling her away from the drawing. “You shouldn’t have seen this—”

“This is art,” Lily says, grateful that her voice sounds calm.

“Still—”

“You are an artist,” she repeats. “So whatever inspires you—” And then a thought crosses her mind, something unpleasant. “Who is she?”

“Just a friend.”

“Hum.” She tries pursing her lips but finds herself asking anyway. “And is your friend aboard the ship?”

His eyebrows raise, pupils widening as he understands what she is asking. “No, no, she is in France—I mean, she is French, so I think she is in France, I don’t really—this is just a drawing, we were never—I’m not paid, but I am very professional when it comes to drawing, except—”

“Except?”

He flushes, carefully avoiding her gaze now.

“I should go,” he says, standing up. “Find my friends. And you—you should go back.”

“Ah, yes, but—” She isn’t sure of what to say, but finding words seems unnecessary. As James rushes to grab his briefcase, he drops it open; with the wind, a piece of paper flies away, and Lily catches it easily, only to find her own face staring back.

It could be a mirror, only she is not sure she has ever seen her reflection standing so strong, so fierce. James captured all the details that Lily fears she has given up showing to the world a long time ago — no one was ever interested in her curiosity, in her spark, in her desire to face the world. Snape wanted the perfect bride, Petunia wanted her to save their family income, and Lily had hidden herself so well in a seashell form of herself that she had almost thrown herself into the sea the night before, only James had seen her.

Almost as she could see him now, could picture him all focused, his eyes watching her profile carefully from afar as he perfected his drawing.

“When did you paint this?”

He takes a moment to answer her. “Yesterday morning. I saw you in the deck and I—I’m sorry if you didn’t like it, I just—”

“Liked it? James, I am in awe. It looks as if you could trace me. Not just draw, as if you were outlining every detail, and this is—nobody has ever looked at me the way you do.”

“Perhaps they should be paying more attention then,” he whispers, and there is a light in his hazel eyes that draws her in. You are beautiful, he seems to say, and Lily feels so, for all the right reasons.

Her heart jumps inside her chest; she has never been this alive. “Maybe I could pose for you someday—hire your services.”

“I wouldn’t take any money—”

“It would be very professional,” she assures, standing up to join him by the rail. “Like it was with your French friend.”

“Then—oh.” His eyes move over her face as if he is trying to figure a difficult puzzle. “So you—ah—”

Lily blinks, suddenly aware of what she just proposed—she hadn’t considered the particularities of that drawing, and she is just about to tell him that, maybe brush it off with an embarrassed laugh, only…

Only she imagines herself walking into her room and finding James there, sitting patiently with his notebook and holding the chalk carefully as he waits for her; she lets her night robe fall on the floor, hears his breath cutting short, and walks naked to the bed, laying over the pillows and then lifting her gaze to meet James’ eyes.

He would be looking at her. Not through her. 

The sound of the ship’s horn makes her jump.

“I should go,” she says weakly. Her face is burning; it’s not because of the morning sun, she knows. James nods, though he doesn’t move and neither does she. Lily forces herself to breathe. “Maybe we could meet this afternoon? I would like to know more about my saviour.”

This sounds innocent; it doesn’t add any meaning, though Lily can feel the tension in the air, can feel the goosebumps on her skin at the idea of James seeing her bare—drawing every curve, rejoicing in the intimacy of being so close to her—

“It would be my pleasure,” he whispers, and Lily wonders if he was picturing the same images.

But that’s a dangerous thought, one that she should only entertain in the depths of her heart — especially considering James is invited to join her sister and her fiance for dinner tonight—, so she forces herself to bow slightly at him and turn away.

Emin's multiple childhood crushes

After I said yesterday that i'll make a post of my childhood crushes that I still have, and that have started my era of liking both genders, so heres the post =^_^= And this is a post for all my besties, sisters, Brothers, pen pals And girlfriend to know like: @ilovescaredysquirrel2 And @iggyguyy And @sophia-does-skits And @muppet-fan-real And @mysafespaceblog13 And @ducktoonz903707 And @peaceforpeople And all my other besties, Sisters, Brothers, pen pals =^////^=

I have literally lots of crushes, And I might make this in parts since not only these are my crushes, I have MULTIPLE more =^///^= And also, before I start now saying these crushes of mine, I would literally daydream the entire relationships with these characters/celebrities I have a crush on =0.0=

Now, lets start with The male crushes I started having since my childhood:

1. Sunny Bridges (class of 3000) - heck, I started having a crush on him because of his voice, his looks, And just.... His personality. And I literally would smile whenever he was either talking, singing, or was on the screen. And I can say, I have a thing for black People because I always think theyre beautiful. =^///^=

2. Tony the talking clock (DHMIS) - I dont know why did I have a crush on him, but Its because I really liked his voice And just his accent, And I always liked the fanart of him I found on the internet.

3. Duroro (keroro gunso) - I think I have a crush on him because of his voice, especially in the Bosnian dub, And I really liked his looks.

4. Tamama (keroro gunso) - Im not sure if he is either a boy or a girl... But i'll put him here ^///^; I really liked him because of his cute personality And just his kind of jealousy side when he would feel like someone gets near keroro.

5. Poco (brawl stars) - oh... I certainly remember this guy, I can now sometimes be embarassed when I remember my crush on poco, but I just thought he was an very like, "attractive" Guy in brawl stars.

6. Surge (brawl stars) - I remember having surge as an favorite character from brawl stars, And I even used to ship my brawl stars OC named Cathy with him (i'll draw her soon again), And I would sometimes get jealous when Surge And Max would be "shipped" together.

7. Josh (blue's clues And you) - I remember when this Show actually came out to Nick jr in my Bosnian dub somewhere maybe in 2020, And I really liked Josh, I thought he was cute And I still do.

8. Foxy (fnaf) - oh god... I remember having a slight crush on him too, its because I founded pirates very attractive, especially female pirates, even tho they can sometimes be evil, I still really liked them.

9. Espresso cookie (Cookie run Kingdom) - I really liked this Guy because of his voice, his looks And just his personality, And I used to ship him with Madeleine cookie, because I really liked the Idea of them being shipped together. (I have always made lgbtq ships I think since 2021)

Now, heres the female crushes I started having when I was a little ass kid And that I still have a crush on now And how they started my liking girls side:

1. Fi (tractor tom) - I really liked her english voice, And even her voice in Bosnian dub, And my cheeks would sometimes turn red-ish whenever I hear her talking, And I really liked her personality.

2. Violet, Fifi And primrose (Fifi And the flowertots) - first Violet, I really liked her voice in both english And Bosnian dub, And I really liked how her hobby was painting And drawing. Second Fifi, I really loved her personality, And whenever I would hear her talking at the start of every episode, I would blush And giggle. Third primrose, I know she is kind of narcissistic And bossy, but I still really liked her sense of Fashion And voice.

3. Frankie, draculaura, clawdeen, robecca, Venus, Abbie, Spectra, Rochelle, cleo, ghoulia, lagoona And operetta (Monster high) - first Frankie, I really liked her sense of Fashion and her kinda clumsyness, the way she sometimes loses her body parts would make me Chuckle. Second draculaura, she is my number ONE favorite ghoul from Monster high, I really liked her voice in both english And Bosnian dub, And I really love her sense of Fashion, And I always found her ponytails cute, And I wanted my ponytails like that. Third clawdeen, I really liked her looks, personality And voice, whenever I would see her on the screen, I would hide my face, not because I was scared of her, its because I would get flustered whenever I see her. Fourth robecca, heck, I literally had a big crush on this girl too, I even would sometimes imagine myself brushing her beautiful long black And blue hair, And even hugging her, And I really love her voice. Fifth Venus, I really liked her sense of loving Plants, And I loved her hairstyle And voice in both english And Bosnian dub. Sixth Abbie, oh fuck, I literally love this girl too just like draculaura And robecca, I literally loved her hairstyle, voice, looks And personality, I always imagined her hugging me or being my girlfriend. Seventh spectra, I really liked her voice, sense of Fashion And hairstyle, I would sometimes imagine her holding me by my hands And just we both are flying around like normal ghosts. Eighth Rochelle, Heck, I really love this girl too, I literally founded her so pretty just like all the ghouls And female And male crushes I had And still have, I always wanted her to be my girlfriend And I really like her voice. Ninth cleo, I know she can sometimes be narcisstic And bossy just like primrose, but I still really loved her, And I imagined her hugging me And being my girlfriend. Tenth ghoulia, I really like geeky And nerdy characters, especially if theyre girls, I always wanted ghoulia to be my girlfriend even if she was with slo-mo, I would sometimes get jealous when theyre together. Eleventh lagoona, I really liked sea gals like lagoona, I really love her looks And her inteligence. And twelveth operetta, I really love her too, I really love her hairstyle, her voice And her sense of opera And drama, I sometimes would imagine myself in a theatre stage with her, dancing with her And singing with her.

4. Karai (tmnt 2012) - I know karai is evil And Works with shredder, but I really liked her looks And her voice in both english And Bosnian dub, And that one episode where she like dissapears somewhere, I was very sad And would rewatch the episodes where she was in.

5. Piper (brawl stars) - I really liked her voice And her looks, I would even sometimes imagine her baking me some muffins after I saw that video of her making muffins, And I just found her very pretty.

6. Clover And Mandy (totally spies) - first clover, I loved her voice And sense of Fashion, And I really imagined her being my girlfriend And being on missions with her, Alex And sam. Second Mandy, I know she is a rude popular girl just like how cleo And primrose can be rude And narcissistic, but I still really loved her, And I would imagine Mandy being Nice to me except for others.

7. Kesha - heck, she was my first celebrity crush, I really love her voice And songs, AND her looks, she is still my favorite Singer, And I would sometimes imagine myself being at her concert And hearing her beautiful voice

8. Britney Spears - she is my second celebrity crush, And I really love her voice, her looks And her songs, I have always founded her pretty just like kesha And Melanie. And like kesha, she is still my favorite Singer.

9. Melanie Martinez - she is my third celebrity crush, I really love her voice And her songs, even her sense of Fashion, And I would even imagine being at her crybaby And K-12 concerts. And I really found her beautiful just like kesha And Britney, And ofcourse, she is still my favorite Singer.

10. Cici (roary the racing car) - I know she is a car, but I founded her voice very beautiful in both english And Bosnian dub, And I would sometimes imagine her giving me compliments.

11. Raibaru (yandere simulator) - heck, I founded her very pretty, And I would sometimes even imagine raibaru being MY bodyguard And girlfriend at the same time And protecting me.

12. Tiger Lily (cookie run Kingdom) - I really founded her cute And I imagined her protecting me along with her big Tiger, I always wanted to brush her long hair.

13. And lastly fluttershy And rarity (MLP) - first fluttershy, I really loved her sweet And kind personality, I always wanted to help her take care of her pets, And I liked her cute soft voice. Second rarity, I really liked her sense of Fashion And her voice in both english And Bosnian dub, And I always imagined her making me dresses And helping her make dresses.

And those are my childhood crushes that I still have for now, And i'll ship my persona with Clifford from muppets, Sunny Bridges, And many more other favorite muppets of mine =^////^=

Note 1: my persona's Age is Unknown, but he is actually in his early 20s

I hope y'all will like this ^////^; 💕

Replies

A smaller portion today…

hipsterteller asked:

Rollo that's not gonna work, believe me...I tried.

Yeah… Unfortunately for everyone involved, the holy water only makes Sebastian a little wet and kind of annoyed 😭 It’s a scam!

Anonymous asked:

Just came and saw the latest Deuce card, it makes me think of how great he looks. It makes me of how Deuce X Jack works. I know you done this before but I am curious with them as their clubmates.

Anon, we went absolutely feral when we saw that card and spent all evening drawing these two yesterday LOL so if everything goes well, we’ll post them tonight. God bless track and field, god bless these shorts.

And these two as a ship are such a gift. It’s not the dynamic we usually go for, but for some reason whenever we see them, it’s so delightful. They get along very well, and while both of them are respectful enough to keep just enough of distance, both of them are quite physical, so they probably have a lot of moments during their club activities. The chemistry is clearly there lol

Do they drink from the same bottle? Sometimes. Do they pat each other’s backs? Of course. Do they get unexpectedly playful and chase each other to the showers? Probably happened more than twice lol

Are they going to have their first kiss after running for 40 minutes and falling onto each other all tired and sweaty? Definitely.

Anonymous asked:

Jade – If we don’t go the “baby wrestling” scenario, he’s… confusing. He might be a wonderful dad who is surprisingly perfect at parenting and smiles at you with his “what, you thought I would be bad at it? too bad” smile. As if he’s doing it to spite everyone. As if he’s plotting something. But I can also picture him leaving his kid in a forest just to see if he would find his way home.

So basically Lilia 2.0? XD

(the Jade description is from our twst as dads hc post)

… Yeah, pretty much LOL

But instead of soldiers Jade is raising mushroom-speaking mountain children.

Anonymous asked:

Jack being a great dad sounds fitting for him...given majority of the cast are not sane especially Trey...we know he isn't.

(related to the same hc post)

Yeah, Trey betrays everyone’s trust with how much of a weirdo he is sometimes lol But Jack is just a good boy in every aspect of his life.

Anonymous asked:

Do you really believe that Rook would have journal just for Vil? He has other journals for the others.

(this one is related to our nsfw RookVil hc post from yesterday)

Anon, trust me, we, as a society, don’t want to know just how many journals Rook has, be it in his head or on paper. We aren’t ready to hear the answer. Rook surely doesn’t discriminate…

Anonymous asked:

thought about referring to rook’s dick as a baguette in an ask but i forgot abt it but from now own i’m calling rooks you know what a baguette. call me the baguette anon 🥖🥖🥖

Mon Dieu, 🥖Anon. Rook is doing his fake surprise jazz hands pose at you lol The name is fair though, it has similarities…

Have you reviewed the nacli line yet???

(This is a rollover review from yesterday; any new asks will be answered tomorrow.)

When we first heard about Nacli (great name) through leaks, I thought that a salt Pokemon was one of the more interesting concepts mentioned. It was definitely a concept that hasn’t been explored yet, and the natural square shape of the mineral could lend itself to some interesting visuals.

Nacli’s about what I was picturing in my mind from the original leaks, and I have to say, I do like it. The mushroom shape is inherently appealing, contrasting the very square chunks of salt with a more naturalistic sedimentary bedrock layer. It also lends itself to some interesting top-down symmetry, with the body mirrored by the chunk of salt at the top. It’s simple and instantly appealing.

The colors are also very nice; the brown makes sense for a rock-type and compliments the whites in the design nicely, while the orange makes the eyes pop.

I will say that said eyes are the only part of the design that throw me a bit, just because they seem to be hollow, and can also change color. Granted, I guess it’s not any less strange than Geodude just straight-up sporting human eyes, but I would’ve at least liked a lore explanation as to what’s going on there. Everything else about the design is pretty perfect.

One thing I like a lot about this line is the way it evolves. Instead of evolving in a very linear way and sticking to one body shape, it instead “rearranges” as it evolves, going from a mushroom-like shape to a quadruped to a biped. It makes sense (as rock doesn’t have one specific shape it has to take), and makes it so the middle evo is its own thing, fitting between the other two but a worthwhile Pokemon in its own right.

For Naclstack here, I like how the palette has been expanded on to include darker shades of brown while still being monotone, which keeps the line looking cohesive while adding a good deal of contrast. The head being white helps draw the eye to it despite the otherwise relatively complex design, while the square head and legs mirror each other.

I think my only problem with this design is that I feel like it’s maybe a bit too blocky; there’s still some bedrock present, but only at the back. I feel like the brown chunk that forms the body could’ve still been all bedrock (as I don’t know why salt would be brown anyway), to give it the same texture contrast that Nacli has going for it. That would also make it so the head and chest would be similar to an upside-down Nacli, which would be a nice visual nod.

Also, the legs float, which is a bit odd.

Garganacl is akin to a golem, and follows in the proud Pokemon tradition of “big weird hulking third-stage rock-type”. It feels suitably powerful compared to its pre-evos, and as mentioned before, the body shape changing each time prevents it from looking too similar to either Nacli or Naclstack.

This might be weird to say, but I’m going for it anyway: I love the way this thing’s limbs look. Going from the super dark brown in the middle of the body and then gradient-ing out to light brown and white just looks super pretty, and helps focus the eye towards the middle of the design. The chunky three-fingered hands are also delightful, as are the nice mineral sparkles sprinkled into the bedrock layers.

What I’m not as big on is the upper body. I feel like the “shoulder pads” are just WAY too huge; they completely dwarf the head, to the point where it’s kind of hard to even figure out what’s going on with the face. The middle piece of salt on the top of the head also feels extraneous and only adds to the problem. I guess it’s just there to mimic Nacli’s similar head block, but Naclstack doesn’t have it anyway. I don’t mind it having the shoulders in the first place; I just would’ve liked to see them dropped down like 40%. If you did that and made the head dark brown—maybe even remove that white waist piece in favor of more brown—you’d have a clear focus on the core of the body and the head, and the design would be much easier to read as well. It’s still very good; it just could’ve been stronger.

As a side note: I love how Garganacl’s salt is used to heal wounds. Not only does it work as a play on “rubbing salt in one’s wounds”, it also works as a pun on the word cure (which means both to heal something and to preserve meat with salt). Absolutely brilliant writing right there.

Anyway, overall, a strong line. The concept is unique, the colors are incredibly pleasing, each stage has something going for it, and there’s interesting textural contrast in the design that you don’t see often with Pokemon. The only thing holding it back is Garganacl’s shoulders and head, which get to be a bit hard to read; otherwise, it’s quite nice.

(Day 1 for @nerisweek - Angst/Forbidden Love) A Court of Tangled Flames - Chapter 1 This story will diverge from canon ACOSF. It begins when Cassian takes Nesta on the hike.

An ancient and wise voice whispered to keep going. One more mountain. Just one more. Nesta had proved to be stubborn. He wouldn’t have forced this hike on her if she could just face what she ran from, but she was too damn stubborn. Cassian’s instincts had been roaring at him to put a stop to it. He hated to see her hurting. But he knew what she needed. One more mountain.

In the days that they’d spent hiking through the foothills of the mountains that straddled Illyria and Velaris, Rhysand’s fury might have dulled slightly but he wasn’t about to risk Nesta with a high lord who had a pregnant mate. When Cassian returned Nesta to Velaris, she would no longer be in the firing line. Feyre might have forgiven her, but Nesta had gone against an order for no reason except to be malicious. It would take a long time for Rhys – or the others – to forgive Nesta. But she had to forgive herself first. The silence that had trailed them was evidence she was not yet willing to do so.  

She had fainted that day. All bones and hatred towards herself. She’d collapsed in a heap near a boulder, sheltered from the wind. Cassian had fought his desire to wrap her up and tuck her safely into the tent. Nesta needed to draw herself out of this, not him.

As dawn filtered in, Cassian crawled from the tent, ready to light a small fire and cook.

His heart ruptured.

Nesta was gone.

The plate of dinner he had left for her was still there untouched. A quick search confirmed that she had not taken a single item, not even the canteen of water.

Blood roared in Cassian’s ears. There were no signs of a struggle. This area was relatively safe. He would not have slept through something. Unless that something was Nesta herself. He had seen that vacant look in her eyes too many times now, had thought that this hike might coax that spark in her heart back to life. Her scent was faint, but it faded uphill – away from the river at least. He couldn’t think straight.  

‘Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.’ He broke a toe kicking one of the bags across the camp.

The more time he wasted here, the worse it could be for Nesta. Cassian swept the area, hoping to find a glimpse of her. If she had ran from him, she couldn’t have gone far despite her iron will. Fuck. She had fainted yesterday. Cassian had been fixated on the route, mulling over his own beginning in life, that he had not spared a single look behind until he had heard the clacking of stones as she fell.

There was no trace of Nesta. Not on the craggy face of the mountain, not in the shallow streams that they’d collected water from. He tracked back and forth, sweeping the area over and over.

With every beat of his wings back towards Velaris, bile rose in his throat. What had he done?

‘Is she here?’ His voice was raw from screaming her name over the mountains.

‘What?’

The group had been tucked together in Rhys’ study. Mor’s head had whipped up first at the sight of him. He knew he looked bedraggled, knew that his siphons were flaring dangerously. His heart was being torn from his chest.

‘Nesta.’

Amren’s face tightened at the mention of the female she had tried to befriend. Cassian didn’t miss the grit of Rhys’ jaw either.

‘I woke. She was gone. If she’s hurt…’

Rhys flickered his eyes using his daemati powers to hunt her.

His entire body was tense while Rhys worked. A silent prayer was said to the Mother that Rhys would have good news. Each second was a drawn-out ache. Mor’s hand linked with his, squeezing once in solidarity. Azriel saw it and turned his face from them.

‘I can’t find her.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘It could mean a lot of things,’ Rhys said delicately. ‘That she has mental shields up, she’s too far from range, someone is shielding her.’

‘Or she’s dead,’ supplied Amren.

Cassian snapped. His body barrelled towards the creature that had once been the most terrifying being in Prythian. If he got his hands on her, Cassian would strangle her.

Rhys covered her with his body while Azriel and Mor fought to hold Cassian back from ripping her apart.

‘Stop,’ Rhys called, power seeping through the room, wrapping Cassian in a night-chilled mist. It tangled around his limbs, constricting them to his body. ‘Az, assemble a team of Illyrians to sweep the mountains. Have every cave checked – rivers too. Mor, check any arrivals into the city. Trade wagons, anything, in case Nesta has stowed onto one. Someone might have seen her and given her a ride in. I’ll go to Windhaven. It’s the closest camp. We don’t tell Feyre until we know Nesta is safe.’

‘Isn’t that how we’re in this situation?’

The glare that Rhys turned onto Azriel was lethal. Az turned his head away first, but not after holding the stare for a few heartbeats.

‘Cass, stay here with Amren.’

‘Stay here? I’m finding her.’

***

The warrior carved from stone snapped at her. ‘You should have been drinking water throughout the day.’

There had been no time to stop. No energy to call for it. If she had stopped, she would not have started again. Nesta had been marching for days. Stomach empty. Head ringing with insecurity. She had barely slept each night on the cold ground, stones digging into her thin body.

‘We’ll camp here tonight,’ Cassian barked, voice lacking any warmth.

He coaxed her another twenty foot up a riverbed to a flat expanse of ground, but it felt like climbing another mountain. Nesta was so tired. A tiredness that gnawed at her bones and drove away any motivation she had.

She couldn’t remember falling asleep. Couldn’t remember Cassian cooking or the crackle of the fire that she detested so much.

It was dark. A plate of food had been left near her. Something cold and wet snuffled at the back of her neck.

Her body stilled. Nesta wasn’t sure what creatures lingered in these mountain passes. They were camped close to a river and memories of the kelpie rose to the surface. If it killed her, she wouldn’t care this time. She was past saving.

Nesta shifted on her hip, raising her head slightly.

A dog sat beside her. Its tail thumped once on the ground as if it couldn’t help itself before reigning in its training. It pushed his nose towards her. That was what had buried against her neck while she slept. From the corner of her eye, Nesta caught a glimpse of fire sweeping through the air in an arc.

A male stood atop a stone, another dog at his heel. Eris Vanserra. He pressed a finger to his lips then pointed at Cassian who slumbered peacefully in his tent beside a dying fire.

Eris gestured for her to come forwards.

Nesta knew to tread lightly – as silently as she could manage on shaking legs. The dog followed behind as if escorting her to his master. Once she was close enough, the muffled feeling of a shield came around them, cutting off the wind.

Eris’ fingers flexed as he moved a hand almost to hold onto her arm then thought better of it. His amber eyes weighed every inch of Nesta; the too thin face, the shadows beneath her eyes, the dry, cracked lips. Her body was coated with a layer of grime that splashes of river water couldn’t scrub off, the leathers she’d been forced to wear had been on her body for days through hours and hours of sweaty hiking. Eris swallowed.

‘The belongings at your camp. Do you need any of them?’

His voice was tight. It wasn’t the cold, deep ripple that she’d encountered in Spring Court. This was full of leashed fire that begged to seek purchase.

‘I- No. I just carry it.’

The joyless depths of his eyes flared with golden flame.

‘Nesta, I want to take you to a safe place where you will not be hurt. Can I do that?’

Nesta turned to face the camp Cassian had made. She thought of the fear that had rocked her entire body the moment the words had spilled out to Feyre. She would die. Her son would die. Rhys had made them keep it from her. Rhys would have killed Nesta. She likely would always be a target. Whatever tense link they had shared was now irreparably broken. The carefully built trust that had developed with Cassian had been shattered. Nesta knew this male would not protect her from Rhysand; she would always be second place to him. That was evidenced by days spent hiking until her body failed with fatigue.

‘Yes.’

The world fell away. Nesta tipped forwards until her head curled against Eris’ neck. His arm came around her as they winnowed from the Night Court.

There was vague awareness of Eris removing his cloak and draping it over her as he lifted her into his arms. A sturdy hand curved around the back of her legs, but the one around her shoulders, stroked her gently. It was the first gentle touch Nesta had felt in days.

He gave a low whistle and one of his dogs streaked past them. They waited. Nesta glanced up, cataloguing the tall canopy of oaks above their heads. If she cared, she might have asked where Eris Vanserra was taking her.

‘Stay quiet a moment,’ he murmured against her hair.

Then boots traipsed through the forest, careening after the dog who was far too quick to be caught. Eris seized his chance and made for the gates to a manor that was now without sentries guarding it. He managed a gentle jog with Nesta still near him as he moved to the back of the house. He rapped his knuckles hard on the door.

A female answered. Her dark, curling hair fell untidily past her shoulders. She’d drawn a cloak around herself too, but Nesta peeked the hem of her nightgown.

‘Eris, do you know what time it is? Who is that?’

‘Shh,’ he replied, pushing past her into the kitchen. ‘This is Nesta. I’ll be back in the morning. Keep her safe tonight.’

‘Is she in danger? What trouble are you getting me into now?’

Eris carefully lowered Nesta so she was standing without his support. ‘Sorry,’ he said, removing the cloak and pulling it back around himself. ‘She is not the danger. Orla, please. Just look after her. I will be here in the morning.’

Unusual for him to appear rattled. Nesta had only ever seen the heir to the Autumn throne calculating and calm. He gave Nesta a searching look then, ‘You’re safe here, Nesta.’

***

The trick in not being caught was to never deviate from routine. Never give anyone a reason to be suspicious. It was a mantra that Eris lived by. Take a stroll late in the evening, not returning until it’s dark once, and it rouses attention. Take that walk most nights, follow the same route, same times, become a creature of habit and none bat an eyelid. Ensure people overhear your conversations with guards that the youngest smokehounds needed training in the dark, insist to your mother that they needed to be able to track in the deepest parts of the forest, be resolute that only you can train them. Give them no reason to doubt your motives.

Eris followed his usual pattern, heading for the woods, making a show of calling the dogs to him. He had taken all twelve tonight. His father’s guards had to see him leave the Forest House. He walked on, always mindful of the eyes that might be on him.

The first few times, his father’s soldiers had followed him for the entire duration. They kept out of sight, so Eris made the walk as long and boring as possible. Then he repeated it, night after night, until Beron must have been irritated by the reports of the sentries that stated Eris merely walked and trained his dogs for hours. The soldiers dwindled in number, they followed him less, some remained at the odd outpost to confirm to Beron that his son was – yet again – training his damn dogs, until it was not worth Beron’s efforts to monitor him too closely. With three other sons in the Forest House, his attention was better spent on them. At least, that’s what Eris had convinced him. He was the organised, regimented child. He’d always been a stickler for routine so played into it. A word in the right servant’s ear about who Uther was spending time with or a bribed guard commenting that Phelan had been spotted speaking to a lesser fae female in a nearby village kept Beron’s eyes firmly away from Eris.

The sun scattered the forest in golden warmth as it drooped in the sky. One of his hounds had made for a cave. He called for it with no return. More evidence to any hidden sentries that the young pup needed firmer training.

‘Three hours?’

The trick to not being caught was to always be where you were supposed to be. The male waiting in the cave, Ashur, examined Eris’ clothes, ensuring his matched. They looked similar enough from a distance. Both the same height. Ashur was perhaps slightly more rakish in build, but it was hidden well-enough by the clothing for it not to be detected. They had long played this game. Ashur was his double whenever Eris needed a moment away – but also needed an alibi. Beron would never admit to having his son tailed by sentries, so they never came close enough to notice that it was not Eris walking through the woods. Eris had quirks, minimal enough that they did not cause issue or raised much attention. He liked to have the tailor make two of each garment. He was so fussy with his clothes, he said, and the same elderly fae had served long enough to not question Eris. A set always went to Ashur with strict instructions on when to wear them.

‘They’ll be on the northern crest, prior to the bridge. Just two sentries. Have Artyom thrash about in the shallows to give you pause. Tomorrow, their post is at the glen with the overhanging boulder.’

Ashur nodded, drawing his cloak up around his chin and melding into his role of heir to the Autumn Court throne as he departed the cave, dogs trailing him. Ten smokehounds moved far too quickly; sentries would count twelve of them. They were seamless in their transitions now. In the dim light, none would know the difference, not even Eris’ own father. Ashur would replace Eris for a number of hours, roaming through the forest, pausing at the places where they knew sentries would linger to confirm to Beron he remained in the woods. It gave him time and space to further his agendas.

The Night Court was his current agenda. An alliance was building between them, but Eris did not for one moment trust them. He could count on one hand the people he could trust; his mother, Orla, and Ashur.

The Night Court was tight-lipped on the subject of Ramiel. No books or scripture could give Eris any hint of what might lurk beneath the mountain. The monolith on top was sacred to Illyrians for some long-held, long-forgotten reason. There was a reason why Amarantha had built her court so close to it. There were always reasons, always patterns. That was the order of things.  

Eris had been exploring the land around Ramiel, journeying further south each night to an area that was unmarked on any map. He had even managed to obtain an Illyrian map, but the area that he approached was unmapped entirely. Something was there, heavily warded. The Night Court would not leave such an expanse that wasn’t craggy untouched. It could have been a secret camp for the Illyrians, but Eris doubted that.

On the rare occasion that Eris arrived slightly too early for their meetings at the Hewn City - by accident, of course - Keir or a sentry would let slip they were waiting for the high lord’s arrival. He didn’t reside in the Court of Nightmares, Eris had surmised as much, nor in Illyria. Mor wouldn’t stay in her father’s city either. Eris had not pushed it; that was another secret. Never seem too interested in something because that raised suspicion too.

He’d be punctual for a handful of meetings then arrive early to another to test his theory. None of them were ever there. No shadow singer or high lady. They all arrived together.

Currently, he was more curious about the seemingly empty area of the Night Court with such heavy wards than Ramiel, Eris could taste the magic on his tongue. It hurt his eyes to stare at the blank space for too long. They'd blur and sting.

A night earlier, he had been in the shadows of a cliff, when he had spotted an Illyrian. The hulking form of Cassian could not be missed. His gait was heavy but not labouring as he wended along the curve of the river. Behind him was Nesta Archeron. The brute had shown his cards in the Spring Court when he placed a hand on the small of her back. A pity for her to be aligned with that male. A waste, even. For putting Beron in his place in front of the other high lord’s and not backing down, Nesta Archeron would always hold a special place in Eris’ heart. He hadn’t been able to forget the sheer shock on his father’s face that a female had dared use such a tone on him – and with an audience.

Eris had kept his eyes on them. Cassian stormed ahead, not noticing each time Nesta fell behind and had to scurry her legs to catch up. He caught the slump of her back from the weight of the bag she bore. She looked exhausted. Eris barely knew her, but he hadn’t considered her the type to want a hike in the Illyrian countryside.

That night, he had followed them until the very last minute before he had to return to Autumn. His stomach had roiled at the way Nesta had fallen onto her knees and used the last of her strength to peel the bag from her body. It had taken all of his willpower not to snatch her away there and then after observing Cassian ignore her. The Illyrian had cooked, thrust a plate of food at her unmoving form then crawled into the comfort of his tent.

The entire day, his thoughts had been entwined with Nesta Archeron. He ran through every meeting he had with that female who was forged from iron. Plucked every memory, every story he knew of her. She wasn’t weak-willed, wasn’t cowardly by any means. The female that had trailed Cassian had been utterly broken. Eris had tried to reason it; maybe she was sick, maybe she had wanted to hike. All of it was ashes on his tongue. Sunset could not come quick enough to him. He had prayed to the Mother to bring the sun down earlier to give him that cover to escape the Forest House. He had said another prayer that he would not see Nesta again. That she’d have been returned to somewhere safe. Even as he thought of those words, Eris knew it to be false. He had seen that same look on Nesta’s face as he saw on his mother’s every day. Tread on her enough times and she will eventually stop fighting you. Break her so thoroughly that she believes she deserves it.

With two dogs accompanying him, he kept his vigil on the pair, biding his time until the oaf went to sleep. Eris would have to be fast. Swifter than he’d ever been. He couldn’t get too close or he’d be scented. That was if Nesta said yes. Hearing her say yes mattered to Eris. But he hoped it wasn’t too late. Nesta deserved more than whatever life she had here in the Night Court – and he hoped they hadn’t robbed her of that awareness.

When Nesta had fainted, a white-hot fury seized his limbs. He’d nearly shouted that she was falling, desperate for the brute to save her before she was hurt. He’d screwed his eyes shut before she’d hit the ground, unable to see it. There had been worry, yes, from Cassian, but not enough. He still forced her to walk, still made her carry the pack until they camped for the night.

Artur was sent, once the fire dimmed. The dog did a loop of the camp then another, closer to the tent. He made enough noise that if the Illyrian was awake, he’d have heard. If he was awake, surely he’d have checked on Nesta’s wellbeing with an animal near his tent. Nothing.

In a terse silence, Eris watched Artur nudge Nesta. The dog was gentle, mostly. The safest option not to cause her alarm. He nuzzled against her neck until there was movement.

Do not scream, Eris thought, nails digging into the flesh of his palm.

He sliced a ribbon of fire through the air to catch her attention. Almost held his breath as she approached. Her steps were wobbly – and not due to the rough landscape.

‘The belongings at your camp. Do you need any of them?’

There was a bruise above her eyebrow where she’d hit the ground. The grey pockets beneath her eyes were haunting. He had never seen this female dishevelled. Nesta was always perfectly preened like a high-born female. This was degradation. Grinding her down until she was what the Night Court wanted her to be.

‘I- No. I just carry it.’

He would kill them. All of them. He could not look into those eyes without seeing his mother staring back at him. If he could help Nesta, could take her away from her pain then there was hope for his mother.

‘Nesta, I want to take you to a safe place where you will not be hurt. Can I do that?’

Eris knew she had no reason to trust him. The reputation he had coveted had been built over five hundred years. It was an empire of cruelty. His only hope was that he was the better option than the male asleep yards from them.

‘Yes.’

Swift as a fox, he’d distracted the guards at Orla’s, deposited Nesta as if she was no more than a delivery of goods, and was back in the forest swapping places with Ashur. He had needed to sprint to make it in time. Ashur had given him a warning glare as they traded places; Eris stepping out from behind the boulder where he’d been waiting. Ashur would remain there until the forest fell silent once more.

‘Almost midnight,’ he said to one of the sentries on the main gates, glancing up at the moon. Even if it was past that time, a lowly sentry would still recall the heir of Beron strolling through unhurried prior to midnight. He didn’t need to be a daemati to implant memories.

The memory of Nesta’s face would trail him that night. Not the injuries, not the physical appearance, but the lack of terror, the lack of anything. He remembered that look in his mother when Lucien had been exiled. Remembered it when word came that same night that one of her sons and the high lord of Spring had murdered two of her children. She had wanted to give up so badly then. And Eris had been terrified to ever give her a moment alone in case she seized her chance. Like a phantom, he had stalked his mother for months until he was sure – certain – that she wanted to see another sunrise.

To any watching eyes, it would appear that Eris had taken his usual stroll through the forest with his beloved smokehounds and was returning to the Forest House, a little weary but with the dogs given a good run out. When any would ask how he had trained them so well, he always answered simply that it was routine. More than freedom, more than time to himself, he had an alibi. But like a thief, he had swept into the Night Court and stolen the high lady’s sister. For now, Nesta Archeron was safe.

[meet the guard!] guard 003: kuroki hinode

(this was supposed to be posted yesterday but.. i forgor...)

HE'S FINALLY HERE!!! THE THIRD GUARD!!! AND ALSO RIKU'S BIG BROTHER!! LET'S GO!!!

he gets not one but two drawings bc he's a very special little boy (and also bc i feel bad for him since he got introduced late for obvious story purposes but like.. i really need to make more content for him..)

(also fun fact: the first drawing actually was done in july and the second one just a few days ago.. i can actually see some differences in my art style hehe..)

another note is that when i started to work on hinode's character, my first thought was that i kinda wanted to create another physically disabled guard character (since i think eiji can count as the first one because kei's treatment of him had not the best impact on his body), it just sounded like a neat concept! but i also didn't want to make him.. how do i explain.. too sympathetic, maybe? too squishy? what really annoys me as someone who is physically disabled is that characters like that are often used to make people feel bad for them and don't really have any personality OR they turn out to be the bad guys who only pretended to be disabled for pity points. so instead i've tried to make hinode's problems realistic and a lot of it comes from my own experiences, but i still wanted to make him morally gray and kinda.. you know.. kinda suspicious. (you're more than allowed to joke about punching him or putting him in a blender and all that)

General info.

Name: Kuroki Hinode (黒木日出) (his last name means "black" and "tree" and his first name means "sun, day" and "exit, leave". yes, hinode's name has kanji for "day" and riku's name has kanji for "evening".. the parallels <3...)

Age: 22 y/o

Gender: Male

Status: Guard 003

Birthday: January 28 (Aquarius)

Blood type: AB

Height: 179 cm

Occupation: Unemployed

Personality: Hinode isn't as outgoing as his brother, but he still enjoys talking to others, learning more about them and just spending time with other people. However, he's used to being alone, so he won't complain if it's not possible for him to talk to anyone at the moment. It actually might be better for him, since he gets tired quite easily because of his poor health and can't be active for too long. He feels sleepy most of the time, so please don't judge him for suddenly dozing off in the middle of the conversation, even if it's very important. He's not as passionate about justice as the other guards and mostly just wants to do his own thing, not caring about morals too much, but still having enough common sense to punish those who deserve it (in his opinion). He dislikes the physical kind of punishments because he believes that they're too "basic", since pain can easily scare anyone and there's nothing special about it. It's also possible that he doesn't like them because of his own experience with chronic pain, but to be honest, Hinode is lying when he says that he doesn't like to see people in pain. Yes, he believes that pain is the worst thing that could happen to anyone, even worse than death. But also, as someone who has no choice but to spend most of his days in pain.. Maybe he does want to see the prisoners feel the same way as he does. Maybe just a little bit. He still prefers the psychological punishments, finding them more "effective" and "suitable".. mostly because he's too weak to punish anyone physically.

MV info.

His Milgram cover: Him and T1 Naomi are twinning and he'd cover Weakness! The lyrics remind me a lot of him and I think with an instrumental like that it'd be appropriate for Riku's brother to cover it.

His DECO*27 cover: Harinezumi. The lyrics remind me a lot of him in general, him trying to keep up with everyone even though his condition doesn't allow him and him feeling like a burden to others, especially his family, but also being jealous of Riku for being so popular, talented and living his best life (at least it seems so on the outside) ("I can still keep going! Jealousy, what a trifling thing", "Don't you sometimes feel a little dizzy? I'm sighing because I'm tired of my heart pounding", "People know their true forms after being broken and crushed") and also the song describes his dysfunctional relationship with Riku really well as two brothers who are both jealous of each other and who both want something the other has (Riku has friends, popularity, the time and energy to make music, meanwhile Hinode has the family's attention, others helping him and people not judging him for spending the whole day in bed) but who also still love each other and genuinely wish their life could go differently ("I'll embrace you, we won't be parted", "Don't be prickly with me, each time we touch, I throb. If I prick you, you might hate me, well, there's no way that will happen!.. At least, I think", "I'm an attention seeker! I want to be spoiled! I want to melt even more for you!") And also considering that one of them is extremely suicidal and the other one is afraid that his life won't be that long.. ("In the blink of an eye, which of us will die?")

His Non-DECO*27 cover: Waltz by Nashimoto-P. I imagine Hinode having this very soft and quiet voice that almost sounds like a whisper and I feel like it would fit the way Miku is tuned very well! Also the lyrics sound so much like him trying to cope with his condition, his relationship with Riku, other problems and slowly going insane in the process. ("Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I ask what day is it today, regrettably thinking today will be a good time", "I don't know what's fun, but as I run out of things to do, I will accompany you", "My EKG is a straight line, I wonder how many decades ago") Some lyrics, especially the chorus remind me of the way he acts as a guard too. ("Stop trying to give up, the world is connected. Dance, smile, while you're being controlled. In the beginning, in the end, the details are non-existent. Don't resist, accept it, everything is connected") Also, Riku's T3 song is supposed to be by Nashimoto-P too, so :} They're matching!

His T3 Voice Trailer Voicelines:

"Ah, greetings, prisoners. Um, I apologize for such a late introduction, haha.. My name is Kuroki Hinode and I am the third guard of this prison. Nice to meet you. Starting from today, I'll be replacing Sanada Eiji-san as he's recovering. I hope we all get along. I'm really not the best person for this job, so I apologize if I end up falling asleep in the middle of the interrogation, haha.."

".. What was I supposed to do? I can't even get out of bed right now. If he wants to be saved, then I'm not the one who he should ask for help."

Trivia:

His eyes may not look like it because of the lighting on the first picture, but his eye color is supposed to be gray, meanwhile Riku's eye color is more of a mix of light green and gray.

Hinode's natural hair color is light brown, but a few days before Riku committed his crime, Riku suggested that he dyes Hinode's hair, hoping to make him feel at least a little better. They went with the brightest colors Riku had just for fun and it really did make Hinode smile and he was happy to spend time with his brother like that. In season 2, Riku dyed his hair the same way and noticed the colors only when it was too late, so it's possible that he missed his brother and did that subconsciously. It should be noted, however, that Riku's T2 hair is light green on the left and red on the right, meanwhile Hinode's hair is light green on the right and his hair is more pink rather than red on the left. Hinode also has a double ahoge just like his little brother and same goes for their little sisters. It's something they all share :)

He started putting his hair in a bun since he arrived because he found working with his hair down uncomfortable. Miki helps him with it now.

Hinode's illnesses aren't deadly, but a lot of them are chronic and dealing with them made Hinode a little bit paranoid and he has a lot of health-related anxiety. His condition is supposed to be mostly up to interpretation, but I can say for sure that he has anemia, narcolepsy and fibromyalgia.

He's the tallest out of all the guards (and that also makes Eiji the shortest). He's also the oldest one.

It's hard for him to walk because of how tired he feels most of the time, so he asked Miki if it's okay to hold her hand when they walk together. After a lot of internal screaming because of Hinode being so cute, Miki agreed. 

His room has everything he needs and he can see the whole prison on multiple screens, watch the interrogation recordings, adjust the brightness of the screens and the room temperature and whoever kidnapped him also somehow learned about all the medications he has to take. He was creeped out by first, but then went "Oh, it's kinda nice actually :)"

Speaking of him arriving to Milgram, he was kidnapped while he was asleep. So before Jackalope brought him his guard uniform, Hinode spent all his time wearing pajamas. He still thinks they're more comfortable than his uniform. (another fun fact is that the first "concept art" of him had him in his pajamas sjskkssl)

He's probably the best character to ask for medical help at the moment, since he does know a lot about things like that, but whether he's able to actually help someone depends on how he's feeling at the moment and what his relationship with that person is like. 

Hinode actually used to play the guitar before his health started to get worse and after he realized he doesn't have the energy to play anymore, he gave it to Riku. Riku still uses his brother's guitar and not counting the ones he got in Milgram, he refuses to get a new one. It also has a bunch of silly drawings on it made by Riku himself, Hinode and their little sisters. 

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #125

I'm still in a lot of pain today, but it's not quite as bad as it was yesterday. It's still a little hard to breathe, but I'm managing. Hopefully whatever's going on will be over and done with in just a few more days. I've taken some ibuprofen, though, and I'm well-hydrated. So don't worry about me, okay? I'll be just fine. 💖

I made myself a tea this morning. I made a toast-and-jam tea, and as a result of that, I get to show you one of the other ice creams I got! I'll show you the pictures I took…

This tea starts out as a beautiful shade of amber that resolves into a delicious shade of red:

This is the ice cream I put into it while it was still hot:

It's got a pretty drawing of a blackberry plant on the lid:

Here is what it looks like once the lid is taken off:

From there, we can put an amount of it into the tea until it feels correct:

Then once it's all melted, we can stir it up!

...I wonder if you would have liked how this turned out. I wish I could give you a mug and see...

I did my therapy homework today. In case you don't know, a good therapist is supposed to give the person seeing them homework to do over the week. Last week, he thought to capitalize on my tendency to write, and he asked me to write a letter to my inner child. And then he asked me to tap into my inner child and write back to myself.

It's generally in my nature to go above and beyond when people ask me to do things, whenever possible. And so I ended up writing three letters instead of just two. I ended up crying a lot during the process, but I came away from the exercise with a changed outlook on a variety of things. You can read what I wrote if you want to; it'll be the post just before this one. But if you're not interested, then that's okay too! 😊

I wonder if some such activity might benefit you. I imagine if you engaged your inner child with compassion, curiosity, and gentleness, it'd probably do you a world of good. I wonder what it would be like for you if you treated your inner child, and yourself generally, in the same tender, kindhearted way you treated the people you cared about, before your fall.

…You can return to that, you know. You can return to that anytime. And you can give your kindness and gentleness to people who are better able to reciprocate. Not everyone is going to treat you like a superhuman afterthought. I promise.

Anyway, in service to a renewed sense of resolve when it comes to caring for myself, I went ahead and got myself some soup and some macaroni and cheese with some yummy steak:

...Related, I think I'm going to try to make for myself the mac-and-cheese that my mother used to make. I am the only one who can make it for myself now, and I think I owe it to myself to figure it out. I will try to make a gluten-free version of it, so that Br can eat it, too. That's easy enough to do with brown rice noodles; it's basically indistinguishable from whole wheat pasta, in terms of its flavor and texture. Maybe I'll try to do that soon. And of course, when I do, you can count on me to walk you through the process so you can do it, too.

I also made it a point to sit for a while and watch one of my favorite cartoons. This one is called The Zeta Project; it came out when I was 11, which was... 23 years ago (wow, what the fuuuuck...). It's a beautiful show about a sentient robot named Zeta who was built to be a weapon, but who is trying to lead a life of peace. The government is trying to capture and reprogram him and put him back to work as a mindless killing machine. He's accompanied by a clever, savvy, and brave young girl named Rosalie. I really hope you'll watch this one someday; Zeta is very gentle and kind, and in a lot of ways, he reminds me a lot of you.

...The show was cancelled before it finished, though. I heard that it was because more girls liked it than the producers were comfortable with, so they pulled it off the air. I really hope they finish it someday. For now, though, the ending has to be left to the imagination. Zeta is beautiful, wonderful, and kind, so I like to imagine a course of events in which he can live in peace with Rosalie and with others who care for him.

...He really does remind me so much of you. I hope you'll look at his story. I think, in particular, you might find the episode called "Remote Control" relatable. You can find it at a place called... something like Watch Cartoons Online Forever? The first part is shortened to "wco", and it ends in ".net". Maybe you can find it...

Anyway. I took a bunch of other pictures for you today. One of them was taken at home because the morning light shining through the window was really nice. And when we visited Br's house today, I saw a great big huge bird-of-prey in the sky. I also took a bunch of pictures of Br's house, and the scenery outside. I thought you might like them. So here they are:

It's hard to take a picture of a moving object in a moving vehicle, but the black speck in the sky is the bird-of-prey I saw. I've seen an unusually large number of these lately. That, and crows. I wonder if the recent solar eclipse still has them kind of thrown for a loop. Hm.

Also, shortly after I did my therapy assignment, J took me out for a walk to decompress, and there was a crow in a tree that we've never seen crows in; our development is generally quite hostile to life (which is VERY unfortunate...), and hostile to crows in particular, because people don't like them (I've never understood why that is...). But he was sitting alone in the tree, making the "I'm with you" call; check out this video, at about the 40 second mark, and you'll hear what I mean:

...I can only imagine that this poor crow must have been very confused.

Here are some pictures of Br's house.

...I seem to have some sort of fixation with taking pictures of things outside of windows today. I'm not really sure why. But it turned out nice, so maybe the "why" doesn't really matter.

Oh!! I almost forgot!! A comet passed over my house last night. It's called the "Pons-Brooks Comet", or "Comet 12P". It only shows up once every 71 years. I wanted to see it, since I won't live long enough to see it again, but it was cloudy last night in the spot where it was supposed to be, so I didn't get to take any pictures. But J went online and found a live video that was tracking its movement; I can show you a screenshot that I took:

...It's not a very good picture, I know. But maybe you'll like it anyway; I don't know how often you get to see comets. Well, maybe you get to see them a lot, since you're over at the Edge of Creation and all, so maybe it's really not all that special to you. But maybe it can be special to you that someone would take the time to show you a picture of one anyway, if you want it to be.

Hey, Sephiroth? I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to stop writing before I end up rambling. Or maybe I rambled a little already, haha...

Please treat yourself nice, okay? I feel determined to treat myself nice, too. So let's do it together, all right? Because why not?

I love you. Stay safe. You'll get another letter tomorrow; just you wait.

Your friend, Lumine

tag game thursday

once again i’m late on tag game tuesday (and other things) because i just cannot tuesday (and other things). so here’s a picrew that i was tagged to do and also wayyy too much about me! 

super big thank you to @catluvver118​ @mybrainismelted  @krystallouhoo​ @energievie​  @ardent-fox​ @lingy910y​ @such-a-barbarian​ for tagging me

ayyyyy.

Name meagan.

Whereabouts in the world are you? southern usa.

Do you have any pets? two! an orange cat named chunk and a tabby named scrappy (they are actually both chunky).

What do you do for work? i am blissfully unemployed.

Favorite fruit? i’m gonna say strawberry but it might be mango.

A pet peeve of yours: when people leave carts all over the parking lot or put them back sloppily.

Are you a fast walker or a slow walker? usually fast.

How do you usually wear your hair? side part, down.

Sunny days or rainy days? i need both, but generally prefer sun.

What time do you usually go to bed? it varies wildly because i am bad at taking my meds and performing self-care. 11pm-3am?

what time do you usually wake up? 9am-12pm (see above).

if you were a cartoon character, what would be your everyday outfit? in the summer a black tank and jean shorts. in the winter a black tshirt and gray sweatpants, maybe a jacket.

Something you’d like to learn: so many things. scuba. better writing. fluent spanish. embroidery. time management.

And finally, tell me something that made you happy recently: i had a really good birthday yesterday!

🩷❤️🧡💛

name: still meagan. :)

pronouns: she/her.

where do you call home? florida.

favorite animal: i love cats and sloths and cows and possums and manatees.

cereal of choice: i don’t really love cereal, but i’ll eat honey nut cheerios, honey bunches of oats, fruity pebbles, cinnamon toast crunch.

are you a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner? i’ve always thought that i do best with linguistic (reading/writing) but i’m questioning it now. probably auditory?

first pet? my family always had animals, but the first to really be mine was a gray tabby named peter pan.

favorite scent? if i had to pick one it would be my partner. but i have lots.

do you believe in astrology? horoscopes, no. signs as a tool for self-inquiry and reflection? sure. i follow a lot of astrology meme accounts. but my actual knowledge is very very basic.

how many playlists do you have on spotify/apple music? 16 in my library, but i didn’t make all of them!

sharpies or highlighters? highlighters!

a song that makes you cry: joanne by lady gaga. it was my grandma’s name and when i hear it i think about her and my aunt and my sister. all of whom have passed.

a song that makes you happy: hmm. any 80s pop but this is the first one i thought of was hungry like the wolf by duran duran.

and finally, do you write/draw/create? if so, use this as an opportunity to shamelessly (😉) promote yourself! all i have atm is on here tagged #mine 🤞but hopefully i’ll be posting something on ao3 this weekend!

💚🩵💙💜

Rules: pick five songs that someone else introduced me to that have made their way into my regular rotation then tag 5 people.

Starting New Habits

I bought a sketchbook yesterday.

Not yesterday when you read this of course, but yesterday for me.

I bought the sketchbook at the Reject Shop. It was not a nice sketchbook. It was not an expensive sketchbook. It doesn’t have a nice cover. It doesn’t have a leather case to keep it in. It’s not like the leather cover my sister got me for my bullet journal. It cost me $3 and its brand name is ‘VISUAL ART DIARY.’

Today, I started drawing in it.

The process of writing in this blog this year has been an ongoing test of writing to a specific word limit. I used to just write whatever ‘felt good,’ and the normal size of a post was where I thought I’d delivered a good amount. I get very little feedback on my writing, but one thing I did get reasonably often was that some articles felt they ended about where they wanted them to keep going, so I set the target of a thousand words a day this year.

I don’t like the idea that I’m padding my work. Hitting 700 or 800 words and thinking I’m out of words makes me look at what I’m doing and check if I’ve missed something I meant to talk about, or if I’m saying something badly and should repivot the whole article to be about something else. There are definitely some outliers – this year has featured numerous articles in the 3,000 plus words size – but keeping to a thousand words keeps me scrutinising my work. I don’t mind that.

It’s that reflecting on myself that plays into why I got this sketchbook, and why I started to draw in it.

I mean, just reflecting on this, I was thinking about my relationship to this blog, the thing that I call doing work. I know that, for example, autoethnography, the kind of research I do, involves essentially, keeping progress diaries that you know will be shared with an audience, but then also, that that sharing with an audience will need to be to trust that it’s honest. That means I’m not just writing for a public audience (of a sorts) but I’m having to do it in a way that resists the natural fear I have of revealing too much of myself.

Just talking about process, this is an article that in my mind, is a padding article. I thought, today, the Desert Bus game jam would be running. My plan for what went up today – oh yeah, that Desert Bus game jam a few weeks ago? But my plan for today was going to be writing my post about making the game I had in mind for the Desert Bus Jam. Time stamp for any of you who might like imagining you know the order I write these things. Today, with that sapped out of me, I just didn’t have anything to write about any more. I rearranged things – I put up an article about orcs, and that means that there’s a week of articles about Magic: The Gathering transformers cards… I guess vehicles fit the bus theme?

I am surrounded by people with very different relationships to their stuff. Some of them are people who own things they never use because they don’t want to use them up or damage them. But if this is a piece of trash sketchbook, not a gift, not a nice thing. It’s just a thing I got under my own power, that doesn’t cost a lot and doesn’t need any kind of special reverent treatment.

The cover on my bullet journal is on my mind because I realise I don’t actually pull that thing out anywhere but at home. It lives on my desk, face-up. I don’t travel with it, I don’t take it to work, and when I took it to work, I didn’t pull it out at work, because it’s got this nice leather cover and the leather cover has a strap and you need to be mindful about it and where it lays. This replaces the little rubber strap the actual book has to start with, which isn’t a serious thing. My sister got me something lovely for my bullet journal, and I don’t dislike it. But having it made my bullet journal something more serious than it is, and that means I use it less for what it is.

Okay, but I got a cheap sketch pad. Why?

I need it to be cheap, so I use it.

I need the way I engage with it to be cheap, so I use it.

I need the thing to be low investment, so I use it.

I need to use it.

I need to draw a lot of bad drawings and I need them to be in something that isn’t precious and if I want to throw it out I can, because the point is not the object, the point is the practice. I need to stop hesitating from doing things because I’m trying to preserve a perfect record that makes me look good. I need to stop caring about how someone else, who isn’t me, is going to feel about how I use the things I get for myself. And it sucks to think like that.

But it matters to me, as a creator and as an advocate for creators, that we all recognise that it’s okay to make things that aren’t permanent. That nothing I make will last. That what matters is the experience of it and what I can share. Save things for use later, don’t save them for the ideal of saving them forever. Waiting forever is how things live their lives unused and eventually fall apart from the weight of time itself. It’s a great way to have a bookshelf full of tomes you never get around to read for fear of cracked spines. It’s okay instead to have junk and trash and make what you can with it because the interface of your tools is important to how you can emotionally handle creating.

It needs to make you feel okay to do what you’re doing. I know some of you need fancy sketchbooks to feel like what you’re doing is serious. I’m not telling you how to live your lives. I’m telling you how I live mine. And I started this sketchbook, making this.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

Thoughts on Cipher Academy chapter 15

...I have important things I should be doing instead of writing this post, but if I don’t, it’s going to bother me. I’ve been thinking about it since yesterday evening when I read the chapter. (spoilers for the chapter, I guess?)

So! Iroha came to a different killer than what we readers know from the previous chapter. Which means either he is wrong... either, as tokiro07 suggested, the in-game Iroha information is false.

I don’t think the card info is false, but it can be wrong- as in, in-game Iroha thinks he is the killer. Could be a misleading case of “Iroha fought with the victim, she fell unconscious, Iroha left the scene, and the true culprit passed by and used the opportunity to kill the victim (for reasons unrelated to the spy).” I don’t know if it’s too early to say which one is the right answer, but we can at least look at Iroha’s reasoning. First off, the clue. ...I’m not talking about the 5-stars one, this one I won’t even attempt. I just looked up if the points could correspond to a braille message (notably, with the japanese braille alphabet), but some symbols just don’t work. Anyway, if Iroha didn’t solve it, then this code isn’t involved in his reasoning. But! The black card is interesting, knowing we’re in the photography club room. Photographic film is light sensitive, which is why it is processed in a dark room. You can even see, as Iroha turns off the lights, that there’s a second switch- likely, there’s something akin to a dark, red light mode to the room to process photos safely in. Could the 0-stars clue be... that the lights weren’t on when the crime occurred? Now, the words Iroha focused in. ...I went through some trouble trying to figure out which thoughts were his focus, before realising I could just switch back to double page mode. Anyway, here are the specific bubbles, without who said what (as Iroha specifically said he would forget about that). “The spy’s code name is either tempura or tenbin (scales).” “I heard the spy’s got a ton of morg!” “Seems like the victim drew pigtails with her own blood before she died.” “Seems like Waon was looking into Oboro’s background.” “The spy was wearing a pig mask.” “I decoded that the killer’s seat number is a single digit!” “Er, I mean, my answer about the murder weapon being one of kick-attack planning’s new weapons is correct, right?” “I heard that the killer fought back before she died and injured the victim’s left eye.” The bubbles Iroha waved away are mostly questions and skill uses, indeed stuff that clutter up the page but doesn’t necessarily tell us more about the case. ...if there’s some pun about code names, well, it might be hard for non-japanese reader to solve it. The spy having lot of morg seems unhelpful right now. If we had a way to determine which students don’t have much morg, maybe? Pigtails... Would be easy enough to draw even in a dark room, I assume. Is it actually pigtails, though, or a symbol that look like it? Is the fact the victim was bleeding something of note? It means an open wound, so no internal bleeding or concussion (or poison, but if the killer fought back that was unlikely anyway). Waon looking into Oboro’s background isn’t helpful to us, but it might means Iroha-as-Oboro is going to be interrogated soon. As far as others are concerned, the spy and the killer are the same person, so using the two interchangeably are normal from them. Could the victim have written this clue after being attacked? Seems unlikely, as we already have the pigtails clue. Either way, both Iroha’s and Oboro’s seat numbers (1 and 3) are single digit. As far as Iroha (out of game) is concerned, the clue was for Oboro’s seat number, and he doesn’t have to take it into account for the true killer- or at least that seems the reasonable assumption to make. (Shokuho’s seat number is 19, so two digits). ...I’m not sure whether I understand what’s that ‘kick-attack planning’s new weapons’ about. Do they mean a weapon that is activated via a planned kick-attack? Is ‘kick-attack planning’ a name for a weapon’s manufacturer? If it’s the former, it implies the killer has good enough flexibility for it, I suppose? We know the victim fought back- and injured the victim’s left eye. Would the culprit be one of those whose eyes are covered? (There was no mention on Iroha’s in-game info sheet that his left eye was injured, so... double culprit theory clue?) I intentionally skipped on one sentence: “The spy was wearing a pig mask.” We have to assume that rather than ‘spy’, it’s the ‘killer’ we’re talking about- nobody is wearing a pig mask consistently, so it’s a ‘at the moment of the crime’ info. It’s interesting using this information with the other clues. If the room was indeed dark, a mask would hinder visibility by a lot, wouldn’t it? The victim drew pigtails in her own blood- if the killer indeed wore a mask, then likely the only feature she could distinguish was the hair- or at least the form of it is the room was dark. If we’re assuming the clue is really about pigtails, and not code for something else- it means the killer has hair long enough to pull into pigtails, probably? (I know one classmate wears pigtails. I think on the opposite, this clue means it’s less likely to be her, as it would be too obvious). If the victim did injure her killer’s left eye... How did she do that with the pig mask? It’s not exactly a foolproof protection but it makes it harder to do so. (Especially if the room was indeed in the dark- come on, it’s have to be what’s the 0 star clue is about, it’s 0 star, it doesn’t ask for through thinking). Alternatively, it could be misleading- the victim thought she injured the killer in the left eye, but turns out with the mask they’re fine. (Interestingly, the pig mask information comes from Shokuko-played-by-Otamajakushi, which player Iroha seems to think is the culprit.) So, how did Iroha determined the culprit? ...No idea! I mean, it could be that he pondered about the clues so far, and went “This one doesn’t makes sense, it has to be a lie. It came from X, so she must be lying to cover the murder”. (In which case, I think the pig mask info might be the reason?) Or it could just be analysing the clues by themselves. Who has long hair (and hairbands), eyes hidden, is fit enough for a kick-attack(?), plenty of morg, and a name that could fit into a tempura/tenbin pun? (Shokuko has a long ponytail, could hide an injured eye with her hat, and is “Nohime Clan’s houseguest”, so probably highly valued).

Guess we just have to wait and see, uh.

OH BOY GUESS WHO'S WRITING SCI-FI FANTASY STUFF NOBODY ASKED FOR

Anyway here's Body Dystopia chapter 1

"I saw an elf in town yesterday."

"Hm?" I looked up from the makeshift counter to see Camila had sat down on the table across the room. "Oh, I guess that's a little unusual but it's not like they aren't allowed in."

"True, true, just this doesn't seem like somewhere they'd really want to be is all." She picked up her toolkit and started tightening a screw here and there on her arm. Leaving it exposed the way she did caused it to wear out quickly while she worked, but she refused to cover it while she was on the job, preferring to bear it as a symbol of her veteran status in the mines and a warning to any greenhorn who might underestimate the power of the machines they had to contend with nearly every day.

Chuckling at the thought of anyone wanting to be anywhere in this wasteland, I continued packing our lunches for the day ahead. "Hey Cam," I called over, "you said we were checking out something big today, right? Got any more details than that? Compared to us everything on Rhea's pretty damn big so a little more clarification might be helpful."

"No sé, one of the newer groups just told me they found something interesting and wanted us to take a look. Said the biologist they took with them couldn't identify it herself." She set down her pliers and sighed, "Guess we gotta find something interesting down there eventually. Leave it to some kids goofing off where they shouldn't to be the ones to do it. Sounds like someone I know." She leaned back in her chair and smirked at me.

"Hey now," I laughed, throwing a tiny piece of this city's excuse for bread at her, "in my defense my job is inspecting the mines, it’s not my fault we don’t always want me to inspect the same things.”

“Well you haven’t gotten yourself killed so far so I'll let it slide, but I swear if you end up dying I’m not letting you go exploring without an assignment for a year.” She smiled as she stood up, crossing the room in only a few strides to put her arms around me, “Also I’d be sad I guess, so be careful, Em.” She let go of me, taking one of the now finished meals and putting it in her pack. “Well, I’m heading over early to train the new groups on how to go about investigating a new find. Come at your normal time, you’re leading the group that found whatever it is that’s so interesting. Oh, and tell them to get started on a group name.” With that she nodded and headed out the door into the clamoring streets of Veta Nueva.

It seemed a little soon to be leaving, even with plans for an early shift, but Camila was nothing if not punctual, and she had never been known to give all the details of her plans if she didn’t think it was need-to-know information. That didn’t really bother me, though, I’d come to trust the judgment of the woman who raised me, even if our methods clashed on occasion.

With Cam gone and my shift not starting for a few hours, I decided to take the time to go out to restock our supplies. There wasn't much we needed, the two of us weren't picky about food, so whatever was cheap usually sufficed, and as long as we kept the mine running the city provided our power and fuel, but some other essentials were running low. I stepped out into the busy streets of the domed city, and feeling the humid air on my skin, began my trip to the main shopping district.

The streets were quieter than usual, though still full of pedestrians. I wondered whether it was just an unpleasant day to be outside or if some sort of event was drawing people away from where I was coming from. My answer soon came to me in the shouting I began to hear echoing from a large crowd gathered in a vacant store lot. “And what about the rest of us? What about the ones who they deem unworthy of saving?” A man shouted to the gathering throng, “We barely have the housing and resources to keep us all alive as it is, much less if we try to pack us all into hap-hazardly built ships. Do you really think they plan to take everyone? No, they plan to exploit your labor and leave you to die!”

As I got closer I could now see the black and green banner a man next to him was holding, a symbol of the Cultivators who try to gather support to back large-scale ecological advances. They were the ones responsible for finding the process to convert the biological matter in Rhea into usable soil and farm penicillin in the plants grown in it. Without them we’d likely all be dead, though they are fanatics to a degree and often pushed back against anything they saw as inefficient use of materials harder than I tended to think was necessary, particularly, as seemed to be the case now, against the Stargazers, a group who have been trying to find a way to leave Rhea before it the resources dry up completely.

As the man continued the crowd seemed to thin out over the next minute until only a small gaggle of people remained, which seemed to upset him, but like the others I had heard my share of his shouting and continued on my way. I pondered what the right course of action really was, whether it was right to try to save a doomed ecosystem or abandon four centuries of work just for a chance to return to a home that we never knew and that probably forgot we existed decades ago.

Revival

Today I decided to hunt some more on my hunter. I haven't really done much farming in this game, ever to be honest. So this time around I decided to check that experience out and oh my god is it fun! It's like each monster is an Xmas gift or a kinder egg. Maybe THIS one will have something cool! POP! Yesterday was a good card day as 3 elder willow cards and a bigfoot card dropped! but today not so much, so I decided to check out Sohees. It was busy today, a lot of people who can one-shot them T_T But I didn't leave empty-handed.

As the evening rolled around, parties were starting to form and I thought Pocketz Full Support debut should take place. I got lucky to run into these two fellas! We did some old-school mobbing with vertical fire wall!

And I was surprised they were both from Europe and used to play the game back in 2003! Good times! It felt really good to play an aco/priest again after all these years. Now I think I might call it a night and do some drawing while watching a good show. Peace.

Edit. Just noticed that in the second screenshot...I screwed up. Haha I made an effort to include their names and I still screwed up haha. Sorry!

secret santa again :) this feels like pen pals

the long answer is great, i love hearing how people got into their favourite artists :') i also really love the beatles and got into them kinda the same way as you - i wasn't interested for a long time/thought they were boring and overrated, until i saw get back and realised they were funny, inspiring, and deeply talented (to name a few things) and like you i was obsessed after that! before get back i'd only heard their early/overplayed stuff, but listening to post-rubber soul era showed me how good they are. i was the same as you and listened to nowhere man for ages thinking this song is doing something to me, but i think listening to them makes life a lot better.

you really have great taste in music :-)) im also stuck in the 60s-70s side of classic rock, mainly late 60s-early 70s, apart from the beatles it's a lot of the rolling stones, the who, led zeppelin, jimi hendrix and fleetwood mac. also lana ♥♥ i had a lana phase right before i got into classic rock! i saw you said you're listening to marianne faithfull and cilla black - could you recommend some songs to listen to?

and apart from music really being my main interest atm (help) i also love cooking, baking and hiking, and i collect stuff like records and film cameras :') what other hobbies do you have?

sorry this turned into an essay! have a wonderful day 🎅 -srs

hi! no worries, i love getting long answers too!

so we have pretty similar taste in music! i'd love some recs on all five you listed, but i can say i love films based on the who's tommy and quadrophenia, and my favorite songs by the stones must be paint it black (i think i listened to it even way before yesterday lmao) and ruby tuesday! and i'm not too familiar with the others- i only watched a part of led zeppelin's the song remains the same when i caught it on tv, and a jimi hendrix live.

i haven't listened to much of cilla and marianne yet tbh 😭 you might know these songs already bc they're pretty popular, but i can totally recommend anyone who had a heart and love of the loved (it's a lennon-mccartney!) by cilla. marianne has covers of john's isolation and harry nilsson's don't forget me, and also as tears go by, written by keith richards and mick jagger! there's also a hullabaloo episode where marianne sings it, presented and inteviewed by eppy 😭

oh i love collecting too! ever since i got into classic rock and discovered local record shops that hardly have anything besides classic rock i'm very much into vinyl! got my latest one just today. i also draw, try writing things but not too successfully, and my biggest interest besides music must be films! (so collecting film cameras sounds super fun!!!) atm i'm into 30-70s movies mostly.

since your main interest is music, do you play any instruments? i tried to learn piano but i fail miserably every time 😭 what are your favorite films? and to get back (pun intended) to the beatles, what are your favorite albums/songs by them?