They've been married for 50 years pt. 5

I see you're curious about the statue there? Yeah, it's a little weird how he faces the Depths and not the rest of the kingdom. Or how it looks pretty well-kept, too, when you compare him to the rest of these ruins.

He’s another relic from the Rapture, you see. You're too young to remember, but I'm not gonna repeat all the stories you must know by heart at this point.

Are you familiar with the King of Mezalea? A very long time ago, the king had no heirs and thus built one himself. When the king passed, his title was transfered to his construct - a small clay golem that then constantly repaired himself. And, if the body was too worn, he'd make another of himself to continue on. Indeed, that's the reason why early in the kingdom's history, all of them kings started to be called by the same name and nothing else.

One of the earlier versions of this king, so to speak, is said to have overlooked the ocean. Imagine the water in your waterskin when you peer into it. Can you picture that surface of water? Well, think of that, but a billion times wider and all-encompassing. Everything you know as the Depths was once the bottom of such an ocean. So, yeah, he stood on the cliffs and looked over the water when he spotted something moving in the water.

Turns out, it was one of the largest sea creatures he's ever seen. Doesn't surprise me - she was the goddess of the sea. Not only that, but she was said to be the most beautiful, with pink hair like coral and brilliant blue skin. Just one glance, and the king was smitten. Every day, he would go out to the cliffs to catch sight of her from a distance. Until one day, he didn't - because he took a ship and sailed to where she always appeared.

She nearly capsized his ship. Yeah, couldn't really appreciate the gesture until she heard him declare his undying love for her. And there, looking down upon him for the first time, she decided that she loved him, too. They married shortly and remained happily married for many centuries.

What thwarted this marriage was, of course, the Rapture. You see, when the waters receded… well you can imagine a goddess of the sea wouldn't thrive when there's no sea to speak of. She vanished, and her disappearance maddened the king. He walked to the cliffs from where he used to spot her and stood there. Watched all the water drain completely, and even then remained. Waiting for a phantom, but even as people asked him for advice or asked him to move away, find safety, he didn't respond. Didn't react to anything people said or did. He deactivated himself, some assumed, until the love of his life would return.

Is that selfish? Well, might be. He's quite literally standing with his back to his kingdom to wait for someone who's gone and never coming back. Then again, when heartbreak's involved… wouldn't you abandon everything for your loved ones? Wouldn't it eat you from the inside out, unwilling to do anything but languish?

I know High Isle just dropped (haven’t played it yet) but I have eternal Dragonhold brainrot so have another drawing of one of my fave dlcs (redraw? sort of? of the old one? different vestige tho lol) whoo

god i wish i wouldn't have to explain the intricacies of the neopets economy to you guys to give the full context for this but. the new neopets team that took over from jumpstart pledged that they were going to curb the inflation of rare items, which is great because a lot of rare items are worth literally hundreds of millions of neopoints, they are unbuyable unless you've been playing actively for 20 years. they did this earlier with a site festival that included random loot boxes, some of which had Unbelievably Fucking Rare And Precious items worth 200 million neopoints apiece.

well.

today they have gone a step further. by releasing this year's trick-or-treat bags. and having the trick-or-treat bags be stuffed to the brim with unbelievably fucking rare stamps, weapons, paint brushes, defense magic, and other unbuyables. (all prohibitively expensive and in-high-demand types of items.)

jellyneo, the premier neopets website, has recorded prices of some items plummeting from 2,000,000 neopoints to 4,000 neopoints IN THE LAST THREE HOURS. this is when most people haven't even heard about the event or OPENED THEIR BAGS YET.

and of course. cherry on top. 20-year-old account holders are crytyping on the site events neoboard about how mean and cruel it is to make rare stamps part of the prize pool, because their entire identity hinges on being part of the neopian bourgeoisie, and they are having MELTDOWNS over their assets being devalued until they're part of the lowly proletariat.

this is a children's game for children btw.

none of the money is real.

i'm having such a good time.

Swann Arlaud as Vincent Renzi

ANATOMIE D'UNE CHUTE 2023 — dir. Justine Triet

Hug

It's nearly impossible to have a quiet and peaceful day with the crew, like the strawhats. Nami is mostly used to the noise on Going Merry but one day she gets fed up with Zoro and Sanji arguing. Not only are they extremely loud, but they've also already broken way too many things during their fights.

She decides that If they want to act like brats, then she's going to treat them as such. So she makes them apologize and hug each other in silence for an hour. None of them are happy about this punishment, but Nami threatened to raise Zoro's debt, and Sanji couldn't say no to her. It could be worse.

It's awkward enough for them to not incite any fight for a long time and Nami is quite proud of herself. She knows it won't last forever but at least now she knows how to handle them. It inevitably happens again. And again. And again.

Much to her surprise, those fights became more and more frequent. And what's even weirder is that she could see the way both Zoro and Sanji occasionally glanced at her to make sure she was nearby. It's almost as if they wanted someone to make them hug each other. As if they needed an excuse.... these idiots.

Soon, they don't even need Nami's help. When they aren't busy training, cooking or fighting, they cuddle together. Sometimes Luffy or Chopper would join them, but most of the crew knew it was their time.

After two years spent separately, they became extremely clingy. It's no surprise when they start sleeping in the same bed. What is surprising is that despite them behaving like a lovey-dovey couple, those oblivious idiots are STILL unaware of each other's feelings.

More Aurora!

how to guide your mossball (ID in alt)

Close your eyes and submit.

For decades, the blank vision that Iudex Neuvillette wears near his heart has been subject to much discussion in Fontaine. Nobody remembers who it had once belonged to or why the ancient dragon protected it so jealously. It is said that if the Chief Justice would to stare at it for a long while, it would be sure to rain right after. Oh, how beloved that person must've been.

Girls' night

dolorosa ❤️‍🔥

I want a fic where Robin is adopted.

The only parents she has ever known are her own and the only time being adopted has ever bothered her was when Amanda St. James made fun of her for it in the third grade. But Robin told her that at least her parents wanted her and were not just stuck with her like Amanda’s parents, “And maybe that’s why your Mom and Dad are so unhappy all the time.”

She got in trouble for making Amanda cry and went back to never thinking about her birthparents. She had no interest in knowing anything about them and it stayed like that until she turned sixteen.

On her sixteenth birthday, her mom gave her a letter written to her by her birthmother. Robin doesn’t read it immediately, but eventually gives in to her own curiosity. She reads it over twice before her mind snags on a sentence, ‘I wanted to give you and your brother a better life…’ … you and your brother…. You and your brother…. You and-

“I have a brother.”

This eats at Robin, especially after her dad’s call to the adoption agency goes nowhere. It eats at her so much that she finally gives in – Fred Benson swears up and down that Nancy Wheeler is the best investigator on the school paper – and asks for help.

Nancy says yes and is maybe a little too invested in finding the truth, but honestly, Robin is having fun and she wants to find her apparent twin. She wants to know about his life. Settle the whole nurture over nature thing.

They hit a lot of walls, a lot of dead ends. They break a few rules and maybe commit a felony. They enlist Jonathan Byers to help and even Eddie Munson at one point because he knows how to pick locks, and it’s all for nothing.

One day when they have everything they’ve found spread out across the Wheeler’s dining room table, Steve comes over to pick up Dustin. He looks down at the whole mess and points at her birth certificate like, “Hey, we were born on the same day.” 

ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WAS A KNIGHT...

the visual inspiration for this was a combination of Frederic William Burton's Meeting on the Turret Stairs and also Bernardo Cavallino's The vision of St. Dominic receiving the Rosary from the Virgin

this was supposed to be just a one off illustration to get the thoughts out of my system, but then I started thinking about medieval politics and warfare and plagues and a castle and home as both a place of refuge, a prison, and a tomb, so perhaps they will end up as ex voto characters as well.

you may say, hey! that rosary looks like it has too many beads! it's a fifteen decade rosary, probably. dominicans are really into marian devotions. it works out.

also. spiral style stair cases. oh boy. it was that unexpectedly more difficult than I originally thought it would be to draw. the more I think about it, the less I understand them, even though I had a million photos of the stairs in front of me while I was drawing it.

⭐ I have a tip jar (ko-fi)!

⭐ and other places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app

so much happened in this whole episode but i’m still on fig infiltrating ruben’s dream, making it look like the place where his friend was murdered, and then disguising herself as kipperlilly & repeatedly saying different variants of “somebody needs to take the fall for this, and it’s not going to be me. it’s going to be you.” while adaine as the elven oracle shows up next to her. can you imagine waking up from that, the idea of a horrible truth being pinned on you by your friend to save her own skin while the personification of fate and destiny stands there, almost as a promise that this is GOING to happen to you. we don’t even know if this kid is guilty. my god.

i miss them a little if im gonna be honest