#playing gods

[welcometoteyvat]

@apologems asked for wanderer & furina (among others) for the random characters prompt. I was gonna post all the pairs in your ask together but I love instant validation so they're getting split up lol. here, have too many words. feedback deeply appreciated!! <3

———

Furina opens her eyes to blank, vast emptiness. The cream tiled floor of the Palais Mermonia stretches on and on beneath her, the white-veined marble mirror smooth. It reflects the dismal cloudiness outside—if there even is an “outside” in this strange space. She wonders idly whether she could ask Neuvillette to cheer up a bit, to make the dreary grayness go away, or whether he would even listen to her requests like he used to. Rain seems likely.

She supposes she should walk around and find a way out of this place, even though it doesn’t seem very urgent. Nobody needs her to take care of anything now—they won’t be waiting for her return. Her footsteps echo against the marble—one, two, three—one, two, three. Is it possible to dance a waltz with just herself and the empty silence? Oh, but there’s someone a ways away, over there. Maybe they could dance with her, and it won’t be as lonely.

The figure in the distance is dressed all in blue, wearing a wide brimmed hat with strips of fabric dangling from the edge. They turn when she comes close, and their eyes meet; it’s a young man, with red eyeshadow, a bored glare, and puffy cheeks on a pretty face. It’s rather striking how he looks so sharp yet soft, swooping curves and hard angles, all at once.

“So, whose funeral is this?”

“What? Where?” A funeral? But she didn’t see a coffin…

“The dead body’s right there. Are you walking around with your eyes closed?” He sneers, and gestures carelessly to the bare floor in front of her.

“There’s… nothing there.” That catches the hat-guy off-kilter. He narrows his eyes, and his gaze is like a quick knife.

“Don’t play dumb, idiot. It’s quite obviously you, isn’t it? Look at that white vest and suit.”

“I—what?” There’s really nothing there. She’s definitely alive, too—no dead double in sight. But—what is he saying about a white vest? Unless… this is one of those fantasy children’s novels where everything is just a rabbit-hole dream? Just in case, Furina blinks a couple times. She opens her eyes, and—huh?!

“Same stupid rooster-frill tailcoat, small blue top hat, frivolous accessories, mascara eyelashes; the only thing different is the long jellyfish h—”

“Wait! I can see someone, but it’s not me. It’s a child, wearing all white with a purple veil.”

And she expects him to scoff again, because maybe she really is seeing things, maybe her acting has gone a little too far, but instead, Hat-guy blanches. He throws her another sharp, piercing glance, seems to find nothing—and then—and then, a terribly familiar smile creeps onto his face. The sight of it makes her bones ache and her eyes fill with inexplicable tears.

“Well, if that’s what you see, I suppose this is a funeral for both of us. Hah, how curious.” His voice has turned into sandpaper and tea's bitter dregs, scratchy with loathing and cynicism and absurdity. Now he's turning towards her, and in his fierce gaze she sees... her old self, lying there on the cold not-Palais floor. Her eyes stare unseeingly at nothing, and that horrible, wretched smile is frozen on her lips. Furina flinches. She wants to throw up, to pluck out her eyes, to claw at her face until it bleeds. She looks away instead. She knows that Hat-guy is watching her and is grateful he doesn't comment, and when she finally meets his eyes again, she is grateful too that his face is carefully blank. He simply offers Furina his hand and says, “Shall I do the honors?”

She nods, and takes his hand.

A fire blazes up immediately, engulfing the dead child and his purple veil. Furina watches as its clothes disappear in licks of flame, as its doll joints are exposed, then stripped away, until nothing remains besides a pile of ash, and a small, blackened kernel that might have once been a heart. She wonders what Hat-guy saw—a little Oceanid, evaporating into nothingness at the final curtain call? Perhaps it doesn’t matter. It’s past now, regardless.

Furina doesn’t know when it starts to rain. The last embers have long since blackened when she realizes that the downpour is soaking her clothes, running down her cheeks. Water drips from the edge of Hat-guy’s hat, dampening his knee-high socks. Yet he makes no move to leave, so neither does she.

They continue to stand there, long after their clothes are soaked all the way through. Two false gods, drenched, alone.

———

a/n: idk whether I handled their emotional states correctly please give feedback if ooc. this entire thing is just "it's about THE NARRATIVE PARALLELS" and i dont even know whether it's the interp I wanted. extra ending thoughts include this wouldn't happen in canon bc i think wanderer is already at a place where he's partly fixed. maybe emotional closure. idk idk. people who think more about furina and scara should give me your theses on them. and of course, if you're wondering What Even Happened In This Fic, don't worry, so am I. didn't stick the ending but that's ok

also on ao3 ig

#TIL it's palais mermonia not palais memoria #i am illiterate #apologems #anyways thanks for the ask! im probably giving u a rain check for thma + kuki and shen.he + bz #just because i dont have many thoughts rn JSKDFJKDSHGKDSLJ i can more clearly see how sh and bz would interact #but am still thinking about specifics. like i see the vision etc its just not condensed in my mind's eye #not much for thma and kuki though the thought soup is still stewing #the others will hopefully come slowly but steadily :-) #wanderer #furina #scaramouche #playing gods #new r/ship tag :) #teyvat thoughts #genshin impact #genshin wanderer #asks #extra secret authors notes here: #i was gonna make this a lot more surreal bc i really enjoyed one fic i wrote that was surrealismmaxxing and chock full of descs #but it just didn't turn out that way #this was also gonna be short but i decided to add descriptions to it and it got longer. then it got longer and longer. idk #also ignore teyvat lore idk this isn't happening in canon or in modern au it's just there. surrealism etc make up whatever logic you want #genshin fic

[erufin-art]

don't know why I never posted this, but oh well. Here's a redraw, with around 8 months between both pieces

I think it's also worth mentioning that the OG drawing was drawn on impulse without much planning, while the second one had a lot more effort put into it regardless of the improvement in skill

#eru ocs #Playing Gods #digital art #digital drawing #digital artist #artists on tumblr #character art #digital illustration #original character #illustrators on tumblr #art #drawing #redraw #my art #my artwork #illustration #artwork #illustrator

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Expertise can't help you here.

#dungeon meshi #kabru #laios touden #falin touden #Happy Thistle Thursday once again. Have I been holding on to this comic for several weeks? Sure have! #I forgot how long it takes for Chimera Falin to come into play. #I still really love my 'better drawn' art of her - unfortunately it was several weeks too early for the anime only folks. #Slowly getting the hang of drawing Laios. I don't know why I struggle so much but I am getting...somewhere. #Meta time: God damn I love how the chimera shows off the expertise and gap between Kabru and Laios. #The truth is: they are both *right* and they are both *wrong*. #This creature is a combination of monster and human and they only have the skillset to deal with one of those. #Kabru goes for all the human vitals - but she isn't human. #Laios tries to approach her as a monster and is struck down by the humanity he sees in her. #She is something new that defies what they *both* understand about the world. And that makes her such a perfect antagonist. #The damsel was the dragon all along! #...She is really so cute though. Terrifying! But adorable. I am so excited to see the boom of fanart for her.

[sky-scribbles]

Something I love about confronting Cazador is how he obviously never processes that Astarion has friends until it's too late.

Petras and Dalyria must have mentioned that Astarion wasn't alone when they met him, but when you read Cazador's journal? He's 100% fixated on Astarion. How Astarion stood in the sun, how Astarion was willing and able to disobey him. And when Astarion shows up, Cazador barely acknowledges the party at all - and sure, that's partly because this is Astarion's moment in the narrative, but Cazador doesn't so much as ask why these random strangers are there! They're not part of his plans, so they don't exist.

And then they immediately save his errant spawn from the ritual and start beating his ass.

Just. What must have been going through Cazador's head when that fight starting turning against him? 'Is that... the Blade of Frontiers? Why is a monster hunter - and is that a cleric? - helping a vampire spawn? An undead? Ah, but they must be treating it as a necessary evil to have a chance to slay me, of course - hold on, why is the cleric healing Astarion? Why does that wizard keep Counterspelling everything I'm casting at Astarion, why waste the spells when I'm not even targeting him? Did... did that druid just cast Daylight on Astarion's weapons? And that brute of a tiefling - that's not just disgust in her eye when she looks at me, it's fury - and she keeps putting herself in front of Astarion, why in the hells would she - she's running right at me- '

I hope that one of the last things Cazador ever knew was the choking realisation that Astarion didn't just come back strong, or free. Astarion came back loved.

#god it was so cathartic to wreck his pasty ass #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #astarion #astarion ancunin #cazador szarr #sky plays bg3

[jondrettegirls]

[ID: A page of a play. It reads as follows, "Theseus: Stop. Give me your hand. I am your friend. / Herakles: I fear to stain your clothes with blood. / Theseus: Stain them, I don't care." End text.]

Herakles - Euripides (Tr. Anne Carson)

#on my own. #sorry the formatting on this is weird theres a page break bleh #anne carson #euripides #quotes #herakles #theseus #herakles&theseus #i just thought ab this play again and god… like a little boat being towed along by a big boat…… #quoteblr #wordblr #euripides was rlly into this huh. w/ orestes & pylades ‘not to me not if its you’ like. he was rlly into this specific dynamic

[distantsonata]

#i swear to god she's on the spectrum #aerith #aerith gainsborough #question! #question #aerith question #aerith question gif #aerith hand up #aerith hand #yeah I KNOW people are gonna search for these eventually lmao #ARE THERE ANY MORE MOMENTS LIKE THIS IN THE GAME? I haven't played it I only know of these two #any more 'question!' moments with her? #gif #gifs #my gifs #ff7 #ff7 rebirth #does that make me a dumbass

[busymatches]

indestructible wife

#baldur's gate 3 #karlach #bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #my art #i genuinly dont think she can die #ive been playing on the medium difficulty and the rest of the party just explodes and shes just chillin #AND SHE DOES SO MUCH DAMAGE GOD DAMN GIRL #thats it im going barb next run

[asavt]

Once upon a time a small rat walked into my web...

#cotl #cult of the lamb #shamura cotl #cotl shamura #cotl ratau #ratau cotl #fan art #digital art #my art #I think of the idea that Ratau went into Silkcradle and tried to battle Shamura and lost. #I think like ''take out their leader so they are all helpless'' #it didn't work #lost an eye #was constantly chased by the other bishop's followers for attempting to #and now years later in his extended lifespan #a certain spider walks into his hut #mind not quite there #quite lost #and they play a game #and maybe they recognize him maybe not #maybe the anxiety of having a ex-god-now-demigod is overreacted and overthought #but for now he'll just roll his dice #and see why they were once called the god of wisdom and war

[marxistgnome]

Memes shared by kids who grew up on starships I think they should have sea scout/land scout beef with kids that grew up on Starbases

#star trek #ds9 #tng #wesley crusher type kids need more representation #it must be such a weird environment to go up in like cool but weird #like wheres that post about wesley being the weirdest kid in starfleet cos they're talking about a specific procedure and hes like #ha yeah reminds me of when the first officer got god like powers and aged me 10 years #that but every starship kid in every situation #yeah i grew up on one of yhe ships that prevented that romulan invasion i was playing dom jot on my padd at the time tho so i didn't notice

[rooolt]

I know the intrepid heroes were largely joking about it, but the idea of kipperlily having a huge awful crush on riz is sooooo funny to me. Girl with longstanding anger issues and the capacity to orchestrate the death of a supposedly close ally in service of her goals with a crush on world’s most aroace boy. I fear the consequences will be nuclear

#Guyyyys #Guys play in the space with me #She’s like “oh my god I’m enamored with him. He and everyone close to him must die” #Guyyyys please see my vision I’m actually obsessed with it #dimension 20 #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year

[broh3m3]

We got a real jam going down

#floyd is contemplating murder jamil is rationalizing murder and ace is just hoping they didnt notice him mess up a play (they did) #twst #jamil viper #floyd leech #ace trappola #twst basketball club #twisted wonderland #brohemeart #if i refine this any more its between me and god

[erufin-art]

Realized this could fit to them somewhat. I haven't watched the movie tho

#nudity warning #<- it's not really serious but like. in case someone's scrolling tumblr at work or smth #eru ocs #Playing Gods #digital art #digital drawing #artists on tumblr #digital artist #digital illustration #illustrators on tumblr #digital painting #original character #original characters #oc #character art #oc artist #ocs #art #drawing #redraw #my art #my artwork #illustration #artwork #illustrator

[stil-lindigo]

the fox god.

a comic about a trickster.

--

creative notes:

–

all my other comics

store

#cw: emotional abuse #cw: gaslighting #cw: animal death #charity - a god whose name was only ever meant to be ironic #i love playing with the concept of religion like this #im not religious at all but i did go to a christian school for twelve years #and i remember learning about the story of abraham. who long story short gets told by god to kill his son to prove his love for god. #and at the veeeery last minute god goes sike! this was a test to see if you'd do it! here's a lamb to slaughter instead #but the whole concept of that exchange in and of itself is so #anyway #one thing i meant to include in the creative notes but i ran out of room for is that charity never calls cunning by his name. #it's just “fox”. which was a small touch to indicate that he never acknowledged cunning's identity outside of being something exploitable. #but for all charity's hidden disdain for cunning #he still stole all his strengths and coveted them. he became known as the fox god. #so maybe some part of cunning survived. despite everything. #“give me your heart.” #“my god. it had always been yours.” #comic art #hearteaters #stillindigo art #stillindigo comics #one more comic to go until im finished with this collection!!

[gold0kapi]

141 party

#gif #gifset #call of duty #soap mactavish #simon ghost riley #john price #kyle garrick #gaz #warzone #i needed this today #god bless whoever decided to add this into the video lol #(not actual gameplay) #i'd play way more if it WAS though

[lazylittledragon]

so how about that durge

#tw blood #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #astarion #halsin silverbough #the dark urge #durgestarion #if you know the song we can kiss on the mouth #this is ashe he’s a terrible creature #the bardiest bard to ever bard who makes astarion look SUNKISSED #he really said ‘if i have to be murder incarnate i should at least do it with style and panache’ #my guy killed an elder brain and several gods in heels and corseted to hell #fun fact: before i played durge. didn't know about the bhaalspawn thing #accidentally made the most bhaalspawn looking fuck i possibly could

[chowbaw]

Aaand that's a wrap! Keep staying fresh.

#i found out about wii u servers closing very last minute akjdgh but i was able to play several battles before the servers closed thankfully #god splat 1 was so good the weapons and maps were so fun i might try to play it through...other means #also BRING BACK SALTSPRAY RIG ;__; it wasn't in rotation when i played rip #truly end of an era o7 #goodbye splatoon 1 #rip squid jump too #digital art #fan art #splatoon #squid sisters #callie and marie #callie splatoon #marie splatoon #agent 3 #i realized the missed opportunity to add capn cuttlefish...