#I didn't like the tone

[ranboo5]

Anyway [stretches] under a cut because it got Long as usual; tl;dr at the bottom

The thing abt c!Ranboo is his motivation and his actions don’t always align and that is bc of the eternal nature of c!Ranboo as living in a society and Balancing Priorities. He is always self-compromising in its relationships w/ others; more often than not when it agrees to do smth with someone it is doing it not bc it believes in the cause but because it has priorities it needs to mitigate. (Ranboo has not believed in any of the causes put forth by Someone Else in their life the closest they get is the Syndicate and even there it’s only reassured to bc it is reassured it can share opinions)

This starts off wayyyy early with it agreeing to help grief despite not really having a personal reason to do it, and with it collaborating w/ New L’Manberg even through things like the Butcher Army. It consistently does not want to be seen as In Opposition. It works with Tmmy and Techno in large part bc it doesn’t want to come off as opposed 2 them, and bc it has personal investment (+guilt) in Tmmy. Ranboo will literally act like this

- as self preservation - out of a desire to help+spare the feelings of ppl it doesn’t trust to negotiate with - especially later, so it can try to mitigate the parties it’s collaborating w/ -- if he’s involved in the effort, he has more traction 2 attempt to mitigate anything terrible it might do (even when most of the time he doesn’t manage to do this)

This is part of why he initially joined th Syndicate and this is why he worked with Wilbur over th course of the burger arc. Some combination of this is also why he works w/ Dream, smth that is frequently overlooked in Ranboo Analysis; Ranboo volitionally[1] collaborates w/ Dream despite, obviously, having a lot of Active Dislike for Dream and what he is doing, out of a combination of a) he would not want 2 frame himself as Opposed To Dream in any interaction w/ Dream, b) he is generally sympathetic and pitying, c) ideological agreement w/ some aspects of Dream’s goals, and d) desire to mitigate/stay close to Dream. Ranboo keeps his friends close and enemies closer 2 some degree

His relationship w/ Tbbo is not an exception to this it is part of the pattern. It’s just one that has much more present, personal, and consistent stakes. Ranboo complies w/ Tbbo the same way he complies w/ the Syndicate when he’s worried they’re threatening, the same way he complies w/ NLM, the same way he complies w/ Wilbur in the burger arc, th same way he complies with Tmmy early on, the same way he complies w/ Dream offscreen. This is a Known Tactic Ranboo pursues; their project is ultimately of survival and compassion and survival and compassion are both things they have to sacrifice to keep

Tbbo is a unique priority to Ranboo almost in the same way all of the aforementioned r slightly different, unique priorities; in Tubbo’s case, Ranboo is extremely invested in keeping Tbbo safe from others and from Tbbo’s own self with a particular fervor for a very long time. I’m not rehashing the entire beeduo meta here but Ranboo does have particular interest and a particular prioritization for Tbbo for a long ass time; arguably post-NLM and thru burger arc, Tbbo is its first priority bc Ranboo loves him and has convinced itself it’s the only one who can fix him and has also mostly-correctly observed that no one has really been looking out for him. Tubbo is an urgent target in Ranboo’s projects of compassion and of survival both

When those stakes r released, tho, in the burger van conversation (the “you weren’t happy before?”) Ranboo no longer has Tbbo at the same priority level irt the project of survival especially, and, despite how guilty and upset it makes them, prioritizes their 5D chess game with Wilbur instead (ironically sacrificing a solid chunk of its project of survival). Its motives @ the end of Ho16 r commonly cited as being abt Tbbo but that’s not entirely what he says and if it was Ranboo HAS the kind of analytical presence of mind to know that it Killing Himself doesn’t help Tbbo as much as it deals with Wilbur

Ho16 is abt Ranboo winning aforesaid 5D chess game; Tbbo is only part of the stakes 4 that and Mitigating Tbbo is no longer Ranboo’s top priority w/ that. Ranboo’s final monologue is more than anything reminiscent of his earlier arguments about sides and collateral. It’s part of the larger project of compassion, and it’s about the distorted version thereof tht comes with Ranboo getting stuck in its head and its machinations, too; like Tbbo is important to Ranboo and the carelessness abt Tbbo is something unacceptable but to claim Ranboo’s motivations revolve around Tubbo specifically is reductive of his other relationships and actual larger ideological motivations 

I have a problem w/ framings of this as positive/romantic devotion that amkes Ranboo better or as devotion at all bc repeatedly it is shown it makes him Worse, and is in fact the opposite of devotion it's disingenuous by nature. Ranboo is lying. This is so essential to all of this when Ranboo acts like he is in step with you specifically he is lying you are never guaranteed to be the priority. This is him at his worst, th project of compassion at its most compromised, and it’s a state that they explicitly don’t like. Ranboo does not like compromising itself and when they do that they Get Hurt (NLM and outpost arc having the most confabulation we’ve seen in Ranboo in general, Ranboo hating himself for this, Ranboo complying w/ shit like the experiments, Ranboo in all these environments where he is playing this being Constantly Markedly Afraid)

Even throughout the time period where Tbbo is technically priority #1 Tbbo is still . Priority Number One as opposed to like a genuine devotion. Tbbo having a handle on Ranboo in this way is not devotion it is fear and it is again not a mechanism tht Ranboo Only engages for Tbbo it’s just a mechanism, that again IS BAD FOR RANBOO BOTH IRT MENTAL HEALTH AND MORALITY, that has thru circumstance become one tht Tbbo is best at unintentionally activating. Ranboo Does This When You Are His Project. And When He Had A New Project Aside From His Husband That’s What He Did To Him

TL;DR

Ranboo does comply with Tubbo in various activities tht he doesn’t believe in but this isn’t ? Unique to Tbbo this is just Ranboo’s general socialmeta+ what allows it to move in the world the way it does

Ranboo cares about Tubbo deeply and this is relevant to his motivations but that’s only one part of his larger motivations

It’s also honestly not great to frame this complianceas romantic or good bc it’s actively smth that Makes Them Worse in multiple senses

It takes out a ton of Ranboo’s decision making and the negative effects thereof

Anyway stream

[1] No, one dumb as fuck line from Dream Of All People in that lame ass excuse for a finale does not negate All The Things In CRanboo’s Story including working w Dream being part of this consistent pattern, Ranboo’s story being abt agency responsibility and decision in such a way tht it is completely undercut by mind ctrl plots, Ranboo’s ideological agreement w Dream on some matters, the alliumduo parallels, and everything we do know abt the enderwalk as a concept and Ranboo how he acts in and out of it

#OKAY HANG ON I wanna edit this again. Read the first draft if u want but I wanna do a once over I decided immediately after posting #I didn't like the tone #NEVER MIND UPDATE 2/19 IAT NIGT EDITED IT AGAIN #OK EDITED ENOUGH anyway #pretend the crosslink to the beeduo meta is red like in an essie pea article. #Anyway yes this is themeta that I tried to edit to not be too much of a direct vague . But thank u to OP in spirit anyway bc I would not #have had the soup 2 write this if I didn't see the post #But yeag. Frankly I think it's disrespectful 2 c!Ranboo's arc 2 claim it revolves around c!Tubbo or that it should #It's heavily affected by Tbbo bc Ranboo Cares Him Saur Much for much of the arc #but to claim tht Ranboo's socialmeta in general is smth that is just for Tbbo and to frame it as like Ranboo doesn't actually believe in his #ideological beliefs they just love one guy #is reductive and very like . Your One True Love Is The Most Important Thing #it fucks w/ their political agency a Lot I think. #people not sides gets discredited so fucking much #Like the personal is political u can't understand cRanb w/o understanding that #I like how I'm not actually tagging thsi I'm just ranting in the tags and not censoring tag names

[inkskinned]

the thing is there's like, a point of oversaturation for everything, and it's why so many things get dropped after a few minutes. and we act like millennials or gen z kids "have short attention spans" but... that's not quite it. it's more like - we did like it. you just ruined it.

capitalism sees product A having moderate success, and then everything has to come out with their "own version" of product A (which is often exactly the same). and they dump extreme amounts of money and environmental waste into each horrible simulacrum they trot out each season.

now it's not just tiktokkers making videos; it's that instagram and even fucking tumblr both think you want live feeds and video-first programming. and it helps them, because videos are easier to sneak native ads into. the books coming out all have to have 78 buzzwords in them for SEO, or otherwise they don't get published. they are making a live-action remake of moana. i haven't googled it, but there's probably another marvel or starwars something coming out, no matter when you're reading this post.

and we are like "hi, this clone of project A completely misses the point of the original. it is soulless and colorless and miserable." and the company nods and says "yes totally. here is a different clone, but special." and we look at clone 2 and we say "nope, this one is still flat and bad, y'all" and they're like "no, totally, we hear you," and then they make another clone but this time it's, like, a joyless prequel. and by the time they've successfully rolled out "clone 89", the market is incredibly oversaturated, and the consumer is blamed because the company isn't turning a profit.

and like - take even something digital like the tumblr "live streaming" function i just mentioned. that has to take up server space and some amount of carbon footprint; just so this brokenass blue hellsite can roll out a feature that literally none of its userbase actually wants. the thing that's the kicker here: even something that doesn't have a physical production plant still impacts the environment.

and it all just feels like it's rolling out of control because like, you watch companies pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into a remake of a remake of something nobody wants anymore and you're like, not able to afford eggs anymore. and you tell the company that really what you want is a good story about survival and they say "okay so you mean a YA white protagonist has some kind of 'spicy' love triangle" and you're like - hey man i think you're misunderstanding the point of storytelling but they've already printed 76 versions of "city of blood and magic" and "queen of diamond rule" and spent literally millions of dollars on the movie "Candy Crush Killer: Coming to Eat You".

it's like being stuck in a room with a clown that keeps telling the same joke over and over but it's worse every time. and that would be fine but he keeps fucking charging you 6.99. and you keep being like "no, i know it made me laugh the first time, but that's because it was different and new" and the clown is just aggressively sitting there saying "well! plenty of people like my jokes! the reason you're bored of this is because maybe there's something wrong with you!"

#this was much longer i had to cut it down for legibility #but i do want to say i am aware this post doesnt touch on human rights violations as a result of fast fashion #that is because it deserves its own post with a completely different tone #i am an environmental educator #so that's what i know the most about. it wouldn't be appropriate of me to mention off-hand the real and legitimate suffering #that people are going through #without doing my research and providing real ways to help #this is a vent post about a thing i'm watching happen; not a call to action. it would be INCREDIBLY demeaning #to all those affected by the fast fashion industry to pretend that a post like this could speak to their suffering #unfortunately one of the horrible things about latestage capitalism as an activist is that SO many things are linked to this #and i WANT to talk about all of them but it would be a book in its own right. in fact there ARE books about each level of this #and i encourage you to seek them out and read them!!! i am not an expert on that i am just a person on tumblr doing my favorite activity #(complaining) #and it's like - this is the individual versus the industry problem again right because im blaming myself #for being an expert on environmental disaster (which is fucking important) but not knowing EVERYTHING about fast fashion #i'm blaming myself for not covering the many layers of this incredibly complicated problem im pointing out #rather than being like. yeah so actually the fault here lies with the billion dollar industries actually. #my failure to be able to condense an incredibly immense problem that is BOOK-LENGTH into a single text post that i post for free #is not in ANY fucking way the same amount of harm as. you know. the ACTUAL COMPANIES doing this ACTUAL THING for ACTUAL MONEY. #anyway im gonna go donate money while i'm thinking about it. maybe you can too. we can both just agree - well i fuckin tried didn't i #which is more than their CEOs can say

[verdantmeadows]

To me the joy and beauty of vocal synthesizers has always been that they don't sound real and exploring that to create artistic expression that can't be achieved by human voices, so seeing them become more and more realistic is disheartening, almost? Especially since a lot of artists make the same voice banks sound so different and have their own personal charm. I'm glad that people will be able to make things that sound realistic, but I'm worried that songs that intentionally play out of sounding as realistic as possible will be sidelined, discouraged, no longer created, impossible to find, or unsupported by fans of vocal synthesizers. I don't want things to just push towards being as realistic as possible. There is beauty in how everyone's usage of the same voice banks sound different. There is beauty in the lack of realistic sounding vocals in vocal synthesizers.

#vocaloid #utauloid #vocal synth #book of kells #edit: i think some people are misunderstanding (and im not saying this upset or madly at all) #i absolutely have no ill will towards realistic tuning #i think it's cool as fuck and wonderful #this post was meant to be a personal post that bordered on venty and I didn't expect anyone to reblog it 😅 #however people are enjoying it so i wont turn rbs off #but yeah i was moreso trying to express ''im scared that non realistic tuning and creativity in vocal synth will trickle away'' #rather than ''i think realistic tuning is bad'' #i dont think that at all #:} #also i recognize this likely wont happen but im still worried—hence the post #im expressing a worry #and also expressing my love for non realistic tuning #this post is not a criticism realistic tuning whatsoever! #and again the tone for all of that is kind/neutral—i dont want to sound mad at all ^w^

[significant-ace-nnoyance]

"the way they killed medusa was stupid" "using the hat to kill medusa was dumb" that's because this show isn't written for action and blood and gore its written for STORYTELLERS ofc the "fight with medusa" wasn't epic and bloody that would defeat the whole point INSTEAD it was symbolic and set up narrative arcs. it was annabeth passing on the invisibility her mother cursed her with to a woman who was cursed never to be seen. it was paralleling the original perseus myth where he uses the helm of darkness alongside his shield and shoes from athena and hermes. it was setting up the conflict between percy and annabeth about giving up the hat and making annabeth suffer an emotional loss to go on with the quest versus imposing the consequences of medusa's story and tragedy on the gods themselves.

imagine watching a scene where annabeth increasingly gets defensive and 12-year-old lashing out with "but my mother is always just" "that isn't how the story goes" and "you're a LIAR" imagine watching the air go out of the room as "i'm a survivor" "i was you" "i would have been content to worship her for a lifetime... in silence" medusa breaks her calm demeanor at having her story erased once more imagine watching annabeth appear out of nowhere and make medusa disappear with the powers that athena granted her so that a son of poseidon can murder her and your main thought being "awwwww but i wanted it to be more epicccccc i wanted blood and gore and decapitationnnnnn" imagine missing the whole point of the entire percy jackson series that bad

#also they needed to make it pg #its a kid show yall you keep forgetting that #no they cant explicitly say she was a survivor of sa but they did a great job with the implications and the tone and the unease #no they cant show her head getting chopped off #but also ASK YOURSELF WHETHER THEY SHOULD #IS THAT MORE NARRATIVELY SATISFYING??? #literally the writers do not deserve to have their genius overlooked like this #i didn't word this as well as i wanted to but there you go #listening to seaweed brain pod ep 3 and was struck with a bolt of inspiration #percy jackson #pjo <3 #medusa #annabeth chase #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo tv show #pjo tv series

[ranticore]

pascal when he

these are from a low-fantasy au i messed around with last year where pascal is an aspiring youtube influencer (currently a taxi driver) who gets arrested and has to do community service because one of his video pranks got out of hand (<- gleefully imagining a better world where influencers are punished for their crimes)

the community service gig he gets is mountain rescue with the rangers under captain nico. and he doesn't like it

#i didn't like how i coloured it so u just get enough of a crop to understand i'm referencing that one pic of that blue roan #so he's 18.5hh at the withers or over 8ft tall at the top of his head. fyi #i wanted to share the 20k words i wrote of this since it is literally the most accurate pascal i've ever written. he is perfect. #but i would have to censor like every third paragraph given the tone of his POV

[little-pup-pip]

I'm still sickkkkk

#this one isn't quite like my others #because it's just self indulgent nonsense #i didn't do anything like this last time #but i feel a little better this illness compared to the last one #i have a fever and chills so this is very warm toned #i hope you enjoy #as always #sfw interaction only #moodboard #sfw agere #age regression #agere #sfw littlespace #agere moodboard #age dreaming #food #cw food #tw medication #tw illness #? #idk thats probably a thing #i hate being sick

[trensu]

Some more of stasis in darkness. you have no idea how many times i've written this scene. i discarded three or four different versions of it before i came up with this one. i feel like this version worked best for the characters. or at least i hope they feel in character.

It was the ninth night.

Steve took his usual spot before the shrine. He greeted his god as he had before but decided tonight was going to be a quiet night. He didn’t have much to say so he’d simply let his faith burn bright in his silent vigil.

Hours passed, and again the strange man didn’t show up as he had been the nights prior. This time, Steve didn’t bother putting it off. He decided to do a perimeter check. As he stood, however, a cacophony of squeaks and beating wings filled the air.

A massive colony of bats burst into the clearing. They moved shockingly fast as they neared Steve and the shrine. Steve ducked his head under his arms but let the bats come. He ignored the little Robin in his head yelling about rabies. He couldn’t risk hurting one of his god’s favored creatures. 

There were so many of them, more than Steve had ever seen in his life. They flew round and round dropping altitude until they coalesced at the foot of the shrine. The din stopped as abruptly as it had started. When Steve could no longer hear a single squeak or feel wings zipping overhead, he lowered his arms. Cautiously, he lifted his head, eyes drawn immediately to the shrine to check for any damage. 

Not a single bat remained. Instead, the strange man sat, cross legged, at the statue’s feet. He wore a dark cloak comprised of deep navies, bruising purples, and an inky black. Each color slowly, gracefully shifted and melted one into another, again and again before Steve’s eyes. Flecks of light littered it in familiar formations. The clasp that secured it around the man was a bright silvery white. It was shaped exactly the same as the waning moon above. 

“Ta-da!” the man said, fluttering his hands in a showman’s gesture.

Steve took in the man's appearance. The ratty travel clothes, the cloak of constellations and its clasp…Steve leapt back in shock. Everything suddenly clicked into place very quickly to paint a very unflattering picture of himself. He whirled around. He couldn't face the shrine. 

"Shit," Steve's voice was loud with a stunned sort of panic as he remembered the events of the past week. He paced anxiously. "Shit, shit. It was y–the whole time, you were–FUCK. How did I miss–and even if you weren't you, you were still a traveler in the night and I treated you like–I'm a fucking idiot. I'm the stupidest man alive, how–"

"Probably from getting dropped on the head so much, huh?" the man asked with that same annoyingly self-satisfied voice he'd been using every night. The annoying stranger with his annoying questions and his stupid smug tone.

Mindlessly, Steve turned on his heel to glare at the man. He jabbed an accusatory finger in his direction, frustration flaring.

"Oh, you can fuck right off, man," Steve replied reflexively. "I am having a crisis!"

A split second later, he felt his stomach drop to his feet. This wasn't just a stranger talking. He backpedaled hard.

"Oh, ohhhh no, I didn't mean that, Lord, I-I wasn't thinking."

The man exploded into raucous laughter. It shook his whole body until he doubled over from the strength of it. He continued to laugh when he toppled off the side of his perch and landed with a thunk on the ground. The man sat up, wheezing and wiping at his face, mirth clearly keeping him in a choke-hold. 

"Oh, far be it for me to interrupt your crisis," the Lord of Night forced out amidst the laughter. He flapped a hand at him. "Please, continue."

The god attempted to regain composure but all that did was turn his full bellied guffaws into snorting giggles. Steve waited, his anxiety fading in the face of the god’s genuine good humor. It took another couple of minutes before the god calmed enough to pop back to his feet and climb back onto the plinth. The man made himself comfortable at the foot of his own statue as he had before.

"So how goes the crisis?" he asked mischievously.

"On hold," Steve said evenly, fighting back the start of a smile. The man said nothing but still radiated amusement. Steve crossed his arms over his chest. "Are you really the Lord of Night?"

"The one and only!"

“And you’ve been here the whole time?”

“Yep!”

“So why didn’t you say anything? I mean, I talked to you every night! I don’t get it.” Steve paused as a thought occurred to him. “Was this a test?”

“Uh…yes? Yes.”

Steve narrowed his eyes. The god shifted in his seated position. It reminded Steve of the time Dustin shattered a jar of his most expensive hair product and tried to hide it. Dustin had squirmed guiltily under Steve’s expectant gaze until he confessed to his dastardly crime. Apparently, the method worked on gods as well.

“Okay, it started more as an attempt to get you to leave me alone,” the Lord of Night admitted. 

“Oh.” It came out blankly, which Steve was grateful for, because he felt like he’d been kicked in the chest by a mule. “You don’t want me.”

Steve wasn't sure why he was surprised. This was a classic Steve problem. He tamped down the old familiar sting of rejection. Steve knew going in that this had been a possibility. It was a god’s right to reject an offering.

“I never wanted any holy warriors,” the Lord of Night corrected. “Hence the attempt to make you leave.” 

Steve supposed that lessened the blow a little. It was an impersonal rejection. That was better, right? 

"If you didn't want me as your holy warrior you could've just said," Steve said ruefully.

“You seemed pretty determined to come back, though.”

“Only because I thought you’d want to, like, use me for something. If you’d asked me to, I would’ve stopped bothering you. I could’ve gotten someone else who could worship you better,” Steve said, trying to keep his voice light and unaffected.

"Yeah, I really don’t think you could have,” the Lord of Night said in a strained tone. 

“No, I mean it,” Steve insisted. “I told you, Robin and Dustin wanted to come along. They would make sure you’re not alone again. You would like them. They pick up on stuff faster than me. They’d be good worshipers.”

“That’s not what I meant. Your worship was, uh, it was…no, nevermind, forget that. The thing is, the more you came back the more I…” 

The Lord of Night trailed off. He tugged his dark starry cloak around him tighter. When he spoke again, he seemed to have switched tracks entirely. 

"Look, I don't know exactly how the holy warrior thing works, but you guys do quests for your gods, right?"

"Well, yeah, that's the whole point. We're your boots on the ground. We do acts in your service to spread your faith. Like priests but less boring." 

The god snorted which made Steve grin.

"Priests are so boring," the Lord of Night agreed. 

Things went quiet again. The cloak of constellations made it hard to see his god, but Steve got the impression that the Lord of Night was fidgeting. Steve remembered the conversation from a few nights before, about nervousness and not knowing what to do. Steve fell back on his social graces, his good old Harrington charm, and carefully picked something that would encourage the god to speak.

"I can't believe I didn’t see it,” Steve said, with a self-deprecating shake of his head. “Like, I know I'm not the smartest guy around but I didn't think I was that slow."

"Don't worry about it,” the god replied instantly, breaking out of his internal reverie. “That's not on you. I didn't want you to notice, so you didn't."

"Oh."

"Yep. And, it's not like I have a face to remember, so, y'know. You're good."

"I guess that does make me feel bet–wait. What do you mean you don’t have a face?” Steve squinted at the Lord of Night.

“Well, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I lost my name,” the Lord of Night said with a hint of irony. “No name, no face.”

“But I saw it,” Steve insisted.

“Did you?” the Lord of Night asked, amused. He slid off the plinth and walked up to Steve until he was only three feet away. The god lowered his hood without any flourish. “What do I look like?”

Steve squinted at him studiously. The god was pale as moonlight and had hair as dark as the night itself; as for the rest of him…it was the strangest thing. Steve knew there was a pair of eyes under a brow. There was a nose above a mouth. He knew the right features were in the right places. However, he couldn’t tell if the eyes were dark or pale. He couldn’t say whether the nose was large or small. The mouth could be thin or it could be full. 

“I don’t know,” Steve relented. The Lord of Night nodded.

“Yeah, me neither.”

“Is…is that the quest? To find your name?” Steve asked, dread pooling in his belly. That quest would involve a lot of reading and…he didn’t even know. Language things? General research, for sure. None of which Steve was particularly good at.

“That’s a bit presumptuous of you,” the Lord of Night smirked. He didn't give Steve a chance to apologize. “But yeah, there’s something important that needs to be done. I’m not strong enough to do it myself and I’m running out of time to do it.”

“I can do it,” Steve responded. “I’ll do it for you, my Lord.”

“You don’t even know what the quest is,” the god said wistfully.

“But I know you wouldn’t ask me to do anything cruel or unfair.”

“You’re unbelievable,” the Lord of Night muttered under his breath. Steve didn’t think he was supposed to hear that so he kept quiet. In a louder voice, the god resumed. “Okay, are you sure you wanna do this? Be a holy warrior? Because you could be literally anything else. You told me you liked cooking during one of your prayer sessions. You could open up a restaurant! Restaurant owners don’t usually die in the line of duty or whatever.”

Steve resisted the urge to roll his eyes. This is what Steve trained for, what he was good at, and he wanted to put those skills to use.

“You said you needed help to do something important. I want to be the one that helps you. I want to be your warrior. I can do it, I know I can. I won’t let you down.” Steve bit his lip uncertainly as a thought struck him. "If you don't think I'm worthy–"

“It’s not about worthiness!" The god cut in. "Do you know what it would mean to be my holy warrior? The weight of the night sky, with all the stars and the moon, will be on your shoulders for as long as you walk the land. I don’t know much about holy warriors but I remember this: there’s no take-backs. You can’t just quit and go off to become something else later.”

“Yes, I know. We covered this in lectures at school. It wasn’t all swordplay," Steve said impatiently. "I did think about it once I finished training and I decided if I could find a god to pledge myself to, I didn't want to be anything else. Then I found you."

“...Okay. If you're sure, then okay,” the Lord of Night said decisively. “So what do I have to do? How do I make you mine?”

“Um, I think it’s different from god to god?” Steve stuttered, heart thumping at the god’s words. “But I guess we can do our own thing? I’m pretty sure it’s the intent that matters most.”

"I can work with that." The Lord of Night gestured downward. "Kneel, kneel. I have an idea of what to say.

"Should I close my eyes or something?" Steve asked once he’d gotten to his knees.

"Nah, this is good," Lord Night said. 

The god squared his shoulders and straightened his spine. Then, something miraculous happened. The Lord of Night spoke his name aloud.

“Steve Harrington.”

It was the first time his god ever said his name; it was stunning in a way Steve couldn’t begin to comprehend. A bolt of lightning down his spine. A roaring forge in his chest. A whirlwind in his lungs. It felt like all of that simultaneously, yet nothing like that at all. How could pitiful human speech hope to encompass the intensity of a god’s undivided attention; his god’s specific acknowledgement of a primitive life such as his? 

Tears sprang unbidden in Steve’s eyes. He became aware how lowly and frail his own body was, and how utterly insignificant his existence was in the vastness of the stars in the sky. He curled forward, hiding his face and making himself as small as he could. He could not bear his god seeing his mortal failings and imperfections. It would invite an exquisite, holy agony Steve surely wouldn’t survive. 

“Oh,” the Lord of Night breathed. “I forgot how that could feel to a human. I’ll try not to do it again.”

“No,” the word tore out of Steve’s throat without any conscious thought. “No, please. Please, my Lord.”

Steve didn’t even know what he was begging for because the singular attention of a god was agony but the thought of his god leaving him filled him with terror. He shattered, left with no purchase save his god’s words. Then there were arms around him, pulling him close, and enveloping him in constellations. Steve’s vision blurred. Great, heaving sobs overcame him as though ripped from his very soul. The Lord of Night murmured comfortingly.

“Alright, there we go,” he said softly. “I’m here, Steve. I see you in the night, every night. The stars shine for you, Steve. The moon turns its face for you. I’m with you, Steve.”

The words crashed into him with the unrelenting force of ocean waves. They swept his footing from underneath him and sent him spinning endlessly, endlessly. They lifted him upwards and sent him plummeting down until he was deep below the surface where the currents finally slowed. Surrounded by eternally burning stars, he was left weightless and suspended in an unearthly calm. The words rang in his skull with the surety and strength only a celestial being could claim.

Somewhere between an eternity and no time at all, Steve came back to himself feeling overexerted, though he hadn’t moved from where he knelt. Steve’s heart and soul had been scraped out of his chest, put between a pestle and mortar before getting unceremoniously dumped back in his weak flesh, but in a weirdly good way. His sobs subsided. His breathing came in and out slowly.

Eventually the cloak of constellations released him as well. He blinked his eyes open gradually to see his god kneeling before him at arm's length, palms resting on Steve's shoulders. Steve felt a stab of shame at having brought his god down low to a mortal's level. 

“Sorry. I’m sorry,” Steve croaked. “Do you still–? Can I still be–?”

“No, yeah,” the Lord of Night said straight away. “That was on me. Not your fault at all. I’m out of practice interacting with mortals."

The god’s words lost the gravitas from before in a way that would've been jarring if it weren't such a relief. He finally broke his hold on Steve. He got to his feet, somewhat gracelessly. 

"Let’s try that again?” the Lord of Night asked.

Steve cleared his throat. He straightened up where he knelt and kept himself still. He nodded to show he was ready.

“Steve Harrington,” the god said. This time hearing his name on his god’s lips was exhilarating but at a level a human could bear. “Do you swear to spread my values in the minds and hearts of mortals, through action and word?”

“I swear.”

“Then will you, Steve Harrington, do me the honor of being my sword and shield? Will you carry my crest through all your agonies and all your joys?”

“Yes.”

For a breathless moment, their words hung in the air, resonating through the night with finality. The Lord of Night reached out and gently traced something on Steve's forehead. Steve assumed it was his god's sigil, though neither Robin or Dustin could find any images of it so he couldn't be sure. It felt like an incomplete circle with a squiggle running through it. The god stepped back to observe him when he was done.

The stillness that followed, ironically, rattled Steve’s bones with relief and joy that it was done. His god had accepted him. Then the Lord of Night shuffled his feet in an awkward, shy manner.

“Cool,” said the Lord of Night.

The heaviness and tension brought down by the gravity of their oath ruptured with that single world, and Steve could do nothing but dissolve in helpless, giddy giggles.

#trensu tells stories #stasis in darkness #stranger things #steddie #steve harrington #you know what #i'm actually pretty proud of how this scene worked out #there were parts of the other versions that i really really liked but they ultimately didn't fit the tone of the story #but i'm glad i ended up with this version #and that this scene is done #because the next scene is one i've been churning in my brain for ages but i couldn't start it without establishing how this one would go

[reliand]

Day 23 of the @basiatlu HPtober2023: Werewolf

This was going to be dirty, but I reigned myself in from my usual first impulse. I still wanted to make Harry hulking and muscular in his werewolf form, and a wide-eyed Draco underneath him.

#drarry #boshhptober2023 #draco malfoy #harry potter #werewolf #i struggled with what color I wanted this in. I did a sepia tone that looked really nice but it didn't like it was night time :( #i am not good at forshortening so draco's arm looks weird #but I do really like how his feet and ankles turned out so thqt's a win #my art #my artwork

[dandelion-roots]

[ID: a digital drawing of fukuzawa and ranpo from bungou stray dogs. in the first half, fukuzawa finds ranpo, here drawn as the autism creature with black hair, a cape and a black hat, sitting in a box in an alley. he thinks, well, i guess i'm a father now. in the second half, fukuzawa is holding ranpo like a cat. ranpo's eyes are shiny and he thinks, papa... while surrounded by a pink background and imaginary flowers. end ID]

fukuzawa asked 'who's going to adopt this autistic child' and didn't wait for an answer; alternatively- what do you mean this isn't how the scene went???

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #fukuzawa yukichi #bsd fukuzawa #ranpo edogawa #bsd ranpo #didn't feel like spending an hour colouring it so i just threw some colours down #so many bsd related things i have to purge from my brain #tone tag affectionate #ranpo rly grew on me in season 4. i cant wait to watch the first season now that i care abt the characters (ive cared since s3 #bcs the first two were... rough #ranpo #dan draws

[candylitaaa]

Ya me enteré que eres un alien, me lo dijo alguien 🗣️💥💥‼️

#this one is old but i didn't publish this here. only in tiktok #idk #i love randomness #*laughs in spanish* #this is like a reminder of “I won't be a serious artist” /hj #iz #invader zim #invasor zim #zim #dib #dib membrane #dib membrana #zadf #zade #my art #also yes i know Dib likes Two Trucks but i saw more people talking about Touch-Tone Telephone. that's the reason of why i chose that song #spanglish

[destinywillowleaf]

one of a kind living in a world gone plastic

baby you're so classic

@most-tragic-character-tournament

(all my thoughts in the tags)

#anyway i found their theme song and lost my mind #tragedyshipping #lloyd garmadon #ninjago #antigone #tagamemnon #pollshipping #i'm gonna be thinking about this for the next hour before i go to sleep #i just wanted to make a playlist for them i didn't think i would find a perfect fit #they have taken over many of my braincells and i can't even complain this is the enrichment i needed #all i'm saying is the idea of a movie trailer for these two is taking shape more and more and this should 100% be the accompanying song #not even a full trailer because that would take forever but like. a 30 second TV spot. family drama. them not really getting along at first #(e.g. glaring at each other while being forced to dance or something) #but then warming up to each other on the road because road trips have my soul when it comes to movies ok #i want them to stargaze in the bed of a hotwired pickup truck while on the run from people who demand bloodshed (a poll winner) #the slow(?) burn of not wanting to be in this mess to actually enjoying spending time together to something more #(trailer/commercial ends on or just after “baby you're so classic” with the cut to the title and in theaters date) #maybe most of the tv spot is them arguing and making life hell for one another but it's hard to deny there's something more brewing #(one of the reviews is just ''A modern classic'' because i think i'm funny) #i really want the title to be a play off of them meeting through the tragic tournament but it's completely different from the tone i want #''tragedy: null and void'' is a fun one #i've never been the greatest at titles if they don't hit me like a truck #anyway hi folks i'm sorry if you have no idea what's happening and see this in your tags

[bread-wizards]

I find it interesting that out of all the party, Laudna and Orym are following in Ashton's footsteps a bit in hiding things from the party (Orym with the Nana Morri deal, Laudna with her interacting with/talking to Delilah more and more), and I wonder how much of it is the residual impact that Bor'dor's betrayal had on them.

#critical role #cr3 #orym #orym of the air ashari #ashton greymoore #ashton #laudna #text post #i often think about the episode after everyone was reunited and the vastly different tone between the groups #laudna was angry because she had given into delilah and killed bor'dor and the others had a somewhat nice break #orym was betrayed by someone he trusted with info on his husband but he turned out to be part of the group responsible for killing him #ashton's immediate response to it alludes me but i find it interesting how his first response was damage control #he didn't stop it but he was there to pick up the pieces as much he could #but like he has tried with orym someone needs to look out for the people who are looking out for the rest #which is why i think his taking of the shard was born out of a skewed form of protectiveness #we need the power and it could kill someone so ill do it to keep the damage to a minimum #the other group got romance out of it #fcg and frida #fearne and chentey with deanna #even imogen later with laudna once they got back #prism was a nice friend as was deni$e #but deni$e also reminded orym of dorian (as in of his existence since she knew of dariax) which rubbed salt in that wound a bit #i know it was funny but also ashton and laudna being a bit insecure about orym being prisms 'best friend' was interesting too #not that i blame either of the ladies for that it was just an unfortunate small thing that I feel contributed to a larger problem #because since they got back laudna has been talking with delilah more and relying on her powers #after imogen said she was disgusted by knowing delilah is watching them #orym went behind their back to make a deal signing away his life with nana morri #and talking more about how lonely he is and thinking about dorian a lot more #we have seen the result of ashton being that he nearly killed himself #but the split really fucked those 3 up

[thatdamnrookie]

He is just a little guy. A fella

(Also congrats to Lackadaisy on that 1.5 million and counting!)

#lackadaisy #freckle #calvin mcmurray #my art #didn't really have the energy to clean this up and tweak things as much as I'd like to #I saturated the colors in a way that looked good on some screens and pretty rough on others #so this is slightly toned down and hopefully not too eye-searing #Now to finish some things that aren't fanarts maybe

[yo-yo-yoshiko]

Oni ni Kanabo! (my first time experimenting with physical screentone!!)

I thought the rough media look suited her(the manga master) for this one so intentionally left parts of the original sketch... but here's some cleaner scans anyway!

...and also a photo of her on my work table!!

#avataro sentai donbrothers #donbrothers #oni sister #haruka kitou #fan art #super sentai #ink drawing #comic art #screen tones #realized i'd never actually drawn the fave super nicely!!!! #so she gets a little bit of manga technique eehehe #adding her to the little collection of hero art on my wall #turns out screen tones are really easy to apply!!! #extremely hard to get your hands on in my area though.... #i would recommend them!!! we should make them popular so i can buy them in a store lmao! #the deleter jr sheets were so easy to cut and they are much clearer than i thought so they didn't affect the visibility of the ink or color #was debating on adding an ink flash behind her but decided that i like the sketching for her eehehe

[diospore]

Working on a color ref of AFO and somehow his eyes ended up pink? and I kinda like it, halfway between red and white.

#afo #all for one #all for one mha #my hero academia #the manga panels are from the wiki #idk how i got here #i slapped it in a few filters to try and get his hair looking good and didn't notice the eyes changed #and yes i know this is kinda crappy for a color ref and too gradiated but i like my color refs a little varied #idk it just lets me pick what color tone i want to work with while the colors still fitting? #probably doesn't make sense. #i was tempted to do it like blackberreh-art on here does her AFO and make him ungodly pale but idk if i could pull that off like she does. #go follow her btw she so cool