#secrecies in darkness

[pencilofawesomeness]

*baps Mystogan on the cheek* I hereby dub thee: a cat person.

Because drawing a happy Mystogan gives me serotonin, here's Myst and his now-half-indoor-cat Shadow, who he has successfully smuggled into the building.

#fairy tail #htryds #mystogan #pencil's art tag #holds cat like a baby #this is exactly how my cat likes to be held #and she's tiny so I can do it one handed just like this #i like to think at least five of the fairy valley residents think the dorm is haunted #because it never occurred to them that somebody had a cat #jet saw yellow eyes in the dark once and things escalated from there #jellal is sworn to secrecy #alzack knows but he's chill and also loves animals #also he's secretly a menace and is perpetuating the ghost rumor #mystogan thinks its hilarious and jellal isn't much better #gray probably finds out later but he would also be on board for #gaslighting the rest of the residents

[onaperduamedee]

I don't know if it's show bias, but I struggle to understand the reading of Moiraine as someone who is so driven by her mission that she doesn't care.

From the get-go, she flees the White Tower for fear of ending up Queen of Cairhien and as cruel a leader as the rulers in her family, although it would have meant control and power;

Getting knocked down and unable to channel, she stabs a former teacher to stop her from killing innocents who have little to do with her mission;

She rushes to the Blight to bond Lan and keep him from basically killing himself, even if again it is a gamble, and later on, the bond transfer is about saving him, albeit cruelly;

She uses her body as a shield to hold off a Forsaken in order to help Rand, sustaining serious injuries in the fight, although her sacrifice is mostly useless considering how overpowered she is;

Many times, she heals villagers, soldiers, Aiel, wolves, sometimes until she is on the brink of passing out;

She fights Shadowspawns in Tear, in the Waste just as bravely as Lan, despite not being battle Ajah and often being surrounded by Aiel who can do the job by themselves;

She tackles Lanfear, toppling with her inside a collapsing ter'angreal, effectively dooming herself and cutting herself from the narrative, to help Rand, Egwene and Aviendha.

Obviously, you could argue that each of these actions would bring her an advantage and in acting so, she was only playing her part in the pattern, without a care for the people she was helping, but that's such an ungenerous reading of the character given what the text provides.

Her mindset is utilitarian and pragmatic, but to see her ever-present doubts, her growing despair and raging hope in Rand and still interpret her as uncaring is mind-boggling to me.

Her whole speech in TSR regarding "People [fighting] for you who do not know it, any more than you know them" tells of someone who believes saving the world will require a lot of collaboration and awareness of each other, not merely machinations and control.

She is a hard woman, but uncaring she is not.

#Wot book spoilers #moiraine damodred #The wheel of time #Remblai #Wot book journey #Saw someone commenting they don't think Moiraine really cared whether Lan lived or die #Look... #I think some people are wilfully misreading the text because if women are obviously evil it justifies their treatment by other characters #They're not #They are complex characters and you can point out a lot of flaws in Moiraine #From the way she tends to treat people as tools/objects to her distrust and secrecy #But to say she doesn't care about the people around her makes me growl #I've seen fans argue that her telling she would kill the boys before they turned to the Dark means she doesn't care #What it says about her is that turning to the Dark is worse than death to her #(which is pretty much Lan's motto) #What it says is that Moiraine will always do the maths and save the most people possible #And if saving more people means killing the Dragon Reborn if they turn to the Dark she will do it #What it doesn't say is that she doesn't care #I already noticed there's a tendency in fandom to be far more generous in interpretation toward male characters #Especially when they share narratives and themes #Tepid take but her mentality is the same as Lan's #But the story spends more time on her so we get more nuance while Lan is afforded a lot more Doylist leeway

[the-future-memories]

#slytherin #harry potter #hogwarts legacy #dark academia #aesthetic #vintage #dark aesthetic #my moodboard currently #secrecy #photography #goth aesthetic #gothic

[burningvelvet]

A secret letter written by 19-year-old Percy Shelley to his 12-year-old sister Hellen after he was expelled from Oxford and disowned by his family for his radical beliefs, including atheism. Shelley’s father found the letter before Hellen could ever receive it.

TO HELLEN SHELLEY

Field Place [Dec. 16, 1811.] Summer House—Evening.

MY DEAR HELLEN,

Shew this letter to no one. You remember that you once told me that you loved me.... If you really love me, shew this letter to no one, but answer it as you can. Remember this is the only proof I can now have that you do love me.

We are now at a great distance from each other, or at least we shall be: but that is no reason that I should forget that I am your brother, or you should forget that you are my sister. Everybody near you says that I have behaved very ill, and that I can love no one.

But how do you know that everything that is told you is true? A great many people tell a great many lies, and believe them, but that is no reason that you are to believe them. Because everybody else hates me, that is no reason that you should. Think for yourself, my dear girl, and write to me to tell me what you think.

Where you are now, you cannot do as you please—you are obliged to submit to other people. They will not let you walk and read and think (if they knew your thoughts) just as you like, though you have as good a right to do it as they. But if you were with me, you would be with someone who loved you; you might run and skip, read, write, think just as you liked. Then, though you cannot now be with me you can write, you can tell me what you think, and how you get on, on paper. Perhaps you cannot get a pen and ink, but you can get pencil, and this will do; and as nobody can suspect you, you may easily write, and put your letter into the Summer House, where I shall be sure to get it. I watch over you, though you do not think I am near.

I need not tell you how I love you. I know all that is said of me, but do not you believe it. You will perhaps think I'm the Devil, but, no, I am only your brother, who is obliged to be put to these shifts to get a letter from you.

How do you get on with your poetry, and what books do you read, for you know how anxious I am that you should improve in every way, though I don't think music or dancing of much consequence? Thinking, and thinking without letting anything but reason influence your mind, is the great thing. Some people would tell you that it would be wrong to write to me; but how do you know it is? They do not tell you why it is wrong. They would scold you for it, but this would not make it wrong. Let no one find out that I have written to you. Read this letter when no one sees you, and with attention. I have not written to Mary, because I know that she is not firm and determined like you; but if you think that she would not tell, give my love to her, and tell her to write to me.

I shall not say any more now. Write, and leave your letter in the Summer House. I shall be sure to get it if you go there alone and leave it. —Your very affectionate and true brother,

P. B. SHELLEY.

source: The Letters of Percy Shelley vol. VIII 1803-1812 ed. Roger Ingpen.

Notes: here he refers to his sister Mary, not Mary Shelley. He would later change his opinion on music, coming to admire it greatly and encouraging his roommates/companions Claire Clairmont and Jane Williams to pursue their musical talents, which inspired some of his best poetry.

#sobbing crying throwing up #literature #english literature #aesthetic #dark academia #poetry #history #romanticism #writing #percy shelley #percy bysshe shelley #letters #letter writing #secrecy #siblings #family #love #lit #english lit

[dwarfsized]

true colors shine in darkness and in secrecy 5/?

Astarion doesn't know what to make of the druid.

#bg3 #astarion #wip: true colors shine in darkness and in secrecy #tav: kira #astarion/tav #bg3 fic #astarion ancunin #astarion x tav #leetlewrites

[vexwerewolf]

When you play Demon: The Descent

#demon the descent #chronicles of darkness #ttrpg #gender #secrecy

[c-leric]

gentle reminder that shadowheart forfeited her memories & all she cared about to commit to & compete for the love of a calamitous goddess who dominates things like loss, trickery, betrayal & hatred... & deprived herself of love from other people the entire time / goes on to sever any romantic links that she may have formed before & IF she becomes a dark justiciar

#mobile / #at the beginning... she had like 0 friends #because her mission demands secrecy #she shut herself away from people until she was literally given no other option but to join forces for help #which was humiliating & hard for her #my shadowheart is a little less eager to open up than canon shadowheart #i think larian may have had to compromise for things like... character popularity & likeability #but i won't 😈 #& yes when i can i will add a dark justiciar verse

[please-picturemeintheweeds]

..

#If we’re talking about power and control in Taylor and joes relationship… #Maybe we should talk about how Taylor was in the depths of something very very dark when their relationship began #And her social power at the time was much much much less than most people retroactively think it was then #And even though she’s the most famous woman in the world now #(Are we forgetting that fame does not exactly equal power?? Famous women are pretty constantly victimized?????? Stalking is very serious??? #A relationship dynamic is more than the sum of its parts- Taylor did not have a lot of power when they met #And their dynamic in her own words was founded in a lot of secrecy #The monster on the hill of it all seems like it might have been used as a way to bring her down- not an empowered identity #Maybe I’m just baselessly guessing but………. #Joever #c #power and control

[p4nishers]

im crying Unknown / Nth by hozier is totally their song now

dont say that to me dont u dare fucking say that to me

#'u know the distance never made a difference to me' 'ignore the vastess between all that can be seen and all that we believe so i THOUGHT u #were like an angel to me' 'funny how true colors shine in darkness and in secrecy' 'it aint the being alone it ain't the empty home baby' #im not even gonna say anything #go s2 spoilers #go spoilers #good omens #azicrow #good omens s2 spoilers #good omens s2 #hozier

[sebnameyourcar]

whatever you do, don’t think about unknown/nth as a song about seb and ferrari. don’t do it don’t do it

#funny how true colours shine in darkness and secrecy #if there were scarlet flags they washed down in the mind of me #… #do you know i could break beneath the weight of the goodness love i still carry for you #:(

[fire-plays-totk]

It's kind of crazy how hard Nintendo focused on the skylands in TOTK's marketing when they had a whole entire new map in the depths.

Like I love the skylands, but they just feel much less hype in comparison to a whole entire new map

#tears of the kingdom #totk #I guess I appreciate the secrecy bc finding out it was a whole map shocked me beyond belief (in a good way) #I had pondered the idea of a dark world but I never thought they'd do it

[inconveniently-discorporated]

y’all, maybe Crowley fell because he was having a good goddamn time pretending to be a spy for ThE dArK SiDe, not believing god would actually damn them all, and he could just saunter down to the Wingchester and wait for all this to blow over, and then, well...

#good omens headcanon #my personal HC is still that he fell bc he was unionizing #but interesting link between how the uprising probably worked in DARKNESS and SECRECY #and you know general spy shit #and Crowley's propensity to enjoy spy stuff

[lesbiansonamy]

yknow what’s better than having good omens hyperfixation? mixing sonic to the mix bc im OBSESSED to analyzing how characters of various franchises reacting to the little guy (a multifaceted little hedgehog who’s faced god(s), alternate dimensions of his own self, and an enjoyer of ancient literature in his free time)

and since no one else is making that content, i’ll be doing it myself. so without further ado, i hope u enjoy !!!

sonic and good omens crossover

i feel when they meet, despite being immortal beings that have experienced more than the human mind could ever comprehend, aziraphale and crowley react to an anthropomorphic talking blue hedgehog that’s suddenly falling into their world like any other human beings: they are TERRIFIED

well. terrified as one can be at 15 year old pubescent teenage hedgehog. because after their initial fear, they’re just. Fucking confused at him and his existence; how does a creature come to be in this world? they’d ask their respective sides if they didn’t want to deal with the mess that comes with it

sonic claims that he's “used to being isekaied” (“whatever that means,”crowley mumbles) and he’ll be “fine on his own” (“fine my arse!”) but aziraphale INSISTS that the lad has a roof under his bed because anthropomorphic hedgehog or not, he is NOT letting a teenager be homeless

sonic initially thinks aziraphale is kinda overbearing and crowley is way too overprotective bc like. He’s fine! hes dealt with situations more extreme than being transported to another world (my man (gender neutral) literally DIED & was tortured for 6 months straight in a war) yet hes getting help here; it almost feels like hes being looked down on and he does NOT appreciate it

he doesn’t reject their help but he’s not the most receptive either. whenever aziraphale tries to have tea breaks, he’s “away” (out on a run) or asleep (coincidentally the same time it’s tea time)

it’s only when aziraphale catches him browsing his books and jovially gives him a few book recommendations of his own (because bookworms never have just One Rec) that he lets the two in. it’s when he starts to genuinely like the two

one fact that goes untalked about is that sonic is an AVID reader. like. my hedgehog canonically has read WAR AND PEACE in the wreck it ralph 2 movie. so getting his own personal recommendation from aziraphale means a lot. he can not only have new literature but better understand aziraphale as a being—not angel or demon, but just being. book recs can say a lot about a person after all

eventually accumulates to aziraphale bonds and sonic bonding over books. aziraphale loves giving him recommendations—but ironically, has to slow down for him bc my speedy boy (gender neutral) is what i hc as a slow reader (opposite of a bookworm).

in essence, aziraphale adjusts his reading speed accordingly so sonic can keep up with him, much like sonic does for his friends (tails). something something parallels <3 they have tea and biscuits when they’re done with a book and discuss it together. aziraphale loooves talking about the deep meanings of things, while sonic enjoys listening to him. he also listens to aziraphale talk about book bindings and smile, simply bc it reminds him of his home (wherever his friends are: tails)

crowley sees all this bonding and is secretly like 🥺🥺 bc it’s not often u see aziraphale so. Doting in regards to his special interest (books, especially book collections) so he gets sonic more books for him to read. or in aziraphale’s case, keep in his bookstore. sonic isn’t much of a hoarder so he’s like. “you can sell them when i’m done” but both are too attached to the symbolism

#good omens #sth #sonic the hedgehog #crossover #aziraphale #crowley #aziracrow #i’m so sorry for like. Spamming the tags for these respective fandoms but i’ll be honest: it’s my guilty pleasure to insert sonic #in every media i consume bc he not only reminds me of myself but his endless optimism truly brings any series up (good omens; ace attorney #or obey me there’s so many more. but my point still stands his existence in a series just automatically make the series better (i’m 100% + #series while saying that) sonic means a lot to me and he’s such a multifaceted character i’d love to see how ppl react to his secrecy #or like. he does a lot of good things but he’s not necessarily a good person (i mean look at his chao/pet it’s supposed to represent/look + #him but the base of the chao is a neutral chao. not dark or hero chao but neutral. and seeing how the chao species reflect morality of + #the sonic characters it’s extremely compelling to me that he’s simply neutral. and for azricrow who’s expected to choose sides they’d be + #surprised to hear the reality #ok i’m done but tldr im insane over sonic the hedgehog

[dacelonovae]

[formshaper]

"For a long while now, I've suspected that connection with another person - real connection - simply isn't possible for me." He doesn't quite look at Karlach as he says it, for all that eye contact isn't usually an issue for him. Masque slides something towards her: it scrapes over the rough surface of the cliffside they're sitting on together, a harsh and grating sound. A trinket, a little smooth stone he seems to carry around in private moments like these, still warm from the heat of his hands.

It retains its warmth an unnaturally long time, it seems, yet even in Karlach's hands it never burns too not. Passing this back and forth between themselves is as close as they can get to really touching, transferring heat to one another at a distance.

[ magic worry stone of hug your friends ]

She listens, somber and attentive, nothing at all like her usual persona--and her chest aches. Some sore, grinding parody of what it used to feel like when her heart contorted with empathy. She takes that stone and holds it up to that aching place, and screws her eyes shut, trying to direct all the care and worry and love she feels into the little rock. Even if it's not near big enough to hold even a fraction of it.

"I don't know what's going on in that head of yours," she says, "but the you I know...the you you've shown me, I like him just fine. I care about him, and I feel connected to him. So maybe you can't bring yourself to open up just yet, but..."

She sets the stone next to him. Just far enough away not to touch.

"I'm here. If you ever feel like taking the chance."

#{ in darkness and in secrecy } #{ but still going forward } #formshaper #a tiny rock that means i love you

[dwarfsized]

everybody stop what you're doing and come look at my GIRL!!! ❤️💕

my beloved @aevallare gave me the christmas gift of an incredible portrait of my Tav, Kira, commissioned from the amazing @crunchyncrumbly and I could not be happier. I have been staring at this all day and now you get to, also! look at her!!! 💕

(if you want to read about Kira, you can do that here!)

#bg3 #aevallare i still cannot believe this thank you SO much i love you #crunchyncrumbly working with you was wonderful and Kira looks so good!! thank you!! #wip: true colors shine in darkness and in secrecy #she is holding balsam flowers! which go into greater healing potions. foraging queen. <3 #tav: kira

[vazaha-tya]

sharing my notes again!

i'm trying to make my worldbuilding make sense while i write the next chapter of ex nihilo and oh boy, it's not easy, my outline is so disorganised and i forgot about some stuff i included in the early chapters, it's terrible

but i'm having fun! so here we go, the clarifications on terms i've been using in my fic:

House: Magical family recognised by the government. In Magical Britain - also called Albion by the most old-fashioned-, it is generally used for Houses with a title or connexion to the Lordly Council and later the Wizengamot.

Clan: Magical community with common ancestry that is recognised by its government. The clan’s head acts like a Head of House. 

Coven: Old magical practice dated from the times before the construction of the first magical schools and institutes, consisting of wixen of the same religions and practices gathering to perform magic, socialise and educate their youngest members. While it is still common to form covens in some places, most magical communities only form temporary covens to perform rituals.

Ancient House/Clan: House/Clan whose lineage can be traced more than forty generations. They were given seats on the Lordly Council after the extinction of several Noble Houses and Clans during the reign of William the Conqueror to compensate for the induction of French Houses into the Council and maintain a native majority

Noble House/Clan: In Magical Britain, it designates a House or Clan that was granted a seat on the Lordly Council of Albion. It tends to refer to similar positions of power in other magical communities.

Ancient and Noble House/Clan: In Magical Britain, it refers to a House old enough to have sworn allegiance and been titled by the Pendragon dynasty before its extinction in the sixth century. Exceptions are noted for Houses like the Malfoys, Rosiers, Sinclairs and Lestranges who came from France with their titles and Houses that merged with Ancient and Noble British Houses but kept their names like Houses Nott and Potter.

Lordly Council of Albion: Founded after the deaths of Arthur and Mordred Pendragon (marking the end of the last Magical Dynasty of Albion in the 6th century) out of the survivors of the Knights of the Round Table, it was the sole mode of magical government on the Isle until its dissolution in the 18th Century following the civil war started in opposition of the Dark Lord Ramsey Lestrange. It was repurposed into the Wizengamot and the position of Minister of Magic was created to work alongside it.

#i had to research so much british history for this #but i'm very proud of my ideas for the french houses #so the timeline is like: pendagrons with united magical-muggle britain #then the muggle cerdic dynasty which the lordly council pretended didn't exist #then william the conqueror shows up with french wizards and forces their integration into his reign #until the status of secrecy is implemented in the seventeenth century #where the lordly council gets really high and mighty now that they don't have to play nice with muggles #resulting in the birth of a lestrange dark lord #and a civil war #which ends with the creation of the minister of magic #ex nihilo au #tya rambles #tya writes