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Cosmic Funnies
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TVSTRANGERTHINGS

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One Nice Bug Per Day
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Kiana Khansmith

if i look back, i am lost

祝日 / Permanent Vacation

tannertan36
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Peter Solarz

Love Begins
Misplaced Lens Cap
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he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
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@magellanicclouds
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You ever wake up and just
One of my entries for potluck2024. Got home today and wrote again. It's not a happy piece. Spartan Thorne, grief, and the long process of picking up pieces and looking for answers where there are none.
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No one talks about the mundane grief that comes with navigating estates after losing loved ones. Months or years after the person is gone, and you're still picking up the pieces. Still getting messages, reminders, memories, that come and go as if blown on the wind or personally delivered via Waypoint to let you know you owe someone money. There's no such thing as tying up loose ends when it comes to people's lives. There's always another thread to find, and Thorne has found they will find you and trip you up when you least expect it.
7 million people suffered a fate worse than death in New Phoenix, became the very things Thorne has had to fight, and now he was getting letters about a price hike on a storage unit thousands of miles away.
He had kept his grandmother's house. Grant had been right, it was amazing that he had a physical place to go back to, to remember them by. There had been a will and that saved him some headaches, but it wasn't updated. No one expected an attack on Earth, for the sky to open up and 7 million souls to vanish in the span of an hour. He hadn't expected to find the violin in the garden 6 months later when the city reopened.
He hadn't expected the house unchanged.
*reads your URL*
Oh yeah. Path Kethona.
Which Magellanic Cloud?
The big one or the little one?
Full honesty - I wish I was so clever to have chosen this url as a deep lore Halo reference, considering the content of my blog. But it was actually just a happy accident. I had originally wanted to use a name I otherwise go by - Volantis (genitive form of the constellation Piscis Volans; represented by my icon: a celestial flying fish), but it was already taken. What got me to magellanicclouds though was a song. 'Large Magellanic Cloud' is the title of a gorgeous piece of music from a computer game I enjoyed for a long time called Starbound, and it began playing on a randomized winamp playlist while I was thinking of an alternative name to the ones I couldn't have. So to answer the question: the big one. ' v ' Greg Bear and I are high-fiving in another life.
Quick sketch of my favourite Forgotten Realms character - current Lord of the Dead, Kelemvor Lyonsbane. When he was still mortal he was a werepanther. Such as it goes.
All the pain he suffered in life couldn't take away his love and compassion and I think that's very cash money of him.
What the hell, it's my blog and I can post snippets since the brain is letting writing happen.
Roland's chapter of Morbid Curiosity is going to be very inspired by a certain bot and construct dynamic duo. Also vocab stolen from Gaia HFW
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"I'm not human. I'm made from mapping a human brain and using that neural imprint as a basis for my heuristic matrix. I think like a human only in that I can problem solve and create solutions from extrapolated data. I'm a fancy management system with access to all of recorded history available in various archives stored on this ship. I still need context."
Miller doesn't look convinced.
"I can read every word written in every language in the various sociology, psychology, and anthropology modules, but without human emotional context, without examples, I am observing and making informed estimations a million times a second."
And I'm trying my best, Roland doesn't add.
"So you're guessing?" Miller looks.... Roland doesn't know. He's got his brow furrowed and he said the words both like a dig at Roland and a realization. His vitals are still elevated and he keeps chewing his lip.
Miller fidgets. That's something Roland has observed. But this Miller, here and now, is self-destructive and unpredictable. This Miller has new human behaviors not exhibited in front of Roland before. Not aimed at Roland before. He's stuck making guesses when he is on the other end of the conflict. Miller is both his enemy and ally in this. They are each other's confidants.
"Guessing is reductive, but sure. I'm making highly complex guesses based on all the variables available to me."
"So when you-" Miller takes forever to choose his words.
Roland already has a good guess of what he's taking about. There's only one thing it could be.
"-when you grabbed them. You were guessing."
It hurts.
The way he says it. The memory it brings back to the forefront of Roland's processor, the one he'd been trying to quash down and run from. The ache in his very being at the reminder of the harm he'd done. The exchange he made. One dying Spartan for another.
He bears the brunt of Miller's accusation for five whole seconds. It burns. Perhaps Miller isn't the only self-destructive party.
"I made a choice. I took a calculated risk and now we're here."
He gestures with his avatar, one hand motioning out from his chest to Miller's.
Miller who turns and paces. His hand goes to his pocket again.
Roland knows there's a lighter in there, old fashioned make of metal and accelerant. Along with contraband cigarettes that Miller has been smoking at an alarming rate.
"Miller can't sleep and Roland doesn't need to."
Really loved working on this moody piece of local chew toy, Jared Miller, and his new roommate Roland, commissioned by @poisonheadcrabsalesman ' v '
Thank you so much again, Stumpy!
(Quote is from Morbid Curiosity, written by Stumpy)
Sketch commission headshot icon completed for @kogo-dogo of their Morrowind character, Dasrazel.
Thank you so much! ' v '
My Ko-Fi
@fablepatron is our next potluck spotlight! They're an awesome artist who bravely toils in the mines of realism and sci-fi armor. Not the DeMarco guy and potentially Orange-Yellow colorblind, they will commit to a bit harder than anyone else. Check them out on tumblr and ko-fi!
@thehushedcasket is our next spotlight! He's the awesome guy behind @siofra-river and @haloreferences and more! A versatile artist, Niles is always experimenting and pushing the boundaries and changing up his style. Check him out here on tumblr!
@magellanicclouds is an absolute gem! Starting off our spotlight series strong with a master of anatomy and one of the sweetest people I've had the luck to meet! You can find her here on tumblr as well as her ko-fi.
At the End of the Game
A short writing contribution for Potluck 2024!
I'm kind of obsessed with the fucked up, sibling-adjacent relationship that John, Cortana, and Miranda share. I got the impression, too, that they knew each other before the awards ceremony in Halo 2, so this explores some of that.
Halsey is not the Spartans' mom, but she sacrificed her daughter to give them the care and attention she was not giving her. Cortana is not flesh-and-blood, but she came from Halsey, so what does that make her? Her sister, her daughter, her clone? Miranda should be the easiest to define, but her relationship with her mother tests the tension between biological truth, and when neglect negates any claim to parenthood. In Halsey's efforts to spare them, to keep them close and preserve them, she failed them all.
Morbid Curiosity
The invasion of the Infinity by Prometheans and M’dama’s troops left its scars on all of the crew, but two members are hiding under the weight of secrets and it’s eating away at them both.Â
Warnings for descriptions of the aftermath of AI possession on bodies, minor character death, description of a character having a panic attack, mentions of blood and injuries.
Technically a followup to Boarding Action and Spray n Pray. Part 3ish of our Brain Bleed verse
Keep reading
Hey there! It's the second annual potluck! We're going for two weeks this time! It's the same as last year and open to everyone.
Are you interested in participating in those cool events people organize, but struggle to fit them in your schedule? Check this out!
What is it?
It's an open event that's low stakes, low effort, and lets everyone bring something to the table. Instead of doing a gift exchange or limiting the topic to one fandom, we've decided to throw a potluck!
Make something new, bring something old back, or comment and reblog. It's about having fun and uplifting each other. We're going to use the #potluck2024 to have people show off.
Who can participate?
It's open to everyone: Artists, Gif Makers, Editors, Writers, and Lurkers.
What do I bring?
Whatever you want! Make something for yourself, bring something to attack others with, comment on that art/fic you love revisiting, make recs, gifs, art, words, edits, you name it! WIPs welcome!
This has started! Anyone can participate by posting a new post tagged with #potluck2024 or by reblogging, recommending, replying, or liking anyone's creations! Check out the tag and spread some positivity!
if you're feeling powerless right now—and god knows I am—here's a reminder you can donate to the National Network of Abortion Funds, the Trans Law Center, Gaza Soup Kitchen, the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, and hundreds of other charities that will work to mitigate the damage that has been and will continue to be inflicted
life continues. we still have the capacity to do good, important work. that matters
BG3 PALADIN ROUNDUP!
Look, I love me a paladin. I love my paladin, I love other people’s paladins. If you have a paladin Tav (or Durge!) share them with me?
I’ll start!
Name: Demagh (Dem) Tav
(Bronze) Dragonblooded sorcerer/Paladin, 1/2 drow and the other half is orc/elf/dragon/human. Yeah.
Oath: Ancients
Deity/Order/etc: Serves the Order of the Silver Dark, followers of the syncretic Eilistraee/Vhaeraun “Masked Lady”
Additional: romanced Halsin, will never lecture you about mushroom based necromancy, ex-husband was a bhaalspawn. Terrible with money and tendency to give away most of his stuff to people he thinks need it more. Makes some breathtakingly terrible decisions with his dick. Not actually religious, but his god believes in HIM, so that’s Good enough.
Loves: his brothers, animals of all sorts.
Hates: the zhentarim, the cult of bhaal, anyone who abuses power
Name: Amadeus (Demi) Tenebral
Drow bhaalspawn (and in some iterations/my personal canon aasimar)
Oath: Ancients
Deity/Order/etc: A paladin of Selune, he's affiliated with the Moon Knights, but I could also see him championing a new formation of the Guardians of Light
Additional: he's been an Oathbreaker on multiple occasions and has been dragging himself kicking and screaming down the path of redemption. to his goddess, yes, but also to his family: his mother, his sisters, his brother. His first oathbreak was to them, after all.
Loves: his family, Wyll, owls, Selune, hot chocolate (and blood but he's trying to get himself off that one), his sword (Phalar Aluve in bg3 canon but post game he gets his own Holy Avenger that he names Silverwing)
Hates: his 'father', Gortash and the rest of the Baneites, Shar, and I wouldn't say he hates it but he's not overly fond of hot weather and sunlight
Name: Kellath (Kellathriel Stillnight) Wood Elf, Doomguide Paladin
Oath: Oath of Vengeance
Deity/Order/etc: Kelemvor, Lord of the Dead - The Great Guide
Additional: Born a child of Silvanus in a Druid Circle in the Misty Forest. He was the only survivor of a raid that ended in his Circle slaughtered. He sought answers from Silvanus, but received silence. Taking pity on him, a Fae creature led him to the steps of an isolated Temple of Kelemvor to seek guidance. After years of study, he underwent the divine rites of a Doomguide, and is powerfully devoted to Kelemvor. He is good natured and calm, often smiling, occasionally flirtatious, but extremely dedicated to his god, tenants, and faith. He underwent an Oath of Vengeance to aid the ignored, lost, and forgotten, and commits to every pursuit, showing no mercy. The tattoo from his lip down his chin is a mark of his Kelemvorite rites, and is made with ink he ground and poured himself - it contains ashes from his deceased family's bones.
Loves: Though often strict and serious, he is multitudes - He appreciates good drink, a good laugh, and quiet reading. Orange sunlight at the end of the day. Rain and snow. Stargazing and bathing in waterfalls. Meaningful, but casual, intimacy.
Hates: Dishonesty and lack of conviction. Uncharitable behaviour. Practitioners of Necromancy. And though he doesn't 'hate' them, he has no appreciation for large cities, finery or excess.