I know unicorns in modern media are kind of relegated to cutsie, MLP, rainbow plastic toys, or shitting rainbows, 'lets go to candy mountain' but man. I WISH more fantasy media would put them in unironically. There is so much symbolic and narrative potential in a creature that is, depending on your mythology:
A guardian of wild spaces, the embodiment of nature untouched by mankind's industry and greed. Fewer and farther between.
The ideal of "Purity" made manifest, elusive and powerful and hunted for fruitlessly by many a person. To kill. To actually kill. Living symbol of the oh-so-coveted Purity, not treated as a sacred thing to protect, or even predated for food to survive off, but a trophy for knights and lords to boast about.
So absolutely fierce and deadly that no one smart dared to fight it fairly. A gentle maiden had to betray it into resting in her lap so that a man could spear it while its guard was down.
Able to heal any wound no matter how severe - it promised miracles, if you could find one.
A creature who's magic vanished if it was captured or killed. In trying to take control of it, you destroyed it. Some things can only be given by free will, and no amount of personal desire or brute force can change that.
Playing ffxiv as a traditional Keeper of the Moon who worshiped Menphina, goddess of the moons, is great actually bc you find out that the first moon. Which explodes. Was actually a space ship with an angry god trapped inside.
But the second moon? Also a space ship with an angry god trapped inside.
Hey guys. I'm sick as a dog and don't have the energy to do much rn. Please make my day brighter by sharing pics of your blorbos, whether they're ocs or from a game/show/whatever! And maybe a little bit about them & why you love them? 🥺
Been going back and forth over whether to post anything online about the state of things in my life. But I think I've finally found a place of relative stability and had a chance to process things, so for anyone curious, here's what's eaten up my time and energy the last few months:
I moved across the country! I'm living with my partner after ~6 years of dating long distance, and it's been amazing. I've found a decent paying job that I think I'll enjoy, which can accommodate my disability. I've found an LGBTQA+-friendly church that's been a welcoming and positive space.
My mom was very unhappy about my decision to move, and showed her whole entire ass about it.
Long version under the cut:
I moved because my apartment complex came under new management and my lease renewal letter came in at a $700/mo increase, making it frankly unsustainable to live there. The state does not have any rent control laws so, yeah, it was legal to do that.
My "helpful" family wanted me to move into an apartment owned by a relative, who was willing to evict the tenant currently living there to do it. I decided I was tired of living in a small, dead-end town, wasn't super comfortable using nepotism to kick someone else out of their apartment, and after talking things out with salt, decided now was a good time to move up with him and make a go of things.
My possessive and controlling mother did not like my decision. She took me moving away as some kind of personal attack, and in a fit of spite, outed me to my extremely homophobic grandma. She was outraged. Extended-family-wide upheaval ensued. My mom knew that it would.
My mom cycled through a lot of different faces after that. She blamed me, said it was inevitable, said she was protecting me (???), said she was just caught in the middle and my grandma was being nosy, said I had no right to be upset. Made phobic comments, insulted me. I cut contact. Then I had other family members coming to me to tell me how bad my mom felt about what she'd done and that I should reach out to her because she was so sad and having such a hard time being estranged from me. I eventually took a call from her again, and she threw herself a pity party and told me all about what a horrible, unforgivable person she was who couldn't change and didn't want to. She told me she knew being so involved in family drama was toxic for her, actively making her a worse person and hurting her relationships with other people, but if she had to choose between having a relationship with her mother, or having a relationship with me, she was choosing her mother.
I accepted her choice. I don't really know why it had to be a binary. I don't know why she couldn't just say sorry. I think she wanted me to argue with her, or tell her that I understood and still wanted her in my life. Having seen her shuffle through masks like a kid at a carnival, none of it felt very sincere. I was in the middle of trying to pack up my entire life when she brought this shit show down on me, and didn't really have the bandwidth. And frankly, I'm 30 years old and I'm a little worn out on everything being about my mom, and my mom's feelings, and my mom's desires. In a lot of ways, it just made leaving easier.
And then it was a two-day drive across the country after meeting salt at the airport, and a flurry of job searching, routine re-organizing, and taking time to breathe.
Things have been really good with salt. I'm happy here, I'm optimistic about where my life is going, in spite of all the uncertainty in the world at large. When I pray I feel comforted, a lot of things have worked out way better than I could have even imagined, and now that I'm getting my feet back under me, I'm finally having the energy to be creative again.
Thinking about G'raha and Emet at the climax of Shadowbringers, mmm there’s too many words, let’s see...
Emet freaks out the way he does and reverts back into mask-up genocidal self-righteous rage-monster mode because he thinks you’re going to die. Become a sin eater consumed by Light. You were his friend in the world unsundered, even though you don’t remember him now, and your soul is just going to be obliterated, there will be no saving it. He accepts this as inevitable, he’s too hurt to hope for anything else. You’re already gone in his mind. He’s going to do what he has to do, to end this broken world and save the rest of his people, even though it means losing you. The angst of that gets me every time.
And then there’s G'raha. Who was also your friend in disguise, working alongside you to save the world. Just like Emet, G'raha's a dear companion from another life who’s true face you weren’t able to see, who’s name they would not tell you, but who loves you still and hopes you might save the world.
The moment Emet-Selch gives in to grief and decides you can’t be saved is the same moment Graha commits to sacrificing himself to save you.
Emet prevents G'raha from doing that. And takes him captive. And the days that follow where the rest of your friends are desperately trying to preserve your life, G'raha does not know if you are ok.
But he does not give up.
He knows you are doomed, just as much as Emet does. But unlike Emet, Graha does not give up.
He fights for you, for the world, for a future, against Emet in the Tempest with no certainty that you are even still alive, and no reason to believe anyone will rescue him, and no second chance for any of it if you are gone.
But you come for him. You come for him bleeding Light and barely able to stand but you also did not give up. Both of you are defiant in the face of Emet’s despair. Graha is bloody and beaten from days of abuse, far from his tower, and still finds it in himself to summon aid for you when you make your final stand against Emet for the fate of a dying world.
And ultimately you triumph over the Light, you defeat Emet, you give hope back to the entire broken world and most importantly... you are not going to die. And neither is Graha.
And I just... cannot imagine how hard that realization is going to hit G'raha. After days in basically hell, not knowing, not giving in, you showed up like the hero he always believed you to be but even more, and you brought him home again, and you’re alive.
When the adrenaline and exhaustion fades... It must hit hard enough to be its own wound. He must break down sobbing. You cannot feel so much relief and stay on your feet. All that he hoped against hope for came to pass, and he loves you and you’re still alive.
An illustration by me every year from 2010-2023. Sometimes I look at my older stuff and feel like I've stagnated, or even gotten worse. But though progress isn't always perfectly linear, having things lined up like this makes it a lot easier to appreciate how much I'm still growing overall!
