Secretly Special

I am art. I am my own invention.

[foldingfittedsheets]

I redid this older comic I made for my storytelling class based on this post. Have some cute wlw love in your day.

It’s hard, if I had more free time I could make it so pretty, this is what I could throw together for the assignment.

[pigeonsuffers]

get your man

[rivennell]

has anyone done this one yet

[clickbeetle]

a lot of pieces of media will show characters catching fireflies with just their bare hands. in some cases they will just land on the persons fingers. to gently be placed inside of a jar..

for people who live in areas who don’t have fireflies, i want you to know that is not made up or exaggerated for those scenes. fireflies are really like that. they are slow and not cautious at all. while camping i would just walk up to one flying in the air and grab it. and it would sit on my hands like “oh ok.” they are my friends.

[clickbeetle]

also i think it’s funny when fireflies are portrayed as round light bulb-ish shapes. they are skinny.

[clickbeetle]

also their butts are yellow even when not lit up. they’re not just all black until suddenly lighting up yellow! they always got little yellow asses!

[clickbeetle]

they are such friends

[exceptionerroralex]

fireflies our beloveds <3

[toasty-bat]

Thought people might appreciate this video I got of a firefly that landed on my mom’s ring and sat there flashing for about a good minute or two. They really are just like that

[laru-0]

[wilwheaton]

(via isr0uf83q8d81.png (456×810))

[ragsy]

Having a totally normal one at work today

[ragsy]

Looks like the jury's in on this one

[gallusrostromegalus]

Do you work in a Rock Library or something?

Do people come to your place of work and check out assorted rocks to enjoy at home? A Public Rock Archive??

[headspace-hotel]

How does one get a job at the rock library. Asking for a friend.

[pipistrellus]

One time I brought one of my rocks with me on a plane to touch to calm me down during the flight, but it fell out of my pocket on my way back to the bathroom and then as soon as i realized this they actually announced “did anyone lose…… . A rock” over the loudspeaker system.

When I went up to claim it the plane man, clearly unable to throw off the shackles of his training in the procedure of asking for people’s full names and birthdates when they come to claim wallets, said “wait no, first tell me what color it is so I know it’s really yours”

He seemed to realize this was stupid directly after saying it and kind of smiled like to make it a joke but the joke was on him bc I Described the fucking rock to him for like 30 solid seconds

…anyway. that was an interaction I had once

[pipistrellus]

this is like the only viral post that i dont regret making at ALL

[monosrojo]

i always think of the successors when i listen to this song

[skygemspeaks]

someone recommend me some good fantasy books that aren’t centred on a war, please, my crops are dying

[ninja-muse]

The Greta Helsing novels by Vivian Shaw - practical doctor to the undead defeats mildly ominous interdimensional threats with the aid of domestic vampires and a demon accountant.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley - practical baker is captured by vampires, escapes, reluctantly teams up with better vampire to kill the bad one.

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones - young hat maker ages 60 years overnight, proceeds to upend the life of a disaster wizard while learning self-confidence.

the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett - hard to encapsulate, but equally funny and hard-hitting, tackling race and gender and corruption and other forms of inequality while also, like, making fun of post offices and Hollywood and Shakespeare. Three or four tackle war, true, but there’s something like 35 others to choose from.

the Accidental Turn series by J.M. Frey - recent Ph.D of colour lands in the Fantasyland™ she did her thesis on, goes off about agency and diversity while recovering from the Dark Lord’s attentions and learning the truth about her fictional crush.

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire - evil alchemist creates superpowered children to assist world takeover; children just want to be a family; family is complicated.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik - young woman takes over family business, must outwit fairies with a love of gold.

the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede - princess runs away to become a dragon’s housekeeper, fights off rescuers, solves problems large and small, melts wizards.

the October Daye novels by Seanan Mcguire - Half-fae detective solves murders, finds missing persons, develops found family, can’t stop self from upending the social order.

The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker - A quiet golem, a tempestuous djinn, Gilded Age New York. Immigrants, identity, friendship, hope, and self-discovery.

An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard - A witch from an outsider House enters New York’s magical Hunger Games, to prove a point. The problems of magic were not intended.

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes - Part-time con artist gets hired to find two missing pop stars, with the help of the magical sloth on her back. Noir ensues.

Child of a Hidden Sea by A.M. Dellamonica - Nature photographer lands on water-world, discovers lost family, tries to convince self magic is impossible.

Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips - Greek gods, washed up in North London, curse Apollo to fall for the cleaner. Existential crisis, meet rom-com.

Among Others by Jo Walton - Loner teen sent to boarding school, discovers science fiction, might know fairies and do magic.

[hermitknut]

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton - Austenesque story except all the characters are dragons.

Every Heart a Doorway (and sequels) by Seanan McGuire - the children of portal fantasy end up in boarding school coping with being kicked out of their various worlds, then some of them start getting murdered. 

The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan - the world is flooded, there’s a lady who works with a bear at a circus that sails to different places to perform, and a lady who is sort of an undertaker, and they fall in love

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees - there are fairies but no one talks about them anymore because That’s Just Not How We Are except this state of affairs cannot possibly last and people start getting lured to fairyland

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison - fifth son of emperor who’s lived his whole life away from court abruptly becomes emperor when his father and older brothers are killed in an accident, spends entire book trying to make friends and figure how the fuck to do a) confidence and b) ruling ethically

The Various by Steven Augarde - girl spends summer at uncle’s farm, finds the group of “various” (no direct parallel, but think somewhere between gnomes and pixies) that live in the woods, mysterious history, flying horse, The Cat Is Evil (this is technically middle grade but it’s so good I can’t even)

Turning Darkness Into Light by Marie Brennan - working on the translation of an ancient text is complicated when it might have a huge impact on the public perception of a highly stigmatised group; subterfuge, found family, mythology, and the rejection of men who steal other people’s work. 

[vr-trakowski]

So You Want to Be a Wizard or Stealing the Elf-King’s Roses by Diane Duane.  

Tam Lin, Juniper Gentian and Rosemary, and The Secret Country by Pamela Dean (all different stories).  

The Spellkey by Ann Downer.  

Swordheart  or Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher.  

The Curse of Chalion or the Penric series by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Green Year Dragonfly by Kaye Bellot.  

[blueelectricangels]

If by “no war” you mean “no or not focused on violence”:

The Terrier/Bloodhound/Mastiff series by Tamora Pierce Teenage former street rat aspires to and joins law enforcement in pseudo-medieval fantasy land, proves to have moral code forged of adamantium and more determination than an entire battalion. Also talks to unquiet ghosts carried by pigeons.

the Winding Circle books by Tamora Pierce (with the exception of Battle Magic) Four teenagers are snatched from the jaws of peril, discover they have incredibly strong yet overlooked magical powers, slowly become a found family, survive an earthquake, pirates, forest fires, plague, and puberty.

The Keeper Chronicles, by Tanya Huff Magic user accidentally gets roped into running a boarding house in Toronto. The decor is from the 50s, the handyman is an incredibly handsome and pureminded myopic Newfoundlander, and there is a (literal) portal to Hell in the basement. The third book adds lesbians and a mall that eats street kids to the mix. (Enchantment Emporium and its sequels are in the same world btw)

——————————————————————

If by “no war” you legitimately just mean that war is not the driving plot force:

the Hawk and Fisher books by Simon R Green  Fairytale-destined prince and princess decide that destiny is bullshit, ditch their kindgoms, become the only honest pseudo-cops in fantasy-Gotham because strangely being a prince/princess doesn’t actually give you life skills that are not applicable to being a mercenary. Buildings eat people, gods are murdered, street drugs turn people into animals, Hawk and Fisher are so very tired.

Oath of Swords and its sequels, by David Weber

Guy from a species generally (unfairly) derided by “civilized people” as barbaric and evil thinks he’s going mad, but actually he’s been chosen as paladin by a god and he’s just stubbornly refusing to listen. Continues to go off and do heroic shit while doing the equivalent of jamming his fingers in his ears and saying “LA LA LA”. This does absolutely nothing to dissuade the god in question.

[uovoc]

The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner A thief’s prison sentence is cut short when he is sent on a mission to steal an important (and magical?) object for the King. BIG plot twist at the end. Imagine going on a fun road trip through the fantasy pseudo-Byzantine Empire, except that all your fellow travelers have their own secret agendas.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, by Catherine Webb  In this universe, there are a handful of time travelers –  people who are forced to live the same life over and over, retaining their memories with each rebirth.  As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside with the following message: the end of the world is getting faster.

Dark Lord of Derkholm, by Diana Wynne Jones The citizens of a fantasy world are getting really tired of being overrun by non-magical tourists from our world. This year, the role of Evil Wizard falls to Derk, who wants nothing more than to be left in peace on his farm/magical genetic engineering laboratory. Derk’s 2 human children, 5 griffin children, and 1 enchantress wife feel much the same. Wouldn’t it be a shame if someone were to sabotage this planet’s shitty contract once and for all? 

[yggidee]

(For personal records)

[marzipanandminutiae]

The Athena Club series, by Theodora Goss Daughters and/or female creations of mad scientists from 19th-century literature team up to figure out what their “fathers” were up to and what, exactly, the secret society that seems to control all such experiments intends to do next. Sort of an all-female League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, in the best way. Kind of an odd frame narrative, but you get used to it pretty quickly.

[carry-on-wayward-sister]

The Ruby Red Trilogy by Kerstin Gier

Love, Time travel, secret societies, and a dark secret at the heart of a prophecy.

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

A hidden world of magic wielders in modern day Ireland, a skeleton detective and his associate solving crimes, a race of Gods trying to conquer the world, and a dark prophecy declaring the end of all things. This one does have battles in every book but it isn’t your classical war.

Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver

Set in a time when the woods were still dark and dangerous (European Bronze Age, most likely Finland), a boy and his wolf friend have to survive beasts and other clans. Includes Demons, Soul Eaters, Spirit Walkers, and Changelings.

[deadbeatmaker]

making art is just like showering………can’t get up and do it, can’t stop when you’ve started. you want to crawl out of your skin if you don’t do it often enough. everything in the world is the exact same

[phoenixbastet]

Show me what you are made of.

Near by me.

Mello by https://instagram.com/chaotic_gold?utm_medium=copy_link

Ph by https://vk.com/silina_black

Edit by https://vk.com/id4296100

[antaarf]

Based on text  ♥ Commissions info ♥ My gallery ♥ My twitter ♥ Support me on Patreon

[phoenixbastet]

String of Fate.

Cosplay by me.

Ph by https://vk.com/silina_black

Edit by https://vk.com/id4296100 / https://instagram.com/jaywanmei?utm_medium=copy_link

[lokiloo-blog]

I hate hate HATE all those 2edgy 4me theories about kids shows. Like Angelica dreaming up the rugrats, or the ed, edd, and eddy children being ghosts, or literally anything that takes a lighthearted and fun kids show and has to turn it into some tragic take of rape or murder or misinformed mental illness. So you know what? From now on I’m gonna do the exact opposite. Every cool grim-dark show is now because of a bunch of children. To get us started: Game of Thrones: A middle-school DnD campaign with the most angry, vindictive DM who has promised to kill everyone’s player characters (and their family) by the end.

[werewolfxo-moved-deactivated202]

The Walking Dead is actually a bunch of kids playing zombie apocalypse in their neighborhood and every time someone “dies,” it’s because their parents called them home for supper.

[transselkie]

Breaking Bad is actually just a fanfic the students in Mr. White’s class write about him because no one has any idea what he does with his free time and the running jokes about it got wildly out of hand.

[hellenhighwater]

I showered, got ready for bed, booted up laptop #3 for job #3, and was suddenly struck by the sudden urge to paint. So then I went and fetched a spare black canvas from the garage attic, found some chalk, and gave myself half an hour to get the idea roughed out. And also got paint on my bathrobe, dangit. 

And bonus, the supurrvisors. 

[headspace-hotel]

dear diary: I hope the two girls that helped me carry my groceries back to my dorm today have had a good day. i was carrying all my grocery bags all the way across campus with all my smoothies and juices in them. “I am fine!” i said. “I am handling this perfectly.” this was not in fact the case. smoothies and juices are very heavy. why are the good things in life heavy? i was carrying them by looping some of the bags over my shoulders and carrying them under my arms, like a very sad pony, and holding the others in my hands, and kind of slowly waddling across the campus. my professor for my class tomorrow saw me and waved very awkwardly. it is not his fault. we have no predetermined social protocol for greeting someone who is very confidently in distress. i considered, briefly, attempting to drink as much of the orange juice as possible to lessen my burden. this did not seem like a good idea for intuitive reasons. “I am forever indebted to you,” i said to the girls who helped me carry the groceries. I have prosopagnosia (faceblindness) but i tried to remember their faces VERY hard, so I can appear in their hour of need.

i also hope the walmart delivery lady has had a good day. she looked very tired when i met her on the far end of campus so i did not tell her where my dorm was (on the other side of campus) (far). “i can handle this!” i told her very confidently. “it is not that far.” This was what I could do for her. I hope she gets some rest soon. I hope we all do.