The Big Night Cat Only Eats Bluefin Tuna

A moment of silence for all the pens (and erasers) people have lost this way.

what little we know of tilla we know at least she was fully willing to let some random teenager she didnt know borrow her duel disk. im going to mark her down as the kind of person who lost a lot of pens from lending them out in high school, but will still hand you one without hesitation if you ask.

Ah! I don't know how I missed this, but here's the first line from 'One Dragon, Half a Dragon'

"It was cold in the vault; that was the first thing he felt upon waking up."

I have a lot of WIPs in the same world and it was kinda hard to pick, but I like this one.

I honestly don't know who else to tag here

First Lines Tag

Rules: Post the first few lines from one of your WIPs; this could be first sentences of the whole story, a chapter of your choice, or just from the most recent writing session.

Tagged by @joswriting—thank you!

Okay I'm finally going to stop calling it 'Mystery WIP'; here's the first line from my mermaid story Ichorfall, set in the same universe as Echoes of the Etan and The House of Akreios!:

Freedom was a breath away, but I felt that I had been holding mine for aeons.

Tagging @akiwitch, @the-down-upside-finch, @theaistired, @lexiklecksi, @charlies-storybook, @kaylinalexanderbooks, @amaiguri, & @caitlin-devlin—no pressure!

So, unfortunately, I don't have visuals of the uniforms at the moment, but I can describe them well enough until i get visuals.

Some context: im giving y'all the uniforms for the Ojalana Empire, since that is the main setting for my story. Since the rulers of the Ojalana Empire are more paranoid than is strictly healthy, and the Empire is not currently at war, most soldiers are stationed in or around the capitol-Jackal Quartz- so their uniforms are less combat uniforms and more formal/dress uniforms.

All of that out of the way, I'll start from the top down.

The top begins wit a simple black undershirt with puffed sleeves and cuffs that close with gold buttons. Layered on top of this is a waistcoat with a turtleneck. This waistcoat is also boned all the way around with slim bones made from stripped feather quills. The waistcoat is gold with 13 black fabric buttons.

The bottoms of the uniform are knee length black shorts that are built like slacks, with pockets in the normal position and of normal construction. These are paired with black and gold riding boots with red laces.

Where the uniforms really shine is in how they distinguish between different ranks of the military. Different ranks are distinguished by tie on skirts or capes of different colors and embroidered with patterns chosen by the wearer. The tie-on skirts are built like half aprons, just more full.

There are 3 main ranks of the military:

Pawns, which have sky blue skirts/capes with gold embroidery. These are the shortest skirts/capes

Knights, which have rich maroon skirts/capes with silver embroidery these are a bit longer than the pawn skirt/capes

Rooks, which have white skirts/capes with silver embroidery. These are the longest skirt/capes.

The military is incredibly fastidious, to the point where a single wrinkle can get you dress coded

@nerdexer there, my matchy matchy uniform ranty.

Akard is my favorite character over all, so the title of favorite antagonist has to go to wadikir.

Favorite Character Poll (Antagonist Edition)

I was kinda (but not really) tagged by @illarian-rambling.

I'm curious to see who y'all vote as your favorite villain/antagonist from Testaments is.

Descriptions Below!

Hutbari

The Usurper, in his youth he was handsome, strong, and charismatic. Using these traits he usurped the throne of Labisa, chasing the current king into exile, killing the crown prince, and culling any lords that did not agree with his rule. The past king just so happened to be Hutbari's brother, Kurush. While initially popular, he grew lazy and greedy, becoming increasingly careless with his use of the city's funds and his treatment of the hinterlands. He is a womanizing, greedy layabout, only those lords who have managed to wriggle into his good graces actually appreciate his rule. Poverty is worse than it has ever been. monsters are terrorising the hinterlands, and yet Hutbari continues his frivolous parades. Major Henry VIII vibes. He is the one that through years of emotional abuse, has made Narul the self-loathing and anxious wreck that he is.

Akard

Hutbari's past coming back to bite him in the ass. The child of the exiled Kurush, Akard swore vengeance on Hutbari. He lead a coup on Labisa, killing Hutbari and all but one of his children, Ninma. He is the opposite of Hutbari. Akard is noble and clever, beloved by his people. He is driven by an ambition to repair the perceived mistakes of his ancestors. Ultimately he aims to reunite the city-states of Kishetal back into one kingdom. Cyrus and Alexander the Great Vibes. He is more of an antagonist than a straight up villain, if it wasn't for the fact that he has a vested interest in killing Ninma, he would probably be considered a good(ish) guy.

Zatar

Once a street urchin, Zatar is now a merciless warrior, the most deadly in all of Kishetal. He is practically a force of nature. He takes great pleasure in killing and excels at it. He has no loyalty except to Akard, to whom he has an almost fanatic appreciation bordering on infatuation. Zatar, called The Wrath, strikes terror into the heart of any warrior or army that faces him. Zatar is one of the few people, by themselves, that could kill Narul with relative ease.

Barunaki

Barunaki is king of the city of Bur, a vassal of Labisa. He is a grizzled old warrior, mind sharpened by years of fighting off Makurian raiders. He was integral in helping Akard plan and carry out his coup. It was Barunaki, without Akard's permission, who led a group of soldiers to the palace, and slaughtered Hutbari's wives and children (Ninma was sparred only because she had accompanied her father to the festival and Narul saved her.) It was also Barunaki who planted the seeds of paranoia in Akard's head that led to him spending the years hunting Ninma.

Wadikir

Wadikir is the leading member of the council of merchants, the Bidani, that controls the city-state of Chibal. He is clever and charming, though incredibly vain. He dresses in silver and silk and has a taste for expensive wine. He has a proclivity for stabbing people in the back, including Narul and Ninma when they visit his city. He is self-centred and smug, and constantly believes he is the smartest person in the room. Picture Evil(er) Elon Musk, but give him more charisma and make him ambiguously queer.

The Deep Sun

An ancient demon, born of a nature spirit which fed and desecrated souls of his fellow spirits, collected as fuel for a human doomsday bunker for the wealthy and powerful during the apocalyptic events of The Calamity. He snuck into their bunker and consumed the energy of the murdered spirits, in the process growing vastly more powerful and changing into a conglomeration of different spiritual energies. He would then spend the next several millennia terrorizing the occupants of the bunker. Drowning them in darkness, destroying their food, turning them in time to the mindless and cannibalistic, Kosheki. He is their only source of light, their god. Before the Kosheki lost the ability to speak, they gave him the name, Deep Sun. The Deep Sun and his Kosheki have been praying on the ships and sailors who dare to come to close to their island for centuries.

Batricca

Batricca is the Immortal Queen of the Empire of the Batri, far to the north. Long ago she was part of an orchestrated attempt by her grandfather to create an heir by forcing his daughter to bear a spiritblood child. Batricca's mother died in childbirth and her grandfather was disappointed to find that the resulting demigod child was a girl. Batricca was given the same name as her dead mother. Batricca was initially intended to be married off in order to bolster her grandfather's influence. Instead she killed her grandfather and her husband to be. Following this, as the new Queen she went on to conquer many of the northern tribes. She now rules over numerous cities, attacking them from time to time as a form of entertainment. She supports the construction of better defences and technology for these cities, only so that they will be more difficult for her to conquer the next time. She has had many children, though she only allows the women to live, killing her male-born children as infants. Her daughters serve to bolster her power, either throw diplomatic marriage, or by serving as her personal guard. Her blood flows through the veins of many of Kobani's greatest warriors, including Zatar.

Tagging a bunch of ya because I want to get a good sample size! If you wanna do this too feel free!

@illarian-rambling, @mk-writes-stuff, @kaylinalexanderbooks, @willtheweaver, @patternwelded-quill

@elsie-writes, @elizaellwrites, @the-ellia-west, @the-octic-scribe, @the-golden-comet

@finickyfelix, @theprissythumbelina, @autism-purgatory, @diabolical-blue , @tildeathiwillwrite

@winterandwords, @phoenixradiant, @pluttskutt

@dyrewrites, @unrepentantcheeseaddict, @roach-pizza, @rivenantiqnerd, @pluppsauthor

@flaneurarbiter, @dezerex, @axl-ul, @surroundedbypearls

via beautiful_places_in_japan

*click* *click* perfect

oh! new pfp btw!

Saving for my friend

Fairy ring mushroom (apparently its a tumblr rumor that they grow around corpses, but…)

Im glad they didn't, dolls taste like dead fish

Out of Context Line Tag

Thank you @kaylinalexanderbooks, @tildeathiwillwrite, and @willtheweaver!

"Poisoned? Its a doll. I wasn’t going to eat it.”

Tagging @olive-riggzey, @inkovert, and @rivenantiqnerd

Something to try, I wanna get back into dance

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

Well, time to break out the really tiny pens