Today I Bring You The Most Forgotten Mother Of The Arcane

🌱🐇

Snippet - A Monstrous Suitor - Forward, but Never Forget/XOXO

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a nation, must be in want of a wife.”

Just, y’know, don’t let him anywhere near your actual family….

Forward, but Never Forget/XOXO - on AO3

During brunch, Chross—the old prankster—sits Silco beside fashionable matrons and their eligible daughters. One by one, Chross makes a show of asking Silco about his private life, and the privations that go hand-in-hand with his seat of privilege. A farce worthy of the Demacian Bard. Silco plays his own part impeccably; half the game is being a good sport.

During a lull, he leans towards Chross and whispers, “Digging an early grave?”

They’re old allies; Chross can take a joke. Even if it’s only half-playful.

Chross offers a yellowing crescent of a grin. “Come now, Silco. One can do worse than choosing from such colorfully-arrayed dolls.”

“Shall I take them home to Jinx?”

“Jinx is young and has her whole life ahead for dollies,” Chross chides. “You, on the other hand, must choose one on the shelf. It will be a political statement. A symbol of inner stability. Our leader can’t have a reputation as a hot-footer.”

Silco circles a fingertip across the rim of his teacup. Pomegranate tea. An offshoot of a successful Ionian trade deal.

“I’ll survive.”

“Take it from a shriveled old relic. Many a gentleman survives the gilded halls, only to be gutted in the ladies’ boudoirs.”

“I do enjoy a good gutting.”

“Don’t tempt fate, my boy.”

“Nor should you.” Silco smiles, mouth a slash of serrated ivory. “Otherwise I might propose a union.” At the look of bemusement on Chross’ face, he unhurriedly corrects, “Oh no, dear friend. I don’t mean between old vipers like us. I mean with one of your charming daughters.”

Chross laughs—a horrid faux-cheerful whinny. “Would you? Delightful!”

Pecking a sip from the edge of his teacup, Silco kisses the red droplets with his teeth. “No less delightful than they. Candidly, it’s hard to choose. Marlene is so fiery. But I’d burn out for her in no time. Bianca is sweet, but a romantic. She’d end up disillusioned at best, heartbroken at worst. The best would be your eldest. Esmée. She’s the most patient. That’s what Zaun needs.”

Is that a glint of dread in Chross’ rheumy eyes? "She’s fond of you, too.”

“Of course. We share a common perspective.”

“That you are an inveterate monster.”

“Precisely.”

They trade practiced smiles. The subject is dropped, as it always is.

Was Yamori supposed to be gay?

While it’s not explicit in the text, there are a couple of hints about Yamori’s preferences. Firstly we are introduced to him with Nico, who is described as an “okama” from even before we meet him. “Okama” is generally used to describe a flamboyant or feminine gay man. It’s not a nice word either, especially how Ayato uses it. When we get to see Nico and Yamori together, Nico is thirsty af

My re-translation of his sexual pun that was missed in the original scanlation adds to how he acts around Yamori. Eventually we find out that he was in love or at least lust with Yamori, and that’s why he hung around him.

How does Yamori treat Nico? Outside of his torture room, quite well it seems. They met at a club (what kind of club??) and there’s this amazing image of Yamori bringing two bottles of (presumably) blood wine.

Then there’s the rooftop omake where Yamori opens up to Nico about missing his mother, and Nico offers to hug him. Yamori declines by saying “I really don’t want that, because your stubble will rub on me,” and it’s not that rude. He doesn’t mind having an openly gay man who is obviously crushing on him around him all the time.

However, when he’s in his torture chamber it’s a different story. He uses Nico as a punching bag so that he won’t accidentally kill his “toy” (Kaneki). Nico seems okay with this and expects it, however. Definitely some kind of weird BDSM thing going on, hmm? But then later when Nico objects to Yamori killing a child in front of it’s mother, he calls Nico “Kama-yarou” like Ayato does, and it’s probably the rudest homophobic slur he could use. 

It’s a theme of the manga and anime that Yamori created a different personality after being tortured, and that “Jason” is the result of the sadistic CCG scientist breaking his mind. When we see Yamori around friends at other times, he seems perfectly nice.

Which brings us to Naki. Naki absolutely loves and adores Yamori, and Yamori cares just as much about him back. Their meeting was detailed in the end card of S2 of the anime. Yamori beats up Naki but doesn’t kill him. Naki immediately asks to become his underling, and the next we see they are dressing alike.

The only other glimpse we see of their relationship was an “Icon Talk” Ishisa-sensei uploaded for Naki’s birthday, where Yamori surprises Naki with a birthday present. Even though Naki says some stupid things, Yamori doesn’t get angry at him. This patient and kind Yamori seems to be who shows up around Naki. No wonder Naki loves him so much.

Another aside, Naki is jealous of Nico and is aware of his relationship with Yamori being sexual. He gets mad when he catches Nico stealing Yamori’s underpants.

Yamori has no reaction to this in the comic, so is he okay with it? Maybe he likes having guys fawning over him? 

After Nico escapes when the Aogiri stronghold is destroyed in the raid, he talks about Yamori with one of the clowns. He said that he thought that Yamori would fill the empty hole inside of him, but instead Yamori kept making holes in his stomach! Ouch. Good thing he heals quickly. The clown says that he was letting himself be used by Yamori, and Nico says that there are only two ways of living - by being beautiful, or for someone beautiful. Well, Yamori was beautiful to him until the whole killing-a-mother-and-child thing, it seems.

Nico does feel some regret later on, that he couldn’t find out if Yamori called a woman’s name in his last moments. He did- his mother’s name. Nico was still jealous even after he was dead. Were they in a sexual relationship? Maybe. If Yamori was gay he was a closet-case. Using Nico on the side, but never committing to anything. “The lonely sadist” as he is called in the TG game.

Oh Yamori, we hardly knew you.

my old silly sketch of fem!Estormo + fem!Ancano from 2022.

Love 'em

GET THAT CRAYON SHIT OUT OF HERE I CAN SPELL MY OWN NAME THANKS

Love your Kiddo Penny. He's cute af, like I would cute my arm off and feed him with happy face.

My all time favorite animal. The red-bearded vulture.

The bearded vulture, or lammergeier, lives on a steady diet of bones (more specifically the marrow) and dyes its own feathers blood red.

Bearded vultures come in various shades, from pure white to orange-red. Soils stained with iron oxide give the birds their fiery appearance. Lammergeiers apply the dirt with their claws and then preen for about an hour to ensure a bright orange/red glow. They are also attracted to other red things, like leaves and red wood. Captive birds also partake in this behavior, which suggests the activity is instinctual, not learned.

The soil doesn’t have any practical purposes; it certainly doesn’t make for good camouflage (though the birds have no natural predators anyway). Scientists have noticed that the birds’ age and size are directly correlated to the intensity of color. It is theorized that the hue is a status symbol. More soiled feathers indicates that the lammergeier had the time and resources to find an adequate place to bathe; the brightest-colored vultures should have the most territory and knowledge of their surroundings. Interestingly, these baths are done in secret, so most of the information gathered has been through spying on captive birds.

Bearded Vultures are most commonly monogamous, and breed once a year. Sometimes, especially in certain areas of Spain and France, bachelor lammergeiers will join a pre-existing couple to create a polyandrous trio. Females accept secondary mates because it increases the chances of producing offspring and doubles her protection. The birds usually don’t lay more than three eggs, so they can use all the help they can get.

These giant birds can grow up to 4 feet tall. They have a wingspan between 7 and 9 feet and usually weigh around 10 to 15 pounds.

In other words, this bird is awesome and I love it forever.

My Carnage symbiote containment lava lamp came in today to go alongside my Venom one! I don’t usually open items in my collection, but I’m really tempted with these! They’re something every symbiote fan should have!

Uptdated Dimma's ref sheet, i really wasn't happy with her previous outfit.

The redesign costs her a leg though. Good thing Aicantar knows a thing or two about dwemer tech.