As Someone Who Had My Art Taken For Graphics And Icons Back In The Ye Olde Days Of Soul Eater, People

Blog not even finished but remembered I could make a pride icon 👁️

See, the difficult part is that... outside of the apprentices he’s had over the years (and their families, for those who’ve stayed in contact with him) and some of his colleagues, Veric is an antisocial asshole who has to be dragged out of the house or else he’ll just sit inside all day in the company of his automatons.

𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐔𝐍𝐄𝐃𝐒

          “  …….  ”

     “  i will carry you out myself.  ”

          "𝐈 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐌𝐘 𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐋𝐄𝐆𝐒 as weapons in the past and will not hesitate to do so again.” Completely straight-faced, it’s... likely the truth, to some degree. “I have interacted with my fair share of corpses cursed or otherwise, and so you’ll have to do more than glower and glare at me. Besides, telling a scientist to not indulge in their own curiosity, you may as well tell a fish not to swim.”

witcher: the last wish starters

❝ oh, what’s the point of explaining? you wouldn’t understand anyway. ❞ ❝ don’t grin like an idiot. there’s nothing funny about it. ❞ ❝ you’re losing your reflexes. ❞ ❝ they say the wisdom of ages is to be found in fairy tales. ❞ ❝ this sword can always be drawn again, faster than you can imagine. ❞ ❝ if i’m to choose between one evil and another, then i prefer not to choose at all. ❞ ❝ i don’t have anywhere else to run. i don’t know where i could hide. ❞ ❝ i’ll fill your evenings with tales of ever more astounding events from the past few years. ❞ ❝ i killed to avoid being killed myself. ❞ ❝ the world is changing. something’s coming to an end. ❞ ❝ are you really not frightened of me? ❞ ❝ talking and regretting won’t get you anywhere. ❞ ❝ don’t come back. never come back. ❞ ❝ how much of the rumours about you are true? ❞ ❝ people like to invent monsters and monstrosities. then they seem less monstrous themselves. ❞ ❝ it’s got nothing to do with you and that’s that. ❞ ❝ you need more than words to frighten me. ❞ ❝ what’s going on here? can’t i leave you alone for a minute? ❞ ❝ there’s something not quite right with you. i can sense that. ❞ ❝ am i supposed to give you advice and teach you how to live? am i your mother or something? ❞ ❝ evil is evil. lesser, greater, middling, it’s all the same. ❞ ❝ i’m not surrounded by any vortex or fate. ❞ ❝ i was beginning to worry. you didn’t regain consciousness for so long. ❞ ❝ the forest isn’t the safest of places at night. ugly things are heard and seen. ❞ ❝ there’s a grain of truth in every fairy tale. ❞ ❝ yes, i deceived you. i’ll deceive anyone if i have to, why should you be special? ❞ ❝ you’ve made your choice. are you sure it’s the right one? ❞ ❝ for some time now i’ve had hideous dreams. ❞ ❝ virtue is rarer today than a rock dragon. ❞ ❝ i haven’t got anything sharp on me. have a look for yourself. ❞ ❝ the day will come when people will learn, and get the better of you. ❞ ❝ it would be great if the cruelty of rulers could be explained away by mutations or curses. ❞ ❝ and to think that there are people who don’t believe in destiny. ❞ ❝ if you think i feel sorry for them, then you’re wrong. ❞ ❝ you’re talking nonsense while making wise and meaningful faces. ❞ ❝ i’ll confide in you, if you like. ❞ ❝ look at you — ethics, codes of practice, morality. who are you to talk? ❞ ❝ now, that, should really be of damn little concern to you. ❞ ❝ you look as if you are already a corpse. ❞ ❝ there’s no shame in fear. ❞ ❝ what do you desire? immortality? riches? fame? power? ❞ ❝ you underestimate my strength. ❞ ❝ do you want to burden your conscience with blood and death? ❞ ❝ now it’s as quiet as a grave. ❞ ❝ i know that, deep down, you like me. ❞ ❝ don’t leave yet. stay. a few more days. ❞ ❝ don’t do unto others what you would not have them do to you. ❞ ❝ i know my fate whirls about me like water. it’s hard on my heels, following my tracks. ❞ ❝ i’d prefer you not to make any sudden movements. ❞ ❝ help me up, please. ❞ ❝ i’ve never run away from anyone and i’m not about to change my ways. ❞ ❝ it’s my problem. my life and my punishment. ❞ ❝ the fact that you’ve arrived here exactly at this time can’t be a coincidence. it’s fate. ❞ ❝ slaughter and bloodshed can be avoided. ❞ ❝ you’ve got the devil in your eyes too. ❞ ❝ nobody’s ever called me that. say it again. ❞ ❝ humanity. that’s what you want. that’s what you dream of. ❞ ❝ what’s it to you what happens to me? ❞ ❝ you do realise that a sword alone will not defeat destiny? ❞ ❝ no, nothing’s wrong. i’m fine. quite fine. ❞ ❝ stories, well, i’ve heard them too. half are either made up or exaggerated. ❞ ❝ i could go where you’re going. i could keep you company. ❞ ❝ mistakes? of course i’ve made them. ❞ ❝ enough of this, we should go. it’s already dusk. ❞ ❝ maybe it’s customary, wherever you come from, to threaten people with swords? ❞ ❝ if it goes badly, i will defend my life. ❞ ❝ go on, thrust the sword into me. ❞ ❝ has loneliness got the better of you after all? ❞ ❝ everything can be dealt with. it’s only a question of price. ❞ ❝ you know my principle: duty then pleasure. ❞ ❝ i’ve never killed people for money, regardless whether it’s for a good or bad cause. and i never will. ❞ ❝ love and blood. they both possess a mighty power. ❞ ❝ i’ve got some medicine. we both need it. ❞ ❝ you’re embittered, hungry for revenge and conscious of your own powerlessness. ❞ ❝ what’s happening to you? i don’t recognise you. ❞ ❝ do you take me for a fool? ❞ ❝ i always get what i want. ❞ ❝ i manage because i have to. because i’ve no other way out. ❞ ❝ you can’t stand in the way of my happiness. ❞ ❝ to hell with destiny, oaths and irony. ❞ ❝ they hunted me like a wild animal as long as they could. until i became the hunter. ❞ ❝ i understand your hesitation, but i need an answer now. ❞ ❝ there are offers you can’t refuse, that the consequences are so terrible, and this is one of them. ❞ ❝ true evil is something you can barely imagine, even if you believe nothing can still surprise you. ❞ ❝ i’ve seen too much to laugh at things like that. ❞ ❝ maybe i’ve not had enough to drink. ❞ ❝ you may kiss my hand. ❞ ❝ don’t pull that face. it doesn’t suit either your good looks or your complexion. ❞ ❝ if i want something, i don’t dream of it. i act. ❞ ❝ are you in pain? what’s the matter? ❞ ❝ i prefer to look after others. it turns out better in the long run. ❞ ❝ you haven’t got enough strength left. ❞ ❝ bravery isn’t going to be of much use to you. ❞ ❝ it doesn’t rhyme. all decent predictions rhyme. ❞ ❝ listen. you’re starting to get on my nerves. ❞ ❝ don’t do this. i want to help you. ❞ ❝ you’re a very interesting dinner companion. ❞ ❝ i’ll avoid that place like the plague. i’ll never go back there. ❞ ❝ you’ll soon see what i’m capable of. ❞ ❝ i do like you, although i don’t know why myself. ❞ ❝ it’s got nothing to do with me. i’m just asking out of curiosity. ❞ ❝ have you never heard of a sense of responsibility and plain honesty? ❞ ❝ you’re going there because you have to, aren’t you? ❞ ❝ we are what we are, you and i. ❞ ❝ did you see…did you see that? ❞

Very gentle reminder for this late-night dash that there's nothing wrong with being as kind, patient, and understanding to yourself as you are with your writing partners. There's nothing wrong with taking your time, taking breaks, or being selective in where you do and don't spend your energy while you're online.

Am I the only one that occasionally imagines my muses/ocs in like, mockumentary-style sit downs

Complaining about their life or the people around them or making fools out of themselves

Imagine being adopted into the family of the only person to ever see worth in you in your 20 years of life, only to outlive him and his family and descendants several times over. Like... the Noor family is still alive and going, but it’s been some roughly twenty or so generations since Veric’s adoptive parents died. And while such long lives are commonplace for mages and scientists, the Noors were not scientists despite dabbling in arcane science. They lived normal lifespans. They died when they died and that was that.

Since I’m thinking about it—a little more on Veric’s prostheses.

Normally, when he’s back home in his atelier or, recently, tutoring only his most recent apprentice, he’ll use his wheelchair instead of his prosthetics, which is... just a practical thing, really, because the workshop is already equipped with a lift operated by arcana machina, so he just needs something really basic but sturdy that will get him around the place when he’s low-energy and doesn’t have to expend a bunch of effort to maintain it. There are maybe a handful of people who’ve even seen the wheelchair or know that he uses it, and that list includes his current apprentice Iseult, his old Army Mage™ friends Vallareo and Isonandra, and his field-of-study peer/rival Elian.

Outside of that, though, even though they’re pretty much always concealed by his clothes when he wears them, his prosthetics are well known and even something of a legend because of the circumstances surrounding them. A lot of the mages that fought in the war have stories that were spread around in the aftermath, and Veric’s in particular is about the rough-hewn legs of diamond he made for himself in a desperate attempt to fight beside his friends, which... is more accurate than he’ll acknowledge, admittedly. Before then, arcana machina that served as prosthetics only tended to work as short-term replacements for smaller limbs like fingers and such, just because it was difficult to find reliable and sturdy materials that possessed types of arcane power that easily mesh with the natural power of a human body, meaning that the cost of even cheaper materials meant it usually wasn’t worth bothering at all if they couldn’t reliably work long-term. What Veric did was nothing short of a miracle, but after the war he had plenty of time to actually refine the prosthetics into something more resembling actual limbs in both shape and operation, outside of the colors and runes and the like, and though it’s still not a widespread use of machina, the incident did contribute to legitimizing machina prosthetics as a concept. Appearance-wise, they actually have a quite elegant form, lined with shallow veins and runes inlaid with aquamarine and hemimorphite, white and light blue stonework that glows faintly in darker atmospheres.

He usually tends to wear or at least carry shoes with him so that he doesn’t damage “finer” floors like tile and whatnot, but if he’s traveling out in the wilds? He will quite literally go barefoot. Black diamond is a powerful and now somewhat rare resource in arcane science and here he is literally trampling prosthetics made of the stuff through the dirt and mud because it’s convenient and he can do what he want.

The Flight Into Egypt- Adam Elsheimer; 1609