THE LIONESS IN THE DARK

⚜️ Gilding of the ornament on the elements of the “Lion Armor” helmet

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Northern Cardinal, 4/10

I'm sometimes worried the male is sexually harassing the female but I'm pretty sure they're just doing some elaborate public pickup roleplay. The rest of us didn't agree to participate in your kink, guys.

American Robin, 1/10

Literally just some dude hanging out. Never bothered anyone but worms. Big fan of the way you just stand there in the middle of the grass like you forgot what you were supposed to be doing.

House Sparrow, 10/10

You're a gang. You're participating in gang violence. There's ten billion of you living in a single wood pile and it's been civil war for three years now. When will the bloodshed end?

Tufted Titmouse, 1/10

A shy baby. A pretty little guy. I saw you on the neighbor's garage roof and time stopped. There were anime sparkles around you. Come back.

European Starling, 9/10

Why is it always you? Listen, I know, I KNOW the sparrows are the problem, and YET. When the fighting starts, it's always you in the middle of it, provoking them and then screaming like you're an innocent bystander defending yourself. I'm onto you.

Carolina Wren, 3/10

This rating is not for physical violence, which you don't engage in, but for your role as an incurable narc. A tattle tale. I know they're fighting again, okay? I see it. Our yard has been a warzone for years, you don't have to make a big announcement every time someone misbehaves.

Eastern Wood-Peewee, 0/10

If this were "birds who think they're better than everyone else," you'd get 10/10.

Red-bellied Woodpecker, 6/10

It's a utility pole. It's not a tree. You're surrounded by trees that are full of bugs. But there you are, on the utility pole. Committing vandalism.

American Crow, unrated

For who am I to cast judgment on the actions of La Famiglia? I assume you are doing what is best for the neighborhood. If I could, though, without criticism, make a single observation. That when large numbers of you gather in the ominous dead cottonwood - no? No, you're right. None of my business.

Great Crested Flycatcher, 5/10

Frankly, I think you could be doing more. I think your name implies a great potential. I think you should massacre the insects. I think your beak should drip with viscera.

Common Grackle, 7/10

La Famiglia does not suffer you to stop in our neighborhood long, and I trust their judgement in this manner. You have the look of a guilty bird.

Tennessee Warbler, 2/10

You keep to yourselves, and I respect that. I get the sense that you could defend yourselves if it came to it, though.

Brown-Headed Cowbird, 3/10

You're not a crow, and eventually they ARE going to figure it out, kiddo.

Gray Catbird, 5/10

Would you. Respectfully. Would you shut the FUCK UP.

Eurasian Collared-Dove, 0/10

You're doing great, sweetie, everyone loves you.

Red-Breasted Nuthatch, 4/10

A comedian. A little jester of a bird. You're so silly. Sure sometimes you incite violence in others but, really, is that your fault? If it is, we forgive you.

Blue Jay, 12/10

If you could learn any human behavior you wanted, it would be how to build a bomb.

Honorable mention:

Turkey Vulture, 5/10

Fics that I think I scribbled off just to get them out there get the kindest, most rapturous feedback. Fics I slaved over, agonized over, bled my soul into get a couple tepid replies. Fics I thought were me revealing the darkness and weird kink that lives in my brain, scared to even post it for fear of judgement, get, “Aaaw that’s so sweet!” replies. Baffling.

My conclusion? You just never know. You really just can’t know. When I did a workshop with 20 other writers I would try to guess what their critique of my story would be and I was right maybe 1 in 20 times. Only one other writer would have the same critique for my story that I had. And it wasn’t even always the same person.

The encouraging part about this is, if self recrimination, the fear that you know what people won’t like about your story, is holding you back, just say fuck it! You’re almost certainly wrong! All you can do is make it the best story you can for the energy you have. And yeah, sometimes that means scribbling it out in an evening and kicking it out to the void of the internet before you can change your mind or worry about editing it more than once because then you’ll never post it.

The message, therefore, becomes:

Find your story and tell it, and don't allow yourself to be affected by what you think other people will think of it.

Is this tough? OF COURSE IT FUCKING IS. All our damn lives we're taught to second-guess our own narratives with an eye to what other people will make, or think, of them. (And twice as hard if we're women, because of the ruthless socialization to which we're subjected.)

But your vision is the single thing that's the most perfectly yours in the whole world. And when you're writing, the experience of putting down on paper (or in electrons) what you see and feel, your own true take on the world's reality, is the closest to perfect freedom—as you tell the story that is uniquely yours—that you will ever get.

The Deity itself is waiting on you for that story. No one else can tell it. No one else shares the unique psychological and life-experience coordinates, the unique temporospatial spot, from which it's being told. Nothing in this whole physical universe can compare. This whole universe will be lesser without your story, told.

P.S. I love you art so much!

Thank you so much!

As for Monster Hans, well... he was initially created as a funny idea to play around with, although it was always meant to be separated from the main story. The only way it shows up in the main story is just in a metaphorically way, related to Hans' inner fear and insecurities regarding his curse.

As to how he became that monster in the side story, as for now the lore is that at one point Hans and Clara have been caught by the Mice with the aid of a human mercenary much to both Hans and Clara's shock, and said human casted a curse on Hans to take control of him. However the spell started reacting with the late Mouse Queen's curse Hans is already afflicted with, and the clash of the different magic sources caused him to lose control of himself and to transform once more into a monster and go on a mindless rampage, fueled by the whirlwind of magic within him and his own emotions of betrayal, fear, confusion and anger. A nasty cocktail to say the least. It will take some effort before Hans is able to return back to his former self, although the new curse has embed into him for good, and he now has to learn to coexist with it.

Cryptid Paws - The Wandering Akh’lut

So the creator titled this "Caveman Cooking," but I have decided that it is Grug the Orc making Peanut Butter Squares. Link to original post.

✨ The collection of my Mari Lwyd art through the years ✨ — First art is called: “Dude… give me the bottle” (or when you lost a rhyming contest against the supernatural skeletal horse) Second art is a meme reference x) Third art is featuring Mari on her day off (hence no rhyming, but she wouldn’t say no to a treat) Plus other stuff, silly sketches and artworks, like Mari Lwyd in modern times being disappointed that nobody wants to rhyme with her anymore, so she has to buy everything herself (featuring a distant relative of the guy from the first piece, plus a Waterboy mashup). —

⚜️ Tournament armor for horse and rider, 16th century

Work of the Nuremberg master Kunz Lochner.

The armour is adorned with raised medallions bearing chased images of mythological figures, and with bands of once-gilded ornament featuring alternating motifs of martial trophies and musical instruments.

🏛 The Kremlin Armoury in Moscow

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⚜️ Турнирный доспех для всадника и коня, XVI в.

Работа нюрнбергского мастера Кунца Лохнера

Доспех украшен выпуклыми медальонами с чеканными изображениями мифологических фигур и полосами некогда позолоченного орнамента, где чередуются воинские трофеи и музыкальные инструменты.

🏛 Оружейная палата Кремля, Москва

...sigh, I didn't want to come to this but things are starting to get a little too tricky here...

TLDR: we are struggling to get my grandparents' heredity sorted out because of slow-ass bureaucracy and my mom's sister being an asshat about it, which is leading us to not being able to keep up with our expenses starting next year...

To try making a long story short, in these 4 years we've been dealing with heredity bs which led to us going crazy trying to sell all of my grandpa's terrains and apartments.

And when we were finally at the point of selling the last apartment, my grandma passed away as well, which resulted in everything being put on halt as we're now forced to deal with her heredity first before we can sell that cursed apartment.

Problem is that not only the italian bureaucracy is slow as hell when it comes to do anything so we're risking to accumulate even more debts to repay later on, but my mom's sister is doing everything to delay the heredity sorting by being a complete bwitch and not cooperate in the slightest. If this keeps going, our lawyer will be forced to sue her with a lawsuit and all.

Which doesn't help us in the slightest as our savings are running incredibly low, with barely enough money to stay comfortable until the end of December... after that, it's going to be a struggle to keep up with all our expences, and even less if we'll be forced to start the lawsuit against mom's sister.

So... yeah, if people are willing to help me out, please consider buying a commission over on my VGen. Even sharing this around and spreading the word will help out a lot.

The ideal would be to accumulate about 750€ by the end of December at the very least in order to get the last of the big expences left in this year sorted out, just so we then start saving up in the case we have to undergo the lawsuit.

Our lawyer told us we'll need about 700-800€ to get it started, but for now my biggest concern is being able to pay our bills and stay comfortable with our groceries and other expences. In the meantime I hope that crazy witch finally starts cooperating before we get that point...

Nutcracker Season 2025

Well, well hello again friends! Nutcracker season is upon us! This year I bring you a prompt list to tell a story. If it is a familiar one or new one, that's up to you!

As always, the most important thing is that you have fun! You don't have to do all the prompts. You decide how many nutcrackers you want to draw, being yours or those of other people. Just remember, don’t push yourself too hard

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or send an ask

Cryptid Paws - The Glow of the Iriomote Bat

Illustration of the Iriomote Glowing Bat on a lion's paw scallop. Part of the 'Cryptid Paws' series. Done in spray paint and acrylic paint with gloss vanish. ------------------------------ Iriomote Glowing Bat was witnessed as a mysterious winged cryptid flying at high speed near the coast of Iriomote Island, Okinawa, Japan, glowing a yellowish green before it flew out of sight. Fun Fact: Glowing has been found in six species of bat including big brown bats, eastern red bats, Seminole bats, southeastern myotis, gray bats and Brazilian free-tailed bats with a consistent emission peak between 520 and 552 nanometers, giving them a greenish hue under ultraviolet light.

Yeah sure, why not make the single worst fusion Seb has ever been a part of?