A Few Reference Sketches I've Done For A Potential Cotl AU. We Will See If Anything Comes Of It, But

Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Dungeons and Dragons - Fandom, Fantasy - Fandom Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Summary:

Travelers may often find themselves in strange places, and places may often find themselves with strange travelers. This story is the latter.

Pro tip! Instead of doom scrolling for 8 hours at work, doodle your favorite lambs! Then hide them from your coworkers so they still think you're normal!

Artists are: @stychu-stych, @theshepherdshound, @bamsara, @aveloka-draws and @ane-doodles.

When Narinder wakes, the storm has passed.

He’s lying alone beneath the wagon. The canvas and the earth beneath it is damp, but somehow the tempest came and went without Narinder getting soaked to the bone. Water drips down from the wagon’s sides. He shimmies carefully from beneath it, taking care not to smear mud all over himself in the process. His shoulder, neck, and back all complain about the conditions with a chorus of aches. Narinder hisses under his breath and stretches, rolling his aching shoulder until something pops satisfyingly.

The noise draws Hamal’s attention. They’re sitting at a freshly built fire with their gun in hand. It’s unloaded, six bullets sitting on the ground in a small pile beside them. A rag is in their free hand, stained by some kind of oil.

“Hey there,” they say. “Sleep well?”

Narinder rubs the back of his neck. “Well, I slept.”

lamb

lamb

official elon musk hate post reblog to hate like to hate reply to hate

I find it very interesting how in Cult of the Lamb, even though you may begin the game as an innocent lil guy with only the best of intentions, you do eventually become the villain. Sure you may try to do it as little as possible, but manipulation and murder are a necessity to complete the game, and even when you are given the opportunity to avoid it, it makes the game harder for you. The bishops are bastards but by the end you aren't all that much better than them. This results in a lot of people in fan content showing very morally grey if not outright evil lambs. Lambs who are twisted into manipulative or violent gods. Lambs who are still kind, but only as a mask, or lambs who crave flesh and violence but do not know why.

This does give me an idea for an AU. A Lamb who is a paragon of kindness and empathy. Lamb who is so scarred by the violence committed upon them and the ones they loved, that they try to erase it wherever they find it. Lamb who does not even find joy in purging heretics because they too are people with lives and dreams.

Lamb who's morals and ideals are so incredibly at odds with what they are tasked to do and the world they find themselves in. Lamb who fights tooth and goddamn nail against a world that would see them become just another monster. Lamb who is so antithetical to the cruel divinity that seeps into their flesh that it rips them apart. Lamb who feels so much that they need to give and give that they need to be held back from throwing themselves off a metaphorical ledge by the very god they usurped. Lamb who fights their own corruption at every turn, forcing themselves to go mad.

Is this anything at all? It's hardly a new idea I'm sure but I find it to be an interesting one.

Adventuring duo that's an artificer and their little wizard child whose first instinct when encountering a problem is to set it on fire and any implication that this is not the correct solution is taken as a challenge.

What makes me angry about the whole "sometimes the curtains are just blue" thing is the abject unwillingness to engage in the media, instead just rephrasing known information in the form of an answer that doesn't dig any deeper. There was a conscious choice to describe the curtains as blue; to even describe it in the first place, and that has at least some small amount of significance.

An example of what I mean that comes to mind is Brian Jacques and his Redwall series of books. He would often give in-depth descriptions of food and meals eaten by the characters. Now, I could ask, "Why did he describe the oat cakes as sweet and crumbly?" you could say "Because they just are. That's what oat cakes are."

You would be correct. They are just oat cakes. This is just a small insignificant detail. The author only included it because he thought it was a nice little detail and, if it were removed, it would have no effect on the story as a whole. There isn't some big metaphor behind them, they are just sweet treats, but by dismissing the question, you miss out on so much.

"Why did he describe the oat cakes as sweet and crumbly?" Maybe because he wanted to demonstrate that the character was a competent cook. Maybe because he wrote his books for children in a school for the blind in Liverpool, and this is an example of the wealth of sensory details he uses to make the world feel vibrant and beautiful and help his readers feel like they were a part of it. Maybe because he was a massive goddamn foodie and always found himself wondering what it was the characters ate when a story simply said "and then they had dinner". Maybe because he takes joy in the fact that I always walk away from his books feeling hungry.

"Sometimes the curtains are just blue". Well, maybe they're blue because the author has some fuckin style.

That “the curtains are just blue” post remains the bane of my existence.

What your teachers were trying to do was make you think. About the story, the writer, and all the whys that come with literary analysis. Why did THIS writer at THIS time choose to write THIS SPECIFIC STORY and make THESE curtains blue?

There usually isn’t even a singular answer— the point isn’t to be correct, the point is to analyze it from all angles.

The great thing about writing is that no two people write the same. Writing is about your unique perspective. You could stick two writers in the same room and command them to write a story set in that room— and get wildly different depictions of the same space. One writer may describe the furniture in detail, while another fixates on the color of the walls or the detailed crown molding.

Neither writer is incorrect— but what they notice about the space and choose to focus on in their story is what is interesting. It gives you a glimpse at how this specific writer perceives and makes sense of the world. WHY does this writer focus on the room’s structural features? What does that say about them? WHY does this writer focus on the furnishings? What does that say about THEM?

It is about learning to engage with writing, and the person who wrote it, on a deeper level. Only George Orwell could’ve written 1984, only Toni Morrison could’ve written Beloved.

Now look at the curtains and tell me why that is.

#the answer I got is more detailed than I could ever hope #good writing

I found your red star fic and binged the entire thing over the course of, like, a week and loved every second of it. I read on with abject horror as Shera and Messar quickly became my favorite characters, despite knowing exactly how their tail would have to end. Their death was utterly heartbreaking by the way. You made me cry at work, so thanks for that.

Do you have any lore or character bits about the twins you want to share and, dare I ask, will they show up again later in the fic?

Haha, sorry I made you cry at work! If it’s any consolation, I cried a teeny bit writing their deaths. :’)

I do have a bit of twin lore stashed away! Here it is:

Shera and Mesar are nicknames. Their full names, only really used by their parents when they were in trouble, were Sheratan and Mesarthim.

They, like Hamal, loved to sing. The family could harmonize pretty well when they were together. Both of them wanted to make sure Hamal learned the songs that were passed down to them from their parents, as it was an important aspect of their culture in the old days.

Both of the twins gave up on the idea of romance early on in life, since they knew they would be always on the run and needed to prioritize Hamal. That being said, both of them were gay. Shera was exclusively attracted to other women and Mesar to other men. Neither ever got to act on this, however.

Shera prayed to The One Who Waits every single night, hoping her devotion would help Hamal when the time came.

Mesar liked to dance. Shera did not. Mesar didn’t let this stop him from forcing her into it every so often lol.

As one might imagine, some days were rougher than others. Shera often took refuge in meditation, whereas Mesar preferred walks through the wilderness. Knowing their fates wasn’t always easy, but they both did their best to cope with it without worrying Hamal.

Both had chores they preferred doing. Shera enjoyed foraging whereas Mesar liked to mend clothes. They divided up work based on who liked doing what, and this prevented a lot of fighting.

There were, however, still siblings and very much children themselves at points. When they did fight, the usual go-to strategy would be to sit on opposite sides of the camp and ignore each other while they cooled off. This also ended up working pretty well as it gave both of them a chance to think about the others’ perspective before finding a solution together.

Shera instinctively knew the exact moment Mesar died. She “felt” it, in a sense, and decided then to make sure her final stand mattered to some degree.

As for if we’ll see them again…the wedding is scheduled for the Blood Moon in hopes they’ll visit. Perhaps we’ll see them again! ;)

They’ll also eventually pop up in the Cowboy AU I’n writing. In that universe they’re both doing well, living their best lives!

Thanks so much for loving these two. I didn’t expect to get so attached to them when I first started this fanfic series, and I’m glad others like them as much as I do! <3

Tired creature.