My Friends Are So Talented It's Blinding

My friends are so talented it's blinding

A night to dance your troubles away…even if it’s just a for a little while…is far more painful than it sounds, isn’t it…?

Groovy: [locked]

Set Home: W-Wow! Th…there’s so many people!

Home Transition 1: You like…like my outfit? Th…Thank you! Fia outdid herself th-this time!

Home transition 2: Th…The music is lovely…th..thouugh, it’s not quite my taste. What would I like? Can’t go wrong with Premo!

Home transition 3: I get really, REALLY nervous in big events like th..this… but I th-think it was a good thing I came. I..I’m having lots of fun with you!

Home, after Login: St-stars! Everyone is so done up tonight! I…I hope I don’t trip over anyone…again…

Home Transition, Groovification: [locked]

Tap Home 1: Gi— I m…mean…Housewarden Gia has…an interesting sense of humor, haha. W-Wait, is that’s actually how th-they dance!?

Tap Home 2: Ah! Oh, S-Seven… I th-think Deuce looked th-this way. Oh my stars, is he looking th..this way…?

Tap Home 3: If you’re ever in the market for 100% waterproof makeup, I’d be happy to show you my favorites! T-Trust me. Th…They’ve all been tested th-through and th…through by yours truly!

Tap Home 4: I’m u-usually far taller th…than most people, even without heels. Prince Malleus might be an exception…what with his horns and all…I could check if I asked him to dance…but I’d sooner die.

Tap Home 5: Kalim is really enjoying himself. He looks so free…I wish— Oh, there I go again, nevermind. If he can do it, so can I…!

Tap Home, Groovification: [locked]

i didn’t quite stick with the concept for the outfit, but here it is anyway.

Glimmering Soirée created/hosted by @starry-night-rose this was really fun! even if this fucking card nearly killed me :,)

taglist: @cyanide-latte @inmateofthemind @simons-twsted-children @tixdixl @blithesharem @thehollowwriter

@jovieinramshackle @theleechyskrunkly @skriblee-ksk @boopshoops @the-trinket-witch @twistedwonderlandshenanigans

@kimikitti (dm to be added)

Hihi! For Cal, midnight? Thank you!

What keeps your OC up at night? Do they have nightmares? Fears? Anxieties? What do they do in the small hours of the morning when they should be sleeping?

The later question is the easiest to answer; Cal spends the wee hours of the morning/final hours of the night looking either up at the stars or at a piece of metalworking.

Cal has always had a fascination with outer space from the aspect of 'so many possibilities, so much potential'. It gives him a faint hope for himself. (Not to mention how it's just plain gorgeous up there; he could spend hours just looking at the colors of a nebula). As for the metalworking, it's how Cal channels his emotional turmoil. His art comes from the heart, pure and simple. He takes great pride in it. He's also somewhat secretive about it; you're more than welcome to commission him for something, but his personal pieces will never see the light of day if he can help it.

Cal obviously has a fear of abandonment, but the one fear and anxiety that is stronger than that is him becoming a plaything/afterthought for someone else. He's seen what chasing after the validation/affection of others can do to a person due to how wrecked his mother was after Cal's father leaves them, and he refuses to let the same thing happen to him. Thus, he closes himself up and only has the smallest hint of his true self peeking out to seek out companionship if someone catches his interest. This is actually the attitude, along with his nimble fingers in both metalworking/tactile puzzle-solving/A Bunch of Stuff, Really, that earns him the Floyd Leech-brand nickname of Nautilus.

The images below (somewhat) represent the before and after of that exact 'I'm just a toy to you' scenario that plays out during the 2nd Arcane Exchange, the second image meant to be him in young adulthood.

Taglist: @cyanide-latte @ramshacklerumble @tixdixl @simons-twsted-children

Fuck it; we ball

Only if you want to taglist: @tixdixl @ramshacklerumble @simons-twsted-children @cyanide-latte

oc asks: not-so-nice edition

alone: How does your OC deal with loneliness? Have they ever been completely alone before? How do they act when there's no one around to see them?

betrayal: Has your OC ever been betrayed by someone they thought they could trust? Has your OC ever betrayed someone who trusted them?

bound: Has your OC ever been imprisoned or captured? What happened? How did they get out? Did the experience leave any scars?

break: What would cause your OC to break down completely? What do they look like when that happens? Has anyone ever seen them at their lowest?

desire: What's one thing your OC wants more than anything in the world? Are they open with that desire? Why or why not? What would they do to fulfill it?

failure: What's your OC's greatest failure? Have they been able to move past it? Does anyone else know about it?

fear: What is your OC's greatest fear? What do they do when confronted with it? Are they open with their fear, or do they hide it away?

future: What's the worst possible future for your OC? Are they taking steps to avoid that outcome? Are they even aware it's a possibility?

ghost: Who or what haunts your OC? What happened? How do they live with their ghosts?

guilt: What is your OC guilty about? How do they handle their guilt? Do they try to avoid guilt, or do they accept it?

hate: What does your OC hate? Why? How do they act towards the object of their hatred?

heartbreak: Have they ever had a relationship that ended badly? Experienced some other kind of heartbreak? What happened?

hide: What does your OC hide? Why do they hide it?

hunt: Who or what is your OC hunted by? A person, a feeling, a past mistake? Is your OC able to let their guard down, or are they constantly alert?

mask: Does your OC wear a mask, literally or figuratively? What goes on beneath it? Is there anyone in their life who gets to see who they are under the mask?

midnight: What keeps your OC up at night? Do they have nightmares? Fears? Anxieties? What do they do in the small hours of the morning when they should be sleeping?

mistake: What's the worst mistake your OC ever made? What led to them making it? Have they been able to fix it? How have they moved on?

monster: Is your OC monstrous in any way? Is there something that makes them monstrous? Are they aware of their own monstrosity? Do they accept it or reject it?

nightmare: What does your OC have nightmares about? How do they deal with their nightmares? Do they tell people, or keep it to themself?

pain: What's the worst pain your OC has ever felt? Do they have a high pain tolerance?

secret: What's one secret your OC never wants anyone to know about them?

skin: How comfortable is your OC in their skin? Do they grapple with anything that lives inside them—a beast, a curse, a failure, a monster? How do they face the smallest, weakest, most horrible version of themself? Are they able to acknowledge it at all?

torture: Has your OC ever been tortured? Would your OC ever torture someone else?

wound: How does your OC handle being wounded? Are their wounds mostly physical? Mental? Emotional? What's the worst wound your OC has ever experienced?

Spin the wheel and get a DC character

For Cal, wound: How does your OC handle being wounded? Are their wounds mostly physical? Mental? Emotional? What's the worst wound your OC has ever experienced?

Oh so much to talk about here

The long and short of it is that Cal has the deck stacked against him for much of his tween & teenage years. His already distant father ditches, his Ultimate Magic/Signature Spell emerges due to a fire that levels his family home, Cal's at-the-time undiagnosed Oppositional Defiance Disorder starts to really cause problems when he's halfway through middle school. That last one really comes into play during his freshman year at Corlux Key Seminary; he ends up having so many outbursts that he earns the derisive nickname 'Cal-amity' and nearly gets kicked out.

...so yeah; a lot of emotional/mental wounds going on there.

I'm not sure if it's necessarily the worst wound he ever experiences, but there's an incident during the 2nd Arcane Exchange (which he's only allowed to go on after painstakingly keeping himself in check for the school year up until that point) that does act as the 'straw that broke the camel's back' that very nearly sends him into Overblot but instead earns him an emergency psych evaluation. Thank you for that one, Jade & Azul

And that's only the stuff that happens in the year after canon (Yu would be a sophomore). In adulthood, things...okay, 'settle down' isn't really the right word for it because Cal is better mentally but his living situation is kinda fucked, but there's at least some level of stability.

...and then they get really fucking complicated due to Cal finding himself having to reach out to the people that hurt him because something unjustly terrible is happening to the love interest of someone Cal considered one of his few friends before everything went up in flames. Things get weird and emotional from there.

Rest assured there's a light at the end of the tunnel for this kid, but holy hell is it a LONG tunnel to begin with

Taglist: @cyanide-latte, @ramshacklerumble @simons-twsted-children @tixdixl (let me know if you want to be added to the taglist :) )

It's the "Sorry to keep you waiting" line for me <3

The Main Event has arrived~! You may hold your applause.

Groovy: [locked]

Set Home: Sorry to keep you waiting~.

Home Transition 1: What? You think it's too femme? Darling, fashion transcends gender. No sense in shoving yourself in a box like that.

Home transition 2: I'm usually not one to attend events like this by myself. There's a first for everything, I suppose~.

Home transition 3: I'll be the first to admit I'm right at home in this setting. I'm quite comfortable with parties, really, and people are always eager to spill information just to prevent an awkward silence.

Home, after Login: Glad to see everyone brought their A-game tonight.

Home Transition, Groovification: [locked]

Tap Home 1: I have to wonder if Kalim will actually be able to judge adequately this evening. He is quite excitable and easily distracted.

Tap Home 2: You'll have to excuse me if Rook manages to look this way. He is prone to games of cat and mouse, even in the least appropriate circumstances.

Tap Home 3: Oh, you like the fit? I'll be sure to send Vil your compliments. I'll admit, he has a much better eye for detail and accessory than I do.

Tap Home 4: The joys of being both a lead and a follow is that you can dance with virtually everyone. So long as the person is open to dancing, that is.

Tap Home 5: Are you asking me to dance~? You know you can ask without pestering me, yeah?

Tap Home, Groovification: [locked]

Duo Magic lines (with Rémi Delune): Ready to cause a racket?! || I'm not sure you need my help with that.

I need y'all to know that this design took me 11 different drafts to settle on a design that I really liked, and then I still made changes as I went. I'm honestly really happy with this though. There's enough gender-shenaniganery here that my swan is finally absolutely pleased.

Glimmering Soirée created/hosted by @starry-night-rose ! This was a whole lot of fun, and I genuinely really appreciate the challenge! Thank you for hosting!!

Tag list: @cyanide-latte @simons-twsted-children @inmateofthemind @ramshacklerumble

@rainesol @elenauaurs @blithesharem @theleechyskrunkly

@thehollowwriter @boopshoops

lmk if you want to be added/removed