Rook

@rookily.bsky.social

385 Followers 204 Following

writer, artist, weird creature in the forest https://linktr.ee/rookily 🏳️‍⚧️ I'm very aware of politics and social problems; I just don't post about them here.

Once settled, Hallvar activated [skill: meditate]. They were immediately confronted with the sheer magical aura of this place. If small amounts of ambient magic felt like spiderwebs untethered in the breeze, tiny and delicate, this cave was filled to the brim with bursting sunrays of magic, spinning wheels of fractals that made it hard to think. After a few minutes of meditation, Hallvar had to stop. The sheer overwhelming amount of magic was making them nauseous, though it had a clear effect on their progress. If [skill: meditate] pulled environmental magic into the user, then this cave was the magical equivalent of drowning in order to sate one’s thirst.
The gloves did blend in spectacularly with the talons, giving the look of a costume, intentionally clawed and vicious. They reminded Hallvar of the fancy helmets knights used to wear, the ones where the visor was fitted between the fangs of a lion’s maw or something similar.
a large button up shirt patterned with large not-realistic fish
Vertical hanging Christmas garlands made of plastic balls in various colors. On the left are pastel colors that look like the transgender flag. In the middle are rainbow colors like the pride flag.
A tiny skeleton dog with horns and a tail, painted neon green. She has a collar and is attached to a fence with an oversized fake chain. There is a larger skeleton dog in the background holding a small human skeleton.
Viktor, however, enjoyed snooping, as long as he was the one doing it. In the weeks of consistency, the guildmaster made it a point to ask Hallvar about their new “friend” which was a massive red flag in any context. He didn’t care about Hallvar’s well-being, at least not on such an intricate level. It wasn’t like the guildmaster was tallying a balance book to ensure his pet hero was properly socialized and maintained good nutrition. So it was fucking weird when the guildmaster asked more than once about Hallvar’s “friend.” The airquotes were palpable. “What, are you spying on me?” Viktor gave the idiot a long stare. “Do you mean to chide me for successfully doing my job?”
A dark haired man is crouched in a field partially obscured by grass. He is holding a large weapon that looks like a cleaver decorated with bones. He is wearing heavy plate armor and has furred cuffs around his neck and hands. He is smirking.
It was a difficult choice. Hallvar ultimately decided that the talons and the fangs were basically advertisements that something was off, so they might as well have the paperwork to prove it was normal.
Text that reads: In their old world, there was some group roleplay thing – maybe a board game, the kind you play on a tabletop – where the normal social interactions weren’t just dictated by charisma or prettiness or glamour or whatever. Instead, it used intimidation or ruggedness or other visual cues that weren’t just supermodel hot. Hallvar wasn’t supermodel hot, unless the model was for reconstructive facial surgery, but the viking/pirate thing wasn’t wrong! They had a scary charm about them. One might even romanticize the vaguely dangerous yet teddy bear persona Hallvar was slowly building! They hoped Stella would…
The King-Consort stared down Hallvar like a prized horse that just shit at the finish line – with great disdain but regretfully tied to the fool by fates.
Text that reads: “Yeah, he’s got that spell. I found his tower.” “Tower?” Hallvar spent the next twenty minutes saying things and backtracking to explain them to Stella. What wizards were. How they were different from mages. Why they needed towers. They accidentally mentioned Dungeons and Dragons and then had to – badly – explain the concept of tabletop board games when— Stella was snoring gently on Hallvar’s chest. Fates, she was sweet and wonderful and perfect. And Hallvar didn’t blame her at all for passing out.
A blue ceramic mushroom and a colorful Mexican style ceramic lizard on a concrete front porch.
A 3D valentines card that looks like a pickle jar that reads "I'd pick you Valentine" and "I heart-symbol you"
A brown and white doodle laying on a couch with her head on a stuffed animal.
A series of PlayStation 2 games: Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, Sphynx and the Cursed Mummy, Kingdom Hearts 2, Stitch: Experiment 626, Kingdom Hearts, Splashdown, The Sims, Spyro: A Hero's Tail
An drawing in purple ink of a wingless dragon with spikes and webbed feet, with its tail curling behind it in the background.
The stranger was feeling a bit bolder given how enthusiastically the mage was responding, even if comprehension was lacking. “She’s really pretty. And seems nice? I don’t know how to interpret this.” They paused, looking over at the mage with a little embarrassment coloring their cheeks. “I mean. You’re pretty too. Handsome, sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude.” The stranger stared into the distance, contemplating this new body and its preferences. “Is that just because I liked guys in my last life? Or do I like them now?”
A flat ceramic ornament of the back of a hand raising the middle finger, with red fingernails. There are star and heart tattoos on the wrist. A red bow has been added digitally around the middle finger.
 Rose handed the deity one of the skewers, laughing suddenly at the confused expression on Razlok’s face. “What? Tanghulu?”  “Yeah, never heard of it.”  “It’s skewered, candied fruit. Wang Qingxi says it’s supposed to be a specific berry traditionally but they mostly sell seasonal fruits here. They’re strawberries today.”  Razlok let out an intrigued noise before he thanked the woman for collecting their lunch-snack and dug in. The food was all delicious; sometimes food was better when you had to eat it with your hands. They chatted about the variety of options that existed now. Razlok remembered the last thing they ate, prior to coming back – it was cheese and some kind of savory filled dumpling thing. It was perfectly fine food, but it certainly wasn’t as flavorful as what they were able to buy from the vendors, here and now.  The curious tanghulu turned out to be crunchy and sweet, the sugar-coating breaking easily under their teeth to reveal a sweet strawberry inside. This was certainly a wonderful time to be alive.
Picture of a chocolate brownie box label. Brand is Flax4Life. The text indicates that they are dairy free, gluten free, nut free, and contain flax. There's other various labels like a partial ingredient list and plant based packaging.
When her first real fireball hit the target, Cait jumped in glee, nearly beaming at the woman. For Cait, it was… it was hard taking instruction from all these mages, harder still to listen to Leon and his idiotic ideas.
The… thing was a close to a deer but nearly invisible. Just beyond the surface of its “skin,” the stranger could see its anatomy. It flickered in and out of view – a barren skull one moment then full, eyeless musculature the next, then the worst yet, a rotting, decaying corpse. A ghost of a ruminant with fragmented antlers that the stranger noted as various bones: humerus, radius, ulna, carpals, phalanges. Multiple arms’ worth of broken bones, rearranged in a macabre craft project and tied together with moss and those cute little drippy pearl plants they sold in garden centers.
The 5th hero stretched out their hand for the mage to shake. “Deal, as long as this doesn’t result in me joining your undead army or something equally evil.” Hallvar felt a tingle of magic travel through their arm and shudder up their spine as the gravecaller shook their hand, sealing the agreement. “I am a scholar in my heart, not intended for combat. Regardless, if you were to join Riosa and Tediford, I would train your skeletal self to maintain the specimens. And rename you, of course. A new life needs a new name.”
“So…” Grim began, almost coy in his nosiness. “Do you want to give more detail about where you’ve been recently, or?” “If you don’t, we’ll tell the guildmaster.” Ikraam’s threat was teasing. “I think we should tell the guildmaster anyways, but you can be the first to inform him, hrm?” Hallvar groaned and leaned forward to thunk their forehead into the table. “Do they sell liquor here or is that not allowed?”
They got over it after a little internal tantrum and a snack, pleased to learn that while it was difficult, they just needed to shift their grip and practice before the lines started coming out smoother and smoother. The promise that their one hobby would eventually return to normal was uplifting, even if Hallvar had to take a break because their joints and callouses were feeling sore.
Hallvar was simply an introvert, they understood that. It didn’t make the feeling of being watched better. They preferred sparring at the cabin, where only the wildlife could judge. Here? Soldiers and any bored stranger passing by stopped to watch Kiran the Unyielding dominate Hallvar the Hero. They supposed it would be strange-er for the beastmaster hero without a combat beast companion to win against someone with a title of Unyielding, right?
A banner advertisement for The 5th Hero is a Beast, with a kjerrborn (bear badger boar hybrid) roaring on the left, and the text outlined in comic-style in yellow for emphasis.
Then Kiran’s speciality, the wildstriker subclass. The ability to apply damage over time on an enemy was underused, she felt, especially if the wildstriker could control the battlefield and keep their opponents locked in combat. She described quick-growing thorns that tangled between chain mail and skin, impossible to remove while fending off a bladed weapon. All types of poison from plant oils, fungus, or peppers – damaging organs, causing rashes and infections, choking the lungs, burning the skin and eyes.
Two screenshots of the Royal Road author view for fictions (books) with a teal outline. Rank #3421 Followers 97 Favorites 25 Average Rating 4.56 Rank #4352 Followers 107 Favorites 17 Average Rating 4.94
Text on a green-blue streak that says "June was your Coastal Grandmother Ukulele Oldies phase"
A drawing of: an open door through which we see a man at a desk, writing and surrounded by discarded papers and stacks of papers. He is sitting in a transparent bubble. The room inside the bubble is pristine, the room outside of the bubble is aged. Someone sits on the left, half hidden by the door.
On the list was a massive snake, by Stella’s description. It was a great source of leather for specialty mage armor, as well as tasting like eel combined with wildfowl. The description sounded almost identical to gatortail, Hallvar thought, and they resigned to try it another day. Harvesting the meat, leather, fangs, and rib bones of the great serpent was as much of a group task as hunting the thing. The guild was frequently contracted to send a party of 15 or more to handle the beast.
Meme of Rosa from Brooklyn 99 where she says "I've only had [Daniel Smith Green Gold] for a day and a half but if anything happened to him, I would kill everyone in this room and then myself."
A sketch of a man staring down irritatedly at a crane-like bird. Text on the side notes a height mistake in the undersketch saying "oh shit they're 6'2" oops"
A sketchbook page with 5 structural sketches of a person. 1. A shy person waving. 2. A person holding an axe and shield. 3. A walking person with a tiny beast on their arm holding a bag. 4. A person looking at a sketchbook. 5 A person in combat with a big salamander like beast.
A Cartoon Zabeu from IcePets, which is a pegasus like animal drawn in a cartoon style from the black and white TV era.
A mechanical timer, like used for cooking, in the shape of a green apple. It's sitting on a desk with other cups in the background.
A coloring page of a cat under a Christmas tree with presents. The cat is colored like a patchwork zombie, the ornaments are black or eyeballs, and the presents look like a pumpkin or Beetlejuice themed. The background is black with stars and skulls.
Screencap of a word document that reads "Ah, tits, Hallvar both acknowledged and swore."
A digital drawing of a red-haired masculine person wearing a pauldron and bracer, upon which a tiny gryphon hybrid of a kestrel and a squirrel sit perched. The person has very messy red hair, a hooked nose, and long sideburns.
A brown and white golden doodle in the sunlight, in a cluttered bed
A table of pictures with each Pokemon generation's starters in columns going from left to right. A line is drawn connecting the preferred starters from gen 1 to current gen. In order, the line passes through: Squirtle, Totodile, Torchic, Turtwig, Tepig, Froakie, Rowlet, Grookey, Fuecoco