Razielim Baths

[razielim]

I have many thoughts about vampire baths, and they all stem from the fact that I’ve always interpreted the flooded area of the Razielim clan territory as a marble bathhouse, used prior to the genocide as a place to socialize, cavort, and otherwise relax while being oiled, scrubbed, fed, and serviced. Presumably, public bathhouses were common throughout the empire and there were several others even within Raziel’s territory, but no other in all of Nosgoth was quite so spacious and regal.

On the days when the oil would be completely replaced, typically in welcome after bloody campaigns along the border, only the top ranking generals and their lovers were to use the baths while the rest of the army celebrated in smaller bathhouses or the parade grounds.

The cavernous moonlit atrium, often a crowded, warm, and boisterous place, would feel spacious and soothingly cool during these times, echoing only soft shuddering gasps and the gentle rippling of oil against marble. The slick bathers and perilously slippery marble floors would gleam like glass in the reflected light of the moon.







In other news, interaction on DW is a lot more difficult to keep up with than I realized. It's a lot more like staying on top of my tumblr inbox than regular comment/reblog notifications, and boy oh boy do I have a history of letting poor anons languish in the inbox for entirely too long. I'm relieved to see I'm not alone, at least. I believe the law is "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging," so I've stopped making posts lol, but that's not a very sustainable solution if I still want to... actually use the site and... talk to people. I don't know how to solve the issue. Surely other people also have executive dysfunction and still manage to jot off replies once a week...

("Jot off (correspondence)" is a set phrase, right? I swear I've heard it multiple times, but googling brings up so dismally few results, it looks like I'm crazy. Am I thinking of some other phrase? "Dash off" exists, but I swear "jot off" does too.)

Comments

[cornerofmadness]

This is absolutely gorgeous. I could stare at this forever and keep seeing something new. I love it

[razielim]

Thank you! Other people have said the same thing, and I'm like "Really? Not much is happening tbh." AND THEN I REMEMBER.... that barring a two-week break, I've been staring at this almost every day for two and a half months, OF COURSE I know every detail like the back of my hand. So it's lovely to hear that there IS a bunch going on and it's exciting to people seeing it for the first time. Thanks for that 🖤🖤

[cornerofmadness]

We definitely get too close to our work. This is a fabulous piece

[yarnofariadne]

This is beautiful!

[razielim]

Thank you!! 😊

[vriddy]

Omg what an incredible piece, with so many sexy details!! I love the reflections in the water, and the purple/blue/green colours come together to create such a cool atmosphere. I like the expressions like the one on the person who's pouring in your first close-up, or really anyone in that cropped part. So many little stories being told wherever you look!! That huge statue is really cool, too :o

Sorry interaction on Dreamwidth hasn't been working out well, and sorry to contribute to the hole digging, haha. It's been easier to manage for me since I've become more okay with taking days or weeks to reply, and especially feeling okay with not replying in order. Every couple of days I look at my inbox and delete unread stuff I've decided I won't reply to (I can never, ever decide that instantly unless it's like two words or less 😂). Sometimes that's all I do. And then depending if I'm in a mood for thoughtful or thankful or squeeful I pick whatever relevant messages... but I don't have another fandom inbox on another site. And reminding myself why I'm interacting here instead of elsewhere. Maybe none of this is helpful... I hope you find a way and a system that works well for you!! :)

[razielim]

Aww, thank you! I love hearing what stands out most to people. 🥰

Great news, this is my last comment to inbox zero! Hold out your glass 🥂🍾

Yeah, deleting's really important and not really a skill that I had to/got to practice before DW. I learned earlier on (during snowflake) that if I don't learn how to just delete messages, even if they made me smile, I'm going to get BURIED. I still got buried a few times, but I got the hang of letting stuff go. Posting art's been a little trickier, because I don't feel as comfortable deleting those messages. That's an interesting approach about mood too!

You know what else has helped? Just starting to use emoji. I was avoiding them most of the year because it became very obvious to me during Snowflake (I read a lot of posts that month, trying to find my niche) that DW culture doesn't use emoji as much, and naturally started mimicking, using them sparingly to never. (Looking at failfandonanon and how irate they get with lapslock text.) But I get really anxious that my answers are too cold when they're short, pressuring me into a longer reply than is warranted, which makes the inbox more intimidating. But emoji really take the edge off! So sometimes just gotta say "screw doing things like I think I'm supposed to" and do what makes the task possible.

It's helpful just to acknowledge it and talk about it, honestly, so thank you! I don't doubt it'll be trial and error trying to figure culture/communication out for as long as I stay on the site. I still have to go clean out my tumblr inbox, which is as per typical overwhelming, despite thinking I'd be better at it after a decade of juggling anons.

[dr_zook]

It's true, DW culture wasn't used to emojis, I think, but the (latest) influx of users from other platforms kind of changed that? I'm not averse to them, and now that I have a new laptop with a seperate key (zero idea how normal people include them, sorry) I start adding them to the more oldschool things I'm typing, haha. 🦑

Don't let the inbox intimidate you! I guess as long as you know what kind of conversation you want to keep going, and where you can entertain it, it's all fine?

[razielim]

WHOA, new laptops have emoji key integration?? Fascinating. I don't know why I'm so surprised, but still WHOA??

Yeah, I deadass open a new tab and type "blush emoji" or whatever in the search bar whenever I need one. Back when I spent a lot more time replying to tumblr comments/messages, I actually used the Windows sticky notes app with all my favorite emoji on it, kept it side by side with my browser window, and copy/pasted from there, which was significantly faster. I hope someday firefox will let us type emoji names to pull them up, like discord does.

[vriddy]

Woooo a (very temporary, I'm sure XD) inbox zero!! 🎉🎉

There are 2 things that made me more comfortable with deleting: realising the inbox has a message limit, and also how impossible it is to search anyway. I still "save" a few messages like when someone says something particularly nice or helpful but in the end, if I want to re-read it I'll probably be going to the post or searching my email inbox. But just "marking as read" can help with the ones that feel difficult to delete, haha.

Interesting point about the emojis!! Like, I remember reading about people telling the Tumblr refugees to adapt to the current culture and I definitely think that's important (e.g. no copy-pasting a whole post onto your journal to reply to it!) but there's something to be said about the culture evolving in small parts as well, that's natural. And in the end maybe the more-comfortable-with-emoji-users end up finding each other too as they gravitate to similar places in the site!! Places like FFA do seem to have an extra layer of rules and it's been a bit too overwhelming for me the couple of times I went to lurk, haha. I always wonder how the mods cope as well :o Much admiration.

Good luck (...to all of us, really XD) with figuring out all the things!!

[razielim]

It WAS, in fact, very temporary!

Yeah, FFA is a whole 'nother level, and I don't go there to lurk anywhere near often enough to probably ever feel comfortable enough to participate. Good! I don't need yet another thing to keep track of regularly, as much as I sometimes get a bit of FOMO when I poke in. It's nice to know FFA exists, at least. A little island of bizarre culture on an increasingly homogeneous internet.

Oh, I'm ruthless. I don't mark anything as read, it all gets deleted lmao. Person was exorbitantly kind to me? Neat! IN THE TRASH MWAHAHA. ioejrgosejrgosejrgoair

What's the message limit? Was it painful finding out? lol

[vriddy]

Haha the message limit is a couple thousands items and I don't believe I got anywhere close to it 😂 but I saw someone mention that they didn't know about it and there are no warnings when that happens: messages just stop being added to your inbox so you will miss notifications. I don't want to find out XD

[johncomic]

I have forced myself to stop feeling guilty for allowing LONG silent stretches here. There isn't always anything going on, and I can't see myself sharing daily just to hear myself talk. Plus the last couple of years have made me more insular and quiet. And anxious. And angry. And sad. And who wants to hear all that shit?

I do feel guilty (after seeing this painting) for daring to share paintings of my own here. That's a feeling which comes and goes. When it goes, then I dare again.

[razielim]

'And who wants to hear all that shit?'
I feel you. Much rather accumulate something fun or interesting to say even if the flipside is going a while without saying much. In theory, at least. In practice... haha. Not sure I live up to it.

Noooooooo I enjoy seeing your paintings. A lot of it is stuff I wish I'd have more patience with so I'm living vicariously through you.

[johncomic]

Not quite sure I follow you on the "patience" aspect, since your own work appears so much more painstaking and time-consuming than mine.

But I got thinking about my own comment above, shortly after I posted it... and I realized that I feel dwarfed by your realistic technique, the sort of thing that commands people's immediate attention and respect [and people includes me, there]. And I suddenly reminded myself that that isn't the sort of work that I'm actually trying to make. My stuff isn't bravura, but bravura was never my true goal when I first picked up a brush. Sometimes I get so caught up in my admiration for accomplished work like yours, that I lose sight of where I'm headed.

[razielim]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I mean about patience! I have a finite amount of it and can apply it to the thing that really matters to me personally, and though I see other people do cool stuff I also want to do, there's not enough patience to sit and learn how to do it all. I would like to do more studies and mastercopies and learn about more ins and outs but I don't have the stamina to do both that AND the fantasy paintings I'm insane about, so I just have to content myself with watching others do the things I can't.

[dr_zook]

Holy shit... I have to collect my jaw from the floor, excuse me.

I also love all the details one can discover!! I especially like the enthralled face of the dick-rubbing rider on the right, and his lusciously gleaming bum, so beautiful, wow. And the statue at the back and its reflection, and the frieze above. And the way the ass-cheek of that vampire on the left, half-submerged is pressed against the edge, such a gorgeous detail. ♥

[razielim]

Thank you! Yeah, his dick-rubbing lusciously gleaming bum is my favorite. *pats it affectionately* c:

[kalloway]

Apparently I have had this open in a tab since May, which is a hole of its own, but wow this is gorgeous and I apparently don't have any LoK icons on this account somehow.

Anyway, absolutely beautiful and I just wanted to tell you that, albeit late.