#The Cold Approaches...

[aesthetic-olive]

A teaser for Chapter 3,

Because I literally Cannot Wait to post it:

Sabine had finally made her decision. The cold Fucking Sucked™.

Freezing wind blew shards of ice directly into her bones as she rode her tauntaun across the snowy fields. Echo Base was theoretically just across the way, but she’d never know it if it weren’t for her locator beacon. The snow storm had come out of nowhere, taking her by surprise. Command had officially recommended that she set up camp and bed down until the storm was over. She had flat out refused. She wasn’t going to spend a second longer out here than necessary. She was so close to a warm shower, but not close enough.

After three months of the Hoth-lifestyle, Sabine wouldn’t complain if she never saw a flake of snow ever again. She’d never been particularly bothered by the cold, but spending hours on this planet’s surface completing patrols was enough to drive anyone mad. 

She’d lost feeling in her fingers and toes a while ago. The numbness began spreading up her limbs as she finally caught a glimpse of the Shield Generator that Sabine had spent so much time weatherproofing and modifying for their base. With a grimace of determination she ducked her head down and spurred her tauntaun to plow forward.

“Echo Base this is Spectre-5. I’m heading towards the entrance now.”

“Acknowledged Spectre-5. Glad you made it.”

Sabine didn’t recognize the voice on the other line. So many people had moved in over the past two months it was impossible to keep track. On the one hand, it was exciting to see their rebellion become so large. On the other hand, a part of Sabine missed when it was just her and the Ghost crew doing whatever they could to help whoever they came across. Everything felt so much more manageable back then. Now, the size of everything they were doing felt overwhelming. She tried not to think about it most days. 

After making it back inside, getting a once over from the med-team, and completing her report for the day she finally had a chance to unwind. She thought about looking for Ezra but decided against it. They’d both been so busy helping with the rebellion they’d hardly seen each other lately. The time they did have was often cut short by emergency drills or eavesdropping strangers. They’d decided to keep their relationship a secret for the time-being. Better to keep people focused on the war than what’s going on in her bed, Sabine reasoned. Plus, there was enough relationship drama with whatever was going on between Luke, Han, and Leia. Still, times like these she wished she could just hunt Ezra down and wrap herself around him wherever he stood. He was always warm and cozy and besides, she missed him. She trudged through the low icy hallways, brooding as she made her way towards her room and the shower that was calling her name.

Her door finally made its way into her field of vision and the tension in her shoulders loosened. She pulled off her helmet and tucked it underneath her arm as she entered her passcode to get in. The door hissed open to a view that she had not seen in too long.

[zarla-s]

Addisons have to love Valentine's Day right, it's practically made for them!

[patreon]

[shklanka]

Fem!izutobi arranged marriage where Tobirama has a mulan thing going on cuz Butsuma 'won't have weak women as heirs'.

Tobirama is worried about consummation of their wedding, but Hashirama assures her that 'it's onky politicsl marriage, Izuna hates the Senju so much they probably won't even sleep in the same room'.

And he's right. Izuna does hate Tobirama, but that only fuels her scheming. When she notices how her new husband avoids physical contact being the little shit that she is, she decides to demand a child (not the most unreasonable thing she could ask for, since they are married).

Another day annoying Tobirama she barges into the bathroom (since the won't be needing clothes for the activities she wants anyway) where her husband is rebandaging her very not masculine chest. Izuna proptly blue screens.

Also, a drawing

[snivel1]

Qiu Qiu Qiu...🤥

[coldflasher]

okay but re. that post about elseworlds!barry realizing that oliver woke up in bed with iris... if we coldflashed this, i feel that crossover event would have gone VERY differently because you're not telling me that leonard snart wouldn't have realized there was something wrong the second he woke up in bed with oliver queen

like picture this: you're leonard snart. you have years of trauma, hypervigilance, and experience surviving dangerous men (and, ultimately, being one). and you fall asleep next to barry, the man you love---who, don't get me wrong, IS dangerous, but is in most situations seemingly unaware of it; who appears nonthreatening and harmless unless riled, who, most of the time, just seems like a sweet and normal guy---and you wake up next to... something else. something that looks like barry, and sounds like barry... if you aren't paying attention.

this is a thing that walks without making a sound, like it has years of experience sneaking around and moves that way by default (like len does); it turns into a statue at the slightest sound and doesn't even seem to breathe. barry is always crackling with frenetic, fidgety energy, even when he sleeps; he has nightmares and thrashes until the covers are bunched up around him, but this thing slept stiff as a board, flat on its back without moving a muscle and barely wrinkled the sheets. this thing is wary, and quiet, and it moves like a killer, with a killer's instincts. and it's looking around their bedroom like it's never seen this room in its life

and len would KNOW.

[asgardian--angels]

mage viktor discourse again on twitter and all i can say in my little corner over here once again is, I don't know why the entire fandom takes it as canon that mage Viktor failed to save every world he manipulated.

Canon does not provide evidence of this. This is fanon speculation. It's a fine headcanon to have, but everyone talks about it like it's canon when it isn't. Canon is ambiguous about the outcome of the timelines mage Viktor altered. The little nods we are given point, in my opinion, towards the opposite conclusion, that he successfully averted destruction.

I've written meta on this before but in summary:

1) 'In all timelines, in all possibilities' is worded precisely, it's not 'out of all timelines'; the implication is that every time, Jayce brings Viktor back from the brink, not just in our timeline. 'Only you' doesn't refer to our timeline's Jayce, it refers to all Jayces. Jayce always brings him home. If Viktor continuously put the fate of each timeline in Jayce's hands and Jayce failed over and over, I don't think he'd say those words. And the way he says them matters. His words are tinged with wonder, not sorrow. As if over and over again, he is shown that Jayce saves him, and it continues to amaze him. He doesn't sound defeated, like this is the next in a long line of Jayces he's sending off to die. The feeling is that Viktor's faith in Jayce has not been misplaced.

2) If mage Viktor doomed every timeline, there would be hundreds (or more) mage Viktors. All running around manipulating timelines. I highly doubt the writers wanted to get into that kind of sticky situation. The tragedy of mage Viktor is that he is singular. Alone. Burdened with the responsibility of the multiverse. The emotional gut punch of his fate is ruined if other timelines led to the same outcome, and from a practical standpoint, having multiple reality-bending omniscient mages would rip apart the fabric of the arcane.

There are other points, such as there being only one corrupted Mercury Hammer and our Jayce is the only one to receive it, and the fact that if mage Viktor is as omniscient as he is implied to be, he could easily step back into other timelines and correct course, because it's highly unlikely he could sit still and watch things go down in flames. But these things can be argued elsewhere.

While I love conversations about mage Viktor's motives and selfishness vs altruism, the writers & artbook have expressed that Jayce and Viktor care greatly about Runeterra and want to fix their mistakes to save it, and that their reconciliation is symbolic of Piltover and Zaun coming together as well. Yes, they make disastrous decisions towards each other, making choices for the other or without the other, which has negative consequences for their relationship and for Runeterra - but I think fandom pushes their selfishness even past what's canon sometimes, as if their entire goal hadn't always been to selflessly help the world around them. Their final reconciliation is about bridging the gap that grew between them - the pain and grief and secrets, betraying themselves and each other - to mutually choose each other openly and honestly. Part of the beauty of their story, as expressed by the creators, is that in their final moments, they chose each other and took responsibility for their actions by sacrificing themselves to end what they started, together - and that choosing each other saved the world. TPTB have stated this - that Jayce and Viktor are the glue holding civilization together, and when they come back to each other, they can restore balance. It's when they're apart, when they hurt each other and miscommunicate, when they abandon their commitment to each other and their dream, that the greater world suffers. Their strife is mirrored in the story-world at large.

Mage Viktor is framed as a solitary penitent figure, damned to an eternity of atoning for his mistakes. He paid the ultimate price and now is forced to live his personal nightmare of exactly what he was trying to avoid for himself with the glorious evolution. The narrative clues we're given point more in the direction that he saves timelines rather than dooms them. If Viktor's actions kept killing Jayce, the very boy he couldn't bear to not save each time, it would undermine these narrative choices. Yes, Viktor couldn't stand to live in a world where he never meets Jayce, so he ensures it keeps happening. But in that same breath, he couldn't bear to see a world where his actions continue to destroy Jayce and destroy Runeterra. His entire arc in s2 is born of his selfless desire to help humanity, help individual people. He would not lightly destroy entire worlds. That's his original grief multiplied a thousandfold, and narratively it would lessen the impact of the one, true loss he did suffer, his own Jayce. It wouldn't make sense for him to be alright with damning other timelines to suffer the same catastrophic tragedy that created him. I mean, maybe I'm delusional here, but is that not the entire point? Because that's what I took away when I watched the show.

As I said, I love discussions about mage Viktor, as there's a lot to play with. All I wish is that the fandom at large would not just assume or accept the Mage Viktor Dooms Every Timeline idea as canon, when there is nothing in the actual canon that confirms this. Maybe people need to just, go back and rewatch the actual episode, to recall how mage Viktor is presented to us, and what it's implied we're supposed to take away from his scenes, and separate that from the layers of headcanon the fandom has constructed.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The girls are plottinggggg

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[anghraine]

I know it's well-understood at this point that Kirk/Spock is much more of a nerd4nerd ship than a nerd/jock thing, but it's just been kind of percolating around my mind that both of them aren't just space nerds but space nerds who were personally bullied.

Like, 18-year-old Kirk was targeted by an older bully who combines "total asshole" with "the most grating man in existence":

MCCOY: Well, yeah, I'm beginning to feel a little bit picked-on, if that's what you mean. KIRK: I know the feeling very well. I had it at the Academy. An upperclassman there. One practical joke after another, and always on me. My own personal devil. A guy by the name of Finnegan. MCCOY: And you being the very serious young— KIRK: Serious? I'll make a confession, Bones. I was absolutely grim, which delighted Finnegan no end.

This was five years after Kirk survived a genocide, btw, and likely well before his stint as an Academy instructor known to be strict and demanding (which is the period the "stack of books with legs" description of him comes from). By the time he's 33, fifteen years after all this, it turns out one of his deepest fantasies is just beating the shit out of his bully, but only if he can do it According To The Rules (the replica of Finnegan sneers, "Always fight fair, don't you? True officer and gentleman, you").

Spock, meanwhile, is viciously targeted by his Vulcan peers for being biracial from at least age 5; he's described as being tormented by other boys by that age, and "at home nowhere except Starfleet." I think he'd have been 18 or 19 when he left for Starfleet and it's... the least bad of his options, but he seems to have spent his entire career among humans and being persistently subjected to raw racism and profound disrespect for his culture at every turn.

Like, their histories of being metaphorically shoved into lockers are not identical or anything, but I think it's interesting that they both have them.

[turtleblogatlast]

[ cw: assumed death / assumed sibling death / assumed child death / solitude ]

Thinking about Leo being trapped in the Prison Dimension and keeping himself warm through the power of his own ninpo - this ability is shown to us as a flame, after all, so imagine if, when he lets his mystic energy run through him, it warms him up, just a little.

In this desolate place, all cold and alone, he focuses on that flame and leans into its warmth.

He relies on it, and he realizes it that he’d relied on it too much when it goes out, and he’s once again cold.

(In another dimension, the Hamatos believe they lost one of their own.)

[shamefulzombie]

Touch

[amgerhlo]

whatever you do, don’t think about fengqing (pre relationship but friends at this point) at some heavenly court event where feng xin is talking to someone new around and they ask about mu qing (who is TOTALLY not eavesdropping while refilling his drink) and feng xin describing mu qing as a ‘bing meiren’ and also don’t imagine feng xin’s thoughtful, almost wistful expression as he says this and definitely don’t imagine mu qing’s pink face hearing this, unsure how to take it and unable to ask because then it would be obvious he was eavesdropping. doctor’s orders.

[nicorobinphd]

stg, being an enjoyer of jane twdg is like being forced into an expert-level course on the way misogyny manifests in video game spaces.

god forbid a woman be complex or difficult or provably mischaracterized (see tags) at the end of her arc to service the culmination of a man’s storyline.

[angelspearlheart]

˚₊ ❄︎

[screwpinecaprice]

I woke up feeling like I was crying to sleep when I wasn't??? And my dream was about Mei from Turning Red riding a snow sleigh. Um There's nothing sad about that??? Lol

Anyway, the warm up sketches. The colors were added in Medibang. It was pretty fun, might do that technique some other time. My body still refused to recover from being bummed out throughout the day so I did house chores instead of commissions. 😅 Will try again tomorrow.

[chokedraven]

Was thinking about it and- what about a demon whumpee? A demon whumpee that somehow gets above, to the earth, suddenly and not of their own free will and just trying to survive there?

Imagine them their whole life living in hell, the hot place, and when they appear on earth, they constantly feel cold here (especially in some countries of the north), which they have to get used to?

What if they were used to know that good is bad in their twisted morality — and now, with kind people surrounding them, they feel just... lost and defensive. Not able to trust anyone.

Maybe whumpee will join bad people, bad relationship because they will feel that these are right, are normal, because they are like most in hell. Maybe they will tolerate pain in their presence, because it's just right, isn't it?

Their life used to be hell, surrounded by bad, by wrong, and they grew up believing it's right. Will there be people here to see through the demonic origin and find a suffering soul in need of salvation?

[homunculovers]

I just find this fascinating. The man managed to stay alive naked in the bitter cold, can’t sleep with clothes on, seldom wears a hat in a snowstorm. What it is with his circulation anyways