#and i suppose i started typing

[deathofacupid]

they say distance makes the heart grow fonder, don't they? a quaint little saying, tossed around like a comforting blanket. but did that apply to everything? did it apply to the gaping chasm that had opened up between you and satoru? the truth was, some wounds festered, no matter how far you ran. they burrowed deeper, fueled by the silence and the gnawing what-ifs.

the further you got from satoru, the more a bitter resentment bloomed in your chest, choking out the softer memories. you hated him for letting you slip through his fingers like grains of sand, for not fighting harder, for not deeming you worthy of the effort.

you hated that he had the priorities that he did, that his grand ambitions eclipsed everything else, and even more, that you weren't even a footnote in those ambitions. you hated, with a burning, all-consuming passion, that he didn't choose you.

you'd always known, deep down, that he was destined for greatness. with a name as striking as his, how could he not be? he knew it too, you were sure of it. he carried himself with that quiet confidence, that almost arrogant grace. and you, you were just… you.

satoru wasn't a serious person. it was his defining trait, the mask he wore to navigate the world. most people saw the easy smiles, the quick wit, the constant stream of humorless jokes. they saw the shield, but no one, not even you, dared to peek behind it.

you knew there was something there, a quiet storm raging beneath the surface, but it was a line you never crossed. didn't even touch it. he didn't want you to, anyway. he’d deflect with another joke, another grin, and the moment would pass, leaving you both a little more hollow.

because, then, he'd have to talk about it. he'd have to peel back the layers and expose the vulnerability he so desperately guarded. satoru wasn't sure he could muster that, not for anyone, not even for you, the one person who saw glimpses of the real him. the thought of confronting his own demons seemed to terrify him more than anything else.

and it didn't help, not even a little, that everything you did, everything you saw, everything you touched, smelt, tasted, heard – it all screamed satoru. the world was a cruel collage of memories, each one a tiny shard of glass piercing your heart.

there were so many movies you'd never be able to watch again. the rom-com where you'd both laughed until your sides hurt, the tearjerker where he’d subtly dabbed at his eyes while pretending he wasn't crying, the cheesy action flick you’d both secretly loved. all of them tainted now, the joy replaced with a dull ache. old memories, bitter, definitely not sweet.

songs, too. the radio was a minefield, each familiar melody a fresh wave of grief. you couldn't even have chocolate, his favorite, without a pang of longing. the old mugs, the ones you’d bought together, were banished to the back of the cabinet, too painful to use. and his side of the bed… your bed, now, only yours.

it was always cold at night, a stark reminder of his absence. you weren't used to sleeping alone. maybe, by now, you should have been. it's been so long, hasn't it? time should have healed these wounds, but they just kept bleeding.

there was a bakery just a few streets down. it used to be your favorite little secret, a place you’d stumbled upon and then shared with satoru. the two of you went all the time after that, drawn by the warm aroma of freshly baked bread and the promise of quiet companionship. you don't go anymore. shame, really. they had the most amazing croissants, flaky and buttery, just the way he liked them.

distance makes the heart grow fonder, they say. but it's just not the same for you. it's just… different. it's a dull ache, a constant longing. then again, maybe that's the reason you want to be in his arms again, despite everything. maybe the pain is just a twisted form of love, a desperate yearning for the warmth that once filled the void. maybe, just maybe, distance makes the heart grow fonder, but only if there's still a heart left to feel.

[sunlight-shunlight]

as always i was thinking about it (thedas art history) and

i think actually the whole chantry situation would be significantly influenced by the fact that they have control over all the tranquil? and the tranquil are... literate, unpaid, tireless, detail-oriented labourers, who will never get bored or cranky or want to quit. so they would actually be like the backbone of how southern thedas makes any kind of printed material, in scriptoriums attached to the circles or whatever?

which is also really convenient for the chantry. since then they have a chokehold on what gets disseminated. any independent groups that make manuscripts or print material would be less efficient, since by necessity, they would need to... pay their scribes and give them days off, and occasionally have them goof up a page and waste time.

and this raises really interesting questions about stuff like the book of shartan and the heretical chant verses being spread around - can people quietly bribe a chantry official to get them to assign a tranquil to copy it out under the table? is there part-time scribe work going on in alienages to keep these texts circulating? do mages (also literate and have access to materials) themselves manage to do this type of thing covertly, or do they have enough loyalty from the tranquil that the tranquil would be willing to lie about it and help them make some contraband?

anyway, THIS is how the popularity of varric's serialized novels, spurring the development of the printing press, and therefore more secular decentralized sources of media, could create a Chantry Reformation Chaos Era, when the chantry loses its grip on information and archives-

[mikansei]

from the trailblazer's perspective:

we met some weird guy who wears a statue on his head, who was kind of a dick to us, but then we went on a little entomological field trip where he was oddly encouraging. surprisingly nice to us afterward for all that he literally interrogated us first. but herta runs around as a doll and we're plenty weird ourselves, so dr. ratio is whatever, i guess. we probably think of him as "that weirdo who was on the herta space station once," which is an association i'm sure he'd hate - but hey, at least we don't call him "scholar king."

from the trailblazer's perspective:

we met some flashy IPC guy because we accidentally held him up in line at the hotel check-in, himeko tried to negotiate and it turns out he's a professional cutthroat negotiator, but it all worked out and he gave us his fancy room. he also loomed over us with freaky glowing eyes and maybe threatened us, but it was kinda vague and it's not like he really hurt us. well... until he did. the trailblazer gets the opportunity to be verbally sore about that, but the fight didn't really feel like cocolia, like phantylia; like aventurine had gone mad and wanted to take over and/or destroy the world. his grandstanding didn't make any sense to us at the time, though, and fighting him sucked ass. but we lived and - as we found out eventually - so did he.

then the trailblazer boards the radiant feldspar, and we see aventurine's hologram talking with ...boothill? okay. who explicitly says they're working out some kind of shady underhanded deal to find oswaldo schneider which, subtlety thy name is not boothill, but that's none of our business i guess. but aventurine's there(-ish) and alive and not cackling mad, which is an improvement.

then we go into the next room over and see that herta space station weirdo, dr. ratio.

huh???

and the first thing he says to us is "no wonder that gambler likes you so much."

huh???????

everything about this is news to the trailblazer. since when is dr. ratio not only on penacony, but in the dreamscape, aboard the exclusive invitation-only dream cruise ship? since when does he not only know of aventurine, but was apparently on this mission with him? since when does aventurine like us??? we just got done mutually trying to kill each other! his hologram didn't seem sore about it, which is great for us, but doesn't exactly translate into "like!"

why are we hearing this from him and not aventurine? why does he know aventurine's thoughts on us in the first place?

dr. ratio really just shows up, yaps about aventurine unprompted, recommends us reading material, complains about the crowd and then is like "k i'm done here. ur dismissed."

the trailblazer had bigger things to think about but i, the player, do not. the fandom at large may feel like 2.3 fell flat, but the fall of the roman empire is still within the wheelhouse of my roman empire. i never left the radiant feldspar. i am still aboard this fucking ship.

[p1ctur3]

@octdl-lee

Random captive TDL au lore dump and some behind the scenes stuff since you asked so nicely :]

Dark in captivity

victim did use dark as a way to train and get the mercs and him used to the box

victim and agent (i would probably explore their dynamic in this au also, mitsi would haunt this narrative because yes)

some behind the scenes things

additional art

[coffeebanana]

and some of y'all thought they'd just never bring up the lies again, huh?

[bookshelf-in-progress]

I love how a well-written romance is so often structured as a mystery. A person starts with a certain idea about another person, and over the course of the story, they uncover more evidence that gives them a fuller picture of who the other person truly is. They learn about layers to the personality and backstory that give the other person more depth. They learn how the other person's personality meshes with theirs. Even the third-act misunderstanding fits the mystery structure--it looks like they've uncovered the final secret to the other person's identity, which is that they're not the worthy person they seemed to be, but then discover that they misinterpreted that evidence, or the other person takes steps to apologize and repair the level of trust. When the mystery is resolved, they've reached a full understanding of each other and know they've found a partner they can trust their whole future to.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Culture Shock

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[surreal-duck]

master artist and his number one fan

guy who is being so normal about the new additions to their profiles. i think abt midoris initial infatuation with his art slowly developing into appreciating yuzuru himself as a person and idol to the point he worries about how he sees him (ex: a bit of home party and in workplace survival rules) sometimes thats a lie i think about it a lot. and yuzuru learning to enjoy art just for the sake of drawing!! seeing the lets try diy story where he doesnt even refute drawing on midoris desk and was only worried that his doodles might cover up the mascot design compared to how discouraged he usually would be in earlier ! stories. everything to me i adore their dynamic if that wasnt obvious by *gestures to basically everything*

and happy pride month 🏳‍🌈

[petricorah]

i feel sick

[hunnyy-bunnyyy]

The dissonance between era inspiration in ACoTaR is one of the more brushed over flaws in the book series. Looking at the Inner Circle's fashion alone, we jump between "literal scraps of fabric" (Under the Mountain, Court of Nightmares) to "orientalist painter's imaginings of the Ottoman Harem" (clothing described during Feyre's first few visits to the Night Court) to "modern 'corset' dress" (Feyre's Starfall dress, majority of Mor's clothing, most of the clothes drawn in fan art) to "modern -- almost sci-fi style -- skin-tight leather armor" to "sweater and leggings combo".

Then, between courts, we have Helion wearing Spirit Halloween's take on the ancient Grecian tunic; Feyre's Spring Court wedding dress looking like an 1830s fashion plate; and Dawn heavily implied to have traditional East Asain clothing (e.g. kimono, hanfu, hanbok).

On top of all of that, some of the Dawn Court's small cities ". . . specialized in tinkering and clockwork and clever things. . ." which -- combined with Lucien's metal eye and Nuan's mechanical hand -- implies a sort of post-industrial revolution time period. However, a decent chunk of the fandom says that ACoTaR is medieval; which, yeah, it's medieval themed in the first book -- sans the "dress" Rhysand forces Feyre to wear UTM.

The wild inconsistencies in ACoTaR's inspiration leads, not to a rich and diverse world, but a world that seems ramshackle and haphazard -- like it's creator simply threw together a board on Pinterest and called it a day. This is a major part of why the world building is so abysmal, it relies on convenience to the plot and whatever pleases the aesthetic whims of the author. Cultures deemed "pretty" or "badass" are thrown together, irregardless of how far apart they actually are. This is not only disrespectful to the narrative, but to the readers and the cultures used as inspiration.

All of this to say: Sarah J Maas is a bad author, not just because of the way she handles serious topics like power dynamics and abuse, but also because she cannot put together a world that is even the slightest bit cohesive.

[a-host-of-dancing-daffodils]

And because I recently read the Chocolate Box...Please enjoy one of the only things I feel like the show did right with this particular story...

Poirot looking super dapper in his Belgian police uniform:

The cut of this uniform is very flattering on him, I must say...especially with the way it accentuates his chest, his waist, and his ''''''''seat''''''''

And I love the design on the collar/sleeves. Very fancy/official

also. please look at his very silly official hat

Gotta say. Hugh Fraser may have been the eye candy of this show, but. David Suchet sure knows how to be pretty, too

[hanpotpot23]

behind your kids' favorite cartoon music!!

[zehl0w]

Happy birthday my baby boy my present to you is my first ever fully finished comic

[tordoise-x3]

MY RESIDNET EVIL OC with his parasite thingy

Im kicking my feet fr

[quesadilla-day]

kissy kissy

[narutothoughts]

Au where Naruto is desperately in love with kakashi and shows it with every breath.

Every time kakashi is in the room, he’s who Naruto turns to.

When kakashi is standing at Naruto’s back he relaxes, not even able to conceive the thought of Kakashi intentionally hurting or betraying him.

Every second that Kakashi focuses on Naruto alone is enough to keep him going for a week.

During fights, kakashi is the one person he watches but almost never interferes with.

He trusts kakashi to have a plan and to know what he’s doing.

Backs his plays without even knowing the endgame.

Makes his every move perfectly in sink with Kakashi’s everytime they work together.

Kakashi notices in a distant way, hard not to when everything that happens on the battlefield is recorded with his sharingan, but he doesn’t put together what it means. Doesn’t give it a second thought. It’s just Naruto being Naruto.

Wanna know who does tho? Obito.

He can see every single memory that gets recorded by Kakashi. He’d have to be dead to miss the warmth that Minato’s son looks at Kakashi with. Have to be blind not to notice that it’s love that makes those blue eyes so bright and fierce in Kakashi’s memories.

Obito…Obito wants