#in the process of backing her up...

[sciderman]

Bro is true tumblrs dying for good- what’s gonna happen to the blog?

it will live on (on webtoon)...

[anna-scribbles]

emma dupain cheng on the brain😽🎀

more:

[vaguely-concerned]

huh. you know something I just consciously put together for the first time about caterina and lucanis' relationship is that through the game we get to hear them talk about each other a lot, but we get very few chances to hear them speak with each other at any length at all. contrast it with other companions whose storylines have elements of 'believed lost/long time no see relative returns!' like bellara and davrin, where we get to see both of them have several pretty in-depth conversations with cyrian and eldrin. hell I think even rook talks with varric longer in the regret prison scene than we ever get to see lucanis and caterina interact directly.

(and when we do see them interact, it's mostly one-sided -- it is, perhaps unsurprisingly, caterina who is doing most of the talking and giving all the orders, as he ruefully observes is her wont after murder of crows. including jumpscaring him with 'you're first talon now btw' and the shocked pikachu face in five acts he goes through in response lmao. perhaps it's more accurate to say that she talks at him and he reacts, than that they talk to each other much.)

it has such an interesting effect too, because in deliberately denying us direct insight or experience and only having this mosaic of description from each of them to go on, as well as forcing us to pay attention to the negative space of what is carefully not said, it's evocative along the same principle that you never actually show the monster in a horror film. if you've read the wigmaker job you have a clearer image of the more uh. worrying elements at play here going in, but there is something fascinatingly insidious and naturalistic in the way it's 'hushed up' in the game itself. she has his complete loyalty both as a member of her house and, more importantly, that of an abused child to a parent figure. he readily admits several times that she's a difficult person to live with, an even more difficult person to be loved by ("even for me. and I was her favourite")... but never once does he actively blame her nor truly conceptualize that he has every right to do so (that he can be angry with her and still love her, because whether he should or not he unavoidably does), or that she might have acted differently than she did, that she made a choice every time to hurt him. even affectionately he speaks of her as a force of nature, an act of god -- something that can't be reasoned or pleaded with or resisted, something you can only hope to navigate with as little pain as possible and pray to survive. let yourself get carried away by the riptide, resisting it will only make it worse. you don't compromise with a hurricane, you just try to find the best shelter you can and cross your fingers while you wait for it to pass and be calm again.

love is that hurricane. you do whatever she asks. you earn her continued affection day by day by never letting her down. you only want the things she tells you it's okay to want and cut everything else away preemptively. ("A wyvern tooth dagger?? I loved wyverns as a boy --Caterina would never let me have one of these, though." and as we have all wept and gnashed our teeth over, it never even OCCURS to him that he's a like thirty-five year old adult man who can buy himself any dagger he wants at any time. she said he couldn't have one. so he'll never have one. that's just how it works. and maybe if Illario could just accept that and find his peace with it like I have, this whole thing wouldn't be so difficult. oh lucanis.)

such is the price -- and the cost -- of being loved by her, it's a loan on which the interest will never stop piling up. you have to keep paying it down in perfection every day if you want to keep it. who got the worse deal there: the grandson who has abandoned everything else in life to live up to that and mostly succeeded, until the day he's so burned out and broken it threatens to no longer be an option, or the grandson who can never seem to scrape together enough worth in her eyes no matter how he begs, borrows or steals it, how he hustles and plays dirty?

one of the worst things that can happen to anyone is to be loved by a selfish god. another one of the worst things that can ever happen to anyone is to not be loved by a selfish god. (hope that helps, boys!) even in betraying everything else, Illario can't bring himself to hurt his grandmother, because that would defeat the whole point. who would he defiantly be proving himself worthy to, without her. in love, devotion, submission, hatred, frustration, bitterness, everything is defined in relation to her, you can spot the gravitational force of it through how the dellamorte family move through time and space. she -- her love and regard and attention -- is still the sun both of their worlds orbit around, even as adults. the game might never tell you outright 'she used to beat and starve them growing up. for their own good you see, so they'd be strong (and broken down enough for her to build them up again however she wanted but I'm sure that's incidental)', but if you know even a little bit about how these dynamics can work the writing is on the wall everywhere you look and all the more unsettling for it.

follow lucanis' freeze-logic and fraught interpersonal catch 22 irreconcilable mixed emotions problems back far enough, looong before the ossuary entered the picture, and you start to see caterina's ghost around every fucking corner. she is so proud of him. (well, she would be. she made him. she forged exactly the knife she needed and it rests willingly, devotedly, in her hands, it would return to her every time because it doesn't know love as anything but to be a knife. his tama never taught him how to be anything else. his biggest fear with her is that she won't even want him back, the way he is now.) to the best ability of her soul, whatever parts of it survived a lifetime of crow politics and 'five children, eight grandchildren, only Illario and me left now', I think she really does loves him. he certainly loves her, with all the sincerity and artless desperation of a child, of the little boy he was once. and what she's done to him (and to illario, for all his shitty gremlin scar-ass antics lol) is awful. the harm is real, and the love is real, and trying to find a way for these two truths to exist in the same space is driving all three of them their own individualized forms of insane. you know. the way only family can and so often does lol.

through implications and short glimpses and having to put the pieces together yourself, you can have the feeling that there is very genuine mutual love and attachment in this relationship... and that beneath that there is something so profoundly wrong. and the sneaking '...oh shit it gets worse the longer I think about it' horror of that is more effective for me at least than the stark in-your-face presentation of the facts of the matter could have been. the love is here. the love is here. it only ever makes it worse.

[centaur-dreaming]

Jean not understanding why Renee saved him until he’s leaving the house in just his helmet and gloves and breaking every speed limit on his way to do exactly the same thing for Jeremy

[molathesunfish]

friend told me i should draw guyxote as equivalent exchange for girlclair. so, here are some guyxote drafts

[marlinspirkhall]

Seeing as we're at the halfway point of the year and some of these situations are (hopefully) no longer ongoing, I can actually talk about them. So, new Marlin Life Lore in no particular order:

- Left a cult (don't worry about it)

- Kissed someone who was enbyphobic (boo)

- Quit my job part 2 electric boogaloo

- Tried manifesting as a joke and think I got cursed instead

- Three month long situationship 🥳

- Five older people were hitting on me, but at least 2 of them were actively evil (3 if we count enbyphobic woman)

- Burned bridges with two long-standing industry connections within 3 weeks of one another

- Gathered a Google Drive worth of evidence on my ex-boss (because we can always nuke the remains of the bridge)

[sichore]

this brainrot took hold in record time

[fuckmeyer]

if smeyer wasn't a coward vamp!Bella would have immediately eaten her daughter Rensesmem whole-hog like Saturn Devouring His Son

[moonsglare]

"...what are you doing?"

the moment she speaks, you freeze, locking up like a startled doe. your eyes are blown wide, almost saucers, and the expression on your face is one she's familiar with—that of a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

though, rather than any particular cookie jar, your hands and by extension arms, and torso, and the rest of you is adorned in her clothing. her coat is a size too big on your narrower shoulders, not quite as broad as her own, and her sleeves reach beyond your wrists, and yet despite the ill-fit she cannot help but think one simple thing: you look utterly adorable.

her blatant staring has somewhat the opposite effect, though. you shuffle awkwardly on your feet, fiddling with the cuffs of her coat. a dusting of pink settles on your cheeks like mist, and you pointedly do not meet her eyes.

"i was, ah... just, y'know..."

her dear, eloquent wife fumbling over her words. arlecchino considers, briefly, exploding. but that would most definitely ruin the moment, so she instead takes a step forward, head tilted in curiousity, her lips quirked up in an amused line. her dark hand reaches out to rest on your hip, thumb brushing over the jut of the bone.

"trying on my clothes?" she offers. you flush a little deeper.

"...yes."

she hums at that, her other hand rising to move a stray strand of hair out of your eyes. you'd gotten a haircut recently, the shortest your hair has ever been. it goes without saying that she quite likes it, but that's because she likes everything about you. "has your own closet begun to bore you?"

you duck your head at her touch, still embarrassed at being caught so red handed. "not— exactly..."

"mm, is that so?. may i ask, then, why you have decided to conduct this little raid?" her tone is low, but gentle—a meandering river, with depth only measured in her fondness for you. she sees the words tangle on your tongue, and it takes a gentle squeeze of her hand on your hip for you to speak with a defeated sigh.

"i just— wanted to try out something new, i suppose," you mumble, leaning forward to rest your head on her shoulder. "i've been wondering how it would feel like. to dress like you, i mean."

arlecchino makes a quiet, considering noise. "are you no longer fond of your current wardrobe?"

"a little," you admit. your hands fiddle with the waistband of her pants—it's nothing suggestive, more a nervous tic of yours. you always need to do something with your hands when you're nervous, and so she takes them in her own, running warm thumbs over your knuckles. "are you disappointed?"

she snorts. "disappointed? whatever for?"

your mouth works, opening and closing as you flounder for an answer. it is silly, arlecchino thinks, that you would ever think she would be disappointed that you'd chose to do as you please with your own appearance. for all the clothes in the world, silks and satins and cottons and corduroy, the singular thing she finds loveliest on you has always been happiness.

she draws your hands up to her lips, and kisses the glittering ring on your finger. "my dear, it matters so very little to me how you choose to adorn yourself. i did not wed you nor love you based on something so superfluous. you could wear anything you desire—dresses, skirts, shirts, suits, or perhaps nothing at all—"

"oh, i'm sure you'd like that—"

she shushes you with an amused click of her tongue. "naturally, but let me finish. what matters most to me is that you are content—in whatever form that may take. so no, i am not disappointed. do not ever think such again."

it takes you a while to process her little speech, but then you go soft in her arms, and she knows she's hit the mark. it sends a little surge of pride through her, to know that she knows you so well, and as she holds you close she presses a kiss to your temple.

"i love you," you say into her shoulder, words muffled but loud enough for her to hear. she hums at that, letting her hands trail down from where they were languidly running up and down your spine to instead rest conspicuously on your ass.

"i love you too, dearest. i shall make an appointment at chioriya tomorrow for a suit. as darling as you look right now, i'm afraid my trousers do very little for your assets."

your only response to that is a long-suffering groan, and she chuckles, the sound low and rich. she shamelessly pats your ass in consolation.

"now get on the bed, sweet thing. i'd much prefer to undress you now."

when you get your suit tailored the next day, you specify a high collar despite the fontainian weather. chiori only gives you an exhausted, unimpressed look before getting to work and in a corner of the store, arlecchino innocently sips her tea.

[trappedinafantasy37]

Minthara is a paladin of her word. She does not make promises, she makes vows. She makes oaths. Even as an oathbreaker, she heavily adheres to the tenants of it. Being an oathbreaker just gives her more flexibility and freedom to fulfill the oaths she makes. She never breaks a promise and she never breaks a vow, and when she says she's going to do something she is going to do it.

So when she says she will go to Avernus with or without Karlach, she means it. She will personally throw hands with Zariel, and the only thing that will stop her is Zariel's death, or her own. And it is one thing if Karlach does go with her, but a whole other thing if Karlach dies on that pier.

Not only will Minthara be grieving, she will be wrathful. And she's going to channel that wrath to the front to avoid feeling the grief (cause she doesn't always approach her emotions in the healthiest way). And she's going to take some of Karlach's rage and Karlach's fury with her. She will kill any demon or devil that gets in her way. There will be no distractions, unless the side quest gets her closer to Zariel or increases her chances in the fights to come.

Minthara is not doing this for power, she is not doing this for glory, she does not care for a crown or a throne. She is down there in Avernus to avenge the love that burned out too soon.

[stuck-in-jelly]

Rayllum wedding but the Moonshadow elves have something akin to the bouquet toss where single members are free to attempt to catch an enchanted bouquet that is tossed up and flies around after the reception.

All Soren hears is “toss” and “the one who catches it wins,” and immediately dives for it purely out of competitive spirit. He is accidentally knocking the others over in his attempts.

By the time Rayla and Callum look over after hearing all the commotion he has already done 4 laps around the hall, chaos left in his wake as he determination only gets stronger.

Rayla is throughly amused since usually people will just jump up from their seats to try and catch it rather than chase it down like this, meanwhile Callum is half considering casting a wind spell to just give it to him at this point.

Ezran is cheering him on though telling him “you’ll get it this time!!”

[cent-scratchnsniff]

MALUTHHH!!!!

[tea-cat-arts]

I think the cool and sexy thing about tbhx having an ensemble cast is that they really use it to show different types of people and different types of thought processes (all of which have been pretty well fleshed out for the main chast). It's such a great way of opening up the story to different types of people irl, so it's a little disheartening to see how many people in this fandom I've seen go "this character doesn't resonate with me and because of that, I think they're poorly written."

[fluffydeoxys]

OC stuff is dangerous wdym you just think about that guy and you feel things. You made that thing and it’s come such a long way like they’ve grown and fleshed out and you’re proud of them. And there’s an indescribable feeling of pride and tenderness and passion and fondness. That ☝️thingie is My Thing and I love them

[dykedvonte]

do you think curly and anya got into arguments? what do you think is the silliest thing they ever argued over?

I think they all got into arguments. Stuck in a small space with only so much to occupy you with the same like 4 people. You learn patterns, you learn habits and odd little behaviors' they have. You learn to love or loathe them but I personally think these two would keep those type of gripes to themselves.

Personally I think they would argue over game nights because Curly is very much a “I don't really care about the game or if i win or lose ill have fun either way” person and Anya is so prideful and insistent that Curly would be so bitter if he kept losing, like her. It becomes a repeated back and forth because Curly is adamant he just would not care cause it’s a game, even mentions he lets himself lose with Jimmy a lot and they have a better time for it, and Anya just grabs him like the Cosmo and Timmy meme and rants about the thrill of running someone's pockets dry when they land on your properties in monopoly. He is taking the piss out of her. Like I feel like their arguments are just a bit absurd most of the time and like two casual friends teasing each other's quirks.

Though I feel if they had a real argument it would feel less like an argument and more like the most tense discussion of "I feel" statements and dead end routes. I can only really see them "arguing" about Curly's own health. Not pertaining to the games events (I tend to answer these type of asks as if it is prior or didn't happen), Curly does just seem to neglect himself in favor of is duties routinely, subsequentially impacting those duties. It's a lot of "I feel like you should rest more." or "I feel like this is not healthy for you." from Anya that inevitably turn into "Captain, this is not a good habit to have". Curly is a lot of "I feel fine"s that turn into "Please do not worry about me, Nurse Anya." and a sort of petty professionalism they put on when the other is being stubborn about the issue. I feel like he's also just a bit of a nag since he tries really hard to not be stern so its a sort of pestering but that's not Anya's specific.

They just don't seem like the types to bicker with each other because I don't think they want to be heated with each other, like arguing or you'd have to push them to that point unless it's something silly, in which the arguments sound like "I know you are but what am I >:)".

[hobidyllic]

honestly the cover for the new sabrina album makes me a little uncomfortable