#;who's that? me! [muse]

[tofixtheshadows]

Sorry but Kabru is so fascinating to me as a character, in a pure mechanical sense, because of what Ryoko Kui does with him. Everything about him is a red herring. He's deliberately introduced as some kind of rival for Laios, a party leader who is hopeless against monsters but absolutely brilliant with people both in and out of combat, and who has good reason to oppose him.

By the end of chapter 31, you might even think Kabru's going to end up as some sort of anti-villain, an antagonist with the best of intentions who nevertheless tries to foil our hero's plans. He wants to defeat the Mad Mage himself, he suspects Laios of being too irresponsible to be trusted with control of the dungeon, and his crew even thinks that Laios's party stole from them (and they're kind of right!). All signs point towards an inevitable showdown.

And then ... none of that happens.

Confrontation over the stolen treasure? Kabru is literally too smart to fall for the classic miscommunication trope and correctly decides it's not worth making a big deal of.

Kabru's deadly PVP skills? Aside from trying to take down Falin, he never fights another human again.

Wanting to be the one who defeats the dungeon? Turns out he was only doing that because he didn't think any other adventurer would have people's best interests at heart, and he's more than willing to play a support role in the whole affair.

Thinking Laios is up to no good? He really did just want to get to know the guy more. He has his misgivings, but ultimately ends up trusting Laios with his life.

Is Kabru going to get some sort of comeuppance for hating monsters and not appreciating their ecosystem? Well no, he has good reasons for hating monsters. He ends up wanting to learn about them through Laios's eyes, but he's never forced into any "Wow, guess I was wrong about them!" revelation.

Hell, even his implied ladykiller ways, which might lead you to think he'll end up being the stock "chivalrous lech" type of character, don't really manifest. He has a lot of opportunities to act flirtatiously around women, but doesn't. He's just a guy whose natural charisma makes him into human catnip.

And that's all hysterical to me, to pull it off. It's a fascinating way to tell a story. To introduce a character explicitly as a rival, potentially even a villain, and instead make them a deuteragonist. It's like a magician making a coin disappear, then slowing down their trick to show you the misdirection. "Did you see what I did there?" they ask with a wink. "The coin was in my other hand the entire time."

[tinystepsforward]

Okay, so this is a wild hypothetical and begging baseless speculation... but would Matt getting the boot be better for Tumblr specifically? Have unintentional knock-ons? (And thanks for all your commentary and updates!)

this is absolutely a wild hypothetical! the answer is, perhaps predictably, that it depends on who replaces him.

automattic as a whole is rotten from the top down. one of the board members is a perfect example of this: the very first female general in the US military. #girlboss, right? matt was very excited about bringing her onboard.

matt is on the board. toni, who i believe is the interim ceo and know very little about, is on the board. i would assume that any replacement ceo would be less likely to start a complete PR trashfire, but that doesn't mean that they're not still going to be making cynical, profit-based decisions.

in this economy it's very unlikely that tumblr will be staffed well enough or given enough agency to create actual lasting change for the better. but we'd at least have a ceo who isn't prone to using superadmin tools to fuck individual people over when trying to win arguments, i guess? which is not a structural win in any way, it just removes one particular volatile factor.

[unspecifiedfigure]

i’ll take my whiskey neat 🥃

[ventique18]

Anyway here's the initial sketch of Farmer MalleYuu that inspired me to start developing a farming game. 🥔🥕🐮🐥 They just make me so happy tbh

It's my last semester in uni I'm trying to hold onto my remaining sanity

[norhuu]

A couple of years ago when I was still on a tumblr break I made this candle holder statue for my sister.

It is the Three Muses; Melody (with her hands raised in song), Practice (at work braiding her hair), and Memory (laying and reflecting in front of the flame).

[cowboyscaviar]

thinking soooo many crazy thoughts rn

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Does

Does Barnaby

Does Barnaby tell the others to get off his lawn when he's angry

psh, who do you think he is, an old man? he'd Bark, like any lively young dog

[ride-a-dromedary]

Listen I know "Daddy Halsin" has become a tongue in cheek haha wink wink fandom reference, but like...I cannot tell you how legitimately happy it makes me that this great bear of a man, who expresses throughout the narrative that he's always wanted a family but never got the chance, whose lineage ended with him and he sounds endlessly regretful about it, who delights over children and their laughter and happily accepts Yenna into their camp, who wants to protect the vulnerable and help make the world better, and does not want to lead but wants to care for and nurture, finally got what he wanted! And he's so happy about it! He's practically glowing when he says it! That's very important to me!

[radiance1]

Vlad: Would you like to form an alliance... with me?

Ghost writer: Absolutely. Absolutely, I do.

Now, Vlad should know better than to ally himself with someone who broke the Christmas truce, buuuut. The call for DnD is so tempting that he just had to do it.

He then dragged Daniel and his friends into it as well. Daniel dragged his sister along and then the Fenton parents found out and, well.

It suddenly became a thing.

Oh well, both Vlad and Ghost Writer sculpt up some lore from each of their character sheets, weave a world from words and then drag a random number of people to act as their 'players.'

It was supposed to be people from Amity Park, but there was a miscalculation on that part, and honestly you can't even blame them because they've been weaving nonstop and Vlad ignored quite a bit of sleep to try and make this perfect as he could.

So instead of civilians they dragged in a few members of the Justice League and, well.

As long as they play by the rules nothing would hopefully go wrong...?

[b4kuch1n]

simulated earth (it does not matter)

transcript

[acommonanomaly]

I realized I haven't drawn Essek yet and that is just unforgivable here have some floaty hot boi

[tofixtheshadows]

No offense to Mithrun but he really was dumber than a 14 year old. Thistle had that shit locked down for ONE THOUSAND YEARS. Sure he wasn't having a great time for most of it but in terms of duration that Minecraft kid was the most successful Dungeon Lord in history. Mithrun's fake little tea party collapsed and got him eaten within 5 years. The hubris of snake pussy. Meanwhile the Winged Lion had to orchestrate Delgal's escape to the surface and a whole fake hero prophecy just to get out from under Thistle's littlest jester boot.

[tinystepsforward]

it's notable that while terfs have certainly discovered me at this point, they're generally not attacking me personally bc i'm not a trans woman

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

When I first met him... he was the most gallant of lovers. He knew so many things. He delighted in sharing his knowledge. He had a castle full of treasures, and he took such pleasure in showing them, giving them to me. He was so gentle, and his skin felt like white silk against my skin. And I gave what I could give to one such as he. When we made love, it was like a flame: I felt utterly engulfed, utterly loved. Treasured. I have been with many poets, many dreamers... but his love alone was ice and fire. His eyes were stars.

Calliope, in The Sandman #71, by Neil Gaiman

[whaliiwatching]

the flower (reprise)

[mxtxfanatic]

Shen Qingqiu: Of course any reasonable relationship will start with a few “no”s, but like, anyone who really wants you will just ignore that.

Luo Binghe, a person who really wants him but also knows about consent: listens when Shen Qingqiu tells him that he doesn’t want to see lbh, he doesn’t want to share a bed, he doesn’t want to engage in a kink, etc.

Shen Qingqiu: