#And literally everything is going my way because I tried to poison someone when I was younger

[vigilskeep]

sorry for rambling in your inbox but having recently finished a cassandra romance, your post abt people not, like, analyzing her got to me. i know you have arthur who romances(divorces) her and makes her divine but i don't know if you've fully played that out, actually seeing it in-game made me feel rabid. it's kind of an insane thing to do to her... cassandra is the divine candidate who /wants/ the position the least. leliana actively puts herself forward as a candidate, vivienne would never be so gauche as to be direct but she clearly is interested in the position. for cassandra it is a duty she must accept, bordering on a burden (particularly if she can never marry an inquisitor she loves as a result). she became the right hand of the divine as a teenager!!! she loathes the trappings of her name and nobility but she's been trapped by duty instead her whole life. free my girl she did all that but i understand her

it makes me feel insane.

i haven’t played it through no. and i don’t even consider myself to know cassandra particularly well (this is true of a lot of inquisition companions, having never finished the game fully with dlcs and thus never felt completely comfortable watching through banter compilations and alternate endings and low approval scenes and so on.) but from everything i do know about cassandra, the very fundamentals, making her divine feels so... cruel? it’s terrible for literally everybody involved except possibly the snakes in the grand cathedral who are going to eat her alive.

cassandra is a woman of action and passion, brash and violent, a blunt weapon, forthright in both her accusations and her affection. the life of a divine is everything she hates; she might as well be the noblewoman in a gilded cage she was raised to be (in a childhood that poisoned her entire extended family and nation for her), or perhaps an honoured corpse preserved lifeless and useless in the grand necropolis (the ones a young cassandra thought looked so “very sad” in the midst of all their buried, wasted finery.)

i was struck during dawn of the seeker by what an obvious publicity stunt it was to make her the divine’s right hand after her success against the conspiracy. a duty she had to accept, was even publicly surprised into accepting. at her age, would she ever have been put so forward in the seekers to be engaged in fighting such a conspiracy, if not for her name? she would not even have been allowed to join the seekers when she did if not for that. she has no skills of good judgement or leadership and it’s only due to the accident of her birth that these pressures she isn’t equipped to match are constantly placed on her shoulders.

she already wanted to leave after beatrix died, but justinia convinced her otherwise, for a failed vision that ended in death cassandra blames herself for. i find it harder and harder to blame her for dodging the inquisitor’s position, considering all that. and to make her divine... she won’t be good at it, she’ll fall into every politician’s scheme and old orthodox pattern even as she tries for ‘reform’ that she has no clarity of purpose for, she’ll be trapped there for the rest of a long grey life with none of the passion she longs for. she won’t be good at it!!! nobody in thedas benefits either! it’s worse! what the hell

(it’s kind of why i love my arthur and this ending the way i do, because of the equivalency. she does terrible things to him, reinstating the circles while he stands alone as her archmage. but he also did a terrible thing to her, by putting her in this position! by ruining her life and also lying all this time to someone he supposedly loves! neither justifiable or comparable, love loses, nobody wins, they are drowning there is no sign of land etc etc)

[audhdnight]

OH MY FUCKING GOD

Seriously this has opened my eyes to something that I honestly feel like I already suspected because there is SUCH an emphasis on “teaching them while they’re young” and not turning them out into the world until they are “past the point of no return” like this is why Christian fundamentalists hate college so much, because at that age people are still capable of reversing the damage (at least, a hell of a lot easier then they are at say, fifty). The prefrontal cortex doesn’t finish developing until around 25, so if an indoctrinated teenager goes to college at 18 and begins to see reality, they are much more likely to leave the church than someone who is sheltered from the world until they’re 30.

(Side rant: This is also why it’s so frustrating to talk to Christian adults who seem to be genuinely incapable of thinking logically. It explains a phenomenon that I noticed a long time ago: when speaking to relatives, I attempted to show them that they didn’t actually agree with, let’s say for the sake of the example, capitalism. I would bring up all their complaints with our current system and demonstrate how each one is a facet of capitalism. I was able to get them to agree to each individual point, but when I tried to put them all together as a whole, the person (usually my grandpa) would revert back to “okay the system is flawed but it still works” even though we just spent an hour discussing how it doesn’t work, actually. They are incapable of putting multiple pieces together and viewing them as one whole.)

I remember so clearly growing up the sermons on Proverbs 22:6 (Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it) and the pastors stirring up panic about public school and colleges stealing our children’s faith and poisoning their minds. I remember how afterwards all the parents exclaimed how their children would never go to college, that this is why they homeschooled, that this was yet another reason why young men should go straight into the work force and young women should immediately get married and become baby making machines. I vividly remember the panic over statistics of how many people leave the faith in college and how it was so much higher than the numbers of essentially any other group.

Fundamentalists worst fear is reality. They do not want their children to have any exposure to any rhetoric besides their own, unless it is presented disingenuously by apologetics teachers. Everything is filtered and twisted and watered down to keep us “safe” from reality.

This is literally how cults operate. Fundamental Christian evangelicalism IS A CULT

This is also why they target vulnerable groups, because like the OP mentions, people who have damage to their prefrontal cortex are much more likely to fall for indoctrination. This is why you see Christian “outreach groups” in homeless shelters and rehabilitation programs and hospitals. This is targeted and it is malicious. Even the “good Christians” who really do want to actually help people are upholding this system that actively harms vulnerable groups.

[shalscumbunny]

Dear Doctor | Chapter 5: Can I kill him?

Summary: Shalnark suffered a small injury while investigating some things for the Gen'ei Ryodan, his intention was that a doctor would cure him and nothing else, unfortunately that doctor was you and what you least expected is that one of the most wanted criminals in the world would end up becoming obsessed with you.

Pairing: Shalnark X F.Reader

Warnings: Mentions of non-consensual espionage, kidnappings, theft of information, manipulation and assault.

Author’s note: I always mention it in all my writings in English, but better safe than sorry, English is not my native language so it is very likely to find many mistakes and also that I know practically nothing about writing “X character and Y/N”

I am not a doctor so I will say my life excuse for everything, “I am a social science student”, so if something is wrong I apologize

Sites: AO3

After a couple of very hard weeks of work for the Gen'ei Ryodan, Shalnark was very happy, he was finally free and could go see you, of course he saw you through the cameras, but it would never be the same as feeling your beautiful presence by his side, and he couldn't see you that often either because he was so busy.

He walked around the hospital until he got to your office, he knocked on the door, but you didn't answer, that made him strange, he had seen you go to work, he also saw you in your office a few minutes ago, somewhat worried he decided to open the door.

When he entered, he saw you talking animatedly with... someone else... Someone who should be him.

“Shalnark” You greeted him happy to see him, but the doctor next to you didn’t look happy unlike you

“Doctor… Sorry, I thought I heard a “enter”” Shalnark said pretending to be embarrassed

“You thought” The doctor next to you murmured with an annoyed expression

Of course, you sensed the tension, you felt somewhat uncomfortable, but you tried to dispel it.

“Doctor Lucas, meet Shalnark. Shalnark, this is my friend Dr. Lucas, cardiologist” You introduced them both somewhat nervously

They both looked at each other and nodded in greeting.

“Well… Doctor… I have to attend to my patient… I’ll see you later” You said goodbye to Lucas who started to leave a few seconds later

“I’ll see you on Friday, Y/n”

Shalnark watched in silence as Dr. Lucas left and then looked at you, he was literally restraining himself from cornering you and asking you what you were going to do on Friday and with what right you had to talk so cheerfully to a man who wasn’t him.

“So… You have plans for this Friday, right?” Shalnark said, swallowing his poison painfully

“Yes… I haven’t seen Lucas in a while, so I couldn’t refuse”

“Do you use the familiar form?” He asked, scratching his nose out of nervousness.

“We've known each other since medical internship, he's someone I... have a lot of affection for”

Not a word came out of Shalnark's mouth, he was choking on his venom, he was dying of anger, it was as if you had hit him, he would have preferred a thousand times for you to hit him than to see that slight blush on your face.

“Do you like him?” He couldn't hold back the question.

You sighed timidly, looking at the floor. You liked Lucas for several years, you animatedly spoke to him by text when you could, your memories of medical internship with him were the most precious thing you had, we could say that you had him in a certain way idealized.

“A little...” You answered, playing with one of your bracelets.

However, you felt ashamed to admit that kind of thing in front of Shalnark, you hadn't recognized it yet, but... you also felt something for Shalnark, something more than friendship, but you still didn't have a name for that feeling.

Shalnark watched silently as you pondered your thoughts while his blood heated up, there was only one clear thought in his head.

I'm gonna kill him… I'm gonna kill him… I'm gonna kill him… I'm gonna kill him… I'm gonna kill him… I'm gonna kill him… I'm gonna kill him…

“But… let's put that aside” You took Shalnark's hand in yours “Why did you disappear? I missed you visiting me, this office is so boring without you”

That caught him off guard, his face flushed at your soft and tender touch, his heart pounded hard hearing that you missed him, a second thought popped into his head.

You're mine... You're mine... You're mine... You're mine... You're mine... You're mine... You're mine... You're mine... You're mine... You're mine... You're mine... You're mine...

“My job often requires me to travel for long periods of time sometimes, sorry for abandoning you, I'll come see you very often now that I'm here” Shalnark's free hand caressed your face tenderly.

Shalnark now had a warm feeling in his chest, just being with you filled him with happiness and joy, he loved you so deeply, in such an insane and possessive way that when he was with you on one side, he wanted to hug you and protect you from everything and at the same time he wanted to crush you and break you.

But now he had only one mission, Lucas had to disappear, from the map, from the hospital, FROM YOUR LIFE.

He spent the next 2 days visiting you, bringing you food, drinks, some “souvenirs” from his supposed business trip, he was extremely committed to winning your heart, he melted before your beautiful smile, he knelt before your perfection and beauty.

At the same time, however, he also dedicated himself to collecting all the information that existed about Dr. Lucas, his relatives, his personal data, where he lived, if he lived with anyone, who his friends were, how dangerous or perceptive those friends could be if something happened to Lucas.

From what he discovered, Dr. Lucas worked in two hospitals, that meant that in another hospital there was more information about him.

Shalnark sketched a little smile seeing the hospital guard fall dead on the desk, he entered the hospital as if nothing had happened, he entered the personnel file, also killing the file secretary who was there, starting to read the folders.

Lucas had already had problems for messing with other nurses and doctors at that hospital, but apparently, he was influential enough not to have any problems.

He took the file and went to the surveillance cameras, a good way to stalk your prey was to see it in its natural habitat.

He watched with disgust as Lucas had sex with a nurse in his office, he smiled happily a few seconds later when he saw the woman, that gave him an idea.

The following hours he dedicated himself to stalking the nurse, finally fulfilling his mission by drugging her and kidnapping her when it was the best time during the early morning, carrying her like a sack of potatoes, he took her to his house, throwing her on the cold basement floor and set his sights on what mattered most to him, Shalnark grabbed her cell phone, hacking it and starting to review it thoroughly.

“Look at that, it seems you’re not stupid” Shalnark saw the screenshots of the chats with Dr. Lucas, the photos of him and her, videos of them having sex “It seems you have your own plans too…”

Shalnark forwarded everything to his own cell phone and then spoke to Y/n pretending to be the nurse from her cell phone.

Shalnark sent a couple of photos and videos from the gallery to Y/n, after that he deleted all the chat with you and your number from the nurse's cell phone.

“Let's see…” Shalnark checked the nurse's ID “Well, my dear Violeta, it seems that I can't kill you yet, in a while you're going to be quite useful” Shalnark caressed Violeta's face and then tied her to a chair and covered her eyes and mouth.

After that, he yawned, locking the basement and going up to his bedroom, getting ready to sleep in peace as if nothing had happened, as if he didn't have a woman kidnapped in his basement, as if he wasn't about to commit the most macabre and cruel act against you.

Hours later he went to the hospital to visit you as usual, he entered your office seeing you as he expected, with that sad and conflicted expression.

“Y/n? What happened? Are you okay?” Shalnark approached you, taking your face in his hands with presumed concern.

Even though Shalnark was completely responsible for how you felt now, he didn't regret it at all, it was necessary for him, but obviously his heart was breaking into pieces at your sadness, there was no greater pain than seeing the person you love the most suffer.

His thumbs caressed your cheeks and his eyes looked at you in such a loving, warm and tender way, the whole sensation moved your insides making the tears you were trying so hard to hold back end up overflowing from your eyes.

“N-nothing” You said as tears ran down your cheeks

“You know you can tell me anything… You can cry all you want, I'm here to comfort you” Shalnark said kissing your forehead tenderly and starting to wipe your tears with his fingers

You hid in his chest, sobbing for a couple of minutes, feeling so safe and comforted in his muscular arms, feeling his kisses in your hair and listening his comforting whispers.

“You shouldn't cry so much…” It was necessary, Shalnark had to stab you in the back “Today you have a way out, you have to look beautiful… Although you're always beautiful to me”

You couldn't help but blush at the last comment, but at the same time you felt like you were hit with a bucket of cold water bringing you back to reality, but according to you, Shalnark didn't do it on purpose.

“I'm not going out…” You said with a lump in your throat

Shalnark pretended to be surprised and worried.

“What? Why not?”

“Well, I won’t go out to eat… but I’m going to Lucas’s house”

A vein popped out of Shalnark’s forehead, that shit wasn’t in his plans, he thought it would all end there, but apparently it didn’t.

“I don’t understand…” Shalnark said trying hard not to react in a way that would ruin his plan

“I… Don’t take it the wrong way…” You tried hard to speak “For the moment I don’t want to tell you what happened… But… I want you to know that I’m more than grateful to you”

Shalnark sighed watching as still hidden in his chest, you looked for his hand to grab it and intertwine his fingers with yours.

“Relax… But if you need me, you can talk to me, whatever happens, I’ll run no matter where you are” Shalnark said kissing your head

“I’m going to the bathroom to wash my face… The patients can’t see me like this, I’ll be back in a few minutes” You said, separating from him

Shalnark saw you leave the office with a little smile, after that he saw your cell phone on the desk, after watching you through the cameras so many times he already knew your pin so he quickly entered your cell phone to see what time you would meet Lucas, after analyzing all the important information for him he left the cell phone where it was and waited for you meditating on what to do.

Just as you promised, you came back a couple of minutes later and after that he said goodbye to you with another kiss on the forehead.

While he walked towards the hospital exit, he managed to see Lucas, his blood boiled just looking at him, however, that typical false and clean smile appeared on his face, passing by him as if nothing.

“You are Y/N’s patient? Aren’t you?” Shalnark didn't expect Lucas to talk to him of nowhere

“Do you need something?” Shalnark said without changing the smile on his face

“I need you to get away from Y/n” Lucas said in a cold voice

“Do you think you can give me orders?” Shalnark said changing his face, but still smiling

“Am I telling you what is best for you, do you think I don't notice how you look at her?” Lucas said with displeasure towards Shalnark

“Do you think I don't know what kind of person you are?” Shalnark warned fed up with the conversation, but with his childish tone and with presumed innocence “Be careful how you talk to me”

“Are you threatening me!?” Lucas raised his voice trying to grab Shalnark by the collar of his shirt

However, Shalnark was obviously faster grabbing his wrist and squeezing it tightly.

“Be careful what you do, in this hospital, you are the one who has more things to lose” Shalnark threatened without stopping smiling, but even Lucas could see that murderous aura in his eyes.

Shalnark let him go and left the hospital, this time happy, he had never felt so much satisfaction seeing fear in someone's eyes.

When he got home, he closed the door, sitting on the couch and sighing with a sickly smile.

“God… I would have given everything to break his wrist… I wanted to break it…” Shalnark said covering his face “There is no way I won't kill him… I have to kill him… I want to kill him…”

Thank you so much for reading my shit 🖤

Chapter 4 <- Chapter 5 -> Chapter 6

[writingforatwistedworld]

Ah, I hope this isn't annoying, but I couldn't resist! I just read the request for the self-aware au, for a player who is actually a god and I really LOVED the idea!!! So if it's not too much trouble, could I ask for the exact same idea only with Ruggie, Riddle and Ace?

By the way, I love your blog and your work, I love your creativity!! ❤️❤️❤️

Self-aware au

I do not take any responsebility for you reading this no matter which age group you are from!

WARNINGS: Yandere themes, religion, obsessiveness, murder, blood, beheading, violence, death

My works are not meant to be taken seriously. Neither am I telling you in what kind of religion you are supposed to believe in.

Riddle Rosehearts/Ace Trappola/Ruggie Bucchi-Player is a real god

God of law and order

Oho, so we are actively trying to make him loose his mind (mhm good plan good plan)

I mean, come on, the Queendom of roses is a place I would rank “third-most-not-so-fluffy-relationship-with-you” and he grew up in there so what did you expect?

Something normal? Ha! You are making me laugh

But here we are, croquette master with a hedgehog in his hand in person, almost dropping his needely friend

But how did he even find out? Well… Leona. Leona and a lot of ink (you catching my drift, right?)

Things were looking south and everything was just so…. so… unruly

Mhm I can see how a God of law and order popped a blood vessel in that kind of situation

And whilst you aren’t some kind of being creating bloodshed and war getting hit by a rule book and whatever kind of abilities you have has to hurt

Also it was giving away who you truly were

I mean, yay? Now you have an (somehow possible) even more obsessive follower…

And they all wonder why he suddenly became so religious

Even if you are a more “chill” kind of entity concerning your field of work (the market of Gods is always having too little workers) he is still like “Nope Trey. Imma go pray to ruler number 168” or something like that

Like I said, religious

But oh dear heavens (u get it heavens in like… ok I’ll stop) someone disrespects you or tries to take his seat as “most devoted follower of the month”

Uh… he was in the mood for a “realistic” demonstration of how the Queen of Hearts would deal with annoyances

Just tell him that you are proud… otherwise I’m not sure that even the hedgehogs would tolerate him and his… rather red behaviour

God of trickery

Hmm… this one is kinda tricky

You see, he is from the Queendom of Roses but at the same time he is not powerful enough to do that much damage… with magic at least

When Ace found out that you were everything but a ordinary student you two were in a rather unhappy situation

I mean, either you make that huge glass thingy behind Riddle trip and fall or you can eat rose bush which it was swinging around like crazy… pick your poison

Ace isn’t the fatest tool in the shed but when you, a magicless student, suddenly used something akin to magic he knew that something was up

And who would have known, maybe if it wasn’t for the bad parenting of Riddles mother you may have hidden this until the day you would go separate ways

But oh well, seems like fate decided it wanted him to be religious

I mean, a God of trickery, something like that is perfect for him!

Not to mention that you are way more approachable than some God of law and order because who would want to follow such a stiff deity? (Jokes on you Ace but Riddle...)

Despite him being on the “chill, man” side I can also see a huge spike in religiousness in his personality

I mean, come on, it’s now literally proven with his own two eyes that God (or Gods) at least exist

You know that meme “he don’t but-YES IT DOES!” that’s him

My man just turns feral when someone dares to take your prescious attention and time away from him

Literally a menace, and not the peaceful kind

Before you know it he is asking you if you can help him dig holes for a “garden project”

In the middle of the woods. Aha. Totally believable

Well, all I can say is that Trey will probably miss the kitchen knife... yeah I would buy a new one and never use the old one again...

You know... Maybe the cake looks a bit red if he were blind and never noticed anything.... It's a “garden project”, ok? Let the man raise his Gladiolus, Aconitum, Lycoris and Chrysanthemum

God of kindness and equality

So we feeding the carnivores today? Sounds like a plan. Not a good one but at least it is one

Ruggie has always been someone who needed to clench his teeth and do stuff other people wouldn't do simply to have his basic needs fulfilled

So imagine you standing there one day, opening up that you are in truth literally the things he had been craving all his life for

Mhm, I am just had he doesn't have rabies. You could have fooled me with how aggressive he becomes towards new people (and also your own little circle to be honest) after finding that out

Here we are, Leona is dealing with his stuff in an unhealthy way and someone needs to step up and bring him down to earth again

But imagine his surprise that you were actually the good of kindness after you slapped our local lion who may or may have not escaped from the Zoo next door back into reality (and out of his doom)

After he spends even more time with you it starts to make sense thought

Even though he is the closest person to Leona which could be used for someone's benefit people still tend to be at least wary of him because... well broken bones hurt, you know?

But here you are, holding out your hand to him, offering him your kindness and friendship

Though you could have said “marry me” because win his eyes that is exactly what you did

And who is he to say no to such an perfect being literally being from heaven (or whatever higher place)

He is scratching, biting, kicking and using all the dirty tricks in the book just to keep you alone, isolated and all for himself

Of course he won't do that in front of you, he isn't a monster! Such a pure and perfect being lime you doesn't need to witness such a thing!

If you thought that Diasomnia is already bad then I would say yes, he is only a teeny tiny bit better than them

Why? Oh well, he doesn't have the magical or physical strength to start a war

That doesn't mean he won't leave you alone

Oh no

You will spend somewhere the rest of the time he exists in a small in the middle of nowhere thinking that everyone despises you

He has a way with words (and sharp, suspiciously red teeth) you know?

[merakiui]

Omg that last thought tickled about sick reader w trey tickled me soooooooo good 😭

I raise you this!!! Darling hates the taste of medicine, so trey tells her he'll use his unique magic disguise it to have the flavour of her favourite juice. Little does she know, trey has literally just been giving her juice and lying about it being medicine the whole time 😭😭

Omggg and visits to Doctor Riddle??? Riddle is totally in on the whole thing and is secretly giving trey advice on how to keep you jussttt sick enough to keep you entirely dependent on him without putting you in any true danger. Maybe the two of them really crank up the dramatics by helping you to slowly get better, and then as soon as you start to misbehave too much, it's back to square one.

Sometimes your head gets so loopy and gone that while you let trey bathe you, you're not entirely aware of everything he's doing to your body 😭😭

You and that anon are so big brained for this. I really like this trope because I've always been quite sickly (it's something that seems to run in my family.) When I don't feel well I'm literally soooo whiney and clingy and I *need* someone to hold me, and I get the feeling that trey, Floyd, Riddle and rook in particular are the ones who would eat that shit up

OOOOOO YES YES OTL

It’s such a good trope, especially for Trey and (doctor) Riddle! They’re so logical and level-headed most of the time, but rational thought is thrown out the window when you come into the picture. Trey has done so much for Riddle, so Riddle feels as if he needs to return the favor somehow, even if that means compromising your health for the sake of returning goodwill. And you have to trust Doctor Riddle because of his credentials! He’s a doctor! He’d never lie to you! It’s his job to help you get better, and sometimes you do get better. But then you’ll push Trey away when he tries to get close to you or you’ll try to run away; and now you’re bedridden once again. :( it’s a vicious cycle you fail to realize because you’re so certain you just have poor health.

Omg and being unaware while Trey bathes you because your head is so foggy and you’re so sleepy… aaaaa normally Trey tries to be good and keep his hands to himself. He doesn’t want to do anything you might dislike him for, but you’re so out of it when you sit in the bath, leaning against the wall and closing your eyes. And he’s so tempted to do more than just washing. He limits himself to lingering touches when you’re in this state, his fingers never going any further than he intends them to. Though he wants to feel more of you, preferably inside you, he holds himself back. He likes you, and sometimes he feels guilty about that because he likes you too much.

Or maybe he holds himself back for all of one week before he realizes he can successfully get away with more than just groping. :) maybe he even knocks you up during one of these times and neither of you realize it until Trey starts suspecting it when you exhibit certain symptoms; and now suddenly your health is no longer declining. Now you have to be healthy and well for the baby, and Trey and Riddle can no longer keep you sick, lest they somehow harm the baby with their interferences.

Omg I agree that Rook and Floyd also work for this trope! Although I also feel like Jade enjoys it just a little more than Floyd. Floyd likes it when you’re needy and clingy; Jade likes the idea of being in total control of you when he intentionally makes you sicker and weaker. I also think Vil would be good for this trope! He knows his way around poisons and curses. :) he could easily utilize this knowledge to keep you just weak enough to rely on and love him while still allowing you to feel like yourself most of the time.

[sarnai4]

All In

Spoilers ahead for RTTE. I've seen and read a lot of stories, but I only have one character who's been my favorite hero and villain. That character is Dagur because he always went all in on whichever role he's supposed to play. I think the reason is that most characters are written with one particular role in mind. I've seen some who are meant to become heroes, so they never do anything too bad. They can't seem truly evil because they're eventually going to be good guys. Then, some characters have been part of that untrustworthy/villainous side for so long that even when they're supposed to be good, they do shady things that show how they're almost naturally villains. Neither of these happen with Dagur. When he's bad, he's really a villain; when he's good, he's really a hero. I love that.

I've seen mostly two opinions on Dagur. One where he's this monster who would eat kids in their nightmares and one where he's done nothing wrong. I feel like part of what makes him so amazing is that he did have both sides to him. As an antagonist, Dagur pulled no punches. He had the highest confirmed kill count of any human character. On top of who knows how many merchants he killed (since he was very ready to do that), he killed an entire island worth of Vikings. It's not just that either. He's one of the few villains who consistently tries to kill the Riders. When they were caught on the ship, he wanted to drown one of them. When he was fighting Astrid, he tried to dig an ax into her torso. He wasn't even loyal to other villains since he was constantly planning to betray them like with Alvin or the Grimborns. Villainous Dagur was threatening, unpredictable, and murderous. He was also a lot of fun, which made him my favorite baddie. Then, he pleasantly surprised me by turning good.

Dagur didn't have one of those moments where he tried to turn bad again. In all honesty, he couldn't. He'd done so many horrible things as a villain that if he ever did anything even remotely villainous again, no one would be able to forgive him. To put it into perspective, Dagur tried to sacrifice himself for everyone and STILL didn't gain all their trust. Generally, self sacrifice is kind of the most you can do, but since he didn't die, Heather was immediately suspicious of him again when she found him. It's because of everything he had done. So, to make up for how good of a villain he was, he had to be just as good a hero. Dagur became an incredibly selfless good guy.

Hiccup literally yelled that he hated him for leaving him with the Hunters (who technically had only captured the two of them because Hiccup tried to kill Dagur for supposedly poisoning Toothless) and Dagur was on his way to get Toothless to save him. When Dagur tried to sacrifice himself, he had to fight against Heather to do it. He isn't someone who needs someone to care about him back in order for him to protect them. Even in what he thought would be death, Dagur continued to try to help the Riders stop Viggo. Although the gold wasn't his, he still found it for Berk. Even though no one asked him to, he sent Berk willow bark when they didn't have any for medicine. On top of this, Dagur let Gustav (who is basically canonically hated by everyone) stay on Berserker Island at the request of Stoick. I'd say that after putting his life at risk and protecting the Riders, these other actions are necessary, but they show that the little details matter to him. I realize they matter to me too because they really showed me how much being a good person meant to Dagur. At every turn, he tried to do what he could to help his new friends. I truly respect that. He never half did anything. It makes sense. According to him, it's the Berserker way. All in, all the time. Sounds just like Dagur to me.

[kerubimcrepin]

Liveblog - Dofus, livre 1 : Julith [PART 20]

Joris grabs Kerubim as they're falling, to shield him, and my personal thoughts on this are [CAR CRASH] [GLASS SHATTERING] ‘GOOD LORD!’ [GENERAL COMMOTION] [BABY CRYING] ‘WAAAAH WAAAAH’ [YELLING] [POLICE SIRENS] WEEWOO WEEWOO [HELICOPTERS] ‘WE’RE REPORTING LIVE-‘ [EXPLOSION] ‘MY LEG… MY LEG…’

Even with his probably very limited thinking-capabilities as a kitten, Kerubim's first instinct after falling is to look at whether Joris is alright or not. Personally, I think that——

:(

fanmgs

Kerubim is 2 sauces tall, but ready to avenge his death and also his son's fresh traumatization.

"Please don't call me a flask of poison because I have some green liquid inside and skulls drawn on my bottle <3 just drink up. Okie dokie?"

I don't lnow what this woman is expecting, here, honestly.

BASED Joris.

Bakara really thinks that Joris is stupid enough to go with her, while Joris employs the classical battle tactic of lying, by approaching her until she let go of Lilotte and saying "im going to kill you or hurt you in some way [giggle]" immediately after.

But as Bakara has shown repeatedly, even in this scene alone, she doesn't think highly of Joris. Even if she tried really hard to pretend that she did.

Well, she doesn't think of anyone highly, actually. Including herself.

This screenshot will get a lot of usage during ova2 liveblog, followers. It's literally THE reaction image for ova2.

While watching this movie, I always go between different extremes, when thinking about Joris and Bakara's relationship in the future. Would it become worse? Would they be close? Would they hate each other?

Every time I have a different answer, which is probably an answer in on itself.

My current take is that whether Joris and Bakara consider one another a friend probably varies from year to year. I can see it clearly: her telling him stories of Jahash. Her helping him around the home. Her criticizing him harshly for being a failure of a huppermage (it's as unacceptable for him to be that, as it is for her). Her stopping talking to him after he leaves the academy. Beginning to talk to him again after a few years, when he has a very close call to death while adventuring, — angry at him, because don't you dare die on me while we're in one of our "I don't talk to you" argument phases. Rinse and repeat.

I think it's funny. Atcham's greatest wish, besides hair, has always been "I want someone in my family to care about me," while Bakara...

Whike Bakara, as an heir of a Bontarian hero, would probably fear being in the wrong, — an evildoer, — the very most.

No wonder they're so shocked.

Both of them are experiencing some entirely new emotions, thanks to Joris.

It's not really about Bonta. It's about revenge. And it's about her feeling inadequate. And it's about her feeling like a failure.

As far as she's concerned, even a dofus doesn't want her, with how broken she is. He wants some weird, off-putting, Julith-related 10yo instead.

One has to wonder, if it is a genuine plea, or if she is manipulating Bakara by revealing the truth. Because she doesn't want to be blown to pieces by a dofus.

It's a bit hard to analyse this part of the movie because I'll be real, there's so much occuring all at the same time. Like bro. Imagine being Joris here.

The woman who killed your dads is now like "I am going to bring one of them back", and also another one came back 5 minutes ago, but also things are exploding and fire is everywhere, and also your aunt just tried to kill your uncle?? And also stole your dragon egg magical nuke.

Even if everything Julith said was true, — her cold, cold reaction to a fireball hitting her son, the way she looks at Bakara like at dirt, and the way she says "quit fooling around", point so, so heavily towards her revelation of this information being a tactical way to manipulate Bakara.

[dumbass-duo-showdown]

Propaganda masterpost for desertduo

They are two idiots thinking eachother's udeas are good and then somehow winning

They are two idiots thinking eachother's udeas are good and then somehow winning

They don’t have a single brain cell between them. They poked the goat to “see what would happen” and ended up getting their bases covered in duped ender dragon eggs.

Particularly in Hermitcraft, they are the most chaotic together. Chaotic in the most stupid of ways. Example: they blew up an intricate machine from one of the most "threatening" people on the server, stopped posting for a while, tried fixing it and failed, and tried apologizing with diamonds (Grian), theme park gifts (Scar), and by calling the victim "handsome" and "smart" and everything they could think of. And THEN, when Doc (the victim) retaliated with very intricate pranks that take a lot of skill and knowledge, they teamed up, went to the perimeter they were banned from as their alter egos as a loophole, and FILLED the ENTIRE PLACE (and it's a ginormous hole down to bedrock, many chunks wide) with CHICKENS. Just. A lot of chickens. Chickens everywhere. Oh my god. And another thing. Grian loves pressing buttons, like ADORES it (that's how the machine broke in the first place) and Scar... well. He gets confused easily and also breaks a lot of machines. So when people in the server build stuff, they have to both Grian-proof it (make sure an overexcited person who loves pressing buttons won't break the system) and Scar-safe it (make sure it's easily understandable and won't be broken like that). But now they also have to GRIAN-AND-SCAR-PROOF their stuff, because i swear, they multiply each other's dumbassery like by 100. And all that is just from the current arc of Hermitcraft season NINE. If we go back to season eight for a second, Grian decided to fake being AFK in all his friends' bases, and when he got to Scar's, Scar built him a ROLLERCOASTER RIDE to the BOAT TOTEM (boatem) HOLE THAT GOES BEYOND BEDROCK. People constantly fell there in the season and it was hell gearing themselves back up. But Scar was sure they were gonna land on the boatem and thought Grian was asleep because of time differences. But he failed and both died either way. And good fucking thing Grian was watching it all happen. Scar was SINGING him a SONG. You could even HEAR HIM COMING UP WITH IT BEFORE THE ACTUAL RIDE. Scar by FAR had the BEST reaction to the AFK experiment. And GODDD they're such idiots together. Unless they're in it for survival (aka the Life series) in which case Grian basically becomes his nanny let's be real. Scar is way too prone to die. He dies literally all the time and someone's gotta have him on a leash.

grian thinks that hes the responsible one in the dynamic but really hes just as much a chaos gremlin as scar is

they enable each other constantly. fellow builders to friends to enemies to friends to enemies to f

they share two braincells with each other and they do not work half the time. The number of things they fucked up is not even countable. One of them will be like "I'll save you!" and then both of them need someone to come and save them. They also are connected at the hip and love to annoy each other and other people so so much. they need help

They are so. so. Pesky british bird who loves explosions and has an attention span of 2 + catboy scammer who likes to lick magic and die badly. They are perfect for each other and their friendship is so precious to me. They are canonically soulmates. Currently theyre camping out on the edge of their enemy's giant hole because they accidentally exploded his machine together while Grian was procrastinating. The situation escalated because Grian likes war and Scar likes chaos so now theyre sitting directly in the path of their enemy's giant TNT-pooping goat mecha. Their plan? Build a buttercup-themed mecha to fight it because buttercups are poisonous to goats

They have caused a lot of chaos and destruction due to their lack of braincells /pos

Scar dragged Grian to the desert on a llama to monopolize on its sand, they blew up their friend’s tunnel bore, and rode a roller coaster together. They just bounce a braincell back and forth basically.

They ping pong a brian cell between each other and the few times it produces a thought the idea is always a bad one

they have two brain cells between them and they are not sure where they left them, they actively search for trouble and act sincerely shocked when it bites them on the ass, very orange cat coded if you ask me

Things only work out for them by pure luck. They both think they have the braincell and will be the one to pull each other through but they are both wrong. Tripping over their own feet and stumbling so hard and yet still coming out on top just because the others fall over harder

They get in a room together and its like all braincells disappear. They blew up their neighbors redstone, they filled his base with thousands of chickens, they die nonstop, they bully the other (in a friendly way) constantly and then do the exact same thing, theyre dunbasses ur honor

Theyre literally, just an echochamber of dumb. They actively lose braincells when around eachother. Grian seems smart and calculated but he can never get anything to work properly and scar is just an absolute hazard to himself and grian tries to keep him safe. They both die in minecraft so much. Grian also just has a habit of pressing every button lever or chest he ever sees. Even if its an obvious trap. He breaks stuff so easily. Grian WILL press the big button on top of the tnt block thats in plain sight. Especially right after scar says "i wonder what that does". Theyre duo can be summed up to trickster dumbass and dumbass with a heart of gold. They literally started a prank war by accidentally blowing up someones redstone. They are the unattended children on every server theyre in.

long live the science bros.

One owed the other a life debt for killing them with a creeper (it was just a prank, bro) and so they spent the season trying to monopolize all of the sand in a desert, and that's jusr scraping the surface of how stupid they are.

[blorbo-battle-to-the-death]

Mane Six (My Little Pony) vs OliMabel (Only Murders in the Building)

submitted by: myself (I figured I should post something other than the pinned and I don’t have any asks (because I forgot to turn on the ask box 😔) (I fixed it though)

propaganda below the poll/cut. Read before voting. Or not your choice really.

please reblog for reach (if you want)

Propaganda

Mane Six:

One of them (twilight) is just. Straight up a god by the end of the show.

them being friends can literally summon the powers of fundamental elements of the universe.

pinkie pie has a fucking cannon.

Applejack has strong enough legs to kick apples out of trees.

Rainbow Dash can fly fast enough to create a ‘sonic rain boom’ which like, it looks like an explosion. I feel like she could fly super fast into someone and kill them.

Rarity and Twilight both have horns. They can do magic (although rarity’s seems to be mostly picking stuff up) but also. Like. Stab with them.

horses are usually gentle giants but people have been killed by horses before.

three of them can fly (and dodge attacks via that)

Fluttershy can talk to animals. She could summon all the flies in the arena to surround the enemies.

power of friendship bitch.

oh also pinkie pie can defy gravity (but only if it’s for the bit)

would be unlikely to go for the kill, which could prove fatal if they decide to spare OliMabel and then OliMabel are like “ok *stab*”

OliMabel:

The team consists of a washed up actor with commitment issues, a cringefail director with delusions of grandeur, and a 30 year old artist who has witnessed way too much death.

they have solved four murders.

Charles seems to be decent at withstanding the effects of poison (none of the mane six use poison, but one of twilights spells might theoretically have similar effects.)

They. They are so. Especially Oliver but all of them really. Like for example, when thinking the cops were knocking at Charles’ apartment, Oliver shouted “WHY AM I HOLDING THIS KNIFE” (which was covered in dried blood) and then proceeded to throw it into the ceiling. And later when a cop actually was there Oli and Charles went to talk in the bathroom about how Oliver had forgotten to get rid of the knife even though he was supposed to awhile ago. And the cop heard everything. And they both tried to lie to her about it.

Mabel is good at boxing.

Charles has a doctors note saying he’s too weak to kill.

I could see Oliver going for the kill.

however, Oliver ALSO eats nothing but dips and has had two stress induced heart attacks (I feel as though this situation might be stressful)

[askbensolo]

She finds my hair so fascinating, when to me it's so ordinary. She likes to weave her fingers through the strands and twirl my curls around and braid it when I'm not paying attention. And sometimes she just comes up behind me and starts scratching my head with her fingertips, and I don't know what it is, but I freaking melt, like an ice cream sundae left outside in the sun. Like...that must be what sex feels like. Seriously. If sex isn’t as good as, or better, than head scritches…well, then that is such a ripoff and I will be speaking to the manager about that.

And if it is…then, uh…well…heh.

But…maybe I shouldn’t speak too soon.

She did it last night—the head-scratching thing—and it started out fine. (By “fine” I mean, it felt so good I would have committed murder for that girl.) But then…for some reason…it brought back this memory of me, lying in the dark with Snoke, my head on his lap, while he stroked my hair and whispered to me, and suddenly…it all felt wrong. I felt something like a rock sink to the bottom of my gut, and I went all stiff, and her touch was driving me crazy (in a bad way this time) but I didn't know what to do... I tried to make the good feelings come back, but they wouldn't anymore. And I felt like something bad would happen if I told her to stop.

It's not her fault. She didn't know. I mean, she wouldn't know. Not unless I told her, which I couldn't, because I felt trapped. Trapped and forced to sit there and let myself be touched. I felt myself start to drift away from my body, like I used to do when Snoke would inspect my thoughts—

And I couldn't believe it, how something that had felt so crazy good before now felt so horrible, like being tortured, like my insides were filling up with poison that I had no way to excise, like I was watching myself be eaten alive—I was literally starting to break out in a sweat, moisture prickling through my pores—

And I tried to tell myself, Chill, you idiot, it's just Fannie. You know, that girl you like? She's not the one who hurt you. She likes you. She's flirting. It's supposed to be cute. It's supposed to be hot. It's supposed to feel good. It felt good before. But typical Ben—that bantha-brain never kriffing listens.

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore because I was honestly perceiving a non-negligible chance that I might become violently ill so I just stood up abruptly and gave her an awkward little hug and pretended I had business to attend to in the bathroom, but really I just sat on the edge of the tub for a while and white-knuckled the fiberglass and tried to wait out my nausea. And it was so awful; even though I was finally safe and all alone I could still feel fingers combing through my hair—and I didn’t know whose fingers I was imagining them to be.

And I thought, wow, cool, now here's a preview of my life probably, if I choose to go down this path of letting someone in, I guess. Cool cool cool. Am I gonna have to go back to therapy for this? For sex stuff? And that wasn’t even anything—she was just playing with my hair. How much worse would it be for me if we were—you know? I’ve been in therapy before, for depression, and anxiety, but—for sex? Ew. Embarrassing. Disgusting. I’d rather die. Stupid me. Hate my life. I should’ve just stayed asexual.

And of all the reasons I have to hate Snoke, and all the things he’s taken from me…I can’t believe that now, after everything he did when I was sixteen and seventeen, years later as a twenty-three-year-old man I also have to say that he took away my ability to enjoy being with a woman I’m attracted to. I didn’t even think I could be attracted to anyone for so long, and now I am—will wonders never cease?—except oh wait—surprise trauma, I can’t kriffing stand to be touched, even by someone I like more than anyone. And maybe that’s worse than not liking anyone at all. Because now it’s not just an aversion, it’s kind of a longing and an aversion at the same time, the good and bad feelings all mixed together, the really really good and the really really bad all at once, which is its own special little psychosomatic torture, and I almost wish the box had stayed closed and I’d never learned I could feel things so so good and so so bad—and that’s not even getting into how it makes me feel like I’m not a man, to be so scared of something I’m supposed to want—to not be able to respond to her the way I’m supposed to—and ARGHH I hate myself I HATE myself I HATE myself UGHHHH

[haveateadude]

i should put it all behind me, shouldn't i?

summary *. ⋆ ⋆·˚ where ellie and dina have been letting the past linger for too long

warnings *. ⋆ ⋆·˚ ptsd—it's not mentioned but it's definitely there. a little bit of angst and the rest is fluff, though. this is sweet with sad undertones i would say

author notes *. ⋆ ⋆·˚ sorry for not being active, i really wanted to post stuff but i had school (i'm finally on break!!) and my mental health got so bad i stopped enjoying literally everything lmao. but dw i'm going back to therapy and luckily i'm alright now and i have huge urges to write so. also the coffee i had is giving me so much anxiety🙄like fucking bitch can i enjoy one cup of coffee in peace?? damn, let a girl live. also i'm shaking ass to guess rn, literally best collab fucking EVER, the mv got me giggling and blushing and shit

Ellie is trying, Dina can see. She's trying to get better—better at whatever they have, whatever this is. Still, she's trying to become a better person, blend into the lives they now have, leave the past behind.

Dina can see it in the little things, in the little actions: when Ellie gets up to cradle JJ when he's crying, waking up earlier than she should to cook breakfast, water the plants, and helping Dina clean. It's subtle, but it's there. The effort. It's somewhere.

But you know what's also somewhere? Ellie leaving her. Ellie leaving for revenge. Ellie leaving. Ellie leaving. Ellie leaving. It creeps through the cracked floors and broken mirrors like the sun coming from a window. 

Dina trusts—maybe more than she should—Ellie. A lot. And it fucking scares her. Ellie is so predictable yet unreadable in a way that makes her bones itch. She knows it's not Ellie's fault. Because it isn't. Grief leads to places some of us can't reach, it plagues your mind like poison ivy—like an illness you cannot control, it leaves you stranded, wordless, sick to your stomach, knots in your throat; or like a friend, someone you don't know when they're going to leave or know when they're going to come back, if they ever do.

So, Dina, by default, is scared when she doesn't find Ellie anywhere in the house. She tries not to worry but fails at it. Fear fills her body from head to toe.

She left again, is her first thought. She left again, there's nothing I can do. Where is she? Where is she? Where is she?

Finally, she sees her. She sees Ellie, sitting at the outside stairs, playing the guitar—or trying to, at least. The sky is still dark, and the stars shine brighter than ever. Dina takes a second to calm down and breathe. When she feels ready and her beating heart has come back to normal, she opens the door.

"Ellie?" She asks, with her hand still on the doorknob.

Ellie turns around, and then breathes out, "Dina."

She puts the guitar aside like she's embarrassed. Her cheeks are flushed under the moonlight, Dina can see.

"You okay?" Dina asks as she sits next to Ellie. 

Ellie nods, crossing her arms and looking ahead, eyes staring into nothing. Dina's heart aches at the sight.

They sit in silence for a while. The sky is beautiful. Dina used to dread it because that was the way it looked when Ellie left—the moon looked lovely, and the constellations had seemed to wake up all of a sudden and they were all over the night sky. The wind was nice, also. That night she sat outside, hoping for Ellie to come back, and cried when she realized that Ellie wasn't coming back until she was gasping for air—until she ran out of tears. She then prayed for Ellie's safety and went to wake up JJ.

"It's never going to end, isn't it?" Ellie suddenly speaks. She isn't crossing her arms anymore, more so hugging herself. Dina frowns. "The fear you have… about me leaving, I mean."

Dina sighs because she thinks that might be true. 

"Well," she starts saying, "if it makes you feel better, I have a lot of fears."

Ellie nods, holding a guilty look as she looks at Dina, "Right."

"I do get…" She stops herself, trying to put into words what she's feeling in the best way—in a way that wouldn't sound mean. "I do get why you left, I just think it wasn't fair for me. We had a baby, for fuck's sake. And you were going to leave without saying anything!"

"I know," Ellie acknowledges it easily, like she has thought about it a lot. Her voice shakes.

"God, I'm not even mad at you," Dina lets the tears fall and lets the sadness and anger and all of the emotions she hasn't been allowing herself to feel sit with her. "I'm fucking pissed. And I love you, and it's fucking me up, Ellie."

Ellie looks down, fidgeting with her index finger. She sighs, looking guilty, and for a moment Dina enjoys it. She enjoys the fact that Ellie regrets leaving because a part of her was scared that Ellie didn't feel anything about abandoning her with a kid.

Ellie opens her mouth to say something, then closes it instantly. After shaking her head she decides to speak again. Her voice is less soft than it was in the whole conversation. "I'm so fucking sorry, Dina. I just—I had to do it. I wasn't gonna be capable of living with myself if I pretended that revenge wasn't all I thought about... I didn't kill Abby, by the way."

Dina sucks in a breath as she hears Ellie, even though she isn't in much shock. Alright, well, that's new. Ellie never talked about Abby ever since she had come back. Dina just guessed she was dead.

"Why?"

"It wasn't gonna change anything, was it?" Ellie answers, shrugging. 

Dina moves closer to Ellie, quietly wrapping her arms around her, and sniffling. Ellie hugs Dina back and takes a deep breath, as if she hadn't been letting herself breathe properly this past few weeks—her shoulders slump, the weight finally off her back.

"Promise me you'll never leave like that again?"

"I think leaving made me realize how much I love you," Ellie says, staring into Dina's eyes and pulling away gently, wiping Dina's tears with the pads of her thumbs. "I promise."

Ellie's forehead rests against Dina's and Dina's mind wanders to the day she left, but this feels so much different. This doesn't feel like Ellie's gonna leave and that everything is going fucking wrong; this feels like love, like real love—the type of love that you can feel and see and touch, the type of love that feels too real to be true, the type of love that makes you wanna rip out the skin on your chest and show the word that you've got a heart underneath and that that heart is capable of loving someone.

This feels like things can be okay again.

[stardust-falling]

Hello.... Can I ask your top 5 (or top 3) favorite characters from SVSSS? And why you loved them? And your top 5 favorite moments from the series? Thanks if you want to answer....

Top 5 favorite characters:

1 - Shen Jiu 2/3 - Yue Qingyuan, Shen Yuan 4/5 - Luo Binghe, Gongyi Xiao

Honestly, it's super hard to decide my favorites, hence the 2/3, 4/5 here lmao. Depending on the meaning of "like" I really don't dislike any SV characters (obviously OPM, QJL, WYZ can go get fucked if we're talking about emotional affection/blorbofication, but I do still enjoy them in a meta sense for their roles in the story). But because SJ is both my favorite in terms of "I feel affection for this character and he is my little scrungly blorbo" as well as "I want to study him under a microscope like a bug" he gets the top spot easily.

Top five favorite moments is pretty hard too, since things are my favorite for different reasons... So I'll pick my favorite scenes for analysis, not necessarily for emotional reaction or attachment, in no particular order. Going under a cut because I rambled, as usual:

I really, really like the entire Holy Mausoleum arc, but I specifically like the part where SQQ and LBH are confronted by OPM and QHT. I feel like it's here that we can really see beneath the unreliable narrator and actually see that SQQ truly does love LBH back. Holy Mausoleum in general just says a lot about Bingqiu without saying it directly, and I do encourage everyone who thinks that SQQ doesn't actually love LBH back please reread that part while looking for it because damn, SQQ's narration tries to hide how much he actually cares for this boy.

Qijiu extras, the scene in the Lingxi caves. Between SJ's paranoid and irrational internal monologue that shows that despite everything, he really doesn't actually see himself as he is or as a legitimate peak lord, Yue Qingyuan's appearance at a critical moment to keep SJ from spiralling past the point of no return (contrasting this to his inability to return to Qiu Manor in time), the fact that even though they are not on good terms, YQY is still able to calm SJ down from qi deviation, and that SJ tolerates both his presence and his touch, it shows a lot that despite his paranoia and his hurt, a part of Shen Jiu still trusts Yue Qingyuan. The fact that it's revealed that they're in the very cave that YQY was trapped in with Xuan Su is just the icing on the cake... the truth is laid out before them, just a step from being revealed, but still isn't... I just think this scene really is so important to show how 79's relationship stands on a deep level, both the trust that is still there as well as the barriers.

Skinner demon confrontation, after they're captured. The irony of the first mission being to take down a demon that's literally wearing someone else's identity as their own is great. There's also Luo Binghe's sexual awakening upon seeing SQQ shirtless, which is honestly quite funny to me as an ace person. But my favorite thing, I think, is the way that SQQ sets up Die'er's defeat by using LBH as bait which, while it is successful due to the genre's conventions, also makes Luo Binghe's trust waver... it sort of sets the tone for the entire emotional conflict of the novel. Despite SQQ knowing that LBH will be fine, since it has all been decreed by plot, he underestimates how much it will hurt him-- and he's thinking about hurting LBH in terms of how it will affect SQQ himself later on, rather than LBH's own pain. Then, afterwards, SQQ leaves LBH behind to go into seclusion, he gives LBH the new manual but doesn't move him out of the woodshed, and there's no indication that Ming Fan's bullying stopped during that time either. When SQQ returns, he ends up sacrificing himself and taking the poisoned hit for LBH... in a way this all just parallels the actual plot of the novel in short-form and I think that's very, very neat.

The water prison arc-- everything from LBH's visit where he stops LPM from attacking SQQ, where SQQ refuses to answer LBH's question because of his inaccurate perception of the situation, LBH's volatile emotions in this sequence, Gongyi Xiao's assumptions that LBH had assaulted SQQ and SQQ's complete obliviousness to that possibility, plus just GYX being the best boy ever tbh, he doesn't deserve to live in this messed up book and certainly doesn't deserve to die. This sequence has so much about how inaccurate perceptions of situations can lead to wildly off-base interpretations and how a lack of proper communication can escalate a conflict where it really didn't need to escalate. The "perceptions and interpretations vs. reality" idea is another major theme in SV, and this sequence really showcases a lot of that in a clear way.

Maigu Ridge. This one's controversial. A lot of people have a lot of opinions about it and let me just make a disclaimer that I'm not including this one because I enjoyed reading it on an emotional level. Maigu Ridge is FUCKED UP!! It's a massively fucked up situation for all parties! It's uncomfortable, and definitely something that warrants a trigger warning before reading the book-- and yet, it's so interesting to analyze from a hypothetical standpoint because the situation is just so, so messy in terms of who gives consent and who doesn't-- and does anyone really have the option to consent here, since both parties are under the complete control of the narrative-- in terms of who hurts who, etc. There are a lot of little details to debate, and of course there's the instant, knee-jerk surface reaction that people get, which I can totally understand especially if you didn't go in expecting this sort of scene and ended up getting triggered by it, but once you start to peel back the layers you can actually find that this scene is way more complicated than 'one party as the aggressor/one party as the victim.' It's a deconstruction and subversion of tropes, but also a really interesting place to analyze themes of consent as a whole, and the effects on the individuals involved. For this, honestly, people just need to remember that these are fictional characters. It's not saying anything about IRL survivors, and I'm a major proponent of considering massively fucked up situations through a fictional lens in order to understand the shades of gray that may exist in similar but less-extreme situations in real life, without the possibility of your deliberations causing harm to any party since in the fictional scenario, since none of the characters are real (I can't even begin to tell you how much of my own trauma I've processed based on extreme fictional scenarios). But on the flip side, if the scene upsets you or triggers you, it's perfectly valid to dislike it! It's also perfectly valid for you to dislike the Bingqiu relationship because of it! It's not for everyone and I completely get that, but also, keep in mind that people analyzing the scene in different ways doesn't have anything to do with how they'd react to real-life situations. It's all about what works best for each person.

Anyway that last one got really long, just because I've seen so much knee-jerk reaction in fandom with it and tbh, I feel like I have to cover my bases these days.

A lot of people say that SVSSS is less well-written than MXTX's other books, and while it does have issues, I wouldn't say that the book isn't well-written. I have no idea how much of what I talked about in those scenes above is deliberately intentional storytelling and how much just sort of happened, but those are just some of the reasons that I really do think it's actually a very good book, genuinely, and not the only scenes at that, I just limited to five here.

I hope you enjoyed reading all my ramblings-- SVSSS brainrot is real and the hyperfixation is going strong haha.

[str4wberryfo4m]

My Universe (Xu Minghao)

“... may you find the serenity that my presence couldn't give to you.”

pairing: minghao x gn!reader

genre: angst, lovers to exes

summary: he’s tired of hurting you and decides that it’s best if he leaves, not knowing that will hurt you more.

warning: cursing

wc: 1.2k

“Y/n, please. Let me go,” he said softly, almost sounding like a murmur. You remained silent as you stared back into his eyes, hoping against hope for a glimpse of affection. You’re not holding him, as much as you wanted to, so you know he meant it literally. “I can’t, Hao. I want to fight for us. It’s okay if you can’t. Just… Just let me try to be strong for both of us,” you took a step forward, reaching out to hold his hand, just for him to step back. “Don’t touch me, you’re making it harder than how it should be, Y/n,” it sounds harsher than what he intended, seeing how your expression became more hurt, he felt like he was punched in the gut. “I want the best for us, Y/n. I can’t keep hurting you. Hurting us. I’m letting you go so you’d be happy,” his eyes were fixed on the floor, hoping you won’t notice his vulnerability.

“Hao, did I do something that hurt you? Please tell me so that I can fix it. Please, my love… We promised to hold tight and never let go, no matter what. I…” the words spilling from you are now incoherent, and you’re not stopping, desperately wanting Minghao to understand how badly you wanted this to work. “I’m the one who hurt you. And those fucking hurts. You can’t keep on pretending just to protect this relationship. You can’t keep on hurting yourself and your feelings, and act like everything is fine just because you wanted to take care of mine!” he shouted, but his tired eyes were different from before, not from rage, but from guilt. “I’ll stop doing that, I’ll be more open about what I feel, so let’s go home and…” you keep on saying things that Minghao can’t even comprehend because he can’t take it. He just stares at how shattered you are while trying hard not to embrace you. Once again, he made the love of his life brokenhearted. “Y/n,” he called, yet you still don’t stop talking. “Y/n.” he repeated, this time a bit louder, snapping you back to the current situation. Not knowing when, Minghao is standing right in front of you. You’re holding back from touching him, not wanting him to distance himself again.

“I hate it when you call me by my name,” because you love it when he calls you sweet names, ‘baby’, ‘love’, and… ‘my universe’. You feel so distant whenever he calls you by your name, and not even a nickname, just purely your name. He hesitated before speaking up again, “I believe that you’ll find someone better-” “Fuck that, Hao. What the fuck with hoping I’ll end up with someone else when I only want you? You’re making me feel like… you don’t want me,” the way your heart clenched while saying it makes your head dizzy. “Do you think I'm letting you go because I don't love you? I love you more than what you could imagine. I just can't offer you the genuine happiness I wanted you to have. Can't you see? I'm pure poison to you,” you tried to hold his hand once again, and surprisingly, he let you. “You're never poison to me, my love. You’ll always be my escape, my medicine, my solution, and my home.” Your eyes move from staring into his eyes to your linked hands when you feel him tightening them. “You’re lying to yourself again. You’ll find comfort and warmth from someone who deserves you,” upon hearing this, you can’t even raise your head, “You deserve me, Hao. Even if you think there’s someone who can give more than you, why can't you be the person? Why can’t you be my person?” and that’s when you feel droplets. It’s raining.

“You’re so blinded by what you choose to believe. I’m hurting you.” his firm voice turns shaky. You hate how this makes you feel. He’s the one who’s blinded. You feel like he focuses too much on the dark side that he forgot to even realise there’s bright side too. “Hao, do you not love me as much as you always say?” and he answered exactly what you expected, “That’s what you don’t understand. I’m letting you go because I love you so much. This is the best. For you, Y/n.”

This is not fair. Who is he to decide what’s best for you? And the worst is, it’s not even a good decision! You love him so much and you’re willing to do anything. For him, for the sake of both of you. But why is he leaving? Why does he think that is the best solution, and ironically, he claimed it’s for you, when you never even thought of leaving him once. “I think I can decide on my own, Hao. If you’re bad for me, I’d leave you willingly, without you telling me to. I don’t know. I hate the fact that I really feel like you’re leaving me for your own sake,” with shaky breath, you continued, “It’s okay. I love you so much. If this is the best for you, I’ll accept it. I’m so sorry. I’m so…” the words can’t escape your mouth. It’s raining, you both are crying while holding hands, but from your perspective, you thought it was droplets of rain on his face, because Minghao remained expressionless, hoping this will make it easier for you to hate him, though what he doesn’t realise; you’ll never hate him, no matter what he did.

From Minghao’s perspective, he’s trying so hard not to embrace you. Even holding your hand was out of his control, because he promised to himself not to make this hard for himself and most importantly, you. “It’s not your fault, Y/n. It never will. I’m the problem here. I hurt you a lot, so I’ll put an end to your pain.” you smiled weakly, and you disentangled your fingers, and funny enough, you swear that his hand hesitant to let go. “Hao, you don’t need to explain. Like I said, I’ll accept it. It’s okay. But promise me, please. Be happy. Find yourself again. Take care of yourself, I love you so much, Hao. May you find the serenity that my presence couldn’t give to you.” Letting him go was never what you wanted. You were going to persuade him that you’ll fight for both of you. But you slowly understand that he needed this. He needed to put an end to his pain. You didn’t even want to hear his response, too afraid that you’ll be selfish again, by asking him to stay when he decided that he wanted to leave. Maybe it is the best for you. Or maybe, you’re just validating everything that he did to you, because you really love him, and you know at some point, he loved you too. When you disappeared from his sight, that’s when he replied,

“You’re the only serenity I need. I’m sorry I need to do this. Please hate me, please never call and say you miss me. I’m afraid I’ll pick up. I love you so much more, my universe.”

[accirax]

initial thoughts on DCAS episode 10

wait, Gabby actually said "baddie"? i thought she said "buddy." Ellie is a bad bitch send tweet

given everything that happened in this episode, i honestly forgot this happened. i'm sure it'll come back to be important at some point, though. putting this here to try to help keep it in my mind.

Gabby and Ellie are literally the cutest, my goodness. i thought their ship was okay in S1 (i didn't really understand why Ellie would like Gabby, and to some extent i still don't), but DCAS has made me love them. they just care about and revere each other so much........

god, he's literally the worst (/hj /pos)

does Yul actually care about/need the money? i thought he was only on the show for the publicity. i want to know the Yul lore so bad...

what does Gabby think this alliance is meant to accomplish, exactly...? actually, i take back my confusion. Yul literally tried to poison Aiden in S2. there's a precedent for her believing that the alliance would commit actual crimes.

i cannot believe that Yul canonically knows what Tumblr is. hi Yul

this made me cackle. i'm glad every time that Aiden gets to be more sassy and hotheaded again, especially when it's behind someone's back like this. that rashness is what prevents him from being the super vanilla character that people like to make fun of him for being, and what causes him to do interesting things in the narrative.

honestly, this was way more understated than i expected. and, possibly than it should've been...? like, Jake. Tom literally lied to you just to avoid you. this is actually (in my opinion) something you could be justifiably pissed about.

HE'S SO PANICKED AT THE THOUGHT OF BEING EJECTED FROM THE GAME. HE CARES A LOT ABOUT PLAYING. I WANT TO KNOW THE YUL LORE SO BADDDDDDD

this can't actually be the end of Emily's character, right? right?

i'm glad this scene exists because it makes way more sense that there would still be some hostility between these two after the events of S1. they need time to cook before they can become besties for real :)

Gabby, respecter of girlfriends everywhere

honestly, i thought that she was going to straight up shoot Yul (with paint) after this. it would've been deserved.

...RIGHT???

...how? other than figure, those two look pretty much nothing alike. also, hilarious unforced error given the result of this episode. imagine if this slip up winds up essentially costing Tom the win.

is it just me, or was there more swearing than normal this episode? not super important, but it was noticeable.

this is a really valid argument. why did this count? whatever.

KING!!!!!!! see, i was right to bring up how Alec is great at challenges.

he's an Fi lead (MBTI reference)

KING PART 2!!!!!!!! i love Alec

again, i like seeing this side of Aiden. while i wouldn't say he's as petty as Jake, he's still petty enough to continue the feud instead of trying to be the bigger person. he's got depth!

ABSOLUTELY the best strategic move for the villains. i'm very happy with this elimination, although, i was never a huge Ashley fan. my heart goes out to those who are.

not only that, but the disventure is over too.

Jake is truly going to be 100% alone in this game, now, and entirely due to his own doings. very excited to see how he proceeds from here.

this is a winner's cut moment, ngl.

what did the writers mean by this

aaaaand, that's the episode! i enjoyed this one. it reminded me of the good ol' S1 days, where i got to watch Fiore and Alec absolutely trample all of the heroes with their superior strategy. (i stan the villains, if that wasn't obvious by this point.) i'm well aware that those days can't last forever, but that just makes me even more inclined to revel in them while they're still here.

i do still hope that one of Jake, Tom, and Aiden gets eliminated soon, though. this episode specifically i don't think was an instance of plot armor-- like i said, i think Ashley was by far the most sensible boot given the situation-- but the longer all three of them stay in, the more it does feel like the writers playing favorites than how the game would genuinely shake out.

i'm quite curious as to what the next trailer will show us. are we headed towards another hero boot, or will the villains start beefing already? will the inevitable trevek conversation happen next episode? and is Emily really gone???? i hope not :,( see you next week!

[man-moth-hook-hand]

What Mythical Creature are they?

Masterlist

Resourcess: Dwayne: Sisiutl David: Gremlin Marko: Byssus Galeto/Bisso Galetos Paul: Näcken

Dwayne: Sisitul (Native American)

Since Billy Wirth is Native, I thought researching Native American creatures was the best option. I chose the Sisiutl since it's not depicted as evil and instead a protector. I feel like this is similar to Dwayne's relationship with Laddie. Personally, I believe that Dwayne is the least "evil" of the boys, he's just more into going with the flow when finding a meal instead of toying with them. During the movie, he also neve outright attacks anyone except Sam, at the end of the movie. This can relate back to the Sisiutl being protectors since Dwayne was protecting his family.

The Kwakwaka'wakw tribe depicts the Sisiutl as a tri-headed serpent, with two snake heads on either side of a human one in the middle. Shaman believed its blood would transfer healing magic into a person. Warriors adorned the image for protection, believing that the blood would make them invincible in battle. Sometimes, the faces of the Sisiutl were carved into entrances or canoes to ward off evil spirits. Others believed that mica, the mineral found in soil and beaches, were the scales of the Sisiutl.

David: Gremlin (British/American)

David is a nasty little Gremlin throughout the film. These creatures are described as mischievous and hate the light, which is fitting for David. He is the only reason that the movie happened, without him creating these mischievous problems, Micheal would've never met Star or had to help kill Max. Also, the aversion to light is pretty aligned with Vampires. David is definitely the type to push everything three inches to the left so that someone bumps into everything.

Gremlins were seen in mainstream culture around the beginning of the early 20th century. Originally, they were blamed for the malfunctions in aircraft and later on in other machinery. There was a large prominence of "Gremlins" during WWII in posters regarding safety in the workplace. Captions such as "Gremlins LOVE to pitch things at your eyes," "Gremlins are floor greasers," and "Gremlins will push you around. Look where you're going," warned the workers about the consequences of not cleaning or doing their job properly.

Marko: Byssus Galetus (Italian)

I chose a creature from Italian folklore since I headcanon that Marko is Italian. A creator who I don't remember the name of originally headcanons him and Italian and I agree. The Byssus Galetus is a spiteful creature hailing from the Veronese Valleys in Verona, Italy. The creature has the head and body of a rooster (galetus) with wings full of thorns and a snake's tail (byssus). I chose this for Marko since they're born from spite and live that way. You cannot tell me that Marko would not go out of his way to be full of hatred and spite in his life and afterlife. Also, Marko is seen playing with pigeons in the movie, which in my mind, help connect him to the Byssus Galetus because it's half chicken.

While they're small creatures, the Byssus Galetus is an incredibly poisonous creature. They wander into houses at night and kill people with their toxic breath. The gaze of the creature can dry out and kill plants, along with contaminating water. It's said that the Byssus Galetus is laid by an elderly rooster and hatched by a snake or toad for nine years. If a Byssus Galetus sees it's own image it dies.

Paul: Näcken/Strömkarl (Swedish)

While Brooke McCarter isn't Swedish, I headcanon that Paul is. He's tall, blond, and it literally built like a Viking. The Näcken are male water spirit found by lakes, streams, or other bodies of water. They play enchanting music to lure their victims to the water and drown them. However, some believe that the water spirits are harmless and if approached properly, teach a musician to play perfectly. The Näcken come mostly from Germanic and Scandinavian folklore.

I chose the Näcken for Paul since most media depicts Paul with a rockbox or some other instance of music. If you didn't know, Brooke McCarter is a composer and has multiple songs and is listed as the composer for the documentary America the Violent. I headcanon that Paul is a really good singer and has learned to play instruments throughout the years, which leads to his love of music.

[biblicallyaccuratevirgo]

Hiiii it's me. Mildred. That Bitch that everyone wishes would go away. Since I foolishly tried to level with @moonsheen via email about how absolutely fucking poisonous and toxic @artofchira is, I'm realizing that it's time for the gloves to come off. After all, how can you expect to reason with an abuser and their enabler?

Anyway, I've been missing for the last few years because I've been in an abusive relationship! Wow! Surprise! And what do they have to do with it? Well. When @artofchira and I were "friends" (if you can even call it that), rather than help me figure out the gravity of the situation that I was in, she decided that it was best to gaslight me, manipulate me and even ENCOURAGE me to try and make things work with my rapist! Can you believe??? The person who has been mentoring so many artists could be this vile??? Absolutely UNBELIEVABLE!

ANYWAY, over the last year specifically, I've been trying to get my shit together. It turns out that after being raped, beaten and mentally/emotionally abused for a few years with absolutely no where to turn to, it can be hard to piece together your own personal experience and narrative - ESPECIALLY after the few people you trust (especially @artofchira ) decide to make it into a situation where responsibility should be shared between BOTH parties, even when one of you desperately wants things to end and you are trying really fucking hard to figure out how to leave.

Since @artofchira decided that the blame for my abusive relationship should be shared, it feels only fair that the same should be done for both her and @moonsheen ! Someone who has been working with her FOR YEARS through @littlefoolery and who 100% knows exactly the kind of toxic abusive shit @artofchira is up to on the regular. But WHY would she be okay with this? Well it's because @artofchira specifically targets her competitors! Wow! Amazing! Can you believe????

So rather than try and call an end to their toxic dynamic, @moonsheen has decided that it's within her best interest to ignore literally everything happening because she does, after all, benefit from @artofchira 's abusive behavior.

Now what? Idk. I'm about to be evicted because my abusive rapist piece of shit ex decided to run off with two months of rent RIGHT AS I WAS STARING TO GET MY SHIT TOGETHER. Something I'm sure @artofchira was hoping would happen because putting me in such a dire situation would mean that I'd never be able to bounce back ever again!

If I don't expect anything then why am I doing this? Because I fucking can, that's why. Unlike @artofchira that's on a fucking short leash held by @moonsheen, if I'm in a situation that I decide I need to do something about it, I dont need to ask anyones FUCKING PERMISSION BECAUSE IM NOT THEIR GLORIFIED FUCKING ATTACK DOG.

At this point considering what I'm facing, it'd be stupid as fuck for me to just take it all sitting. I let myself take hits for years. Did they really think that the moment I got the chance, I wouldn't come swinging?

Anyway. @artofchira is a dirty fucking poisonous coward who can only fight dirty because they know they're always in the wrong. They have to go out of their way to do whatever to fucking win because they're so fucking pathetic that they can't handle a fair fucking fight.

SO LET'S GO @artofchira ! I KNOW you were hoping I'd come back at a more opportune time so you could... What... Use this fight to get attention for @littlefoolery ? Use it as an opportunity to get attention for your shitty storyboarding project Gaze an Eagle Blind (which btw what kind of name is that you pretentious fucks lmfao)? You wanted to take a lesson out of my own personal book but here are the differences between me and you:

I never manufactured fights and fallouts to line my own fucking pockets. If I'm going to go toe to toe with someone, it's because I witnessed something I couldn't stand by, not because I'm a passive aggressive little bitch who needs everyone to stroke my fucking ego and tell me how smart and special I am.

I never used fights to bolster my own work. If it happened to happen by chance then so fucking be it but there's a reason why I deleted my old twitter account and it's because I couldn't make peace with the fact that the work that I LOVE was being mixed up with my unfiltered and unregulated anger.

I'm not a punk ass bitch like you LMFAO

I'm the person you wish you were. I'm the confidence and vibe you struggle to embody every single day of your life. You put up a front but you're still the little kid who never got over someone ripping up their picture in FUCKING GRADE SCHOOL and decided to use that as a reason to walk through this world with a fucking chip on your shoulder.

Do you know how many times people made fun of my work? Do you know how many times I had my work get ripped up? Ridiculed? Criticized? Degraded? No. You don't. Because I don't make it a part of my personal identity to have everyone validate every single time someone said I wasn't good enough.

You narcissistic shit who walks through life like a god but you're nothing without your believers. What would you do if Alex decided to fuck off? Leave you behind? What's your plan B in life, Jayd? Do you even have one?

Anyway. I'm sure I'll have more to say later but that's all for now. But for good measure, let me do some tagging because I know your go to is to block and run lmfao

@secondlina

@hiveworks

@savvyliterate

@sloaneshutup

@cartoonistcoop

@ironcircuscomics

@shoomlah

@genuerevuelta

@tanekastotts

@pallisia

@trungles

@jubyart

@pepurika

@zackmorrisonart

@oliveoilcorp

@bluedelliquanti

@jovaline

@oxboxer

@evegwood

@superposeblog

@quindriepress

@saint-vagrant

@heyshivana

@pepurika

@abellehayford

@spacerocketbunny

@kelmcdonald

@melgillman

@itsnilah

@mishacakes

@aluhnim

@sephiramy

And no I'm not tagging you guys because I expect you to do anything. In fact, I have a massive grudge against a lot of you LMFAO I just figure if I'm going to come for someone's head then I might as well have an audience :)