#BRAINWORMS LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!

[livsmessydoodles]

looking out for you

[southbedfordstreet]

sometime in the future, buck is going to be puttering around the kitchen in his beautiful family home wearing a “kiss the cook” apron and making eddie kiss him every single time that they cross paths by telling him it’s bad luck and that the food will probably taste bad if he doesn’t get a kiss. due to the power of the apron. and eddie will just huff out a laugh and roll his eyes a little before reaching over to squeeze at buck’s butt and say, “you know, i don’t need to be tricked into kissing you when i already want to do that all of the time? besides, i’m supervising here… of course the food will taste good.” :)

[nightfal1n]

Potential kn8 Chapter 113 Spoiler:

What if their ancestors somehow connected

[ahllohehn]

i bet mumbo's hesitating to comment on joel's car build in wild life because he knows he's made shit like thsi himself and its even sillier in appearance /lh

[indigo-casson]

something that i've been thinking about lately is the parallels between star wars: andor/rogue one and tamora pierce's trickster's queen duology. primarily because the star wars brainrot is real and the tamora pierce obsession is forever, but also because they are kind of both tonal and thematic departures from their main 'verses in some similar ways?

in both the star wars verse and the tortall verse, the majority of the media has focused on one individual (or a small group of individuals) who make a profound difference in the world. Whether that's alanna singlehandedly finding the dominion jewel/becoming king's champion/making way for female knights, or luke skywalker blowing up the death star, or daine and numair going to the divine realms during the immortals war, or anakin skywalker becoming a sith and dooming the republic, most of the original material has seen battle and political change as something that is affected by either an actual chosen one or simply a single very plucky and well-placed individual.

trickster's queen and andor, however, really look at rebellion as something that has to be done by a diverse group of flawed people who work together despite their differences. mon mothma knows that her role is raising money. ulasim, chenaol, and the other members of the raka conspiracy each take their individual roles in the rebellion, and recognize that even though they might not want to work with aly or the luarin nobility, they need their skills and influence to make it happen.

both stories also show rebellion as extremely costly and something that requires making tough calls. nobody has their hands clean by the end of a civil war. notably, trickster's queen explicitly narrowly avoids having the protagonists kill a group of 5 year olds. luthen is ready to kill cassian when he becomes a liability, and cassian does kill lots of people, including some allies whose only "crime" is being susceptible to giving up rebellion secrets.

in rogue one, we don't like davits draven because he orders jyn's father killed, and that just feels wrong. jyn is our heroine and it upsets her, so emotionally it's distressing. but of course, draven and cassian and jyn are all working towards the same goal. draven did what he had to--galen erso is a liability as long as he's alive. dove and sarai's little brother elsren has to die because he's a direct heir to the throne, ahead of his sisters. it doesn't matter that he's five and totally innocent. as long as he lives, a luarin has a greater claim to the throne than a raka, and as long as that's true, the rebellion can't succeed.

in the star wars original trilogy, people for sure die! i'm not trying to say that they don't, but it's definitely not something that's shown affecting our protagonists on a deep, emotional level. they're all side characters, or else they come back as force ghosts. the prequels are uh. fucking tragic, but at the end of it, almost all of our heroes make it out. even the casualties of the war are droids vs clones, which is to say, totally interchangeable cannon fodder on both sides!

the number of character deaths in the tortall 'verse is fewer, probably because it's primarily created for middle grades, but even when people do die, they're either demonstrably bad people or minor enough characters that the emotional resonance isn't the same.

by contrast, at the end of trickster's queen, almost the majority of the main conspirators die in battle, not to mention those who don't even make it to the final conflict. at the end of rogue one, all of our heroes are dead, and people aren't exactly making it out of andor s1 in good shape either. more than half of the aldhani team dies on that mission.

I could go on further, but I think my main takeaway is that once you've invested a lot of time and attention and fandom into a 'verse, you have a lot more leeway to tell different kinds of stories. tamora pierce could not have written trickster's choice until after the values and world of tortall were so clearly established, and if she had, it wouldn't have had the impact that it did. similarly, part of what makes rogue one/andor so striking is the fact that it is such a departure from the preexisting values and story format of star wars.

for every chosen one we see in media, there are hundreds of people working behind the scenes to make their big, death star destroying moment possible. the only way to improve society is through collective action, and part of that is that everyone's hands are going to get dirty. i think lots of people want to imagine that they could be like luke skywalker and swoop in 2 weeks before the battle of yavin and become a hero, but the fact of the matter is that that's not how the world works! war requires us to do things that would ordinarily go against our values, but in the context of a drawn out, bloody, thankless battle, maybe we decide the ends justify the means.

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

I was reading Jadite Ginkgo and now the archive is down D:

truly tragic situation

[gregrulzok]

I wonder how much Izuru still shows through in Hajime. And how noticeable it is.

I've always thought of it as a kind of state-of-mind thing.

Like, most of the time, he's just Hajime. Regular, ordinary Hajime, short-tempered and sarcastic and still so caring. Still the same guy that gets wrapped up in the dumbest shenanigans because as much as he likes to quip, he doesn't like saying no to others. And he's taking care of all of them, taking care of the island trying as hard as he can to ensure everyone's recovery and health.

But there's something unsettling about it, the way he picks up new skills with such speed and grace - there's usually a bit of a learning curve on things he's never tried before, sure, and he can't quite outclass anyone in their own talent ... But still, it's a bit intimidating to know that whatever you're struggling with he could probably do blindfolded.

And it's the little things, too. He's not quite the same Hajime he was before. Before he was awkward, and kind of clumsy. Now he never stumbles. He never forgets a word, or misspells one, or mispronounces something. He never spills his drink or stubs his toe. He avoids drawing lots and playing rock paper scissors, when the others are divvying up chores with games of chance he won't participate. If offered, he'll just wave them off and say he'll take care of whatever chore it is - and he plays it off like he's just trying to be helpful, but they know why he's dodging it, they know that no one but maybe Komaeda could ever win against him.

And then, sometimes, when he's focused on a difficult task, they can see it setting in. His eyes glaze over, and his hands work unnaturally quickly, effortlessly. His expression falls, his posture stiffens, and he's lifeless, listless, mechanical. And it's creepy, it's unsettling, but they know that when he's done he'll just smile and go back to being just Hajime.

And rarely, very rarely, he's not doing a difficult task when it happens. He isn't doing anything. One of them will walk into a room looking for him, and immediately sense that something is just ... Off.

He's sitting there, still, not occupying himself with anything, staring off into the distance. Expressionless, motionless. And when they talk to him ... He responds as normal. He talks quickly and jokes and makes facial expressions as if nothings wrong - but as soon as the interaction is over he falls again, goes still, and they can tell he's just putting on an act to not make it weird for them.

And when he's left alone, he'll go about his daily tasks. He'll finish them far too quickly. He won't initiate conversation, won't join on any group activities. They know they can interact with him and he'll act normal, but even the act just feels creepy with the knowledge of what's behind it.

And it's unfair, really, to call that Izuru. Because it's still Hajime, there's no memory loss or dissociation or anything like that - it's Hajime, just the same. But it's creepy to think that the same guy that was laughing along with one of Kazuichi's stupid jokes or trying to comfort Mikan through a panic attack an hour ago is suddenly so dead in the eyes. They still call him Hajime, still treat him as normally as they can, but it's hard, mentally, not to think of it as a different person altogether.

It's temporary though. Just a mood. A state of mind he gets in and out of, rarely and for a short time. He comes back around eventually and it's visible, watching the light flow back into his eyes.

And then he's just Hajime again, regular, ordinary Hajime.

[the-angst-k1ng]

Guys the brain worms got to me

He’s either a spotted seal or a ringed seal if anyone’s wondering (I’ll post a colored version tomorrow :3)

[whereheartscollide]

@palidinus | continued from here

His arms folded. "I wanted to ask both of you out but I don't know if Keith would go for it too... I know I mess with him a lot but that's because he's so serious most of the time and could use to joke around more. I don't even know if he likes me that way." Blue eyes finally turned to look at him. "Or if you do."

[animebookworm16]

"Qi Rong." Hua Cheng said with a smirk, "If you help me take down the Heavenly Emperor..."

"I'm waiting" Qi Rong said, impatiently.

"Then you will be able to sow as mush chaos as you wish. As long as you leave me and mine alone I will even refrain from destroying anymore of your lairs."

Qi Rong tapped his chin a few times before his grin grew wide and demented, "You've got yourself a deal."

[cankersoregirl]

Inspired by @itsallaboutbl’s poll 🥰

[rradiant-bbones]

Just wrote another 2,000 words and I’m about to write more. What the shit fuck. I’m losing it

[gender-luster]

astarion and cazador inspired by dante and virgil in hell by william-adolphe bouguereau

alternate version:

inspiration/reference:

explanation bouguereau's work:

The painting depicts a scene from Dante's Divine Comedy, which narrates a journey through Hell by Dante and his guide Virgil. In the scene the author and his guide are looking on as two damned souls are entwined in eternal combat. One of the souls is an alchemist and heretic named Capocchio. He is being bitten on the neck by the trickster Gianni Schicchi, who had used fraud to claim another man's inheritance.

dante and virgil is one of my all time favourite paintings and i don't know why something about the two figures entangled in such a visceral violent combat made me think my poor babygirl astarion and his eternal tormentor cazador (derogatory) and i just needed to recreate it (even though it was a huge pain in my ass) idk.

[meepthemoo]

I’m 🤏🏻 this close to rewatching TUA for the THIRD TIME 😭😭😭😭

[the-multi-geek]

I got a little idea of playing with my OCs but in an ORV setting and like just the thought of how if I use that one ORV sheet to give them constellation names then I have two siblings that would end up as a demon king and just evil little idea since one I can see being a demon king and the other is too sweet to be a demon king. It's been rotting in my head but I havent drawn it and I weep

[atryoshka]

Gator Tillman is so Tragic (5x9 Spoilers)

I think what happened to Gator in the last episode makes him such a tragic character when you consider that he saw his father turning his back on him as something worse than getting his eyes gouged out.

We have Dot's belief that Gator could have been good person if he wasn't raised by his father, providing some insight and backstory for the first time in the episode "Linda". She knew him before his mother left and saw how growing up with Roy after all those years changed him for the worst. Telling him the truth about what his father really thinks of him, how Roy saw Gator as a disappointment from the moment he was born, only for Gator to see it as a lie, already says a lot about his warped perspective and how it influences his actions.

As the episodes passed, it became more and more clear that Gator's whole personality was centered around being someone his father could be proud of, regardless of what he himself actually cared about or believed. His entire life, unbeknownst to him, has been aimed towards meeting an impossible standard while constantly being enabled by the cult like community of the Tillman Ranch.

He doesn't see the things he does as wrong, even though he knows others do, because he really doesn't care about anyone's opinion other than his father's.

He's had multiple chances to change, but never took them. His misguided sense of loyalty to Roy had him making the same bad choices over and over with the only goal of getting his approval. You could see there were moments when he knew he was doing something wrong, and even seemed a little reflective, but then he just pushes past any unease because the ends justify the means in his eyes. He'll be a terrible person, do and say things that cross the line, but to him, it's worth it if he can be useful to his father.

So when he stumbles back home, blinded and useless, begging for some comfort from the man he devoted himself to, only to be ignored and told to shut up, he's truly in shock. Like I think that's when it really hits him how little his father actually cared about him as a person. He was able to dismiss the warning signs and evidence from others before this because he had such blind faith in him. It makes sense that what Dot said about why he was named Gator messed him up so badly. He he may have wondered why he was different than his brothers, may have even told himself that he was special because of it, but Dot's revelation struck a nerve because it was plausible. It made him doubt his father for a moment, which made him angry enough to lash out at Dot with words he knew would cut.

That moment revealed his worst fear, that he wouldn't be loved if he wasn't useful. That he was always a loser and a disappointment to his father. To have that fear validated when he was left alone and vulnerable in the field definitely broke something in him, and I believe that final dismissal will become Roy's ultimate downfall.

Gator has shown that he can't let things go, especially when his pride is hurt, and considering he's basically lost all hope of being someone in his father's eyes, he'll probably be a key witness to all of his father's crimes over the years. He won't be doing this as a way to redeem himself, because again, he doesn't actually care about getting forgiveness for anything he's said or done, but because he's hurt and vindictive enough to implicate himself as long as it means that Roy's life will be ruined forever too.

He's never taken the opportunity to be a good person, so I doubt he'll start now. He's also never responded well with being disrespected and once the shock wears off, he probably won't think twice about fucking over his father in any way he can out of spite. I wouldn't be surprised if he straight up lies and says he was forced to commit those crimes on his father's behalf out of fear of death, or claiming that his father was the one who blinded him while shamelessly playing the sympathy card.

Gator Tillman is both a terrible and tragic person, so whatever happens, the fallout is going to be so interesting to watch in the upcoming finale.