#Does that mean we might see Rust????

[tarbaby4293]

First look at True Detective: Night Country on HBO Max. Cast includes Jodie Foster, Kali Reis, John Hawkes, and Christopher Eccleston.

[lovebugism]

eddie fucking you in the back of his van whilst it’s raining😫

hope you like it lovie!! — after a series of ruined date nights, eddie makes up for another failure the only way he knows how (established relationship, smut 18+, 1.4k)

fictober (㇏(•̀ᵥᵥ•́)ノ)

Eddie was gonna take you out, come hell or high water — literally.

It was like the universe was conjuring up ways to keep you apart. He tries to plan a date night with you, and suddenly you have to pick up your coworker’s extra shift and the brakes in his van don’t work anymore.

He takes you to a drive-in to see some black-and-white horror movie, and for the first time in weeks, things are actually looking pretty good. With some candy he brought from home, the two of you settle under the covers in the back of his van, lazing against one another as the projector flickers on.

And then it just starts fucking pouring.

It’s like he blinks and the whole thing gets canceled and the entire parking lot is empty.

“You’ve gotta be shitting me,” he grumbles under his breath, not unlike the black storm clouds rolling overhead.

You giggle at his dramatics. The heavenly sound melts with the wild cadence of rain, tapping rhythmically against the rusted tin roof of the van. 

You’re still being a good sport about the whole thing despite the circumstances. You don’t care what you’re doing, really. You’re happy just doing nothing with Eddie. 

“They refunded us for next week. We can just come back Saturday.”

“I wanted to do it this Saturday,” he whines, all boyishly angry. With his arms crossed over his chest, he leans his head back and bares his milky white neck. “This was supposed to be our night together— why does everything have to get so fucked all the time?”

“It’s not like everything’s totally ruined,” you assure him, practically cooing as you smooth out the frown between his brows with your thumb. “At least we’re together. Who cares about the rest of it?”

“I know, but… You were really excited about it. And I was really excited to watch you watch the movie.”

Eddie tries to be serious, but he’s grinning the second he makes you laugh.

“Shut up…”

“I mean it,” he tells you, serious and quiet with it. His cheek squishes against his shoulder when he pouts at you. “I think I might be heartbroken, babe.”

You know what he’s playing at. You lean into it, anyway.

“Yeah?” you hum with narrowed eyes.

He nods.

“Want me to make it better?”

“Please?”

You close the short distance between you to press a kiss to his mouth. It’s the chastest little peck — you’re practically gone the second you’re there. Eddie chases you when you pull away, tasting of nicotine and pink starbursts when he kisses you deeper.

You get lost in him like it’s nothing, sighing when his soft tongue juts gently against your own. He’s sucking softly at your bottom lip one second, and the next, you’re lying on a pile of fuzzy blankets.

His rings and cold knuckles brush your sides when he tugs at the hem of your shirt, a silent plea for its removal. You come to then, pulling back from him with a low click sounding between your kissed mouths.

“Wait…”

“What?” he wonders, lips rosy and swollen. His deep, chocolate eyes dart between both of yours, looking for any sign that something might be wrong.

“Won’t we get in trouble?”

“No— Everyone already left.”

He’s breathless from having been kissed so ardently. He leans down for more anyway. His stomach twists with rejection when you press against his shoulders to stop him.

With a sigh, he concedes and rises off of you again. His shirt is wrinkled and skewed around his neck from your passionate touches. Still on his knees, he reaches for the metal handle of the back door and shouts into the roaring rain — “Hello? Anyone out here?”

“Eddie!” you shout, giggling and jerking backward when rogue droplets sprinkle inside.

The van shakes when he slams the door shut again.

“See?” he lilts with a lopsided grin. “No one.”

You shake your head at him. “You’re incorrigible, you know that?”

“You love me, though,” he mutters as he settles back over you. The weight of his body is warm against your own. With your hands on his sides, you pull him somehow closer.

“Unfortunately…” you gripe, kissing the breath from his lungs a second later.

When he reaches for the hem of your shirt again, you let him take it off.

—————

The thundering rain against the roof almost drowns out your gentle moans. Eddie’s glad you’re breathing them right into his ear, so he can hear everything he’s doing to you. 

His thrusts are slow and measured. Almost painfully unrushed. He shushes your begging to go faster — “Just let me make you feel good,” he mutters, slurred and low, “Let me hit that spot.” He pierces you with his cock, tilting his hips to hit deep inside you until you make a pretty noise for him, then he creeps back out again.

He never pulls all the way out, though, ‘cause he might die if he left the warm velvet you are around him. He keeps his pelvis pressed intently against your own, the coarse hair at the base of his cock steady on your pussy. The pressure against your clit is merciless.

“Put your legs around me, baby,” he mumbles against your mouth because he knows the different angle will make it better for you. 

He almost smirks when you obey him without thinking, but his mouth parts with an unexpected moan before he can. You pull your knees back and tuck your ankles around his waist, heels pressing gently above his ass. 

Your cunt widens and suckles him further in.

Eddie grumbles a hearty, poorly muffled moan into your neck.

“There you go— just like that,” he praises. “Doing so good for me, pretty. Always so good for me.”

You whine again, high and light, like the praise is equally as pleasurable as his cock.

His metal chain glides between your breasts when he pulls back from you. He tucks his ringed fingers into your waist and sits back on his haunches, balls resting warm and wet against your ass. He keeps rocking into you, unhurried.

“What happened to that mouth you had before, huh?” Eddie wonders, still breathless.

He smirks when you moan in response. He knows you don’t have the words to answer him. He knows he’s fucked you far too stupid.

“Thought I was incorrigible, remember? What happened to that?”

Your mouth parts in a silent whimper, back arching and brows pinching when his cock hits deeper than you think he’s ever been. The pleasure feels borderline electric — makes your spine tingle and your legs go numb.

“Yeah… For someone who loves mouthing off—” Eddie continues to tease despite his breathlessness. You clench around him, and he has to remember to exhale. “—You open up so easily for me. Don’t ya, honey?” 

You wanna say something. You think you almost do. But his thrusts are as merciless as they are slow. He presses impossibly deep within you and keeps hitting that spot until you tremble. The words get caught in your throat, along with a silent moan.

“That’s okay, honey. Just let me fuck you. Let me make you feel good,” Eddie slurs, mumbling like he’s talking to himself. “Go dumb for me like you always do. So perfect at that— god.”

He tilts his head back to howl a groan. Through fluttering lashes and a blurry vision, you see his clenched jaw and taut neck and heaving chest. 

Eddie always talks a big game when he gets you all sweet and pliable underneath him. He loves to be dominant while he tears you apart, but as his own orgasm crawls up his spine, his true colors start to show.

He leans back over you again, caging you beneath his warm weight. He stops hiding his pathetic whines and whimpers and instead buries them into your sweat-slick shoulder. He babbles in your ear, a bunch of garbled nothingness because words are starting to lose meaning.

“Fuck, honey. Oh, fuck— you’re so fucking— shit. You’re so goddamn pretty, baby, you know that? So good for me. So soft, too. Shit. This pussy’s gonna kill me.”

He tucks his face into your neck and tries to kiss you through his whines. His ringed fingers crawl behind your back, holding you like his life depends on it while his measured thrusts grow rapid and sloppy. 

Eddie begs you to cum, or rather demands it because he can feel himself about to explode. “Cum— Cum for me— right fucking now.”

You do. You’ve been hanging by a thread the whole time, really. And like you expected, Eddie’s not too far behind you. Your unabashed moans entwine, mixing with the wild cadence of the rain against the tin roof of the rocking van.

[ahli-stuff]

The Corinthian: more than an object but less than a human and a wretched reflection of his creator

My obsession with the Corinthian is so funny because at first it's like ok. Cool. He's this gay serial killer nightmare with creator issues who's turns out to be a charming antagonist while he's pitted against dream and going about his nefarious plans on screen. What's not to love?

But then there's the next layer of oh...he has preferences and quirks and interests, but he's not a person enough to be a human he's a tool.. that's why he gets unmade in the middle of the street by his lord!! That he had a couple millennia of history with!! Because it's easy.. Dream has the blueprints, therefore remaking the Corinthian and editing out these faulty design aspects is pragmatic. It's efficient. It's less effort and way less emotionally taxing that trying to wrangle in your rogue creation and trying coax them back into doing their job. A human makes a mistake, you correct and reprimand them and offer a better course of action. But if your wrench rusts, you throw it away and buy a new one. It doesn't matter if it's your prized or even your favorite wrench, if it's been rusted to the point of uselessness, you toss it.

And the Corinthian, the agonized wrench, can probably only think: "Did I really mean so little to you?"

I think it totally fucks with his mind. The fact that Dream refers to the Corinthian as his masterpiece and yet he is still lesser in every form of his being—his agency is lesser in every form.

But you can't really blame Dream, can you?

Dream treats the corinthans agency like he treats his own—unnegotiable. For him, it has always been perform your function or die.

Dream: We are, each of us, born with responsibilities. Even I am not free to choose to be other than what I am.

And the Corinthian, in his own eye teeths, has performed his prescribed duty perfectly without hesitation or fail for thousands of years as well and worn as a well used knife—but he knows he can do more, so he does. Because if his function is to chase and slaughter in the dreaming, what's to say can't do it in the waking too?

Besides, in the waking, he's realer. More combobulated. More valued. If you're a mirror for long enough you start to crave a look of your own.

And oh, even with the thrill of newfound freedom, he loves his lord. He's eager for to give to him—to share with him—everything that's ever been dreamed of. In the Corinthians long, long, life he has only ever had his purpose and his lord and for a while that was enough, but his expectations evolve, he changes.

And that's really what dooms him.

Over the course of The Sandman you can see that looking deeper into Dream's ideology "perform your function or die" reveals one of the true themes of the sandman which is "change yourself or die." The Corinthian, whether intentionally or unintentionally serves as a mirror to dreams own character arc and the way dream treats himself.

Like how people put facets of themselves in their original characters, I think that in the corinthian Dream put a version of his own insatiable hunger; to break every rule, to run freely, to enjoy hedonistically. In creating the Corinthian as a mirror Dream unknowingly reflected a distorted face of one of his own buried desires—and i think he couldn’t accept that.

The Corinthian even calls dream out for it at the serial convention (even though he's advocating for murder) he's also jabbing at Dream's unwillingness to show emotional vulnerability and the cage he's built around himself.

Corinthian: Or you might actually feel something.

The dream the Corinthian knows he always cared exceptionally little for humans save for a select few, so what remains is this. Dream might've cared for the Corinthian, but he would unmake him, his prized creation, not for any moral justice, not for a personal slight, but for his rules and nothing else.

For the corinthian, who has spent years upon years upon years with his lord, fighting in his wars, chasing after his approval, pouring every ounce of love and loyalty to him—it stings.

And then there's this scene.

Dream: You're right. This was my fault, not yours. I had so much hope for you. But I created you poorly then.

This is the Corinthian, knowing he is about to die, spilling his frustration and spite to his creator for maybe the first and last time and trying, desperately, to make dream understand that none of this is fair (it's never been, for either of them. It's been the function and nothing else for an eternity but they could be happy.)

This is Dream purposely misinterpreting the Corinthian in the way that is guaranteed to hurt the him the most. Dream, with a writer's indifference, reduces the Corinthian's complicated desperate desire for freedom, rebellion, and his creator's love to his typo. Like a character’s grievance towards their writer, like a man’s outrage towards their god, Dream decides not to deign the corinthian with even the right to call his treason his own. He will not even let him have that bit of agency. No, Dream made the Corinthian wrong.

And then Boyd Holbrook does a phenomenal piece of acting here—he knows how to play evil and charming so well but the Corinthian’s vulnerability is so starkly on display it feels like a knife.

And when you imagine he is about to burst into bloody tears and anguished final words, this is how it ends: they leave each other cruel and jagged, because the corinthian will not end pathetic and he will have the last word.

The Corinthian: I am only sorry I won’t be here to see Rose Walker do the same to you.

The first Corinthian never gets a happy ending.

I don’t think there’s any universe where he doesn’t bite more than he’s allowed to and there is no world where he can really be forgiven. As there is no universe where Morpheus Dream does not stubbornly tie himself to his function and hurt himself and those around him with his pride.

In objectification and the inability to change, they exist as wretched mirrors of each other: The first Corinthian, sick of his function and executed for abandoning it, and Dream, unendurably tired, taking his sister's hand in his when he can no longer bear to perform his duty.

[earthstellar]

Here’s a timeline summary of all the known Eras of Cybertronian history from Transformers Prime!

It doesn’t contain a whole lot of detail, as this is just intended to be used as a general reference, but it’s nice to see how each era does overlap with the next; It flows in canon like an actual timeline of events, and doesn’t skip around as much as you might think! 

For example, Ratchet was online during the Age of Wrath, as it is noted in the Covenant of Primus that he treated one of the first Cybertronians to present to medical services with signs of Quintesson manipulation. We don’t know when he came online exactly, but he was definitely already alive and was mature enough to be practicing medicine during this time.

But Orion Pax states in one of the novels (I believe the first one?) that he never got to see the original colonial expansion space bridges in operation, which means he had to have come online sometime during the Age of Rust.

So Ratchet is a very old friend, indeed-- Given that he was already mature during the Age of Wrath, and we know that he was around before the development of Iacon as a fully realised city-state (he was one of the first students of Remedy and had to walk to Iacon from Vaporex, hinting that this was before roadways were constructed in most places if at all)-- 

--It is entirely possible that Ratchet was one of the early Cybertronian sparklings that came out of the Well and had to enter stasis during the Cataclysm, coming up from stasis shelter underground in what would be known as Vaporex, although his dialogue in the show regarding Predacons may somewhat challenge that theory. (I need to dig up the episode script to check!) 

Either way, holy shit, Ratchet is old. Quite literally possibly as old as “dinosaurs”; The dialogue in the show may not be as contradictory as it might seem, as we know that natural memory lapse to save processor space and file integrity is something that can occur in this continuity as well, if I recall correctly--

--So it’s very possible that Ratchet just doesn’t remember his sparkling days very well, or those memory files may have been prone to information creep which was established in IDW 1 and may have been a concept that was already floating around when the writers for TFP were working on building the lore for this series as well. 

Anyway, it’s 4 AM so I’m gonna go make some tea, LOL 

I hope this is helpful for some people out there! :) <3

edit: I’m a doofus and just realised I put my old username and not my current one as the image credit. sigh. in my defence I made this very, very early in the morning 

[reallydelicatezombie]

1995 Rust Cohle NSFW Alphabet

Alright, fellow fanfiction SLUTS. *cracks knuckles in preparation for typing all this shit out* Let’s do this. P.S. I hope you all like this because our Sad Boi is very hard to write for. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

There are shades of aftercare with Rust, and it all depends on where you’re at in your relationship. If you’ve just started seeing each other and having sex, I think aftercare won’t come naturally to him. It’s not necessarily that he means to be cold or anything; he’ll still offer to help clean you up and ask if you’re okay, but he won’t immediately go to pull you to him. He’ll be hesitant to initiate it, though if you curl yourself up to him, he’ll cautiously put his arm around you. He’s a bit stiff, and not sure what to say; honestly, he’s a little shellshocked at having you turn up in his life, and it surprises him the way he starts to feel something again.  Affection never came easy to him, and he hasn’t been this close to anyone, physically or emotionally, in years, yet he still secretly craves your nearness. As your relationship progresses and grows past the shoot out with Reggie and Dewall Ledoux, Rust starts to hold you tighter, to pull you closer after. The event kind of wakes him up; makes him aware of just how much you mean to him. He also begins to stroke your hair gently as he holds you, which is a surprisingly tender act from him. 

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Rust *needs* to feel your ass, hips, and waist. He’s a hard man whose life hasn’t been filled with much of anything soft, and he always marvels at the suppleness of your ass, the curve of your hips under his hands, no matter how many times he touches you. He grips your waist so hard sometimes he leaves bruises, but it’s never meant to hurt you. He just finds gripping these parts of you grounding when you have sex; his synesthesia can be pretty overwhelming then. He sees/feels a deep, pulsating rose color when he hears you moaning or when he cums, so something so tangible helps him refocus. He also loves your hair. It might seem like an innocuous thing to some, but to him it’s just another layer of softness to you; you offer him the comfort of your body so freely, and he can’t help but take it. Yes, pulling your hair during sex satisfies some animalistic need deep inside him, but he also loves the color and texture of it. When he starts to stroke it after sex, he realizes it’s not just a way to comfort you, but also himself.

As for his body, Rust would say he doesn’t care about anything so trivial, but that’s because he’s a fucking liar when it comes to his feelings sometimes. We all know that he cares about his hair. I submit for your consideration: his different hairstyles during the three different eras. 1995 Cohle does not just wake up with his dirty blonde hair effortlessly wavy; no, he spends at least 10 minutes putting product in it and then scrunching it, you can’t change my mind. In 2002, we see all that gel put in his hair in an effort to make it kinda spikey. That takes time. That takes effort. Let us also note that Rust, eschewer of all things material, is also spending his money on these products. Finally, 2012 Rust grew out his hair for a reason. Think about it: why did he take the time to wash it and put it in a little ponytail? He could've just shaved it all off or not bothered with putting it back, but he didn't.

You love his hair because he lets you touch it and run your fingers through it, which he finds comforting (although he pretends like he doesn’t need any comfort initially, but you can tell he loves it, so you keep doing it, even if he teases you about it). Over time he eases up about this, and even lets you hold his head in your lap. You also love his pensive blue eyes and long, elegant fingers especially when they’re pumping in and out of you. He gruffly says something like, “They’re just fingers, Y/N. Nothin’ special about them.” But again, he’s full of shit because he will purposefully do something fiddly with them just to get you riled up. 

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

Even though Rust totally unloaded one unprotected into Maggie, and he would absolutely do the same with you the first time, I think he would be a bit horrified and panicked after the fact. In the heat of the moment, it felt amazing to cum inside you, but after that, when he realizes the sex is gonna be regular, he always makes sure to have a condom, or to pull out if not and you’re also on the pill. He is deeply afraid of getting you pregnant and has no desire to be a father again.

As mentioned in “B”, cumming for him can be pretty overwhelming; he sees and feels that deep, thrumming rose color, and sometimes when he cums really hard he sees a marine blue flooding it and mixing with it to make a sort of purple, maroon color. To be honest, he feels very vulnerable when he cums, so if at the start of your relationship you don’t have condom for some reason, he’ll flip you over and cum all over your ass. This way, he can grip you and ground himself (and he also thinks your ass looks lovely covered in his cum, but this is all going to be internal dialogue at this point). Once he’s gotten more secure in himself and actually opens up a bit more with you, he feels like it’s okay to face you eye-to-eye while he cums. Those sky-blue eyes boring into yours while he finds his release is a bit unnerving, but in a deliciously intimate way. In this position, if he doesn’t have a condom, he’ll pull out and cum on your pussy or breasts. He’ll start to tell you how beautiful he finds you like this. Since it’s a compliment coming from him, it makes you feel electric and powerful.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Okay, so hear me out: Rust wants to fuck you senseless in his biker jacket, either with him fully clothed as Crash wearing the jacket, or with you in nothing but the jacket. Either way, it’s a win for him. It’s not that it’s the filthiest fantasy a person could have, but he obviously struggles with verbalizing even his most basic emotional and physical needs. When he first met you, he couldn’t help but fantasize about it. He told himself it was just because it had been a long time and you were so pretty; it’s a basic human need to fuck, so he told himself that it wasn’t anything more than that. But if the frequency of how many times he dreamt this scenario is anything to go by, he was down bad for you. 

If he were to be dressed as Crash (let’s face it, it’s a persona for him), he would use either his belt or tie to bind your hands above you to the headboard and do whatever he wanted with you. He would not be gentle, and there would be bruises, but chasing his need, just using you like that, seems unbelievably satisfying to him. His mind would turn off for however long it took to get the urge out, and that sounds like a glorious thing to a mind that is continuously turning over. In the scenario where you would be wearing nothing but the jacket, he’d have you ride him like he was a bronco at a rodeo. He’d love to run his hands all over you as you just take your pleasure from him, and again, the peace of having his mind turn off and his body just be on sounds heavenly, if he believed in such a thing as heaven. 

(Spoiler alert: both these scenarios go down, and even though the world is shit and life is meaningless and men and women aren’t supposed to work and all that jazz, Rustin Cohle has a very, very good time.)

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

More than people like Marty or the other cops would think, but still not a ton. Rust really strikes me as demisexual, so he's not getting into bed at the drop of a hat. He did have to take pills to help him stay erect when he was undercover as Crash, since that whole scene was violent machismo and sexual conquest was a big part of that, and he hated every second of it, tried to get those encounters over as quickly as possible.

With the experiences he did want, however, Rust was always a very observant partner, and it won't be any different with you. Even though he might be afraid of intimacy, he doesn't strike me as the type to not pay attention to the sounds you make, to the way your fingers tighten on his shoulders and how your back arches when he hits a certain spot. He'll take his time to learn all of you and make sure to do those things that elicit the strongest reaction from you.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

There are a few, and like everything else with Rust, it's very dependent on what point in the relationship you're at. Initially, because of how vulnerable he feels and how much that both excites and makes him nervous, doggy style and both of you lying down on your sides with your back to him are his go to moves. He'll still try to connect with you, though, because he really does need intimacy even if he can't ask for it. He'll reach around and play with your clit, suck on your neck, or whisper "Good girl" when you cum.

Later on, he really wants to look in your eyes and watch your face as you fall apart, so he'll prefer missionary or you both lying down on your sides, face-to-face. This feels much more intimate for the both of you, and he tends to hike your legs up over his waist to get deeper in these positions. He'll also cradle your head and thread his fingers through your hair.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

Lol, it's Rust Cohle, so NO. He's very focused on what's going on during sex and all the sensations he's feeling, and trying to be funny during the moment will pull him out of that state. Plus, he's not one to crack many jokes in nonsexual moments, though he does have a unique sense of humor that comes out sometimes. We see that when he has the conversation with Marty at the banh mi place and Marty tells him that he can't admit to having doubts. Rust replies, "I doubt that," with a cocky little attitude. And then when they reunite and interview the Childress' former maid, he makes the quip about hoping that she was wrong about death not being the end. 😸

Anyway, back to the matter at hand: he does get to a point where he can make a few cocky remarks and smirks during sex, but you wouldn't exactly call them jokes or him being goofy. Everything he does is with an intense seriousness.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

Rust doesn't have much hair down there to trim anyway, but it is a bit darker than the rest of his hair. He really doesn't spend any time grooming it.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

We've established that while Rust can't verbalize his desires and emotions easily, especially when your relationship is new, he does deeply crave intimacy. That's because he doesn't actually want to completely disappear from humanity, no matter how much he says he does. We see it in the show in little ways, like when he decides to stay for dinner with Marty's family, when he tries to go on the double date, when he asks Marty how he's been after they finally start speaking again. He's someone who wants something meaningful, not superficial, because he's hurting so much from all of the loss he's suffered. So when he starts a relationship with you, he does make an effort, however unsure of how to do this he may be.

Intimacy with Rust isn't rose petals on the bed, or date nights at fancy restaurants, or even sweet words. He's a doer, not a talker. It's him pulling you tighter to him when he lets his guard down. It's him cradling your head softly while he's buried deep inside you and gazing into your eyes. It's him coming up behind you while you finish putting away the dishes together and turning you to him, kissing you deeply, and leading you by the hand to your shared bedroom where he makes you shake with passion around him.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

He’s never been one for masturbation, mostly because he’s very disconnected from his body; he spends so much of his time turning things over in his mind, sorting out his personal philosophy. BUT, when he first meets you and starts to have the fantasies involving Crash’s jacket, he does jerk off a few times to relieve the tension he feels around you. He thinks nothing physical will ever happen with you, and he hopes that by relieving the ache he feels when his pants tighten at the thought of you he might just get it out of his system and move on. He finds these feelings more frustrating than pleasurable at first, so he tries to get it over with as quickly as possible. (Spoiler alert: it doesn’t work.) Instead, he finds himself craving you more and more. Once you finally hook up, he doesn’t feel the need to do it as much since he can just be with you if he feels the need. He’s very pro you masturbating, though, and thinks it’s sexy that you touch yourself to thoughts of him. He asks to watch you do it, which you gladly oblige. You get folded like a lawn chair after. 

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

*rubs hands together gleefully* Ooh, goody! Rust has a few kinks, one of them being the desire to tie you up and just take you (consensually, of course). The need to be in control and let go of all of the stress and tension he feels is very present, especially before the shoot out. He only wants to use his belt, his tie, or some other piece of fabric and not handcuffs, however, because that feels too much like his job and that doesn’t really turn him on. 

EDGING: he loves bringing you right up to the brink, and then pulling back. He does this during your longer sessions, as it makes more sense to do it then. Hearing you whimper at the loss of force or a slowed down pace when you were so close makes him even harder; and the sweet, desperate way you beg makes working you up all over again worth it. 

SHOTGUNNING: This is more of a pre- or post-sex kink, if that can be a thing. He just likes sharing the smoke with you and hearing you inhale it. He thinks it’s sexy. If you’re sitting on his lap facing him while you do it, it’s safe to assume he’ll get so turned on that you’ll get fucked hard. If it’s post-sex, then he’ll lazily watch you exhale the smoke, and it looks like a weird kind of halo around you.

STOCKINGS AND GARTERS: Rust doesn’t need you to have fancy lingerie, he’s a simple man. However, he finds stockings and garters very classy and very sensual, and if you wear a skirt that shows just a little bit of the garters when you move or bend over, he won’t be able to keep his hands off of you. He is secretly always hoping you will wear them because he just wants to run his hands up and down your thighs and over your hips and ass. If the stockings are crotchless, even better because he will definitely ask you to wear them during sex. 

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

Rust doesn’t care very much about where you two have sex, so long as it’s safe and private. For instance, he would never have sex at the police station because one of his coworkers might walk in or overhear, and he would literally die if that happened. You’ve had sex in the backseat of his truck when the two of you went for a drive in the country at night; you were the only car on the road for over an hour, so it seemed private enough. The place he feels the most comfortable, though, is your place because everything there smells like you, and your bed is soft and warm. You have a lot of blankets and pillows, which he definitely does not have at his apartment, and he secretly likes being all cozied up to you after sex.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

We’ve mentioned the shotgunning and the garters and stockings, but there are other things that get him going. You showing any depth of knowledge about anything, whatever area you have a lot of skill or knowledge in, that really turns this brainy fucker on. He values knowledge, thoughtfulness, intelligence, intellect. He craves it in the shithole that is Louisiana*, and you’re like a breath of fresh air to him. It really excites him to be with someone who is as smart and caring as you. Speaking of which, showing any level of care towards him gets his blood pumping. Did you make a homecooked meal just for him? Fuck. Did you wash and iron his work shirt because you noticed he hadn’t had time to? Girl. Did you put a book back that had fallen off his bookshelf and he hadn’t bothered to pick up? OH BABY. He just appreciates the little things, because they show him how much you care about him, and that turns him on immensely. 

*As someone from Louisiana, I can confirm that Louisiana is a 100%, Grade A, USDA-certified intellectual shithole. It’s not a stereotype, it’s true. 

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

The thought of any sort of necrophilia, or anything where you’d pretend you were a corpse or something like somnophilia turns his stomach. Even though he might like to tie you up and have your movement limited, part of what’s so enjoyable about that is your response to his ministrations. You are very much alive, and he needs that feedback. Also, spending all day looking at DBs pretty much guarantees he wouldn’t want to see that when he gets off, even if it’s just pretend. 

Also: absolutely no daddy and mommy kink, for obvious reasons. I don’t think he’d want to be called “Daddy” in any context, and definitely not a sexual one. 

The thought of actually hurting you also makes him physically ill: light spanking and hair pulling is one thing, but choking you or slapping you across the face reminds him too much of his time undercover with the Iron Crusaders, and he has no desire to revisit that. 

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

He has no preference, and likes giving as much as he likes receiving. Very good at giving because he is so detail-oriented and pays attention to exactly how you respond with each flick of his tongue or drag of his teeth. He enjoys the way you taste, and will take his time eating you out, really working you up until you need him to finish you. 

For receiving, seeing you in nothing but his leather jacket, knelt down in front of him really does something to him. He could honestly spend all afternoon watching you trying to take all of his length in. He loses it when you kitten-lick the tip and then suddenly deep-throat him. Bonus points will be given if you swallow every last drop, because fuck, he thinks that shit is so hot. “Are you trying to kill me, Y/N?” “No, but what a fun way to go.” ;)

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

It’s either hard and fast, or slow and sensual. There is no in-between. At the beginning, it will mostly be hard and fast because he’s getting it all out of his system; it’s been so long for him, and he needs some time to get in touch with the side of himself that can be sensual. When it is hard and fast, it’s overwhelming because you have to basically brace yourself for the ride (not that you mind; you understand Rust probably better than he understands himself when it comes to his emotional and physical needs). 

Once he’s opened up enough to consistently use a slow and sensual pace, he goes deep. This is when you’ll be face-to-face, looking into each other’s eyes, with your legs wrapped tight around his waist or raised over his shoulders. This pace is overwhelming in a different type of way. Someone like Rust being so connected with you is special and not to be taken lightly because you know he wouldn’t do this with just anybody. It means he trusts you and thinks highly enough of you to be vulnerable and take his time with you. 

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

Quickies are very rare for you two because he greatly prefers taking his time. Since it’s already difficult for him to be physically and emotionally open, he doesn’t really have the ability to quickly get it up, get with you, and then go on with his day. Plus, he doesn’t really like to have sex in a location where you two can be interrupted or discovered, and those locations are usually where quickies happen. That said, the few times you have had them, like the locked bathroom at a bar or dance hall (he won’t go to the clubs unless it’s for an investigation, sorry), have been very lustful and intense. 

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

Absolutely. Freakin’. Not. No way. While he grows more open to trying new positions, toys, etc., with you as the relationship grows, Rust will never, at any point in your relationship, do anything that would physically hurt you (He’s also extremely afraid that he’s going to fuck this up and hurt you emotionally, and that honestly scares him more than he cares to admit). Again, being a little rough is not what this means: it means he’s not going to put you in any danger. He’s not taking you undercover as Crash; he’s not carelessly bringing you to places where you might be in any danger. He’s also very afraid before the shootout that whoever is behind the murders and disappearances will find you and hurt you because of his investigation. He’s very protective of you in this way. 

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

He has a surprising amount of stamina. He can switch it up; either one long session, so long as you are able to, or several faster sessions. It depends on where he’s at mentally. If he’s in his head more, it will probably two faster, shorter sessions, though he always makes sure you’re satisfied before he finishes. If he’s more relaxed, he’ll take his time with you, and this is usually when he sets a slower, more sensual pace.

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

None, unless you count the belt and tie. He counts those as accessories, not toys. He’s not opposed to you having them, however, and definitely enjoys watching you use your vibrator  or clit sucker on yourself (or him using them on you). Other than that, he really doesn’t have any experience or knowledge of what other toys are out there, so if you like to use more, you’ll have to show him. He’d be a bit out of his element at first, but since he’s so intelligent, would get the hang of them quickly. 

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Rust Cohle, while he doesn’t have what you would call “game”, can be a motherfucking tease when he wants to be. Generally, he doesn’t play games and if he wants you, he’ll let you know, BUT he thinks it can be entertaining to see you riled up over him, to the point where you’re clenching your thighs and nearly begging for him to take you. He’ll use his hands to slowly rub your thighs if you’re out for a drive, going higher a little bit each time, but never as high as you want/need him to go. Or he’ll take his time kissing down your torso or up your legs, but never making his way to your center. He has his cocky smirk on at that point. He will eventually give you what you want, because it’s actually what he wants to. 

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Rust doesn’t make much sound in terms of moaning, but he does breathe very heavily and grunt when he cums. He absolutely lives for your moans, though, and there’s just something about the way you shakily scream out his name in the heat of the moment that snaps something inside of him. He has an excellent auditory memory, and can recall each note and sound you make. When he’s home alone and it’s late at night and he can’t sleep, he remembers every sound you make.

He has an unsurprisingly filthy mouth, and once he’s truly comfortable in the relationship, he’ll say things to you that make you blush furiously (he loves this response). “Fuck, Y/N. That pretty pussy all for me?” and “You gonna be a good girl and cum for me, huh? Cum all over my dick.” And you are a good girl, so of course you do. 

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

Rust wants to take pictures of you wearing only the leather jacket so he can have them with him when he misses you (we don’t have sexting at this point in time), but he has no idea how to ask. He knows you would do it in a heartbeat, but it just seems so personal for some reason. Little does he know, you have plans to surprise him on his birthday with some pictures you’ve taken yourself in the jacket WITH garters and stockings WITH a cigarette in your hands. Even though he hates birthdays and doesn’t see the point in celebrating a day when he was ripped out of nonexistence against his will into this violence, he’s going to stop complaining when he sees the pictures. You actually render him speechless. 

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

Not very thick, but very long: a shower, not a grower. Since he’s on the thinner side, it makes sense that it wouldn’t be too thick. It has a slight curve to it, which he uses to angle into you just right. Surprisingly pink when he’s aroused.  

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

Pre-shootout, it would not be very high (though for him it comes cums as quite a shock since he was not expecting to be horny at all), maybe twice a week. Once the shootout happens, he feels like he can relax a bit more, and that’s when it ramps up for you two. At least 3 times a week, though it is usually more if his case load isn’t too busy. His sex drive is absolutely tied to what else is going on his life, and to his mental state. When it does pick up, he craves you. He’ll never pressure you if you’re not in the mood, though. Forcing himself on you is something that Rust wouldn’t even think about doing.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Rust has terrible insomnia, but every once in a while, after you’re both sated, he finds himself actually sleeping. Not every time, but often enough that it gives his body some of the rest he desperately needs (please just let this Sad Boi sleep. Please.) If he has trouble sleeping for a long period of time, you can bet you’re going to get it rough soon, because he’s figured out that there’s a connection between how hard he goes and how deeply he sleeps. You’re honestly glad that you can help him rest. For the times when he still can’t sleep, he’ll just lie there, quietly watching you sleeping peacefully and his heart aches a little bit at the sight. He might shut his eyes and dream, the dreams being softer than what he used to dream about before he met you.  

[thedomesticanthropologist]

Would you be willing to do an analysis on Karlach and how she seems to compartmentalize a lot of extreme feelings? Like she gives me the sense that that was how she coped in Avernus to stay alive and reduce the odds of exploitation by devils, but it's fascinating to see how fast she seems to shut down anything negative to the point that she disapproves of Tav/Durge questioning the ethics of using soul coins.

I haven't done the Karlach origin, so I may be missing some context or information. That being said LETS GOOOO 👏👏👏

Karlach has a reputation in fandom for being a cinnamon roll, but she is so much more than that. Her personality is really complex, and her history is full of decisions and actions that reflect her upbringing and the situations she was forced to survive. That history helped shape how she sees and responds to the world around her.

On Soul Coins: Soul Coins are small, coin-shaped objects forged of infernal iron into which a single mortal soul has been bound. They are used as currency in the Nine Hells, and can be used to power infernal engines such as the one in Karlach's chest

They contain an entire MORTAL SOUL. The full essence of a person, and once used in Karlachs engine, that persons soul is destroyed in a way that makes it irretrievable.

What does this mean? Can souls in coins be saved? Yes! From the forgotten realms wiki:

It was possible to release the soul within a soul coin. This could be achieved by casting an anti-curse spell, such as remove curse, on the coin. Once a soul was freed, the coin began rusting and was eventually destroyed. If the soul was of a good alignment, they were transported to the realm of their deity. If the soul was of an evil alignment, they were transported to the Styx and transformed into a lemure (dang yo lol)

Karlach sees the coins as a tool to enhance her power. If the player reminds her that soul is a person, she gets very angry and says she /knows/ that. She still believes that they should be used to juice her up. You can obtain quite a bit of disapproval from Karlach by questioning the use of the soul coins in Act 1.

Additionally, Karlach has unique dialogue with Mattis the tiefling child in the Last Light Inn. She essentially encourages the kids racket scheme, and if the player pipes up to say her advice isn't moral/ethical/a good suggestion, she has a strong disapproval and puts the PC in their place by saying you have NO RIGHT to intervene on her opinions of how a (poor, displaced) tiefling child should act to better their personal situation.

We are also aware that in her past, At some point Karlach lived in the city of Baldur's Gate in Faerûn, where she worked as personal bodyguard for Lord Enver Gortash. Personal bodyguard is key: this implies she was at his side, whenever he did whatever he was doing at the time. It is also stated that she "would do anything for him", and was betrayed by him. Her anger with him is based on what he put her through, and I do not believe she expresses anything about what he had her do while she was a bodyguard.

Karlach is not a "morally pure: character prior to Avernus, nor was she one during her time in Avernus, nor is she one when she escapes. The game never implies that she is.

However! What Karlach is is extremely loyal, and a SURVIVOR. She has the mentality of 'do what you need to do to survive', and she WILL do what she needs to do to survive. She came from a poor upbringing, she did the best she could with what she had, and now that she's escaped Avernus she wants to CELEBRATE and experience as much joy as possible before she burns up.

This makes her very sensitive to anything that might 'kill the vibe'. She doesn't want to face things like her impending death (she tries very hard to get you to stop talking about it) she doesn't want to question the coins, she doesn't want to deal with big moral questions when the bare bones of the situation are that that kid probably needs to be a thief in order to make it by, "morals" be damned.

Karlach went through hell. Literally. She was incredibly abused psychologically and physically and used as a weapon. She doesn't have the TIME to do anything other than be glad that she's not there anymore. She wants to smell the grass, drink the ale, laugh, love, make friends, enjoy as much as she can while she can. Is she a good person? I'd say so, yeah. But is she a paragon of virtue? No. She was never meant to be, nor was she ever given the opportunity to be.

She knows that reality is a lot harder and a lot more in your face than any higher 'ideals' that may be the best looking on paper. This may be an unpopular opinion as well, but I think if Gortash hadn't sold her, she very likely would have ended up on a path where she would happily do some pretty sketchy shit.

I'm not sure I'd say she compartmentalizes so much as actively chooses to avoid addressing things, to the point where it pisses her off if you try to push her. It's an avoidance of choice, maybe even a rationalization situation.

You do the best you can with the hand you're given. She always did. And now she's only got a few minutes left to enjoy what time she has, so... she does.

[notashadowbutawave]

i almost posted this on the true detective subreddit episode thread but thought better of it:

I've gotta say… I feel like a lot of complaints people are having about this season of the show don't pass muster objectively when held up against Season 1. Melodrama, "unrealistic" dialogue, complaining about being shown too much about people's personal lives and not caring about the characters…

There is so much unrealistic dialogue in season 1. The way Marty and Rust during their video interviews just come in talking about some big philosophical idea or "life wisdom" nugget in the middle of the episode (nobody talks like that IRL). The scene with Marty's daughter and the princess crown, for example. Marty cheating on his wife multiple times isn't like, objectively "more interesting" than Evangeline's sister having mental health issues or Liz being sexually promiscuous and a mess.

I've seen season 1 probably 10 times and I adore it but a lot of the angry comparisons people are making to S1 kind of just come off as straight up misogyny at a certain point. Like it rubs people the wrong way because it's women. Complaining about Liz and Evangeline going to the dredge without backup but when Rust and Captain America Marty Hart do something like that it's believable?

I don't think anyone's obligated to like the season by any means but you can just say you aren't feeling it as opposed to trying to make these apples-to-apples comparisons to season 1 that really don't hold water; I think people are just a lot more willing to accept this type of storytelling when it's about men and kind of has a fetishization/shame angle with masculinity in general. Like S1 is very masculine but it's also a love story. idk. I'm gay so I should probably stick to Tumblr for talking about this show, ya'll are wild.

----

idk watching people who are probably white dudes complain on Reddit that we are seeing too much "native culture" on the show strikes me as really icky.

i recognize that these are reddit comments and not like, actual media criticism but i think it says a lot about how people are conditioned to understand storytelling in general. like there's still so much fucking misogyny and white supremacy in our mainstream media and i realize a lot of people wouldn't say it out loud but i think they genuinely just find it exhausting that they're being asked to contemplate the interior lives of native alaskans and women by watching this show lmao

(that's not a value judgment about how well it is doing at depicting  Iñupiat culture because i'm not the person who gets to make that judgment but it REALLY rubs me the wrong way that people can't STAND even seeing it depicted)

(i think the fetishization of the American south also has a lot to do with it, like people are very willing to accept the aesthetic style of the American south as a vehicle for crime/mystery/possibly supernatural storytelling because it really doesn't challenge any conceptions they might have about the genre) (it helps that Woody Harrelson and Matthew McCounaughey are native southerners with great acting talent and natural screen chemistry who really took Season 1 to a higher level, in no small part thanks to their uncredited script doctoring. with lesser actors I think the story falls flat as hell because you need them to sell a rich relationship and complex inner lives with their performances because SO MUCH of their relationship is subtextual) (so when people see these great acting performances in the context of a police procedural set in Louisiana i think they're very pre-conditioned to elevate it to an almost mythical status in the genre because it doesn't present TOO many challenges to a conventional worldview about who has power and agency in stories)

like I said i've watched season 1 probably 10 times. it's very good. but it does MANY of the same things that people are complaining about regarding season 4/night country in terms of showing a lot of relationship/sexual drama for the leads and their Tragic Pasts. they just don't like it. which is fine. i just think it's a disingenuous angle to approach criticism of the show.

like if any actor other than McConaughey were doing Rust's monlogues in S1 it would not have been very good because it would have come off like self-serious edgelord shit, which is what it actually was (pizzolatto sucks) before it ended up in the hands of competent producers and performers. instead it really comes off like a man who has suffered and developed this worldview genuinely, within himself, not as a way to wield power over others but to protect himself from harm.

anyway....

for my part, i wanna know what the fuck is up with the spirals and the bad CGI polar bear visions and i'm going to be disappointed if it's not just some massive red herring designed to freak people out a little because that's what we deserve.

but in terms of like, the characters' lives, i generally find them very interesting. the opening scene of episode 3 with annie genuinely moved me to tears. annie seems like a fucking cool person and i would love another flashback about her.

i love that liz is a fucking asshole who is constantly being forced to confront her own behavior as racist, self-centered, impulsive, etc.

i love that evangeline is a very lonely person just barely keeping it together. kali reis is putting on an amazing performance. also, for the record, i'm VERY gay.

i wanna know more and there are only 2 episodes left and i hope it sticks the landing so i can write a big actual essay about what it did well from a storytelling perspective!

gosh i just love serialized fiction on the television

[pilot-boi]

What is up with Jaune Arc?

So I have a theory about why Jaune flinched from Ruby's eyes and several other mysteries about our favorite banana noodle

So I was a strong proponent of the Jaune is a descendant of Salem theory a while back during volume 6, it just made sense. It explained the flinching, Tyrians weird interest, and even why Ozpin allowed an untrained nobody to enter Beacon when he saw Pyrrha unlock his aura during initiation

(Seriously, why does no one bring that up!? Every betrayal fic, expulsion au, and complaints about Jaune sneaking into Beacon seem to forget that Ozpin straight up saw Jaune unlock his aura. Like Bruh...)

Anyways once that theory was said to be false by the show writers I was stumped

Why can a boy with no training and having his aura unlocked 5 minutes ago be able to hold back a fully grown deathstalker with one arm and have the aura control to walk away from a 100ft drop with barely a bruise?

How is his able to at least be passible for weeks with no proper training during the Jaundice arc? How is it that he is able to catch up to warriors who have been training for years in a matter of months? Why did Tyrian have such an interest in him during volume 4?

I assumed that these were just plot holes that I would never get a good answer to. Until volume 9 that is

We now know that Jaune Arc is the Rusted Knight, a storybook character who in the very least predates the Great War and is known across Remnant. This means for all of Jaune’s existence upon Remnant he has simultaneously existed in the Ever After. Which means that the minute Jaune was born, he had already been a fully fledged combatant for decades, if not centuries

My theory is that the reason Jaune is so "special" is because of his paradoxal nature

Jaune Arc knows the basics of combat and how to fight off of muscle memory that isn't his yet. His aura control is stellar upon being unlocked since he's been using his semblance for years now. His aura size is so large because he now literally has double the amount a normal person should have because there are two of him. He is a being who shares a soul with another, himself in a world parallel to Remnant

Tyrian is interested in him beacause he can see somethings weird about his aura. A popular headcanon about Tyrian is that he has poor eyesight like real scorpions but can see aura just fine

So when he takes a close look at Jaune he can see a faint overlay of something, or someone else. A much older, stronger aura than this novice huntsman should possibly have

Its why Jaune flinched during Rubys silver eye blast at Haven. For a brief moment he was exposed to the pure essence of a being from the Ever After, the essence of the God of Light. And during that brief moment, the two parallel worlds were bridged, and the Rusted Knight and Jaune Arc felt each other for the first time

A tiny jolt, one that was soon brushed off but a feeling of suddenly not being alone in your very soul coming and going like a flash would cause anyone to flinch. Makes me wonder how Rusted Jaune felt during that moment

I know this is a long shot but notice that the only times Jaunes aura has broken was after being slapped by a mech while boosting Nora, on the bridge during his fight with Cinder, and in the Ever After from the Curious Cat. One of those times was after he pulled off a truly absurd feat, and the other two both happened above and within the other world, where the rest of his soul resided

Coming out of the Ever After Jaune might no longer have absurdly large aura, since he now is whole once more and only has as much as one person should have

Sorry for the long post but this has been bugging me for awhile and I thought this might be a good theory for why Jaune is the way he is.

TLDR; Jaune Arc is connected Rusted Jaune and both share a soul causing weird things about Jaune

————————

Formatted for ease of reading

Okay but this is a BRILLIANT freaking theory about all the nonsense going on with Jaune, and it would honestly make a lot of stuff make sense

Why was Tyrian interested in him? He has more Aura than any one person should be able to hold

Why did Jaune flinch at the silver eyes when no one else did? He very briefly was connected to the version of him in the Ever After

Why did his Aura break so quickly on the bridges when before it took being bitchslapped by a mile high mech AND boosting Nora? Now he was “in” the Ever After and only able to draw on one pool of Aura

It even explains pretty mundane stuff like how he was able to catch up to his friends after only a year or two of training. It’s the same reason Oscar was able to, he’s pulling on “someone else’s” muscle memory

Even his symbol! TWO arcs, not one, TWO Jaune Arcs, not one

God this is a really cool theory, I REALLY love this idea. Thank you for sharing

[edenmemes]

game of thrones (book) starters

❝ a mind needs books like it needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge. ❞ ❝ a lion doesn’t concern itself with the opinion of sheep. ❞ ❝ nothing burns like the cold. ❞ ❝ i've angered you. that was never my intent. ❞ ❝ do the dead frighten you? ❞ ❝ the day will come when you need them to respect you, even fear you a little. ❞ ❝ did i offend you? my pardons...but you are scum. ❞ ❝ folly and desperation are offtimes hard to tell apart. ❞ ❝ you must put your dreams aside. they will only break your heart. ❞ ❝ a man in your place should count himself fortunate that his head is still on his shoulders. ❞ ❝ every hurt is a lesson, and every lesson makes you better. ❞ ❝ life is not a song. someday you will learn that, to your sorrow. ❞ ❝ once you’ve accepted your flaws, no one can use that against you. ❞ ❝ the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. ❞ ❝ make no mistake. i fought for you, but i do not love you. ❞ ❝ some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word. ❞ ❝ fear cuts deeper than swords. ❞ ❝ if i look back i am lost. ❞ ❝ your mind is as deft as your blade, it would seem. ❞ ❝ i cannot think of anyone whose company i desire less than yours. ❞ ❝ sleep is the great healer. ❞ ❝ when you play a game of thrones, you win or you die. ❞ ❝ most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it. ❞ ❝ the things we love destroy us every time. remember that. ❞ ❝ death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities. ❞ ❝ what, lost your taste of adventure? ❞ ❝ i have seen dead men with more humor than you. ❞ ❝ there are times when you give me cause to wonder whose side you are on. ❞ ❝ what good is it to wear a crown? the gods mock the prayers of kings and cowherds alike. ❞ ❝ the gods have fashioned us for love. that is our great glory, and our great tragedy. ❞ ❝ i have a tender spot in my heart for broken things. ❞ ❝ laughter is poison to fear. ❞ ❝ love is the bane of honor, the death of duty. ❞ ❝ we need men of your courage. ❞ ❝ my crimes and sins are beyond counting. ❞ ❝ perhaps i was wrong to distrust you. ❞ ❝ do you always find murder so amusing? ❞ ❝ i will not soften the truth for you. if you lose, there is no hope for any of us. ❞ ❝ every flight begins with a fall. ❞ ❝ oh, my sweet summer child, what do you know of fear? ❞ ❝ the man who fears losing has already lost. ❞ ❝ the things i do for love. ❞ ❝ all the grief has been burned out of me. ❞ ❝ i make no threats. that was a promise. ❞ ❝ spare me your empty little compliments. ❞ ❝ i will not forget the help you gave me. ❞ ❝ let them see that their words can cut you and you’ll never be free of the mockery. ❞ ❝ a lord must learn that sometimes words can accomplish what swords cannot. ❞ ❝ you wear your honor like a suit of armor...you think it keeps you safe, but all it does is weigh you down. ❞ ❝ a dead enemy is a thing of beauty. ❞ ❝ you look well, but...tired. ❞ ❝ love is sweet, but it cannot change a man’s nature. ❞ ❝ if you tell anyone, i’ll kill you. ❞ ❝ minds are like swords. the old ones go to rust. ❞ ❝ there’s something wrong here. can’t you feel it? listen to the darkness. ❞ ❝ everything’s better with some wine in the belly. ❞ ❝ grief can derange even the most strongest and most disciplined of minds. ❞ ❝ in life, the monsters win. ❞ ❝ damn it. you might at least humor me with a smile. ❞ ❝ why is it when one man builds a wall, the next man immediately needs to know what’s on the other side? ❞ ❝ if you must hate, hate those who truly do us harm. ❞ ❝ tell me again what you saw. all the details. leave nothing out. ❞ ❝ what do you think might’ve killed these men? ❞ ❝ you are too hard on yourself. you always were. ❞ ❝ such eloquence. i never suspected you had it in you. ❞ ❝ if i need instruction, i will ask for it. ❞ ❝ if there are enemies in this wood, a fire is the last thing we want. ❞ ❝ what is it? you’re shaking. ❞ ❝ i am out of wine and out of patience. ❞ ❝ i am pleased to see there are still men of sense in this city. ❞ ❝ i do not mean to frighten you, but neither will i lie to you. ❞ ❝ we have come to a dangerous place. we have enemies who mean us ill will. ❞ ❝ you have the wildness in you. ❞ ❝ i can only stomach so much ineptitude in any one day. ❞ ❝ what you are is weak. ❞ ❝ why, that almost sounds like praise. ❞ ❝ none of us wants trouble, but i fear these are troubed times. ❞ ❝ keep out of matters that don’t concern you. ❞ ❝ i trust you as i would my own blood. ❞ ❝ just where do you think you are going? ❞ ❝ give me honorable enemies rather than ambitious ones, and i’ll sleep more soundly at night. ❞ ❝ i am in no mood for your insolence today. ❞ ❝ you weren’t supposed to be here. no one was supposed to be here. ❞ ❝ you are shaking. do i frighten you so much? ❞ ❝ there is small honor in tricks. ❞ ❝ we who presume to rule must do vile things for the good of the realm. ❞ ❝ should war come again, how many soldiers will die? how many towns will burn? ❞ ❝ it is one thing to be clever and another to be wise. ❞ ❝ even in a place like this, one never knows who may be watching. ❞ ❝ forgive me. i am tired. ❞ ❝ if friends can turn to enemies, enemies can become friends. ❞ ❝ all alone, are you? ❞ ❝ we are about justice here, and what you seek is vengeance. ❞ ❝ i promise you, no harm will come to you. ❞ ❝ you will dishonor yourself forever if you do this. ❞ ❝ we all need to be mocked from time from time, lest we start to take ourselves too seriously. ❞ ❝ open the door. we need to talk. ❞ ❝ come share my fire, the night is cold. ❞ ❝ make certain i never look on your face again, or i swear, i’ll have your head on a spike. ❞ ❝ you dare give commands to me? to me? ❞ ❝ we all need to be mocked from time from time, lest we start to take ourselves too seriously. ❞ ❝ you do not love me and you do not want me here. ❞ ❝ nothing was harmed save my dignity. ❞ ❝ be strong. the gods are cruel. ❞ ❝ have you no shred of honor? ❞ ❝ something’s wrong. something’s very wrong. ❞ ❝ i want to be by myself for a while. ❞ ❝ do you take me for a servant? ❞ ❝ i never asked for this. ❞ ❝ i did warn you not to trust me. ❞ ❝ duty, honor, friendship, what’s that to you? ❞ ❝ i hope you are not thinking of doing anything stupid. ❞ ❝ save your pity for yourself. i want none of it. ❞ ❝ i think i will try to sleep. wake me if we’re about to die. ❞ ❝ never show them you’re afraid. ❞ ❝ i am doing the right thing, so why do i feel so bad? ❞ ❝ you must not do this. don’t die on me. ❞ ❝ it is not for you to tell me what i cannot do. ❞ ❝ it stinks. the stick of death. ❞ ❝ you are as fair as ever, a welcome sight in troubled times. ❞ ❝ there’s someone out there, isn’t there? ❞ ❝ can’t say i’ll be sad to see the back of this place. ❞ ❝ travel by night and hole up by day, avoid the road while we can, make no noise and light no fires. ❞ ❝ mercy is never a mistake. ❞ ❝ i don’t wish to hurt you, but i will if i have to. ❞ ❝ i swear it, you will have your vengeance. ❞ ❝ i bow to serve you, to obey you, to die for you if need be. ❞ ❝ a man who fights for coin is loyal only to his purse. ❞ ❝ we have won a battle, not a war. ❞ ❝ do i look like a liar too? ❞ ❝ more than once, i have dreamed of giving up the crown. ❞ ❝ distrusting me was the wisest thing you’ve done. ❞ ❝ poison is a coward’s weapon. ❞ ❝ how many times must i tell you to hold your tongue? ❞ ❝ you have done all i could have asked of you, and a hundred times more. ❞ ❝ i have made more mistakes than you can possibly imagine, but that was not one of them. ❞ ❝ sometimes the gods are merciful. ❞ ❝ go ahead, call me all the names you want. ❞ ❝ not now. you have no time for grief. ❞

[ctitan98official]

Alcina blinds Y/N in one eye and kidnaps them angst part 2

Alright, this is an insane au to write for and I wanted to return to it! Read the first part here! Let’s get into it!

It was a fucking nightmare. Everything in your life was just fine… Until it wasn’t.

Your house was cozy and warm as midnight consumed the tiny village. Elena was asleep on your chest and Hope slumbered in her crib at the foot of your bed. You dozed peacefully as you held your wife and dreamed of your family’s happy life together. You were all so blissfully unaware of what was about to happen. How could things turn so bad so quickly?

Suddenly, a horrible crash sounded from the first floor. Someone had broken in. You and Elena immediately bolted up in bed and little Hope began to cry loudly, startled.

Your family is in danger. You see red.

You immediately begin to make a plan and figure out how you should proceed. You need to keep your family safe, no matter what. Elena and Hope are all that matter right now. “Take the baby and get to the bathroom! Lock the door behind you!” You tell Elena. You grab the old fishing knife you keep in your bedside table, for situations such as this, and silently thank your past self for the forethought. It might not be much, but you can at least defend yourself.

You climb out of bed and move towards the bedroom door, but Elena takes your hand. “Y/N! Don’t fight whoever that is! Come with us!” She begs.

You look at her for a moment, thinking through your options, but you can hear… Something making its way up the stairs. Whatever it is… It’s not human. Harsh shrieks and chirps fill the house. You shake your head at Elena’s plea. “No, babe. I’ll hold them off,” You tell her. You’re going to do everything you can to fend off the intruders before they even have a chance to get to your family.

“I love you, Elena. I love you, Hope,” You say and press quick kisses to their heads. “Go into the bathroom and climb out of the window and down the trellis.” You tell Elena.

Elena is sobbing, but nods and does as you ask. You’re right. She needs to protect her daughter. “We love you so much, Y/N,” She weeps.

Your heart breaks at having to leave your wife and daughter. Fuck. Why is this happening? Haven’t you been through enough?

Elena holds Hope tight as she closes and locks the bathroom door. She begins trying to open the window, but it’s stuck and giving her trouble. She frantically does her best to get it to open.

Meanwhile, you burst out of your room and into the hallway, only to see… Twisted corpse-like figures swiping aggressively at you with rusted weapons. What the fuck are these things? They move relatively slowly so you begin to take them out one by one. You hack them to bits violently, making sure they stay down before moving on. Surprisingly, things go relatively well for a while. You are making progress on the undead swarm that is infesting your home… That is until you get downstairs and peer out of the destroyed entryway of your house. You see someone looming at your front door. Someone you never expected to see again.

Alcina.

You know she’s behind all of this. What’s her game? You point your knife at her in anger. “Get the hell away from my family! I’ll kill you, bitch!” You rage.

Alcina adopts a rather neutral expression. She calmly clasps her hands in front of her. “Draga… It’s time for you to come home now. You’ve had your fun out on your own, but you belong to me,” She says. “Plus, I think it’s time for me to meet my new daughter. Don’t you?” She asks with a predatory grin.

Your eyes widen in disbelief. Her new… Daughter? She can’t possibly mean Hope. “What the fuck are you talking about?” You sneer.

Alcina smirks before turning to one of those mangled creatures to get its attention. “Bring me the woman and the baby,” She commands.

Your heart drops to your stomach. “NO! No, leave my wife and child alone!” You howl. You quickly run to try and attack the creature before it can get to Elena and Hope, but Alcina easily picks you up by the collar and slams you against the side of your house.

“Ahh, fuck!” You cry out in pain. “Stop!” You plead, tears streaming down your face.

Alcina sighs. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be, Y/N,” She says, actually seeming somewhat sad about what she’s doing to you and your family. But… She also has a resolute gleam in her eye. She believes this is necessary for her to get you back. Forever.

You’ve got the wind knocked out of you and your vision becomes blurry as Alcina harshly presses you up against the wall.

Eventually, you hear Elena shriek from the house and you try to keep your eyes open, to figure out a way to fix all of this.

The horrible creature from before shuffles out of the house, maintaining a tight grip on Elena’s shoulders to keep her from running. Elena had just managed to open the bathroom window and began to climb out when the creature took her. She was so close… Her heart aches with guilt that she couldn’t get away and save her baby.

“No, please! My baby! Don’t do anything to my baby!” Elena sobs.

Alcina purses her lips as she sees the woman who stole your heart. She’s jealous. She looks back at you and growls. How could you choose this simple villager over her? She loses her temper. She once again slams your head against the wall of the house, effectively dazing you. She seethes for a moment before she finally releases her hold on your neck.

You slump to the ground, too dizzy to get up.

Alcina makes her way over to Elena, who is still weeping. She towers over her small, prone form. “Shut up, girl!” She spits and scoops Hope right out of her arms.

“NO!” Elena cries as she struggles against the creature still holding her tightly. Hope… Her precious baby… “Help! Somebody help me!” She yells, wanting nothing more than to hold you and Hope again.

Alcina scoffs at Elena’s tears. “Nobody can help you now, girl,” She says quietly. She looks down at Hope, who is loudly wailing, and gently bounces her in her arms. “It’s alright, draga,” She whispers. She then looks up and snaps her fingers. All of the remaining creatures circle around her at the sound. “Do what you will with this woman… Just make sure that I never see her again,” She orders.

Alcina turns back to you and sees that you are almost unconscious. You don’t know what’s going anymore as your vision continues to fade. Your head is bleeding badly and you need medical attention.

Alcina goes to pick you up in her other arm and begins taking you and Hope back to the castle. She doesn’t want either of you to be present for what’s about to happen to Elena.

Hope is still crying her little eyes out, but Alcina shushes her and talks to her calmly. “You’re alright, my love. Mama’s here,” She tells her and leans down to kiss her nose. Alcina can’t help but marvel at how much Hope looks like you. She is smitten with the little girl.

Despite the circumstances, Alcina’s maternal actions actually soothe Hope and she relaxes a bit into the vampiress’ hold, feeling warm and safe in her presence.

As Alcina takes you both back to castle Dimitrescu, Elena’s screaming is eventually cut short by a sickening snap.

Alcina smirks. This part of her plan worked perfectly. Now onto the next phase…

Note: Why, Alcina… How very villain of you T^T I chose to have Alcina use the Moroaice instead of the girls because I didn’t want them to do those horrible things lol. I hope you enjoyed!

Masterlist

[transhawks]

379 - The Story of How We All Became Heroes

in all seriousness, me and google lens were scanning each page and I was very thrilled through out the chapter. Here's some thoughts:

We know Tomura has been there since the start. Even in the raid/war he was struggling against All For One and saying he didn't want to be possessed. What we should really take this as is this: throughout the entirety of the Villain Hunt, all that, Shigaraki was awake and aware, hence the moments he'd show up or even regress into an earlier age. But there's a specific horror to how All For One has been riding him like a meat suit that's cognizant of all that's happening. But it does mean that Tomura knows exactly what's going on and what All For One has been doing.

Now!!!!!

Let's get this down:

that. does. not. mean. Tomura's. desires. are. gone.

Tomura's arc has been about asserting his own agency against what has been planned for him - despite no one listening to him. Is it frustrating to see him in the same web that All For One spun for him, willingly? Yes, in a way - but people don't change that easily and again, for the entirety of his arc we've been watching him articulate why he believes what he does outside of All For One's influence; now does this mean he's broken free from All For One? No - because Shigaraki constantly bringing up the "hero" and "villain" monikers is going into the same direction All For One is.

All For One is a liar.

He might say he doesn't believe in morality, in the designations of society, but he truly does - he wants to live and abide by them. He likes this dichotomy of heroes and villains and never will the twain meet. It's fascinating seeing a character who has been telling us he's amoral turn out to be simply, knowingly, and on purpose immoral and there's a big difference.

So, let me change things up - Shigaraki's arc from the start (and Deku's) has been about predetermined outcomes and roles. All For One doesn't think of people as being outside their role. He throws tantrums when jobbers like Jirou and Tokoyami get the best of him, when extra side characters like Endeavor and Hawks manage to ge tthe best of him and see through him, when "evil" people like Nagant have changes of hearts, because All For One has utterly internalized the same thing that he's been telling Tomura, that everyone has been telling Tomura:

you can't change who you are. That you have a role and you should stick to it.

And that's determined from the start, from the beginning -

not all people are born equal.

And Tomura still thinks that - that's why he's still calling Izuku 'Hero'. He still sees this through All For One's beliefs, that there are heroes and they will fail to save the villains, and that he is a villain.

So, no, just because he's bucked off All For One doesn't mean the battle has been 'won'. Izuku needs to change his heart and mind, truly save Tomura. It's interesting that their final showdown appears to be on Dagobah beach, the place Deku cleaned up, a neglected place that society had abandoned and made worse. The place where Deku learned to be a hero.

Now, it looks like it's still in shambles. The question is that whether the beach just became a trash heap after Deku and All Might stopped going there or whether the battle/war has caused that issue. But either way it's a metaphor; you can't change things overnight. You have to work hard to help people and keep at it - the process of "saving" people is not what All Might had done! It's not a whambam, thank you ma'am kind of thing. Deku can't just take Tomura and declare him saved once All For One is gone!

And he can't do it alone. Now, Deku will save Tomura, we know that's the manga ending, duh, but how do we get there - and it has to be a societal effort. Deku can't constantly clean up that beach by himself. The community has to realize that they can't keep dumping their trash on beach, forgetting about it as it rots and rusts away to the point the beach is unusable. You can't depend on one person to do that, it has to be a village, a town, a society.

And there's a reason why Tomura keeps bringing up society - there's a real resistance at the great man theory of history with this manga. Recall how they mentioned Napoleon as a "hero" at the very start of the manga? Now, barring actual discussions about the accuracy of Mic's view on Napoleon, this idea that one person can save everyone has time and time again failed. It's what brought down All Might.

After all, isn't this the story of how we all became heroes?

[canmom]

the unity thing is a hot mess huh. they will probably find some way to walk back some of it in response to backlash, clarify the install fee if they do commit, and solve some of the cases where it's prohibitively expensive (mostly f2p mobile games), maybe delay the Jan 1st deadline because their 'install detection' tech obviously isn't there - but 'retroactively changing the license' part is the really scary one. especially since this goes against some of the on-record promises made by Unity in the past.

it's kind of impressive how like... one of the cornerstones of the entire modern game dev industry can completely evaporate its trust overnight. this has apparently has to do with the company's IPO, the loss of most of the founders, the ex-EA CEO etc. but regardless of motivation, it's extremely horrible from a game preservation standpoint if we start to see games getting pulled from stores to shield against the new install fee.

this means everyone's going to start looking for Unity alternatives. the obvious one that comes to mind is Godot, which has the advantage of being lightweight and open source. however, Godot's got significant performance issues baked into its architecture, especially in comparison to Unity's DOTS and Burst compiler. by contrast, Unreal is a beast in terms of grahpical performance (not so much CPU-side, it's beaten by DOTS there), but it's anything but lightweight - on my old laptop the editor had a bit of a tendency to swallow up my 1050Ti's VRAM and crash. still, this will probably be a real shot in the arm for Unreal lmao

Bevy is the engine with the most promise imo (pure ECS with the power of the Rust compiler underlying it), but Bevy is immature, and lacks a lot of features you depend on in Unity (which is to say, Unity has some really great tools for profiling and debugging which Bevy lacks, plus Unity has a lot of good built in systems for VFX, shader authoring etc.) particularly the rendering side needs a lot of work. if anything good comes of this, it might be a whole lot more interest in developing Bevy.

for my line of work in VR, if Unity becomes toxic, this is pretty devastating. nearly every game for standalone VR is made in Unity - I feel like I can count the non-Unity games on the Quest 2 on one hand. almost all the pedagogical information out there is written for Unity. so I can only speculate what's gonna happen there. it may be that Unity is able to stay on as the default for Quest 2/3, since Meta has made it so most games are sold on a flat one-time price rather than f2p. of course it does rather depend whether Unity's secret proprietary install-counting tool starts counting pirate installs.

all in all I guess we see how this shakes out but it's kind of a rough thing to happen less than a year after I become a game dev working in unity ^^'

[softorsweet]

It's late. I don't know what day or time, but you've spent the last hour doing my makeup. You've already slipped me into a low-cut black dress. I had been silent most of the night, content to simply let you play with me like I'm a doll.

"You look so pretty," you purr as you finish my mascara with one last swipe, "hard to believe you ever thought you were a boy."

I lock eyes with you, the question already on my face before I part my lips. You're even faster to answer.

"I'm sorry honey, I know that was a long time ago, you probably don't even remember."

My glazed-over puppy eyes tell you I don't. You smirk and I smile back. You lean down to level your face with mine. You see the vulnerability in me and you just can't help it.

"When Mommy met you, you used to pretend to be a boy. You'd wear boy clothes and you called yourself d̴͍̜̪̾́ǒ̷͚͕͇͔́́͠͠n̴̛̜̬̞͎͓̟̣̓͊̓͑̄̀ͅ'̷̙̗̙͎͇̮͓͌̂̈́t̸̖̟̮̣͋̓̚ŕ̶͔̪͚͂̒̊͛̑é̷̛̞̰̖͉̓͋͐̽͛̆͝m̴̪̝͍͔͕̠̻̐̔́̂͑̅̋̍͠͠e̴̮̖̮̫͕̠̜̲̥͗͊̒̑͒̕͠͝͝ͅm̸̢̛̼͕̱͊̈̓͋̔̽̔͘͝b̶̳̰̲̺͑̏̓̕ę̶̧̙̱̻͓̞̈́̈r̴̨̥͕̦̗͕̆ͅ. I mean really, what a silly name for a girl, is that really the best your parents could come up with? Then again, they were confused too, just like you were. You might not remember how angry they got when you finally agreed with me about who you really are, hm?"

You see the rusted cogs in my mind grind to life, if only barely at the mention of my old deadname. How long has it been? You smile and bare your fangs.

"You're so lucky you had Mommy to help you realize the pretty girl you were always meant to be."

"Mommy," I start, almost whispering the question, "how did you help me find out?"

"By doing the same things we do today, silly. All of those fun videos that make your head all fuzzy, the special pills Mommy feeds you to make your breasts bigger and more sensitive, and of course, having you look in the mirror and seeing exactly what I see- a girl."

"Not to mention all the other things Mommy does with you." Your smirk is practically predatory as you tap your acrylic nail against my plastic cage. I wince. "I mean, it wouldn't feel as good as it did if you really were a boy. Boys don't have tight little cunts like you. Boys don't have caged-up little clits like you."

Your lips are inches from my ear. Your hands are on my tits. "Boys don't beg for Mommy to breed them like you do.~ So...?" You linger on the question, eyeing me.

Finally, there's some dim recognition shining through the fog, "So... I must be a girl, right?"

"Such a smart little tranny," You let out before pouncing.

[titanicfreija]

Distractions

Sunny found the empress in the Hall of Heroes, standing tall at the doorway they normally started through. "You wanted to talk?" the Ghost asked sweetly.

Caiatl grunted and turned to lumber down the hallway, posture heavy and steps plodding. "I wanted you to talk. I am weary and would appreciate the company of a friend," she replied.

Sunny whirled around and wheeled. It was a relief that she knew Sunny needed the instructions, she must have been getting used to her habits.

"I have good news, then! We got to dig into Thomas's previous life, and Freija asked him about his history! Rex never told us! I have no idea wh-- actually, I do."

Caiatl's relief showed immediately, shoulders relaxing and weight resting on her heels. Her breath even slowed down.

Sunny figured she would only be half listening, but she was happy to have the audience, and even happier to be a relief to someone that needed it.

~

"So this roommate, of whom you speak quite lowly, was a Warlord?" the empress asked jovially.

"See, that's my favorite part about it-- he said no. He says no, but then every single time he tries to defend his point, he fails. He even gives up and says yes, but then if you say it later, he tries to say no again! I don't understand it. He said he wasn't proud of it, but he even thought about hiding it when they were talking about it!"

"They were not good times for your people. From the sound of it, he did not want to be a Warlord. I personally am on his side of this-- if he does not call himself a Warlord, regardless of his role played, he was not one. I am surprised to hear this. Was his skill always so limited?"

Sunny groaned and swept into a huge circle. "I don't even-- he's not big with his jump, which a lot of Guardians consider to be an important thing. He really is terrible at anything except clearing gaps with a good run-up on flat terrain. But he's fine on the ground. And he can shoot really well, I didn't even know that, and really, he's not bad, it's just that his Ghost is a jerk and he can't be bothered to put up with it enough to shake off the rust and gather some momentum!"

Caiatl grunted. "This Rex. Does he believe Thomas qualified as a Warlord?"

"You know, I don't know," Sunny mused. "Thomas did say he misses those days. Rex didn't say anything himself, he was grouchy that whole trip. He's jealous of me and Freija, they both are, no one is being secretive about knowing. They can't help it, and really, we can't either. The weirdest stuff can bother them, and sometimes I get it but other times I'm just confused."

"Their bond is...?"

"I don't know if you mean bond like the love I mean or like the connection Freija talks about."

"If you will clarify, I will accept any answer."

Sunny wondered briefly if the thing that connected a Ghost and Guardian could be disrupted at all. "The love like I mean, they're... Not in a good place. Rex gets spiteful and apparently won't heal under certain circumstances, and I did know he had problems with his scanner bandwidth range, but I didn't realize how bad, so even the few times he does help, he's not as helpful as, say, I am, just because he can't. Which... If he's been trying to make Thomas make up for things he can't do.... It's rough. They make me feel lucky. They make me feel lucky when we're fighting. But as far as I can tell, they're just as much Ghost and Guardian as Freija and I are. He's actually a great fighter, he really is. It's a shame."

Caiatl "hmphed". Something in it sounded amused. "This is an interesting account. I would not have imagined that a Guardian and their Ghost would be so at odds. It seems counterintuitive."

"People are people," Sunny sighed. "Even an obligatory mutual symbiont. Rex started it, but I think he started it out of something pathetic instead of something mean. Thomas might have been mean back, back then. He's so kind, now. If a little resentful, I can smell that without olfactory sensors."

"How old are they? How long ago was this rift formed between them?"

Sunny wheeled. "I have no idea. Thomas had indicated that it was the library, which means the Tower's formation a couple hundred years ago, but the story he told made it sound earlier than that."

"I would like to witness this discordance," Caiatl chuckled.

"I don't," grumbled Sunny. "They make me feel bad. Sometimes even a little guilty for being friends with Freija in front of them. The look on Thomas's face when I gave Freija her backpack before she asked for it.... I feel bad for Thomas sometimes because I know Rex just can't, but there's lots he can and won't. It's just... Sad."

"And yet he, like any other, kept a band of mortals," she chuckled. "Out of a sense of obligation, as I understand it. Was this Rex supportive?"

"I got a real keen sense that he wasn't." Sunny turned to see Caiatl's tusks bobbing thoughtfully. "I don't know. I literally can't imagine what would make me act like that at Freija. I know he thought he could drive Thomas into being more than he is, but he was mean about it. We've all tried to help, but Rex is too angry about being wrong to correct his mistake. And he gets to see where my incessant cheering on has gotten Freija, someone he considered to be far lesser than Thomas as long as he could get away with it, and that just makes him so angry."

"You seem to simultaneously pity and dislike this Rex. And yet you call him friend?"

"I can love someone I don't like," Sunny said. "I wish I could help them. Freija wants to, too, but neither of us know what to do. Rex is angry and wants to be angry. Thomas is.... Just.... He's so kind, patient, he loves Rex, I think. Feels sorry for him, too. I don't know. They... It's so weird. And sad."

Caiatl chortled and heaved a long sigh. "Somehow, it is a relief to know that even bonds so deep do not guarantee harmony. They do work together?"

"Only in combat. It's one thing Rex can do well, and it's what he wants to do. Thomas is good at it, too, as long as what you need is cover fire. His threadlings will dissolve Vex almost as fast as his needles can unmake them, and once he's linked the needles into his gun, he can send that magic everywhere. But he's not tough. And he's real bad about getting caught out, I think it's him and Rex both being bad at spatial awareness. He has to stay in the back. Rex hates it."

"This Thomas has aligned strongly with the Darkness?" Now the amusement turned to real interest. "Do you suppose there is a link between their weak relationship and his ability to use the Darkness? Does the Ghost facilitate the Darkness the same as the Light?"

Sunny wagged a "no". "Guardians are paracausal-- outside causality, able to break the rules of physics and create matter or manipulate the intangible forces of the universe. So it allows for manipulation of Darkness. I think. I don't know for sure. But anyway-- no, I really don't. Rex likes the Darkness, too, he says. He could just be saying it for effect, but he says Stasis feels minty and strand feels like to swimming in warm water, and he likes both of them. It's been a big relief to them both. We thought it would help them, but they're stuck in their ways. Rex refuses to help Thomas do anything but fight, and Thomas doesn't like fighting. He hates getting shot, he hates dying, and he doesn't like working with anyone at the same time as needing backup." She rolled in the air and wheeled her petals. "That's one thing he is jealous about, Freija is so stupid and headstrong and he would love Thomas to be so combat-ready. Thomas would, too, I think."

Caiatl chewed on that one, too. "Do you think he would be happier with her? Or a Guardian like her?"

Sunny wagged another negative. "I think he'd hate her and anyone else like her. He doesn't know what he wants. If he had Freija, if he tried to tell her to do anything, she'd fight with him first. Anyone like her would do the same. He can't be nice, and Freija doesn't respond well to authority."

Caiatl rumbled another laugh. "She responds to real authority well enough. She knows Rex is not her superior."

Sunny wanted to argue but then she remembered Neomuna. Yeah, fair enough.

"Do you feel a Guardian like Thomas would relieve you of the guilt you suffer for raising a soldier?"

"Eternally bound to the fight," she sighed. She hadn't considered it. "I would ... Probably feel like Rex. Like I wasn't doing enough. I like to think I wouldn't scare my Guardian away from me. I... I don't know what's wrong with Rex."

"You feel he is ungrateful?"

"He had Thomas for five hundred years before I found her and he was disappointed from the first day because he didn't want to get shot. I feel like it's blasphemy to be disappointed in your Guardian like he is. Something about it should feel wrong to him, if you ask me. I think it might and that's what makes him feel like that."

Caiatl chortled. "Is there a grander belief that one can blaspheme?"

Sunny didn't even think about it when she said it. "I mean.... Some of us think we were all created with a purpose and a single Guardian out there to find. Some of us think we happened by accident, tiny fragments of the Traveler trying to save ourselves, and the connections to the Chosen are happenstance, or are something else magical. Some of us think that we were created to fight, or defend humans. It varies by who you ask."

"Your personal belief?"

Sunny paused to consider it. She hadn't rethought it in a while. "Well, I believe that... We were created unintentionally. I also believe that no individual holds the spark for an individual Ghost. We have our Chosens, but to think that we were all created a thousand years ago to look for people that wouldn't be born, let alone die, for centuries..... Bodies decay. To think that anyone could miss their chance just because the body rotted... To think that the Traveler created some Ghosts to die... I don't think it did. Really, I don't think it did just because there's too many of us. I think it broke and we're just dust that came off it. I think the bodies we're drawn to call us, but I don't think it's any single one-- I think more than one holds our spark. But maybe not at a time, or maybe it's spread out until I feed the one that grows, like the one seed of three planted."

Caiatl silently considered this for a time, gazing ahead. She then smirked. "I do not envy your position. I would suffer many doubts, more than you, I think."

"I... Honestly, I don't know. It all comes down to the fact that, if we don't fight, there will be nothing left to fight for. And I have Freija, and she wants to fight, so fight we will. Terrifying as that is."

"Your courage is seen," Caiatl promised.

"Your strength is, too, but remember that you have to rest," Sunny said, seeing the light fade in her eyes. "Do you sleep? You should probably sleep."

Her weight rocked back to her heels and her face plate shifted as her tusks lifted. Her eyelids still drooped. "We sleep. I will. I am glad to see you. I will entertain you, next time." Caiatl put a fist to her chest and bowed, an unusually stuffy gesture.

Sunny nudged the tip of her helmet. She was pretty sure it was the first time she touched the empress, even that little bit. Caiatl chuckled as she drew back to her full height.

"You must be tired, defaulting to formality like that," the Ghost observed. "See if Nimbus will hide you for an hour or so?"

"I will steal the sleep I can," she promised. "How is your Guardian?"

"Standing ground with fire and hammer," Sunny said. "It can be so beautiful, even amongst the horror."

"Her fires are indeed," agreed Caiatl. "I look forward to our next meeting. Farewell.

@wolvereaux. @annieruok94

[anthurak]

So here is what makes the prospect of the ‘Lively Carpenter’ showing up in the next few episodes so interesting:

We have NO IDEA who they are or what they even look like!

Think about it; at this point in the volume, we have been introduced to ALL of the characters of The Girl Who Fell Through the World shown in the intro, trailers and other promotional material.

But NO ‘Lively Carpenter’.

The way I see it, this leaves us with two possibilities:

First, we simply haven’t been shown ANYTHING of this character. Which could very well imply that they actually represent a MASSIVE spoiler. As in, just the image alone of this Lively Carpenter would give away SO MUCH of a reveal that CRWBY has kept them entirely under wraps.

And I think we can all agree that if this is the case, there’s really only ONE person who fits that bill:

Now, the other possibility is that we actually HAVE seen/been introduced to the Lively Carpenter, but didn’t realize who it was at the time. And with all the other characters seen in the intro having been named already, this leaves us with only one possible candidate:

The Mysterious Blacksmith Lady whom Ruby met back in Episode 5.

Now this might at first seem headscratching, as this is obviously a blacksmith, not a carpenter. But consider what we know about ASCENSION.

What if this Blacksmith WAS the ‘Lively Carpenter’ Alyx (and Luis) met on their journey, but sometime afterwards underwent ascension to become the blacksmith we see now. After all, both are craftsmen, with one working with wood and the other with metal.

And isn’t it curious that in this blacksmith’s forge there hangs a weapon that is clearly meant to resemble a woodsman’s axe? You know, a tool meant for cutting WOOD?

Now, does mean I don’t think the Lively Carpenter is actually Summer?

HELL FUCKING NO!

I think Summer Rose was the Lively Carpenter, and later ascended to become the Blacksmith!

That Axe-Rifle DEFINITELY seems to be tied to Summer, given Ruby’s vision. Summer’s weapon being an axe finally gives her a tangible link to Ruby’s fairytale allusion; her being the woodsman of Little Red Riding Hood. And being a reference to a woodsman in turn gives Summer a link to the ‘Lively Carpenter’ we’ve heard about. And the practice of Ascension in the Ever After gives a way for Summer as the Lively Carpenter to have become the Mysterious Blacksmith we see now.

Also, remember that the Lively Carpenter was first mentioned by Weiss alongside the Rusted Knight. Who we met the very next episode and turned out to be Jaune.

Wouldn’t it make perfect sense for the Lively Carpenter to ALSO be a character we actually met in that episode AND likewise turn out to be someone from Remnant?

[myfavouritelunatic]

Trapped

For day three of Hellghoul Week, I chose the prompt 'Did you hear that?', but this one could also fall under the day six theme of hauntings! Hope you enjoy the spooky and creepy vibes!

🖤🌲🌕🌳👻🌳🌕🌲🖤

“Did you hear that?” A question that started it all. When he’d asked it, Galadriel had no idea what it would lead to. She thought he was looking out for her, having stopped to help her with a flat tyre. At last the kindness of strangers proves to not be a myth. It was the last thing she wanted tonight. It was bad enough Gil was forcing her to go to this stupid Halloween party.

It was almost as if the universe was telling her it wasn’t where she was supposed to be.

She was expecting the stranger, who introduced himself as Halbrand, to make some joke about her costume. She was dressed as Jason Voorhees. “I’ll help you if you promise not to kill me!” or “So you’ve got mummy issues then.” But no. None of that. He’d simply pulled over in front of her Hyundai in his rusted station wagon, volunteering his services. “Just offering whatever humble aid I can.” He’d said with a smile.

A smile that set Galadriel’s heart thumping.

“Do you do this often?” She’d asked. “Help damsels in distress?” Galadriel wouldn’t usually say something as silly as that but Halbrand had an immediate effect on her, and she couldn’t think straight. In fact, she was quite capable of changing her own tyre, but being so caught off guard by him, she didn’t want to turn his help away.

Nor risk angering a complete stranger. A man who loomed over her as he stood next to her now, his head haloed by the light of the full moon. “Did you hear that?” “Hear what?” “That!” He stared down at her in disbelief. “I don’t hear anything, Halbrand. What does it s—” “Shhhhh!”

They both fell silent. Galadriel strained in her concentration to hear whatever had set her saviour on edge. After a few seconds, something entered Galadriel’s ears she wished she’d never heard. An ominous though faint clicking noise. Click, click, click, click, click. The two of them locked eyes. “You hear it don’t you.” Halbrand whispered. Galadriel nodded. Then a louder noise sprang through the air causing them both to jump.

It was a scream.

“We have to go help them!” Galadriel declared, starting towards the tree line. Halbrand grabbed her arm before she got too far. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She shirked her arm free. “Probably not, but I’m not leaving without helping them. We could be their only hope of survival.”

Galadriel dumped the hockey mask, grabbed her flashlight, locked her car, and disappeared into the woods. Hoping Halbrand would follow her. She was only trying to do the right thing but she didn’t want to do it alone.

“Wait up, Galadriel!” Her prayer answered. His footfalls quickened until he caught her, the sounds of asphalt morphing into the crunch of leaves and twigs. “It’s not safe to go any further. We should head back. Call the police, the park ranger, anyone but us.” He wasn’t panicked, just concerned. For her. Warning her of what lay ahead.

She should’ve listened.

“I don’t think I’ll sleep at night if I don’t at least try to help.” “You probably won’t sleep again. Ever.” Galadriel glared at him as they walked, his affecting charm beginning to lose its grip. “How about you just tell me what’s out there, Halbrand? If you’re so worried, why don’t you prepare me for what we might see?”

Another scream.

Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.

The sounds were louder. Closer.

“It’s too late for that now.” “How?” “Because we’re in its land. We crossed the border.” “It? What do you mean ‘it’?” Halbrand didn’t answer her question. And his vague crypticness began to unsettle her. “Okay then we’ll turn back. We haven’t gone too deep in yet.” “I tried to stop you.”

He tried and succeeded but too late as he had said. Galadriel did stop. She stood before Halbrand, this handsome youthful man who suddenly seemed to her older than time itself. There was only one emotion emanating from him now.

Grief.

Her heart was thumping it’s loudest now, each beat commanded by trembling fear. Without another word she turned on the spot and started to run, run back to the road, her car, and safety.

She got about 30 metres before she realised where she should have seen the road, she only saw more woods.

And that Halbrand had not run after her.

“Halbrand!” She called, frantic, spinning in all directions before running back to where she’d left him. “Halbrand?!”

A third scream.

No handsome man in sight.

Only endless click, click, click, click, clicks…

The last thing Galadriel heard.

————

There’s an old wives tale known to the locals. On Halloween, there’s a road you do not stop on, a forest you do not enter alone.

Even if you think you’ve got company.

On Old Forest Road through Mirkwood Forest, everyone knows not to accept help from faces they do not know.

Even if they are handsome or beautiful.

If you pass a rusted wagon driven by a charming auburn haired fellow and his long blonde haired maiden… do not stop.

Keep driving.

Lest you end up like them.

Trapped.

🖤🌲🌕🌳👻🌳🌕🌲🖤

Tagging: @hellghoulweek @pursuitseternal @heronamedhawks @gil-galadhwen @theriverwild @scriberated @youwearfinethingswellwriter @thrillofhope @klynnvakarian @90shaladriel @marimosalad @coraleethroughthelookingglass @somebirdortheother @ichabodjane @hazelmaines @rebelrebelwrites @hikarielizabethbloom @tmwillson3 @jhalya