#FORGOT. ABOUT THIS MOTHERFUCKER

[kayvsworld]

killing obadiah stane with my mind

[aseuki]

Sleep power coming in clutch

[front-facing-pokemon]

[leupagus]

Really enjoying writing Book 2/Season 6 of this monstrosity, where instead of having Sansa and Jon fighting to regain Winterfell and all that nonsense with the "Battle of the Bastards," it's gonna be like 10K of Sansa being the Warden of the North equivalent of that mom who just needs FIVE MINUTES OF PEACE AND QUIET YOU GODDAMN KIDS

To the Lord Robin Arryn, Defender of the Vale and Warden of the East, and my Dear Cousin,

I write to you from Wint

"Sansa — sorry, Lady Sansa, you'll never believe—"

"Jeyne, you don't have to call me 'Lady Sansa,'" Sansa said as she looked up from her parchment. "You're the steward of Winterfell now."

Jeyne Poole, hanging onto the handle of the door and swinging it absently back and forth like she'd done back when they were ten years old, frowned. "My da always said the Lord and Lady of Winterfell were worthy of respect."

Sansa leaned back in her chair. Father had dealt with the business of the holdfast in the Library Tower, so he could wrestle with the accounts without being interrupted every twenty minutes. Sansa had always thought that a bit unfair, since it meant you had to climb all those stairs just to find him, but now she was wondering if she could perhaps build the tower twenty or thirty feet higher. The exercise would probably do her good. "Your father always called mine 'oi, you,' if I recall correctly."

The look Jeyne gave her was deeply unimpressed. "Aye, and you always complained about it. Do you want to hear about the cow loose in the guest house or not?"

erfell at last, which was the dearest wish of your beloved goodfather Petyr. His dying words were to express the hope that both his goodson and his niece be safe and secure in their homes, and I am glad to say tha

"Lady Sansa, Master Mikken has refused another dozen apprentices. He said they're all 'knuckleheaded clods who wouldn't know a round ball fuller from a chisel punch." This time it was her master-at-arms, who'd been Rodrick Cassel's round-faced child named Beth when Sansa had left. Now he went by Cass and looked like he could wrestle a (very short) bear if needs be.

"I don't know a round ball fuller from a chisel punch," Sansa replied, frowning.

Cass shrugged. "Well, and nor do I. But that's near fifty lads he's turned away. We need someone helping with the forges. We've been making do with the army smiths that Prince Stannis let us—"

"Prince Stannis?" He was going to hate that.

Another shrug. "We've got to call him something, milady. You won't call him 'king,' nor will any of your bannermen, but his soldiers give us no end of trouble when we call him 'lord.' So 'prince' it is. And he is one, too, ain't he? King Robert's brother. That'd make him a prince, right?"

Sansa answered with a shrug of her own. By the time Stannis and his companies returned from the Dreadfort, everyone in the North would likely have settled on Prince Stannis, which would lead to a great deal of shouting and probably threats of lighting people on fire, but she had at least a fortnight to think of something.

"As I was saying, we can't use the Baratheon smiths forever, and the ones from our bannermen have all gone home with their bannermen. Mikken needs apprentices, and we need our forge at full strength."

"All right, let's go speak with him," Sansa sighed.

t through the goodness of Stannis, of House Baratheon, and his masterful command of the armies of the North and the Stormlands, I am now secure as Warden of the North.

Not only that, but your dear cousin, my brother Rickon has somehow survived all the danger that the North has presented, while it was under the thrall of the Ironborn and House Bolton. He is now safe and I will reu

"My lady?" Maester Wolkan peered his head into the room.

[codacheetah]

Played the funny video game for the first time last night :)

[bitchiepudding]

Ok but which members of the batfamily speak with a jersey accent?

[out-pizza-the-tower]

sum sketches and full drawins of pizza tower drawpile....

[dootplusone]

(OG post has Reblogs turned off. You can find it here!)

(OG post has Reblogs turned off. You can find it here!)

(If the OP would prefer this post not link back to the OG post or is otherwise is not okay w/ this post in reference to theirs, please let me know in some form so I can delete/edit it as needed.)

Thinking. Abt this but with Bones. Like. Post-Tholian Web? Post-Mirror Mirror?

For AOS, could be after Into Darkness and/or Beyond.

A Bones who's just. So anxious. So stressed. So overwhelmed that it starts taking a toll on his health. Maybe he doesn't even realise - or maybe he does and tries his best to push through it until it knocks him on his ass. Kind of in the vein of "You don't actually know how tired you are until you stop. And then you just physically cannot start again." It becomes his new baseline, a problem that just brews and storms in the distance.

And he just carries on. And keeps going and going and going until one day he realises that 'Oh fuck, I'm not okay' and has about 5 seconds of warning before he straight up collapses, doesn't matter if it's on the bridge, in the madbay, on a planet - he's going down. (Maybe a repeat of Tholian Web where he just straight up faints into Spock's arms? Full whammy, why not)

Maybe it's a high-tension situation getting resolved that does it. The pure relief of it reminds him of how tired he is. How tired he's been for a while. His body sees that momentary rest and goes "More of that, please. And I'm not asking."

And he's so rendered by it that he doesn't grumble about being coddled like he normally would when he wakes up. He knows not to fuck with the medbay staff - they're just as firm as he is on recovery, and that's not by accident - and he knows that Spock and Kirk will be hovering, because they see any problem as something they, too, should shoulder the burden of.

...And because they're some of the most protective people in the damned universe. And that goes for pretty much all the people on board the Enterprise.

In some scenarios, it's just a case of letting his body and mind rest properly. In others, there's a lot more recovery involved than anyone initially expects. Luckily for him, he has a found family who are determined to be there with him at every step. It just takes a couple reminders, every once in a while.

[the-good-luck-anomaly]

WOUND UNDER THE CUT. CW FOR WOUND

[ttarttarus]

not a fan of this art. but. gerry keay ! i’ll have to keep drawing him until i can draw him in my sleep

[front-facing-pokemon]

[annyankers]

I’m once again irrationally mad about how people complain about the magic metaphors in buffy work (the whole dark magic=addiction, wicca = gay shit thing).

Like I cannot express how frustrating it is to see people bitching about how things like Dark Willow “don’t make sense” because “magic/Wicca was a originally metaphor for queerness“ or whatever as tho the first two major episodes in the series where magic was used (1x3 “Witch” and 2x8 “Dark Ages” ) weren’t all about the dark/inappropriate/destructive/abusive use of magic.

People loooooooveeeeee Giles’ past as Ripper and delight over things like “Band Candy” where we see him go Full Ripper but cannot for the life of them seem to remember that we first even LEARNED ABOUT THAT PART OF HIM IN DARK AGES WHERE HE TALKED ABOUT BASICALLY MAGICALLY PARTYING SO HARD HIS FRIEND DIED. THIS IS OUR FIRST MAJOR CHARACTER EPISODE THAT’S GOT MAGIC AS A MAIN FOCAL ELEMENT! THIS IS THE ORIGINAL METAPHOR!

The queerness is still kinda baked in there because of the Ethan Of It All but it’s first and foremost a metaphor about like, all the shit that classically leads to substance abuse and the worst outcomes that can come from it. Willow and Tara are an example of the “good” side of magic ( I’ll say Jenny is also in this section but they do so fucking little w/ her technopagan-ness so). They’re also pretty explicitly said to be “Wiccans” which I also have some issues with because of how Wicca is portrayed/talked about in the show (the Silver RavenWolf energy of it all is so galling). But like, that’s literally a whole fucking different subsection/practice of witchcraft/magic. This is like getting mad at water polo for muddling the metaphor of jet skiing. Like yes, they both are water sports but I think you’ll that they’re not the same fucking one and work completely differently.

Magic is not just 1 set of spells and rituals, it’s a multifaceted, multilayered, multi-pathed thing. With Giles we see how it can go Very Wrong and with Willow and Tara in S4-5 we see how it can go Very Right (and how it can be used to help get the Gay in the show around the Fox Censors). Willow increasingly having issues with magic/substance abuse is NOT a mixed metaphor/bad writing/ruining the gay metaphor and implying gays are bad. It’s USING THE OTHER ALREADY ESTABLISHED MAGIC METAPHOR AS PART OF HER CHARACTER ARC. WILLOW CAN BE QUEER AND ALSO HAVE A SUBSTANCE ABUSE ISSUE! GILES ARGUABLY DID IT FIRST ANYWAY (again, the Ethan Of It All)!

Willow has ALWAYS been insecure, a lil bit of a control freak, someone who wants to be HER REAL SELF and also someone TOTALLY DIFFERENT. Like she wants to be Willow but only if it’s a Willow who’s better/cooler/stronger/prettier etc. Someone who’s not the “pathetic loser” she still sees herself as even in season 6 and hasn’t totally shaken in season 7. These desires both to feel more In Control/Better and Not Yourself are classic reasons people will turn to substance abuse. For Willow is it MUCH easier to do a wizard spell to “fix” a problem than it is to like, fucking confront her issues of self-loathing and self-worth and like.... go to therapy. And that’s what gets her in trouble just like it has for so many others before her. Like in many ways Dark/Addict Willow is like seeing Giles’ Ripper Era live and on screen plus maybe a lil bit on steroids.

Magic can be used as part of more than 1 metaphor and the substance abuse metaphor came first. Stop pretending like it never existed in the show until season 6.

[highspeedinterconnect]

this week has been fucking awful I just wanna lay down somewhere quiet w my gf and cats. holy shit

[caspertheconfused]

"skibidi toilet is unintelligible nonsense" yeah no shit dude, it's the same unintelligible nonsense we would've loved as kids. We liked Nyan cat and we said yeet and called people thots and we fucking dabbed. Don't hate just cuz you don't have the skibidi rizz in Ohio.

[sapphire-weapon]

Leon getting into a relationship with Ashley would be one of the greatest things in the world to ever happen to him if he took up her offer.

She is the ray of sunlight that cuts through his dark nights, she's salvation for a damned man, and someone who is careful and attentive to his sensitive heart.

I honestly feel that Ashley is the only one who could give him the clearest cut path to getting back to himself. To where he can leave himself unarmed and drop his defenses, and be okay with that again.

Capcom has a golden opportunity to make this happen if they make good on Ashley's interest in becoming an agent, herself, wanting to be Leon's partner.

Imagine how bright a future Leon would have if he allowed himself to be happy with someone who's all in it for him.

I agree with you 100% until the agent part.

I don't think Ashley will become an agent, and I don't think she should, either. Even ignoring the inherent tragedy that exists when a non-violent person turns to violence, if she heads down that road, at some point, the truth about Leon is going to come out -- and once she finds out that he's doing this all against his will, she won't want anything to do with it.

If anything, I see her being stricken by Sherry's story and the tragedy of the found family that never was, and I see Ashley turning to civil service, instead. It might be too late to reunite Sherry and Leon in a meaningful way, but she can work towards making sure that situation never happens again.

But I also don't think that she was serious about wanting to become an agent in the first place. I think she was just spitballing ideas for ways that she and Leon can continue a relationship once this mission is over. And when he's less than enthused with -- and even kind of bothered by -- her suggestion, she lets it drop immediately without a fight with a "you're no fun."

What I do actually think could happen is that, at some point in the probably near future after President Graham resigns, Ashley reaches out to Leon in an attempt to join the fight against bioterrorism -- and he'd probably set her up to meet with Claire. Even though Claire and Leon are traveling down different paths in this fight, and sometimes their objectives clash with one another (see: the ending of Infinite Darkness), he recognizes the work that she's doing as being vital -- and, most importantly, it's non-violent work (though, Claire, being a Redfield, puts herself in dangerous situations anyway but that's beside the point lmao).

Of course, this is all just theoretical "what-ifs" assuming that the remakes are a completely new timeline and will do something different from the storyline of OG canon -- which, they won't, because they're just remakes and not a separate series, and Capcom is still building onto the OG story. We know, of course, that Ashley just falls away from the story and out of Leon's life, and that's the end of it. And it'd be weird to bring her back into the story out of nowhere after being completely absent from it for 11 years canonically (Death Island takes places in 2015). She's not Rebecca Chambers or Barry Burton; she's not a main character that they'd be willing to bring back suddenly after a long absence. (We'll see Billy Coen show up again before Ashley Graham makes another appearance.) So we'll very likely never see her again, and none of this matters anyway. But it's still fun to think about.

I do think that you can make a case for a direct correlation between Ashley disappearing from Leon's life and his gradual descent into a bottle of Jack Daniels, though. Everyone in the RE universe is so wrapped up in their own bullshit that they don't take the time to check in with each other the way they probably should. The only two people who stay close to each other and take care of one another are Chris and Jill, and that's because of the partnership they'd already had before everything went to shit.

But let's take a look at Leon's "partners" throughout the years: Ada, Hunnigan, Luis, Krauser, Ashley, and Helena. Luis and Krauser are self-explanatory lmao you can't be in someone's life if you're dead (and also fucking insane, in Krauser's case). Helena and Leon work in two separate branches of federal law enforcement, so their partnership is over after RE6 ends. Leon and Hunnigan seem to have a relationship that's so professional that I'd be willing to bet they've only met in person a handful of times. Ada is... Ada. That's a whole fuckin can of worms we won't go into as much as I'd like to go off on a rant about how Damnation confirming that he fucked her at some point prior to that movie is the most egregious act of self-harm he ever engaged in and absolutely sped up his downward spiral into full-blown alcoholism.

And then there's Ashley. The only person on this list who could have theoretically stayed in Leon's life after their ordeal together, because there really is nothing tangible actually keeping them apart, but... doesn't. And there is absolutely nothing in her character that indicates that she was the one who pulled away from him. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that she fought like hell to try to stay in his life. But he pushed her away. And, because it's Leon, he probably didn't do it maliciously; it was probably done out of a sense of professionalism paired with an unconscious self-destructive reaction tendency born from a lifetime of trauma.

But, even in OG? Leon's interactions with Ashley are the most "normal" he seems to feel and act after RE2. After RE4, he's never that warm, playful, or expressive again. Leon becomes more and more emotionally closed off until, eventually, Chris Redfield is screaming at his drunk ass in an empty bar in the middle of the day because he's too hammered to properly follow a conversation, and the only emotions he ever shows outwardly anymore are frustration and sorrow.

Ashley was an anchor to reality for him. She was arguably the first and only one since Sherry to make him feel like he was actually a person and not just a sophisticated weapon in the US's arsenal to be pulled out and used when necessary until broken.

And that probably scared the shit out of him. For multiple reasons. So he pushed her away, and that was the end of that. (It was an unfortunate side effect from the dramatic change he underwent between RE2 and RE4.)

But imagine a version of events where he didn't do that -- where he was brave enough to be vulnerable enough to actually keep her in his life. Do you really think he still would've developed a drinking habit that eventually turned into a full-blown problem? Because I don't. Sometimes, all it takes is just that one person -- that one person who loves you, that one person who inspires you to keep going. And Ashley believed in him more than anyone. He would've kept his head above water for her sake, and he'd have been better off for it.

I honestly believe, especially after RE4make, that Ashley was/could've been the love of Leon's life, but he was just too fucking scared and up his own asshole in his misery to even think to give it a chance. She brings out the best in him in ways that literally no one else does in the entire rest of the series. And they have a relationship unlike any other that Leon has with anyone else -- it's one that was built on a foundation of explicit trust and only grew from there.

Leon and Ashley trust each other on the same level that Chris and Jill do. Maybe even more. They had to, in order to make it out of Spain that unnamed European country alive. And, at no point ever, is that trust ever tarnished, damaged, or betrayed. To even just call them "partners" feels like an understatement. In remake, by the end of the game, they're two parts of the same machine working in tandem towards the same goal.

He would've kept lifting her up, and she would've kept him honest if they'd stayed in contact after RE4. And, having her to come home to, he would've been able to breathe a little easier between missions. The weight wouldn't feel as crushing. She'd be a constant reminder that he wasn't a complete failure, and that there are still things in this world worth fighting for. There was a potential for happiness there that he threw away, because he simply couldn't see it at the time.

Because, here's the thing. By the time of Vendetta, Leon has become so beaten down and mired in his own failures that he's started to believe that his only legacy is death. But that's not true. Ashley is his legacy. Everything she does, and everything she is, and every act that she performs to make the world a better place (and you gotta believe she's actively doing her part), is only possible because of him. And he loses sight of that, the same way he lost sight of it with Sherry (do nOT GET ME STARTED ON HIM FUCKING ADMITTING HE HADN'T TALKED TO HER IN AT LEAST 3 YEARS BY THE START OF RE6 ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME LEON).

And, don't get me wrong. I get why he did it. I understand why he wanted to pull away from Ashley, especially right after returning home -- but to not go back to her -- to purposefully make the conscious decision to keep her out of his life? Is to also purposefully leave the "What're you, my mother?"/"I knew you'd be fine if you landed on your butt" part of him behind.

I've long since said that Leon never actually truly escaped Raccoon City -- that some part of him did bleed to death in the sewers after being shot and was left there forever. And I think that's true for his relationship with Ashley, too. Cutting her out of his life also forced him to cut a piece of himself off in order to create that break, and she's still carrying it with her.

And if he'd just pick up the phone and fucking call her, she might bring that little piece of him back with her. And maybe, for the first time in a long time, he'd remember how to take a moment and breathe and laugh at some dumb bullshit, and it'd allow him to see a world and a life outside of the constant horror show of bioterrorism. Maybe he'd remember what it was like to actually feel sexy, and maybe he'd start to feel like a person again. And maybe -- just maybe -- he'd finally see that "home" isn't the country that he slavishly (literally) serves to thanklessly protect -- but that it's a person, and her name is Ashley Graham.

[inhumanliquid]

God, people are still putting "not liking rap is racist" on my dash.

It's only racist the way not liking Cavetown is transphobic. Ie; it isn't, there's other music made by the marginalized group you're trying to defend.