the truth is that bells hells can talk all they want about being on the same page and sacrificing themselves for this greater cause but they haven't even figured out that they're all part of this cause for different reasons. and orym choosing to go on this mission because he lost his family to these people and he believes this group is the only one who can help save the world and his leader is asking him to is very different from imogen choosing to go on this mission because she eventually realized she could never, ever hope to outrun something that has been haunting and chasing her her entire life.
orym is asking for her to be ready to face the worst case scenario head-on because this is war, but for orym the worst case scenario is failure. for imogen the worst case scenario is far beyond that – it's giving up her soul to this entity and becoming complicit if not an active participant in the methodical destruction of the world. and it's betraying the warnings her mother has given her for years, and it's living but completely losing herself in the process, all in an attempt to protect a world that has been nothing but cruel to her and a pantheon of gods that has never loved her.
and how would she face the fact that she's spent so much time and energy trying to convince herself that her mother can't be saved and her mother is the enemy, with this external pressure from both the party and the most powerful people in the world that she has to be ready to kill her? what do you do when you've forced yourself to hate your own mother and end up becoming just like her anyway? and how can you possibly risk giving in when giving in would mean that you hated your mother for nothing?
and ashton says let's not pretend this isn't going to happen one way or another. when imogen has been desperately clinging to the hope that she can resist this and that she has a future, a life after this where she can live in a cottage with the love of her life and she can have peace. when imogen has believed with her whole being that losing laudna to delilah isn't an inevitability, and all she wants is the rest of the party to do the same for her and predathos, and they just won't. and then wonder why she is so terrified of facing predathos when he tempts her with the rarest, simplest pleasures of belonging, of being understood, of being believed in.
Thinking of Nova!Gideon again… Our Gideon training so hard because she knows that it’s her only way out of the Ninth but Nova!Gideon has to be the best necromancer ever because if she isn’t she’d probably be killed. Her skill is the only thing that’s kept her alive and she can see exactly what they’ve done to Harrow, the daughter they killed 200 children for, because of her lack of said skill.
She’s going to be the leader of these people and she’s not one of them. Her eyes are the wrong color, her hair is bright, she probably stands taller and she is more muscular than anyone else. None of the holy relics of the Ninth are connected to her and the only thing on that planet that’s a part of her are her unknown mother’s bones.
You gotta love that people are so into Shadow Milk already despite him barely being seen yet
Like he only has a general backstory which he shares with the rest of the Beasts, and then a couple lines at the very end of the episode. We do not know this man and he already has a devoted following
Personally I’m convinced it’s because of the jester theme
I’ve been working on some original stuff and I felt comfy sharing this! I wanted to do some illustrations for me and Cheri’s characters for our story Space Rhapsody. This one was heavily inspired by Jean Giraud’s work from the 70s which is fitting cuz the story takes place in future 70-80s.
Also featuring Nova’s new look — yet another character of mine that switches back and forth between femme and masc eeheehee
remember when laura bailey said "i'm so excited to depict a totally normal friendship in my dnd game" and then when she made her character playlist, the song she chose for that relationship had the line "hold me still, bury my heart next to yours"
Think i've seen some posts wondering as to why Barney's (and most other ex-black mesa employees') reactions are somewhat nonchalant when Gordon finally pops up, but I think it's important to note that this is a world where the Combine repeatedly shuffles people from country to country several times a year, possibly as an attempt to prevent an organized resistance from ever forming. And all things considered, it's a wonder a resistance movement did form. It'd require either all members eventually getting transferred to City 17 and going off the radar, or the more likely option - some of them had to make the trek toward the city by themselves (which, iirc, is exactly what happened with Kleiner, with Eli losing his leg to a bullsquid while assisting him). I'd imagine because of that, new Black Mesa survivors popping up in order to join the movement has become common enough that it's not that big a surprise anymore.
Also I think the last thing the person who's gone through the most hellish experience out of all of the Black Mesa survivors would want is for everyone to immediately start freaking the fuck out at the moment of their arrival. Idk. I think all of them silently agreeing to give Gordon a warm and calm welcome makes a lot of sense.
This just gave me the mental image of Barney taking off his mask and immediately breaking down crying instead of talking about the beer and nevermind that would've been GOLD it wouild've been so fucking funny