#and I mean on both sides

[cryptidtumbleweed]

As Loki season 2 draws near, I am preparing for the ship war shit show that is Sylki vs Lokius 2: Electric Boogaloo

[thatsitso]

Stained glass project I did in school

[egophiliac]

Hello ! I positively adore the running joke of Idia unknowingly finding Lilia to be the coolest guy ever whenever he doesn't know it's him, like when Silver described his father, or obviously with muscle red. I can't say what'd be funnier, Idia finding out his online best friend is actually Lilia, resident spooky hyper fairy; or them both never finding out, and it'd become even more ridiculous as time goes on. How do you think it'll play out ? You're always so on point

(Also, though it makes sense, I'm still devastated bat boy didn't get a ticket for the Halloween skeleton train : ( does anyone mentions him at some point ? Like how he'd have fit right in with all those Halloween town little freaks, and how he'd have impressed them with his spooks and scared techniques; after all he's been every Briar Valley's children worst fear on Halloween for centuries. I'm on the eng server and I didn't wanna spoil myself by watching the whole thing on youtube)

Have a nice day !

you and me both, Idia and Lilia being oblivious online BFFs (+ Idia being incredibly intimidated any time Silver brings up his jock gamer dad) is my favorite running joke/subplot. 🤝 it's SO good, to the point where I also am unsure if I actually want it to ever be resolved or not...maybe, like, as a post-canon stinger or something? everyone's standing around covered in overblot ink, and Idia and Lilia's phones go off at the same time...

(legit I do think this is part of why Idia couldn't be present for Lilia's dream, because for some reason Lilia decided he was going to just. embody his past self online. he probably quotes his own battle strategies or whatever in the middle of boss fights. Idia didn't pick up on the whole "oh how weird that we both live on a super remote island" thing, but he would spend thirty seconds listening to General Lilia describing siege warfare and be like "w-wait")

all that aside, however it does end up happening, I do see Lilia being very blasé and all "oh! cool!" about it. y'know, taking it very much in stride! and Idia...very much not.

(can't tell if tumblr is going to chew this into illegibility or not, this will be a fun surprise ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ)

as for Lilia sadly missing out on Halloweentown shenanigans...he does get one little mention as part of an offhand reference to the light music club, but so far no one has brought up how this basically is just Lost In the Book of Liliatown (Sebek's been too busy yelling about not getting to be in the same group as Malleus). 😔 honestly though, it's probably for the best that he got left out, because he would just settle right in and refuse to ever leave. canon would shatter. we would miss out on all the delightful angst of episode 7 because Lilia is too busy eating poisonous shrubbery inbetween practicing his very best screams, and no one can pull him away from it.

(I can hope for a sequel next year though...)

[camembri]

you wanted zoro to be on whole cake island to fulfil your weird desire to see zoro punish sanji. I wanted zoro on whole cake island because I think he's stupid enough to right place wrong time the plan and accidentally marry Sanji in full view of the whole wedding party in what becomes the most elaborately constructed comedy of errors ever written. we are NOT the same.

[ofswordsandpens]

adding to the "there should have been more genuine tension within the seven" train of thought, it would have been funny if the Argo II, technically being a ship, meant it fell under Percy's power domain and he could control it all at whim, rendering all the carefully crafted controls Leo built useless if Percy felt like being an asshole

[blondeaxolotl]

Hits you all with a surprise flojamidia doodle and it's just Jamil freaking out because he doesn't remember how he got into this situation while Floyd and Idia argue about who has a better FYP

[autumn-may]

terrisas really funny ithink

[crustyfloor]

This parallel this parallel this parallel, it's cute how surprised Sua looks when people are affectionate with her, but I wonder if Ivan ever reminded Sua of her sister at times with the way he treated her, sometimes being reminiscent of how she used to be treated by her sister, and the cruelty was just as familiar(?)

[kristybluebird]

A flash and it's born, a flash and it fades.

A flash and it's born, a flash and it fades.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

At your side [End of Season 2]

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[egophiliac]

WOOO we're finally getting some Ride Kamens story content! ...and it's mostly Leon getting REALLY into being a small business owner! this is (unironically) an excellent sign for the future.

(what do you mean the Agent isn't wearing cat ears 24/7 in every outfit) (can't hear you la la laaaaa)

[vaguely-concerned]

This might be due to the fact that on my first playthrough I ended up creating a Rook more emotionally guarded than any of the companions except Minrathous-route Lucanis and perhaps Neve, so I was primed to look for it, but I never got the sense that the companions don’t care for Rook (the thought never even occurred to me until I saw other people post about it) — to me it seems much more like it’s Rook who keeps the last bit of distance, Rook who pulls away when the companions try to extend their care or worry too directly, who keeps themselves slightly apart. (Rook who is so full of grief they cannot know as grief and thus process that there’s no room inside them to let anything else all the way in, perhaps.) They deflect and flinch back when someone gets too close or approaches them too overtly about their feelings — especially when it brushes up against the theme of grief. They can offer care to all the companions who are grieving, come along to any number of funerals as emotional support, but the moment someone turns that towards them they shut that shit down Immediately, like when Taash almost gives the whole game away with ‘Like you’d know? You act like you haven’t lost anyone!’ and Rook just blandly responds ‘We’re talking about you’ and doesn’t engage. But they can also admit that they struggle with accepting compliments, or knowing what to say, or having confidence in themselves without Varric’s help.

Despite all their determination and even in their most stoic no-nonsense incarnation, Rook is awkward, with the struggles that entails. Someone who is eager and happy to be the helper wherever they can, and helplessly unequipped to know how to be the helpee, as it were. It’s not that the companions don’t return Rook’s attachment to them, there’s MUCH more of a ‘okay so what are the ways you will allow me to be good to you??’ desperation of care vibe behind all their invitations to conversations and hangouts together, to my mind. They bring Rook to their favourite places and share the things they love with them, they ask to spend time together (many times just to have their company, not because they have a problem they need help with! Sometimes the problem arises anyway b/c video game quest narrative of course), they bring them out for some direly needed grass touching, they introduce them to their families. Everyone is clearly getting the sense that Rook does Not want to talk about Varric especially (this is in fact what Harding says in banter, if she’s still alive after the reveal :’( ), but they are absolutely SCRAMBLING to find ways to show that they’re there for them even so. AND from the companions’ perspective, with the situation as they have the means to understand it, accepting that Rook isn’t ready to have that conversation and backing off is also a kind thing to do. (tl;dr: To Me Rook is that weirdly socialized friend who is a great hang once they’re actually there but you have to directly invite them or they don’t quite know how to initiate the contact themselves lol) 

Just as a crushing sense of responsibility for their family is a trait that is built into Hawke no matter how you play them or how you make them respond to that, I feel like Rook — however helpful and earnest, warm, charming, jocular, stoic or straightforward they seem at a surface glance — is always someone who struggles deeply with connecting to themselves and other people. (Emotional Intimacy, the Final Frontier.) As, indeed, is the case with all of the Veilguard companions too! It’s clearly a deliberate theme. These are all lonely people struggling with their sense of identity and belonging in some sort of way. AND having, working on and eventually starting to overcome these difficulties also makes Rook a direct foil for Solas, who doesn’t learn that lesson unless you corner him at the end of the world to force feed him his medicine lmao. They don’t manage to break out of the regret prison under their own steam, it’s because even struggling and grieving they have managed to create mutual bonds with other people who show up for them in turn now — and with all the protective walls of denial around what happened to Varric crumbling and making them less of a stranger to themselves, Rook is finally able to let them. An outcome Solas seemingly didn’t even consider to guard against, because he’s become that deeply entrenched in his loneliness, the utter isolation of the self — he can no longer truly imagine an alternative. (It’s not that he can’t form these bonds, obviously, it’s that he resolutely refuses to value them. Whether it’s because he feels like he doesn’t deserve it or out of a need for control or the martyr complex where he must sacrifice everything he loves on the sacrificial pyre of fixing his mistakes, all of the above and more, the result is the same. Mind!Varric, who I think is mostly Solas speaking, even calls this out directly. So yet again a situation where he has some self awareness about it and it doesn’t help At All haha. Solas falls to the temptation of making people into tools again and again and again, no matter how many times it comes back to bite him in the ass and the eternal solitude it traps him in.) 

And that deep deep loneliness… There but for the grace of… well the theological state of thedas being what it is right now, let’s just go with the grace of Something, Presumably go you as well, Rook. The same capacity/tendency to pull away from connection clearly lives in them as well in some form (again, for whatever reason and with whatever motivations and instincts behind it for any individual Rook). Solas and Rook coming together to create a blood magic paper doll of the mind Varric in response to acute loss and loneliness is one of the most deep , deeply fucked up and invasive acts of intimacy I’ve ever contemplated. I don’t think that’s accidental, there’s something There’s Something Wrong With You (there’s something wrong with you that’s also wrong with me (derogatory)) here that resonates no matter how both parties would hate to hear it. (A fitting legacy for Varric and his wild ‘I made my best friend into a story because it’s the only way I know how to love with this desperation of sincerity’ brain to leave in the narrative, methinks. I feel he’d appreciate it on a craft level, if nothing else.)

If you read through all of Rook’s potential backstories, one of the common threads through all of them, along with a certain maverick ‘I’ll do whatever it takes’ streak, is a sense of profound alienation. They did something or have some sort of quality that made it hard for them to fit in with the group they’re from, causing a conflict that cuts them off from parts of their identity as it’s been up until now. All of which also adds to how important Varric is to them — he was clearly able to break/see through some of that and be closer with them, even in the relatively short time they spent together. No matter what else goes to shit, they can trust that a) Varric sees them, b) he genuinely likes them and believes in them not despite who they are, but for it, and c) he’s got their back, we’re in this together kid. And then he is gone, and it takes them the whole game to be able to bring themselves to accept that and know themselves again, be able to let new relationships in fully. The very understandable ‘the last time I let someone in, they got stabbed before my eyes and the world ended’ flinch away, even if they’re not consciously aware that’s what it is. Anyway I love Rook. So much space to play around in here as to WHY they might feel or react like this, even when the framework is more defined.

[zivazivc]

All the brain worms I have about these two.. they're packed full of protein 🥲

infodumping about them under the cut

Back during summer when I made the Ish and Lena post I already came to the decision to dial back Ish's meanness. One psycho monster of a parent and one dead parent he can't resolve his trauma with are more than enough for this poor kid to deal with. I still kept many of Ish's bad traits, like his thin patience/anger problem and his lacking gentleness, but he's someone who's actually trying to be a dad to Les and Hed.

He does develop a close bond with Hedley and quickly starts to consider him as his own kid, but Leslie is so messed up by the time they get to him that he and Ish never manage to form the same connection.

Les's nervous behavior and constant flinching around Ish (when the guy doesn't do anything more than maybe move to quickly or scrape the chair against the floor too loudly), plus Les's tendency to lie to avoid trouble all really put Ish off at the start.

Leslie never talks to anyone about his life in the Rock Kingdom, he keeps it all to himself, and moments such as the drawings above are rare instances when he lets some of his thoughts spill. Ish knows there's something wrong with the kid but statements like that still catch him off guard and shake him to the core. It takes him a while to fully realize that Les's issues aren't going to just go away with time and that the kid needs help. But by then Les's self-hatred (accompanied by the fact that he's regularly overstimulated from living in the city) reaches a point where he actively starts acting out and causing trouble, and he stops showing interest in trying to mend the bond, instead he subconsciously starts looking for ways to get his dad to hate him (the way he hates himself). :(

I've talked about this to Sapphire a few weeks back: If Les and Floyd were the same age and they met as teenagers while Les was still living in Vibe City, they would most likely not be able to stand each other. Les is extremely miserable and unlikable during his teenage years. His and Ish's relationship only gets more strained over that period until one fight finally results in Ish kicking him out.

The next decade or so they spend with practically no contact safe for Hed who regularly keeps in touch with their dad via letters.

It's only after Les and Floyd make a deal to both go to therapy ("I'll go if you go"), and Hed starts a family, that Les finally decides to take a step in trying to reconnect with their dad. The cause is neither of them wanting to see Hed in a situation where he has to choose which one to invite to family gatherings, but the reason is that they both want to finally put their hurt behind them and forgive each other.

[elderwisp]

◁ || ▷

[ light rattling ]

Frances: The hell?

Frances: Christ. Atlas. Atlas! Wake up!

Atlas: Hmm? Oh! Hello you. 

Frances: Found you.

Atlas: Good job but you never really needed me to tell you that. 

Frances: Are you sober? 

Atlas: Definitely coming down, that’s for sure. 

Atlas: [ rustling ]

Frances: You decent?

Atlas: [ snorts ] Sure. What? Did you want some? Should have told me sooner since I’m empty. 

Frances: You promised me this would stop. That was our deal.

Atlas: Promises are such a big commitment for something with such little return. I need something consistent, something I know. 

Frances: Did he really mess you up that badly?

Atlas: Don’t.

Frances: Because everything changed when he came into our lives.

Atlas: Stop.

Frances: You can’t even acknowledge him because you know it’s true.

Atlas: Stop it.

Frances: ROWAN! His name was Rowan and he ruined everything!

Atlas: Ruined everything?! Hah… Hahaha! No, no you’re wrong-

Frances: You’re so delusional you can’t even see it. Of course you can't, how could you?

Atlas: Get out. 

Frances: I am trying to help you!

Atlas: I said get out-

She grabs him by the shoulders

Frances: Were we not enough? Was I never enough? I’ve been here the entire time! All he ever did was leave you! I... I shouldn’t have said that. 

Atlas: [ voice breaks ] oh god…

Frances: Hey. No, no. I’m sorry. 

Atlas: [ whispers ] He didn’t ruin me, he only set me free. 

Frances: This is the price of freedom?

Atlas: No, this is the price of a heartbreak. This part is my fault. 

Frances: You can’t keep blaming yourself. 

Atlas: What makes you think I was in the right?

Frances: Because you’re my brother. I know you.

Atlas: [ small huff ] And you should know you can’t change a thing. 

Frances: I can. You’re going to get better. You have to. 

Atlas: How naive do you have to be to believe it’s a choice? I-

Frances: Are you ready to lose it all?

Atlas: … Say what you came here to say, Frances.

Frances: I don’t want this to be the rest of our lives. This has to be the last time. It needs to. [ pauses ] It needs to be or else I’m done. 

?: [ hurried knocking ]

Frances: You expecting someone?

Atlas: Trouble.

Frances: What?

?: [ banging ] I know you’re in there Atlas! Open the fucking door!

Frances: What did you do?

Atlas: You should… Stay here. Don’t come out until I say so.

[lukazade]

naptime ☺️

[erinwantstowrite]

if you want people to get into the canon comics and lead everyone away from fanon misinterpretation (which is a losing battle because there will ALWAYS be this) then why not be helpful instead of being a dick about it 🤨

the comics are hard to get into because it's hard to know where to start, and there's so much content that people are able to fill themselves in by reading fanfic or watching something on tiktok or seeing posts about it on here. perhaps instead of telling people they're stupid for not realizing your favorite character is being mishandled by others, you could write up a list of your favorite comics and/or how, if you could read them for the first time again, you would order your favorite comics to get the best reading experience. and also write your own fanfiction and draw your own fanart or make a passionate post, answer questions politely