#and didn't make this awkward

[lazylittledragon]

!! QUICK PSA FOR TESTOSTERONE TAKERS !!

warning this is a bit gross so i'll put the photos under the cut but i think it's important because nobody told me about this before i started T

if you're taking testogel/any other T that you put on your skin, please for the love of god moisturise the skin you put it on

gel REALLY dries out your skin and as someone with dry skin anyway it caused my skin to flake and scab and break out more which has left a lot of scarring on my back/chest/shoulders

(yes, T causes acne anyway, but for me personally my skin didn't get that much worse after i started and it's improved since i've been moisturising more so that was the problem for me)

obviously there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with having acne or acne scarring or anything like that (it just makes me a bit insecure and means i have to put off getting tattoos there until it gets better), i just wish i'd started taking care of it earlier

also i would Never want to scare anyone off HRT if they want it because it's been a wonderful magical thing for me but there are some uncomfortable aspects of it and this is just one that i didn't know about

[maria-tries]

battle favours the fearless ⚔️

[starrysharks]

evilution

[royalarchivist]

Pac: I wish I had a really nice background story for my- why I'm here. But you know, Felps just crashed the ship and I'm stuck! Fit: You've got an interesting history though, Pac! I mean, look at you escaping that prison! Like, that was not easy for you to do. [...] You've told me lots of stories about yourself and Mike's adventures. You've got a very interesting backstory. Pac: Thank you Fit, thank you. I'm glad to hear that you think it's cool. Fit: I mean– the cannibalism part, that sucks, but it is– It's cool! It's cool.

People keep wondering when Pac's going to tell Fit how he lost his leg, but during their date last week, Fit implied that their characters already had this discussion! Although this could've been an OOC part of their conversation, they've referenced this specific part of Pac's lore in past streams (this is just the most explicit example we've had so far).

[ Full Subtitle Transcript ↓ ]

–

Pac: I wish I had a really nice- um, background story - background story for my- why I'm here. But you know, Felps just crashed the ship and I'm stuck!

Fit: [Chuckles] Well no- you've got an interesting history though, Pac! I mean, look at you escaping that prison! Like, that was not easy for you to do.

Pac: ...No, yeah, you're right.

Fit: You know, and you've been- you have- you've told me lots of stories about yourself and Mike's adventures, like– You've got a very interesting backstory.

Pac: Thank you Fit, thank you. I'm glad to hear that you think it's cool.

Fit: I mean, I mean– the cannibalism part, I mean, that sucks, yeah, but it is– It's cool! It's cool.

Pac: Yeah, right? Yeah- that's- that's not a good part, right? Yeah, I- ugh, yeah, it's a– [He takes a deep breath] Yeah. It's ok.

Fit: Y-yeah, yeah...

Pac: It's ok.

[petitesmafia]

do u guys think Chuuya visits cat cafes on his days off sometimes. i'm just picturing him locking eyes with Fukuzawa through the window and both of them come to the silent agreement that they will never speak of this moment ever

Chuuya (uncomfortable with awkward silence): ...the coffee is really good here. Fukuzawa: ...i agree.

[fighting-naturalist]

Many giggles behind the scenes of season 7 (I think)

(apologies for gif quality, source material apparently filmed with a brick 😂)

[essektheylyss]

Actually one of the funniest things in the episode is that if you watch the table's reactions, Ashley is both the first one to figure out who is coming in Caleb's place, immediately after Keyleth says it, and she also was so instantly certain of his voice. He had barely gotten through a sentence before she reacted. Like, look, I was not ready to actually call the shot until, "I have not been there in some time," and even then I hedged somewhat, and I know Essek's voice pretty damn well. Ashley was fucking ON IT.

[the-badger-mole]

"he'd be shockingly smooth"??? We saw him with Mai, he wasn't smooth. 🫤

I think basing that opinion on his relationship with Mai is selling him short. That relationship was bad because Mai didn't actually like him. She also didn't appreciate or reciprocate his small romantic gestures. That seashell thing? Absolute gold, and something that just came natuarally. But because Mai had a bug up her nose it went over like a lead balloon. That wasn't his fault. Like I said, Zuko in a relationship where his partner actually likes him would be smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy. I'm basing that on how well his date with Jin ended once he got out of his own head. Imagine if they'd been able to go out a couple more times. Jin would've melted over that lil' seashell. And that's exactly why I'm baffled by the amount of people who seem to think canon Maiko was the height of romance. She didn't seem to like the boy, and he felt it. And he acted accordingly. He was dating someone just like his father. Of course he was weird and awkward.

[canisalbus]

I’m an amateur poet and I poem I wrote reminded me suspiciously of Machete and Vasco

“You smile with all the radiance of the sun

I smile with a slight curl of my lip

Could you love that

Could you love me”

Maybe Machete possessed me while writing it

.

[skellydun]

just had the most unsatisfying bagel for breakfast so i guess the world wants me to die

[blue-rose-soul]

(Regarding your AU) If Charlie were to find out, how do you think she would react?

There's definitely a LOT of big feelings there. Some positive, some not so much. Charlie's an emotional person so I think she'd definitely have a pretty big reaction.

There is an element of betrayal, sadly. Lucifer's been so distant for so long, finding out that he actually cheated on her mom (even if while drunk and high out of his mind) is definitely a blow. She does have some sympathy, especially seeing how torn up Lucifer is over it, but she can't help being hurt but the revelation. It takes a fair amount of time for them to reconcile over this. Charlie's still more than slightly worried about what Lilith's reaction will be.

And on the other hand: HOLY SHIT SHE HAS A LITTLE BROTHER!

Alastor doesn't really immediately start acting differently towards Charlie when the truth comes out, but Charlie definitely starts acting differently towards him. A lot more openly affectionate, wanting to share feelings and make up for lost time. Alastor feels like he should be glad for this development; Charlie's lowering her guard over some imagined familial bond. This will make gaining her trust and influencing her so much easier.

BUT!

It's deeply uncomfortable when the only family he's ever really had is his maman (and possibly some of her relatives). Charlie's trying to be better about respecting people's boundaries, but she's enthralled by the idea of having a younger sibling, even if that sibling is Alastor. And she thinks that maybe this could be her way in. The path by which she's going to redeem the Radio Demon. She also starts recontextualizing a lot of his trollish behavior as 'little sibling energy' and Alastor doesn't care for that at all.

[ingravinoveritas]

I just had this video sent to me of Michael and Anna on the red carpet at the Oliviers last weekend (originally posted by Red Carpet TV on Twitter). A lot going on here for sure, but I will leave it for folks to discuss in the comments...

[possamble]

What are your headcanons about Marcille's mom if you have any? It's interesting that what drew Donato to her was cause she lived the history he studied, or that was said somewhere at least. She must've had an interesting life.

so this was going to be just a normal answer but then I realized I have a Lot of Things To Say. so here goes, a compilation of what we know for a fact from the canon, what I've extrapolated from the visual cues and details, and my theories based on all of that.

Things we know for a fact about Marcille's mother because they were explicitly stated in the manga and supplemental materials:

She was a court mage for a Tall-man kingdom at the southern part of the Northern Continent

Donato, a court historian, fell in love with her because she had lived through the history he was studying, and he courted her for 17 years (age 15 to 32) before getting married

She was a cheerful person who rarely showed extreme emotion and took things as they came

She always cooked a huge meal for Marcille on her birthdays

She remarried a gnome after Donato's death and a short distance away from Marcille's childhood home

Pipi, Marcille's pet bird, was actually older than Marcille and originally belonged to her mother (bird died at 62)

She was extremely heartbroken when Donato died and ultimately ended up instilling a deep fear of mortality in Marcille with her words

the only time she showed extreme emotion in front of her family was when Donato could no longer eat his favourite dish near the end of his life.

She scolded Marcille for being cruel to ants (implying she can have a stern side when needed)

Things that are explicitly shown but mostly through visual cues

She has a very distinctive style of dress always involving a ribbon choker (mirroring Marcille's habit of always wearing a matching choker with any of her outfits that don't cover her neck)

She was almost stereotypically good at housekeeping and traditionally "wifely" things (very frequently depicted wearing an apron or doing some domestic chore when not at work, seems to have been an avid cook).

She knits? (also, note the affectionate smile as she's looking at Donato and Marcille reading a book together in the full panel)

She was as excited for Marcille's milestones as Donato was.

She didn't tell Marcille much about elven food

(there are a couple things that this panel in particular implies:

She lived a good deal of her life (if not being born and raised) in a mainly elven country in the West, implied by her knowing enough of an elven region's cuisine to prefer Tall-man food over it

seems to have a pretty carefree and casual demeanour overall, if this is how she replied to Marcille asking her about it (sounds like she never gave her culinary preferences that much thought to begin with)

slightly related to number 2, it seems like she and Marcille had a fairly casual parent-child dynamic (especially in comparison to the Toudens' memory of their father)

(local elf tastes Italian food once and never goes back))

However, she seems a lot more... serious in most of the other times we see her? Almost like the very stereotypical archetype of a graceful elf.

Subsequent conclusions about her personality:

Usually pretty carefree and cheerful at home, has been a loving and attentive parent throughout Marcille's childhood (while not being so doting that she didn't discipline Marcille).

Slightly more conjectural theories on her personality:

Had a much more graceful and professional personality at work, which would explain the more serious portraits we see of her.

Given that both she and Donato had positions at the royal court, it seems a little odd that she'd go out of her way to do all the housework herself, so maybe she just enjoyed doing it?

Now taping all the evidence together and toeing the line between analysis and fanfiction:

It's clear that she loved Donato very much and was utterly devastated by losing him. But there's one thing that really stuck out to me in what little we see of her:

Doesn't she seem... angry? The way she's gritting her teeth, clutching the tablecloth, and how this is the first and only time we see her eyes opened that wide. In the following panel, you see her being quiet and dejected after her initial outburst. She's still crying very intensely, but her brows are furrowed, and she's not really responding to Donato's affection in her body language.

We're not told the details of how she felt about losing Donato other than that it upset her. But this, to me, implies that she was angry and resented that he was aging, that the end of his life was approaching. An "it's not fair" type of preemptive grief. And if this was the first and last time she cried like this in front of her family, she was either very good at coping in private... or very bad at letting herself feel unpleasant emotions until they become unavoidable and end up overwhelming her.

It's not too remarkable a detail on the surface. It's even reminiscent of what the audience has seen of Marcille. But... when it comes to the big picture, you'd think an elf who voluntarily chose to marry a tall-man and have a half-elf child would have been better prepared for this.

It kind of recontextualizes her cheerfulness to me.

"I'm sure everything's gonna be okay!" (or some variation thereof, depending on what translation you have).

And this is stated to contrast her extreme grief when finally confronting Donato's failing body and eventual death. But I'm wondering if... maybe this optimism was why she was so upset. What if she went into all of it thinking "everything's gonna be okay"? What if she was a little young by elven standards, and just followed her heart thinking that her own resilience would get her through anything?

Of course, only to get completely overwhelmed when she actually loses Donato. She turns into a completely different person. And that's heartbreaking on its own-- but what the audience sees is the effect it had on Marcille. Can you imagine being her, watching your invincible and upbeat mother suddenly lose all the light in her eyes in one go?

I've already made a huge post about how I think Marcille models her "work persona" off her mother, but another thing that stuck with me as I was looking for more details in the manga was this:

copy pasting from the other post i made about it lmao it's like... the second she resigns herself to lifelong pain and terror, there's another portrait of her mother facing her like this. with their heads bowed, in mirrored body language of resignation and despair and sorrow. Except it's posed like Marcille is still looking at her mother but her mother is looking away.

It took me a second to realize, but I think that it's a visual metaphor for the fact that Marcille's mother was the only long-lived role model she had-- and she failed to model healthy grief for her daughter. I don't say this as an accusation or to disparage her as a character, but just as a matter of fact. In her, Marcille was seeing herself older and losing a short-lived spouse or loved one of her own, and all she saw was hopelessness.

But her mother didn't mean to instill hopelessness and terror in her. She wasn't really thinking of how it would truly affect Marcille at all (at least, that's how I'm interpreting her looking down and away from Marcille in the metaphor), she was just sad. And she, in her own way, was trying to protect her daughter and help her prepare for future losses.

What she meant was "loss is inevitable, and you have to learn how to be in pain but live on anyway." What Marcille heard was "loss is inevitable, and you will be scared and hurt for the rest of your life."

Again. Marcille's mother doesn't feature explicitly in the story the way her father does -- but in so many ways, her shadow, her silhouette, her reflection is always hanging over Marcille.

All that to say... headcanon-wise (everything from here on is 100% without evidence lmao), I'd like to think that she matured and realized that she failed Marcille. I imagine her being regretful about it, wanting a chance to fix it but never finding a way to insert herself back into Marcille's life when Marcille is so so so busy becoming the most accomplished mage possible. I imagine her being herself again, now, so many years after her loss and after remarrying -- but with her cheerfulness tempered with a lot more wisdom and the pain of having gone through loss like that. I think the second Marcille actually tells her what happened in the dungeon, she'd want to go running to her daughter again -- if Marcille tells her the full truth instead of just being embarrassed she let things get that far. (oh, the tragedy of her wanting to be more like her mother and an accomplished adult who doesn't need to be babied... being embarrassed to actually tell her mother how much she fucked up...)

There's also the tension of her having remarried -- I know that there's at least a little bit of resentment that Marcille harbours about that, because she's childish like that at heart even if she makes an effort not to externalize it. I think that her mother would be aware of that, potentially adding to her sense of guilt and apprehension at trying to reappear/intrude on Marcille's life. I honestly don't think Marcille has met her stepfather -- or even considers him a stepfather rather than "mama's new husband" and kind of a total stranger. I think she and her mother actively don't talk about it in their correspondence, like an elephant in the room.

but, ultimately, I think her mother is on her side no matter what. Ancient magic? Dark necromancy? Sure, she'll feel guilty and like she was partially responsible for setting Marcille down such a painful path, but she wouldn't care. that's her daughter!! she would've moved back west and been petitioning for her at the court, buying a house right next to the Canaries barracks and visiting her every day that she wasn't on a mission. And if her husband had opinions on Marcille becoming a "dark arts user," he either gets over it or it's divorce with him. Yes, she might have had her optimism completely humbled by losing Donato like that -- but she's still headstrong and self-assured and she doesn't care what people think of her. It's her way or the highway and she's always going to be in Marcille's corner.

(She also needs a name lol. I went with Juno, just to be cute about "Marcille"s closest real life equivalent being Marcella, which is the female version of Marcellus, which in turn is a diminutive of Marcus, which was derived from Mars. Absolutely in love with Marcille potentially being named after Ares/Mars the fucking god of war btw)

[jayktoralldaylong]

Four ways to become an Avatar:

1. Being chosen by an already existing Avatar: This is how majority of Avatars become Avatars, even Jon went down this path (that's right Mr. Sims, you're not special 😂 - I'm sure he's relieved about that).

2. Becoming an Avatar without connections - This one is harder an often involves a Leitner book. Often involves a search for power. Eventually these Avatars will get connections or meet another Avatar to help them along or they'll die fast.

3. Getting chosen by the Entity - Very very rare. Almost never happens. Entities are worse at communication than your toxic Ex.

4. Getting born FOR an Entity - The rarest one. You would think getting born the personified version of an Entity would come with lots of benefits (and it often does because these people are often more powerful than any other Avatar - Agnes and Peter), yet for some reason I think these guys are worst Avatars in general. 😭💀 It's not like they're bad at their job, they are very good at burning and making people lonely, but that's also the only thing they know how to do. 😭😭 Outside of their field they are lost (Agnes even had an identity crisis when she couldn't burn things anymore). I don't know how to explain it but they're really pathetic at manipulation as well. 😭🤣💔 They also seem to have an identity crisis when they get into complicated situationships.

TMA spoilers in the tags.

[lloydfrontera]

tfw when you write an entire novel with two protagonists that spent the entire plot getting closer to each other, becoming best friends and eventually both of them deciding they would rather die than allow the other to not live a long, fulfilling life, their friendship carrying most of the emotional weight of the entire plot and the emotional climax being one of them sacrificing his life so the other can live and then the other crossing literal universes to find him, a tearful smile in his face as he confesses how much he missed him. which is the scene you wanted to write and show the most because, again, this is the pay off to the slowburn you've been writing in the entire novel and what everything has been building up to since the very first chapter. and then you end the novel by having them share a smile, finally confident they'll be able to have a happy future.

but you also just gotta have one of them marry offscreen because everyone knows you can't be happy if you're not in a het marriage with kids lmao it's whatever it's okay i'm fiNE-

[napneeders]

his body language is so important to me