#and he's allowed to grow

[humanityinahandbag]

Why do I feel as if Wayne Munson would be supremely disappointed with Eddie if he found out that Eddie refused to go see Lucas play.

The move was a dickish one. Hugely dickish. To not postpone Hellfire. To not support a friend. Then again, Steve had to go through his own transformation, from vapid and cruel to supportive and kind. His own growth didn't come without aches and pains though.

So it stands to reason that Eddie's should be just as achey as Steve's.

Steve would be over for dinner one night, he and Wayne talking about game stats that Eddie barely understood, when Steve suddenly straightens and says, "it's a shame you didn't go to see Lucas play. He really showed up the rest of the team!"

Wayne turns. "Lucas? One of your friends?"

Steve stabbed at a noodle. "Oh yeah. Sweet kid."

"Shame," Wayne agreed. "What happened there? You sick or something?"

"Hm?" Eddie glanced up before casually dropping the bombshell. "No. We had a campaign." And that should have been that.

But no.

Instead, there was silence.

Eddie looked back up, suddenly very much pinned by his Uncle's stare.

Part of the ache of Eddie's growth is in the form of Wayne Munson's disappointed eyebrow as he stares down his flustered and shame faced nephew.

Wayne has never yelled. He's never raised a voice or a hand. But god if it doesn't hurt something terrible when he shakes his head and says, "I know I raised you to be a better friend than that."

And something in Eddie cries out softly, please let me try and do better.

The next day, Eddie is brought to Lucas' house, pink cheeked and regretful, basketball under his arm. Steve's car was in the driveway, its owner in question leaning against the hood, watching with a kid of understanding pride. "My, uh. My Uncle Wayne- my dad. He uh. Talked to me. And I think I might have been kind of a shitty friend? So I thought. Yunno. Since I didn't see you play?" And he raises the ball in his hands, extending it almost shyly out towards Lucas. "Steve says you're really talented. You want to show me some of your moves?"

Eddie's growth won't be easy. He's not perfect. He's not innocent. He's a kid who needs to learn that his actions have hurt people, even if those actions have been the creation of years of bullying and putting up walls.

Steve, who went through his own transformation and understands that it isn't easy to face past mistakes, couldn't be more honored to watch from the stands. Beaming when Lucas gets Eddie to follow along with a few simple drills. Looking just as happy as Eddie must feel when Lucas accepts the hug Eddie tentatively offers with a quiet murmur of, "Thanks. This means so much."

Later that night, Eddie will return home a little sweaty, hair tied high on his head. He'll stand before his Uncle as if he towered over Eddie and not the other way around. "I'm going to try and do better," he says.

And Wayne nods and pulls him in. "There's the Eddie I raised," he says. "Now show me what Sinclair taught you. Might come in handy when you watch the game with me and your boy."

[critter-wizard]

you are all I have, you are the eyes that see, the air that breathes, how can I worship anything else?

[hooned]

riki when he saw a child engene in the crowd ⭐

[tree-obsession]

I AM NOT OKAY DEAR GOD IT'S BEEN HOURS AND I AM STILL WEEPING

his gentle face??? the soft, delicate, kind voice and his eyes visibly softening even more and the real, genuine little smile as he blesses his younger self with his sister's voice in the background.

hoyo why do you hurt us like this it's going to consume my thoughts for DAYS now

[thestuffedalligator]

I had a very silly thought.

Fairy tale villains for Little Webbed Riding Hood, my Spider-Verse OC. The Unicorn, The Vulture, and Doc Locks.

[boylikeanangel]

ok honestly real talk for a sec, laszlo mentioning many times throughout the show that his parents sucked and his life was miserable before he met nadja particularly his childhood, and now being faced with the responsibility of being a parent and selfishly taking it on as a personal challenge to make "the most interesting child" whilst not stopping to think about what colin wants to do/be, and then having to learn and accept that this child is his own person and the job of a parent is not to shape a child into what they believe they should be but to love and support a child unconditional of what they become is actually such a beautiful and poignant arc for him and this episode ending with the two of them walking home hand in hand as a parent and child who just enjoy each other's company and love each other no matter what has honestly affected me a lot more than I'm willing to admit to actually

[razberrypuck]

oough thinking about. gillion's first curse nightmare.

imagine waking up in the childhood home you didn't think you still remembered, but it feels different. imagine you're groggy and disoriented and you just dreamt about the best adventure of your life, but when you sit up and rub your eyes it fizzles away into the back of your mind, like all your dreams do. imagine looking around and seeing what is undeniably your room-- but it's smaller than you remember, and your bed is creaky and old, and there isn't a weapon in sight, and the view from your window is that of your father's backyard garden, and you actually own things, and that dream must've really messed with your head if all that is making you so emotional.

imagine you hear your mom's voice. imagine, for the first time in what feels like seventeen years, you hear your mom's voice, calling your name. you nearly trip over yourself when you go to get up, when you stumble out of your bedroom door. and your mind is reeling and you can't quite figure out why, but you can't bring yourself to focus on anything for a moment-- until you lock eyes with your reflection, in the mirror at the end of the hall. and for the briefest of moments, you don't recognize yourself, slim and bright-eyed and without a scar on your body. your hair is long. your coral looks healthier. you feel a bit emptier when no little pink frogtopus swims up to your side. that dream must've really messed with your head.

imagine you finally get yourself down the stairs, and you freeze up. and your parents are setting up the dining table, and gods you didn't know you even remembered what they looked like. your dad is finishing up the food, and he smiles when he notices you at the base of the stairs. your mom says something about making your favorite for dinner, and you don't know why all of this is making you so emotional but you're fighting off tears as best you can (forgetting you're underwater, forgetting they would be unseen). she asks you to grab your sister, and you run back up the stairs, and you're more excited than you think you've ever been, and then...well. you know what happens next.

imagine reliving that over and over and over. imagine no matter what you do, the ending is always the same. sometimes preceeded by the smashing of furniture, or claims that edyn had gone to bed early. sometimes accompanied by the unfamiliar wails of the parents you never had, mourning their daughter. and the one thing your mind can latch onto is the one thing you actively recognize as something that IS yours-- eggs. your favorite.

fucking. gillion tidestrider man.

[kaladinkholins]

(concept art of young taigen - source ; art credit: @abigaillarson)

i cannot get over this concept art of young taigen. god.

just look at this angry bratty boy, too many feelings that he doesnt know what to do with! an abused 9 year old kid in poverty always playing with sticks in the dirt, obsessed with greatness and dreaming to escape his decrepit village—and he does!

he does escape. he runs away. this angry little boy, all claws and teeth and biting words uttered with a lisp, going on the run into a world he's never seen before until he makes his way to kyoto. and knowing him he probably forced his way in to be accepted by the dojo, growling and kicking even as he's thrown out, back into the streets, too stubborn to take no for an answer and never knowing when to give up.

taigen calls mizu a dog, weak, an orphan, a scrawny street urchin. but i can't help but think that he feels so bold to use those words because he had them spat at him too.

because taigen had the idea of "this is how the world is" beat into him from birth. he learned quickly that if you couldn't beat the world you could join it. but that meant losing your way, your values, your principles. and isn't that what true honour is? not just titles and status and glory?

we don't get to see what taigen, as a child surrounded by peers encouraging and goading him on, would've actually done if that meteor hadn't fallen right in front of them at that very moment. would he have really tried to throw that stone on mizu, killing her? we don't know.

but we do see what taigen (his true self, with no one around) does, when presented with the same opportunity. when mizu passes out in front of him, unconscious and near death, vulnerable, the path to restoring his honour lays itself out for him on a silver platter. and he wants to take it, wants to kill mizu, to claim what is his and return to kyoto and get back everything he'd worked tooth and nail for. he feels like it's what he should do. but he doesn't.

and later, again he is presented with the chance to betray mizu, likely offered by heiji shindo to get his rank reinstated within the shindo dojo. and again, taigen doesn't take it. he refuses. "stupidly loyal," fowler calls him later. loyal, like a dog.

because now, pulled away from the sneering looks and jeering words of people around him, telling him that this is what the world is, taigen had met ringo and mizu, two outcasts who refuse to follow a predetermined path to greatness. and so inside something blooms in him. something like hope. a chance to live in a world that doesn't kick you down every chance it gets, to live in a world where genuine kindness and and love and friendship and even weakness is possible, allowed to simply exist without fear.

because he'd been running away from the very idea of it the whole time. when he ran from kohama, he never looked back, never wanted to remember what it was like to be a child, afraid and hungry and angry and hurting, without the words to make sense of it, desperately wishing for something. something more. he doesn't know what. but he hears stories of great swordsmen and decides, yes, this must be it. this is what i want: glory, greatness. the twisted seed gets planted and thrives in this barren land.

and when he returns to kohama with mizu and ringo, he at last is forced to stop running. he must face the child within him again, and he tells that child to put down the stones in his hand, tells him to stop barking at anything that moves or looks at him wrong.

the child drops the stone, and taigen buys dumplings instead, gives them to mizu. the child within him, wide-eyed at the prospect of friendship, moves him to pick up a hammer and toss it to mizu. he's smiling inside even as he does it; giggling like a kid hiding a silly prank. as soon as mizu drops the hammer after him, he leaps at her, tackling her to the ground and they wrestle and laugh unbridled like two children playing while the adults aren't around to barge in and yell at them.

and then his gaze catches on mizu's lips, he stares into mizu's eyes, a sparkling blue, inviting like the open sea in good weather.

it's a man's desire that takes hold then, the child in him sinking away again, and he curses himself for it, because it ruins the moment.

everything goes to shit from there, and then it's back to being a man, back to putting on his grown-up's armour to play hero.

it fails. the shogun dies. fowler's beatings reopen all the wounds left by heiji shindo's torture. "honour is meaningless," mizu tells him. "nothing comes from being a samurai but death."

the words follow him, and he follows the words.

as everything burns down, he runs, leaving the fire behind him, and sees akemi, as well as the verdure of spring behind her, calling him. he does not hesitate then to hold his hand out to her, inviting her to come with him. "i don't want to be great," he says. "i just want to be happy."

what is happiness to him? perhaps he doesn't know it yet, or perhaps he does. but really, i believe happiness is what the child in him always wanted but never received. happiness is a home.

[charismabee]

about the livestream ama

Jonny Sims saying the Contrarian and the Skeptic were a buddy cop duo was so based and real of him

(And that the Opportunist thinks everyone loves him but they don't)

but what interested me most was him saying the Hunted and Cold would be friends. I've never really thought about that pairing before but it does work. The Hunted's main thing being keeping the body alive could help balance out the Cold's general blasé nature when it comes to death, while being rational enough (focussing on his senses and what he knows is real) for the Cold to actually take him seriously. While the Cold being able to push the Hunted to act somewhat like the Stubborn, but slightly less strongly. He's confident that they can get the job done, and with the Hunted keeping them alive they could get a lot done without either really getting sick of the other. Just two reliable guys.

A little off topic but I think they'd work pretty well as a trio with Paranoid too, given a little time for Paranoid to get used to it. Cold's confidence plus Hunted's survival instinct could give him something reliable to work with, and I think he could help him by pointing out when they're going to far in either direction and going to get themselves hurt, as both can be rather single minded (on different things, mind you, but definitelythings that could leave them with blind spots) while Paranoid thinks of every possibility and could probably bring up flaws in any given plan that the others wouldn't notice, and at least Hunted would probably take it into consideration if its going to get them hurt or killed. Like a scared little peer reviewer of any plans the other two would execute

[coffeehelly]

i think in like 5-10 years post-canon kusuke is gonna be super chill and well-adjusted. he strikes me as the type of guy who seems really cool but then will casually mention some absolutely unhinged shit he did as a teenager

[mother-of-houseplants-2]

fiona gallagher // the angry man in the house

[aroaceleovaldez]

once again thinking about the worldbuilding in the riordanverse of "names are power" / "belief is power."

The Tri were only able to become immortal through convincing enough people to worship them that it became true. Monsters and immortals only exist through continued belief, and if enough people believe that they're dead or gone then it becomes true, like Pan. Their varied forms exist and manifest as they're believed in and called upon. Names call attention and epithets summon aspects. They're acknowledgement. Belief. Putting a name to a concept creates it as an individual.

And that's so fascinating when you start applying it to demigods. How much of their abilities are based on belief in themselves, in expectations of each other, in their parents' expectations of them? We've seen mortal figures who became immortal in some form or another because they were remembered. Even the lares - ancestral house gods, who persist because they're remembered. They have a legacy.

At what point does a demigod achieve that status? Rumors and whispers about them so persistent that they slowly become true. "I heard that Jason Grace is the son of two gods, does that make him a god?" "I heard Percy Jackson defeated a titan single-handedly. That he can create hurricanes without breaking a sweat. That he can control blood." After awhile, after enough rumors, does it become impossible to tell where they end and the legends begin? Isn't that what being a demigod is; half-legend?

[ctrl-lupin]

Goemon is terrifying

[bookshelfdreams]

hey do y'all ever think about the fact that Charles probably has told Edwin about being beaten as a child at some point during their 34 years of friendship? And that Edwin likely never found it remarkable enough to ask further questions because back when he was alive, beating children was completely normal

[cerisereids]

the conversation around haley and hotch’s relationship is too much ‘he/she was a bad spouse’ and not enough ‘they were two people who loved each other very much but grew to be two different people who wanted different things’

[bonefall]

Ooh, another based "Shellheart gets too much hype in canon" truther? Is it because he actually does shockingly little to stop or protest Rainflower's treatment of Crookedstar as a kit, or something else?

It's a few things honestly, all of them bug me just enough to make me pretty steadfast in feeling like Shellheart is overrated;

Crooked's renaming feels so preventable. Really, Dad Shellheart? You have no say in this? You can't protest this??

You too Hailstar, what the fuck. Leaders are theocratic dictators 90% of the time but TODAY you feel like just letting this woman involve your entire Clan in her emotional abuse?

So it feels like lip service, "Omg Rainflower's being so awful! Don't worry though us powerful men can still be likeable because we don't like this :( too bad our all-powerful hands are tied."

Shellheart wasn't very involved with his children BEFORE denouncing Rainflower, so he does this whole big show of it and theeeeen..... nothing changes.

I'm reminded of how deadbeat fathers will sometimes blow into town with a whirlwind of big talk about doing something big for their neglected family, only to be gone again before Christmas.

Or, worse, the idea that Shellheart ONLY stopped being official mates with Rainflower because he's deputy, and it would look awful if he did nothing at all in the face of such an unpopular situation. Washing his hands of it.

And listen. I know people will staunchly refuse to acknowledge that these aren't real people, they are WRITING CHOICES. But please. I'm begging everyone to stick with me for a goddamn second

Ask yourself these critical thinking questions:

Why have the writers chosen for the mother to be solely responsible for Crookedstar's childhood abuse, whilst portraying Shellheart's solitary big public denouncement as the pinnacle of fatherhood? As he's barely involved in his children's lives?

Do they functionally portray Shellheart as a father who helps his son through maternal neglect? Or are the scenes quite rare? If yes, then what did the author spend their time on instead?

Consider the narrative of Crookedstar's other main antagonist, Mapleshade. Does Mapleshade's backstory have any similarities to Rainflower? Consider the choice to give Crookedstar two cruel maternal figures who act on malice towards him as paternal figure Shellheart goes unexamined.

Is this a pattern that we have seen before? Are fathers typically held to a different standard in Warrior Cats?

I feel strongly that the answer is an obvious yes. So Shellheart, and all the praise and cooing he gets, bothers me immensely.