#and my brain will be free

[greyias]

Theron the Outlander???? 👀👀👀👀👀

This poor, neglected AU (that I really want to write and get out of my head), goes all the way back to 2017, and is an expansion on an innocuous little letter prompt ficlet. It's basically a role swap AU, where Theron, being Theron, in trying to reach out after Ziost intercepts a communication from Marr about the Eternal Fleet, and decides to do a bit of scouting before letting it go on through. And in doing so winds up taking the Outlander's place in the throne room, and all of the fallout that happens because of that decision.

A sick feeling that bubbled up in the back of Theron’s throat burned like bile. This had been a trap, just not the one he’d been expecting. Had he not intercepted the communication, she would be standing here instead of him. At the mercy of the monster that had already taken so much from her. Alone. Theron ignored the rapid pounding in his chest, instead deciding to face this head on. “We don’t always get what we want.” “I do,” Valkorion continued to stalk the room. “I always have.” “Yeah, well, life’s full of disappointments.” The emperor paused in his stalking to raise an unimpressed eyebrow as he looked Theron over. “Clearly.”

The road to hell is paved with the best intentions, and all that jazz. I have a sketchy outline of the whole story which would span basically up to KotFE Chapter 9. I think if I spent a little time fleshing it out, I might be able to finally hammer this baby out.

[onefey]

you're going about your normal day when, suddenly, surprise! you've been pokémon mystery dungeon'd!

unfortunately, due to budget cuts, the pokémon assigning quiz has been canceled. instead, you must spin THE WHEEL, assigning you a random, unevolved, non-legendary and non-mythical pokémon. you must now go on some sort of world-saving adventure as this pokémon. good luck!

tell me in the tags what you rolled, and how you feel about it - for bonus points, you can spin the wheel again for (or just take your pick of) a pokémon to be your partner.

bonus rules:

you're not shiny unless the wheel tells you you're shiny

take your pick of regional forms and evolutions (for example, if you roll vulpix, it's up to you whether that means normal or alolan vulpix)

apply whatever logic you like with regards to gender

have fun and be yourself!

[kottkrig]

People liking your personal OCs is still such a crazy feeling, I've been doing this for years and ppl asking about them still fills my entire heart with warmth and idk how to handle it

You enjoy this fictional guy I made up for fun?? Whose only content is random artwork or writing made by me and a handful of other artists at most? They have no show/book/game with a large fandom, it's just one person with an art blog?? I love u

[thatsparrow]

it's december happy "I Heard a Bird Sing" by oliver herford season

[celestialalpacaron]

Behave yourselves BOTH OF YOU 💀 Anyways have this crumb while I work on the main Overlord Husk AU comic lolol

[reilora-borealis]

Love how in every CR campaign it is established early and reaffirmed frequently who has the best tits in each party. For Bell's Hells it's Fearne. For Vox Machina it's Vex. For Mighty Nein... it's Fjord. And I think that's beautiful

[grey-viridian]

Sillies

[linktoo-doodles]

patchwork

[loriache]

"I've been waiting for ages for somebody to unmask them."

This moment tends to elicit negative reactions in a first read through, and I've got some opinions about why where Kabru is coming from here actually makes a lot of logical sense. So I thought I'd elaborate on that.

I think people hear this and go, "He thinks they must be hiding something because they gave money to someone? What a cynic." Or "he dislikes them because they did charity?? What's wrong with this guy!". And obviously, a lot, a lot is wrong with him. But I think this makes more sense than it seems at first glance! What people evaluating this judgement miss is why Kabru is paying attention to Laios and co to begin with.

Kabru knows of the Touden siblings because (he's a little bit of a stalker-) he is keeping an eye on all the relevant parties in events developing on the island, in order to be able to guide them to his preferred outcome. This includes adventurers because they are the ones actually exploring the dungeon! He's well aware that something as minor as internal tensions between party members could be key to the historical events that are developing. (He would love the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.)

His desired outcome is that whatever the rewards are of breaking the dungeon's curse, whether that's kingship or the ancient elven secrets of dungeons, are claimed by:

A) a short lived person

B) Someone who will be a good, effective leader and/or use those secrets and the power they carry wisely, with foresight, and to establish a political bloc for short lived people.

The person he can best trust to do this is, of course, himself. But due to his PTSD regarding dungeons and monsters, he's not able to develop the necessary skills to conquer the dungeon. Once he realises this, he starts looking for someone else who he can support to that end.

But most of the adventurers don't have any intentions of conquering the dungeon, don't have the skills, or are unsuitable in other ways. In fact, it seems like some potentially suitable people are the Toudens. There are a lot of good rumours about them going around - they actually seem to have a very positive reputation! That's what Kabru means when he says "unmask".

So when Kabru is observing something like them giving money to an old comrade from their gold-peeling days, he doesn't consider it a problem because "they're giving money to this person who doesn't actually need it" or because they must have some dark secret if they act superficially nice. I think he actually understands this situation and what it implies about Laios (in particular) perfectly well.

Laios and Falin gave money to an old comrade who got injured and couldn't work. That person then healed up but kept taking their money. Then he used the money to start smuggling illicit goods to the island.

The key is that for Kabru, the problem here is the same as with the corpse retrievers - people using the dungeon's resources to fuel dangerous, selfish, or violent pursuits cause problems for the island, attract more criminals and people with motives other than breaking the curse, and increase the chances of the whole situation ending in tragedy.

Kabru is willing to work with the Shadow Lord of the island if it gets him to his goal - he isn't scrupulous - but the criminal element of the island increasing is something he sees as a major issue.

Also, when you're evaluating someone as a candidate for power, riches, secrets, potentially kingship - then being curious about how the money you give to people is going to be used is kind of a relevant trait!

Interpersonally, Kabru's actually very easygoing - I mean, Mickbell isn't exactly an upstanding guy, is he! But Kabru likes him and they get along well. These traits wouldn't be a problem at all in a friend, or a comrade, or someone Kabru was confident he could use. But he can't get a handle on Laios, and Laios is someone who has the potential to be a major player!

On Laios' end, this is the same as with the marriage seeker who joined their party. She kept asking for things and he gave them to her, because he tries to be nice to others. He even gives her money! It's the exact same thing.

That's fine, but it became a problem because he basically wasn't interested in her motives, didn't notice she was trying to manipulate him, and it also didn't occur to him that the other party members would notice or be affected. We can assume the situation with the gold peeler is the same. When Kabru says that "It's not that they're bad people, they just aren't interested in humans," he isn't wrong.

The extent to which this is true of Laios is linked to his autism imo, (because it isn't just disinterest - he genuinely isn't able to notice nonverbal cues that people are lying to him or have ulterior motives) but to a greater or lesser extent I think it's a very common trait. Most people aren't actually that interested in other people who aren't close to them. Kabru is the weird one here. It isn't an issue except as a leader - which is why we see an immediate comparison to the Island's Lord, because that's how Kabru is evaluating them.

And disinterest in/lack of ability with people to the extent Laios exhibits it, it does, actually, make him a worse leader... it's just that as we see in the story, people can help him out. The rest of the party tell him the marriage seeker is taking advantage of him so he tells her he can't give her special treatment anymore. They're pissed and it's a crisis point - he couldn't have recovered their trust without Marcille and Falin - but that's exactly the point. With Marcille and Falin, he was able to recover their trust.

And he has other good traits that make up for it, such as his intelligence, strategic knowledge, open-mindedness and sense of fairplay.

Kabru doesn't disqualify Laios as a candidate based on what he sees about him from afar, though - he still tries very hard to get close to him, obviously hoping that if he manages he can steer Laios to defeat the dungeon and make up for his lack of people-skills in the aftermath. (Which... he does eventually achieve that goal!) He completely fails until the events of the story, so... definitely I think "They just aren't interested in humans" could also partially be a stung reaction to Laios' complete disinterest in him.

Anyway, that's my read on what exactly Kabru's "issue" with Laios is. Obviously, once he does find out what Laios' true nature is like - about his love for monsters - he develops an entirely new set of fears about Laios' priorities. But since Laios kept that a secret until the start of the story, he has no idea of that yet.

Given all that, I think it's interesting that he says that he doesn't think that the Toudens are suitable to defeat the dungeon, and that he's hoping they'll turn out to be the thieves. As some of his few potential candidates, people who he thinks may play a big role in the island's future, you'd think he'd hope they would be good people!

I suppose it's better, in his eyes, because it means that he's involved in something "interesting". They haven't just had their stuff stolen by regular criminals (boring, puts them further away from his goal) - they've been caught up in the beginning stages of "a historic event". The desperate and dwindling group forgetting morals in their quest to retrieve their lost comrade probably appeals to his sense of melodrama. Because he also just... loves drama.

Despite it being "uglier than anything he was expecting", he still pursues Laios as the person he wants to conquer the dungeon pretty much as soon as it becomes clear that he won't be able to do it himself and they are out of time. That's because... well, to be fair, there aren't any other options. And he fits standard A: he's short-lived!

and Kabru still hopes he can fit standard B, too, and be persuaded to use the power he wins for good. No matter how many nightmares he has about Laios, or whether he thinks about killing him. He doubts him, but ultimately he puts his faith in him and seems happy after the manga's ending that he made the right decision.

[noodles-and-tea]

This is what the inside of my ears look like every Tuesday :)))

[hmura-hmara]

No thoughts, head full of dinluke

[lucabyte]

On autonomy, and what it means to be Obliged to Help.

Bonus:

[toji-sweetheart]

18+ only content - mdni

Toji is big in every sense.

When he stands in a doorway, his height blocks the light from spilling into the room. Or when he's walking next to you, hand in hand, people naturally move around you both.

He's a force to be reckoned with, and people just know it too, the permanent scowl he wears when he's out with you to deter anyone stops them in their tracks from asking for something.

His hands could swallow yours, and he can cup your entire jaw in one palm, thick fingers squishing your cheeks pushing your lips together to make you pout even further for him.

Which to Toji is cute, seeing the look so bright like a raging fire when you look at him.

Everything about him demands attention.

Especially in the bedroom where he has you flat on your back with your ankles locked behind his back, your heels resting on his firm plump ass.

You felt so full each time he bottomed out slowly, watching your face screw up in pleasure.

In this position, there is no choice but to look at each other. His cock so deep you saw stars but instead, you saw his handsome face.

Your fingers flexed against his shoulders as you ground your hips down wanting more making him chuckle and drop more of his weight down.

It was a struggle to think about anything else when your breath mingled with his as his lips captured yours in a deep sloppy passionate kiss that left you breathless when he pulled away.

Toji is big enough to melt your problems away.

[zunaki]

Love is real y'all 😭😭

[maginnmauvaise]

father and son brothersss :)

[lazylittledragon]

ok someone please correct me if i'm wrong but am i weird for thinking those 'audiobooks don't count as reading' posts are ableist as fuck????