#another parallel btw

[every-ogata]

[whos-the-seme]

Shen Qingqiu was doomed.

He stood still, fluttering his fan nervously and trying to avoid catching his counterpart's, the real Shen Qingqiu, glaring eyes from across the room. Instead, he idly observed the other Cang Qiong Mountain Peak Lords, trying to spot the differences between the ones he knew and their alternates.

Liu Qingge had brought back a strange artifact from one of his hunts to the monthly Peak Lord meeting. It was a mirror, rimmed an ugly tarnished gold, topped with a decoration that was shaped into an unidentifiable creature with ruby red eyes.

[Important Artifact Detected: Red-Eyed Sphinx's Mirror! Quest starting...]

Shen Qingqiu had been trying to remember where it might have appeared in PIDW when the surface of the mirror suddenly began to glow a dull yellow. It quickly brightened until it obscured everyone's vision.

And then, there stood another set of peak lords across the room, facing them down.

System, what on earth is going on???

[Quest started: Lost Long Spirit in My Reflection! Other characters have been transported to this universe. Host must find a way to send them back without revealing his identity as a transmigrator.]

WTF? I didn't agree to this!

[Good luck!]

System??? Get back here!

While the two Yue Qingyuans and Xu Qinglis conversed together to try to understand what had happened, the other peak lords had begun to mingle with each other, curious about their counterparts.

Shen Qingqiu tried to suppress his panic, sticking close to Shang Qinghua. His Yue Qingyuan occasionally flicked his softened gaze towards the alternate Shen Qingqiu, likely noticing that the other still acted as he used to before his qi deviation. In fact, several of the peak lords he had gotten to know over the years were sending some looks at the other Shen Qingqiu.

With the original goods right there, how long would it be before something exposed him as a fraud?? What if he was confronted about why he acted so differently?

[Host must avoid having his identity exposed. Being revealed as a transmigrator will result in Host being immediately sent back to his old body.]

Yeah, yeah, same shit as always!

Looking to his side, Shang Qinghua seemed to be experiencing the same threats, desperately looking away from the more dead-eyed Shang Qinghua across the room who, luckily, was barely paying him any attention.

Fuck, what do we do?

---

Shen Qingqiu continued to glare at the Other Shen Qingqiu in the room. The other Shen Qingqiu was so obviously a fraud, he could tell within minutes of being here. While his alternate seemed somewhat familiar, he didn't act like him at all, his mannerisms were all off, and despite the attempt at keeping a poker face, Shen Qingqiu could tell that he was nervous. Probably at being caught out.

His alternate self had likely been replaced with a bodysnatcher or some sort of spirt, if they truly were supposed to be the same person. Was everyone else stupid, or had they had their brains sucked out by a Heart Mouthed Lobster-Squid?

Or maybe they simply like the bodysnatcher better and didn't bother to investigate.

Shen Qingqiu's face became stormier, turning his glare to the Other Yue Qingyuan, wondering if he had felt happier once his precious Xiao-Jiu had vanished. The other Yue Qingyuan's face grew even more pathetic. Tch. Typical.

"That stupid System--" Shen Qingqiu nearly snapped his neck in looking at the bodysnatcher upon hearing his murmur. The fraud, upon noticing his sudden attention, clammed back up and looked away. But Shen Qingqiu knew what he heard.

Xi Tong.

He hadn't heard those words in years, not since--

He stepped forward, scanning the other once more. Upon a second, more thorough look, Shen Qingqiu realized that he grew more familiar. He wore his hair in the way that Shen Qingqiu wore it, but looser and less severe. His eyes were clearer and lighter, with hints of a smile, despite his nerves. He occasionally quickly glanced up and to his left, as if seeing something there, before bringing his attention back to the room at large.

No. It couldn't be. He was long dead, despite Shen Qingqiu's best efforts. Even if the fake had some similar things about him, that doesn't mean--

Shen Jiu had once had a brother, besides Qi-ge. Slightly smaller than him, despite the fact that Shen Jiu passed him along as much food as he could when on the streets. He smiled so much despite their circumstances, and was so kind despite Shen Jiu constantly telling him that he was making himself a target. But he looked so, so similar to Shen Jiu himself. They could have switched their clothes and looked exactly the same, if one didn't notice the difference in their demeanors.

His brother has also always been a little odd, talking to himself and arguing with an imaginary friend that only he could see named Xi Tong. One of the reasons that they survived as long as they did on the streets was due to the inexplicable knowledge that his brother seemed to have. Somehow, his brother knew about the various plants or small animals that they could hunt and sell for a pretty coin in the markets. Shen Jiu never asked, not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

But his brother was dead. He had died years ago, in the time during when they were in Qiu's manor. During a punishment for Shen Jiu's attempt to get them both to join Wu Yanzi; he had switched their clothes and taken Shen Jiu's place and died for it. That had been the final catalyst that made him set the manor ablaze and escape, mourning his brother's death as his fault for daring to be free. Cursing Qi-ge for not coming back for them.

Dazed and his vision dim, Shen Jiu took another step forward, and another. Hope, something he thought he had killed off long ago, slowly rose in his chest.

Had his brother survived in this world? Had he managed to escape alongside Shen Jiu? Or had Shen Jiu died in his place? Dimly, he can't help but think that the world would be far kinder if that were the case. If his brother had made it to Cang Qiong Mountain and became a peak lord all on his own and still managed to keep his smile. If he didn't have Shen Jiu dragging him down with him.

The other Shen Qingqiu, not having noticed his approach, laughed at something the other Shang Qinghua said ("Wonder if Shang Qinghua is a traitor here, too," Shen Jiu thought dimly). His laugh was the same. He rose his fan to hide his face, but Shen Jiu noticed how his nose crinkled, and his eyes nearly closed in delight, exactly like--

"A-Yuan?"

[mourn-and-watch]

you know what. i actually love that trying to talk to solas was the last thing varric did and it ended in complete failure. especially if you put it in the context of his feelings about anders. varric was so bitter every time he mentioned him because he could not stop him. he didn't even realize that anders was up to something and when it was too late he started to think of him as of someone who destroyed that fragile peace in kirkwall that actually never existed.

it adds layers to the way he felt about solas. he believed that time he could stop a friend who simply lost his way. because varric tethras can talk anyone out of anything, can't he? anders was just too dodgy and self-centred and cut everyone off just like solas did but this time varric is completely prepared. surely. absolutely.

he could have never talked anders out of it even if he had known what was coming. he could have never talked solas out of it either. anders was a desperate person standing against (as varric himself put it) forces he couldn't possibly defeat. solas was a god standing against a couple of mortals and his own conscience buried under his guilt and regrets. being a good friend would not stop meredith's oppression. being a good friend would not stop someone who fears so much that all of the atrocities he committed were for nothing and would mean nothing at the end. varric died because he didn't realize it. he died and left his second in command with an immense guilt because they believed he knew solas enough to pull that off and there's something tragic about it

[loumandism]

the iwtv fandom is always having the discussion of who of the established characters would actually stick up to marius when he returns to abuse armand again and what’s really fucked up is the only real answer is claudia. there’s louis (historically not very sensitive when it comes to armand’s “daddy vampire” and armand’s biggest hater atm), lestat (victim blamer who wants to fuck marius) and daniel (who basically implied armand lied about the entire thing). but then there’s claudia, who because of their shared experiences with white supremacy, class, sexual assault, orphanhood, sexually violent and abusive makerdads, and a lack of a true “home” to stake a claim to (“dad didn’t want me”) she’s on an infinitely more even emotional playing field with armand than anyone else in the show. there’s no major gap in understanding like is present with all of armand’s other relationships, whether it’s the french aristocrat or the former pimp. the only one who really got him, saw right through him, was and remains claudia. it would be her sticking up to marius, if she were still around. if armand did not doom the only person he’s met in hundreds of years that understands him. but the brutal truth is that it is exactly because of this shared understanding that armand could not tolerate her existence; in dooming her, in insisting upon the death of all too similar to him, he dooms himself.

[rememberthelullabies]

um so instead of going to sleep i kinda made something...

Armand x pinterest quotes

[genericpuff]

I love how capitalism is a term that the gods are aware of and know hades started

Hades: "Zeus, you told me that I wouldn't be disgraced by my role as ruler of the dead - so why do the mortals refuse to even speak my name?"

Zeus: "I would hardly call that disgrace - it's respect, in its purest form. You have an entire realm of subjects who kiss the ground you walk on, out of fear for your judgment if they should wrong you."

Hades: "Dead subjects, kissing cold and infertile ground, who have nowhere else to go and nothing to offer. My kingdom is as shallow as the graves they were buried in."

Zeus: "You think too small, brother! You receive their everything when all their lasts are spent - when all the food is eaten, their wine drunk, their final breath heaved from their lips, and their heartbeat has performed its final rhythm. You are their eternal dream - their King forevermore. In that way, have I not given you everything? More than what even I could lay claim over?"

Hades: "You didn't make me into their King - you made me into their life sentence. If they aren't ever to worship me, revere me, and celebrate me as they do the rest of this cursed family... I'll give them something to worship."

[fumifooms]

Kaka compilation

Because everyone is sleeping on him. Witness his greatness!! First two Kaka colored icons were colored by me, lineart by Ryoko Kui though!

Kaka & Kiki are kinda like Laios & Falin… Kaka being stoic and giving repressed energy like early Laios, Kiki being cryptic and always smiling and kinda soft-looking. Autism siblings 2, ostracized and othered as kids and have a deep bond due to sticking together through it all, though unlike with Laios their parents are very loving so Kaka developed family as a big value more than Laios (bc asides for Falin Laios doesn’t care much about it).

In the gnome festival comic you can see Kaka is more emotive than he seems! Full with a :3 face, and he’s the one crying at the end. He’s insecure about his legs and being tall… It really got to him. Conceal don’t feel. In the gnome festival comic you also see him sensing others’ gaze on him and that something is off unlike Kiki, again Laios-like in the way that judgement from others gets to him more than her.

[crxzytogether]

when they havent known what personal space(with each other) is since the beginning

[coachbeards]

the average human mind cannot comprehend the three of them in a room together

[toadletthethird]

It's actually ironic how far away Skeptic is from the skepticism of Hellenistic period (aka the canonical one)

He fully applies to the first part of definition given by Sextus Empiricus: "Scepticism is an ability, or mental attitude, which opposes appearances to judgements in any way whatsoever..." - and he too distinguishes the appearance of real perceived objects, that shouldn't be denied, and the subjective judgement about it, which should. As his character is built after a betrayal of subjectivity (distrust to the narrator and the princess), he clings to the objectiveness as something understandable enough to rely on. Oh and also σκέψις can be translated as examination so it's a funny little throwback to being-locked-in-chains situation

BUT he completely misses out the second, perhaps the most important part: "...with the result that, owing to the equipollence of the objects and reasons thus opposed, we are brought firstly to a state of mental suspense and next to a state of 'unperturbedness' or quietude"

The antic skepticism is about finding serenity in detachment after seeing the ungraspable multiplicity of truth. As opposed, our Skeptic tries to find ease in a single understandable system....which doesn't exist. So he constantly stuck in attempts to solve the unsolvable rather than accept things how they are.

If we're being honest, Cage is more canonically skeptic than Skeptic.

The closest he was to this ideal is MOC. But y'know, he wasn't quite at peace there. Which says a lot.

(Oh and there's the story of how Pirrho saw his teacher drowning in a swamp and walked by without helping, feeling nothing because of how cool his skepticism was - remember the grey and the den, huh?)

Saw a beautiful take somewhere here about how every voice is built with a little unfinished piece. When Opportunist will end up at the top, what's then? When Stubborn's toughest fight will end, what's then? All their worldviews are driven by some inner need, but it often looks like they never could satisfy it, or if they did, their existence would become meaningless. And maybe it's what it is for Skeptic. When he reaches the truth in all its greatness, will he be able to let go? Can he stop constantly craving for a deeper meaning? Will he understand that everything at once in its summation is the truth, controversial as it is? Can he believe?

[janetfraisersmassivestrap]

My Fair Lady (1964) // 30 Rock (2006)

[rervraiilstew]

THEM.

[v1rtualtrash]

Finished it! I think it looks nice!

[fizzlewizard404]

all similarities i could find/think of with these two ^^

[greenfiend]

Eyewitness Lake House vs. Stranger Things Lake House

Credit to @lazylama9 for pointing this out!

[fireyartccoon]

couldn’t skip sonic appreciation day, so here ya go