#compelling motive

[dewfordtownhall]

[tevintersnakes]

Lab tech brain compels me to ramble through my OC

[princehendir]

Rivalmance Justice should get a medal for not killing Hawke with his teeth

[avnasace]

i do find it incredibly funny that in season 4 ben noticeably eyes the marigold bottle, takes the marigold bottle, disappears with said marigold bottle and then reappears with a round of glowing(!!!) drinks, yet the writers still decided that it wasnt obvious enough to us as the audience, and then made sure to verbally tell us that ben spiked the drinks with marigold. then they turn to klaus wondering why he is still normal, and then feel like they have to again verbally explain to us "ohhh you're sober!! thats why!!" when it was so clearly obvious.

but then they rushed everything else and left fifty thousand plotholes behind...

[crabsnpersimmons]

Miss, it's time to go to bed. Are you on your phone again? Sleeping late will ruin your lovely skin. This is the final warning. If you don't fall asleep now, We are going to dance. - "잘자요 아가씨" by ASMRZ

found this song and i was possessed to draw @starriegalaxy's butler Eclipse dancing to it

(also i apologize in advance for my horrendous hiragana, hangul, and cursive)

Textless, effectless version under the cut!

[hulloitsdani]

What do u think Kiran is

How do u think the order sees kiran

*slowly sits up in my chair*

I think Kiran is a very normal person. This is someone you and I have met before. Be that from the other side of grocery store cashier, waiting in the same elevator, or walking by on a crosswalk. Kiran is a civilian from our world trying to roll with the punches of being warped somewhere completely alien. And you can see it in how they conduct themselves.

I always have a lot of fun writing Kiran’s dialogue because their casual modern speech almost feels like a dialect in comparison to the more formal fantasy tone everyone else speaks with. An “ain’t” will never exit Alfonse’s mouth, you know? And there’s a difference in “Do you have gold?” vs “You got gold?” To me, this gives Kiran an air of unfamiliarity to anyone they interact with. Let’s use Grima as an example, because it doesn’t sound like this grammatical change would make much of difference until Kiran has the audacity to hit Grima with a bro mid sentence. But that’s just how they talk. And as sweet and friendly as they are, there’s always moments like that to remind that no one has the cultural context to fully understand Kiran. Except for the audience, who can realize that Kiran let the customer service voice drop to talk to Grima like he’s an actual person.

And that’s just about how they talk! This view is only emphasized by every other thing about them! They’re a lovable goof, which is normal chill person behavior in the audience’s eyes but feels REALLY ODD to the characters of FE’s medieval fantasy war setting. There is this air of unknown about them that the more socially perceptive will pick up on and will try to come to a conclusion about. Example, I imagine Soren would interpret a lot of this as a dangerous and deeply annoying lack of intelligence from someone he has the displeasure of sharing a tactics table with. Or looping back to the Grima example, he would totally think Kiran has greedy ulterior motives behind that pleasant facade. It takes a lot of work for those types to realize that the discrepancy present isn’t really any of those things. But I also wouldn’t be too surprised if Kiran doesn’t try to directly prove any of those assumptions wrong unless they have to.

Why? Well now it’s time for the implications! Oh how we love the implications.

Because the Summoner is a different story. No one has any fucking clue what that is.

I can tell you what Kiran has pieced together so far. Summoning people from across time and space is apparently not easy. It’s not some school of magical study that some mage could pull off with enough time and research. Trust, Eitri tried. It’s a lot of complex moving parts. For example, the contracts. The contracts Kiran automatically binds their summoned to don’t even compare to the ones Veronica used in book 1. They are far more intense and infinitely harder to break. The only way out of them is if Kiran wills it so. Not even death is an option, because Kiran can come in for the revive. If they had to guess, it’s an older, more completed version of the art. Something lost to time. But no matter the case, Kiran has the ability to take full control of whoever they manage to summon. From a lowly farmer to the divine. And their power only grows.

In a similar vein, if there was any character to canonically see the hud, I think it would be Kiran. It’s genuinely part of their power set. I have previously described Kiran as the party mage until Veronica shows up to be the actual mage, but it would be way more accurate to call them a mystic/seer. They see the map, everyone’s stats, and is doing a fast amount of math to give the combat forecast. Then, upon processing all this information their enemies couldn’t dream of having at their disposal, Kiran can telepathically communicate any change in plans to anyone under contract. Kiran is not inherently some great tactician the moment they touch ground in Askr; they simply can do things no one else can. They’re learning the actual tactics part on the fly. This makes them simultaneously the largest ace up the Order’s sleeve and potentially its biggest liability. If they fall, it could cause a whole system cascade. By that same token, some of the biggest threats the Order has faced are the ones who do their research and rightfully target Kiran.

Now. Thinking critically about all that. That’s downright terrifying. A ridiculous amount of power has been dropped callously into Kiran’s lap and they have to work extremely hard to be moral with it. It’s terrifyingly easy not to be. It would actively take less effort to ‘take the reins’ as it were. But in order to be able to sleep at night ever again, they go the extra mile to not invalidate the will of their summoned. To take over like that. To make a colony of worker bees out of people. Because oh dear god they just summoned a child and the fact that they could easily force them to fight and die for them, only to be revived and do it all over again, is HAUNTING. No. No the Order has an in house orphanage now. This kid is getting adopted and cared for god damnit or Kiran might just pop a blood vessel. And sure that child is going to be a child and there will never be a world where they get along with everyone else, but that’s just going to need be a problem they address when they get there and not an excuse to use Hubris; the power set. Now replace the word child with everyone they ever summoned and you have the wider philosophy they apply to the entire Order.

They’re hyper aware of the power imbalance. They hate it with every bone in their body. They work really hard to correct it in whatever way they can.

So Kiran might not jump on the opportunity to correct those who think lesser of them. It’s… oddly comforting to know someone is keeping a critical eye on them. Holding them accountable. Especially since so much of the order just thinks of them as this quirky yet well meaning host. And, really, what can they even do about that? They have gone over the contract with every hero they summon and despite that they still choose to stay. So, what, do they try to inspire more mistrust? The problem with that they would have to actually do acts that intentionally inspire mistrust. And even if that was successful they can’t just waste the extra man power because every other month there’s some new divine asshole who wants them all dead. And if they fail that means they have to start their life from square one and god they can’t do that again so—

Just breathe Kiran.

It’s fine. You’re fine. Just breathe.

You have work to do.

[aroanthy]

i love how fraught and complicated discourse around various utena characters ‘dying’ is when anthy is literally stabbed to death eternally by a million swords imbued with human hatred. and then utena gets stabbed to death by them also. like. ‘death’ is incredibly interesting in rgu because most of the time it’s this ambiguous figurative thing that has interesting implications re: ohtori as a closed-off world one can escape. we are all trapped in our coffins. mamiya is the only named character with a grave. nemuro memorial hall functions as one all the same. ruka is implied to have died in the hospital— was he dead all along? who was the boy we saw for these two episodes? is this dead boy the same boy, or is this just another coincidence from the shadow girls, cutting like a knife? it’s heavily implied that akio and anthy murder kanae by poisoning her, adding to the previous implication that they were poisoning mr ohtori too, but there are no perceptible consequences of this. kanae’s absence is not felt. she’s fed an apple slice. what happens to the bodies? we know what happened to the 100 boys, but what about everyone else? and so on and so forth. ‘death’ is a tricky thing in utena, i think it’s constantly functioning on figurative and literal levels in very different ways for very different purposes. dios died. dios was dying. dios didn’t die. he grew up. etc etc

[thorinlandscaping]

waaaaa they took away my male lead in the Only Straights Show from 2-3 seasons from now and made him a girl for some sort of WOKE AGENDA they're changing my badly written misogynist book series woe is me we need more straight rep!!! this is because i like their story not for any other reason!!! i'm bi as well!!! more straight romance!!!! no nonconformity!!!! the books!!!!!!!

[zeroistic]

these damn new gen ls pvpers and their anti-yap stances and resorting to pvp at every given moment

[cringefaecompilation]

but the choice for ludinus to tell bell's hells that they would hate the gods just as much as him if he showed him the memories of the specific deities who destroyed aeor. matt saying that the gods are not perfect and are just as flawed as the mortals. ludinus vowing to avenge the destruction of aeor and then decimating molaesmyr and sending exandria into chaos unforseen. something about the broken pedestal of someone you thought to know everything being just as lost and scared as you. something about killing leaders, then installing yourself as the new one and swearing to do better. something about hypocrisy and how we become blind to our cruelest actions if we think we're justified enough in them.

because nobody else knows what we've been through, right?

[brother-emperors]

Could I ask for your thoughts on why you say that Cassius should have been Crassus' political heir ?

so largely I’m half referencing this collection of quotes and the various attempts to fill in the space/grave with a body (like Cicero! Cicero was a contender for this!) and I’m sort of taking shots at Antony for fun and whimsy.

like in sports!! I gotta root for my man Cassius over Antony, especially because no one can actually fill the space left by Crassus after his death (literally, the political landscape makes this impossible), but Cassius assumes a command position due to everyone else (notably, Crassus) dying (so: inheriting Crassus’ leadership position) and wouldn’t be a bad follow up to Crassus in the realm of military command since they have a similar (strict, as opposed to friendly in a way is commonly associated with Antony) relationship with the men under their command.

& also bc Marcus Crassus jr seems to be disinterested in taking up space in the political spotlight on his return from the Gallic Wars otherwise I’d be advocating for him on the basis of family tragedy compounded. it’s time to fill the space/memory/grave of your father and brother, buddy!

[moonlitkilljoy]

i vehemently maintain that the max we see in death is a lot worse than the one he was in life. YES, he was super shitty but the way richie is implied to have died is a LOT worse than i think he would actually be capable of when in his right mind— especially since i figure he sees the way he was killed as equally horrific (being built up and then broken down and humiliated [dudes first concern was NOT the wooden planks in his chest, but the fact that he pissed his pants]). it’s not even about revenge, its not personal, but i imagine he’d still view torturing richie as “not that bad”. its very “ive been through that sort of thing before and IM not mad about it so why are you.”

like, i think there’s definitely something to be said about vengeful spirits (poltergeists?) stuck forever as a snapshot of who they were in life at their absolute worst— which, for max, would have been swearing death upon the nerdy prudes for (in his eyes) intentionally killing him in a horrific manner.

[skitskatdacat63]

I don't know how I'd ever convey this in art but. Thinking very deeply about how in boy king au, a very crucial part of characterization is that Seb is a wolf in sheep(or lamb more specifically)'s clothing and Fernando is a sheep in wolf's clothing.

Seb is very unassuming, very delicate, seemingly very vulnerable and malleable. But, deep down, he can be very ruthless. It's in the the way he hesitantly declares war, with a spark in his eye and a suppressed smirk. In the way he challenges someone to a card game or a horse race, proclaiming that he's not great, but winning every round and prancing around the room and mentioning it ad infinitum. The way he's able to instantly turn the tide in a debate in one fell swoop. By showing all his cards constantly and letting himself be vulnerable, he's making himself invulnerable. No one would ever consider him to be able to make big moves, so he wins every single time, because no one even thinks to expect it from him.

Fernando on the other hand, is constantly committed to having a looming presence and harsh reputation, but deep down, he's soft. He knows what happens to people when they're vulnerable, and he's not going to let himself be taken advantage of. The way he keeps a brave face when being informed of the marriage proposal, but goes back to his room and cries. The way he proclaims that he was always going to be the rightful ruler of Spain, but confides to Flavio that he never thought there was any real chance of it ever happening. The way he takes himself so seriously in public, but inside feels so giddy whenever he can make someone laugh. Everything to him always feels unstable and ready to crumble at any moment, and he's not willing to contribute to that by letting himself relax.

I think thats why it's very difficult for them to get along at first, because they have completely different approaches to how they carry themselves and make their way through life. Seb is confused at Fernando because he feels that he's very bland and overly serious at first, but truthfully he's not really seeing the actual Fernando. And Fernando finds Seb to be naive and easily taken advantage of, but that's because he's never seen Seb at his most cruel. Seb really loves when he eventually gets to see Fernando being vulnerable, and Fernando really admires and respects Seb when he sees him being serious. I think it just takes a while for them to show the other their full and complete selves, even the parts they can sometimes be ashamed of. There's this very compelling dichotomy in Seb laying out all his cards, but still being very difficult to read, and Fernando keeping his cards to his chest, but his intentions often being easily seen through.

[crimeronan]

it's a little funny to me that people on here who haven't watched house md and have only heard about it through the grapevine seem to think that the asexuality episode is the only time that the show egregiously erred about a sensitive topic most people at the time knew nothing about. like i swear to god on EVERY post on here about the show being hashtag problematic there's ALWAYS someone in the comments going "and it was bad about asexuality which makes it worse!" and yes the show was bad about asexuality (i am ace. i know) and yes that happened at a time when asexuality was essentially unknown to almost everyone in america, but citing that as though it's like.... a singular event that only happened to one marginalized group who happened to be Particularly hated is like... very very Very much ignoring how frequent and systematic these writing choices were.

in curating a list of episodes to skip i'm finding archived contemporary articles written the DAY after episodes came out from various relevant organizations saying "hey!! hey!! this is the first time most of the american public has ever encountered this issue and you were fucking cruel and evil about it!!" about topics including but not limited to: asexuality, intersexism (TWICE), homophobia, Deaf culture, autism, schizophrenia, psychosis, low empathy, AIDS, and racial medical disparities. this is not the end of the list it's just the ones i can remember rn. the writers of the show did not ONLY think that asexuality doesn't exist. the writers of the show were afflicted with south-park-itis wherein every time they heard about literally any marginalized group having feelings or opinions different from the mainstream, they went, "wow, i don't like that! what's the best way to mock and belittle them as thoroughly as possible so that everyone knows that we're very very smart and know everything and these nasty people are very very stupid and deserve to be othered??"

the show doesn't Just suck about asexuality. it sucks about everything. and it's not because it's a cute tongue-in-cheek "ooo we hate everyone equally 🤗" thing. it's because the writers were actively vitriolic and cruel and inhumane about every single person they didn't care to understand. it's bad. the ace episode is not an outlier, it's par for the course for the entire series.

[redstreetsahead]

Damirae Gods AU Day 4 Damirae Week

The God of War smiled, “Beautiful.” He answered, “Death is beautiful.”

The soldier died hopeful, content.

“You flatter me,” A voice behind him announced. 

His eyes closed, relishing the sound. It had been too long since he heard her voice, since he felt her presence beside him. It soothed an ache deep within his bones, as it was only her that ever made him feel whole.

“It’s true,” He murmured softly, “The Goddess of Death is the most beautiful creature in existence.”

OR

The Goddess of Death meets the God of War at a battlefield

----------------------------------------------------------

Most soldiers didn’t deserve his respect. Sure, they threw parades in his honor, decorated his altar with the most coveted treasures in the continent, murmured his name before marching into every battle. 

But most of them were petty excuses for warriors. They prayed for victory, but lacked the courage necessary to achieve it. He was the God of War, of Courage, of Victory, of Strength, yes. But he was also the God of Honor. 

This new world was forgetting that more and more.

In every man laying dead across these fields, had seen courage, strength, violence. But so very few of them lacked honor.

He was changing that.

A pull on his ankle removed him from his musings. His sword jumped to his hand, desperate to the taste the blood of another soldier, but he recognized this man. This soldier had not prayed to him before this battle. While his allies had implored his favor, this man had prayed quietly to the Goddess of Death, his Raven, asking simply for the gift of a peaceful trip to the afterlife for everyone that would fall.

For that itself, Damian could respect this man.

But he had proven himself even further after that. On the battle field he had killed swiftly, skillfully. No unnecessary torture. He took out thirty-two opposing soldiers before he died attempting to save the life of one of his fellow countrymen.

He was a warrior. 

He had honor.

So when the soldier gestured up at him, fear evident behind his crystal eyes, Damian gripped his hand, kneeling down into the mud beside him.

He didn’t relish in this man’s death. But it was necessary. He was building a better world, and the lives of a few good men was a price he was willing to pay.

“What-“ The man coughed, grip loosening around Damian’s. “What is death like?”

The God of War smiled, “Beautiful.” He answered, “Death is beautiful.”

The soldier died hopeful, content.

“You flatter me,” A voice behind him announced. 

His eyes closed, relishing the sound. It had been too long since he heard her voice, since he felt her presence beside him. It soothed an ache deep within his bones, as it was only her that ever made him feel whole.

“It’s true,” He murmured softly, “The Goddess of Death is the most beautiful creature in existence.”

She knelt down beside him, eyes locked on the dead soldier. Her knees dug into the mud, onyx cloak billowing behind her. Her hood shielded her eyes, casting a dark shadow across her.

The legends and myths of the human world mostly cast her as a demon. They claimed she adored ripping apart families, cutting the strings of those that cherished life the most. She was reviled, hated and feared for bestowing them a mercy.

They called her a monster.

They called him a hero.

If only they knew.

Raven reached out a delicate hand, closing the soldier’s frozen eyes with a soft swipe of her fingers.

“He died at peace,” she said simply, thankful.

“He deserved to.”

They stayed like that for a moment, gazing solemnly down at the soldier who had taken his final breath. 

She rose suddenly, moving to walk through the field. He joined her. They fell into step, gazing at the miles of bodies littered across a field that used to be filled with the most beautiful of flowers. 

“Some of them were good men,” She told him.

“Most of them weren’t.”

They reached the edge of a battle: a hill. It was from this hill that the South had sprinted down to clash swords with the North. The North had won the battle, but the South had charged as if victory had been as sure as the sunrise.

She gazed out at the battlefield from atop the hill as he intertwined his hand with hers, “It’s been too long, Beloved.”

Her hood fell back as she looked up at him. He rested his hand on her cheek, lightly caressing her cheekbone with his thumb.

A soft sigh escaped her lips as she leaned into his touch, “It has only been a couple of weeks, Damian.”

“Exactly, he agreed, leaning closer to her, “Much too long.”

His lips pressed to hers as he circled his hands around her waist, pulling her flush against him. She felt so perfect against him, fitting against him like a layer of skin he never wanted to shed. She moaned against his mouth as he deepened the kiss, hands curling around his neck.

He smiled radiantly down at her as they separated, “Oh, how I have missed you”

She pressed another chaste kiss to his lips before casting her eyes back to the field. Melancholy eyes surveyed the site of the ended battle. These men were now hers to care for, souls that now belonged to her domain.

“You caused this war,” she stated. It wasn’t a question, nor an accusation, just a fact. She was right, of course. This war was too big, too bloody. This battle wasn’t even a fraction of the deaths occurring across the globe.

“This world needs to be cleansed.”

She smiled bitterly, “That same phrase has been said by some of the greatest monsters in history.”

He rested his hand on her hip, and she leaned her head against his shoulder. They had this same conversation two weeks ago, when the first battle began. After the clashing of swords ended and the sun dipped below the horizon, she arrived to deliver these souls to the realm after this one.

She’d questioned him on if he knew exactly what he was doing, asked him if when this world burned and a new one arose if it would ever truly feel his mission was completed. 

He had simply kissed her. 

“We’re supposed to be the protectors of this planet,” she continued, “We’re supposed to try and save them.” She had always been an idealist. For the Goddess of Death, she was surprisingly hopeful. Every human deserved a chance to her, even if that chance was only provided in death.

He disagreed. 

He had seen the weakness that had infiltrated the humans. Felt their cruelty, their weakness. Something had to be done.

“I am saving them.” 

She sighed heavily, leaning deeper into his shoulder.

“You’re going to cause a war amongst the gods.”

“I know.”

She stilled for a moment, her next sentence forced from her lips as if she was fearful to voice it, “If I asked you to stop, to give up this mission, would you?”

He turned towards her and saw her gaze still locked on the tragedy painted in blood beneath them. After all these years, she should'v've known his answer to that question. He reached out, fingers lightly clasping around her chin. He turned her head towards him, forcing her eyes to lock with his. She needed to see him, needed to look at him and see the truth in his eyes.

His words came out fervent, passionate, “I would do anything for you, Beloved. Anything. I want to burn this world down in the flames that these humans have been fanning since the dawn of life. I want us to sculpt a new one, a brilliant one, together. But if you don't want this—I will always choose you. Over everything."

“I don’t want this,” she answered, voice sad and strong and sure.

He believed in his mission. Wholeheartedly. But as much as he cared, as much as he wanted to save this planet, he refused to do it without her by his side. He didn’t care how perfect his world became if she wasn’t there to relish in it with him.

He brushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear, “One day, Raven, you will see that I am right.”

“Maybe,” she admitted, But that day is not today.”

He smiled softly, “I can wait.”

[distraughtlesbian]

the world if terri immortaldesires was somehow made aware of the existence of vampires prior to the beginning of book 1 and that’s why she packed up her entire life and fucked off to crimson beech. also the world if she became a vampire hunter immediately post-nexus trial shitshow