#god I love revenant

[katkeyboardmastah]

Gee I wonder what Fran meant by this-

[buttercuparry]

The tragedy of Hyangi is that she never got the taste of bliss she thought the money would buy her. And yet she was killed and her anger became the means through which the Yeom family acquired its wealth. When Hong sae says he prefers Sanyeong because she is strong ( I mean Hyangi literally is a teen but ok), I can't help but wonder how unfair it is that in this world strength, decency, genuineness for those who suffer poverty is so connected with how they react to this lack and what they do to get out of it. Surely the voice pishing offender was a terrible terrible person. He conned people out of their money and we see how distraught Sanyeong and her mom was when they fell victim to him. But what pushed him to be a scammer? To not think of the ruin he brings to others, even to people who already have so little? Greed yes, but what might have sparked that greed?

Hyangi was terrible. She sold her sister to the shaman for money. A poisoned fruit that ultimately brought no luck but death to her family ( at least I think so). And yet was it not her who was initially marked for death? Given a hair accessory that typically would have signified a wish for a girl to have a good life and yet it was a betrayal as it damned her to a cruel death ( sold by the villagers who would have stood by and watched her die). Why shouldn't she then play the same game? Afterall was it not the insatiable greed of the Yeom family that created for her the opportunity of not only ridding herself of her little sister by making Mokdan bear the curse of death, but also to get money out of it? I mean it's not like it mattered to the villagers which of the Lee girls became lamb to the slaughter...

Sanyeong was the "good" poor. She locked her desires tightly in herself. Never letting herself be frivolous. Working 24/7 only to get home, have her dinner, study and sleep. Again rinse, repeat, the next day. She went to no clubs, went on no dates, got herself nothing. She smiled, she bowed, she broke her back, kept those screams inside her and became so miserable that in the last episode we find out that all along she was suicidal. Strength...? How can the measure of blood filling our mouth be strength?

[emdotcom]

Agony, chat; if I want to understand Post-Shift 2 better, I have to actually go back & fully understand Post-Shift 1.

[libraryleopard]

Young adult fantasy novel

In a world where an order of nuns train to fight the ravenous ghosts that roam the land, a young trainee awakens an ancient spirit from a saint’s relic and must harness its power to defeat an ominous enemy growing in power

Immersive world-building & a thoughtful exploration of religion and childhood trauma

TFW the ancient entity of dark power residing in your brain forces you to practice self care

Aroace-coded main character (also maybe autistic/neurodivergent-coded?)

No romance

[winepresswrath]

One of my favourite things about the locked tomb is the way it depicts love in the context of other people. Harrow loves Alecto loves John who feels some kind of way (tbd) about Gideon who loves Harrow, who is John's favourite. Nonalecto thinks Gideon is overrated but wants to be kissed enough to be kissable and Gideon makes friendship bracelets with Ianthe who wants to marry Harrow and whose sister is the other half of soul and her sickest obsession and her Barbie doll in a tower. Coronabeth is in love with Judith, who went to all their birthday parties. Judith is too sensible to have great loves, but the only people who really get to love in isolation are Gideon and Harrow and they mostly choose not to at the time. They're too busy being choked by trauma and duty and the miserable grind of isolation and loneliness. It's when we see them in the context of other people in Canaan house that the love becomes obvious. Love in the ecosystem of community. Ten thousand years of polycule hell. The most loyal man in the world being constantly torn between his two best friends, only to end up in a love triangle featuring bestie #1 and a woman desperately trying to kill bestie #2. There's no one it's safe to kill because everybody loves somebody. There's no vengeance that only targets the deserving.

[lovevalley45]

does elias stormborn know his (ex?) wife is out there being a whole ass dark lady of an alternate plane. i don't remember if hardwon told him in that scene from the finale but either way i feel like if he knew he'd be like. hell yeah

[emotional-engine]

today i leaned we can equip armor pieces to our drifters, so i made mine match with my favorite frame Revenant

[shadowyhideoutpeace]

Moon Knight Fic Recs.

LIST FULL PART 2

Fluff

Plenty of cuddles for everyone

Chamber of Reflection

Birdy

Because I'm in Love with You

Love You the Same

From Dust

Head over heels Steven Grant

the morning after

for all you give (i’ll give it back to you)

love you like the sun came out

Comfort

cuddle quota

Just a Kiss

Best day of my life

Frightful

Stargazing

Dyed Hair Disaster

Roses for The Strange Man

Coffee and Kisses

Secret Identities pt.2

Keep The Secret?

sky and stars (AO3)

clumsy

Moments - Part 2

Moon Nights

here with you

Won’t Say I’m In Love

The Tongue Thing

Dress Up

drunk

"did you bring a jacket?"

HAVING A BABY WITH OSCAR ISAAC’S CHARACTERS

Angst

Softcore

Loss

Everything

Comfort

Spare Key

Panic

Resolutions | 𝚊𝚙𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚘𝚜𝚒𝚜 | Aspiration

Smoke and Mirrors | The truth is Rarely Kind (S&M pt.2) | pt. 3

𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬

you know it's not the same | as it was

Lioness —> Moon Knight

Old friends → moon knight

perfect strangers

Bloody Hands

Scarred

Hospital Bed Confessions

Loveless God

An Eye For An Eye

Finishing the Job

Night Owl

dlz ; jake lockley.

Opia

Homecoming

You're my emergency

Stop Dead

“i’m tired of having to pretend we hate each other.”

the break-up

Blood at the corner of your mouth

Deserve

Smut

Too Good to be True

Fit To Burst

where lust ends, and love begins

While We Untangle

Cant fight the moonlight

Keep your vigils on the road

Monday mornings

fire & desire

Where To, Miss?

Gift of Min

THANK GODS (I) | THANK GODS (II)

First-Aid

Series

Red Flags

Moonstuck (AO3)

Moonknight/Eternals Crossover *

Reverence for the moon

GHOST-BLOOD//REVENANT: MASTERPOST

Sleep With Me, Anytime

Make Your Acquaintance Masterlist

Goodbye, My Dear Stranger

My You-niverse

Full Masterlists

obnoxioussmiley's Moonknight masterlist

Bibli0thecary Moonknight masterlist

Charnelhouse Moonknight Masterlist (SMUT 18+)

Bensolosbluesaber's Moonknight Masterlist

Stormkobra-5's Moonknight Masterlist

Blurbs/HCs

Living With Steven Grant Would Include…

HC for the other moon Boys reacting to the reader saying they’re pregnant

Head cannons abt the moon boys for the soul <3

[shayberri789]

My theory on the NtN ending:

Cassiopeia wasn't the only one to betray Jod thousands of years ago. She wasn't the only one to see that what Jod was doing was wrong and put plans in place to deal with it.

Anastasia the first almost had perfect lyctorhood and watched her God kill her cavalier in front of her so she couldn't do it. Maybe she really would have died. Maybe she would have gone the paul route. Maybe she would have survived and Samael would still be around. But he was killed in front of her and she had no say in it.

Alecto was odd, and a little dangerous, but she's the soul of the earth and if Jod could kill the most important person to Anastasia of course he could kill the thing who loved humanity so much she gave them power over life and death.

And when the Lyctors were convincing him to kill his pet revenent beast, the pin point of his greatest sin and a being in constant pain and hurt, maybe Anastasia, the one left behind, the one maybe magicked to silence through a sewn tongue, cursed jaw, felt sympathy and kinship with Alecto. Maybe she knew Jod would never truly kill Alecto. Maybe she was the first person in hundreds if not thousands and millions of years to look at Alecto with compassion and actually say "I will help you if only you tell me how". Maybe she made a promise to protect Alecto, maybe she made a promise to look after her while she sleeps. Maybe she made a promise that one day she'd come and wake Alecto up and they'd solve things together. Maybe one day they can undo what John did and maybe Alecto can have peace, finally, one day. And maybe Alecto swore that for the debt of waking her again she would do anything for Anastasia, any one thing, if Anastasia woke her up in a time when things could change.

But by the time Anastasia, frail with her necromancer build and squirreled away at the edge of the solar system, started reaching old age she realized it was too soon to wake her up. Too soon to send her into the lyctor viper pit again, not while Anastasia was so weak. So she tasks her daughter with guarding the tomb. "This door must stay shut until the day comes when the emperor must die" she says, and her daughter repeats this to her son, and so on and so forth until the body in the locked tomb becomes Armageddon. Not locked away for her own protection, not awaiting the day for the tomb keeper to wake her up and try again, not awaiting the day when the nine houses get to restart. No, she's the greatest enemy of god, she must be locked away lest she start Armageddon, locked away for the protection of the emperor and their duties to her tomb an icon for devotion.

But the bloodwards hold for 10000 years and one day the curse of silence will be lifted from the jaw of the ninth house tomb keeper, and the oath to Alecto is preserved in the Anastasian bloodline. And the daughter of the tomb keeper has awakened the monster once again

[valtsv]

i love these passages so, so much, because practically all of the main six POV characters at some point bring up the idea of a "reckoning" in season three - there needs to be a reckoning, there will be a reckoning, i will bring a reckoning down upon them - but it's so wonderfully fitting that, in the end, that reckoning doesn't take the form of the actions of a single individual, but the rotten foundations on which both countries are built finally rising to consume them. angry ghosts returning to haunt their makers. even VAL, who facilitates both the bombing of Nesh, the capital of the Linger Straits, and the change in direction of the Peninsulan god-winds - and who is herself an angry revenant; a physical manifestation of the appalling systematic abuses and cruelties inflicted daily, unthinkingly, distilled and made flesh - isn't directly or solely responsible for what happens next. she merely accelerated the inevitable. in the end, it isn't gods, or saints, or lone actions of outstanding heroism or villainy that bring down the system on its own head, but people. only people, and nothing else. and it is people who must help each other to survive, and to rebuild a better world. nothing else.

[partycatty]

liu kang > not her

i wonder what liu kang would do if he chose you in the new era, but comes across his kitana when the timeline is in danger

warning: OW. liu kang is THE MOST tragic character in the entire franchise and i made sure you all see it too.

notes: take a shot every time i say "timeline" (you will die)

masterlist

• when liu kang created the new timeline, he was sure to lean you on the side of justice. you had never caught his eye before, but something about your... essence. it drew him in like no other. perhaps he was too enamored with kitana to not notice your own beauty. your ideals matched his and your conversations were endless if given the opportunity.

• falling in love is a hard thing to do when your life is infinite, but liu kang swore to be by your side until your body leaves the mortal realm. thankfully, you were edenian, so there was plenty of time to spend together.

• he would hold your hand as you two walked along the fire garden, but you noticed liu kang's eyes were... distant. his glowing eyes were noticeably dull as he seemed lost in thought.

• "my lord," you gently say, squeezing his hand. "is there something on your mind?"

• liu smiles down at you, a warmth filling his body at the use of his title. it sounded like honey dripping from your voice, at least to him.

• "your presence puts me at ease, my love," liu replies with an undertone of sadness. "but i am... worried. with titan shang tsung endangering the realms, a solution is lost to me. every force in this timeline would not stand a chance against him."

• "in this timeline," you trail off, trying to help. a mortal could only do so much to help a god. "the existence of a titan shang tsung implicates the existence of more possibilities, does it not?"

• liu kang stops walking, dropping your hand as he seems to process your suggestion.

• "how could i have not seen it sooner?" he asks, his tone wavering from his typical mannerism. "of course. there exists multiple timelines, one where each one of us is a titan. i could get their assistance..." he grins down at you. "i am not the only keeper of time in the universe. you are a genius, my dear."

• even still, his gaze is distant. the memories of his past life, before kronika, before being a revenant... they still ached deep within him. he had to say goodbye to all he knew for the betterment of the universe, and it's not something he prefers to talk about often. mourning a lost loved one is one thing, but losing eons worth of history in front of your eyes hurts far more than anything you could ever comprehend.

• he eagerly opens a portal to the hourglass, where you both step through arm in arm. he looks at you apologetically, releasing his grip on your arm and flourishing in front of the hourglass, the sand whirling behind the glass. he knew who to summon first. you step aside to give him room to work.

• kitana appears after being assembled by the sands of her time. she had the face of the outworld princess, but not the outfit. something about her felt different. this was the titan kitana. your jaw drops. panicked, she exclaims the name of the man before her, only glancing over at you, considering you two were not familiar in the previous timeline.

• "easy, kitana, you are among friends," liu kang reassures, holding his hands out to defuse her confusion. you're awestruck. "you're a long way from home, a different timeline to be precise."

• kitana can only ask more questions, wondering how exactly liu kang is a keeper of the hourglass like herself. her memories of kronika's disruption of time seem fuzzy.

• "the battle for the hourglass must have ripped apart time's fabric," you explain gently, not all too familiar with the incident but knowledgeable enough from the conversations you and liu would share in the gardens as his head rested on your lap, your fingers entangled in his hair.

• liu kang fills in the gaps, explaining everything necessary for her to understand. kitana turns to the hourglass, and then liu.

• "if many timelines sprung from one, and we were both part of it, then you are..." her voice breaks as she steps closer. "...you are my liu kang."

• your presence is completely ignored now as the realizations spawn in. liu kang stands, completely still as kitana assembles the puzzle pieces.

• "the same one that battled you in shang tsung's courtyard, who fought at your side at the koliseum," liu kang is now returning the gesture, stepping closer to the woman. you feel your stomach twist and turn. "who beamed with pride when you became outworld's kahn."

• she grabs his hand, squeezing the same way you do when you seek reassurance from your liu kang. your liu kang. your timeline. not hers. kitana leans into him, but liu kang steps back from the attempt at a kiss. he still holds her hand as a gesture of kindness, but twists his body to face you. you're pale, wringing your hands. the entire situation makes you uneasy. you wonder if your advice should have stayed in your throat.

• "and this is my (reader)," liu kang introduces you to her. "in our timeline, you two had only met briefly. now, she is by my side, just as you were." you feel a pang in your chest at his careful choice of words. never did he expect to see his kitana again, but he couldn't just drop everything to be with her. not when time itself is unstable. but even still, seeing her in the flesh now after being a mere memory for eons, he feels the undying urge to hold her close.

• kitana frowns, pulling away. "why does fate seem always to conspire against us?" she asks in a brokenhearted whisper, fists clenching and unclenching at the sight of you. "to deny us life's simple pleasures?"

• liu kang thinks back to before everything began. training alongside kung lao, taking in the wise words of raiden, and the little moments to be spared where he could hold onto kitana, for even just a moment. but now, he was forced to be the protector, to give raiden the life he should have had. the current kitana belongs to raiden now, just as liu kang once was. why he didn't keep her to himself, he'll never truly understand.

• "i don't know," he finally replies, eyes drinking in the sight of the woman he thought he'd lost forever. "perhaps, in one of the many timelines, they are ours."

• you honestly feel as if you could throw up at the sight. the man that dedicated his every moment to you was now deeply longing the touch of another. blaming him is something you can't even bring yourself to do, either. if you had lost it all, surely you would crave just one more taste of what could've been.

• the inner turmoil he's going through is evident on his expression. who to choose, if any? would the fate of the universe, and all timelines within it crumble should he choose titan kitana... his kitana? liu kang spins around to get a good look at you.

• "in this timeline, i choose to protect what i have," he says finally, stepping toward you and holding your hands in his. he analyzes every imperfection, every curve on your features. he seems... content. "i've seen everything i love be pulled from my grasp. never again."

• his words touch your heart, and you feel comforted knowing that he would not be whisked away from you as simply as that. however, despite his certainty, you cannot brush the observation that he misses what could've been aside. you were crafted by him, beautiful and charming, capturing his attention easily.

• but god, his kitana. she captured his heart eons ago, and liu kang isn't sure he could let go just yet.

[capnsoapy]

i have become unhealthily obsessed with trying to categorise the Nine Resurrection Beasts

• In Harrow the Ninth, chapter two, John Gaius tells Harrow there are nine Beasts. He says that they have killed five and that there are three left. Harrow mentally notes that the maths don't add up, but knowing that Alecto is an RB makes it compute (3 out there, 5 dead, 1 imprisoned). Although frustratingly, John only enumerates three of the dead (Two, Six, and Eight), leaving six RBs left to sort; one is Alecto, two are dead, and three are threats.

• In Harrow the Ninth, chapter thirty-six, the Lyctors encounter the Seventh RB, and in planning for this showdown recount some of their previous attempts at fighting RBs; the late Two, Six, and Eight, as well as One and Four. This confirms that Seven is alive, and that One and Four are not Alecto. In this same chapter, Seven is described as both "brood of [Six]" and "packmate of [Eight]", implying some close connection between this string of numbers but nothing concrete.

• In Nona the Ninth, Nona/Alecto speaks with the Seventh Beast, and refers to it by name; Varun. With Waruna being the old Malay name for Neptune, and Varuna being the Hindu God of the seas, this pretty solidly points to the Seventh RB being the revenant soul of Neptune. Varun recognises Nona/Alecto as being the revenant of Earth also.

So all that tells us is;

Described as "a great and incoherent machine".

Dead.

Unknown.

Described as "a humanoid creature with a beautiful face".

Unknown.

Dead.

Alive. Revenant of Neptune.

Dead.

Unknown.

Two of 1, 3, 4, 5, and 9 are dead. My guess is 1 and 4; Mercymorn doesn't explicitely say that they are killed but they're mentioned alongside the three confirmed kills. One of 3, 5, or 9 must be Alecto. My guess is 9; simply due to the "the Ninth" suffix for Nona and Alecto needing to refer to something. Also, it's plausible that her identity as an RB went unknown until after the other eight had been indexed.

So if you add some speculation (canon in bold, guesswork in italics), you get;

Dead

Dead

Alive

Dead

Alive

Dead

Alive (Neptune)

Dead

Alive (Earth)

The trail runs cold there. The only thing left to do is speculate wildly based on the physical descriptions of the Beasts let's go!

The Second Beast "spewed quicksilver...". Quicksilver is the planetary metallic name for mercury, so 2 = Mercury. The Fourth Beast had "a beautiful face". Beauty = love and love = Venus so 4 = Venus. The First Beast had "swords for wings". Swords are for war and so 1 = Mars. The Sixth Beast had "enormous sphincters". So. 6 = Uranus. The Eighth Beast "was red, and it had a single eye". Possibly referring to the Great Red Spot? So 8 = Jupiter.

And... I think that's about as far as I can go.

Dead (Mars)

Dead (Mercury)

Alive (Saturn/Pluto)

Dead (Venus)

Alive (Saturn/Pluto)

Dead (Uranus)

Alive (Neptune)

Dead (Jupiter)

Alive (Earth)

If any of this wild speculation disagrees with yours. I fully believe that Tamsyn has left us enough breadcrumbs to connect the planets, the houses, the saints, and the beasts together and we just need to find them

...

oh, and what about the Sun?

[aclickbaittitle]

What do Fiction Podcasts have to say about the future?

Whenever you write a story set years from now, how you construct the world around it creates a new way to see the future, a fictional image to a reality we could be headed towards.

Fiction podcasts love to play within the sci-fi genre, and the thousands of audio dramas they have given us new pictures of what our world could look like in the next century (or a few years closer).

In this article I want to analyze the settings in the following shows: Hello from the Hallowoods, Desperado and The Strange Case of Starship Iris.

Hello From the Hallowoods

Hello From the Hallowoods welcomes us to a world ravaged by black rains and capitalism’s greed. After a natural (but man-made) disaster involving acid rain and flooding the world’s successions gave birth to two different types of beings: those who prefer to dream in a company’s “Prime Dream” and those who stay awake to continue living.

Even though the world is post-apocalyptic on paper, it never feels like it. Rather it is enchanted, there are woods where gods, revenants, devils, giants and zombies fall in love with themselves and with each other, places where community is found.

This, I attribute this to the fact that most characters don’t lament a nebulous “end of the world”, since this is the world they have always been living in and they are going to make the best of it: find family, friends, lovers, build homes and destroy bigots.

You leave the world of Hello From the Hallowoods knowing that even a doomed world is worthy of being awake for.

Desperado Podcast

Desperado Podcast also takes us to a world that was looted, but this time mainly by religious colonialism. 

Neo-colionalism has made itself tangible through genocides and direct targeting to believers that worship other than the “Old man in the Sky”.  In its first episode a community in México which revere La Catrina (a goddess in the show inspired by a popular figure in mexican art) is wiped out by the crusaders. 

From there our protagonist Elio is the sole survivor of his people, however all is not lost as he teams up with Talia (the chosen of Baron Samedi) and Shinji (whom I believe is a death kami?).

Elio now literally carries the memories of his community as the vessel for her goddess. Likewise in Desperado, the magic of the characters is the legacy their ancestors gave them, and it is what keeps them alive in the violent world. 

Though if we are ever to worry that our protagonist could fall into its clutches, the structure of the world soothes our preoccupations. You see, it is the characters within the story that are narrating their own experiences to the audience so we know that after all the pain, they ended up safe.

What Desperado tells us about the future is that, even with the ongoing genocides, white-washing of our culture, and neo-colonialism in general we will end up victorious in the end, and that our history will be forever within our memory.

The Strange Case of Starship Iris

The Strange Case of Starship Iris, is the most sci-fi audio drama out of the bunch. It follows the crew of the Rumour, a smuggler's ship, as they try to uncover the dark secrets of the Federation and evade persecution.

As with the other two properties, the future is not an easy world, but our characters are making the most of it.

In a post-war galaxy, the crew of the Rumour is smuggling space-ship parts, medicine, and erotic magazines until they find a help alarm coming from the Starship Iris and rescue biologist Violet Liu. From there they are involved in a mystery which, if the truth comes to life, they could be charged with treason against the Intergalactic Republic. 

Throughout the two seasons of the podcast, Violet Liu and company heal together the scars that the war and its result: the Intergalactic Republic left them. They fight against the government not only through robberies, infiltration, and coordinated efforts with rebel groups but also by eating latkes, drinking, singing shanties, and getting gay jewish married.

To conclude

if queer podcasts are telling us something about the future, it is that it may be equally messed up as the present but that queer, disabled people of color will exist beyond the end of the world and that even in the bleakest of futures we will continue to love and thrive.

[kpopscatterbrain]

Kdramas i've watched this year

Some of these are older dramas but i'm a procrastinator

Black Knight (2023): Loved this one! I have watched it probably 5 times now. Kim Woobin kicking ass is all i need!

Under the Queen's Umbrella (2022): I didn't watch this when it aired (no idea why). I was worried that the plot would be overrun by romance but thankfully i was wrong. Loved Kim Hye-Soo's performance (i cried a little).

Island seasons 1 & 2 (2022-2023): Honestly i only started this one for Kim Nam-Gil. I loved the cast, but the flow of the plot was a little off (don't know how, i can't put a finger on it). Was positively suprised by Cha Eun-Woo's acting, i think he needs more roles like this! Hot villain alert no.1! Sung Joon as a bad guy is either a blessing or a curse. Cgi could have been better.

Taxi Driver season 2 (2023): Loved the first season so of course i had to watch the second one. Love Lee Je-Hoon. Love the main characters. Love the plot and the message of this drama. A masterpiece. Waiting for season 3.

Weak Hero Class 1 (2022): Only heard of this drama wayyy after it aired (thanks tiktok) and god does it deserve every award there is! I was a bit hesitant because Park Ji-Hoon was the main lead, but boy was i wrong because his talent got me speechless (weren't we all). I cried, i cheered, i shadowboxed, i cried a little more and in the end i called my therapist. Thankfully season 2 is coming.

Bloodhounds (2023): Woo Do-whan and Lee Sang-Yi in the same drama beating people up? Yes please! The plot wasn't mindblowing, but sometimes just simple ass kicking is enough. Bromance was bromancing. Park Sung-Woong with another great villain character.

Revenant (2023): After dropping Mr.Sunshine i wanted to see Kim Tae-ri in other dramas, so when this aired i gave it a go. Her range is phenomenal! I have only seen couple spookier dramas, so i made a mistake and watched this at night (slept with the lights on). The eerie vibes and plot twists were well made. Hong Kyung had great chemistry with Kim Tae-ri and his cop role was refreshing to see after his performance in Weak Hero Class (if you know you know).

Flower of Evil (2020): Okay, this is one of the dramas i procrastinated hard on. It's been sitting on my "have to watch" list since it aired and i'm the only one to blame (i hype up a drama in my mind, then don't want to watch it because now i'm afraid it doesn't go the way i think it does and then i get disappointed blaablaablaa). This year i finally got over myself and why. didn't. i. watch. it. sooner!!!! It is all i ever wanted in a kdrama. 1. serial killers 2. a psychopath (but is he really?) w/ an effed up childhood 3. mindgames 4. marriage problems (but has a lot of soft & cute scenes) 5. Lee Joon-Gi. Also as a plus (hot villain alert no.2) the bad guy is kindaa (i'm sane i swear). I would be lying if i didn't say that i found the wife slightly annoying (might be me, but she went too much back & forth and sometimes i had to take a breather while watching), but all in all this drama will be hard to top and i fell in love with Lee Joon-Gi.

Moving (2023): Honestly one of the best dramas of the year. I don't usually really go for plots that have a lot of romance in them (if you haven't noticed), but i found this one to be really well balanced and the romance scenes weren't "cringy". Although Bong-Seok and Hui-Soo were great and had great chemistry, i looooved the background stories of the parents. Park Hee-Soon also pops up as kind of a non-villain villain. I hope there is a season 2.

Song of the Bandits (2023): Kim Nam-Gil again. 1920s Korea and gunslingers... what more could i need? After Mr. Sunshine left me with a disappointment (this might be an unpopular opinion) i craved for a drama set around the same time period, but with a little less romance (i know, i am defective). I think dramas should explore this time period more, but i understand it might still be a touchy subject. The skills of the cast were obviously great, Kim Nam-Gil killed his role like always, but Lee Ho-Jung as Eon-Nyeon shined with her performance (i am now a new fan). Hot villain alert no.3! I have seen Lee Hyun-Wook in Remarriage & Desires and seeing him as a villain made me feel things. If there isn't a second season i will cry.

The Killing Vote (2023): A "serial killer" in a dog mask making the public vote on punishing criminals and everyone suspects each other? Cyber crime? Chemistry between two cops? Major hot villain (no.4)? Sign me up. I love when crime dramas make you question your people reading skills (i have the tism so i really got none) and have all kinds of theories flying around. I liked that even Kim Mu-Chan and Joo Hyun had obvious chemistry between them it didn't overshadow the main point of the plot. I liked Seo Young-Joo's delivery and i hope he gets more bigger roles. Kim Kwon.... why does the psychopath have to be hot? He also needs more bigger roles. !spoiler! Also Park Sung-Woong killing (heh) yet another morally grey character.

The Worst of Evil (2023): Okay, first of all i have to say... the wife ruined everything (some agree and some don't). We get another bromance duo of the year with Wi Ha-Joon and Ji Chang-Wook. Loved the crime organization infiltration plot, heavily despised the romance plot (sorry Bibi baby). I was constantly on the edge of my seat and the characters started to get so morally grey that in the end everyone needs group therapy. Action scenes were chefs kiss. A honorable mention goes for Lee Shin-Ki as Seo Jong-Ryul (or Chief Seo, knife guy, the man has many names) and Bibi for her performance as Lee Hae-Ryeon.

Evilive (2023): Heavily underrated. Kim Young-Kwang doing what he does best, playing a psychopath. This combined with a bromance plot with the one and only bromance master Shin Ha-Kyun? I'm sold. The dramas literal title "villain story" really sums up the plot. Sometimes you are not sure who to cheer for. Sometimes you are not really sure about your own sanity. But to be fair, so aren't the main characters.

Vigilante (2023): Love it. Currently re-watching it. Needs more attention. Needs more episodes. I'm in love with Nam Joo-Hyuk. The best crime drama of the year, the title is all i needed to hear. Beating up criminals in well made action scenes is my favorite genre. No romance. One sided bromance? Morally grey characters (am i repeating myself now?). Yoon Ji-Tae as a beefy cop and Lee Joon-Hyuk as a slightly insane admirer? If we don't get a season 2 i will start a riot.

[justporo]

Poro,

Do you ever think about what Astarion looks like when hunting small prey like rabbits? Does he do his little gremlin run? Or does he run like a horse girl who pretends to be a horse?

Hey Andie, first of all:

FGBBGEBGFWEG, HORSE GIRL??

Omg, can you imagine. For real though, I mean he hasn't really hunted anything of consequence for two hundred years. Maybe I am trying to rationalise his stupid way of running away (don't get me wrong, I love when he's being cringe lol) but I do imagine him being more like a cat being ready to pounce.

But I do have more thoughts about him hunting.

For starters we all know the bear scene. Not only does he seem drunk on all that blood but it also sounds like he enjoyed hunting and taking down a bear - like the actual thrill of the hunt. And bears are fucking MASSIVE (insert obvious reference to DiCaprio and The Revenant here), even for a vampire spawn (a debuffed one at least) it's a feat to achieve. So what I am trying to say is: he didn't even *really* hunt while he was under Cazador, he's never really gotten to feel either that predatory thrill nor does he have any real experience.

So here's my personal headcanon for how Astarion feeds himself after the events of the game:

As he's settld down with Tav in Baldur's Gate (at least in my personal HC and for the time being) I guess it would be pretty time consuming to always go out hunting in the woods every night. I would absolutely assume Astarion doesn't take the blood of innocents - even without killing them - since he's had enough of hurting them under Cazador. If people give blood willingly, that's game, or foes of course.

I could imagine they find a local butcher and source blood from there, somewhere in the Lower City where people don't ask questions about what the hells they wanna do with all that blood from the butchering ("Cult or something? Gods above and below, please not another...").

Is that very tasty? Well depends probably but mostly it's okay, enough to nurture Astarion and still better than vermin...

Obviously - and this is something that irks me in canon - Astarion can't take Tav's blood each and every single night (I mean yeah, lesser restoration and such but I like to think that it's still unrealistic). This is more like a special treat to Astarion: like a good wine, a rich dessert (maybe spicy even, if you get what I'm saying).

Sometimes Astarion does go out for a good hunt though, every once in a while. Because that's the only way to get fresh blood in abundance. It's also a way he can embrace his more animalistic side, enjoy a good hunt - without feeling guilty about it. And I like to think he embraces this part of himself a bit more and gets to thrive in it a little.

Oh and also can you imagine how an Astarion, still riled up from a demanding hunt comes home to Tav in their joint bed - blood still smeared all over him....?

Because *I* can....

[eaudecrow]

Well, I promised context to anyone who begged sweetly, and that’s sweet though for me. (I say as if I haven’t been dying to rant about them for weeks.)

The short story: The Target, aka Din, is the assassination target of Father Kilter’s adopted revenant kid, Pigeon. If Din dies, both they and Pidge will rot in an existence worse than hell, as the unjust death and necromancy magic fuses their souls together in eternal agony. Kilter stays in contact with Din via Sending and Dream spells to keep the two apart (and manages to steal their heart by being wet and pathetic and teaching them how to care).

The full story (buckle the fuckle up):

So. The Target. They have what we’ll call a… justified god complex. As the self-appointed harbinger of truth, they run around exposing secrets and toppling corrupt governments for the betterment of the world. Unfortunately, this makes them public enemy number one. So what did they do to keep themself safe?

Trade away their face, of course.

The Target bargained with Truth itself. They would give it their long-lived service, in exchange for the power to mete out justice and a face that cannot be remembered. The moment you look away, you forget it.

Now their enemies have a new problem to contend with. How do you kill someone who can’t be found or even identified? The answer comes in the form of a revenant: a being so hellbent on killing one person, it always knows their target’s position, regardless of what magic is used to hide them. And this target is so important to eliminate that a necromancy cult artificially manufactures one to go after them.

Enter Pidge.

For a while, the only thing Father Kilter could do when the Target got too close was hold Pigeon as they scratched and stabbed and clawed, trying to bring about their own end as well as some random stranger’s. He had no idea who the target was, no way to contact them and keep them far, far away from his kid, no way to keep them safe—so he jumped at the chance to spy on them when they happened to pass within viewing distance.

One poorly-timed hunting snare later, and Kilter was left hanging upside down, before their horse, at their mercy.

Luckily they seemed inclined to have mercy. Despite Kilter’s terrible attempts at lying and generally suspicious nervous energy, their curiosity was piqued. They let him down. They joined him for some wine, even, introducing themself as “Din”. The two had a chat that started with each trying to subtly pick the other apart, and ended with Kilter completely losing that battle—so desperate for a semblance of help and genuine connection, that he spilled his backstory and his secrets to this literally faceless stranger. All they had to do was touch his knee and say “you aren’t alone” and he was FINISHED. In the end, he had no choice but to trust that they had good intentions and the means with which to act upon them.

That’s where things are at in the canon campaign. Outside of that, @couchtaro and I have been going FERAL over future things such as:

Kilter finally being able to touch someone bare-handed in their shared Dreamscape

Them providing Kilter a place to sleep without being haunted by Pestilence’s manipulative nightmares, and it somehow devolving into cuddles

To get around the face enchantment, Kilter reading the arch of their nose and brow and lips like braille, memorizing the shape of their scar so that he can recognize them by touch

The Target’s myriad 14-foot thick, adamantium emotional barriers getting blasted to itty bitty pieces by Kilter fixing their blood-loss-induced hypothermia with his own body heat

They’re so suspicious of each other right now. Little do they know they’re in for a rollercoaster of learning what it means to love, and by proxy what it means to live. Thanks for asking @booksandberries!