#i think she wouldve done it anyway at that point

[lucabyte]

making posts about headcanons that have basically no textual backing makes me itchy but someday i should probably elaborate on my opinion that "mirabelle being aroace is the one thing keeping her oblivious to the fact that the dormont house of change is the religious coven equivalent to fleetwood mac"

[toastsnaffler]

ykw actually I am angry + disappointed w them. I've been pushing how I feel aside and trying to make it my own fault so it's all contained but I think theyve just been mean. and they really should know me better ik I try to pretend I don't expect more from them so I feel less hurt when they do things that upset me but we've been friends for years by this point. like come on.

[love-songs-for-emma]

🗡️👨🏼‍❤️‍👨🏻 🦌🫀

.

.

.

so. john has finally seen mizumono & now receives msgs like this when even mildly prompted

[malewifesband]

as big as the friend confession scene is i love this part best. laios is ofc still under the impression that kabru likes monster food and went thru this big effort to make something special for him and then kabru goes out of his way to be so warm and sweet, and frankly a bit flirtatious like i know he thinks that exit killed it

and hes kinda right bc laios cannot stop staring after him when he leaves and i cannot attribute all that to him being confused about what kabru meant by "dont forget me next time". like laios means it if he says something like "meeting you was the best part of this" those are not empty words even if hes under a false impression about kabru--i dont think its just that kabru shared his interest that has his attention either. i think its bc kabru really engaged with him. i dont think his opinion wouldve changed much if kabru said "nahhhh im good i wont eat a monster cool for you tho have fun" instead of saying he would try it

(and he really is trying the 'laugh at anything he says so he'll feel special' strat here huh.....)

and kabru despite being a stranger he helped get thru to shuro about falins resurrection

and he does it with a sensitivity and care that laios wishes he was capable of and he know it limits him as a leader

the thought laios keeps having about kabru isnt "wow he loves monsters too!" its "wow he is sooooo nice :3" which he is! at this stage he likes kabru bc he feels heard by him and kabru has qualities he knows he lacks but admires greatly and didnt make fun of him or call him weird for his interest in monsters

the way kabru acts and thinks about laios at this point feels allegorical to how people feel in new relationships. can i trust you? are you who you seem? if i tell you how ive been hurt, will you use this to hurt me or to protect me? i dont know yet, but i like you so far, so im going to show you the self that i think you'll like best. i want to impress you. i want you to trust me so maybe i can trust you

so much of dungeon meshi is about the way that we accidentally hurt our loved ones because we cant always understand them, or we dont know whats best for them when theyve been hurt in such complex ways, or because were too scared of being hurt again to tell them not to press into the bruise (see: chimera falin, falin giving up parts of her life to suit/protect marcille and laios bc she loves them, laios driving marcille deeper into the winged lions grip TWICE with his advice in the nightmares and again with the dungeon rabbits, everything chilchuck has ever done in his whole life, laios' father's everything also, and this is a labru post so ofc kabru lying about wanting to eat monsters to impress laios) i wouldnt be surprised if the allegory was intentional

anyways this part of their relationship budding into a toxic little flower theyll have to prune later is very cute to me and i really like reading it again knowing how they turn their relationship around later into one built on a mutual understanding and trust

[weirdmageddon]

yesterday i wrote a scene where jade wasnt a plot device and was left the hell alone in A6A5 because this being dave and jade’s last proper conversation in years made me sad and i wanted to see them reunite properly. i mixed a bit of narration in too even though it was rare around this point in the comic but its just to paint a better picture. also i wouldnt mind feedback on character voice (it’s important to me that the dialogue sounds believable)

[3 years are over, everyone is in the new session. The prospit ship is on LOMAX, as is everyone who arrived on the meteor, safely warped by Jade onto LOMAX as well. Jade has banished B2 Jack to the Furthest Ring already. She hasn't seen her friends in 3 years, not to mention she never met the trolls in person yet.]

[Jade teleports to LOMAX where John was talking with the meteor crew. Her eyes widen when she sees the trolls, giving everyone a greeting. Jade waves to the trolls.]

You’ll have time to catch up with them later. First you want to reconvene with Rose and Dave.

> ==>

Dave... Oh my god! DAVE!!! That’s right! The last time you saw him, he died in your arms after Jack redirected the bullets from your gun into his body!

JADE: dave!!!! DAVE: hey DAVE: this has been three years coming hasnt it DAVE: cmere

> ==>

[Dave hugs Jade with a slight grin on face. He notices her… sniffing him?? but doesn’t even bother to question it.]

JADE: it is so nice to hold your body when its not a corpse :) DAVE: ok DAVE: weird thing to say DAVE: actually who am i kidding who gives a shit DAVE: i almost forgot how much i missed the enigmatic riddlefuckery that is your phrasing DAVE: fortunately i have context for this so i know what youre saying DAVE: humor me for a sec and imagine that i didnt DAVE: but first DAVE: are those dog ears JADE: yes! i am part dog now JADE: because i prototyped my dreamself with becsprite JADE: jadesprite became part of me! and so did her doggy traits from bec DAVE: got it DAVE: oh yeah john mentioned that on the back of his dumb poster inside that bucket that appeared out of thin air DAVE: right before we had to haul ass out of there before jack caught up to us DAVE: karkat had a complete fucking meltdown over that btw i wish you couldve seen it DAVE: damn it feels like so long ago now JADE: heheheh i remember JADE: john realized it at the last second but it was too late! DAVE: of course it was johns idea only he could do something that gooberish DAVE: you know what this means though JADE: yup!! woof woof DAVE: it means youve done it harley DAVE: youve finally done it god damn it DAVE: the evolution of humankind is finally upon us DAVE: the scientists said it would never happen in our lifetime DAVE: but look what we have here DAVE: before me stands mans first legitimate furry subspecies DAVE: homo canis DAVE: as the name implies theyre gay as fuck btw DAVE: its too bad all those scientists are dead and cant witness this phylogenetic breakthrough DAVE: rip to the science community yall wouldve lost your collective shit DAVE: hey jade lets pour one out for the science community for being real ones

> ==>

You are still nestled into Dave’s shoulder. He’s taken a sort of protective position over you. Your perceptive barkbeast ears can hear his formerly bullet-riddled heart beating a mile a minute with the regularity of quartz beneath his time-branded pajamas, all the while he continues to ramble to you about certifiably dumb shit. You can tell Dave is psyched to see you again, even if he expresses it in his OWN bizarre way, which means extended metaphors and topical tangents. What a hypocrite, calling YOUR phrasing perplexing! You sure missed this guy.

You realize you started tuning him out while thinking about all this.

DAVE: jade JADE: umm homo is the species name JADE: so wouldnt that mean were all gay? :p DAVE: yeah that sounds about right DAVE: anyway enough of this bullshit

> ==>

[Dave motions to retract his arms since he doesn’t want it to get too weird, but Jade squeezes tighter. Dave immediately yields to the movement]

DAVE: jesus wow ok DAVE: really happy to see you too DAVE: like if you had a tail it would be wagging so forcefully youd be knocking over all the fucking furnishings in the room DAVE: just slapping it so hard on the owners thigh that it feels like theyre being flogged DAVE: talk about getting bitch slapped JADE: :D DAVE: so howve you been JADE: really really excited to see you guys all again!!! JADE: and to meet the trolls! DAVE: yeah theyre pretty weird DAVE: and im still not used to it DAVE: but it gets more manageable the longer youre around them DAVE: by the way JADE: ?

> ==>

DAVE: sorry you had to go through that JADE: through what? DAVE: seeing me die and stuff again DAVE: except that time right in front of you JADE: .... DAVE: when we were gathering up all those frogs i knew jack was going to appear DAVE: i was waiting and waiting to play it out DAVE: mentally rehearsing my fucking torso getting turned into swiss cheese and knowing you would have to watch on top of it DAVE: i had to make sure it happened to protect the integrity of the alpha timeline DAVE: but if you knew this was going to happen you wouldve tried to prevent it and created a doomed one DAVE: and so i didnt say anything DAVE: i couldnt DAVE: so DAVE: sorry for putting you through that JADE: oh..... JADE: dave D: JADE: well im here JADE: if you ever want to talk about it DAVE: its cool DAVE: you just deserve to know what happened there DAVE: but thanks DAVE: so am i JADE: yeah i know JADE: i guess i should be glad you did that then... JADE: even though i was freaking out when it happened ._. JADE: otherwise you wouldnt be here will us now dressed in your red god tier time pajamas DAVE: yeah these magical rags really are comfortable arent they DAVE: and they stay like perma clean JADE: they are! i would wear mine over and over for days on end JADE: id take a nice shower and put it right back on JADE: and you know how much i love cycling my outfits through my wardrobifier JADE: by the way dave your cape is sooo cool! :o DAVE: thanks DAVE: yeah i love it its hella soft DAVE: its like ive got a portable snuggle blanket with me in case i ever need to drop to the floor like a tired sack of shit and get my snooze on DAVE: ive got a permanent personal reservation at club bed featuring dj pillow and mc blanky JADE: heheheh JADE: can i touch your cape? DAVE: of course go nuts JADE: yaaaay!!

[estrella-zoe39]

i love dumping random shit onto my tumblr anyway weird discussion of the most random fandoms combined go! mostly discuses love as core themes of stories.

i think my favourite pieces of media are those that just dont make sense if you dont view them as a love story. i came across this discovery as i was watching code geass ep 17 when lulu goes insane when he realises the one thing thats in his way is also the person he trusts completely. there is no other genuine explanation other than love for the reasoning of his reaction in that scene. with shirley he had this mellow yet sorrowful reaction when he realised he couldnt be with her anymore. not saying there wasnt a part of him that didnt love her but with suzaku? he goes berserk. whatever he felt couldnt have happened if he didnt love suzaku.

other good examples of this are frieren, orv, and house. there are more my brain is just kinda fried rn and i think these three are good examples of like. varying levels of how explicit the message is. (theyre all obvious af tho)

ill start with frieren because i think if youve even like. heard about it youll know but himmel and frierens relationship really is the core of like the entire story. a boy who loved too soon and a girl who loved too late. frieren just isnt. frieren when you take that away. frieren at its like core is about love you cant just remove that because then the story wouldnt be the same it probably wouldnt even exist!!! and im sure everyone knows this its just surprising how frieren isnt officially a romance manga considering its entire premise

another example is orv which is a bit harder to know if youve only read the webtoon. orvs story just wouldnt exist if hsy didnt love kdj. if she didnt write yjh and then kdj wouldve died, plain and simple. and if kdj didnt love the story back then he wouldve also died. hsy, yjh, and kdj at their core are their love for each other. hsy spent 12 years writing a book everyday just for kdj to keep on living and in kaizenix she waited 50 years for him. yjh spent the entirety of orv learning how to love from kdj, through fighting alongside him, through protecting him, through seeing him die, even when he learned he wasnt real he still believed him, and in the end yjh was the one who let kdj be known in every universe. his mission was something that he only could brave through if he loved kdj. and he did. speaking of kdj, i think its very obvious to everyone but his self-sacrificial nature is due to him only knowing that as a love language. something else is how without kdjs love, orv also just wouldnt exist. if his love for twsa, for the chars, for STORIES, didnt exist, he wouldnt be alive. if he didnt keep on molding twsa, to be alongside every yjh and co, to suggest new plot points, he wouldve never came to love it.

onto my last example, house. now i think you gotta be a very specific type of person to catch them (its called not being homophobic) but man are house and wilson like. house the show itself. their love defines the show, from the first scene to the last. he only took that first case which started everything because of wilson. half of his stupid antics are because of wilson. his love starts and ends at wilson because he knows wilson will be the one person who will always be there consistently for him. because no matter what happens, like house getting sent to trial by tritter, or house failing to save amber, they will be together, whether they want to or not. so when wilson is diagnosed with cancer, he breaks. the one person who he thought would always be there for him. isnt. in fact, he'll die first. and so, he does everything. he listens to wilsons stupid fucking ideas because he needs wilson to be there for him, he needs wilson at his grave, not him at wilsons. thats why he gives everything to wilson, his vicodin, his attention, and even his life. the only reason he dies is so he can be with wilson. none of this actions can be done without love in them, absolutely none. i think my favourite quote of them is "if house chops down a tree, and wilson isnt around to hear it, did it really fall?" it just sums up their stupid, needy, insane, and romantic dynamic so much.

all of these pieces of media need love in them to be them, so i hope ive loved them more than they could ever want, despite some of their flaws 🩷🩷🩷

[wraithinkorporated]

Just got done grinding to finish Side Order with the Final Pallette, and as I lost my second to last run to Asynchronous Rondo, Marina said something that I found interesting.

A smarter person wouldve screenshot it so I could put it here, but I didnt plan on making a post about this until I started really thinking about it. She said something along the lines of "The spotlight reminds me of the lights during concerts."

I found this interesting because I thought it was odd that Marina would associate her pride and joy, making and performing music, to the Spinning Horror Prison.

And then I started picking at another thing that I found odd about Asynchronous Rondo: the wretched noises it makes even before you approach it. Many have pointed out that it's """singing""" Ebb and Flow, which is a very interesting and cool detail, but Why? Why is it the only boss (I believe, since I haven't seen mention or noticed this from the other bosses) that is echoing one of Off the Hook's songs -- and not only just one of their songs, but the prolific Ebb and Flow? Sure, there are motifs of their songs throughout Side Order, but none of the other bosses are actively singing them.

The conclusion I came to is that Asynchronous Rondo could be a twisted interpretation of Marina's worst thoughts about being an idol -- as she said herself, the bright light being pointed at her. The panopticon represents that at any given moment, she could be being watched. The sudden carnival motif that plays in the song -- she's on a stage, putting on a performance at any given moment. The many faces spouting a distorted version of Ebb and Flow, the nebulous fans voices muddling together into one cacophonous symphony of her own making.

Anyway Im very unwell about this. And to be clear, I dont think these are Marina's active thoughts about being an idol. It was revealed that Order/Smollusk was made from the intrinsic desires of its creators, so this is likely just another implication of that.

[dnfnoodles]

i know this conversation was already had yesterday but thinking about it, i just dont know what else dteam couldve possibly done in that situation. george apologizes to caiti but floats the idea that her friends influenced her(hes probably right) and twitter freaks out, dream talks about non-verbal consent, a real thing that very much applied here, and twitter freaks out. anyone who pointed out inconsistencies was called a victim blamer and ccs themselves did this. if george tried to point out that caitis story didnt line up in certain parts he wouldve been fucking mauled by twitter. like yeah maybe if he did that it wouldve been worse at first but gotten better eventually but idk i feel like unless someone else spoke up in defense of him ccs and twitter alike wouldve hounded him until he quit.

and i do hate ccs who succumb to twitter pressure but this was a really tough situation and i dont know how they couldve gotten out in a better position than they are now. i feel like they did the best they could even if it wasnt perfect and some parts did make the situation a little worse. george apologizing for what he actually did while reaffirming that he hadnt done it maliciously was the right move imo. also it just shows that hes a kind person at heart because he did understand that even if caiti wasnt truthful she was hurt by him regardless of his intentions or others influence.

idk anyways i hate every single cc who jumped in to attack george for clout or to makes themselves seem like a good person and they made the situation a million times worse. if none of them had opened their mouths i really think things couldve gone differently.

⬆️

[mantarobin]

cliff hc that just kept on going

so. This started as a headcanon that cliff is good at styling hair. And it kept going. So here we go

so. yes cliff is good at styling hair; I think he'd often do it for light and louis. whether it's to make them look fancier, or just to mess around. I think light would tell him he could style his hair one day and cliff would get super excited and light gets stuck there for like an hour cuz cliff won't stop

bonus points he'd do this to Brooke too. now. Now.

I once saw someone have the hc of Brooke and Cliff having/wanting a family before she kicked the bucket;; i dont think theyd HAVE a family but i think the idea of them wanting a family is cute, maybe cliff wouldve practiced more just for that.

now. adding onto a hc of mine w this

light is transfem! (I go back and forth w this hc so I don't usually say she) so I imagine when theyd tell cliff that hed do her hair ALL THE TIME!! wanting em to look pretty and all :))

okay and quick angst bit. bcuz I'm silly . S2 finale spoilers

light remembers, vaguely, how cliff did their hair. so when they wake up and find Cliff's and Louis's bodies after the soulscite, they make little braids in their hair. They're half-done and stained w blood, but it's okay. Light wants them to look pretty when they wake up

(because he can't stand being alone. because she needs them to wake up. because they're terrified and alone in the universe now)

anyways. Yeah cliff could make some banger hairstyles let him cook

[fictionfixations]

MAJOR UNTIL THEN SPOILERS

been watching tuonto play until then

I dont know what it is I mean. i joined the streams without any context (well listen i was there for the start. did not know it was but i saw like ryan and mark at the laptop and louise coming over and reveal of her playing games. except i didnt know who they were at the time lOl. thought it was cool but wasnt keeping up with it. then i ended up on the stream where nicole brings us to visit her grandparents and they're just fighting and it was raining and then theres the reveal with mark's mom being dead [well missing but]. and then we went to prom and cathy died and im just like what the fuck.)

but so i didnt really know what was going on but i still kinda cared? but like. so cathy died. and i did not cry. i was just 'what the fuck' and. like. a lot of surprise. and shock. (i was also thinking that maybe if we didnt go after her she wouldn't have died because she was walking towards us on the road. i also didnt know that apparently you can disappear when it rains if nobodys there to acknowledge that you are there and that you exist. i think. so uhm. i still wonder what wouldve happened if we turned back to see our mom though. or if we stopped.)

but so anyway. i did go back to watch all the until then streams after that. with all the context involved (did not see ending of cathy admitting that her homelife.. isnt that great. because that wasnt streamed yet. admitting in a recording i mean cause shes dead. but a chatter said that it was implied that they probably were abusive, and pointing out the marks on her skin cause her dress was like ripped in that slowed shot of her walking towards us.)

but i already knew what happened so shrug (it was very cool though. even though i was also rewatching scenes id seen before it didnt feel old at all. very invested.)

you know what got me crying?

THIS stupid scene in the other timeline where they're acting for ridel. about two ppl who havent seen each other for awhile. and the

memories of cathy actually being dead just came into this one and i just fucking bawled im being literal

(we dont see the memories actually affect us, its just a thing that we know. mark doesnt know cathy died he just. feelings. and also he got a hallucination of the truck..)

i dont know why but sad shit has been making me cry more than usual.

marks just starts crying and im already sobbing my eyes out like no you cant do this to me you 😭

anyway. i missed a bunch of the streams and not wanting to go them out of order ive been waiting to watch it all at once (also he apparently finished the game so now i really gotta go faster. i think i have like. a stream and a half to watch now.)

but so i dont know the ending pls dont spoil me

i just wanna say. god this game is so cool.

also i mightve been slacking off cause it seemed this timeline mightve been a worse timeline. and im like the kind of person to be like in fiction 'what if that person was me' and so i get super immersed. which also means i get all the shitty feelings too. so i was kinda worried. but its.. okay?

mark. just. kinda seems depressed though. like uh. more depressed?

i saw someone describe it as him having kind of given up (i also think his grades are worse? it didn't show us what his grades were but the principal mentioned that he needed to study more or he'll have to be kicked out or something which wasn't in the first run through)

and tbh. that mightve been because cathy just. died. which isnt really something you can just get over even if its been awhile. it still hurts, still something that lingers. an unexpected pain. or at least, a scar.

like. i cant imagine how hopeless it must've felt to be right there. to watch her die and be unable to stop it. and like. obviously since this is a mark who has also gone through that and is now in this timeline (although doesnt remember).. a part of him is still kinda feeling that loss, and also having done all this before that makes it feel pointless. and like he shouldnt try as hard, cause whats the point, right? what does it matter?

anyway im sad. im going to go back to watching the stream. (also cathy is my favorite i love her so much sduifhfeuhds

[blackjackkent]

what do you think wouldve happened in an alternate universe where hector let karlach become a mind flayer?

(A/N after writing this whole answer: whoops, this got out of hand, hope you're okay with an Unexpected Fic. XD Also maybe a smidge weird/dark at the end, although not a ton I hope? Certainly no more than the whole game is weird/dark. XD Anyway I hope you enjoy. <3 )

Ohhhhhhhhh.

Anon, I love you for asking me this question. <3 A very intriguing one!

And it is because I love you for asking me this question that I have braved looking up a video of Karlach actually becoming a mind flayer, which I had put off doing because I am a softheart and I knew it would hurt and also make Hector yell in my head. XD And when Hector yells in my head it's a whole thing because he does double Flurry of Blows against the inside of my skull for 140damage and it's rough enough in there already.

However! I have now watched it and done some thinks. (Hot damn, Lae'zel is MAD too, at least in the version of the scene I watched. The whole thing is very upsetting.)

Fundamentally it would be a tragedy, and not just for Karlach. Watching the way the scenes play out - there is just enough of Karlach in her speech that Hector would not want to disconnect from her. I think perhaps it touches on the same hope that kept him expecting a miracle for her heart right up until the end of the game - somehow, somehow we can make this work, somehow we will find a way...

But there is no way. This is who she is now, a creature of the Astral Sea with his love's voice and an empty place where her soul should be. And unlike the engine situation he can't even kiss her to make himself feel better because she looks like a squid.

-----

The one saving grace is, I suppose, she does seem happy enough. In the epilogue, she states that she has found a way to get brains to eat by consuming from terminally ill patients at a clinic in Baldur's Gate, people who have volunteered for the process because they are about to die anyway. And she talks about helping all of them live on by absorbing their memories and carrying them with her.

It's... sweet, in a way, Hector supposes.

He tries to keep busy. There's no battle in Avernus to occupy him in this timeline, so he primarily works with Jaheira and her kids on rebuilding. It's hard, physical work; it keeps his mind occupied. At first he sleeps at the Elfsong; later, after some nudging from Rion, Jaheira offers him lodging at her home, where he takes a hand in raising the latest crop of orphan children she is protecting. He sees Baldur's Gate start to bandage its wounds and begins to believe there was some purpose to all his struggle.

But his own wounds do not heal so easily.

He visits the clinic often. He and Karlach talk. Her voice is a slow near-monotone in her accent, unlike anything he ever heard from her before. Sometimes he can hear a twinge of her humor or a turn or phrase, and his heart leaps... but other times she speaks of things like destiny and infinite time in a way that reminds him more of the Emperor than the woman he loves.

She never laughs. She doesn't curse. There is never even the slightest mention of sex; though she still fully understands a double entendre when he makes one experimentally, she seems to take no interest in it. She seems to exist slightly beyond him, with a view of the world that is no longer of the Material Plane.

And yet... she does know him. She remembers everything - stories he told her of his childhood in the monastery, details of Selunite rituals she learned from him, quiet moments in camp he half-forgot himself. She still calls him Soldier, and sometimes Hec. She remembers her own parents; she remembers the city. There is just enough of her still in there... just enough for it to squeeze his heart.

----

One day she walks (well, floats) with him to the Singing Lute; she sits with him while he eats. They talk about the rebuilding; he points out from the balcony some of the new homes he has worked on. She is quiet for a long time. "It is good to see the place begin to live again," she says, in that strange cool slow voice that has replaced the old jocular drawl. "It's what it was all for."

He nods. "Do you regret it? Any of it?" Do you remember what we had? What we've lost?

"How could I, Soldier? The city still lives. You still live." A long pause. The old Karlach might have laughed sardonically, but there is no humor. "Even I still live, and I have grown beyond myself. What is there to regret?"

It sits like a rock in his stomach. If she is content, what more can he ask for? And yet it hurts... it hurts...

-----

Jaheira notices that he begins to withdraw back into himself, that he is quieter and more serious. She mentions it to Gale, on one of his visits to the city from Waterdeep.

"You're not wrong there," Gale agrees. "You weren't around yet, when we knew him fresh off the nautiloid. He was much more careful, then. Very controlled. The very picture of monastic stoicism - in between the panicked realization that we were all undergoing a supreme nightmare that never ended, of course. He lightened up, over the months - certainly by the time you knew him."

Jaheira purses her lips. "And this... he is returning to his old ways, you believe?"

"I don't think it would be unreasonable to assume," Gale says, with a sort of bleak humor, "that Karlach is no longer providing the same amount of compensatory levity that she used to."

-----

In the end, almost two years later, Lae'zel is the only one who speaks to him of it directly, and she is brutal - but effective.

"You have been hollowed out, she'lak," she says bluntly, on one of her rare visits from the Astral Plane. "It is a lessening of you. Do you still trail after your ghaik as if bound to her by a lead?"

"I have done much in the city since you left," Hector says, somewhat defensively.

"Chk. I do not speak of your body's business, k'chakhi. I speak of your mind. Your heart. You have lost yourself. You live only for others."

"As I was raised to do. As I have always done."

"Hector." She rarely speaks his name directly, but she does now, and it makes him jump. "You know of what I speak, and I will not have you ignore it. Your work in the city is admirable. You have cause for pride and contentment. Yet you pine after Karlach as if you hope to find her in the shell wearing her voice."

"She's still in there, Lae'zel."

"You mislead yourself," she spits. "Was it not you who taught me the strength to look beyond mindless devotion?"

That stings, and unconsciously he stands up a little straighter. "This is not mindless. It has been earned," he objects.

"Tas'ki. She is ghaik," Lae'zel says flatly. "What remains of her will dwindle, day by day. You know this as well as I." A pause. Then her eyes soften, and her voice with it. "You do not honor her sacrifice by this emptiness, Hector. Nor do you honor yourself."

He says nothing. His lips draw into a tight line. He hears her, and he does not want to.

"Think on what I tell you," she says - for all the world, now, as if she is the wise mentor and he the student in need of guidance. "You are no fool. You know I speak truth. Do not discount it."

-----

It takes a long time, but he does eventually start to come back to himself. Ten years. Twenty years. He grows old, though he loses none of his strength, his training too ingrained to allow him to weaken with age. The city reforms, stronger than ever, and he slowly begins to learn what life is, outside of both monastery and war.

He teaches self-defense to the children Jaheira rescues and others in the Lower City. He learns to (very badly) play a lute at Alfira's school. He tries his hand as a woodworker after so much carpentry work in the rebuilding of the Gate; one day, with some pride, he gifts Halsin a raggedly carved owl in return for the duck. He travels with Shadowheart several times to the House of the Moon in Waterdeep, reaffirming his faith in the light that has guided him through so much darkness.

And he reads voraciously. Everything he can get his hands on, from every library in the city. There is far more knowledge in the world, he comes to learn, than the particular cache with which he grew up.

He visits Karlach less, over time. And Lae'zel was right - there is less and less left of her each time he sees her. She is drifting away from him. And slowly he comes to terms with that - that what they had was a wonderful thing and a fleeting thing that will never come back to him. He learns to live for them both, for the life she would have had with him, had there been time.

He does not love again, though. He lived his whole life devoid of romance before he knew her, and he has little interest in trying to find it again in the years that remain to him.

For the most part, he moves on, and eventually finds himself relatively happy. But there is one last concession to sentimentality and to everything he has lost.

-----

On one bright, cold afternoon in mid-autumn, many years after the Netherbrain has faded into a bleak memory, he goes to the clinic. She is there, much as she always is; she has not seemed to age much in all these years, though the tentacles are slightly longer, a bit more nuanced in their movement.

He, though, is old; the grey dappling in his hair and beard has faded to white. His body acts as strong as ever, but time is implacable; he knows, as she once did, that he has very little left. It is a strange thing - a weakness of spirit rather than flesh, old age's deeper destruction that even the most disciplined monk cannot stave off forever. He is not dying, but he would be dead soon, likely within a few tendays.

"Hector," she says, flat and cool and almost unrecognizable, and inclines her head at him slightly. "You have settled everything?"

"Everything," he says quietly.

"You are still certain it is time?"

"Yes."

"Then we will begin." She gestures him to a secluded corner of the clinic, with a comfortable chair set up for the purpose. He settles himself there and looks up at the clinic's cracked stone ceiling and waits.

"It has been a good life," he comments, as much to himself as to her, as he waits for her to approach. "Lae'zel was right, that I had to move on. I have done much, seen much. I am proud of what we achieved - all of us."

There's a long, expectant silence. Then he leans his head back, closes his eyes. "I never stopped loving you, you know," he adds softly.

"I know," she answers, and her jaws sink into his skull.

[calebwittebane]

ah still caint believe the girl who midjourneys us the backgrounds for the main product shots gets paid about as much per final version as i do for one entire multi-page product specs + e-commerce layout with illustrations and details and Why You Should Choose Our Epic Prodact 💪🔥 essays. no shade to her because she did know what she was doing and the backgrounds were nice and very hi res (she had to work with the full product pics id been given which were SHITE lol she had to enhance them heavily) and she customized them to the very specific instructions i gave her and sent me like 10 versions to choose from every time and generally (the following i suppose is aimed at people who object to any use of generative ai for any visuals ever) the process is just far more efficient than having someone fuckin run out there with the idk tarp tunnel looking for the right Surrounding Foliage and light angle that i wouldve found Acceptable. like i was like yeah girl i need 2pm july/august thinly overcast daylight meaning neutral-warm but no sharp chiaroscuro please and some waist-height pink and purple azaleas for this one and some blue and white hydrangeas of this height and with a light yellow tint on the leaves and darker conifers covering this amount of background oh and can you put a little stone path inside the larger tunnel running thru the middle. and she was like On It Boss. so again no shade to her i think shes been doing a great job. im just saying that i Objectively do more work than she does and i should be paid better than i am LOL

like considering im also tasked with doing all the market research as in i compare web store descriptions and reviews and what specs are sought after and so on. and sometimes im given so little info about the product (which in case its not obvious is not out yet) that step one for me is figuring out how the hell the thing even works by comparing similar products and comparing info and asking for verification from manufacturer if needed. like ok i didnt know how this fucking atomizer worked, and apparently most gardeners in 2024 already do and im stupid, so i had to look at youtube videos with 500 views and in slovak to see someone actually use the thing. anyway ends up i have to finish two entire projects today (thought i had time until 10th but i dont lol) which i only have rough drafts for rn and its doable sure like yeah i can do it before 23:59 which means contractually Ive Done My Job but goddddd i wish it wasnt today of all days like i feel like death and i have to take gaia to the vet later today and its so hot today my cintiq keeps turning into a hot coal

tl;dr I Am Stuck In Garden Tool And Accessory Madness And I Havent Even Been In A Garden Or Any Similar Nice Green Outdoors Area For A Solid Year At This Point

[sunny12th]

2, 6, 8, 15 for dany!!!

Under the cut <3 ty for asking

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

Dany is never what anyone expects her to be, narratively and from a meta standpoint. We don't expect a female character, far removed from the main point of magic in the story, to find her own magic and be a destined hero. We don't expect a child rape victim to have a lusty, consensual, and fun romance with a side character. She was not expected to survive khal drogo or the red waste. She was not expected to pivot at every turn and find a third way. And we didn't expect the very real consequences to come from her actions in slavers bay. No one expected the wide spread consequences across Essos from her actions - a slave revolution brewing. No one thought we'd get to see what might happen when a revolutionary character actually commits to the revolution and then has to handle the fallout. That feels so rare to me. She exists so far removed from what the average fantasy reader, or reader in general, would expect to find in a book and I think the fandom takes this for granted sometimes.

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

Not going into detail but- isolated childhoods with not very good siblings, messy family history, and a whole heaping of desperation. Looking back, it's pretty blatant why I latched onto Dany when I first read agot back when I was like 14/15. Projection and cathartic healing babeyyyy 🔛🔝

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

In another ask, I said that I hate when the fandom uses Dany's family/ancestry as evidence for her impending madness. Along with that, I also really dislike the notion that Dany should have not acted at all to free the Unsullied and other slaves because she didn't have a clear enough plan to handle the fallout. This idea that, because she couldn't do this Perfectly she should not have done it at all. For obvious reasons lmao. One reason I like Dany is that doing nothing goes against her character and usually leads to negative consequences for her, as in Meereen.

15. What's your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn't matter if it's canon or not.)

I'm not overly invested in any of Dany's ships tbh. That being said, my fave is Dany/Jhogo. I am probably one of 3 people that like them. grrm is an excellent writer when he cares to be one but he didn't care for the Dothraki. Why are none of the bloodriders allowed any interiority or ... personalities. Or anything that might let them feel like distinct characters that warrant the level of proximity and relevance they have to Dany. 'blood of my blood' - was this supposed to mean something? Because it couldve meant a lot! especially to a character like Dany, with no blood relations and desperate for family. Besides Jorah, the bloodriders and her dothraki handmaids are the characters she spends the most time with since book one.

Anyways, Jhogo has a bit more personality than the other bloodriders, he's 'of an age' with Dany (all the bloodriders are around the same age), and it just has so much potential. The royal guard/royalty trope but outside the culture we usually see this is. And!!! They've seen each other literally at their lowest. They survived the red waste together, sacked cities together. Jhogo is held hostage for her right now, along with Daario. I can't pull up the quote right now but Barristan remarks that Jhogo is indispensable to Dany, or smth like that, in his POV chapter. They grew up together, learned how to be strong together. If grrm had cared, they couldve been a top tier romance. It wouldn't have felt rushed or like they were pulled together through fate. Could've just been two lost kids growing into love. But this wouldve required grrm putting effort into the Dothraki characters and he's made it abundantly clear that he doesn't feel the need to do this.

[kiwibongos]

im back thinking again. regarding my last post with how i interpreted ibuki and fuyuhiko's friendship im heavily thinking abt him and hiyoko. hiyoko more specifically tbh. its hiyoko appreciation time. will contain spoilers

imo she should have lived. also tbh kazuichi shouldve died, not her. thats a whole other sauce tho (again) but like. i feel like hiyoko deserved to survive way more, in general. her potential was really there man

i used to hate hiyoko, i still kind of dislike her in a certain way but its because all of that points blame to the writers of sdr2, for the god awful pacing they thought was good, and how they just didn't really bother to show a lot of growth from her before her time was wrapped up? i enjoy how she was the mean character bc there's always gotta be That One Bitch, but i really would've loved for her to survive, for her to heal and live on for mahiru and even to grow close with fuyuhiko, ibuki, hajime and sonia, and she would perhaps even express sadness towards ibuki and mikan's deaths

its like everything that had happened in the game, and all the time they spent focused on hiyoko and what she was going through just went to waste, and they spent the rest on weaker material or scenes. hiyoko should have been given the same character arc fuyuhiko lived to see. and both of them have so much in common already, they'd make a pretty good duo. e.g., they both lost someone they loved (mahiru & peko), they're both mean, stubborn, and quippy but secretly soft around the right people, also hello they literally look related anyway ... the blonde hair and the rosy cheeks . come on. someone on spike chunsoft saw them. but it didnt work out. anyway i feel like they would bond amazingly, albeit very slowly, but they're definitely the duo to just gossip all the time about other people LOL, and fuyuhiko would try to comfort her as well, because he's lost two people

hiyoko wouldn't just easily forgive him of course, i dont think she ever could, hence why i emphasized they'd slowly bond because the tension would be agonizing. she was furious, and still mourning mahiru when she had just died, but she would at least understand him and grow to accept his company and genuine kindness overtime (and she had almost seemed to near the very end??). if she lived to see his genuine growth and saw that he actually cared and that he would do anything to make it up to her, she'd be way less cautious of him. and she'd realize that the fact that they're both stuck on an island in a killing game, and fuyuhiko genuinely seems to be the only one who seems to bother, and the only one who actually sees her. so if not him, who else does she really have, you know. at least, at that moment

afterwards, hiyoko would just calm down and be more cooperative and helpful overtime, she's not dumb at all and she knows what to say, though she might butt her head in at the worst times, she also doesn't put up with bullshit, the same way sonia doesn't, they both act thoroughly bc they're smart. she'd also be really helpful in the trials tbh, i think she'd be the kind to spot out little details

later on she'd have sonia and hajime to support her too! someone has to help her with her kimono.... fuck it they'd all collectively just tolerate her but also encourage her. compared to fuyuhiko she hadn't really done anything bad, she was just hurt. she just needs someone, now that her own someone was gone

of course id love if she stayed hotheaded but just not call everyone a skank or a pig every two seconds, keep her mean side i love a bad bitch, she just wouldn't have kept that mask up, and she'd learn like, "Oh Shit, these people are all i have, and i need them". if she stuck around, hiyoko wouldve been such a good help as a survivor. and just generally more interesting to see, she woulda stuck out to me more in general. wouldve LOVED to see her shine in chapter three, or the final two chapters

hiyoko fans please rise with me. i love her and her dumb pigtails. tldr im MAD she didn't get her redemption like she deserved she was so cool despite also being nasty but she had a CHANCE dude the potential was shining bright in front of our eyes

[quillkiller]

i need ur thoughts on pandora/lily/barty (if you have them!)

oh anon….. do i ever… i have a whole au for them with voyer!lily <3

lily and pandora start dating. it’s the early stages still but pandora doesn’t know how to move slow and lily is completely obsessed with pandora

barty and pandora have been friends with benefits for yeaaaars. it has never affected their friendship in anyway. sometimes one of them will date someone and they stop sleeping together (…but not always). it’s about comfort and intimacy that they’ve only been able to find in each other and not in the people they’ve been dating. neither of them have had serious relationships

until lily.. pandora falls fast and hard <3 and this causes a rift in pandora and bartys relationship because neither of them have ever been in a situation with someone that they might actually want to make it work with. neither or them have ever been scared of losing each other and they’ve been, knowing or unknowingly, always been waiting to fall back together

barty meets lily and he’s a goner :/ he gets it. and it makes him angry. but he also cant be angry. and he’s miserable

lily finds out pandora and barty used to sleep together. pandora never told her because she doesn’t like. sort of understand why she would? because she isn’t anymore? whereas lily is more of the opinions that she wouldve liked to know that pandora used to sleep with one or her closest friends

lily tries to be upset by this. she isn’t. she is however growing obsessed. it’s all she can think about. what they’ve done together and where and how. at first she thinks it’s because she’s being jealous. and maybe she is a bit but not in the way she thinks. she’s jealouse bacuse she wasn’t there.

she asks pandora to tell her about it and pandora is a little bit on the fence….

they’re at a party and pandora barty and lily end up high in a secluded corner somewhere and lily asks again. both barty and pandora tell her in vivid detail. the sexual tension is suffocating. lily has the silly idea that she wants to takte notes

this keeps happening at parties. they keep ending up in secluded corners and lily asks them to tell her about when they had sex. what theyd do and what positions and where and how did pandora sound and how did barty sound. this becomes a whole thing where they just sort of migrate closer and closer together at every party as if they’re all magnets hauling each other in. it nearly becomes routine

they dont talk about it while sober yet but they’re all thinking about it constantly. until barty starts avoiding them. he’s trying to do the right thing because he knows hes not strong enough to turn either of them down. if pandora offered he’d be back immediately. if lily offered he’d throw caution in the wind on an impulsive selfish whim. he’s aware that he’s not a good enough person to turn either of them down and he’s not trying to be in denial of that

this results in a confrontation eventually. pandora’s being my favorite because she was always under the impression that they were all like sort of inching closer and closer to becoming something more. she feels rejected when barty turns around. relationship anarchist queen who doesn’t consider that both lily and barty are struggling internally with Ruining Everything. lily confronts barty with the whole ’why are you avoiding us’ point blank.

this ends up with barty on his knees because he’s not good with words. so he kneels infront of them and hopes they understand what he means. they do <3

this results in them becomint a Thing. the thing is: lily wants to reconstruct pandora and bartys entire relationship. she wants to sit in an armchar with a pen and pad and take notes. she wants to orchestrate. she wants to map their relationship in chronological order. so this is how lily becomes a voyer. by watching pandora and barty demonstrate how they have sex

this also gets out of hand Fast. pandora and barty hooked up in regs bathroom at some party? well then lily will just have to pretty please reg into throwing another party so she can watch them have sex in his bathroom. they had sex in a public restroom somewhere? well then they’re going back. lily wants to know everything from beginning to end

they tell lily that they had a threesome and everything stops. with who? where? why? was she good? is she better than me? show me how it went. but with me. where was it. take me there. how did she act. what did you do to her. who did what. show me on me. and that’s how lily eventually becomes part of the sexual relationship between bartydora

lily also hates this girl they slept with for the rest of her life. she is NOT welcome to parties anymore :/ lily is a selfish partner and shes earned it <3

they all fall in love but they all want different things. barty wont ever live with them. he wants his own space. pandalily eventually wants to live together. barty obviously has a key and he stays over a lot. they invest in lots of cameras for the house so lily can always keep an eye on them. it’s a weird little thing theyve got going but it works for them :)))))

that’s my bartydoralily au!!!!!!

[hellworldprincess]

Hmmm. okay. well. film over (poppy NO LOOKING!!!!!! SPOILER ALERTA)

drumming my fingers on the desk hmmm so lets think about it. i think everything after 1h22m kind of shot out the legs (lol) of the rest of the film a little bit but not too much i guess

i thought it was corny that the accomplice was her mom but i do like the idea of a protagonist who just exists as something a literal deal with the devil hinges on. i guess. Ummmm yeah i dont see what else they couldve done with her mom. it was that or kill her or just stop mentioning her at some point i guess? i dont know i just didnt like it i thought it was corny..it felt shoved in there but then again like i said i thought the last 20 minutes were very shoved in there also. it felt like it was stapled on to the first 1hr22. the tone felt different i think <- already forgetting <- gormless

im going to just skip over the oblivion 2006 ass devil design and pretend he was only the shadow goat because that was cooler i think if still a little eh-ish

obviously i think its very well shot and also i liked all the religious imagery, fucking obviously. i liked the cross wound on her mothers forehead after she shot her i thought that was fun, and dont think i didnt notice the "x marks the spot" being literal crosses...x marks the spot....another word for an "x" symbol is a cross....and theyre literally tilted crosses lol. i loved that

onto the main event though nicolas did as nicolas does it was a fucking great performance. why cant everyone be freaky like that. as for the buffalo bill-esqueness i'll have to be honest i didnt really click to it at first, i kind of just saw him as just like.....you know the kind of eccentric strange lunatic killer thats seen in horror films these days, but after it being pointed out i can see it i think. mostly in the speech patterns more than anything though and thats more of a direct parallel (specifically in my head) to buffalo bill than transmisogyny itself, but i can definitely see where it comes from - im not writing it off, to be honest i dont even really have to tilt or squint to see where it comes from. i'd be interested in hearing the thought process behind the character and if any caricatures like that (unintentionally, i hope) went into it but im not THAT invested in this film. either way i really enjoyed the character. was pissed we didnt get him for the whole film but thats just because i loved the performance. nicolas cage is fucking scary

anyway ummm what else. oh yeah that fucking Scary demon voice on the phone about ruby was embarrassing. why not just have it be her mom?? Dude wait literally why wouldnt it have been her mom. most of the interactions with her mother in this film have been over the phone...its pretty much always been her mother that wouldve been more. i dont know it wouldve worked...plus she was fucking there. all that being said though the second i saw this shot i knew the family was fucked

i think overall the film kept making me feel like i was watching smile and se7en at the same time in two separate tabs right next to each other like one of those minecraft parkour videos with a family guy clip stitched above it. i loved it until i only liked it after cage's character died and the dumber stuff happened. i'd like to still say i loved it but at this point i can only say i really liked it. unfortunately with films like this, endings do define them. but ummmmmm yea. longlegs 8/10 i had a lot of fun. ending was stupid