#protective!pen

[aubryjoi]

Protect trans kids! 🐐🏳️‍⚧️

[polinsated]

colin: *is angry, feels betrayed and insecure and turned on* also colin:

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Maybe we never had a chance.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[dandelion-roots]

[ID: a digital drawing of riz gukgak from fantasy high. in the front is a relatively small drawing of riz juggling books that are falling out of his hand and a phonecall, and he has a huge backpack on. he looks a bit overwhelmed, hair flying in all directions, and has a nervous smile on. in the background is a large shadow of riz, only one glowing eye and a shining gun visible. the background is red, giving an eerie feel. End ID]

Kill your best friend

Cheat your way to your rogue teacher

Announce your presidential campaign

Don't let them know how angry you are

LEARN TO RECOGNIZE A MONSTER

[ryllen]

" no one will know ~~ ♥♥♥ "

- more like me thinking of Trey going ham if Jade is in a pinch

[zarnzarn]

The doors to Olympus are sturdy and strong, given everyone's preferences for drama and slamming said doors open and sending them cracking into the wall whenever the opportunity arises. Which is why it's a surprise when they creak open during the once-a-decade pantheon meeting; less so because no entity worth their salt would take so long to open the doors, and more so because everyone who is anyone is already there.

But if everyone is being honest with themselves- which no one is, usually- these gatherings are boring enough that the bland conversation is dropped immediately in favour of craning their necks to catch a glimpse of whatever is coming to relieve them of their boredom.

When the doors finally open however, several of the pantheon murmur in surprise.

"Odysseus," Athena whispers, wide-eyed as she pushes herself off her throne to her feet. It is him- in the king's garb he was buried in but the face he has when he reached home, hair till the shoulders and speckled with grey, face oddly blank. His feet are transparent.

"What are you doing here, sceptre?" Poseidon booms, hair the color of a stormy sea. Zeus, beside him, looks reserved, observing the ghost with something approaching curiosity- eyes flicking to the lightning scars on his daughter's face and back. "Your time has long passed, and Hades-"

"It is a temporary agreement," Odysseus says curtly, barely sparing him a glance as he approaches his patron. "Athena."

Her armour clinks as she steps forward and the gods all twitch, trading glances. Owls are silent creatures- to have her aspect so affected to make noise was... uneasy to say the least. She even holds herself different than usual, something like confused delight shining in her eyes. "How did you-"

"Did you sleep with my wife?"

The throne room is silent. Several jaws drop.

Athena straightens back up, blinking in surprise. She looks a bit shifty, some of the nymphs closest whisper to each other, which- well, almost every single god present owed some part of their existence to the mere story of Odysseus loving his wife.

Would he fight his own patron goddess over it in front of Mount Olympus, though? He certainly was unbalanced enough; Athena herself looked rather uncertain of her odds, even though-

"Are you addled in death, King of Ithaka?" Artemis drawls, looking amused. "Did you forget that your own patron is celibate? Whatever rumor you-"

"No, I-" Athena says suddenly, shifting her spear to her other hand. "I did."

Artemis chokes on her breath and several assorted divine beings gasp in shock and the rest shouting for explanations, although everyone is nearly drowned out by Aphrodite's loud, "WHAT?"

Odysseus inhales sharply and pinches the bridge of his nose. "I cannot believe you."

"She asked-" Athena starts, only to be drowned out by the din of various beings screeching and shouting about the scandal.

"ATHENA!" Hera hisses, peacock tail fanning behind her sharply as she pushes herself up. "Explain yourself!"

Athena half-turns to face her, face creased in a frown. "Mother, I-"

"LET ME REPHRASE!" Odysseus cuts in loudly, and the shouting settles down into silence. He walks to his patron, eyes blazing. "I cannot believe," he throws his clenched fists wide as he growls the last word, "-you took Penelope to bed-" Athena surprisingly stays still as he reaches her, mouth falling open as he grabs her by the chiton to yank her down, uncaring of the gasps of horror from all around as he snarls, "-before you ever kissed me."

And then Odysseus grabs Athena by the face roughly and kisses her.

This time Aphrodite's shriek cannot be escaped by anyone.

"Aphrodite, please," Zeus says a few moments later, wincing as his throne reforms around him, stained oddly pink. Quite a few minor entities have discorporated, and the ones nearest to her are still trying to regenerate their hearing. "Control yourself."

Their eyes land back on where Athena has dropped her spear- dropped her spear, Ares in the corner seems to be having some minor hysteria over this, well warranted- and is also on the floor, still being thoroughly kissed by that insufferable, mannerless hero of hers, perched on her stomach to reach. Zeus inhales in fury, Poseidon close behind him as the shock wears off, lightning crackling around his fingers as he opens his mouth to shout- of all the indignities-

"If you two ruin this for me," Aphrodite thunders, warping in front of them and glaring. "I will make you both regret it."

Both gods visibly blanch at the threat, taken aback for one brief moment. Threats from Aphrodite are far worse than any of her more violent siblings, at the end of the day.

Zeus visibly gathers himself just as Athena's helmet clatters to the floor, and he gains a second wind immediately, eye twitching as he spreads a hand to the spectacle in the middle of the hall. "WHAT MANNER OF DISRESPECT IS THIS? TO BARGE INTO OUR MEETING AND THROW ONE OF THE OLDEST GODDESSES TO THE FLOOR LIKE A COMMON WENCH-"

"Zeus," Hera says quietly. Everyone falls silent, although it's not quite enough to stop the two tangled together on the ground. She clears her throat, which finally seems to get through to Athena, who had finally seemed to have gotten over her shock enough to reach out, hands hovering over Odysseus hesitantly. Still, at the noise she seems to remember herself, pushing herself up on an elbow and dislodging him enough to break their necking. He pouts at her, but Athena's eyes are too glazed over to notice, heaving for breath.

Hera opens her mouth to speak, crown manifesting on her brow as she steps in front of the throne, but closes it as the door rattles again.

This time, the spectre shimmers with a faint hint of scales that comes with a freshwater nymph's heritage and excited whispers starved for drama explode across the room as the Queen of Ithaka steps into the room, skirts hitched in her hand and panting as if she'd been running.

"Your Graces," She bows respectfully before entering, Spartan princess through and through, until she catches sight of her husband and Athena, the former of whom seems to have taken the opportunity to start kissing the wisdom goddess again, fingers in her curls.

"What are you doing?" She snaps, rushing over. The entire courtroom holds its breath. She slaps her husband upside the head, making him yelp and move back to shoot her a betrayed look. Athena looks even further dazed than before, cheeks red. "Argos has more manners than you! No wonder Lady Athena wanted nothing to do with you- ah, hello, darling, by the way."

"Penelope," Athena murmurs hoarsely, and the Queen of Ithaka leans down to kiss her as well.

Odysseus chuckles, then jumps with everyone else as Hera slams a hand down on the throne elegantly, cracking it to the base.

"Ah, goddess-" He says, clambering off Athena to bow.

"Silence," Hera interrupts, holding up a hand, eyes cold. "You will not say anything to me apart from an explanation. My agreement for your release from Ogygia was due to the assurance that your marriage was one of the truest I have ever witnessed, conveyed by Athena herself when bartered with all of us to let you go. Tell me, was it a ploy? Because from the disgraceful looks of it, this seems to not be the case in the slightest."

Odysseus frowns, face twisting in confusion. "Athena bartered with...?" He turns to look at his patron, who stares back, unspeaking. His eyes flicker to the lightning scar over her right eye as Penelope traces it with horrified eyes and a gentle thumb, and understanding seems to dawn.

For a moment, rage seems to fill him, glaring with a hatred towards Zeus that everyone whispered later wasn't met by the god king with anger, but a flicker of remorse- before he visibly throws it away behind Athena's old smile and bows.

"God-queen," He says formally, gracefully. Hera twitches a bit, and they'll all talk later about how odd it was to so clearly see Athena's younger mannerisms in the man, down to the curl of the letters. "My marriage to Penelope has never been false, never been broken, this I promise you." He takes Penelope's hand and squeezes it for emphasis, and she raises them as acknowledgement. "But... can you not argue that Athena has been part of our marriage all this time? From its start, where she advised me on courting and her on what to look for, to the twenty years she spent with both of us- me on the battlefield and Penelope in the court; to say nothing of how she helped raise our son and lived in our palace in the days after. And is she not so unbearably beautiful that even my Penelope couldn't wait-" He shoots a glare at her, which Penelope returns with a smile. "-when the chance was presented? How can you fault us for disgrace, after being so long apart from our wife?"

Hera raises both eyebrows at the impudence, the kind of disbelieving expression that hides a warning to tread carefully. "So you claim to be both married to Pallas Athena?"

"In every way that matters except legality," Odysseus says, fearlessly. He is dead, after all, what much can you do to a shade that they didn't already put him through when alive. He is sort of worried about Athena, though, as they both help her back to her feet, Penelope busy whispering compliments and updates and endearments in turn- she's not usually one to be quiet in face of a problem.

Hera tilts her head. "Ah, but you see. I need the legality, if I am to finally-" A helpless, excited smile pulls at her lips once, twice, before unfolding into a bright grin, peacock tails unfolding to their full wingspan. "-finally arrange for a marriage for my eldest daughter who has not once- oh finally, I can hardly believe this day has come-"

"I do not like the way you grabbed her, Sacker of Troy," Ares steps forward as Hera starts ranting half to herself, half to an equally loud assemblage of joyful entities about wedding arrangements, eyes narrowed.

Odysseus barks an incredulous, loud laugh, gesturing to Athena with a slightly crazed look in his eyes. "This lady has broken- and I do not exaggerate- every single bone in my body before I saw my sixteenth year. I have punched her a hundred times in the face when she taught me how to fight. We'll survive, thanks."

"That is fair," Ares steps back, hands raised.

"What duties will you provide as spouses, Ithakan Queen?" Hestia questions, stepping forward.

"Oh, the same we did when we were living," Penelope huffs a laugh. "Keep her busy, make her laugh, be of mild frustration to her, love her well, worship her-"

"I do not. Need to know," Hestia closes her eyes and raises a hand to cut her off, stepping back. Around them, the din catches speed and volume as no further objections arise, excitement spilling into the air.

"What is happening?" Athena says faintly, looking around as if she was just waking up.

"-oh, and we can get out the decor once more! Hebe, Aphrodite, loves, do you remember where we kept the fountains-"

"-finally, a reason to celebrate! Call them all out of hiding-"

"-can't believe this is finally happening, oh sister, what songs should we-

"Why am I getting married," Athena says with much more alarm and horror. She turns to Odysseus and shakes him by the shoulder, eyes wild. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!"

"How is this nothing? Do you have any idea the headache-"

"Athena, sweetheart, will you consider changing into that beautiful piece you made for the ceremony?"

Creakily, she turns her head to Hera, disbelief pasted across her face. "Mother," She says slowly. "They are both dead."

"Oh, I'll make a deal with Hades or something, you hush!" Aphrodite leans forward and snaps, before her irritation melts back into a manic joy. "Oh, what paint shall we do?"

Paint, Athena mouths, looking afraid for possibly the first time since her conception.

Penelope laughs and tugs on Athena's hand to make her turn, tucking dishevelled curls behind her ear. She wonders if the goddess knows how beautiful she is when she's flustered. "Take us away," She whispers. On Athena's other side, Odysseus leans against their patron with a besotted, helpless smile as he stares up at her, her helmet and spear in hand. She'd missed Athena like a limb, missed her deep laugh at night when they'd discussed the day's court, the dry jokes, the hands over hers as she weaved- but Odysseus wasn't himself without her, happy though they were in Hades' lands together, all of them.

"I'm-" Athena wavers, then looks around once more at all the excited screaming, something unreadable flashing in her eyes. Almost against her will, her eyes fall to Zeus, who is sitting silently and staring back at her. Poseidon looks like he still wants to start a fight, but clearly by his wary looks below can tell he will be heavily outnumbered by the overexcited crowd to not try, but Zeus just stares back at her, face blank of any emotion.

"We ask you formally this time," King Odysseus says, walking in front of her to take her attention away, holding onto her hand. His voice has strength in it, drawing the eyes of the murmuring crowd, but he's deaf to it as he stares up at her.

"Will you be our wife?" Queen Penelope asks, joining him, watching their beautiful patron shudder for breath she does not need as her eyes flick to one of them and then the other.

"Yes," She whispers and cheers erupt all across Mount Olympus.

"Finally!" Odysseus complains, and then pulls her down once more to kiss her, all three of them fading at the edges as one of the generous gods present there- who seems to realize that they're not very inclined to stop anytime soon- thankfully teleports them away into a nice room with a large bed.

"Finally," He whispers as he breaks apart to lay her down, cupping her face, voice heavy with the longing of a full lifetime and more. Penelope circles to the head of the bed and starts undoing Athena's braid, staring at them both lovingly.

Later the ones closest will murmur, as the silhouettes faded away, that tears had slipped from proud Pallas Athena's eyes as she placed one hand against Odysseus' cheek, trembling.

"I missed you," She will whisper back, and all three of them fade away to their own story, yet to be made.

[karppie-art]

Mortal Monkey King AU by @enka-antix

You make the best character designs, to be honest <(_ _*)>

Also wanted to draw Eclipsed King, but I never get him right.

[padfootastic]

oooh i have thoughts about codependent golden trio, stay with me for a second:

- ron and hermione slowly training harry out of his touch aversion by consistently showering him with small, gentle, touches. they never make it a Thing, it’s so casual harry himself forgets it’s happening a bit, but it’s crucial for him to become comfortable with being touched by anyone

- slowly, as years go by and harry’s nightmares become worse, ron progressively moves from calling his name, to waking him up, to putting a hand on his shoulder(s), to practically moving into his bed to wrap himself around harry. the first time it happened, ron’s face was fire truck red and harry was baffled to the point of incoherence (and for a second, it seemed like all their progress so far would be undone) but as before, they slowly chipped away at harry’s defences with steady support

- hermione, who was able to tweak the protean charm for the DA, created a more specific one more her and ron. if the nightmares were particularly bad, he would ping for her and she would immediately bustle up to the boys dorms. this is rly how she became so comfortable up there and after a bit, the other boys realised why she was there and let her go about the golden trio business in peace.

- and so you have harry waking up with ron and hermione in his bed pretty regularly. they were able to figure out how to expand it pretty early on (combination of some theorising and dobby’s magic) so now all that’s left is figuring out nightly configurations. more often than not, it’s either hermione or ron in the middle bc harry cannot abide being boxed in both ends. but both of them always have an arm of leg on some part of harry, as if to reassure him, even in sleep, that they will never let go.

- some point on fifth year, when he’s so fucked by the voldy visions, the only way he gets any sleep is when ron’s tucked him under his arm and on his lap, or hermione has her hands carding through his hair and head on her thigh, turned towards her stomach as if protecting him from the world. he falls asleep in the common room armchair in front of the fire with ron’s hand around his calf, massaging lightly, and hermione perched on one side of it, arm around his shoulders.

- during the horcrux hunt, this only became more common. there were very few nights they did not sleep in the same bed. privacy was almost nonexistent. they often had to bathe one another when they couldn’t get out of bed due to the grief, or went catatonic with shock etc etc.

- after the war is when people slowly started realising their tendency to be so close. until then, no one really paid attention to these three kids, atleast not so closely. but now all eyes are on them. and so the adults, the order and the weasleys and remus and sirius, see how they go into the same room at the end of the day, come out of it together in the morning. how harry using the bathroom doesn’t stop hermione from going in to brush her teeth, or ron walks around in just a towel without any hesitation when it’s the two of them but yelps and covers up when anyone else walks in.

- they see how hermione hates having her hair touched but will happily fall into a light doze when one of the boys is playing with it, and harry, who will go stiff as a board when someone so much as brushes against his side, will literally melt into a puddle when ron or hermione hug him tight. they’ve never seen ron as calm, or as settled, as when he’s around the other two—he has a purpose, and it’s never been more clearer than in those moments.

[madirye062]

Just finished episode one of weak hero class two and gang I’m so fucking cooked. This show had me crying within the first seven minutes. Y’all stay safe out there today.

[oddrobyn]

PROTECTOR SPORTSWEAR JUST DROPPED!!!!!

[dollypopup]

no, but why didn't we get Colin's letters??????

words truly cannot convey what a missed opportunity glossing over the letters was. why didn't we get a voice over of Colin reading them? or see what Penelope did with them? he sent all these letters and Penelope didn't reply. He was clearly feeling that! He was carrying that around with him. It's why he tried out a new facade in the first place! You know what would have been such a damn good scene that would do SO much with building the narrative of how much Pen loves him? And how much Polin is about being mirrors to each other?

having her read his letters on screen

Sure, build up to it. Can't happen at the start. Not when she's trying to find a husband or after Colin apologized to her. It's not about the immediate satisfaction. It's about showing how Penelope changes and matures and grows as a character that she CAN revisit them, about who Colin is and what he sends, how he sounds, the cadence of his voice when he writes to someone he cares about, discussing subjects he's passionate for. About their connection itself getting stronger or repairing after being frazzled by the LW reveal and the ghosting and the lies and and and

You can't tell me that after they're married, she's not reading his letters. You CANNOT TELL ME that she's laying in that big bed all alone, feeling such distance from him, not recognizing that she had put him in a similar position over the off season. He said and did something that hurt her heart and she froze him out from her affections. SHE said and did something that hurt HIS heart and now he froze her out in turn. When Colin reads HER letters to feel close to her, it's such a beautiful moment of the audience seeing how much he cherishes her.

why don't we get a similar scene with her? because chat, I won't lie, it rubs me the wrong way. It rubs me the wrong way, chat. That he sat down and had a whirlwind of a travel adventure for his final year studying on his grand tour and wrote and wrote and wrote and had NO IDEA why no one was replying and felt that profound loneliness so close to his skin but turned around and blamed himself and we know it because we have THIS fragment of his journal

which in part reads:

After my travels last year when I wrote so much and received very few replies. I am trying out a new personality. A new way of seeing the world and interacting with others. I want to be less needy, less insecure, while still maintaining the core of my vulnerability that makes me who I am.

and chat, I do not understand. I do not get it, chat. Penelope, who criticized him for being fake, who canonically has read parts of his journal, coming across THIS entry? It would break her heart into pieces.

AND I NEED TO SEE IT.

I NEED to see that she cherishes him the way he cherishes her. That she didn't just cast his letters out into the fire in her frustration with him. That she didn't throw him away, even when she was upset. Because he doesn't throw her away when he's upset! And you know what? Even if she did, for us to see her have some remorse for it! She was so hungry to read his journal, and then got letter after letter from him? Of COURSE she's reading those letters! That journal is an insight into his thought process with himself, but the letters are insight into his thought process with her.

And you know what? I want to see her write him letters constantly in the next season. Like a regency equivalent of love letters on post-it notes plastered all up in their house. I want him to wake up to another letter from her even when she slept right beside him that night but had to wake up early for whatever reason so, here, have this letter hand-crafted with her heart in the quill just because. Just because she loves him.

Colin is so good at apologies, namely because they always have actions that follow up to show he's understood what harm he caused and how he's committed to fixing it. And yes, Penelope apologized, but it didn't have much action behind it. I think Penelope NEEDS to understand that part of Colin's insecurities come from her. Her actions. Her lies. Come from that off season where she did not answer him and gave no reason why. Come from saying he loved her and not having her say it back. Colin builds his bridge about her being LW and gets over it largely on his lonesome. We stan an emotionally mature and available man!

But. . .Penelope doesn't have much hand in that. Even when she tells him she wrote about him because she wanted the Colin she knew back. That was a lie. But she can have that Colin back! THROUGH HIS LETTERS!!! Which we should see her read!!!

Anywho, I like to believe that Penelope felt some remorse for their distance and once she knows just how much her not replying hurt him, perhaps via journal entry, one way for her to heal over that harm is to write to him. Why wouldn't she write to him even when they live together? They spent months not doing so. Surely she misses it. And it would be cute. A love language on her part to show him how much she cares. I need Colin to discover that oh she kept them, all those letters he sent. She didn't answer, but I want him to know she read them. I want him to know she likes them. Colin does so much processing on his own, and that's important. But it's okay for her to go 'this thing I did hurt you, and this is how I'll fix it'.

Because look: we all know that an enormous part of Colin's insecurities are because he has been rejected. By his family, by his society, by the one person he believed would never forsake him. He understands why she did, but she still did, and it would do a lot for him to know she didn't just discard him, even if his self esteem isn't great and he'd blame himself alone for the breakdown in communication. And it would do a lot for him to get letters from her again.

Do you KNOW how much shorter their freeze out post-wedding would have been if when he went to get a blanket, he found Penelope reading his letters from the last season? That she kept them? That she keeps them close? Do you KNOW how much that pours into the intimacy between the two of them? Just imagine it

"What are you doing?" "I should think it to be obvious." "Why read them, now?" ". . .because I miss you."

Imagine the parallels. Imagine her delivering 'I miss you' the same way he delivered it. Imagine how conflicted that would make him, pleased and in love but aching and sad all at once. The angst. The romance. The romangst. Think about all we could have!!!

[sukibenders]

Some fans: Eloise is such a fake feminist, doesn't she see how some girls and women enjoy marriage? Doesn't she see how her privileges give her luxuries others don't? She's so selfish. She doesn't even use her words to support other women!

Also same fans: I wish Eloise would stop talking, like her speaking about feminism at every turn is getting old. Can't she just be quiet and let everyone enjoy the fun? Like yeah talking about women's lack of personhood without a male figure in society, or how they can't go to university, or how sometimes they marry men who will only hurt them but need to for their status is sad to see, but THE ROMANCE-

[mothmonarch]

[arcticwaters]

woo boy the one relationship keeping me invested in this campaign almost ended so tragically

[mxtxfanatic]

Hii, I just saw a post about Xue Yang and Nie Huaisang that intrigued me. Would you consider Nie Huaisang a villain for what he did in the novel, perhaps maybe even the same as Xue Yang? I saw some people said that what NHS did was very similar to what XY did. Like the guy said that both of them lied and manipulated people to get their revenge (Xiao Xingchen and Lan Xichen) and didn't really care if anybody else got hurt in the process. What do you think?

…I think people are being intentionally obtuse to push the idea that their terrible favs were actually “not that bad” 😭😭😭 How about this, let’s return to kindergarten with this familiar game: spot the difference!

Character A who exploited a good man’s disability—that he caused—to make him commit mass murder against his will, only to reveal it to him by parading the man’s best friend’s corpse in front of him to brag about the atrocities he tricked the man into, all because that man had the audacity to drag Character A to trial for mass murder

vs.

Character B who committed no mass murder and tricked no other character into committing mass murder, who simply threatened his victim—the murderer of his older brother—with exposing all of his other crimes, including the aforementioned murder, and who at worst, took advantage of a man’s—another victim of Character B’s target—abusive home life, deteriorating mental health, and burning need for vengeance to suggest that the man could sacrifice himself to reap vengeance on his abusers (which was true and did, in fact, happen)

Are these two characters anything alike?

[padfootastic]

harry’s ‘saving people thing’ comes from james potter and if you disagree, u can bite me because that is the TRUTH