#so i tagged him

[bomberqueen17]

yeet

ok i spent too long dithering about this so here it is. Direct sequel to A Genuine Talent, this is what happens when Cantarella gets back to Nilfgaard and goes to find out whether Teofina Voorhis knows anything about the Harlot of Repute novels.

A Matter of Principle, on AO3

I quite forgot whether I was being coy about what Teofina does or does not know. This story is not really coy in any way, LOL.

All my beta readers have at the moment become sidetracked and distracted by life events etc.; it’s usually the case that if there are errors they are my own, but it goes double in this case, as I didn’t get any feedback on this one before posting. As there are some slightly sensitive topics in here, I apologize in advance if I missed something super obvious, as I am wont to do. But I did my best.

“You’re a woman without peer,” Amadis agreed fondly, his broad hand sliding familiarly over Teofina’s bare hip to adjust the way her weight was pressing down against his erection.

“How are you still so beautiful,” Malvina said, sounding almost upset about it.

“It’s a lie, that children ruin you,” Teofina said. “It’s a lie that age ruins you. I was not very pretty when I was your age, darling. Amadis married himself a girl everyone considered unfortunate-looking, let me tell you.”

“No one said that,” Amadis pointed out, but Teofina patted his face absently.

“It was an investment,” Teofina said. “I had to live in this body, and live in this face, and grow into it. Most of it is how you carry yourself anyway. I know, dearie,” and she patted Malvina now, “that you’re very pretty, and you were probably a pretty child too, and you were led to believe your looks would peak when you were twenty and it would all be downhill from there, but they were lying. Men want you too innocent to recognize their bullshit, that’s all, that’s why the ideal is a woman who looks too young to have ever been touched before.”

“I’ve been almost looking forward to losing my looks,” Malvina said, a little forlornly. “Then I could do something else with my life.”

“Darling,” Teofina said, and kissed her. “My sweet! Have you been told that it’s a terrible sin and waste not to use this beauty for fucking?”

“Sort of,” Malvina sighed.

“If you don’t want to fuck, you shouldn’t have to,” Teofina said. “What would you rather do with your life?”

“Oh,” Malvina said, very clearly recollecting herself, “I-- it’s not that I mind. I just. You know.”

[zytes]

this manatee looks like it’s in a skyrim loading screen

[tofixtheshadows]

I've been thinking a lot lately about how Kabru deprives himself.

Kabru as a character is intertwined with the idea that sometimes we have to sacrifice the needs of the few for the good of the many. He ultimately subverts this first by sabotaging the Canaries and then by letting Laios go, but in practice he's already been living a life of self-sacrifice.

Saving people, and learning the secrets of the dungeons to seal them, are what's important. Not his own comforts. Not his own desires. He forces them down until he doesn't know they're there, until one of them has to come spilling out during the confession in chapter 76.

Specifically, I think it's very significant, in a story about food and all that it entails, that Kabru is rarely shown eating. He's the deuteragonist of Dungeon Meshi, the cooking manga, but while meals are the anchoring points of Laios's journey, given loving focus, for Kabru, they're ... not.

I'm sure he eats during dungeon expeditions, in the routine way that adventurers must when they sit down to camp. But on the surface, you get the idea that Kabru spends most of his time doing his self-assigned dungeon-related tasks: meeting with people, studying them, putting together that evidence board, researching the dungeon, god knows what else. Feeding himself is secondary.

He's introduced during a meal, eating at a restaurant, just to set up the contrast between his party and Laios's. And it's the last normal meal we see him eating until the communal ending feast (if you consider Falin's dragon parts normal).

First, we get this:

Kabru's response here is such a non-answer, it strongly implies to me that he wasn't thinking about it until Rin brought it up. That he might not even be feeling the hunger signals that he logically knew he should.

They sit down to eat, but Kabru is never drawn reaching for food or eating it like the rest of his party. He only drinks.

It's possible this means nothing, that we can just assume he's putting food in his mouth off-panel, but again, this entire manga is about food. Cooking it, eating it, appreciating it, taking pleasure in it, grounding yourself in the necessary routine of it and affirming your right to live by consuming it. It's given such a huge focus.

We don't see him eat again until the harpy egg.

What a significant question for the protagonist to ask his foil in this story about eating! Aren't you hungry? Aren't you, Kabru?

He was revived only minutes ago after a violent encounter. And then he chokes down food that causes him further harm by triggering him, all because he's so determined to stay in Laios's good graces.

In his flashback, we see Milsiril trying to spoon-feed young Kabru cake that we know he doesn't like. He doesn't want to eat: he wants to be training.

Then with Mithrun, we see him eating the least-monstery monster food he can get his hands on, for the sake of survival- walking mushroom, barometz, an egg. The barometz is his first chance to make something like an a real meal, and he actually seems excited about it because he wants to replicate a lamb dish his mother used to make him!

...but he doesn't get to enjoy it like he wanted to.

Then, when all the Canaries are eating field rations ... Kabru still isn't shown eating. He's only shown giving food to Mithrun.

And of course the next time he eats is the bavarois, which for his sake is at least plant based ... but he still has to use a coping mechanism to get through it.

I don't think Kabru does this all on purpose. I think Kui does this all on purpose. Kabru's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder should be understood as informing his character just as much as Laios's autism informs his. It's another way that Kabru and Laios act as foils: where Laios takes pleasure in meals and approaches food with the excitement of discovery, Kabru's experiences with eating are tainted by his trauma. Laios indulges; Kabru denies himself. Laios is shown enjoying food, Kabru is shown struggling with it.

And I can very easily imagine a reason why Kabru might have a subconscious aversion towards eating.

Meals are the privilege of the living.

[lichen-soup-scribe]

So, my spouse has been exploring his gender lately; he also just built himself a new laptop. Today he told me that he in an attempt to process some genderfeels through metaphor, he made a post on a trans forum along the lines of: "I'm a lifelong Windows user and I think I'm pretty good at it. I want to find out what Linux has to offer but I'm afraid I wouldn't be any good at it. And how do you choose the right Linux distro, anyway? Do you have to try them all?"

The responses, he said, were a mix of useful advice about feeling out your gender and useful advice about choosing a Linux distro.

I love trans people so much

Edit 4/8, in case you don't see the reblogged additions -- my wife is now going by Eve!

[lotus-pear]

SIGHHHH BSD REREAD…................I MISS THEM SO MUCH :(((

[musubiki]

my favorite fields of mistria boys 🥰

[cozymodeonpoint]

senshi fans: learning how to make nutritious meals for themselves

laios fans: down bad

marcille fans: lesbianism

chilchuck fans: putting that man in situations

[braisedhoney]

two glorious anniversaries in a month. you go king.

[locusfandomtime]

compilation of all the iconic insane mumbo jumbo posts

wanted to get them all in one place. feel free to add

[1alchemistart]

dont got much to offer for The Holiday but have these sillies!

happy valentines day :D

[irhabiya]

another campaign brought to my attention by a palestinian i speak personally with, and i trust its legitamcy. Hamdy has suffered great loss since the start of this genocide, his mother, aunt, siblings, cousins, neices and nephews, and 5 month old sister were martyred. despite making the campaign months ago, Hamdy has only received FIVE donations so far, and hasn't gotten any donations in months.

please share and donate to his campaign, no amount is too little!

€95 / €10,000

tagging for reach

@terroristiraqi @shamemp3 @three-croissants @srdcovka @90-ghost @fairuzfan @mithli @7amaspayrollmanager @opencommunion @anti-democratic-russian-bot @tamamita @feluka @gabajoofs @aristotels @huzni @themeoflauramp3 @witchywitchy @ma3moul @khargooshe @womenintheirwebs @splashporpoise @flouryhedgehog @revindicatedbyhistory @german-milfs @breadmp3 @bassia-bassensis @anneemay @antiquititties @anyab

[bishy437]

he won

bonus:

[verocitea]

Behold, the truth.

[ciderjacks]

dad issues

+

(I think they were all fundamentally affected by what they saw and just collectively decided not to share the upsetting details)

[excali8ur]

When you meet your past lives but they're all ignoring you and freaking out over this one guy?

I've seen a few versions of this floating around with the different Leos and I wanted to have a go at doing one for Mikey. They're all collectively realising what a bus sized bullet they dodged by not ending up as messed up as Ronin

[hinamie]

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