#start rambling/

[pain-suffering-even]

various headcanons that i forgot aren't actually canon

just the koreans cause if i did everyone at once, we would be here forever

Jongin and Yoonho were both part of the Fiend Guild, and that's where their rivalry started, by competing for vice guildmaster

Jongin rescued a cat from Jeju during their first raid and smuggled her back in his cape. Her name is Kiwi. He had to get a new cape because she uses his old one to sleep

Byungyu and Yoonho are childhood friends. Byungyu would always defend Yoonho, because he was so much of a softie and a crybaby as a kid

Yoonho has like. A bajillion animals at home. At some point when he's walking his dogs during a hot summer, he goes topless, and the picture reaches the papers so fast. It gets brought up in almost every single argument with Jongin

Taegyu will eat sour candy until his mouth bleeds and it sends Byungyu insane

Eunseok was an S rank assassin part of the Fame Guild, and was best friends with Byungyu and Haein

Haein was first vice of the Fame Guild before Jongin created the Hunter's Guild and stole her (he promised her no paperwork if she joined, and she was sold)

Hwang Dongsu used to be part of the Knights Guild. He joined, thinking as an S ranker he would immediately become the guild leader. When that didn't happen, he began searching overseas, where Thomas Andre ran into him and picked him up

Byungyu felt too guilty to dedicate himself to one guild, and so he freelances for a high price, so this way he can help more people instead of being tied down. It made it easier to retire, too. The running joke is that he wants to join the Hunters Association

Taegyu and Dongwook had a healthy rivalry between the Fiend and Fame guild. They don't know where Jongin and Yoonho learned to be rivals like that

The Fiend Guild used to be no. 1 until Jongin rose to the top by recruiting Haein and gathering a lot of attention by being a guild leader as a mage

Taegyu and Jongin still talk often. Jongin always makes fun of Taegyu for being ancient and forgotten and Taegyu calls him an arrogant brat. They would die for one another

Just before he became no. 1, Jongin had a really bad fight with Hwang Dongsu. It wasn't unusual, because most other S rankers despise him, since he was blatantly power hungry and bloodthirsty. Because Jongin lost, he ended up leaving Taegyu and the Fiend Guild and created his own guild in an attempt to prove his strength

Jongin despises Yoonho for hiring Hwang Dongsu's brother, Dongsuk, because he still holds a grudge

Jinchul doesn't like Taegyu very much, because he kept trying to bribe him to join the Fiend Guild. They're ok now, especially now that the Fiend Guild isn't no. 1, but Jinchul avoids Taegyu still

Go Gunhee used to pretend actually entertaining the idea of letting Jinchul join a guild until Jinchul told him it was causing problems on his end (Thomas got sad Gunhee said no and Jinchul was terrified that sadness would turn to anger)

During the holidays, Yoonho always takes his dogs and one cat back home with him. Byungyu also goes, so it's become a sort of yearly roadtrip for them. Yoonho usually asks Taegyu or Haein to pet-sit the rest of his animals while he's away

Haein likes fast food restaurants. Neither Jongin nor Dongwook understand why, but she drags them there all the same

Jinchul appreciates Byungyu and Haein, since they always mediate Yoonho and Jongin whenever he isn't around to stop them. It doesn't always work, but at least they tried

Haein doesn't know Jinchul is the origin for her nickname, The Dancer, because he was creating her hunter profile and was mesmerized by the way she fought. He mentioned it to Go Gunhee, and it kinda spiraled from there

[goldensunset]

hate when people think the only archetype possible for a male sidekick to a female protagonist is a soft boi and/or himbo. like the implication there is that the only reason a man would ever defer to a woman’s authority is if he was a bumbling idiot. love male supporting characters who are smart and strong and confident and can step up when necessary but still kind and humble enough to let someone else take the lead most of the time

[sadgirlautumn]

“kids spend too much time on their devices” well what else are they supposed to do? there’s no corner shops with pinball machines in them on every corner anymore. there’s no malls or stores in small towns for teens to hang out in without being suspected of shoplifting or kicked out for loitering. sidewalks are too broken for them to ride their bikes and there’s no bike lane in the street to make it safe for them. i just don’t understand where they expect these kids to go when they keep taking places away from them. and yes having no safe public places for them is what leads a lot of teens into addiction if they end up at a place where people aren’t truly looking out for them.

[secondbeatsongs]

somehow instead of saying "as a treat", I've started using the phrase "for morale", as if my body is a ship and its crew, and I (the captain) have to keep us in high spirits, lest we suffer a mutiny in the coming days.

and so I will eat this small block of fancy cheese, for morale. I will take a break and drink some tea, for morale. I will pick up that weird bug, for morale.

I'm not sure if it helps, but it does entertain me

[lazylittledragon]

can't believe we're all adults being forced into the club penguin level of censorship in 2024

[disaster-magnet]

I'm one of the few people that genuinely LOVES working customer service (hotel receptionist here), like yes the occasional person is rude and entitled. But most of the time? People are kind, and funny, and will jump at the chance to share a bit of their lives with someone else.

The businessman that comes in every week who seemed grouchy at first now smiles and waves when I remember his name, and explains he's just finished a long drive, and he doesn't MEAN to come off as rude, he's just tired.

The mother and daughter who visit the hotel each summer and tell me they've been coming here for years, and each time they visit they go to the pier and save up their tickets for the big ticket items. One day they come through the doors with the biggest grins, the older lady in the wheelchair proudly waving a huge stuffed toy tiger she's "had her eye on for years".

The young man with his girlfriend who looks nervous as he approaches reception, and stumbles over his words, his hands shaking as he signs the paperwork to check in. I've spent the last two weeks on the phone with him organising this; we've set up the bedroom with balloons and petals and decorations, and he's going to propose as soon as they get to the room.

The woman who I've not seen before who asks if I'm local, and tells me she grew up here, and had recently found herself drawn back. We talk about the sounds of seagulls, and the metal clanging of masts down at the harbour, and how the sounds that fade into the background are the ones you miss most when you leave. She's writing a book and promises to send me a copy when she's done.

The regular who goes out of her way to buy us all the strangest biscuits she can find at the tourist shops. We try them together, pulling faces at the ones that just don't work.

The thirty something woman who immediately sees a kinship in me and whispers to me that she has been here before, but under a name she no longer uses, and we celebrate the freedom she feels.

The support group that comes in for coffee each week and sit together filling the foyer with laughter.

Every single person living their own wonderful complicated rich lives, and I get to be a part of that. How is that not beautiful?

[clopiya]

happy pride month to canon sapphics. if you even care

[calmlb]

“Chuuya wasn’t in Dark Era, why is he in this art??”

wdym, he’s right here 🤨

[getvalentined]

Thinking a lot recently about the constant comparison of Oblivion to Skyrim, particularly claims that Oblivion is superior in every way strictly by virtue of quest length and the greater grandiosity of the organizations in Oblivion, and I think there's been a fundamental misunderstanding of what's actually going on with Tamriel during the time period of Skyrim. Even though it's like...one of the core concepts of the main storyline.

Putting most of this under a cut for length, but I just...I think people misunderstand what's going on here. This is not a "One Game Good Other Game Bad" post, it's an analysis of a major, key difference in story basis between the two that I think gets lost in the (frankly asinine) argument about which is superior.

See, everything in Skyrim sucks. Every organization you can align yourself with is falling apart. Literally every single one.

That's the point.

To summarize:

The Companions (equivalent to the Fighters' Guild) are about a dozen strong, literally cursed, and their most beloved leader gets murdered very early in the storyline.

The College of Winterhold (equivalent to the Mages' Guild, not to the Arcane University) has seemingly only been saved from collapsing into the sea because a master of Restoration fused himself with the structure itself when the Sea of Ghosts tried to tear it down a little under a century ago and his presence is constantly physically "healing" the foundation.

The Thieves' Guild has lost the favor of every possible patron deity, having been outright cursed by Nocturnal after one of her Nightingales murdered another and stole the gift she offers her champion, while the boon that the organization's founder claimed from her in ages past (the cowl) is missing.

The Dark Brotherhood has been all but completely dismantled, the Night Mother's tomb in Bravil having been raided and struggling to persist without a Listener for over a decade; the bodies of the Night Mother's children have been lost and she's essentially being smuggled from region to region in an attempt to find a safe place to continue operations.

The Empire itself has been kneecapped, forced into a traumatic treaty by a fascist regime determined to strike the beliefs and culture of anyone not Altmer off the face of the planet; the Thalmor have gone so far as to torture and radicalize the figurehead leader of the Nords in order to use their own nationalism and superiority against the Empire, sparking a civil war that will further weaken the Empire and allow the Aldmerri Dominion to destroy it wholecloth.

This extends out into the rest of the world, too! We have confirmed existence of Hist-deaf Argonians. The Dunmer are floundering to recover after the quadruple-whammy that is the fall of the Triumverate, the destruction of Vivec City when Baar Dau finally made impact, the Red Year, and the Argonian uprising. The Bosmer are literally endangered due to habitat loss following a super-isolationist cultural shift due to wars with the Khajiit and Altmer. The Void Nights were devastating to Khajiit culture and population in ways that have yet to be fully explained.

The world is falling apart. Everything is dying.

And then Alduin shows up.

We all kind of talk about Alduin carrying on as World-Eater through the course of the Skyrim storyline like it's him being a piece of shit, since he'd started it ages ago and was just displaced in time to land on the Last Dragonborn's head in the Fourth Era, but I don't think that's the case.

Based on the state of things, I think Alduin arrived right on time. I think it's the end of the world. The only reason he "should" be stopped is because the Last Dragonborn has the capacity to stop the world from ending in a more down-to-earth sense than just defeating Alduin: they can't save everyone, but they can "fix" every single organization that's holding "the world" together.

They can align with the Imperials and keep the civil war from further crippling them, keeping the Empire from being too weak to push back against the Aldmerri Dominion.

They can save the College of Winterhold, the only group in the right place at the right time to stop the Eye of Magnus from opening, and in doing so make sure that the Psijics are able to put it somewhere nobody else can find it.

They can lead the Companions, cure the curse for those members who don't want to run with Hircine after death, which bolsters their spirits enough to keep doing what they can even when everyone else is trying to kill each other. A single neutral martial force in the middle of a civil war.

They can regain Nocturnal's trust for the Thieves' Guild, restore the Nightingales, and in doing so they can return the luck that was stolen from them as punishment for Mercer Frey's transgression. They can even reclaim the Crown of Barenziah and award the guild with a paragon to increase their newly-regained luck.

They can hear the Night Mother, becoming Listener for the Dark Brotherhood to restore the balancing force of Sithis in the world, purify the most broken Sanctuary the Brotherhood has ever had, and finish a story set into motion way back in the Third Era—Emperor Titus Mede II is murdered under the order of a Motierre, a descendant of a mark the Brotherhood specifically kept from dying during the Oblivion Crisis.

The Last Dragonborn can't do anything outside Skyrim—there's nothing they can do for the Argonians or the Bosmer or the Khajiit, and they can only do very little for the Dunmer via work in Solstheim—but they can work with every single guild or guild-adjacent group, strengthening the Empire to stand against the biggest threat to Tamrielic culture since the First Era, and in doing so they can make it so the world isn't ready for Alduin to eat it.

The Hero of Kvatch exists when Tamriel, and presumably Nirn as a whole is in the prime of its life, that's what makes the Oblivion Crisis such a big deal. This is a world that isn't ready to give up, it still has the strength to fight, it just needs someone standing at the head to direct it. The Last Dragonborn comes into the story when everything is falling apart and nothing really feels worthwhile, when it's hard to see why the world is worth saving. They have the chance to prove that there's still some life left here, that the world isn't too far gone to save—Alduin arrived right on time, it's the Last Dragonborn's job to change that.

I can see how coming from Oblivion to Skyrim would feel disappointing and hollow, but I'm pretty sure that's literally the point of the story.

Oblivion tells you the world is worth saving because it's got so much left to live for, even with the odds stacked so high against it. Skyrim asks you whether a world that's dying is still a world worth saving, and it's up to you to prove that it is.

[antennatoheaven]

trying to sell the murderbot diaries to other robot fans is an uphill battle. yes, i also prefer it when my robots don't have human looking faces. i understand why you might not be happy with its appearance, but guess who's also not happy with having a human face

[pain-suffering-even]

various headcanons that i forgot aren't actually canon pt. 3

the draw sword guild team, who definitely aren't my favorites

Firstly, I don't know why, but I made the jump of headcanon-ing Hoshino Minoru as Goto Ryuji's nephew. This isn't canon but I refer to it a lot, so I just wanted to clarify straight away this is not part of the manhwa!

Reiji had a really long lasting emo phase. It kept going even when he was a hunter, and only stopped when he was promoted to vice guild leader. But he still has tattoos and piercings from back then, and it drives the team wild (they figure out he has his tits pierced and he never knows peace)

Tatsumi was in university to become an engineer. He tends to do random things whenever he gets bored. As in, dismantling the communal kitchen dishwasher and trying to "upgrade it to maximum efficiency," or taking apart various devices to try and "create a homemade roomba," and so on

Ryuji's lockscreen is an old, fat cat, and his homescreen is that same cat with kittens, and a rather excited young child. This has sparked rumors within the team that he has a kid (the kid is a very young Hoshino Minoru, his nephew)

One of Tatsumi's better hobbies is the trumpet, much to everyone's dismay. However, they realize Minoru is a heavy sleeper when Tatsumi attempts to play the Megalovania theme and Minoru just. Sleeps entirely through it

Kanae was going to be a tattoo designer/artist (I think being a tattoo artist requires a medical degree in Japan... but she would not care) and she still doodles designs in her spare time

Kanae also wants to have every inch of her tattooed, as a goal of hers, so she takes suggestions from the team (Kenzo and Tatsumi aren't allowed to suggest anything because they keep advising onigiri)

When Reiji created the team, he first hired Kenzo, Kanae, and Tatsumi. A tank and two fighters. He hires Mari, a ranger, and Akari, a healer after Tatsumi nearly dies doing stupid shit in the gates

Mari was a sheltered rich kid. The team takes it upon themselves to educate him on the wonders of 60 cent ramen packets (and other things as well)

When Akari moves in with her pet bugs, Kanae goes back to trying convince Reiji to allow her to have a pet python. Reiji doesn't budge, and for her birthday, Kenzo, Tatsumi, and Minoru all band together to sneak a python to her room (it goes about as well as you'd imagine, which isn't well at all)

Kenzo is terrified of bugs. At some point, Akari's millipede escapes. This is where their little rivalry begins

Ryuji doesn't really interact with the team a whole lot (at first), doesn't even attend the trainings. He's moved out of the offered room that comes with being a Draw Sword Guild leader. The kids are a little disappointed, because they've heard a lot about the Goto Ryuji, and barely get to see him outside of dungeons or gates

At some point, the Annual Guild Conference is held in Las Vegas. The entire team begs to go, because it's Las Vegas, and Reiji relents. Even Ryuji goes

Ippei and Mari are tied for being the shortest two on the team. Kenzo uses their heads as elbow rests a lot

Everyone tends to distance themselves from Atsushi a lot, since his fighting style is... dangerous. Kenzo is the only one who is really friendly with him, since he's so confident that he's stronger than Atsushi, so he can't ever kill him

Ippei is prone to insomnia, so it becomes a thing to just. Walk into his dorm room to bother him if you're up at 4 am, because he's most likely up as well

Kei isn't an insomniac, but they are a night owl, so they tend to run into Ippei in the communal kitchen a lot, and they become really good friends when they start playing Minecraft together

Akari discovers Ippei's old streamer videos. Even though he deletes them immediately, it's too late. She's clipped several videos of him getting jumpscared, or rage quitting, or doing something stupid, etc. They become reaction images in their groupchat

Tatsumi challenges him to speed-running Minecraft and loses terribly, but now they know Ippei didn't fake his speed-running videos. Tatsumi always challenges him at least once a month

Reiji urges Ryuji to participate in the team, which prompts Ryuji to choose Atsushi, Kei, and Ippei as potential hunters. Reiji recruits them immediately, but Ryuji still doesn't interact with the team much, to Reiji's disappointment

Ippei accidentally microwaves a fork one time in the morning after not getting any sleep. His expression did not change a single bit as the microwave caught on fire. "Oh no," has become an expression throughout the group

Atsushi, like Yoonho, is capable of shifting powers. He turns into a brown bear, but it's a really unstable shift. He's working on controlling it

(I chose bear because I think Kuma = bear in Japanese, so little brown bear boy!!! He's not little hes like 7 feet tall but you know what I mean)

[liimonadas]

randomly rememebered a very silly maya content creator AU i came up with like 2 years ago. its just dumb fun haha

[gingermintpepper]

I think, perhaps one of the funniest things to come from EPIC popularising the Odyssey is that now a ton of people think Poseidon wanted to kill Odysseus.

In the Odyssey, Poseidon has no intention of killing Odysseus. In fact, part of the whole reason Zeus lets Poseidon do whatever he wants even though he thinks Odysseus is rad and should get to kiss his wife is explicitly because Poseidon had no intentions of killing Odysseus. Poseidon wanted to pay back the suffering/inconvenience blinding Polyphemus would have caused. It's a really abstract thing tbh. How do you pay back someone permanently disabling your son? Poseidon's solution was just to amputate Odysseus from his other half; i.e. Penelope. The end game was never murder, it was always an endurance race.

(Od. Book 1: Zeus reassuring Athena that he is not, in fact, a part of Odysseus Hater-Nation. Trans. Robert Fagles)

Also, for those wondering if there's any sort of in text reason for why Poseidon wasn't around in God Games - at the time in the Odyssey when Athena petitions Zeus to let Odysseus leave Calypso's island, Poseidon was -checks notes- on vacation in Ethiopia. Yep. He left to Ethiopia for a festival and thusly was very much absent for Athena's whole "please let Ody go? Please? 🥺" request.

(Od. Book 1: While Odysseus was suffering, Poseidon went to party in the east)

I am begging y'all to read the Odyssey. It's a comedy for everyone except Odysseus and Penelope who are, in fact, suffering 24/7 365.

[tojisun]

thinking about oral cockwarming price underneath his desk.

garrick and mactavish had interrupted him as he tries finishing his paperwork to ask if perhaps he would have known where you went but john just says he doesn’t and that they should scram because laswell wants those papers sent to her as soon as possible. meanwhile, you are on your knees before him, hidden under his heavy oak desk. you have your head leaning on the robust press of his thigh, your eyes going heavy as drowsiness fills you up.

then, the door opens again. with how close you are to your captain, you hear his grumbled annoyance before he addresses who it was—“ghost. what brings you here?”

simon doesn’t reply for a moment and you are back to tuning everything out except for the weight and size of john’s cock and how it twitches every time you swallow, when—

“yer hiding the rookie, aren’t you, sir? right there, under yer table.”

his tone is light, pleased and amused, but the knowledge that you’ve been caught. that a higher-up—hell, not just anyone but ghost, knows what you’re up to—

…well, fuck.

[lazylittledragon]

i hope the person who made the romeo and juliet uquiz never deletes it and also knows that i think about it at least once a month

[mwphisto]

Rafayel suffers from night terrors.

He doesn't talk about them, doesn't dare acknowledge them out loud. Saying he has them makes them real, and that's not something he's ready to come to terms with yet.

They are not visions his mind conjured up. No, they are something far worse. They are memories. Memories of his past, of his lives with you. Each one etching their own unique scar in his mind. Taunting, tormenting, breaking his heart over and over.

Still, Rafayel refuses to dwell on them longer than a few minutes. After he's jolted upright in bed, sweat covering his body, his pupils drawn tight despite the darkness enveloping his room.

His body is shaken by fight or flight, arms trembling with tension as he holds onto the dying version of you that has long since passed.

They don't stop, not until he has you. Not until you are throughly bound to him in this life too. Tangled in the infamous red string of fate, one that ties you to him as helplessly as he his tied to you. Your presence in his bed has warded off the cursed dreams.

Now, Rafayel's night terrors are few and far between.

He can go a few weeks, even a month, without his past tormenting him in his dreams. His resolution is much healthier than his previous coping attempts. Each time his skin is soaked with sweat, each time his heart seizes and he is left grappling for reality, he reaches for you.

You, who is sleeping soundly beside him. You, who sleeps like the damn dead. You, who sleepily mumbles his name and reaches for him just as he clings to you, sweat, panic, and all.

You may not remember. It may kill him a little bit. But he has you again, you are his and he is yours. He can cope with the nightmares of his past so long as you are sleeping - breathing - beside him.

Are we fucking joking with that trailer. Raf looks un-fucking-real and (SPOILERS) I genuinely gasped when we died in his arms. My poor fishy, the visual sucked (it was gorgeous but painful is what I mean lmfao)