#the ultimate show of love and trust:

[kastalani123]

Consider:

Leo Valdez was not born. Instead, two pairs of hands form him from bronze and steel and gold. His hair is copper wires so thin they bounce like natural curls, and his eyes glimmer with silver flakes. The joints of his body are plated so delicately, so perfectly, the segments are near indiscernible, smoothly gliding over each other. Faint traces of fingerprints and flecks of impurity are deliberately left behind for their uniqueness, a form of impossible signature of his creators.

Most importantly, gilded bars curl around each other in his chest, protecting the red-red-red flame that pushes his eyes open everyday, that beats in tune with his thoughts, that heats his body to expand and grow.

A metal child is not so different from a human one, and yet is so far from it at the same time. He is curious, about the world, about himself, and he picks apart toys and TV remotes and his arms, spilling their secrets before his constantly shifting eyes. He does not cry from fatigue or thirst or hunger, but a bump, a dent, a scratch never fail to draw tears. He splashes in the rain and snow, carefully bundled in waterproof coats and jackets, and runs from baths like he's possessed, fire flickering in fear.

The first time he meets someone like him, an endeavour he had long thought hopeless, it is a malfunctioning dragon others call for the death of; he is too unpredictable, too dangerous, too broken. Leo looks him in ever-shifting eyes glimmering with silver and sees himself if the cage in his chest ever bends, cracks, shatters, if the gears beneath his skin ever jam and stick and wear down irreversibly.

It is not golden flowers and godly aid that preserve him; just as he'd done for his twin-in-all-but-appearance, he creates a new body, with new fingerprints and impurities mapping his design. His hair is more bronze than copper, now, and his eyes more gold than brass. The plates of his joints scrape against each other faintly, and the gears of his bones grind together uncomfortably — he only had so much time, so much material to use, he could not polish every element of himself in the way he wished, but it holds together.

Most importantly, he reinforces the cage in his chest, coats it in layers upon layers of metal, to ensure his flame will not go out in the explosion, that Festus will be able to salvage it and lay it gently in the chest cavity carefully carved in his new body, bringing it to life.

He returns to Camp, movements more clunky and mechanical than should be, and his siblings finally pin down his segmented limbs, his shifting eyes, his clicking fidgeting. They are ecstatic, just as fascinated with him as they had been with Festus, and he lets them. He lets them take him apart, piece by piece, clean out the sand of Ogygia from his organs, polish and oil his gears until they glide against each other, press new fingerprints, new signatures of belonging, against his skin.

Most importantly, they craft him a secure, intricate cage, with golden flames licking up the bars, with delicate chains shielding it from the elements, and his flame settles inside it, flickering happily, finally truly, truly comfortable in the cage of his body.

Leo Valdez may not have been born, but he was crafted with the most loving hands imaginable, and is that not so much better, for a son of the Craftsman?

[luck-of-the-drawings]

[OLD ART ALERT] A COLLECTION OF SCENES FROM THE GILLIONS CATSCRATCH ARC THAT BROUGHT ME GREAT JOY. i love fishy chips especially when its just gillion being delirious and violent and hostile

[bitchthefuck1]

Tom's line about Shiv being selfish and "find[ing] it very hard to think about me" is actually so telling because while it's absolutely true that she rarely takes his position into consideration, Tom never once thinks about what he can do to help Shiv unless it also benefits him.

Every single time he makes a move or sacrifice that might help her, it's always something that he thinks will give him a leg up. He volunteers to take the fall for cruises, not for Shiv, who is in no way implicated, or even for Waystar, but because he thinks it'll ingratiate him to Logan, and the second it seems like he might have to actually follow through on that, he immediately tries to get out of it and even throws Shiv under the bus. Meanwhile, for all that Shiv disregards his interests, there are a number of things she does that only help him, and she's the one who actually sacrifices something and undermines her position with Logan to beg him not to let Tom go to jail.

It just makes it so clear that no matter how much he might love her (and I think he does, in his own compromised way), for him their relationship was always built on the underlying assumption that it's her job to prop him up, but it's not his job to help her.

[vicsy]

Something about Lance taking Fernando to his favorite childhood place just screams “soulmates” to me.

[sharkieboi]

Metatron: *dies by a carefully crafted murder/suicide with Lyra’s parents sacrificing themselves for the sake of humanity*

Meanwhile

Will: Hey what’s in this glittery box, there’s something alive in there

Lyra: idk cut it open

*the shriveled body of GOD is hit by sunlight and shrieking in horror dissolves into dust and dies*

Will: …

Lyra: …

Both of them: …damn that was weird. anyway. where are our daemons?

[charmwasjess]

"water" for the wip game, please

Ooo, this is a funny one - but technically it counts, it's an unpublished bit from a WIP! From one of my deleted scenes early in Rabbit Heart, where Sifo-Dyas is just free rolling nonstop visions instead of lying down for a nice hurt comfort scene. I ended up cutting the scene because it got way darker than I wanted to go in a fic where I also... uh, burn the love interest at a stake?

There was no logical reason for Sifo-Dyas to be conscious. Yet, he was. 

Dooku had tried to make him comfortable on the shuttle. He piled blankets on top of him, tried to hold water to his resisting lips, and promised him safety. And yet, the seer seemed broken. His eyes weren’t clearing out like they should have after a vision. His face looked overloaded, like someone receiving too much sensory information all at once. Prophecy spilled from him, mingling into incoherent nonsense.

“Do you know her? Why is she crying?” He clutched desperately at Dooku, blood running from his mouth and nose. “Promise me that you’ll help her!”

[carefulfears]

what do you consider the heart of californication? like really carries through the series & makes it compelling

thank you for this question, i really love it. to me, it's a number of things, starting with that the show cares deeply about hank and takes him seriously in a way that the culture doesn't. in a way, yes, he's their dog and pony show with the funny one-liners and the salacious pull. but the arc of the series is unequivocally aligned with him and his desires and his needs and his values.

hank wants to be with his family, wants to be better for them, wants to not let them down- and the show needs him to fail at all of those things. for the dog and pony of it all, for their viewership and for their thesis and for the food in their mouths, but it simultaneously feels bad that he is failing. simultaneously knows that this isn't what he wants, and that it's sad. and it can be as simple as a dream sequence or a look or a quiet final scene, but every single episode is ultimately going to remind you that everything you're laughing at is a loss.

which, like i said at the top, speaks to a level of respect that the show had for the character that is just gone in discussions of the series. they take the time to recognize that he is missing something. he is losing something and he is without everything that means anything to him, this is the cost. equally important, duchovny respects that character and understands the same.

i was listening to an interview last night (trish you heard this) where he was speaking with some podcast dudebros and one of the hosts said that he always wanted to be just like hank moody, and then he made some "bad decisions" and got there, and he doesn't like it. and duchovny said that every time people come up to him saying "i'm just like hank moody," he says "i'm sorry."

men watch and they want to be just like hank moody and women watch and they want to fuck hank moody so bad, and all of you miss what the source comprehends: that it's an irreparable deficit.

other than that, i feel like what roots that show is that it really isn't all that cynical. not in the way that it could be. and the show believes in hank.

there is a lot of kindness and hope (often false hope) that runs underneath most every relationship and interaction and dynamic in the series and i really really appreciate that about it. it's like in the pilot when hank is being mean and he wants marcy to yell at him and she just says "go home, honey. sleep it off. tomorrow's another day."

there's always a little bit of understanding and grace amongst the crazies and i think there's something really special about that

[juliannos]

I came across an article recently that was talking about how cats probably don't love you

And all I could think about was my friend's very skittish girl who always meows at me when I visit and sits next to me and demands pets, even though she doesn't like people all that much.

And I can't help but think that those researchers are full of shit

[orcelito]

Listen I accepted my bisexuality and thus opened up the avenue of m/f shipping but in a queer way. Largely poly and/or bi4bi kinds of ways. But mostly m/f shipping where I actually delve into their emotions and see what really makes them tick.

It was always the shallow m/f shipping that I had a problem with. The "he's a boy and she's a girl, so of course they'd end up together" kind of thing. Given actual proper emotional development with their relationship, though...

Then Maybe.

[musical-chick-13]

ANYWAY, the moment when Amy asks the Teselecta to turn into River, and Mels/Melody/Not-Yet-River realizes that the person everyone has spent this entire episode talking about with care and fondness is actually her, they were talking about her, and then she just stands there tearing up and immediately decides to change the course of her entire life >>>>>>>

[lathrine]

when i say hexadecimal would be a smash hit with the queer crowd, this is what im talking about

[sort-of-a-hero-that-way]

Thinking about Frank vs Russia again. And about the confirmation that the SINNED system was created at the same time as the DENNIS one. We know Dennis perfected his system for women but we haven't seen him ever date a man or keep a man. We have no confirmation of what he's done, and based on Dennis' eagerness in knowing if Dee and Mac got 2nd dates, I like to think he's never even tested it before. It was all based on observations. He kept it secret all these years and finally saw potential now to test it out through them. When's the second date? He's eager to know. Does it work.

And it does. Ofc it does. It was foolproof. He knew that.

Dennis isn't against a romance with Mac. The system exists since s6, Dennis clearly WANTS to keep a man. He just doesn't understand how that's already happened. Mac likes him? Wdym, he hasn't done the steps yet. Dennis just confirmed that the system works.

We know Dennis' outburst basically meant "You can't be in love with Johnny because he doesn't love you Mac, I don't love you. Move on."

But it also meant "You can't be in love with Johnny because Johnny is me! And you're not in love with me!"

Dennis is rejecting love on all grounds, in both directions. This isn't part of the plan, part of the scheme. This isn't his goal, not now. He's not ready and Mac isn't either.

The goal was simply to get Mac's attention back. To bring them back on equal footing. To be friends again. Dennis is fixing the friendship first, and Mac is being impatient and an idiot and jumping at romance and ruining the careful pacing Dennis is creating.

[pragmatic-optimist]

Tim, Ronen, and Rafa are working overtime to sell this storyline leading up to the wedding, going on a preemptive press tour right out of the gate post-ep 4x1.

When they told us that the first half of the season was going to have lots of Andrea, Gabriel, Carlos, and TK interactions.... should’ve known there was a catch. ASFDJXFHGISNF

Season 4. Choices were (and are being) made. Here we go (I guess). 🙃

[theheadlessgroom]

@beatingheart-bride

"I guess I have! Honestly, I couldn't tell you why," Randall shrugged with a good-natured laugh, blissfully unaware of any surprise on Emily's part as he finished the last of his stew, saying, "I don't even know what kind of bat it is, but I'd like to know. Maybe it thinks I look like a tasty morsel or something!"

He chuckled again (perhaps he should reconsider leaving his window open on a hot summer night, lest his batty friend take that as an invitation to take a sip!) as he got up to take his bowl and plate to the sink, as well as put the remaining stew into a container to fridge for his parents to enjoy later, adding, "I don't mind it, though-I usually walk home alone, so it's nice to have some company for a change."

Normally, Randall didn't mind walking home on his own; he was used to it, but he couldn't lie and say that it wasn't lonely, walking home alone. He passed so many others-couples, friends, families-and it made him wish he had someone by his side, someone to talk to, to destress with after a long day at work. Of course, he had his folks to look forward to seeing afterwards, but someone to walk with would be nice, and so he welcomed the little bat's company.

[theartinmyheart]

;

[divorcemotif]

"oh hey a real person followed me, I should look at their blog"

soon

"...perhaps I should listen to Eskew."

oh boy you caught my blog after an exciting weekend lmao

I absolutely recommend eskew! I don't have a lot of coherent thoughts, since I got into it over a very physically and mentally draining summer job and have yet to relisten, but it left an impression for sure. I will say what there is of an overarching narrative felt a bit jolty to me in places, for lack of a better term— I think you get the vibe of a show that’s figuring itself out somewhat as it goes, however the ideas are very interesting and I could make a long list of moments that really really affected me. my recent posts probably give a good sense of what I liked most abt it; david ward is just. endlessly interesting as a character imo. the writing’s good— there's a kind of.. ironically humorous edge to a lot of my favourite episodes, something I’d have to relisten to properly articulate. there's a tic of referring to one-off characters by a title instead of a name— the correspondence editor, the architect, the witness— that scratches something in my brain. in contrast with the slimy fleshiness of much of the horror, the sound design is just nice, actually— the rain never stops in eskew and the tone of the narration stays pretty level no matter what’s being described. there are only two narrators and I found both of their voices pleasant enough to close my eyes to on the subway after a long day. very solid show