#this is my fate it seems.

[galacii-gallery]

More Shattered Fates Refs fun!

for...

Epiales

Nightmare

Both are the same person just different forms!

like how I mentioned before a Doc will be made soon, just wanted to get references made.. perhaps I should begin to make SF!Ink or SF!Errors reference next?

[juusbox]

[rkgk] an old brainworm came to visit me last night

[canisalbus]

I was holding my dog's head like a burger when I suddenly thought of Machete so I now present to you

Machete getting his head held like a burger

.

[jojo-schmo]

I wish I could tell the original artist that this drawing permanently changed the entire direction of my life in 2009. I want to shake their hand, look them in the eye, and admit I would not be who I am today if this drawing didn’t exist.

EDIT: Original artist is @ivynajspyder !!!!

[cubbyhole-for-flea-bee]

Apologies

[symbologic]

Soul-Bound in Wano: The Spooky Simpatico of Luffy and Zoro

Just finished Wano, and wow. I'm surprised there isn't more talk about the crazy parallels between Luffy and Zoro throughout the arc, but especially the raid. It's like Oda was trolling us with how perfectly they mirror each other in places.

Of course, there's the whole shared "wandering samurai" theme in Acts I and II, and then there's the heartwarming scene with them both freaking out over spilled soup. (Side note: I wouldn't be shocked if Zoro's anime-only sake scene was stuff Oda had to cut from the manga – it totally fits Oda's style with Zoro.)

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. We've got a ton of other stuff too:

Zoro uses Conqueror's Haki to injure Kaido because they're all desperate? Boom, Luffy digs deep and starts doing it too.

Zoro gets bandaged up like a mummy? Well, guess who can't move because he fell in the ocean?

Both of them get their own team of doctors? How lucky!

Zoro gets revived with an injection? Here comes Luffy, fueled by some meat!

Zoro declares he'll become a GOD if that's what it takes? 🤔 Makes you wonder what that means for Luffy...

Death himself shows up for Zoro? Not good! Now Luffy's literally in cardiac arrest! Speaking of, Zoro's looking rough. Those sunken eyes, man...

Thank god they're both too stubborn to die. And guess what? They get put right next to each other, while people pray for them to wake up

And wouldn't you know it, they wake up at the EXACT SAME TIME

This can't just be a coincidence, right? It feels like they're on some spooky, soul-bound level where Zoro's fate weirdly determines Luffy's. Which actually slots so, so neatly into Wano and its recurring themes of fate! Hell, Oda himself even said in an SBS (the one about Zoro's family tree) that Zoro's story is that of a strange, twisted fate he's completely clueless about.

Honestly, I love that for them.

Zoro might not get a whole arc dedicated to his backstory like Nami, Robin, or Sanji. But the choices he makes carry a surprising amount of weight in the grand scheme of things.

[ded-lime]

[phoenixcatch7]

Reading loz/lu fics and it's just so interesting how wide the spectrum is of their personalities.

Sometimes it's got an in universe reason (different past (usually gender or species change), recent or ongoing traumatic events, a spectacularly bad first meeting), but sometimes (often) the characters are just... Weirdly angsty or peppy, there's no in between!

And I'm beginning to think less people have played more than one game than I thought XD.

Not that it's anyone's fault! One game is more than enough to be part of it all, and loz is exclusive to Nintendo consoles - and all the older stuff is frustratingly hard to get hold of. Heck, I'm still looking for wind waker, and that was really popular! And then you have to play it! They're not small games!!

But could people writing wild please ease off just a tiiiiiny bit so he can be a semi functional member of society pretty please XD? He's just as much a polite boy as any other member of the chain! He won't even run in shops! He can't attack npcs! He talks to every single person he's ever seen and remembers every single name. Yes, he's three quarters woodland creature with a hefty amount of trauma but he's also a fashionista who managed to avoid accidentally taking sides in a mayoral election and that's not easy!

[scrimbler]

[idliketochill]

How summer feels like right now

(it WILL change later)

[bookshelf-in-progress]

I know you've retold these before, but if you want to do one in the form of a flash fiction... My request would be The Goose Girl or Twelve Dancing Princesses.

I've pondered over a few possibilities for this prompt. This morning, I came up with an idea for a Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling that had me bolting out of bed to start writing. I don't know how to end the story, but I like the setup, so for the sake of sharing something, I thought I'd at least share what I have here.

*

Edmund slipped through the city streets, nimbly dodging around the people who couldn't see him. His pay jingled in his pocket--a gift from a generous shoemaker who'd been grateful for the invisible help--but no one heard. No one looked his way. No one ever did.

At the corner sat a ragged beggar child. Edmund was careful with his money now--he could never be sure of getting more--but he dropped the largest of his coins in her tin cup. She looked up--astonished at the miracle, confused when she couldn't see her benefactor--but didn't meet his gaze.

Edmund always noticed beggars now, after the one who'd cursed him. He'd been young and thoughtless then, newly released from the army with a pocket full of pay. A night in the tavern--celebrating the war's end--ate of most of it, and he stumbled into the streets at sunrise wondering how on earth he could make his money last.

He'd stumbled over the beggar woman, then pretended he didn't hear when she asked for a coin. He had none to spare; he had to look after himself.

Then she proved herself a fairy in disguise and pronounced his doom.

Because you have made yourself blind to the needs of others, this is your curse: to wander the world unseen until you give yourself entire to another.

An unbreakable curse, he'd found--a princess might marry a man sight unseen, but people of his own class liked to see their husbands before they wed.

So he wandered, scrounging where he could (never stealing--a fairy who cursed a man for ignoring a beggar would undoubtedly do much worse to a thief), sometimes doing odd jobs for men willing to arrange his hire and payment by letter. Doing unseen good where possible--at first in the hope that he might be observed by another fairy who'd reward him by lifting the curse, but then because he could--he could see the invisible problems, and give his help without shaming those who received it.

A hardscrabble, desperate life. Sometimes a satisfying one. But--more and more as the years went on--unbearably, unspeakably lonely.

The sun rose higher. The crowds increased. Edmund slipped into the doorway of an abandoned shop and considered waiting out the morning rush. Then he noticed that the entire crowd was drifting in one direction.

This was too much for an invisible man to resist. Edmund drifted at the rear of the crowd until the mass of people pooled around a fountain in the middle of a city square, where stood a royal messenger making a proclamation.

So declared the king: his daughters were wearing through their shoes every night, though the doors of their bedchamber were locked and bolted. The princes set upon the problem had all failed to solve the mystery. So the king decreed that any man who, in three nights' time, could solve the mystery of where the princesses went at night, could have his choice of one to wed.

The crowd gasped. Murmured. Chattered. Shared gossip and rumor. Wondered who'd be daft enough to take the challenge--princess or no, the men who'd tried to solve the mystery before had died.

But at the edge of the crowd, unseen by all, Edmund smiled.

He'd found the way to break his curse.

[raidergamerspice]

So a while ago, I made a post inciting a discussion about Twilight's age (I'm still in the "31/32 years old" boat btw). But of course, probably the thing we all want to know the most is what Twilight's real name is.

I'm still interested in seeing if it actually gets revealed in the future. Naturally, many fans have their own ideas as to what it could be, though some opt for simply referring to him as [REDACTED] for fanfics.

But I did think of something recently.

Since there are a few allusions to James Bond already (I mean, Bondman?), it's no surprise that some fans are theorizing that Twilight's name could be James (I'm partial to this as well; I even had an idea that he and Yor could name their son James if they had bio children). But after looking up some names - particularly German names - on one of my favorite name sites 20000 Names, I stumbled across Lukas, which means "from Lucania", which itself possibly derives from "lux", meaning "light". I thought it'd be funny if his real name had a meaning related to "light", since he becomes Twilight.

And then I did some more digging to find a suitable last name for him. I stumbled across the German surname "Rosenfeld", which means "field of roses" (at least according to where I found it). And because I'm Twiyor trash, I thought it'd be very fitting for him to have a last name related to the woman he marries ('cause Yor's Thorn Princess; aka, roses have thorns, in case you couldn't figure it out).

So in short, one idea I have for Twilight's real name is Lukas Rosenfeld.

But once again, I'm merely thought rambling lmao. What do you think? What ideas did you have for what Twilight's real name could be?

My next Spy x Family ramble post could be about Twiyor having twins, so watch out for that, maybe 💀

(EDIT: I forgot to mention this, but the reason I made Twilight's initials LR is because it's very notable that most of his fake names began with either an L or an R, so I figured the reason for that is because they'd derive from the initials of his real name. That's just one idea, of course 🤷‍♀️)

[knuckle]

it's so odd to me that it's like a meme that shi qingxuan is an innocent flower who's never done anything wrong when he xuan calls out very explicitly that desiring to cover up for shi wudu and help him amass power despite knowing that he's a ruthless serial killer who committed an extremely grave crime that gave you unearned privileges is wrong and everyone is just like well if your family member is orchestrating murdering people and getting them raped and stealing their livelihood it's fine not to seek justice

He Xuan took pains to bring Shi Qingxuan to his hometown where Scholar He has been turned into a gruesome folk hero. Shi Qingxuan figures out what had happened to Scholar He before losing her powers. They openly see how horrific Scholar He's life was, how his loyal childhood sweetheart, his sweet little sister, and his parents all died and the former two were sold off and raped beforehand. When Xie Lian deduces that Scholar He may be the Reverend of Empty words or have replaced it because he was the only victim that rather than die in despair, died fighting, full of resentment and spirit, Qingxuan said that they couldn't compare to him.

They had fully processed how horrific how thoroughly disgusting what Shi Wudu did especially after losing powers and wanted to live as a mortal. However, even after days (which Qingxuan had time to reflect!) in captivity with Shi Wudu, after being rescued by "Ming Xiong" and Xie Lian, Qingxuan still went back to Shi Wudu the moment he was in trouble, even after "Ming Yi" also tried to stop her and asked her if it was really right, despite knowing it was not, she went ahead and selfishly picked her brother, knowing that assisting him and helping him pass the trial would level him up and give him even more impunity in the heavens.

When He Xuan points out that they had given many chances, Qingxuan is unable to argue because of knowing it's true. Even Xie Lian realizes that as an outsider he should not have interfered after a certain point despite his bias toward Qingxuan. Even Hua Cheng had a strong conviction that He Xuan was justified and had been actively lying to and at times even working against Xie Lian's investigating to support Black Water's quest. The amount of moral wrong that had to be involved for Hua Cheng to pick He Xuan's feelings, even remotely, over Xie Lian's had to be immense.

Every single justification and feeling Shi Qingxuan had, while very human or understandable, was just an excuse to pick Shi Wudu - to protect him even though it was sinful, a lesser version of what Shi Wudu had decided to do for Shi Qingxuan. It's not the same level of wrongdoing, but it is still very wrong. Especially because we all heard from Shi Qingxuan's own mouth how wronged Scholar He was, how disgusting what Shi Wudu did was.

We also have Xie Lian's deduction that Shi Qingxuan was aware Shi Wudu wanted to find another innocent if possible to switch Shi Qingxuan's fate again, which is why she initially wanted to escape. In the end, Shi Qingxuan picked familial ties and love over justice, an inversion of He Xuan's hopes for her, probably especially after seeing the deep indignation the wind master had at Pei Ming trying to help and excuse Pei Xiu, especially after being friends for perhaps hundreds of years. He Xuan too was hoping or perhaps felt a sense of justice themself that they had to give the opportunity - for whatever reason tried to give Shi Qingxuan the chance to pick the weak, dispossessed victims, whose ashes and blood fertilized the fruits of her unearned glory, over the water tyrant. And she didn't. That's why Qingxuan too had to kneel before the urns of the He family.

Also, what is there to pity about how it turned out? Shi Qingxuan has friends, has a crew who love and refer to them as Lao Feng, has been proven in their eyes a bona fide god, has a carefree, if hard life, and even did not end up having their fate switched. With the way they stand above the crowd and have the chance to actually experience hardship and the moral qualities that would aid ascension, I feel it is actually possible to ascend on real merits this time too, as a god of beggars, or a god of mercy. In the end, He Xuan was merciful, did not injure Shi Qingxuan themself, and only took her off the unearned pedestal. They even got the absolution of He Xuan not hating them after the wind master fan scene and will likely continue to have a better and better mortal life. Being physically disabled is actually not the worst thing that can happen to you and Shi Qingxuan seems to be leading a happier life than for example the Xianle trio had for the last 800 years, probably because it is Qingxuan's fate to have a happy life.

[lunakataaahhh-1228]

Marie Alter 🥀

[kobaruto-pyrite]

I wanted to draw Bortz’ smile from Chapter 86 💔

[revvethasmythh]

It is interesting, in retrospect, how during and immediately after their encounter with Delilah in episode 77, you can see it actively dawn on Imogen that Delilah is a 24/7 voyeur to everything that happens to/around Laudna, including her relationship with Laudna. Delilah taunts them by saying, "I'm always here" and Imogen whispers to herself, "Always," like this is the first time she's realized it and then immediately starts trying to plan a way, any way, to separate them, including saving the gods from Predathos specifically to call in a favor from one of them. It's such a numb, sudden, harrowing realization. It build perfectly to her admission of disgust when they were in the Fey Realm a couple episodes later