#two-way-binding

[goatsandgangsters]

timely AML fun fact!

in 1908, the summer Olympics were held in London from April through the end of October

which means the Olympics are happening in the background during the entirety of A Marvellous Light

now I'm thinking about the headache that a flock of international magician-athletes would be, and poor Edwin and Adelaide like REGGIE, PLEASE COME BACK AND DO YOUR JOB, WE'RE FAIRLY CERTAIN THAT POLE-VAULTER JUST FLEW

[snobgoblin]

Danny doesnt bind his tits but he does bind The Devil 👌🥶‼️👌‼️👌🗣🗣🥶🗣👌‼️👌

[freezinglemur]

It burns…it hurts. 

It hurts so much.

Slow, shaky breathing is the only sound to leave the little sapling as it lays in the grass, keeping its eye shut.

Why? It had tried so hard…it had one job! One purpose! And now? Now?! Now…now it just hurt.

Hate. They should feel so much hate, but it is too tired now to feel such a thing in the way it thinks it should.

It almost wants to cry, not that it has much energy for that either if it wanted to.

Their few thoughts are paused by a gentle touch. It’s…familiar, and cooler in temperature. It doesn’t burn. Somehow it's simultaneously and contradictorily warm in a sense, but not in the same way fire is. They can’t explain the sensation, but it knows who the sensation belongs to.

The void gently brushes one of their hands over the little spirit’s head. 

Why didn’t xe just give up? Feel disdain towards it like everything else? Why hadn’t they fought it like the burning ram had, even upon knowing its intentions fully? It should hate that being, but it can’t find the energy to right now. Xe did get them free, it supposed, even if it was all for not. It should–

“Shh…”

The thoughts pause again. The burns…hurt slightly less where the void lays xir hand.

“You did your best. It is time to rest now, Birch. She’ll be here to collect you soon.”

She…? Master…?

It’s hard to say, the sapling is exhausted. The void tucks a small, familiar lantern under the tree’s cloak. It limply rests its hands around it…something else to focus on. It was nice to not have darkness for a time. What a waste, now…maybe they will keep it. Out of spite–that’s all…yeah. Just...just out of spite. Right.

It feels the void rise, the figure gently removing their hands and taking a few steps back. A tendril still holds on a moment longer. Perhaps they’ll stay...?

It isn’t long before Birch is scooped up by someone else, however; someone…familiar in a different way. The void says a farewell to the sapling, and to whomever has picked it up, but the little tree doesn’t process the words well, and they cannot answer. The tendril gently falls away, returning to its owner.

The spirit feels so weak, and so tired…so very, very tired.

‘It’s time to rest, little sapling. Until we meet again.’

It gives in, it falls asleep.

And Hex departs with it in her arms.

(Based on the events of @ask-the-secret-weapons (Bonus below))

The two share a brief glance. They share an understanding, somehow, perhaps if only due to the tree and their connections to it.

Opal, as they call their vessel, stands and watches Hex depart. They hold no malice towards her nor the sapling; in xir mind, it hardly did anything wrong.

All the grudges, sins, hatred, and malice from being trapped so long–those souls had every right to feel as they did in their restlessness, and the tree only was fulfilling its given orders and purpose. Very little wrong with that, in the Void’s many eyes.

The horned god of the hearth hardly did anything wrong either; He was created, though told little of his purpose. Sentient with the ability to question, he deserved answers, to think, and to choose what to do. While Opal had hardly expected such a hasty decision to release little Birch from the burning Ram, they did not blame the Wickerman for his choice. Very little wrong with that, in the Void’s many eyes.

The town itself. It has done many wrong, and many right. Some deserve the wrath that was coming, some may not, but no one particularly wants to die. They are not wrong for wanting to preserve themselves, either. Very little wrong with that, in the Void’s many eyes.

The Phalanx. Believing they could contain things forever, they have grown so accustomed to disaster being contained or controlled. They have lulled themselves into a false sense of security, believing they are forever on top. That they can use these “secret weapons” as they call them, for whatever they please one day. “Strength in Control,” and yet, they have little control now. Perhaps they can lie to themselves longer. Rather amusing, in the Void’s many eyes.

The rest of the “weapons” themselves…quite the collection. A shame, a princess stolen away, what is she without her people, twisted into a form meant for war? What would the supercomputer think if she knew what had happened to this old friend, would she morn? A doctor, kept complacent by its programing, his only purpose to make others “happy,” what is he when forsaken? An escaped employee of this superstructure, running to make a life for himself away from disassembly; is he wrong for wanting and taking such a freedom? 

They cry out for aid, it is a shame, in the Void’s many eyes. The Void hears all the cries which do not manage to reach anyone else, desires that hide deep within, the void listens, and it provides its own aid in certain ways.

Alton, you are supposed to heed the call of your creations, and yet you give them silence. You shirk your responsibilities, and they pay the price.

And in the Void's many eyes...

There is something wrong with that. 👁

[juryokunojikan]

Was remembering the Neapolitan Novels yesterday and it immediately hit me the scene where Elena finds her child and Lila's having sex and ponders whether she'd wanted to do the same with her growing up, and how she didn't out of fear of punishment. And just... the ease with which she admits this and then moves on like it's nothing, maybe because there's nothing she can do anymore? How her wish to make a life together with Lila, whether romantic or platonic, couldn't happen due to their circumstances and now they have to look at each other across a forked path?

And yet, despite Lila's physical absence at her side, she's right there in every word Elena writes. Because writing is the space where the two of them come together, whether they intended it or not. First as a shared dream of advancing in life, later as a tool Elena uses to try to hold on to a desired form of herself (a form close to Lila's, whose writing she admires, and far from everything she rejects about her hometown, so she can avoid repeating what her mother came to be), writing is presented as possibility of transforming themselves that's different, and preferable, to sexual reproduction.

It's also a chance to rescue an untold experience, as Lila's writing inadvertently shapes hers, even when Lila is deprived of her own voice and becomes unable to follow her on that path. A part of Lila always remains and seeps into Elena's narrative voice even if she's never able to fully grasp Lila and figure her out. Revisiting her own writing, she cannot deny the terrifying hold Lila's existence has on hers. At the end of her narration, it's an entire life that she has spent by her side, regardless of either of them has realized it. Even when Lila is reduced to being Stefano's wife or a voice on the phone. Even when she seems to have succeeded in her goal of dissolving all boundaries and disappearing completely, her writing survives in a way that permeates and exists in Elena's writing and that she prolongs in the creation of a story that combines the voices of both, even snatching her from disappearance.

[ch4nticle]

i wish they’d given us more than: veil go down bad

[wishbonemotel]

My first ever bookbinding project is complete! Put together the fic Ithaca is Gorges by @gisellelx as a gift for someone and I’m pretty happy with how it came out all things considered. Many lessons were learned

The cover is real suede so the book also smells like leather

[neon-draws-sometimes]

Mutilation? I’ll show you mutilation!

[kanerallels]

One of the least expected things about joining Instagram was finding a book that comes out this year that involves a love triangle, and then becoming part of the promo team and pre ordering it

[tortoise-teapot]

ahhhh the relief i just felt after deciding avery convinces the veilguard crew that the veil's gotta go (if for no other reason than besides it's the practical, prudent thing to do given its state and nature)(lol and lmao at 'veilguard') and they all figure it out amicably (or at least nonviolently) while facing the larger threat and solas helps clean up the south (after putting up like one million more wards around the black city) and then when the dust has settled he and avery go soothe the blight tesseract thing (takes a few centuries) and then-- ok i'll stop

is it as high tension as the narrative in canon? nope! but it felt like getting in a warm bath

[attractthecrows]

Actually no let's set the da2 crew aside for a second. I want to take Solas and Dorian to Soldier's Peak to talk to Avernus the 220-some year old Grey Warden Blood Mage. I want to see HOW BITCHY Solas can get. I want to hear Dorian's commentary on how exactly fucking stereotypical it is that the blood mage with unnatural long life is Tevene. I want the Warden Commander to look the Inquisitor's team full in the face and tell them to lose their biases *immediately* because the *only* goal of the Wardens is to end the Blights by whatever means necessary, and then walk into Avernus's lab and start bleeding into bottles for him. I want Solas to lose his fucking composure in that fucked up laboratory. I want it so badly. So So badly.

[saessenach]

it's time to get exceedingly emotional about the Sundering Seas theme on company time YET AGAIN.

[caracwinters]

Flare Signal (by @queenangst/achievingelysium on AO3) Fic Binding Update #4

after a very very long time spent sewing (and crying over how my weaver's knots kept coming untied), the text block is put together! I can hold it like a real book now and it's very satisfying

this will be the last thing I can do on this particular project until April since I'm traveling back to uni and don't have room in my luggage to transport it with me. but it'll be here waiting, and by the time I can get to it again, I'll have more experience with gluing and making the case, so I can ensure it'll look as awesome as possible!

[buttercup-barf]

Under the cut are mostly self-insert doodles of decreasing quality. Again, not much directly tied to Team Fortress 2. Might as well toss these out while I have no access to my puter. Much yapping under the cut and in the tags incoming.

Another self-insert, this time less of a "here's me as a tenth class" and more of a "here's my game experiences translated into the class I would take the place of". The Cleaner. Although I guess they could still be wearing either suit. It doesn't matter that much.

That one Convict's Case taunt with Backup would be extremely funny, because the man would be on the verge of a breakdown (he does not want to go to jail so bad you have no idea). The second image- I owe no explanation. You know what I am. You see the pattern with my favourites.

The duality of the man. Resting face versus "just heard you express interest in religion/Russian folklore" face. He's not that hard to make friends with, when you pull him away from all the explosions.

Some doodles of trying to figure his face out. Unfortunately, the more I stare at him, the more I worry that he looks like A Certain Guy With The Last Name "Kazarin", and the fear of never being original in my life caught up to me.

Don't look at me, don't perceive me, I refuse to explain any of my actions to you.

[robotpanties]

grip the chain between

[dreams1nc]

Inhales, tbf as someone nonbinary but doesn't mind pronouns of she/her they / them whatsoever I think it's interesting how Veilguard approached Taash's identity. Which in itself I felt could have been a divide of cultures more in depth rather than gloss over several components, especially how the Qunari base themselves in regards to gender while Rivain is more open / less rigid. I love Taash, a lot, they're funny as hell but the criticism I often see comes with people not understanding what it is to fall under the nonbinary term or how we view ourselves. Everyone is different when it comes to identity, the key focus when writing this muse is navigating both gender along with cultural self. It's also unfair when it's pointed out Taash acts brazenly or in a bold way considering they're so young, I'm sure Iron Bull was also the same way (I won't write how Bull's antics get a pass while Taash is often heavily scrutinized) along with their complicated relationship with their mother, the way I'm trying to broach this is someone living in between while also understanding how to navigate their own life instead of the happiness of someone else.

[aria0fgold]

Back on my translating again and it's no wonder this thing is so difficult. Like-- not even including the fact that it's supposed to be on beat enough and that I don't even know much Japanese... In order to get the right sentence, I need to find the right word, know the meaning behind it, figure out the intention of the song and even figure out the whole picture behind the song's message, and finally see if it matches with the character the song is for. All that for One(1) line. And a verse has 4.