#why am i shouting...

[catcze]

APHSY. ❤︎ .ᐟ — "Heaven is a place on Earth with you."

A gentle breeze drifts across the field of red blooms, the golden light making them glow like flickering flames. The sky is vivid and clear— dusking pretty blues and purples and pinks, vibrant in a way that can only be seen so far away from the city, in this little pocket where only they exist.

“ ‘These flowers will bloom, but only ever for one person,’ “ Aphrodite recites, leaning down to pluck a flower, holding it gently with her fingertips. At her side, Sylus watches each of her movements, the look in his eyes akin to honey— sweet and gooey-soft with affection.

“That’s what you told me a long, long time ago,” she muses, her eyes finally drifting away from the flower in her hands, only to finally lock gazes with him. She smiles, lip gloss shining in the light. “ But that’s not entirely true anymore, is it? Look, they’re blooming now, too. For your birthday.”

And it’s true: the whole field of red daturas are in full bloom, painting the field with patches of red. Each flower is nearly bursting with life, petals large and colorful with a crimson that rivals the color in Sylus' own eyes. And yet. And yet, despite the charm of the flowers, they pale in comparison to true beauty. 

He scoffs. “You say that like a flower’s birthday greetings could ever outshine yours, ” Sylus says, the corner of his lips curling slightly, eyes never straying from the woman in front of him. In one smooth movement, he plucks a flower and tucks it between the strands of her hair, settling it prettily by her temple.

Sylus hums, the back of his hand brushing against her cheek. “Even their beauty can’t compare.”

And oh, the laugh that elicits from her is enough to have his smirk grow into a full grin, beaming with pride. “Goodness,” she giggles, drawing him closer to her with a soft hand at the cut of his jaw. As always, he willingly goes, his own touch on her arm so painstakingly gentle as he leans down. In the slowly setting sun, the black gemstones of their matching rings glitter delicately. 

Her eyes turn into the most adorable crescents when she smiles. “You’re such a smooth talker, you know that, birthday boy?”

Quicker than he can respond, Aphrodite is already pressing the softest of kisses to his lips— brief, little more than just a peck, really, but his heart still skips a beat in his chest. She’s looking at him like he’s something to be adored, loved. It’s overwhelming in the best of ways— nearly has his knees buckling from the sheer weight of it, nearly sends him sprawling amongst the red petals.

“Happy birthday, Sylus,” comes the sweet voice of his goddess, a whisper only meant for his ears.  “Let’s celebrate it together again next year too, okay? “

His grin turns into something softer, sweeter. Something reserved for only her— for his Aphrodite. His beloved, who owns his heart in its entirety.

“Next year, and every year after,” he says, the words sounding like a promise, a vow— and with how she smiles, he knows that she can hear it too. 

AphSy birthday comm p.2 ♡

[ ! ] — yume masterpost ᝰ.ᐟ —  Aphrodite ( self-insert ) ᝰ.ᐟ

[a-kind-of-merry-war]

The problem with having Noisy Brain that won't let you sleep is that it can transition from "vividly detailed blorbo rotation" (annoying but fun) to "the worst things you think about yourself and the fears calcified within your heart" (distressing, terrible) in 30 seconds flat

[fairsweetlonging]

thinking about crowyuan saving liu qingge from his qi deviation and disappearing before he can fully wake up so he won't be recognized (him being a demon and all), but it causes liu qingge to accidentally mistake him for shen qingqiu.

there is a massive fight during the next peak lord meeting, with liu qingge accusing shen qingqiu of saving his life and not taking responsibility for it as if it's a war crime, while shen qingqiu keeps denying he had anything to do with it and if he had saved liu qingge, he'd be rubbing it in his face every chance he got.

it escalates and escalates until liu qingge, red with embarrassment and anger, points at shen qingqiu and says "you were cradling me in your arms!" and shen qingqiu explodes.

mu qingfang tries to calm them down by saying that perhaps liu qingge hallucinated, which is not uncommon for a qi deviation, but that sets off some of the other peak lords who now start teasing him for "dreaming of shen qingqiu coming to rescue him", and of course that only makes it worse.

liu qingge refuses to let it go and starts bringing shen qingqiu his victories to try and pay off his debt, because he is an honorable man and he will not let shen qingqiu get away with this!!

meanwhile shen yuan is watching it from a distance wondering whether he made it better or worse by stepping in.

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

do you think alhaitham is a yearner for kaveh or the other way around

Anon thank you so much for this ask <3 it turns out that this is more complicated than I thought. since alhaitham is so embarrassingly obvious, I think kaveh’s own version of ‘yearning’ can be overlooked, so thank you for giving me an opportunity to explore both! I am using your ask as an excuse to show how embarrassing alhaitham is, he has no shame!! therefore i've had to split this answer into two posts!

alhaitham essentially building his life around kaveh being a part of it is ultimate down bad behaviour:

the house: alhaitham’s character stories give us very little about alhaitham’s life after his fallout with kaveh and his graduation. we’re told that he moves out of his grandmother’s house to move into the research facility gifted to him and kaveh? and it’s only after he moves in that he’s told by a third-party that kaveh has no need for the property, so only then does he convert the property into a house

So it seems he moved in with some expectation of encountering kaveh at some point, especially considering it was their joint property. There’s no reason given why he opted to move out of his grandmother’s house but I think it's interesting that kaveh’s character stories detail that a house is not a home without other occupants who understand him without words, which causes him to sell his parents’ house as he was the only occupant, which parallels with alhaitham moving out of a house in which he also is the sole occupant, into a property which ties him and kaveh together

The bulletin boards/academic journals: although it isn’t specified who made the first journal critique, if it falls in line with alhaitham incessantly responding to all of kaveh’s bulletin board points, I’d like to think that alhaitham reached out first here, just as he moved into their joint property without actually knowing that kaveh had no use for it – although they had separated at this point, regardless of who reached out first, alhaitham was still actively pursuing kaveh’s perspective here, as this was the only instance of kaveh being in his life… oh….

during the archon quest: alhaitham mentioning kaveh without any prompt whatsoever lives in my head, even more so that this seems to be a musing that he didn’t even mean to say out loud? Sick!!

And when kaveh eventually returns, alhaitham says that he doesn’t want to have to explain the whole thing to kaveh, so he should leave the house of daena before kaveh returns, but he doesn’t?

Special mention of the gathering in the grand bazaar where alhaitham equates his own happiness to that of the people of the gathering, and then immediately mentions how he must have taken both keys leaving the house, indicating that another reason for his happiness increased because kaveh has returned, and that his way of life has been maintained - meaning that kaveh is one of his priorities (i brainrot more about this here)

Alhaitham’s story quest: the motif of kaveh ensuring alhaitham’s content is returned to with force in alhaitham’s story quest with establishing kaveh as someone alhaitham chooses not to be objective about, with kaveh being framed as alhaitham’s priority

(additionally, this expression, absolutely criminal)

kaveh’s hangout and voice lines: kaveh is shown once again to be an exception to alhaitham’s objectivity, as alhaitham inserts himself into kaveh’s ‘fate’ to offer him a place to stay when kaveh’s choices led him to selling his house, having no place to go – this overturns alhaitham’s principle of being uninvolved with people’s fates, and pulling kaveh back to shore, as opposed to standing on the sidelines

kaveh’s hangout is really special to me as it showcases alhaitham’s whole understanding of kaveh, not only his inner psyche, but also how to secure kaveh’s happiness through an indirect action, as kaveh’s heart meter increases once seeing the response a student wrote to his annotations, it demonstrates that alhaitham’s care towards kaveh is most explicitly shown with actions

a parade of providence: alhaitham becomes the event's commentator solely to investigate Sachin to see if he influenced kaveh’s father, attempting to give kaveh closure and alleviate his self-destructive mindset. in the same vein, alhaitham leaves kaveh note that in a language the two learnt together for their thesis commenting on kaveh's ideologies and how it can lead to suffering.

this really solidifies that alhaitham's care is demonstrated in actions, and that a shift in communication is needed to properly show this. It’s here that alhaitham’s actions are the most explicit, and this leads to the major improvement in their relationship (which i explore more in detail here)

cyno's second story quest: thank you for chronic book gripper alhaitham reading his book when kaveh is out of the living room, and immediately putting it down when kaveh enters and begins telling alhaitham about his day, for alhaitham to encourage.

the animation that was so essential for the devs to include of alhaitham watching kaveh sketch when kaveh’s back was turned is such a comic example of yearning, it’s actually ridiculous

also alhaitham smiling when being asked to stay in the house of daena to work with kaveh??

alhaitham is one big yearner, he is that guy and he has no interest in beating the allegations!

the second part of this answer will explore kaveh's version of yearning!

[elodieunderglass]

Guys GUYS

Concept: Throw Your Heart Over as an animated show of some kind but there are, like, educational appendixes at the end of each episode like “the making of planet Earth” but it’s about some Fascinating Fact. So for example, in an episode in which the Celt and his Irish Hobby have been doing weird feats of equitation in the corner of Killie’s eye, there would be an ENTIRE 20-minute documentary video essay in which people like @mylittlehony would be able to explain to you everything about the Irish Hobby, from whether it did give rise to the Thoroughbred, to how it fared in medieval battle, and how it gave rise to the term “hobby.” We’d bring in linguistics and DNA evidence and people would be fascinated, they’d be like “but my horseboy yaoi show” and we’d be like “it was a TRAP to get you interested in……… medieval horse warfare apparently. Uhhh. next episode has a recipe for Sachertorte though. And then we are getting FULLY into… narrowboats… and Kendal mint cake.”

But but but the funny thing will be that a pennywhistle-based musical motif that pops up associated with the ghost horses would be “concerning hobbies”. and you THOUGHT this was a LotR joke combined with wry commentary about how WORRYING these interests are. But then halfway through you hit the Irish Hobby infodump, find out that it was a joke about hobby horses, and put a KNIFE THROUGH YOUR TV SCREEN

[enders-redemption]

rdr fan culture is playing the game, looking at so many posts, and reading so much fanfiction that arthur’s dialect unironically starts slipping into your every day vernacular

[mrmeepsmadmind]

bee's protective nature over anyone persists even as a ghost & i think he sometimes forgets or doesn't care that only star can see him (sadly no touch tho) & will start shouting & angrily try standing between people who are mad at starscream even tho he can't be seen, he just wants to try & help anyways bcs STOP IT >:(!! BE NICE !!!! cried the ghost no one can hear or see except for the poor guy getting yelled at & trying to overhear the conversation over bee's frantic rebuttals while trying to discreetly let bee know it's ok while ALSO trying not to look Insane .

continued attempt at a 4am drawn doodle comic below

i might draw detailed later but yeah i just wanted to give yall this headcanon bcs i love starbee so much... the nagging wives finally finding their true loves... another nagging wife.

' you .. do know only i can hear and see you, unfortunately, right? or are you starting to go loopy, because i don't need another insane figure haunting me. I have enough already, as you can try and fail to imagine, little bee . '

' trust me, im Well aware .. of everything you just said . .. but i just. i couldn't just Stand there and do Nothing while someone talked to you like You were Nothing . that's not the autobot way. that's not- my way . '

' . . . '

[ranticore]

writing is such a pain it's a great way to isolate yourself while also becoming socially burnt out. But I do all this and more. For the character

[definitelynotshouting]

hey wtf the 2 yr anniversary of hunger au's posting is in like. 2 days

[vaguely-concerned]

In light of the info about the properties of souls in The Unwanted Guest, I want to shout out that Gideon — with no grounding in the theoretical underpinnings of the subject whatsoever — actually makes basically the same observation about the permeability of the soul at the end of Harrow the Ninth, when she's in Harrow's body and (with some justification) is pretty sure she's about to die in the River:

Harrowhark, did you know that if you die by drowning, apparently your whole life flashes in front of your eyes? I didn't know, as I died and took you along with me—having kept you alive for what, a whole two hours?—whether it was going to show me both. Like, at the end of everything, if it was going to be you and me, layered over each other as we always were. A final blurring of the edges between us, like water spilt over ink outlines. Melted steel. Mingled blood. Harrowhark-and-Gideon, Gideon-and-Harrowhark at last.

‘As we always were’! ‘Melted steel, mingled blood’! (Also interesting that despite saying earlier in the book that all she ever wanted was for Harrow to eat her (oh Gideon), the metaphors Gideon reaches for here are not about consumption ala what Ianthe’s deal and thus traditional lyctorhood is presented as in TUG, it’s about similar and equal substances joining together to a new whole, more like what we see with Paul. I personally feel like a Paul-style merging for Harrow and Gideon is not in the cards and would not be a satisfying ending — it worked as a bittersweet conclusion specifically for Pal and Cam because those two are utterly nuts in all their sanity lol, but I don’t think the series means to present it as The definitive answer to the central question of individuation vs. connection. There is something so moving to me, though, in the fact that right at the end this is what Gideon wants for her and Harrow. Not for Harrow to eat her, not simply to be of use to her, but to be made together from the same stuff. It’s a longing for connection and union that’s finally at least in imagery free from the imbalance within the ultimately hierarchical roles of necromancer and cavalier that Gideon internalizes through her corruption arc in Gideon the Ninth, understandably so as it’s the only model she’s presented with in their society to understand intimacy and attachment and devotion through. But Gideon says Harrowhark-and-Gideon, Gideon-and-Harrowhark at last, mutually and equally. And I’ve written about this before, but at what must be almost exactly the same time, the same process is happening in Harrow’s mind through the evolution in the symbolism of her dream bubbles. Help I am emotions now) 

Palamedes is so right, Gideon is a lot smarter than most people -- including Gideon herself -- ever give her credit for.

[daily-dose-of-bucket]

kanna in either a frankstein's monster costume w kugie as dr. frankenstein or as magnemite (the pokemon)

Day 180: dr. Frankenstein and her monster (halloween doodles part 2)(i will draw the pokemon one too but i need more time)

[maximura]

This is Diabolical

[two-entire-bits]

I have a confession. I do not care for the soc boys. I'm sure they have very interesting character traits and lore the actors and fandom have come up with and that is so fun and great and I know none of it and I am perfectly content with that. Shout out to all my mutuals who love the soc boys I hope you are having fun with your Ken dolls but I will not be joining you. keep slaying.

[rxj-the-punk]

They could never make me hate her.

[ownhill]

A Study of Polites

Polites, died at arc 2 out of 9, whose presence lingered and lingered until it dared to fade away.

He had, what, one full song to his name? Maybe. But I'd argue that it's one of the most important songs in the whole Odyssey.

I asked my sibling once, if they thought Odysseus and his crew would've lived through The Underworld if Odysseus encountered his mother first, without Polites undying optimism to ground him.

The downward spiral of five hundred fifty-eight men, the men he cared for and fought desperately to bring home, who all died in one fell swoop. The men who now spend their afterlife screaming for their captain, asking why he had forsaken them.

Only to immediately transition into a mother's lament? A mother he shed tears for?

Would Odysseus have been able to leave?

I told my sibling that Polites was haunting Odysseus in a way, because every time Odysseus was in the brink of death he hears Polites.

I've said my piece about The Underworld, how he softened the blow of Odysseus learning about his mother's fate.

The next moment would be during Love in Paradise, with Odysseus up on the edge of that cliff. He's beaten down and hopeless, marinated in depression for 7 whole years.

I fully believe he was seconds away from jumping then. The heavy toll of time had numbed him, made the faces and voices of those he love blurry and muffled. He barely heard Calypso's pleas up until she said "open arms" and all at once it floods back to him. You could even hear it in the swell of the music. Polites snaps him awake and, granted, everyone else pipes in but it was Polites that broke the dam.

Then of course during Get in the Water as Odysseus drowns, because how do you fight a god who made it his entire life's goal to spite you. To wait until you're a breath away from the finish line and politely ask you to die. He's holding the lives of your wife and son above your head and he says he won't hurt them if you drowned but how do you know? (Gods are fickle beings after all). Do you take the easy way out and hope Poseidon keeps his word?

With his voice already half faded, aiming for one final push, Polites sings again and I can almost imagine him gently grabbing at Odysseus' arms, slowly pushing him up, and as everyone joins in more hands help. Again, it's not just Polites, but he's always at the forefront isn't he? And Odysseus gets a second wind.

So yeah Polites, the first of his men to die, always the first to help him out of it.

[cordiallyfuturedwight]

bangtan boys in turtlenecks (10/??) ↳ cr. 0613data, dwellingsouls | bonus striped sope for @raplinenthusiasts: