#...i guess if you want to go that route

[balanceoflightanddark]

It's been implied by the fandom that Iroh can't be fire lord because of the other two nations' hatred and distrust for him given his brutal reputation as the dragon of the west.

It would make more sense and more consistent if Iroh explained that instead of assuming his own nation would turn on him for usurping the throne because that's exactly what Zuko did and it mostly turned out okay for him.

I think this is true on some level. While we never see anybody from the other Nations not trust Iroh, I could still see some people getting a little antsy about the guy who torched Ba Sing Se being crowned Fire Lord. Like there's no guarantee he's not gonna try to vie for Fire Nation supremacy just because he helped end the War. I don't even think he'd be well-liked by his own people since his retreat after Lu Ten's death basically spelled the end of his own military career.

That being said, by that logic Zuko would have his own problems being seen as a benevolent ruler since he did help overthrow Ba Sing Se, attacked Kyoshi Village, and raided Sokka and Katara's village. Sure it's small potatoes to what Iroh pulled, but it's not something anybody else is gonna overlook. I mean the Gaang threw what he did back in his face during his initial attempts to join. Who's to say the rest of the world isn't going to let him live that kind of stuff down? It'll be an uphill battle for the guy in terms of foreign relations.

Admittedly, you do bring up a good point about nobody really caring that Zuko was essentially a usurper. It would be telling that people just got used to this sort of power struggle with the Royal Family...which STILL isn't gonna be a good look for Zuko if his own people's first perception of the guy is that he did the exact same thing his father pulled with his sibling.

I'll be honest...the places where they left Zuko and Iroh at the end of the series don't exactly rub me the wrong way. I'm still not convinced that Zuko's finished his redemption arc and that sentiment hasn't really gone away with how the comics have handled him. And Iroh should NOT be able to retire into the city he burned to the ground. I guess the finale just left me with a colored perception of the two that I'm not sure I'm going to be able to shake off so easily. Your theory is good, obviously. And I think it makes more sense than Iroh assuming the populace would turn on him considering he pushed Zuko into fighting Azula in what was a power grab (even if it was justified). It's just when a retired war general who's guilty of starving the populace in a grueling 600 day siege gets to live in the city who suffered at his hand, the narrative just clashes with your idea.

Which I don't think means you're in the wrong here. It's just the narrative is that skewed.

[technically-human]

You got any ideas on how to bring Stone into IDW? Seems rather hard given the whole Starline Debacle...

Well, I don't know a lot about IDW, but I have some thoughts about how to put Stone into situations, so allow me to ramble for a bit

Stone exists for Eggman. That is not me being romantic, that's me establishing a fact about the character. Without Eggman, there's no reason for Stone to exist in any universe at all. There's an Eggman in IDW so that's already a great start.

Now, in universe, I like to hint at this fact, which is why I've often said that without the Doctor, Stone wouldn't be happy. His presence in Robotnik's life is the only thing that allows his character to exist, it's what gives him personhood instead of leaving him as an NPC. In universe, then, I think it's fair to allow Robotnik to be his entire purpose as well.

(This is also what makes Villain Stone compelling to me. He lost his purpose in universe but also in the narrative. His character doesn't serve a purpose anymore, because there's no Eggman. So he must earn his place in the story now)

So when you're going to introduce him into a new universe, first step is always to have an Eggman, we're doing great so far. Second step is wondering what that Eggman needs. Not what he wants, what he needs. Needs for what? Well, maybe to be a more compelling character, maybe to go through some character development, maybe to add some lightheartedness to his characters. He seems to be one of the cruelest eggs to ever man, so that last one would be important to me, specifically. But really, it depends on what you want to do with the character! Stone will adapt because his entire purpose is to be what Robotnik needs...

Now, disregarding all of that, I think I would make him one of the people who lived in the same place as Mr. Tinker aka amnesiac Eggman, who secretly had a crush on him and who's now trying to find him –and goes on a rampage about it– because that would be pretty funny. Like, he doesn't even care that the man is evil now, Stone just wants to find him. I think Eggman would find that very annoying, but he can't get rid of Stone because Stone is just THAT good. Now, kids, that's the real toxic yaoi.

[marsbotz]

ohhhh so basically im going to die.

[it-came-autumnally]

obsessed with how he keeps specifying that part of his roommate dream is to be poor together LOL

[ohwatson]

leaving london today and the uber driver took me on the most scenic route possible that quite literally went around regents park and down baker street and that really did it for me like okay bye sherlock holmes nation.

[25nightchords]

brought up the idea to someone that im now confident isn't the case based off of the untrained cards, but that i still think is interesting, of niigo in wl2 rather than seeing a world that they disbanded in or seeing a world in which things got worse because niigo never formed, seeing a world where they are all happy. seeing another world where you are living the life you always wanted and realizing that you are in 'the bad' one

[frameconfessions]

I hope the protoframes remain relevant even after this story arc for the Drifter concludes, but I also recognize how complicated things would get with how many characters they could keep trying to make stay relevant, leading to a Konoha 13 Naruto type situation where we have too many relevant characters from Umbra & Ordis all the way to Kaya Velasco.

.

[puraiuddo]

personally i'm excited for tf:one, but strange old mechs lying in caves distributing t-cogs is no basis for a system of government (or a reasonable explanation for why the race of transformers is able to fucking transform).

listen the movie's not out yet and i'm sure the issue's more complex than that, but all the same i'm going to make fun of that particular artistic decision.

[froschli96]

Finally finished Pathologic 2 for the first time! And on intended difficulty too!

Death count: 2 Casualties: 7:

Anna Angel - got infected at the first opportunity and immediately died the next night even though i used the good antibiotics on her. RIP.

Big Vlad - got what he deserved. didn't have the time to try and save him from his punishment and honestly didn't really care to.

Young Vlad - got infected after his father's death, managed to survive one night even without me treating him but then succumbed the next night bc his infection level was too high even with treatment. Oh well….

Rubin - this fucked me up so bad. he just randomly fucking died on day 7. i felt so bad because i didn't go look for his hideout when i had the opportunity and thought he died bc i missed his questline. but apparently he always dies if you haven't made your first panacea at that point?? didn't even know that was possible. Was really demotivated by that but still decided to try and salvage what i could.

Alexander Saburov - survived two nights after getting infected but died in the third. shrug pretty resilient tho, props.

Aglaya - said i'd run away with her but didn't manage to get there in time… tbh i thought she meant the next day…. 🙈 but from what i've read it's actually impossible to save her? so… kind of glad i didn't waste time there… lol. also don't really know how i feel about her like immediately falling in love with Artemy and wanting to run away together… she felt like a bit of a downgrade from her P1 counterpart ngl… but maybe that's bc we only have one route and a certain meta layer that was a really interesting part of her character is basically absent aside from some comments from grief and the children…. also miss the smizing of her old model tbh.

Aspity - Kind of pissed about losing her at the last opportunity. She was infected on day 10 when i was running around trying to save all of my children. tried giving her antibiotics but that didn't help unfortunately. the worst part is i did have one more living blood but not enough time to brew another panacea bc i never upgraded my alembic. like? another toolkit? seriously?? i needed a whole side quest for the first one! (also never repaired the repair table so all of my tools were busted LMAO)

i think all in all i was mostly just REALLY lucky on all the dice rolls. always took care to give everyone a (+) tincture as prophylaxis and that worked out pretty well most of the time.

Notkin also got infected at the first opportunity (tho it seemed like that's unavoidable?) and survived two nights with just antibiotics. After that it felt like i was honestly tempting fate tho and so i healed him with a shmowder, and this kid had the GALL to tell me i shouldn't have used it on him?? like, i'm sorry i CARE ABOUT YOU and don't want you to DIE, kid. GOD.

But i had like 3 shmowders at that point so… even tho i fucked up that one hide and seek game where you probably also get a shmowder……….. i didn't realize you could trade with the children immediately after finding them and of course the first one i found was the teensy and then i just ran off to try and find the others, sobbing

i also didn't really engage with the whole children's cache thing, like, at all. and apparently that's also a pretty good source of shmowders……… oh well.

in general i feel like there were a lot of mechanics i didn't really engage with as much as i would have liked bc I WAS JUST CONSTANTLY ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSING AND/OR STARVING. only ever slept in 1 hour increments. tho i think i once slept two whole hours in one go. obscene.

i was also a total coward for most of the game and RAN from every single combat encounter lmao! i just got a little careless after rubin's death and tried my luck with a mugger in a burnt district…. and immediately died Lklasjdhfjklds. like, i knew about the death punishments and wanted to avoid it at all costs, that's why i was scared shitless

anyways, at that point i realized: if there ever comes a point where i'm unable to run from a combat encounter, i'm cooked. and i knew there was a notoriously difficult combat encounter late in the game. so i did something… maybe a little cheaty? but not really imo...

what i did is, i paused my playthrough and started a new game and then played through the first day and night and just went absolutely HAM on both the patrolmen on day one and the muggers in the night to practice combat. and turns out? it's actually kind of fun not being a coward all the time LMAO. I didn't even die so I feel like it wasn't too cheaty

at that point i felt like i was at least somewhat more prepared and went back to my actual playthrough and also started killing muggers in the night. AND THEN THE FUND REWARDS WERE SO MUCH BETTER HOLY SHIT??? actual fucking life saver. (unfortunately tho i ended up getting so dependent on the fund that i sacrificed a shmowder on clara's hospital quest to get the fund reward the next day…… felt kind of dirty ngl)

i actually managed not to die during the abattoir sequence tho! but there was a lot of sneaking around and punching and running away until they de-aggroed involved, ngl lasdjf idk why but the worms are so scary when they're running at you…. i think bc you can only see their eyes and so they seem to have this singleminded focus on bashing your head in?? lol

my second death instead was another really stupid one that i'm honestly actually not quite sure what exactly happened? i was fighting a mugger in the night but while i was waiting for my stamina to refill he suddenly starts running away and i just hear a slicing sound and i'm dead? so i'm wondering, bc the only other npc i could see beforehand was an army soldier - do the soldiers attack you when they see you fighting someone? even if it's a mugger? or maybe i was just a little too cocky and didn't scout the area enough. it just seemed strange that the mugger suddenly started running away bc he actually managed to land a hit on me beforehand, so it didn't really seem like he was running from ME? oh well, whatever, it's not like the consequences were EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATING (lara, i'm so sorry 😭)

another one of my favorite moments tho was on day… three? or four? don't remember, it's when you plan a meeting with lara, rubin and grief at midnight. i really didn't want to miss it but over the course of the day i totally ended up forgetting about it. but then some time after midnight i wanted to go to big vlad's house to sleep and on my way there i went to grief's hideout to save. and then i saw that he wasn't there. and it took me a few moments but then i went OH SHIT! and then ran in the other direction towards the steppe. and then there, in the distance, was a bonfire! and my friends!!! sobs and they weren't even angry at me for being late SOBS HARDER that was such a nice moment. and they even brought a sleeping bag, so i could instead sleep there instead of big vlad's house - under the stars! next to a nice crackling fire! with my friends!!!!!!! that made me so emotional for some reason…. probably bc it felt like it happened so organically with how i saw grief wasn't home and then remembered the meeting and then rushed there and stuff….

anyways, i can finally stop avoiding spoilers for P2! like, i didn't go in totally blind bc of P1 pre-knowledge and wasn't able to TOTALLY avoid spoilers so i knew about some plot points and the death punishments and stuff. but i am glad i could go in at least SOMEHWAT blind.

having played it to completion i do have some thoughts on the story and especially the treatment and depiction of the kin but i feel like i have to properly sort out my thoughts first…

[softquietsteadylove]

tomb raider. Please. Smut. I beg of you.

Gilgamesh woke at the sound of his door being opened. It was the middle of the night, late for even Karun to be 'checking on him', or Druig to be looking for the best spot in the mansion to relay a signal or some bullshit.

Gil had gotten used to a lot of that while he had stayed with them.

It was only going to be while Thena was still in a cast, at first. He had been with her in the hospital after transport, and he got the impression that she had silently - maybe even reluctantly - appreciated him being there with her. And so when she insisted she could be treated from the comfort and privacy of her estate, he had just...gone with her then, too.

Karun had set him up in a room in the east wing. The house was so damn big it was more like a castle. He checked up on Gil regularly, but Gil got the sense it was actually because Karun was deeply protective of Thena, and keeping his eyes on their first guest in what he had implied to be decades helped him feel better.

Druig was seen less often, usually scurrying from point A to point B while working and perfecting said work. He would spare Gil the odd good morning (no earlier than 4pm), or maybe even a nod of his head while pilfering the main kitchen for things his guest house lacked.

Thena was finally up and around, and recovering well. The stitches in her leg had dissolved and she no longer needed crutches or even a cane. Really, there was little reason for him to still be there.

But none of them mentioned it. He had brought it up once or twice, mostly out of fear that he might overstay his welcome and come off as rude and imposing. Thena and Karun and Druig had their own ecosystem, here.

But Thena had quietly yet definitively said that he was welcome--no expiration date. That was the end of the discussion. It sounded a bit open ended, but Gil got the sense from the other two men there that it was practically asking him to stay, as far as Thena was concerned.

So he did.

He blinked, trying to orient himself in the dark of the room. It was a hell of a room; big, fancy bed, old wood, canopy and everything. Thena's room was just as fit for a princess as he had always imagined.

He had been in there a few times now, checking on her, bringing her food. Even just keeping her company while she was bedridden, and explosively cranky because of it. Karun and Druig had avoided it, but Gil didn't mind it, all things considered. It felt like the Thena he knew from working, more than the tired and vaguely depressed Thena who was defeated from having to stay off her leg for nearly two months straight.

"Thena?" he blinked, trying to see in the dark. There was a little blueish moonlight creeping in from the beautiful windows, but they had heavy curtains to help keep the sunlight from invading as early as dawn, given the room orientation.

She padded over to him. He had learned that she was as silent as a cat walking around. She was light on her feet while working, sure, but her in bare feet?--he would be better off trying to track a ghost.

Gil reached for the night stand lamp but her land laid over his to keep him from it. She pushed forward, keeping him towards the center of the bed, even perching herself on the luxurious white sheets and duvet.

Her never saw her with her hair down. It was beautiful.

"You okay?" he asked, but still didn't receive an answer.

She had been...different. For the last two weeks of his stay, she had been watching him, quietly, almost patiently, like she was waiting for a certain tell. They still sparred verbally, as they were wont to do, but sometimes after Thena would get all quiet and then just...look at him.

Like now.

"Thena-!" Gil blinked as she leaned over, pressing her lips to his. Her amazing, amazing lips. His hands moved a little too automatically, finding the sleek bend of her waist and the sharp line of her jaw.

"Hm." It was such a small sound, but god did it make him want to hear more. He reached for more, greedily pulled her closer to him. Her hands spread out on his chest, which he had forgotten was completely bare.

"Mm, Thena," he tried to gather his self-control and pull away. She didn't make it easy. He frowned, "are you--this is-"

She leaned forward, kissing him again. "Karun is asleep."

That was her argument?--that her lurking father figure wouldn't be interrupting them?

Gil moaned (totally against his will). Her pale skin absolutely glowed from what light existed in the room. She was wearing a light, silk white robe. It loosened as she leaned against him and he caught sight of even more skin. He moaned louder.

She was completely naked under it.

Thena climbed on top of him, decisive and direct as she always was. She kissed him in a way that made it impossible for him to stop. Well, it made her impossible to resist. His hands slid up her waist, over her slim rib cage and back. She alternated between straddling his hips between her knees and rising up to press their chests together.

He grunted as he felt her breasts crush against him.

Thena ran her hand over his shoulder and up his neck, scraping until she could run her fingers through his hair. "Gil."

He practically whimpered. She was making this really, really difficult to resist. And his body was way, way ahead of him.

She pressed her hips down against his, teasing the firmness in his sweatpants like the mink she was. Her lithe limbs slithered around over him, teasing him mercilessly with sensation.

He growled in the back of his throat. He was way beyond salvation, way beyond willpower. He just wanted more of her. He reached down, tracing over her buttocks to her thighs so he could hoist her higher and closer.

"Ow!"

He froze, horror flooding through him. "I-I-I'm so sorry, are you-"

She giggled (she-demon). She pressed her lips to his neck, whispering right in his hot flushed ear, "sorry, just kidding."

He huffed through his nose. Okay, that was enough. He was not going to let her have her way with him again--not this time. He grasped her delectable flesh anew, rolling her over and under him, into the center of the bed he had been occupying.

Thena looked up at him, her hair splayed out, robe open, teasing him with the perfect crevice of exposure. Pale and glowing, firm and soft, lithe and plump, she was sculpted by Aphrodite herself.

Gil laid over her, kissing her more firmly. She responded with the same vigour. If this was how she wanted to play it, then fine. If she wanted him to kiss her, he would kiss her. If she wanted him to touch her, he would touch her.

If she wanted him to fuck her, he was going to make her see the sun and moon and stars.

Thena moaned into his mouth, their tongues fighting one another, because even joined at the hips, they couldn't harmonise completely. She dragged his sweatpants off of him, he pulled the robe away, not caring what happened to the expensive material once it was off of her hot flushed skin.

Gil bent to her neck, latching on hard. He kissed, he licked, he dragged his teeth over the skin there, just enough that she could feel the impact he was making on her. One of her legs dragged up to hook around his hips, the other avoided him. He would avoid it, too.

Thena gasped as he put a firm hand on her waist, holding what little existed there to make sure she was aware just how much he wanted this--how much she had wound him up. If she wanted to rattle his cage, mission accomplished.

"Fuck," he cursed as he pushed into her slowly. He was a wound up, hungry animal, but he would never be able to live with hurting her. If anything, he had declined job after job after job the last two months to make sure quite the opposite happened.

Thena's groan joined his as he docked his hips against hers. She melded around him as if they were made for each other--as if they had always had this option and just held back for some reason he couldn't yet think of.

He kissed her openly, greedily, and she responded with her own greed. He parted from her only when he needed to breathe, or when he leaned up on his elbow to get leverage. He started moving.

"Gil!" she panted for breath, moving her hips with his. God, she responded to him like they were made to make love. Her hands moved from lying limply on the pillows by her head to grabbing onto him. "Fuck."

He grunted as he moved. She felt so good, she looked so good, everything about her, he drank up and hoped he would never forget this feeling. The bed creaked faintly but he didn't give a shit who heard them. He kissed her neck again, dragging his tongue down until he discovered the joy of her breasts.

Thena made a new sound as he took a nipple between his teeth. Again, not too hard, but enough that she would know it was him, even come tomorrow.

He pressed his face into her cleavage. She sounded really cute right now, but if he said that, not only would neither of them finish, she might kill him.

"Gil," Thena moaned again, a little higher, a little louder.

"Fuck, Thena," he moaned, and he meant it deep in his bones. She was incredible, like nothing else he'd ever felt before. "I want you to come."

Her whole body shuddered, as if no one had ever said those words to her. He wanted her writhing in pleasure, like the living, breathing goddess she was. This woman who filled his veins with fury at times; he wanted her veins flushed with ecstasy.

Every time she laughed, he wanted her mouth on his. Every time she made a crude little joke, he wanted to steal it off her lips with his own tongue. Every time she would sway her hips at him or give him an up-and-down with those eyes of hers, it made him want her.

She made another inhumanly beautiful sound as he picked up speed. He slid one hand up the bed, locking her fingers with his and sliding them both under the pillows until her arm was as far as it could go. The other he used to keep a hold of her, between holding her waist within his palm to sliding over her breast and then to cradling the back of her head, her hair weaving between his fingers like sunbeams.

"Gil, that's it, right there," she whimpered, in such a criminally charming way it was more seductive than anything she could have worn - or not worn - tonight. Her fingers squeezed against his.

"Beautiful thing," he growled directly into her ear. She shuddered around him again. His hips took on a mind of their own, driving them both to the inevitable conclusion. "You were made to be worshiped."

Thena let out a string of noises, sounds he never thought he would hear her silken voice make. Each and every one of them was divine, like music to his ears. For all she had come in here intending to take from him, she had given him a hell of a lot more as soon as her lips touched his.

Gil grunted far less melodically, moaning against her skin as he followed her, coming properly for the first time in a long, long time. Longer than she would ever know, as far as he was concerned.

She hummed as his climax mingled with hers. The bed absorbed their mess, her legs splayed out around his. Her breasts moved with each breath she dragged in, although the contented smile on her face assured him that she was at least somewhere where he was.

He hadn't felt like this...maybe ever. He also panted for breath, his skin hot to the touch and shining with a thin layer of sweat. His muscles ached faintly with a wonderful strain. He hissed as he slipped out of her, as did she. "Thena?"

He let himself collapse next to her. He closed his eyes, letting himself stay in this moment of wonder for just one second more. And as soon as his eyes were shut, he felt her delicate little form move. His arm tightened around her. "Excuse me."

She didn't answer him. He could have guessed she would slither off as soon as they were done feasting on one another. She tried to pull away again and he cleared his throat. He heard her huff a little and he smiled in the dark; that was his Thena. "Do you want me to leave you a google review, is that it?"

He chuckled, although he didn't really have the breath to spare. But he could hear her breath still coming in hot little puffs, too. He grasped her forearm, dragging himself up for just the briefest of moments.

Thena let him pull her into one last, drawn out, agonising kiss. They moaned against one another again, with both the pleasure and the curse of tomorrow morning looming ahead.

Gil laid back down on the mattress, letting Thena make her escape without so much as looking at him, nor bothering to retrieve her robe from the far side of the room. He chuckled; of course the divine specimen she was didn't need it to sneak back to her own room. If the moon wanted to feast on her beautiful body like he did then she wouldn't stop it.

He let out a heavy breath, looking up at the canopy of the bed again. Breakfast was certainly going to be interesting, if she was willing to speak with him ever again after this.

[adore-gregor]

the way i think about learning and education changed sm compared to when I was younger

[maddymoreau]

I'm enjoying Fallout 3 a little more but there’s one thing that’s extremely bothering me.

How come, in the dialogue options, I can NEVER can mention, I was FORCED to leave the vault?

I didn’t have a choice but to leave. Jonas Palmer was beaten to death in attempts to get info about my father James. The Overseer was going to have the same done to me if not WORSE.

The Lone Wanderer: "So they killed Jonas, and I'm next, is that it?"

Amata: "Yeah. It's lucky I got here ahead of them. But we can't stand here talking! You're got to get out of here!"

I understand my father didn't know this would happen. That he simply thought I wouldn't be able to leave the vault after he escaped.

But the fact I can never explain what happened when reunited with him is just so ODD!?!?!!?

I COULDN’T STAY!!!!!!!

I FEEL LIKE THIS IS IMPORTANT INFORMATION YOU SHOULD WANT TO KNOW DAD!!!!!

WHY ARE THESE MY ONLY OPTIONS?!?!?!?!!!!!

Why give me that entire section where I had to escape the vault to avoid MURDER!!?? If they were going to back me in a corner (dialogue wise) that I would've gone after my father no matter what.

It would've made the dialogue option, "Why would you throw away the life we had?" WAY MORE INTENSE AND INTERESTING IF I COULD TELL HIM HIS ACTIONS UNINTENTIONALLY AFFECTED ME!!!

It could've been followed by a cute bonding moment where he apologizes and says while this life was never what he wanted for me he'll now help me adjust however he can.

[michi-chelle]

mood

[wildflowercryptid]

potentially batshit headcanon, but i think it'd be funny if these two were related somehow.

[arttsuka]

how are you?

Honestly I've been better. Thanks for asking!

[doctorwillsolace]

🧍‍♀️ the karaoke event I've been excited about all week is from 8-11 and we're supposed to have a severe snowstorm from 6pm-9am