#BLESSINGS DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

[ahollowgrave]

-- mistletoe. pt i.

(feat. the very handsome Ryss of @oneiroy)

[vaguely-concerned]

the barista lady in the treviso café fucking giggles every time you buy the fancy coffee lucanis likes from her btw. can't believe the game is calling out rook and me like this

[average-hua-cheng-fan]

another reason i think that xie lian felt an instant connection on the ox cart is because he and hua cheng both grew up in xianle.

there are maybe 4 people still alive that grew up in that culture. based on my own experience, you can pick up on things like accent, cadence, references, and humor that suggest a person is from the same place as you without consciously noticing it. that sense of comfort and similarity probably played into their instant chemistry.

[lazycranberrydoodles]

xie lian texts like a grandpa … i imagine pre confession their texts would be a graveyard of hua cheng’s failed attempts at flirting

xie lian's profile picture is from the manhua by starember / follow for more of hua cheng Ls

[laddertek]

there have been streams where tango and etho have chatted redstone and game development and that's been so so good and so fun to listen to, the way their minds work together and they push and pull with ideas and curiosity.

but then there's the stream today that's like, a first...(other than the little bit of figuring out stat poker and the non-redstone planning of the gaming district in season 7)...where they're completely collaborating on this redstone project together, from scratch. like it's the both of them creating one thing, forming it together as they go, and they just work so well together. aaand have fun!

idk I just love the way they vibe and problem solve together so much. just a great pairing and great equals. it's amazing it's taken till now for a full redstone collaboration like this to properly happen, but I'm so glad it's here now.

[thel0velybee]

i love this dumb (/aff) bird so much

[monhiio]

They`re getting along just swell!!

[spkyart]

Baby wake up it's hiei's birthday

[budd-ie]

I think it would be really funny if fashion trends in ghost city mirrored the style of their beloved shapeshifter chengzhu’s most recent appearance. Whatever he wears? That’s what’s IN right now. It would also be funny if they always got it like. Slightly wrong. Chengzhu is wearing a long coat today! Long clothing MUST be the most fashionable. If your coat isn’t down the whole block, it isn’t in! The longer the better! Chungzhu is wearing hoop earrings today? Of course big rings are all the rage these days. Put them on your ears, your nose, your fingers, hell put them on your whole body! On your house! On your dog! The bigger the better! Look, he even gave a ring to grandunc—I mean his wife!!! If you don’t have one, you’re gonna look SO last week. Chungzhu’s wearing black today? Of course that’s the best color. Didn’t you know? If you aren’t wearing black, you’ll probably explode by at least tomorrow I think. That’s what I heard, anyway. Is it what? True? Hey don’t shoot the messenger, that’s just how it is. “I thought he was last seen wearing white and a ponytail” where did you hear that? And they heard it was blue? Black was last week? That can’t be right! Whatever….both is fine. I’m not taking any chances and you shouldn’t either.

[pumpkinrootbeer]

i feel like we kinda miss the whole. catalyst for fiona and lips relationship exploding.

here's your older sister, and here's the only person you've ever been able to trust. she tells you to get out again and again and again, even though you're so afraid that the moment you turn around everything is going to fall apart. getting out, and then getting the rest of them out, is your job. that's what your supposed to do.

neither of you have been able to trust your parents and all you have is each other, and she's telling you to get out. and it's either doom everyone around you by staying, or trust her and leave.

and then, right as you're finally starting to find the rhythm of a world you've beed denied access to your whole life, it's because of her, the only person you've ever been able to trust in you entire existence, because of you leaving and trusting, that your five year old brother almost dies. he's comatose. he's covered in tubes. he might never be the same again. the only person you've ever trusted has done the exact same thing your parents did. Put drugs and alcohol and letting loose above the kids their supposed to take care of.

Is it any wonder Lip stops trusting her. That Lip takes the longest to forgive her. "it wasn't her coke she didn't leave it out" she got high around a toddler and left him near the cocaine. left the cocaine where he could get it. the two other adults picked him up and danced with him with coke on the table. Lip walks in on this after spending an entire day trying to rescue their other brother. His little sister is the one who finds their baby brother.

even discounting that in response to this he has to suddenly start stealing food or else all the kids in the house will starve, or that Fiona suddenly jackrabbits into another person he has to care for instead of someone he can trust, or that he now has to care for a 4 year old, while working a job, and being a full time college student on work study, discounting all of that of course Lip looses faith in his sister. Of course he does.

[xanderscollection]

Episode 7 vs the Manga

[borgialucrezia]

something something cesare always falling for rodrigo's ploy to pit him against his younger brother by rubbing in the fact that juan leads the papal army (aka cesare's greatest desire) so he mocks juan out of bitterness at every chance vs. rodrigo threatening juan to strip out his position (aka his honor and entire sense of being despite his incompetence) and giving it to cesare but juan doesn't fall for their father pitting him against his older brother and doesn't spitefully put him down but only begs their father not to take it away...

[awakenthebeing]

felt like making a short little piepoe theme.......lil bit rushed but that's okay

i simply adore this creature

BRO??????? BRO???????? DUDE???????????????? THIS IS FUCKING AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!

I am actually GOING INSANE OVER HOW FUCKING WELL DONE THIS IS OH MY GOSHHHHH DUDE THIS IS- OH MY GOSH

The MELODY???? THE CUTE LITTLE SOUND EFFECTS???? IT ALL SOUNDS SO BOUNCY AND SILLY AND FUN AND PLAYFUL AND AUUGHGHGHGHH!!!!!!! MY HEART!!!!!!! BRO I CANNOT STRESS HOW MUCH I FUCKING LOVE THIS TO BITS OHHHHGMGM MY GOODNESS THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!! 🥹🥹🥹🥹😭😭😭😭😭‼️💓‼️💓‼️💓‼️💓‼️💓💓💘💓💘💓💘💓💖💓💖💓💓💘💓💘💓💘💓💖💓💖💓💓💘💓💖💓💖💓💖💓💘💓💖💓💖💓💓💓💘

Holds my head in I AM LISTENING TO THIS SHIT ON LOOP!!!! IT FUCKS!!!!!! ITS SOOO WELL DONE LIKE OUGHGHGHGHGHHGHGHGHGH CRYING CRYING!!! THANK YOU SOOOO SO MUCH... THANK YOU!!!!!!!

[gods-sexy-thighs]

SPOILER MAYBE? TGCF BOOK 8

I don't think you understand how hard I'm BAWLING RIGHT NOW??! I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF. The emotions that I have right now are vast and I simply cannot explain them or express them in any human language

[anghraine]

Speaking of GW1 and GW2 ... I've had plenty of complaints over the years about how GW2 has chosen to handle and retcon human-centric GW1 lore, the framing of the human gods, etc. That said, I've recently been appreciating that GW2 has retained a particular element of GW1's treatment of humanity and their gods that I've always really liked.

Humans in the GW universe are not really generic everymen, as humans so often are in fantasy settings. Nor are they so wildly varying and unpredictable that there's no sense of humanity having its own distinct flavor like the other playable species do. In many ways, they occupy a vaguely "elvish" position in the world—they've been on this world for a very long time and used to be a major power, or rather, made up many major powers with various warring factions that sometimes found common cause.

But in more recent eras, many of the ancient human civilizations have dwindled and/or suffered various atrocities and/or lost their minds. And culturally, humans tend to have a strong affinity for the mystical and even more for the divinely mystical, which their political power in previous eras was directly tied to. The vast majority of humans in this world are faithful worshippers of a human pantheon of six gods (formerly five).

Not all humans are magical or religious, to be sure, but a lot of them are, to the point that this seems their most distinctive cultural quality. Minor NPCs tend to have background dialogue invoking the gods ("By the Six!"), or referencing one of the gods (often but not only the goddess Dwayna, leader of the Six). The main human NPC of the core game, Logan Thackeray, continually references the gods, as do most of his military fellows.

Most interestingly, though, if you choose to play a human, you will automatically be a devout adherent of the faith of the Six regardless of any other choices you make. In addition, human PCs are blessed by one specific god among the Six whom you choose at character creation.

This mostly has minor flavor effects in practice. A priest of the god you chose permanently hangs out in your home district, and sometimes other priests of your god can perceive some mark of their deity's favor when they look at you.

Howeverrrrr, when I say "their deity," I don't mean that they exclusively worship the god they've dedicated their lives to, or that "your god"—the god whose favor you enjoy as a human PC—is your god in any remotely monotheistic way. Humans faithful to the Six are faithful to all the Six until one of the gods falls to evil. And when that god becomes the villain of the second GW2 expansion, various human NPCs are shown going through a crisis of the soul regardless of whether he was their particular patron or not. Having a more specific personal tie to one of the gods, or being particularly blessed by one of them, or being specifically devoted to a life of service to one of them, does not in any way prevent humans from devotion to the rest of the pantheon.

Mechanically, this means that no matter which deity you choose as your particular patron, your human PC starts the game with the ability to pray to Dwayna, goddess of life and air and healing. When you pray to her, a blue image of Dwayna materializes, heals you, and vanishes. As you level up, your human-based skills will extend to prayers to the other gods.

Praying to Lyssa, goddess of illusion/chaos magic and water and beauty, confounds foes by inflicting random conditions on them and random blessings on you. Praying to Kormir, goddess of spirit, order, and truth, will free you from negative effects like immobilization. The final prayer you can use, iirc, and the most powerful, is the prayer to Balthazar, the god of fire and war who ends up going super evil. If you're playing a fragile class like an elementalist or mesmer, praying to him is actually great, because he blesses you with two fierce hounds made of flame who fight alongside you and soak up damage. (Praying to Balthazar does feel a lot weirder in retrospect, I'll admit.)

In any case, the point is that you can pray to ANY human god and receive a brief visitation from that god, because the entire human pantheon are your gods even if you're only special to one of them. A similar dynamic is at work for NPCs as well. A recurring NPC in the core GW2 story, for instance, is Rhie, a priestess of Grenth, god of cold, darkness, judgment, and death (he's not evil, just goth). Even by priest of Grenth standards, Rhie is greatly favored by him, and as a result is able to perform powerful rituals dealing with the boundaries between life and death. But there's no expectation that this means she should abjure the other gods in any way, and she certainly does not (in fact, she provides a Human Religion 101 rundown about the gods in general in her first appearance in the human storyline).

And it's so common in fantasy, I feel, that polytheistic cultures are conceptualized as giving adherents a wider choice of gods to be the one they actually worship for real, often with the implication that worshipping one god in the pantheon naturally translates into hostility or apathy towards other gods in the same pantheon. And so I do enjoy playing a religiously devout character who has a special patron deity blessing her and who is emphatically polytheistic throughout her entire original storyline.

[aparticularbandit]

Additionally.

Rio says the boy isn't Agatha's.

Which means Rio knows who Teen is.

Which strengthens my theory that Rio set the sigil.

(If Rio is Death, then why would a sigil matter to her? She's a concept. Etc.)

Further.

The sigil doesn't get removed; it gets destroyed when it no longer has any use.

If Agatha knew Teen was Billy, that would go poorly for Billy. But Agatha is bonding with Billy perhaps to the point where that won't matter and the sigil is removed; this won't happen as long as Agatha believes that Billy might be Nicholas.

Rio did not kill Nicholas (I don't think she can kill anyone), but she did take him from Agatha when he died - that was her job.

Rio knows that Wanda is dead (or at least she said Wand was dead in Agnes's scenes in episode 1).

....

Rio may be playing the long game of matching up a motherless child with a childless mother.

...kind of like a lot of us wanted to happen with Wanda and America in DSMOM, but that's not the point here.