#I also can't help but wonder

[2-d-rogue]

At the end of the game, after James watches the tape, the monsters can no longer fight you. They become weak, fragile, and even terrified of James. They're likely dying off as James is realizing the truth, and thus, they are no longer necessary.

It's kinda sad to see, honestly.

[reginrokkr]

Given the lore drop related to Dain, Lumine and Khaenri'ah (I'd dare to say that it's 「Bedtime story」 #2 as it's a continuation of what Dain revealed, as well as bits and pieces of what Chlothar said in 「Caribert」 in the Xbox wind glider, I'll write a breakdown of parts of interest under cut. Beware if you decide to proceed, as it contains the description of content to-be-released mixed a tiny bit with a leak I discussed a while ago:

◜The young knight was not of insignificant background, but that was worth little in the grand scheme of things. The royal golden-haired heir's fate was far nobler, but now having lost her world, she yearned for but a single realm.◞

This confirms that Dain either belonged to a relevant family within Khaenri'ah or it's through his own deeds as well as Vedrfolnir's (he was the Visionary, an oracle, after all) made them be important in the kingdom. Despite not including himself among the other five as being the best within their respective fields, he was among the six that carried the hopes of the people of Khaenri'ah (in Dain's case, most likely for a reason I'll mention briefly). If it's the family aspect that makes their background important besides what they did for the kingdom, I have to admit that it's a bit underwhelming that they lack a family/clan name like the Alberichs do.

◜Later, the young knight was promoted, and the title "Twilight Sword" bestowed upon him. As for the royal heir with the golden hair, she was led by the last Vinster King, down, down, down to the kingdom's deepest depths. The young knight, initially intending only to save his older brother, who had been imprisoned and blinded in both eyes for giving a prophecy, the young knight gathered the brilliant young ones of the age. Their righteous deed, that of saving the nation, was but a deed done in passing.◞

This part here was very sad to me, seeing the lengths Dain took for saving his brother (another important detail bound to come in a bit). It sounds like Vedrfolnir was forced to deliver a prophecy to king Irmin and either a) he didn't like it, so he blinded him as a result of it as if to wreck him for good for the thing he was known for: a Visionary or b) there was something in the content of that prophecy that made Vedrfolnir blind as a result of it, possibly related to the Abyss. A good example to take is the oracle Sybilla from Remuria, who was also an oracle and because of her exposure to the Abyss, eventually she got blind too. I think that this lines up fine as to how Vedrfolnir was able to tell Lumine's fate in 「Caribert」 too.

That aside, the premise that Dain likely saved Khaenri'ah from whatever "minor" incident (if compared to the Cataclysm) that threatened the kingdom as a secondary thing to him wanting to save Vedrfolnir? That genuinely impressed me and it may add some spark of sense as to why Lumine criticizes him for having failed to save Khaenri'ah if he already did once. The details on this are still very muddy and it's highly likely that the circumstances were different, but still, that's a grand thing to do and it reinforces the notion that he was an outstanding figure in combination with the other five.

◜But the golden-haired heir was used as a vessel by which unlimited Abyssal power could be absorbed, and she became the key to the world's near-annihilation. This was the moment that their paths intertwined— one a noble, tumbling from the light into the Abyss, the other a humble existence, climbing upward from the darkness. Regicide, righteousness, assassinations and betrayals, until all was rendered desolate.◞

Now, this here needs a special mention too. This may explain how Lumine has control over the abyssal power in the first place, if she was used as a vessel to absorb an unlimited amount of it most likely to be used as a weapon against the gods (as Chlothar did say that they believed that the Abyss could topple the gods), and also to plunge the world into darkness as per the statuettes that now, more than ever, are confirmed to be about king Irmin —the Vinster King—. It reminds me of that one leak that talked about Dain having considered to kill Lumine all the way back then because he saw her as a thread to Khaenri'ah/the world, but ultimately decided against it. Because if according to this, this act alone of absorbing the abyss turned her into the key to the world's near-annihilation (the Cataclysm?), then that makes her dangerous enough to consider that seriously.

It also makes me wonder if this is the disaster he said that could be prevented that is related to the Vinster King and that none of the Sinners did nothing about it, what's more— maybe Lumine didn't get to absorb as much abyssal power as it was intended, but the Sinners did when they shared among themselves that very same power. The leak I mentioned before also talks about how something the Sinners did caused the destruction of Khaenri'ah, or at least they initiated it and later on did nothing to defend it when things got a turn for the worse with the descent of the gods.

Anyhow, this makes me think about the regicide. At first it was a joke when I starting talking about it, as it seemed that Dain did something about the Vinster King while the other five didn't, and this might be just it— killing him with his own hands. I'm not sure if the incident of saving his brother and subsequently saving Khaenri'ah and the regicide are part of the same episode, or maybe one led to another, but this is something crazy to think about. What's clear is that following king Irmin's "indisposition", the Marshal General Anfortas took the reins as a temporary regent (I'm unsure if he's an Alberich or an Alberich took after him later), so there must've been some time in between this incident that brought the need to save Khaenri'ah once and the actual Cataclysm later.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Daughter of delta Yu, show them that you're no fool!

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[benevolenterrancy]

Hi I have caught up to you on having feelings about Zhuzhi-Lang. He's a good boy! 🥺 Good snake boy! 🥺 I had the thought, after Zhuzhi let SQQ leave after SQQ yelled at him... what if they Stole Him. What if.

(Also have you read/been recommended anything by corduroyserpent yet? Big writer of Zhuzhi-Lang fics, including a very cute de-aged Zhuzhi-Lang and some zhushen)

Justifications of bride-stealing!

(AND HE'S THE BEST BOY 😭 I LOVE HIM SO MUCH, SO MUCH!! have some further au thoughts because this has contaminated my brain...)

What I think would actually happen if they stole SQQ? Absolutely nothing good for anyone, LBH would Lose His Fucking Mind xD as a more interesting answer though, I like the idea that Shen "Pedantic Nitpicky Asshole" Qingqiu's primary point of argument is that he is not a bride so he cannot be "bridenapped" regardless of demonic tradition or intention!

This eventually leads to them all completely avoiding the Maigu Ridge incident because TLJ realizes that, somehow, SQQ doesn't realize the depths of his son's feelings for him and decides to put all his efforts into being a wingman for his nephew instead because he finds the entire thing absolutely hilarious and rather satisfying after his own sad romance. Obviously someone like SQQ would do much better with his good, loyal nephew than the disappointing offspring of that disastrous relationship!

As for ZZL he just has to assume that LBH must not be treating SQQ anywhere near the way he should be (and like... he isn't wrong at this point, there is a non-zero amount of torture and terror going on here) if SQQ doesn't see himself as being tied to LBH in any way. And if he's not attached to LBH then there's absolutely no reason he shouldn't make his own efforts to seduce SQQ! After all, if LBH isn't valuing SQQ properly then obviously ZZL has to step up because someone as kind as SQQ deserves the best!!!

[kirby-the-gorb]

[lonelyslutavatar]

Yessss Alice angst I need more........

[meregrin]

my two cents are that people outside of finland (and even the more left-leaning circles in finland) are not really taking into account that an average person here doesn’t know jack shit about israel or palestine. the first and only time either of them got mentioned in my 12 years of schooling (i’m a few years younger than jere) was an optional history course focusing on post-ww2 history in my final year of high shcool. jere went to vocational school and they don’t teach history at all there so he’s relying on his junior high education which isn’t saying much considering he’s said multiple times he didn’t pay attention at school.

it doesn’t help that the mainstream reporting (which he’s forced to rely on since he doesn’t speak fluent enough english) about the palestinian genocide has been frustratingly neutral and both-sides-y here in finland. obviously some of that is due to journalistic ethics and responsibilities because our news medias can’t get their reporters within gaza’s borders and they can’t report on things unless the information comes from a reputable source or they can fact check them.

all this is to say that i'm willing to bet actual money he doesn’t even know the definition of genocide in finnish, not to mention IDF or zionism or even judaism. those things are simply not taught here and the idea of him being a zionist is laughable. i studied anthropology at university and the amount of times i’ve had to explain fairly simple concepts like colonialism or genocide to people, even highly-educated ones, is staggering. and i didn’t really understand those things either before i went to university. finland used to love to rave about our PISA scores but the truth is that the level of basic education here has been really poor for decades.

[i-still-dont-know-a-username]

Don't get me wrong, "The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite" is a quote that absolutely hits me square in the chest every time.

..But I feel like putting it in italics under an aesthetic picture is kinda neglecting the context, since Piranesi has Nearly Drowned when he first says that.

[helenofblackthorns]

reading tftsa is always an emotional experience especially when you get the short stories focused around the Blackthorns because the absence of Mark just bleeds out. like when you read about Julian being Helen's suggenes and Simon being the witness to Julian's parabatai ceremony you are just burdened with the knowledge that that's not who they would have picked if the circumstances were different. in a different life it was Mark.

[cherrywhite]

I know Faulkner's ever increasing body count is a running joke as if it's something he's purposefully racking up but Rane's murder is such a stark contrast compared to every other one that's come before. And that difference marks such a monumental shift in Faulkner's character.

Like, he runs from the hotelier immediately after sainting him (I know his whole I'm going to make you a saint mirrors what he tells Rane this episode, but he still ultimately runs), he can't bring himself to use the Withermark at Marcel's Crossing, and Mason and Thurrocks' deaths were done in a fit of rage, the horror evident by the time he comes to his senses. Even Daggler's was caused by the Angel Faulkner summoned, not something Faulkner committed to up close. And I imagine however Charlie drowned, well. There's a lot of ambiguity in how it could have gone down, something we'll never really know the scope of, purely because Faulkner is such an unreliable narrator.

Then there's this.

I would argue that Rane's death is much more violent than the ones that came before purely for the fact that Faulkner seems to revel in their suffering as he does it. He needlessly pulls them back up to get a breath of air before plunging them back in the water. He strikes them with his staff so hard that it breaks. And he does this all while laughing and mocking at them. He's needlessly cruel to the point of terrifying. This part was so well done and it really shows just how far Faulkner has gone.

I'm so hesitant to say there's no way back from this simply because of how TSV writes its characters but my knee-jerk reaction as I was listening to this the first time is that there isn't. This was him, fully aware, crossing over the threshold.

[befuddled-calico-whump]

universal hand signal for help: tuck thumb in, trap it with your fingers, and repeat.

(graphic by the Women's Funding Network)

because I didn't know this was a thing until randomly seeing a poster in a bathroom, I'm sharing this graphic here so more people can know what to look out for (and what to use if you're ever in danger and can't draw attention to yourself)

[fisheito]

hey. I have a question. do y'all *ALSO* get startled by eiden titty every time you open up the intimacy screen???

because homecoming yaku shows up first whenever i enter

Guessin that the game default sorts by order of clan member joining, and yaku was 1st so... anyone who has homecoming yaku is greeted by eitit when entering the intimacy rooms??

[thebad-lydrawn-sanses]

*randomly spawned a sassy cat in their castle.*

Cross's shirt: bone hurting juice (image depicting text)

Cross: i can make it to the kitchen i can make it to the kitchen i can make it to the kitchen i can make it to the kitchen i can-

sassy cat: (poof)

Cross: .

Cross: pspspspspspsps

[carrinth]

Asha and Starboy. 💜⭐

People. I am simple trash gremlin. I see star-crossed love between human girl and literal star and I'm sold. Even if it never happened ^_^;;

[aethersflood]

-- "It's plain she cares for you very deeply." -- "And I her. Which is why I had to let her go."