#I am so excited about him

[rynwrites]

Set 1: Ship in a Bottle

Ah yes, the joys of middle school. The cramped hallways, loud, annoying kids, and having most of your belongings in a locker. Finn especially despised their locker, since it was right above the locker of one of the cockiest, loudest, rudest boys in the grade, which was most of them to be fair. They were often shoved out of the way by a gaggle of prepubescent boys all chattering about their adventures in their Realms, most of which consisted of killing Big Scary Monster To Sound Cool. Finn was really tired of them, but didn’t really care enough to do anything about it. 

At least they had Adel, who always made sure they were doing okay even with his own crap she was sorting out. She was the only one, even in the three years it had been a problem, who knew about the Red infecting Finn. They’d had a few close calls where it tried to harm Adel, but he was fairly used to wrestling it off since she had little gremlin siblings that refused to go to bed if not completely worn out. 

And, speak of the devil, Adel ran up to Finn. “Hey you!” he exclaimed, with breakfast still on her breath. “Anything new with--”

“No, at least I don’t think so,” Finn quickly interrupted.

Adel blinked, remembering where they were. “Ah, sorry, I was just wondering. Any more nightmares?”

Finn considered for a moment, thinking of what felt appropriate to discuss ten minutes before first period. “Well… kinda, but I’ll tell you later. They’re, uh, getting less pleasant by the day,” they said under their breath, pushing hair out of their face.

Adel frowned. “Hmm… that bad, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Wanna come over to my place later?”

“Yes please.”

The bell rang, the two briefly hugged, then ran to their homeroom classes. They had a system now, but the infection just kept getting worse. Finn had started blacking out briefly a few months ago, but now, it could be hours. Adel usually reported that the Red had taken their body on a spin, running around or doing cartwheels or accidentally hurting itself. But it had been more devious lately. Now, it tried to manipulate Adel to get into risky situations, or just flat-out threatened him or Finn. It was scary, to say the least. Finn hoped it would just resolve itself soon since the alternative was… not great.

----------

It’s hard to do school when there’s a malicious alien infecting your body. As much as you try to absorb linear equations and literary devices, only so much of it will be stored for later. Luckily, this did not apply to homeroom, where specialists on the Lone Realms would come and report their studies. Theoretically, anything could be done in the Realms that someone could imagine, but those guys liked to really push the limits. In doing so, many had also been infected and volunteered for studies on the Red itself. Today, a lady in a white lab coat came to report her findings, which was why Finn was so eager to get to class.

“Good morning, class!” exclaimed Mr. Murphy (Finn’s homeroom teacher). 

“Good morning Mr. Murphy,” came the sluggish response of sleep-deprived pre-teens.

“I’d love to see some more enthusiasm next time, but I’ll let it slide in the interest of time. Dr. Markus is going to be talking about the effects of the Red with all of you today, so please do your best to pay attention.”

“Thank you, Mr. Murphy,” Dr. Markus replied. “Now, what we know about the Red is still very tentative, so take most everything with a grain of salt, but here’s what we’ve been able to find so far.” She turned on the projector, and it came to life with a soft whir. As she opened her laptop, a set of slides loaded onto the screen. Most of the students were fighting sleep or sneaking peeks at their phones, but Finn was at full attention. “So far, music has still proven to be a valid way of warding off the Red within the Realms, but for some reason, once it’s bonded with a human outside of the Realms, it becomes ineffective. We tried everything from trombones to flutes to bells, but nothing worked. More often, it just made the volunteers more irritable and less focused on fighting off the Red’s effects.

“Speaking of our volunteers, we were able to find a progression of the infection through them.” The slides switched to diagrams of human bodies. Pointing to the first one, Dr. Markus noted, “Stage 1 generally just involves more fatigue, emotional distress, headaches, and the noted lack of ability to access their own Realm. But as it progresses,” she slid her pointer across the screen, “these symptoms get much worse, and more appear. At stage 2, volunteers began to faint at almost random intervals, but were fine after a few minutes. They had frequent migraines and slept irregularly--” 

Finn felt the beginning of a throbbing headache start. Seriously? Right now?

“At stage 3, these blackouts last longer, and the Red starts to manifest more physically. Dilated pupils, sped up hair and nail growth, and a change in eye or hair coloration was common. Volunteers at this phase would black out and appear to get back up, but the Red was really the one in control. They had no memory of what happened afterwards, but it would talk through them, walk around, and often become much more aggressive, even threatening and violent towards other volunteers. At this point, volunteers were usually moved to solo quarantine to ensure the safety of others.” 

Finn’s head was thoroughly throbbing now, and the lights were starting to bother them. They quietly pulled a few Tylenol out of their pocket and swallowed them down with some water. Hopefully that can take the edge off, they thought, returning their attention to the slides.

“--the least seen and final stage of the infection is total takeover of the host.” Finn almost choked on air. “Past this point, volunteers could no longer keep control of their bodies, and the Red… well, it wins out.” 

The air in the classroom felt heavy. All of the students were paying attention now, solemnly contemplating each time they pushed the boundaries of the bells. 

Finn was panicking. Total takeover? I never thought it would be THAT bad, but--

“Not to worry, though.” They snapped back to reality as Dr. Markus continued. “Just as long as you don’t stay in your Realm past the bell-ringing, you will all be fine.” 

Finn’s eyes began to dim. No, no, no! Not here! Not now! Their mind raced as they tried to find an excuse to get out of class. Oh! They unzipped a pocket in their bag, and loudly retrieved a menstrual pad. Then, raising their hand, they interrupted, “Sorry, can I go to the restroom?” 

The urgent look on their face paid off. Dr. Markus kindly dismissed them, and they raced to the closest restroom. They quickly shot Adel a text:

code red bathroom by mruphys

Turning the corner, they raced into a stall, making sure the coast was clear. They took handcuffs (a gift from Adel’s occasional pick-pocketing of the school resource officer) out of their back pocket, looping them around the toilet paper holder that was secured to the wall and flung the key outside of the stall. Finn tried to control their breathing, but the panic was setting in as the Red whispered in their mind. Soon enough, everything faded to black.

----------

“--inn? Finn, are you ok?” Adel shook them gently. Finn coughed, starting to register their surroundings. This was not the bathroom. Their neck hurt, like someone had tried to strangle them. Blinking, Finn responded, “What happened? Where--”

“Confirm identity,” Adel whispered back. 

Ah, right. “Yessir Ms Adelaide, sir. Cucumbers or celery for you today, ma’am?” 

He sighed, wiping the tears out of his eyes. “Celery, Force Captain Finn.” 

This was a code that they made months ago, rehearsed for weeks, and had now memorized. Cucumber meant that managing the Red was easy, and celery meant difficult. Finn sighed, trying to sit up, but couldn’t. “Adel, why can’t I move?”

“Just rest for a bit, ok? I’ll explain while you try to recover.”

This time, it had gone too far. The Red had tried to strangle Finn for the brief time they were alone in the bathroom. Once Adel got there, they restrained it and undid the handcuffs, but it managed to run all the way to an unused classroom. Adel was in bad shape, covered in scratches, some of them bleeding, and several bruises were starting to form on her arms and legs. He had a black eye, just to make matters worse. 

“And a little cherry on top? Your eyes have a lot more red in them than before, and your roots are showing.” 

Finn groaned, tired in every possible way, covered in bruises, and feeling so terribly stuck. Their hair had grown red roots a few months ago, so Adel had helped them re-dye it brown every few weeks, but eyes were harder. Color contacts were hard to come by in their small town, and no one was willing to let anyone infected slip under the radar. “Should I just… turn myself in? I don’t think I can--”

“NO. Capital N-to-the-O, NO,” Adel quickly interjected. “You’ve seen the footage of what really goes on in quarantine, Finn. It’s no cakewalk there. Those ‘volunteers’ are just high-security prisoners, and usually the conditions are worse. You’ve only lasted as long as you have because you avoided quarantine! I’m not gonna let them imprison you and make you their test subject or friggin’ science report!”

Adel was fuming, but she had a point. No one that went in ever came out, and it was usually only a few months before they succumbed to the Red. He would know, since her mom ended up there. 

“Still, I’m tired of getting you hurt over some dumb mistake I made when I was 10. It’s not fair for you to have to deal with me all the time.”

Adel rested a hand on Finn’s knee. “Hey. I’m here because I choose to be, because I want to be here for you.” She pulled them into a hug. “It may not seem fair to you, but I think it’s way less fair that the Red gets to hitchhike all the time and be with my cool friend 24/7.”

Finn chuckled at his joke, then came the tears. They would have stayed in that warm, familiar hug forever, if they could. After a few minutes, Finn lifted their head.

“What time is it, by the way?” they asked Adel. 

“Very much time for third period,” he responded, cringing as one of her bruises hit a nearby desk.

“Ah. That’s gonna be fun to explain.”

[dusted-star]

HE'S REALLLL

[hajimedics]

I'M NOT YOUR DOLL AND I'LL THINK FOR MYSELF AND I'LL LIVE FOR MYSELF

[paintedcrows]

Holiday Classics

Been thinking about Ford watching the 70s Animated Lord of the Rings Movies... (companion comic to this post!)

[egophiliac]

time for skeleman

with the lack of any other info yet, all I can focus on are those Charles Lloyd-looking sunglasses. they are absolutely sending me. I feel like we're gonna fall through a tree or whatever and this stitched-up boney gentleman is gonna pop out from behind a gravestone and start serenading us with some smooth jazz on the saxophone.

or should I say...the saxoBONE???????

[toxooz]

a mimir💤

[brother-emperors]

something. about. the horror of being sent on an impossible (death) quest and obligations and hospitality politics. the trauma of not having a home, and then the trauma of being in a house that becomes actively hostile to you, one that would swallow you whole and spit out your bones if you step out of line. all of this is conditional, your existence continues to be something men want gone.

it's about going back as far as I can with the perseus narrative because there's always a version of a myth that exists behind the one that survives. the missing pieces are clearly defined, but the oldest recorded version of it isn't there! and there's probably something older before that!! but it's doomed to forever be an unfilled space, clearly defined by an outline of something that was there and continues to be there in it's absence.

and love. it's also about love. even when you had nothing, you had love.

on the opposite side of the spectrum, this is Not About Ovid Or Roman-Renaissance Reception, Depictions And Discourses On The Perseus Narrative.

edit: to add to the above, while it's not about Ovid, because I'm specifically trying to peel things back to the oldest version of this story, Ovid is fine. alterations on the Perseus myth that give more attention Medusa predate Ovid by several centuries. this comic is also not about those, either! there are many versions of this story from the ancient world. there is not one singular True or Better version, they're all saying something.

Perseus, Daniel Ogden

Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation, edited & translated by Stephen M Trzaskoma, R. Scott Smith, Stephen Brunet

[potatobugz]

objects loving objects baby!!!!

[lvngdnxgallifrey]

Seems Kaeya’s vision has 3 wings on each side now and is a combination of Mondstadtian vision and Khaenri’ah’s 8-pointed star. Except instead of two points there are wings on the bottom part. I’m very normal about it

[vanyafresita]

IMAGINE YOURSELF.

TELL ME OF YOURSELF.

WHAT IS IT YOU WANT?

and here is some close ups from the still frames with no filters !

[yuwuta]

JJK OLYMPICS OHHH YOURE A GENIUS

head spinning w sooooooo many athlete aus rn….. 

satoru honestly isn’t half as cocky as the media makes him out to be but he could be because you bring up world champion men’s freestyle swim times and it’s his name on the scoreboard ten times before someone else shows up. he’s faster than himself by fifteen seconds all around, he’s earned a bit of cockiness. mentioned in the last post that whenever he’s at a competition and he finishes a race, he looks at the camera and signs a little infinity sign and then blows a kiss to you. some bitter old coach always calls him out on it, and gets him fined for unsportsmanlike conduct, and he’s happy to pay the fees if it means getting a message home to you, but eventually you two come up with a new code; and at his next race, he places gold, turns to the camera, crosses his middle finger over his pointer finger and smiles. when he’s in his post-race interview, he makes sure to explain that he does it for you with the widest smile on his face.

megumi nepotism baby but not in the same sport. toji was a multi gold medalist back in his heyday for shooting, so it’s not really a surprise to anybody that megumi has scary good aim, but he takes to archery instead of shooting. actually the idea of megumi being an emo little kid and throwing rocks at a tree when his dad pissed him off his hilarious, and even funnier is toji watching him, slightly amused and a little scared because megumi is maybe six and hitting the exact same spot every single time. he grows to be very blase about it—it’s more of a release/hobby for him that he happens to be really good at, and well, now good enough to earn a few olympic medals. megumi is not a fan of having his dad ruffle his hair on international television after he’s won, but he supposes it can’t be helped.

i don’t know where to put yuuta…. tennis…. tempting….. him in his little white shorts…. little grunts after he serves…. cries….. a complete 180 in his personality when he’s playing vs doing anything else. so charming and sweet and kinda shy when he’s being interviewed, and the second he steps on the court his eyes are so cold it’s scary…. need him… extremely nerdy about his rackets, and shoes, and clothes, and rambles to you about aerodynamics and posture and torque whenever you ask him to teach you, and you always have to shutup him up with a kiss and remind him that yeah you sort of want to learn to play tennis for him, but mostly you came bc he looks hot doing it. once he got asked in an interview if he ever thinks about you while he’s playing and his response was very concise, “no, never. it would be a big distraction,” and did not realize the implications of his heavily televised words. 

also…. not to make this post 40% yuuta but we could pull from canon a bit and make his sport fencing. he doesn’t excel because he’s the strongest, it’s because he’s learned to treat the sword as an extension of himself and a good strategist… also because i like the image of him pulling the helmet/mask off and shaking his hair out………..

don’t even know where to put yuuji…. volleyball? basketball? track and field??? the irony of him easily being the most athletic but canonically does not want to play sports 😭 but i can see him playing a sport because someone scouts him and it turns out to be a way to make steady money to support himself and his grandpa :( by the time he’s qualified and made it to the olympics, wasuke is doing much better (thanks to yuuji having landed some preemptive sponsorships and being able to afford better medical care), but not so well enough that he can travel across the world to watch yuuji play. wasuke tells you that you should travel and be with yuuji, but yuuji is so touched by the idea that you would stay with his grandpa and be by his side when he’s away :(( he wins gold, of course, and he doesn’t even wait until the closing ceremony—which, he’d mentioned in all of his interviews, so nobody can be too upset. he’s on record saying, “i’m excited to play, but i’m even happier to be going home. my girlfriend and my grandpa are watching me and i miss them!” several times— he’s on the first flight home with flowers, and tears in his eyes. puts his gold medal on his grandpa’s neck as a thank you, and spends probably thirty minutes straight hugging you and kissing you and honestly don’t put it past him to propose now that he’s got nike ambassador money 

nanami started judo as a way to relieve the stress of his overbearing job, and someone at the gym/training center notices he seems to be a natural despite being a beginner. he starts to draw a crowd, which annoys him at first because the point of judo was discipline and release from having to deal with too many people at his office job, but nanami supposes he can’t be too mad when you introduce yourself as a talent scout and offer him professional training. there’s irony in him accepting your offer, because it was definitely not based in professionalism at all… quitting his job as a salaryman to become a professional athlete in his mid-twenties was not on his bingo chart, but if it means he will have met you, then so be it. you’re with him all the way, through his training, competitions, world championships, qualifiers, all the way until he’s on the podium. you’re the first to congratulate him, but he interjects by telling you he’s quitting. you ask him why—he just won at the olympics for crying out loud, but nanami just shakes his head, puts down his flowers and his medal so his hands are free to hold your face and tell you, “it would be unethical to kiss my manager, so i am quitting.” (later, when everything is said and done, and you two are cuddling, you mention to him that he could just hire a new manager, and not quit his new career, to which he blushes because yeah… that’s probably more rational, but rational was not in his train of thought at the time)

[theoldkyokodied]

Uploading all my Tomgreg art at once from the past few week before season 4 hits, who knows in what kind of mental state i'm gonna be once it does :')

[killldeer]

god i love navani. literal first thing she does onscreen is arrive from the other side of the continent, beeline to a party where she can go sit next to dalinar, and go “hm so i’ve noticed that my son is kind of a loser”. and then when dalinar tries to protest For Honor or whatever she’s just like “no no i was not asking for feedback. this was a simple statement of fact. elhokar is a loser.” what an entrance

[mercymaker]

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬, 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭.

This beautiful art of Maleane & Astarion was made by the wonderfully talented @tadpole-apocalypse thank you so much!!! They're open to commissions, so check them out!

[egophiliac]

I DID IT I GOT MY PINK HAYATE now I am never doing that again!

(at least until they give me, like, a frilly unicorn Kamui or something)

[rowanisawriter]

deeply embarrassing being god born in ancient greece i think, everyone knows the exact place and detailed story of your conception, “yeah that’s aeneas his mom and dad fucked at the foot of mount ida” i would die. i would die every time someone addressed me by my full name “aeneas son of anchises who everyone knows aphrodite fucked at the foot of mount ida” god