#I left it open to interpretation

[riddlerosehearts]

isabeau's confession at the end of ISAT is constantly living rent-free in my head it's so fucking good. right now i'm obsessed with the way he responds to siffrin saying "i love you too" because just. imagine you're siffrin and for so long now you've believed that you were horrible disgusting manipulative unloved and unworthy of love and yet. your best friend is telling you he loves you. and you feel that you love him too (in what way? the same way that he loves you? you're not quite sure yet, but stars, you feel like your heart is going to burst out of your chest, he means so much to you) so you tell him so.

and he responds by telling you he already knew that because he has eyes.

you're siffrin and you are kind passionate protective and so loved and full of love for your friends, your family, and yet you hate yourself so, so deeply that you don't see any of that but isabeau does. according to him it's written all over your face, apparently--the face you're always trying so hard to hide with your hat, which as the universe would have it, you don't have anymore!! and he sees you and he loves you and he knows you love him back, even after you said and did such horrible, cruel things to him and the rest of your family that you know they didn't deserve, after you almost broke the world trying to keep them by your side, somehow isa understands you and still loves every single part of you. and you love him, you love him, you love him because how could you not?

especially since he also got so excited when you told him you loved him that he shouted "CRAB YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" in your face.

[doverstar]

can't express accurately how happy it makes me that c.s. lewis did not leave room for many interpretations in narnia. it's christian and you can't get around it. susan chose to care more about worldly things than what matters and he said what he said. the lion is Jesus. evil is evil and good is good and people have to choose. and that makes some readers angry because it's nearly impossible to ignore and they want to ignore it. they want it to be something else and they can't make it something else without making it not narnia. love that. that is doing it right

[chimerafeathers]

i appreciate so much that Siffrin doesn’t respond to Isabeau’s confession with immediate reciprocation, and instead has the self-awareness in that moment to ask for time to sort out how they actually feel

there ARE feelings there. but after everything, how much of them are really, truly Siffrin’s alone, and how much of them are Isabeau’s stagnant almost-confession, frozen and reflected back in on itself like mirrors facing each other—Isabeau, stuck reaching out but never touching, Siffrin, stuck aching for connection but never asking for it? they wanted something, in that moment. but removed from the reaching, do they really want this? does he want Isabeau, in that way, specifically, or was he only responding to the call in front of him out of desperation to be loved and to love back, in the way they thought that call needed to be answered?

he needs time outside of that situation to know for sure. to have a world and options outside those handful of repeating interactions, with both of them knowing the potential is there, but also access to the choice of acknowledging that potential and letting it go.

maybe they do! maybe they don’t! maybe they end up somewhere in between or outside of either of their expectations. maybe they get together and break up. who knows.

the point is, he has the chance to figure it out.

[vildo]

Remember the look Kirk gave Spock when he found out about Leila?

and how he stared her down LIKE THIS afterwards

Since they didn’t specify why Kirk was the only one immune to spores, I’m gonna take it so far as to say it had no effect on him because he was so mad at Spock about this

[bellwood-qudditch]

So the only covey we see alive are Clerk Carmine and Tam Amber, as well as Lenore Dove.

We see Maude Ivory and Lucy Gray have gravestones.

So what the heck happened to Barb Azure?

[ciderjacks]

can’t read any Chilwife fic or read any fanon chilwife stuff at all because I have a very specific interpretation of their marriage & her as a character that no one else understands bc no one else is me… I suffer from success every day

[yourrio]

*whimper* Mmmm... mwah. You taste so delicious, Mistress... mmmph... *whimper* *whine*

*boop!*

-@cielophelie

:D Hello, my heart!

Boop!

[divorcedfiddleford]

it is friday my dudes (little hearts added by @tazmiilly)

[mothpawbs]

🎧!! I'm so curious...

ima ga ichiban hayai no dairokkan, rokkan ayakatte hashiru haato uso wa tsukenai yo

your song is dairokkan (the sixth sense) by reol! suggested names: crystal, icarus

[incandescentflower]

Caught some of the recs for Secrets Happened on the Litchi Island and decided to take a look. I had some trouble following initial context or relationships between some of the characters at various parts of it, (the use of ge and di that require contextual understanding messes with me yet again), but it really was such a beautifully shot story with excellent tension and pitch perfect acting.

[hysterical-random-things]

Hi, idk if this is weird but I've seen you post a lot about cult of the lamb and I was just wondering what it was about!? I was aware of the game as a concept though I never really knew more than the fact that it existed, but based on your art and posts and stuff it looks like it has a lot more plot than I originally assumed

I've been trying to think of how to answer this the last couple of days because I'm worried i mightttt have given you a false impression of the game. The game at its core is meant to be a fun little base builder/action roguelike. And it doesn't not have a plot and lore but, a lot of what folks make content of, including me, is in the gaps between that said lore, or taking that lore and expanding on it a LOT. This fandom is mostly folks playing in their own sand boxes and making fun off a neat concept? Like again the game gives you the seeds but most of mine and other folks stuff is coming from their own brainspaces, it's why everyone has different takes and ideas with but with some connecting themes, threads, and plot points. The most basic description of the game is: you are a lamb, running a cult, going on crusades and killing gods. Stuff happens involving that. That's the game. There is some more than that but at its core that's the game's whole thing.

[deprivedofbraincellsandsleep]

aftg bonus content spoilers‼️‼️

ok but Kevin saying "Coaches have no honor" when wymack said coaches honor???? Like in tsc, spoiler warning if you haven't read it yet, it is revealed to us through Jean how much coaches are feared respected highly in the nest. They're seen at a higher level than a coach should be, seen as some superior being that knows better anyone. It absolutely destroyed me seeing Kevin say that but in the good way because I interpret it to be him unraveling and opening the tight stitches the nest sewed into his mind from a young age.

[galaxy-fleur]

That brief conflict between Jill and Chris in Death Island made me consider how their relationship has likely changed since she returned to the field and all the complex emotions that would follow. Jill deserves all the support in the world, honestly. Wrote out a small one-shot based on that!

1.4k words.

"-Is everything alright?"

Chris slowly came up behind Jill, his steps measured careful. He could see her hard gaze, laser-focused on the revolver she was busy with cleaning at the moment, her posture rigid, her mouth set tight. Her reasonings for this level of tidiness were utterly unknown to him, as he's seen her fiddling with that same revolver of hers numerous times already, each instance more illogical than the last. Reloading, cleaning checking, re-checking. At this point, it became obvious that the revolver was nothing more than a means for her to get her hands busy. He just didn't know why.

Time and time again, she would withdraw and isolate herself, and this was starting to become a pattern that concerned him. He was worried about her. When he didn't hear back from her, he let out a sigh and reached out to lightly touch her shoulder, making his presence known without making her turn to face him.

"Jill, you haven't said a single word to me since we got back. I'm worried."

"-Don't be." Her reply is brisk, curt. Chris sighed again.

So they were playing this game again, huh?

Ever since Jill finally returned to the field after her recovery, their relationship has been notably strained and even awkward, though neither of them ever pointed it out directly to each other, for one reason or another. Perhaps they just didn't want to acknowledge that something truly was amiss. It is only reasonable to want things to just return back to normal after all the hardships and adversity they've faced, after all. But things weren't normal. Far from it. And that hard fact was just becoming more and more apparent with time. Maybe in order to avoid upsetting him, Jill was constantly attempting to hide whatever was wrong with her. But he wouldn't be upset. And yet, she never seemed to realize that her partner would be more than delighted to hear out what was troubling her. He would never be bothered by her confiding in him.

Or maybe she just didn't want to confide in him in the first place for whatever reason. That thought stung.

In any case, Chris simply could not bear to leave her alone again like he did up until now. Instead of closing herself off and going out to tinker with her weaponry, she should have someone there to talk to about what was really on her mind. He wanted to be that person to her.

Fixing a revolver wouldn't fix whatever that was not set right in her head.

Pursing his lips, he lowered himself beside her on the bench, keeping a slight distance to avoid coming across as intrusive. Hopefully.

"...Is it about earlier or something else, at least?" He asked, taking on a softer, more hushed tone compared to his prior usual speaking voice.

Jill didn't reply, but her hands stopped their meticulous movements, the quiet sounds of the revolver coming to a stop. This lack of a response told him everything he needed to know. So it must have been about earlier after all, huh?

They did bump into some of his old colleagues as he was showing her around. From where he stood, everything went by just smoothly. When he introduced them to Jill, his guys were thrilled to meet someone with her level of experience, warmly welcoming her back on the field after a long absence. Sure, he might have gotten a tad bit distracted with all the reminiscing, but that was nothing to get this upset about, is it? Especially since Jill didn't get to get out much in the past few months. He thought getting to know their teammates would do her some good, in fact.

But could she have been bothered by him getting carried away with his peers instead? That didn't really sound like her at all, and it was hard for him to guess when she wouldn't communicate with him. At this point, he was just trying to come up with any explanation at all. He never once took her as the type to struggle with jealousy or feelings of inadequacy, but... She did clamp up on him right after they went separate ways. But it was a different sort of bond than the one he had with her. Surely she knew that.

Was she upset over him having other close friends, or was she upset over something deeper than that, something he couldn't quite grasp? It's not as if he needed her to be like them. She was Jill, his partner... and they were trusted colleagues and friends. It wasn't the same. Moreover, it felt sort of conceited of him to think that she was just jealous. No, there must have been something deeper going on here.

Chris' head was starting to hurt over him trying to read between the lines. He wasn't good at this sort of thing. Maybe that's partly why things were so tense lately. Sure, Jill didn't have to spell her guts to him over everything, but he would like to know that she wasn't shutting herself out because of him, at least. After all, keeping things bottled up inside never ended well. He knew that better than anyone. She would just end up exploding one day if she continued trying to shoulder everything on her own. He didn't want that for her.

"Jill? Come on, please talk to me. If you want me to leave you alone, that's fine, but just... Don't shut down on me like that. I don't like seeing you like this."

"...Wouldn't it be better for you to focus on those who were actually with you on the field?"

Chris blinked. Her voice didn't sound accusatory or angry, but it did sound bitter. A bitterness that was more self-inflicted than hostile. He didn't know which would be worse.

"What? No... Why would that matter?"

She huffed, shaking her head, visibly frustrated.

"No, just- Goddamnit, Chris, you're respected, you're loved. People look up to you for leadership. So many are willing to follow your lead, just because it's you that's leading them. You made a name for yourself. But you stick around me. I could have done the same. I could have been out there, fighting for what's right and doing something good with you and everyone else. But I didn't. While you were out there, I was stuck... what? Doing Wesker's bidding and then just as stuck recovering from that? And now... I can finally make up for all the years lost, and nothing feels the same."

Her shoulders slumped, her voice losing what previous ire it held. Now, she just sounded tired. Defeated.

"...Wesker's finally six feet under after all the pain and death he brought, and he still keeps taking things from me."

With a shaky exhale, he shook his head at that. What she was saying wasn't true at all. Not from where he stood, at least.

"-Jill, I wouldn't bat an eye if you were off the field for a decade for all I care. What matters is that you are here now, right this second. And sure, yes, I might have a reputation now. But that doesn't mean I stopped thinking of you as my partner. You are still more than capable of giving me a run for my money out there, trust me. You're one of the few who can. I don't know anyone as capable and strong as you are. The only thing I do regret is not being there for you much while you recovered. I wish I was. I want to be there for you. Even if I failed to do that before."

Jill sighed, her hands dropping to hang over her knees, her revolver finally completely out of her focus now. This was clearly chipping away at her, and for a long time. Sure, they had somewhat similar talks before, but... never quite as openly. It was hard to catch a quiet moment alone with how hectic their lives were, after all. Chris knew she was probably having a hard time readjusting, but he never imagined it was... this bad. He wished he could have noticed it sooner.

He rested a hand on her shoulder, fully this time, his thumb rubbing small circles into her shirt.

"...You don't need to compare yourself to me, okay? I don't always know what to say, or what's on your mind, but... the only one I always want to work alongside is you. You're the one I trust to have my back no matter what and be there when I need you. Just like I want to be there when you need me, too. So, even if I do have good buddies I worked with over the years you've been away, I want you right beside me now. If you want to be."

Quietly, one of her hands came to rest on his knee, squeezing a little. She didn't say a word to him as she did, her head still hung low, her hair obscuring her features from being seen. He didn't push her into looking at him. He just let her reach out in her own way, even if it was small.

"I'll... try to remember that. Thanks, Chris."

"Anytime."

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

Thinking about your dreams/fire post which led me to “you paint dreamscapes on the wall” and then as always I come back to Coney Island of “do you miss the rogue who coaxed you into paradise and then left you there” because he was drawing these dreams and making her think they were possible and then didn’t follow through

yessssssssssss!!!!!!

tbh I think I had the dreamscapes line in a previous draft of it too haha.

And it's not to get into the ~discourse~ of it, but that's just the crux of it: someone convincing you that you could build this life together, where you take steps to make that happen and put all your trust in them, only for them to reneg? It's such a blow. It's why the double-whammy is so painful because that's what BOTH of the main muses did (and why I think it's so easy to see both of them in so many of the songs but I don't want to annoy people about that on main because at this point we all have our own thoughts about things and I'm not here to convince anyone and in any case it doesn't even matter because it's all just art after all ANYWAY) in very different but equally painful ways, with a secret third party being the one to do it first as people so eloquently put it when the album came out.

I don't know if this makes sense, but it's like the difference between "stars meticulously glued next to the ceiling fan" vs "impressionist paintings of heaven turned out to be fakes": to me, one is like, a concrete life that was once built albeit doomed from the start and then destroyed (intentionally or not) vs. one selling a lie from the get-go. One is painful because is was once so close they could taste it and it crumbled under the weight of their problems, vs the other one that preyed on those dreams and never intended to follow through. (But then again I can also see other interpretations of that line but I digress lol.)

This is a tangent, but it's why the "bravery" theme is so interesting to me on TTPD. Because yes, on the surface it's about the conman who she sets up in the epilogue as carrying a sword he couldn't lift (...), but underneath it all is the one-time prince who promised these things she believed, and we see it across multiple albums. Part of TTPD to me is her saying, "I wasn't crazy to believe this, right? Because it happened. You promised these things. But you didn't follow through. So why am I the one in the wrong for setting these expectations?" And yes, she says that outright about the conman, but it's also the larger story of the hothouse flower, too.

(I actually saw a clip the other day of an old interview -- I think from Red era -- where Taylor says she's trusting to a fault, and I think that plays a role in all this along with ~all the things~ at play.)

It's not to get into the muse discourse, but one of the most heartbreaking things really is this idea of the person you pinned your hopes on, who you love and believe loves you back, promising you the things you long for most in this world and at the time saying they'll be by your side through it all, only for them to cut and run (whether physically or emotionally) when the going gets tough. It's devastating, because what are you supposed to do when the person you love and trust the most, who's world you shaped yours around, ends up pulling away? And what's worse, leaves you feeling like it's somehow your fault? You're left with all these dreams unfulfilled, but no clear exit route on how to make it out or sense of self in some ways.

I could speak about this forever and add another tangent about the epilogue but I fear this is already long enough haha.

[botanikos]

☪ -- @bliitzo liked this for a starter.

Surely it was a dream - a very cruel and intoxicating dream. Perhaps his meal earlier had been laced with a hallucinogenic? The only problem was his lack of inebriation. He was positively overwhelmed with joy, and perhaps a shiver of trepidation. What if Blitzo didn't remember him, what if he didn't want to see him?

❝ Do my eyes deceive me? Am I dreaming? ❞

[remadra]

Watched OTGW again. Hopping on the bandwagon.