#I've only seen this in screenshots

[percabethconvos]

[Between BOTL and TLO]

New camper watching Percy and Annabeth flirt during capture the flag: Are they lovers?

Clarisse: Worse, they're fucking stupid

[haematoclan]

Leo swimming in the air appreciation post <3

[alexturner2005]

Alex with mlbells in New York, 19th May 2024

[elliewiltarwyn]

Febhyurary Day #2: Flame

"I don't know what made us do it. I don't know how we knew to do it. But as they swept over us, Longhart leapt forward and braced her shield, and the flames of temperance began diverting. I hurried to assist, extending my aether in a barrier to cover her, the other two adventurers with us, and myself. And..."

"I'll be frank: Longhart and I have not endeared ourselves to each other so far. She's been annoying and preachy, too damn sure of herself to a fault, to the point where she will brook no pushback from me. It has been immensely frustrating to work with her, and I don't see it getting any easier."

"...But Matron's tits, she was a hell of a sight to behold, shielding us all from the mindbending flames... and on some level, I'm glad she was there to protect us. ...Ugh, I can't ever let her know I thought that, let alone wrote it."

--from the journal of Elilgeim "Ellie" Wiltarwyn, Second Astral Moon, 23rd Sun, 1577 6UE

bonus shots of the party that took down Ifrit

[reno2005]

[feroluce]

Belobog was my fave main quest but a lot of it is so. Contradictory. It's like they had multiple groups doing different shit and none of them checked in with each other for consistency. And you see this so much in Gepard's profile.

So in the main quest, they made him unfailingly, unquestionably loyal to Cocolia. Gepard's character arc is him learning to question authority etc etc. And this isn't even a bad thing; that's a story worth telling! It makes good conflict between him and Serval! And I love that we got Gepard as a boss battle and I get to see him all the time in SU!

But then you look at his character stories and it's like. The complete opposite.

According to his profile, Gepard has already HAD this awakening, long before the Astral Express, and he'd already decided Cocolia sucks. Even outside of his stories, there's a pretty damning readable between him and Pela.

He even disobeyed direct orders right in front of her- he has been disobeying orders for a while now!

So I've decided I'm marrying the two different sides of this into a 1.5k fic-ish thingy, because I think there's some fun potential there with Gepard not trusting Cocolia, but still having to pretend to be a good obedient little soldier.

Anyway. I love to think of it as like. Gepard knows Cocolia has sunk into her apathy. He can see it in her eyes every time he looks at her. She doesn't care. Not about him, not about Pela, not about all his soldiers on the frontlines giving their lives to protect the citizens. And that's... It makes him bristle a bit, but ok. Gepard can deal with this. Even if Cocolia no longer cares, as long as she does her job then it's fine. Having compassion behind an action doesn't matter as much as the action itself. If Cocolia's heart is no longer swayed, then he'll just have to care twice as hard to pick up the slack. He considers it part of his duty as a captain of the guard anyway. It's fine. Gepard can deal with it.

And then, Cocolia starts coming down to the restricted zone. Issuing direct orders.

And Gepard realizes he is in way over his head.

Because Cocolia orders him to stay back and issue commands from the ramparts, away from all his comrades, away from where he can protect them.

Gepard had thought nothing could be as bad as watching a fellow guard die right next to him. But the first time he watches someone struck by a killing blow, so far away, it hurts. Every defensive scar across his arms itches, his fingers curl in want of a weapon, the cold cannot numb his hands enough as they desperately ache for his shield. It hurts.

Gepard tries to find any reason to stay. Because surely... He knows Cocolia has lost her love for her people, but surely... She wouldn't...

One day, Cocolia orders for their gunners to advance 20 yards. There are no survivors. She almost looks like she smiles.

Gepard doesn't sleep that night.

Pela brings him the report at the end of the first month; and then the month after that, and the month after that. A significant uptick in losses, and all of it started on that first day Cocolia started overriding his authority and issuing her own orders. The ends of Gepard's pens have all been nearly chewed off. Pela outright calls Cocolia an idiot, and Gepard corrects her. Cocolia isn't an idiot. Gepard had known her through Serval, knew her through all her college years and then some, and he knows how intelligent she is. It's not that she's stupid, and it's not that she's inexperienced, it's nothing of the sort.

Cocolia knows exactly what she's doing.

She must, there's no way she could make such a horrible mess of things so badly by accident. And Pela, quick as a whip, sharp as a tack, always too smart for her own good, catches onto the meaning behind Gepard's correction without any further prompting. The tent goes deathly quiet, nothing but the wind howling outside.

"...She's trying to kill us," Pela whispers, her voice swiftly suffocated by the silence.

Gepard swallows. He can't bring himself to correct her this time. There is nothing he could say that he would actually mean.

His gaze drops, back down to his desk and the reports on it. The names aren't listed, just the numbers, but Gepard knows them, knew them, and there must be something wrong, something he's missing, because why, why would she-? What could this possibly accomplish-?

“Gepard! Focus!” Something snaps right under his nose, and Gepard startles, eyes instantly honing in on Pela's irritated face as she leans over his desk. She holds his gaze for a moment before she huffs and begins to pace, wedges a knuckle between her teeth and bites like Gepard hasn't seen her do since cadet school.

Pela angrily strides from one end of his tent to the other, words hissed between her grit teeth. “What are we going to do?” In the dim lighting, Gepard can just barely see the damp spot of blood weeping under her gloves. “We need a plan.”

“A plan?”

“Wh- Yes, a plan! Unless you want more people to die!” Pela rounds on him then, all the wrath of a blizzard, winds roaring and snow sharp enough to cut.

“We don't even know-”

“What does it matter?! She killed-!!” Pela cuts off with a garbled noise when Gepard leaps up from his desk, hastily shoves his hand over her mouth. The prosthetic, not the flesh one, because he knows better than to assume Pela won't seize the opportunity to leave teeth marks in his skin.

“You're right. I'm sorry, I'm sorry; you're right. But you need to keep quiet.” Pela quirks an eyebrow at him and Gepard can read the question in her face. “Because we both saw what she did to Serval,” he hisses.

It's amazing the snow plains haven't thawed out yet, the amount of heat Pela can put behind a glare. The mere mention of Serval, and the smoking ruins Cocolia had made of her life and career, have her bristling up like a riled cat. The sudden hot breath she takes fans fog across his metal skin, and Gepard wisely keeps it in place until Pela finally sighs and reaches up, taps her fingertips against the back of his hand.

The second she's free, Pela bats him away and then her knuckle is right back between her teeth again, Gepard leaning back against his desk with his arms crossed to watch her resume her pacing. “If we spread the word, she'll have us discharged and make sure we can't even touch the frontlines,” Pela's voice seethes like an open sore. Gepard nods but keeps his silence. He knows better than to get in her way.

“And if you and I are both out of the picture, Belobog is fucked.” A little harsher than how he would have put it, but there's no denying that they're both important to the city's survival. Pela has the restricted zone running as efficiently as ever, and Gepard had become the youngest captain on record for a reason. “We need to keep this tight under wraps, at least for now… It can't leak to anyone higher up the chain.” Another nod. “Serval might know other discontents…” Another n-

Gepard's head snaps up. “No.”

“No what?”

“No. We're not involving Serval in this.”

Somehow, even the same tone that leaves entire squadrons shaking in their boots has never worked on her. “You're not deciding that for her, Gepard.”

Pela hadn't seen the worst of it, though, back when his sister had just been banned from the Architects. Serval's pride hadn't allowed it. Pela wasn't the one to find her passed out bottle still in hand, hadn't been the one to wash the sick out of her hair or carry her to bed. 

Serval still has trouble thinking clearly when it comes to Cocolia, still can't quite bring herself to be objective. And Gepard maybe doesn't want her to be purely objective- but he would worry a lot less if she thought twice before she acted more often.

“At least let me be the one to bring it up to her.”

“Whatever, fine,” Pela gestures affirmatively at him as she paces past, and Gepard sighs. Good, at least that's one thing he can help.

From there, it's a lot of hemming and hawing and frustration. Cocolia has them under her boot, and Gepard and Pela both know it. Even with the way she's been cracking down on freedoms lately, Cocolia is still, overall, liked by the people. It's unlikely anyone would believe them. They don't even have solid proof, because most people don't know Cocolia as well as they do and won't see the clues in the same light. 

The Fragmentum has been ramping up in recent years, too. Everyone is struggling just to survive as is, they can't afford a fight on two fronts. Gepard is a damn good captain, one of the best for that matter. But they're at a massive disadvantage, his experience is narrowed to fighting a defensive battle against monsters, that's all he's ever done. That's all anyone there has ever done. He has no way of finding first-hand knowledge for taking the offensive against a human opponent, and if he goes at this blind, there's no way he'll get everyone out unscathed. He's going to lose people. He's going to lose a lot of people.

He'd never thought before that Cocolia would have it in her to have someone killed. And with this new knowledge, he has no guarantee she won't go after Serval or Lynx if she decides to retaliate.

Gepard has to remind himself to breathe when he realizes this.

Pela writes down every name the two of them can come up with. Lists and lists of names and groups and anyone they can think of who might be an ally in all of this. They memorize every bit of it, make their plans of who to talk to and when. Gepard watches the sparks reflect off Pela's glasses as they burn the evidence together.

Pela finally leaves, far too late to make it home, but says she wants to stay in the restricted zone anyway to investigate. Gepard watches her make her way in the direction of Dunn's tent, watches her back until she's out of his sight and squashes down the urge to follow and keep an eye on her. His tent feels empty.

In the morning, Gepard is up before the wake up bells. He drags himself out of bed, leads his soldiers through their morning training. The same people gravitate to each other everyday. Friend groups and training partners. There's an ongoing rivalry between a few squadrons that everyone bets on. Some of them have lockets around their necks, keepsakes, mementos. Some of them wear wedding rings.

Gepard is suddenly, painfully aware of something acidic clawing at the inside of his throat, of a heavy weight low in his chest that blooms, takes up room until it threatens to spread his ribs. His mouth tastes of bile and blood.

He rearranges the schedules. Puts himself down for every open patrol into the Fragmentum, makes sure he'll be on the frontlines every single time Cocolia visits.

He only hopes that it's enough.

[sou-ver-2-0]

Keiji Live Reaction

[fly-sky-high-bug-games]

Hey, if you say anything remotely close to shitting on TC, hating on them, wishing them dead or wanting harm to them and everyone involved in Silksong speculations/rumors, even as a joke, this blog is not for you. Feel free to block me and never interact with me or my art again.

Also fuck off the main hollow knight tags so I can look at art in peace. Keep your shitty death threats and gamer rage to yourselves or go be be an ass on the subreddit with the rest of the disrespectful lot. thanks!

[thimblings]

drew my friend's Shadow Dragon!Rook, Blossom Mercar. will likely color it? wasn't planning on posting it here but i'm happy with how the line art turned out ;-; also, no, i do not know how bows work and i refused to look it up and chose to go solely on vibes so let's just say it's a magic bow ok

[lighthouse-system]

I started speedrunning Yakuza: Like a Dragon's story on Youtube and dude I fuckign cried

[dismas-n-dismay]

Yuurivoice Twt <3

[lion-sensei]

[jofiah]

i don't know shit about Lunacid other than that it has pronouns, and that I would die for whatever this thing is:

[lady-of-the-spirit]

C-drama fans are there any good series that are like. Lesbians. Or lesbians but not explicitly so but it's obvious they're lesbians in subtext.

I prefer fantasy series but if you've got anything, I'm open.

[squarerice]

this is random but i'm reminded of it bc of the mini tumblr 2025 goldfinch renaissance. it has to do w my fancast for the characters. so i first read the book late 2022 when i was staying w my dad and showing him the german netflix shows dark (2017) and 1899 (2022). (this is relevant, i promise.) he doesn't otherwise have netflix so these shows were a treat for him.

anyway, so i'm reading the goldfinch. first time, knew very little, vaguely recognized donna tartt's name from the secret history being popular on tumblr mid-late 2010s (why i picked TGF from the library in the first place, TSH wasn't there lol) but still knew very little. enter character named boris. no idea he was going to show up/exist. now obviously i think of the character named boris from dark, the tv show i had JUST finished (re)watching for like the 6th time. so béla gabor lenz was my boris faceclaim/fancast.

and the tv show i was CURRENTLY (re)watching was 1899. so i imagined isaak dentler as hobie (gruff bearded older man, though in hindsight dentler is a little too young).

i go through all of the vegas arc not really imagining any of the characters' faces clearly except these two. then theo goes back to NY, i get really depressed and annoyed and want to dnf, and i look up the name of the book to see if there's something online that will push me to continue bc the BEST character/section of the book is over.

enter the goldfinch (2019), starring aneurin barnard as adult boris. and i just-- excuse me???? ONE OF THE THREE LEADS OF THE TV SHOW I WAS CURRENTLY WATCHING, WAS ONE OF THE LEADS IN THE FILM ADAPTATION OF THE BOOK I WAS CURRENTLY READING, WHEREIN I HAD ALREADY PICTURED ACTORS WHO'D WORKED ON THESE SHOWS WITH THESE SHOWRUNNERS???? it was wild. unreal. anyway, that pushed me to keep reading bc i knew boris would come back into the narrative.

then a couple months later i was rereading vegas section snippets and got to this part where boris is explaining his name.

and i look up boris badenov from rocky & bullwinkle and prince boris drubetskoy from war and peace to visualize the joke. and i'm hit smackdab with THIS MAN'S FACE. AGAIN.

anyway, as far as the goldfinch (2019) goes, the movie as a whole is awful. aneurin barnard as adult boris was great, oakes fegley as young theo was alright, ansel elgort as adult theo was ew-ew-ew, and finn wolfhard as young boris was just.... who tf decided to do that....

jeffrey wright as hobie was so good he replaced my mental image of dentler and nicole kidman-- who is that? i don't know her. i actually like luke wilson as larry (the anti-type cast, since he usually plays bumbling good guys) and sarah paulson as xandra is... unexpected but her performance was good with the material she had.

so now when i reread, young theo is oakes, young boris is still bela, adult theo is [static], adult boris is aneurin (kind of, i mean adult boris is still bela but aneurin is also there in spirit. it's complicated), and hobie is jeffrey. no one else really matters as much as far as imagining faces.

even though bela is still what my boris "looks like," aneurin as a performer will always hold a special place as boris for me bc he was in 1899 alongside my original "hobie" (isaak), HE WAS BORIS IN THE GOLDFINCH MOVIE, and he was boris in the bbc adaptation of war and peace. and he understands the character better than john crowley ever will. thank you and goodnight.

[psalacanthea]

The idea of this whole conversation happening while Astarion is pretending Gale isn't literally standing there has me cracking up. Especially if Gale keeps trying to interrupt and Astarion's just talking over him.