#Longing For Presence

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The math just adds up!

[wickedzeevyln]

5 A.M.

One of the wonders this universe holds is that while many humans are endowed with intelligence, I sometimes find it easier to talk with someone who wags his tail happy to hear me out with eyes lighting up and clearly doesn’t give a damn about language barriers. At night, he’d jump out of his stupor, as if he just snorted cocaine, just to amble about on the way to the fridge with me. ‘You…

[bigfatbreak]

Birds of a Feather previous / next

tw: blood

[yooboobies]

"I like quite small and cute things" | dedicated for @aprylynn tiny tan (5/7)

[cr. 0613data]

[alicornze7]

Silly guys goin' on silly adventures:]

@rorydrawsandwrites's puppeteer au but the only difference is that jax gives consent

My contribution to this wonderful au has been long overdue:')

Rambling in tags ehe (cw: ribbun:p)

Well maybe it's not the only difference

[cloudwisp]

Arranged marriage with Jing Yuan where weeks before the ceremony officiates the union of two souls coming together, you were curious about your betrothed husband and wanted to see for yourself who you’re marrying instead of hearing any more perceptions made about him. You decide the best method to go about this situation is to drop by unannounced where there’s not much room for formalities. Of course, you come bearing gifts in the form of premium dried tea leaves and snacks to make up for the reason of your visit, and you’re met with an endearing sight of the general dozing off with his fist gently resting against his cheek in his loosely cross-legged position. Your gaze falls on the precious little bird perched on his shoulder as he breathes in a steady rhythm and your heart melts just a tad.

At the sound of Yanqing greeting you and slightly bowing his head where he was off to the side practicing his swordsmanship, Jing Yuan’s ear immediately perked up at your sudden arrival and he forces himself to straighten up. You had caught him at a rather vulnerable moment and with a sheepish smile, he apologizes if he came across as lazy as he was merely taking a well-deserved break. Your doubts about him begin to slowly fade away when he invites you to join him, and you learn that he’s just a simple man loved by animals outside of his intimidating presence as the Divine Foresight.

[anellopeao3]

Little insight of my absolute favourite official art ever made and the meaning behind it (imo).

Let's start with this: it did not come out of nowhere. It splits an important interaction in two, a fundamental turning point for their relationship: Kou deciding to open up to Nene after the Severance (and the aftermath of that).

When Kou methaphorically points at his and Nene's very similar apples to asks a very important question.

"What are you going to do.../ What do you want to do?"

Did you think of a solution?

Arc after arc, Kou and Nene were proven times and times again that you can't just wish for the supernatural you care about to stick by your side. Because something always happens. Because they'll find a way to always slip from your fingers. Because Nene and Kou have the exact same kind of apple in hand: a supernatural they can't be with, not by the rules of their world. Hanako is the apple, Mitsuba is the apple.

And Kou has made his decision already.

There is no time left for the perfect solution to be figured out. Kou can't wait anymore for things to get fixed the right way. Of course, Kou aspires and will always try to reach for Absolute Victory. Why settle for less? Why giving up when something can still be done?

But that has no importance if his future with Mitsuba isn't secured first.

The taste of honey of the forbidden garden at reach is what Nene and Kou have in common; their sinful desire of what is forbidden to know the flavor of. And Kou's stare is anything but doubtful when he comes closer to take the first bite.

He knows a way to reach the apple, now. He knows how to get Mitsuba, in the end. A road with no way back, finally (in fact, a bite is enough to get banished from Eden, you can't undo it, the same way someone who died can't turn back to a human, not by their world's rules, at least.)

Because she has to have thought about it as well, right? A solution to their desires. A way to secure their happiness, no matter what happens around them, to them. They are the same, after all, so she will understand.

And so he tells her.

The art is placed here, cutting in half a question from its response: Kou and Nene are back to back, and while he looks straight ahead... Nene looks doubtfully in our direction, the apple right to her face, ...no intention to eat it yet. And that's it.

He doesn't really give her a chance at all to properly respond. To decide. To understand.

She answers the question with another question, with doubts and concern, and Kou not only doesn't have an answer for her but expected something totally different; he expected her to be like him, to understand instantly, without further questions. Because he didn't need any of those.

The one time Kou opens up to her ends as quick as it started: Nene answers wrongly and so he closes her off again, because he wasn't looking for her actual opinion, he was looking for her comforting presence next to him while taking the bite that he had already choosen to take.

I think it isn't just a coincidence that Kou went and faced all of his rotten desires right after this, in the Red House. Maybe Adam and Eve discovered the feeling of shame after the first bite, but Kou is facing it as if, by willingness alone, he had already set his faults in stone and is already paying the consequences of his sin.

[ao3commentoftheday]

While looking for something else, I found an old ask I answered about "ideal chapter length" in terms of word count.

I've been asked this probably a dozen or more times, and each time I need to take a moment and adjust my thinking to take the asker's point of view into account. Because the thing is? The only time I ever try to factor the word count into how I write a story is when I'm aiming for a true drabble.

For whatever reason, this difference in thinking stuck with me today and I actually considered why that might be. And I think it's because I'm in my 40s and the first 25-30 years of my life, any stories I was reading were printed on paper and bound into physical books.

When I imagine a novel, I still think of a mass market paperback on my bookshelf. An average one would be maybe an inch thick, probably in the neighbourhood of 300 pages. A long one would be maybe as much as two inches thick and 500 or more pages long. A short one was always nice to have because it filled in the gaps in the shelf because 200 page books were so much narrower. Or so it seemed.

When I started posting my fic online, I still thought in terms of pages. I'd type them out in whatever word processing software I was using at the time, and I'd usually get a chapter's worth of ideas into 3 or 4 pages. Turns out that's about 1000 words, which makes sense with the number of 1000 word essays I wrote in high school. I'd been trained to encapsulate an idea into approximately that length.

And that's what it comes down to. The thing that always made that question seem weird to me. A chapter isn't about how many words there are in it, just like a cake isn't about how many cups of flour exist in each slice. A chapter is a an idea that helps make up a bigger idea called a story, and it needs to be however many words that idea needs to be to get it out.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Something Old, Something New.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[lightnersdream-archive]

i've been thinking about exactly why people portraying one of the other crew members successfully killing Jimmy as a "for what you did to Anya" kind of thing rubs me the wrong way a bit and it's because like..... this is just another form of taking agency away from Anya, in a way. it's kind of framing her as some meek, shivery woman-thing who's entirely at the mercy of the men around her, either to hurt her or save her.

(i understand these are mostly for wish fulfillment on the audience's behalf because everyone would like to see Jimmy pay for his crimes. whether or not this is the intention of the person writing it isn't really relevant, characterization happens with or without intent. i feel like it misses the point by portraying it as an 'ideal ending'.)

because... Anya is a capable person. she takes things into her own hands when she can. it was partially(?) her idea to get into the cargo,

(before he interrupts her.. remember when she interrupted Curly in the dead pixel segment?)

it was her idea to get the code scanner from the cockpit,

it was her idea to get the medication from behind the foam.

(the chance to do these things herself is not given to her.)

she'd been keeping Curly alive for months in a critical state somehow, her psych evaluations at the start are only so useless because Jimmy refuses to take it/her seriously and Curly is obviously biased when he puts it into his own hands. he's known him a long time, like he said. "I'll just put good for that one."

there's not a lot of material to work with because of how the game is framed, but it's there. we are working with two very biased perspectives and neither one lends Anya what she deserves

there's significant changes in how she speaks post- and pre- crash, and depending on who she happens to be talking to. i recommend re-reading her dialogue, because the difference is drastic

she acts the way she does around Jimmy because he has tangibly done horrible things to her, is actively hostile, and physically could not escape him by any means. she can't take away Curly's agency herself, in my eyes. you have to remember that Especially in the post-crash segments of the game, it's entirely from Jimmy's POV, and he obviously does not (and has never) thought very highly of her or treated her with a shred of respect

i've seen a general idea that she can't bear to hurt other people for any reason, but that doesn't really track to me. this is the real point of the post by the way

it seems based on the parts where she says she struggles to give Curly medication. "It just hurts him so much, I can't stand the noise." "It makes me nauseous."

it's not really the same thing as, say, hurting someone in self defense

this sounds like she did want the gun itself. this never felt worded like someone who would refuse to, at very least, threaten Jimmy with a gun, with violence. if she had been given the agency to make that decision on her own. she wasn't though

she still tries to reclaim some of it even as she's denied it

by the end she's still trying to keep that gun out of his hands

i think some people overly soften her, for similar reasons the game itself is trying to comment on. she's not a tender victim who couldn't cause pain to another out of the softness of her soul, she's a person who's had every last bit of agency ripped from her repeatedly until she couldn't take it anymore. that's the point. that's why framing her that way, "needing" someone to save her, is odd to me

she didn't need Curly to save her, she needed him to take responsibility

she didn't want to escalate things, but she's not an idiot. self defense was absolutely on her mind

but who knows im just saying shit *smiles serenely*

[deerspherestudios]

Helloooooo!!! I hope you’re doing well! How would you say Mycheal is at comforting sad people? And how best is he comforted if he’s sad? Thank you and have a lovely day!

In a way, Day 2 was Mychael trying to comfort you after thinking about your lost cat! He's kinda bad with what to say so he thinks distracting you is the best thing he could do. Maybe he'll cook you something delicious, or bring you out for an outing with an activity like a picnic of sorts! Anything to get your mind off of it <3

As for comforting him, he's not the kind to talk his feelings out. He just needs proximity like being near you or having a part of him touch you, like leaning against you or having his tail around your arm while he figures it out on his own. He rarely has sad days, but when he does he kinda needs to wallow in it and have you with him when he gets out of that funk.

[reineyday]

every time i get on the revalink train, i end up thinking about the way revali says, "feel free to thank me now," and when link doesnt reply and the golden motes start to take link away for teleportation, he says, "or... never mind, just go." and he tells him to go way softer than his usual pompous tone. turns his back so he doesn't have to watch link leave as he says link's job isn't finished and then, "the princess," and revali PAUSES before he continues, "has been waiting an awful long time."

like, here is a haughty bird who got sooooo riled up bc he felt like link never acknowledged him, and then even after giving link the gift of his gale, revali doesn't get the thanks he wants, and instead of needling link about it like he might when they were all still alive and together, he just says never mind.

never mind, you never replied to me anyways (no matter how much i showed off or showed you up).

never mind, there are more important things to do (save the castle like you saved vah medoh--to avenge me?--and succeed where i failed).

never mind, the princess is waiting (and you were always too busy following after her to acknowledge me).

never mind, i'm already dead anyways. (what can i even do about any of this now?)

just go.

(you're already leaving. like always, she's already taking you.)

and then he reminds link of the princess in such a pointed manner that it's so easy to read into it. the princess... has been kept waiting--the princess is who you've always waited on, the princess is who we all died for, the princess might still be alive where i'm not. the princess tried her best, is still trying her best, and you have to go and meet her there because we cannot, and that has always been bigger than any feelings i might have ever held, any feelings i wanted to draw from you, any accolades i might have lauded or spurned, any reaction i might have gotten.

it's been 100 years, i can wait a little longer to help you (both of you) finish the job before going. guess i was wrong about... how lucky he would be.

revali's dead and he's still thinking about how much he thinks about link and feels the need to admit to himself (and to medoh) that he was wrong like aaahhhHHH i rotate his cutscenes over and over in my head like rotisserie chicken (lol).

[davidtennan-t]

The full video from Macallan Whisky ft David Tennant (I’m on my knees btw)

[bipunkharrington]

Rogue, official disaster autistic, response to going nonverbal infront of a hot person you just met is to get down on one knee and hold out a ring

[ky-landfill]

[konigofmyheart]

before you

(fluff, gn!reader <3)

“my bed was a place for the lonely / built it that way, came to think it was holy”

-`♡´-

könig never understood how people could actually enjoy days off from work. what was there to like about letting himself wallow in bed for a couple hours before getting up to start his very eventful day of reading up on an obscure historical battle, maybe finishing up that lego set, before just getting back in that frigid bed? he’d literally dreaded having an off day because at work, though his mind is still buzzing, it’s busy with tactics and plans instead of useless fretting or spiraling.

that was him before you. now he’s almost skipping on his way out of work, so eager to be back in your arms on the couch, watching another episode of that show you’re always on about, as the smell of your dinner cooking fills your home with warmth and love. if he had a tail, it’d be wagging like crazy every morning he opens his eyes to see you cuddled up against him, your sleeping face so peaceful and soft, not a care in the world as he pulls you closer, making sure you’re well covered with the blanket for a couple more hours of rest. don’t even mention plans with him if you actually want him to sleep, otherwise he’ll stay up just watching you sleep as he thinks about your museum outing the next day, even getting excited about something as simple as going grocery shopping with you. now he fully gets what people mean about missing “home”, because that’s what you are for him.