#Real Journey Travels

[dollypopup]

I can't stop thinking about Colin on his travels. Colin, alone, on a journey to 17 different cities, across several countries. Colin on his own.

Colin who writes letter after letter, to his family, to his friends, and barely gets a response back. How long before he understands that they didn't get lost in the mail? How long until he realizes that, just like when he was a boy, no one has the time for him? The space for him? How many letters unanswered before he lets it finally take root and fester in his mind?

He could have died on that tour.

Would they even notice? Would they see when the letters slow until they cease? Would they wonder why? His mum, surely (maybe, possibly, but she has enough on her hands, besides, and he's never been a concern, in need of her assistance, before), but anyone else? Anthony on his honeymoon, Eloise a stormcloud personified, Benedict taking on the familial responsibilities, Fran preparing for the marriage mart and in Bath, regardless. Daphne, his closest sister, a mum running her own estate.

Greg and Hyacinth who enjoy his stories, but are children.

Pen who ignores him. No explanation, no goodbye.

Colin who has no one in his corner. Colin who travels city to city, putting on personas. Will they like me? What about now? Colin who has hardly anything to read from the people he loves. Who do not think of him.

And yet he thinks of them. Brings them back gifts, writes his recollections for them until it hits him that, oh, they don't care. They don't care what he's doing, how he's doing. They didn't want to hear it before, when he was there with them, and they do not want to hear it now, either. Did they even open those envelopes? Did they see them come through the post, just as proof he's alive, and shrug off the contents? Did they look? Once, Colin sends an empty page. No one notices. Easier, then, to send just the outsides. People only ever care about the outsides. Pretty and prim in neat packages, uncaring of what lies beneath. Sea sick on the rocking boats, staring up at stars on the continent, Colin grows aware, but not bitter. Sad, but resigned.

He loves his family, he loves Pen, loves them to grace, loves them to it's okay. It was him, he determines. Too chatty, his letters too long, uninteresting, his passions dull or droll, or else, worse, he's displeased them in some way. Colin who takes refuge in stranger's arms and homes, who dreams and tries to sate his curiosity. Colin who pretends, because anyone, anyone but him would be received better, he's sure of it. Colin who must talk too much, surely, and with no one to listen. Colin who learns to hush.

Yes. Remarkable- as in, I have many remarks about it.

How many times did he go to excitedly write of what he did that week, and stopped himself, knowing it was a waste? How many times did he write and throw into the fire a letter asking Why don't you see me? Why don't you care?

If he didn't make it, how long would it take for anyone to notice? A month? Two? A year? Would they wave it off as his frivolity, denounce him as a flake and fume about the funds? Would they wonder where it was he had lost himself off at?

He cannot fall into that, so, he writes in his journal, instead. Of the ache of it, of how he longs for connection, for understanding, for someone to take him seriously. He keeps it with him, this log of his discontent, of his folly and felicity, of his pitfalls and pains.

If he didn't make it, would they realize all that's left of him is what he sent them, not even a body to bury? Did he look over the side of a bow of a boat and look at the churn of the ocean and think of how many bones it held? Did he tip his face to the sun? How many new scars did he earn? Who did he befriend?

Who did he become?

Somewhere along the line, Colin learned. He learned the real him wasn't wanted.

Somewhere along the line, somewhere between Patmos and Paris, Colin left Colin behind.

And, somewhere along the line, Colin laid face to face with loneliness in his bed, and it wrapped its arms around him.

[bonefall]

Does Heartstar/Tigerstar II have thalassophobia(fear of deep water/drowning) would certainly make sense given his family's entire Deal with the lake. Also does Rowanstar drowning in the Moonpool mean that there's just. A rotting corpse in the moonpool now? Don't the medcats drink from that water?! (Sorry if yiu see this twice! I think tumblr deleted my ask?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The desire to CinemaSins Ding poetic imagery is the death of visual metaphor and the bane of creativity. Kill the impulse. The moonpool is as deep and clean as it needs to be in spite of being canonically a stillwater pool and logically full of algae and microbes. Magic cat god water, full of StarClan Magic (tm)

We do not need to see the cats fishing Rowanstar's body out, or an accurate estimate of pool depth, or its PH level. StarClan's emotions do wonderful things when miracles occur. A wizard with a big pool cleaning net did it.

[alicentflorent]

Instead of Alicent meekly agreeing to Ottos dead toddler parade for PR and only going along with it out of “duty” they should have given her her own motivation: RAGE. Perhaps Alicent wants the city to see the child that has just been martyred, to remind the people of the cruelty inflicted on her family by her enemies. She wants them to remember the little Prince Jahaerys and what was done to him. She wants people to see what they did to her girl, their beloved queen, who is in so much pain. She wants people to feel her families pain and suffering so they remember what the blacks did to an innocent child, not just as a ploy to keep the people on their side, that’s ottos reasoning, but because Alicent wants everyone to know their pain, so she puts her families pain on display because she is done hiding it. After hiding her pain for years, suppressing her feelings and remaining dutiful and poised. Alicent is done pretending. Unfortunately, this leads to Alicent hurting her children, the parents of the murdered child, as her pain and rage consumes her more because they didn’t want their child to be a martyr or for his body to be on display for strangers to see on the day of his funeral.

[colleianbars]

“you’re the only one in this world who calls me that” what if this was my last straw

[summertimemusician]

Honestly I don't know if I'm remembering it wrong due to sleep deprivation, but out of everything in TOTK one of my favorite little details is that Zelda's eyes in her Divine Noodle (affectionate) form when Demon King's flames hit or graze her tremble a little, more so around the pupils than the iris

The implications are absolutely delicious when you think about it, either it's an expression of deep seated, primal fear which she would probably feel as a dragon even if her main instinct is to help Link, it makes sense she'd feel distressed when faced with a bigger predator if we assume the dragons actually work like wild animals (I mean have we looked at Demon King's full size and length? He absolutely overshadows her and he's clearly going in for the kill, what with that initial bite, he's clearly not only gunning for Link and for Hyrule but also for her specifically), because Zelda by nature is not a warrior, she will fight for her people and to defend her people but she's not one to start the conflict, she's not one to HUNT, so when faced with something actively doing so it makes sense she'd be a little afraid, just because you are made to fight the divine threat from birth doesn't mean you can't fear death in the process('Courage is not the absence of fear but the will to rise against it even when you're afraid' and all that), immortality or not and trust me I'm getting to that part-

And arguably the more interesting implication: that dragons can feel pain/get hurt from other beings in a similar status, which also puts their immortality into question. Because that little twitch can also be because the flames actually hurt her.

One thing I always found interesting in TOTK is the dragon skeletons deep down in the Depths, they're parallel with the Leviathan skeletons, sure, but the fact that the dragons that we know can come and go from the depths and that there are actual skeletons there makes me look at them side by side and think "Oh those are dragons" rather than Leviathans, which begs the question: what could have killed them if dragons are immortal and can live for such long periods of time? What could have killed them when none of our weapons (including the Master Sword mind you) can't hurt Naydra, Dinraal, Farosh and Zelda in a way that matters?

I think the best answer in this case is given to us by Zelda's reaction (assuming I'm not wrong and didn't just imagine it due to sleep deprivation) to the Demon King's flames.

Maybe, just maybe, what caused them to die was likely another dragon. Which means that dragons can actually die, just not through age or natural means, but have to actively be killed through the right means/being for it to stick. Which also tracks with a lot of divine lore in LOZ in general, Demise/Ganondorf only being able to be brought low by the Master Sword wielded by someone who posseses the Hero's Spirit (or that has become worthy of it is we see in Wind Waker) because it's quite literally a divine blade, Hylia actively giving up her immortal form to become a mortal but still slumbering/existing in a separate realm outside of time can also be considered a form of divine death, not to mention Bellum being in the process of killing the Ocean King in Phantom Hourglass. Divine beings have always had an element of mortality to them in LOZ, and it's not too much of a stretch to think that pattern might hold true in TOTK.

(Personally I think maybe the dragons we know might have killed the others in a territory/route dispute, if we go with the fact that a person loses themselves when they consume a secret stone and is guided by their base instincts/whatever goal they had before becoming a dragon, I don't think territory disputes would be all that far fetched, or some other goal which would motivate possible aggression.)

Although there's also the other possibility to consider: we get the armor set of the wild on the heads of those skeletons in TOTK, and we know for a FACT there was a hero before BOTW/TOTK Link, not only through the Ancient Hero's Aspect (which I have so many thoughts/headcanons about) but also through the tapestry in BOTW no matter what the heck happened to the lore in between games, you can still work with the information that there was a hero before BOTW/TOTK Link, and possibly one even before that one if we assume the armor set in the depths isn't from the Original Calamity Hero.

What I'm pitching here basically is, Original Calamity Link/another possible Link was likely a dragon slayer (not uncommon among Links, but how many Links killed an actual possibly divine dragon?), and possibly the one to kill the dragons in the depths and that maybe, just maybe we should have a game one day or a manga which either clarifies or debunks that- wait I know it sounds insane but listen stop walking away-

(Also if it's indeed a sign that Zelda feels pain it honestly ramps up Wild's/TOTK Link's motivation to kill Ganondorf WAY up because I too would want to eviscerate anyone who hurt Zelda even if she can't outwardly show it.

Also also- divine flame scars on Zelda where the gloom fueled fire grazed/hit her in her dragon form, you wouldn't be able to see it normally, but once she turns back into hylian they're there as another showing of how her time as a dragon will always stick and haunt her.)

[mementokore]

The Beginning and the End

Oh how I miss it. Can't believe it's been like 8 months...

[thingsdavidlikes]

El Castildetierra,Bardenas Reales-Editar-1 by Edorta Kartiber On-Off.

[shidraoftheworldpillar]

hey remember when I was talking about the toa trio?

Welp I got ocs

Sundu: bo-toa, wears a brown rau, loves talking to rahi, specifically snake rahi.

Tudre: ko-toa with a lavender faxon, has a pet kikanalo

kaperii: vo-toa with a gold zatth, absolutely feral (I mean they all are but shes the most feral)

[therarthy]

"I get lost in the grains of sand, looking for magic shells and stones. I have to choose: what to drop in the sea and what to take with me? What values do I keep with me tomorrow, and what values do I give up today?"

-Violett.

[darewolfcreates]

My digimon :]

[hiraganasakura]

Man I rly genuinely wish I could play CotC. The soundtrack is filled with absolute bangers amd the story seems genuinely interesting. But alas. It is a mobile gatcha game. And my brain cannot focus on mobile gatcha games to save my life even if the subject is my literal hyperfixation apparently? Like I've tried and it doesn't work lol

[patrice-bergerons]

I follow a few railway enthusiasts on twitter and I hate it because thanks to them I currently can't stop thinking about traveling from London to Istanbul by train 😭😭😭