#They need something light-hearted

[comfortfood-sydcarm]

Headcannon

After cooking at "the apartment" Syd and Carm binge watch Bob's Burgers on the sofa. It's Syd's favorite because she always wanted to know what it would be like to have siblings. Plus it helps them to relax and have fun.

[demigods-posts]

one interesting aspect of percy and rachel's relationship that isn't often highlighted is how empathetic percy must have been toward rachel about seeing through the mist as a small child. because percy was the kid who saw a man with one eye stalking him at the local playground. the kid who saw a horse with wings resting atop the roof of a nearby building. the kid who was nearly killed by a fury disguised as his algebra teacher. and the kid who understood what if felt like to distrust the world around him, to be reprimanded for falling victim to the fear that accompanied it. if it was anything that percy offered rachel. it was the grace of understanding a uniquely mortal experience.

[jesuis-assez]

Tim unconsciously sending/showing signals of his feelings for Lucy

[usertoxicyaoi]

"I'll make a ton of cash, and leave this place."

TAIKAN YOHOU (2023). EPISODE TWO.

[essektheylyss]

One thing that I feel is really interesting and often forgotten about Essek is that fundamentally, his characterization has been from the start based upon his desperation for external perspectives and connection, which, along with much of his narrative and mechanical positioning, means that he actually has an extraordinary and almost (but not actually, as I'll show) counterintuitive capacity for both growth and trust.

(Buckle in. This is a long one.)

In particular, I would argue, knowing now that many places where the plot touches Ludinus have long been marked for connecting back into the current plot, that he was quite possibly built as a prime candidate for radicalization by the Ruby Vanguard. He felt isolated from his culture, he was desperate for other connection, and he was certainly of the type to believe he was too smart to be drawn into such a thing, given his initial belief that he could control the situation and the fallout. If things had gone any other way, he easily could've been on the other side by now.

As such, he has been hallmarked by being fairly open to suggestion, perhaps for this reason, but the thing about that kind of trait is that it is both how people are radicalized and deradicalized. This is certainly true of Essek, who experienced genuine kindness and quite frankly strangeness from the Nein and was able to move from the isolation the Assembly had engendered to meaningful and genuine connection, largely propelled by his own internal reflection. By the time Nein are aware of his crimes, he's already begun to express regret to an extent and, furthermore, doubt in the Assembly, including explicitly drawing a line against Ludinus, even in a position where he was on his own and probably quite vulnerable.

Similarly, when the Nein reach the Vurmas Outpost some weeks later, he has moved from regret for the position he's ended up carrying a heavy remorse. This makes sense! He's fairly introspective, seems used to spending a lot of time in his own head, and was left with plenty to mull over. It's not some kind of retcon for him to have progressed well past where the Nein left him; it just means he's an active participant in the world who has done his own work in the meantime.

This is another interesting aspect to him. I've talked about this a bit before but I cannot find the post so I'll recap here: antagonists in D&D have significantly more agency than allied NPCs. Antagonists are active forces, against which the party is meant to struggle; allies are meant to support the PCs, which means they tend to be more passive in both their actions and their character growth. Essek was both built as an antagonist, in a position that gives him significant agency, and also was then given significant opportunity to grow specifically to act as a narrative mirror for Caleb's arc. Even when he becomes a more traditional D&D ally, he still retains much of that, though he occupies a supporting role.

I believe that this is especially true because of the nature of Caleb's arc, which I've already written on; the tl;dr of this post is that Caleb is both convinced that he is permanently ruined and also desperate to prove that change is possible. Essek is that proof, because he is simply the character in a position to do so. But this also means that his propensity for introspection and openness is accentuated! He has to do the legwork on his own, for the most part, because that's where he is in the meantime.

But he still ends the campaign necessarily constricted; he is under significant scrutiny, he's at risk from the Assembly, and he goes on the run fairly soon after the story ends. He spends most of the final arc anxious and paranoid, which is valid given the crushing reality of his situation. It would be very easy to extrapolate that seven years into this reality, he would be insular, closed off, and suspicious of strangers, even in spite of the lessons he's learned from the Nein and their long term exposure.

So seeing his openness and lightness now is surprising, but at the same time, given this combination of factors in his position in the narrative over time and his defining traits, it's not by any means unreasonable.

But one thing that I found so delightful is how much trust he exhibits, which is obviously a wild thing to say about Essek in particular, given much of what he learns is both earning and offering trust, which was something he says explicitly in 2x124 that he's never really experienced: "I've never really been trusted and so I did not trust." It makes up much of the progression of his relationship with Caleb, and the trust that he is offered by the Nein in walking off the ship is the impetus he needs to grow.

But I think it's easy to talk about trust when it comes to people who have proven themselves to you or to whom you've ingratiated yourself, and that's really the most we can say about Essek by the time he leaves the Blooming Grove. There is this sense in a lot of discussion of trust (not solely in this fandom) that it is only related to either naivete or love, but there's far more to it. Trust at its best is deliberate—cultivating an openness to the world at large is a great way to combat cynicism and beget connection instead. It allows a person to maintain curiosity and be open to experience, but it can be incredibly difficult to hold onto.

It is clear that the Essek we meet now is a very pointedly and intentionally trusting individual. He trusts Caleb and by extension Caleb's trust in Keyleth, as he shows up and picks up a group of strangers from a foreign military encampment and walks in without issue. He trusts the Hells to follow his lead moving through Zadash and to exhibit enough discretion so as to avoid bringing suspicion upon all of them. He trusts that Astrid will respond well to his entrance, but he also trusts himself and the Hells enough to execute a back-up plan in the case that she doesn't. In the end, he even trusts them enough to give them his name and identity.

He doesn't scan as someone who has spent half a dozen years living like a prey animal, afraid of any shadow he runs across in an alley, withdrawn into himself and an insular family, which would've been an easy route for him to take. He scans as someone who has learned the kind of trust borne of learned confidence and a trained eye for good will and kindness, which are crucial weapons one would need for staving off cynicism in his circumstances—as if he has survived thanks more to connection and kindness than paranoia and isolation. (If we want to be saccharine about it, he scans quite poignantly as a member of the Mighty Nein.)

So it is easy to imagine this trust and openness as a natural progression of his initial search for perspectives external to his own cultural knowledge. Though he makes those first connections with the Assembly to try to vindicate his personal hypotheses, he finds in them exposure to the deepest corruption among Exandrian mortals, which could've—and did, for a time—turned him further down that same dark path.

But it's also this same openness to exposure from the wider world that allows the Nein to influence him for the better, and in spite of the challenges he's certainly faced simply surviving over the past seven years, he seems to have held onto this openness enough to move through the world with self-assurance and a willingness to extend the kinds of trust and good will that he has been shown.

(I would be remiss not to mention that I was reminded about my thoughts on this by this lovely post from sky-scribbles and their use in the tags of 'light' to describe Essek's demeanor this episode, which is really such an apt word for it.)

[smile-files]

a blackhole of happiness, greedy for the light it cannot give back

[jerswayman]

i think we all know it's you who never wants to leave brando

[chaos-and-sparkles]

Okay but can we PLEASE talk about how no hextech au Powder has a lock of her hair dyed pink, Vi's pink, a tribute to her sister to keep her close?? Because it made me physically sick and I haven't been okay since -

[spaciebabie]

this picture isnt real its all happening in twilights head and she's listening ta this as she's having her bi horse fantasies

un blurred below the cut as well as the lineart with flats cuz i want ta show it off sue me

edit: ignore that the images changed slightly i noticed a shading error i missed and it was bothering me 💀

[charmwasjess]

For WIP Wednesday, something completely different, from my probably-never-to-see-the-light draft: The Rael Averross Guide to the Seduction of Women

“I think my underworld alias is a hit with women. You know, what they might call a ladies’ man. A real Lothario.” Sifo-Dyas’s face was full of happy light; he was clearly thrilled with the prospect of creating his undercover persona. 

“A real… what?” Rael repeated. He looked at Dooku, who tended to have a larger vocabulary, and also happened to speak fluent Sifo-Dyas. 

Dooku shrugged, returning to his salad. He had no idea what the seer was off about.  

“A ladies’ man.” Jocasta repeated with deep skepticism. “Aren’t you….?” She hesitated uncharacteristically. 

They all looked at her, including Sifo-Dyas, who seemed more curious than anything. There was a long, long pause. 

“Oh. Gay?” Sifo-Dyas blinked. “Yes, of course, obviously, I’m gay, Jocasta, you’ve known me since I was seven. I mean, stars, do you remember our teenage years?!” He impatiently waved past her at the Master and the Padawan sitting opposite. “That’s why I’m here, of course. I’ve never needed to be anything other than who I am. If I’m going to pull this off, I’ll need tips from the expert.” 

Jocasta’s eyes followed his gesture to land on Dooku, widening with confusion and deepening dismay. “....tips from…ah, from Dooku?” She cleared her throat. “Dear one, are you sure?” 

Dooku began to make offended noises - he was by no means whatever a “lothario” was, but Jocasta did not need to protest his charms with women in such stringent terms - but Sifo-Dyas was already laughing, shaking his head. 

“No, no, no. Oh, that’s hilarious. No, not Dooku, of course not.”

 Dooku’s eyes narrowed further. 

Sifo-Dyas nodded toward the senior Padawan. “Tips from Rael.”

[go-see-a-starwar]

Vivien Lyra Blair & Hayden Christensen A Look Back at 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Panel | SWCE 2023

[sualne]

wish me luck as i attempt to rewrite the modern au from the ground up for the third time.

[allmyandroids]

hey ho could need a meditation for stress management read by Raymond Reddington I swear my stress level would drop to 0 immediately ! ! ! 😭

[chaoticnerdsstuff]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Descendants (Disney Movies) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Chloe Charming/Red (Disney: Descendants) Characters: Red (Disney: Descendants), Chloe Charming (Disney), Chad Charming (Disney) Additional Tags: GlassHeart, Post-Movie: Descendants: The Rise Of Red (2024), Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Protective Chloe Charming (Disney), Red Needs a Hug (Disney: Descendants), Traumatized Red (Disney: Descendants), Child Abuse, Made up Lore about Wonderland, Not Beta Read, Good Significant Other Chloe Charming (Disney), Chad is more mentioned than anything? Sort of, Red is not having a good time tbh, Short One Shot, Established Relationship, Mommy Issues, Implied/Referenced Torture, Psychological Torture Summary:

An unmistakable clutter echoed through their room. Someone entered. Red being half asleep had no time to properly think. She couldn’t do anything but act on instinct. To make a proper ruler, one must be able to protect the crown from any and all enemies. Her vision being hazed, but her body accustomed, put the enemy down before she could entirely process it.

or

Red accidentally beats Chads' ass and she feels crappy about it

Okay so i wrote a small fic abt them :)

[avocado62524]

Inspired by this fanfic

I really like this story 👍👍👍🥰 I love Senti angst and this made my heart happy.

[danikatze]

[ID in alt text]

Another wip! It's kind of almost done :)