#Thorn rambles

[ecosystem-administrator]

Teleportation magic in FFXIV is actually the craziest thing

like, it's established so early on you don't have to think about it, and I expect the writers also didn't think too hard about it when they were first putting together the worldbuilding. but we teleport through the Lifestream. we dip in and out of the afterlife every time we go anywhere long-distance. and this is such a normal part of everyday life that major settlements basically all have giant crystals in the middle that are meant to facilitate this kind of travel.

and to be absolutely fair, in a world where the afterlife really was a place underground, we totally would build a subway system through it and put Hades in charge. it's not like it doesn't make sense, it's just. wild.

[the-duke-of-destruction]

To get deep on main: Bllk really helped me deal with trauma, very specifically Chigiri's knee injury.

I used to run all the time. I felt free. I felt on top of the world. Unstoppable. And this was important for someone who went straight from super strict over-bearing parents to abusive relationships. Running was my safe haven.

And then, one night when I was black-out drunk, I broke my ankle. The thing that I need to move.

I was serving at the time. This was a death sentence. If my roommate (like 10%) and parents (100%) hadn't been so damn helpful I would have really been in a bad place.

I need you to understand, I didn't have a car at the time. I used to walk EVERYWHERE. Even when I did have a car, I would walk everywhere. My job was mainly me WALKING 10,000 steps a shift. Me breaking my ankle...well, someone should have taken me out back and shot me.

I was depressed for YEARS (this took place in December of 2018) & I watched BLLK for the first time in December of this year. That's 6 years of being scared to do anything. I barely run. I've gained almost 60 pounds. I have been so severely depressed. And then I see Chigiri:

And he GETS it. I see myself in that moment. Enough time has passed for the injury to heal (I can tell the weather though), and I'm still too fucking scared to really start running again. I walk maybe a 10th of what I used to (I no longer have a job that requires walking). And I start bawling because this guy gets it.

I feel so much better after having watched this show. And I'm so thankful for the story line. I'm so thankful that this show really hit home for me that, My body is mine. And I feel so much more comfortable using it now.

I want to send a fat shout out and a million thanks to Muneyuki Kaneshiro. I don't know how much longer I would have felt depressed without your work.

[feathersandthorns]

You know you've connected with an oc when you reenact their entire life story in your head

[ecosystem-administrator]

This was a character dynamic I had with a DMPC in a D&D campaign I was in a while back. We rescued this girl who's like a 25 year old wood elf - fully grown and physically adult, but she won't be considered adult by the standards of her kind for at least another few decades. The whole party treats her like a regular adult except for my high elf rogue, who's 120 and kind of an arrogant jackass (affectionate). Within their own context, they're the equivalent of like 16 and 21, so he treats her like the kid sister he never had and happily takes on the role of obnoxious older brother.

Meanwhile the rest of the party is confused as to if they're flirting or what (no, ew! she is way too young for him) because as far as anyone else can tell they look like they're the same age.

concept: elves are supernaturally good at everything ONLY because they live to be bonkers old and if you were hot and sexy for thousands of years you’d be kickass at archery and treeclimbing and horseback riding too. but like there’s 20 year old elves out there that are just straight dumbasses who can’t do shit.

concept: non-elves can’t tell the 20 year old elves apart from the 2000 year old elves

concept: there’s a 20 year old elf in your tavern and he’s counting on this 

[ecosystem-administrator]

I think it's very important for serious and dramatic fictional characters to be given at least one absurd foible. Not a character flaw in the sense of something that impacts their moral standing: something that's just silly and cannot in any way be used to further angst or interpersonal conflict.

Tell me about her unreasonably strong opinions on the ideal qualities of french fries. How he's totally inept at taking pictures with his phone camera. They have a personal beef with a local grocery chain over a misprinted coupon that the manager wouldn't admit was wrong.

Real people are weird and messy and silly. No one is moody and dramatic 24/7, and if they were they'd be too exhausting to be around. So, the more serious a character is, the more important it is to know when and how they are silly.

[the-duke-of-destruction]

I'm reading blue lock and this mf is about to tell me about berries and cream

[feathersandthorns]

For anyone who writes or draws as a hobby, just another reminder to create for yourself, not for anyone or anything else <3

[ecosystem-administrator]

Okay it's four in the morning and I'm not entirely right in the head and I absolutely have not thought through the ramifications of this in its entirety, but

Garleans can't use aether, but they can affect and be affected by dynamis. we've seen this in canon.

Culturally Garleans seem to have a lot of emotional repression, breaking through only when pushed to extremes, which has no doubt prevented them from actualizing the combat potential of dynamis in the past. There is now an opportunity for this to change.

as they rebuild and reform their culture we should see Garlean bards becoming a thing, and they should invent heavy metal

[zipstick]

Thomas Thorne has been dead for 200 slutty, slutty years

happy 200th deathday to our favourite mediocre poet <3

[modeus-the-misanthrope]

Stolen from reddit again, but it's too good not to share.

[ecosystem-administrator]

The problem that leads to souls coming back wrong is due to the vast difference between life and death. Haste and urgent grief lead the living to yank the dead from their rest, from the slow dissolve into eternity, and force them all at once back into flesh and blood, into sensation and need. it comes too fast, it leaves them half behind or throws them into hungers too desperate to be sated by the ordinary means of life.

if you truly love someone, you must be patient while they wake. call their name, open the door, and give them the time they need to find their way through it. let them settle back into their bones, their flesh, their organs, at their own pace, like wading into chill waters; and when they are finally ready to take a breath, they will breathe whole and unburdened. but be patient.

you came back wrong and i am racked with guilt because i cannot bear to see you like this and i should have let you rest. i loved you so much that i defied death itself but i do not think either of us are happy

[ecosystem-administrator]

Listen, l i s t e n, every few months or so I get reminded of this scene that happens after Aymeric drives a bunch of angry rebels out of The Vault, and I go completely feral with emotions

Edmont tells Aymeric this won't be the last time that happens if the current political climate continues as it has been, and that he needs to make sure to take care of their people and of himself, then drops this line. and just walks away.

Aymeric is standing there stunned and awkward trying to be appropriately honored by a grieving father who's also right about the politics of the situation, and apparently unlike Edmont has probably not forgotten that Artoirel is right there.

Artoirel steps forward behind Aymeric to follow his father, but before he passes the point where Aymeric could see him

he stops still and turns his head, obviously conflicted and gathering himself, and the camera focuses entirely on his face even though he hasn't got any lines in this scene at all. the father he respects and admires is obviously not bearing up well under all the recent changes, and just all but adopted a surrogate for the beloved son he's recently lost without even acknowledging his eldest son's presence. not even so much as a look. his father needs him now more than ever. his father is taking him for granted and always has.

he probably daydreamed as a child about the relationship he might have had with Edmont if Haurchefant wasn't there to be the favorite, and now he has the bitterest proof that it would never have been better, is not going to get better.

and he still walks after his father, away from Aymeric and Lucia and the gathered Scions. Edmont never looks back to see if he's coming, but he is. someone still has to hold this family together.

The Fortemps family are so fucked up you guys. the drama of it. it just makes me gnash my teeth and wail every single time.

[johnconstantinesdick]

I get the criticism of the Hunters of Artemis from a narrative perspective—it sucks that it essentially boots interesting female characters out of the story—but it always baffles me when people viciously hate Artemis for *checks notes* doing damage control.

Like. Thalia explicitly goes with Artemis to avoid the prophecy, and I definitely think that’s the reason Artemis tried so hard to get her to join—hell, you can view the hunters trying to recruit Annabeth as a way to get Thalia to join. And Bianca? You can’t convince me that Artemis didn’t guess there was something up there and react accordingly.

If Percy or Nico were even a little bit girl-adjacent you bet your ass she would be all over them to join. No one actually wants to risk the Great Prophecy happening, and Artemis is doing a hell of a lot more to stop it than anyone else.

[qu1cks1lversb1tch]

Azriel, the stoic and mysterious Shadowsinger being reduced to a needy, whimpering mess beneath you because his hands are bound and he can't place them on your hips. . . And gods, you just felt so good around him. His shadows caress every inch of skin possible, leaving goosebumps in their wake, yet it only gives you motivation. . . The look in his eyes said there would be consequences, but you couldn't find it within yourself to care. Especially as another whimper fell from his lips.

That's it. That's the thought. You're welcome :)

[sweetbunpura]

Prev

It's time for another extraction of eel mucus for Vil's facial cream... Yuu wishes she could unlearn that so she can no longer be cursed with that knowledge. She heads up the Lounge to get Floyd, but is instead greeted by Jade, who appears to have been waiting for her arrival.

"Good evening, Miss Yuu."

"Hey, Jade. Where's Floyd?"

"I'm afraid he had some prior arrangements today, so sadly, I'll be the one sacrificed on his behalf."

"You're volunteering as tribute?"

"Indeed."

Yuu sees the smile he tries to hide, but she doesn't have time to unwrap everything. So, her and Jade leave with the buckets in hand. She drops them off along with a very relaxed looking Jade to Azul. She bids them farewell and leaves.

"You should be happy that I don't tell her what you did, Jade."

Floyd comes kicking in the door a few minutes later.

"You asshole! You used your weird mushroom to paralyzed me just so I could miss Shrimpy!"

Jade, now becoming one with the couch, just grunts in response. The only thing Yuu learned from this was how many knots were in Jade's back.

[veitchiin]

Do we think that after years spent with a Thorne Rook, Emmrich's fear of death and letting go would ease with time or do you think it would grow worse? Do we think he would at first worry of his own passing and leaving Thorne behind? Would he imagine them moving on to someone new? Would it be easy for them? Was it selfish of him to refuse lichdom and put them through grief one more time? How often would his thoughts be taken up by death over their relationship? Could rook make him forget his fears as they inevitably approach their end? Would a life with them be worth the fear and uncertainty?

He knows about the calling, and he still believes, hopes, that he will be the one to die first. But when does that certainty fade?

When do you think Emmrich would start to fear the calling more than his own death? When Thorne grows more quiet? After how many nights interrupted by Rook abruptly jolting awake? When they take longer to head to bed only to wake up even earlier than him? When they lose themselves to their thoughts, staring in the distance? He has to call their name once, twice, three times to bring them back to him.

Do you think he fears the thought of waking up alone in his bed, the only goodbye he was given being last night's kiss and a letter written months ago on his desk? Could he bear the thought of rook alone, in the deep roads? would they think of him as they fall? Could he find them before it's too late? If only to bury them in a fashion they'd deserve more than to rot down below?

Or would rook prefer to tell him, face to face, that they must go? Would he argue to let him come with them? To be with them until the very end? Would they let him? Once they fall, could he bring rook with him back to the surface? Could he even manage to return alone? Could he handle witnessing their death at all? Would he choose to die with them over surviving alone? Would Manfred be enough to give him the strength to survive this grief? Or would he prefer to believe Manfred grown enough and in good hands?

Would this eventuality prompt Emmrich to research for a true cure to the taint, the calling? Could he find it? Would it be worth it? Would it consume him? Or could he find peace with an inevitable end to the love he shared with rook?