#Tide of Fate

[wishem]

sometimes strategy is to duct tape a baby to the wall to distract your opponent

[the-lonelybarricade]

It's the way his expression shifts at the end after he studies her face 😩

[eastbluecrewed]

the brainworms got me unfortunately

in my head they're like vaguely rivals and lovers where asura is trying really hard to be serious and not let nika get to him and nika is devoting every fiber of focused energy he contains to getting to asura. they're married

[mofsblog]

Uh oh, I got reminded TFGraves exist and I'm mentally ill and going to make it YOUR problem!! (Translation: I'm going to gosh about them)

They just mean so much to me? And they just feel soo?? Special?? And unique on a meta level as well? It's already one thing that they are a canonised mlm pairing because historically those ones tend to be more controversial because it tends to make cishet dudes (aka leagues main demographic) more uncomfortable because cant fetishise it (also yes they're not Technically "together" but idc its explicitly canon they have feelings for eachother). It's another that both are surprisingly developed and nuanced charaters (could go on for hours about how theyre both self destructive and have abandonment issues and repress their feelings in very different ways) that are morally ambiguous and have a complex and multifaceted relationship with eachother and yeah i know league lore is subject to retcons and having differet writers but idk. i think its impressive we got two nuanced developed queer male characters WITH A COMPLICATED AND DEVELOPED RELATIONSHIP WITH EACHOTHER in a game known for its bigotted player base. Another thing i fucking love about this ship is how the riot writers were like "what if we subverted some tropes and made the more flamboyant one implied pan and we made the traditionally masculine one, who highkey has toxic masculinity, gay". BUT ALSO HIS TOXIC MASCULINITY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HIS QUEERNESS. like yes he cant express his feelings directly to save his life but the fact he's a gay man is completely not relevant to that and he's canonically had a bunch of ex boyfriends and is canonically a monsterfucker/hj. I'm not over how they took a pretty cishet masculine thing and made queer. Like the rough outlaw who hates talking about his feelings and is out for violent revenge on those who've wronged him..... except the guy who's "wronged" him is actually his best friend who he has mutual feelings for and also he fucks men. IDK THAT MAKES ME HAPPY. im insane.

moving on to other thing i like about them is that the sheer range this ship has??? Like yes there's gut wrenching fucked up dynamic that drives you crazy as you pyschoanalyse and unpack the layers of all of THAT. "that" being the fact a man thought he got abandoned by his best friend and got tortured and isolated in prison for 10 years and during those 10 years the only thing that kept him from killing himself was the sheer rage and want for vengence (towards someone he probably had repressed romantic feelings for) AND THEN WHEN HE GOT THE CHANCE TO KILL HIM, HE COULDNT BRING HIMSELF TO DO IT 💀 (im literally never going to be normal about that) and during those 10 years the other man actually got all of their mutual friends killed in an attempt to save him and the survivors guilt fucked him up so bad its implied he failed trying to drown himself so he changed his entire name and personhood instead to isolate himself from the soul crushing guilt of it. BUT DESPITE THAT ANGST, there's a surprising amount of domesticity and comfort with this ship??? No like you'd think these two would be friends to enemies to lovers BUT NO, theyre actually friends to enemies to friends to friends who are fucking pinning for eachother like crazy. Despite the angsty dynamic these two also have the best friends who have known eachother for ages and who everyone think is dating but both are oblivious or dont believe the other feels the same BUT THEY ALSO HAVE opposites attract bickering marriage couple who constantly tease and banter with eachother. like the range is crazy

No but I feel like something that makes me emotional about this is that they tried to kill eachother and badly hurt eachother unintentionally but like, instead of being homophobic about it and making them just hate eachother forever and never reconcicle (which like those ships are amazing and valid and also thats literally another league ship/hj), the writers made them make up???? AND LIKE? HEAL? KINDA? Like no they havent worked through everything and no neither of them like talking about their feelings but they're "partners" again and they have this really domestic understanding of eachother and theyre managing and theyre bantering like they used to and theyre literally so comfortable around eachother and look, graves isnt tormented by his time in prison as much anymore and hes just a genuinely goofy criminal dumbass who robs people and cracks jokes that irriate his partner AND IDK ITS SO DOMESTIC AND FUNNY? BUT IT DOESNT FEEL OUT OF CHARACTER. THESE TWO JUST ARE IN A GOOD PLACE DESPITE EVERYTHING AND IDK THAT MAKES ME HAPPY???? why did league of legends make compelling queer ship

[symbologic]

Soul-Bound in Wano: The Spooky Simpatico of Luffy and Zoro

Just finished Wano, and wow. I'm surprised there isn't more talk about the crazy parallels between Luffy and Zoro throughout the arc, but especially the raid. It's like Oda was trolling us with how perfectly they mirror each other in places.

Of course, there's the whole shared "wandering samurai" theme in Acts I and II, and then there's the heartwarming scene with them both freaking out over spilled soup. (Side note: I wouldn't be shocked if Zoro's anime-only sake scene was stuff Oda had to cut from the manga – it totally fits Oda's style with Zoro.)

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. We've got a ton of other stuff too:

Zoro uses Conqueror's Haki to injure Kaido because they're all desperate? Boom, Luffy digs deep and starts doing it too.

Zoro gets bandaged up like a mummy? Well, guess who can't move because he fell in the ocean?

Both of them get their own team of doctors? How lucky!

Zoro gets revived with an injection? Here comes Luffy, fueled by some meat!

Zoro declares he'll become a GOD if that's what it takes? 🤔 Makes you wonder what that means for Luffy...

Death himself shows up for Zoro? Not good! Now Luffy's literally in cardiac arrest! Speaking of, Zoro's looking rough. Those sunken eyes, man...

Thank god they're both too stubborn to die. And guess what? They get put right next to each other, while people pray for them to wake up

And wouldn't you know it, they wake up at the EXACT SAME TIME

This can't just be a coincidence, right? It feels like they're on some spooky, soul-bound level where Zoro's fate weirdly determines Luffy's. Which actually slots so, so neatly into Wano and its recurring themes of fate! Hell, Oda himself even said in an SBS (the one about Zoro's family tree) that Zoro's story is that of a strange, twisted fate he's completely clueless about.

Honestly, I love that for them.

Zoro might not get a whole arc dedicated to his backstory like Nami, Robin, or Sanji. But the choices he makes carry a surprising amount of weight in the grand scheme of things.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Omg idk if you talk Spanish or if it’s just XXC, but with that little and wonderful doodle you gave me the amazing headcanon of XXC being bilingual and just randomly speaking Spanish out of nowhere and nobody understanding him

[TL: XXC says "don't do coke in the bathroom"]

Shout out to the Spanish speaking MXTX fans. I don't think this is remotely what you wanted. (bonus below cut, TW: Drugs)

[zaynes-nieve]

Zayne: Foreseer & Master of Fate, Rafayel: God of Tides

Companion Outfit Photo Dump 1/2

[boinday]

[groupalpha]

Amalgamation's End

Warning! This comic has topics of death!

Comic under cut!

TA: It's... so pretty up here.

...

TA: I think it's time to do what they wanted.

[LIVE BROADCAST] - [ANNOUNCEMENT] COMMUNICATIONS MANIFEST TO ALL MEMBERS OF GROUP ALPHA

[######### ADDED TO LOCAL GROUP??&%]

################### ######### ############# #### ################ #############################

PRIME ADMINISTRATOR KEY?

...

PROCESSING

PRIME ADMINISTRATOR KEY OVERRULED

[SUNRISE SOLAR STARLIGHT LUNAR ADDED TO GROUP ALPHA]

[ERROR]

[FUNCTIONS NOT PROPER]

[ATTEMPTING TO RESTORE VIA COMMUNICATION TOWERS...]

[REPAIR SUCCESSFUL, BLOCKS REMOVED]

[DISPLAYING RECORDINGS TO LOCAL GROUP]

TA: ... I... guess that's it?

Sunrise Solar Starlight Lunar are now available for asks Amalgamation is no longer available for asks

[magmaticparatdise]

Lay your pain (and your name!) in the river

[ezralva]

When I first read it I thought the dinner table imaginary memory is definitely Choso's another memory, however by the placement that it comes after Yuuji's contemplative look, the parallels make it so it could also be seen as Yuuji's imaginary memory this time. Look at how each of them grabbed the corner of the table on the same side and manner.

Choso's memory vs Yuuji's memory

In Choso's (left) Eso, Kechizu and other brothers were there. None on the right, objectively Yuuji isn't attached enough to Eso and Kechizu to have them in his memory. Meaning?

[mvlionheart]

please tell me how your perverse big brain came up with the idea of the pirate fic, mister I-don't-like-angst

the tides of fate director's commentary:

ah, okay so thank you for asking! pirates actually came to me in reverse. the first concept was just this strong and visceral visual of charles going to the gallows (spoiler: doesn't happen in the final version lol). he was taking sixteen steps that lead him to the end of his life and that correlating to sixteen different scenes/vignettes of max and charles growing up and falling in love. this changed as i was writing it and the fic started to breathe, and with some lovely notes from @formula-fun, which drove it more toward some other repeating themes i wanted to explore for them. in an out of character move for me i largely wrote the fic in chrono order of events, and then when i finally got to the end and wrote that first scene i'd had in my head - it didn't work! much to my chagrin. but i regrouped and found my way forward with some great advice from @bananasomg which got us to the (fourth version i think) ending we have now. which really is the most heartbreaking. re: angst - it's complicated ;)

once again, a big thank you to the organizers of the motorsport historical fic fest. it was so much fun to participate.

[cait-sith]

Day 17: Moon

[patchwork-crow-writes]

The Definition of Insanity

You snap wires.

Frantic fingers spindle across the inky blackness, taking hold of taut strings the colour of poison. You retch slightly as they pull apart in your hands, bursting like blood vessels and staining everything they touch with the stench of death.

You snap wires.

And all the while, his voice bores into your skull, wheeling and dealing even as he tries to kill you. Even as you try your very hardest to give him what he wants.

You snap wires.

SOUL burning hot like a phoenix in its final moments, shooting down offer after offer, pleading with this jittering, broken creature to stop, stop, please stop before one of us does something we're both going to regret...

You snap wires.

You can't remember how long you've been doing this for. You don't even know what you're doing, why you ever listened to his words in the first place. What had he promised in the space between his outbursts... and to whom?

And still, you snap wires. It's either that or die.

So you snap, and you snap, and you snap, and you

snap

Then there's only one left, shimmering in the darklight, so gossamer-thin that you cannot comprehend how it can still support the clanking, man-shaped junk it's attached to. He spins around it like a demented ballerina, professing heartfelt thanks to the friends he was trying to murder mere seconds before. Pleading with you to cut the final cord, to make him a real boy.

Your fingers move before you can respond. And the sound of his cold, lifeless body slamming into the ground stays with you for the rest of your life. The shock is so great that you almost collapse yourself, adrenaline finally loosing its death-grip on your body.

You are wracked with a great and terrible sigh, before you--/

/--snap wires.

...strings the colour of poison... bursting like blood vessels... stench of death.

...you've been here before, you realise, as you snap wires.

He wheels and deals, firing everything he has at you in a vain attempt to get you to give him what he wants. You would if you could... if it had ever been in your power to do so.

All you can do now is snap wires. And that is all you do.

Your fingers move on their own, as if compelled by an outside force. Pinch and twist, reminding you of shelling peas with your mom before Sunday dinner.

You can't recall the last time you saw her. You think that perhaps you should apologise to her if you ever make it out of here alive. You were always such a wilful child. Always getting into trouble of some kind or another.

And now here you were, making deals with something you couldn't even begin to fathom.

You cannot hear your friends anymore - they do not respond to you calls. And the salesman seems to become all-encompassing before you, drunk on ill-gotten power - power you helped him acquire. You close your eyes as he makes you an offer that you are unable to refuse.

Pain washes over you, and you--/

/--snap wires.

Poison... Blood... Death... this could be the fifth time; it could be the five-hundredth time. It doesn't matter, because all you can do is snap wires.

The salesman screams at you, and your SOUL screams back, roaring with anger and pain and frustration. Does it want the same thing as you do? Is it... trying to help? Or... or is this just a game to it. Fighting the same battle again and again, trying for a high score?

You ponder this as it makes you snap wires.

Perhaps this was punishment for trying too hard. For trying to help somebody who seemed to be suffering. You never understood what your mother meant when she told you the road to hell was paved with good intentions. To your child's mind, not yet versed in the world's wicked ways, this statement was a nonsense, an affront.

But now you get it, as you snap wires. Oh God, do you understand.

You always knew he was the same as you. Something BIG had seized his heart, just as it has seized yours. Prisoners of a destiny that was not theirs. You saw a caged bird crying for release, but you did not see the venomous spider using its corpse as a suit. In trying to make him more like you, you exposed yourself to the risk of becoming more like him.

Damaged. Deranged. Desperate. Dangerous.

And as your fingers become snared in his wires, and you stare transfixed into each other's eyes, you see the fate set out before you, and scream.

______________________________________________________________

You snap wires.

Sometimes, you live.

Sometimes, you die.

It doesn't matter.

You snap wires.

[sercphs]

Please observe my very very normal daughter. Girl. Person.

[sans-guy]

my ass really never believed i'd fall for the bait of the week until the bait of the week was a big guy with sharp teeth and a little wiggly tail