#after: love to the point of invention

[venice-1987]

TDPtober 2-love

Summary: Corvus reflects on what he loves

Pairings: Soren x Corvus (Of course its Sorvus, its me writing this :P)

There was much traced into the lines of his memory. The way the chill of autumn was drawn into the lungs, refreshing the body from the heat of summer. The way the leaves became dry and brittle underfoot, nourishing the earth for the coming spring. A home in the alleys of trees, off beaten paths and into the thickets, where the greenery sheltered him like a warm blanket. 

He had dedicated himself to remember his parents, the home cooked meals from his father, carefully spooning the dish onto his empty plate. A mother, and her barely contained love in a crushing embrace, laughing as he tried to breathe and flailed, pretending to attempt an escape. He remembered their pride when he was recruited to be among Amaya’s scouts, and the same shine in their eyes when Soren had accepted him as a crownguard. 

And Soren. It felt like if anything had made itself at home in his thoughts, it was him. Some things good. The way he leapt into hugging Corvus in the mushroom forest. Some things bad. The tired lines under his eyes after the return to a burned home. Some things terrible. The wailing sobs, inhuman screams tearing at his throat at the loss of a sister, not literally, but through change. She had become unrecognizable, and he grieved in privacy until Corvus had found him. 

But nothing came close to everything Soren had done in love. It felt as if he tried to forget, that a core part of his mind would be lost, and he wouldn���t be the same, lobotomized and left changed. The laugher Soren always seemed to bring, the smile tugging at his lips when he looked eagerly to see if he had succeeded in bringing a little bit more joy into Corvus’s day. They way he had taken Corvus’s hand, correcting the positioning on the sword, helping him improve a little more. The way he took note of when Corvus was overwhelmed, and the gentle way he guided Corvus to safety. The way he was kind. The way he pushed Corvus to become better just by virtue of being good himself. 

There was one day Corvus would never forget, that encapsulated everything he knew Soren to be. It was a bad day for the both of them. Corvus had taken the destruction of Katolis poorly, the home he had come to love had gone, which made him think of the homes and the people he had left behind. He realized that he had sunken into his solitude too readily, not writing like he should have. The resounding guilt multiplied the tension in his body with the sensory overload that the refugee camp had become that day. But there was ceaseless work to be done, and he ran himself ragged that despite it. 

When he saw Soren around camp, he knew his captain was doing no good either. He wondered if this time, it was because of Viren’s haunting memory, or the lingering reminder of a once familiar Claudia in every broken stone, in every hidden pathway that was not collapsed and used in recovery missions. He had once led Corvus and Opeli and Barius and later the young king Ezran out of those passages. He wondered if, then, Soren had recognized that his family would never be the same as it once did. 

Corvus had returned to their shared tent expecting Soren to be curled on his sleeping mat, wanting to be left in peace. He did not expect Soren to be there with a plate of peanut caramel pies, one of his favorite treats, and some strange looking curved stick with two wads of cotton on either end. He sat crossed legged, his shoulders hunched over in clear fatigue and his smile tired. But it reached his eyes. When he spoke, it carried the weight of the day in its softness. 

“You looked stressed today,” he said. “I asked Barius to make these, and I made this. I call it a noise-stopper. You put it over your ears.” Soren held up his invention, waiting for permission. When Corvus nodded, he leaned forward, setting the cotton pads gently over Corvus’s ears. It did not stop the noise completely, but it provided a hefty shield against what made noise overwhelming in the first place. The texture felt nice on his skin, too, much like the sheep’s soft wool that made the clothes he wore. 

Corvus did not know what to say, so he leaned forward and pressed his lips against Soren’s in a grateful kiss. At that point, their tentative relationship had not gone anywhere past hand holding, and looks that said ‘I’m starting to see you as something different. I’m sorry it took this tragedy to finally notice.’ He did not think the kiss would be rejected, and he was glad to see it returned with the same energy he put into it. Neither was surprised in the development, but it was nice to have confirmation. Their sleeping mats had been gradually drifting closer to each other every night for the past two weeks, and they finally closed the distance completely that day. Corvus’s head tucked into the crook of Soren’s neck as they fell asleep, both knowing they loved, and were loved. 

[fumifooms]

"Toshiro’s love for Falin is fake and impure! He only started liking her after something about her intrigued him and hooked him in, and only then started wanting to know her better and finding out he loved everything else about her too!" Buddy I have something to tell you that you won’t like about how falling in love typically goes…

[roughroadhaley]

i don’t think it is humanly possible for the Robby-Johnny relationship to be as good as the writers want me to believe it currently is going, but i also don’t think it’s going half as bad as people on here or on reddit say it is, so it is incredibly challenging for me to find posts I agree with about them anywhere

[catherine-sketches]

Arcane x Game of Thrones crossover where Viktor is isekaied into Viserys, brother of Daenerys, Mother of Dragons, body

He wakes up on a house in Bravos with these memories that make zero sense to him but the euphoria of functioning lungs are distracting him from analyzing it to much

There is an old man there. He calls him prince. The old man is dying and the servants have a greed in their eyes that Viktor knows well, he was seen it enough on the streets of Zaun

A hunger for more after years of scraps while in the shadows of prosperity

He could fight them, poison them even. The trouble such actions may bring to him would be worth for his sole survival in the long run. But he is not alone in here.

There is a girl. Not older than a toddler.

Dany. His new sister.

The choice is easy really. So there he goes, a staff made from one of the thicker branches of the lemon tree in the front yard (he misses his cane turned staff. Even with both legs functioning, he missed the weight in his hand. And, as the undercity had shown him, having something that you could use as a range weapon was always a good thing) in the dead of the night to steal as much food and coin he can carry with him

He takes one of the fabrics with him so he can wrap it around the tiny girl that is now his responsibility. He wraps her to his back, her tiny body flush against him. Alive, close, protected.

She nuzzles closer to his neck, her tiny hands on his shoulders.

He knows her for only a day and he would destroy the world for her

When he goes back to his world (because he would find a way back) he would be taking her with him

A staff, a purse of coins, a bag with food and a toddler on his back

That’s how the first assassin sent by King Robert finds them

That’s the last thing said assassin sees before the young prince stabs him, hits him in the head with the staff and drops him in the river

Viktor grew up in Zaun. An assassin had to do way better than that if they wanted to off him. Especially because he was fighting for someone besides himself

For himself ? He would survive.

For Dany? He would thrive!

[kirkwallguy]

dad marcus 🥺 dadcus

giving marcus and anders a baby would probably be a terrible idea but it would be SO cute for at least 5 minutes. he'd be a very good parent to a teenager though imo

[qualityrain]

i am thinking. about firefly wedding and being a tool v a person. rambling abt satoko and shinpei and throwing ideas at the wall. (some chapter 28 spoilers btw)

they are all tools to something. satoko being a tool to her family and shinpei and kotaro being a tool to her(albeit in slightly different ways).

initially satoko uses shinpei as a means to leave the island and shinpei uses her as a way to feel needed. this ofc changes over the course of the manga and theres alr this post abt how shinpei doesnt see satoko as an object considering the different reactions to her scar i think more obviously is the talk he has with her on the boat as they are leaving the island in chap 16 where he says i want to know more abt what kind of girl you are.

he wants to get to know her more as a person. understand her better. know why she is like this. what kind of girl is she. her likes?dislikes? and its mutual in chap 28

ever since chap 24 there is this explicit mutual commitment because this relationship isnt a short time thing on the island anymore. they’re stuck together now and its ok to have this mutual curiosity abt one another and they’re both able take the time to know more abt each other now. they’re not tools to each other anymore but somebody to have a long term relationship with

which makes me think abt kotaro. kotaro who brings satokos medicine and brings her favourite sweet. he learns these things abt her and obviously sees her as a person but encourages satoko being a tool to her family. its not his fault because its what satoko herself thinks she wants. i wonder if satoko knows kotaros likes and dislikes too. satokos whole dilemma of marriage for her family or for herself. does she want to be the tool or her own person. i think this is something shinpei(and kotaro) have to address in the future too since shinpei thinks of himself as a tool and it hasnt been addressed yet. lots of things to think abt and see what happens this year

[meimi-haneoka]

Every time I see the English translation of a certain Clear Card panel with Touyuki appearing on my TL I want to pull my hair because that line was mistranslated so, so badly and people are making speculations and going nuts about it in the tags and it's all based on something that doesn't exists because that's not what Touya says, not at all. Like, not even remotely. It's also so out of character for him to say something like that, I don't know how his fans don't realize something is off in that line.

One day I will compile those translation mistakes in one giant google sheet or something, I need to turn this into a mission because it's honestly so irritating to see how riddled with mistakes this localization is, sometimes to the point of messing with important parts of the plot. I don't see them releasing a decently translated edition in the near future, so it's all I can do to give back some respect to the story. Clamp are aware of the translation mistakes and how they change the perception of the story for the foreign readers, just as they are aware of the posts I've made about them over the years (they talked about this in a Space long time ago, and I still cherish that mention in my heart with pride). But there was basically nothing they could do at the time, if not suggesting the English readers to check the posts mentioning the translation differences. That's great and all, I'm glad I have their blessing but this is also not really how ideally one should read a story. My posts are long and filled with personal comments and maybe that would deter many people from checking out what a certain line actually says, so I need to find a quicker and easier way. Also, I started to do those only from chapter 40 onwards (and in the beginning I was way overzealous, I would need to revise) and this panel I'm mentioning above is part of the butchery they did in the first volumes, which weren't covered by my posts yet.

[lesbianlanval]

The chart reminded me so now I want to talk about medieval sex again. So much sex leads to sin because in the [Catholic] medieval imagination sex is sin, even married, procreative, fully-permissible sex: the ideal sort of person (monks, nuns, hermits, saints) avoided it entirely, and married couples staying celibate was considered like,, impracticable, but admirable and probably a good idea spiritually. Moreover because men were considered the only people to be full people, and men are tempted by women (both sexually and in the sense of Eve), women are inherently both sexual sinful in their nature. Except the Virgin Mary. But also women owed their husbands a marital debt, which the husbands weren’t supposed to desire, but did anyway, so men are all sinful too. The point is that the ideal is impossible and mixed up with all sorts of nasty neuroses; like Karma Lochrie says, there was a lot of straight sex happening in the Middle Ages, but not a lot of heterosexuality, because the idea of men and women desiring each other was abhorrent and aberrant. Except of course that it wasn’t. Except that it was. Except that it wasn’t. Except that —

[marklikely]

i like rng horror pod and i enjoy their analysis most of the time. but i really wish someone would sit them down and explain the entire history of 70s feminism

[time-is-restored]

i have literally nowhere else to put this i apologise for the spam. the absolute best thing to come out of s3 trent is without a doubt the fucking earnestness... like in s1-2 he always came across as a very self-assured kind of guy, who knew how he came off (ie: intimidating) and enjoyed it. but seeing that paired with him being silly + completely relaxing in certain company??? pulling ridiculous faces at vodka + scrunching up his nose when he smiles @ colin + making the most ABSURD 'i really wanna say something right now but i feel like im interrupting' noises ive ever heard in my fucking LIFE??? its like. he is cool as shit and he is self assured AND he can make dumb fucking sherlock holmes jokes and dance ridiculously. its like!!!! he's lame but he's also not bc he's exactly as confident in being lame as he is being cool. do u see the vision. he has killed the part of him that cringes!!!! its just.. that unshakeable self confidence that u see in his fucking swaggers into frame includes all of himself + his different moods and eccentricities and that's just so based to me idk. unironically live ur best life wear the loudest combination of prints and patterns and primary colours uve ever seen in ur life while espousing the virtues of extended museum hours!!! contain multitudes! get silly with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[panvani]

Gil apology scene will always be one of my all time most favorite scenes of anything ever

[fyodior]

@death-in-a-handbasket

You know that Ada Limón poem where she’s like “i can’t help it i love the way men love”? my dad recently confessed to me that he became a shoemaker because they buried my grandma shoeless

oh…………………………………

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

candace flynn is THE most teenage girl character of all time. she is at level 100 anxiety 24/7. she shows her love for her brothers by trying to get them in trouble constantly. her neck is as long as her forearm. she features on a blues album after having an allergic reaction. she has a shrine to her boyfriend in her room. she can't live without her phone. she has a panic room in the basement. she plays 20 instruments that all start with the letter B. she read all of sherlock holmes in one night. she's seen their platypus running around as a secret agent more than once, assumed she was hallucinating each time, and moved on with her life while telling no one. she likes wrestling video games. she was rutabaga princess. she has a billion people to email memes to but when she's trying to think of friends she can only think of four people and one of them is her mom. most animals hate her except monkeys. she invented grilled cheese flavored ice cream. she pretended to be irish for a week. she's autistically obsessed with her universe's version of barney. she writes marvel fanfiction. she does parkour. there's an entire archive of her voice actress screaming just in case her voice ever gave out while recording. she sees her brothers build time machines and rollercoasters every day but doesn't believe in santa. when she starts scheming the wicked witch of the west theme starts playing in the background. she was elected queen of mars. she won a "mayor for the day" essay competition. there's a random person in town who's been avoiding her to the point she doesn't know he exists. she learned how to parallel park by driving a monster truck. she thinks the plural of moose is "meese." she tracks her mom with a GPS. she doesn't know her little brother's full name. she's scared of heights, spiders, and the number seven. when her boyfriend told her he'd call "soon" she started doing complex math to try and figure out when exactly that would be. her first thought upon seeing her royal doppelganger was to go to the laundromat and fill all the dryers with cheese. she earned 50 not-girl-scout patches in one day through sheer determination. she can run fast enough to catch up to moving cars. she can sense when ground is broken in the backyard and when people are judging her. one time she got her face caught in the sink. her brothers carved her into mount rushmore. every now and again a magical zebra appears, calls her kevin, and then disappears again. she killed 99% of an alien invasion with a t-shirt cannon. in an alternate universe she's leading a regime-destroying resistance at the age of 15. she's being accidentally gaslit every day of her life.

[alwaysahiccupandastrid]

Pixar did not have to go as hard as they did with the Kronos Unveiled scene in The Incredibles (2004), yet they did anyway and gave us one of the best scenes in modern cinema. Literally cannot stop thinking about how good this scene is, from the animation to the build up to the soundtrack.

I don’t think I truly understood how dark this scene - and this film - was a child: Syndrome is systematically and strategically luring in superheroes and killing them off in order to test and improve his Omnidroid design… these people were not only supers but they also had family and loved ones too, just like Bob, and one day they would have just disappeared because chances are they weren’t telling people where they were going because it was "top secret" and against the law. They thought they were doing something good, like helping the people in the island, while also getting to relive their glory days, perhaps even paving the way for superheroes to make a proper comeback… only for Syndrome to kill them in cold blood.

Most of these people can actually be seen at Bob and Helen’s wedding in the beginning of the film - they weren’t just random supers, they were their friends, people they worked alongside and cared about. It’s even worse when you realise that Bob probably blames himself because, after all, Buddy/Syndrome was his biggest fan and he dismissed him by not letting him help.

The relief on Bob’s face when he realises Syndrome doesn’t know where Helen is - meaning he also doesn’t know where their children are because he didn’t realise they were married at this point - is so realistic and gut wrenching to see. The relief contrasting with the anguish of knowing how much danger they and their entire family could have been in the entire time without even knowing...it's so well-done, you can literally feel it.

It’s also worth noting that originally the next target wasn’t Mr Incredible but Frozone - that was who Mirage was trailing, hence why his location is “known”. Imagine if she/Syndrome hadn’t realised that Mr Incredible was with him and they’d lured Frozone in instead as planned; he would have gone to the island to fight the Omnidroid 8 in a volcano setting. We saw how being in the burning building dehydrated Frozone and made it impossible to use his ice powers - presumably it would have been the same in the middle of a lava filled volcano, and he’d have been slaughtered just like the other superheroes before him.

This scene shows an entire generation of superheroes - Bob, Helen and Lucius’ generation - wiped out all because Syndrome felt slighted by his hero as a child, because he internalised that slight and let it drive him to revenge. And, if we take into account the deleted alternate opening scene, it’s mentioned that superheroes "aren't supposed to breed” - meaning there’s a likelihood that Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack are among the very few supers of the next generation. I know that it's deleted and so not really canon, but it's definitely a concept to consider, I think.

Then there's the fact Syndrome named the project "Kronos" - Kronos was a God who overthrew his own father in order to take over his rule, and then he ate his own children to prevent them doing the same thing to him. It feels like it reflects Syndrome once looking up to Mr Incredible and even saying "I could be your ward!", meaning Mr Incredible adopting or fostering him - the project name is a metaphor for Syndrome destroying the Supers, especially Mr Incredible, who he viewed as a father figure. The Omnidroids he built killed two birds with one stone: not only was he able to acquire the data to upgrade the robot to its final design, but it also eliminated the real super heroes and so left him as the last remaining "superhero", even though his powers are man-made, not something he was born with.

Not only did he want to become the only remaining superhero by killing the real ones in revenge, he also planned to sell his inventions at some point so everyone can be super - because "when everyone is super, nobody is". It's like a final blow to the memory of the superheroes he had killed.

I've talked too much about this scene but God... I love it so much more as an adult because it's just so chilling to think about. I'm sure other people can put it much more articulately than I just tried to, but I just really wanted to appreciate this scene.

[artemizcryztalz]

Jayce Talis x gn!reader ~note : I just finished watching arcane and I’ve been obsessed with the idea of pathetic!Jayce.

warnings: straight up smut (mdni), hj, dom!reader, pathetic!jayce, sub!jayce, p w/o p, whining, whimpering, begging, no use of y/n,

Another late night in the lab, it feels like most of your days have been spent here as of recently. Keeping Jayce and Viktor company as they worked on their projects for hextech. Tonight however, Viktor was out of town in search for new materials for their newest invention. Meaning you and Jayce were left alone to your own vices.

After chatting for a while you notice a change in the air as your conversation dragged on into the night. Topics more intimate, less space in between you. You decided to move to a more comfortable environment, his bedroom.

At some point, your eyes began to wander down Jayce's figure. As your eyes trailed lower you noticed a bulge forming through his burgundy pants. It seems the linger touches you had shared between each other had an effect on Jayce. He places his hands on his lap trying to hide it, hoping you won't notice, but it's too late. "Jayce you're..." Your eyes widened as he scrambled to cover himself. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm reacting like this I-" He tried to explain but couldn't come up with any form of answer that would save him from embarrassment.

You cut him off by tentatively reaching down to brush his hands away from his bulge.

"Are you that excited to be with me?" You tease, your hands rubbing the stiffness in his pants. He lets out a whimper and quickly covers his mouth with the back of his hand.

Who knew Jayce talis could be so pathetic?

Here he was on his back as you loomed over him. Your hands worked to stroke his cock through fabric-you hadn't even moved past his pants. Yet he humped your hand like a dog in heat. His hips rutted up into your hand in search for more friction.

"touch me…please-" he whines, his voice soft and vulnerable. Meanwhile, his hands fumble desperately trying to unbuckle his belt. "Keep your hands off," you say putting your hands on his belt, slowly unbuckling it, "Patience, love. Good boys are patient."

You twiddle with the waistband of his boxer while watching him squirm with pleasure and impatience. You lay a soft grasp on his cock, as it twitches in your presence.

As you start playing with his sensitive cock with quick strokes, his back arches. With his breath quivering, you lean down leaving a sensual kiss onto his lips, biting down on his bottom lip. He whimpers into your mouth, gripping the bedsheets tightly.

“faster…please, please-” He says in a sweet little cry. “I love how you whimper and beg for me” you tease while picking up the pace.

“Mm- I‘m gonna… cum-” he moans out, struggling to speak. He throws his head back against the pillow, his eyes rolling to the back of this head. You feel his cock twitch in your hands. Finally, he cums releasing messy moans and whimpers.

Afterward you he lays you holding him in your arms, his chest rising and falling with heavy breaths.

[rad-batson]

I’m like 99% sure the Gotham Elite’s social customs are fucked up because Autism-in-Human-Form Bruce Wayne was just so fucking tired of high society’s weird and incomprehensible (and frankly ableist) social etiquette that he went full Virgin Mary About-to-Invent-a-Major-World-Religion, said “oh haven’t you heard?” and just started making his own random social rules. Like who’s going to stop him? The other elites? The dinosaur CEO’s? He’s richer. He hosts the better parties. He could tank your business in a weekend. So when he says “Weird passive aggressive fork language is out. Having a different utensil for every different food texture is in,” you use a different utensil for every food texture. Now when foreign elites visit Gotham, they have to learn a completely new set of social customs to fit in. It’s like a cult, but the cult is run by the most influential man in the world and Gotham’s personal Jesus. The followers are more likely than not mafia bosses named after a bird. You will be judged. There’s a test. Yes, you do get brownie points for being nice to the servers. For the love of god, stop making so much eye contact. The cloth napkins are folded into little ducks. Welcome to Gotham.