#and i cannot thank him enough for that

[araraito]

The relief you feel when you see a stray cat again after not seeing it for a while

[commsroom]

sweetheart, baby, darlin', and so on. 💞 (by @jamisonrivv)

[myoonmii]

I keep thinking about Merlin’s love for Arthur and how it’s so clearly portrayed in the show to the point that it practically drives the plot of the show. However when it comes to Arthur’s love for Merlin it’s more subtle and sometimes difficult to even grasp, and I started thinking why that was, aside from the obvious fact that Arthur has a lot of trouble expressing his emotions affection or otherwise. I think it also lies in the fact that Merlin knows Arthur intrinsically throughout the show; he is one of the closest people to Arthur, and sees him for who he really is. Arthur admits as much.

Sure, Arthur knows Merlin but the main part of the plot is that he really doesn't know Merlin. Merlin wants him to desperately understand him and “see me for who I am” but he can't yet. And I think this subconsciously creates a barrier in the way in which Arthur can care for Merlin, and how Merlin can let himself be seen by Arthur.

Which is why I think he was also so hurt when the magic reveal happens because more than the betrayal of Merlin having magic, it was the betrayal of Merlin not letting Arthur see him for who he really is and for hiding a main part of himself. Arthur says it himself “why did you never tell me” that’s what hurt him the most.

I think the most damning piece of evidence for this is the fact that while we see snippets of Arthur’s feelings for Merlin thought the show, the biggest signs are in the last episode after the magic reveal; in which he finally gets to understand Merlin, and this time REALLY know Merlin, and as the barriers of what held them back from understanding each other truly fall away, Arthur evidently “falls in love with Merlin all over again”. We see him actually express himself to Merlin.

This is another reason why I think if anyone was ever to create another season of Merlin after Arthur’s return, it’s physically impossible not to make it about Merlin and Arthur acknowledging their feelings for each other. Because there is no way forward without them acknowledging how deeply they care for each other, obviously anyone is free to argue what kind of love that is, but its impossible not to see the deep love there either way.

They always knew they loved each other, just maybe never realising how much and what that means, because its almost second nature to everything that they do.

[bansenshukai]

1.17.23 - returning to my original purest reason for art making (to draw shirtless anime men)

[gingermintpepper]

Why did Apollo favor the trojans in the Illiad?

So, dear Anon, I've been thinking about how to answer this question since I got it a couple days ago and I think I kind of want to make something clear before I get into it.

The Iliad by itself as a poem only covers some of the events that occur in the final year of a long protracted conflict that had been brewing for at least two decades and was an active war for ten. Within the space of the Iliad itself, the motivations and affairs of the major players are often referenced but there are many, many parts of the story that are not there because they belong to a different story cycle that has been since lost or was never recorded with words. In the space of the Iliad Apollo's motivations are questioned a lot - his pride is questioned by Poseidon who thinks Apollo should be just as angry at the Trojans as he considering Apollo was treated equally as poorly by Laomedon while they worked together. His honour is questioned by Hera who chastises him for taking the Trojans' side when he'd proclaimed that Achilles would live a long life and prosper at Thetis and Peleus' wedding. His own sister calls him a coward for refusing to fight when Zeus gives permission for the gods to go wild on the battlefield. For all that there's this image of Apollo in the Iliad as some staunch and unwavering protector of the Trojans, believe it or not, I largely think of Apollo as neutral in the war.

Which, I suppose, comes back to the question - why did Apollo favour the Trojans? The truthful answer is that I don't know. The Iliad and all its connected stories isn't something I've done enough research on to have an answer or a reference to an answer off the top of my head. The reasoning I'm aware of is that Apollo was a Patron God of Troy and really a god doesn't need any reason besides that to protect his people but it's not like Apollo abandoned the Greeks either. Calchas is the biggest example of that I can point to - descended directly from a priest of Apollo and one who attributed his mantic power to the god, Calchas was pivotal in ensuring the Greeks even got to Troy in the first place.

From a personal perspective however, I think Apollo was more dedicated to the house of Priam than he was the city of Troy itself. Apollo's affection for that house and all its members ran deep - from his admiration of Hecuba and Hector to his love and attempted courtship of Cassandra to his blessings given to Helenus, Deiphobos, Cassandra, Troilus and even his partnership with Paris - Apollo loved the house of Priam. When you think about the times Apollo lashes out against the Greeks, it's generally because they've done some nonsense to earn his ire. The plague was caused by Agamemnon disrespecting his priest, his aid in the slaughter of Patroclus was because he didn't respect him, his minor grudge against Diomedes too was because he tried to test Apollo's mettle and well, the less said about Achilles the better. Apart from his obvious favouring of Hector in the skirmishes, Apollo doesn't really oppose the Greeks. He has a ton of reasons to by the time the Iliad rolls around, including avenging the death of two of his sons, but he remains mostly satisfied with conducting his father's business and overseeing the war from a somewhat professional perspective. To me, it's always been less about Apollo caring about the fate of Troy as a city itself and more about him just really wanting to protect the people in the city that he's come to love and respect.

Of course, I encourage you to take my words with a big tablespoon of salt - like I said, I don't really know enough about the facts in particular to give a solid, confident answer but I can give you my interpretation of it. Maybe consult someone like @littlesparklight for a more comprehensive and grounded response 🤔

[theaceace]

imagining a world in which Simon agreed to go with Edwin and try to escape hell, imagining Simon developing an immediate and very inadvisable crush on the cute guy that just threw a grenade at a demon and Edwin's reaction to that, imagining the reaction of Charles Overprotective Rowland when he finds out that the guy Edwin insists on dragging along with them is one of the guys that sacrificed him to a demon in the first place, imagining the Night Nurse's face when three dead boys pop back through the door instead of two

[shannonsketches]

I grabbed a bunch of caps for that last post so here's a few more in my favorite genre of bejíta

[jash-updates]

Most normal energy drink consumer

[leverage-ot3]

hozier starting to sing take me to church and then unfurling a pride flag healed something in me actually

if you listen closely you can hear me yell ‘oh my god’ when he does it

[ryonello]

💥I FINALLY DID IT !!!!!💥 mirage body pillow preorders now LIVE 🎉 ╰ code DAKITIME for $20 off him - first 10 buyers only 👀

✧ thank yall for the support i hope u like him 🥰

[ungrateful-cyborg-moved]

In Memory Of Akira Toriyama (1955 - 2024)

(Cerberus, Chaos DC)

[sanderssideswriting]

Yeah the ts crit community really is mostly on tumblr. If any crit on twitter is brave enough to call out thomas or even just ask a SIMPLE INNOCUOUS question like ‘hey whens the next sanders sides coming out’ they get dog-piled by his followers. Just now my twitter tl algorithm made some posts pop up from ppl I don’t even follow and they’re just defending thomas + his patreon and saying that we’re just angry jealous ppl who don’t understand what goes on behind the scenes for him (as if THEY do?).

I swear, the die-hard fans that are still left, I’m sorry, they’re not a fandom. They’re a cult. A cult of personality centered around one man, purely there to keep stroking and defending his fragile ego. They’re no better than the sw*fties or any other group of ppl driven by blind devotion, obsession and white knighthood.

Oh 100%, there's next to no ts crit community on twitter, I got curious and checked a few days ago, searching stuff like Thomas Sanders Critisism, TSS Criticism, TSS critical, stuff that's used over here and the only thing that got anything was the first, but then it was just showing stuff with "Thomas Sanders" or even just "Sanders" in the post. So it's hard to organize that kind of community, plus the die hards and Thomas being on there.

I'd say the only place the fandom is pretty active is on Twitter, and that's soley because of Thomas, because he interacts with the fans and makes it so that there's motivation to make tss stuff. You know there's a community on there for it and if you're lucky Thomas will see it and retweet it. Otherwise it's kind of a joke that the fandom is dead until it's breifly revived whenever a new episode comes out. Which then leads to parasocial relationships and the idea that somehow continues to persist that Thomas is a poor boy who can do no wrong and if he did do wrong he didn't actually know any better. Never mind he's thirty-fucking-4. And his fans are half his age.

One this I do kinda disagree with is the idea that all his die hards and current fans are like 14, which I just don't think is true, I think they were like 14 when the last proper episode came out, and are now more along the lines of like 18 or around there. He's got a lot of patrons, including 17 people who paying $125 a month, that money has to come from somewhere and I doubt it's all from allowances.

[unriding]

hi evie !! how have you been ? :33 i hope you dont mind me borrowing you and moze for something ehehe <3

[kindahoping4forever]

Luke in Stuttgart

[gingermintpepper]

🌧️☔️

Oh man okay, sure!

🌧 - "Something angsty from your wip"

Featuring a snippet from one of my very many "Hyacinth's awakening" attempts:

His name is Hyacinthus Amyclus of Amyclae and once, he was a prince. He had been an auspicious prince, chosen by the gods themselves. Man of the People, they’d called him, the Sun Shepherd. He remembers because the sister in his mind wears braided laurels on her arm. Women weren’t to wear laurels. Not like the ones he’d had. He remembers the him who’d laughed at such a declaration, the shock in the eyes of the man who’d dared to question the habits of his prince and princess. If it were against divine law for a woman to wear her brother’s laurels then let the lord of the laurel come down from the heavens and tear them from her himself.  Yes, he’d laughed then. Had stood his ground, had protected his sister’s limited freedoms.  Maybe that’s why he’s here now. Alone. In the dark. With nothing but fading memories for company. He’d tested the gods one too many times and now he was condemned to hell.  “It’s not like you to be so self-pitying, Hyacinthus.” The memory of warm hands cling to him. Bright fingers which cup the edge of his jaw, a softer smile than that of his brother, a closer touch than that of his sister’s. It slips from his jaw down to his neck. Pinches the side of his throat. Right, of course. How could he regret questioning the gods when they were so damn annoying? A laugh like honey seeps into his ear, the scent of laurel and reed. “That’s better.”  This too is punishment. For which crime, Hyacinth can’t quite remember, but he was certain this was divine providence. Maybe his pride, for daring to possess a god. Maybe his hubris for believing he would be an exception to the fates.  “Now, that’s not entirely fair, my dear.” And him, with his aureate hair like the rays of the sun and his darkly shining eyes as rich and gold as the honeycomb. He, who lingers above Hyacinthus’ prone body even now, picking at his corpse and leaving marks on his death-pale skin, he was the cruellest punishment of them all. A teasing laugh like wind over the rolling hills, cold kisses that do not fill the aching emptiness carved and bleeding in Hyacinthus’ chest. He is the only thing that is more ghost than memory. His madness given golden form and domain over him, the only man he had ever bared his throat to over and over and over again.  “Is this not an eternity as I promised? Here, with me?”  Hyacinthus feels his cold hands on his throat, mere whispers of the heat his body recalls in that foggy once-upon-a-time of his memories. Fine hairs flower petal soft spill onto his forehead, must be making a blood stain of gold on the ground around him. There is no air for him to breathe, no muscle for him to tense and yet he is flush with bitterness anew. “I do not know where I am. Or how much time has passed. Or when next I will see my family.”  The impression of his palm is smaller than the one in Hyacinthus’ memory. Maybe, like his sister, this phantom too will break down and fade away. Maybe that is why he can no longer feel the overwhelmingness of his heat. “Those things lay deep in the domain of the dead. I cannot grant them to you.”  How many times have they had this exchange? How many more times would they say these things to each other?  “Then let me die. Pay my fee and let me die.”  Over and over again.

And ☔ - "Talk about/give a synopsis for a fic you'll probably never write"

Admittedly, there are a lot of those just because I have so many brainworms all the time but one of the concepts I've recently accepted will just remain a warm memory to go back to when I'm feeling down is a 5+1 fic with Ares and Artemis discovering, raising and releasing the Stymphalian Birds! I'm really interested in Ares and Artemis' entanglements and the many things attributed to them both and the Stymphalian Birds have always been cool (to me) due to their nature + their habitat as swamp dwellers! The idea of Ares having found (or created!!) these little demon chickies and panicking because they ate something they weren't supposed to so he panics and brings them down to Artemis who looks at him and his jar of chirping baby birds then metaphorically slams the door in his face gives me immense joy. Ares, of course, bugs her until she agrees to help him keep them fed which leads to Artemis teaching how to hunt, Ares teaching her a thing or two about Olympian politics and a very big brood of birds between them both! Very cute, but it'll probably remain in the drafts.

[luciferslatte]

radioapple except lucifer has a nose today