#and just keeps holding himself back

[dent-de-leon]

It shatters my whole heart that Caleb was the one who fought the hardest to save Molly in that final battle, that Caleb is the one who dreams of “reunion.” Tries to dig Molly’s corpse up with his bare hands because he believes he’s already damned, because he thinks his soul is beyond saving but Molly isn’t. “I’m already going to hell anyway.”

Caleb feeling lost and aching and directionless in Aeor, his only guiding light Mollymauk. “I know that we are supposed to go where Molly is, or we wouldn’t have seen the things we’ve seen. We wouldn’t be the Mighty Nein.” “Why did we come all this way, if not for this? Why did we go so far, and fight so hard…?”

Caleb pleading with the rest of the Nein to give Molly one last chance, to try and risk a resurrection. Caleb being the one to cast the spell, perform the ritual, and still…even as Caleb promises Molly, “Empty no longer, Mr. Tealeaf,” he still doesn’t let himself give one of the offerings. He lets other members of the Nein have that moment to reach out to Molly and connect, to bargain with his soul and try to convince him to return to them.

Caleb wanted the rest of the Nein to have that, because he cared so much for all of them. Because he knows how important Molly is to Yasha, Beau, Jester—how badly they’d want to tell him that. And yet…it’s tragic, that Caleb starts this ritual, pours all his heart and soul into it, and then doesn’t let himself take an active part it. How it mirrors the way Caleb just happily watches Molly reunite with the rest of the Nein from afar, content to just stand by and watch the others “descend on Mollymauk” and embrace him. Caleb who has such deeply intense feelings about Mollymauk, who longs so badly to bring him home, and yet. He’s always holding himself back.

Caleb not letting himself tell Molly how badly he misses him until after he’s already lost him. Caleb only returning Molly’s forehead kiss when he thinks he’s gone for good, when he’s afraid he’ll never get another chance to return Molly’s affection…

Do you think the ritual could’ve gone differently if Caleb had let himself give an offering too? If he kissed Molly back before the spell was over, would it have made a difference—

[divineandmajesticinone]

THE HEART KILLERS (2024) I EP. 3 "I want you. Nothing more than that."

[corallapis]

[kizzer55555]

The Tournament

Trigger Warning for Violence

So you know how Danny is portrayed as the ghost king automatically after Pariah is defeated? What if there was more too it. Let’s say that Danny has joined a new hero team and is having fun and then there is some kind of ripple in the infinite realms that all magic users can feel. A tournament is being held to choose the new king. The reason it wasn’t held immediately upon Pariah’s defeat is because it took some time to get into contact with all the participants. Anyone eligible can attend the tournament. This includes those with royal blood, other ancients, anyone who meets a certain power level, anyone that have their own kingdom and people to rule over, or those who faught and sealed Pariah in the first place. Aka, Danny and Vlad. So Danny gets an invite to the tournament.

Now this can go two ways. One is that those ‘invited’ are obligated to attend. Like their core physically hurts if they try to refuse. And the tournament is dangerous. Creatures and demons and eldritch horrors from all over the infinite realms are attending.

Second option. The tournament is optional because it is very cut throat and usually a battle to the death (or in this case, until someone’s core is shattered) and with ghosts being able to survive a lot, the battles often end with missing limbs, spines ripped out, impailment, decapitation, and disembowelment to name a few. So many refuse to participate, not wanting to risk ceasing to exist. The problem though is that a dangerous person is participating (could be Vlad, could be another demonic villain of the JL) and unless they want this person to gain unlimited power through the crown and ring plus an army of undead, Danny has to participate. Or the world is doomed. And each time Danny goes through a trial or battle, (because there could be both.) he returns to the hero group with injures that would have killed a normal person. Practically drenched in his own ecto blood. (That’s if the heroes weren’t forced to watch their friend mid battle, unable to interfere. Man. That would suck if they had to watch his spine get ripped out or something. The screams alone. Maybe split the group so Danny can only bring a certain number of ‘guests’ and they rotate who goes?) And like, imagine what kind of conversation Danny would have. His team panicking about the impending threat of the new ghost king and Dany having to reveal that he is eligible to participate (if some outside force doesn’t reveal it for him) and being forced to compete in a tournament where you either die, or become a murderer.

[tempests-bards-and-birds]

please god make the "three time winner of the best bard of mondstadt" one of the earliest pieces of evidence we got for the samsara without us knowing it at the time because it would be so fucking funny

[trekkerac]

htinkign about.... the better world dimension from journal 3.... i hope it gets revisited somehow because there's no fucking way it's all fine and dandy over there.

[lotus-pear]

guys idk about you but i am NOT ready to delve into uncharted waters as we move into new content with bsd in the upcoming chapter.

this new chapter could include anywhere from ada reunion and a return back to yokohama OR to a new horrible twist after fyodor’s death, ensuring that if he lost then dazai would too. taking dazai down with him.

not to mention if we return back to yokohama that’s a whole other gut wrenching story as one ada member is selected to go to the port mafia. i am not ready to see the futile and tragic looks on the other agency members as they grit their teeth and watch one of their own step into the world of darkness. the tragedy of letting someone go after they have all reconciled. being separated again, but for good this time

[pergaminaa]

Dorian Havilliard Manon Blackbeak

[crystal-verse]

god i want. an au where it dosn't work. where it's just arr g'raha who's woken up, and he doesn't have all these memories and all these people keep looking at him like they're mourning someone. the world has changed and time has changed and all the people he knows have changed, but he hasn't changed, he was just sleeping, just sleeping, and the world nearly ended several times and apparently he helped prevent yet another end but he has no memory of this. they want him to join the scions. he does not know these people. (he barely knows the warrior of light, now, but did he ever truly know them in the first place?) his little sister is alive and well. she looks at him like a ghost. she's changed, and she's older than him now. he acts bratty and loud and brash to cover up the fact that he does not know anything it seems, and he is tired but he was sleeping for so long, so how could he be tired?

he doesn't know these people. they seem to know him. he wonders if he'd killed someone, when it was him and not that exarch who woke up. he wonders if it should have been him who was "killed" in that way, if it is him that lives and not that man who had known and become friends with all these figures from legend. he wonders if he'll always be fated to be a historian one step back from everything, because he simply cannot be a hero.

[s0fter-sin]

thinking about the way ghost doesn't hesitate to start killing shadows when graves betrays them but soap only takes one hostage

you can almost hear the voice in his head telling him it doesn't have to be this way; they can still talk it out

"i'm calling shepherd"

his first instinct when confronted with betrayal is to play it by the books; to go up the chain and sort it out democratically. that goes against everything we've seen him do; he’s quick to drop his enemies and bucks authority at every chance except for the one time he's confronted with the barrels of his allies' guns

he wants a peaceful resolution; for the first time we've ever seen, he doesn't want violence to be the answer

there has to be another fix, a solution that doesn't end with him killing the same men he's been working with; his friends

nothing's happened yet

it doesn't have to go this way

but ghost has been betrayed before. he knows the way this ends; either with him six feet under or his enemy

he doesn't hesitate

it's only when they knock alejandro out that soap shoots; when they spill the first blood and cross a line they can never come back from

only when ghost orders him to run and he has to cover his retreat

and somewhere along the line, between civilians’ screams and taunting voices, between his shaking breath and ghost steady in his ear, that naivety is stripped away; his trust turned to teeth that he uses to sink into throats of men he'd have given his life for

"be careful who you trust, sergeant; people you know can hurt you the most"

he's learned the price of trust

just like ghost did

but unlike ghost, he has someone to guide him through the aftermath

"good advice, It"

[ghost-bxrd]

Stuck picturing Talon!Dick getting swapped with an alternate universe Dick.

I'm leaning towards Wayne Family Adventures Dick, since I want Happy Dick and supportive Batfam.

Talon Dick finds himself in a world strange to him, no one responds, his codes don't work... He finally does the only sensible thing. Goes to hide somewhere in the sewers till he can work out what happened.

Meanwhile WFA Batfam is frantically searching for their Dick...and Jason (because Jason is going to be the only one Talon!Dick will let himself be found by) runs across him in the sewers.

Jason is horrified, thinking the Court somehow got to Dick and turned him into a Talon (maybe it took them a while to locate Talon!Dick), but he somehow manages to coax the very confused Talon home to the Manor.

Everyone is naturally panicking, Bruce calling everyone from JLA to Talia in search of a way to heal Talons, Tim has locked himself up for non stop research, and Jason is on cuddle duty. (He hates it, but it seems to be the only way to calm Dick down, and there's no way he'll deny his brother that bit of comfort if he can)

While Talon!Verse Batfam finds themselves with a Sunshine Coded Chatterbox Human Dick Grayson.

Bruce angsting, realizing this is what that little boy from the Circus would have grown up into if only Bruce was in time, if he had gotten their before the Court did...

I’m always up for some Wayne Family Adventures love! The perfect fluff and comfort story 🥹💚

And excuse me but how much more heartbreaking would it be if Talon!Dick swapped universes AFTER Jay’s death? And then there’s suddenly a grown up version of his owlet in the sewers, calling for him, coaxing him out slowly and softly and looking like a heartbreaking prediction of what his Jason could have grown into if Dick hadn’t— if he wasn’t—

And yes, everyone is freaking the heck out about Dick suddenly being a talon, rightfully suspecting the Court got to him right under their noses. But none of that explains why Dick now categorically refuses to let Jason out of his sight, or allow anybody else to approach him on threat of dismemberment.

Meanwhile Owl Song Tim tries very hard to keep it together upon having WFA!Dick dote on him like his Dick used to. Before Ethiopia. And everyone just kind of— maneuvers around mentioning that their Jason is dead and Dick isn’t doing okay because WFA!Dick keeps talking about his family and Jason being a menace as per usual so logically that’s got to mean his Jason never died and—-

Nobody is having a truly good time except WFA!Dick, who’s absolutely DELIGHTED with all the cuddles he’s getting. Even Bruce pulls him down onto the couch and just— hugs him. And Tim curls up against him all tentative at first before absolutely melting. Seriously, why can’t HIS family be cuddly like this? It’s absolutely awesome.

Now all that’s missing are a couple more kids that this Bruce obviously still needs to collect and—- wait a minute, where’s Jason? (“He’s… staying with a friend,” Tim says, refusing to meet his eyes, and Bruce’s arms around him tighten. “Don’t worry. He’ll- he’ll be back soon…”)

Meanwhile WFA!Jason “No. I’m letting you sleep in my room, but I’m NOT taking you to the goddamn restroom with me, Dickwing!”

Dick: 🥺🦉

Jason: “No means no!”

Dick: 😔🦉🪦

Tim: “just friggin take him and spare us the argument Jason. We all know how this is gonna end after the last ten times anyway.”

Damian: *discreetly planning Jason’s second death*

[bericas]

isaac & scott / mason & theo | sometimes all i think about is you

[shadowuserannie]

Unreal

You know what would've been fun? If the elves had indefinite lifespans but not indefinite bodies. and them just like. not talking about it it being sort of an open secret that your parents take you aside to quietly explain, then make sure to say 'never mention this again'

Because just think about it. Elves taking a special elixir that maintains their body in its prime state. Skip a day and the decay is obvious, especially if you're already centuries old.

Some of the older elves obsessing because the elixir isn't perfect, it staves it off but they're not eternally twenty anymore, they look human forty now and forty is too much by elvin standards so they get plastic surgery.

Except elves' surgery consists of more elixirs. And the elixirs are almost perfect, too. They don't have the plastic botox effect that humans' plastic surgery does, that makes their face harder to move. The elves just...have this weird feeling about them. Like there's no obvious plastic surgery effect. It's just that uncanny valley feeling of 'face too perfect, too unreal.'

Elves obsessing over taking their elixirs, because there's a single Wanderling of an elf who was an Ancient. She lived in isolation. One day someone visited her and screamed because all that was left was a pile of ashes on the floor within a dress. She didn't want to live anymore and skipped a single day of her elixirs.

Elves can live forever, but unless they use elixirs to maintain their body then they will die. Except this contradicts itself, doesn't it? The very definition of quasi-immortality is living unless an outside force kills you. Your own body shouldn't qualify. And of course it's Sophie who brings this into question when she first hears it.

So what's happening is that elves aren't actually immortal. They just take elixirs to stop their bodies from aging and decaying to nothing. Otherwise, they have a lifespan just longer than a human.

And the very first elixir one takes to slow their aging, preparing your body for the rest, is Youth.

[freyadragonlord]

I strongly believe every version of Yoo Joonghyuk needs a version of Kim Dokja (and vice versa) and I will say, 41!Joonghyuk and Lee Hakhyun are particularly precious to me

[daily-hanamura]

[rosemaryreality]

So...

holy shit this conversation, i have. so many thoughts.

i'm like, 80% sonic is gonna face some kind of betrayal from either dread or nine