#and the conflict of that duality

[hella1975]

oh btw ch41 being called 'do no wrong' is from the song 'hearing damage' by thom yorke which you absolutely should listen to while thinking about zuko it drives me up the wall

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

There are people out there who genuinely think that the Starks aren’t thematically linked to ice in a way that is meaningful and central to the story? What?? I mean, never mind that they’re characterized as exclusively living in a frozen land, it is said that a Stark who goes south of the Neck melts. It’s not like their ancestral sword is called Ice. It’s not like they rule a castle called Winterfell. It’s not like their house words are “Winter is coming”. It’s not like their banner is a direwolf (a creature that is now synonymous with the snowy north) running on what is described as either snow or an ice-white background. It’s not like they are consistently characterized with having icy or cold demeanors to the point of it being a house trait (e.g., Benjen, Ned, Jon). It’s not like they ruled thousands of years as Kings of Winter. It’s not like the Starks, the wolves, are said to be uniquely suited to surviving winter. It’s not like a big part of their house legacy and how they even came to be is the construction of a giant ice Wall. It’s not like a key historical event in the last couple centuries is the Pact of Ice (Stark) and Fire (Targaryen). Apparently none of that matters 🙄 It’s so disingenuous to claim that any house with First Men blood would take on the role of ice. No, that’s a special characteristic given to the STARKS, and their connection with ice and winter and snow has thematic relevance.

[royalarchivist]

Jaiden: Cucurucho, you have a lot of power, right?

Cucurucho: ...I don't know. Maybe.

Roier: Ah... Yes, you know, don't act like a dumbass, you have it. You have it, man. Eh?

Jaiden: Is there a way for us to protect all the Eggs? Do you know? I don't want anything to happen to the Eggs that happened to Bobby.

Cucurucho: Ha ha ha

Roier: WHAT? [Smacks Cucurucho]

Jaiden: [Bops him] Headpats.

Cucurucho: Maybe.

Jaiden: [Continues to bop him] Headpats. C'mon, I can get it out of you! Headpats! Chin scratches! Belly rubs!

Roier: [Joins Jaiden in bopping Cucurucho, chuckling and laughs]

Jaiden: Yeah? He's comin' around!

[Jaiden and Roier both laugh]

[aventurineswife]

The rain was relentless, a cold, steady downpour that made the world around you blur into muted shadows and shimmering reflections. The alleyway where you had led Aventurine was eerily quiet, the only sound the gentle hiss of raindrops against the concrete and the distant rumble of thunder.

You straddled him, your knees pressing into the wet ground as you held the cold steel of the knife against his neck. His eyes—those damn eyes—were locked on yours, a mesmerizing swirl of intensity and mystery. The tip of the blade gleamed in the dim light, its weight a constant reminder of the task you had set out to complete. The task you had promised yourself to finish.

But now, as you looked at him—really looked at him—you couldn’t deny the truth that had slowly crept up on you.

You had fallen for him.

Aventurine's lips curled into a faint smile, that all-knowing, cocky grin of his that never seemed to fade. He didn’t look scared. Not really. If anything, he looked... intrigued. Amused, even.

"My best enemy is you," he said softly, his voice almost drowned out by the storm.

Your heart clenched at his words. He always had a way of twisting everything, even now, as your knife hovered over his throat. Your fingers tightened around the handle, but you couldn’t bring yourself to strike. The reality of what you were about to do weighed heavily on you, a crushing burden that made every breath feel shallow, every thought fragmented.

“Shut up, or I’ll slit your throat open.” you hissed, trying to keep your composure. But your voice wavered, betraying the turmoil within you.

Aventurine’s smile softened, almost imperceptibly, but his gaze never wavered from yours. He reached up slowly, his fingers brushing the side of your face, his touch light but deliberate. The warmth of his hand made your breath catch, a sharp, involuntary response to his touch. You flinched, a reflex you couldn’t control, and he noticed. His fingers lingered in your hair, tucking a wet strand behind your ear as he whispered, “You’re beautiful…”

The words were gentle, and they cut through the storm in a way nothing else could. His voice, low and sincere, felt like a knife to your chest. You felt everything—his warmth, his tenderness, and yet... everything you had worked for, everything you had planned, suddenly felt so fragile.

You pressed the knife harder against his throat, the cold steel against his skin a tangible reminder of your mission. But your resolve was slipping. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. He was the enemy. You were supposed to end him.

"Don’t... don’t say that," you whispered, your voice trembling despite yourself. "I’m not... I'm not who you think I am."

Aventurine’s eyes softened for the briefest of moments, a flicker of understanding in his gaze. His hand remained in your hair, the touch lingering, as if he knew the battle raging inside you.

For a moment, there was only the sound of the rain, the distant thunder, and the beating of your own heart. The world seemed to slow, the decision you had to make hanging in the air between you like a fragile thread.

And then, he whispered again, "You don’t have to do this."

You wanted to believe him. You wanted to so badly. But the knife in your hand was the only thing that felt real, the only thing that tied you to the life you had chosen. The life you had to live.

But even as you wavered, even as your heart screamed at you to stop, you knew it was too late. You had already crossed the line. There was no turning back now.

You pressed the knife just a little harder, feeling the tension build between you, both of you trapped in this moment of conflict and pain. The rain soaked your clothes, plastering them to your skin, but it couldn’t wash away the weight of your decision.

Aventurine's smile never left his lips, even as your hand trembled, poised to strike.

And in that instant, you wondered if he had known all along. If he had always been playing the game, just like you.

"Goodbye..." you whispered, your voice barely audible over the storm.

You closed your eyes, the knife ready to deliver its final blow, but then you paused.

What if, in that moment, you weren’t the only one playing the game?

The rain fell harder.

I'm not sorry 🏃‍♀️💚💛

[buckevantommy]

i love how tommy reappears as this cool calm and collected guy very settled in his skin and his career and has this functional wardrobe and plays basketball and goes on classic dates. but he's also like: steal a chopper for my old pals? i'm in. fly my new pal to vegas for a fight? i'm cool. kiss the adorable firefighter? of course. daddy kink? that me.

[dmc-questions-anon]

They care so much about each other. They resent each other. They trust each other. They don't trust each other. They don't want the other to ever leave their side. They feel like the other's presence is suffocating. They want the other to know everything about them. They can't let them know anything about them.

[nothipsterenoughforthis]

You know what’s impressive? (As someone outside the law enforcement circles, more of an “outsider looking in”)

It’s 25 year old Matsuda Touta being invited to attend an ICPO conference with Yagami Soichiro, Police Investigation Bureau Chief

Like???

Sure, it was his first meeting at the start of the series, but do you know what I was doing at 25 years old? Not going to INTERPOL, aka International Criminal Police Investigation, conferences with the Chief of my department, that’s for sure

What a guy

[didsomeonesayventus]

thinking about how I saw someone say "I wish alcryst stayed badass like in his intro scene" and like.

idk how to tell u that i thought the appeal was this lil fella at odds with himself on every level. He is FIGHTING himself at every level at two extremes, almost literally tearing himself apart from it, self destructive as he tries to build something "worthy" of himself. He's capable of such devastating brutality in battle (high Dex trend making for good crit chances and the only unit in the game who can learn Luna) and unbelievable compassion in the same small vessel (a keen eye for details, his talent being finding the best in others) with a judgment hot as a glowing white knife and capable of forgiving as easily as it would bend should new information present itself.

He hates himself he loves his world he is idealistic and in awe of everything around him but also able to see the bitterness of reality not always being so kind. He feels he's worthless and yet plunges into any course with everything he has and only the slightest hesitation and a bold- perhaps at times concerning -recklessness and courage to send himself, a ranged fighter, straight to the front lines.

He actually loves people, despite his every attempt to stay out of their way and not take up too much space of his own. He presents as timid and with a worthless confidence and yet when you get down to it or threaten his loved ones his spine is forged from steel and will not yield until the threat has passed. He is passionate and emotional, quiet and thoughtful. He aspires to be a strategist. He loves reading fairy tales.

Alcryst is a storm of a person, forever at war with who he wants to be. The whole appeal in is his wildly different sides u fool.

[spending-life-pretending]

If season 1 of Arcane was centered around the conflict of “which one’s it gonna be, Jinx or Powder?” with the ramifications of that one decision rippling out to affect everyone else’s storylines, then the analogous character whose internal conflict is central to season 2 is Caitlyn.

[wayti-blog]

"us versus them" is the biggest trap we invented for ourselves

1forall0allfor1

[summertimemusician]

Linktober Shadow Day 6

Shadow Beast

The Twilight Princess fan in me really came out on this one huh? I blame the sleep deprivation. We never quite addressed the effects of the Twili Magic on Twilight and how it's only sheer force of will and the fact he's so darn kind, Midna's influence and Time teaching him the Song of Healing first being the main factor in making sure he doesn't fall huh? Even more so than the One Cutscene. We also need to talk more about the fact we technically kill Midna's people and how by the end of it all Twi is so changed by the Twilight Realm who's it's own can of worms that, much like Time he can't quite go home as himself me thinks, as a treat to myself

Mostly Twilight x Reader, this goes out to all of the folks who never quite recovered from Twilight Princess and the fact we never got that sequel (I mean it gave us BOTW and TOTK and Wild, but at what cost?), but can be read as Link x Reader either on the platonic or romantic.

Don't think there's any warning this time but might edit later if needed.

Actually yeah there is one warning

TW:

References to body horror typical to Twilight Princess, though I recommend not reading it I'd you're squeamish period.

Even after so long, you and Twilight could still remember the beauty and solemnity of the Twilight Realm, with it’s zircon skies with clouds of trapped fire and rains of viper obsidian.

The silence of the infection upon the realm of light broken only by the echoes of the howling elegy of the Twili and Interlopers who came before creeping over the land like rot and wither over flowers, the lament of the lost spirits of the people and animals of Hyrule falling over your spirit like a shroud, a shared hymm from two worlds reality had been twisted, only both of it’s princess, one filled the luster of empyreal sorrow in her mind and one with the scorch abyssal fury in her heart knowing to see the reflective tragedy befallen to their people. With Link as the one who restored the memory of what once was in both worlds as divinity and calamity sang in his bones and you a witness to the restoration of harmony to the discordant symphony, the two different songs of light and shadow refusing to let go of either of you in an eternal duet.

(Once touched by magic, it shall never leave the one if holds onto Twilight may have been the one with the Beast in his soul, with the howl of a wolf, the bite of shades in his veins and the lament of innocents taking precedence over anything purely because he learned how to silence the whispers of the one’s who made a grab for heaven’s throat and we’re pushed in the cracks of reality for their prideful vánitas even as he could taste it in the back of his tongue, twining around his ribs and overgrowing into his shattered mirror heart like vines, flowering with the divinity and eternal nature of the Hero’s Spirit, already having the hunt of the Fierce Deity in it’s veins and the remains of cursed divinity welcoming the new aspect merrily so he could bear it. The song of the innocent wrongly punished among the sinners rang into your mind, scratched at your skin and dug it’s claws around your throat, chocking you with sorrow and regret, more willing to leave gouges than to let go of someone’s who’s looked into the reverse side of the sacred realm and wept with grief for it’s people and the curse of it’s beauty.

It would never leave you, Link or Zelda, who learned who love the darkness the way Midna did, madness and unsightly delight and all.)

While the people of Hyrule merely became trapped as observers at best, if they were lucky, Midna’s raging grief and resentment quickly became obvious, once she revealed that rotten Zant had done to her and her people, twisted into a new form, distorted in body and trapped in mind like the animals and beasts of Hyrule, their pain driving them in becoming feral attack hounds for the usurper, their howling screams as much sorrow, wailing in an attempt to let their agonized, tortured souls to escape from it’s mouth, a futile attempt to flee from the strain of reality forgetting their true form in favor of Zant’s twisted design, of being used as sentient canvases for cruelty and ruthlessness, of their will being stepped over in favor of corrupting recreation.

Of how it only didn’t quaff down at Midna’s mind because of the nature of her ephemerality, fully beloved by the Realm of Darkness, of how she loathed him for it and wouldn’t wish her fate of that of her people’s on any living or dead soul, once she came to love the Realm of Light through Zelda’s sacrifice.

Which was why, when you saw three of the victims of the telltale twisting from darkness utilized with the intent to drive one insane, a familiar looking plate of stone engraved on the remains of ashes from their identity, the curling of distorted, solid darkness making crooked mishapen manes, bent out of shape from their too long torso and long, long arms adorned with twitching, deformed claws, you feel very justified in way your blood froze, holding onto Wild’s arms and yanking with all you had so his shot will miss, his yelp of surprise swallowed by the bone cracking, blood curdling screech from one of the beasts as a Skyward Strike grazed it’s petrified flesh.

You feel something warm drip down your ears, taste the promise of violence and the cry of lost souls on the back of your tongue and swallow it down as the memory of the Twilight Realm attempted to bite and crack your ribcage to quaff down your heart, to devour it bones and all, calling out in desperation, “Don’t! That’s a person!”

Sky freezes, as still as a statue, Legend curses the heavens crimson in a way you are so glad Wind isn’t around to hear as he retreats Twilight snarls, the wolf in him revolted and disgusted, you wonder if the Twilight is singing in his mind too as he restrains himself from reaching for the crystal as nails just a tad too sharp invite droplets of blood to one hand, grimm as a graveyard “We need to get them together anyway, felling just one won’t be enough.”

You grimace, releasing Wild, keeping your eye on the Shadow Beasts and another on your group, pointedly not mentioning the twitch in Four, amethyst clouding his gaze and the prism of his eyes turning gray with memories you and Twilight both knew all too well, of the grimace in Time’s otherwise stony countenance, you’d wished to avoid bloodshed of whoever was turned against their will, but you and Twilight both knew that might not be possible, death, unfortunately, might be the greatest mercy you can grant these poor souls.

(The Twilight is harmonizing in your ears, jeering, you feel the Interlopers insanity and the Twili’s lament on your teeth. As lovely as it could be cruel, the merry feeling upon meeting, the sorrow at a parting.

If you ever see the Shadow, you might just try indulging the echo by offering it’s blood as tribute. You'd make it hurt. The fact it learned the spell used to deform reality in such a way was cruel and vile.)

“Legend, how is your magic?” shoots Warriors, analyzing, calculating, it snaps the purple back into Four’s gaze, brings his mind back to focus as he reaches into his inventory for his Moon Pearl, Twilight is circling the beasts with single minded purpose, herding them together and prowling as he would as a wolf, Wild thankfully listened to your warning and had switched from the more destructive Flame and Lightning Arrows to ice ones. It doesn’t contain them for long but it gives a few precious seconds to strategize.

Legend catches on, switching to the Ice Rod on one hand and grasping his own Moon Pearl with the other, Sky has another Skyward Strike ready, but doesn’t release it, you switch from your sword to accepting a Magic Rod tossed at you from Wild, “Good enough.”

You breath in shakily, the symphony of the Twilight Realm has quieted, more lament than anthem as it’s Hero steps back, returning to your side, he nods grimly, “... Then, let’s end this quickly.”

You know your will boys will do their best to heal them, and failing that, you hope that they’ll hear the requiem of the Twili rather than the lament once they’re at peace, that they'll find some form of threnody.

It is a horrible thing, to be forced to die as a beast.

[bericas]

scott appreciation week (day 1) → you're an omega

scott in s2 + soap by penelope scott

[tenth-sentence]

Tanis forced the human side of him to take possession of his soul today.

"DragonLance Chronicles: Dragons of Autumn Twilight" - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

[lothken]

“Sweet Duality”

One who is both bee and beekeeper

Lives an interesting life,

For amongst honey, there are stings and smokers

That each cause strife.

One’s bee finds security and prosperity,

Its keeper shrouded.

The bee cannot easily keep its honey

With its hearth clouded.

One’s keeper, a world of sweet regularity,

The bees always buzzing.

Each day they face a harsh duality,

Caring for those that sting.

When life lets you be both keeper and bee,

Each creature faces its thorn.

Either role still shrouded in mystery,

Though only to one role may you be sworn.

[simphic]

Getting back into gameplay and idk if I want to continue my legacy one or just a new challenge.... I love that I start stuff and don't finish. Isn't that fun lmao

[spaghetticat3899]

Seeing people draw comics makes me want to draw comics, but I suck at digital comics, but traditional art isn’t as popular and-