#another character introduced!

[intercomkris]

october 13th 1995 : georgina liu, jennifer clifton bestfriends forever! since the 1980s - jaime's diary from sixth grade 🧸✏️

[benevolenterrancy]

~ Extremely Unwilling Magical Protagonists Attempt To Outrun The Plot And Not Fucking Die ~

(@takofukkatsumi this tag is from a while ago but it hasn't left my brain -- L-Space got very weird all of a sudden)

[cyberpunkboytoy]

One thing I love about Alien Stage is how they're utilizing having two head animators, specifically their art styles.

Vivinos has a very youthful style, with characters generally looking very rounded with small, circular heads (for example). The team leans more into Vivinos's style during flashbacks of everyone as kids, but also notably in the videos for My Clematis, Unknown Til The End, and Black Sorrow.

When Mizi, Till, and Ivan all first debut on Alien Stage, they look youthful...but in subsequent rounds, the project shifts more into QMENG'S art style. That means longer, more angular faces, sharper features... and in combination with everything else, that more mature style makes the characters look like they have aged.

The events of participating in Alien Stage have changed them, and that is reinforced through the art Direction. Mizi in ROMH looks different than she did in My Clematis. Ivan and Till look different in Cure than they did in their initial rounds. They are different. Alien Stage has done that to them.

[psychotic-nonsense]

"I'm sorry."

It's the first thing Steve says after everything.

After getting Vecna Cursed. After nearly dying. After a hallucination of Eddie saved him. After running through a looped forest. After finding sanctuary in Steve's memory of that Starcourt bathroom. After Eddie reveals himself as Eddie.

It's the only thing he can think of. It's not big enough to fit everything, but it's the only thing that fits in his mouth.

"Don't be."

Maybe that's the only thing Eddie can think of too. The only thing Eddie can bear to say.

Because don't be can't stop Steve's eyes from watering when he sees the vest in his closet. Don't be can't stop Steve's feet from dragging him to the cemetery every evening to clean Eddie's graffiti-covered tombstone. Don't be can't stop Steve from sitting beside Wayne and listening to him talk about the Eddie he remembers. Don't be can't stop Eddie's body from showing up in Steve's dreams, nor Eddie's corpse from his nightmares. Don't be couldn't keep the pain away enough, didn't stop Vecna from latching onto it while Steve was walking alone in the woods.

Don't be isn't enough for what Steve wants to hear. But even stuck here waiting, hoping, for someone to get Steve out, there just isn't enough time.

"I miss you."

"...Why?"

Eddie says it back so quickly, so quietly, like it's just unfathomable to him. Maybe it is, considering their last memories. But their eyes meet and he looks just as sad, just as longing, as Steve.

"You were my friend."

Steve can't help but say it like that. Like they were friends for years instead of days. Like Eddie was that important to him in their final moments. Like his heart really aches for Eddie every second of the apocalypse.

Can't help but say it like he means it.

"I wish we could've had more time..."

Steve's voice cracks a little there as he turns away, hiding. It's all he wants. It's all Vecna used to entice him with. It's all that's keeping him going, to finally fulfill the last request Eddie made. It's all he has left to feel close to Eddie.

The Eddie that's sitting right next to him, silent, his sight weighing on Steve's skin. Conscious and aware and the real Eddie. Trapped in Vecna's head as a backup power source, yet who still risked everything to come save Steve. Who Steve will never see again because killing Vecna means killing Eddie for good, and his heart doesn't want it, is begging for another solution...

But for once, his broken head overpowers his shattered heart.

"Maybe we did."

Eddie takes Steve's hand. Meets Steve's surprised look with his own small smile of hope. They're both suddenly tearing up, eyes glistening with life in this gray stall.

"Maybe in another world, we got a second first chance. A first second chance. Maybe even a third, or fourth. Maybe in a different life, we had everything we wanted. Because you, Steve Harrington, are too good for me to be doomed to meet just once."

And for a moment, Steve sees it. Feels it. Versions of them connected through the universe.

Little kids playing in the lake. One with bruised skin and shaved hair, loud but unfathomably lonely. One with a bruised heart and soft eyes, timid but stubbornly hopeful.

A rockstar with glittering chains, center stage in the spotlight. A set of eyes in the crowd or behind the curtain, watching only him.

A werewolf and a vampire, two cryptids of horror, meeting in the dead of a full moon night to feel safe with the only other one who understands.

A future where they won, where the only death was the one that mattered. A process of healing and learning, coming home to a family every single day.

A world without pain, without their hell, where two high schoolers found freedom from their shackles and company in each other. Hiding away together in the dark corners of the town.

Steve even sees other versions of them. Versions that he knows were originally never supposed to meet, yet forces so much greater than them pulled them together.

A metalhead drug dealer, constantly getting into trouble with one nail-bat-weilding cop.

A criminal's fugitive nature leading him to a rugged trailer park, and the dangerous owner within one such home.

An eccentric king in an old coliseum, always choosing one particular warrior as his champion.

A young programmer being pulled away from his work by sobs above his apartment, running upstairs to check on the law student that recently moved in.

Two actors, finding an easy friendship in the months of filming one season of a show that would change their lives.

In that moment, Steve's overwhelmed by the closeness he suddenly feels with the soul beside him. Falling into tears, he pulls Eddie into a tight hug, holding him so so close to convey everything he can't say. Feeling Eddie hold him back, hearing everything Eddie can't say in return.

Familiar music comes on outside the stall. Robin's voice calls out to him, telling him to come home.

And when he does leave, Steve hopes that someone out there will understand that he never can. Because here in Eddie's arms is the only place that will ever truly feel like home.

"Thank you... for everything, Eddie."

Thank you, Steve. For everything and more..."

--------------------

- List of AUs, in order, after, "Versions of them connected through the universe": Childhood Friends / Rockstar!Eddie / Werewolf!Steve & Vampire!Eddie / Eddie Survives / No Upside Down & High School

- List of Multiverse Steddie AUs, in order, after, "...yet forces so much greater than them pulled them together": Eddie x Gator / Baron x Michael / Geta x Sean / Keys x Eric / Quinn and Keery

[carebooks]

the only good thing to come out of D4 rise of red was the sapphic energy from the present and the past

[jerreeeeeee]

actually its kind of crazy how little we actually see the starblaster crew interact with each other. like other than tres horny boys and each of the pairs in that trio, and like, arguably lucretia and thb, barry and lup, and lup and taako, most of the relationships between the crew are only a few lines, if anything? like obviously in-universe they're all really close and griffin says that (time enough to grow indescribably close), but there's a lot we don't see. like, taako & barry, for example, have a handful of moments, lines we can point to that show they are really close (you're my family, taako, can i speak frankly?), but as far as actual screentime, there's really very little.

and even those i mentioned before, like, lup has more screentime with barry and taako than with anyone else, there's the whole little legato monologue about her and barry's relationship and she has (comparatively) a lot of scenes with taako, but also, as a character, she's only around for maybe a sixth of the show, so there's just not a lot of time to work with?

and that's not to mention the relationships we can figure were probably present in-universe, but literally never see, like lup & davenport. and on that note, i actually can't think of any other pairs who don't interact at least once, but still, very rarely. like now i'm considering davenport & barry. who we hardly see but there is the fact that barry cast command on him to drink the ichor. it's one line in the show and the implications are never really mentioned but there's a lot of significance to be wrung out of this one tiny interaction. barry condemns lucretia's methods of stealing agency from their family in the service of the greater good, but when he thinks it's best for davenport, does the same on a smaller scale? barry doesn't have the time to try to convince him to drink, he needs davenport back to himself now, because davenport is someone dependable, a leader, someone who barry knows will be capable and decisive and relieve him of the responsibility he's been shouldering by himself? that barry knows davenport won't begrudge his use of the spell, because he'll see it as pragmatic, necessary, assistance, and forgive him for it? none of that is necessarily supported in canon but it can be extrapolated from, again, kind of a throwaway line.

the non-thb crew have presence and are important to the narrative, but most of that comes from thematic significance rather than them as individuals, you know? we hardly see lup and barry and davenport (maybe arguably lucretia too, though we see more of her than them), but we see the echoes of their decisions and their goals and their love for the rest of their family and the way they shape the story.

but actually, even that's not entirely accurate, because as significant as they are in that way, their presence isn't only due to that, they're full characters too. they have personalities and depth and connection, they're not only plot devices. like, maybe griffin needed to explain why lup was missing, and that's why she became a lich, and her needing to be a lich is why she and barry had their romance, but also, if that were all there was to it, the legato monologue wouldn't exist, the best day ever wouldn't exist. those are scenes designed to build lup as a character through her connections to other characters and to the central themes of balance, not to fix plot holes. it's just that all of that character building takes place in a pretty small fraction of the show compared to tres horny boys, who have the entire thing. idk its interesting and impressive how some of the deepest characters and most profound relationships were developed in a very short amount of time

[st4ngray]

[OC] Getting experimental with my digital painting technique kyaghh

[rapidhighway]

come on guys, the criticism that there aren't any girl characters in sonic 3 is not.. a criticism of them not introducing them in THIS movie. This is the third movie. There was a TV show. The SCU could've introduced a single female character earlier, but they didn't. They took the time to develop a cop, they spent the time talking about Sonic's backstory that's only ever used so the movie has one minute of character being sad. The Knuckles show was an empty void to be filled with literally anything, and they still didn't do it. There was time, the only female character is Maddie, who barely does anything because the plot focuses on her cop boyfriend. It's completely valid to criticize this and saying "they can't introduce another character in sonic 3 because there's other things to do" literally does nothing. Why would anyone defend a huge movie franchise having no female characters after all this time

[cnl0400]

If they aren't going to make Thirteen interact with the boys because misogynists can't cope with their boy talking to a woman, the least they could do Is introduce another woman so Thirteen and the new woman can be isolated together

Like how you have to get some types of pets in a pair so they don't feel alone, do you get what I'm saying???

[hakusins]

tw // injury, bruises, blood, degrading tattoos

276 days later - Eri the Orphan

[guardian-angle22]

"You haven't changed a bit, huh."

[firedjinni]

hollow knight detail #1,437 that makes my brain whirr like an overheated laptop:

the NPC names and boss titles in hollow knight display in a way that strongly implies they are being written from the knight's perspective -- NPC titles only appear once the NPC tells you their name; boss titles are usually loose descriptors or obvious titles unless you already know them; dream boss titles change in ways reflective of what the player (and by extension the knight) has learned about them; title changes seem to be very rooted in the knight's perspective ('broken vessel' -> 'lost kin' yeah but also shit like 'millibelle' -> 'millibelle the thief') -- and hornet never introduces herself by name.

[kyouka-supremacy]

I think we should just bring back Wungo Wednesday and start a fandom collective anime rewatch

[walk-to-gallows]

I do kinda agree they reduced Castiel characters to being all about Dean tho... That was true.

Castiel’s character has always been about Dean. He was created for Dean, his development was lead by his relationship with Dean, that has been true since his conception.

I don’t know how you could watch 12 seasons of Castiel betraying heaven for Dean, risking himself for Dean, dying for Dean, being fundamentally changed by Dean, and think that he was “reduced” to anything.

This isn’t some obscure subtext, the show is brazenly open about how Dean has affected Castiel. A couple episodes in and Dean is already his weakness, Heaven restricts and monitors him because of his fondness for Dean;

“Castiel…he’s not here, see he has this weakness; he likes you” - Uriel, season 4

“My superiors have begun to question my sympathies…I was getting too close to the humans in my charge. You.” - Castiel, season 4

“I’m hunted, I rebelled, and I did it—all of it—for you” - Castiel, season 5

“When Castiel first laid a hand on you in hell he was lost” - Hester, season 6

“You wrapped yourself in the flag of heaven, but ultimately it was all about saving one human” - Metatron, season 9

“I will cure you of your human weakness, the same way I did my own” -Ishim, season 12

This isn’t just about shipping, Castiel’s loyalty to Dean—and consequently the Winchester’s—is a vital part of his character. His love for others is a human trait he learnt from Dean, and it being highlighted in the later seasons doesn’t take away from his character; it is his character.

Then there's the matter of the underlying themes of S15, which is when Castiel and Dean's relationship is especially important, but that's another word-vomit post waiting to happen.

[kommandonuovidiavoli]

The more you grow up the more you think about all the stupid things you did in your past and... maybe not everything was wasted time...

And again, I have this man's life planned up to his 50s.

Here's the complete pic of regrets without noises!

And this was just his last year of high school WOW!

[veinsfullofstars]

🏕️ Kirbtober 2024 Day 19: AU or Parallel 🏕️

(ID: Kirby series fanart of the CFAU kids all roasting marshmallows over a campfire. On our left, Meta contentedly munches on ‘mallows straight from the bag, not even bothering to roast them. Beside him, Dedede holds a stick over the fire to toast his own to a nice crispy brown, a bemused smile on his face as he watches the antics unfolding on the other side of the fire. On our right, Bow Dee raises her own stick high into the air, cackling gleefully as the ‘mallow on the end burns into a melty, charred mess. Para Dee, distracted from his own lightly-browned treat, snaps his attention to the fire hazard in his friend’s hand, eyes wide with worry behind his glasses. END ID.)

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Sketch started some time in early 2024, render started 09/28/24, finished 09/29/24. | Childhood Friends AU Masterpost | Kirbtober 2023 Comp