#back in the dark ages

[afriendlyneighborhood]

Petra stood at the front steps of her family home. The windows once illuminated by the shadows of amazing people now remain dead and cold. Petra knows deep down that the house hasn't changed much. Its paint is still peeling lightly from years of rain and snow, it's garden still flourishing as if her father still came out to tend to the little blooms, the house's bedroom windows still lit up as if someone was living there.

Whatever was in the house wasn't human, is what Petra decided. After all, what human would do what he's done and not face even the slightest of consequence? What human could stand in the once bustling home and not feel guilt. That must mean the thing that now roams those halls was something less than human, or perhaps something more?

So Petra stared blankly, no longer feeling as though she had the energy left to cry. All of her tears have been used up. Dry sobs wracking her body as she fell to the pavement, her head cracking into the ground, unable to even hold up its own weight under her grief.

Why? Why her mother? Why her father? Why her brother, who had not even begun to live his life? Why not whatever monster was living underneath her siblings skin.

Her head was pounding, her chest felt heavy and constricting. She needed to breathe, needed to feel something that wasn't the disgusting dread that crawled up her back. Leaving a slimy trail of defeat in its wake. She needed to tear her own chest open, if only to breathe in more than her own panicked breath. Her vision blurry, she began wondering if she might pass out.

A noise startled her in her increasing panic. As Petra looked up, she froze. It was that thing. That disgusting beast that did nothing but take and take and take.

"Why are you here, Petra?", a question that should not have been posed as it was. He spoke as if she was a friend visiting, as if he wasn't sure why she would be at her own home. He spoke as if nothing happened.

"You-", she began, but fell short at the look of confusion on what used to be her twins face, "what have you done."

Her voice broke as she looked at Peter. Just as happy as he had been not even a week ago, entirely unbothered by the lack of life that used to thrive in this home. Despite her inability to shed any more tears, she felt her body heave.

"You. Sick. FUCK." Petra snarled in anger at the open door, her only surviving brother staring blankly as his back was illuminated by the lights from in the house.

"How could you?" She felt as if she was hearing her voice from miles away, crazed even to her own ears.

"HOW. COULD. YOU." Her throat was raw from the scream that tore and clawed it's way from her throat.

"You're not getting away with this."

Why wasn't Peter moving?

"I'll tell the police."

Why didn't he feel *guilt?*

"I'll fucking get you."

Did he have no remorse for Mother and Father?

"I won't stop until you are rotting in a god damn cage.

...Did he feel no remorse for Able?

Petra was startled out of her thoughts with the sound of approaching footsteps. Her head snapped up, petals whipping violently from how quickly she moved.

Is this it? She wondered, is he going to get me to?, she hoped. She hoped she could leave with her family, prayed she could leave with her family. Desperate from the rapid development of this hellish new existence.

"Oh Petra...", her head whipped to Peter's face, his eyes carefully blank and his smile painfully wide.

"We're playing a game of Cat and Mouse now!" He looked giddy at the prospect of playing with her, as if her suffering was nothing more than *entertainment.*

"And..." Peter seemed to think for a moment, "... Well I sure as hell ain't the mouse, right?"

Petra felt sick. If she had anything left in her stomach she is sure that she would have thrown up. Nothing but water and pain medication left.

And it was a game.

Petra could swear that her blood was boiling out of her skin, her head pounding in her ears, and chest beating so heavily that it felt as if the ground was shaking.

She looked up at the monster that prevailed in her twin's skin, the creature that dared to pretend to be human. The vile things that did it's best to act like it could feel. It circled back, in a way, as looking up at the terrifyingly bored eyes of that monster reminded her.

Reminded her that even if it pretended, even if it fooled everyone in this bumfuck town, it could not feel.

The creature she was looking at was not human, and so she backed away, fearful of contracting whatever caused this disease to take hold in what used to be her twin's mind.

Peter didn't move. Perhaps he didn't feel like playing a game of chase at the moment, perhaps he didn't find her worth his time, perhaps he knew it wouldn't be much longer before she was gone anyway.

Petra stood at the opposite side of the street, and found that she no longer had the energy to scream, to yell, to fight back.

Peter looked at the shell of his twin and somehow managed to smile even wider, the grin cutting across his face in a terrifying line. He held no emotions behind that smile, and even less behind his eyes.

"No one will believe you." The words were chirped in such a chipper tone that for a second she thought she had heard him wrong.

Peter repeated the phrase. An impossibly cold laugh ripped its way out of his mouth, his empty smile falling away for a brief second to reveal something worse.

Ice traveled up Petras spine, a sinking cold enveloping her mind as she watched the abomination in front of her double over in laughter. The cackles that left his mouth even less human than his words, otherworldly shrieks of joy that left her to wonder again what it was that was standing in front of her.

Peter wiped a tear from his face as he straightened his back, looking more carefree than he has in months.

"No one will believe you..." Peter sounded almost wistful as he said it, as if the idea that Petra being regarded as crazy would bring him nothing but joy.

Dusting off his coat and straightening his gardening jacket, Peter turned around and reentered the house. A monster returning to prowl the halls like a ghost in a house full of nothing but.

Petra could have stood there for minutes, hours, days even. She wouldn't know. And when she finally felt as if her body was her own again, she ran. She ran away as quickly as her legs could take her.

And if she collapsed into heavy sobs behind her apartment room door, no one would know. If she threw up the water in her stomach, bile curling in her throat as an ugly mess of sick, no one would know. And if she swore to get revenge on that disgusting creature that now haunted her families home unburdened by it's actions... no one would know.

[reremouse]

36-40 here.

*you don't have to have posted it, just when you started writing.

[syrospit]

my husband and our rabbit daughter

[chirpfinch]

i see you!! you’re here!! you’re real!! [s2ep14]

alt versions bc i can never pick which i like best

[1mm4d13]

We need him.

[meriamarie]

✨Pussy Slayer✨

[luinen-bluewater]

AU where all Durges are siblings living together in Bhaal's temple and scrawny lil Durge!Tino tries to assert dominance on DU Drow by showing him how scary he is with his extra teeth (he's very proud of them)

@meanbossart sorry for inflicting this upon you, but it's been floating in my mind for an ungodly amount of time and I had to get it out of my system lol

[updatingranboo]

omg he stole my gender

[bardicinspired]

Also while I'm on my Vax/Keyleth bullshit. I understand the criticisms that CR3 somehow took away the tradgedy of CR1's ending. But I have to disagree

And while I don't agree that Keyleth should've been Not Coping for 30 years, that was ultimately Marisha's decision and I respect it.

However CR3 didn't change the ultimate ending of Vax and Keyleth's relationship. Keyleth was always going to reunite with Vax, she even remarks upon it herself in CR1 "I'll see you again, Vax." -because while Keyleth is going to live for thousands of years she knows she will eventually die. And she knows that Vax is out there, waiting for that moment, just as in love with her as he was when the matron stole him away.

I mean if you know the love of your life is out there as a quasi-Death god, the afterlife is real, and he is still desperately in love with you wouldn't you find it hard to move on too?

What I'm saying is, the ultimate ending of Vax and Keyleth was always going to be reuniting. It was the time they were seperated that was the tradgedy. All CR3 did was shorten that time.

And you know? 30 years of mutual yearning is still tragic enough. On top of that, they are fundementally very different people than who they were when Vax died. Keyleth has 30 years of confidence, leadership, and life experience under her belt. Vax spent 30 years as the Grim Reaper and has forgotten what it is to be alive. They are different. They don't exactly fit together any more. They have to relearn who they are to each other and there's beauty in that but there's grief and tradgedy as well.

The Vax'ildan Keyleth knew died. The Keyleth Vax'ildan knew grew older & changed. They are strangers to each other and so very much in love. And they are reunited, as they always would've been. It just took several decades instead of several millennia.

[stimmyneko]

bedtime stimboard ^w^

requests are open!

💙 . 🌀 🌌 💙 . 🌀 🌌 💙 . 🌀 🌌 💙 . 💙

[theokusgallery]

Why, hello there, Virgil. Long time no see!

[rookanisstuff]

ok i think you do a mercar rook for lucanis, right? i also fw mercar rook but it seems like an unpopular choice. i would love to hear you explain your passions if you're game

oh my god mercar rook for a lucanis romance is just SOOOOOOO perfect like the level of ANGST is amazing!!!!!!!!!

I cannot understand why it's not a more popular route for the Lucanis romance. It's so angsty, star crossed, a "I burned the world for you" type of loveeeeeee. Rook Mercar turns their back on their city, their people, the Shadow Dragons completely ice them out and practically act like they're a stranger, you're faced with the instant consequences when getting chewed out by Neve and Tarquin in which they STATE you abandoned them and THEN you have to witness almost everyone Rook's ever worked with be mericlessly executed. Rook literally cannot catch a break but then there's Lucanis at their side endlessly thanking them because he's just seen what Treviso could've become if not for Rook listening to HIM against all their own biases.

Add onto all that, that my Rook was a Tevinter Mage? The very thing that had tortured Lucanis and the same thing he had been trained his entire life to kill? Only to have one be to the first person ever to show him unwavering loyalty and kindness?? Ohhhhh the fanfics practically write THEMSELVESSS but yet I struggle to find them!!!! Also to have a Rook abandon their background to live in Treviso with Lucanis post game I feel like this one makes the most sense because the shadow dragons still want nothing to do with Rook. Dorian is Archon and I imagine he's not going to be very forgiving to the person that got his underground movement executed even if they saved minrathous in the final fight. And personally, if everyone I knew in a city hated me, I'd bounce to the city that calls me a Hero with my hot rich boyfriend too Rook LMAO. Anyway, yes I very much love Mercar Rook, I've tried the other backgrounds and just keep finding myself falling back into that Mercar playstate because dramaaaaaa.

[stormingfrost]

Kinda obsessed with the historical context of Rise of the Guardians. Pitch wanting the Dark Ages to come back, which historically was the decline of culture and records. The Guardians rose at the same time as the Renaissance with the rise of culture, knowledge, and science. (Tooth in particular mentions that she hasn’t been out in the field for 440 years, give or take, which would put that smack dab in the middle of the Renaissance) 

The way Pitch doesn’t want the world to change, the way the Guardians change in tune with the world. The way Jack, who lived in has a human in the 17th or 18th century, who lived in the time after the Renaissance and lived witnessing the world all the way to the modern era, is there to show the Guardians how much they missed and how they can further change and improve for the more modern world. These characters are immortal beings who have so much power over the world, it makes so much sense that when they fall and rise in power it impacts the world that they want to influence, for better or for worse. 

[1mm4d13]

The way you guys are going absolutely feral for this man

[angelspearlheart]

romanticised medieval

[hiding-in-the-vault]

I need everyone to take a moment and reflect on the fact that this is the sort of fandom crisis we used to dream of having