#because he's a dead man either way

[devilfic]

me going into marvel's spider-man 2 expecting to be unwell levels of horny for venom, only to come out of it attracted to harry osborn:

[starry-bi-sky]

mmmmmm read a disciple shen yuan/shizun luo binghe fanfic about two days ago where the first chapter was the Immortal Conference arc, and SQQ was the one who had to be pushed into the abyss (he was still the villain) except Luo Binghe was refusing and was like, lowkey losing his mind about SQQ being so close to the edge. SQQ ended up having to be the one to fall in himself because of the system's punishment system. The rest of the fic is leading up to that moment. But like, MMM i've been obsessively thinking about that first chapter for DAYS ever since.

now i've been in svsss for a grand total of *checks watch* a week. but god obsessed with that. I want to write/read a fic where disciple SQQ goes a little nuts down there. Like keep all of the things that make SQQ, SQQ, but just. Throw in a little bit more trauma in there. A little bit of a mental break. Let him go a little nuts as a treat. Just a tad unhinged. I wanna see him go, just a little, "god fuck it, i've tried so hard to change this shitty story's outcome and it feels like everything i've done has been for nothing. I'm going to die in this world no matter what I do, I've been doomed from the start, so might as well die the way I want to." and he just, breaks a little! Under all the stress.

He still retains the traits that makes shen yuan, shen yuan, like his overwhelming kindness. But he's just! yk. A little less patient. Paranoid. Jumpy. Colder. A little more aloof and closed off. A little more Shen Jiu. He's no asshole child abuser, but he was a Number One Hater in his past life and he's leaning into that old habit a little more now.

(On a totally coincidental not-at-all related note, there's not enough SJ-and-SY-are-the-same-people fics out there that i've found. This is totally unrelated...)

The Endless Abyss turns the mind into an over-sharpened blade, and SQQ is both fascinated and perhaps a little excited to explore a place that doesn't have a lot of info on it in the mortal realm, but still terrified out of his mind. And he's no Luo Binghe, he doesn't have the sheer brute strength and power to just bulldoze his way through, so he has to be a lot more sneaky and cunning if he wants to survive.

The fic itself role-swapped LBH and SQQ so that SQQ was the half-demon (which lowkey fucks) and LBH the human, but I'm equally-if-not-more obsessed with the idea that LBH remains the half-heavenly demon and SQQ the human. If only because I keep thinking about SQQ befriending some demons (particularly and specifically a group of succubi) and they grow very attached to this Human Cultivator so through magic plot stuff they create some kind of seal/illusion/talisman that makes SQQ appear as a demon because a human cultivator in the endless abyss may as well be the equivalent of putting a giant neon target on your back.

And iirc Shen Jiu was taught demonic cultivation by that one guy(?? i've only been here a week so im not caught up in ALL of the lore yet) so that could totally happen here.

(On the other end of the realms, poor Shizun Luo Binghe is just. losing his fucking mind over losing his most precious and beloved disciple. About .5 seconds from burning down the peaks himself. somebody sedate him.)

The Endless Abyss sucks and SQQ is having a really terrible time and can feel himself going lowkey mad, but also holy shit look at all this WORLD-BUILDING. look at all this flora and fauna, and oh if he had the equipment for it he'd be writing all of this down. ALL OF IT. He was kinda-sorta-already planning on never leaving the Abyss as some sort of fucked up self-exile and self-preservation thing, but now he might? actually just?? never leave if he can help it, like he lowkey likes it down here.

anyways the next time anyone ever sees SQQ again he's got hair so long its almost touching the ground and he's either in rags and half-feral or he's been completely dolled up by his adoptive succubi sisters and still about three seconds from biting anyone who tries to touch him. (he's also lowkey trying to book it back down to the abyss even if he has desperately missed all of his friends and shizun)

[i-still-dont-know-a-username]

Don't get me wrong, "The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite" is a quote that absolutely hits me square in the chest every time.

..But I feel like putting it in italics under an aesthetic picture is kinda neglecting the context, since Piranesi has Nearly Drowned when he first says that.

[bonefall]

My birthday was a couple days ago, and I got to see my bio dad for the first time in a while. He surprised me with the fact that I have a little half-sister, whom I've never met and who was adopted about two years back. So, I wondered if any situations in BB mimic this or have a theme of "secret siblings" or "secret family"? Sorry if this is a weird ask; this blog is honestly just such a cool little place and I love the way you approach the subject matter and take the flawed misogynistic foundation of the WC books and make them so much better (JUSTICE FOR BUMBLE!!!). I've also learned a lot about healthy and unhealthy relationships here and am really glad for your deep dives on Squilf and Bramble. Thanks, Bones!

Not weird at all! I really like exploring all the little nooks and crannies of complicated familial dynamics. I think one of the untapped strengths of WC (that the writers seem to be unaware of) is how their MASSIVE cast allows them to present all sorts of unique dynamics. So I like to pick up on it, since they don't.

For secret siblings...

I'm pretty heavily leaning towards Ambermoon being adopted by Wildfur, as a surrogacy. Something feels correct about it. Especially since Icecloud is getting retooled into a post-Battle of the True Eclipse birth, and a major supporting character in AVoS-era stories as a friend of Alderheart.

Thinking about it, I should zoom in and expand this. Maybe have Icecloud, somehow, acquire forbidden knowledge that would invalidate the Queen’s Rights and he (transman) struggles with if he's going to use it to expose his parents as an excuse to help Ambermoon.

(Especially since Ambermoon and Icecloud are basically nothing alike. Amber is independent, bold, and vain. Ice is jessie pinkman big-hearted, disorganized, and deceptively meek if you look past his "chill" demeanor)

But that's wip-- there's also Breezepelt and the Three, who are going to have an actual friendship. In particular I can't unsee Breeze and Lion having a deep one. I know I commit the Cardinal Sin of borderline himbo-ifying Lionblaze in BB, but I can't help it.

Hollyleaf ended up nabbing a bunch of his most violent roles to make her villainous descent smoother narratively, so BB!Lionblaze's story ends up being more focused on Ashfur's abuse, comic relief with cats in other Clans (something that the very serious Jay and Holly have a hard time providing), and the emotional fallout of the big reveal and Bramblestar's turn on them. Breezepelt slots neatly into that.

They were friends. Lionblaze's whole life came down around the reveal, everyone looking at him and his siblings differently, like they're suddenly something terrible. Why can't we find a silver lining, Breezepelt? Why can't we call ourselves brothers if the whole world is going to do it anyway? So much is changing, but THIS doesn't have to, we will take their weapon and turn it to armor, my ally, my friend, my brother.

(and when Breezepelt is lashing out at the three because of the Dark Forest's influence, Lionblaze is there, taking the blows and trying not to give in to the impulse to send him flying with a single paw)

There's also Harespring and Kestrelflight of WindClan and Owlclaw of ShadowClan. All of them are from a single litter between Whitewater and Mudclaw. She was going to raise the three of them alone as ShadowClan cats, but when the sire was smote, Whitewater felt they were cursed.

She was able to give the oldest two to their bio-uncle, Torear, but the weather was so bad that day and the runt was so sickly and small that it surely would have killed him. I don't think Owlclaw ever finds out why his mother always treated him with suspicion, but it did mess him up horribly.

Over in BB!DOTC, Thunder Storm is getting more half-siblings earlier. Clear Sky and Falling Feather had two daughters-- Pale Sky and Tiger Sky.

I want to explore the way that the various stages of Clear Sky's life acted on his kids. How any little curiosity Thunder Storm had about the life he might have had if he wasn't abandoned is crushed by seeing kittens who weren't. How Clear's favoritism of his oldest child set the trio against each other from the start. How this idea of "love" is toxic yet intoxicating.

It feels good to be the golden child. The power it gives you over his sycophants is satisfying. To know you, and you alone, have what someone else craves. Problem is, that's conditional, and it's cruel.

What Thunder Storm learns from his time with his biodad is that Clear Sky is not his father at all. He's taught him exactly what he DOESN'T want to be. There may be similarities-- in temperament, in physical prowess (though BB!Thunder is three-legged, he's still ripped), in taste and senses. But Thunder Storm's father is Shaded Flower.

(BB!Gray Wing died in the first book, rescuing Shaded Flower from being trampled by a horse. Xey're a patron of wisdom, Shaded Moss is taking the role of fatherhood to Thunder)

His sister is Rainswept Flower. His mom is Bright Storm. If there was a bond he could have had with Tiger Sky and Pale Sky, it dies simply and cruelly on the knife they used to cut each other out.

Pale might have wanted to mend it, she was the gentler one. But she dies in the First Battle along with her mother. Tiger Sky is too stubborn to accept any help, should Thunderstar offer it, and Thunderstar isn't in the business of begging for others to like him.

Naturally I'm lowkey obsessed with them lmao. I need to make a BB!DOTC overviewww

[arthursfuckinghat]

Let death be a lesson to you.

[butwhatifidothis]

What gets me about GW defenders saying that "Claude siding with Edelgard shows how far he's willing to go to get what he wants, he'll use anyone to further his goals" is that, even if that were accurate to his character... that's not what he does in GW. At all.

Which one of Claude's goals are ever progressed once he sides with Edelgard? And how does siding with Edelgard, specifically, accomplish said goal?

Maybe... killing Rhea? But all of the reasons he says he wants her gone in this game are either completely unproven or blatantly incorrect - there's no proof of the Church forcing arranged marriages, Crests do not force obligations onto those that have them (which Claude himself literally proves), and the Church is helping Dimitri restore Duscur - a foreign nation - meaning they are actively willing to help fulfill Claude's main goal that he came to the officer's academy to achieve.

And... that's it! That is the only possible thing that even POTENTIALLY helps Claude's dreams, and taking a five-second look at it shows that it actually does nothing at all to help anything. But in the meantime? Claude weakens Faerghus through agitating Sreng and invading it himself, forcing Dimitri to fight a three front war; he actively helps Edelgard get herself out of a messy situation, even though not helping her and letting her die would have actually helped him and would have actually been him using her like people keep saying he's trying to do; he and Holst even admit that by the end of the war Edelgard is going to make a vassal state of Leicester after taking the lion's share of Faerghus' territory for themselves, which Leicester can't do anything about because of Adrestia's far stronger military. He is the one saying that! He is the one pointing out that that is going to happen! And yet he just keeps going anyway!

He is the one getting used. Very blatantly, and very extensively. Claude walked himself into a trap and lied to himself into thinking he's the one with the upper hand, which somehow managed to convince a large portion of the fanbase too. There's no gray morality here, there's no cunning being showcased, Claude is just an evil stupid tool

[the-acid-pear]

You know now that I've officially finished all of the Dialtown routes I have to say Theoroar is probably one of my favorite antagonists if only because he is probably the biggest threat among the introduced antagonists, and I'm ambivalent in whether you'd put him higher or lower than Mingus because she ate lead so I lost respect tbh.

But I mean two things when I call him a big threat; first of all: he IS dangerous. Theo is a remarkably smart son of a bitch who you'd be fair to underestimate because everyone in this town is a fucking idiot or insane but he's merely an eccentric man very aware of what he's doing and how to do it, also equipped with a charged rifle that he's, good enough at using (aside from his hand to hand combat skills); but again, because of the fact that he IS smart, Theo is remarkably well at getting away from situations without losing in any way that could actually personally affect him, giving him a relative control of the situation at most if not all moments.

I think these things come really to shine in chapter 3 not only because he gets a mayor antagonistic role but also because you have the other goons to compare him to; out of everyone there he's not only the single one to get a job and have a reward granted (and also 1) be able to nerf little billy even if by explicit Mingus orders 2) own a loaded weapon) but by the end of his encounter the theme that played when you defeated all 3 previous henchmen that sounded like this goofy almost humillating circus melody doesn't play, instead replaced by his theme as HE decides to stop and "defeat" himself.

To put it in few words: Theoroar is plainly amaizing because he manages to be a physical competent threat while also a smart and level headed man which grants him the ability to be a comically terrifying karma houdini

Or, in even lesser words:

[tragedykery]

[ID: text from a day of fallen night, reading, “‘Farfetched as it sounds, yes. [start highlight.] He was seen in the haithwood, performing a ritual, dressed as if to mock a sanctarian. [end highlight.] His followers, who fled before they could”. the text cuts off there. /end ID]

I know this is such a trivial detail but it’s genuinely been haunting me since I read this part. the clothing of a follower of the original religion of inysca, seeming to mimic that of a sanctarian of the six virtues? “mocking,” through a secret ritual that is not meant to be seen, especially not by those that are supposedly being mocked?

I think it’s the other way around. that the sanctarian robes are based on “heathen” ones. I don’t know if was deliberate or not, whether galian chose it because it was familiar to his people, to ease the (forced) conversion, or just because it was familiar to him. but most likely, the sanctarian robes are a remnant of the original religion of inysca, still visible in the six virtues, and it probably isn’t the only one. how ironic, then, that heathens are persecuted in the name of virtudom, even as their religion lives on in the other. that what they now deem “heresy” stands at the very foundations of their own religion.

[lab-gr0wn-lambs]

Oh jesus wait! Only now that something might finally be starting with Carol and Daryl did I suddenly think.. what if Daryl was aroace tho. and now I'm just-

[megatraven]

oh my god. oh my god. i just remembered an astoria idea that i thought about for like maybe a week and then promptly forgot about.

im (re)watching steven universe right now and thinking about situations where your enemy doesn't look like your enemy, or situations where your ally does look like your enemy.

and it jogged this long-forgotten idea back into my head.

that being. bodyswap au wherein ares swaps bodies with mc. they're going to ruin alex from right beside them. and mc is stuck in the body of a god that Nobody Fucking Likes Except Alex's Mom. (<having your s/o's mom giving you bedroom eyes across the throne room is very uncomfortable????)

and so mc has to try convincing alex that she's actually mc while looking like the man that they hate more than anyone else. all the while ares is sabotaging their relationship with "mc" and alex's self-esteem (thank you negging! yes it's disturbing!!) AND driving a wedge between them and their mother. ON TOP OF playing his cards just right to make "ares" look more and more evil/sadistic/fucked up

i never settled on an ending for this particular au but it got very fucked up in many ways and now i'm thinking about it again teehee

[mellotronmkll]

My brother is so funny cos he got all his tmbg knowledge from me second hand when I was obsessed with them and so he thinks the most random songs are like well known amongst the general public like he'll just name drop the most random esoteric forgotten compilation album tracks like it's nothing But he also still hasn't really listened to anything since glean and he doesnt really know much about them / their history etc besides what hes learned from me and he doesn't know like anything about like. What tmbg fans are like / what general fan opinion is because the only hardcore tmbg fan he has ever interacted with is literally me

[swallowtail-ageha]

Head empty thoughts full of the antigone incest essay

[nostalgia-tblr]

nah sorry i've thought about it and odin's "raise lauffey's only biological son as my own = he inherits when laffey dies = jotunheim is mine now/it's free real estate" plan just wouldn't work. it's a shit plan.

sure you can say your younger son is now the king of jotunheim but how are gonna get anyone there to accept that? even if he is now king by the letter of their law, how do you make that population accept his authority? the authority of someone who was raised by their enemy and who must be assumed to be loyal to that enemy. to borrow a phrase "you and whose army?" all you have there is a claim to that kingdom, you still need to make it happen.

whereas "found a baby, it's mine now, keeping forever with no expectation of this ever actually getting me anything else i just heart my new blue son (if ur offerin a 'free jotunheim with purchase' deal i wont say no tho obvs)" doesn't rely on outside events or anyone else's actions and so... it just makes more sense.

what i'm sayin is... i'm sure "ooooh this could be useful, i shall keep it" was a factor in odin's initial adopt-the-baby decision but i don't think it's at all reasonable for him to think it would actually work when the time came to deploy the plan and so no i don't think odin did just keep loki around for imperialism reasons, i think by the time that film is set he must have long since given up on that (other than a vague "well if it happens it happens" at the back of his head) and he really does just love his kid and hasn't told him where he actually came from in case it made him sad.

[inkykeiji]

listening to russian rap as i read my russian novel and daydream about my russian anime man

[multeasers]

[ b52 ]  how would they describe themselves in as few words as possible? @/Toji 🤭

🐝  *  ―  𝑪𝑶𝑪𝑲𝑻𝑨𝑰𝑳 𝑸𝑼𝑰𝒁. ( send one or multiple of these to learn a little more about my muse(s). )

He's the type of guy you'd have to press to do it, and if you manage to not annoy the ever living hell out of him in the process, he'd likely describe himself as a man too tired for anything, but still does shit anyway . If you do annoy him, though, he'll likely just give one-word answers : Diligent . Stubborn . Prideful . That sorta thing .

If you managed to get the real answer out of him, though, he'd describe himself as too fucked up . He's a man too fucked up who fucked up too much . He's desperate . He's remorseful . But he's also wholly selfish, and knows that what he wants he'll probably never get because of that, and of course much more . Again, he's a man who fucked up a lot .

If you really enforce limiting his words, though, and were still getting a legitimate answer, he'd just describe himself as sorry .