#because otherwise they are going to die

[cardentist]

between jay marble hornets and jon magnus archives I think a lot of people really do just take offense to characters in horror movies being People and not action heroes

paranoia and fear are considered character flaws (stupidity or cowardice or a lack of humanity). they're supposed to strong enough to survive but anything they do for survival has to be Socially Acceptable.

you can't have a horror protagonist be Smart without also being paranoid, otherwise it's not good horror. asking a character to always make the right decisions and always know when they're in danger but Also holding them accountable when they're distrustful of the characters that You know are safe is silly.

sometimes not being crazy murdered means doing a little stalking. wanting to live when you know For Sure that there's someone (or something) out there that is completely willing to kill you means choosing Survival over social convention

[dxxtruction]

Louis' "You're boring!" Could mean so many things, but I think what's most apparent about that line is that Armand takes no initiative just for himself. He's not really anybody, because he never goes out and finds himself or gets attached to anyone but Louis. Without Louis as his guide he's literally just sitting on a couch picking lint! That's the thing.

He orbits constantly around what would make Louis happy, and never really fully going what would make me happy? Ultimately that drive to please Louis is what drives him to torturing Daniel, not so much that he'd care to just do it. Ultimately, not giving proper care to Louis is just a way to make sure Louis knows he has to orbit around him as well, with shoving Lestat onto him just that other nail on the coffin. So, even if he fails to figure out how to make Louis happy with him, he still knows what Armand is good for, and better than.

That dependency is what drives Armand's abuse. It really just comes down to that. Armand doesn't even realize how suffocated he is by his own dependency. This is just how life is to him. (It shouldn't be lost either that dependency is a theme considering this episode also deals with addiction).

Daniel's fascinating because he's just so driven to be somebody. He's largely independent, he seeks things because he wants them. It's his drug to poke and prod at all the things that he shouldn't. Daniel's exciting because he lets Louis in to something different, lets him in to all this potential in another person that he can also do the same with for himself. It's a real connection. A two way street. It's easy to tell how Armand can be smothering then because he's never introducing him to anything really new, and most the ways both of them connect are all painful and traumatic. It's never just fun because there's always that layer of that pain. Fun died with Claudia.

50 years on they've gotten to a lot better place, both of them, but it's still that same shit. No seriously, "How is this any different from last time, Louis?"

Well... Because Armand's going to be, at the very least, making one [1] decision only for himself - and that's to hold power over Daniel's life. Fucking sick foreshadowing.

They aren't driving each other to the brink anymore but "The vampire is bored" STILL. Maybe it's even worse, despite being in better places, because Louis' sort of just been defeated by it. (I mean, can he even really leave this either?). He's accepting the dependancy cause he kind of has to. He'd literally ended up letting all the enjoyment be up where he can't reach [The book shelves]. Armand so desperately wants Louis happiness but what really ends up happening is that Louis ends up having to give Armand all his own. He's got no one or anything else to get it from. But like an iPad and an over the top eating ritual. Two extremes of what's just more lint picking.

This whole relationship is one I find just tragic inside and out. You have to just pity it, really. There's ways in which you can find yourself feeling bad for both of them. But you can only really be mad at Armand for any of it. Armand, who isn't even 'free' in any sense, having so little concept of his own independence, but is at the same time so controlling over other's. It's a tragic cycle. It's an infuriating one.

Louis at least has the mind to know when enough is enough. If just needing that extra push to get there. Armand's too scared of it being over to even try.

[truth-01001001-liar]

the epic mudcrab battle at seyda neen

[genderqueerpond]

IF 👏 YOU 👏 DIDN'T 👏 READ 👏 THE 👏 FOOTNOTES 👏 YOU 👏 HAVEN'T 👏 READ 👏 HOUSE 👏 OF 👏 LEAVES 👏 (you have read The Navidson Record)

[demigod-of-the-agni]

The funniest thing about the Sohm Al dungeon is that when I did it for the first time I did it with the NPC party- Ysayle, Alphinaud, and Estinien. It was all going swell but I, a dragoon main, CONSTANTLY found myself trying to outdo Estinien??

like GIRL calm down he's just an NPC 😭 what's he gonna do, gloat about how he's going to kill all the dragons and pull out all the stops and use all the limit breaks?

...

HE FUCKING USES THE LIMIT BREAKS

THE LITTLE SHIT

AS SOON AS WE FILL ALL THE BARS HE JUST SAYS SHIT LIKE "TASTE MY LANCE" AND WHIPS OUT THE LIMIT BREAK AND I'M THROWING MYSELF HEADFIRST INTO THE GROUND SCREAMING BECAUSE YOU BASTARD I WAS GOING TO USE THAT ON THE FINAL BOSS

[feathercreates]

Here, have a comfy Viktor who’s absolutely delighted to see you. ❤️

[beansnpeets]

I want so badly to support rescues, but why do they all have to be so #ad*ptd*ntsh*p??? Like please let me fucking support you without having to hear that you don't think my purebred dog should exist and that all purebred animals are bad and breeders are all evil!!!! We can fucking coexist! It doesn't have to be like this!

[merlinposting]

Watching House MD for the first time ever. Naturally, because I have eyes, I’m a Hilson truther… but you can’t even say I’m making shit up?? 6x10?? The ending, the eyes, the fucking whatever the fuck is going on… I can’t. I can’t even do it.

[loving-jack-kelly]

the more i listen to merrily the more convinced I am that my personal interpretation is the only one that is correct and that I understand everything about it

[guarshroom]

I can be normal about Random Crits in TF2.

[spideyhexx]

no bc billy has to die, he has nowhere left to go mentally, he is so different from s1 where he had hope and perspective and now he’s a self-destructive shell of himself and it’s so hard to watch! even the way he just looked so clinically at dulcinea’s bruise when that would have haunted earlier billy…the coldness in his eyes…he’s given up on himself and you can see it! like we are watching the clock run down on his life and he is too. it’s actually so tough to watch so i prefer s1 😭

this is such an interesting perspective anon! Tbh idk if he’s given up on himself but I think he’s not thinking of himself. He’s thinking completely about others. Billy is like, selfless to the point it’s dangerous for him and even though he has someone to live for (dulcinea), he feels a sense of duty over anything else? Even though it isn’t his duty to begin with?

and I think it would also mirror like Billy has been through so much loss himself and then he’s had NO one at times and then he’d die, but then have so many people that loved and cared for him. It feels like…narratively perfect???? The guy who lost everything and tried, finally found some people worth it, but he dies and those people HONOR him so much

[thesummerstorms]

Okay, but I do have an AU version of that AU in my head where Dick Grayson returns to earth and manages to find Annabeth (and Thalia and Luke) living in the streets before they make it all the way to Camp Halfblood.

We can explore the implications of that for Thalia and Luke in a different post, but basically Annabeth still has to go to CHB for large portions of the year, she attracts too many monsters, but when she isn't there, Dick Grayson has unofficial custody for quite awhile while Bruce gets his shit together.

The crack fic version of that AU of an AU has Annabeth trying to manipulate her way into arranging a meeting between Chiron and Roy Harper because her brother's friends have been kind to her and if one of them is going to be an archer, they should be the BEST archer so that they can keep Dick alive longer.

No one is more surprised than Chiron when he actually agreed to give Roy some "pointers", although he trained fully human heroes in the Ancient Days.

And to be fair to Roy his brain is stuck trying to work its way around fact that his friend's little sister staged an emergency to introduce him to a man who's half horse. He's kind of mad, which, fair. That said, once the actual archery lesson starts and he realizes that Chiron really is that much of an expert, he immediately gets into it.

Which is how a panicked Dick Grayson bursts into the scene a few hours later, expecting something terrible has happened to Anna & Roy because Roy isn't responding to comms.

Only to find his best friend arguing with a centaur about some obscure fact of aerodynamics while Annabeth is perched nearby watching, legs swinging, eating way too many popsicles and occasionally calling out questions when her curiosity gets the better of her.

Dick isn't sure whether to be pissed, relieved, or just plain confused, but he for sure isn't letting Anna OR Roy live that one down for years.

And if he also gets distracted and listens in to some of Chiron's archery explanations, well, it's always good to know your teammates' full potential.

[rotisseries]

everyone debates about elmike like oh they're the best of friends no they would never hang out on their own they don't even know each other, when the true answer, much like everything else about them, is that there is so so much and also nothing at all

[nevermindtheblood]

See lately it becomes more and more obvious that what I've been through is torture and the way I was raised was brainwashing. But does it bring any memories back? No. Does it bring any alters forward? No. Does it give me any hint or semblance of identity or emotion? No. Did growing up in a cult even affect me? IDK. Is it any clearer who contributed to my trauma or system structure? FUCK no. Do I have any idea what kind of programming that did to my brain? Not a CHANCE. If whatever therapist my psych gives me doesn't have experience in system mapping I'm going insane.

The only clues I have to my trauma are alters with completely absolutely insane exo(psuedo)memories about whatever source or past lives they're from, with specific details that don't seem to have ever applied to me. They go through their own arcs uncovering and recovering and repressing and recovering again the most nutso shit with things that feel even impossible for the kind of life I've led. Is there really truth in exomemories or am I a huge faker. :P

[caffeinatedopossum]

"I feel like the abuse I went through wasn't bad enough :( I don't even remember it"

Yeah so... are you prepared to hear information that could potentially hurt you