#breathes and closes eyes
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Happy new years… let’s stay hydrated together ✨
#I didn’t end up going to the rave just stayed in with my buddies and had KFC (( Korean fried chicken )) and laughed til we cried so#it was still a wonderful start to the new year 💞🥰💞#but the fwb wanted pics of my potential rave look so I figured eh I brought the stuff anyways#and now I’m imagining locking eyes with a stranger on the warm and writhing dance floor#the beat thumps and shakes and rattles the air in our breath as the spotlights dance in the reflections of our held gaze#he pushes his way through the crowd with a singular stare and a wicked smile on his face#I smile and turn my back on him arching myself so he knows I am giving what he’s looking for#I take careful steps through the revelry toward the edge where the crowd thins out#I prop myself up on an available stool in a lonely corner of the club as he closes the distance between us#“now I wonder why you dragged me all the way here” he utters in a playful growl “trying to get far away from the crowd?”#I smile and I nod. “obviously. can’t really do what I want with you out there”#his eyes perk up and his smile gives away the desire building inside him. “yeah? why don’t you show me then.”#“I thought you’d never ask” I smirk. I reach down into my pants and pull out my phone#“so this one is blue. he’s the oldest but he’s sooooo sweet. and that’s Eva. my only girl she’s sassy but she loves swea-” he leaves#whaddahell I say demurely whimpering even… whaddahell…#gpoy
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. . . | uwhe-arts
#casual#photographers on tumblr#be here for a moment#close your eyes#uwhe-arts#artists on tumblr#breath deeply#original photographers#in the wood#uwhearts#foggy days#trees in the mist#Forest#treescape#vertical#calm down#misty#fog is rising#be home#plant more trees#soulsearchers#pathfinder#inner mood#thoughts come to rest#smell it#peaceful#freedom#inner peace#am Fichterlberg
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katsuki is very sad and a little clingy when your baby is sick :(
#he sits on the couch and holds your little bug in his arms — no matter how big — and jusf frowns :(#their eyes are swollen frim crying and they cant breathe through their nose and their cheeks are so hot :(#and bakugou just hugs them close :(#WAAAAHHH why is this about to make me cry rn#cw children#carries them everywhere :( even if they're five or six he's hoisting them on his hip and letting them rest their head on his shoulder#wraps them up in his arms in the bed when it's time to go to sleep :( in your bed :(#HE'S A SOFTIE HE HATES IT#✿ thoughts: bakugou#✿ theme: dad bakugou
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We as a society don't talk about Arthur's bout of cannibalism nearly enough. That man killed a guy with his bare hands after seeing that he killed a girl by brushing against a lock of hair. And he subjected John to numerous visions of his death as he savagely ate at Mr. Faust. Like enough with the jokes where's the angst when it's begging to be explored.
#malevolent#arthur lester#malevolent podcast#john doe malevolent#cannibalism is hot#what who said that#No but actually that's so insane#Arthur was out there eating human meat for three months and you're telling me that has no repercussions???#you're telling me he came back to earth and didn't hesitate to bite into meat???#was he momentarily surprised at how different the texture was now that it was cooked?#did John shudder and ask Arthur to close their eyes?#Does Arthur smell thick blood and get momentarily transported back into those pits?#cold dehydrated and hungry?#with blood dripping from his mouth and with John's gasping breath and gags?#This is without even touching on the fact that Arthur ripped off John's pinky with his mouth????#the dicotamy of it all???#tw cannibalism#might be a bit late to include that tag :/
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tries to sleep, fails, gets melancholy, copes by writing purple turtle fic donatello/reader, gn!reader, rated t, 1.6k. insomnia, friends to.... friends, (were you ever just friends? are you something more? what is love if not friendship shifted an inch to the left?), yearning, yearning, yearning, yearning—
Donatello is sleeping.
Hefting a fatigued sigh, you hover in the doorway to his bedroom for a moment. Staring at his face, taking it in. He’s gotten unfairly handsome as the years have gone by. Beautiful, even. Pretty angles, sharp defined lines, dark seductive eyes. Like this, unmasked, slack in sleep, it’s free for you to look as much as you want. More than you can during the day. A little secret thing just for your own heart’s keeping.
…Best friends shouldn’t want to stare at each other like this, you think with an ache.
It’s late. You can’t sleep. Lying down has provided nothing but racing thoughts you can’t quiet. Things to do tomorrow. Things to say when you see someone. Things to write down if you can hold them until the morning. Things, things, things. So many things in your head, ten thousand little voices like little snowflakes in your skull. Each small, powerless; but together, a force too mighty to outrun.
And Donnie is sleeping. Normally he’s awake. Fiddling, poking, prodding, studying, twisting, cracking, bending. Available to draw you into sleep. Always soothing, petting your hair, cooing at you until you drift off at last to the dulcet sounds of his low rumbles.
But not tonight. Tonight he sleeps, pretty in his sheets even as he’s all sprawled out and drooling. Cute. He’s cute. He’s cute and close enough to touch but so, so far away that you know you never will. Not like that. Not like that.
It’s late. You can’t sleep.
Slowly, not wanting to wake him, infuriated with yourself just at the thought that you’d risked it by lingering as long as you have, you peel away from his door frame and sneak into the living room. The couch greets you again. Inviting, soft. It smells like turtle ass. Popcorn. Movie night. It smells like family, like home. Scratchy beneath your cheek. You’ve been meaning to get them some new pillows. The way Mikey had laughed so hard he’d snorted his drink. Leo’s squawk when it got all over him. The weight of Donnie’s arm on your shoulder when he’d leaned on you while laughing until he got the hiccups. His cologne, new, smells nice. You should tell him tomorrow.
(You can’t tell him. There’s no way for a best friend to look at the other with pupils shaped like hearts and be the same. You can’t tell him.)
Heavily, you sigh. It’s late. You can’t sleep.
You sit up. Get up off the couch. Stretch a little before exhaling and walking around a bit to try and work off some of this excess energy. The darkness of the living room isn’t so much, anymore, what with how your eyes have adjusted. You can see the pieces of the evening strewn about. A pizza box that Splinter’s going to find in the morning and yell at the lot of you for not throwing out. Raph’s teddy bear, leaning against the other couch where he’d been pretending he hadn’t been using it to hide his face in the scary parts. Mikey’s cup, half-full, forgotten in Leo’s panic to find paper towels. And—
—Donnie, standing in the doorway, bleary-eyed, arms folded.
“Why are you awake?” he asks, voice tumbling over your ears like rocks on a riverbed. Guilt strikes you like a blow. He’s exhausted. You’ve woken him up.
“I’m sorry,” you say as an answer, tangling your fingers in the shirt you’d borrowed out of his closet. The shirt you always borrow. The shirt that’s half yours, now.
Donnie’s quiet. You sink your teeth into your lower lip and hope he’ll shrug and go back to bed. Maybe, if he’s lucky, he’s got enough sleep juice in him that he’ll drift right back off and forget this happened.
He doesn’t. “…Can’t sleep?”
The guilt burns your skin like sand in the wind. You smile and pretend. “I’ll be okay. Go back to bed, Don. You need it more than I do.”
He doesn’t.
“…Please?” you try again.
You’re met, instead, with a sigh. He rubs the back of his head where his mask would tie if he were wearing it. Lets his arm fall to his side—ah, except no. He’s holding out his hand, palm outstretched, inviting you to come close. When you don’t, his beak wrinkles. “Come here.”
You take a few steps closer, but don’t take his hand just yet. “What are you doing?”
“Just come here,” he says again, curling his fingers a few times in an imperious grabby command. You come closer. He opens his tired eyes in a squint, mouth dipped into a frown, and his gesture gets more demanding. “Come here.”
Stepping closer, closer, closer, finally you get within range. You realize he wants your hand the moment he loses patience with you, watching as he rolls his eyes and reaches out to encircle your wrist with strong fingers. They eclipse the bones there easily, tugging as he turns, pulling you out of the living room.
“Don—” you start to protest, but he stops you with a breath.
“Stubborn,” he accuses, though there’s no heat to the word. The scoff is thick on the back of your tongue—Donnie of all people calling you stubborn—but you don’t let it out, knowing it’ll be too-loud in the pitch night.
He pulls you into his room, the very room that had been such a sweet siren song to you earlier. He pulls you towards his bed. He pulls you in behind him when he settles in. He pulls you beneath his blanket. He pulls, pulls, pulls, until your chest is flush to his plastron and his arm is around your waist and his breath is in your face and your heart is in your throat.
It’s late. You’re not going to be able to sleep.
“…Go to sleep,” he says after a few seconds, doubtless able to feel the way your pulse is like a hummingbird against his skin.
“Sorry,” you say in lieu of—anything else. You don’t dare try to say another word, unsure of what exactly would tumble out instead. Perhaps a sweet poem about the texture of his skin against yours. Maybe a lament that he feels the need to tuck his thigh between yours so so so close to where you wake in a pool of sweat dreaming of his touch. Or possibly a whispered confession that tastes like lightning and blood and sugar all at the same time; that you want this but not this, you want this but more.
Gently, a forehead bonks against yours. Dark eyes open and meet yours, centimeters away. He studies you, and you watch the gears turn. More slowly than usual, lethargic even, because of his slumber.
“You’re thinking too much,” he murmurs. Dumbly, you nod. “Need to talk about it?”
“…Yeah,” you admit, then, “…but I won’t.”
He doesn’t like that. A frown mars his beautiful, beautiful face.
“Why?”
You swallow the incredulous laugh, the kaleidoscope of responses. They’re all irrelevant, impossible to share, save for one. “You should sleep.”
Donnie’s hand tightens, fingers curling in his—your—shirt in the small of your back. “So should you.”
“Yeah.”
“…”
“…”
“…I don’t understand.��� The confession, rare, makes you sigh.
“…I don’t either,” you tell him. And you don’t. Why did you have to feel this way for him? Why couldn’t it be someone easier that stole your heart? Why does it have to be the one person you can’t stand to lose? Why does he have to be so comfortable touching you like this and making it hurt even worse? Why can’t you stop feeling this way?
Why can’t you sleep? Why can’t you sleep?
His fingers unfurl from your shirt. His hand dips beneath the hem, finding the skin of your back. Slow shivers spread like little earthquakes as he strokes along your spine, tectonic caresses that ripple and destroy. It's familiar enough a touch that you don't stop him; unfamiliar enough that it rends you inside out.
Donnie leans in. Ghosts his lips along your jaw. It’s not a kiss; you’re just friends, after all. But it’s a sweet caress that feels good, all the way to where he lingers at your ear, whispering there, quivering at the touch that's too close to something else to be fair. “Close your eyes.”
You have one rule: listen to Donatello. So you do; you close your eyes, let his nails drag down your back, let his mouth press warm into your pulse, let his chest rumble with churrs that fill the night air with something akin to a lullaby. His legs curl around yours, mixing, confusing, making the separation of you disappear.
It’s… maddening. You hate this. You love him. You love him so much. You hate that he can do this so easily.
“Shhh,” comes the gentle coo against your skin, like he can tell you’re pulling away from his intent. You obey that, too. Donnie says to be quiet, so you quiet. Thoughts, movements, words; all of them fall away at his beckoning. “Just like that. Good.”
Good, you think, feeling a little fuzzy. It feels good to be good for him. God. You’d be so good for him—but no. None of that, now. Not when you can pretend that these little presses of his lips are kisses. That the thickness of his thigh pressed to your shorts means something. That his hand scratching lines in your skin is something meant to claim as much as it is to calm.
“Making me work for it tonight,” you hear him mumble, half-conscious of the words, not sure if they’re real or part of a dream he’s built for you. “Good job, sweetheart. Just like that.”
More brushes of his mouth. A slow glide of tongue. A lovely dream, you think, finally letting your muscles go slack. A dream of a Donatello who would hold you like this, talk to you like this. A Donatello who is more than just your best friend.
It’s late. Finally, warm and held and pulled into a sweet dream, finally, you sleep.
#me slurring with a voice thick with sleep: two best friends that are in love but too close to tell and so they dance like leaves in the wind#forever brushing close. darting about like little butterflies. gossamer wings catching the light and enchanting one another w each breath#but too close. too close. you can't see the scope of a painting when it's the single strokes that catch your eye.#.....................it's almost four in the morning. im sure there are errors but i shan't be fixing them now. have it as it comes#tmnt#rise#donatello/reader#my fic#rating: t
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neuvifuri is honestly such a good ship… the flavours are unmatched. what do you mean you spent 400+ years at the side of the usurper (but she wasn’t really the usurper, was she?), watching from afar those humans she holds so dear, trying to see in them what you cannot seem to find in yourself (a reason, perhaps?), trusting her, getting to know her, caring for her, even. but then that trust is questioned— because you know she’s trying, you know she cares, but the time is ticking and you don’t know anything and what if there is no solution? now you care for those humans (you care for her), you need to protect them. so you betray her (a gentle trap is a trap nonetheless), and you watch her put her life on the line to protect whatever secret she’s hiding (she could’ve died in front of your eyes), you read her death sentence (you sentenced her) and even at the last moment you hope she’ll do something, she’ll prove you all wrong, that she— she’s not going to let herself get executed. and you still cannot move (you killed her)
#you guys on tumblr may have moved on but i’m still as insane as i was 9 months ago#maybe even more#i just… i close my eyes and i see neuvillette watching as the oratrice starts to ~deliver~ the death sentence#his breath hitching#his eyes??!#GOD#also reposted from twitter because i need to hurt myself more and efficiently#genshin impact#neuvillette#furina#neuvifuri#focallette#even
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following me and having no age in bio is already annoying in itself but whats more annoying is a blog having this long ass bio/pinned post but with 0 indication if theyre an adult or not
#happened multiple times alr#like ok uve litrally put everything BUT ur age like ok bud yea alright#mfs would would put their social security number before adding their age i will take a deep breath and close my eyes#and then they would complain abt the shit i posttttftggnjwjdb i aughgyyfuwgej theres just no winning here#frambling...?
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So I'm well aware this is probably a case of "it isn't that deep" but I love looking at all the fiddly little accessories and bits and bobs of Hoyo designs and trying to justify them. Sampo's is particularly funny, because. What even is all that dkkxjdkd
His outfit has so many straps wrapped around him, like they're restraining or holding something in to keep it from bursting at the seams, and not all of them look like they're even connected to anything! But I'd like to think they are useful in certain situations, like if Sampo takes a hit out in the Fragmentum from one of the monsters.
He's hurt, his arm is bleeding, but he is ALMOST done, he just needs a couple more things to fulfill his quota to Natasha and he doesn't want to turn around and go back now. So Sampo frees a strap from his shirt, winds it around his arm above the cut, pulls it tight with his free hand and his teeth. He'll treat it properly in a minute, once he's done scavenging.
There's also the strange chains that resemble snake spines. Given how they're way longer in his splash art and the way they wind around-
I'd like to think they can extend somehow, and Sampo can use them to scale heights. Firefly clocks him as a covert fighter without even being within 20 feet of him, so it would make sense for Sampo to have ways to get around that don't involve usual/obvious methods, like stairs. Think assassin skill sets.
He's also the only one known to be able to get between the Underground and the overworld, and while he's pretty tight-lipped about his method, having some sort of device to help traverse vertical heights is probably insanely helpful there.
And the little metal ornaments across the backs of his wrists! You can see it a bit better in his reference sheet (everyone say thanks @/dragaliareferencearchive!) as opposed to his splash art-
they aren't flat, they stick up a bit off his arms. And so I wonder if Gepard has ever gone to arrest Sampo, and found that they interfere with his handcuffs haha
The ornaments don't match, the one on his right wrist is actually shorter and doesn't extend down to the back of his hand. Which probably doesn't make it nearly as annoying for handcuffs as the left one, but it would make sense for Sampo to have them like that, since he seems to be right-handed! I think a certain proficiency in being ambidextrous is necessary to dual wield daggers like he does, but. Sampo uses his right hand to
hold his blade in his splash art
throw his blade in his skill
play/show off with his dagger in his idle
lob smoke bombs in his technique
cross over his heart when he bows
and to flip his bangs during the cutscene where he saves the trailblazers from Bronya
So a shorter guard on his right hand would help him keep his wrist's flexibility to be able to do all that unimpeded (loving the thought now that Sampo is naturally right-handed and still better with it, but he practiced constantly with his left until he could do things passably ambidextrous).
I also love them because I wonder if they're in the perfect place to help block a hit, along with the chain wrapped around his left forearm.
Like I love the image of a hired killer soundlessly sneaking up behind Sampo in some shady dark alley, knife sloooooowly raising, and then all at once, they strike!
And instead of feeling the blade sink into his back, they get the unpleasant resonating of metal-on-metal shivering up their arm and rattling their bones, because Sampo has turned around at the last second and raised his crossed his arms to let the knife glance off the guards on his wrists.
And the mercenary is left to realize that oh, they are fucked.
#sampo koski#hsr sampo#hsr sampo koski#hsr#honkai star rail#now that I think about it is there literally ANYTHING in canon that says Gepard carries handcuffs or do we all just need to be bonked skzjm#things I lay awake thinking about at 3 AM ☆#I would actually love to see Sampo use those guards to block a blow from Gepard because hhhhhh#gepo fight scene! gepo fight scene!#Gepard trying to bring Sampo down only to get held off at the last second#adrenaline pumping breath quick faces close together eyes wild and bright breathing right in each other's space#ahem#anyway#but I can't see them like REALLY fighting because Sampo mostly just commits fraud and theft and I don't think Gepard would resort to-#-violence over that. Geppie is a good boy he probably wouldn't get violent with Sampo unless Sampo was putting other people in danger.#looking at his splash art this closely also gave me a really funny revelation which I'll maybe post tomorrow#Sampo is such a little shit I love him NSMKDNDMD
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Queer as Folk – 3.06: One Ring to Rule Them All
#britin#queer as folk#cinematv#filmtvcentral#userthing#smallscreensource#userstream#dailyflicks#tvarchive#filmtvtoday#usersource#mlmsource#usergay#we as a society do not talk about this scene enough!!!#brian just instantly knowing justin is upset and even though it's not his place to comfort him anymore he still cares and is his friend#so he closes his eyes takes a deep breath and puts his game face on and goes over to offer some company#yes he still takes his chance to reiterate the hollowness of romantic gestures sometimes they are just pretty words and gifts#without the actions to back them up#brian might not say the words but his actions speak for themselves#3x06#my gifs
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i can’t stop thinking about vampire elvis.
#vampire!e <3#like…how is this real#thinking about…things!#imagining his eyes darkening as his chest heaves#nose flaring as he breathes you in…fangs descending behind closed lips#i have to stop thinking i fear#eap#seventies#elvis fans
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good morning, i'm thinking about snow leopard/kitty hybrid gojo laying on your back after he cums inside, purring and licking you almost as if he can groom you (and also because he likes the taste of your skin), rubbing his cheek all over you because you're so warm and he's so happy... (and he still hasn't pulled out btw)
#re: satoru gojo#cw hybrids#i'm so normal about him as you can tell <3#pretty little kitty. he just loves you so much 😔#ears and tail lazily flicking as he closes his eyes and smiles all content while squishing you under his weight#teeth gently bite down on your neck instinctively if you squirm too much or try to get up#no!!! you're not allowed to move you're not allowed to leave him!!!#kitty gets to lay for as long as he wants ☹️😠#<<< or at least that's the logic in his brain#meanwhile you can barely breathe#the realest cat behavior
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Hi! Could you elaborate on why you think Arthur wasn't in much pain in the moments leading up to his death?
Sure, I love an excuse to talk about the medical perspective of that last mission.
We call it the end of life pain relief. So when a person is dying, the body's ability to process pain can change due to all kinds of different physiological and psychological factors.
Lots of things influence this, including the body’s natural shutdown mechanisms, changes in brain function, and the effects of illness or trauma.
When you're nearing death, especially after chronic illness and injury (in this case, Arthur's TB and the fight with Micah), the brain's ability to perceive and process pain can diminish. This is because the body starts to slow down as part of the dying process, leading to less responsiveness to external stimuli, including pain.
As shock sets in due to blood loss or severe trauma, the body redirects blood flow away from the extremities and focuses on vital organs. This can cause a numbing effect on the body, making pain less perceptible too.
So the odds are that while Arthur probably was in pain, it was likely significantly reduced as he got closer to his final moments.
#people who die from illness like tuberculosis tend to pass in their sleep or in a way that mimics sleep#so like how arthur laid there on that mountain breathing and breathing until he closed his eyes#that was the body doing it's thing#the pain relief essentially made arthur go to sleep#in terms of feeling anyways#his death was kinder than most who suffered with tuberculosis back then#but he deserved to die kindly#if there's such a thing#hope this was interesting#arfur :(#arthur morgan#rdr2#red dead redemption 2#red dead redemption 2 spoilers#vaccine posting
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does anyone have big arms and a steady heartbeat combined w a willingness to let me lay wrapped in them for the next foreseeable 48 hours straight
#ik im still hornyposting but it is coming from a need for just. safety and stability and to have the rest of the world blocked out#need. to be held a little tight and have my face squished just a tiny bit into their chest so im just urged more to close my eyes#need someones scent and shirt and breathing and skin contact#big in a 'need daddy' but in a not necessarily having sex way . need. the care. someone to make me feel small and cradled#augh. ough#she speaks#just. really do not feel good lately#really not good at all
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alright I’m bored so here’s my extremely optimistic crack theory: assuming katsuki seeing a vestige means we’ll see him in the vestige realm, when kudo sorted through izuku’s memories he put his forehead on the wall right??
what if izuku is having a crisis about being left quirkless again and vestige katsuki needs to touch foreheads with izuku to show him all his memories of izuku being heroic without a quirk and he tells him “you never needed a quirk. you were always a hero” or something like that because it’s what izuku always needed to hear
#bakudeku#bkdk#me at three am waking up in cold sweat#HERES HOW BKDK FOREHEAD TOUCH CAN STILL WIN#and then they kiss with tongue and hori shows all of it bc he’s a weird little freak and we all win#and everyone clapped#anyway that’s what I would do if#if I could possess horikoshi’s body and write the resolution#and then I’d add 30 panels of hugging and kissing and post them all online immediately on his Twitter then log out#this isn’t even a theory this is just me explaining why the plot demands a bkdk forehead touch it’s all there it’s been set up#and izuku sees all the memories of him standing up to katsuki and sludge villain and the river scene again#and them forehead touching is at the for front#and izuku closes his eyes and breathes deeply#BC ITS WHAT HES ALWAYS WANTED TO HEAR AND HE HEARS IT FROM KACCHAN#anyway horikoshi let me into your brain I have ideas now draw it DO IT HORI DO IT LISTEN TO ME HORI WE CAN AND WE SHOULD
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7.15.23
#I was sooooo patient trying to capture this#even then it was dumb fucking luck#this one defo gets its own post#addition fun facts abt this night:#I left my driver's side car window down the ENTIRE storm and did not notice. nothing damaged but I have a stinky seat :(#however a stinky seat is the small humbling moment at the end of a phenomenal experience enjoying the storm from my small cave-like patio#so I sat outside enjoying the rain. me n my bong. and also a mogwai album. eyes closed. just sounds and my own deep breathing - peaceful#lighting would streak the sky and I could see the bolts through my closed eyelids - they were bright and crisp; defined. even if obscured#everything just snapped into place. the lightning and the music had moments of perceived synchronization - probably pareidolia#waves of euphoria radiating out from the base of my skull. full goosebumps. momentous feeling - I must've been manic#when I opened up my eyes the world had gone from being heavy and dark to just. red. so red. like a wildfire on the entire western horizon.#my driveway doesn't come with a glamorous view either. it was just that the entire western hemisphere was flame-red fading into eigengrau#i have those photos too lmao - will be sharing soon#my art#aesthetic#art#artwork#webcore#glitchcore#internetcore#photography#original photography#nature photography#lightning#storm#rain aesthetic#stormy aesthetic#dark aesthetic#surreal aesthetic#surrealcore
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what do you think his thoughts were at that moment?
this is an insane question and i am going rabid trying to answer it. for context this is about my. link dead on the fucking floor compilation. i. e. "what do you think went through link's mind as he all but DIED in precalamity botw."
i've thought about this before because. well obviously i have. look at how many times i've drawn it. i think context matters more than anything when examining that moment, because it's essentially the culmination of link's entire life up to that point in the worst way possible. you have a kid who has been raised to either win or die. those are his only two options. he's known this for basically as long as he can remember. either he defeats the calamity like he's supposed to and lives the rest of his life as an untouchable gold standard of soldier, as proof that all that pressure and pain he suffered worked, or he dies and dooms everyone he has ever loved to suffer horribly for the rest of their likely very short lives. And i do think he thought about this extensively, because how could you NOT, and i think that he probably believed that death was the most likely outcome. He was raised by a soldier, around soldiers, to be a soldier. soldiers are practical. soldiers strategize for the most likely scenario. they're not pessimistic, but they know how to look at a situation objectively and make a judgement call. Looking at link's situation objectively, it would have been obvious that he couldn't win. he was one kid, a 16-year-old boy, with maybe some above-average swordsmanship skills, but too many variables were missing. he couldn't hear the sword's voice. zelda's power wouldn't manifest. Hylia, who should have been there guiding them through this prophecy that SHE had supposedly inflicted on them, was completely silent. the divine beasts may have given him some hope, initially, but it was clear below the optimistic facade that hyrule was toying with very dangerous forces they didn't truly understand. I think he very likely went into that confrontation with the calamity anticipating death.
what's most interesting to me about the scene of link's death isn't that he fell, but WHERE he fell. because he didn't die in the sanctum, at the scene of the calamity's birth, as one might have expected. he died in an empty field along the road to a fortress that might have been able to protect him. Link, the bearer of the triforce of courage, the boy raised to die a martyr at the hands of the calamity, who had all but accepted his fate before the monster even showed its face, chose to run for safety, what some might call the coward's approach, instead of dying where he stood at ganon's hand. and it seems almost out of character at first, when you think about the person he was when he first met zelda, the person who would do anything in his power to show no weakness, to take the pain and the stress without flinching or faltering. the boy who so completely embodied that idea of "courage." but i think that zelda was the piece that changed him. If it had just been him at that final confrontation, maybe he wouldn't have run. maybe he would have been content to take his final stand and accept the death he'd been promised. but zelda insisted on being there, too. "there must be something i can do to help." and while link was a soldier, more than willing to engage in self-sacrifice, he was also a knight, sworn to protect this girl, and so he couldn't in good conscience sacrifice HER, too. so he ran. he tried to live, at a moment when he should have expected to die. and i think that was infinitely more courageous of him. to go against everything you have ever known and expected is infinitely scarier than accepting the outcome you've always anticipated. Running for his life (and for zelda's) was running into the unknown. escaping death in that way was defying everything he'd built himself up to be, everything everyone expected of him. Who is link if not the hero who faced the calamity with courage? what would he have to be if he could not be what was expected of him? in that moment, he made the choice to step into the unprophesized timeline, into a world where his actions were no longer defined by some great all-seeing power. and that was the most courageous move he could have made in that moment. he must have been terrified.
so what was going through his mind as he made his last stand? Honestly, i think the only thing on his mind was zelda. I don't think he cared about himself, his physical condition, any of it. I think he made the choice to run because of zelda and so he made the choice to take his final stand where he did because of her, too. just before zelda's power manifests, we see him try to continue fighting even inches from death, so gravely injured that he's unsteady on his feet, using his sword to keep himself standing. i think he must have known that he was in no condition to fight anymore, but he expected death to come for him at one point or another. what mattered was that she might live as long as he kept going. that's why he ran in the first place. not for himself, but because zelda was there and zelda didn't deserve to die like this. Even once zelda's power manifests, link only gives up and allows himself to fall once a beat or two has past--once he's sure that there really is no more danger. that she'll be okay, that she can make it past the fort and into relative safety even if he lets go here. He collapses then, and only then, after running miles through fields and woods, already gravely wounded, because in that moment he sees that the danger has past. a soldier's work is only done when there is nothing left to fight. a knight's work is only done when his princess is truly safe.
maybe he was relieved that he'd managed to hold on as long as he had. that he'd been able to find her some form of safety, in one way or another. maybe he worried about what manner of things would come for her once he was gone. maybe he wondered why she wouldn't just leave him and run for the fort. i'm sure there was a flash of regret in the back of his mind, for the family and friends he'd leave behind, for the people he'd let down, for the calamity he wasn't able to defeat. but this was the outcome he'd expected, even if it had come in a slightly different form. Even if now there was a girl hovering above him begging him to open his eyes.
#can you tell i never stop thinking about this specific moment? lol#i still think my loz dissertation line about this moment goes hard btw.#'There is a flash of golden light. He cannot raise his head to witness it. but it is warm. so warm. it feels like safety. like home.#He closes his eyes and breathes in. he is sure he is dying. This will be his last breath. At least it will be warm and soft and golden.'#like damn ok 2021 blue. you get it. go off#asks#zelda analysis
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