#but THIS

[softquietsteadylove]

I was wondering if you could do a toxic AU? One where like they're dating, but really bad for each other (like cheat on each other, make the other cry, or something just toxic) and they just can't let each other go. I know it would be kind if impossible because it's THEM, but because it's THEM, and they're obsessed with each other it kinda makes it possible😭

"She's here?!"

"Will you keep your voice down?" Gil attempted to shush Minerva, which of course only made her more upset.

She threw her purse to the ground. "Are you serious right now, Gilgamesh? First, you have some weird moment with Thena behind closed doors seconds before her wedding. Then, you stand and protest the marriage. And then you follow her after she runs off, and I have to find out she's in my home--our home?!"

"It's still my apartment, Minerva," he hissed at her, hand on his hip, solidly blocking the doorway to their bedroom. "You moved in with me, and Thena is my friend. What was I supposed to do, let her go back to that jackass's place alone?!"

"You don't bring the woman you're obsessed with into the apartment you share with your girlfriend!"

She was still in her wedding attire. So was he, suit still on, tie hanging around his neck loosely. "I am not obsessed with Thena."

But she dug her heels in, pointing up in his face. "You are. I should have listened when my friends told me what a red flag it was that you couldn't let go of her, even when she got engaged. I wanted to believe you when you said you weren't in love with her!"

"I never said that."

She reared back as if he'd struck her. "You what?"

"You never asked if I was in love with Thena, you asked if I was cheating on you with her," he clarified, even knowing what he'd get for it. "Which I didn't."

Her slap held nothing back, cracking against his cheek in the otherwise silent apartment.

It stung. "Okay, I deserve that."

"And more," Minerva choked, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Why the hell would you do this? Why did you agree to move in with me? I thought you were going to propose."

He kept his face passive. She didn't want any more lies, and he was tired of lying to her. "I figured 'why not?', that's why."

She stumbled back again. "Was-Was anything you've ever told me in our relationship true?"

"Yes."

"You fucking liar!"

"I'm not lying," he insisted. "I never lied. You asked if I'm obsessed with Thena, I'm not. You asked if I was cheating on you--if I would ever cheat on you with her, and I wouldn't! And Thena would never do that to you either."

"Maybe that's the worst part," she laughed coldly. "Why did she pretend to be my friend all this time?"

"She didn't pretend," he stated so straightforward he was starting to sound like Thena. "She doesn't pretend to like people, I told you. She wasn't lying when she told me she liked you, which you kept insisting was some mean, backhanded lie."

No, instead it was her boyfriend who was lying (according to her). Minerva swiped at her tears, dragging the mascara off her cheeks. "So, you're not cheating on me, you just brought the woman you've loved your entire life home after her failed wedding out of kindness."

Gil sighed. "That's right."

Minerva's tears began anew. Her petite shoulders folded in on themselves, her dark hair tumbling around her in long curls. "You love her."

She deserved this much--the real, whole truth. "Yes."

"You've always loved her," Minerva continued to ask questions he knew she wouldn't like the answers to. "The whole time?"

He stood up straight, dragging his tie off completely. He didn't really like orange, but Minerva insisted they match. "From the first day I met her when we were kids."

"Then why wouldn't you just go be with her?" Minerva demanded, even pointed to the bedroom door where her unseen enemy was lying in wait (according to her).

But he shrugged. He had asked himself these questions for a long time, the answers didn't have any pain left in them. "Because our lives went in different directions. Because we've always been best friends--too good to complicate it. We knew it wouldn't have worked when we were young so why try and break our own hearts?"

It seemed her tears were drying quickly the colder her eyes became. She crossed her arms at him. "So, you've always been in love with her. And you dated me anyway."

"Yes."

"But not everything you told me was a lie?" she scoffed. "And you expect me to believe that?"

"It doesn't matter if you believe it or not." She flinched again, and he did feel bad. He did care for this woman--they had been together for two years. "I never lied to you, Minerva. But don't ask me to choose between you and her."

Because he would choose her. He was choosing her over his girlfriend standing in front of him right now. "I see."

He crossed his arms as well, still planted in front of the door. "I'm not sending her to some hotel. Her brother and Phastos and Ben are probably helping get her stuff out of Eros' place as we speak. Once I know she's safe and has a place to go, you can come and get your stuff."

"That's it?" She was done--the line was cut, the bridge burned and floating down the river.

"Yeah," he also deflated. He didn't think what he was doing was noble by any means. And he deserved every horror story Minerva would tell about her nightmare ex who was always in love with his friend he had told her not to worry about.

Well, she wouldn't have had to if Thena had gotten married. If she had never told him that she couldn't go through with marrying Eros because she had always loved him. She was guilty of that, but he could bear that sin for the both of them.

"Fine," Minerva stated finally, drying the last of her tears.

"I can leave you the apartment, if you want," he added lamely. He really didn't want to.

"Don't offer me your pity," she spat back at him, and he admired her for it. "I don't need a homewrecker's space."

He was a homewrecker, that would stick with him. But he still couldn't bring himself to regret so long as he knew Thena was lying on his bed, crying.

"Go to hell," she hissed at him, picking her purse up and not even bothering to take anything on her way out. "You and your precious Thena."

"Watch it," he grumbled back at her. She could curse his name for generations to come, fine. But he wouldn't let her speak badly of Thena.

That was the last straw, and she slammed the door behind her as hard as she could.

Two years of his life, down the drain. It was a happy relationship, for the most part. She had always excitedly wanted to advance their relationship, take new steps together (like moving in). But looking around the empty apartment, he didn't care. She could come and take the furniture she had picked out that he didn't like, she could take all the stuff on the walls. She could take the stuff that wasn't hers if she wanted. What mattered wasn't out here.

Gil opened the door gently. Thena was sitting up on the bed, a towel around her shoulders and wearing the old shirt he had left out for her to wear. Her wedding dress was lying unceremoniously and disdainfully piled outside the bathroom. "I didn't like that dress either."

Her voice was hoarse as she looked at it. "His mother insisted."

He sat beside her, taking her hand in his, "forget it. Forget her, and her asshole son--never think about them again."

Thena looked at him, turning those big green eyes on him that always made him forget the entire rest of the world around him. Her eyes filled with tears. "She deserves better."

She was talking about Minerva. But he brought her hand up to his lips, "I know."

"She deserves to hate us," she whispered, her lip trembling.

"Probably," he brushed off, focused on pulling her big, ugly, stupid engagement ring off her. She didn't like it anyway--it was just one garishly ugly stone on a tiny band. It was always getting caught on things, always getting turned around on her thin little finger. She hated the attention it drew.

The ring tumbled and rolled as Gil tossed it away.

"I shouldn't have said anything."

"No," he whispered, still kissing each of her fingers. Either way it was true; no, she shouldn't have said anything, but no, he didn't want her to say that now, either.

"We always said we shouldn't do this," she whispered back, crying freely as he weaved their fingers together.

"I know," he conceded as he finally leaned in to kiss her. It was the worst time to do it. They were both crying, it was the worst day of her life, and both of their lives were about to never be the same because of it.

But Thena kissed him back, and they kissed like they had always been doing it. "Why couldn't you tell me earlier not to marry him?"

He laughed, although there wasn't much genuine mirth in it. There wasn't much in her smile, either. "Why couldn't you tell me you loved me sooner?"

She laughed as well, just as sadly. She tilted her head as he swiped her tears away with his thumb. "We're both terrible. We got this wrong, right from the beginning, didn't we?"

"Yeah," he kissed her again, more softly, more sweetly. "But I won't anymore."

[2009-ghost]

YOUR ALIVE 🥺🥺 here's more art MUAHHAHA

Most of em are wips, the rest is semi old art 😓

HELP ARE THOSE MADE IN ANIMAL JAM?? how

[bonesdontmelt]

The world building in Toriko is legitimately so good, and the power crawl is I kid you not probably the best I have ever seen in a shonen and these are SO related guys

Like Toriko shows up and you know he and the others are the Four Heavenly Kings and you THINK this means they're the Most Powerful Dudes Ever right but turns out that, no, they're literally just the IGO darlings because they're a bunch of orphans raised in the public eye and they ARE powerful, regular people understand that, but people don't get that they're STILL the IGO darlings -- at the beginning of the show none of them would stand a chance against Ichiryu or any of the other higher ups.

They're still very much seen as Babies and this is driven in when they reveal OHOHO there's a whole gourmet world out there that most people can't survive five seconds in--and guess what the 4 heavenly kings are NOT among the number who can. Gives them a goal, something to work towards.

ALSO usually the worst thing to do in a fantasy world is start throwing arbitrary power levels on things (7 deadly sins, DBZ I am looking at YOU) but Toriko does it and it works because they give a basic, easy meaning for each unit (capture level 1 means it would take 10 normal people to get it or something) and then it sticks to that (I think the highest we ever see is the Final Boss of the manga with a capture level of 30,000 which is a ton but sure is evocative)

And this isn't just done with the fighter people either! Komatsu gets this just as much, and it's probably one of my favorite world building things because they use our knowledge of the real world against us as readers to achieve it. Komatsu is introduced as a cook in a five star restaurant and obviously we're like "aha so he's a very good chef" only to reveal several arcs in that, in this food-focused world, the cap is actually ten stars and Komatsu is actually a solidly mid ranked chef at the start.

There are so many more things because the worldbuilding of Toriko is in turns mind-blowingly brilliant and absolutely unhinged and I love that but basically they do an amazing job managing the audience's expectations by leveraging our knowledge of the real world and tropes commonly used in similar media to set up and then pulling the rug out from under us and I love it.

[blood-and-lilacs]

wait. how has it never even occurred to me to write archie and gretchen fucking rachel together? what is wrong with me

[productofaritual]

I'm crying we have to talk about the new dsmp lore that just dropped bro

Wdym new lore it's 2024 you- ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

[tododeku-or-bust]

[peachpizza]

[ratsbanes]

MY SISTERS BIRTHDAY GIFT TO ME WAS A MAINTENANCE PHASE PATRON SUBSCRIPTION

I HAVE A PROBLEM BUT I DONT CARE

[thewiz9062]

Nightmare starstudent, basically

Im calling them MeaninglessMoney now

[samuraiondo-mace-1177]

Did these in the middle of doing classwork

Thanks to my moot's ( @codexbrainhasbrokenfree ) ramblin abt the silly man, we now have the AU where Asahi is Aoki's secretary.

[mareimbriumsketches]

So uhhhhhhh. That one scene was pretty good I guess 😭😭😭

[tarn-ati0n]

Honestly, the Bowser model for Mario & Luigi Brothership might be my new favorite Bowser already.

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

Blessed are you oh Yahweh our God king of the Universe who (for some unfathomable reason) created math and science to torture the lives of countless children.

[autisticstevenuniverse]

“You’re weird, you know that? It’s like, you do care, but you’re also so detached from everything.”

“Oh yes, I suppose I must have picked it up from…someone I once knew,”

Oh, Sarah. The doctorification of ex companions continues

[fangirlism-for-life]

The crime vs. The culprit

I swear my mom spoils her too much but whatever they're her colored pencils

[aiendrai]

WHEN WAS SOMEBODY GOING TO MENTION WE HIT DOUBLE DIGITS IN THE JJ/QUINNER TAG ON AO3 HELLO