#but one thing is unforgivable

[jakeperalta]

(The Signal™ as an act of love/understanding)

[bixels]

vague-posting about this here cuz i don't feel comfortable yapping about my su takes on twitter, but after everything that's happened the most interesting thing about the su fandom to me is that so many are 100% there for applying the "everyone can change and deserves a second chance" message to everyone, even the diamonds. except for one ☝️ she doesn't count. cuz she's dead.

[lazylittledragon]

slowly working through the list of things i'm mad about: i got a cameo from tim downie for my ex that i can NEVER watch again. the bastard took a chunk of my wallet AND a 4 minute video from tim downie away from me

[eldritchqueerture]

please please please please please let this be addressed in season 5. please tell john he is still undefeated it literally does not matter what happened in the dark world he had to take the deal with kayne please i need john to break down sobbing style and arthur to tell him he is still undefeated beCAUSE HE IS

[findafight]

“I support women’s wrongs” you cannot even accept Nancy cheated on Steve and that adds to her arc and dynamism as a character. Let her be a messy 16/17 year old!!!

[dustykneed]

you are my sunshine, my only sunshine

you make me happy when skies are gray

(prompt fill for @mcspirkevents' mcspirk bingo prompt "gone with the wind".)

static frames below:

ouch! neck deep in aos bones feels rn... lmk if i should make a fix-it or somethin

[doveywovy]

16: necrosis?

swamp/wound cleaning/"no, i can't feel anything."

------

post-peace izuna finds out tobirama's had severe nerve damage (As a result of his own experiments, especially when it comes to him testing the limits of his chakra control when it comes to healing). Probably finds out while fiddling around trying to annoy him during a meeting by poking at his side, and Tobirama being surprisingly stone-faced even for him.

Izuna immediately gets obsessed with this. it plays into the stupid uchiha fearmongering during the war about tobirama being an unfeeling war machine, but it's also somehow a deeply private thing (it is, after all, the sort of thing he wouldn't want an enemy to know about) and now he knows.

he starts to test the limits of it (much like tobirama with his chakra control experiments). Poking, prodding, pinching, finding where exactly the nerves still work and where it stops. He even tries tickling once- no effect, which he was weirdly disappointed by. He pricks tobirama with a needle, drags a scroll faux-carelessly to cause a papercut, presses the edge of a shuriken to his neck when Tobirama falls asleep at the end of a festival- traces his face tattoos with his index and rests a finger on his bottom lip, lets their fingers brush when they walk, rests his hand on Tobirama's thigh when they're both absorbed in paperwork-

izuna keeps thinking about that needle, though. And how deeply Tobirama sleeps when he's drunk. How long would it take him to notice a new tattoo in an unusual place if he doesn't have the sensation to let him know he's gotten one?

[maingh0st]

I just wanted to say that I admire your dedication to taryn x garret/taryn since noone likes her lmaoo 😭😭 probably one of the only taryn truthers out there 🥲

asdkajsdkas thank you. I really didn't care that much about taryn after finishing the books—like she was interesting, and I thought holly had done something clever with her and jude's relationship, and the thought of the ghost/taryn dynamic gave me something to chew on in my free time, but that was it.

but then I came on tumblr and saw that people like. really see this 17 yr old traumatized girl as an irredeemable monster? and the more I thought about it, the more ridiculous that seemed to me?? like yes she genuinely makes bad, harmful decisions; I don't deny that. but damn, I'm glad my family & friends allowed me the chance to grow past the person I was at 17. we already see her growing in tqon, and it's clear from the new oak books that she and jude have made their peace (to the point that her disastrous marriage to locke is the butt of a joke!)

I'm also aware that for some people, taryn-hate is just a meme. that's fine, I get it, I've been in fandom spaces for most of my life at this point. but I truly believe you have more fun with the books when you read her as a whole person, and I'm also sad that we hold girl characters to much higher standards than their male counterparts—to the extent that we're so comfortable treating this teenage girl like the scum of the earth. and that's not even really to speak to the media analysis aspect of conversations surrounding taryn

[boyfriendyke]

there r a lot of things about the myth of psyche and eros that makes me a little insane but one of them has always been the tasks from aphrodite and the unfairness of it. they're not intended to be possible. they're so obviously not meant to be possible, and psyche isn't fucking hercules, you know, she's not a demigod or whatever, she's mortal and these aren't mortal tasks!! it's why psyche has to be helped with each one, fucking by like ants and river gods and shit. and so like. idk. i know ppl see psyche and eros as like a story about love and shit which obviously it is but as a kid psyche and eros always felt like a story about being able to accept help

[stari-hun]

Actually while I’m on the topic of Mad Father, the storyline is so interesting cause it shows other perspectives but it IS Aya’s story. The endings either happen with her dying or living on. All paths lead fail before succeeding with the main ending where Aya lives. Even in Dio’s ending he implies that IF the events of the true ending were happening he’d be a ghost trying to stop her there. I like the concept that there’s only one actual ending if we ignore Dio’s secret ending. Aya lives because she MUST live, there’s no good ending where she runs away right after she wakes her to her dads screams, Aya dies in the mansion or she burns it down and continues the cycle.

[pynkhues]

How do you think the show will depict Armand and Lestat’s relationship? I used to think that the theatre box scene was made up because well, Armand is obviously distorting a lot of stuff. But since Armand was already exposed as a liar this season I don’t think they’re going to have him be exposed again for lying abt something major in s3? I’m also curious if they’re going to keep Armand’s Lestat obsession

Hey! It's an interesting area to think about, especially because I think there are a lot of truths in Armand's story (taking Nicki to bait Lestat out, Lestat's role in the destruction of the Children of Satan cult, Lestat giving Armand and the coven the theatre, his and Lestat's mutual attraction), but there's already lies threaded through that it sounds like the show's planning for (most notably, of course, Gabrielle being omitted, Lestat playing Harlequin instead of Lelio and, of course, Lestat and Armand having had sex).

I talked about it in more detail here (and included the passage from the book), but I actually think them not having consumated their relationship + the one time they tried, Lestat being massively triggered with memories of Magnus, is too important to Lestat's arc at that point of the story to lose?

I could be wrong, of course, but given the way Rolin's talked about the trauma Lestat carries with him, and the weight of that particular scene as both a trigger point for trauma and one where Lestat explodes violently, I feel it'll probably be adapted?

It also feeds I think into this touchstone that the show's been exploring already of victim-survivors of sexual violence (Claudia, Lestat and Armand) all treating each other pretty badly and refusing to engage with the fact that trauma might inform the other's action. I've written about this before, but Lestat weaponising Claudia's rape, while Claudia casts doubt on Lestat's, and Armand diminishes Lestat's in 2.03 is all pretty pointed to me and opens up a really interesting dialogue in how trauma isn't a ticket to compassion when it comes to other people experiencing similar horrors.

So yeah, I don't know! I do think they're going to be insane about each other, haha, and I think there was genuinely a lot of truth in Armand's retelling, but I think there was a lot that was deliberately mm, curated too.

[spineless-lobster]

Cinaethon of sparta and eugammon of cyrene when I FUCKING CATCH YOU-

[meteorcrab]

Man, like, at what point is an anime adaptation not considered an adaptation anymore and it's basically an 'original' thing with someone else's characters and maybe some of the plot

[bioniclung]

if you hate jayce talis i'm sorry but i will perceive you as a person devoid of media literacy

[canary-prince]

Any post that contains the phrase "you" in a big, general, plural sense that automatically accuses the reader of being part of the "you" that op is rhetorically berating are deeply, deeply unhelpful in regard to compassion fatigue. It's also just manipulative; the clear intention is to pressure anyone reading it into reblogging it in order to prove they are not part of the "you" being accused.

These posts bother me and I understand that the authors of these posts are feeling powerless and have learned that screaming and yelling and shaming is an effective tactic because they weren't given enough attention to meet their needs through other methods. But again, it's going to increase compassion fatigue and increase the use of shame as a method of social control, which is not ideal.

[polarisbibliotheque]

Survivor's Blood (Leon x Reader) - Chapter 6

Survivor's Blood

Pairing: Leon x Reader

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 (you are here!)

Summary: After Raccoon City, Leon became the only Government agent with that kind of expertise. With relentless training, he was now a Special Agent - again, on his first day in the job. He just didn’t expect to live Raccoon City all over again… Maybe Leon was fated to always have the worst first-days-at-work ever.

Age Restriction: 18+. It’s horror, so expect a lot of graphic violence and blood dripping from this. I mean, VERY GRAPHICAL VIOLENCE. Nothing we haven’t seen on RE, but still. Yee been warned

TRIGGER WARNING: Leon has a slight panic attack on this one, right at the end. Proceed with caution.

Author's Notes: Wow. I just looked at the last post, Chapter 5, I posted LITERALLY one year ago, on June 26. I swear I didn't plan this, life's crazy! Craziness aside, this time we have a slight smaller chapter because I wanted to end it with Leon having a small panic attack from his PTSD the poor guy. I recently watched REC, the Spanish found footage horror movie, and OH GODS, it's AMAZING. LOVED it. Took a little to find the one with original Spanish audio, but totally worth it - if there ever was a Resident Evil movie following the games, it had to be like REC; hence why I came back to writing if after such a long time. Also, I'm now watching the RE4 Remake as a movie - I'm a little sad I don't know any streamers I like in English who have played the game, so I'm watching with no commentary, as I did with RE4 looooong ago 'cause I was too scared of chainsaw man. Maybe I'll get to finish this story soon!

Chapter 6

Hospital Arklay Hill, April 29th, 2001 – 22h13

Leon stared at his watch – glancing at the clock on the wall, you understood why his eyes seemed so restless: on his schedule, you had to be at the school in less than ten minutes.

And that would never happen.

“Is it ok if we run a little late?” You quietly asked him, avoiding the ears of the other survivors. Neither of you wanted them to get desperate.

“Yeah, I planned it with a few minutes for us to breathe in case something went wrong.” Even so, his sigh showed Leon wasn’t too happy with that.

You almost smiled. Such a perfectionist. You could easily see how high his standards were for himself – and how much he wanted to achieve them.

“Well, I’m counting Lickers as something going wrong.” Your answer made him huff a quick smile. “Seriously, those things are awful. What was Umbrella thinking…?”

“They weren’t thinking. Period.” Leon’s words were dry and filled with a bitterness that made you stare back at him. As he checked the shotgun’s ammo for the last time, there was something sharp in his eyes – only Leon knew how everything that happened in Raccoon City affected his life. “Ready to go, partner?”

“Oh, yeah, choco chip.” You had a not so happy smile on your lips as your words dripped sarcasm. Leon couldn’t stop himself from chuckling.

“C’mon, we’re getting out of this. You’ll never have to think about it again.”

You sincerely hoped his words to be true.

*

“When we open this door, no one comes out. I’m gonna check the corridor and when I tell y/n it’s all ok, you can get out. Understood?”

All survivors agreed with their heads – even if you didn’t agree much on Leon going out on his own, seeing you basically saved his life, killing a Licker point blank.

You would do it again if you had to.

Leon silently opened the door, leaving the shotgun hanging on his back. You had no idea why he didn’t have it ready on his hands, but you weren’t a trained agent like him. He didn’t fully close the door so it wouldn’t click and you held it on place – your head almost glued to the wood, trying to hear any kind of noise going on the other side.

“What if he dies out there…?” Valerie’s whisper was almost as silent as a needle dropping on the floor – but those words were as deadly as a nuclear bomb.

Up until that moment, you hadn’t stopped to think about that – and, to be fair, you hadn’t had the chance to think. Everything was chaos and the only thing you were supposed to do was keep going, keep moving to survive that hellish night. But Valerie’s words had reason: what would you all do if Leon, the only one trained and seasoned enough to get through it, died right then and there? What would you do if a Licker shredded him to pieces and decided to wait for you all to come out so you would have the same fate?

If Leon didn’t survive, you probably wouldn’t survive – it was simple as that. But something else hurt in that thought… Yes, you had just met him, but not having him around seemed… Empty. Unfair.

He couldn’t die. Leon wouldn’t die. You would make sure of that – after all, you had fearlessly killed a Licker in the heat of the moment to make sure Leon would keep walking by your side. And you would get out of that damned city together, that was the only certainty you allowed in your heart.

Not wanting to make any noise, you held Valerie’s hand, lightly reassuring the woman everything was going to be alright. She turned her eyes to you, taking a deep breath upon seeing you so calm and sure – still trying to hear whatever was going on outside.

In that situation, though, a few seconds dragged themselves like a whole eternity. You were probably holding your breath, you weren’t really paying attention to that at the moment, when you heard a light scratching on the door.

“Clear.” Leon’s voice was but a murmur, one only you could hear, but it was enough.

You signaled the other survivors to leave the room: the man in the lab coat went first, followed by a father and his teenage son, an elderly woman and finally Valerie. You kept your gun ready in your hands, leaving the room with the door open – if one of those creatures tried to follow from the depths of the corridor, the door could perhaps distract it.

Leon signaled you to take the lead, keeping the shotgun locked and loaded as the scared group followed you towards the door – wincing as soon as they saw the Licker, covering their mouths so they wouldn’t scream in horror. Valerie aided the elderly woman while the lab coat man only rolled his eyes. The father, helped his son walk straight, as the boy was wearing hospital clothes. Leon watched everything carefully at the back of the group – also making sure he was listening carefully.

He had seen survivor’s groups like those – he had talked to Jill and Carlos about their many missions, he had conversations with Chris about his S.T.A.R.S assignments, and he had heard a story or two from Claire. Lab coat man obviously thought everyone was a hinderance, so Leon would keep a sharp eye on him as well: those kinds of people wouldn’t flinch at the chance of sacrificing someone else to save their own skin.

And even if Leon despised those types, he would save that guys’ ass because of his own set of moral values – not because the guy was actually worth something.

As soon as you reached the dead Licker on the floor, you raised your right hand so the group came to a halt – making Leon smirk in the process. You were proving to be quite a surprise and, if he was going to be honest, a very welcome one.

Quietly kicking the Licker aside, you forced the door open one more time – using your stealthier skills as to not make any noise at it. Holding the gun with one hand, you looked back at Leon and, as he nodded, you nodded back, pushing the rest of the door and holding it open with one of your feet, immediately pointing the gun at the corridor you had first seen that horrid creature.

You quickly pointed at one side, then at the other – checking it twice just to make sure. It was empty, quiet, like a forgotten tomb reeking of blood and decay. You furrowed your brows as something immediately came to your mind: what if there were other survivor’s hidden at the hospital who weren’t as lucky as those with you to have an old radio and ask for help? They would be left there to die – and you were right there.

You didn’t have time to search the place with Leon, though. Even if you wanted to, your heart desperately screaming you should delve in deeper and help those who couldn’t help themselves, you couldn’t. You had to save those you were able to save. You had to turn around and never look back.

Shaking your head quickly, you held the door open so the group could continue forward. Leon noticed something was wrong – as you stared at a bloodstain on the floor with an empty yet uncomfortable expression. He had to tap you on the shoulder so you would snap out of it, looking back into his grayish sea eyes, and finding them with a question inside.

You could almost hear him saying ‘are you ok?’ – which seemed to be something you would ask each other infinitely that night.

You nodded back, quietly closing the door and taking the lead once again. You made sure to guide the group through the safest patches of floor – those that weren’t slippery with blood or that weren’t filled with broken things that when stepped on could make a horrible noise. Keeping that pace, you would reach the door in no time.

As the group kept going, Leon’s steps got slower. Something crept from the bowels of the Hospital to cling into his heart; something wasn’t right. He kept walking slowly, trying to figure out that feeling at the base of his stomach – but you were almost there. By crossing the sterile white doors, you would get to the waiting room, then the main hall, and then out.

Leon halted completely when he heard something. Looking back at you and the survivor’s group, it seemed like he was the only one who had heard it. Leon immediately turned his head to the other end of the corridor – covered in complete darkness, looking like an endless descent into hell itself.

The noise came with a gentle gust of cold wind, sounding like a faint breath from something inhuman. As if the Hospital itself was breathing – slowly, ominously… Hungrily. Leon could swear he heard very distant groans and things being knocked out of their place, echoing through the halls and corridors, to almost fail at reaching his ears.

But if there was something he learned at the RPD that fateful night, that would be listening. He survived through carefully hearing and identifying how to choose a slightly safer path that night.

As you reached the white double door, you looked back to check on Leon – only to find him standing at a certain distance from the group, gripping the shotgun with both hands in front of his body, looking back inside the Hospital.

You almost let out an audible sigh. There was no way you could know what he was thinking without speaking to him, but watching Leon looking back made your heart stir with a violent desire of going even deeper into that hell to search for other survivors. There was no way a place as big as that would have only five people alive – and you couldn’t even imagine how harrowing it would be to survive only to be left to die in there, unable to save yourself.

“Leon…?” You risked a murmur, barely noticing how the other survivors watched you both with expectation – and uneasiness. “Leon…!”

As you slightly raised your voice, Leon seemed to snap out of it and look back at you. The worry in his grayish sea eyes was different than the one that resided in yours – making him wonder even more what in the hell was haunting you since you got out from that room. You signaled the double door with your head and he agreed, quickly – but quietly – regrouping.

That alleviated a little bit of the tension on the group – and, as you carefully opened the white door, they had no fear because Leon was on the back giving you cover. Just like before, you stepped in the waiting room first, checking every corner with your gun before holding the door open for the other survivors to come through.

The father told his son not to look at the dead bodies you and Leon had shot before. Valerie did her best to help the elderly woman to cross the path without falling. Lab coat man kept rolling his eyes and fidgeting, almost pushing the father and the son out of his way to reach the exit first – being blocked by you as soon as you reached the milky glass door.

“C’mon. Let’s get out of this fucking place already.”

“You wanna go first and risk being eaten by one of those things? Be my guest.” You waved at the door, staring at him without a single drop of patience left in your body. Leon had already been rude with the man before, so you took the chance to do that too. No one would tell you off if you did so – in a matter of fact, you were probably saying what everyone wanted to say. “Things aren’t much better out there than in here, you know.”

The man looked like he had just eaten a full slice of lemon and was tasting the consequences. If you weren’t in that situation, Leon would’ve probably laughed.

As the milky glass door jammed once more, you looked back at Leon only to see him nodding: you could go to the other room, he would cover you and protect the survivors. Pointing the gun in the air once more, you squeezed through, ready to shoot anything that might have come in during your stay in the Hospital.

And once more, Leon looked back – to the double white doors you had just left behind. Did he hear a… Stomp?

His heart trembled inside his chest. Suddenly, it seemed like the entire Hospital didn’t have enough air for him to breathe. Leon furrowed his brows as his heartbeat got faster. It couldn’t be. That Tyrant, at least that’s what he was told that thing was called, couldn’t be back. He had killed it, blown it into oblivion with a missile launcher – Leon watched as the only thing that was left from that Tyrant were its legs; tearing it in half being the only way to make it stop following Leon around.

For years after he left Raccoon Leon kept dreaming about that. Constant nightmares with that Tyrant following him, sucker punching him every time they met and Leon wasn’t quick enough to run away. It felt like his whole body was broken, but he couldn’t stop running, could he? Even if his bones turned into mush, Leon had to keep running – or he would have never left Raccoon City.

Even now, there were some nights Leon woke up with the sound of those steps viciously approaching him in his nightmares – only to have him open his eyes on his bed, sweating like a pig, barely being able to breathe. He could’ve escaped and killed the creature, but he couldn’t escape meeting it in his dreams when his mind was particularly unstable.

And he could swear he was hearing those stomps, right there in that Hospital, echoing like a ghost coming back from his past to haunt him in the present.

“Leon…?” It was Valerie’s voice that tired to pull him out this time. She carefully tried to touch one of his arms, knowing very well it wasn’t the smartest of choices, given the fact he was holding a gun. But Leon closed his eyes, trying to take deep breaths – Valerie was used to seeing panic attacks and that was the beginning of one. And her rescuer having a panic attack was definitely not a good thing. “Leon. You need to come back.” Her voice was almost inaudible, but she was close enough for him to listen. Placing her whole palm on his arm, she started to gently rub his skin, trying to anchor him back into the present. “Listen to me. It’s ok. We need you here, Leon. Please.”

Those words made him open his eyes again, looking back into Valerie’s eyes. The woman had nothing but reassurance, even in that godforsaken situation – clearly a seasoned nurse who was used to taking care of people… And people like him.

Leon took another deep breath, watching her smile in the process, finally noticing her touch on his arm. With another breath, his heart started beating a little calmer and it seemed like the stomping had stopped. Leon looked back at the white doors again, but nothing could be heard. He closed his eyes once more, taking another breath, and looking back at Valerie right after.

“Thank you. We need to go now.” With those words, he nodded at the jammed door – Leon and Valerie were the only ones left, with you helping the elderly lady squeeze through without getting hurt. Valerie smiled back, immediately going to the door to help you and cross to the other side.

Leon risked one last look to the double door, only to hear nothing. Whatever it was, it would be shut in the bowels of that Hospital forever – and he couldn’t be happier with that.

**

To be continued...