#but this one's just too poetic

[gynii]

🎧:DDD

AS HARD AS YOU CAN - LustSickPuppy

[vaguely-concerned]

the strength it must have taken for illario to not immediately go full 'lmao since when have you even had a kiss hello lucanis' sibling violence mode during the café talk. inspirational. rook and lucanis really were doing all that right in front of his salad huh

[fonthoura]

Hc where Garak knows Julian is a liar, but he can't, for the life of him, know what he's lying about.

Like, he has this feeling, given to him by years of training and an observant eyes, that Julian is very purposefully unauthentic, and it seems that no one else notices.

He sees how Julian talks a lot and overshares, but never really says anything, to the point where his friends would have a hard time answering any question about him, like, for fucks sake, it took reading his file to get to know his date of birth because no one knew.

Jadzia thinks he has a brother, Miles is convinced he has a sister, and Garak is fairly sure he is an only child, the problem is, Julian doesn't talk about it. He talks too much and hardly says anything.

Garak also notices how he is always tense, as if holding back, like when he lets himself be punched when he clearly sees it coming, when he let's things break even though Garak is sure he could've caught them mid air, how he seems to calculate the perfect amount of clumsy in a day (once he even bumped into Garak and pretended to be distracted) and no one notices.

But Garak does, Garak knows he is lying about something, he feels it, specially when he looses on games and arguments, like he could not think of something else but Garak sees it in his eyes that he is hiding something.

And Garak constantly gets worried, despite his best knowledge, about him.

He knows how lonely it is, to keep yourself hidden from the world, to not let anyone know you, to hold the weight of a thousand secrets on his body, and constantly he sees this weight taking it's toll on the doctor.

Julian keeps people at arms length, he gets close on condition, he larps with Miles, discuss literature with Garak and converses with Jadzia, but keeps them all compartmentalized, always distant, even his crush on Jadzia being shallow, no real depth to it.

Julian seems skin deep and Garak knows how it feels and aches for him.

So he constantly tries to scratch the surface, aways tries to get Julian out of his lie made shell like Julian does to him, and he doesn't succeed, but he keeps trying.

Specially after he finds out that Julian had been gone for a month and not even him noticed it, he knows it's because no one would, because Julian keeps so much of himself hidden that you can't distinguish him from a fake.

And then, doctor Zimmermann shows up...

[kindlespark]

twink death

[laurellala-comics]

Ok, so we know that after Phoenix saw news articles about how Edgeworth had become a ruthless prosecutor but before Phoenix became a lawyer himself, he wrote letters to Edgeworth to try and get through to him and convince him that what he was doing was wrong. Do we think Edgeworth read the letters? Do we think he kept them? Realistically, I think he read the first one because he recognized Nick's name and was curious what he had to say, and then got angry and threw out all the subsequent letters without looking at them. But imagine if he had kept them, and after reuniting with Nick, went through them. I feel like that would be a good opportunity for drama.

I also wonder if Nick thinks Edgeworth read all his letters or not. Like if he said certain things in the letter and assumes Edgeworth knows them when they meet, it could lead to interesting miscommunication. Obviously you could do this in a ship context, but I think it'd be compelling from a friendship point of view as well. If Nick had emphasized how much respect he had for Edgeworth and how much he believes in his ability to do good in the world and how he cares deeply about helping Edgeworth realize that, and all Edgeworth does is tell him to go away and that he never wants to see him again, that that feels a lot more crushing if Nick thinks that Edgeworth read about him being vulnerable and honest and then just didn't care.

Honestly though, I feel like after not getting a response for awhile Nick would assume Edgeworth wasn't reading the letters and start getting pissy, and only continue to send the letters for the principle of the matter (Edgeworth will have to see the letter in his mailbox after all and be reminded of Nick's existence even if he doesn't read them). I could see him using the letters more as a way of shouting into the void about his feelings with no expectation of them being read. I imagine the first letter was a very mild and kind plea that Edgeworth remember his old friend and who he used to be, and then 10 letters later it's just one page with "bitch" written in big letters because Nick is So Done. In which case, it would actually be so much funnier if Edgeworth DID read all of them from the beginning. Maybe this is why he acted the way he did when Nick met him again.

[tapestryundone]

constantly thinking abt the long quiet and the shifting mound and their relationship w humanity. because the two are very much not mortal and even in the what happens next ending its very ambiguous if they ever WILL be or Can be. but even still they have both felt what its like to be mortal

i feel like its vague if the entity the two used to be even percieved its own existence. the way the narrator talks about it makes it seem like the two only existed conceptually and as a result lacked a complete sense of identity, and didnt need to, and wouldnt want to. but in the same way a thought cannot be unthought, the narrator gave them a glimpse into what it felt like to be mortal and the two can never un-know it, even if it wasnt exactly the same

the long quiet in particular seems especially tied to humanity and in some aspects seems to want to BE human (which feels so potent given how decidedly Not human he is). the game tends to imply that every option you get is a thought he DOES have, and in the spaces between, the choices dont seem as influenced by a given voice, which highlights even more how much he feels conflicted on his own nature that he gets Multiple options to express discomfort with himself being a god

it just gets to me how one of the options during the fight is literally "appeal to your shared humanity". because even if the two are gods, their separation and reshaping has given them humanity that they can never un-feel. for how much the shifting mound grieves what she once was, she cannot will her humanity away. shes mourning what the two of them once was and is desperate to have it back at any cost, even though they can never be together how they once were.

even if the long quiet goes with her, theyre still apart and lack balance, because the two once just Were and werent two parts. they werent both halves, they werent two concepts, they were just one concept that happened to, by human eyes, consist of two halves. and the narrators insertion of humanity into the mix in order to separate them, separating them into concepts that humans understood, manually put into existence a struggle for equilibrium where that balance had simply Existed

but theyve already perceived what felt like reality and can never un-see it. they were separated and Need the other to feel whole and for reality to BE whole but the moment that either of them realized their own free will, the moment the two fully came to feel like people, they could never be together the same way once again

im struggling to come up with a metaphor that isnt silly but its like if you took a piece of fabric and cut it in two and made them both into shirts. youve added a piece of humanity into them and doing so cost its original form. to take them apart and try to put them back together would never get you the original, whole piece of fabric back, because theyve been completely changed by their own unique destruction and reconstruction

they were separated in a way that gave them humanity that they have such conflicting feelings on. both seem to have a deep love of humanity but vastly different ideas on what humanity needs to thrive, because its in their natures

in order to get one to kill the other the narrator let the long quiet interpret the both of them as mortal. and for a being of perception and an god thats being lied to, this became part of their limited view of the world, on top of all the other reasons that the two gained humanity. the long quiet couldnt be told what to do if he didnt have the ability to potentially act on the narrators desires, and the shifting mound could never die if the long quiet didnt believe her to be capable of death

the narrator gave the two humanity and the shifting mound is very reasonably distressed by this. because the two of them never asked for this but they cant undo it. it is her OWN subtle desire for things to be the same as they used to be, her own piece of that stagnation that also led to her experiencing humanity, that makes her so adamant during the fight. she misses the long quiet and wants to undo a change that cannot be undone in search of a constant state of being that was taken from her

and the long quiet felt so closely tied to mortality, both its existence and absence, that no matter what, he wants to aid humanity. but hes been lied to and denied autonomy to the point where he doesnt know what that entails. but he wants to be a part of it. he was given fake mortality and cant seem to figure out how he feels

the shifting mound is set in how she feels it best to aid in the existence of life. she is stagnant in her feelings because its all that feels right to her. the long quiet is ever-shifting in how he feels it best to aid in the existence of life. he is changing in his feelings because its all that feels right to him

getting to the heart of the shifting mound allows them a moment to discuss it as the closest they can get to mortals. the two care about their impact on life and what it means to be alive and what better way for the two of them to truly decide what they want to do about it, outside of the conflict thats been forced between them, than as the mortals they never were?

[uhbasicallyjustmilex]

ALEX TURNER, RIO DE JANEIRO, BR. by Zackery Michael

[grape-eating-vampire]

I've been busy with uni and haven't played as much, but have more Disco Elysium screenshots I took! (I know it's a lot of Noid but he's incredibly based so I'm not even going to apologize)

spoilers ahead!

[roots-symphony]

what's so interesting is that agatha and nicky clearly had their cons well-oiled, and at the end it seems they even started turning their song into a part of it as well, like i don't think that was the first time nicky sang that song for an audience and they used it to lure witches (i do think it's the first time that it /technically/ didn't work), and how after nicky died it continued to gain popularity and be so well-known it became a legend, and along with that agatha being known as the only survivor of the road and people (like billy) seeking her out to walk it or just for knowledge of it. and i think that had been the idea when they first started using it as a con. making it so they no longer had to travel and scavenge, using it as a lure to bring the witches to them in order to keep nicky alive, but only one small misstep and rio got him anyway

and then thinking about how lorna, who had a generational curse placed upon her family that is going to kill both her and her daughter and who desperately wants to see her daughter survive, heard this song and created her own version to use as a protection spell for her daughter and, like agatha did before her, she made her version so well-known and so popular that years and years after death it's still protecting her daughter, until ultimately her daughter was finally able to use it to break the curse and save herself

idk just.. they're like two sides of the same coin, or distorted mirrors of each other

agathas love was so powerful and so strong that death gave nicky time

lornas love was so powerful and so strong that the ballad gave alice time and even freed her

if nicky hadnt been taken that night, could it have eventually freed him as well? rio said agatha used the dark magic of the darkhold to hide herself from rio, so was that the end goal? they'd continue to lure witches to both keep nicky alive and to have agatha become powerful enough to forever keep them hidden?

[rynli]

me: I should write the one-shot that lives in my head about Harry applying for a job

brain: you will write a whole casefic about Harry realizing being a cop already killed him once, acab applies even to Kim, and he needs to quit if he wants to get better

[the-broken-pen]

“I don’t need you.”

It sounded less grounded than the villain had wanted it to. It sounded like something someone had told them to say, and they were just repeating it with half hearted determination. They said it again, “I don’t need you.”

“No,” the hero agreed. They were grinning. “You don’t.”

The villain floundered. They, in all honesty, wanted a fight. To prove something, they supposed. That they really didn’t need the hero. That they weren’t in the wrong, here. “What?”

“I said,” the hero said slowly, and the beginnings of a grin curled at the edges of their mouth. “You don’t need me.”

“I don’t need you,” the villain repeated, and the hero nodded encouragingly. It just made the villain want to hit them.

The hero lounged against the doorframe, halfway in and halfway out of their apartment. And truly, that was the worst bit of it all—the hero wasn’t showing up outside the villain’s house, or driving by the villain’s work to see if they truly looked happier without them. But the villain was.

They wanted to scream, and kick, and throw plates onto the ground.

‘Leave me alone.’

But they couldn’t say that, because the hero had. They had cut contact and blocked numbers and ignored the villain’s car as it went by. Still, the villain felt haunted. As if they would never be clean of the hero, parts of their soul forever dirtied by it all.

The hero’s smile, and the way their voice sounded when they knew the villain would cave to their wishes.

They just wanted the hero to—

��Leave me alone.” It slipped out against their better judgement. From the way the hero’s grin widened, they knew it had been the worst thing they could have said.

“Darling, I have,” the hero said, their tone saccharine. Pitying. “You’re the one outside of my apartment.”

It felt like being burned alive, the frustration of it. The way it rose in their chest but had nowhere to go, leaving them shaking with nothing and everything trapped under their tongue.

“That’s not what I meant and you know that—“

“What, you miss me that bad? I thought you—“

“Shut up,” the villain snapped. The hero raised an eyebrow.

“It’s eating you alive, isn’t it?” They sounded pleased.

“It’s not,” the villain protested.

“I told you, you don’t need me.”

“I know,” the villain grit out.

“But you want me.”

Something in the villain’s brain stalled.

“Excuse me?”

“You don’t need me. You never have,” the hero said it like it was a fact. “You want me, though. Even as the sound of my name burns you, and the memory of me rots in your mouth, you’re going to want me.”

“You’re wrong.”

“Am I?” The hero’s voice dropped to a whisper. “You can go out to every bar in this city, kiss a hundred people who look like me and get just drunk enough to forget you’re not mine anymore—but you’re never going to stop missing me.”

The hero knew, of course they did, how hard the villain had tried to forget it entirely. The disaster they had become trying to be clean again.

“No matter how many shots you take to block out the memory of me, you’ll always be mine.”

“You’re insane,” the villain finally managed. The hero simply tipped their head to the side in acknowledgement. “That’s not-what’s wrong with you—“

“You’re the one who misses me.”

It stung, deep in the villain’s stomach. It took them too long to remember how to breathe—too long after that to think of what to say.

“If I’m lucky, I won’t ever have to see you again,” their voice quivered, slightly. “But knowing us, the next time we meet it will be in hell.”

The hero laughed and closed the door in their face.

The villain blocked them. Avoided the side of town the worked in. Moved three cities over.

It didn’t matter.

The villain could still feel the hero under their skin.

Later, whenever someone would ask, “Have you ever been haunted?”

The villain would think back to the hero.

And say, “Yes.”

[m4dwxmn]

AgathaRio Salem Days – snippet

“Why can’t you just accept that I genuinely care about you? That we can grow into something more, together?” Rio was trying her best to get across her point without letting her anger overcome her. Despite how extraordinary Agatha Harkness was, she was no more than a mortal and Rio could never let Agatha fear her the way everyone else did.

“Because you’re always away!” Agatha yelled with desperation in her voice. “For weeks, if not months. Rio, how do you expect me to truly believe we have a chance when I spend more time waiting for you than actually being with you?” Her eyes welled up with tears, her brows slightly knitted together in agony. Rio wanted to look away, to turn her head from seeing the broken shreds of hope on Agatha’s expression be buried under anger and heartbreak. 

“Because I love you!” Rio all but screamed. Agatha recoiled at that, her blue eyes widened, letting the tears overflow. “Because I love you,” Rio repeated softly, taking a step forward and gently cupping Agatha’s face. “Because all of me that’s human is for you, because of you. I’m not a person, Agatha, I’m not supposed to be one. And yet, here I am, desperately wishing I could just die, like a mortal and reborn as one to be with you the way you deserve it. I shouldn’t feel,” Rio chuckled bittersweetly and swiped away the tears on Agatha’s cheeks with her thumbs. “I’ve been here since the beginning of the universe, since there was nothing, I’ve never once felt. I was sure I’m not even capable of it. But ever since I first saw you, I feel so much I fear it might overspill. Before you I was Death only, I was something. You made me someone, mi amor.”

“You love me,” Agatha whispered in a small voice, her hands coming up to hold onto Rio’s wrists. 

“I do, more than you’d think.”

[zabiume]

still hate how contrived and random unohana's death is

[laswells-ashtray]

If they're drinking then Alerudy take up a couch to themselves. Enough space for Alejandro to sit back with his drink of choice in one hand and the rest of the space is for Rudy to lie with his feet hanging over the edge of the couch and his head on Alejandro's lap so Ale can untangle his curls. Rudy will sit and rant passionately about something he's interested in and Alejandro will watch him like a lovesick fool.

It's more for Alejandro's benefit than Rudy's, contrary to popular belief Ale can become quite a miserable drunk at some point during the night. His fond reminiscing becomes sombre and eventually, he's drinking just to try and withstand the misery.

But put Rudy's head in his lap and he's listening to every word out of his mouth like it's gospel. He's watching him with the softest expression anyone around them has ever seen on his face. Someone else starts talking to them? Alejandro ain't even glancing up at that poor fucker, it takes Rudy looking up at him with those soft brown eyes and pointing him in the direction of the speaker for him to even care.

[shitapril]

on a very petty level, the ugly hp logo being bigger than the actual ferrari logo is so satisfying

[beanghostprincess]

AU in which Usopp is a storyteller who keeps telling fairytales to kids in the village, and one of his most famous stories is about a lost prince who escaped from home because of how badly his family was treating him. It has drama and death and love and everything. The prince just wanted to be a simple cook, but his past still haunted him even after escaping his fate. And so Usopp keeps drawing him over and over again, both in his sketchbook and also making sculptures of him. It's not that he's, like, obsessed. But it is his favorite fairytale.

And then he meets Sanji.

It's weird, yes. He looks oddly similar to his Sanji (the one of the fairytale) but it doesn't have to do anything with it. It- It doesn't have to be the same guy. Maybe it's just a coincidence and his drawings weren't as original as he thought they were. Besides, Sanji isn't a lost prince.

But he is exactly how Usopp had imagined him. A sweet, caring cook with a strong personality who fights only using his legs to avoid hurting his hands. A cook who feeds whoever's hungry and is fond of rats and small, wild animals without anything to eat. Blond, blue eyes and so, so many scars that he refuses to talk about. A soft spot for women, because of course there has to be romance. A gentleman. Somebody who could save Usopp if needed but would trust him with anything too. He isn't- Usopp is not in love with his Sanji. But maybe this one- Maybe this one is someone he can fall in love with because it's not his creation, right?

And then WCI happens. It would technically make everything make sense, but it doesn't. It just makes Usopp even more confused. Because he's sure it sounds exactly the same as his story. So he keeps wondering if Sanji is real or if he truly was a product of his imagination. Or maybe- Maybe he can see the future. Usopp isn't sure about it and doesn't even have time to think because he's more worried about Sanji's well-being after WCI and Wano than how Sanji was made.

Sanji says it's a destiny thing, maybe, when he sees Usopp's sketchbook for the first time. It's scary too, he also mentions when seeing the little annotations about Sanji's backstory (the one of Usopp's story) being exactly like his past. Usopp is kind of panicking, but for some reason, Sanji isn't.

"Maybe you can see the future, ever thought about that?" Sanji laughs while running his hands through a very accurate portrait of him, that's quite obviously years older than their friendship.

Usopp pouts. "Don't laugh at me! It's scary!"

But Sanji just shrugs and takes a drag of his cigarette, so calmly in comparison it makes Usopp feel like he's taking this too well. "Is it, though?" The sniper hadn't seen Sanji smile so peacefully. Not ever since they got separated. It makes him feel all warm, and he has the need to draw him. "Wouldn't it be nice?"

Usopp tilts his head to the side, frowning and fighting the urge to take the sketchbook off Sanji's hands. "What do you mean?"

"Have you ever..." Sanji stares down at the ashes falling on the deck, brushing his thumb over the corner of one of the pages. His words are carefully chosen, but he doesn't hesitate when pronouncing them. "Have you ever thought about fate?"

The sniper can just chuckle and roll his eyes at that. "You're just trying to make it romantic."

"Maybe I am." And Usopp's heart stops at the sound of Sanji's dreamy voice as if he is asking for Usopp to grant him a wish. "Maybe you made me." He moves his free hand to link his fingers between Usopp's, right on top of the grass tickling their skin. Usopp lets him, even if he feels his heart is right in his throat. "Maybe you saw me before even knowing me." Sanji speaks softer now. Quieter. Even if there's nobody around to see them right now. As if it was just their secret. Usopp closes his hand around Sanji's and lets their shoulders bump against each other, taking in a painful breath. Sanji is too close. "Or maybe it was all by chance. Coincidences happen." Sanji shrugs and goes back to staring at the sketchbook one more time. He rests the cigarette between his lips so he can turn to another page, one where a little boy who looks too much like him dreams of sea creatures, oceans, and freedom. Sanji smiles in a nostalgic, achingly way that can only be described as appreciation. "But I like to think you saved me, somehow. You gave me- Him. Freedom. A family."

Usopp feels a pang in his chest at his words. "That wasn't me, though."

The cook rests his back on the wall behind them, turning his head around to look at Usopp with the brightest, softest of grins. "But wouldn't it be nice to think your heart knew me before meeting me? I think it's..." He sighs, resting his head on Usopp's shoulder. The sniper can only squeeze his hand back and lean his head on top of his. "Maybe my heart knew you too, back then. Somehow. I've always liked shitty, cliché fairytales like this, you know?"

"But-"

"Let me have this." A please goes unsaid. "Even if you didn't save me back then, you did now. So who cares if I want to say you've always been with me?"

Usopp grits his teeth and holds back a frustrated noise. He's aware his hands are shaking, remembering everything he has drawn and everything Sanji has gone through. "I wish I met you sooner. Maybe that way you wouldn't have-"

"You can't change what's already happened, love." Sanji presses a small kiss on his shoulder, which somehow melts every bone in Usopp's body. "But you can keep drawing our future, right?"

The sniper thinks of bright blues and soft yellows and a lot- No. A ton of drawings of Sanji's grins, because he refuses to portray his sadness in one of his drawings ever again. He dreams of a blank canvas filled with Sanji's eyes, hopes, and dreams.

"Right." He kisses his head back. "I can do that."

Usopp knows his hearts are linked together. Whether it's fate. Coincidence. His drawings. Because if thinking so saves Sanji once again, he won't hesitate to capture his happiness in different shades of blue for as long as it takes.