#cw tragedy

[townofcadence]

What do you think is Artair's best trait - and what would you consider a weakness of said trait?

Likewise, what do you think is Artair's worst trait - and what would you consider a strength of said trait?

Ohhh another good one!!

I think the thing is that his best and worst trait are the same-- it's kindness, loyalty, love, protectiveness. Part of what I enjoy exploring with Artair is taking a trait seen typically as 'good' and showing it both as good and as bad, depending on the situation. It's kind of a reflection of how I feel-- that no trait is ever good or bad in the end, it's just how it effects the situation that can be a benefit or a detriment!

Like-- these traits are obviously good in many ways! It's wanting to help others, to connect to people and love them and want to see the best in them, that can often help others heal and find a way to hold the grief from the countless hurts they've suffered.It's love and loyalty and a desire to protect and comfort that can push people and motivate to acts the really--- save someone from a darker space sometimes. Both physically a danger for them in the literal sense, and a metaphorical emotional one. Kindness reaches people and can really help bring out the best in others. It's a listening ear, a hand in yours when you just need a lifeline, and a gentle touch at the right moment, or a shoulder to hold you when it's too much.

But conversely, that same kindness can go to extremes that-- hurt people. Artair cares SO much about other people and helping them, saving them, that he kills himself to do so, both metaphorically and not. He will take every blow he can, he will antagonize someone so they hurt and focus on him instead, he will get you out of the way. He will not call for your help, because it means putting you in a bad position, one where you might be hurt. He will throw himself into danger after danger, because if he stops it and he deals with it, then no one else has to. Any harm that comes to him feels like harm he prevented someone else from enduring. So he keeps going and going in this desperate need to save everyone, and blames himself and breaks himself to pieces when he fails, or perceives himself to have failed someone in any way.

Love and kindness fail when he sees everyone as so far above himself that his only value is what he can do to make their lives better, at the cost of himself. Loyalty and love are good traits, except when he devotes himself to people so much so that he loses himself in the process. Protection is great, except when always trying to keep someone from harm makes them feel they aren't trusted to handle hard things and they feel infantilized. Altruism and a willingness to sacrifice for others can be good, until he refuses any path that would do little harm to someone else, because they would get hurt at all, when he could take on more and greater suffering just to prevent it. It's also the sacrifice of himself to be the target of aggression and pain and rage because he can take it, and allowing himself to hurt to make others feel better. Hell, eve n offering to endure pain or suffering just to 'help'. Seeing himself as so monstrous he deserves all of it and just accepting it, and choosing it, and even seeking it, because no one but him deserves this pain. It's a senseless martyring.

And dying for people, sacrificing himself over and over.... ?

...it doesn't only effect him. The people he cares about have to deal with his loss, with seeing him destroy himself at every opportunity. With the pain of knowing they're not worth living for, and he's willing to throw himself away at a moment's notice for anything and anyone, until there's just no more of him left and then some. He's too busy playing Atlas with the world on his shoulders and blaming himself for every travesty as if anyone has the power to prevent it all, to realize how his destructive behaviors out of love and devotion and the desire to do good, no matter what, mean that all the people who come to care about him have to watch him destroy himself in their name and others.

He reaches many with kindness and compassion, but he also breaks those hearts he touches. It's the terrible downwards spiral he hasn't chosen to stop yet.

[rennerator]

LOVE LOVE LOVE SOOOO SOOOOO GOOD!!!!! S2 AWWWWWWWWW I did a little "sneak peek" there and WOOOOOW!!!! SOOOO INTENSE, SOOOO SAAAAD!!! BUUUUT SOOO MARVELOUS TOO!!! Poor Dean!!! The ART is SOOO MAGNIFICENT TOO!!!!! I LOVE THIS!!! DEFINITELY going to read it later on!!!! :D Thank YOU!!! THANK YOU SO SOO MUCH for sharing this with us!!! You are INCREDIBLE!!! :) <3

the fire in my lungs | 5.8k

“Look what a beautiful offering you are, the best we could find.”

Dean did look at himself, then, tied to a chain dangling from the ceiling, his arms above his head while he sat on his bent legs. In the dimmed light his eyes looked dark. When a candle flickered just right, he could catch a glimpse of a gleam, but it disappeared quickly; just like any hope for survival he had felt previously.

A birthday gift for @reelnaturalfreak 🧡

[feelo-fick]

...i promise i take him seriously i just keep finding shitposts that fit soooo well... i have folder with just shitposts that fit ominously well with him that i keep wanting to draw and then i never get to them HAHAHA

[cry-ptidd]

” Am I not right to weep? O my children, cursed children of a hateful mother - ”

[megamagimugi]

I Was-a Too Late

CW: blood, implied character death(s)

[insert your favorite Mario game over jingle here]

I have nothing to say for myself.

I'm so sorry.

@wahooitsamee @peaches2217 You guys seemed interested, so... enjoy?

EDIT: I have a Luigi version (well, sort of) now too, called He's-a Gone if anyone's interested!

[rennerator]

Them GO TELL HIM, Dean!!!! GO SAVE HIM AND TELL HIM THEN!!!!!! PLEASE, PLEASE DO!!!!! This is SOOOO VERY BEAUTIFUL and SOOOO VERY TRAGIC!!!! T.T Thank YOU!!! Thank YOU SO SO MUCH for this!!!! You are INCREDIBLE!!!! :) <3

“you love me. real or not real?”

i tell him, “real.”

[stil-lindigo]

the sunset.

a comic about two outlaws who loved each other, despite everything.

creative notes:

--

all my other comics

store

[canisalbus]

r.e. that last ask, did machete whimper when he died? was he permitted one last moment of softness? or did he snarl, forever known to the world as hard and cold?

The first stab had collapsed his left lung so I think he most likely tried to cough and wheeze feebly because he was struggling to get enough air.

[hermit-frog]

“I loved her.” “But she didn't love you.” / “He wants you in pieces for the privilege of putting them back together as he sees fit.” / “Did he break you, Louis? Are you broken?” / “Do you remember our life, how happy we were before her?” “Happy? We were not happy.” / “An anvil, tied around our ankles, pulling us towards the pitch-black ocean floor.” / “An eager black hole. But I'm not… not hopeful there's much more to you Daniel, other than a hole.” / “A Band-Aid for a shitty marriage?”

[desultory-novice]

I get the feeling that Adeline is the most likely to get therapy.

...She'll probably need it too... (Pausing the fun times for something dreadfully serious) -

"Pieces"

-

[Apologies AU Masterpost] [Noir's Field Trip]

[sforzesco]

ANTONY cry 'havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war

earlier in my script (which is not Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar), Antony refers to Dolabella as one of his ‘dogs of war’ when talking to Cassius (which IS a reference to Shakespeare’s JC), and it comes back around after Cicero writes to Cassius and informs him of Trebonius’ fate

While these things were taking place at Rome, Cassius and Brutus were collecting troops and money, and Trebonius, governor of the province of Asia, was fortifying his towns for them. [...] Trebonius, who was captured in bed, told his captors to lead the way to Dolabella, saying that he was willing to follow them. One of the centurions answered him facetiously, "Go where you please, but you must leave your head behind here, for we are ordered to bring your head, not yourself." With these words the centurion immediately cut off his head, and early in the morning Dolabella ordered it to be displayed on the praetor's chair where Trebonius was accustomed to transact public business. Since Trebonius had participated in the murder of Caesar by detaining Antony in conversation at the door of the Senate-house while the others killed him, the soldiers and camp-followers fell upon the rest of his body with fury and treated it with every kind of indignity. They rolled his head from one to another in sport along the city pavements like a ball till it was completely crushed. This was the first of the murderers who received the meed of his crime, and thus vengeance overtook him.

App. Civil Wars III. 26

For Dolabella is in Syria, and, as you have foreseen in your prophetic soul and have foretold, Cassius will crush him while they are on their way. For Dolabella has had the gates of Antioch shut in his face and got a good beating in trying to storm it. Not trusting in any other city, he has betaken himself to Laodicea, on the sea-coast of Syria. There I hope he will speedily pay the penalty of his crime: for he has no place of refuge, nor will he much longer be able there to stand out against an army as large as that of Cassius. I even hope that Dolabella has by this time been overpowered and crushed.

Cic. Fam. 12.14

Place then before your eyes, O conscript fathers, that spectacle, miserable indeed, and tearful, but still indispensable to rouse your minds properly: the nocturnal attack upon the most beautiful city in Asia; the irruption of armed men into Trebonius’s house, when that unhappy man saw the swords of the robbers before he heard what was the matter; the entrance of Dolabella, raging,—his ill-omened voice, and infamous countenance,—the chains, the scourges, the rack, the armourer who was both torturer and executioner; all which they say that the unhappy Trebonius endured with great fortitude. A great praise, and in my opinion indeed the greatest of all, for it is the part of a wise man to resolve beforehand that whatever can happen to a brave man is to be endured with patience if it should happen.

Cicero, Philippic 11

Philippi and Perusia, Ronald Syme

ko-fi⭐ bsky ⭐ pixiv ⭐ pillowfort ⭐ cohost ⭐ cara.app

[rotteneldritchhorror]

I feel like it’s kinda brushed over that Mischa absolutely has the worst (current) parents

He’s literally locked in the basement and shipped to a whole new country and his new parents literally shoo him away and sob every time they see him

AND! HE HAD TO MOVE TO A TOWN NAMED AFTER THE THING THAT KILLED HIS REAL MOTHER.

[deeism]

up thinking about the bonnie and charlie kelly tragedy again. ohh their relationship is so not normal. she loves him in a way that she doesnt realize is selfish she never taught him to read or take baths he probably found out the stove was hot from touching it. bonnie's relationship with charlie is inherently abusive but shes not some mastermind or criminal she is just a very ill woman who doesnt realize when shes being manipulative or when what she calls empathy is actually just fear or sadness for herself.

charlie spent his whole life parenting his mom back and coaching her through her episodes and internalizing her superstitions and compulsions and in the end he didnt break any kind of cycle he just ended up worse than she is. he doesn't speak to her now he never even calls her he hates being around her... hes a dick to her maybe more than she deserves but in charlie's mind it's not about what she was trying to do its about what she ended up doing to him in the end. she depends on him in a way he never could on her. charlie could never be a dad and maybe its because bonnie kelly wasnt really ever a mom to him but also what else could she have possibly been but a mother. so much of her is reflected in him and they are so entirely unalike and he hates even thinking about her but he also won't leave philadelphia because she's in it and isnt it all so sad and strange

[feelo-fick]

I WANT ENDLESS BLISS!!!

HALF-AWAKE, HALF-DEAD, HALF-LIFE CRISIS

ALL NATURAL POMEGRANATE PULP.

FERMENTED TO PERFECTION, SAVOUR YOUR SAVIOR.

Q: What's your favourite food? A: THE ALE THEY SERVE AT THE TAVERN!

other versions : )

[holdmymetaphor]

okay heres some things about houses childhood i think about

theres clearly a few dynamics here

-he hates his father, resents the abuse, recognizes that bad things were done to him

-probably when he was very young, he didnt understand why bad things happened to him, was not intentionally A Bad Kid

-because he surmised his dad was not his dad at 12 i assume the abuse started from a young age.

-house mentions ice baths and sleeping outside, but he also mentions his father not speaking to him for months at a time, which is interesting to me. when house tries to qualify the severity of abuse to eve he says "not as bad as your [trauma] if how your acting about it shows how bad it is." which to me is pretty noncommittal. was he doing that bc he was still kind of lying, trying to get info out of her? if not, it seems like house is actually unsure of how to qualify his own abuse, which would lead me to believe it was largely emotional and verbal. although i suspect that his father did physically abuse him at times, to me this exchange implies that house thinks the ice baths and sleeping outside were the worse of it (interestingly both acting on his whole body and ability to regulate temperature)

-at some point he acts out intentionally, instead of unintentionally, bc his father is Wrong and shouldnt be abusing house in these ways(the fact that the thing he wanted to hear from his father was "you were right, you did the right thing" 😭😭)

-this leads to worse and more cruel punishments, which house both detests and wants to avoid repeating. furthering his resentment, but reinforcing his fathers authority

- despite his knowledge that his father is wrong, his dad claims to do these acts out of love, to teach dicipline, to toughen him up. (in this way his struggle with god is really an allegory of his father: is it better he hates me (i deserve pain) or loves me (i dont deserve pain) when he does awful things to me? or is it better for him to not exist at all (things just happen, there is no deserving)?

-in my perspective, especially as house got older, into his teens, he was actually probably really "well behaved" finally smart enough to fake social cues and swallow his pride so that his father wouldnt hit him or what have you (which is why he regresses to a child often as an adult, because he was not allowed those things)

its interesting to me, to see how all of houses character is shaped around the shadow of his father. the parts where he is similar: rigid, principled, yell-y, and where he is intentionally different: encourages independent thinking, respects challenges to his authority (only when he has authority lmao that all falls apart when people take his power(read:agency) away, his biggest trigger)

and none of this even gets into his mother, blythe (a word which means both happiness and bland disintrest) which is a whole nother can of worms. the fact that at the funeral she said that "the war was over" (which implied that no matter how much house actually listened to his father, there was still a part of him that couldnt help but to point out the logical issues, and therefore continued abuse)

lastlly, she had said that john loved him. which i think house believes to be true. especially when he tries to talk to his dead father in season 6, he says "i think i focus on the wrong things," implying that he did want to find some peace with that relationship, and that he wanted his fathers love, despite it being illogical, painful and confusing.

that he was willing to look past the abuse was shocking to me, because house is right his father shouldnt of abused him. but it was coming from a place of love, however ill concieved.

this is as close as we get to house praying to god. to admit that the suffering of life cannot be defied or denied, and grasp for the love nestled in between all the pain, however flawed, wrong, or illogical.

in a lot of ways, his story is so much about houses struggle with the body, its agency, its disability, its doom. he literally becomes a doctor to grasp with this ideologically (at times paradoxically) instead of physics because his question isnt really about existance in general

its about why he exists in the broken, painful way he does. and at the end of it, he sets down his need for an answer, righteousness, and admits that despite it all, his body cant help but love. and that love is the death of him. the end of his suffering.

[megamagimugi]

He's-a Gone

Luigi time! To suffer, that is.

(CW: character death)

This is obviously a sort of comlementary piece to I Was-a Too Late. But it's more than just that as it also illustrates a certain fun, dark what-if idea I had. Please keep reading if you're intrigued!

Lore:

Luigi's Mansion, the first game. Everything goes the same as in canon until the final boss fight, when Luigi defeats King Boo in his Bowser costume. After King Boo comes out and Luigi intends to suck him in, the villain laughs and reveals the truth: Mario's painting was an illusion, so was everything Madame Clairvoya saw. All just to mess with Luigi. Meanwhile the real Mario wasn't just captured by the Boos, he was immediately killed by them on their King's orders. The only physical thing that's left of him in this realm is the five items Luigi found - hidden by the Boos for Luigi to find, another part of King Boo's sick game.

Luigi is able to finish the fight despite his shock and grief, fueled by the anger King Boo never expected from him. After getting out of the painting the plumber discovers that it is indeed empty, no Mario or anyone else in the portrait.

Heartbroken and guit-ridden, Luigi goes back to Professor E. Gadd's lab and gives him back the Poltergust 3000. He doesn't even want to stay long enough to see what is going to happen to the ghosts. Of course the Professor tries to offer some semblance of comfort, but we all know it's not his forte.

So Luigi leaves, only taking Mario's five items with him. He notices that the mansion has disapeared without a trace. The reality of it all finally hits him, and he practically collapses onto a nearby tree's large root protruding from the ground, putting down the precious items around himself, only leaving the matching red hat and the letter in his hands. He should have known something was off. After all, the Mario he saw in the painting was wearing his hat and both gloves.

Looking at all these items, to his growing horror he can't help but imagine what exactly might have happened to his brother and what his last moments might have been like. He hugs the hat to his chest and rereads Mario's note several times, knowing that the brief warning was his brother's last words to him.

Luigi can do nothing but cry for the beloved brother he couldn't save, desperately wishing it was his warm, living and breathing body pressed to his chest rather than just a couple of his belongings.

But Mario is truly gone, apparently having met such a horrific fate that not even a single part of his body is left in the physical world.

[Good night]

…I'll leave the rest up to your imagination ;) Sorry if I got carried away with my description. Occasionally even I enjoy being a little dramatic, though I'm no writer whatsoever.

Yeah, I'm not apologizing for making this one - I was nicer to Luigi than to his bro, at least here the Mushroom Kingdom and everyone in it (except for Mario lol) is still okay!

But alas,

You can no longer play as Mario

Rest in spaghetti, funny wahoo man.

@federthenotsogreat I'm tagging you because you said you wanted more Mario art like I Was-a Too Late, thought you might like this one too!

@drones-of-innocence Also tagging you because you were interested in my idea.

Edit: Tagging a few more mutuals who might want to see this based on their reaction to my previous angsty work just in case, feel free to ignore. Or ask me to remove the tag if you want, no problem.

@silenzahra (remember, no rush) @c-lavanda @jell-o101 @stripetkattelalala54-gf

@luigixfanxayjay @itsavee4117

And you @giddlygoat just because you have a Luigi's Mansion AU and I thought you might appreciate this... Also because I'm a fan 👉👈