#everyone is there in some capacity

[sylvanfreckles]

No. 17: Icy Deep

Part 17 of Deck the Hells

Fandom: Critical Role Rating: G Warnings: none

Summary: When the Bell's Hells are forced to cross a frozen river with no bridge, Chetney uses the opportunity to share a few things he learned during his time in Uthodurn. It doesn't go well for him. (Read on AO3)

...

“Oh, boy. I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of this,” Dorian remarked. His hand tightened on Ashton’s shoulder as they took another slide-step onto the frozen river. Fearne, in the form of some kind of tiny, adorable rodent, squeaked in agreement from the crook of his elbow.

“Considering you’re not literally made of stone, I don’t give a fuck what you’re feeling,” Ashton griped back.

“Don’t worry! The ice will hold!” Laudna said. She’d dropped to all fours to spider-crawl across the ice, distributing her insignificant weight as much as possible. Imogen, flying, was struggling with hauling FCG over the river so they didn’t have to risk the journey. And Orym, of course, had cut a wide swarth around all of them to cross on his own (he’d said it was to keep a lookout upstream, but Dorian was pretty sure it was because he was enjoying sliding around on the ice. He thought he’d seen a halfling-sized form doing backflips upstream, but that made him too dizzy to focus any more closely).

“You’re such a worry-wart,” Chetney added. He slapped Dorian’s backside as he passed, then slipped nimbly between him and Ashton. “Need to work on your balance, blue boy!”

Dorian rolled his eyes but didn’t rise to the gnome’s teasing. Particularly since he’d been crossing this way to stick close to Ashton just in case—he wasn’t sure Imogen would be strong enough to lift them if the ice broke, and he could at least levitate the earth genasi if the worst happened. Otherwise, he probably would have clicked his boots together and flown across the river.

The ice groaned under Ashton’s foot, and they froze. “Fuck.”

“Easy,” Dorian murmured. “We’re okay.”

“I know we’re okay,” Ashton snapped, without any real heat in their voice. “Fuck,” they whispered again, sliding their foot a little closer before taking the next step.

“Take your time. There’s no rush.”

They slid another few feet forward.

“I don’t know if this swims,” Ashton muttered, gesturing to their body. “Hasn’t really come up before.”

“We’ll be fine.”

Fearne squeaked in agreement and scrambled up Dorian to cross over his arm to Ashton’s shoulder. She could have easily run across the ice in this form without any danger but had chosen to stick with them for moral support. Or blackmail material. One never quite knew with Fearne.

“We had frozen rivers like this near Uthodurn,” Chetney called. He stomped on the ice and gave a satisfied nod. “Sturdy.”

Dorian shuddered. He could swim, and he was pretty sure his reflexes would be good enough to leap out of the way if the ice broke, but it wasn’t something he wanted to test. “Please be careful, Chetney.”

“What, with this?” Chetney leaped up and down, slamming both feet into the ice. “This ain’t going nowhere!”

“Not funny, old man,” Ashton warned.

“I bet it would even hold my better half.”

“Chetney, no!” Dorian called out the warning, but it was too late. Chetney was already transforming, his larger werewolf form nearly twice the size of his usual gnomish one.

“See?” Chetney gave a wolfish smile and stomped on the ice again. “Nothing to…uh-oh.”

The ice cracked.

Dorian panicked.

He did the first thing that came to mind, and cast levitate.

On Ashton.

“What the fuck!” Ashton, now a foot off the ice, swung their arms and legs through the air helplessly. “Let me down!”

“Sorry, Ash,” Dorian was already making his way toward the spot where Chetney had dropped through the ice. “Gimme a minute!”

Chetney was clawing at the edges of the broken ice, fur already weighed down with water. The water was quickly freezing in his fur and along the edges of the hole.

“Chetney!” Dorian dropped to his stomach and stretched across the ice, reaching toward the werewolf with one hand. “Change back, then grab my hand!”

Claws hooked into his hand, breaking the skin, dragging him toward the hole.

“If you do that, we’ll both go down,” Dorian argued. “Chetney! Drop it!”

The wolf snarled. The other claw was coming around as animal fear replaced the normal intelligence in Chetney’s eyes. Dorian steeled himself, bracing against the ice as best he could.

“Enough, Chet!”

He looked up to see Imogen floating next to him, hand outstretched. The world wavered for a split-second, and the fear that had been clenching his heart started to relax. Dorian let out a sigh of relief and looked back to see Chetney’s ears droop as his grip on Dorian’s wrist loosened.

“Don’t let go,” he called out quickly. “If you change back, we can pull you out.”

“And I’ll fly you to the other side,” Imogen added. “No more icy deep for you.”

Chetney whined but complied. The icy fur receded, leaving behind a small, water-logged gnome. “Sorry about that.”

“We all make mistakes,” Dorian replied, hauling Chetney out of the ice. He was relieved when Imogen immediately grabbed his arms to fly him over to the bank, since the hole had destabilized the ice around it.

The last few minutes replayed in his mind, and he dropped his forehead to the ice with a groan. Ashton was never going to let him live this down. He looked back over his shoulder, only to find that Orym had lashed a vine around Ashton’s waist and was towing them toward the riverbank like a particularly ill-mannered kite. Ashton had folded their arms, brow furrowed in a scowl, but Dorian thought he caught a hint of relief in their posture at not having to walk the rest of the way across the ice.

He lay like that for a moment, stretched out on the ice, inches away from the hole Chetney had fallen through, until an insistent squeaking caught his attention. Dorian looked up to find Fearne, still in her rodent form, climbing up his arm to press her cold rodent nose to his cheek.

“All right, all right,” he laughed, scooping her up into the crook of his arm and slowly shifting onto his knees so he could stand back up. “Let’s get this over with.”

[markscherz]

‘But I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everyone & everything’

- Charles Darwin. Letter to Charles Lyell, 1 October 1861

[mothsartart]

i can’t believe you’d make me go into space, guillermo

[crustyfloor]

“My amazing daughter” ❌

Too human, not dystopian enough

“my lovable creature” ✅

Unintentionally objectifying, affectionate in a dystopian way, true to the canon “pet and owner” dynamic most aliens have with their pet-humans, “Aliens can never truly understand humans they are two different species”

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Wei Wuxian eats a watermelon. Yep!

[myimaginationplain]

I've decided to make rhaenyra x willem blackwood my new "what if?" au rarepair. they would've been a power couple, I just know it

[elviraaxen]

I'm probably not the first to admit this but goddamn was I a narcissistic prick when I wasn't on stimulants

[daincrediblegg]

personally I think the best thing that the joker sequel did for me was expose the exact degree to which how much of internet/public criticism is not based on genuine analysis of the content using social and cultural resources to support an actual argument but is actually adult children whining because someone took their batman toys and put them up on a high shelf for once and they, as a consumer, feel like they're entitled to throw a tantrum about it

[dekusleftsock]

I’m making a longer post about this chapter, but I thought these cheeky little parallels were silly. I know what you are Horikoshi.

Like ignore the togachako gay ass part of this… it’s the fact that Izuku is the one looking at her now and she isn’t looking back. Their friendship is so interesting y’all omg (not in a shipping way. Like in an unrequited love/unrequited friendship way. Like they do make me a little ill to think about bc wym by that this gayass can’t get it through his thick skull that this girl liked him for the longest time and doesn’t understand why she isn’t treating him in the not-platonic care way anymore. Like that’s crazy. Izuku bbg you are so interesting and so so silly)

[erikkarlsson]

with the state of this roster i think sharks fans have earned the right to have $2 beer and hot dog nights like a proper minor league team

[aceattorneyrambles]

One of my favorite character moments (and the thing that immediately made me love him) for Apollo that I think is so intensely important to understanding him goes way back to Case 2 of Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice.

In that case, Trucy stages a “kidnapping” by using Mr. Hat to distract the court, and when Apollo rushes out into the lobby and sees her safe and sound…

He cries.

He’s so overcome with worry and relief that he cries for a girl he barely knows. A girl who, for all intents and purposes, almost cost him the badge he worked so hard to gain. A girl who focused most of the time they did know each other teasing him and not taking him seriously.

And yet, he cries for her anyway. He sobs, even.

It’s a throwaway moment, likely done for comedic effect, but it really hit me, and Trucy’s immediate earnest response telling Apollo not to cry and then him doubling down with protective rage on her behalf hit it home harder, y’know?

Apollo Justice, at his core, cares. Despite his surly attitude a lot of the time, this is nonetheless a defining trait of his. He cares, so much, and so easily, and we see it firsthand right there as he cries for a near stranger.

(And I also think it’s worth noting that the first time we really, truly see Trucy lower her performance mask and cry herself…it’s to Apollo.)

[muninnhuginn]

Thinking about "your weakness is how you always want to be the hero" and how the series returns to this at the end

Li Lianhua hated how he acted as Li Xiangyi and spent years trying to distance himself from it, but ultimately he still fell back into the similar patterns, for all his added experience

His main priority was always to "do the right thing" regardless of how that would impact on those around him. And it *did* impact those around him. From Qiao Wanmian and Shan Gudao as Li Xiangyi to Fang Duobing and Di Feisheng as Li Lianhua

Giving the Styx flower to the emperor so he could use it as leverage to guarantee Fang Duobing and his family's safety. Using the last of his power to save Yun Biqiu. Constantly putting others above himself whilst actively refusing to recognise that his self-sacrificial nature would hurt those he cared about most

And sure, he thinks he's going to die anyway. They're going to be hurt regardless and he can't do anything about that. His odds are low of the Styx flower even working. But ultimately, he refuses to even consider trying. Li Xiangyi has been dead a long time and Li Lianhua is just there to tide things over. What value is the life of a ghost

To the end, he lives and dies a hero. To the end, he refuses to live for himself.

[sledge-in-space]

John Seed is a comfort character for some people. Folks like to ship him with their deputies or craft redemption arcs for him.

There's nothing wrong with that, obviously.

But I just can't wrap my head around it.

There's nothing comforting about the way John Seed treated Joey Hudson. I don't understand why the ordeal she went through doesn't seem to matter to fans of his.

She was bait for the rookie deputy and nothing more, because she wasn't going to give in and join the cult.

He terrorized Joey and the rest of Fall's End, stooping to the lowest, most inhumane levels to get his way. Some even theorize that he hurt the "sinners" in his care just because he wanted to, for malicious, sadistic reasons that didn't have anything to do with the cult. At worst, some people go as far as to speculate that he raped Joey.

It's easy to see why someone might come to that conclusion. The way he acts is deplorable and he makes everything feel extremely personal, sometimes in ways that can be interpreted as sexually charged. He'll do anything in order to get his way because "no" is antithetical to him. He regularly flies off the handle, so much so that Joseph is threatening to cast him out. All the touching and getting right up in the player's face is so uncomfortable and obsessive (which is the point, but I digress).

So why does he get to be redeemed and venerated by fans? Don't his actions warrant consequences?

Are people willing to let him off the hook because he's attractive? Because he had a horrible, abusive childhood? Obviously he's got a lot more lore than most of the cast. Is that something people are interested in exploring for him over other characters?

I'm not trying to come after anyone personally. There's nothing wrong with liking villains and Jacob, Faith, and Joseph have also done terrible things to innocent people.

Which is like, fine. It's a video game.

And I know that John, like Joey, is a victim of Ubisoft's choppy, inconsistent writing and storytelling. Things got changed and swapped and cut during development that got us to where we are, with the story we have. Flaws and all, not like it was ever going to be perfect.

But in my opinion, I feel like the adoration for John does a huge disservice to Joey. People make thirsty edits of him while she's literally tied up behind him. It's tasteless and makes the optics of her situation look even creepier.

Her pain has largely been ignored for as long as the game has existed. I can't for the life of me figure out why.

[cabeswaterdrowned]

if you told Gansey that Adam had a crush or was into someone else at Aglionby who wasn’t Ronan he would absolutely just start listing the names of every single Aglionby student who isn’t him, even Kavinsky and the other dream pack members, then once literally every other name was eliminated be like is it.. it can’t be but just on the off chance is it me? beg your pardon if I sound arrogant or presumptuous.

[turtleblogatlast]

Would you say raph has been parentfied? Because he’s the one who had to praise Leo when splinter didn’t. It’s the vibe I got as an older sibling myself I was doing most of the parenting my drunk ass parents couldn’t do.

[ cw: parentification / ]

Personally, and I know it goes against a big part of the fandom to say this, but I don’t really think so! There are certainly instances where Raph takes charge and displays parent-y behaviors but in my opinion it’s not enough for me to say he was parentified as much as the popular take says. More often he’s displayed as a protective older brother and acts as such, not so much a parentified sibling.

Not gonna say it’s wrong to see him as such though! It’s just not the vibes I personally gathered from watching him.

I’m sorry you had to go through that, though, no child should be forced to parent their sibling.

[answermywearyquery]

Sweet Death

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Relationships: Pete/Vegas Additional Tags: Post-Canon, soft, (But in a VegasPete Way), Mentions of Suicide, Fluff, (i think), Vegas' Canonical Suicidal Tendencies, They're So In-Love It's Not Even Funny

Summary:

"How would you kill me, if you had to?" Vegas asked, his voice soft, almost reverent, while his fingers played with Pete's hair, like he was asking a perfectly reasonable question and wasn't being a weirdo.

(Or: Post-canon, Vegas and Pete discuss how would they kill each other.)

✨Read on AO3✨

loan’s kinnporsche 2nd anniversary: free choice!

[This is my final contribution to the KinnPorsche 2nd Anniversary Event, it has been so amazing! Thank you for everyone who made anything or was just there to talk and reblog, I haven't had this much fun in ages!]