#here-lies-hope

[cyberpawn-arc]

“i know i’m being judgmental. i need to… work on that. but, jesus, what a douche bag.”

Bullet Train Starters

"Nah, that guy was a douchebag. Nothin' judgemental, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's not judgemental to call the duck a duck! So let's go make sure this duck's goose is cooked, alright?" Vale snickered, patting the bag carrying their katana. "He drove in on that 2070 Rayfield Caliburn, the one with no decals on it and the custom plate. Those things catch over 150k on the streets in good condition! Now, Pickles, quick question..."

V smirked, pointing a proud index finger towards the ride. "You wanna sell it or scrap it today? Or a joy ride?"

[tls123]

— who can fully understand a person?

[screenviolense]

             ‘ i know it looks bad, but... don’t call anyone. please. ‘ how was she supposed to explain to a doctor that she’d spent the last twenty minutes coughing up something that was definitely not blood and smelled faintly of battery acid. not to even begin with the blackouts and lost time. ‘ i just can’t afford a doctor’s visit right now. that’s all. ‘

             that much was true, at least. 

@here-lies-hope​ / oops! all jules starter call.  

[qpjianghu]

Who’s the real you? The person who did something awful... or the one who’s horrified by the awful thing you did? Is one part of you allowed to forgive the other? [insp]

Li Xiangyi & Li Lianhua | Mysterious Lotus Casebook (2023)

For @mysteriouslotuscasebookweek prompt, Day 4: grief

[white-weasel]

Looking at the Saw wiki’s page for Jigsaw’s victims gives such major whiplash because the reason for being tested will be like:

killed someone

corrupt cop

abused partner

racist

And then you’ll see shit like:

was a defense attorney and defended people

tried to catch a serial killer

was abused by partner

cared about friends too much

And my personal favorite

unknowingly married a guy who lied about some stuff

[carrinth]

I'm sure it's fanon that the Warden-Commander must make the most random non-sequitur comments about their Origins Love Interest during Awakening or what's the point???

Marzel missing his witchy lover. Everyone then played 'Shape-shifted mage' or 'Actual Giant Spider WTF Commander'.

[guzhufuren]

get into first uncensored chinese wuxia bl, besides craziest show plot we have costars asking each other how much gay porn they watch, affectionately playing with locks of each other's wigs in between filming dubcon, one coaching another on how to top himself best in a scene, wiping each other's lips after a filmed kiss, one sitting on another's chest half the time, dropping word bombs like "post nut clarity" about their post-sex characters, saying they find their tipsy acting partner cute, logging into fan groupchats and pouring gasoline into fire of shippers' conversations, and flirting every other second of bts

[echosong971]

“Mr. Handsome Idiot”

[hauntingjasper]

We need candy Marshall and vampire Gumball!!!

Waow okay anon imma give you a lil concept, sorry for making you wait too long 🥹

My current takes on Candy Prince Marshall Lee and Vampire King Gumball

[iron-sparrow]

Elftober 【第五天】 Glow

ELFTOBER PROMPT LIST

[raplinenthusiasts]

200917 Bang Chan 🔥

for @backtoblueandgreyside Bangtan CC for Palestine / donate

[cyberpawn-arc]

⚛️- how much faith does my muse place in science? Do they believe science and religion are at odds?

Headcanon Meme

Given the fact that Vale does live in a city that's constantly working on ways to ascend humanity and create bigger and better scientific projects, Vale places a skeptical but hopeful amount of faith onto scientists and the work they do. While they know, logically, that people are creating life saving medicines and finding ways for people to live longer and giving people awesome cybernetics, sometimes Vale finds themself in a “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.” situation! Vale has big hopes for the things that humanistic scientists could create, but they do also go "guys let's slow down we don't need to put people's souls into microchips".

Also! Vale isn't really religious! They don't practice any specific religion, but Shinto is heavily practiced in Night City, so Vale does know more about the Shinto faith than other religions! They do not see science and religion at odds, due to the fact that there is a lot of diversity in people's belief systems!

[zhuoyichenpretty]

Ep 25 Commentary

“難受嗎？難受就對了[...]卓大人，你習慣就好。” Is it difficult to bear? Good [...] Zhuo Daren, you'd better get used to it. —Zhao Yuanzhou, Ep. 1

Oh my god what the fuck ep 25. Ohhh my god. I don't think I ever stopped going "holy shit oh fuck" for the entire forty minutes. My head is in my hands. Why is FoF experimenting with onscreen physical/emotional/mental whump at a frequency and intensity previously unknown to man? To my favorite character? 我前輩子得罪了誰？？(Who did I wrong in my previous life??)

Quote from ep 1 because I had just re-watched it earlier in the day and those words came back to me not with any particular use towards interpretation but just as a characterization of—all of this. It is indeed difficult to bear.

Spoilers incoming.

Also spoiler for how I feel about this episode in case the sound of me wailing in lament in the distance makes it unclear: It was probably one of the most effective episodes for me thus far, personally. It struck many, many chords and did not stop for breath at all.

Honestly I'm kind of at a loss for words because I really, truly, did not expect shit would get so much worse for ZYC so incredibly rapidly. The speed with which the situation deteriorated broke the fucking sound barrier (I'm exaggerating, I'm being dramatic, but jfc I wasn't prepared). I apologize in advance if any of my reactions become a little bit repetitive, there are only so many ways I can express continuous distress and shock and despair.

My stomach dropped during the watchman attack scene. I can't believe how effective it was for me, this moment coming at the heels of ep 24, how that episode was a whole meditation on the goodness of ZYC's heart, his gentle and sensitive nature, the reasons why everyone loves him, the way things are bad but they will not break us and we may lose heart individually but we will persevere together.

And then in one single moment, all of that is threatened and very nearly destroyed. I felt every one of ZYC's dry heaves.

This drama is not one I necessarily go to for subtlety of intention, so the fact that I really had no inkling how at-risk ZYC's irreproachability would be in the coming episode despite being very invested in his arc made it all the more shocking and well-done, personally. They set him up as high as they could so they could tear him down as thoroughly as possible in an instant, and I did not notice the set-up at all.

I also have to say, I really appreciate PSJ. How quickly she cut to the chase about what he'd seemingly done, how she'd said the things that aren't just hard to hear but also hard to say. Because that's exactly what ZYC will care the most about. It seems to me her righteousness helped keep his own intact. In such a moment of complete and utter vulnerability and devastation, her moral clarity is as terrible as it is necessary and true to ZYC's belief system, just when it is most susceptible to collapse. And I say this not to mean that I think he is culpable for the supposed attack, given how much discussion the show goes into about culpability or lack thereof when not in one's right mind, but just that I find PSJ's moral compass to most closely align with ZYC's beliefs as he has been carrying them out throughout the show, and she keeps him from contradiction in a moment when it may be on everyone else's mind to spare him from the double-edged blade of his own righteousness. (Also, I may be reading too far into WX's statement later on that PSJ protected ZYC with her decision, but it could be interpreted that WX agrees or understands that as well on some level.)

And the fucking fact that all this takes place in front of a shrine for the Righteous God of Virtue and Blessing. As I said, I'm speechless.

(Speechless, she says, as she continues to ramble.)

Ouughhhhhh the reversals. ZYZ draping the cloak on ZYC this time. Fuck. The dungeon. Oh god. The way ZYZ loses more and more of his facade of calm, even just from his somewhat tense but understated distress in ep 24 to this unblinking, almost unseeing stare at ZYC in shackles.

Also, I'm glad for the moment PSJ and WX have to themselves once ZYZ proves ZYC's innocence. The way we get to see them navigating a situation so dire together despite its potential to push them utterly apart. PSJ's near-silent delivery of "friend" fucking kills me. It's loaded with so much emotion that neither the voice nor the term can truly handle that weight. That's art to me.

And then oh god, the Tianxiang Pavilion scene. I don't even know what to say. How everything spirals completely out of control. How we literally watch ZYC's worst nightmares play out. WX's first shout, the way I don't feel like I've heard that particular shade of emotion in her voice up until now, even with everything they've been through. Honestly, each of their expressions as the mob began to jeer and before they were separated was so effective. Ying Lei's indignation, PSJ's alarm, ZYZ's agitation, WX's fury. And the palpable panic as the crowd surged around them and pulled them apart.

I've watched this whole scene three times now. Every actor is giving their all here, and it's so impressive because this isn't at all the usual context of their angst and heartbreak. This isn't a decisive battle over life and death. The range of tragedy stretches so far in this kind of fantastical drama and yet they are able to create such tension and emotion that the shock of that first egg thrown has all the impact of a fatal wound. And it's worse in some ways because it means so little to an outsider and everything to this family.

That rage and helplessness in WX as she wipes ZYC's face and asks who threw it, when she says if the crowd goes any further, they'll fight back—her delivery is so raw. When I heard her lines, I felt the fantasy genre completely slip away for a moment and it became absolutely personal. Like, this point is getting a little away from mere commentary so please forgive the brief aside but those are words I can hear in my own family's voices.

Then, watching the very last vestiges of ZYZ's composure fully crumble away in real-time. God, I wish I could say something more substantive about ZYZ's entire reaction because it's so so good but I'm feeling levels of angst I truly don't know how to convey, which is really saying something given how much of an essay I usually write despite claiming I'm speechless.

Just. The way this is the most desperate and near-breaking we have ever seen them, in a completely different manner than the grief that has come before.

Alright, and then, the juxtaposition of the mob and the cheering crowd around ZYC?—yeah, that's when I started sobbing. As I've said before, the effectiveness, the efficiency, of TJR's acting. The way we can read every emotion off of young ZYC's face: his awkward pride, his self-consciousness, his bashful happiness. Even though this is a memory only recently and fleetingly alluded to in the previous episode and this is a ZYC we have never actually met, we know him and all his mannerisms and expressions so well. He is so alive with his character and so familiar, and then we cut back and, god, how unrecognizable everything is now. That absolutely broke me.

Finally, ZYC and Li Lun's conversation. Again, so so good and again, not sure I can offer much substance in my commentary to do it enough justice. I've been writing this commentary for over three hours now, so if my coherence is petering out, I do apologize.

This is so much of what I wanted and didn't even know I wanted from them, simply because they've been kept apart by the plot for so long. To see some of this come to pass is so satisfying. For Li Lun to claw so desperately at ZYC and try to bring him down, what that means about how he views ZYC's role in ZYZ's life right now. That this is twofold, to ruin ZYC and to be understood, and how he can never get the latter if he is still holding onto the former, wanting to pull others into the abyss rather than seeking a way to perhaps be pulled out of it. Li Lun is so precise in his brutality towards ZYC, digging his fingers directly into the worst of ZYC's fears, and yet ZYC is so insanely clear-eyed and incorruptible and incisive with his words in a way Li Lun has never experienced or had to combat (ZYC, articulate king fr). And for all of Li Lun's bluster as he continually makes to take the physical and conversational upper hand, how quickly that becomes a pitiful immaturity when ZYC truly fights back (in defense of ZYZ). Yan An plays this part so well, when he's looking up at ZYC.

And seriously, talk about ZYC delivering just the most on point monologues to struggling characters ever (ZYZ, Bai Jiu, now Li Lun), and doing all that after the day he's had?? To be honest, I don't know what direction this conversation will push Li Lun. I can see it go either way because yeah ZYC just basically rubbed in his face how alone and pitiable he is and how he'll never get what he wants out of ZYC, but at the same time I've never seen Li Lun so close to understanding why he has ended up alone, nor look so desperate enough to not be that he might end up making a different choice for himself. And just as Li Lun is that mirror showing ZYC the darkness of the abyss, ZYC must be reflecting to Li Lun how bright the dawn could be. (Oh the inextricable nature of character foils.) Even though ZYC has denied Li Lun the understanding he wants, he has seen through Li Lun so thoroughly that that is an understanding in itself.

And then oh my god. The reverting to Bai Jiu's voice and body. One of the most top-tier narrative choices ever. Li Lun, deconstructed by ZYC completely, is really so unbearably young in his heartache.

Okay, I think that's all I have to offer. I'm so wrung out, and I apologize if the quality of the commentary declined in the second half, but I hope some of this was enjoyable to read!

[blue-lollipops-and-ice-clouds]

So this catwalk is going to kill us...

Festhalle November 10th, 2024

(Source)

Summoning Solo on the catwalk.

Vessel's encouraging push forward.

[advocaado]

Have you ever seen a woman so beautiful you cried?

[diazmaximoff]

Daniel's power isn't less interesting than Max's

I think telekinesis is a really fitting story element for Life is Strange 2 because, unlike Max, who’s a young adult with a somewhat clear sense of self and purpose with her own powers, Daniel is still a child figuring out what he wants to do and what he’s capable of. His power is so simple yet unpredictable in nature, so the uncertainty of his future stands out even more to the player, prompting them to guide Daniel and help him find his place in the world with his newfound abilities. Let me elaborate.

Just like a child can master a range of skills—from learning new languages to playing musical instruments, or excelling in any possible sport—Daniel’s power is ridiculously versatile and it allows him to handle various tasks and challenges in countless ways: he can attack, defend, build, destroy, bend, steer, fly things around, exert control over someone's body, manipulate his environment and even perform intricate tasks like crafting or repairing. It's a power that can adapt to many situations, much like how children can grow into any role or talent they pursue. Children are born to be jacks of all trades.

In the first game, Max’s powers symbolized her struggles with insecurity and the desire to rectify past mistakes. She wanted to correct her every error, ultimately realizing that she can't and she just has to accept them like a responsible adult. In the second game, the power is a representation of a child's untapped potential and reflects the boundless possibilities of a child’s development, showing that with the right guidance, Daniel’s potential is as vast and adaptable as his power, allowing him to become anything he sets his mind to.

I really loved the part in episode 5 where Daniel used his power to build statues with Joan in Away. It's such a bittersweet moment that showcased his creativity and potential before the chaos that was about to unfold. It got me thinking that Daniel might even dream of becoming a constructor in the future. But ultimately, his path is his to forge and he has the freedom to shape his destiny however he chooses.