#hey no worries <3 it was just lovely <3

[handgiven]

he will break his heart. emmanuel knows that much. one day, tomorrow, or in a year, or ten, he will skip out of this role he took on, for being a gardener has to be but a role, and go back to how things used to be. the trees will heal, he will no longer be needed by something selfless and overwhelming, and there will be no reason to stay. none that he could defend in face of the great ineffable. the realisation chokes him up and flashes in his eyes, the eyes that slip downwards as not to overwhelm the other, already so frail in his vulnerability. he doesn't want him to see. he doesn't want him to doubt. this once, he wants him to have something pure, something warm. show him that he can have that much. not to put his own doubts and anxieties on him now that he's bared his yearning for proximity.

it's a small forever for his lips to travel to his. it's plenty of time to make up his mind, to disappear right then and there, to stop him, to say something, to pause. he doesn't, though. he stays. and finds that it is that much easier to stay and go along, than it would have been to make any other choice. and when thomas does come to kiss him, there is a breath of relief, a hand settling on the other's nape to hold him there, the other curling into his jacket, staining it with remnants of soil. it's so easy to come forth and hold him and kiss him and let the moment alone erase the sorrow of what is to come. isn't that just what humans do, day by day? living with the prospect of losing, of dying, of forgetting. living here and now and not so desperately tangled up in the past and the future. drinking in the moment, drinking in the other they choose to share that moment with.

it's a chaste kiss, for a start, and emmanuel breaks away from it fairly soon to catch his breath, but still he holds the other close, still he longs to make sure thomas does not pull away. breathing in now feels different. he can taste him on his lips, he can feel the rainwater stained by them, together, as it evaporates from his skin, and greets the air. and his hand clasps the tighter on the other's clothes. not threatening, desperate. his eyes then do dare to find thomas's once more, as if to reassure that this is all still okay, before he can kiss him again. is it not better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? is it not better to give him this, let him feel this overwhelming love and grace, than to let him for always go through life half-awake?

who knows what tomorrow will bring, or any other day? well, emmanuel does, to an extent, but willingly does he close the door on that knowledge. this matters. this, now. thomas, here. lips soft upon his, thirsty for what they have been denied by this world. love, understanding. tenderness.

the corners of the underbutler's lips twitch slightly, curling upwards into a small smile at the other's recollection. it was true — back when the two had first met thomas was a lost soul, wounded, bitter and resentful. but, while the servant still possessed a sharp tongue and a fierce attitude, there was something softer about him these days. it was emmanuel's persistent kindness, that same care that the gardener put into tending the earth, that had helped to reshape thomas. like clay, warmed under a constant touch, becomes pliable, so to has thomas allowed himself to change. it was emmanuel's infectious warmth, that has coaxed this gentleness from the other. still, that cold facade thomas wears so well is presented to the rest of the world like a shining suit of armour, but to emmanuel it is peeled back willingly.

the other has seen the worst of him — broken and crumbling, angry and wounded — has seen the glimmer of hope, the potential, restrained kindness. now, this part of thomas is offered up willingly, unfiltered in their private moment, sheltered and hidden from the rest of the world. fragile, gentle, romantic.

a shiver works its way down servant's spine as his name passes through emmanuel's lips, a whispered breath that draws him in. magnetic, alluring. he wants to hear it again, he's desperate for it to mean what he thinks it means... because thomas has been wrong before. he remembers jimmy kent, and the way that his feelings for the man had run rampent, clouding his judgement, leading him astray, into believing they were the same. the disgust in the young footman's eyes was a sight still burned into the back of thomas' mind... he had been so careful not to make the same mistake again. but this was no mistake. there had never, ever been any judgement, any revulsion in emmanuel, the man seemed to accept everything about him with open arms — nothing seemed to phase the other... not thomas' anger, his bitterness, not his hopelessness nor dispair. not even this, this deviance of nature. that alone was enough to encourage a spark of hope in the servant.

a hand cups his face and thomas leans into it, sighing out the breath he hadn't realised he was holding as he relaxed into the touch — emmanuel seemed to constantly have that affect on him, calming, grounding. although, his frantic hummingbird beat of a heart continues, fluttering wildly in his chest. grey hues flicker closed briefly and, turning his head slightly, daring to press another gentle kiss to the other's palm. em's touch only prompts thomas further. his own hand mirrors the action, reaching out to the other's cheek. a thumb gently caresses his cheek bone, sweeping away the beads of raindrops that have collected on em's skin. leaning ever closer, the underbutler presses his forehead against the other's as the lingering space between them seems to dwindle ever smaller.

god he wants to kiss him, he yearns for it, but thomas hesitates. even after all of this, a flash of fear strikes through the under butler. the world is a dangerous place for men like him, he needs to be sure.

❝ ...please... ❞ the word is barely uttered, the sound carried on a whispered, shaking exhale. a murmured request of permission. heavy lidded eyes take one final sweep over the other's features before thomas slowly moves to close the distance between them...

[masterfuldoodler]

girlbossed too hard.... unless...

[quailxcrossing]

maybe i didnt need to worry about anything, maybe i just had to make the comic

[hammyham-o-o]

I'VE BEEN WAITING TO USE THIS GIF :D

THANKS SO MUCH AUGHH YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST (ALL 100 OF YOU)

HERE'S A CAKE I BAKED JUST FOR YOU:

these adorable lil drawings of Laurens and Laff helped :3

[nomairuins]

i like overthink everything now it makes me feel so dumb. i used 2 be able to just talk 2 ppl but nowadays every single thing im like Is that actually going to make them hate me. Yes probably. and then i just dont respond which makes ppl hate me. this is how it is

[giggly-squiggily]

giiirl you're so real for the voice kink 😭 (the thunder bringer reprise during god games HOLLER)

also i came here to say fight little wolf was literally written for thorfinn and askeladd ('i' ll teach you all the lessons your daddy never could' - BE SO FR)

ily, i hope life will only get better for you each day and remember that when all else fails you're still awesome *finger guns*

🤣🤣🤣🤣 It’s so REAL! Just- AH GOD! (Girl don’t even get me started on that reprise the way I was ENTRAPPED-)

NO WAIT CAUSE SERIOUSLY- 😍😍😍😍😭😭😭😭 It really does feel like that for them! Askeladd making an example out of Thorfinn and setting the stage for his character arc AHHH! Just- OH (now you got me thinking about Askeladd with that voice REY 🛐🛐🛐)

ILY too 💖 thank you friend! I genuinely appreciate it! Stay awesome yourself! *finger guns back* 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂

[yumienikkie]

bllk chapter 267 spoilers

[space-spring]

One thing that I keep thinking about in regards to Tactics Ogre is the presence of the vaguely humanoid reptilian guys. Like the game has straight-up dragons of varying types, but then you've also got these guys that are just. guys but reptiles. And at first I was going "okay maybe they're just supposed to be mindless monsters like the undead?" but at some point in the game Canopus gets into a fistfight with one of them when he (Canopus) interrupts some singing. So this reptile guy has clearly got the emotional wherewithal to both listen to someone sing and also to get mad when someone interrupts!

The PSP version apparently has a description for the reptiles that mentions they're a "crude race with limited intellect." But are they REALLY limited in intellect or is it just racial prejudice?? You also see them being included in various mercenary bands throughout the game, and they seem to wear human clothing and armor, which implies that at least some of them have some idea of trade and currency, and most of them have the understanding of how to dress for their own protection. For all intents and purposes there is nothing that really stands out as evidence that they're less intelligent than standard humans

[lloydfrontera]

canon divergence and transcended noviel au!!

Where Lloyd complains out loud about wanting a normal marriage: so he asks Noviel to do something about the 'competition for the lady that deserves Lloyd Frontera's hand in marriage' challenge that Alicia hosts amdmxnd

btw long ask i am SO SORRY

Noviel at first asked why not just marry Alicia and live a good life as a king, but after much explaining earth customs he's convinced that Lloyd's making up excuses to be able to live at the Frontera estate freely, so he obliges anyway, just because he wants to see Lloyd truly happy, too

days before the competition Noviel makes an announcement to leave the barony for a month, much to everyone but Lloyd's shock, especially bc of what the Queen's planning to do, but either way Noviel leaves to do some 'work', and when he's fully gone, Lloyd's nervous, and Javier's delighted to finally be rid of his presence, albeit for a month

Fast forward to the day of the competition and Lloyd's sweating bullets bc Alicia's completely dominating the entire fight bc swordmaster queen(we stan🙏), but then. Suddenly, a challenger who wears an extra translucent black veil to cover her eyes, and adorning a very foreign looking dress appears, and??? Begins to show prowess in swordfighting?!?

the spectators watching immediately comment in awe that it's the fabled daughter of noble from a faraway continent, labelled the "slient beauty and power" of her family as she almost never speaks, yet is blessed with an ultra affinity for swordsmanship as a swordmaster AND beauty, to the point she needs a veil to 'ensure nobody immediately falls in love at first sight', and that the reason why she's here despite how the competition announcement had been only out for days was bc she roams around fighting challenges to find someone who can defeat her one day

inevitably, foreign lady and Alcia clash in the final spar against each other, with foreign lady showing sword techniques completely unknown to everyone, flashy yet practical moves, and just giving off pure power with every strike, and yet, somehow looks like she isn't giving her all in it, just fighting to prove something

Watching her fight, Javier's completely unnerved at the thought of another grandmaster in the making, and yet, silently grateful at the fact that Alicia won't marry Lloyd- and was about to comment on the tevhniques looking a bit familiar to Lloyd but.

Lloyd's completely enthralled at the fight, and dare Javier says with a pain in his heart, Lloyd's completely in love with the Lady, if the look of admiration, longing and shock on the other's face has anything to say. So he doesn't say anything out loud, and just watches the fight silently

meanwhile Lloyd's having the time of his life, completely flattered and extra grateful, because he knows that the lady that's slowly taking her time to defeat Alicia to prove a point is none other than Noviel, dressing up as a convincing lady. Lloyd's affection is definitely over the moon since Noviel didn't HAVE to put in so much effort for this one request, but he did;

Needed a competitor? Noviel dresses up as a lady that covers the eyes so nobody knows how he looks- oh but her identity? Spreading fake rumors days ago about a travelling swordmaster, genius plan- and most importantly, Noviel just. Showing off moves that were only described in the original "knight of blood and iron" just as a tribute for Suho, who always wanted to see how it looked in real life♥️, so of COURSE Lloyd's completely invested and enchanted during the whole fight, unbeknownst to everyone except Noviel and him :)))

The competition ends with Alicia being horribly defeated by foreign lady, the entire magentano kingdom congratulating and praising for foreign lady's win, and Javier's heart being broken seeing Lloyd excitedly going down to 'meet' her

Lloydcs in full fanboy mode completely praising and just so goddamn happy when speaking with the foreign Lady, even though she never replies, just chuckling silently

and later post competition, much to the shock of the spectators who know of "her story", after Foreign lady whispers to Lloyd to relay what she says to the crowd- Lloyd, using mana voice amplication, tells them all that the Lady who fought in the competition is none other than 'Lady Ione", the swordmaster who's only here to look for a challenge, and thus had never intended to marry Lloyd in the first place

However, she said, that any lady who would dare court Lloyd in the future will be challenged by her again, as she expressed deep interest in him (Lloyd's unsure if the last bit was an act or if it was genuine, so he's completely flustered either way, Javier's planning to train harder, and Alicia, though accepting defeat, plans to know more about her abilities)

Before Lady Ione leaves, Alicia requests a formal audience with her, along with Lloyd and Javier for a lowkey interview

After explaining her story on a paper as 'a young orphan who was discovered and trained by the "knight of blood and iron" and travelling around under his wing, until a noble family had decided to take her in after owing the knight for saving their lives, and from that point on, grew up as the adopted noble lady from a faraway continent, as a student of the "knight of blood and iron"' which explains how she's so strong and then saying that the Knight is now being held accountable by her family for her sudden disappearance, since she 'requested' him to distract her family so she could compete in the queen's competition (bc who DOESN'T pass up an opportunity to beat up a monarch right???)

Alicia's lowkey mad at the fact this competition basically meant nothing to her, Javier's glad that she doesn't want to marry Lloyd, and Lloyd's dying inside(gratefully) bc how the HELL does Noviel come up with such a convincing lie and getting away with it?!??!??

And if they needed evidence to back up the fact that Noviel and 'Lady Ione' are two different people, Lady Ione would show a pre-recorded intelligent video thing(like the one that happened in chapter 227 of the webnovel) of Noviel, with a helmet ofc, doing paperwork stressfully while communicating with everyone lmaoo

Eventually, Lady Ione leaves the lorasia continent for yet another 'challenge' and bc of her story, no one questioned this or stopped her- and when Noviel returns looking haggard a few weeks later, nobody has any suspicions against it, so it ends with (almost)everyone getting what they wanted 😌✨

Originally i was going to make Javier do the crossdressing but it would be funnier if Noviel did all this snnxndnd

Also about how the Noviel au works in the last arc of the novel ..... Let's think about that ina another time i can't handle the heartbreak yet mamzmsns

i have literally nothing to add to this it is perfect just as it is oh my god i am obsessed!!

like!!! noviel not only participating but actually winning the competition for lloyd's hand??? holy shit ajskdhksa

and like yeah he would! at this point he'd absolutely move heaven and earth for lloyd so this is like. nothing in his eyes. sure, he'll beat every challenger in the continent if lloyd asks him to, no problem.

AND JAVIER BEING DELIGHTED ABOUT NOVIEL LEAVING AHSKDASJKD i can just imagine someone half heartedly suggest getting another bodyguard for lloyd while noviel is gone and javier nearly biting their head off because how dare they, isn't it enough he has to share lloyd with noviel, that one is already superfluous enough as it is, no, this is his master he can protect him all by himself thank you very much

(altho coming back to what we said the other time about the novel ending with javier being literally unable to protect lloyd at the end,,, maybe javier would feel a little unnerved about noviel going away even as he tried to pretend he isn't. maybe he gets just a little bit more twitchy, a little more paranoid. maybe he gets a little more anxious about lloyd being out of his sight. noviel is annoying but at least javier knows he wouldn't hesitate to protect lloyd with his life. mmmmhh thoughts for another time)

ashdkja and oh my godddd lady noviel!!! yes yes yes yes i love that!!

i love the idea of javier being unsettled by some random lady suddenly start winning every fight and advancing through every stage with seemingly no difficulty. because at this point he would've been like. not happy but. at least resigned to alicia winning and marrying lloyd because at least he knows her. he knows she would be able to protect lloyd and he trusts her with him. but this lady?? who the fuck??? is she???

i can just imagine him quietly start wondering where the hell did he left his own dress lmao

AND THEN HIM THINKING LLOYD FELL FOR YET ANOTHER MYSTERIOUS MASKED STRANGER OH MY GOD his heart just sinking when he sees how mesmerized lloyd is by the lone lady and jumping to the wrong (and yet completely right) conclusion that he's in love jasdksafd

because yeah!! lloyd is very much in love!! but because he already knows that's noviel who went out of his way to give him an out from the whole thing just because lloyd asked him to and!! it's just so much for his poor little fanboy heart ashdksa

Showing off moves that were only described in the original "knight of blood and iron" just as a tribute for Suho, who always wanted to see how it looked in real life♥️

i love that his implies that suho gushed about it to noviel at some point and not only did noviel listened to him but also remembered it <3 like oh my god that's so sweeeet

Lloyd's unsure if the last bit was an act or if it was genuine, so he's completely flustered either way, Javier's planning to train harder, and Alicia, though accepting defeat, plans to know more about her abilities

noviel making his claim on lloyd i am Screaming lloyd would be an absolute blushing mess like face bright red even tho he convinces himself noviel is just saying it to get him out of the compromise ajsdkasd also love that noviel basically said "get on my level" and alicia and javier both said "bet"

and noviel's fabricated backstory for the lone lady is so fun, i love it, this man is lying his ass off and he's enjoying it, he's had plenty of experience already pretending to be a whole another person, this is easy in comparison (but also i kinda like the idea of noviel not being very used to lying before meeting lloyd but learning to do it very quickly, except that lloyd doesn't notice it and he thinks noviel is still a bit rubbish at it so when he sees him fabricating an entire backstory he's just like :O he didn't know he could that :O )

ahsdksak imagine if once noviel comes back javier just,, asks him,, once in a while,, after the lone lady. like just casually. out of curiosity you see. totally not because he's worried she'll change her mind and come back to marry lloyd and then javier will have to have lady ella challenge her in a duel and make a whole mess out of things. absolutely not. nothing like that. he's just curious.

FUCK I LOVE THIS SO MUCH THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING IT WITH ME

also a tiny doodle cause i couldn't help myself <3

[phagodyke]

for such a supposedly major fan of the national I sure mishear a lot of their lyrics 💀

[lookedlikethebins]

The hours following George taking Matty to the airport to go to Barbados. He doesn't know how he wanted to feel about dropping Matty off, about driving home alone or having to sit with Ross and Adam and have the "them" be only be a count of three for a short period of time. George doesn't know what to do with himself—or all the empty space in their house, their bed. He isn't even sure he remembers how to cry. Was that something a person could forget?

We got a sort of sad one, ladies and gentlemen! (Don't worry it has a very hopeful ending!) This one was more so a route of catharsis for me and when it started to form I wasn't going to fight it. So now we have this George-centered fic that's all about loving and being loved by some very best friends, and knowing that sometimes surviving is a team effort.

ty for reading x

[miss-stereo]

So apparently this dude is a writer for the despicable me films and he made this poll in 2019:

I'M OUT OF WORDS

[clumsycapitolunicorn]

.

[sinfulhares]

smooth yet bouncy lines :3 cute expressions

!!!! eep, thank you for answering dear anon ;w;

[little-shiny-sharpies]

Me 🤝 my Aunt who plays WoW

“Khadgar is the best Alliance character alive hands down.”

[birdiebortnik]