#i am very normal about this series

[ramshacklefey]

Murderbot Diaries out here asking the real questions like:

What if you were something that was neither human nor machine and you had only ever been treated as a monstrous object? And:

What if there had never been a single entity in your existence that you could trust? And:

What if you were constructed from the most basic parts of your psyche to be a violent tool? And:

What if any attempt to protect yourself from abuse would result in torture or death? And:

What if you were finally free? And suddenly there were humans who loved you, but you had no way to comprehend that let alone believe it? And:

What if you didn't want to be human, but you had to alter yourself body and mind in order to hide among them? And:

What if you cared so fucking much that you couldn't stand it, and the only way you could express that was through astounding acts of violence to protect them? And:

What if caring was so dangerous and alien to you that you didn't even know you did? And:

What if you were so afraid that looking at anyone was impossible, and you had to stand at the remove of seeing everyone through a third person point of view? And:

What if you were a sarcastic bastard because you'd never been allowed to express anything but groveling subservience? And:

What if you started to want to accept that you cared?

[polyvinyl-acolyte]

thanks to the ogre poppenang team for giving me the new vocal stim of “OkayQuestionListener are you in sweDEN?”

[krakenartificer]

Right, OK, so here's the thing:

This is. So. Incredibly. Accurate. If you start with Warrior's Apprentice then you primarily see them after they have embraced their hot-mess-ness and decided to work with it, and therefore it's easy for it to pass under the radar, but reading Shards of Honor or Barrayar, it's much more obvious: Aral and his incredibly slow and painful suicide by alcohol ... Cordelia's decision to drown her therapist on her way to convincing a pilot that he needs to assist her emigration (but that she can't explain her slippers because it's "classified")... ... these people are not hinged. And yet --

"I don't confuse greatness with perfection. To be great anyhow is ... the higher achievement." She gave him a crooked smile. "It should give you hope, eh?" "Huh. Block me from escape, you mean. Are you saying that no matter how much of a 𝕙𝕠𝕥 𝕞𝕖𝕤𝕤 I was, you'd still expect me to work wonders?" Appalling. She considered this. "Yes," she said serenely. "In fact, since 𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕪𝕠𝕟𝕖'𝕤 𝕒 𝕙𝕠𝕥 𝕞𝕖𝕤𝕤 it follows that all great deeds have been accomplished out of 𝕒 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕥𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕙𝕠𝕥-𝕞𝕖𝕤𝕤-𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕤. Yet they were accomplished, somehow, all the same (Mirror Dance, chapter 16)

-- and yet they are an immensely competent power couple. Compare the Barrayar where Kou is barely considered worthy of life, much less eligible to consider courting a civil-servant bodyguard ... to the Barrayar where that civil-servant bodyguard is considered an acceptable substitute for Lady Alys Vorpatril at Official Imperial Functions, and Kou is considered the lucky father of the four most eligible non-Vor maidens on the planet. Compare Ezar's reign to Gregor's expectations, Serg's goals to Gregor's. Compare Komarr's status in Galen's day to Galeni's position in ImpSec. These people Get Shit Done. And they get it done not despite being a hot mess. They get shit done by being a hot mess.

"Well. For your fourth consoling thought, I would point out that in this venue," a wave of his finger took in Vorbarr Sultana, and by extension Barrayar, "acquiring a reputation as a 𝕙𝕠𝕥 𝕞𝕖𝕤𝕤 who would kill without compunction to obtain and protect his own, is not all bad. In fact, you might even find it useful." "Useful! Have you found the name of 𝕓𝕖𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒 𝕙𝕠𝕥 𝕞𝕖𝕤𝕤 a handy prop, then, sir?" Miles said indignantly. His father's eyes narrowed, partly in grim amusement, partly in appreciation. "I've found it a mixed... damnation. But yes, I have used the weight of that reputation, from time to time, to lean on certain susceptible men. Why not, I paid for it." (Civil Campaign, chapter 15)

So yes, absolutely: the bedrock of their marriage, their careers, and their success is a combined and separate refusal to give the slightest damn about whether they're going to succeed wildly or be utterly humiliated.

"I've always thought -- tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune.... If you think it's really wrong," said Cordelia to Vorkosigan, "that's one thing. Maybe that's the test. But if it's only fear of failure -- you have not the right to refuse the gift for that." "It's an impossible job." "That happens, sometimes." (Barrayar, Chapter 15)

And you know what? It's fabulous. Mark could not possibly have asked for a better landing place than a family that is 100% made of hot messes and doesn't judge how messy you are, only what you choose to do with your mess. What kind of depressive disaster would Kou have turned into, how much worse a monster would Bothari have been, if they hadn't had an in-house demonstration team of Seven Habits of Highly Effective Hot Messes? How absolutely perfect is it that when Gregor confessed his fears of being genetically destined to become a hot mess, Cordelia could say, with absolute honesty, "Everyone's a hot mess; let's get you some ethical principles and compatible goals."

I love heroism, I love paragons, I love stories that give me this unreachable ideal to try to follow. But I can't measure myself against fairytale princesses and pure-of-heart superheroes. I am not the One True King, to behave correctly at all times and never be tempted to the path of selfishness; I am a person. I am very often a hot mess. What advice, what hope, for someone like that?

And Bujold says, "All the hope in the world. Look what a disaster battle couple can do, if only they accept their shortcomings and decide to push on anyway."

I love that Aral and Cordelia Vorkosigan look from a distance like some flawless immensely competent power couple when like

They are ENTIRELY a HotMess4HotMess relationship

He saw her puking her guts out in the middle of a disaster and thought, "I'm going to marry that woman someday."

She got a cheering crowd and a fancy medal for her bravery and stole the mic to tell everyone to get his name out of their ill-informed mouths

The bedrock of their marriage is their separate and combined willingness to look the possibility of utter failure in the eye and say, "Might as well try anyway."

[mad-scientist-clown]

good omens season two good omgood omens season twogood omens season twogood omens season twogood omens season twogood omens season twogood omens season twogood omens season two good omens season two good omens season twogood omens season twogood omens season twogood omens season twoens season two

[hivemire]

I only enforce your precedent. This is the world you chose to live in.

[indestinatus]

would it be enough if I could never give you peace?

[snarkspawn]

after hours

[itsallaboutbl]

Maxky Ratchata as Johan Fourever You, ep. 6

[mintjeru]

there is no better advertisement than one of your favorite artists drawing art for a fandom you're not a part of. and by that i mean i finally caved and started reading the orv webtoon

open for better quality | no reposts

[kindahoping4forever]

Nostalgia For A Time That Never Existed in Washington DC - 26 May 2024

[divan-daikon]

here's my lil sephi stylisation bc ive been experimenting w what feels like a natural and right way to draw him for me

also get ready for a fuck ton of design analysis and opinions about of seph bc I'm kinda chasing a sephiroth high rn and i gotta get it outta me

okay, so, to explain my thoughts on how i view sephi, i'll call back to the post i made right before this one

homeslice is the most miserable and detached man in existence at the time of nibelheim

hes barely there and has barely been there for a long ass while. sure he can do basic things like brush his teeth, shower, brush his hair, but i believe he's too far gone to even give a fuck about his appearance, assuming he ever did back in the day. he's naturally beautiful enough to get away w it, but still

og seph, to me, isn't a person and hasn't been long since before nibelheim. never once in the entire game is he a person. we never get to truly hear about him from himself, only through word of mouth, legends, and from flashbacks from Mr cloud "unreliable narrator" strife. even the words of his clone that usually interacts w the party during the game cant be fully trusted to actually be how sephiroth feels bc of jenova's presence in general (no matter if you believe which one controls the other)

sephiroth is a dead man. even when he was still breathing, he was a dead man. he was a man that was beaten into a complete husk and was left as a corpse w a pulse. a corpse who would rather ignore reality than go through the painful experience of having to live inside his own mind

but thats how i see him, personally

[karamazovanon]

saw this post and remembered that i had this sitting in my folder so. take it

[izzypaw]

after i made the undertale ones i knew i couldn't NOT make matching icons of these 2 aswell...

[goldenpainted]

I may have died for the last two weeks. . . But with good cause. I finished the Magnus Archives.

Anyway, here's an art dump of "let's draw myself as the Archivist until I can make a proper Jon design".

[eri-pl]

My dear mutuals, I just realized something.

So, there's been talk recently about breaking Papita out of Mandos and I suppose more of us may need help at some point... but we need one fundamental thing if we are to be able to save one another from some terrible prison (or, idk, recognize each other in a supermarket...):

we need to have a song in common

Like, seriously, the default scheme for breaking someone out from somewhere is: character A start singing, character joins them, character A finds character B and gets them out. Except...

I'm not sure there's any song I could sing together with any of you.

We need to make a list of songs that we all know well enough. Seriously.

[thefishdeath]

Just. finished fallout. normal.