#i put a ton of thought into this

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Call that a Cave Story.

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[turtletoads]

jortana.... 🚬💨

[casualavocados]

"Who is Ai Di to you?"

Nat Chen as CHEN YI KISEKI: DEAR TO ME (2023)

[eliotbaum]

Them³. 

Some people expressed interest in the backstories & relationship between these characters so it’s under a cut. Beware, it’s full of Vallaki spoilers and. very long……. 

Lydia Petrovna/Fiona Wachter/my pc Father Dunant

Alright so, a not-so brief overview of each individual’s background and where their stories meet. Mind you, that is everything I currently know about the characters, and I'm pretty sure Lady W is still hiding something.

Lydia Petrovna has always been a frail, meek-hearted woman, but with a kind soul. For what she lacked, her best friend from ever since made up for it; Fiona Wachter was everything she ever wanted to be. Strong, assertive and with force of will. 

But Lydia also desired her in a different way, one that went beyond friendship and admiration. Fiona was not aware of those feelings and pursued Nikolai, while Lydia fell for Vargas, despite Fiona’s warnings and wishes for her not to do so. It fell on deaf ears, as Vargas seemed like a genuinely kind man. Suffice to say to those who played the game: the good qualities Lydia loved disappeared over time and he ended up emotionally abusing her, smothering her in a way where she completely lost who she was. Lydia was always desperate to help others despite her constitution and lack of powers or influence, so she thought putting on a bright face and encouraging the "all will be well" ideology would suffice. But she suffered greatly under it, too, coping with solitude and drug/alcohol abuse. Regardless, she kept holding onto hope, believing a better tomorrow will come one day. 

Vargas growing more paranoid of everyone ended up manipulating Lydia into believing Fiona and her husband were not to be trusted. And with Lydia’s facade steadily replacing what Fiona loved about her, ultimately drove the friendship to a breaking point after decades.

Fiona Wachter received a prophecy from an oracle (Madame Eva) while she was a young lady. The prophecy foretold of an outsider coming into Vallaki to bring great ruin, but his blood would also bring back sunlight to the town. She believed in this prophecy ever since, all the while pledging allegiance to Ravenloft as a family tradition, which earned her conflicting powers. On one hand, she could perform miracles and harm with radiance, on the other she received darker powers from her pledge. As such, she is also caught between two fronts — wishing for sunlight to shine upon the lands again while serving Ravenloft as is her family tradition. (This is something my PC challenges her with a lot)

This was all kept secret from her best friend as Fiona had always been a cautious woman. Fast forward to her strained relationship with Lydia that broke apart during Nikolai's early death. 2 years before the campaign starts, he died of an illness, and when Fiona turned to Lydia for comfort she didn't receive it. Lydia pretended like everything was fine still, and tried to deflect any mourning or sadness with Vargas’ messed up ideology. Suffice to say, Fiona felt betrayed, bereft, in more ways than one. And then, her daughter, who was to be betrothed to Viktor Vallakovich, Lydia's son, went mad after prolonged contact to Viktor. Fiona went scorched earth and planned an assassination on Vargas ever since.

In comes my lil guy! Father Kasper Dunant, a humanitarian priest always striving to be virtuous, to be of help, but who leaves calamity in his wake for whenever he tries to do good. Up to a point where experimentations with blood healings destroyed his hometown, (if this sounds like Bloodborne. big inspo haha) and he fled — only to get trapped in another ruinous and cursed place. In Vallaki, he helped with the St. Andral church and Father Lucian, Lydia's brother. Vargas also took a liking to him, which resulted to Kasper and Lydia growing closer. He was attracted to her gentle heart, her kindness he found beyond her facade. They became light in each other's darkness. 

Meanwhile, Fiona Wachter invited him & the party, intrigued by hearing of outsiders. She had hoped they could be part of her prophecy, and she intended to more or less rope them into her assassination plans. Now this being conflicting with many values and relationships our characters built, the party took a "safer" angle, in which we removed the biggest threat (general Strazni) from town and saved townspeople during riots following the assassination; Lydia being among those saved, who they hid away at the Martikov’s tavern. Lydia, who had fallen for Kasper early on, held onto him as she had lost almost everything (Vargas assassinated, Viktor teleported away) and they both found new hope, comfort and love in eath other. 

And in a way, Fiona also freed Lydia of the shackles of her abusive marriage.

Fiona would've taken charge of Vallaki had it not been for Kasper's suggestion to establish a council instead of a single ruler. Consisting of him, Fiona, Vasili (completely different character in our game and not secretly, yknow), a homebrew NPC and Ireena. Fiona and Kasper started to develop this dynamic of push and pull, feeling for how much they can trust and work each other with their opposing views in terms of politics and Ravenloft. But they had one moment where they forged a bond; Kasper, a blood cleric, summoned a mock sun through 'Daylight' for her (my flavor is that he spills blood for some spells). 

Voila, exactly what her prophecy foretold. She understood it wasn't real, but Kasper promised her to bring true sunlight back to Barovia. In a moment of fervor, Fiona suggested they could rule the town, the country together.

They are still very cautious but enjoy the tension and mystery they have about each other. Lydia, in the meantime, has been growing conflicting feelings about Fiona. While she was certain old feelings have been put to rest, the things Kasper tells her of Fiona seemingly awakened something again. There's a lot of guilt and hurt there, though, muddled with affection, and Lydia is sorting out her feelings still.

Meanwhile, Fiona still resents Lydia for her weakness. It was always clear how much Fiona cared for Lydia, repeatedly challenging her to put down this mask, to be herself again. And being hurt by seeing her friend lose herself so easily.  It's bitter, but Kasper has been meekly trying to calm the waves, to little avail so far. 

It is, A Mess to say the least, and Kasper together with Lydia have been growing concerns and worry for Fiona’s safety and ultimately, herself, since she changed so much, became so much darker since her husband’s death. But those two idealists hope there is still a chance to save her 🥺💦

tl;dr young outsider priest becomes entangled in noblewomen’s personal drama while both believe the gods and fate has sent him their way as he tries to mend a broken relationship 

[rennyrose]

I haven’t put much thought into that sort of scenario Nuh nor have I come across works that have really delved into that, at least specifically in regards to Knives and LR interacting a good amount-

If it was just those three I’d find it interesting if they went on a journey together of some sort of self discovery, learning/relearning how to engage with people and contribute to the world around them

[lemonys-place]

heyyy gentlest reminder, my friends, that you do not have to disclose your trauma and mental illnesses to justify your age regression. it's perfectly fine to regress/dream "just because" and strangers are not entitled to your sensitive information/past just because they want to validate it FOR you. don't let anyone make you feel like you have to explain yourself just for coping/soothing/self-parenting in a way that feels good + healing for YOU. there is no criteria to meet to be yourself!

but also, it IS sensitive information and there are some people around the community especially predators who will use that information to get closer to you and/or hurt you. so please practice internet safety, be careful who you share your details with, and block ANYONE who doesn't seem right or play nice.

protect your space and be safe everyone! 🙏

[icewindandboringhorror]

What would you choose? :0c

(note: original image is from HERE (link) - but I edited it to add a wider variety of options.. also added $3 extra to the total, even though I know that makes it more uneven lol, I thought if you're adding 10 whole extra items, the money to spend should at least be increased slightly, if that makes sense..)

[iamhereinthebg]

Seeing Akane reacts so strongly seeing Kako being destroyed was already a big shot at my heart but Mirai and Akane protecting each other absolutely annihilated me in the last chapter.

Akane is a character who is really blunt about his opinion and stands his ground, he said right away in his introduction chapter how strongly he hates the clock keepers, and insists on how much he isn't like them.

In this new arc, he is forced to face this part of him he doesn't want to acknowledge since the beginning, he has been forced to do it a lot since the grim reaper arc (and I think it's really starting to get to him but this is for another day)

Aoi Akane, the human forced to be a supernatural who hates his contract and the clock keepers so much he wants nothing to do with them. But what does he do when fighting Tsukasa? He keeps the latter's attention on him so the threat can't get to Mirai.

Akane is mortal and human. The only mortal clock keepers and supernatural, and he still risks his life to protect Mirai. The yorishiro of the clock keepers yes, but mostly Mirai.

He shifts his attention from Tsukasa to her because he knows what she represents for the clock keepers and he waits for the moment to let her free, even if it results in him getting hurt.

Akane is the character of the cast who shows the most how he loves life, he definitely doesn't want to die. We can see it in how he defends himself, his last movement in this fight being one of protection (and fear). Something he has been doing more since coming back a second time from the far shore. Even if he doesn't want to die, he is still at his core a nice person. He is distressed at the idea of death, disappearing for good, no matter who it may concern in the end. Finding a way to protect Mirai (and the yorishiro) goes before his own safety.

And then Mirai gets the blow for him. She knows it means Tsukasa will get the yorishiro. Kako has been the mystery the most alarmed about the yorishiros being destroyed by Hanako. But Mirai, n°1, who knows how dangerous it is for another yorishiro to be destroyed for the land, sacrifices their seat number, herself and what is supposely the most important thing to them, for Akane.

Akane is a proactive character who rarely stops in his actions. Even when Aoi was "dead" he was activaly searching for a way to bring her back and when he learned she was gone he was quick to try to find a way to go where she was. When he stops, it's because he is physically unable to move. But here, even if he is still concsious and has Time's power he doesn't do anything, like he is the one being stopped in time, unable to move on from Mirai's body.

Mirai may be made of gears but it's been clear since the beginning that she has a real attachement to Akane. Wearing the name he gave her like a medal, jumping on him whenever she can, having a personality where she clearly has fun when he is present, and actually being the one noticing him on his first day at school.

And what does it mean after all for a yorishiro to be sacrified to protect something else? That maybe Akane is in the end more important than what the yorishiro represents for the clock keepers.

If this follows the pattern of a lot of mysteries it may mean that Mirai and Kako have strong regrets/resentment towards the story/person behind their yorishiro.

It's kind of beautiful in the end to see Mirai sacrifiying their past and future to focus on the one representing the present.

[eeveekitti]

my portal cats got a slight redesign btw

[kirkwallguy]

wait is cassandra a fujo

she secretly and ashamedly reads varric's books. and i know most of them are straight. but she has the heart and soul of a fujo who doesn't have access to yaoi yet

[i-am-snowils-admiral]

Hang on quick research question

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

MDZS x Warrior Cats AU (part 1): That boy can meow!

Names and a huge inspiration credits to @clintbeefwoods!

(part 2)

[waterfrontcomplex]

dunmeshi chapter 37/ep 17 spoilers look away

yanqing nation, i come bearing another au idea

so like, yanqing is definitely connected to the abundance right? we all agree on that? ok good (dunmeshi spoiler stuff below)

hear me out on a falin chimera-esque abundance monster yanqing

still clothed tho ofc, maybe a new fit kinda like maizuru's wing sleeve outfit

so like, yanqing as the human half, a barn swallow as the feathered/bird half, and the abundant ebon deer as the dragon half, as well as some mara struck like markings/formations on his human/bird parts. and also antlers cause theyre cool.

i have an idea abt how this whole thing could be possible vv

yanqing was taken by phantylia or the disciples of sanctus medicus sometime before the astral express arrived, was put in the flower thingy the og deer wouldve been marinating in (see pic below), and wouldve been fought instead of the deer. jing yuan wouldve put out search parties to find him, but to no avail. the ae wouldve been informed to look out for yanqing, while gongshu wouldve recognized his human half during the boss fight. they would report the whole thing directly to the seat of divine foresight (because of the abundance stuff and also guess what general your son was turned into an abundance creature) i... dont rlly have much after that. idk maybe phantylia somehow summoned him to the ambrosial arbor roots and made the ae+jy fight him b4 fighting her???

thats all

[insufferablemod]

top 10 worst celebrities ever

[kickbutts-singsongs]

Hi okay so I rewatched the entirety of Person of Interest a couple weeks ago, which was fun cuz I got to revisit the characters I know and love and see their development knowing how they’re gonna change and grow as the seasons progress, and this time around I found myself paying attention to one character in particular:

Shaw.

After coming onto tumblr, I got to read a couple poi analyses, and the Shaw ones were always fun, so I got to see certain scenes in a new context! But, I also started seeing smth that I hadn’t seen anyone else talk about. And idk maybe I just haven’t stumbled across the right post, or maybe I’m reading into it too much, but…

She’s aromantic, right?

Like, that’s what we’re supposed to take away from her character, right??

She said it herself that she doesn’t ‘do romance’ and the only attraction she felt towards anybody really only seemed to be sexual; no lovey-dovey cutesy stuff.

And I know this could all be chalked up to her being a sociopath, but then there was her conversation with the Machine in ‘return 0’

“You always thought there was something wrong with you because you don't feel things the way other people do. But she always felt that was what made you beautiful. She wanted you to know that if you were a shape, you were a straight line. An arrow.”

THAT MEANS SOMETHING, RIGHT???

If nothing else, I’m headcanoning Sameen Shaw as aroallo.

[bucket-puns]

Old limbus women but one of them is my OC LMAOOOO