#i spent so long typing this

[witnessprotectionprogramurl]

[bloominglegumes]

i love normal guys doomed by the narrative

[wardingshout]

Zelda goes mushroom girl

[arcanegifs]

Caitvi Scenes: 30/? ↳ "You've got a good heart. Don't ever lose it. No matter how the world tries to break you. Protect the family."

[valentimmy]

finished the sunburnt sephiroth doodles months later

[oceandiagonale]

FINALLY MADE A HEIGHT COMPARISON CHART FOR THE VILLAINS (& gene's squad).... it's been a long time since I've drawn most of them in color so I made some adjustments here and there (archie is still the gen 3/rainbow rocket version)

they weren't originally going to all be wearing the least amount that they'd be comfortable with but. I started looking at a bunch of references and had a ton of fun drawing some different body types,,,,

[lady-raziel]

hilarious that with each new day that passes a new bit of dirt from JD Vance's past gets discovered and plastered over the internet...it's almost as if this is why presidential campaigns have always announced their running mates well before the convention...so that if glaring issues with a candidate came to light quickly there would be time to replace them on the ticket before they were officially locked in...it's almost as if certain things in political campaigns were done for a reason, donald...because the very same critical failures had happened before...but no i'm sure you and your guys attempt to recreate a fantasy version of history while ignoring all the reasons that history was a disaster will work this time...because you are built different and the 10000th time trying fascism will work like a charm...

[unriding]

a … a gift from the talented @kruinka 🥹 thank you so much!! ദ്ദി ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ)

[shulkerbullets]

oh since im posting things again i watched a vid abt this dude recently and nostalgia kicked in

[droppedpears]

Back then space seemed endless. Now it's empty.

a sort of companion piece to my anya one; i just think they share more parallels than people realize

[alastyr-not-alastair]

Do I look like him?

[rustedleopard]

My summary/breakdown of Staroba's dynamic (in reference to this post).

Note that I'm going to be working off memory for most of this so if someone has some additional input they wanna chime in with, feel free to. This is also going to be a train of thought/rambley sorta post so it's gonna be a bit disorderly (though, when have I ever been orderly with my posts :p)...

I like Staroba. A lot. And it's such a shame that there are people out there who look at this ship and just see "they're both bisexual, she's girlboss, he's malewife, and she pegs him" because there's SO MUCH more to their dynamic/that isn't even what their dynamic is.

They're childhood friends. We don't know how far back their friendship extends but I'm willing to venture that it's been since elementary school/early middle school at the absolute latest. And at the point in canon when Clover meets them, they're both likely in their late-twenties to mid-thirties in age. That's a long time to know someone, enough to be there through all the cringey, messy phases in life. These two know each other better than anyone else through sheer proximity and time spent together (more on this later).

Starlo has also been nursing a massive crush on Ceroba since they were kids. You can see this in the picture that's in Starlo's house: she's holding him and doing a peace sign at the camera, meanwhile Starlo is clearly flustered and hover-handing her (this was likely back when the Dunes were still the Meadows, judging by what appears to be a pine tree in the background).

That might have you think: "Ah, Rusty, you're so lame. This is a 'the guy gets the girl' scenario. I'm gonna chuck tomatoes at you!" And to that I say: hold your tomatoes! Ceroba did have some interest in Starlo as well! Exclusively in the Pacifist Run, if Clover TALKs to Ceroba two times in the reception area in the Steamworks (immediately after entering the door where the path through the Steamworks branches off from the Neutral/No Mercy Route), Ceroba will initially start off talking about how she met Chujin and how she'll never find someone as wonderful as him in her life, which prompts Clover to mention Starlo. Ceroba gets a bit flustered but states that she did consider getting into a romantic relationship with him once upon a time but he wasn't ready to grow up like she was (8:18 in this video). So there was mutual potential for them to get together when they were younger, but the things they wanted out of life at that point weren't compatible with each other. Like two ships in the night, they passed each other by.

Ceroba fell in love with Chujin, who was ready to have a family and settle down and be mature, which is what Ceroba wanted from a romantic relationship. And when Ceroba got engaged to Chujin, what did Starlo do? Did he get jealous and throw a fit? Shovel-talk Chujin? Try to convince Ceroba to take him instead? Nope. According to Crestina, he got so depressed that he locked himself in his room for days. As hurt as he was by the person he loved not picking him, he didn't make his feelings Ceroba's problem. Starlo was the one who lacked the initiative to ask her out and I get the sense that he knew that deep down; he couldn't just expect Ceroba to magically know his feelings for her and then they get married and ride off into the sunset together. Instead, he respects Ceroba's relationship. They remain good friends. He lets Ceroba and Kanako, the child that the love of his life had with Chujin, come over to his town and goof off. He may not like Chujin as a person because of his own petty feelings but he also respects for the man (seen in his dialogue about Chujin after defeating Ceroba in True Pacifist) and he's aware that his gripes with Chujin are personal.

Then Chujin passes away and Kanako falls down and gets sent to the Lab. While Chujin's death is well-known, nobody else in town seems to know what happened to Kanako besides Starlo (though, without the specifics) and the Feisty Four (who Starlo likely broke the news to). Starlo is Ceroba's sole confidant. With Chujin permanently out of the picture, this could be Starlo's chance to try to charm Ceroba. But he's respectful enough to know that she's in this deeply vulnerable state and so he does the right thing and helps her. Approaches the situation as her best friend. Let her crash in the Feisty Five's shack rent-free because staying at home is too painful for her. Invents his whole "North Star" persona to try to entertain her and distract her from her pain because that's what strikes him as the best thing to do. Pulls Ceroba into his shenanigans to take her mind off her problems. It doesn't exactly work because her problems run deeper than that but an attempt is made to make things easier for her.

On Ceroba's side of things, she may not understand Starlo's whole cowboy LARPing deal but she knows that it makes him happy. She doesn't look down on it or belittle him for having a passion that is so nerdy that it practically pastes a "Kick me" sign on his back. She may not want to be involved in the Feisty Five, but she's entertained by them and lets herself get dragged into their roleplays from time to time (see Ceroba getting involved in the Trolley Problem Mission, wooden actor that she is). In a Neutral Run, if Starlo is spared, Ceroba will throw a party for him to celebrate him reuniting with the rest of the Feisty Five because she wants him to be happy. Despite how different they are in terms of stuff like personality and interests, they both like and respect each other a lot.

They also have so many parallels despite their differences and know each other so well. Clover shows up and Starlo falls too deeply into the persona he invented and becomes a reckless, selfish jerk. He drives away his friends, he nearly kills Clover and there is nothing that Clover can do to snap him out of it (yes, Clover can Surrender in the end, but that only makes him hesitate. And if Clover does anything but Surrender or FIGHT him on the final turn, Starlo will nearly pull the trigger on Clover until Ceroba interferes). Ceroba is the one to call him out on his behavior and make him remember his conscience: he's not this selfish jerk he built himself up to be, he's not a killer. In the Pacifist Run, Starlo goes after Ceroba once he realizes the truth of why she's accompanying Clover to Hotland. It's not solely to protect Clover, though that's a massive factor (if this was the case, he'd accompany Clover back to the Wild East instead of going after Ceroba); he wants to protect Ceroba's heart: she's not the sort to murder an innocent child, she's not a killer. You can especially see this mindset that Starlo has when he calls Clover out in the Flawed Pacifist ending: while the law and everyone else may see Clover killing Ceroba as the equivalent of putting a dangerous murderer down, to him, they killed a desperate mother pushed to an extreme. Unforgivable in his eyes.

There's also how Clover can only say the same responses to killing either Starlo or Ceroba ("..." or "I'm sorry."), depending on the run. As well as how only Starlo or Ceroba can be fought in Flowey's mindscape in a Neutral Run, depending on how the Neutral Run is done. Never both. Could mean nothing, but I like pointing it out.

They're also pretty damn patient with each other despite being impatient people overall. You can see Starlo's impatience with how eager he is to push Clover into being a deputy and how dismissive he acts about the rest of the Feisty Five when they bring up complaints/try to get him to slow down. But when Ceroba wallops him then he gets back up in the True Pacifist ending, then it's a "Well, I guess I deserved that :D." Not a lick of anger for being knocked unconscious. Likewise, when Clover was in the Wild East in a Pacifist Run, Ceroba is likely straining at the bit to get Clover to the Royal Laboratory as soon as possible. But she also knows that having a human in the town that Starlo made to imitate the Surface means a lot to him, so she lets him have his fun with them until he's ready to let them go.

Starlo's and Ceroba's dynamic is founded on a deep understanding of who each party is at their core, mutual respect and kindness for one another, and patience. They're best friends with each other but that relationship also has the potential to evolve into a romantic relationship just as much as it can withstand remaining purely platonic. There is no "this one is the boss of the relationship and this one is the one that defers to the other" dynamic in the relationship because both sides are equals who are willing to listen to each other (Ceroba and Chujin's relationship more closely adheres to that dynamic actually, with Ceroba deferring to Chujin because she sees him as this perfect, untouchable character. You can see this with Ceroba hesitating to kill Clover because she genuinely likes the kid but because Chujin asked her to reap an innocent human SOUL for his serum, she goes all-out to accomplish this). They love each other a lot platonically and I can see the opportunity for some romantic attraction to crop up as Ceroba starts to move on from Chujin and Starlo starts being more responsible post-True Pacifist. They would be two people who mutually grow into the best versions of themselves and also love each other.

[beargregor]

Chef greg delivery just for you. it's a wonder I hadn't bearified him yet, he's my fave greg too 🔪

gays literally only want one thing (to be chopped up and eaten by a depressed man) and it's fucking disgusting

[marcmorrigan]

@fenglianweek day 6: memories/growing up

the best thing thats ever been mine

[ghostnotoast]

I'm having withdrawal symptoms from waiting for the new episode to come out, and this has been buzzing around my head since this part came out (also I wanna talk about my wife Lily)

Relistening to this part twice made me cry I'm not even gonna lie but weirdly enough it made me think of the end of season 1 where John gets a taste of being the king for a split second but then chooses to go back to Arthur. After he returns, he says:

"But it was in that time in the hospital, that month alone. Trapped in this body without you, when something changed"

"I found meaning. I found that the challenges of life within the boundaries of death were not only acceptable, but could be meaningful. That without a purpose I could forge my own. Is that humanity?"

Don't get me wrong, I don't think it was Lily who was fully responsible for giving John humanity - if anything, that's the mistake Arthur makes in season 3 when comparing John to Yellow (which John calls him out for). It was Arthur who laid out the pieces, and Lily was basically the one to make it click.

Buttt I think reducing John's reason for humanity to only one thing is almost a disservice- because developing a sense of self is so much more complex than that.

It was Arthur's love, it was the stories and thoughts he would share with John, it was being in awe of seeing trees and nature again after so long of living in the dark, it was hearing music, it was listening to the radio, it was the joy he felt after they complished something and he was finally able to feel something other than fear, it was seeing the wraith help them, it was holding a cute baby and picturing her future as a pianist, it was seeing her mother and recognising that she had just lost something priceless, it was having to hold onto hope that anyone is capable of redemption, it was defending and having empathy for the widow despite what Arthur had said.

The last moment is paralleled in season 3 with their conversation about Yellow. Listening to all these makes me realise just how much Yellow missed out on.

Arthur no doubt played a massive role in helping John find humanity and meaning, but honesty? I don't know if purely being with Arthur is what made John who he is. John himself has a conscious and had to make decisions on his own and, on multiple occasions, fights Arthur about ideology with basically little to no outside influence (e.g, their infamous first divorce).

Despite all that though, I still do think Arthur was one of the biggest reasons, I mean just look at Yellow 😭 I'll write an entire essay about him one day

But this entire yap session was basically me trying to imagine what exactly was so special about that month at the hospital because let's be real if I were John I would go crazy BUT sometimes i just imagine John being there, in a hospital without Arthur, being able to do nothing but think

He thinks about the bright clear blue sky he saw, a bird that landed on the windowsill when they were at the library, he thinks about how alive this world is compared to where he came from, he thinks about the radio that's playing, he thinks about the piano, and then he thinks about Arthur

And I imagine he looks at Lily, at her tending to them, at her chatting to them, at her turning on the radio for them so they're not bored and even though people would call all these extra bits of care pointless - she does it anyway, and she does it for them, and John is there to witness this, and that's the moment where it clicks.

I imagine it sort of being like being moved back to see a finished puzzle and finally understanding what you've been making this entire time after spending so long up close looking at individual pieces

And I think that's what the witch didn't understand about John's story. Lily's care was the climax of John becoming John, and even though John acknowledges that for her it was probably another Tuesday - it still doesn't dampen the fondness and love he has for her, he just loves for the sake of it

[cali]

darkraiiiiii