#i was told this by them themselves it’s real

[sisyphean-tragedian]

A Walk in the Forest

[got bored over thanksgiving. so instead of hanging out with my family i wrote fanfiction. Living la Vida Loca] [thanks to my Best Friend @jangles28 for being there while i wrote. Mwah.] [tw: smoking, non-consensual kiss, mentioned dead family member]

--

The detective had gone back to his mother-in-law’s house for the holidays. Only for about a week, just to make sure Junior wasn’t completely bereft of any company save the detective’s (and visits from Waldo? Maybe? God, they’d have to up the security again). 

It was hard, though. Even after years had passed, there were still the looks of sorrow and pity, and there was an extra chair left dusty in the closet. Junior seemed to be meshing well with the relations. It would be good for them to hear stories about their mother, stories still too painful for the detective to tell.

Having settled Junior down in front of their grandmother for a few of said stories, the detective flashed her a pained smile and announced that they’d be slipping out for a quick walk.

“Alright, hon, just be careful, would you? And don’t forget to bundle up, it’s getting cold.”

The detective’s mother-in-law chimed in with her ever-helpful advice, and Junior looked up at them with a smile and a wave. The detective smiled back, less pained this time, and told Junior to be good while they were gone.

They walked toward the coat closet, and pulled out their trench coat and other appropriate cold-weather gear. Properly “bundled up”, as their mother-in-law had put it, they exited the house with one final wave. 

Their mother-in-law’s residence was smack in the middle of a forest, so it was perfect to wander around and think in. Not that they had much to think about, at the moment. It was more an excuse to get away from the crush of pitying family members and reminiscences about their unfortunately late wife. The sentiment was nice and all, but it just made the detective feel worse after a while.

They started down a relatively little-traveled path in the woods. It really was beautiful, with oak and aspen and pine all around, and snow beginning to fall in large white flakes. They knew that the precipitation would drive then back inside sooner rather than later, but all they needed was a few minutes to clear their head.

Reaching into the pocket of their trench coat, they pulled out their packet of cigarettes and their lighter. After a bit of fumbling, they managed to get a cigarette lit and in their mouth. They took a drag, and exhaled a long draught of smoke. It warmed them nicely.

After a few minutes of simply smoking and wandering through the woods, the detective declared themselves sufficiently not-morose enough to go back and engage more with their relations. They turned around and began to head back to the house.

Only… 

They couldn’t find the path.

They tried to retrace their steps, follow the sun, a trail of ashes, notable strange-looking trees, anything that might help them find their way back to the house, but they had no luck.

Keeping a cool head, they continued to scour the landscape for any hints of the path back to their mother-in-law’s abode. Nada.

Then, off in the distance, against the autumnal backdrop of oranges, browns, and swirls of white, they spotted him.

He was leaning against a tree, smiling his insufferable smile, in his stupid striped sweater.

Still a little off-balance due to the constant reminders of their dead wife, the detective charged. Against their better judgement, of course, seeing as they had no weapons except their cigarette lighter, and no real means of subduing Waldo in case they did manage to get him down.

Just as they had reached tackling distance, Waldo stuck out his cane, and the detective ran bodily into it. Winded, they fell back against a nearby tree, and clutched at their chest while trying to regain their breath.

Waldo looked down at them, still with that ever-present smile.

“You look a little lost, dear detective. I saw you walking earlier, and I simply couldn’t resist taking the chance to say hello to an old friend.”

The detective, still slightly winded, snarled at Waldo. Much to their chagrin, this only made Waldo’s smile widen.

“I can help you back to your beloved family, detective, but it’ll come at a price to you. What do you say to a walk with me?”

Having recovered from both their earlier fit of rage and running into Waldo’s cane full-force, the detective took a look at him, weighed their options, then promptly turned around and walked away. From previous experience, they knew that they could unfortunately not out-grapple Waldo (who knew something that looked like mere skin and bones could be that strong?), and they didn’t think they could put up with the needling that he was sure to put them through.

So, they walked away. Picking their battles and all. They continued through the forest, searching for the path. They could hear Waldo behind them, in the crunching leaves and the soft giggles that came every now and again.

Eventually, they stopped walking. The sun had begun to set, casting long shadows across the forest floor. They had yet to find the path, and the relentless giggling was getting on their nerves. Suddenly, they felt someone much closer behind them than previously anticipated.

“Are you sure you don’t want my assistance, detective? It won’t cost you much, I promise. And I’m sure your baby is worried for you…”

Jumping away from Waldo, the detective turned to face him once again. At the reminder of their child, they caved a little. They had been searching for at least forty five minutes, and they had yet to find the trail that should have taken them ten minutes at the most. Briefly, they debated the merits of getting into a scuffle with Waldo. Based on empirical evidence, that would leave them bruised, frustrated, and Waldo-less, and they really did need to get back to Junior.

“Fine. No funny business, though. I don’t want to deal with any of your tricks,” acquiesced the detective with a sigh.

“Me? Tricks? I wouldn’t dream of such a thing, detective. Tricks are beneath me. Now, come along!” While speaking, Waldo looped an arm over the detective’s shoulder, much to their chagrin, and started walking in what seemed like no particular direction.

Waldo whistled as he walked, the detective noted. It was all too cheery a tune for a murderer, but they weren’t about to tell him to switch it up. They had to practically take two steps to every one of Waldo’s and they suspected that he might’ve been enjoying that, if the new lilt to his smile was any indication.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they came within sight of the house. The walk was stunningly hijinks-free, but the detective knew that out of sight didn’t mean out of mind for Waldo. They tried to duck out of his grip, but all of a sudden, his hand turned to steel on their shoulder.

“Not so fast, dear detective. I said there’d be a price, and I’m a man of my word,” Waldo said.

As the detective inhaled to ask what Waldo wanted from them, they were abruptly lifted, and pressed against a nearby tree. Indignantly, they tried to flail out of Waldo’s grasp, but he kept them firmly in the air.

When they tried to start protesting this treatment; however, there came something that they didn’t expect. 

Waldo leaned in, and pressed a kiss to their lips. The detective, jarred, jerked back, but unfortunately hit their head against the tree. Waldo chuckled, then dropped them unceremoniously to the ground. 

“Do remember your spacial awareness, detective. Anyhow, I’m sure your child misses you sorely. It has been fun, mouse, we should do this more often. Happy holidays!” 

And with that, he was gone. The detective, indignant, picked themself up off the ground, and brushed all the leaf debris off. Maybe they had time for one more smoke before they went in, just to steady their nerves? 

They reached in their pocket, and found a signature red envelope in place of their cigarettes. When had Waldo even found the time to do that? Inside, they found a rather condescending note regarding their smoking habit. With a frustrated growl, they stormed the rest of the way back to their mother-in-law’s house, and hugged a teary-eyed Junior upon their arrival.

The detective reassured everyone that they were alright, they had just lost track of time in the woods, no need to worry, but their words rang hollow even to themself. That night, once again, they sat beside an empty spot at the dinner table, and stared out towards the patch of woods where they had last seen Waldo. The snow that had since fallen covered any trace that might have remained from the afternoon’s happenings.

[hyperions-light]

I heard through the grapevine that people do not like Taash, which is bizarre to me, as I love Taash. So here’s a probably-expanding list of things to love about Taash!

1. They love animals so much!! The birds, guys! My heart melted <3

2. How kind and considerate they are to Karash, who needs someone to be gentle with him. They get that! They’re careful, and they warn both the Rivaini and their mother to be careful, too!

3. If you bring them to the Qunari in Treviso who is having a difficult time communicating, they will help them ;-;

4. How when they annotate the codex entries they always use footnotes ;-; because Shathann is an academic

5. How open-minded they are about stuff! They don’t automatically know everything, but they are always so willing to listen when someone explains things to them! They listen to Neve about Minrathous, even though it contradicts what they’ve been told; they listen to Davrin about working out, and Lucanis about the Crows.

6. How quick they are to admit their problems, listen, and apologize, if needed. It’s never frustrating to deal with Taash’s problems because as soon as you point out something’s wrong, they agree and are ready to handle it. It’s great!

7. It was really adorable when they tried to lie to Shathann about using their fire and they just… didn’t lol

8. They are sooooo sweet to their friends in the Lighthouse!! They always talk to everyone about whatever bad thing is happening, and they always offer to help fix it! I love that one dialogue where they insist to Bellara that her being upset about her brother is okay, and she should let the team help!! The way they express themselves is not always traditional, but it IS always considerate and well-meant!

9. Even though when Rook is recruiting them Shathann made the decision without their consent, Taash stops to reassure Rook that working with their team IS what Taash wanted. It’s really sweet <3

10. They are completely fine about Spite and treat Lucanis normally no matter what.

11. They love Shathann so much ;;;;;-;;;; I will write a whole post about it one day, but their relationship is soooo… it’s so real! I literally know people like this in real life, it’s written with so much attention to detail. And like even though they argue, and things can be difficult between them, Taash adores Shathann. There’s a reason almost every one of their outings involves her.

12. They are extremely knowledgeable in their areas of expertise! It’s fascinating to listen to them tell Lucanis how to lure out dragons, or Emmrich how to pick the right gems for his helmet. They are so confident !

13. The part where they yelled “the crows axe their regards” during battle almost made me die to the Antaam, I was laughing so hard

14. The fire-message they write themselves after the end of their arc thanks… Neve? I think ? For her help (will update this if I’m wrong)

15. They take everyone’s problems as seriously as they take their own. Even when other people miss it, they are the one to point out or affirm the importance of the emotional aspect of things (like during the Solas memories, when they call out that Solas regrets not speaking with Mythal again before she died)

Okay! More soon? Add, if you want!

[starmocha]

Part 2 of my third theory about Sylus' upcoming myth, and I'm speculating about their separation. But first, look at Sylus' beautiful smile, because this is gonna get sad real fast 😔

So we can infer from the trailer that Sylus and MC were in love with one another at some point, but then the Sylus we meet in the main story is very cold. His words sound cryptic when you first hear them, but after spending an afternoon lol reviewing some key Sylus memories and comparing them with the trailer, it kind of makes sense.

I made a theory months earlier before Sylus' official release about how I think Sylus and MC's story could bear some resemblance to the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche.

Quick paraphrase:

Cupid, the god of love and desire, was originally tasked by his mother, the goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite, to make a beautiful mortal princess, Psyche, fall in love with the most hideous being, simply because she was offended by Psyche's beauty. Instead, Cupid falls in love with Psyche upon sight. Through his own scheme, he arranges for Psyche to marry him, but his identity remains a secret for the duration of their marriage. Psyche was only told she was to wed a monster even the gods themselves feared. However, Cupid is kind and loving to her. She is only forbidden from viewing his face. One day, after noticing his wife is despondent, Cupid learns that Psyche misses her family. He allows her sisters to visit. The sisters are jealous of their youngest sister's seemingly perfect and luxurious life. Upon learning that Psyche is not allowed to view her husband's face, they plant a seed in her head that her husband could be hideous or a true monster. They persuaded her to kill him in his sleep with a dagger before he could kill her. Hesitant, Psyche starts to carry out the plan that night. However, when she holds a lamp to her husband's sleeping body in their bed, she sees the most beautiful man in her life. The lamp drips hot oil onto Cupid and he awakens, enraged by Psyche's violation of his trust and he leaves.

At the end of Long-Awaited Revelry, Sylus does ask if MC will give him a sincere apology if he admits that her cryptic visions did in fact happened.

If you recall, ever since Sylus triggered her "memories" in their first encounter in the main story, she starts hearing voices:

"Devour him." "He's yours for the taking." "Kill him."

Is it possible, similar to the myth of Cupid and Psyche, MC was coerced by "loved ones" to kill Sylus?

Sylus obviously knows the truth. He dances around this topic often, giving only terse responses. He admits that they do have a shared past together, but doesn't elaborate much on it. Whatever has happened, we the readers and MC herself, recognize that Sylus is deeply wounded by the events.

In one of MC's last visions in the main story, she sees a blurry scene full of destruction and confusion. She hears Sylus' voice.

There's no animosity in his voice. He encourages her on. There is a dream MC has in the Tender Moments, Continuous Symphony, where past her is sharing a tensed moment with Sylus:

Even though he says he won't die, the way he speaks seem to infer otherwise. However, it is possible he could still live and the current Sylus we know is still the very same one as in the myth.

In the trailer, there is an interesting scene with the claymore:

It appears to be pierced into the ground in a field of red poppies. Poppies have throughout history been used as a symbol of sleep, peace, and death. It has also been used in remembrance of fallen soldiers. A sword placed into the ground can also serve as a gravestone for its master.

Originally, I had speculated in another post that this could be Sylus' grave, but perhaps it makes more sense to view it as MC's since in her new combat outfit, she is the one wielding the claymore.

Perhaps, in the end, MC is executed. Maybe Sylus placed the claymore there in remembrance, since presumably, he wouldn't have her body to give her a more proper grave. Placing it in a field of poppies could be symbolic of wishing her a peaceful slumber in death.

I don't have any caps, but I have mentioned before how Sylus shows disdain for humans. You can trigger a comment from him in the café where he seems very disgusted by human behavior. Likewise, he also seems to prefer animals more since they do not have any evil in their hearts. Could it possibly have stemmed from this time? Perhaps in the end, he is angered that MC is slain by her own people.

OK, I'll end it here. Gonna check back Monday to see how off I am lol

[risingsunresistance]

would you believe me if i said this is skyblock fanart 😭

explanation below for anyone interested. it's a bit long 🐖

basic explanation for people who dont go here. or the tldr: the rift is a separate dimension in hypixel skyblock where reality and time itself do not function the same. the other npcs tend to take on different forms in there. this is my interpretation of what might happen to techno if he were to travel into the rift based on some other theories about the place and my own headcanons for him

less basic explanation for the rest of you: ok so. first thing to get out of the way, the rift isnt completely separate from the main reality. SOME of your own thoughts and feelings influence the way you exist in the realm and the way the realm itself behaves. not very many people seem to take on forms ENTIRELY divorced from themselves, save for maybe enigma (we dont know who he was originally, if he was anyone at all)

but i have a theory backed up by absolutely nothing that your rift form is mostly influenced by three different things: your inherit magic, your ability to control and manipulate that magic, and your overall stability. stability will look different from person to person and you dont always know if someone is stable or not just by talking to them. even something as simple as a phobia might change them drastically. still, the rift is unstable itself, so sometimes people get altered horrifically even though they were perfectly fine

my main points of reference for this are that some of our most altered characters are some who check all these boxes, and some who are relatively normal dont check any of them. lathrop/porhtal is split into a bunch of eyes and has one human-looking form that sits motionless at the wither cage and doesnt speak. we know he was incredibly magical, eventually got a great grip on said magic, but was also very very unstable. the wizard is very magical, is a master of said magic, and is pretty well put together. he is nearly unchanged in the rift. barry is the same as the wizard but went a bit nuts before he left, so in the rift he seems just a bit... off

on the opposite side of things, maddox is someone who we are told has ZERO magic in him. the only thing that changes in the rift is the fact that his helmet is red now. kat has never shown us any magic and seems to be pretty normal, so she's also just a different color palette in the rift and happens to have a weird job

anyways back to techno. (btw if you're reading this and happen to not be a regular here this is a mix of headcanons and "canon" but im treating it ALL as real and true facts for the sake of this drawing ok). he could be one of the most magical people here... but he has no idea how to use any of it on command. if you asked him if he possessed any magic, he would say no. his healing ability, while it is VERY strong, is passive, and he was only able to gather magic during the resistance fight with the help of the wands we were given. but he was able to gather a lot of magic during that fight, concentrate it, and release it all on his own. not many people could handle that. he also worships the blood god and has its blessing, and has some connection with spirits in the form of the voices / chat / whatever you wanna call them. there might be even more to him, who knows

so that's already a setup for disaster, but what about his stability? well he's constantly followed by a chorus of thousands of voices all screaming at him and god itself might be hanging around in that mix, led a war against the server staff and a dictator that lasted for 2 years skyblock time, and did the whole potato war thing which was ~70 years server time iirc. i wouldnt really call him stable KFJHG

so what you end up with is a very violent beastly thing, nearly unrecognizable save for the fact that he's still a pig (my first point, you dont become a COMPLETELY different thing under most circumstances). i think he's entirely out of control of himself and would not remember a trip to the rift. a stability elixir might help him in terms of being more aware of himself (i think sirius really downplayed what that potion does lmao it's not just a fun drink, he wanted to guarantee himself some control over his mind while he was conducting his "business" in the rift) but there's no saving the physical form

i wanted him to be beastly to mimic what happens to "dante" in the rift (the memory of dante, it's complicated. but dante and bacte are most likely two different people who are also the same person). yeah he was a big slime in the overworld, but now he's more monstrous. he also doesnt speak, he might not have any idea what's going on. same could be said for techno in a way. of course this is related to dante, what else would you expect from me :P i want to see them fight at the colosseum so bad...

------------

but anyways THIS WAS SO FUN AAAAAUGH IM SO GLAD I FINALLY GOT THROUGH THIS. MY IPAD FINALLY DIED AFTER AN ENTIRE DECADE IN THE MIDDLE OF LINING IT AND I HAD TO CONTINUE ON A NEW TABLET WHEN I'VE SPENT MY ENTIRE LIFE DRAWING WITHOUT A PEN... THIS DRAWING WAS CURSED KJFDHGK

here's a version without chat and the blood god so you can just see the big hog

and here's my old concept from july of last year for comparison :P

initially in the post for the old sketch i said he was based on what i think would happen if he got a hold of some sulphur. i actually think that would be about the same as his rift form because sulphur seems to do very similar things under certain circumstances. always corrupts your form, can sometimes make creatures MUCH larger (matriarch, kuudra, magma boss), heightens your magic (mage outlaw), and can make you incredibly violent (barbarian duke)

bye i hope i tricked someone into reading a really long skyblock theory post expecting more info about techno FKJHG

[keepingupwithzaynmalik]

Zayn at Eventim Hammersmith Apollo review: moments of joyous catharsis

The pop star paid tribute to his friend Liam Payne, but the main focus of the night was delivering on the warmth

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

When he was 22, Zayn Malik stepped away from the biggest pop band in the world. “I have to do what feels right in my heart,” he wrote at the time and in the nine years since, he’s consistently lived up to that promise. His R&B-tinged solo single Pillowtalk was a smash hit on both sides of the Atlantic, as was the debut album Mind Of Mine, but the records that followed moved further away from sugary stadium pop and focused on raw, confessional songwriting instead.

He only played his first headline show earlier this year, at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire to celebrate the release of rustic fourth album Room Under The Stairs, and his debut headline tour kicked off last week. “Thank you for being patient with me,” he told the crowd at Eventim Hammersmith Apollo on Tuesday night. “I know I took a while but we got here…it f***ing feels amazing.”

Zayn didn’t quite know what to do with himself as explosive screams broke out after each and every song, but he looked entirely comfortable singing his powerfully heartfelt anthems. Backed by a seven-piece band and with the stage littered with twinkling trees, there was a deliberate warmth to the entire show. “If people told you to be quiet online, ignore them,” he said, wanting the sold-out venue to lose themselves in the moment. “Have a drink, have a dance, let’s have a good time.”

The excitable fans were the only real hint of Zayn’s time in One Direction. No tracks from his former band made the 17-song setlist, though a lush cover of Paulo Nutini’s Let Me Hold You did, and the only nod to his past was a simple, tender “Love you bro” video tribute to bandmate Liam Payne at the very end of the gig. Instead, he focused on his own rich back catalogue, and rightfully so.

From the dreamy Scripted to “cheeky” scream-a-long Sweat via stripped back takes on early singles iT’s YoU and BoRdErZ, there were nods to every step of his solo journey. The folksy songs from Room Under The Stairs were the real stars of the show though. Opening one-two of My Woman and Birds On A Cloud were pained but full of longing before the gentle rock & roll swagger of Dreamin. He encouraged the crowd to get into their feelings for the fragile Lied To while a spiky Ignorance Ain’t Bliss flirted with party-starting funk.

On record, tracks like Alienated and Gates Of Hell feel sombre and delicate but closing out the gig, they were transformed into soaring moments of joyous catharsis. Based on his grin, it seemed like Zayn needed that while some fans rushed outside to start queueing in the rain for Wednesday night’s show. It’s hard to know if this tour is a one-off, or the start of a new chapter in his career. Wherever Zayn goes next though, you can be sure he’ll do things his own, defiant way.

VIA STANDARD

[theshiftingwitch]

Hi! I know that shifting and loass is real but why are there people that say that it's schizophrenic or psychotic?

Because they learned a couple of new words on tiktok and they decided to start diagnosing people even though they have no background in psychology.

I find that most people who assume that anything they don't understand is a sign of a mental illness are weak minded people. And when I find out that someone is weak-minded and weak-willed I tend to avoid interacting with them because it is not worth my energy. You are not here to open people's minds to the possibilities around them, because most of them are not here to experience all of the possibilities around them. If they were, the law of assumption and shifting would be way more widespread than they are.

So when you encounter people who are going on and on online about how shifting and manifesting are a sign of schizophrenia or spiritual psychosis or another mental illness that they just discovered yesterday and thought they are complete experts on, avoid interacting with them. Just st go on with your day and let them swim in their own swamp of ignorance all by themselves.

Because plenty of people came out and said that they talked to their therapists and their psychologists — people who actually went to school to study the mind, conscious and subconscious— and they told them about shifting and these professionals told them that it's a possibility because we don't know everything about the brain or how it functions, and there are infinite things that we still don't know according to science. So for a random 14-year-old to come online and diagnose you with a mental illness that is seriously affecting people's lives just because you believe in something they don't see and refuse to open their mind to is not your problem nor your responsibility.

Tune out the noise and focus on your own journey. Happy shifting ❤️

[himasgod]

Sethos x Reader

Where you are a scholar investigating the Hermanubis case

(maybe Sethos' personality isn't very canon? I wanted to make it a bit more serious so sorry if I changed his personality :()

The sands of Sumeru were more than vast golden seas. To those who knew how to listen, whispers of a forgotten time drifted on the wind, stories hidden in the ruins. To you, a scholar specializing in the archaeology of lost civilizations, those whispers weren’t a mystery to be solved—they were a call you couldn’t ignore.

You had spent months researching in the desert, collaborating with the eremites and other scholars of the Akademiya, searching for answers about the fragments of Hermanubis. It was on one of those digs that you first heard the name of Sethos, the mysterious guardian rumored to protect forbidden knowledge related to King Deshret.

“If you’re looking for Sethos, forget it,” a eremite mercenary told you one night as you shared a campfire. “He’s a ghost. No one knows if he’s real or a myth. But if you find him, don’t expect to come out alive.”

You couldn’t help but feel a chill, but curiosity was stronger than fear. You decided to follow the clues that led you ever closer to the ruins of Dahri, and it was there that you saw him for the first time.

Sethos appeared like a spectre in the middle of the sandstorm, his figure wrapped in a dark cloak, the mask covering the lower half of his face. His gaze paralyzed you: eyes green as a blowing flower, as relentless as the sands themselves.

“What is someone like you doing in a place like this?” His voice was calm, but his tone carried an edge that made you take a step back.

“I’m not here for you,” you answered, trying to keep your voice from shaking. “I’m looking for answers… about Hermanubis and the shards.”

Sethos didn’t answer right away. He studied you silently, his eyes sliding from your face to the equipment you carried: tools, scrolls, an ancient shard you had unearthed. Finally, he sighed and spoke:

“The answers you seek will bring no good. If you have any common sense, you will return to where you came from.”

Your first interaction with Sethos was more of a clash than an encounter, but something in his words—and in his eyes—told you that he was no simple guardian following orders. There was a weight on him, a burden you couldn’t ignore. Despite his warning, you decided to stay near the ruins.

Sethos didn’t immediately reappear, but you knew he was watching you. Sometimes, when the wind died down, you could sense his presence—a murmur in the shadows, a faint creaking in the rocks.

Finally, it was he who broke the silence one night. As you studied a fragment in the moonlight, his voice echoed behind you:

“I cannot decide if you are brave or reckless.”

You jumped, dropping the scroll. He stood there, his figure illuminated by the dim silver light. There was something different this time; the hardness in his gaze had diminished, replaced by a sort of veiled curiosity.

“Perhaps both,” you replied, slowly standing up. “But if I am here, it is because I cannot ignore what I have found. You understand, right? That is why you are here.”

Sethos did not answer immediately, but he did not leave either. Instead, he came over and sat down in front of you, his posture relaxed but alert. The conversation that followed was unexpected: you were not sure if it was your determination or your sincerity that led him to open up, but he began to speak, revealing fragments of his own history.

“My duty is to protect what remains of that era,” he said, his voice low and measured. “Not because I want to, but because someone must. The ruins of King Deshret hide secrets that could destroy those who do not understand them.”

For the first time, you glimpsed the man behind the guard. There was a melancholy in his tone, an internal struggle you couldn’t ignore.

“So why not just destroy the fragments?” you asked.

“Because I’m not a destroyer,” he replied, his green eyes meeting yours. “I’m a guardian. And because there are things that deserve to be remembered, even if they hurt.”

The following weeks transformed into a game of cautious trust. Sethos, despite his reservations, began to guide you through the ruins, sharing only the information necessary to keep you safe. You, in return, shared your discoveries, hoping he would understand that you weren’t there to loot, but to learn.

One night, as you rested beneath the stars, you decided to ask him a question that had been on your mind all along.

“Why are you helping me?”

Sethos didn’t answer right away. Instead, he looked up at the sky, his expression shadowed.

“Because I see in you something I had forgotten about myself,” he said finally. “A blind faith that knowledge can save us. Perhaps, by helping you, I can remember why I once believed the same.”

That was the first time you felt something deep forming between you, a bond that went beyond mission or duty. But you also felt the weight of his inner conflict: Sethos was a man caught between his loyalty to the past and his fear of the future.

And you, unwittingly, had become the bridge between both worlds.

Here is my masterlist, in case you are interested in any more of my work or want to send me a request <3

[azlovesem]

Ya know Emily its noce to commemorate people but……..ha ha ha these fuckn saps i dont know what to say to them. Help me out here Emily. Ha ha he ha ha ha no i cant talk sbout that. I already made one bad joke about that situation. Which may have taken our friendship in a different direction. Oh she ll get ovet it dhe better. Ha ha ha ga ahhh. Anyway i like you Emily and i dont wanna see you end up like dome fuckn chunp its not advice ill just say some shit. Do whatever the hell ya like ya will anyway. Uhhh. Dont get any fuvkn tatooed i have none. I dont know whatvwrong with sny of those people. I mean to each their own. Stay the fuck away from Cocaine. I eould have told ya yhos in yhe noneties. But gangsters ate fuckn goofs who dony gibe a dhit since the pandemmic they make most of that shit themselves now. Ya cant make fuckn Vocaine in your basement Emily. Well not lsrge smpunts of it. And these asdholes like large little aint their style. Most people are fucked. Trust ur family even if ya hate em they usually wont come right out n murder you for real. Unless theyre fucked. Im on the fence with my idioy famoly but i look after them sone anyway even though i should just shoot the old man and put him down myself but i dont. Or smother him with a pillow. Ha ha ha ha. The fact i never bring up dear old mom says a lot. Beyond that ill never mention her. But im ok anyway obviously most of the time. Id love yo see the Gold Coast one day. Why do they call it that. Im just guessing but from the pics ive seen of you you look so bronzed or golden on the sun.

[schrodingers-hoarding-problem]

i'll never not be obsessed with feng xin rolling his eyes or mu qing using more swears like YES be changed by the love you share and incorporate the other's habits into your life until its unclear where one person stops and the other begins

[littlefankingdom]

(Inspired by this video)

Bruce: I love when people say "aw you look like your ward". Obviously, I look like my ward, that's my son. There was no adoption process here, I birthed him. We have the same DNA, they took my bone marrow, or whatever. He's 100% me. I went into labor.

[goldkirk]

hey this isn’t aimed at anyone in particular but I’m saying it for the record here: if I tell you no, please stop messaging me about fundraisers and mutual aid.

I get enough messages that it’s impossible for me to keep up without devoting at least half an hour each day, when I’m not even on tumblr that long most days. Me having a boundary about this isn’t a moral failing, it’s a lifeboat for me on my own blog.

In my personal life I’m already advocating and donating literally as much as I can spare. This is not me not caring, it’s just me not willing to interact with that on the one place I go online to not interact with irl news and world events for the most part.

I cannot be upset all the time. I cannot be upset everywhere. I cannot use all my emotional and mental energy fielding my own upset from ongoing events. My options are to hold boundaries about this or stop coming online at all.

I’m all for sharing information and signal boosting to reasonable extents, but the scale of it this year is so large and so enduring that it is literally not possible to for me to participate on every account I have. I’ve previously shared links to Gaza eSIM donations and a major hub of verified Go Fund Mes here and elsewhere online. We, the online humans, know how to look those things up ourselves by now. There are many, many people choosing to do advocacy work, and right now, I can’t be one of them.

If you’re extremely upset when I tell you I can’t share/donate right now about a Gaza family or personal fundraiser you ask me to share here, just unfollow and block me. That’s what those buttons are for. Protect your own emotions and energy and get me off your feed instead of staying upset and continuing to engage with online people or content that upsets you.

Please don’t send repeated angry messages based on manufactured purity politics and moral outrage into my messages and inbox when I exercise the right to run my own blog.

[lanadelreis]

my cuties

[tacagen]

one of the things that fascinate me about thawne: yes, he CAN be normal with kids! surprisingly normal!

((not at all times, though. his mental illness still spills through and as usual he, in trying to manipulate or hurt others, spits out at them the exact stuff that would hurt him (or have in his childhood/barry's rejection interpretation) the most in the first place lmao))

but at the same time. his like second instinct when doing his bullshit is FUCK THEM (as) KIDS

(and, well. whatever this classifies as)

[the-wizard-dipper]

Masters' Academy AU: Environment Concept Art (and some lore)

"There's no such thing as ghosts." - Unofficial motto of Master's Academy.

Art by @okkennymay

Something I haven't really talked about is how the rest of the school feels about all the supernatural stuff going on...

The place has been open for more than a hundred years at this point, it's hosted a few dozen magical teenagers and is actively being haunted. (among other things) So let's just say there's officially enough weird going on for the students to have noticed.

But ghosts aren't real, everyone knows that, you'd be crazy to say they did. And even if they did, no one would believe you if you saw one.

Despite these very reasonable facts the school continues to be frightening in the dark of the night and new kids look to the older ones for comfort and explanation. Their answer? Ghost Stories.

A long tradition of giving the little kids nightmares with the same scary stories that gave them nightmares their first year, where the school's secrets are passed from one generation to the next. "don't go into the chemistry classroom after midnight", "don't look for the skeletons in the basement or they'll make you join them", "carry salt if you need to use the bathroom after dark", "never turn around if you feel a cold breath on the back of your neck". Dozens of stories told with utter seriousness, but mocking laughter if you look like you might really believe it.

Believing in ghost stories makes you a dumb little kid, and everyone knows it.

Ignoring those stories is a recipe for disaster, and everyone knows it.

Because it's hard to reconcile going to a haunted school when there's no such thing as ghosts, and everyone knows it.

[dykedvonte]

I think the most baffling thing about the Tulpar as a vessel to me is the fact that the ship really did only have a one way communication system.

I know it was cheap but even the most basic of vessels regarding major transport would have some way, shape or form for outside communication. Not only that but there was absolutely no form of innate emergency signal to show they may have been offline or in trouble despite clearly having a system to dock credits if they went off course. It's another factor that really shows that bad situations are made to get worse by design. One person who is required to relay all information to the crew and make all the choices without feedback. No way to update or call for help in case of a dire situation. No way to inform of inner personal conflicts and acquire procedures accordingly.

It really is like they are all in some sort of fucked up solitary confinement. They have their own world with strict roles that are meaningless in the end, as long as the cargo makes it, it doesn't matter what happens on that ship to the company. They don't want to hear anything and will come to conclusions on what happened based on how much pay they can withhold from the workers. Even what they do send is short, sterile and corporate to the extent it was likely written and sent out with a command by some random unmanned computer in an office.

There's something to be said about how unfair it is to force absolute power and control onto one person when you as an entity could do so much more to offload it but I've said it many times before so I won't again.

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

sits up in bed. so lana and ema definitely thought they were responsible for edgeworth "choosing death", right?

(the rest of this post was supposed to go in the tags, because it's not very well organised or written, but it got too long so. here are the slightly edited tags for your reading pleasure (or otherwise)):

i was going to make this solely about ema because she's the obvious one with her open adoration of edgeworth, but the thing about rfta is that it goes to great lengths to emphasise the connection between lana and edgeworth as well.

the sl-9 incident showed that lana grows attached to people deeply, hence angel starr's comment on how, when neil marshall died, 'she (lana) felt like her own brother had died.' with edgeworth, i think it was similar but worse. because he's not just a coworker or subordinate who's dear to her. he saved her life. and it cost him his own.

at the beginning of the case, edgeworth says he was mistaken for thinking that lana was always looking out for him post sl-9 (a statement interesting on its own because that's when everyone else says she grew distant), and, later on, he brings ema fingerprinting powder because lana asked him to. then, of course, there's the 'lady luck' comment he makes.

similarly, on lana's side, you obviously have the end of the trial when she says he did well, but there's also that additional moment post-trial where she's the only one to notice — in a group comprising her, ema, phoenix and gumshoe — that he's 'hiding', listening to their conversation. point is, there's enough to suggest that she might have been the nearest thing edgeworth had to a mia; his 'chief prosecutor' to phoenix's plain 'chief'. they're as close as two people can be in a relationship where one of them is constantly lying and the other is von karma's star pupil.

rfta is pretty straightforwardly depicted as the case which solidified edgeworth's resolve to do what he did; i don't think i have to prove that. rumours about him have reached new heights, his car and knife were involved in goodman's murder, he makes an unprecedented mistake in court by failing to connect the evidence room and carpark incidents, thus forcing the chief of police to enter the trial to do so himself, and he's publicly revealed to have relied on falsified evidence to secure a conviction in the sl-9 case, all of which only happened because of lana. jake marshall even claims that from the beginning — that if you trace edgeworth's rumours back to their source, you end up meeting one person: lana skye.

and it gets worse because at the end of rfta, she thinks he's fine!! she literally says, 'i was afraid the pressure would break you, but you rose above it,' and reminds him he's nothing like gant because he's not alone. she leaves the case thinking he will be okay. and then, what, like a week passes, and she finds out that he wasn't, and that he's gone, and it's her fault. even after she was freed from gant's control, even after she had finally stopped lying, she couldn't prevent herself from claiming another life. so much for 'lady luck', i suppose.

and the game reiterates this multiple times. gumshoe states at the start that edgeworth's ties to those higher up in the department have made him the subject of constant rumours, and phoenix says (in front of ema) that he shouldn't be held responsible for the forged evidence because that was all lana's doing, which then leads to edgeworth commenting (again in front of ema) that he feels as though 'something inside him has died.' it all goes back to lana. we can argue and say that it was technically gant's doing that caused all of this, but lana still took actions that led to it. even her complicated friendship with edgeworth isn't spared; it's that closeness between them that exacerbated those rumours. how could she not feel responsible in some way?

and with ema, it's rather obvious, isn't it? if she hadn't gone poking her nose into things, none of this would have happened or come to light. and, of course, she'd never choose anyone over her sister, not for anything in the world — it's simply not a question, but that's the problem, isn't it? it's not a question. it's not some hypothetical moral dilemma. it just is. she may not have killed neil marshall, but she still has one king of prosecutor's blood on her hands. and now she has to live with that. she just. has. to live with it. no matter if he chose otherwise.

moving on from that a little, i think it's actually wild how much of ema's journey to becoming a forensics investigator is paved with bad memories. neil marshall's death and her subsequent inability to testify are what drives her to begin pursuing it, her first proper investigation results in her idol's "death" and when she finally graduates, the person who saved her sister has been disbarred, and she can't even help because she isn't allowed to. all that pain and constant pursuit of her goals, and she's still the same ema skye, still that girl shrouded in darkness, always one step behind the truth, one step a little too late. no wonder she was angry in aa:aj. i would be furious.