#i went insane i went feral

[gatheredfates]

For the relationship ask thing: Kor & Alphinaud!

Have your followers send you NPCs and you describe your OC's feelings/relationship to that NPC! I have nothing to say except I went insane.

He is just a child.

She reminded herself of this fact through gnashed teeth and folded arms; he is just a child, he does not deserve your ire.

But Kor was very tired of children. She had only recently interred one to the sea — to the crabs, the fish and the three-day rot — and the arrogant intervention wore thin in the repetitive belief that Alphinaud knew better simply because he was the prodigal grandson of a man who gave his life to Eorzea. He intermingled with the potentate, both of city-states and non, and she watched with loosely contained annoyance how he prattled on.

But she watched. That was one thing the Captain was good at, she supposed — watching. Guarding. He monopolised it with lazy gestures and self-assured smiles, and she fell easily into the role of dog to its master. Not because she respected him exactly, but because it was all she knew. Because she couldn't be better.

Should she have said something? Should she have intervened? She saw the way they looked at him like he was a thing to be used, a stepping-stone to their aspirations, armies and Warrior of Light. When Ilberd glanced to her she could see intention in the edges of his easy smile, "Daughter of Ala Mhigo, don't you see the opportunity?"

If looks could kill she'd encase him in the amber of her eyes, right at the juncture where equitable manner bordered on ridicule.

Why didn't she? Because the last time she had said something, the last time she tried to intervene, it only sent the child running.

Right into the jaws of the deep.

He is just a child. He was tired. Alphinaud doesn't complain (perhaps he knew better the limits of her patience), but she could see the weariness in his eyes — exhaustion hugging the corners, hoping to fuse with the rest of the cold truths.

And they were cold. Not just of the temperature, for Ishgard was abysmally frigid, but of the loss of their comrades and the fall of their station; how their pedigree had diminished to the kindness of an foreign nation determined to arise from the ice, even if their sanctuary to accused murders might isolate them all over again.

Or heresy. Koret thought herself more superstitious than religious, though maybe it was all the same in the end. An offering to a deity, a prayer for good luck (give Llymlaen a Dagger just so she can throw it at the bastard again), click your heels three times or whatever-the-fuck. She wasn't praying to anyone when she rescued Tataru and he from the Tribunal. She only knew outrage and the acrid taste of bile in the back of her throat at the thought she could lose them too.

"Are you alright?" It was the first time she reached for him since the banquet, her fingers just a little too tight on the groove of his shoulder. Kor hadn't even thought about it, so natural was the movement, but when he jumped and fixed his gaze to her, she immediately knew her misstep.

"...I am fine, my friend," he answered, and before she could whip her hand away he had laid his own atop of it. They stood there for a far too long in their strange silence until Kor thought to squeeze once and finally relinquish her hold. She stepped back, awkward in her intimacy, and could not look directly in the eye.

"Good."

She soon realised he was learning the values of leadership, too. He saw them in Aymeric's careful navigation, Estinien's brute force and Ysyale's hope. All had their merits but all had their flaws. He internalised them and stepped carefully over the ruins of his mistakes until his friends were whole and hearty again.

Not a leader, just a comrade... a friend.

He is just a child, but fucking hell he's a clever one. Kor couldn't deny his intelligence, especially given what she knew of Sharlayan, but she was reminded of the old idiom of teaching a man to fish: teach a boy bureaucracy and he might become a man through it. Show him what it means to lead, to plan and to prepare; allow him the privilege of the floor, but be prepared to challenge him when he oversteps. Do not squander his inexperience, but allow innovation to bleed through tried methods.

Frankly, she appreciated his methodology, for it allowed her little room to think about herself. He was the enthusiastic foreigner, not the diaspora grasping at the hems of the little culture his father felt prudent to leave him. He could meet the gaze of M'naago, Lyse and Conrad instead of staring just a little too far to the left.

She only had the left these days. When she woke up screaming in the night, disorientated from a lack of vision, his were the hands intermingled among the many that grasped her frantic fingers. "You are safe," he reassured her, squeezing tightly in the din. "Koret, you are safe."

She wasn't sure she believed him, but it was comforting all the same. There was a familiarity in their company now, whether she liked it or not. Kor teased him for his whimsy and his innocence (the art, the sword — fuck, he was a terrible swimmer) while he offered wisdom beyond his years and a hope they could make a difference in the world.

So who was holding him — why did he need to be held? It was her job to protect him, her job to guard; she knew the job well well since the banquet, it was the one thing she was good at. Kor ran to him so desperately, wrenching his lifeless figure out of their arms as if her violence might be the one thing that would bring him back to her, yet his weight was like an anchor that pulled them roughly to the ground.

"Alphinaud!"

She cradled him, one hand in his hair while the other gripped him far too tightly, but he did not wake. Not even when she shook him, not even when the other Scions had to pull her from him, not even when her voice cracked in its snarl. "Wake up you fucking — WAKE UP!"

She wondered if he was a child in body only, given all the things he'd seen. Weeks for her was a whole year for him; a year of separation, strife and sorrow. Alphinaud was so infuriatingly formal when she found him, as if embarrassed by his failings on the Source, and balked when she wrapped her arms tight around him to prove to herself he was real.

"A-Are you alright?" By the navigator did she laugh! It was a desperate, pained sound, but how could she hope to encapsulate anger and relief in the same breath?

"Just dandy. Now shut up."

And he did, bless him. He hugged her tightly back.

She wanted... a lot of things then. Mostly she just wanted to apologise. She wanted to apologise for failing him and forcing him to this foreign world. She wanted to tell him that she was alright, even when she was igniting from the inside and spewing hot ichor across the floor.

Kor wanted to lie to him, but she was a terrible liar. When she writhed on the floor of the Crystarium, and the veins in her hands turned a vibrant gold, she wanted to scream that he was just a kid! He was a child discussing how much time she had left, contemplating how they might survive if she were to purify in front of them. He did not deserve it. Alisae did not deserve it. Ryne did not deserve it.

He had weathered the brunt of her suicidal ideation for far too long. Enough. Enough.

"If the fucking bastard is going to disown you, I'll just adopt you myself. It can't be that hard. You're like, what, seventeen —?"

The way Kor paused was enough to make them snort with laugher, so stunned was she that she rendered herself speechless. The Captain looked like she had swallowed a lemon, as if she only just became reacquainted with the passage of time, and her single eye narrowed to glare at the twins suspiciously.

"How old are you?"

"Literally or figuratively?" Alisaie asked, slicing through the tension of the hour with impish wit.

Koret Swan threw up her hands as she came to the horrific realisation they weren't really children anymore. But they were hers — they were her kids — and they only laughed harder despite it.

"I think I should like to watch you contemplate a bell longer," Alphinaud teased, that self-assured smile appearing when Alisaie snickered, and she had a mind to strange him anew.

"I think I should like to kick your arse," Kor answered, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Fuck me."

"Brother, we graduated! She swears openly in our company!"

Never mind, she was going to kick both their arses. They could be orphans.

The end of the universe was no place for anyone, least of all them. They held her hands in theirs, small when pressed against the leather of her gloves, and it was their steps that carried her to the precipice of apathy.

It wasn't that Kor would not continue (they had come so far, seen so much, done too much), but that she knew what taking those last few steps meant.

She thought she knew death a thousand times. She swore It was her friend when her sister died, a siren calling her so sweetly from the craggy rocks as it ushered her into the king-tide. It wore the faces of friends — occasionally her enemies if it suited — and soothed her aching bones when exhaustion became almost too much to bear. "There is a solution," it cooed, "if you're brave enough to take it."

No! She wanted to live! For fuck sake, she wanted to live — and she wanted them to live! She didn't want to walk towards the yawning void with its songbird's dead-eyed stare; she wanted to be home in Mor Dhona with the their annoying merrymaking and cheap, frothy beer. She didn't want to keep stepping over ground earned with her loved ones' lives while the Endsinger herself prised her ribcage higher with her butchers knife. I will take everything from you, and you will only know despair.

Kor did not feel worthy. Tears streaked her cheeks as she tried not to cry, and the tension in her jaw was excruciating when she stalled.

There was no bravery in death, but they were so brave. Alphinaud sensed her pause and took the first step forward, turning just enough to face her, and smiled as he squeezed her fingers in his.

"Come, my dearest friend," he softly encouraged, "There's not much farther left."

I love you, I love you, I love you. She wanted to tell them more than anything but her mouth would not make the sound. Instead, Kor looked to both of them, desperately trying to memorise every inch of their faces on the chance she might lose them forever. I love you. I don't want you to do this. I don't want to do this.

Acceptance was the swallow that felt like ingesting razor wire. When this was over she would bring them back, and she would give them everything.

They deserved everything.

Hence, she walked.

[sapphire-to-the-rain]

unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe / blonde.

+ zoomed in versions :))

[deimosatellite]

thriller bark . .

[starscream-is-my-wife]

Continuation of my other post here, the autobots have come close to figuring out that Optimus is the sire but Optimus is way too moral to spark up an subordinate so they don’t look into it more

Skywarp stole the evidence, Ratchet doesn’t notice cause he and Optimus are too busy with the baby for any fun private parties

[the-prima-vista]

[sophsun1]

Queer as Folk – 3.07: Stop Hurting Us

[watchyourbuck]

someone just used generative ai to make buck and eddie make out. like VISUALLY. listen I do not support ai but I was so fucking surprised my body took a screenshot oh my GOD what we could’ve had

[stvrmhondss]

blacked out and put runway music over max’s little cindy crawford-esque model walk. enjoy.

[indigocloverr]

wingiesss

[dddrunkderella]

firestorm semi-prime fucking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (commission for the lovely mona on twitter and in the firestorm discord!)

full view on poipiku ⚡🔥

[the-mpreg-guy]

👀 I see your Jason Todd tag. Please tell me you’re aware that Jensen Ackles voiced him in Under the Red Hood & that there are arguably some Parallels btwn Jason & Dean (not counting the Red Hood ref in SPN)

When my baby sister showed me Under the Red Hood back in 2017 (not knowing she was about to create a monster), I knew nothing about the movie or who Red Hood was or really any Batman lore at all, but I figured out in the first scene that Jason is in that it was Jensen Ackles bc I am a human second and a Jensen Ackles stan first

[svenituse]

bites him

[capper-tan]

*rises from the dead* yall

Here's just a little animatic inspired by one of the newest chapters of This Wicked Day of Destiny to celebrate the 5th anniversary (It's been 5 years oh ̶K̶r̶e̶l̶ the passage of time is coming for us all) of the canon continuation of 3Below, Wizards: The Ones Who Stayed by the incredible akozuheiwa

It's been an honor to follow this masterpiece for 5 years and I can't wait to see where it goes and cry about it

Song is Monster from Epic the Musical by Jorge Rivera-Herrans (definitely recommend listening to it in full.)

uuuhhh all rights reserved something something copyright idk (i oughta figure out how that stuff works :/[does it even apply here? idk])

If it looks janky blame capcut

[possamble]

realizing im kind of a weirdo about laios and marcille

[sunbloomdew]

i was just casually playing honkai star rail, doing the simulated universe and then THIS CHARACTER APPEARED, I WAS NOT PREPARED

you don't understand. they are the prettiest hoyoverse character. i mean it. i have been thinking about them ever since. they KISS THE MC (it makes the mc feel like they are dying and in general yaoshi is kinda sus but omg they kiss the mc). they're perfect omg omg omg,,,

i might want them to kill me, kiss me or be them, idk yet probably all three

[mvndrvke]

ACT TWO FINALE, LOVE NEVER DIES

personals and non-mutuals, please don't interact with this post. mutuals who wanna use this, go for it. trigger warnings : death, abuse, guns

this is going to be part of a much larger post rewriting love never dies, but for now, this is lyrically what i'm changing in act ii, starting after christine's performance. rather than going to the pier with gustave, the final conflict happens backstage. meg confronts her mother about helping the phantom once again trick christine and bringing her back into the life she'd tried so hard to leave behind.

at this point in the musical, meg is fueled by unholy rage against everyone, but especially her mother and the phantom, for dragging christine into everything. she just wants to see her friend finally happy and content like she's been in her life in england.

meg, madame giry, gustave, and raoul are all backstage; the phantom and christine enter mid-argument. i've tried to block things out under the cut; this will probably end up changing around idk.

[[ MEG stands backstage with a gun pointed at MADAME GIRY. RAOUL stands to the side, keeping GUSTAVE shielded behind him. ]]

[ MADAME GIRY ] all these years i've been mother to you and christine! my ignorant daughter.

[ MEG ] enough!

[ MADAME GIRY ] do you think i don't know how it hurts to see one's child far too off?

[[ CHRISTINE and THE PHANTOM enter. MEG points the gun at THE PHANTOM ]]

[ MEG ] not another step!

[[ THE PHANTOM blocks CHRISTINE with his body ]]

[ THE PHANTOM ] give me the gun, meg.

[ MADAME GIRY ] give me the chance to see you clear at last.

[[ MEG points the gun at MADAME GIRY again ]]

[ MEG ] not another word!

now that i've got your attention at last here's the big finish, and then you can go!

diamonds never sparkle bright if they aren't set just right. beauty sometimes goes unseen. we can't all be like christine.

[ THE PHANTOM ] christine...

[ RAOUL ] christine...

[ MEG ] christine, christine. always christine.

[[ MEG points the gun at THE PHANTOM ]]

[ MEG ] who kept singing, desperate for your favor?

[[ MEG points the gun at MADAME GIRY ]]

[ MEG ] who kept dancing, hoping you would save her?

[[ MEG points the gun at RAOUL ]]

[ MEG ] who kept dying, and this is what you gave her?

[[ music shifts to "past the point of no return" as meg lowers the gun ]]

[ MEG ] past the point of no return. the final threshold.

[ CHRISTINE, softly ] give me the gun, meg. give me the hurt and the pain and the gun, meg.

[ MEG ] the bridge is crossed

[ RAOUL ] give me the blame for not seeing the things that you've done, meg.

[[ MEG points the gun at MADAME GIRY again ]]

[ MEG ] so stand and watch it burn. we've passed the point of no return.

[ CHRISTINE ] give me the gun, meg.

[[ MEG slowly lowers the gun. the music shifts again to the beginning notes of "angel of music" as CHRISTINE takes another step closer to MEG ]]

[ CHRISTINE ] i'm with you even now.

[ MEG ] my hands are cold.

[[ CHRISTINE takes another few steps towards MEG ]]

[ CHRISTINE ] give me the gun, meg.

[ MEG, softly ] it frightens me.

[ CHRISTINE ] don't be frightened.