#if you don't like it that's totally fair

[fushiglow]

i was gonna write more about 242 and the recent chapters but everyone is making it boring.

i've really been enjoying this run of chapters since we cut to kenjaku, but i often feel like i'm one of about ten people having fun with the manga recently so i've kept my mouth shut. the thing is, i reckon gege is cooking something really good with these chapters, but the discourse is *not* worth wading into.

like, it's worse than during gojo vs sukuna because at least that was stupid??? depending on who you ask, we should not:

like kenjaku because they're evil, actually

like takaba because he's irrelevant, actually

relate the chapter to geto because he's dead, actually

relate the chapter to gojo because he's dead, actually

relate the chapter to satosugu at all because they're dead and they're not coming back and this isn't about them, actually

god help you if you think it's funny or clever on top of all that!! (for the record, i think it's both of those things)

it just sucks the fun out of analysis and theory when i'm second guessing myself, so i'm not going to bother for now. i'm gonna go back to writing my silly little k-pop fic and enjoy these characters in a way i personally find fulfilling. you know, the way we all should engage with the things we like!!

however, please know that i'm silently but spitefully doing *all* the things listed above. gege is clearly having fun, so why can't i???

[rocketbirdie]

just move on already.

[taliesinman]

everytime someone fetishizes rochu instead of making it the most dramatic thing of all time an angel loses its wings. how can you talk about rochu without talking about first contact during the imperial era. how can you talk about them and not go through how their dynamic during the century of humiliation suddenly changed in the 1920s. how can you talk about them without talking about comintern business and switching support between the kmt and the cpc. how can you talk about them without talking ww2. how can you talk about them without the short honeymoon phase after liberation in 1949. HOW CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THEM WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT THE SINO-SOVIET SPLIT. the drama. the politics. the historical intrigue. and you're telling me people ship rochu because "small delicate asian boy x big strong slavic man uwu" ? come on

[mercilessflowchart]

Hank and Sumo for @anonymousedward!

[ravenvsfox]

soooo hypothetically if someone was inspired to write a fic based on someone else's 'brainworm' on twitter, posted it on ao3, credited and linked back to the original idea, sent the story to that user and offered to take it down if they weren't into it

and then. were told that that they were CARELESS and it was a GUT PUNCH to be robbed of the opportunity to write it and that it was unfair that they were being made into the bad guy by asking for it to be deleted

would that be like. a fair or crazy response

[possamble]

What are your headcanons about Marcille's mom if you have any? It's interesting that what drew Donato to her was cause she lived the history he studied, or that was said somewhere at least. She must've had an interesting life.

so this was going to be just a normal answer but then I realized I have a Lot of Things To Say. so here goes, a compilation of what we know for a fact from the canon, what I've extrapolated from the visual cues and details, and my theories based on all of that.

Things we know for a fact about Marcille's mother because they were explicitly stated in the manga and supplemental materials:

She was a court mage for a Tall-man kingdom at the southern part of the Northern Continent

Donato, a court historian, fell in love with her because she had lived through the history he was studying, and he courted her for 17 years (age 15 to 32) before getting married

She was a cheerful person who rarely showed extreme emotion and took things as they came

She always cooked a huge meal for Marcille on her birthdays

She remarried a gnome after Donato's death and a short distance away from Marcille's childhood home

Pipi, Marcille's pet bird, was actually older than Marcille and originally belonged to her mother (bird died at 62)

She was extremely heartbroken when Donato died and ultimately ended up instilling a deep fear of mortality in Marcille with her words

the only time she showed extreme emotion in front of her family was when Donato could no longer eat his favourite dish near the end of his life.

She scolded Marcille for being cruel to ants (implying she can have a stern side when needed)

Things that are explicitly shown but mostly through visual cues

She has a very distinctive style of dress always involving a ribbon choker (mirroring Marcille's habit of always wearing a matching choker with any of her outfits that don't cover her neck)

She was almost stereotypically good at housekeeping and traditionally "wifely" things (very frequently depicted wearing an apron or doing some domestic chore when not at work, seems to have been an avid cook).

She knits? (also, note the affectionate smile as she's looking at Donato and Marcille reading a book together in the full panel)

She was as excited for Marcille's milestones as Donato was.

She didn't tell Marcille much about elven food

(there are a couple things that this panel in particular implies:

She lived a good deal of her life (if not being born and raised) in a mainly elven country in the West, implied by her knowing enough of an elven region's cuisine to prefer Tall-man food over it

seems to have a pretty carefree and casual demeanour overall, if this is how she replied to Marcille asking her about it (sounds like she never gave her culinary preferences that much thought to begin with)

slightly related to number 2, it seems like she and Marcille had a fairly casual parent-child dynamic (especially in comparison to the Toudens' memory of their father)

(local elf tastes Italian food once and never goes back))

However, she seems a lot more... serious in most of the other times we see her? Almost like the very stereotypical archetype of a graceful elf.

Subsequent conclusions about her personality:

Usually pretty carefree and cheerful at home, has been a loving and attentive parent throughout Marcille's childhood (while not being so doting that she didn't discipline Marcille).

Slightly more conjectural theories on her personality:

Had a much more graceful and professional personality at work, which would explain the more serious portraits we see of her.

Given that both she and Donato had positions at the royal court, it seems a little odd that she'd go out of her way to do all the housework herself, so maybe she just enjoyed doing it?

Now taping all the evidence together and toeing the line between analysis and fanfiction:

It's clear that she loved Donato very much and was utterly devastated by losing him. But there's one thing that really stuck out to me in what little we see of her:

Doesn't she seem... angry? The way she's gritting her teeth, clutching the tablecloth, and how this is the first and only time we see her eyes opened that wide. In the following panel, you see her being quiet and dejected after her initial outburst. She's still crying very intensely, but her brows are furrowed, and she's not really responding to Donato's affection in her body language.

We're not told the details of how she felt about losing Donato other than that it upset her. But this, to me, implies that she was angry and resented that he was aging, that the end of his life was approaching. An "it's not fair" type of preemptive grief. And if this was the first and last time she cried like this in front of her family, she was either very good at coping in private... or very bad at letting herself feel unpleasant emotions until they become unavoidable and end up overwhelming her.

It's not too remarkable a detail on the surface. It's even reminiscent of what the audience has seen of Marcille. But... when it comes to the big picture, you'd think an elf who voluntarily chose to marry a tall-man and have a half-elf child would have been better prepared for this.

It kind of recontextualizes her cheerfulness to me.

"I'm sure everything's gonna be okay!" (or some variation thereof, depending on what translation you have).

And this is stated to contrast her extreme grief when finally confronting Donato's failing body and eventual death. But I'm wondering if... maybe this optimism was why she was so upset. What if she went into all of it thinking "everything's gonna be okay"? What if she was a little young by elven standards, and just followed her heart thinking that her own resilience would get her through anything?

Of course, only to get completely overwhelmed when she actually loses Donato. She turns into a completely different person. And that's heartbreaking on its own-- but what the audience sees is the effect it had on Marcille. Can you imagine being her, watching your invincible and upbeat mother suddenly lose all the light in her eyes in one go?

I've already made a huge post about how I think Marcille models her "work persona" off her mother, but another thing that stuck with me as I was looking for more details in the manga was this:

copy pasting from the other post i made about it lmao it's like... the second she resigns herself to lifelong pain and terror, there's another portrait of her mother facing her like this. with their heads bowed, in mirrored body language of resignation and despair and sorrow. Except it's posed like Marcille is still looking at her mother but her mother is looking away.

It took me a second to realize, but I think that it's a visual metaphor for the fact that Marcille's mother was the only long-lived role model she had-- and she failed to model healthy grief for her daughter. I don't say this as an accusation or to disparage her as a character, but just as a matter of fact. In her, Marcille was seeing herself older and losing a short-lived spouse or loved one of her own, and all she saw was hopelessness.

But her mother didn't mean to instill hopelessness and terror in her. She wasn't really thinking of how it would truly affect Marcille at all (at least, that's how I'm interpreting her looking down and away from Marcille in the metaphor), she was just sad. And she, in her own way, was trying to protect her daughter and help her prepare for future losses.

What she meant was "loss is inevitable, and you have to learn how to be in pain but live on anyway." What Marcille heard was "loss is inevitable, and you will be scared and hurt for the rest of your life."

Again. Marcille's mother doesn't feature explicitly in the story the way her father does -- but in so many ways, her shadow, her silhouette, her reflection is always hanging over Marcille.

All that to say... headcanon-wise (everything from here on is 100% without evidence lmao), I'd like to think that she matured and realized that she failed Marcille. I imagine her being regretful about it, wanting a chance to fix it but never finding a way to insert herself back into Marcille's life when Marcille is so so so busy becoming the most accomplished mage possible. I imagine her being herself again, now, so many years after her loss and after remarrying -- but with her cheerfulness tempered with a lot more wisdom and the pain of having gone through loss like that. I think the second Marcille actually tells her what happened in the dungeon, she'd want to go running to her daughter again -- if Marcille tells her the full truth instead of just being embarrassed she let things get that far. (oh, the tragedy of her wanting to be more like her mother and an accomplished adult who doesn't need to be babied... being embarrassed to actually tell her mother how much she fucked up...)

There's also the tension of her having remarried -- I know that there's at least a little bit of resentment that Marcille harbours about that, because she's childish like that at heart even if she makes an effort not to externalize it. I think that her mother would be aware of that, potentially adding to her sense of guilt and apprehension at trying to reappear/intrude on Marcille's life. I honestly don't think Marcille has met her stepfather -- or even considers him a stepfather rather than "mama's new husband" and kind of a total stranger. I think she and her mother actively don't talk about it in their correspondence, like an elephant in the room.

but, ultimately, I think her mother is on her side no matter what. Ancient magic? Dark necromancy? Sure, she'll feel guilty and like she was partially responsible for setting Marcille down such a painful path, but she wouldn't care. that's her daughter!! she would've moved back west and been petitioning for her at the court, buying a house right next to the Canaries barracks and visiting her every day that she wasn't on a mission. And if her husband had opinions on Marcille becoming a "dark arts user," he either gets over it or it's divorce with him. Yes, she might have had her optimism completely humbled by losing Donato like that -- but she's still headstrong and self-assured and she doesn't care what people think of her. It's her way or the highway and she's always going to be in Marcille's corner.

(She also needs a name lol. I went with Juno, just to be cute about "Marcille"s closest real life equivalent being Marcella, which is the female version of Marcellus, which in turn is a diminutive of Marcus, which was derived from Mars. Absolutely in love with Marcille potentially being named after Ares/Mars the fucking god of war btw)

[backpackingspace]

Listen can we talk about the fact that odysseus, Penelope, and telemculus all cry at a drop of hat and then you have Athena and diomedes sitting there like :/// embarrassing

[slayerdurge]

A Deal with God (Post-Ending Durgetash Fanfic)

CHAPTER TWO - THE REUNION

Enver re-entered his body screaming.

As The Dark Urge listened in transfixed stillness, his screams gradually changed into a strange and discordant mixture of laughter and sobs, and all she could think was that she’d heard that sound before.

But she couldn’t place it until a series of sensuous fragmented memories crashed into her mind—the damp stone walls of an underground dungeon, the thrust of steel as it penetrated flesh, the tantalizing ferrous scent of fresh blood, an influx of saliva pooling in the bottom of her mouth, and the howling keen emanating from the pile of meat in front of her. Then came the feeling of satisfaction. The knife clattered to the floor, and as she wiped her mouth, she heard the sound change.

It was the sound of a torture victim who’d been offered a moment of reprieve, and the only coherent thought she could form in the mangled, macerated caverns of her brain was that that sound should not be coming out of him.

She couldn’t say exactly how long the sound continued, but eventually she became aware that it had stopped, and that his eyes, which had been alternately twitching and rolling backwards into his head, had refocused. He was looking at her.

She became aware of what she must look like, standing stock-still and staring at him in paralyzed silence, but she could rouse herself to neither speech nor movement. 

Slowly, he sat up, supporting his unsteady balance by spreading his hands flat on the rock’s surface. He looked around, taking in the sizeless expanse of the Astral Prism. His gaze seemed to sharpen. “How long?” he asked.

“How long…” She didn’t immediately understand the question. 

“How long was I dead?” he repeated, over-enunciating each word impatiently. 

The twinge of annoyance that caused within her brought her fully back to herself. “Less than a day,” she said. “Maybe slightly more. I lost track of time during the battle.” She glared at him pointedly. “You’re welcome, by the way. For your life.”

He stood, wobbling slightly but catching himself and righting his posture quickly. He walked towards her, stopping when there was only a few feet of distance between them, and met her gaze evenly. “Thank you,” he said, without a trace of sarcasm. “For my life.”

The Dark Urge found it suddenly difficult to maintain eye contact. 

[read more on ao3]

[logicpng]

i dunno how I feel about my ocs being compared to other, far more established shit anon lol. CaelOS barely has crumbs of a story laid down, I'm still working out the worldbuilding...

for future reference, I'd appreciate that not being done! thanks!

I'm entirely unfamiliar with the first one and am not seeing the similarity at first glance at all... the second one I am censoring due to bad personal history with that source (you couldnt have known, its fine!), but personality wise from what I remember: what are you on about anon

(clarification on that first one: no like I see similar color schemes in the images but shockingly similar absolutely not the words I'd choose to describe them.

if you mean more like lore-wise or personalities - thats more reason for me not to go any deeper into it as i would like not to get influenced by works that are already incidentally very similar to my concepts.

I get you were probably excited to share this, but it kinda hurts when my project barely hatched into public spaces. I hope you understand)

[ai-the-broccoli]

that experience where you like a ship but you have a completely and utterly different view of it than like 90% of the other people who also ship this. and what's more, the rest of the fandom (understandably) utterly hates the ship

[pain-is-too-tired]

Jonathan 'Jarchivist' Sims and Annabeth Chase would be best friends.

I stand by that.

[tealeves]

i don't know how to explain to you that the second half of dt literally continues the arcs and themes of the first lmao

like i agree it's a little weaker bc it's trying to emulate the last two expansions but i need people to know that just because you dislike something doesn't mean it's bad writing

[cephalofrog]

noah caldwell-gervais is the only motherfucker to have ever been correct about dark souls and elden rings' difficulty. no one else understands

[ndostairlyrium]

We did it Carla, you got avenged!

[when-did-this-become-difficult]

so here's what you're gonna do, you're gonna boil a pound of pasta in a pot, and then you're gonna cut up five to eight slices of bacon into bacon bits and fry them, and then you're going to wipe a bit of the bacon grease out of the pan, and then you're going to take four ears of corn and slice the corn off the cob into the pan, but not slicing too close to the cob! and then you're gonna take a spoon and scrape along the cob so that the sort of milky looking sweet corn juice (im so sorry but that's really what it is) goes into the pan also and then you'll cook the corn in the bacon for a hot second and then you'll add garlic and then after thirty seconds you'll add lemon juice and then you'll add in the pasta and then you'll add salt and maybe parmesan cheese.

peace and love on planet earth.

i really mean it.

[sskk-manifesto]

idk what the consensus is with fukuchi but i really cannot get over him being Super Selfish with things like...fully didnt answer when fukuzawa asked him if there was another way. there probably was but we'll never know bc fukuchi wanted to do it His Way. which was to curse his childhood sweetheart forever. for why??? punishment bc fukuzawa didn't follow him to the army? bc fukuzawa went off and got a life and a found family??? its so wild to me. what a guy. unrequited love and he took that shit so serious. im just ranting sorry. i fucking love bsd the interpersonal rl8ships are so good and wild. SSKK real also god bless. they are holding hands at all times from this point onwards i know it

Counterpoint: Fukuchi's actions led to us witnessing one the gayest moments in manga history and we should be grateful for that