#oh interesting

[rwby-confess]

Confession #345

[revvethasmythh]

i'm so into this vibe from dorian, gotta say

[p-h03n1-x]

Xiao Zhan for Tod’s 11.5.2024

A small intersection, a wonderful encounter. #TODS·X Capsule Series# Coming soon.

[wornkindness]

what are you the patron saint of

patron saint of heartbreak: not of comfort. not of condolences. there is a heart and there is a fissure, a fracture, something that starts to splinter and break open. you're the patron saint of the way a heart is rent open. the way it tears itself apart. patron saint of the rift. patron saint of the gash. when they say to "open your heart" to somebody, you are the patron saint of bleeding out.

[brightlotusmoon]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Zillennials/comments/jnojvf/if_the_xennials_are_referred_to_as_the_oregon/

If the Xennials are referred to as the Oregon Trail Generation, what nicknames would apply to Zillenials?

I think someone else posted this, but I will ask as well. What nicknames could apply to our generation cohort related to any pop culture references? Xennials are often referred to as the Oregon Trail Generation and the X/Boomer cohort is called Generation Jones. What names could apply to us other than Zillenial?

[alexbkrieger13]

Maybe a movie to watch for you since you like woman ice hockey

https://youtu.be/-GGYz4dGEG0?si=vAAbdm4Vnbgc-IA1

Breaking the ice

[beautiful-songbird]

👀

congratulations! you’re now a pirate. your seventh most recent emoji is the symbol on your flag. mine is ™️

[cubbyhole-for-flea-bee]

Macaque spent the whole season Big-Damn-Hero-ing and was NOT happy about it xD

[time-woods]

guy doesnt know what pins n needles are

( part1-2/? ?)

(start) (<next part>)

[transgenderism-horror]

mnnn having thoughts about redemption arcs

[mikkeneko]

SQQ getting out of the water prison and finding the effects of the poison 'surprisingly' suppressed does seem to be key here

I NEVER REALLY UNDERSTOOD LUO BINGHE UNTIL NOW

Holy shit I was so swayed by SQQ’s POV that I honestly never truly understood LBH’s intentions until I read this line In Ch 2 (SVSSS Seven Seas)/Ch 13 at the demonic evasion arc:

When a person is affected with Without a Cure, starting from their wound, their spiritual flow becomes disconnected. This schism slowly spreads to their entire body. In the end, not only does their spiritual qi coagulate and stagnate, so does their blood."

So then when in Ch 6 (SVSSS SS)/Ch 34, LBH fed SQQ his blood and subsequently used his blood to seemingly "torment" SQQ during the water prison arc, all of this got me thinking....

What if everything LBH did with his demonic blood this entire time was to save SQQ from Without a Cure?

Like yes, he probably did have other intentions such as tracking him, making SQQ horrified at the fact that he has demon blood inside him when he hated demons so much but I honestly think the main reason LBH forced SQQ to drink his blood, and I would even go further as to say that his main motivation when he trained under Meng Mo, was not to become the “strongest” in the general sense but to heal SQQ. Hear me out. The first thought white lotus LBH has when SQQ got poisoned in Ch2/13 was

the demons had harmed his teacher to the point that he might be crippled—he might even lose his life. And all because of him.

LBH probably was a direct witness to how a whole team of Cang Qiong mountain peak lords needed to revolve around SQQ, with Mu Qingfang constantly providing prescriptions and LQG clearing his meridians and probably YQY hovering around SQQ dying with worries, to maintain his health post the SHL -demon evasion, he must have felt absolutely terrible about it! And that guilt literally haunted our bing-pup like he never once stopped thinking about it; no wonder he offered himself to take care of everything including the nutrition of SQQ's food, snaccs, water, small-big errands, and even wanted to pick that "Snow something Lotus" flower for Shizun! Without a Cure affecting SQQ was on LBH's mind ever since he was 15 and for all 3 years he was in the Endless Abyss.

This is absolutely evident when black lotus LBH returned and started to chase SQQ, SQQ's inner monologue was cursing how Without a Cure is stagnating his ability to coordinate and run, I am certain that LBH was not blind to just how much SQQ was struggling with that poison in his body. My theory was further confirmed when LBH finally caught up to SQQ:

“While Shen Qingqiu was still in the midst of confusion, Luo Binghe flipped his hand over. “You were infected?” .....“This hand of Shizun’s is plagued with misfortunes.”

Bruh, LBH may be giving the sadistic energy of an abandoned demonic child (thanks SQQ unreliable narrator) but here is clear evidence that the thing he was most worried about is SQQ's blood coagulating and him dying of demonic poison. What this tells me is that Without a Cure seemed to be activated and/or further exacerbated by other demonic poisons. LBH was also clearly still carrying the guilt of SQQ saving him with that hand! Following on immediately, what he did was 1) punch SQQ, then 2) says "An eye for an eye. Since Shizun sowed the seeds, he should reap the bitter fruit himself. Shizun should personally make up for himself" and 3) straight up fed SQQ his demonic blood.

White Lotus LBH never died. Both actions are for the benefit of SQQ, 1) I think he did this to get SQQ to cough up coagulated blood after SQQ was poisoned by that Jin Lan City sower and 3) LBH's quick return from Endless Abyss was so that he can feed Shizun his heavenly-blood to help cure him. I have reason to believe that LBH's demonic blood is the CURE to WITHOUT A CURE. Why else pay such specific attention to SQQ's hand out of literally any other body-part after a 3 year reunion?

But what I find most fascinating is 2) LBH’s words are nearly always laced with double meaning. “An eye for an eye” here isn’t necessarily just him blaming SQQ for kicking him and unlocking his demonic heritage but he wants to repay SQQ for taking on Without a Cure back then by giving him his demonic blood as a cure now. Another interpretation is that LBH deflected feeling the guilt of indirectly harming SQQ by verbally jabbing him. He tried to make SQQ feel guilty about tossing him into the Endless Abyss when he himself couldn't bare to think that his Shizun got hurt again on the same hand that saved him all those years ago. SQQ of course is an unreliable narrator and tricks us into thinking that LBH's actions matched his words when if we look closer, they're LITERALLY THE EXACT OPPOSITE.

Right after the reunion, SQQ "didn’t know how he made it back to the Jin Zi Weapons Shop," which has me believing that LBH must have been doing something to surpress SQQ's Without a Cure's effects with his demonic blood.

During the Water Prison arc, LBH seems like he is tormenting SQQ by demonic blood manipulation but if we really read carefully:

��strange sensation of something crawling inside his blood vessels....Luo Binghe said leisurely, “Spleen, kidneys, heart, lungs.” Though it wasn’t to the point of extraordinary anguish, it was still awful to suffer through.

Doesn't this sound like LBH trying to get the blood in SQQ flowing again to prevent coagulation after SQQ had been in presumably a seated position for a long time jailed in the Water prison? Once again, LBH's intentions behind his actions are the opposite of his words, he may be emotionally hurt by SQQ's silent response to him asking whether Shizun regrets kicking him down the Endless Abyss but his first and foremost concern is SQQ's health. This totally explains LBH's extremely low anger points! SQQ seemingly mistook LBH’s worry as anger! If SQQ asked the System for LBH's worrywart points, it would have been like ~the limit does not exist~. 🤯🤯🤯

Bruh, it’s so telling when Gongyi Xiao went to untie SQQ's immortal binding cables two days later when SQQ noted:

His spiritual energy was unmistakably back in operation and flowing smoothly. When he’d been imprisoned, he had been in the middle of a random Without a Cure flare-up, but after two days of being tied up by the immortal-binding cables, the poison had unexpectedly been suppressed again. Was this following the same principle as fighting fire with fire, or how two negatives make a positive?

No SQQ you oblivious gay, LBH was circulating your coagulating blood for you and suppressing the effects of your poison! We as readers can get so misled by SQQ constantly worrying about how Without a Cure randomly stops his spiritual powers that we forget about the actual main issue, blood stagnation and coagulation, which can absolutely kill him. Also, when SQQ escaped the Water Prison, LBH didn't try to manipulate the blood in SQQ's body because now he didn't need to, he’s done it already. He never wanted to do more than what was necessary for Shizun’s health. LBH tried to convince SQQ to come back when he could have used his powers. SQQ always had agency because LBH loves and respects him too much.

The next time SQQ got poisoned was by that sower who hid amongst the Huang Hua Palace disciples in Hua Yue city right before his self-detonation. He couldn't attack the sower with fire but then complained that it must have been Without a Cure that flared up again. Somehow, silly SQQ kept randomly getting himself poisoned so doesn’t it make sense that LBH keeps track of his Shizun so that his own demonic blood could notify him of any potential future SQQ demonic poisonings?

Bruh, the worrywart White-Lotus LBH never fucking died, SQQ ah SQQ you silly silly man. LBH has always been, even if he says hateful words, worried about you and your health and made it his top priority. What made LBH lose his mind though were

everytime LBH tries to save SQQ, SQQ thinks that he is using his demonic blood/demonic poison to do all these unfathomable things when using demonic poison is literally the last thing LBH would do because he has literal guilt trauma around it.

SQQ keeps calling LQG, GYX and literally anyone else to save him when LBH has been the one doing all the work.

Then we arrive at Xing Mo’s recoil exacerbating LBH’s insecurities.

“Shizun, look at what I’ve become. Am I strong enough? Do you know how I spent those years within the Endless Abyss? For three years underground, at all times and all moments, my mind thought only of Shizun. I wondered why Shizun would do this to me, why he refused to give me even a single chance to explain or plead my case.”

He did so much for Shizun’s health but never got a chance to explain why! And then when SQQ self-detonated, LBH thought:

Didn’t Shizun hate his blood more than anything? Wasn’t he unwilling to even be near him, to associate with him at all? So why, at the last moment, had he so gently helped to contain Luo Binghe’s mind, as tender as he had been in those years long past?

The blood here doesn't just have racist but literal connotations, LBH literally thought that SQQ hated the very demonic blood coursing through his veins, so that's why he kept forcing SQQ to drink it. LBH's every action, with me now looking back at all this evidence, is SO fricking justified. From his POV, isn't it more like SQQ is the constantly sick child throwing a tantrum about not wanting to drink bitter medicine? LBH, After all this effort of forcing himself to go through literal hell, training himself, chasing SQQ, imprisoning SQQ (LBH is giving Lan Wangji energy here) so that his Shizun can stop accidentally poisoning himself, SQQ somehow got put in harms way again but on top of that, died because of him. SQQ died whilst also restoring and reaffirming himself as the Shizun who had once been so good to him. 😭😭😭

All this absolute adds so much more weight as to why LBH was never ever going to let SQQ out of his sight ever again, as a corpse or alive, from that moment onwards.

[greykolla-art]

Let’s me just dump these sketches over here.

I’ve been thinking so much about Alastor’s character and motivations I’m so in love!

He gives me: “I’m so terrified of feeling weak or vulnerable that I’ll do anything to never feel that.”

Deer boy, you realise sir Pentious is braver than you???

[rainbow-femme]

I think an early and overlooked aspect of why Andrew starts liking Neil is simply that Neil is the first person to casually engage with him on his level

Nicky, Aaron, and Kevin love him but they don’t really get him in every day interactions. It’s a lot of “… Ok, whatever you say, Andrew.”

And we know the upperclassmen tend to just outright dislike anything he says or does and uses it as proof of him being heartless and violent

Renee gets the closest because she does get him and goes along with him but they ultimately have very different views of life

Whereas Neil, before he even likes Andrew at all, just matches his energy.

“If I can’t get an answer from you, I’ll get it wherever I can. How about I start with your parents?”

“Good luck,” Neil said, feeling cold all over. “They’re dead.”

“Did you kill them?”

He [Andrew] said it so casually, like he was asking for the time, that Neil could only stare at him for a minute. It was such an unreasonable leap of logic Neil didn’t understand how he even thought to ask it. Then he remembered who he was talking to and asked, “Did you kill yours?”

—

“Neil said. "I'm not afraid of you."

“That's why you're so interesting," Andrew said. "How aggravating."

He sounded amused, not annoyed, so Neil said, "I'll try to be more boring in the future."

“How considerate.”

—

And for a guy who desperately wants connection and has never fully gotten it, it must have been as close to fun as Andrew has getting to bounce back and forth with Neil. He could threaten to saw Neil in half with a rusty blade and Neil will just be like “Hotdog or hamburger style?”

[alexbkrieger13]

20 players there was a heavy rotation

https://x.com/em_sandy/status/1808923731420663894?t=efh1G0WwV1qyuADd73gxHQ&s=19

[lowkeyed1]

(What I'm not mentioning here is that he is also possibly very magic sensitive in some way, because he reacts to The Crone with the same sort of shudder/groan thing he does with Elora which Eye Wood Lyke To Sea Examined Thank You).

The thing about Arik in Willow (2022) that makes me really fucking sad for him is like...he has potential? And he knows it? And no one, including the narrative is allowing him to actually act on it.

'Cus see, I refuse to believe he is corrupted by The Crone because he's a fuckboi who wanted power. That's not what "I am your king" means to Arik.

Arik is the guy that everyone dismisses as a useless airhead who's only interested in one thing except???? He's not? Which he tries to tell everyone, including the audience/narrative multiple times.

In the *first episode* we see him actually pull some pretty fancy diplomatic footwork (offscreen) which was NECESSARY because Kit throwing a temper tantrum in front of the entire fucking court was a legitimate diplomatic incident. That was BAD, that was a BAD THING that endangered a lot of people! It's said multiple times that the marriage was to link two kingdoms and strengthen them and Kit just Deciding to openly blow off her betrothed was A Bit Not Good actually!

And then Arik swoops in and smooths everything over because he's good with people, actually, he's good at sweet talking them, and he BASICALLY FUCKING SAVES KIT A LOT OF FACE and then his mom yells at him for it because she's stressed about Willow's prophesy and Kit's immature selfishness.

And then! When he makes the promise to Elora he actually really fucking means it?! He really, really does. He stays faithful to her when The Crone tries to seduce him and reveals he does!! Actually!! Know her name!!! He knows it's Brunhilda and calls her "Dove" because he realizes she doesn't like her actual name!!!! He knows that about her!! Because he fucking meant it!

And to top it all off, the poor boy is genre savvy!!!!!!!! He didn't do shit in the creepy abandoned city and when it started trying to *talk* to him HE FUCKING LEAVES. HE LITERALLY NOPES OUT BECAUSE THAT CAN'T BE GOOD, RIGHT? He doesn't even drink the orange glitter goo until he's forced to go back into the city *or fucking die*. And even THEN after he's been drinking The Wyrm's Milk or whatever the fuck he still resists the The Crone. He doesn't succumb immediately, in fact when he realizes what she is he *tries to leave again*.

(What I'm not mentioning here is that he is also possibly very magic sensitive in some way, because he reacts to The Crone with the same sort of shudder/groan thing he does with Elora which Eye Wood Lyke To Sea Examined Thank You).

My point is, Arik is smart. He knows his strengths and his weaknesses and is pretty happy to be pandered to, but is not completely fucking useless when taken out of his ivory tower. He did get captured but he knew how to use that sword before he did. He has faith, and loyalty, and a lot of strength of character and seems fairly content with the apparent state of things (Kit destined for the throne despite being younger than him technically? I was unclear on that).

"I am your king" being his "temptation" is not for the *power*. With "king" comes responsibility, and more importantly here RECOGNITION that he has extremely laudable and noble qualities. "King", for Arik, means that people will see him for more than what they expect to see when the look at him.

His mother dismisses his quick thinking and quite necessary diplomatic talent as meddling and his sister waves off him succumbing to brainwashing and torture after an (unknown but) long period of time during which he did *everything in his power to escape* as naiveté and gullibility. Even Elora doesn't really believe he's true to his word about her.

"I am your king" means "I have integrity, diplomacy, and intelligence and I am honored to be entrusted with the protection of my people". "I am your king" means "See me for who I am". "I am your king" means "Recognize my talents, or you will lose me as I lose myself". Not "I want power because I was born privileged and deserve it by divine right".

Anyway we better get a season 2.