#pale relationships

[heirofnepeta]

Mmmmm something so warm about the idea of ◇ relationships

Just like

Someone whos there to keep you grounded

Someone who is there to help you keep your cool and not breakdown

Someone whos there because they love you, just not in a ♡ way

Mmmmmmm moirails ◇

[daily-spooky]

[paperbackribs]

Steve stares down at the coffee cup, bottom lip near quivering. The edges of it are sharp: geometric shapes carved into its curved, green sides.

"Baby," Eddie says softly, as quiet as almost two decades ago when he'd just as tenderly confessed his doomed love to the boy he'd thought was straight.

"Baby," Eddie repeats with a touch more humour, knowing how emotional Steve becomes at the end of the school year. "What you got there, sweetheart?"

Steve looks up with eyes overflowing with emotion, not quite tearing up, but the hint of it hovering at their back. "She said I revitalised her love of learning."

"Big word," Eddie gently jokes but Steve's brow crumples even further as he chokes out, "I taught her that when--"

"Shh," Eddie interjects, swallowing his chuckle as he cups Steve's face fondly, thinking of every choked expression, every blubbering confession of a student doing their damned best in the face of everyone thinking they'd do their worst.

"She obviously had a great teacher, to give him such a great gift."

As expected, Steve starts to blubber again and Eddie feels his heart flow over for this wonderful man. A grown boy who looked after his nerdy flock in Hawkins, who then turned into a man that looked after all those that needed him the most.

Eddie will never stop wondering how he lucked out in life, in his partner, but he'll also never stop looking into this beautiful face of constellations and ask, "And what else, my love?"

[wizardemotions]

the question came to mind of "in your ship, how might the larger/stronger party pick up or carry the smaller one?" and these were the answers i came to

[hakunoknight]

i was never the child you wanted

father

[maskofnova]

Hi chat, breaking the sonic chain to post a singular homestuck post because ive been thinking about moirail dynamics a lot. Don't follow me for homestuck though probably because this is the only one thats likely to break containment aside from maybe one other WIP in the future. Or do! I'm not your dad :]

[coolingrosa]

My concept of the fallen stars.

[dolletteamine]

angelina jolie & billy bob thornton blood drop necklaces

[littlebittyhollowbugs]

They drive me insaaaaaaane !!!!!!!!!!!!

[tatsrei]

♡

[feralhoekage]

[alpaca-clouds]

Astarion, his siblings and his "victims"

I wrote a blog about how I really do not get those folks, who do honestly in their heart believe that Ascending Astarion is the "good" ending. And frankly, the comments that AA fans left underneath really make me just shake my head.

One of the people understanding my point also put a really good comment underneath:

Because I really get the feeling that the AA fans do not even consider the siblings and the "victims" of Cazador as actual characters within the story.

And yes, sure. From a writing perspective they are not big characters. I mean, the siblings do have very little in terms of background. Some have a bit more (mostly Leon and Darylia), the others a bit less, and then there is Yousen, about whom we know nothing but the name. And out of the other 7000 we obviously only really do know Sebastian in any regard. Which from a writing perspective is absolutely fair, because the focus definitely is on Astarion. Yet, the interactions you do have with the siblings - and with Sebastians - are meant for the player to understand that this is about empathy.

It is very likely that pretty much all of the siblings got abused just as much as Astarion - or at the very least lived in the same fear of abuse as Astarion. They are all the victims, even though it is fairly likely that they also abused each other. That is just something that abusers use in their advantage: Trying to get their victims to abuse each other. BUT that does not stop them from being victims.

And yes, it is absolutely heavily implied that some of Astarion's "Victims" also have raped him (same with the other siblings). Because as he was ruled by the order of Cazador to bring him victims he had not even a lot of chance to fight back. But we know that is not true for all of those 7000 souls. Some of which will just be purely innocents, who got seduced or kidnapped, and who have at times been made to suffer endless hunger in that dungeon for at times 100 and 200 years!

This means that to ascend Astarion, what you do is to kill a lot of innocent victims of abuse. More than that, you are with it condoning the abuse their abuser had put them through - because you are quite literally enacting the plan this abuser has come up with.

I feel this is a big thing that is also missed with the Vellioth memories. While Vellioth obviously would have prefered to live and go on abusing Cazador for years and years to come - he is also proud for Cazador to defeat him and then continue the circle of abuse. Because in Vellioth's minds he has "taught him well".

While yes, Cazador wants to ascend himself, at least if Astarion ascends all the planning for the ritual, and all the "lessons" he has taught were not for nothing. Astarion will continue Cazador's legacy. He will simply become the next Cazador, until inevitably one of his own spawn will rise up against him and so on and so forth.

If Astarion ascends, Cazador lives on through Astarion. Because in that case Astarion does all the things Cazador would've wanted to happen.

Of course we as players are biased for Astarion, because not only is he the one vampire spawn we know, but we really get to know him really good. Not the very least given the fact that Astarion also is literally the companion with the most playtime for his companion quest. But just for a thought experiment imagine that by sheer luck one of the other spawn also has gotten loose from Cazador and was doing a quest with some of their own companions, while Tav/Durge, Astarion and other companions were doing theirs. And now imagine that other spawn - no matter who of the other six it might have been - went in wanting to sacrifice everyone else, including Astarion, to ascend themselves.

I can guarantee you, that each of them could have made as much of an argument for it, as Astarion.

Would you still think that would be a good thing?

By all means, argue about the fact of how good the relationship between Ascended Astarion and your own Tav/Durge might be. How it is totally not an abusive relationship despite the non-consensual choking...

But that does not change the fact that the ascension itself is a bad thing that is going to continue Cazador's plan and Cazador's legacy.

And no, there is simply no world in which killing 7000 people, of whom all have been abused before, while at least several thousand of them are innocent, is "the good thing".

... Also, I just want more fandom content about the vampire siblings, because I just think they are neat.

[lady-quen]

The roleplayer desire to write Mael a bit with someone's muse vs the cringefail main character syndrome fear because Commander OC, smh

I have a vision but this is me when I try to talk about it in a large(ish) fandom. Anyway. Hides my shame in tags

[waitineedaname]

I was about to make a post about how the best ship dynamics are "wanting to tear each other apart (horny)" and "codependent queerplatonic relationship" but then I realized I was just describing the homestuck quadrants. The nature of humanity etc etc

[xeryli]

[dairyfreenugget]

(Alt text under read more)

I think "one or more of them is in danger or almost fucking dies, in the process discovering their child's impurity, and then after a lot of emotional turmoil they just pass the fuck out the second they're safe and calm again thanks to the awful, exhausting day they've had" is a scenario I write weirdly often for this messy as hell family

Anyway. Family cuddles. My babygirl is exhausted and deserves to be held for once

ID start: A black and white doodle of the Pale King, White Lady, and Pure Vessel from Hollow Knight as humans. The three of them are covered in bruises and scratches. They're sleeping in a pile of blankets with the Pure Vessel tucked in between their parents, with only their face showing. The Pale King is hugging them with both sets of his arms, his face buried in their hair, while the White Lady lays beside them with her arm drapped over the both of them and roots coiling around them. End ID.