#part 2 back to the past

[welcometogrouchland]

[ID in ALT] I've made posts before about Talia/Dick co-parenting Damian moments (will never happen but let me dream) and this came to me in a vision. Took me ages to finish for some reason 😭 and then even longer to post

[teratomatica]

you always land on all fours

[raepliica]

one of these nights

[egophiliac]

Do you think this is the Finale of book 7? qwq

at this point I'm not going to believe it's actually over until we get the Diasomnia dorm reruns! those will be the portent I cling to in these times of uncertain anime character drama. 😰

honestly I'd been pretty convinced that 13 would be the end -- or that there might be, like, an epilogue chapter or something, but this would at least be the end of the main plot of 7. but now it looks like the Armor of Dawn Silver card is actually going to be for the second half next week, so...now I'm right back in "WHAT IS HAPPENING" camp! like, I can see a couple of possibilities of how that might still work out, but...well. I guess we'll find out tonight. :')

[whipbogard]

Just finished Gotham Knights

Many thoughts but here's a quick doodle of the bestest boy ever ❤

[liorlenn]

(Spoilers for KCD2 romance)

One thing that really surprised me about Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (particularly the Hansry romance) was the direct reference to Galehaut and Lancelot (let me tell you I CHEERED), so I wanted to start talking about some other queer medieval Arthurian texts and Arthuriana adjacent texts.

I’m by no means an expert (I focus more on Welsh poetry and prose) but medieval Welsh literature includes some Arthurian literature, so I know a little about Arthurian Literature in general. Most of these stories are either Old French or German and about 13th century. SGATGK is 14th century.

For one, I want to say that the tale being referenced in the game is the Vulgate Cycle or the Lancelot-Grail Cycle (the Vulgate Cycle itself is multiple parts, with Lancelot’s (The Story of Lancelot/Prose Lancelot) being the largest). It’s a big ol’ mash up and retelling of a huge part of the early tradition + new stuff. There’s also the Post-Vulgate which is itself a retelling of the Vulgate Cycle. This is NOT the one you want if you’re looking for Lancelot and Galehaut.

Another thing of note about the Vulgate is that Galehaut and Lancelot are not the only ones I would give the old side eye. Gawain says (about Lancelot even!), “If God were to grant me my health… I’d immediately wish to be the most beautiful maiden in the world, happy and healthy, on condition that he would love me above all others…” Come on man.

Now, for other queer texts!

First up, I have to plug my best friend and my silly rabbit: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Thanks to the movie (which was good but fairly different) this one is a bit more well-known. I could talk endlessly about the moral of the original story and I think the Gawain Poet is incredibly talented at weaving together imagery. I also appreciate Gawain’s willingness to kiss women AND men. Some argue that it’s not queer because of differing social norms but personally I think Gawain wanted it. And by it, haha well let’s jusrt say—

Next we have Parzival/Percival (referencing the German “version” by Wolfram von Eschenbach here. Each iteration of a “Percival”, including Chrétien de Troyes’ earlier (and unfinished) Story of the Grail, all have their own differences). This one is even more up to interpretation than SGATGK. There’s a very explicitly performative aspect to Parzival’s presentation (his gender is “knight”), focusing distinctly on clothing and the role clothing plays in others’ reactions to him that I think is very relatable. I don’t have much else to say about this one unfortunately. I read parts of it once years ago but it was super interesting and there has been scholarship done on Parzival and gender so…. take what you will from it.

The next stories are Arthurian adjacent (as in, medieval stories about knights). First off: Le Roman de Silence is either about a woman knight or a trans knight who is… sighs. Forcibly outed. Interesting read but definitely a bit of a downer if you interpret Silence as a trans man.

Yde et Olive, however is very explicitly about a trans man! Happy ending too! I was incredibly surprised to read a 13th century story about a trans man getting magical/miraculous top and bottom surgery (yes, forreal).

And to cap off this small list, here is some medieval Welsh literature. This one is just me being a little wistful, but let me tell you about Blodeuedd/Blodeuwedd and the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi (Math fab Mathonwy). This one is…sad. It’s not a good ending for Blodeuedd, but I could wax poetic about her: how she was fashioned from flowers to fulfill a gendered role. How she failed to do so and was punished.

There are plenty of other stories with queer interpretations in Arthuriana and other medieval literature (do not get me started on Guinevere and Morgan le Fay’s whole… thing. Also Luned and her Lady…) and there are plenty of modern/early modern retellings that are explicitly queer. I just wanted to stick to medieval texts for this and also limit myself to a select few among that even.

[ishikawayukis]

wonwoo - BOOmily outing #3

[ilkkawhat]

I know I've mentioned the Journal before, but this Saturday marks the one year anniversary of the day that I decided to play Alan Wake 2 for the first time, and my life changed for the better. I've used this journal to keep track of various gameplay stats (not pictured is the AW2 page where I'm literally keeping a tally of how many times I've played it which I'm in my tenth full playthrough); notes such as the stash puzzles, deer heads, etc though I still gotta finish the list of nursery rhymes and maps beyond cauldron lake; dreams I've had involving alan or anything remedy related; doodles and drawings (which is huge for me on a personal level cause I have this like. slightly traumatic experience with drawing early in my life that I won't go into detail here); and even a few poems I wrote...and I hadn't written poems since maybe high school.

This year has been rough on a personal level especially with work but like other cornerstone obsession's I've had, Alan's journey resonated with me on so many levels and gives me strength to keep going. The night I bought and played AW2 on a whim just because I saw a meme that "friendship ended with Silent Hill now Alan Wake 2 is my best friend" will go down as a tremendous turning point in my life. I was on a creative dry spell, I had stopped everything and never thought I'd start again, I had exiled myself from any sort of fandom space/interaction thinking I was poison, isolated myself to such a terrible degree from my family and friends, I was in such a deep depression and a new level of hopelessness than I had ever been in before, and I can just go on and on forever on how much this game means to me but the most important thing Alan Wake taught me is the beginning of the final draft, that realization that all is not lost, that my life is not just a loop of depression then fleeting joy then depression then fleeting joy then depression then fleeting joy (yes, sometimes I wonder if I'm bipolar) and his monologue sums it up best:

A fictional poet once said "Beyond the shadow you settle for, there is a miracle, illuminated." I will not settle for a shadow. I will find the miracle, through the night. It's not just victims and monsters; I see now, there are heroes as well. We can find our way through the darkness. We will break through the surface and crash into the light.

[obsob]

do you make enough money from selling prints in etsy to sustain your life? how are you able to afford this beautiful house and time to crochet and go on walks and all of that? i’m not asking for nosiness but because i’m trying to figure out what i would need to do in order to make my life financially sustainable… is art an option… etc

short answer i mooch off my bf <333333333333333

[thefirstknife]

thoughts on Crow's character being reduced into Uldren-but-not-quite? I'm not happy with these past few weeks of dialogue, I feel like suddenly everyone treats Crow as just the guy that did those horrible things, and this week he's also taking responsibility for those actions *he did not take*. sure, his corpse did it, but wasn't a whole year of storyline based around the fact that Crow and Uldren are separate persons? why is every other character acting like none of that ever happened?

I don't think he's really being blamed for those things, it's more that he now has those memories and reacts to them in a distinctly Crow way. He's the type to take the responsibility for those things, even though it wasn't really him, but he remembers it all so in his mind, it's his problem.

It's actually a fairly complicated issue that is unique to Crow: how should Guardians who fully remember their past behave? Crow decided to make amends for things that his "past self" did, even though it's not him, because he remembers it so vividly and it bothers him. This doesn't mean that other people are pushing it on him; they're clearly not. Petra has numerous lines where she tells him that nothing Uldren did is on him, and so do other people. So I'm pretty sure they're not acting like it didn't happen, given that everyone is often reassuring him that he's not being blamed for Uldren.

But for Crow, he remembers doing those things. He didn't do them, but he remembers them and it bothers him. It's probably exceptionally difficult to think of yourself as not that guy when you have that guy's life in your head. I don't think people often consider how this must feel for Crow. He wasn't just told what Uldren did. He was given the full package directly into his head. Uldren's deeds aren't stories to Crow, they're effectively his life. A life of a stranger, but his life nonetheless.

Obviously, they could've gone with not giving him his memories back. But since they did, I think that Crow's behaviour (especially given how compassionate he is) makes sense. He remembers those things as his own, even though they're not his own, but he feels like he should be making amends for them. I think that's the crucial part of his arc; he knows what Uldren did, he acknowledges that it wasn't him, he KNOWS it wasn't him, but nobody else will make those amends and nobody else is working to fix those wrongs, so he feels responsible to do it.

That doesn't mean that the story is suddenly about Crow = Uldren; it's not. It's about Crow's choice. Crow isn't Uldren, but he's choosing not to ignore their connection even if he would be completely accepted if he did ignore it. I think that's what gives Crow's story an element worth exploring.

[darlingpoppet]

ＬｉｍｉｎａｌＳｐａｃｅｓ— Chapter 3

Hades (Video Game) | Modern AU (College/University) | PZA | Explicit | Chapters: 3/7 | Words: 21,238 (Chapter 3: 6,763)

Summary: Inspired by The Dreamers, except make it 2010s and ｖａｐｏｒｗａ��ｅ. Zagreus is a university student who feels aimless in life. His girlfriend dumped him, things between him & his best friend are weird, and he lacks ambition in his studies, all while the optimistic visions of his generation’s future are becoming lost. Until one day, he falls into the orbit of Achilles & Patroclus―a charming, yet eccentric pair who completely alter Zagreus’ outlook on life & death, love & loss, past & future, and the transitions in between. (Chapter 3 summary: Zagreus reaches a stalemate in his relationship with Thanatos. Achilles & Patroclus invite Zagreus back to their place again for what ends up being a highly-charged evening of music, games, drinking, and sex.)

Excerpt:

“Ugh, Pat. Why don’t you go get a glass?”

Achilles scowls as he watches Patroclus take a particularly clumsy swig directly from the wine bottle, accidentally allowing some to escape from the corners of his mouth and run in blood-like rivulets down his chin and neck. Achilles, to his discredit, hasn’t been behaving much better. His own glass has gone untouched for a while now, and he opts instead to pass the bottle back and forth between himself and Patroclus.

“I will get one whenever I next have an excuse to end up in the kitchen,” Patroclus says as he hands the bottle back to Achilles. “Consider every sip of wine a kiss from me.”

“Why consider it, when I can just do this?”

Achilles pours some wine into his mouth, holding it there while he leans over to Patroclus and feeds it to him. Wine dribbles out between their mouths as the transfer devolves into a sloppy, open-mouthed kiss. They struggle to stifle their giggles over the mess they’re making, while reveling in the delectations of the kiss.

If they were anyone else, Zagreus might have felt irritated to be made a captive audience to their impudent displays of affection. But as it is, he has difficulty ever seeing their behavior as anything but endearing. And to be fair, he thinks to himself, as he tips back his wine glass for small sip: they are probably really, really drunk.

“We should let Zagreus have a turn at the game,” Patroclus says as soon as he regains his composure.

Zagreus, whose mouth is still full, tries not to splutter as he swallows down his drink all at once. He titters incredulously.

“What, me? I don’t even know anything about the kind of music you like.”

“Don’t you worry about that,” Patroclus says kindly. “I’ll help you with it.”

“Patroclus, no, don’t you dare—” Achilles starts, his voice sharp with warning.

“It’s all right, Achilles! Don’t you want to make our guest to feel clever? And who knows, maybe you’ll know the answer.” Patroclus grins impishly as he bounds over to Zagreus’ side, taking the wine bottle with him.

“And what if he doesn’t?” Zagreus asks Patroclus.

“And if he doesn’t—” Patroclus repeats; he leans in slowly, his mouth now so close to his ear that Zagreus can hear the gentle intake of breath in his preparation to speak. Zagreus feels the coarseness of his beard, the nearness of his warmth, making his skin prickle; he can catch a whiff of the alcohol, along with the earthy, yet floral sweet smell of his dark brown skin. “—He’ll have to do whatever you say.”

READ THE REST ON AO3 HERE!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/57964459/chapters/148565071

Chapter Navigation: 1 | 2 | 3

[cosmic-walkers]

You know, I do believe there were times during the interrogation where Stephen imagined the relationship he ‘could have had’ with Thomas. Perhaps, there were even points where he “forgot” that this was an interrogation that would ultimately end in Thomas’s death, and let his mind wander to old times.

Like times when they worked with Wolsey. This is probably not the first time he’s seen Thomas hold his own in a hot seat; there had to be times when they were younger, working under Wolsey, when he sat and enjoyed seeing Thomas use his lawyer jargon, and run circles and circles around young men who think they could best him. And I mean even after Wolsey died the books, until Stephen is sent to France, they have a decent on-and-off relationship where they work together and occasionally, would spend time together.

But, I just took notice of the way he was looking at Thomas during the interrogation, the way they caught each other’s eye once or twice and held their gaze for just…a moment, as if Stephen was going to see how Thomas could wiggle his way out of this hole. He was amused because he knew Thomas more than anyone in there, longer than anyone in there. There was a time they were friends, a time where an event like this - Thomas using his wit to outsmart people - was just a common thing between them, and Stephen was impressed. But of course, when Norfolk started talking, reality came crashing down and Stephen had to accept that, this fire he enjoyed so much from Thomas, would be put out in less than what? Forty-eight hours? His friend, his enemy, the man he had hated but respected, the man he had in a way been manipulated into hating, who annoyed him so much but also brought him some forms of amusement and excitement would be dead. And he’d never see him again. Thomas was the only one imo who could both handle Stephen and bring out a more complex side of Stephen.

[lemongogo]

[lastthroes]

sometimes i see people's posts in the shipcest tag (or requests in exchanges), and i can't help but think "may i interest you in the action role-playing japanese videogame released in 2012, tales of xillia 2--"

"people can't tell if they're siblings or a married couple" back when the game was first announced, going only by their video interactions and due to the language barrier, several people assumed ludger and julius were friends living together (and a lowkey boyfriends kinda thing); "i want this character to channel his feelings for his brother through a different person" whatever the hell julius/victor/ludger have got going on; "character fucks a darker version of themselves" victor/ludger with extra steps (or julius/stribog!julius if you wanna get spicy); "character forced to learn how to live after having accepted their death" julius in a fix-it au or in raysverse; "feelings reveal due to mutual impending death turns awkward when no one dies" what could happen with bisley passing the trial in the julius ending; "character forced to face a manifestation of their worst fear" several fractured dimensions during canon; "big bro gets jealous and mega yandere for lil bro" there is a fractured dimension in the canon like this too; "brother looks like a normal dude but is repressing one hundred feelings" julius' ideal world in ch15 erasing elle from existence and all of ludger's friendships (which is also adressed by word of god). even that one super popular "the love was there. it didn't change anything. it didn't save anyone. but the love was there" post? this is unfortunately the pain of at least one of the endings of this game also

sure it's not "official" or "canon", that's very rare in itself. but when one of the canon endings is already "main character decides to forsake the whole world because he can't bear sacrificing his brother to save said world", does it matter? even ideas like "i want a normalized incest au" are easy to work with, because nothing indicates that this couldn't have happened: main lead and his brother are both half-brothers and cousins because their father was married, got his wife killed in battle, then switched to her sister. and said brother already believes that their father did it on purpose because he wasn't good enough for a chromatus user, so he wanted to try with a brand-new son. this theory is never formally questioned nor rejected, so it's very easy to twist the family tree a little further

[unfamiliaris]

if markhelena don't get nasty with it I'm throwing myself into open traffic

[bunnyboy-juice]

awawawawawawa