#perpetual devotion

[touhoutunes]

Title: さくらのみち (Sakura Road)

Arrangement: Tracy

Vocals: 花咲あんな

Album: Perpetual Devotion

Circle: EastNewSound

Original: Night Sakura of Dead Spirits

[jasper-rolls]

Song: You're the love of my life... Artist: 紫咲ほたる (Hotaru Murasaki) Composer: きりん (Kirin) Album: Perpetual Devotion Circle: EastNewSound

[poatop]

🪻Tali'Zorah Vas Normandy🪻

[piosplayhouse]

The way scum villain has so many themes about writing/the literary arts and mdzs has so many themes about music and tgcf has so many themes about visual art and how each character that represents each of those respectively has their own struggle with their craft (passion burnout, loss of control over their ip/creation, obsession and dissociation) that gets turned on its head as their stories continue and their art comes to represent satisfaction and connection and devotion and love

[serpentface]

Hibrides and Brakul having the world’s saddest booze-fueled girl’s night, probably a few months before the start of the story.

Anyway here's an extensive rundown of their shared history.

Hibrides Uryashta was the eldest daughter of a chancellor of the imperial city-state of Erubinnos (his lordship Erub Uryashta). She was brought up with great privilege and security, but (like most daughters of noblemen) was destined to be used as a bargaining chip in a political marriage arrangement. She was taken from her friends and family and moved to the city of Wardin at the age of 16 to complete her pledged marriage with Janeys Haidamane, the failson of the trade magnate Haidamane family. Janeys spent about a week poorly attempting to behave like a husband, and then took the first excuse to flee and engage in a petty military campaign against raiders on the Yellowtail trade route. She found herself left alone in his villa for three years with only hired servants for company. She made a few attempts to break into the city's elite social scene, but was quite shy and failed to make any headway.

Brakul had just spent a year and a half in a bit of a whirlwind. He was brought into a skirmish at the behest of an allied clan, who had been raiding the Yellowtail route and now was under attack by combined forces of an enemy clan and Imperial Wardi mercenaries. He killed one of the mercenary commanders and was captured as a prisoner of war, but was spared at Janeys' behest (who fucking hated that guy thought it was awesome that he got killed with a rock) and was ultimately recruited into the group. He had a chance to go back home, but actively chose to deadbeat dad out on his wife and child to be with his newfound lovequest, Janeys. He spent a year and a half as a mercenary, bonded closely with Janeys and swore brotherhood with him, and was eventually brought home to the city of Wardin with him. He found himself in the odd position of being simultaneously scorned as a foreigner and 'heathen', and the legal kin of one of the richest families in the city (and effectively the secret male concubine of their only male heir).

It was in this context that the two of them met, with Hibrides now being 19 and Brakul turning 27.

The two were initially wary of each other (Hibrides was particularly put off by his 'heathen' status) but bonded very quickly, partly due to their mutual states of being unmoored from their old lives, but in large part being just a natural chemistry. They had a lot of common interests and enjoyed learning from each other. Hibrides introduced him to traditional verse poetry (of which she was very fond). Brakul taught her how to ride khait, and even gave her a gelding from his own collection as a gift. They became very close friends over the next couple of years and spent much of their free time together.

A big part of the dynamic was that both of them are gay in a cultural context where there is no concept of Being gay, marriages are usually arranged and always between a man and a woman, and having children is a societal expectation. Each of them began to see the other as an ideal husband/wife, ie "if I had to marry why couldn't it have been him/her?". For Hibrides' part, Brakul had all the traits she would want in a husband: he was a pretty good friend and easy to get along with, he seemed like he'd do an excellent job of fulfilling expected roles as a husband and father (she didn't know about the wife and kid for a while), he treated her as an equal, and, most of all, had no interest whatsoever in fucking her. They were both in a sort of platonic emotional affair, and grew to love each other deeply.

Hibrides was pretty quick to catch on that something was going on between Brakul and Janeys, and found it strange and offputting but ultimately none of her concern. Her husband only being interested in his sworn brother and leaving her to her own devices suited Hibrides just fine, and Brakul always just kinda being There meant she was living with what had become her closest friend.

The stable state of this Feelings Triangle began to change in the wake of the brilliant plan to get Janeys (gay) (probably infertile) children he could pass off as legitimate via a Brakul/Hibrides pregnancy. It was something all three agreed to as a necessity; it was already drawing scrutiny that Janeys and Hibrides had been married for several years without a pregnancy, and producing heirs is a societal expectation and a central point of an arranged marriage between wealthy elites.

It was especially critical in this case, given Janeys was his family's only male child and only hope of continuing the family line, given both his golden-child sister Faiza and black sheep half sister Couya were Odonii, and thus sworn virgins and would never marry. (There's also a level to this that Janeys was regarded as a complete disappointment by his parents, and his mother made damn sure he knew that his only value at this point was to produce a better male heir to inherit the business. So this was a big fucking deal to him, and to Brakul by extension).

This was also not a route any of them wanted to take on any personal level, least of all Hibrides. She consented to the pregnancy and everything it entailed, but it was inevitably a painful and distressing experience all around. She had never wanted to be a mother to begin with (though had long accepted it as an inevitability), and now found herself with an infant daughter, which only meant it would have to happen again (they needed a male heir after all). And it would be utter social suicide and a profound shame upon her if the child's illegitimacy was discovered, which only added to the stress.

To make things worse, her first pregnancy shifted the entire dynamic with her husband and brother-in-law/best friend. Janeys changed from completely indifferent to actively spiteful and hostile towards her, and things had become extremely uncomfortable between Hibrides and Brakul. It only got worse with Brakul (the only one of them who actually WANTS kids) (kind of haunted by skipping out on his first child) finding it unbearable to be so close to HIS daughter and having to keep up an act that she was not his own, having no direct role in the kids life. He desperately wanted to be a father.

Hibrides, who was going through a fucking lot, started to become vindictive towards him for his role in things. She resented him more than Janeys, because Brakul insisted he cared about her and would desperately try to pretend things were normal, while consistently siding with Janeys against her wishes, including in preventing her from getting a divorce. (His excuse is that the children's legitimacy would be interrogated in a legal setting, which Is likely and Would be absolute social suicide with very real consequences. But the real reason on his part is that if she got out of the marriage, he might never see her or the children again). Hibrides began to do everything in her power to prevent him from having any relationship with his bastard children, even in secret or under the guise of a relative. Sort of an “if I have to suffer to keep up this facade so should you” thing.

They had two children in a span of three years, two girls (ruh roh!) named Erubi and Livya. By this point, Hibrides and Brakul were both experiencing what we would now call Clinical Depression and Alcohol Use Disorder (especially in the latter's case). Hibrides started to have affairs with both men and women, which she was sure to be very obvious about to insult Janeys and Brakul, but was mostly out of loneliness. Brakul turned his complete focus to Janeys and started avoiding Hibrides entirely, in hopes that she would become desperate enough to be willing to make amends (shockingly, this did not happen, and the rift only deepened).

In the present, their relationship status is: fucked. Both of them do still love each other on some level, but this is probably beyond repair. What little time they've spent with each other in the past year is sitting around being miserable and getting plastered. And now Hibrides, Janeys, and Brakul are all forced into the public eye on the pilgrimage together, and with a third child on the way. So that's probably going to be everyone's problem.

[specialagentartemis]

I do have Sevika character thoughts though, and I'm really interested in where season 1 leaves her. Sevika is loyal to Silco, but doesn't like Jinx. She's frustrated with Silco giving Jinx such leeway to do What Ever Violence she wants, and compromising his ideals for Jinx, and letting her make trouble for everyone and not doing anything to rein her in. The chem-barons weren't able to convince her to betray Silco for that, but the fact that she's near boiling over with frustration over this state of affairs was obvious to them!

Sevika believes in Silco's goals and grudgingly tolerates Jinx for that. Jinx doesn't seem to believe in much of anything except getting to face the world that hurt her and hurt it back. And now Silco is dead, and Jinx is throwing away any semblance of politics to launch a rocket at the Piltover Council, and I cannot imagine that Sevika will have any loyalty to Jinx at all. I'm hype for a season 2 power struggle between them for the remains of Silco's grip over the Undercity.

[lenglengflames]

just thinking about hua cheng who claims to be apathetic to everyone but xie lian.

he says that, but he secretly has a soft spot for orphaned children roughing it out on the streets, or children who've escaped abusive households by running away. if he comes across them, he disguises himself as hong-er, sometimes teaching them self-defence, or survival skills.

sometimes he hints at a place called puqi shrine, perhaps accidentally dropping a crude map with directions and mentioning how the daozhang there is very kind and might possibly be able to help.

also! head cannon that hua cheng gets along extremely well with these children. like, they love him, right down to his eyepatch. xie lian is well-loved by them too though it's in a more in a parental/ mentor-like manner. but hua cheng's the fun gege that gets in trouble and shoulders the subsequent consequences together with them.

hua cheng likes interacting with children, even if they do get annoying sometimes because he understands that it's just mostly just harmless curiosity. the children don't view him as hua chengzhu, or crimson rain sought flower, or one of the most powerful calamities.

he's just their hong-gege, xie daozhang's husband, and can play a mean game of hide and seek when he hides. (but he always sucks at seeking because "you jingle when you move, hong-gege! you're so easy to run from!")

hua cheng, who never thought that his source of happiness could come from no one but xie lian, is surprised to find his throat tightening and a tiny flicker of heat building his eyes when he sees the carefree smiles from these children finally blossom - in contrast to the bloody, muddied, faces who learnt too early how evil the world truly was just a couple weeks ago when he tipped them off about puqi shrine.

[astralleywright]

the thing is, like, imogen is blunt, and indecisive, and impulsive. she's cynical, angry at the world, and seemingly much less interested in doing good than in holding on to her loved ones. she's hypocritical, incredibly violent one moment and horrified at the prospect the next. she's passive aggressive, on occasion. she's overly critical. she's scatterbrained.

and all of that stuff is very fucking fascinating, and so fun to watch, and core to what makes her her. but not only are those things not the totality of imogen as a character, they're very much inextricable from the things that make her sympathetic.

imogen has spent much of the last decade of her life in pain, and isolated because of it. when she wasn't alone she couldn't relax, having to keep tight control over her mind so as to not get overwhelmed or invade the privacy of others. because even through all that pain and loneliness, she still bore the responsibility not to impose on other people's minds. and when she fails or slips up or gives in, all of the distrust and suspicion she recieves regardless is suddenly viewed as justified.

which is not to say imogen is not responsible for her actions, or the harm she causes others. of course she is! no one is saying she isn't! but, just like literally every other person, her actions don't exist in a void but within the context of both her past and present.

analyzing that context and coming up with explanations of her behavior that consider it is not excusing her actions or refusing to acknowledge her flaws. it is not coddling imogen to sympathize with her even when she's fucking up. these are pretty standard ways to discuss a character you enjoy actually! it's weird that having a nuanced perspective on a character's actions is being treated as an issue!

[adelphenium]

sid: haha bud why do you have the weeknd's love in the sky queued up five times you're so silly

nate: *the face men make right before they lean in with tongue*

[terrorcouplekillcolonel]

[clonerightsagenda]

Appreciate that Lucy avoids any overt romance plots by failing to pick up on any of it. Yes she moons over Lockwood for 5 books. No she does not process the implications of a ghost disguising itself as her to lead him to his death. She missed Holly having a crush on her and also missed Holly telling her about it. The skull keeps going *PS5 voice* 'leave your friends we don't need them' and her reaction is 👍 read 7:35pm while Lockwood gets one look at him and mentally speedruns the 'she likes bones' bit of Harrow the Ninth. Queen of dodging YA n-drangles by simply not perceiving them. Any number of additional characters could be hitting on her but how would we know? She doesn't.

[doctormaxbankman]

how many times do we need to learn as people that irony and hyperbole can be harmful because 'jokes' aren't easily distinguished from genuine thoughts and feelings until we stop rewarding people for speaking or posting about violence

like even if you're joking/don't actually believe that/think whoever you are insulting is bad/immoral/fictional therefore deserves it - ad hominem attacks always do more harm to the people who share those characteristic then the individual you intend to cause harm to or discredit

[willowcrowned]

less tragic knight/tragic lady obidala more couple from hell obidala. you don’t stick two bitchy control freaks in a relationship without getting some dishes broken and cars set on fire

[ghostzzy]

i do think im dragging my feet on cursedwip just a little because i wanna go back and revise things. rghggggg.

[sableprince]

i really want to sit down and make a proper Real lore doc for these goobers and not just the paragraphs of shtuff from whatever-ago, but like....... (buries myself underneath the dirt) lazy!!!!!!!

[rigberts]

anyway taking my own advice and finally realizing that the deaths in the infinity castle weren't random gut punches but they were directly related to who was reincarnated and whose descendants appeared and it wasnt bc whoever died deserved to be reincarnated, it was that they all needed a second chance, a slate wiped clean, and death was necessary for that