#r: let it breathe

[jacensolodjo]

"So... what does that mean?" "Oh, my God, Raffi!"

[jacensolodjo]

Ah, this is gorgeous! Thank you! My girls (and enby)!

WIP BigBang Art for a Bodyswap fic!

Title: Looking at you, looking at me (onAO3)

Fic: Looking at you, looking at me by @jacensolodjo

[eomcheong-keun-megi]

ITS NOT GOING WELL FOR CHANGBIN

[hazyange1s]

screenie dump of the house cup scene because I love my Gryffindors

[girluimfailing]

OMG???????????????

[veryaren]

this is my piece de resistance. my tour de force. my magnus opum

edit: inspo under the cut

FOUND IT

[acourtofquestions]

Rowaelin Chapter 41 Kingdom of Ash:

She'd rebuild it—what she had been.

Perhaps one last time, perhaps only for a little while, but she'd do it. If only for Terrasen.

Rowan swooped from the mast, shifting as he reached her side at the rail. He surveyed the night-black sea beyond them. "You should rest." She slid him a glance. "I'm not tired." Not a lie, not in some regards. "Want to spar?" He frowned. "Training can start tomorrow."

"Or tonight." She held his piercing stare, matched his dominance with her own.

"It can wait a few hours, Aelin."

"Every day counts." Against Erawan, even a day of training would count.

Rowan's jaw tightened. "True," he said at last. "But it can still wait. There are ... there are things we need to discuss." The silent words rose in his animal-bright eyes. About you and me.

Her mouth went dry. But Aelin nodded In silence, they strode into their spacious quarters, its only decoration the wall of windows that overlooked the churning sea behind them. A far cry from a queen's chamber, or any she might have purchased as Adarlan's assassin.

At least the bed built into the wall looked clean enough, the sheets crisp and stainless. But Aelin headed for the oak desk anchored to the floor, and leaned against it while Rowan shut the door.

In the dim lantern light, they stared at each other.

She'd endured Maeve and Cairn; she'd endured Endovier and countless other horrors and losses. She could have this conversation with him. The first step toward rebuilding herself.

Aelin knew Rowan could hear her thundering heart as the space between them went taut. She swallowed once. "Elide and Lorcan told you... told you everything that was said on that beach."

A curt nod, wariness flooding his eyes. "Everything that Maeve said." Another nod.

She braced herself. "That I'm-we're mates."

Understanding and something like relief replaced that wariness. "Yes."

"I'm your mate," she said, needing to voice it. "And you are mine."

Rowan crossed the room, but halted a few feet from the desk on which she leaned. "What of it, Aelin?" His question was low, rough.

"Don't you..." She scrubbed at her face. "You know what she did to you, to ..." She couldn't say her name. Lyria. "Because of it."

"I do know."

"And?"

"And what do you wish me to say?"

She pushed off the desk. "I wish you to tell me how you feel about it. If…"

"If what?"

"If you wish it wasn't so."

His brows narrowed. "Why would I ever wish that?"

She shook her head, unable to answer, and stared over her shoulder toward the sea.

It seemed like he would close the distance between them, but he remained where he was.

"Aelin." His voice turned hoarse. "Aelin."

She looked at him then, at the pain in his words.

"Do you know what I wish?" He exposed his palms, one tattooed, the other unmarked. "I wish that you had told me. When you realized it. I wish you had told me then."

She swallowed against the ache in her throat. "I didn't want to hurt you."

"Why would it ever hurt me to know the truth that was already in my heart? The truth I hoped for?"

"I didn't understand it. I didn't understand how it was possible. I thought maybe ... maybe you might be able to have two mates within a lifetime, but even then, I just ….." She blew out a breath. "I didn't want you to be distressed." His eyes softened. "Do I regret that Lyria was dragged into this, that the cost of Maeve's game was her life, and the life of the child we might have had? Yes. I regret that, and I wish it had never happened." He would bear the tattoo to remember it for the rest of his days. "But none of that was your fault. I will always carry some of the burden of it, always know I chose to leave her for war and glory, and that I played right into Maeve's hands."

"Maeve wanted to ensnare you to get to me, though."

"Then it is her choice, not yours."

Aelin ran a hand over the worn wood of the desk. "In those illusions she spun for me, she showed me variations on one more than all the others." The words were strained, but she forced them out. Forced herself to look at him. "She spun me one dreamscape that felt so real I could smell the wind off the Staghorns."

"What did she show you?" A breathless question.

Aelin had to swallow before she could answer. "She showed me what might have been—if there had been no Erawan, if Elena had dealt with him properly and banished him. If there had been no Lyria, none of that pain or despair you endured. She showed me Terrasen as it would have been today, with my father as king, and my childhood happy, and..." Her lips wobbled. "When I turned twenty, you came with a delegation of Fae to Terrasen, to make amends for the rift between my mother and Maeve. And you and I took one look at each other in my father's throne room, and we knew."

She didn't fight the stinging in her eyes. "I wanted to believe that was the true world. That this was the nightmare from which I'd awaken. I wanted to believe that there was a place where you and I had never known this suffering and loss, where we'd take one look at each other and know we were mates. Maeve told me she could make it so. If I gave her the keys, she'd make it all possible." She wiped at her cheek, at the tear that escaped down it. "She spun me realities where you were dead, where you'd been killed by Erawan and only in handing over the keys to her would I be able to avenge you. But those realities made me ... I stopped being useful to her when she told me you were gone. She couldn't get me to talk, to think. Yet in the ones where you and I met, where things were as they should have been ... that was when I came the closest."

His swallow was audible. "What stopped you?"

She wiped at her face again. "The male I fell in love with was you. It was you, who knew pain as I did, and who walked with me through it, back to the light. Maeve didn't understand that. That even if she could create that perfect world, it wouldn't be you with me. And I'd never trade that, trade this. Not for anything." He extended his hand. An offer and invitation.

Aelin laid hers atop his, and his callused fingers squeezed gently. "I wanted it to be you," he breathed, closing his eyes. "For months and months, even in Wendlyn, I wondered why you weren't my mate instead. It tore me up, wondering it, but I still did." He opened his eyes, and they burned like green fire. "All this time, I wanted it to be you."

She lowered her gaze, but he hooked a thumb and forefinger around her chin and lifted her face.

"I know you are tired, Fireheart. I know that the burden on your shoulders is more than anyone should endure." He took their joined hands and laid them on his heart. "But we'll face this together. Erawan, the Lock, all of it.

"We'll face it together. And when we are done, when you Settle, we will have a thousand years together. Longer."

A small sound came out of her. "Elena said the Lock requires—"

"We'll face it together," he swore again.

"And if the cost of it truly is you, then we'll pay it together. As one soul in two bodies.

Her heart strained to the point of cleaving. "Terrasen needs a king."

"I have no intention of ruling Terrasen without you. Aedion can have the job."

She scanned his face. He meant every word He brushed the hair from her face, his other hand still clasping hers to his chest, where his heart pounded a steady, unfaltering rhythm.

"Even if I had my choice of any dream-realities, any perfect illusions, I would still choose you, too."

She felt the truth of his words echo into the unbreakable thing that bound their very souls, and tilted her face up toward his. But he made no move beyond it.

She frowned. "Why aren't you kissing me?"

"I thought you might want to be asked first."

"That never stopped you before."

"This first time, I wanted to make sure you were ... ready." After Cairn and Maeve. After months of having no choices whatsoever.

She smiled despite that truth. "I'm ready to be kissed again, Prince."

He let out a dark chuckle and muttered, "Thank the gods," before he lowered his mouth to hers.

"You're my mate." Her words were a breathless rush. "And I am yours."

The world might have been burning around them for all she cared, all he cared, too.

"Together, Aelin," he promised, and she heard the rest of the words in every place their bodies joined. Together they would face this, together they would find a way.

Together we'll find a way, their mingling breaths, the crashing sea, seemed to echo.

Together.

[imminent-danger-came]

My new hobby is skimming through seasons of Ninj//ago to induce a fever dream like state in my psychese

[roychewtoy]

impaled

[jacensolodjo]

"Wanna get out of here?" "You have somewhere in mind?" "I know a place... as long as you don't judge my housekeeping skills."

[weldfists]

@umbane

Sett was known to make his rounds with the boys: stopping by to check in on each one of them to see how they were doing, if they needed anything, or really… just to bother them. That was his way of making sure they were all good after all. Luckily-- or rather unluckily-- Kayn's well-being has been on his mind, so it was his turn to be visited by him. How fun!

This explains the sudden hard knock at his room door, followed by Sett's all too familiar tune. "C'mon out Kayniac," his call is friendly and upbeat, some teasing thrown in for good measure too.

Sett bangs on the door rhythmically one more time for good measure. He takes a step back because he knows better than to completely invade the door frame before he's allowed entry. Or at the very least he'll leave it like that for now. With hands on his hips, Sett makes a face at the door, his ears twitching as if to listen for any movement-- how come he hasn't opened up yet?

"Well don't leave me standing out here all day!"

[otter-pop-supreme]

"we got 2 hrs of sleep, let's start the day 🥰✨"

No, brain, we went to sleep at 12 and work up at 2, why do I have to keep informing you 2AM is not a "good time to wake up", not is 3 or 4. Let me go back to sleep, the sun won't be up for another 2-3 hrs u ass-

I don't know how it manages to actually FUNCTION on said 2 hrs, and seemingly prefers it.

Tho it does result in more of me humanizing my brain and sometimes a little bit of extra delulu-ness so it's certified not 100% function

[maskyartist]

Once i start drawing mine n my wife's p3 Big Brother Junpei AU ur fucked

[mnogogrannik]

on the topic of patho 2 bugs improving the narrative, there’s the aglaya survives bug. so normally her story culminates either in her staying in town & with her role and being found dead outside the town hall the next morning, or you can try to leave with her on a train out of town, which ends up with you being caught and her being shot by the army and her body left in the steppe. inevitability of fate and adherence to role and all that (more severe this time because it’s always directly ending in death for her whereas in classic it was just implied it’d happen after the game is over).

but! she can in fact survive this! and it requires really specific behaviour and decision-making on the part of the player that i think serves to strengthen the “narrative” to this bug, and which plays to the themes of the game as a whole.

so, if you’re careful about it, and maybe ignoring your duties for the day, you can stock up on a bunch of food, water, coffee, medicine, etc. all things you’d need to survive if you had no access to any other resources such as townsfolk for trading or a bed for sleep. essentially, packing for a long journey. you have to be conscious of what you’re bringing, and also of your state before you arrive to the station, so as to stagger out your rations properly.

aglaya’s train out of town event occurs very late at night/early in the morning on the last day of the game, and is comprised of several sections; there’s the start where you meet her on the platform, the middle, where you ride & converse with her in the train carriage, and then the end, when the train is stopped and the army executes her. each section requires a conversation to advance - the stages don’t advance on their own.

here’s the fun part! you have your final conversation with her to get on the train. and then, you wait. and wait. and wait. her voice lines still play as she’s near you, but you can’t ever try to engage actively with her again. all you can do is sit there, and feed or heal yourself as your hunger rises or your health runs low. this takes a long time even if you wait until the last moment to start this quest - you have to start it during the night, and wait through the entire day, never moving or speaking.

why do this? because at 10 pm the next day, with the failure to find the courier carrying the inquisitor’s orders, the game’s late ending will kick in. you’ll be immediately teleported to the theatre, and mark chastises you, and aglaya is now nowhere to be found for the rest of the game (the tiny chunk that you have of it left), but on the bound screen we can clearly see that she’s never marked as dead.

so, you can get aglaya to survive to the end of the game - you just have to forsake your duties, your bound, the entire town, the ability to talk to her, and the entire rest of the game, which i think is a fitting sacrifice, thinking of it in the terms of your choice from p1 haruspex. her story is cast off, the rest of her life is in some off-screen limbo, but it is guaranteed she is there to live it. the ‘where’ isn’t important.

this bug (well, less bug i guess, more oversight) has mystified me since i first found out about it - the fact that the character whose entire story revolves around fate and more importantly the idea that fate isn’t something you can subvert or shift, can totally avoid that fate through an unplanned act, like a little hole to escape through, unseen by god. it being unintentional and throwing off the events of the game entirely, so much so that you have to take it as your new goal instead of reaching a fulfilling ending for the town is so fitting and satisfying to me that i half wonder if it was that unintentional at all (though it must be because i imagine it would be patched out otherwise). the inability to speak to her ever again despite her being so close to you calls to mind the myth of orpheus and eurydice, as well - you can keep her alive and safe and all you have to do is not interact with her, not doubt yourself or your goal.

it’s one of my favourite things in patho 2, and i don’t think i’ve ever seen a bug as narratively-fitting and miraculous.

[lemongogo]

vash w this hairstyle is literally so cute.. .. wolfwood matchies or smt T__T

[nyxi-pixie]

seeing people argue that the trend of everything getting less eps per season is okay/good because theres less filler in stuff now. im killing you.

IM ASKING YOU TO STOP THIS HATRED OF FILLER!!! I LOVE STUPID EPISODES OF NOTHING THAT DONT PROGRESS THE PLOT. THEYRE PROGRESSING INTER-CHARACTER BONDS!!!!!!!!!!!