#ripples of the past

[blood-choke]

Oh my God wait I have more to say on that. If you need the full scene I'm quoting: https://youtu.be/63708PykTcg?si=Bws3wyRs_TkyxPaH prepare for a lot of yapping

Hear me out. It's the "I don't like to share." Val has made it v clear she doesn't like the thought of sharing mc with Hana and clear bc of her own fears and anxiety surrounding her relationship with mc who remembers nothing about their life together.

and the "what about antionette?" "It's different I don't have feelings for her." Hana feels like the antionette to val bc, and these are just my thoughts from reading, we can see that val does care for Hana to some degree but never to the degree that she does with mc. Or maybe she does and just hides it to keep from getting attached like she was with mc and keeping Hana safe from being another one of the councils victims 🤔

And lastly the "that's bc you TOOK my life" is really getting my brain going. Especially since we see mc begin to question whether or not she wanted this life. Like, the potential behind it is putting me through the wall rn

Anyways you don't have to respond to any of this I just wanted to yap and share these thoughts bc BOY does blood choke get me thinking

hehehe yes i do think Valentina can be quite similar to Lestat in some aspects, particularly with her relationship with mc.

and you're right, she does care about Hana... in her own fucked up way. she keeps her more at a distance than she ever did mc because of that loss, which she is still mourning (even now with the mc back. she's not the mc she remembers) and she just was never able to open herself up completely to Hana. Valentina has treated both Hana and the mc terribly in the past (and the mc, at least, treated her just as bad, too, while Hana more or less just took it silently). she does care about Hana, but with the mc-shaped hole in her chest, she isn't sure how to express it, and now that the mc is back, she feels conflicted about her feelings & wants to show her devotion solely to the mc. and obviously she will get jealous of Hana (or Clear) because unless the mc brings it up, she won't share. exactly because of her anxieties (the loss of memories and how that may lead to mc choosing someone else completely) and she's actually fearful that the mc may judge her or be angry herself about Valentina's relationship with Hana (the mc was a jealous person in her past life). obviously their relationship was never Perfect, but Valentina is definitely being crueler to Hana than she ever has been before, almost like she's "showing off" for the mc, and even trying to drive Hana away. (you can potentially call her out on this in the next chapter)

and because of this Hana is realizing that even though she took the abuse and was always there for Valentina, it doesn't matter; mc is back and that's all Valentina cares about. (even if it's not necessarily 100% true-- to Hana, all she feels is that she's being discarded). that's what prompts her confrontation/conversation with the mc in ch3.

going forward there's a chance for this to change, depending on how the mc approaches the two. even if you're not romancing Hana in the poly there are still opportunities to include her (or exclude her, if you want. you can explore that route, too) and with the mc back, Valentina can potentially open herself up more to Hana than she was able to before, platonically or romantically, with mc's urging.

honestly i feel that Hana was more directly inspired by aspects of Claudia's character than Valentina with Lestat (they just happen to be similarly obsessed with mc/Louis respectively). and while i don't necessarily like to say one choice is "bad" i will say being cruel to Hana does have consequences. but i'm still writing it because i want that to be an option to explore specifically with Hana's character, and i don't necessarily want it to feel like a punishment to the player, but this game isn't exactly a feel-good game, and i do plan to make it hurt. lol

and as for your last point... yes it IS interesting. we'll probably never know if the mc was really consenting at that time (can any human really consent when eternal life is beyond their scope of understanding?) and it just adds another fuzzy layer to the messy onion that is her relationship with Valentina.

[tevos]

////

[gildedstarlight]

One of the most special things about Arcane is how even we as the viewers aren’t free from falling victim to the narrative.

We see characters like Mel, Caitlyn, and Vi all start with this bright-eyed ideas for the future only to be irrevocably changed and hardened by the tragedies and conflict around them. We witness them acting in ways we couldn’t have fathomed in season one.

And yet, we as viewers forced to grapple with the version of themselves in the past and what they’ve become. And I think there’s something so special about that.

[clownakai]

ND swag levels: woman is trying to flirt with you but you're trying to solve a case and also what is anything fr

[boonalina]

Just wanted to blast from the past. For new viewers wondering, Raine Whispers won btw. The poll ended months ago.

I'm mostly posting this so that I can change my background photo lol.

I give full permission for anyone to use this picture.

~Boonalina

[undefeatablesin]

Have a Good Hunter Aloysha WIP while I'm here, because I passionately adore this beastly woman ✨️

[vellichorom]

speaking of which, regarding the last post I’m a little curious, how would YOU design Stanley according to his canon design? Feel free to ignore this though it’s just a little silly thought.

same anon that asked about drawing goreguts fanart,,, don’t worry it is in my thoughts I just have art paralysis 🫡

watch in AWE ladies & gentlemen, as i paint myself as a massive hypocrite

not like i'm really designing stanley to be super pretty & handsome but-

so,, in the beginning, my sibling designed a stanley that i fatefully gave a narrator to! so when they made a narrator design themselves, it seemed only befitting that i again, supply & give that boy a stanley;

thus, for my sibling's narrator Evelyn, a narrator turned multiverse overseer after his game was destroyed by dataminers fucking around, i gave him a stanley that narrowly survived the destruction - but not unscathed;

behold the derogatorily dubbed " Glitch, " who went from having a face to Not having a face,

( his ruined texture face based off of The Theater creepypasta's swirly head man, because i thought it was really cool at the time )

...but i'm not very proud of " Glitch " these days; i admittedly kind of made him on a whim a couple years back, vaguely based off of popular fan designs i enjoyed, & didn't put a lot of time or effort putting any special twist on his design beyond... the obvious,

if i had to redesign him now, i'd make him look MORE akin to a broken game model, more OBVIOUS than just the little face quirk. & i'd just use the GIVEN stanley design that the game gives us.

that goes for just designing the man as is as well.

FEW people these days seem to embrace or even refer back to stanley's canon design, painfully basic though it may be, the fact remains that he HAS a design already. it's kind of odd seeing so many people diverge so FAR from it, changing the basics of turning his curly hair straight or going AS far as to making him an anime-looking little boy. & i get why, to some degree - AT LEAST regarding the simpler aspects of switching up the design a little bit for interpretation's sake - adding a Bit more variety when your character IS just the most basic white guy alive. nothing really wrong with that, i'm dabbling in the same in other fandoms, but going SO FAR in making that Middle Aged Man a magical hot anime guy to go with your magical hot anime " Old Man,, " makes me a bit sick to think of tbh!

of course, saying all this & wondering " oh gee why don't people stick with canon more... " i'm heavily tainted by bias in thinking @tomiechu's stanley is one of the best alternative designs ever & the ONLY one that could ever go with my narrator.

NOT like his design or attitude has gone terribly far FROM the given path, & he CERTAINLY isn't a little handsome pixie twink boy. he's just stanley ❤️ & the one i'd rather fall back on ANYWAY rather than make a design of my own. look at him

[kikuism]

it really was just your standard ya fantasy romance. i didn't get invested in a single character bc it was all so superficial. here's the war college here's the dragons here's the friends we made at the academy here's the banter here's the love interest here's the sexual tension and it was all done so poorly that i couldn't care about anything. i don't care about fantasy/dragons if i can't care for the characters and i just didn't bc these are characters you'll find in any book of this kind. and this book is new adult even though the writing is so juvenile to me and made me cringe at times. i guess i just want more substance in my books instead of sparkly colorful superficial elements. i think people are obsessed with this bc of the setting (war college with dragons) and the steamy romance but i can't get invested in any of that if the characters i'm reading about are dull and lackluster. can't tell you how many times ive seen headstrong violet and bad boy xaden before in other stories. that's why execution is so important bc like she could have written these characters to be really interesting and engaging but they were so boring. man this book was a chore to get through. no element of this book was strong enough to grasp my attention like idk it just seems like the girlies who are frothing at the mouth over this saw DRAGON WAR COLLEGE and just lost their shit like it was an easy sell for them. i'll say one good thing though and that's how violet’s chronic pain is adapted for a fantasy world, very cool, haven't seen that before. it was nice to read about how she can mount and stay on a dragon as a disabled person, how those accomodations are available to her. but other than that it all just felt.... superficial is what im trying to say. like if you peel it back there's kinda nothing there. fourth wing is really in the vein of sjm and those kindle unlimited series like crave and zodiac academy that have the tiktok girlies in a chokehold

also the book felt so aggressively heterosexual to me like i can't even explain it. even though there was some diversity in the side characters, the main couple's energy just felt soooo sjm coded and esp bc she's like so small and petite and he's so big and they have crazy explosive sex it just gave me the ick. there's nothing interesting or engaging about either of these characters so it's like she's overcompensating with the sexual tension and the sex and the banter like please no. it's like here's a bad boy and here's a headstrong girl and also it's enemies to lovers and steamy af like no thanks like there's literally nothing going for them. also it's not my place to speak on it but shouldn't care be taken during sex since she has this chronic condition. like it's always mentioned when she's sparring and riding her dragon how her pain flares up and whatnot, that's why she can't do anything strenuous bc it really takes a toll on her body, but somehow all that is just gone when it came to the sex, esp bc like she's so small and he's so big like.... like it feels like the whole point of that scene was to show how Spicy it was instead of like. being maybe a little realistic about it? that would have been interesting to see. i don't just want to see frenetic chaotic sex up against armoires i want to see what it's like when one person is disabled, i think that representation is important and needed too. but sure let's just focus on the steam. if you're going to have a character with a chronic illness you might as well show how it affects every aspect of their life.

also this is what i mean with the writing like im sorry but i cringed it was an involuntary reaction i couldn't help it

actual image of me recounting these lines

[milfygerard]

watching kyle browsheldhigh do his video retrospective stream and hearing him talking abt how you have to always historicize comics its like YEAH!!!!!!!!!!

[daybreakrising]

the moment Osial was sealed for Beisht ( for this meme ) listen it's rage if you want to tap into it.

send me something to drabble about | always accepting tbh

Agony. That was the sensation she felt first - a ripping, tearing, searing pain at her core, as though hands that burned cold had taken her heart within their grip and torn it clean in two. She stopped short in her path, her serpentine body twisting and coiling in immediate reaction to that sudden, agonising ache. And her mind, instantly, turned to her husband.

Osial. Something has happened to Osial.

The vast seas of her home are a constant conduit of emotion to a hydro dragon such as herself, and her beloved felt so strongly that every shift of his mood could be felt for miles upon miles. She had always known when his anger was triggered, when melancholy overtook him, when something delighted him - no matter where she was within Teyvat's oceans. She felt the ebb and flow within her storm's heart as clearly and as strongly as if it were her own.

And now... now she could feel him no longer. There was a fleeting, terrifying moment of emptiness - and then the chasm of his absence filled with a boiling rage. Jaws opened to release a feral scream that tossed the water into violent waves destined to assault shores and unsuspecting vessels; a scream that sent ocean critters scattering in terror, that shattered drifting or fallen debris. A scream that summoned dark clouds overhead and torrential, lashing rain.

Her eyes blazed bright as she altered her course, propelled herself forward at top speed in the direction of home, fuelled by the rage that pulsed within her draconic heart. Her beloved, her storm - gone. Dead? She could not tell. Their connection was severed, his essence lost. If he lived, then he lived beyond her reach.

Morax, she cursed with vengeful bitterness, hatred rising to join rage in a violent dance. She had no doubt who was to blame, for who else could ever hope to defeat Osial? Who else would dare to stand against him, to drive the knife of betrayal ever deeper into his back? I will drown your pathetic city, she vowed, I will assault your shores until those precious humans of yours curse your name for bringing this wrath upon them. I will delight in your pain as you watch them die, gasping for breath as they sink into the depths of my domain.

She cursed their old friend, cursed the heavens that pit them against each other. She raged over the tatters of their once peaceful existence, over the war that had separated her from her husband in this crucial moment. Too far - she was too far to help, travelling long distances to seek allies to their cause, to scrape at any power they might call friend. I should not have left him. If I had been there-

If she had been there, at least she could have fallen with him.

Grief permeated the rage, the hatred, but rather than dampen the fire, it became yet more fuel. She would not make it back in time to aid him, to save him, but she would avenge him. If death had parted them, she would raise a storm upon Liyue in his name - but if there was a chance to revive him, to bring him back to her... she would stop at nothing to make that happen.

Morax, she vowed, you will regret this betrayal. No one can doubt the power of the earth, but mountains fall and the ground quakes... and there is nothing that erodes earth faster and more brutally than the ocean.

[nicomrade]

juuuuuust like me for real

down to the weird ass timing of goin all serious + not actually apologizin about it just acknowledgin it

[sorrcha]

four of swords

[devilinthedetaildesigns]

God damn it, whoever said that crochet was addictive was not fucking lying

[wlwocprincess]

I find it hilarious that most of the discussion about The Hunger Games a few years ago post movie was “Why does everyone talk about the love triangle it wasn’t that important talk about everything else, the themes, the other characters” and then flash forward to now all people talk about wrt The Hunger Games is the love triangle and shipping

[d3epfriedangels]

Saw a toddler flying business class today and the parents bought two seats so he could nap. I envy this child

[theheadlessgroom]

@beatingheart-bride

Honestly, Randall should've expected this; that Emily would want to help him-it was that big, beautiful heart of hers hard at work again, wanting to make his life a little easier where she could, especially given how packed his proverbial plate was (which, given how many projects Minnie was heaping on him with the wedding approaching fast, was very). As such, Randall smiled to his bride-to-be and thanked her with a kiss to her cheek, and so he got to work.

Needless to say, having a second set of hands on deck made the work go a lot smoother, to say nothing of having somebody to talk to while they packed-honestly, telling Emily about some of the items found in the cedar chest, their histories, and the memories attached to them made the melancholy that came with the notion of moving a little less heavy.

"...that's, uh, that's my ma's parents, August and Josephine Burke," he said shyly; one of the albums had opened up when he'd dropped it, and so he took a moment to show her some of the pictures within (hoping a little that he hadn't already shown her them in the future-though he supposed the trip down might not completely hurt Emily's feelings). "A-And these are my pa's parents, Cillian and Siobhan Pace, a-and my pa's brothers, Colin and Callahan."