#scene change or end here?

[lovelettered]

this is making me so insane im gonna thhrow up

[peachymaryobrien]

2024? Idk, I'm still here

[isthatacalzone]

me: *seeing people yell about how they did Glintshore & Percy's death in the show*

also me: ..................anyway

[zukkaoru]

sometimes i think about dazai and elise bc like. imagine you're an ability and you've gotten used to getting away with whatever you want bc the guy you belong to let your personality develop into a spoiled little girl and then. and then that same guy who you belong to and therefore cannot actually distance yourself from. brings home this KID. whose entire thing is that he can nullify abilities. which means with just one touch, he can literally make you disappear. and the guy you belong to is just TOTALLY OKAY WITH THIS CONSTANT THREAT???

and then, the inverse, imagine your suicide attempt is intercepted by this lame underground doctor who takes you in and he's already got one other kid with him but then you look closer and. this random girl he has hanging around him is not actually another kid like you but is in fact his ability. his ability?????? she yells and screams and cries and fights like the most annoying brat you've ever met but she's his ABILITY. and so the only other kid around you is someone you can't even touch. not that you'd want to. but. this guy makes you his witness to an assassination and keeps you around even though you refuse to actually join the organization he's now head of but he also still has this other kid who he'll always like better than you because she's an innate part of him. a part you can kill with one touch. how could he not resent you for that?

anyway. you've heard of found family but now get ready for forced family: this lame guy you hang out around has another kid who was basically born and bred to be the antithesis of you. and neither of you can leave.

[gd-dollopole]

Arthur’s last wish was to comfort Merlin as he died

Arthur couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Merlin knowing that he would be sad.

Arthur cradled Merlin’s head in his hand, with a small smile on his chapped lips, trying to reassure Merlin, knowing what was to come, and aware that Merlin would have been destroyed by Arthur’s death.

So not only Arthur let himself be held, because he wanted to, because, finally, he could ask that of Merlin, but he gently caressed Merlin’s hair too, and we can see how much Merlin had longed for Arthur’s tender touch.

Merlin rolled his head back to feel Arthur’s palm on his scalp, although the hand was covered by the glove.

Merlin knew, in that moment, when he finally had Arthur in his arms like he had always wanted him, but couldn’t have him and only stared at him from afar, when he let himself be touched like he had craved for all those years, that Arthur wouldn’t have been able to caress him anymore.

So Merlin leaned in the touch like his life depended on it, and we can see him wavering by the tiny, yet enormous gesture.

And Merlin knew he wouldn’t have had the hand in his hair ever again.

It wasn’t only Arthur’s wish.

All Merlin had ever wanted of Arthur was to be held by him too.

[sforzesco]

this is a scrapped scene from Trikaranos & originally it joined a standalone series of comics from Pompey’s point of view, but it got scrapped from THAT set too because I decided they both needed to be weirder and worse and this is kind of vanilla ngl. however I’m still kind of fond of it in some kind of way, and it’s been a second since I’ve posted a comic! also I wanted to draw it. so I did.

for context: Crassus cut his hand open helping Pompey out with something in a previous scene! for more context: the answer to Pompey’s question is a reliable (business/political) partner. that’s about it!

⭐ places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app / tip jar!

[eelclaw]

stupid fucking bastard. i am not coping with the leaks

[wreckedhoney]

MASSIVE SPOILER for one of the endings.

it's been a while since i tried looking, but i did hear that something like this happens last year and over time started to think, "was it a fluke?" bc no one posted footage or caps of it then, and i aimed for a completionist run in my first playthrough. turns out it's real! and definitely shines a new light on a character that, for most other types of playthroughs, will not give this much emotion! EDIT: transcript now included, and some stillshots under the cut

[0:28] Marie: Henry, this is the man who kept you from doing the right thing tonight. Kill him. [0:15] Forrest: Henry, you don’t have to do this. If you’ve not killed anyone yet, there’s still time to make the right decision. [0:05] Out of shot: (Gunshots) Henderson Police! Freeze! Marie: No! Henry, get out of there!

[randomnameless]

Who wants to see more Rhage?

JP!Rhea actually makes more sense than Rhage in this scene :

It's not Billy existence that pisses her, it's their choice to "assist" the one who defiled the Holy Tomb and disgraced the fallen Nabatean - someone who assists a person who only sees Nabateans as tools to be weaponised cannot be allowed to "exercise" the power of Sothis, which is why, Rhea will end them to remove "THE" heart - not Billy's, but Sothis' - aka the way through which Billy "exercises" the power of the Progenitor God.

Rhage?

Says that Billy's presence, not their choice, but their existence, defiles the tomb and disgraces the Nabateans - no mention of Supreme Leader here, Rhage rages at u :'(

And the biggest change "take back the heart" to "take back your heart" - no "at the very last" mention, nope. Rhage immediately passes judgment and wants to steal Billy's heart - it's still puzzling for someone who didn't play SS or VW, but imo it feels like it's more meant as a death threat, whereas Rhea is more less thinking out loud how to remove Sothis' power from Billy and how to "make up" for that blunder she did (aka, allowing someone who would make such choices to wield Sothis' powers) "at the very least", removing the crest stone should work, right?

(it always involves Billy's death, but fwiw, Rhea doesn't seem as concerned as Rhage about Billy's death, she wants to recover Sothis' powers more than kill Billy)

"Pat, why Supreme Leader hates them? Is it because they're not humans?"

"N-No, it's because they're monsters! Totally in the biological sense, but also, and trust me on this, through their actions!"

"So it's not because their ears are pointy?"

"Nope!"

[red-moon-at-night]

The Trojan Horse/La guerra di Troia (1961)

Ignore the complete mischaracterisation of Helen and the inaccuracy of events, you need to see this sequence of how Paris dies. It's absolutely WILD.

[greenerteacups]

What do you think as Hermione's career would be post battle of Hogwarts? To me her being minister for magic really doesn't make sense. She does not have patience or tact to wade through murky waters of politics 😭😭

So hard to say! The Trio are so, so young when we leave them, I find it almost impossible to project their futures farther than a few years out. The job that suited me at 17 would be radically unsuited to me now. That's why of all the Trio, Ron's ending strikes me as the most realistic — he jumps straight into the save-the-world business again, burns out, realizes he's actually Done The Fuck Enough, Thanks, and pivots into a low-stress career where he gets to see his family a lot. Feels accurate! The others are weirder to me because they do seem to just... pick a lane and stay there.

With Hermione, you could spin her a couple ways. You could say that she leans into her bookish side and does research or teaching, which is not my preference for a couple reasons (namely, I don't think Hermione would like academia as a profession; she finds her classwork interesting and enjoys intellectual validation, but she'd be stifled and wasted in a DPhil program, and she'd be infuriated by the administrative politicking of your average higher-ed faculty). You could say that she gets disaffected with politics and ends up as a barrister or a lobbyist of some kind, but if anything that requires more political finesse, because you don't actually have institutional power, you're just handling the people who make decisions and trying to persuade them of your goals. This is not Hermione's preferred method of influence. She's not even particularly good at persuasion, she just happens to be smart enough (and right often enough) that people take her ideas seriously.

Or you could say her brashness fades with the years into a softened flavor of tell-you-like-it-is honesty, which some politicians actually do successfully trade on; as we see in British politics today, you don't have to be all that charming or clever to get ahead, you just need to be really driven and well-connected (which Hermione completely is; she fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the first postwar Minister and her bestie, the Literal Messiah, runs the Auror Office.) But I don't know if Hermione especially wants to be Minister, after the war. She's just watched years of horrendous bureaucratic incompetence plunge the country into a violent civil conflict. She's had not one, but two Ministers of Magic try to bully or shame her friends into complicity with fascism. Her view of government is... likely extremely dark.

But Hermione also isn't the kind of person who sees her life as a quest for happiness. Babygirl has a savior complex that makes Harry look selfish. (She basically kills her parents — yeah, obliviating is a form of murder, #changemymind — "for their own good," and justifies every batshit, vindictive, mean-spirited move she ever pulls on the grounds that it "helps" one of her friends.) She is a mean, lean, dragon-slaying machine, and she needs a dragon. After Voldemort, the Ministry is the no. 1 threat to muggle-borns and non-wizarding Beings. As a war heroine with basically infinite political capital, I'd be surprised if she didn't try to do something there. That said, Hermione is so vivacious and dynamic that she could potentially grow in a hundred different directions; it's possible that all of this, while true of her at 18, becomes completely inaccurate by 22. That's why I'm not too fussed about any particular fanon interpretation.

[tiny-smallest]

Sonic Movie Universe prediction: Robotnik is an orphan because of GUN

I think what was supposed to be, tonally, a silly throwaway line is actually winding up to punch us in the face later.

Bear with me.

I barely remember the first movie since it was so long since I watched it, but aside from one, maybe two, of the comic universes, this line is the first time we have ever gotten anything at all about Ivo Robotnik's personal backstory. And it's that he's an orphan. In a story series that explicitly sets him up with a human identity- none of that Eggman stuff as his identity, not even a whisper of the name until it's a silly insult Sonic throws out later- this movie bothers to give him a Normal Human Society Firstname Lastname and a job.

(Okay, so Robotnik isn't exactly a normal human surname. But it's established canon that is the family name so. Suspension of disbelief.)

A series that we know will later delve, at least a little, into the story of Professor Gerald Robotnik WHO IVO APPARENTLY, ACTUALLY, DEFINITELY KNEW IN THIS CONTINUITY, AS HE HAS A SPECIFIC GRANDPA NAME FOR HIM AND NEARLY CRIES.

The original line was a ridiculous rebuttal to Tom during the fight in the house during the first movie. "Rub that in my orphan face," he says in response to Tom sharing a detail of his childhood during Silly Action Scene Banter. While there is a sort of tension there since the movie universe makes no bones about Sonic being an actual child and he is confirmed to be an alien, thus making the danger present of government capture and experimentation very real and kind of horrific, the scene as it plays out isn't overly out of character for something you'd expect in a Sonic movie. And although Robotnik is the threat here, he plays a large part in also keeping the scene lighthearted because of how utterly he fails to respond like a normal human being to literally anything. The comment about being an orphan at least makes sense based on what Tom said, but it's still weirdly personal and, therefore, kind of inappropriate to say. Like dude back up you're trying to kill a child why are you sharing your trauma with me that's uncomfortable.

Which brings me to the obvious point of that line- it's not just to make the scene funny, it's to show us how set apart from other humans Robotnik is. This is a man who has no idea how to interact with anyone, like, absolutely nobody, and every single scene he's in reminds us of this, including this one.

Now that the third movie has explicitly drawn a line between Shadow's backstory and themes of pain and loss, and we see Gerald Robotnik weeping over what I think is Maria's body in the aftermath of the murder (jesus that's dark) I have to connect a few dots of my own.

The first movie had another piece of foreshadowing they threw at us, this one way more obvious: at the end of the first movie, a government agent is sent to speak with the Wachowski couple. He tells them that Ivo Robotnik has been thoroughly erased from existence. As far as any documentation of him ever existing on Planet Earth, there is none. He hasn't merely disappeared- it's like he never was.

If they did this to Ivo after this catastrophe it's not a stretch to think they did the same with Professor Gerald. Hell, I thought that after movie number one. "That has to come up later- we have a character the government explicitly turns on in this series. Like, as a major plot point. The defining moment in several characters' stories. No way does their ability to erase someone not come up later."

But now I think they went a step further.

They've already murdered a little girl and broken an old man in their efforts to contain the genius they were frightened of.

Personally, I don't think it's a stretch to think that Ivo Robotnik, very young himself at the time most likely, is an orphan because GUN decided to eradicate the entire family line in an effort to prevent anyone like Gerald Robotnik from ever existing again.

Except. The son survived. Well shit. Uh. Stick him in an orphanage and keep an eye on him, I guess.

And where does he end up as a adult? A branch of the government. Where they can keep an eye on him.

(More than that, if they did erase Gerald, Ivo clearly remembers him... so Ivo may have joined them specifically to look for traces of the grandfather he knows existed and who doesn't seem to have any records proving that whatsoever. But that's Ivo's motivations and we're talking about GUN's, so, moving on.)

It's likely based on his sheer intellect, assuming Ivo wasn't embellishing too heavily, that he didn't have to grow for very long before that brilliance was obvious. Though the government's decision to let him live was strategic, weighing the gamble of assassination with the gamble of him inheriting the genius and deciding that risking him having the same genius as his grandfather was better than trying to kill him at this point, the gambit ultimately failed. Even though he was more than likely still only a child, they'd let him live too long. In just a few short years he quickly became a very real threat to the government- as in, if given a reason, he could be a very real threat. And nothing Ivo does is ever subtle or quiet, so his genius was probably very loud, and there was likely lots of attention, making an assassination impossible, because if there would be too many questions before, there would be an insurmountable amount if he died or disappeared now.

So, since they couldn't kill him, they continued to keep an eye on him and took him on at the government when he was old enough with the intention of keeping their enemies closer. Except all of their caution still wasn't enough and he went rogue the first time he was presented with the opportunity to grab at power they didn't already have, power capable of things beyond their wildest imaginations- a monster of their own making.

Ivo, who never asked for what happened to him, very likely a victim of circumstances he had no hope of ever controlling, who responded to this trauma by making his choice that power mattered more than anything- more than morals, more than hurting people who are just like he was once. That shaping his own world after all the horrors he planned to do in pursuit of that may finally, finally "be enough."

(Be enough for what, exactly, Ivo. You never did explain that. "Who knows? Maybe that will be enough." Elaborate.)

Whether he knew the truth about why he had suffered or not, Robotnik made his choices. He stood at that crossroads that demanded he make a choice about what kind of person he was going to be in the face of all the pain and loss, and he made his choice. This movie is about Shadow making his.

If this movie really wants to beat us all to death it won't just draw comparisons between Sonic and Shadow, but Shadow and Ivo Robotnik.

(If this movie wants to exorcize our souls after we're dead, if it intends to be a trilogy and not make more movies in following the original vision for Sonic Adventure 2, it'll place Ivo at a new crossroads, and this time, he'll make a different choice.)

(Especially since Professor Gerald, in a much worse state of madness and malice than Ivo, who the movie is setting up specifically as someone Ivo loves, admires, and almost certainly misses, probably won't.)

[blackjackkent]

Wyll stands up slowly from where he has been kneeling next to Rakha's bloodsoaked body, and he moves next to Jaheira and watches with wary puzzlement as Withers descends the stairs into the center of the temple of Bhaal.

"Thou hast defied Bhaal, thy liege and father."

The skeleton's feet make no sound on the blood-damp stone floor. His voice echoes like a gong in the utterly silent room. Ignoring Wyll and the others, he walks straight for Rakha's corpse, speaking as he always does - steady and placid and very nearly monotone, and for all the world as if Rakha could hear him.

"And in doing so," he goes on, "thou hast earned a place among champions and heroes."

He comes to a halt near Rakha's shoulder. "But, alas..." he says pensively, "thy courage was in opposition to the divine cosmology that bound thee to the Lord of Murder." He makes a low noise at the back of his throat. "Thou art now faithless - godless - and doomed to wander the Fugue Plane for eternity."

Wyll can't help it. He releases a soft, strangled noise of grief and despair. It is a final blow on top of all the others. Rakha, after fighting such a terrible battle for her soul, is doomed to spend forever trapped in the purgatorial emptiness of the Fugue... and he can do nothing to help her. Perhaps nothing to find her when his time comes.

How will I bear it?

Withers pauses, lifts his head and turns his eyes very briefly to Minsc, to Minthara, to Jaheira. His gaze lingers perhaps a moment longer on Wyll - and Wyll fancies he sees something almost like sympathy in those unblinking eyes. Then the moment passes, and Withers' attention returns to Rakha's corpse.

"I will not permit that," he says gravely, "though all the powers of life and death dictate that it should be so."

He lifts one hand.

Were Rakha able to open her eyes, she would see a sensational show of light and color, the Weave rippling and then twisting outward, opening a path beyond the Realms and into the existence beyond, a tunnel into oblivion. But Wyll, watching, sees only that Withers twists his hand into a fist and pulls at something unseen.

"I too," the skeleton murmurs, "still hold some power. And I invest a portion of it in thee, who hath challenged the gods..." The corner of his mouth twitches almost imperceptibly. "...and now liveth to tell of it."

He jerks his hand downward sharply, releasing the fist and splaying his fingers out flat. "Thy fight is not over - and it is thy fight, for one who can look upon Bhaal and oppose him can survive any crisis."

Wyll watches in fear and wonderment and sudden desperate hope as Rakha's body is abruptly wrapped in tendrils of pale blue magic. Her whole form spasms, her back arching, her face twisting with pain.

"So rise, Challenger of Gods!" booms Withers. "And prepare for battle once more! Death will not claim thee whilst I endure!"

The magic bursts, and Rakha rolls to the side and curls inward on herself, drawing a hoarse, shuddering breath.

-----

For a long time she simply lies there, breathing. It seems to take terrible effort, monumental effort. And then a little less so, and then less.

What... what happened...?

She remembers nothing after Bhaal ripped his blood from her. Only blackness, and then a grey haze and... calm. Silence. Emptiness. Nothing at all. It must have gone on forever-- except now it is gone, and she feels the rush of blood pulsing in her ears like a thundering drumbeat. Everything feels loud and immediate and overly real, as if its edges has been sharpened.

She stares at the carved stone beneath her, fascinated by the lines and patterns etched in it and unwilling to face the extent of reality that lies beyond it.

But finally she has no choice. With a soft moan of pain and effort, she forces herself onto her front, then up onto her knees.

Withers is watching her with quiet, placid attention. As she looks up at him, he inclines his head back at her. Bits and pieces of his words start to filter through the empty haze of her mind, the invocation that drew her back into the world of the living.

Rise, Challenger of Gods, and prepare for battle once more.

She is so tired. So terribly, terribly exhausted. And it feels as if there is nothing inside her, no energy to draw on, none of the usual rage and violence that spurs her to action. She is... empty.

And it was quiet, wherever she was before. She has been desperate for quiet for so long.

"I just want to rest," she whispers. "Death... seemed so peaceful."

(A/N: 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭)

"There is no rest for those like thee, faithless," Withers says, and his tone is oddly gentle. "But when victory is won, I swear I shall find thee a home."

Rakha stirs uncertainly, her head lifting just a little. Home. She has no knowledge of the concept; she remembers nothing but the beast and the road. And... Wyll...

She wants to turn, to look for him, but she finds she can't turn her eyes from Withers, from that strange and inescapable gaze. A miniscule, struggling little flame of curiosity and puzzlement sparks up within that great emptiness inside her.

"Who are you?" she asks in a low voice.

He raises one shoulder in a slight shrug. "A scribe, a seneschal," he says mildly. "A keeper of records. And now thine advocate, both here and in the City of the Dead."

An advocate. Rakha swallows. Whatever Withers is, why should he advocate for her anywhere, after all she has done? There is an ocean of blood on her hands; Bhaal's taint drove her to so much killing, and even more that she cannot remember.

And it was finally going to be over. A fitting end for one who lived as she did - her mind finally free, her body punished as befit the crime.

"I deserved to die," she whispers, "for all the evil I have done..."

Withers shakes his head slowly. "The sole way to atone for thine actions," he says, "is to do better in a new dawn." He leans forward slightly, taking a step closer to her. "That dawn has come."

She slumps wearily away from the suggestion. Her limbs don't seem to want to obey her commands; her heart is still trying to remember how to pump. The dawn he describes is far too bright for her to look at.

But his voice presses around her, implacable - simultaneously comforting and rousing.

"Bhaal tried to extinguish thee," he explains. "But his wrath is imprecise. He only succeeded in killing the part of thee he knew. The Urge that drove thee to terrible acts. The spark of brutality that made thee his."

Rakha considers this. She looks inward. She listens - and realizes that he is right.

The beast is gone. There is no growl lingering at the back of her mind, no hunger for vengeance and slaughter. She does not feel the flickering and inescapable eagerness to shed the blood of everyone in the room.

She simply sits, empty and hollow, herself and no more. The tadpole still squirms in her skull, but its trembling is nothing by comparison.

The beast... is gone.

She begins to shiver violently.

Withers perhaps can see the way she responds, because his voice softens a little. "But there is a new part of you that hath grown during thy travels," he says. "That part Bhaal could not extinguish. And so... instead of destroying thee, he hath made thee anew."

She doesn't answer. She has no words. Tears begin unbidden to stream down her face, and she doesn't know if they are joy or grief. She cries silently, sitting on her knees in her own blood, and Withers watches her unblinkingly.

There is a new part of you that hath grown during thy travels. She knows it is true; she has fought so hard for that part of herself that Bhaal did not own. But she does not know what it looks like; she has only ever seen it wrapped in shadows, with the beast's teeth in its throat.

Wyll hesitates, then takes a step forward. He wants to run to her, to take her in his arms and feel that she's real and alive and breathing, to hold her through the emotion now engulfing her - but Jaheira puts a hand on his arm, holding him back, and he knows she's right. He knows what it is to be changed irrevocably by a force beyond one's control.

Instead he speaks, his voice low and gentle, all the love he can muster going into every syllable. "Was there ever any doubt?" he asks softly. "You are a champion. You overcome."

He has told her so from the beginning. He has seen the light she carries in herself, no matter how much the darkness tried to snuff it out, and he has loved her for it and for the way she fought to hold it. He has seen it more clearly than she has seen it herself.

Her head jerks, turning to look at him for a moment. There's recognition in her eyes, but gods... she looks so broken. So... confused.

"The heart of a savior hath overshadowed the mind of a murderer," Withers says gravely. "Thou hast vanquished thine Urge."

Rakha's voice is thick when she tries to speak again, the tears still streaming down her face. There is no sobbing, no hitch to her breath, just... tears, unending, exhausted. "Did you know my nature?" she asks. "All this time?"

Withers nods slowly. "I know all. But to state truths is to interfere, for the minds of mortals are easily swayed. My place, for the most part, is to observe. This intervention, the reclamation of thy soul, is beyond mine ordinary remit. But thou art extraordinary, and so are these times."

He rests a hand on her shoulder. She feels the cool dryness of his palm through her bloodstained shirt. "Today," he tells her, "thou art born anew."

She lets out a shuddering breath. Yes... she is alive. For better or worse, she lives, empty and baffled as she always has been. Perhaps even a little more empty and baffled than before. But... one thing has not changed from her moment of death.

The terrifying blankness where the beast sat, the emptiness that she must now learn to fill, does not change the fact that she is free. She stood strong at the moment when all might have come crashing down.

She draws another breath and looks up past Withers now. And the first face she sees is Jaheira's.

The older woman is looking at her with an intense gaze, some deep emotion working at the corner of her mouth. It takes Rakha some time to recognize it because she does not believe she has ever seen it directed at her before. It is pride.

"A genuine pleasure to meet you again, my friend," Jaheira says softly, and Rakha feels some of the death-chill start to recede, a flicker of strange warmth flooding her body.

"Minsc had his doubts about you, little Slayer," Minsc says with a slight grin. "But Boo had none."

Rakha, astonishingly, feels herself laugh - a coughing, choking, uncertain thing, but a laugh nevertheless.

And then Wyll steps into her vision.

"You fought and you prevailed," he says softly. "Your future will be what you make of it."

He takes her hand, pulls her to her feet, and before she has quite registered what she's doing, she presses herself into his arms, kissing him fiercely, desperately.

What *we* make of it.

When the kiss finally breaks, she turns her head to find Withers watching her with that same steady, unblinking gaze.

"Greet the bloodless dawn, child of none," he says.

(A/N: What a great line, goddamn.)

Rakha grips one of Wyll's hands to steady herself and forces another slow, shaky breath. Her mind still feels so... odd, even more patchwork than usual with new pieces torn out of it. She is used to the rhythm of fighting with the urges inside her head; without them to battle against she feels off-balance, as if she missed a step going downstairs.

"I... have no idea what to do," she admits. Her voice is unchanged in some ways - still curt, still serious and contralto and gravelly. But they can all hear the softening of its edges, missing the unsheathed dagger that always sat behind her thoughts no matter the situation.

"Thy path is clear," Withers says calmly. "You must save Baldur's Gate. As it was, so it is again. A hero has risen from a legacy of death."

[deadwerewolfgirlfriend]

Supernatural 13.20 Unfinished Business

[sskk-manifesto]

Next time we should just skip over ep 3 and do a chapters 84-87 reread

[lord-aldhelm]

HAPPY MERCIAN MONDAY!

unhinged feralness in the tags....