#she's very confused rn

[amitieos]

🥂 "What'd you think would happen if I smashed this bottle and cut the nearest person with it?" Griss wraps his fingers around the neck of an unopened bottle of champagne and thoughtfully tests its weight. There's a broken kind of smile on his face, an excited look in his eyes when they dart toward Elincia. "How fast you think we'd get a second Battle of the Eagle and Lion in here?"

That was definitely not the question she expected to hear. Although she isn't sure what she anticipated really. He seems rather rowdy but he'd likely fit right in at some of the parties hosted in Crimea at the Greil's Retreat pub.

After all, it's never truly a party in Crimea until someone drunkenly somersaults into a wall. (Unless it's a Duke's ball, one she must attend out of courtesy despite how dry the company.)

"I think it would more likely be the Battle of Garreg Mach versus Griss if you tried that," which strangely does little to discourage him. If anything his grin widens. His excitement is palpable. She frowns - it's not that she cannot understand the thrill of battle but she would hate to see someone here hurt whilst trying to relax. At first she had thought, or at least hoped he was joking. "I see that does little to dissuade you."

She finds it admirable, in a way. His lust for an opportunity to prove himself, to ameliorate his strengths and better prepare for battle. Then she imagines him swinging a bottle at Maria or Edward and her stomach drops. Now is not the time and place.

"If you really must, we could take this outside. I'd hate for someone else to get hurt unwitting and unwillingly," her fingertips graze the top of Amiti's hilt, always by her side even if it had remained sheathed today. She supposes she would have fair reason to draw it if he approached with the jagged end of a broken bottle. Training weapons would be preferable. "If you must spar with someone, I'm always happy to oblige. We have children in attendance here though and we should probably spare them a bar fight."

[cptnwynnie]

Pop quiz! What do you do when you come home and find a kid in your office who is actually an alternate version of your best friend from another universe who has somehow ended up here via vague hand-wavey undefined circumstances?

[silusvesuius]

baby👶 drawings. these are very dear to me rn.. 2nd pic is my Nelavis with @barvin0k's Varonur 🩵 last one is a baby bosmer and snow elf, hairiest of them all. although the bosmer was meant to be my girl Barletta too lols

[queen0fm0nsterz]

thinking about the Lady again and she actually is the Character Ever.

Starting off with her design. How ridiculously simple it is, right? Her yukata is plain brown and has a single layer, her wig (and yes, I am positive what she wears is not her hair but a wig soley because of how easily it comes undone... that kind of hairstyle is meant to STICK when done with actual hair) has no decorations befitting a woman of her powerful status and her mask is nothing but... empty. You could mistake her for a mannequin and you wouldn't even be wrong. It's by design, after all: she is as insanely important, as a figure, as she is anonymous as a person.

But then, it's with amusement that you note that that boring, unexpressive mask is called the "Rascal's mask" when unlocked. It's such an oddly affectionate nickname stemming from a person so utterly despicable. And then you notice her hair. Her long, black hair that should be hidden under her wig, as the hairstyle goes, but are instead hanging out freely. Not very traditional at all, right? You could almost read it as a small act of defiance of... something. Now, what that thing is, I doubt even she knows. Maybe it's just her way to seek individuality without having to step into zones she does not want to touch.

And then, of course, the lack of shoes. It's not uncommon for people to wear slippers in the house - especially for the Japanese - but she just... doesn't. In that small, small way, she is similar to Six - and every other child in the Maw running around barefoot. Except she's above running, of course. She's got the privilege of floating like a ghost so that she may never touch the ground.

(The only time when this rule is broken is when she fights Six, poetically enough. You can see her visibly step back.)

These strange little things are the first things that push you to wonder about her as a person. Not the title, not the Lady of the Maw: the individual behind the mask. Who is that person? What is she like? Is there a way to answer these questions? I think yes, if you know where to look - but is it worth to ask these questions considering what she does?

That depends on you. Me personally, I think there is narrative worth to be found in what she has to hide. Her foil, Six, finds value in the aspects of herself she does not hide: she is very unapologetic in her selfhood. The Lady isn't, for the most part.

(I wonder if that would make her envious of her younger counterpart in a different context?)

Frankly, looking back on her choice of attire, the fact that her personal bedroom is barely decorated is not surprising. She only has the essentials: a bed, the vase with the key, a few pictures of importance (of people long forgotten, herself included no doubt) and... an ungodly amount of misplaced clothes all over her quarters. All the same yukata, repeated over and over, maniacally folded and arranged in towers, but never where they're supposed to be.

A bedroom is the reflection of yourself. Of your inner world. The fact hers looks so barebones is quite telling about who she is. Or isn't. She herself may have some trouble trying to figure that one out.

I think that, in a vacuum, it's easy to assume that the reason she's so displeased by her reflection is soley out of vanity. That is definitely part of it, but I don't think that's all there is. Because after seeing the mannequins that all look just like her, the four women in the picture who also wear her same exact clothes... and that hidden quote.

This quote, which is from Alice in Wonderland. Specifically from a conversation in which Alice expresses how she doesn't recognise herself anymore because of how many times she grew big and small during the course of the day. She is not the same person she was before entering Wonderland.

I find the way she clings to the dolls and the music box to be much more... sombre when keeping this in mind. In a way, that scene is reminiscent of Monster Six clinging to her music box in the chaos of the Tower; an attempt to attach to something safe. For the Lady, it's even more personal. Those are her toys. Her song. No one can take them from her and claim them as theirs. These materialistic tomes are physical proof of her identity. She likes dolls, and she likes to sing that song from her music box. Surely, that much is something.

But a ceramic toy and an old music box are not really enough to placate the inner turmoil. Hence the broken mirrors, the hidden statues... the hung down portraits with their eyes scratched out - from times of the past. There is a person looking back in the mirror which she does not recognise. That can't be her, right?

It isn't. The reflection is but a faux image of her outward appearence. The inside, however... much like this concept art shows, she is melting away. Rapidly decaying no matter how much she tries to stick to her youth.

Because at the end of the day, that's what she's doing, no? The toys, the music box, her appearence... all of it, just to cling a bit more to the person she used to be. Point being that I doubt even she remembers what she used to be.

You'd think a person like this would be inclined to feel at least some sympathy for all the lost children wandering the Nowhere. A sense of kinship, perhaps, or even just... basic human compassion. She has proved to have very human emotions, after all. This is where she proves you wrong. Whenever you think she's stepped the lowest, she always goes lower.

In her humanity, she is brutal. Relentless, ruthless. She offers no sympathy to anyone and has no empathy to spare either. She is very much aware of what's going on under her roof: she not only allows the Maw to continue being the way it is in spite of having the power to change things, but she actively engages in its despicable practices. She has petrified children in her quarters, as well as their ashes - of which the use is unclear - and then she is responsible for the Nome population and exploitation being so large and so eerily heavy. She's twisted necks, broken bones, murdered innocents.

The Shadow Children are, to me, one her greatest offenses. I don't think they serve any particular purpose other than... being there because she wanted to make them. Children ripped away from their life because of her whims. Not even in death can they rest because she can get her hands on their souls. They're nameless, forgotten shadows with blank masks: they're just like their creator, in that way. Ripped of all individuality and devoid of everything.

Everything she sees, the Lady devours. Not a creature is safe from her shadows and her wrath, especially if they come and actively intrude in her activities. She's twice as aggressive if the Maw is at stake.

The Lady's personal bedroom has another motif piece which I did not previously mention: the Maw wallpaper. While Roger and the Chefs have wallpapers that portray them with her, the Lady... does not. She only has the Maw. She's not part of that picture.

The Lady can't let the Maw change its ways. She is the Maw. The Maw must survive: so must she. To change the Maw would mean challenging herself enough to bring about a change; to her, who does nothing but lament what she lost, that would be too much effort. Too outside of the comfortable zone where she can survive in peace. Miserable, but unbothered.

... For the most part. Until Six comes around.

[cerunilea]

I want Cellbit to still actually be in his depression arc after he wakes up from his weeklong hibernation JUST so I can see the looks on Bagi and everyone else she tells' faces at the subversion of expectations, it would be glorious to witness (especially after she spent all week preparing and bracing herself for him on the warpath, she would be so caught off guard and I think that's something you don't get to see very often)

[tojiscrack]

as a jobless tumblr user i’m glad this is my only job

🫡 (toge calling out y/n is my favorite part, hope he does it again for the two seconds he exists)

personally i think it’s a very good occupation to have (motivating me to write). i like seeing the end results for myself and you make a lottt of people happy with the writing i end up doing. it’s a shame employers don’t think this is relevant 😐

(unfortunately toge does not mention it and neither does y/n but they 100% will talk about it in future chapters since megumi is a menace and loves using it to gag his best friend every once in a while when she steps out of line)

[alpinelogy]

my mother saw the box of my graphics that i got already printed (and will hopefully be sending to mutuals soon lol) and the envelopes and backing boards i have on top of it and innocently asked whats inside and if she can have a look. never before have i sad no faster than then

[butchbush]

ok well my therapist charged me a fee :) and idk how much it is yet :) probably 100 dollars :)

[shima-draws]

Me, after finishing a romance anime: Okay well now what do I do

[briar--rising]

The sad thing for my mother is she can't undo what's already happened. She wants so desperately to have me in her life, she misses me and wants to spend time with me and work on projects with me and and and. And she's so careful these days in how she talks to me (well, as much as she can be anyway), and she tells me to let her know if she says something that upsets me, because she's terrified of driving me away.

But it doesn't matter. I mean, it matters, of course. But it doesn't change things really. Being with her is still triggering and destabilizing. The thought of seeing her again soon after yesterday makes me sick; even the thought of working on the picture I started at her house makes me nauseous because it has her essence tangled up in it. And it's not her fault, not really, except it is. But it is because of things that happened years ago. And if I could I would just let go of them. But I can't. I can't.

[bookwyrminspiration]

im getting she/girled (non-maliciously) and is it a big deal? no. but man am i Aware of it

[mariemariemaria]

Like sorry I actually can't get over how I've struggled with my sexuality for over a decade and still feel shame about being attracted to women and embarrassment about being bisexual and then when we try to find people like us amongst hundreds of heterosexuals this woman comes in saying she's pansexual and then literally 2 seconds later says she's only attracted to men. Like come oooon

[killjoy-prince]

I now know the context for the 'Doctor... you're huge' line

[misskuromichan]

Oh boy, self insert lore time! Or more like "I need help with my self insert through rambling..."

First off, my s/i doesn't have a name yet. I was thinking Ahmya (black rain) or Kugari (darkness). If you have any other names, feel free to suggest!

Secondly, I need a lore for her. I saw the fangs and thought maybe she's a vampire, or she just naturally sharp teeth??? Any ideas y'all???

[filmcel]

anytime someone talks about him to me my skin crawls and it’s not bc they’re mentioning him it’s bc his nickname is genuinely dumb and ugly as shit 😭

[steviescrystals]

i’m fr gonna lose my mind :)