#so i am here to provide

[illiana-mystery]

Speed 2 but it's just my husband, John Geiger for more than 3 minutes.

[teaboot]

I really do believe that God put me on this earth to find hiding spots in airports

[hinamie]

please any atla gojo lore. anything please im begging on my knees hands pressed together like im praying to god

I really wish I could anon :'> we tried to think of non-spoiler-y lore we could share but turns out every aspect of his character is either a. major spoilers or b. a near-direct echo of canon but make it atla flavoured (ie. his relationships w/ geto/shoko/nanami/haibara; him being The Strongest(tm) in-universe, etc). I guess there's technically the satosugu betrothal but that's already Public Knowledge given that there's art, plus the details are (surprise!) more spoilers

so ...yeah.... unfortunately you'll just have to wait to learn more about him in the fic :"> please accept this compensatory art as apology even though i am Not sorry in fact the pleas of the commonfolk make me cackle

jjk atla!au with @philosophiums

[flowerbloom-arts]

The Helen brainrot is real.......

[metropolisyuri]

Back on my yuri bullshit. I think the three of them are inseparable but also they tend to bicker a lot

[heretolurkandnothingmore]

A future forming, a curse undone...

(I decided they deserved a little family vacation to Naboo, as a treat)

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

who yearns harder, alhaitham or kaveh?

this is the second part of the ask i received! the first part discussing alhaitham's yearning is here!

Before moving onto their current relationship in-game, kaveh’s yearning will be explored. I think kaveh’s ‘yearning’ was more his hurt and his mourning over one of the most substantial relationships in his life, as alhaitham effectively filled in the familial role kaveh was missing after the passing of his father and his mother leaving to Fontaine, additionally kaveh also considered alhaitham to be his 'best friend' before their argument

in his voice line kaveh mentions that if they were as close as they used to be he would thank alhaitham for helping him out, meaning that he would have no hesitation in being open with and trusting of alhaitham

Additionally, there’s a romanticism in kaveh using the idea of ‘the universe’ in relation to him and alhaitham, as it seems that fate has led them back together, which for kaveh, is both a negative and a positive due to their differences and the issues these differences have caused, where they were once the cause for the deepness of their bond

Kaveh appears uncertain of why alhaitham would want him around, as alhaitham has seemingly rejected him in the past, so there is nothing he can conceivably offer, and this question is left unanswered

This uncertainty in their relationship can be seen in how kaveh consistently complains about alhaitham, all the while acknowledging that alhaitham has helped him. this creates a parallel in his hangout where kaveh states if he didn’t care about his work, he wouldn’t be so torn up all the time, which can be linked to his treatment of alhaitham (especially as this is from the same route as the talk with alhaitham in the library), which kaveh equates to loving something

Direct parallel or not, I think that alhaitham is equally as important to kaveh as kaveh is to alhaitham, only that due to kaveh’s misconception of alhaitham’s motives, past and present, this regard of alhaitham manifests in a way that can be misinterpreted as dislike, but kaveh’s care is explicit where he asks twice if alhaitham is okay after the encounter with Siraj, in him bringing takeout home for alhaitham, and in him worrying that alhaitham isn’t getting the interaction he deems as necessary when alhaitham misses the group dinner

post-parade of providence, they now stand as equals, and kaveh is open with and trusting of alhaitham, enjoying their conversation in actively telling alhaitham about his day, and offering to help alhaitham research, rectifying their past thesis in cyno's second story quest (which i explore more here and here)

kaveh now actively seeks alhaitham out, which is shown in an odd textual mystery,  where the first thing he wanted to do is inform alhaitham of what happened, which contrasts with kaveh’s claims previous that he doesn’t care what alhaitham does with his spare time, so long as it’s away from him

now kaveh serendipitously bumps into alhaitham in port ormos in nahida’s birthday event, and says that he’s glad they did since he was meaning to talk to alhaitham about his plans, even though he believes they’re completed and 'foolproof' - simply because he wanted alhaitham’s opinion

Overall, I think they’ve both yearned although in different ways, but I am a firm believer that alhaitham fell first, and kaveh fell harder. I think kaveh’s actions of seeking alhaitham out are explicit in this new arc for them, and this highlights alhaitham’s initial pursuit of kaveh in earlier story beats.

They’ve both finally reached the stage where they can reach out to the other, and have this be reciprocated, and they’re just as intolerable as ever <3333

[alexandreacole]

guys i need more post-canon choreman fics right now

like bro there's only FOUR on ao3 HELLO?? IM GONNA TWEAK

ESPECIALLY WITH THEIR PARALLELS WITH HOUSE AND WILSON AND HOUSE AND CUDDY LIKE PLEASE GUYS WHY IS THERE ONLY 100 FICS OF THEM??

IM BEGGING YOU GUYS FOR MORE. POST THEM HERE OR ON AO3 IDC JUST TAG ME OR LET ME KNOW BUT IM ACTUALLY TWEAKING

[bokettochild]

I love how I can be entirely confident in the stupidest ideas for LU because, heck, I've been here forever! What's the worst that can happen? You all KNEW I was nuts

But the moment I get an idea to write a fic for any other fandom I just go "what will people think of me?" like I didn't get my start writing for other fandoms to begin with LOL

But still, I apparently chicken out at the idea of writing for any other fandom now, because my brand is definitely LU, and straying away from the norm is....scary T-T

[ryuki-draws]

I miss my son, Tails

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

How to easily distinguish the Stone triplets from one another:

Eliot:

Jacob:

Alex:

( Inspired by this post.)

[zeestarfishalien]

No regrets in joining the Batpham discord. Already it has me drawing.

Ra’s Al Ghul being power washed (read: purified) by ghost king Danny whose just trying to catch up on all the kingly shit.

(Edit: BTW this is from Nov 2022. I thought i posted this years ago)

[dawnthefluffyduck]

feeling of being watched

[quatregats]

Thinking a lot of thoughts about Hornblower's relationships with Barbara and Maria as a metaphor for his larger relationship to social mobility and ambition, and I think there's actually a lot there - not sure if it was intentional, but I do think that whether intentionally or inadvertently, Forester did an interesting job with the parallels.

Quick note beforehand that some of this is based on my constant brief paging through C. Northcote Parkinson's Hornblower "biography", which, while I absolutely abhor his interpretation of Hornblower, gives even more food for thought on this point. I'm also leaning more into his interpretation of Hornblower's background and childhood, as opposed to the TV show's, so it might not work if you're coming from the TV show's perspective.

Parkinson takes Forester's comment that Hornblower was a "doctor's son" to mean that he was the son of an apothecary, rather than a physician like in the show. I'm not a historian of the period, so I would be hard-pressed to actually try to fit Hornblower's father within the 18th-century framework of medical practice, but either way, given his awkwardness around upper-class life and that he seems to have grown up in rural Kent, I think that Parkinson's claim that he was the son of an apothecary, rather than a physician, does have some reasonable foundation, or is at least equally plausible (to me) as the show's.

Hornblower struggles with poverty through most of the series, especially the first half, but even when he is barely scraping by, such as at the start of Lieutenant, this does not seem to be an abnormal state; and when he finally arrives at wealth and success, he constantly wishes to go back to the days when he was a penniless lieutenant, so from this we might also surmise that he did not come from wealth. (I'm also comparing especially to Jack Aubrey, who, while he admittedly makes a hash of coming into large amounts of money, and who also lives perfectly happily on very little, is clearly quite comfortable being the "lord of the manor" by comparison.)

One of the biggest changes in the second half of the series (from The Happy Return/Beat to Quarters onward) is that Hornblower's career comes into fruition; he becomes a decorated Captain, a member of the landed gentry, a Knight of Bath, a Peer, and finally an admiral, and marries into an enormously influential family. He's constantly in conflict about this, until he isn't: he wants to become someone powerful and important, except that he doesn't like the role once he gets it, and constantly wishes about the old days, then feels guilty for wishing for them. Most importantly, he seems to become less and less himself, his mental narrative getting more and more distorted as he tries to mold himself into the person he thinks he wants to be.

I don't think this is a particular novel interpretation, but I think that in light of this, the contrast between his marriage to Maria and his marriage to Barbara is very interesting. If he was an apothecary's son, his and Maria's marriage would make a decent amount of sense - they'd be from similar social backgrounds, and probably a reasonable match, if Hornblower's career had continued as expected. Hornblower feels comfortable around Maria at the start of their friendship and the very beginning of their marriage in a way that mirrors his comfort with the life he's living at that point - which is to say that he clearly knows and understands what's expected of him and how to interact, in clear contrast with later books. But on the other hand, for all that he originally does love Maria, Hornblower comes to find her to be coarse, unrefined, and boring, and feel that she is not good enough for the person he wants to become. It's at the point when he starts to feel that he's moved passed Maria that he begins to take on his new, ambitious, performative persona.

On the other hand, Hornblower feels stiff and uncomfortable around Barbara from the beginning of their relationship, notably for reasons of class, and even in later books, consistently sounds intimidated by her poise and upper-class untouchability. With Maria he doesn't feel enough for her; with Barbara he feels too much, an almost uncouth sentimentality. He craves Barbara's status like a man drowning, but can't hold up under the weight of what it would mean. They have very strong intellectual chemistry, but socially they are a disaster of a couple, and yet nonetheless, Hornblower continues with the marriage because it feels to him like the thing he ought to do, just as he ought to become squire of Smallbridge. He's so viscerally uncomfortable with his position in the later books in a way he wasn't even at the height of his earlier miseries, but he refuses to let himself admit that his ambitions might have led him astray.

I think it's also interesting that the relationship which Hornblower arguably finds the most fulfilling (or rather, it was written very poorly if Forester wanted to make it feel fulfilling for the reader, but nonetheless it was clearly meant to be the most fulfilling for Hornblower) is his relationship with Marie, who sits at a similar odd juncture to him. In the text, Forester says outright that Marie fulfills Hornblower's interest in upper-class women (ambition) while not intimidating him, yet still being a satisfying intellectual partner. Nonetheless, just as Marie and Hornblower can never actually end up together, Hornblower can never actually be comfortable with his position, and no matter how many times he tries to find solace in her, he is eventually forced to continue down the path that he began, making up with Barbara and fully taking up the mantle of Admiral and Peer of the Realm.

In short, I think that watching the way in which Hornblower's relationship with Maria evolves over the course of the early books and the way in which his relationship with Barbara takes up after that ends up being a very neat parallel to his own ambitions and class identity. With Maria he is at home, but bored and restless; with Barbara he gets everything that he wants, but feels like a fish out of water. I think that particular parallel is part of the particular tragedy of Hornblower - he can't ever be satisfied with the person he was, or the person he's become. But I think that adding in aspects of extreme class difference - even more class difference than the general trends of social mobility during this period - also helps to elucidate the fundamental tension which drives Hornblower forward as a character. The world he came from was too small for him; the world in which he moves now is far too big; but there's no in-between option. He has to choose what he wants to be, and sacrifice some part of himself in order to do that, and in light of this reading of him, I think that there's a lot of interesting dilemmas to be raised.

[purpurcoffeeblocks]

Perhaps, We all never left the desert...

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

Thinking about kaveh’s newly found confidence in his relationship with alhaitham, in that he can openly talk about things with ease, such as seemingly mundane things such as his day, while previously personal information was not been shared between them due to their strained rapport and kaveh’s unease with how he fits into alhaitham’s life, such as kaveh going to the desert during the archon quest and not telling alhaitham. Previously viewing himself as a hindrance in alhaitham’s space, taking on all the household chores out of guilt, now kaveh actively takes up the space, both in the house and in alhaitham’s day.

Kaveh sits on the table in the living room because he feels comfortable in their living space, he feels comfortable to do so, as well as sharing wine, and snacks, because he knows alhaitham won’t reject him. they share their evenings together, kaveh buys coffee beans for the two to try together, kaveh buys wine for them to drink together at home, kaveh talks about things of interest in his day, which alhaitham shows active interest in – which is such a contrast to their previous rapport, in which kaveh avoided being upfront with alhaitham due to his perception of alhaitham as critical or judgemental and ultimately misunderstanding him

kaveh doesn’t think twice about picking up research on the temple of silence with alhaitham, despite how it mirrors their past thesis of king deshret and how it manifested in their differences pushing them apart, he openly offers to help alhaitham – in fact, he doesn’t even ask, he hears alhaitham’s unspoken request and responds to it in kind, agreeing to combine their efforts where they had previously rejected each other

when alhaitham excuses himself from the gathering at puspa’s café, saying that it’s him ‘done for the day’, kaveh follows this up with asking alhaitham if they should head to the house of daena before returning home. Kaveh is confident in his position as a priority in alhaitham’s life, whereas before, he couldn’t understand what alhaitham wanted from him, but here, kaveh understands that alhaitham simply wants kaveh’s presence – kaveh is assured enough in this to separate himself from alhaitham’s excuse to leave the gathering, he states ‘should we’, coupling himself with alhaitham, as he knows alhaitham won’t reject him – and alhaitham doesn’t reject him at all, in fact he shares the same mind as kaveh, stating ‘my thoughts exactly’ in the two leaving the company of the party, and heading home together. The two now have shared, aligned priorities – each other, and this is known between them

kaveh is all too aware of their differences, believing them to be mirror opposites, but, unlike alhaitham, he previously believed them to be ultimately misaligned – having opposing views to never intersect, whereas alhaitham believed that kaveh, as his mirror, was integral to the enhancement of his world and of his character. Now, kaveh has not only accepted himself as alhaitham’s mirror, seeing the benefit in the two of them finally working together once more, but also is comfortable with this, with this importance that he has in alhaitham’s life. rather than being guilt ridden about the burden he perceives he places on alhaitham, he accepts and enjoys alhaitham’s regard of him, as now this is an expressly mutual sentiment.

Kaveh is now confident in alhaitham’s esteem of him, his care, his intentions. he knows how tenuous their relationship was and the harm they caused each other, and he’s accepted this, and he’s moved on, alongside alhaitham, and together they’re building something familiar, and completely new, for themselves. Rather than rejecting alhaitham out of pride for his scholarly principles and any lingering hurt, he has accepted alhaitham, the other side of the mirror, and in this, he has accepted himself, and now, he can finally make steps to move on, to better himself, alongside alhaitham