#thanks for reading all of this - peace-

[strwbrryfire]

THE CONSTELLATIONS OF GREAT AND GLORY—0433

Or: Lando, Max, and the solar system race track that they orbit for better or for worse— a poem composed by me.

[source page]

[ryllen]

Look what came through the mail today! The letters & ( •̀ω•́ )σ 3 little gremlins from letterstoear.

Just wanna say i adore the flower stickers on the letters too much, they are that much worth mentioning.

[cubedmango]

「30歳の童貞に片想いすると魔法使いになれるらしい」 (from cherry magic volume 11 special edition) — english translation

[acourtofquestions]

Kingdom of Ash Chapter 61

Chapter; Highlights (okay the entire chapter is a highlight)🤣

As requested @mysterylilycheeta I NEED TO SQUEAL IN WYVERN FANGIRL WITH YOU NOW CAUSE OH M GOODNESS THIS CHAPTER ON SO MANY LEVELS I JUST AHAKWIHUHFEJLZXBKEKA

Agony was a song in Lorcan's blood, his bones, his breath.

Every step of the horse, every leap she made over body and debris, sent it ringing afresh. There was no end, no mercy from it. It was all he could do to keep in the saddle, to cling to consciousness.

To keep his arm around Elide.

She had come for him. Had found him, somehow, on this endless battlefield.

His name on her lips had been a summons he could never deny, even when death had held him so gently, nestled beneath all those he'd felled, I, and waited for his last breaths.

And now, charging toward that too-distant keep, so far behind the droves of soldiers and riders racing for the gates, he wondered if these minutes would be his last. Her last.

She had come for him.

Lorcan managed to glance toward the dam on their right. Toward the ruk rider signaling that it was only a matter of minutes until it unleashed hell over the plain.

He didn't know how it had become weakened. Didn't care.

Still Elide kept urging the horse onward, kept them on as straight a path toward the distant keep as possible.

No ruk would come to sweep them up. No, his luck had been spent in surviving this long, in her finding him. His power would do nothing against that water.

The farthest lines of panicked soldiers appeared, and Farasha charged past them.

Elide let out a sob, and he followed the line of her sight.

To the keep gate, still open.

"Faster, Farasha!" She didn't hide the raw terror in her voice, the desperation.

Once the dam broke, it would take less than a minute for the tidal wave to reach them.

She had come for him. She had found him.

The world went quiet. The pain in his body faded into nothing. Into something secondary.

Lorcan slid his other arm around Elide, bringing his mouth close to her ear as he said, "You have to let me go."

Each word was gravelly, his voice strained nearly to the point of uselessness.

Elide didn't shift her focus from the keep ahead. "No."

That gentle quiet flowed around him, clearing the fog of pain and battle. "You have to. You have to, Elide. I'm too heavy-and without my weight, you might make it to the keep in time."

"No." The salt of her tears filled his nose.

Lorcan brushed his mouth over her damp cheek, ignoring the roaring pain in his body. The horse galloped and galloped, as if she might outrace death itself.

"I love you," he whispered in Elide's ear. "I have loved you from the moment you picked up that axe to slay the ilken." Her tears flowed past him in the wind. "And I will be with you ..." His voice broke, but he made himself say the words, the truth in his heart. "I will be with you always."

He was not frightened of what would come for him once he tumbled off the horse. He was not frightened at all, if it meant her reaching the keep.

So Lorcan kissed Elide's cheek again, allowed himself to breathe in her scent one last time. "I love you," he repeated, and began to withdraw his arms from around her waist.

Elide slapped a hand onto his forearm. Dug in her nails, right into his skin, fierce as any ruk.

"No."

There were no tears in her voice. Nothing but solid, unwavering steel.

"No," she said again. The voice of the Lady of Perranth.

Lorcan tried to move his arm, but her grip would not be dislodged.

If he tumbled off the horse, she would go with him.

Together. They would either outrun this or die together.

"Elide-"

But Elide slammed her heels into the horse's sides.

Slammed her heels into the dark flank and screamed, "FLY, FARASHA." She cracked the reins. "FLY, FLY, FLY!"

And gods help her, that horse did.

As if the god that had crafted her filled the mare's lungs with his own breath, Farasha gave a surge of speed.

Faster than the wind. Faster than death.

Farasha cleared the first of the fleeing Darghan cavalry. Passed desperate horses and riders at an all-out gallop for the gates.

Her mighty heart did not falter, even when Lorcan knew it was raging to the point of bursting.

Less than a mile stood between them and the keep.

But a thunderous, groaning crack cleaved the world, echoing off the lake, the mountains.

There was nothing he could do, nothing that brave, unfaltering horse could do, as the dam ruptured.

Rowan made himself stand there, to watch the last moments of the Lady of Perranth and his former commander. It was all he could offer: witnessing their deaths, so he might tell the story to those he encountered. So they would not be forgotten.

The roaring of the oncoming wave became deafening, even from miles away.

Still Elide and Lorcan raced, Farasha passing horse after horse after horse.

Even up here, would they escape the wave's reach? Rowan dared to survey the battlements, to assess if he needed to get the others, needed to get Aelin, to higher ground.

But Aelin was not at his side.

She was not on the battlement at all.

Rowan's heart halted. Simply stopped beating as a ruddy-brown ruk dropped from the skies, spearing for the center of the plain.

Arcas, Borte's ruk. A golden-haired woman dangling from his talons.

Aelin. Aelin was—

Arcas neared the earth, talons splaying.

Aelin hit the ground, rolling, rolling, until she uncoiled to her feet.

Right in the path of that wave.

"Oh gods," Fenrys breathed, seeing her, too.

They all saw her.

The queen on the plain.

The endless wall of water surging for her.

The keep stones began shuddering. Rowan threw out a hand to brace himself, fear like nothing he had known ripping through him as Aelin lifted her arms above her head.

A pillar of fire shot up around her, lifting her hair with it.

The wave roared and roared for her, for the army behind her.

The shaking in the keep was not from the wave.

It was not from that wall of water at all.

Cracks formed in the earth, splintering across it. Spiderwebbing from Aelin.

"The hot springs," Chaol breathed. "The valley floor is full of veins into the earth itself."

Into the burning heart of the world.

The keep shook, more violently this time.

The pillar of fire sucked back into Aelin.

She held out a hand before her, her fist closed.

As if it would halt the wave in its tracks.

He knew then. Either as her mate or carranam, he knew.

"Three months," Rowan breathed.

The others stilled.

"Three months," he said again, his knees wobbling. "She's been making the descent into her power for three months."

Every day she had been with Maeve, bound in iron, she had gone deeper. And she had not tapped too far into that power since they'd freed her because she had kept making the plunge.

To gather up the full might of her magic.

Not for the Lock, not for Erawan.

But for Maeve's death blow.

A few weeks of descent had taken her powers to devastating levels. Three months of it

…

Holy gods. Holy rutting gods.

And when her fire hit the wall of water now towering over her, when they collided —

"GET DOWN!" Rowan bellowed, over the screaming waters. "GET DOWN NOW!"

His companions dropped to the stones, any within earshot doing the same.

Rowan plummeted into his power. Plummeted into it fast and hard, ripping out any remaining shred of magic.

Elide and Lorcan were still too far from the gates. Thousands of soldiers were still too far from the gates as the wave crested above them.

As Aelin opened her hand toward it.

Fire erupted.

Cobalt fire. The raging soul of a flame.

A tidal wave of it.

Taller than the raging waters, it blasted from her, flaring wide.

The wave slammed into it. And where water met a wall of fire, where a thousand years of confinement met three months of it, the world exploded.

Blistering steam, capable of melting flesh from bone, shot across the plain.

With a roar, Rowan threw all that remained of his magic toward the onslaught of steam, a wall of wind that shoved it toward the lake, the mountains.

Still the waters came, breaking against the flames that did not so much as yield an inch.

Maeve's death blow. Spent here, to save the army that might mean Terrasen's salvation. To spare the lives on the plain.

Rowan gritted his teeth, panting against his fraying power. A burnout lurked, deadly close.

The raging wave threw itself over and over and over into the wall of flame.

Rowan didn't see if Elide and Lorcan made it into the keep. If the other soldiers and riders on the plain stopped to gape.

Princess Hasar said, rising beside him, "That power is no blessing."

"Tell that to your soldiers," Fenrys snarled, standing, too.

"I did not mean it that way," Hasar snipped, and awe was indeed stark on her face.

Rowan leaned against the battlements, panting hard as he fought to keep the lethal steam from flowing toward the army. As he cooled and sent it whisking away.

Solid hands slid under his arms, and then Fenrys and Gavriel were there, propping him up between them.

A minute passed. Then another.

The wave began to lower. Still the fire burned.

Rowan's head pounded, his mouth going dry.

Time slipped from him. A coppery tang filled his mouth.

The wave lowered farther, raging waters quieting. Then roaring turned to lapping, rapids into eddies.

Until the wall of flame began to lower, too. Tracking the waters down and down and down. Letting them seep into the cracks of the earth.

Rowan's knees buckled, but he held on to his magic long enough for the steam to lessen.

For it, too, to be calmed.

It filled the plain, turning the world into drifting mist. Blocking the view of the queen in its center.

Then silence. Utter silence.

Fire flickered through the mist, blue turning to gold and red. A muted, throbbing glow.

Rowan spat blood onto the battlement stones, his breath like shards of glass in his throat.

The glowing flames shrank, steam rippling past. Until there was only a slim pillar of fire, veiled in the mist-shrouded plain.

Not a pillar of fire.

But Aelin.

Glowing white-hot. As if she had given herself so wholly to the flame that she had become fire herself.

The Fire-Bringer someone whispered down the battlements.

The mist rippled and billowed, casting her into nothing but a glowing effigy.

The silence turned reverent.

A gentle wind from the north swept down. The veil of mist pulled back, and there she was.

She glowed from within. Glowed golden, tendrils of her hair floating on a phantom wind.

"Mala's Heir," Yrene breathed.

Down on the plain, Elide and Lorcan had halted.

The wind pushed away more of the drifting mist, clearing the land beyond Aelin.

And where that mighty, lethal wave had loomed, where death had charged toward them, nothing remained at all.

For three months, she had sung to the darkness and the flame, and they had sung back.

For three months, she had burrowed so deep inside her power that she had plundered undiscovered depths. While Maeve and Cairn had worked on her, she had delved. Never letting them know what she mined, what she gathered to her, day by day by day.

A death blow. One to wipe a dark queen from the earth forever.

She'd kept that power coiled in herself even after she'd been freed from the irons. Had struggled to keep it down these weeks, the strain enormous. Some days, it had been easier to barely speak. Some days, swaggering arrogance had been her key to ignoring it.

Yet when she had seen that wave, when she had seen Elide and Lorcan choosing death together, when she had seen the army that might save Terrasen, she'd known. She'd felt the fire sleeping under this city, and knew they had come here for a reason.

She had come here for this reason.

A river still flowed from the dam, harmless and small, wending toward the lake.

Nothing more.

Aelin lifted a glowing hand before her as blessed, cooling emptiness filled her at last.

Slowly, starting from her fingertips, the glow faded.

As if she were forged anew, forged back into her body.

Back into Aelin.

Clarity, sharp and crystal clear, filled its wake. As if she could see again, breathe again.

Inch by inch, the golden glow faded into skin and bone. Into a woman once more.

Already, a white-tailed hawk launched skyward.

But as the last of the glow faded, disappearing out through her toes, Aelin fell to her knees.

Fell to her knees in the utter silence of the world, and curled onto her side.

She had the vague sense of strong, familiar arms scooping her up. Of being carried onto a broad feathery back, still in those arms.

Of soaring through the skies, the last of the mist rippling away into the afternoon sun.

And then sweet darkness.

[skitskatdacat63]

Ik two days gone isn't a huge deal to other people but it is to me, since I feel like I woke up in a completely different world. It felt wrong to come back and blog and act like nothing happened, re: current events. I still feel pretty numb and empty about it all, along with many other emotions. I couldn't bring myself to look at any social media bcs it was like rubbing salt in the wound, and it still feels like its take a bit before I'm gonna be able to truly enjoy all the things I enjoy again. I was gonna write some long post about my feelings about it all but, I feel like atp I'd rather just try to indulge in what makes me happy I guess. Thankfully the fomo of not getting to commentate on all the F1 things that have happened have brought me out of the anxious slump I was in(new driver?? GPDA??? Zhou out??? Send me posts???)

On a completely unrelated note. Anyone interested in adoption?

[poisson-davril]

In theory Nagakiyo is miles better than Hijikiyo bc coughcoughHakodate but they are. MAYBE A LITTLE MESSY TOO but whateva, go my Nagakiyo

[napping-sapphic]

hiii i just wanted to say that i hope yall all get good sleep tonight :) today was very long for me and im so tired but my sheets are clean and i get to lay down and hope that yall are all finding a moment of peace so i’m happy

[amarimeta]

Maybe a weird question but I can't stop thinking about it after Certified, what do you think Nora and Laurie's relationship was like in the three years between s2 and s3? I lean towards thinking they were mostly awkward and at the periphery of each other's lives, but there's also an immediate intimacy between them in Certified that's incredibly compelling (it makes me incredibly happy that they were in contact all those years)

okay i want to apologize for two things.

this is sooo incredibly late i’m sorry. i was resisting the urge to rewatch every single scene of both of them (which would have led to a full rewatch)

this is barely even talking about your actual question. this is just an excuse for me to yap about laurie and nora.

HERE’S THE THING. i think nora and laurie’s relationship can be categorized into three distinct phases / eras. I ALSO WANT TO SAY. THAT IF AT ANY POINT IT SOUNDS LIKE IM HATING ON EITHER LAURIE OR NORA. I’M NOT.

phase 1 (preshow - s1)

i don’t know about the rest of you but i imagine that laurie and nora hated each other before they knew each other. it wasn’t anything personal. who gives a fuck about kevin? to me its because of the differences in how publicized their losses and grieving processes were, if that makes any sense. nora’s loss is widely known, she’s nora cursed™ and she lost her entire family. but nora’s reaction to this loss, at least publicly, is largely tame. people in mapleton, generally speaking, think she’s normal. jill only becomes disillusioned because she watched nora deliberately knock over a mug and also saw the gun in her purse, but everyone else thinks nora is fine. they think she’s sad sure, but she doesn’t act out. the one moment i can think of where she acts out in mapleton is when she sprays the GR with her hose to get them to leave, which while rude… other people throw rocks at the GR. so i don’t think anyone is judging that too harshly. on the other hand. laurie’s loss is a secret she carries alone. as far as everyone else is concerned, laurie didn’t lose anyone in the departure. and yet laurie is the one who publicly abandons her family and joins a cult. i think nora had to despise laurie for this. in nora’s eyes, being a wife and mother were precious things stolen from her, and laurie chose to deliberately toss them aside, seemingly for no reason. from laurie’s perspective, nora is much more successful when it comes to dealing with her losses. idk if this is something others would agree with, but i personally think that laurie believes that had she experienced nora’s loss, she would have killed herself. NOT HATING.

ANYWAYS so that’s them before you even bring the kevin of it all into the equation. which brings us into phase 2 (s2 finale - time skip / pre australia s3) (you know. that part this question was actually asking about)

i think this is a difficult situation because its the first time both of them see the other as an actual person, and not a character they’ve made up in their heads. to nora, laurie is no longer “my boyfriend’s ex wife who abandoned her family”, she’s my boyfriend’s ex wife who lives next door to us and is married to our neighbor (who tried to kill my boyfriend that one time. but that’s neither here nor there). to laurie, while i think she still doesn’t know the extent of nora’s grief, i imagine she was able to see through the cracks a bit more. clearly this is not a woman perfectly content in her life having lost her entire family.

i think very little of it has to do with kevin himself. i’m more interested in the jill of it all. for all intents and purposes, nora is jill’s favorite. now there’s multiple reasons to this. number one, nora is not jill’s parent. nora’s relationship with jill from season 2 on is easy because nora treats jill like an adult and generally speaking does very little to "parent" her. number two, nora has not traumatized jill to the extent that both laurie and kevin have. again NOT HATING. we simply must acknowledge that jill’s parents bring a ton of baggage. so yea maybe she thinks hanging out and speaking to nora is the easiest option. i don’t think nora ever considered herself jill’s mom nor do i think she intended to replace laurie, and i don’t think jill thought either of those things. HOWEVER. from laurie’s perspective, i think it’s reasonable to assume she felt insecure about jill and nora’s relationship and dynamic. i think about that scene in 3.01 where jill says she doesn’t want to stay the night because if she stays with nora and kevin it will just hurt laurie’s feelings, but if she stays with laurie and john laurie will keep her up all night apologizing. jill and laurie’s relationship will never have the easiness that nora and jill have, and i don’t think thats unfair. the tommy of it all is less of a factor. tommy obviously never bonded with nora to the extent jill did, his relationship with laurie is (with a valid few exceptions) significantly less strained than jill’s. (there’s also the fact that tommy has to (evidently) keep speaking to nora about leaving christine and lily alone). if we DO want to talk about the kevin of it all i think 3.04 is an important piece of the conversation. kevin reaching out to laurie, laurie telling kevin to speak to nora about what he is experiencing, nora getting upset with kevin for it. “you won’t tell me but you’ll tell laurie?” (for the record. again NOT HATING. but kevin kinda ate her ass up like no sweetie he can’t tell you everything. you DID leave him handcuffed to the bed. yes you left a note with the key location but you did still LEAVE. we love you <33).

SO. do i think their relationship in the time skip was strained? yes. i agree that they very much existed in the peripheries of each other’s lives. to the extent that two women who share a family and a lawn can exist in each other’s periphery. i don’t imagine they were ever snide or rude to each other, but i think they both had egregious amounts of baggage associated with the other that they were still unable to let go.

SO WHAT THE HELL GOES ON IN CERTIFIED AND BEYOND??? phase 3 (australia 😁)

there’s multiple parts to this. obviously. lets go that scene in the car in 3.06. laurie choosing to help nora has less to do with nora and more to do with avoiding kevin and all the shit happening there (in my opinion). nora needs to stalk these two lesbian doctors who want to blast her with radiation into space? that falls under laurie’s skillset! AND laurie just found out matthew is dying of cancer again so we might as well throw nora a bone y'know? but anyways. obviously the more involved they get and the more dedicated nora is to crossing over, the more laurie realizes that nora’s facade was just that. nora is not the perfect widow grieving in a healthy and unobtrusive way. she is feeling the same pain laurie feels, and they’ve both been feeling it for the last seven years. nora feels untethered to the point that she would rather get blasted into space for the chance to see her family again than stay here. and then they’re in the car. and now we’re talking about a suicide machine. and then we get the following beautiful exchange:

nora: if i wanted to kill myself i’d go scuba diving :) it’s the perfect method :) especially when you’re scuba diving certified :) laurie: i’m scuba diving certified… nora: i know <33

(side note. do we think nora has every single person’s individualized perfect suicide method categorized in her brain. i love this idea. she is so kind <3)

and you know what i’m gonna sound crazy but i think in this moment laurie and nora make a suicide pact of sorts. they both realize that the other is carrying this pain. and they’re tired. so nora is going to enter the radiation blast suicide machine and laurie is going to go scuba diving and the world will be more elegant. that scene by the beach is crazy to me. when nora asks what laurie plans to tell the others and laurie takes the ciggies to become nora’s therapist and gain client patient confidentiality. that’s part of the suicide pact. when nora jokes “same time next week?” that’s the suicide pact.

and then laurie gets that phone call. and she realizes that she is not as untethered as she thought. the pain she feels and has felt is real, but it doesn’t discount everything else she has. (i also think her telling kevin about it was an important step. she’s been grieving silently for the last seven years, unable to properly heal). and then one day she gets a call from nora. who is back. the suicide pact was effectively voided, but i don’t think either of them mind. nora feels safe talking to laurie once she’s returned, because she knows laurie wont betray her trust. i think there’s a sense of safety they find in each other because of how much they recognize the other.

TLDR: i completely agree with you. there was definitely a lot of awkwardness in the time skip period. weird barbecues you have to spend with someone you don’t really like or know, but they’ve somehow become part of your family. and then in terms of certified and the book of nora, i think the intimacy seen between them is a culmination of their respective arcs and existences as foils to one another.

[snekdood]

make your mean spirited jokes about men all you want but byeeeeeeeeee

[itissadbutitsmy-artblog]

favorite phenomenon is the existence of all the cute wizard city fanart entitled “this special looks so cute!! cant wait for it to come out!!” and “drew this while waiting for the last distant lands to air!! it looks really good!” and after it actually aired? radio silence.

[babykittenteach]

2023 in review! I made an effort to try more things and it worked mostly (at least for TV and movies). New things, new-to-me things, and new installments of old things all had characters to love even if I didn't necessarily feel fannish about them, and I'm hoping 2024 does, too.

[tanicus-caesareth]

guarana drama, damage control

[averlym]

HI I DIDNT KNOW YOU WERE INTO ADAMANDI HOLY SHIT. Can’t believe so few people know about this masterpiece of a musical

:OOOOO hai i agree it is criminally (haha yknow bc there are crimes..) underrated!! and really brilliant!!! discovered it literally midway through the week and akdfjgsjhdsjhjgdf

have a doodle of the saints :3

[the-art-ghost]

i have nothing to ask i just wanted to say your redesigns of jeff, ej, and lj made me ascend from how nice they look and how you reimagined their characters like MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM FINE DINING I AM EATING

I’m so happy you like them! I’m really happy people like my redesign in general

I really enjoy making them and I’m planning on making more before swinging back to Laughing Jack’s story! (ie Isaac, what he is, who made him, etc)

I’m just vibing! So thank you!

I’ll make more delicious art :3

[boxwinebaddie]

an uncle nina check in <3

hi team! thanks for sticking around! i know my blog isn't always the most exciting and enriching place in the world in terms of content, but i am very /content/ to have you all here. <3333

i promise, oddly enough, i have A TON of inspiration and ideas for all my weird styles ( if you're curious about anything please lmk! i've been trying to flesh out my aus out lately ), i've just been in a major bummer depression era lately, so it's hard for me to get my asks done and i'm having a hard time committing to finishing my writing. :<

i think it's because of stress and my bipolar, but i am trying to get back on the horse! ( are we all laughing at the idea of me trying to get on a horse? i'd start crying help city girl fail moment for me ) yeehaw!

and while, unfortunately due to the instability ( fabulous legendary iconery ) of my pretty girl popstar personality, i do not know whether i will be answering almost no questions or one million, regardless of that, i just wanted to let you know, i'm still here, still kicking my feet, twirling my hair, cooking...i'm just really trying not to force myself to put out anything i don't like...and only do what makes me truly happy.

however, nothing, my dear sweet e-darlings...

makes me happier than coming home to all of you. <333

so thank you for flooding even the darkest corners of my life with bright light, supporting my phantom fics and being wonderful,

uncle nina xx

[scorpiusmalfoylovesoscarwilde]

most days I'm so chill with the fact I'm non-contact with my father, it was the best decision, I hate him, my life is so much more peaceful without him

then bam it's a random Tuesday at 8pm and I'm sobbing because I miss having a dad, like, excuse me what is this??