#that was so long goddamn

[youshouldjustliveinmychurch]

Catra and Adora were taught to physically fight from the time they were young children, which I think is so interesting because we see the negative impact of that on their relationship. Obviously that's an unhealthy way to deal with things. They don't really know how to express their emotions or vulnerability very well. In Adora's words, she's used to punching her feelings out. In their horde days we see that one of the main ways they express affection for each other is roughhousing. Constantly. They mainly just tackle each other and playfight. It's a kind of physical touch that's more easily allowed within their framework than any kind of gentleness. While that's partially due to their dynamic in general, it quickly becomes sinister once they're actually on opposite sides of the war and are fighting with the intention to defeat. Another user posted about their fighting and the unspoken emotion behind it since they haven't been taught to express themselves in a heathy way (couldn't find the post so feel free to tag OP!). Because of their particular kinds of trauma, neither of them are able to be vulnerable and listen to the other while also explaining their feelings. For the first four seasons they're pretty much shouting at each other without any active listening going on. That lack of vulnerability and understanding is symbolized by their physical fights. What makes season 5 so good (at least in part) is The Shift™️ to gentleness.

Adora's been in an environment with people around her who have helped her start to recover from her trauma. Catra just starts to get that chance once she's rescued from horde prime. And it takes time. There's a lot to unpack there and it's not easy, but slowly Catra starts to heal as well away from the Horde. And their dynamic changes. We still see moments when they regress (their fight immediately after Save the Cat and the scene where Catra leaves again both moments when they aren't really listening to what the other person is saying - healing isn't linear), but there's something else there as well. They put their hands on each other's cheeks, Adora puts her hand on Catra's shoulder, they cradle each other, Catra holds Adora's shoulders as she helps her to the heart. And there's the moment in the spaceship where they've been fighting once again and Catra's exterior breaks and she's vulnerable. Catching Adora's wrist, her hand slides down to gently caress Adora's and she asks her to stay. This moment mirrors the moment in the first season where Adora catches Catra's wrist, asking her to come with her and Catra pulls away. Rather than the wrist (still a somewhat detached touch), Catra's hand slides down intentionally taking her hand. Ughhhhhh. My little heart. Before when they're holding hands, it's usually accidental or almost unavoidable during a fight. They're pulling each other off of cliffs or grabbing hands in a mind-bending reenactment of their memories. But this is something else: intentional gentleness which I think is such a crucial element of Catra's redemption, the development of their relationship, and the healing of their trauma.

Once Catra is out of the horde, she has the chance to start to feel safer and is able to be more emotionally vulnerable along with the fact that there are boundaries. Violence won't be tolerated and Catra has to change her behavior in order to be close to Adora, which I think is important. They start listening to each other and helping each other heal by validating the other's needs while putting themselves in each other's shoes. This peaks at the moment that Catra is finally able to express her love for Adora, which she's never had the ability to do before because of her insecurity, trauma, and fear of vulnerability. With that narrative resolution and progression, they finally kiss. Gentleness and vulnerability is what they were never allowed before and it's the thing that embodies their healing. Nothing that hasn't been said before by other posters but ughhhhhhhhhhhhh

[emberglowfox]

birds of a feather

[hinamie]

long way home

[sketchwretch]

@leathermouthproxies come collect your man

[eggsistential-breakdown]

Crew of the Tulpar's twilight cruise

Higher quality/static images under the cut

[archerdepartures116]

shenanigans side extra part 2

this could be considered a continuation of the shenanigans side extra from parts 1-4

Other parts:

Luo Binghe's good ol days on Baizhan

Luo Binghe's awesome first flight

[medusaesque]

Kim's itchy trigger finger

So, Kim reaches for his gun often. Very often. sometimes for the most ridiculous reasons- opening the bear fridge, the experiment in the church, a note from Klaasje.

This one is just from being anxious going into the communist reading group. Kim doesn't want to be the kind of cop who draws his gun constantly, who shoots instinctively, but he is, or at the very least it's very difficult for him to stop himself from becoming one.

Perhaps the most horrifying example is with The Pigs-

Even if he KNOWS the gun isn't loaded, even if he knows it's safe, the instinctual muscle twitch could have ended in an unnecessary death. Kim is very well aware of that fact, and it's horrifying to him. @shufflerock-jam has this really good post about it, where they wonder how many of Kim's kills were unnecessary. "Something about a pair of traumatized cops, one fighting against shooting himself and one fighting against shooting everyone else".

At the end of The Pigs exchange, if Harry says she tried to kill him, Kim begins to interject, but stops himself and agree this situation could've been very bad. Then Empathy chimes in- 'He's trying not to think about how bad it could have been had the gun been loaded.' Which is the heart of the issue, right? that leads us to Eyes-

This is such a fascinating background to give Kim as a character- not just losing his partner, which gives him the trauma and survivor's guilt that lead to this unhealthy relationship with his gun and frankly with death in general, but losing his Eyes, and having that not interfere with his shooting. Kim doesn't need to see well to hit, he doesn't need to think. It's all in his hands, a reflex. A reflex that nearly took an innocent life. That might have taken one before.

His awareness of looming danger, to him and to his partner, is fueling his version of Hand/Eye Coordination to have him constantly on edge, his whole body is like a loaded spring, always prepared to make sure it doesn't happen again. Then it does-

In his nightmare scenario, leaning over his partner's bleeding body, Kim only needs one word to shoot without a second's hesitation. He's never not ready to take that shot. He doesn't need his Eyes.

Harry is distraught to discover he's killed before- his body remembers it. He wants a drink to soften the feeling. Kim however is impressed with how little he's killed- especially coming from the bloody murder unit. He wants to be 'one of the good ones' (Kim's adamant belief in the possibility of a Good Cop is a whole other can of worms) the kind of cop he would think highly of. Kim is disgusted by cops who kill like it's a game. Espirit gives us a vision of a cop exactly like that, who kills so often it doesn't feel like anything anymore. In a way that is completely mechanical- no thought, no feelings, just a thing your body does. Not unlike the way Kim shoots- like a spring unloaded. Kim has 6 confirmed kills before the tribunal, double the amount Harry has. He doesn't react the same way though-

It's doesn't bother Kim that he has killed, even if he declines to elaborate on it, and he seems to frown upon (or worry about) Harry's destructive coping mechanism. If they're unable to save Ruby, he says "Control your emotions. We did our job. This won't be the worst thing that happens on this case… believe me. You can't let this break you." When you wake up after the tribunal, he doesn't dwell on the lost lives on either side. Harry's skills call him a killer, a bloodstained killer, but when he tells Kim he also killed he simply nods. He's smoking though. I'm not saying that Kim is heartless or careless, he's rattled by nearly blowing The Pigs' head off, very sorry for the lives lost during the case, and clearly hunted by death, having been surrounded by it for his entire life. But I do think death is a part of the job for him- not just possible civilian causalities, but his own potential death. He speaks plainly about how he might die in the lie of duty, and he narrowly avoided it more than once, with others dying in his place..

He walked into the line of fire with harry expecting for of them to die, and his quick fingers on the trigger made it so they lived another day. Even if more ghost joined the list that hunts him in his sleep, he is alive. He goes on. He can't afford to fix this habit, as much as he wants to.

So it's so horrible and so touching that when Dros asks "What have you done?" Kim says-

It's a tragedy, really. A wartime orphan who wanted to be a revolutionary pilot and played with Franconigerian knights, who grew up to be a cop, a job that slowly shapes his body into a killing machine. And when you ask what he does, what you both do, he says keep people alive.

[blainke-omens]

So it turns out getting positive reinforcement on a drawing every 10 minutes for the better part of a week really does wonders for my dedication to finishing it and pushing myself on the details. who woulda thunk. Anyway. Ive been having an absolute blast drawing this and slowly creating the studio space here and I can't wait to draw all the fun new ideas yall gave me !! Crowley does pottery !!!

[courfee]

look at them. they're in love.

[satorurize]

Satoru hates it when you talk low about yourself. He's generally comforting towards your feelings, always giving you the reassurance that you need, telling you how beautiful you really are in his own interesting choice of words, quote-unquote "Baby even if you were a worm, I would put a pretty little pink bow on you, and tell you how beautiful you are" Perhaps he has picked it up from the fact that you've asked him the worm question too many times.

But the place where this funny, charming, gentle demeanor falls away is in the bedroom. One could say it's tough love really.

Now you're here, sprawled out on the bed, with your legs pushed apart too obscenely, your body flushed in desperation and anticipation for him to do something, anything at all. You're dripping your nectar down the inside of your plush thighs while he is being mingy by only tapping his tip onto your slobbering folds. "'Toru, please..need you inside.." you even attempt to increase the magnitude of your seduction by spreading your folds for him—It's definitely working but he does have different goals in his mind.

"No..people who don't call themselves pretty don't deserve my cock" He rumbled a deep hum along with a hiss at how sensitive he was too, his dick reddened and angry, leaking out pearls of his precum, the most that you got was him fucking your lips until your clit felt raw and tender and you had no choice left so...you finally gave him what he wanted, calling yourself beautiful.

And Satoru swore he never came harder than he did today.

[sleevebuscemii]

like i said. they dont even fall to that ground. art deliberately lowers patrick onto it.

[121231212i]

I love him, your honor

[steddietogo]

Robin is hiding under Steve’s bed so she can grab his leg and scare the shit out of him when he comes in. Except, she knows she’s fucked up when she hears voices outside his bedroom. Plural. Her best friend in the whole wide world is, unfortunately for Robin, not alone. She knows why anyone would be seeing the inside of Steve Harrington’s bedroom. And they’re taking their own fucking sweet time as well probably making out on their way— yuck.

The door swings open when Robin is contemplating the least disastrous way she could escape the bedroom and in walks Eddie Munson. Relief floods her chest as she realizes now she doesn’t have to destroy her reputation already hanging by a thread. Then she also realizes she could scare both dumbasses, two birds one stone.

The two are still standing too far from the bed and Robin tunes out of their conversation choosing to use her brain power to mentally will them closer to her. Which is why it takes her completely by surprise when Steve— her straight ass best friend STEVE— leans in and kisses Eddie right on the mouth.

Robin claps a hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming. Her best friend a boy kisser? Her Steve?

Robin is nothing if not committed to the bit. Eddie would be proud. She waits till they get close enough even though it pains her to exist in the same room two boys are making out in. They’re play fighting, then Eddie shoves Steve into the bed and it’s now or never.

Robin reaches out at grabs one black jean clad shin and Eddie goes yowling and jumping up in surprise like he’s in some cartoon.

[shit-talker]

The 141 have a ridiculous run of inside jokes that is continuosly ruining their lives, such as;

1.) If someone says, "You love it really," to you, you immediately have to agree with them, no matter what the circumstances. Otherwise, you lose the ability to do it back. This has resulted in many weird fake confessions, including one time in which Soap got fed up with people making your mom jokes at him and went on a rant about it. Ghost glanced at him in front of a room full of cadets and just went, "You love it really, though," and Soap almost died as he sadly nodded and replied, "Yeah, I do."

2.) If something even remotely sexual sounding is said about you, you must always say, "You're damn right I do/am/will," back. This backfired once when they were in a defreif and Price said something about Gaz "coming through the back door" and Gaz, without think, winked and replied "You're damn right I did," In front of everyone and got in trouble for mild insubordination. (The others almost died laughing as he realised what he'd done, who he'd done it to, and who he'd done it in front of (aka Price's bosses))

3.) When talking about Roach, they will always act like he's died. He hasn't, but none of them can stop the joke, and it always makes all of them crack up, even Roach. This once caused major panic, as once when Ghost was discussing their latest mission with Laswell, he said, "It was fine because Roach - God rest his soul -" and Laswell had about two minutes where she thinks Roach has dropped dead and she didn't fucking know.

4.) They will always make up bad stories for how they met Ghost, if anyone ever asks. It doesn't matter what the truth is, or who they're speaking to, when asked, all three of them will reply with some made up, overly dramatic or down right boring story on how they met. These stories ranged from Ghost, saving them from a shark attack (Gaz), Ghost selling them assorted drugs as a teenager (Roach), and most devastatingly is when Soap told a distant relative of his that he met Ghost after "finding him with my older brother, behind his wifes back" he does not have an older brother, and so there is no wife.

5.) They always reference the "Malibu incident." None of them have ever been to Malibu. Nothing bad has ever happened there, but now they've created a whole conspiracy in the British Army about a coverup that happened in Malibu. Price knows about this one and finds it endlessly funny, so he goes along with it, never directly mentioning it but refusing to deny it when someone asks. If anyone ever asks about the details of it, they just give a deadpanned look as if the other person should already know and say; "Don't make me say it." There are rumours. Like, a lot of rumours.

6.) Roach claps every time someone says, "I'll be there for you" because once he clapped at the wrong time during the friends intro and had been paying the price ever since. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes you'll just hear him clapping - not even in the tune to the friends theme. Just random clapping. If any of the others hear it, they almost always reply with "That's a fuckin' joke" in a really disappointed tone. It's confused a lot of people.

[crow-perch]

After approx. 4 days of nonstop drawing, I present to you my AU idea!

Current working name is "World's Soul", but that might be subject to change in the future, I dunno.

This is my first true comic I've ever made. I'm much too used to just doing character designs and portraits, so I'm stepping out of my comfort zone for this. Getting to blend my hyperfixations is the best part of being an artist ^_^;

[PROLOGUE] -> [NEXT]

[jhonny]

SO i uh. only meant to do one or two of these, but ghost trick-style kakyoin expressions are insanely fun to draw and my hand slipped.

(... really though, we never did see kakyoin's soul pass on. maybe he did end up sticking around a bit longer...)