#the empire is always now

[arabella-strange]

u/deet0109:

Now that the UK has agreed to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the sun will finally set on the British Empire for the first time in centuries

[full news story from the Guardian here, 3 Oct 2024]

[ruubesz-draws]

Just siblings being siblings

[fantasykiri5]

Can you believe that she was TWO different weird inhuman creatures in both empires seasons?

Featuring a slight redesign of my Ocean Queen Lizzie design, because my old one was pissing me off

[aliteral-ghost]

the strange, awful relationship between the 2 falses aka i'm still thinking about them

// Monster Portraits - Sofia Samatar & Del Samatar // "You're A Mirror I Cannot Avoid" - Bad Books // "Call Them Brothers" - Regina Spektor feat. Only Son // Sign found underneath falsesymmetry's season 9 base // "Pink in the Night" - Mitski // A Cruelty Special to Our Species - Emily Jungmin Yoon // @theminecraftbee //

[icara-mack]

@sixteenth-day-event

second month?? Unreal anyway I went with these prompts!

Early Beginnings - Friends for life

The Wider world - Up in the skies

huge love to my emduo fans out these <3 it’s pouring where I am. They’re looking for new lands to conquer

[neon-ufo]

If you are someone who likes to follow artists on multiple platforms, I've been quite active on bsky! ➡️ neonufo.bsky.social

[jujapaya]

Sometimes, a family is the king of Hollow Earth, an estranged ape child that got adopted, and an ancient Titan able to create the ice age. Also their entire army of apes.

[deathdefyinggarlic]

everyone now saying that they preferred 13s seasons just goes to show people always hate on the new thing. mark my words next year people will be saying they miss this season

this has always been a thing w doctor who they literally had twelves first episode talk about it, people never like the newest season

[hanzajesthanza]

man what is this

[thedeadthree]

THE SUN ON YOUR FACE ON YOUR SHOULDERS ITS GOLDEN MOUTH WHISPERING (SO IT SEEMS) YOU! YOU! YOU! — 𝐂𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐀 𝐕𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐑. 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑟. (x)

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 (ask to be added or removed or interact 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞!): @griffin-wood, @queennymeria, @nightbloodbix, @anoras, @leviiackrman, @aezyrraeshh, @marivenah, @risingsh0t, @avallachs, @full---ofstarlight, @unholymilf, @statichvm, @socially-awkward-skeleton, @alltoowelltv, @lavampira, @adelaidedrubman, @grapecaseschoices, @shellibisshe, @carlosoliveiraa, @carrionsflower, @cloudofbutterflies92, @kyber-infinitygems, @pinkfey, @celticwoman, @florbelles, @shadowglens, @yharnams

[harpyqueen714]

When you need to take your tiefling wizard with you, so he can judge how everyone else drives.

Awesome quality sticker from this shop. Not affiliated with, just wanted to share the love.

[ruubesz-draws]

Quality time with the eldest (Earth) and the youngest (Minus One)! Whatever could go wrong??

Yet again, another cat moment for Minus One. He likes Legendary the most out of all the brothers

Goodbye, Minus One... you will be missed :'(

(Pro tip! Be careful with your belongings at the beach. You never know what might happen to it)

[hms-no-fun]

Why do you, as a marxist, talk like a liberal

[hoboblaidd]

@extravagantliar

"Ten gold says he's sent to the Wardens."

Solas groaned. They both sat in their usual place by Varric's fireplace as the Inquisitor sat in judgment of the notorious Livius Erimond, who stood before her in chains. Nobles from Orlais and Ferelden crowded the great hall of Skyhold, hungry for a bloody spectacle. Solas passed their reserved bottle of brandy back to Varric.

"You don't think that's some kind of justice?"

"It does have the sort of poetic irony you would enjoy."

Varric chuckled. "You got me there. But let me guess," he said, taking a drink before passing it back to Solas. "You'd execute him."

"Of course," Solas shrugged. "Be done with it, instead of letting it linger for years while he succumbs to the blight."

"Sounds like pity, Chuckles."

"Hardly," Solas scoffed. "If one is to render justice, it ought to be swift and decisive, not middling."

"Thought you'd love sending a message," Varric insisted. "The Inquisition makes a decision but considers its allies. Isn't that the sort of practicality you enjoy?"

Solas gave a noncommittal hum around the lip of the bottle. Varric had a point, so Solas did not respond. His silence was acquiescence enough.

"Besides," Varric continued. "It's not like the Wardens are going to take it easy on him. Twenty gold says he's in the Deep Roads before the week ends. That's justice, Chuckles. It's not always the easy answer. It's got to be the right answer."

-

The brightly colored ornamentation of the Orlesians flickered into something grey. Solas ignored it.

-

They both sat in their usual place by Varric's fireplace as the Inquisitor sat in judgment of the deposed Gereon Alexius, who stood before her in chains.

"She'll keep him on," said Varric, a seamless shift in the conversation of a judgment that hadn't happened yet at this point in the Inquisition. Erimond was months away, but Varric passed the bottle back to Solas as if they hadn't been wrenched back in time.

"It would be an unfortunate waste of his knowledge if she did not," Solas allowed, taking a drink. The feeling did not reach his fingers, as it usually did. "But it will signal weakness. It is her first such act. She should be decisive."

"He invented time travel, Chuckles. You said it yourself - you can't waste that kind of knowledge just to send a message."

"You would advise mercy."

"I'd advise justice. Your definition of it's just too linear."

-

Grief set over Alexius in a black fog that stole the warmth from the fire.

-

They both sat in their usual place by Varric's fireplace as the Inquisitor sat in judgment of the Duchess Florianne, who stood before her in chains.

"Yeah this one?" said Varric, reaching for the bottle in Solas' hands. "Chopping block."

Solas barked a laugh, and passed him the bottle.

-

The chill mountain wind burst silently through the doors, dousing the warm light of the torches lining the hall.

-

They both sat in their usual place by Varric's fireplace as the Inquisitor sat in judgment of Thom Rainier, who stood before her in chains. There was no casual bickering, no snide comments as the proceedings unfolded, and no bottle passed between them. The nobles had been escorted from the hall and the great doors closed to the freezing winds and prying eyes.

"This one hit a little too close to home, didn't it, Chuckles?"

"Yes," Solas said softly.

Rainier's resignation and Sidri's inquiries were a muted, wordless echo.

"What would your judgment have been, Varric?" Solas dared to ask, his voice no more than a hushed breath.

"I think you know the answer to that." 

Varric looked at him, and Solas closed his eyes.

-

The Inquisitor sat in judgment of Fen'harel, the Great Betrayer, destroyer of the world twice over, who stood before her in chains. Sidri sat immovable on her throne, her left arm a blinding white light. She had no face, and the light streaming in through the stained glass windows of Skyhold had no color. 

"Everyone deserves the chance to atone," said Varric. His breath was ragged where the dagger had pierced his lungs. He stood beside Solas, the bottle of brandy in his bloody hands. He took a drink, and his lips were deathly pale. 

"I held the knife," said Solas, and it rang as a confession in the empty, silent halls of the Inquisition. "And your blood is only the most recent on my hands." The ghosts of those he sacrificed for his goal hovered around them in the shape of the Titans, Felassan, Mythal, Sidri. And Varric.

"Get over yourself," said Varric, dismissing it with a wave of a hand whose fingernails had already started to turn black. His eyes were bruised, and blood seeped from the gaping wound in his chest. "We both held the knife. My blood's on my hands, too, and I'm alright with it. Hurt like hell, but I made a choice. It turned out shitty, but it was mine."

"Justice should be rendered regardless," said Solas, the cold steel of the executioner's blade stinging the back of his neck. He would almost have welcomed it, were it not for his pride. He was not finished, and no matter how just it might be, he would not stop until he'd seen it through.

"'Justice' doesn't mean death, Chuckles. Sometimes that's the easy way out. But that's what you want, isn't it?"

-

They stand on the crumbling stone of his prison, Varric unreachable at the bottom of the stairs at the ritual site. 

"You want so badly to be the villain so you don't have to face the shit you've done."

"And you want so badly for this life to follow your fanciful tales," Solas snapped. It echoed in the vast, cavernous nothing of the prison. "Justice, atonement, the narrative cleaner than the world will allow."

"You've read my books," Varric chuckled. "All my stories end in tragedy. But tragedy is the fiction, Chuckles. Real life's more complicated than that, and for the better. Everyone gets more chances."

"Even when they do not deserve it."

"Oh come on," said Varric, sitting down on the stone effigy of his body. "You going all maudlin is more boring than my romance books."

A small, fond smile pulled at Solas' face. "They were not boring."

"I'll put that glowing endorsement on the front flap next time: the Dread Wolf, elven god of trickery, bullshitting, and terrible decisions says this is 'not boring.'"

Solas huffed a laugh, the Inquisition's chains evaporating from his hands. They were not needed here. This prison was chain enough. 

"Varric..." He stalled on the apology. Not because he didn't want to, but because...Solas had built this prison. He knew its mechanisms intimately. He knew what it would take to loosen its hold. Confronting it, confronting Varric, meant the resolution of at least one regret. To apologize might mean the end of his ghost in this prison. The end of their constant, echoing arguments. The end of their fragmented dreams together. The end of these stolen moments of companionship. Death was final. Regret, at least, let the dead linger.

And Solas could not let him go.

"You should wake up, Varric."

"Thought I wasn't dreaming."

"Perhaps we both are."

"You really going to stay in there and do this self-pity spiral forever?"

At last, Solas felt a spark of life in himself. "No," he said. He looked out over the gaping chasm of his prison, and saw the silhouette of Rook begin to take shape in the stone. "I have a plan."

"Don't you always," Varric shook his head, but the shape of him was already dissipating, and their argument at the ritual site began again like the tolling of a bell.

Hope I'm not interrupting.

Solas almost welcomed it.

[vanivanvanilla]

as a resident zamgi guy since ~2022 i think it’s funny seeing people freak out about zamgi stocks because they’re fighting as if this hasn’t been an ongoing trend for years

[theallstore]

hello hello hello!! my @mcytblrholidayexchange gift for @cohnal !

words are from maize stalk drinking blood by the mountain goats + i have no idea if tumblr will keep the resolution or not so if it doesn’t this should be high res -> https://postimg.cc/wysKZc5j