#there's a duality to him that's really very interesting to me
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woundedheartwithin · 2 years ago
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empty-blog-for-lurking · 2 years ago
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Ugh now i'm thinking.... what will happen when Lance, fucked up and irreversably changed, comes back to Earth? How would it feel for him to see his family and friends after everything hes been trough?
(if you can torture him then i might as well join the party)
(I am so sorry this is so late) Welcome aboard on langst train! Here we torture Lance as enrichment for both ourselves and our boy!
Ok i am going to be honest here, i dont really have much planned out for Lance as much as i had Kuron planned out. I do think that part of his spiral is because of differences grown between him and his family. Like i imagine this au taking place a few years after Allura "died" (yes it took years for Allura to like become alive, gather herself, gain back her strength, and search her way back home).
During that time Lance was with his family. And he's Happy! He finally got back to his family! He has achieved his dream! He even met his hero! So he should be happy or atleast at peace right?
Wrong! There is Allura's death he is mourning, he is dealing with trauma from war, he feels guilty and mourning Kuron's death, he feels aimless and directionless, he died, while his family is still alive i am pretty sure his home and earth is not in good shape.
And then there is his family. And at first glance it feels like everything is fine and dandy but as time goes on they realize that well things have changed, specifically they all have changed. Lance is more reserved, isolating himself, ticking all boxes of depression. Like it is still him but also practically a shell of himself. His family has changed too, they are clingier to him and each other while also being reserved themselves. But they are trying! Trying to be the people they used to be! Especially Lance who's acting like Nothing Happened at all!
All of them want to go Back To Way Things Were, but are too changed to do it. They all expect the other to be the same and that Lance returning would have fixed things except it did not. It really did not, if anything it kinda caused the drift to grow wider and wider.
While this is all going on Lance's powers are manifesting, and they start with growing sensitivity towards quintessence, mood swings, knowledge about things he shouldnt have, etc etc. And one day he just snaps and runs away, and no one has any idea where he is, and he is only found when Kuron is alive again (btw he went full fmab on his body, made the body from scratch, stole Kuron from Shiro's mind and succeeded, suck on that Elric bros) which results in his coma where he is actually in astral plane falling more into his powers and the horror and how it is changing him.
And the worst is he is both hating and loving it. To him he can finally do something, these powers can help him help others, right his wrongs, save others like he saved Kuron, so he just throws himself into learning more about it and about quintessence and actively choosing to let it change him more because than he will finally become something that needed for others since "Lance" was clearly not enough. But he also hates it because he just wants to go back to way things were, back to the way he used to be. And his powers are very affected by all this which further affect his mind so it is a downward spiral all the way down.
Also the powers are not good for him at all, or any humans for that matter. It is not exactly killing him anymore but it is not good for his sanity.
In short to answer your question, it will be bad, it will be so bad, no one in this house is coping at all, shit's hitting the roof my dude
#Girl help i went missing for 2 years and my family now has separation anxiety#lance voltron#lance serrano#lance mcclain#vld lance#lance vld#post s8 au#voltron legendary defender#voltron#vld#empty thoughts#lance is very interesting and complex character to me#I have like few traits that are must in his character#First is duality- for every trait he has he will also have a contradiction to it#Like yes he is selfless and works best as a team player but he also really wants to showoff and can be selfish#He is incredibly emotional mature and great observational skills but he can also be so 17 year old class clown about it#he is the most extroverted talkative person there is he is also so lonely#He is the most genuine guy ever he is facades over facades over#He is laidback but he is also efficient and will get shit done#The only exception is his undying loyalty he will ride and die for you#But even the ppl he cares about depends entirely on him Pidge cld eldctrocute him in s1 and he didnt even care but Keith cldnt even breathe#in his direction in s1#And this bleeds into his wishes as well#Every wish of his that got fulfilled had a price#He is in space? He misses his family. He is in a supercool hero team like he wanted? He wonders if he's doing enough.#He is dating the girl he liked? Well it's during the time when both of them are depressed af and then she dies#He is a tragic character in the role of a comedic character playing a hero character#his thing is that he is human in all human messiness and glory#he is adaptable and fits in every role that is needed of him but never in the role he wanted or in the way he wanted#truly an enby bi icon
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nostromo130 · 2 years ago
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[Image ID: a lineup of 4 non-player characters from my D&D campaign. from left to right. first is a tiefling with orange-red skin, short brown hair, and grey eyes. their left horn is broken. they wear a black cloak, brown leather armour, striped pants and are holding a hunting knife. next is a half-elf man with dark brown skin. his dark brown hair has a grey streak and he is holding a cane. He has two designs. the first wears a black coat, grey pants, white gloves, and little round glasses. the second is a ringmaster-style costume: green tailcoat with silver embroidery, white pants, and he's also wearing some pale blue eyeshadow. In both his shoes are splattered with blood. Next is a white human man with white hair and red eyes. He wears a black suit with red lapels and a grey waistcoat. He is holding a wooden stake. Lastly, a human woman with brown skin and hair. Her eyes are red and she wears a white collared shirt with poofy sleeves and a long grey skirt. She has a chatelaine. They are all standing in a row against a grey background. End ID]
lineup for a dnd campaign heavily based off of curse of strahd. left to right: ezra d'avenir, dr. rudolph van richten, rictavio, lon godfrey, moira godfrey
#ezra is a revamp van richten is the Same and lon+moira are original but inspired by dracula.#dnd#dungeons and dragons#art#artists on tumblr#dnd npcs#ocs#<-sure? whatever#curse of strahd#not a fan of the guy (strahd) myself. he's dead in my version and its a whole thing#Anyways really happy with rictavio/van richtens designs esp his face and hair. not so happy with ezra but I'm satisfied enough.#kind of obsessed with their dynamic. very fun to write because van richtens fucked up but means well really but has a weird definition of#meaning well. and ezra is like the kid whos unpacked a lot of the baggage they got from her parent and no longer sees the parent as remotel#good. which fucks with van richten because he very much wants to be a good parent after losing his family. so its interesting#also im such a sucker for reveals so obviously van richtens disguise thing piqued my interest. his commitment to the bit is so funny to me.#if the players dont figure it out im going to cry /j#but fr his design is fun because he has to be believably a silly storytelling ringmaster guy but also a Renowned Monster Hunter so I have t#capture that duality and hidden side. hes constantly keeping secrets and acts manipulative a lot so he's a mysterious person which was fun#to work on. details like the blood splatter and him only wearing silver and the makeup are just awesome to me. god I love character design.#minor blood tw#knife tw#ALSO did similar things with the godfreys who are secretly vampires. details like their hands being triangle shape language wise than the#rest of them or them only having gold jewelery/metals are meant to clue people into that nature. i think the red eyes were a little to far#maybe. might change that one detail or simply omit it from their verbal descriptions until its the correct dramatic time to.#ravania tag
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dawnslight-aegis · 8 months ago
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and that's a wrap on my tarot series! the upright majors, at least. there may be others sometime in the future if I am seized by a combination of insanity and hyperfixation once again.
you might notice a few cards are a bit (or in the case of the fool and alternate chariot, a lot) different! I did a few retakes for consistency/style.
below the read more I've included a bunch of notes about symbolism and reasoning behind my choices if that interests you!
(tag for individual card posts)
0. The Fool: Ardbert was really the only choice for this one. He's our stand-in, our shard, our mirror. Feo Ul is included partially because of lore (they are my co-WoL's shard on the First) and also because they also fit the themes of adventure and new beginnings and exploration. Most of the cards I played pretty loose on the posing vs traditional depictions, but this one I wanted to hew a little closer, which is why he's on a cliff with a foot hanging over the edge a bit, with his axe standing in for the bindle. This is my second attempt at the card -- the first was in Il Mheg, but I moved it to Kholusia (Ardbert's home) and dawn to more closely symbolize that it's the beginning of something. Attempts: 2. Difficulty: 8/10, posing Feo Ul was annoying.
1. The Magician: This card could have had several subjects, chief among them Alphinaud or a more modern G'raha, but I settled on Alisaie a) because the other two cards I had in mind for her (Chariot and Justice) were already taken, and b) the card's focus on physical magic and depicting the "tools of the trade" reminded me a lot of Angelo's creation! So that's why she's here, and why I set the card in Matoya's Relict, among the tools of magicians who came before (Matoya, Y'shtola). I retook the shot because I was unsatisfied with the blurriness/the way the light covered her face in the first one. Attempts: 2. Difficulty: 5/10, simple pose but working with Impact's spell effect complicated things.
2. The High Priestess: Another that I never questioned who would appear on it. Y'shtola's arc is entirely about uncovering forbidden, secret knowledge and wisdom, so she fits beautifully. The blue-white orb and the purple staff depict duality between dark and light, and how Y'shtola walks in two worlds, seeing things that are beyond sight, standing before an altar/holy place to the Night's Blessed. Attempts: 1. Difficulty: 2/10. Premade pose, knew where I wanted to place her -- the only thing was finding a prop for her off hand.
3. The Empress: Hoo boy did Minfi give me some trouble. I knew that I wanted our Antecedent, who provides both authority and care for the Scions, to represent the Empress, but I struggled to find a depiction that wasn't, well, boring. Minfilia is deeply linked with the Solar, and I didn't want to lean too hard into Word of the Mother/Hydaelyn territory, so I settled on a triple goddess-like idea. Attempts: 3. Difficulty: 6/10. Not mechanically difficult, just conceptually.
4. The Emperor: Another one that I knew who I wanted but struggled with the concept. Haurchefant is very much emblematic of the stability, structure, and masculinity provided by the Emperor, but it wasn't until I decided to add his equally-Emperor-coded father that things settled into place. Together, Edmont and Haurchefant evoke the image of father and son as well as king and knight, filling both major male authority roles that the Emperor exemplifies. Attempts: 4. Difficulty: 6/10. Same as the Empress.
5. The Hierophant: this one was one of the hardest to choose a subject for -- the WoL's allies are largely a bunch of revolutionary firebrands, and I disagree HEAVILY with the popular choice of placing Aymeric here. So I landed on Alphinaud -- out of the Scions, he is the one most concerned with tradition and the "right" way to do things, with formal education and structure. He wants to bring Sharlayan into the modern day, not upend the institutions that raised him and that he very much still respects, much like how he still respects his very traditionally Hierophant-coded father. So I placed him in his family home with a sort of smug look since he can be a pretentious little shit sometimes (affectionate). The spell effect is from Kardia, and I paid special attention to having the shapes align perfectly with the lines in the background, to give a sense of stability and order to the shot, especially contrasted with Alisaie's more dynamic and chaotic depiction. Attempts: 1. Difficulty: 4/10, entirely in alignment.
6. The Lovers: Hrasevelgr and Saint Shiva are a great choice for depicting the Lovers as two people, but no one does the Lovers in one subject better than Ysayle. Invoking the spirit of a woman who died for love in order to bring harmony to her people, but it truly being her own power and her own choice the whole time... it's great. Her pose is her transformation/summoning pose, turned into a gesture of affection, which I was particularly proud of. Attempts: 1. Difficulty: 3/10, posing monsters is always a little funky.
7. The Chariot: This one has two options -- my co-WoL, Marz, and Tataru/Cid/Nero for the NPC variant. All 4 characters share a singular drive and refusal to let anything stop them once they've set their mind to something, and the 3 NPCs have the added benefit of being associated with a literal "chariot" in the form of airship design. Marz's place on Shadowkeeper has some lore associations (Cylva is her shard on the 13th) as well as being a void mirror to Kaede's sin eater shot. For both I wanted to have dynamic poses to evoke the activity of the card. Attempts: 1 (Marz), 2 (NPCs). Difficulty: 3/10 for both, no major hurdles once the lovely @/karoiseka pointed me at an airship in NG+.
8. Justice: The heart of the Justice card is its emphasis on truth, and no character in FFXIV is more committed to truth even in the face of great suffering than Aymeric de Borel. Because of this, the shot is taken at the top of the Vault, where he confronted his father over his concealment of the truth of the Dragonsong War. The card is usually depicted with a woman holding a sword and balanced scales -- Aymeric is holding his sword in a pose used in statues in the Pillars, and the symmetry of the shot/light and shadow split down the middle is meant to give the feeling of balance. Attempts: 1. Difficulty: 1/10. I knew my concept, location, and shader before I even went in, and it came out exactly like I wanted.
9. The Hermit: Originally I had Urianger for this card, who still fits well, but when I moved him to Wheel of Fortune, there was a clear second choice: The Exarch. He even resembles the Hermit, with his cloak and staff, holding himself in isolation and possessing secret knowledge with which he guides the party. G'raha has grown out of this role as of Endwalker, but the Exarch fits it to a tee. I wanted to show his longing to return through his body language and reaching out for the portal that shows him the world he is set apart from. Attempts: 2. Difficulty: 4/10. Nothing major but did have to do two entirely separate cards lmao.
10. The Wheel of Fortune: The one I struggled with the most, conceptually. At first I had a more abstract choice, with the 3 starting city state leaders and Tataru, in a sort of "fate leads to the Scions" idea. But then I remembered that Urianger is a fortune teller who uses a wheel-like weapon with a literal wheel of cards, and, well. Yeah. The man is intimately associated with fate and choice, and the choice to place him on the moon is intentional, to separate him from his more secretive depictions in HW/ShB. He is the one who prepares our second option (flight) while giving us the choice to make our first (fight). Attempts: 2. Difficulty: 7/10. He's up on a high ledge that's not normally accessible and that's always a pain in the ass.
11. Strength: The one that started it all. The original shot of Kaede contained some layer elements I wasn't happy with so I ended up retaking it to better cohere with the others. Strength is about confidence and inner strength "leashing" power, symbolized by the woman and the tamed lion, and there's exactly one good lion model in XIV -- Forgiven Cruelty. It also has the fun side meaning of Kaede conquering and wielding the light that almost killed her. For Moenbryda's, I went with something simple -- her axe to symbolize her strength, but with her archon mark and the Sharlayan Thaliak statue prominently featured, emphasizing her intelligence. Attempts: 2 (Kaede), 1 (Moenbryda). Difficulty: 6/10. Kaede's was straightforward enough (though I had to wait an annoyingly long time for the sky to shift colors correctly), but Moenbryda's involved me floating her up on a building so i could get Thaliak in the shot correctly.
12. The Hanged Man: Holy moly this one was a PAIN IN THE ASS. I knew from the minute I started this what I wanted to do with it -- Lahabrea holding Thancred's ankle as he reaches for Minfilia. The Hanged Man is one that I felt it was especially important to mimic the iconic pose on the card, and this was how I decided to do it, but it took me over an hour and a half to accomplish. Anyway, the Zodiark idol stands in for the Tree of Life, which I really liked. Attempts: 1. Difficulty: 10/10. Absolutely infuriating to have to pose 3 actors in three dimensional space like that.
13. Death: I only ever considered Estinien for this card. It stands for transformation and change, for shedding the old to make way for the new, and I chose to depict that by having his old corrupted drachen mail posed behind him like a shadow or an abandoned husk. He has left the hate and the rage behind, but the helmet is meant to symbolize that he always remembers it, and carries it with him so that he can do better. His lance is also vaguely reminiscent of the traditional Death scythe. That spot in Coerthas is where he challenges you in the early DRG quests while controlled by Nidhogg, as well as being just visually striking. Attempts: 1, but it took a while. Difficulty: 9/10. The ground is very much not flat, the helmet is on a minion, and I had to change angles and locations a few times.
14. Temperance: I briefly considered Hythlodaeus here, but Krile fits very well. Calm, competent, but unsure of her own worth. I chose Eureka Hydatos both for its importance to Krile as well as its easily accessible water -- instead of pouring from a cup, Krile is looking at her reflection. This one came together so quickly and easily. Attempts: 1. Difficulty: 1/10. In and out of Eureka in less than 20 minutes.
15. The Tower: Originally, before I reshuffled, G'raha was going to be the Tower simply because I didn't know where to put him, and I couldn't think of an ally who is ultimately a destructive force, but it always bothered me because he truly didn't fit. Meteion, though -- despite her innocence and unwillingness, is THE destructive force within Endwalker's story. This card had the highest hurdles -- I had to get 7 friends to help me queue for Endsinger and then leave, and I almost couldn't get my tools to load Meteion in properly. After that it was smooth sailing, however. I used the whole lockout timer, but this was only the 4th shot I took, and it's one of my personal favorites. Attempts: 1. Difficulty: 4/10, purely for queuing.
16. The Devil: Addiction, obsession, and control -- Zenos was the only answer for this card. I included Zero as well, despite intending this to be a primarily 6.0 and earlier set, to represent the humans bound in chains to the Devil, using the way she's pinned between Zenos and the scythe to symbolize that she's trapped. Afterward I realized this exact shot and character choice would have also worked quite well for the Tower, as well, but I ultimately prefer the Devil for him. Attempts: 1. Difficulty: 3/10. Came together surprisingly easily, despite the fact that I had to make Zero's hat touch pose myself.
17. The Star: Symbolizing hope and new life, I can think of no one better suited than Ryne and the Empty. Ryne herself was given her own new life when Minfilia passed on her power, and the ability to make her own destiny -- and she used that power to revitalize a barren wasteland. My first version of this shot had a photoshopped in central star, but I decided to revisit the concept with an in game effect for the star instead. Helios provided what I needed, with the fun extra benefit of some additional rainbows (happy pride!). Attempts: 3. Difficulty: 3/10. Nothing crazy beyond trying to find a good angle to get the star in the shot, as well as Eden and the rainbow crystal. Second attempt I messed up the framing and had to redo it again.
18. The Moon: The card of dreams, fear, anxiety, and secrets, Gaia is perfect here (and a lovely companion to Ryne as the Star), though I did briefly consider Urianger as well. I wanted to have Gaia on the sand, with the moon hanging between the crystal walls of the Empty above her, but the angles would NOT cooperate to allow me to get the moon in the shot. So, levitation was the only answer. Fortunately it suits Gaia well, especially the distance that it evokes. Attempts: 1. Difficulty: 6/10. I hate midair posing.
19. The Sun: Another card that sprang fully formed into my mind. Joy and fulfillment is symbolized by Lyse enjoying the morning light in a free Ala Mhigo, thinking of Papalymo. It also allowed me to get both of these very different characters into a single card, as they are very much a package deal, though I did consider Papalymo for the Hierophant as well. Attempts: 1. Difficulty: 2/10. Came together very quickly.
20. Judgement: The last two cards of the Major Arcana are very high concept, with very lofty ideals, so they felt hard to pin down. I thought of doing both my WoLs here, or maybe Elidibus with his three forms for light, dark, and balance. But ultimately I ended up on Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus, as the sort of "final judgement" before the battle with the endsinger, the last step before everything ends. Their literal rebirth, the resolution of Emet-Selch's conflict with the WoL, the not-redemption but understanding reached, our efforts judged worthy -- it all just seemed to fit. The card design is simple but I hope the colors and emotion of the scene carry the weight of the arcana. Attempts: 1. Difficulty: 2/10. No major roadblocks.
21. The World: At last we arrive at the end, not only the last posted but the last taken as well. I always knew I wanted Venat/Hydaelyn for this card, as she is the literal heart of our world, as well as an Azem who has reached the end of her journey, as Ardbert was one who was at the beginning of his all the way back at the Fool. But when I didn't use Elidibus anywhere else, I decided to add him here as well, since he also served as the heart of the star for a time. Light and dark united together, watching over Etheirys. The one who destroyed our world in order to save it, and the one who saved our world only to try to destroy it. Perfect symmetry, a completion of the circle. Attempts: 1. Difficulty: 9/10. I had to stitch together 3 separate screenshots in photoshop, with the fore and backgrounds cut apart so I could control the opacities separately. Probably the card that took me the longest, but it was worth it.
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prettealolilol · 14 days ago
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i like to think about the duality of the kids about people shipping Bruce with anyone, because the guy has been elected as the most handsome man in the country for years, has this whole playboy Brucie persona and is often seen with someone at his arms (men and women)
on one side, they'll be like "ew god no, i do not want to imagine dad like-" and "oh my god some people actually ship Bantman and Joker wtf ??" and they'll do their best to filter every social media to avoid any thirsty or shipping content about Bruce
when the press ask them about it, they be like:
Tim : "Would you like it if I asked about your thoughts on your dad cheating on your mom with his secretary ? No ? Then mind your own business." when the dad was in fact cheating with his secretary and now everybody knew because Tim was live when he answered
Jason, pulling out a gun : "i swear to god i'll shoot the next person who asks me this and then i'll shoot myself. Ugh, do i look like i fucking care about the old man's sex life ?"
Dick, smiling uncomfortably : "i don't really live at the manor anymore and i barely see him with my job so you know..." when it has been in fact a week he's been sleeping at the manor after patrolling with Batman
Damian, frowning as usual, looking at the guy who asked him as if he did not have a brain : "Father is careful in not mixing his carnal activities with the family life so i do not have any hindsight on his sex life. i do not wish to know regardless." the journalist is taken aback by the explicit answer of this ten year old, while his brothers are trying not to laugh behind him (Jason was not hiding his snickering)
on the other side, you cannot tell me those guys are not the biggest shippers in the world
like Jason would want Batman to date Wonder Woman just so she could be his step mom. i strongly believe the guy has a ao3 and tumblr account and is very much active on both. he definitely reads batman x green lantern fics just to annoy Bruce (even though his dad has no idea, but still gets shivers when Jason is reading one)
Dick and Duke both ship SuperBat although for different reasons. for Dick, that's his uncle there, he was there when they met and saw them as they slowly became best friends. he strongly believes they are made for each other. Duke just think it would be super cool (no pun intended) if the Superman and the Batman were dating.
Stephanie just likes to roll with it, some days she feels like shipping superbat, others she'll be more into batcat, or batlantern. she's pretty volatile and doesn't really have a favourite, but when she gets into one she's all in. she'll be arguing and insulting people online who disagrees, sharing crazy theories...
Cass doesn't really care, she'll listen to any of her siblings ranting about their thoughts (especially Steph) and juts find it adorable (and funny how much they care)
Tim probably ships superbat because they are completely opposed, and he finds the parallels really interesting. he definitely writes fics (Jay reads his fics and they exchange about it without knowing it's each other)
Damian doesn't really see the point. but he has drawn of few fanart (Jason tried to bribe him with money once and Damian had to remind him of his inheritance) when Bruce benched Tim and him and he ended up drawing some batlantern that Tim printed and plastered all over the manor. Bruce had to restrain the access to the printer (Tim hacked into it the next day)
Barbara, although she doesn't really ship, is the one you go to if you search some content, she'll find you the most heart wrenching, 200 thousand words, slow brun, angst/comfort fics you'll ever read (the type of fic that changes you deep into your soul). she still likes debating with the batkid
Regardless, if there's one things they all agree on, it is Bruceman (love those fics were the batkids just go along with it). like it's hilarious but the fans make some pretty good points and they are in fact impressed. it's also the safest ship as it would not happen in any situations so they don't have to worry about their dad being stolen
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animehideout · 1 year ago
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I’d really like to see JJK x plus size fem reader!! also FREE PALESTINE
JJK MEN X PLUS SIZE FEM¡ READER 💖
a/n : Thank you @sakuhannah for requesting and thank you for supporting Palestine, let's all Pray for our Palestinian brothers and sisters ♡
Warnings⚠️: fluff but with some smut.
characters: Gojo / Geto / Sukuna / Toji / Yuji / Nanami.
Its kinda long and I really hope you enjoy reading this💗.
Remember you are all uniquely beautiful, deserving of the world's wonders. Embrace your uniqueness, stay confident, and remember, you radiate brilliance just as you are. 🫶🏻
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Gojo Satoru:
One word, this man is a simp for you.
Would flirt with you 24/7, even though you're already a couple.
Obsessed with your stunning curves and openly praises them, literally in front of everyone.
“Turn around and show me that beautiful ass of yours”
He's a very confident man, so he appreciates your self-confidence and how you stand smiling in front of the mirror.
He finds your self-confidence really sexy and attractive.
Satoru enjoys shopping with you, would spoil you and buy you expensive clothes and accessories.
Turns the store into a runway “Yeah do a little spin for me baby”
Would lowkey start a fight with people who work there if you can't find your size.
Picks out skirts for you because he loves how your legs look in them.
Loves how strong yet how gentle you are.
Your duality is his weakness, he loves your soft side as much as your badass side.
Loves how you treat his students with care.
You always hang out with him and his students and he really appreciate how you are interested in the things he's interested in.
Satoru is also a sweet tooth, so he enjoys sharing sweets and candies with you.
But, there are times when you are self-conscious. He would be you're number 1 hype man.
Wouldn't let you lose your self-confidence.
Never wastes a second to shower you with sincere compliments.
“I love you for you, I love each part of you”
Shows you off a lot, but gets jealous when someone looks at you for too long.
“No one else gets to have you but me, all for myself”
Satoru adores your ass, so he enjoys having you on top while doing it.
So he can slap your ass and squeeze it the way he wants.
“You drive me insane”.
Nanami Kento:
This man right here adores you.
He finds beauty in the uniqueness of your figure and the softness of your curves.
He likes to trace his fingers on your body and your stretch marks.
“You're majestic”
He might not be very expressive with words but damn, he can't keep his hands off of you both in public or private.
He's always placing a protective hand around your waist or hips giving you reassuring squeezes, silently conveying his love to you.
Admires you with a smile on his face whenever you're standing, sitting, walking...
He loves and respect you so much.
Loves how mature you are and how you can handle everything alone without any help, even though he's always there ready to give you a hand.
Whenever you're anxious, he always encourages you to embrace yourself, reminding you you constantly that your worth and beauty goes beyond the stupid society standards.
Wouldn't allow you to starve yourself and would spoil you with homemade food, so both of you could enjoy it while watching movies.
During intimate moments, he likes missionary so he can treat you like a princess.
Also cause you're on full display for his eyes to admire.
“My lady”
He loves your boobs, so during it he would give them soft squeezes.
Or simply burying his head there, leaving sweet wet kisses while making love to you.
“You are my love, my other half, my human diary, you're my everything y/n”
Toji Fushiguro:
Toji lives for your thighs, literally obsessed with them.
In private, in public, during family gathering this man doesn't care, his hands must be somewhere roaming your clothed or exposed thighs.
His affection is straightforward and genuine.
You're literally his type.
He compliments your boldness and self-confidence.
Admires the way you carry yourself, man he loves that.. lowkey turns him on.
He's a very supportive partner, he encourages you to go to gym dates with him not to lose weight tho, but rather to so both of you can keep healthy and entertained.
He loves you the way you are.
Toji values openness, so he appreciates it when you are open and talk about your insecurities to him.
His arms would provide you comfort and reassurance.
Creating a safe space for you.
“You're absolutely stunning and you're mine, dont ever forget that.. do you understand?”
He gets extremely jealous when someone looks your direction, he would show them that you belong to him only.
When both of you are relaxing, he buries his head between your inner thighs.
His hands wrapped around them, while he nibbles on the mellow skin.
“mm I wanna stay here forever ”
During intimacy, he likes eating you out.
He likes to position himself between your legs while you wrap your thighs around his shoulder squeezing him.
“Yeah, babygirl, squeeze me with those thighs”
Ryomen Sukuna:
The moment he saw you, he knew right away you'd belong to him and only him.
Openly compliments each part of your body.
“Every inch of you belongs to me”
But his actions speak louder than his words.
Despite his demonic nature, Sukuna tends to show you a tender side of him, just for you.
When you're under his touch, his fingers would gently brush your skin while his lips leave sugary yet sensual kisses there.
Very possessive of you, literally wouldn't let a living soul look at you, he's the only one allowed to admire you.
“ You dare to look at my woman like that? do you have a death wish brat?”
He's so damn protective of you, always resting his hand on your ass, especially in public; asserting dominance.
He's an overly confident man with a high god complex, so he admires confident people.
He fancies watching you enjoying yourself, he finds it intriguing.
He values your strengths, in personality in the way you carry yourself, in the way you show off in front of him with a smile on your face, oh girl he lives for that.
He sits back watching you with a big smirk as his eyes glued on your body.
“You're so fucking gorgeous, so fucking hot”
In rare moments when you doubt yourself he would look at you in confusion.
Doesn't understand the reason of why you're feeling down cause he sees you as a goddess (you are♡).
“huh why are you sad?_this dress doesn't look good on you?? are you fuckin kidding me? or is it an indirect way to make me rip it off of you?”
He's always keeping a watchful eye on you to ensure your safety and well-being.
And if someone dares to throw a comment your way, you can consider them dead.
He'll split them in half in a blink of eye without any mercy.
“Who do you think you are to talk to my woman like that? Know your place you fool!!”
While doing it oh damn, he worships that ass.
Gives you endless spanks till it's red.
He just loves the way it feels against his hands..
Makes you feel desired.
Expect a lot of doggy.
Geto Suguru:
Suguru is the sweetest and we all know that.
He didn't even consider your weight or size when he fell head over heels for you.
You're so beautiful and he loves the way you talk so softly.
Love you from head to toe.
He's got artistic sensibilities so he appreciates the aesthetic beauty of your figure.
You would catch him drawing or sketching you, showcasing his admiration for you as a work of art.
“You're a work of art y/n”
He likes the way you think, and the way you see things.
Admires how you help people with a smile on your face.
Admires how you play with kids while in his mind picturing a family with you.
Always making sure to remind you how beautiful and worthy you are.
Loves when you buy new clothes and try them in front of him.
Helps you get dressed or undressed and leaves kisses on your shoulders.
It makes him happy when you take his opinion on what to buy or wear.
Cooks your favorite meals to make sure you're eating well and not starving yourself.
When you're complaining about your weight he pulls you to sit on his lap to prove you wrong.
Enjoys having you on his lap especially while facing him.
When you're being harsh on yourself, he gets extremely sad cause he hates it when you feel that way.
Encourages you to embrace your body with love and pride.
He's very good at comforting so he'll never fail in boosting your self confidence.
During intimate moments, he's a fan of you riding him.
He loves having you on his lap whether facing him or not.
Preferably facing him so he can admire your face and grab your chest.
He WORSHIPS YOUR HIPS.
His hands glued on your hips the whole time guiding you.
“I'm in love with your smile, your voice, your laugh, your body, your eyes..but most importantly I'm in love with you”.
Yuji Itadori:
He didn't think twice to fall in love with you.
This baby adores you, appreciates every inch of you.
Always squishes your cheeks and bites them softly.
Gives your tummy a lot of playful kisses and blows a raspberry to make you laugh and hear your sweet giggles.
Your laugh is music to his ears.
Loves your curves and stretch marks.
He kisses each one of them and traces them with his finger tips while staring at them in admiration.
Compliments you with an infectious smile making you feel loved, cherishes and adored.
Always hyping you up.
He loves cuddling up to your chest, it's his comfort place.
Uses your boobs as a pillow.
“They're so soft...so comfy”
His face always buried there.
Buys your favorite snacks.
He's very romantic, always surprising you with affectionate gestures whether it's a bouquet of flowers, a hand written note or simply a back hug.
Loves your confidence and loves to show you off.
Proud to be your boyfriend.
“Yeah that's my girlfriend, thats my beautiful girl”
Whenever you feel sad or insecure he showers you with empowering words and gestures.
Brings back the smile to your face in no time.
“You're my heaven on earth y/n, I love you”
“I'm so lucky to have you”
Always encourages you to follow your passions and dreams.
Carries you everywhere, so expect a lot of piggyback rides.
Thank you for reading ꒰⁠⑅⁠ᵕ⁠༚⁠ᵕ⁠꒱⁠˖⁠♡
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midnightexe · 13 days ago
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In light of Matt (EmperorValentine) stepping down from EAPS and the appreciation event for him in the SBS Discord server, I wanted to make something really quickly to just,,, show my thanks.
Ramble under the cut.
I didn’t get much of the early-written content of Puppet, Foxy, or others, just because my main focus was on TSAMS, LAES, and—well, EAPS. I didn’t really branch out into the others, but as I went back recently to rewatch old silly videos, I got more content of them both— early and new.
Puppet didn’t really interest me at first when they were brought in with Lunar’s revival. I didn’t spark interest in them because that’s ALL I really saw them do—and even then I only knew they were a character at all because of dialogue—, but as I saw them more and more—on the MAPP, in clip compilations, edits, art, specific episodes, etc, my interest grew. They clicked with me.
I love Puppet. I love their writing, their dialogue, their interactions and dynamics, their just- their characters means a lot to me in ways I can’t describe. Matt did an amazing job with all of his characters, even ones I only really have had glimpses of, and I feel like people should talk a bit more about the voice actors themselves. I love the duality of hurt and healing I feel when I think about their character. What they’ve done, what they’ve wanted to do, how they’ve influenced people both good and bad. They’ve been an amazing character and, although I am sad to see Matt’s Puppet leave, I’m also excited to see what comes next.
So yeah, in short; Thank you, Matt. From the bottom of my heart, for all you’ve done in this community.
I’m really happy for him and wish him the very best with his new projects/focuses, I just wanted to jump on the bandwagon of a good send-off.
(This is not my best piece, it was done in the span of an hour. I would’ve done more but I’ve had NO time lately </3 )
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inventedfangirling · 1 year ago
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My friends i watched love for love's sake and I swear i don't have a fckin clue where even to start.
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I know a lot has been said about the show already and i know a LOT more would be said about in the future, but i just can't help adding my own two cents to one of the most thought-provoking, moving and brilliantly executed pieces of art i have ever seen.
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I'm not gonna go on about just how much I loved Tae Myungha's character and how he is one of the most interesting people I've seen on screen in a long time. I'm not gonna talk about how unbelievably squishable Yeowoon is and how his duality totally ruined me that I need him to get into my pocket and NEVER leave. And oh I need him to put Myungha in his pocket while at it. I'm also not gonna talk about precious 'of course i'm gay, i've always liked girls, you don't know how to be loved' Sangwon is to me, cos if i start I can promise you I will most certainly never stop.
So for the sake of the rest of this post, I'm moving on. (NOT REALLY THO)
I just LOVE LOVE LOVE all the interpretations that people are coming up with, LOVE LOVE LOVE the show for filling in the gaps but LOVE it more for still leaving room for pretty thought-flowers to bloom around.
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You know those artworks or puzzles that have something obvious hidden in a maze of confusion and haze until somebody points out the pattern, you zoom out and realize wow it was this clear all along?? That's a LOT of what watching the show felt like to me. The pattern being how inexplicably inter-connected Myungha and Yeowoon are. Not because they are each other's blorbos, but because why they are eo's blorbos. Why they don't care for each other from a sense of sympathy, but from empathy, despite not knowing the depth of their connections explicitly.
Eventhough we do see glimpses of it from the start, it only gets more clear later how Myungha and Yeowoon really are mirror versions of eo. How the first time Myungha sees Yeowoon he's stopping him from killing himself, and then we later find out that Myungha ends up killing himself. How both of it was triggered by a series of disappointments in life, starting with a troubling family and ending with a grandmother who passes away. Of how both of them seem to really have no one else to call their own in the world. Of leading very lonely depressing lives, that seem to never have a glimpse of hope. How both of them seem closed off, but inside they really are so fragile it hurts to perceive the depth of their feelings. It all comes and hits you once you've taken the whole show in and have gotten a few 1000 seconds to think about it.
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We start off with myungha's character wanting to make his blorbo's character happy, and he's in it cos he cares about him, he doesn't have to think about himself. A 'pathetic' character experiencing a lot of pain, what's not to love, Myungha thinks, not realizing that it's his own mirror self that he is feeling so much for. Myungha sees Yeowoon's problems as someone from outside and is therefore able to objectively look at it, and approach it proactively, taking so many steps to help him, my favourite (and arguably most important) of which is the effort he puts in to help form yeowoon a friend circle. Something that he couldn't do for himself cos he never even considered a possibility of that. Why would anybody want to be around him? He ruins everything right?
And then to go on despite believing that, to falling in love, to deciding to choose to save both his grandma and yeowoon, finally FINALLY taking control into his hands even if for a bit to say what he wants, to spending the last few days together, to breaking up cos he just thinks the worst of himself, cos he doesn't know better. And then to the eternal darkness, where moments before leaving, just like in his real life, he realizes he wants in, he wants to live, he wants to love, but more importantly this time, he wants to try being loved. Even if it's difficult, he wants to try.
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I love how eventhough the show is heavily Myungha focused, we get meaningful dynamics with multiple characters. Round eyed gasp inducing moments dont just belong to the two mains but also to sangwon whose line to myungha post the stalker incident just ruined me and really set the tone for whatever the show was later revealed to be all about.
I love how complicated the narrative got while still telling a more or less coherent story, how in hindsight, a lot of it makes even more sense now. How as Myungha gets closer to yeowoon his self-hating tendencies manifest in the form of debuffs and errors, because of his own brain's inability to perceive himself as somebody deserving love. His childhood trauma and the numerous rejections life has given him, because of the kind of person he turned out to be because of those rejections, all appear to stand in his way of happiness, as if he can't help being a bundle of sadness and a harbinger of problems. Even as he says he doesn't believe in destiny or fate. Or as we initially are made to believe in the game as, yeowoon's happiness, when in reality this was never about yeowoon at all. Yeowoon never existed in the first place and in "real" life, he never does.
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I was blown away by how Myungha is in fact no longer in the mortal world but that fact doesn't hurt as much as that he would have to leave a world where he could finally feel happiness, feel loved, feel cared for, even if he consciously tried avoiding them. They still came to him, they still cared for him, they still fiercely wanted to protect him, (Cos he is just a tiny meow meow, who has been hurt a lot in his life, who wouldn't wanna caress and nurse him back to health HUH) just as much as he wanted to protect them.
And coming to the question of what's the game, where is it happening and who orchestrated it? It's definitely set in the afterlife or the limbo between life and the life after. It could be the author friend doing it, or the author friend has given myungha's brain the power to control the game OR of course the possibility that this has all been happening in myungha's head the whole time.
Whatever it is, the whole point has been to take Myungha from a person not wanting to live his life, feeling so devoid of love and happiness, to a journey of love and friendship, of the importance of fostering connections, of making efforts, of helping others, but equally of letting others help you, of putting your hand out and asking for that help. And in my head I love it most when I think of it as entirely Myungha orchestrated. Of it being a desperate cry of pain to himself, from himself, to save himself. Yeowoon and the game and the missions and all of it was for him to see himself in ways he never allowed himself to be seen as, to take care of himself in ways he never has, to love himself like he has never known to. To finally run towards himself, even if pathetic and sad, the Cha Yeowoon of the game, the person waiting at the end of the finishing line was the Tae Myungha in him all along.
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You know that tumblr quote 'do it for her' but its about your future self, right? Myungha rooting for Yeowoon is sort of like that? When he's protecing him, he's protecting himself? When he's cheering for him, he's actually cheering and rooting for himself? When he's loving him, he makes space and place to love himself?
I just love the idea of a (self) love story.
Eitherway Yeowoon x Myungha supremacy.
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Extreme(ly accurate?) Interpretations apart, Love for Love's Sake is truly one of the, if not THE finest (self) love story I might have ever seen.
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As a person who avoids fics/books with mcd or shows with tragic endings, it felt absolutely revolutionary to me that my biggest joy and relief came from the fact that the main character is dead (the thought of myungha having to leave the game was too much to handle) and he gets to live in this game where he has a cute boyfriend, a supportive, caring friend group and his grandma back. it wasn't the game that was temporary or non-existent, it was actually his life outside. And that's not bad? Cos this is a story and Myungha isn't real, but as real as he is, he got his happy ending.
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The show taught us to love, to see love, to be loved and to share that love. It told us that maybe the afterlife is a videogame simulation where we all get to live in friendship and love forever, with our blorbo and our friends. There are a lot worse lives to live. And I'm glad he found it in himself, enough love, courage and hope to write himself a better one :')
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amelee23 · 2 months ago
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Interpretation of messages and references in Railway
I would like to first say these are my interpretations and I could very well be wrong about these or read way too far into it
!! So take this with a grain of salt !!
TW: BLOOD, GORE AND DEATH TOPICS
1. The text in Romanian
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Now, I have seen a few translations because this text is well, spelt wrong. (Idk if it was on purpose or not, maybe to throw us off?)
Special occasion info reveal, but I am Romanian.
My own interpretation is this:
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"Castelul meu este un loc al intunericului." which translates to "My castle is a place of darkness."
This translation makes the most sense to me, but like I said, I have seen other translations by people which are a tiny bit different. (but nothing too game changing.)
Personally I like "My castle is a place of darkness" because I feel like it could reference something like a mind palace. So basically saying "my mind is a dark place."
2. Vampire concept
This vampire concept to me seemed to be inspired by Bram Stoker's Dracula at first, but then I realized it was more than that. I'm gonna bring a few arguments as to why I think that it might be a lot more well documented.
Dracula was based on the real Romanian Emperor Vlad the Impaler, a violent leader who used to stake people alive.
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These creatures, to me, seem to be tied to these flags, and honestly this imagine immediately made me think of Vlad the Impaler's gruesome history. He was such a cruel man that the people back then used to think he was feeding off of the blood of people, and that's why he was so eager to kill.
However!! Before these concepts really set into the Romanian folklore, 'vampires' (the correct name is actually strigoi) were the souls of people (dead or alive) turned evil, that would come to haunt people.
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"The evil dead committed always returns to the person who committed it"
Romanian folklore followed this rule as well, up to a certain point, as it was said that people who weren't allowed into Zalmoxis's (A god) kingdom after death would come back to haunt the earth. (So basically sinners.)
On top of that it was also said that strigoi used to crawl out of the earth during a full moon,
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And perhaps the most interesting part of all of the references, to me, is the idea of duality. Because Vlad the Impaler as an Emperor, ruthless as he was, was an excellent warrior and army commander, and has led the country to victory (although it was through very gruesome methods). Therefore, historians have been torn in between calling him a tyrant or a hero.
All in all, as Chan is also a leader, I think it makes sense to somewhat represent the duality of a person in command, the tension between goodwill and the means of it, if you will.
3. Final thoughts
Personally I think the most general interpretation I can make out of all I have collected is that he killed the dark side of his mind. Or wants to, at least, in order to let the kind, good one take charge. I see the English quote as a reference to the weight of responsibility, and how one's actions can affect others. That's why I consider it important to translate the Romanian into "my castle is a place of darkness" because then it becomes obvious that the MV symbolizes an inner battle. So, as gory as the video is, I think Chan is saying that he'll always choose kindness, no matter how complicated his mind is. 😁
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dicenete · 8 months ago
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I repainted his face more times than probably necessary but something always caught my eye and still does, but it is done. is done. It's fine. xD IkePri Tagteam:
@scummy-writes @goustmilk @solacedeer @m-mmiy @mxrmaid-poet
@pawnkyyy @ludivineikewolf @violettduchess @floydsteeth @wistfulwanderingone
@sh0jun @lorei-writes
A little bit of rambling of him below the break, spoilers (Keith's route, and little bit of Nokto's route) and such :0 so you have been warned.
TL;DR: I enjoyed the route despite its questionable elements. MC is too forgiving at times, but other than that, romanctic route was cute. Licht, the third wheel, was funny but sad.
Okay first about Keith's visual design: I really love how his design is the most asymmetrical from the suitors. Like the jacket and the vest he has. The jacket is very interestingly layered, almost like you aren't sure which part is the main thing and what is the accent. The green or the gold? The host or the alter? : D Same with his vest. His duality is battling in his clothing too hahaha
Keith's route was interesting. I had heard lots of differing opinions about it and I had my own reservations.
One mainly about the portrayal of DID and how the route does it. First things first: I'm not an expert at all. I won't even humor the idea that I had any say in anything regarding it. But overall, it could have been worse? Of course it might be very extreme in the way Alter Keith is hostile towards Host Keith. And of course you shouldn't take this as the only way the alter systems work. But as I said: I'm not an expert.
I had heard that the dramatic route follows Alter Keith and romantic route host Keith. I picked the romantic one. I had my personal reasons for that tho. But aside from that, it was nice to be with Keith that who struggled with self-worth. It was nice to see him grow as a character and find that strength to stand up for himself. (The fact that the host Keith seems to think that he is inferior to Alter Keith and that people would prefer the alter over him. The amount of stress that will bring. )
Keith's uncle was your very generic villain/antagonist without any real depth. He was a spoiled noble and so on. But since this was more about Keith inner journey I thought it was fine that it was like that.
The drugging scene… Well. That's a… a topic. Hmm… Host Keith himself felt very guilty about it and was full of remorse. Not that it was his choice to do it. Alter Keith well… He might justify it because he was gathering information about a rumor that might endanger his home country and people if it were true. I kinda can see where he is coming from, but also...IT CERTAINLY WAS DESTROYING OF TRUST. Like that time when Nokto "accidently" gets MC drunk. but hey ho. Since there is limited time frame for the chapters, I do understand they can't really jam all the things there, but I wanted Belle be more angry with him with Alter Keith for longer.
Maybe that's what bugs me sometimes. That Belle/Emma/MC is sometimes too forgiving and too much of a doormat. It works in routes like Yves and Licht (from the routes I have played, Leon seems like the most respectable gentleman too), because they are not being insulting towards her. I would even think that she works with Clavis, tho I would love to see him with someone who shares his chaotic gremlin energy. But with characters like Chev, Silvio or Alter Keith the their "power" doesn't feel balanced. MC seems to be completely on their mercy even if they stand up to them in some way. (Gilbert is another can of nasty things.)(With Chev's route, well, that is also a rambling for another time. But I haven't finished his route yet. so I will keep my ramblings to myself for now.)
Is Keith's route more about acceptance then? Accepting the good and the bad of a person? Possibly. I would think that is a good way to put it. Both Keiths have good and bad sides. And it seems that they are working on them.
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zephyr-ro-emenki · 2 months ago
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Random Batfam Headcanon's #17:
The reason Ra's Al Ghul has a rule in place that only a male can be his heir, is not because he's sexist, it's because strangely enough, every female in his bloodline is really emotional, like, a concerningly high amount of emotional breakdowns and overall girl failures. And Thalia, counter to popular belief, is actually Really fucking emotional. Like, she's a very good actress, able to hold up the mask of "Immortal seductress assassin who has seen more than your showing and is not impressed."
But once she's behind closed and private doors, she's a blushing Anemic mess because she accidentally saw a guys nipple.
The duality of Thalia is extremely break neck.
_______________________________________________
Thalia (in public): "My dear boys shall never fail to impress me. Train well, and you shall always be rewarded."
Damian: "As always Mother."
Jason: "Thank you for the compliment... Mom..."
Thalia:
Thalia: "Keep up the good work."
Thalia (now behind closed doors):
Thalia, now collapsed on her knees with emotional tears running down her face and a wide smile: "HE CALLED ME MOM!!!"
_______________________________________________
Ra's: "...Daughter, why are you crying this time?"
Thalia, full ugly cry: "wHy Do ThE bAbY gOaTs HaVe To Be So ADORABLE?!?!?! "
Ra's: 😮‍💨
_______________________________________________
Bruce, Finding Thalia crying for the first time in Wayne Manor: "Thalia?! What's wrong?!?!"
Thalia: "T-th-they... I-in C-C-Cincinnati, The-they... ThEy ShOt A GORILLA! tHeY kiLLeD HiM bRuCe!! HiS nAmE wAs HaRaMbE aNd He DiD nOtHiNg WrOnG!!! hE wAs JuSt a CuRiOuS cReAtUrE wHo WaNtEd To MaKe a NeW fRiEnD wItH a KiD wHo FeLL into HiS eNcLoSuRe!!! WHY?!?! WhY dId He NeEd To DIE?!?!?! WhEn I FiNd WhO sHoT HiM, I'm gOnNa KILL THEM!!!"
Bruce:
Alfred: "Might I interest you in a tissue, my lady?"
Thalia: "ThAnK yOu..."
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russenoire · 9 months ago
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on first watch as an anime-only, i remember feeling like ritsu kageyama's descent into evil in episode seven needed a little more air, more space to breathe. i... no longer do. if that slide down the slippery slope feels a bit sudden, there is a reason; and if you know what to look for, it's not actually all that sudden. bear with me here.
from the first episode, the anime sets ritsu up as shigeo's kind, solicitous younger brother. we don't see much of him for the first three episodes, but when we do, he's making bids for shigeo’s attention: helpfully straightening his spoon when it bends and deposits a bite of his dinner on the dining table; noting that he seems out of it and offering himself up as a confidant at least twice; checking in on him in the morning so they can both leave on time. (i actually love the anime for doing this. ritsu doesn't even show up as a character until maybe the middle of the manga's second volume?) except for the spoon, shigeo gently turns him down every time.
and yet. the interview ichi mezato snags with ritsu in episode four confirms a distance between the kageyama boys. you are not seeing things here. he initially refuses her desire for detailed information about shigeo’s powers, only indulging her to find out what shigeo’s been up to. ritsu holds those powers in such awe that he uses a rather hyperbolic phrase to describe shigeo for her: '世界の基本', or sekai no kihon, literally the standard for [his] world.
after he coldly walks out on her, she reviews what little she’s gleaned from their chilly meeting: he's hawt, at the top of his class, athletic, very popular... all things his older brother decidedly is not. the story establishes a duality here between ritsu’s image—indirectly revealed through mezato’s notes—and the reality of ritsu, sat hunched across from her, sullen, barely tolerating her until she coughed up the information she promised him. later on that evening, we see just how deep ritsu's awe goes... or rather, how snared up it is in resentment and envy as he attempts in vain to bend a spoon, just like shigeo did when they were younger. all the trophies of others’ esteem already gathering dust on his shelves don’t mean shit if he can’t have this.
ritsu intercepts shigeo as he leaves for class the next morning: no student council meeting, so an opportunity to actually talk to him. this is rare, his brother notes. and of course dimple is haunting shigeo. when the specter comments on their apparent closeness, the boy side-eyes him hard. this can easily be read two ways: ‘why the hell are you talking to me when no one else can see you?’ and ‘man, fuck you for sticking the knife in deeper.’ ritsu doesn’t ask about the cult meeting here or ever in the entire series. was he really all that interested in mezato’s news? no, he only wants to know why his brother doesn’t use his powers anymore. and this is the first time they’ve talked about this.
it’s such a neat little mystery, these breadcrumbs the story leaves for us until ritsu’s formal introduction in episode six. even though they share the same home and appear to be on friendly terms, the kageyama brothers may as well live on opposite sides of the planet. we don’t even get a sense of why this state of affairs exists until episode five, where teru chokes the breath out of shigeo and his pissed-off soul levels teru’s school before catapulting him into the stratosphere to reflect on his sins: several years prior, shigeo nearly killed ritsu (and possibly ended three much older boys) in an accident neither boy understands; fragments of memory flash before his eyes as his consciousness shorts out.
‘brother, you’re home late, sopping wet. here’s a towel. are you hungry? you seem down; is everything OK? if you need to talk, i’m here for you.’
instead of turning down this bid for connection like all the rest and turning inward again, shigeo actually opens up. he apologizes for the accident—for the first time—then asks for some clarity, since his memories of it are broken. and ritsu clenches the knob to his brother’s bedroom door tighter. he lies to his face, tells him to ‘get over it already.’ this after asking shigeo to confide in him again, no less: too terrified to be honest with him, too used to being shot down. this boy is soaking in fear he has no context for, and he heads downstairs to soak in it alone. shigeo at least has reigen to process his own fears with, though he never trusts the man enough to take full advantage.
ritsu has no one.
he’s already keeping up appearances at home and has been for years; over the course of the spring cleaning big cleanup arc, we learn the extent to which he’s been doing so at school.
(all those expectations of him weighing him down for so long… he can’t hold out forever.)
student council vice president tokugawa calls him out on trying to melt into the scenery like his brother; his considerable gifts make that impossible. said gifts, however, are so ego-dystonic for him that they’re yet another part of Ritsu Kageyama’s Big Lie. the academically-gifted, popular sprinter so many of his fellow students swoon over isn’t real: why does everyone praise him for things anyone could do? he doesn’t actually have friends, just associates. who cares about charisma? why does everyone think he’s perfect when the only thing he truly wants will never be his? and why does his locker leak chocolate every valentine’s day?
gentle reader. are you still wondering why he snaps when he finally gets his wish? and why it looks the way it does?
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my-name-is-apollo · 1 year ago
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Found a translation of hymns to Apollo and Dionysus where their epithets have been arranged in alphabetical order and this might be my new favourite thing because
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- Book 9 of the Greek Anthology, translated by W.R. Paton
Look at the contrast between some of their epithets (Apollo and Dionysus respectively):
"hater of lies, giver of the soul" - "liar, tearer of the soul"
"soft speaking" - "noisy" (lol)
"sober" - "Deep drinker"
"Sweet-spoken, sweet-hearted, gentle-handed" - "Prone to anger, stout of heart"
"Gentle, sorrowless, giver of wealth, saviour from trouble" - "Jealous, very wrathful, envious, bestower of envy"
"father of fruits" - "eater of raw flesh" (BRUH)
"father of light" - "God of the night"
"Cheerer of the spirit" - "Disturber of the soul"
BUT they still have a lot in common:
"stiller of grief - healer of sorrow", "strong hearted - lion hearted", "soft haired - tender haired", "dweller on the hills - dweller in the woods" "thousand-shaped", "desirable" and my favourite, "common to all".
And it really does encapsulate the relationship between Apollo and Dionysus so well (and the duality of Apollo and Dionysus as individual gods too)
I'm also a sucker for epithets that describe appearance and I'm absolutely delighted with Apollo being "rose-coloured", "golden, golden-complexioned" and "glittering" (but is anyone surprised? XD)
Dionysus on the other hand, a bit concerning cause "slender, wrinkled"? And also he's "liquid"?? (idk what that's even supposed to mean. A reference to wine?) But "golden-filleted" and "Golden-horned" sound lovely <3
Also the fact that Dionysus is called "Satyr" and Apollo "Titan" is very interesting to me. Apollo - Titan makes sense when you consider the conflation between him and Helios. But Dionysus is a surprise. Are there any myths where he's syncretised/conflated with Pan (since he's the only Satyr god I can remember)? Of course it could be to show his chthonic nature, or that he's mostly around satyrs. But this piqued my curiosity.
509 notes · View notes
theeoriginals · 1 year ago
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klaus or elijah (your choice) x former flame!reader 👀
all i want | elijah mikaelson
+ Ohhh I loved your cat and mouse one! Could you please make a calm housewife/mom of the friend group type of girl and Elijah falling for her in a kind of best friend to lovers situation? Idk I just think it would fit cause elijah’s very family oriented and I see him falling for a dear old time friend too? Idk so uhm yeah. Feel free to refuse ofc!
elijah mikaelson x vampire!reader (no y/n)
author's notes; combining these requests :) hope that's ok!!
warnings; vague references to past violence but nothing insane. exes to friends to lovers, just plotless fluff, with an extra side of fluff. yes elijah is extremely charming, yes he can't make eye contact with a pretty girl. duality of man.
It’s an unspoken thing, what lingers between them still. Unspoken in the sense that they don’t talk about it, but everyone else does. 
It always shocks people to learn that the oldest vampires on Earth are ridiculous, catty gossips. Elijah doesn’t know why it’s such a surprise. Living as long as they all have, you’ve got to keep things interesting, otherwise immortality becomes mind-numbing. He supposes that it just doesn’t measure up to their reputation for being ruthless animals, which isn’t unfounded. It’s just not the only thing they could be classified as. 
Ruthless monsters that defend each other to the death at the end of the day, no matter how many times they’ve stabbed each other in the backs, certainly. Childish gossips that like to start rumors and rewrite history when they get a little bored, definitely. The two identifiers can coexist, and very much do.
And this thing, this unspoken thing that is unspoken for a multitude of reasons but none more so than the simple fact that even as long as they’ve known each other it’s still fragile, and something could break it with ease, is only unspoken to Elijah. 
His brothers and sisters, however, like to do nothing but talk about it. 
“Well, she’s almost here,” Rebekah rolls her eyes, but it’s just for the fact that her older brother is going to be a lovesick idiot the entire time the girl is here, and it really takes away from Rebekah’s own quality time with her. “No wonder Elijah’s been bumbling around like a fool all day.” 
Klaus chuckles, and the two of them dutifully ignore the glare their brother sends them. “Do you think she sent him a letter to announce her arrival? Elijah always loves things like that,” 
Rebekah’s blue eyes light up. “Oh, yes! I wonder if she sprayed it with her perfume– us ladies used to do that with a suitor back in the day,” She fans a hand towards her face, closing her eyes at the small breeze it creates. “They don’t text or call, of course, it takes all of the personality out of it. And god knows Elijah’s all personality,” 
Klaus laughs again, and the two finally glance across the room to where Elijah’s leaning against a wall, glaring at them with his arms crossed over his chest. 
“I hate you both,” He says, earning another round of laughter from them. “And stop going through my things, Rebekah. Those letters are none of your business.” 
The blonde girl pushes her lips out in a pout. “But I get so bored, Elijah. You can’t be mad at me for entertaining myself,” 
“I fear he just hates fun, dear sister,” Klaus says, feigning a wistful tone. “He doesn’t approve of my methods of entertainment either.” 
“That’s because your methods of entertainment always end in a bloodbath,” Elijah says accusingly, earning a shrug from the hybrid. “You’re both immature. A thousand years old, still acting like children.” 
Their faces twist in offense in unison, and Elijah distantly thinks that even though they’re not even fully related, let alone the same age even in their vampiric years, they were twins put on this Earth to terrorize him and ensure that he never knew peace. 
Before they can begin their outcries of dramatized offense, and Elijah can continue to lightheartedly mock them, a voice comes from the hall, echoing fondly. 
“Must you two always tease your brother?” The smile is obvious in her voice as she walks into the room, and the three of them snap their gazes towards the woman in surprise. “He’s a delicate soul, you know. His poor heart can’t handle too many jokes,” 
Elijah recovers quickly, rolling his eyes, though he can’t (and won’t) stop the smile from growing on his face as she meets Rebekah for a hug. “Oh, wonderful. That’s just what they need. Encouragement.” 
She chuckles at his poorly-feigned exasperation, and the sound settles in his ears like a morning dove’s song. She releases Rebekah from the hug and leans down to where Klaus is stretched out in a chair with his feet kicked up on the table, pressing a kiss to his cheek. 
Glancing around at the vaulted ceilings of the compound, she sighs wistfully. “I can’t believe this place looks the same as when you bought it,” She shakes her head in slight disbelief. 
Klaus shrugs, crossing his arms over his chest. “When we first returned, there was some… cleaning up to do, but it’s maintained its shape wonderfully.” 
If she catches onto his double entendre, she doesn’t say anything, just nods in understanding. That’s something Elijah has always liked about her– she lets things go unsaid. She’s always had the ability to connect with him and his siblings in a way that most others can’t, and even when Elijah is at his worst, she’s been that olive branch that he can grab onto to bring him back to himself. Always so understanding and level. It’s a wonder that she still associates with any of them, given their penchant for chaos. 
Finally, she turns her attention onto him, and in its entirety he feels breathless. Even after decades of knowing one another, it’s never gotten easier to hide his ardor for her. He knows she can still read him as easily as she could thirty years ago, too.
“Elijah,” She says his name better than he’s ever heard it, with a tilt to her head and a fondness in her voice that makes him feel more alive than anything else he’s found in his centuries on this planet. 
She crosses the room to where he’s at, because he froze in his spot as soon as he heard her voice, and wraps her arms around him like she’s never been more relieved to see him. 
It’s another thing he’s always liked about her. She’s never stopped loving him. He knows that. Lives with it everyday. 
Regrets a lot of things, too. 
He says her name back as gently as he can, like she’ll break in his arms. He wonders if she thinks of all the times she has broken in his arms, and then he tells himself there’s no way she’s forgotten it, because he hasn’t. And that is something that is theirs and theirs alone. 
She pulls away and he misses her touch the moment she goes because it feels rarer and rarer with each day that passes. Every time she leaves, he fears it’s the last time he’ll see her. 
He doesn’t want to ruin her visit with these thoughts. Even though he knows she’d offer him endless comfort, he doesn’t want her to worry about him for a second. 
She turns to face them, clapping her hands together with a smile. “Well, then. What’s first on the agenda?” 
────── 
Something that comes with living as long as Elijah has is learning that some things about yourself you’ll just never be able to change. Such things like being a vampire in itself, having a firm hand when it comes to doing business with people. He’s been told he’s somewhat of a snake, and he’s well aware of his silver tongued ways, and it’s something he knows he can’t change, and hasn’t ever wanted to. 
One thing that has yet to fall under that category of acceptance is his jealousy. 
In his defense, he’s never jealous when he thinks he should be. He’s never been jealous of his siblings, spare for a few embarrassing months spent around the doppelgängers, but Elijah has never had to envy someone for something they had because if he wanted it that bad, he could just take it. 
But this. This he knows is jealousy, pure and unbridled, and nauseating, if he’s feeling that correctly. 
This is the jealousy that he’s seen destroy entire regimes. This is the jealousy that has driven his family to madness at times. 
And of course, she’s at the center of it all. Of course she is. There would be no other way he could feel this so strongly if she was not involved in it somehow. 
She’s the source of a lot of jealousy, he knows. He’s jealous of the carefree relationships his siblings get to have with her because they don’t have to be burdened with the feelings of the past that are most definitely still there. They don’t have to worry if they looked at her lips for too long, or if they held her a little too gentle to be considered entirely friendly. They don’t have to worry about saying the wrong thing, stepping past that line they so carefully drew in the sand for everyone’s sake. 
These are the consequences of his actions, he knows. It doesn’t make it any easier to deal with, though. It might make it worse. 
Watching his siblings drink freely as the band played on was nothing unfamiliar. Patrons had long since joined in on the fun, and he’s sure there’s a crowd outside looking in on the celebration of unknown origins. 
At the center of it all, she is there, standing on a table with a crowd of adoring admirers surrounding her as she swayed and moved to the music. He would swear there’s a light shining on her, just for her, projecting her shadow above everyone like some sort of angel. He thinks she has every right to be worshiped. 
And the reason he’s so maddeningly, bitingly jealous is because he is the reason that he’s not the one dancing with her. He can’t be the one to dance with her, and he can’t be the one that makes her laugh like she is because he’s the one that said they shouldn’t be together. He is the one who broke her heart, and he doesn’t deserve an ounce of the kindness she still shows. 
So all he can do is sip his drink at the bar and watch as she pulls his sister, sweet, dangerous, devastatingly insecure Rebekah, up onto the table with her and shares her spotlight with her. Making his sister light up like she does with no one else. Earning another round of cheers from Klaus and Kol as they watch on, demanding another round of drinks for everyone in an odd show of generosity. 
She brings out the best in his siblings. In him. 
It makes him burn bright inside. Boiling, hot to the touch. He knows then and there that there’s a reason he’s seen something as trivial as jealousy take down the most powerful of men. Love is such a dangerous thing to get involved in in the first place, but finding someone, finding the woman who makes you feel like you could conquer the world is something else entirely. It bypasses dangerous and heads straight into fatal. 
Because she makes you feel like you could conquer the whole world, but the second you lose her, it all means nothing. You’ll tear it all down if it means she won’t be there, too. 
And the worst part of it all is the only reason he feels like this is because he is the one that ruined it. Blamed his family, blamed his parents, blamed everything else but his own fears for the reason they couldn’t be together. The distance, the timing. Whatever he could grasp, he pulled it out of his pocket and gave it to her on a silver platter, served with a distant coldness he’d long since perfect, and never wanted to use on her in the first place. 
He had so much time under his belt, but he was such a child. So helpless it bordered on criminal, all because he fell in love and he didn’t know what to do with it. 
It’s embarrassing more than anything else. 
He hasn’t taken his eyes off of her since she started dancing. Hadn’t stopped listening since he heard her first laugh. Didn’t want to miss a single second, just in case. 
For the first time all night, he blinked and turned his head away from her and threw the rest of his drink back like it was water. 
He could allow himself a bit more wallowing. Just a bit. 
────── 
“Well, Rebekah’s safe in bed. I even got her in pajamas, believe it or not,” Her voice carries even in its whisper, and he looks up from his lap as she enters the small living space, hands clasped in front of her as she takes a seat in the chair beside him. “Original vampire or not, I doubt she’ll feel very good in the morning.” 
Elijah hummed, thinking of his dear sister and how even if she’d healed a thousand times over, she’d still find a way to complain. He adored it. 
“What about you?” 
He raises a brow, lips twisting confusedly. “What about me?” 
She gestures towards his slightly slumped form on the couch pointedly. He follows her direction, looking at his rumpled suit, and the white button up he’d undone the top four buttons off, at least. He feels momentarily embarrassed at his state of disarray but he simply huffs out a laugh, lifting his gaze to meet hers again. 
“I’m a mess,” He shrugs, earning a quiet laugh out of her. “But I don’t think that has anything to do with our drinking tonight.” 
“I can’t disagree, unfortunately,” 
He hides the way his grin threatens to split his face behind his face, rubbing along his scruffy jawline as he looks at her. The longer he lingers, the more she avoids his gaze. 
“What?” 
He shakes his head. 
“Elijah,” She intones, such a familiar adoration in her voice that it nearly makes him sick. He doesn’t deserve it. “You’ve been so quiet tonight. What’s on your mind?” 
“You,” 
Her eyes widen in shock at his quick, candid answer, and he has to hide his own surprise at how quick the word had shot out of his mouth. 
“Me? What about me?” 
“Everything,” He sighs, shifting his long legs so he could turn towards her and give her his full attention. “I’ve missed you.” 
“Oh,” She breathes out, looking slightly bashful. “Well, I always miss you. I wouldn’t ever leave if I didn’t–” 
She stops herself, covering her mouth with her hand as a sheepish look crosses her face. He knows she wants him to move past her slip up, but he doesn’t. Can’t. 
“If you didn’t, what?” He leans forward, looking at her imploringly. “Why do you stay away so long?” 
She takes a moment to collect herself, picking at the skin around her nails half-heartedly, like it’s not really bothering her, she just doesn’t want to be so open right now. He’d feel worse about pushing her if he didn’t feel like his heart was leaping out of his throat. 
“Well, I didn’t think you wanted me around that much,” She says quietly, gesturing towards him. 
He rears back like she’s slapped him. 
“How could you ever think such a thing?” He whispers her name, a distant veil of horror laced in his tone. Fear, really. 
“You said,” She says, face furrowing in confusion. “All those years ago– you said that there was no reason for me to stay here with you in New Orleans. So, I– I left. And I travel all the time until I come back here for as long as you’ll let me.” 
Elijah feels something gripping his chest and it feels remarkably like his heart is breaking. 
His voice breaks on her name and he leans forward again, reaching into her space to grab her hands in his. Allowing himself this piece of her that he simply doesn’t deserve. 
“I never,” He stops, breathing out harshly. “I never wanted you to leave. I just–” 
He stops again, squeezes her hands, and then steels himself because this is the least he owes her. 
“You deserved more than to be stuck here with my family,” He starts slowly. “I never– I never wanted you to leave. Every time you walk out of those doors, I want to chase you down and make you stay. You have to believe me when I say that I only ever wanted you to be happy, and you wouldn’t have found that stuck here in the mess we had made back then.” 
There’s a poignant silence that settles as she processes his words, and he holds the ragged breath that builds in his chest when she begins to drag her thumbs along the backs of his hands, smoothing at the skin there. Ever so gentle. 
“All I’ve ever wanted was to be here with you and your family,” She says, shaking her head like she’s scolding him, even though her tone is anything but. “Being here makes me happier than any place I’ve traveled to. And I’m– I’m truly grateful that you had my best interest in mind, Elijah, but you have to understand,” 
She trails off and an incredulous laugh leaves her lips as she smiles at him. “I’ve loved you my entire life. And my heart used to break every day knowing that I’d only have a short time with you. When I turned, I was so– I was so happy because I suddenly had the rest of time to be with you. And you… you broke my heart, Elijah. You truly did,” 
She presses her thumbs into his skin firmly, just a pressure point to punctuate her words. “But I have never stopped loving you. And every time I walked out of those doors and left you behind, my heart broke again. You wouldn’t have ever had to make me stay. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.” 
Elijah’s breath stalls in his chest, and lets it out slowly, shakily. There’s a distant string of hope he lets himself pull on, just this once. Because she let him. 
He meets her gaze and smiles softly, just for her. “Will you stay, then? I’m– I’m asking you, truly. Will you stay?” 
She nods before he even finishes speaking and laughs quietly, the sound just for him. “Of course I will, Elijah. I’ll stay as long as you want me to,” 
“Forever,” 
“Forever, then. I’ll stay forever.” 
326 notes · View notes
treedaddymcpuffpuff · 3 months ago
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Imagine being kidnapped by Tom Ludlow.
Hi anon. This got out of hand. I’m sorry. CW: mentions of child abuse/dark humor concerning it, rape/noncon fantasies and details. I write from a place of my own trauma, and it gets a little fucked up. If you don’t like dark fics, or are triggered easily, DO NOT READ THIS. Violence, bad cops, SA. Tom Ludlow is not the bad guy in this, though.
If you’re a big girl, a tall girl, a girl with a lot of muscle or fat, you probably haven’t been picked up off the ground since you were very young.
You question your femininity because of it, along with a whole lot of other shit that society decides to push on you for not having a traditional feminine figure…whatever the hell that is.
You often take on a more protective, mothering or masculine roll with your smaller or daintier or gentler friends. You don’t look down on them at all—or envy them too often. Some people just carry a unique tenderness that you wish the world had more of. But every little rainbow or sunbeam needs their strong protective cloud, and you mostly gladly, sometimes reluctantly take on this role.
You will never be a meek, kind, delicate person. It’s just not going to happen. You don’t want it to happen. You’re pretty comfortable with your role in life. It’s just…sometimes…and this is probably something that everyone craves in vulnerable moments…you want to be the one getting protected.
It’s just kind of exhausting, always being there for everyone else. As much as you love it, and you do, it can also really drain you.
The duality of man is that we can be more than one type of person, and want different things. You know this. But…it’s hard as hell to admit you want to be taken care of. Because doesn’t that ruin your tough facade? Your strength and independence? Doesn’t that let everyone know that you’re just putting on an act to cover up who you really are—a weak, sniveling girl?
That’s why you bottle up, keep things to yourself, regard the world cynically and humorously with a lazy shrug of your shoulder. You act like nothing gets to you, like you are a stoic guard at the queen’s gate, like a big mastiff on patrol of your sheep.
When you do wear an emotion, more often than not it’s either sarcasm or…anger. Like tonight, when some guy won’t leave your friend alone at the bar.
She’s visibly uncomfortable and attempting escape from the creep following her around. She’s too nice to tell him to go away, but you’re not, and you have had to put yourself between them way, way too many times.
“She’s not interested,” you tell him.
He sneers at you. “Yeah, yeah I know.”
Except he fucking doesn’t, because ten seconds later he’s smacking her ass when she stands up, and you’re punching him in the mouth.
He hits you back, and it feels like a slap from a two year old, but it startles your fight or flight, and before you know it, your vision is blurry with rage and your fists are flying.
The security guards have to pull you off of one another and haul you outside to where the police are waiting with cuffs.
“He was harassing my friend,” you tell the guy who’s chaperoning you.
“Her ugly ass is just jealous cuz nobody wants her!” Screams scumbag from down the sidewalk.
Wow, you’ve never heard that one before.
One of the cops grabs him by the collar and says something that appears to be stern with his finger pointed at his face.
The guy looks visibly shaken after that, and he specifically avoids looking in your direction again.
The ballsy officer, probably in some sort of supervising position by the looks of it, gets to you next, and you have to crane your neck up to look at him.
You expect anger, but his face is neutral as he pulls a pen and paper from his utility belt. “Hello, ma’am, my name is officer Ludlow with the LAPD. You mind telling me what went on here tonight?”
You tick through the list of events as best you can, trying not to paint yourself as innocent (because with the way you beat on him, you’re definitely not), but making sure he knows what a fucking reprobate you were up against, and he scribbles it all down diligently.
After you’re done, he flicks his chin at the officer standing next to you. “Reed, let her go.”
They uncuff you, and you roll your arms, testing the circulation and rubbing out the raw red marks on your wrists. “Thanks,” you tell the lead officer. “You mind if I go back in and get my friends? There’s only three of us and I’m worried about them…”
“I can’t let you go back in,” officer Ludlow says, “but give us their names and descriptions, and I’ll send Reed in for them, alright?”
You nod, comply, and a few tense moments later Abby is running out to wrap her arms around your shoulders, smearing her glittery tears and pink blush on your jacket.
You hug her back, picking her up a little bit off the ground with the ferocity of your relief, and look at officer Ludlow over her head. “Thanks,” you tell him.
Tye, arriving from the thicket of people at the entrance a few moments later, immediately wants to know what happened.
She, however, is interrupted, by the asshole down the sidewalk, still in cuffs. “Hope you think of me when you see that handprint on your cute little ass tomorrow!” He calls, and Abby turns away, choking on a sob.
You’ve always had anger issues. Usually, in adulthood, they’re pretty easy to tame down. Not in this circumstance, not when you see Abby shaking and crying, looking as defenseless as a baby mouse.
Unbeknownst to you, because your sight and sound have been marginally narrowed to one person who needs his face bludgeoned in so hard that he finally shuts the fuck up, the head officer has already signaled for them to haul this guy into the back of a police car.
You’re not sure how you cross the distance between you and him so fast—you’re built for endurance, not speed—but suddenly your fists are connecting with his flesh again, and there’s a lot of yelling and pulling and finally your feet leave the ground and your knuckles leave his face.
It takes you a minute to realize you are being carried away—that your feet are not on land—and you look up at the person whose arms are currently wrapped around you.
Like mentioned before, it’s been a long, long time since someone has picked you up and you’ve lost your center of gravity so quickly and so thoroughly. Like a startled animal, you fight to try and get back to the ground, more out of shock and adrenalized fear than anything.
You don’t mean to scratch or bite the nice officer, you really don’t.
Ludlow just sighs at your resistance, like he could be doing something much more important right now rather than manhandling you into the back of a squad car like you’re an ornery kitten rather than a formidable opponent.
You are silenced into shock the whole way to the police station.
They put you in the waiting room sans cuffs, and you’re not sure how much time passes until a heavy presence plops down on the plastic chair next to you.
“Fuck,” is the first thing you say to Ludlow. “My friends…”
“They’re safe. I’m giving them an escort back home.”
He gives you some room temp water, and after the fear wears off, grants you enough time to come back to your good senses. You look at him sheepishly, with your head tucked down. “Sorry, he was a fucking creep.”
Ludlow nods. “I get it, hopefully I can get you out of it with a slap on the wrist.” He hands you some tissues from his breast pocket. “Wipe that blood off your face.”
You didn’t realize you were bleeding, so it’s a shock to finally feel the ache of a bloody lip and bruised cheek and see the paper come back crimson streaked.
After a few long moments of silence, you say, “I feel like an asshole.”
He shrugs, leans back, grins over at you. You fight the urge to flush at his crooked smile. He’s a handsome man. Sometimes you like those. “Asshole, no. Dumb, maybe. He could have really fucked you up.”
“I handled myself just fine.”
“Your split lip will disagree tomorrow morning. Lemme see.” He holds out his hand, as if for you to rest your chin in, and you’re not sure what brain malfunction gets you to comply. You are not a good listener by any means, especially for men in positions of authority or power.
Maybe it’s sexist, maybe it’s unfair. Spend your whole childhood getting the shit taken out of you by a man that’s supposed to love and care for and protect you, and then decide what’s fair and what’s not.
He whistles low, turning you this way and that with a tenderness you don’t expect from calloused, bear paw hands with knuckles like golf balls. “I’ll give it to you, you’ve got balls. Bigger than most men I’ve met.”
Your mouth betrays your tough girl facade, and lets a tiny smile hike up the edge despite the stinging pain that follows.
Officer Ludlow gets you out with a slap on the wrist—aka a misdemeanor—just like he said he was going to. You tell him thank you about ten million times for saving your ass, and for offering to give you a ride back to the bar to get your car.
“I’ve already put you out too much tonight,” you tell him. “I’ll get a Taxi or something.”
“It’s a Saturday night,” he says, jangling the keys in his beater pocket. “By the time you get to the bar, you’re gonna be towed. C’mon.”
You open the back door of his charger, but he shakes his head and, instead, opens up his passenger seat for you to slide in.
It’s about now you’re starting to get a funny feeling in the pit of your stomach, like something is off about this interaction. You’re not one to trust easily, and getting in the car with a complete stranger, although one in uniform, is out of character to say the least.
Your radar has really been fucked up tonight. By the alcohol, the scumbag, the being arrested, the bruising and tearing of your knuckles. What a way to end it, you think, if Ludlow is a bad guy.
The funny feeling in your guts that you decide to ignore this one time? It turns out to be right. And as Tom Ludlow starts driving up through the deserted hills, in the opposite direction of the bar your car is at, you almost want to burst out laughing at how stupid you are.
Asshole, no. Dumb? Fucking definitely.
You test his door handle and he snorts at you; like he’s saying, you think I’m that stupid?
“Doesn’t hurt to try,” you grumble, sizing him up from the corner of your eye, deciding whether to fight or flight or just give up now. He’s thin, but he’s broad. Tall. Not lanky. He won’t be easy to push over. You’ll have to bite, claw eyes out, rip his hair from his head. Make sure he doesn’t pull that shiny pistol out of his belt before you can jump on him.
You could do it right here in the car and risk barreling over the steep hillside on your right. You could—
“Hey,” he says, calmly, capturing you too easily from your violent thoughts, “it’s alright, I’m not gonna hurt you.”
A part of you wants to believe him, or maybe just believe there’s still some good in the world—some good in men. Hell, maybe leprechauns exist, too. You never know.
He looks sideways at you when you giggle in response to these reassuring words, as if you’re the one who’s fucking psycho. “I’ve heard that one before.”
He makes a pensive sound, air puffing from his nostrils, switches gears as the incline increases. “Daddy beat you up?”
Well, fuck it, might as well share all your sob stories if this is really happening tonight. “Uncle, actually.”
“Sorry,” he says, and you hazard a glance over to see if his face matches his empathetic tone—it, surprisingly, does. “He still alive?”
“No.”
You must be violently shaking to compensate for the repression of a panic attack, because his still, steady hand on your shoulder pauses the tremors. “It’s okay,” he assures, like he’s trying to soothe a crying kid. You have to admit, his voice is a cool ointment for hot nerves, even if he’s the reason for them in the first place.
The brain has a funny way of dealing with things like this. There’s about a 30% chance his intentions are raping you, because with his looks he could get any lady in the city of lights for free, but rapists and molesters rarely think about physical attractiveness when it actually comes down to the act. Psychologists say it’s more about the power trip for them. And, at least, if he is going to fuck you, he’s not exactly the worst man that you could pick to do it.
At least he’s hot, is what it boils down to. Because you’re a disgusting degenerate. Because your coping skills are a ticking time bomb, a broken record, stuck back at the part of your life where you had to start liking the way uncle Eddy touched you to deal with the shame and the despair of it.
Officer Ludlow’s gonna pick you right up off the ground again, slam you into his backseat, tug your pants and underwear down in one go. He’ll make you beg him to fuck your pussy instead of your unprepared and untainted ass, use his spit as lube, rub his meaty fingers over your puffy lips and taunt you when his saliva encounters your slippery cum. He’ll smack your ass for liking this, leave big red handprints, whisper in your ear that you’re gonna remember him, not just tomorrow, but for weeks after he gets done working your cunt. That he should kill you and leave your body out for the flies, but he wants you to live just so you can feel the way he destroyed your pussy.
The charger slows to a halt out in the sticks, and you have no idea where the fuck you are or how long you’ve been driving. The night is thick black soup in a boiling pot, and his headlights cut through it meagerly. It’s enough light to see what’s happening ahead, though, and when you look over at him curiously, he is grinning at you.
The man from the bar who assaulted your friend is in cuffs, an officer on each arm holding him in place. You don’t feel bad at all when you notice his swollen lip and purple temple, but you do wish you would have gotten more hits in.
Lucky for you, Officer Ludlow has you covered.
“Do you want to hit him?” He asks, unclipping his seat belt. “Or do you wanna watch?”
You blink a few times in response, not sure what to say to this brutally kind gesture. This man who barely knows you is helping you exact revenge against his own brethren. You’ve never been so…flattered.
“Don’t tell me you’re attempting to grow a conscience?” He teases.
“I wanna hit him.”
To your disappointment, Ludlow is not a total savage. He lets you get 3 or 4—it’s hard to remember the exact number—good hits on this dirtbag, and even wraps your knuckles up in a cushiony flannel from his back seat beforehand. His only rule is, “stay away from his ugly ass face. I don’t need him coming back to the station more fucked up than it already is.”
You get him in the stomach, the ribs, kick him so hard in his dick that you feel the hard pelvic bone underneath. Maybe it’s only a couple hits, but you make them count. And when you start to ache, or get tired, all you have to do is remember the tears smearing Abbie’s pretty glitter eyeliner down her face.
If he does say anything to you, you don’t hear it. Or maybe he really doesn’t, because Ludlow stands behind you like a watchful wolfhound the entire time, and then escorts you back to his car with a heavy arm over your shaking shoulders.
“Good job,” he praises, seeming very amused and unaffected by this whole ordeal while you are trembling, soaked with sweat, panting like a hooker in a fur coat. “It’s alright, he had it coming. Hey, hey, hey, look at me.”
You do as he says, momentarily escaping your fury in favor of his calming voice and soft black eyes.
“You did amazing. Lemme see the knuckles.”
He takes your hand in his, and you notice the size difference first, and then the warm, damp, pleasant heat second.
There’s been a lot of firsts tonight: someone’s hands being larger than your own (big lady hands should’ve been your nickname in highschool), being picked up off the ground past the age of 7, a man going out of his way to do something nice for you—because your brain decides that’s how it’s going to frame this scenario whether you like it or not, as some fucked up little date on Tom Ludlow’s dime.
You feel safe with your hand tucked into his and the heat of his skin and the cozy intimacy of being belted into his vehicle. You feel grateful that good men still exist. You feel…tight, twisted up in some deprived box of longing you’ve made permanent home in.
You leave the sanctuary of your comfort zone, and have another first, as you cross his center console and kiss a man on his mouth.
For a moment where you feel like your heart is suspended on the edge of a very tall cliff, he freezes. This stiff resistance immediately makes you want to pull away, but, before you can, he wraps his hand around your chin and pulls you deep into his mouth.
Arthur from college, Monica from New Orleans…Hell, even Uncle Eddie—they have nothing on Officer Tom Ludlow with his big, slick tongue and muscular lips.
It’s so good you can almost ignore the fresh sting of your split lip.
He sucks your bottom lip between his teeth, and murmurs a laugh when you give him a low groan for the effort, then takes your angry little grumble and dampens it with his renewed fervor. His hands remain gentle and chaste on your face, your neck, your shoulders, even though there is nothing gentlemanly about the way he devours your mouth. He does not push for more, does not hold you down with those big hands that absolutely could if they wanted to.
You set the pace, you pull him closer, you push him back when you need to gasp for air.
He licks the taste of you from his tilted, beautiful lips. “You have to breathe through your nose, honey.”
“Sorry,” you say, crossing your arms over yourself, pressing back against the door, away from him.
His lazy smile droops. “Are you alright?”
”I just…Can you take me to my car? If not I can—“
The thick start of his engine cuts you off.
The car ride back is silent. You think about turning on the radio a few times, but don’t want to cross more boundaries than you already have. Luckily, he flips it on for the both of you and you’ve never, ever been so happy to hear Metallica.
When he parks, cutting the engine off in the nearly deserted garage, the tension between you immediately peaks, sizzling like vinegar on baking soda. He wraps a long limb over the back of your seat, looks confused—vulnerable for such a big, scary man, and he makes your heart twang a lonely cord.
He seems almost boyish, when he asks if he can take you out sometime.
And you want to say yes. Every feral primordial part of you does, anyway. But then there’s the rational part, the one that should and does win most of the time. You’ve already snubbed that part too much tonight, so you politely decline Ludlow’s offer, and with your traitorous heart padlocked and chained back into your breast cavity, you say goodbye to the nice officer.
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theultimatenonbinarynerd · 5 months ago
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Eurylochus's God Games
Introduction
Hello Epic Fans, I'm very excited to share with you something that's part of a Eurylochus Lives Au I'm pulling together.
Even before God Games came out I was really interested in the idea of other Epic characters having to have their own God Games to release them or let them live. Eurylochus is such a complex character and I knew right away thinking about a God Games about Eurylochus would be interesting as the arguments made for and against him would should the complex duality of his character.
So I then decided I was going to try use Jay's snippets we'd been given and conjure up my own version of Eurylochus's God Games. Honestly it was just a concept but then I wanted to use it for my au where Eurylochus gets resssurected from the dead.
Doing these snippets helped me really understand which God's should be swapped around or swapped out entirely. So I kept Aphrodite and Ares but added in Helios, Poseidon and Persephone. Ares, Aphrodite and Beaat Mode Hades were the hardest to write whilst Helios and Poseidon's were the easier parts. We are talking about the man that literally killed his cows and Poseidon would be mad Eurylochus spared Odysseus during Mutiny.
Then now with the release of The Wisdom Saga the parody has perfectly come together like glue. It was really hard though cos I didn't want all the arguments to be about what happened on Helios's island. But the Windbag and Helios's island are such important parts of Eurylochus's character arc.
Honestly it's not perfect but I'm really proud how this parody turned out. It's still got the high stakes and drama and it's super intresting. I hope I can inspire people to make their own games for other characters.
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Conclusion
I wanted to save this for my Eurylochus Lives au but I've realised that it's too far in the future right now with how busy life is and due to how good it is I wanted to share it. Never in my life did I think I'd be writing a song parody where Circe becomes Eurylochus's lawyer but it's super cool.
I have to say Eurylochus is such a cool character and his reverse character arc compared to Odysseus is what makes him so interesting. A lot of Circes defences are what Epic fans have said and I hope the defences also humanise him a bit. Fingers crossed for that Eurylochus prequel.
Honestly it was really fun writing the parody and including other God's who don't have the spotlight in Epic. Helios is a super fun character to write and he will be in some of my other fics but in Eurylochus's God Games he is both super petty and considered about his challenging the Lord of The Underworld.
Any questions about my Eurylochus Lives au my asks are open.
I'm gonna share bits of the parody on tik tok but that's all I can do I'm afraid.
Happy reading Eurylochus fans.
-Melody-
They/Them
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Tags: @tumblingghosts @caramellcandy
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