#they make me SO

[terminalkisser]

obvious post but like. gabriel and v1 are gay. duh

NOT by any technicality at all: gabriel is sexless & v1 has no gender, yes, but its necessarily not about that. its about, how to gabriel, what he feels towards the machine is objectively - almost INHERENTLY - wrong. its not "moral", ESPECIALLY for someone like him

before homosexuality was an identity, it was a sickness. an accident. you werent labeled as such unless you had made the mistake of going THROUGH with it; it had to be repressed, which gabriel was exceptionally good at!

feeling the way he did at getting beaten by v1 was just as much an error on his part as the way he felt. being consumed by such deviant, disgusting ATTRACTION to the machine(s bloodshed) - it was something he had to correct. but couldn't

it was not only demoralizing but quite literally demasculinizing for gabriel to realize that the attraction he felt was a part of HIS own being!!!

worst of all, it unraveled what he classified as "moral" and not. it uprooted his values, it went against the status quo. it was UNNATURAL. when he realized that his emotions couldnt be smothered, he had to reshape his entire worldview

fandom loves to go Hehe yaoi, but it is very much written into the subtext of the game that they ARE meant to be read as queer

[deweyduck]

Cool. Happy to help.

[megumiifushiiguro]

I'M SCREAMING OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD

this was literally cardan in book 1

AND THIS IS HIM IN BOOK 3 BENDING HIS MORALS TO SAVE HIS WIFE AND KEEP HER WITH HIM EVEN THOUGH HE HAS TO KILL PEOPLE TO DO THAT SHUT UP OMG OMG

[localechoes]

because nothing matters more than the performance

[wilcze-kudly]

Bolin hiding behind Mako. That is all

[jazzatron9000]

here have some firesetter sketches that i made while taking a break from studying

[inahochi]

It doesn't have to be family. Whether it's a lover, a friend, or even an acquaintance... As long as someone's with you, you're not alone, right? ♤ ♡

HIGH CARD (2023-2024)

#09. by your side

#16. once upon a time.

[tinysobek]

A couple of posts recently have had me thinking again about Hua Cheng, Quan Yizhen, and the really fascinating connections between them. Maybe there’s a fic in here somewhere? Anyway.

I think Hua Cheng actually gains a lot of (unspoken, grudging) respect for Quan Yizhen. He’s established early on as someone who values power and control. He says of Ghost City, ‘If I don’t control a place like this, then someone else will. I’d rather that person be me.’ Eventually we learn that it’s not just about power for its own sake, but about power that’s used to protect. That someone like Hua Cheng would relinquish control of the recovery of Yin Yu’s soul to anyone, especially a heavenly official (a class of person he despises), is pretty telling. I refuse to believe that he values Yin Yu so little that he would leave him in the hands of someone he doesn’t have some confidence in. He must feel that Quan Yizhen is capable of handling the responsibility, and also deserving of the responsibility. I don’t think he uses the task simply as a bargaining chip, something to hold over his head, a way to stop him from bothering Xie Lian with all of those gold bars. I think he sees in Quan Yizhen something that Yin Yu couldn’t (or wouldn’t) see, a familiar devotion, though he certainly wouldn’t admit to the similarity.

And that brings me to the statement Hua Cheng makes at the Temple of Wind and Water during the Black Water arc: ‘Watching your beloved be trampled and ridiculed with your own eyes and being unable to do a thing about it. You understand that you are nothing, that you can do nothing. That’s the worst suffering in the world.’ And that’s already pretty heavy upon first reading; but then it’s made clear how much Hua Cheng really witnessed, essentially seeing Xie Lian die a hundred times and being utterly helpless to stop it. And maybe Quan Yizhen didn’t see or understand what Yin Yu went through, but he certainly found himself unable to do anything while his shixiong was trampled and ridiculed; and he watched Yin Yu die right in front of him. He doesn’t know about Hua Cheng’s suffering, he probably never will, but I’m sure he would agree with the sentiment. And I think Hua Cheng knows that.

[thatonepersonguy]

been thinkin’ about them recently

+ some fun little Luis and Leon doodles I did because they make me so happy

[genderlessjacky]

L O O K AT THE WAY HE LOOKS AT HIM, IM . SO, AAAUABSHJ.

[mimi-croissant]

Gay yearning

[snownorites]

God sometimes I watch mizisua randomly and.... the way that Sua is completely dissociating... after what her older sister told her she knew that she was literally being shipped off to die and she genuinely had no reason to believe she'd make it either. An important part of Sua's character to me is how much she has grown to devalue herself and how much self hatred she deals with. Even after she found what one might consider a reason to live in loving Mizi it actually made her believe she HAD to die if only to protect Mizi for a few seconds longer.

Then there's Mizi looking at her with so much curiosity and awe. A girl who was loved, whose case (cage?) was filled with toys and memorabilia of a guardian that cherished her, all things that Sua never experienced, looking at her like that 😭 I wonder how she felt about it in that moment actually. All the other humans in her life envied her for shit outside of her control, all the Segyein objectified her and viewed her as nothing more than a doll. It must have been hard for her to believe that Mizi just liked her and was fascinated by her as Sua. And when she realised that Mizi loved her I really think that it exacerbated her self esteem issues. Mizi was so untouched by the evils around them and so blind to all that Sua hid from her that ofc Sua would believe that the traumatised parts of her are all not worth being known. She isolated herself from the person she loved most and who loved her 😭😭😭

[bnesszai]

*puts skk in situations where they must talk about their feelings*

Suffer.

[cwcthzl]

stanley uris loves his wife so much i'm sobbing

[brennan-lee-mother]

The reaction to my frostkettle fic has been so overwhelmingly sweet and I just!!! Thank you everyone who commented kind things so much! And to the people who enjoyed it in silence, thank you for being here with me in my kipperlilly induced insanity