#to balance out the suffering

[softquietsteadylove]

can i ask for a reunion fic please? with tears and hugs and kisses and can't stop touching each other 🥺 i can never get tired of those (especially the ones written by you) and because their reunion on screen can't come soon enough :<

Earth is a distant little marble from the window of the Domo. They're headed back there from the World Forge, all members of their family in tow, safe and...relatively unharmed. Himself included.

Since coming back online, memories and all, the others have been...cautious. They were gentle, at first, slowly feeling out how strong the memories were, what was still fresh from their last lives lived and what might be pushing a little too hard too soon.

Gil sighs. He can hear them in the control room--joyous reunions still going, fading into soft words left unsaid from their past lives. They took extra care with him--he was the last 'death' they had really experienced, so he supposes he understands it.

But he wants to see Thena.

He knows she's here. He can feel her Cosmic Energy calling out to his. His heart - even restarted twice, now - knows hers is close, aching to beat to the same rhythm.

This is exactly the kind of thing she always said made him a sappy romantic.

She would call him that in their home, back in Australia. He remembers--he remembers waking up with her hair pooled around her shoulders beside him. Soft mornings with eggs frying in a pan and her, looking at him to express everything she can't put into words. Evenings under the stars in a hammock, just them and the galaxy they were calling home at the time.

He wants to go home.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

He didn't hear her walk in, because of course he didn't. He smiles and looks to his left, seeing her there just like he did more than 7000 years ago, now. That sunshine coloured hair and eyes like oceans he remembers but has never seen. But he doesn't need to see them with her here--they won't compare, so why bother?

She gives up on light chatter, which wouldn't be very like her anyway. She looks at him, questions upon questions in those eyes of hers. But he can see warmth washing over her, like mist over a river in the morning. Her shoulder brushes against his next to it, "how do you feel?"

Gil turns to face her more properly. She's wearing clothes he doesn't recognise, but they're nice. Everything is nice on her. "I guess it's a lot to take in. I feel good, though."

Her eyes run over him, and he's sure she can see things in her head that he doesn't want to be able to. But he also does, because he's never been one to let her bear her pain alone. "Good."

That's enough small talk.

Gil reaches out, pulling her in and kissing her. And there it is--that comfort he has been aching for since opening these eyes. The cold of the domed metal walls seeps away. His arm wraps around her, and her hands run over him, finding a home with her palms on his chest.

There are their hearts, falling into the same rhythm.

Thena pulls away, intent on asking him things. But he keeps kissing her, no matter how small, no matter how light. "Gil."

"Sh," he whispers, his lips chasing hers and clinging on when they meet. "I'm trying to kiss my wife."

Her lips bend against his and he finally pulls back just to see that smile. The planet and the stars and the whole galaxy just outside have nothing on this sight in front of him. "You remember getting married?"

"Every time," he whispers, their heads circling each other as they lean and tilt, lips meeting clumsily and eagerly and tentatively. Their teeth click together as their smiles grow and he moves the tip of his nose against hers. "We're due for another, I think."

"I think we're owed it," Thena says softly before one last kiss. He can tell her questions won't wait and lets her lean back that agonising distance, however small. "Gil."

"Thena," he whispers, and the name rings in his head like a vow.

Every time he has awakened, he has had a few things in his head.

He is Gilgamesh. He is the Strongest Eternal. He was chosen by Arishem to be an Eternal assigned to Earth.

And Thena--just Thena. She's there, somehow already in his mind, and more importantly in his heart. Her name is like a concept he can already feel, like life, or love, or fear, or joy.

"There is," she pauses, and he knows she's trying to get the words out. But there's so much, and that's not even just things he as to be told about when he was 'away'.

He holds her cheeks in his hands, gentle and soft with her. As he always was, and always is, and always will be. "Take your time."

She shakes her head, and he saddens as she buries her face in his chest. She only does that when she needs him, and she only needs him when she isn't strong enough to face whatever is happening by herself. And there is very little his Thena can't handle on her own.

"I'm scared to."

He can't even imagine it. He never could imagine what it would be like to lose Thena in his time on Earth. It was something he could intellectualise but not fully grasp. Because it was far, far too painful for him to try and imagine on any real level.

He would rather die. And then he did.

Gil runs his hand over her hair as she shakes in his arms. He's not lying down, but he remembers distinctly how she had held him on the floor of the jungle, his last breaths leaving him and his skin becoming etched with the lines of his energy signature.

But he had no regrets about dying, back then. Because he could see Thena there, smiling at him, holding his hand, even if there were tears in her eyes. But she was alive, and he had meant it when he said: "I'd do it again. On any planet."

Thena pinches his arm, as if he's teasing her lightly. But he still means those words, although he guesses they have somewhat of a different meaning for her, now. "No more planets."

Gil sighs, moving his arms from around her back to sit on her hips. He tilts his head at the soft cardigan she's wearing, and the tight skirt that just kisses below her knees.

Thena tilts her head at him, already sensing that she's lost him to her wardrobe, "Gilgamesh."

"I like it," he volunteers eagerly, his thumb pushing up hem of the sweater and under it to brush against her bare skin. He leans in for another kiss. "This new?"

"I suppose," she murmurs, although she doesn't stop him from kissing her again, and again.

"Wedding dress number...whatever--what do you say?" he smiles against her cheek, nestling himself in against her locks of hair as he holds her closer.

Thena sighs blissfully, letting him express enough affection for the both of them--to get started, at least. She leans her head back to let him kiss from her cheek to her earrings. "I think I'd rather just go home."

Home. Australia--just him and Thena. That's where he belongs. "Sounds good to me."

[kosmicprlz]

in your arms again

[muchanmocha]

ROUND 7

IVAN vs HYUNA

Based on this dream

[Premise]

Mizi and Hyuna are on their way to confront Luka and save Till on the main stage but they find themselves intercepted by a familiar yet strange figure — Ivan, newly revived as an android biological abomination. (Or as I like to affectionately call it, a zombie android.)

Now Hyuna, still sustaining her injury from post-Round 6, must face off with "Ivan" before Round 8, Luka vs Till, commences.

Full "Came back wrong" Ivan design can be found here

[milkbreadtoast]

cedric guilty challenge...and now the set is complete...!!🖤💛🩷🔥🥹

[lotus-pear]

being a knkdz shipper means initially latching onto them bc of their sun and moon dynamic with dazai as the sun and kunikida as the moon only to realize later on that it's actually the opposite

[toffeesbabbles]

I feel like I need to make an apology everytime I include Epic sans in anything since his creator hates him LMAOOO.

[mcelroyfamilystaff]

Oh shit check it out we just dropped the cover art for The Suffering Game!

Also if you head over to the First Second Instagram account, their post about the cover reveal includes a sneak peek at Edward & Lydia 👀

[soggedupfrog]

My Edward and Lydia designs :3 I enjoyed the clown themes they had in the graphic novel so I added some of that into my designs, Edward has spades/clubs patterns and Lydia has Hearts/Diamonds patterns ^_^

[wntrmelts]

*hands him a tissue*

[valtsv]

i need to clean up more of my tsv meta drafts and post them i used to love posting tsv meta

[modmad]

TPoH: Update!

Sorry for the LONG delay due to catching covid. I am still recovering from it, so I do not know if I will be updating weekly again yet but I will post the comic whenever I can. Thank you all so much for your support and kindness during this time!

Read TPoH from the start here.

Update here on the TPoH website!

Thank you all  for the kind and loving support! If you want to buy books of this comic YOU CAN! Volumes one and two AND THREE are now in stock and you can get even more books in the form of TPatJ and Unbecoming! Find them and more here in the TPoH Topatoco shop right here, or tell your friends about it! There are also always lots of my doodles to buy on nice stuff in my Society6 merch box too!

If you like TPoH and my other work and want to help keep a soul and body together monetarily, please consider supporting me on Patreon, even just one or two dollars a month helps!

[starry-bi-sky]

catch me looking up nightingale symbolisms for tales of the passerine. if danny's using the name of a songbird for a hero name, regardless of familial connections, i will utilize the symbolism tied to the bird. Anyways general gist of the nightingale symbolism i've seen, other than what wikipedia told me, is that nightingales were frequently symbolisms of spring renewal, loss/death, love, etc. catch me about to incorporate music into Danny's character

[iknowicanbutwhy]

Puyo/Madou, meet ISAT. ISAT, meet Puyo/Madou. I'm sure you have everything in common and this is not at all a completely random crossover of my two current interests

[mango-sideburns]

I feel like the absolute funniest resolution to the graphic novel blue Taako era would be to keep him blue but make Lup a normal human colour. Just make his twin sister an average skin colour and keep Taako blue. He's actually just like that for the drama TM. It's a constant glamour bc he thinks it makes him look cooler.

[applejongho]

hi besties hi jonghomies I literally might get a job bc of a fucking fourth of july party. My parents invited a neighbor who works at a place I wanna work at to our fourth of july party and I talked to him about how I applied back in nov and they keep wait listing me and he was fucking appalled bc they just hired some bioengineers that are like..... "totally not as good as you" (his words) and now he has been advocating for me and now a manager is interested in me bc of his advocating. she looked at my resume and was like "we need her." FUCKING HELL

[bookwyrminspiration]

chat should I do the 50k words in a month this november, as per usual, or since we're ditching the site due to shitty management should I break free of the ill-timing and do the challenge in like. june.