#why is this neverending

[faunandfloraas]

...

[layzeal]

LWJ: wei ying… during those 13 years, where were you?

WWX: ahahahaha lan zhaaaan you know how my memory is 🥺 sorry, i really don't remember….

WWX's soul back then in Hua Cheng's ghost city:

[sualne]

it's also about the self but that's a given

[sygneth]

You're an Empire

Darkest of Empires

(inspo song)

[boyleblr]

you know. anto in some rockabilly 50s drama would be my certain death. why can't we have that?

[brianskangs]

(231209) YOUNG K x SAY YES

[sidneycarter]

love the idea that post The Situation thomas is just increasingly obtuse when it comes to jimmy's feelings.

so when one day mrs hughes mentions in passing at how much easier it is to handle james now he's settled down, thomas is incredibly confused. and a little bit heartbroken too of course.

it gets even stranger when on valentine's day alfred sulkily asks jimmy how many cards he's sent that year and jimmy merely shrugs and smirks. mrs patmore chastises them for gossiping and announces that surely, jimmy's only got one to be sending.

then one night, most of the staff are enjoying a rare night off in the pub. as usual, a host of pretty girls surround jimmy, and one particularly brave one asks jimmy if he's got any plans on one of his half days. jimmy throws her a cheeky wink and says "sorry, darling, but i'm spoken for."

thomas starts feeling really rather hurt. he's known all along that this would happen eventually - that jimmy would eventually move on and find a nice village lass, but it still stings to hear it. somehow, it hurts even more knowing that clearly jimmy has fallen for someone but he hasn't even told thomas.

thomas puts on a brave face and elbows daisy in the side. "d'ya hear that? jimmy's kept that quiet 'asn't he?"

daisy looks at him with a frown and cocks her head to the side. "well, not really--" but before she can say anything else she's swept up into the rowdy conversation of the table.

a few weeks later, thomas and jimmy are alone in the servants hall, with thomas reading the paper in his rocking chair and jimmy tapping out melodies on the piano. the tune he's playing is sweet and gentle, and thomas finds himself swaying his head along. as the song draws to a close, a gentle round of applause sounds from the doorway.

baxter stands smiling. "let me call you sweetheart is one of my favourites. it was beautiful, jimmy."

jimmy blushes prettily and stands, closing the piano lid. "thank you, mrs baxter. good night."

after he's gone from the room, baxter enters to fill herself a glass of water. she smiles fondly at thomas. "he's so smitten you know. head over heels." she rolls her eyes affectionately.

it takes months until thomas finally figures out the truth of what's going on. well, to say he figures it out is somewhat generous.

he's in the servants hall again, this time feeling a little despondent with a cup of tea. jimmy had gone to the pictures with alfred of all people, their friendship seemingly improved since jimmy's given up on chasing ivy's skirt. thomas is resolutely not waiting up to make sure jimmy gets home safe. anna is the only other person still up, and she sits opposite thomas stitching one of lady mary's hemlines in companionable silence.

thomas dwells on his own thoughts for a while, until anna rests her sewing on the table and fixes him with a worried look. "are you quite alright, mr barrow?"

"hm? oh, yes anna, i'm very well thank you." he takes a sip of his tea to hide his moue.

anna looks unconvinced. "thomas," she says seriously, "is it-- have you and jimmy had a falling out?"

that genuinely surprises thomas. for all his worry and sadness over jimmy's as yet unknown love interest, they'd never fallen out. "no, no, of course not. he's just busy, that's all, which is to be expected now he's, you know," thomas waves his cup vaguely in the air, "courting the mystery lady."

anna chokes on a laugh. "the mystery lady?"

"yes. he's-- he's courting someone, isn't he? everyone keeps saying that he's... or suggesting that he's taken with someone." Thomas adds somewhat bitterly, "seems quite serious if you ask me. not that he's told me anything about it of course."

anna stops giggling and looks at him oddly. "thomas you-- you can't mean--"

"-- do you know who she is, anna?" thomas interrupts a little desperately. he's becoming tired of it all and he just wants to know-- how bad it is, for how long he's going to have to tend to his broken heart.

"thomas. thomas, jimmy's sweetheart is-- well, it's you."

"me?" thomas has a brief, sickening memory of his feelings before, and how miss o'brien toyed with them so badly. but he knows in his gut, that anna would never, and could never do that. he knows she's being honest, as confusing and terrifying as the statement may be.

"yes." anna smiles. "he's like a little puppy when he's with you. surely you've noticed? he gazes at you with stars in his eyes. he wants to do everything you do, and it seems like every other conversation is all about what you've been telling him this week. he only ever plays love songs on the piano when you're in the room. he laughs at all your jokes and he's not even glanced in the direction of a girl since last year." anna shakes her head. "i thought you knew and were just letting him get used to it."

"no i didn't -- i didn't know, i thought," thomas can feel himself blushing, "i don't know what i thought."

anna stands with a stifled yawn. "you make each other very happy. if you really didn't know, i think you ought to talk to him. good night, mr barrow."

"good night anna. and thank you."

thomas is left in the still and quiet of the room, watching the steam spiral up from his cup. a private and hopeful smile spreads across his face. yes, he thinks, nodding his head, perhaps we should talk.

[teal-deer]

Thing I dislike a lot about the Neverending Story film: it turns the dad into just another Boring Absent 80s Dad in a Vague Corporate Business Job

In the book,

a) the dad is specifically a dentist, which I think is neat (it's like how Calvin's dad in Calvin & Hobbes is specifically a patent attorney) and

b) suffering from severe depression due to the death of his wife. His alienation from Bastian is specifically because of that.

The end of the book has Bastian bringing the Waters of Life back from the place between Fantastika and the Real to his dad. The literal water disappears from his hands, but he brings it with him anyway -- the light and hope of imagination and love. He reminds his father that even if Bastian's mother is gone, Bastian is still here, and he needs his father.

I think most importantly, that scene speaks to the fact that adults need stories and dreams too.

[byler-alarmist]

Well, after such a stressful morning, it was nice to go see the 40th anniversary screening of The Neverending Story with my sibling.

I was imagining Mike and Will sitting next to each other, watching it on a movie date in 1984

I'M FINE

[freaky-wasatch-range]

just find out that the doctrine(?) of apotheosis/exaltation is kind of taboo to talk about formally (missionary work, over the pulpit, other forms of teaching, etc.) (or at least it's considered obscure doctrine, even though everything logically points to it) and..... I cannot imagine a single reason why other than an attempt to ingratiate ourselves to nonmembers. it's rad and one of the coolest parts of our theology idk what's wrong with it other than it not jiving with the corporate mainstream christian assimilation the institution has been aiming for. y'all can tell me if I'm wrong

[alectoperdita]

this is not relevant to the in-text story because it's rated T, but i need people to know

fox god Seto has a knot

[lovelywingsart]

The husband took me to see the new Sonic movie on Tuesday for a mini date and it made me want to draw my boy again-

And wonderfully enough, my friend @pxiedustnblades has her newly redesigned bab with Shadow, which gave this beautiful opportunity uwu <3

Rook and Halo admiring how adorable their boys are in their new shirt, even if they're about 3 seconds from murdering eachother~

(I tried with Shadow- QuQ Hedgehogs are… not the easiest. The last one I drew was Mephiles and he's... funky, to say the least... Please don't ask me to draw Knuckles LAKDJDDSKALS- Next thing you know they hear a yelp because Infinite got stabbed in the ass from one of Shadows quills

As always, thank you to Faye for letting me snag her bab for doodling~)

[strechanadi]

Ladies and gentlemen, Onegin…

photo El Beweging

[alexa-nowak]

Thoughts about Astarion's endings

In terms of romance,I personally prefer spawn ending, because,well,it's wholesome and it has it's bittersweet flavour that I usually adore in romance.

However...

I absolutely prefer Ascended Astarion from storytelling perspective and I think it looks more natural and logical as character development for him. I don't think that game gave us convincing "path to light" and redemption arc for Astarion. And it's a shame, really, because I see in his story great potential for interesting redemption arc and nice critique towards the judicial system, "abuser gets his punishment from a greater abuser" and all this intriguing dark stuff.

But his EA backstory got wiped, screenwriters added enormous amount of sugar and tears to his story and it ended up making it look so bleak in comparison with what we could get out of his arc. And in the end, for me his way towards becoming more evil than he was in Act 1 and getting lost in his hunger for power seems to be more true to his character than "change his mind with one dice roll" trick.

My heart definitely falls for spawn ending,yet my mind will always prefer "let's make this vicious man even more evil and powerful than he already was" over "cured by love" classical fairytale

[54625]

just opened the realm tag to check up on the lore today, nevermind

[viperwhispered]

Ngl, as a self-inserter through and through, it's kinda wild that I'm here like... actually I wouldn't mind just watching Jamil and Malleus? Like being happy together, or making out, or going full on sexy times?

It's like I'm finding both my inner polyam and my inner voyeur, lol.