#yet another ramble in the tags

[lucabyte]

Different standards

[chiricat]

big bro yu

[naes-dairy]

I think I gave up on giving up.

How do you even give up on giving up...?

[mamawasatesttube]

ooooo timkon w “Can you just hold me?” or “You look like you need a hug." for the ficlet thing :3

Kon's hair is a frizzy mess.

That's the first red flag. Kon is ridiculously vain when he wants to be, with a whole hair care shower routine, silken pillowcases, and an array of curl creams and whatnot that he had to explain to Tim twice before any of it stuck in his head properly. Tim teases him for it now and then, but he knows it's because Kon doesn't like people seeing him at anything but his best. Kon got too used to being picked apart on camera for that.

So the fact that his hair is unkempt and mussed as he lets himself in from the balcony is... concerning.

Even more concerning is the way he barely even looks at Tim before he throws himself at the bed, flopping face-down with an oof. The balcony door closes itself behind him like an afterthought, and he heaves a huge, melancholy sigh.

"Kon?" Tim pushes away from his desk, trotting over to the bedside. Kon's legs are sticking off, and Tim shakes his head fondly as he reaches down to tug Kon's boots off. "Long day, huh?"

The first boot comes off in his hands; the second follows almost instantaneously. Kon lifts his head from the duvet to give him a slightly sheepish look over his shoulder, apologetic, before he drops his face back down with a thump.

"I'm tired," he mumbles. And he sounds like it. There isn't even a hint of a smile in his voice.

Tim crawls onto the bed next to him, rests his hand comfortingly at the small of his back. "What happened?"

Kon hisses out another sigh into the duvet. "Someone tried to—and don't get your knickers in a twist, I'm fine—but someone tried to dissect me today. Again."

Alarm jolts through Tim's whole body; his hands immediately start roaming Kon's torso, probing for wounds. "What?! Are you hurt—"

"I just said, I'm fine, Rob." Kon sounds a little wry as he rolls onto his back. "Jeez. What happened to your listening skills?"

He catches one of Tim's wrists and holds it to his chest, over his heart; Tim can see the sliver of an incision, cut right into the center of the S-shield emblazoned on his chest. He can't tell if it cut the skin beneath or not, but at least he doesn't see any blood.

The tiny smile on Kon's face fades, and Tim softens, studying him. Now that he can look properly, he can see the telltale signs that Kon cried, earlier; his cheeks are a little blotchy, his eyes slightly reddened. An eyelash is stuck to the delicate skin just below his eye.

"Some... ugh. They were some, like, Cadmus-wannabes. Total bozos, though. They had a red sun lamp, but no metagene suppressant, so." Kon shrugs, discontented. "They didn't even use the energy restraints like that time with Amanda Spence, like—c'mon, at least do your basic research if you're gonna try to vivisect a guy, right?" He snorts humorlessly. "I got out fine, took it down, called the S.C.U., it's whatever. I'm just... I'm so tired, Tim," and his voice cracks on Tim's name.

"Kon," he murmurs, leaning down. He presses their foreheads together, his chest aching. He'll have to check the news, find out from reports who exactly was behind this, because... it shouldn't matter, since it's already taken care of, but something inside him burns at the thought that anyone, anywhere, could put such a bone-deep sorrow into Kon's eyes.

"I'm so tired of people acting like I'm—like I'm not a person just 'cuz I hatched outta some stupid tube in a lab." Kon's eyes are too bright. He squeezes them shut and takes a shaky breath. "Like—what do I gotta do, y'know? How do you just—how do you even get through to people who're so convinced clones aren't people? I'm a person, too! I just... I..."

Tim very briefly debates the ethics of breaking into Stryker's just so he can hit someone with his staff. Or his car.

"I'm... really sorry you had to deal with that," he says instead, lamely. It's cold comfort, and awkward, and—

And it makes Kon laugh, watery but real. He blinks his teary-bright eyes up at Tim, brushes a gloved hand to his cheek. "You're mad as hell right now, aren't you?"

Tim smiles ruefully and presses his lips to Kon's jaw. "You caught me." Another kiss, to the corner of Kon's mouth. "I just—I hate that I can't do anything to fix this kinda thing for you. You don't deserve it."

"Mm." Kon takes a second to collect himself, swallows hard, and breathes out slowly. "You do more than you realize, I think. Can you just—can you just hold me? For a little while?"

Tim flops down on top of him immediately, wraps his arms around his head and neck, and smushes his face into Kon's hair. It would probably be more comfortable if they were side-by-side and facing each other, but the advantage of this position is that—

Kon laughs again, soft and fond. His voice is still a little thick, but he's smiling now. "Is that comfy for you...?"

"Kinda." Tim kisses his temple, too. "You smell like smoke."

"Mmf, sorry." Kon sighs again. "And I got it all over the bed now, too, huh..."

"S'okay. We can just grab a different blanket later." Tim scrunches his fingers through Kon's hair until they hit a tangle. "...Want me to wash your hair for you?"

Kon's arms tighten around him, and suddenly he seems like he needs a moment before he can respond. Tim doesn't rush him.

"Yeah," Kon croaks out after a moment, his voice suspiciously wet. "Yeah, Robbie. I'd like that a lot."

[merlins-strawberriesandroses]

TO be honest. I don’t understand what it means when people say Merlin was Arthur’s bane. Mayhaps I misunderstand but. Arthur was a bit of an assassination magnet (not to mention all those magical creatures and bandits... so many bandits), and Merlin actively prevented Arthur's death for years, which would have occured without him anway in the very first episode. I can see why one might argue that Merlin was just delaying the inevitable, or that he didn't succeed in keeping Arthur safe until Arthur could enact the golden age, but certainly I don’t see how he could have been Arthur’s bane.

Also, it’s implied in the last episode that the golden age does occur, but under Guinevere. Which makes sense as she knew Merlin was the sorcerer and that she was pleased about it (and I recall it was confirmed in interviews), so I also don’t follow the twin train of thought that Merlin was his own bane or even Camelot’s. Camelot was already bane-d(?) under Uther. But partly because of Merlin's steady friendship, Arthur matured into a king who was kinder than his father. He also actively sought magic's aid on multiple occasions, so he knew magic had potential for good (like healing his queen) without Merlin needing to tell him about his magic.

I don't think it's fair to say Camelot's laws on magic remaining relatively static was because no one close to Arthur came out as having magic. There was still much risk in that, and for Merlin a lot at stake, not just his life. A law change was still possible (and almost seemed to be set up that way) without Arthur needing someone he was personally close to having to do the work to humanize it for him (in the sense that the episodes with the druids, the druid boy with Elyan, and the dolma seemed like they were pointing to a law change because Arthur sees the diversity of magic and those who have it).

At worst Merlin’s efforts didn’t change the status quo, but we do have things indicating that they did. And Merlin was not single-mindedly serving Arthur at the expense of everyone else. He saved Camelot as a whole multiple times. He was also very willing to stick out his neck for many others even during the height of his anxiety and agitation in season 5. (Also only being slightly silly when I say this, but he was also THE wingman for Arthur when he was getting with Gwen, so in a way Merlin’s help led to their courting being a success and thus contributed to her being in a great position to change the laws. so personally I give points to Merlin for that). Most of the decisions centering Arthur's safety seemed to stem from the fear that Albion would crumble before it began if Arthur were to die, so he tried his best to prevent that from happening in any way he knew. (Like, when Arthur is dying, Merlin asks "So I failed?" regarding the whole golden age thing, which I think is telling that the prophesy and his role in it was still VERY much at the forefront of Merlin's mind).

And this is a digression but I know people think Merlin should have done more for Camelot, or for folks with magic (like, as a revolutionary or something akin), which I understand but no one reached out to network with him really? It'd require resources, people (always confused why there weren't a whole bunch more folks offering Merlin material/intellectual/emotional support if they thought he should be the one to bring about the golden age. all he was told was that the forseen way it actually happens succesfully is through Arthur), time (I doubt it’d have been much of a ‘quicker’ way necessarily), and incredible planning + foresight if it's meant to be something that works out effectively + long-term. Okay I think I've digressed enough now. This is a whole seperate thought that I don't think I'm gonna do any justice here lol, and I'm already rambling, so I'll stop now :,)

But anyway, in terms of being his own or Arthur’s bane, we know Arthur will return, and we don’t know how Merlin spent his years. His magic can play with time and maybe he learns how to control that, or he could have entered a stasis like in various legends, etc etc etc. And I mean it is tragic on many levels, and it’s sad we didn’t see Arthur’s arc completed, and that Merlin sacrificed so much for a goal that didn't get much acknowledgment by the show at the end, but still. I don’t think Merlin was Arthur’s bane, or Camelot’s, or his own.

[forbiddentaako]

more monochrome practice I suppose

[itspileofgoodthings]

School is going so great and also I am so exhausted and also I am having an existential crisis

[averlym]

the one who pulls the strings (click for better resolution!)

from adamandi by @melliotwrites,, consider this my pitch to get you all to watch it

[evil-mcytblrconfessions]

tumblr kww fandom was formed seperately from most other social media corners of the fandom. and that leads to silly things like the commonly used name "kww collab" and kenfies vs kenifies. and probably more. cedar if theres any more im forgetting that u know of say them pls

(in response to this confession)

[coridallasmultipass]

Bros only. You're not invited.

[naes-dairy]

I didn't even think I'd get to this point.

I just happened to look in a mirror and all it took was a look at my face for intrusive thoughts to bite me on the back.

I genuinely thought doing this stuff would help me improve, even somewhat.

I've never even cared about looks like that.

I mean c'mon, I'm not half bad, I think.. why am I even complaining?

I'm just.. getting worse. I thought not trying would even get me anywhere.

To think that.. something I can't even call my 'best' isn't good enough...

It's fair. Well, it's the truth, right?

[intotheelliwoods]

I present to you a little timeline :)

I have been having dreams about this story since way early march and im so happy I finally have the guts to go through with it all lmaooo no matter how wild it is

"hey ell what happened to this being a hurt/comfort comic" can you pretty please trust me when I say that everything comes full circle, the hurt comfort comics will return! I just want to have some fun first!

Anyways uhh expect a time skip next update!

[triglycercule]

So i've seen a lot people state that due to horror's circumstances surrounding his eye and the *cough* forced *cough* removal of it, its basically turned him into a zombie as he can no longer die to phyiscal attacks and if he were to be harmed, he be KO for a bit before gettingg up and continuing like nothing had happened. Do you have any clue where I could find the origin of this because I REALLY don't know if its been a rumor spread across the fandom or its been started ofifically by sourapple somewhere and I can't find it.

(btw I love you headcannons their so great)

hello!!!! thank you 4 the ask :333 alright lets get into it ‼️

from what i've seen of my scouring of horrortale content there isn't exactly a DIRECT confirmation of SAS being like "oh btw horror's immortal lul". i think that the horror's immortal unless the eye is destroyed thing came from the scene where horror's eye is put into the core to power it and then he comes back to life. one of the royal guards literally says that the eye is keeping him alive!!!! so the train of thought probably went off 4 some people that "hey since horror's eye literally REVIVED him from the dead and he's still alive doesn't that mean that as long as the eye is intact he'll stay alive?"

however just because the eye is keeping him alive doesn't mean that he can't take damage, we dont know that because nobody has actually attempted to attack horror b4!!! actually there WAS the one scene where horror paps bashed him over the head 4 a stick (the only person we've seen attack current day horror is paps 😭😭😭) BUT it wasn't like a total OH CRAP HE'S BLEEDING AND DEAD type thing (didn't pierce through his body either it was a blunt hit) like we saw right before horror got reanimated. it was probably just a bit of a headache thing,,,,

BUT ALSO just because we've never seen him get hit HARD on screen before like he did back @ the core, he is the only ht character to be able to sustain himself and deal with the chronic pain of starvation for SEVEN YEARS (snowdin has humans, toriel probably finds her own unique way, & everywhere else past snowdin it's just monster on monster cannibalism left and right) so he probably has some sort of increased defense to damage to be able to deal with that likely because the of eye since aside from it there's not much else seperating him from the normal horrortale monster (which are seen dying just a couple of months in)

personally i dont think he would be fully immortal because just. how would that work??? it's not like the core has the power to jumpstart his life a second time since he literally destroyed it???? and even if the core wasn't obliterated it would be the one TAKING power and energy from horror, not the other way around which could feasibly revive him (in my eyes),,,,, maybe it's something comparable to how boss monsters' souls survive a few seconds after they dust away but with horror's eye instead and by putting it in the suspended state necessary to power the core that achieved some sort of "temporary (permanent?) in between dusting" state 4 horror,,,,,

SO BASICALLY!!! it hasnt been OFFICIALLY stated by SAS that horror is 100% immortal, but he does seem to have some sort of increased defense to be able to deal w hunger pains & a hit from paps that would probably kill him if he still had his 1 HP from prior to the core incident. we dont know for sure if he's actually immortal immortal since horror's only been shown to take a fatal hit once and that was when his eye was put into the core, so it mightve just been a one off thing and if he takes another fatal hit, he would actually die. we'd never really know until we see horror get into a fight and get hit HARD! basically it's just a fanon theory that's supported by a LOT of canon material

[the-sunbee]

What is family?

For a long long time, Rae only knew his family a mother who was trapped in a land he never knew of. He found his purpose in trying to find and free her. She was his family through blood. He cared for her.

Then came along two little lab assistants who cared. They brought him food, made him take breaks and listened to him when he needed to be heard. They became his family through choice. He loved them.

Through horrid pain he found out that a woman, a goddess, who had tortured his friends and used them as tools, was his second mother. She was his family through blood. He loathed her.

He came to learn that he had a sibling somewhere, wandering the world. He found hope in that knowledge; hope that one day he could find his blood family. He held out hope.

And then he found them. Through the God of Creation, he found his brother. They ran into each others open and waiting arms, thanking the world that they finally found each other. They were his blood family. He loved them.

His brother also had a father - their family was split into two; one with the God of Creation and their mother; and one with the Goddess of the Mind and their mother. He chose the first one, hoping that they would choose him in return.

For a time, they seemed to.

His purpose shifted, wanting to free the man who claimed to be his father - not by blood, mind you, but by choice. He worked day and night, barely sleeping, through his own sickness and declining health, to find a away to free him. To free a man who claimed to be his father.

He had almost died to a sickness and a vengeful goddess to free the god, and yet when the plan had failed, the God had retaliated with a reset.

Eventually though, through hurting an another family, he saved the man who claimed to be his father. He reunited father and child in hopes that he would be chosen.

And yet, when things went wrong, when he had a moment of panic and hurt his brother once, he was cast out. He was chased out of the family who had claimed they chose him.

Instead, an another person rose. He found a connection with the Goddess of the Mind, his mother. At first, he loathed it.

But over time, as she learned to be more like a parent to him, his brother and supposed father's presence faded from his side.

And then he died. He died, giving his powers to a man who called him a bastard. He was brought back to life with his mother's final choice. She had chosen to love him, and in turn, he loved her.

But he lost her.

Instead he was left in a world with a man, who's words were so foul and wrong, who twisted every promise and good thing into a nightmare. Such a horrid nightmare that his mind shattered.

His family was the one who helped him. The nephews who, throughout the years, still chose him as a family every single day; the friends he cared and loved as did they; and his partners, who he found home within, all came to his rescue.

His brother and supposed father were nowhere near.

When he returned, when his mind pieced itself back together and he had more answers about their mother, his brother turned him away and called him a liar.

And instead his brother turned into a nightmare, molded by the God of Creation.

But he kept trying, kept finding ways to show his brother that he was still there. That he cared. That he loved them.

That all broke when his brother took a step too far. When his brother killed one of his nephews.

Icarus had fallen far before, but this was the final strike.

[mr-payjay]

analysis of oj's thought process in this scene for funsies (quick warning for suitcase being put down and seen as inferior by another but it's not character neg)

why is oj being a massive fucking bitch? 🤔 Let's analyze.

so, obviously oj is living off a power trip in this episode. interesting implications about his actual power as a hotel owner. actually, at the beginning of the episode, we can see that he is NOT RESPECTED. salt lies about cleaning up, pepper demands him where the towels are (and he smugly lets her enter the DEATH TRAP DOOR? implying a familiar but negative relationship), and in general oj (and paper sort of but that's not relevant) seems to be the only caretaker while the rest of the residents are more like customers. though it seems they are *meant* to help out (such as salt being supposed to clean).

anyway. once oj gets the temporary host role for inanimate insanity, he immediately gets excited. we transition to the scene outside the hotel and he even does a little twirl! oj starts to read off the paper mephone uses (which oj has happily vandalized with drawings of himself and a snarky little message, this points to his general disdain towards mephone) and is trying to go Smoothly through with it. once the teams start fighting, he doesn't even try to figure out who's telling the truth, preferring instead to eliminate a random person. he REALLY likes to be efficient with his time, huh? that's talked about more in the next paragraph, but in this one i'll say a bit about his hatred for inanimate insanity. for the whole episode, he is uncaring of the show's rules, guidelines, structures, etc. he eliminates someone at random, he makes the contestants clean the hotel NOT as a challenge then flips a coin to determine the loser (only after they question him), he makes them sing for no reason other than to be entertained, he zips through every step as fast as possible. he does not care at all about ii, despite being so eager to host it. why? because hosting it means he gets to boss around a group of people (and he can make them clean his hotel! something he really needs help with!!), he gets to take mephone's place and mess with his stuff and disrespect his show, and generally he gets to sort of... take out some of his lasting frustrations surrounding ii. i don't think ANY of the season one cast is fond of inanimate insanity (and especially not of mephone), even if it brought them together (also not always a good thing). oj certainly isn't.

once he picks suitcase, he starts by calling her "whats-your-face" (thank you for noticing mari), then a few seconds later calls her by her actual name. thissss is so interesting to me. he KNOWS her name, apparently. but he called her a mean name first. this can either imply that he forgot, that he's just being a jerk for the hell of it, or both. i think it's both. a mix of his obsession with productivity and his need to be superior motivates this. he wants to get the elimination over with as quickly as possible, so quickly that he doesn't even bother to remember her name right away, because he's SO efficient that he just simply Doesn't have time for these things (in his mind). so it makes him feel both superior to her (disrespecting her), makes him feel good about himself (he feels like he's just being Productive and Time Efficient and part of that is that he has "no time" to do anything else but work). basically, he DID forget her name for like, a singular second, he just didn't bother to wait a moment or correct himself instead of calling her something else.

and for telling suitcase she's ruining the show? let's bring it back to ii1. oj insults people whenever he feels like it. he's pretty mean, and he's worse when he's stressed. he insults people particularly for being "useless" (such as to bomb), and is quick to fight back against anyone who challenges him. a pushover like suitcase is easy to demean. and it makes him respect her even less when she's being so meek! oj thinks his snappishness is justified by the fact he's, once more, simply being time efficient ("we've got a busy schedule!"), and that she is just wasting his time. i said earlier that oj doesnt respect inanimate insanity. so why does he accuse her of ruining the show if he doesn't care about it? well, because this is *his* episode. his time to be the host. even if he disregards the usual way things run, he's still going to get upset if something conflicts with *his* plans. he wants to get this over with and get them to clean his hotel, not much else (again, he's still enjoying being in a position of authority, he just likes to be nonchalant about how Superior and Powerful he is now). if someone's interrupting that, he's going to assert himself. oj always fights back against anyone who challenges him, and suitcase is too much of a doormat to stop him from shutting her down.

now for oj telling her to step back. this part is petty. he's irritated but also kind of. happy about being irritated. "what," you say? well, see, suitcase is genuinely trying to follow his directions. she just doesn't know how *much* to step back, obviously. so oj keeps shooing her a little bit at a time until she's finally offscreen, and you can tell he's a little bit annoyed by it. but this is part of the power & superiority once more! he gets to boss around someone "inferior to him" who is just soooo stupid that she doesn't even know where to go. and oj has to shoo her over and over because she's just not getting it (since he is sooo very much smarter than her and she is just completely incapable of following OBVIOUS directions.) but it's okay she is simply a Minor inconvenience (in his head) that he has dealt with now. also note that he could've just pointed to where she had to go. does this paragraph make sense? he likes being able to tell others what to do and have them do it, so even if she's kind of annoying him by not completely understanding the instructions, he still gets to assert his authority quite a bit.

this analysis is particularly focused on the scene in the video but i do bring up some other parts of the episode to support it.

[uhbasicallyjustmilex]

~ inseparable opposing images ~