Caleb being so into time and then falling for the time guy™, yes, but also. Essek’s journey later on being all about changing, to be better, to grow a conscience, and alongside falling for the literal transmutation wizard, aka change guy (™!)

artist: i've been asked to put another bh member on the background of fearne's coloring book and i chose ashton because i like the pairing

haters: so you have chosen death

People talk about the surprise albums from people like Taylor Swift or Beyoncé that drop with zero warning but I have just been existing in this world where every album I've ever heard in my life has been a surprise album because I didn't know that musicians had schedules that we could see

One thing that drives me a little crazy for the EXU half while also being completely understandable:

Why does the Spider Queen need Opal to ditch her friends to go fight Predathos? Like ma'am, why aren't you taking advantage of "we'll follow you" to get a whole hit squad instead of just a lonely champion?

And yes, this is probably more about the Spider Queen's own trust issues and visions/understanding of power and a belief compassion (for allies/friends) will hold her champion back. But c'mon. Look at the goddamn logistics of five (six with Cyrus) people fighting for you versus one. In what way is having support that can heal and boost and assist your champion bad? Don't you want a champion that has better odds of finishing the mission and living to serve another day? (probably cares less about champion survivability, being a Betrayer who doesn't care about mortals. But good help is hard to find, especially during a crunch)

I'm just sitting here shaking my head at a goddess desperate to get her pawn in on the fight and going about it the completely wrong way.

I had to draw it

I just saw a Tik Tok that said writers on AO3 are not looking for constructive criticism in their reviews. I have no audience on this platform so I have to know if this is true? I've always left my pros and cons when reading a fic and now I'm concerned that the authors didn't like that.

Yeah writers are Not looking for criticism, constructive or otherwise. Unless they specifically ask for it, it’s considered rude and honestly a bit hurtful. In the least bitchy way possible, don’t do that. It’s unwanted.

I'm thinking about how Orym went from "I really miss Dorian, and sometimes I think that's okay, and sometimes I think it isn't" to a tentative "I miss you" sending to this most recent yearning and desperate "Fuck, I miss you" sending.

Baby boy really just needed to admit it out loud to his friends so he could give himself permission to feel it, huh?

guys, we got a vulnerable sending from orym to dorian, dorian is back, we're finally figuring out what the fuck "opal's gettin' a little dark" means, dorian immediately thought of seeing fearne's corrupted mirror when asked what the worst thing he could see was, the masses are being forced to watch the crown keepers.... we are so fucking back.

a tarot card fic cover art commission of molly and body-haunting-ghost lucien for the fanfiction The Fool and the Soldier by @mareastrorum 👻😈

I’ve mentioned this elsewhere but it feels relevant again in light of the most recent episode. Something that’s really fascinating to me about Orym’s grief in comparison to the rest of the hells’ grief is that his is the youngest/most fresh and because of that tends to be the most volatile when it is triggered (aside from FCG, who was two and obviously The Most volatile when triggered.)

As in: prior to the attack on Zephrah, Orym was leading a normal, happy, casual life! with family who loved him and still do! Grief was something that was inflicted upon him via Ludinus’ machinations, whereas with characters like Imogen or Ashton, grief has been the background tapestry of their entire lives. And I think that shows in how the rest of them are largely able to, if not see past completely (Imogen/Laudna/Chetney) then at least temper/direct their vitriol or grief (Ashton/Fearne/Chetney again) to where it is most effective. (There is a glaring reason, for example, that Imogen scolded Orym for the way he reacted to Liliana and not Ashton. Because Ashton’s anger was directed in a way that was ultimately protective of Imogen—most effective—and Orym’s was founded solely in his personal grief.)

He wants Imogen to have her mom and he wants Lilliana to be salvageable for Imogen because he loves Imogen. But his love for the people in his present actively and consistently tend to conflict with the love he has for the people in his past. They are in a constant battle and Orym—he cannot fathom losing either of them.

(Or, to that point, recognize that allowing empathy to take root in him for the enemy isn't losing one of them.)

It is deeply poignant, then, that Orym’s grief is symbolized by both a sword and shield. It is something he wields as a blade when he feels his philosophy being threatened by certain conversational threads (as he believes it is one of the only things he has left of Will and Derrig, and is therefore desperately clinging onto with both bloody hands even if it makes him, occasionally, a hypocrite), but also something he can use in defense of the people he presently loves—if that provocative, blade-grief side of him does not push them—or himself—away first.

(it won’t—he is as loved by the hells as he loves them. he just needs to—as laudna so beautifully said—say and hear it more often.)

If Chetney has to take the lead because the rest of the Bell's are in shambles, between losing FCG and Liliana's arrival (because there's no way they're just going to be fine with her being there - especially Orym and Laudna and obviously Imogen and probably Fearne who is struggling with her own Ruby Vanguard parent and Ashton is going to want to take his anger out on Someone and it's not like Liliana hasn't asked for it)...

i look at any live action star wars costume design from the past five years and just know cosplayers can and have done better

”you’re too fucking good for her” ASHTON I LOVE YOU IM GONNA CRY

it’s monday i’m in the labyrinth