“Thank you, for staying.”

She looks at him curiously after he says it. It seems out of the blue, random. She’s not surprised that he’s brought it up — she’s been expecting the conversation, ever since Tex’s shoulders started to hunch and a furrow appeared in his brow whenever she held little Yorak.

…Fine.

Little Keith.

Honestly, she expected this conversation to happen sometime in the dead of night, when neither of them could sleep and worries preyed on their minds. Not when she and Keith were playing in the mud.

“I didn’t think the choice would be as easy as it was,” she confesses, flicking a glob of mud at Keith’s chubby little cheeks. He giggles, throwing a glob back at her with his meaty little toddler hands. The sound makes both her and Tex smile.

“…Was it easy? It didn’t look easy. You looked troubled, for a long time.”

Krolia hums, taking her time to form an answer. Tex is right, she wasn’t being quite truthful. It was a difficult decision to make, with a lot of consequences she will live with for the rest of her life. Namely the fate of the universe. She has the Blue Lion’s location. She — and Tex — are the sole protectors of it, now. The responsibility they hold is enormous. Because she stayed, she has no support. Should she fail, the universe will die.

“I never intended to stay on Earth.”

Tex nods. “I know. You had a mission.”

“You were a very interesting distraction to that mission,” Krolia says with a smirk.

“Don’t I know it, sugar,” he says with an equally wolfish grin. “I had fun distractin’ you, that’s for damn certain.”

Krolia laughs, shaking her head at his wink. Keith laughs, too just because they’re laughing — he’s such a joyful child. Krolia loves him so much. She drags him towards her by the ankle, smothering him with muddy kisses the second he’s close enough. He babbles at her very seriously in response, putting his dirty hands on either side of her face and looking directly in her eyes. Krolia nods along dutifully to all his baby-speak, because she’s sure he’s telling her something very important.

Suddenly, a lump starts to form in her throat. She looks at this beautiful baby who looks just like Tex in every way but has her eyes, big and purple and inhuman, who babbles happily to her every day and reaches for her when he cries. It hits her, right then and there, all of a sudden, that she almost left this baby behind. She almost abandoned him. Her son. Her child.

“Shh, Mama, shhh,” baby Keith coos, patting her on the head, and it’s then that Krolia realises she’s crying.

“I couldn’t leave him behind,” she whispers. Her bottom lip trembles as a sob builds in her throat. “I have a duty. To him and to the universe. To protect him, and all little children like him, from that — from that monster. But I can’t —” she chokes on a sob, and cradles Keith to her chest. He goes willingly, still trying to soothe her. “He’s my baby, Tex.”

Her husband’s big arm wraps around her shoulders, and he pulls her into his side, despite all the mud.

“I know, sweetheart,” he says, pressing a kiss to her hair. “I know. I know. It’s okay.”

She holds her family, the little family that she built with her own two hands, and cries, but not because she’s guilty. She’s relieved. As hard of a choice it was, she knows she made the right one. She thinks of her son and her husband and their tiny house. She thinks of playing with Keith in the mud and kissing Tex on quiet mornings, and she knows that she will not screw this up. Not for anything in the world — she will protect her family until her dying breath.

And for that, she is grateful.

THE NOIR-HOBIE INTERACTIONS THAT I MADE UP IN MY MIND ARE VERY REAL TO ME. SONY PLEASE PICK UP WHAT I’M PUTTING DOWN!!!

14 yrs ago i started playing magic the gathering as a kid, and i had the dream to do art for them

3 yrs ago i tweeted about those dreams:

today i’ve released 11 official magic the gathering cards, and it’s honestly so surreal and insane to me! i did that!! i fulfilled a childhood dream, and i honestly couldn’t be more proud 🥹

losing my actual mind rn

i had this interaction in the dropout discord (i am the first and third person). short. simple. i only got the first year bc of a discount + a gift card i had, so i was planning on using this person's suggestion.

then, i got this.

oh my god!! how nice!! how sweet!!! how thoughtful!! i gave them my email and they sent over a subscription, i thanked them profusely. i was very grateful, very touched.

hours and hours later i was still thinking about it and i recalled how, in the email id gotten about it, it said "tao yang sent you a subscription" and id seen that and thought "oh haha like the tao yang" and then moved on

but now, thinking back, i was like.... theres no way, so i googled tao yang.

......

TAO YANG BOUGHT ME A FUCKING ANNUAL DROPOUT SUBSCRIPTION

"I cannot tell you the complete, fundamental shift that I have felt in the year since having surgery. I knew that I wanted top surgery for a decade; it's the longest I've ever thought about doing anything. The place where I went, I had that clinic's website open on my laptop for five years. It was this impossible mountain: I want that, but I'm never gonna get it. No one's gonna let me, blah, blah, blah. To have that be in the past now... I stand differently, I walk differently, I carry myself differently. It feels different in my body than it ever has. I have just never been happier. I've never been more centered. I've never felt more stable and present and alive. It's the best thing I've ever done for myself. It’s taught me a lot. The recovery process taught me about rest, accepting help, and caring for my body as something connected to me rather than separate from me, that I’m in opposition to: This is mine and I want to take care of it. I feel good in it and good about it. Part of cis people's fear around gender-affirming surgery is the fear of surgery at all — 'Oh, my God, but that's painful and scary!' My reaction to that is, 'No, no, you misunderstood. It was painful before. Your worry has kicked in at the wrong time. The right time to be concerned was about the pain I was in before this. I'm great now.' Everybody else's concern for me has been on a delay. There's no need to be concerned anymore. That's so freeing."

@lgbtqcreators creator meme: [7/8] lgbtq+ celebs — LIV HEWSON

being in love with a fictional character will make u produce art u didnt know u were capable of

~

[if ur part of the "fiction doesnt affect reality" crowd: please fuck off lol]

Zelda goes mushroom girl

My beautiful princess with a disorder 😔💔

so. roommate’s cat likes being on top of the fridge. and usually he goes floor>counter>fridge, but sometimes he will attempt the floor>fridge shortcut. but he misses and this happens

there’s a cork board that somehow supports his weight until one of us scoops him (or he falls)

✨👁️ [And was Echoed Below] 🩸✨

[Cycle of the Stars au]

[for people with screen readers u can find the alt text in each image description]

3 times gaz was the rizz master vs 1 time he was the puppy-eyes king

another comic for “utilities included” skfkskdjsjs

this time for chapter two 😅

masterpost

watching one of hal’s bad animes probably

rare bg3 Tav moment coming from me to you with a doodle assortment. with a goth gf cameo of course

seeing ppl in that post saying "claiming 'playersexual' is a thing is also biphobic" nnnnnno playersexual is a legitimate issue with how some games will claim Bisexuality when the character is just Mechanically Bisexual but Writing-wise nothing abt the bisexual experience is taken into account such as ignoring their attraction to all genders depending on the route. pointing this out isn't biphobia, it's pointing out the blind spots in (usually) cishet writers' approach to bisexuality.

BG3 combat visuals pt 1.