I've started playing Honkai Star Rail and I love how dramatically silly it lets me be. So far I have stolen mail, searched garbage cans, entered a closet to become one with the darkness, waxed on about how life is just a road to death to a terrified guy (somehow that seemed to make him less terrified), bowed in respect to a dumpster, investigated an inconspicuous lamp so many times it got mad at me, investigated a trash can so many times it insulted me, and felt bad for two different trash cans and several sandbags (I believe my Trailblazer is going insane from putting up with me). All this not counting with the countless dialogue options with NPCs around the world that allowed me to be incredibly dramatic (think almost Fischl style) for no reason (you can bet I took them). However, I cannot jump or climb, and fights are turn-based... we respect our opponents in Star Rail (and die. A lot).

What I conclude from this is that while the Traveler has a moral code (and some standards) when dealing with interpersonal interactions but isn't bound by physical restrictions or conventions (stairs? The Traveler does not understand that concept. Fair fights? Please, they don't have time for that), the Trailblazer is the exact opposite. The physical rules may hold them but their only ties to social rules or convention so far have been March and Dan Heng saying "hey, maybe don't fight the guards" and "hey, you can't just accept random jobs".

It also might be because the Traveler is a thousand year old entity that has been through A Lot (has learnt the power of friendship, but is too tired to take the long route) and is on a serious mission while the Trailblazer was quite literally Born Yesterday with the sole purpose of housing a massive problem inside their body (walks and fights like a Normal Person bc they're mimicking everyone else, but is absolutely unhinged) and is just having fun with tjeir newfound existence.

Either way I love both of them and they're basically cryptids but in different ways.

A Headcanon: the Dragonborn (that applies to Miraak, too!) exhibit some dragon-like characteristics when they experience intense emotions, such as anger, anticipation, excitement, etc. Say, you approach a feral Dragonborn for instance, and you may notice their eyes swiftly elongating into vertical serpent-like slits with every beat of their heart. They may also seem taller and bigger somehow, as though they are surrounded by a mysterious enchanting aura that shrinks their mortal appearance, and if someone is to glimpse at their shadow, it may flicker between the Dragonborn's respective race form and a dragon's—specifically wings and horns are very distinctive in their shade. Not to mention their voice—it gets deeper, more throaty, and more thundering that it can cause a tremble or two even though the Dragonborn may not fully use the Thu'um.

no you don’t get it. tané is literally so brave and strong and proud and loyal and hard-working, all to her own detriment. her and susa’s relationship was born from and ended in tragedy. she loves so deeply and she always ends up getting hurt because of it. she’s an outcast who fought her way to the top. she fulfilled her ambitions, got everything she had ever dreamt of, only to end up losing everything. she was both destined for greatness and chose and shaped her own destiny. she’s so strong and good and flawed and so, so human and I am so, so, so normal about her

Vallaki coup went really well and now two of the most unempathetic, sleep deprived wizards are in charge of a populace, which is only a slight step up from a bloodthirsty vampire obsessed with a dead woman.

updates and spoilers for our game in the tags!

kind of a dumb headcanon BUT i think whenever lance actually has some spare time (arceus knows he rarely has any of that) whenever he's not out and about with one of his Various Kids (kanto trio and johto quartet), i think he likes to knit. Specifically so that he can make stuff for the baby dratini in the dragon's den for the winter + stuff like hats and scarves for his own pokemon team. clair does the nearly the Exact Same Thing (crotcheting instead though), however, unlike lance, who would likely be calm about it being discovered (especially since silver would be the most likely to discover it since dad lance is real in my heart), clair would just Drop Kick the discoverer into oblivion (also likely silver. this time because it's funny)

haha yara if you are a dragon trainer and ace would be a fire trainer and the two of you would be unstoppable xD (your garchomp is cute!)

Ace: "The only thing hotter than my Fire Pokémon is my wife! ...Sorry, couldn't resist."

Yara: "We would indeed be unstoppable. And my Garchomp appreciates that you called her cute."

Ask Yara (or any of my OCs) anything!

Anyway, another AU where Doflamingo is adopted with Rocinante by Sengoku.

Except it wasn't an happy adoption but Doflamingo was kidnapped by Sengoku (after a few months Sengoku found Rocinante) and nobody is happy about the situation. Sengoku doesn't want to keep him and he's enough desperate to ask Garp and Tsuru to re-home get rid the little devil, but they say "lmao, you brought him here, now he's your problem."

Jokes on them.

Three old idiots with two traumatized kids, while Doflamingo plays a 3D chess game trying to take his brother away from the marines, passing as one, keeping his baby evil empire afloat on the other side of the world (he still has this dictatorship dream), meanwhile meeting Dragon by mistake deciding to be a sugar daddy (at 13yo) for the Revolutionaries, because he has a big bone to pick with the World Government and surprising being in the marine headquarters worsened his hate.

Lmaoo tallulah and Chayanne both thinking cdream it's their mom and when they one day they ask and cphilza and cwill would need to have a chat bewteen them.

This au it's amazing cdream having a dated cfundy,cwill and cphilza it's one of my favorite hc like that man went for all the bloodline

The situation escalates to the point that the entire server gets together on a trial to figure out if Dream actually is the mother and every single thing just seems to point to him actually being it

Like, Tubbo just saying "did either of you ever cum inside that man?" And both Wilbur and Philza go suspiciously quiet

Quackity is being very silent in the background panicking while he remembers that Tilin had green eyes

I have had this thought for the first time a few months ago. I really did not have the energy to write something about it at that time- so I am attempting a mere summary of it now.

To me Tyrion is almost like Icarus. Not so much as in point wise parallels but more in the idea they represent. In the popular version of the myth, Icarus and his father were imprisoned by King Minos and hence they fashioned wings to escape. Despite his father's warning Icarus flew too close to the sun, overwhelmed with achieving the impossible. Flight for man!! An ambition too unnatural for fate to entertain. And so Icarus fell, plunging into the deep of sea and drowned.

Ever since we have been introduced to Tyrion Lannister ( through Jon Snow I think) it has become clear that for the world at large, Tyrion is someone who is expected to curb himself from all that is allowed to every other ( trueborn) Lord. He is the imp, the dwarf, the half man, the Lannister made of "bones, blood and clay" as opposed to the fine spun gold of his siblings and so his very appetite is taken to be that of a pervert. His being is mocked, his ambition loathed, and his desire shunned.

Tyrion advises Jon:

Let me give you some counsel, bastard," Lannister said. "Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you."

I think it has been discussed in Tyrion's side of the fandom that he plays a part in front of most people. He leans into the stereotype of being trecherous and voracious lecher almost defiantly, armoring himself with the identity Westeros has forcefully placed on him. It is as much an armor as it is a prison when it comes to his relationship with Tywin Lannister. For Tywin his heir is his golden boy Jaime, the lion of the Kingsguard, able bodied enough to carry a longsword. And yet as much as Tywin may loathe it, it is canon that his ideal heir is Tyrion. Down to their penchant for theatrics even!- power is as much about holding it as in flaunting it- melting down Ice ( I remember something about Tywin being miffed that his family never had a greatsword, a status symbol for old houses I think) into longswords-the song rains of castamere etc. So of course the image akin to a demigod is very precious to the lord of Casterly Rock, and the only thing that mars it, is Tyrion's very visible disability.

For that Tyrion is forever guilty and his audacity to keep surviving is taken as a personal affront. So Tywin devises for Tyrion a prison of humbleness. He is given the charge of sewers to knock him down, his sexual being is often brought up to shame him and he is often warned off from entertaining prostitutes ( funny how then Cersei discovers exactly what her father had been doing moments before his death).

But Tyrion's Icarus moment comes almost ironically. His father presents to him the wax wings- the charge of KL till he is to get to the capital. And boy did Tyrion fly! High! High!! Higher than he could have believed Tywin would ever let him. His freedom had been to question the political agendas and the established loci of power in Red Keep and KL. In finally being able to call the shots like he would have been allowed had he too been spun from gold.

But where Daedalus never wished Icarus to fall, Tywin's "gift" of wax wings foretold Tyrion's eventual plunge. No sooner does Tywin get the opportunity than he decides, the "bastard" Lannister is done flying. His wings are melted first by undoing all that he has achieved, by not giving him recognition for what he has done in the battle of blackwater bay, and finally by trying him for Joffrey's murder. The imp is finally knocked down amongst mocking jeers of giant of Lannister

The laughter swelled twice as loud. Their mouths were twisted in merriment, their bellies shook. Some laughed so hard that snot flew from their nostrils.

Our Icarus is yet to die though..he is struggling in the choppy waters but he has yet to let go. Only time will tell if he will defy fate and fly, becoming the harbinger of winged beasts to Westeros.

Callum doesn’t know why he goes back to the mirror. He knows he has a curious nature, but he’s not stupid, and the whole thing reads as something dangerous, particularly because he doesn’t understand it. A lot of Viren’s relics have been like that, from his staff to jars full of chipped, embalmed elf horns that don’t curve right anymore.

But he’s... he’s lonely, and Ezran is off dealing with the dragons, and while Callum is supposed to be looking after the kingdom, there’s not much to look after in Ezran’s absence. Just more room for all the hurt welled up inside him from his birthday to run on loop in his head.

That, and Callum has always had the habit of talking to himself (and of trying not to talk to himself). Muttering under his breath in front of the mirror works well enough, until the mirror elf reminds him he actually does have an audience. 

“It seems you and I both have nothing better than to do than stand around in our studies all day, talking to ourselves.” The elf smirks at him when he glances up, glaring. “However, I am stuck in a mirror. What’s your excuse?”

“I don’t need an excuse,” Callum retorts, looking back at his books. What he needs is to figure out this spell. It’s a storm adjacent one, something about helping irrigate fields by summoning rainwater, but all his clouds turn out pitifully small and not nearly big enough.

Part of him knows he won’t get anywhere, just staring at it ceaselessly. That he should get out of his head. But that’s so much harder when the person who used to tug him away from his thoughts and nudge a smile out of him is gone. 

(What he needs is for Rayla to come back, goddammit.) 

Callum blinks rapidly and swallows, turning further away. He’s not going to be a baby and tear up in front of some strange smug mirror star elf. He clears his throat, forcing his voice to sound normal as he flips through his notes, looking for something he might’ve overlooked. “Why are you stuck in there, anyway?”

The elf had refused to answer almost any of his questions that first day. It had felt like a particularly cruel game of some kind, like playing chess against someone who already had you in checkmate. It would’ve been unnerving if it hadn’t been so frustrating.

“Oh, something about a betrayal. I acted out, you see, after the other Startouch elves... abandoned me.”

Callum stops and straightens. He turns around slowly. “They abandoned you?”

It’s close, far too close, and Callum isn’t sure he can even read his own tone. 

The elf’s smirk flickers, dissipating. “Yes,” he says, a glint of anger in Aaravos’ eyes Callum knows all too well. “It seems you know something about that?”

“Maybe,” Callum hedges, staring at him. The lump in his throat feels so big he can hardly breathe.

It’s never a good sign, as Aaravos beckons him further into the water rapidly tearing at his eyes, filling up his his throat, the lump like a rock on a riverbed. Hard and unmovable. Rayla always hated water, how it restricted her movements and stripped away her agency.

Maybe he hates her after all. Just a little.

“Tell me,” Aaravos says, eyes steady and patient and — despite himself — Callum does.

been looking in tags for a few days now to see if anyone else found the whole high cloud quintet and related story to be a bit.....poorly written, nonsensical, contradictory, full of plot holes and loose ends, etc. apparently i'm not the only one. (and i'm not even talking about shipping stuff, because any time I saw someone mad about bad writing, someone always replies to be homophobic and laugh about failed ships. weirdos.) it could have been so good but was thrown into the garbage for the most part (IF you noticed all the plot holes and contradiction. if not, then it's a fine enough story tbh. I expect most people to see it on surface level and not read all the little hidden lore bits and try to piece it together like my autistic brain did. which is ok! enjoy it if you liked it and ignore me 😆)

The cool thing about a horror movie that takes place in a mental hospital and, shockingly, actually turns out to be on the side of mentally ill people is that it avoids all the common disgusting pitfalls of mocking, demonizing, and infantilizing mentally ill people.

The downside is

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

[It's much scarier.]

we all do what we can.

A small collection of images featuring Naoise Cousland now that I've got my mods and Origins running the way I want them to. Here's a peek into the poor poor traumatic twists so far. RIP like basically his whole family. Also @hannahrama i know i promised you more mahariel and there will be more!! i just hope you like naoise too <3

Nettles and Alys Rivers having a potential matching costume moment, seeing as Daemon is at Harrenhall first, then he teaches Nettles how to dress in Maidenpool. I need a pack of cigarettes, two sewing machines, and the Hotd costume designers on their Zoom. We have exactly one chance to get this right.