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stil-lindigo · 5 months

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Hey, I just wanted to share something with you, as someone who's so invested in the Palestine conflict, I hope it might inspire hope, even a little.

I was born and live in Egypt, a very conservative and religious country. These days I deleted my Tiktok and rarely ever use Twitter, as I'm in my senior year, and seeing the constant deaths and torture was getting into me so much that I couldn't even eat or drink properly, nevertheless properly study. I honestly am not proud of myself for doing so, but there's comfort in the fact Egypt is so Pro-Palestine. There's a lot to be done, and even for people like me, we can help.

My school has been donating food, clothes and blankets to Palestine. The McDonald's in here have been trying to distance themselves, claiming they're "100% Egyptian", only to get mocked and insulted. I go by the local McDonald's, there's a lot of schools where I am, around 5 in two blocks, and where before they were constantly so full, these days they're so empty. I can only see maybe 3, 4 people in there. A lot of people in my school are on a complete strike, against every American product. We've resorted to buying and getting local products instead. Egypt is doing very poorly economically at the moment, but there's still a lot of effort into knocking out American products, even if not by the companies, by the youth and the children. I can't go a single class without one of my teachers openly supporting Palestine. My Arabic teacher constantly uses the people in Gaza to teach me grammar, calling them brave and courageous. My geography teacher denies Isreal, and has been in league with others to get more donations and aid. Egyptians believe so truly that Palestine will be free that it's hard not to think so too. I've had classmates openly agree that if they could, they'd join the army to help fight for Palestine, I've seen more people than ever mocking the current regime, I've seen more people than ever falling out of the American illusion and seeing it for what it is. I've spent a lot of religion classes being taught Arabic brotherhood and chivalry, when previously, the lessons were stereotypically conservative in nature and I used to despise them for it.

Yes, the government sucks like every other, but there's an air of open support in here. No one is losing their jobs for stating the truth, homes and shops are waving the Palestinian flag. Even the antisemitism, which was rampant, has seen a noticeable decline. People in here stand for Palestine.

I want to also let you know you've been an inspiration for people, or at least, to me. I want to be able to participate more, and I see your reposts and reblogs and I want to do even more than what I did at the start, which was retweeting and reposting and sharing what I can to my friends. Unfortunately due to my current living situation and my terrible memory, I missed being able to donate to the school, but they have stated to open up donations again soon, and I'm preparing in advance for that one. I was not raised Zionist, but I was raised warned against participating in political affairs, saying I'd be put in more trouble, and even could be killed. But I see you and I see so many Americans losing their jobs and being branded criminals and as moral failures for speaking out, and I find it harder and harder in me not to also speak out. And even if I'm not constantly retweeting and reposting, there is something I can do. You helped me realize that, and I'd like to thank you.

I hope this cheers you up even a little, I've noticed your posts these days expressing how much this has been upsetting you. It's been upsetting to all of us, and I want you to know that it's not fruitless, no matter how many western countries and how many bootlickers make you feel otherwise. This ordeal has taught me the world is a brotherhood, politics and money are never a reason for why we should not stand together, and why we shouldn't speak for those having their voice silenced.

Please excuse me if something comes off wrong or unnatural. Like I said, I was born and I live in Egypt, English is not my first language and I still have issues communicating my personal thoughts in it. Please never don't stand for Palestine. Please never lose hope for it, like the Egyptians never have and never will. Please never let people make you feel hopeless and insane.

Thank you for listening to me, thank you for caring about Palestine when it would've been easy not to. Thank you for using your platform, and if you found it in you to read this thing, thank you for giving time to a brown Arab, when the world so strongly encourages you not to. Please continue to inspire justice, and I hope the world one day continues to inspire hope for you.

😭 anon, I cant explain how much I appreciate you sending this message. I know there is hope for Palestinian liberation, I know that we will see freedom for Palestine. But god do I need the reminder sometimes that we aren’t all just shouting into the void. My country of Australia shamefully takes a cowardly stance on Palestine, always deferring to the US to guide our foreign policy, and yet always claims moral superiority over other countries such as yours. Thank you, really thank you so much for sending this message. I feel so so honoured to have earned an audience that includes you. I believe an audience does reflect an artist, and to know I have done you proud in any way makes me feel full.

And please don’t ever feel ashamed of your English, you are eloquent and have a wonderful, compassionate voice, and you have inspired hope in me for yet another day.

#free palestine #askbox #I need to save this one. to look at when all seems bleak and hopeless #thank you anon I needed to read this today

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lets-go-hurt-someone · 2 months

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I love Shadowheart. She was my bae throughout my first (unfinished) Tav run. I abandoned that run because Astarion convinced me I needed to restart as Durge for him, but Shadowheart forever holds a very special place in my… well, heart.

I’ve been thinking about the contrast between them and their arcs and the way fandom interacts with them.

They both start off as characters that by D&D standards are “evil.” Shar is an evil aligned goddess, and vampires are evil aligned creatures.

However, Shadowheart isn’t evil. She disapproves of actively evil decisions and approves of kindness to animals and the helpless. She just doesn’t like it if you seem to be putting do-goodery above your search for a cure to the tadpoles. She is fine with killing the grove, but the contrast between her at the tiefling party and the goblin party shows pretty starkly how she really feels.

Astarion starts off the game evil. I will fucking fight anyone on this. He has very very good reasons to be evil, but so does Shadowheart… and she’s not. Astarion enjoys chaos, he likes murder, he likes hurting people. He thinks being “good” is weak and stupid and that might be a trauma response, but it is how he genuinely feels at that point in his story.

And yet. AND YET. For some reason, I have never seen anyone complain about making Shadowheart a Dark Justiciar. If she likes you, you actually have to encourage her to kill Nightsong. Even on my evil run, she spared Aylin if I didn’t tell her not to. You have to either not care about her or intervene to make her evil, and right up to the end where she kills her parents and Shar wipes her memory again, she is just so miserable and resigned to what she’s been influenced to be.

But people do it to get the hotter sex scene or whatever and that’s fine.

But Astarion? The man who spends the whole fucking game begging you to help him take over an evil cult and murder his “family” so he can become a living vampire as soon as he realises it might be an option? The guy who will throw a fit and leave you if you don’t either succeed in a persuasion check or help him eternally damn 7007 people— no matter how close you’ve gotten to him?

Apparently you’re an evil piece of shit if you find his “bad” ending compelling or, dare I say it, hot.

I don’t really care which ending you prefer for either character— I think the game does a great job on its own telling you what you should think and it’s fairly nuanced for both characters. I just don’t understand why Astarion has to be so woobified and his “bad” ending fans vilified as if they’re naive morons with no media literacy.

Shadowheart, the character, hates her “bad” ending way more than Astarion, the character, hates his. And fandom can’t reflect this because I don’t know…

Oh god. It’s sexism isn’t it?

#bg3 #astarion #baldur's gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #shadowheart #astarion ancunin #bg3 astarion #bg3 meta #ascended astarion #lord astarion #bg3 shadowheart #jenevelle hallowleaf #dark justiciar shadowheart #tbh I PREFER SPAWN #but Astarion WANTS to ascend and you know what in the right context I love that for him #dark justiciar is just bleak for Shadowheart #she seems like she’s even trying to convince herself she doesn’t hate it #the slightest tap towards selune sends her spiralling #ascended Astarion should not be so controversial by comparison

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fate-defiant · 2 months

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🦋~I want you to kiss me, I want you to remake me I want to drown in this moment of captivation~🦋

(I fucking did it dear god that was so many fucking layers)

#princess tutu #ahirue #ahiru #duck #rue #fanart #my art #this was by all means supposed to be a quick shitpost #but then I was looking at the sketch and the flats #and was like “this is bleak. dismal. i can do More”#so i did it for realsies and look how pretty it turned out #it feels good to complete something #i havent done that since like 2020?...21? i dont remeber 💀#and i can't lie i had fun figuring out the shading on the hair and skin #it was very fun #i mightve drowned this in way too many glowy effects though. i tend to do that a lot #but I decidedly do not care look how dope all that glitter is this was so fuuuuuun #if the lighting seems bogus no it isnt and bullshitting the light source is an honored artistic tradition. so #do not @me about anything ever #god tumblr nerfed the image quality so much #i was gonna upload this as JPEG but that looked even worse than this #well whatever. whatever #hitting post now good night IM DONE. 10 HOURS BABY I DID IT ITS A FINISHED ILLUSTRATION WHOO HOOOOOOOO

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volitioncheck · 3 months

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i think i wouldn’t hate disco elysium’s collage mode nearly as much if it weren’t for 1) the way that it was marketed in such a tasteless, soulless manner, let alone the fact that it was a last ditch distraction from a dead on its feet studio piloted by dumbass thieving execs and released on the day of the court declaration, and 2) those dumbass fucking stickers

like if it had been included with the base game from the start and had been titled something a bit more tasteful and in-line with how i would have liked the feature to be marketed as— something like “exploration mode”, something that perhaps could only be unlocked after completing the game for the first time, AND didn’t have those stupid as hell visually and tonally incongruent with the artstyle stickers, i would have applauded it as a nice little bonus for being able to study and appreciate the 3d models and environments for reference.

#it is just so bleak man.#i have no words left to say for the latest development at zaum studios so instead i will just remember how fucked up this was lol #those stickers are the same energy as that dumbass fucking christmas card they put on steam.#cutesy fanart is awesome and all but don’t muddy the tone of the actual source with it. why is that necessary.#for gods sake what happened to boundaries #again i probably would take a different tone to even the stickers if #it had been done under the original creators (which i don’t think it would have‚ which is my point‚ but say hypothetically it happened)#but with the circumstances the way they are it is impossible to not view it all as tainted with a veneer of absolute tastelessness #and a disrespect to the source material and a sorry attempt to appeal to the shallowest parts of ‘fandom’#like you can add cartoony emoji faces and a sticker with harry and kim as cats. or their hands with the caption ‘best friends!!!’ (wtf lol)#and a frame with a bunch of pride flags being waved around (hard to articulate why i feel doubly annoyed of this one.#your corporate pride parade aesthetic is showing again. also it feels… lazy)#but you can never‚ ever erase the fact that you are parading around a stolen IP that you are entirely out of touch with #and one that you clearly have *no idea what to do with*#(something that we’ve all known for months with these hints but today has finally been basically confirmed as the sequel seems to be #officially cancelled with the last of the original writers’ crew being laid off)#how could you have known what to do with Elysium? how could you ever have?#hope you have fun with your stickers. rot #disco elysium #me talking

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drfitzmonster · 1 year

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this morning i watched a video of the anti-trans bill in louisiana being struck down and then sobbed with relief for 20 minutes

#just your regular average friday #everything has seemed so fucking bleak lately and so this little bit of positive news feels like a weight lifted off of my heart

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gio-goose · 3 months

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I BEAT THE SIN ALLEGATIONS

I AM FREE I AM FREEEEEE HAHAHAHAHAH

#just thunkin #Was fighting for my LIFE out there #But when everything seemed bleak HE SAVED NE #NO ONE CAN EVER CALL ME SIN AGAIN #Might do a compilation of everyone saying sin core sin kinnie and the like #I think that'd be funny

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sparingiscaring · 6 months

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anyways show of hands who takes Edward's fun little Quirks (the speed, the strength, the unused to casual movement thing, the Voice Pitching) as him being experimented on in his Orphanage Background?

Cause. I 100% think That Man had a whole lotta weird stuff happen to him there, and the only way I can reconcile with. Any of that. Is by shaking my fist at the Orphanage and blaming it.

#poor edward night... TWO #thank you guys for doing this i'm 100% taking this in honor of the two year anniversay of leigh marrying him #(aka today)#man's got trauma and it's real bleak and now doesn't even seem to sit well in his own skin #oh fuck oh fuck he took it literally dude your SKIN-#it feels like the intended reading yknow #He Was There and He Got Experimented on and now he's #a really good Evil Henchman #with some weird Body Stuff and weird Voice Stuff #and the face of a 2000's boyband boy #it feels unrelated to the moon-milk stuff though?#what. what was the goal here. i do wanna ask that. i wanna shake fires by the shoulders and ask it what. what was the goal there #why did you Do That #fallen london

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milkbreadtoast · 5 months

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ai is just so fucking bleak man it makes me want to end it all...

taking everything joyful about life... everything i ever wanted or loved or hoped for... and not just that, everything else too... no job is safe... the only way i can go on is to pretend it doesnt exist and just keep creating and trying as we always have done it haha but meanwhile it just keeps getting worse and im filled with sickening dread... the only hope I have is that people will continue to stick together and protect each other even as ai tries to destroy and take everything from us and our identity and our joy sorry to sound poetic and pretentious but i just need to get the vent out. its bleak man.

#im being vague bc im embarrassed to specify more but it just... the future seems so bleak bc of ai #and... this is just one small thing #everything about the current world and the future looks bleak to me #the only way i can keep going on is if i pretend everything is fine and the same as how it was #but the fact that i can even manage to do that shows my immense privilege #vent #delete later #sidenote i havent been glazing or art shielding my art (i never tried glaze)#because i just... i give up man. like im in denial. i want to just pretend like i can post it like normal and itll be ok #i want to blindly trust #its the same w me posting my art and blindly trusting that ppl wont repost #except ai is much worse than reposting....#ha... the only meager protection ive been doing #is watermarking but not even obtrusively #and posting at a lower res (but ive been posting higher res on here...)#hhaaa... i want ppl to be able to see my hard work and tbe colors #and artshield makes tbe colors ugly #cries #unrelated but i feel like ive been estranged from my friends lately too #so thats prob also contributing to why i feel so sad #im too old to be having a tantrum like this but isnt this what blogs like tumblr r for? so i can vent here instead of irl... ha ha

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slugandthorn · 5 months

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The coolest gender thing in the 2009 Japanese video game persona 3 100% how hard they coded shinjiro as the dead mom

#.txt #i got soooo mad in the car driving home thinking about how his drug addiction is essentially the classic anime heart condition.#in that the only side effect of the suppressants is that they will kill him. like?#i realized for the longest time i had assumed the chest pain and sweating came from the drugs but thats. castor. obviously.#it doesnt affect his mood or his awareness its like a mood stabilizer pain relief pill?#its so odd that hes framed as like. being addicted to illegal street drugs. BY THE NARRATIVE.#when its more like hes on the most insane experimental medication that they wont even test on like. rats.#also im not fact checking any of this before posting. so i might be lying about things.#idk if it was all of strega that had trouble controlling their personas but like. chidori was because of the Experimentation.#and shinjis just like. mentally ill coded. in a bad way 😭#The inability to regulate a mood/stimuli to the point where he can be unsafe to himself or others.#broad ass symptom of disorders that are not treated well. its also interesting that its not brought on by a specific event.#like the childhood fire is there. but you have akihiko right there to directly compare it to. and hes arguably more effected by it all.#and he seems to be coping well 10+ years on like some coping mechanisms are kind of weird (protein) but nothing super out of the ordinary.#so the problem is really the october 4th incident which was just a pure honest to god accident.#the fact that it gets covered up as a car accident does feel like the best like. emotional equivalent.#because it being shinji being unable to control his persona his true representation of himself and it resulting in death is sooooo bleak #and it weighs on him for 2+ years of being suicidal and unhoused until finally he goes through with his suicide by martyrdom.#i lost the plot a little bit on the gender situation with the vague allusions to fraility when story convenient #acting as dorm den mother and cooking and sewing long hair jacket sillhouette reading like a dress #was referring to that before mental illness took over. woman under the influencing this anime boy.#long way of saying i think he should have a over the shoulder ponytail when hes older. and he should have a mood disorder.

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eddiediaaz · 2 months

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i'm feeling so depressed and out of options/motivation/will to do anything that I can't even enjoy the "love you to the core"!!! i hate this shit

#very possibly losing my career because the strikes seem to have changed it forever #the future ia very fucking bleak and I feel like my unemployment benefits will run out before i even have a chance to get a job again #in the industry i mean #and now this medical diagnosis that is my fault and my fault only #30 and no savings nothing in my name #i feel i'm just a waste of space tbh #shut up alie

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edmundhoward · 3 months

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I noticed when you wrote about John Seymour, you didn’t mention that whole having an affair with his daughter in law. What are your thoughts on that?

???

my opinion is that i have doubts that it happened that way. i think it’s engaging, if bleak, content for a fictional portrayal, but i think it’s historical authenticity has been overstated.

what we know is that when katherine’s father died in 1527, he wrote his daughter out of his will (which edward seymour contested with the argument that his father-in-law, william filliol, was not of sound mind: “having many sundry and inconstant fantasies in his latter days”). we might assume she had entered a convent, as she was bequeathed an annuity of £40, which edward had no claim to, “as longe as shee shall lyve vertuously and abide in some honest house of Relegion of wymen. […] Yf my seid doughter do not lyve vertuously and abide in some honest house of religion of wymen to the pleasing of God, then I will that my said doughter have no parcell of the said 40”. so her father wanted her in a convent, but it’s not clear when/if she entered one, as she gave birth to her second child (edward) around 1528-29. so the most we can reliably say is that there was some kind of falling out between katherine and her father, and her father with the seymours.

there’s no evidence that they divorced, and it seems like she died in 1535, thereby freeing edward to remarry. later, a land grant stipulated that edward’s children by his second wife, anne somerset, would be the ones to inherit. katherine’s line should only inherit if anne’s line failed (which is ultimately what happened), and only by the heirs of katherine’s second son, edward (“with contingent remainders in tail male to Edward Seymour, his son by his late wife, Katharine”). katherine’s first son, john, was excluded entirely. as far as i can tell, edward didn’t fully abandon his children by katherine, but nevertheless they were stripped of their inheritance.

it’s not clear why edward may have taken issue with his first marriage or with his first son, john. adultery was only claimed after the fact, by a peter heylyn in 1674 — who in the same claim describes edward as using magic to snoop on his wife, thereby catching her in adultery while away in france. he also got the order of katherine’s sons wrong, so make of that what you will. only a seventeenth century marginal note specifies adultery with her father-in-law, john seymour: “divorced because she was known by his father after the wedding”.

john seymour did father an illegitimate son called john, around 1530. i suppose this has led to some confusion between edward seymour’s illegitimate half-brother, and his son by katherine filliol. there’s no evidence connecting this john to katherine, nor that the two johns are one and the same.

edward and katherine were married in 1514. edward would have been 14. katherine’s age is unknown; she has been estimated to have been born around 1507 — making her around seven at the time of her marriage. but this would have been exceptionally young for the time, so i estimate she was probably older, and closer to edward in age. the two would have been young enough to prompt the arrangement for them to live with john. he would have provided for them, responsible for their “meat, drink, learning and lodging, as apparel convenient for their degree”. additionally, edward was part of princess mary’s (henry’s sister) household, and would be enfant d’honneur at her marriage to louis xii of france in october 1514. there was a stipulation in their marriage contract that the marriage could be dissolved after three years, possibly to account for the time before the couple could consummate the marriage owing to katherine’s age. when their son, john, was born in 1518, edward would have been attending university. katherine would have been only about eleven if the 1507 date holds, but i think it’s possible she was older, and if we assume her to be around the same age as her husband, then she would have been in her late teens. margaret scard muses that john could have been fathered by katherine’s father-in-law — “a possibility since Katherine lived in the same house as her father-in-law and Edward had been away at university” — but it is purely speculative.

what can be said is that clearly nothing was made of this at the time; considering jane’s subsequent rise, no scandal seems to have been brought up regarding her family. likewise, edward’s career never seems to have been impacted by any connection to a scandal pertaining to his first wife. the seymours were not impacted by any controversy or shame. i think it’s possibly been given too much credence by alison weir, who claimed that “the scandal had shocked even Henry VIII’s courtiers”, but in actuality there’s nothing to suggest the court cared about edward’s first marriage, or about the quasi-incestuous affair — if it even took place. it has been used as an explanation for why jane did not marry william dormer, but there is nothing to suggest that john/katherine were a cited issue for the dormers. jane dormer and henry clifford tell us issue was taken with francis bryan’s involvement, and that jane's social rank was not sufficient for william dormer. no other issues with the seymours can be attributed to damaged reputation, certainly not on account of john having a sexual relationship with his daughter-in-law. nor is there any evidence of any discord between john and edward, regardless of elizabeth norton claiming their relationship “would have been irreparably damaged”. the fact that such little was made of it makes me doubt in its veracity, to be honest.

#they could tell boccaccio a tale; those sinners at wolf hall #long post but i felt like poor katherine deserved a look in considering her life seems pretty bleak #katherine filliol #edward seymour #john seymour

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john-gosh-darnielle · 2 months

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but none of the rage in our eyes

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elminsters · 3 months

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being a teenager in the mid 20-teens really was as good as modern teenagers think

#i see tiktoks of like 16 year olds being like #i wish i was a teenager when arctic monkeys peaked!! i wish i was there for the heyday of YA fiction!!#yes you do. it ruled #i was 16 at an arts high school when LiS came out #do u know what that does to a person #teenager culture looks so bleak now it hasn't even been that long since i was a teenager but idk i genuinely feel bad for them #my grade 8 students just seem so lost like there's nothing really made for them anymore

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softquietsteadylove · 3 months

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So… have you watched or played The Last of Us? If you have, could you write Thena and Gilgamesh meeting after a fight with a few clickers?

Gil panted behind his palm. Even his heavy breathing was liable to get him killed in a situation like this. Fuck.

Half the party was already dead.

Between the upper floor and the lower, they had split up. He didn't know everyone--hell, he didn't really know anyone. No one had to know anyone in their little section of city life, and he liked it that way. But any loss was a loss, and it meant more food for those things.

Two clickers, as far as he could gather. One was on the mezzanine level, trying to flush out the rest of the team. The other was on the lower level, already spreading cordyceps to those below. Fuck.

Gil slowed his breathing. He looked up at the broken skylight. There was still some glass in it, but it was mostly a big ass hole letting in the elements now. If only he could get eyes on them. He was one of three of them who had real experience in the field.

He always tried to tell people he grew up in America, but he spoke the language. Then he would say that everyone had to do mandatory service, but that still meant he had firearms training. Didn't matter if it was the Korean forces or US army, they wanted anyone who could hold a gun and not shoot their own nuts off.

The other two were the team leads, did this regularly. One was a sharpshooter, talkative but also deceptively observant. Gil didn't know if he had served or if he just had perfect eyes, but either way, he was always on the scope. The other one was definitely the kind of guy who liked his time in service. He was tightly wound, always had a stick up his ass, liked barking orders.

The only other one Gil even somewhat recognized was the woman.

He didn't know her name either, but he knew that the sharpshot called her 'T'. He referred to her as Blondie in his head sometimes, only because, well, fuck--he didn't think a person could get any blonder than she was. Not in the dumb way.

On the contrary, she seemed lethally sharp. He had seen her around. She kept quiet, kept to herself. But he had seen her use sign language and she was light on her feet; those were already two assets that made her pretty much royalty to the field team.

Gil flinched back as that sickening sound drew closer. That creaking, croaking click that gave the things their name. He looked down at the floor.

Blondie was waving at him.

He looked up from the puddle. She was in a pretty good spot, actually. She was up on one of the higher shelves, crouched like a fucking cat. Her hands moved but he made a face and shook his head.

She gave up on the real sign language. She had eyes on them. One was right behind him. The other was downstairs. Their own were each pinned in the crook of a corner. Better to deflect that thing's sounds.

Gil nodded. This was their best bet. He looked at her and angled his rifle.

She shook her head. It wasn't a good shot. And even if the other one was downstairs, it would just come charging up at them as soon as they made any real noise. And those it was infecting now would follow.

Gil tilted his head back again. Why had he agreed to raid duty again?

Oh right, he was just feeling particularly miserable about things. And he wanted off body duty--anything but hauling the lifeless sacks around all day. Maybe something in the kitchens.

Blondie was waving again. She pointed up at the skylight.

Gil shook his head. What was the busted ass skylight gonna do?

She pointed again, then at him, then up. She mimicked taking the shot. Then...snowfall? Rain? Rainfall; Gil made a face and she nodded. She was telling him to shoot the skylight. The clattering glass might - just fucking might - be enough to distract those things.

He tilted his head at her, asking if she was particularly sure about any of this.

She shrugged, pulling up the dinky little handgun either Thing 1 or Thing 2 had given her. She nodded at him and then aimed downwind from herself. It almost looked like she was aiming at him, but he could see that she really thought shit through when she had something to say. She was going to aim for the one closest to him.

He took his aim too, looking at Blondie up on the shelf. He held out his fingers. It was on three, if either of them mistimed this, shit could go south very fucking fast.

Blondie nodded.

One. Gil drew in a breath. He still didn't like guns at all. He had never had to use his weapon when he did his mandatory service. Two. He didn't like any of this, to be honest. He wasn't really a violent guy, by nature. But the world was what it was, now, and violent delights had violent ends. Three. All that was left was trying to live day by day.

The skylight clattered to the ground below, even the glass that was remaining falling inward. Maybe it didn't seem like much when it was up that high, but it was actually a hell of a lot of glass that rained down on the first floor. The clicker down there screeched as it was sliced up from above. The bodies of their own also got buried in the sharp snowfall.

Gil winced as his gunshot echoed in his ear. It wasn't really an echo, one shot was his and one was hers. He ducked down, expecting shit to rain down on him too.

Blondie had pretty good aim, apparently. She got the thing right through the temple. It was still up, sure, twitching and all, but the brain was dead, thus no longer a source of nutrients for its host.

Gil walked out cautiously. He peered downstairs. There were only a few masses writhing and hissing down there. He spread some shots around, making sure nothing sprang up to trot up and meet him. Once nothing seemed to be moving, he dropped the barrel.

Blondie gave him a tight nod.

He returned it, looking around him. Dumb and Dumber were already skulking around the rest of the mezzanine, looking for evidence of more of them. True gentlemen, leaving the lady fucking up on a pedestal. Gil rolled his eyes.

Blondie eyed him from above as he walked over to her. A little glass crunched under his boots as he did. She was still curled up pretty tight on herself.

Gil nodded his head for her to come down.

She looked around them. There was a clicker body and a hell of a lot of glass around them.

Gil sighed. It was always easier going up than coming down. He pulled the strap off his shoulder and set his weapon down. He extended his arms up.

She gave him a look.

He scoffed and waved his hands again. What did she think--that he was trying to cop a feel? He changed the position of his arms, promising her an easy dismount.

She had her misgivings, and he couldn't really blame her for that. He kept his hands up as she slowly unfurled her legs. She let them dangle a little before scooting herself closer to the edge. She was really trying not to trust him.

Gil moved forward, grasping her by the waist before she could really plummet that last couple feet to the ground. Jesus, she weighed as much as a sheet of paper. He kept his eyes on her as he helped lower her to the ground quietly. Once even her toes were on the floor again he let go, holding his palms out and stepping away. No funny business.

She continued to eye him like a cat would eye a stray dog. Maybe he could see why; she was an itty-bitty thing, not that anyone was necessarily well fed these days. But the jacket she was wearing really hid how delicate boned she was.

Gil raised an eyebrow.

She gave him one last withering glare before tipping her head. It wasn't much of a thank you, but he accepted it nonetheless. She looked over at the clicker that had been right on top of him and then at him, from the ground up. Her sandy coloured eyebrows raised as well.

He pursed his lips and tipped his head. He wasn't bit, but he wouldn't call this a fun day out, or anything. He shrugged, and she seemed to agree with his lacklustre sentiment.

Blondie looked across the open mezzanine. The sharpshot signed something to her, and she signed back. She even had slim little delicate fingers.

Gil tiled his head to catch her eye again, hoping to be filled in. There were regular classes for sign language back in town. Maybe it was time he actually attend some.

She nodded to him with a hint of a smile. "All clear."

Gil blinked as she walked past him on the way to the lower floor again. "You can talk?"

#Thenamesh AU #thank you so much for the ask!#I've never played the game #but I did watch the show #I really wanted to to do this justice #the tone of the show is pretty bleak and dark after all #it's quite a change of pace especially for Gil #he has plenty of nicknames for Kingo and Ikaris in his head #Kingo isn't so bad but Ikaris #what an ass #Gil tries to be nice to Thena and the whole time she just glares at him #he's like okay just trying to be nice #but then they get back #and it seems like she never talks to anyone #same as him #but then he goes to class and the woman who teaches it hands him a note #Thena thinks you're nice she just as resting I Hate You face #Gil secretly keeps the note #and he attends classes regularly #because Thena barely ever speaks #but he learns sign so he can talk to her #also writing this without any dialogue at all was interesting for me #and I think Hannah from Those Who Wish Me Dead would get along with Joel #which is to say that they wouldn't like each other #but they would both do horrible things to protect their kid #and swore like crazy

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