trope i'd like to see more? mmmmm being stuck with a giant while they're still in feral mode. the most pressing danger is over, but the larger doesn't recognize that. in fact, they're solely focused on you. being cradled to a chest with a clawed hand. held precariously between two fingers and inspected for injuries, pinned under the gaze of two massive, clouded eyes. trying to sneak away only to be met with a sharp, booming growl. all that stuff.

maybe some progress is made, and you're able to walk away long enough to retrieve some supplies, pretending like you don't hear a whine echoing behind you. coming back, and whatever new materials you have being sniffed curiously, cautiously. eventually, you settle down. neither of you are sleeping tonight. not the giant, clutching you to their chest or neck, ready to pounce at anything that so much as twitches towards you. certainly not you, flight-or-fight still roaring, both from the altercation and the presence of this behemoth. you can only pray the lucid, reasonable person you knew soon returns. but...

in the meantime, it is kind of nice to be cradled to a massive, warm chest. to know, like your own name, that anything that tries to harm you wouldn't be around to do so much longer.

harrow grew in her emotional awareness of other people as people at an incredible rate during the events of gideon the ninth, a rate that honestly stretches the bounds of plausibility. and i think a lot of it, maybe even most of it, was specifically a reaction to an awareness of gideon, specifically, in genuine mortal danger that harrow had never previously considered

even before harrow was able to accept that she feels any affection for gideon, her covetousness of gideon's presence is evident. but, on drearburh, even though there might’ve conceivably been natural disasters outside of harrow's control that could’ve changed this, i think gideon’s survival of the child massacre made gideon seem like an almost supernaturally ever-present fixture of harrow’s universe. no matter how much gideon bled and broke in those 17 years, i don’t think harrow had truly considered the reality of gideon’s mortality before

when harrow thought of losing gideon, she thought of gideon escaping. prior to canaan house, though death involving those close to her was already something harrow knew intimately well, each example is inextricably connected to its specific context. with "the body," the cause of death didn't pose any immediate, direct threat to harrow or those she cared about. as horrific all of drearburh’s children’s deaths were, as heavily as they weighed on harrow, this was a part of her history rather than an imminent threat. and, as much grief and sorrow that the personal responsibility harrow felt for her parents’ suicides colored her existence, as much as she even once blamed gideon, ultimately, harrow's parents killed themselves. these were all so different by their very nature from the deaths at canaan house and the possibilities they illuminated. something or someone was maliciously seeking out those among her in the present. gideon's very existence could no longer be taken for granted, never mind simply losing possession of her

i believe that both accepting her own care for gideon and accepting the risk of losing gideon beyond losing control over her is what led harrow to assess the inherent harm and dehumanization of their power imbalance and to begin to understand the flaws in her worldview overall, the flaws in the system that granted her and others in power the power to abuse it at will and use those under them as tools

but the reason why i say this was a lot of/most of and not all of the reason for harrow's growth is because i think she always had some latent capacity for it that she'd just previously suppressed. and i don't think this is unique to harrow. i think the worst people within any system wear away at their humanity, and, thus, their ability to perceive the humanity of others and act accordingly, a bit at a time. but this process isn't irreversible. harrow's relation to gideon was just the catalyst for that reversal in her

i can’t say exactly who harrow would’ve become without gideon at canaan house with her for the lyctoral trials, but she would’ve certainly been very different from the person she is now

decided to make my own post because i was thinking about this poll way too much and it led me to a big enough tangent that it's its own creature at this point, though i also wanna credit that initial spark

So in 53-16 in the original, Barbatos mentions that Solomon summoned him with an incantation that he came up with by himself, and Asmo comments this:

Thirteen, meanwhile, explains in 11-10 NB that Solomon's soul used to be extremly shiny when they first met, and while his soul is still sparkling, it has been duller ever since he first summoned Barbatos

We also know that Solomon was on the verge of death at that time since both Thirteen and Barbatos bring it up

So.

Do you guys think Solomon sacrificed a piece of his soul to summon Barbatos for the first time?

He likes animals and ancient trees and children, dedicates himself to learning new things and breaking century old curses and critiquing the festering corruption and apathy of modern civilization, and will *** **** you within an inch of your life.

You know. The thought occurs to me. That the reason Junko didn't just give the whole cast of DR2 their memories back. Is because it was never about them. And it was never about Junko actually coming back in their bodies.

Not for her.

It was literally all about screwing with Makoto.

Because all Junko had to do to get out was give them their memories back and tell them the plan, and most of them (if not all) would have willingly died to bring her back. That's why they were there in the first place - to bring her back. And we know Junko could have given them those memories at any point because she gave Mikan her memories back.

She just didn't.

Because it was significantly more entertaining to put on a show of the cast killing each other and sending it to Makoto and just, Hey, you know those people you were trying to save? Hey, GUESS WHAT.

Junko said, Hey, Makoto, you want another opportunity to beat me at a game where I could literally win easily - more easily than last time! I just don't have to do ANY OF THE THINGS I HAVE BEEN DOING, but you know what, I just want to screw with you and show you that your hope SUCKS. Oh, and also, can you bring Kyoko and Byakuya and then kill me again, I'd like to die again, please, I did not get enough sweet despair of death last time, you gonna come save these dweebs or what?

This didn't even have to be a game! This was not hard! Junko made it harder! To screw with Makoto! Because she doesn't actually care about winning! And she doesn't actually want to be back in the real world again, Izuru. The real world sucks, and she's tired of it! Just let her die already!

That's why it's very clear that Junko is waiting for Makoto. It's very clear - from her - that the Remnants aren't the main cast. Makoto is. The survivors are. It was never - for her - about getting back out into the main world.

It's literally just about screwing with Makoto. (And maybe getting him stuck for all of eternity in a virtual world with her. Maybe. That'd be fun, right, Makoto. Right, bestie. Right??)

Every so often, I hear Peter Nureyev say

Juno

in my head so vividly that I think about changing my name again.

ପ( ໊๑˃̶͈⌔˂̶͈)੭  ❀⠀𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒘⠀!

introducing shadow , a muse - info version of my google doc dazzling light of which can be found here ! lots of space has been left so that you can write comfortably . this document is large , single - paged & should be relatively easy to edit , though a mini tutorial is under the read more along with an additional link to copy this document ( main link is in the source code ) you should probably have some gdocs knowledge to comfortably adjust the document beyond basic editing. the gif window psd can be found here & is actually just the original version of my psd template snapshoot ! this must be edited in either photoshop or photopea .

❀    CREDITS.

exit icon - cross icons created by Ilham Fitrotul Hayat - Flaticon

the city background was found on unsplash & it is by andre benz.

sparkle icon adjusted - Sparkle icons created by SeyfDesigner - Flaticon

folder icon - Folder icons created by Smashicons - Flaticon

check icon - Tick icons created by Alfredo Hernandez - Flaticon

❀    LINK.

document - click

video player - just in case you missed it ! click

additional tutorial for the background - click

❀    TUTORIAL.

#01.    go  to  file   ->   make a copy,  in order to edit.

#02.    do not utilise the page colour in page layout , it might break the document's custom sizing. instead , you should click on the background and hit replace image !

#03.    to change the character images , double click the design and it should take you to a google drawings window. from there , just hit replace image on most things.

The Last Toa

I have a not-quite-100% finished thought rolling around my head about the legacy of the Toa Metru, and in attempt to get it complete, I'm trying to write it down.

So, the Toa Metru are the final stop in a line of Toa going back to the foundation of Metru Nui, right? They were made Toa by Lhikan, the last of the Toa Mangai, and as his heirs and mentees, they are the last Toa of Metru Nui.

Indeed, the GSR generally, they come awfully close to being the last Toa--period. Not the last Toa in existence, obviously, but the Mata/Nuva, Takanuva, and the Inika/Mahri are all Toa in some other special way: Artahka originals, the Mask of Light, and intervention by the Red Star. None of them represent the passage of energy from Toa to Stone to Matoran: that lineage, which I assume goes back all the way to the earliest days of the GSR.

I think Krakua is the only real monkey-wrench in the idea that the Metru were the last Toa made in the conventional way. I'm pretty sure he's the only non-Inika example we know of in canon definitely after the Cataclysm.

There's something wistfully sad about the Metru being the Last Toa Ever™ and yielding their own Toa power to revive the Matoran, with no new Toa to follow them. When the Toa Mata arrive on Mata Nui, it becomes something like an Arthurian return, but it's also a supplanting: "the line of Dume and Lhikan and those even before them has failed" and a better thing takes their place.

Some basic Googling/BioSector01ing seems to suggest that there's not a lot of canonical detail in HOW Krakua becomes a Toa--so even if we accept that he's a fairly recent Toa, we can allow ourselves some speculation that he ALSO might not have been an old-school Toa-Stone-made Toa.

Why does any of this matter--other than poignancy, which is a consideration of its own? Well, I was thinking about Matoro (as one does) and the unique way in which he could carry on the legacy of the Toa Metru: he's the one Matoran (and thus the one transformed Toa) who knows their tale before the reveal at the end of MoL. Alone of the amnesiac Matoran, he has knowledge--though not memory--of Metru Nui, and while he kept the Turagas' secrets, he can't have helped being shaped by them in the 1000 years of doing so.

Destiny is the will of Mata Nui (well, destiny is a thorny subject, but let's call it that here). The Toa Mata, Takanuva, Krakua--what if they were all attempts in some way or other to supply the "needed" Toa to save the Great Spirit? But, though he is dying, the Great Spirit doesn't want any of these: he doesn't want to saved by Artahka's demiurgic Toa, or the Avokhii-wearing saviour, or any of the washed-up leftovers (Lesovikk, "the forty living Toa," the Hagah): instead, when the Red Star intervenes--the Red Star that echoes his will in a way the Order of Mata Nui can never hope to--he chooses one of them, and he chooses the one of their number who is the truest heir of the Toa Metru--his Toa.

Destiny is a big theme of the Metru in a way that was never true of the Mata (unity is their theme), and this really comes to the fore with the dancing back and forth between who was destined: them or the Mask Matoran. Destiny also comes up big with Matoro--and perhaps their destinies are the same.

Some of my favorite G2 symbols, from mylittlewiki

The stars, the moon They have all been blown out You've left me in the dark No dawn, no day I'm always in this twilight In the shadow of your heart

I just really love the concept of her crying starlight

My unsuspecting ass after listening to TMAGP 12 (2024, colorized)

Two things:

Kabru spent the bulk of his life, and all of his adolescence, being raised by an elf in the elven country where he interacted with non-elves very occasionally. He left and became an adventurer at 18, which is presumably when he started living in a diverse society for the first time.

Elves are short and thin and often androgynous in comparison to other humans. At ~5'6" Kabru is tall by elf standards, keeps his hair cut at a shorter length, and does not appear any more androgynous than your average male elf.

So: how long did it take Kabru to realize that in mixed/tallman company he is not, in fact, masc, but a beautiful butch twink.

The Tragedy

(Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals // first Image credit //Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment // Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis // Charles Bukowski, Ham on Rye // Stephen King, The Body // Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game // AroarA - #6 // Li-Young Lee, A Hymn to Childhood // Florence & The Machine, I’m Not Calling You a Liar)

(don't mind the cursor lol)

I AM LOSING MY FUCKING MIND OVER THIS MAN!!!!

his fucking VOICE???!!! OMG SIR??!!?? DAPPER FUCKING SIR??!! FANCY SIR??? I LOVE YOU!!!!

I'm inclined to take Halsin at his word, but I wonder when he laments/jokes about having an awful singing voice if it's actually awful, or if it's just average/lower quality compared to other elven voices, which by human listening standards is still pretty good.

Here's some little christmas gifts for some amazing mutuals that have made this year a whole lot more bearable with their amazing content and their amazing interactions and just being amazing in general :']

Long post ahead so divider here to spare your scrolling. (I am also probably gonna get a bit sappy so if that makes you cringe: you've been warned lol)

@lilbitofmac Thank you for being my introduction to the fandom here on tumblr :'''D I really think I wouldn't have stuck around if it weren't for your initial warmth and encouragement. Your Tony remains my fave Tony I go feral over your art orz I may or may not have the clingy ironstrange drawing as a phone wallpaper-

Hope next year is kinder on you man! I know we don't really talk outside of tags/replies, but if you ever need smthn I can help with my inbox is always there.

@strxngetimes I'm just tagging this one blog because I don't want to spam all your other blogs lmao. Thank you for sharing your interpretations of the characters with us, not only the rps with other muses but also the headcanons and brainrot. It's always such a pleasure both to see you on the timeline writing with other muses and on the inbox with the disaster man.

I specially like how you include his Cloak in the mix and give it a personality- I absolutely adore the Cloak :'') So here's it being all clingy to the disaster man. Hope to see more of you having fun with all ur muses in the coming year :D

@starkkawajiri Pretty art!! Hilarious and heart wrenching character interactions!!! I love your designs and lore building so much. Fanboying over the same disaster man and making him suffer always brings a smile to my face. I've wanted to draw your Strange for a while now, so this was also the perfect excuse, I love him so much you have no idea-

Can't wait to see more of your amazing designs and lore stuff for this AU! (and anything else you create next year :])

@nekojetto I think your Strange is the purest Strange there is and the fact that it's based off Supreme makes that so much more impressive. Your animatics are simply breath taking, and whenever I go back to check your concepts and sketches for character interactions I always get a smile on my face :D

I'm sorry I haven't gotten to the collab just yet :'') Plz know I still have it in mind, haven't forgotten about it and am still just as excited to finally get to it as I was the first day!

@infiniteeight8 Your words make me cry and laugh so much all the time :'') You write the disaster men so beautifully both in serious, fluffy, angsty and funny situations. Reading ur stuff keeps the creative juices flowing!

I remember you liked the vampire Stephen prompt you were sent, so here's some of that, even if it's more halloween-y than christmas-y.