hm. my dad is now aware that i have slept over at eriks when i visit him.

full metal alchemist isn't even full metal. he's like, 30% metal at best. shameful

god he (dean) used to be so different my chest hurts

xie lian texts like a grandpa … i imagine pre confession their texts would be a graveyard of hua cheng’s failed attempts at flirting

xie lian's profile picture is from the manhua by starember / follow for more of hua cheng Ls

will byers is:

a sweater thief ✅

clingy ✅

a morning person ❌

Legolas and Gimli get married at least 5 times and here’s why

i loved the part of the book where piranesi resolves to take better care of himself while he's rediscovering his own history. he just has so much compassion for himself! the journal upsets him so he takes a week off and does things he enjoys and then he settles into a safe place when he wants to tackle the subject again. and he doesn't believe The Other when he's told about his amnesia! he values his own insights and his own knowledge of the House even when fucking ketterley is actively trying to undermine his sense of self. piranesi's gentle treatment of himself and the person he used to be is genuinely so moving.

When Steph and Cass get married they don’t take the last name Brown (Daddy Issues™️) or Cain (Daddy Issues Prime™️) or even Wayne (Steph absolutely REFUSES to become a Wayne nosirree), but a secret fourth thing (Gordan).

my builder looks so similar with haru, i started to think they are long separated twins

THE BORGIA BROTHERS + putting the family's interest above their sister's concerns

"Everything I do is for the family."

when it's loving and trusting charles competition and your opponent is Max you know you're losing

As much as it is fun to joke about how absurd Trent's plan was (and on its face, considering just his perspective alone, it was!), I do think we need to acknowledge that it wouldn't have worked as a threat if it had not been reasonably concerning to Caleb.

When you think about how little the Nein know at this point about the Solstice (meta pigeons notwithstanding), there are a lot of factors that play into this being a credible threat. For instance:

The collars are no longer working, as are some wards, in which case it's not unreasonable to wonder if any of the Amulets of Nondetection are out of commission.

It's possible that the Dynasty genuinely does not have that much evidence to go after Essek—that he managed to fake his death and cover his trail that way, or he left well before the pressure really began to encroach, as a preemptive measure, and with him out of sight the rumors died down (or were even quashed by his mother for political reasons, regardless of her feelings on the matter).

There's no good way to know what information or evidence Trent may have stashed away in the event that it was necessary later, which could be delivered anonymously to the Dynasty and not rest on Trent's credibility.

Regardless of Trent's relative ability to capture Essek on his own, which is probably low, he is enough of a loose cannon that he could seriously hurt him simply in a one-on-one duel, because Trent has clearly gone beyond any considerations of self-preservation and is trying to inflict maximum damage, which makes him dangerous all on his own.

It doesn't have to be any one of these, but the important thing is that the plot hinges upon Caleb believing this is at least a semi-credible threat. If there really was no danger to Essek, then it would be reasonable for Caleb, who is very intelligent, to dismiss it and focus on something more important. We've seen that Caleb is perfectly capable of shutting Trent out in the face of larger priorities even when his threats were very affecting, and Caleb's had an extra seven years since then to move past that trauma.

But given that the point of threatening Essek, on a meta level, was to ensure that the plot of the one-shot moved at the pace it needed to, then Caleb needs to believe that this is a credible threat. Regardless of the efficacy of the particular plan outlined, we must be willing to believe that, if he is not confronted now, Trent will make good on his threats in one way or another.

On the rare occasions when Hob is actually mad at Dream— he refuses to sleep. Coffee, energy drinks and the God forsaken awakeness pills? All fair game. If he has to inject caffeine directly into his vein, he would. Hob doesn't often get mad, but when he does, he likes to make a point. Dream and Hob match in more than one ways, really, they do. And so it is that the Dream Lord must come out of his realm personally to sprinkle sand into his lover's eyes because he'd be damned if Hob refuses his gift for more than two nights in a row. Not speaking for 100 years? Easy. Hob refusing sleep? Unacceptable.

yknow i didn't necessarily start my wyll origin run with the intent of romancing astarion in mind but the more i play the more i find their similarities amusing when it comes to like, the surface level personality they present to strangers in act 1.

wyll is a compulsive flirt. you see it in dialogue with shadowheart and lae'zel - he just tosses out a couple lines that clearly aren't supposed to go anywhere (asking lae'zel if she believes in love at first sight, blatantly reusing the same flirtation attempts with shadowheart) and i see this as part of his Blade of Frontiers persona. obviously a traveling vigilante would have no time for romance or relationships, but he's socially aware enough to have learned that people respond well to a certain level of rogueish charm. especially if his reputation precedes him. he can safely and positively engage in surface level flirtations with the people he interacts with because the person doing the flirting isn't real - at least not to him. he often says the Blade is his best self, but to him its an ideal he strives to achieve, not the person he really is. and i imagine that includes the ability to give discouraged people positive attention in a nonthreatening way. its safe. its superficial. he doesn't have to follow through.

this is overshadowed somewhat by astarion's tendency to flirt with anything that has a pulse, but the perspective they both have on it is pretty similar. theyre both coming from a place of not actually being interested in the recipient of their attention - whether that be through astarion's ulterior motives or wyll's lack of capacity for a relationship - but they both still put on this front because it's habitual. it's worked for them and it's gotten them through the varying degrees of social contracts they find themselves in. so they wind up trading lines easily because they've studied from the same script.

anyway what im getting at is bumping these two personalities against each other can definitely result in wyll and astarion committing to the bit so hard they accidentally wind up in a relationship. like, you're safe, you know the rules, you're speaking in a language i'm familiar with but we both understand that neither of us expect anything back on an emotional level. wait when did we start confiding our deepest secrets with one another. what do you mean you trust me.

Saw your Mishanks bodyswap art! Very cute and fun! (Mihawk with a genuine smile on his face so so fun)

I imagine Shanks whould have trouble fighting in Mihawk's body at first since it's been years since he's had two arms

yes absolutely, i imagine that too! conversely, i think mihawk would have a little bit of trouble adjusting his balance and reach with a body missing one arm, as well. it's interesting to think about how they both would be forced to change their fighting style, and whether or not they would exchange swords.

mihawk's been seen using yoru with just one hand so he could probably pull it off with shanks's body. also interesting to think about shanks tripping up on having two arms until he naturally slips into his old fighting style again--or would he? because there's also the question of muscle memory, right? would mihawk's body automatically do things that shanks isn't predisposed to doing, and vice versa?

the other thing i find intriguing about body swapping in one piece is the question of whether or not your haki powers would switch as well. they say haki is spiritual presence, so presumably your haki switches if your spirits switch, but if it's the kind of spirit that's tethered to the presence of the body? then consider mihawk having the strongest conqueror's haki out on the blues, or shanks being able to use observation haki at mihawk's level, practically being able to predict the future--or mihawk, able to counter with shanks's haki-kill technique. food for thought!