#Started Bad Got Worse

[highwayphantoms]

Happy Friday Jay! I am currently feeling some Carver (in the Inquisition hunts Hawke AU maybe??) + ❝ keep your eyes on me— just focus on me. we’re gonna be okay. ❞ from the Emotionally Charged Sentence Starters list! HAVE FUN :D

yesssssssssss okay as usual I took some liberties with the prompt phrase but. IT'S FINE IT'S FOR FUN. tho a couple of Hawkes aren't having fun. hehe.

oops forgot to tag @dadrunkwriting

Warnings: uhhh casual anti-mage sentiment mostly? implied violence in the background Rating: T Word Count: 1311 words

If you missed the first installment in the Inquisition hunts Hawke AU, it's right here!

-

Being with the Wardens meant that news was sometimes slow to reach them. Between excursions to the Deep Roads and a general avoidance of settlements, it was a full six months before Carver heard of the uproar in Kirkwall. The city’s Knight-Commander, murdered in her own bed barely three years after the Viscount had died under similarly mysterious circumstances.

He didn’t need to listen to his fellow Wardens trading rumors with the merchants to know who had likely done it.

What have you gotten yourself into, Sister?

Still, nothing he could do from here. Even if he knew where to look—surely she had fled Kirkwall—the odds that the Senior Warden would let him leave on family business were exactly zero. Wardens weren’t supposed to keep ties with family, after all. There were a few rare exceptions, the Hero of Ferelden being one, but she’d killed an Archdemon and lived to tell of it. She’d earned the exception.

Carver very definitely had not. Sure, he’d done what was asked of him. Investigated reports of darkspawn all across the Free Marches, trekked through the Deep Roads to refresh and expand their maps, endured the wariness of villagers who were convinced Grey Wardens were themselves darkspawn. (They… weren’t wrong, if his suspicions were accurate.) But there was a vast difference between a Warden whose only accomplishment thus far had been surviving the Joining and a Warden who’d ended a Blight.

Within a year, it wasn’t just rumor. In a village a few days north of Ostwick, a farmer told them that the Chantry was hunting an apostate believed to have murdered the Knight-Commander. On the road to Markham, an innkeep mentioned that the Divine had re-established the Inquisition of old.

Its mission?

I hope they brand that witch, the innkeep had muttered. Brand her. Make her Tranquil.

Serafina, Tranquil? Unimaginable.

Carver didn’t bother to ask permission. In the middle of the night, he slipped out of the inn with no one the wiser, and started walking.

Most people would seek familiar territory to hide in. For his sister, that would be Kirkwall or Ferelden, and he was fairly certain she wasn’t quite so reckless as to have gone back to Kirkwall. But then, she wasn’t most people. Neither was he.

If her goal was to simply evade the Chantry, that would be easy enough. The Orlesian Chantry had no pull in the Tevinter Imperium, or at least not enough that its new Inquisition could march across the border uncontested. But she’d never been one to run. When they were children in the hills outside Lothering, she’d stood up to an older boy who stood head and shoulders above her, and probably would have given him a reason to fear the entire Hawke household if Carver hadn’t stopped her. Serafina didn’t run.

If this Inquisition tried to corner her, though, it wouldn’t end well for anyone.

As he came upon the city of Ostwick once more, two days later, there was a great clamor spilling out of the city. He passed people fleeing with their children, most of whom barely spared him more than a glance. Under normal circumstances, a Grey Warden was an oddity—but they had passed through Ostwick barely a few days ago, and these were clearly not normal circumstances.

A single city guard stood by the gate into the city. He barely even glanced at Carver before he shrugged and said, “If you’re of a mind, Warden, there’s… well, something’s happening in the Circle. It was on fire last I saw it. Can’t miss it.”

It was entirely possible that Serafina had absolutely nothing to do with this. She could easily be on the other side of the continent for all he knew—but it would be just like her to dig herself in deeper.

If his sister was anything, she was definitely stubborn.

Indeed, Carver had no trouble finding the Circle. It appeared to be burning, despite being clearly made of stone, but the fire was green rather than red and orange. He’d heard of things that naturally burned different colors, but he’d grown up with mages for siblings. He knew magical fire when he saw it. There were several clusters of city guards and templars alike gathered around the burning building, many of the latter stained with soot. No one, he noted, appeared to be going in or coming out.

“—too dangerous, I’m not sending any of my men in there,” a man said nearby. He wore the same armor as the rest of the city guard, but his hair was solid gray and Carver got the impression he’d been serving in the city guard for decades. “Apologies, ser, but I think it’s safest just to let it burn.”

A templar standing opposite the guard shook their head, as non-descript as any other templar with helmet on. “The mages are our responsibility. We can’t just leave them to die,” she said. Then she paused, glancing over the guard’s shoulder and directly at Carver. “You, Grey Warden.”

Reluctantly, Carver acknowledged her with a stiff nod.

“I am Knight-Captain Elisa. We arrested an apostate this morning, whom I believe is responsible for the fire currently consuming the building. If you are willing to join a unit of several of my templars to find and deal with her, I will reward you handsomely. What say you?”

Maker’s fucking tears, Serafina. What are you trying to do? Aloud, he replied, “If she’s capable of this,” he said, gesturing at the burning building, “what makes you think she won’t simply kill us?”

The Knight-Captain audibly sighed. “True. I would promise to send your reward to your family, but Wardens don’t have family, do you?”

If he was right, if this was his sister, he was in no danger from her. Rather, he was concerned he might have to kill the templars—and even a layperson would be able to tell that they were killed by a blade rather than magic. “I’m not concerned about the reward,” he said finally. “Just tell me where to go. Can’t be as bad as the Deep Roads.”

And so he found himself perhaps ten minutes later, utterly alone in a maze of a building. The fire, as it turned out, only surrounded the exterior of the building, leaving the inside untouched. Of the four templars who had entered with him, two were dead and the other two had simply vanished—but that was a problem for later. First priority: where the fuck was Serafina?

The answer, as he soon discovered, was in the cellar.

He found her sitting with her back to the wall, knees pulled to her chest and muttering inaudibly to herself. She didn’t react to the sound of his footsteps, nor the way his armor creaked as he crouched down in front of her. “Hey,” he said, “Serafina. Let’s get out of here.”

She stopped muttering, but otherwise didn’t move for several seconds. Then she glanced up—and he realized with a start that her eyes were a vivid yellow.

Not gray. His sister’s eyes were gray. Always had been, as long as he could remember.

Then she blinked, and the eerie color was gone. “Carv,” she murmured.

“What’s going on?”

Serafina quirked a wry smile at him. “Made a deal. I—” She stopped, then inhaled sharply. Yellow flickered in her eyes again, and she gritted out, “I have—some control. Not enough.”

A demon. She’d cut a deal with a demon, he realized.

Right, because things weren’t fucked enough already.

“Okay, you know what?” he said, grabbing her by the forearms and hauling her upright. “Look at me. Focus on me, okay? We’re gonna be okay, but we have to get out of here first.”

She laughed, the sound just off enough to be unnerving. “Out. Right. Lead the way, little brother.”

#jay writes #dadwc #dragon age #da fic #alternate title for this fill: #Started Bad Got Worse #serafina hawke #inquisition hunts hawke au #carver hawke

[visionsynth]

never finishing this ever. bye

#I GIVE UP i literally cannot save it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #dies #mike ehrmantraut #walter white #breaking bad #brba #my art #it starte d looking ugly and the more i tried to fix it the worse it got

[ickypuppi3]

billy’s mom waking him up while it’s still dark, whispering even though neil’s working the night shift. it’s a couple days before his tenth birthday and she’s telling him they’re going to have their very own adventure, just like the ones in billy’s books. she grabs an already packed suitcase from under billy’s bed and kisses him on the nose, tells him to get dressed quick. the two of them leave in an old beat up yellow bug that she managed to get for a third of the asking price and keep parked around the corner until now. they stay with friends and jump from place to place so neil can’t track them down. billy gets used to surfing couches and staying in motels.

he spends his tenth birthday in a diner, his mom gets him a big stack of pancakes and a milkshake with extra cherries. gets a candle out her pocket along with her silver lighter. sings happy birthday and pulls a face when the waitress frowns at them, just to make billy laugh. she sips at her coffee while billy tucks in. smiles when he holds some out with a “c’mon mama, share with me.”

billy thinks it’s neat. thinks it’s the best birthday he’s ever had.

they eventually end up with a place in california, a little bungalow near the coast and billy grows up with his mom. billy gets pretty shirts from the thrift store ‘cause his mama lets him do stuff like that. doesn’t call him a queer, doesn’t force a baseball bat into his hands whilst yelling at him for crying, for being a pussy. his mom lets him read and keep a journal and press flowers between the pages of the neverending story, she plays hendrix and dusty springfield and laughs when billy comes home from his friends’ house with his first piercing at thirteen. she doesn’t tear down his posters or yell when she finds him using her eyeliner.

and everything’s perfect. sort of.

they have bad days- billy’s mom has bad days. billy calls them gray days ‘cause that’s how the world looks when she’s like this. all her color gone. no singing-dancing in the kitchen or baking five different kinds of cake because she couldn’t decide which one was best, no last minute trips to the beach or sitting outside at night and telling billy about the stars. instead she’ll stay in bed, won’t go to work. she’ll stare at the wall blankly and look right through billy when he tries to talk to her. she won’t take the pills the doc gave her and billy doesn’t know what to do. never knows what to do. just chews at his lip until it bleeds, bites at his thumb until it’s red raw. he’ll get in the bed with her. lay beside her and just talk like she used to do with him when he had a nightmare. hum a song to her.

billy’s still pissed at the world just slightly less so. still has that anger and anxiousness simmering just below the surface and shows his teeth when cornered. he’s still hardened in a way that a kid shouldn’t be but. it’s different. there’s no neil. the only bloody noses he gets are at school, when he fights with the kids who call him a fag and a fairy, call his mom a basket case. he uses fists when they laugh and ask if she’s all there with a finger pointing at their heads, ask if billy will “catch the crazy.”

those are billy’s bad days. sitting in the principals office, icing his knuckles.

when he’s fifteen, billy manages to bag a job at the local auto repair by turning up every day and telling howie how good he’d be, that he knows cars and it’s all he wants to do and please please please. eyebrows pulled together, eyes puppy dog wide and hands clasped in front of him until howie grumbles, throws an oily rag at billy. says fine but billy’s gotta pay for anything he damages. someone brings in a chevy camaro and billy asks howie to let him help fix it up. does the begging again until howie laughs. says get a hold of yourself, kid, voice fond as he ruffles billy’s hair.

billy’s four months away from turning seventeen when the doorbell goes. he’s eating a sandwich and watching knight rider. he’s wearing the necklace his mom got him for his last birthday and- he answers the door. doesn’t think twice. freezes when he sees neil standing there. he looks different. hair a little shorter and more wrinkles. where billy’s gained weight, gained muscle, neil’s lost it. his eyes are a little sunken and he’s still got his wedding band on. he reeks of booze. billy has to remind himself to speak, just says “yeah?” his voice comes out small and neil smiles at him. smiles and billy feels this weird twist in his stomach ‘cause .. that’s his dad and he hasn’t seen him in years and it twists and twists and-

turns out. not much has changed. billy realises a little too late that neil will always be neil. they run again. have to leave everything behind. billy doesn’t get to say bye to his friends, to howie, to the car. they leave a lot of stuff behind and head in any direction away from neil. they both try to keep the mood light, take turns driving and play the tapes billy grabbed. they end up in indiana- hawkins. they stay at a motel until billy’s mom finds a place for dirt cheap. it has two bedrooms and a dingy bathroom, a living room slash kitchen and one hell of a damp problem. it’s dirt cheap for a reason.

it’s above a shop in town and- it’s fine. their landlord is an asshole but they’re together and they’ve got a roof over their heads. billy’s enrolled at hawkins high and his mom gets a job at the laundromat. he tells her that he doesn’t need to go to school, that he could just work and help pay the bills but his mom won’t have any of it. says that she wishes she had finished school and that billy’s too clever to waste it. that he has potential.

billy knows the reason she dropped out of school was because she had him. he just nods, rests his head on her shoulder.

it’s billy’s first day at school and his mom drives him to make sure he actually goes. he gets out the car and tries to shake the nerves off. straightens up and puts on his act. plasters a fake smile on his face and it’s working, he’s got most of the girls swooning and the boys at least seem curious. billy looks around and his eyes land on a guy leaning up against a bmw. his hair’s coiffed to high heaven and he’s wearing a polo, preppy as fuck but- pretty. it’s one of the first things billy realises about him, all doe eyes and moles dotted just about everywhere. he’s got a smirk on his face. not aimed at billy but the guy beside him.

pretty-boy walks over to him and billy raises an eyebrow, plays it cool. he introduces himself as steve and billy gets the idea that he’s top dog at hawkins high, is immediately proved right when they step into the building. king steve, freckles calls him. billy laughs- catches steve looking at him when he does and feels his face get hot. steve just smiles wider, calls billy california and tells him to sit with them at lunch. billy tries to ignore the way steve’s smile makes him feel like the rug’s been pulled out from under his feet.

he nods and steve grins. tugs at one of billy’s curls.

says “i think you’re gonna like it here, california.”

#it got away from me i fear #billy has to live somewhere else at the start and then they move to california i don’t care he needs to be there with his mom for the #majority of the time he just has to #he Is california ! what else am i supposed to do here he needs it #makes hawkins that much worse #he’s best friends with argyle but he doesn’t get to say bye ! #billy’s first kiss is with a girl but the second the one he counts is with a boy and his mama knows he’s gay also #probably argyle if we’re being real #my words #billy hargrove #billy’s mom #harringrove #cw slurs #cw mental illness #spinning in circles i just need mamas boy billy and king steve so bad #mamas boy billy & king steve

[milk-lover]

RentheDog and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad mining session

#hermitcraft s10 #rendog #renthedog #HELP #it started out bad and it just got worse

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

things from The Halloween Update that are concerning me more than i already am about Eddie:

his Frankenstein's Monster costume turning his face (and hands. ha, hands, like the hands on a-) half yellow half blue/purple like the clocks & Sally's door. that's fucking me up a little ngl

Eddie tacks "A bit of a moral conundrum-" onto his description of Frankenstein's Monster, who he's costumed as. which seems out of place with the rest of his description. he could've said "bolts" or "white streak in his hair" or another physical trait. nope. Moral Conundrum (one could also describe his costume as "two-faced"...). and the fact that he's dressed specifically as someone who was "brought back from the dead" makes me 👁️👁️. kinda reminds me of a certain set of artworks from Clown's tumblr a while back...

Eddie, despite his whole schtick being "bad memory", was the only one to accurately recognize Sally's costume as pedrolino from the Commedia dell'arte. could be a little 'inside joke', might be something else. i suspect it's something else due to his... ah... Everything.

#yk im starting to wonder if eddie's meant to have a naturally bad memory #or if something is purposefully fucking with em more than with anyone else #bc he seems to have these little moments where hes On Top Of It #kinda like moments of lucidity almost? hm.... #eddie dear what have you seen? why are you Singled Out? #the wrist watch / his eyelashes matching home's (whatever the rounded things under the sills are) #his halloween costume / his memory problems / the fucking tiny secrets sprinkled all over his post office / his color being purple #hi eddie how does it feel to have main character syndrome #jesting! kinda #eddison edward eduardo edmund edgar edwin edmundo. what the hell is your deal im dying to know #wh speculation #welcome home speculation #homebogging #i wonder. i. wonder... #if eddie got Caught by whatever is out there at night #maybe he didnt know to stay in doors. maybe he realized he forgot to deliver something and thought 'better late than never' #maybe the town mailman is too important to simply Remove so he had to be dealt with a different way #or wait maybe someone saved him? wally perhaps? home? id(k?) #a worse memory so that he doesnt remember what happened? #a personal clock on him at all times so that he never loses track of the time of day? #an overactive fear-response to make sure he stays in his lane Despite him apparently enjoying scary things? #kinda sticks with the 'frankensteins monster' thing dontcha think? brought back from the dead? Stitched back together? #and the monster was an emotional sensitive character. like eddie. IDK idk im just rambling now

[theshadowrealmitself]

The whole “cheats on test, creates the apocalypse” thing is such a disproportionate punishment, but it has to work, just, poor Danny Fenton in school, not even risking looking away from his paper for a second in case that somehow causes the school to blow up

#a person can develop ocd like that #when they start thinking the thought of something is just as bad as the action #and then they start to try and repress the thoughts by doing some kind action #except that makes it worse because now whenever they do that action it makes them think of that thought #anyways then the two become connected and you got ocd #didn’t explain it well because I haven’t slept in over 24 hours but y’all get what I mean #danny phantom #dp #danny fenton

[cor-lapis]

I usually don't do world quest chain summaries but I have never been as incensed by an NPC as tirzad

#this is it this is the golden slumber quest chain from genshin impact #he started out kind of annoying and got progressively worse and worse. im not even done with part 3 yet #no spoilers please but jesus almighty christ he sucks so bad #however jeht is an angel and im glad she's here. #genshin impact #my art #genshin spoilers #jeht #jebrael #benben #:/ #tirzad #3.1 spoilers

[tricoufamily]

visiting the hometown

(want everyone to know this edit came to me in a dream and i changed the lore just to do it)

#in the dream i was like editing it but i was also there? it was weird. it started as a dream about lawson in a zombie apocalypse #ok important tags first so i can write an essay #ts4 #ts4 render #ts4 edit #the sims 4 #beckett #lawson #blood sports #but yeah if you haven't been here before beckett and lawson never knew each other as kids #if they did it would be a butterfly effect and mess w a bunch of other plot details. so i decided to work around it #also if ur new they've had a friends with benefits thing going on for a long time but lawson is in love with him. beck doesn't know #originally beckett was put in foster care as a baby bc of neglect and was bounced around foster homes for years #he was a troubled child always getting in fights a kleptomaniac undiagnosed autism etc etc foster families tried and just didn't want him #then when he was around 12 a very nice old lady named cora got him and they ended up forming a great bond they loved each other #she was going to adopt him then when beckett was around 15 or 16 his birth mother reentered the picture and wanted him back #it started a really nasty legal battle and cora died. we can't say for sure it was the stress of this fight but beckett certainly thinks so #anyway he did go back with his birth mother and things got really bad for him. he dropped out of school started doing worse crimes and so o #but none of that is what even changed #now LAWSON is also from west virigina like beckett. it's a small town lawson was new he had no friends #he was a very clingy possessive child who cried and threw tantrums so much #he met beckett and the rest is history. beckett didn't really mind how lawson acted he didn't really find him annoying like everyone elsedi #besides he didn't have friends either #lawson has wealthy parents they were welcoming to beckett at first if a little apprehensive. then he stole something from their house #and lawson wasn't allowed to hang out with him anymore. but he still did in secret. they still have no idea that beckett's even still aroun #or just how involved lawson is with him and his. activities 😬 they just think he's their good little college boy #in the original beckett moved to Not Gotham City when his mother got him back but in this version lawson is going to college there #and beckett's been distant from him for a while things are awful for him and lawson says hey. what if you gave the city a try. and he did #so really you could say the events of blood sports are all lawson's fault the end

[peachy-doodles]

has been forever since aggie moment.... so behold. aggie moment.

#subway boss ingo #subway boss emmet #gym leader larry #pokemon #greavard #fidough #oricorio #joltik #lni adventures #was thinking abt ingo for the swap au and. i think he woulda taken up more of elesas modelling oportunities- #after emmet dissapears to mainly take his mind off of. yknow. his depression skghgkhs #he already has it bad but losing emmet just made it x1000 worse- #so getting out and talking to ppl and modelling for elesa rly helps- #but then after a while he cant even escape with the modelling and thats when he travels the globe looking for emmet and- #runs into larry :) yaaaay lore #also i hc larry has a lot of different vocal stims that he thinks are embaressing so he only rly does them when hes alone or at home #so ofc when he invites ingo over to stay for a bit he forgets theres another human in his house so when ingo starts fucin parroting back #at him hes like what the FUCK is that. tropius kill that unidentified fucking noise right now #tropius bopping ingo with his leaves very calmly: you got it boss

[regicidal-defenestration]

Whilst the return of Doctor Who in 2005 brought lots of good things, including, for sure, the return of Doctor Who, I think it did untold damage to Big Finish audio stories

#like 'they got worse' is not an accurate statement - the quality imo took a gradual downwards turn but there were bad stories pre 2005 and #good ones post #however they seem to have gotten; for lack of a better word; more normal? more. 'regular fans and new people are watching this on the bbc #quick hide the scherzo before they get scared off' kind of thing #Time Works is ultimately a fairly good episode but it doesn't do anything. interesting (it was supposed to be in the Divergent Universe but #they stopped that when DW came back to TV). it feels like someone made a DW TV episode then rubbed out the visuals #compare that to Chimes of Midnight (2002); Zagreus and Scherzo (2003); Natural History of Fear and Caerdroia (2004) which are Proper Good! #this post brought about because I started listening to Master (2003) and I'm having actual fun they're doing Interesting Things #anyway yeah #doctor who

[sonego]

every time you see news about an athlete competing while injured and everyone's reactions are praising them like a hero bc that means they actually care about the team/sport/competition or whatever, imagine me as a dog barking at an evil creature in a horror movie. thanks

#the day we STOP glorifying pain i will finally know peace #try being in pain 24/7 !!!!! then tell me again it's a heroic and morally good !!!!!!! also fuck off #it's not heroic it's not good it's not manly it's not caring about winning what it IS is dangerous and reckless #and risking permanent damage and a disability #and i bet you fuckers would then start complaining about that same athlete 'underperforming' and 'not putting in enough effort' and shit #when maybe. MAYBE. if they'd taken care of the injury when it first arose that shit wouldn't have got worse and become a Big fucking problem #to be clear when i say you i mean a vague general you i see this all the time and rn it's aimed at no one in particular #and also i'm not blaming the athetles who keep competing through injuries i don't think it's their fault #i'm blaming these shit fucking reactions that everyone KEEPS having when it happens. pundits commentators fans etc #everyone is always praising these athletes these PEOPLE for how brave and daring they are for ignoring the pain they're in so they can help #the team or get a chance to win a race or a medal or a trophy or whatever #i understand it's not an easy or fun decision as a pro athlete to give up a chance at winning something #but i think we should DEFINITELY still encourage them to fucking give it up!!! even if it sucks even if it's a big win they're giving up!! #bc the risk of the injury getting worse and permanent and fucking up their career their LIFE for a very very long time if not forever is #just not worth it and not a risk to be taken lightly #i can't believe i have to keep complaining about this!!! still!!!!!! when will everyone learn!!!!! #what prompted this rant might not even be that bad but really i don't care the culture around this in sports needs to change asap #rant over i'm fucking MAD. and in pain (funnily enough lol) #nico.txt

[talentforlying]

priest: i don't, ah, quite know what to say to you. if you are in such terrible danger, why are you taking it all so calmly? constantine: hmh! i dunno, father. i had a bloke beaten to a pulp earlier this evening. that sound calm to you? priest: you did what...? constantine: i must've been off me bleedin' rocker. i've never done anything like it before in me life, y'know?

constantine: but there's header gets his guts blown out, and george is stickin' his head in the noose, and helen gets ... jesus, then friggin' sarah bites me head off — ! everything's coming to bits in me hands and it's so easy to just see red and now, shit, they could've killed the tosser for all i know! and now i'm just like the bastards i've hated all me life! kill him! fire him! close them down! piss all over him! screw you, i can do whatever i want! i so much as blink and you're dead, pal! i'm in charge!! ...

constantine: 'scuse me, father. i'm always like this when i don't get me own way. — hellblazer #81, "rake at the gates of hell pt. 4"

babygirl you are just....so, sooooo offputting. (and grieving, and guilty, and terrified, but yeah: offputting.)

anyway, it's issues like this one that remind me why i kind of hesitate over some of the retcons in the recent spurrier runs, like the one with him now having opened dream's pouch of sand and stolen some before they even met. because like, it's easy enough to look at john constantine now — with 70 years of worst possible choices and unresolved trauma crystallizing underneath his skin to cover up all the soft, hopeful bits where he's used to getting hit — and assign him arbiter of ill intentions, magus of wasted potential, saint of shit choices, but man . . . he was new to this, once. he was still new to this 80 issues in.

80 issues in, and he's not used to losing friends yet; he even has time enough between catastrophes to grieve each individual one. still has enough left to live for at this stage to necessitate running and hiding, instead of bodily throwing himself at the problem like he learns to later, or sitting apathetically by to do nothing except smoke and watch the world fall apart when he finally gives up. fuck, he still apologizes.

and you're telling me this guy, this soppy wet cat motherfucker hiding from the devil in a church basement, so guilty over not knowing what happened to the guy that he paid people (paid chas, so chas could pay people) to attack that the bottle he's holding in this scene isn't even his second or third........this guy's past, more innocent self lied right to the face of DREAM OF THE ENDLESS and got away with it?

hm. i just don't know about all that.

#also this is where my headcanons tag is from <3 #( ooc. ) OUT OF CIGS. #( visage. ) AND I'M A BASTARD. #( character study. ) A WALKING PLAGUE OF A MAN. #sometimes i just think that. people really like to reduce constantine down to one or two things #and somehow. after 250 issues of putting his life on the line bc he could never really make himself look away from people suffering #the soft sullen guilty person who wants so fucking desperately to be a better man? is never one of those two things #idk man. i think about this issue all the time #if i put these pages side-by-side with his grief in hellblazer 2? with his grief in hellblazer 213? 215? during the empathy virus arc? #it becomes CRYSTAL clear that the guy we know at the end of hellblazer isn't someone the guy who sat vigil for gary lester would recognize #in fact i think he's someone that hellblazer 81 constantine would fucking Hate #ANYway yeah. i don't think he lied to dream about the pouch. i don't think he ever got it open. i don't think that's canon for me #i want him to fucking Earn his asshole nature. the hard way. by making All The Wrong Choices that it took to get him there #he paved that road with good intentions himself but. he also used to remember the ones he started with #idk if i'm making sense but i have had this panel open on my laptop for Two Months now #bc i can never stop thinking about how fucking crushed he is here to realize that he might be exactly as bad a man as sarah said he was #and how little it will surprise him later on to learn that he is Easily capable of So Much Fuckin Worse #and with that your honor the defense rests. our evidence? just. just Look at this fuckin guy #scopophobia / #scopophobia #eye contact / #eye contact tw

[canadiancryptid]

Everyone gives Simon all the credit for having a negative character arc, but Agent Sieve did it first. He goes from "Do we really need the sanders for this? That seems like overkill." to "Screw protocol, I'm going to outright murder you and anyone who stands in my way!"

Don't get me wrong, Simon did it better, but Sieve didn't start out as a bloodthirsty murder-cop. He was trying to do what he saw as the right thing, but trying to impress Mace led him down a dark path. He probably would have found that path anyways, but his partner didn't help much.

#infinity train book 2 #he started bad and only got worse #infinity train #cryptid says stuff

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

I actually hope hunter doesnt find out about calebs heel turn towards befriending witches. Or at least, he doesnt find out about that until he accepts that its okay if hes a clone of a witch hunter.

I want hunters realization that hes a Good Person, Actually to come from understanding that sharing genes with someone doesnt mean you inherit their bad qualities. And that he's free to choose whether or not to be like his predecessors. I dont want it to come from him learning that caleb is Good, Actually, and have that mean hes automatically destined to be good like caleb

#the owl house #shut up pandora #toh #hunter toh #caleb wittebane #i know ppl think caleb was always a good person at heart and belos was always evil #but i think thered be more nuance if they started out the same #and caleb got better by embracing the boiling isles and questioning his upbringing #while belos dug his heels in and got worse #similarly a lot of ppl assume all grimwalkers have similar personalities and are destined to be good ppl #but i dont think thats something youre born with thats something you choose to be #and hunters plot relevant choices recently have not necessarily all been his choice #but in situations where it IS his choice he has usually chosen to be bad bc of upbringing but then changed his mind and chose to be good #he should keep it up #until some point in the story where being kind and helping his friends against all odds is no longer a difficult choice #also uh we barely know anything about caleb #and i dont think toh would cut out all nuance and make him unambiguously good if we learn about him later #remember the belos memories of the brothers going on witch hunts as a kid #hunter is right caleb WAS a witch hunter with belos he just stopped doing it

[ssaalexblake]

Does anybody want to tell the people still complaining that 13's era didn't have enough political commentary that the anti-imperialism themes, the condemnation of the treatment of refugees and immigrants, the emphasis on violence for violence's sake being bad but violence in the name of protection and self defence is acceptable and heroic (you can and Should fight back against violent colonizers), and and absolute refusal to give any ground to abusers (something the other eras were sketchy at Best over), we could talk about the environmental protection themes that appear about as subtly as a brick more than once (ideally environmental protection shouldn't be a political issue, but idk if you've watched the news lately, it is) were like. Really thematically obvious? And that if you talk about the Less obvious, it gets deeper.

We could talk about medical exploitation and the parallels of the timeless child to henrietta lacks (look her up). We could talk about the northern working class emphasis in the whole era and that its avoidance of the south is a statement in itself, from Sheffield steel to nobody having an upper class accent (sans that one time lord who ran division who had the Snootiest of snooty high class accents. Almost like they were making a Point). We could talk about how all our characters and reoccurring are working class, a bus driver, a trainee mechanic, a hotel manager etc etc, we could talk about the portrayal of actual honest modern poverty, and that it's explicitly shown that Dan Wants to work and is threatened off of the premises instead as the indictment of capitalism it is. We could talk about the very clear condemnation of tech companies taking advantage of their customers (calling fake google Vor was unacceptable tho, no defence available).

I could go on, but I'd like to drink my tea before it gets cold.

Sorry 13 didn't say the words eat the rich, but idk if you noticed, there was an actual whole episode where in the future the 1% who ruin the earth beyond repair literally get hunted and eaten by the mutated remains of the 99% whom they left to die 👍

#dw shit #bc pithy phrases are actually the end word in political commentary #i know 12 got some great Lines but damn not a great deal more depth #dont get me started on the zygon plot #rtd's anti capitalism commentary ceased to be commentary when rose got a rich daddy and ten stole somebody else's lottery winnings #by cheating #(capitalism IS to cheat. if you cheat the system and get money you have Won at capitalism. you cannot critique a system #that works by cheating by cheating it. that's just winnning at it.) #anyway #it's actually quite obvious. most of it. there is subtlty but I've #also spent years reading ppl angry it's so in your face #and it cannot both be in your face and non existent #but hey this is from the crowd that think 13 is too good And too bad to be the doctor #and u know what? I've still not forgiven rtd and moffat for being weirdly up the ass of royalty #at least 13 at best tolerated james #(and tbh moffat just decided to be pro or anti royalty whenever it got the best laugh lbr. somehow this is worse)

[dennisboobs]

do you guys ever sit and remember that dennis takes a mental health day is an episode that exists

#ada speaks #i think i could probably recite the entire one sided phone conversation he has with daisy by heart and i havent seen the ep in months #i don't know how to explain it but #from what little ive read of ross' writing it feels like. when you click onto a fanfic and you feel immediate deep trust of the author #like it just clicks #the cookbook characterization specifically. is like. #i would put my life in your hands #and im sure we will get more eps by him and i really hope that continues because i think its been a very long time since the shows had #writers that i feel Get the characters in a way that feels effortless rather than. overcompensating. #like you can smell that writer's signature no matter how hard they try to cover it up with jokes and subversions #which isnt always a bad thing and im sure if we do get more maloney eps i'll pick up on his writers quirks too #but it doesn't feel like he's trying to copy anyone/pull from old eps it feels like he has a good grasp on things which makes it feel fresh #i find that long running shows hit a point where episodes start to feel less cohesive and more like. segmented short films #but if you have a really good group of writers and they find their groove its like. yeah. ok. #i think season 3 is a good study because marder and rosell's influence is all over the entire season #later seasons you can literally just. Feel which eps they worked on because its got a completely different vibe from the rest of the season #16 still suffers from that segmentation but #i think all the first time sunny writers (and nina's first solo ep) were all absolutely fuckin bangers and they've got a good team in there #anyway. characterization of dennis flipflops a lot. but the rest of the gang arguably gets it worse at times #i think megan's dee is the absolute worst aside from conor galvin's #and i understand wanting to write her as a girlfailure who is just. horrible. but. #ok. comparing self help book dee to ross' cookbook dee. i dont even have to say anything do i. #she's like. The Woman. in the self help book. and i fucking could not stand it. ross' dee is so perfect though #and his frank. MAN. #EVERYONE FUCKING RUINS FRANK. #i think marder and rosell's frank is a lot of fun because hes clearly based on marder's dad and acts believably #a lot of writers struggle to capture his. frank-ness. #he's sort of suffered from like. bland pervy senile old man writing for a long time #and ross brought back him actually being a competent businessman #IM OUT OF TAGS IM SHUTTING UP