#NO MORE SELF SACRIFICES

[starqueensthings]

The implications of Crosshair’s commitment to this notion scares the heck outta me, pals. Omega is his salvation, that’s obvious by the unguarded nature of their bond and how there are aspects of himself that he trusts only her with… but to feel as if he owes her some sort of life debt? Jennifer— I see you. And I’m begging you. Please don’t 💔

#NO MORE SELF SACRIFICES #my heart can’t fkn take it #pls let Crosshair enjoy the redemption he deserves #the bad batch #tbb #bad batch #starqueensgifs #tbb spoilers #the bad batch spoilers #bad batch spoilers #tbb season 3 #tbb season 3 spoilers #the bad batch season 3 #the bad batch season 3 spoilers #bad batch season 3 #bad batch season 3 spoilers #tbb wrecker #wrecker tbb #bad batch wrecker #wrecker bad batch #tbb crosshair #Crosshair tbb #bad batch Crosshair #Crosshair bad batch

[sofancydancy]

The grip his stomach has on me is insane--

Hi!! Editing to thank you all so much and to say the finished version is now in the replies/with the link! 💜

#wip #borrowing from st sebastian by juan carreño de mirana #art wip #gale dekarios #bg3 #one hand is more fleshed out now and the other can fight me #im happy with the blade too #baroque influenced #may it please Mystra #mystra when i catch you mystra #my art #cw: self sacrifice #cw: blade #gale of waterdeep #baldur's gate 3 #gale fanart

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Assisting Acquaintance Acquired.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #wen ning #wei wuxian #Ignore how Wen Ning's hair looks here because I messed it up. Let's pretend he just sported a different hair style for a brief moment. #I am not exactly great at consistency but I am trying very hard to work on that (immediately messes up again). #Absolutely *love* how Wen Ning clearly remembers and admires WWX...who does *not* recognize him. #This is the best day for Wen Ning and it means *nothing* to WWX. A painful one-sided crush made worse. #It is bittersweet to realize that we care about someone more than they care about us. Sometime we pour love into a relationship- #-with someone who just can't reciprocate. It isn't always a conscious things either. Some people just aren't aware we care. #And painfully - so painfully - You can't make them aware. No act of kindness or gift or self sacrifice will make someone care about you. #You can martyr yourself for someone and they will continue on unchanged. #I think a lot about the parallels between WN and LWJ. Not foils - just reflections. A theme repeated. #People who give so much of themselves to someone who doesn't have the capacity to give any part of themself away. #I will die on the hill of 'Wen Ning would be the love triangle romance if that trope wasn't being avoided'. #And to be honest - thank the stars above that is the case. I do not know any good love triangles in media. #We are skipping some of the sad Jiang Cheng content because I really want to finish season 2 before May. #Sorry JC emo moment lovers...I'll deliver another time.

[rawrsatthetree]

I’ve seen people compare Julian Devorak to Astarion, and honestly I think you’re all embarrassing wrong.

Gale Dekarios is Julian Devorak.

Astarion is Count Lucio

#I could write a 10 page mla cited paper about this #you either don’t get Jules #or more likely you’re woobifying Astarion #i said what i said #bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #baldurs gate #astarion #bg3 astarion #baldurs gate astarion #bg3 gale #gale dekarios #the arcana game #the arcana #julian devorak #count lucio #the fact that Lucio can either become better and become an adventure or he can become the literal devil that takes over the city #he’s need to discard his old self and grab for power by making deals with devils #Gale is a genuine that loves wine his cat and his mom #julian is a genious that loves salty bitters his old dog and his sister #both Gale and Julians need to self sacrifice to prove their worth

[veinsfullofstars]

"Still trying to intimidate me? Cute."

(ID: Kirby series fanart of Meta Knight and Galacta Knight based off of a couple dynamics template by @/ReddsMess on Twitter. Original template and source below the cut, as well as a HAL language variant. Top-left panel - high-angle shot of MK lit from above, standing firm and glaring up through his mask, his wings curled out and breaching the panel in places, subtitled "Well well..." Top-right panel - low-angle shot of GK lit from below, looming in the air and leering down through his mask, his wings curled out and his hands spread wide in challenge, both of which breach the panel in places, subtitled "Look who came to see me..." Bottom panel - MK & GK stand next to each other, the latter leaning towards the former and gently caressing the side of his mask with the back of one hand, grinning smugly and wrapping a wing around the knight, subtitled "My Knightmare." MK stands stiffly with his fists clenched at his sides, blushing vividly and glaring away from the warrior. A little flurry of white hearts emanate from GK, while one small one hovers above MK. END ID.)

Started 03/30/24, finished 04/02/24.

---

HAL language variant:

Original by ReddsMess (template link) NOTE: The artist has marked 16-18+ in their bio, so browse at your own risk!

#veins art #veins ships #veins fanart #fanart #kirby series #kirby #meta knight #galacta knight #galacta knight x meta knight #metagala #couple dynamics #couples meme #meme redraw #pose redraw #template redraw #toxic couple or idiots in love? you decide #I'm a sucker for bespoke pet names apparently #real-bat-wings MK my beloved <3 #veins “keeps drawing feathered wings despite how much they hate doing so” fullofstars #also I saw @post-it-notes7's mirror!GK design and now I will never not draw GK in heels #swallow tailed galacta knight #<- (inspired by @starflungwaddledee of course) #*gasp* no sparkles?? #the sacrifices we make for a t m o s p h e r e #hmm I wonder if this is where the Childhood Friends AU would go if MK and DDD never got back together... #(but I get ahead of myself - that's a story for another time) #(me: *slaps self on wrist" veins no! bad goblin! no more AUs! especially not AUs of AUs! stop it!) #veinsfullofstars

[vitasexualiiis]

the tragedy of fukuzawa and ranpo's canon relationship is that i genuinely think that ranpo believes he loves fukuzawa more than fukuzawa loves him.

that's why he's so cranky when fukuzawa wants to find atsushi, even though it's illogical and atsushi is a liability. it's only fukuzawa saying that ranpo's reward will be his praise (read: appreciation) that makes him act.

it's why ranpo pictures fukuzawa like THIS when he thinks of his complicated relationship with his friends--that they need him, but as skill users, will always be better than him--during his confrontation with mushi.

note that this is right after fukuzawa tried to sacrifice himself for the greater good during the cannibalism arc, and that he's currently punishing ranpo for going against orders and trying to save him. (also of note is the fact that ranpo thinks that fukuzawa will be angry with him for trying to get kunikida out of jail.)

it's no coincidence that during this same confrontation, one where mushi is forced to admit that he did the unspeakable for a loved one, ranpo also admits that he would also do terrible things for the sake of his loved ones.

it's part of why he's so furious that fukuzawa won't listen to him at the start of the hunting dogs arc, which happens immediately after the above.

it's why he's so jealous of fukuchi, to the point where fukuchi can get ranpo to act in a way that atsushi has never seen before. fukuchi's taunting has ranpo literally trembling with rage during this scene in the anime.

AND! STILL! after all of this--after fukuzawa repeatedly puts his desire for justice above his love and respect for ranpo, after ranpo's dealt with years of fukuzawa sticking up for fukuchi--someone ranpo REALLY doesn't like for both obvious and less obvious reasons--he still trusts fukuzawa and lets fukuzawa's desires guide him.

even when he knows fukuzawa is wrong.

how couldn't this shake ranpo's faith that he matters as much to fukuzawa as fukuzawa means to him? that fukuzawa's desire for justice and upholding the greater good--his need to forever atone for his past--will always mean more than his relationship with ranpo?

that maybe, one day, fukuzawa won't choose him in a way that takes him out of ranpo's life for good?

#hi! hello! i made myself sad! #please be sad with me #ranpo edogawa #fukuzawa yukichi #bsd meta #fukuran #<- though this is definitely more about their platonic sitch in the canon #ranpo #fukufuku #fukuzawa #<- organizational tags #vita.txt #not me hoping that fukuzawa will be denied the catharsis of self-sacrifice!

[lovesickeros]

☆ from gold, i am undone

{☆} characters tsaritsa {☆} notes cult au, yandere, drabble, gender neutral reader {☆} warnings blood, implied self harm, implied suicide attempts {☆} word count 0.9k

You weren't meant to be here.

You can feel it in the marrow of your bones– it weighs you down like heavy shackles, gold bleeding from your pores until it is all you know. The taste of ichor on your tongue, the warmth of its invasion beneath your skin, that gleam of gold that lingers in the color of your eyes like specks of dust.

You are changed, and you are whole.

But you are so unbearably broken.

A shattered piece of porcelain hastily put back together with gold to fill the cracks.

Decoration, in the end, for you are not fit to walk as "mortals" do. This gold had filled every empty crevice of your body, spilled the red into your frantic hands and made you bleed so it's callous gold could make room inside your body. It has taken from you many things, given many more, but you scratch and bite and tear until it drips onto the floor and even then it never leaves. It stains the floor no matter how hard you scrub– a permanent reminder of the sickening gold that molds you into something that used to look like you– that does look like you. Desecrated, yet so horribly divine.

All you see is a monster.

Something new, something old.

A hollowed out shell, wounds left to rot and fester until you suited the image of the Creator they bore upon statues and murals, the Creator worshiped in prayers spoken in hushed whispers and joyous chants praising your magnificence.

But what magnificence is there in detachment? What joy is there to be found in carving a God out of a human? They kneel like lambs before the shepherd, but the flock has made you– and you want to unmake them. Unweave the tapestry of their being stitch by stitch until it all falls apart and the world knows the cost of casting molten gold into the shape of a human, knows the price that has been left unpaid.

You want to take it from them. Watch them squabble and pray, blind sheep stepping into the wolf's open maw– to tear the seams of their being until the world is unwound by your heavy hands.

But you know it will not satisfy you.

Nothing does anymore.

You are no wolf. Only the shepherd who guides.

And with every drop of blood spilled, they ripped the humanity from your very bones until your body was the cast in which they made something anew– something gold, something horrific. A monster as much a God, a beast as much a man.

There is nothing left but absolute authority.

You try again and again to mend this act of desecration, to peel back the outer shell and rend the gold from your marrow– but your body cannot, will not, die. It mends itself back into place no matter how damaged, and all you feel is the uncomfortable tug of your body forcing itself to live. You cannot die, but were you ever truly alive at all?

Yet with every cycle, you know only one constant besides the thrum of golden ichor in your veins– cold.

Ice that burns, ice that spreads and festers and devours. Claws that pull you apart until the gold runs thick, teeth that burrow into your bones and rip it out from the source..eyes that witness the fall of a God with reverence– hungering, all consuming reverence.

You welcome it.

It is the first time you felt pain since you were cast into an image of a being you were not meant to be. The sting of cold upon your skin makes you shiver, your body tries to reject it, but you want to welcome it– for a brief moment that lasts only as long as it takes for you to blink, you see the glint of something familiar in the reflection of her empty eyes. Something achingly, horribly familiar– something human, all the more terrifying for it.

Even when Teyvat itself crumples like paper beneath the weight of her sins – of this desecration anew, this wretched heresy – you allow her hands to do it again. You grasp her hands in yours like chains, willing her to shackle you, willing her to pull you apart and make you whole again. To break you until the gold cannot put you back together again.

You long, each time, for those eyes like spears that lodge into your skin– burrow deep and sting deeper, making gold flow like water. You long for the biting tongue, the cutting words and those teeth like weapons– long to see the spite and anger and impure disgust aimed at the woman of silver who leads you down a hall that ends only in damnation. You follow each time like the lamb led astray by the wolf, but you do not wail in betrayal when she sinks her teeth into your throat and devours you whole.

For is it a sin if you welcome it? Has their God sinned, in the eyes of the flock, for welcoming such heresy with open arms? For allowing the wolf into their home?

Is it a sin to be broken beneath the only hands that have loved you?

Is it a sin to want to love, too, those hands and teeth stained in gold?

Then you shall be damned, you swear it. Damned, but gold no more.

For death is the closest you have ever felt to being human.

#sagau #genshin sagau #self aware genshin #genshin impact sagau #self aware genshin impact #fic tag #tsaritsa #genshin cult au #genshin impact cult au #tsaritsa x reader #this is. technically not a sequel but not a prequel but a secret third thing (mental health crisis) #kidding i just wanted 2 write the prev fic from more reader oriented pov bc it wasnt fucked up enough!!!!! #i need fucked up reader who is irreparably changed in horrifying ways!!!!!! and they cant die bc teyvat kinda needs them 2 uh #exist at all. and if u die well thats it. hits reset button #the horrifying fate of a mortal forced to be a god against their will and all the drawbacks that come with it #where is love to be found when they all cannot see themselves as anything but beneath you? there will always be imbalance #oh they try. they claw and scramble and beg but being the creator has changed you. #none of their worship. none of their sacrifices and gifts and pleas make you feel a thing and what a haunting thing it must be #do they reject it? delude themselves into thinking that they must try harder? #or do they accept that this is a god? absolute. horrifying in its entirety. something that even the archons cannot truly understand #a manmade god who seeks absolution in only the most heretical. the most blasphemous #literally shaking chewing on the bars of my cage LET ME OUT #i love deep dives like this sorry 2 everyone i made think i was normal my bad #i just think immortality and godhood r funky concepts and i love making them WORSE #also this took so long because i was playing b@Idurs g@t3 3 erm. censored so it doesnt show up in tags PLEASE DONT SHOW UP IN TAGS #taking i need the tsaritsa to bite me to a whole new entirely worse level!! #i just think (starts talking for 5 hours straight and doesnt Shut Up) #this one is also. considerably more openly fucked up then the other fic. even if its hidden behind flowery language uh. take it seriously. #okay im done no more angst its fluff from here on out i need 2 be NORMAL. i am a normal well functioning adult. maybe.

[dubiousdisco]

jonathan's college of choice isn't even the one nancy is going to, he sacrificed his dream college to be with her, then sacrificed being with her to be able to provide for his family and didn't tell her so she wouldn't have to sacrifice anything for him. and he didn't tell his family either so they wouldn't worry about him.

will's used his confession to help mike and el's relationship, sacrificing his own happiness so the two of them could be happy. Then Jonathan tells will he will always be there for him and will tells him he will be there for him too, he doesn't even let the moment of comfort that should be reserved for him be only for him.

I'm losing my mind over these brothers, they really think priorizing everyone's happiness over their own is the right thing to do, that the one acceptable outcome is to make everyone they love happy and that their own happiness isn't even on the table if they can make their loved ones happy, that their own happiness is the first thing to go if needed. and the thing is, Will won't be happy anyway, because Jonathan will be unhappy because of his choices, and Jonathan won't be happy anyway because Will won't be happy. Their self sacrifice will only make the people who love them unhappy and they don't even realize it! They don't even realize it!!!!!!

#jonathan byers #will byers #byler #jancy #stranger things #stranger things 4 #if you were jonathan how could you think anything was more important than making will joyce nancy and el happy?? #if you were will wouldnt jonathan mike joyce and els happiness be the most important thing to you??? #i'm screaming rn #ouroborus of self sacrifice

[chloecherrysip]

I don't know where I'm from. My earliest memory is arriving. I was so lucky they found me! They took me in, raised me like one of their own, and when I was ready, they made me their princess.

#mario movie #mario movie spoilers #super mario bros #princess peach #super mario bros movie #super mario bros movie spoilers #cherrysip edits #mario movie was like ' let me just drop some wild new lore in here and then not come back to it in any way' lolol #DOES PEACH HAVE PARENTS BACK IN THE REGULAR WORLD THAT MOURN HER TO THIS VERY DAY???? #i don't know how feasible this would be but it feels like you could do some research to look up reports of missing children matching her #description over the last couple of decades and see if anything intriguing comes up :O #but i do love how this makes the relationship between peach and the toads so much more emotional and meaningful #they're not just her subjects. they saved her and gave her a loving home!!! they are her family and she would do anything for them!!! #they cared for her and now she cares for them even if it requires self-sacrifice #(another intriguing detail: the castle already exists here. did the toads have another monarch before this???) #(have they just been making unsuspecting humans wandering through the pipe royalty for hundreds of years????? HMM)

[silverwhittlingknife]

good coping mechanisms [not pictured]

nightwing 116 & red robin 12

#is it self-sacrifice or self-destruction? why not both #dick grayson #tim drake #i think tim's red robin fight is probably better known bc dick fans tend to focus on the angst at the beginning of the renegade arc #instead of the angst at the end of the renegade arc #HOWEVER at the end of the renegade arc blüdhaven is exploding #and dick - who's been extremely down on himself and convinced that maybe he's kind of a bad guy - #gets a brief new lease on life by being highly-motivated to charge into the exploding city with a borderline suicidal plan #which very predictably ends in him charging into an explosion and passing out and getting rescued by batman #(bruce is then a jerk about it but never mind that for the sake of the parallel) #and so dick spends his whole charge-into-the-city-on-fire soliloquy thinking about how he's gonna do things RIGHT now #and he's BETTER now - no more shades of gray!! only black and white!!! #and on the one hand this is clearly genuinely felt and it's a huge relief for him to be able to see himself as a hero again #but it's hard to miss that. like. the actual plan that he has. #involves putting himself in extreme danger with no backup and probably dying #and there's a strong implication that maybe to dick that part is a feature and not a bug

[harrowing-of-hell]

I think people genuinely over estimate how well Gideon understands Harrow as a person, and vice versa.

Like, that's the whole point!! That's the tragedy!!!! Despite having spent their whole lives around each other as the only two children of the Ninth, despite being literally the only other people in the world they could relate to up until Canaan House, they still don't get each other!!

That's why even after the pool scene and acknowledging how both she and the Ninth house treated Gideon like shit, Harrow asks Gideon to go back to the Ninth house, which is an incredibly cruel thing to do!

At the end of GTN, Gideon fully acknowledges that killing herself would be the cruelest thing she could do to Harrow. She still does it anyways, and then in HTN acts so surprised and upset that Harrow rejects her sacrifice!! Like babygirl!! what did you expect to happen!!!!

Despite everything they've been through they legitimately do not understand each other on a fundamental level, and that's why their whole situation is just so fucking sad.

#the locked tomb #tlt #harrowhark nonagesimus #gideon nav #tlt spoilers #tlt meta #the locked tomb spoilers #and this is obviously wrapped up in their in their own self-hatred and lack of self-worth #their devotion to each other has more to do with their own problems than it has to do with the other person #gideon genuinely doesn't feel as though her life has any worth beyond being a sacrifice #so naturally she jumps at the chance to be useful #and harrow feels as though she can never really make amends for how she treated gideon #and so in her mind devotion is the closest she can get #truly they are the definition of just talking past each other #and it honestly all makes sense when you consider that there was exactly ONE day where they weren't at each others necks

[lilaccatholic]

I am once again thinking about the reluctant ruler whose arc justly and correctly includes assuming the throne and taking responsibility for the people set before them

#it's about simba coming back to pride rock it's about aragorn using andúril to fight for middle earth and assuming the throne it's about #hiccup marrying astrid and assuming his role as chief and moses returning to egypt #and it's about irina loving her people so fully that when she claims all of her subjects as hers that chernobog must release them to her!!! #and it's about miryem choosing to stay with the staryk and repair the damage and assume responsibility for the land and people!!!!! #and! it's! about! gen!!!! #it's ALWAYS about gen!!!! #gen who didn't want to be king. who hated being king and only wanted to marry a queen but who obeyed his gods and became a king over kings #who lost his home and half his family and his HAND but who ushered in a new golden age. #and it's about sophos who ran away but who shot the ambassador and took back his kingdom #it's about duty and it's about sacrifice and it's always ALWAYS about doing the right thing even at great personal cost because it's about #submitting to a power higher than your own. of recognizing that the calling on life is one for serving others and having so much more to #answer for than just yourself. it's knowing duty is love is duty #i cant stand stories where the answer is 'give up the throne and reject your duty' because no!!! you dont get it!!! #thats how you get the monsters!!! thats how you get the prince turned into a beast and thats how you get every terrible weak king that #aragorn feared becoming #to accept your throne is to die to self!!! you are no longer you but 'king' or 'queen' #it's like queen mary says to qeii in the crown 'elizabeth mountbatten must die #elizabeth regina must take her place.' #that's terrifying! but it's also everything!!!! #die! to! self! die! to! self!!!!!! #lilac rambles #lilac goes to the movies #lion king #prince of egypt #lotr #spinning silver #the crown #tqt #the queen's thief #httyd

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

D'Arce S Ending: "As soon as I can revive him from the dead, the wedding is BACK ON!"

#fear and hunger #d'arce cataliss #le'garde #fear and hunger spoilers #blood #self harm #Quote from Piosplayhouse #And he would go on to slay. Many millions of people infact. #D'arce Cataliss more like D'arce Catalyst For The Near Destruction Of Humanity. #D'arce has such a noble and pure heart but it is presented as her greatest flaw and I think that's brilliant. #Girl I don't think you can love the flaws out of this man. Yes is he very beautiful. No you can't fix him. #There are some people you can sacrifice everything for and they still will not care for you the way you care for them. #Learning dark magic to bring him back from the dead is NOT a good first date idea D'arce! #(I'm not very good at drawing blood and flesh. Yet. This series is going to push my limits)

[travelingneuritis]

not to upset anyone but i actually think Wei Wuxian was even more Jiang Cheng’s Greatest Mistake than Lan Wangji’s. Like I know the core transfer discourse tends to rotate pretty narrowly around consent and the (unwinnable and pointless) argument of Who Sacrificed More, but. In the rules of that world as I understand them from text, your body belongs to your sect. Hand, core, labor, life-- all of it. Jiang Cheng’s willingness to lay down his life in Yiling to prevent Wei Wuxian’s capture was noble, loving, generous-- but it was not proper for him to do because, as sect leader with no heir, his survival was more important than Wei Wuxian’s. His act of love was personal and therefore indulgent. It was not in service of Yunmeng Jiang; it was not honorable by any definition of the world he lived in or the sect he owed absolute allegiance to. Your body belongs to your sect.

Jiang Fengmian and Madam Yu got this. Wei Wuxian got this. It’s one of many, many ways he was a better Jiang than Jiang Cheng could ever be. It also weights their respective sacrifices differently. Wei Wuxian’s sacrifice of his core was brotherly, loving, and virtuous, but it was also what most of his life had geared him for. Jiang Cheng was going against not only his own survival instinct when he threw himself at the Wen soldiers in Yiling, but also against the established rules of a world he was actively fighting to get back.

#i love these guys they are so important 2 me #the consent thing is a great angle to think about this from! #we could all do more thinking about consent #the self-sacrifice olympics....... less so #still by this one specific metric.... #you could argue that jc was willing to sacrifice not just his life but the future of YMJ. which is so much more than a core #wwx was a mistake jc made with his whole jiangussy #:/ #mdzs #jiang cheng #twin prides

[skitskatdacat63]

Hello guys!!!!! Aforementioned project is finally finished 🫠 It was meant to be just a simple weekend project, and ended up being 30+ hours over the period of like four days. I don't think I'm an actual normal human anymore. This is the project that caused everyone in my life to question my mental and physical wellbeing and health. But I'm super excited to share this all of you!!!! Please enjoy!!!! Even if you don't like vettonso, I hope this is still interesting????

If you make any, please reblog this or tag me in it! I'm excited to see what other people, other than just me suffering alone in my bedroom, make out of this!!! <3

#jesus christ i cant believe i actually made this 😭😭 #originally earlier last week i was like ahhh i wanna draw more of them in different eras(like the timeswap au) #and then randomly wanted to draw every single racesuit(nightmare) #and then im like WAIT I CAN MAKE A PICREW OUT OF THIS #no joke when i say i dont think i was a human this weekend #it was truly: eat. sleep. draw. eat. draw. sleep. draw. eat. draw. draw. sleep. #the screentime count on my ipad is soooooo fucking bad im ashamed dhfjfkkg #i dont think picrews are meant to be made in the span of a weekend #*weakly* i did it~ #again as i said in the description. please request if you want anything added!!! #i dont know if ill get to it immediately bcs i just spent 30+ hours psychologically torturing myself #i actually feel so ill JSJFKGLGLG but im happy w it and i wouldnt have gone back and changed any of the process #tho the evolution of 'im having so much fun' to groaning every time i opened up my ipad again was so funny #thank you so much to suzuki i could have never have done this without your support and encouragement 🥹🥹 #hoping this picrew works as a blood sacrifice to the good health and wellbeing of the amr24. the car that is launching today! #also istg i am going to dm shill and self reblog this with no shame. it is my magnum opus(as of now) #now i am going to sleep and not touch my ipad for a while djfkkglg #f1 #formula 1 #sebastian vettel #fernando alonso #catie.art. #vettonso #normal posts that catie normally makes in a normal fashion

[fairandfatalasfair]

"Most young patrollers who exchanged north of the Dead Lake took primed knives from home along. About half the patrollers returned, ready to take up expanded duties. None of the knives did. A steady stream of sacrifice, flowing northward."

#Lois McMaster Bujold #The Sharing Knife #TheSharingKnife #fanart #my art #I continue to be absolutely insane about the worldbuilding in this series #The legacy of guilt and responsibility and power and duty #the sharing knives as a physical manifestation of sacrifice and all the grief and anguish that entails #the bitter culture clashes between the people who carry this burden in self-important secrecy #and the people they defend but do not trust or respect (even as their growing technology conquers more and more of the world) #The lessons to be learned on both sides if they're going to make a way forward #''No farmer child. You've always had our protection.'' #''If you were traditional you'd put a torch to every house in New Moon Camp. Because traditional Lakewalkers don't defend. We run.'' #''You're only clenching your hands so tight because you have so little left in them.'' #I'm normal about this #fatal rambling in the tags