#cannibalism the good kind

[raviollies]

Theta is an incredibly old Hag having been able to survive for a millennium, her true age unknown as she herself stopped counting. Thus amongst Hags, not only does she rank as a Grandmother but a very powerful one at that, her only misfortune having been the last of her coven, the group having cannibalized itself in a struggle for power.

Such old Hags exist but are a rarity, and in some isolated pockets of rural areas they are worshipped as deities of the natural cycle of decomposition and as the group for life. Though this practice is few and far between and generally discouraged in favour of the standard pantheon and generally labeled as a false or old god. Their domains consist of ancient forests older than civilizations, not unlike Silvanus, though where they differ is that the Fae have a propensity to grant wishes and desires, for a price of course, rather than keeping a distance for the sake of balance (Often times this involves body parts [ a la what Auntie Ethel does in BG3, where they would be granted sight or hearing through your body] or living beings).

Theta's reasoning for pursuing Blythe is nothing special - she was simply seeking out Elven women with a potential, ones that have not awakened or honed their magical skills as to be molded and influenced (She sees it as teaching a chick to fly).

Like other Hags, Theta believes in the obscenity of love; patron of obsession and possession. She encourages Elven mages to cannibalize their lovers - and is staunch in the belief that consuming another grants their power. Whether or not that belief is fact or fiction is dubious.

#Theta #cannibalism as a metaphor for love taken LITERALLY!! #I WANT to add the introdude the remote worship into the story because...i love me some rituals and ye Old Gods worship #most primal forms of worship and denial of the accepted pantheon #i like to think of all the different fae as being almost independent of each other - kind of like humanoids in faerun #yes theyre all fae but theyre so divorced whatever the other is doing #i love old folk beliefs and rituals as a medium for storytelling especially with how its portrayed in Funger and Witcher #PRIMAL POWERFUL BEINGS....NOT EVIL NOR GOOD...JUST FORCES....

[dazais-guardian-angel]

kinda wild to me that one of the most compelling aspects of both Chuuya and Kunikida's characters to me, that I never really see talked about, is how they're heavily set on a doomed crash course towards complete and utter destruction, and how I am so, so worried for them both.....

#bungou stray dogs #been thinking a lot about chuuya lately (shocking for me i know (said with no sarcasm truly lmao it is rare for me)) #cause of the 15 manga and also playing the fucking jeht quest in genshin impact ugh (where's the one dual genshin bsd fan who Understands) #but like this pressure has been building up for chuuya for so long due to being used and manipulated by all these people #first the sheep then mori then verlaine then still mori now #he was groomed since childhood just like dazai #but unlike dazai he didn't have an oda to help him get out of the mafia........ he's still stuck there #and his personality is different from dazai's. dazai was more self-aware imo (but still a groomed emotionally abused kid don't get me wrong #but chuuya's whole thing is needing to belong and wanting a leader to be loyal to but ending up in positions of leadership himself #which makes him feel pressured but he accepts and stifles any negative feelings just because he wants to belong #and all this crushed him with the events in the light novels and yeah he went through character growth but he's...... Still In The Mafia... #and that fucking scene asagiri added to the cannibalism stage play i don't think hardly anyone even knows about bc IT'S NOT DISCUSSED ANYMO #where mori emotionally manipulates him with the flags!!! and it deeply hurts him!!! and he presumably deals with that shit all the time!!! #it is WORRISOME. it WORRIES ME okay. #chuuya doesn't have anyone who can save him from the mafia (dazai is in no position to okay; it's all he can do just to try to save himself #and it's so so scary. it spells awful things for him. #didn't asagiri say he'd have a rough path or something??? and he added that fucking scene in the play!!! it haunts me!! #i fully expected this shit to hit a turning point in the meursault arc but we can't have nice things i guess #and as for kunikida a;lskdfl (took me this long to get to him oop) literally the ending of Entrance Exam (the novel) is just #One Big Foreshadowing for Kunikida's downfall #he's compared to the azure king for a reason. Sasaki saw the azure king in him for a reason. it's fucking worrying!!!!! #there hasn't really been anything like that since in the manga (just like for chuuya lol ugh) but he's TERRIBLE at coping with his trauma #and it only gets more apparent once shit hit the fan in the doa/hunting dogs/meursault arc #it's not good!!! i'm worried for kunikida too!!!! #even if the manga isn't focusing on this these worries are always in the back of my mind man #both kunikida and chuuya are doomed to hit some kind of breaking point eventually and i await those moments with dread yet anticipation #i want dazai to be able to save kunikida from the despair being too good a person brings the way he couldn't save oda #and chuuya.... if we get a scene with him & mori mirroring the one in dark era where dazai finds out that mori orchestrated the kids' death #oh man i think i'll fucking die (give it to me i need to cry)

[wifiwuxians]

mm yum yummy yang in my tummy

feel like this might be a little too raw (haha) for my audience here but it's one of my favorite pieces of this year so. here it is... i couldn't get the angle to work if song lan's outer robe stayed on so hot scuffle it is

loss of control and despair are so sexy to me (when applied correctly) so whatever sinister scenario you wanna apply here is fine with me!

#xue yang #song lan #yi city #mdzs #blood #gore #cannibalism #putting those community labels to good use #my art #deboning was too tame #xy&sl #<- NOT that this is cute and kind at all but yknow jic

[spotaus]

Had a bunch of Doppletale ideas during my shower so I'm putting then under the Cut!

1) Kale stays underground for a really long time (<- That one's already established. It's like, 6-7 years I believe?) But I think that it's drawn out so long because, not only is K terrified (rightfully so) but Sans is also *extremely* hesitant to tell K about the rest of the underground. Like, he explains if she outright asks him, he wouldn't lie, but even then he cautions her with the most grave explanation when she asks about going past Waterfall for the first time. The further away from Snowdin she ventures, the less he can ensure she's safe. He's honestly terrified for the day she goes to see Asgore. He knows he'll have to Judge her, and that he'll have to accompany her to Asgore, and the last time he escorted someone to the barrier he snapped and killed them just before reaching the king. No matter how many years she's been around and how much better he gets with physical contact, he's so afraid he'll lose himself in that Judgement Hall again.

2) The barrier is fundamentally misunderstood by the monsters of the underground. They believe that to pass the barrier, Monsters must eat Humans and become 'human-like' to escape. This came about after Chara fell and the royal family adopted them. Chara was only a human child, and back then no one was starving. The royal family had recently had Asriel, so when Chara came to them, they thought the best way to teach their son to transform was to have a real human to mimic. Chara was off-limits for meals, and they grew up alongside Asriel as his sibling. Then one day Chara fell ill (ran out of human-food) and Asriel insisted that they go to the surface to get Chara more food. No one saw the whole story. How Chara was coughing blood as they exited the barrier, abd how they were holding Asriel's hand as he slipped through right behind them, disguised as a human child. The monsters had assumed that Asriel ate Chara and escaped the barrier. When Asriel returned to the underground, it was months later, and he only came back because he'd been spotted as a "changeling" by the villagers and had been attacked, separated from Chara and the family he'd been staying with. He "died" inside the barrier, unable to explain how he'd escaped in the first place. (He takes the form of Chara often when he's Flowey if only because it's one of the few faces he remembers.) So, the monsters assumed they had to be perfectly human by consuming more humans to escape. They're wrong. (It actually takes a human putting trust into a monster to give them the chance to cross, and the monster has to view the human as something other than food. As an equal. So, for the barrier to break, the entire underground has to recognize, on some level, that a human is more than food.)

3) Ghost Monsters don't eat Humans, and therefore are the most sane monsters underground by far. All four ghost-monsters were haunting objects that were held onto by humans that had been killed by the monsters, and ended up trapped underground by accident. The only time Ghost Monsters pose a threat is when they try to possess a human. The Ruins Ghost inhabits a dummy (one that's unsettlingly human-shaped that looks like it's been gnawed on by the ruins monsters quite a bit) and it has no intention of harming humans, though it will occasionally appear behind humans or in corners without warning. Napstablook is actually harmless, but wails and cries like a tortured soul. The only thing that calms him is his music. Mad Dummy ends up being the most dangerous Ghost to humans, but much like ruins dummy he inhabits a strange human-anatomy dummy in the waste-dump. He desperately wants a human to possess so he can pass the barrier and escape his wrongful imprisonment. Lastly MTT is obviously still in his robot-body, but as a monster who stays sane while Alphys goes insane, as Sans leaves, as everyone around him starves, he stays adamant that he has to look out for those who aren't able to care for themselves. (In this AU he's never Box shaped.)

3.5) MTT hosts the radio underground. After Alphys damaged him with a trap, he decided that he couldn't bring himself to be on-screen. Instead he uses Alphys' camera system to broadcast a sort of news-station to all the radios in the underground. He's the Star of the underground, and a lot of monsters would claim that MTT was the only reason they didn't lose sanity already. His daily broadcasts always had something new, even after countless years, as his voice was calming and friendly, something monsters didn't have enough of. His very last broadcast is one where he announces it's his last broadcast, because the Barrier is broken. (I also think he'd eventually offer to endorse K to the underground citizens, which has a lot more sway than anyone expects in making Monsters not want to immediately devour K.) (Maybe he's even on the radio when/before K has to speak with Asgore, to take calls from the underground asking opinions on "the Kindness Soul" roaming the underground, and it's a shocking amount of Positivity that they get in response???)

3.6) On the surface, MTT would genuinely become some sort of influencer online. He'd probably love to do Storytimes or Vlogs, and have like a d.i.y. channel. He uses this popularity he gains to slowly but surely change the public opinion on monsters (at least some of them) and help advocate for them to not be ostracized. With advancements in tech, he wouldn't be immediately grouped with the monsters when appearing, so as someone from "outside" either side of the drama and such a positive force he could gather some support. (However, Papyrus and Blooky remain his #1 fans no matter how many new ones he gains.)

And finally, @oodlesndoodles because I promised I'd @ them, and Ood is the designer of Kale/K, the human mentioned for Doppletale's True Pacifist route!

#utmv #oc #utmv sans #utmv au #doppletale #dopple!sans #pretender!sans #pretender #kale #kale estrella #k #dopple!kindness #sans #alphys #flowey #undertale au #cannibalism tw #tw cannibalism #tw body horror #death tw #tw death #tw possession #I had to post these or I'd forget lol #also unrelated but Paps still loves MTT (but his radio show now) and when K gets rlly hurt in the Lab it's the reason the two meet #and I'm thinking they're unironically really good friends after everything when they're on the surface because MTT can help Paps adjust to #human trends a lot faster than Pretender or K could. this has the backlash of Papyrus saying things like 'spill the tea' and 'girly-pop' !

[andrew-nobody]

Don't die to the illness! Hope you feel better soon

Thank you, anon. I need soup. Meat and vegetables.

You know the kind.

#tcoaal #andrew graves #the coffin of andy and leyley #jk ive never had That Kind of meat that actually was well-cooked and tasted good #i’m the worst cannibal ever #anon

[andthebeanstalk]

The cool thing about a horror movie that takes place in a mental hospital and, shockingly, actually turns out to be on the side of mentally ill people is that it avoids all the common disgusting pitfalls of mocking, demonizing, and infantilizing mentally ill people.

The downside is

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

[It's much scarier.]

#original #smile movie #smile 2022 #I'm literally two scenes in #it could definitely become ableist by the end of the movie but I'm kind of obsessed so far? #like nothing is scarier to me than the lack of quality help and validation available to victims of trauma! and this movie is LEANING INTO IT #which is way scarier and also way truer and more important to talk about than a looney bin filled with lunatics who want to murder you #like that's literally a concept based solely on people's ableist fears. #same with horror movie monsters that are just people with facial deformities or congenital disorders or just... people who are poor #(the hillbilly cannibal trope is just MAN POOR PEOPLE ARE SCARY HUH. it's garbage.) #what's ACTUALLY a horror is the way these people are treated! and that INCLUDES how they are portrayed in media! #because guess what? ghosts aren't real and an abandoned mental hospital can't hurt you #but you know what can? a doctor who doesn't believe you. a system built on neglect. THAT'S the horror we need to talk about. #and THAT is why I am going to have to watch this movie in short installments over a few days #and let me be clear: i am alive today bc of a mental hospital's IOP/PHP program. i stopped being suicidal after YEARS bc of that program #mental hospitals CAN and SHOULD be GOOD THINGS ACTUALLY. but in countries with shitty healthcare that's very hard to find. #it is also why it is my life's work to build a treatment center that PROVES we can do this ethically and with compassion #life is worth living #and the American Healthcare industry can die just the same as any other giant or dragon. empires have fallen before. it is not immortal. #YOU reading this matter. stay safe. please. it isn't the end yet. i love you.

[fslurusami]

you know how sometimes theres some popular character and most of the fanstuff is mostly accurate on the surface but you personally have some lived experience shared w this character that enables you to have a deeper understanding of little nuances under the hood that inform things like their decision making and stuff. its on a sliding scale of accuracy of course. personally i mostly get this with my mental disorders with characters such as ogata but sometimes theres LITTLE TINY THINGS that bother me about specifically the various violence related fetishes. and the fact that it bothers me itself bothers me cuz i feel like. "oh Clearly you havent received or inflicted wounds for sexual pleasure". yes obviously they havent done that. nobody else does that. i am abnormal in nature and insane in the head

#obviously not Rlly nobody else im well aware. but it is uncommon. and it doesnt Rlly bother me but i can often tell #yes ienaga vore jokes are funny but i dont think shes into vore based on what we see of her character and attitudes towards cannibalism #however. usami and tsurumi 100% are. tsurumis gay little speech in that scene would not be out of place on a vore sideblog thats EXACTLY #how certain ppl talk about it. thats literally It. tsurumi tokushirou invented vore in 1907 #thats just the most clear cut and easily explainable example i think but there are so many little bits of tiny nuance idek #there are different attitudes of course but i feel like ienaga doesnt rlly feel any Connection to eating ppl and sure there are ocs and #little stories or scenarios about the pred just being like 'yea its just food' cuz some preys find that rlly hot but. irl there arent rlly #any of that kind of pred cuz if they dont care then. they dont care lol. like they dont Care about vore. so theyre not into vore. u know #so i think shes not into vore sexually and such shes literally just here for medicinal purposes or w/e. but that is just my opinion idk #sorry for vore essay in the tags i am autistic 👍 those deviantart stamps are not ironic they are a Warning #if anybody like. cares about being 1/5th of a mm off in their depiction of masochism or smthng i will answer questions. but be prepared for #me to get at least this ^^^ autistic about it. i dont have a phd in masochism but i can at least say with certainty that i have never #said 'it hurts so good' in real life. the full sentence like that is just a little cheesy in my opinion. 'it hurts' usually speaks 4 itself #og post

[maegalkarven]

Obsessed with the new idea for Levi.

After killing Raphael in the House of Hope he:

1) Eats Raphael's heart

2) Takes out his eyes. Replaces his blind right eye with Raphael's and hides the left one in a little magically enchanted box.

This will: change Levi even more than he is already changed and will give him a weird dive into Raphael's memories, i.e. seeing everything the eye he uses has seen. Also he can use the other eye as a spying device, a scrying eye of his own invention.

#dark urge: levi #dark urge #durge #bg3 #levi is very into change through violent actions: he is a good shapeshifter because of his druid abilities #and bhaalspawn legacy #he would make the eye work and properly connect to his nerves #orin destroyed his own right eye? time to fix it #also eating Raphael's heart will have Consequences #levi got the idea from being a natural cannibal and knowing archfiends often eat their children after their death #(Mephistopheles canonically eats Raphael's body after you beat him in the HoH) #levi just...takes some essential parts with himself #also very levi kind of thing #he is unapologetic raw meat eater. oh and a cannibal yeaglh #yeah* #these new features would help a lot in his quest to kill Zariel #(and maybe other achdevils but shhh)

[nerosdayinanime]

kny x tokyo ghoul au

was thinking abt following tokyo ghoul's storyline and making nezuko get organ donor ghoul-ified like kaneki but on second thought that seems a bit boring. the slayer marks (tanjiro's specifically- that one frame in the red light district arc where he looks like hes absolutely lost it) made me think of the sort of insanity thing with centipede kaneki when he started eating ghouls. (nezuko's bout of literally losing control of herself beating daki is probably a bit closer tho) dont know what to do with that. tanjiro being human and having to keep nezuko safe with her new life as a half-ghoul is pretty cool but i dont know. could make it different

#sakonji as coffee shop owner and sabito & giyuu as workers and the fox squad being the underground Good Ghouls makes me kick my feet #goth/alt vibe makomo as the mask maker MWAH and sabito & giyuu playing as regular college kids. giyuu 'eating' out with friends and #sabito drive-by eating his food before booking it (Sabito-! you bastard!) and later when theyre alone giyuu holding his hair back #(you should stop eating my food all the time..) ((im fine- as long as it makes it easier on you)) #tanjiro working as a server & nezuko more as #. #i forgot hanae-san also voiced Kaneki #what the fuck is it with him and voicing the main characters of anime about the morality of cannibalism #its not much but its weird that its happened twice #i completely fucking forgot abt that and here i am literally putting tanjiro in his place #as i was saying nezuko has a 'job' there but shes not actually employed or forced to work she just hangs around in uniform like her brother #while tanjiro's the one thats employed. shes the cute mascot of the place and sabito gets hype with her and it entertains ppl #sabito nezuko interactions beloved<3 she makes him go big brother mode #giyuu's behind the counter helping sakonji make coffee so he doesnt have to interact with people (as much) #something something also half-ghoul genya being an antagonist at first until tanjiro & nezuko's bond makes him change his mind #and he becomes the newest employee at the coffee shop. que him and sabito bickering at eachother like children and tanjiro being so #sweetfaced and genuinely kind to him & giyuu being a chill comforting presence he can go to #confides in them his fear about his brother and the guilt he feels for being around them bc it puts them in danger #mm #sweet au. great playing field to ruin absolutely everyone #i should rewatch/read tokyo ghoul its been almost a year i think #do that then decide how i want the au to play out if i want it to try to follow that storyline or if i should do some worldbuilding fuckery #of my own instead to completely change how nezuko & genya's half-ghoulness would happen #i remember i dropped tokyo ghoulre but i dont remember why. didnt bother after that Hide scene in the anime but i dont remember y the manga #i was listening to Seijatachi for writing vibes and stared a bit too long at the album image i put #kny #tokyo ghoul #kamado tanjiro #kamado nezuko #kny x tokyo ghoul au

[plaguethewaters]

okay no i am still going insane about this actually. tubbo ripping dreams chest open woth his own hands and tommy eating his fucking heart so that nobody can revive him. everyone is watching everyone is Witnessing yet nothing is done to stop them they are in the right and isnt it such a horrible fucking thing?

sapnap is watching from the sidelines and he is so so so conflicted. that is was his best friend he should be horrified he should cry but he can do nothing. Because tommy doesnt have his wings and tubbos face is horribly mangled. Because the first thing dream did seeing them is hurt them more because the real actual tommy he knows was cowering in a corner. Because whoever these beasts are the dream they know did this and they are the very same. Because despite everything George still isnt there. He is alone and his world is shattered under bloody teeth.

#cannibalism #nova aus #plague speaks #i honestly dont know if i want to yake This serious #but like it would be so good. so fucking good #i do want them to eat his heart dw i just dont know how dramatic i want it to be #especially since like three scenes later is beeduo makeout and bb mike #well see some kind of heaven

[cquackity]

impression of you b4: Scary, Cool

impression now: kind of like a dog but in a cool way, good doctor autism

- @qjaiden

the good doctor wishes he had my autistic charm and doglike swagger

#THANK YOU TRINKET <3 #my first impression of you was Woah it had a cannibal gf. that's wils #wild* #my second impression of you was that youre very kind and funny :) and a good friend to everyone you meet #thes answers #ask game

[daz4i]

guess who recorded 3~ish of his songs (sort of) (kind of) (more like, how i want/plan them to sound if i could actually produce them somehow lol) (but that’s still a lot compared to nothing!!!!) 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

#also one of them was already dazaicore imo from the lyrics alone - #- but making it kind of fun but with underlying sadness made it even more so. imo #also finally put my unfinished cannibalism song in audio lol or at least what i have of it 😳 so i don't forget! #(he says as if it doesn't get stuck in his head on a weekly basis. which i think is a good sign!) #look at me.. actually creating..... who'd have thought..

[bellincurl]

Maybe I'm just desensitized from dealing with like cptsd probably ocd neurotic soup unchecked for my whole life and finding ways to just phase out the chatter of it but seeing ppl here talk abt moral ocd and stuff in a way where they refuse to be reminded of racism or anything is baffling to me. Like I don't get how that's helpful for you, instead of separating thoughts and morals from yourself and your actions you're just going oh no my religious ocd is triggered when ppl talk about me having privilege or benefitting from systemic oppression so therefore I'm never going to interact with marginalized people who talk about it ect ect ect. Or proship ppl being like it's too hard to take a stance against incest and age gap ships so they're just no holds bars for it now. Like again maybe I'm being mean, being online is hard I do think the way ppl talk is especially triggering for ocd and the whole born good born bad self flaggelation for forgiveness stuff never be wrong takes especially eat at me but they are symptoms ultimately and letting it box you out from ways you can actually genuienly improve as a person feels wildly unhelpful to me. Sitting with guilt and understanding what is real harm thats been done by you and actual bad things you believed and what is the brain chatter is crucial.

#ig it's just that unpacking that and ingrained beliefs and the urge to be centered and coddled is #something you have to be doing regardless and i kind of jsut cant respect not doing that #like i care abt ballroom there is a ballroom scene here and my ruminations can play up on anything like #i absolutely cannot engage with the ballroom scene here its not a space for pakeha reslly and i dont want to come off as a white drag race #fan who isnt aware of privilege and wants to be inserted everywhere egotist ect maybe even being into drag at all is problematic ill never #understand ballroom bc i didnt go thru enough and bc im white and z and x and x #and like THAT is disordered thinking that is feedjng off scraps of white fragility and online discourse #but there is truth that the scene here is intimate and new and primarily for maori and pacific and takatapui and that is how it needs to be #like i hope im not wildly off base. idw be one of those ppl who are like just found out abt opression im going to make myself the singular #voice and educator on it coughing at breadtube phenomena kinda thing right right right #like just white ppl bouncing obvious things they just learned back and forth to feel more progressive #i just think ocd isnt a good reason to feed into the left cannibalizes itself cant say anything these days isms of it all and the like #ohhh ur a puritan bc u think cp is bad parts of the net #my self analyzing and ruminations are a thin line but it has genuienly improved me to understand that #your shame and guilt whether it's rational or disordered or not isn't the center of the world and does not need to be coddled #anyway LMAO it did spend 5 hours writing this bc it is disordered and got stuck on it #long post

[mothram]

#diana's music diary #good evening i've kind of been a bit less online today so sorry this was late U^_^U;; #yesterday was good though lancer was really fun! my character ophelia got evidence that the ship they're on is filled with rich cannibals #she already felt sick at the idea of it but then she got to see the kitchen up close when they were recording evidence which made it worse #today i feel tired (but not sleepy tired if u get me)... kind of stressed and not feeling the best hence the not being around as much... #I want to write and do some other things but I don't know if I can do anything today with my brain still like this :( #let's try to make today as good as we can?

[koruga]

I'm just thinking about like...Greek myth again. And Disney's version of Beauty and the Beast, and how that comes from Psyche and Eros and now I'm using it for Patroclus and Achilles -- mixed in with a bit of Little Mermaid, some Sleeping Beauty, a bit of a lot of things.

I know. I know. but bear with me.

Set in an even-more-fantasy version of Greece, mostly decoupled from the Epic Cycle's canon, the marriage of Peleus and Thetis ended a bit differently (and also happened earlier okay shh). Instead of fomenting chaos with an apple, Eris took out her frustrations more directly, and cursed the marriage she was banned from.

They don't expect much, everything seems fine, but seven years after their son is born, a terrible storm ravages Phthia -- ravages much of the peninsula, really. (This storm may or may not be the result of even more Eris Bullshit.) Much of the land is drowned, and soon what once was the Achaean mainland is more like the Cyclades -- a bunch of islands in a vast ocean.

Peleus dies. Most people die, in fact. Thetis, as a Nereid, survives, but her son is drowning and she has no time to make him a god, so she uses a dangerous magic to allow him to live in the sea, merging him with a shark and granting him something like eternal life.

She's a goddess, and her divine power does let Achilles live. But this boy, this child, is forever transformed, and in his terror and rage attacks his mother, and anyone who comes near him. Thetis is pulled away by her sisters, and Achilles is abandoned, alone, and scared.

It's a vicious curse he has. Craving flesh and companionship equally, unable to fully get comfortable on land or in sea. Thetis, from afar, eventually builds her son a half-submerged palace on the island that once was Mount Pelion, with companionship in the wise centaur Chiron, one of the few who survived the flood.

Chiron has to be gentle with his new associate. He teaches Achilles how to fish and prepare food, and how to hunt what game survives on the island without allowing any species to die out. Achilles matures somewhat, from a terrified child into a petulant teenager into something resembling a young man, but he's not a young man. He's a monster, and his mind is irrevocably changed.

Fast forward a few generations.

Society is rebuilding itself, slowly. The waters have hardly receded, but humanity has survived, albeit without the glorious kingdoms of the past. The island chain of Pindos cradles several communities, and a culture has emerged of 'divers,' explorers who go down into the depths below to try and reclaim what was lost. It's a dangerous job, considering the monsters that lurk beneath the depths -- the Pyrisous is the most dangerous one of all, an enormous man-like monster who devours foolish mortals whole.

Patroclus is not one of these divers. He's the son of a local chief, kept around despite his temper and the murder he committed as a child because it's hard to afford losing anybody, even a liability like him. He's big and strong, and put to work with building and fishing, anything that keeps him from talking to people for too long.

He chafes at the loneliness, but he can't say it's unwarranted. His father's influence is the only reason he wasn't sent out on a raft to die, and he knows it. He keeps his temper reined in and tries not to be too much trouble, but he wants to be loved. He wants to be cared for, and appreciated.

So it goes that when a small fleet of ships from across the ocean come, people from Troy offering their assistance in whatever matters, Patroclus throws himself into one-upping them. He fishes harder to get his people food, he erects entire buildings by himself, and when the leader of the party, Hector, floats the idea of sending people out to try and deal with the Pyrisous, Patroclus takes a ship and sets sail himself, armed with a harpoon and some rations.

It doesn't go well. His ship wrecks in a storm, and Patroclus barely survives long enough to wash up on the shore of Pelion. He's scraggly and sopping wet, and Achilles would just eat him, but Chiron's been rather sad lately, and perhaps the company would be good for the centaur. (He tries not to eat people if he can help it. Chiron's always so disappointed when he does that.)

Patroclus is deeply confused when he wakes up in a limestone palace, a centaur off to the side of him firmly reprimanding what looks like a man...or a shark...or something, who's half submerged in a pool that seems to stretch along half the room. His first intention is to flee, to run away instantly, but his ankle is twisted and there's nowhere he can go, really, not without a boat.

He doesn't know how to build a boat.

Back at home, Menoetius is freaking out about losing his son. It's his son, after all -- they didn't always see eye to eye, and of course there was resentment, but despite the seeming opinion of much of the island, he didn't want his child to die! Hector and the Trojan contingent overhear, and offer to go looking for him. They need to head out soon anyway, in order to hunt some of the monsters killing the people of the islands.

The relationship between Achilles and Patroclus is deeply contentious at first. Of course it is -- why wouldn't it be? Each one wanted to kill the other at one point, and they're both extremely bad at hiding that fact. Chiron is practically the only thing that can keep them in the same room. On the other hand, Achilles is obsessed with Patroclus's appearance, his deep human-ness after decades and decades of being away from humanity, and Patroclus guiltily enjoys the company of someone who doesn't judge him for his past actions, who doesn't know his history.

I don't know how long they're together for, learning about each other, discovering things about themselves. Achilles is reticent to share stories about his past, and what Patroclus offers is highly sanitised, but they come to understand more about each other than they've ever understood themselves.

And then the Trojan contingent comes, heavy with spears and weaponry to defend the people. And Patroclus very quickly needs to make a decision about what he believes in, and who he trusts.

#DC talks #DC writes #Patroclus #Achilles #Patrochilles #just to be clear #Hector is a good guy in this #he is making a reasonable assessment of the situation based on the information he has available #and he's not wrong! #achilles is kind of a monster in this! #he's cut down on his cannibalism a lot since when he was younger #but he's still kind of a monster #he doesn't cause the storms though

[llycaons]

tgcf if hc was inspired by xl not just to save a bunch of random human's lives but also to extend his love for xl beyond just one person and to like....actively work towards a better world and extend compassion and protection to marginalized humans because he remembers what it was like to be a hated and powerless child and he wants to do for others what xl did for him...tgcf if xl confronts hc on his actions for real and held him accountable....instead he's. again. personally benefiting from human trafficking ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#spare themes and messages ma'am?? spare meaningful character development???? #'he was nice to guzi!' cool. how many years of women's lives did he take as gambles #and don't even bring up guzi for an example of ANYTHING related to good writing because his arc was the most nonsensical and bizarre of all #what kind of arc to write a child cared for by a cannibal who constantly swears and screams at him and threatens him #and have that child prefer this guy to like. any other caretaker. what the fuck #tgcf donghua lb