Shadowhome

Late Night Doodle: A Gift for the Grim Reaper

Shadow and Bone S01E01- about a skiff:

- That looks new. ~ Brand-new. Grisha call it ultralight. Made by their own Fabrikators. It's supposed to be faster.

... so how come they didn't try to take transportation to another level, and fly?

No gliders, no flying SHIPS, no aircraft until one genius otkazat'sya swoops down to save them all.

Materialki can literally perform alchemy?! Jesper has been shown to redirect bullets; why is this not something that is more widely spread? Even if certain Materialki are specialized, whether by self-imposed limits or preference, what they can do within those limits is insane!

Etherealki got kneecapped so hard. Literally any bender in the AtLA universe could kick their ass six ways to Sunday. They should be able to do all of that. (AtLA has given me standards, okay)

Corporalki aren't able to regrow limbs and make artificial organs by this point? Why isn't there a MASSIVE line of willing human test subjects for medical procedures? How do they get away with only being able to operate on line-of-sight?

✩ Gut-punches are about timing. You don't say “I love you” during the sunset. You say it in the middle of a burning building or right after they stab you.

✩ A single line of dialogue like “you were supposed to come back” hits harder than an entire page of poetic mourning.

✩ Don’t just break their hearts, break their sense of identity. Make them question who they are, what they stand for, and if it was ever worth it (That’s premium pain.)

✩ Let someone be forgiven… but not trusted again. That's the kind of heartbreak that lingers like smoke.

✩ Sometimes the most devastating line is the one they don’t say. Silence is a character too.

✩ Give them a moment of joy. Right before everything falls apart. Hope makes the fall hurt more.

✩ Someone saying “I forgive you” through tears? Powerful. Someone saying “I still love you but I can’t stay”? Absolutely soul-shattering.

Give me villains who are soft for one person. Just one. And that’s their entire Achilles’ heel.

Give me villains who don’t monologue. Who don’t explain. Who just smile and pull the trigger.

Turning on and off the safety of their gun. Tapping and spinning their dagger. Watching the poison in the vial move as they flip in and then back.

Nobody says anything because...well they're an assassin.

Turns on safety, presses trigger, turns off safety repeat.

People around them are in constant fear.

Chewing the end of their poison tipped dagger when they try to figure out a plan.

Wash their hands too much cause they don't like how sticky blood is.

However overtime it becomes a weird single to others.

Everyone is anxious trying to figure something out and they hear a little "click click" and it's just slightly calming to know that they have this person there and they are thinking of a plan.

Someone hands them a drink but it flows just a little too weird and they are like, "hmm that's poison" then chuck it because they have built up immunity.

No table that doesn't have something carved into it.

Never a situation where they don't have enough bullets because this person takes out the cartridge and puts it back as stim.

They take apart their guns and put them back over time being crazy fast and efficient with it.

also me after posting a fic *refreshes ao3 every five minutes*

'Yes, ma'am?'

'Source of family pride, that.'

'Yes, ma'am.'

'Quite a few have died in other people's of course.'

Captain Vimes's teacup rattled in its saucer. 'Yes, ma'am,' he said."

But in the books after that (and particularly by the time you get to Going Postal)? There’s barely a Vetinari scene without him, and there's a major increase in the number of scenes with just the two of them. Suddenly Drumknott is whispering information - and even corrections - in Vetinari’s ear, Vetinari is monologuing to him about philosophy and asking for his opinion, they're doing a double-act to keep visitors on their toes during meetings. They're a team, not just a politician and his secretary.

And I'm thinking about how, after the events of The Truth, Vetinari must have dug for the details on everything that happened. And he must have learned, either from the Watch or Drumknott himself, that Drumknott saw a man who looked like Vetinari attack him, and still argued for Vetinari’s innocence in the incident. That Drumknott chose to distrust the evidence of his own eyes before he would even consider distrusting Vetinari.

How rare must that be, for one of the most powerful political figures on the continent? To have earned that sort of loyalty and trust from someone, that the thought of betrayal never even crossed his mind?