#( ever since she was young )

[a-most-beloved-fool]

Kira has a nightmare, one night when she's staying at the O'Brien's. Miles and Keiko, sleeping in the other room, don't hear her get up - but Molly does.

And Molly, being clever and kind, knows exactly what to do when someone has a nightmare. (Or, at least, she knows what her parents always do for her.) So she sits Kira down and brings her a glass of warm milk, and sits by her side as she drinks it.

Then, she takes Kira by the hand and leads her - to her parents bedroom. "I always sleep with mommy and daddy after a nightmare," she explains, when Kira stops outside the door. "It helps! Mommy chases the scary things away. And Daddy is warm."

"Molly," Kira says quietly, a little embarrassed, "I don't think your parents want me in their bed. Even if I did have a nightmare."

"No, they won't mind!" Molly assures.

Then, of course, Miles wakes up.

"Molly?" he asks, voice rough with sleep. "Did you have a nightmare?"

"No, but Miss Kira did!"

And now Keiko's awake, too, sitting up and saying, "Nerys? Are you alright?"

Mortified, Kira says, "Yes, I'm fine, I was just - on my way back to bed. Molly brought me here. I'm - sorry for waking you. I'll just be-"

"You can stay, if you want," Miles offers.

Kira doesn't quite think she heard him right. "What?"

"You can sleep here, if you think it might help," Keiko says.

"Or even if you don't!" Miles adds.

Kira opens her mouth, then closes it again. "I, uh-"

Keiko gets up, and takes Kira, gently, by the hand. Her palm is soft, Kira can't help but notice.

"Brr, it's freezing out here!" Keiko says, tugging Kira along. "You'd better get in before you catch your death of cold. Miles is practically a furnace, so you'll be nice and warm with us."

"And, Molly, you'd best go back to bed, too. You've got school in the morning," Miles says, as Keiko bundles Kira into the bed between them.

As Molly makes her way out, Keiko swings a lazy arm over Kira's back. "Sleep," she hums. "We'll be here in the morning."

Kira, feeling warm and cared for and more than a little overwhelmed, does.

[backpackingspace]

Okay so with the line "the olive tree where we first met" we have two equal hilarious options.

When penelope was sassily like oh I'll marry you if you make a living bed out of this tree right here! Cue penelope stumbling over odysseus very very carefully digging up the tree "because how else is he going to get it to itacha we can't have a wedding bed out in the open in sparta duh"

Or

2. Penelope, knowing that Helen's suitors would soon be arriving to take over her home for a while. Snuck out and went on her own wacky shenanigan filled journey where she scoped out all the major players. Odysseus caught her spying in an olive tree. And when she got back she told Helen she had dibs on the cutie from itacha.

[otaku553]

More reluctant king sabo au! I realized recently that this au is an excellent excuse for drawing sabo in pretty outfits that he would be absolutely miserable in :)

[just-your-average-tangerine]

Was forced to watch a truly incredible (derogatory) thing recently.

A young person on twitter, adamant that transandrophobia doesn't exist on the grounds that 'no one is killing/raping/assaulting trans men'.

Several people responded, including some linking articles about murders and assaults on trans men and a couple op-ed style pieces of trans men talking about their own experiences.

Said young person responded with "I'm not reading those its triggering and I'm a minor"

So let me see if I've got this correct, you are knowingly refuse to acknowledge reality because it's upsetting to you and then you're going to turn around and deny that very reality because you refuse to acknowledge it because it's upsetting?

[wheretheresawyll]

Wyll: A deal's a deal. But I didn't know I'd have to watch my own father die. Mizora: And here I'd thought you'd be grateful for the final good-bye. [x] Head Study of Young Man (Venetian School, 18th century) || Pallas and the Centaur (Botticelli, 1482)

[quillkiller]

all im saying is ive never seen someone criticize those marylily or dorlily fanart/fics where they’re harrys mothers and theres no james in sight

[esmeamesart]

‘Bet they never spared a prayer for my soul’

- Cassandra , Taylor Swift

Cassandra from fantasy high. Her relationship with Kristen makes me oughhhahhhhggbhh

[crosshairslongasslegs]

this isn’t adult ahsoka. this is the face of little snips from clone wars looking at her master for the first time in forever

[sing-me-under]

I have unintentionally developed this whole post-Vol 2/pre-flashpoint timeline for Booster Gold and his little time travel family. There are three major components:

Rip Hunter is not around anymore. He’s not dead, obviously, but it’s reached a point in their personal timelines where they’re meant to separate. Rip can’t mentor the younger version of his dad forever nor should he. Booster has learned everything he needs to know from Rip, and now it’s time to part ways and make their own choices without the future influencing them. While Booster does occasionally come across younger and less experienced versions of Rip Hunter, all future Rips have effectively disappeared. Now separated, Booster sets up his own base elsewhere.

Booster and Michelle raise Rani in Neo-Gotham. Specifically the early 22nd century. This is Neo-Gotham at the end of Terry’s Batman career. It is more or less implied that sometime in the 22nd century, a nuclear war breaks out and gives way to the next dark ages. You can’t leave traces/ripples if they’re wiped from existence. Booster is still active in the 21st century by virtue of being an established hero there, but once keeping up appearances is over, he returns to the 22nd. Michelle stays in the 22nd century and just lives her life there.

Booster’s mystery future wife is Trixie Collins. After reuniting at some nebulous future date and going through a whole crisis together, Trixie can’t go back to her (unfulfilling) life, so Booster moves her to the 22nd century. At some point, she and Booster decide to act on the chemistry from their early years, and Rip is unintentionally conceived. Booster decides to retire from the 21st century hero scene, and they get married. But pretty early on, they realize that they’re not really romantically interested in each other. It’s partly acknowledgement of comphet society and that they’re both decidedly on the far side of the Kinsey Scale and also Booster is more or less too traumatized to truly emotionally connect to another person anymore. Booster and Trixie are still on good terms, so they stay married (and eventually come to consider each other best friends). And by virtue of being married, Trixie ends up getting more involved in Booster’s time cop thing and starts handling his logistics. They make a great team.

So from here, my brain came up with the following scenario:

Rani wants to become a superhero.

Rani-centric story idea under the cut. This one really got away from me.

The 22nd century is absolutely not a good time to get into heroics, and Rani knows that. That’s exactly why Booster chose it.

Rani has her own super power set, but it's not combat oriented. But there is this desire baked into her soul, so she takes a page (a whole chapter, really) from Booster Gold’s book. She steals a power suit and a time sphere and… doesn’t quite succeed as planned.

Instead of 1990s Metropolis, Rani finds herself in mid-21st century Gotham, the height of the legacy generation of heroes. Much to Rani's annoyance, Booster asked Nightwing and a not-quite-yet-retired Batman to keep an eye on her. It's mostly to prevent anyone else from solidly putting together that "Gold Star" is the infamous Booster Gold's daughter. Having the Bats' backing also means Rani isn't just plopped into the world with no legal records or emergency contacts.

Rani's story is mostly hijinks and heroics.

She's a D-list hero who frequently finds herself teaming up with other heroes, but she struggles to connect with any teams.

She keeps running into Legionnaires investigating some sort of intricate time travel plot and finds herself fighting alongside them to save the world. Unlike the 21st century heroes, Rani does connect with the 31st century heroes.

Sometimes, Rani also gets caught up in the Carter family business and gets swept away on a few time traveling adventurers with characters like Gold Beetle, a younger Rip Hunter (and Jack Soo), and even her baby brother, Junior.

In her downtime, Rani works part-time and does a few odd jobs here and there. Her saving grace is that she doesn't have to pay rent since she "inherited" Booster's townhouse.

Specific plot points include:

Booster's old JLI teammates immediately recognizing that Rani is Booster's daughter. They are equal parts glad that he's out there somewhere just living well instead of dead in a ditch, forgotten, and also hurt that Booster never introduced his family to them and that they had to find out from his teenage daughter.

In Time Masters: Vanishing Point #5, Booster warps their home to the end of time in order to lose the time assassins that had been chasing them. Time pirates also got to Rani in order to get the location of Vanishing Point from her, but she doesn't know it since Booster (with Trixie and Junior) abandoned the 22nd century shortly after Rani left. While the Carters frequently visit Rani, Rani doesn't have the means to visit them.

Rani overcomes her avoidance of the 31st century in order to save the world. While there, she becomes an official reserve member of the Legion. She returns to the 21st century anyway, not yet ready to give up on it.

Give me the Booster Gold: Convergence plot line, and Rani has to deal with the aftermath.. or maybe just ignore the whole Convergence thing and straight up rip off the time cancer subplot. Booster is bouncing through time uncontrollably, and Rani , Michelle, and an older Rip are chasing him down until they end up in the 90s (Rani finally gets a glimpse of the 90s and is disappointed) and find Booster in Ted's lab. Rani takes the place of N52 Booster in this. Everyone goes to Vanishing Point, and Booster transforms into Waverider. That has some wildly angsty potential.

The time cancer plot ends with Waverider returning everyone to their intended times. There's no universe-shattering crisis this time, so it's more like Waverider just isn't fully in-tune with his powers yet and fixed the anomalies by instinct rather than intent. It does mean that Rani finds herself in the 31st century and needs to be rescued from a dead planet and her own panic attack by the Legion.

Rani, fully attached to the Legion of Superheroes, officially-officially joins their group and decides to permanently stay in the 31st century as a hero.

Other notes:

There are also some implications that Booster may be nudging events in certain directions to keep the flow of time steady. Unbeknowst to Rani, Booster pre-programmed a different year and location for her to land in and disguised it as a glitch. He may or may have also arranged for some run-ins between her and some Legionnaires.

There’s a little hint at an abandoned Rani-centric plot thread towards the end of Vol 2. My guess is that there was supposed to be a 31st century arc for Booster Gold where he'd earn the trust and friendship of Braniac 5. I'm also guessing that Rani, who is shown to be a literal super genius, is more important than initially believed. She was probably supposed to be returned to the 31st century to fullfil some sort of essential role and subsequently not be adopted by the Carters because DC is allergic to happy parent-child relationships. I will be ignoring this guess.

Rani still has PTSD from Daxam's destruction and suffers from anxiety in her day-to-day. While she should have been returned to her intended place in the 31st century, she was too distressed by 1) being unadopted by Booster and 2) being in the time Daxam was destroyed and Emerald Empress is lose. Altogether, it was decided that Rani would stay with Booster and Michelle (and Rip as well, at the time). Either way, Rani refused to step foot in the 31st century, so Booster only ever brought his son of the two to visit Brainiac. Rani's knowledge of the Legion is restricted to what Booster and Junior have told her.

[ceiling-karasu]

I was discussing Korean shamanism with @agotia-t after they introduced Hanbam, and this encouraged me to finally draw my White-Naped Crane shaman OC, Chongsu (link to months old post here), as I said I eventually would. I have briefly included her in The Rod that Blocks the Lightning (here, about 2/3rds of the way through the chapter), as well.

She participates in the spiritual and medicine making practices of the mudang, while avoiding the performances of the kisaeng path.

Here is an example of one of her gutdang worship rooms, in which she would perform sacred ceremonies.

Generations past, a Joseon style caste system was kept in place with the help of the spiritual priest class, mudang shamans with a mixture of Confucianism and Buddhism, enjoying many luxuries and power in their caste high above most other species.

In the current day of the AU, generations after the former kings and caste systems were overthrown, the scars still remain (ex. Weasels thinking they are superior to smaller species and the squirrels needing to be reminded that they are allowed to join the soldier hedgehogs).

The White-Naped cranes spiritual practices, and preference towards the old caste system, have fallen out of favor with the general populace of Flower Hill. It is, however, very popular with the Weasels, who still hold that they are superior to the smaller animals. Many shaman leave Flower Hill to join the weasels to provide spiritual practices, something Flower Hill cannot stop due to migration permits.

Chongsu is based on a mudang shaman whose bloodline supposedly ties back the strongest to Sungmo, the mother of all shaman priestesses. Which makes her a sort of community elder despite her young age, as well as her constant mysterious illnesses.

She is a young crane, who lives in Flower Hill, too sickly to make the annual migration to Teikoku (Japan), like most of the White-Napes cranes. She and her followers assist in making medicine for the troops. Her biggest wish and command is for all species to get along with each other in harmony. What she does not realize, is that as the ‘supreme leader,’ this could possibly be misinterpreted as a command for her followers to reinstate the caste system, by any means possible, which could even mean teaming up with weasel, wolf, or tiger leaders, who also wish to return to the caste system and crush all underfoot.

In real life, white named cranes are unusual in that they primary live in the demilitarized zone of North Korea, but migrate to Japan. Shaman still exist in Korea to this day (participating in spiritual/healing leaders, fortune telling, and entertainment such as with the kisaeng), but are sometimes treated with suspicion, especially in North Korea, due to many of them, especially the kisaeng (who the Japanese troops found similar to geisha, apparently according to reports), siding with the Japanese during the invasions. As a result, the distrust and semi discrimination the Flower Hill commanders hold for Chongsu, is a hint that all is not absolutely perfect in Flower Hill.

[musubiki]

lime offhandedly making a comment to coco that mochi is such a crybaby (affectionate), and coco says "The hell are you talking about? I've never seen her cry once since I've known her." and lime realizes for the first time that maybe hes the only one that she actually shows that side of her

[calebs-hangout-corner]

Legend of Shadow High I love you so much but you have so many plotholes <3<3<3

[nonbinarylesbianherb]

I find it almost funny the women who shame Alicent for being a victim of misogyny in a patriarchy she did in fact NOT create and had always existed. I find it funny because they think they’re better than Alicent, they think if they were in Alicent’s position that they would’ve instead been some feminist icon- no, if you dealt with the same trauma, the same manipulation, the same system that Alicent did, you would’ve ended up just like her. Not better, in fact maybe even worse.

[chess-blackmyre]

WIP Wednesday

Here is another snippet from my still untitled 'Harvey trying to bond with Duela' fic.

“You became like, the Princess Diana of Gotham. And people got weird about it.” “Okay, now I have to ask.” Harvey filled his cup with ice. Duela snorted. “There was an annual Harvey Dent Day.” “...seriously?” “Like I said, weird.”

I am tagging @radioactivepeasant @elleinmotion @loverjed @falconemuses @nighthaunting @nitewrighter @thoughtfulrxven

And anyone else who may be interested in joining in!

[wavebiders]

Been trying to figure out what age Shadowheart was supposed to be in the wolf flashbacks, and turns out Viconia really did just kidnap a whole 8 year old huh?

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

I was rewatching The Stone Forest and I really like to think that Hilda had to pass by the Bell Keeper’s outpost on her way out of the city limits. I like to think that idiot looked at what was happening, shrugged, and said ‘eh, she’s the scariest thing out there’