#(Part 3!)

[the-flying-robins]

Batman the 12-cent Adventure // Linger - The Cranberries // Batgirl (2000) #55 // This Mess We're In - PJ Harvey // Batgirl (2000) #55 // This Mess We're In - PJ Harvey // Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #183 // Batman: Gotham Knights #57 // Hole - Violet // Robin (1993) #130 // Can I Run - L7 // Robin (1993) #131 //Miss World - Hole // Robin (1993) #131 // Gotham Knights #58 // Batman (1940) #633 // Celebrity Skin - Hole // Batman (1940) #633 // Are You Happy Now - Michelle Branch

Stephanie Brown - It better be worth it Part 3/4

Part 1 / Part 2

[howlerbat]

[antiquesintheattic]

[somewhatsentientspellbook]

What the McFuck am I featuring the ExU Calamity characters that I thought of when the combination came up

[flecks-of-stardust]

Reminiscence of Wisdom — A Rain World Short Story

Devotion comes in many forms, and it will follow its sibling wherever its sibling goes.

Monk goes looking for Survivor and thinks a lot about their sibling as they go about it.

No formal content warnings for this piece of writing.

The air here is unfamiliar. It shouldn’t be, given how long these smells have been ‘home,’ or whatever home means now, but even still the dense, acrid tone in the air is foreign. The air rests heavy in its nose with every breath, lingering, much as it does itself at every rock, searching for a more familiar scent.

It doesn’t find it here. Huffing the air out of its nose, it turns, scanning the world around it. It’s so bright here, but it’s a sharp brightness, unlike the dozy, soft glimmers of sunlight back home. The light here breaks into shafts that make its eyes hurt whenever it stays out too long. And the air is too warm, but too cold when the rain comes, and the fruit tastes different. It’s never sweet enough. It’s all too different here.

Another rock, a big one. It climbs onto it, paws clumsy and slipping every other step, but it clambers up nonetheless, admiring the view from the top. From here, it can see the path it traced through the dust, the trail twisting and winding around every vaguely interesting thing along the way. It all, disappointingly, had just smelled of dust, and this rock is no different. It gives the stone a test lick to confirm, then coughs, trying to get the horrid taste off its tongue. No, this doesn’t smell or taste anything like Wise.

Wise used to help it with climbing things. With most things. Wise was always better at… everything, anything it can think of. Wise would have got up onto this rock without stumbling and slipping like it had, and then Wise would have turned and helped it up too. Wise always liked being high up anyhow; it remembers, when it was younger, how it had watched Wise scale the tree, effortless and swift, to bring fruit back for it. Even though now, it can do that too, Wise was still better at it.

The scent of a snapper wafts its way into its nose, and it jumps in alarm, whipping its head around to look for the source. There, in the distance, is a big snapper; it dives behind the big rock, breaths quick and shallow. It may have climbed the big rock, but the wall next to it is too high, too smooth for it to climb. Maybe it could run fast enough from the big snapper? No, no, it can’t outrun the snapper, it knows how fast the snappers can be, even the smaller ones. Maybe it could throw a small rock at it to distract it and—no, there’s no rocks here. Just dust and the sound of its own breathing.

It leaps onto the rock again as the big snapper ambles up next to it, hissing and trying to make itself look as threatening or as unappetizing as possible, while also trying to stop itself from shaking. Though the snapper clearly does not seem deterred by its attempts, the snapper only blinks at it mildly, making no move to bite at it; it stares back in confusion. The snapper sniffs at the big rock briefly, as if to confirm the scent is from it, before moving on without so much as a backward glance.

It is only then that it recognizes the kinked tail on the snapper. It has been feeding this snapper, though mostly by accident. It finds strange shiny bugs that make shrill noises every now and then, and while the bugs fill its belly, it dislikes how the shiny bugs crunch in its mouth. Sometimes it finds some that are already dead, and when it doesn’t feel like eating the shiny bugs, it takes the bugs with it so it can toss food at the snappers it comes across. The big snapper with the kinked tail comes the most, and sometimes it finds food just to feed the snapper. It still doesn’t trust the snapper, but at least this time, the snapper doesn’t seem interested in eating it.

Wise would have been quick to attack the snapper. Egg Parent and Other Parent had not had time to teach it much about fighting predators, but Wise had had much more time to learn. Sometimes Wise practiced with it, teaching it how to hold the shiny sharp sticks that Egg Parent brought back. It was never good at throwing the sticks, because the sticks were always too heavy, and it didn’t like how the sticks felt in its hands. But Wise made it look easy. Of course it would rather Wise not attack the snappers; when the snappers aren’t trying to hunt it, the snappers are somewhat cute. But if Wise had to, Wise would take one down with ease.

With the snapper now gone, it creeps out from behind the rock, looking for where to resume its search. It had scoured most of the immediate area already in between the times the rain had come, and it has been slowly making its way forward, towards the tall, dark not-trees in the distance. So far, there has been no trace of Wise; it hasn’t caught wind of Wise’s scent since it started looking for Wise.

It wanders for a while, checking every rock and every pole it finds, but finding nothing. The scant plants around don’t offer any clues to Wise’s whereabouts either. Of course the rain would wash away any scents left behind by Wise, but if Wise were in the area…

It stops in front of a bush, one with scraggly leaves sprouting every which way. The bush is situated underneath a small, jutting bit of rock. The rock has clearly been providing the bush with ample shelter from the rain, since the bush is now sprouting flowers. It’s not the same type of bush that grew near the big tree where Egg Parent, Other Parent, and Young still are, but it’s similar enough to what it is used to seeing.

Picking up three of the leaves, it stares down at its hands uncertainly. Whenever Wise found one of these bushes, Wise would braid the leaves together. It had questioned, once, why Wise was doing this, because there was no purpose to doing it. Wise had merely agreed. There was never a bush that Wise passed by that Wise didn’t braid the leaves of.

It tries to mimic what Wise does, fingers fumbling with the leaves. A crude knot forms in its hands before it accidentally tears one of the leaves off. Disappointed, it drops the leaves, watching the torn strand drift to the ground forlornly. If the bush is untouched, then Wise hasn’t been here. Or maybe Wise just hasn’t been to this part of the area? It would hardly know if that were the case.

It steps out into the open again, gazing at the far away not-trees that loom above it, framed by the perpetually grey clouds behind them. Where could Wise be? This world is so much bigger than how it had felt when it and Wise were both still at the big tree—when it and Wise were both home. It couldn’t just cry out for Wise, because Wise is too far away to hear it now. And all this time it has been searching, finding only empty air…

It misses home. It misses the warmth of home, it misses the watchful gaze of Egg Parent, it misses how Other Parent would carry it back to the tree when it was too tired to walk. It misses the way Young would jump excitedly whenever food was brought back. It misses the lightness and the freshness of the air when it was still at the tree.

But most of all, it misses Wise. The warmth, the safety, the clarity Wise brought, all of it. After all, that was why it had jumped after Wise.

Turning back to the bush briefly, it plucks off one of the flowers and tucks it behind one ear. The faint scent of the flower pushes back the sourness that hangs in the air, and it draws in a deep breath before continuing. Sooner or later, one way or another, it will find Wise. The world may be big, but it isn’t infinite. As long as it keeps trying, keeps searching, it will find its way to Wise. It just has to keep going.

[humming-fly]

was thinking about that one blind professor post earlier today and how well it applied to the aptly named Team Dark

(really 'Team Dark' just sounds a lot cooler than 'Team Saves-On-Electricity')

[puppppppppy]

filipina miku!! my mom helped me with her outfit ^_^

[zephyrine-gale]

dunmeshi square prints I'll have at ax!

[criiitter]

how did sonic even get him to take that?

[everchased]

THAT one's goin on the list too now!

[beguilingcorpse]

actually hilarious that colin bridgerton returned to london absolutely determined to be in his slut era. he said if there is one thing i am it is a whore. and then one (1) kiss with penelope later he was like neverMIND i am a MARRIED MAN i am MONOGAMOUS life is about LIFELONG PARTNERSHIP ACTUALLY

[animusrox]

World’s Finest, Part III Superman: The Animated Series

[darks-arts]

[bluegiragi]

december night.

early access + nsfw on patreon

[ptr-sqloint]

The Man Upstairs