#(we as in me and my brother btw)

[whos-the-seme]

Shen Qingqiu was doomed.

He stood still, fluttering his fan nervously and trying to avoid catching his counterpart's, the real Shen Qingqiu, glaring eyes from across the room. Instead, he idly observed the other Cang Qiong Mountain Peak Lords, trying to spot the differences between the ones he knew and their alternates.

Liu Qingge had brought back a strange artifact from one of his hunts to the monthly Peak Lord meeting. It was a mirror, rimmed an ugly tarnished gold, topped with a decoration that was shaped into an unidentifiable creature with ruby red eyes.

[Important Artifact Detected: Red-Eyed Sphinx's Mirror! Quest starting...]

Shen Qingqiu had been trying to remember where it might have appeared in PIDW when the surface of the mirror suddenly began to glow a dull yellow. It quickly brightened until it obscured everyone's vision.

And then, there stood another set of peak lords across the room, facing them down.

System, what on earth is going on???

[Quest started: Lost Long Spirit in My Reflection! Other characters have been transported to this universe. Host must find a way to send them back without revealing his identity as a transmigrator.]

WTF? I didn't agree to this!

[Good luck!]

System??? Get back here!

While the two Yue Qingyuans and Xu Qinglis conversed together to try to understand what had happened, the other peak lords had begun to mingle with each other, curious about their counterparts.

Shen Qingqiu tried to suppress his panic, sticking close to Shang Qinghua. His Yue Qingyuan occasionally flicked his softened gaze towards the alternate Shen Qingqiu, likely noticing that the other still acted as he used to before his qi deviation. In fact, several of the peak lords he had gotten to know over the years were sending some looks at the other Shen Qingqiu.

With the original goods right there, how long would it be before something exposed him as a fraud?? What if he was confronted about why he acted so differently?

[Host must avoid having his identity exposed. Being revealed as a transmigrator will result in Host being immediately sent back to his old body.]

Yeah, yeah, same shit as always!

Looking to his side, Shang Qinghua seemed to be experiencing the same threats, desperately looking away from the more dead-eyed Shang Qinghua across the room who, luckily, was barely paying him any attention.

Fuck, what do we do?

---

Shen Qingqiu continued to glare at the Other Shen Qingqiu in the room. The other Shen Qingqiu was so obviously a fraud, he could tell within minutes of being here. While his alternate seemed somewhat familiar, he didn't act like him at all, his mannerisms were all off, and despite the attempt at keeping a poker face, Shen Qingqiu could tell that he was nervous. Probably at being caught out.

His alternate self had likely been replaced with a bodysnatcher or some sort of spirt, if they truly were supposed to be the same person. Was everyone else stupid, or had they had their brains sucked out by a Heart Mouthed Lobster-Squid?

Or maybe they simply like the bodysnatcher better and didn't bother to investigate.

Shen Qingqiu's face became stormier, turning his glare to the Other Yue Qingyuan, wondering if he had felt happier once his precious Xiao-Jiu had vanished. The other Yue Qingyuan's face grew even more pathetic. Tch. Typical.

"That stupid System--" Shen Qingqiu nearly snapped his neck in looking at the bodysnatcher upon hearing his murmur. The fraud, upon noticing his sudden attention, clammed back up and looked away. But Shen Qingqiu knew what he heard.

Xi Tong.

He hadn't heard those words in years, not since--

He stepped forward, scanning the other once more. Upon a second, more thorough look, Shen Qingqiu realized that he grew more familiar. He wore his hair in the way that Shen Qingqiu wore it, but looser and less severe. His eyes were clearer and lighter, with hints of a smile, despite his nerves. He occasionally quickly glanced up and to his left, as if seeing something there, before bringing his attention back to the room at large.

No. It couldn't be. He was long dead, despite Shen Qingqiu's best efforts. Even if the fake had some similar things about him, that doesn't mean--

Shen Jiu had once had a brother, besides Qi-ge. Slightly smaller than him, despite the fact that Shen Jiu passed him along as much food as he could when on the streets. He smiled so much despite their circumstances, and was so kind despite Shen Jiu constantly telling him that he was making himself a target. But he looked so, so similar to Shen Jiu himself. They could have switched their clothes and looked exactly the same, if one didn't notice the difference in their demeanors.

His brother has also always been a little odd, talking to himself and arguing with an imaginary friend that only he could see named Xi Tong. One of the reasons that they survived as long as they did on the streets was due to the inexplicable knowledge that his brother seemed to have. Somehow, his brother knew about the various plants or small animals that they could hunt and sell for a pretty coin in the markets. Shen Jiu never asked, not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

But his brother was dead. He had died years ago, in the time during when they were in Qiu's manor. During a punishment for Shen Jiu's attempt to get them both to join Wu Yanzi; he had switched their clothes and taken Shen Jiu's place and died for it. That had been the final catalyst that made him set the manor ablaze and escape, mourning his brother's death as his fault for daring to be free. Cursing Qi-ge for not coming back for them.

Dazed and his vision dim, Shen Jiu took another step forward, and another. Hope, something he thought he had killed off long ago, slowly rose in his chest.

Had his brother survived in this world? Had he managed to escape alongside Shen Jiu? Or had Shen Jiu died in his place? Dimly, he can't help but think that the world would be far kinder if that were the case. If his brother had made it to Cang Qiong Mountain and became a peak lord all on his own and still managed to keep his smile. If he didn't have Shen Jiu dragging him down with him.

The other Shen Qingqiu, not having noticed his approach, laughed at something the other Shang Qinghua said ("Wonder if Shang Qinghua is a traitor here, too," Shen Jiu thought dimly). His laugh was the same. He rose his fan to hide his face, but Shen Jiu noticed how his nose crinkled, and his eyes nearly closed in delight, exactly like--

"A-Yuan?"

[bluewolfangel01]

Favorite Parent Challenge with Lucifer, Mammon, Levi, & Satan

(If you don't know, it's basically a challenge to see who the pet's favored human is)

-Lucifer-

Done with Cerberus

Cerberus is very confused when Mc and Lucifer walk in different directions while he stays

Each head looks from left to right, unable to understand what he's supposed to be doing or even who to go to

He begins to whine

Mc gets a bit closer to comfort Cerberus, reaching their hands out to offer pets

Only then does Cerberus decide to move

Lucifer: "I don't think it counts if you bribe him"

Mc: *doing their best to pet all 3 heads* "Well he doesn't seem to mind, do ya boy?"

Cerberus: *tail wagging very fast, looking very happy*

Mc: "If you want, I could give you some pets later tonight~ seeing as you seem a bit jealous."

Lucifer: "Well I'm not jealous, but I'll happily accept your offer."

-Mammon-

Done with a few crows familiars

The crows look between the opposite directions where Mammon and Mc went

The crows stay where they are for a few moments

It almost seems like they'll never move

Then they fly and land at Mc's feet

One crow even lands on Mc's shoulder

Mc proceeds to give the crow that landed on their shoulder, some scratches

Mammon: *walks towards Mc* "They're my familiars, why do they go to ya?!"

Mc: "Aw dont feel so bad, haven't you ever heard that pets copy the personality of their people?"

Mammon: "Yeah. So?"

Mc: "So that means that they only went to me 'cause you love me so much."

Mammon: "Gah... silly human."

Mc: *grabs Mammon's jacket collar* "Tsundere demon." *gives him a smooch*

-Levi-

Done with Henry 2.0

Levi and Mc stand on opposite side of Henry 2.0's tank, rather then walking in different directions

The small fish doesn't swim to either side

He kinda just floats for a moment before lazily swimming around the fish bowl

It's clear that Henry 2.0 doesn't understand the challenge

That or he just doesn't care

Mc: Well, I don't know what we were expecting, but that result seems about right.

Levi: Why did we decide to do this again?

Mc: The new co-op game we've been playing is getting updated so the servers are down and for the memes.

Levi: ...

Levi: For the memes.

-Satan-

Done with a few stray cats

Satan and Mc sit a few feet away from each other outside the H.O.L

They both agreed to have no items or smells that could possibly draw in the cats

They both sit there for awhile while waiting for the strays to show up and pick one of them

Suprise, suprise the strays end up going towards Mc

Satan: "They almost never come to me, it's like they hate me."

Mc: "Aw, don't say that, they don't hate you."

Mc: *Picks up and holds Kuro in front of Satan's face, who meows cutely* "See, Kuro likes you~"

Satan: *smiles and lowers head in defeat* You...~"

[bittasol]

smile, iruma! | hey ive been here before

[starkayezer]

Regulus, who, yes, has friends, but they're all online. He lives in England, but Barty, oh, he lives in Italy. Evan and Pandora live in France. Dorcas? Who knows where she is right now, her family's always moving around.

Regulus, who has no friends in person. Regulus, who has nobody to lean on.

His parents don't love him, and he can never be sure how Sirius feels about him. He's just his annoying little sister anyway. Usually he just gets ignored.

Regulus, who tries to hang out with his brother and his friends. Peter, who will occasionally indulge him, and Remus, who's kind to him. James, who he used to have a crush on when he was little, as he made his older brother, the most important person to him, the person he idolised, happy. But Sirus always pushes him off.

Sirius, who once screamed "I hate you" at Regulus for the most mundane thing, and Regulus, who's not been able to push the memory out of his mind for years.

Regulus, who has no friends. Sirius, who's had the same group of friends since he met them.

Sirius, who has plenty of friends, plenty of people who love him. Regulus, who has nothing of the like. You can never tell tone through texts anyway. Online friends are much different than in person ones.

Sirius, who's turning 18 soon, who will be graduating and moving out. Regulus, who's terrified to be left alone. Regulus, who knows Sirius doesn't care enough to deal with the younger sibling who just wants someone to love them.

Regulus, who will miss his brother, and Sirius, who will only ever see him as his annoying younger sister.

[viminoo]

misc baberoe doodles + renee

[fuzzbuns]

Inspired by the fact my friend called nanaki a “poor little potato” once and then followed it up immediately with a picture of mashed potatoes LOL and this

[glitter-stained]

I know some people argue that robin!Jason and Dick were never close post-crisis pre n52 because they only interacted a couple of times in canon and I understand that due to Dick living away when they first met they wouldn't be as close as the relationship Dick has with some of his other siblings, but I would also wish we would take in account that for all three of Jason's years, we have like 30 issues of Jason's run. That's exceedingly small. We have batman #416, we have that one moment in teen titans (i forgot the issue) of jason working with the team, and i think the ski trip we found out later about was included in the same canon*. (also, i do feel like even if you didn't know/like eachother before going on a ski trip together by the end of the ski trip this will have changed, and the picture definitely felt like they were getting along even though Jason's face in the picture was comically weird.) I'm not sure if there were other interactions shown or mentioned, but hey, 2-3/30ish isn't a bad score at all! If we're going 3/30, that's a whole tenth of Jason's robin era.

(And I'm talking about their relationship from Dick's pov since it's the one in question here but it's clear to me in Jason's run, even post-crisis, that Dick is often on his mind and important in his life (with a certain inferiority complex the little siblings of very cool people know well) with stuff like I think Batman #410 or Jason is Legends.)

And even more importantly, 30ish is extremely short for three damn years. That's ten issues per year! Do we assume that Jason was sitting on a shelf for the whole time he's not working with batman in the comics? Do we assume batman was sitting on a shelf twiddling his thumbs all that time during those three years he appears, either? It's perfectly logical to make the assumption that Bruce and Jason were still going out as goddamn Batman and Robin even when it's not shown on screen and having a relationship and interacting together even when it's not seen. In fact it's the most reasonable and logical assumption even. It's obvious Jason and Bruce's interactions extend past what was shown on screen so why wouldn't Dick and Jason? We know from Dick's relationship to his death that Dick cared about Jason. We know how much his death impacted him. Regardless of the (now retconned) terrible mess that was their relationship after Jason came back, they had a relationship, and it was good, and how deep it went is up to interpretation but it doesn't cheapen or lessen any of Dick's relationship with his other siblings to acknowledge that (like, seriously, even though some of them might view it as such in the story, dick's love isn't a prize that can only go to the one blorbo to win the competition. Personally I don't see Robin Jason being his favourite, and that's fine. Probably since, as I only have one sibling to be weird about, this is one aspect of Dick and Jason's relationship that I don't project onto them.)

There's a difference between saying "those are the only canon interactions between Dick and Robin!Jason that we know of" and saying "those are the only interactions that happened between Jason and Dick when Jason was Robin", especially if the next sentence is going to be something like "read a comic". I want to insist that I'm not saying that they have to have been super close. All I'm saying is I don't see, with the knowledge I personally have of canon and the retcons I choose to disregard (because of terrible writing), why considering that they were close wouldn't be canon compliant.

Leeway, nuance and up to interpretation stuff are fun and should matter for evaluating the level of canon compliance of your own headcanons, and I think it's especially important when trying to police other people's interpretation of canon: are you certain their interpretation is fanon and you're correcting it with the right canon, or is it a case of two headcanons clashing in the blank space between comic pages?

I just found it strange to never see it taken in account in the sometimes pretty emphatic takes I saw on the debate around their relationship, so those are my two cents on the matter. All this to say, [theatre joke in coming], when it comes to Dick and Jaybin, we could all stand to be more chill.

* btw i'm excluding dixon's nightwing year one from this conversation because I hate how it manages to shit on every one of the characters i've seen him write in it so violently and also fuck dixon, my jason comes from post-crisis not that crappy weirdo retcon.

[littlefankingdom]

So many folks joined the batfam between Jason's death and when he came back

Jason when he comes back: WTF is there so many of you?!

Tim: Well, it seems that one new kid isn't enough to make Bruce feels better when the last one left because they died and not just moved out.

[pigeonedlilac]

Welcome to the journey of me finishing my rarepair week drafts. Mayhaps a long one

This was for day 5 I believe?!!?

For the prompt of ‘family,’ hiitomo ft. Rinne :]

[rulersre4chf4n]

My personal biggest pet peeve regarding analyses of Belos (obviously aside from “he’s just evil and analyzing him at all means you support his actions” and “he deserves redemption actually”) is that so many people take his hatred of witches completely at face value--as simply being the result of his indoctrination into witch-hunting as a child in Gravesfield, that these are just the beliefs he was raised with and that he never grew to see past his prejudice like Caleb did. But that is such an oversimplification of his character, and it also ignores what is in my opinion the main driving force behind all of his actions: Caleb himself.

Belos doesn’t think all witches are evil because he was raised to be a witch-hunter. He HAS to keep himself convinced that they are, because if the witches are not evil, then he has two realities to face: 

Caleb left him of his own free will, not because he was under a spell or led astray by the devil.

Belos murdered his own brother, the only person he ever loved, for nothing.

And these CANNOT be true.

Belos’s need to be the hero who saves humanity from witches is not the reason he killed his brother, it’s the result of it.

[halfdeadwallfly]

[sunb0ts]

started watching a:tla a few days ago :) hope you are well hi mutuals

[doveywovy]

hi, i'd love to know what the "tobirama dies on a tuesday" fic is about! 👀👀

ask game context!

im actually almost finished with writing that one!

its my flipside to the "smalltown fic where izuna dies young"- in this one, tobirama dies in a hit & run when he's 15 while walking to school.

the fic is mostly about izuna trying to process his grief while bottling it up. Izuna's deeply closeted so nobody knows his lifelong crush just died, just Some Guy He Kinda Knew, so he feels like he has to perform being very normal to not arouse suspicion.

he manages to keep up the charade for a while, but then there's the funeral and...well.

the bottle gets uncorked.

[peqchys]

stole the shirt from @theorionbunny haaiiii :< belphie save me belphie

[borgialucrezia]

peaky blinders — 4x02 'heathens' created by steven knight

[pokckygamewithbatman]

Parental Figures in Arcane, and How S2 Both Maintains and Hurts this Aspect of The Show

The kinship that Zaunite "families" feel for each other is shown countless times throughout the show. Claggor and Mylo aren't Vander's kids either, but he loves them just as much as the girls, and the Zaunites who had been imprisoned and were rescued by Jinx in S2 immediately want closeness to her. When Jinx cares for Isha they never address or label their relationship to one another, or to us. They're all on the same side, and it doesn't matter if they're related or not, or even if they're close. They're all fighting and surviving together.

Arcane also made it clear how important parental figures are, but they didn't touch on the importance of titles in that relationship between a parent and their children because that was never important. There was always something more pressing happening. Only at the very end could someone admit their love and bestow a title as sacred and important as "dad" or "daughter".

So why do Vi and Jinx both call Vander their dad so easily in S2?

In broad, broad terms, the thing I don’t like about the lack of nuance of Vander as a father figure in S2 is because of the immense nuance in S1. In S1 Vander is never referred to by Vi or Powder/Jinx as “dad.” He is a guardian, definitely, but when they’re young they’re not yet ready to accept him as a father, which is probably in part because of the nature of Zaun; when you’re all trying to survive together and everyone’s bringing whatever they can to the table (almost as equals, even if some are literally children), parental figures and titles of that sort are lost, especially in this case when Vander and the girls aren’t blood related. They may still remember their biological father (though he's never mentioned) and aren't ready to replace that person in their life. They at most see him as a close uncle or family friend of their mother. And from this point up until he dies that doesn’t change. They never call him dad in S1, and that really helped the theme of "love transcends time and class" so why does he gain this title in S2 after they haven’t seen him for 10 years(?) and thought he’d been dead this whole time. No extra bonding happened between the girls and Vander, and there was never any indication that their relationship with him, and how they felt about it had changed from a beloved father figure and guardian, to "dad".

Sure, they miss him, and you could assume that in a flurry of emotion they spring the title onto him, but complexity, detail and subtly are where the show really shines, so why did they feel the need to straight up tell us how the girls feel about Vander instead of just showing their love and affection for him?

This happens in S1, Jinx feels a deep connection with Silco, but only shows it through her actions; helping him in his mission, hugs, cradling his face when he’s dying. And he in turn only refers to her as his daughter right before he dies, yk “you’re my daughter, I’d never forsake you”, which he says in conclusion to his decision that he'd never give her up, even for the freedom of Zaun. That line finally signifies to us that she is the most important thing in Silco's life. Before this scene the audience could still be on unsure whether he'd actually be willing to give her up for his dream. She's literally his new dream. Throughout the rest of the show he shows his love through his actions; he trusts her with administering his medicine even though he's fully capable of doing it himself, but he knew she needed to feel useful (and it's really cute that after a while he's incapable of doing it himself because he's let her do it for so long), he made her a big part of his plan to free Zaun because he had faith in her abilities and knew she wanted to help, he keeps the fact that Vi is alive from her in order to protect her (don't come at me with that "manipulator Silco" talk, he also thought Vi was dead, and when he found out he didn't tell Jinx because he saw how much it hurt her to even remember Vi and think about her. He reminds her of their goal and gives to a task to help keep her mind off the hurt she's feeling). Although we as the audience are like “mk they’re clearly father and daughter” it doesn’t feel like the writers are shoving it down our throats which is why it’s really impactful when Silco finally says it in the last episode.

After Jinx picks up Isha, or after Isha inserts herself into Jinx's life, a shift between "older sister/guardian" to "parent" happens after Jinx saves Isha from Stillwater. When they hug and Isha starts crying we see on Jinx's face the realization: "oh. She's the most important thing in the world to me" but the show never has to tell us that. Isha clearly has lost a parental figure already because of her insistence on keeping her miner's hat, and Jinx also recently lost her father figure, Silco, so they both know the meaning of losing someone they love, but don't need to label themselves as "mother" and "daughter" for the audience. And it evident that Isha meant as much as she did to Jinx because of how much her death crushed what was once an outgoing and confident Jinx. Once again, they never say it, Isha never calls Jinx mom (even in her own way (you could argue that she actually does in the prison scene before Jinx is attacked by Warwick, but even if she does that's a valid place to bestow that title: her guardian is in danger and Isha can't get to her, so out of desperation she calls her "mama", but this is never mentioned again so it's just as likely that Isha was just screaming)) and she doesn't need to.

While it doesn’t ruin the dynamic between Vander and the girls in S2 and they don’t say it a ton, it makes their relationship feel less deep. Instead of them not knowing who they are to each other, or not caring because they just love each other so much, they instead bestow a title that pinpoints their degree of love for Vander. They spell it out for us, ‘he is our father, and that’s why we love him. Period’ and I think that’s harmful to how we’re supposed to view these characters. Vi and Jinx aren't ones to give out such titles easily, Vi is hesitant to admit her love for Cait, and Jinx is hesitant to call Vi her sister, and yet this man who they haven't seen for so long, who initially tried to kill them, gains this title as though he's been guiding and protecting them the whole time?

This is not Vander slander, let me assure you, I believe just as fiercely as the next person that he is their dad, that man is a father, but the fact that they casually through the title around so easily is baffling to me.

Let me just put this picture in your minds: How impactful would it have been if the first time we get a glimpse of how much they truly love each other is when Vander gets his humanity back and the first thing he says is "don't touch my daughter". Remember that scene? Imagine how much more it would've hit if the audience and the girls were still unsure of how they wanted to call Vander and how he thought of them. If they only started calling him dad after getting like, confirmation that he felt the same about them and always had. Vi and Jinx, who are terrified of being wrong, and choosing wrong, should not have given Vander the title of "dad" when he was Warwick.

This is just a little nitpick of mine, and I've never seen anyone else talk about this, but I feel like it's small details like this that made the second season more... shallow?