#*forged from the heart*

[mel-0n-earth]

The final chapter is up! It's an especially long one at about 10k words, and extremely NSFW. Hope y'all won't mind.

Thanks again to @dungeonspawn for being an amazing beta reader!

Enjoy :)

[anna-scribbles]

emma dupain cheng on the brain😽🎀

more:

[leopardmuffinxo]

a thousand kisses buys my heart from me; and pay them at thy leisure, one by one. ♡

[thinwhitedoc]

SHERLOCK | Martin Freeman as John Watson

[nihildenial]

pretty nose appreciation post

[kingworm]

dipper & mabel would have the grunkles do the ‘twin telepathy test’ where they’re standing on different sides of a door and it’s been nearly 40 years but they Do all the same shit, stan would dismiss it & ford would watch the footage over like he’s studying a bug

[starry-bi-sky]

ive been hesitating to ask this bc youve been on a roll with the clone^2au (which i am frothing over) but could i poke you for some childhood friend au? bc GOD i wanna see how danny reacts to reuniting w jason or how the rest of the batfam react to learning jason never told danny of his resurrection or wondering if dannys gonna put jokers dead body on a display/offering to jasons grave. i havent been normal about this since i first read it and was wondering. thank you for your writing.

RAAAAHHHH DON'T BE HESITANT I AM JUST AS FERAL OVER MY CHILDHOOD FRIENDS AU AS I AM WITH CLONE^2 I AM DELIGHTED BY THIS. Like.,,,, i literally love them,,, so much. I can't listen to The Crane Wives without thinking of them.

(which is my fault - the ao3 fic of them has literally only crane wives lyrics for each chapter title and summary (posted AND the ones not written) so of course im gonna associate with them.)

(if you wanna listen to some of their songs while thinking of cfau here are my recommendations: "Once & for All", "Here I Am", "Hollow Moon" is a Danny AND Jason song to me, this would be my go-to song for an animatic of CFAU if i had the skills for it. "Tongues and Teeth", "Curses" and "take me to war" is a heavy cfau danny song to me, and of course, "the moon will sing")

Like they're BEST friends dude, they're two sides of the same coin and when they were kids they would do this thing where their 'fingers crossed'/'double-crossed' was them hooking their index fingers in the fingers crossed gesture.

and i'm actually currently rewriting my original post into a more fic-like format, and when I'm done I'll post it on here under the cfau tag - with the original post still in tact. But its,,, gonna be so long dude,,,, the original behemoth was just over 9000 words,,, and I've written 3k words already of the new one and we haven't even reached Jason and Danny reuniting at the gala yet,,, i need to get back to that,,,

and then to answer your questions!! god im almost hesitant to answer because i dont wanna spoil the little fic i had planned for it but also like,, its not like im gonna spoil everything, right? and answering the questions isnt the same as writing the scene down so!!

i love danny and jason's reuniting, like i've thought about it SO much and I've thought about it happening after Danny kills the Joker. I know the reveal could have been before that, and it could have been equally just as dramatic but like??? Thematically, doing it after danny kills the joker is SO good. To me at least.

Because like?? Jason's been in somewhat denial about danny's plan to kill the joker for months. ever since danny told him that he wanted to at the gala. And from Jason's pov its not even technically a plan. He sees his best friend for the first time after five years and his best friend still isn't over his death. He hasn't stepped foot in Gotham since his funeral and now suddenly he's here.

And he's still so full of grief over his death that he tells a masked vigilante that he's going to kill the guy that did it, who lives in said masked vigilante's city. And danny's got that look in his eyes that Jason knows so well that means he's being serious. And yet he still doesn't know if he should believe him or not.

And then he does. Danny kills him. And Jason can't fucking believe it. And when he goes and sees Danny, Danny's hands are still covered in blood. And that reunion? God like a fucking firework show. Danny's so fucking angry, and pissed, and hurt, and so goddamn overjoyed that he's alive and here that he sends them both to the ground, and if he doesn't calm down he's gonna take out the power in a five block radius.

there's just so, so much yelling on Danny's end. And then so much crying, first from Danny and then them both. because god, you're alive. you're here. i've missed you so much. i'm never letting you out of my sights again.

and Joker's death! God I don't want to actually say too much about that, but the way I have it set up thematically makes me actually not want danny to take any part of the joker with him as an offering. and he may actually forego that particular ghost etiquette and offer something else as an offering to Jason in substitute to not bringing him the Joker's heart/head/ritualistic body part.

Because you know what the last thing a man whose been spending the last two decades of his life building himself up to be larger than life would want? A death that's unremarkable. :) and that's all i'll put on the matter for now.

and the batfam!! they technically already know that jason hasn't told danny he was resurrected, and plenty of them have mixed feelings on them. largely bruce and dick i think, considering they saw firsthand how close jason and danny were when they were kids.

Dick was honestly surprised at first when he found out that Jason hadn't told Danny he was alive - and on one hand he understands the reasoning for it, and on the other hand he isn't sure if it was such a good idea. Especially after he sees Danny again after he arrives back in Gotham and sees just how badly Jason's death was still affecting him. But it's not like he's going to try and convince Jason to tell him - he can make his own choices, even if Dick has questions about them.

Bruce has much the same thoughts as Dick, so there's not really much to add here other than he might bring it up once or twice to Jason like, vaguely. And then immediately drops it when Jason shuts him down. He might actually somewhat...?? prefer that Jason hasn't told Danny because that raises a lot of questions and could jeopardize their identities. However, again, Jason can make his own choices and there's not much Bruce can do about it other than disapprove from afar.

Tim who knew of Danny from stalking the Wayne family shares similars sentiments of being surprised that Jason didn't tell Danny, but again, yeah, understands the thought process to some extent. Doesn't bring it up ever.

Everyone else who hadn't seen firsthand how close Danny and Jason are don't really have much opinion on it -- Jason didn't tell his best friend he was alive, great, he also didn't tell them either so it's not like its that much of a surprise. It would've been more of a surprise to them if Jason had told Danny before he told Bruce and co. Damian may make a comment or two about Jason not telling Danny, but its not about how he can't believe he didn't tell him or anything like it.

[lotus-pear]

made the worst decision of my life and decided to swap creative outputs w my dearest friend (a writer) for funsies and long story short she is making me write a bsd skk fic

[ellraiser]

guess we makin a bullet hell now

[utterdrip]

tehe yea dammon they were really risky i know exactly what ur saying *twirling my hair*

[mel-0n-earth]

BG3 February Writing Challenge: Day 6

Day 6 (SFW): Teaching each other how to do something.

Original prompt list

[This is a little continuation of Tav and Dammon's story from my series The Hellion's Heart. However, apart from the last few paragraphs after the page break, it can be read entirely as a standalone. Please note that while the original series leaves Tav's race open-ended, this little drabble assumes a non-tiefling Tav.]

Tav frowned down at the scrap of paper in their hand. They’d been helping Dammon organize his papers in preparation for the upcoming tax season. The bulk of it had been dull work—organizing receipts by date, sorting through old jottings to see whether any of them contained pertinent information about business expenses, or if they simply needed to be thrown out. This particular note, however, was quite indecipherable.

“Hey Dammon?”

“Yeah?” his voice echoed faintly from the other room, where he was busy taking stock inventory.

“I can’t read your handwriting on this one. Can you take a look?”

“Sure, one moment.” She heard a gentle clattering sound as he dropped whatever he’d been working on, followed by the thump of bootsteps over the floorboards and the spicy musk of his breath as he leaned over her shoulder.

“Oh,” he breathed, plucking the note from her hand. “No wonder you couldn’t read it. It’s in infernal.”

“Really? I didn’t know you wrote infernal.”

His eyes darted over his own handwriting. “Sure. A lot of tieflings use it for privacy. Zevlor recommended we use it when we were in the Grove. Got quite a bit of practice from that. I still use it sometimes, so I won’t forget. This one’s just a shopping list, so we can toss it.”

Tav peered down at the note, wondering at the strangely beautiful script. “Is it hard to learn? The writing system, I mean?”

He shrugged. “I don’t think so. Though I suppose it comes naturally to tieflings. Still, it’s not all that hard. I could teach you, if you’d like.”

Tav took a moment to study the lettering. “You know what, why not. It could be fun.”

Dammon’s face lit up with a warm smile that made Tav’s chest warm. “Alright then. Tonight, when I’m done with work, I’ll teach you.”

***

As it turned out, learning infernal did not come easily to non-tieflings. Patient a teacher as Dammon was, Tav struggled to discern the jagged letters from one another, eyes swimming with what she perceived to be nothing but chicken scratch.

Still, she was determined to learn, so Dammon left them to practice with a handwritten copy of the alphabet, which Tav carefully copied every evening before bed. As difficult as Infernal was, Dammon had mentioned not wanting to forget how to use it, so it must’ve been important to him. If that was the case, then Tav wanted to be able to share it with him.

About a week after their first lesson, Tav had an idea, one they spent an entire evening bringing into fruition, hands shaking with nerves as they worked at Dammon’s tiny kitchen table. They were just placing the finishing touches when he came in from the forge, brow sheened with the sweat of a day’s labor.

“How’s the writing going?” he asked, now well-used to her daily routine of script practice.

Tav swallowed down her nerves, then rose quickly from her chair, thrusting the sheet of parchment out towards him. “See for yourself.”

Dammon gave her a curious look, then crossed the room to read what she’d written. It wasn’t unusual for her to ask that he check her work, but he must have noticed how nervous she was.

He read for what felt like a long time, parchment crinkling where his fingers gripped the edge. At first, Tav thought their penmanship might just be messy, or that the letters were too smudged to read from her erasing her work too many times. But apparently, that wasn’t the problem at all.

“Is it…supposed to say something?” Dammon asked.

Tav shifted uncomfortably. “Um…yeah. Did I make a mistake?”

“You must have. I mean, this is gibberish. Unless this is another language. ‘Ilpvey’…”

Tav snatched the paper from his hand. “What? No, that’s not right at all! This is supposed to be an ‘O.’ Wait a second, I’ll fix it.” She hurried back to the table, crossing out the wrong letters and re-writing them. “Gods, I was only a line off,” she muttered to herself before shoving the note back into Dammon’s hands, praying he wouldn’t notice the hot flush rising up her neck. “Here, now read it.”

Dammon gave her a questioning look, then peered down at the corrected note. At first, his expression remained one of confusion. Then, something appeared to click, and a sweet smile pressed its way into the corner of his mouth. Still, he didn’t say anything, merely stared down at the message without a word, which only made Tav more nervous.

“Umm, does it make sense now? If not, I can try again…”

No response. He was still looking down at the note.

“Dammon?”

Finally, he looked up, eyes shining electric blue in the dark. For a moment, he merely stared at her with a strange expression, as if he were trying to determine whether she was real. Then, just as Tav was considering fleeing the room in shame, she was being pulled against him, note still clutched in his hand as his arms wrapped around her in a tight embrace.

“It does make sense, sweetheart,” he hummed against her neck. “I love you too.”

Tav smiled against his shirt, eyes falling shut with relief. It was the first time either of them had said it.

***

In the eventful days that followed, Tav forgot about the note entirely. After tax season came final preparations to take on the Elder Brain. Then, the battle itself was followed by a period of necessary healing, in which Tav spent weeks in bedrest. All the while, Dammon remained at her side, both of them grateful that the other had made it out of the entire ordeal alive.  

She hadn’t even known Dammon bothered to keep the note until many years later, when she came across it by chance while flipping through some old books of theirs. At first, she was confused as to why he’d folded the note inside a copy of an erotic play—The Pleasurable Deal. It wasn’t until she read the opening lines that any of it made any sense to her.

For now the game did start. He’d said that, she recalled, that first time they’d met at the Carress. At the time, she hadn’t known what he was talking about. But now, it made sense, perhaps more than he could possibly have realized at the time. Just like the protagonist, they’d both gotten far more than they’d bargained for with that deal.

She smiled as she read the words she’d written so long ago—I love you.

If that first night was how the game started, then this was how it ended.

[silverspadesss]

idk if any of my d20 followers also watch arcane but deli and colin are becoming sooooo jayce and viktor coded

[leopardmuffinxo]

the hottest fires burn blue & his eyes are no exception

[stormandforge]

Forge at the Hellfire Club: a hypothesis

Guys guys guys (X-Force readers), I just had a brain wave. Big spoilers, be warned.

You know how we've been trying to decode who Sage is talking about in this bit of narration?

"One picosecond after she dies, I'm thinking. Of course I am - I'm always thinking. I remember the first time we met. I wasn't "Sage" then, I was still undercover at the Hellfire Club, working for Charles."

Many of us read this bit as one block. As the same train of thought. Meaning: Sage remembered meeting the person who dies at the Hellfire Club.

It followed that this person, the person who dies, would be Betsy, because Sage had canonically met her at the Hellfire Club. But no, it's not Betsy who died. And it doesn't make much sense for the person who actually died (Surge) to be at the Hellfire Club while Sage was there either. Nori would have been too young. (I know time in Marvel is flexible, but come on, that was long ago.)

What I've suspected for a while is that the now infamous opening phrase "One picosecond after she dies, I'm thinking. Of course I am - I'm always thinking" was a separate train of thought from the rest. It definitely is when it appears again in the next issues, so it makes sense that it should be from the start. It's a mantra - or a haunting, as it were - to be read on its own.

So the phrase we've been debating "I remember the first time we met, I wasn't Sage then, I was still undercover at the Hellfire Club..." isn't connected the bit above it (the person who dies); it's the beginning of a new train of thought.

It's the beginning of her reflection about Forge. She's saying she first met Forge when she was at the Hellfire Club.

We don't know when Sage and Forge first met, so I thought, why not, they could have known each other for a lot longer than we thought. They could have crossed paths when the X-Men clashed with the Hellfire Club back in the day.

But today I decided to look at the narration on its own, without the art or the dialogue, and a very different picture emerged:

"I remember the first time we met. I wasn't "Sage" then, I was still undercover at the Hellfire Club, working for Charles. Usually, I can instantly size up any new player. I create predictive models of everyone I meet. How they think, their motivations, how they move. Not him. Forge was...a jumble. Too many variables and some were in conflict, some oppositional. There were just too many holes in his data flow. At one point, I just asked him. 'How do you work?' He said, 'End of the day, there's nothing wrong in the world that I can't fix by putting my hands on it.' I thought he was a bit full of himself. Even with people like Shaw and Frost strutting around. Now? I know he's not. But what is he? I'm still collating."

We've been deceived by the comic book format, which splits Sage's narration onto several pages and makes you lose her train of thought.

She's saying she met Forge at the Hellfire Club. They were both there.

Fucking hell, the bit about Shaw and Frost? Right there in front of our faces! I thought she was talking about Krakoa times, but nooooo, look!

Forge. Working at the Hellfire Club. Back in the day when Sage was there.

WHEN? WHY? HOW?

More importantly, did they make him wear the ridiculous Victorian outfits? Or did he hold on to his denim shorts?

Please let there be an image of Forge in denim shorts at the Hellfire Club. Come through, Marcus To.

[acourtofquestions]

Hearth to hearth, the Flame of War went.

Over snow-blasted mountains and amongst the trees of tangled forests, hiding from the enemies that prowled the skies. Through long, bitterly cold nights where the wind howled as it tried to wipe out any trace of that flame.

But the wind did not succeed, not against the flame of the queen.

So hearth to hearth, it went.

To remote villages where people screamed and scattered as a young-faced woman descended from the skies on a broom, waving her torch high.

Not to signal them, but the few women who did not run. Who walked toward the flame, the rider, as she called out, "Your queen summons you to war. Will you fly?"

Trunks hidden in attics were thrown open. Folded swaths of red cloth pulled from within. Brooms left in closets, beside doorways, tucked under beds, were brought out, bound in gold or silver or twine. And swords-ancient and beautiful—were drawn from beneath floorboards, or hauled down from haylofts, their metal shining as bright and fresh as the day they had been forged in a city now lying in ruin.

Witches, the townsfolk whispered, husbands wide-eyed and disbelieving as the women took to the skies, red cloaks billowing. Witches amongst us all this time.

Village to village, where hearths that had never once gone fully dark blazed in answer.

Always one rider going out, to find the next hearth, the next bastion of their people.

Witches, here amongst us. Witches, now going to war.

A rising tide of witches, who took to the skies in their red cloaks, swords strapped to their backs, brooms shedding years of dust with each mile northward.

Witches who bade their families farewell, offering no explanation before they kissed their sleeping babes and vanished into the starry night.

Mile after mile, across the darkening world, the call went out, ceaseless and unending as the eternal flame that passed from hearth to hearth.

"Fly, fly, fly!" they shouted. "To the queen! To war!"

Far and wide, through snow and storm and peril, the Crochans flew.

[theimpossiblescheme]

Say what you will about the Cyrano movie (and one day I'll be able to in a halfway articulate manner), but I am still mildly obsessed with "Every Letter", and I think about this ending couplet all the time...

Your letters are drawings on me from above I know who you are and I know you are loved

Just... the idea of Cyrano and Christian receiving a letter in return from Roxanne and feeling their breath catch both with ecstasy and with bitter regret.

I know who you are...

But she can't. But she mustn't. But it would break her heart--she would never trust them again. But it wouldn't be fair to Christian. But Cyrano could never show his face again. But they already feel themselves burn under her gaze, and to meet it honestly without the armor of a soldier, of these letters, would scorch them until nothing remains. But the only true honor is to hide, even if they know it's really the coward's way out. But the only safety (if they were being brutally honest with themselves) is to hide.

... and I know you are loved.

But God, they wish they didn't have to.