#Dies The Fire

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[tyrellia]

One of my favorite novels basically takes the tone of ASOIAF and then gives it a message of hope

It’s dark as hell. Things go really bad, really bad, and it doesn’t shy from showing you the horrors of total societal breakdown. But it also has moments like finding a school bus full of young children. To paraphrase how our protagonists react:

Junie, we can’t.

Yes. We can.

It’s so good, guys. You see the worst of humanity, but also the best. I wish my ADHD would let me read books again, because I want to finish the rest of the series :(

[xx-k1tsun3-k1d-xx]

ROUND TWO OF LIKES CHARGE REBLOGS CAST ✨

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The dog days are over.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[moocar0n]

pov u see edelgard and hubert walking together in the monastery

[noxcheshire]

I just think

It’d be really neat if Danny looked more like Martha Wayne than Thomas Wayne.

LIKE

I love the Danny Fenton looks like Thomas Wayne or Danny Fenton is Thomas Wayne reincarnated — but the BEAUTY of Martha??

Of Alfred interacting for under five minutes with Danny, dabbing his eyes and going, “That is indeed Martha,” I WANT IT. I want Martha who was spunky and sassy and wanted to do good for her town the same way Danny wants to do good for Amity Park.

I want Martha who loved to take Bruce and the family out to star gaze because her baby had never seen the stars before, and the way his eyes light up like a mini galaxy takes her breathe away the same way that Danny feels when he turns his head up to the sky yearning for something he knew loved but doesn’t know what.

I want Martha who would literally find trouble in a paper bag because she can’t help her curiosity the same way Danny can’t help tripping over his own ghostly tail and making a mess of things before he figures things out.

I want Martha who would fight men who thought they held power, going absolutely feral from stress the same way Danny does when he’s tired of not being able to do his homework or pick up a vacuum against the wall to clean because ghosts.

I want Martha who loved the pearl necklace that Bruce had picked out for her birthday, and Danny reaches towards his neck and startles when his fingers only touch skin when he is certain there was something supposed to be there. I want Danny whose eyes linger on whites and pearls when he passes by open window stores in the mall, fingers itching to flick a nail against the smooth surfaces.

I want Martha who died bleeding underneath the hand of a gun, hoping to everything above that her boy would be safe, and Danny whose body burns at merely looking at the makeshift guns his parents create in the lab, his heart pounding desperately with a yearning to save there was someone she wanted to save the ghosts.

[demaparbat-hp]

Izumi of Jang Hui died young. She was sixteen and unwed. A kind child, protective and lonely—thus unfit for this world.

Izumi of Jang Hui was murdered. The Painted Lady was born out of hatred and grief. Her skin is painted red with the patterns of her scars. Her home is the river where the Dark Water Spirit dwells—he who found her, drowned and beautiful.

Build shrines by the river and pray for her good will. Harm her land or people and pray for mercy.

[lygma-nygma]

Being a batfam fan is funny because people will make a post like “here’s my headcanon-“ and it’s just something that’s directly canon to the story then post about major canon events and get everything wrong.

[saphushia]

i am literally sooooo ill about ASL bros fire symbolism/themes all of the time. it drives me fucking bonkers crazy

[morganbritton132]

Eddie follows up his Tiktok of an old home video of him sick with a current video of him sick. He’s congested as hell and his voice is practically gone when he croaks out, “Don’t marry teachers. They carry the plague.”

“It’s allergies. You have allergies.”

Eddie coughs pathetically and then pans the camera over to the other side of the bed. Steve, who will get a fever if you look at him too hard, has his back to Eddie.

Eddie is not reaching for him but Steve says anyways, “Don’t touch me or I will melt like a spider made of people.”

“…What does that even mean?!!!”

[echo-stimmingrose]

I have funny but first a quick history lesson

In Ancient Athens they had things called ostracons. Basically every year everyone would carve a name of someone they didn't like into a small stone tablet and then submit it. Then they would look at all of the ostracons and if there were too many of one person then they told that person to get tf out. They had ten days to flee Athens and couldn't come back for ten years.

So now I would like you to imagine Dionysus doing a pseudo version of this at Camp Half-blood every month because we all know he LIVES for the drama. (He's stuck there for a hundred years he might as well have some fun)

He would hand out stone tablets (it was very important to him that the names were carved don't ask why) and every person at camp would write a name.

Whoever had their name written down the most would be sent to live in a cabin in the woods for two weeks. If they survived they would be allowed to return to camp.

Mr. D always makes sure there's a crowd around to witness their walk of shame and he takes a picture of said person every month. He keeps them hung up on a wall in the big house.

[little-pondhead]

DP x DC Prompt

…

There are no more heroes.

Well, okay. Rewind a bit.

Danny has been doing the hero thing for a while now. He’s had a big reveal; everyone has accepted him (including his parents), the GIW disbanded, the Anti-Ecto acts repealed, and generally, everything is going great. Some of the A-Listers are even training as junior ghost hunters to help give him a break from his rogues! (Being Ghost King makes things hectic sometimes, and he just needs the extra help. Sue him!)

The point is, literally nothing is wrong with Danny Phantom’s afterlife.

And then Valerie Gray, the Red Huntress, disappears in front of his eyes.

Danny is baffled! She’s just…gone! Valerie just popped out of existence, like she was never there. But no matter how hard he searches in the Ghost Zone, he can’t find her soul anywhere. His core isn't broken in grief. So she’s not dead. Which is good. So then, where is she?

Some of the others come forward with ideas on how to find her. A few ghosts volunteer to go out into the mortal realm, an area Danny had declared off-limits, to see if she was out there. Danny approves it. He rounds up some of the friendlier (i.e., discreet) ghosts and Amity Parkers and demolishes the outside travel ban.

So everyone spreads out, looking for their dear frenemy and teammate. But it becomes apparent very quickly that something is wrong with the rest of the world.

There are no more heroes.

Every single living superhero on the face of the Earth has just…vanished. Villains are running amok; the countries are in chaos! Some aliens are invading Earth, mythical deities are trying to take over, and society is crumbling to the ground. Everything is on the brink of collapse.

Well, Danny was still there. And so were his people. They were pretty spread out, so could they just…take up the mantles? He also knew where to find the souls of dead heroes in the Zone; surely they wouldn't mind coming out of retirement for a little bit, especially if they couldn't die again. Oh! And that skeleton army leftover from Pariah Dark's reign might be useful in repelling those invading forces.

Honestly, there were more than enough hands to go around! And with the heroes gone, Danny didn't mind letting everyone out for a little break, as long as they followed his rules. They wouldn't stop the search for the other heroes, but hopefully, when they found them, the heroes wouldn't mind Danny's intervention too much. :)

In other words:

Someone fucks up, and all of Earth's living heroes are either wished out of existence or are whisked away to some far-off realm where Danny hasn't checked yet. In the attempt to figure out what's going on, Danny lets the dead run amok over the Earth as they search for clues. The skeleton army repels the invading armies, the souls of dead heroes deal with the world leaders, and his rogues and other Amity Parkers set up shop in place of famous heroes, trying to get the cities under control again.

Basically, they just do their best to keep everything from imploding until the Justice League and others are back.

(And why is it that Danny hasn't disappeared? Well, whatever caused everyone to go poof! only affected living heroes. Anyone heroes that were dead in the first place, or even just half-dead, stayed behind.)

[grandkhan221b]

Jon, my guy, I know you were having a moment but you didn't need to read that part out loud

[addamvelaryon]

Fair at Spicetown

Artist: vats9_9

[imfinereallyy]

“The demon is back.” Eddie pokes into Steve’s side to wake him up.

“Babe, please go back to sleep.” Steve shoves his face into the pillow, making his voice muffled.

“Steeeeve.” Eddie whines, “It’s really there I swear this time. And I locked the door so I know it’s the demon again. Nothing else can get inside.”

“Eddie.” Steve squishes his face even deeper into the mattress. “You do this at least once a week. I love you; I do. But I never look because there is no demon. And every morning, you wake up fine. So please, go back to sleep.”

“What if I promise never to mention it again if it’s not really there? Will you look then?” This time Eddie’s voice wavers, his actual terror showing.

Steve sighs and shifts his head to look at Eddie, “This is really freaking you out, huh?” He says it kindly. Steve can tell this is serious to Eddie. So even if he doesn’t believe it, Eddie does. And what’s important to Eddie is important to Steve.

Eddie nods back furiously.

“Okay, I’ll look.” Steve shifts his head towards the other side, where the chair by the window sits. There, sitting in that corner is a dark shadowy figure. “Oh.”

“See! I told you! Demon! Oh god, it’s gonna get us.” Eddie throws his hands up. Even though he’s terrified, he’s accepted defeat.

“No.” Steve says calmly. “It’s just El.”

Eddie pauses his rant, “What?”

“It’s just El. In the corner. She does that sometimes, watches people she cares about until she falls asleep. To make sure they’re safe.” Steve looks at Eddie.

“The door was locked! How are you so calm about one of the kids just watching us at night?”

“Honey, she has mind powers. I don’t think a flimsy lock from Home Depot is going to stop her.” Steve deadpans before shrugging, “And it’s El. She could ask me to kill a man, and I probably wouldn’t even ask questions.”

“What if she asked you to kill me?”

“I’d be conflicted.”

“I want to be mad, but honestly I think I’d hand you the knife.” Eddie sighs, looking down at Steve.

Steve scoffs, “Don’t be ridiculous. I wouldn’t stab you. I’d obviously sneak some kind of poison into your honeycombs. Way less messy.”

Eddie goes back to nearly shouting, “Why have you thought about this?!”

“Honestly, I have a lot of intrusive thoughts. I just don’t speak them out loud.”

Despite the fact they are actively talking about his murder, Eddie can’t help but get all gooey with Steve in their bed. “Is this why you don’t get mad when I think aloud? Another reason why you just get me. Adding that tally to the ‘why we are great together’ column.”

“Yes, we’re pretty amazing. Can we go back to sleep now?” Steve smiles.

“Yes—wait, no.” Eddie corrects himself, getting himself back on track. He loves this man, but he is a sneaky little minx. “Why did El never say anything? I mean, this is not the first time I accused her of being a demon. Hell, we’ve been talking for literally five minutes, and she still hasn’t said anything. Also, what if she walked in on us doing, ya know, adult stuff?” Eddie blushes at the end. He’s acting like he hasn’t been whispering way worse things in Steve’s ear every night.

“First off, she won’t walk in on that. Apparently Max taught her about happy screams a long time ago.”

“Gross.”

“Yeaaa. Second, I’m pretty sure she’s asleep right now.”

Huh, now that Eddie thinks about it, he does hear soft little snores. Which is weird since neither he nor Steve snores, and they are both, ya know, awake.

“And I don’t think El speaking in a dark corner would have helped your fears. Like imagine just hear her soft “Hello” at 2 a.m.” Steve raises an eyebrow.

“I—okay I got nothing.”

“Fantastic can we go back to sleep now?”

Eddie gives one last shout, “You’re not going to stop her?”

“Are you going to tell her no? And make her worry?”

Eddie slinks down into the covers, “...no.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Eddie curves his body into Steve’s, seeking him out. Steve wraps his arms around Eddie, securing him to his chest. “Thank you for indulging me.”

Steve hums. “Anything for you baby. I love you.”

“I love you too.” Eddie kisses Steve lightly.

“I love you both as well.” El’s voice suddenly speaks into the silent room.

“Jesus Christ!” Eddie screams.

Steve can’t help the giggles that come out of him. He tries to smother them into Eddie’s shoulder.

Eddie can’t find it in himself to be mad.

———

some people seemed interested in more el + Steve sibling energy. And they are a sibling-like duo I love. So here’s a little something but more steddie involved. I think all three of their relationship would be very sweet. Both Eddie and Steve would protect el. I hope you enjoyed :)

[biblioflyer]

Evidence, Errata, Minor Crow Eating

For the sake of intellectual honesty, after some excellent push back (see comments) I went back and rewatched Tolerance is Extinction parts 2 and 3 and grabbed some choice quotes as well as just absorbed more context.

One concession I need to make is on the uniqueness of Bastion. Somehow I completely forgot about the large scale operation involved in assimilating the Prime Sentinels and the resources implied by it. There is a certain amount of wiggle room to suggest maybe Bastion's backers and direct reports weren't read into the entire plan and thought this was a contingency or an experimental medical test to cure cancer or some such, oblivious to Bastion's capabilities and intent.

I realize that is a reach. However, people are who generally not fans of collective punishment in other settings no matter how sad the perpetrator's backstory is, ought to be wary here as well.

I'll make a partial concession to Team What Magneto Did Wasn't That Bad: the evidence is very murky and kind of inconsistent, but it does seem to add up to human civilization as a thing capable of wielding electromagnetism that was going to be irrevocably doomed after 12 hours without Magneto's intervention, not the entire biosphere.

However, I would still encourage people on the "this is fine" bandwagon to sit with the idea of what the consequences would be if virtually all modern technology save for a few bits of alien doodads, Starktech, and assorted other "Mad Science" projects were forever inoperable. It is not a stretch to imagine that billions, certainly the overwhelming majority of people not currently living a pre-industrial pastoral life would die. They would die without any consideration as to their agency and complicity in the social structures and specific atrocities that have been inflicted upon mutants.

Furthermore, most likely a majority, but perhaps a lower proportion overall, of mutants would also die given that most are products of modern civilization and likely possess no particular skills or powers suited to survival in a world that as of 12 hours ago, can only support a pre-electrified Victorian level of technology. Said Victorian infrastructure essentially nonexistent.

Super geniuses with access to mad science tech like Richards, Stark etc. might be able to set up tiny enclaves but their bespoke mad science has generally been depicted as not particularly scalable. Certainly not scalable fast enough to save more than a pittance of lives.

Societal collapse apocalypse fans, you know the drill on this one. The shelves are empty within hours. Resupply from centralized mega-warehouses isn't coming because the trucks are inoperable and warehouses that used to be a few hours drive away are now several days walk away.

NICU incubators and life support doesn't work.

That's what Magneto was rationalizing away as an appropriate payback for Genosha and an ultimate deterrent for future Genoshas.

Just what the hell did Magneto do?

Because there seems to be a lot of confusion out there in internet land, (some of it mine) here's some choice quotes. Suffice to say some definitely imply that everyone everywhere is about to die while others are more ambiguous. Some suggest there is a future after the Blackout becomes permanent, it just sucks.

All quotes from "Tolerance is Extinction, pt 2"

4:30: "The world is going to end in 12 hours..." - Jean

7:20: "I can feel the Earth's magnetic field dying even now. When the sun sets tonight, it sets on the future." - Ororo

"We need to find Magneto and convince to reverse the damage to Earth before it becomes permanent." - Jean

12:00 "Magnus, your path leads to total destruction for both humans and mutants." - Xavier (counter: could be hyperbole, but not by much)

13:00 "We are left with but two choices: cling to this dying world..." Magneto (Implies total annihilation, but could be hyperbole)

16:00 "In under an hour, civilization as we know it ends" - Xavier (more ambiguous, could be read to mean some people on Earth will survive.)

19:00 "Bastion is building his own ideal future, unfortunately he'll have no one to share it with." - Hank (strongly implies a total apocalypse, likelihood hyperbole here seems small)

All things considered, I'm personally stepping back from the maximalist interpretation of what it means for Magneto to have wrecked the Earth's magnetic field, but some of these quotes definitely make it seem like some sort of doomsday greater than civilization simply collapsing is coming.

But even still, there is a way to read merely making technological civilization impossible as infinitely crueler than just leaving the door open for stellar radiation to sterilize the planet. What was going to play out subsequent to the Blackout becoming permanent was not immediate death, but it would be suffering and slow death on a scale only imaginable in the pages of novels like Dies the Fire or particularly well thought out apocalyptic TV media. Well almost unimaginable. There are precedents for regions experiencing the sudden collapse of the lion's share of their infrastructure and organized society. Those precedents generally end with the crisis abating for this reason or that. Magneto's Blackout, once permanent, would have no remedy. No world powers driven by an attack of conscience or politics to surge aid, because they would be equally crippled.

Being right doesn’t mean you get to kill everyone else.

I’ve seen some griping that the writers of X-Men ‘97 “did Magneto dirty” by first showing how human / mutant coexistence was a delusion only to have Magnus go full genocidal tyrant. I think this, like the exchange between Rogue and Captain America has nuances that aren’t being appreciated, but I’ll grant the point that the demographic disparity and the destructive capabilities of the setting ensure that it doesn’t take broad support by non-mutants to enact a pogrom. Even before the revelation of Bastion, the idea of an attempt to kill as many mutants in one place as physically possible and ruin the illusion of safety wasn’t that far fetched: with or without the support and sanction of major world governments.

That Magneto would respond to the Genosha massacre with disproportionate force, and let’s call it what it is: killing humanity including quite a lot of mutants, is not the writers turning on Magneto. It’s who Magneto is in the animated series and at the moment in comic lore it’s based on. Who Magneto is is a mutant supremacist. Separation from Sapiens was never just about safety. Magneto wanted to build a parallel culture. Not for the sake of creating a culture and the beauty of creative endeavors but because of mutant chauvinism.

Because the setting is what it is, Charles the assimilationist is doomed. If the rubric for success is mutant safety and equality across the board, then it’s simply unachievable because tiny cabals of madmen can cobble together salvaged alien tech, secrets from the future, and knock off Stark tech to unleash horror that is obscenely difficult to prevent and doesn’t require widespread societal consent.

Charles chooses not to blame the people just trying to live day to day for the actions of hate filled mad scientists and lynchers.

Magneto blames the masses for not recognizing and stopping the threat in their midst, sees their inaction as complicity, and even if they are blameless then they are camouflage within which existential threats to mutants conceal themselves and if Magneto has to burn down the whole village or planet to deny genocidal schemers their cover, that’s what he’ll do. He’ll kill as many non-mutants as it takes to feel safe because he did not value their lives prior to Genosha, did not feel they valued mutant lives, and he has always viewed mutant lives as more valuable. Genosha ratcheted that up to genocidal rage.

Revolutionary, terrorist, oppressed, and oppressor are not static categories. Real life figures and fictional characters can slide between them very easily because monsters can make valid points and victims can do monstrous things. A correct observation about society doesn’t justify the monster’s darkest desires and suffering doesn’t make evil deeds justified.

That’s the point. That’s always been the point of X-Men. It’s not cops and robbers, bigots vs good people, it’s the struggle of everyone not to judge everyone else by the worst thing a member of the other group has ever done. Magneto and Bastion are the faces of giving in to rage and fear. Succumbing to the easy moral certainty of collective punishment and of the rationalizations provided by their respective supremacies. They always were. Even when they were making sense. Especially when they were making sense.

Epilogue: (Tolerance is Extinction pt 3 spoilers)

It’s never too late though to step off the path of the tyrant. Better early but late is better than never.