#Everyone is going to struggle with this

[minty364]

DPXDC Prompt #58 Part 4

The living room and kitchen were deserted, neither Danny nor Jazz expected anyone as it was normal for their parents to essentially live in the basement only coming up for meals once or twice a month to ‘eat as a family’, these would consist mostly of fast food as no one trusted anything cooked in their kitchen.

They shared a glance as they opened the basement door and headed down. The dimly lit basement held the giant hole in the wall, the so-called portal, a massive metal spectacle with wires and interconnected circuitry met together to create an unholy abomination of science. Or at least that’s what Jazz called it once when they were in her room venting about the situation. 

“JAZZ!! DANNY!!” their overzealous father yelled as he bounded over.

Their mom walked over too, seeming to be happy for their return, “your father and I could barely contain our excitement all day!! Go on put on your hazmat suits.” their mom gestured over to the lockers that held the suits. Both of their parents' lockers tended to be quite empty since they practically lived in them, to the point where they had several copies of the same suits that they’d wash and reuse. Danny and Jazz only had the ones, Jazz had a nice dark violet color with black gloves and boots. Danny had black gloves and boots too but his was white to make it look like he was an astronaut, something that he had mixed feelings on. Both of these used to have a giant picture of Jack’s head on it but it was quickly removed by both siblings. 

They quickly put the suits on over their uniforms and joined their parents behind some glass near the portal. It wasn’t closed off or anything and Danny didn’t think it would be able to prevent something like an explosion from charing all of them but it’s hard to have faith in parents who've missed so much because of the stupid portal, or at least that’s how Danny felt. 

Jazz and Danny huddled together behind their parents as their mom did some final checks on a clipboard, “alrighty we should be all good, Hun you ready to throw the switch?” their mom asked their dad. “As ready as I’ll ever be!” Jack yelled as he threw down the switch.

…

A few sparks erupted from the portal but other than that nothing happened. 

Their dad, frustrated at this angrily tried turning it off and on again but nothing but another smaller spark and then truly nothing. 

Another low frustrated growl left their dad as he and mom walked back up the steps, “alright I’m taking a break.” Jack said, almost defeated, sounding, “I’m sorry but I really thought we had it this time.”

“Oh come on, Jack, let’s go out, I’m sure the kids were probably going over to the Wayne’s again anyways. Let’s go out and have a fun night then sleep on it.” their mom said, patting dad on the shoulder. They shared a fond look and then went upstairs probably to get ready. 

Danny and Jazz stood at the bottom of the stairs and shared a look.

“They gave up too fast again…” Jazz noted.

“I guess, what do we do now?” Danny asked.

“I’m still a little curious about the portal but I don’t want to keep Damian, Tim or Alfred waiting,” Jazz said with a hand on her cheek.

“We could invite them in, I know we haven’t before but maybe Tim would know how to get it working, he is pretty good with technology.” Danny reasoned. Neither of them really wanted to involve the Wayne’s in their family’s shenanigans but at this point they were all friends and Damian and Tim were bound to find out how weird their family was at some point anyways.

Jazz stood there seeming to think things over before she nodded, “alright I trust your judgment but we’ll have to be careful okay?” 

Danny smiled at her, “of course, what’s the worst that could happen?” 

This is what led to the four of them standing at the bottom of the stairs. Their parents had left about an hour ago. Danny and Jazz were still in their suits with Tim without one and made to sit with Jazz behind the glass and Damian and Danny planning to explore the actual tube.

“I don’t want to chance you getting hurt,” he said to her as he made her stand next to Tim.

Damian and Danny shared a look and nodded before heading into the tube. 

They looked around for a while but didn’t see much besides the interconnected wires on the floor of the lab. Damian took the right side while Danny took the left. They worked their way up and down the tube. Damian was a little ahead of Danny on their way out. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

When they were almost out Danny lost his footing, his hand flying out in front of him. A soft click was heard and time seemed to crawl to a stand still.

Danny couldn’t stand the thought of his friend getting hurt because of him and he felt a rush of adrenaline. He ran as he felt a swirl of energy and electricity surround his body. 

“DANNY!! DAMIAN!!” he heard both Tim and Jazz shout as he reached Damian who was at the mouth of the portal.

A quick shove was all it took to get Damian, who had turned towards him at the sound of the shout, out of the portal. 

“DANIEL!!” he heard Damian shout as the portal activated on top of him, surrounding his body with swirling green.

Blinding pain shot through Danny, feeling as if he was being torn apart and put back together again and again.

He figured he was dying but at least he could protect those he cared about. He was able to shove Damian out of the portal in time, and Tim and Jazz were safely behind the blast glass.

He wouldn’t ever be able to fly among the stars as an astronaut but he was able to protect. His family and friends were safe and that’s all that mattered. 

He could allow himself to succumb to the darkness as the electricity and pain consumed him whole.

[ktkat99]

Jason comes back from the dead and, as he's still a bit out of it, heads to the manor.

Crawling straight up through six feet of compacted earth is hard, especially after waking up suddenly in a coffin, so after he makes it inside, he sits down to rest on the couch.

And immediately falls asleep.

Hours later, Bruce returns home to find Jason's body, covered in dirt, dug up from the grave and left on his couch.

[pitifulwolves]

This has been stuck in my brain for days I had to get it done

[whenthelightisrunninglow]

spent the last couple nights watching the handplates (<- @zarla-s if you’ve never read it) comic dub with a friend of mine :-]

gaster ^

[mipexch]

piece i did for @arensika 's project. the divine & the machine

[bottombaron]

jsyk, there was an actual sincere closing line that condensed the thesis statement for the whole show and tied up the emotional arcs of the characters for the finale.

it was said in season 5's episode, The Roast:

edit @beaulesbian

[voidedtea]

[ID in alt]

my pieces for @strawberrij's thespius fashion zine!! quite the endeavour and adventure that turned out pretty neat i think :]

special thanks go to @ratchetclankarecute for posing/cloth references + the bulk of the image descriptions! that first image would Not have happened without them <3

[fairsweetlonging]

have been in a qijiu/qiyuan mood lately, and i was thinking about an au where shen yuan, upon transmigrating, actually loses his memories. he wakes up and has no idea who he is, where he is, who the man at his bedside is. not a clue. the only thing he has is his muscle memory, his sharp recognition senses (he's experiencing a lot of déjà-vu), and blurry fractions of memories that he can't quite make out.

thing is, the memories of both shen yuan and shen jiu aren't actually gone, they start to intermingle, to mix up, a little sister in princess pajamas beside an older brother wearing dirty rags, a bright screen that displays mountain peaks and glittering caves. he's kind and generous the way someone who has never had to worry about food or money is, but he gets vicious and defensive when someone gets too close. sometimes he says cruel things and doesn't even understand why himself.

neither identity fits anymore, both names right and wrong at the same time. it's just... shen qingqiu.

and while everyone else might adjust to this just fine, yue qingyuan does not. because that is shen jiu, but it isn't, but it has to be, but not always. he gets flashes of his childhood friend when shen qingqiu gets viciously defensive over nothing, when he scowls and scoffs and rolls his eyes when he thinks people can't see, but then he smiles, and laughs, and tilts his head in a way that is completely foreign. he likes beasts. shen jiu never liked beasts. but he loves tanghulu, like shen jiu. sweet sugary things. the first time xiao jiu cuddles up into his hug, he cries.

the way he sometimes clings to yue qingyuan when he has a bad day can't be him, but then he says "qi-ge" exactly like shen jiu would and damn near snarls at anyone who gets too close, and he's aggressively possessive the way he was when they were kids. but then he pulls away and apologizes, like shen jiu would never do.

and he never demands anything, scrubbed clean from roughness and filth and selfish want, will act perfect and smiling and pleasant, never burdensome. like he's completely forgotten where he came from, what he was. like the pampered nobleman's son who could afford to be kind. the only time his old self comes fully back up is when he feels threatened or scared or angry, like a trauma response that kicks in to protect himself. and then yue qingyuan starts to wonder if maybe it is. maybe the shen jiu he knows was only ever fear and self-preservation, and the one he is now is a shen jiu without the chains and shackles and scars.

yue qingyuan doesn't know if he's happy for him, if it's for better or for worse. he does know that he feels protective and responsible for this new version xiao jiu has become.

meanwhile shen qingqiu, even when he regains enough of his memories to realize he was once a different person, doesn't know who he is anymore. both, maybe. or neither. he feels bad for taking away yue qingyuan's friend, but in his heart he can't help but think qi-ge is his brother, and no one else's. when he manages the peak he feels like he's taking credit for another's accomplishments, but he remembers suffering for it, he remembers what it took to get there.

[adhdandcomics]

i’m very sorry that society has made you feel this way about your fellow disabled people. i hope you can reflect on why you believe that other people with worse symptoms than you are bringing down this community and giving us a bad name.

(especially in the context of a vent post that is not indicative of whether or not we are “actually trying” in real life.)

i am also sorry that society makes you believe that in order for disabled people to be respected we have to consistently be working toward a nebulous goal of self improvement and overcoming of disability as to not be perceived as lazy and inconsiderate by the world.

i hope you can be kinder and more patient with yourself and your disability in the future, too.

[momentomori24]

I may just be insane about this but does this feel like foreshadowing to anyone else. In this scene we see her trying to replicate the skill of someone else (her mother) and failing to achieve the same results that they would. That feels really specific and it's driving me insane.

Like, we see this come back again in the aftermath of the trial. Diana has repeatedly voiced her admiration for Wolfgang's ability to speak and inspire those around him in the darkest of times, saying she wished she could do the same. We see her pour her heart out and give her own speech to inspire the others-- except the reaction that she receives is cold and miserable, far from the newly kindled warmth and hope Wolfgang was able to create every time.

Diana is a chameleon. Her whole thing is to reflect, to replicate and to adapt. Do you think that this small scene where she tries to make a butterfly out of her hairclips-- a butterfly, an animal associated with transformation and change-- and the end result looking nothing like what she wanted it to be is a metaphor for her future character arc? She has declared that she wants to follow in Wolfgang's footsteps, wants to become something new, but do you think that by the end she ends up being the furthest thing from him? Do you think that by the end she will be left distorted, fundamentally wrong? Do you think that if she could see what she will become in the future, the only emotion that she can muster is horror as she gazes at a stranger that's supposed to be herself? That by the end, she won't be able to recognise herself, because there's no "her" left anymore?

[way-to-go-you-funky-little-blue]

love how DE gave us Rell and said that autistic people are still individuals worthy of respect and care who do not need to be fixed and instead should be given tools and support catered to their needs

love how DE gave us Amir and said that AuDHD people can still recognize when others look down on them and can know that there is something different with them and can come to feel like they need to rip out the parts of themself that others don't like just to be accepted

love how DE gave us Kaya and-

[gunsatthaphan]

🏳️‍🌈!!!

[ifindus]

inspired by true events

[motsimages]

I think one of my favourite scenes in Sinners is the one in the car, when Slim gets emotional about his life and turns his pain into a song. It is just a moment but it encapsulates the whole movie while also telling the audience the history of Blues, a music style that is called after a very direct feeling of, well, blues.

Everyone in the movie is riddled with sorrow and pain and weight. And they are all doing their best to keep going, they are all finding ways to distract it. Times are hard and life is hard and history is hard. Absolutely nobody is doing ok. It's the beginning of the Great Depression, in the plantations.

But there is song, and dance, and sex, and food, and drink. And it's a bit lighter, specially if you have someone to do it with. He starts singing alone and Sammie is asked to play along, you cannot let this man sing his sorrows alone. We won't speak about it more than what you will tell us, but we won't let you face it alone. It is a movie about quiet company, which is ironic given the amount of music there is.

Slim recalls his anecdote, erratically, and we (the audience) hear his memories of it, the music he played, the people yelling at him, the banging. But in the car, they are in silence until the moment he sings.

And I think this is a powerful message not only in the context of the movie, but in the current context we are living. To keep each other company in the pain, without judgement.

[sevenrestdays]

(Lego Monstrosity Spoilers)

I see a lot of people not fully understand the entire scene with Kai walking into the water with the monster/siren thing where he just slowly accepts his fate rather than suddenly snapping out of it because why would he walk in there in the first place?

The thing is that Kai's entire motivation is his friends, family and the people he cares about. This is shown in the way he is quick to harshly blame himself for things or consider himself inadequate if he could've done something to prevent the injury or loss of someone; the fact he became a ninja only to save Nya; the fact he persevered through the Land of Monsters if only to see his family again.

Without the people he loves, Kai is, honestly, nothing.

There's also the fact that he was not only quite physically fatigued and most likely malnourished, but he was also so clearly mentally exhausted. There's no way he could 100% rationally think (And I say this because I also don't think he would've snapped like he did at Rusty had he been in a better headspace).

The creature in the water seemingly preys on that sort of thing: Creatures with strong desires or the mental fatigue of creatures struck with the loss and grief of a loved one.

• Loss can come in various ways that aren't just death. Kai had lost his home, path and contact with the people he cared about in the Merge, and damn well nearly lost himself too.

We see this same loss and grief thing with Daidan and Rusty. Daidan's child, who was cruelly taken from her all too soon and Rusty's creator who succumbed to the Land of Monsters.

Daidan's reason to live was stripped away from her when her child died. Her purpose was to be a mother, to protect her child. Of course she'd risk herself for one small, slim chance that it was all a bad dream and that her child was safe alongside her.

Kai's reason to push forward was, is and always has been — as I've said — his family and friends. He'd started to reach his limits, and was desperate to see them again. Of course he'd fall for the illusion and walk into the water; he was at wits end. He would do anything to go back.

Now, why did Rusty manage to break free from the spell while Kai and Daidan failed to do so? The answer is simple:

Rusty's creator, while someone he cherished and missed tremendously, wasn't his purpose or his grief anymore. His purpose was to protect, and his grief would've been failing another fire wielder and failing his creator's wishes. He knew his creator wouldn't have wanted him to let others die for no reason.

~

And I for one am glad we got to see Kai not be strong and certain all the time. He ran, he cried, he was scared.

He was so so human.

Yes he was brave and moral, but he also was not a strong unflappable Ninja, he was simply Kai. He had raw fits of frustration and anger, grief and pain, fear and hopelessness. And I think that's so refreshing to see, especially from Kai who hasn't gotten nearly enough time in the 'Emotional Depth' spotlight (In my opinion).

[so-long-soldier28]

theo's situation in 6b is so sad and frustrating, bc what do you mean the deputies kept waking him up but never did anything more than make him move? you're telling me not a single one of them ran the plates of the truck that consistently kept showing up in different parking lots around town? not one of them realized the truck was stolen, nor did they bother to ask him for any ID before making him move? this baffles me, bc of the sheer amount of times they woke him in that montage, yet none of them really ever said a word to him.

and the other thing that bothers me is when he's in the station. he gets arrested for suspicion of murder, and not a single deputy mentions they recognize him? his truck is impounded in the lot out back and they still haven't run the plates? they don't question the bullet holes, nor the fact it was found across the tracks? theo proves himself innocent of the crime; he had no connection to the two found in his company, but they're just going to let him go? sign this piece of paper and go back to the streets? the arrest record had him marked as a juvenile, nobody cared about that?

now i have two theories about this situation, bc it keeps me awake at night - the implication that an entire sheriff's station could be so negligent of a homeless kid in their own small town. one is that the department lacked communication so greatly, anyone who ever came in contact with theo didn't report, nor talk about it. either they just wanted him gone, or he left so quickly, they didn't have time to ask for ID or run plates (which i highly doubt; he was asleep, and they could've run the plates before waking him if they cared / did their job correctly). maybe since he wasn't a great disruption, they didn't see the need to look into the truck, nor the kid occupying it. maybe the deputies aware talked amongst themselves, but never thought it a big enough deal to handle properly. when he came into the station, they whispered, but didn't want to admit he was familiar. when the truck was impounded, they recognized it and didn't bother to run it.

but my other, and more likely theory is that the sheriff didn't care, and therefore, neither did his deputies. maybe they did report it. maybe they ran his plate through the system, determined it was stolen, and made a case to the sheriff, but he waved it off. maybe he told them to just keep him moving, and hoped he'll leave eventually. it could be why none of them bat an eye about letting the juvenile kid without proper ID back onto the street in the bullet-stricken, stolen truck. maybe they cared at one point, but when the sheriff blew them off and tossed their reports in the trash, their concern dwindled, and their empathy went with it. because why would stilinski care at all for theo, when he, himself, threatened to shoot him if he deemed it necessary? stilinski saw him as an evil person for whom he had no use; he was visibly irritated when liam suggested they use his help to fight, and despite having no deputies for support, he still hesitated against liam's idea. theo being reduced to nothing and forced to sleep in vulnerability was - to stilinski - exactly what he deserved for the hell he caused.

and i can understand stilinski being stubborn to trust him. i can see why he'd dislike the idea of relying on him for help, and why he'd prefer to keep him behind bars until he could prove himself useful. but i can't wrap my head around stilinski being okay with neglecting him, knowing he's completely alone and doing nothing about it. signing him out without a care in the world. promising a kid he'd shoot him if he did something wrong. stilinski knowing and ignoring it seems far-fetched at first, until you remember that promise he'd made earlier - with a witness, no less - and then it becomes clear.