#Follow the leader; as it were.

[hindbodes]

And then came eight years of annoying YouTube clickbait video title formatting plague.

[asavt]

Once upon a time a small rat walked into my web...

[theonewhowails]

cult trait: good die young

[starry-bi-sky]

don't you want to be a cult leader? - danyal al ghul au

this is mostly a joke post but i thought it was funny and had to share so--

his first mistake was, obviously, inheriting his father's inability to see an injustice and stand still. -- actually, danyal's first mistake was his lair being so big. a mountainous island with a large temple in the center resembling his old home in Nanda Parbat? With sprawling foliage and rivers and streams and waterfalls galore? What was he going to do with all that space? Let it go to waste? He had plants there! Native trees of the ghost zone growing from the soil! He couldn't let it all be left unchecked!

So naturally after helping a fellow teenage assassin ghost -- who he later learns is named Akihiko, -- from Walker of all people, he sent them over to hang low at his lair until it was safe enough for them to wander around the Zone. Walker couldn't get through Danyal's astrofield if his life depended on it, and trust him -- he's tried. Danny was clearing out debris from his stupid transport vans for weeks.

Honestly it wasn't so bad, he and Aki really quickly became fast friends and Danny loves having a sparring partner close to his level again -- he hasn't had this much fun fighting since he left the League. Aki was very dedicated and levelheaded, the both of them clicked really well because of it.

Nonono, the real trouble began after Danyal met some long-passed League members and allowed them to come join his island as well. Apparently they had made a few enemies of the zone, and maybe Danyal still felt some loyalty to the League. He couldn't just let them be left to rot. Their zealotry could be overlooked so long as they kept it contained and helped him take care of his island.

And it.. snowballs from there? He meets a teen squire aptly calling himself Ambroise -- whether that was his living name or not is yet to be seen -- who died during feudal france, who is just about as dramatic and passionate as every french stereotype makes them out to be. He calls Danyal "my moon and great muse" -- which is both flattering and little uncomfortable, but Danyal's grown up in the League as the Grandson of the Demon Head, he is used to mild worship. he passes it off as nothing more, nothing less. -- and while his energy is overwhelming on the worst of days, he helps Danny draw out of his shell more in ways that Sam and Tucker still struggle with.

Him and Aki butt heads a lot, but the two seem to hold the other in at least some positive regard, so Danny doesn't worry too much about them fighting while he's gone. It only becomes a mild issue when Aki also begins calling Danny "my moon". It's a little sweet, so Danyal brushes it off.

Then he takes in a troupe of ghosts some time after he defeats Pariah Dark and they begin calling him "great one" just as the yetis do in the far frozen. This is where he meets the twins -- a pair of sibling ghosts who call themselves Trixie and Missy (short for Trick and Mislead) -- who aren't quite as passionate as Ambroise but more energetic than Aki. Eventually they also start calling Danyal "my moon" and attach themselves to his hip, even within the living. They like to hide in his shadow and cause trouble for the rest of the students. He makes sure they don't hurt anyone.

He's pretty sure Aki is jealous, same with Ambroise, but he can't be too certain other than the fact that they become much more lingering (re: clingy) whenever he visits the island.. Something he's trying to do much more often these days due to the increasing amount of people living there now. Since when did he become so popular?

Then there's Pēnelópeia from the Greater Athens, who ran away from home and joined his Island after he ran into her while she was being chased by Skulker -- and he's pretty sure the reason was because of her chimeric appearance. Her strange eyes and mismatched wings and lion's tail and talons. She assimilates into his friend group very easily, she gets along well with Ambroise and Trixie and Danny usually finds the three of them climbing the trees to pluck the most fruit from the top. They can fly and he knows it, but they prefer to climb.

Then finally there's silent poet Akkara who comes from ancient mesopotamia, who gets along most with Aki -- which is no surprise there considering their similar personality dispositions. he watches Aki and Danyal fight each other and leaves comments on this or that that he notices. He writes Danyal poems on clay tablets and leaves them by his room.

They're one big mismatched group of outcasts, and Danny's got the other ghosts on his island to tend to, because they're living on his island and he wants to be hospitable even if he struggles with that. But he spends the most of his time with them.

Sam and Tucker are making fun of him. Tucker jokingly tells him 'careful Danny, at this rate you're gonna start a cult'. Danny really wishes he had taken that joke more seriously.

He just. keeps. collecting people. Wayward souls lost in the zone, looking for shelter or refuge from something or other -- whether that be another hostile ghost, or a past afterlife, or just a purpose. Danyal finds them, he takes them in, offers them a place on his island until they are ready to leave. Many seldom do. He's not complaining -- he has the space, and it feels like it's only ever growing.

His close friends, his "inner circle" as he's heard the others call them, keep insistently calling him "my moon". He starts calling them his stars, because then it only feels fair. They're his stars, this is his constellation. It becomes a thing; little star halos begin forming behind their heads, picking them out from the rest. He loves them so much, it's hard to place. Sam and Tucker are also his stars, but they reside in the living realm, they're his tie to Life. Meanwhile, his friends here know what it's like to be dead, and sometimes its nice to relate.

Those living on his island keep calling him "Great One" and he's beginning to notice zealotry in their care for his island. He really, deeply appreciates it. His close friends gain nicknames -- as his stars, it's only natural for him to pick them out from the cluster in the skies. Akihiko, his Sirius and bright star. Trix and Missy, Castor and Pollux, the twins and troublemakers. Ambroise, his zealous Antares and close friend. Penelopeia, chimeric and loyal Vega. And Akkara, his Arcturus and strength.

It's ridiculous how long it takes for him to notice; he is, of course, a deadly trained assassin. He is meant to be observant -- and normally he is! But somehow this becomes a blind spot. One that becomes too big to be dealt with by the time he realizes it.

He should've noticed when Aki, his Sirius, stood beside him one day while Danyal looked over his island and saw the sprawling spirits carrying on about their afterlife and bowing to him as they saw him, and said: "I looked down into the depths when I met you; I couldn't measure it." They aren't one for flowing prose, it took him so off guard he was silent for over a minute before he finally spoke.

Danyal should've recognized devotion for what it is, and yet he didn't. He should've recognized it when Antares began spouting praises about him, crowing about his radiance and resplendence to the heavens. He just brushed it off as Ambroise being Ambroise. He should've recognized it when Trix and Missy nearly broke Dash's leg after he knocked Danyal's books out of his hands, he excused it as them being protective. Of them coming from times where such violence may have been customary -- after all, that's what he used to be like. What he was still like, sometimes, when his emotions nearly got the better of him.

He should've noticed it when the people living on his island followed his word like gospel, looked at him like he hung the stars in the sky. When his friends gifted him a shawl with the moon phases delicately embroidered into it, with silver, shimmering thread and moving stars lovingly stitched into it. Their constellations seen clear as day in the dark fabric. When he found small shrines dedicated to him -- but they lacked any image of him beyond stones carved to look like moons, so he ignored it. When the religious imagery began popping up.

He really, really should've noticed it when a bunch of cultists accidentally summoned Antares, and Antares had turned to him when he arrived and called them heretics. But he was so centered on the fact that they had kidnapped one of his stars, that he hadn't paid much attention to what Ambroise had said.

Sages say that faith is blind, they should also say faith in you is even blinder.

It really only hits him one afternoon while he's sitting in Sam's room studying with Tucker, Missy and Trixie lounging at his feet, Aki sat on his right, Penelopeia braiding his hair, Ambroise draped against him, and Akkara lurking over him. Its one of the rare few times they're all in one room together.

It hits him like a bolt of lightning. He looks up from his textbook. "Oh Ancients," he says in no amounting shock. Everyone looks up to him.

"I've become my grandfather."

[puppppppppy]

(guy who has never played cotl) haha au time

[silly-toji]

It's almost funny that no one cared about Jayce's situationship with Viktor but it ended up being everyone else's problem in the end.

[snow-body]

what separates you from the beast? (2020, reupload from my old account)

[driftingballoons]

For the art requests: A Pokemon Mystery Dungeon team comprised of a Banette, Phantump, and Drifloon struggling to read a map?

(I was possessed by the idea of a trio team made up by these three spookies who have a neat possible dynamic when you look at their 'Dex entries, and I'd love to see your take on them in your style!)

Ooh this is such a good combo! All fantastic ghosts with that loose relationship to children falling to some misfortune

Team leader Phantump seems pretty confident, but hard to trust a pokemon’s sense of direction when their claim to fame is “child who got lost in the forest and died”

[harriertail]

okay so the gale/striped era has to be after the first warrior code and before Darkstar's Law/SkyClan's exile from the forest

much to think about

Edit this is likely wrong from furher screenshots. The era may be pre Duststar and pre warrior code????

[coolnonsenseworld]

Omg your instagram story is so right! I can’t believe I’ve never even noticed that, probably because in fanon keith and shiro are so close that I’d forgotten that isn’t canon :0

Deserves this awesome quote which I had to dig out of my sideblog reblogs

[bucketbender]

Rewatching the 5th season, there’s even more I wonder about Zarck.

Like, why was he here at all ? Every other team we saw only had four members. He said he was here to keep balance, which leads me to believe that the Shlorpian government knew that Terry and Korvo (and their replicants) were not fitted for the task, unlike all the other ships.

From what we’ve seen of Shlorp, which isn’t much at all, Terry and Korvo did not fit in their home planet from the beginning. For Terry, obviously we saw him unbutton his robe, come late in class, really just caring about having a good time, not being conform, etc. For Korvo, he was most definitely a work alcoholic in a way that wasn’t really suitable for Shlorp. Speculating here, as we didn’t literally see it in the show, but I think Korvo’s colleagues worked hard and well while also taking breaks, whereas Korvo probably worked all the time (breaks would mean talking with colleagues, and lord knows he sucks at socializing)

As for Jesse and Yumyulack, they were liabilities from the start. Needing someone else to grow properly. Seeing as one of the shlorpians didn’t understand why it was happening, something like this happening was a first - for this specific version of Shlorp anyway.

Which makes me think that the "Elders" put them all together, all of the worst shlorpians, and added their most competent and diligent general/commander to make sure they get the job done. Someone that would remind them every second of every day that they are shlorpians and have a mission. That they’re not here to explore a new planet and discover themselves and each other, but to follow their sole and unique purpose and expand their species.

Still, I don’t think we’ve seen how deep the Shlorpian rabbit hole goes quite yet. You know this episode of Rick and Morty which revealed that a lot of Morties were manufactured ? I feel like something equally horrible will be revealed in the next seasons. And Korvo and Terry miraculously escaped this whole "shlorpian conformism" protocol.

[dieselocelot]

I'M HERE AGAIN HELLOO HIIIIII :D

question about vandermorgan cuz I'm curious....

do you have any headcanons and how do you see their relationship?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words

[sporkberries]

Msf as a whole but also kaz specifically are the first victims of the cult leader big boss eventually becomes. The monster he is in mg2.

The majority of the soldiers kaz included are people he kidnapped. People who now hinge on his every word and would die for him. Just because kaz is also his accountant wife doesnt make him any less of a victim or follower of BB. Kaz can call it a partnership all he wants that doesn’t make it the truth, their relationship is not and never has been equal.

Kaz doesnt go against BB because he snaps out of his trance and realized how wrong everything is, how crazy his plans are. He does it because he felt personally betrayed. And that pride is the very reason BB betrayed him in TPP. There is no room for autonomy in his heaven. Its ironic, given the whole point of the bosses dream in the first place.

[firestorm09890]

probably deleting this later and it's not like anyone following me actually gives a shit but most of the characters I grow obsessed with end up being men because the archetype and character traits I'm obsessed with are more often than not applied to men in the fiction that ends up infecting my brain, and not because I. hate women. sometimes you can rightly say people unfairly make up backstories and shit for underdeveloped male characters and ignore the underdeveloped female characters but I promise it has nothing to do with internalized misogyny for me, it's just me chasing after whichever character fits my favored description the most, even if it's grains of sand I have to work with. genuinely if you know of media with women who are.... hm... idk if I can describe this. cold, competent, and rational and are care way too much about the rules and have a deeply fucked up relationship with an authority figure in their lives that heavily affects their actions PLEASE let me know so I can read/watch it

[devilsrecreation]

Mini AU where Nduli is somehow the leader of the crocodiles and the Pridelands are now a slightly better place bc of it jdhdhd

Like he was half-joking when he said he’d make a good crocodile leader and now

All the crocodiles: Nduli! Nduli! Nduli! Nduli! :D

Kiburi: Congrats on being the new croc leader, Nduli

Nduli: How’d I get here?

Tamka: Oh we just skipped the mashindano and just unanimously agreed you should be in charge

Nduli: I didn’t even challenge Pua

Kiburi: We just like you that much

Nduli: Oooh, okay!

Even Pua still stays in the float cuz I remember Makuu saying a leader can either accept a mashindano or surrender his leadership immediately and Pua was all “You know what, I’m going to retire early. Nduli will be a fine leader”

The biggest problem the Pridelands would face is that when Nduli does something wrong due to his overconfidence, it’d be hard for the Guard to say no to him cuz the float would just gang up on them hfhfgf

Maybe the guard would be kinda suspicious since they think Nduli could secretly be up to no good in the Savannah Summit when in reality, he’s just vibing.

Pua: Go with it. Speciesism is at an all time low since we put you in charge

Nduli: What’s “speciesism”?

Pua: It isn’t a thing anymore with you as our leader 🫡 🥹

Nduli says something really sweet like “They’re not just my float, they’re my friends and I’d do anything for my friends. They deserve it!” and one of the other crocs goes “This is exactly why you’re in charge”

[coldslaws]

inspired by this