#I'm still here (after the rain)
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outtox1cated · 25 days ago
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It's good to know that i'm not the only one who went throught the rain world to ultrakill hyperfix pipeline. i had enough of being a little clueless animal and dying in the most embarassing way possible, it's time to KILL
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quatregats · 3 months ago
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I feel like there is a definite uptick in wanting to see Hornblower suffer for people who've read past Beat To Quarters/The Happy Return. Like I think you can't get past the original trilogy without thinking that he should squirm a little bit for his crimes
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wuxian-vs-wangji · 5 months ago
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Yeah... I remember seeing the architectural design majors at my uni having this breakdown each semester...
#love in the air#lita#rain#scriptwriting was the only course within my major famous for making people openly cry#because the professor would eviscerate you with her feedback#not to be mean; but she would look at the feedback you'd already been given by your classmates over and over throughout the course#and if you still hadn't fixed issues she'd really stab into them and rip you apart#she liked me though- i followed the syllabus due dates and no one else did#meaning day 1 i already had a treatment ready by the first class#and even though she told me the syllabus schedule didn't need to be followed; i chose to follow it#because it kept me a week ahead or so#So when I finished each 200+ page draft of my script I was finishing it a week early#which let me focus on other exams in other classes and manage my workload more easily#the only time scriptwriting made me cry was when i spent 6 hours typing draft 6 of a 214 page feature and my computer crashed#erased the whole thing#i'd been typing up the script based on hand notes i'd written on my previous draft so it was easy to recreate#but redoing it took 8 hours since my hands were so tired#but that wasn't the classes fault; that was my fault#i did really well in the class; you just can't take feedback personally and a lot of writers really struggle with that#i've lost so many friends because they claim to be writers who take feedback seriously#and then it turns out they're little bitches about it and throw tantrums after begging me to give them feedback#so now I will not give a friend feedback on anything they write#for the record- the way i was trained is not to be cruel or mean#you literally just go through it like 'here is what I had issues with as a viewer and here are some ideas on how to easily fix that'#always offer a solution#and for every complaint you have to give a complementt#so i'm not out there like gordon ramsey ripping into people; it's very gentle and kind#except when i gave M her round 6 feedback on her script and she STILL insisted Mt Everest was 3 billion years old in her story#AT EVERY STAGE OF THIS SCRIPT I REMINDED YOU IT IS AROUND 30 MILLION YEARS OLD GET IT THROUGH YOUR-
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quaranmine · 5 months ago
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i can't believe i spent two weeks in a country infamous for its rain and ill-tempered weather and it rained more back home in Texas than it did on me in Iceland
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thistransient · 11 months ago
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clouds over 永和 and 新店 on the Wednesday bike ride
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soldierandawar · 16 days ago
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not to be a fun killer, but it is certainly a choice to keep emphasizing a fanon queer relationship over a canon one to bait your readers into clicking on your article. but go ahead, sis. get that SEO optimization.
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infinitethree · 2 months ago
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Okay, you know what?
The bastard is almost, on an aesthetic level, not terrible to look at while he’s like this.
Asleep, he can’t be a fucking sociopath or an asshole. Those too-clever eyes of his aren’t judging and dissecting, they’re closed.
The absence of that bright blue gaze makes him seem surprisingly vulnerable.
So does the way Daz has, in the short while he’s been asleep, already snuggled up to him and is being clingy.
After the last few hours of running around looking for him, it’s a relief to know that he’s been mostly fine all along.
Naturally, when Daz didn’t come home, Raine got worried. The Council, aside from Lee who had been kept out of it, have been searching his known hidey-holes for hours now.
Obviously the HQ was one of the first places they checked, but the wall that leads into the hidden room was sealed off. They assumed that meant he wasn’t there, so they ignored it.
It wasn’t until Aster, in a last-ditch attempt, decided to open it up and check that the bastard was found.
He’d been fine, thankfully. Just having hyper fixated on the code and shut out everything else.
Aster carefully takes his com out and taps out a message to the others.
ShiningAster: bastard located. fine but asleep. focused on coding body for Innit, forgot he has a human body.
RaineStorm: seriously?? uhg, at least it’s normal shit this time
RaineStorm: as opposed to soul crushing despair and existential terror
Khons: need help moving him? ShiningAster: staying here. fell asleep on me, he has nightmares. also touched starved. might be less bastard if he gets good sleep
It’s only a little bit of a lie. Technically, none of that was wrong, but the implication was that Daz wasn’t strongarmed into accepting.
RaineStorm: yeah his nightmares are BAD and music only kinda helps.
ShiningAster: I think I can fix it. saying more will make him pissy
Khons: well if he’s not in trouble and staying there we’re going to bed
ShiningAster: night
RaineStorm: gn
RaineStorm: it’s gonna be really funny seeing him fall for you ngl
ShiningAster: its gonna be weird as fuck for me
After a moment, he switches to DMs.
ShiningAster: at some point we have a kid. Not adopted I think. looks just like him. her name is Azira. means rising star.
RaineStorm: WHAT THE FUCK??????
ShiningAster: also he made a deal to help with Innits body for seeing the same shit I do. but for me obviously
RaineStorm: oh my god that stupid asshole
RaineStorm: maybe he’ll learn his lesson. bc you’re def good to him, I know you.
ShiningAster: hes capable of being good to me back. too busy being petty for now though
RaineStorm: yeahhhhhh. he’s def an acquired taste. but he really is a great guy when you get past his him-ness
ShiningAster: lol
RaineStorm: he figured out I’d want a heated tub, art studio, and a porch. it’s freaky tbh but it’s nice.
ShiningAster: sounds fake but ok
RaineStorm: you’ve never seen him be like that so it’s hard to picture but it’s true!
That’s not quite right; Aster has seen Daz be kind and generous to others…he’s just never been the target.
No, maybe that’s not fair. He’s dragged Aster to a place of being better in a way he never would have done on his own. Despite his attitude, it did still benefit Aster.
Granted, he’s also been an asshole on purpose for literal years, so. That kind of events out.
ShiningAster: honestly just want to eat his damn food without being drugged
RaineStorm: something something the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach
ShiningAster: it sucks so bad to play chicken on if Ill suffer when I touch his cooking
ShiningAster: usually its worth it. at least until whatever he put in it hits
RaineStorm: and now we know why
ShiningAster: maybe therapy will fix him
RaineStorm: ngl I think not thinking he’ll kill anyone he loves will do wonders on its own
RaineStorm: but therapy will help too probably
ShiningAster: cant say much for obvious reasons but hes fundamentally broken. has been for most of his life.
ShiningAster: but Id never have a kid if he didnt seem in a good place. so whatever he does works
RaineStorm: have you considered it might be the power of love
ShiningAster: fuck you
RaineStorm: I’m serious!! think about it, he’s spent like 4 years thinking being loved will get that person killed
RaineStorm: he might have divine confirmation but he’s stubborn. might not feel real
RaineStorm: soooo someone who loves him despite his bullshit might be the thing that makes him be less…yknow
Ah, another reminder of how deeply fucked up Daz actually is.
ShiningAster: could be having someone who knows his secrets or even just Innit being out
RaineStorm: remind it that it needs a new name btw. too close to existing ones
RaineStorm: but yeah that probably helps too
RaineStorm: I feel awful I never noticed he was so…unwell
ShiningAster: hes good at hiding what he wants to hide. cant blame yourself when hes a master manipulator.
Said master manipulator mumbles into Aster’s chest, voice small, “I missed you.”
And, fuck, something in his chest feels like it cracks when Aster realizes what and who Daz must be dreaming about.
There’s nobody it could be but his former mentor. The person who gave him everything he ever wanted…and then committed an unspeakable sin against him.
Clearly, Daz still misses him. Despite what Dream had done to him, a part of him still misses the person who crushed him infinitely worse than anyone before him.
Despite only getting brief glimpses of that time, Aster gets the impression that Dream had been someone whose preciousness went beyond words.
Yet Daz couldn’t stomach letting him have his way after what he did. He rejected a place as a near-god beside someone who, despite the sickness in his soul, was devoted to him to a disturbing degree.
That…takes a strength of will that Aster isn’t completely sure he could match.
Fuck, nor does the decision to use the lethally broken enchantment as a backup plan.
If the rest of the server had failed to kill him, Daz would have chosen a death so agonizing that it chills Aster to his core.
It’s not hard to see why Daz is so…himself, honestly. Aster might not be able to think like him, nor agree with his actions, but in a fucked up way he can follow most of the logic now that he has the pieces.
He swallows as Daz’s voice wavers and cracks. “You said you’d protect me, so why…”
Aster adjusts his arms to a more comfortable positon, and messes with his hair more. “I’m not him, Daz. You’re not Tommy any more. Dream was sick– you know that.”
Horrifyingly, Daz starts shaking as he cries.
He rushes to add, “But– but you can have something new. Fuck, if you can be even halfway decent, I’d fall for you pretty damn quick. You can be charming, you know? And– and pretty romantic. It was– maybe it wouldn’t be awful. If you just stopped being such a bastard–”
At a loss for what else to do, he cuts himself off and starts humming.
Eventually, Daz slips back into deeper sleep.
But the memory of this unsettlingly fragile side of him will remain in the back of Aster’s head. Even when Daz is being the biggest bastard he can be…Aster knows he’ll remember this.
#chronotag#shiningaster#dazzlingvoid#Aster has COMPLICATED FEELINGS about this!!#on one hand he still has a lot of resentment and anger bc of Daz's actions#on the other like--#Daz is shockingly vulnerable in this scene. it's not something Aster has seen of him y'know?#trauma is dealt with with snarling anger and seething hatred#not crying. not asking 'why' in such a broken voice.#so yeah. Aster is like-- 'fuck I kind of see what future me sees in him#he's stronger and weaker than I ever imagined#and maybe since I already know that I'll fall for him anyway it's....okay? to feel something here???#let's start with pity. I'll begin there and see if he fucks it up.'#also yeah Raine is like WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN YOU TWO HAVE A KID#he's having a little crisis at home lmao#'there's no fucking way I'm not one of multiple godfathers. is it me Theo Lee??? (yes)#do I. do I start figuring out baby shit now. how quick does this happen. there's like 9 months at least right?#I can start when they bring it up probably. but also this is DAZ AND ASTER'S KID#gods help that poor kid. what do you need to babyproof a house actually that's something innocent I can research'#esp after Aster stops replying he's just left to deal with his ?????????????????? about it all LMAO#like granted he's also proud that Daz is letting Aster help him sleep. Daz rejects most kinds of touch in blackout rooms#but especially anything that lasts a long time#this is a HUGE deal for both of them and Raine (as their mutual bestie) is like YEAHHHHH GO ENEMIES TO LOVERS ARC#Raine def has THOUGHTS about all this btw. if anyone cares.
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k2ulhu · 6 months ago
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according to imdb the 2 highest rated x files episodes are clyde bruckman's final repose (s3e4) and bad blood (s5e12) -- both with a 9.2/10. s3e4 aired october 13 1995 (mulder's birthday) and s5e12 aired february 22 1998 (one day before scully's birthday). which is a pretty cool coincidence
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peridots-pixiwolf · 2 years ago
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yknow I play a lot of hard games but usually not "took 73 days to beat" hard
#aka gUESS WHO JUST BEAT RAIN WORLD. AFTER TWO AND A HALF MONTHS#rain world#peridots-nonsense#i got into subterranean like a week ago but have been mostly hanging around by the worm grass shelter for 20 cycles#i went to every region (even if i only spent a couple minutes total in drainage lol). met every echo besides the farm arrays one.#got every passage achievement (every one besides dragon slayer/wanderer in outskirts and industrial within my first few weeks of playing)#and never used a passage anyway. three months!!! rounding up a little! for a game that can be beat in less than 20 cycles.#dh was twelve days (though i'd played through part of it years earlier). stray was seven hours. insc was only a couple days.#i've done two separate ultkill playthroughs so not sure which to count but both were less than a week#hk was actually just over a month. may 24 to june 26th. which is still so much less than this. bftes about a month too#i remember how even just a week into rw i felt like i'd been playing it forever...even just a week in i knew it would be one of Those Games#where i wish i could play it over for the first time again. boy was i right. it almost felt like a second life at times#i loved just running around in certain areas building up stores of food and spears and vulture masks#(what comes to mind are / HI_S02 / CC_S05 / SI_S04 / SB_S07. the first two felt like home!)#(* up in the sixth tag i missed the friend. i was relishing in hubristic bloodlust especially in CC so i didn't have much time for taming)#if the tags here seem particularly incoherent i only falsely apologize. i'm just. reminiscing. i don't think i can do anything else#my heart was pounding as soon as i reached the depths. after 325 cycles. 116 hours. two and a half months. it's over.#maybe a little dramatic but hey it took up an invariable portion of my life for a fifth of a year so. it's just interesting#anyway. a standard ''i took too long on this and now the sun's rising'' goodbye to you tag-wanderer
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musesofchaos · 2 years ago
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starter for @kyuusou​
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“So... you’re me.” Well that was an awkward start to this conversation. Izumi never could have imagined herself in a situation like this. She recalled reading briefly on the theory of a multiverse but never had considered that it might have actually been true.   Now she found herself sat next to... dare say a much prettier version of her. The short-haired look worked, she would admit.  “Eheh, sorry.” The longer-haired brunette apologized with a nervous chuckle, smiling sheepishly. “I never pictured myself in this type of situation.” Did she remember too? Remember it all? The joy, the pure love, the happiness? Did she feel suffocated by grief when she realized none of it was real? Does she hate him? Izumi sighed, trying to reel herself in as her hands clenched into fists. “How about some dango?” She abruptly offered. “Dango always makes me feel better when I feel anxious. Unless this is a world where I hate dango...” She gave her double a sceptical look. “Do you hate dango?”
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gottagobuycheese · 2 years ago
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genuinely truly wholeheartedly cannot fathom people who go running before work. what do you mean you don’t get out of bed 10-15 minutes before you need to be fully dressed, breakfasted, equipped, and out the door? why would you voluntarily wake up SEVERAL hours early and go get sweaty in the dark and cold and then have a shower in the MORNING only to go to work all day?? incomprehensible.
#context: my housemate and I went for a run/walk this evening and we remarked on how nice it was and how we should do it more often#but realistically the only way we'd be able to do it during the weekdays is before work#which like. lmao.#I'm sorry but your insomnia and my insomnia do not line up enough for this#the only person who comes to mind that I actually know does this is my high school ap chem teacher#but she also got her phd at 25 so she doesn't count#I do like running in the mornings the few times I've done it!#but the only way we'd be able to get it done before work here is well before sunrise#which I am intrinsically opposed to#and also if I have work right after I can't just come back home and go back to sleep or slouch on the couch for 3 hours straight#I was going to say something but there was this HUGE gust of wind and rain and other noises lashing my window and I forgot what it was#anyways in summary I still don't want to go to work tomorrow#and I'm rrrreeeaaaaallllyyyy hoping that the ‘don't want to be here’ energy of Friday carries over to today#phenomenal job on Friday 6 out of 8 of my co-worker's people didn't show up#I yearn for that sort of attendance#please. please give me nothing to do. let me catch up on my other stuff. you do not need to come in for this. this can be an email.#(to be fair I would also hate it if it were an email sdkjfhskfjh)#(...yeah actually maybe don't make it an email)#(but please please PLEASE no more backstories tragic or otherwise)#(please let it just be simple and straightforward enough to finish all my notes as they come)#(I still have to do Friday's because I slept like all of Saturday and half of today)#ah shoot and I still need to study...#you know what. I'm gonna have to say it: I miss December#Cheese's personal molasses#Cheese evaporates about...job??#okay I should go to sleep now and stop fantasizing about a tree missing everything but landing exactly across our driveway#rendering it impossible for us to go to work#OKAY STOP WHINING#IF WE MAKE IT THROUGH TOMORROW I'LL LET YOU DO SOMETHING ART RELATED A N D EAT SOME COOKIE DOUGH HOW'S THAT
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tapuhauko · 1 year ago
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hannie-dul-set · 26 days ago
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having the worst fucking week of my LIFE i can't do this anymore.
#4 days straight government events at my internship. thesis got fucking overhauled by our adviser.#because he's using us to compete with his colleagues at the office.#had to juggle those two (+ my event. ill get to that later) that i got SICK what the fuck.#had the event ive been planning for about two months earlier. the fucking uni's general services office were assholes and caused us major#delays#which led to us getting fucking RAINED on so we had to CANCEL it HALFWAY and all of my kids#work on the stage and venue design got soaked in the rain#on top of all of these.#when i got back home after half a day of thesis. half a day of org work. my mom tells me#that rini and woong got taken by their mom and she can't find them anywhere#their bitch of a mother that leaves them starving all day to fucking sunbathe!!!!#i was bawling for a good thirty minutes last night UGH im pretty sure she just took them to the back of the house somewhere.#my mom's gonna ask help from the neighborhood kids to look for them huhuhuhuhu.#id be fine with it if the mom takes care of them. i seriously never tried to bother them too much until this weekend because i thought the#mom has been taking care of them but she hasn't so i had to feed them myself and sHE TOOK THEM AWAY 😭😭😭😭.#god i'm having the worst time.#and now i have to clean the aftermath of this ti#week's hell before i can finally fucking relax in my room.#i hate it here.#at least i'm hot.#event costume was an emo tiefling with a nearly six foot tall axe.#wore it while commuting to uni!!! loved the stares that i got it was very validating!!!!!!!!!!#gonna add that since this week has been pure shit#the only things that i had looking forward to at the end of every day was seeing my cats and feeding them and id feel instantaneously better#but now they're not around!!!!!! so i'm extra fucking sad!!!! god i feel like sobbing again!!!!!#there were only two things that i asked from the lord today.#that it wouldn't rain. and that i'd get my cats back.#neither of those fucking happened!!!!!!!!!! my event was thrown to hell and i still miss my fucking cats!!!!!!!!!!!!
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tittyinfinity · 3 months ago
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Neighbors on my block & neighbors on my friend's block have decided to make free-roaming dogs a thing.
My friend's next door neighbors don't have a fence and they don't tie their dog up. He's a medium-sized mutt. My friend can't take her dogs outside without this dog rushing up and jumping on them. She can't take her 3 year old outside at all. Quote her neighbors, "Oh, he's friendly!" My poor friend is too nice to stand up to it; I've offered to step in but she doesn't want the drama. Any time I drive to her house, the dog is just walking around the block, digging & shitting in people's yards, absolutely zero regard for what this dog is getting up to.
Like how can you look at your dog pouncing on someone, freaking out their dog and their kid, and go "oh, it's okay if he jumps on you with his sharp-ass claws because he's friendly" ????????
Now, my neighbors here on my block have two huge dogs, a black lab and a golden retriever. I saw them roaming around in yards together and decided to stop to see if I could rescue them. They started digging under a neighbor's fence. Then I heard whistling from a few houses down – the neighbors calling the dogs to come back. They did run back to their owners, but they went right back to letting them go wherever they wanted. (These are the same neighbors that will park multiple trucks in the middle of our narrow road, blocking it to where you have to drive around the block the other way to get around them, and they're well known scammers with horrible reviews on the company they own. So it doesn't surprise me at all that they don't give a shit. Everyone on our block talks about how much they can't stand them.)
Like, it's already dumb enough to let your cats free roam outside when there's god damn roadkill all over the place, but fucking DOGS? We're not in the country! We're in the fucking city! WE'RE NEXT TO AN EXPRESSWAY AND A HIGHWAY!
Just fuck anyone who has small children, huh? They can't go outside if dogs are jumping on them. What about people's cats? The stray cats in the neighborhood? Are the dogs just gonna leave them alone? And then people's yards & gardens too! Digging under fences, digging up flowerbeds, leaving holes in the yard that our elderly neighbors could trip on....
How could you not care????
#.bdo#before anyone suggests animal control no they can't do anything about it & they usually show up w cops anyway#my mom & sister already tried calling animal control on my sister's ex whenever his dogs were getting out 2-3 times a week#2 weeks ago one of those dogs was hit by a car & killed.#the day after our neighbor rescued them out of the rain and brought them to us.#because they got out so often that they knew to just bring them here until he could come over.#he was always over at a house only 2 blocks away so the dogs would always be in our neighborhood and he would never get them#he never answers his fucking phone so it was always our responsibility to get his dogs#he's absolutely loathed by the lost and found pets page for our city on facebook. they were posted all the time#and then people stopped posting them bc they automatically knew to bring them to us. it was that often#he didn't take care of those dogs he kept them both tied up to a tree on a 5 foot long chain two HUGE dogs#and when they weren't on the chain they were in a crate#he never tried tying them up a different way or changing any methods so that they wouldn't get loose#just kept doing the same thing over and over again and being like ope they got out again oops#they always ran away from him and towards everyone else#he couldn't take care of those dogs at all and was never home to do so but he was so adamant about not giving them up for a better life#apparently he still has the one dog#so yeah. i'm extra mad about the dogs in our neighborhood because of that.#not to mention that when he picked up his dead dog he left him in my sister's basement and then left! and didn't answer his phone!#just left him there! didn't even fucking care! we had to call his fucking family members! and then he went off on us about it#so yeah. i'm a bit exhausted with loose dogs.
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trianglegoddess · 13 days ago
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I'm Still Standing
The League felt like they had a strong sense of Phantom’s power. After all, they wouldn’t have asked him to join the team, otherwise. He’s strong, he can fly, and due to his supernatural nature, he’s amazing on recon and stealth missions. He’s also incredibly reliable, and smarter than most people give him credit for. He’s a natural hero, a more snarky Captain Marvel, some news outlets have been saying. Always saving people with just the right words to say, with a humble smile on his face. 
Phantom, with all of his power, seemed untouchable in every definition of the word. 
And then they got invaded by Darkseid. 
It wasn’t the first time Darkseid had invaded Earth, but it was the first time bringing armies so large, the first time he’s attacked all over the world to spread the League thin. It is single handedly the worst alien invasion Earth has ever had. 
Batman, bleeding out on the sidewalk, Wonder Woman knocked unconscious and restrained by a nearly egregious amount of henchmen, Superman, weak from the kryptonite Darkseid had shot him with. Thankfully it had missed all the important bits, but with that bullet inside of him, Superman was also down for the count, as well as dozens of other League members. 
If it hadn’t been for Phantom, they would have lost. 
Phantom, who’s never been seen without a smile on his face until now. Phantom, who’s never had so much as a scratch on him, until now. Phantom, who has only ever been known to be kind and compassionate, even to his villains, until now. 
Usually there’s this sort of warm, comforting feeling that radiates from Phantom. It feels like a nice breeze on a warm summer’s day, a nice cup of hot cocoa, your favorite song. It’s a feeling of safety, as if everything will be alright just because he’s there. 
Here, though, something else, something much stronger, is radiating from him. It practically rolls off of him in huge waves, making those conscious around him more aggravated, more on edge.
Phantom pulls himself off of the ground. His suit is torn, and his green blood splattered on himself and the ground. He spits a glob of it out, along with a tooth. 
“Still, you stand,” Darkseid says, as if tired. “Do you not tire in the face of your own demise?”
“As long as I’m still standing, you won’t ever win,” Phantom says. His voice is low and threatening, reverberating eerily off of the broken infrastructure that surrounds them. It sends a chill down everybody’s spines, though if Darkseid is affected, he doesn’t show it. 
“Your comrades have fallen, your militaries have failed, and you have no other help arriving. Pray tell how one singular human will be able to take me down!” 
Phantom doesn’t answer right away. Instead, he walks forward so that his friends are behind him, and braces himself. Darkseid, unable to contain his own hubris, lets Phantom come closer. 
Phantom takes in a deep breath, as if he’s about to speak.  
Instead he wails. 
Any remaining glass shatters, raining down upon them as green sound waves push back the offending forces. 
And it’s loud, of course. The ears of Darkseid’s minions are bleeding, and many of them are either dying because it’s too much for them to bear, or they’re killing themselves to give themselves some modicum of relief. But it’s also more than that, more than noise. 
It’s mourning. 
The first feeling that overwhelms everyone is anger. Phantom’s anger at Darkseid, at the destruction, at the fact that he just can’t catch a fucking break and it’s not fair. The second, is the sadness. It weighs down upon their shoulders, suffocating them like smog. It invades every part of their being-their lungs, their joints, their very hearts-and it presses and presses and presses until there’s very nearly nothing left. 
Phantom still pushes on. He is nothing if not persistent, driven to fight, driven to protect his people, his team, his friends, his family. No mortal being could ever hope to have a lung capacity like this, but Phantom is no normal mortal, and Darkseid is finally starting to come to terms with that. 
The last wave of overwhelming emotion is more of an idea than it is an actual feeling. It’s not a threat, per se, but a promise. A promise to do everything in his power to destroy Darkseid and his forces permanently and with prejudice. A promise that no matter how hard Darkseid fights, he will not win. 
A promise that, if knocked down, Phantom will stand back up, and he will not lose. 
Eventually, after what feels like eternity, the wail dies down. There isn’t a single member of Darkseid’s army that’s still on their feet or in the air. Phantom collapses down to one knee, and bright, white rings flicker around his person for just a moment, before he wills them away and stands back up. 
It’s less walking towards Darkseid, and more stalking. They are not on equal footing. Phantom is the predator in every sense of the word, his anger and grief still radiating off of his body in ways that Darkseid is unable to comprehend. 
“Do you yield?” Phantom asks. His eyes are blazing green, burning into Darkseid’s very soul. It is a sort of animalistic, primal instinct deep within him that tells him, run, run as fast as you can. Darkseid’s hubris, however, remains unmatched. 
Even as he stares Death in the eye. 
“I do not,” Darkseid says. He tries to get to his feet, but his body won’t listen, still weighed down by the effects of Phantom’s wail. 
“Then as Phantom, King of the Dead, I hereby condemn you for the rest of your afterlife.”
“Don’t count your eggs yet, boy,” Darkseid spits. “I’m still alive.”
“No,” Phantom says, in a tone adjacent to someone who’s giving their condolences, “You’re not.”
Phantom gestures beside them, and Darkseid spares a glance and sees…Himself. 
His corpse is splayed on the ground, blood spurting out of his ears, nose, and eyes. He stares lifelessly up at the sky. The blood is still leaking down the sides of his face. 
“You’re dead now, Darkseid, and therefore under my jurisdiction. Due to your extensive list of crimes you will not receive a hearing, just your eternal damnation for the sins you’ve committed.”
Phantom waves his hand, and green chains and manacles appear on Darkseid’s wrists and ankles before he’s dusted out of existence, sent to his eternal punishment in another dimension. 
As soon as he’s gone, Phantom collapses to his knees. 
He’s not sure how long he’s there, sitting in the blood of those he’s killed, before Wonder Woman comes over. She’s covered in gashes and bruises and blood that isn’t hers, but she still stands tall and proud. A battle won is a reason for celebration, after all. 
He glances behind her, sees Superman taking Batman into his arms and flying off. 
Diana doesn’t ask him questions about how he’s feeling. A victory is a victory, sure, but not without its price. 
Instead, she holds out her hand. Danny grasps it, and allows her to help him to his feet. 
“As long as you can stand, you can win,” Diana says. “I think I’ll have to use that for my next big speech.”
“By all means,” Phantom tells her. “Just be sure to credit me.”
“Deal.”
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hedgehog-moss · 4 months ago
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I saw an astronaut walking on the side of the road today, which is the kind of thing my brain will placidly accept at first, only to go "Wait, an astronaut" a minute later once I'm done with my previous train of thought. By then I felt like it might be too late to stop my car, but I ended up stopping anyway because I didn't want to spend the rest of the afternoon wondering.
I waited for the astronaut to catch up with me since they were going in my direction, but they didn't. Eventually I got out of the car and retraced my steps, and after a bend in the road when I saw no one walking towards me I decided the visitor must have gone back to their spacecraft and I would never get an explanation for this—and then in the distance I caught a glimpse of the white space suit disappearing into the forest.
I managed to catch up with them and they turned out to be a distant neighbour of mine (let's call her M.), and what looked like a space suit when I was driving by was a beekeeper's outfit! (Sorry for the pointless suspense but I was taking you on the same little journey my brain went through.) M. was tickled when she learnt that I mistook her for an astronaut—she told me she'd borrowed her husband's too-big shoes which made her drag her feet, hence why she looked like she was having trouble readjusting to Earth's gravity.
Then she said that one of her hives had swarmed, and she was pretty sure she knew where the swarm was. I had no idea how swarming worked so as we walked in the woods she explained that when a hive becomes too crowded, the queen will get replaced by a new one, and the old queen will leave along with half of the bees. After this split, the swarm will cluster somewhere nearby and wait while scout bees fly away in search of a new hive location. "That's when you have to catch them—if you can find the swarm. But here it is!"
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I wasn't expecting quite so many bees!! I'm pretty scared of all flying creatures so allow me to pat myself on the back for what came next—I thought I was about to learn how to catch a swarm from a prudent distance, but M. asked if I could give her a hand, seeing as her husband was supposed to be here to help but clearly wasn't.
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The first step of catching a swarm was spraying the bees with sugar water, and I was glad not to be asked to help with that, as it seemed like something that could make bees angry. ("On the contrary, it makes them less agitated!" I was told, but that remained to be seen.) Step 2 was pulling on a rope tied to the tree branch in order to lower the swarm into the new hive, and that was the job I was recruited for. The rope was long enough that I could stand several metres away to pull on it, but my role in this swarm-catching business was still all too clear to any angry bee looking for someone to blame.
I remembered reading that bees can sense the electric field of flowers, so I thought there was no way they wouldn't sense the staticky nervousness coming from the rope-puller, but thankfully they completely ignored me.
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M. was offering one fun fact about bees after the other, in a very relaxed voice, which was very interesting and very soothing for both me and the bees. She said this particular colony was very sweet ("some bee colonies are meaner than others?" "yes of course"), and that swarming usually happens a bit earlier in the year "but it's been raining so much lately, the bees had to postpone all their activities, just like us" and also "swarming involves quite a bit of planning ahead of time; for example worker bees have to put the queen on a diet so she won't be too fat to fly. Did you know that?" I did not!
Unfortunately our first attempt to catch the swarm failed. The bees entered the hive, had a quick look around their new home, then left in disgust and formed a thick, angry, buzzing cloud over our heads, while I tried to think nothing but bee-loving thoughts to make my electric field harmless and friendly.
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Then one after the other all the bees returned to the exact same spot on the branch where we'd first found them. ("Because it smells like the queen" said M.) We examined the near-empty hive and found that a mouse had made a nest in there! She was no longer here but the traces of her passage were evident (some of the comb was very nibbled.)
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As we were removing the supplies brought in by the mouse (sticks, hay), M.'s husband joined us and he had brought a spray bottle containing some sort of bee-attracting liquid (pheromones?) (I didn't have a close look at the bottle because I made sure to stay far away from the bee-attracting liquid, while he sprayed it inside the hive.)
He had also brought a white sheet which he spread under the tree, explaining that the bees will want to get away from the bright surface and look for darkness, thus hopefully getting inside the box. Another thing I learnt is that once the queen enters the hive, the nearest worker bees will spread the message by turning round and fluttering their wings to send a chemical signal in specific directions, which will be picked up by other bees farther away; at strategic intervals some bees will light the beacons of Gondor turn round and fan their wings to relay this scent-message until the entire colony is informed of the queen's new location.
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We were more successful the second time around! This time the bees who went in didn't immediately get out again to return to their branch. Well I say "we" but I didn't volunteer to pull on the rope again, so I can't claim any role in this victory. But my personal victory was that I stood quite a bit nearer this time so I could watch everything closely, and I felt more intrigued than nervous. Bees were constantly zipping past me but it had become clear that my electric field was pure and they bore me no ill will. I was always fond of bees from afar and happy to see them do their thing in flowers in the spring, but today's adventure got me interested in their daily life as well, so I think I'll read some books about bees this summer!
I was reading last month about the morality of termite colonies (Maeterlinck's La vie des termites) and I had a feeling this man must have written some poetic stuff about bees as well—and he did. Here's a translated excerpt from his book "La vie des abeilles" :)
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