#IT'S THE EYES. GETS HIM EVERY TIME

[honorhearted]

Love was supposed to be beautiful, pure, enduring, and yet in the following days, Benjamin was enveloped by none of these things. Emma stayed true to her word. She didn't seek him out, nor meet his gaze, nor even go near him, and yet this failed to bring the relief he yearned for. No, the separation somehow made things worse, and Benjamin's temperament quickly changed from sour to combative.

With his hurt and frustrations at an all-time high, it wasn't difficult to find himself butting heads with Washington. It was typical for them to disagree, but this? This Benjamin wasn't letting go. He knew the general was wrong about Sutherland, but Washington wouldn't hear otherwise.

Before long, Emma was brought into the room to settle their dispute. God, he could scarcely stand the sight of her with her long, golden hair that practically blinded him akin to burnished sunlight. Flinching, he lowered his eyes, curling and uncurling his hands as she detected a lie in both Shanks and Sutherland.

Even with this good news -- or at least, in the sense he wasn't incorrect about the latter -- Washington dismissed him again, and asserted that he wouldn't interrogate either man. Sackett would, starting with Sutherland.

Furious, Benjamin tore from the hut and resisted the urge to slam the door like a petulant child. Mercifully, he did not, for Emma pursued him a moment after.

"Major, just a moment..."

Despite his urge to dismiss, to run, Benjamin stumbled to a clunky halt. Once his injured eyes turned to her, a knot formed in his throat and he straightened, attempting to look far more put together than he currently felt. "Yes? What is it, Swan?"

Swan... Didn't she detest the use of formalities? And yet what they'd once shared could no longer be -- never again.

Feeling homesick for an embrace that was never truly his to begin with, he exhaled and gestured for her to speak.

"Look," Emma began, "I don't exactly know what's going on, but I can tell you believe we need to watch our backs from Sutherland, right? And I... I trust your instincts, and you can't go against orders but I wasn't given any. I'll go to Sackett's tent too tomorrow, alright? Try to see what Sutherland must be hiding."

Benjamin squinted, turning toward her with a hint of leery intrigue. "Sutherland's lying," he agreed. "To what regard, I'm not sure, but I also can't prove Shanks' innocence...he seems sincere in his contrition, but that could easily be the fear of being hanged talking. So Washington..." Sighing, he shook his head, squaring his jaw while looking off to the side. "He is not wrong in his suspicions, but I don't feel Sackett should be alone in this interrogation. He isn't trained in weaponry the way we are."

Benjamin felt Emma's gaze on him, and despite his better judgment, he met with her entreating stare. The moment their eyes locked, a terrible ache formed in his chest, and the pressure blossomed at her next words.

"I'm leaving soon, let me do this for you. Washington is under a lot of stress, he's not thinking clearly, but I know if you believe Shanks needs to be heard it must be true."

"You're leaving?" Blinking in rapid succession, Benjamin suddenly forgot how to breathe. "But..." She has to go. Let her go, damn you! Swallowing back any potential damning words, he cleared his throat in an attempt at loosening the painful knot of emotion. Here, he forced a wobbly smile and inclined his head. "Thank you, Swan. I...owe you a great debt." For far more than you could ever possibly know.

She looked at him with genuine, pure longing as he spoke of wanting a future with her, but her fears were so much louder than his words; she had never let herself contemplate such things, she had never allowed herself to face them before, and now that he was doing it for her it had awoken the worst thoughts.

"but maybe I want to take that risk. And if you don't…well, then it's as I said: I can't force you. But I also can't wait around either, because whether we like it or not, Mary and her fiancé have the right idea. Time waits for no one."

He was right, he should have what he wanted, what he deserved, someone who could feel the same way, who thought that Mary and her fiancé were right, someone who didn't need time just to warm up to the idea. She still thought they were horribly wrong, that even if they were right it was worth waiting, that the risk was too big, the tragedy of it going wrong surpassed the joy of the marriage going well, but Ben? Ben lived in a world where since the future may not exist, the present was what mattered. She lived in one where she feared what the future would bring.

"If you can't look at me and instantly think yes, you're the one, then the answer should be obvious. From what I've been told -- from what I've been feeling -- you behold that one special person and just know. And if you don't know with me, then you have your answer."

"I'm not like you... I'm not capable of feeling that way, of knowing. So you are right, you feel time is precious and you should... be allowed to find someone who can give you that," she agreed meekly, sniffing and trying very hard not to make more noises than that. She could cry her heart out later, when he was gone. She could do what she did when she saw Arian: hold it in for a few more minutes and once alone find herself unable to breathe right. She'd probably cry for him forever, because she had already gotten too close to actually wanting it to pretend it hadn't happened, and with such an ending there would be no bittersweet memories, just pain, looking back. "I will give you space, I won't make things more difficult for you." And start preparing and putting her affairs in order, so that once her parents would be done touring around the Colonies in a few weeks, she'd leave to go join them at the harbor.

She was lucky she was a woman, and in the following days she could wear enough makeup to hide any sign that she may be in distress, but she also knew everyone was aware something was wrong, especially James who had seen the change happen closely and August, who had been told a few things here and there. But no one pried, not after Emma gave a few looks and chose a tone that made clear she'd only place nice, sunny, sweet princess if the matter was left alone.

She stayed out of his way as promised, although that meant literally hiding in her tent every now and then, until Washington asked for her opinion. He didn't give her much information, she just had to listen to two men and tell him which one was lying, since she had the gift of noticing right away. And when she came back certain that they both lied about something, which was not the most welcomed answer, she was forced to see Ben too, but tried to make herself invisible, quiet while of course polite to the general, who was at least thankful that she had been willing to help, and who apparently became even more certain that Benjamin was wrong about whatever it is that they were discussing about. Her heart hurt, badly, from the lack of sleeping and the grave mistake of eating less than she should, but she came to understand that Washington believed Shanks to be the worst of the two and wanted Sackett, not Ben, to interrogate Sutherland more. Against Benjamin's opinion that Sutherland was also a danger.

That wouldn't do.

"Major, just a moment," she called once outside, looking around and waiting for other people to walk away. It was the first time she addressed him, and as hard as she was, she owed him that. Because of course she still trusted him more than anyone else. "Look... I don't exactly know what's going on, but I can tell you believe we need to watch our backs from Sutherland, right? And I... I trust your instincts, and you can't go against orders but I wasn't given any. I'll go to Sackett's tent too tomorrow, alright? Try to see what Sutherland must be hiding." She forced herself to meet his eyes, and the emotions she felt hit her like a sword to the chest, "I'm leaving soon, let me do this for you. Washington is under a lot of stress, he's not thinking clearly, but I know if you believe Shanks needs to be heard it must be true."

[fairsweetlonging]

truth serum / system reveal au where shen qingqiu gets hit with an uncloaking spell that reveals the system in the reflection of his eyes every time it pops up.

during one of his missions, in the treasure hoard of some dragon-like creature, he finds a golden, oval shaped hand mirror, its gaudy style more victorian based than anything (airplane you hack!), that doesn't seem to do anything when he looks into it. but when he does, it reveals the system's screen in his eyes.

he doesn't notice this, of course, because he can't see it, and the system, surprisingly, stays quiet.

the peak lords think he's cursed.

maybe mu qingfang is the first to notice, during the mandatory post mission check-up, when shen qingqiu is scrolling through his most recently accumulated points and mu qingfang can see the strange vividly-blue lines reflected in his pupils. it's gone when shen qingqiu blinks, like it was nothing but a trick of the light.

it comes out when yue qingyuan is visiting and, just as he's done laying out the plans for a new mission, shen qingqiu's eyes glaze over and a bright blue box takes over the whole of his iris. shen qingqiu goes quiet; the thing in his eyes moves, shifts, pulses for a second, like static worms crawling all over his pupils. then he blinks, and it's gone, and shen qingqiu accepts the mission that yue qingyuan was almost sure he would decline.

maybe there is an intervention, when the peak lords corner shen qingqiu at qian cao peak and try to figure out what's wrong, subjecting him to all kinds of treatments and curse-finding spells that turn up empty, they can't find anything.

of course, the silencing threat is still very much up and running. at first shen qingqiu was kind of confused by the whole ordeal, but when the peak lords start describing a "strange blue box", he realizes, with sickening suddenty, that they're describing the system. and he can't say anything.

this only makes everything worse, because their fellow peak lord now keeps evading every question and acts like he doesn't understand. liu qingge points right at his face and asks, "that blue box, what is it?" and shen qingqiu laughs nervously and starts talking about how bright the weather is and surely it's the sky and nothing to worry about!

even worse, during the intervention the system thought it was a good idea to start talking to him, so now even the peak lords who hadn't seen it and who might have been persuaded by light tricks and reflections, get a first row view that no, that definitely isn't a trick of the light.

they try to do the whole thing of "are you in danger, blink twice" but shen qingqiu can't even do that because it's still a direct admittance!

maybe eventually he starts saying vague confirmations that don't actually confirm anything, like "this master hears what you're saying", or maybe he goes with a classic "this master can neither confirm nor deny that." but the system starts warning him for that too and eventually he stops saying anything, which worries the others more.

luckily mu qingfang catches on that every time they ask a direct question about the box or shen qingqiu says anything vaguely confirming, it appears. it doesn't appear when they ask about curses or demons, so it must not see that as a threat.

for a little extra angst: maybe the peak lords keep pressuring him for answers, and at some point shen qingqiu gets fed up and snaps out something like, "why don't you understand that i'm not allowed to answer that!" the system counts this as a direct admittance, threatening it's existence. so it punishes. shen qingqiu has a qi deviation so bad it lasts two weeks and takes two people every day to cleanse his meridians. the system doesn't appear in that time. it doesn't appear for a long while after that, either. the peak lords stop asking, mainly because shen qingqiu will instantly leave the room if they do. they don't stop searching for a cure, though.

shang qinghua returns from a business trip and catches on the second someone mentions a blue box and forced silencing.

[egophiliac]

everyone out of the way, this is the only thing I'm going to be thinking about from now on.

(okay, there is one more thing)

[tiger-grace]

Wayne Gala Event in which Jason is still publically deceased:

Journalist: Would you say you’ve been trying to fill the void that grieving your second son left with all of the new children you’ve adopted over the years?

Bruce, staring at Jason “legally dead” Todd, inching away from the snack table with half of its contents: uh. I would definitely say there is a void being filled.

[toxooz]

also been thinking abt pooki with his cunty scarf💅

if my next drawing post isnt the comic update take me out back and shoot me like a sick dog

[lotus-pear]

i love you royal trio (minus akechi)

[morganbritton132]

Eddie posts a Tiktok of Steve laying in bed. His eyes are shut and he has on one of those cooling gel eye masks. Eddie is zooming in and out on his face. He’s quiet for a second and then asks, “Steeeevie?”

Steve: I’m fine

Eddie: Do you have a headache?

Steve, for the hundredth time: No

Eddie, in a sing-song as he zooms in on the moles on Steve’s neck: I don’t believe you. This isn’t my first rodeo

Steve: You’ve never been to the fucking rodeo

[lazycranberrydoodles]

english translation book 5 baby we are in the ‘people assuming kid form hua cheng is xie lian’s son’ era 🔥🔥🔥 / follow for more hualian silliness

[jadewritesficshere]

Just thinking about s4 but when Alpha!Eddie grabs Steve to shove the bottle against his neck, he doesn't realize Steve is an omega and accidentally scruffs him. And Steve is just boneless, kinda goes down. And Eddie isn't expecting deadweight and almost falls ontop of Steve but realizes what's happening (let's just say he's fought off a few bullies who scruffed members of his pack). He immediately drops the bottle and holds onto Steve, who tries to scent Eddie. Just shoves his face into Eddie's neck and nuzzles it, lets out a purr unintentionally.

[hiding-under-the-willow]

He looks at you with his big sweet eyes like some kind of owl and offers you a game of poker that may or may not result in the loss of your humanity, wdyd?

[critterishere]

(Throws this on the road) here’s a dude facial structure study drawing thing🧚

[rhiangalaxy]

Shen Yuan 🤝Ning Yingying -> Being one of the few people to make Shen Qingqiu smile. (ft a bonus warmup doodle under the cut!)

[ID: A Scum Villain Drawing. Shen Jiu!Shen Qingqiu walks alongside Cat Spirit!Shen Yuan. SJ is looking towards him with a small soft smile, with one of his hands holding an open green fan and the other reaching behind SY's back. SY as a Cat Spirit is dressed in Qing Jing green and teal robes with many ribbons throughout. He has white hair, with a half-up into a ponytail do. As well as white cat ears and tail. He has both of his arms slightly up in front of him and looking up towards SJ with a smile as if talking and gesturing excitedly. Three empty word bubbles are above him to show this as well. End ID]

[ID: A Scum Villain Doodle. Characters drawn in chibi style. CS!SY looks over at SJ with a bright, semi-smug smile/look, covered in various scratches and ink stains, his hair tied up with a ribbon. An arrow points to the ribbon with a note stating 'A'Jiu's hair ribbon'. SJ looks away from SY with a slightly angry and flushed face, his hands folded behind his back with a thought bubble saying "God damn it heart why him" End ID]

[astralzeraphias]

“he was mentally ill. this monster was a- was a sick fantasy. a product of his dementia.”

“…i saw it too. does that make me disturbed? demented? does… that make me sick too?”

[bakudekublogblog]

the way katsuki just IS izuku's first love drives me nutty. like he just had a big ole crush on him with his huge-ass heart eyes and he chased him around with maximum puppy-love smitten energy

[starry-bi-sky]

finally giving fem danyal her own au and fulfilling my 'danny is an animal whisperer' agenda at the same time: mother of monsters danyal 2.0

i say "2.0" because TECHNICALLY 'mother of monsters danyal' is an au I made back in June for Dark fem!Danyal (who I promptly named Layal). However, I haven't posted much for her yet, and I like the "mother of monsters" premise too much to leave it only to Layal. Plus Danyal in that au was going to become the mother of monsters anyway, just with significantly less world domination and mass extinction.

'Animal whisperer' Danny has been something I've been thinking about since my latest DP 'wolfpack au' post and it's! So fun to think about, and who no better to assign the idea to than Danyal Al Ghul? Who comes from a family infamously known for their love of animals and nature?

Fem Danyal is just purely self-indulgent. *gestures wildly at her* i just lomvb,,, her,,,, I've only really mentioned her in context of the 'Things in Threes' au/my first Danyal al Ghul au with the facial scar, but she's!!! I love her. She deserves her own au <33

So kill three birds with one stone! Make a post about it.

Anyways, Danny has a large lair. Similar to cult leader danyal, her lair is a giant mountain region resembling nanda parbat with a big temple/palace-like area built into the mountain. It's large, it's overflowing with natural flora, with its own mini-floating islands hovering over some areas, and it's also completely empty.

Danny takes one look at her lair upon first meeting, -- noting that it looked relatively smaller from the outside -- and promptly, with the elegance of an Al Ghul, goes "What the hell??" Because yes, while she does enjoy her own solitude and privacy, this is a bit ridiculous.

For heaven's sake, there's even a massive lake in there! What's she going to do with all this space? Can she make it any smaller? Why is it so big in the first place? This looks borderline like one of the mega-islands!

She finds out later that apparently, the amount of ectoplasm a ghost has can have an effect on the size of their lair. And since she has such a large core, her lair reflects that. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff, it's bigger on the inside so it doesn't take up "too much space" on the outside. Don't worry about it too much.

Danyal isn't totally opposed to having such a large lair, she's just... a bit baffled by it. It feels like so much wasted space is all. All this flora and no fauna to enjoy it with. It's practically eerie.

She decorates her temple-palace area, transforming rooms to match her needs as she sees fit. In the center of the inner gardens is a massive tree that she likes to climb, with twisting, winding branches. Sam and Tucker have honorary rooms, even if they can't safely leave the specter speeder for long periods of time, even with proper safety equipment. So does Jazz. Ali (Dani) has one too, but he can actually use that one, and Danny brought him to her lair so he could decorate it himself.

She has a personal garden, but for the most part she lets the flora exist as it is. Too much space to cultivate it en masse anyways.

Skip to a few weeks later, on her next visit to Clockwork. She developed a habit of going to see him semi-regularly just because. She enjoys his wisdom, and he has a lot of stories to tell, and when he's not being the cryptic and esoteric timekeeper, he's a bit goofy.

(pushing my dadwork agenda here,,, i think Danny deserves to go 'hey, Lord Clockwork, do you want me to buy you something' while she's at walmart, only to receive a singular glowing sticky note that says 'cucumber gatorade'.)

(She insists on referring to him with his proper titles even for the most mundane of things because it's proper, but Clockwork sees a future where she eventually calls him "Cee" and by all things in existence is he determined to get there. Anyways,,,)

On her next visit to Clockwork, just as she is about to leave, Clockwork stops her and goes; "Ah, I have something for you. Hold out your hands."

Danny does as such, and Clockwork doesn't give out things often, so her curiosity has spiked to the highest levels. He turns away from her for a moment, using his staff to summon whatever it is he needs, and when he turns around.

He drops a fish into her hands. Granted, a fish in a small glass tank. But a fish nonetheless. A small one, roughly about the size of her finger, with a blue-black, eel-shaped body and four sets of glowing eyes. She can see thin, almost translucent, but spiny fins down its back and the start of bioluminescent markings. It's swimming around in circles in its small container.

"Lord Clockwork." Danyal says all too calmly.

"Yes, Danyal?"

"What is this?"

"That is an adolescent leviathan, Danyal." She’s transfixed onto the tank, but she doesn’t need to see Clockwork’s face to hear the smile he’s stifling.

The myriad of emotions that runs through her all at once threatens to overwhelm her, and she can’t tell if the feelings are negative or positive. So she carefully closes her eyes to breathe in through her nose.

“Clockwork.”

“Ah, I see you’ve dropped formalities.”

She ignores that.

“Why have you given me an adolescent leviathan?”

She's expecting the trickster to look amused when she opens her eyes. Instead, he just looks endeared. "I know you're fond of animals," he says, "and you always look amazed when you come across an animal of the realms. So I thought you might enjoy taking care of the young beast, it's mother is dead so it has no one to care for it."

Oh.

"But, if you don't like it," Clockwork's hands reach out for the tank, "I can simply take it back--"

Danyal shifts the tank out from his reach and hugs it possessively. "I never said that. How do I care for it?"

And so clockwork gives her a list, and when Danyal returns to her lair, she sets up a large tank in her room for the leviathan to swim in -- it's much too small for the lake right now, she thinks. She'll feel better if it's somewhere she can find it. She names him Suhā.

Suhā grows quickly, and by the end of the mortal month she transforms one of the rooms into a large pond for him to swim around in. He's a very loyal beast, recognizing her as it's mother of some kind. Danyal takes great care ensuring that her beastie gets quality care, and Suhā swims to the surface to see her when he senses her in the room.

It spirals from there. Somehow, Pandora catches wind that Clockwork gave her a leviathan, and so the next time Danyal visits the Greater Athens, she gives her a baby chimera. It's eyes are still sealed shut, Danyal can't bring herself to say no. She names the little beastie Firas.

Frostbite hears about it too, and not to be outdone, gives her an animal she's never even heard of. Infinite-realms born, apparently. A fox-like creature with two small horns like an impala, four eyes, and tall legs. The name isn't something she's quite sure how to write down, and she's positive that her friends won't be able to comprehend it. She names her Eira.

Getting the three of them used to each other was... interesting. Suhā tried to eat Firas when Danyal first introduced the two, and they've hated each other ever since. Firas and Eira are seemingly getting along. Her island already feels full enough with the three of them on it.

Of course, that's not the end of it. With her luck, she begins stumbling across other monsters. Realms-borne or otherwise. An injured hydra in the Grecian islands that, through lots of trial and error, Danyal is able to rehabilitate and heal. It routinely comes to visit her afterwards.

A griffin with a broken wing that she moves permanently to the island that likes to keep to itself, but tends to come down when she's near. It gets along best with Firas.

A panther-like monster from the Shades Woods that had six legs and three tails, with ends that reminded her of a venus flytrap. It stuck around the heavy foliage and she can only make out where it was when she saw its golden eyes reflect.

She befriends a young indrik with its leg injured, and much like the hydra it follows her back to her island, and stays there in the mountains. It comes out when she's alone, much like her other beasts.

She receives two more leviathan -- one from clockwork, and one she finds herself while exploring the deeper and darker recesses of the Ghost Zone. It was huddled against the carcass of its mother, and she managed to befriend and get close enough to it to bring it back to her island. Suhā is fully grown by then, with a head bigger than Danyal herself and he still likes to stick her head out of the water for nuzzles when she's near.

He's not very happy with his new siblings, but he's not trying to eat them when she's not looking. So she calls it a win in her book.

And it's not just large beasts either; smaller animals begin popping up when she's not looking. Bird-like creatures and small mammals, and she swears she saw a doe (or something resembling a doe) grazing in the forest while she was walking by.

She takes back with her a lone snake egg once, and it grows so big it wraps around her island and sleeps with its massive head on the mountain beside the temple, like some smaller breed of Jörmungandr.

And on and on it goes. Some of the beasts she comes across never step foot onto her island, some of them follow her back, while others she has to carry back. Not all of the ones that follow her stay, and Danny rehabilitates the injured and releases them when they're fully healed.

It's hectic, and busy, and frankly she loves it. Some of her rehabilitated beasts return to visit her, or to have their children somewhere on the island, or whatever it is they need to do.

She becomes a bit infamous for it. She goes to visit Dorathea once, and as she's walking through the streets she can hear some of the denizens whispering while she walks past.

"Is that her?"

"Her highness' friend? Yes--"

"--that's the one--"

"--Mother of monsters--"

Danny's not sure how to feel about that.

Although, she can't say she's opposed.

Danyal Al Ghul, Mother of monsters, raiser of beasts. It has a nice ring to it.

[calmlb]

can we as a society please stop calling Dazai the “demon prodigy” like it’s canon??? IM BEGGING

his canon nickname is so underused too… i mean c’mon, the “black wraith of the Port Mafia??” idk if i’ve ever even seen it used in a fic 😭