#LONG EXPLANATION

[melbatron5000]

The confines of a story

Any time you play a game, you need to know the rules. A puzzle has a border, you can't smash the pieces into a spot they don't fit with a hammer (I mean, you can, but it won't look right when you're done), etc.

My mental assumptions are that we are following the rules of stories as told in both novel form and video form. I'm not going to list ALL the rules associated with storytelling in both forms, because whole books and classes have been written about them and the parameters are way too big.

How do I know these rules? Well, I write novels, too. I'm not Neil Gaiman, (and I'm not going to go so far as to say I'm anywhere near his level, looking at you, Magic Trick OP), but the people who've read my books say they like them, so I think I do okay? I never went to school for any of it, but the library was and is my best friend, and I've read as many books and taken as many workshops as I can on this topic. Am I an expert? Nah. I know some stuff. There's always more to know.

So anyhow, some rules:

Rule one: the story has to be generally satisfying and not make people feel betrayed or angry. Hurt is fine, angry at the characters is fine, tricked is fine, but the reader can't feel betrayed or totally let down by the author at the end of the story. It's impossible to avoid this entirely, but most people in general have to agree that the story isn't a betrayal of the reader. The author needs to keep faith with their reader as best they can.

Rule two: in mysteries, all the cards need to be on the table at some point. Misdirection or downplaying of important information or use of double-meaning words are totally fair tactics, but the answer has to be there to be sussed out by a clever observer. (I got really mad when I tried to read murder mysteries for a little while. I figured this rule out very quickly on my own, and I could always spot the killer by the end of the second chapter. I gave up on murder mysteries. HOWEVER, another author I admire wrote a classic murder mystery-style book, and when I spotted the killer in chapter two like always, she had arranged matters so that the killer's motive was shrouded in deep mystery. I burned through that book to find out WHY he dunnit, and when the main character helped the killer escape at the end, I was troubled but satisfied.) But mah point is, all the pieces to the puzzle need to come in the box.

Rule three: (which isn't really a rule so much as an observation and something I myself struggle with), writing fiction can be very hard because people are naturally not good at knowing that other people do not know what they know. You know? Psychological studies have shown that when a person knows something, like where an object is, they develop this sort of assumption that the object's location is OBVIOUS, or that other people also know where the object is or can easily guess it, no matter how hard a time they had guessing it themselves before they were told. So not only do newer writers sometimes struggle to maintain what various characters do and don't know at different times in a story, readers can also struggle with the same thing. Gotta keep your eyes peeled for what information each character actually has, and also keep in mind how easy it is to be fooled when you think you have all the facts. I notice Neil and John taking advantage of this in Good Omens a lot -- the lies that Crowley and Aziraphale tell to the other angels and demons seem really obvious -- but that's because we know they are lying and what they're lying about. When we are lied to, we fall for it as easily as those angels and demons, because we assume we know what's going on. Watch out!

Rule four: you can't break the rules. If you're going to make a wild, avant garde, ground-breaking story, that's pretty much the whole point of the entire story. Twists are fine, emphasizing or de-emphasizing expected tropes or ideas is fine, subverting a trope is fine. Otherwise, you have to stick to ideas, formats, plots, structures, etc., that have come before. For example, just as I started seeing metas about the POV characters in Good Omens 2 jumping around, I had remembered an episode of the X-Files from way back where an "alien landing" is told from three characters' perspectives. When told from the POV of the alien conspiracy-believing kid, the story gets really weird with all kinds of wild things happening. When told from doubting Scully's perspective, it gets very boring and mundane. POV jumping is nothing ground-breakingly new. There won't be anything ground-breakingly new.

Rule five: it has to make sense. Mark Twain once said, "Of course truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense." Once upon a time, a friend of mine who liked to embellish stories told me all about his new fiancee, who he'd met and proposed to all in a few months, who was head over heels for him, a gorgeous red-head, one of triplets. I never met this mystery woman, and then one day he called me to tell me she had died very suddenly and dramatically. I had my suspicions that she wasn't even real in the first place, so I made consoling noises and asked him when and where the funeral was so I could be there for him. I expected to be put off, told some crazy reason why there wouldn't be a funeral or it hadn't been planned yet and I would somehow mysteriously not hear about it until it was over. Instead, he gave me a date and location immediately. I was taken aback. I was even more taken aback when I arrived at the funeral to meet this woman's family, including the remaining red-headed pair from her triplet set, and hear all about what a whirlwind romance she'd had with my friend. If that had been a novel, I would have shut the book and told the author to give me a break. Books and TV and movies and plays can't push the consumers' credulity too much. Readers have to maintain their willingness to suspend their disbelief. It can't get too crazy. What's too crazy? Hard to say, it's kind a of a "I'll know it if I see it" sort of thing. And some people are certainly more willing to go along with something wild than others. The author can only try their best to maintain faith. To tell a story that can be believed.

Anyhow, I dunno if that's helpful at all, but it's sort of the litmus test I'm using to gage all my questions and theories. And what I'm using to shuffle in the metas and theories I like from others.

[narrators-journal]

Why the ask box is being emptied.

So, I took the day to chill, contemplate a few things, and generally just. Decide how I felt about some shit that's been going on. And, I have decided that emptying my ask box and taking a lil request break is a good idea.

Not that I don't enjoy the asks and the well wishes from everyone! I just, don't have the mental energy to be under requirements rn. Because, I have a heavy, heavy mix of mental issues.

From the classic depression, to presonal insecurities and self-worth problems, and it sort of goes up and down on the levels of awful. And the past month has been a slow decline into the 'down' portion of that. Add on top of that, some life issues, money trouble, and shit like that, and I'm in no headspace to write well.

So, this blog is NOT going on a hiatus, I WILL be posting writing still, but I'm going to just, lower my personal expectations. Let myself have a break from the fear of not being up to snuff or meeting expectations. Because! That's the only thing I can control for myself.

So! If you sent me an ask, and I didn't get to it. I'm sorry, I feel horrible that I couldn't deliver, and I hate turning down asks. But, I hope you'll stick around, and once I get more things sorted and come back from my ask break, you'll still be happy to offer your ideas. For now though, I'm off to write and draw for myself for a while, and hopefully recharge the batteries.

Thank you to everyone who understands and sticks around!

[phantom-of-the-ruckus]

A weird crossover nobody asked for

Ok, I am nearly done with the mutuals stuff but I am taking a break and sketching Freddy. The context may not be as bonkers as what I'm going to tell you all but how I found about this film is literally a story full of casualties and an event let to another and now we are here.

I have zero idea how that even happened but I guess the stars were aligned and it was destiny to make this (IDK how my friends keep inspire me to do this stuff-)

Long text ahead and a bonkers story...twice

TW: for small mentions of gore, scars, and burns

There is no romance in this, and there will be no romantic feelings outside already established couple

Before we start, some of you intellectuals might go "Phantom/Iva, isn't this Christine from Phantom of the Opera but if she was older?"

(Those who saw the post on Twitter could already tell this is going to be wild-)

And my response is basically:

That is actually Nancy Thompson from the first "Nightmare on Elm Street" but dressed up as Christine from the POTO. Now, everyone will, might start to put the dots together and go "ARE YOU MAKING A CROSSOVER OF NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET AND PHANTOM OF THE OPERA?!" and realized "Don't...Don't tell me Freddy is the phantom..."

And here is where I step in with the context story and an explanation to all this mess because in technicality, Freddy Krueger was indeed an Erik Destler!!!

Yes. That is a fact.

I am not kidding. Robert Englund was a Phantom but not precisely to the Musical but to the movie...which was more adapted to the book but in all sense is basically the same story but with some changes. Nevertheless, he is a Phantom in my standards and the movie he starred in will appear if you type Freddy Krueger phantom of the opera, or type Freddy Krueger of the opera (but it will lead to different results)

Now, how did I even found about this fact? Here is where the bonkers story and unrelated events led to this. I suggest that you get your popcorn because this is one hella comedic ride. I'll make it into sorta "How the Grinch stole Christmas" narration because why not, this is slowly descending into madness so why not embrace it?

How the hell did I found about this?

Once upon a time, Phantom was in her living room waiting for a ride. They were accompanied by their oldest sister, who had some peculiar film playing around. Phantom got curious and decided to watch as the dumbass kept forgetting her promise to look the name up. Eventually she remembered what she had in mind. She search the name up and it turned out to be a "Stepfather III" movie.

"Wait...that movie has sequels?" Phantom asked herself surprised as she stared at the Wikipedia page.

The movie "Stepfather" was no stranger to our Phantom, because she already heard it before thanks to watching reviews of awful movies all out of her hatred of "Prom night 2008." She did found out that other sequels unrelated to the first one were make and she went.

"Oh that's cool. I guess that is the end of this."

Or so she thought. Eventually she got curious to see if the main actress who played the protagonist had a fruitful career. She did, after Phantom checked the filmography list. Eventually she left the page after giving it a quick scan, but later she returned when she found a familiar name inside.

"Wait....The Phantom of the Opera?" Phantom asked.

Indeed, it was a "Phantom of the opera" movie much to our dear protagonist's delight. She decided to look up the story but obviously not reading the cast name, as this would be foreshadowing for this part of the tail. Eventually her delighted turned into

"What. The. Actual. FU-"

It turned out the story was...well not bad...but clearly mad. It involved time travelling Christines, no broken Chandeliers, immortal Phantoms who sold their sold to Satan, and some guy named Richard who is meant to be Raul. Oh, and I forgot to say Christine's last name is Day now too?

Yeah, the story was bonkers, but Phantom was oddly curious to see what it looked like, so she search it on YouTube. So, she carefully watched the clips and trying to understand what the fidgety fuck was even going on in Phantom of The Opera 1989. So she kept watching and start to realize.

"This Phantom looks familiar?"

So, instead of searching the movie and checking the cast like a normal person would, Phantom decided to read the comments to see what they would say. The first thing that she was:

(yes, this is a real comment XD)

And then it hit our little Phantom. Robert Englund was an Erik on this peculiar tale, but also obviously someone had to roast Gerald Butler too-

So, Phantom searched up the movie again, and in fact the Original Freddy Krueger was there! Now people would say "but it's the same actor playing two different characters!" Yes, I am aware, but OMG just look at unmasked 1989 phantom and try to tell me otherwise not to mention this phantom wears a wig because he is also bald.

Now, Phantom is aware both are characters played by the same actor, but since Englund is the OG Krueger, she cannot unsee this now and so will you. Not to mention this Erik is also an immortal being too (i...I guess.)

To end this tale, the movie is hard to find as Phantom have tried but not even Tubi wants this mess and YouTube will recommend you nightmare on elm street as a suggestion, so yes even YouTube agrees

Freddy Krueger is Erik Destler.

The end

(Take this as humor.)

How the hell did I even get the idea to make a crossover? (Surprisingly not a bonkers backstory, but there is no correlation into how the hell did the idea even happened) + Concept!!

Now, how the hell did my mind went "Phantom of the Opera x Nightmare on Elm street 1"? Surprisingly, this is actually a normal story but how I even got there is already weird. Basically, I texted my friend (who also loves POTO) to ask "did you know the OG Freddy was a phantom? and she went "That's interesting and yet Heather langenkamp does look like the OG Christine. So I wouldn't be surprised if the films are connected" (she said this in the sense of similarities of POTO. Not in a ship sense btw.)

So....what did Phantom did?

Make a damn crossover based on that comment because the idea of Erik from 1989 threatening Christine! Nancy via "Go to sleep, angel of music" could not leave their mind. This is all in the sense of a nonromantic story because "eww" and "Nancy in the first film is a teenager" as one would do.

So, now you guys are probably asking "Phantom, are you even ok?"

I'm probably insane at this rate, but let's get down to the rambling about this idea because I swear it's not as fucked up as it sounds like. It is a crazy idea, but I promise Freddy would not be precisely as closer to Erik Destler as a character, but rather more focused on...well himself.

You will see what I mean

How to summarize this bonkers idea?

Somewhat around in the mid 1900s, Frederick Krueger was an inspiring artist who wrote many operas, songs, but found himself wishing for a long-lasting legacy as people aren't fond of his gothic tales. In his desperation, he makes a deal with Satan himself for people to adore his music and for his legacy to remain forever under the curse that Freddy wouldn't die unless he founded a worthy successor to carry out his legacy so he would be remembered.

With this task, Freddy slowly falls into madness and desperation as he becomes a piano teacher at his studio but finds no one of his students worthy to carry out his legacy. So, after a group of teens attempted to steal one of his pieces, he begins a blood rampage as he believes neither of his students are worthy of listening to his songs.

Eventually the parents around Elm Street to get furious and are led by Marge and Donald Thompson to take justice in their hands, so Freddy and his studio is burned down as he swears revenge on their parents and taking away what they love the most. The parents make a pact to keep this a secret, and Marge Thompson starts to rely on drinking to help her cope with the guilt of committing murder, not to mention she also started drinking due to her messy divorce with Ronald (who has becoming protective of their daughter)

After a few years, Nancy Thompson is started to have recurring nightmares of a mysterious man chasing her with intents to murdering her as he claims she's the main actress of his newest Opera (which I don't have a name as for now, but it indeed is about her demise) After she wakes up, she realizes that the injuries in her dream has transferred into reality.

So, after some teenagers mysteriously died in the night. Nancy and her boyfriend Glenn along with their friends Tina and Rod, decide to investigate who is the mysterious Phantom that appears in their dreams and is trying to trap them in his Opera House of Horrors as they embody the main characters of his most recent play with Nancy playing the lead role (who intends to have the goriest death in his play)

What changes did I make into this au?

The biggest change is that the Phantom is NOT in love with Christine (Nancy) but rather knows she is the daughter of the duo that led to his murder, so he will want to give her the worst fate possible. I do think about implementing some aspects of what I read from the third movie by having Nancy having some control of her nightmares, which could lead to Freddy finally finding the Protégée he was trying to find for so long which would add to a dynamic of Freddy trying to convince Nancy to join him in exchange to protect what she loves the most but with the catch that she'll follow Freddy's footsteps. (Still, the only romance would be just between Nancy and Glenn as they are already an established couple)

The other change, is obviously Freddy Krueger's backstory, which is a merge within his original story and Erik's backstory of the 1989 film. I wanted to play with the whole Opera aspect of well...the phantom of the opera but also Freddy's nightmare nature from the original films. So Freddy's main and latest story is a reflection in his death as a human and how he intends to kill the legacy of those who claim it, which would explain why Nancy would be played as the main lead.

I did change Freddy's nature as he is more like an under dead creature that has a physical form in people's dreams and nightmares and can shake shift, but his form would reflect his burns he, and of course the opera house would be based on his abandoned studio.

Also Freddy Krueger's appearance will be based into Erik's appearance as I actually love to take on the Phantom's mask on this. I won't spoil a bit but it does add to the thriller aspects of the 1989 POTO film. You can search for the clip that contains his backstory, so you guys can see what his mask actually is. I will eventually reveal it later when I finish his sketches. Anyways, Freddy would hide his burns with his clothes and other ways 1989 Erik hides his appearance in the film

Would this be correlated to the Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise?

Most likely no. I am mostly familiarized with the original Nightmare on Elm Street 1, and this is precisely the only film in the crossover that I would be referencing too. I might do some small nods to the franchise as some small Easter eggs, but please keep in mind that this crossover will be treating both stories as a Stand-alone film as this version of Freddy is not the same as the Freddy from the franchise.

If you have questions, curiosities, or simply want to ask me "why, phantom, why?" Ask box is open for y'all.

I'll try to get the mutual's drawing by tomorrow and maybe the Phantom Krueger sketches too.

[amaranth-moths]

the autism won, I will now talk about Bernard even if my infomation on the pikmin universe is limited at best, as I have still to finish the postgame. gonna put a readmore since it'll be a long discussion.

Ok so. Bernard has a shit wiki page.

LIKE WDYM. WDYM THE ONLY INFO HERE IS ABOUT HOW HE LOOKS LIKE ALPH. WHY IS THERE A LOW QUALITY PICTURE OF BERNARD OF ALL THINGS

ok this stuff aside, I wanted to check what planet he was from for a drawing, really normal stuff. He was from Nijo, which is neat!! I never noticed there were so many planets introduced in pikmin 4. I immediately wanted to check who else was from Nijo.

guys. there's only one more person and they are also a pilot???????????

my guess is Nijo has a really good pilot school, so most aspiring pilots tend to move there. but no one else is from Nijo. do only pilots live there. what. like considering the sheer amount of people that crashed on PNF-404 surely at least one of them would be a random person from there. if anyone has any information on the matter please inform me

side note; if y'all need more bernard information, I know he just sleeps alot thorugh the day, and besides that I got no more info. ok goodbue love you

[bluegiragi]

holding back (part 2)

early access + nsfw on patreon

[claraoswalds]

The Giggle // The Legend of Ruby Sunday

[bethanydelleman]

One of the things I loved about The Wild Robot from a writing/world-building perspective was that it was clearly set in a post-apocalyptic world, but the details were very vague, and you don't even know until about an hour in:

"Beautiful shot," you think, and then it hits you that the whales are swimming over the Golden Gate Bridge.

Abandoned, crumbling satellites and a sunken city. And then when we do see the human city, they freak out at the sight of geese:

Animal-derived plague? Global warming? We don't know. We only know that something has happened. But like the general theme, whatever bad has occurred, the natural world is thriving. An unexpected positive from a history of tragedy.

[is-this-even-relatable]

Misfortune Teller

tldr: An older Danny, apprentice to Clockwork, does a lot of field work across dimensions, resetting the timeline, queuing future events, and who knows what else. Occasionally, he warns people about such upcoming possibilities, to set them on the right path. How, you might ask? Well in this case... as a wandering fortune teller.

Crack-fic (oh god, it's getting long and my logic brain won't let it remain as crack) where Danny becomes Clockwork's apprentice after getting his GED. Living his infinite afterlife to the fullest. Inspired by this tumblr post.

Working for Clockwork had been... interesting so far. At first, Danny got frustrated by how vague and cryptic Clockwork was. He'd just shunt Danny off to some ancient time with a few words, his own time medallion (Danny carried it everywhere with him now), and then pop back into the portal, leaving Danny with only the faintest idea of where to go.

Eventually, after enough time (ha!) spent around Clockwork, Danny figured out that it just basically meant that he had free reign and to do whatever he wanted. Because if he went on the wrong path, (like that one time in Pompeii when he had almost caused the volcano to explode a few years too early), Clockwork would just pop on by, say another few cryptic words, and then it'd all be fine and dandy, or as he liked to say, "All is as it should be... Now stop practicing your wail by an active volcano."

After telling Jazz about that (it was supposed to be funny, not concerning), she just sighed and shook her head, with a forlorn "think before you act, Danny!" but hey, it'd turned out fine so far, so who cares how he does what Clockwork asks him to do, as long as it gets done, right? Even if it's with a liiiiitle more mischief than strictly required.

Besides. Danny was the one who had been doing time shenanigans across millennia, not Jazz. And he thought he'd been getting pretty good at it too! He'd actually started giving himself a different made-up background for each universe he visited. Sam and Tucker were helping him keep up with the identities on a spreadsheet, so if he had to go back to one he'd already visited, he'd remember who he'd said he was supposed to be.

---

He was on a call with them one evening while haunting Jazz's apartment, doing just that, when he felt a familiar tingle in the back of his throat, as well as a heightened awareness of the seconds passing by, that always accompanied his mentor's appearance.

Sam was talking about his past stint posing as a god of death when he cut in. "Hey- sorry to interrupt, Sam- Clocky's here, guys, I gotta dip."

"Aw, come on! We hardly talked any this past week since you passed your certifications, man," Tucker complained.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Yeah, yeah. Partly on you too though, you've been caught up outside of class, and Sam's schedule is nearly the opposite of yours."

Sam hummed in agreement despiter Tucker's scoff.

Danny missed hanging out with them as much as they had in high school, but hey, life goes on. Or at least, theirs did, to college. After finally flunking out of Casper High, he'd taken some time to get used to his responsibilities in the ghost zone, and when he had, he realized that he didn't really have much enthusiasm or timeleft for his human life.

And he didn't really want to go back home either.

But Jazz had made him tie up any loose ends before he noped-off to god knows where, which frankly, he had to thank her for. Getting his GED took a few years, but it was an accomplishment that could be attributed to Danny Fenton, no ghostliness required. Then he was able to let that tether go free.

Pulled out of his musings by a few more grumbles from Tucker, Danny said his goodbyes, promising to call the next time they were all available.

After hanging up, Danny swiveled around, anticipation already lighting up his eyes an ethereal green.

Clockwork, for his part, had been waiting patiently through Danny's lengthy goodbyes. Although he supposed that it tracked for the watcher of time to be patient. With his job, it'd be a nightmare if he wasn't.

"Phantom," Clockwork spoke, calm as always. "I have some tasks I need you to complete as my apprentice."

And Danny, always ready for adventure, didn't need him to explain any further. "Sure! When do you need me to be?"

Clockwork smiled at that. "I am fortunate you are eager. Follow me."

---

Danny popped into existence in this universe with a burst of cold air and static electricity. He found himself hovering by a clocktower above a sprawling, gothic city. Smog and light pollution obscured the stars above him, to his disappointment. He comforted himself with the fact that he'd probably have all the time he wanted to fly someplace less populated to see them later.

He started off by familiarizing himself with the city. As he flew, he followed the trail of power and met the resident city-spirit, a spooky- but kind underneath- woman draped in black lace, who told him her name was Gotham. He spoke in length with her about this universe, its heroes, and her knights. On that, she was very enthusiastic... or at least Danny thought she was, her projected emotions belaying much more than her gloomy exterior. She told him how her knights had been through a lot and would need some guidance fighting the darkness that pooled in her deepest corners, smiling with too much glee, filling lungs with fear, and terrorizing with cold hard bullets.

Danny could sense that the dangers she spoke of were growing in power, ever slowly. The longer they shadowed people's minds and hearts, an intangible thing grew that lent them more otherworldly pull than their physical forms had right to hold.

That must be what he was sent here for.

But... they were weak, pitifully so for him, infinite king as he was. And besides, he wasn't here in that sense. He was a messenger, a simple apprentice. And he could do this however he wanted.

Cue his talk with Lady Gotham, and subsequent idea to arm her knights. With what? Well, he figured knowledge would be a start. Flying high above the city invisibly, Danny noticed a sea of colors and lights by what appeared to be the city's pier. He flew down, noting that it appeared to be the setup spot for a travelling circus or carnival of some kind.

He considered what to do. One of Lady Gotham's troubles was a madman clown, right? Well maybe he'd be attracted to his ilk here... and with the danger came the knights. Maybe he could catch one of them here?

Danny was floating around at the entrance and beginning to formulate a plan when a flyer caught his eye. Looking for a mystic to read fortunes. URGENT!

Hadn't Clockwork said something about fortunes? And he hadn't made an identity in this universe yet...

A mischievous smile crept across Danny's face, splitting it in two with far too many teeth.

---

Half a city away, a man in all black, perched on the very same clocktower that Phantom had Appeared by, shivered as he felt an ominous premonition about his sanity in the near future...

Said man quickly opened his comms to check in with his many, many kids. Yet even after hearing back from each, he still felt apprehensive.

Somewhere even further, Clockwork laughed.

---

And that's how Danny found himself seated at a fortune teller's booth at a pier in Gotham, two days later, for the Tricksy Traveling Circus's grand opening.

[ew-selfish-art]

DpxDc AU: Tim as a child was never given a lot of information regarding the scribbling messy handwriting that appeared over night all over his arms- naturally he came to his own conclusions.

Tim Drake was home entirely alone at 9 years old and was about to go out for the night to test his brand new long exposure camera lens when he sees the writing on his arm. It’s not English, like he assumed it was at first, but it was using the alphabet to represent… Tim isn’t bad at math but this formula is complex for his little genius brain.

Looking at his camera, he decides he can spare a moment to look it up, solve it, and get back out into old town Gotham in time for Batman and Robin’s final patrol lap. He does just that, finding the problem to relate to some aerospace engineering and then quickly deduces what laws and theorems need to be applied. He finds a pen, writes down his findings in much neater handwriting onto his arm, and goes out. It’s barely a remarkable night at all. He gets a much more memorable photo of Robin roundhouse kicking a hench person.

Things just continued on that way. Tim would find some complex math, physics or chemistry prompt on his arm (surrounded by various question marks or notes or sad faces)- he’d answer it as best he could and move on with his life. Perhaps his parents were manifesting these pop quizzes? Perhaps his subconscious felt guilty about abandoning his studies for more Bat related pursuits? Tim really didn’t care to think much about it once he became Robin- there was too much on his plate and too many peoples problems for him to fix.

Notably, however, after the attack at the Tower, the pop quiz appeared and Tim wrote back that he wouldn’t be able to find an answer to this one. It was the only time Tim questioned the markings appearance and it was because the next thing that appeared was “Hope you feel better soon.”

… his parents wouldn’t include that on a pop quiz. Cursed then. Tim decided it must be a curse, whatever, he’d deal with the implications later in life.

Tim then has the worst year of his life, hes 15, no longer Robin and the questions from his curse are getting less math oriented and more… philosophical. A lot of mentions of death that, in hindsight helped him actually grieve, and a lot of theories about dark matter and souls. Tim answers back as best he can but he’s drained and his answers aren’t very good in his opinion. He gets minimal feedback.

It all comes to a point that he’s at a family dinner, Bruce is at the head of the table, Jason has promised just to stay for dessert, Damian hasn’t thrown a single insult his way and Steph was laughing at him- when a new theoretical model appears on his arm.

“You’re just as bad as Bruce, Timberly. Hiding a soulmate from all of us, how fucking typical.” Jason points out, while watching Tim scribble back some math with a question mark onto his arm.

“A what? No, this is just a curse. I get pop quizzes every now and then.” Tim bats away Steph who rapidly approaches and began to analyze his arm (the rest of the family isn’t far behind).

“Drake. Explain how you came to this conclusion.” Damian seems more curious than anything, if his lack of insults was anything to go off of.

“Since I was young I’ve had at least weekly math check ins, I never had a parent or anyone else around so I assumed my parents had me cursed to ensure I stayed on top of my studies. Sometimes it’s physics or chemistry, for a while there it was a ton of philosophy and behavioral psychology.” He shrugs his shoulders.

“Master Tim, I believe the lack of adults in your life has led you towards a false conclusion. That is most certainly a soulmate mark. The individual to whom you are responding is undoubtedly your other half.” Alfred attempts to calm the room before explaining to Tim. Tim isnt sure if he believes the butler, though Alfred only very rarely lied, so he grabs the pen once more. He writes his first question back: “Who am I to you?”

The room waits in anticipation and within moments a brand new line appears on Tim’s arm and he is vindicated: “We do math together???”

——

The reason Danny is failing English is because his built in homework helper sucks ass at metaphors and has apparently never read any classic literature. The tutor on his arm is great at puzzles and math tho.

Danny gets a reply back one night that he wasn’t expecting (Who am I to you?) and he mentions it to Jazz. Who goes insane that Danny didn’t even question it and just went with “meh, probably haunted” as his explanation for the phenomenon for all these years.

Apparently, if Jazz was right, he had a soulmate who was uh, super fucking smart. That was an overwhelming thought.

The next day Danny is in crisis mode and writes back “Wait, WHAT AM I TO YOU??? Can I help on your homework??”

Danny gets vindicated when the writing on his arm presents a shit ton of dates and information for an unsolved Gotham cold case. See, Haunted.

———

Eventually between Danny becoming the top candidate for astrophysics at Wayne Enterprises and Tim Drake being outed as having contributed tips to the GCPD that solved cold cases- they meet and realize just how dumb they’ve been.

[mumblesplash]

part 2!!!! [read part one here]

transcript below the cut arranged into stanzas to help show where the rhymes are:

“that’s why they brought gem in? as a failsafe?” as a pawn. we were told to point her at whoever we need gone

“gem won’t hurt her allies. …yet.” the curse she carries will it’s had its eye on her since she lost the other eye she was specially selected for her hunting skill it’s quite the high honor. “wow. how generous.” we try

think about it: why does almost no one fight the curse? “given how fast scott killed skizz last season, i can guess.” [“any pain you spare your friends, you’ll have to suffer worse”?] it’s designed to shut down higher reasoning with stress

[sciderman]

deadpool (2008) #20

[nyancrimew]

what is your native language?

swiss german (alemannic) and swiss high german

swiss german to german is basically like scots to english where it's somewhere on the line between a dialect and a distinct language depending on who you ask, but language learning wise these are acquired separately. it is kind of funny though how the german part of switzerland has this whole collection of alemannic dialects but then since we also need high german for writing (swiss german is (up to now) only a spoken language) and being able to talk to germans and austrians we also have our own dialect of THAT version of german with it's own differences to germany and austria.

[khaopybara]

so nice of him to return the favor.

ONLY FRIENDS episode 2 THE HEART KILLERS official trailer

[dustykneed]

good luck, babes! 💙💛

maybe i should write a fic. hmm

(edit: if you wanted to know my personal interpretation... watch the can in bones' hand. and the colors mean things loll. i think i'll make an explanation tomorrow just for fun)

[agendratum]

kiseki: dear to me as text posts (3/?)

[lopsidedspecs]

“No one else that I would go to hell for”