#a pretty okay city

[patrice-bergerons]

Boston is just. A city, huh?

[somerandomcockroach]

[starcurtain]

Just caught up with Natlan's archon quest and lord help me, I have a burning need to see Alhaitham and Ororon interact.

I truly feel that they would vibe perfectly. Not in a ship way, but like, in the way of Kaveh quietly wailing: "For archons' sake, he's brought another tacky thing into the house. Traveler, please do something; they've been staring eye to eye over the coffee table for like an hour now but haven't said a single word. I don't know what to do. Send help."

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 168

So. Apparently halfas are like phoenixes or something, which Danny would’ve really liked to know. 

See, usually with ghosts if they’re forced to retreat to their cores they reform as was, but apparently, since they’re still partially living, schrodinger's people and all that, halfas have to regrow their body from scratch. At least that’s what he’s understanding from Frostbite. 

But how come he has to deal with it? It’s Dan’s fault for trying to pull such a stunt! Oh, it’s either him or Vlad? Well fuck, he might have calmed down and is going to therapy in both the living realm and the Zone, but he’s waaay not equipped to raise a child except for like, monetarily wise. 

Well dammit, how long will this core incubation thing last, he has his new job in… let him check which offer he accepted again… He has his new job in Coast City that he needs to finish packing for and then all the rest of the stuff to do. 

What do you mean it’ll take months?! He doesn’t have months?! Urgh, fine. At least being a mortician isn’t that exciting, nor dangerous. Just hand him Dan’s core and he’ll figure things out for the living side of things. He’s sure Tucker and Sam wouldn’t be against helping, if only to try and claim favorite aunt or uncle spots. 

[cuethesolareclipse13]

Why do that Vackers have accents?? Where did the accent come from??? Why does nobody else have an accent?????

[kenmaiii]

averrrrry ! ! ! 🎩

+alt skintone version for my sanity:

[tequiilasunriise]

When Steph and Cass get married they don’t take the last name Brown (Daddy Issues™️) or Cain (Daddy Issues Prime™️) or even Wayne (Steph absolutely REFUSES to become a Wayne nosirree), but a secret fourth thing (Gordan).

[serpentface]

What’s the Janeys/Brakul death scenario?

So like upon review I mostly just was going to kill them off for Couya + Faiza + Hibrides’ character development (#FEMINIST WIN!!!!!!!).

The background situation of their death scenario is something that will happen either way:

Throughout the story, the pilgrimage requests tribute from the towns it passes through (mainly food and other supplies). This is a common practice for pilgrimages and the travels of royalty, and Imperial Wardi civilians are used to the concept (just not so much during a famine). Some people give fully willingly (a lot of people believe in the pilgrimage's goals/and or the necessity to keep its high status participants fed), most are at least partly coerced (usually not via direct threats, but the pilgrimage contains a couple hundred soldiers, the Usoma, and Odonii leadership. The threat is implied), some are Fully coerced via threats.

In the latter third of the story things are not going well. There’s been a lot of internal struggles among the soldiers and dissatisfaction with pilgrimage leadership (mostly Stavis), men are starting to defect and a large body are getting outright mutinous. The group has also lost much of their food supplies and things are getting desperate (they've been starting to eat their own pack khait and oxen)

With this going on, the pilgrimage sends three soldiers to exact tribute from a farming village in the province Lobera. They meet a group of men acting as representatives for the village, who flat out refuse to give tribute. Things escalate into an outright fight, the soldiers are better armed but few in number and are killed.

One of the village elders finds out that this happens and panics, knowing that the men who killed three of the Usoma’s soldiers (one of which is her son) have signed their own death sentences, and possibly that of others. She attempts to persuade the families to preemptively flee, and then takes the village's one remaining skinny old plow ox to carry the bodies of the dead soldiers back to where the pilgrimage is camped. She supplicates herself before Stavis Amanti and begs for mercy, saying they don't even have enough food stored to feed themselves, much less to give, and that the men thus considered the killings righteous self defense. She shows that she’s returned the bodies for rites as an act of goodwill, and offers the ox in tribute, the most valuable thing she can provide. She begs that the Usoma accepts this as tribute and spares the men's lives, and that the pilgrimage moves on without taking anything else.

Stavis bids her safe passage away from the camp (without confirming or denying that he's accepted her plea), and the heads of pilgrimage confer on what to do. The killing of the soldiers is a violation punishable by death, but this would be like, a notably bad PR move. Meanwhile a contingent of soldiers (including some major side characters I haven’t introduced) break off and lead a raid on the village to avenge their fallen brothers and loot supplies. Others get drawn into the fighting, and it devolves into a full on massacre.

A couple families had fled at the elder’s suggestion, but most refused to leave their homes. Some of the villagers believed they would be left unharmed if the killers were given up, others had been preparing for a reprisal and armed themselves with everything available. But they have few actual weapons and none are trained combatants. All of the remaining men and adolescent boys get killed, one woman manages to take out a soldier using a shovel but is killed, most of the other women and girls are spared murder but several are assaulted. The village is looted for supplies and kindling for funeral pyres.

Stavis Amanti has no fucking idea what to do. The soldiers defied orders and killed Imperial Wardi civilians, but the current climate amid the pilgrimage would make it EXTREMELY Bad for him if he demanded their punishment (but also potentially very bad if he didn't- not all the soldiers participated in the massacre and many were horrified). Faiza encourages him to exert authority in a measured response by having the ringleader of the mutineers killed but sparing the rest, and offers to publicly back him in hopes of avoiding full on mutiny.

The raid reveals that the villagers had been hiding more grain than they claimed they had (as in like, enough to feed their people on starvation level rations for a few weeks). Stavis takes this as an opportunity to justify not punishing the mutineers (as the villagers DID technically have something to give, and execution IS technically the punishment for refusing the order of tribute (though not execution of the entire community)), but insists that their Galenii bless the village dead and their men build pyres for the civilians as is honorable conduct. (This attempt to make amends is not particularly appreciated by the survivors.)

The pilgrimage holds a funeral for their own dead soldiers. The village ox that was given in tribute is killed and butchered for the funerary feast.

----

In the Bury Your Gays route, Brakul is one of the three that gets killed during the tribute extraction. Janeys loses his fucking mind when his body is brought back, and tries to slit his own throat on the spot. Couya stops him by wrestling him to the ground while Janeys screams threats at her and the old woman in a very pathetic public spectacle. He is deprived of all sharp objects.

While the pilgrimage leaders are conferring, he hovers miserably around Hibrides (who is also not feeling so great about all this). He's suddenly very interested in her pregnancy for the first time ever, asks to feel the baby (which has been just starting to kick). She's like "fuck off", but he strongly implies he's planning to commit suicide asap and she concedes and then is like Okay I Let You Feel The Goddamn Baby Now Leave Me Alone Holy FUCK.

Janeys turns his attention to fucking murdering anyone tangentially involved in this happening. He’s among the initial raid party, plays a major hand in it turning from its ostensible 'find and execute the ones responsible, subdue the rest, steal their food' directive to a full massacre by directing his men to immediately attack the first man he sees. He and his group capture three young men as prisoners and demand that they be slain at the soldier's funerals as is wartime custom (this isn't wartime). Janeys additionally demands that he should get to do it, as the only kin of any of the dead men. Once that's done he immediately cuts his own throat and bleeds out. They wind up getting cremated at the same time so things work out how Janeys wanted it.

At one point I realized that this is kind of just The Iliad?

----

So like obviously whether they die here or not has little impact on THESE events, but a lot of the endgame revolves around Couya Faiza and Hibrides and these deaths would be very significant to THEM in varying capacities. It affects the trajectory of the final stretch of their arcs and adds a lot of layers to the ultimate Couya/Faiza conflict. I also liked their deaths being kind of random and shitty and meaningless because that in of itself is kinda ~thematically resonant~ with the story. (A lot of tension between the lack of intrinsic meaning to events and the profound levels of meaning ascribed to them).

I'm almost definitely not going with this version of events though. Janeys and Brakul don't have much active involvement in the endgame and don't Really need to be alive for it as it stands, but I think the version where every main character (except Faiza she's doomed) survives to see What Has Been Wrought and living to experience the fallout ultimately works better.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Replenishing the Nonfiction Stack; or, We're Calling the Book Buying Ban a Wash, Officially.

I am not, apparently, immune to coupons for niche nonfiction that's directly up my alley (octopus minds and RUSSIAN OWLS, hello??? Thanks, bookshop!).

I thought perhaps the BURGLAR'S GUIDE would also be covered under said coupon, since it was publisher-specific (alas: it was Not, but we might as well bundle for shipping purposes). And then while I was shopping IRL for gifties I found a copy of ROOM, which has been on my list for...ever? So! Hopefully these will hold me over on the nonfiction front for a minute!

[chooh2]

Lyman: "Seem in an awful rush, kiddo. Where're you off to in such a hurry?" Devan: "Just... need to get away from here. Find a change of scenery, someplace I can breathe." Lyman: "Okay... Back in time for dinner I hope? Gideon's cookin' your favorite tonight." Devan: "... Don't think so, not this time."

Running From Ghosts: 2070, Vegas-bound

[itissadbutitsmy-artblog]

i overturn my uncles barbeque grill and turn the Fourth Of July into the Fourth Of Shit

theres a gray one becaesu i actually hate coloring things so much

[salsakiyoomi]

you were a villain.

miguel should've put you in cuffs the first time he caught you, you were cunning and a trickster and you were causing too much trouble.

but god, everytime he caught you, you slipped right through his fingers — and it didn't help that you kissed him one time.

he wasn't sure how it happened, but your wrists were restrained infront of you by his hands, and you were trying to wiggle your way out of his tough grasp and he remembers tightening his grip even more — before suddenly, your mouth was on his and all he could process was the taste of the cherry lip balm on your lips and how soft they were and then without realizing it, his grip on you was loosening and you were kicking him in the crotch before running off.

yeah, not his brightest moment — letting a villain kiss him and then letting her get away.

but he couldn't help it, he didn't know why but god you were so intoxicating, like a drug he got addicted to ever since that moment, the way your lips moved against his, how good you tasted, the strong scent of your perfume that he could recognize anywhere and he just couldn't bring himself to put you in cuffs.

also, he may have let you get away a couple of more times after that.

he thinks he's smooth enough that it comes off as that you just got away from him — after all, you were cunning, and you were good enough to trick even miguel o'hara himself.

this night is different though, he's out on patrol, searching the dark alleys of the city, the places where he'd usually sniff out thugs and gangs, but not that they're common anymore, not every since you've been terrorizing them, driving them out of their areas.

miguel stops in the middle of the alley, it's dark, with the only light provided from the moon barely peaking above the buildings.

"i know you're here."

he calls out, hands on his waist as if waiting impatiently.

a moment passes, and then a sigh is heard, his head turns around to his left side where you drop down from a fire escape case.

you take a few steps out of the building's shadow, the moonlight barely illuminating your face, and he can make out your familiar features, and god damn that smirk on your face.

"how come do you always know when i'm around?" you ask with a tilt of your head, you're eyeing him with your arms crossed and your chin held high and the unmistakable curve of your lips taunts him.

he grunts, rolling his eyes, "call it instinct."

"instinct, huh?" you muse, your lips formed in a small pout, almost as if you're in thought, miguel knows you're mocking him though, he can see it in the glimmer of your eyes.

"where have you been these past three days?" he asks, his voice rough as usual as he takes a step closer to you, he's maybe a meter or two away from you, but your strong perfume is already engulfing all of his senses, "you haven't been causing trouble much as usual."

you shrug, "sorry, i don't always have the time to commit crime."

miguel tenses — his thoughts come flooding in again, his rational thoughts, the ones that tell him how he should put you behind bars, take the advantage that you're unarmed right now, the ones that ask how he could feel so relaxed around you even though you're the enemy, relaxed so much so his mask is off.

"why are you here now?" he asks, his arms crossed as he stares you down.

"i know you patrol these alleys." you say nonchalantly, stating the obvious.

"so?"

"so? so what? are you dumb or something?" you roll your eyes, scoffing a laugh, muttering a 'jeez, what a dense head' under your breath.

miguel scowls, "the hell's wrong with you?"

"the hell's wrong with me? the hell's wrong with you?" you shoot back at him, "i came to see you, duh."

miguel deadpans at you, he looks very unamused as if you've just told a bad joke, "is this another one of your tricks?"

you snort, "how low do you think of me?"

"very low."

"that's a shame," you mumble, taking a step closer to him, that smirk still on your face, oh the one that makes his heart flutter a bit even though he denies it to himself, "you know, they say you should never assume."

your voice is barely above a whisper, and you're standing close to him, too close if anything, and he's silent, unsure of what to say and deciding to see what happens next.

"you really should've put me in cuffs the first time you caught me, spiderman." you mumble and before he knows it, your lips are against his once more and he's thinking, yeah, i really should've.

but god, you're intoxicating and your lips taste so good like cherry lip balm, and all he could process is the strong scent of your perfume, and the way your body is pressed up slightly against his and then, he's kissing you back.

he's kissing you back, savouring the taste of your lips and the touch of your skin against his, letting the moment linger between the two of you, and god this is the second time, and it feels like he can't stop, he doesn't know if he ever will, he knows he'll want to have it one more time after it ends, he knows he'll always come back to you, he knows he'll always let you get away because you're like a drug and he just got addicted to you, like he hasn't always been addicted to you, to your teasing and your mocking grins and your cunning voice, and he's knows it's no good for him — you are no good for him, but he still kisses you back.

you pull away, your hot breath fans his lips and you're staring up at his eyes through your lashes, and a smile creeps up on your face, "aren't you hopeless."

you chuckle, pulling away from him and taking a few steps back, "well that was nice, maybe one day you'll tell me your actual name, spiderman." you say with a grin, "oh, and next time, don't bring expensive watches on patrols."

you hold up his dimension travelling watch that you had managed to slip off of him while he was too busy savouring the taste of you — you laugh, slipping it in your pocket before you disappear into the darkness of the alley.

and miguel let's you get away.

he knows he'll find you again, and he'll get it back, god knows what will happen the next time he meets you anyway, but he can't stop thinking about how good your mouth fit against his.

yeah, you really are no good for him.

[gender-trash]

on the subject of urbanism does anyone have any book recs about possible remedies for if the urban fabric just completely sucks shit? like in the south bay especially, everything's low-rise office parks and suburbs and three-lane-each-way expressways with a 45mph speed limit, because before the '60s it was just fruit orchards. or take foster city (please!) -- it's all landfill from, again, the goddamn '60s, so it's all either an Office Park, a Strip Mall, or a Suburb, and don't even THINK about mixed use. i too watch notjustbikes and gaze with yearning at streetscapes of the netherlands but how do you, like... get from A to B

[a-whiff-of-a-dream]

I swear to god I need a release date for DA4 asap!

[kanerallels]

God bless Shannon Messenger for putting out the KOTLC graphic novel cause my little sister is reading it right now and she never reads

[tiffanybluesclues]

Every week someone makes a post about how annoying it is that Dick Grayson fans don't acknowledge his flaws, and every week someone replies with an explanation that the flaws OP listed are entirely fanon and inconsistent with canon as it actually happened and at this point I have to assume that none of those explanations are ever going to stick because clearly some people just want the fanon to be true.

Anyway, I'm just putting this here for me to edit and add relevant-to-the-topic links later so I'll have them nicely at hand to read and sooth my frustrations when it gets real bad out there. (Echo chambers are good when we use them to drown out character mischaracterizing fanon.)