#a strangeness in the shadows

[loxosceleslolo]

just a snippet from a chapter I'm working on. it might change during the editing process but i liked it!

Siwan leans forward, her eyes straining against the oppressive darkness below. The faint light from her torch dances across weathered stone, revealing fleeting glimpses of ancient architecture that vanishes as quickly as it appears. A chill crawls up her spine as the yawning abyss seems to breathe. 

Someone is playing music down there, a simple, sad tune that sounds familiar. Like an old lullaby.

“What’s down there?” Her voice echoes, swallowed by the vastness beneath. The words barely leave her lips before they’re lost to the void.

The winged Omen’s presence looms behind her, his massive form blocking what little light filters from above. His voice is low, each word dripping with venomous contempt. “Yet another of Mother Marika’s dirty little secrets.”

A cruel amusement creeps into his tone as he continues, “You could jump down and see for yourself, little priest.” His wing extends, the tip pointing towards a dark smear on the stone far below. In the flickering torchlight, the stain glistens with an unmistakable crimson hue. “Be careful not to end up like your fellow there.”

Siwan’s breath catches in her throat, and she stumbles back from the edge, her hand instinctively clutching at her chest. The room spins for a moment as her mind races, conjuring images of her companions meeting grisly fates in the darkness below.

Oh, Ifor, was that you?

“There were four others who came with me,” she manages, her voice barely above a whisper. She swallows hard, forcing herself to meet the Omen’s gaze. “Are they all...?”

[wormachinery]

Sonic feels like the type of guy to make up an insane story about how he got his top surgery scars

[box-dwelling]

The James somerton stuff is so wild. It feels like an old tale of internet drama from the live journal days or something. I feel like I should be listening to strange aeons talk about it in the past tense not like a thing I should be living through with all the names being recognisable YouTubers I watch instead of some obscure harry potter reference.

[cryptidmickle]

my wips, theyre finally escaping me get oUt

[rooniearts]

I don't know if you've answered this before, but, where did Shadow get a child?

Did he find it? Did someone give it to him? Did it just spawn there?

LITERALLY WAS JUST FINISHING UP A COMIC ABOUT THAT WHEN THIS ASK ROLLED IN!!! The answer is literally no one knows and Shadow won't tell

Bonus:

(better quality PNG version under the cut)

[st-hedge]

I was in the mood for ps2 sotc

[eldritch-ace]

I too think he deserves a kwagatama

[weirdlookindog]

Gertrude Abercrombie (1909–1977)

Strange Shadows (Shadows and Substance), 1950

oil on canvas

[scruffiberri]

Day 2: Magic...Strange Magic?

[voidface-entity]

Paracosmonaut

[notbecauseofvictories]

Watching this again, it becomes incredibly clear in s3 that Nate is teaching Parker how to run her own crew. He fully anticipates that she will be his legacy, and more than anyone else---more than Sophie or Hardison, more than Eliot (though I would argue that Eliot never even slightly wanted it)---he is teaching her how to take over, think like he thinks and plan like he plans. He fumbles some of the emotional stuff, never actually tells her explicitly...but by the time you reach s3 he's clearly all-in. He's decided. Parker is going to be Nate 2.0, with different more exciting bugs than the 1.0 version.

[loxosceleslolo]

Proof that I am still alive and still writing below the cut (it's a little sneak peek of A Strangeness in the Shadows)

Only when the curve of the garden wall places them out of her line of sight does Morgott speak again.

“I mislike the way she looked upon me,” he mutters.

There’s no bitterness in it. Only unease.

Oleg’s hand falls to his sword with a casual grace that would not seem alarming—except Morgott knows that gesture too well.

“She doesn’t know… does she?” His voice is calm, but his eyes are sharp, reading every twitch of Morgott’s brow.

Sister Siwan wouldn’t be the first person Oleg has cut down for secrecy’s sake. Nor the last.

“I know not.” Morgott shakes his head.

The uncertainty is bitter on his tongue.

“Keep thy blade sheathed,” he adds. “For now.”

[briskchips]

those guys

[starry-bi-sky]

Out of Context Stuff for a Danyal Al Ghul au i haven't posted - Pit Beast Danyal

Damian, 13: Look, Danyal, -- I am so sorry for everything that happened between us in the League, I hope you can forgive me.

Danny, 10 (allegedly): (has been secretly plotting to murder Damian this whole time, is still gonna do it obvs, but is going to make it significantly less painful now)

Danny: I-- of course, older brother. :]

--------

Bruce: what do you have there, Damian?

Damian:

Danny: (a hulking 10ft pit beast standing beside him, growling idly with ram horns gouging out his eyes and a second set of horns jutting into the air, spines down his back, and a long, spiked tail with an animalistic, skull-like face)

Damian, who smuggled him in (they've made amends): a smoothie, father

----------

Damian: this is my little brother Danyal, i murdered him when he was five. He festered in rage for the last half-a decade, took over a League mountain base in Switzerland, murdered everyone inside and then tried to murder me when I went to investigate with Drake.

Danny: hello!

Damian: we're cool now

----------

Damian: thoughts on resurrection

Danny, (a full ghost): i will succeed in murdering you if you try it

Damian: we'll put a pin in it then

----------

Danny (still instilled with League values): why don't we just murder him??

Damian, on patrol (Danny followed him): we don't murder people, Danyal

Danyal:,,,,are you sick, Dami?? Have you been possessed? Why not!?

(There is raucous laughing through the comms)

----------

Danny, five, pre-death: Dami! :D

Danny, dead, vengeful: Older brother (:

Danny, post-forgiveness: Dami! :]

-------

For some actual context: Danny is fully dead in this au, its a result of the classic DPxDC Demon Twins "death duel" trope but instead of Danny getting revived, he stays fully dead. Danny was five, Damian was seven. His ghost lingered though, and due to the proximity of the pits his ghost steadily absorbed the ambient energy it was letting off. The pits are not corrupted ectoplasm in this au, it's just liquid ecto.

Which means Danny's corruption from an angry and hurt little ghost boy to an unrecognizable monster is from his own doing. It's a result of him stewing in his hurt and anger for years, it physically warped him. He's very powerful. Danny can travel between League Bases but chose a small, out-of-the-way base in the Swiss mountains to fester in and then just. Never Left.

His influence steeped into the very foundations of the building, allowing him to transform and warp the rooms and hallways for his own bidding, Meaning he could turn it into a seemingly unending labyrinth if he so wished to, and block the entrance.

Eventually, blinded (both metaphorically and physically) by his own rage, Danny grew powerful enough to appear physically in the living realm and attacked everyone in the base, slaughtering them all and leaving the base abandoned. He attacks anyone who dares enter -- whether that be other league members, or the unfortunate hiker who stumbled across the base. His conscious is steeped into every nook and cranny of the building, there is nowhere you can hide where he can't find. Nobody leaves without his explicit say so. Nobody ever does.

Him appearing as ten years old before Damian in the skits above is his own physical doing. First it was to prevent Damian from being suspicious of him. Damian initially thought Danny was revived with the pits, he was too busy with his own training afterwards to notice that Danny never showed up again, and when he did notice, he assumed it was because Danny was too ashamed of his loss to face him. He'd always forget to ask about him.

Then it becomes a personal choice to appear as ten. It's how old he would've been had he been alive.

danny forgiving Damian is kinda for an offshoot branch of the main au. Whereas the main au takes the form of a ps4 first person horror game where Damian and Tim are investigating the Base for Plot Reasons. There's no sign of the rumored "monster" living inside until the end, where Danny, who was found inside the Base and has been happily "helping" them look around, manages to persuade Damian into splitting off from Tim in order to "show him something."

This something turns out to be Danny revealing that he never really forgave Damian for that fight, and he reveals through a horrifying transformation, that he was the monster the whole time. Which the game subtly hints at throughout as Danny's strange behavior becomes harder to ignore.

First from his insistence to only refer to Damian as "older brother" (when before the duel he always called him Damian or Dami), to him right off the bat denying the existence of a monster when questioned. ("There's no monster here, older brother. It's just me.") To other various things, like his knowledge of the outside world not matching up to modern times or things going on with the league outside of the base, or what happened to the other league members.

This whole idea was inspired by the song "Scylla" from Epic the Musical, with Danyal being the voice of Scylla as well as Odysseus, while Damian stands as Eurylochus. The instrumentals after Scylla says "hello" is him turning into the pit beast, and Scylla's "drown in your sorrow and fears" part is danny, as the pit beast, snarling at Damian while he attacks him.

There's a Good Ending, a Bad Ending, and a True Ending. The Bad Ending results in Damian being killed by Danny, it happens when Damian decides not to question or suspect Danny and treats him kindly. The Bad Ending is a cutscene, where Danny kills Damian quick and painlessly.

Meanwhile the Good Ending is Damian killing Danny. This is a boss fight, and it happens when Damian treats Danny coldly and suspiciously the whole time. Danny as a result, decides to make Damian's death painful as he had planned to, which is why it's a boss fight because it only causes him to double down on his anger.

The True Ending is Damian escapes with Tim. It happens when you treat Danny warmly up until the last minute, where when Danny proposes to Damian that he wants to show him something, Damian goes to talk to Tim and finally, reluctantly agrees that something is off with Danny, and that he'll be careful going in. It starts off with the boss fight until a third through, where it then changes to a cutscene where Tim manages to get the door open and Damian escapes out. It's then a chase scene down a never-ending hallway as the building actively works to keep you trapped inside. But you eventually make it to the exit so long as you avoid all the projectiles and doors.

Remember when I mentioned that Danny only lets people leave when he wants them to? That's where the treating Danny kindly throughout the game comes into play. It causes him to second guess himself and, eventually, reawaken and strengthen the love and admiration he had for Damian prior to his murder. It's why in the Bad Ending he kills Damian quickly -- because by then, he loves him enough that he doesn't want him to suffer, but is still so consumed by his rage and need for vengeance that he kills him anyways. That quiet part is what allows Damian (and Tim) to find the exit, because some part of Danny still loves Damian enough that he wants him to live.

The True Ending ends with a cutscene of Damian and Tim tumbling out into the snow/grass outside of the base. Damian looks up back to the entrance to see Danny standing there. But rather than a ten year old boy, there's a little five year old Danyal Al Ghul instead. He stares at Damian emotionlessly, blood seeping from his chest, staining his clothes, and little, bloody sword in his hands and tearstains on his cheeks, before he turns away and disappears back into the building.

[valkugo]

Daniel Molloy + first impressions

[finz-art]

Have some more Crane doodles while I work on commissions ^-^☕️✍️