#all worlds begin in darkness

[dawn-1386]

𝔄𝔩𝔩 𝔴𝔬𝔯𝔩𝔡𝔰 𝔟𝔢𝔤𝔦𝔫 𝔦𝔫 𝔡𝔞𝔯𝔨𝔫𝔢𝔰𝔰, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔞𝔩𝔩 𝔰𝔬 𝔢𝔫𝔡. 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔥𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔱 𝔦𝔰 𝔫𝔬 𝔡𝔦𝔣𝔣𝔢𝔯𝔢𝔫𝔱. 𝔇𝔞𝔯𝔨𝔫𝔢𝔰𝔰 𝔰𝔭𝔯𝔬𝔲𝔱𝔰 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔫 𝔦𝔱, 𝔦𝔱 𝔤𝔯𝔬𝔴𝔰, 𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔰𝔲𝔪𝔢𝔰 𝔦𝔱. 𝔖𝔲𝔠𝔥 𝔦𝔰 𝔦𝔱𝔰 𝔫𝔞𝔱𝔲𝔯𝔢. ♡

[mochasucculent]

Becoming a certified Dandadan enjoyer

+ dumb comic under the cut

[boxofthings]

I really love exploring GhostRoach's dynamic with mute!Roach, especially since I hc Roach as American, so he'd likely be using ASL

I think Ghost would be proficient in sign, however, since BSL and ASL are very different, I just love imagining him going out of his way to painstakingly learn practically a whole other language just for Roach.

Just watching the progression of their relationship where it starts with Ghost needing someone else on the task force to translate what Roach is saying, to him becoming the designated Roach translator lol

I'd imagine once they get closer, Roach would start writing notes for Simon instead of having a third party translate. And for a while it'd probably be their norm, where Roach will automatically pull out a notebook to talk, but then maybe one day Roach will casually sign something, forgetting that Ghost wouldn't understand, but then Ghost will respond without a second thought and they'll just stare at eachother for a moment like "what?"

and boom. they kiss.

nah but just think about how cute it'd be?? Ghost probably isn't that great with words, so you'll see how he cares about someone more so through his actions, and him studying for months just so Roach can more comfortably communicate with him is just so??? soft??

and the effort isn't lost on Roach at all. He sees how Ghost abashedly looks away after the slip up and mumbles "It's just good to know american sign, too" (excuses), he notices how Ghost will try minicking hand signs when he thinks no one's watching, when he hangs around in Ghost's room, he notices the small stack of ASL dictionaries on his desk.

and Roach just becomes all the more infatuated with him. Big scary lieutenant who yells at all the new recruits and can kill a man with his bare hands but will go out of his way to learn a difficult language. All for Roach.

it'd be a cute way to progress their relationship. Every now and then they'll have tender private moments where Roach will try teaching Ghost more thoroughly, and sometimes Ghost will get frustrated or just sign wildly incorrect words, and Roach will just look at him all adoringly like ughhh they'd be so soft.

[dulcebot]

DON'T GIVE ME IDEASSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and when hiraeth releases their final mini album before a year long hiatus or more so poppy can focus in her health + kaia can do her own things + yvan can do musicals and do whatever projects they want because in the dulceverse yvan will be glinda for wicked instead of ari bc i can do whatever i want this is my silly universe and i can do whatever but two months in and vivi's rent is due and the lights are flickering and the eviction notice is at the front door and none of the girls are answering her calls despite them being together at poppy's vacay home in lake como so she had ONE chance and ONE dream she had NO OTHER CHOICE so she got out a dusty and retired angel of the season project and got these three talented girls from diff companies that she's been eyeing to be hiraeths little sister unit and it's all fun and games until the new girlies don't do good because there will never be another hiraeth / another kaia poppy and yvan and they have a lot to carry on their shoulders even during predebut and there's a lot of self doubts and hesitance and insecurity and tension between vivi and even themselves and it becomes a really big problem where they don't stand each other or just refuse to understand each other and it will be a story of them slowly becoming and understanding that they are their own person, either alone or together as they try to carry on a legacy even when they are not hiraeth they are THEMSELVES!

LORE SPEAKING they were born / created by "mother" the exact day each seasonal angels broke their own loop by eating their forbidden fruit = giving into temptation and they are little angels who were born to parallel hiraeth as hiraeth weren't "pure" anymore but ffs the little sisters wanted to be like them wtf....... and then they were left behind in celestias castle or palace i don't remember what it was and they hold some kind of grudge because why did they leave and not us?! why did they not took us with them?! but eventually hiraeths doctrine cult like messages gets to them and they are not ready to break their loop but instead they start shaking things up in celestia's castle palace whatever and being a pain in the ass for "mother" because they are sharing to other angels that they could be and do more outside mothers doctrine and this even makes the little sisters realize that they are their own person/angel and they are not the seasonal aengels as much as mother wanted them to be and maybe they start their own "cult" and its not like "mother" can force them to leave celestia because they are perfect w no sins!

[sunsetzer]

Does anyone else get the impression that the whole point of Episode Ardyn was to reveal that the real villain of ffxv was Bahamut all along or is it just me

[patchwork-crow-writes]

81 - A Heart Unmoored

There's a strange sort of sadness when you first arrive in a new place, don't you find? A moment, perhaps longer, where all the world's weight crashes into you from every direction, you forget how to breathe quite right, and it takes everything in you not to cry.

The dark can be scary, I know, but please don't fret. I'll be right be your side through it all, whatever may happen. Here, hold my hand tightly, listen to my voice, and let me guide you through the shadows, back to the place you most long to be; the place you are meant to be.

There is no shame in admitting it - you've been so strong for such a long time, you've almost forgotten how to let go. But it's okay... it'll all come back to you in time. And when that time comes, I will give you the space that no-one else would ever allow you to have, a space that is truly yours, and no-one else's.

Because home is a feeling above all else, isn't it? I can be your roaring hearth, your cozy blanket, your indulgent hot chocolate... wouldn't you like that, my light? A sleeve to dry your tears upon, and an embrace to melt into at the end of a long day. Tenderness can flower even in the strangest of spaces, with enough time and care.

Let my heart be your home-from-home, and I shall always be with you, no matter how far apart we are.

______________________________

The Dark Menagerie No. 81

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[serialreblogger]

the thing about the joker

is that - well, even canonically, he’s not actually “insane.” in the most canonical version of his backstory (bc there are many conflicting incarnations, but this one is the touchstone for a lot of later canon), he was part of a street gang before falling into a vat of Nondescript Toxic Waste that damaged his melanin production and That’s It. he supposedly “lost his mind” after seeing his reflection, which is absurd on many levels. no. he’s not “insane.” what he is, is an angry white boy.

the thing about the joker is that he exults in his own uncontainability. He laughs, because all of gotham - all the world - is built to be his playground. the only lunatic thing about him is the lunacy of ~Society~, to borrow from the joker’s own playbook; the lunacy of the joker lies in the world that grants him power: in the inheritance of loss: in white privilege, and what it means for everyone else.

“to prove a point.” those were the joker’s exact words, when he shot and paralyzed Barbara Gordon. she asked why: he laughed. “to prove a point.”

because that’s all he ever does. he hurts people because he can. and because all the power in the world can’t save him from getting hurt - and isn’t that just peachy?

because the thing about the joker is that he can get hurt. he has been hurt. but he has so much more capacity to harm than to be harmed. he is immortal. he and he alone will never have to face the consequences of the hurt that he inflicts on other people.

so then: why not hurt them? misery loves company, after all.

the joker is the embodiment and end result of our own social system: the madness of the exception: the laughter of the white man: the imprecation to smile, as he kills you.

(no one ever says it, i find, but it’s still true: barbara deserves to kill him.)

and who, then, is the batman? if the joker is the yin to his yang? if they’re two sides of one irredeemable coin, if they represent the “balance” of an unjustifiable system - who is he if not another white man?

because he is. Bruce Wayne is a white boy born into unspeakable privilege and forced to endure suffering anyway; who copes with his suffering by taking it out on others; who copes with his suffering, not by taking advantage of the world as it is, but by attempting to reshape it. to make it in his own image - as if it isn’t already his, as if claiming it further will crush out the pain.

the batman is the benevolent oppressor to the joker’s malevolent one. he changes nothing, in the end. two privileged white boys with their own respective navel-gazing grudges - where, after all, lies the difference between benevolence and malevolence?

because they are not “chaos” and “order.” not really. They are laissez-faire laughter and law. Joker exults in the disease of the system, Batman seeks to treat its symptoms, but neither of them will ever change anything about the root cause. because they may have suffered the faults of this system, but they still benefit so much more from it as it exists. Uphold it or break it, neither of them wants to change the law.

but the law is only as good as the people it’s made to protect. and who does that law protect, really?

waylon jones is, in one issue, explicitly depicted as Black. between that and his skin disorder, there has never once been room for his character to be any more than a monster: king croc is, always, a character to be violated and brutalized, over and over and over and still - always - written as the villain. (he tried so hard to scrape out a place for himself, so many times, in so many incarnations, and each and every time he finds himself relegated once more to the sewers. he will never be anyone’s king. there is no place under the sun for people like him.)

victor fries only ever wanted to save his wife, and a capitalist mogul decided a few extra numbers on his eight-digit paycheck were more important than the people whose lives depended on that money. fries’ body was damaged to disability by that choice, left without the resources to find a cure for his wife, and he robbed banks because there was no other option available to him. we seem to have forgotten, or maybe never really understood, why that matters. why a desperate man trying to save his life and that of his loved ones under the crushing gears of capitalism is a villain, and the one who stops him is our hero. why, under the law batman upholds, a bank vault and a CEO’s hoard is worth more than a life.

poison ivy just wants to live, too. wants a life not defined by the devastation of her body, of the beings that exist as extensions of her, a life where green and growing things are not commodities to be plowed up and poisoned and destroyed for the sake of another man’s profit. these are villains; they are written as such. these are their motives.

who does batman fight for, really? who is our hero, this emblem of our law?

is he our hero? ours, the broken and bleeding members of the world he claims to protect?

who does the law protect, except him - him, and the joker?

[isan0rt]

I think one thing that really sticks with me in interpreting how Dark Road shapes Xehanort is the fact that Xehanort truly was raised to believe himself to be the only one truly strong enough to do what needs to be done to save the world. An interesting thing I think is to look at the way Xehanort’s apparent perception of Baldr changes after his world tour...but not really the crux of his feelings about Baldr, which is that I truly think he sees Baldr as pathetic, in both senses of the word.

Before the tour, Baldr evokes pathos from Xehanort. He feels sorry for him; he takes the time to leave flowers on his grave, but crucially, does not actually express regret for killing him. What he expresses is that he thinks this is the best outcome for Baldr; 

Xehanort: Baldr... Now you and your sister will always be together. You'll always have the light to share.

Killing Baldr was a mercy, from Xehanort’s perspective. Baldr wasn’t strong enough to handle the Darkness. He wasn’t strong enough to face a world of nuance alone. Not like Xehanort, who is determined to be strong enough. Who was born to be strong enough; who then decides to prove he’s strong enough by removing his armor in the space between worlds. 

Then, there is the comparison between Baldr’s dying words, and what Master of Masters and Xehanort express before and after his world tour:

??????: Let me guess... You thought your heart was strong enough to withstand the darkness in there.

??????: Human emotions are complex. For example, what you feel toward someone you love isn't always good or well-meaning. It can be a false kind of light. Which begs the question: are these messy feelings that emerge from love still light? Or are they darkness?

Baldr’s love for Hoder was a false kind of light. It was one that smothered, one that made her responsible for his well-being. Baldr can’t separate his own feelings from other people’s; his worldview is completely self-absorbed. Other people are having feelings at him; Hoder is there to spread her light at him. He can’t see beyond his own pain and his own needs, and what love he has for Hoder is really about what she can do for him; a love that isn’t good, or well-meaning, but toxic for both of them until it kills them both.

Xehanort knows this. His experience, as Master of Masters asks about, tells him this; he saw first-hand how that false love destroyed both Hoder and Baldr, and their classmates as collateral damage.

Baldr’s last words have this to say:

Baldr: Xehanort... Do you see now? There's them...and there's us. When we find the strength to pursue our goals, they condemn us, insisting that our strength comes from darkness.

Then Xehanort goes on his world tour (and it seems strongly implied that he travels to the future during this time, experiences Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts 3, and comes back with those memories erased, but changed by the experience);

Xehanort: Those who are weak, and who desire greater power, simply strip the strong of their power, and convince themselves they've earned it. That's how people become tainted by darkness. They believe what they want to believe, using hollow reasons as justification. They repeat this cycle, and their darkness grows.

??????: So you're saying the weak feel the need to justify their actions to maintain a sense of self. Can't let that slide?

Xehanort: No, it's better they be ruled by darkness. People carry delusions of having power, but it's a lie. 

Baldr is the sheep pretending to be a wolf, slaughtering their friends to build his own power through the act. Baldr no longer evokes ‘pathos;’ now, for Xehanort, he is the other definition of ‘pathetic;’ “miserably inadequate, of very low standard.” Xehanort’s opinion is now that Baldr was too weak to handle being weaker than Hoder, being weaker than his classmates, so he killed them all, and pretended that made him strong. He told himself lies about how they were feeling things at him, and how that justified what he chose to do.

Xehanort looks down on him. Xehanort will be better than him. Xehanort is truly strong, he believes; all his life, he’s been practicing control. Managing his own feelings. Keeping them separate from those of others, not allowing them to be tainted by the emotions around him. Being flawless, to be the change he was born to be. He will do what’s necessary to make sure nothing like Baldr can ever happen again, and he won’t let feelings get in the way. It’s the reason for his existence, after all.

What comes next is too important.

[riraro489]

They say that isolation is one of the worst forms of torture...

[sskk-manifesto]

MITCHELL AKUTAGAWA EPISODE!!!!!!!!!!

[rhymaes]

Mysterious Lotus Casebook // Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red

(continuation of x)

[saintlioncourt]

just watched Tomorrowland (2015 dir. Brad Bird) and while it wasn't without its flaws the message is still pretty relevant now

[tigergendermoved2tigergender]

All the art and fics of Deltarune where Kris and Susie are like fuckin soulbonded together are wonderful and my favorite but I think they're a lot funnier when you think about the fact that they've been friends for less than 24 hours

[tsukasalover]

(credits to ssruis)

This song is the only thing keeping me going I do not play about mr showtime 😞 nothing ruined me (made my life better) the way this song did

(Sendn. Me songs to do this with in my ask box… sniffle…)

[lususnatura]

blamore being obsessed with just... casually running his hands across it's partner's skin if they are human, or at least humanoid in nature during their downtime, because the only skin that has really been 'untainted' in his mind by his transformation was on his face and on his back — so knowing what it feels like to have it again in a way almost makes blamore fascinated with them and that's just JSJSJ

[hiddenworldofmary]

four coffees and all i want is sleep

also i spent 50 minutes trying to hunt down a book and discovered its crazy expensive and the nearest library that has it is 290km away