#am I allowed to call it that?

[wisteriasymphony]

MLB Death Note -esque AU / Scarlet Messenger AU drabble

It was Night 3 of having Adrien Arsenault handcuffed to her, and this time around the deal was that it would be at Maryam's own apartment. There were juvenile fears cropping up here and there of what exactly her parents were assuming Maryam was doing sleeping directly beside an attractive boy her age who she claimed to be 'dating'... But it was in the pursuit of justice towards her people, so such things didn't truly matter. All of this closeness was simply to throw Adrien off her trail. No feelings but justice.

Maryam was awoken by the faint sound of paws tapping at her window. Assuming it was either her Guardian or that she was just hallucinating from sleeplessness, Maryam ignored it. ...Until the window opened on its own, that is.

"Woof," a familiar voice spoke. "What a dump this place is."

Maryam sat up, the handcuff rubbing up against her wrist. On her windowsill was a pitch-black cat, who seemed apprehensive to actually set foot into the room. It took an embarrassing second for her to figure out just who the cat truly was.

"Eveningstar."

"Right you are!" the cat laughed. "Just wanted to check on my darling little lady~"

On a false instinct, Maryam tugged at her handcuffs to try and pull Adrien awake. ...Only for there to be no resistance. His shackle was unoccupied.

"Hah!' she shouted, albeit perhaps a bit too soon. "My suspicions were right! You are Adrien Arsenault after all!"

The cat fought back the smallest reaction of shock—a pause so small, in fact, that the hand of a clock wouldn't even move the width of a hair before its conclusion.

"Who?" the cat asked. Maryam's eye twitched: That was the most idiotic possible response she could've ever gotten out of Eveningstar. Infuriating, even, since it was so belligerently stupid that it seemed to actively disprove her theory. Adrien Arsenault was by all means a scholar and an absolute nerd, and would've undoubtedly said something closer to "I have no such recollections of a man by that name" before he said something as fucking moronic as "Who?".

"Oh!' the cat added, its small dark face contorted in imbecilic smugness. "The guy I just kidnapped. Your boyfriend."

"He is not my boyfriend."

The cat feigned a dramatic gasp. "Oh, little lady!" it sighed, as if what had just escaped Maryam's lips was a cuss of the highest vulgarity, "And to think he is so infatuated with you. You were all he could talk about, my darling. 'My dearest Maryam' this, 'My lovely Maryam' that." The Eveningstar chuckled self-contentedly. "He thinks your eyes are the most beautiful in the world, you know."

That last part was definitely a lie just to try and make her flustered. Even so, Maryam nearly reached a hand for her pendant, thinking that she should at the very least check to make sure Adrien was okay—

But that would just prove she was Scarlet Messenger. She'd fucking gone three days handcuffed to the opposite sex just to give it all up here? Just on the off chance that The Eveningstar of all people was telling the truth?

"That's nice and all," she said. "But I don't see why you think I can do anything about it."

"I have reason to believe you can."

"....Right," she said. Maryam grabbed her phone off her nightstand. "I can always call the police."

All of Eveningstar's fur stuck up on its end. "Woah woah woah woah, little lady! That's- I find that highly uneccesary—"

"Why is it?" she asked, bringing the phone up to her face. She had dialed in Adrien's number, not like Eveningstar would be able to tell. Unless he could, in which case that would only be more evidence to prove her theory. "Kidnapping is a crime, isn't it?"

The black cat huffed indignantly.

"Hang up and he'll be back by the morning. ...No torture, no nothing."

Maryam lowered the phone from her ear. "...Is that a deal, chaton?"

Eveningstar scoffed at being called such a name, but eventually replied with "It's a deal, little lady."

So Maryam hung up. Overall, the interaction had done absolutely nothing in prove anything in either particular way, which she somewhat considered a waste. ...However, she had held her ground. And if Maryam Zheng-Desrosiers could at least do that... then she'd prove her case in no time at all.

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

I think I made some of you guys a little sad with my last post, so you can have some happy aftermath twins before part 2, as a treat ❤️

[puppyeared]

thanks @chipper-smol for getting me ISAT i will be so irresponsible with the looping

[deep-space-lines]

(based on this hat)

why did i put actual effort into this .

[odetojupiter]

the fact that kevin day also witnessed a man being chopped up in the tower at evermore after neil’s audition is mad, and it’s something that is very much not addressed ever. like, maybe part of kevin was so accepting of how things were in the nest because he knew that this is the second branch, and if he were to leave, he’d become the main branch’s problem because he knows too much, and the main branch casually chops men up as a warning to literal children. and then he’s still called a coward for leaving ?? but also a coward for wanting to go back to make the inevitable less painful for him ??? and that’s not even considering what riko and tetusji did to him specifically, before even jean arrived at the nest. and his mother’s death would’ve been quite recent at that point. just insane.

[uncanny-tranny]

It's always, like, mildly annoying when people see a het trans couple and go "all that work just to be straight?" like... one, you don't know if they're straight and two, trans people don't owe you a queer sexuality to "make up" for the fact we're trans. Transhet people aren't a subtype of trans people, they're members of the trans community, and the queer one if they so desire!

[septiccoffeefreak]

"Are you a man or a woman?"

Am I flesh or bone? Do I peel the meat from my body or carve my skeleton out of myself? Which halves of myself do I keep, after the operation is done?

You come to me asking me this, asking me if I'm one or the other. Am I a man or a woman.

Fuck off.

[twigs-sprigs]

funny that people used to say this au is just like arcane and i hated it but then i watched arcane and i was like yeah man yall right i did accidentally recreate arcane.

anyway, lloyd in the style of the show and also an old turnaround ref i never posted (design somewhat outdated) plus his oni form

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

(loosely) that scene from potc... its so Them i think...

[celerydays]

Who knew that all it took for me to start drawing again was one ☝️ okay, maybe two ✌️ sad Slytherin boys 😮‍💨🐍

[fumifooms]

Kaka compilation

Because everyone is sleeping on him. Witness his greatness!! First two Kaka colored icons were colored by me, lineart by Ryoko Kui though!

Kaka & Kiki are kinda like Laios & Falin… Kaka being stoic and giving repressed energy like early Laios, Kiki being cryptic and always smiling and kinda soft-looking. Autism siblings 2, ostracized and othered as kids and have a deep bond due to sticking together through it all, though unlike with Laios their parents are very loving so Kaka developed family as a big value more than Laios (bc asides for Falin Laios doesn’t care much about it).

In the gnome festival comic you can see Kaka is more emotive than he seems! Full with a :3 face, and he’s the one crying at the end. He’s insecure about his legs and being tall… It really got to him. Conceal don’t feel. In the gnome festival comic you also see him sensing others’ gaze on him and that something is off unlike Kiki, again Laios-like in the way that judgement from others gets to him more than her.

[fungii]

sliding this over to you on a table with a note that just says "thats her dad"

[remarcely]

Something was itching me about Kipperlilly as a character for a while that I couldn't place down but I just got it.

There is so much of a connection between her storyline and the radicalization a white suburban kid can have to something like white supremacy that it's not even that deep, it's surface level.

Think about it:

She has a strong hatred for a minority kid in her school because he's got great grades and is viewed as a hero

She's envious of the hardships he's gone through and starts hating her family for being so 'normal' (a lot of white people can feel angry about their identity and what they think is a lack of a culture because they 'don't feel oppressed enough' to justify their own feelings of unfairness)

She takes all that anger and infects the people around her, hurting them and 'radicalizing' a few others

Is so insistent that this random kid had an unfair start because of his family situation that she wants to permanently change the bylaws in her school so he's put at a crazy disadvantage, just so she feels like she has an upper hand (think of racist people being mad that there's more POC going to college and crying that they're only getting in because they're a minority, ignoring the real work those students put it despite the disadvantages they might have faced)

She doesn't do any self introspection, doesn't decide to put more effort into her grades or personal relations, she takes that hatred and lets it poison her from the inside out. She rants about fairness when she doesn't put the work in and chooses to despise the people that do, just because they're not as miserable as her.

Her guidance counselor doesn't know how to combat that anger because he doesn't agree with her politics, a creepy adult in her life recognizes her hate and takes advantage of it to stir up the flames, we don't even see her parents but it's safe to say they're not exactly involved or watching her.

I don't know, I'm just annoyed because I keep seeing people say 'if you hate Kipperlilly that's just misogyny' as if she is not a genuinely hate-able character.

You can hate a woman for being evil, you're allowed.

And on the whole 'redemption' thing, sure that's entirely possible but let's face it. You cannot force someone to change, that's not how redeeming yourself works, you have to want it. Kipperlilly has no desire to change because she believes she is right. What use is it to her to abandon a worldview that suits desires her so well?

There was no way that could have been covered in an epilogue well enough to justify it and do you really think all the people that had their lives ruined and were literally murdered (Lucy, Oisin, Ivy, Ruben, Mary Ann, Buddy, etc.) would be bending over backwards to check on their killer?

[neonhellscape]

Happy Mechanicus everyone I can be trusted with tech priests

[bigskydreaming]

Imagine looking at a character whose entire premise is that in every stage of his life, he's made every version of himself into someone that inspires people to such a degree that EVERY SINGLE VERSION OF HIM has people wanting to literally follow in his footsteps in some way or another.....

And coming to the conclusion that like.....the most important things about him are the sum of all his trappings. His entirely homemade developed from scratch could not exist if not for what he already was and brought with him BEFORE crafting this newest version of himself trappings, with his greatest trait throughout all of it being his adaptability; his ability and willingness to roll with the punches and not try to simply weather any opposition or changes to his life but instead reshape himself as needed to better fit INTO whatever new shape his life and the world around him takes. All while managing to carry the most innate, fundamental and necessary aspects of himself from one version to the next. Thus every single version of himself is different but simultaneously every single version of himself is also undeniably the same person.

The strength of this character, to me, will always be that he can be so many versions of himself, he can become so many things, all without ever actually losing or discarding any of the aspects of himself he considers most essential, the things he's not willing to lose or give up just to keep going. Finding that road not taken by most, usually because most never even think to look for it as an option. But one that he's always able to find because the one trick he's mastered in his tumultuous life is threading that needle of not just digging in his heels in an unproductive way but rather being selective about when and where he makes a stand and decides "this is not a thing I'm willing to compromise about" but here are places and ways I can and will change and evolve and adapt in order to make it possible for me to hold onto these parts and keep them as they are.

And that's why its always so mind-boggling to me that so many writers can't seem to think of anything else to do with Dick Grayson other than invent some new reason for him to just....not be that person, or to like just take the character whose most basic fundamental trait he's NOT about to compromise on is willingly giving up his spot in the driver's seat of his own life.....and make him just a passenger in his own life and stories.

Dick Grayson at age nine....at age nineteen...at age twenty nine....the one core thread running through all versions of him is the only way he's standing back and letting you call the shots for him or putting him on the sidelines in some way is over his dead body.

HOW he goes about that, what that looks like, who he becomes and what aspects of himself he plays up at some times and what traits he lets fall by the wayside at other times when they offer less in service to his primary goal here....that changes constantly. He changes constantly.

But those changes are almost always (or at least they used to be/should be IN MY OPINION) made with the intention of keeping certain things about him or his life as consistent as possible.

That's the duality of Dick Grayson that I'm here for. The inherent contradiction of him that COULD allow for endless conflict and breaking new narrative ground in all sorts of ways if mined properly:

His eternal willingness to compromise....but only ever in pursuit of doubling down on the ways he's not willing to compromise.

Forever walking that tightrope in ways that only a kid born and raised in a circus could ever hope to.

[eh-east]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEPO!

(as my favourite character, he deserves two birthday drawings <3)

(and this because it's also my birthday today)