#and I'm back to square one

[swampndn]

Y'all, I have a HIGH pain tolerance, and this back pain just may take me out.

[starry-bi-sky]

Blood Blossom Au: Baby's First Commissioner Meeting :)

TL:DR This Post: Danny (orphan) gets poisoned with blood blossom extract by Vlad. He runs away from him and ends up under the care of one Pre-Robin Battinson Batman! Starry is loudly pushing her batdad agenda.

(Also known as "Late At Night, When The Nightingale Sings" on my ao3!)

This was a fun rough idea I've been sitting on for weeks, thinking about how Commissioner Gordon and Nightingale's first meeting might go.

---------------

Commissioner Gordon likes to think that he's adjusting to the new normal of Gotham very well, -- the new normal being grown men running around dressed like bats, in military-grade strength body armor, committing acts of vigilantism, -- and slowly, little by little, he was no longer being surprised when this new normal pops up out of the shadows like the world's most terrifying daisy. His shaving lifespan thanks him for it.

....

The kid is a surprise though.

Granted, he seemed to be a surprise to the Bat too.

There's been a string of murders lately, -- which, in Gotham, is kind of like saying there's been another storm during monsoon season. And there's just been another; in some dilapidated building down in south Gotham, with the broken, boarded-up windows and mildew-crawling walls to match. The victim is a man in his thirties, multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, left in the center of the room for the blood to pool out around him.

The place is already secured when he arrives, the building swarmed with officers and the forensic detectives. The Bat emerges shortly after he does -- or, he might've been here the whole time, hiding someplace dark and shadowy. For his own sanity, Gordon doesn't think about it too hard.

The kid is a surprise, and he appears like a bolt of lightning.

He shows up in the middle of a conversation Gordon is having with the Bat.

A whistle, sharp and loud, slicing through the air, meant for open air rather than a confined space. Gordon's ears pierce and protest the sound, and the solemn, murmured chatter floating through the room abruptly cuts off like the swing of a gavel. As he turns towards the sound -- as they all do -- he swears, up and down, that he sees Batman's shoulders jump, just slightly.

At the source, perched on the window, is a boy. A boy in a gray-blue scarf and an oversized black hoodie, one that hangs off his frame and has ace bandages wrapped around the wrists in some attempt to cinch the sleeves. The hood is up, big like the rest of it, and threatens to swallow the upper half of the boy's face whole in the fabric. What upper half Gordon can see, is smeared with some kind of opaque, black face paint. He's holding onto the side of the frame with one hand, on his hip is a grappling hook. A familiar grappling hook.

Gordon has multiple questions, and his officers tense up.

Martinez puffs up, brows furrowing as his face shapes into a frown. Shoulders rolling back. "You can't be here, kid--"

The reaction is immediate, like a spark to gunpowder, the boy yanks his fingers from his mouth and his mouth twists into a scowl. Head snapping over to Officer Martinez, his hood manages to stay on but Gordon swears that as he bares his teeth, the glint makes them look sharper than they should be. His voice is rasp and quiet and harsh; snappish in its hissing; "Put a fuckin sock in it, Martinez. I'm not stayin."

Martinez reels back, and the boy immediately veers his attention off him. Like a switch, his demeanor drops. Despite half his face being covered, his mouth twists into a cringing, apologetic smile. Slanted and off-beat, embarrassed. It'd be disarming if this wasn't Gotham, and if he didn't just hiss at Martinez like he was about to bite his head off.

"Sorry." He whispers, voice deceptively polite and softer now. Gordon has to strain his ears to hear him. "I was looking for him."

He points his finger towards-- Gordon? No, Gordon follows the direction, and finds himself looking at -- the Bat.

The Bat, who always looks stiff as a pole, now looks even stiffer. Somehow. Well, the explains the grappling hook attached to the boy's waist.

"What are you doing here?" The Bat says, gruff and unable to completely smother the stumble of surprise in his tone.

The boy still holds a sheepish smile, and slips off the window ledge. His feet hit the creaky boards with a near-silent thud, the Batman finds his feet and rapidly begins crossing the room.

Gordon notes the slight tremble in the boy's legs as he straightens. He adjusts his scarf, which droops close to his knees now that he's standing, and slings a backpack -- how long has had that? -- off his shoulders. When the Bat reaches his side, he does as he always does, and looms over the boy like a spectre. A threatening mass of shadows cloaked in all-consuming black. Standing next to him, the boy looks teeny in comparison.

The Bat is a man who terrifies even the most hardened criminals, Gordon has seen grown men shiver in fear at the mention of his name. And yet when the boy looks up at him, he doesn't even flinch.

Instead, his sheepish smile melts away like ice under the sun, holding only traces of his previous embarrassment. It remains as a shadow on his face, a small upturn at the corners of his mouth. The boy pushes his hood back just enough to reveal glinting, ice-flint eyes surrounded in tar-black face paint. He holds the backpack up with one arm. "You forgot this."

[bambeptin]

I got a new sketchbook and I think a switch in me flipped bc I'm finally actually drawing in it a ton. anyways here's some acrylic marker doodles

[vakariaan]

Their love was so strong they were bonded for all eternity. Lifetime after lifetime they were reborn, to find their one true love.

- 10.02 "Shield"

[sunbloomdew]

i love when different forms of art ask "was it real? does it matter that it was? does it matter that it wasn't? did it hold meaning? does it still?"

[sergle]

color accuracy is lost bc of lighting but this was the start of the granny blanket project, I gotta take another progress picture when I knock out a significant amount

[greenscreen-dress]

"Save the turtles!!" the turtle is doing FINE actually. In fact he's BEATING MY ASS >:(

Also octagon is the worst shape anything has ever been and I may start crying next time I see one in the wild. 💥

Edit: gave it one more attempt and sucked slightly less at the octagonal hell parts, but still died v quickly so I'm taking a break to make some food... While I'm gone, can anyone tell me if using Rude Buster will make the battle shorter/easier in any way at all? Bc otherwise I'll save myself the TP and spam OkHeals to limp my way to victory 🫠

[cybersteal]

✨𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒔🌠

[arttsuka]

i was wondering how you would design the light night hybrids if you had to design them (seeing as your light fury is so much better designed)

I don't know if these little abominations can be saved, their designs are, yeah, ew

Maybe if we move their eyes a little further from one another and we separate their nostrils? Squash their foreheads a bit?

The white one is the better looking one because the main body remains one color, with black tips on the wings, tail etc.

They tried too much to make them look like kittens or puppies with these color patterns and we all know how they'll look as adult dragons (I'd argue that even this awful creature looks better, patern wise)

[blackhholes]

teen wolf meme: [2/6] creatures -> banshees

It's not the scream that gives you power... All the scream does is help drown out the noise, allowing you to hear what you really need to.

[cantarella]

[megid0nt]

made the most technically intricate potholder I think I've ever made this weekend lol

[ikram1909]

Others: berça fans are so dramatic acting like Gavi died

Barça players: 👇

[wannabe-minion-of-chaos]

Headcanon that the new kid only really talks around those they trust, and even then it's short like the "screw you guys I'm going home" at the end of stick of truth, and it's still not very often

And (at least when they were still playing fantasy) whenever it happens the kids treat it like this big honor, "THE KING HAS BLESSED YOU WITH THEIR WISDOM" or something. Only those worthy of the king's wisdom can hear it, even if it's just some basic sentence.

[hils79]

The Real

Favourite moments in every Ateez MV 21/?

[evergreen-anodyne-decompounding]

when you're both laughing and you catch a glimpse of the person you fell in love with and suddenly the whole world goes quiet for a second