#and how it affects them now

[cienie-isengardu]

Cracked Mirror of Black, Cold Soul, p.4

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Shang Tsung prized himself as a man that needed only a few hours to figure out the people around him. It didn’t work out with Damashi, but that was an understandable exception. Everyone else though? Piece of cake. 

Queen Sindel? A desperate mother awaiting the miracle cure, grieving wife blaming everyone else for her tragedy, ruthless empress and naive woman in one, who had no idea how life tasted beyond her palace’s walls. Princess Mileena, torn apart by her doubts and forbidden love, so eager to prove herself, so afraid of failure. General Shao, no less naive than the queen, no less full of his ego and military bullshit that made Shang Tsung see a point in Havik’s endless tirade about oppression of the masses. They all were nothing more than pawns he put on Damashi's chessboard with a few words here, some sweet-talk there. 

He thought the same about Lin Kuei Grandmaster. Just another easy catch. It did not occur to him then why his beloved - treacherous - Damashi, knew so much about the man. Why, when she spoke about Sub-Zero, her voice carried a warmth Shang Tsung had never felt when they discussed other people, much more vital to their plans. 

It was easy to say the right words, when Damashi prepared him and Quan Chi so well for the meeting with Lin Kuei. But there was no more Damashi he could trust, no more wisdom he craved like a thirsty man would worship the smallest drop of water.

What once felt as just an easy temptation, now was a conundrum he had no idea how to solve. 

It took him weeks to see patterns in Sub-Zero’s behavior, which infuriated him to no end, but couldn’t be helped. After all, the man’s visits were irregular, and so often happened behind his back. He never could be sure what disappeared from the deadening shelves, what secrets the man looked for when traveled the vast catacombs tunnels. All Shang Tsung knew was that Sub-Zero came and went as he pleased - no deadly trap nor his own magic could stop the Lin Kuei Grandmaster apparently.  

But the longer Sub-Zero lingered on the island, the more he understand about the intruder. And lately his Maybe-Ally-Maybe-Not lingered more and more. To Shang Tsung’s joy and irritation equally. 

As far as Shang Tsung remembered, once he left his hometown, he was always alone. Even as Sindel's trusted man, he lived all by himself, far away from the luxury palace and treacherous court. Something the foolish queen took as a sign of his humble nature when in truth letting people into his private space made him feel sick. He wasn’t afraid of people, quite the opposite. There was fun in gaining the trust of fools, in leading them the wrong way. To see how far he could push them before they regretted their good faith. To notice the patterns in their behavior and use that, exploit, play on their fears, shatter the dreams. All the same he was exploited in the past. No, Shang Tsung was not afraid of people when they came into his life and walked right away. But sharing with someone his home, eating from the same plate, letting an intruder to become something less unknown, something almost tamed made his skin crawl. 

The longer Sub-Zero stayed at his island - not hidden between shelves, not walking from shadow to shadow, but openly in sight, the more aware Shang Tsung became of his surroundings. There was an incomprehensible need to impress the other man and everything seemed to work against the sorcerer. Suddenly all the dirty dishes forgotten for days stressed him, the foul smell of his laboratory irritated the nostrils. The great, rich rooms were too messy, the corridors too dusty, the pantry too empty of food.

Sub-Zero said nothing of those. But his eyes always narrowed at the sight of each imperfection and to Shang Tsung’s dismay, the cryomancer seemed to see everything, no matter how small, how irrelevant was the sorcerer’s shortcoming. It was a drastic difference to living under all-seeing eyes of Damashi, when the smallest praise made his heart beat furiously fast, when the tiniest smile warmed his black, cold soul like a sun warmed the frozen earth after a long winter. 

Those two were alike like day and night, and yet both captured Shang Tsung’s attention, both made him eager to prove his worth, to impress. With Damashi, kindness was a wicked spell that possessed the sorcerer’s mind. There was a hidden goal, but he was a bewitched fool to see it until too late. With Sub-Zero, Shang Tsung had no idea where this weird fixation came from. The man was a rude, cold bastard. Never impressed, never amused, never truly smiling. Sharing the secrets of others only to steal from Shang Tsung his own. 

The Lin Kuei Grandmaster resembled him a wild beast. Cunning and dangerous, not yet ready to attack but at the same time, not tamed enough to feel safe around.

Shang Tsung liked to think putting up with cryomancer was a pure pragmatism on his part. Sub-Zero did save the sorry asses of Shao and Reiko and their loyal officers, when the foolish General got caught by Sindel and imprisoned. Shang Tsung did not even think twice about his allies when escaping the prison because why should he? Shao wasn’t going to risk his life to save the sorcerer, and so would not Quan Chi or Nitara or Rain or Havik. The Lin Kuei Grandmaster however did, either to amuse himself by breaking into the most impregnable place Outworld had or understood they all needed to stick together against the Fire Lord and his pitiful yet powerful allies. The alliance with Sub-Zero had its merit and one could never be sure when such an ally would come in hand. Not that Shang Tsung planned to get caught any soon.

He liked to think he was the smart one in the room, the pragmatic tactician setting traps for a wild beast so he could tame the cryomancer and use for his own purposes. But the last events taught him a precious lesson: arrogance led only to failure and there was no need to repeat the same mistakes. Who was the hunter here and who the wild beast was a blurred line. Because the same as he tried to exploit the cryomancer, Sub-Zero lingered at the island to asset sorcerer’s weakness, to find out the littlest crack in his self-confidence and break in all the same as he broke into the impregnable fortress of Lei Chin Prison. 

It was a game; dangerous and exciting, promising a worthy reward… but only if won. 

For each sweet promise of revenge, Sub-Zero had a cold reason to not trust again. For each offer to destroy Shirai Ruy came a harsh grunt to fuck off from Lin Kuei matters. For each complaint about the mess, the sorcerer hissed and puffed like an angry cat. For each little secret of others, Shang Tsung needed to bargain and pay dearly for it.

They fought over petty things, they argued over shared ambition, and then ate from the same bowl, and lived in the same space. Like it was the natural order of things. It felt wrong how right it was.  All because one stubborn cryomancer walked into Shang Tsung’s life and in spite of everything, still didn’t walk away like he should. 

The sorcerer never had before a significant one, or friend nor even a roommate. He was not used to sharing the same living place with anyone… well, maybe beside the diabolic cat that once walked into his life without invitation. 

(But the cat was a whole different story that he still had a hard time to believe in sometimes.)

The presence of Lin Kuei Grandmaster drove Shang Tsung mad. It made him feel better. Above everything else, Sub-Zero simply confused him as hell. 

[aroaceleovaldez]

i am once again thinking about Percy and Annabeth and their respective relationships with their step-parents, particularly how the other views the other's dynamic with their step-parents.

Because there's a really interesting subtle thing that we see which is when Annabeth talks about her step-mom to Percy, Percy's assumption is that Annabeth's step-mom is like Gabe. He just presumes that because that's what's familiar with him and based on his own experiences he assumes their situations are similar.

But then when Percy actually meets Annabeth's step-mom (and her dad) he realizes their situations aren't at all the same. He was expecting another Gabe, but instead he just found a genuinely caring family that was just struggling to find their footing with one another.

The interesting thing is that this implies an inverse - especially with what we know about how Percy and Annabeth describe their experiences. Percy doesn't really talk about Gabe ever. To anyone. Grover knows the whole picture there but he's basically the only one of Percy's friends who does. As far as we know, unless Grover told her at some point, Annabeth doesn't know about Gabe. She knows he was a jerk, but Percy out loud doesn't ever really get into details about it. She knows they didn't get along and eventually Gabe disappeared and Percy basically never spoke of it again. Presumably, Annabeth thinks Percy's dynamic with Gabe was like her dynamic with her step-mom, like how Percy had thought their situations were the same. Especially given we know Percy assumed their situations were the same and likely spoke about it as such if it ever came up.

Like. That's such an interesting tiny aspect of their dynamic that never gets touched upon. Annabeth likely doesn't know about this very core traumatic experience Percy endured before they met because she's operating under the assumption that their family just was a little rocky like hers was.

[gentlenotes-moved]

hey, you guys. life gets so much more fun when you let yourself enjoy the small pleasures of life, love your friends loudly and wholeheartedly, and let yourself be loved.

[the-witchhunter]

DP x DC: The Titans and the Phantom Cat

Danny doesn't do magic. He doesn't understand it or really know about it, and frankly he'd be more skeptical about it if it hadn't explicitly been used on him several times before. His parents are scientists and engineers, and they managed to accomplish what would typically fall under the realm of magic with nothing but recycled parts, wires and Fenton ingenuity.

So, when caught in a magic spell to bind him, he didn't know what would happen if he were to intentionally mess it up. Apparently, nothing good. Danny, free from the intended mind control, is now bound to the form of a cat with minimal use of his powers.

How could this get any worse?

Turns out, no one seems to understand what he's saying, they just hear meows. And without the use of his powers, he get's caught and finds himself in an animal shelter in Jump City.

When a group of young heroes comes through on a mission, and then proceed to mess things up, Danny can't help but throw out some snide commentary. Besides, it's not like they'll hear him

Welllllll... Turns out Raven and Beast Boy can tell what the hell he's saying. Of course the magic user and guy who can turn into animals can talk to him... Still it's nice to finally have someone to talk to, and also get him out of the cage while he's still trying to het a hold of what's left of his powers

Raven immediately clocks him as a powerful spirit bound to animal form. With a little persuasion, she ends up with a new familiar consultant and Danny the Cat gets to live in Titans Tower with them

or

Magic shenanigans happen, now Danny is basically Salem the Cat living with the Teen Titans and teaching them what he knows while mainly lounging around and sassing them. The actual usefulness of his advice may vary

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 244

Danny sighs in exhaustion, rubbing at his eyes with a too-long sleeve. He was honestly getting really tired of getting de-aged. It was annoying, and even if he did stuff differently there was still a lot of stuff the same. Not to mention that being partially alive (and unkillable) meant that it couldn’t be reversed, he just had to wait for his body to grow back up. Urgh. 

At least his babysitter- even if he doesn’t need one- is pretty nice, if a bit quiet. They’re not too busy, especially for being a reaper, and honestly it’s always nice to meet another of Clockwork’s kids. Which if someone had told him that CW had a habit of adopting anomalies to the timelines, he probably wouldn’t have believed them. 

But hey, he guesses Mr Speedforce-Death is his big brother anyway. And it’s not too boring, kind of nice to just chillax. Oh- the cowl-thing is going on and he’s getting an offer of a shoulder ride. Guess it’s someones time to die- hey, maybe he’ll be able to befriend their ghost! 

[yuwuta]

How do you think megumi handles a jealous gf? Try to talk? Give her affectionate head pats? Hug her a little more? Or just rails her all night?

He'd getting an ego boost regardless btw

You have opened a wormhole for me with this ask and I’m gonna try to be normal while answering it but also I have to get this out so walk with me….

In short, yeah he does get a sort of ego boost, but it’s mostly… reassurance? He’s so spoiled with attention and he doesn’t even realize it until you’re Not jealous… and even though he’ll deny this until the day he dies, it’s so evident. He doesn’t really need you to get overtly jealous, he doesn’t need you throwing stones at people who look at him twice, or scolding him for thirty-second interactions with attractive strangers—but he does expect a certain level of protectiveness from you. He’s your significant other, shouldn’t you want to?—he knows he feels it. And besides, he really doesn’t know any other way to show his love for people, and more importantly, how to see that other people are showing their love for him. Megumi has always had dogs in the literal sense of his pets, but also in the people who care about him: Gojo follows him around and bothers him and nips at him like a spoiled chihuahua even if Megumi tells him off for it, Nobara invades his life and personal space like a bratty yorkie, and Yuuji is the husky he mistakenly gave affection once and is now dramatic whenever he doesn’t receive it. So when you don’t follow Megumi around, when you don’t nuzzle yourself into him to get his attention, when you don’t paw at him to get him to pay attention to you instead of whoever or whatever he’s currently engaged with, he’s so confused, and a little bit upset, and a lot pouty. Because why do you hate him… if you loved him, you’d simply bark for his attention, wouldn’t you 🙄?

So when you DO any of those things, when you huff when he’s not paying attention to you, or get upset that he has other plans, or tell him you don’t like the person he’s been spending time with instead of you, then that teeny part of him that loves that reaction is very satisfied. He knows he probably shouldn’t feel this happy to have you jealous, but he does, and such is life… sometimes he acts gruff if you’re being unreasonable dramatic about whatever you’re jealous of, but most times he tries to play it cool, reassure you that he doesn’t like who or whatever more than you—gives you a pat on the head, pokes at your cheek briefly, if he’s feeling really happy about you having your paws on him you might get a kiss to the side of your head; all his silent way of calming your nerves and saying “good girl,” because that’s the reaction he expects of you. Honestly, he’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy if you really are upset with him, because he loves you and he doesn’t want you to feel badly, but also because he’s a little bit giddy that you want all of his attention like this, so who is he not to give it to you

[vinestaff]

OKAY OKAY OKAY

[bunnieswithknives]

Why does Dale want to hunt fairies? What made him believe in them? He's a full gown adult and is hunting them. I know Mr Crockers case, is Dale different the same?

Generally speaking Dale believes in whatever he thinks will make him money. He probably saw something online offering absurd amounts of money in exchange for proof of fairies and figured even if he couldn't find anything he could get chatGPT to write a book about his experience for him and make money anyway.

After he shot Dev he was going to call it quits altogether, too much headache when he can make profit so many other ways. At least until Flowers put him through an undeniably supernatural experience that is.

[starry-bi-sky]

childhood friends danny and jason miscellaneous thoughts: because why not, i'm reworking ch2 because it no longer fits with the remaster of chapter 1 so i've been thinking of them, and i love talking about them. which you should totally go read the remaster because its 26k words and im very proud of it and it barely got any attention.

First off Ellie vapes. Mostly because I think its real fucking funny. The first time Danny finds out about it he gets all up in arms about it. Ellie at first thinks its because she's smoking -- which, helloooo pot meet kettle, Danny has been smoking for a lot longer than she has.

And then he throws a curveball at her and says he's upset specifically because its vaping. Like no, no. Dammit, if you're gonna fuck up your lungs you gotta do it properly, none of this cotton-candy flavored nonsense.

He plays it up for laughs and it's largely non-serious 'i can't believe you're using a vape', if only to hide the fact that he is genuinely displeased with his little sister smoking. Self-destructive behaviors and bad habits are his thing, thank you very much.

But, well, he knows he'd be a hypocrite if he told her he didn't like that she was smoking. He's aware its bad for him, but habits are hard to break and he's not particularly keen to break this one in particular.

Danny bullies her relentlessly about it whenever she vapes in front of him. Like don't be a loser, Elle, carry a carton of cigs and a lighter in your back pocket like the rest of us degenerates.

[more under the cut]

Secondly: Danny's piercings? He got the first lobe piercings as a lost bet from Sam in junior year, and they did it in her room with a needle, a small bottle of blood blossom extract, and an apple. He broke out in hives for a week after thanks to the blood blossom, but it prevented the hole from healing up :)

He got the rest done professionally at a piercing place in the Ghost Zone. He asked Johnny where to find it. Sam and Johnny (and Kitty) nearly convinced him into getting snakebites. He got an eyebrow piercing instead.

Danny's undercut is also self-done, he did it because Technus shot at him with an ectoblast and it missed hitting him, but set his hair on fire. Danny got it out pretty quickly, but it left his hair lopsided and obviously looking like it got burned by something. He went to Sam for help after the fight. He liked the way it looks so he's kept it that way since.

-

Vlad brought up Jason once(1) in a taunt during a fight, and this was after Jason disappeared from the ghost zone, and Danny very. very nearly killed him on the spot. He hasn't done it since.

Which leads into the other thing: Grief Triggers! As I call them. All Banshees have them in this au.

While all banshees are, in general, in a permanent state of grief, Grief Triggers are a specific emotional response that can cause them to spiral into a state of intense, sometimes debilitating sorrow, and most of the time causes them to start wailing.

Banshees know what their Grief Triggers are and in general tend to try and build up a form of resistance against it so that, if something occurs that happens to trigger said grief, they can at least either get away from other ghosts to let loose or have enough control over themselves that it'll take more work to send them spiraling.

As expected, Jason is Danny's grief trigger. He's built up a pretty good resistance to it so that hey, talking about him and his death is easier than when Danny was fourteen. But a little more prodding and it will trigger, especially depending on who brings him up and how. (See: Vlad)

Grief Triggers also manifest relatively the same; with the induction of an intense state of grief and sorrow, but how a banshee acts on it can sometimes vary. Again, it depends on who triggers it and how. Some of them can get,,, violent, depending on how it happens.

Rath, this au's 'Dan', is a case of a banshee being put into the grief state caused by grief triggers and... never really leaving it. Which they usually do on their own, or with help depending on the severity of it.

At the time it happened Danny was going through the worst week of his life a second time: his best friend's ghost disappeared, then his family and friends all died right in front of him, and then he was stuck with someone who wasn't helping him through that grief.

He was already in the grieving state when Vlad tore out his ghost half. As a result, Vlad only made it worse. With that fury thrown into the mix, Vlad ended up getting torn apart and nobody else was close enough with nor could they get close enough to Rath to help him come down from the wailing state.

So Rath ended up getting stuck in a perpetual negative feedback loop of absolute misery, and well... drove himself insane. The rest of the world became collateral as a result.

-

the difference between Danny and Jason lies in the fact that Jason died, while Danny is dead.

-

I'm having more thoughts on the CFAU/TMWS universe banshees, actually.

Banshees are either born in the ghost zone from ectoplasm and are ecto-entities and work as banshees as how we know of them, or they're human spirits that died mourning someone and that grief was so intense that it turned them into a banshee. They're a little more rare.

These banshees typically mourn only one person, or sometimes they follow their Realm-born counterparts and choose a family to mourn for. Typically their own.

Ember is not a banshee; human spirit banshees are always mourning another person. However, her abilities emulate certain qualities of banshees: like the beautiful singing. But in comparison to an actual banshee, Ember's voice pales.

Does this mean Danny has the better singing voice? Yeah. Ember is incensed by this.

-

If canon Danny and CFAU/TMWS Danny met, I think canon Danny would be kinda unsettled or off put by CFAU.

CFAU Danny still has some pretty core Danny traits, at least I like to think so -- his general drive to help people just out of compassion for them (even if it manifests differently at first due to trauma), his wit and humor, his fear of failing to protect his loved ones, all of those resonate with canon Danny.

However, canon Danny, as far as I can remember and as far as his wiki goes, rarely gets extremely angry or emotional. He gets irritated and he gets annoyed but him getting mad I don't think happens super often. CFAU Danny is the angrier one between Jason and Danny. It's one of the things I consider a division point between him and canon Danny as it's a result of him growing up in Crime Alley. Canon Danny is canonically shy and meek prior to becoming Phantom, CFAU Danny couldn't be -- he'd be dead already.

CFAU Danny's anger would off put canon Danny, in my opinion. His anger, his smoking, and for lack of a better term, his bloodlust would unsettle him.

Like, for example, say CFAU Danny gets transported to a canon (or canon-adjacent) Danny's universe. He's staying with canon for a little bit as they brainstorm how to get him back home, and CFAU Danny goes to school with canon if only so that he's not stuck in the house all day.

Whether they try and pass CFAU Danny off as canon's cousin or if the town already knows that he's another version of Danny, it doesn't matter. Because insert Dash.

Dash who, in CFAU Danny's world, has since learned not to fuck around with Danny or the other kids because Danny has long since asserted that he will beat his ass if he does. 'Fucking around' always predates the 'finding out', and Danny is happy to act as consequence.

(As my father told me (paraphrased) when I was a small child and full of uncontrollable anger: "there's gonna be a day where you're gonna hit someone, and they're gonna hit you back")

And canon Dash, who is used to canon Danny who kinda just takes it because it means that he won't target other people, would see CFAU Danny. He'd notice the resemblance between him and canon, immediately try and go "oh new target!", and try and bully him the same way he does to canon. And Danny "I am the consequences of your actions" CFAU Fenton, instantly throws hands.

Just, CFAU Danny is kind but he's also Gotham-raised and full of bite; he's meaner than canon is. He's more ruthless too, especially in his ghost fights. The ease of which he slips into violence would, imo, discomfort canon. CFAU and Canon would eventually get along though, they're not so different that they'd be in constant clash of each other.

(Canon Danny and Danyal Al Ghul however,,, thats another post LMAO)

[totally-not-an-awkward-okapi]

Still thinking about that little angel I dreamt about a bit ago so I’ve been binging other angel stuff and felt inspired to try to draw him as @hoaxghost ‘s style of angel.

[gazkamurocho]

Kiryu-chan is so dreamy… ❤❤❤ New page of 80s Goromi doujinshi is up on my Patreon now!

[saturnniidae]

People give Valka a lot of shit which makes me sad bc her flaws are what make her interesting, and I LOVE thinking about her character.

Like, Have we considered how she had Hiccup at 20 and was married before that? Have we considered that, though she was in love with Stoick, marrying the Chief (or soon-to-be-chief) is a lot of responsibility? Have we considered how young 20 is and Hiccup takes after her in so many ways, not feeling ready for responsibility or wanting to settle down could be one of them? Have we considered she deliberately didn't come back because she maybe felt she wasn't ready to be a mother? Have we considered she loves Hiccup and Stoick so dearly but needed to live her own life? Have we considered how bittersweet the reunion really was because she realized she missed her chance to actually be a mother and how much the guilt of not coming back must've weighed on her?

I LOVE YOU VALKA HTTYD!!!!!!!

[sosilliest]

very messy skywarp art… hehehe 🤭

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

What can I say? They're my favorite.

[wonder-worker]

Wild how we know that Elizabeth Woodville was officially appointed to royal councils in her own right during her husband’s reign and fortified the Tower of London in preparation of a siege while 8-months pregnant and had forces gathering at Westminster “in the queen’s name” in 1483 – only for NONE of these things to be even included, let alone explored, in the vast majority of scholarship and historical novels involving her.

[bigskydreaming]

Imagine if you were a gay or bi man who tried a certain firefighter show because of all the attention it was getting for one of its mains having a later in life bi awakening.....and between seasons you ventured into its fandom in search of material to tide you over til the next one. And you're greeted by a deluge of posts and fics that are just cheerfully homophobic towards one half of the newly out bi character's canon relationship on the basis of 'well he's not the RIGHT gay guy' and pushing the idea that actually its fine to cheat on him because Reasons and he's sexually predacious based on......behind the scenes implications people have divined like they're reading fucking tea leaves.

But don't get it twisted....this fandom, like all fandoms, really cares about representation!

Sorry not sorry, but we really need to kill this idea that fandoms are welcoming and inviting and inherently progressive when they're frequently insular and reductive as fuck. Every single fandom I've been in has had major trends of people doubling down on their own headcanons and fanon interpretations of the characters and willfully enacting trends aimed at running off people who like the 'wrong' characters (usually characters marginalized along one or multiple axes), like the characters in the 'wrong ways' or other bullshit.

Scott is a Bad Friend fics overtaking Teen Wolf fandom was not incidental, it was a FEATURE of the fandom, because the vast majority of that fandom did not want to share its space with anyone who had the nerve to like its main character. Survivors complaining about or criticizing the prevalance of rape fics in a certain fandom has in my experience always led to a reactionary UPTICK in those fics, with gems like 'this character can, will, must be raped' in the tags making it crystal clear that some of these fics exist because how fucking DARE anyone try and push forth a narrative not agreed upon by Fandom Main.

I could cite examples for so many other fandoms, with the commonalities always being that vast majorities in these fandoms are explicitly reacting defensively to being asked to be more mindful of fandom trends revolving around or exacerbating racism, homophobia, transphobia, rape or abuse apologia, ableism, etc....

With the most prolific fucking rallying cry across countless fandoms being "No the fuck we will NOT be doing that," because lolololol.....

Fandom is an inherently progressive space, didn't you hear?