#another tag for you as well? ->

[hcguesstheauthormessageboard]

[LONG POST AHEAD!!]

ough please let me explain the concept of a zeroes au !!!

alright so zeroes is a book series (by scott westerfeld) that changed my life but i would never recommend to anyone ever. long story short it's about a bunch of 17yo's with the world's shittiest superpowers and they get into a bunch of hijinks like going to jail, running from (superpowered) serial killers, and the crashing weddings. the usual.

that's irrelevant rn though! the way that zeroes works is that there's i think like seven? different powers that someone can have, each with an opposite or an "inside out" version. some of the powers are also. really hard to explain. but i'll try my best. some powers don't have official names, so i put the characters' code-names instead.

POWERS:

-> Bellwether/Anonymous - BELLWETHER is if "leader" was a superpower. BELLWETHER is basically the power to kind of charm-speak people into trusting you. this power relies on The Curve (AKA 6+ people) to work, and makes surrounding people listen to them and pay attention, as well as swaying them to agree with them. ANONYMOUS is the near opposite of that, and instead of making them the most important person in the room, it renders them near invisible. except worse than that. no one can remember them ever and it's as if there's no object permanence when it comes to them.

-> Maker/Crash - a MAKER is a technopath! only instead of it being vaguely "tech stuff" i think it's electrical pulses. which also includes biological electrical pulses. it's like if technopathy and bloodbending combined. a CRASH does exactly what the name implies--crashes things! much much more destructive than a MAKER, a CRASH can take down entire networks and are incentivized to do so because tech feels like the worst headache known to man to them.

-> Beau/Sight-Caster - BEAU is like if "attention whore" was an ability. everyone's eyes are drawn to them and it becomes very very hard to look away. they're just. so beautiful? so gorgeous? whatever it is, you can't seem to look away. a SIGHT-CASTER is most definitely an invasion of privacy. they can see through everyone's eyes--the only exception being ANONYMOUS.

-> Mob/Swarm - a MOB is a crowd power relying on The Curve and works through an emotional connection to crowds. parties are great, but tests not so much. a SWARM is every negative side-effect to that. they take crowds and turn them into murderous stampedes, often losing themselves in bloodlust.

-> Clarity/Glitch - CLARITY makes you see and understand everything you've ever done in your life. kind of like if you peeled back the layers of yourself to see everything ever. kind of overwhelming imo. GLITCH is the opposite, twisting and warping your perception of everything to give you the worst trip of your life. like if your brain was a funhouse mirror.

-> Scam/Verity - a SCAM is a Voice inside someone that speaks through their mouth to say whatever you want to hear. the super-person has no power over what the Voice says and it usually lies. if the super-person needs to get out of a situation, the Voice has got their back! it will probably get them into an even worse situation but that how the power works. VERITY works the opposite, compelling someone to tell the truth and only the truth; basically if "lie-detector" was a superpower.

-> Coin - COIN tricks your brain into thinking things are what they are not. typically usedto make fake money, but theoretically works for anything.

.

[noornight]

Long distance besties. This definitely happened after the third movie (source: trust me bro)

Based on this

[fictionadventurer]

How did Treasure Planet manage to come up with the greatest aesthetic in all human history? Victorian elegance plus space-age flair, with just enough dirt and grime and wear and tear to make it feel real? A combination of traditional and computer animation that perfectly embodies the movie's blend of old and futuristic? How does it get any better than that?

[tzarrz]

i listen to fog lake too much

[lesliemeyers]

doing Mysterion art inspired by a Batman cover just seemed... right

+ closeups under the cut ↴

[siffarooni]

they had a good birthday and are all tuckered out now <3

[insertdisc5]

I've been very curious since ISAT has such strong characterization: what do you think makes a "well written" character? I've asked around in my circles and I've gotten different answers (serves their role in the plot well, 'you can imagine meeting a real person like this', they move the plot along in an interesting way, etc) but I was curious because ISAT is still fresh in my mind.

thank you very much... for me, if every action a character takes can be linked to a specific trait/backstory/whatever, thats a well written character. you dont need to know in the moment, but on a rewatch if you go "omg thats why they did this or said this..." you know thats the SAUCE!!!!!!!!

[milkcioccolato]

Mmmmmmore silly little videos cause why not

Listen, I am an Adoribull truther, but I love me a good crackship, and Cullen and Dorian have an amazingly interesting premise for a relationship, both romantic or just platonic!

[shalom-iamcominghome]

[wasyago]

not drawing for others. not drawing for myself either. playing video games. okay? yay

[caluette]

kainess x rope (1948)

[knockknockitsnickels]

I think this is one of my favorite lines from the Wraith route because of (imo) how much the meaning changes depending on if you got there via Spectre or Nightmare. For Spectre, it honestly strikes me as a genuine question. Why are you doing this to her? If you're on the Spectre route, you presumably already know the Narrator can't really be trusted, since you had to reject his reward to get here. What are you hoping to gain from continuing to hurt her? For Nightmare, it honestly just makes me sad. As the Shifting Mound describes her, "She desires only companionship, but the only thing she knows is how to hurt." This line feels like a plea from someone who genuinely doesn't understand why you keep rejecting her. She wants to be with you, but she just can't understand how to do that in a way which doesn't hurt you.

[sunnylolli]

can we ask about wip's or is that top secret🙈?? 👀

Hehehe, they're not top secret, but bear with me because they're all a bit out of a context 🥹

I've been yapping a lot to my besties about the avian au, mostly and mainly because I love it so much. So I've been doodling concept designs for a tiny fraction of our conversations! But I never thought there was enough art to make the au make sense in posts, so I never got the courage to post it!

And then I have some stuff that's not really fleshed out beyond laughing or crying, or both over it:

I have others that are just a head with no body or anything, too, but I don't count those are WIPs I count them as thoughts and prayers

[ibblescribbles]

TRASH 🚮 Speedpaint | Alt under cut:

[killjoy-prince]

House M.D. but it's when a character says the name of the episode

[starry-bi-sky]

finally giving fem danyal her own au and fulfilling my 'danny is an animal whisperer' agenda at the same time: mother of monsters danyal 2.0

i say "2.0" because TECHNICALLY 'mother of monsters danyal' is an au I made back in June for Dark fem!Danyal (who I promptly named Layal). However, I haven't posted much for her yet, and I like the "mother of monsters" premise too much to leave it only to Layal. Plus Danyal in that au was going to become the mother of monsters anyway, just with significantly less world domination and mass extinction.

'Animal whisperer' Danny has been something I've been thinking about since my latest DP 'wolfpack au' post and it's! So fun to think about, and who no better to assign the idea to than Danyal Al Ghul? Who comes from a family infamously known for their love of animals and nature?

Fem Danyal is just purely self-indulgent. *gestures wildly at her* i just lomvb,,, her,,,, I've only really mentioned her in context of the 'Things in Threes' au/my first Danyal al Ghul au with the facial scar, but she's!!! I love her. She deserves her own au <33

So kill three birds with one stone! Make a post about it.

Anyways, Danny has a large lair. Similar to cult leader danyal, her lair is a giant mountain region resembling nanda parbat with a big temple/palace-like area built into the mountain. It's large, it's overflowing with natural flora, with its own mini-floating islands hovering over some areas, and it's also completely empty.

Danny takes one look at her lair upon first meeting, -- noting that it looked relatively smaller from the outside -- and promptly, with the elegance of an Al Ghul, goes "What the hell??" Because yes, while she does enjoy her own solitude and privacy, this is a bit ridiculous.

For heaven's sake, there's even a massive lake in there! What's she going to do with all this space? Can she make it any smaller? Why is it so big in the first place? This looks borderline like one of the mega-islands!

She finds out later that apparently, the amount of ectoplasm a ghost has can have an effect on the size of their lair. And since she has such a large core, her lair reflects that. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff, it's bigger on the inside so it doesn't take up "too much space" on the outside. Don't worry about it too much.

Danyal isn't totally opposed to having such a large lair, she's just... a bit baffled by it. It feels like so much wasted space is all. All this flora and no fauna to enjoy it with. It's practically eerie.

She decorates her temple-palace area, transforming rooms to match her needs as she sees fit. In the center of the inner gardens is a massive tree that she likes to climb, with twisting, winding branches. Sam and Tucker have honorary rooms, even if they can't safely leave the specter speeder for long periods of time, even with proper safety equipment. So does Jazz. Ali (Dani) has one too, but he can actually use that one, and Danny brought him to her lair so he could decorate it himself.

She has a personal garden, but for the most part she lets the flora exist as it is. Too much space to cultivate it en masse anyways.

Skip to a few weeks later, on her next visit to Clockwork. She developed a habit of going to see him semi-regularly just because. She enjoys his wisdom, and he has a lot of stories to tell, and when he's not being the cryptic and esoteric timekeeper, he's a bit goofy.

(pushing my dadwork agenda here,,, i think Danny deserves to go 'hey, Lord Clockwork, do you want me to buy you something' while she's at walmart, only to receive a singular glowing sticky note that says 'cucumber gatorade'.)

(She insists on referring to him with his proper titles even for the most mundane of things because it's proper, but Clockwork sees a future where she eventually calls him "Cee" and by all things in existence is he determined to get there. Anyways,,,)

On her next visit to Clockwork, just as she is about to leave, Clockwork stops her and goes; "Ah, I have something for you. Hold out your hands."

Danny does as such, and Clockwork doesn't give out things often, so her curiosity has spiked to the highest levels. He turns away from her for a moment, using his staff to summon whatever it is he needs, and when he turns around.

He drops a fish into her hands. Granted, a fish in a small glass tank. But a fish nonetheless. A small one, roughly about the size of her finger, with a blue-black, eel-shaped body and four sets of glowing eyes. She can see thin, almost translucent, but spiny fins down its back and the start of bioluminescent markings. It's swimming around in circles in its small container.

"Lord Clockwork." Danyal says all too calmly.

"Yes, Danyal?"

"What is this?"

"That is an adolescent leviathan, Danyal." She’s transfixed onto the tank, but she doesn’t need to see Clockwork’s face to hear the smile he’s stifling.

The myriad of emotions that runs through her all at once threatens to overwhelm her, and she can’t tell if the feelings are negative or positive. So she carefully closes her eyes to breathe in through her nose.

“Clockwork.”

“Ah, I see you’ve dropped formalities.”

She ignores that.

“Why have you given me an adolescent leviathan?”

She's expecting the trickster to look amused when she opens her eyes. Instead, he just looks endeared. "I know you're fond of animals," he says, "and you always look amazed when you come across an animal of the realms. So I thought you might enjoy taking care of the young beast, it's mother is dead so it has no one to care for it."

Oh.

"But, if you don't like it," Clockwork's hands reach out for the tank, "I can simply take it back--"

Danyal shifts the tank out from his reach and hugs it possessively. "I never said that. How do I care for it?"

And so clockwork gives her a list, and when Danyal returns to her lair, she sets up a large tank in her room for the leviathan to swim in -- it's much too small for the lake right now, she thinks. She'll feel better if it's somewhere she can find it. She names him Suhā.

Suhā grows quickly, and by the end of the mortal month she transforms one of the rooms into a large pond for him to swim around in. He's a very loyal beast, recognizing her as it's mother of some kind. Danyal takes great care ensuring that her beastie gets quality care, and Suhā swims to the surface to see her when he senses her in the room.

It spirals from there. Somehow, Pandora catches wind that Clockwork gave her a leviathan, and so the next time Danyal visits the Greater Athens, she gives her a baby chimera. It's eyes are still sealed shut, Danyal can't bring herself to say no. She names the little beastie Firas.

Frostbite hears about it too, and not to be outdone, gives her an animal she's never even heard of. Infinite-realms born, apparently. A fox-like creature with two small horns like an impala, four eyes, and tall legs. The name isn't something she's quite sure how to write down, and she's positive that her friends won't be able to comprehend it. She names her Eira.

Getting the three of them used to each other was... interesting. Suhā tried to eat Firas when Danyal first introduced the two, and they've hated each other ever since. Firas and Eira are seemingly getting along. Her island already feels full enough with the three of them on it.

Of course, that's not the end of it. With her luck, she begins stumbling across other monsters. Realms-borne or otherwise. An injured hydra in the Grecian islands that, through lots of trial and error, Danyal is able to rehabilitate and heal. It routinely comes to visit her afterwards.

A griffin with a broken wing that she moves permanently to the island that likes to keep to itself, but tends to come down when she's near. It gets along best with Firas.

A panther-like monster from the Shades Woods that had six legs and three tails, with ends that reminded her of a venus flytrap. It stuck around the heavy foliage and she can only make out where it was when she saw its golden eyes reflect.

She befriends a young indrik with its leg injured, and much like the hydra it follows her back to her island, and stays there in the mountains. It comes out when she's alone, much like her other beasts.

She receives two more leviathan -- one from clockwork, and one she finds herself while exploring the deeper and darker recesses of the Ghost Zone. It was huddled against the carcass of its mother, and she managed to befriend and get close enough to it to bring it back to her island. Suhā is fully grown by then, with a head bigger than Danyal herself and he still likes to stick her head out of the water for nuzzles when she's near.

He's not very happy with his new siblings, but he's not trying to eat them when she's not looking. So she calls it a win in her book.

And it's not just large beasts either; smaller animals begin popping up when she's not looking. Bird-like creatures and small mammals, and she swears she saw a doe (or something resembling a doe) grazing in the forest while she was walking by.

She takes back with her a lone snake egg once, and it grows so big it wraps around her island and sleeps with its massive head on the mountain beside the temple, like some smaller breed of Jörmungandr.

And on and on it goes. Some of the beasts she comes across never step foot onto her island, some of them follow her back, while others she has to carry back. Not all of the ones that follow her stay, and Danny rehabilitates the injured and releases them when they're fully healed.

It's hectic, and busy, and frankly she loves it. Some of her rehabilitated beasts return to visit her, or to have their children somewhere on the island, or whatever it is they need to do.

She becomes a bit infamous for it. She goes to visit Dorathea once, and as she's walking through the streets she can hear some of the denizens whispering while she walks past.

"Is that her?"

"Her highness' friend? Yes--"

"--that's the one--"

"--Mother of monsters--"

Danny's not sure how to feel about that.

Although, she can't say she's opposed.

Danyal Al Ghul, Mother of monsters, raiser of beasts. It has a nice ring to it.