#beast of both worlds

[thedaily-beer]

Lagunitas Beast of Both Worlds Bi-Coastal IPA (Picked up at Total Wine). A 3 of 4. I appreciate the idea and this is a tasty beer, but it feels like it doesn't fully live up to what it bills -- this is still quite hazy in the body and still has quite a lot of West Coast hop notes. It's nice to see both styles represented, though, and doesn't feel discordant at all -- just a solid lighter hazy IPA with big mix of tropical fruit and citrus in the nose and body.

[auraeseer]

Looking forward to the trans-coastal ipa . . .

[bigfatbreak]

Birds of a Feather previous / next

tw: blood

[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.

[alwaysoutofpaper]

prince, dragon, tower - you get it. he's the newest addition to her abundant hoard, and they're having fun with it.

couldn't come up with any other costume ideas for them. so. :)

[jinxedshapeshifter]

The really interesting thing about TGAA to me and how people treat it as a result is that it's quite historically accurate. Like obviously there are aspects of it that are played with in terms of historical accuracy (Sholmes and Iris's tech for example), but for the most part it feels pretty accurate to the turn of the 20th century in terms of how society was.

The reason this even occurred to me is because I'm playing The Adventure of the Clouded Kokoro, and when Ryunosuke mentions the domestic dispute between Joan and John, Patricia says "I can't even imagine being so horrid to the one you love." And that, there, had me like "domestic abuse like what Joan inflicted on John was probably normalized at this point in history" and I think the lack of much response regarding that specifically from anyone except Pat and I believe Ryunosuke shows that pretty well (and even then I think Pat comes off as a bit of a hypocrite for even saying "I can't imagine being so horrid to the one you love" but I digress).

Like The Great Ace Attorney very much uses multiple historically accurate attitudes — not just racism — to tell its story. It utilizes classism (to the point the overarching plot hinges on it), it utilizes the fact that in Victorian England domestic abuse was viewed as socially acceptable (in fact, based on a little research, I'd say how it's portrayed is incredibly accurate to Victorian attitudes irl), even Sholmes's attitude towards Ms. Garrideb (which, to be completely clear, is based on her behavior and not her weight, at least not consciously, but let's pretend he was consciously referring to her weight for a minute) is emblematic of the time period in which The Great Ace Attorney takes place.

The Great Ace Attorney is a story told about a Japanese man studying in Victorian England, and it's historically accurate about it. That's not to say you can't be uncomfortable in regards to certain parts of TGAA, but I also think understanding the historical context behind the game and how that drives the story is incredibly important. The racism, classism, domestic abuse, what can easily be taken as fatphobia/fat shaming (but I genuinely don't think is meant to be read that way); they're all perfectly in line with The Great Ace Attorney taking place in Victorian England. Those were normal in Victorian society and not looked down on like they are now. Looking at The Great Ace Attorney through that lens explains a lot about how the game is written, actually.

It turns a lot of the dialogue into a "This happened during this time period in England, but that doesn't mean the game's writers endorse it" and the game even critiques it, via dialogue from Susato and Ryunosuke (and occasionally other characters). I think we are very much meant to like characters like Sholmes and van Zieks, but we're also forced to acknowledge that they live in Victorian England and what isn't acceptable now is acceptable to them, because they live in Victorian England and for the story Capcom wanted to tell, it would've been dishonest to ignore what English society was like back then.

Really interesting to experience culture shock related to time period vicariously through a video game, I think.

[apicelladonna]

This Albus with this Gellert-

[nugatorysheep]

Ş̸̻͕̺́̚Ṕ̵̛̪̃Ȩ̷̳̫̿̾Ã̶̞̺̇͐͘K̷͈̿̎̇.

This damn comic is fucking A N C I E N T but as far as like, the content of it- not necessarily the art because I always hate my older art, but the presentation, what is objectively here- still feels right to me, so I'm sharing it. again

[vintagerobin]

Jason has dog coding yeah obviously but consider that Dick and Bruce also have dog coding...

[wraith-caller]

Never been a fan of people trying to shape the Golden Order into conservative Christianity. Reading fics where they talk about women needing to be "traditional" or seen but not heard, when the figurehead of the Order is a woman who has waged loads of wars, had two husbands, makes a point of examining her faith rather than submissively accepting it. Seeing posts that seem to say the GO is villainizing the use of sorcery, a way of deriding the carians, when one of the greatest champions of the Order himself studied sorcery of his own volition, and married perhaps the greatest sorceress ever known. There's nothing to indicate the GO ever had a beef with the practice of sorcery, and it's not like they shuttered Raya Lucaria after the union of the Moon and Erdtree. Cringing every time someone describes Fundamentalism as the "thoughtless extremist" wing of the Order when it's supposed to be about taking a scholarly approach to the examination of the laws of causality and regression.

Idk. It's just, there's so many reasons to be skeeved out by the GO, and it exists within a fantasy with a totally distinct history from our own world. While there are obviously influences from a wide variety of real-world sources on the mythology and world of the game, it's not a direct copy of reality. It's lame to see sth so full of opportunity for interesting world building from fans just turned into a watered down copy of what they despise in reality.

[aquilamage]

I still haven't stopped thinking about Them

[katyspersonal]

Posting about it like 18 hours late after waking up, but I also had such a strange dream tonight?

In it two of my enemies that worked together against me in reality actually became enemies to one another, and for what reason they did..... One of them crafted some very intricate plan to trick me into thinking I'd get full help for my countless mental troubles, including financial, if I only signed certain papers I got, and the other one disrupted her plan by simply telling me to "trust no one" over a balcony of their.... "house"? Dreams that turn the online into "reality" make little sense but I feel like most people here have them sometimes so you get it probably?

Ironically, I trusted them, and seeing how I clearly was welcomed all of a sudden, went to their place wanting elaboration. (Their house looked exactly like if their blog became a house and it was hysterical) Turned out the other one's plan was to actually not only take all money meant to support my sorry existence away from me forever, but also keep me unemployable since legally I was "helped" or mad shit like that (basically slow, hungry death). And this person turned against their long term "ally" in MY favor because, I quote, "genocide of disabled people is not a joke" gfhtjgugjj We even continued talking a lot about world and people and all other things the other one tried, all while avoiding to as much as address our own grudge.

I really don't know why I'd have a dream like this, it felt so random? It doesn't feel like wishful thinking either. 😕 But it better not be a sign that I've misdiagnosed which one of those two became more malicious in the end, or so help me

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

People who say that Beauty and the Beast (1991) endorses Stockholm Syndrome and domestic abuse have very grossly missed the entire point of the story.

[flyingwargle]

natsu is in the nurse’s office while the aforementioned nurse is speaking with her brother in the hallway, their voices low with scattered words drifting toward her. she knows they're finished when hinata says, “thank you very much for all your help. i’ll take care of her.”

she hops off the cot and grabs her bag as he returns to her. “are we going home?” she mumbles.

“yeah, yamaguchi is waiting for us. thank you, again.” hinata bows to the nurse. “we’ll keep in touch.”

they exit the school building and head for the parking lot, where yamaguchi awaits. her brother was with him when he got the call, apparently. natsu gives him a small bow before climbing in the backseat, putting her bag in between her and hinata. yamaguchi starts the car. “should i just drop you off at home?”

“yes, please,” hinata says. his friend nods and starts driving toward the main road.

natsu avoids conversation by staring out the window, watching the mountain scenery blur by. hinata and yamaguchi make small talk, discussing a dinner with their friends over the weekend, and a possible guest appearance at a volleyball club before he returns to osaka. their home appears on the horizon, and natsu doesn’t wait for the engine to stop to unclick her seatbelt. “thank you, yama-nii.”

she reaches the front door first, fishes her keys out to unlock it. hinata joins her, kicks his shoes off after her. he switches on the lights after natsu walks by, heading straight to her room. “natsu, wait.”

hinata is quiet, patient. natsu rests a hand on her door, head bowed. “do you want to talk about it?” he asks. “the nurse said you collapsed from overworking. are you feeling pressured? is there anything you need help with?”

he sounds so concerned. she kind of wishes he wasn’t. “no.”

“you're probably hungry. i'll make dinner.”

she shrugs, entering her room without another word. behind the door, her brother calls out, “i’ll let you know once it’s ready!” it isn’t often that he comes home to visit, usually just for a few days at a time throughout the year. they call and text daily, and natsu is usually proud to be hinata shoyo’s younger sister.

but sometimes, it’s more of a burden than she’d like to admit.

not wanting to nap while she’s still sweaty, she sits on the floor with her phone, scrolling aimlessly through instagram. she and her teammates follow each other, tagged in one another’s photos from their hangouts, short clips from practice that show successful serves, sets, and spikes. she comes across a post from jva, which is a highlights reel of impressive plays during the last season. her brother’s miraculous save during the hornets game is one of the first shown.

it doesn’t make sense to be jealous. there’s nothing to compare; he’s a professional athlete, and she’s still in high school. just because they're related doesn’t mean she has the same jumping height, flexibility, or adaptability. his skills come from years of practice, discipline, and experience. while she does the same, it isn’t at the same level, not when she has school, friends, and other hobbies. she isn’t a volleyball idiot like her brother, even though she loves it, too. she isn’t him.

and yet people continue to think that she is.

her phone screen becomes blurry. natsu puts it aside, rubs her eyes to stop the tears, but they keep coming. her thoughts are a jumbled mess. i want to be like him.

 i’m not like him.

he’s on a different level than me, and i can’t reach it.

if i train hard enough, i could pass him.

he’s an asset to his team, and i’m just another spiker.

i can be valuable too, if i can do half the things he does.

i don’t want to embarrass him. i don’t want him to have a little sister who sucks at volleyball–

knocks interrupt her thoughts. “natsu?”

she buries her head under her blanket as the door opens. hinata hesitates for a moment before he asks, “what are you doing?”

“what do you want?” natsu asks, grateful that her voice didn’t waver.

"the fridge is empty, so i thought to order takeout." he sits on the edge of her bed. “what are you craving?”

“it doesn’t matter. whatever is okay.”

“all right.” still, he doesn’t leave.

this sucks. natsu needs to clear her nose, tears still pooling in her eyes, staining her bed sheet. when she exhales, it’s through a shudder, which is all her brother needs to hear. “you aren’t fine, natsu. will you talk to me about it? unless…” he falls silent. “unless the problem is me?”

“no.” she sniffles.

“it is. i know you’re terrible at lying.”

natsu throws the blanket off her head to face him, red-eyed, nose streaming. “fine, it is. these girls in my class keep comparing me to you, saying that i’m an embarrassment to the team, and i- i don’t deserve to be on the court with how terrible i am.” her words turn into a mumble. “my jump serves suck. my crosses are all over the place. i don’t know how to aim my wipes. then there’s you, who can do everything and more, and i- i’m just–“

“let me stop you there, natsu.” his hand grips her shoulder, firm and reassuring. “first, those girls don’t know anything; you can’t compare a high school athlete to a pro. second, don’t just focus on the negative, but the positive. your defense is solid, and so are your straights. i’ve seen you play – it’s because of you that your teammates can score. i know it might feel like you aren’t good enough, but are we, ever?”

“do you ever think that?” natsu murmurs.

“of course. i think of how powerful bokuto-san’s spikes are all the time, or how omi-san can get so many service aces, or how atsumu-san can pull off just about any set. and me? sure, i’m an all-rounder, but there’s nothing that i’m really good at–“

“no, that’s not true! you can score so many points with your wipes! and your jumping height only gets higher and higher, like you’ll touch the sky! and, and–“

hinata laughs, catching natsu by surprise. he smiles at her, raising his hand to ruffle her hair. “you should hear yourself. if you can say all of that to me and believe it, then you should believe me when i tell you what you’re good at. we all grow at our own pace, natsu. i know you feel pressed for time since you’re in your second year, but it’s okay. you’re doing all you can, and you don’t need to do more.”

“but what if the team loses because of me?” she whispers.

“there are six of you on the court. if you lose, it’s the team that loses.” he squeezes her shoulder. “tell me what you want to eat. while we wait, i can show you some clips of pros messing up to make you feel better."

“do they include miya-san?”

he grins. “of course.”

they settle at the table together, crowded around his tablet, waiting for the food to arrive. when it does, they eat, continue to laugh at miya (natsu makes sure to laugh at other players, too) and himself, the tension from earlier in the day fading.

before it’s time for bed, hinata approaches her. “natsu, don’t ever think we’re the same. that’s because you’re you, and you have your own way of playing. no matter how you play or what you do, i’ll always be proud of you.”

her hand is on the doorknob, a smile on her face. “thanks, nii-chan. i appreciate that.”

“get some rest. i’ll bring you to practice and show those girls a lesson.”

“no, nii-chan, you better not!” her laugh is a warm sound that echoes through the night.

[goodgrammaritan]

I hate taking care of my toenails.

But I also hate how awkward I feel getting pedicures.

This lady doesn't know how to move her feet! She can't figure out how to put the armrests up and down! She doesn't know if "5 more minutes" means "wait 5 minutes for them to dry and then get up and leave" or "I'll be back in 5 minutes when they're dry to guide your shoes onto your feet"

[dreiiton]

🐺‼️‼️

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