#but it still looks cute on him <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[fitzfunnymoments]

I forgot to post this yesterday but I made my big Stretchy figure a bracelet :]

[mblue-art]

BAD SANSUARY // [14] tears for owl-bones's event !

"...Killer, it just looks like I have running mascara."

"it's such a look though."

messy kisses and post-nuzzles

[zu-is-here]

<– • –>

[stunie]

I AM SCREAMING !! ૮꒰˶ฅ́˘ฅ̀˶꒱ა pretty please look at this beautiful zevie x ume comm i got from @ruiaes !! rui made us look sooo cute im crying >////< he is holding my purse 4 me !! >:

[sysig]

Hi, sorry to be anon, but can I ask to see the Vargas family post trick or treating? Divying the goods, or just being tired from the event? Thank you and Happy Halloween!

Day 30 - Fine, but you're taking nightmare duty

[noecoded]

i like it better when u cant keep warm

[fuzzbuns]

Stupid joke based on birds i saw at my bird feeder

[xxplastic-cubexx]

chat i think im gonna be sick

(Powers of X #6)

[beauisoffline]

ok ok u all have spoken on my swtd oc being thrown into the public so here he is!!

his name is sean o'malley and hes pookie wookie (he dies)

[marsbotz]

whats ur fucking deal

[silverwhittlingknife]

hi Silver! o/ because that fanart made me wonder - would you happen to know when/where Dick's stuffed elephant plush Zitka turns up in the comics?

GREETINGS CAM <3333 THAT ART WAS SO CUTE

Yeah, I think your instincts are right - it's a truly adorable bit of transformative fandom, but I'm 95% percent sure it's not comics canon. Barbara has canon plushies, but I don't think anyone else does.

I got kinda invested in the investigation (it's hard to prove a negative!) and I ended up typing out an entire History of Elinore/Zitka, so, uh, if you're curious, meet me below the cut for:

Where does Elinore / Zitka - the animal - appear in comics?

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

Where does Elinore / Zitka appear in comics?

We're gonna go in chronological order!

Dick's circus elephant friend was first created for practical reasons: in Batman 436, Marv Wolfman does a big expanded flashback to Dick's circus backstory as a way to subtly show us Tim before officially introducing him (so that we can have a technically-solvable mystery-of-Tim's-identity in LPoD). In this comic, there's an elephant named Elinore who loves Dick:

Aww. Such a cute elephant!

Batman 436 comes out in August 1989. New Titans 60 comes out a few months later, in November, and guess what? When Dick visits the circus, he is suddenly surprised by an unexpected blast from the past! It turns out that even though it's been years, Elinore still remembers him!

Here's the part where Elinore remembers Dick:

SUCH a cute elephant. I love her.

(Guess who else still remembers Dick even though it was so long ago. Guess which other character is about to be an unexpected blast from the past. Guess which character Elinore is directly paralleling guess guess guess sorry everything is about Dick and Tim in my mind but I can focus I swear)

Four years later, in 1993, Batman: The Animated Series retells Dick's origin story. They like and keep Wolfman's elephant, but they change her name to Zitka:

Wolfman doesn't return to the elephant beyond those two appearances, and a few years down the line, New Titans gets cancelled and Wolfman's not writing Dick anymore anyway. So the animal gets abandoned for a while, until Devin Grayson, a fan of both Wolfman and B:tAS, revives the Wolfman-era Titans team in JLA/Titans and then the ongoing series Titans 1999.

Grayson then brings back the elephant in a flashback to Dick's past in Titans 16 (Jun 2000), where she imports the B:tAS name. Sometimes I'm skeptical of TV-to-comics imports, but honestly, I endorse this one. You lose the alliteration, which is a shame, but IMO Zitka is a better elephant name than Elinore.

Here's Dick with the newly-christened Zitka in Titans 16:

Grayson also briefly references the elephant in Gotham Knights 20 and - in a final angsty callback - in Nightwing 88 (Feb 2004), where Zitka tries futilely to comfort Dick in the midst of his trauma conga line:

... And... honestly, I think that's it for comic appearances? The two Wolfman comics plus the three Grayson comics.

Both Wolfman and Grayson are writing multiple titles - Batman, New Titans, Titans, Gotham Knights, and Nightwing between the two of them, spanning a big chunk of Dick's post-Crisis canon - and both writers use the elephant for heartwarming moments of nostalgia, which means if you're doing a post-Crisis readthrough for Dick, Elinore/Zitka feels memorable. But I don't think she actually shows up that much.

For post-2011, I am not as well-informed - throwing this out to the dash? anyone know? - but I feel like Zitka the heartwarming symbol of Dick's heartwarming circus past is, uh, thematically very at odds with the Court of Owls evil!circus vibes, so my instinct is that this story element was almost certainly dropped in the reboot.

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

In WFA, yes; in main comics continuity, no. Technically, I have not read every comic ever published, so I could be wrong!! But I don't think so.

Below, find my rambling reasoning on the tonal vibes of pre-Crisis, post-Crisis, and post-2011, and why this particular story element doesn't seem right to me for the first two.

Pre-Crisis (...okay, mostly the Silver Age): stuffed animal, yes or no?

tl;dr no, requires too much background knowledge on the part of the reader, plus the elephant wasn't a thing until later

Elinore doesn't get created until post-Crisis, but also just generally, pre-Crisis callbacks are more along the lines of this reference in Batman 129 (published in 1960), where, wow, Batman and Robin are hunting jewel thieves - and it turns out Robin recognized this strongman! BUT HOW?!

The comic goes on to recap Dick's entire origin story in flashback, on the assumption that you may not know it.

(BTW, if you'd like to know more about Haly's Circus throughout the years, nightwingology has a great post here summarizing a lot of fun plotlines and characters!)

Basically: Silver Age comics are very self-consciously episodic and kid-friendly; they're not generally gonna do overly-elaborate callbacks because they don't know what comics their kid readers may have randomly picked up or remember.

By the time of post-Crisis, comic books were being written for an adult audience buying from the direct market, i.e. readers who are collecting whole runs & don't need or want Dick's origin story to be recapped to us in full every time it's referenced. That's why in post-Crisis, we get stuff like "hey, neat, this particular soda brand is getting mentioned in several different books!!" or "in order to understand this story arc, buy SIXTEEN DIFFERENT COMICS in FIVE DIFFERENT RUNS and read them ALL ACCORDING TO A NUMBERED ORDER and also you better be following the individual plotlines and recognize these five minor characters who we don't bother to introduce!! Good luck!!" But the elaborate post-Crisis plotlines - and subtler worldbuilding like a stuffed animal callback to Dick's backstory - don't make a lot of story sense UNLESS you're imagining your readers as completionist adult fans.

So IMO a stuffed animal wouldn't be a pre-Crisis thing unless it was The Episodic Story Of the Week, and I don't think a stuffed animal is action-adventure-y enough for the fast-paced storytelling of the Silver Age. (Unless it, like, came to life and tried to eat you or something.)

Post-Crisis: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr: no, Dick's a manly tough guy, he's not gonna have a stuffed animal, that'd be lame, like something Tim might do

Part of the edgy grimdark adult vibes in 80s/90s comics is that some characters who used to be kinda silly & goofy & lighthearted - like Batman and Robin - get reimagined as Serious and Angsty and Edgy in a Tough Cool Manly Brooding Way. This massively affects characterization for Bruce, Dick, and Bruce and Dick's relationship.

(I obviously love this change & love the tense Bruce-and-Dick interactions, but plenty of fans of the earlier fluffy comics really disliked the edgy retcons of Miller / Wolfman / Starlin / et al.)

The upshot is that post-Crisis is a period when you could have a recurring reference like a stuffed elephant, but you wouldn't have a stuffed elephant, not for Dick. I think a toy like that would be too cutesy / childish / effeminate to give a male character in post-Crisis, unless you were poking fun at him.

Now, you could probably let Tim have a stuffed animal, because Tim is sometimes cool but also sometimes a tryhard loser who is faking being cool and not entirely pulling it off (see e.g. the Robin comic where he practices tough-guy faces in the mirror, or the Teen Titans comic where Conner discovers his cringy Enya CD, or when he's fanboying over Connor and it's awkward, etc etc.). A stuffed animal would be deeply embarrassing, and you'd have to be careful to compensate by having Tim do something cool afterward - but Tim's character concept allows for "he's kind of a loser sometimes."

But Dick isn't!! In post-Crisis, Dick's a tough / impressive / "cool guy" character, the kind of guy anyone would want to be, even in the flashbacks where he's Robin, and even in the stories where he's more lighthearted than angsty. It'd be kinda lame for Dick to have a stuffed elephant, so he wouldn't. I feel like Dick would be more likely to poke fun at it if someone had one, like when he's making fun of Wally for liking the Hardy Boys. Dick could have a Batman action figure, at most, and if he had one he would have it ironically.

Basically: in post-Crisis, a male character hugging a stuffed elephant feels more likely to be a punchline to me, not something poignant. (Even with Tim, Tim could have an embarrassing stuffed animal, but he couldn't hug it when sad - that's too far. Maybe Booster Gold might do this. Probably he wouldn't, but spiritually, he would. Sorry Booster ilu! <3)

Instead, Dick instinctively deals with his inner turmoil like the TORTURED ACTION HERO he is: by punching things and brooding and yelling and joining the mob and sleeping on rooftops and going on obsessive secret missions and acquiring Angsty Stubble!! Just like Batman!

(Technically I don't know if Bruce ever joined the mob but you know he would.)

Anyway as you know this is my favorite continuity and I am poking fun affectionately, but uh, yeah sdfsfdsfs. No stuffed animals.

Post-2011 / Infinite Frontier / Wayne Family Adventures: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr it's in WFA! Probably not anywhere else, but it could be.

Post-2011 stuff tends to be cutesier overall, most of all in the current Infinite Frontier era. So I don't feel like this would be tonally out-of-line with IF comics. Taylor tends to go for more meme-y references rather than fanfic references, though.

So the obvious best fit is WFA, which is aiming for a rough approximation of Silver Age family-friendly vibes - wholesome, episodic plots, Teaching Good Moral Lessons For The Youth, etc. - plus lots of Easter eggs for fanfic readers and some comic references.

And look, here we are:

Aww.

Whew - that's everything I could find!

Anyway as you can probably tell, I LOVE the elephant, so this was a very entertaining rabbit hole to go down, thank you <3

[mblue-art]

BAD SANSUARY // [29] glow for owl-bones's event !

pov u attacked the little error doll he gave u w/ sooo many smoochies and he felt all of it

alt. vers. under the cut !

[ancha-aus]

RealAgeAu Drabble - Day in Town

The poll has ended (and as always i sneaked to see the results early :3) and this one won out! @spotaus

You guys really just like the domestic fluff of these guys trying to parent. Don't you? It is okay. They are rather sweet :D

First Drabble Prev Drabble Next Drabble

Lets get to it! (and for those who forgot because i did because i only mentioned the name ONCE. Crop's brother is called Straw :D) Also I had to really consider who's POV I was going to use for this one as they all would have worked but I ended up going with Killer because he is silly and hasn't had a turn in a while. At least that is what it feels like :D

*----------------*

Killer taps the door as he stares out of the window of the truck. People would assume it is crowded but it honestly isn't that bad.

Mostly because Horror is sitting in the by rider seat with Nightmare in his lap, safely seated. Cross and Dust decided they prefered to drive in the actual cargo area of the truck. Which left only Killer and Crop in the backseat.

Killer honestly also thinks that Dust specifically prefered to sit in the back as he wouldn't have to see Straw. Dust still has the most issues with seeing any other universe's Papyrus. Killer would have gone to sit with him but Cross had been faster with offering it and there is no way in HELL that Killer was going to leave Horror and Ngihtmare without a set of extra sockets.

Doesnt make the drive any less tense.

tap. tap. tap. tap.

Crop sends him another nervous glance before clearing his throat "So.. you guys are finally going to see the town! excited?"

Killer huffs "Not really. But Dusty mentioned needed actual stuff for Nighty." which is why Killer leans closer to the seat before him holding Horror and Nightmare. He looks over the side and grins at Nightmare "sup tiny boss."

Nightmare looks over and sends him a tiny glare "You should have your seatbelt on."

Killer coos "Aw you do care~ such a sweet baby."

Nightmare blushes and mutters as he hides his face in Horror's sweater. Horror sends him an amused look "Killer. stop that."

Killer shrugs and leans back in his seat. feeling very accomplished.

Killer just needs to make sure that Nightmare doesn't fall into old patterns of trying to be the adult and leader. He doesn't need to do that and it isn't healthy for the babybones. so. Time to unlearn! At least those moments have been getting less and less frequent so there is progress!

Killer still doesn't appreciate the look send their way from both Crop and Straw, Yes he knows tiny boss is adorable but if they as much as try to get closer there is going to be spilled dust.

Straw stops the truck and announces their arrival.

Crop gets out quickly and they are on a parkinglot outside a shopping street. It isn't too large by the looks of it and just shops and a bar restaurant thing, probably this universes Grillby's.

Crop smiles at them "Okay! First day out!" Crop looks almost as nervous about this as Cross looks and Cross is actively looking around and has his hand ready to grab his knife.

Crop must see it too as he and straw share a look. Straw motions towards them and the town and Crop waves it off.

Crop turns back to them and Killer grins "SOmething the matter?"

Crop is quick to answer "What?! No! Of course not! It is just. a lot. This can be a lot and i just want to be sure everything is fine!"

Killer chuckles and sees Horror shoot him a disapproving glance. Still Horror goes over to Cross and hands Nightmare over to him. Cross is quick to hug him close and Nightmare has his grumpy face on again but still holds unto Cross. Clearly comfortable.

Horror joins his side "Killer. Stop." Killer sticks his tongue out at Horror and Horror's disapprovement makes way for amusement.

Hah! Still got it!

Horror looks at Crop "This isn't first time for us. We know how to behave."

Crop nods as he rubs his arm "I figured! It is just... If this works out you guys can stay longer and have something of a base to fall back on. I am just worried because some people can be..." he searches for the words.

Straw leans clsoer "Mean, harsh and rude."

Crop sends him a glare and Straw shrugs "It is true!"

Crop sighs "Anyway." he turns back to them "Ready to introduce yourselves?"

Killer grins "And spread rumours!" He can see Dust pull a pained face again. Dust is still not a fan of the backstory they settled on but they are already commited to it after the doctor's visit!

Crop chuckles and grins "I am still curious about what you guys settled on myself..."

Killer shakes his skull and shakes his finger "No no. No cheating. figure it out yourself" and he grins.

Cross huffs as he keeps Nightmare fully against him "Lets just get this over with..."

Adn they walk into town.

People are staring which they all had expected and should be used to at this point. But Killer doesn't like the fact how many people see Nightmare at the moment, and by the looks of it, neither do the others like this. Cross keeps trying to hold Nightmare as close as possible and almost hide by Horror. Dust has started to fully shadow the two as he barely looks around.

Crop and Straw obviously see the tension and seem to be sharing more uncertain looks.

Nightmare however doesn't seem to share their issues as he happily leans away from the hold to enable himself to look around. He studies buildings and vehicles. and even just stares back at people staring at him. Clearly more interested in learning about this new place than actual worry.

Or maybe he just feels safe with them and that does THINGS to Killer.

Crop stops them near the middle of the streat "okay! This is it!" he waves around himself "It isn't a lot now as people are still waiting for the produce to finish growing. But. Generally." he points to a shop "General store. they have most things needed." he points to the shop next to it "Bookstore. self explainatory." he points to the large bar "Grillby's is a bar and restaurant. people spend most of their free evenings there."

Hah! Called it!

Crop points out a few more buildings but most of those are for farming things and supplies.

Dust nods and looks over at them before looking back to the bookstore and general store "Going to get things. be back soon."

They watch him casually walk away on his own.

Yeah no absolutely not!

Killer is already half jogging after Dust as he waves at Cross, Horror and Nighmare "You guys stick together and get a feel for other people!" After which he sprints to catch up with Dust.

They enter the general store together.

Dust shoots him a look "don't need a babysitter."

Killer huffs and grins "Says you!" and he follows Dust as Dust looks at things. Killer just doens't like any of them being alone unless it is at a secured place. So Killer will jsut stalk Dusty for a bit! It is perfect!

Dusty looks at items and ends up getting two more notebooks and some pencils. he nods to himself and gets in line to pay for the items.

Killer checks the funds and frowns. They are running out and they will either have to go to another universe to steal more and risk drawing attention or actually think of a way to make money the legal way.

A groan from upfront and Killer looks up to see a teenager panicking over the cash register. the customers before them all look angry and annoyed.

The teenager presses buttons but nothing seems to help "I am sorry. I am sorry! It just... has issues once in a while. I can fix this!" the teenager does not look any clsoer to fixing it!

Dust huffs and turns to him "Hold." and Killer gets the few school supplies pushed into his arms. Dust afterwards walks over to the front. He grabs the basket of items and pushes it into the arms of the man in front "Hold." the man goes to say something but Dust just hops on top of the counter and sits next to the register. He turns it this and that way.

Dust hums as he pulls out his pocket knife and undoes some screws. the cap opens and he looks into the darkness, a shift in his socket and his eye light now lights up the inside of the register.

He looks at the teen "Got tape?"

The teenager blinks at him before nodding.

Dust nods "Get it." and turns back to the register as he removes some wires and starts making tiny cuts.

The teen grabs it from a drawer and hands it over "Euh... sir... I don't... i mean... i am not allowed... i don't know if you can..."

Dust hums and doesn't listen at all as he redoes some of the wires and removes some of them that looked burned through. He secures things with the tape and closes the back up again. he turns the register back in place and hits the side once.

The register lights up and asks for a log in.

Dust looks at the teen "Fixed." he hops down of the counter. Takes the basket the man in front is still holding dumbfounded. DUst places it back on the counter and walks back to Killers side where he takes his own stuff back.

Killer grins at him "Nicely done. I think that is a new record for you fixing soemthign."

Dust may appear calm but Killer know shim and can see the smaller skeleton looks smug "Easy fix. just a burned wire."

Killer nods "Still a new record! Sadly i didn't have the free hands to time it."

Dust shrugs and acts like he doesn't care but Killer knows better.

The line goes a lot quicker and once it is their turn they quickly pay for the items.

The leave the store and Killer points at the bookstore "Do we need anything from there?"

Dust thinks for a moment before shaking his skull.

Ah. seems like Dust doesn't plan on expanding the classes just yet. Likely wants to see if they actually stay for longer here first.

So they walk back to the group as Dust holds a tiny bag with the new things. they see them near another store and they seem to be talking to a bunny and a dog monster.

The bunny coos as they stare at Ngihtmare and Killer feels himself glae as he rushes to their side "Hey!! Whatsup!" and he nuzzles Nightmare in greeting.

Nightmare huffs and whines "Killer! Careful for my ice cream." Killer pulls back and sees now that Nightmare is also holding ice cream. woops. Killer looks down adn yeah that is ice cream on his shirt. Oh well. he shrugs.

Cross laughs as he smiles at Nightmare "Still good to eat?"

Nightmare studies his ice cream before nodding and going back to eating it with tiny tiny licks. dust joins them again and Nightmare immediantly looks at him. Killer can spot their tiny Nightlight starting to raise an arm towards Dust but he stops himself and pulls it back.

Luckily, or unluckily, Dust is very observant and saw it right away. He gives the bag to Killer and easily climbs the haystack Nightmare had been sitting on. Dust next pulls Nightmare into his lap without disturbing the ice crema eating process.

Nightmare hums happily and leans back into the hug as a tiny purr starts to leave him.

Killer grins as he leans against the hay stack and looks at the two other monsters, who are staring very intensly at Dust and Nightmare and Killer feels... something protective rise up. still he keeps asmile on his face as he speaks "who are the new fluffballs?"

The bunny smiles brightly "Hey! I am Ellie and this is Dani, we are fellow farmers like Crop. We own a tree farm and cherry farm."

the dog, Dani, nods "Yeah! Crop asked us if we had any spare clothes so we kinda knew some people moved in. it is nice to meet you five!" she smiles brightly.

Killer nods as he keeps his arms crossed and his grin sharp. stop looking at them. stop looking at them. stop looking at-

Horror nods "Nice to... meet friendly faces. We are still...settling..."

Cross helps quickly "As Horror said, we are still getting used to things around here. we are very lucky that Horror and Crop were friends and he was willing to let us stay."

Dani looks curious "I hope you don't mind me asking... why the name change from Sans to Crop?"

Killer freezes as he tries to think but Cross shrugs "Skeleton naming thing. Normally you are named after fonts that we speak in, yes we can see fonts and yes it gets weird and yes it takes magic. We just kinda know the vibe and with magic can see those. You can named after that. problem, we all speak in the same font type. Meaning we all kinda had the same name." he rubs his neck "Two people with the same name you can work around but six gets confusing. So nicknames."

Ellie smiles brightly "Dani and I are the same! We were both named Danielle and when we met we realised this would get annoying. especially when we.. euh... got together together." she giggles "so. we are now Dani and Ellie!"

Dani looks highly amused "Our house voicemail is still, the house of Danielle however. It was too good of a joke to pass up."

Ellie nods and smiles "If you guys need anything or help let us know. We have a lot of leftover stuff from our own moving and getting settled and saved everything we could." She looks at Nightmare and Dust again and smiles "And can I jsut say the tiny one is adorable." she looks curiously at them all "So... you guys got one?"

Killer feels that portective rage turn into protective and possessive smugness as Dust answers "he is mine. we all work together." and he shrugs at the questioning look.

Cross shakes his skull at the questioning look "That... is rather personal... they prefer not to talk about it."

Killer can see Ellie and Dani share a worried look before both smile reassuring "That is fine. Take it easy okay?" Dani smiles as Ellie nods along.

They continue the small talk for a moment longer before Ellie reminds DAni that they came to get fertilizer and they two walk off hand in hand.

Crop watches them go "That... went very well..."

Horror looks at him amused "Told you."

Crop laughs adn nods "Yeah you were right. You guys totally got this."

They remain there and meet a few more people from town as they wait for Straw to finish getting what Crop and him need for their actual farm.

Killer relaxes in the sun as the day slowly passes.

When they get back Cross will probably force him out of his now sticky shirt. Killer will tease him about wanting to undress him which will make Cross sputter and blush. Killer will end up wearing aclean shirt and probably watch as Dust teaches Nightmare more about math while Horror and Cross help Crop and Straw around on the farm.

Killer hadn't expected this all to go like this but it is nice. it is quiet. and most important, they are all safe.

*------------------*

All in all? Great success!

I still don't feel like i quite nailed Killer. Killer is a curious character to write as he is very silly but also wickedly smart. mmmmh. but then again this is a drabble. *shrug*

Realistically? If this was a full on chaptered fanfic this would probably be a chapter i had to rewrite a few times. Just to make sure I get Killer's character and behaviour right. But for now it is fine :)

First Drabble Prev Drabble Next Drabble

[sysig]

can i ask for larry and kabu.... is it allowed......... if not i can ask for something else lol

Day 2 - Warm feelings

[crow-quet]

been seeing these little design challenges on twitter re: warrior cats so i decided to try my hand at it with the tigerclones !!! :3

[alwyswnadie]

my sweet bf ☹️