#but probably not successfully

[hinamie]

I'm always pushing you away from me / but you come back with gravity / and when I call, you come home

[shushmal]

Let it be known that Steve has zero problem with Eddie. Like, negative problems. So little problem that it kinda turns itself inside out and becomes a DIFFERENT problem. But, not like, a problem problem. Just a teeny tiny little maybe issue. Maybe. Whatever.

Anyways, Eddie's a hugger.

And, like Steve said, it's not a problem. Except that it kind of is.

"Oh, dude," Robin had said when he'd told her as much, and stared at him with this incredibly pained look in her eyes. "You have so many issues." And after that, he gets daily a Robin hug.

Which is great. But doesn't solve his not-problem with Eddie hugs.

Well, in a way, it does. Regular Robin hugs means that Steve isn't freezing up and freaking out when he gets an Eddie hug. Steve's really glad for that, because he'd been terrified that he was going to make Eddie think that Steve hated the Eddie hugs.

Which would be awful, because Steve kinda sorta maybe absolutely would-die-for the Eddie hugs. Steve loves the Eddie hugs, okay? Eddie should be hugging Steve all the time, actually.

He does, too. It's kind of awesome. Steve waives a late fee? Eddie's clamoring over the counter to hug him. Steve picks up the nerds from their nerd jail game? Eddie's half way through his window, hugging Steve's head. Steve brought pizza to movie night? Eddie gets his arms around Steve's waist and sighs happily into Steve's neck. It's pretty great.

It's the best thing ever.

And Steve knows logically that he's not special. Eddie's usually draped over someone for extended periods of time until he get's swatted off. He hugs everyone. Steve's not special. He does have to tell himself that a lot.

"Oh, dingus," Robin had sighed when he'd told her as much. Her look this time was a lot less pained and more exasperated. "So many issues." And he was rewarded with two Robin hugs that day.

Anyways, Steve has to remind himself all the time that he's not special. So it comes as a little tiny sorta maybe surprise when Eddie one night wraps Steve in his arms, sighing all happy and contented like he usually does, and says, "You're my favorite, Harrington. You give the best hugs."

And then he presses a kiss to Steve's cheek.

And a lot of things go through Steve's head in that moment. He doesn't have a clue what any of it is, but it all scrolls by like the Star Wars intro on too much sugar and too hard to read. Still, he arrives at the correct conclusion anyways.

"Oh," Steve says, before Eddie's lips have really left his cheek. "I'm in love with you."

Eddie reels back, his hands still on Steve's shoulders, big brown eyes now bigger than ever. Steve watches as his face goes pink, and pinker, and then bright red.

"Huh?!" It's a really ugly sound that Eddie makes, and Steve bites his lip to keep from laughing. It's cute.

"Yeah," Steve says. "I'm in love with you."

"... What?!"

[keeganns]

Obviously “America is Great Again” is a fantastic critique of capitalism and American propaganda, which would be enough to make it an incredible scene on its own. It’s a great song and a great demonstration of the show’s themes, and it’s really well done.

But there’s a tragic layer to that song that really elevates it for me, and that’s because it’s specifically MacNamara singing it.

MacNamara first is introduced to seem like a stereotypical patriotic army guy in the scene where he knocks Paul out. However, he then subverts that in the next scene where we learn his true morals, namely that he believes in love and humanity as his higher purpose and he will put that above the orders of his country if they conflict. He chooses to let Paul live because of that, and when Paul asks if he can save Emma, MacNamara gives him his gun and tells him to go. We learn, as does Paul, that despite his appearance and general vibes, he is a genuinely good person who wants to help and is willing to put his moral code above his patriotism.

But when he gets apotheosized, he becomes the complete opposite. Suddenly his loyalty is to his country only, and his own moral code is erased in service of that, which causes contradictions between the lyrics of AIGA and his thoughts in the scene with Paul. “You can’t run because our borders are closed” when he was helping Paul escape in a helicopter as a human; “Americans should fit a mold” when he didn’t at all fit the “douchey army patriot” mold he was presented with; “There’s only room for right and wrong” when he clearly is able to choose between his own morality and his orders, indicating a more complex outlook instead of a binary. He becomes the stereotype he was subverting, and in doing so he becomes someone that the real MacNamara would have hated. That’s the tragedy of that song, and of the whole show really, is that the people who become part of the hive mind lose their true selves and are only able to act in their stereotypical roles, even if that’s nothing like how they actually were as humans.

There’s also something to be said here about how the us war machine and capitalism corrupts people and makes them into something they would never have been otherwise through a forced loss of personhood but I can’t figure out how to phrase that so

[cosmocove]

ur afraid of being corny but i was born on the cob

[fisheito]

He's a magician

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Danny, desperate to get someone competent to help him with his growing problems in Amity, travels to a dimension full of heros and villians and in true Phantom fashion, overshadows one of the first Heros he sees- Nightwing.

He immediately tried walking away to a more discrete location to create a portal but was interrupted by Nightwings allies who were very suspicious of Nightwings sudden change in behavior. Unfortunately for Danny, he wasn't fooling anyone and made a run for it. He wound up ditching Nightwing and disappearing.

Danny, seeing how amazingly competent these people are, only becomes more determined to kidnap them and take them to Amity...

[free-luigi-mangione]

my heart breaks for him and his family, not only they're going through something incredibly traumatizing but they're witnessing part of the internet refer to him as a murderer, writing horrible things about him and these trash articles. i really hope they're all taking care of themselves mentally, luigi especially because he must be going through hell. i really hope he has a lot of distractions in there, otherwise he's really going to lose his mind.

imagine seeing your baby boy/brother always be a sweet little gentleman and an overall awesome human being who was always top of his class, took part in various activities and enjoyed people's company and the people also loved him to seeing him being called a killer/murderer, facing insane charges, being kept in inhumane conditions (all prisons are inhumane in usa), seeing him shackled in court on live tv and facing the death penalty and seemingly all anybody cares about (according to the media) is his pretty face and his shackled ankles and loafers without socks and fake sex tapes, it's like going straight from heaven to the deepest pits of hell where no light could ever touch

i'd be so mad that the media isn't talking about the at least half a dozen NYPD officers facing multiple charges for falsifying evidence and false prosecution against other people or that his defense lawyers have filed motions talking about how his rights were violated when he was arrested or how there's a very very real chance that the police planted false evidences on him at the time of his arrest (look at what the NYPD officers are charged with, it's a normal thing for them) or that thousands of people are wholeheartedly supporting him and donating regularly to his fund and think he's not guilty by all accounts and want him to be free

Luigi seems to be coping by writing sweet letters expressing support and sympathy to people who're sharing their woes in their letters to him 🥹

[tennessoui]

Obikin for number 41 of the ask game, if you’re up for it - thanks!

absolutely!

[from this list of prompts]

[5. 'are you jealous' - 27. 'i'm pregnant' - 44. 'if you die, i'm gonna kill you' - 46. 'hey, have you seen...? oh']

41. "you did all of this for me?"

Vader's precious padawan blinks down at him, lovely blue eyes wet and wide. He's sitting in an empty Council seat, Anakin's Council seat, and Vader is kneeling at his feet. Vader had once sworn, years ago now at the time he first earned his Sith name, that he would never kneel at another's feet again.

What a fool he'd been then.

Or--not a fool. Just so incredibly shortsighted.

"I don't understand," Obi-Wan tells him quietly, and Vader gives him a smile, shakes his head in fondness. There is very little in the entire galaxy that his padawan can't understand should he put his mind to it.

Obi-Wan simply does not want to understand, though the evidence is laid out so neatly before him. Physically before him, for that matter.

His padawan's stubbornness would be endearing if it were not so inconvenient. If it did not come with the boy drawing his knee up and out of Vader's reach the moment he goes to touch him.

As if he cannot bear his master's touch. As if he does not recognize him.

Vader lets out a measured breath, searching to calm himself. It is hardly his padawan's fault that he's reacting this way. Vader had always envisioned himself coaxing Obi-Wan into the truth in order to let him accept it.

Tonight had hardly gone as planned.

For all parties involved.

"I had no choice," Vader tells him now, grasping his knee with his flesh palm and pushing it up--allowing himself to touch, to feel. He'd returned to the Temple long past sunset. Had stopped here in the Council chambers first for a moment before fetching his padawan from his bed. Obi-Wan is still in his night clothes, pale and vulnerable and suitable only for Vader's eyes.

But then, Vader has always thought that.

"You killed the Chancellor," Obi-Wan tells him. His voice jumps up, high and distressed and his eyes flicker back and forth between Vader and the body behind him. The Chancellor's head is somewhere further away still, though his padawan cannot bring himself to look at it. "The Chancellor of the Republic!"

"Yes," Vader agrees. It had been a death long overdue, but Obi-Wan does not need to know that.

"He was my friend," Obi-Wan says, eyebrows furrowed and eyes so wet and beautiful. It means something, Vader thinks. That Obi-Wan is not running away. That he isn't screaming. That he has allowed himself to be pushed into Anakin Skywalker's Council seat even after seeing the body that Vader has brought him. Even after seeing Anakin Skywalker's golden eyes.

"He was my master," Vader says, and watches carefully--greedily--as the realization slides across his padawan's face. There is pain and sadness and disbelief and hurt and anger and agony, and his padawan wears them all so beautifully.

"You said--" Obi-Wan stops, wets his lips. His eyes jump to Vader's face and then remain there, pinned and punishing. "You said it was for me. That you...you did it for me. All of it?"

"Yes," Vader agrees easily, though Obi-Wan has not been very specific. It is true nonetheless. Since the boy came into his life all those years ago, hurt and angry and wounded at the tender age of fifteen, everything Anakin Skywalker has done has been for the boy. All of it. Always. He Fell for him. He killed for him. He protected him from every silent threat that could have hurt him, every lustful Jedi who got too close to him, every disappointment, every skinned knee. Or he tried to, at least. And took away his pain when he couldn't be there to stop the insult in the first place. All of it has been for the boy. His boy. His precious padawan.

"But I...I never wanted anyone to die," Obi-Wan whispers, eyes tugged back to the headless body of the Chancellor. "I never...I never wanted you to Fall. Master, this isn't you, this isn't--"

Vader leans forward. Obi-Wan's night clothes have slipped up his leg from the touch of Vader's hand, and his padawan's skin is exposed. Vader has spent years exercising control that fails him now. He presses his lips against that fragile, soft skin, and the Force rears back with desire.

Not his own desire.

"You have a choice, little one," he murmurs, reveling in the feeling of his lips brushing against skin that has for so long been denied to him by his own self-control. If he were a weaker man, perhaps he would have given into his padawan's desires long ago. Before things were ready. Before the moment was right. "You have many choices to make, actually. And so little time to make them."

"Anakin," Obi-Wan says, pleas, really. His hands tangle in his hair, though if the boy means to tug him away, he forgets to. Instead, the touch simply lingers. "Please, Master, I don't--I won't--"

"The Chancellor had plans to destroy the Jedi Order and the Republic," Vader says, low and sweet. "He has placed control chips in the minds of the clones. The right phrase, said into the right comm-link, will trigger the downfall of the Jedi."

"No," Obi-Wan breathes, which is what Vader had thought his padawan would think. It is so sweet to be proven correct.

Though it is a pity, really. He thinks he would have liked to be emperor now that Sidious has fallen. But though the tug of the Dark Side encourages greed, there is undeniably something that Vader wants more than the galaxy.

"I know," he soothes his padawan, using the Force to tug him closer. The boy doesn't resist, as if he has forgotten that he can. "I know, it would have been horrible, sweetheart. But I killed him. He is dead."

He is dead for unrelated reasons, of course. Dead not because of his plans or because of the Order. Dead because he dared invite Obi-Wan for tea while Vader was off planet. Dead because he touched his padawan, put his hand on his shoulder during a public appearance at the opera.

Obi-Wan does not need to know this.

"I have to go though," Vader tells him instead. A whisper. Heartbroken and gutted and utterly false. "He manipulated me into Falling, sweet one. And now I have to go because the Jedi Order will imprison me should I stay."

And, like the sweetest of victories, Obi-Wan's hands clench tighter into his hair. "No," he says. "No, they wouldn't--we can explain. You can--can explain--"

"I cannot risk my freedom in that way, sweetling," Vader says, and his voice is hurt and hard and so, so false. "They will not listen. Or they will see a Fallen man, a Sith with golden eyes, and they will fear him. They will take you away from me. Give you to another master to train."

"They won't--"

"They will," Vader murmurs. He pushes his hands higher up Obi-Wan's legs, taking the nightrobes with him as he goes. Exposing more of his padawan to the cool night air of the Council chambers, to the heat of his master's eyes. "If not because I am a man Fallen then because they will certainly check the security holos of this room. And they will see this. My mouth on your skin. Your hands in my hair. Of course they will take you away from me should we stay."

Obi-Wan trembles beneath his lips. He trembles and his Force signature sways, burning hot with guilt and shame and desire. Longing. Love.

"So you have a choice, baby. I need to leave. Because of what I did to protect you. And you--you can let me go alone, or you can come with me."

His padawan's hands tighten in his hair, and Vader could be Force-blind and still feel the pulse of want at his words. But it is not enough to have Obi-Wan Kenobi want him. He needs to need him.

He needs to follow him.

"I would never leave you," Vader tells him. This, finally, after everything else, is the truth. He wonders if his padawan understands it for the threat it is. "Please, Obi-Wan. Do not leave me either."

Obi-Wan's blue eyes, so lovely, so loved, blink down at him. He opens his mouth and wets his lips. "Master," he murmurs. It is the most beautiful sound, his capitulation.

[sketchz]

can I offer you a couple of odiles in this trying time?

[shuploc]

the sudden and aggressive shift from arcane to bbno$ is so funny to me

LMAOO, there's actually so much lore attached to it, it's kinda crazy, I completely get where you're coming from though 😭

I've known about this dude since 2018, and for years he collabed with creators I was subbed to, but for whatever reason I never actually took the time to figure out what he was really "about" y'know... turns out the dude is incredible and so sweet, and it's crazy to me knowing I could have been supporting him this whole time, instead of some of the other mfs I've been drawing (who, in hindsight, frankly, did not deserve that kind of support at all)

But yeah, I do tend to jump from fandom to fandom lmao, it's not the last time you'll see me draw Arcane stuff though 🤗❤️

[anxiousapplepie]

Who needs cupid when you are perfectly capable of shooting yourself in the heart, amiright?

[fumifooms]

Jinx’s eyes and lost innocence

This sequence.

A bomb like she made in her youth. Except that unlike then, this one works, this one explodes… With paint and glitter and powder, instead of intending to kill or hurt.

The man who shielded himself from it sure that it would be his end, surprised, checking himself for wounds with disbelief, covered in paint, as if it was just some harmless prank. Relief. But the second surprise comes with the sound of the gun behind him. We see their eyes shift, both of them, her steeling and readying her shot without urgency and him understanding with urgency that yes, he is going to die, at her hand, and the bomb was just a fluke, a cruel prank, a distraction at best.

And this. These are the seconds that interest me, what ties it all together. The way we linger. The way she lingers. To, during a fight scene, slow down the pace to watch her face as she pulls the trigger and feels the recoil of her gun, watch her take in how she just took another life, watch her mouth part and her eyelids flutter when she notices the kid.

There are not enough emotions on her face for someone who just killed, but also there are more than there should be for a cold-blooded killer showing as much practice ease as she is. Does she always have this moment when killing someone? Did seeing her paint bomb go off, shooting someone covered in her paint and glitter of it, make her feel anything? Did she see the change in her that empowered her that she both loathes and clings onto in that split moment, too? Why did she even remake that first bomb? Why make it work and make it work to shoot off harmless fun showy things? Why indulge in this remnant of her past, why with that innocent intent intact stills if it didn’t get warped with the use of distracting an enemy to better sneak attack? Why taint that memory? Is the reaction only when she sees the kid?

Why does the camera linger, why does she linger? We’re not sure, and I’m sure she herself doesn’t know, but what we know is that she’s changed, and yeah, we’re low.

The kid, watching the fresh corpse fall, with curiosity more than anything.

Jinx with the gun gesture, reflecting their earlier conversation, referencing it. A shared secret, shared smirks, a relationship forming. Complicity. Jinx is knowingly or not taking her under her wing, shaping her by example like mentorship. A little girl that she resembled once getting desensitized to violence at her hand, encouraged to see killing positively. Empowering.

Episode 2 explores her past and upbringing in many ways, talking about Silco, her many mistakes, seeking out Sevika the last remnant of a person of her life with him and sticking with her, doing something for her despite knowing she should be betraying her any minute now. But fast forward to episode 3, the next time she has to confront it and herself.

Jinx praises Vi for finally using the right name for her, Jinx, and Vi talks about how she’ll kill her so she stops sullying the memory of Powder, blahblahblah. They exchange some punches and rows of bullets, we see Jinx’s eyes take in and calculate and shift here too, react and then react. Vi using the same mirror Caitlyn shot into intending to kill Jinx to shield herself from Jinx’s shot.

But this is it. When Vi uses her huge metal hextech fists to rip her invention, her gun, apart. Jinx is not the only one sullying memories, Vi is here, as an enforcer for Piltover, using Vander’s choice of weapon, and she uses it to hurt her, destroy her things, her inventions whose worth was such a source of insecurity and identity growing up.

This is when Jinx sees so very closely, at the other end of it, her sister’s rage and murderous intent as she rips metal apart.

We see her expression shift again and again during these few shots and the ones before and after. Her face as she watches Vi’s through the wires of her gun. As Vi roars. She grows less confident, less sure, more nervous, dare I say more fearful.

The music kicking up. Jinx’s face right then cutting to Jayce’s with a very similar expression, staring at something he doesn’t understand. "What have we done" he says.

Vi has always always been stronger than Jinx, inventions were how she made herself strong, and Vi can destroy them, Vi can rip metal apart.

And oh. Oh. This is truly really for real now. A fight to the death. No punches pulled.

She crawls away from Vi and it’s only the hextech malfunction that saves her.

Sevika smiles at Caitlyn biting her hand, with newfound respect as she draws blood. At her will, her bloodthirst, how far she’ll lower herself to hurt and fight. This is a scene about corruption arcs.

Jinx stands before Vi whose symbol of corruption just failed her, chained her to the ground vulnerable, and Jinx pulls the trigger just like Caitlyn, just like Vi was ready to do. No punches pulled.

Except they are. Jinx has steeled herself but Vi is softening. Vi is strong but she is vulnerable too and she can be made weak with Jinx’s guns and bombs.

And despite this when Jinx falls from her own weapon misfiring at a shot meant to kill her Vi is reaching out to catch, not hurt. Hold, not claw. Deflect, not counter.

Push, not punch.

Jinx’s eye shines pink like shimmer and this is when Vi shifts on the offensive, just before Jinx fires the shot that barelly misses her as she throws Jinx roughly at a wall.

And now they’ve fully switched places. The longer Vi has to fight Jinx the more she’s conflicted, the more Jinx loses herself to the fight the more she rages.

The chorus swells. "Just when you’ve done it all / you will turn it all / to ashes and blood" No words left to say, nothing left to mend.

She’s ready to die when she lunges at Vi with only her fists, she expects to die, hopes so. Knows from experience their respective results in that punching arcade game full well, even if she were to try with all her might, having tried all her might. She’s felt cursed by fate for a long time and she accepts it, just wants to go out with the most fireworks, to have been seen, to have mattered one way or another.

Vi punches the altar next to Jinx even as she’s got her pinned down defenseless and she readies her fist. And she has all the time to do it, she could have done it, except she couldn’t. And it costs them the chance to killl her.

The scene as a whole has a split focus on Jayce, Jinx and Vi centrally, and the song lyrics match that quite well. The full ones lyrics are worth looking at but to keep it quick: "How does it feel to reach the line that no one ever got to cross? Does it make you a god now?" A rethoric question of course, the song spells it out like it’s a damning wake-up call. The scene is all about regret. Our choices have led us here, it says. Jayce is dreading and afraid of what he’s done, Jinx is empty and as self-loathing as ever, Vi wants to stop blaming herself and is still conflicted on what side she should be on. "Catch the fire burning out your soul / Just make it die or you will turn it all / To ashes and blood" Jinx, accepting this is where she dies. She’s said in episode two she wants to kill the last of her family, but we all know it’s a lie, she’s never wanted to destroy and break things, never wanted to cause ashes and blood. She wants to fix things. She wants things to fix. She just wanted glitter bombs and arcade games. She wants there to be something left she can fix, but it’s all just dust now.

Jinx has never been in that place before, she took the time to draw all those Powders and Vis on pillars while waiting for her to show up so they can kill each other. She’s lingering on the past again, bringing it into the now to use it as a stage for battle.

Jayce is reckoning with the consequences of what he’s created and done, that he might cause a lot of ashes and blood. Vi being corrupted too, by Piltover, by rage, by Jinx, by Powder. Vi is being turned to ashes and blood, this is what jinx has made of her, what she’s made of herself. Vi is being corrupted too, by Piltover, by rage, by Jinx, by Powder. Vi has changed, too. Their whole society, their whole lives, their world figuratively and literally, it’s all crumbling.

"Every sin will be forgiven / If you lay down your weapons to the ground" But that’s not really how this works, is it. Jayce or Jinx can’t fix what they’ve done. Vi can’t say this, can’t fix her. No, they’ve dug their graves and the ground is where they’ll all be. Powder is dead.

Just when you think you’ve lost everything. Everything can get ruined and marred a little more, always. The past is not only in the past, it’s here and it’s haunting. Jinx will keep sullying the memory of Powder for Vi and Vi will keep tainting Jinx’s memories of her sister and their childhood.

[functionalasfuck]

BBC Merlin AU where Kilgharrah doesn’t fucking exist and the prophecy is never once uttered.

Can you imagine how much better the show would be?

[lunapegasus]

@adhd-sonic-the-hedgehog's Flicky Omega because he's oh so small and angry and I love him

[women--are--amazing]

And if I were to say that Damian would hate being robin and quit vigilante life before he turns 18?