#but then shit happened??

[bentacled]

klaus hargreeves... “  i’m starting to think i’m just fucked up.  ” 

you're not, ben thinks immediately after a fractured mind has savoured the words, but pauses, for a moment, because he's not sure if @theseancekid will believe him. it hadn't been easy, their shared existence. it hadn't been easy, seeing his brother willing to do anything to quiet the ghosts that pursued him like leering wolves. it hadn't been easy, feeling the familiar prick of envy, when a cruel tongue designed the words you're wasting your life, and some of us don't have one anymore. the guilt had come later, it always came in waves that drowned him in life, but they weren't enough to rip the words out of an air that had stagnated his brother's lungs. he's not sure how things are between him and klaus now, not really. despite having lived together for years upon years, now that… now that everything has changed, he's not sure how klaus sees him. partly because he's never known, exactly, if klaus had known the reason why ben had stayed with him, all those years ago. it hadn't been out of fear of the light, unfinished business, or duty. no, simply… it'd been a decision made out of love, for as silly as it sounded. he hadn't wanted to, hadn't been able to, leave him behind. neither him nor his siblings, his family. it'd also been out of concern, of course, fearing that if he left klaus alone – the worst would happen, because as much as he loved his siblings, no one had taught them to care.

everything was different now, though, and he wondered if he'd ever formalised any of the thoughts that sped like trains through his brain. if klaus thought that, because they weren't bound together anymore, ben would simply... leave him. " you're not " he finally got the words out of his mouth, injecting as much conviction as he could into the simple syllables. he'd been disappointed in klaus so many times, he'd known he could be something so much better, that he could aspire to more than just hitting rock bottom after rock bottom, but he'd seldom considered the hauntings of the other's thoughts. " i'd know better than anyone, i had to put up with your sorry ass for years " he added, to take some of the seriousness out of the matter, though the ribbon of sincerity was still braided into the words. " you're doing the best you can, and i see that. we all see that. that's the most we can ask of you, klaus ".

[sparklebyte]

oh so you’re telling me the guy had a 3 page handwritten explanation of his motives and mindset and a gun and silencer that matches the description despite it being a week since the guy was shot? hmmmm interesting

[aphroditusiscorroded]

I love the idea that Bill’s manipulation tactics are horribly obvious but Ford is so socially inept that it works on him perfectly

“He was a masterful manipulator.”

No bestie he was just nice to you and you folded like a house of cards

[really-fucked-up-stimboards]

falling down a flight of stairs stimboard ?

[feralnumberfive]

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

i would say that, mentally speaking, i'm in a good place right now! physically of course, the crows continue their chanting,

[ochiody]

so has anyone seen that tiktok of two odysseus/hamilton cosplayers outside in the hurricane. because i have

[rationales]

[gentlemancowboy]

[foundfamilywhump]

the question, you see, is not ‘is it too ooc for this character to cry’ but rather ‘what circumstances would push this character to cry’

this is the whump wisdom, go forth and make that character cry

[musubiki]

my favorite fields of mistria boys 🥰

[meticulousmaker]

another random thing that stands out to me rewatching Steven Universe as an adult:

throughout the show there's this clear Vibe that Steven has inherited some big magical destiny, right? and it makes sense narratively: he's the son of Rose Quartz, leader of the rebellion, now being raised by her friends who were the last remaining survivors of an interstellar war. he's like a human child in most ways, except he has magical powers that start to become more obvious as he's getting older. no one like him has ever existed before. it's a big deal. raising him and figuring out how he's going to grow is its own unique challenge, because nobody knows what to expect. so of course there's this magical destiny vibe, given all that.

What's interesting to me, though, is that this magical destiny is in no way literally, physically present in the story, it's just something everyone kinda feels. Like, there's not some ancient prophecy about a half-gem, half-human savior. He's not the Chosen One in any literal sense, he just happens to give off Chosen One vibes. And I say that's interesting because it means that the fact he was kinda raised with this Chosen One vibe is completely a decision everyone around him made, for better or for worse. And the show is aware of this, because the weight of Rose's legacy and everyone's expectations of him is a constant theme, and as Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl all grow and develop, they also realize the downsides of them putting those expectations on a child. Like, Steven spends his whole childhood being told about how great Rose was, and how because he's inherited her gem he will probably inherit her powers - and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Imagine how awful things could have been if Steven had no exposure to the Gems and no knowledge of what they were or how they worked, and then his powers started coming in? It was hard enough even when he was surrounded by the most qualified Gem Experts on Earth. But being primed for all of this "you're going to have your mother's magical powers" stuff put a heavy weight on his shoulders, and then the fact that nobody else quite knew how his abilities worked meant he was constantly faced with the adults in his life looking to him with concern because they didn't know what was happening with him. That's gotta leave an impression on a kid - and, well, throughout the show and especially in SU Future we definitely see that it does.

I like the way the show handles the pressure that's put on him, and the fact that everyone is just... trying their best in a completely unprecedented situation. Nobody knows what to do or how to raise this kid, and that inevitably causes problems but everyone is trying. And Steven can feel that everyone is trying without knowing what to do and he just wants to help and not be a burden and none of his caretakers have said that he's a burden but he can feel everyone's confusion and concern and the expectations he's not living up to and he cares so much, about everyone, about everything. He's in an extremely unique position that grants him opportunities to help that nobody else has, and he feels like he's failing everyone if he can't fulfill that, and in the end it never should have been his job to fix things but somebody had to try. Somebody had to try, and he was one of the only people with the ability to stop the Diamonds, stop the war, stop the lies, stop his world and everyone on it from being destroyed... and he was just a kid.

[demaparbat-hp]

*pats Zuko's head* This bad boy can fit so many near-death experiences.

.

Read For the Spirits Chapter VIII here!

[nomnomroko]

also them (((: ?

[anxi04]

tim and bruce have an odd relationship to the rest of the family. they don’t act like father and son but it seems like they have a “deeper” bond than the others

bruce seems to take tim’s advice more seriously, bruce actually takes a break if tim tells him, tim still gets benched but not nearly as much as he should, and most confusingly, tim benched bruce once. not alfred benching bruce, TIM.

normally bruce has to be forced to take a break, and normally by alfred, but if tim says “you’re benched for a week” bruce? listens?

they have no idea why. some of them ask dick if he knows since he was there but he’s just as confused

and then despite all that there’s also such a strain between them? it’s really on the line of a professional relationship and almost a care taker. it’s very confusing. and then the times bruce gives tim a present or anything like that and tim stops and stares at him for a second, like he’s dissecting bruce. no one is able to fully figure it. until bruce is de-aged to tim’s robin era.

tim is very adamant about most of them, but especially jason and damian, do not reveal their names to him. for the time being they have a strictly professional relationship with their father who doesn’t know them.

they finally get some of the picture when they see tim start acting as bruce’s caretaker. tim switches between being gentle “hey, you need to sleep” to screaming at bruce. it always works. tim knows exactly which version bruce needs and it scares the team cause that has to require some practice

they’re then also thrown for a loop when they hear bruce call out jason’s name in a shocked voice, which makes sense cause he doesn’t know jason is alive but jason still has his helmet on so what? and then they hear a voice none of them have heard. except dick goes pale and jason’s breath hitches. and suddenly tim is responding to jason’s name and acting weird, almost like what some of dicks stories described jason as. and it’s so fucked up when they’re watching time act like someone else and bruce going along with it

the dynamic they’re getting is also fucked up once again when, during one of bruce’s really bad days, tim straight up acts like bruce’s parent. and bruce reacts well.

they’re all horrified by this. the realization that tim and bruce’s relationship has so many layers and that they do act like father and son sometimes. except bruce isn’t the father and tim isn’t the son

[egberts]

all I can see is bad coming out of this like he didn't die so that's it man he's a living martyr for the far right now. things are gonna get scarier than ever??