#but we're stopping here
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I'm still considering @bi-demon-ium's post about what would happen if Milligan adopted Kate before regaining his memory fully.
Because, imagine:
Milligan has been looking out for Kate and the other kids for a while, now, and he's very glad that they're finally off of this island safely. He loves all of them, of course, but he can't help but feel especially connected to Kate. Something about her just sticks out to him, either because he's had to save her from herself more than a few times or because of her spunk and attitude or maybe because she was the first child he felt like really looked him in the eyes and saw him since he'd started helping run the tests.
Either way, he feels a really strong connection to her, and after he escaped Curtain's men on the island, he began feeling twinges of memories returning. Throughout his time on the island, he kept experiencing odd sensations of déjà vu, but nothing concrete. A few of the agents that the team ended up rescuing from the Institute seemed to recognise him, and he could sporadically recall some of their names, so he became fairly certain that had been an agent at some point, but there wasn't much else getting clearer.
In the weeks after Curtain's defeat, Milligan began experiencing disorienting memory flashes which, while still not helping him piece anything together, gave him horrible migraines and would, on occasion, short out his awareness of where he was presently. These would always pass, but when they happened Kate was right behind him, helping him sit down and running to get him water (She eventually began keeping a bottle in her bucket when it became apparent this would keep happening), and she was consistently proven to be the best out of all of them to bring Milligan back to the present.
As the other kids began finding their way to their families, with Constance and Reynie being adopted, and Sticky's parents coming to find him, everyone began to settle into their lives. But Kate had yet to return to the circus.
"Oh, of course I love the circus, and I'd love to get back to them, but Milligan still needs me here. I can't leave him."
After this goes on for nearly a month, Mr. Benedict begins talking to Milligan about adopting Kate. He's been through it a few times now, after all, he'd be happy to show Milligan how to do all of the paperwork (And maybe make a few bribes in the right places, since Kate's technically a semi-unregistered wild child who ran away). It takes a bit longer for Milligan to broach the subject with Kate, but when he does, she just looks at him in surprise.
"Well," She begins, slowly, "I can see how that would be nice, for legal reasons and everything, of course, but I kind of thought that's what we were already doing? Just, without the paperwork."
Milligan has a hard time keeping himself from bursting into tears right then and there, but he sweeps her up into a huge hug and if a few tears slip out as his brain sighs with the correctness of holding her in his arms, and if Kate finally relaxes as if she feels he could protect her from anything in the world, well, that's between them.
Life slips into a routine for them, and though there were a few close calls with Milligan's memory flashes while he was doing things like cooking breakfast that led to Number Two pulling a few extra fire extinguishers out of the closet, and a couple of times that Kate would find him standing outside in the rain, staring at the puddles in the backyard with blank eyes and a slightly frustrated expression, as if there were some secret hidden in the muddy ground that he couldn't quite find, for the most part, things were going alright.
As Milligan slowly, very slowly, began to understand himself, he began to understand Kate, too. There were times she seemed too ready to jump up from a meal and help, too prepared to drop whatever she was holding and run to his side, like she was afraid of finding some terrible tragedy when she arrived. She offered to do the shopping one day when Number Two couldn't quite find the time, and though she came back with everything they needed (and a few things they didn't strictly need) with money from the budget she had been given somehow leftover, the sharp, frugal expression on her face when she counted over the food again as she started to put it away was far too serious for a twelve year old.
Milligan's heart broke for Kate every time he saw how growing up alone had affected her, even if she couldn't see it. Of course she couldn't see it; she was a child, she wasn't supposed to see it, she shouldn't need to. Every time he saw her expression harden as she tried not to cry, before she remembered she could now; every time he watched her freeze when a knock came at the door, subconsciously positioning herself in front of Constance and between the perceived threat and the boys, before she relaxed when she saw Milligan himself go to answer it, trusting him to protect them; every time he went looking for her and found her curled up in the vents, breathing shallowly and refusing to come out until he assured her they won't send her away, she doesn't have to run anymore, she's welcome and safe here, and then when she slowly unfurls and drops heavily into his arms, burrowing into his chest and sighing deeply as she breathes him in — All of those times and more, he feels a growing resentment and even a simmering hatred for whoever Kate's father is.
This man who found whatever else he had going on more important than protecting his daughter, as if anything could be more important than the child he wanted so desperately to hug, wanted nothing more than to protect and love, but had to watch as she shut herself away and steeled her body to be prepared to face any and everything all on her own. What Milligan wouldn't give to find this man, to hunt him down and shake him, to explain to him exactly how badly he'd messed up, and then leave him somewhere he could never come back from; somewhere he could never return from and hurt Kate again.
Sometimes she'd mention a task she had experience with, or a time she'd "lived off the land", or recounted her ability to perform a grownup's job just as well, with a sense of pride in her skills, and the adults in the room would exchange sorrowful glances over her head. The first time she said she'd never played on a proper playset, since she'd been too young when her dad had left, and the orphanage never had any safe equipment, Milligan sat straight up, and the next day they went to the nearest park and stayed there until dark, Kate spending hours on the swings as his strong arms pushed her higher and higher until she felt as free as when she was flying through the air on the trapeze.
One day, as the two of them were sitting at the kitchen table, eating a late breakfast since they'd been up half the night because Milligan took her stargazing, Kate offhandedly says, "You know, Milligan, I've never really minded that my dad left, but now, I think that I'm glad he did. Because otherwise I would never have met you."
Milligan stops dead as he's buttering his toast, trying very hard not to overreact and shatter this moment where Kate is humming contentedly and swinging her legs. Slowly, carefully, deliberately, he responds, "Well, I'm glad that I met you too, Katie-Cat."
#ooooohhhhh my word#this was a Whole Thing#sorry to y'all for this#i know it's a disaster and a half#i was just seized with the need to communicate what that post made me feel#i didn't quite get into all of it#but we're stopping here#because when i realised that the paragraph fifth up from the bottom was actually only like two or three sentences#i felt that i needed to take a break and calm down before the grammar police appeared and revoked my ability to use semicolons#but i just have tons and tons and too many feelings about the wetheralls#so thanks to whomever decides to subject themselves to my overly emotional ramblings#i'll go back and talk more about this at some point#but i felt i needed to be cut off before i created more grammatical monstrosities#sorry once again#the mysterious benedict society#mbs#kate wetherall#milligan#milligan wetherall
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not romantic not platonic but a secret third thing [what would happen between earth and the moon if the earth stopped spinning as illustrated by xkcd randall munroe]
#'your moon is here' things that make me explode like a supernova#UGHHHHHHH what if i was perpetually in your orbit. influencing the tides. protecting you from asteroids. and slowly drifting further away.#then you stopped moving and i was only pulse to your dead heart. orbiting you. right where ive been left. and so you started turning again.#ria.txt#personal#space opera au#(<- not about what you think is about)#hiiii this is gaining traction so glad we're all going insane :D your moon is here is SO fucked up. so good.#xkcd#randall munroe#space#moon#anyways xkcd comics are so good. entertaining witty and informative. check em out!#ok this is about false and ren from hermitcraft#falseren
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✨ The Mercy of Magpies 《喜鵲之恩》 ✨
3...2...1... takeoff! 🚀 @ash-and-starlight & @ranilla-bean here to launch our project for @zukkabigbang2024 🐦⬛🐦⬛
Rating: M Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender Pairing: Sokka/Zuko Chapters: 4/15 Beta: @faux-fires
Tags: Alternate Universe - Space, Space Opera, Depictions of Violence, Minor Character Death, Dilf Zukka, War, Han solarpunk, loosely inspired by Red Cliff (dir. John Woo), Decolonisation, Ghosts, the narrative is haunted, Getting Together, Slow Burn, eventual sexual content (i prommy), BBL Ozzy, thematically relevant magpies, interplanetary old man yaoi saves the galaxy
Summary:
In the XXXth span of the galactic war against the Phoenix King, the Avatar, Master of the Four Elements, summoned his trusted advisor to his side… Avatar Aang, prosecutor of the long war against the Fire Nation, tasks General Sokka with the recruitment of a secret friend hidden on his old home planet Emptiness II, razed a century ago. There, Sokka finds an impossible community, where peoples from all quadrants of the galaxy have taken root—headed by the Phoenix King’s own son Zuko. As he comes to trust them, Sokka becomes invested in the community. But war is barrelling towards them, and he must harness the spark between himself and Zuko to save Emptiness II… and the rest of the galaxy.
check out the rest of the chapter 1 art here!
#spacedilves#zukkabb24#zukka#atla#zuko#sokka#HERE SHE IS!!!#the mercy of magpies 喜鵲之恩 is a beautiful name for a baby girl 🥹#hope youse enjoy 🫶 6 months of hard work from ash reikah & me 👪#and more still to go ngl#but we're so eggcited to share this with you all we want you to love it as much as we do!#go click on/reblog/scream in tags of ash’s art post asw cos SHE REALLY DOESNT STOP DRAWING HUH…..#also since this is my & ash's sino-italian bapy the secret italian title is: la grazia delle gazze 😭 in case anyone wanted 2 kno
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On autonomy, and what it means to be Obliged to Help.
Bonus:
#a homestuck walks into an antechamber and asks#hey is anybody going to make this dynamic wholly deterministic and thus dubiously consensual by its very nature#ANYWAY bigger ramble below. scroll down like usual#isat spoilers#isat#isat fanart#isat siffrin#isat loop#sifloop#THATS RIGHT WE'RE STILL SHIP TAGGING IT BABYYYY#in stars and time#in stars and time fanart#lucabyteart#RAMBLE START: anyway i think loop is wrong here. they have it backwards. as-- in my opinion--#the main reason they could be called back into existence postcanon is because *their* wish for help is still not complete#they still need help. siffrin still needs help. neither of them will ever stop needing help.#they will thus uphold the wish until the end of siffrin's natural lifespan.#that said. what does it mean that loop can be so wholly forced to abide by siffrin's wants?#(assuming the dagger cutscene posession is them being forced to uphold the 'help siffrin' wish via harsh universe logic)#[as opposed to something capricious and cruel the change god did. which feels out of character for the change god to me?]#much like how the island wish and duplicate objects are neutered by simply sliding off people's brains...#is loop subtly ushered toward their wish? obviously it's not a full override (see: the bossfight). but is there any interference?#and if so. so what? does it matter? if they don't notice? is it even real if they don't notice?#and even if they do notice. the universe leads we follow. how much do either of them value their free will in a belief system like that?#the whole game is dedicated to siffrin habitually NOT excersizing his free will. doing things the same Every Time.#Loop ESPECIALLY does this. predetermined predetermined predetermined even in the FACE OF CHANGE. REFUSING. ANY CHOICE.#Maybe they'd even be comforted by having a universe-ordained purpose even if it is subservient. even if its to Him.#(though. i can't see siffrin enjoying the idea that someone is subservient TO them... then all their suffering is his fault...)#loop got into this mess via WANTING too much. no more free will. can't be trusted with it. take it away from them.#but yeah. gets my greasy detective pony hands all over this. and everyone please do remember i like to make characters Outright Wrong A Lot
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shout out to leigh bardugo for creating a disabled character who can be described as "he doesn't let his disability stop him from achieving what he wants (threat)"
#kaz brekker#six of crows#leigh bardugo#he doesn't let his disability stop him but by the time he's done with you you're gonna fucking wish he did#i feel this also applies to#wylan van eck#oh and jesper while we're here#jesper fahey#and all the crows tbh bc they all have ptsd
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Cringetober day 16: something youve been bullied for 💥
Im a 2014 onceler fan, its officially been 10 years and im not over him 🥰
#mirus art was fundamental to my development as an artist#and also her like dynamic with 12 is literally me right now with chris#marry your friends#i just remember being 14 and being like “ill never stop loving the onceler” and my family being like yeaaa ok sure and now we're here#little me would be so smug about it#cuz duh ofc it wasnt a phase hes my everything#anyway#cringetober#cringetober 2024#the onceler#the lorax#2012 onceler#my art
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me Omw to annoy you about more Francesca content 😼😼
you and my entire inbox my friend strap in everyone this is gonna be The Francesca Mega Collection. part one The Bed Collection ft You HAVE To Click/Tap To Read Anything ESPECIALLY The Asks
thank you for joining me for the Francesca Bed Collection im going to pass out
#xmen#xmen comics#cherik#charles xavier#erik lehnsherr#professor x#magneto#francesca the cat#snap sketches#OK HI HERE been tryin to posts this for ten asks now cause i severely underestimate the speed of my inbox once it picks up#ironically my sis dropped her cat off for the weekend so. i have much fran inspo LMAO she loves doing the bed thing i confess..#i will be candid and say right now that like. two(? maybe just one) of the asks in this post arent fran related#theyve been sitting in my inbox for weeks but they were used for inspo in this post SO IT COUNTS IM POSTING IT TO FEEL LESS GUILTY OK !!!!!#these arent meant to be a cohesive story or w/e but i mean if you try it can prob be. at least the last two#i was gonna try to knock out all my fran asks today actually but 1.) i underestimated how slow i draw#2.) i got to the thirdv (i made it first in this list but i mean he cutie in the third too..) comic and my brain decided i drew erik too ho#and ive decided to dedicate the rest of my night praying for forgiveness for my lascivious thinkings <- they will continue#but yeah like i said i have all the comics and the sort sketched out buuut i might redo one of them#its kinda nsft flavored (but still cute + sfw) and thats not usually a prob but the asks themselves are wholesome i felt awkward jerLJLK#maybe ill repurpose the beginning panels ... or hell maybe ill just finish them and post them as is#spoilers its more Superhero Roeplay bullshit so it can def be posted on its own without fran.. idk ...#we know how my brain goes Thats Why We're In This Sitch once im given an inch i run a marathon and i dont stop#i be having such intense visions im gonna throw up. anyway wtf was i saying i forget. oh well thaat means EnjoYWAIT I REMEMBER#im tempted to close my inbox for a bit just until i clear out all the asks i wanna draw and ik i dont HAVE to draw them#but as ive said i get visions so easily ...... and i must see them realized ... but then id miss talking to everyone :(#so we ball is simply the answer. ok fr enjoy now LMAO BYYYYEE im gonna go redraw some old stuff i think to wind down#maybe ill touch one more asks cause . cause like Many Of Them its got stuff ive been wantin to draw all week ... heh ...#ok bye we'll see what happens im not checking over these if theres a mistake then by god theres a mistake BYE
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grow back your sharpest teeth, you know my desire
#isat#in stars and time#siffrin#loop#sifloop#sloop#yeah we're back in sl33p t0ken lockdown. i cant stop. so you get this#sorry to the people who came here for cute and sweet. i gotta get my range in#gotta let these two fuckers do... whatever the hell this is???#about to fight? about to kiss? secret third thing? you be the judge#i know my answer
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I've seen some people say some character art downgraded from 1 to 2 and while i agree about some poses not being as dynamic and some of the art being unfinished (early access tho) and the colors not being as dope, and some of the gods feel different
but i wanna specifically ramble about Artemis best gurl for a bit
this is my girlie in Hades 1
I've been thinking about the differences from 1 to 2, and I think in here, she's presenting herself as the Goddess of Hunting.
she looks a bit menacing, she looks sharp, she looks like she just got here, the angle she's looking at you it's not very direct it's like she's measuring you from head-to-toe kinda way, she also has that greenish light which feels kinda like an aura. she's down to business!
and when we look at her in Hades 2
She looks confident still, and you can see her weapons just as clearly, but her pose, and her smile? she's like, laid back, she's not quite posing to create an impression, she doesn't have that greenish aura, she's there in the flesh, she's not really presenting as a goddess in particular... she looks more welcoming, a bit softer looking... she looks like she's just stopped for a chat, while in 1 it's like she's in the middle of something
and when you stop to think about it? she is. she is just chatting with her friend. Melinoe is her friend, she called her Sister.
We're much more closer to her as Melinoe than we were as Zagreus. bc while she does become friends with him in H1, she's more of a long distance friend. we were building our bond with her in H1.
But here? in H2? she's known Mel for years... she kept it a secret from other gods... she's got those accessories thingies with the 4 colors. not only are we close friends we even got a friend bracelet thing going on with her!! Melinoe is a precious friend to her from what i've seen so far.
Why would she pose and be a bit distant with her friend? we know Artemis is a bit closed off from people, she prefers being in the woods with the animals than other gods i recall her saying that to Zag, but Mel? Mel is a dear friend, she sounds much more casual from the get go with her than with Zag because we have a strong bond with her already
In Hades 1 we just got to know her, so she's more closed off, she is more business like, she is distant, she is The Goddess of Hunting
In Hades 2 she is our friend 💖
that. is the difference
#hades 2#hades 2 spoilers#hades#c rambles#i love artemis with all my heart i wanna be besties with her forever#i'd like if they maybe brought more of those funky colors back. like i think gods should have a very faint color aura around them#but her new presentation/portrait here? she looks v cute and chill. we're friends!!#artemis just stopped to chat with us after helping out. shes not sending a message down to zag yknow#she also got that mantle thing or whatever its called. is she using it to hide in the bushes? maybe its cold?#either way we're winning guys! i'll never get over her calling us sister artemis forever and ever my beloved
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Health and Hybrids (XXVIII)👽👻💚
[I can't remember the original prompt posters for the life of me but here's a mashup between a cryptid!Danny, presumed-alien!Danny, dp x dc, and the prompt made the one body horror meat grinder fic.]
🖤Chapter navigation can be found here🖤 Click to browse previous updates.
💚 Ao3 Is here for all parts 💚 (now featuring mediocre mouseover translations, only available on a computer)
Where we last left off... Danny has another hashtag breakdown! Man, we've got a lot of these, huh? It's YJ's fault this time; whoopsie doodles! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Trigger warnings for this story: body horror | gore | post-dissection fic | dehumanization (probably) | my nonexistent attempts at following DC canon. On with the show.
💚👻👽👻💚
“Danny,” Diana says from the door.
Danny looks up from his place in the book. It’s definitely aimed at younger kids, but it’s a pretty wordy picture book; there are a couple paragraphs he can’t quite parse, but he’s making pretty good progress on the words he can’t recognize.
It’s a story about a cat who misses its mother. Danny tries not to relate to it too much.
“Hm?” he asks, flipping the front flap of the dust cover over his current pages to mark his place. The book goes back onto the nightstand, beside his space shuttle; Danny uses the railing beside his bed to support himself stepping up and out of his wheelchair, leaning on the railing until he can figure out…wait, where’d he leave his old people walker?
“This walk is long. You will want your chair.”
Well, then. Couldn’t she have said that before Danny did all that pulling? Danny falls back into his chair, kinda peeved. “Fine.”
Diana smiles. She doesn’t have to wear the mask around him anymore— Danny’s pretty sure that his injuries have been declared as clotted, or sealed, or whatever at this rate. They for sure swabbed his ectoplasm and came to some kind of conclusion, anyway, which means he only looks gross, but isn’t, like…actively leaking fluids.
On the one hand, gross! But, well, you know. Nothing for it but bandaids and time.
And her face looks nice. Danny hadn’t known what she’d looked like, before. She smiles when she sees him. Her light eyes crinkle, and her lips turn up… She’s nice. Danny’s sure that she’s only there to be in charge of him in case he gets scary, but she’s in charge of him and she’s nice. She doesn’t have to be nice; lots of people have been in charge of him and been mean about it. There was that one guy who kept holding him—with the taser—
(Time slips away from him, a little. When he gets back to the world in front of him, Diana is carefully looking at his face, the back of her hand stroking the back of his.)
Danny’s in his chair. He’s not…there. He’s in his chair, on a big space station (????) with a bunch of really colorful fighters on it, and Diana is touching his hand (that’s so much weaker and slower than it used to be) and he’s not hungry and he’s only scared because of memories. He’s safe. He’s not being pinned down by the neck so that they can strap down his wrists and hips to the table—they’re not shocking him—he can move his fingers, he’s not stuck in his core—
His core throbs. Danny bites into his bisected lip, and tries not to cry.
“Are you alright?” Diana asks, voice gentled. The soft touch of her hand doesn’t stop. “We can wait. There is no—“
Danny shakes his head, and takes his hand away so he could wipe at his eyes. It’s fine. Bad memories are everywhere: in the walls, in the floor, in the ceiling, in the hands of people taking care of him. That’s not… There’s nothing Danny can do about that. That just. Takes time.
…He think he might have that time. Now. He thought he would die for good in that five by five box, waiting for something that would finally end him instead of just keeping him in a cycle of injuries he never fully healed from.
But now he’s not. He’s here.
He wants to keep going.
“Alright,” Diana says, slow and careful. “Hold on.”
Danny doesn’t hold on—or, well, you know, he engages his core muscles and all that, but he doesn’t cling to his arm rests or to the frame of his chair because he knows that Diana is really, really strong, but she also really, really doesn’t want to hurt him.
She rolls him out of the medical wing and into the space station proper. Danny feels like he’s been here before, but he doesn’t remember it super well. Maybe it was when he was sick or something? Either way, a lot of different people wave at him as they go by—or just straight up stare, if they’re rude—and Danny generally just watches people rush by, carrying all kinds of equipment, and a potted plant, and a…starfish in a jar…?
Oh, the starfish waves at him???? Danny waves back because?? What??
Danny rolls to a stop at a smooth, cylindrical elevator. It looks like a giant test tube.
…Oh boy. Danny takes a deep breath, and holds it. Reflexively. Sure, this elevator probably isn’t like being dunked into water to see if his body absorbs ambient oxygen from the atmosphere or if his biology is truly not oxygen-based, but the memory is. Bad.
They go upwards. Nothing happens but Diana’s pushed button.
Danny exhales.
They get off at a section of the base Danny’s never been to, and it's essentially just a long, somewhat narrow hallway. The walls are actually painted a creamy off-white here, and there’s…like…decorative panels towards the base of his wheels trailing down the hallway? An orange ceiling, too?
Huh??
The rooms are numbered, but they’re not plain steel like in other areas downstairs; some of them have stickers, or drawings, or marker written straight onto the door itself. They look...cozy...? Danny thinks so, anyway, compared to the rest of the ultra high tech space base.
They roll to a stop in front of a door. It’s got a number on it, same as all the others, but there’s a box cutout taped to the front of it. The—
—The print is of the same style of space shuttle Danny keeps next to his bed, inked onto glorious cardboard medium.
Danny stares.
“Gegrapa,” Diana urges, so gentle. Too bad that, uh, Danny doesn’t know that one. He looks at her. She mimes touching the door— Oh. Got it.
Danny leans forward just enough to touch the door with his fingertips.
The door says something in a robotic voice, but the synthesizer is too mangled for Danny to make out the words. The door slides open horizontally into the wall, instead of the way the other doors open like portals or from below, and it’s kind of cool?
Inside is a bedroom. Danny stares.
…No, it’s actually a bedroom. Not a medical wing, not a cot, not a repurposed conference room or—it’s actually got a bed in it. Like. A real one. There’s a wooden headboard and it’s got a mattress on it that’s thicker than a VCR.
There’s constellation sheets on a bed big enough to curl up on.
There’s a nightstand, a small desk on the far wall—there’s a little lip where the bedroom dips into a tiny sitting room, a small television on a table and a small table and chair. It’s kind of…it’s kind of like a little hotel suite.
Danny’s mouth goes dry.
He doesn’t move, and Diana doesn’t wheel him in. “It’s okay,” Diana says, and—Danny almost flinches when she touches his hair, but it’s only Diana, who’s never hit him, and they’re fine. He’s…safe. It’s safe. He’s safe here. “Do you want to go in?”
Danny doesn’t move. His hands don’t touch the wheels. They’re shaking; he puts his hands in his lap and he tries to breathe. “…What?” he asks hoarsely.
“A rum for my Danny,” Diana murmurs, quietly. Danny’s heart throbs at the possessive. “You are healthier now. You do not need doctors every hour, but only sum hours. You cuðe spenda more time here, all ana.”
Words go by so fast even at Diana's smooth, unhurried pace— and Danny licks dry, split lips. He looks around the room—and the room is small, sure, but they're in space. Space will always be a premium. Even in this small room, though, the furniture is sparse and placed distant from each other…distant enough that Danny can wheel around freely in his chair.
There’s a Moon clock display hung on the wall over the doorway, and Danny can faintly see the outline of what he assumes is the current lunar phase as seen from Earth.
Having the lamp isn’t exactly the same as glow-in-the-dark-stars, and thank goodness for that. If it had been, Danny might have cried.
(Or, he realizes, something burning in his eyes that isn’t ectoplasm, maybe he is crying.)
“...Me?” Danny asks, terrified to know the answer. Is this room for him?? Is he getting a room here? Is he supposed to stay here? On the moon?! Is he supposed to stay with everyone here, in a tiny room, where there’s nowhere to go and nowhere to escape?
…It’s a bedroom. It’s already so much more than the stupid guys in white ever gave him.
“Yes,” Diana says, and lets go of his hair. “Use it, or do not. Sitta here, or sitta in the medical bay, but now you have two choices.”
Okay. So Danny has choices. He swallows his feelings—they taste a lot like snot—and rolls himself inside to inspect the room.
There’s another little fridge inside the sitting area. It’s not right next to the bed like it is beside Danny’s cot, but it is the same style of fridge. When Danny pops the door open, it has the same styles of snacks. Fig Einsteins. Peanut butter squeezies and applesauce squeezies and yogurt squeezies. Protein shakes in bottles. Pedialight. Hummus packs.
Danny might still need someone to open the snack packs for him. That’s kind of a high dexterity food, if he thinks about it.
“If you wish to sitta here, we will visit you all you like. There is a belle at your bed,” Diana says, and walks in with all her purple scrubs and tied-up hair to point to a little button on his nightstand. It’s red. It’s got a little smiley face sticker next to it, and Danny thinks he recognizes the style from one of his nurse’s bestickered name tags. Belle is probably a direct cognate for bell. He’ll be able to get everyone to come up here if he needs help.
…Okay, that’s kind of nice. To have personal space. He hasn’t had that since… Danny’s eyes squint as he thinks; he rubs an eye. Wait, when had he been squatting under a conference table? Was that a real memory??
Diana is very tall, even in the little space, but when she ducks her head, the gesture makes her a little smaller, a little more manageable for Danny’s lower-than-usual-gaze. Now that he can see her expression, she looks soft, and even uncertain, even though she looks stone and strong on the television when she goes out to fight. “Do you like it?” she asks.
Danny fidgets.
He—does. He likes it a lot. The room doesn’t have any windows, but if Danny moved all his things in here, got used to being able to come and go, and people coming in and out…this space could be just another space. It’s quieter than the medical ward. More peaceful.
…The room is utterly devoid of other people.
(Danny thinks of The Box. Danny thinks of being in The Box.)
(Danny doesn’t like remembering The Box.)
“I am scared,” Danny admits to his twitching thumbs, his fingers itching for a fidget toy or one of his physical therapy tools. Diana’s face immediately drops.
“Why are you scared?”
I’ll be alone Danny wants to say, but he doesn’t know the word for alone and he struggled with phrasing. “No…people here.”
“That is triewe. You would have more dīegolnes here,” Diana agrees, and straightens out of her crouch. “Is that good, or bad?”
It isn’t good and it isn’t bad…? Danny isn’t sure how to phrase it. It’s neither. Being alone is just scary.
“You not hurt me,” Danny tries, knowing he’s missing some connecting word in the middle. He ignores how Diana comes back to kneel beside him, because if he looks at her, he won’t say anything. “Do not.”
“No,” Diana says, from beside and below him, gentle, careful. “We do not.”
No. They don’t. Danny swallows. “Bad…hurt me.” He doesn’t know the word for Earth or planet or even downstairs, so he just meekly points downwards.
Diana stills. It’s like watching Vlad’s Maddie cat spot a bird to hunt down. Danny tries not to feel pinned. “On eorþegearde?” she asks, still light, still gentle. Danny can hear a shadow of steel, though, and he counts himself lucky that she’s never treated him like an enemy. Danny quickly nods. His eyes squeeze shut.
“Who?” Diana asks feather-light.
Danny doesn’t want to tell them what he is. Admitting the name of the agency hunting him itself would be given in.
…But maybe if he doesn’t say the name…and they...and they promised they'd help hide him...
He wants to be right. Danny wants to be right that they're nice, and that they want to help him. Danny wants to be right that they want to protect him. As long as he never, nevernotevernever tells them he's a ghost...
Maybe someone will help him. This time.
“Bad,” Danny repeats, because he genuinely has no idea how to translate?? “Wants…hurts me? For…” WHAT WORDS DOES HE KNOW? Danny gives up and just draws a y-shaped autopsy incision on his chest. It goes down from his collarbones to his belly button.
Diana watches. Her eyes are sharp.
“Do you feel safe with the staff dunstæger in medical?” Diana is quick on the ball with the question and Danny nods quickly—he’s never alone there, and no one’s ever hurt him, and people whose job it is to help people are always coming in and out, and Medical helps them too.
“Good,” Danny whispers. “Talk…talks to me.”
“Ealne weg,” Diana affirms firmly. Whatever that means. “We will cepa you safe.”
You safe and we is all Danny needs to hear. He could probably cry by himself, but Danny wants the comfort anyway; Diana lets Danny take her hands into his, and he lets tears fall into someone else’s grip instead of his own.
*
Bruce is halfway to the monitor room before he feels himself be picked up from underneath the armpits.
Usually finding himself at inappropriate heights involves horseplay from Clark. No one else would be so bold as to actually put their hands on him within the professional setting of the Watchtower—and Bruce has worked very, very hard on maintaining a reputation that keeps the handsier of his fellows at bay.
The culprit is not Clark this time. Bruce finds himself looking downward at Diana’s tearstained face, fury and resignation warring in her expression.
Bruce is careful not to sigh. “Wonder Woman. What is the matter?”
“Someone,” Diana grits out, voice carefully modulated to cut out her own pain, “Hurt my charge.”
On the one hand, the situation with their patient is exactly as Bruce had expected. The circumstance is tragic. The circumstance was predictable.
On the other, Diana's new upset means that Bruce now has more information to work with than ever before.
Bruce can work with this.
“Tell me everything.” Bruce’s voice is just as firm—even held midair like a cat. “I will help you in every way I can.”
#HEy guess who got a covid booster took a nap so fat that SOMEONE almost suffocated and then woke up at 6am to write 1800 words of Hybrids??#Danny: so like. They don't TREAT me like a ghost. so if I just say I'm NOT a ghost..it's good right?? They won't do what mom n dad did??#Wonder Woman (seething with rage): You are NOT going to be able to stop me from killing people#Bruce very quietly: (noted)#health and hybrids#dp x dc#danny phantom#dcu crossover#dpxdc#dcxdp#tw medical#tw body horror#tw gore#although at this point we're mostly a recovery fic#this whole thing has been a recovery fic huh#the healing power of watching someone else get picked up after being punted around like a football#I think we're also a mystery fic but I'm really drawing out the details here ngl#clark is eating chips w nightwing rn they're both missing out on the action
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it was hot at work, i was hot at work, i forget the rest
#hi#me#my face#selfie#cute girl#i am in a TERRIBLE HORRIBLE FOUL little mood#but anyway#penguin socks#wombats#girls who lift#girls with tattoos#pretty people#i accidentally caught a bee yesterday???????#in case you needed something to talk about#be my friend#message me#we are all friends here#I'm hoping homework will fix me#which is an odd thing to think but god something that's to#okay#i love yall#love me#hot girl shit#i did eventually stop sweating and go back to work#happy weekend#later taters#and we've already seen this so let's not act like we're brand new thank you
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#lines that live rent free in my head tbh. although i'm not sure i communicated it as well/clearly as i'd like#he should def look a little more scary but i'm not the best at dogs aksdjfhjdsk#thoughts#my art#les mis#jean valjean#javert#<- i mean. sort of. lol#also Two footnotes here:#firstly i'm pretty sure in the original french it just stops short at 'to lick' & what is being licked is just implied by the context#so the 'intruder's hand' is all hapgood afaik. that said it's fun so i'm keeping it. fan art of hapgood translation specifically now ig#second footnote is just that i don't think he'd actually have any scars around his wrist bc the manacles are only for actually being#arrested afaik. when he was actually in toulon he'd only have the chain on his leg. but it's good symbolism so.#also the chain thing i had a whole thought process abt symbolism we being willingly/unwillingly chained willingly/unwillingly set loose#parallels & contrasts etc etc but i don't think it really ended up being very clear. but oh well. we're clearing out wips here#also was contemplating something about that thing about medieval art of saints having an open palm to represent#openness/sincerity/righteousness to the person they're facing but again not very evident
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#spock#s'chn t'gai spock#star trek#star trek strange new worlds#star trek snw#snw spoilers#literally couldn't stop thinking abt this until i made it#cinematic parallels#snw musical episode is the best ep of the series to me#star trek rhapsody#sobbing mathematically#star trek memes#this has been a shitpost#started from the bottom now we're here#star trek humor#the two moods#this could be the next kills you in spanish#do you see my vision#kills you mathematically
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I was going to wait and poke at this a bit more, but the excitement of Upcoming Episode 7 took over. :') so here's one of my alt ideas for Silver's UM poster! this time with more Diasomnia-appropriate colors (that said, you can tear the pink fluffy clouds away from my cold dead hands)
I also recorded this one, for anyone who's interested in that kind of thing! it includes all my fuckups and changing my mind and spending forever adding details before deciding it looks better without, so, uhhh, enjoy my failures! (I kept trying to draw in his jacket details...it never worked...) also featuring lots of drawing on the wrong layer, forgetting how jackets work, and the black censor boxes of continually forgetting to turn off pop-up notifications. hope you like watching me draw birds!
here it is, combined and compressed down to about 10 minutes long (with a warning for flickering and flashing colors from sped-up zooming/layer changes): [ link ]
#art#twisted wonderland#twisted wonderland spoilers#twisted wonderland episode 7 spoilers#twisted wonderland book 7 spoilers#eyestrain#not pictured: every time i had to stop working on it for the day because i was getting so mad at it#and honestly if i don't post this now i'm going to hate it too much to ever post it so HEY here we are#we're not going to talk about the ring. we just aren't.#genuinely the hardest part of this style is trying not to overdo it#something i struggle with a lot...as you can see 🫠#i actually don't normally do color thumbs (or at least not to that level)#but the bird overlay and the dark jacket against a dark background made me so nervous#and then i ended up changing basically every color anyway#whoops
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Hello, I'm not sure if you're aware, but tumblr is going to start helping midjourney gather data for their AI. You're one of the artists I follow here pretty actively and I wanted to warn you to maybe start nighshading your art before posting it here so it doesn't get swept up!
I've seen a couple of posts about it. Feeling disappointed but not that surprised. Also not excited about having to start nightshading/glazing my pieces but if there isn't going to be any serious regulations regarding data scraping and ai "art", there aren't a lot of choices.
Thank you for taking the time to warn me just in case, it was very thoughtful of you!
#from what I've seen the effectiveness of nightshade/glaze has been debated and I don't even pretend to understand how it works#but like watermarks it's at least some kind of preventive measure a token effort to stop your art from being stolen and misused#but I fear that if someone is determined to do it anyway chances are they will find a way unfortunately#this shouldn't be the reality of trying to share art online#it's a pretty dismal situation when this responsibility falls on the artists themselves#I've been here since 2011 I've lived through multiple tumblr apocalypses I'm not leaving unless they make this place wholly unlivable#and I don't think there are truly good alternatives with similar sense of community and as varied posting and customization options#it seems like every other major social media platform is doing this exact same thing if not worse#answered#ohdeergood#I'm tired we're all tired of this
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cannot believe i gotta say this but please don't follow me if you're comfortable selfshipping with canon racists. i don't care if you headcanon them as otherwise, because if their racism against a real group of people is a key facet of their character (much less incredibly important to the telling of the story that this character is a racist) then i do not wanna see it. this is not the safe space for you
#jay's jots#vaguepost about someone f/oing a hugely anti-romani character in the tags. i'm so fucking tired man#THIS IS ABOUT NAZI F/OS TOO WHILE WE'RE HERE STOP FUCKING F/OING CANON NAZIS#NOT AN INVITE FOR DISCOURSE BTW if you come in my notes to rebuttal this you're getting blocked#''but austin you have problematic f/os'' sorry i don't view unrealistic horror villains on par with realistic levels of racism#i don't wanna fucking hear it this is the line i am drawing. i don't care if they aren't real#you can in general find interest in characters like that especially bc it's good to deconstruct how bigots act and whatnot#but you don't have to f/o them??? you don't have to f/o every character you think is interestingly written??? oh my god???
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