#can't be helped

[rijinks]

Marius and Daniel– how I imagine it started (and what we see in Prince Lestat)

[see-arcane]

"I wish you would write a fic where..." Mina and Jonathan watch/just watched a silent movie. It can be a horror movie (so many excellent ones in the 10s and 20s!) if they have a good reason to watch something that they know will be fearful.

Jonathan: ...

Mina: ...

Jonathan: It...could be a coincidence.

Mina: We're checking the safe when we get back. And if the ledger has so much as a dog-eared page, we are returning Murnau the favor and visiting him at his home.

Jonathan: With or without the kukri?

Mina: Well I don't know about that--

Jonathan, watching Ellen die in Thomas' arms: I am bringing the kukri.

(The implied reason being that a film called Nosferatu appearing in theaters after hosting their new director friend F.W. Murnau had them duly interested in the premise. And the inspiration.)

[nurizziee]

Well, that was fast.

Seen it, gotta do it.

I saw a post from @astronic-fr . Idk which one but it was this picture

Unfortunately, I only saved the photo and not the post. Too bad but oh, well.

[sexisbetteronthemoon]

😩 delaying the next sibotm chapter a little more bc i have to rewrite about 2k of it since i changed my mind about a scene.

in the meantime, have this preview:

Keith grit his teeth and sighed heavily. Then, lifting his head, he met Lance's gaze and said, “I'm sorry, Princess. I should have tried climbing the gorge.” Mouth parting, it took a moment for Lance to get the words out. He stopped bouncing Kosmo, mouth working futilely for several seconds before he said, “N-no, you said it was suicide!” Shaking his head, Keith protested, “I could have tried! At the very least, we wouldn't have ended up down here!” “And what was the alternative!” Lance snapped. “We fall to our deaths instead?” “We might have made it!” Keith argued. “You don't know that!” Lance said, walking up to him. “You don't know what would have happened. It was a long shot. And besides, you let me choose. If anyone's to blame, it’s me.” Keith frowned. “It's not your fault,” Keith said. “None of this is your fault.” Huffing, he went to the tent, but when he struggled to pack it up, Lance came over and pressed Kosmo into his arms. Keith took it, confused as Kosmo happily licked his face. “It's not your fault either,” Lance said indignantly as he got the backpack on Keith and then removed the pack from within the tent. He took the tent down and rolled it up before placing it into the pack. “Look,” Lance said, purposely calm, “we'll get to that column first. Then we —” He stopped as if struck by a sudden thought. Then, slowly, he stood up, placing the pack onto his shoulders. “We'll … figure it out.” He turned a little, not quite facing Keith. His face had paled, and his hands were trembling. He looked ill. Perhaps he was getting a cold.

[notemily]

guys it's the 10 year anniversary of merr chrismas

[scribeoffate]

11 and Allison/Kira!

thank you!

and no one can ever figure out what you want and you won't tell them.

Kira flips the hastily wrapped package over in her hands. Then again. Sighs. Pushes hair out of her face. Squares her shoulders. Reaches for the doorbell, stomach tied in knots as she pressed the button.

It doesn't work. No buzz, no ding, just a useless button.

Kira bites her bottom lip, tucks the package under her arm and knocks. That works and a shouted "just a minute" leaves her alone on Allison's doorstep a few minutes longer, shifting from foot to foot. Hoping. Wondering.

Allison looks older. She isn't expecting that. In her mind, Allison is trapped in time, a teenager forever. But she's older- an adult woman but with the life experience of a seventeen year old. Like Kira, Allison is a person out of time. On the fringes of the fringes.

"Uhm. Happy birthday."

"Oh." Allison runs a hand through her dark hair. "I guess it is."

"I got you..." Kira thrusts the package at her and Allison takes it.

"Thank you. I... do you want to come in?"

Kira shrugs. "Do you want me to?"

"I don't know... I feel lost."

Kira nods. "I... I was thinking we could talk. After you... uhm,"

"Died," Allison answers, holding the door open. "No sense in dancing around it."

Kira nods. "After you died, I had to leave. It's... hard, to come back."

She follows Allison inside to a sparsely furnished living room, just an old couch and chair.

She sits on the couch, surprised when Allison settles beside her.

The package is a book she's been putting together, scraps from the pack over the last decade or so. Monsters they've fought, pictures she's found online and in forgotten albums. It's the closest she can come to watching them grow, seeing her friends thrive and falter and exist.

Allison flips through the pages. "Oh," she breathes.

And Kira knows she understands. She reaches for Allison's hand, threads their fingers together as they seek connection, together.

Reuqest a ficlet

[transgender-catboy]

all my plushies know your name

[onefey]

going thru some of honey's puppy pictures rn... christ. when did she get so big

[zombolouge]

fans of Peepaw and Poppy should be excited for tomorrow's chapter. Just so you know.

[brionysea]

the most realistic part of all this batfam fic i'm reading is the kids looking at their siblings and declaring them old. dick grayson isn't old he's 29, but teenagers are the worst, so it must be included

[verycleverboy]

No, Trump didn't just declare authority to override the Constitution.

(It's only Tuesday, though. He's got plenty of time before golf.)

At a Mar-a-Lago executive order signing ceremony earlier today (Feb 18th, for those who came in late), one aide was stuck with the unenviable task of saying one of those lines that tends to take on a life of its own:

"This executive order [...] reestablishes the longstanding norm that only the president or Attorney General can speak for the United States when stating an opinion as to what the law is."

That was, needless to say, a juicy slab of red meat to throw out to us paranoids, especially from a POTUS who likes to think that it's not illegal if the White House does it, so there have been some fairly ripe hot takes almost immediately. Having been caught by that trap a few too many times, I decided to hold my nose and pull up the Trump White House fact sheet about what he just signed. So, straight from the horse's...mouth (my highlighting of the one that everyone's talking about):

The Order notes that Article II of the U.S. Constitution vests all executive power in the President, meaning that all executive branch officials and employees are subject to his supervision.

Therefore, because all executive power is vested in the President, all agencies must: (1) submit draft regulations for White House review—with no carve-out for so-called independent agencies, except for the monetary policy functions of the Federal Reserve; and (2) consult with the White House on their priorities and strategic plans, and the White House will set their performance standards.

The Office of Management and Budget will adjust so-called independent agencies’ apportionments to ensure tax dollars are spent wisely.

The President and the Attorney General (subject to the President’s supervision and control) will interpret the law for the executive branch, instead of having separate agencies adopt conflicting interpretations.

(Disclaimer: I'm a no-legal-or-federal-background Internet rando figuring shit out on my own, so the following interpretation comes without warranty.)

Last bullet point first: no, this isn't the Dark Emperor's one weird trick that overrides the Constitution, the US Legal Code and the judicial branch. It just means ("just", he says) that for the purposes of federal agencies under the executive branch who need to decide what is and isn't legal, there are only two allowed interpreters. Those are:

President Donald Trump, a convicted felon who still knows so little about the American system that he keeps referring to executive orders like this one as "laws". (Spoiler alert: they're not, but you're compelled to act like they are.) Presumably some of the people affected by this order are aware that acting on Trump's understanding of legality got Rudy Giuliani disbarred, so obviously they're going to have a lot of fun going forward.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi, a former Florida AG and prominent 2020 election denier who, after assuming the post, explicitly prohibited Department of Justice lawyers from noping out of actions they considered unethical. Which is a day-one signal of upcoming shenanigans you can see from space.

Not saying this is better than what social media has turned this into, just that it's a different kind of bad.

Now that we're past that, the main thing that jumps out at me, because this is a leader who wears his hate on his sleeve, is the repeated references to the "so-called independent agencies", the agencies that, while considered part of the executive branch, are generally protected from Presidential control. They make rules that have the force of law, and have (well, had) latitude to do it without excessive external oversight. It must gripe King Baby's ass mightily to even think about an agency not firmly under the thumb of his tiny hand, so the executive order attempts to end that. All regulations, the only exception being the Federal Reserve, will be required to be "kicked upstairs" to the White House for final approval before getting the kiss of life.

Leaning heavily on the OMB apportionments process, which creates a legally binding plan for what an agency can and (more to the point in this case) can't spend on, is presumably another way to put the thumb on the scale. The ones the fact sheet single out for scorn are the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It must've taken great restraint to leave off the Federal Election Commission, but you know Trump was thinking about them, too.

In summary, today wasn't the day we officially became an authoritarian dictatorship. But keep checking back. You might get lucky next time.

[impromptu-sketches]

[capn-rattlebones]

ughhhh got bored, threw together a new PFP as a test of a bunch of things I usually don't mess with

[starconchs]

i'm a simple woman. i see a character with glasses and i fall in love 🤷‍♀️

[tenth-sentence]

"I fail to see how you could have done more."

"The Illustrated Sherlock Holmes Treasury" - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle