#confessing in the dark

[ii-darkfic-confessions]

suitcase darkfic. hear me out pls

if you were to pull almost any aspect of her just a liittle farther, make a canon event effect her just a liiittle more, take her just a liiiittle past reasoning, and itd be perfect

fic where suitcase takes the "you're not real" reveal so bad that she storms back to hotel oj and gathers everyone against mephone.

fic where suitcase isolates because her hallucinations get scarier, to where shes so so lost in between whats real and whats fake that she loses it.

fic where suitcase and knife didnt talk about throwing the fight beforehand, and she snaps at knife, fights to win because shes already been through the wringer, she deserves it

and none of this is even considering what could be written with another person involved! fic where suitcase turns against the contestants + mephone completely post-revalation and sides with cobs. fic where suitcase takes mic's place in the mid-season taco 'help' (see: manipulation) and things go horribly awry. the possibilities are so endless

rant over yay yay yippee

-🧭

I am hearing you out, ⏱️. These are all very fascinating ideas, and I am further delighted by the fact these are derived from canon (I personally enjoy fics that are based on canon rather than treating the characters like ocs !!WHICH I AM ALSO GUILTY OF ON OCCASSIONS!! but that is just personal preference).

[uhohbestie]

A way more avian Grian than I usually draw, just for fun :3

[pandoras-prison]

[xxplastic-cubexx]

you open my Super Important Documents and its just pictures of charles xavier

[urfriendlywriter]

What are reasons for characters to slow dance? I mean it's not the prom and they're not royalty at a ball... so what to do? I love the slow dancing trope, especially if it's too a special song, but when do people actually slow dance? This is coming from someone who has no night life or social life but the people I write about do. So do you have any good reasons for a slow dance scene?

Reasons for characters to slow dance :

(girly lemme help u)

because dancing is their love language.

because their favorite song is playing. even it's in the middle of a supermarket.

maybe cus their partner is looking absolutely adorable in the kitchen at 3 in the morning baking cookies and humming to their favorite song?

at candle light dinners. [what else are lovers supposed to do?]

at a stay-at-home date night.

under the rain.

during sunsets just because the light is hitting their s/o in a beautiful way.

in a party, away from all the chaos, in their own lil bubble.

slow dancing just to hold them close. duh.

while getting ready in the dressing room. not slow dancing, but u get the vibe. blasting a TS song. [very cutesy.]

after tying da knottt [very mindful]

in the middle of the road, infront of ur car's headlight. while music plays from inside the car.

cause u have just moved in together, the house is empty and yall are so in love.

at prom, at anniversaries, birthdays, balls and parties.

slowing dancing with their parents?! on a memorable day/event.

or with ur friends at ur/their send off party, or like at ur/their wedding. cause why not?

[namedvesta]

“𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥. 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦. 𝘛𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘺 '𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶', 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘵. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦.”

Alain Delon & Romy Schneider, Paris, 1960.

[natalievoncatte]

Kara stared between her feet, as if the hardwood floor between her socks had answers. She was wearing mismatched SpongeBob and Hello Kitty socks. The Hello Kitty ones were Christmas gifts from Lena. Lena had admitted she didn’t know anything about Hello Kitty except that the design was cute, and Kara liked cute things. Kara treasured those socks as though they were a kingly gift.

There was a cold beer in her hand. She turned the bottle this way and that, wondering what the point was. She didn’t like the taste. Alcohol wasn’t strong enough to dull her emotions or make her laugh or cry the way it did for her humans. It just tasted mostly pretty bad. She took a drink anyway, doing what she always did: trying too hard to be something she’d never be.

Alex had offered the beer and Kara had accepted, taking one from the six pack she’d brought over. Alex was on her second, sitting back in her chair and nursing her beer.

“Kara,” she said.

Kara gave her head a listless shake.

“I’m just not in the mood to cheer up.”

Alex took a pull of her beer. “Maybe it wasn’t meant to be.”

“Our friendship meant something,” said Kara, the last word coming out strained, pushed past its breaking point but holding on.

“To you,” Alex said. “It meant another thing to her.”

“You weren’t there. You didn’t hear what she said.”

“There’s nothing she could say that would justify abusing you like that.”

Kara looked at her. Alex was clearly on a mission here- to get Kara’s head turned around right, to help her see the truth, and to help her process it and move on.

The bottle in her hand shattered.

“Jesus!” Alex yelped.

Kara didn’t want to process it. She didn’t want to see Alex’s truth. She didn’t want to fucking move on. She moved on too much. Her world died and she moved on. Her foster father died and she moved on. Her aunt tried to kill her and she moved on. Her boyfriend turned out to be a galactic conquered and she moved on. She got her back broken and her skull fractured and she moved on. She was beaten to death by a literal clone of herself and came to back to life, and she moved. On.

She didn’t want to move on from Lena. She wanted her back. She wanted to be like it was.

She wanted…

She wanted things she couldn’t say, because she couldn’t want them.

“She said she killed her brother for me,” Kara choked out.

Alex frowned, eyes flicking between Kara’s face and the suds on the floor.

“You’ve got to see she’s bad news.”

Kara shook her head and stood up, moving to grab a towel and clean up the mess. She plucked the shards of glass from the floor and soaked up the suds. Alex didn’t offer another brew or take one. She just held the empty bottle in her hand.

“Kara,” she finally said. “You need to come to terms with this. I don’t think you’re being healthy about how you feel about-“

“Lena,” Kara gasped.

“Yeah, I mean, the way you two have been behaving is more like a-“

Kara tuned her out. Lena was approaching, and her heart was racing. Kara heard the distinct sound of her footsteps as she ran up the stairs and down the hall to the loft and had the door open as Lena stumbled to a stop in front of it, wide-eyed and panicked.

“Luthor!” Alex snapped. “You’ve got some balls showing your face here. Give me one good reason not to arrest you. Now.”

“Alex,” Kara warned.

Lena was looking at her with a shocking blend of fear and relief, tears streaming freely down her cheeks.

“Oh God,” said Lena. “Oh thank God you’re alive.”

Alex started to speak but Kara put up a warning hand. She didn’t move, standing fixed in the doorway as Lena stood there shaking, wrapped up in her coat like a drowned rat.

“Let me in, please let me in.”

“Kara,” Alex warned.

“Take this!” Lena blurted.

A jolt of shock ran through Kara as Lena produced the Myriad module and thrust it at her in both hands, almost dropping it in the process. Kara had taken it before she realized what she was doing.

“Take it, take it, take the fucking thing! I don’t want it anymore.”

Kara hit her lip. Lena’s eyes were full of silent appeal, heavy with… knowledge, or something like it.

“Why are you doing this?”

“You won’t believe me,” Lena said, her voice trembling.

Kara flinched. Lena’s heart was racing painfully, dangerously fast, and she was staring to hyperventilate. Instinct took over, and she pulled the other woman inside, gently tucking her into a firm hug.

“Kara!” Alex snapped.

“Alex,” Kara said, firmly. “Out. Now.”

“But you can’t just let her back in!”

“Trust me, Alex.”

“Fine, but I’m not going far, and if I even think I smell a trap, Luthor, I swear, I will bring the wrath of God down on your head. I will destroy you.”

Lena said nothing, turning her face into Kara’s shoulder. Alex glared fury at her as she passed, and Kara pushed the door shut.

“Lena, tell me what happened.”

It took Lena at least a minute to get her breathing under enough control to even talk.

“I was in my lab when this man appeared inside. That should be impossible. My lab is a fortress. Not even you could get in.”

“Wait? What man?”

“He looked like a funny little man with a bowler hat, but he’s not. It’s some kind of illusion or trick. He told me some incomprehensible name and told me he was there on your behalf. His name was just gibberish, Mix-something.”

She was finally calming. Kara guided her to the couch and set Myriad on the table, sitting beside her. Lena stared at it.

“I know his name,” Kara said, coldly.

“Did you send him?”

“I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“He told me he was there to give me what I wanted, a life without you. Before I could say anything he just snapped his fingers, and I was on the helicopter, the day you saved me from Lex’s drones, but you weren’t there. I screamed for help but you didn’t come.”

Kara felt the sour taste of beer and vomit rising to the back of her throat.

“I remember the crash and it was real, it was like it was really happening and it hurt so much, and then I woke up and Lillian was there with her doctors and she was cutting. Cutting me up and carving me apart with scalpels and putting machinery in me and Kryptonite, she put Kryptonite in my chest!”

“Easy,” Kara said, “Easy, Lena. Take a breath.”

Red-faced and breathing too quickly, Lena ignored her. “Then you were there and I couldn’t stop myself, it was burning you alive, like in the Fortress but worse and I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t even scream, and I felt this hate inside me, and I just wanted it to stop. Then I was back in my lab and he was there.”

“So you came here?”

“No! I told him that wasn’t what I wanted. I told him I wanted a world without lies, without conflict or hate or deception. I told him what I wanted to do. I don’t know why, it was like he was forcing the words out of me, and he told me fine, he’d give me what I wanted.”

Lena hugged herself, sinking back into the couch.

“It was real, Kara. It all happened. I mean, it actually happened. I finished Non Nocere. I pacified the entire world, made everyone calm and peaceful and truthful. I lived this. For years.”

Kara swallowed. Mxy… could do that. He was that powerful. Kara has suspected as much. He’d been toying with her before, like a cat tormenting a mouse. Her blood ran cold and she suppressed a shiver.

“Oh my God. You’re scared of this thing, aren’t you?”

“Lena…”

“You should be. It got worse. It got worse, Kara. Non Nocere worked. The world became a place of peace. You came to me and you were furious, but I asked you, was it better the other way? Were you angry because of what I did or were you angry because I made a world that doesn’t need superheroes?”

Kara swallowed. “Lena, it wouldn’t be right to control everyone like that. You can’t just-“

“I know! I learned my goddamn lesson already, will you just listen to me?”

Kara took a deep breath.

“Okay. I’m listening.”

“You were the only one not affected. You stayed for a while, tried to reason with me, but then you left. You went back to Argo and rejoined the Kryptonian survivors.”

Lena went quiet, staring at nothing.

“Lena? Lena, what is it?”

“I gave him the world on a silver platter. I just handed it over and I didn’t even realize it. I wasn’t fixing the world, I was ringing a dinner bell. He came.”

“Mxy?”

“No, Kara. Something worse. From the stars. He came in a ship… his ship was as big as the sky. They came from cracks in the air, these… these portals started belching out these things, demons, I don’t know, and he came from the sky.”

“Who, Lena?”

Silence. Lena pulled her knees up and rocked in place, staring.

“Lee?”

“Darkseid,” said Lena. “He called himself Darkseid. He took Non Nocere from me. He used it. On everyone. On me, too. He made us worship… he made us love. He took something from my mind, from everyone’s mind, some kind of weapon, and you came back. You came back to stop him.”

“Of course I would,” said Kara.

“He made me watch. He said it was a gift for delivering him his prize. I saw you die.”

Kara’s stomach dropped. Tentatively, she reached for Lena’s shoulder, found it and grasped it softly. Lena hid her face in her arms and began to whimper.

“The things I saw. The things we were made to do. The things I was made to do. I can’t. I can’t get it out of my head.”

“It wasn’t real. You’re safe. I promise.”

“It was real. Then that Mixylwhatever came back and asked me if I wanted out. I almost said no, Kara! I almost said no!”

Kara closed her fists, arms wrapped around her self.

Great Rao, what happened to her?

I said yes and I was just… back in my lab. Like none of it happened. There with that thing in my hands. I did the only thing I could think of. I ran here.”

Lena is was still shaking.

Hushing her softly, Kara guided her to lie down on the couch, throwing a blanket over her. Lena shoved her face in the pillow and sobbed as Kara knelt beside her, trying to soothe her by stroking her back and sweeping the hair from her eyes.

“It wasn’t real.”

“It felt real.”

“I won’t let it happen.”

“You couldn’t stop it. Not even you, not even you and Clark.”

Kara leaned closer and looked her in the eye.

“I won’t. Let. It. Happen.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

Lena closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. Finally she seemed to calm, at least a little.

“Listen to me, Lena. Please.”

She nodded.

“I’m sorry.”

“Kara,”

“I’m sorry. I should have listened to you. I should have respected you. I should have let myself be vulnerable and let you in the way you did for me. I only thought about what I wanted and I let my fear control me. I will never do that again. I will never run off to Argo or wherever else as long as you need me. I will always protect you, Lena. Always.”

“I know, Kara. I saw it in your eyes when you… when he… your last word was my name.”

“Rest, Lee. I’m going to destroy Myriad. I’m going to get Alex and and Brainy and Nia ans J’onn and we’re going to figure this out.”

“Okay,” Lena choked out. “Okay.”

Kara knelt beside her until she finally fell asleep, then paced the loft for a while.

She turned to look at Lena as she slept and then it hit her. It was like suddenly becoming aware of a new color, a hue that shaded the whole world but had been previously invisible. It was just suddenly there, and she understood.

Kara was in love with her.

She would forgive Lena any trespass, and she would do anything to protect her.

She called Alex. Told her what happened, leaving out nothing Lena said. They decided, after their earlier interaction, that it would be best if J’onn watched over her.

When he arrived, Kara went to the roof.

“Mxyzptlk,” said Kara.

In a blink he was there.

“Well then,” he said. “You’re welcome. Killed two birds with one stone, showing your Lena the error of her ways and-“

Kara didn’t let him finish. When she slammed him into the brickwork, cracks spread from the impact and her eyes blazed with all the fury of her long lost sun.

“Leave her alone. If you ever go near her again, I’ll break every bone in your body. I don’t care what I have to do. I don’t care what I have to sacrifice. If I’m not powerful enough now I will find a way.”

“You can’t do that.”

“When it comes to my Lena, I have no rules. Now get the fuck off my planet.”

She let him go and took a step back. He regarded her for a moment, looking rather pale for a fifth dimensional imp, and then vanished without another word.

Kara went back to Lena.

[borgialucrezia]

"Grief? Then why do you force this false joy upon us? We are dancing on your brother's grave."

[fan-a-tink]

the case of the very long stairway as small gif moments because apparently I like pain. let's get into it

Charles' expression pre-flashback vs. post-flashback

and the literal last moment of his life

some adorable edwinisms

I've always been obsessed with the way Edwin runs around the corner in this shot

these two just break me. every time.

this next one is a moment I'd been wanting to turn into a gif for a while. Charles is about to say "hi" before Edwin pulls him down and covers his mouth, but in this moment he's just so purely happy to have found Edwin again and there's the hint of smile on his lips

one of the most gorgeous shots of the show

and finally, this one, so that it's not all gloomy

other episode gif sets: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 8

[sweetdarling27]

You think im too fucking clingy?

Ill show you too fucking clingy

[asoftepiloguemylove]

"YOU'RE NOT JUST A FRIEND TO ME. I REALLY LOVE YOU." // CHENG-HSING AND SHOU-HENG

Emily Palermo What I Could Never Confess Without Some Bravado // 盛夏光年 Eternal Summer (2006) dir. Leste Chen // Amy Hempel Sing to It: New Stories // @/tullipsink desperation sits heavy on my tongue // Richard Siken Litany in Which Certain Things are Crossed Out // 盛夏光年 Eternal Summer (2006) dir. Leste Chen // Virginia Woolf in a letter to Vanessa Bell // R.F. Kuang The Burning God // 盛夏光年 Eternal Summer (2006) dir. Leste Chen // unknown // 盛夏光年 Eternal Summer (2006) dir. Leste Chen // Fernando Pessoa A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe: Selected Poems // June Gehringer I get so jealous of euthanized dogs // unknown // 盛夏光年 Eternal Summer (2006) dir. Leste Chen // Lucy Dacus Hot & Heavy

[ii-darkfic-confessions]

unpopular opinion! i hate experiment 21. for starters, it's extremely illogical! ex. they literally know where test tube is but dont do anything, there are no search parties at all, rhey somehow immediately find test tubes lab, etc! i could go on and on! there are COUNTLESS plot holes and it clearly wasnt really thought out at all! it's also just extremely out of character, and if your excuse is that being locked in a lab for a really long time (i dont remember exactly) can mess you up, I recommend you just read Hall 17. hall 17 perfectly captures what lack of contact and being locked in a room for months can do to an object! everyone also acts identical to themselves in the show! shout out to the writer for writing lightbulb genuinely so well, as she is infamously known for being extremely mischaracterized within the ii community. experiment 21's execution is also just straight out horrendous in some parts. it commonly feels rushed and out of place and the POV's could be executed a lot better. there are a few more things I could talk about, but these are my main points! so in conclusion, read hall 17. there arent words to describe how good it is and you all need to read it right now. i will make another confession about how AMAZINF hall 17 is when its not 2 am!

Very solid argument, anon. Though I haven't read Hall 17, I can say I found myself chuckling a bit as I read Experiment 21. In defense of the author, I'm fairly certain they were quite young when they first began writing, which explains the plot holes and mischaracterization, but the final chapters were written decently. I'll have to check out Hall 17 sometime. The prospect of Lightbulb actually being written in-character is an enticing promise. And yes, please hop off tumblr and get some rest (says the one that answers asks at 2am themself).

[luciferslilith7]

Till death do us apart...

[romanceclub-confessionss]

Confession:

"I really hate the racist hysteria in the fandom caused by the POC characters in the Haze story (and the way RC caved in to their demands)

Nobody in the Russian racist fandom gave a damn when an entire Sumerian (which, yk, is in the Middle East, with, yk, Brown people) pantheon got whitewashed in the Tiamat book

Nobody opposed the fact that they used white people (Manu Rios and Timur Simakov) for character inspiration while designing both of the KCD Indian LIs (which is why neither Amrit nor Ratan look like actual Indian men)

Nobody had any issues with the entire population of Egypt in SOTCN being light-skinned and Eurocentric

Nobody asked where are all the Brown people in the Heaven's Secret series. Which is weird considering it's using the biblical lore and the Bible describes the events happening in the Middle East and North Africa. So wtf is everybody so damn white?

Make no mistake, these people don't care about accuracy or respecting cultures or whatever bullshit they're trying to sell us. They just want to make everyone as white as possible even it's against the lore of the story"

[epicfirestormer]

Why did he think that was a good idea to say

[artaintfartwarriors]

hmm u should do darktail!

One of the best villains!!!!