#consider me blinded by love

[sualne]

modern au dragon and luffy get to meet each other eventually

this is also legally blind dragon btw, luffy gave him his sunglasses because he saw him squinting and thought it was because of the sun.

[nartml]

was it casual when i had a panic attack at the thought of you dying was it casual when you risked your entire carrier just to feed me lunch was it casual when you were willing to die protecting me even though you wouldn't accomplish any of the goals you devoted yourself to was it casual when i spent so many nights rolling around in deep thought about whether you think of me like i do about you was it casual when i wished for you upon a shooting star was it casual when i refused to let you continue your way down a path of self-destructive loneliness even though you wanted me to was it casual when you needed to kill me and only me to grow stronger and be entirely untethered from your past but you just couldn't was it casual when i preferred to bear your pain and hatred and die fighting you as opposed to giving up on you was it casual when i could trade blows with you (read your heart) even though your supposed wife couldn't was it casual when i was your one and only was it casual when the hands that we blew off of each other bore the evidence of our cosmic connection was it casual when you cried your first tears of relief and happiness after you lost to me was it casual when you kept in touch with me but not with your wife was it casual when we fought and laughed and became inseparable was it casual when i can't exist without you was it casual when i put all my goals on hold because how could i focus on them when i can't even save you was it casual when you were my main motivation for training to become infinitely stronger was it casual when i'd remain a fool my entire life if being smart meant that i had to give up on you was it casual when you know my heart i yours was it casual when

[starry-bi-sky]

DPXDC Idea: Mother of Monsters Dan(yal)

Specifically Fem!Dan because I made this in mind with my Fem Danyal Au bUT. The best part about Dan is that I get to play dress up with her, and Fem Dark Dany is gonna go by Layal (pronounced lae-el) because it means "the nights" and it sounds similar to Danyal, and I think she'd choose that name to mock Dany. ANYWAYS

Mother of Monsters Danyal. She may be evil but she's an Al Ghul at her core (even with vlad's soul merged with hers - however, considering that Layal looks and sounds like Dany, she considers that soul to be the more dominant one.) and loves animals. And she might be heartless, but she adores the monsters of the infinite realms.

Mother of Monsters Layal who hates everyone but utterly dotes and adores on every manner of beast she comes across. Stealing the eggs and infant young beasts of the Infinite Realms to raise as her own because she wanted them. Her own island full of monsters, a monstrous menagerie of her own. She steals most often from poachers or exotic pet keepers and other menageries -- the full grown beasties can keep their young.

And with every monster she raises, she can shapeshift their features onto herself, allowing her to change her shape from humanish to any matter of monster or hybrid creature. She calls herself their mother, and them her children. Her precious little babies, capable of incredible mass destruction and mayhem.

From little griffins the size of kittens, to stymphalian vulture chicks, and leviathan young hatching from eggs the size of her pinkie, to creatures native of the ghost zone that didn't even have names in the living realm. There really wasn't a limit to what or who she would take in and she didn't limit herself to any form of mythology. If they were beasts and they were unwanted, she wanted them. And as such, amassed her own mini army of "children" willing to listen to her any command.

Earth doesn't know what hit it when she attacks them.

There are many monstrous forms she could take on, the first one I've thought of is a combination of various serpentine/reptilian features. The body of a naga -- her lower half long and serpentine, her upper still human -- with spiked fins connecting from the bottom of her arms to her sides, ever seen Sinbad where Eris goes "you might have seen my likeness on the temple walls" and her arms do that fin thingy? Same concept. Her hands are webbed and taloned, perfect for slicing through the skin of the living, and her teeth are needle-sharp and shark like. Her hair can either be spiny and feathery-like like the spines of a lionfish, or frilled like a frilled-neck lizard. It's perfect for dealing and doting on her reptilian and amphibian-inclined darlings.

I'm more of a fan of aus where Dan is a sibling of Danny's rather than their kid, so Layal's redemption(..?? probation?) proceeds with her legally becoming Danyal's "twin" sister, who had been lost to the foster system before the Fentons adopted Dany, and was only recently reunited with her. The two of them look so alike that the lie is easy to take root and spread.

Layal is very indignant to the fact that she's now ten years in the past and has to restart her menagerie all over again. Do you know how much blood and sweat went into raising those children? How dare you separate them from their mummy. Although she'll admit she does miss their juvenile years, so she won't mind (too much) needing to raising them again. Dany is helping her retrieve all of them though, dammit.

long story short: epic the musical's "Scylla" has a CHOKEHOLD on me and this is the result of it

Unlike her Dan counterpart, Layal's voice is dancing and sirenic. It's purposely alluring and motherly, in order to lure people into a false sense of security until she feeds them to her "children." Echidna doesn't have shit on her. She almost seems friendly and reasonable, until you get too close and realize it was all an act and she drops it to metaphorically swallow you whole. She's like an anglerfish that way. She and Dany both sound like Scylla from Epic.

[amelinah]

The whole China Suarez/Colapinto mess makes me think of this words of wisdom from Argentina: If you like the peach, you have to take the fuzz 🤷‍♀️

[im-still-watching-anime]

i LOVE how we can always rely on atsushi to acknowledge how impressive akutagawa is anytime he does anything

[p4nishers]

i stand with my canceled wife

[riddlerosehearts]

just for the record the fact that the twst anime will be a fourth version of the same story (game, manga, novel, anime) literally does not bother me AT ALL because i just wholeheartedly love animation as a medium so much that i am actually SO EXCITED to see all of the story again but animated this time. i genuinely can't wait to see the overblot scenes fully animated and just to see everyone's expressions and motions brought fully to life outside the limitations of the game models and i know i'll love it to death even if it ends up looking a little janky (like game-to-anime adaptations often do). truly you could even get me to happily and eagerly experience a FIFTH version of twst's main story as long as that fifth version happened to be a stage play.

[pink-lemonadefairy]

[afterlife-2004]

Reminds me of “The World Was Wide Enough”, a song from the musical, Hamilton!

[sysig]

You’re gonna die if you keep that up (Patreon)

[robo-dino-puppies]

thank youuuu @salamanders-please for letting me know that my Wardens can look like Wardens in Origins :D

[theflyingfeeling]

Eighteenth Day of Gift-Giving: Aches

Prompt: "Just focus on me and try to relax."

This is the prompt I asked a little help with, and here's the result! I wanted to bring back the airport saga one more time, the previous part of which can be found here (although I'm afraid you still won't get to learn how Niko and Tommi are doing at the bar, sorry). This piece was sort of inspired by several prompts on the list, but this was the only one I included as it is. Enjoy 🖤

~

Joel’s head hurt. His eyes hurt. His back hurt from lying on the floor. His jaw hurt from gritting his teeth. His palms hurt from his nails digging into them in an attempt to mute all the other pain into something more harmless and bearable, but it only made him more frustrated. The only part of him that wasn’t hurting was a small patch of his skin near his collarbone where Joonas’ thumb worked in a circular motion. It wasn’t much, but definitely more than what Joel deserved after having complained the entire day, as if everyone else wasn’t as tired and irked about the situation; he was just the one being a huge bitch about it. 

And then there was Joonas. Joonas, who always knew better than to bother Tommi when he sat still with his eyes closed and arms crossed over his chest. Joonas, who would let Niko borrow his powerbank charger even though he was running on 8% himself, just so he could call Minna to wish her good night before he'd climb to his bunk. Joonas, who had made everyone promise they wouldn’t comment on whatever Olli and Aleksi had going on between them, because apparently they were yet to figure it out themselves and that they should be left to do that in peace, on their own terms. 

Yeah, there was no way in hell Joel was worthy of Joonas’ solicitude. Not even a little bit, Joel decided and turned to his side on the new-ish hardwood flooring of the airport lounge, even though it made him feel even more uncomfortable and pained. 

Only then he noticed that the only other part of his body that wasn’t hurting, apart from the little piece of skin Joonas had been caressing, had been the back of his head. 

Because Joonas’ arm had been there this whole time, keeping his head from dropping to the cold, hard floor.

The arm was now protecting his temple and showing no signs of moving from under him. It must have gone numb by now, although Joel wasn’t sure how long they had been lying there. It might have been only five minutes, but with Joel’s sense of time being manipulated by his agony, it could've also been five hours for all he knew.

“Do you want me to go?”

Joel sighed. He was surprised by the smallness of his own voice when he heard himself speak.

“I bet the sofa would be more comfortable.”

“For sure, but do you want me to go?”

It’s not that Joel hadn’t known his answer the first time Joonas asked him. He just didn’t know how to ask Joonas to stay without feeling like he was asking too much.

Too much, as in more than what he was worthy of. 

Joonas, however, took his silence as an affirmative answer and tried to slide his arm from under Joel’s head. Instinctively – or not knowing what else to do to have his way; to selfishly keep Joonas by his side – Joel grabbed Joonas’ hand to keep it in place. Joonas stopped in his tracks that very second, and two more later, intertwined their fingers, and in doing so, stopped the entire world around Joel.

For a fleeting second, there was no half-empty airport lounge, no fog outside the enormous windows keeping them as its prisoners. There was just Joonas' hand in his, and it shattered his world.

Joel wasn’t used to this kind of intimacy. He simply wouldn't let it happen, not with Joonas, not with anyone. Fleeing before anyone got too close to him never made him too proud of himself, but he didn't know anything else.

He couldn’t really explain why. It scared him, he supposed. Even now, his entire body shivered and his chest felt tight with something Joel did not know how to put into words.

He was thankful that at least with Joonas, he never had to; Joel sometimes felt as if the guy could read his thoughts, which was a comfort as much as it was a nuisance.

“Shhhhhhhhhhh.” Joonas ran his hand up and down Joel’s arm. “Breathe, Joel. Just breathe.”

It was incredible how Joonas knew he was suffocating even before Joel realised it himself.

Joel squeezed his eyes closed and tried to imagine himself some place else, just anywhere that wasn’t a room half filled with strangers, many of them probably gawking at them and wondering what the hell was wrong with him. 

I’m what’s wrong with me, Joel wanted to tell them. I’m so wrong and broken that I’m on the verge of a panic attack by having lowered my walls enough for my best friend to fucking comfort me when I need him the most, nothing else to see here, thank you and have a nice day.

“Joel.”

He could barely hear Joonas’ voice. He couldn’t tell if it was because it was so quiet or because his heartbeat was so loud in his ears.

“Joel. Please turn around. I want to help you. Please.”

Maybe it was the calming tone of Joonas’ voice. Maybe it was the movement of Joonas’ hand on his arm, or the fact his other hand was still clasping Joel’s, tight as if to keep him from falling off a cliff. Whatever it was, something made Joel do as Joonas asked, and he turned slowly, first to lie on his back for a moment, then to face Joonas. 

He kept his eyes shut, for he found some kind of strange comfort in the darkness. Sometimes it terrified him to death, but with Joonas’ soft voice speaking to him, Joel suddenly felt as if nothing would.

It took him a minute, maybe two, for Joel to find his normal breathing rhythm again. Somehow it matched perfectly with the pattern of Joonas’, which made it easier, Joel guessed. He didn’t even try to understand it; one moment he’s a trembling mess, a prey animal who had digged inside a leaf pile trying to hide its own heartbeat, and in the next he’s boneless and warm under Joonas’ touch, his blood finally flowing to his limbs again.

“Just… focus on me and try to relax. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“It’s okay.”

“Okay.”

“I’m here, Joel. You’re safe.”

I know.

~*~

"Joel. Hey, Joel, we're going."

The headache wasn't gone, but Joel supposed he had managed to fall asleep for a short while, since keeping his eyes open wasn't such a strenuous task any more. There was a slight pain in his neck, but he felt warm, even when Joonas lifted the leather jacket he had put on him at some point.

Maybe, against all odds, he'd make it back home alive.

"They're boarding us soon."

Joel could only nod at the information. His entire body felt heavy, possibly too heavy for the plane to take off with him inside it, if Joel was to count on his luck.

Only at the boarding queue he had the strength to lift his head and take in his surroundings. He saw members of the crew, yawning tapping on their phone cases. There was Tommi and under his arm almost sleeping Niko, perhaps a little tipsy if the shade of his gaze was anything to go by. Behind them, Olli and Aleksi's eyes kept wandering back to each other time after time, quick smiles visiting their lips each time they caught the other staring. They way their hands kept fumbling with each other, almost teasingly before shying away again, implied they would've holded hands if they had been some place else that wasn't an international airport.

Joel could relate: his hand was no good for anything without Joonas holding it.

~*~

The time on Joel's phone was nearing four in the morning when they finally stepped out of the taxi. It wasn't unsual to him to be awake at that hour, more often than not against his will, however.

His tired eyes blurred when he stared at the front door of his apartment building. Joonas' would be a few blocks down the street; close enough for Joel to stomp to whenever he ran out of oat milk.

(The nearest grocery store with an entire shelf full of Joel's favourite brand was about as close in the opposite direction, but Joonas wouldn't be there.)

"D'you wanna stay at mine?"

(And they wouldn't read Joel's mind at the grocery store the way Joonas always did.)

[sundeum]

Do I really have to tell you how he brought me back to life?

[lavellane]

should i.

[chenpire]

my post series recommendation is that if you've never listened to the orchestral version of hero by faouzia while thinking about Wilhelm and Simon's utter trainwreck of a romance, you should. I think you should.

[quietwingsinthesky]

the song remains the same au where Anna lives somehow, Michael didn’t finish the job or something, and it’s Dean being told he gets no choice, nothing but his destiny as Michael’s vessel, and he’s back where he was in Heaven and Hell with both Anna and Sam under threat, but god, this time he’s saving both of them, he has to. Pushed further towards saying yes not just because of his own failing faith that they can stop the Apocalypse, but because in that moment, he promises he will, if Michael will send Anna back with them. Reasons that she doesn’t belong there any more than him and Sam do, and maybe she’s been hurt so badly that she’s been knocked back down to practically human.

But the point is that Anna lives, and she tried to kill Dean’s parents, and failed, but at the same time, he gets it. He just tried to convince his own mom not to have him or Sam, and it all got erased. They are more like pawns than they ever have been, but they could still try to find something in each other. Some bit of lost tenderness. It’s the end of the world. Any night could be the last night.