#despite appearances

[pratchettquotes]

The last ninja was upright, but only just; Hamish had run his wheelchair over his foot. Mr. Saveloy patted the taxman's arm. "Excuse me," he said. "I find I often have to intervene at this stage."

He padded over to the surviving man, who was looking around wildly. Six swords had become interlaced around his next as though he'd taken part in a rather energetic folk dance.

"Good morning," said Mr. Saveloy. "I should just point out that the Ghengiz here is, despite appearances, a remarkably honest man. He finds it hard to understand empty bravura. May I venture to suggest therefore that you refrain from phrases like 'I would rather die than betray my emperor' or 'Go ahead and do your worst' unless you really, really mean them. Should you wish for mercy, a simple hand signal will suffice. I strongly advise you not to nod."

Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

“I love this. Because it's a Truth: you can be utterly ordinary and unnoticeable by our cultural standards -- AND be teeming with Magic. It's one of the tricks of the Divine.

[Thanks Leila L'Abate]

* * * *

"I want to sleep for a while, a moment, a minute, a century; but let everyone know that I am not dead."

- Federico Garcia Lorca

[Literland]

[aleisters]

concept raphael fucked so hard - i love the final design of him but i wish we got this skintone at least, this deeper desaturated burgundy colour. it's SO fucking sexy.

[whowouldwininafite]

[logicthompson]

"WHERE I WANNA BE" 24"x36"

by Logic Thompson

Despite Appearances...

I am a mess of different thoughts, feelings, ideas, blood, tissue, hair, sweat, discomfort, fear, and weakness. I've spent 30 years of my life feeling like I didn't belong anywhere and would never have anything. Even among my wins and my blessings, I am confronted with the fact that none of it lasts. Yet I understand now... that Despite Appearances, I somehow, am right WHERE I WANNA BE.

[mage8]

Yeah but Dan had been watching him on YouTube for ages. He knew him. ...Parasocial relationships make you feel like you know someone. There are accounts of quite a few YouTubers who used this to take advantage of their viewers. Thank God Dan went to meet Phil and not anybody else.

18yr old Dan risking it all and taking a train to meet some random guy on the internet for a weekend alone at his house

[abyssalaerlocke]

Rereading my WIP. Had a good laugh at the typo...

Enver's mind screamed at him the importance of this man.

I know you. I know you. I know you.

Dark eyes fucking up to meet his own.

"I take it you missed me," he grinned.

[lilianade-comics]

the face of a man who neither regrets his answer nor is aware of his imminent violent demise

[thelostmoongazer]

yeah he's baby girl or whatever

[cockworkangels]

the melancholy vampire ...

[freelanceplatypus]

Dungeon Meshi modern au where both Laois and Falin are food vloggers. Laois is always travelling to remote areas and cultures to try the most "extreme" foods and bring them to light. He's known as the guy who will drink blood and slam a still wriggling bug just to comment on it's nutty flavor. Meanwhile Falin is visiting long-standing eateries and sharing the stories behind local cuisine.

Nobody actually puts together they're siblings (in part due to wildly different viewerbases) until Falin in one video mentions how she enjoys eating insects and the comment section is full of folks asking her to "collab with the bug guy". Her very next video is her and Laois smiling infront of a mukbang style platter of insects and she introduces him as her brother.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

i have a Scene - a Plot if you will - that backs this as context. y'all are gonna have to trust me on this one <3 or read the tags...

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Good Morning, World.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[skiptoyuri]

what i've gathered from this is that hagi is physiologically opposed to having normal thought processes

why is asagi the only one with two brain cells around here is this who we really are

[jadecantcreate]

ouaw meme adjacent doodles part ivelostcounttheyhavetakenovermylifefreeme

edit: this is mostly just about them in general guys, they all care so much (too much, even)

[starry-bi-sky]

Blood Blossom Au: Baby's First Commissioner Meeting :)

TL:DR This Post: Danny (orphan) gets poisoned with blood blossom extract by Vlad. He runs away from him and ends up under the care of one Pre-Robin Battinson Batman! Starry is loudly pushing her batdad agenda.

(Also known as "Late At Night, When The Nightingale Sings" on my ao3!)

This was a fun rough idea I've been sitting on for weeks, thinking about how Commissioner Gordon and Nightingale's first meeting might go.

---------------

Commissioner Gordon likes to think that he's adjusting to the new normal of Gotham very well, -- the new normal being grown men running around dressed like bats, in military-grade strength body armor, committing acts of vigilantism, -- and slowly, little by little, he was no longer being surprised when this new normal pops up out of the shadows like the world's most terrifying daisy. His shaving lifespan thanks him for it.

....

The kid is a surprise though.

Granted, he seemed to be a surprise to the Bat too.

There's been a string of murders lately, -- which, in Gotham, is kind of like saying there's been another storm during monsoon season. And there's just been another; in some dilapidated building down in south Gotham, with the broken, boarded-up windows and mildew-crawling walls to match. The victim is a man in his thirties, multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, left in the center of the room for the blood to pool out around him.

The place is already secured when he arrives, the building swarmed with officers and the forensic detectives. The Bat emerges shortly after he does -- or, he might've been here the whole time, hiding someplace dark and shadowy. For his own sanity, Gordon doesn't think about it too hard.

The kid is a surprise, and he appears like a bolt of lightning.

He shows up in the middle of a conversation Gordon is having with the Bat.

A whistle, sharp and loud, slicing through the air, meant for open air rather than a confined space. Gordon's ears pierce and protest the sound, and the solemn, murmured chatter floating through the room abruptly cuts off like the swing of a gavel. As he turns towards the sound -- as they all do -- he swears, up and down, that he sees Batman's shoulders jump, just slightly.

At the source, perched on the window, is a boy. A boy in a gray-blue scarf and an oversized black hoodie, one that hangs off his frame and has ace bandages wrapped around the wrists in some attempt to cinch the sleeves. The hood is up, big like the rest of it, and threatens to swallow the upper half of the boy's face whole in the fabric. What upper half Gordon can see, is smeared with some kind of opaque, black face paint. He's holding onto the side of the frame with one hand, on his hip is a grappling hook. A familiar grappling hook.

Gordon has multiple questions, and his officers tense up.

Martinez puffs up, brows furrowing as his face shapes into a frown. Shoulders rolling back. "You can't be here, kid--"

The reaction is immediate, like a spark to gunpowder, the boy yanks his fingers from his mouth and his mouth twists into a scowl. Head snapping over to Officer Martinez, his hood manages to stay on but Gordon swears that as he bares his teeth, the glint makes them look sharper than they should be. His voice is rasp and quiet and harsh; snappish in its hissing; "Put a fuckin sock in it, Martinez. I'm not stayin."

Martinez reels back, and the boy immediately veers his attention off him. Like a switch, his demeanor drops. Despite half his face being covered, his mouth twists into a cringing, apologetic smile. Slanted and off-beat, embarrassed. It'd be disarming if this wasn't Gotham, and if he didn't just hiss at Martinez like he was about to bite his head off.

"Sorry." He whispers, voice deceptively polite and softer now. Gordon has to strain his ears to hear him. "I was looking for him."

He points his finger towards-- Gordon? No, Gordon follows the direction, and finds himself looking at -- the Bat.

The Bat, who always looks stiff as a pole, now looks even stiffer. Somehow. Well, the explains the grappling hook attached to the boy's waist.

"What are you doing here?" The Bat says, gruff and unable to completely smother the stumble of surprise in his tone.

The boy still holds a sheepish smile, and slips off the window ledge. His feet hit the creaky boards with a near-silent thud, the Batman finds his feet and rapidly begins crossing the room.

Gordon notes the slight tremble in the boy's legs as he straightens. He adjusts his scarf, which droops close to his knees now that he's standing, and slings a backpack -- how long has had that? -- off his shoulders. When the Bat reaches his side, he does as he always does, and looms over the boy like a spectre. A threatening mass of shadows cloaked in all-consuming black. Standing next to him, the boy looks teeny in comparison.

The Bat is a man who terrifies even the most hardened criminals, Gordon has seen grown men shiver in fear at the mention of his name. And yet when the boy looks up at him, he doesn't even flinch.

Instead, his sheepish smile melts away like ice under the sun, holding only traces of his previous embarrassment. It remains as a shadow on his face, a small upturn at the corners of his mouth. The boy pushes his hood back just enough to reveal glinting, ice-flint eyes surrounded in tar-black face paint. He holds the backpack up with one arm. "You forgot this."