#disturbance in the force

[sarcasticskyway]

There appears to be a disturbance in the Force, according to Clarabelle.

[criticarter]

Films Watched in 2024 - (42/???)

A Disturbance in the Force: How the Star Wars Holiday Special Happened (2023) Jeremy Coon & Steve Kozak -- (4/5)

The special is a wild piece of media in terms of place in the canon (Lucas wanted it erased from existence, but it's now acknowledged in the parks and merchadise has been made) and I can't imagine a more thorough breakdown of something long forgotten by those who were there at the time and love it in spite of all its flaws. Some of it was even filmed at this legally-distinct-cantina, so how can you not love that?

[somnoir]

Gotham's newest Crime Lord - part 3

Part 2 | Masterpost

"You know your way around the city." Dan commented, eyes narrowed once he realizes that Kitty and Johnny adapted a little too well to Gotham. Going to places even he didn't know existed, exploring and giving them intel he never realized was relevant. They knew history of Gotham in a way a local would. 

Johnny shrugged, turning back to Kitty who welcomed Ember with a bright smile. The two were squealing, talking about how they were going to help mess with Firefly after burning down a well-loved studio down town. 

For Dan, he wasn't going to intrude too much on his former rogues but... "You're from Gotham. Both of you." 

Johnny twitched, watching as Shadow moved to play with Elle in the air. 

"Yeah, we’re not too sure if our folks are still kickin’, but Kitty and me took off after they flipped over our thing. This place still gives me the heebie-jeebies, but hey, you guys are here. Gotham’s cool these days with all the furries and rogues runnin’ around." Johnny laughed, his cocky nature still burning bright, even when he looked almost melancholic at the memory of this place. 

No ghost was truly comfortable in their hometown, whether they died there or not. This was where they were born, where their lives began. 

"I see..." Dan mumbled, glancing to the space where Danny was usually in. His younger brother was off doing kingly duties again, slumped by work and the Observants pestering him about shit. 

There's a quiet knock on his door and Jeremy was poking his head into the room again. The ghosts didn't even care, continuing to be visible and floating around. Discomfort and a bit of fear was clear on the man's face but he turned to Dante with as much courage as he could muster. 

"Boss, we've got a lead on the missing kids." 

Ah, yes. The recent disappearances of children. He doesn't know where they go, what happens to them. All he knows is that children were picked of the streets and never to be seen again. 

"Someone's been takin' kids?" Kitty grimaced, not minding how Jeremy shuddered. "Dan, dear, darling! Send me and Johnny. We know this city better than Batman and his little birdies."

Again, Dan sighed. "Gimme a minute, Kitty. Not enough information." He grunts, turning to Jeremy to hand him the report. 

"Anything else?"

"Well... About the Bats..."

"They snoopin' around again?" 

"Trynna sniff out Phantom." Jeremy shrugs. "Red Hood's been pretty active. Heard he's been wonderin' about Phantom not visitin' the kids last week." 

"Thanks Jeremy. Tell Marigold I said hi." 

"Will do, boss!" 

Once Jeremy left, the other ghosts were swarming Dan like bees. Their eyes glittering with anticipation, excitement, and vengeance. It felt strange for them to pay attention, to follow him. Danny's always felt like the better leader, struggling and suffering in the role yet rising above it all. That was why he was the king now. 

"Alright, let's get to work. Most of these kids have one thing in common. Their skills. Flexible, acrobatic, and have some sort of combat training. Usually in self defence." Dan plugged in the USB into his laptop, projecting the screen on to the tv. "The latest disappearance is Layla Smithson. Fourteen. Gymnast and was sent to take taekwondo classes by her parents. Before that was Evan Chavez. Another gymnast but was also known to get into multiple fights."

"So whoever is takin' the kiddies, they go after the ones with pretty good skills." Ember hummed, turning to Kitty and then nudging her. "You've got anything to say about that?" 

"Well... Maybe." Johnny shrugs too. 

"Ooh! What about that nursery rhyme every Gothamites gets to listen. Y'know. About the court."

Dan frowned. "What court?" 

"The court of owls!" Kitty grinned, "Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowy perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word of them or they'll send the Talon for your head." 

"Who the fuck uses that kind of shit for a nursery rhyme?" Dan scowled, but considered the possibility. "Any idea if they're real."

"Very." Johnny warned, "When Kitty and I died, we came back here a couple of times. Explored the place and tried to dig up secrets that would have killed us if we were livin'. One of 'em was the court. A secret society of a bunch off rich bastards."

"Johnny," Dan warned, knowing that something was still being kept from him. 

"There's another thing..." Johnny hesitated but Kitty took his hand and continued. 

Kitty grimaced, "The Court of Owls has a bunch of soldiers. They got this chemical they use on people, turnin’ ‘em into their own assassins. From what me and Johnny dug up a while back, these assassins were trained when they were kids. They call 'em Talons."

Dan wanted to yell, scream. Burn down the cursed with it's cursed bricks. Fuck. Fuck. Was the world always so shitty? 

"You're telling me... There's an entire secret society that uses chemicals to turn children into assassins?" 

Children.... Fucking children. They were weaponizing kids!

Ancients, he might just commit mass genocide again. 

"Alright. Alright. We leave the living people out of this. The court? Their talons? I want all of you prepared. I'm gonna contact Danny to drag Skulker and Wulf's asses here immediately."

Elle grinned, "GRAB AMORPHO TOO! We're gonna need his help if we want to dismantle the court."

The office is vacated quickly, with Elle dragging Ember and Kitty for girl time and Johnny runs off with shadow. Dan is left alone, frustrated at the new information before he does his best to summon his brother, the very annoyed ghost king that appears before him in full royal regalia. 

"A bit busy, Dan. Still tryin' to fight the laughing magician to help with getting rid of the Anti-Ecto Acts. Constantine is running around trying to destroy the GIW now." 

Dan snorted. He knew about John Constantine. The crazy motherfucker who's soul fragments were scattered around and Danny had to deal with the paperwork and mission to collect them all. 

"I know, yeah, sorry. I get that's important. But we've got a situation here."

"What would that be?"

"Secret society of rich fruitloops that are worse than Vlad. They're kidnapping children and making them into brainless assassins."

Immediately, the room grows colder than the far frozen. Danny's eyes are as green as they could ever be, but his pupils were an icy blue that would have made Frostbite shudder. 

"What do you need?"

"Skulker, Wulf, and Amorpho." 

"I'll send them on your way. They'll be here within 3 hours." Danny sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "I'll finish up things on my end to help."

"Sure thing, twerp."

"Fuck you." Fondly. 

"Fuck you too." Affectionately.

"OH! Your revenant was looking for you." 

"THE SEXY RED HOOD WAS LOOKING FOR ME?!" 

It was an entire week of silence. Of Wraith not doing anything at all. Even the rogues felt apprehensive to act on anything after Wraith's new subordinates started popping up to pester them. The reports were the same. Distorted footage, meta-human abilities, and a ridiculous amount of chaos. 

Apparently, Two face has waged war on one of them, named Ember. Riddler was also ready to throw hands with Specter. And then Harley and Ivy were hunting down a couple names Kitty and Johnny 13. Why they were named that, none of them knew. But considering Wraith and Phantom's titles, the entire group was Ghost themed. The majority of Gotham have taken to calling them the Ghosts. 

But then...

"Bruce... Get a look at this." Barbara's voice shook, horrified as she stared at the screen. Majority of the family was already in the cave, preparing to patrol once more. But their eyes were drawn to the screen. They all froze, struggling to fathom what the fuck was it they were looking. 

"Holy shit." 

Everyone was frozen, staring at the clear, untampered screen. 

Bruce sucked in a deep breath, reading the bloody message written on the wall of... He couldn't recognize it properly. "Farewell to the Court of Owls that once watched from their shadowy perch. Their talons covered in the blood of children they once purge. Farewell to their judge, the parliament says goodbye. To Talons, to owls, the ghosts says hi." 

And right beside the message was the hanging body of what Bruce recognized was the Judge of the Court of Owls. 

The Court of was in ruins. 

"Holy shit. HOLY SHIT!" Tim screeched, almost stumbling as he stared at the morbid message. "The Wraith and his ghosts took out the fucking court."

There was a loud rev of an engine, momentarily dragging their attention to Jason who was hurriedly getting of his bike and taking of his helmet. "Fuck, you've already seen it."

"You saw it in real life?! Where the fuck is that? The location is distorted but the entire thing is being broadcasted to the entirety of Gotham." 

"There are two of 'em. That one's on the clocktower."

Barbara snapped her head towards him, "MY clocktower?!" 

"Sorry 'bour that Barbie. But it got the job done for them, all of Gotham know about the court now."

Bruce grimaced, "And the other location?" 

"Arkham... The Talon is the one being hanged up there. The message is shorter: Bye-Bye owls. Shouldn't have messed with the dead." Jason clicked his tongue, "That's either about the fact that the court has been messing with the dead or it's cause Wraith's group is called the Ghosts." 

Jason shook his head, knowing for the fact that he'd have to track down Phantom soon. His eyes turned towards Dick, who stared at the screen as if a burden was just freed from him. Jason thinks it has. 

They had found out about the Court a little while ago, then found out about Dick's situation with them. How the circus he grew up in was one of the facilities that groomed Talons. How Dick was supposed to be recruited as one when his parents died. 

"Dick?" Jason murmured, gently taking Dick's hand. The other man jolted, his domino mask hiding whatever emotions there was in his eyes. 

"Little Wing..." 

"C'mon. Let's go grab some of Alfred's cookies. The rest of the family can deal with this." Jason quickly hurried his older brother out the cave, urging him to change our of his suit. 

Dick, once again, feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders, struggled to understand that his nightmare that was the Court was finally dead. Most likely slaughtered by the hands of a new crime lord, a rogue that seemed desperate to keep children safe. He held the tea tightly, closing his eyes as Jason sat opposite to him. 

The court was dead. 

Talon was dead. 

"I'm gonna go look for Phantom in a bit." Jason hummed, trying to appear comforting to Dick. 

And the image of the Judge of the court's body hanging from the clocktower flashes in his head again. 

"Jason." Dick whispered, "Get me a meeting with Wraith."

"What?" Jason blinked, "Dickie, no. Wraith might seem like a pretty nice guy with how he's protecting the kids, but he's still..." He paused, "He's still like me." 

"I need to meet him, Jaybird. I need to confirm that the Court is gone for good. He's the only one who can do that for me." 

"Why would Phantom even let you meet him?"

Dick frowned, sucking in a deep breath before taking Jason's hands. 

"Tell him that Nightwing was supposed to be a Talon."

Part 4 | Masterpost

[void-thegod]

when you feel a disturbance in the force..

and are suddenly 1000% sure someone who hurt you just got theirs:

[xtrablak674]

I Took One of My Expired Aspirin

Hate waking up and something is broken that wasn't broke when I went to sleep! #😩 I did the usual things I do when I wake up in the morning, first noticing that I had woke up exactly two minutes before five o'clock, I started to make my bed. I never knew people living on a five to nine schedule, was a thing but its something that I have fallen into naturally. Residuals from my early mornings on the roof if I am really being honest.

Slowly but surely I rolled up my bedding. Something on NPR mentioned something about mites or some bacteria or another accumulating on your bedding if you didn't air it out before making your bed, something I have done diligently over the last decade, part of my mental health regiment. But I am always open to improvement, so now I roll my bedding, which makes making the bed easier, later. And for at least an hour or so, I air out my sheets.

Then I get up turn the digital clock besides the bed to bright, when I first bought this replacement to my old plug-in alarm clock, which finally went on to a better place (a landfill), I noticed it was a bit bright and was distracting when trying to sleep. I dim it right before bed and turn it back up for daytime.

As always, I get in bed on the left-side and get out on the right, right on to the pelt of Big Bird round fuzzy yellow carpet on the floor. Then I walk to the left Yamaha speaker and turn it on, then push the light for the humidifier to blue, noticing this morning I had accidentally left the red light on last night. I then move my other tablet from its storage place and put it on top of the turntable, plug in the headphone cable and put the buddha on top to keep the cable in place. Then finally turn on the right speaker and my amplifier and press play on the NPR One app.

Next stop the bathroom, relieve myself from the built up water from last night, and then to my perch in the window-seat to begin the cultivating of my social media garden. This is when I notice I feel off, my glands in my neck are swollen and the culprit might be in my mouth, something feels off in my left upper quadrant. Which is a bit odd since my introducing mouthwash to my morning hygiene ritual, but I haven't been to the dentist since the pandemic started.

I hate waking up and something is broken that wasn't broke when I went to sleep! #😩

For a few minutes I try to push through the discomfort and try to remember if anything felt off when I went to bed, nothing is coming to mind, I felt fine just regular tiredness. I am actually very pleased that I am so in-tuned with my body that its nearly instinctual that I know that something is off.

Not successful in my trying to sublimate the soreness, I get up and go back to the bathroom for some of my expired aspirin, I think it was supposed to go bad in 2011, but my cheap ass didn't see the need to throw out a nearly full bottle of aspirin. I use medications so rarely and usually only one aspirin as a blood thinner that usually alleviates issues like light inflammation.

No response from the text that I sent my nephew, so I use the text I sent him to be the title and beginning sentence in this journal entry, and curiously I am actually feeling better and ready for my morning yoga. I was getting a bit annoyed feeling I might need to back into bed, when I got my full eight hours, it feels like such a waste when I was ready to start my day. But since I am feeling good, I am gonna get on with it.

[Photo by Brown Estate]

[choccy-milky]

chap 2 of flames and fairies is out!!

i made a post about it before, but its an AU of my fic written by beekaybee in the pokemon universe🥹 and i had to draw this scene bc its my fav LMAO, i love the idea of clora's dad lecturing this cute little pokemon to keep her safe BAHAH💖😭

also to this anon I AGREE!! ITS ONLY GETTING BETTER!! so go show some love to beekaybee on ao3 if you have time as well!!🙏💖💖nothing motivates someone to write like comments!😤

[ryan-sometimes]

People have told me it’s weird for me as a lesbian to have a male best friend, but my male best friend is how I know I’m a lesbian. I literally could not love this man more ok. He’s gonna be the best man at my wedding. If a girlfriend asked me to stop hanging out with him I would dump her on the spot. This man could have my fucking kidney. And yet… I still don’t want to fuck him. I couldn’t love this man more than I do and yet I still have no romantic feelings towards him

[ladylightning]

watching the “making of scoobynatural” and the animator is talking about the character designs and he’s like “jared has a distinct nose and a lot of hair. castiel…also has hair. jensen has these big beautiful pouty lips and a classic handsome man face ❤️❤️❤️” the jackles curse strikes again

[freetobeeyouandme]

I love this corner of the internet I exist on because half my dash is people who have never watched the gay firefighter show congratulating us on the canon bisexuality because the news of it has just spread around this circle and it is our duty to inform each other of the gay shit happening in various pieces of media even if there is a slim to none chance our friends will ever watch them

[bluebeesknees]

Stop pitting two boyfailures against each other 😔✨

[trash-ainu]

Personally, I really like the take that Vala/Maia couples weren't really supposed to happen, because views about such pairings would range from "You can't sleep with your boss!" to "This profanity is against Eru's will!"

And I really like this in the context of angbang, because I can just imagine Mairon pacing in circles after the first few times they got together, rubbing his temples and going:

Mairon: This is extremely inappropriate... I am his bloody lieutenant! And a consummate professional. I am a consummate professional. I am—

Meanwhile Melkor would just be like:

Melkor: I hope our love offends God.

[sableeira]

ode to a failed partnership

[chronicowboy]

somewhere in los angelese frank just bought a swimming pool for the house and when his husband asks how they'll afford it all he says is "eddie diaz"

[awesomenightfall]

Lucanis: (finally opening up and being vulnerable, naked in bed) Would you talk to me? Your voice is a comfort.

My Rook, a troll: (pulls out a Second Edition copy of Swords & Shields) So glad you asked.

[maxpadelchampion]

max really goes about his days threatening retirement to whoever will listen and praises charles to people who ask him stupid questions

[karmicpunishment]

atsushi starts taking some college classes and meets some friends and one turns out to be one of kunikidas former students