#even as he was crumbling

[mint80s]

I keep thinking about the angels...

[starry-bi-sky]

on a completely separate note; shizun luo binghe with a disciple shen yuan who fell into the abyss??? *thinks about LBH canonically stealing SQQ's corpse for 5 years* he'd hallucinate i think. like, like visual and audial hallucinations.

Keeps thinking he's seeing SQQ in the corner of his eyes, or wandering between the trees, amongst a group of disciples. Thinks he hears him calling for him, but its just the wind or another disciple.

Gets Xiu Ya reforged but patently fucking refuses to make a sword mound. Because his disciple Is Not Dead :))) There was No Body. He's Not Dead. And If You keep Insisting That He Is, He's Gonna Skewer You :). He's holding onto Xiu Ya so he can return his most favored disciple's sword when he returns. It's on his hip right next to Zheng Yang where it's supposed to be.

Also this motherfucker?? does not sleep btw. He has the image of SQQ, wide eyed and hysterical and standing at the mouth of the abyss burned into his fucking eyelids. Can't use the dreamscape to escape it either because he keeps trying to save him and either he does and it's an incredibly cruel trick to wake up to, or he doesn't and he gets his heart broken in several different pieces again.

There is no convincing this man that Shen Qingqiu is dead. Absolutely nothing at all. He is buried so deep in denial that moles would be jealous of how deep he is. He keeps making tea for two in the bamboo house only to remember that it's just him. SQQ's fans are hiding everywhere, little reminders of his presence. He goes to wake up SQQ on the mornings he sleeps in-- only to find the room empty.

[stillgotscars]

so is anyone ready to talk about the progression from “i think he knows he better lock it down or i won’t stick around ‘cause good ones never wait” → “i like shiny things, but i’d marry you with paper rings” → “all they keep asking me is if i’m gonna be your bride” → “are you really gonna talk about timing in times like these?” → “i wouldn’t marry me either” → “i died on the altar waiting for the proof” → “even statues crumble if they’re made to wait”

[bluerosefox]

Peek-A-Boo Champ!

So... when Jazz and her newborn baby were taken by a cult she wasn't... too worried. Okay yes of course she was worried about her baby in the hands of the people who knocked her out cold when they broke into her home and seem to want to use HER baby as a vessel for some evil entity to bring the apocalypse BUT she knows her husband's patrol routes like the back of her hand, knows when Jason likes to drop by to check on them (with maybe another bat or bird with him, he begrudgingly allowed cause they wanna see the littlest batbaby) and knows he and the rest of the batfam had been alerted and are on their way, she knows this. And if they don't come soon she has ways to get out of these bindings and saving her baby (no anti ghost things at all, so she's good with going liminal on them if need be)

HOWEVER Jazz stops when she realizes the summoning circle they're planning on using... and knows damn well who they're going to bring to this plane of the realms...

It's been a good long while since she saw her brother. And this will give her a chance to actually introduce him to his nephew/niece instead of just sending him pictures.

......

......

Jason really wasn't expecting, as he showed up to the warehouse the cult (THEY TOOK HIS WIFE AND KID. NO B, HE WILL NOT CALM THE FUCK DOWN, HES TAKING THEM ALL OUT FOR THIS! THEY'RE GONNA USE HIS KID TO BE A VESSEL FOR A GHOST KING) was using guns blazing, to find the cult members all frozen in solid chunks of ice that would make even Mr. Freeze envious of meanwhile his wife cheerfully chatting with a glowing, floating, blueish skin with star like freckles being with a glowing crown and space cloak... who at the moment is making silly faces at his kid and playing peek-a-boo (by actually disappearing and reappearing)

[methoughtsphantom]

halfas are the found family trope foster child

they all adopt each other. it’s the reason Vlad wanted so badly to have Danny as his son and the reason Danny immediately went with sure you’re my cousin now with Dani. it’s a survival mechanism from being so very few of their species. Sooo, halfa!Jason except he sorta isn’t yet cause Jason’s core is extremely ruptured from the lack of ectoplasm involved in his forceful resurrection. So when Danny finds Jason in his catatonic state he can’t quite tell the dude’s been dead and remains some, just that the guy for some reason seems very friend-shaped. Danny doesn’t mind his friend is braindead, and is also a john doe, he gives familiar vibes and that’s apparently enough for Danny to constantly find himself in the hospital doing his engineering homework on the room with the guy, and talking for hours about the updates on the absolute clusterfuck of the city and how he was from a freaking ghost town and he can almost even draw comparisons. he blabbers about how he’s not homesick enough times to even corner himself to talk about a ghost lore many times and how he’s just finding himself a little more prone to violence and in constant pain since none of the people he has adopted as his family are here with him and he can’t consider a place a lair if there’s isn’t someone of his in it.

But Danny could never drag someone with him just because of some it, after all it was Danny’s choice to come to Gotham to collage and not stay where at least his parents (good parents Jack and Maddie) were in Amity.

Ironically, Danny essentially can’t feel that his core has been spoon feeding ectoplasm to Jason. As months go on, the little ball of energy builds in anticipation practically vibrating in the waiting pulse of something (Danny doesn’t know but more often than not has he found himself laughing in happy confusion. it weirds him out in a good way) It’s really that he’s feeling the slow healing process of his friend (brother brother brother) ‘s core.Imagine it’s just about to properly, correctly heal when canon strikes back and Jason gets snatched by League assassins. Danny is left feeling like his core got torned out. His core had spend months helping another’s only to feel the other’s imprint and to not be able to protect it in return is— forget it being an obsession; thats like having your newborn baby being ripped out of your arms. An all assuaging feeling of helplessness that is devastating. Danny just beginning to feel like home lair when out of nowhere the rug is swept under him. Danny suddenly struggling to not flunk all his classes and beat every single liminal that he can feel crossing paths with him to the ground. Danny suddenly having his chronic pain (that hadn’t been so bad lately) dialed up to the point that there are just bearable and bad days.

The worse thing is he doesn’t know why.

Jason had only been a guy.

…

It’s only a three weeks before Jazz tells him she accepted a job offer in Gotham.

(and the guilt only makes him feel worse when he can feel himself feel better because of it)

…

now

whimsical time skip ✨

Danny is now on his feet again and friends with a Wayne of your choice (or maybe they were friends a little before Jay dissapeared and it was badTM cause Waynes? liminal 🥲) Danny definitely didn’t enjoy snapping off to his friend like that. anyways it’s been a year since that and he and his friend are having a grand time playing civvies, uhh let’s say dick because I want them to meet while ice skating, Also Dick because he definitely turns a blind eye when Danny goes airborne for a second there yep. He’s just having too much fun.

anyways as alwaysTM Danny doesn’t clock celebrities and like why would he, Dick is just the random guy who’s was fast to turn Danny’s slow day in the ice ring into a competition one day and brighten when Danny matched up his puns. So he totally doesn’t get why the guy’s so gloomy one day, anyways as you can figure, it’s Jason’s deathday and Dick is a deprecating bean, Danny tries to cheer him up by having him remember his brother instead and Dick attempts to, but even skipping through some photos in his phone make his eyes burn.

It is because of that that he doesn’t notice Danny absolutely freeze up at the photo of his friend Jay (Jay because he’s a John Doe, but that’s just too impersonal and so the first letter is J *wink wink*)

Danny absolutely doesn’t know what to do with this information, barely catches himself from asking Dick how did his brother die. Most importantly when because Danny just saw Jay—Jason less than a year ago, and this somehow doesn’t feel too recent.

Annd that how we find Danny digging into the Wayne second son tragedy. Staring at the date of death while the knowledge that they met almost six months after burns his forefront of his mind. Danny spends a day going over all the questions running through his mind over how the fuck he couldn’t sense Jay was a ghost—err was… in past tense?? what the fuck?? Danny would really like a refund on his ghost sense.

Anyways Danny goes check out the grave (now that he knows there is one) and boom although intangible he somehow triggers those shitty ass sensors/alarms that somehow didn’t go off when jason was literally digging himself out.

Obviously the bats get in the case immediately. And boy are they absolutely enraged that someone would steal Jason’s body.

[adrift-in-thyme]

Despite how obviously chaotic the other boys are I think that two things are actively disadvantaging and maybe even endangering Time rn

1) his worry for Twilight’s welfare and that of the others

2) his penchant for distancing himself from others.

He’s healed a lot from his adventures and the trauma of them thanks to time (heh) and Malon’s kindness, patience, and unconditional love. HOWEVER the things we endure remain with us even if they do not hurt quite so badly anymore (especially when they occur in such drastic ways during such formative years). Somewhere inside (perhaps not so deep now) is that terrified little boy who won’t allow himself to trust or love again. Who doesn’t want to get too close cause “nothing ever lasts”

He’s used to going it alone. He’s spent longer being solo than he has being married or teamed up with the other Links. His approach to tackling dungeons — whether chaotic or organized or somewhere in between — has always been the same.

Alone.

He’s the one who plummets down endless abyss.

He’s the one who bleeds and breaks and gets lost.

He’s the one who figures it out in the end.

And that’s okay. Because it’s lonely. It’s scary. But it’s only him who is in danger. And he can deal with that.

“You laugh because you know it’s true”

“You laugh because when it’s you who drags yourself home half-dead, it’s ok, it’s under control, but when it’s one of our boys…”

When it’s only him he doesn’t have to worry so much. He’s got a certain degree of control (real or imagined). And that is what he’s grappling for right now. Control to change a terrible fate he still sees looming. Control to keep his boys from suffering the way he has.

But now, with this last update, he realizes he doesn’t have it.

And while his expression here makes me laugh, it also saddens me. Four’s right and he knows it, he’s trying to resign himself to it.

Them remaining together — remaining with him, under his watchful eye — will end in their deaths at this point. It’s just not working.

He’s virtually powerless to keep them all safe. He’s the Hero of Time and he’s virtually powerless.

And that might just break him. Because the fear is still there. The fear that something will happen to one of his boys and he should’ve been there. He should’ve been there to stop it.

But he wasn’t.

Like he wasn’t there to protect the others from the Iron Knuckle

And that will consume him, weaken him. Until the Shadow can exploit it

Image credits @/linkeduniverse

[lilithofpenandbook]

Something I can't stop thinking about is that Snape began the series being perfectly okay

He was actually at his best. He'd spent ten whole years in Hogwarts without the Marauders and before Harry Potter walked in.

Of course it wouldn't have been easy for him to adjust, but he did. And I just can't help but think of those first months where the other teachers got to know him, and got to realise that this boy needed them, needed their help, and took care of him. I can't help but think of how they promised him that it's okay, it's over, everyone's safe and he's not what he thinks he is. He's okay.

Like, for ten years he would have been happy. He had friends. He had a job. He had a home. Hogwarts was his home.

And then Harry Potter came and everything went wrong.

Can you imagine, him seeing Harry's face for the first time? After so many years of actually being content and happy, suddenly he sees James Potter's face, Lily Evans' eyes. Suddenly he's reminded of Voldemort who will return now, and now he's got a ticking clock, a countdown warning him that that's it, time's up, everything you've built in these ten years are soon going to break. And then come the events of the first and second year. Okay, so they're chaotic and stressful, but it's fine, they're all stressed, they're all in this together.

Then it's Harry's third year.

And that's when everything falls apart.

Remus Lupin, one of his abusers and a serious gaslight, is here in the job he wanted, and acting like everything's fine between them while simultaneously disrespecting him and forgetting to take the potion and being a huge risk to them all. Sirius Black, one of the two main abusers, is on the loose. And no one is ever gonna believe him about Lupin, are they? Suddenly it's Lupin's home. Lupin's safe space. But what about Snape? Do the past 13 years mean nothing? It seems so. And in the end, he has a complete breakdown because it's all coming down.

Then comes the goblet of fire. Okay, normal, right? But then there's moody. And there's the visiting schools. And then there's Kararoff who will not leave him alone! And then...

And then Harry Potter comes with the dead body of a teenage boy, crying and screaming that Voldemort's back.

And now Snape knows that time is up and things only get worse. Everything happens after that, from spying to dealing with that wretched Umbridge who's trying to destroy the school.

And then...

And then he has to kill Dumbledore.

And that when it all ends.

All he built in the past 16 years....

All the promises that they'd never leave him...

That they'd always look after him...

That they know he's not that person he used to be...

That everything will be okay because he has them to look after him...

They mean nothing now.

He's not okay anymore.

[indulgentcosmos]

[freewayshark]

Today I am stuck on the fact that even if it was definitely too soon and he needed to slow down, Buck wanted to be with Tommy all the time. “Why be apart when we could be together?” Indeed

[fistfuloflightning]

When even a Fury’s strength may wane

[mcytegg]

i think ive given up on the sticklers ngl LOL like they are nawt a real team atp, id honestly consider 4c more of rek's teammate then the sticklers. all three of them joining the server at the same time for once and not even considering messaging each other today is what sold me unfortunately, like it wasnt even just ro agreeing to help the empire fight before even contacting jumper or rek for me, it's the fact that all three of them gen are always off doing some random side quest or massive solo project thats made me realize they just dont play the server as a team frfr. i dont even know if id consider rek and jumper proper teammates either

[theloveinc]

Being the on-call masseuse at pro-hero dynamight’s agency who he’s weirdly vulnerable with because you’ve already seen him naked

[anticidic]

not even lowkey, but high key thinking about how both Dazai and Chuuya since a young age used destructive behaviors to cope/feel something as they both struggle with feeling human enough in their own ways.

The state of Chuuya's mind at the start of Stormbringer reflects in an empty room with a bed, desk, and a liquor bottle on top. How he also stress smokes. Feeling alone and isolated in a way despite being surrounded by The Flags and others because he doesn't feel like he quite fits in. He's suddenly surrounded by people much older than him when he's a kid recently off the streets.

Similarly, Dazai struggling with ideation/attempts and also drinking and smoking from a young age. But the fact he drinks whiskey and shows a high tolerance when he's still a teenager is pretty concerning on its own.

They both lived in homes that lacked personality or gave insight to their hobbies or what they liked to do for fun. They were just places to sleep, roofs over their heads. Chuuya didn't know how to live, but Dazai also didn't as he willingly chose to live in a shipping container and isolate himself from others. It's part of the numbing. It gets him away from all the evil of the world, but also its better parts.

Dealing with mafia-related business and being exposed to violence and death on a constant basis rapidly desensitized them to the point of just being totally and utterly numb because at first they had to be, and now it's just a constant state of being. Dazai saw the worst of what humanity had to offer while in the mafia and he just progressively spiraled until defecting. Even Chuuya being on the streets as a kid and in constant survival mode was exposed to the uglier side of life. There's no time to think about playing video games when he had to worry about getting enough to eat and sleeping with one eye open. Now Chuuya constantly works because he's needed by the mafia, the people, the city.

Going through the motions of everyday life doesn't do anything for them and they look to destructive behaviors to feel something because, deep down, they both have the same fear of losing themselves entirely.

That fear of losing himself is so strong within Chuuya he resists corruption's influence to completely overtake him and he can still recognize faces and speak. He's forgiving sometimes to a fault despite being wronged a lot and it shows he doesn't let rage blindly consume him. He's lost so many people up until now that the times he's snapped and gotten vengeance are few and far in between, but it's normal for people to have breaking points. It's human. Just as Oda's death was the catalyst for Dazai leaving. And people have different breaking points.

[hello-its-em]

Is bro mocking elder faerie 😭☠️☠️

Also him spontaneously rhyming is funny

[trek-tracks]

Jim Kirk: Are we allowed to draft Doctor McCoy back into the service for this mission? I feel his expertise will be invaluable.

Admiral Nogura: Well...technically, according to one particular regulation, yes.

Jim (batting his eyelashes): Will you do it?

Nogura: Do I have to be there when he arrives?

Jim: ....no.

Nogura: ...can I watch it on camera from a safe distance?

Jim: Sure.

Nogura: Then yes.

[mcytegg]

you can love a character and still admit when they're wrong. i love roshambogames but can acknowledge his flaws (he has none) & can hold him accountable for his wrongdoings (he’s never done anything wrong in his life) & call him out for his actions (which are always correct)