#flicker's meta

[a-flickering-soul]

Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth / Ada Limon, "Accident Report in the Tall, Tall Weeds" / Sarah Ruhl, The Clean House and Other Plays / Tamsyn Muir, "The Unwanted Guest"

[transcription under cut]

Image 1: --whole body surging in spasm. Gideon's heart started up again. Before she could move, Palamedes was there, and with terrible tenderness-- though they were alone in the room and the world alike-- he kissed the back of Dulcinea's hand.

Image 2: There once was a very great American surgeon named Halsted. He was married to a nurse. He loved her-- immeasurably. One day Halsted noticed that his wife's hands were chapped and red when she came back from surgery. And so he invented rubber gloves. For her. It is one of the great love stories in medicine. The difference between inspired medicine and uninspired medicine is love.

When I met Ana, I knew: I loved her to the point of invention.”

Image 3: "The Warden,” she said, “has been exchanging letters with Dulcinea Septimus for twelve years. He’s been—a weenie—over her. One of the reasons he became the heir of the House was to meet her on even footing. His pursuit of medical science was entirely for her benefit."

Image 4:

Palamedes: (Pause) Look-- I doubt I'll get another chance to say this, so...

Voice: Don't. You don't have to.

Palamedes: I loved you. I love you still. I would have worked out how to love you better over time.

[hermit-frog]

for me personally‚ the flashlight in the museum (that Armand had stolen from the guard) represented her hope/dream (to be seen, to belong, to find home)‚ happiness (Madeleine)‚ and Claudia herself.

[riggerbison]

Fantasy vs. Reality (Phaya's Version)

[lacefuneral]

thinking abt ed's character development here

[pearlcaddy]

midgelenny + hollywood (jukebox the ghost)

[landwriter]

i am sorry i was so close-

[armorguard]

deep dive character sheet

stolen from: ree my friend ree :D tagging: anyone who wants to do it ^^

NAME: Bronya Rand

BODY

height: 158cm / around 5'2

strength ★★★★☆ — she's fit, military trained, and resilient. only thing stopping her is a physically larger body.

dexterity ★★★★★ — has very steady and dextrous hands on account of being a marksman

health ★★★☆☆ — could be better, admittedly… she needs more sleep…

energy ★★☆☆☆ — similar to health

beauty ★★★★☆ — a cold beauty!

style  ★★☆☆☆ — dresses regally and primly as a leader but has little sense for personal style

hygiene ★★★★☆ — personal hygiene is great, but particularly tough days means she can neglect it a bit. you do not want to see bedhead bronya.

SKILLS

perception ★★★★★ — more for battle than for people; she doesn't really have the skill for reading others

communication ★★★☆☆ — communicates her orders clearly, more personal things are left unvoiced to her own detriment

persuasion ★★★★★ — it comes with the job

mediation ★★★★★— preventing a battle is better than winning it

literacy ★★★★★ — is very well-read thanks to being the supreme guardian's scion. that densely packed schedule means she has read dostoevsky.

creativity ★★☆☆☆ — tends to solve problems using solutions she already knows can work

cooking ★★☆☆☆ — decent at it (the things you learn when deployed!) but usually lets others cook for her

tech savvy ★★☆☆☆ — definitely knows how to repair certain weapons but still calls her phone an "android" so. take that as you will.

combat ★★★★★ — too good, too young

survival ★★★★★ 

stealth ★★★★☆ — can stage ambushes and snipe people

street smarts ★☆☆☆☆ — of course her education lends itself to certain situation but she's very much coming from a sheltered upbringing.

seduction ☆☆☆☆☆ — mm… not at all

luck ★★★★☆ — big part of preservation is constantly winning your odds

handling animals ★☆☆☆☆ — is largely unused with them, treats them very delicately

pacifying children ★★★★☆ — she's very gentle with them but please don't cry in front of her

MIND

intelligence ★★★★☆ 

happiness ★★★☆☆ — there will always be things bearing their weight on her mind but she is overall content

spirituality ★★★☆☆ — walks the path of Preservation more faithfully than her mother but does not necessarily do so for the sake of the Amber Lord

confidence ★★☆☆☆ — still prone to doubts, still relies on the insight of others to guide her. a leader cannot be overconfident. the people do not need an icarus.

humor ★☆☆☆☆ — if she's funny, it's not on purpose

anxiety ★★★☆☆ — has many worries that occasionally compound into nightfuls of doubt

patience ★★★☆☆ — tries her best but can have breaks in temper

passion ★★★☆☆

nice        ☆☆★☆☆ mean — would like to be kind but has a tendency to be relentless

brave       ☆★☆☆☆ cowardly

pacifist     ☆★☆☆☆ violent

thoughtful ★☆☆☆☆ impulsive — she thinks so much it haunts her sometimes

agreeable ☆☆★☆☆ contrary

idealistic   ☆★☆☆☆ pragmatic — has very big ideas on how the world should be that only recently became shattered; she will continue to work towards her ideal belobog, though.

frugal ☆★☆☆☆ big spender 

extrovert   ☆☆☆☆★ introvert — she's not that good at socializing…

collected   ★☆☆☆☆ wild

ambitious / possessive / stubborn / jealous / decisive / perfectionist

SOCIAL

charisma ★★★★☆ — you're compelled to follow her orders but might find her a bit awkward in more casual situations

empathy ★★★★☆ — is quite soft-hearted

generosity ★★★★★ — the supreme guardian shall ever-provide

wealth ★★★★★ — it's a given since she's the supreme guardian, though given belobog's debt situation, perhaps the qlipoth fort coffers aren't as full as one would think…

honest  ★★☆☆☆ deceptive  — hides things from people but for what she believes is good reason

leader   ☆☆★☆☆ follower — she leads and follows her people

polite   ☆★☆☆☆  rude — born to cuss out people who annoy her, forced to say "oh, i understand."

political ★☆☆☆☆ indifferent

BELIEFS

higher power ★★★☆☆ — see: spirituality

fate/destiny ★★☆☆☆ — believes in it but not in its power: it can be endured

magic ★☆☆☆☆ — doesn't know much about the universe at large

soulmates ☆☆☆☆☆ — she doesn't know she's yuri in every universe

good and evil ★★★★☆ — certain things are good, other things are evil, but there is a complicated in-between that's shaped like her mother

luck ★★★★☆

PRIORITIES

family ★★★★★ — she still loves her mother, in her own complicated way. i think a lot of her desire to do well also has to do with upholding legacy.

friends ★★★☆☆ — has only recently started having friends

love ★☆☆☆☆ — still struggles to grasp love as a whole

home ★★★★★ — everything for belobog

health ★☆☆☆☆ — …she forgot to eat today

praise ★★★☆☆ — doesn't actively seek it out but… well… a little compliment won't hurt.

justice ★★★★★

truth ★★☆☆☆ — sometimes the truth costs too much

power ★★★☆☆ — wants to maintain influence but in a way that has integrity and consideration for due process

fame ★★★★☆ — fame has some very selfish connotations which i don't think bronya has but... well. see answer for "others' opnions" for a better explanation

wealth ★★★★☆ — in terms of belobog's economy; the visit from the ipc has made her realize how fragile they are

others' opinions ★★★★★ — it's important to her that the people of belobog see her as someone reliable and trustworthy. they must have faith in their guardian, otherwise, their "guardian" is nothing more than a tyrant.

[tyrannuspitch]

vampire thor vampire thor...

this is a more meta and kind of critical take, but i feel like thor (the character) is quite uncanny sometimes.

like, there's the vampire thing of cold, uncanny, inhuman beauty - and how we're expected to believe that thor's shrinkwrapped abs are his everyday appearance, when that basically isn't biologically possible, and would probably be indicative of a severe eating disorder even if it was.

and then there's also the fact that thor commits so many extreme acts of violence, but we never get to see the blood and gore. his weapon is a HAMMER. he is smashing open people's SKULLS. where is the blood, the brains, the fragmented bone? how are his hands so unnaturally clean?

and then there's his near invulnerability. his plot armour, his cursed immortality, his unshakeable ability to survive, even as the sole survivor. he should be dead many times over by now. and yet. and yet.

[stuckasmain]

Why is this man shirtless when talking to his ex situationship.

You stop that.

[dreamlandbarnes]

tw flickering, implied/referenced abuse

the way jamie’s eyes dart around after beard physically drags tartt sr. out of the locker room is so haunting. it’s like jamie completely dissociates. he doesn’t have a moment to feel relief or remorse. he’s just standing there in shock, about to accept whatever comes his way (whether it’s a sucker punch that never comes or a crushing hug from his childhood hero).

it looks like jamie’s line of sight is stuck on the locker room doors until roy pulls him into his embrace, bringing jamie back down to earth. jamie doesn’t even notice his presence until roy is right there in front of him and filling the empty space of where his father was. of course he flinches (how was he supposed to know the next form of physical contact wasn't going to be violent? was this the first time jamie reacted with physical violence? or did he already know what to expect from his father when he fights back?) but then jamie buries his head deeper in roy's shoulder. he doesn't need to fear his father in that moment; roy has him in his arms and he can let go and cry and be the little boy who's been holding onto so much hurt.

and roy is there for him in every sense of the word. for a second it looks like jamie loses his balance, but roy is steady and solid as a rock. he only squeezes jamie tighter when the sobs get louder.

not joking when i say i think about this scene every day. and every time i edit it i always find something new. i currently have like three versions of this with different colouring and music lmao. i love the original scene and the choice the editors made to have that moment of stillness and silence before roy brings the music to jamie and "beware of darkness" starts playing. i can't find the interview where they talked about it but it was definitely an intentional decision that i'm very fond of.

[madeimpact]

Y'know I think it could be interesting to write a thread where my little man just gets to go completely apeshit. The problem is it takes a LOT to get him to that point. But it can be done

[a-flickering-soul]

what's interesting also about the fionna and cake finale is that it almost seems like a rebuttal to a lot of the previous Big Adventure Time Themes-- that love and creation and community and joy conquers all, even against forces we can barely comprehend. i actually think this was alluded to in the finale itself, when gary threw his pastries at scarab and marshall lee tried to play at him, all to no avail. sometimes, love isn't enough. in every universe, finn and jake and bonnie and marcy find each other, because they love each other and they make each other better. sometimes, you can love someone and need to let them go. sometimes, love isn't enough, and that's also okay.

[tatort-sideblog]

Gegen Tote wird nicht ermittelt, das wissen Sie.

Karow & Rubin Meta

[denkryn]

Imogen feeling… strange that she can no longer hear laudna’s thoughts because back when everyone’s thoughts were chaotically swimming in her mind, the one place she could go to—her safe place, her solace—was laudna’s mind and her thoughts. She was so reliant on this one thing for so long, so dependant on it to live—not even live, but to survive. And now, she doesn’t need it anymore. And it feels like a loss. It feels like she’s lost her safe place—her home. Suddenly, it’s not there anymore. There’s just an emptiness. A silence.

Sure, the chaos is gone, but so is the joy.

[armorguard]

hc + 💌 for a romance-themed headcanon !

thematic headcanons (accepting!) | hc + 💌 for a romance-themed headcanon

okay maggie i see you. fine. let's talk about romance!

i'll start off by talking about how bronya sees love. given her upbringing and the values that have subsequently been instilled within her, i believe bronya loves through duty—devotion, loyalty, unwavering resolve. i don't think bronya has a very clear idea of what love is outside of this. i think her construction of love is not intimate or personal at all. she very much loves like a leader. which is great when you're, well, a leader! but not so great when you're courting someone.

poor seele…..

so why isn't it so great? i personally see it like this: bronya is incapable of recognizing love in a romantic way. she's familiar with it from other people—she knows how courtship goes, she knows how people can fall in love. but she doesn't know how it manifests within her. which is why, when it does start happening, i think bronya is oblivious at first—then a bit anxious once she realizes the depth of her feeling.

romantic love is just such a… strong feeling for her to have towards one person. cocolia is probably the only person she's had quite a deep, personal connection with, and her relationship with her mother is… was… well. you know! so i think bronya doesn't know what to do with it. especially when within the proximity of her, let's just say, object of affection. she gets a bit lost. she feels the urge to fight against it because she fears what it will do to her judgment.

but i think she'll eventually overcome it. this sort of issue is a result of her past and, as we can see throughout the story, bronya's been trying quite hard to break free from that. so i think she'll get her shit together and realize that it's not so bad at all. she wants to love. she's only so afraid of it because she also wants to be careful. but once she lets go of her inhibitions i think she'll be corny as fuck LOL. if you've seen her texts you know she can be a bit of a boomer. she has that traditional noble sentiment. so basically she's a hag stuck in a 22 year old's body. so i think she'll do things very traditionally—flowers once a month, candlelit dinners, perfumed letters.

for now, we're stuck with her being a bit of a disaster. oops. actually i've been writing her to be a bit disastrous but i feel this will change the more she interacts with different people. always love me some good character development! presently, though………… yeah you're gonna have to forgive her

[corkinavoid]

DPxDC John Constantine's How To: Ghost Kids (pt.2)

[<- part 1]

"Oh, yeah," John jerks his head up like he just remembered the fact people are supposed to have names at all. He gestures to the kids, pointing to each of them as he introduces, "Daniel, Daniel, and Danielle."

This time, all three kids flip him off simultaneously. Bruce clears his throat, trying to figure out if Constantine is messing with him and, if so, in which parts. Since, so far, everything the man has said sounds like a poor attempt at pulling his leg.

"I don't think they like those," he cautiously says, and the kids whip their heads at him, nodding furiously. Bruce can't help but be just a little enamored with the way they behave.

"Of, sod off, at this point I don't care what they like," John straightens up with a dismissive, albeit weak, wave of his hands, and rubs his face, "They are menaces. Sometimes by accident, but mostly on purpose. Their grandfather thought it would be easier to handle them if they were not teenagers, and while I agreed with his reasoning at the time, I-" he glances at the kids, who all have displeased grimaces of various levels on their faces, "I have been made to reconsider. I swear that ancient bitch is laughing his ass off wherever he is now."

The kids suddenly grin. They are not very friendly, nor polite smiles - if anything, they look a bit nightmarish. An old grandfather's clock in his study makes a very loud ticking noise.

"See?" John whips his head to look at said clock, the expression on his face bordering on insane. His eye twitches.

If Bruce doesn't do anything now, he might become one of the very few people who managed to witness John Constantine, the Laughing Magician, have a meltdown. So he sighs and decides to solve the problems one at a time.

Which means that no matter how alarmed or suspicious he is, his first move would not be to interrogate either the man or the kids.

"You can sleep in one of the guest rooms, I trust you can find it on your own," he tells John, almost softly, as he catches the girl from slipping away from his lap, "Is there anything I need to know about children before you fall unconscious?"

John slumps with relief, so obviously that Bruce almost smiles. Hardships of raising - or, watching, for that matter - kids, he understands.

"Yes," he breathes out with an air of exhilaration and turns to the kids again, pointing to the middle child, "Danny is the original. He is from this dimension and timeline, that is. Dan," he turns his finger to the older boy, "is in the wrong timeline, he's Danny's future evil self redeemed into older bratty brother. Dani," he switches to the girl, "is Danny's clone, made by his arch-nemesis of a godfather. If she starts melting at any point, wake me up immediately. If any of them start floating, sprouting tentacles, speaking to walls in static, or glowing, don't."

Bruce looks down to the kids. So, definitely metas, that would explain the government trying to get them... Or, no, it wouldn't because he is fairly certain no government is going to blatantly ignore the Meta Protection Acts.

"Don't let them raise the dead, and if you give them food, make sure it doesn't have a face. If you find more than three of them, it means one of them has duplicated, don't worry, they will absorb it back later. Absolutely don't let them touch any guns," Constantine is backing down to the door as he speaks, his gaze flickering from the kids to Bruce and back every second. Like he is leaving a ticking bomb in Bruce's lap, and not three children. "Danny is, comparatively, the most responsible one, the other two are up for any dubious trouble they can get to at any moment. Oh, and their memories are wonky because of de-aging, they remember some things but not others, so if they say something particularly disturbing, it's most likely some random piece of knowledge they managed to keep."

Bruce raises an eyebrow. He did get the part about the kids being, well, abnormal in the matters of their origins, but the disjointed set of rules and advices doesn't help as much as Constantine probably thinks it does.

"Allergies, preferences, ages they were before?" He tries to get at least some more info down before John disappears through the door. Actually, maybe he should send someone to handcuff the man to the bed lest he disappears completely.

"None, but don't let them eat cutlery. Danny likes space, Dani has a thing for exploring, and Dan likes violence." The older kid stirs in Bruce's lap and says something in the direction of Constantine. No sound comes out, but the man seems to get what he's trying to say anyway, "Okay, yes, that was rude of me, sorry. Dan likes... exercise," he ends up with, and that placate the boy enough to slump down and cross his arms. John sighs, "They were seventeen, fourteen, and twenty respectively. Now," he snaps his fingers, and suddenly Bruce can hear the girl - Dani - humming a tune under her breath. So, he lifted the silence spell, it seems.

"Good fucking luck," John wishes to Bruce, earnestly, and all but vanishes away.

Bruce sighs and looks down to the kids.

"Are you hungry?" He tries, and all eyes are on him at once, attentive and unblinking.

"Fruitloops," Danny says, and while Bruce is positive that's the name for a cereal, he gets a feeling that's not what the kid meant.