#he's literally musing about them

[mediterraneanmenace]

Some WIP from a page (prayer circle for me to actually finish it) where Raphael is kind of losing it over Raksha. As in, he's imagining *things* like this pic.

"You haunt my dreams, you steal my breath, Your beauty’s a curse, it’s my living death! I can’t escape, I can’t break free, Why does my heart belong to thee? What have I become, kneeling before you? A fallen creature, drowning in you. Your gaze is my heaven, but my love is in vain, Why, my light, must you bring me this pain? I love you, I hate you, you, my sacred fire, In this torment, I am lost forever to desire I’ll possess you, I’ll make you see You’ll burn with me"

[ghostiezone]

"....Ashe?"

"Who's that?"

short-ish fic under the cut because I had to be in the tranches about this :)

The Wards received the invitation only an hour before they arrived.

i know where to find your friend :)

The crumpled piece of paper looked like it had been drawn in crayon. It was stapled to the front door of their home. Their civilian home.

"Aux-" Failsafe started immediately, but Imprint's hand over his mouth cut off the name before he could finish. The boy wasn't in costume.

Imprint addressed him instead, cautious. "Ashe...?" He lowered his gloved hand from Failsafe's face and stepped forward between his two teammates, slowly, like he was approaching a cornered animal.

Wraith had been a stoic, silent presence since they entered the room, but Failsafe could feel the tension rolling off of him in waves.

The boy sitting on the edge of the desk looked.... young. Younger than he should. The shirt he had been put in was too big for him. Not in the same way his dad's jacket was too big for him- he used that like a turtle shell, something to retreat into, pull over himself like a shield. It was safe, warm, all-encompassing. Despite the issues they knew Ashe and his father had with each other, the love was still there. No, these clothes... they hung loose on his already skinny frame, making him look exposed. Vulnerable. They were monochrome, pale in a way that made him look washed-out, almost ghostly. He sat with his legs crossed, hands holding his ankles. He wasn't wearing shoes. One of the sleeves threatened to slip off his shoulder.

He tilted his head as they entered the room. The movement made Failsafe think of the stray puppies he used to feed in the alley behind their house.

His hair had been washed recently.

Something was very wrong here.

Ashe's face was devoid of all emotion. Though he was looking at the three of them, making eye contact, something seemed... distant. Failsafe reached out with his power and found... nothing.

He felt his heart seize in his chest. He frantically grabbed Imprint's hand before he could take another step forward, and tore his gaze away from Ashe to lock eyes with Wraith He hissed under his breath, he didn't trust his voice not to shake "guys, hes-"

"Breaker state, yeah. I know." Wraith finally broke his silence, voice stony and cold. "Don't get any closer to him."

At the sound of Wraith's voice, Ashe's eyes locked onto him. They were burning with an orange glow.

His head bent further to one side, and his face split into a wide grin that looked almost painful. Failsafe felt Imprint tense, fingers twitching like he was getting ready to reach for a weapon. He squeezed the wrist he was already holding. "Don't. We can't. That's still Ashe."

In that brief moment of distraction, the boy on the desk began to laugh. It was a broken sound, distorted, not like anything they had heard from him before. That deep orange glow in his eyes shone even through his closed eyelids. Wraith's cape billowed as he stepped in front of the other two, barking a clipped "Incoming!" as the space behind the desk began to distort.

Wraith's own warping powers sprang up in response, a translucent blue barrier forming in the air between the wards and their friend. As they watched, unsure of how to act, a rectangular shape began to appear in the air behind where Ashe was sitting, growing clearer and sharper as it eventually formed a sort of doorway. It was hard to look at directly, the light in the room seeming to bend toward the corners. The walls and floor buldged and sank in response to the tear in reality. The door itself was more like a window- a vague, distorted cityscape slowly coming into focus on the other side. The barrier began to ripple, as if it was made of water, as a figure stepped through it into the room.

Ashe's laughing was suddenly doubled as it became clear that whoever had just entered was cackling as well. It was an eerie echo- they were taking the same pauses for breath and short hiccups between giggles. Their shoulders bounced in matching tempo and their heads tilted back toward the ceiling at the exact same time.

The new figure was dressed in a long purple-grey patchwork coat, sleeves torn off and bottom hem ripped to shreds. He wore a darker purple scarf up to his chin, which flared out behind him into a tattered cape. The coat was sinched at the waist with a faded green belt, the end of which swung loose around his legs to give the appearance of a long tail. He wore some sort of blood-red bodysuit which concealed every bit of skin that would otherwise be showing. His darkened silver hair flared out around his head in wild spikes. Over his face, a circular mask concealed any distinguishing features. The mask may have been white once, but was now more of a tarnished brown. Two horns curled upward on either side of the face, which consisted of a cudely painted-on cartoonish black smile with squinted eyes.

"Why, if it isn't the Wards of New Haven!" The figure exclaimed, suddenly dropping into a deep bow. "You can call me the Trickster. Oh, I've been waiting so long to meet you!" There was a sort of childlike excitement in his voice, but there was a strain to it as well, as if holding back the laughter was causing him mental pain.

He turned his head toward Ashe, who was sitting motionless again on the desk. The figure cleared his throat, then in a harsh voice, snapped "You'd best show some respect in the face of such powerful heroes!"

As if dragged down by force, Ashe bent forward, nearly losing his balance and falling face first off of his perch. When he sat back again, his deadpan expression broke into a wide grin again. The smile didn't reach his eyes.

"What are you doing to him?!" Failsafe snapped, voice cracking with the panic of seeing his friend so vulnerable.

"Who, me?" The villain straightened back up, bouncing on his toes as he did. He flung a hand up to his chest in an overdramatic show of offense... and Ashe's hand made the same motion. In a cheap imitation of Ashe's voice, the Trickster echoed "I wouldn't hurt a fly!" As he did, Ashe muttered the same words.

"He's some sort of Master." Imprint's eyes were locked onto the figure, tracing his every move. The subtle shift in his posture put the image of a panther in Failsafe's mind. His next words were directed at the villain. "What do you want with Ashe?"

"Better yet, what do you want with us?" Wraith added. The strain of holding up a constant shield for this long was starting to take its toll on him, hands starting to shake. Even though the Trickster wasn't outright attacking them, knowing he was a Master with this kind of power was enough to keep them all on edge. They didnt know his limitations yet. "You were the one that sent us the note, right? Why bring us here just to stand there and laugh at us?"

The villain started cackling again, bending at the waist with the sheer force of his laughter. "Ashe?!" He straightened back up, mimed wiping a tear from the corner of the eye of the mask. "Who's that? Never heard of them!" As he stood up to his full height, he ran a hand gingerly through Ashe's hair. The boy didn't move, didn't react, despite Failsafe's immediate short burst of anger at the action. The Trickster clicked his tongue, continued to run his hands through Ashe's silvery-purple hair. As his hands moved, a glow began to spread from them. The same orange glow emanating from Ashe's eyes was surrounding the Trickster's fingertips. As he waggled the fingers on his free hand, little orange strings no thicker than spider silk extended upwards from them, seeming to disappear into thin air. The strings reappeared, wound around Ashe's arms. There was a loop around his neck as well, giving the sickening illusion of a collar.

"I just wanted to introduce the three of you to my Muse." He put an odd emphasis on that final word.

It was a name.

"And, to let you know he's mine now, and you can't have him back!" The static smile on the mask somehow looked devilish. It was such a childish statement, as if they were fighting over a toy on the playground, but it sent chills down all three of the heroes' spines. "Finders keepers, he came to me first! That means I get dibs." His voice dropped an octave on that last sentence, suddenly becoming threatening and deadpan. "Try to take him from me if you can. It'll be fun."

Suddenly, he spun on his heel, facing the doorway he came from. The rippling effect was starting to get more pronounced, more unpredictable. "Ah! But it seems like playtime's over for now. We'll see you soon, Wards."

Before he stepped back through the door, the strings around Ashe's limbs tightened, and he was dragged by some nearly-invisible force toward the doorway. He moved stiffly, as if the puppetmaster hadn't gotten used to moving him yet, but eventually he was pulled through the fading doorway.

The Trickster gave them one last mock solute before ducking through as well. The lingering echo of laughter hung in the room around them.

And Ashe- Muse- was gone with him.

[wildsaltair]

today’s topic for discussion: what on earth did Maximus’ soldiers think when they found out he was “dead”? like, their beloved general who fights like a god and is adored by everyone is just… deceased? kicked the bucket? gone on to a better place?

and what did Quintus even tell them to make it believable?? that Maximus died in his sleep of the same “natural causes” Marcus Aurelius died of??? he had an accident with his sword???? he wandered into the forest and never came back?? like what could you possibly tell Maximus’ men that they would believe??

[kareenvorbarra]

i'm forever caught between scylla (agamemnon stans who think he's a better-than-average mythology guy who only has fully consensual sex with the women he's enslaved) and charybdis (agamemnon haters who think he's the worst person ever and that achilles is much better)

[aeolianblues]

was kinda thinking about this when I saw Renee Rapp live recently-- I didn't know her visual vibe, I'd heard a few songs here and there but I hadn't really *seen* her, and her attire at Osheaga was really casual, a jersey (baseball/basketball?) and slacks. And that was so amazing! I couldn't help thinking, the work Billie Eilish has done for how women in pop music are allowed to dress is incredible. Seeing her up there all comfortable you just know that Billie walked in her oversized tops so that Renee in her slacks could run; Billie walked through all the critcisms about how she dressed slobbily and having to assert that she didn't owe anyone a display of skin, so that Renee could be comfortable and unquestioned running up and down the catwalk in front of 10,000 people. How iconic.

And I don't think we even realised at the time how much something as simple as letting Billie dress the way she as a (then-) 17-year-old teenager dressed, could end up meaning for a future generation of women in music.

Obviously there is still way to go, there were weirdos complaining about how 'plain' Dua Lipa's Glastonbury outfit was this year (in 2024!!), l have to ask, are you at Paris Fashion Week?? She is the musical HEADLINER of an entire day of music at one of the biggest music festivals in the world, and you can't grant her the space to exist as an artist, you have to moan about her dress not being excitingly revealing enough. There's work to do, it's still dismal out there. But the space Billie Eilish has created for a most ordinarily-dressed woman popstar is still heartening.

[enruint]

clown jumpscare on the dash. the clown is me. i had this whole essay written out but i decided not to post that bc i am allergic to being perceived and to ever share what's going on with me. sorry chat if i were a character in a show or book i'd be the one the fans would psycho-analyze and decide that 'he'd rather have his nails pulled out one by one than share his feelings tf???' does that mean i'd be the dreaded fan fav?? having the most outrageous takes written about me??? i am joking. but also i am not. as in i am not joking about not wanting to share beyond the bare minimum on the dash right now. gotta keep up my clown face after all JHSABJKDDF anyway!! let me be srs for just a second: the one thing i will share is that i feel so burnt out. and that in turn makes me feel so icky when i log in here. i don't know what it is but i've been on a sort of semi-hiatus for 4 months alrdy and nothing really changed. i want to write here but i also don't want to. it's sickening honestly. i am going to put this blog on an official hiatus rn when it comes to ic writing until i know what to do. you're free to unfollow bc i really don't know when i'll be writing here and i hate saying that i will and then end up not doing anything. save for maybe writing some meta posts once in a blue moon, i don't think i'll be doing much. and even that i can't promise at this point. all this to say that i'll continue to be very scarce for a while. or i'll just remake. it's all up in the air for now. we'll see what future me decides.

[mad-hunts]

its amazing how this is how barton expects someone to act when he kills someone for them (because they're so thankful for him, you know? yeah, barton is wack AF JSJSJ 💀):

but then this is how they actually usually react, and it's like the furthest thing from that:

[melverie]

Have you guys ever noticed that Lucifer hardly ever openly shows his brothers how much he cares for them, meanwhile Satan--who the others say was most influenced by Lucifer--has difficulty properly expressing that he loves and appreciates his brothers?

[asterbats]

i think for the shitty scorpion family, their entire dynamic is definitely toxic (heh) but also neither dusk nor bruno is an inherently terrible person? its just that they’re a) horrible together longterm as they are and b) people who should not have had kids.

[lingeringscars]

I think spencer had a crush on caleb before they left high school, but it wasn't really about him then. She thought he and hanna were perfect for each other, and she craved that type of relationship. She saw how caleb was as a boyfriend, and that was what she wanted for herself. She knew it was unobtainable, and that also made it safe. She felt disconnected from Toby and foundational parts of their relationship were no longer true. She didn't think he cared where she was or even remembered that they were in a relationship most of the time. She no longer felt safe with him, but she did feel safe with caleb. She watched caleb work on himself and try to help hanna, while roby was nowhere in sight and not checking in with her. He represented everything she wanted before she realized he was everything she wanted.

[kerorowhump]

there is something to be said about the narrative of keronians having to hide their presence on earth like besides the obvious plot reasons, because I like to imagine some of them (*cough cough* keroro) don't like it all that much and kinda wish they could just be out in the open without antibarrier

obviously they get seen a lot already but it is a bit sad I think that he can't just like, take off and go to the store, or even the hobby shop, like he needs fuyuki or natsumi to be there to buy it for him

you think he uses the internet a lot because it's his one way to communicate with other pekoponians without it being instantly obvious he's an alien? like he still talks about his interest but... it's with other humans (it was a housewife in that one gag I remember...)

and thinking about that comic where he got lost in town it's like, yeah he gets out of the house so little that he still doesn't know any of the streets and the whole town is new to him, isn't that kinda sad?

and with earth traditions too, like hinamatsuri or christmas or april fools (or setsubun), it seems he makes an effort to understand them and include himself in them (as in, participate and observe them), but he gets it wrong every time. and isn't that also... a bit alienating...

[lord-squiggletits]

You know another funny thing about people thinking Pharma is the Functionist and writing fanon as such is like

Besides the fact that I THINK people got this impression from the fact that he worked with Tyrest who wanted to kill all CC bots

I think it's kind of funny how there's apparently an intersection between Functionism and "being really proud of one's own body" in the eyes of fanon interpretation when that's really not even something Pharma expresses about himself.

The only people who ever make a big deal about Pharma being forged are Ratchet (who talks in MTMTE 4/5 about how forged medic hands make the pinnacle of medicine) and Tyrest (who claims that Pharma is "famous for being forged")

Pharma himself never even once refers to the fact that he's forged or uses that as part of his ego as to why he thinks he's a good doctor (I mean, the only person he cares about being better than is Ratchet, who's also forged).

Idk it's just funny to me because I don't think "being mad that someone stole your hands" is a Functionist way of thinking so much as it is like, a belief in basic bodily autonomy? It's not Functionist for Pharma to want his hands back, at best the most tenuous connection you have to that is "because he's a forged medic and everyone talks about how forged medics are the best so Pharma must believe that too" but Pharma never says that? Like, sure one could argue that Pharma wanting his original hands back is Functionist because it shows how he's attached to his forged body and wants those hands even though he has objectively better hands given to him by Tyrest, but even that feels like a stretch compared to Pharma very explicitly saying "But then I saw you had taken my hands.... You declared war on my body, Ratchet. I'm retaliating." I don't think that being mad about your organs being harvested without your consent makes you a Functionist sdkljflskklsd

[micamone]

The Librarians and Gravity Falls are in the same universe. to me. i'm not confident in my knowledge of the timeline well enough to know who was the librarian in the 80s but i am certain Ford would have gotten a letter from the library as certain as i am that the sun will rise tomorrow i know it in my heart he would have been a fantastic librarian just like i know he would have absolutely scoffed at the idea of employment there and lost the letter immediately after putting it down

[apheliia]

aww they're all so cute! i'm sure nothing bad happens to them, because nothing bad ever happens in this game. ahahah. right? right?

[insurged]

all for one, the dramatic and petty beefcake demon lord

[lususnatura]

what kind of npc are you?

morally grey magic user who is kind of a hermit.

ah, an intellectual. AND morally grey, how sexy of you ;) but in more seriousness, the party of adventurers who run into you and could sorely use your help or guidance have one hell of a time trying to figure you out. you do not find yourself aligning with traditional groups or institutions, but rather wherein your interests lie. you live for doing what you want to do and are just straight vibing. and that confuses a lot of people, but you stay unbothered. that's a magnificent quality about you, that part of you that has learned to not give a shit what other people think because you know that it's a waste of time. you know what you care about and how you want to live and that is what is important to you. while your trust is not lightly earned, anyone who does manage to get on your good side has got themselves a very powerful and very loyal friend. rock on you funky little wizard <|:D

tagged by: @ratwhsprs! (thank youuu <33)

tagging: @oculusxcaro, @hexsreality, @frostise, and anyone else who might like to participate in this!