#how do i reconnect

[dailyloopdeloop]

DAY 71: shy

[purplebehittindifferent]

Hope y’all have got some kromer or this call might be pretty short.

masterpost

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(a quick thanks to my beta reader @prunpplee)

[tsunael]

Towards a new horizon.

[slightly-depressed-sloth]

Whenever ppl imply Damian would be homophobic I just kinda assume they're either new to comics or have some internal biases to work out cause I don't know who they're talking about but it isn't my boy Damian ultimate-over-invested-ally Wayne

[catacombbee]

theory time. spoilers for sbg new episode 74

does anyone actually fucking trust Maverick rn? im so fr i don't trust him one BIT.

Alex i trust. Alex seems like he has good intentions (especially with him telling Aiden he wasnt supposed to tell them) but how much could he really help? it doesn't feel like he's very high up the totem pole yk. maybe we'll have like a- Alex sticking his neck out to help/save the kids somehow and dies for it, perhaps on accident

but anyway I DONT FUCKING TRUST MAVERICK AND YOURE DUMB IF YOU DO im kidding. im kidding you're not dumb. im kidding you're amazing and go drink your water rn pls

i have SO MANY THOUGHTS ON

1. the fact he's trying to get the kids to trust him

2. the fact that he went to BEN first of all people

starting with no. 1, i think he wants something. he so CLEARLY wants something. i don't TRUST THIS MAN he may be HOT but he is UP TO SMTH!!! what i don't know is what he wants from the kids. getting them on his side and trusting him feels like a way of getting more information out of them, and what could he possibly be digging for if not more information on the phantom realm?

Alex was asking Ashlyn about the fact that they all asked for ASL books at the same time and thus must have some way of communicating. i think they must know it has to do with the phantom realm (though they don't know that it's an entire separate dimension i think) and Maverick wants to know more about how they're communicating. with the promise that he will protect them from the rest of the government, which i think might just entail "keeping you for ourselves"

and how does he get the kids to trust them? making himself seem like a good option, and separating himself from "those who put them here." the government. the bad part of the government. and how does he do that?

well that's where we come to no. 2

they have cameras. they can watch the kids and how they're acting. in fact, they've been watching the kids for a while now. if i were to pick anyone to try and talk to to get on my side having observed them from a distance, maybe id pick Taylor or Logan. the others are stubborn or unpredictable in their own ways.

So why Ben?

Maverick is trying to draw several comparisons in Ben's mind, especially with using language like the above and like this:

What Maverick is trying to connect in Ben's mind is this:

The authority = The government that locked them up here

The government =/ Maverick and his people

He's trying to get into Ben's mind and say "Hey. We want the same thing you want: to get rid of this place." The way he calls them a bunch of pigs ALMOST makes me hesitate on thinking he's being insincere, but on the other hand would that phrasing not resonate with a jaded teenage boy who's been in trouble before?

Maverick went to Ben because he saw a way in through Ben. Even though Ben is violent and stubborn (right now. and towards the staff), he recognizes that he can use Ben's past as a way of leveraging himself to a higher status in Ben's mind. Besides, if he can get one of the more stubborn kids to crack first, he's got a much easier way in with the others.

Furthermore, this will lead to more observation. He must know the kids are communicating somehow, he just doesn't know how exactly yet. This part isn't Ben specific, but by talking to one of them, he then gives himself the opportunity to watch the rest more closely for any mention of things he's said to Ben. Evidence that they have some way of talking. A way of figuring out how they're doing so.

Maverick is using Ben's past to manipulate him into trusting him.

and im pissed off abt that

BUT THATS JUST A THEORY. A GA-

anyway though i just wanted to rant about this episode and how it made me feel cus im upset and i want to hug Ben. if you don't like my theory and/or have a different one please please reblog and yap about it (nicely) i LOVELOVELOVE hearing different opinions on headcanons and theories and such. OR BUILD ON MY THEORY! i like yapping pls yap to me okay bye

also ty @arcaneafterhours for giving me screenshots cus i can't screenshot. ilu

[folkloregirlfriend]

today i realised i have a body and a name and people can see me

[secondbeatsongs]

I love being someone's science experiment

[kemendin]

How We See In The Dark

“What good is a drow who can’t see through the dark? Who cringes from the shadows instead of becoming them?” Unsettled by the atmosphere of the Shadow-Cursed Lands, Dhamari tentatively accepts Gale's invitation to spend the night in the comfort of the wizard’s tent. But the drow feels uncertain, wary of the affections growing within him, and Gale is weighed down with darkness of his own. Seeking solace in each other's company is all well and good, but Dhamari is about to discover that becoming truly close with someone is an even more convoluted experience than he has imagined.

Gale x Ace!Tav Words: 13,700 A/N: Hurt/comfort with both angst and fluff. Spoilers through Act II. Content warnings for canon-typical violence, discussions of death, suicidal imagery, and implied abuse. I promise there's also lots of cuddling and hand holding to balance it out.

Read on AO3 (excerpt below cut)

Lost in trying to make sense of the indistinct shapes formed by the shroud of gloom overhead, Dhamari’s normally keen senses fail him. His ears give a belated twitch at the pad of nearby footsteps. He rolls quickly to one side, and sees a pair of elegantly embroidered slippers shuffling past. A curious contrast with such bleak and broken surroundings, but then, their wearer has never been one to stint on the comforts of home, even out here in the wilderness.

Gale pauses in his path, his attention caught by Dhamari’s movement. He turns, glancing down, and offers a small, tired smile to the drow - an expression that only accentuates the lines wrought on his face.

“I see I’m not the only one finding it difficult to sleep.” His voice is low, and sounds faintly distorted, as though the very air refuses to let his words pass easily through its thickened veil. “I thought I might wear myself out with a walk around camp, but instead my nerves feel more tightly wound than ever.”

Looking up at him, Dhamari experiences a quick flurry somewhere inside that has nothing to do with his readiness to jump at shadows. It’s hardly hidden anymore, how he feels about Gale - and certainly Gale has made no secret of his own attraction to the drow - but a kind of awkwardness still lingers between them, keeping them at arm’s length from each other. An uncertainty of when, and how, and what does this even mean, when they are both, in a very real sense, dead men walking; because if the parasites curled inside their heads don’t take them, then the black magic lodged within Gale’s chest surely will.

“There’s an almost tangible discomfort in the air, isn’t there?” Gale goes on. “A weight.” He glances towards the glow of the campfire, then out past the shrivelled trees, where shadows and spectres reign. “It makes you wonder if, when you close your eyes, you’ll ever manage to open them again.”

Dhamari slowly pushes himself into a sitting position. “They might as well stay closed, for all the help they’ve been,” he replies. The sullen tone of his words is mirrored on his angular face - a shallow scrunch of his aquiline nose and a slight baring of sharp teeth. “What good is a drow who can’t see through the dark? Who cringes from the shadows instead of becoming them?” 

He gives a rough shake of his head, his long ears lowering moodily. He feels uneasy here, out of place - floundering where he should be formidable. Even years spent on the surface hadn’t eradicated his instincts for navigating the Underdark, instincts that had proved vital during the party’s recent venture below-ground. But here, those same instincts feel weak, nearly ineffectual. And he does not care for it.

“Ah, but what you’re used to is the absence of light,” says Gale. He lifts a finger and then leans forward slightly, in the way he often does when he’s explaining something. “What surrounds us now is an actual presence of darkness - and a magical presence, at that. Not an obvious distinction, in many cases, but when one considers the curse that plagues this land, the difference becomes quite blatant.”

Dhamari casts a look out at the nigh-impenetrable fog, and his lips thin. “I’m not sure that makes me feel any better,” he mutters.

“Perhaps not.” Gale tilts his head as he considers the drow for another moment, then straightens up. “But as they say - and I can attest to this, emphatically - knowledge is power. Even simply knowing what it is that’s causing you such disquiet can give your mind the chance to lessen its hold, if you’ll let it.”

Dhamari pushes a sceptical tch out between his teeth, a sound remarkably reminiscent of Lae’zel. “Knowing what the problem is doesn’t make it magically disappear, Gale.”

“Alas, no,” Gale concedes, with a wry huff. “At least, not entirely.” Perhaps sensing the drow’s still-simmering discontent, he spreads a placating hand and adds, “I merely offer what wisdom I’ve gleaned from enduring many a sleepless night of my own.”

But this wisdom feels like only the feeblest of lights when compared to the shadows around them, and Dhamari does not reply. He hunches forward, tugging the single roughspun blanket higher upon his legs as another shiver passes through him. He can feel Gale’s eyes upon him still, and somehow that makes it worse - that the focus of his unversed affections should be standing there, watching him come unravelled in the darkness.

An awkward silence descends between them, thick as clinging cobwebs, until at last Gale clears his throat and speaks again.

“Of course… it can also help to have someone with you,” he ventures. “Someone to tug your mind away from your troubles.” 

He hesitates, then proceeds more carefully:

“Perhaps you and I would both find ourselves resting easier… in company?”

At this, Dhamari goes quite still. His suddenly quickened heartbeat sounds very loud to him, drowning out the eerie echoes that are filtering through the campsite. And louder still, a memory of Gale’s voice from only a day or two ago, pushing to the forefront of his mind:

“But standing at your side through such darkness and disrepair… it only makes me want you more.”

Another flurry of emotion twists through the drow; but this time, the affection that wells within him is sullied by something distinctly nervous.

He wets his lips. “In… company?” he repeats, questioning, maybe even stalling, and feeling more than ever that he is stumbling blindly through the dark. He considers his simple, narrow bedroll, then flicks a dubious look up at Gale. “You mean - here? With me?”

“That is… certainly an option,” Gale replies, with a thoughtful back-and-forth wobble of his head. But he seems to share something of the other’s doubt, because he is quick to add, “Or, if you so desire - you may also consider this an informal invitation to stroll across our camp and join me for the night. No slight intended, but I daresay that what I laughingly call my living space these days is still a tad more comfortable than a skin spread out across a rock.” His lips quirk with a rueful little smile. 

Dhamari dips his head in acknowledgement of this, even as he swallows against the mass of growing confusion that’s taking hold inside him. He and Gale have hardly shared more than fond words, bright yet bashful looks, the occasional deliberate squeeze of a hand. Once, admittedly, a bone-crushing hug on Dhamari’s part, when he’d welcomed Gale back from the dead following a disastrous encounter with an Underdark bulette, and several heartstopping minutes spent scrambling to revive the wizard in the aftermath. The ferocity of the drow’s sudden embrace had taken both of them by surprise; Dhamari can still recall Gale’s eyes going wide with startled gratitude, and then warming with a flicker of something more, as the still-cold breath of his thanks brushed past his saviour’s cheek. But Dhamari - still unsteady in his own heart, and deeply flustered - had quickly disengaged, and before he could think again Gale had drawn back, turned away, and the moment had passed.

And now - quite suddenly, it seems to Dhamari - Gale is offering the drow a place in his bed.

Dhamari’s twilight fingers grip at his blanket in trepidation. He wants to be closer to Gale - very much, in fact. So much that he’s caught himself physically drifting nearer the man as they traverse these desolate roads, until he feels the finely woven fabric of the wizard’s robes brushing against his shoulder. 

The issue is - he is not at all convinced that his definition of ‘closer’ aligns with Gale’s own. 

But when he looks up again, it is to find Gale’s hand extended out towards him, and a more earnest smile - oh, that smile - broadening the other man’s bearded lips.

“Come on,” Gale invites him, and then, softer: “Please.”

[inquisitor-apologist]

Have we, as a fandom, progressed to the point that we can realize that Twilight of the Apprentice, while a good episode, is not a particularly great Rebels episode and is certainly the least functional finale in the entirety of Rebels?

[ssruis]

Rlly funny rks au idea with the fairy tsk costume where fairies are assigned to help troubled miserable people & tsk is assigned to rui who wants nothing to do with him. obligatory dissection joke included ofc.

[dionte-goethe]

I was inspired by that one scene in "more than anything" from Hazbin Hotel. Just thinking about the way Jiang Cheng had to face these sect leaders with a destroyed sect, no alliances (until Yanli married and even then...), and the fallout of Wei Wuxian's actions. He just doesn't want Jin Ling to have to deal with all the terrible things he had to deal with as a young sect leader, he's tried to protect him from all that, when JL wants him to step back because JC could tear himself apart protecting JL...

[yourinterestisnotcringe]

Challenge Pit Relay w/ Sarah Whittle (2023)

Little moments that make me feel emotions #27384949595

[hogoflight]

for cat au I literally cannot imagine a more in-character alternative than Commodus giving his whole angry-ex mildly-flirty speeches, completely unchanged, to Apollo who is a cat. He picks him up (receives a MROW) and starts yelling at him. when Commodus finishes Apollo replies with a brief pause Then MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Yeah everyone else is just awkwardly standing there in the background (but sometimes also fighting for Commodus to UNHAND THE KITTY!)

I think bc we see Apollo’s attraction to people change when he becomes Lester, when he’s a cat we unfortunately don’t get him simping over Commodus. BUT CONSIDER (cursed) (prepare yourself for this) he has a tension-loaded rivalry with Aristophanes which is ENTIRELY one-sided (“This cruel fool seeks to endear himself to me in order to gain my favour and, therefore, leniency for his planned offences! I shall plan ahead and ensure I can resist him and his adorable squished face… NO! you have already fallen for his trap! Remember! He is nothing to you! NOTHING!” “you’re in my seat can u leave. Please”) and he kicks up a HUGE fuss (yet another MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA) when he has to leave New Rome. He promises to never forget him (tries to give himself 50 concussions when he turns back into a God he is tormented and in horror).

[djoqueery]

✌🏼

[bucephaly]

ᏙᏳᏍᏗ ᎯᎠ..........????

[puppyeared]

i feel shy talking here when i dont have anything worth sharing but i cant help feeling like ive said things in the tags that could be brought up in court