#i do not control the muse

[ara-ri]

the greek tragedy that is also known as jason todd

thinking about jason todd as a character and what a genuinely tragic character he is.

jason is a character that can never know peace nor justice because the narrative itself will never let him have that peace. the moment DC made the decision to have the joker kill him is the moment his fate was sealed.

joker as a character can't be killed or stopped permanently in any meaningful way, because out of all the batman villains that exist, such an iconic figure could never truly leave the story behind whether it be through death or irrelevance outside the story.

so what then?

batman will continue to stop the joker, continue to put him back in akrham asylum, all the the joker will continue to break out.

but if the joker can't be stopped, then what does this mean for jason?

imagine, your tormentor, your murderer continuing to commit the same atrocities over and over again...and for what? where is the justice in this? how could jason ever move on, if the narrative won't move on from the joker himself?

i know plenty of characters "die" in about every other comic run followed by some type of revival but i cannot emphasis enough that jason todd was not originally intended to come back. death in the family released sometime in 1988 while under the red hood began its publication in 2005

that's roughly 17 years that jason was no longer present in new comic runs, almost a generation or two of comic readers not getting any content that involved him.

nothing to show except sentiment like "oh he was an angry kid", or "he was reckless, bruce shouldn't have taken him in".

jason didn't just die within the narrative, he died from the apathy of phone callers despite outcry. he died of irrelevance because for more than a decade, he had faded from comic relevance aside from some mentions in comic runs (at least until winick resurrected his character).

i honestly don't think there's another character quite like jason who miserably gets all the short end of the sticks. his time spent dead gets treated by such a joke because, wow jason, you're not the only one who's died!

but none have died quite like jason. he can't get any peace or justice from the narrative because dc comics would have the balls to retire an iconic character from the batman comics. and he can't forget because if he forgets, who will remember for him?

coupled with all of that together... wouldn't you get angry?

[nanenna]

A bit of detective work

A continuation of this post, now separated so you don't have to scroll forever to get to the newest installment. Also: masterpost

---

After escorting the Fentons back to their home, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Constantine mutually agreed it was best to stick around Amity Park for a little while. Constantine wandered off to look around on the civilian side, while Batman of course kept his promise to excuse Danny from school. Wonder Woman, also of course, kept with him. Sadly even as a very prominent member of the Justice League, well known to be one of the founders, somehow in situations like this it always took twice as long to get anywhere with civilians if he didn’t have at least one other League member with him.

“Hello, how can I help you?” the secretary asked with a forced grin as the two heroes entered the school’s front office.

“Good morning,” Diana said cheerfully, thankfully taking point. “I’m not sure who we should speak to, we’re here to excuse a student.”

“Oh, you are?” The secretary looked unsure, glancing back and forth between the two heroes.

“Yes, he’s currently marked with an unexcused absence, we’re here to change it to an excused absence.”

“Right…” the secretary squinted up at them suspiciously. Or rather, up at Diana suspiciously. “Well, if you would just hold on one moment please.” The secretary picked up an old style land line and pressed a button. “Principal Ishiyama, there’s a Mr. Batman and a… Ms. Wonder Woman here, they wish to speak about a student’s absence.” The secretary made a few “I’m listening” sounds before hanging up. They turned their attention back to the League members. “Principal Ishiyama’s office is just down that hall.”

“Thank you!” Diana beamed at the secretary before walking confidently down the hallway, Batman at his side.

The inside of Principal Ishiyama’s office is rather cramped,clearly intended pubescent children and not adults who keep such active lifestyles. Diana graciously sits in one of the austere, hard chairs. Batman chooses to remain standing.

“Now, what’s this all about?” Ishiyama asked, eyeing Wonder Woman warily.

How odd, it was usually Batman that everyone eyed suspiciously.

“We’re here about Daniel Fenton’s absence,” Diana started. She paused long enough for the principal to pull up the young man’s information. “The investigation is ongoing so we can’t give out any details, but last night we rescued Danny from kidnappers. He has been returned to his parents, but for obvious reasons he will not be back in school today.”

“Ah, I see,” the principal said. She did not seem to see. “And you want his absence excused?”

“If the police had come to you saying he’d been kidnapped,” Batman stated clinically.

“Yes, right, of course.” The principal set about clicking a few things on her computer before returning her full attention to the heroes. “Was there anything else?”

It was almost refreshing how easy that had been. Normally Batman would have to lay out what he meant in excruciating detail and have whoever was with him repeat it before a civilian in half a position of power listened to him, outside of Gotham anyway. “Dr. Madeline Fenton was upset not to have been informed of Danny’s absence,” Batman stated.

Ishiyama flinched, “Oh dear. Thank you for warning me, I shall look into that before they arrive later.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“Dr. Madeline Fenton also stated that everyone in Amity Park knows about the Ghost King.”

“Ghost King?” The principal looked up in surprise, “What does he…? No wait, ongoing investigation.” She side eyed Diana warily, then sighed as she looked back towards Batman. “Last year the Ghost King got out of his sarcophagus, we still don’t know how, and pulled all of Amity Park into the Ghost Zone. Fortunately Phantom, along with the help of most of the town, managed to put him back in the sarcophagus.”

“Why didn’t you contact the Justice League for help?” Diana asked with a frown on her face.

“How were we supposed to do that from inside the Ghost Zone?” The principal asked with a raised brow. “By the time we were back in the real world everything was over and dealt with, aside from cleaning up all the damage his army of skeletons did.”

“And Phantom is?” Batman prompted.

“Out local hero, I suppose. At first he was a menace, but recently the good he does far outweighs the inevitable collateral damage.”

Batman leaned forward, looming over Ishiyama’s desk. “Are you aware the Justice League has programs specifically meant to give support to minors doing hero work?”

“I was not, but considering Phantom is a ghost we’re not sure exactly how old he is. Either way, you’re here now.”

“Yes, and we should speak with the mayor about the supervillain attack recovery programs the Justice League also has.”

Ishiyama smiled and nodded along, “That sounds like a wonderful idea.”

Once out of the school and walking towards city hall, Diana turned to Bruce. “Phantom is a minor?”

“He is described as appearing to be in his mid-teens, strangely no photos of him despite there being photos of other ghosts all over the residents’ social medias and newspaper articles.”

“That is odd,” Diana mused.

“This whole town is odd,” Constantine said as he sidled up to them. “Apparently getting sucked into, and I quote, the lime jello dimension by the ghost king is just another Tuesday here.”

“The principal called it the Ghost Zone,” Diana supplied.

“A silly thing to call the Infinite Realms, but not the silliest name it’s been given over the eons. What I don’t get is how Pariah Dark got bloody out for a day and not one single person noticed, that should’ve been a huge event everyone even remotely sensitive to æther should’ve felt.”

“You believe someone intentionally hid this event?” Batman asked.

“It’s the only thing that makes a lick of sense, but that would take either someone scarily powerful or a group of very powerful people. And that’s not even getting into the why.”

“Perhaps this cult wasn’t the first to attempt to summon him,” Batman mused darkly. “Someone chose to release him, and since Amity Park is already a ghost hotspot I can see why this is where they’d choose to attempt such a thing.”

Constantine nodded along, “I was thinking the same thing. But it gets worse, no one in the JLD has heard or sensed a single thing about this town before today. I’m thinking it’s less someone chose to cloak Pariah Dark specifically and more someone is cloaking the whole town and everything going on inside it.”

“Then how did whoever freed Pariah Dark know to come here for their attempt?” Diana asked, “How did this cult know enough to use one of the residents as a sacrifice?”

“Ain’t that just the million pound question?” Constantine asked airily. “Along with: how did they even get into the Infinite Realms to let the bloody tyrant out?” The group fell into silence, no one having an answer to that question. “So, what next?”

“We’re heading to the mayor’s office to make sure they’re aware of Justice League resources that are available to anyone who’s suffered from villain attacks,” Diana answered.

“Despite numerous attacks and complaints of collateral damage, not one request from Amity Park for villain attack relief,” Batman added.

“Now that is interesting,” Constantine said.

[vaguely-concerned]

My two cents on how much of Mind!Varric is Rook’s mind trying to fill the blank space and how much is Solas actively talking through a convenient blood magic paper doll of the mind: I think it's a mix of both, a truly collaborative psychosocial horrorshow if you would, but waaaay more towards the second. It feels too directed and tactical at times to be anything else. Rook's mind is willing to go along with the denial phase as far as it can fucking carry them to not have to face the grief and regret and does its part in papering over details that don’t make any sense, the way brains will strive to create coherent meaning even out of deeply confusing input, but to my understanding it's a collaborateur in how that plays out, not the instigator or control center. Solas is using it as a path to agency and to gather insight into Rook as a person unguarded as he can't count on in his own guise. (That stoic option that leads to him being like 'oh I see you're cautiously denying me access to your inner life. well. at least you still have Varric to talk to. y'know as an outlet :)'. You absolute BITCH Solas! That alone convinced me that he HAS to have an active hand in it on some level.)

My guess is that it takes considerable effort on Solas’ part to make Mind!Varric do anything more involved or complicated than seeming to sit up in bed and give casual commentary, and that’s why he keeps having eerie five minute shallow pep talks with you before he announces he conveniently needs a nap aaanyway good luck kid you got this haha. When he’s just spouting NPC lines from his bedrest, I’m ready to believe that could be Rook’s mind being allowed to improv lines for him more freely because it’s less about Solas trying to get something out of them or working an angle and more ‘Still here! Still totally alive and fine and the mentor figure you know and love and trust :) don’t even worry about it! Thankfully there is no war in Ba Sing Sei, as we all know’ upkeep work lol. Rook’s mind is allowed to set the tone of Varric, the outlines, but not always the content. 

AND, on a (beautifully fucked up) character psychology level, I feel like Solas is indulging in actually getting to be the good supportive mentor figure to Rook with one hand to assuage the guilt he feels about what he's done -- and what he's going to do -- to them with the other. Same internal logic as he uses in Trespasser about the Qun. ‘Almost everyone is going to die from the course of action I’m doggedly pursuing eventually. But at least I can make their last years happier and freer and kinder than they would have been otherwise. and that kind of makes up for it right. a little bit. doesn't it. doesn't that make it better at least. I need that to make it better)'. Did I really take your beloved mentor and friend from you if you don’t know yet that I did? Some philosophers would argue not really! So it’s probably almost ok actually. Isn’t it even a little noble that I’m taking all this grief and guilt on myself and shielding you for now. With undertones that I’m not sure he would realize himself (and might be mortified by if he did) that he is so incredibly lonely, and even a dishonest and indirect emotional connection is more than nothing when you’re that desperate. In this setup he gets idk. Both the control he craves so incredibly badly in relationships and over himself, and the scraps, the fading afterimages, of intimacy and warmth and companionship, even second hand. The one thing Solas and Rook agree on deep deep down is that they really wish Varric weren't gone. They're handshake memeing this in the saddest and most creepy way possible.

I think an important element too is that Solas needs Rook and their team to *succeed* —  up to a certain point. He needs someone to hold the two other elven mean girls off until he can get out of here. Ideally, in a perfect world, even do all the hard work of killing them so he can swoop in at the end and do his thing when both sides are exhausted and out of resources to stop him, and then Bob’s your uncle! Same logic as he was using with Corypheus, and after that worked out so well, too! King of choosing to never learn from a single solitary mistake he’s ever made even though i fully believe he could have the capacity to Fen’Harel <3 The underlying idea isn’t flawed, you see, it was just unforeseen circumstances getting in the way. This time for sure it’ll all work out the way I cleverly imagined it in my head beforehand. Cue By Talos this can’t be happening etc. in the form of a statue almost crushing him like a bug. 

So he's providing guidance and forging Rook into a leader from two angles: one Rook might not trust, and one they probably will. Shaping them into what he needs slowly and carefully. He’s helping you hone your team into their most effective state, as he might have done with his own agents back in the day, setting up his chess pieces even if he has to squint through two glimpsed realities to do it haha. Pincer maneuver of an insidious stealth mentor you never asked for. Also… at one point mind Varric gives you a whole little monologue about how Solas' problem is that he’s always seen his interpersonal connections as flaws and see where it’s landed him, all alone and the worst part? it hasn’t even worked. it’s all been for nothing he’s back where he began with nothing to show for it but his mistakes. Like...that has such strong 'uh okay happy to play your therapist from two rooms away here what the fuck kind of traumadump is this' energy to me, I’m not sure Rook like. Thinks that much about Solas as a private person. So much of Solas' self-loathing and futile insights into his own flaws seem to shine through in Mind!Varric's dialogue all the time — I just can't believe that there's no guiding hand behind it as it were. 

Most of all. I feel like people underestimate the degree to which Solas is incredibly funny. As in, he has a very consistent and recognizable sense of humour. It’s one of my very favourite things about him. We must remember — it is crucial that we always keep in mind — Orlesian accent and wig Solas from May The Dread Wolf Take You (my beloved, the explanation for why I love this dude even with the. All of the everything else. No one does it quite like him). He is not at all above doing things or adding little flourishes for his own obscure amusement, in fact that seems to me to be one of his most consistent traits. The Randy Dowager Quarterly comment Varric has? The ‘Maybe this is the Dread Wolf’s revenge. Forcing us to house sit for him’ thing? To Me this is 100% Solas amusing himself in his boring Fade jail surrounded by the screaming hellscape of all his regrets. Source: it came to me as divine revelation through pure vibes trust me bro 

If nothing else I find it much more narratively interesting personally if the connection between Rook and Solas really is that defenselessly intimate and entwined (and so unbalanced!), and the sense of violation and invasion and betrayal afterwards consequently all the more nauseatingly intense. Even if you kept him at arm’s length in the open, he’s been under your skin the whole time, looking around, gathering what he needs to destroy you, wearing the face of a friend. Regretfully, probably, but choosing to do it every step of the way anyway. (Sound familiar, Inquisitor? Solas doesn’t have that many tricks when you actually look at it, he keeps returning to old tried and true ones like a dog with a bone haha.) Maybe he even genuinely meant some of it as mercy, which only makes it so much worse. It makes his sin against his own core principles of autonomy and the freedom of all beings in mind, spirit and body so much more juicily grave if it’s something he pursues actively and consistently, rather than it half-falling into his lap as a happy accident mainly orchestrated by Rook’s own subconscious. Solas, too, is at his very lowest point, the closest to giving in and becoming his own antithesis fully that he’s ever been, and it makes the choice of whether you still reach out your hand to him one last time or not all the more impactful and difficult.

[arvale-artist]

whoopsie.

I can't believe I drew Blynt more than DUNCAN, I need to fix this soon...

[pinkrose05]

Sungenti & Robinhill would go on the most terse double dates in history. That's it that's the post.

[nunyverse-scribe]

Behind every great writer, is a child who had no other sense of control in their life

[tragedry]

Now we need you to write a tyden confession scene............ y'know, to make things even. Or you can talk about when they realized their feeling for each other 🥺

the fact that y'all are starting to associate me to both ashler and tyden is hilarious cause i'm pretty sure i started this side blog to only talk about ashler asfhafla

but here we are, so let me try to put together a coherent enough tyden confession for you at 4 am:

side note: this got really long way too fast, and i'm pretty sure this only tackled aiden's feelings, but i hope you like it anyway anon!

when aiden realizes he's starting to like tyler, everything just clicks.

he's laying on his bed, his eyes staring up at the glow in the dark stars he's poorly glued on his ceiling back when he was ten when the realization hits him, and he's finally put a name to the emotion tyler manages to invoke inside his chest whenever the other boy would stop scowling and actually offer him one of those once-in-a-blue-moon, downright stunning smiles that probably belonged on a movie poster whenever one of aiden's jokes finally lands.

it's like the last step of figuring out how to solve a brand new rubik's cube, and for a moment he revels in the satisfaction of just knowing, except by the time he tries to figure out how to proceed from such a revelation, he’s coming up blank.

for the first time in his life, his crush on tyler is the only puzzle he has no idea how to move forward to.

if he’s being honest with himself, knowing that he actually likes the halfwit doesn't really change much of their situation, if anything it would probably only make things worse if tyler found out.

and it's not like he's stupid enough to actually believe he's got a shot, not when he's made it his entire personality to annoy the ever living shit out of the baseball player any chance he’s got.

the thought of tyler’s possible rejection inflicts a pain that courses through his entire body, stilling him until he has to remind himself to breathe.

aiden decides he doesn’t really like thinking about this particular puzzle anymore—not when his own emotions have cursed him.

he refuses to think about the problem any further. he’ll set his feelings for tyler aside and ignore it till it goes away completely. 

he’s always been good at ignoring his problems, and this is no different.

with his mind made up, he lets himself relax until the pang in his chest dulls out and he’s ready to forget it was ever there in the first place.

and just when things were finally starting to feel normal again, that’s when the halfwit decided to reply to his text. 

the reply is short, dry, and straight to the point– and it’s just so like him that aiden catches himself snorting when he reads the simple, “fuck if i know.” right after aiden’s last annoying question. 

he hadn’t even expected the other boy to reply, except tyler always did.

no matter how much he purposely tries to piss him off or how many memes he sends the other boy, tyler will reply, whether it was a sarcastic comment or a curse, all of his messages are read and answered.

it was kind of addicting, to be heard-to have his existence acknowledged by someone who had every right to tell him to shut up and walk away.

he can feel his heartbeat racing all over again as he re-read tyler’s text, and as he typed out a reply he knew it was going to be hard for him to fall asleep.

the clock on his phone reads past 1 am, and he wants to point it out to tyler cause he’s always complaining about staying up late whenever aiden’s in the mood to mess with him.

but before he could say anything about it, tyler’s already sending him a brand new text, and this one’s even more humorless than before.

his earlier thought is momentarily forgotten, and he ends up sending the other boy a series of memes pointing out how badly tyler’s killing their convo with his lackluster replies, and aiden selfishly hopes that tyler takes the bait and talks to him even longer, even if just to prove him wrong.

aiden wonders if tyler would hate him for it.

he lifts his eyes back to the stars on his ceiling and hopes.

he hopes that tyler won’t hate him for being selfish, hopes that his feelings for the other boy won’t last, and hopes that by the time he wakes up the following day, the pain in his chest disappears completely. 

his phone lights up with a brand new text and aiden begins to type out a reply without really reading what the text said.

'can you promise you won’t hate me too?'

the reply gets deleted, and he sends tyler another meme instead.

[quinloki]

I control the story!

I'm writing it!

I decided when they kiss!

I want them to KISS!!

BUT THE STORY'S NOT READY FOR THEM TO KISS

So

I gotta Wait for the story

I CONTROL

to be ready.

/seethe/

[enigmaticvariation]

I don't talk about it much because it makes me fly into a blind rage and get so angry that I start shaking and frothing at the mouth like a feral chihuahua but what the mcu is currently doing to the young avengers is my own personal 911

[vandalizedheart]

btw just a general thing: I'm unlikely to do any fight threads unless my rp partner is willing to plot/communicate with me during the process... cuz otherwise idk what the hell to do lol.

[despair-tea]

this was just an observation my friend made a while ago but it got me thinkin' a little bit. Personally, I got over my aversion to sports by fencing in college. Coz it turns out I didn't hate sports. In fact, I think training and learning the rules and pushing myself to improve is super fun! That's the same stuff I like about video games. And despite being a life-long poindexter, all that physical activity felt GOOD, and it was nice to connect with folks.

What I hated about sports as a kiddo was the shame. I hated people acting like I ought to know this or that (despite being a know-nothing child). I hated being excluded and looked down upon for not being good. I despised the way the adults around me treated kids wrt sports. Also I couldn't see and had asthma and neither of these problems got treated until I was on my way out of high school (getting my first inhaler was one of the main reasons I was able to fence at all, in fact).

combat sports are great to me because they're all about that individual journey. I didn't have to worry about letting a team down who might yell at me later for my performance. It's just me and my own heart and my love for the game - THAT'S sports.

[truethes]

honestly small but daily reminder that as long as it's not creepy/illegal its great to ship whatever you want! doesn't matter if it's two characters who have never even met before or the most popular ship in your fandom, if it brings you joy and you enjoy writing it, don't be ashamed of doing so.

[sbrn10]

C3E23

C3E63

C3E76

C3E85

C3E86

C3E89

[anthromimicry]

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

second question actually hey do you think people Know that muse is controlled. do people know that there's Nothing going on up in there and he's just a thing being piloted/puppeted/used by the trickster. or do people think that he is actively a person who is Choosing to do all this... side note almost accidentally it/its-ed muse here and i'm really feeling Some kind of way about that actually!!!!!! lays down and dies.

GOD OKAY. HM. both of those are so fucking good. god. i mean i think the people who Know Him (wards, mark, tide, etc) know that its not him. he would never do that. and besides the wards saw him with the trickster before he was even muse so theyd know he was controlled and would probably tell their divorced dads (or. tide at least) BUT LIKE. TO EVERYONE ELSE??????? WHO KNOWS. god. i mean like. the puppet strings Are visible so i think anyone with any familiarity with the tricksters powers would recognize it. but for the people who dont know the trickster..... i think they'd just see muse as his own person unless told otherwise. fuck!

[grimulf-of-the-wilderness]

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