#if he doesn't wake up don't go

[starcurtain]

Just caught up with Natlan's archon quest and lord help me, I have a burning need to see Alhaitham and Ororon interact.

I truly feel that they would vibe perfectly. Not in a ship way, but like, in the way of Kaveh quietly wailing: "For archons' sake, he's brought another tacky thing into the house. Traveler, please do something; they've been staring eye to eye over the coffee table for like an hour now but haven't said a single word. I don't know what to do. Send help."

[little-pondhead]

Danny moved to Gotham.

Freakshow is touring in Gotham.

Freakshow knows Danny is in Gotham.

Danny knows Freakshow is still after him.

Danny's faith in heroes has been shattered.

Danny turns to the only person powerful enough to run Freakshow out of town, hopefully for good.

Danny turns to the Joker for help.

The Joker is looking for a new punching bag sidekick after Harley Quinn left him.

Danny is just the perfect person to be shaped by the Joker's hands.

Danny becomes the new Joker Junior.

[somegrumpynerd]

Hc that if something or someone wakes Dream from a deep sleep, he summons and fires his bow on instinct

[wandixx]

Ghost of fries and Hero of cookies

All work words count: 14 593

Words in this part: 2 224

Summary of whole work: Duke wasn't expecting to wake up from his quick rooftop nap to some meta kid with fries. He also wasn't expecting kid to stay Or Danny asked Dani to stay safe while she was in Gotham. Where would she be safer than under the wing of local hero? And he looked like he needed bad day combo anyway

This part summary: First meeting and training discussions Beta read by @audhumla-sailor though English is second language for both of us, so proceed with this in mind. I also know all of the charaters through fics alone, so probably ooc. Stay catious if it's something you don't like

Duke was running out of fumes to run on. Last few days would be exhausting if it was just vigilante or just civilian stuff but no, he had to have it both. Because of Arkham break out he had been called in three nights in a row, not for a whole patrol but he couldn't exactly sleep it of during the day like others did, especially not in a week when every teacher decided they need to have test or quiz or what not. Naps meant he wasn't as sleep deprived as he could be but he needed far more. But he couldn't because crime in Gotham never sleeps so he had normal patrol to finish and there were about two ours left.

Would something bad happen if he just stopped for a moment and laid on a roof? Ten up to fifteen minutes. It was a slow day too...

Yeah, no, he deserved a moment to rest and if something disastrous was to happen in the meantime he would shame other Bats for not giving him enough time to sleep.

It certainly said something that he found gravel covering this roof to be quite comfortable. He set a timer for ten minutes and let himself close his eyes.

When loud screech of timer jolted him awake, he was suddenly fully aware that he wasn't alone anymore. He sat up a little too quickly.

"Oh, you're awake," white haired girl around Damian's age chimed, sitting cross legged just few feets away from him. She wore something that could only be described as an unholy mix of lab safety hazmat and skintight workout jumpsuit, white and black. When had Gotham gotten a new vigilante? "Good, I just returned from snack hunt," she added, gesturing at a big textile bag lying next to her. Duke didn't have enough brainpower to do anything more than ask.

"What?"

Girl shrugged, take out from BatBurger in her hand.

"You look like you have a bad day if not few days, so I've got you my cousin's bad day combo or at least closest thing I could. BatBurger burger isn't as good as NastyBurger but you certainly have better fries," as she spoke, second take out bag, 1 quart bottle of energy drink, juice bottle of same size and pack of convenience store brownies joined greasy paper bag sealed with a sticker.

"Is your cousin a speedster?" Excuse Duke, it was a totally valid question, he saw with his bare eyes both Wally West and Bart Allen when they visited Manor. Noone else would be able to stomach the amount of food they inhaled during their stays.

"Nah, we're not that fast or that hungry. Though I think I may get closer to speed of sound," So, clearly a meta if white hair and weir aura that let his eyes rest weren't enough indication "My cousin when he has bad few days he often forgets to eat so this combo has to help with there too. But I'll steal your fries of course."

Duke was not going to look gift horse in teeth, so he grabbed one bag and tore it open. There was classic combo with bigger fries and NightWings inside.

"Thank you..." he trailed off, hoping that girl would take a clue and introduce herself but she didn't. She just drowned her fries in ketchup and started munching. She had her own juice.

"My cousin always said that each part of this combo has different purpose," she explained instead, slightly muffled because of fries in her mouth, "This" she gestured towards fast food meal "is to sooth your stomach. This "she tapped energy drink "is to sooth your brain and kick it back online. This "she raised bottle of juice, "is to sooth your taste buds because energy drinks are war crime against them and this "she nudged brownies "is to sooth your heart because Ancients damn it, this day is awful and you deserve it. At least that's what he told me when I had day bad enough to deserve that," she shrugged, licking ketchup of her finger. Suddenly she froze "You aren't allergic, are you?

"No, I'm not," he confessed bewildered.

"Good"

For a long moment they sat in silence, devouring food the little girl brought. Duke distantly wondered if this was how night shift spent their snack breaks. It felt nice.

He was finishing his part of brownies when girl spoke up again.

"Do you feel better now?"

"Yeah" he was a little surprised to realize that it was true. He'll have to note down what she put in this 'bad day combo'. "Thank you"

"Don't mention it," she shrugged with general gesture of dismissal, "You're one of my cousin's favorite heroes because you're vaguely his age and handle Gotham alone during the day and I quote, "she did honest to God air quotes at that" 'As only hero in Amity-' which is a lie by the way, Val is doing great and even if he suddenly got problem with how she feels about his alter ego, he still has Sam and Tuck even if they're usually more of moral support. And I helped when I visited, so no, he isn't only one. Anyway as he said 'As only hero in Amity, my heart goes out for anyone who deals with this type of bullshit so Dani if you absolutely have to prank heroes, leave them out of it, especially Signal, he can't be older than Jazz, he doesn't need any more mess to handle.' All aliens and lanterns are also off limits because he is a space nerd. But you aren't space related so I'm like 80% percent sure he has celebrity crush on you," she slurped more juice, unbothered.

Duke was thankful he wasn't swallowing anything because for sure she would choke. He took split second to consider addressing... this whole situation and choose not to. He was not ready to be anyone's celebrity crush.

"Your name is Danny?" he asked instead.

"Dani" she corrected" with an I"

"Ok. It's nice to meet you Dani-with-an-I," She giggled, nodding her head slightly.

"It's nice to meet you too Signal"

Duke stood up, stretching a little. Dani joined him after hastily putting all the trash in her bag. She was a little higher than expected.

"I have to get back to my patrol"

"Cool," she drifted back a bit, making him realize that she was floating a few inches above the ground. She fixed her bag on her arm.

"Hey, can I hang out a little bit more? My cousin will go green out of jealousy when I tell him," she added with a mischievous smirk but Duke could tell there was more to it. He took a moment to consider it, which apparently made girl nervous "I can be invisible the whole time, like before," she offered, disappearing in the meantime. He could still tell where she was, because of her heat signature and other waves she excluded but for regular people she would be no different than surrounding air.

"Yeah, you can hang around and you don't have to be invisible. Just don't get in my way when I have to actually do some fighting."

She popped back to visible spectrum and pouted like Damian whenever he got benched.

"I can fight, y'know? I stopped mugging on a snack run."

It was ten god damn minutes, how could she get so much food and stop mugging in such a short time?!

Oh, right, superspeed. Still, impressive.

"I haven't seen it-" he started, channeling all Dick-trying-to-wrangle-Damian-into-socially-acceptable-activity energy he could muster "-so I don't know how you fight or even what powers do you have. If we tried to fight together we would trip over each other" It was a bare faced lie, Bat training made sure of that but he knew for fact that if he said anything else, the girl would be mad and probably did her own thing.

Was that what Bruce thought about all of them?

Oh no.

Dani still looked displeased but after a moment of consideration she nodded with a defeated sigh.

Suddenly she straightened like she got struck by lightning and whipped around.

"Wha-"

She just shushed, raising finger to her mouth. Duke did indeed quietened.

"I have enhanced hearing," she whispered "There is a mugging somewhere this way."

"Let's go then," he shot his grapple, waving his other hand at Dani to come with him before he jumped off the roof. He heard the girl giggle as she flew right after him.

"After this you'll show me the coolest gargoyles, okay? Sam asked for photos"

"Okay"

It seemed that the end of this patrol wouldn't be as bad as the start was. Hopefully.

And afterwards he was going to lock himself in his room until sky falls down or he was well rested.

Yeah, that was a good plan.

********

"Hey kid," Signal started, dropping from fire escape to cuff weirdo in clown mask who Dani just fought. He did it deliberately slowly to show her how to do it like he always did. She choose to not be to annoyed at being called kid again and noted to herself to come up with good codename later. All her previous ideas apparently weren't cutting it and she couldn't keep going by Dani because reasons.

"Yes?"

"Who gave you a combat training?" he asked getting up from a crouch and gesturing towards roof. So it's going to be longer talk, okay.

"My cousin," well, Flashes in Central taught her some stuff but it was more rescue and reassure type of deal not punch and kick, Sam tried to get her through basics of psychological warfare in activism, Tucker sweared he would teach her some programming and hacking but never got around to it, Jazz did some emotional training and Val offered to teach her Red Huntress skills when she got back, but yeah, all in all, Danny was the one to show her how to punch people. Even though it was more of 'shit we have to fight, observe maybe, idk' most of the time. She picked some tricks from Vlad too now that she thought about it, not that she planned to give him any credit for it, like, ever. "Why?"

"I have a bone to pick with him," vigilante announced, melting with the shadows. Dani sped as much as she could to beat him to the roof. She was competitive spirit like that.

Unfortunately he was first. She made another note to herself (she was so going to forget them in next five to ten minutes) to train her speed a bit more. She got tips from the guy with the title of The Fastest Man Alive for crying out loud, she shouldn't loose with the person who technically doesn't even have superspeed!

Signal sat cross legged on the gravel and tossed her a healthy granola bar. He kept doing it for some reason.

"I'm sorry to break it to you, but almost everything in your fighting technique is horrible. Your cousin did shitty job as a teacher" he started in warm slightly teasing tone. Dani felt attacked anyway.

"It's not like he has any sort of training either," she started, trying to sound nonchalant, rolling her eyes. "Cut him some slack," She bit a snack in attempt to cover her furry. It had chocolate and raspberries, was quite tasty and she was kinda hungry anyway. She wasn't sure she wanted to know how Signal knew it though "Everything he learned is from the trial and error by crashing through a few walls. Quite hard to care about 'technique'. I at least got his mistakes to learn from so don't you dare to speak about him like that!" alright, she lost it, she can admit it. But, Signal might be cool and Danny may or may not like him (she hoped he didn't, Val was much better option) but Gotham's hero had no right to say anything bad about her template. He didn't know anything. He didn't understand.

Signal looked like he was going to say something so she put her ghostly vocal cords to use and growled.

Don't-harm-family/will-fight/ protect-mine/don't-you-dare

She didn't stop to consider how unlikely it was for him to understand her. She crossed her hands on her chest, glaring.

Turned out, growl was enough of the warning. He carefully picked his next words.

"Sorry, it's not the way I should've phrase it," he started, his mouth doing the thing it did when people were embarrassed with themselves but in an uncomfortable, a bit angry way. He understood his mistake, good. She calmed her glare a bit. "I wasn't aware of you circumstances. If you want, I can show you some tricks, Batman is very throughout with his training"

"No, thank you, I'm good" she was still mad. So mad. And she was not pouting.

"Of course you're good but you can be better, more efficient."

"No." Whatever Signal would propose to her, she wouldn't agree. He said mean things about Danny not even a minute before. She couldn't let him have it on a principle!

"I'll give you a cookie after every training," he pleaded "The homemade, tasty one"

Well, that changed things. A lot of things.

"Yes please!"

He apologized anyway.

********************

Second part

I know democratic winner in poll for now is "publish all at once" and believe me, I respect democracy, especially now that I finally have rights to do things, but Tumblr wouldn't let me. Too long or something. So, it'll be in parts, sorry guys. I'll try to post all of the parts this weekend though (or one each day, I'll see).

Yes, I didn't have a name for this fic until five minutes ago, how did you know? It's quite alright though, I think. If you have better idea I may reconsider

[raiiny-bay]

sleepy morning with the boys

[pinkd3mon]

This had context but I refuse to tell anyone

[team5ds]

the worst part is i can't even say he's wrong. they certainly did figure out how to contribute the city by joining the wrgp. but like. this is one of those things where it literally does not make sense. this is insane levels of logic. "we're not sure how to contribute to the city. we think entering a magic the gathering tournament will help." like. imagine saying that fr when your parents ask what you're going to do after you graduate college. "idk. thought i'd play card games and figure it out, man"

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Okay, I have decided that this section about the philosophy of religion is funny like...

They're defining judaism as one of the west's Largest Religions, and then this entire section is all presupposing that the g-d you're debating about is the xtian god like... I get that we're discussing mostly xtian philosophers but... I don't believe in a hell that g-d would send me to if I didn't believe in Him, and this entire text presupposes that things like hell are real. What's funny about it is just universalizing xtian belief and philosophy about g-d as though jews for example would feel compelled by the arguments. I'm feeling so uncompelled by these arguments and I'm a theist 😭

What's funny is the fact that judaism (and islam!) were presented as Major Western Religions but only one islamic philosopher was discussed and there is no mention of anything other than xtianity.

[licorishh]

*FONTAINE SPOILERS*

Y'all laugh at the fact that Tartaglia randomly falling into the Abyss one day as a kid ended up being the catalyst for Fontaine's eventual predicted destruction but all this means is that from the start Tartaglia was intended to fall into the Abyss and become a Harbinger and thus has always been doomed by the narrative

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

Carver and Varric, together for one last job...

Seriously, I'm not even that far into this playthrough [currently omw to get Lucanis] but already, Rook Carver? *chef's kiss*

Just the idea that Carver's older now. Not even just older, he's nearly in his 40's by now? That he's been with the Grey Wardens since he was around 20-years-old. That he's seen some shit. He survived Ostagar. He saw what the blight did to Lothering. He's lost his parents and both siblings. Every day he knows he grows closer to hearing his calling. He's willing to disobey given orders to save people, to do the right thing.

Then Varric finds him, and tells him about Solas. And he doesn't call him Junior anymore; that's just a reminder that they both lost Hawke, and that maybe they're too old for that game now. Doesn't stop Varric from giving him a new nickname, and while Carver would just prefer his name for once, he doesn't complain much when Varric settles on Rook. They still give each other hell, for old time's sake, though.

After all these years, they're still Carver and Varric, and sometimes, they even let themselves remember that. They talk about Kirkwall. About the Deep Roads Expedition. About the Grey Warden prison where they killed Corypheus. About Merrill, and Isabela, and Fenris... and maybe if Carver's had a drink or two, Anders.

Sometimes they talk about Hawke.

Not "The Champion of Kirkwall," but the man who was a brother and a best friend once.

And then they finally find Solas, and it all goes to shit, and Varric gets "HURT," and now not only does Carver got the damned dread wolf in his head, but for the first time, he's the leader.

There's just..... so much.

[tiddiesoutwhenthetisout]

where's all this energy coming from

i've been running around (literally) since 2pm today and i can't sleep at nearly 12 hours later

[adore-gregor]

I know I'm absolutely delulu 😭 but...

Do you know what day in 434 days is? February 13th 2026

Do you know what event takes place at that time?

The winter olympics 2026 👀

Is Gregor planning to comeback?🥹

Realistically I don't think so 💀 but he's just feeding my delusion at this point. 😭💔

I rather just think he did this on purpose to mess with us 😭

[my-past-disgusts-me]

And to the surprise of no one I am once again staying up far too late drawing Shin and Sara interactions

[gxlden-angels]

do you have any thoughts on the story of abraham and isaac? my parents talk about it and praise abraham for being willing to kill his son which..... scares me to say the least, and i'd love to hear your perspective as someone who seems more well-adjusted

Where I am now, it disgusts me more than anything. The interpretation of "I'm willing to sacrifice your life if I was told to" feels like the step before "I put you into this world and I can take you out of it." It's entitlement to a child, who is an independent individual, just because they are dependent on you for survival. I prefer the interpretation of understanding the actions you're taking and the reasons why (like how there's multiple religions that don't eat pork because it was so unsafe to eat at the time), especially if it's at someone else's expense.

Where I was in the thick of it all, it gave me morbid comfort that scares me now. I had fantasies of being a martyr for the church and the idea of being the next Isaac was just so appealing. Being a hand-selected sacrifice chosen by the Good Lord Himself? Sign me the fuck up, babey!

I think if I admitted that to my family, they'd be horrified.

It's another one of those stories or beliefs where I think the majority of christians just regurgitate what they've heard. It's a point of pride and devotion, but there's no personal reflection or cross-cultural awareness of it. Lean not unto your own understanding and whatnot. It's the potential that scares me the most, like the Quiverfull movement with the Duggars or Turpins. I'm sure there's stories now, but I can't remember them off the top of my head

(Also I will be telling my therapist someone on Tumblr called me "more well-adjusted" thank you anon)

[hanzajesthanza]

~a vampire at dawn~

excuse the quick sketch, for this post is less about the art and more about the idea behind it... i have this headcanon from when geralt's company was trekking with the beekeepers through the wilderness:

although they were initially very grateful to have three meals a day prepared for them, they quickly got sick of having honeyed porridge served for all three of them. "Everything was sticky from the honey, even the young women." milva began to get nauseous at mealtimes, and cahir, usually ravenous at mealtimes as befits a strapping young lad such as he, even turned down a few bowls.

regis, however, was quite happy with it.

because, as is mentioned later in the book, about saovine traditions: "The spirits of the dead (...) should be given honey and groats, all sprinkled with vodka…" i imagine some confusing night where he went into a villager's hut to drink blood, but, it was around saovine, so they were even expecting someone like him to arrive and to even be looking for such a thing. prepared for such a situation, they handed him some kasza with honey. he didn't really know what to do with it, but they instructed him on how to eat... it was surprisingly pretty good, so he started pulling this on all the other villages, like hey i;m "undead" (whatever that means) do you have any "porridge" with "honey." yeah also put a little vodka on it while you're at it.

so honeyed groats turned out to be the first human food he ate, and over time, became like a comfort food to him. now he has it without the vodka though

[yuri-is-online]

Since we’re talking about Idia now, I want to talk about the Phantom Ortho scene from the new update. What’s your thoughts on the scene? Personally, I think it was part of the dream rather than Idia actually talking to the dead Ortho.

I’ve got a couple of reasons for this. First, Idia was being dragged down by the darkness associated with the dream realm. He’s still physically in NRC. And it’s not that strange to think that this is another deeper level of the dream realm. It’s also been established that the dream’s purpose is keep the dreamers there, so changing its method now that the original method of acting as though the tragedy didn’t happen no longer works wouldn’t be out of place in my opinion. Our Ortho showing up shattered the illusion, dredging up buried memories even if Idia was still holding up some form of denial.

Second, it’s more fitting for his character arc for it to be just a dream. Choosing to neither stay in the Underworld with Phantom Ortho or stay in the dream with the RSA Ortho solidifies Idia’s commitment to no longer wallow in the guilt of the tragedy and to allow himself to move forward. He’s rejecting both pretending it didn’t happen and continuing to punish himself by allowing himself to be dragged down by his mistakes. I feel that takes away from the moment a little if it’s dead Ortho giving him another kick in rear to not be swallowed by guilt.

Sorry if this is incoherent and rambly, I’m still soaking in Idia freaking out over his mom searching his computer. What did he have on there???

-🦐

>I’m still soaking in Idia freaking out over his mom searching his computer. What did he have on there???

Top teir weeabo shit and commissions of his ocs. But tbh it could have been literally anything, I would freak about my mom going through my pc now and it's mostly just art refs.

I'm glad you are back shrimp annon, I was wondering about your thoughts. I have two distinct threads of thought on it if that makes sense? The first is about whether or not it was a dream and the second is about the darkness. Also um... have any of you played critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV? With a free trial now on xbox? Because the best way I can think to explain why spoils something from Shadowbringers...

Was Phantom Ortho Real or Not?

I have no idea. Genuinely. I personally think that this was a part of the dream so no, I don't think that Phantom Ortho is the same as the one we fight in Chapter Six, but does that make him less real? There is a reality where he could be the same I suppose? The idea of your soul leaving your body when you dream is a concept that's decently common in mythology, so it is possible that Idia astral projected into the Underworld?

Malleus specifically says Idia will "be swallowed by the abyss" so there is a chance I guess that he gets sent to take a nap in the Underworld while Malleus re-writes the spell? But! Malleus is the "ruler of the abyss" while Idia is "the ruler of the underworld." They don't share a title so it makes sense for the Abyss to be it's own place separate from the underworld. And yet the underworld is where Phantoms come from... so just what the hell is the abyss?

Now it is time for me to do a bit of spoiling for FFXIV so uh. I'll toss it under the cut.

To give some brief context for what I am about to show you, at the very end of Shadowbringers, due to various reasons we will not get into here, you find yourself in a projection of a city the villain has created based off of his memories. Said city is populated by Phantoms, all of whom do not realize they are magical projections, except for one:

"...[he] allowed a few stray thoughts to distract him while he was recreating me... '[he] would surely realize the truth.'" I think that's more or less what happened with Idia's dream

Malleus's magic allows the illusion to take place, but it is based off of Idia's memories. While being in denial about Ortho's death, and not wanting to process the trauma, his mind would know that Phantom Ortho would realize the truth. The phantom Hythlodaeus isn't real, but he might as well be from how he acts. The same seems true of Phantom Ortho, Idia wasn't confronting the literal Phantom so much as he was a manifestation of his own memories and guilt, the stray thought that "Ortho would surely realize the truth." Would be enough to make that happen.

In a sense you could say that this Phantom Ortho is still real as it is more or less just Idia fighting his own overblot phantom, which we know to be born of magic and extreme emotion, but I don't think he fought his brother's soul exactly. The affirmation of their promise probably reached Phantom Ortho in the Underworld though, even if he wasn't physically there to hear it.

What is the Darkness?

So if I recall correctly, the darkness also swallows Lilia in the previous update, which is where we get the flashback about how he found Silver. It seems like the darkness draws out what we could call a person's defining character moment? For Lilia that's traveling the world and realizing he doesn't hate humans, for Idia it's the death of his brother and his overblot. If I had to guess I would say it's because the dream needs to reset its narrative? So it needs to put the person back in the mindset of focusing on what they value or what needs "fixed."

The exact involvement Malleus has in giving out dreams isn't clear either, but I think they seem to need to be set in Twisted Wonderland, and tend towards being basic at first but then probably get more detailed the further the person falls into sleep and the more data can be taken from the abyss. It is also clear that some level of outside interference is needed to disrupt the dream weaving, kind of like you need to interrupt the dreamer's train of thought.

Since I am also rambling-

Yuu and Grim are physically present in the same dream, they both risk falling into the abyss... and neither gets a dream that they mistake for reality. Unless they did and we weren't actually physically present in Mickey's dream at all? What would have happened if they had fallen into the abyss?

Does Yuu and Grim sharing a dream imply they share a soul? If so how and why?

I need to go to sleep but tl;dr, shrimp friend I don't think you're off base saying you don't think that was the real Phantom and I want to know what the abyss is, k please thanks.