#it was so out of left field

[youngchronicpain]

My great aunt tried to ask my mom what she fed me growing up and if she thought that that is why I'm so severely disabled (lmao). Even though there's a huge amount of evidence towards many of my conditions being genetic. (Partly from her side of the family!) People feel more comfortable seeking to blame a mother rather than realizing that sometimes, young people were always going to be disabled, no matter how they were raised. And not because of genetically modified foods. 🙄

[starlight-kestrel]

Sparsely Tagged Fics:

Book earlier: this character is 16

Me: okay :D

Book: "we were lovers"

Me:

Me: w-well maybe I mixed up the ages.

Book: "Don't look surprised, he was only 6 years older."

Me:

Please tag your fics

[muffinlance]

Consider: Post-canon Zuko wakes up in the body of his childhood self, the morning of That War Meeting. Would he still speak against the plans, knowing his fate? What do you think he would do differently the second time around?

"Turned away at the doors, Zuzu?"

"Shut up, Azula," her brother sulked. But sulked weirdly, after staring at her too long and too wide-eyed, not like she'd surprised him but--

But like he hadn't expected her to be there. At all.

He turned away. ...He turned back. "Hey, Lala? Do you think you could help me practice that one set?"

He didn't meet her eyes.

She narrowed hers. "Which set?"

"The one I'm bad at."

She scoffed. Pushed away from the wall she'd been leaning against. "That's all of them, Dum-Dum."

He didn't shout or stomp or yell about the nickname. His lips twitched.

"It's okay," he said. "If you're afraid you won't be a better teacher that my instructor..."

It was the most obvious manipulation ever.

Perhaps if he proved an adequate firebending student, she'd work on his courtly survival skills next. Honestly, it was good that not even Uncle Gets-Cousins-Killed had been fool enough to take Zuko into that war meeting. She could only imagine how terribly that could have gone.

"Keep up," she said, and turned her steps towards the training grounds.

He did. There, and during the katas she ran him through.

Azula kept her eyes narrowed.

"Hey," he asked, "do you know how to bend lightning yet?"

As if he could have missed it, if she'd been able to get more than sparks. "I will soon," she said.

"You will," he agreed, and flowed through his next set. The one she'd only just mastered.

Father didn't notice how weird Zuzu was being. Uncle never noticed anything. Zuko ate dinner and asked a servant for seconds and didn't stutter or flinch or lose his appetite when father asked, coolly, what he'd done with his day. Azula's shoulders tensed, because one mention of how she'd squandered her own training time teaching him--

"Azula hogged the training grounds. For hours," Zuzu scowled, exactly like a petulant thirteen year old.

Exactly like he hadn't been acting all day.

By the time Father was looking her way, Azula had her usual smirk in place. "I'm sure there would be room for both of us," she said, "you're not afraid of a little friendly fire, are you, brother?"

Zuko sulked. And ate his seconds, like he was enjoying each bite. There was something in his eyes, like a joke no one else was getting.

---

Father died that night. A heart attack. There were the faintest of burns to either side of the treacherous organ; the royal physician hypothesized that he'd grabbed at his chest, fingers burning hot in his final moments; so hot they'd only exacerbated the problem.

The royal physician would never have been brought any victims of lighting strikes. Those that occurred in the capital did not generally require a doctor in the aftermath.

Zuzu ate a hearty breakfast.

He didn't order seconds. Azula gave him points, at least, for not being tacky.

---

The sages named Iroh as regent.

They named Zuko as Fire Lord.

"No," the tiny Fire Lord in his perfectly miniaturized Fire Lord robes said, sitting at the head of his war council. "We're not doing that. And I'll be reviewing all recent battle plans, as well. What's this I hear about a division of new recruits being deployed to the front?"

He did not mention how he'd heard of the 41st Division. No one asked.

"Prince Iroh, surely--" one of the generals tried to appeal.

The young Fire Lord's regent was looking as startled as the rest of them, for a moment. Then he sipped his tea, and smiled.

"Your Fire Lord is correct, of course. A change in our leadership--a change the other nations may mistakenly view as weakness--will necessitate a change in our strategy."

"Now," said their lord, "what, exactly, is our overall objective in this war?"

War, the new Fire Lord decreed, was not an end unto itself.

---

The new Fire Lord continued to have time, to pretend to be trained by her. Azula watched him. Adjusted her footwork. Did not tolerate, and was not offered, any commentary on who was teaching who.

"What did you do with my brother?" she asked, as they flowed from one set to the next. As her hands, poised to throw fire, just so happened to be pointed his way.

He missed a step. It didn't look like an act.

"I'm, uh. Right here?"

She didn't bother to dignify that.

He didn't bother to look worried about her hands, one movement off from a true attack.

He looked around, then grabbed her sleeve, and tugged her further from any walls that may hide ears. The royal family's private training grounds were wonderfully large, and wonderfully open.

"It's me," he said. "It's still me. Just. More of me? Longer of me?"

She narrowed her eyes. A familiar expression, by this point. "Explain."

"...I found the Avatar," he said. "And this is definitely his fault, but--but I guess it started at a war meeting, when I was thirteen."

Azula listened. It was a very Dum-Dum story.

[theshadowrealmitself]

I like to think that Vulcans who come to understand that Humans just can’t try to process emotions the same way as them, it’s just healthiest to let it out in harmless ways, decide that venting and stuff should be taken just as seriously as Vulcan’s meditation time, and will encourage the Humans around them to complain about what’s upsetting them

People who are used to aloof Vulcans who avoid Humans at all cost running into one comforting a Human

“-and then they said my cheesecake was subpar, and they didn’t even bring a dish!!!”

“The purpose of this event was that every participant brings a food item of sorts, correct?”

“Yeah!!”

“And they did not follow this rule while insulting dishes that were brought?”

“Mostly just my dish but yeah >:(“

“How illogical”

“That’s what I’m saying!!!”

[ace-lemonade]

most anime characters would simply bring out the sword and slice, but laios? man just gets on all fours and barks like a dog

truly no one is doing it like him

[do-angels-dream-of-starry-seas]

I feel bad for bursting out laughing when he just got hit by that truck

[laurencin-draws]

women who are rude to me >>>>

[echollama]

Lantern Rite 2024 doodles!

This year's event hit a bit close to home for me personally, and I loved it🥰🥰🥰

[almondcroissantsandink]

something something if they had found each other earlier

[fridgedeeznuts]

per aspera ad astra

[corvus-detritus]

Save me, Iruma-Kun...

[dank-art]

Valentines day treat for the ones who have grown an obsession over Miguel O’Hara like i have.

[elodieunderglass]

Hi Your Majesty Elodie! I have a somewhat amusing story for you:

So, I was at a Family Dinner just last night, and — as one does — the conversation happened to be circling the subject of Medieval Creatures. (Spit dogs, at the time.) I mentioned a bit of Horse Knowledge that I picked up from your jockeyposting, and my father casually said, "You actually have horse racers in your family."

Which. Demanded further ecplanation.

Apparently, one of my great-great-grandfathers was a harness racer. (This is also on the side of my family that includes obscenely wealthy silversmiths, a WWII airship gunner, and possibly (although this one may just be family apocrypha) Davy Crockett's sister. They're just kinda like that.)

So. Thank you, Mr. Cillian, for revealing that in an alternate timeline I, too, may have been trapped in the Horse Vortex, and a question for you: does Killie's family include any wild curveballs?

(Killieposting)

Oh my, that’s so funny and cool! I love that kind of thing! Congratudolences.

The immediate dynasty are portrayed here, and not finalised, there being more b-generation uncles and c-generation cousins I haven’t added. The main point is that the Properties, which they’ve fought like tigers to accumulate, and thus the influence, travels down the elder sons; Bren&Blaw thus being more influential (having more horses) than poor Bernard (practically horseless).

In this specific snapshot there’s no real surprises, as they all have done exactly what was expected and lived mostly-blameless horsey lives.

There is a mystery, in Albert’s wife Catherine, grandmother of The Boys. She came from nowhere, and there is no paperwork. She answered no questions. The kids remember being a bit of a Thing about the previous-generation’s equivalent of Bren’n’Blaw, the Family Fixers, having arranged some mildly dodgy false passport for her or something.

She said her birthday was January 1. Like a racehorse.

She was a very very pretty woman, seemingly much younger than Albert (birthdate unknown) and had been classically trained as a musician.

Charlie’s perennial distraction with music was always tolerated, and even mildly encouraged, being “just like his grandmother was.”

For a family obsessed with racehorse pedigree/provenance it was A Bit Weird and Increasingly So As You Think About It. One of those weird things that you reflect on later, adding up dots, convening with cousins. Like, it wasn’t like it was The Old Days, it was like…. The 1960s or something ??

Boring explanation: she was a Protestant from over the border who got divorced, and they buried it.

Twee Explanation Specifically for Pissing Charlie off: fairy wife from under the hill lmao

Unlikely given the circumstances but perfectly possible explanation: Traveller, no paperwork, never was.

Probable Explanation: abusive marriage, Albert and his siblings arranged a convenient death for the husband and nipped the wife away but didn’t fancy explaining themselves

Anyway, one single mystery: woman from nowhere, racehorse birthday.

[scarymonsters-andsupercreeps]

Felt like drawing him earlier 🩷✨

[italiantea]

soft and neat

[to-be-a-dreamer]

Imagine if Marvel has bamboozled us all into thinking we figured out their big plot twist of Teen being Billy Kaplan and then he’s revealed to actually be Nicholas Scratch