#it's gonna be weird!!! i just know it!!!

[cherubchoirs]

What do you think the world was like a few years before humanity got wiped? With blood being a known fuel source and v1 existing and v2 being made even though peace was already achieved?

honestly i can't fully come to a conclusion on that - all i can really say is that i think things sound incredibly bizarre and something odd was definitely going on with regards to where humanity was at the time. for a timeline, we know that there was a great war, one bad enough to warrant the commissioning of v1's development as well as, presumably, the need to create machines dependent on blood rather than traditional fuel sources. i talked about this a little before, but that to me suggests that the earth was likely drained of many of its resources because of the war, and the only reliable means to continue to power the machines apparently ubiquitous to every corner of society was blood. like it's possible that even non-combat models were powered through blood considering the terminal entry for the nailgun (although it's left vague and those machines may have needed to defend themselves due to others trying to strip them of their parts rather than steal their blood...BUT I DIGRESS). this provides a pretty good sense of scale for the final war, which must have been massive and caused amounts of suffering as well as a certain callousness never before seen (after all, people likely got used to blood as a fuel source knowing full-well where it must have come from) however, things after the war is where it gets way, way weirder.

so the great peace is achieved - how is unknown, but it seems this brutal, gigantic, all-encompassing war was brought quickly to a full, total stop. at least it seems as much, since v1 had to be quickly scrapped and they scrambled to put v2 in its place to suit this new, entirely at peace world. and we know v1 wasn't the only machine to lose its place, with others like the sentry being too specialized to find any niche in a world without combat and streetcleaners similarly shelved without any pollution to attend to (and that's another thing!!! the new peace fixed the climate crisis as well!!!!) but all i keep thinking is that humanity must be irrevocably altered, that going through a war of that scale changes everything about how a society must function and how these are populations now accustomed to using other humans as fuel for their machines. who achieved the new peace, how was it reached, and what did it look like when they believed v2 could be viable in any sense? it's baffling honestly, but i have to imagine this peace just wasn't as peaceful as it seemed on the surface. maybe to the average person that had made it out alive, but where did the pollution go? how did they stop a war so massive dead in its tracks? unless, of course, blood as fuel was now being applied to many, many more aspects of society. that, in a twisted sense, perhaps helped the new peace as everyone now had access to the premiere resource to fuel the world. (i'm not entirely convinced this is the case, but it's all so bizarre that something doesn't add up imo)

then the hell expeditions came. why, in an era of profound peace, do people now feel the need to explore something like hell? was it merely scientific curiosity, but surely the danger it presented would ward people away from it no matter the cost, that it would be sealed away to protect that peace. a charitable reading is perhaps this society is so enlightened that they wanted to help in some sense, agonized by the idea of human souls in eternal suffering. but to me, i think this population, so hardened by a terrible war, simply could no longer fear something like hell. a war that warrants blood-fueled machines on a mass scale is already hell on earth, so why not go to hell if it's there to see. and perhaps they thought it could provide them something, in an earth so hollowed of its natural resources - we know it has "hell energy" and harnessing blood, maybe humans thought they could harness this as well (an aside since it would be mixing classical sources, but paradise lost pictures hell as a place ripe with all the metals of the earth so traditional fuel might be found there as well) so for me, this is a callous, unafraid people, ones that believe the worst has been and that they are now untouchable in their apparently well-secured peace. interestingly, i think v1 was maintained and kept up with certain developments as it seems to know to head directly for hell if it wishes to amass blood for itself. it makes me wonder why something like v1/v2 weren't repurposed themselves for the hell expeditions - too expensive to risk? too precious as their only models? or was it something less innocent, that maybe the two of them showed worrying signs about their obedience or intelligence to the point that they would only ever be deployed if the worst came to pass?

finally, what happened in the end is fascinating as well, especially when we look into the ferryman's diary which seems to account humanity's fall - "Some calamity has struck the mortal world (...) A million weeping souls pouring in each day that the shores can barely contain. (...) Then one day, the current shifted. Wave after wave for minutes on end of millions, billions, as though the throat of the world was cut wide and the head wretched back to speed the pour." humans were dying in mass amounts until, one day, all of them died immediately. billions wiped out together. what could have done that? minos references the machines in man's downfall so it's likely they rose up in some sense, but for every single person to die all at once so that none remain seems unlikely for the machines alone. at this point, it's highly probable that hell itself orchestrated humanity's end, given the document discovered in the arg, and it's possible too that the terminals coordinated with it. they are bored. hell is bored. the document warns them to stop the expeditions before hell reaches the surface. and so all that makes me wonder is how v1 was woken up - we see its boot sequence when starting a new game, so apparently it was asleep. did it see any of the destruction that befell humanity (minos says "the crimes of thy kind" when speaking to it, which keeps v1's involvement ambiguous)? was it woken with a failsafe or did someone boot it up just before their own death as a last resort for help? i'm sorry this is largely a bunch of questions and fairly vague, but something about the new peace is off to me in a way i don't have a full answer to yet!! but i can't imagine the final war left humanity intact and i think something was seriously wrong with society to go seeking out hell.

[bigfatbreak]

Birds of a Feather previous / next

[noornight]

Long distance besties. This definitely happened after the third movie (source: trust me bro)

Based on this

[cannedpeachlover]

based on my experience of getting kicked out of every casino on the strip while having arcade follow me around like a child forced to watch their parent go bankrupt

[teh-inggris]

pvp civ nation...... this aint much but pls take my contribution for this series bc im going insane i love hate this man so much get him out of my head

[fisherrprince]

Instead of writing a fanfic like a normal person this oneshot turned into two separate, contextless things,

[andy-clutterbuck]

Rick's leather sling | requested by EVERYONE

[moonlunee]

silly little traumatized hero family

[idolomantises]

There's a pretty popular artist on here that once tried to steal my OCs because they were mad at me. every once in a while i see them and i'll think "oh yeah, thats the guy who tried to split up my lesbian couple and pair one of them up with her brother in law. Weird"

[starry-bi-sky]

(Part of this post with older brother danyal al ghul)

...Okay, look. Sam knows she's staring. She knows very well that she is staring. And that if she doesn't stop staring it's gonna draw her unwanted attention, and that will only have to make her explain why she's staring. Which she doesn't want to do.

She's trying not to stare, which she thinks she should get brownie points for. She tries to look away, to find a spot on the wall to stare lifelessly at, maybe she can burn holes into some of these annoying socialites' heads. But eventually her eyes drift, and suddenly she's back to staring again.

Can you blame her though? Damian Wayne looks like a very close mini-me of her fucking best friend. Seriously, it's like looking into a mirror to the past. If that mirror to the past had green eyes rather than blue and a distinctive lack of a facial scar.

The first time she sees him when her parents drag her over to Bruce Wayne to butter up to him she has to do a doubletake. Then a triple take. Then a quadruple take, just for good measure that she was seeing what she was actually seeing. She was sure she looked like one of those stress toys that when squeezed had their eyes pop out comically like a Saturday morning cartoon, that's what she certainly felt like anyways.

Look, Danny's come a decent way from being that scowl-y, jerkish little ten year old she first met when he arrived like the wind to Amity Park five years ago (even if he was still occasionally scowl-y and jerkish), but one thing that's stayed the same is how reserved he is about his home life prior to being taken in by the Fentons.

He doesn't talk about it much, and Sam's come to know that he's very good at changing the subject when it gets brought up. Even after being friends for nearly four years, the only thing she and Tuck know for certain is that he has a little brother that he refers to as 'starlight', whom he cares a lot about but left on really bad terms with. And that he's never met his father, but wants to and knows who he is.

He's never told her or Tucker who he was though, and glancing at Bruce Wayne, Sam is realizing why. She can begrudgingly acknowledge all the good he's done for Gotham, but... well, if Danny told her that Bruce Wayne was his dad, she wouldn't have believed him at all.

But she's starting to see the resemblance, as subtle as it is.

And she sees the resemblance to Damian Wayne, her eyes dropping back down to him as he wears a very Danny-like scowl on his face, arms crossed behind his back as his eyes swept around the ballroom. He was five years younger than Danny, and god it was so, so weird.

His eyes turned on to her, and they locked gazes for a moment.

Involuntarily, Sam makes a startled noise and looks away. Fingers tap against her purse, black and purple and unfortunately a clutch that only held her phone and her wallet in it. She would have kept a knife on her, but her parents put their foot down and there was a security detail at the door. Only in Gotham.

Silently, she was hoping that the little Danny-me didn't say anything. Or at least, he hadn't noticed her staring. Which was a tall order if she ever heard one -- and unfortunately, her silent prayers went unanswered as her mother's eyes dropped down onto her.

"Did you say something, Samantha?" She asks in a sickeningly sweet voice, a sound that makes Sam's skin crawl. Her dad and Bruce Wayne's attention also turns onto her, and she glowers at her mom from the corner of her eye.

"I didn't say anything." Sam says, barely keeping her tone polite as she turned her head away. Her mother clucks her tongue, disapproving, but from her peripherals doesn't pester her more

Bruce Wayne, the bastard, takes that time to turn to Sam and grace her with his dime-a-dozen billboard smiles. "I've been talking with your parents this whole time, Miss Manson, you must be terribly bored. How is your schooling going?"

Sam eyes him up and down. On one hand, she immediately wants to be snarky. It's none of his business what her school life is like, she doesn't care for his fucking small talk.

On the other hand, this was Danny's whole father. Someone who she knows that Danny has wanted to meet for, what she's assuming, his whole life. He's never brought it up much, but she remembers that very quiet, solemn conversation she and Tucker had with him where he admits to having never met his dad. But god does he want to.

And... wait. Sam's eyes narrow, and she meets Bruce Wayne's eyes. Does this man even know Danny exists? She drops her gaze down to Damian, who was staring at her suspiciously, and then back up to Bruce, and she alternates between them.

Why was Damian living with Bruce, but not Danny? Why hasn't Bruce done anything to reach out to him - what was going on with Danny's biological family that Danny had to be separated from them, but not Damian? Danny's always been kinda mysterious, but now things weren't adding up.

Was Danny given up? Does Bruce just not want Danny, but wanted Damian? Why the fuck does Bruce Wayne know about Damian but not her best friend -- or does he know and just not care? He's fought for custody for his adoptive kids before, does he just not want to fight for his other biological son? Does he think Danny's not worth it?

She's never cared much about the Wayne family before, other than to hear about the advancements on WE's eco-friendly tech, but Sam thinks she's gonna have to look into why Damian Wayne was living with the Waynes.

Slowly, with a protective anger beginning to burn in her gut and crawl up her throat, a scowl slowly curls at the corner of her lip as she redirects her glare from her mother onto Bruce. "It's going fine," She says curtly, jutting her chin out defiantly. "Me and my friend Danny started a petition to fix the leaky faucets in the girls and boys' bathrooms in order to conserve more water for the rest of the city."

She eyes his face, waiting to see if anything like recognition flashes through it. And- and nothing. Sam breathes in slowly through her nose, trying to quell the red that's blurring the edge of her vision -- does he just, not know where Danny is?

Her parents however, make vaguely displeased expressions. "Our Samantha is... quite passionate about her pet projects." Her dad says, laughing low and nervously, "she's very vocal about silly things like that."

"Her friend Daniel is perhaps even worse than she is sometimes." Her mother adds on, fanning her face with her perfectly manicured hands with a sigh. "I swear, he's the one that keeps dragging her into these things."

Sam's anger turns on its head, and she whirls on her heel like a fire-breathing dragon. "It's Danyal." It rolls out like instinct. Danny's told them both that he hates the Americanized pronunciation of his name, but in a rare moment of restraint, puts up with it for reasons unknown to her. "And Danny doesn't make me do anything, it was my idea."

The name, Danyal, seems to ring some kind of bell in Brucie Wayne's head, because she sees him and Damian quietly perk up like two cats pricking up their ears. Her eyes flick onto him immediately, something dangerous rearing its head. So Bruce Wayne knows about Danny. And he's not reaching out to him. Is he? She's not sure.

She does know that she's gonna rip his throat out if she finds out that he's known about Danny this entire time and has been ignoring him while favoring his little brother. She'll hunt down Aragon herself and steal his dragon-shifting amulet and wreck house on Bruce Wayne if that's the case. Batman and his league of vigilantes be damned. Her parents don't notice her slowly turning head towards Bruce.

But Bruce does, and she makes direct eye contact with him. His smile doesn't falter, he just tilts his head like a curious puppy and looks at Sam's parents. She hopes Bruce can read minds, she hopes he can hear her threatening him.

"Danyal?" He asks, and Sam doesn't know if she hates the fact that he said it correctly or not. She just continues burning holes into him and hoping he might spontaneously combust.

Her mother waves her hand dismissively, tilting her nose up poshly into the air. "Our dear Samantha's little... foster friend from school," she says, not even bothering to hide her disdain, "a creepy little boy with the most garish scar on his face. He's a rude little thing, not good for polite company."

Scratch that, Sam mentally alternates between ripping into her parents and Bruce. She whirls on them. "Do not talk about Danny that way." She all but snarls, and they all but ignore her.

(She's tearing up the upholstery when she gets home. She's going to paint over the fine china. She's going to do something to make them pay for this.)

"Oh yes, he was taken in by that freaky Fenton family a few years ago." Her dad continues in lieu of her mom, and they both shake their heads disapprovingly. "It's just what our city needs, another menace."

"Danny is not a menace." Sam continues, raising her voice while her hands shake with rage. Her parents finally look at her, but she can already tell that they're going to scold her for raising her voice. She bulldozes over them and jabs her black-painted finger at them. "He's got a bigger heart than the both of you combined."

"Samantha, please." her mom says, exasperated. They both give her disapproving looks, Sam thinks about grabbing champagne off the tray of a nearby waiter and throwing it in their faces. "You defend that boy far too much. What do you actually know about him and his family?"

Sam sets her jaw, puffing herself up like a dragon protecting its hoard. She steps into her mom's space. "I know that he loves the stars; you can ask him anything about astronomy and he could give you an entire lecture on the formation, class types, and various gasses that stars are made up of. He can tell you how the Earth was formed, he can tell you about the visible light spectrum and about light curves, and a whole ton of other stuff that I don't really understand. But Danny loves talking about it."

Her face twists and scowls, "I know he cares a ton about the environment and about fixing light pollution, and preserving the forests and natural habitats of animals." She nearly jabs her finger into her mom's chest, "I know he loves dogs, and that there's one he feeds every day on the way to school that he calls Cujo, its a St. Bernard puppy and Danny carries him around whenever he sees him after school, and is in the middle of training him."

It's not a total lie, but it's not the whole truth either. Cujo doesn't need food, but Danny gives him it anyways. "I know he likes spicy food and loves movies but specifically only sci-fi and horror, and he hates most martial arts movies. His favorite superhero is the Martian Manhunter, but Batman comes in at a close second." For reasons to her that were pretty unknown, but it didn't matter.

"I know he loves wordplay and making puns, which I would have never expected from him when we first met, but it's so unbelievably Danny-like that I can't imagine him not making puns." And she smiles a little to herself, she remembers the first time Danny intentionally made a pun once and it got startled laughs out of both her and Tucker.

Her smile suddenly falters, and she swallows. Her lips purse up, wobbling, and she very quickly glances over to Damian Wayne, of whom is watching her with a vaguely bewildered expression alongside Bruce.

She turns her eyes back onto her parents. "And I know that he worries a lot, even if he has a shit way of showing it. I know he had a little brother that he hasn't seen since he was adopted by the Fentons, and he doesn't talk about him often but when he does he he calls him 'starlight'." From the corner of her eye, she sees Damian jerk.

"So- so, so what if he's not 'good for polite company'." Sam's voice, embarrassingly, cracks down the middle. But she's so angry over Danny's behalf that she doesn't really care. "Or that he can be mean, and critical, and stubborn. He's learning, and he's becoming kinder by the day. That's more than I can say about you."

(She remembers when Danny finally admitted to her and Tucker being his 'closest friends'. It was sometime before the portal incident, and it felt like a milestone because beforehand he only really referred to them as his companions or allies.)

(At the time, he'd looked unsure of himself. Skittish like a stray in the back of an alleyway, almost shy in his own way. It had come out stilted, slow, like an infant taking its first steps, and it would have been endearing if it hadn't been heartbreaking.)

Her parents rear back like she'd struck them, and her mother holds a hand against her chest in aghast. Sam doesn't care, she blinks the sting out of her eyes. "Samantha." Her mother starts.

Sam cuts her off, "I don't care what you have to say, you-- you pricks." she snaps, around her, there are gasps. Belatedly, she realizes she's grown an audience, but again she doesn't care. "Danny might be an asshole, but he cares. And I'd rather be around someone whose mean but cares, than someone whose nice but doesn't."

With that, she whirls on her foot and turns on Bruce Wayne, who has been silent the entire time with a surprised expression on his face. He starts to shake out of it when Sam turns to him, but she doesn't give him the chance to speak. "Enjoy your party." She snarls, and then stalks away.

[ghost-bxrd]

You guys ever think about an AU where Jason goes to hound Tim through Titans Tower, and, mid pursuit—while Tim is screaming at him about the second Robin being his hero, tryin to crawl away in a trail of blood—realizes he’s become an even worse version of his own mother, who sold him out to the Joker?

Because I do.

[krysmcscience]

The Lamb is malicious in a funny way and the Goat is funny in a malicious way. No, I will not elaborate.

Anyway, everyone give thanks to the Lamb for interrupting what was sure to be a very boring and patronizing PSA from their grouchy cat hubby. Truly, they are doing God's work. Granted, the Lamb canonically is God now, so, uh. Mostly they're just doing their own work.

Speaking of their grouchy cat hubby, yes this is absolutely still Narilamb, Narinder is 100% into his goofy-ass spouse always no matter what and we all know it, he just wasn't expecting his brand new adopted kid to share the same single goofy-ass brain cell as the Lamb. :)

[deep-space-lines]

Full-Size / True Color Version

Sometimes I think about the fact that first living being to orbit the Earth couldn't understand what was happening to her, couldn't understand the history she was making. Laika wasn't a volunteer. The technology to bring her back alive didn't exist. They sent her up anyway. She died, scared and alone, in a malfunctioning spacecraft hastily built to meet a political deadline.

When her heart rate tripled from the stress of acceleration, did she understand the magnitude of what she was experiencing? When she saw the stars outside her little window, did she believe the world had gone dark? In her final hours, did she feel wonder, or just fear?

"The more time passes, the more I’m sorry about it. We shouldn’t have done it. We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog. When you understand that you can’t bring back Laika, that she perishes out there, and that no one can bring her back…that is a very heavy feeling." Oleg G. Gazenko

For me, there's some small consolation, at least, in knowing that although her death was unnecessary and cruel, Laika will never be forgotten. I love you, Laika. May you find peace among the stars.

Prints are available here.

[paragonraptors]

for science (because im curious)

if you have more than one worldstate, pick for the one you consider your "main"/"canon" worldstate or the one you plan to use first for da4! also feel free to lay out your reasoning in the tags gushing about your dragon age runs is accepted and encouraged here.

[nerdynuala]

Had a vision at 3 am and instead of being concerned as I should, I turned it into a comic with the weak excuse of it being a healthy pose drawing practice (yeah no, there's nothing healthy about this)

Anyway L has found a new way to confirm if Light is Kira

I would say he's Kira

[wasyago]

something incredibly self indulgent