#lying and scheming

[faeriekit]

Health and Hybrids (VIII)👽👻💚

[I can't remember the original prompt posters  for the life of me but here's a mashup between a cryptid!Danny, presumed-alien!Danny, dp x dc, and whatever prompt made the one body horror meat grinder fic.]

PART ONE is here PART TWOis here PART THREEis here PART FOUR is here and PART FIVE is here PART SIX is here and PART SEVEN is here and this is part 8 💚 Ao3 Is here for all parts

Where we last left off... Everybody got lunch! Not Danny, though. :) He was taking a nap. And Wonder Woman

Trigger warnings for this story:  body horror | gore | post-dissection fic | dehumanization (probably) |  my awful attempts at following DC canon. On with the show.

💚👻👽👻💚

Danny only doesn’t throw something because he already knew someone was on their way. The alien told him so. It’s not a surprise.

There’s someone new here. In his room. At the edge of his curtain. Too close to his bed. Danny doesn’t like it. He doesn’t hiss, because that’s Rude, but he does push his shadow to be bigger. Longer. Darker.

The human just waves. Waits. Holds something out in its hand. Danny doesn’t care. He can’t see it and he’s not going to go over there.

The human makes more words Danny can’t hear. Blech. He wonders what everyone knows here that he doesn’t. Is it French? Is it German? Jazz—

Thinking about Jazz makes his heart hurt.

Danny curls up further into the dark spots on his bed.

The human steps past Danny’s curtain. Danny does hiss, now, something long and low and halfway out of a human hearing range.

The human pauses. Its black haired-head tilts. It says—something else. Its tone is still gentle.

Danny doesn’t trust it. But it doesn’t get any closer, either. It only…holds out a hand.

There’s something in that hand.

It’s a trap, it has to be. But—

The alien said that they had friends in this tower. That the humans here are…safe. Danny doesn’t believe it. Danny is afraid to believe it.

But one of them gave him food.

…And the younger ones feed him all the time.

So maybe. Danny. Maybe he can. He flinches and he leans forward.

Danny can. He can’t see most things. But something aches in his skull where he is meant to see color and shape and familiarity, and something in his melted brain whispers wait, watch.

Danny’s back arches.

He waits. He watches.

…The object doesn’t do anything. The human simply sets it on Danny’s side table, and then it’s an object. A mostly white, somewhat red object. The other colors might be blue, or gray; they’re not distinct enough to be distinguishable in Danny’s mostly mush eyes. It’s oblong, and sort of round and—

Danny jerks upright. He snatches the item off of the table as quickly as he can, brings it as close to his eyes as he can— IT’S A ROCKET!!!! It is!!!! With fuel thrusters and everything!! If Danny had his whole brain he thinks that he could even recognize which one!!

He purrs, and he purrs, and he purrs, and he takes his pillow and he settles the hard plastic into his kind-of-damp (but mostly dry!) pillows and leans into it, happy to have this thing he likes and can recognize!!

Fine. Danny can like this human. When it comes back with little pills in a paper cup, it bravely gets closer, so Danny can see black hair pulled back, a tail swinging behind her, a tinge of red under a mostly-opaque white medical gown, and gold bracelets on her arms.

…Danny touches the bracelets to investigate before he can even be scared. They shiver with energy. Danny’s fragile form shivers back.

The human spends a lot of time with words Danny can’t hear on the paper cup, and she pulls out each little pill inside so that she can say more things, show him what it looks like, let him smell each capsule and tablet.

When the buzzing human comes back with a vibrato of joycurio/us!/joy in its wake, eager to see Danny as he is relieved to see it, Danny shows him the little paper cup.

The buzzing human trills with relief! Relief! Relief!

…That’s got to be safe enough, right? …Right?

Danny…

It’s been a while since he tried to dry-swallow medicine down his torn esophagus, but everyone’s immediate rush to find him water makes the swallow easier than Danny might have thought.

Some of the medicine is going to make him sleepy. Danny remembers enough about medicine to remember that. The thought of being vulnerable and not able to wake up is scary; but if Danny is going to get better, he’s going to have to trust that not every human wants to make sample slides out of his organs and jam needle-long electrodes into his brain, and he will have to fall asleep and not cry about it.

The cup of water the quickquickquick human gets him is so nice. His claws clink against the ceramic of the mug. Most of the liquid actually makes it into his mouth, and some of it even into his throat.

Danny lays down, pulls the rocket ship closer to his fragile form, and purrs. The fastquick human takes Danny’s hand so that he’s not alone.

At some point, his paper eyelids shut.

[ahb-writes]

Comics Review: Trapped on Zarkass

Trapped on Zarkass by Yann, Didier Cassegrain

action

offworld

scifi

terraforming

My Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Marcel Dorcel is a convicted criminal with three exes, a mind that's keen on identifying political subterfuge, and enough experience surviving the wilds of Zarkass that she makes for the best (worst) tour guide one could hope for. In her own words, "just because I'm ballsy doesn't mean I'm stupid." But then again, if one were not relying on Marcel to ford the wilds during the apparent crumbling of the local human outpost, then who?

TRAPPED ON ZARKASS is exquisitely colorful and richly indecent, what with its focus on an odd-couple pair who is absolutely terrible at doing precisely whatever it is they're supposed to be doing. Marcel is the guide and bodyguard; Louis Doisy is an entomologist sent undercover from the local human government. Louis is supposed to be investigating the wreckage of an unnamed adversary's ship, but as often happens in sci-fi exploits, the woman has her own agenda at hand. En totem, navigating jungle flora, all the while surviving encounters with giant spiders, carnivorous butterflies, and hostile populations of roach-people puts this duo on high alert from cover to cover.

One imagines the task of surviving a mysterious planet of hostile others would be equally exciting and terrifying, and TRAPPED ON ZARKASS delivers on both accounts. Is tracking down and investigating an intergalactic crash site on a wayward Earth colony worth the effort? After dropping into the luscious greenery, all bets are off.

Not to say the story makes it easy for these characters to have a good time. Marcel is crass and butch and doesn't really give a shit, but she's a felon who can't quit digging a deeper grave for herself. If she and her partner can pull off this mission, then she'll sleep in a real bed for the first time in 20 years. Louis is snotty and upper-class, but her ambition tends to outweigh any sense of danger lurking over the next cliff. A person with a secret agenda and with nothing to lose tends to harbor the most gall. Marcel and Louis hate each other from the outset, but if they're going to survive the bush and make it back to civilization before everything turns to crap, then they must swallow the irritation they have for one another, one thorny affront at a time.

TRAPPED ON ZARKASS is a beautiful book and demonstrates the best character art many contemporary European comics have to offer: angular but dimensional character designs that don't take up more space than they need to; brilliant and moody coloring; environmental designs and background artwork with layers of informational detail; compelling character expressions that never give away too much. Cassegrain has a style that offers comfort and order on one level (e.g., balanced page composition, smart character blocking) and desirable anarchy on another (e.g., designing messy and dangerous slums, ruins, battle sequences, caverns).

One finds it difficult to disassociate the comic's superlative design quality from its narrative spectacle. For example, it's one thing for readers to come across a lying and scheming indigenous queen and her chosen warrior, but it's another thing entirely to see the warrior stride into frame while mounting a massive cicada and wielding a war axe. It's one thing for readers to learn the local roach-people use the mucus of large lion-caterpillars to protect their skin, but it's another thing entirely to see the locals grieve the loss of their partner-beasts, then throw themselves to their death, glimpsing the emerald splendor of this far away planet for a final, sharp, and fleeting moment.

The book's flaws are niggling but not imperceptible. Notably, Marcel's attitude vacillates unpredictably between caustic foolery and optimistic thuggery. The woman knows more about the planet Zarkass and its dangers than anyone around, but constantly berates the locals and draws ire from her allies. Her insults are hilarious (e.g., "snotty vagsack," "holy ovum," "deadballs," "bloody vulva"), but the butch woman's intense love-hate relationship with the universe makes for seesaw storytelling. As for Louis, the woman is a good foil, but her apparent knack for having helpful visions of next-step adventuring feels too contrived to be effective. Louis is funny because she's absolutely the last person one would want to rough it with in the bush; but perhaps that's the point. Nevertheless, TRAPPED ON ZARKASS wrings from its pages a tale of otherworldly sci-fi in which suspiciously opportunistic people from very odd, awkward, and asynchronous points of origin strive for survival.

❯ ❯ Comics Reviews || ahb writes on Good Reads

[jayjamjary]

Time to "Ohhhhhh Nooooooooo I forgot it at my house nooooooooooooooooo" my way out (hopefully) of losing points for not having a poster done because I decided to yassify it too much and work alone so now I barely have anything done.

[crowlixcx]

[canisalbus]

To me, Machete kind of has the energy of a secondary villain/coldhearted side character in someone else's story that a lot of fans latch onto, moreso than the protagonist. Question is, would he be the villain in anyone's story?

Why, thank you! I'm actually glad to hear he gives off that vibe. I don't think he set out to become a villain but a lot of people certainly view him as one.

[melljam]

gitae is back as well !!!

[mewtillidae]

posting a kremy every single day until new episodes of OUAW are out DAY 24

[themoonofblueside]

it's just so funny that ned is like "sigh i hate southron politics there is no one to trust i miss winterfell i belong to the north" while in adwd the north is like. fifteen different conspiracies for a different heir, at least two houses with associated with cannibalism or flaying people, everyone hating each other, not a single family united for the same cause or even same side, vengeance ideas that would make oberyn martell weep-

[puppyeared]

its so hard to watch time pass when things like careers and assignments exist. what do you mean im supposed to take that seriously

[horizon-penblade-art]

has anyone done this yet

[image ID: drawings of gem versions of the hermitcraft recap team. pix is a dumortierite, sloy/zloy is an unakite, and lyarrah is an anyolite.]

[likeadog]

shinsou brainwashes midoriya to calm down his rampaging quirk and then releases it bc hes a good sport and wants to fight honorably and monoma immediately jumps midoriya as if he wasnt just writhing in agony. truly his haterism is off the charts

[saturnniidae]

Some changeling & troll!Jim headcannons

Morgana had been considering making changelings for years, it wasn't a sudden idea; it was something she'd been planning for a long time

She even discussed it with Merlin at one point (under the guise of wanting to better 'unite' humans and trolls), and he proposed the idea of humans turning into trolls instead of vice-versa.

This is where the concept for the half-troll potion came from. What Jim became was essentially a modified version of a failed recipe for changelings that Merlin kept around in case it ever became useful.

Jim wasn't the first half-troll, he was just the first successful one. There was a chance it could've gone horribly wrong (as it has in past attempts) but Merlin took the risk anyway since he saw it working in his vision.

The reason Morgana's version always ended with better results was due to dark magic and Merlin's outright refusal to go there.

Because they were on a time crunch, Merlin substituted some of the rarer ingredients common in transfiguration potions with material from a preexisting changeling.

All they know about the bone used in the potion was that it came from a changeling. They never learned who, or what kind of troll they were, And subsequently have no clue as to what species of troll Jim was partially turned into. And Merlin didn't ever feel like helping them figure it out even though he probably could've with relative ease.

If they had more time for him to work on the potion, and if Merlin actually measured his ingredients instead of throwing them all in a blender, Jim probably would've come out less wonky (an even amount of fingers, among other things).

[daveythezompire]

spent all day on him and idk if hes any good

[drrav3nb]

KING CANUTE and QUEEN EMMA in VIKINGS: VALHALLA | SEASON TWO

[eraserheadadult]

really underrated aya moment

[gardenstatetait]

Blocked, but also true Im going through life like this