#many meanings

[crystalaris]

Mini story: Depressed Reader Gets Killed By Dust

Warning: Death, hints of abuse

AN: it’s not really sad, just more how you look at it. Currently oneshot, may become more.

———

Dust didn't know if he regretted killing you.

Really, you were an enigma when he first laid his eyelights on you.

It was just another AU, just another place to destroy and gain LV, another mission, simple as that.

These types of AUs, the ones where the monsters were still locked underground, the fear the humans gave off always left Nightmare satisfied.

Stars, he was too.

The humans screaming. Completely at the whims of the monsters they oh so fucking 'feared'. (Hated more like)

It Satisfied an itch with a scratch, just a hint of vengeance for producing such arrogant asshole humans.

Extremely Satisfying for the humans to be at the 'monsters' mercy. (Really they should look in a mirror)

Stars knows they were at the mercy of the humans for so long. It has twisted him, twisted them in the worst possible ways, but it was their (his) 'fault' for the actions that led up to the twist. Not.

He killed his brother, Paps was his first kill.

His first mercy.

He spared Paps the continual pain of false friendship. The loss of fellow monsters to that demon.

As a judge, he granted the underground mercy.

As a monster filled with love (not LoVe) he granted them mercy.

It was fast, it was painless, it was mercy.

Unlike the demon, who derived pleasure from its slow kills, loved watching the despair and the loss of hope as they died

Every

Single

Fucking

Time (reset)

So he enjoys granting mercy to (certain) monsters and death to (all) humans.

Sure he has Paps here, constantly encouraging him to kill kill kill kill-kill-kill-kill. The need, want for more exp and LV.

But he still has his brother.

He loves his brother. He will always love his brother.

It hurts, but that's his punishment.

His atonement.

He lives, he keeps his brother alive and by his side. Is it selfish?

Maybe

Maybe not, He tries not to think about it.

So the rush of killing humans, the pests is satisfying. The sight of them running and screaming in terror? Justice at its finest.

The fact that this AU was dying anyway?

Delectable.

Killing humans is a mercy, though theirs are just a little 'bit' drawn out, some more than others.

So when he notices a human girl watching instead of running? Curious.

Her eyes hopeful instead of fearful? Confusing enough to let her approach.

He's not stupid, his guard is still up, besides Paps wants this exp, even if this measly human is a LV 1 it'll never remain like that for long. The hypocrites.

What surprises him however is where she stops, she's just an arm reach away, like she's standing by someone familiar but not too close, even though the road is now a ghost town.

"what?" Is all he can think to say, even with Paps berating him.

"Are you a grim reaper?"

He'd expected an insult or at the very least had something asked in fear not Hope.  There's a upturn lilt of her lips, her eyes shining every so slightly.

It threw both him and Paps for a loop. So he observes just a bit more.

Her left eye has yellow around it, scratches small, thin, horizontal scratches. Some visible skin poking out from her collar is a faded shade of blue. Multiple Crescent scares along the sides of her throat.

"Will you let it be quick?" His eyes flicker to hers. "Will you make it stop hurting?"

His frown is answer enough.

"Oh," he doesn't care about the disappointment in her voice "I guess harvesting souls is painful then." It's her turn to frown. Still, she steps forwards arms wide open.

For once Paps is silent, watching her. The two glance at each other, a subtle nod, a raise of his knife and they are on their way.

For the first time in what seems like forever Paps silent.

... and thoughtful.

He's normally berating his brother... oh well he'll take what he can get. Something about gifted ketchup and what not.

The blood on Dust's knife dripping from the final strike. Unlike the other times, he doesn't flick off the blood.

Too lazy to really care, or that's what he'll tell paps later.

He wasn't stunned by the small smile on her lips or the thankful look in her eyes.

Like that would ever shock him.

Even now he looks back, thinks back, those eyes keep haunting him.

And he doesn't know if he regrets killing you.

[almondpiglet]

ppl were drawing mikus from all over so heres habesha miku and her lil twin sibs rin and len!!

[morganbritton132]

No one tells you when you get a Big Serious Job™ how many fucking abbreviations you’ll be forced to learn.

[adyophene]

Husk's secret weapon

[nouverx]

"I want to eat you" is their love language and you can't change my mind

[bardofavon]

not to be controversial bc I know this is like…not in line with shifting opinions on fanfic comment culture but if there’s a glaring typo in my work I will NOT be offended by pointing it out. if ao3 fucks up the formatting…I will also not be offended by having this pointed out…

‘looking forward to the next update’ and ‘I hope you update soon!’ are different vibes than a demand, and should be read in good faith because a reader is finding their way to tell you how much they love it. I will not be mad at this.

‘I don’t usually like this ship but this fic made me feel something’ is also incredibly high praise. I’m not going to get mad at this.

even ‘I love this fic but I’m curious about why you made [x] choice’ is just another way a reader is engaging in and putting thought into your work.

I just feel like a lot of authors take any comment that’s not perfectly articulated glowing praise in the exact manner they’re hoping to receive it in bad faith.

fic engagement has been dropping across the board over the last several years, and yes it’s frustrating but it isn’t as though I can’t see how it happens. comment anxiety can be a real thing. the last thing anyone wants to do is offend an author they love, and that means sometimes people default to silence.

idk where I’m going with this I guess aside from saying unless a comment is outright attacking me I’m never going to get mad at it, and I think a lot of authors should feel the same way. ESPECIALLY TYPOS PLZ GOD POINT OUT MY TYPOS.

[hell0mega]

people are drawing Steamboat Willie Mickey doing all this crazy shit and whatnot, but you could always do that. you can do that now, with current Mickey, just fine. it's fanart and it's legally protected. hell you could take Disney-drawn Mickey and put a caption about unions or whatever on it and it would still be protected under free speech and sometimes even parody law.

what is special about public domain is that you can SELL him. you could take a screenshot and sell it on a tshirt. you can use him to advertise your plumbing business. people have already uploaded and monetized the original film.

you could always have Mickey say what you want, but now you can profit off it.

[milesofstars]

dick grayson in fanon: sweet silly older brother, pretty but stupid, favourite child, happy robin, basically batman 2.0 but a nice person, his brothers are more skilled and could outpace him but they love him anyways, goody-two-shoes, good relationship with batman, responsible eldest child, mentally stable and supportive

dick grayson in canon:

became robin so he wouldnt commit first degree murder

like all of his appearances young justice season 1 are about how hes a maniac and a genius

leader and strategist of the teen titans

actually Murdered the joker

considered an equal by the worlds most dangerous and deadly mercenary

was literally fired by batman and only really continued working w him because of jason and babs

managed to keep up with angsty new-to-the-job batman

has had so many arguments with bruce its a miracle he hasnt cut him off forever (hes tried though)

can take down the entire teen titans if he wanted despite being the only one of them with no superpowers/abilities

was the definition of angsty teenager

inherits his insane paranoia from bruce

a thread away from breaking the no-kill rule, give him a rest

hes literally feral guys i mean cmon

[notbecauseofvictories]

I don't know how strictly accurate this is, but one of the things I find shocking about watching historical dramas is how many people there are around all the time---according to Madame de... (1953) a well-off French household in the Belle Epoque maintains a workforce of at least 3, and the glittering opera has staff just to open doors. According to Shogun (2024) you can expect a deep bench just to mind your household, and again, people who exist to open doors.

Could people....not open doors in the past? Were doors tricky, before the standardization of hinges? Because otherwise, the wealthy used to pay a whole bunch of people to do it for them in multiple contexts, and I find myself baffled.

[radioactive-boba]

Behold!!! He is here!!!! I further fucked up my sleep schedule to get photos in natural lighting to show all the pretty details. Im so happy its done, i love him sm!!!! He sucked the soul straight out of my mortal body!!!!!!

[batemanofficial]

that smoking in public poll got me thinking. you don't get to waffle about being neutral with these options you gotta choose

i personally like the smell of weed but dislike the smell of cigarette/tobacco smoke, but combing through the notes on that poll indicates that this opinion may be unpopular! idk!

[inkskinned]

the thing about some men is that they want you to remember, at all times, that you are underneath them. that with one word or look or "joke", you will stay beneath them. that even "exceptions" to the rule are not true exceptions - the commonly cited statistic that one in eight men believe they could win against serena williams.

women's gymnastics is often not seen as real gymnastics. whatever the fuck non-euclidian horrors rhythmic gymnasts are capable of, it's often tamped down as being not a sport. some of the most dominant athletes in the world are women. nobody watches women's soccer. despite years of dancing and being built like a fucking brick, men always assume they're faster and stronger than i am. you wouldn't like what happens when they are incorrect. once while drunk at a guy's house i won a held-plank challenge by a solid minute. the party was over after that - he became exceedingly violent.

what i mean is that you can be perfect, and they still think you're ... lacking, somehow. i hope you understand i'm trying to express a neutral statement when i say: taylor swift was the possibly the most patriarchy-palatable, straight-down-the-line woman we could churn out. she is white, conventionally attractive, usually pretty mild in personality. say what you will about her (and you should, she's a billionaire, she can handle it), but a few things seem to be true about her: 1. she can write a damn catchy song, and 2. the eras tour truly was a massive commercial success and was also genuinely an impressive feat of human athleticism and performance.

i don't know if she deserves the title of "woman of the year," i'm not debating that in this post. what i am saying is that she was named Woman of The Year, and then an untalented man got onstage at the golden globes and made fun of her for attending her boyfriend's football games. what i am saying is that this woman altered local economies - and her dating life is still being made into a "harmless" punchline. the camera panned, greedy, over to her downing a full glass of champagne. congratulations taylor! you are woman of the year! but you are a woman. even her.

fuck, man. write better material.

a guy gets onstage at a college graduation and despite the fact like half the crowd is made up of women, he spends a significant proportion of it warning these people - who spent possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars on their education - that they were lied to. that the "real" meaning of femininity is motherhood. that they shouldn't rest on the laurels of that education-they-paid-for but instead throw it away to kneel at a man's heel. imagine that. sweating in your godawful polyester gown (that you also had to pay for!), fresh out of 4 years of pushing yourself ever-harder: and some guy you've never met - who knows nothing about you - he reminds you this "win" is a pyrrhic one at best. you really shouldn't consider yourself that extraordinary. you're still a woman, even after years of study.

god forbid you are not a pretty woman, but if you are pretty, you must be dumb. god forbid you are not ablebodied or white or cis or straight or good at swallowing. you must be beneath a man, or else they are not a man. the equation for masculinity seems to just be: that which is not a woman or womanly (god forbid). anything "feminine" is thereby anathema. to engage in "feminine" things such as therapy, getting a hug from a friend, or crying - it is giving up ones manhood. therefore women need to be put in their place to ensure that masculinity is protected.

this is something i have struggled to explain to terfs - they are not doing the work of feminism, but rather the patriarchy. by asserting that women and men must be (on some secret level) oppositional and in conflict, they also assume that being a woman is akin to being another species. but bigotry does not stem from observational truths or clarity - that is what makes it bigotry. there was nothing in my childhood that made me fundamentally different from my brother. we are treated differently nonetheless. to assert there is some biological drive that enforces my gender role is to assert that women have a gendered role. men do not see women as equal to them not because of biological reality - but instead because the core tenant of the patriarchy is that women aren't full, realized people.

we are told from a very young age to excuse misbehavior as a single man's choice - not all men. it is not all men, just that one guy. all women are gold-digging bitches who belong in the kitchen - but if a man is mean, bigoted, or violent to you, it's just that particular guy, and that means nothing about men-as-a-whole. it is only one guy who got mad when you gently rejected him. it is only one guy who warns her this trophy is heavy, are you sure you can hold it? it is only one guy who smashes her face into the cake. it is only one guy talking into a mic about hating our bodily autonomy.

i have just found that they often wait until the moment we actually seem to be upstaging them. you sit in a meeting where you're presenting your own findings and he says get me a coffee? or you run to the end of the marathon and are about to finish first and he pushes your kids out in front of you. you win the chess game and they make some comment akin to well, you're ugly away. we can be the billionaire and get the dream life and finally fucking do it and yet! still! they have this strange, visceral urge to say well actually, if you think you're so great -

it's not one just one guy. it's one in eight.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

getting older can be so amazing? you get more familiar with yourself. learn tips & tricks for troubleshooting your own brain. trial & error helps you build routines that minimize discomfort, maximize reward. your preferences/interests don't get set in stone, but you do find out which ones are going to stay with you in the long-term, and which ones are fun but transient joys to appreciate in the moment.

you learn that the world is so much more complex than you were taught, and that that's okay, and that there's an endless supply of things you can learn or watch or experience or think about if you want to. if you're lucky, you loosen up, stop putting so much pressure on yourself. if you're lucky, you learn to recognize that negative inner voice, and whack it with a baseball bat until it hushes up. if you're lucky, you learn to treat yourself gently, not because you are fragile but because you are worthy of gentleness. (i hope you are lucky.)

and some things will change. some things will get better. some things will get good. and maybe you start to recover from the dehumanizing stress of childhood/education. maybe you learn the power of your own autonomy. maybe you learn how to walk away from bad situations (which is a superpower even if you don't realize it yet). and you get to choose your own clothes. and your own food. and which relationships to pursue! and what you do with your free time. and with your life (but don't worry you get to choose that gradually). and that's crazy! and sometimes scary. and extraordinarily, indescribably precious.

[wiisagi-maiingan]

I love tornado survival guides. "Shelter in a basement or interior room without any windows. But if you're in a mobile home, just fucking die I guess lol"

[pickled-flowers]

Sex positivity is also about not calling Ace people prude and using virgin as an insult 👍 hope that helps