#not a baby but you get the idea

[poobirdy]

xin mo did not become the demonic op sword of all three realms for this!!! for @kawouwu who asked for binggeyuan sillies! thank you for your donation to svsss' gotcha 4 gaza!

[kimtaegis]

JIN HUGS JIN HUGS! for @jinstronaut ♡

cr. namuspromised, dwellingsouls, 0613data

[morg-among-the-stars]

Valentine’s Day

Word Count: 1,658

(Happy Valentine’s Day, y’all! Here’s a sweet Hobarkley fic in honor of today! <3)

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Payton doesn't get particularly excited about commercial holidays, especially now that he's always preoccupied with one thing or another.

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and he vaguely, half-heartedly knows that he has to get Alice something nice. He's gotten her something nice since they were kids.

But back when he was a kid, his dream had only just spawned in his mind.

He wasn't a politician, he was only a kid with an answer to the question of, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Payton remembers telling his mom about Alice and talking about how Mrs. Charles always wore pearls around her neck.

Shiny and beautiful.

Those two things seemed separate, completely unrelated, but it made sense to an eight-year-old boy with his first little crush.

He wanted to buy Alice a set of pearls for Valentine's Day.

While he didn't understand the scope of his family's wealth, he did know they had the money for his intended gift.

But Georgina didn't want her son to buy something so grand, she wanted him to give a gift in the scope of his age.

He's only eight, he can gift her pearls when he is older.

Payton had pouted and protested, but he had been given an alternative idea; he could make a necklace himself.

It was the one homemade thing Payton ever made for anyone. He was never into arts and crafts, even as a child, besides the occasional drawing to be hung on the refrigerator.

But he sat in his bedroom, stringing shiny plastic beads together, picking out all the white ones for the necklace.

When his work was done, Payton had hid it underneath all the other Valentines that were to be passed out the following day.

Once they'd been let out for recess, Payton took Alice behind the rock wall near the swings, the swings where McAfee and James kept watch so Payton could have his moment in the most private place kids their age had access to.

Payton presented the "pearls", stuttering and bashful, telling Alice that he loves her.

Being bashful about how he feels is a thing he learned to overcome with Alice and most people later on in life.

But at the age of eight, Alice was happy, giving the one boy who didn't believe in cooties a peck on the cheek.

Alice loved him, too.

Payton stepped out from behind the rock wall, grinning like the happiest boy on the planet.

His future First Lady was set in stone.

Payton made it a point to buy Alice something for every Valentine's Day from that day forward.

He stuck to it through elementary and middle school, but high school is when the idea of buying a card or chocolates became one thing to take him away from focusing on changing the world.

A distraction as opposed to a heart-felt gesture.

Now, in his junior year of high school, heart-felt gestures are off the table.

If Alice feels any heartache about it, she never speaks of it.

She sees the pink and red heart motifs everywhere she goes in February and she pays it no mind, pushing forward.

James, in his love for Alice, sees Payton's dismissal of the holiday and something in him wants to buy Alice something nice himself.

But he knows that won't do him any good, Payton would kill him.

So, he does the next best thing and reminds Payton that Valentine's Day is in two days.

"We don't do that. You know it, James." Payton tells him across the table in the library, while Alice and McAfee are off somewhere else, "Since when do you care about Valentine's Day anyway?"

James doesn't have an answer that he can give Payton.

So, he makes one up.

"She's your girlfriend, it's the right thing to do." Payton laughs, audibly laughs at that and looks up from his laptop,

"In twenty years, when we're all in the White House, this stupid holiday won't matter."

James drops it there, there is no getting through to Payton and his stubbornness.

The sun rises the following day and the holiday he now despises is a day away, fast approaching.

He doesn't like this mushy stuff, the cards and little teddy bears and the roses.

But James' words hit him all of a sudden when he thinks of the way Alice had looked at him through her usual content gaze.

She looks frustrated, frustrated in a way she can't express.

If she expressed it, it would cause a rift and a disturbance.

If Payton truly hates anything, he hates a disturbance in his meticulously crafted plans.

So, he drives out to the local Hallmark store in search of something to get James' words out of his mind and that look of frustration out of Alice's eyes.

The store is quiet, a few people are wandering up and down the isles, picking out any number of gifts for their special someone.

Payton turns to the Hallmark cards and the biggest disturbance in his life is shuffling through the various options.

River has a small stuffed bear tucked under his arm.

Payton goes down the isle, shuffling through the cards himself, watching River as subtlety as he can.

He struggles to find a card that is good enough for Alice.

Half of him doesn't care about this one bit and the other half cares a lot, maybe even too much.

In his third or fourth glance in River's direction, he sees him pick a card covered in roses and hearts.

Payton knows that underneath the cheesy Hallmark message will be something poetic and sweet and from the heart.

Astrid is a very lucky girl.

At a point, River looks back at Payton, in a waiting game to see who would acknowledge the other first.

"I thought you and Alice didn't do stuff like this." He comments.

Payton had forgotten that he told River about his distain for Valentine's Day during last week’s tutoring session.

"We don't." Payton states, then shrugs, "But I felt like it was the right thing to do."

River looks almost proud of Payton for using his morals.

Payton can tell him that James knocked the sense into him in a few days, when this store is all set up for St. Patrick's Day on February fifteenth.

Payton picks up a card and puts it right back, asking, "Are you and Astrid doing anything special?"

The question comes off his tongue and it tastes bitter like an unripe lemon.

River smiles to himself and the bitterness only grows as he goes on about their plans for dinner at the best place in town.

Payton has to think quick on his feet when River flips the question back around to him,

"Oh, well- I think- we're going out. Though, I'm still trying to book a reservation, God knows everyone else is trying to steal my great idea." He jokes towards the end to mask the fact that it's nothing special.

He hadn't even thought about it until yesterday in the library.

But River has how he'll treat Astrid like royalty all planned out and Payton is bitter and envious for reasons his subconscious won't allow him to confront.

He picks up a card that's pastel colored and classy, the same as Alice is.

He can write his own message in it tonight.

Payton drafts up the card's message on the way home. He'd also picked up a heart-shaped box of fancy chocolate that Alice likes.

He feels good; this is the most he's done in years.

He wants to do more in the future, the bitterness from his run-in with River solidifies it.

As dumb as it is, Payton understands the frustration Alice feels.

He knows he won't receive a heartfelt card or a nice evening out, where he's showered in sweet words and love from River and that gives him an ache in his heart.

It's a thing he'll never have and he has to deal with it.

He pushes his sorrows to the back of his mind and readies himself for tomorrow.

Alice is overjoyed with what Payton gives him.

No matter how cold and calculated she is, she's still a girl who wants to be shown love, even in the commercial sense that Payton isn't fond of.

James looks at him, it's a look of approval.

A job well done. His First Lady is happy.

At the end of the day, Payton goes to his locker to put his books away.

A folded piece of loose-leaf paper falls out when the door is opened.

A note from River.

Happy Valentine's Day, Payton. You're a busy guy, so I'll keep this short and sweet...

The note is short and sweet in a very literal sense, Payton feels warm and fuzzy at the brief words River had written.

It's signed, "Your buddy, River", but if Payton squints, he can see where the eraser of River's pencil erased the, "L" in, "Love".

Today is the best time to use that word, but River knows better than to make Payton short-circuit when he only has a few hours to prepare an evening out for himself and Alice.

River knows him well, he loves him a lot.

Payton knows River loves him, it's evident in every word he's ever spoken to him or every way he's ever looked at him.

He is the best disturbance in Payton's life.

In the end, Payton enjoys his evening with Alice; he has a lot to be grateful for when it comes to her.

He doesn't explain to her that a run-in with River and a nudge from James pushed him to be so romantic, he keeps that to himself.

Payton keeps River's note in his wallet, tucked behind his school ID.

Next year, he might be brave enough to sneak his own note into River's locker.

[paponela]

despite everything, it's still you

[bonecarversbestie]

Don’t mind me just having my weekly cry thinking about Lucien wrapping Solstice gifts for everyone when he knows he won’t get one in return.

Like just imagine him sitting on the floor with scissors and tape making sure the creases are perfect and tying little bows on top 😭

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Welcome to the Dungeons of Fear and Hunger.

[bluerosefox]

Taking a Chance

I want more TaliaxDanny stuff so how about this AU. Its mostly HEAVILY hinted though.

[Side note: Danny is in his 20s, maybe mid 20s btw, also enjoy my actual writing style, haven't done this in a while besides some small snippets I write]

Talia discovers the future plans Ra's has for her baby, her heir, her child. She is hurt and enraged because "How dare he! How dare he raise my son to be a sacrificial lamb just to extend his own life!" And the fact he had no plans to truly step down from being the Demon Head. (Basically the timeline where Ra's planned to overtake Damain's body)

-x-x-

Talia stared, her green eyes almost glowing toward the sleeping form of her son on her bed. Her eyes roamed his tiny face, the way he lightly dozed the day away unknowingly of the danger that had set in stone for him. Yes, being not just her son but the son of the Bat and the grandson of the Demon Head he was always going to be in danger but never had she really thought the danger would come from the very person who just declared him his heir. At least not in the way its been presented.

Talia had just discovered the fate her father, Ra's al Ghul, the same man that had held Damian not even a day ago and spoke of the future he could see Damian bring to the League once he was of age and would lead it, had actually planned for her son.

He planned on using her son, raising him to be the perfect heir.... to... to...

Use him as a vessel in the end.

He planned to leave his old decaying body, a body that was beginning to no longer respond to the Lazarus Pits as of late, and basically jump ship to a younger and better body...

The body of her son. The son she created and craved to have and raise. The son she made with her beloved's blood running in his veins.

Despite how enraged she is' Talia knows she can't confront her father. He would kill her... no he would torture her by hurting her baby to the point death would be a mercy if she tried. She also knows she can't go running to Bruce, she had burned the bridge to him ages ago when she refused to leave her father and his teachings and knows he would rip Damian away from her should she tell him what she did. He would, under the guise of protecting their child gain sole custody from Talia, set up next to nothing visitation rights for her to follow. He would say it would be to protect Damian from Ra's but Talia knows Bruce, knows he would use it as a half-excuse just to keep her away... but Talia wants to be in her child's life. Wants to raise him. Wants to be his mother, despite knowing next to nothing on how to be an actual normal mother, she wanted to try. She needed to try.

Running away was also out of the question, especially since Damian had been declared her father 'heir'. He would hunt them down and there was no where in this world she could hide that her father could not find them...

And-

Talia barely gives any warning when she flings the knife behind her. She waited for only a second, either to hear the ting of metal being blocked or the sound of it burying itself onto the wooden door she knew was in its pathway.

Instead she heard neither of those things and instead heard the ticking of a grandfather clock and a deep chuckle.

"As expected from the daughter of the Demon. Sharp and deadly with no hesitation in sight."

"Who are you." It was not a question but a demand. She slowly turned her head and was meet with an odd sight that even the daughter of the Demon has never seen before.

"At most.. an ally to have. At worst, merely a passing stranger with an offer."

The ticking never stopped.

Everything else outside the room though did.

-x-x-

Danny stared, his currently green eyes burning even more brightly than they normally do. Many emotions passed through them, anger, frustration, pain, sadness, regret, heartbreak, and hopelessness to name a few.

He stared at the tiny sleeping face within the healing pod in front of him and closed his eyes as memories of spending time with the one sleeping filled his mind.

"My King." A voice began, Danny's sharp pointed ears twitch for a moment and he turned his head slightly but it was all the speaker needed to know that they had his attention even if he didn't give them his full attention.

"I bring the updated reports from Chief Frostbite you requested." The young yeti ghost said, this had Danny finally turning around and looking upwards and towards the young yeti, who was smaller than Frostbite but none the less bigger than Danny. Danny held his hand out and took the stack of papers in their hands.

Once the papers were in his hands he gave a curt wave of his fingers as if to say 'go on' without actually saying the words and turned his attention to the words on the papers. The young yeti, Icewinds took the signal and began.

"Princess Danielle's core has remained the same since the last check up. No major sign of deteriorating or destabilizing... However that also means there have been no signs of improvement or healing as well..." Icewinds stopped for a moment, allowing their King to register the words being spoken "We will continue to monitor her as best as we can but... My King..."

Icewinds took a deep breath and delivered the news everyone already knew "Without a female donor to complete her Ecto-DNA, should the Princess suffers from another Fading even a minor one, I fear it might be too much for her core and with her current body form it will not be able to withstand the stress... I'm truly sorry My King."

The room fell silent, the only real sounds being the monitors in the room and sound of rustling papers in Danny's hands, who was staring blankly at the words written on them but not really taking them in.

After a moment, Icewinds shifting uncomfortably for a second, Danny spoke his voice raw but strong and firm "I understand. Please inform Frostbite I am... grateful for his, yours, and everyone's continued support and everything everyone's has done to help her... If you do not mind Icewinds, I would... Like to be alone for a while and think... For a moment."

"O-Of course My King." And with that Icewinds left the room, Danny barely taking not of the door closing and his enhanced hearing picking up the hushed soft words being spoken to the Knights that stood outside the room of Danny's request of being left alone for a while.

Once the talking outside the room faded, Danny tilted his body and head back on the chair he had been sitting in for the last few days and allowed the papers he had his hands to fall out and onto the floor. Danny took in a shaky breath and closed his burning eyes as he tried to keep his core emotions in control, knowing if he lost control the Realms would echo him and would panic or worry his people.

And he couldn't deal with that. Not now.

"Clockwork, whatever timeline you are trying to set in motion, I hope it pans out soon." Danny rasped out as he tried his best to keep himself from falling apart. Losing Danielle, losing the girl that was his clone, his mirror, but also was like a sister... daughter sometimes would break him, harshly and deeply.

He knew his advisor and resident Timekeeper had something in the works, the way the aging spirit had looked at him before he left was telling when the news of Danielle's suffering from another Fading attack and Frostbite having to perform a Core Transform nearly last second, which in turn turned her into a baby from how close she was to fully Fading, had been delivered to Danny and the others.

But despite knowing Clockwork had a plan, Danny knew that smile he had before he had left. It had been Clockwork's 'Have hope, but even I am unsure.' smile, a rare one the Timekeeper would wear when even he didn't know which way the pendulum of chance would swing first.

So he did the only thing he could do for now, and that was to remain in the room with Danielle, keep her stabilized as best as he could with his own ectoplasim flowing, and wait to see if whatever Clockwork had planned would work out.

Waiting, even with all he's done in his life from becoming a Halfa, to defending his home and haunt, from fighting off insane Fruitloops to dismantling government bigots until there was nothing left of them, all the way to fighting a tyrannicidal Ghost King to the point Danny had won the crown by Trail by Combat thus taking up the mantle of Ghost King of the Infinite Realms since his seventeenth birthday and bringing the Infinite Realms into a new age of healing the broken crumbling lands and ruling over all justly but firmly, waiting was all he could do for Danielle.

And the waiting. The stress. Was agonizing.

Because what they needed was...

Was a miracle if Danny was to be honest. They needed a female, a donor in all sense of the words, to complete Danielle's incomplete Ecto-DNA, because of course that damned Fruitloop tried skipping steps in creating a clone of Danny and it was no wonder he had failed so many times with only Danielle the most stable of them all and given the fact she still wasn't was damning, but they couldn't just have any female donate their DNA to her.

No the DNA needed the donor to at least be limenal, thus turning the DNA into Ecto-DNA because Danielle was created to be a halfa... The only problem was that the person in question needed to be Jazz level of limenal Ecto-DNA as well.

Meaning that despite both Sam and Val offering their Ecto-DNA from the years of being exposed to the Realms and Ectoplasim theirs wasn't enough to work with Danielle's. Jazz's Ecto-DNA was off the table seeing as she was his sister and mixing it with Danielle's would just lead to problems.

No they needed someone who was born near or in ectoplasm, breathed it, ate or at least filtered it, grew with it for years like Jazz and Danny did, basically the person in question just needed one odd day of dying and returning to life at the same time to becoming a halfa levels of limenal. Only those high levels could complete and combined with Danielle's.

Which given the fact only Jazz had those levels, finding someone near those levels was like looking for needle in space, because forget the haystack.

"....You've returned." Was the only words Danny said when his ears caught the sound of a ticking clock suddenly in the room, his anxiety raising as both dread and a tiny slimmer of hope both slowly climb up in his emotions, knowing whatever answer Clockwork would give him would outweigh the other.

"On time, as always My King." His cryptic Timekeeper responded "I bring... a chance."

Those words were enough to snap Danny out of his chair, he quickly looked towards where Clockwork's voice had been coming from and floated. His eyes burning with determination for a moment before he caught sight of movement behind Clockwork.

Behind the ever changing being stood a breathtaking woman. Tall and proud from the way she held herself, she looked a few years older than him but Danny could sense she was far older her soul not really matching her body. She was lovely to look at no doubt but deadly, very deadly and that was something else Danny could sense after all he was the Ghost King.

And she wasn't alone for in her arms was a baby, roughly the same age that Danielle had been de-aged to as well.

Danny blinked at them when he noticed something.

She...

She was limenal.

Very limenal. Even more limenal than Jazz.

In fact both of them were.

"I would like you to meet Lady Talia al Ghul and her son Damian, My King." Clockwork said as he gave a tiny bow towards the woman who stepped forward, a frown on her face she took in Danny's features and her eyes darting towards Danielle's healing pod for a moment, Danny could see she was tensed and a little weary from no doubt everything so far.

".... Welcome Lady Talia to the Infinite Realms. I am King Phantom." Danny greeted, his many years of training with other royalties coming forward as second nature now, he wasn't some normal teen from the middle of the Mid-West after all. "Has Clockwork told you the reasoning as to why you have been... chosen?"

He honestly would put it past Clockwork to be cryptic about the reasoning, but he hoped he hadn't because Danny really didn't want to explain the importance of it all and why they needed to hurry. And judging by the roll of his eyes Clockwork knew what Danny had been meaning as well.

"Yes King Phantom" Talia spoke, her voice rich and silky that sent a tiny shiver up Danny's spine from the sound "You need my DNA to help heal your clone. Should it be successful however it will change her from being merely a clone to instead into becoming yours and mine daughter."

"Correct." Was Danny's response, short and to the point. He needed her answer now if they wanted to save even a fragment of Danielle's core.

The room fell silent again, each them of taking a moment to think.

But eventually Talia spoke. Her voice steady and strong.

"I will offer my aid to you and yours... But only if you swear to both me and my son that we will be given sanctuary from my father and any who dares harm us for the blood that runs in our veins."

Danny only had one answer to that as his eyes caught hers.

Because despite being the Ghost King Phantom nowadays. He had once been Danny Phantom whose core started as a protector spirit and could sense the honestly of needing safety in her words.

"Yes."

-x-x-

Clockwork watched and smiled at the two adults in the room as they continued to stare at each other.

He knew he had been cutting it close, waiting for Talia to be at the ends of ropes and needing a chance to finally leave her deadly and abusive father without the toxic strings attached her ex would tie around her under the guise of safety for their son.

Turning his attention away from the two as they began to speak terms, Clockwork cast his gaze towards an window in the room and stared out of it, smile still on his face as glimpses of the rare future he saw slowly rose up more frequently.

Danny and Talia slowly and surely working together to raise not just Danielle, or rather Ellie as they renamed her since she was no longer a clone of Danny, but also Damian together. Passing them off as twins to those outside the Realms or Amity Park.

Talia learning to release the toxic love she had towards Bruce Wayne, and understand if someone truly loved you for you, they would demand sudden change from the only way of life one knows. That since she was no longer the thumb of her father she could finally be free to be herself.

Danny learning that despite being crowned so early in his life, that the weight of the crown didn't need to be carried alone. Sure he had his friends and family but Danny needed someone, someone who understood the weight of the feeling of needing to wear it head held high. And who better to help teach that than the woman who had to carry the name Daughter of the Demon Head herself.

The two growing closer and closer. Until fondness changed and shifted into more. As they raised the two infants with laughter and joy and love.

Ellie getting a kiss from Talia on the forehead when she had a nightmare and seeked her mother out for comfort. Toddler Damian riding Cujo around the castle as he copied Fright Knight after watching him ride off, Danny floating right by him making sure he didn't fall off. Ellie learning how to fight not just from her mother but from her idol Pandora. Damian learning to identify the stars and their names from the man he saw, and later wished was, his father. Ellie and Damian building pillow forts in the library and reading all manners of stories to each other. Danny and Talia holding their tiny hands as they took them to their first day of school within Amity Park their joyful laughter bringing soft smiles on their parents faces.

Danny holding a crying Talia as she explained the things she had been taught and forced to learn by the orders of her father in the dead of night. Doing his best to calm her down as he had been taught by Jazz ages ago.

Talia standing tall and firm when the Observants tried to undermined a order, no a law Danny had set in motion that had upset the eyeballs badly. How she gathered evidence of their attempts to go against it and how they were nothing but traitors towards their King and couldn't weasel themselves out of it this time.

Clockwork smiled warmly when he caught sight of one more glimpse of this future timeline.

Talia dressed beautifully, a crown made of stars and black jewels on her head. Her son dancing with her as firm as he could but his little tongue peeking out of his mouth as he concentrated on his steps and was dressed like a tiny prince complete with a tiny crown of stars on his head as well, Talia's face held a tiny smile of love watching him try his hardest to dance correctly with her. Joyful squeals of laughter rang out as King Phantom twirled with Ellie, who was dressed like a true princess, in his arms.

Around them in the ballroom the citizens of Realms laughed, joyfully danced, sang, ate, or merely watched. For the first time in many, many years the Realms felt... Complete. Whole. Happy.

A true wonderful afterlife that all could enjoy.

Yes.

He knew waiting the last second was a long shot, for a chance that almost wasn't, but the future he saw was well worth it.

A good future. A balanced one. A happy afterlife one.

Now, all he had to do was wait for the seeds of this future to bloom.

[te4k3ttle]

Just a glimpse into my dark reality

Saw these two on my desktop next to eachother and it was funny to me how similar these look to max

[magpiedraws]

Wouldn't lizard fashion be something like spikes and scales and a frilled lizard collar?

Like so?

(Bonus art under the cut)

[illuteridae]

late valentines with some recent favs ^_^

[0vergrowngraveyard]

i wanted to practice backgrounds and i just reread @skimmingmilk’s fic chart a course to second chances for the millionth time so there was only one logical conclusion

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 111

Y’all know H2O? Where some people get cursed to turn into merfolk whenever they get water on them? That, but replace water with ectoplasm and merfolk with naga. 

No, Bruce has no idea how they managed to get cursed or how he ended up with an armful of baby snake-person creature thing. At least this one isn’t black-hair and blue-eyes so his kids can’t complain at him. And it’s not his fault they all fell into this, this was supposed to be a vacation while Lucious, Alfred, and Gordon kept an eye on things back in Gotham. 

On the bright side, his children want to snuggle up for once, which he supposes is nice. And Damian seems pleased about it judging by his rambles about snakes. So there’s that. 

[starry-bi-sky]

my body's aching like a knock-down drag-out

and my poor heart is an open wound A Childhood Friends Au snippet that very briefly delves into Danny's life post-accident. CW: Mild Mentions of Blood, Violence, VERY mild gore ig. Danny briefly recalls getting impaled during a fight.

------------

What they don't tell you about being dead is that it hurts. That it can hurt. That it can hurt more than when you were alive. That when you die, the emotions you die with stick with you like a leech that just won't let go. That emotions are ugly little thorns that stick their barbs into you and grow beneath your skin; or, at least, whatever’s left of it. 

Danny is familiar with anger. It kept him warm in Gotham, when his parents weren't home from work and he and Jason were crowding Crime Alley with their presence. It kept him warm in Amity, when the fresh sting of moving was still needling into his heart and he wanted nothing more than to rip and tear into the closest person next to him.

He's familiar with violence. With fights. With death. He's seen people die in Crime Alley probably every day. From overdose, from gunshots, from stab wounds; anything that can kill, rest assured he's seen it. He's familiar with getting his own knuckles rough and bloody when other kids turn and bare their teeth at him and Jason; they're all just starving dogs stuck in a fighting pit, primed and ready to rip out each other's throats. 

Black eyes, stomped hands, bloody noses. You name it; he’s had it. Gotham is paved with the blood of her children, and Danny likes to imagine that when he was born, the doctors handed his mother a file and told her; “Take it. He’s going to need it for his teeth.” 

Danny’s mom (and dad, for that matter) was too busy trying to keep him and Jazz fed, so Danny stole the file from her drawer with Jazz’s help, and did it himself.  

He’s familiar with anger, he thought he was getting better at it these days. It doesn’t come to him as easily as it did before. Of course, that was before Jason died. 

Danny is less familiar with grief. Caring kills and Gotham kills the caring, so Danny cares very little about other people. Or he tries to. But grief hurts. His grief hurts. It hurts too much. It hurts like a bug trying to crawl out of his chest; like a rat chewing a hole through his heart. Some days he wants to dig his hands into his hair and split himself down the middle. Some days he just wants to scream. 

He’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead. 

He wants the whole city to hear him wailing, some days. It sticks itself in the back of his throat like bile, and Danny is one wrong retch away from letting it loose. It sticks in his lungs like all the tar he’s smoked in since he was nine. It pushes and aches at his temples, in his head, like his brain is trying to swell out of his skull. His thoughts becoming so loud they threaten to commandeer his tongue.  

He has no mouth, but he must scream. 

Something they don’t tell you about being dead is that it hurts. That it hurts more than when you were alive. Something they don’t tell you about being dead is that it’s violent. That it’s bloody. Or as bloody as it can be when everyone has no blood. 

Another thing they don’t tell you about being dead, is that it’s a lot like Gotham that way.

With no threat of death, Danny’s enemies forget death itself. Blood comes easy, like water, and teeth are encouraged. Bring your own fangs to the fight. Dying is something you can just walk off. 

Danny’s been dead for three months. He can’t say he’s been walking it off easy. He’s perfected the art of turning his nails into claws since his heart was still beating, but he can’t say he’s perfected fighting other ghosts. 

Scrappy is just not enough. 

He feels like he’s back in Gotham again. Back in her death-shroud alleyways, fighting someone bigger than him. But there’s no Jason to watch his back, and Danny has to get himself out of there alone. Or he might just not get up at all. 

Black eyes, busted lips. It’s familiar to him like an old scent, Danny isn’t quite sure that he’s missed it. It’s more familiar than his fights with Dash. 

But there’s no one else who can do it but him. Not Sam, not Tucker. He can’t lose them too. He can’t. He can’t. He can’t. His heart can’t take another break, he already feels like he’s going insane. 

With no threat of death, Danny’s enemies fight like death themself. He learns why when Technus puts a street sign through his stomach one day. It pins him to the asphalt like a moth pinned by its wings. 

Danny claws at the metal like how an animal caught in a trap chews off its leg, and every move is blinding pain. He thinks he was howling, but it’s hard to tell. He couldn’t recognize the sound of his voice. 

He bleeds green. It mixes in black with the pitch blackhole in his heart, which throbs and twists and cries in time with his reckless panic. The finger-choking terror of dying again strangles out the air he doesn’t need. His blood evaporates, only to reabsorb into him. It just bleeds out again, cycling like a snake eating its own tail. 

Danny breaks his nails clawing at the metal, and eventually gets it in his mind to pull it out. So he does, and the end drips ectoplasm green as he gets to his feet. In red-vision, Danny sends the sign back with snarling, vicious fervor. The pain is irrelevant in his rage.

Only after the fight does the hole the pole left start to close. Danny doesn’t shift human until it’s gone. Unlike other injuries, a scar stays behind. Ugly; mottled, it aches for a week with every twist and stretch his body makes. He hates it. 

Being dead is agony. 

Every part of him is in pain. Every step, every word he speaks, everything he does, it is prerequisite with pain. The body is temporary, but the soul is forever, and death has carved into it with its freezing green hands and left him with never-ending heartache. It has torn from him and stolen what of him it could, and in return it’s left him with sorrow. 

His pain is his grief, and he’s sobbed in the safety of his room more times than he can count. It’s still as fresh as the day he heard the news of Jason’s death. He knows, instinctively, that it will stay fresh forever. 

In his room, Danny shoves his hands over his mouth and shrieks in whatever, muffled way he can into his pillow. It’s not enough. It’s never enough. He needs to be louder. He needs to be heard. He refuses to be. 

Being dead hurts. 

[howhow326]

Congratulations Kaos, you officially have the most accurate adaptation of Hera in 2,000 years because she is actually scary.

Edit: This post was lowkey a mistake but also I'm here for it lol

Ok so when I made this I didn't know that the writers made Hera cheat with Poseidon and I agree that is bad/inaccurate/not very demure and mindful.

I stand by my original statement that Hera screwing that one girl was good and yall can fight me on it

[deathnguts]

Evan and regulus who got married right out of high school because their families insisted (they were already dating and didn’t mind, just if it was in their control they would’ve waited a little longer) and they’re just seen as the perfect couple by everyone because they’re both beautiful, young, rich, talented, and charming and there’s like paparazzi photos and updates about them all the time so when said paparazzi sees Evan with barty they flip out and start spreading the news that Evan’s a cheater like wild fire and the media hates him for like a day before Barty is also seen in public with regulus and then they’re just confused??????

Anyway just married Evan and regulus and they’re boyfriend Barty

[padawansuggest]

Qui-Gon: *on his first night with Padawan Kenobi after his older padawans convinced him he needed a new baby so he’d bother someone else* Alright, now I think it’s bedtime. I know it’s a bit earlier than usual but you have a whole new set of classes to switch to tomorrow so we have to get up early.

Obi-Wan: *is only 11, is fine with more sleep* Okay, Master! *wanders off to get in his pajamas*

Qui-Gon: *making a pot of sleepy tea*

Obi-Wan: *comes back in jammies looking confused*

Qui-Gon: What’s wrong, Padawan?

Obi-Wan: I can’t find my sleepy cocoon.

Qui-Gon: …your sleeping bag? Oh, I assumed you used that for camping in the room of a thousand fountains, do you usually sleep in that at night?

Obi-Wan: ??? No? No I use it sometimes but you’re right, that’s for camping nights. I mean my sleepy cocoon?

Qui-Gon: …what is a sleep cocoon?

Obi-Wan: It’s… it’s a stretchy fabric that goes over you?

Qui-Gon: …gimme a second, I don’t think I saw anything like that in your bags.

One call to the creche later

Creche Master: Is something wrong with Padawan Kenobi settling in?

Qui-Gon: Um, he’s missing something that I don’t think I’ve seen. He called it his sleepy cocoon?

Creche Master: Oh! That went into the laundry this morning, it probably got delivered back to us, I’ll have it sent right away.

Qui-Gon: Um, I need to ask… what is a sleepy cocoon?

Creche Master: *snort* It’s an anti-grav sleeping tube. It’s a compression material so he doesn’t feel it when he starts to float in his sleep. He’s too close to the cosmic force to control it, so they give him the compression tube.

Qui-Gon: …you’re saying he disobeys gravity in his sleep, so the tube makes him stop realizing it?

Creche Master: Yeah, it’s pretty important, actually. It keeps his joints in place. No cricks in his neck or dead arms if they start to fall.

Qui-Gon: Amazing. A straight jacket for his cosmic force abilities. I adore it. Please send it here. He can get out of it on his own, right?

Creche Master: Oh course, it’s just pressure, not actually being tied up.

Qui-Gon: Delightful. I’ll get him extras for off planet missions.