#see I promised I’d do it

[rust-bearer]

First Aid Month- Prompt 1 - Rust/Spark

Nightmares become indistinguishable from reality, at times. And when he wakes, he wonders if this too is just some horrible dream.

Maybe he’s asleep or maybe he’s awake right now; he can’t tell, as he looks out at the bodies before him. They’re all infected with that same Red Rust, that same horrible spark of unlife. First Aid knows that Pharma made it. He knows, and Ambulon knew too. But they still hadn’t been able to stop it.

Ambulon died first. First Aid had wailed and begged. He’d screamed for help as loud as he could; he’d apologized, for everything. He’d begged Primus, for anyone to help him. It didn’t matter. Ambulon still died.

First Aid knows he’s alone in this medical bay. He knows, because he’d timed it all to the second. The very instant the sparks of everyone in the first set of rows would fade out, inevitably destroyed by a plague that First Aid cannot stop. Not with Pharma dead, not with Ambulon dead. First Aid smiles bitterly, and he wonders if it was all worth it. Ratchet- Ratchet, who had played the briefest role as First Aid’s CMO- had gotten his hands, in the end. The ship got their victory.

And then the Rust came back. First Aid leans in, as though the body in front of him can hear his secret.

“I begged them to save him,” First Aid whispers. “After Topturn shot him. After Gygex helped ‘remove the Decepticon’. They wouldn’t even let me get close. They said they were doing this for me, after all.” First Aid’s optics crinkle as he smiles, warmly and comforting. “A few months in the brig. They’d been drinking; they hadn’t meant to do it. It was an accident.”

Of course there’s no cure. That’s the whole point. Pharma’s Red Rust might have died on Delphi, but it was easy to resurrect, to bring back to life with a terrible purpose. To set it on everyone he’d known. Ambulon had died first, and so everyone else followed.

The rest of the medbay is going to die soon too. The rest of the ship has already followed. First Aid had promised to watch over them, and as the last spark sputters out in the darkness, he knows that there’s only one thing left for him to do.

He reaches down into his chassis, and with bloody hands, he pulls, and pulls, and pulls-

[hylianane]

I have a feeling that Sanji and Zoro’s death pact will be properly resolved in Elbaf, as it certainly doesn’t feel like we’re done with it. And while Elbaf is gearing up to be very Usopp-centric (and I can not overstate how hyped I am to see him take the spotlight again, finally), let’s not forget that this all ties back to Little Garden, the arc that properly introduced Zoro and Sanji’s rivalry by paralleling them with two rival giants who fought each other every day for over a century, but who also lost themselves in their grief when one thought the other death. The parallel isn’t even subtle, Little Garden’s biggest landmarks are the remnants of Dorry and Brogy’s dinosaur hunting competition. You know. The very same competition Zoro and Sanji posed to each other at the start of the arc?

But here’s the thing. I’m a little worried about how it’s going to be resolved. Because. Despite how readily Zoro agreed to kill Sanji if need be, he must have known that the crew would never forgive him. Zoro is Luffy’s specialest guy but Luffy would not accept any excuse as to why Sanji had to die. Nor anyone else in the crew. But. Does Sanji realize that?

Does he know that killing him would literally be the hardest thing Zoro would ever do, because it would mean literally betraying his Captain and crew? Luffy said he can’t become Pirate King without Sanji, and Zoro and Luffy swore they’d commit fucking ritualistic suicide if they got in the way of each other’s dreams, so does Sanji know where that would leave the swordsman in this case? With no Captain, no crew, and yet another dead rival and best friend (who, mind you, began to live in fear of his own biology betraying him right before dying. but the parallels between Kuina and Sanji and how they relate to Zoro could be a long ass post for another day).

I think he doesn’t know. But he can’t find out how Zoro would mourn him unless the pact actually follows through. But still, I don’t think Oda would kill Sanji, cause that’s no way to resolve this issue. So here’s my speculation about how I think it could potentially play out, following that initial line of thinking of the death pact’s resolution being set in Elbaf, specifically because of Sanji and Zoro’s parallels to Dorry and Brogy.

Like Brogy, Zoro would have to believe that he killed Sanji. That he won their final duel. He’d have to believe that Sanji has fallen and, also like Brogy, have to face that grief and hurt all alone. But in the end, like Dorry, Sanji would survive, having never actually been hurt. Because their edges have dulled after fighting for so long, no longer as capable of landing killing blows as they thought. “Not even the blades of Elbaf could endure two giants fighting for 100 years”? Something of the sort. And maybe this line of speculation is simplistic or optimistic, but the chances of it playing out like this aren’t zero, so just in case, I would want to be able to say that I called it.

[popagan]

‘The rate of which I make art for AO3 fics in the library VS. the rate of me adding in new fics into the library’ makes an unfair battle. 12 pieces in and 90 fics (and counting) in store…. This is not a war I can win….

P.S. I make them simply to decorate my Apple Library with AO3 fics I like (self-indulgence). The drawing is dependent on my mood + what I felt like drawing/trying out, and the content of the fic. It is as subjective as it is NOT indicative of what the fic is like. I highly recommend you check the following fics out yourself.

Links to the fics:

City of Sunshine

see you on the other side;

Like a Promise

All That Hate

Grief

Under the Surface

[bloobydabloob]

When you answered the ask asking about your art style (which is a post I keep looking back on bc what you have to say is very interesting) in one of your screenshots of you talking you mention something about how most if not all of your symbolism is self referent and I was wondering what you meant by that!

Hellloooo. I’m glad you found my ranting interesting. Here is some Dirk art I’m probably never going to finish for your troubles.

What I meant by that when talking about any symbolism in my art is that it doesn’t reference outside sources - e.g. where some art might use something like religious concepts, animals, real life events to represent ideas, I tend to use things more like colors, contrasting objects, composition. That sort of thing. So things that are inherently a part of the work itself rather than connections to the real world. If I ever do use symbolism otherwise, it’s usually comic related even still. Although I have done pieces with religious symbolism before too, haha.

I don’t know how to describe it other than “self referential” because I’m not really sure what else to classify that sort of symbolism as. Just… artistic maybe? Non literal? I couldn’t say. I think it all basically just goes along with the majority of my art nowadays being more figurative than literal. Sorry if this doesn’t explain it very well. It’s also funny to think that anyone is “Looking back” on any of my texts posts though, haha. To me I feel like I am just dumping my words on my poor followers. Surprising. Thank you for reading.

[warlenys]

the glenn macdennis comment hurt obviously but also so necessarily cause i’d gotten too delusional i was too obsessed with the potential final prize instead of fully enjoying what i love about what macden is rn which is the saddest awfulest gay tragedy ever written this is such a good catalyst for lowering my expectations and just living laughing loving in the doomed queerbait this is what shipping’s about what fandom’s about what life is about let us rest peacefully knowing that we absolutely will still get shit and it’ll be crazy and funny and sad but ultimately the power to make it beautiful lies with us. as the queerbait gods intended

[a-writing-otter]

WIP Wednesday - Relativity Falls AU

In that moment, there are a million things going through his head. Stan Pines, who’s prided himself for years on protected his big brother, can’t move. There’s something lion-bird …lion-thing barreling towards him and all Stan can do is stand there.

How’s he going to tell Grauntie Mae?

How he’s going to tell his mom?

What’s he going to do?

One summer away, Stan’s in charge, and he gets his brother killed. They’re outlasted everything this dumb town has thrown at them, but now Ford is going to die to a bird and Stan can’t do anything!

Fuck!

“Ford—!”

The thing charges at where Ford and Bill are crouched on the ground, then a beam of blue light flashes across Stan’s vision. He thinks that maybe, maybe, the twin-telepathy thing is real and that, because Ford is dead, Stan is dead too.

Except his vision does clear out and then something thuds against his shoe. Looking down, there’s a large, beaked head with empty, lolling eyes, pouring blood from the places that a neck and shoulders had been previously.

Apparently then he can move because he shouts and jumps backwards into Fiddleford who’s still holding his wrist.

His worry of who did that, how they did it, and what is immediately put to bed when he looks up, takes a step forward to try and go to Ford when he stops.

Because something else is between him and Ford.

To call it “human” is an insult to humans, but that’s about the closest thing Stan’s got. It’s tall and spindly, but has two arms and two legs, jet black limbs, to be specific, and its dressed in some weird golden suit that eventually stacks into a giant golden pyramid floating on its shoulders, a singular eye in the center of it. It’s looking down at Ford with a squinted eye as it brings a hand shaped like a gun to the eye. Stan lets out a nervous sound as the eye shifts into a mouth and it blows out the tip of the finger that, Stan realizes now had been smoking.

“Ford, get away from that!”

“…Bill?” Ford asks, looking up at this thing that is decidedly not Bill. Great, he survives the animal and gets a concussion.

Grauntie Mae is going to kill him if they have to go to the hospital.

“Aw, Fordsy, you do recognize me,” the thing trills, reaching a hand down to help Ford up. Stan makes to tell him not to, but it’s too late. Ford grabs his hand, stands, and stares up at the thing that called itself Bill in wonder.

The pyramid-thing looks over at Stan, but his eye slides slightly to the side and its shoulders sag.

“Oh, come on, don’t give me that look.”

Stan gets ready to say he’ll give the thing whatever look he wants, but Fiddleford interrupts him.

“You ain’t serious right now.”

“…Fidds?” Stan asks, looking at Fiddleford who is standing there, one hand on his hip, the other pinching the bridge of his nose.

“What in the hells did you want me to do?!” The pyramid asks, gesturing to Ford. “Did you want me to let him die? Was that it?”

“No, I— You didn’t have to—!” And Fiddleford gestures to all of the creature.

“Yeah, alright, Specs, what makes more sense—Bill Cipher, the dreamy counter boy can shoot fire from his finger, no big deal, or there’s something, dare I say it, weird happening in Gravity Falls?”

“Sorry. Sorry.” Fiddleford, Ford, and the thing all look at Stan who is sidestepping his way over to Ford. “Did you say you’re Bill? You’re actually Bill?”

“Geez, slow on the catch up here,” Bill mutters, arms across his chest before looking at Fiddleford then jerking a thumb at Stan. “You like ‘em dumb, don’t you?”

Both Stan and Fiddleford bristle at that.

“And you,” Stan is halfway to Ford now, pointing at Fiddleford, “knew about this?”

“Oh, I can do you one better, kid,” Bill cries, taking two steps over with his long legs before throwing an arm around Stan’s shoulders in a way that makes Stan immediately try to push him off. For looking like a stack of twigs, Bill is a lot sturdier like this. “Show ‘em, Specs.”

Fiddleford puts his arms across his chest, shrugs his shoulders, and looks away.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, come on,” Bill deflates. “You’re not doing this to me.”

“You got yourself into this mess, Cipher, I’m not getting you out.”

“Really? Really?”

“If you want to blow your cover, you can. That’s your decision.”

“Oh, for the love of—“ Bill shakes his… pyramid a little before raising a hand the way he did before. Index extended, he makes a ‘pew’ noise with his… head and then fire shoots out again.

Fiddleford lets out a nervous noise and dives to the side. Stan immediately grabs for Bill’s arm to stop him, but something blue and spherical surrounds him.

“Just— Just trust me, Pines, I’m not going to kill your boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend! And fucking knock it off!”

The fire keeps shooting at Fiddleford and Fiddleford is doing a valiant effort to dodge it. All things considered, he’s never seen the hillbilly move like that before.

But finally, Fiddleford is backed into a tree, his eyes are wide and—

And this time Stan’s legs work. Sprinting forward, he dives in front of Fiddleford as another beam of fire shoots out.

What happens next is quick succession: Ford cries out “Stan!” and Stan is touched that he sees Ford dive for Bill to probably stop him; Bill curses loudly and tries to move his hand away, but it’s too late; and Stan, Stan accepts he’s probably going to die, but he had a good run, and his only regret is he didn’t beat that Robbie guy’s score on Fight Fighters. …and some other things.

What happens after that is that, well, nothing happens. Or, at least, he doesn’t die. Which, like, is great for him.

There’s an arm fierce around his shoulders, pulling him back into a very steady body. In front of them both is a massive shield wider than Stan and nearly as tall. Fire fans across the front of the shield and then disperses as Stan stares ahead in shock.

Silence resounds afterwards before everyone is talking at once.

“Stanley, are you okay?!” “Ha! I knew that’d work!” “So help me, Cipher, I’ll skin you!”

And Stan belatedly realizes that that last voice is from behind him. That should be Fiddleford.

It doesn’t sound like Fiddleford.

Pushing the arm off of him, Stan takes a few steps away and is hit in the eyes by blinding light.

Another figure out of some comic book stands there, jet black, too, in appearance, but somehow glowing. Stan can’t look up at where the face is supposed to be for long, it’s like trying to look into an eclipse (he did that once and Ford chewed him out for an hour). But it’s dressed in a white suit, like a lawyer in one of those old films about the south. Talks like one too, but wrong.

Which is to say, it sounds like there’s a bunch of Fiddlefords talking all at once.

“We didn’t have to do it this way,” Bill says, waving his hand and appearing a cane that he plants into the dirt and leans on. “But we’re here, so we might as well. Boys, let me re-introduce ourselves. I’m William Diaphodos Cipher, lovingly known to all as Bill, host of the spirit of Bacipherous, lord of chaos, and that there is Fiddleford Hadron McGucket, host of— What is it? Serenity? Compassion? Some other lame virtue?”

“Felicity,” Fiddleford corrects icily before looking to Stan and Ford. “I’m still Fiddleford, now, I’m just also host to an angel named Felicity. Or, well, it’s translated to mean ‘felicity’. Angels don’t speak English, funny enough.”

At this point, Stan is trying to inch his way back to Ford, who is trying to inch his way back to Stanley.

“…so you’re possessed?” Ford says slowly, to which Bill makes a halfway gesture.

“Eh, kind of.”

“Not kind of!” Fiddleford balks. “We ain’t possessed! We’re just… host bodies for these spirits and, sometimes, we’re given the ability to call upon their powers and forms when necessary. And only when necessary.”

Fiddleford is glaring at Bill when he says that. Or, at least, Stan assumes he’s glaring because his voice got hard and he faces Bill, there’s no eyes or face to be seen with the whole glowing ball of black light.

“Give me a better time to do what we can do than then.” Bill takes another two steps and grabs Ford by the shoulders who stiffens immediately. “Our little Pines twins were in trouble and, if I hadn’t taken care of the griffon, it might be their bodies we’re cleaning up.”

“…you didn’t have to transform to do it.”

“Fascinating.”

Stan looks over, Ford is gazing up at Bill, and Stan knows he’s lost Ford immediately.

“So, what, your parents made a deal with the devil or with god to get you possessed?” Stan asks before turning to Ford. “I told you Catholicism was a load of creepy shit.”

“Stanley.”

“No, I— This isn’t through the church,” Fiddleford says slowly, clasping his hands together. The shield he’d been holding before is now strapped to his back somehow. Like this, Stan can see that he also has a substantially sized sword hanging from his hip. “It’s through— Well, mine is through something called ‘The Society of the Blind Eye’.”

“And yours as well?” Ford asks, still not looking away from Bill who is now hugging Ford’s shoulders in a way that Stan can see is making Ford blush. Gross.

“Me? Oh, no. That bunch of sanctimonious freaks would never call on demons. They think they’re better than that, as if we’re not made from the same stuff—“

“We’re not!”

“No, Bacipherous is his own cult.” He shifts his arms to hold up his thumbs and pointer fingers together to make a triangle in front of his eye. “Traces back centuries, but the first known instance of it is in Ancient Egypt.”

“Like the pyramids?”

Bill makes another halfway gesture before dropping his arms and putting them around Ford again, his eye squinting when Ford stiffens.

“I’m not going to tell you that the pyramids are pyramidal because of Bacipherous, but I will tell you that his worship was easily integrated because triangles are the superior shape.”

“Not at all biased about that, huh?” Stan asks from across the way. “That doesn’t explain anything though. Why the fuck are you here? What are you doing here?”

Bill and Fiddleford exchange looks before Fiddleford sighs.

“That requires… a lot more explanation. Here.” Fiddleford takes a deep breath and then, as he exhales, his figure starts to shimmer, the light goes out, and he shrinks back into his human form, sword and suit and shield all gone until he’s the spindly little nerd in small glasses with that ugly teal shirt. “Why don’t we go somewhere private? The four of us can talk and we’ll explain it all.”

“We’re in the woods,” Stan points out, gesturing around them. “Can’t get anymore private.”

“Something you kids need to know,” Bill starts, shrinking back to himself, still holding onto Ford and dragging Ford down a few inches when he’s back to his human self, “is that you’re never safe from prying eyes and ears anywhere in Gravity Falls except for one place.”

“Where’s that?”

[ravenlikesth1ngs]

okay what the flip

[milligramspoison]

No one asked for this lol but I was talking about it the other day- the killjoys essay I did for my junior year 🫶

Some little notes:

This is set in a world where the Fab Four faked their deaths after the events in Sing, hence why they’re here!

The characters Ghost Bullet, Cyanide Candy, Black Heart, Glitter Baby, Acid Cat, and Lighting Storm are ocs created by my best friend tumblr user @frankierosbackbends and myself!

Speaking of Cyanide, Ghost, Acid, and Storm, they’re based off of sims Niamh (@frankierosbackbends) and I created about 5-6 years ago, who you can meet here!

Annoyingly so, I live in Florida. By now, we all know Florida fucking sucks. This was written around the time the don’t say gay bill was passed. Being scared at the time, I hid the fact that Ghost and Cyanide are gay, which made me feel awful I had to hide that part of them. And I still feel awful about it. I was scared of any repercussion I could’ve faced, so while it’s know that they’re together, I hid the fact they were gay men. It still really annoys me almost 2 years later that I did this.

If it’s not great, it was for school lol. I would’ve done a lot more if I didn’t have school barriers around me

[thatmooncake]

Remember the two cakes analogy? That applies to ideas as well!

Worried you’ve got the same idea as someone else? Just go for it! Make it your own. No idea is completely unique, and at the same time, no two versions of the same idea are ever going to be completely identical! No one else is going to do it like you do it. And if people are interested in that sort of thing, then maybe they want the same thing but slightly to the left. Maybe they’ll like it the way you do it. You never know unless you try, so keep at it!

[crazy-fangirl2524]

If tsc is published before aftg none of us will like exy we will hate it and not get the hype

[gender-haver]

I am a bit of a porcelain doll collector. I’ve adored them since I was young and always found myself drawn towards certain dolls, today I found this one:

Have you ever seen a doll look more sad and despondent? She’s never been taken out of the box, she’s still wired to the back.

[azaleasparrow]

Which one is the mask? Daredevil/Matt Murdock

I think that, to some extent, they are both the mask.

When people write about this, they (tend to) talk as if Matt Murdock and Daredevil are two personalities placed into one mind, two definitively separate halves of a whole. I don’t necessarily agree with that. Matt Murdock is Daredevil and Daredevil is Matt Murdock, and there is no sharp line between them only a blur. They are just different aspects of one personality, unbalanced when viewed without the context of the other.

I do get the ‘two halves of a whole’ thing, and I think there is an amount of truth to that. But there is no clear separation between the two, no point where Matt Murdock ends and Daredevil begins.

Those who only know Daredevil would think of him as brutal and violent, which he is. Yet those who only know Matt Murdock would think of him as soft spoken and charming, and he’s all that too. Daredevil and Matt Murdock are not mutually exclusive. They coexist.

I also think that this is why Foggy doesn’t seem to accept that Matt can’t just give up being Daredevil. He knows Matt, has never known Daredevil so he finds it hard to accept that this soft spoken and charming guy is a brutal and violent vigilante. Matt acts as the mask there. (@ceterisparibus116 very much inspired this take)

(Plus, the (literal) mask isn’t what makes Matt Daredevil. The anonymity it provides allows him to be a vigilante, but removing the mask doesn’t erase what created/fuels Daredevil, it simply removes what enables Matt to physically be Daredevil.)

In short: Daredevil and Matt Murdock are not separate entities. They are simply different characteristics zoomed in on in a way that ignores the other parts entirely. Both are incomplete without the other, both are the mask.

[orion-kenobi]

can we talk about the absolutely amazing job stargate sg1 does with jack and daniel’s dynamic? they’re so different and yet so similar. their perspectives and moralities are completely different, but i think they have the same flaws: they both believe their perspectives are correct, and they both let their emotions get the best of them. because of that they’re capable of being so mean to each other. and i love the fact that their morals are the source of most of their conflicts, because i don’t think i’ve ever seen a show where two characters major difference is because of their morality. and it makes the audience think, because in most situations where they disagree neither of their approaches are really wrong.

[ddanosaur]

Goodbye, Gwen

screenshot study i did cus i cannot stop thinking about this moment and also i’ve become obsessed with drawing/painting miles recently

i might finish this up/render it more later but for now… enjoy

[id in alt text]

screenshot i used for this study. it absolutely kills me whenever i see/think about it so of course i spent 9 hours staring at it

[dashedwithromance]

okay honestly. cressida can do whatever she wants at this point. yeah she’s being cruel but also i would go completely apeshit if i were her. get it girl

[warlenys]

i so want to meet all the men who comment things like “people who think that house and wilson are gay just haven’t had a close male friendship” not at all because i think they’re wrong it’s the opposite i’m fascinated by them i think they’re living in a beautiful world and i wanna learn from them secrets that i’m clearly not enlightened enough to yet understand but also i mean a few of them have gotta be gay and i wanna help those ones but the others i think could help me