#since shes divine and all

[zefirart]

Happy first anniversary Fire Emblem Engage!

[nellasbookplanet]

Okay I've talked about the tragedy of Laudna now let's talk about the tragedy of Imogen.

It’s been a while, but her moment in the Feywild truth exercise where she says "I think I’m tainted. I don’t know if I want to save gods that don’t love me" has really stuck in my mind. The thing is, I don’t think she’s specifically talking about the gods here, but rather summing up and projecting her entire experience as a ruidusborn. She isn’t thinking "Why aren’t I the gods' special little princess? Why haven’t they come to save me specifically?? You better love me or I'll let you die" (which we have seen does seem to be a common attitude in the Vanguard) This is her fear of being against her own will tainted by something evil. Her fear that, despite knowing how wrong it is, part of her longs for the power and belonging that comes with giving in to Predathos. It’s knowing that this thing is the antithesis of the gods, and that no matter what she does and how much she opposes it, it is still part of her. And because of that, the world doesn’t love her. Her mother left, her father can barely look at her, her own body will betray her with feelings and powers she doesn't understand, her community ostracized her, her allies view her with suspicion, the gods will not lend a hand in their own rescue when she asks despite Imogen putting herself and her loved ones in danger for their sake.

And Imogen is tired. Tired of being the bigger person, tired of resisting. Logically she knows the gods don’t hate her specifically but it ads up, and as the lure of Predathos does promise love and belonging part of her wants to give in because why should she risk so much to save a world that has never once tried to save her.

And that’s where she, as well as Laudna, get so interesting. They have deeply sympathetic reasons for their doubts and flaws, as well as for why they value each other so much higher than the entirety of Exandria (tl;dr because they have only ever gotten genuine understanding and unconditional love from each other). But that doesn’t mean it isn't flaws. It doesn’t mean Imogen, if she hadn’t met Laudna and the Hells first and realized the harm the Vanguard is causing and that their promises are ultimately lies, couldn’t have been drawn in by the Vanguard's ideas. It doesn’t mean they aren't wrong in blaming gods for bad things in their own lives, or in demanding special treatment. But it’s deeply understandable, which is the very reason they and people like them're such excellent targets for the Vanguard to convert. And once in the Vanguard, it doesn’t matter how tragic and sympathetic you are, you are still doing evil.

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

hii 📓

Okay so the thing is that I wanted a “the Zenin raised Megumi instead of Gojo” fic but the thing is that I’m absolutely convinced that if the Zenin were the ones that took Megumi they wouldn’t actually take tsumiki too. The fandom consensus I’ve personally seen has been that she would have been taken and mistreated by zenin for being a female non sorcerer but I personally think they would have just straight up left her behind.

They only bought Megumi. They keep non sorcerers and women as servants in their compound but all of them are Zenin themselves. Tsumiki isn’t related and I couldn’t really see any reason why they’d want her. Which turned this into a fic where Tsumiki loses her brother, but she’s trying to find him again, she swears. I think of it as my “siblings doomed by the narrative desperately try to write a new one where they can be together” fic.

The thing is that Tsumikis mom was one of those people who thought love and consumption were synonymous. She had a habit of getting caught up with assholes and just… having both of them chew on each other for a while until it turns into this horrible fucking bloodbath.

Tojis just another loser her mom got caught up in, but he’s Tsumiki’s favorite out of all the losers, because he gave her her brother. Her mom marries this random guy she barley knows and Tsumikis pretty sure she does it so they can both ditch their kids twice as much, secure in the knowledge that there’s supposedly another person checking in. It works out great for them, because they both stop coming entirely. It’s fine, because Tsumiki has Megumi and Megumi has Tsumiki and they don’t need anything else.

It’s one of those things where they were in really unhealthy circumstances and it made their relationship a little bit unhealthy but not necessarily bad. They both had to grow up way too fast and deal with way too much too soon and become codependent on each other because they are, in the most literal way possible, dependent on one another. Neither of them know how to love in a way that doesn’t involve sacrificing themselves for their sibling, mostly because they don’t have a way that doesn’t involve that.

They’re in a sinking ship and tsumiki knows it. Their parents aren’t coming back. The money is going to run out sooner or later. Their problems are stacking up.

Megumi has confessed to her that he sees things that no one else does. When she asks him how he knows no one else sees them, he explains that they’d say something if they did and won’t say anything else. And she doesn’t know what to believe but she refuses to call him crazy. He tells her that monsters cling to her back and he fights them off for her. She patches up his bruises and cuts and tells him he’s brave and tries to figure out if she’s just imagining that her back feels lighter after. He tells her that there are dogs that only he can see that have started following him around, and she tells him she believes him and can never remember, later, if she meant it or was just saying it.

The last time Toji came by, he left them more money than tsumikis ever seen in her life, took them to ice cream, told them that he was sorry he was so shit at this and that the money was Megumi’s share in a payment. It was for something he was going to help daddy with later. Tsumiki and him were to use it to take care of themselves and be healthy, because Megumi couldn’t help him later if he wasn’t. And tsumiki was always afraid of what he meant by that, but in the end, she let it slip her mind. After all, Toji hadn’t been by in ages. He probably wouldn’t come by at all.

And he didn’t. But others did. Two men she’s never met before are waiting outside their building one day, and when they see Megumi, they laugh. But the thing that Tsumiki can never get out of her mind later is that she swears they weren’t looking at Megumi directly. They were looking at his dogs.

Tsumiki basically tries to get Megumi and powerwalk past them, but they’re a lot bigger and a lot stronger and there’s nothing she can do, really. They have a brief conversation about whether they should take her too, before one decides that Toji only sold him his kid and to leave the other behind. This makes both of them try to run, but there’s nothing either of them can do to overpower the men, and the men say that “Naobito would go ballistic if they left the ten shadows behind” so they take Megumi and leave her.

They put Megumi in a car and shove Tsumiki to the curb outside of it, and she tried to hold onto his hand, she swears. She grabbed at the car door even when the car started moving, and she banged on the windows, and she watched as Megumi kicked and punched and screamed inside, until one of them hit him and he went still. She ends up falling and hitting her head when the car picks up speed, and when she wakes up again, the cars gone and she has no idea where it went.

And it becomes a foundational moment for who she is. I think she was just intensely lonely before Megumi and poured a lot of herself into this idea of a family together. Tsumikis never able to shake the moment of her being outside the car and Megumi being on the inside, and not being able to get into him. She can never again get what she felt in that moment out of her head.

She goes to the police and tells them that it’s her little brother, his dad sold him but she wants him back, and they’re like “…”. The issue is that apparently her mom can pick up the damn phone if the police call and she shows up, spins some lie about how her and the stepdad split up and he took the kid with him, they never adopted each others kids so it was within his rights, Tsumiki was taking the separation hard and acting out. She lies, basically, because toji hadn’t kept up his end of the deal and dropped in to check in (neither had she) and his kid wasn’t her responsibility, he could do what he wanted with him. She doesn’t want the police poking around the way she lives. Just let the kid go because he’s probably dead and not her real brother anyway.

Tsumiki refuses to give up on him. They were both kids who no one cared about but they cared about each other and that had to be enough. But she’s seven with no support and zero idea on how to find him. She starts skipping school to look for him in random streets, puts up flyers, can’t go outside without looking for him. She gets held back a year in school because of how much she skips and she can’t bring herself to care. She buys him gifts on every birthday and writes him letters she can’t post because she’s going to find her brother and she’s going to prove to him that she never once stopped looking for him. She just. She needs him to know that she never stopped looking for him. She needs to find him and be able to honestly tell him she never stopped trying.

One day her mom comes back in clothes she can’t afford and comes with movers they shouldn’t be able to afford and announces a move they definitely can’t afford. Tsumikis absolutely opposed to going because if her brother comes to look for her, she needs to be in their old apartment so he can find her. She doesn’t have much of a choice in the matter. They have mysterious new benefactors who are setting up a trust to take care of tsumiki with a very generous stipend for her mom but they have to move to Sendai as a stipulation of getting the money.

It’s not until the attorney who’s managing her trust hands her a set of glittery blue butterfly hairpins that tsumiki realizes her mom sold her brother a second time.

The thing is that tsumiki had this one cheap set of butterfly hairpins she’d always stopped to look at in the store when she took Megumi to go grocery shopping. Shed never buy them, because they couldn’t afford it, but it was the thing she wanted most openly in front of him. She was always secretly really insecure about her hair, because they were the kind of poor where bar soap was a luxury they could only sometimes afford and kids at school made fun of how her hair was dirty and frayed. Megumi was the only one who ever saw how badly she wanted those stupid hair clips. If they had to give her a set of butterfly hair clips, it’s because he demanded that they did.

It’s basically implied that the Zenin are the ones paying for her care and upkeep due to an unspecified deal they cut with Megumi, but when they approached her mom with it, they added the caveat that Tsumiki had to be moved to a new city entirely and there could be no forwarding address left anywhere.

The zenins stance on tsumiki is, effectively, that she’s a weakness Megumi needs to be weaned off of. They honestly assumed he’d just like, forget she ever existed and he. Did not do that. He actually pitched a total bitch fit. Tried to scale the compound walls. Bit multiple people including the clan leader. But he’s got the ten shadows, he’s heir to the clan, and he can’t be caught up on some random non sorcerer who isn’t even a Zenin. They end up agreeing to pay for her to live very comfortably if he starts cooperating more but they want to make sure that he can’t ever find her again if he does ever succeed in running away.

Tsumiki is at once full of hope and hopeless, because on one hand, the butterfly clips prove that Megumi still loves her and remembers her, at least in her mind. But at the same time, she’s being moved to Sendai and doesn’t know how they’ll ever find each other again. She doesn’t honestly know if they’d recognize each other if they saw each other again. She wears the butterfly clips every day, even when she gets too old for the style, because she’s more confident about her brother recognizing them than her.

The thing about tsumiki is that she doesn’t understand hate. She just doesn’t. Her mom and toji always got caught up in these perceived slights and revenge and never once let go of the past. They’d destroy themselves if it meant taking down the people they hated with them. She never wanted that. She wanted to live with the people she loved and she’d happily turn around and forget everything, all the pain, all the searching, if it just meant she could go back to being megumis sister.

This isn’t about hate. This is about that moment outside the car, where her brother was inside and she couldn’t get in to him. This is about how helpless and small she felt when they shoved her to the curb and ripped megumis hand out of hers. She needs to make sure that when she finds Megumi, she can take him home again. So she decides she needs to learn how to fight.

Itadori Yuuji has the constitution of an ox and the strength to match it, and he is known for getting in fights with bullies and trouncing them so thoroughly that it’s never a question of who wins when the fight starts. He’s insanely physically capable and can hold his own in a fight with ease. He’s also nice and kind and Tsumiki’s comfortable enough asking him to teach her how to throw a punch or two.

She is bad at it.

So fucking bad at it.

But she never gives up, and Itadori is nice enough to keep teaching her despite how embarrassingly horrible she is at it all. He always asks her why she wants to learn so bad, she doesn’t seem to like it all, and she never answers his question honestly.

In their last year of middle school, their class has a trip to Kyoto. She, Itadori, and the rest of their group walk into some random restaurant in the city and have barely sat down when someone comes inside, starts searching every booth in the restaurant while shouting Tsumikis name.

And oh. They could recognize each other after all.

She looked for Megumi in every crowd she was ever in, but she didn’t consider that he was doing the same. Or that he would see her first.

Her brother grew up without her seeing it. Hes older, dressed in strange, expensive clothes, has a slightly bruised up face and split lip, but his eyes are the same, and he looks like the brother she remembered.

But a lot more nervous than Megumi ever was. He was a tiny, stoic child who didn’t take any shit and never showed fear, even when there were monsters that only he could see. But he’s nervous when he tells her that she probably doesn’t recognize him or remember him, but when she was a lot younger, he—

Megumi. He’s her little brother. Of course she remembers him. She’s been looking for him everywhere.

Megumi didn’t smile much as a child, but he smiles at her then. He tells her he doesn’t have a lot of time and she tells him that they can leave out the back, and he never let her hold his hand as a child but he takes her hand so easily in that second. And just for a second, she’s his sister again, and it’s everything she wanted.

They never make it out the back.

Two men come in. Megumi calls one of them uncle, and he goes stiff and flat the second he sees him. His uncle apologizes for his nephew, tells everyone that he always makes scenes when they’re out in public, tells him to apologize to the nice people and leave. Megumi was mistaken.

Tsumiki tríes to keep ahold of his hand. Really, she does. She tries to tell people to call the police. But megumis “uncle” steps towards her and Megumi slams him into a table, and then suddenly Megumi’s the one insisting that they leave immediately. They can go. It’s fine. They’re leaving. She loses ahold of his hand.

She tries to follow, but the other man restrains her. She learns that she’s better at slamming plates into peoples heads than she is at punching, and at this point itadoris Friend In Danger Override has been triggered and he fucking tackles the dude, which gives tsumiki the clearing that she needs to chase outside after her brother. She gets out just in time to see him be pushed into a car, and she’s had years to think about the last time this happened and figure out what to do differently. She throws herself in front of the car and refuses to move.

See her entire stance is that she’ll sooner get run over and killed in the street than let them do this a second time, but she also can see Megumi trying to fucking punch the drivers head in from behind because he’s about to hit his sister. His uncles trying to restrain him, and just for a second, she sees his hands make the shape of the shadow puppets he used to show her as children. Something invisible slams her out of the way just as his uncle knocks him out.

She picks up a rock and tries to smash in the fucking window with it, and itadori has to pull her out of the way to keep her from getting her feet run over when the car finally tears out of the parking lot. She goes ballistic on him for stopping her because her brother was right there and she lost him again and she didn’t even get the license plate. He was right there.

The police basically do jack all again. There’s no license plate, no names they can follow up on, and they’re still half convinced this is a settled custody issue even though tsumiki insists her brother was sold by his dad and is very plainly getting hurt wherever he is. Itadori is now a devoted advocate of finding tsumikis brother and reuniting them, and both basically kind of end up becoming really close to the other? He’s taking care of himself and his grandpa alone, she’s alone while her moms awol again, and they both become the others support system.

At one point, there’s this random girl and boy who doesn’t speak who shows up to their school for indeterminate reasons. The girl is bored and twirling her glasses in one hand while the person in a suit that they’re with asks the principal questions, and when tsumikis eyes catch at the right angle, she sees an invisible monster clinging to a classmates back through them. She realizes it’s exactly what Megumi always talked about and still remembers that the people who took him could see his dogs. She corners the two others in a room and tries to demand information about the invisible monsters or see if they know her brother or the people who took him, and immediately gets blown off. The fight escalates until the girl tells him that actually, yeah. She knows tsumikis brother. He is a very special person to some very powerful people, and the only way she can ever help him is to tell him that she’s let go of him and that he needs to do the same to her. That’s the only message that the people who have him would ever let get through, and his life would get a lot better as soon as he got it.

The people who have him would give him anything in the world, except for her. He could be a lot happier and healthier than he is right now if he just agreed to stop trying to find tsumiki. If she really wants to help her brother, then she needs to let him go.

Tsumiki nails her in the back of the head with a milk carton when she tries to walk away. It sloshes out on her. Tsumiki did not intend this. She cannot admit that fact. There are some actions you just have to own when you do them. She tells the girl that he’s her brother and she’s never letting go of him. She’s going to find him. They can’t keep him from her forever. She doesn’t care how long it takes her.

For a second, tsumiki really thinks this girl is going to kick her ass, but she doesn’t. She wishes her luck and tells her she’ll need it, and it’s only later that tsumiki realizes she slipped the eyeglasses into her pocket.

And as it turns out, her brothers monsters were real all along.

There was a knife that toji left in the frame of his bed. Tsumiki confiscated it from Megumi as soon as he found it, and it was odd and strange and gave her bad feelings when she held it, and it can kill the things that gather on her back. When she follows Itadori to their local high school and joins the occult club in an attempt to find more people involved in this world of invisible monsters, she wears the eyeglasses and keeps the knife hidden in her bag.

It comes in handy when her senpais are trying to open this thing and suddenly there’s like a fucking portal opening and Actually Let’s Not Oh Too Late Let’s Run Let’s Fucking Run.

They run.

Meanwhile at the hospital Megumi found out in very quick succession that his sister has fucking sukunas finger and also that there’s a very over enthusiastic himbo who is the self appointed vice president of the Find Fushiguro Megumi And Bring Him Home Club who absolutely fucking refuses to leave his side. Sorry who are you. Why are you so enthusiastic about finding him. Megumi sort of was the one doing the finding there was a whole tracking situation and him waiting dramatically in the shadows like they just did it.

Anyway they run very very quickly to tsumikis school where she is dodging she is serpentining this is a fuckton of monsters oh holy fuck is that her brother?

The fight goes bad.

Tsumiki manages to follow itadori and her brother out at a much slower pace because she’s not a freak of nature like itadori and shows up just in time to see her brother shouting at itadori to not eat the fucking finger while itadori is absolutely trying to eat the fucking finger.

She chucks her shoe at him. The finger goes flying.

Then the monster eats it instead.

Tsumiki: :o

Yuuji: :o

Megumi: fuck

Now there’s a bigger monster and the fight goes even worse. There’s a lot of shouting. Itadori ends up with her knife. Then he ends up getting eaten and they’re down both a knife and itadori, who’s probably fucking dead. Then megumis insisting she run and she’s insisting he shut the fuck up because it’s sort of taken a decade to get this close to him again and she’s not fumbling the bag now because of a monster on the rampage. Have a sense of fucking priorities here.

Then itadori bursts out of the monsters stomach with the knife like the fucking Kool Aid Man and the fight is suddenly very over. Good job, team.

Gojo rolls up to his most stoic and eternally pissed off student having a dramatic and emotional reunion with his sister.

Yuuji, in a very bad whisper: no no so like she’s been looking for him for years but he saw her in the restaurant

Gojo: :o go on

Yuuji: and then he got caught by like, I don’t know, he said he was his uncle or something but the dude acted so weird and creepy and they put him in a car and Tsumiki tried to stop the car but they got away

Gojo: *gasp* what no

Yuuji: I know! Anyway then I start helping her look for him but we can’t find him anywhere until I’m at the hospital and he just walks up to me right?? And I’m like “dude I have been looking everywhere for you” and he’s like “I have no idea who you are, I’m here about that fucked up demon finger” and I’m like—

Megumi, really trying to have a moment here: we can both hear you

And megumis like “this is uh. My new teacher. I guess. I am his only student. And he is uh. Enthusiastic. Do not linger in conversation with him.”

Tsumiki is lingering. She needs fucking intel so he can’t disappear again. Where does he go to school and can she transfer there. It’s fucking wizard school? Will they take her even though she’s not a wizard? She cannot emphasize enough that she will study any fucking subject they want so that way she can be close with her brother again she does not care if it’s applicable to her education or life. She can throw things at people itadori tell the man tell him how enthusiastically she will throw things at monsters for their weird fucking wizard school.

Itadori: she hit me in the face with her shoe like five minutes ago

Tsumiki: see???

Megumi keeps trying to forbid her from wizard school but she’s technically the older sister so she has override rights. She will go to wizard school. How does she get wizard school to accept her.

And Gojos just really weird and off and keeps looking at Megumi and saying that he “didn’t know he had a sister.”

He really didn’t know that Megumi had a sister he wanted to stay with.

And then suddenly it’s like a switch is flipped and he’s back to his normal self telling them to leave everything to him, because he’ll make sure tsumiki can come back with them. And uh? Itadori? Weirdly physically capable kid who will apparently eat anything? Is he going to be good getting home after all this?

Itadori: actually if it’s not too much trouble can I go to wizard school too my grandpa sort of died half an hour ago and I don’t have plans for the rest of my life. Tsumikis kind of my best friend and I’d like to make sure she’s all good at wizard school. I’m a really good fighter and I stabbed the last monster so like can I come too because you know. Dead grandpa. No family or future to speak of. Haha.

Gojo:

Megumi:

Tsumiki, softly: dude

There’s more after they make it to jujutsu high but this is already really long so we leave it here

[maddieandangel]

Had a weird Hollow Knight-related dream a couple days ago, so I decided to draw a major scene I remembered from it dgsgshf

More context will be in the tags, for those interested!

[sovamurka]

Balor and Yana in Andrey Vasin's style, my beloved <3

[sleepyminty]

Honkai spoilers

They really do give her a brick

Anyway congrats on returning to the meta senti

[cashewally-sarcastic]

Kokomi fascinates me not in the way I think hoyo intended cause like, every time I see her im like "oh its Kokomi. she is sure there! " . I think she would call herself an introvert (needing to recharge energy), but even then i go back to the idea of her having a quest that's more focused her wanting to get some alone time. Perhaps she reads and reads cause thats what her family used to do. She looks like she would enjoy romance stories out of an urge to form a connection cause ya know. no fam

Yeah kokomi is like. Sure is an entity.

Even her vision story is very ???? to me. Her entire profile is very dedicated to like “she’s an influence in watasumi. she does not want to be. she likes military books.” And doesn’t talk about her life or her family or anything tbh. I mean it says she doesn’t like seafood i guess. Her mom is mentioned exactly one (1) time in a voiceline.

And while it’s probably just a writing thing since Inazuma seemed like a hit-or-miss nation overall from community reception, it also feels like it could be intentional if played right. It probably won’t be, but ya know.

[antisocialgaycat]

quite interesting how someone ive never met and probably never will meet knows me better than anyone else

[small-spark-of-light]

IT IS DONE!!

L’arc: God of war and battles, patron saint of all warriors Therese: Minor god of natural ores, jewels and jewelry Glass: Goddess of death and spirits/souls Kizuna: Goddess of the hunt, survival, and divine warrior who fights evil

[fragmentedblade]

Not to be a jingfu on main, but it's so cute that Jing Yuan thought of Fu Xuan with those jelly beans

[superhero-smackdown]

not gonna lie im a little miffed damian wayne hasnt been submitted considering the entirety of last years tournament had him as the profile picture

[arolesbianism]

Finally starting to get some proper fairy worldbuilding brainstormed for the random card au, huge win for 3 specific characters and them only

[redrobin-detective]

lipstick on your cape

“Robbie?” Tabitha looked up from the phone she wasn’t supposed to have on patrol at Nightwing. Hopefully Peg wouldn’t tattle on her to Bruce. “You got a little something on your cape. I think it’s that dark red lipstick they can probably see from the Watchtower.”

Beth examined her cape and, sure enough, there were some mysterious red smudges on the inner yellow lining, just past the right shoulder. She scrubbed at it with her gloves, how’d that even get there? Alfred would have a fit if this stained. Peg grunted as she sat down next to Tab on the edge of the building.

“So, do you wanna talk about it?” Peg asked, deceptively casual.

“About what?” Beth questioned.

“About why you’ve been sporting colored lips the last week,” Peg said softly. “I mean it’s pretty and all but its very,“ she paused. “It’s grownup. Are you trying to impress someone? I know things with you and Arianna are over but maybe someone on your team?”

“No, it’s not like that!” Beth blushed. “I don’t know, I thought it looked nice?”

“You’re 15 baby girl,” Peg said with a little frown. “You don’t need to look nice, you just need to be yourself. Especially as Robin.”

“I am being myself. I don’t have a reason, okay! I just thought it would be fun. I don’t know, I like girly stuff I guess. Its a safety risk to wear fun earrings or necklaces on patrol so, I don’t know, the other day I put on some lipstick and thought it looked cute so I kept doing it.”

Her mother had been a tomboy, more at home in the dirt than society but Tabitha had always been impressed at how she could transform. The nights they were home, when they had to play the part of the Drakes, were special. Mom would do her hair, nails and make-up just so and become someone else. She went from Tab’s flighty, distracted but stubborn mom to a princess. Her smiles were calculated, her posture perfect and she could glide across a ballroom in six inch heels and a sleek dress like she was born for it. And she had been but she’d rejected it for her dad and archeology but mostly archeology.

Tabitha loved computers and skateboards and comics and cars but she’d spent so many hours learning to style her hair in different ways, to paint her nails like a pro and to layer her lipstick like she was ready for murder. It was a side she hadn’t indulged in much lately. Being Robin was it’s own sort of freedom but it had its restrictions as well.

“I didn’t know you were into that sort of thing,” Peg said thoughtfully, leaning back to look up at the moon. “I guess Jan and I set a bit of a precedent huh?” Robins were crime fighters. They laughed at criminals and fought against the worst of the worst. They were efficient, practical and inspiring. They didn’t wear lipstick. Beth brought a glove to cover her mouth.

“Sorry, I guess it’s not really appropriate, is it? I think I have some make up remover wipes in my belt.” Peg grabbed a hold of her wrist.

“No, no, keep it on,” Peg insisted. “It does look nice, you did a good job and it really compliments the red of your suit.” She shifted so they were holding hands. “My mom used to do me up in makeup before shows, so the audience could see our faces. I can still feel her fingertips running over my cheeks.” She said with a soft voice, eyes closed in memory. “Moving in with B, I couldn’t do makeup that extravagant. I had to make a good impression and then, as I got older, I didn’t want anyone to get the wrong impression from lipstick and eye shadow.” 

“It’s such a burden to be beautiful,” Tabitha said with an eye roll even though it kind of was. She saw the way people ogled Peg at events. Tab had tripped one particularly creepy guy right into the punch bowl. Bruce had given her a thumbs up across the hall.

“You’re not Jan, no one expects you to be,” Peg said softly. “We just want you to be yourself. That’s the beauty of being Robin, you get to be whoever you want to be.”

“And what about B?” Beth questioned.

“You introduced yourself by breaking B’s rules,” Peg said with a grin, breaking the hand hold to ruffle Tab’s hair. She angrily straightened her clip and re-fluffed her bangs. Just because Nightwing just had a simple ponytail doesn’t mean some vigilantes didn’t care about merging style and function. “I think you’ll be fine.”

“Hmm, okay,” Beth said, scooting over to lean on Peggy’s shoulder. She loved her mom, missed her a lot but having a big sister was pretty great too. “You could add a little color to your lips too if you want.”

“I think I’ll pass. I’ve seen the colors you wear, baby bird,” Peg chuckled.

“Well how about your hair?” Tab asked, sitting up. “I could teach you how to do a simple french braid, or more fancy if you’d like. Still be functional but adds a little bit of style.”

“Tomorrow, my place, my hands always cramp after too long using the grapples. I’ll order some of that disgusting pizza you like,” Peg grinned. Tabitha grinned, her lips a dark ruby red under the Gotham moonlight.

Robin didn’t do her make up every night. Some nights she was running late, finishing clipping on her cape as she ran to the Batmobile. Other times she was too tired, too pained, just not in the mood for such frivolities. But other nights, she sculpted her eyebrows with an eyebrow pencil. She rubbed primer, foundation, blush, sealant on her face that could hold up against wind, rain and rogues. She poured over her ever growing collection of lipsticks and lipstains and picked a color that spoke to her.

Red was for when she was feeling daring, bold, she had many different variations of the color but deliberately shied away from Joker red. When Spoiler took to the streets she acquired all sorts of different purples to complement the laughing boy’s costume. Pink was for when she felt soft but strong, when she was making a statement to the worst of Gotham that it couldn’t change her. Black was only to be used on the nights she knew would be bad. Bart got her a glittery gold one that she loved but used sparingly because it caught the light easily. Peg had laughed when when Tab shown up once with Nightwing blue lips, her braided hair dancing in the breeze.

She was Robin, she was a hero, a role model, a symbol. But she was also a girl, a girl who loved dresses that flared out when she spun and lots of shiny, sparkly dangles and doodads and she loved the taste of matte lipstick as she jumped into the fight. Sometimes people were just a pile of different things all mushed together. And the rest of the world was going to just have to get over it.

[winepresswrath]

No one touch me I'm trying to process "Galadriel is a world weary veteran with PTSD who can't leave the war behind. She annoys everyone with her inability to accept that the evil mini-god has totally just evaporated and isn't a problem anymore and also her willingness to maybe get people frozen to death about it, so Gil-Galad and Elrond conspire to manipulate her into leaving for Valinor, giving them time to focus on what really matters: making the rings with Celebrimbor unimpeded by her hunt for Sauron". It's a collection of words I understand individually, and yet.

[henry-fox-biggest-stan]

I need more post rescue fics

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

@allvalley100

Prompt: Shoes

Pairing: YasMoon

***

When Moon gets to the French cafe, Yasmine’s already saved them a patio table.

She does a double take as Yasmine politely pulls out her chair in a very...un-Yasminelike gesture.

What happened in Paris?

“Holy shit.” Yasmine’s eyes trail from her yellow floral dress down to periwinkle high heels. “You’re a knockout.”

“Thanks!” Moon beams. “Hawk always hated when I wore heels. Made him feel more like a pygmy falcon, I guess.”

Yasmine cackles—a full, hearty laugh Moon hasn’t heard in ages. It’s revitalizing.

“Sit,” Yasmine orders. “I ordered us a fuckton of almond croissants.”

Her favorite.

Yas remembered.

***

Took a deep breath in the mirror He didn’t like it when I wore high heels But I do

Turn the lock and put my headphones on He always said he didn’t get this song But I do

Walked in expecting you’d be late But you got here early and you stand and wave I walk to you

You pull my chair out and help me in And you don’t know how nice that is But I do

And you throw your head back laughing Like a little kid I think it's strange that you think I'm funny ‘Cause he never did I've been spending the last eight months thinking all love ever does Is break and burn and end But on a Wednesday In a cafe I watched it begin again