#some common ground

[thatthirdtriplet]

Relationships:

Tim Drake & Damian WayneTim Drake & Dick GraysonTim Drake & Bruce WayneDick Grayson & Damian WayneTalia al Ghul & Damian WayneTim Drake & Jason ToddJason Todd & Damian WayneStephanie Brown & Tim DrakeTim Drake & Alfred PennyworthAlfred Pennyworth & Damian WayneTim Drake & Barbara GordonTim Drake & Tam FoxBart Allen & Damian WayneBart Allen & Tim DrakeTim Drake & Kon-El | Conner KentKon-El | Conner Kent & Damian WayneTim Drake & Cassie SandsmarkCassie Sandsmark & Damian WayneTam Fox & Damian WayneAlfred Pennyworth & Jason ToddBarbara Gordon & Jason ToddMara al Ghul & Damian Wayne

Characters:

Tim Drake Damian Wayne Dick Grayson Bruce Wayne Stephanie Brown Jason Todd Alfred Pennyworth Tam Fox Bart Allen Cassie Sandsmark Kon-El | Conner Kent Mara al Ghul

Mentioned:

Mentioned Bernard Dowd Mentioned Talia al Ghul

Additional Tags:

Tim Drake-centric Damian Wayne-centric Tim Drake Needs a Hug Damian Wayne Needs a Hugs siblings Bonding implied/Referenced Child Abuse past Child Abuse past Abuse Bruce Wayne is a Bad Parent bad Parent Talia al Ghul enemies to friends to brothers I wanna specify that bad parent bruce wayne is for tim not damian this was supposed to be a oneshot no beta we die like robin Antisemitism Racismsome of the stuff they do can be construed as self harm Jewish Tim Drake Bad Person Bruce Wayne so Bruce is the scum of the earth in this Whump Hurt/Comfort I tried so hard to make Bruce be redeemable but I couldn't do that and tell a good story So here we are Bisexual Tim Drake I do mention Bernard Dowd because Timbern is my OTP but it's offhanded It’s there to bully Tim does anyone else remember the redboard or is it just me? Angst with a Happy Ending hopeful Ending it isn't a nice tight bow on the story but it wraps it up

Summary:

Once upon a time, Tim and Damian wanted each other dead. Now they're sure that the other is the only one that really gets it anymore.

AKA Tim and Damian have the same trauma around training that they consider to be the norm and are glad to find another person who "trains like a normal person" instead of realizing that they're the outliers.

[itsahotminuteinbetween]

wait wait wait what if eclipse and solar in the dentist au bonded over not being able to save the one person who believed in them…

[ivyithink]

don’t worry, they make up by smoking danny’s book and bitching about armand together

[julijbee]

girlbossing too close to the sun.

[bitchthefuck1]

It's kind of funny that Kendall and Shiv are both equally delusional about their ability to charm people for business and somehow think they can do it even though they choke almost every single time, whereas it's like the one thing Roman is consistently good at despite being the "least legitimate" option.

I think part of this comes down to the fact that Shiv and Kendall both have very clear ideas of the versions of themselves they're trying to be and the images they're trying to project, and they're trying so hard to be seen that way that they end up coming off as a little desperate and off-putting. Meanwhile Roman "knows" that there's something wrong with him and he's worthless, so he doesn't get sucked into the trap of trying to force people to see his idea of himself and instead molds himself into whatever he thinks the other person wants from him because that's the only way he can compensate for "being him," which works very well in the short term but also means he's the least capable of maintaining any relationship for very long because he has no sense of self.

[starlightseraph]

we’ve come full circle

(peter davison in front of a line to see david tennant, april 2022)

(david tennant behind an autograph table for ty tennant, november 2022)

(peter davison, david tennant, and ty tennant in a picture for georgia tennant, may 2024)

[chloesimaginationthings]

The beat up Rohan Kishibe club

[euphorial-docx]

remus canonically said lily “had a way of seeing the beauty in others, even, and perhaps most especially, when that person couldn’t see it in themselves” and yet some of y’all say it’s insane to think her and regulus could possibly get along.

[bmpmp3]

not used to this kind of mascot

[transformers-synergize]

Wait, so if modifications like being a seeker don't come naturally, how does getting those modifications increase lifespan? Are there bots that have an affinity for those mods that just happen to have longer lifespans on average? Something about energy usage? Curious.

Oh, it doesn't increase lifespan it decreases lifespan often by more than half.

cybertronians have two main factors that determine their lifespan frame functionality and their spark energy. Cybertronian frames are tough and last longer than any human technology ever could, but that doesn't mean they don't need repairs and Maintenance, especially with how harsh Cybertron's environment is. This is why the average lifespan is so different from the max. With the war and slowly dying planet, their not enough medics or resources for repairs to go around, and many more ways to get grievously injured or die.

As for sparks, sparks have a finite amount of energy. Most sparks will last around 100 thousand years, maybe a little more, maybe a little less. Anything above 125 thousand is some kind of outlier or a non-standard cybertronian. Once a spark has burned out, its essence will return to the Allspark, where it has a chance to re-emerge again into a new frame with no memories of any of their past lives. Returning to the Allspark is kinda like a recharge for sparks.

Lifespan does have a link to energy usage since a spark energy is finite. Bots that have powerful abilities that use spark energy or use weapons add-ons that pull from spark energy often have slightly shorter lifespans because of this. Seekers' lifespans are often shorter because it takes extra energy from the spark for them to function, shortening their overall lifespan along with the modification, making them more prone to frame failure. They are remade for war, not a life after war. Theirs a reason why autobots don't usually fly, well at least not in robot mode.

[eats-a-berry]

rarepair on side, rarepair on side!

[taamlok]

"same faction romance is boring" you have clearly not romanced taash as a lord

[the-greatest-magic-of-all]

I find it deeply intriguing that Steel's gripes about Citadel Wizard's predilection for secrecy is being somewhat echoed by Tefmet this episode.

[askarkham]

Hey, huge fan of your blog! 😄 I was wondering how dear Mr. Freeze has been doing, we haven't seen him in quite a while.

"He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other." - Francis Bacon

[serpentface]

Do psychotropic drugs and/or ritual play a role in any of the blightseed cultures? A pretty broad question, lol

Yeah that’s a very broad question, the answer is about as much as it tends to play roles in real history. Alcohol is pretty ubiquitous (outside of cultures that abstain from intoxicants) and used for a variety of purposes, opioids are commonly used in some parts for pain relief or recreational purposes, stimulants (usually in mild, natural forms) are used to provide extra energy, and hallucinogens are most commonly used as part of a larger religious framework (rather than for recreational purposes). Any more elaborate answer kinda has to be case by case in a certain culture or part of the setting.

I'll just take this as an opportunity to talk about the one established sect that pretty much REVOLVES around psychoactive use. This is the Scholarly Order of the Root, which is a sort of mystery religion + elite community of scholars who currently occupy the Ur-Tree and its forest in the far southern Lowlands (southeast of Imperial Wardin, on the same land mass).

The Ur-Tree is the obligatory Huge Fucking Fantasy Tree (and its surrounding forest). It’s a mass of vegetation about a mile tall and almost as old as Plant Life Itself, its upper branches are primeval plants, which become more modern the nearer they get to the ground (and each 'level' holds tiny ecosystems, some containing descendants of LONG-extinct arthropods/other small animals). Its lowest branches and the surrounding forest are contemporary plant life, and all is connected and protected by an incomparably MASSIVE fungal mycelium network (which is itself a living god).

A lot of the Scholars' more secretive practices revolve around experimentation with substance use with the goal of expanding the Mind and transcending the body to fully connect to the Dreamlands, and they have a supply chain of traders and mercenaries called Rootrunners who traffic substances into the Lowlands. Most of their psychoactive use is in a very intentional capacity and not just like, for fun, but a LOT of them are just straight up addicted to cocaine (in the form of alchemically refined bruljenum, which is used for practical purposes of its stimulant effect during long hours of work).

All known psychoactives are desirable for experimentation (particularly hallucinogens), with each having properties that either allow expansion of the Mind, transcendence of the body, or outright divine communion. Their effects are logged in great detail and interpreted to form the basis of the Scholars' understanding of the natural world and reality itself.

The most important substance is Ur-Root, which is root matter from subterranean levels of the Ur-Tree that have both their own intrinsic psychoactive substances and a very, very high concentration of living god mycelium. The tree root contains DMT and the mycelium has its own wholly unique effects (being an actual living god). They alchemically refine it into a purer, more potent form, and use it to expand beyond the body and directly commune with the Giants, a group of entities they have identified as the only true gods.

An Ur-Root trip starts off with minor visual distortion, which turns into shifting fractals that slowly obscure the vision. Eventually the senses are entirely taken over by a 'tunnel' of rapidly shifting fractals and geometries. In a complete trip, the experiencer gets a sense that they have been pushed through a membrane and entered another realm, finding themselves in a distinct experiential Space.

At this point they may encounter entities which communicate to them in a language impossible to describe but wholly understood. These beings are understood to be the Giants, or at least aspects of the Giants that mortals are capable of comprehending (they often take familiar tutelary forms of the Mantis or the Snake, or appear resembling the same type of sophont that the experiencer is, all composed of ever-shifting geometries). The experiencer often feels a sense of unconditional and endless love from these beings, though the Giants may be more hostile and may appear in the form of the Trickster (usually a cultural figure regarded as malicious, be it an animal or otherwise) in a bad trip.

(^Up until this point, this has mostly just been a DMT 'breakthrough' experience ft. 'machine elves' and the like).

They are then removed from this space and returned to something that feels like the real world, but is nearly unrecognizable. They have a sense of rapidly moving through time, and will usually see 'the spires' towards the beginning, which just so happen to look like this:

(source + some context via Implication- the spires are exactly what this art is depicting)

The experiencer continues to move across an unfathomable amount of time, occasionally 'seeing' other such flashes of unfamiliar landscapes and creatures, and yet also being devoid of all their senses, the 'seeing' is pure, unfiltered experience. There is a sense of interconnectedness with all life, and that one has become the forest (or even Life) itself. The sense of time is wildly distorted, the trip lasts only about 5 minutes but feels like an eternity and is understood as literal hundreds of millions of years.

The experiencer has usually lost any remaining sense of Self and individual consciousness during this phase (in which case this time distortion is usually a neutral or even peaceful experience), but some retain a fraction of their identity, and find themselves trapped and conscious while experiencing what feels like eternity (which can be LIFE-CHANGINGLY distressing, even after the fact).

(^This latter part of the trip is the effects of the Ur-Tree fungus).

The trip ends with a sense of rushing through the ground and back up into one's body, at which point they will abruptly return to their senses and consciousness. The details are then immediately retrieved via interview and recorded in immense detail. The whole experience is understood as having been full comprehension of the Dreamlands, communion with the Giants, and then a tour through the act of creation.

This is done as part of the initiatory practice into the inner mystery-religion of the scholars, and as needed for study by high scholar-priests. It is not taken lightly, both as it is absolute communion with the gods and reality, and in that it can be a very, very difficult experience. People who have gone through this often walk away with a permanently shifted perspective, often in a positive and/or comforting way- a sense of interconnectedness with all life, a peace with the concept of death, seeing less of a point in individual ego and the concept of Self, and comfort in the sense of divine love they (may have) experienced. This heavily influences the philosophy of the Scholars and has had effects by proxy in the religious worldviews of the region.

Details of this experience are closely guarded, and initiates are given absolutely no prior knowledge and expectations for their trip. This is seen as a necessity- their naivety will allow for a true, unfiltered experience, and can be used to gauge whether they should or should not be accepted. Those that have a distinctly bad trip upon initiation may be assumed to have been 'rejected' by the giants and thus denied full priesthood, though this largely depends on How they interpret their distressing trip- those who identify this as a test and harsh lesson in a journey to enlightenment may be accepted (as this is how fully initiated scholar-priests interpret and handle their bad trips).

This inner priesthood is only a small fraction of the Scholarly Order, and its greater function is as a hub of education and repository of knowledge, and Scholar-trained doctors can provide some of the best medical care available in the setting ('best medical care in this setting' only means so much but it's pretty solid, relatively speaking). Only a chosen few Scholars ever get to commune with the Ur-Root, and most of the divine secrets revealed in the process are kept hidden (though they indirectly influence the politics and worldview of the entire order).