#symbols of fear and hope

[arbitrarycategories]

Putting a running joke into my reverse robins au where Bruce wants to call everything Bat-whatever but hadn’t gotten around to it yet when Duke showed up, and now Duke won’t let him because it’s “lame” and “kind of weird, B.” When itty bitty Dickie Grayson shows up and starts Bat-naming things nobody can tell him no because he has the most irresistible puppy dog eyes in the whole wide world. Bruce is fucking VINDICATED.

[fiendishartist2]

*guy who had no control over his fate voice* it's all my fault

[divine-motion]

i'm the only motherfucker who understands armored core 6 fully and completely actually

[acourtofquestions]

Fenrys whispered, "Holy gods."

Not at the bridge that snapped down, soldiers teeming in the dark depths inside. But at who emerged from the keep archway behind them. What emerged. Rowan didn't know where to look. At the soldiers pouring out of the siege tower, leaping onto the battlements, or at Aelin.

At the Queen of Terrasen.

She'd found armor below the keep. Beautiful, pale gold armor that gleamed like a summer dawn. Holding back her braided hair, a diadem lay flush against her head. Not a diadem, but a piece of armor. Part of some ancient set for a lady long since buried. A crown for war, a crown to wear into battle. A crown to lead armies.

There was no fear on her face, no doubt, as Aelin hefted her shield, flipping Goldryn in her hand once before the first of Morath's soldiers was upon her. Rowan launched into movement, his blades finding their marks, but still he watched her.

Aelin slammed her shield against an oncoming warrior, Goldryn slicing through another before she plunged the blade into the soldier she'd deflected. She did it again, and again.

All while heading toward that siege tower. Unhindered. Unleashed.

A call went down the line. The queen has come.

She planted her line before the gaping maw of that siege tower, right in the path of those teeming hordes. Every moment of the training she'd done on the ship here, on the road, every new blister and callus—all to rebuild herself for this.

The queen has come.

Goldryn unfaltering, her shield an extension of her arm, Aelin glowed like the sun that now broke over the khagan's army as she engaged each soldier that hurtled her way. Five, ten—she moved and moved and moved, ducking and swiping, shoving and flipping, black blood spraying, her face the portrait of grim, unbreaking will.

"The queen!" the men shouted. "To the queen!"

And as Rowan fought his way closer, as that cry went down the battlements and Anielle men ran to aid her, he realized that Aelin did not need an ounce of flame to inspire men to follow. That she had been waiting, yanking at the bit, to show them what she, without magic, without any godly power, might do. He'd never seen such a glorious sight. In every land, every battle, he had never seen anything as glorious as Aelin before the throat of the siege tower, holding the line. Dawn breaking around them, Rowan loosed a battle cry and tore into Morath.

[sulfurrrr]

Caitlyn's storyline is super interesting to me bc I think even though she has a lot of sympathy for the undercity, the biases she was raised with lead her to view it as one separate entity that is inherently different from her, rather than a group of people who all were systemically forced to pursue lives that are vastly different from hers (and this mindset is, in part, what's led Jinx to become a symbol of Zaun).

That subconscious mindset is why Jinx murdering her mother so easily led to her hatred and violence. If it had been someone from Piltover she very easily would have been able to see how isolated the attack was, or understood what led to it—but because it was Jinx, and because Zaun, in her eyes, has a history of directing extreme violence towards Piltover, to Caitlyn this is a unified attack from Silco's agent—and, by extension, the undercity as a whole— against Piltover (more specifically, against her mother).

That's why she said "It's her blood in your veins." She thought Vi was different and "not like them" because to her, while Piltover is, of course, nuanced and deeply flawed, Zaun has always been one separate entity to Caitlyn—and, from what she's seen of the undercity (under silco's leadership) Vi isn't "like them."

Jinx, however, is. Moreover, Jinx, as Silco's number one agent, the perpetrator of all the violence she's seen (against piltover), and the face she's been chasing since the beginning, is, in Caitlyn's eyes, the violent and destructive undercity Caitlyn always heard about personified.

And, by treating her like she is, Caitlyn's unknowingly propped Jinx up as Silco's successor and leader of Zaun—which, with the turf wars leaving so much violence and destruction, is exactly what the undercity wants and needs, so they rush to reinforce this narrative in the hopes that it'll come true and give them back some stability.

[martyrbat]

[ID: an uncoloured drawing for a panel next to the publicized version. They're both from the comic Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #194. In them, Batman is shown from the waist up. He's looking at Jim Gordon, who's off panel, with a penitent expression after being accused of something he secretly did do. He has his palm pressed against his chest and is blocking the bat emblem as his other hand is clasped ontop of it. In the initial drawing, there's a halo floating above his head as well as several tiny hearts mixed in with the lights that surround him. In the publicized panel, the hearts and halo has been removed and two speech bubbles have been added. He's in front of a terra rose background and is starting to say, “Jim, I don't even know what you're...” But Jim cuts him off, saying, “Stop it. I'm tired of this.”

The third photo is a description of the drawing from the artist's (Seth Fisher) website. It reads: This is another page that the DC editors changed: no halos or hearts around Batman, no matter how (disingenuously) contrite he is. In the final edition, the halo and heart in the center bottom frame have been excised.]

[lovesodeepandwideandwell]

Time to finally admit that the Dresden Files books are not pleasant to me anymore

[lavenderjewels]

jjk 267 leaks + spoilers in the tags. ill be completely honest i understand the jjk criticism I’ve seen for this chapter but i also don’t care

[bumblingbabooshka]

Voyager’s Crew is so special to me because they range from the most average people alive, fresh-faced newbies and criminals who never signed up for any of this. They are not Starfleet’s best (half of them aren’t even Starfleet). They are not uniquely suited to anything about the situation they’ve been thrown into. They were not prepared in the slightest for this. It’s just a ship full of people who were meant to be going on a quick pick-em-up mission suddenly having to fight tooth and nail to survive together for ostensibly the rest of their lives. And even though they do somehow make it back their entire lives have been changed by the experience. Even though they’ve come back home they haven’t returned. They never will.

[good-beanswrites]

Just wanted to plant an idea if you wanted a bit of fuel: Mahiru asking Yuno to come to her cell before everything goes down.

Edit: I forgot the ask didn't say it but this is part of Kyanako's incredible Order Of Attack AU!

Didn't mean for this to become a mini Mappi study but here we are ✨ Thank you for the request! I fully intended to write them hanging out, but it's more right before they hang out lol. Went a bit on-the-nose with foreshadowing, but isn't that the fun part? It has become Emotional Over Mahiru Hour...

I kept things vague, but TW for mentioning her boyfriend's state of potential self-harm

Mahiru tried not to act superstitious, she really did. As much as she loved the idea of little luck charms, or avoided easy signs of misfortune, it was easier to keep quiet about such ridiculous things.

Maybe catching a bride’s bouquet meant no guarantees; maybe there was no real harm in stepping underneath ladders, maybe a coin tossed into a fountain had no real magic to its wish. However, the one thing she knew for sure held power was a lucky presence. Being in the right place at the right time could alter everything. And today was the right time for something. There was this waiting in the air. The prison had been holding its breath. Mahiru knew it was time to release it all.

“You must be so lonely, why don’t you let big sis Mahiru keep you company?” She beamed at Amane.

She often recalled the good fortune that she and a certain young man had crossed paths on the university terrace. She used to laugh with him about the wonderful coincidence of bumping into each other outside of the bakery, then the convenience store. 

Though she’d never spoken about it to him, she was also grateful for many occasions where she walked in on him at the precise moment to talk him out of something reckless. She always told him that they’d do everything together. He didn’t need to be alone anymore. 

“I wish to be alone. I need peace of mind to think.” Amane turned away from the cell door.

It was a good thing, too. Mahiru’s smile wasn’t as convincing as she said, “o-oh. Of course.”

She made her way around the panopticon, hearing Fuuta pace his cell in anticipation. He must have felt it too, this holding of breath. 

Or perhaps not. He turned down her offer for a bit of company, including a few more colorful words than Amane had. Mahiru just apologized for bothering him and headed back to her cell. She wasn’t sure where Mikoto was at this hour, but she didn’t feel like smiling through a third rejection.

She shook her head back and forth. She wished the motion could rattle the voices inside, she wished she could shake them all away. With her arms secured in place she could no longer cover her ears. She used to hum to keep them at bay, but lately they’d been too loud to stifle. They just kept on talking.

Their words told her the two were right. Nobody needed her company. No – nobody wanted it. Being together hadn’t helped her boyfriend. In fact, being together had been the very thing that got him killed. No wonder Amane and Fuuta wanted to avoid her. 

So then, this was for the best. She would rather deal with the brief sting of refusal than stumble in one day to find them hurt… or worse. As much as she tried to avoid the superstition of it all, the voices reminded her that her very presence could mean life or death. 

“Mappi, are you alright?” Mahiru hadn’t realized a tear had slipped down her cheek until she hurried to swipe it away in front of Yuno. 

“Hah, I’m fine! Just fine.” It was impossible to fool her, Mahiru had learned, but that never stopped her from trying. 

At least she always spoke tactfully. “Rough morning?”

Mahiru shifted her arms in her uniform, making a small sound of agreement.

“Can I do anything to help? What if I stay with you for a bit? I can do your hair, and…”

The voices were right. Amane and Fuuta knew it, too. Presences did hold power, and Mahiru’s was cursed.

But she would sound foolish admitting such a fear to Yuno. She'd heard plenty from the voices about how stupid and airheaded she was, there was no use in getting the same lecture from someone as grounded as her.

Mahiru managed a weak protest, unable to explain her real reasoning. Yuno was insistent. She didn’t give much of a choice. Could she feel the strangeness of the prison, as well? 

At last, Mahiru allowed her shoulders to sag. Yuno was lucky. And kind. Having her nearby would do her good. Amane and Fuuta would be alright. Mahiru had tried spending more time with them after verdicts were announced. Now, she made a mental note to pull back. If her love couldn’t save anyone, at least she could spare them from her curse. They would be safe. 

“Yes. Please stay. The truth is... I don't want to be alone.”

[lobpoints]

Angela in LC, consistently telling the manager that she felt trapped and helpless and considerably miserable working in LC because she is denied of her individuality and personal choice and personhood and is also denied of any meaningful interactions whether with the sephirot or her own creator, lc hokma saying that what they have done and are still doing toward Angela was inherently cruel, even A at some point knee down to apologize to Angela because he also recognized what he was doing to her is inherently cruel in one of the loop (day 40), Angela in the epilogue straight up saying that she felt abandoned since her birth to the end for nothing hence she wanted to live her own life now, the lines in the dark in between day 47-50 are literally her begging to be noticed one last time:

LC essayist: but we literally can't know Angela's personal motivation until ruina she has never once showed her motivation and she was supposed to be hated by the narrative always and forever in LC

[arbitrarycategories]

*scribbling down how Red Robin and Ethiopia are going to go down in my reverse robins au* I simply think that if Damian were one of the older brothers that he would be violently protective

[paeden-babyboiiii]

I was re-listening season one while waiting for the newest episode and when they were speaking with The Lance in episode one Darryl says:

“Henry, who would be scared of the doodler?”

And

…oh boy Darryl

you have no idea.

[sskk-manifesto]

(´･ᴗ･ ` )

[supersuperdupersecretnerd]

Oh my God, this lore is so dark what

So Urbanshade can include 'making deals with Satan' and 'kidnapping and torturing an ACTUAL ANGEL' to their list of crimes, huh.

[sigmaelxgr]

I was just here, sketching to help me fixing ideas and concepts of characters I write about... and while I was messing with Xangr's hair of the period he left the mage guild to listen to some obscure designs, I fell on... Darra. @downontheupside

Hi, 2E male Darra.