#the diligence it was due

[shaanks]

Would you want to pull that Shanks has separation anxiety hc back out from under the bed and maybe perhaps share it with the rest of us? Tbh I LIVE for the head canons you share!!

You are so sweet!!!! 😭😭😭 I'm sorry I've been sitting on this one for several days now, I wanted to be at least sort of clear-headed to answer it properly. Some of this is going under a readmore because I'm incapable of answering things concisely lmfao.

Edit: for anyone watching out there this post is riddled with spoilers so read at your own risk.

**

I think about Shanks and all of his sublimated feelings and fears and dreams so much it makes me so crazy and sad lmfao. Focusing in on the fears part though like...abandonment and loss have been really central themes in his life.

He was found in a locked treasure chest - seemingly abandoned by his biological family (which in the end, good, because if they are who we think they are they suck anyway).

He spends his childhood aboard the LITERAL ship of dreams, two of the most prolific men of that era are his father figures, he has this incredibly close relationship with Buggy, he is soaring on the wings of this burgeoning era, where the only limits he has are what his imagination and talent allow him to be capable of...and then it all just stops.

The family that he knows sails away to the end of their journey without him because he opts to stay behind with Buggy when he gets sick, and nothing is ever the same or right again. Roger sickens, Rayleigh's mind begins to fray. The crew disbands. Everyone disappears.

Roger allows himself to go to the gallows, and on the way there he lays the future of their world on the shoulders of a grieving 14 year old boy, who has to now learn what it means to be utterly alone in a world that has not only branded him enemy, but whose governing structures are fully aware of his power and the danger his talent and proximity to Roger entail.

The only person he had there with him, Buggy, runs out on him - for reasons that were understandable, but could have been avoided by words neither of them had the emotional maturity to express, especially not in the moment of such anguish and grief.

He eventually finds people, good people, new friends and comrades, people he can trust, but even then he is having separation and its cost modeled for him in the form of Yasopp and his son, and eventually in the form of a tenacious, lovable little boy named Luffy, who loves so fiercely and is very clearly terrified of the prospect of being left, of being alone. A fear Shanks resonates with deeply. A pain he knows he will eventually have to inflict on this little boy.

There's a lot of meta around that Shanks had no faith or interest in Luffy until he ate the gum-gum fruit and didn't think he had any potential to be a pirate, but I think that's a really shallow, kind of willfully ignorant take on it. Shanks himself found a home at sea as a boisterous naive child, and the RHP more than have the capability of looking after a child with a penchant for trouble...but that's how he lost his world, too.

Leaving Luffy behind hurt him, but he left him with connection, an emotionally valuable memento, and to Shanks' awareness he was leaving him with a stable support system firmly in place. There are no guarantees in this life, but he's learned through personal experience that not even the Pirate King can grant you assurance that your family at sea will survive.

ALL that to be said that I think one of Shanks' deepest, most untended hurts is loss, the loss of family, of friends, of love, and because that wound has gone unaddressed--and because he went from lost 14 year old boy to Captain to Yonko in such quick succession, and there doesn't tend to be a lot of emotional support for mythic figures of authority--it manifests as separation anxiety.

Individual members of the RHP are rarely seen off on their own, with the exception of Benn going off to rescue Luffy that one time. They all move around together.

When people leave, Shanks keeps tabs on them, when danger arises, he does his best to be two steps ahead of it. I genuinely think there's a part of him that whispers "you'll never see them again" any time someone he cares about walks out of a room, or leaves the ship a little before him. There's a reason, I think, that he's always shown to be the last person to board the ship, why he's always ushering people on ahead of him 50 times before he goes up.

With a lover, I think it would manifest tenfold, I think that's partially why he's so clingy and touchy-feely and cuddly (aside from just being literally the sweetest man alive), because to have that sort of connection means he reached out of the imposed avoidance of his own desires to really bring someone in close, and I think that kind of loss, or the perception of the possibility of that kind of loss, would devastate him in a way he wouldn't recover from.

So he holds your hand everywhere you go, shadows you through rooms, presses you close to his side when you're out at bars, and worries, just a little bit, every time you get up to go to the galley or have to take night watch without him.

Because what if it all falls apart again. What if you disappear. What if the crew disappears. Just like what happened before.

I hope this makes sense and was coherent, I just have a feeling or two about him, ya know?

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

"What were you doing at Wayne Enterprises?" A gruff voiced asked from behind him.

Danny cringed. Of course, Batman would catch him off guard. He turned away from the guy he had just saved from the poisoning, feeling confident that the antidote was doing it's job, "I was just exploring. I wanted to know what a corporate place looked like when I saw that guy put something in Mr. Drakes-"

"Tim." Tim interrupted.

"Mr. Drakes," he said more firmly, ignoring the teen co-CEOs pout, "drink. He was lucky I knew what it was and how to cure it."

"How did you know?" The dak knight pressed.

"Because," Danny gritted his teeth, "That wasn't created to be a poison, it was created to be a fuel source by my parents and they created an antidote the moment they realized it was toxic and a safety hazard." Danny took a step towards the Gotham vigilante, not an ounce of fear in his eyes, "That man is Slade. He murdered my parents and stole some of my thier work. I'm going to kill him and I won't let you stop me." And with that, Phantom vanished.

Bruce tensed, anticipating an attack, but after a few minutes where nothing happened, he turned to leave. He pressed a finger to his ear, "Spoiler, Red Robin, since you two know the most about Phantom I'll be expecting a full report."

Tim did his best to hold back a groan, cause now he had to tell his Dad all about how he's been flirting with a supernatural entity when in the mask. Awkward.

[yeah-thats-probably-it]

Hot take maybe but I think Bertie would be FAR more likely to survive the first two months of Dracula than Jeeves would be. Bertie has a healthy sense of self-preservation. Jeeves consistently underestimates how dangerous a situation might get (Steeple Bumpleigh, the club book) because he’s overconfident about his level of control over any given situation. He'd handle Dracula masterfully if they faced off in England, but on Dracula's home turf? Much more doubtful.

I realize this might be a tough sell, so I will explain further (or it's not a tough sell, and I'm going to explain further because I want to). (criteria taken from @canyourfavesurvivecastledracula) Without further ado.

Would Jeeves and Wooster survive Castle Dracula?

Jeeves

Jeeves' survival will depend on how long Dracula finds him more entertaining than irritating. On that basis, I don't think he's long for this world. On the one hand, he has a huge wealth of knowledge about English society and culture that he can recite perfectly from memory. That should buy him at least a little time with noted teaboo Dracula.

On the other hand, he would be absolutely no fun as a vampire plaything. Jeeves cannot be got. Sneaking up on him while he's shaving will yield zero reaction (though that's at least good for his short-term survival--given that, although he DID take the crucifix from the old woman out of politeness, he certainly isn't going to wear it. The rules of fashion don't go out the window just because you're in a spooky castle). Then, although managing the whims of rich jerks is not an insignificant part of a valet's job, Jeeves usually does this by bending his employers to his will. Dracula is not the sort of employer this will work on. It'll just add insult to injury when on top of being impossible to scare, NOW Jeeves is telling Dracula that his favorite cloak is several centuries out of fashion and he's not allowed to wear it anymore.

Jeeves will 100% go exploring in the areas he was told not to go-- though to be fair, he MIGHT actually get away with this, what with his superpower of appearing in rooms without being seen or heard. Said superpower might save him from the brides as well (though this is by no means guaranteed). Since I find it doubtful that Dracula would come to rescue his annoying ass, not being noticed is his best defense.

There are a couple other things working in Jeeves's favor; the question is just whether they'll be enough to save him.

He DOES know shorthand, and could try to send coded letters. He might even have the foresight to squirrel away some extra stationary where Dracula can't find it. But could he get them posted? Would it even do him any good?

He certainly has enough cultural literacy to figure out what his new boss is pretty quickly. If he didn't chuck the crucifix out the carriage window, he might start carrying it around in his pocket.

Psychology of the individual, sure, but the individual in question is a 400-year-old vampire who lives in an isolated castle in a foreign country and is regarded as a terrifying mythological figure in the surrounding villages. Jeeves has never come up against anything this alien before, he's cut off from his normal resources, and opportunities to play people against each other are limited.

He probably has enough upper body strength from all that shrimping and fishing to climb the wall, so he COULD escape if he wanted to, if he survived long enough. It's just, again, that overconfidence, and also Dracula has a vast library full of rare old books that are entirely at his disposal. He's keeping his eyes and ears alert for potential escape strategies, of course, but I don't see him being as desperate to get out as Jonathan was.

There are just a lot of "depends on"s here, and I'm not convinced that luck would shake out in Jeeves's favor, all things considered.

Bertie

Bertie is so perfect for the job of Castle Dracula Prisoner it's like it was made for him. Think about it. Being held against his will in big manor houses comes more naturally to him than breathing. He's afraid of things that are scary. A lifetime of dealing with Aunt Agatha has made him the world's preeminent expert in "curl[ing] up in a ball in the hope that a meek subservience [will] enable [him] to get off lightly." He will NEVER go exploring in places he's been warned away from if nobody is forcing him to (Rev. Aubrey Upjohn's office notwithstanding. There were biscuits in there). He's both fun to talk to and easy to toy with (and extremely English). A+ prisoner. Dracula adores him.

In my opinion, Bertie is at Castle Dracula either because Aunt Agatha got some wires seriously crossed and thinks he’s going to meet an eligible potential bride (I mean, there are certainly brides there), or because Dracula has something Aunt Dahlia wants him to steal (far less likely, given that one of Dracula’s THINGS is famously not owning anything silver). Either way, he's shown himself entirely willing and able to escape down drainpipes if a sitch gets too scaly.

He DOES take the crucifix, and DOES wear it (which is what will save him during the shaving scene, because you KNOW he's going to jump a foot and cut himself like the dickens). He's read enough supernatural goosefleshers to be genre savvy about terrified old women cryptically pushing crucifixes into one's hands. I also think his sunny disposish endeared him to the villagers, and they were particularly vehement about urging him not to go. He doesn't speak German or Romanian, but he's empathetic enough to recognize Pure Terror. So by the time he actually gets to the castle, his imagination is already running wild and he's plenty aware that he is in imminent danger.

I think the biggest risk to Bertie will be the brides; whether or not he's susceptible to trances, if he thinks they're trying to marry him, it's against the code of the Woosters to turn them down. But that only becomes an issue if he comes face to face with them, which, luckily, I think is unlikely on account of the aforementioned "won't go exploring" (and if he did, Dracula would definitely rescue him).

I'm inclined to say due to his drainpipe-escape habits that he WOULD be able to climb the wall and MAY attempt to sneak into Dracula's room to look for the keys if his desperation grows to outweigh his fear. Whether he does or not, though, he does NOT have the stomach to attempt shovel murder, and therefore won't get magic brain fever, and may very well simply walk out the front doors when the people come to take the boxes away. OR he climbs his way out like Jonathan did. Either way.

When Bertie tells this story at the Drones later, Tuppy will say that no doubt it's been greatly exaggerated and all that probably happened was that he spent a couple months in an oldish house entertaining a weird loner.

[ninjasmudge]

i hate generative ai as much as the next tumblr user but there has now evolved a new brand of annoying person who just says 'ai garbage. disgusting' in the comments of every weird photo regardless of whether its ai or not

[wuntrum]

fan poster for the movie strange darling :)

[tanglepelt]

Dc x dp idea 114

Jack and Maddie figure out the truth. They can’t possibly hurt there boy. Even if they knew he was just a spook with pretend emotions.

So they inform the Giw.

The GIW waits for no one. In the middle of the school day they arrive at the highschool. Now when i was in highschool we had reinforced doors and they remained locked the entire school day. They had to buzz you in and out.

So the Giw arrive banging on the door ordering the arrest of Danny Fenton aka Phantom.

Turns out the staff and students of Casper high are ride and die. They all had weapons on them. They literally get attacked multiple times in a day.

This turns into a huge stand off.

Casper high protects there own. Dash and Paulina absolutely not letting Danny out of thier sights. No way. He’s in danger! Sam and tucker weren’t even in school that day. Jazz was pulled early.

No one os getting through to them. Jocks just throwing balls and weapons at the Giw from the roof. Paulina trying to disguise Danny but his ecto signature prevents that.

They have the whole school surrounded with anti-ecto weaponry so Danny can’t even sneak away.

Just the school protecting and hiding Danny. All until the JL get involved.

Government reached out to them as there is clearly a mind control or hostage situation happening. It had been 4 days. Something was clearly possessing them. Why else would the school be hiding the ghost boy?

[cryptvokeeper]

Also idk maybe it was too subtle but. when oppenheimers wife takes him by the shoulders and says, “stop trying to make people pity you for the sins you committed” like. I just kind of figured that was a pretty explicit indictment of his actions and makes me struggle to take the “Oppenheimer is just a movie about a sad white mans feelings” arguments in good faith.

[proudsnackeezowner]

What do yall mean #phan #< for the bit??? BIT?? Guys this is our culture, our history, our legacy. Reject modernity embrace tradition and what not. You're a phannie, own up, tag phan without remorse or shame 🗣

[pucksandpower]

The FIA has confirmed that their investigation into Toto Wolff and Susie Wolff has been dropped, and that there is no concerning conflict of interest nor has any confidential information been shared without authorization

But that does not erase the fact that the FIA based their entire investigation on a tabloid with a pattern of misogyny. It does not negate that the FIA decided an unsubstantiated article demeaning and defaming an accomplished woman in motorsport was all that was necessary to start investigating when they have previously responded with far less to far more

I would like to thank the FIA for one thing, though. They managed to do the impossible and get every single F1 team on the same page

[jojotier]

no but karkat being bad at coding is actually instrumental to his characterization because coding means having an excess of patience, being able to pay attention to absolutely minuscule details, working in small, manageable chunks rather than focusing on the picture, and also trying not to get too pissed because Javascript keeps putting an extra ' even though i typed \' BECAUSE I WANTED THE CONSOLE TO PRINT THE FUCKING QUOTATION MARK NOT BECAUSE IM DECLARING A NEW STRING WITHIN A STRING but its LITERALLY just a shitty little mark, it barely even counts as quotation, it has no fucking business having the authority to quote someone because when i run the STUPID Fucking Code Javascript starts SCREAMING AT ME about shit being Undeclared and it's YOU. YOU ARE THE ONE DECLARING IT YOU PERSNICKETY MECHANICAL FOOL. DON'T YOU DARE PIN THE BLAME ON ME BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD FILL IN MY CODE EVEN BEFORE I HAD A CHANCE TO FILL IN MY CODE. AND WHO THE FUCK IS GIVING YOU THE RIGHT TO AUTOMATE SHIT? YOU CAN BARELY RUN A SIMULACRA OF WIPING YOUR OWN GAPING ASSHOLE WITHOUT SCREAMING IN ABJECT HORROR WHENEVER I ATTEMPT TO LINK MORE THAN THREE SCRIPTS. BUT SURE! FUCK! YOU KNOW BETTER THAN I DO I FUCKING GUESS!!!!

[siena-sevenwits]

Mutuals and dear followers,

One of the best reading years I’ve had in some time was a couple of years ago when I read mainly from friends’ recs. I know this kind of thing burns some people, but I guess I know how to approach it in a way that works for me. I want to do something similar this year.

What books should I at least put on my radar that you've loved?

[mythtiide]

Happy pocky day! 🍫

[dumplingcatho]

hawk showing off her thrush <33 closeups under the cut

[pose ref from mellon_soup, background painted over screenshot]

[rat-rosemary]

Anyway I am exhausted.

Hey are you a Tommt fan or just on his side? Have you not watched Dream's stream? Are you confused about something, are hearing conflicting information, or just want someone to explain some context or something you heard saw?

Drop me an ask and I'll try to explain about it, I watched the whole 3:30-ish hour stream. I do not give a fuck if you hate Dream, you can hate him if you want, but misinformation is fucking dangerous and if I can I want to help dismiss it. Plus, I'm sure yall want to deal with the real issue as much as anyone else, and having misinformation in the way just makes it harder for everyone

[chulacabra]

I've been getting a lot of asks recently asking me to promo their gofundmes and such and like... I always try to do my due diligence to make sure they aren't scams before I do anything like that.

But EVERY SINGLE TIME I get one, the person asking fails the first step of my "is this a scam" checklist. Every time. I've never had a single person make it to step two of the research phase.

I've hit the point of like "yeah no I don't trust any of these inherently." I'm not gonna signal boost someone's donation pool when they're potentially scamming my followers.

[queen-of-hawkins-why-ler]

Holy shit y'all my dad might've become a Byler truther tonight!! He always just pokes fun at me and makes jokes about Byler, thinking I'm just reading too much into it, but when the Mike and El fight came on during my re-watch today he was lost for words.

He thought I was exaggerating Mike's queerness and the lack of chemistry between Mike and El, but my dad was genuinely at a loss when El said "You never say it" and "you can't even write it, Mike" and then proceeded to read through all of the "From Mike" letters. My dad usually says "no he's not" about Mike being gay and "no they won't" about Byler, but he just gave me a look and said, "I guess everything will be revealed in season 5." AHHHHHHHHH