#the greatest superpower

[diazmaximoff]

Here's a compilation of Daniel's greatest feats that I made a long time ago. Such a powerful little guy!

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

It’s Week 3 and I promised I’d commit to my theory for Season of the Seraph’s story arc if hubris didn’t come knocking for me before then, so time to put my money where my digital mouth is. I’ve seen folks talking about the first part of this theory, but not the second, so here goes: 1) Clovis will try to make himself the new Warmind and 2) in the process breach the Ascendant Realm and open the way for Xivu Arath.

Clovis, by the way, gave away the game like two minutes in because he can’t keep his dang mouth shut. Clovis couldn’t resist a good smug gloat. He gave it all away when Ana said god, fine, hop on this disk and we’ll go. He said, “Once I am in control, all will be as it should be. The Warmind will rise again.” 

As it should be? That line stopped me cold. Clovis hated that Rasputin was in charge. He couldn’t believe he, the genius Clovis Bray the first, was expected to take orders from a jumped-up calculator he used to own. A restored Rasputin is not “as it should be” in Clovis-land. What is “as it should be?” It’s Clovis, so that’s easy: the way things should be is with him in charge. He doesn’t say, “Rasputin will rise again.” He says, “The Warmind will rise again.” Clovis is going to get all the subminds together except put himself at the center instead of the Rasputin core Ana has, and try to make himself the new Warmind. All of which would just be fun to watch as we wait for Red to break him, but: there’s Xivu Arath to deal with. 

We’re all worried about Xivu getting into the warsats. I don’t think she wants them at all. In the Judgement of Kelgorath lore she doesn’t order Kelgorath to go get her some warsats. She says: possess the Warmind. Xivu Arath has plenty of weapons already. What she needs, as Mara points out, is a way in. Mara comments in the encounter dialogue that moving an army through the ascendant realm is very hard. But Xivu did it over Torobatl. How? Sav showed her the way: she did it by getting someone on the other side to build her a gate.

I was surprised in Season of the Hunt by the extent of control Xivu displayed. I thought her unlikely to go for subversive powers like Oryx’s Taking or Sav’s manipulation. But she’s a lot smarter than I gave her credit for. Her Wrathborn contagion is effective, coercive, and quick-spreading. It makes sense metaphorically: violence is a kind of disease, an insidious way of thinking that spreads and snares people till they see everything as a conflict to be settled by force. Xivu invaded the Cabal by infecting Caiatl’s co-ruler Umun’arath, general of the Cabal legions. Driven further and further into obsession with the conflict Xivu Arath makes herself synonymous with, Umun’arath invoked her in the rituals of warfare - the same ones Eris and Eido were discussing - opening the way for Xivu’s armies to pour into the skies over Torobatl. 

For Xivu to repeat that trick in our solar system, she needs another Umun’arath. But Umun’arath was a singularly convenient target: the military chief of the war machine of a huge conquering interstellar empire, or in other words, someone you might call...war-minded. When scouting our solar system Xivu probably heard the name “Warmind” and thought hell yeah, that’s my ticket in. Except it’s not, because Rasputin’s a) not coherent right now and b) not fundamentally the personality she needs. That’s what we’re already exploring this season: at his core Rasputin was never a martial system. He was a pretentious art nerd who got drafted. They made him a Warmind. Xivu Arath needs someone coterminous with war for its own sake, with conflict as the apex of existence, with the supreme violence she represents. And ironically it turns out the Warmind Rasputin is not sufficiently war-minded. 

But Clovis is.

Clovis Bray already sees life as endless contest and conflict via his pseudo-evolutionary legacy bullshit. He’s Xivu’s dream target. When you first see her forces attacking him Clovis is like “they want my precious braaaaaain!” and Osiris goes, “no, they want him. Brought to submit.” That’s exactly what Clovis wants of Rasputin (and to a lesser extent Ana and Elsie): brought to submit. He’s neck deep in Darkness on his own, no convincing needed. And he’s a coward. If Clovis hasn’t cut a deal yet with either Xivu or the Witness to ensure “humanity’s” (his) survival in exchange for his allegiance, he will as soon as he has the reins. After all, let it not be said that he left humanity to fend for itself, right?

So that’s her plan: Xivu Arath attacks the warsat infrastructure to force us to go to Clovis and give him access to Red’s enclave. She waits while we do all the hard work of laying out the subminds to conjure back Rasputin. Clovis inevitably betrays us to slot himself in instead and take control, rousing Rasputin’s entire apparatus of violence to impose his own command on the solar system, helped along by the Wrathborn contagion already brewing in his subconscious. In doing so he invokes such immense rites of war that he opens the way for Xivu to step through. It’s Torobatl all over again...except I don’t think trying to “become the Warmind” is going to work out the way Clovis thinks. 

Clovis still doesn’t understand what Rasputin is, and he still doesn’t understand - as he doesn’t understand with any of his kids - that Rasputin is no longer as Clovis designed him to be. Even Ana hasn’t fully gotten there yet. Both Brays are still thinking of Red as a sort of jigsaw puzzle to be pieced back together. But assembling himself was the first thing Rasputin ever did. Ana still hasn’t cracked the real reason “plug engram into Exo, receive Warmind” isn’t working: because Rasputin is a distributed intelligence. He lives in connections, literally and metaphorically - between warsats, between worlds, with Ana, with humanity. He’s a creature fundamentally built on network and communication. Rasputin is already still out there. He’s in that engram, but he’s everywhere else, too. He’s still in the warsats. He’s talking to us through the Sleeper nodes. He’s going to fight Clovis for control of that Exo Frame; that’s why the frame has red eye-lights in all the season art even though Clovis uses blue ones. 

And in the larger paracausal sense our entire solar system still bears the marks of the Warmind’s influence. He’s synonymous with the Golden Age. The same way Oryx conjured back Savathun and Xivu Arath by recreating the shapes they made, Rasputin will be conjured back by the shape he traced out in a huge web of connections and actions and effects on others that Clovis, an isolated point, fundamentally doesn’t understand. So Clovis is going to pull his little coup, possibly smashing that engram along the way, and he’s going to think it’s working, too - right before Rasputin cracks him open like an egg, because the Warmind never left. I think this season ends with us fighting Clovis in full Wrathborn mode while Xivu Arath’s armies stand ready just on the other side in the Ascendant Realm, hammering to get in, and Rasputin will deliver the final blow from inside - or maybe not, since killing Umun’arath completed the ritual last time, maybe we just wedge Clovis into his own Pillory engram - stopping Xivu from getting her beachhead and leaving her angry but stranded in the Ascendant Realm. 

Hopefully. Either way I can’t wait to see what happens.

[cemetery-irises]

Grrrrrrrr you should tell me more about Andrew and ur hcs… (I’m so obsessed with his character dude I CRAVVEEEE even the slightest bit of nourishment…) tee hee yar har har I love your content

neyuworowh so many people are askimg me about him recently. im havign so much fun owgh

-his shovel is kind of like. a comfort item?? he feels more uncomfortable/uneasy without it which is why he drags it around everywhere even within the manor

-born and raised in england, but his father was a third generation german immigrant while his mother was born and raised in france to a mixed greek/french couple and came to england for school and such!

-he developed a habit of tilting his head to the side to be able to see things clearer, since he has nystagmus from his albinism. also has no depth perception

-his hands are so horribly shaky and he has an asymmetrical ribcage + scoliosis

aggghh i lorv himb

[amischiefofmuses]

Still losing my mind a little over the fact that Wade is in the Original X-men animated (even if only for a moment) and that I probably saw at least this glimpse of him as a kid- Oh young me, you had no idea he would be very significant in your teen years and then TAKE OVER YOUR GODDAMN LIFE AGAIN as an adult.

[queenerdloser]

one of my useless superpowers is that i am So Good at clocking plot twists. every time there's a hint of a plot twist coming my way, i can figure that bitch out so quick.

[lyssatbqh]

i like that i can make myself cry while playing music that feels like a superpower

[gougarwife]

Finally finished my phone theme!! (After like 5 months…) I also made a new one in less than 24 hours because Side Order has me in a chokehold rn… I don’t think I’m completely done with the side order one but either way I’m pretty happy with both of them :)

+ their lockscreens !!! 🥹🥹

[loversj0y]

cant believe im commenting on discourse in 2023 but for fucks sake, i dont even know what its actually about

stop talking about it once its done. if that person did something you didnt like and you told them and theyre still doing it.

block them.

learn to protect your peace.

because even if you are trying to advocate for someone, you need to learn that sometimes protecting your peace is more important.

yes it may still make you upset and you may still want justice, but some people will not change their minds and you have to learn as a person to be okay with that.

i know it sucks. i get it. trust me i know how much it sucks

but block them and move on. its that simple, okay?

i dont like seeing people being stressed over something they cannot control because you cannot control other people’s actions.

[wejustvibing]

I'm the anon who made the comment about Lewis confronting Alonso and MV00. Confront was the wrong word. I would never encourage anyone to be hostile towards another person in any capacity; However, I don't think there's anything wrong with ADDRESSING people directly when you're in a position to do so. Like if they were in a press conference and a journo brings up MV0's clothing line while Lewis is there, why wouldn't Lewis speak up at that moment? He doesn't have to be aggressive about it. I think some people have protecting one's peace confused with being passive. Why do the same people, who praise Lewis for speaking against his own team, encourage him to be a coward when it comes to speaking up against people who ACTUALLY mean him harm?

first of all, sorry for getting to this so late. i'll speak for myself because i praised him for speaking up about the car. you speak up where you know there's hope. in case of m*x and a*onso, there's no hope nor a relationship. there's simply too much bad blood there no matter how respectfully they might address him now and we've seen it time and again. unless there's mood for casual banter, i don't see why lewis would take that bait.

also, speaking up to these opps vs criticizing the team simply cannot be compared! and i don't think lewis' silence has ever been misunderstood for passiveness? and he knows it better than us!

[eievuimultimuse]

this isn't even close to what i was looking up but good to know. ty

[benjaminalphabet]

when you think about love

is it laid out in front of you like a table set with fine china?

or, is it a face watching from the window, never

coming inside?

is it an old friend? is it something hiding the tree line; known but elusive?

to you, is love something to beware of?

how many hours have you spent

trying to coax yourself into unfeeling, gentle waters?

has the tide always been a lukewarm calm for you?

or, has loved pulled you in like a too-strong current?

do you feel safe on the shoreline knowing love lurks in the sea?

to you, is love something to find, or to fear?

i’ll tell you the truth

for me, love is the hand ringing the bell

while i rush from room to room holding serving trays.

for love i perform acts, complete chores, tread water, feign movement.

i am love’s toy, and how i wish to be free from it.

i grow my fingernails long to scratch love off my skin, but like a scar it will not go away;

and i only make it worse.

the longer i spend staring at it, the less familiar it looks to me.

i wonder if love is not made for me, then why does it grow from my veins like garden weeds?

love destroys my landscape like an invasive species.

serpent’s plan disproven,

i’d eat that forbidden fruit if i could only reach it.

i wonder why i misunderstand love

when i have studied it my entire life.

i wish i could rid myself of the burden.

i beg to trade my heart for a stronger spine,

but God does not barter with me.

i wish i could place my heart in an outgoing mailbox, send it off to be someone else’s problem.

i wish my bones would not feel this weight.

i’ve been trying to remove it,

take it off like dirty clothes - but love sticks to my skin like perfume.

i am tainted, i can be no other way.

i wish deeply, unruly in ways, that i did not need it.

i wish that my study could be in survival,

not intimacy. i want something much different.

2.4.24 || untitled

[psychotrenny]

The thing with 9/11 is that no one cares that much about the death and destruction itself. Buildings fall down and people die all the time, including in the US. Like at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic you had entire 9/11s worth of USamericans dying on a regular basis. If all that damage was caused by an earthquake or faulty building practices or whatever, there wouldn't have been nearly as much fuss about it. It's not as if the insane response from US population was a matter of "two building fall down"

The reason why 9/11 was so upsetting to the US population was their widespread feelings of Imperialist Chauvinism and the subsequent outrage at seeing it so openly and violently defied. The US was at the height of its Imperialist power at the turn of the millennium, a hegemonic superpower that was dominant in some way over more or less the entire world. Whether they'd phrase it in such a way or not, most people in the US were very well aware of this; as far as they were concerned the US was truly the greatest country on the Earth. For some this was a point of pride, for others it was a simple fact of the world. This made them feel secure; bombings and mass killings might happen in those "shithole nations" of the earth but it couldn't happen over there. The US military could wipe entire cities off the map and like maybe that was good, maybe that was unfortunate and maybe it meant nothing at all. Either way that was normal; the violence flowed from the Core to the Periphery.

Until one day it didn't. One day a group of people from that Periphery, from some shithole group of nations, struck back. Now the sorts of destruction they'd seen on TV were happening right outside their window; the US got the smallest taste of the sort of brutality they had long inflicted on the rest of the world. And they did not like that taste at all. The US people as a whole went mad with grief and rage, not at the death of any people but the death of their sense of unquestionable safety and superiority. And the only hope of getting that feeling back was to inflict a revenge so terrible that no one would dare resist or retaliate again.

If bloodshed was how they'd built their empire, only more bloodshed could keep it safe. And this time they didn't even have to feel bad about it. It's not as if the US empire had ever given the world any peace, but now they had the perfect pretense to escalate it to levels not seen in decades. If they talked about this isolated and comparatively limited attack as though it was some great invasion, the US government and its supporters could take all the moral high ground of "self defence" even as they slaughtered impoverished peoples on the other side of the world. So it made sense to treat the 11 September attacks as though they were the greatest tragedy of all time. 9/11 didn't break the US psyche, it just made them express it in a more shameless way. It's not as though genocidal Imperialist violence was anything new to the USA. Afghans were just the new Apaches; the "Middle East" a new "Wild West"

[magicbutsevenofit]

Chapter 50: Paradise of Oblivion Part 2

So this Krat thing is a total cult that lures in victims for scams. People make prayers, the Krat followers "delivers"...and boom, Krat gets more followers.

So back to Teito, Ouka and the Wars. The Wars wants to make them part of his collection to protect the "treasure". If he builds the collection for his master every month, he will get to stay in his "paradise" forever. Kururu has already been added to the collection. He tries to encase Ouka but Teito saves her (And Kururu.). Mikage had escaped due to his small size so they don't need to worry about him. Anyway, the Wars is named Lem and he is very good at trapping his victims, making sure that not even healing magic can save them...

We later see Krat himself leading his cult and he's the one who breaks the news to them that the Pope has committed "suicide". Then he tells them God's going to disappear.

Krat tells his followers he will save them and goes back to his attendant to have Lem prepare some more incense for him. Then Frau finds him. Then he hears trouble from Lem's garden. The chapter ends with Teito and Ouka teaming up to take down Lem.

[britcision]

I’m here to remind you to hydrate and smile! I hope you have a sweet sweeeet day and I hope October is treating you well ☁️ oh also, I’m proud of you for doing your best it’s good enough

Fun fact literally ran this EXACT encounter tonight with our edgy drow rogue because he made the mistake of going to talk to my darling Fifi ☺️

Fifi called him adorable, pinched his cheeks, promised to help him learn to take care of the people he loves by gassing them up and gave him permission to smile

Character hated it

Player lost their fucking mind

Also my voice crept slowly into Borat territory so that’s going to be his voice forever now

So everyone hydrate or the buff naked genasi man will come bring you a bottle of water and some lemon wedges

[celaenaeiln]

Something fanon gets wrong

Dick Grayson is genuinely one of the greatest fighters in all of DC.

I know people have trouble believing this for some reason but a man who has defeated every single one of his enemies, other people’s enemies, and has consistently come out on top should have his abilities talked about a bit more because they’re amazing.

Let's start small to big. Firstly Donna talks about Nightwing's abilities.

When I read this I was confused by what she meant. Prowess means skill or expertise and that makes sense but Dick has a lot of power behind him though...

And then I realized she meant metaphysical power.

Dick isn't a magician. He can't run at supersonic speeds, throw buildings, speak to animals, communicate with the dark, fly above the clouds, bounce bullets off his chest (Oh, wait. He can do it off his ass instead never mind), turn into animals, or other amazing abilities. But his skill is so high that he is easily able to keep up with people who can.

M'gann, the white martian with extraordinary capabilities, tells Dick, "You are just a human, with no superpowers, yet you have consistently excelled throughout your career, despite being surrounded by godlike beings."

This is incredible.

We see Dick leading teams of superheroes and metas all the time and we take it for granted but we never acknowledge the immense power and skill he must have for him to be able to do this.

Repeatedly. Time after time. He outsmarts both his human allies and outfights his meta ones.

One of Dick’s greatest OP moments is when he takes down the entire Titans team -Gar, Raven, Donna, and Jason too when he hung around with them- single handedly. And when Jason put a gun to the back of his head in supposed victory, Dick opened his hand to let the golden bullets fall, gleaming in the light with the coldest line, “with these bullets?”

We all know how amazing Bruce is, but Dick is on Bruce's level.

No?

Okay, here's the evidence.

Dick has fought Azael in a sword fight to a standstill when Azael has beaten Bruce separately and Tim and Jason combined.

He has defeated Ra's in a sword fight and Ra's is one of the greatest swordsmen.

Sometimes he doesn't even need a sword to defeat a skilled swordsman.

He's a League of Assassins member and we all know that anyone from the League of Assassins is never just good. They're excellent. The entire fight Dick is looking for Blockbuster and he's so capable and good at fighting the entire scene was like watching Thanos flick Captain America away vibes. He's not even looking at him when he smashes his foot into Shrike's face!

Most importantly, he has defeated Deathstroke

The greatest thing about Dick is he is able to defeat Slade at the peak of Slade's abilities. Slade doesn't need to be weakened for Dick to win.

Here's where people has some hesitance accepting Dick's abilities.

"Bruce has defeated Slade but Dick has never been able to!"

He literally has in Dark Crisis but I'll give you the lead up.

Dick can easily disarm Slade.

He can predict Slade's moves ahead of time and properly counteract them.

He can go toe to toe with him and in one comic, they dance down a hallway, fighting, neither able to get the upper hand. The mercenary meta, considered by the US Government to be 1 of 2 greatest assassins (the other being Katana) isn't able to pin down and defeat a 20 year old despite his enhancements.

I left out the scene where Dick twisting Deathstroke's arm and smashing his face into a bedroom mirror despite being complete weaponless and in his civilian identity. No protection and no support. But it's another example of how Dick's poweress is much greater than people expect of him.

Of course there are panels where Dick has been defeated by Slade but Dick isn't 17/18 anymore. He isn't learning to fight without Batman hovering over his side.

Also there is a panel everyone references to when talking about Nigthwing losing to Deathstroke. This one.

sure. okay. whatever. BUT WHY WON'T YOU SHOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT COWARDS?!?

THEY DANCE-FIGHT LIKE THEY'RE ENEMIES IN A BALLROOM ON OPPOSING SIDES BUT CAN'T AFFORD TO LET ANYONE FIND OUT.

THIS IS SOME HIGH LEVEL JAMES BOND-RED NOTICE-MISSION IMPOSSIBLE- TYPE SHIT.

"Close the hold, you morons! Close the--Guuk!"

That's Slade talking by the way. To his allies. Who do you think made him "GUUK!"?

And here they were evenly matched.

But Slade had to pull out bombs he had been saving for when other people came in order to defeat dICK AND HE STILL LOST BECAUSE DICK BESTED HIM.

Yup. Dick is just that good.

Nightwing defeated Bane

Before you go into saying something like "it was a holographic construction." What the fuck difference does that make? Does a holographic construction alter the strength used by the enemy, change their fighting style, phase through when fighting, act dumber than the real deal? No, right? The fact is Dick broke Bane's back the exact same manner that Bane broke Batman's. All those scenes of Bane punching Nightwing around? Let me remind you that the guy snuck up on Dick. The second time Dick underestimated Bane's powers before getting ready to put in real effort before Batman interfered to take Bane for himself.

All those amazing scenes of him defeating enemies that we've scoffed at recently? They're just a continuation of what already is written. It's not new or unbelievable, it's expected.

Here's my final point. Dick has defeated all of the Justice League's enemies in one go.

This is Batman/Superman comic where Kara gets infected so Dick as Batman sends her to the medbay while he tears down the Watchtower to save her. As in every single defense mechanism the Watchtower has, he demolishes it with his pure skill and abilities. Furthermore, the Watchtower defenses were enhanced by cyborg Superman to be lethal. To kill on sight.

Just. Phenomenal.

He did it! He defeated all of them and made it to the electronic controls he was aiming for.

Another thing I want to point is Dick's strength is greater than what people assume it to be.

He's the world's greatest acrobrat and has a build fitting of that but the strength he packs in his body is equal to that of a meta. Maybe it's because of how he only fights with metas and has teammates that are all metas but he has raised his striking power to equal that.

He shatters cyborg superman in one blow.

He can handle blows from meta humans in a way most others can't which suggests to me that he must've done some kind of training or have maybe increased pain tolerance or have the ability to backseat the pain so it won't affect his fighting. How many can take a hit and rise up the next second?

He's not metahuman. Batman must've done several tests because he also was amazed by robin Dick's poweress lol but really Dick is just extraordinary. Give him any enemy and he will garaunteed defeat them without using cheap tricks or surprise moves which is why he is one of the greatest. The only time people have gotten an upperhand on him is when he has been emotionally weakened. Emotionally. Imagine the absolute monster he would be if he controlled his emotions like Batman.

But I would never want him to though because his emotions are the reason why he's the light of DC.