#the guide to being alive

[redlipstickdujour]

“…my goal in this life is to ripen, like a plum or a peach. I want to get sweeter on the inside so I can become bolder on the outside. I don't mind anymore if my skin becomes wrinkled, if my flesh becomes soft. What a privilege it is to change over time."

The Guide to Being Alive by Richard Christiansen

🎂

[breesperez139]

Dc x Dp Prompt #6

“I’m a twin”, Damian said one night. He could feel the narrowed eyes of his family drilling holes on his back in disbelief. Not that he could blame them. Damian had never so much as implied being raised with a companion, much less a sibling.

“I had a brother”. Damian paused to recollect himself. He had not said his brother’s name out loud in over 8 years.

“His name was… Danyal”. Damian hated the way his voice wavered, but he could not help it. Danyal was everything to him, his other half. Their heart beat as one and when one heart stopped beating, the other one died with it. At least until his family put his heart on metaphorical life support without ever realizing.

“Where is he now?” His father asked, voice filled with knowing grief and a hint of betrayal. It had in fact been 6 years since Damian first showed up on his doorstep.

“Up there”. All eyes shifted towards the specific star he was pointing to. “Right before he died, he promised me he’d guide me from the stars. Unfortunately, the stars are not visible in Gotham, so my brother is unable to be of much help unless I leave the city.”

“Your brother is Polaris, the North Star?” Tim questioned warily, most likely in attempts to not offend him. Damian was aware of how stupid it sounded, but Danyal had promised, and his brother never broke his promises.

“Yes. Danyal is with the stars now, just as he always wanted”

[ruporas]

can’t talk about it

[ID: Black and white comic of Vash and Wolfwood from Trigun Maximum. The comic starts with the sounds "thud, thud, click". Vash, mid-action of peeling an apple, turns to the sound, noticing who it was that entered, and says, "Oh, Wolfwood, you're back." He resumes back to his apple in the next panel as he speaks, "Where'd you go? You snuck out of bed quickly this morning..." Wolfwood's hand then enters the panel, hovering over Vash's cheek and Vash looks up as Wolfwood asks, "Can I?" Vash responds, "Not going to talk about it?" while using a hand to gently hold Wolfwood's hovering hand and presses a kiss to his inner palm.

Vash then gets up fully, setting down the knife down on the table and the apple onto a plate, He leans into Wolfwood as Wolfwood explains, "Had to meet someone. Nothing interesting to talk about." Vash kisses Wolfwood's left cheek and a hand moves to cup his other cheek while muttering, "You're being vague." Wolfwood says neutrally, "If yer really that curious, keep askin'. We  can talk about that instead of doing this." Vash leans back and responds, "Let's talk after, since... You look so tired."

The panel pans to a close up of Wolfwood's downcast eyes, bags heavy underneath his eyes. He doesn't allow Vash to sit in that moment for long though, then saying, "Yer not helping, Spikey. Being all slow with it... I could fall asleep right now." He moves his hand to start unclasping Vash's coat, starting from his collar. Vash with red cheeks, responds briskly, "Oh, shut up. I'm worried about you. I can't be worried?"

The final shot shows Wolfwood's back to the viewer while Vash's softened expression can be seen as he holds gently onto the side of Wolfwood's face and a hand firm on his waist. Wolfwood responds, "I'm fine, seriously," pausing for a moment before continuing, "Is it okay to still..?" Vash responds, "Yeah, it's okay."

The next image is a shot from later that night after the previous comic. Vash and Wolfwood are now in bed, half naked. Wolfwood's buries his face into Vash's chest, his arms wrapped around him, while Vash is petting at his hair. Vash reminds him, "Hey. You said we'd talk about it." Wolfwood pauses for a moment before piping up, "In the morning? I'm sleepy." Vash says, "Okay..."

The next two pages start from the morning after. Wolfwood is already fully awake, pulling on his outer jacket as he says to Vash, whos' still bundled in his blankets, "Breakfast is on the table. Make sure to eat it. I'm going to grab some things in town and then we're leavin'. Got it?" Vash says, "Mh." Wolfwood responds, "Good. See ya in a bit." The dialogue starts to shift into Vash's inner thoughts now, as he gets up and eats toast, thinking, "Wait. Weren't we supposed to... talk about it?" The next shot then shows him fully up, meeting Wolfwood in town. He carries a half worried expression with him while Wolfwood slides on his glasses for him. A quick panel shows Wolfwood's tired expression from the night before and quickly juxtaposes with Wolfwood in front of him who's smiling gently, the shades covering his eye bags. Wolfwood asks him, "Still not awake yet?" Vash pauses, his thoughts stirring, thinking, "Oh. I guess I was getting ahead of myself... thinking you owe me that kind of honesty." He smiles at Wolfwood and responds, "I'm awake!" His thoughts continue, "Maybe one day, you'd trust me enough to share your burdens."

The final image shows Wolfwood pulling at Vash's cheek and Vash complains, "Owwwww why..." Wolfwood quickly says, "You were thinking something stupid, right? It's all over yer face." Vash mutters, "Nooo, I wasn't..." END ID]

[1000sunnygo]

Been thinking a lot about Oda choosing Queen of Night as Law's image flower.

Like. Isn't that really important? In a story heavily featuring sun symbolism, MC with an image flower called Sun-facer, being assigned with "Beauty under Moonlight" is a dead giveaway that the author considers his role to be complimentary to the protagonist, an alternate source of light that takes its light from the sun.

A lot of Japanese fans think the last bit of vegapunk's message, "Those of you who are toyed by that fate, I hope this message reaches you" - was directed at Law's plot. There's no other D who is currently alive and interested in their "checkered fate" other than Law. Dawn and Dusk shared an interesting observation about Law's family being the only family of D's confirmed to originate from the opposite side of the red line (x). Then there's the hidden family name, and a five billion berry devil fruit ability. The groundwork has been laid out and none of these have been properly explained yet, there's no way Law wouldn't be important to the endgame plot.

[saucy-mesothelioma]

Beginning of The Beast Route: Oh my God, are we gonna see a kitty princess? Is this the kitty route?????

Actually in The Beast Route: Not a kitty not a kitty nOT A KITTY NOT A KITTY NOT A KITTY

[ame-emberlea]

some odysseus & eurylochus thoughts. I love their dynamic but the fandom angers me sometimes.

(making it clear, I'm talking about some haters, not all, some of you actually make good points)

edit: it's 2am and i've had more thoughts so i word-vomited them all out in the tags

[moomoogothgf]

IM NOT GOING TO BE HORNY FOR PLANTS IM NOT GOING TO BE HORNY FOR PLANTS IM NOT GOING TO BE HORNY FOR ALIEN PLANTS...

[rxttenfish]

interrupting this chapter of caecilian to finally fucking write this serf conversation jesus CHRIST

[americankimchi]

god i wish they hadn't retconned maul's death. i get wanting to explore more of his character because he was, objectively, one of the coolest star wars characters to ever hit the big screen and didn't get much screentime prior to his death, but also his role was fulfilled perfectly within those constraints so i wasn't too upset by it.

but by retconning it and making it so he never died it's like. okay. what now? the whole point (well, to me, ymmv of course) of the theed generator fight was that it was the first ever fight between the jedi and the sith in thousands of years, and that in the end even though the jedi (obi-wan) won the fight, a jedi (qui-gon) and a sith (maul) still died. a master and an apprentice dying together to herald the start of a new age/the return of the sith. perfectly paralleling the way in rotj a master (palps) and an apprentice (anakin/vader) died together to herald the return of the jedi. in both instances, a father figure (qui-gon/vader) dies in the arms of their son (obi-wan/luke) as a sith (palps/maul) is cast down into the abyss to their deaths. (palps being alive in the ST and retconning his death in rotj is also annoying for this reason)

i mean i like maul. don't get me wrong. he's an incredibly compelling character and i enjoy seeing more of him... but there's always the thought hovering in my mind like "he should be dead though. he should 100% be dead. this wouldn't be happening if he was dead, but i honestly would rather it not if it meant that maul was dead."

like the tpm fight just doesn't hit the same knowing that canonically he's just. going to become a robot octopus at some point. (shoutout to palps becoming sith glados in the ST) it cheapens the moment for me. it was supposed to be a moment of triumph marred by the deep and soul-crushing loss of a loved one and it's just... not, anymore. or at least not to the same extent. AUGH i'm just. frustrated. wish star wars as a whole wasn't constantly reframing/retconning what's been established. just puts a bad taste in my mouth.

[respectthepetty]

Pit Babe Colors Ep. 9

I'm challenging myself with this show and seeing how good my color skills really are, so I'm doing my normal thing of watching it double-speed on mute, but now, the captions are off also. It's just colors and vibes here. Also, I know way more than I intended because of comments and reblogs on previous posts, so I'm in the know now.

A Black Brooder and a (once fake) Blue Boy sit in a car probably declaring for the millionth time that they love each other while MY RED RASCAL IS STILL BEING HELD HOSTAGE!

Charlie and the Omegaverse Factory (except Jeffrey WHO IS STILL MISSING!)

"Don't be suspicious. Don't be suspicious."

This came up earlier but do they all live together and I missed that somewhere? They all have different houses, so why is Charles putting his hands on Alan now? Did he trick them to all live together so he can steal their powers easier? Does Alan even have powers? Do Northwest Kardashian and Sonic Drive-In have powers? So many questions! Don't tell me the answers. The chaos and confusion adds to the fun.

Why are you back at the reds alone, Barbara?!

Pete is a GOOD MAN. This situation looks gross as fuck, but he is wearing blue, so I already know my man is there for good reasons.

The truth is being revealed. They are in the light instead of the dark, and the blue is backing my man, so as the colors stated: Pete is a GOOD MAN! How? I don't know, but the colors don't lie.

Record scratch! Where did the red go?! That was the same way Barbara entered the reds house, and now the red is gone. *whispers* It's because Waymond is the red like episode three told us.

Whatever Waymond is saying is a lie. The red is surrounding Barbie! It's still there! YOU AREN'T SAFE, BARBIE!

BARBIE!

Waymond Brutus Fitzgerald, you don't have to do this. The blue is *right there* ho-migo. You can be a good guy. You don't have to be a red. Oh, God, no. WAYMOND, NO!

Nah. You had a choice, Waymond. You could have been blue like Pete, lying Charles, and (still-kidnapped?) Jeffery, but you picked this bullshit. I'm so mad at you. You don't deserve Peter. And Kimberly is the only red I respect.

We finally got a light (white-colored) Barbie, but at what cost?

Kentana, let me recap your fuck ups: you captured Jeffrey, you watched Kimberly get beat up, you conspired with Decanus to mess up Barbie's car, and now you are just standing there. I support queer wrongs, but you have yet to prove the "queer" part which is super important, so right now, you are just WRONG, and I can't support that. Kiss a man or sacrifice yourself because you are pissing me all the way off.

Northwest and Sonita are wearing more blue, but what the hell is up with that red around your neck Northwest?! I canNOT trust these two.

Nice to know your time being held hostage by the reds convinced you to commit to the blue, Jeffrey. By fucking time, sir.

Oh, Jeffrey seeing thangs! Decanus is bad. We been knowing that. But is that . . . Alan on the floor?! It has to be since the visions came after Jeffrey touched Alan. Oh no no. Wait, is that BARBIE?! They are the only two who wear tanks!

Kentana better be finally committing QUEER wrongs.

Nothing is going to happen to Charles. Color-coded boys in love get happy endings. But this was bound to happen once Barbara took off his glasses. Accidents happen when people who need glasses don't wear them. Next.

Jeffrey, why are you at the kids table? Are you turning bad. AGAIN!

Who is holding the gun? Does Big Red have a bracelet like that? Why do y'all keep walking back into this damn house like y'all won't die! *whispers* because they won't

Big Red uses swords not guns?

I know it was Way being punched by Barbie earlier, but is this Whiny Winifred?! Let that be a win for us! Because that better not be Kimberly. It. Better. Not. Be. But secret third option: Waymond since he has been the red in hiding.

The red is still around you two newly-reformed Blue Boys. The danger is always there.

Wait! Jeffrey! No! You committed to the blue! Is this why you were surrounded by red?! You were going to go back! WHY?! ALAN LOVES YOU!

Vegas' Hedgehog, why are you wearing orange?! Is your superpower to annoy me? At least Northwest loves you. Are y'all discussing Jeffrey going back to Big Red?! Nah. Alan is too calm. AND DECANUS IS THERE?! I thought he left the team after that race?! Jeffrey will not be pleased with this hug unless Jeffrey really is back to being red. Wait! Is Dean back because Jeffrey told Big Red to send him back! Urgh! For everyone to be a secret red, y'all trust way too many folks. I hate when the plot isn't plotting the way I thought it was plotted.

Even the product placement must fit into the blue vs. red theme. Good!

SONIC, YOU MOTHERF*CKER! I SWEAR TO GOD!

Oh! Charles' spidey sense is tingling. Does that mean danger is near? No! It means you two are going to have sex. AGAIN! Kimberly is dying, but continue with your light vs. dark dynamic. Glad to see you back to your dark ways, Barbara.

Well, at least Whiny Winifred has one win under his belt for the reds before he (hopefully) bleeds red aka DIES!

I hit my picture limit, but next week, Dean is bad (Pikachu face), Waymond gets his ass beat, as he should, and the show is really trying to make us believe Barbara or Charles are going to get into a serious crash which AIN'T happening because they have superpowers and are color coded, so . . . they'll be fine. Oh, and Sonic Boom Boom is wearing blue again just to irritate me before he wears coral or some shit, but all I care about is

WHERE IS KIM POSSIBLE?!

When Kimberlina gets free, because he WILL get free, he needs to run so far away from these people. He better not join the blue racing team. They are too busy being fake and having sex. Kimbers, you deserve better than this.

[tomatoart]

The Velveteen Angel

[totally-not-an-awkward-okapi]

The recent Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero conversation once more got me thinking about my old pitch for if SubZero’s existence hadn’t been so violently rejected, so here’s a model sheet that’s Totally Definitely 100% Official.

[soupmanspeaks]

im so sorry I have this stupid au where its like Michael is a prosecutor, and Stringtrap is the defense (yes, Springtrap, not William, he is already dead n resuscitated and possessing the suit lol) N like, Elizabeth and CC are like, the Maya and the Pearl of this au or smth, but they're ghosts, so no one can see them, so it makes Mike look a little crazy when he consult's his prosecution team during a trial and no one is there and it looks like he's talking to himself 😭😭 Like, Springtrap probably has the most charisma in that entire court room or something, and he always ands up winning cases, and Michael has to make sure Fazbear Entertainment get's the guilty verdict for all the shenaniganry (cover ups) they did Idk its so sillaye <33

[postingcards]

the rms carinthia art card by james mann, postmarked 8 mar 1934

this card was sent by sid gary, a minor celebrity known in the '20s and '30s for his radio performances, vaudeville acts, and “powerful baritone voice.” in the second week of march 1934, he was heading the bill at loew’s century theater in baltimore, performing “ballads and impersonations of popular singers.” it is unknown if the “cunard line programs” he mentions were radio-based, or whether he was an entertainer aboard.

[aquilamage]

So I've been playing Spearmaster, because sometimes you gotta pick play order with your heart and not logic. I like the mechanic, being a weird little vampire slugcat with infinite weapon. It's an interesting contrast to Hunter since this one you can just take potshots at large enemies taking as many risks trying to kill them (and you don't have to scream at other creatures for taking your corpse), but also if you accidentally kill it with something else you can't use your spears on a body.

I've found some of the "Live Broadcast" thingies in several places, not going into the exact lore atm because I don't have the brainpower to collect all my thoughts but basically !!!! And also I am so confused about where on the timeline this is supposed to be.

Very excited about them color-coding the iterators by their overseer color, that felt really clever.

My path so far has been Outskirts -> Industrial -> Pipeyard -> Waterfront Facility -> Underhang -> Five Pebbles -> Wall -> Chimney (aka mostly following around 7RS's overseer. Except the part where I was just outside Five Pebbles and it was trying to get me to go the long way around because I was not capable of doing some of those platforming acrobatics)

I knew that there were new areas but I wasn't expecting the old areas to get changed so much (specifically Waterfront being sooo different from Shoreline). It's kind of neat.

But now that 7RS's overseer is exploded and it seems they don't have another/aren't bothering to guide us anymore, I got no fucking clue where to go. This wouldn't really be a problem (and is interesting in how it throws you off of the usual structure of how the game routes have been so far) except that I have no idea how I'm supposed to get to Looks to the Moon with how things have gotten changed and I'm very cranky about that

[anothermonikan]

Have I told you guys about the fucked up dreams I've been having recently? I've been having some fucked up dreams lately. yeah <3