#this also applies to birds.

[rjalker]

[ID: A digital painting of the full moon, hanging as a bright, off-white disk in a blue-black sky, with darker clouds below it, and the clouds over it lit up light grey. A single, yellowish star hovers in the upper right corner. End ID.]

It's a great night for a werewolf to come out :)

[starry-bi-sky]

i need to get this out of my head before i continue clone^2 but danny being the first batkid. Like, standard procedure stuff: his parents and sister die, danny ends up with Vlad Masters. He drags him along to stereotypical galas and stuff; Danny is not having a good time.

He ends up going to one of the Wayne Galas being hosted ever since elusive Bruce Wayne has returned to Gotham. Vlad is crowing about having this opportunity as he's been wanting to sink his claws into the company for a long while now. Danny is too busy grieving to care what he wants.

And like most Galas, once Vlad is done showing him off to the other socialites and the like, he disappears. Off to a dark corner, or to one of the many balconies; doesn't matter. There he runs into said star of the show, Bruce who is still young, has been Batman for at least a year at this point, but still getting used to all these damn people and socializing. He's stepped off to hide for a few minutes before stepping back into the shark tank.

And he runs into a kid with circles under his eyes and a dull gleam in them. Familiar, like looking into a mirror.

Danny tries to excuse himself, he hasn't stopped crying since his parents died and it's been months. He rubs his eyes and stands up, and stumbles over a half-hearted apology to Mister Wayne. Some of Vlad's etiquette lessons kicking in.

Bruce is awkward, but he softens. "That's alright, lad," he says, pulling up some of that Brucie Wayne confidence, "I was just coming out here to get some fresh air."

There's a little pressing; Bruce asks who he's here with, Danny says, voice quiet and grief-stricken, that he's with his godfather Vlad Masters. Bruce asks him if he knows where he is, and Danny tells him he does. Bruce offers to leave, Danny tells him to do whatever he wants.

It ends with Bruce staying, standing off to the side with Danny in silence. Neither of them say a word, and Danny eventually leaves first in that same silence.

Bruce looks into Vlad Masters after everything is over, his interest piqued. He finds news about him taking in Danny Fenton: he looks into Danny Fenton. He finds news articles about his parents' deaths, their occupations, everything he can get his hands on.

At the next gala, he sees Danny again. And he looks the same as ever: quiet like a ghost, just as pale, and full of grief. Bruce sits in silence with him again for nearly ten minutes before he strikes a conversation.

"Do you like to do anything?"

Nothing. Just silence.

Bruce isn't quite sure what to do: comfort is not his forte, and Danny doesn't know him. He's smart enough to know that. So he starts talking about other things; anything he can think of that Brucie Wayne might say, that also wasn't inappropriate for a kid to hear.

Danny says nothing the entire time, and is again the first to leave.

Bruce watches from a distance as he intercts with Vlad Masters; how Vlad Masters interacts with him. He doesn't like what he sees: Vlad Masters keeps a hand on Danny's shoulder like one would hold onto the collar of a dog. He parades him around like a trophy he won.

And there are moments, when someone gets too close or when someone tries to shake Danny's hand, of deep possessiveness that flints over Vlad Masters' eyes. Like a dragon guarding a horde.

He plays the act of doting godfather well: but Bruce knows a liar when he sees one. Like recognizes like.

Danny is dull-eyed and blank faced the entire time; he looks miserable.

So Bruce tries to host more parties; if only so that he can talk to Danny alone. Vlad seems all too happy to attend, toting Danny along like a ribbon, and on the dot every hour, Danny slips away to somewhere to hide. Bruce appears twenty minutes later.

"I was looking into your godfather's company," he says one night, trying to think of more things to say. Some nights all they do is sit in silence. "Some of my shareholders were thinking of partnering up--"

"Don't."

He stops. Danny hardly says a word to him, he doesn't even look at him -- he's sitting on the ground, his head in his knees. Like he's trying to hide from the world. But he's looking, blue eyes piercing up at Bruce.

Bruce tilts his head, practiced puppy-like. "Pardon?"

"Don't." Danny says, strongly. "Don't make any deals with Vlad."

It's the most words Danny's spoken to him, and there's a look in his eyes like a candle finding its spark. Something hard. Bruce presses further, "And why is that?"

The spark flutters, and flushes out. Danny blinks like he's coming out of a trance, and slumps back into himself. "Just don't."

Bruce stares at him, thoughtful, before looking away. "Alright. I won't."

And they fall back into silence.

Danny, when he leaves, turns to look at Bruce, "I mean it." He says; soft like he's telling a secret, "Don't make any deals with him. Don't be alone with him. Don't work with him."

He's scampered away before Bruce can question him further.

(He never planned on working with Vlad Masters and his company; he's done his research. He's seen the misfortune. But nothing ever leads back to him. There's no evidence of anything. But Danny knows something.)

At their next meeting, Danny starts the conversation. It's new, and it's welcomed. He says, cutting through their five minute quiet, that he likes stars. And he doesn't like that he can't see them in Gotham.

Bruce hums in interest, and Danny continues talking. It's as if floodgates had been opened, and as Bruce takes a sip of his wine, it tastes like victory.

("Tucker told me once--") ("Tucker?") ("Oh-- uh, one of my best friends. He's a tech geek. We haven't talked in a while.")

(Danny shut down in his grief -- his friends are worried, but can't reach him. When he goes back to the manor with Vlad, he fishes out his phone and sends them a message.)

(They are ecstatic to hear from him.)

It all culminates until one day, when Danny is leaving to go back inside, that Bruce speaks up. "You know," He says, leaning against the railing. "The manor has many rooms; plenty of space for a guest."

The implication there, hidden between the lines. And Danny is smart, he looks at Bruce with a sharp glean in his eyes, and he nods. "Good to know."

The next time they see each other, Danny has something in his hands. "Can you hold onto something for me?" He asks.

When Bruce agrees, Danny places a pearl into his palm. or, at least, it's something that looks like a pearl. Because it's cold to the touch; sinking into Bruce's white silk gloves with ease and shimmering like an opal. It moves a little as it settles into his hand, and the moves like its full of liquid.

Bruce has never seen anything like it before, but he does know this; it's not human. "What is it?" He asks, and Danny looks uncomfortable.

"I can't tell you that." He says, shifting on his foot like he's scared of someone seeing it. "But please be careful with it. Treat it like it's extremely fragile."

When Bruce gets home, he puts it in an empty ring box and hides the box in the cave. He tries researching into what it is. he can't find anything concrete.

Everything comes to a head one day when Danny appears at the manor's doorstep one evening, soaking wet in the rain, and bleeding from the side.

[zeroducks-2]

The pearl clutching about supposed incest is ridiculous… so many pieces of media employ the high school sweethearts/grew up together trope for straight couples and you never see people up in arms about it, why such vitriol when a gay ship has a similar story?

People who use the word incest as a spectrum drive me insane.

Like yall, incest means sexual intercourse with a relative within the prohibited degree of consanguinity. Consanguinity means BLOOD RELATIONSHIP. You can't toss around the word incest to vaguely mean that these two guys were not raised under the same roof, did not grow up together, didn't even MEET up to when one was 17 and the other 20, and the only tie they have is that as young vigilantes, they were mentored by the same guy.

I don't give a shit about your feelings on how "it looks like incest" because it's not. You can't assign random words to things and demand they're true. Jason and Tim have less personal ties than Dick and Wally for fucks sake - at least Dick and Wally lived under the same roof for a time and have been close since they were 12ish. So I'm sorry but idgaf about people whining that we need to tag "batcest" and such because they get triggered by idk what the fuck, because that is not incest, it can never be incest in any planet or any galaxy regardless of how you spin it, so go clutch your pearls somewhere else and fuck off. I'll tag things when the tag APPLIES.

Also, how come it's "batcest" when it's Tim and Jason, but it's totally fine when it's Tim and Stephanie? How come it's "batcest" when it's Jason and Dick, and all good when it's Dick and Barbara? Or when it's Barbara and Tim, or Dick and Helena Bertinelli?

When you only give a pass to the het couples it really starts sounding like the umpteenth fucking excuse for homophobia.

[pumpkin-in-a-pear-tree]

I love a character who is so repressed but simultaneously such an open book. Just so bad at hiding they're feelings from everyone Except themself. They're wearing their heart right on their sleeve but just refusing to look at it. They finally have an emotional epiphany and everyone else around is like 'yeah bud I've known that since about 5 seconds after we met but I'm glad you've caught up'

[featheredadora]

Eating is good, no matter what you are able to eat!

If you have sensory issues with food, or can only eat a very limited range of foods, or highly processed foods, or foods that aren't considered 'healthy', please remember that there's no 'wrong' way to eat! I am so proud of you for eating!

[jinxed-sinner]

I'm calling it now, since we know now that Baxter is going to be a more significant character, we're gonna end up with a ton of weird anglerfish facts and people applying it to Baxter similar to what people do with Alastor and Husk

[mystilotls]

Doc has what I like to call the hawk facing effect, where from a glance...

He's intimidating, fierce, aggressive,

But when put into a position where he's smaller or can't out-chaos a situation...

This is what he looks like to me

[untitledgoosegay]

I Am Once Again expressing my bafflement over people using "many human populations have Neanderthal DNA" as a derogatory statement as if it is not incredible that we lived with another human species closely enough to know them and love them and marry them

[milekael]

Do you ever get possessed to do a fucked up woman OC and she's all you been able to think about for the last few days??

Anyway Gregory Hawthorne my beloved

[shummthechumm]

one thing i love about universes with feral/quadrupedal animals is when they redesign items familiar to us to better fit characters who don't have hands. like year they can't wear bags the same way we do so they instead have harnesses/saddles like this cause of course they would:

or using latch doorknobs OR EVEN swinging doors being more commonplace. animals like cats and dogs can open those easier in real life so translating that into a fictional world is a fun idea. why would a world full of mainly no-thumb-havers even bother with round knobs lol

oooo or the issue of sanitation because if you are using your paw/hooves/etc to walk....are you expected to wash them anytime you use them like hands or does the general population just ignore that because "hell we all do it". is there a mix of reactions because of cultural differences? how do winged creatures like bats and birds deal with...any of this????

all the unique ways they could build weapons and armor...do they have artificial horns or claws they could put on? how practical would a wielding a sword/spear via your mouth be???

also when everything like architecture or furniture is scaled down or altered for quads. is super fun visually as well. it makes my brain go: ":)" every single time

[poststealer]

some tips for working out your brain

hydrate it by drinking lots of water/water based liquids. if you are someone who cant stand drinking still/unflavored water, thats fine! dont believe the lie that "drinking juice/soda/other non water drink is worse than not drinking anything", the only drink that will actively dehydrate you is alcohol. its better to drink water, but drink what you can drink, your body will get the liquid from it either way

eat foods high in antioxidants; dark chocolate and blueberries and walnuts and salmon are common ones but there are many many others

play little brain games on your phone; wordconnect, water sort puzzle, i love hue, etc. anything that makes you think!

read books. It’s simple but necessary. join a book club (in person or online), read with a friend, post about the book in its fandom tags etc, so you can have discussions about it after. reading fanfic counts too! if you have trouble reading, try finding audiobooks online or finding a text to speech program that will read the books to you. this will improve your reading and media comprehension.

do puzzles - it doesnt have to be sudoku; you can play rhythm games like project sekai or piano tiles on mobile and OSU! or geometry dash on the computer, you can play tetris or pac man, you can do an actual physical puzzle on your coffee table, etc. anything that makes you think and use strategy is a puzzle, and theres a puzzle out there for everyone!

learn a new dance - even a tiktok trend dance. learning new dance moves are proven to strengthen synapses

go bird watching, foraging, hiking, anything outdoors that requires you to explore pattern recognition and visual searching. even if you're just identifying bugs and flowers in your back yard!

watch a movie with the intent of analysis. this is best done with a cinephile friend. talk about tropes and symbolism and character growth

cross stitch, knit, sew, or do anything that gets your hands moving and your brain thinking. if you don't have the dexterity for sewing you can also draw or paint, do coloring or color-by-number pages, connect-the-dots, gem painting, etc.

play or learn an instrument! if you don't have access to a physical instrument, try recreating songs you like (or make your own songs!) in a digital music program, like beepbox

develop a consistent sleep schedule, or as close to consistent as you can get

when eating, try to identify the ingredients and individual flavors you’re perceiving. pretend you're a wine sommelier, or that ice cream taster guy

i hope this helps you take care of your brain 💖

[ievadog]

Ieva Morta in Lithuania Pride 2024. :3

A story of 4 lovely pictures taken on my own silly phone. Welcome to Pride month, welcome to a happy time, to some a rather usual day, to some an escape from the hatred and phobia filled reality, a time to be yourself and many other things you've heard a lot. My story is not all that interesting, it's tough and definitely not super joyful, it's also what has helped me find myself more, the struggle against my parents is what has (to an extent) helped me funnily enough.. My point is, pride is not only about being proud of who you are, it's not only a place to be loud and shame-free about who you are despite what society would want to tell you, it's not only for remembering those who are no longer here and those who are forced to hide, it is also about acknowledging and embracing your own pain, scars & suffering, the same things which help you get up and walk with the ones who share your struggle, to walk with the ones who help you heal those wounds caused by hatred. It's a time when you know you've been hurt, a time when you are aware you've had an unimaginably hard time, maybe it is not even related to your own or anyone's sexuality or gender identity, no matter what, it's a time when you can look at that wound, and let it heal with other people who can share your struggle, with people who offer you empathy and love, free of judgement, free of irrational shame. Pride is love, and love heals, if you're open to yourself, to who you are and what your experiences have been. <3

[sonknuxadow]

i think people who draw the babylon rogues a lot are braver than any us marine idk how you guys do that

[featheredadora]

There is love in your body!!

[hershelwidget]

bugs when you lift up a rock