#went with standard tho bc

[dramatisperscnae]

@1rstflight is giving Kyle a fucking heart attack >w>

hal jordan has always been known as a man that acts before he thinks. brave and bold and ready for action, but also infinitely reckless, it had made him well-known as a hero. it had also made him a tragedy in the making, but that is perhaps the other side of being hailed as a hero to begin with. it's one moment, one second of a decision and then, the story shifts from glory to horror. this time, though, he can't say he regrets it. from his angle in the battlefield, he has a clearer view than what kyle may have while facing their foe du jour. he sees they are keeping him busy with their numbers, and while he has his own few aliens to fight, his peripheral vision always returns to his partner. it's when he sees them charging one of their anti-matter weapons; they had been here for the qwardian tech these people seemed to wield and lo and behold, they bring them out against them. it's when two things come to hal's mind in quick succession: 1) it's charging and kyle isn't seeing it, 2) it's charging and he won't manage to build a construct strong enough to shield him from this distance. it's almost as if his brain catches up after his body: with a burst of green energy, a bright flare trailing behind the older lantern, he finds himself between the charging weapon and rayner, pushing their assailants out of the way with the motion. the issue is, it puts him right on the path of the beam that the qwardian weapon fires as he shoots back at the one holding the weapon. the searing pain that burns through him disrupts the force field of his ring, but it neutralizes the two threats kyle had been fighting. it's a profit of it’s a three for one, he thinks through an unhealthy dose of gallows humor, body plummeting down as his suit fizzles out into his civil wear. it's good they were within the mission’s planet; it at very least has a breathable atmosphere, so the malfunction of his ring won't kill him instantly. the impact may cause him severe harm, sure, but he's survived through worse. if he doesn't survive, well, he's come back from that, too, is the grim thought that runs through his mind as his conscience fades on the way down. all that matters is that it's not kyle's body hitting the ground, that it isn't his failure killing someone he loves again.

He isn't anywhere close to getting overwhelmed, but there are still a freaking lot of them. Kyle had known when they'd gotten this mission that it would be akin to kicking over an anthill, but he hadn't quite been prepared for this. Their enemies are swarming, Kyle too busy just keeping them off him to actually do anything about the Qwardian weaponry that's the actual focus of this mission. That's just fine, though; if their enemies are too focused on him then that means that his partner is clear to go after the weapons.

And there's no way Hal Jordan will let him down.

It's still incredible, partnering with Hal; feels almost like Kyle's earliest days with the Justice League, standing there among legends as a rank amateur. Of course, he's no rank amateur now, and Hal has always treated him as an equal, but that doesn't change the fact that there's still just a little bit of hero-worship from the younger Lantern.

Kyle dives down into a knot of enemies, ring flaring as his will works through it. Whatever plan they might have had has gone completely out the window at this point, but they'll pull through. Kyle can play distraction while Hal takes out the weaponry that brought them here, and then it'll be back home for a celebratory drink and probably razzing the hell out of Guy who'd all but thrown a fit over not getting this assignment.

His ring constructs a suit of armor around him - samurai armor, this time; he's been on a Kurosawa kick lately in hs media consumption - as he drives off the enemies around him, entirely focused on the fight.

Maybe too focused.

Some unseen force behind him surges forward, driving his enemies back and knocking several out of the sky without doing much more than ruffling his hair. Kyle turns, just in time to see the last rays of the antimatter weapon fade away along with the green light of Hal's ring as his partner takes the full brunt of a shot that was so clearly meant for him. And then Hal is falling, his ring spent so entirely even his uniform fades away to reveal the civilian clothing underneath, and there is no time for thought. Kyle simply acts.

"HAL!" He's diving, his ring flaring as he races against gravity. Beneath Hal an emerald air mattress fades into view, catching and cushioning him in time for Kyle to reach him. No no no no no! One shaking hand reaches for Hal's pulse, Kyle praying silently for the man to still be alive. Hal's pulled through worse, hasn't he? He'll live through this, he has to. But overhead he can hear shouts; their mission isn't over yet. And the bastards just took out Hal.

Behind his visor, currently-emerald eyes flare and harden in angry determination. The mattress holding Hal floats down to the planet's surface while Kyle all but shoots skyward again, his anger sharpening his will, honing it, lending it strength. Hal took out the weapon that shot him, but there are others.

Well. Were others.

Kyle's not playing distraction now; he's going to end this and remind these people just why dealing with Qwardian weaponry is a bad idea. It shouldn't take long. And not a damned one of them is going to touch Hal again, either. The remaining anti-matter weapons go up in a series of explosions, knocking the wind out of the enemies' sails and most of them out of the sky entirely; shame, what happens when you connect your glorified jet-packs to your weaponry, really.

Only once the fighting is over does Kyle descend back to Hal's side. He's a little bloodied after cutting loose like that, a touch the worse for wear, but thanks to Hal he's still breathing at all; a few cuts and bruises are a small price to pay for returning that favor. Now he settles beside the glowing green mattress that's held the man he loves unconscious Lantern through the rest of the fight, praying the older man is still alive. He has to be, right? Kyle caught him in time, that anti-matter blast didn't just outright kill him, right? Otherwise the ring wouldn't still be on his hand. The hand that Kyle's is now holding tightly, his other now able to take time to check for a pulse. "Hal…? Come on, man, don't do this to me…don't you dare…"

[recurring-polynya]

Good morning, happy Thursday, who wants to read a fun idea I had about giants in Soul Society?

So! I was reading this @littleeyesofpallas post about wuxing symbolism and was particularly struck by this passage in a section about the gate guardians:

There is no central guard but conspicuously Kirinji's name comes from Qilin, but apparently according to official height he's actually not nearly as tall as Kubo's drawings always made him seem. Not that he was on the same scale as the gate guardians even then...

No, I said to myself, of course not. He's powerful enough to control his size, because I was thinking of the part where Grand Fisher claims Isshin is too small to defeat him and Isshin responds with a lecture on soul reaper lore:

Now, bodies are not swords, but maybe the same mechanic applies! It certainly applies to Hollows. Earlier in this same scene, Kon mistakes Grand Fisher for a Menos Grande, and Grand Fisher is insulted by the comparison, but it's the same thing. Menos are huge and scary, but when they become Arrancar, they shrink down and become scarier. [Aside: I think this is why the Yammy-is-secretly-Espada-0 reveal doesn't quite manage to hit. It goes against the lore Kubo has been laying down for ages]

On a meta level, this is just a shounen storytelling tactic where X is an indicator of strength, but then later on, it's like "Reverse Uno! Not-X is the real indicator of strength!!" That's exactly how this zanpakutou-size thing is used when it's first introduced.

Exhibit A: Renji, a court jester, being impressed by the size of Ichigo's sword:

Exhibit B: A handful of issues later, Urahara, an intellectual (lol), sets us straight:

Genre convention or not, I think it lends itself some interesting world-building. Among low-powered people, size is impressive, but as you scale the ranks of power, it's kind of pathetic. Weirdly large people are like the petty bourgeoisie of Soul Society power dynamics.

But that's actually the perfect niche for a gatekeeper! In general, your typical Joe Shinigami is going to be able to take on just about any rando from the Rukongai, but maybe not a particularly strong ryouka. Ganju was able to take on Yumichika, after all. A single shinigami wouldn't be able to take on a planned rebellion, like in the Bount arc, and they've got to, like, sleep and stuff. The Gotei could, in theory, have an entire gatehouse and a gate patrol, etc, but that they are perpetually short-staffed as-is. Instead, how about one medium-powerful gatekeeper whose size makes them well-suited for fighting groups of people (or siege weapons), and who is going to be intimidating overall?

Furthermore, it's implied that Jidanbou isn't actually a shinigami. He wears a shihakushou, but his axes don't seem to be a zanpakutou (he doesn't release them and is distressed when they are destroyed). His neighbors offer this comment on him:

It's not quite right, though: after all, many shinigami are from Rukongai, including Gin, who is the reason Jidanbou is being healed at the very moment this panel takes place. I think what this guy means is that Jidanbou is of Rukongai, which is to say not of the Seireitei.

So what is he, then? Here's my big idea: I think that the gigantism in Soul Society might actually be a reiatsu-developmental disability! It's always been my impression that growth, especially for powerful people, happens in fits and spurts, rather than linearly, and that furthermore, big changes in growth tend to coincide with developments in reiryouku. Somewhere, either in childhood or adolescence, someone's spiritual pressure grows more quickly than their control over it, which results in their body growing uncontrollably. They become very powerful "physically", but their strength is all in their mass/reishi, which takes most of their spiritual pressure to control. This may end up limiting the upper end of power they are able to achieve and some cases means they get cut off entirely from the other forms of power used by shinigami (connecting to a zanpakutou, kidou). I think this might be especially common in children from the Rukongai, who lack access to education and training. I can also imagine it leading itself to cautionary tales in the outer Rukon that if you feed your hungry children too much, you'll end up with a giant on your hands.

This offers one explanation to why Jidanbou is a giant and his brother Jiroubou is large, but not remotely on the same scale (the Souls Data Book lists his height at 7'7" vs Jidanbou's 32'5"). There are a handful of other shinigami of larger-than-human height, which could be a milder form of this, or it could mean that some sort of special training or medical intervention helped keep their growth manageable. I think you can squeeze in a lot of interesting character insights into this headcanon, from Hachi (8'5"), who perhaps worked exceptionally hard in an effort to control his power and ended becoming incredibly skilled at kidou as a result (interesting that he, too, is not actually a shinigami). Or Oomaeda (6'11"), who gets by a lot on his family's wealth and clout, but is definitely on the weaker end of the lieutenant power scale. In his case, his large size kind of speaks to his entire "thinks he's classy, but is really just gaudy"/can't-even-tell-how-outclassed-he-is-by-his-peers deal.

Then, as a counterpoint, you've got Hitsugaya: immensely powerful from a young age, and one of the hallmarks of his character is how in-control of himself he is, down to having developed an actual visible power bar for his bankai. Whether this is some effect of his personality, or whether it's an intervention on Hyourinmaru's part, his growth has been choked off as a side effect. He's the direct opposite of Jidanbou, who additionally seems somewhat childlike in personality (crying over his axes, for example, or his attachment to his extremely dubious "rules of the city"). To me, it's very sweet that their friendship might have roots in opposite expressions of the same reiatsu-growth-fuckup.

Much in the way that the Shiba use some sort of magic that's distinctly different from shinigami-kidou, I guess I really like thinking about other ways power might manifest itself in Soul Society outside of the shinigami-industrial-complex. And also the way the Seireitei may or may not try to control those powers."Guard this gate!" they say. "We won't actually let you live in the city or give you city wages, but you can have a cool outfit and, uh...do it for the exposure?"

[fiendishartist2]

its past midnight and here i am planning a sweater i have neither the materials nor funds to make

[lieutenantselnia]

Yesterday I've been doing some proper physical exercise for the first time since last year and I'm just imagining how proud my f/os would be of me🥹

[despairforme]

He's swiping right on literally everyone now. Fuck it. He's gonna find a date.

[cidnangarlond]

I definitely have some kind of undiagnosed personality disorder I am Not normal

[zecoritheweirdone]

i don't usually share wips,,, but 'm pretty happy with how it's coming out so far,,, plus it's also killing my hand so i might as well share a sneak peek since 'm not continuing this tonight,,, dkjdkemwkjssk. anyway have i told you guys how much i like the fic vagabonds

[nullians]

.

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[mishkakagehishka]

Hwhwbwbsbsbsbyb

[atvbs]

i find it so funny that back in hs everyone always assumed i took honors spanish 4 and ap physics. they genuinely thought i was in the class and knew what they were talking abt and i. was never there. i never signed up for them. lol.

[bsaka7]

get all these men running a marathon then i can judge them

[starlooove]

All that to say while it’s not tagged so whatever the inclusion of tam in fics to react to anything tim does or happens to him where she’s a glorified assistant bc y’all are just socially aware enough to realize how including her just for that would come across is. Something.

[astrxealis]

i love the term omnisexual/omniromantic bcs it feels like god

[jewishcissiekj]

Local politics in small towns are so weird bc this morning my sister and I were taking a bus to go to a con and above the bus station next to where we live there are election banners for the upcoming local election and one of the candidates or whatever it's called is an old friend of our mom who's basically an old family friend who walked all the way from the other side of town to get to my little sister's bat-mitzvah a few weeks ago So the bus gets to the station and both of us haven't seen the guy irl in a while and my sister's skin was blue as a kinda Chiss/Thrawn cosplay and as I get on the bus I catch the eye of a guy that just got off the bus and it's the fucking election candidate that has known me since I was a child but he wouldn't recognize me nor my sister bc she's blue and I now have a buzzcut what is this place

[laisai]

I was at 67 pity and I got Al-Haitham in the first ten-pull!!! Also got Xinyan's C5 in the same pull

Then I got Jean's C2 and Yanfei's C6 with five standard wishes from the tree & levelling up Haitham

I'm crying what is happening tonight I need to go buy lottery tickets or something omfg