#while simultaneously hating it

[roses-and-revolutions]

DC x DP Idea

After several years, Danny and Damian meet each other again at a gala. But there was no heartfelt reunion since the moment they led eyes on each other it was all-out war. Damian takes out a sword from somewhere and Danny just starts throwing hands.

The fighting is intense, and blood is being spilled (what are those glowing green specks?). They are screaming at each other in Arabic as it's easier to slip back to your mother tongue when in rage right? This makes the fight more personal.

Most people don't understand what they're saying but those who do look at the boys then Bruce. Bruce then back to the boys again. Like B, we know you're stupid but you fucked this person twice.... did you NOT see the red flags the SECOND TIME!?!?

The fight ends with Damian on the ground with the sword grazing his neck. He looks up to Danyal with the fear of god in his eyes, knowing that with one swift movement, he'll be dead on the dance floor. But Danny's eyes were cold and tired, they were dead. No spark, no sense of life in those chilling blue depths.

Calmly, Danny spoke to Damian. His voice was crystal clear, cool like a mountain stream.

"Just because you jumped into the fire behind me doesn't mean you felt the pain I did.  Your hand was held above the flames while I was being burnt in the fucking fire."

Damian begins to cry because he knows that Danny is right. No matter what he went through, it would never compare to what happened to his big brother. Even more so, when he feels long lanky arms wrap around him, a cool hand rubbing his back soothingly, and whispers of sweet nothingness entering his ears.

He cries because no matter what he does he will never be like his big brother.

[slow-reader-reads-books]

disciple Shen Jiu au except time is a circle and so upon his death post Bingge torture he wakes up as some random half demon (a baigujing/white bone spirit maybe?) orphan with the name Chun Shi and has his own system forcing him to reenter Qing Jing Peak as a disciple. Not knowing when in time he was born, thinks he's going to enter in the same generation as he did previously but instead finds himself in the same gen as Ning Yingying, Ming Fan, and Luo Binghe, and his own self is their Shizun!

He quickly tries to latch onto Ning Yingying. Unfortunately Luo Binghe has the same idea, and Ming Fan and their Shizun end up abusing the both of them for their proximity to her and for having the gall to even try to succeed. Binghe and Chun Shi grow to hate each other but share a strange camaraderie shrouded in competition.

And then their Shizun has a qi deviation, and Chun Shi, who is Shen Jiu, knows that thing is not himself.

He nervously and stressingly observed the changes and the immediate change in this Shizun towards Luo Binghe. With himself though, this Shizun seems to not recognize him at all. Before, Chun Shi never had plans to divert the fate of Shen Qingqiu, as he himself is Chun Shi, all he needs to do is save his own hide. He may be stuck on the peak thanks to his System but otherwise he can self-preserve to his hearts content.

But this "Shen Qingqiu" is different, and did nothing to build the demise that will face him in the future at the hands of Luo Binghe.

But this Luo Binghe seems dedicated to giving back a hundred fold the small kindnesses that he is now receiving, shamelessly worming his way into Shen Qingqiu's side. Chun Shi is not so motivated...

But he's always been invested in preserving the livelihood and face of Shen Qingqiu. He construes it as an extension of his selfish self preservation, it's not because he's grown greedy for the shelter and guidance and attention of this imposter peak lord who did nothing to deserve his position. He merely wants to know he could prevent his old fate, yes that's it. Nothing else.

And if he can outcompete that little beast of a shixiong for Shizun's affections, then that's an even sweeter plus! He seethed whenever he perceived a loss against him, and Ning Yingying has seemingly caught on to their rivalry, but Chun Shi, Shen Jiu, is a sore loser and won't let Luo Binghe win against him this time.

Shen Qingqiu, Shen Yuan, off to the side is merely charmed by this seeming mob character that's probably been influenced by his own actions into becoming a more prominent fixture of Qing Jing Peak and merely sees this as enrichment for a disciple Luo Binghe. If he has a training partner on his level, won't that promote further growth? So of course he'll invite both into the bamboo house, even if it becomes a little cramped. Brotherly companionship is valuable in these sorts of settings after all!

Eventually the Immortal Alliance Conference comes, and somehow they're both demons??? But the System only forces him to chuck Luo Binghe down into the Endless Abyss?? System I know Bingge has his destiny to achieve but isn't this blatant favoritism!? In what direction, Shen Qingqiu doesn't know, but either way Luo Binghe is gone to them, his loyal filial lotus dead, but Chun Shi, an evergreen pillar of a pine tree, stays by his side.

Chun Shi is gleefully grateful. Guilt twinged in his heart a bit for unknown reasons, but he knew he could nurture his dear imposter self back into happiness. If he's happy, then they can continue their life, both stuck on Qing Jing Peak as they are.

And when the time comes, he can protect him against that grown wild animal they used to keep as a pet, or even properly domesticate it as a gift to Shizun, yes that will do. Leash and chain it to the mountain peak as a little lap dog of a plaything for his husband. What a nice thing to look forward to.

[gingermintpepper]

“Pallas Athena,” he greets softly. There is no affection in his voice, barely any intonation save for stiff, long-practiced neutrality. He continues wringing the water from his hair like she’s not intruding upon the sanctity of his purification ritual, “Have you already had your fill of victory?” 

His calmness is… off-putting. Unnatural. Like the stillness of the sky before a horrible storm. She’s grown accustomed to his icy silences, the dark looks thrown when their father isn’t watching, the barely restrained disgust when he’s forced to hear her speak of her tactics and methods for obtaining unquestioned victory. She knows Apollo isn’t weak-stomached - of all their kin, he is perhaps the most practiced in death - but he is not a warrior. He finds no glory in death-bringing, no meaning in the intricacy of war-work. For him, it is a job, a task that must be completed for the continued equilibrium of the mortal world. It means he can still be hurt by war’s savagery. And he had been hurt. Repeatedly. She had personally seen to it. No matter how good he was at his work, Phoebus Apollo was still an emotional creature. Not weak-stomached perhaps, but still soft. Tender. 

“I’ve something important to discuss.” 

He’s languid when he unpins the remaining length of his hair. It falls in heavy, swirling waves, rich gold which threatens to drag upon the ground if he hadn’t deftly grabbed the ends and tied them round his thigh. “I know you have little concept of ceremony but this is a bit ridiculous don’t you think?”

His dark hand reaches for one of the vases of oil stacked neatly on a little jut of rock that acts as a ledge. Athena intercepts him, standing a little taller to convey her graveness. “It’s very important. I only need a moment of your time.” 

She expects him to sigh, to cross his arms petulantly over his thin chest and complain that the war is over and so is her access to him every hour of every day. She expects to have to remind him that the battle isn’t finished ‘til the Acheans have vacated Trojan soil, to coax him from the little solitary cave of mourning he’s obviously built himself so he can see his job to its total completion. 

Instead, she gets another look. Calm. Dark. Horrible.

Apollo does not sigh, but it is a very near thing. “A moment and nothing more.” 

“The Acheans will begin their preparations to return soon,” she takes hold of the vase and carefully passes it to him. It smells saccharine, like rosewater or something similar. Like perfume to hide the stench of death. “I need your word that you will not hinder them on their journeys.” 

Their fingers brush as Apollo accepts her offering. It’s always odd the way his warmth radiates past all logical barriers. Athena can feel the chill of the water alongside the heat of his fingertips. Somehow, it is the cold that lingers despite all his warmth. “I do not make impossible promises, Athena. I want Neoptolemus,” he says. She stops as though struck. “The rest will have my blessing if they but ask.” 

“Phoebus— “

His eyes are like congealed blood when he looks at her, dark and tar-like upon an altar’s surface. “I want Neoptolemus. And I will have him.” 

How similar his tone has become to Father’s in these long years acting as his mouthpiece! Though his words are soft, the finality in his voice brooks no argument. How easy it is for her heart to soar at the prospect of a fight. Her warrior’s mien shutters all her feelings away like she’d never taken her helmet off. Her clawed finger pokes harshly into his chest, he’s marble hard under her touch. “You already had Achilles. You’ve no right to his son.” 

She regrets the words the moment they leave her lips. A stupid mistake; a feint when she should have dodged altogether. 

Apollo’s face goes slack and still. Serene, one would say, if they were a fool who had never before seen the shape of his wrath. He stands to his full height, broad shouldered, the flickering ends of his hair the only signifier of his displeasure, “Who said a thing about Achilles?” She huffs but does not answer, unsure of where his anger lies if not at the foot of Pelides. “Polites. Eurypylus. Priam. Helenus’ jailor. Andromache’s conqueror. If it weren’t Odysseus’ lot, Neoptolemus would have thrown Scamandrius from the tops of the balcony himself. What other reasons do I need?”

[kifkay]

Winx memes once again

[leenfiend]

we were like - rivals, you know? lance and keith neck and neck!

[laiamadej]

December's air.

[fisheito]

Butler choosing yakumo and whupping his scrawny ass again thus winning the crown and pissing off eiden/oli/edmond to new heights but before they can even retaliate, iris descends upon a wretched, beat up yakumo and chews out mr butler for injuring her cookie dealer

Iris and yakumo become friends and yakumo gets frequently invited to iris's place to discuss (and in iris's case , inhale) yakumo's new cookie recipes

Butler is glaring daggers every time

[irenespring]

Thoughts on Bertha Russell (Many Thoughts)

I am So curious about Bertha Russell's backstory. We have little snippets:

Her father was a potato farmer.

She has lots of mommy issues. (George mentions her mother said she was the only child "worthy of her dreams" to which Bertha angrily responds that her mother's dreams were worthless because she died with nothing which is A Lot)

She has sibling issues. (George offers to invite her sister to a thing and she refuses)

She and George met when they were both poor, they made the fortune together.

She had a distinct learning curve when they first got to New York. She bought The Wrong House and made The Wrong Friends and had to learn and relearn things over a period of years. (I am especially interested about this time, because she would know Nothing, being the ultimate outsider, but she is a tactical genius and viciously ambitious...I want to see young!Bertha in the early stages of the struggle before she knows how to dress/talk/act).

I hope we will learn more about her because more than any of the other characters she wants things. Things that are nebulous, but she doesn't seem to realize are nebulous, because she has clear goals but they don't satisfy her so she has to make another goal. Loving husband doing well? Not enough. They have enough money to hear the call of the guillotine? It's not enough, they need status. They have status? Not enough, they need to beat Lina Astor. Now they've beaten Lina Astor, but I don't think anyone thinks that's going to be enough. George points out multiple times that he is content where he is and content to let their children marry for love to people of what Bertha considers middling station. She's the sole driving force for continued social climbing. And it doesn't matter how high they get, she wants to go higher, she wants to go "all the way" but there isn't an all the way unless I guess you're Empress of the World. But then the moon starts looking awfully conquerable.

She claims she's doing it for their children, but both children have said her suggestions aren't what they want. And it is heavily implied she just sold her only daughter to the Duke so he would attend an opera performance. She wants Gladys to marry the Duke so that she will be grandmother to English nobility. It's for her. So she is willing to use her children, her alleged motivation, as pawns. They aren't her real motivation after all, even if she may think they are. I do think she loves her children and George. I also think that she thinks she's helping Gladys, but I also think there's a limit to that love because it exists beside the yawning void of hunger within her psyche. George outright asks her if his love for her is enough to make her happy early in s1, because her love is enough for him. She says it's "almost enough" and that's significant and enough for him, which is telling, when usually any answer other than "yes of course" would be taken by a love interest as a searing betrayal. Anyway, the point is, her kids/her family are, at least, not her entire motivation and might not factor into her motivation at all, if she is fully honest with herself.

So, the hunger. The call to Rise. The rage that has her hyperventilating in bed alone after her failed party instead of crying in her husband's arms like most television characters would do. The instinct to look upon a room of people and think you will all bow to me you sniveling mortals. Why is it there? Like...why is she Like This? I think some of it has to come from what we can learn just from George's comment about impossibly ambitious, ruthless, low empathy Bertha being the only one "worthy of her mother's dreams." Which means her mother had dreams that were very important to her and that she never achieved. Her mother also guarded said dreams and judged her children harshly, we know Bertha has at least one sister, who is apparently judged not worthy in the eyes of her own mother. We know Bertha does not like talking about this and tries to dismiss it. Was there pressure on Bertha to be worthy? When could that have started and how did it manifest? Circling back to my interest in young!Bertha in NY, if the social rejection was bad in s1, it was probably worse then, and constant social failures would have made her angrier and more determined to both to become the queen of New York society and to see it burn. This is all stuff I want to learn more about in season 3.

HERE IS WHERE I PRETTY MUCH JUST DO PREDICTIONS (WHICH MAY BE TINFOIL, IDK):

Because I think we will finally get to see Bertha Russell: Season Villain. Every season needs a villain, and Bertha has pretty much vanquished all of them. The first couple seasons the overarching villain has been New York Society with its inequalities and pointless social cruelty, if that holds, Bertha is now the head of that system, having beaten Lina Astor and set herself up as the queen. Additionally, side opponents (not really villains) like Agnes also aren't in a position to make major problems for the protagonists because the Van Rhijn household is now the Forte household and cinnamon roll Ada is now in charge. Unless Agnes attempts to usurp her sister in a subplot (which I don't think will happen except for maybe one episode of hijinx) she's not in a powerful spot. The Society character is indisputably Bertha. And Bertha has been up to some serious villain shit. If she did agree to marry Gladys to the Duke, she's now against All the Protagonists---a sure sign of villain status. She's even against her husband, who swore to back Gladys in her choice of love match, and Gladys doesn't like the Duke. If Gladys wants out, Larry will almost certainly help her. And Saint Marian will help Larry either for love reasons or moral reasons, and hopefully Peggy has better things to do but she will probably get dragged into it somehow and if Marian's involved Ada's also involved and you see where this is going.

Also, show pacing wise, Bertha is due for a loss. I love her and I want her to win everything and be declared Empress of Earth and Moon but realistically that isn't going to happen. In a show where villains lose, it checks out. Gladys isn't going to marry the Duke, and if she does, everyone is going to regret it. One reason I think we will learn more about Bertha and her history is because if she loses she's going to Lose It. Dramatic monologue style. When she had a party and no one came she swore eternal vengeance and spent the night Angry Breathing and presumably fantasizing about the Red Wedding. She doesn't handle losing well. A big public loss after achieving every status symbol she could think of would probably break her mind, and she'll probably tell whoever she's talking to (probably George) enough backstory info that we the audience can fill in stuff. This is also where I would guess she and George would reconcile where he would see she is the person he loves and has not transformed into an automaton, she's just Messed Up, which he always knew and loved so he is Back In.

IN CONCLUSION:

This is who Marina was writing about. She is a primadonna girl, and all she ever wanted was the world. She cannot help that she needs it all, in this case the primadonna life: both the rise and the fall. She also knows exactly what she wants and who she wants to be. This is why she walks and talks like a machine. Unfortunately, she is becoming a self-fulfilled prophecy.

Oh, oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh.

[the-incredible-auraa]

if i go one more day without having at least one of the dmc games in my possession im going to be on the news im so fucking serious

[ovaryacted]

CAN CRAZY PEOPLE PLEASE STOP TRYING TO BLOW UP THE FUCKING WORLD?!?! YOU WANT TO RULE OVER BURNING RUBBLE AND DEAD BODIES AND FOR WHAT?! FOR NOTHING?! FOR THE LOVE OF FUCKING GOD STOP THE NONSENSE!

[hilacopter]

sometimes I think "how tf do hamasniks still believe they're not being antisemitic when we jews have explicitly told them over the past eight months that they're denying our history and supporting a terrorist organisation that wants to wipe us out" but then I remember uneducated token jews exist, along with fakers like jvp and unhinged cults like the neutrei karta.

[niinnyu]

I've listened to TMA from ep 1 to 200 TWICE in the last 2 months, and I'm already thinking of doing it again. What the hell is wrong with me (a lot).

[bytedykes]

the way jc and lwj differ in their approaches to each other is so funny. like it's pretty much spelled out during their confrontation on dafan mountain that while they both dislike and snub each other, its kind of like

jc: i hate this asshole so much he does not respect me at all and doesn't even try to pretend otherwise. he is pissing me off right the fuck now in this moment, both directly and by targeting jin ling, which i will not fucking tolerate. however, i can't lose my shit on him because he is backed by the whole lan clan, zewu-jun especially. unless i want to start a whole political mess i cannot retaliate like i want to. also, i'm not 100% confident that i would win a full-out fight against him, so i will grit my teeth and power through dealing with his awful ass

lwj: bichen blast. fuck you

[dollarstorefern]

she’s about to start playing toxic gossip train guys

[alienfailboy]

loki lovers, im gonna hold your hand when i say this, thor is NOT your enemy

[cunty-rex]

In Defense Of Anakin Skywalker

I came across some "anti anakin" blogs today and the main thing I noticed was how they all failed to mention Palpatine's role in everything. While yes Anakin did some pretty horrible things (like killing an entire tribe of tusken raiders) all his actions as Vader are a result of him being groomed. Does that abstain him from all guilt? No, of course not, but it's quite telling that their argument centers around how Anakin is just "such an awful person" and doesn't deserve his redemption arc when in reality his redemption arc is the only one that works for him. Anakin killed Sidious, the man who'd groomed him and turned him into his puppet and coerced him into doing terrible things. It feels quite intentional how these blogs neglect Sidious while simultaneously putting all the blame onto Anakin when in reality he's merely another pawn in Sidious's grand plan.

There's also the fact that Darth Vader isn't the same man as Anakin Skywalker, a distinction made both by Sidious and Vader himself. Anakin was - and is - the young boy from Tatooine that dreamed of being a Jedi knight someday. Vader is person that Sidious groomed him to be for over ten years. The only time we truly see Anakin during the OT is when he kills Sidious and saves his son, breaking free of the control that Sidious had over him for so many years. Vader dies when Sidious dies, and Anakin goes on to live as a force ghost. There's no better ending than this for Anakin, nothing more fitting.