#who really doesn't count but thats just imo

[howhow326]

The fact that Wolverine, Scott & Jean, and even Emma have all these kids/clones following after them and associated with them but Storm has none is antiblack. In this essay, I will-

[starry-bi-sky]

#battinson with chronically ill half dead teenager yesssssssss#I'm imagining that first night he brings danny to the cave and hes just internally panicking#like what do i do with this kid. where do i put him. i cant just leave him in the cave. im DEFINITELY not leaving him alone

FRRRR. Like @/that1badassbitch mentioned in the comments, Bruce's thoughts that entire time was just varying pitches of internal screaming. Which I am still wheezing at because yeah, preach. Bruce's pov from the moment Danny accosts him in the alley to him bringing Danny into the cave ranges from awkward panicking, genuine desperation to get this kid some help, a lot of heartbreak on the boy's behalf, and also just pure anger at his godfather.

Cuz like, who the fuck does this?? How dare he. This boy is a child. If it weren't for Danny's genuine terrified pleading, Bruce would've probably had a confrontation with Vlad. He would've lost, considering Vlad's power set and Bruce's lack of and Vlad would have gotten away with Danny. But he would've tried it. (Could've resulted in a spin-off au where Bruce, after losing to Vlad, proceeds to hunt the bastard down to save Danny.)

But yeah, I absolutely, delightfully agree that Battinson is just. internally panicking the entire time. From the rooftops, to the car, to the driving all the way to the cave -- which, after a quick google search, is apparently in an abandoned train depot in Batman (2022). Which is fascinating to me, but I digress. His internal monologue consists of cussing out Danny's godfather, trying to figure out what the poison is, a repetitive use of the word "FUCK", and him going "keep him awake keep him awake keep him aWAKE--"

But like, in a more Bruce Wayne fashion.

Danny is curled up in the passenger seat beside him and Bruce keeps intermittently checking on him every few seconds. Danny just looks like shit, man. Poor kid has a seemingly unending bloody nose, he's coughed a few times already and each time sounds like its shaking through his lungs and taking a piece out. His breathing is hollow, quietly raspy, and Danny sounds like he's gasping each time he breathes in. He's pale, clammy and sweating, but trembling, and his eyes are glazed over, unfocused, and half-lidded.

Dealer's choice here but I'm very amused but also fond of the idea that Bruce, in an attempt to do anything to soothe this kid, panic-clips off his cape and kinda just. throws it at him. Cringes, then awkwardly tries to adjust it so it's laying over him like a blanket.

It works though! Danny, through his haze, cracks a smile at him before grabbing the cape and practically curling around it. He seems to visibly relax, and Bruce silently slumps with relief that his idea worked. I also think he tries to painfully make some sort of small talk but frankly the only valid form of "small talk" he knows is interrogation. Danny's too out of it to mind though.

Bruce asks him if he knows what his godfather used to poison him.

("Blood Bl'ssom.") ("What is that?") ("A k'nda plant. Issa type o' rose.") ("Where can I find one?") ("Y'can't.") (And hear Bruce's blood chills for a moment. "What do you mean?") ("Blossoms went extinct in th- in the 1600s.") ("What? How is that possible? How'd your godfather get his hands on one?") ("Science.")

He also learns that the poison is, horrifyingly, cannibalistic, and Danny reassures him that he kinda stopped feeling the pain a few hours ago. Then he gags on nothing and spirals into an ugly coughing fit. "...Mostly." He adds on.

I have this very vivid mental image of Battinson screeching to a stop in the cave, Alfred's off to the side messing with some prototype gadgets. Bruce's side door swings open and Alfred's in the middle of snarkily asking if he's decided to get a reasonable amount of sleep tonight, only to immediately eat his tongue when Bruce beelines to the other side of the car and frantically pulls a waifish victorian kid with the tuberculosis blood cough to match out of the passenger's side.

("Dear god, what happened!?") ("His godfather poisoned him. I need towels and every medical device we have in here.")

The few photos I could find of the Battinson Cave did not imply there was a gurney in there, so Bruce uses on of the metal tables. He uses one arm to swipe off all the stuff on there onto the floor before laying Danny down.

It's. a very stressful time! That's for sure. Bruce is stuck between trying to get some form of antidote or at the very least a neutralizer to the blood blossom extract made, and also reassuring Danny that he's going to be fine. He's out of his depth.

They do get Danny stabilized though! How? Uh, I hadn't actually been able to think of how up until now, and this is just me trying to throw together an idea up on the fly. But Bruce like, manages to make some kind of 'antidote' that doesn't completely kill the blood blossom extract, but it makes the poison at least forcibly slow down.

[Forced to put a read more because this got SO LONG. oops]

"like what do i do with this kid. where do i put him. i cant just leave him in the cave. im DEFINITELY not leaving him alone" <<< is his sudden internal crisis after Danny's stabilized and passed out on the table. Giving him back to his godfather is completely off the fucking table, and Bruce can't give him up to CPS because there's a risk that he'll also return to his godfather.

He ends up, unsurprisingly to all of us, on deciding to keep Danny with him for the time being. At least until they can get his godfather behind bars. And you're right! Danny can't stay in the cave -- it's a half-furnished, rundown train depot. There's a tetanus shot waiting around each corner. It's Bruce's (reluctant) idea to take him up to the manor.

So Danny wakes up in an incredibly gothic guest bedroom, not feeling 100%, but also not feeling like total death like he did yesterday. He can still feel the blood blossom in him -- it leaves a joint and muscle soreness throughout his whole body, and when he breathes there's a weight there.

His confusion over where he woke up -- because it's very much not Vlad's place -- is overshadowed by his frank awe. You can't tell me he hasn't developed an appreciation and fondness of gothness due to his friendship with Sam. He might not be into it like Sam is, but he can appreciate the beauty when it's right in front of him.

#and hes got that awkward silent staring thing going on. Danny's trying not to die and vlads not there anymore#so hes unbothered by it really

Bruce pulled up a chair next to Danny's bed in the manor and didn't move a single inch the entire time. Just. sat there and stared to make sure the kid didn't stop breathing in the middle of the night. Probably has some facial recognition scanner going to try and figure out Danny's last name -- whether that works or not is dealer's choice frankly.

Either way, Danny turns his head to the left and nearly jumps three feet into the air when he sees Bruce and his 'stares into your soul' blue eyes. Sends him into a minor coughing fit by accident. Battinson very awkwardly and quietly apologizes. danny kinda just waves him off.

That's a whole conversation I'm not gonna go into, but to sum it up Bruce asks how Danny's feeling, and Danny tells him that he feels better, but he can still feel the blood blossom poison. So whatever he did, didn't get rid of all of it. (He's still incredibly fucking grateful nonetheless)

cue that "getting to know you" interrogation stuff.

(Danny can probably keep the full extent of his halfa status a secret from Bruce at first, but he is forced to tell Bruce about the ectoplasm running through him since it's the only reason the blood blossom toxin even works on him. Which results in him telling him a.. slightly omitted version of why he even has that in there in the first place.)

(Maybe he reveals that he was a hero in order to convince Bruce to let him out on the field rather than being just support? I've got ideas and fortunately your tags will help me delve into them)

#alfred pretends to be exasperated that bruce kidnapped a kid but honestly hes relieved#maybe being responsible for someone else will make bruce more responsible for his own health

no notes. just know that i'm wheezing at this. my friend @kingcrow01 had Alfred essentially reacting the same fucking way.

#the media would eat it up are you kidding??? the reclusive prince of gotham seen with a mysterious child???#and theyve both got that sickly pathetic wet cat look to them what with bruce constantly being injured and danny being chronically poisoned

FR! I love social media shenanigans and I love seeing it in fic (Lex Luthor's Ascent From Supervillainy To Fatherhood is a really good example of it imo), although i'm not too good at making it myself. Imagining how twitter in-universe might react to photo evidence of Danny with Bruce is going to fuel my desire for seeing people's reactions to things for ages. I am delighted to imagine that dumpster fire. The in-universe memes, guys.

Nobody has any clue what this mysterious Wayne child looks like for the longest time because Danny follows Bruce's lead and dresses in Anti-Paparazzi Recluse Fits. Mostly because he's the godchild of an equally reclusive and influential billionaire figure, and I imagine Vlad would pitch a media fit trying to find his poor, beloved godson.

Can you imagine the fucking SCANDAL if people found out that Vlad Masters' godson ran off and was currently living with recluse Gotham Prince Bruce Wayne? The tabloids would eat this shit up. It's a three-course meal that's paying their rent for the next three months. That's not even to say what Vlad might do upon finding out Danny's whereabouts.

So yeah, photo evidence of Danny only has shots of him wearing a large hoodie, one of Bruce's jackets, and a medical face mask and a hat. It doesn't hide any of the Sickly Pathetic Wet Cat look, if anything it enhances it. But you can see his bright 'staring into your soul like the oracle of delphi' blue eyes, and the black curls plastering his face, and his pale skin.

In some photos, as blurry as they are, Danny appears to be leaning into Bruce's side, seemingly using him as a support. The "antidote" (medicine?) Bruce created that first night was effective, but it wears off eventually. Before they make his medical bracelets, the both of them agree to use the antidote Bruce made to stave off the worst of the poison.

These photos are taken around the times the antidote was wearing off or had worn off, and the toxin was taking itself out of the backseat and shifting back into high gear. Despite that, Danny managed to convince Bruce to let him tag along on whatever shopping run he was on.

Someone took one of these photos and captioned it "Pathetic Wet Cat and his Sickly Pathetic Wet Kitten" and posted it on SMS. It got numbers.

Oh my god, I just thought of this but when Battinson is finally cornered by reporters asking him about Danny he does this:

he internally panics, and then with a straight face says "i don't know what you're talking about. i don't have a son." and then he Flees.

(this blows up in his face because the reporter he responded to never asked him if Danny was his son, they asked him who the boy seen with him was. Bruce is trending on twitter before he even makes it home. He's mortified. There's potential here for a scene between Bruce and Danny where they have that long-awaited 'are we family?' conversation.)

#i know everyone's focusing on danny working as a hero with batman and his relationships with dick and jason and everyone as the older siblin#but im still stuck on early days batman with a teenager to care for and how that dynamic is going to be SO DIFFERENT#than that same bruce with a 9 year old Dick. like the circumstances are so different and hes never bat-dopted a kid before this

NO BECAUSE YOU GET IT. YOU GET IIIIT! I fucking love older brother danny, however the biggest appeal of the "eldest son danny" idea is in fact how he and bruce's relationship would have to play out in order for that to happen. You could argue that Danny could be an 'older brother figure' to the Robins and still not have any familial affiliation with Batman, but the fact of the matter is, simply? I want that familial affiliation with Bruce. I want to see how that would play out, and how it would develop.

I am. a scientist prodding a little glass stirring rod at the potential family dynamic of Bruce Wayne and Danny Fenton and going, in complete wonderment and awe, "wow. fascinating. how does that work? how did you happen? what made you? how can i do it again?"

I also think there could be something fascinating over the fact that Bruce Wayne watched his parents die in front of him, while Danny's parents don't even know Danny died at all. A (once) child with dead parents, and a dead child with living parents. I think there's something to be explored there, I just haven't yet figured out what.

And yeah! a teen is completely different than an 8 year old. They're in very different developmental stages in their life, and that's not even addressing their lifestyle differences. When I made this prompt I mentally kinda just placed the death of danny's parents as having happened a few months ago. To me, it feels like enough time for Vlad's temperament to escalate from bad to worse, and for him to actually cook up that blood blossom toxin.

Danny's at a different mourning period compared to Dick, who was brought in while it wasn't even a day old. Maybe Danny hasn't had much time to mourn his family as much as he's wanted because he's been stuck in survival mode living with Vlad, and once he feels secure with Bruce he can finally tap into that grief he's been keeping on the backburner.

Lots of things to explore that can adjusted and changed as needed! Very flexible.

All in all though, I am a sucker for found family and in order for Danny to have family in Dick and the others, he needs to find it with Bruce.

#and this one has a crazy demon murder godfather and poison blood and a history of punching otherworldly apocalypse-creatures#into another dimension. no parenting book will help.

no notes here other than yeah, agreed, wheeze. The good news is that he doesn't need to be completely afraid that those otherworldly potential-apocalypse kickstarters will show up at any random point, Because, imo, Danny shut down and destroyed the portal before he could be shipped off in order to prevent anyway (cough-the GIW-cough) from accessing it. Vlad's the only one with a working portal currently and he's not as careless as the fentons are as to keep it open willy-nilly.

now the only thing he needs to worry about is the crazy demon godfather and the flora-boros blood toxin in his son's veins! whoo.

#and like yeah danny will want to help gotham and save people#but honestly? with his new limitations and no expectations from a previous robin do you think he would do it the same way?

I love this question! because honestly when I was initially expanding on this idea on my own, my initial answer was "no" due to the toxin's limitations. I had the same idea as you where Danny takes on a more 'oracle' role where he's not out in the field, but he's still helping behind the scenes. I was torn between "logically would this happen" as well as "chronically ill people aren't delicate flowers, they can do things" and a little dash of "okay but i really want nightingale out in the field"

In the end I decided that I liked the idea of Danny actually out with Bruce, and that as a result there would need to appropriate consequences and drawbacks for this decision.

#idk guys he fights ghosts because no one else can#i think he'd probably play a much more supportive role. at least at first. << you're totally right, too. And Danny's motivations for wanting to help in Gotham would have to be different than in Amity Park. Oooo this has good character growth potential.

Danny helps Amity Park out of a sense of obligation right? Like obviously it's also because he's a good person, but ultimately it kinda comes across as an obligation. He's the only one who can, so he's the one to do it, despite the fact that throughout the show he's shown to want that normal life. There's guilt there if he doesn't do anything; he has the power to stop this, so why shouldn't he?

(Oo, doesn't that sound kinda familiar? Guilt over something he ultimately has no control over, but thinks he could have?)

So! For him to choose to decide to rejoin the hero life, and not just from behind the curtain, feels like a pretty big character decision to me. Especially because now, he doesn't really have the power to help. Not like he did before.

He's sickly, essentially powerless because using his powers speeds up the toxin, and equipped only with his wits, his creativity, and whatever fighting skills he may have acquired during his time as Phantom -- and whatever martial arts prowess the author decides to have Maddie pass down to Danny.

He's not doing this because he feels like he has to, but because he wants to. I think that's pretty cool.

You reminded me that ideas can be combined too! It's dealers choice for anyone who wants to throw their hat into the ring in how Danny decides to join the frontline fight.

I'm going to kinda contradict myself here but one of my ideas for Danny going from behind-the-scenes to in-your-face-scenes is just. Batman needing backup for a fight. I'm not going to go into specifics for who he's facing, because frankly i'm not sure myself, but he needs backup.

And Danny, who likes to sit in the cave more often than not, waiting for Bruce to come back, sees this through whatever cameras are available. He's stressed out, worried for Batman's safety. This could be a good catalyst for the overarching subplot of him rejoining the hero scene as well as hey, maybe realizing that he doesn't need his powers to help people.

Danny's warring with himself about what to do. Trying to soothe his anxieties by reminding himself that Bruce is an incredible fighter and good at getting out of tight spots, telling himself it would be fine. Rebuffing the little voice in his mind saying he should help by telling it that he might make things worse. And when his subconscious tries to tell him that he can help, he rebuffs it by saying does he need to?

And there, right there, is what's been playing on repeat for however long it takes for him to become nightingale. Every night: "I can help, but do I need to?" and during this night is when he has an epiphany; "No, but I want to."

it's like the sun peaking through the clouds after weeks of gray skies. He wants to help. He can help, but not because he should or because he's able to, although that is important, but because he wants to.

So he finds where Bruce hides the face paint, smears what he think is an adequate amount on his face -- it looks almost mask like. And hunts down one of the spare utility belts -- he ends up having to wrap it around his shoulder and torso like a bandolier due to how tall Bruce is and how willowy Danny is. he already has a hoodie on, and pulls it up over his head. And fuck it, i'm calling down the Rule of Cool Law. Danny finds one of Bruce's spare capes and tears it up to make a makeshift scarf to better hide his face. He gets some other tools he needs that he knows Bruce uses, and then he's off.

(Bruce is both very shocked and very upset when Danny comes crashing through the ceiling with a faux-confident; "Hiyo, B! You're looking pretty bat-tered, so I thought I'd come in and give a helping claw!")

(Results in what I think is a very funny post-fight conversation where they have something of a hissed argument in front of the half-conscious criminals. "what are you doing here?!" "i wanted to help!" "where'd you learn to fight like this?" "mom taught me" -> which causes a fucking BUZZ in the criminal underground when word gets out.)

there's conflict. argument over bruce not wanting danny to come out to help him. Until danny eventually wins out in the end by pulling up footage of phantom on the batcomputer, revealing his previous hero status, and pure damn stubbornness. Bruce agrees but only after he updates Danny's self-defense and gets him a proper suit.

#alfred cant handle TWO wet rats getting beat up every night lol

singling this out because it's funny and you're rIGHT.

#danny innovating new and better bat gadgets. making good humanitarian use of the wayne money in ways that would make sam proud. #making sure alfred isnt the only thing standing between bruce and bruce's death at the hands of the city he loves

Danny's bambi eyes are lethal work, and Alfred's favorite employ whenever Bruce is being stubborn. Even after rejoining the active hero scene, Danny will still team up with Alfred to drag Bruce to bed or rest. Excuse you, don't make the same mistakes he did! He's the elder hero here!

Danny churns out so many anti-ghost gadgets for Bruce for the inevitable confrontation with Vlad, along with non-ecto gadgets just because he wants him safe. It becomes an unusual bonding experience for the both of them to come up with gadget ideas together and then figuring out how to make it work, and then building them together.

Vigilante equivalent of helping dad in the garage except you're both fixing the car and telling the other to grab them the 3/5th quarter-inch flathead screwdriver from the toolbox.

Danny is delighted to have someone to bounce ideas off of with, as does Bruce.

For the good old "fights are one of the ways ghosts socialize" trope: They have regular training sessions, but it's Danny who asks if they could sometimes just have some for-fun sparring sessions. Then has to very embarrassedly explain to Bruce that it's just something ghosts do with each other to socialize sometimes.

Bruce reads between the lines and sees it for what it is: play fighting. Danny's asking to play fight. There are no parenting books on taking care of a half-ghost teen, but he immediately thinks on a documentary on lions he saw a while ago and agrees.

These play fights more often than not result in Danny being tossed around like a ragdoll and loving it -- he's light as feathers and being thrown up into the air feels like he's flying again. Something he can't do anymore for obvious reasons. Plus the ghostly bonding thing.

I don't have much to add about the humanitarian use of wayne money thing, i agree. It also makes Bruce proud and could help inspire him to start getting more involved with Wayne Industries so he can start using his parents' company for humanitarian use as well.

#MAN imagine the fluff of danny learning to decipher bat grunts#if anyone has experience seeing past the crazy obsessive seemingly single minded focus of a parental figure and to the real love and care#that exists so deeply and truly under and throughout it all it'll be danny

aaaaaa, man you're so right. i was talking to crow about this but, for context, the idea was that Nightingale has a tendency to sometimes bite his opponents. And it's become something almost like a signature surprise move because he has Ghost Fangs, but the first time this happens its during some kind of gang fight between B, Gale, and a handful of goons.

However, the fight halts to surprised stop when one of the guys shrieks out; "OW, HE BIT ME!" and like a spell, everyone turns, flabbergasted, towards the guy who said it. Because what the fuck did you mean he bit you, wHY IS HE BITING.

And there, hanging off the guy's arm with all the smug self-satisfaction of a cat, is Nightingale, with his fangs still chomped down onto the guy's arm. There's a few seconds of silence, long enough for everyone to see what's going on, before Gale reorients his momentum and kicks the guy square in the jaw; knocking him out cold.

The thing that catches everyone's attention is that Nightingale drew blood. They watch, half-terrified, half-baffled, as the kid scrunches his nose up, wipes at his mouth, and makes a noise of disgust. He turns to look at Batman, who has also stopped what he's doing to stare as well.

Nightingale asks him; "Am I gonna have to get checked for this?"

Rather than deign him with a response, Batman remains silent. They stare at each other for three whole seconds, before Nightingale clicks his tongue like Batman had said something he didn't like, but expected.

"Aw, okay." Then without missing a beat, he turns and launches himself like a feral cat at the closest person next to him, and the room descends back into chaos once more.

Man, I'm just imagining them working next to each other on their own personal project, and Danny will quietly ask for Bruce's opinion on something. Bruce gives him a single grunt, and Danny's silent for a moment, contemplative, before muttering something like "huh, i guess you're right" or "oh, good idea."

Danny eventually adopts Bruce's little "hrm" quirk himself, and it slowly goes from: "hey, what do you think about this?" "hrm" "that's what I thought too" to: "..hmn?" "hm."

The ever consistent urge to make Your Blorbo The Most Specialist Character On The Block Ever is forever a plague of mine, and I'm very tempted to say that Danny is the only other kid except Cass who can do the "hm?" "hn" thing back to back with Bruce. Don't get me wrong, the other batkids can do the "Hey X thing" "hm" "okay" thing, and on some level can do the "hm" "hm" thing too, but they can't do it quite to the same extent as Danny can, and its from those years where it was just the two of them.

but yess!! I agree! Danny's got experience with that kind of obsessiveness, Bruce reminds him a lot of his parents that way and he understands it the best out of all his siblings as a result. It also means, however, that he willingly goes in to drag Bruce out of whatever obsessive rabbit hole he's fallen into, if he feels that Bruce has been too hyperfocused on something. He saw it with his parents, and it ended up killing them. He's not losing another dad because of his foolish tunnel vision.

#bruce is so much quieter than his parents but man if danny doesnt understand him. and maybe bruce comes to learn what dannys used to as well#comes to learn to speak his affection and open up so much more. to make danny feel more comfortable and welcome

AGAIN, NO NOTES. This is perfect and yes. I've got nothing to add.. okay I lied, i just needed a moment to think. Bruce isn't the most physically affectionate person, but he starts to be thanks to Danny, who is very tactile. Same thing with verbal praise, Danny hardly got any of it in school or, regretfully, at home since Jazz tended to get all the praise.

Bruce tells him "good eye" once after Danny spotted something before Bruce did, and Danny preened so brightly Bruce genuinely wondered if stars were going to appear over his head. He'd gotten his hands on video footage about Phantom that had shown him doing that exact same thing.

(oh which reminds me. The moment Danny tells Bruce about his previous hero experience as Phantom, Bruce goes on a research helldive to get his hands on everything about it. He's watched every single video showing Phantom. There were very few videos of Phantom that weren't videos of his fights, which were horrifying to watch on multiple levels.

Including but not limited to the fact that ghosts could apparently survive the most lethal of injuries, and he was never going to get the image of Phantom yanking a steel pipe out of his chest out of his head, or him pulling out a broken chunk of glass from his throat.)

(It was even worse seeing videos of Danny's parents shooting at him. That was a long, uncomfortable conversation.)

Another time Bruce is asking Danny about being a ghost, and Danny wistfully tells him that the thing he misses most is flying. Grappling through the city is the closest thing to it, but it's still fundamentally different -- and in some ways more exciting -- than flying. The closest comparison he could give is an indoor skydiving ring.

Bruce, a week later, rents out an indoor skydiving ring for the day and Danny spends hours inside the wind tunnel. He tells Bruce all about the similarities and differences in the car on the drive home, and then tells him that next time Bruce should try it too.

Just, all-in-all, seeing how these two interact and impact each other is what makes this so appealing to me. Especially with early years Batman. And I had so much fun typing all this out, thanks for the opportunity to infodump haha.

#UGH OP THIS POST TT-TT

AH YOUR TAGS <33

I am loudly pushing the batdad agenda i am loudly pushing the— DPxDC Prompt

“Woah. You look like shit."

Granted, that’s probably not the first thing Danny should be saying to the guy that just bit the curb, but in his defense; he’s not running on 100% right now either.

The man -- tall, towering, and broader than Danny is tall -- whips around on his heel, black frayed cape flaring out impressively. Danny would've whistled in appreciation, but he takes the time instead to wipe the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing the blood running from his nose across his cheek.

"Sorry." He blinks widely, not even flinching as the man with the horns zeroes in on him. "That was rude of me. I have a really bad brain-to-mouth filter; Sam says its what always gets me into trouble."

And she's not wrong either, per say. His smart mouth is what landed him in this situation -- with blood blossom extract running through his veins and cannibalizing the ectoplasm in his bloodstream. Thanks Vlad.

The man grunts at him; a short, curt "hm" that shouldn't make Danny smile, but he does because he's somewhat delirious and probably concussed. The man keeps some kind of distance, sinking towards the shadows of Gotham's alleyway like he dares to melt right into it.

If it's supposed to scare Danny, it doesn't work. Danny's never been afraid of the dark; he's always been able to hide himself in it. He blinks slowly at the mass of shadows.

"You look hurt." The shadows says, blurring together around the edges. Danny squints, and licks his lips to get the blood dripping down his chin off. Ugh, he hates the taste of blood.

"I am." He says, "My godfather poisoned me. M'dying." The agony of the blood blossom eating him from the inside out looped back around to numbing a while ago, so all he feels is half-awake and dazed.

"Hey," Danny stumbles forward towards the man, a bloodied hand reaching out to him. "You-- you're a hero, right? You're not attacking me; which is more than I can say for most costumed people I've met." Maybe it's a poor bar to judge someone at, but he's already established that Danny's not in his right mind.

The man makes no change in expression, but Danny realizes blearily that it's hard to tell with the shadows on his face. He stays still long enough for Danny to latch onto the cape -- stretchy, but almost soft under his fingers.

He looks up blearily into the whites of the man's eyes. "Can you help me? I don't-- I don't wanna die." Again. He doesn't wanna die again. He blinks slow and lizard-like. "I mean- I'll probably get to see mom and dad again, but I told them I'd at least try and make it to adulthood."

There's a clatter down the street, and Danny's ghost sense chills up his spine and leaves a bitter, ashy taste in his mouth. He immediately knows who it belongs to even before the deceptively gentle; "Daniel?" echoes down the way.

"Daniel? Quit your games, badger, Gotham is dangerous for children."

Danny's mouth pulls back, and blood spills against his tongue. "Please." He rasps, and grabs onto the shadow's cape with both hands. "Please. He's going to kill me. Please--"

"Daniel? Is that you?"

His lips part, dragging in air to plead with the darkness again. He doesn't need to, the whites of his eyes narrow, and the cape whirls around him before Danny can blink. Soon swaddled in shadows, the Night lifts him up, and steals him away.

[lovesickeros]

lord its so dark in here the sahara desert of tsaritsa content you are like a shining oasis. your characterisation of her compels me & mihoyo would be hard pressed to top it imo.!! caaaaan i humbly request yr thoughts on her first meeting w a reader of any kind, or maybe even multiple kinds (sagau, sagau god au, isekai, etc) if you so desire...

it really is like a desert here. being the fan of a character we aren't getting until the last damn nation is driving me up a wall but i will persevere bc if nothing else i support morally bankrupt women in media. we r in a severe drought over here but i do my best. unfortunately nothing i say is ever coherent so pull out your translation notes its abt 2 be messy

also this got out of hand but thats bc first meetings w the tsaritsa are tricky to write + a LOT of her characterization lies in deeper exploration then just surface level yknow...NOT A DIG AT YOU this is just my excuse for rambling. gently pats the tsaritsa she can hold so much complexity i do not have the word count to delve into it completely :]

gonna talk cult au for a bit here though because that's 99% of my content. and honestly? she thrives in sub au's of the cult au like villain au + imposter au. it's basically made for her. i mean, early days, the imposter au had been going around for a little while but one of the first few ideas was the Fatui taking reader in so like. it kinda technically actually was. pretty sure cult au Tsaritsa popped up because of the imposter au. a lot of it's writers kinda left though which. man am i getting old or.

anyway.

there isn't much of a chance her first impression is all that positive. at best it's usually neutral, imo, but rarely if ever positive. specifically because i view the Tsaritsa as someone who isn't as fanatical as most of the acolytes typically are towards the creator. she's not exactly going to worship the ground you walk on unlike a certain geo lizard. which is partially why i think she thrives in the sub au's i mentioned.

imposter au, for example. she meets you at your lowest. there's no gaudy extravagance or pampering from the acolytes waiting for you because your own acolytes have turned on you. for all intents and purposes you aren't a "god" at all. which is why i don't think she meshes well with normal cult au reader. the Fatui are made up of outcasts, basically, and imposter au slots right in just perfectly. you're weak, at your lowest, when you meet the Fatui in the imposter au. and the Fatui can help you, too.

a mutual exchange, really. the Tsaritsa sees a tool she can use to one up the rest of the nations and especially Archons, and she has no qualms about you using her and the Fatui in turn. you both want something out of it, after all. whether you just want to be safe from the rest of the acolytes, or you want revenge, or whatever else..she'll give you the power to fulfill it, and she gains the strongest piece on the chessboard when all is said and done.

the best way i can describe the first meeting is "practical", i suppose. she sees an opportunity in you. the ultimate gamble. because if she "saves" you, and you dont trust anyone else because they tried to kill you, well..she holds all the cards, doesn't she?

but the Tsaritsa, imo, is just as capable of being just as fanatical towards you as anyone else. she just won't worship you as the creator. but as yourself? clawing your way back to your divine power and taking back what belongs to you? the Tsaritsa is, to me, a character who's character flourishes in long-term fics more because she changes a LOT between "just met reader" and after having been with reader for some time. she's practically apathetic at the beginning but a lot of her character, in my characterization, shines through LONG after the first meeting.

[kawareo]

Hi I just want to say I LOVE strike so much, he’s such a funny little guy. Well I just saw your post about how strike and Sarevok view each other and now I’m curious as to how Strike dealt with the murder tribunal once he and the tadfools got to the city! I can only imagine what a bitch Sarevok was to him when he realized strike was still alive tbh

So glad you like Strike that much!! Have a weirdly soft sketchbook Sarevok :)

Important thing to mention is that on my first playthrough, I completely missed the Murder tribunal and therefore, Sarevok, and I have only met him a few weeks ago, so I've since updated the way him and Strike interracted

Kind of. Strike feels the same way about Sarevok as he did before; he does not like him, but still, Sarevok is the closest thing to a male role model figure he's had in his life (that isn't Bhaal but yknow thats a god so he doesn't really count). Sarevok hated him at first because Strike's existance makes it clear that Bhaal never believed in Sarevok's bloodline.

But, Strike is really good at what he does! And imo Sarevok is sexist as hell so he does warm up to him over Orin over time. So when Strike returns from the dead, Sarevok sees this as if the entire thing was just a test from Bhaal and that Strike has passed it, because he did return, and here he is; no memory of who he is, yet his unholy blood brought him back to where he belongs. Sarevok basically sees him as a younger version of himself who now, that he is 'over his rebellious teenage phase', has realized the true gift of Bhaal and returned to put an end to Orin's girlish ways and lead the temple to its rightful glory.

None of this means post-tadpol Strike agrees with him or becomes the Chosen again, by the way. But yeah, Sarevok is genuinely happy for Strike to be there, and it would honestly fuck Strike up way more than if he was met with hate - that's his family, after all. And they treat him as part of it, whether he likes it or not.

[azelfandquilava]

Unhinged Azure Gleam RW ideas

Alright, FE3H musing time again.

I've been floating a bunch of ideas for a hypothetical rewrite of Azure Gleam. Trying to summarise it in neat paragraph is proving harder for me than I thought it would so I'll just bullet-point drop all the ideas I had in rough chronological order:

Keeping a big focus on Dimitri's viewpoint of "Reform Over Revolution". In the official game, this is brought up a few times early on but basically dropped just as soon as the Western Lords arc wraps and the mindcontrol nonsense begins.

Cleobulus is the end villain, usurping Thales as leader of the Agarthans. Her tactics end up being much more chaotic and violent but with a greater cost to TWSITD's numbers. Odesse would act as her version of Myson, Kronya would also be given a bit more prominence (cuz who doesn't wanna see Agarthan Girlies having a bit of fun?)

In keeping with this, I really want to explore the idea of Dimitri and Edelgard forming a truce to take down TWSITD. It'll take some contriveances admittedly, but hear me out.

I'd keep Part 1's layout and premise roughly the same but with a lot of specifics changed. I’m juggling whether to keep Rufus alive for longer, or to just make Kleinman more prominent later on in his place.

The Western Lords are given more explanation of their motives for betraying Lambert, the specifics of his supposed reforms are explored more instead of just aluded to. Even if its a retread of the case with Ionius and the Insurrection of the Seven, that'd be better than the complete nothingness we get of it in the final game par Viscount Elidure's one line about the subject.

Rather than dying in Elidure’s territory like she does in the official route, Cleobulus retreats to Arianrhod where a three-way battle between in the invading Empire led by Edelgard, the remnants of the Western Lords (represented primarily by Count Rowe here, still being kept on a leash by Cleobulus) and Dimitri’s pursuing forces ensues.

The Western Coalition would be snuffed out here, with them no longer of use to her Cleobulus finally ditches her Cornelia skinsuit.

During the fighting Edelgard is badly wounded, prompting Thales to try his "mind-control" ploy from the official game (or maybe he's just going for the kill here, whatever works best). He is stopped by Hubert, who is mortally wounded in a vicious exchange covering Edelgard and the Empire's retreat. This would effectively be a mirror of Ingrid's death in Scarlet Blaze, but with a much bigger impact on the Empire's military capabilities.

Thales himself is badly injured and warps away, leaving him exhausted. Cleobulus uses this as an oppurtunity to finish the old man off and claim leadership of the Agarthans.

From here the Empire is left to lick its wounds, as a much more violent version of Ludwig's attempted coup from Scarlet Blaze occurs. Likewise the Kingdom is suddenly hit with more Slithery nonsense as Dimitri tries to recover following the Western Coalition's sabotage.

That's roughly where I got to, but I do have a few more ideas that I'm not sure where to fit/or if they'd work but here we go:

Rhea is pretty much a non-presence in Azure Gleam as is, apart from popping up for expo at a few points she doesn't really do much for the majority of it. I'm floating the idea of her being kidnapped by Cleobulus during Part 2 with the intent of bodysnatching her/using her blood for Slithery reasons. There's a risk with this tho in that I'd basically be changing the Route Damsel from Edelgard to Rhea. That said I do think Rhea needs to be moved out of the way for the potential truce to even remotely work.

Claude's the odd factor here as I'm not sure how exactly I wanna have him play out here. Both of Dimitri's routes handle the Alliance quite lazily imo as both times they end up siding with him, granted AG doesn't just have Claude give the entire faction to him but still.

Thats all I can muster typing up atm. I'll leave ya with a cool drawing of Cleobulus holding Thales' cut sword just to convey the idea of an Agarthan Girlboss end-villain (credit to @card-queen for the art). Please feel free to poke holes in my ideas or offer any suggestions of your own for this silliness.

[destinyc1020]

What a truly weird comment from that Robert Daniels guy (and he is someone who hasn't even seen the show to decide for himself). To say that Tom's only 'life experience(s)' have happened in show business. That is a really callous, to act like he hasn't lived like a human in love and loss and disappointments and achievements outside of his work, like we ALL do. To dismiss him as just some one dimensional product of the industry with no life is just gross to me? And the same critic replied with laughing emojis to someone who said it was generous to even call him an actor. Just a huge, huge yikes. I am really getting just a nasty, nasty vibe from some of these critics. Even IF Tom was someone who acted as poorly as someone on a soap opera (which he certainly doesn't, he has turned in some truly fantastic performances in his career and thats just a fact), no one deserves to be spoken about like that from people who are supposedly professionals. People seem to take a really disrespectful kind of joy in insulting him, I know that people can be absolutely vicious to anyone in the public eye, but this just seems truly WAY too much.

The positive reviews from actual publications outweigh the negative. Someone did a review roundup where the count was 17 that had 4-5 stars, 5 with 3 stars, and 3 with 1-2 stars. The narrative I'm seeing on twitter just does not reflect the reality of the reception - it was received WELL. Anyways, sorry for the rant Destiny, but I expect this kind of behavior from trolls, but from professionals living their Twitter mean girl fantasy it gives me a big ick. I'm just glad the audience reception and the majority of critics have appreciated him and Fran's performance and Jamie's production, and I'd just like to see more clickbait about THAT instead of this strange negativity that's cropped up.

Also, am thinking about you and sending you lots of love and condolences, I hope that fandom can be a positive distraction for you in a tough time. Thank you for your discussions on this blog, and I hope you take care of yourself first and foremost

Also, am thinking about you and sending you lots of love and condolences, I hope that fandom can be a positive distraction for you in a tough time. Thank you for your discussions on this blog, and I hope you take care of yourself first and foremost

First of all, thank you so much for this.🙏🏾 I really appreciate it 🥰❤️

Re: Robert Daniels....

I assume you must be referring to this comment he made on Twitter?

Yea girl, I felt like his critique of Tom was just kinda cruel?? 🥴 Like, it's one thing to critique someone's acting, but when you start making all kinds of ASSUMPTIONS about someone and what kind of life they've had, etc, I'm sorry, but that's hitting below the belt imo. 🤨

And I usually don't resort to going in on people's looks and outward appearance when I'm trying to do a rebuttal to smthg I didn't like that someone said, but whew chiiiiilllle..... 👀

Talk about a face only a mother could love lol

Anyway....

I really do hope that Tom just doesn't even pay any mind to the critics and just continues on to enjoy doing this play as simply a passion project for himself and himself only.

Idk what people's obsession is with hating on him on Twitter (I guess he's become Twitter's new "Whipping Boy".... it happens to MANY actors 🙄), but whenever I see ppl en masse hating on someone for seemingly NO GOOD reason, my spidey senses start tingling and I figure that this person must not be as "bad" as people claim, cuz if he were, you wouldn't need such a mass mud slinging and hate campaign against this person. Everyone would be able to see with their own eyes how awful this person is. Jmho 🤷🏾‍♀️

You don't need to convince people so hard when there's actually smthg to really hate about a person imo.

Tom's acting is fine. Don't worry, the stans came after that Robert guy lol 😆 😂

If he's a real, valid, professional critic, then he was kinda unprofessional imo.

But, then again, that's not uncommon for critics. Critics can sometimes go for the jugular if they don't like you, or don't like your work.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time a critic has been harsh about an actor. 😔

Thankfully, Tom has a HUGE fanbase (just look on IG!), so we don't have to worry about the people who don't like him or his work.

[bananonbinary]

the main argument I've heard made wrt the IP thing and AI art is that the AI can only ever combine works from other artists. it has no creative input other than combining works that already exist; which, personally, i would be fine with if it was just being trained on work in the public domain and work from people who consented to be included, but these bots are scraping art from literally everywhere on the web with *very* few opportunities to opt out. even a human artist that's heavily inspired by other creators adds something of their own to the mix, it's kind of impossible *not* to unless you're literally tracing someone else's design, but AI is using art taken from other creators And Nothing Else, which when combined with the fact you can ask it to produce art "in the style of X" gets a lot of artists very mad

that feels like a very esoteric complaint though. how does one measure "creative input," and why does the actual method it uses to create not count? if you can't actually point to a bit of AI art like "thats my OC it clearly lifted that from this painting i did" then it's clearly done SOMETHING transformative. what has it actually stolen? the knowledge that your work exists, somewhere?

as far as i understand it, the main practical reason for "intellectual property" to exist as a legal concept, is to prevent someone from harming someone else's livelihood or reputation by claiming the work as their own. parody and free use are allowed only so far as they are sufficiently different from the source work. but these AIs...don't claim credit for the source works. they don't reproduce the source works anywhere at all. and what they create IS pretty transformative, even if it's in a soulless robot kinda way. it can't really be considered to be "taking away" from sales etc of the original works that exist, because it doesn't actually look like any one of them at all. I think even if I, a human, DID create "here's a collage of tiny pieces of shit i found on deviantart" it would still be considered fair use, but the connection between anything in the data sets and the actual art the AIs produce is much, much more tenuous than that.

I think any way that it could hurt an artist that you could define would also just cover competing artists in general. Even if an AI created a picture of, say, a tree In The Style Of Artist (let's call them Phil), it still wouldn't ACTUALLY be the same as the tree Phil would draw, it would just kinda look similar. and anyone who wanted a tree by Phil would know that this wasn't one, and wasn't worth their time. Phil could draw their own tree, and still sell it, and the AI would only really compete with that among Phil fans if it actually tried to claim that its version WAS by Phil.

This is sort of my main hesitation for the IP argument. we here in fandom spaces exist in a grey area of intellectual property, where EVERYTHING is "in the style of" or "based on" existing properties. if we try to legislate those very conceptual qualities, instead of actual concrete "look this was literally my image it made i published it two years ago," then our spaces will cease to exist.

again, that's not to say there's zero valid complaints about AI art. i definitely see the problem with corporations trying to replace human labor with them because the humans wanted better working conditions. (this is a larger problem imo where any progress in the workplace is stagnated because it will inevitably be used as an excuse to fire people instead of give them less work). and a friend explained to me why it's fairly offensive at the very least to try and bring AI art into what was clearly a space to celebrate the process of making art (eg, contests, writers groups and websites, etc). i just don't think this specific argument is a good path to go down.

[danmei-confessions]

throwing myself into the snake pits with this but.... mxtx is not the greatest writer to ever write. her stories can be very flat, and she struggles with any character who isnt the main couple.

ive never been able to finish any of priests works, but from what ive read of similar works by meatbun and tjq both have a more nuanced take on world building and meatbun is just a straight up better writer. i think that the fandoms (mdzs tgcf AND svsss to some extent) tend to put her on a pedestal thats (imo) slightly undeserved. Her plots arent that complex and her villains are, while with understandable motives, generally undeveloped, and their popularity and depth seems majorly subsidized by fandom.

same goes with the themes of her work, where they're either forced upon you or else subtle enough to need an essay of reasoning. not to mention her characters struggles can sometimes be a tad... alienating? i cant think of the exact word, but the mc's tend to be very wrapped up in their own problems (which is fine!) but its sometimes at the cost of seeing how theyre affecting the world around them. with wangxian and hualian especially (though my boy binghe does in svsss too, just in a more unhinged way), the ml's don't really challenge our mcs. even if they know what their partner's doing wrong, they p much unconditionally support them or at least dont pressure them into challenging their ideas. the ml's growth, if there is any, is done off screen, and any changing isn't by the protag but by outside efforts. like, wwx doesnt really change? like hes not really learning anything he didnt already know (demonic cultivation = not good) and besides jin ling he doesn't really face any personal consequences (as in, the opposition is always either a group, faceless background characters, or characters who didn't have that much of a personal connection to him pre-death)(jiang cheng doesnt count for much bc wwx avoids him like the plague, jc would rather die than talk emotions with his brother, and both of them misunderstand why the other is Like That post return)

ahhh anyway i hope this made sense! i still love these characters, but i do think ive matured enough as a person and a especially as a writer to be a little more critical of them!

(/ω＼)

.

[jack-kellys]

I wish there was more love for Ryan Kopel’s interpretation of Davey. I love 92sies Davey, I love Ben’s Davey and I love Ryan’s Davey. I love how they all to the core have something so different but they are all so inherently (took me so fucking long to spell that omg) Davey! Tbh I even feel the UK production isn’t giving as much love to Davey but I 100% get that it could just be me being the biggest Davey stan wanting as much content as possible, and what I love so much about the UK production is it feels so much more like a strong ensemble and not Jack and the boys and us having to pick out random Newsies for a sliver of content and us rolling with it and making the content for ourselves. I’m very hungover I hope this made sense 😭

LMFAO i honestly do know what u mean anon!! but i feel like this is because it's a more well-rounded production- the stakes of the plot feel really solid in this version, jack and katherine as romantic leads are stronger, pulitzer is more of a villain than he's felt before. like they are going by the beats of the script and the show very well in terms of foundational stuff. romance, villain, situational stakes. it makes sense.

and davey is the sidekick. and he's literally an amazing sidekick, and ryan makes davey's arc very apparent which is apparent to us bc we know this show so well. like his defensive nature at the beginning, his heated denial still being riddled with hesitancy and nerves but still getting the words out that he wants to say. is so. david. and then that need to say his words gains confidence in the right situations: 1. when hes giving jack his words in WWK, 2. when he sings in seize the day, and 3. when he confronts jack in WWK reprise. (the rally is not the right situation for him- huge crowd of new faces he "doesn't even know" and no jack to speak through).

davey textually, if you will, has three looks and that's it.

i think what's more important for us as ppl who know dis shit down pat tbh is that ryan has given davey so much love, and tbh i think the cast has too– davey has SO many good onstage interactions with race (which has an ARC TOO LIKE!!), crutchie, he and les are fantastic together (better than bway imo), spot!!, and he has lots of cute ensemble moments. maybe the production doesn't "love" davey, but this show loves davey, this performance loves davey, and thats what rly counts for me.

also hi i have a davey post and i talk abt he and race in this post and i talk abt davey a whole lot in this post too :)

[rontra]

@lizarr7 replied to your post “yknow it’s occurring to me that I just sorta...”:

the helenas confuse me far more than the karas

NOOO the helenas are so straightforward bc i made Sleepwalker up so she's not real and doesn't count. thats just OC Helena

CTDE Helenas is really easy bc it's just Helena Wayne and then her Evil Sicko Counterpart i made up, whom she would shoot with a gun on sight if we let her. and we should probably let her

the canon helenas are easy to juggle IMO bc they're pretty distinct. but oh if you don't actually care about the intricacies of dc comics: dont open this post. dead inside

like ok yes dc comics might have 3 helenas waynes and at least one or two other helenas (wink) but they're like on a linear timeline so it's pretty easy i think.

helena wayne 1 - the daughter of batman and catwoman - was introduced in 1977. she uses the Huntress name until 1986, when a building collapses on her and she dies, and then the multiverse collapses on everyone else. this is dc resetting their continuity and starting over from scratch, so it all stops existing

helena wayne does NOT come back post-scratch, but is instead reimagined into a new character with a different backstory, called helena bertinelli. helena B sits on the Huntress Throne un-contested for over 20 years. on this blog we mostly ignore her because she's not helena wayne (sorry)

(you ask helena wayne to explain the 25 year gap on her resume and she's like "i was straight up a different guy")

(the comedy of my comics blorbo dying in 1986 is not lost on me)

in ~2011 dc scraps everything and starts over Again, with the new 52 publishing initiative. in this new continuity a lot of characters are given completely new backstories (which are noooot created equal). but on the upside, Helena Wayne 2 somehow crawled onto the Huntress Throne

(now, helena B had been the huntress for over 20 years, so she very much had her own fanbase at this point, who i can't imagine were uh Stoked about helena wayne walking back in and going "oh helena bertinelli can't come to the new 52. why? because she Died Off-Screen". the vibe probably was not friendly there) (but i think it turns out that helena B faked her death or something anyway??? idk that might be completely wrong i'm not really sure i dont really pay attention to her it just FEELS likely to me)

although she's still BatCat's daughter, Helena Wayne 2 is characterized differently from 1, and (per the n52 convention) has a totally new backstory and setup. so she's overall definitely a different guy from helena wayne 1. she smells different. the vibe here makes me think she's doing some conceptual spit-swapping with helena B (thinks about two helenas making out) oh my

anyway, the new 52 publishing initiative ended and everyone generally breathed a sigh of relief. the last time we saw Helena Wayne 2 was in ~2016 or so i think and i doubt we'll see her again. another helena wayne locked up in the vault. helenas waynes just get put ON ICE which i think helps keep things from getting tangled in my mind? they get tidied away 😔

helena B gets to keep the Huntress Throne to herself (and a swaggy new design if i might say so myself) for another ~5ish years or so, before the appearance of Helena Wayne 3 (Current Helena Wayne) who is AGAIN written differently with a different character setup, making her--in my opinion--a Third Distinct Helena Wayne

this one's BatCat's daughter from the future. but because she time traveled back and changed things, her future has ceased to exist and she's stuck here with the rest of us losers. this means YES currently helena B and W are coexisting in harmony, PEACE AND LOVE ON HUNTRESS EARTH!!!

and that's where we're at right now.

for me it's easy to keep the helena Ws straight because they're all different guys and occupy different time periods and never overlap each other. they also have different designs from each other. maybe it's more confusing if you get distracted by helena B in the middle, since she does occasionally overlap with them, but she's a separate guy and i'm very good at going "oh thats helena B so i don't rly care" (SORRY!!!! IM SURE SHES LOVELY!!! I REALLY DO LIKE HER WHEN I READ SOMETHING SHE'S IN I JUST DONT SEEK HER OUT)

most of the time, if you see helena in the wild, it's probably helena bertinelli. that's another thing that makes it kinda easy. when in doubt: probably bertinelli to be honest MDSHBFJSD

the lack of overlap and the very linear out-of-universe timeline make the Ws pretty easy to tell apart for me. i like all 3 of them, but i like them quite separately--they register as different guys to me. generally speaking CTDE characters are rarely 1:1 with a specific comic but as an exception, ctde helena is very easy to identify as being based on specifically Helena Wayne 2 because the main comic shes in is like my comfort comic <3 <3

and sleepwalker is 100% made up but helena would shoot her with a gun as mentioned.

the only thing i know about helena B is i think she might be catholic.

[parallelroutes]

Munday Meme

2, 6, 7, 12, 14, 16, 17 and 18

— 2. Who are your longest rp friends? in 2008 i joined bulbagarden (forum from the pokemon wiki bulbapedia) and met a guy who also rped and had similar irl interests. i joined an rp forum with that guy in 2010, was in and out until he left in 2014 and we kept in contact. didn't rp after that, but we are absolutely still friends to this day and send each other pokemon things, talk about current fandoms, etc. probably my 2nd oldest friend i keep up with in general, tbh.

— 6. NOTP for your muse? tyl!byakuran/anyone LOL. in all seriousness, i really can't wrap my head around byakuran/uni in any romantic/nsfw sense… like even besides the massive age/experience gap from before, i only see them as emotionally close in a platonic sense?

i still enjoy poly tsuna/uni/byakuran from the trinisette trio flavor, but that's also kind of conditional and if tsuna wasn't there i don't think i can see it. imo, just not a dynamic that would exist without tsuna there, if that makes sense.

in other news, shoichi/byakuran isn't a NOTP so much as i'm just really tired of him being the Only one i see people ship with byakuran. they're just so much more fun as best friends? platonic soulmates? partners in crime? balance each other out, etc.

hmm. maybe i just struggle shipping with characters that knew him really well in TYL. funeral wreaths are a struggle too. a current!genkishi would be super difficult to make work but i did have an idea a long while back. BUT WAIT. gamma or spanner 👀

— 7. What are some similarities between you and your muse/muses? i am super weird too. independent. we both have terrible diets. i will eat 3 muffins in one day instead of lunch/dinner if i have them in my room. most obviously, adhd.

— 12. What’s one random headcanon about your muse that people mightn’t know? (at the end/under the cut)

— 14. What do you look for in a rp partner? for longer plots/threads/verses? i love people who can generally match my enthusiasm or come up with ideas or has enough time to talk about it here and there. also love it when partners can take a bit of initiative in keeping it going too.

for just small threads? anyone who reaches out, really. i like almost everyone lmao, rping is included.

— 16. Least favourite trope? i don't know if it counts as a trope but i just don't really like seeing how many people only focus on him in a very dominant role in ships? it's just preference. there is nothing wrong with it and it makes sense for TYL byakuran anyway, but it's a least favorite for sure. (it's in part because it's the only way i ever see in fanart. i am Tired just thinking about it.)

— 17. Are there any AU’s you’d like to explore but haven’t had the chance to yet? i have a specific immortal!byakuran fantasy au that i want to use as a verse someday but not sure if i'll have the chance tbh. might have talked about it before?

the tl;dr is he became a pseudo-deity with six others but was kicked out of the makeshift-pantheon a long time ago. he was stuck with his immortality/power and was left to wander the world like that.

— 18. Do you listen to music whilst writing? If so, what kind of music? i can only listen to music while writing if i loop one song and know exactly how it goes. usually it just ends up being either a song for the atmosphere or a song i'm currently addicted to. picking music gets distracting tbh.

moved 12 since it mentions nsfw. it's under the cut.

— 12. What’s one random headcanon about your muse that people mightn’t know? on account of not doing nsfw, i don't really mention it lol. i do have gray-asexual on there for this interpretation, but the ace part is really apparent. there is that he had more than enough abuse of that variety. now he just doesn't care, doesn't see a point, nonexistent drive. if i did any nsfw it would be focused on the partner bc i'm sure he'd remember how to Do Things like that from all those different lives.

the gray part is that i think he would try if thats what a partner wanted? i think he'd be okay if he trusts/loves someone enough (demiromantic) but probably not often.

would also like to mention you don't see me doing any nsfw on this blog because he is only 15 and 18 in the two main verses. that speaks for itself, i hope? i guess post-canon 10YL or college-age verse or something might work, but still not on tumblr.

[kdrama-movies-more]

Hii, I hope it's ok to message you. I just read your tags in my post about jihwan taking a hit for his dad and I agree 100% with Ko Yang Hee should've done it. The built up was perfect and like the prosecution said 'it's the kind of thing that only ends with one of them dead.' Ko Yang Hee should have had finished the job imo.

Chief Oh was kinda wrong about the 'one of the two...'

There is no way- no way the laws of their world would have allowed Yang-hee to actually succeed in his stabdeavor even if he had stabbed the correct guy...

It only ends with Yang-hee dead...(It might be my extreme grudge over Mapi but I fully believe if this was going to have a bad ending exactly two people were destined to die: Jae-soo and Yang-hee)

Also the poetic way Yang-hee should try to kill his boss should be pufferfish poison...

Sorry life got lifing and I forgot about completing this ask 😔

Another reason the Kitty boss can't have killed him for a neat and clean and definite ending is because then he'd be breaking Ji-hwan even more than he already pushed him and things go to where theres no turning back. Also because oddly enough everyone did want him to kill the dad... Also...I got perplexed by that implic...like, the prosecution anticipated this whole internal strife leading to murder scenario? While their prev observation was supposed to be exposition, the dynamic of Seo Tae-pyeong and Yang-hee seems different than it is another thing.

The whole build-up part of it is where things stand. For Yang-hee, he delivers on every count even if his attempts are foiled and I'm still in the mindset rooting his right to crime. Gang-gils is in being done with Yang-hee. But the dad...

The purpose was served- its a very simple drama and they went with everyone's got at least one thing that keeps them redeemable and human and bid they get a chance even if they currently lack the will to change kind of ending. Instead of the usual drama psychopaths...

Its just...the dad ended up...underwhelming? I don't know how to put it but it ends up a shonen manga in a way, made too powerful a final villain and incidentally defeated in spirit. Dad was some mirror to Seo Ji-hwan but the final storyline just didn't land because there wasn't...enough? (More of it is dad and Yang-hee's strife) They should have used either flashbacks or something more than kites, debts and minor clues set up in the previous episodes I feel. I didn't like the dad and I figure the why was because of how he got depicted via his underlings(even when gang bosses are psychopaths the underlings don't seem so frightened nor so done with them. Theres zero respect other than the weasel who also resents him in the same breath). And also I didn't like him because he nerfed Ji-hwan. Ji-hwan was active against Yang-hee but with dad he turned...flaky?

And while theres something about Ji-hwan overcoming his dad's hold on him thats just...that*. From the beginning Ji-hwan gave me Batman vibes so Yang-hee is Joker if Joker were Buggy the Clown or Spandam... Yang-hee otherwise is very much Ted Chang and Lee Mu-bae combined while Gang-gil is his Sun-hee and much of the drug part of the drama follows things similar to Extreme Job. Basically Ji-hwan and Yang-hee have this deep toxic undefined dynamic that never ends. Deep down Ji-hwan can't really get rid of that dark side of him. It comes out whenever he and Yang-hee cross paths and nothing is actually resolved because the father is overall irrelevant aside from being a bogeyman and Yang-hee too, even if in prison doesn't mean there won't be another trigger that'll test Ji-hwan's steel resolve. Its normally that one expects characters to grow or change or resolve by the end but most of them are already in the ongoing journey or fully 'grown' so its different but some of what I consider Ji-hwan's flaws are lauded or overlooked instead of seen as requiring change...felt a bit, unresolved.

Even for Gang-gil his resolution was a tad underwhelming. Maybe some scenes were cut because I'm a bit confused. Overall too I usually make timelines from the background stuff but here I'm thoroughly confused because some things aren't real and some don't add up and I don't know if that is deliberate or oversight and much of what I am puzzled by turns out to be modified to go a different direction from the source LN(even LN Go Yang-hee makes more sense being more serious about ganglife and the loss of it). Anyway, maybe Gang-gil is just passive. As are the non-housemate Thirsty Deer board members... in the LN Yang-hee is supposedly this vile career criminal but here he and Gang-gil divvied up the gang crimes between them... And nobody even of the older Bulldogs showed any active will or want to change...

*I'd been looking up the light novel and manhwa and the one consistent statement regarding the ending is "Ji-hwan and Eun-ha who faced a lot of issues from their families cut ties with their families, get married and have their own happiness in the end"

I don't know if the one in prison is orig Yang-hee or the dad (description makes Yang-hee sound like the sole irascible villain; some prosecutor equivalent is apparently the other crazy one). Ji-hwan's maternal grandfather is talked of but nothing much is mentioned of his father than him having had Ji-hwan kidnapped at 13 and being obsessed with turning him into his successor. In anycase the bad guys get punished in the end so they'd both either be in prison or dead either way.

[destinyc1020]

Imma be honest tom and timmy combo sounds a little boring to me, I understand why people want to see the duo to see film twitter fall apart and fandoms sort of lose their minds but I also feel like fandoms just recycling the same 5 people timmy, tom, austin, JE and paul mescal like sometimes I feel like thats all people know.

Like give me something with jeremy pope and austin butler , or where is the tom and kelvin harrison jr do a musical film, or any other person who isnt white like ashton sanders, dev patel brian tyree henry, kofi srirobe , cory hawkins like lets expand outside of the same 5 people. Fandoms and film twitter just feels like a sea of white people like we need to bring in the POC love, Imma be honest some young POC actors have been killing it in terms of acting and have outsihined alot of the peoples white faves.

Like I feel a white actor can deliver one mediocre performance and boom they are loved and become it boy status whereas this its never the same for POC actor who are constantly proving themselves and will never be seen as "it boy" ( like white supremacy in hollywood and in fandoms really make it seem there are only 5 good white actors its kinda sad no offense)

its like I can Imagine a better duo or at least lets get tom to partner up with ncuti gatwa in a fun charismatic buddy film.

Imma be honest tom and timmy combo sounds a little boring to me

I mean, I did mention other actors in there too in my list Anon!! 😅

I just always mention Tom and Timmy because it seems like they're already buddies on some level, and their fandoms are both huge, and I just think it would be funny (and box office GENIUS) to put them in a film together and watch the internet EXPLODE!!! LOL 😂

but I also feel like fandoms just recycling the same 5 people timmy, tom, austin, JE and paul mescal like sometimes I feel like thats all people know.

I mean.... No offense, but the latter 3 actors you mentioned have JUST started to really make their shine in Hollywood, so Idk if I would necessarily count them in your list of HW "just recycling the same 5 people" since they've barely just started getting more lead roles on the big screen. Jmho... 🤷🏾‍♀️

Fandoms and film twitter just feels like a sea of white people like we need to bring in the POC love, Imma be honest some young POC actors have been killing it in terms of acting and have outsihined alot of the peoples white faves.

No I agree with you girl! I know what you mean....

There are tons of POC that are killing it in the industry. John Boyega is a personal fave of mine 😊, Daniel Kaluuya, Damson Idris, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and yes....even the fallen Jonathan Majors... All VERY good actors who are very promising imo.

Like I feel a white actor can deliver one mediocre performance and boom they are loved and become it boy status whereas this its never the same for POC actor who are constantly proving themselves and will never be seen as "it boy" ( like white supremacy in hollywood and in fandoms really make it seem there are only 5 good white actors its kinda sad no offense)

Girl, you know this is the US we're talking about here. So if POC actors aren't getting as much shine, then unfortunately, that's due to systemic racism. It's also due to the fact that it seems as though the heavy fandom world (especially for ACTORS) just doesn't seem to be as big in the black community as it is in other racial communities? I mean, correct me if I'm WRONG, but it seems like in the black community, girls are probably more likely to be going crazy stanning a music artist over an ACTOR. 👀 Whereas girls in other racial groups tend to go hard on the stanning of not just music artists, but also actors as well. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's just something I've picked up on over the years....

[running-with-kn1ves]

Im glad that you liked my recent ask, it’s a bit eccentric but that’s what make it fun! at first i wanted to make him fall for her after a weekend or so, but now thinking about it he could fall for her after a serious meetings. at first getting to know each other at first (scientist requested. just the basics). he forces a few things that arent so necessary for her to get pregnant, like acting as her bf. spoon feeding her food , carrying her around, present during her doctor check ups. She was like ”do you really have to be there 😅” ”yes of course 😤”. she tired not to think much about it. shes a struggling college student trying to get by and (lets Call him Jonas,) Jonas is far from ugly looking. she tries her best not to get attached to him and ignore the butterflies in her stomach when he takes care of her. she mostly likely has abandonment issues but is a hopeless romantic at heart. she cant help swoon at domestic behavior. He’s frustrated at her unwillingness to fall for him. where he comes from if a male is effectively able to display his upmost ability to be the best provider, carer, protecter, hunter, fighter and lover all the females would swoon and be at his feel especially with charming and attentive personality and good looks. he's perfect!!! why cant she see that?!!? its not that she cant see that, its that she doesn't have the time right now. despite the fact they want each other theres things from the other part of their lives thats disturbing and chances of them being able to be together. but it wont stop Jonas tho….😩

Awe I love that. He seems to be more of a do-er rather than a thinker, but still mildly thinks things through when it counts; he just shows his intentions through actions rather than words. Thats so sweet tho, kind of being like a pre-boyfriend before actually obtaining the boyfriend status (at least, in her mind; I'm sure jonas has already thought past that stage lmao.) You'd think like most *sperm donors* (?) they stop being present after the deed is done, so I'm sure she's confused. But to him, he's got his intentions spread out.

And while he may be perfect in all aspects of physiological status, he's still not at the point where *she* can let him in so easily like the rest. This is kind of like the ideal couple imo. Hunky werewolf guy ready to take over dad role, perfect in nearly every aspect while she finds love to be appealing, and sees his perfectness, but can't fit him in her life quite yet. Jonas seems like the stubborn type though, so I don't think her position will stop him lmao. It seems like the perfect chase, because there's enough chemistry for them both to want it to happen and are drawn to each other, but life aspects are in the way. I wonder how things will work out once the kid is born though? or if Jonas decides to support her during college in order for her to finally allow him in her life as more than just 'the guy who provided the sperm.' He doesn't seem to give up so easily.

[ofdemonsandangels]

Im sorry for my random rant but aaaaaa I just can't get over how dirty Casca was treateddddd

She was done decently well in the golden age arc and after that her character got so reduced and basically infantalized.

I was so happy when I got to the chapter where she started acting like herself again but well... We don't get to see much of that:/

In general, I have a lot of problems with some of the plotlines after the eclipse and how some could have been avoided and replaced with more important things instead (atleast imo some plotpoints couldve been replaced with more vital things but maybe thats just my opinion)

I think that Casca's overall character is rather underwhelming compared to the way that the fandom proclaims her to be but yeah, I agree, her character during the Golden Age was decent. I really liked the animosity she felt towards Guts because of the attention that Griffith gave him. It felt pretty realistic, in the way that someone you admire starts to pay attention to someone else right out of the blue, to the point that they're putting their lives on the line for that person.

I really don't like how Casca automatically softened up after her and Guts had sex, because it felt way too quick. I consider the downfall of Casca's character to begin with her having sex with Guts. She doesn't completely lose what made her a great, dynamic, character but she felt watered down. Also I've observed that this is where a lot of male fan's (and some female fans too) opinions of her change, which is pretty telling. A lot of criticisms of Casca from the dudebro crowd revolve around her character in the Golden Age, not post-Eclipse. They think she's too rash and aggressive. She's way too harsh on Guts because of her admiration for Griffith. I've lost count how many times I've seen her called a bitch or a cunt because of her Golden Age personality, and these people simply don't get it. Casca's strenuous relationship with Guts is what made her interesting. But now that she's been "tamed" through sex, all of a sudden, she's likable. She's Guts' girl now.

And then we get to post-Eclipse Casca. Oh Casca, I'm so sorry about what Miura did to you. You deserved better, much better than what Guts and Griffith put you through. Post-Eclipse Casca is barely a character. She's a child in an adult's body that causes problems for Guts and his new little group. Time after time, she's put through humiliating ordeals because the writing needs Guts to look cool as he saves her. Or even worst, the writing needs Guts to be a "good person" who may be annoyed at his traumatized girlfriend, but will still do anything to heal her broken mind. Guts drags her around like a dog on a leash (he actually does at one time) and at times, Casca really feels more like a burden than a mission.

And can we talk about the amount of times post-Eclipse Casca has been sexually assaulted/put into situations where she's naked? Nudity is by no means unexpected when it comes to Berserk but there's something that just feels so wrong about a regressed, mentally traumatized woman being in constant situations where she's assaulted or unnecessarily naked. I hate it.

Also yes, I completely agree that there could've been a lot more interesting plot lines and arcs post-Eclipse. The Conviction arc is a good 10/10 but after that, it really felt like Miura had no idea what to do. The Falcon of the Millennium Empire arc is pretty good, but that's morso when it focused on Griffith. Then there's the Fantasia arc and ehhhhh, I'm not a big fan of it. The duel between Guts and Serpico was cool but that's all I really like.

Anyways, I've rambled on way too long. Thanks for the ask!

[hybbat]

what's the difference between fauns and furries that doesn't make the former a subser of the other, in your own professional opinion?

Primarily the face. They are half human half ungulate, not anthropomorphic ungulates, and the differences lie in that, specifically in the face and that they typically aren't fully furred or furred differently on the human parts. Their face is standardly wholely human in features except the ears and pupils also. Specifically, the nose and lips. Even when fauns are given animal noses its more vague and generalize like something painted on not an actual ungulate muzzle. When people make themselves look like fauns they paint their face, not put on a mask. Sometimes fauns don't even necessarily have ungulate legs.

I'd more likely classify them as monster boys than furries, like they're more in line with merfolk or harpies or aliens. I think they fit in more with that specific appeal. When I draw a faun, I am drawing a person with a couple ungulate parts, not a humanized ungulate, and its appeal comes from that specifically. Except for transitional spaces like the thighs, every part is distinctly human or animals, and there are features like the eyes and ears that aren't accurate to EITHER creature and are more in the realm of general fantasy/monster aesthetic. Drawing a faun feels more like drawing a faerie than a furry, basically.

That said I don't really have a problem with people calling deer furries or cervitaurs as fauns or anything. Just the specific type of faun I make I don't think counts as a furry, even if it similarities such as some animal limbs and fur that appeals to furries broadly.

I think in general furries try too hard to umbrella everything in and gotcha people into being furries. Furry is too generalized a concept imo for me to classify much anything besides those classic iconic furry art styles as it, and I think that stuff and the distinct qualities it possesses (big muzzles, large noses, weird back of head, furry hair, definedly furred all over, disney dog aesthetics and mlp aesthetics, etc.) are all hideous. Kemono is slightly more appealing on occassion but even thats unpleasant to me often, usually when they stray away from cats.

I know thats not how everyone feels, but I feel like if I go to the front of a furry website at any given time and dislike everything I see, and create characters who happen to just also be animal inspired but none of those things I dislike, then I wouldn't label it furry.