#and being open to being wrong

[goodluckclove]

I cannot think of a worse or less productive argument for me to try and get into than discussing anti-intellectualism with online academics.

[hinamie]

quick megumi style study

[zhelin-thames]

A Ghostly Text Mishap

Danny flopped onto his bed, phone in hand, glaring at the screen. Another long day of dealing with Vlad's manipulative nonsense had left him frustrated beyond belief. He opened his messages, found the contact labeled Trucker, and began furiously typing.

Danny: You will NOT believe what Plasmius did this time. The absolute NERVE of this guy. You’d think being half-dead would make someone LESS petty, but nooo, this man’s ego is bigger than the Ghost Zone.

Danny: He tried to "buy" my parents' company AGAIN. He offered to “help” with ghost containment tech but really just wants to snoop around for weaknesses in the portal.

Danny: AND he had the audacity to call me “Little Badger” like it’s a term of endearment. I swear, if I hear that ONE MORE TIME, I might go full ghost and dropkick him into the Fenton Thermos.

Satisfied with his venting, Danny tossed his phone onto the bed and buried his face in his pillow. Unbeknownst to him, he had made one critical mistake.

Jason Todd, aka Red Hood, was sitting in his safe house, polishing his guns when his phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen.

Unknown Number: You will NOT believe what Plasmius did this time…

Jason raised an eyebrow. “What the hell is this?” he muttered, scrolling through the tirade. By the time he got to “Little Badger”, he was smirking.

He typed back:

Jason: Kid, I think you’ve got the wrong number. Unless this “Plasmius” guy is a Gotham villain I’ve somehow missed.

Danny’s phone buzzed, and he rolled over to check it. His heart dropped when he saw the reply.

Danny: Oh no. This isn’t Trucker, is it?

Jason: Nope. But you’ve got my attention. Who’s Plasmius, and why does he sound like the type of guy I’d shoot on principle?

Danny hesitated, then decided to just roll with it.

Danny: Short version: he’s a half-ghost fruitloop billionaire who’s obsessed with ruining my life, becoming my creepy stepdad, and taking over the world. Think Lex Luthor but undead and ickier.

Jason burst out laughing, earning a curious glance from Roy Harper, who had just walked in.

“Who’s got you laughing like that?” Roy asked, setting down a bag of takeout.

“Some kid who texted me by mistake,” Jason replied, showing him the messages.

Roy skimmed them and snickered. “Plasmius? Sounds like a knockoff vampire villain.”

Jason’s fingers flew over the keyboard.

Jason: Okay, kid, you’ve officially got my interest. I don’t know who you are, but if this Plasmius guy’s half as bad as you say, I’ve got some creative ways to deal with him. You in Gotham?

Danny stared at the message, blinking. Who even was this guy? But... he did sound like he knew how to handle problems.

Danny: Uh, no. I’m from Amity Park. It’s kind of a supernatural hotspot, so I’ve got it covered. But thanks for the offer, I guess?

Jason smirked.

Jason: Supernatural hotspot? Kid, you’re talking to someone who’s been resurrected. Ghosts don’t scare me.

Danny froze. Resurrected? Oh no. This guy might actually know about the supernatural.

Danny: ...Wait, who ARE you?

Jason: Name’s Jason. Most people call me Red Hood. Ever heard of me?

Danny blinked, then groaned. “Of course. I text a vigilante. Just my luck.”

Danny: ...Yeah, I’ve heard of you. So, uh, thanks for not tracking this number and showing up at my house or something.

Jason: Yet.

Danny felt a shiver run down his spine.

Danny: That’s not funny, dude.

Jason: Relax, Little Badger. Your secret’s safe with me. For now. But hey, if you ever need help dealing with your undead billionaire problem, hit me up.

Danny sighed, shaking his head.

Danny: Sure. Thanks, I guess?

Jason leaned back, grinning as he saved the number under Ghost Kid.

“Roy, I think I just found the weirdest contact in my phone.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Roy replied, tossing Jason a burger.

“Not bad. Just… different.” Jason chuckled. “Plasmius, huh? Sounds like fun.”

[bacchuschucklefuck]

january month of yuugi

[batboopp]

as much as I love batgirl 2024, I have to admit the lack of Barbara Gordon mentions in the whole series so far, especially with the first arc having such a big theme of motherhood/daughterhood and the things that comes with it, makes me soo sad. Barbara was the first person Cass actually considered as a mother! Barbara, although she wasn’t the best at it at first, truly did try to understand and love Cass unconditionally even when she was separated from the Bat mantle! And that panel where Cass overhears Barbara tell Dick that she doesn’t know how to really care for Cass could’ve been the perfect parallel to the whole “is a Mother just being connected by blood? No, Something more is owed/Being a daughter is more than being connected by blood” lines that Cass says in the last (current) issue because Barbara, though she did not physically bring Cass into this world, has sacrificed SO much for her, and in return Cass gave so much back.

[vaguely-concerned]

This might be due to the fact that on my first playthrough I ended up creating a Rook more emotionally guarded than any of the companions except Minrathous-route Lucanis and perhaps Neve, so I was primed to look for it, but I never got the sense that the companions don’t care for Rook (the thought never even occurred to me until I saw other people post about it) — to me it seems much more like it’s Rook who keeps the last bit of distance, Rook who pulls away when the companions try to extend their care or worry too directly, who keeps themselves slightly apart. (Rook who is so full of grief they cannot know as grief and thus process that there’s no room inside them to let anything else all the way in, perhaps.) They deflect and flinch back when someone gets too close or approaches them too overtly about their feelings — especially when it brushes up against the theme of grief. They can offer care to all the companions who are grieving, come along to any number of funerals as emotional support, but the moment someone turns that towards them they shut that shit down Immediately, like when Taash almost gives the whole game away with ‘Like you’d know? You act like you haven’t lost anyone!’ and Rook just blandly responds ‘We’re talking about you’ and doesn’t engage. But they can also admit that they struggle with accepting compliments, or knowing what to say, or having confidence in themselves without Varric’s help.

Despite all their determination and even in their most stoic no-nonsense incarnation, Rook is awkward, with the struggles that entails. Someone who is eager and happy to be the helper wherever they can, and helplessly unequipped to know how to be the helpee, as it were. It’s not that the companions don’t return Rook’s attachment to them, there’s MUCH more of a ‘okay so what are the ways you will allow me to be good to you??’ desperation of care vibe behind all their invitations to conversations and hangouts together, to my mind. They bring Rook to their favourite places and share the things they love with them, they ask to spend time together (many times just to have their company, not because they have a problem they need help with! Sometimes the problem arises anyway b/c video game quest narrative of course), they bring them out for some direly needed grass touching, they introduce them to their families. Everyone is clearly getting the sense that Rook does Not want to talk about Varric especially (this is in fact what Harding says in banter, if she’s still alive after the reveal :’( ), but they are absolutely SCRAMBLING to find ways to show that they’re there for them even so. AND from the companions’ perspective, with the situation as they have the means to understand it, accepting that Rook isn’t ready to have that conversation and backing off is also a kind thing to do. (tl;dr: To Me Rook is that weirdly socialized friend who is a great hang once they’re actually there but you have to directly invite them or they don’t quite know how to initiate the contact themselves lol) 

Just as a crushing sense of responsibility for their family is a trait that is built into Hawke no matter how you play them or how you make them respond to that, I feel like Rook — however helpful and earnest, warm, charming, jocular, stoic or straightforward they seem at a surface glance — is always someone who struggles deeply with connecting to themselves and other people. (Emotional Intimacy, the Final Frontier.) As, indeed, is the case with all of the Veilguard companions too! It’s clearly a deliberate theme. These are all lonely people struggling with their sense of identity and belonging in some sort of way. AND having, working on and eventually starting to overcome these difficulties also makes Rook a direct foil for Solas, who doesn’t learn that lesson unless you corner him at the end of the world to force feed him his medicine lmao. They don’t manage to break out of the regret prison under their own steam, it’s because even struggling and grieving they have managed to create mutual bonds with other people who show up for them in turn now — and with all the protective walls of denial around what happened to Varric crumbling and making them less of a stranger to themselves, Rook is finally able to let them. An outcome Solas seemingly didn’t even consider to guard against, because he’s become that deeply entrenched in his loneliness, the utter isolation of the self — he can no longer truly imagine an alternative. (It’s not that he can’t form these bonds, obviously, it’s that he resolutely refuses to value them. Whether it’s because he feels like he doesn’t deserve it or out of a need for control or the martyr complex where he must sacrifice everything he loves on the sacrificial pyre of fixing his mistakes, all of the above and more, the result is the same. Mind!Varric, who I think is mostly Solas speaking, even calls this out directly. So yet again a situation where he has some self awareness about it and it doesn’t help At All haha. Solas falls to the temptation of making people into tools again and again and again, no matter how many times it comes back to bite him in the ass and the eternal solitude it traps him in.) 

And that deep deep loneliness… There but for the grace of… well the theological state of thedas being what it is right now, let’s just go with the grace of Something, Presumably go you as well, Rook. The same capacity/tendency to pull away from connection clearly lives in them as well in some form (again, for whatever reason and with whatever motivations and instincts behind it for any individual Rook). Solas and Rook coming together to create a blood magic paper doll of the mind Varric in response to acute loss and loneliness is one of the most deep , deeply fucked up and invasive acts of intimacy I’ve ever contemplated. I don’t think that’s accidental, there’s something There’s Something Wrong With You (there’s something wrong with you that’s also wrong with me (derogatory)) here that resonates no matter how both parties would hate to hear it. (A fitting legacy for Varric and his wild ‘I made my best friend into a story because it’s the only way I know how to love with this desperation of sincerity’ brain to leave in the narrative, methinks. I feel he’d appreciate it on a craft level, if nothing else.)

If you read through all of Rook’s potential backstories, one of the common threads through all of them, along with a certain maverick ‘I’ll do whatever it takes’ streak, is a sense of profound alienation. They did something or have some sort of quality that made it hard for them to fit in with the group they’re from, causing a conflict that cuts them off from parts of their identity as it’s been up until now. All of which also adds to how important Varric is to them — he was clearly able to break/see through some of that and be closer with them, even in the relatively short time they spent together. No matter what else goes to shit, they can trust that a) Varric sees them, b) he genuinely likes them and believes in them not despite who they are, but for it, and c) he’s got their back, we’re in this together kid. And then he is gone, and it takes them the whole game to be able to bring themselves to accept that and know themselves again, be able to let new relationships in fully. The very understandable ‘the last time I let someone in, they got stabbed before my eyes and the world ended’ flinch away, even if they’re not consciously aware that’s what it is. Anyway I love Rook. So much space to play around in here as to WHY they might feel or react like this, even when the framework is more defined.

[cynicalmusings]

had a couple more thoughts about socrates-esque!reader and anaxa, which i thought i may as well share:

you get a bad rap around the grove of epiphany, because you are, admittedly, rather annoying — anytime somebody’s finally submitting their thesis, you’ll butt in, ask a few questions, and suddenly three years of hard work goes right down the drain because oops, there’s a little oversight which, if you go down deeply enough, actually undermines the whole argument of the essay.

(people are genuinely beginning to leave herbs and offerings in front their doors in the hopes of warding you off. they do not seem to be working.)

point is, you’re infamous, and as a result are altogether treated pretty badly by the majority of other people; they’re rude, even though you respond to them civilly and politely, they make personal attacks on you instead of responding to your point, and so forth. (to be fair, there are some people who admire you—the majority is convinced you’re an evil messenger of some sort sent by zagreus to mess with everyone.)

you don’t care, of course—your interest lies in uncovering the truth, not what people think about you (in fact, were you concerned by people’s perception of you, you would have stopped questioning ages ago)—but funnily enough, there’s somebody who does get irked when they hear people badmouthing you behind your back (or indeed in front of your face), and this person is, surprisingly enough, anaxa.

he’ll never admit it—gods forbid, he’s far too prideful—but it really just… gets on his nerves when he hears all these nasty rumours being spread about you. if you’re going to criticise someone, especially in a debate, you criticise their position, not the person; it’s basic intellectual honesty and etiquette, and yet so many people forget it the moment you step into the room.

part of his vexation arises from this behaviour; part of it arises from a certain… fondness, one might say, which he has inexplicably developed towards you while he wasn’t looking.

so, whenever he catches people saying this kind of stuff, he will confront them. not in a particularly aggressive way, not in a way which betrays that he might, gods forbid again, actually care about and respect the subject of criticism, but he’ll go up and very flatly ask them to repeat what they said, provide evidence for their claims, and when said people inevitably come up spluttering for words, leave, and feel a tad more satisfied about it than he should.

tldr; anaxa has actually got your back, although he’ll never admit to it. nobody would guess it, considering how much you seem to get on his nerves with your constant challenges and questions to whatever he say, but it’s true. you were mildly surprised yourself the first time he spoke up from the sidelines in the middle of a debate and told your interlocutor to shut their mouth about your method of questioning and answer the question they’ve been so obviously avoiding.

anyway, let’s just hope you don’t get sentenced to drink hemlock. that would really piss him off.

[divorcedfiddleford]

leave the door ajar

[kenanas]

off my thistle antics i have more doodles uh

[broareweabouttoviberightnow]

When the boys are about to do something really stupid but they're too far away for Darry to yell at them he just shouts their name n when they look he gives them the firmest 🤨👎 you've ever seen

[happi-dreams]

I watched electric dreams finally !!!!!

It’s so good and odd but ohshdkebdkwbdhmehdh EDGARRR !!! EDGAR I LOVE YOUU !!!!!! ! ! ! ! YOU DESERVE BETTER !!!!!

When I saw the ending I SOBBED what the HELL,,,,,

[zhelin-thames]

Wrong Number texts #1

Danny: So then Skulker decides the best way to catch me is by building a giant robot suit. But he forgot to calibrate it for the Ghost Zone’s gravity, so it immediately toppled over and crushed his entire lair. Absolute genius, right?

Jason: I’m torn between laughing and feeling secondhand embarrassment for him. Do all your villains suck this much?

Danny: Hey, I don’t pick my rogues’ gallery. But yeah, most of them are either weird, incompetent, or trying way too hard. Vlad’s the only real threat, and that’s just because he cheats.

Jason: Billionaires always cheat. It’s in their DNA.

Masterpost

[visenyaism]

Visenyaism I've started engaging in fandom spaces and I'm losing my shit daily at how fans will shrug off the murder or potential murder of CHILDREN.

The three wee Lannisterlings, Daenerys and Viserys, Rhaenys and Aegon, Daenerys' baby... GRRM spelled it out for them that killing children is NEVER OK for any reason, especially political gain, and yet I still have to fight off demons who think it would be fine for the good of the realm. Am I talking with Tywin Lannister on discord or something???

This is always easier said than done but. Other people being wrong or having bad opinions in fandom space does not have to be your problem unless you make it your problem. You don’t have to engage with everyone. Post what you want. Block. Keep it moving. Curate your space.

I think arguing about whether or not something like murdering children is good is not a great use of your time and energy. Obviously it’s bad like one of the worst things a human being can do. The books are also clear about this. But it’s much more interesting to examine the ways in which the characters complicit in that kind of violence justify it to themselves.

Why would you keep yourself at the “is killing children good debate” level when you have the reading comprehension necessary to choose to move yourself to the “what does it say about westeros that the entire sociopolitical system hinges on child hostages, child weddings, and child murders” level. You can leave the room and go to the honors class it’s down the hall. Open the door and walk out

[arcanegifs]

if we got a caitvi kiss in act 1, with jinx telling vi that she hoped they wouldve made whopee before their “final” battle, then yeah i think theyre the gonna fuck in act 3

[maya-chirps]

My sister's been talking about this for a while ever since the Pope's health became worse, but one thing she's concerned about (and honestly a lot more progressive Catholics are concerned about in general) is who the next pope would be since honestly Francis was the most progressive pope we've had since forever.

He isn't perfect and honestly, I feel like he could've done more, but considering that he did recognize the failings of the previous popes in handling a lot of fucked up stuff in the church and even lifted the secrecy of investigations related to abuse cases and even lifted the restriction of needing Vatican approval before going to the police with criminal charges of members of the clergy is a huge leap ahead of his predecessors.

The fact that he also publicly apologized for some of the atrocities the Catholic Church has participated in or even led (including the church's participation in genocide), is actually remarkable and it's genuinely nerve-wracking to know who's next.

As a queer person in a Catholic family and a Catholic country, it's also extremely anxiety-inducing considering despite his bigoted opinions with regards to trans people, he was also outspoken about how queer members of the community shouldn't be ostracized and families shouldn't abandon their queer kids. Him simply saying "who am I to judge?" when asked about queer people was controversial to a lot of the more conservative members of the church but was a breath of fresh air to queer Catholics.

I don't know where I'm really going with this but with Pope Francis dead, I am nervous as hell about who the next pope would be and whether the church would continue to progress forward (even at a snail's pace) or regress backwards.

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

not enough discussion about the gavins' complicated relationship with feminine-coded/beauty products, i don't think.