#fixing the rift

[natalievoncatte]

It was a very good day, all in all. Nia had spent the day winding through the downtown shops with Lena, who was enjoying the anonymity afforded by dressing down in a hoodie. The spring air was crisp but not cold and they made their way down, eventually, to the waterfront and strolled through the open air markets, to Lena’s favorite food cart, where she bought them both tamales.

They were sitting on high stools around a bar height table and Nia was indulging thoughtfully on her mournful of tamale and sour cream when Lena very casually said, “when did Kara tell you that she’s Supergirl?”

Nia almost choked, grabbing her lemonade in a mad dash to wash down her mouthful of food and breathe again. Lena wasn’t looking at her. The question had come in a cool tone, but with a hard, brittle edge.

It wasn’t some weird joke, or strange passing fancy. Lena’s eyes were hard, a sharpness to her look that often came into her delicate features when she spoke of someone she hated. It made her stunning beauty seem dangerous and vulpine.

“Not long after we met. I told her I was an alien first and about the whole dreaming thing, and then she told me.”

Lena nodded and sipped a bottle of Mexican soda, nudging her half-dismembered tamale with a plastic fork, smearing thin strips of shredded pork angrily across the cardboard bowl.

“When did she tell you?” Nia asked, wincing at the quaver in her voice.

Lena looked up, and met Nia’s gaze. She had her CEO face on- unflappable, a little contemptuous, even arrogant, a kind of distance in the way she looked down her nose. It made her look queenly.

It also made Nia’s bowels turn to water and she had to focus on shoving her lunch back down where it belonged.

Lena said very softly, “she didn’t.”

Nia made a fist and pushed the heel of her hand against the table to hide her shaking.

Oh God, she thought, what have I done?

“How did you…” Nia began, “when…”

There was a bird chirping nearby. The crisp pleasant air carried the salt of the sea. It was a good day, a nice day. The sun was shining and Nia fancied she might look up and see Kara zooming overhead, just to check on them.

To check on Lena. Like she always did.

“My brother told me before I shot him.”

There was a cracking, brittle and qualify to Lena’s half-whispered confession, and Nia instinctively looked around for eavesdroppers.

“W-what do you mean?”

“Lex had an emergency portal device in his suit, set uo to ‘port him out if he was in danger. When he portalled back to his old hideout I was waiting for him.”

Nia licked her lips. “Then what…”

“He showed me. He had surveillance footage- Kara using her powers, not just to protect me but to hide evidence, conceal her secret from me.”

“Oh,” said Nia.

“He wanted me to join him. He expected me to flip out and decide to help him kill her, I guess.”

Lena gave a little shrug.

“And then…”

“Then I killed him. I shot him twice in the chest and then again in his stupid face.”

Nia looked around again. This was a conversation to be had across the path from a food truck selling deep fried fruit pies. Lena’s usually pale face was flushed a deep red and her eyes grew wet.

“You know,” said Lena. “James must. Alex, obviously. Wynn, Wynn must have known. Alex’s boss, other people at the DEO, right? How many people know there?”

Nia thought of Kara’s locker at the DEO and felt a surge of panic, as if she’d been dunked right in the ocean.

“How many times was I in a room with all of you and I was the only one who was wasn’t in on it?”

“Lena,” Nia began.

“What did I do wrong? Why me? Why did I have to be the one kept in the dark? I could have helped her, just like you do, just like Querl does. I could have done so much, but… what? What the fuck did I do wrong? Is it because I’m a Luthor? Is that how you all see me, too? Is that how she sees me?”

“No,” said Nia.

It was burning in her chest, yearning to break free.

You must never tell either of them, Brainy had intoned, you have to swear. The fate of the entire universe depends on you not revealing what I’m about to tell you before it’s time.

It was like an unscratchable itch. The knowledge that Brainy had shared with her, the secret he had whispered in her ear, almost drove her mad. It took her a while to make peace with it, even find comfort in it. She knew, knew with total certainty that things would be alright because something that was supposed to happen hadn’t yet.

Lena was staring at her, silently begging for Nia, for anyone, to make it make sense.

Lena was on the verge of hyperventilating, her hands trembling uncontrollably.

“I had to do it,” Lena whispered.

“Do what?”

“I had to shoot him, Nia. He was never going to stop. He was going to kill her eventually. Do you understand?”

Nia slid off her stool, and gently took Lena’s arm, guiding her down as well.

“I can’t do it,” said Lena. “I can’t keep it in anymore, not after this, nor after what I did. I can’t pretend now I just can’t do it.”

“Pretend what?”

Lena didn’t answer, not directly. “I know why she didn’t tell me. I can see it. It must be obvious, right? I must be so sad and pathetic to all of you.”

“What? No! Why would you think that?”

“Everybody has to see it. I’m such a goddamn cliche. I know why she won’t tell me.”

Nia blinked, shaking her head. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“She’ll never want me the way I want her.”

Those words, that tiny little half-confession, rocked Nia to her core. She felt her knees give a little and her own expression go momentarily vacant, and the words were out of her mouth before she could even think to stop herself. Nia Nal was a bad liar. She had no poker face. She was an open book.

“Yes, she does.”

Lena looked up sharply, her eyes almost comically wide with shocked hope.

“What? Nia, what do you mean? Do you understand what I’m saying here?”

Oh.

Oops.

Nia’s gaze searched Lena’s face, trying to find some way to get herself out of this without dropping a timeline-risking truth bomb.

She couldn’t. It wasn’t right. Lena should know. She had a right to know.

“You know all that stuff Brainy says about how the records from the past -the past to people like him way in the future- are gone?”

“What of it?”

Nia swallowed hard. Lena edged closer to her.

“If you know something, please! Nia please.”

“You’re one of the most historically significant people who ever lived,” said Nia. “They still know about you in the future, and Kara is… who she is. There are still some records.”

“What records? Nia what are you saying?”

Nia bit her lip for a moment, then closed her eyes. “Brainy told me that you’re remembered by history as a great inventor, scientist, and explorer… and as Supergirl’s wife. The mother of her children.”

Lena’s mouth actually fell open in an absurdly comical look of shocked disbelief.

“The mother of… me? I’m going to have children? Kara’s children?”

“Yes,” said Nia. “Or you’re supposed to. Hopefully I didn’t just mess up the entire future. Shit, Brainy is going to kill me when he finds out about-“

Lena was staring at nothing, her eyes wide.

“I… I have to get home. I have to get ready for tonight. The Pulitzer gala, to celebrate Kara’s award. I’m meeting her there so I can give the speech before she accepts it.”

“Okay,”‘said Nia.

They discarded their half-eaten tamales and took a Lyft back to Lena’s building on Nia’s account. Nia watched her walk inside and drop her hood so the doorman would escort her in, and then sat in stunned silence as she rode back to her own apartment.

She was sitting on the couch aimlessly scrolling on her phone when there was a knock at the door.

When she opened it, Kara rushed in, dressed and made up for her big party. She stormed across the room and looked around in a wild panic.

“I have to tell Lena tonight,” she said. “I have to. I can’t keep this a secret anymore, it’s eating me alive. I can’t let her go out there and give a speech about how trustworthy and honest I am after I’ve been lying to her this whole time, but I’m scared. I can’t… I can’t lose her, Nia. I can’t. I’m worried it’ll break us. I can’t lose her.”

“You won’t lose her.”

“She’s going to be mad I lied. She’s going to figure out why I couldn’t tell her.”

“Because Alex would blow up at you?”

“No,” said Kara, meeting her gaze. “Because she’ll never want me the way I want her.”

Nia looked at Kara for a moment, and then sighed.

She understood why Alex liked that nasty whiskey she always drank.

Nia could use some too.

[kokodrawings]

Role reversal AU: Sakura as Orochimaru's student 🐍

(and Sasuke as Tsunade's successor)

[jaclose]

The villagers' good memories about Jafar.

[ooftimesone]

in honor of me getting the asset ripper to work

[flightyfinch]

mend

[nenoname]

seeing discussions on whether bill could trick stan and yeah it is pretty akldhkasjdha to think stan is untrickable when the last regular ep is him getting tricked by darlene (and we know that eda/"marilyn" stole his stuff/almost got his car by tricking him with a vegas marriage)

[riotinyellow]

WAIT WAIT LET ME COOK

In the first act, Jinx fixes sevika's arm in the second act she will fix her finger, and in the third act, she fixes her zeppelin that we saw in the arcane trailer.

So she'll end up fixing everything

[ravens-lodge]

Kyrus sketches, with a few in game refs

[skyloftian-nutcase]

It’s interesting how Nintendo seems to be like… backing away from the Triforce? Like the symbolism is still there but we’ve now gone four games without its mention. In BotW/AoC it was Zelda’s sacred power (which is implied to be the Triforce??), in TotK it’s secret stones, and now in Echoes of Wisdom it’s like, what, Elemental Power? It’s also heavily implied to be the Triforce. It’s just kind of weird, but I guess you could chalk it up to time passing and corrupting terms??

[kokodrawings]

Role reversal AU: Tsunade's successor

(and Sakura as Orochimaru's student)

[rhythmmortis]

RIFT RELEASE DATE FEB 5TH THIS IS NOT A DRILL

i will not lie to you. this has given me so much motivation to get things done. if i have to be busy catching up with work when this comes out im going to murder someone. i wishlisted this DAY 1. I CAN SEE I WISHLISTED IT ON 24/8/2022. I AM GOING TO START BITING I NEED IT I NEED IT I NEED IT I NEED IT (and yet again you are quite literally better than steam at updating me on this stuff, and you're so much lovelier too :) )

[writeouswriter]

Dungeons and Dragons needs to stop making me stressed in real life, I already have real life stressing me out in real life

[wizzroboe]

Oh they're Lesbians Lesbians, got it

[viviantimmet]

y’know, it’s actually really refreshing that Hope is unambiguously pure evil. Gabrielle is always helping people overcome their dark sides. That’s her whole thing. So its really interesting to subvert this with the one person she wants most of all to believe she can save.

[sentient-rift]

Merry Christmas!

"Merry Christmas, everyone!"

"We hope you are all enjoying your holiday!"

Be sure to spread kindness to people wherever you go!"

"Enjoy some quality time with your friends and family!"

"Reconnect with family you haven't seen in a while."

"And make some new friends along the way, too!"

"We hope the gifts you received made you smile!"

"And we hope that the gifts you gave to other made them smile as well!"

"No matter where you are in the world, we hope your Christmas or holiday equivalent to it has been wonderful!"

"Thank you... All of you... For being with us for another Christmas. We appreciate each and every one of you, and we hope you'll join us for another year to come."

Hey, everyone. I know this year my activity levels have been back and forth due to how busy I can be IRL, but I'm so glad I could spend another Christmas with old friends, as well as with the new friends I made. Whether it's celebrating the birth of the Lord Jesus, being kind and sharing good will, or spending time with your friends and family, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. I Know I sure had one...

With that said... I admit being a bit drained, so I hope you don't mind that I save the Christmas Gift Meme for later, whether it's some time tonight, or after Christmas. I still hope you'll still send some in regardless because I love being able to do these kinds of activities with you guys. I wanted to make sure at the very least that I could wish you all a Merry Christmas. It is my favorite holiday, after all. I'll get to the gift memes as soon as I can, but until then, Merry Christmas, keep up the good work, stay awesome, and God bless all of you.

[nemofisj]

i remake the same character on both of my versions of Skyrim sometimes. i have fun