#:☆: this was originally somewhere else ( continued threads )

[merveiilles]

⋆˚  ✧. ┊┊ @brokenandlonelysouls continued from here

. ❝𝓘t wasn't an easy task getting back... that's for sure,❞ Rose admitted. It took what felt like decades to try and navigate her way back, which seemed like it was impossible in the first place. However, in a world of multiple different supernatural creatures and the most unlikely things happening, she was glad that she was back in the flesh. She raised her hand and reached up to gently cup Damon's jaw in a comforting manner. ❝I've missed you too. It's been far too long. But don't worry, I never left your side.❞

[flamingpudding]

Fictober23 Prompt: 7 - "Do you recognise this?"

Fandom: DPxDC

Rating: G

Warnings: -

"So, who did it?" Bruce asked, eyes narrowed at the children before him. Clark was next to him trying once more to persuade Bruce that it was unnecessary to go after the kids like this.

The 'kids' in question were the assembly of three of his children, Clark's child and clone and a couple of their respected friends.

"Father, I do not know what you are talking about." Damian piped up offended and crossed his arms. Next to him Jon scratched the back of his head in mild confusion and Dani despite not knowing what was going on but still glaring in defiance at Bruce.

"If this is about our prank war it was definitely not necessary to interrogate our friends too." Tim added looking every bit like he would be somewhere else than here. Kon and Bart were with him. Kon looked rather unsure while Bart had gone and gotten himself popcorn for whatever was going to happen.

"Look old man, how was I supposed to know Replacement would trigger the glitter bomb inside the Batmobile. I already cleaned that up!" Jason put in his two cents, Roy eyeing the other with a raised eyebrow.

Bruce stared at them quietly, not saying a word as Clark continued to fuss next to him to not make it a big deal and that a deep clean would surely fix everything.

"It's not your prank war I am talking about. Alfred will deal with you about the chaos you caused." The three respected batkids swallowed audibly while their friends chuckled. "No, what I am asking is which one of you decided it was a good idea to dye Clark's hero suit and my cape pink."

"Wait, someone actually did that to Dad?!" Jon piped up wide eyed as Dani broke out laughing causing Damian to eye the ghost girl with narrowed eyes and suspicion.

"Who would…" Tim started but didn't finish as his mind came up with possible suspects. Kon on Bart next to him went onto their phones, trying to search up pictures of Superman in a pink hero suit.

Jason and Roy broke out laughing too, voicing their respect to whoever managed to do that.

Bruce's eye twitch at the children's reaction. He then proceeded to pull out an opened can of pink dye and placed it on the table in perfect view of everyone. "Do you recognise this? Jason? Tim?"

"WHY ME?!" They both cried out in protest and Bruce narrowed his eyes on the two. "Jason, your last prank on Tim involved a glitter bomb with pink dye, the Batmobile's seats are still strained pink. Tim, you dyed Damian's shirts pink a couple days ago at the beginning of your prank war."

"So it was you Drake! You are going to pay for this!"

"And I will do it again if you ever touch my laptop again, Demon Brat!"

"How does that even prove that one of us did it!"

"It doesn't!"

"Do you think there might be someone else that fell victim to the pink dye in the JL?"

"Maybe?"

"Why would someone even go after Clark? He has nothing to do with our prank war."

"Jason, my friend. You are indirectly admitting that you would dye Batman's cape pink."

Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose as the children before him (he ignored that at least two of them were over 20, they were children period) started to argue among themselves while Damian's newest friend the Daughter of Phantom, who recently joined the Justice League Dark, was by now rolling on the ground laughing.

Not far from the interrogation Danny sat by a table next to Alfred snacking on some of the best cookies he had ever gotten to eat. He had originally come by to hang out with Tim, Kon and Bart but now he was threaded to some A+ entertainment, Dani was clearly enjoying.

"You recognize the can, don't you Mr. Daniel? I believe you accidentally left it behind in the cave." Danny side eyed the butler next to him and grinned into his next bite of a cookie. "Supes deserved it."

The man hummed and Danny smiled as he was offered another cookie. "I believe I know why but would you please elaborate on why Master Bruce also got targeted? I will most likely be the one who will have to wash out the cape."

The half ghost didn't say anything at first before shrugging. "Kon wasn't the only one who deserved some Justice for how he had been treated in the past. I know they get along now but still… a little pay back for past mistreatment wouldn't hurt anyone right?"

"Ah, so it was for Mr. Conner and Master Jason." The butler smiled in understanding, pushing over a box of take away cookies to Danny. "May I suggest that next time you seek out justice for the boy, that there are other -embarrassing- ways to achieve it."

Danny only gave the man a feral grin as he hopped off the chair with the box in hand. It was time to release the children of Bruce's interrogation. He would just put the blame on Constantine somehow, like a spell gone wrong instead of actual dye being the cause. The man owned him anyway since he had gotten most of his soul back aside from a couple of pieces he was still negotiating over in the Ghost Zone.

[kxttqi]

the lingering taste of your lips on mine 。

↪︎ angst (no fluff guys suffer), gojo x reader

↪︎ warnings: i think i wrote a swear word somewhere idk, reader is dead, not proofread at ALL

satoru gojo was the strongest. he never backed down, never lost a fight. he had never shown weakness to anyone. then you came into his life, a calming breeze that threatened to unravel the very thread of his invincibility. 

his strength was nothing against the softness of your touch, the sweetness of your smile.

in your presence, his defenses crumbled, replaced by a vulnerability so foreign to him. a vulnerability he had sworn to never show after losing riko and suguru. 

he’ll never forget your laughter, a melody that filled the air around him. it was intoxicating and he found himself helplessly drawn to it. he loved making you laugh, watching as your lips curved up, your eyes gleaming with that sparkle he adored so much.

he still remembers the way your eyes lit up when you were excited about something, the way your hand fit perfectly in his. the memory of your gentle voice, whispering sweet nothings into his ear, still in his mind. the way his name rolled so lovingly off your tongue. the way the curves of your waist fit so perfectly into his arms. 

the taste of your lips still lingers, a sweet haunting that he carries with him. every beat of his heart echoes with the memory of your love, a melody that continues to play even without you.  a solo that should have been a duet. he still wakes up reaching for you, but all he grasps is the cold reality of your absence.

but as he runs his finger over the carefully preserved photograph, incessantly gnawing at the edges of his sanity is the truth. 

it was all his fucking fault. 

had he learnt nothing? how had he been so sure that he could protect you? just like he had vowed to protect riko. suguru. yet another life that had slipped so easily from his fingers. arrogance. the word echoes in mind. 

love was the most twisted curse of all. and he had been so selfish to have placed that very curse upon you. how different your life would have been if he hadn’t met you. that smile he cherished so much would still be alive. those chimes of laughter would still be playing. you’d have found someone else, someone more worthy of you. someone who wouldn’t have led you straight into the unforgiving arms of death himself.

but he already knew the words that would come out of your mouth if you could hear his thoughts.

“it’s not living if it’s not with you, satoru.”

as he stood there, shrouded in the dim light of the moon flowing from the window, unstoppable waves of emotion flooded his mind. he had hoped the sight of you at your end would be stored away in the back of his mind, like an old photograph worn from the years, so faded that the original image was barely discernible. he had hoped it would be left at the bottom of the drawer, the happier ones covering it up. he placed his head in his hands, feeling the wetness of his tears against his palms. he hadn’t realized he was crying. 

“the strongest”, was he? what a load of bullshit, and he realized it now. he was far from it. 

what he would have given to have your last words of i love you directed at anyone but him.

© kxttqi — do not repost, copy, translate or steal my works without permission.

[thephooka]

How we got here from there

Or, the long journey of a longform long-running webcomic about a long man with long wings.

In the spirit of @feathernotes and @phantomarine who have been talking about just starting your webcomic and not worrying about being "ready", I was inspired to do a post about White Noise's origin! I'm a little limited by the fact that I either left behind or destroyed a lot of the art I have from prior to 2009, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Cringe Truth below the cut!

The Cringe Truth of White Noise is that it has its roots in a Pokemon x Yu Yu Hakusho x self-insert(s) roleplay thread I used to do with an internet friend I made on Neopets guild forums way back in 2002-ish. We would come home from school every day and RP over AIM, and then when we had to get offline, whoever left first would email the other one, and we would continue via email until we were back on AIM at the same time.

Liya was my self insert.

This isn't even remotely the earliest art of her, it's just the earliest I have on hand. I was drawing her for almost a decade by the time I drew this one. Imagine the earlier drawings as being like I traced over Sailor Moon characters that I printed out from deviantART and gave them a brown ponytail.

The funny thing is Liya really hasn't changed much from her original form! I also had loose brown curls that I kept in a ponytail 24/7 to the point that it showed when I had it down (which is why her hair is 'dented' like that). I did it because I was trans and didn't know it; she does it because she hasn't realized she can just cut it off and be butch yet.

Other characters that date back from this time period: Yoshi (originally an InuYasha/Rurouni Kenshin pastiche), Hawk (I don't remember when he got wings but they were white at first), Numair (named after the Tamora Pierce character and filling a Koenma kind of role), Helly (sort of--I had an elf character named Kamui who had the same temperament, and he was eventually transmuted into Helly) and...Kurogane.

I've never named Kurogane but he appears in the background of the comic a few times, as my own personal inside joke.

Vlad came along somewhere between this RP period and planning the comic, but I can't remember when or why. I don't have drawings from that time (~2004?) but he was the first character I drew when I got a tablet for the first time.

Everyone else came along later when I started actually planning out the comic.

All this said: the reason I started White Noise as a weekly webcomic is because I wanted to learn to draw better.

At the time I was in college majoring in animation, but I didn't feel like I was learning very much at all (the program was badly structured; I had more art history classes than anything else. It was a mess.) I was also working nights in order to feed myself, and so had a lot of downtime. I had this story rattling around in my head from my RP days, so I figured, why not just give it a go?

For posterity here's a photo of a chapter 1 panel in progress, back in 2011 with my typical college diet in the bg:

(Chapter 1 was originally pencil on paper, scanned in and colored in PS. I later re-drew it to make it fully digital to match with the rest of the comic.)

There's been a lot of talking about not waiting until you're 'ready' to start a webcomic, and I agree with that sentiment. Try framing it like this: making a comic every week for years and years will improve your art way more than any prep work you can do before starting the comic. It's like learning to swim. You can read about swimming all you want, but you're not going to really figure it out until you do it. If your early comics are bad, well, that's normal. It used to be an expected part of doing webcomics; I blame the shift into expecting webcomics to be polished from start to finish partly on commercialization in the space, but that's an angry rant for another time.

With this background, here's the collage I posted for WN's 10 year anniversary back in 2021:

And now we're here.

So do your webcomic. Put it on ComicFury or make a janky little site for it. Be okay with imperfect pages and be prepared to shout into the void for a while. Even if it's always a hobby, if it never makes you a dime or wins you any awards--that's fine! You'll be a lot happier if you learn not to worry about that stuff, and just make something that will help you grow and make you happy. We could do with a lot more work like that in the world imo.

[sakuyomihana]

⋆˙⟡ Tangled Threads Of Hearts ⋆˙⟡

Hello everyone~! The update for chapter 1 is finally up, sorry for keeping you guys waiting! Thank you for all your support, I was honestly not expecting so many likes on my prolouge chapter! I'll do my best to continue updating this series, stay tune~ *Disclaimer: This is an original work done by me. Pls do not steal it or repost it anywhere else. Thank you and have a happy reading day~!

Chapter 1: Reunions & First Meetings

Year 2023, Spring

Location: AstralEx High School

  Excited chatters could be heard from the students around you as they made their way through the school gate. Many were about which classes they were in, some were even about them being nervous about starting as first year students.

AstralEx High School is a prestigious school known for churning out many excellent, talented and outstanding students every year. And it really lived up to its name.

Looking over the time sheet that was provided by the school at the start of the year, you scrolled through the contents and found what you were looking for.

‘Guess my first period is homeroom with Mr Yang’'.

Smiling to yourself, you were glad that your homeroom teacher was Mr Welt Yang yet again. He was a very interesting, wise and intriguing teacher that you had looked up to since your first year here and you enjoyed the subjects that he teaches in.

Just as you were about to head into the building, you heard a familiar voice screaming your name excitedly from behind. You didn't need to turn around to know who it was, as the figure immediately glomped you into a bone crushing hug.

“[NAME] CHAN, I missed you so much~!”.

“Quiet down, March.. Hah, it hasn't been that long since we last saw each other…”, another familiar yet exasperated voice interjected.

“Ahaha, it's alright Dan Heng. Sure, it hasn't been long but I missed you too~”, you chuckled and returned the hug with one of your own.

“Bleh~, see [Name] Chan agrees with me~!”.

“*sigh*.. What am I gonna do with the two of you..?”.

The familiar sight of your two best friends fooling around with you, had made your day even brighter. The bright and energetic female, March 7th and the cool and reserved male, Dan Heng had both been your closest companion since day one. The sight of the two bickering over you had never failed to make you smile everyday.

“Now, now.. Why not join us in this group hug, Dan Heng? It's warm and fuzzy~”, you decided to tease the stoic male a little.

“!”, a blush immediately crept out to his ears and cheeks.

“Yeah~! Come on~!”, March chimed in.

You both knew that he has a soft spot for you and using that on him wasn't fair but he still agreed, while it may be embarrassing for him to admit.

“*huff* Fine..”.

And thus, the three of you ended up in the group hug.

Feeling warm and fuzzy from the contact, the three of you finally separated and began heading for your first period. Funnily enough, you all were in the same class yet again for another year.

Chatting again like old times, the three of you walked to class together. Meeting familiar faces along the way, you exchanged greetings and wished each other all the best for whatever's coming up. Amongst them, were your childhood friend, Gepard Landau; fellow literature club member and the student council president, Bronya Rand and her childhood friend, Seele.

It was a surprise that all of you ended up in the same class for your final year, not that you mind but you really appreciated all the company and support that you are getting for you to survive yet another year in this school.

Picking the seats that were the closest to the window, with you in the middle, March and Dan Heng beside and behind you respectively, Gepard in front and the other two somewhere else in the room, you guys took your seats and got ready for homeroom. Mostly everyone that were currently in class, were familiar faces that you had seen before but there were also a few in particular that you had never met before. An example would be this silver-haired male that you had never seen before your entire life. He was standing around and looking for a seat albeit nonchalantly.

“Who is that? I have never seen him around school before..”.

Girl took that question out of your mouth, just as you were about to ask the same thing. What can I say, great minds think alike. But Dan Heng would beg to differ that you were definitely better than March.

“Maybe he's a new student.”, Dan Heng replied, not looking up from the book that he was reading.

“Wow, transferring in straight at the start of the third year. He looks kinda hot actually~”.

“March..”, we all deadpanned.

“Tehee~”.

Lightly chuckling at March's usual antics, you slowly turned to look out of the window, taking in the beautiful view of spring in front of you. Seemingly lost in thought for a moment, Gepard spoke for your mind.

“Itching to recreate this scenery, are you?”.

“!”.

“Aha, you got me.”.

Smiling sheepishly at how easily it was for him to read you, you turned away from the male in front of you and back to the scenery before you.

“It just looks so beautiful.”.

“Yeah, it sure is.”, he acknowledged.

‘But not as beautiful, without you in the picture.’.

He kept that thought to himself, hiding it with a light chuckle.

Beaming back at him, you took out your sketchbook and began to sketch. Your smile had always had an effect on his heart, he wanted to protect it so bad. Trying to keep himself sane, he turned back to the book in front of him as he held back the blush that had already crept up to his ear. Thankfully, nobody had noticed.

Gepard and his older and younger sisters, Serval and Lynx had known you since you were little as your parents knew each other and were friends. Thus, hangouts became very frequent. The both of you did everything together before you were separated in middle school. The young man had already fallen for you when he first laid his eyes on you and he just fell harder as you grew up. You could say that you were his love at first sight, something that started out as a crush before turning into full blown affection, when you guys grew older.

He did try to make his move on you twice upon the urging of Serval, so that she would stop teasing him about it, however, those attempts had failed as your very over-protective older brother that loved you too much had always been the third wheel, interrupting the moments where you two were together.

Not that he wished to give up but he was bidding for the right time to tell you how he truly felt. And now still wasn't and so he waited.

The school bell finally rang, signaling that lessons were about to begin.

You had just managed to finish a rough sketch of the final product and began keeping your materials as Mr Yang took his place at the front of the class.

“Good morning, everyone. I am Welt Yang and I am your homeroom teacher for the rest of the year. To all the students that had been with us since the very beginning, I hoped that you all had a great holiday and a good rest and now it's the start of a new year here in AstralEx High. All of you are now third year students, I truly hoped that whatever we had teached you over the span of two years had not been forgotten and will be put to good use.”.

Everyone in the classroom felt the weight of the words spoken and we resolved ourselves yet again, to not disappoint his expectations of us.

“Now, seriousness aside, I would like to welcome some of the new students that we have here with us today. Let's start off with some short introductions from our lovely students and get to know one another a little better.”.

Each individual student took turns to introduce themselves and what are some of their hobbies, through a game of lottery.

Gepard: “Hi, my name is Gepard and my hobby is taking care of plants and cooking.”.

Bronya: “My name is Bronya and my hobby is reading books.”.

Seele: “The names’ Seele. Er, Hobbies..? Nothing really..”.

March 7th: “Hi, I'm March 7th! But you can call me March! I like to take pictures of all the cute and memorable things in the world!”.

Dan Heng: “Dan Heng and reading..”.

‘Ah, this is so boring..’, someone thought.

->>>>>>>>>

 ‘Ah, this is so boring..’.

The silverette yawned for the 4th time since the day had started. Rude, you all may say but that's just how he felt about all of these.

Caelus had been transferring in and out of different schools for as long as he could remember, as his mother was constantly moving around to different countries due to her job. Not that he could blame her but he's just kinda sick of all this constant moving. He hoped that this was the last, quote unquote hoped, you never know what life brings you.

Due to this, he never bothered making many friends as it was just too bothersome and he didn't need to touch on his emotions. This was not the first time that he had experienced this introduction thing that apparently was a requirement for him to get to know his classmates better.

Stifling another yawn, he watched yet another student introduce themselves to the class. But this time, he was starstruck.

You: “Hello, my name is [Name]. And I like to read and draw in my free time.”.

‘Who was this goddess that had just descended upon him?!’.

You were an ethereal beauty, a sight to behold. He had never met someone whose beauty could ever surpass yours in his life before. Your gentle eyes, smile and voice were like music to his ears and heaven to his sight.

Unable to tear his eyes away from you, it took like a few coughs from Mr Yang, from a light one to a hard one, to snap him back to his senses. Feeling all eyes on him, he started feeling nervous and his palms began to sweat. It didn't help that there were a few piercing glances sent his way and especially yours, he found himself stumped.

Taking in a deep breath, he pulled himself together and stood up..

“H-hi, the names’ Caelus. and er.. my hobby is gaming?”.

He swore that he saw something lit up behind Mr Yang's glasses but he couldn't care less about that now. Fuck, he just wanted to dig a hole and hide in there after such a embarrassing display（＞д＜）!

->>>>>>>>>

Location: AstralEx High School, School Gate

  The first day of school had just flown by like a blur... You were now walking towards the entrance of your school with your friends, as excited chatters filled the previous hallways after such a long day.

You were grateful that Headmasters Himeko and Pom Pom decided to let all the students off earlier today, thus allowing you to head home with all of your friends.

“Mmm! So what will you all be doing after this?”, March asked as she stretched her sore arms a little.

“Seele and I will be heading off first, there's somewhere that we want to go to.”, Bronya was the first to respond.

“Aw man, just as I thought we could all hang out together today.. *sigh*”.

“Maybe next time, March~”, Bronya chuckled lightly at the dejected girl.

“I'll be heading home directly.”.

“Sorry March, Gepard and I have to go somewhere too.”.

“Aw man~”.

Everyone chuckled at the poor girl. 

Truthfully, you wanted to accompany your friend, however, you already had made plans with Gepard to visit Serval's repair workshop and later on have dinner with both families, yours and his.

Gepard on the other hand.. seemed slightly distracted by something and that did not go unnoticed by Seele.  

Deciding to tease the man a little, she linked arms with you and Bronya, snickering as she did so.

“?”.

“Looks like someone is a little distracted~ Why don't you join us, [Name]? Man doesn't seem to remember that he has a date with you~”, she snickered teasingly.

Catching on to what Seele was trying to do, Bronya decided to play along too.

“Ufufu, that's very true~ Shall we?”.

“E-er, wait what?!”, that finally snapped the man out from his stupor.

Seeing his panic expression, everyone burst out laughing, including the usual aloof Dan Heng.

“Ugh..”, the blonde groaned from embarrassment and face palmed himself to hide his blushing face. 

It did not help that you were laughing as well.

“Ahahaha, come on guys.”.

Just hearing your laughter was enough to make the latter redder than a tomato and his yearning heart flutter. The intense laughter died down after a while, as they tried catching their breaths.

“Come on man, just what were you thinking or so distracted by, that you completely zone out on us?”, Seele asked as she wiped away her tears.

“Yeah, Geppie! Tell us tell us!”, March exclaimed with sparkles in her eyes.

“Urgh.. Please don't call me that.”.

“Now now, girls. Stop teasing him already, I'm pretty sure that he has a good reason, right?”, you quickly interjected.

“Y-yeah..”.

“Alright, alright~ Whatever you say but I'm pretty sure we all know the answer. Right, Cold Dragon Young?”, the purplette finally gave in but not before teasing the other male first.

“Hmph..”, the latter chose not to respond.

The conversation finally let up after a gruesome amount of jokes and teasing. With the sky slowly turning an orange hue in the background, the little group began to disperse and everyone left on their merry way.

After the rest had left, it was only just you and Gepard left at the school gate. The once noisy atmosphere had now turned into a comforting silence between two friends.

“Are you sure you are alright though? If you are not feeling well, I can let Brother know that maybe we can shift this annual dinner to another date.”, you asked, breaking the silence as you shared your concern.

“Yeah, I'm fine. Really.”, he replied with confidence.

“Really?”.

“Yes, really. Thank you for your concern but I'm really fine now.”, he chuckled as he ruffled your hair.

Puffing up your cheeks at how he had just ruined your hair, (to which he found adorable) you let out a little sigh before smiling again as you fixed your hair. Just as Gepard was sending Serval a message, notifying her that you guys were going to head over to her shop soon, you suddenly remembered that there was someone that you were supposed to meet.

“Oh right, I forgot that I was supposed to meet Tingyun for a little bit after class ended! Sorry Gepard, do you mind waiting here alone for a bit? I'll be right back.”.

“It's alright, go on ahead. I'll be right here if you need me.”.

“Thanks! I'll be back in a jiffy!”.

And off you went. He honestly didn't mind following you to find your friend but he thought you girls might need some girl time, so he chose to keep his mouth shut and let you go on your own. Taking this time alone, he thought back to events that had happened earlier in the day...

->>>>>>>>>

Location: AstralEx High School, Classroom Hallways

  There were still students frolicking around the hallways and classrooms as you traced back your steps to find your friend, Tingyun. It was unfortunate that this time around, the both of you didn't share the same classes, thus leading to this moment.

You sent the girl a text message as you continued down the hallway, praying that she would respond asap. You were already running a little behind schedule and you didn't want your blonde friend to wait for you for too long, so you quickened your pace. Thinking back to earlier, you wondered what exactly had gotten your male friend to be so out of sorts. He may have said that he was alright but you were still a little concerned. Unable to pinpoint exactly why, you gave up and returned back to the task at hand.

“ Tingyun <3

                                     You:

                                     Hey, I'm here. Whr r u?

Tingyun:

Hi love! I'm outside the classroom that's next to yours~

You:

                                     Okay~ I'm heading over now! “.

Picking up the pace, you headed straight for your classroom. Upon reaching your destination, you finally caught sight of your foxian friend's familiar silhouette. As you got closer, you realized that she was having a conversation with another student, deciding to not intrude on them, you stood a little ways further from the two.

It did not take long for your friend to notice your presence behind her, with that she quickly wrapped up the conversation with the student and headed over in your direction. She bided her time a little and after making sure that the student had already left the premises, she then pounced on you without restrain.

“Love~!!! You are finally here, it’s been too long~!”.

“Hehe, yeah~ I miss you too~!”, you returned her tight squeeze hug with one of your own.

Nuzzling you as her fluffy ears and tail twitched with affection, you felt ticklish from the contact that you let out a cute giggle.

“Ahaha, Tingyun stop! It tickles~!”.

She kept on nuzzling you for a few more minutes and finally letting go when you were out of breath.

“I can’t help it~ You are just too cute to be denied~”.

“Oh, Tingyun~ my love.”.

And she started nuzzling you again.

“Ahaha-haha!”.

She kept at it for another few minutes or so when she finally stopped. By the time it was over, you were panting and wheezing from the lack of air. Taking in and letting out a deep breath as you calmed yourself, you managed to regain your breathing.

“Gosh, that was awful.”, you pouted at your friend while she giggled in amusement.

Smiling wryly, you then proceeded to take something out from your school bag. Emerald eyes shimmered in anticipation as you passed it to her, a small white envelope. You could tell how excited and happy she was with the way her eyes lit up in appreciation, *sigh* the things you would do for her.

“It was kinda hard trying to lie to Brother about this, especially when he knows how adamant I am to his affections, be it at home or in public.”.

“But you still did~ Which means that he didn’t suspect a thing~!”.

Well, at least she’s happy, that’s all that matters.

“Now~ don’t worry your pretty little head~ I’ll of course keep my end of the bargain!”.

Yes.., that’s all that really matters.

“Wait for my good news~! Bye, love~”, with a little wave and there she goes.

‘Well, with that settled, let’s head back. Gepard should be starting to worry by now.’, you thought to yourself as you imagined his panic expression when he finally sees you, given how late it was.

Lightly chuckling to yourself, you set foot back to the school gate..

‘Hah~ The day is finally over.. Let’s hurry home and- Hmm? Is that-’.

End Of Chapter 1: Reunions & First Meetings.

********************

*Author's Note: I'm sorry for the message part of the story for mobile viewers, the entire paragraph was made to fit for desktop!

[reginavulturum]

Terry's Birthday: Fandom, the Internet, and Citations

Or, a too long, too in depth essay on a fictional character's birthday

If you aren't thinking I'm a total nerd by the time you're done reading this than you didn't really read this. But, let's start at the beginning. Recently I posted a timeline I made for "Batman Beyond" and in the time since I made that post there's been something I've seen pop up in tags which I'd never heard of before. A few people were saying that Terry's birthday is August 18th. I was really interested in the source of this claim because I had no recollection of ever seeing it anywhere before now. I looked it up on google (as you do) and found this date scattered around the internet. Case closed, right? But I quickly realized there was a consistent problem on every site I came across. None of them cited a source for Terry's alleged August 18th birthday.

Just look it up yourself and you'll find that the date is ubiquitous across the internet. Yet, as far as I can tell after all my research, it's also completely unconfirmed. I mean, I may have missed something, but if I have than someone else is going to have to point it out to me. I also made a post prior to this one asking people to cite a source for Terry's birthday and no one has so far. You can have a look at that post if you want to know what I consider a good source on this subject. In any case, if this date or any other had been confirmed in any piece of media or in an interview with any DC creator involved in Batman Beyond than I think I would have found a citation for that source somewhere by now.

Right now it kind of seems like August 18th is fanon that's been recycled into "canon". This seems to have happened through a process of source-less wikipedia edits being parroted across reddit threads, sites featuring profiles of comic heroes, other wikis, etc. The less popular June 27th birthday for Terry seems to have gone through the same process. Here are links to some of these sites: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

As my research continued I came across some possible witness testimony of the first mentions of these birthdates:

a.) In this archived thread from the DCAU wiki, in quotations below, I've copied an excerpt of an exchange between two users that I feel is most relevant to this post (emphasis mine):

"So, I've noticed lately that a lot of different sites have been stating Terry's birthday to be August 18th with various years attached to the date. The earliest mention of which I could find is an edit to his wikipedia page in 2008 (which prior to the change stated his birthday was June 27th). I don't remember a mention of when he was born on the show or tie-in comics, and the third volume of comics didn't come out until 2010, so would anyone here know where these dates originate from? -- ReachingForRevolution (talk) 17:48, September 26, 2013 (UTC)"

"I've done some extensive timeline research, and I never came across a good source for those dates. All I saw was a wikipedia edit war with those two dates, but neither is correct AFAIK. The most cited year of birth is 2023, which is speculation as well, but there's at least some foundation for that. --Tupka217 17:56, September 26, 2013 (UTC)"

b.) A similar claim was made in this thread. The relevant excerpt, written by the user "Yojimbo" on October 16, 2023, is in quotations below (emphasis mine):

"No official birth date was ever given.

There was a wikipedia edit war in the 2000s but no source was ever given for either disputed date, June 27, 2023 and August 18, 2023."

As I've travelled down this rabbit hole, I've begun to suspect I won't be able to find exactly where it began, but this is as close as I've gotten. Allegedly, sometime around 2008, there was an edit war on Terry McGinnis' wikipedia page between at least two users over the birthdates of June 27th and August 18th. Now, how or why that edit war even started, I don't know. Why those dates, I also don't know. What I do know is that August 18th is the birthdate that gained the most popularity in the end and spread across the internet.

I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes with this post or call anyone out, really. If anything, this post exists because the subject was interesting to me and I've found the journey enjoyable. If you want to say Terry's birthday is June 27th or August 18th, then please do. Fandom is about fun, not perfectly sourced and cited dissertations on fictional teenagers' birthdays...unless, of course, that sort of thing is fun for you. I know I've loved every minute researching for and writing this...because I'm a massive nerd...but I certainly don't adhere to a strict reading of the timeline myself which is something I plan on covering in an upcoming addendum to my timeline.

In summary, my own research has produced no officially confirmed birthday for Terry McGinnis. This leads me to believe that August 18th and June 27th are fanon birthdates. It may be that I've just not found the citation for one or the other of these dates so I'm open to anyone who can provide me a good source. But really, none of this matters in the grand scheme of things, although it's interesting to see the way user edited/moderated wikis can sometimes bring less clarity rather than more. I'm sure this isn't the only example of that. Assuming I'm right and these birthdates are fanon, I wouldn't consider this a cautionary tale or anything so dramatic. Instead, I'd say this was a case study in the interaction between fandom collated information about fictional works as it exists across the internet and why the adage, "cite your sources", will never die...or something like that...

[burningdarkfire]

books i read in sept 2023

[these are all short + casual reviews - feel free to ask about individual ones if u want my full thoughts or ask for my goodreads!!] 

sometimes u travel somewhere where u have a relative lot of downtime + no data and u reinvent urself as a person who reads

she who became the sun (reread) + he who drowned the world - shelley parker-chan ★★★★★ (historical fantasy)

i reread swbts before tackling hwdtw and the way that this duology is so emotionally devastating! big win for readers who are fans of characters tearing the world apart in their grief and then realizing they cannot live in their new world! and the insane gender goodstuff, of course. ough. will think about this for a while

into the riverlands - nghi vo ★★★★★ (fantasy)

excellent third entry to the series that felt more fun than the other two thus far - i love playing around with myths and legendmaking

[reread] raven quest - sharon stewart ★★★★★ (adventure)

really happy to find out that this book from my childhood absolutely holds up. tightly plotted and paced and really poignant. i love animal adventures <3

the last devil to die - richard osman ★★★★★ (mystery)

no more withholding 5*s from genre fiction!! this book made me tear up for real so even though a silly murder mystery is probably never going to change my life, we have to give credit where credit is due. the most character-focused entry of the series so far and it definitely shows!

war of the foxes - ricahrd siken ★★★★☆ (poetry)

individually less interesting but collectively more coherent than crush. it's cool to have a conversation with a bit of poetry standing in a field, and I do love a good metaphor

the paper menagerie - ken liu ★★★★☆ (sci fi short stories)

great collection to go over slowly - i suspect it might have felt a bit tedious reading it front to back in a sitting. i liked how chinese a number of the stories felt. lots of ideas to chew on!

the poisonwood bible - barbara kingsolver ★★★★☆ (historical)

i just know this book went crazy in high school english class! it has themes and motifs and characters to compare and contrast! there's so much rich ground for analysis. and also treating characters like a bizarre personality test (the avenue of entertainment i chose). fantastic book to chew on and i greatly enjoyed talking to people about it

carrie - stephen king ★★★★☆ (horror)

yeah, i get the hype! this is a book that's impossible to read divorced from how deeply it's ingrained in current popular culture, but it stands up beautifully for itself. i'd love to read more analysis of it that puts in the cultural context of the 70s

hotline - dimitri nasrallah ★★★★☆ (historical)

surprisingly kind and hopeful story, definitely lovely if you want something feel-good. i really enjoyed how the occasional french was threaded into the english, it felt very montreal to me

the monstrumologist - rick yancey ★★★★☆ (historical horror)

tremendously gory and often unsettling. i found myself surprisingly attached to the characters and all the historical affectations of the book - it's not a series that i'm itching to continue but it was a good read

hark! a vagrant - kate beaton ★★★★☆ (historical humour graphic novel)

skimmed through parts of this but it was a fun read from cover to cover. always entertaining to see the origins of some very famous internet memes and there are also some hidden gems!

dead silence - s. a. barnes ★★★☆☆ (sci fi horror)

the author writes a very good spooky ship and very mediocre everything else

the word is murder + the sentence is death + a line to kill + the twist of a knife - anthony horowitz (-★★★☆☆+) (mystery)

decent murder mystery series. the author self-insert is goofy, the random homophobia is persistent, but they're quick and easy reads that go down like junk food

all that's left in the world - erik j. brown ★★★☆☆ (post-apocalyptic romance)

genre-mash that just didn't quite work for me. the tonal shifts between "fluffy gay YA romance" and "the world has ended post-apocalyptic bleakness" were jarring and the book never felt like it cohered into anything meaningful

[welcometoteyvat]

hmmm also I feel like. compared to the other regions that are fully released right now, Liyue isn’t characterized by the fandom (or the game idk) as having as much tragedy as Mondstadt and Inazuma. Mondstadt hosts colorful characters in the form of Kaeya and Albedo, both of who provide intrigue into Khaenri’ah which is probably the end of Genshin’s journey; then there’s Venti who I often see characterized with the nameless bard in angst, and it’s a giant part of his origin story so it makes sense

Then there’s Inazuma which, when you first arrive there in game, is so evidently sad, (Tatarigami, Balethunder, the perpetual rain, etc), despondent, and outright hostile that you know something must’ve happened there; the major world questlines and other less important NPC quests (ex Chouji, the crystal marrow kid on Yashiori Island) emphasize that a lot of people have gone through a lot of tragic events, not to mention Raiden’s backstory (at least when you do her second quest).

Compared to that I feel like Liyue’s arc feels idk a lot less dramatic? The civilizations that were located there are mostly completely gone and do not have a chance of returning; besides the cataclysm and the tragedies that occurred in the Chasm it feels like Liyue’s arc has been completed (?) somewhat? They’ve overcome the trials of old—Zhongli’s old friends have been put to rest, and he’s gotten closure with all of them, either through a second chance or through the passage of time that soothes all grief; the harbor is in good hands; the Qixing are confident in their governing of Liyue; and the adepti have settled into their roles assisting, but not overbearing upon the mortal age of Rex Lapis’s country. None of the characters we’ve met have many unanswered questions that are Teyvat-wide lore-significant and it feels like the city is flourishing once again, under different management, but continuing to thrive.

*This is not to say that Liyue is boring/too plain bc a lot of my favs are from there, but it does feel like endgame is going somewhere else- there’s not enough loose threads to tie up anymore

[c-estmabiologie]

wandering daughter | Critical Role fic

It's been a minute since I've written in fairy tale-ish form. This is a Pâté de Rolo origin story. Also on AO3 In the woods somewhere, under the cover of night, there wandered a young woman who had been a young woman, unchanging, for a very long time. These woods looked the same as any other she’d passed through over the years. Sometimes the trees changed, became denser, spikier, but they were otherwise just trees. The people she came across likewise changed appearances but always acted the same — mean and fearful — no matter the scenery. 

She didn’t have a clear destination. She had only Delilah, her wandering companion, if you could even call her that (you couldn’t call her that) and an endless stretch of time. 

According to Delilah, this was why she existed still: to survive, to last forever, to keep going, to keep going.

One night she came by the remains of a fire. Usually a fire meant other signs of life would be left behind: maybe something useful or, if she was especially lucky, something useless and pretty. 

Maybe this fire pit was simply too old. The ashes looked like they’d been rinsed and dried by rain and sun a few times over. Anything that could have been claimed had already been buried or carried away. 

It was only by chance that she heard an indignant sound from the ground next to her boot before she continued on. She crouched down and  brushed dirt aside to reveal a crow’s skull, picked clean of any meat. 

“Oh, hello there,” she said. Her voice creaky from disuse. “I’m Laudna. Who are you?”

“Not much of anything anymore,” the skull replied. Laudna pulled it out of the ground and held it in her hand. It fit perfectly in the hollow of her palm, where all of the creases met and crossed over each other. 

“That’s not true,” Laudna said, “I think you’re great.”

“I miss the parts of me that are gone,” he told her.

“I feel that way too most days,” she told him. He named all of the parts he was missing for Laudna: his feathers, his talons, the hollow bones of his body. Laudna agreed that it was a shame that so much of him was lost, but wasn’t it so wonderful that he could remember them all?

She cut a length of yarn from the spool at her hip and threaded it gently through the hollows where his eyes had once been. She kept him dangling loosely around her neck (her fingers would touch the knot where it sat against her spine again and again. it felt huge) and he rested against her sternum so that their bones could keep each other company.

–

On another night they came across a rat. It had clearly been left behind by some predator, and not recently, although neither of them could name a creature that would eat a head and leave the body behind. 

“I think it’s perfect for you,” Laudna said to the skull. “Look. It’s already dancing.”

It was true: the body was doing the gentlest shimmy on the ground. When she picked the body up and turned it over in her hands, the grubs began to fall onto the leaf litter below. Plip-plip-plip.

Laudna could feel him considering the rodent, its naked tail and limp little limbs. He’d told Laudna before that he didn’t mind living on Laudna’s chest – he loved it, actually – but with a body he could be so much more.

“I don’t want to share it,” he said finally and she agreed. It wouldn’t be fair.

She scooped and scraped the insides of the body clean for him. As she did so it occurred to Laudna that the maggots had always lived there inside this rat, had probably hatched there even, and that this was their home to consume on their way to leaving as shiny bluebottle flies. Still, she scooped and scraped.

She left behind a messy paste of meat and maggots at the side of the trail like a half-eaten meal that someone else might come back to and finish.

–

Laudna found shelter in an empty hut to bring the skull and body together. She worked by the hut’s only window, keeping watch through the cracked glass in case a stranger came by to seek refuge. 

The rat body was stuffed with her own hair and with fabric torn from the hem of her skirt. Before she sewed his belly up, she tipped in a single dead fly from the windowsill, all six of its legs curled in to hug its own body.

She finished by tying a tidy red bow around his neck.

“You’re so fancy,” she told him.

He waggled his rat hips, testing his new body. “I am fancy. I should have a fancy name.”

Of course, Laudna knew more about fancy things than he did. At least, she’d seen some fancy things before. So she gave him the fanciest name she could think up without thinking about it too hard.

–

Laudna loved to while away hours and days with Pâté. At night, she lay on the floor of the hut and listened to him tell rollicking stories that somehow always ended with an orgy. During the day she lay on the floor and they made shadow puppets on the wall that slowly became more and more obscene. Pâté was the funniest friend Laudna had ever made. 

“My child,” Delilah broke into Laudna’s thoughts one day, interrupting a particularly bawdy tale about a siren and a coxswain. This wasn’t unusual, and Laudna stopped to listen to her like she always did. 

“None of this is real,” Delilah said. She sounded tired, strained. “There is so much yet to be done.”

“You’re a reaper of fun,” Pâté chirped. “I feel so sorry for you.”

“Pâté!” Laudna mock-gasped. “Don’t be rude to her!”

Delilah rewarded the exchange with a biding silence for days that stretched into weeks. It became too much time for Pâté and Laudna to fill up together, all alone. 

For the first time in…months, maybe, Laudna pulled herself to her feet. Patches of her skin held impressions of the cracks and grain of the floorboards; her body complained loudly as it shifted and realigned, vertebrae restacking vertically and organs finding gravity again.

She tied Pâté to her belt and tested out a few steps. His weight bounced reassuringly against her leg as she walked a circle around the room. 

At nightfall, they set out and kept going together.

[talkinbouttinygames]

FAREWELL. - A Send-Off to Blaseball

I’ve got no way to put this that it’ll make sense to someone who wasn’t there. But I’ll try my best, because at this point, recollections are what’s left. The stories told – about something really, really excellent. I said it in my original coverage, but stories are Blaseball. The names and the stats and data are just the materials the fans steals to collage into a narrative of strife and struggle and the whims of fate and community, and it was like nothing else I’ve seen before. And I doubt I’ll easily see it again.

It makes sense. Blaseball in its entire run has never been sustainable in a healthy way. Despite being about as lightweight as you could make a kind of game, it just wasn’t enough for the fast pace. Things like the sun being swallowed by a black hole or the Grand Unslam are wonderful legend pieces, but they’re also proof of the game’s frailty, and the fact that they were embraced by the fandom is partly a stroke of luck. It’s pretty clear that Blaseball can easily run you dry—I myself was rather checked out during the Expansion Era, which I now regret despite circumstances at the time—I don’t blame the Game Band for deciding continuing the game wasn’t worth it. Maybe if the game had been drafted with sustainability from the start, requiring a subscription like an MMO and on a TV show schedule… but it was made as an off-hand project born of frustration at impotence in times of crisis for the sake of profit, a gift of the internet. The way it took off and grew probably wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t you could just sign up for.

Of course, “took off” might be a bit of hyperbole. It exceeded the Game Band’s expectations after they passed the game around to some friends, sure. But the fact is that despite the overwhelming love from the fans, Blaseball is really quite terribly small and niche in the grand scheme of the internet. It mostly existed on Twitter, a site whose future existence is a great deal more precarious than it was around a year ago. It’s very liable to become a piece of passing trivia, or obscure nostalgia, supposing no Youtuber video essayist makes a rundown that goes 7-figures viral. Obviously, as a man writing for a ‘zine mostly read by his patient friends, I’ve not nearly that influential, but I want to say: Blaseball will not be forgotten, not by me. I love(d) it and it opened my eyes to a wondrous form of narrative and I’ll be thinking about it for the rest of my life.

It was a game of rotten systems, about how disparate people across groups can work as a greater community in order to rebel against those systems, and yes, through rebellion be punished—sometimes dearly for it—but never negating the existence of the rebellion in the first place. It was a lovely loom for weaving sports narrative and the fandom (a good chunk of whom are not sports fans) provided thread with passionate fervor. It was a wonderful testament to collective play and the act of giving a shit.

I’d advise any Blaseball fan to save and archive (preferably physically somewhere) any and all Blaseball media they’ve got on their socials or elsewhere. Even aside from the now seemingly imminent Twitterpocalypse, the Blaseball wiki exists primarily as a way to dispense the events of Blaseball in a clean, matter-of-fact way. It won’t express the reaction tweets, the fan theories, the narrative as it was on the ground. (And for that matter, the wiki itself still has gaps with what is essentially a skeleton crew of editors…) Blaseball was ephemeral in its life and it’s up to fans to stop it from fading.

I am, we all are love Blaseball.

[feedback]

[queenjulia11]

[the following was originally posted as a twitter thread on 1/15/2023. Also I fully acknowledge that the Haunted City fandom is like maybe 10 people, but if this gets at least one person interested I did my job].

Ok. Spoilers up to ep 13.

I need to talk about this show because I feel like no one else is and that's a crime. This is unlike any actual play l've seen in that EVERYTHING is improvised, including character backstories and relationships. This only makes it more impressive when the theme reveals itself:

Haunted City (if you ask me) is about what happens to people when their addictions are no longer available to them/no longer able to help them, and how that hurts both the addicted and those surrounding them.

Juliette is addicted to the idea of Ophelia, but when she finally has her back, she realizes that the person she loved and wanted more than anything is gone. Life can never be normal again. The Ophelia she knew can't be the thing that keeps her moving forward anymore.

But she still goes to her. She can't just go back to life without Ophelia again. She knows this devotion is bad, she sees how it's hurting Ekeprag, but she can't stop it. She doesn't want to.

Valkos is addicted to giving himself to the spirits of Duskvol because it makes him feel alive. He knows it's bad for him, and he does manage to turn it down a few times. He refuses to be Ophelia's vessel not only because it won't help Juliet in her grief, but also because it'll continue to tear him apart. He thinks The Path of Echoes will help him to control and manage this, but they turn him away. He isn't ready. They can't help him feel alive.

So he falls down the hole of The Builder — a being who won't refuse anyone who is willing.

Seljak doesn't start the series with an addiction. If anything, he's the one warning Valkos against it. He doesn't recognize that summoning Ophelia is feeding Juliette’s addiction; he wants to help his friend and a lost ghost. To Seljak, being a servant to the spirits is the greatest thing he could possibly do with his life. He wants to help. In doing so, his faith becomes an addiction and he doesn't even notice.

The Builder is his dream come true: a god who needs him. It doesn't matter that serving The Builder makes all the other ghosts fear him -- this is bigger than all of that. *This* is what he was put on this earth to do.

But when Valkos compares Seljak's devotion to Juliette's, he doesn't deny it. He knows. But it'll lead to freedom eventually, right?

They're trying to make each other understand their perspectives, because they all genuinely care about each other and seek to protect the family they've built, but they've just barely begun to realize that they're going in circles. And Ekeprag suffers as a result.

I can't help but remember how this crew started. Vowing to make towers fall.

And what are they doing now?

Building a tower.

Sorry for the longer one, but I have to thank @JCVIM, @rossbryant, and @Abzybabzy for their brilliant storytelling and performances. I can't wait to see where this all goes. (Hopefully somewhere where Ekeprag's okay? Poor guy…)

[I did add to this thread later, but I think I’m gonna post that as a reblog because this is already a longer one]

[merveiilles]

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ⋆˚  ✧. ┊┊ @starsmuserainbow ⋅ continued!

ㅤㅤ❝I know that we tell each other everything... But- but I can't!❞ The anglerfish tried to answer the question she was asked, but she found it increasingly hard. How was she supposed to tell her accomplice and lover that she was sneaking to the surface of the ocean to meet new friends on land? They never used to be so separate, they did everything together, and Mimi surely didn't want this to come between the two. She turned away from Sheshe and brought her hands close to her chest as she averted her gaze. ❝I'm-I'm scared of what you will say.❞ Mimi said quietly.

[howtofightwrite]

Hi! Thank you so much for running this blog. Question: I want to write a novel in the superhero genre about a hero that doesn't have powers, and I tried to find other books like this to study, but I can't find anything other than Batman things, and none of them are novels. Do you have any general writing tips that I should keep in mind?

There are some Batman novels. Not many that I'm aware of, but those do exist. (DC was doing a whole series of prose novels a few years back, though I'm unsure if that's continued.) However there's a couple problems here. First, Batman has superpowers; officially he's described as being, “unpowered,” but, when you start to consider the actual content of what he does on a regular basis, yeah, the character is superhuman. Second: There's a cross thread here: Unpowered superheroes are, usually, still superheroes, it's more a measure of keeping their powers low key enough that the reader doesn't realize they're superhuman. Batman, Black Widow, The Punisher, and the entire cast of Watchmen (excluding Dr. Manhattan) are all prominent examples of this. Third, there are multiple genres that deal with, “unpowered,” characters who, much like Batman, stretch the limits of human prowess to superhuman levels. The action hero is the easiest example (while that's more often seen in films, it does have a strong literary tradition. Especially in pulps.) Finally, yeah, there's a lot of material in comics. So let's look at this in a little more detail.

As I mentioned, the vast majority of unpowered superheroes in comics are, in fact, superhuman. The biggest tell on this is injury management. Even when you're dealing with superheroes that are skilled enough in combat to avoid suffering serious injury, there's still going to be considerable wear and tear, from the violence itself, which would be debilitating after a few months. In the case of Batman, you're looking at a character who goes out patrolling every night, hunting down criminals, and getting into violent altercations fairly frequently. He returned to Gotham in his early 20s, and most of the comics are set with him somewhere in his 30s. Ten years of constant combat is enough to give you crippling arthritis, stress fractures, and generally reduce your body to a complete mess. (He also doesn't age, most of the time. The character has been around for 83 years, and spent most of that in his late 20s or early 30s. This is pretty common with comics characters in general, but, it is a, “superpower,” and it have even become an explicit superpower on occasion, like Batman: Year 100.) If nothing else, his ability to retain the title of, “World's Greatest Detective,” while simultaneously suffering enough cranial trauma to reduce his brain to the rough consistency of wet mashed potatoes speaks volumes to his superhuman resilience.

Since I mentioned him a minute ago, Frank Castle doesn't get off any easier here. Based on the sheer quantity of unsurpressed gunfire he's been hanging around, he should have a case of tinnitus so intense people standing near him would hear it.

Is this a problem? Well, no. It's not. It is something to be aware of going in, however. If you want a comic book that really digs into the idea of an unpowered character, Mark Millar's Kickass comes to mind (and, yes, I'm recommending a comic here.) The main gimmick is looking at the physical harm associated with being a vigilante hero. Ironically, there's a film example in the original Die Hard. The main hook for the film was tracking the injuries an action hero would suffer in the course of their adventure. (A theme that was almost completely lost after the second film.)

When you're writing a character into a superhero setting, a lot of those characters remain superpowered, even when they're not supposed to be. It's almost a genre convention. This is also true of most action protagonists.

With that in mind, almost any action adventure, particularly pulpy ones, will give you characters who are ostensibly unpowered, but are actually superhuman. I feel like I recently recommended him, but Robert E. Howard's Conan is an “unpowered,” superhero, in print. The only issue is that he's in a pseudo-historical fantasy setting, but it excellent prose.

You really do need to check comics, if you're wanting to write superheroes. If you're wanting some good recommendations, Alias and Planetary are both easy to recommend. Both are explicitly superhero comics, but they have their own perspectives on the genre.

The tricky thing about writing characters with superpowers (or a theoretical lack thereof) is keeping in mind how asymmetric power dynamics work, especially when you're mixing characters into a world where you have literal gods walking the earth, alongside normal people, and assessing the dynamics for how that would change things. One of the subtler elements of Watchmen, is seeing just how much Dr. Manhattan's existence transformed the world. It takes a bit of work now to fully parse out exactly how, “wrong” Watchmen's 1985 is in comparison to real world history. (This would have been much easier in '86 and '87 when the comic originally released.)

It's almost impossible to overstate how much Watchmen changed western comics. But it does check the exact boxes you're asking about; unpowered superheroes, and an examination of what that might look like. It's also excellently written. Alan Moore is an extremely skilled author. If you've never read the original comic series, you should. Finally, his epistolary prose excerpts between the issues, which are vital for fully understanding the plot. Technically, that's not exactly what you wanted, but it is there.

For prose superhero series, the first thing that comes to mind is George R. R. Martin's Wild Cards. I'm familiar with the series in passing, but I've never read them, so I can't tell you what you're getting into there.

Beyond that, I'm not sure what advice you'd need to hear. The superhero genre covers a vast range of material, and even if someone wants to try to reduce that down to a set of fixed rules, they're not as familiar with the material as they want you to think they are.

-Starke

This blog is supported through Patreon. Patrons get early access to new posts, and direct access to us through Discord. If you'd like to support us, please consider becoming a Patron.

[m---resources]

hi! when i try to download episodes from the mega folder it tells me that i have to pay to do that. do you know what i could do? <3

hi! yes, sadly mega has a free download limit of 5gb every 24h per ip-address, which is its main downside (i give you guys links with mega as a host because it's much harder for people to make nearly enough google drives for all of this, considering new google accounts now each need a verification via a real phone number. mega also has much better privacy protection in general)

about the download limit, there are a few things you can do: (below the cut because it got long)

1) download MEGAsync, mega's own cloud synchronisation tool, which you can find on their website here. this lets you save links and thereby queue the downloads, so you will not lose progress if you run out of download capacity for the day or shut down your computer in the middle of a download (like you would if you were downloading in the browser). also, whenever you have the programme open, it will automatically resume your download queue once your free account has capacity again. you do need to make a free account for this, but you can use a throwaway address like one from 10minutemail. just do not forget to note down the random e-mail address it gives you somewhere because you will still need to use it as your username anytime you log in.

2) use premium link generators. a premium link generator is a website that downloads any mega (or many other filehosters') links you give them through their own premium accounts on those hosting sites, then reuploads whatever it finds, and lets you download the file from their own website for free and at a high speed.

the link generator sites pay for those premium accounts with ads they show you, though, meaning you have to click through quite a few of them and several captchas to get your free link. for this, please make sure to have at least one adblocker (like adblock plus and ublock origin), and if you want to be cautious at least one antivirus plugin (like malwarebytes and avira), installed. there are some posts with good general privacy plugins floating about, i will add a link here if i find them again. when you click through the ~5-10 ads and captchas, there will be one page that will ask you to disable your adblocker - please only turn it off if you can't clear that site otherwise and turn it back on immediately after you have cleared that site. in general, also make sure to close any pop ups that open and pay attention to finding the correct continue/download buttons (though i've never really had fake ones, just mentioning it to be sure).

the only premium link generator that consistently works for me is uploadedpremiumlink.net. they give you an additional 5gb of downloads per day on mega if you are logged out, 10gb if you make an account. once again, you can use a throwaway mail address like from 10minutemail to make an account as long as you remember what your username and password is

3) use a vpn or some other way of changing your ip-adress. if you are not logged in, then the only way that mega determines that your 5gb are up is via your ip-address. if you can appear under another ip-address, it should give you a new 5gb of capacity, assuming somebody else hasn't also used that ip-address to download from mega in the same day. sadly, i can't really recommend you any free vpn services as i do not have any experience with any of them - but maybe others have some suggestions in the notes?

i hope this helps, at least a little bit! i also searched some reddit threads but couldn't verify any other options on there myself.

as always, please use any information i give you at your own discretion, and if anyone else has any suggestions, i'd love to hear them!!

[dasklaus]

One of my professors said that you can distinguish your thoughts from outside sounds, and you know they're your thoughts, and he said this to make some point and like it's super obvious that everyone can easily do that. Another keeps harping on the continuity of subjective experience. Another talks about mental representation as words, phrases, as if that's the only form thoughts can take. A classmate is writing about a sensorimotor account of consciousness and part of the discourse on that is whether dreams are meaningfully different from experience, with some scholars arguing they are so different that they can't even be said to have experiential qualities.

This keeps happening - claims of universality, nay, not even claims, just the completely unquestioned certainty that something is obvious, self-evident, where I'm pretty sure it's not. It's as if people studying the mind (particularly philosophically) have never encountered an unusual mind in their life. I can't even imagine that's the case, surely philosophy students are pretty weird, on average.

Here's what I believe on those issues.

The concept of self and selfhood as the origin of internal monologue is a cultural construct. Scott writes about dissociation better than I could, so to be brief: we're imaginative animals, and we're social animals. A pretty big part of our mind is optimized to model the world as closely as possible, to make predictions, generate expectations etc. Of particular importance is modeling other people, something which (a part of) is sometimes called empathy or theory of mind, depending on which part of it you look at. Making up a guy to get mad at on the internet is not only annoying but human, and so is carrying around our loved ones in our head to have imaginary conversations with. Blorbos, especially if we are writing them ourselves, are popular imaginary friends. We don't always feel like we're answering ourselves when having conversations with them! This is pretty common! There's probably a cool multidimensional spectrum to describe to what degree made-up others feel like ourselves, and to which degree we can perceive them. And again: the point is to model them as realistically as possible, therefore, it's not weird when they feel (or sound) like real external people.

The self keeps re-constructing itself periodically, whenever memory gets flushed. Often when we wake up, but also sometimes during the day. I don't consider myself to be permanently conscious in the sense of being self-aware, and when I start being, it's like I'm taking stock of myself, what situation I'm in, who I am, what I'm doing or am about to do. When dreaming, this can include being someone else, or something else, in bizarre circumstances, without batting an eye - my sense of self adjusts immediately. It's only when critical thinking kicks in (after waking, or, rarely, when lucid dreaming), I can suddenly tell what makes no sense, because I can compare what I feel I am with what I rationally know myself to be, and that higher cognizing grants access to more information about myself and the world I live in. But disable that critical thinking, and you could put "me" in a different body, different life, different being, no issue: self-awareness takes stock and accepts whatever it finds. Nothing about "identity" is essential. No continuity necessary. You can't tell whether you're missing time, or memories, because you do, constantly, and just skip it. I feel like that sort of reset + taking stock can be externally observed in blackout drunks - that is, during the period where they are conscious and awake, but not recording memories. They "reset" every couple of minutes, whenever there's no thread, no train of thought binding one moment of awareness to the next (I have half of a post on this somewhere I should finish writing one day).

Thoughts can be verbal, but they can take on other modalities, too. Even permanent internal monologue havers aren't restricted to verbal thinking. Awareness of being hungry can take the form of the internal monologue remarking "I should eat something" or "I am hungry", but that is neither common nor all there is to the experience.

Dreams and reality are notoriously difficult to distinguish, and historically haven't commonly been, whether you look at Parmenides or Lévy-Bruhl.

This is ad-hoc spitballing, I should definitely think about this more and better and in a more awake state of mind, but I think it should be enough to reject how "self-evidently", "obviously" it's different.

[jellie-tamer]

Scar dreamed that night, though it was more of a nightmare. He dreamed of a place long burnt to the ground, and of a time he would rather forget.

(tw: "human" expatiation and torture) (human in quotes because it is Scar, but when he was much more vex than player)

The summoned vex sat, small, weak, and in a cage. It had lasted longer than most of those it was created with, but there were still a few that were with it. They sat, quiet, echoing giggles the only sound in the dimly lit room. The summoned had no souls, and no thoughts of their own; they were created originally to simply obey, and now to be a test.

Torches flickered to life from an unseen magic and the vexes flew up, flying in circles around their tiny cages, awaiting their next instructions or tests. One vex is selected.

The next day the lights return, and the three remaining fly once more. One vex is selected.

It does not return. The lights are gone.

---

It does not return. This repeats until there is only one summoned vex left. Small even for a vex, but just as obedient as the rest.

---

The dream shifts, just slightly. It's in a different part of the lab now. The vex has settled within its cage, after being ordered to silence, and awaited the test. The room stank of strangely sweet pinkish liquid that used to fill its brethren, their bodies nowhere to be seen. The vex sat, not seeing the danger, only obeying its summoners.

When the lights and people returned for the final vex, it flew alone, but with the same thoughtless energy as before.

---

The vex was placed on a table, its small body held in place by small straps. It did not struggle. (Yet)

A syringe containing a sparkling, swirling, glowing, blue and red liquid was placed against the summoned vex's chest. It was placed right where a heart would be if it were really alive.

(Outside the dream, Scar flinches and whimpers, as if it was happening to him again.)

Searing pain and burning flooded the vex's body as the syringe was injected into it's body, flinching away from an experiment for the first time. It screamed, and screamed, and screamed, and screamed. It felt the liquid pushing through their body and melding with their form so painfully. It wanted to get away. For the first time, it wanted.

(Scar let out a sound that if someone were listening closely could be heard as a far away scream, but it was too echoey and quiet to sound from far away like anything but a slight groan.)

The tiny vex pulled away again, needle from the syringe ripping across the skin leaving a large wound soon filled with crystalizing blood.

Tears welled up in the vexes eyes as the burning did not relent, screaming still, until for the first time it slept without being told to.

---

It could feel new bones slowly growing in its body, but it didn't know what they were. It was scared. The previous day's experiment had hurt the worst. It needed to escape.

The vex woke up in the cage again, buzzing of something new still thrumming through its body. The experiments continued, hurting so much more than it remembered them hurting before. The vex was larger now, but the cage was not.

Suddenly the dream skipped again, and the vex was flying fast, passing through wall after wall after wall of the mansion. Panic threaded through its body, breath that it didn't have before coming fast and shallow. Eventually it's phasing magic decided to fail, and it crashed into a wall. It scrambled around, trying to find somewhere to hide.

Making up its mind, the vex tried to sleep, to collect its energy for the next day when it would try to fly away.

---

There was a wool statue in the room, a cat with beautiful green eyes. The vex flew up and wriggled inside the statue's head, hoping they wouldn't find it there. There was something else in the statue with it.

(Scar stopped whimpering, relaxing slightly.)

A cat, soft grey and white unlike the statue's black and white, but with the same brilliant green eyes. The vex scrambled to the opposite side of the hollowed out head of the statue, away from the strange creature it has never seen before.

The cat walked up to it, tipping her head to the side at the vex. It whimpered in fear until she gently pressed her head against its little shoulder. The summoned vex flinched, eyes screwed shut, not having known kind touch before now. When the cat's touch did not hurt the vex slowly opened its eyes to look at the other creature in the room with it.

Its tail twitched nervously, as it slowly reached out to pet the cat. Taking this as an invitation, the young cat headbutted against the small vex, purring loudly. The vex tried to return the purr, cracking and broken slightly by the fact it had never made this sound before, but it still tried.

The cat pressed her head gently against the vex's forehead, its eyes tingling slightly; but it didn't notice, burying its tiny hands in the soft fur. A link forever forged between not-vex and watcher-cat. The vex's eyes shifted white to green to match her's.

Shouting startled the vex and it pushed the cat away in fear, not wanting her to be found. She disappeared, but the vex didn't notice.

They had found it, and dragged it from the statue by its wings, fragile almost-bones shattering in the grip. The vex cried, squirming as it tried to escape their grasp, but it was brought back down to the dark lab.

(Scar shivered, curling in on himself slightly. His leftover stumps shook.)

"This thing is lucky we're even keeping it around at this point, so much trouble." "Maybe we should get rid of the wings, it can't escape if it can't fly." "Bring me my axe."

The vex squirmed and screamed. No no no this couldn't be happening, this couldn't be happening it was so close!

The axe came down and cracked against its wings. It sobbed, gasping and squirming as it was held down and the axe came down again and again and again and again and-

The vex screamed, but then suddenly inside of being held down it was the one holding someone down. Grian. Crack crack crack-

The dream shifted. The vex was itself again.

(Scar's hands shook. Scar whimpered.)

---

The dream shifted.

It sat in a cramped cage, barely bandaged back pressed against the bars. The wings being severed seemed to have sped up the growth of those new bones, small new legs tucked beneath its arms as it cried.

---

The dream shifted.

The vex's legs had developed more, and it had grown more. The cage was much too small now, cramped and squished against the bars. It had tried to escape a few more times. It failed each time, a new scar crossing its back.

---

It was running. Stumbling through the burning mansion, phasing through wall after wall after wall after-

It was outside. It had escaped. It made it. It gasped, stopping to pant and catch its breath. A familiar cat padded up to it, twining in-between its legs.

The dream shifted.

Safe.

---

The vex sat in a tree. It had been years since it escaped, but it was struggling. It hadn't eaten in so long, and its magic was weak. The cat had tried to help, but she could only do so much without scaring it.

Someone new approached it, startling it from its slight daze. They looked like an adult, but not too much older than it? They had a bit of a beard, and were wearing a soon to be familiar lab coat.

"Hey, are you alright?"