#? its very mild

[crvstybowlofcereal]

took iron supplements and worked out today

my spots are back!/affectionate (pigmented purpura)

[stevesbipanic]

@steddieangstyaugust Day 1: Second Chance

Eddie had always pretended he was living life without any regrets.

After all that's why he was chasing an impossible dream of being a rockstar, it's why he jumped on tables and fought for his club, it's why he told his uncle about the boy he kissed when he showed up on his doorstep battered and bruised.

He thought he'd die one day without an ounce of regret. But laying in a young boy's arms, in the darkest depths of hell, choking on his own blood, all he could think of was what he'd have done differently.

He's not mad he didn't run, he'd do it all again to protect Dustin, to protect his home even when it's turned against him. He doesn't regret making Chrissy laugh in the woods rather than turning her away. No, he doesn't regret all that, he regrets everything in between.

Regrets running from the trailer, leaving his uncle to deal with the fall out. Regrets not apologising to Lucas, being mad about basketball seems so silly now. Regrets giving Dustin this last memory of him.

Most of all, he regrets Steve.

He doesn't regret selling him weed after the mall burnt down, or kissing him a month later. Doesn't regret bringing him to every show even if the crowd was small. Doesn't regret every smile, every touch.

He regrets not kissing him goodbye, when he knew he wouldn't survive the battle. He regrets that he'll be cold and gone before he gets back. He regrets that he didn't get to tell Steve he loves him, too scared, too afraid Steve would run like him.

He can hear Steve's voice in the distance, but it's so far away now. He regrets not staying a few seconds longer, he regrets that he won't get to stay.

.

..

...

He'd thought the afterlife would be warmer than this, especially if the town had been right and he got sent to hell. The air feels cold, the world too bright even with his eyes closed.

"Eddie?"

Ah, must be heaven, there's no sweeter sound than his personal angel.

Wait, no, Steve didn't die.

Eddie braves the light, blinking his eyes slowly open. The interior of a hospital room slowly comes into focus, and there he is, his Stevie, he's crying.

"Why are you crying, baby?" His voice is rough. That doesn't seem to stop the tears even as Steve chokes a sad laugh.

"I thought I'd lost you, I thought I wouldn't get to tell you I love you," he says, voice catching halfway through as he grips Eddie's hand.

"I was supposed to say it first, it was my dying wish, Stevie!"

Steve gives him a gentle flick, clearly not appreciating the joke.

"Sorry, sweetheart, I love you too, I'm sorry I almost didn't get to tell you."

"It's ok, Eds, you're here now."

And Eddie wasn't going to waste his second chance, he was going to spend every day telling Steve how much he loved him and he wouldn't regret another moment.

Welcome back to another month long event and this time it's my very own event!

[lazycranberrydoodles]

the difference between miles and phoenix is that miles says his snarky thoughts out loud lmao

@neni-has-ascended's very cool notes on AA translation and honorifics

follow for more art <3

[syn4k]

to be, or not to be (romanticization of the inevitable)

[silverwhittlingknife]

hi Silver! o/ because that fanart made me wonder - would you happen to know when/where Dick's stuffed elephant plush Zitka turns up in the comics?

GREETINGS CAM <3333 THAT ART WAS SO CUTE

Yeah, I think your instincts are right - it's a truly adorable bit of transformative fandom, but I'm 95% percent sure it's not comics canon. Barbara has canon plushies, but I don't think anyone else does.

I got kinda invested in the investigation (it's hard to prove a negative!) and I ended up typing out an entire History of Elinore/Zitka, so, uh, if you're curious, meet me below the cut for:

Where does Elinore / Zitka - the animal - appear in comics?

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

Where does Elinore / Zitka appear in comics?

We're gonna go in chronological order!

Dick's circus elephant friend was first created for practical reasons: in Batman 436, Marv Wolfman does a big expanded flashback to Dick's circus backstory as a way to subtly show us Tim before officially introducing him (so that we can have a technically-solvable mystery-of-Tim's-identity in LPoD). In this comic, there's an elephant named Elinore who loves Dick:

Aww. Such a cute elephant!

Batman 436 comes out in August 1989. New Titans 60 comes out a few months later, in November, and guess what? When Dick visits the circus, he is suddenly surprised by an unexpected blast from the past! It turns out that even though it's been years, Elinore still remembers him!

Here's the part where Elinore remembers Dick:

SUCH a cute elephant. I love her.

(Guess who else still remembers Dick even though it was so long ago. Guess which other character is about to be an unexpected blast from the past. Guess which character Elinore is directly paralleling guess guess guess sorry everything is about Dick and Tim in my mind but I can focus I swear)

Four years later, in 1993, Batman: The Animated Series retells Dick's origin story. They like and keep Wolfman's elephant, but they change her name to Zitka:

Wolfman doesn't return to the elephant beyond those two appearances, and a few years down the line, New Titans gets cancelled and Wolfman's not writing Dick anymore anyway. So the animal gets abandoned for a while, until Devin Grayson, a fan of both Wolfman and B:tAS, revives the Wolfman-era Titans team in JLA/Titans and then the ongoing series Titans 1999.

Grayson then brings back the elephant in a flashback to Dick's past in Titans 16 (Jun 2000), where she imports the B:tAS name. Sometimes I'm skeptical of TV-to-comics imports, but honestly, I endorse this one. You lose the alliteration, which is a shame, but IMO Zitka is a better elephant name than Elinore.

Here's Dick with the newly-christened Zitka in Titans 16:

Grayson also briefly references the elephant in Gotham Knights 20 and - in a final angsty callback - in Nightwing 88 (Feb 2004), where Zitka tries futilely to comfort Dick in the midst of his trauma conga line:

... And... honestly, I think that's it for comic appearances? The two Wolfman comics plus the three Grayson comics.

Both Wolfman and Grayson are writing multiple titles - Batman, New Titans, Titans, Gotham Knights, and Nightwing between the two of them, spanning a big chunk of Dick's post-Crisis canon - and both writers use the elephant for heartwarming moments of nostalgia, which means if you're doing a post-Crisis readthrough for Dick, Elinore/Zitka feels memorable. But I don't think she actually shows up that much.

For post-2011, I am not as well-informed - throwing this out to the dash? anyone know? - but I feel like Zitka the heartwarming symbol of Dick's heartwarming circus past is, uh, thematically very at odds with the Court of Owls evil!circus vibes, so my instinct is that this story element was almost certainly dropped in the reboot.

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

In WFA, yes; in main comics continuity, no. Technically, I have not read every comic ever published, so I could be wrong!! But I don't think so.

Below, find my rambling reasoning on the tonal vibes of pre-Crisis, post-Crisis, and post-2011, and why this particular story element doesn't seem right to me for the first two.

Pre-Crisis (...okay, mostly the Silver Age): stuffed animal, yes or no?

tl;dr no, requires too much background knowledge on the part of the reader, plus the elephant wasn't a thing until later

Elinore doesn't get created until post-Crisis, but also just generally, pre-Crisis callbacks are more along the lines of this reference in Batman 129 (published in 1960), where, wow, Batman and Robin are hunting jewel thieves - and it turns out Robin recognized this strongman! BUT HOW?!

The comic goes on to recap Dick's entire origin story in flashback, on the assumption that you may not know it.

(BTW, if you'd like to know more about Haly's Circus throughout the years, nightwingology has a great post here summarizing a lot of fun plotlines and characters!)

Basically: Silver Age comics are very self-consciously episodic and kid-friendly; they're not generally gonna do overly-elaborate callbacks because they don't know what comics their kid readers may have randomly picked up or remember.

By the time of post-Crisis, comic books were being written for an adult audience buying from the direct market, i.e. readers who are collecting whole runs & don't need or want Dick's origin story to be recapped to us in full every time it's referenced. That's why in post-Crisis, we get stuff like "hey, neat, this particular soda brand is getting mentioned in several different books!!" or "in order to understand this story arc, buy SIXTEEN DIFFERENT COMICS in FIVE DIFFERENT RUNS and read them ALL ACCORDING TO A NUMBERED ORDER and also you better be following the individual plotlines and recognize these five minor characters who we don't bother to introduce!! Good luck!!" But the elaborate post-Crisis plotlines - and subtler worldbuilding like a stuffed animal callback to Dick's backstory - don't make a lot of story sense UNLESS you're imagining your readers as completionist adult fans.

So IMO a stuffed animal wouldn't be a pre-Crisis thing unless it was The Episodic Story Of the Week, and I don't think a stuffed animal is action-adventure-y enough for the fast-paced storytelling of the Silver Age. (Unless it, like, came to life and tried to eat you or something.)

Post-Crisis: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr: no, Dick's a manly tough guy, he's not gonna have a stuffed animal, that'd be lame, like something Tim might do

Part of the edgy grimdark adult vibes in 80s/90s comics is that some characters who used to be kinda silly & goofy & lighthearted - like Batman and Robin - get reimagined as Serious and Angsty and Edgy in a Tough Cool Manly Brooding Way. This massively affects characterization for Bruce, Dick, and Bruce and Dick's relationship.

(I obviously love this change & love the tense Bruce-and-Dick interactions, but plenty of fans of the earlier fluffy comics really disliked the edgy retcons of Miller / Wolfman / Starlin / et al.)

The upshot is that post-Crisis is a period when you could have a recurring reference like a stuffed elephant, but you wouldn't have a stuffed elephant, not for Dick. I think a toy like that would be too cutesy / childish / effeminate to give a male character in post-Crisis, unless you were poking fun at him.

Now, you could probably let Tim have a stuffed animal, because Tim is sometimes cool but also sometimes a tryhard loser who is faking being cool and not entirely pulling it off (see e.g. the Robin comic where he practices tough-guy faces in the mirror, or the Teen Titans comic where Conner discovers his cringy Enya CD, or when he's fanboying over Connor and it's awkward, etc etc.). A stuffed animal would be deeply embarrassing, and you'd have to be careful to compensate by having Tim do something cool afterward - but Tim's character concept allows for "he's kind of a loser sometimes."

But Dick isn't!! In post-Crisis, Dick's a tough / impressive / "cool guy" character, the kind of guy anyone would want to be, even in the flashbacks where he's Robin, and even in the stories where he's more lighthearted than angsty. It'd be kinda lame for Dick to have a stuffed elephant, so he wouldn't. I feel like Dick would be more likely to poke fun at it if someone had one, like when he's making fun of Wally for liking the Hardy Boys. Dick could have a Batman action figure, at most, and if he had one he would have it ironically.

Basically: in post-Crisis, a male character hugging a stuffed elephant feels more likely to be a punchline to me, not something poignant. (Even with Tim, Tim could have an embarrassing stuffed animal, but he couldn't hug it when sad - that's too far. Maybe Booster Gold might do this. Probably he wouldn't, but spiritually, he would. Sorry Booster ilu! <3)

Instead, Dick instinctively deals with his inner turmoil like the TORTURED ACTION HERO he is: by punching things and brooding and yelling and joining the mob and sleeping on rooftops and going on obsessive secret missions and acquiring Angsty Stubble!! Just like Batman!

(Technically I don't know if Bruce ever joined the mob but you know he would.)

Anyway as you know this is my favorite continuity and I am poking fun affectionately, but uh, yeah sdfsfdsfs. No stuffed animals.

Post-2011 / Infinite Frontier / Wayne Family Adventures: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr it's in WFA! Probably not anywhere else, but it could be.

Post-2011 stuff tends to be cutesier overall, most of all in the current Infinite Frontier era. So I don't feel like this would be tonally out-of-line with IF comics. Taylor tends to go for more meme-y references rather than fanfic references, though.

So the obvious best fit is WFA, which is aiming for a rough approximation of Silver Age family-friendly vibes - wholesome, episodic plots, Teaching Good Moral Lessons For The Youth, etc. - plus lots of Easter eggs for fanfic readers and some comic references.

And look, here we are:

Aww.

Whew - that's everything I could find!

Anyway as you can probably tell, I LOVE the elephant, so this was a very entertaining rabbit hole to go down, thank you <3

[chasing-faith-and-fate]

For Dewkit, What is your favorite part of living with Sootsnow and Silkglide? Any favorites?

[senselessalchemist]

ahhh fuckit why not - halloween comic in november

(apologies for inconsistent quality)

[hdra77]

Is Your slugcat Friendly to other slugcats?

Well...

they are known as a cryptid by other slugcats. a strange beast that is neither a lizard or a slugcat. an abnormality with an upper body of a prey and the lower body of a predator. they have extremely low reputation towards all creatures and that obviously includes slugcats! so no, they are not really friendly to other slugcats. they pretty much eat anything that falls into their trap. they are very cunning but can sometimes appear to be docile when they're not hungry also ft. random slugcat i came up on the spot lol

[skimmeh]

Mmmmight be making a team to help run the Stareater au! As we've come to a realisation how slow the story would be told without help (we both artists...so writing definitely ain't our strong suit) but I'm Determined!!! to tell the story in its entirety

we already have some very talented artist friends willing to draw episodes covers occasionally! And also help with stuff like proof reading!

And I do still want to do most of the heavy lifting with the au as it don't wanna put any stress on others ..buttt I do need help with writing and sorta have to bite the bullet and ask for help haha

But writers are where we need the most help currently

Thing is I wouldn't know the first thing about how to find ppl willing to help with writing. I also wanna make sure I'm organised and know at least some skill when it comes to running a collaborative project like this, to avoid any stress, because that's honestly my biggest fear to stress people out like I have been :') cos we're also we're doing all this for free and purely as a self indulgent project

HM so ..if you got any advice on how to find writers or run a team! Tell meee

For now I'll focus on ...uni work considering I'm also doing that on the side HAH

But yeah! ..also ep 5 as soon as I have the time to finalise it!

[madameoni]

Past the point of no return No going back now Our passion play has now at last begun

I had an idea fit for Valentines for the first time in forever and I had to do it. I also had to post it early over here bc why not.

[abirddogmoment]

A storm brewing over the city

[theonekierce]

So you thought I was really gone? Poor old Bunny! But I hope Mackenzie saw your face?" "He did," said I. I would not tell him all Mackenzie must have seen, however. "That's all right. I wouldn't have had him miss it for worlds; and you mustn't think me a brute, old boy, for I fear that man, and, know, we sink or swim together." -The Return Match

poor old bunny indeed :( he had a rough day :(

[moeblob]

Ohiwe (lady) and Ohime (man) aka the fire deity after they get punished.

Originally just "Oh", the fire deity had a bit too much fun with punishing humans and so in a means to stop them, the elder gods split them into two. So now they have to be together in order to have their "full" power but as before the split, they get restless and like to wander. So while one stays in their city, the other gets to go out and travel and see the world and check on the other deities.

Also, as a whole/singular being Oh would use they/them. After the split however, it's definitely not the same and so Ohiwe likes using female pronouns and Ohime uses male pronouns. That way when discussed as one, it's back to they. That feels best for them.

[evercelle]

other than genshin and dr, what other games/animes/shows are you interested in? would you draw them?

currently watching dungeon meshi, freiren, shangri-la frontier and the apothecary diaries!! (also mashle lmao but that's one of my friend's picks for weekly anime watch night, not mine...) Dunmeshi is one of my all time fave manga, and I'm really enjoying freiren too. highly recommend both

games: been playing a lot of baldurs gate 3... my pal and I are doing a tactician run now (': and tomorrow, a game I've been really looking forward to is coming out! "Octopia" which is a farm sim AU for the game "Eastward," which I also super recommend. Wonderful indie RPG with gorgeous pixel art

would I draw art for any of those... probably not lol even tho I post a lot I don't usually draw fanart unless I REALLY gotta exorcise some demons about it haha. The ousai worms are still fully engaged atm but I love looking at other peeps fanworks 🎵

[saeiken]

❄️❄️❄️

[i-shit-in-your-bathtub]

mild good omens s2 spoilers

everyone hypothesizing/hc that Crowley was the archangel Raphael b4 the fall bc not only is Raphael conveniently missing but Crowley was also a high ranking angel pre-fall

great theory! wonderful but there's no text where Raphael falls & also the universe and the stars were never his dominion

I offer you Kokabiel: "the star of god"

a highly ranked angel known as a watcher (meant to watch over the universe) who became a fallen angel and commands an army in hell

known as the angel of the stars and teaches of constellations, Kokabiel while considered fallen is still seen as holy despite being a resident of hell

literally I feel like this fits mr gaimans narrative much better and gonna be honest archangels are actually very low level in angel rankings & Crowley is specifically at least a dominion or throne so he had to be pretty high up there even assuming the book /show moved where archangels fall on the hierarchy plus watchers land high up in the hierarchy so it would make since for him to have access

most fallen watchers fell bc of their involvement in the creation of the nephilim but if Kokabiel is generally considered holy its unlikely that that was the reason he was cast from heaven

and I would say that angel Crowley has a childlike love of his nebulae that it seemed like god did not respect & we can assume that he fell bc of him questioning the almighty about the universe

like I don't think neil gaiman has prefall Crowley set up as the angel Kokabiel but I do think it fits a tad bit better that currently floating theories

again this reinforces my theory that Kokabiel didn't defy god by creating the Nephilim but instead he came upon the corruption of heaven which we know that Crowley knows better than anyone, and that is what led to his fall simply questioning heaven or the almighty & being cast to hell for it

thanks for coming to my ted talk lmao, a lot of research went into this theory