i need you guys to fall in love with female characters the same way you do male characters i need you guys to fall in love with female characters the same way you do male characters i need you guys to fall in love with female characters the same way you do male characters i need you guys to fall in love with female characters the same way you do male characters i need you guys to fall in love with female characters the same way you do male characters i need you guys to fall in love with female characters the same way you do male characters
"Bruce is terrible at communicating to his kids that they are family instead of a job, that he's their father and not their boss, and that he views them as his children, not just his wards-" BITCH where do you think he LEARNED that from
i know we keep saying tour of healing but i can't help it. kintsugi tour. tour of healing old wounds and massaging away the ache from old scars. tour of picking up those old, dusty songs that never felt like they were yours - that were released without your consent, that never felt like fall out boy, and reclaiming them, letting them crease anew into your skin. tour of taking songs once packed to bursting with spite and bitterness and teasing out the heartfelt love and forging the memories into newer, better ones. gold sealing the scalpel tracks left behind after a traumatic break. the magic 8-ball spins round and round, lands on songs never before played, songs that never logistically could be played. we beckon our friends onto the stage with us (the very same one that did the original backing vocals for chicago is so two years ago, mounting the stage 21 years later to do it again live).
you have to make weird art. you have to make things with your friends. you have to laugh and love unapologetically. you have to be unafraid to do whatever stupid, inane, insane thing makes you feel alive. if the world is always spinning and the world always feels like it's ending, maybe this is the answer. it's love. it's love. it's love.
Nico and Percy's dynamic through the series is eternally funny to me, because it's just. like.
Percy's having a constant mental struggle between his fatal flaw of loyalty with a promise he made to Bianca to protect Nico, versus his Big 3 kid desire to maim other Big 3 kids / Poseidon descendant urge to totally maim Nico specifically. He hates Nico so so much. He thinks Nico's annoying and weird at best, and creepy/sketchy when he's older. The only positive thoughts Percy has towards Nico are "He's Bianca's brother and Bianca was my friend and I owe her/He's Hazel's brother and Hazel is my friend and would kill me if I was mean to him," "He's a powerful asset and useful ally (if questionable)," and "He's kinda pathetic and I feel maybe a little bad about it." Percy has multiple occasions throughout the series where he strongly considers - and on one occasionally actually goes through with - throttling Nico.
Meanwhile, Nico is following around Percy like a lost puppy. He explicitly can never bring himself to even dislike anything about Percy no matter how hard he tries. He has a whole bit in BoO where he's mentally going "UGH he's so stupid BUT IT'S ENDEARING HOW DARE HE." He's totally smitten. He's making deals with his dad for Percy. He's making convoluted plans to help Percy stand a chance against Kronos. During the entirety of BoTL it's like he's playing tsundere - "I'm helping NOT PERCY SPECIFICALLY with this quest! Me helping Percy would be SILLY because I DEFINITELY HATE HIM." Then he proceeds to show up to Percy's birthday party to basically ask him on a weird date and spend the entire next book scrambling around trying to help him or protect him or impress him. And Percy could not give less of a shit.
Just. That dynamic is so funny to me. Percy is the founder of the Nico Protection Club in that he's the one they're all protecting Nico from and meanwhile Nico is throwing himself at Percy to the point where the literal god of gay love calls him out on it.
anyway, there's a fun kind of eroticism in being given everything, in taking things that aren't yours without any real consequence, in climbing towards becoming a Roman Alexander, only for one man to deny you, over and over and over again, at every turn. Sulla tried, Crassus did it better. who would put a butcher in their place? who else knows you well enough to do it? who else can match you step for step like this? doesn't it feel like a kind of intimacy, a kind of—
it's also about the 'even sulla kissed my sword/so you want me on my knees too?' innuendo was too good to pass up. that was actually the first line I wrote, I figured out the rest of this to justify making a comic with it
and finally! the sword line is referencing/playing off of Lucan's Pharsalia a little bit because it fucks hard
(Lucan's Pharsalia, trans. Jane Wilson Joyce)
EDIT: oh, and that's a public domain anatomical illustration of a heart. you know how it is with love and hate.
*Tim and Bernard are laying in bed sleeping, limbs entangled as Bernard sleeps on Tim's chest*
*at 3:47am Bernard is awoken*
Bernard, swatting Tim as he is squinting in the dark: Hey grasshopper? Is that a sleep paralysis demon-
Tim, shifting slightly, eyes still shut, basically sleepy mumbling: you wouldn't be hitting me, you'd be paralyzed
Bernard: then I think someone is stealing clothes from our closet
Tim, running his hand through Bernard's hair so Bernard knows he is listening: don't know why, we are the pits of fashion, they should be stealing from Sophie and Louie's closet, or even Tammy and Lauren's closet
Bernard: is that... Robin?
Tim, wide awake now, swiveling his head towards the closet: WHAT?
Damian, standing there in a Robin outfit looking through their clothes in the closet, gathering a pile on his arm: Your father wants you to call him, Drake
Bernard: Robin works for Bruce? Actually, that's not surprising.
Robin, walking out with a pile of clothes on his arm: I am confiscating these *walks out the door*