#an alive one..

[arcticflakes]

thinking about..Gregory edgeworth…and Colias palaeno..and Byrne faraday…and Tyrell badd…these guys just give off such silly energy. What is this. How do I explain this. Why am I obsessed with these SILLY CREATURES

[fermentedgutz]

visitation

wouldn’t it be funny if ford was able to visit bill at his intergalactic, therapeutic, meet-you-on-the-other-side-and-it’s-not-heaven-or-hell-but-a-third-evil-thing prison

[symphonyofsilence]

Let the poor man rest.

[bl00dalchemist]

I liked my Obito angry as hell, thanks very much.

[eddiegayass]

[muffinlance]

Consider: Post-canon Zuko wakes up in the body of his childhood self, the morning of That War Meeting. Would he still speak against the plans, knowing his fate? What do you think he would do differently the second time around?

"Turned away at the doors, Zuzu?"

"Shut up, Azula," her brother sulked. But sulked weirdly, after staring at her too long and too wide-eyed, not like she'd surprised him but--

But like he hadn't expected her to be there. At all.

He turned away. ...He turned back. "Hey, Lala? Do you think you could help me practice that one set?"

He didn't meet her eyes.

She narrowed hers. "Which set?"

"The one I'm bad at."

She scoffed. Pushed away from the wall she'd been leaning against. "That's all of them, Dum-Dum."

He didn't shout or stomp or yell about the nickname. His lips twitched.

"It's okay," he said. "If you're afraid you won't be a better teacher that my instructor..."

It was the most obvious manipulation ever.

Perhaps if he proved an adequate firebending student, she'd work on his courtly survival skills next. Honestly, it was good that not even Uncle Gets-Cousins-Killed had been fool enough to take Zuko into that war meeting. She could only imagine how terribly that could have gone.

"Keep up," she said, and turned her steps towards the training grounds.

He did. There, and during the katas she ran him through.

Azula kept her eyes narrowed.

"Hey," he asked, "do you know how to bend lightning yet?"

As if he could have missed it, if she'd been able to get more than sparks. "I will soon," she said.

"You will," he agreed, and flowed through his next set. The one she'd only just mastered.

Father didn't notice how weird Zuzu was being. Uncle never noticed anything. Zuko ate dinner and asked a servant for seconds and didn't stutter or flinch or lose his appetite when father asked, coolly, what he'd done with his day. Azula's shoulders tensed, because one mention of how she'd squandered her own training time teaching him--

"Azula hogged the training grounds. For hours," Zuzu scowled, exactly like a petulant thirteen year old.

Exactly like he hadn't been acting all day.

By the time Father was looking her way, Azula had her usual smirk in place. "I'm sure there would be room for both of us," she said, "you're not afraid of a little friendly fire, are you, brother?"

Zuko sulked. And ate his seconds, like he was enjoying each bite. There was something in his eyes, like a joke no one else was getting.

---

Father died that night. A heart attack. There were the faintest of burns to either side of the treacherous organ; the royal physician hypothesized that he'd grabbed at his chest, fingers burning hot in his final moments; so hot they'd only exacerbated the problem.

The royal physician would never have been brought any victims of lighting strikes. Those that occurred in the capital did not generally require a doctor in the aftermath.

Zuzu ate a hearty breakfast.

He didn't order seconds. Azula gave him points, at least, for not being tacky.

---

The sages named Iroh as regent.

They named Zuko as Fire Lord.

"No," the tiny Fire Lord in his perfectly miniaturized Fire Lord robes said, sitting at the head of his war council. "We're not doing that. And I'll be reviewing all recent battle plans, as well. What's this I hear about a division of new recruits being deployed to the front?"

He did not mention how he'd heard of the 41st Division. No one asked.

"Prince Iroh, surely--" one of the generals tried to appeal.

The young Fire Lord's regent was looking as startled as the rest of them, for a moment. Then he sipped his tea, and smiled.

"Your Fire Lord is correct, of course. A change in our leadership--a change the other nations may mistakenly view as weakness--will necessitate a change in our strategy."

"Now," said their lord, "what, exactly, is our overall objective in this war?"

War, the new Fire Lord decreed, was not an end unto itself.

---

The new Fire Lord continued to have time, to pretend to be trained by her. Azula watched him. Adjusted her footwork. Did not tolerate, and was not offered, any commentary on who was teaching who.

"What did you do with my brother?" she asked, as they flowed from one set to the next. As her hands, poised to throw fire, just so happened to be pointed his way.

He missed a step. It didn't look like an act.

"I'm, uh. Right here?"

She didn't bother to dignify that.

He didn't bother to look worried about her hands, one movement off from a true attack.

He looked around, then grabbed her sleeve, and tugged her further from any walls that may hide ears. The royal family's private training grounds were wonderfully large, and wonderfully open.

"It's me," he said. "It's still me. Just. More of me? Longer of me?"

She narrowed her eyes. A familiar expression, by this point. "Explain."

"...I found the Avatar," he said. "And this is definitely his fault, but--but I guess it started at a war meeting, when I was thirteen."

Azula listened. It was a very Dum-Dum story.

[officialspec]

what are we, some kind of league of legends?

[wikiipediabf]

i just think it's so funny how afraid nico used to be of an 18 year old 😭😭

[olegianote]

Yearning

+ bonus with more effects

[useless-moss]

Something I rarely see talked about is the fact that, at least twice in the first movie alone, Toothless helps Hiccup set boundaries or get the respect he feels Hiccup deserves.

He didn't start flying peacefully to show Astrid how nice it can be until after she apologized for being mean and threatening to tell the village. And when she did, Toothless almost immediately relaxed and arguably showed off. Like he was saying "look at this. Look at us. Look at what you'd be breaking apart and missing out on."

And, even if he didn't know the full story or reason, Toothless knew Hiccup and Stoick had a fight and Hiccup was upset. So he didn't show Stoick that Hiccup was alive until after he apologized for hurting Hiccup and starting that massive fight in the first place. In that scene, if you look at Toothless's eyes, you can tell he's waiting for something. And the second Stoick apologized, Toothless softened and opened his wings.

Even if Toothless didn't fully understand the entire situation or all the complex human stuff associated with it, he still knew that Hiccup was upset and deserved an apology. Even if neither time Hiccup asked for one and was ready to just sweep it under the rug and forget, Toothless still went the extra little mile to make it clear he wouldn't allow Hiccup to be pushed around or hurt or disrespected or anything without consequence.

Just. I love that. I love how that alone shows how damn smart the dragons, or at the very least Night Furies, can be. Toothless is Hiccup's number one advocate for anything.

[wtfforged]

mold growth

[pinkravat-art]

wdym is this not how it went

[stil-lindigo]

lighthearted.

if this comic resonated with you, please consider donating to this palestinian escape fund (vetted by @/nabulsi and @/el-shab-hussein) as it is less than $7,000 away from it's goal.

i turn 24 today. To celebrate, I made this comic to be a spiritual successor to lead balloon, a comic in which I talked about the darkest period of my life so far.

A lot has changed since my 23rd birthday and this one. My priorities have shifted a lot, in ways that I think are mostly good. But i think the best part about today is that suicide has gone back to being a far away notion. I'm really lucky, and I'm grateful for that.

[frenchublog]

[bloodstainedgauntlet]

whats that kink called that you get from reading too much fantasy lit as a child that makes you want to be tortured in front of someone who loves you so you can see the pleading desperation in their eyes and hear how much they love you in between the cracks of their voice and really truly believe they would do anything to save you. also you get to look so cool and brave and covered in blood and soooo able to withstand pain haha no just me? ok

[bigturtl]

i love lawyer game