#and be kind to each other

[lemony-snickers]

lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet, but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.

hey, y’all.  just a quick little message to say thanks for everything.  now that my previous fandom commitments are behind me and i am staring down the barrel of a new year, it’s time to say goodbye.  <3

many, many thanks to everyone who read a fic, left a comment or kudos, or supported me with a reblog.  it was appreciated each and every time.

this message is being queued in september because i know i’ll chicken out if i don’t set it up in advance.  leaving this blog is strange and bittersweet but as anyone who is following me as i type this can attest, i’ve become a bit of a drag.  at this point, it’s clear that stepping away is really the only option moving forward.  because i don’t want to pull you all down with me.

this is no one’s fault but my own, but if i am being truly honest with myself (and all of you), my relationship with this space has become untenable.  every piece of fanart for another creator makes me feel hollow.  every morning when i see my kudos email with thirty new hearts only to open ao3 to zero comments, i am defeated.  watching folks forge friendships and be part of exchanges makes me cry.  i cannot stop comparing myself to others, and it has turned me into a person i don’t like.

(additionally, the amount of energy it takes to navigate this fandom with my specific brand of trauma is... exhausting.  if you take nothing else from this post, please take this:  tag your shit.  hell, overtag it.  i have things blacklisted that i still encounter on an almost daily basis because people do not put warnings on their posts.  i did my part.  we should all be doing our part.  it takes so little effort, really.)

i tried over the past 1.5+ years to carve out a space for myself to enjoy within fandom, but whatever i was able to eke out with my blunt shovel just hasn’t been enough to satisfy.  i am greedy, as it happens; greedy for love and adoration i cannot attain and should not expect.  it’s turned me into someone who becomes jealous rather than excited by others’ success & that’s not who i want to be.

anyway.  this is a long little ramble to say i’m sorry for being so self-obsessed i can’t get out of my own way.  apologies for not finding enough joy in the process to outweigh the pain of feeling left out & left behind.  i hope you all find precisely what you are looking for in other creators; there are so many wonderful and talented folks out there, i have no doubt you will.

after all, in the grand scheme of the naruto fandom, i am just a little blip.

thank you for everything.  best wishes to all of you in the new year and beyond.  <3

love, lem.

[pokimoko]

I can't keep being fundamentally changed as a person by animated movies, it's just not sustainable.

[teaboot]

A while ago I was talking to my therapist and I told her I was worried that I was creepy and invasive with relationships. She asked me what I meant.

I told her, "Well, when I'm interested in someone, I try and find out what they like, and if it's something I don't like, then I do a bunch of research and write notes and stuff and explore the topic until I find something I *do* like. And I'm worried that that's weird or stalker-y. But like... I've found a bunch of stuff I still enjoy after the interest in them has faded. So is that okay, or is it creepy?"

And she stared at me for a minute before saying, "That sounds very sweet of you, actually"

And so yeah

Self-perception and shit

[the-velvet-worm]

remember when gideon gave harrow a little kissy on her forehead and harrow made a sound that embarrassed them both. what was that about

[deadsetobsessions]

Danny no longer has a haunt. So… he decides to find another one. And while he technically has a whole world (other dimensions aren’t an option because he’s going to stay near where Jazz’s grave is, damn it) there’s only a couple of other places with enough ambient ectoplasm to sustain him. Nanda Parbat, Tokyo, and Gotham.

Nanda Parbat had a weird old musty immortal that kept trying to summon him and exchange power for the ability to “take a worthy body and rain as much destruction” as he’d like. As if Danny would need a body to bring the world to its knees.

Tokyo… it’s too far from Jazz’s grave. He could ask Wulf or even open his own portal but when Danny tried it out, Tokyo was too peaceful. Obviously there’s crime, but nothing… nothing big like Danny’s used to.

Danny ends up picking Gotham, even if the sewer zombies and the weird group of rich fruit loops with an adoption problem creeps him out. So, he destroys the portal, packs up his parents’ house and sells it, and hauls ass to the cesspool calling his name. His family’s stuff is stored respectfully in a vault located on the deepest parts of his personal haunt in the Infinite Realms.

And honestly, he’s doing better. Sure, he’s got a shitty apartment near another revenant’s almost-haunt and he feels like he’s drowning all of the time, but Danny isn’t in danger of turning into Dan, he’s catching up on royal paperwork, and he’s got like a job as a barista. In his own coffee shop that paid for using his parent’s money (who, despite their hazardous everything, made a crap ton of money off of their more normal inventions).

Gotham’s got some pretty interesting local gangs, most of which respected the sanctity of Danny’s cafe. Sure, they tried blowing it up and tried extorting money from him in the form of “protection costs” but after three months of failure, they gave up.

(Really, the local gangs gave up when they saw him take three shotgun shells to the chest and continued to work.) (They didn’t know it never hit him. Intangibility is extremely useful.)

The Rogues, on the other hand, just gave Danny flashbacks. Their gimmicks are different, sure, but after years of Box Ghost, Skuller, Lunch Lady, etc., Danny’s more than done with costumed villains. They don’t bother him either. Some of the reason is probably due to Harley and Ivy, who had walked into the cafe and (because they were bruised and scratched up from a fight) triggered Danny’s mother hen tendencies. They were promptly fed and watered and caffeinated and their hyenas were also similarly taken care of. They declared the cafe under their protection and that was that.

Red Hood stops by, and begins to interrogate him. But when Danny met his… helmet eyes? The crime lord paused, paid for his coffee, and sat in a corner table of the cafe for the rest of the day.

And he kept coming back?

But Danny figures it’s because Hood was a revenant and people who had come close to death tends to feel more comfortable around him.

(Considering this is Gotham where people almost die every other day? Yeah, he’s pretty much friends with everyone. Or at least, less likely to get shot.)

(Hood does stay because of the King’s presence and the Pit calming itself, but also Danny’s hot and he’s got a sleeper build and Hood definitely did not imagine himself in the place of the heavy box he saw Danny lift effortlessly onto a table. No.)

But of course, the peace couldn’t last forever. But by then, Danny was so antsy, he welcomed the trouble with open arms.

It starts with a clown. Danny knows who he is. He knows who Danny is.

So, Danny has no idea why the clown thought it would be a good idea to aggravate the owner of Gotham’s official neutral grounds. See, Clovkwork? Danny’s learned how to gauge his own political importance!

“HAHAHAHAHA! COME OUT, DANNY-BOY! LET ME TELL YOU A JOKE!”

Danny comes out and grabs a chair, and with a flat expression, says, “you’re not funny and I hate clowns.”

And then he swings and slams the chair into the Joker’s face. Over and over again until Danny’s sure the clown won’t get back up. The thing about Gotham’s outdoor chairs is that they’re mad out of steel and are bolted down to the ground to prevent undedicated thieves (dedicated thieves can and will steal the bolted down steel chairs). The Joker’s hired muscle just watched this scrawny twenty-something year old yank the steel chair and take some of the fucking ground and the bolts with it and beat the fuck out of their boss who is the literal Joker.

They surrender on the spot and is taken to jail. Danny just smiles at the officers who come by and since he’s got pretty privilege and they don’t want to mess with the guy who, again, owns one of Gotham’s official neutral ground and also beat up Joker without breaking a sweat, the officers just lets him go with a warning.

And then the bats comes, and wow, Danny’s playing mentor to a formally dead person again!

But before that, the Red Hood asks for an autograph on the Gotham Gazette article with a picture of a tired Danny standing over Joker’s prone body. Then Hood stammers through asking Danny out (which Danny said yes to because he’s tired, not blind, and Hood is built like a brick house and HOT).

Batman interrogates him. Danny, who can tell that this man needs therapy and is Sad TM, tells Bats that Danny’s died before and that’s why he’s like this. He also calls Batman a furry, but like in a nice way. And then he kicks Batman out with a coffee and a file on Nanda Parbat.

Now, Danny’s got a date to prepare for and he realizes that maybe this is what Jazz wanted for him- to be happy and mostly safe and happy. (Or, happier, he thinks. It’s been a long time since he’s been truly happy, but this might be a good start)

[hugs-and-stabbies]

The self-awareness on this guy 😞 someone pls send him an "are you bi?" quiz STAT

[welcometogrouchland]

[ID in ALT] I've made posts before about Talia/Dick co-parenting Damian moments (will never happen but let me dream) and this came to me in a vision. Took me ages to finish for some reason 😭 and then even longer to post

[withdenim]

Local man desperately trying to stop the cycle before it gets to his kids (it’s already there)

[egophiliac]

What do you think of Rook's savanaclaw card? <333

I didn't get him (and I need to save my keys for Silver's birthday, sob) so I looked up his groovy, and I'm not over how incredibly dramatic and epic and cool it looks in direct contrast to the absolutely ridiculous context. just look at that dynamic action and his majestic sparkling tears and keep in mind that this is pretty much right after a bunch of characters have been dance battling for his soul.

and then even the actual moment of the groovy is just like

this is NOT a negative in the slightest, I love it all, this truly was an incredible update in so many ways

[hajihiko]

It runs in the family

[serenity-the-firefly]

really i think one of my favorite character dynamics is “i don’t actually like you but we’ve been through so much together that i’d trust you with my life and know that we will always back each others calls. but i still wouldn’t trust you with my car keys.” like “we aren’t really friends but we’ve been thrust into an intense situation where you are the only other person i know so now we’re besties.” and “if it weren’t for our years of history i would have literally nothing to talk to you about at this work dinner.” Enemies to lovers has NOTHING on general disinterest to begrudging acknowledgment to discovering that this person is now an inextricable part of your life

[pucksandpower]

Fred Vasseur wore a McLaren cap to celebrate Lando Norris’ win in Miami. Zak Brown returned the favor and wore a (signed) Ferrari cap today.

[ducksandneetleteetles]

come to the realisation that every fucked-up fictional lesbian couple needs a third, more fucked up lesbian around to make them worse. not for love triangle reasons because the main two are very much into each other and are weird about it but because the third lesbian makes things sooo much worse and also funnier because she can. just girly things etc.

[ruporas]

being a little petty (ID in alt)

[twinstxrs]

the scene of fabian and gorgug seeing the reflections of yolanda & lucy as kristen lays them to rest… the look on lou’s face. the kindness of the act. kristen applebees, one of the most gifted clerics the world has ever seen.

[lazycranberrydoodles]

they are so in love and disgusting and also sarcastic bitches. follow for more / prev comic / next comic