#and they turn blue?

[fahbev]

Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object pt2

Pt 1: https://www.tumblr.com/bahfev/715070691717840896/unstoppable-force-meets-immovable-object?source=share

(Guys idk how do that thing where the link is words can someone explain?)

“Right, I forgot why I was here. It definitely wasn’t for a drink.” Yal-sre stood up, seeming much more intimidating than when Sophia had approached them.

“Oh.” The bartender backed away farther, making themself smaller as well, “Is there anything else I can get you?”

“Actually, Aolli, I think there is. If you come with me out back, there are some answers I’d like to order.”

The bartender - scratch that - Aolli gulped, and dipped their head. Sophia was again impressed by the very Earthly body language. “Coming right up, Sir.”

—————————————————————————————————

“Hoooh, this just got interesting!” Sofia stood up.

“Sophia, you needn’t follow.”

“Actually, I do need follow. No way I’m just sitting here bored outta my mind while you deal with your drama outside.”

“You’ll only scare them.”

“What was it you just told me again? They’re already scared of you no matter what. Come on, if it’s information you need I can be the ‘bad cop’.”

“Exactly! I am scary enough on my own; I don’t wish to be cruel. You being there is excessive. You can’t follow.”

“Yes I can. Unless... you want to try to stop me? I’m always up for a challenge,” Sophia grinned and cracked her knuckles. Aolli seemed to pick up on her show of aggression and whimpered. So odd, when Aolli was so clearly not Earthling. Yal-sre seemed more to notice her words themselves as a threat.

“You’re right. I can’t stop you. Aolli, come with me. Sophia, do what you will.” Yal-sre ushered Aolli toward the door. Sophia followed in suit.

“Now that’s what I like to hear.” Chatter began full force as soon as the space orcs left the bar.

“Please- I swear I- I’ll tell you everything I know just please don’t hurt me!” Aolli shrank into a ball on the ground, paws over head.

“Listen, I won’t hurt you-“

“I will!” Sophia interjected.

“-Sophia, stop. I just want to know where my sisters are.”

“Ooooooooo, you took their sisters? You should be more careful who you mess with.”

“I don’t know! I don’t know where they are, I swear!”

“Liar,” Sophia accused.

“You took them away,” Yal-sre continued. “I watched you double check the locks and cart them off like animals. Where are they?”

“I don’t know! I’m telling you! I was just following orders, and I don’t work for them anymore! I’m- I’m a bartender now!”

“Good for you; that’s not what I asked.”

“So,” Sophia crouched down in front of Aolli, “You gonna spill the beans? Or do I have to squeeze them out of you one by one?” Aolli squeaked. How pathetic.

“Beans?” Yal-sre asked.

“Yes, beans. Spill.”

“I- I can tell you where I took them, but they won’t be there anymore.”

“How do you know that?” Yal-sre asked.

“It wasn’t a permanent location, it was more of a- like a trade center! I just took them there and handed them off to someone else. I don’t know where that person took them!”

“Dammit!” Yal-sre tensed in... anger? Frustration? Fear? “Do you know... can you at least tell me if they’re alive?” Yal-sre’s voice softened. Sophia stood back up.

Aolli uncurled themself a little; “I don’t know, I’m sorry. They should be alive, but I haven’t heard anything of your sisters since I handed them off. I can’t guarantee nothing’s happened.” Yal-sre stepped back, and hunched their posture.  “I’m sorry,” Aolli repeated.

“No you aren’t.”

“Yes, I am. I- yes I’m scared of you, but that’s not why I’m apologizing. I really do regret my past. I’ve done shitty things, but we used to be friends and I still care about you.” Aolli did sound genuine, but-

“What? You used to be their friend? That’s a betrayal if I’ve ever seen one!”

“I know! I know! I’m sorry!” Aolli flinched back into their protective ball.

“It’s...” Yal-sre said, “... a little more complicated than that. But in essence, yes.”

“Damn.” Sophia turned to Aolli, “HEY BITCH!” she grabbed their shoulders and began to shake them forcefully, “WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF!?”

“AIEAISAIEOAI-!”

“Sophia stop!” Yal-sre reached out as if to stop her by force, but seemed to think better of it. Their words did the trick, though. Sophia huffed and shoved Aolli backwards into the wall before stepping back. Aolli continued to whimper and shrank impossibly smaller. 

“We’ll get your sisters back.”

“What?”

“We’ll find them.”

“What if they’re already dead?”

Sophia scoffed; “It’s gonna take a hell of a lot to kill a rragletatch. Plus, Aolli said they should be alive, it’s dumb to assume someone is dead just because you haven’t seen them in awhile. We’ve gotta assume they’re alive.”

“You say ‘we’.”

“Yes, I’m helping you. Whether you like it or not.”

“Why?”

“I’m bored.”

“That’s a really bad reason to make big commitments to dangerous things, but ... thank you? I don’t... even know where to start.” Yal-sre looked down at the floor.

“I’ve got an idea...” Sophia gave Aolli a wicked grin. Aolli looked up from their flinch-ball position, before reading her expression and tucking themself back.

“Aolli can tell us where they last saw your sisters, and we can start asking questions around there.”

“I- it’s fshhhhAK: Naychshhh on planet Nayerzwu. That’s where I dropped them off.” Sophia pulled out her mobile device and enabled dictation.  “Set route for fshhhAK: Naychshhh: Nayerzwu.”

“You may have mistyped your search, fshhhAK: Naychshhh: Nayerzwu does not exist. Would you like to see similarly named cities in Naychshhh: Nayerzwu?”

Sophia gripped her device like a boa constrictor killing its prey. She glared daggers. “You lied.”

“NO, NO, NO! I didn’t lie! It’s just not on any maps, it’s uncharted! Off the books! That’s why it was used as the centerpoint for the illicit stuff, they knew we wouldn’t be caught in a place that ‘didn’t exist’!”

“LIAR!” Sophia roared.

“Eeeek!”

“Now, wait, Sophia-” Yal-sre interrupted, “That does sound plausible. They could be telling the truth.”

“Fine. Give us precise directions, and we’ll see.” Sophia loomed over Aolli.

“I- I don’t think I can. Most of the way there is also uncharted. I was shown the way there by someone, and I remember my way mostly by my senses than anything else. I’m not lying I swear! Please don’t hurt me!”

“Are you definitely, 100% certain you’re not lying?” Sophia just had to make sure.

“Yes! 100%! Please believe me!”

“Okay. Then you are going to take us there.” Sophia said.

“...”

“... what?”

—————

guys i’m not good at editing. If there’s any parts where you can’t tell who’s speaking, please tell me!

[hinamie]

morning glory

[shoukohime]

babygirl the way you forsake your happiness on your relentless quest to vengeance, your complicated relationship with gender and the way you're covered in blood have bewitched me body and soul

[zosanbrainrot]

yeah Zoro we know what you mean..... or do we?

[sonicman66]

DpxDc fic where Danny is just haunting the Bats and providing memes to the internet whilst being invisible

Because I read a fic ('the curious case of who lives in the walls' by RaccoonRobyn over on ao3) that has Danny chilling in the Wayne Manor's walls and commenting on the Wayne's habits and goings on and i just

Tl;dr danny has a twitter page where he invisibly follows the bats and documents their funny mistakes like a nature documentary.

One day a Gothamite spots a new twitter page on their feed. Its not got a lot of posts, but they're all pictures. And the first one is... Nightwing. Lying on the concrete, face-down, with another bat or bird very obviously laughing at him.

They think nothing of it. They compliment the photoshop for its realism, and move on. Except there's more pictures. All of them, every last one of them, has the Bats and Birds suffering from a trip, fall, a gaffe, a misstep, anything and everything.

And then they find a video

Its clearly a handheld or phone camera, pointed at Robin in an alleyway. Someone starts talking, in a very poor attempt at sounding like David Attenborough, narrating like a wildlife documentary. "Here we see the youngest of the Bat-brood partaking in one of its more private behaviors, unseen and unknown by its kin."

And Robin just. Steps further into the alleyway and gets swarmed by stray cats, all begging for food. He grins and starts feeding them, all whilst narration continues, talking about this like its an animal's behavior.

And they have more. So many more.

A video of Red Hood. He does a fancy gun twirl when nobody's around, bobbles it, and accidentally fires into the ground. He picks it up and acts like nothing happened. But the video sees all.

A video of Batman on a gargoyle on a skyscraper, with shaky footage from clearly around a corner, but on the same level. "Commentary on this specimen has been added in post, for reasons you will soon see. Batman, the patriarch of the Bat-Brood, is incredibly elusive to research, and for good reason." In the video, the camera jolts a little and Batman turns suddenly to the sound of rocks moving. The camera goes still, and Batman scans the area, seemingly seeing nothing. Then, his white eyes turn blue, and he looks directly into the camera. Footage ends.

The acc posts a screenshot of a dm that is very clearly an Oracle sockpuppet. She has sent something along the lines of 'how have you obtained this footage, this is dangerous,' etc etc. His response is 'i am in ur walls lol'

He is not aware of the level of Bat Paranoia this brings out.

[wasyago]

ooooohhhh who lives in a small tugboat out on the sea?

ge-mi-ni-tay

[stromblessed]

Mizu, femininity, and fallen sparrows

In my last post about Mizu and Akemi, I feel like I came across as overly critical of Mizu given that Mizu is a woman who - in her own words - has to live as a man in order to go down the path of revenge.

If she is ever discovered to be female by the wrong person, she will not only be unable to complete her quest, but there's a good chance that she'll be arrested or killed.

So it makes complete sense for Mizu to distance herself as much as possible from any behavior that she feels like would make someone question her sex.

I felt so indignant toward Mizu on my first couple watchthroughs for this moment. Why couldn't Mizu bribe the woman and her child's way into the city too? If Mizu is presenting as a man, couldn't she claim to be the woman's escort?

However, this moment makes things pretty clear. Mizu knows all too well the plight of women in her society. She knows it so well that she cannot risk ever finding herself back in their position again. She helps in what little way she can - without drawing attention to herself.

Mizu is not a hero and she is not one to make of herself a martyr - she will not set herself on fire to keep others warm. There's room to argue that Mizu shouldn't prioritize her quest over people's lives, but given the collateral damage Mizu can live with in almost every episode of season 1, Mizu is simply not operating under that kind of morality at this point. ("You don't know what I've done to reach you," Mizu tells Fowler.)

And while I still feel like Mizu has an obvious and established blind spot when it comes to Akemi because of their differences in station, such that Mizu's judgment of Akemi and actions in episode 5 are the result of prejudice rather than the result of Mizu's caution, I also want to establish that Mizu is just as caged as Akemi is, despite her technically having more freedom while living as a man.

Mizu can hide her mixed race identity some of the time, and she can hide her sex almost all of the time, but being able to operate outside of her society's strict rules for women does not mean she cannot see their plight.

It does not mean she doesn't hurt for them.

Back to Mizu and collateral damage, remember that sparrow?

While Mizu is breaking into Boss Hamata's manse, she gets startled by a bird and kills it on reflex. She then cradles it in her hands - much more tenderly than we've seen Mizu treat almost anything up to this point in the season:

She then puts it in its nest, with its unhatched eggs. Almost like she's trying to make the death look natural. Or like an accident.

You see where I'm going with this.

When Mizu kills Kinuyo, Mizu lingers in the moment, holding the body tenderly:

And btw a lot of stuff about this show hit me hard, but this remains the biggest gut punch of them all for me, Mizu holding that poor girl's body close, GOD

When Mizu arranges the "scene of the crime," Kinuyo's body is delicate, birdlike. And Mizu is so shaken afterward that she gets sloppy. She's horrified at this kill to the point that she can't bring herself to take another innocent life - the boy who rats her out.

MIZU'S ONE MOMENT OF SOFTNESS AND MERCY, COMING ON THE HEELS OF HER NEEDING TO KILL A GIRL TO SPARE HER THE WORST FATE THAT THIS RIGID SOCIETY HAS TO OFFER WOMEN, AND TO SPARE A BROTHEL FULL OF INNOCENT WOMEN WHO ARE THE CASTOFFS OF SOCIETY, NEARLY RESULTS IN ALL OF THEIR DEATHS

No wonder Mizu is as stoic and cold as she is.

And no wonder Mizu has no patience for Akemi whatsoever right before the terrible reveal and the fight breaks out:

Speaking of Akemi - guess who else is compared to a bird!

The plumage is more colorful, a bit flashier. But a bird is a bird.

And, uh

Yeah.

I like to think that Mizu killing the sparrow is not only foreshadowing for what she must do to Kinuyo, but is also a representation of the choice she makes on Akemi's behalf. She decides to cage the bird because she believes the bird is "better off." Better off caged than... dead.

But because Mizu doesn't know Akemi or her situation, she of course doesn't realize that the bird is fated to die if it is caged and sent back home.

Mizu is clearly not happy, or pleased, or satisfied by allowing Akemi to be dragged back to her father:

But softness and mercy haven't gotten Mizu anywhere good, recently.

There is so much tragedy layered into Mizu's character, and it includes the things she has to witness and the choices she makes - or believes she has to make - involving women, when she herself can skirt around a lot of what her society throws at women. Although, I do believe that it comes at the cost of a part of Mizu's soul.

After all, I'm gonna be haunted for the rest of this show by Mizu's very first prayer in episode 1:

"LET" her die. Because as Ringo points out, she doesn't "know how" to die.

Kind of like another bird in this show:

[luminarai]

Ringo says work smarter, not harder (also he replaced the pieces with delicious homemade cookies before the game even started. Taigen never notices)

stickers etc here

[sanctus-ingenium]

last august I posted the lineart of this (plus an art nouveau style background frame) to subscribers on patreon but i've never been able to finish it, so after using it as marker brush practice today i hereby release it from my custody into the wild...

[strawberrum]

welcome to the fish market 🐟

[chamoemileclown]

guys

[sunclown]

“This is the year you’ll fall in love”

[hinamie]

spiraling

[mournfulroses]

Chelsea Wolfe, from She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She; "Everything Turns Blue,"

[reirexx]

"Too hot"

[sikuena]

" Honey with your kill-shot, baby."