#anyway let's just start here

[ethanhuntfemmefatale]

Me: *reblogs all your mi:1 posts* guess what I watched last night

Thank you for being (what looks like) the only other fucker on this website that sees the Ethan x Max possiblity and the Jim x Claire x Ethan situation

So, what do you think Ethan's response would be to finding out Max is dead? (once the fallout situation has been dealt with and he can breath)

hello hello and thank you for this ask i love it dearly. I feel like there's this inherent connection between ethan/jim/claire and ethan/max, you can't really have one without the other. anyway I did tell myself I was going to wait to answer this until after i see the max portion of MI1 tonight but i started thinking about it and then i started writing out my ideas and here we are with a rant. below are just a whole lot of thoughts and ideas, some more relevant than others--for the actual answer of your question, you can just scroll until you get to the part that says "OK NOW WE’VE GOT ALL THAT OUT OF THE WAY. I CAN ACTUALLY ANSWER YOUR QUESTION NOW."

You're not actually asking for my ethanmax treatise but i'm going to give it anyway just cause your ask got me thinking about it and i feel like writing about it. so here goes.

ETHANMAX TREATISE

Ethan/max is complicated. you're dealing with a lot of subtle facets when you try to understand them. here are some parts that interest me, im sure there are aspects im missing.

Factors at play in ethanmax—

-The acting choices. These characters, as has been commented on before by others, look like they want to eat each other. That’s significant lol. To add a complication to this, I would argue there’s a subtle edge and nervousness to Ethan when they interact, a sharpness to his acting, although that’s a personal interpretation. I’m looking at the finger-stimming behind his back (out of max’s view) in the initial scene, and also the kinda frozen, too-big smile he gives her in response to “it’s like a warm blanket” in the car scene.

-Dutch angles/blocking. In her intro scene, Max is framed with a Dutch angle, while Ethan isn’t. MI1 is deeply informed by Ethan’s POV, so I always take the Dutch angles as a sign of Ethan’s perspective or mental state. Ethan not being Dutch angled suggests that his world isn’t being turned upside down the way it is in the restaurant scene with Kittridge, he’s in control of the situation. But when he looks at Max, she’s framed as imposing, unsettling (the angle suggests instability) and even maybe frightening. The blocking of characters, specifically re height, is also significant in MI1 and something I think about a lot when analyzing character dynamics. For example, Claire is often “over” Ethan, standing while he’s sitting, suggesting that she knows something he doesn’t or has power over him in some way. That’s reversed in a couple key scenes, such as the horrible patdown scene where Ethan uses masculine sexual violence against her, and the hand kiss scene where he suspects she’s lying to him. Jim, on the other hand, is tallest in any given shot, except in the scene where Jim and Claire are sitting with Ethan leaning on them from above. Suggesting that the only person who might be able to overpower/outsmart him is Ethan. Looking at Ethan’s scenes with Max—they start on the same level, but as they speak, Max is always over him, standing and circling him like a shark. If i am remembering correctly, she even sits on the edge of her desk to be over him, which is such a weird kinda striking choice, and emphasizes that idea of her as predator and Ethan as (consciously tempting) prey. It’s not fully as simple as the idea of Max being more powerful than Ethan—she is, but there’s also an intentionality there, Ethan consciously presenting himself as beneath her to make himself more appealing. What’s crucial to me, though, is that Ethan is never presented as being above her. He is manipulating and using her, but the power dynamics are always unequal between them, she still has way more agency in the situation than he does.

-Narrative parallels. Ethan’s dynamic with Max is heavily linked to the Ethan/Jim/Claire plot in a couple of different ways. First of all, Ethan/Max as a Jim/Max parallel, Ethan following in the footsteps of Jim’s betrayal of the IMF, in order to track him down. Which is tied to Ethan’s role as Jim’s successor and the one person capable of stopping him. There’s more to talk about there but it’s not super relevant (although ‘Job is not playful’ sticks in my mind forever). Also, Ethan/Max as a Claire/Ethan parallel. The two are presented similarly in some key ways, with Ethan using “Claire techniques” to pique Max’s interest, and to be honest it’s difficult to nail down what narrative purpose that parallel was intended to serve. I have a couple theories. I think Claire/Ethan parallels serve to tie the two of them together. Second, Ethan’s seduction of Max implicates him more deeply in the corruption plot of MI1. Third, comparing Ethan to Claire helps to solidify the power dynamics of the Ethan/Jim/Claire trio, with both Ethan and Claire desperately trying to “steal” or “borrow” the narrative authority and agency of an older powerful figure through sex (my personal pet Claire theory is that she meant to use Jim’s plot to get money and freedom for herself).

-Thematic significance. To speak a little more about Ethan/Max and the corruption plot of MI1…you kinda have to start with Jim. Jim occupies a very interesting role as the pseudo-hero of the movie. The ex-James Bond, the ultimate good guy, who is framed kinda as a protagonist figure in his introduction on the plane. Jim has this Christian-patriarchal thematic framework of corruption versus purity that he overlays onto MI1 (I talked about this more in my Ethan hunt corruption rant, so I’m not going to totally get into it here). A lot of that is linked to the Ethan/Jim/Claire tensions, Ethan being Jim’s protege who is more similar to his corrupt wife, both of them having a corrupt feminine skill set of emotional and sexual manipulation. Ethan starts the movie play-acting a masculine figure, then when he strips that mask we see his hidden, corrupt love for Claire—after Jim dies, he succumbs entirely to the corruption that was always inherent within him, by seducing Max. Ironically that corruption, which Jim sees as a fatal weakness, allows Ethan to uncover the truth and defeat him. (drinking game: take a sip every time i use the word corruption when talking about ethan/jim/claire/max.) What does this mean for the Ethan/Max dynamic? To me, it’s about how Ethan sees her. Max is representative of Ethan’s final loss of moral purity by Jim’s rules. Not to mention Max embodies sinfulness by Jim's rules as a powerful and sexually assertive woman. All that is a really significant part of their dynamic. Which brings me to:

-Franchise-long separation/isolation from the narrative. I honestly cannot tell if this is an intentional McQ or TC choice, although the stuff TC said about the alanna kiss (him repeating ‘I own you’ lives rent free in my head forever mr cruise are you ok no of course you’re not) suggests he’s aware of the weight of that plotline to some degree. What is fascinating to me about Ethan’s relationship with Max and the idea/specter of her in MI is that it always happens behind closed doors, without any of Ethan’s loved ones present. The exception being the one scene in DR1, which I need to watch again to fully analyze but if I remember correctly everybody involved in that scene is kinda unanimously going “wtf is going on between these two I have no context.” Examples: well, every Max/Ethan scene, including Ethan’s meeting with that one Max-associated guy in Ghost Protocol, the Alanna/Ethan kiss. (Ilsa witnesses that scene, but Ethan doesn’t know or want her to.) Anyway my point here is: Ethan seems to have this deep desire to keep the Max stuff private. There are multiple explanations for this—Max is a reminder of the worst time in his life, of MI1, which is a carefully-guarded memory anyway. Max (and Alanna by extension) is a powerful and dangerous individual who he doesn’t want his friends involved with. Max is quite simply a bad and complicated memory due to her associations with Jim and Claire, and the complicated/horrifying world of sexual manipulation, sexual violence and sexual trauma that Ethan is inducted into in MI1. But my personal favorite explanation is shame. To my mind, the narrative separation suggests that Ethan is ashamed of his history with Max. This is really interesting! Because the narrative doesn’t shame Ethan for Max. There’s no movie-inherent negative thematic stance on Ethan’s seduction of Max or anyone else, it’s presented as kinda cool and useful from what I can tell. So if Ethan hasn’t internalized shame from the movie’s morality, to my mind that means he’s internalized shame from Jim’s. Which is—not strictly relevant to the question at hand, but deeply fascinating to me in a broader discussion of McQuarrie era Ethan.

Anyway! What’s important for our discussion is that Ethan consistently fights to keep Max and all signs of his connection with her away from even his closest friends and allies. What that represents to my mind is a discomfort around their association, and a system of shame and denial around his past “dealings” (sex) with her. Meanwhile, he is unable to escape the reality of Max and the reality of their history, his history.

OK NOW WE’VE GOT ALL THAT OUT OF THE WAY. I CAN ACTUALLY ANSWER YOUR QUESTION NOW.

I think Ethan takes losses hard. Max’s death would be a blow in that sense, but in some other ways it might even be a comfort? Ethan hasn’t known many people who lived to old age and (presumably) died nonviolently. That’s a fucking feat. It’s a testament to Max’s strength and power. Not only that, but her formidable legacy in the form of Alanna is a feat as well—Max is dead, but she kept her empire alive, and passed her power onto a successor. There’s grief and loss there largely in the sense of, there’s one more person who was present for the Unspeakable Time (MI1) that is no longer alive. Now the only witnesses left are Ethan, Luther and Kittridge. If circumstances were different, I think Ethan being Ethan would figure out a way to pay his respects anonymously. With the way Fallout unfolds, though, it’s too risky to admit that he and Max were ever connected at all, which I think intensifies the lack-of-closure, shoe-on-the-wrong-foot feeling that’s always present to me when Ethan and Alanna interact. To me there’s one more facet—Max is representative of this part of Ethan, this “corrupt” part of Ethan that wants narrative power and seduces people to get it, that he doesn’t allow anybody else to see. And with her death, I would argue that the last person who can understand him is gone.

On a different note—I love the idea of Max being alive in Fallout. Mostly cause Vanessa Redgrave is fucking legendary, and also it would scratch the constant itch of Ethan interacting with other “narrative elders,” other survivors. I love kittridge, but seeing Ethan interact with Max herself would be way better fucking electric. I do think Max being alive would make it very difficult to pull off Alanna’s introduction, though, so I can see why they made the choice to have her die off screen. That said, I would be FASCINATED to see Max and Alanna’s mother-daughter dynamic, especially with the way that Alanna in Fallout acts as a parallel for MI1 Ethan. I want to see some fucked up codependent shit on my screen.

Anyway these are my thoughts such as they are! I am seeing the max parts of MI1 tonight so I might change my mind about some things in which case I’ll post even more.

[favroitecrime]

Palestinian freedom fighters breaking out of Gaza and reclaiming their occupied territories. They’ve taken over israeli tanks and have chased out the settlers that were on that land. They’ve launched rockets everywhere and the iron dome has failed to intercept. This is about to mark a momentous event in history.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

[luxaofhesperides]

Can I please have meet cute/weird with mistaken villain! Danny (but really just a engineer and or chem student) and the one being put on investigation cause Danny is a day villain(not really)! Duke

Technically, Danny Fenton is innocent. Technically. 

Duke wants to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially since he’s having so much trouble finding solid evidence that Danny is stealing from a wide variety of people, but he’s been burned before by trying to see people as better than they were. It doesn’t change the fact that Oracle’s cameras keep spotting Danny right before a building on the street is broken into and something stolen. He’s always just walking down the sidewalk; no one has spotted him entering or exiting a building, but he’s around far too often to be unconnected to these burglaries. 

It doesn’t help that strange, petty crimes have been on the rise since Danny first arrived in Gotham. 

So.

Danny Fenton is technically innocent.

Duke is trying to prove that he’s not. 

Maybe I’m looking too closely, he thinks, going over Danny’s sparse file in the Hatch. Maybe Danny’s only one person in a bigger operation.

He could just be the lookout, the runner, the information gatherer who marks which buildings to hit. He may even be the scapegoat, the sacrificial lamb; Danny has no support in Gotham, no family, no job. There would be no one to help him if he got arrested or injured in a fight. He’s a freshman college student from Illinois who should be unprepared for life in Gotham but is somehow managing to survive like a native. 

There’s a lot about Danny that doesn’t add up. 

Duke has seen plenty of different people since he first went out as the Signal. He’s tried to be kind and give people the benefit of the doubt, but it leads to his loved ones being put in danger. Some people are truly evil, some working on a malicious agenda, some are misguided in their beliefs, and some are desperate people who see no other way to move forward.

He’s not sure yet which on Danny is, but he’s hoping Danny is just desperate and needs a little help to get out of a life of crime.

Which leads to the next problem: Duke has no idea what Danny is steal, or why. He hits both rich and poor folks, civilians and members of the mob, and once, notably, stole something right out of Cobblepot’s office. Allegedly, at least, since no one saw him enter or exit the office, not even the security cameras. 

But added to the whispers going around about a new group in Gotham snatching people up from the streets, and some strange green substances found in warehouses often raided by police for the frequent drug labs that pop up in them… 

It doesn’t look good for Danny. Especially when a few of the items he stole were found where people either vanished or where that green substance has been found.

A week of analysis in the Batcave and they still don’t know what it is. 

Both Damian and Jason suspected Lazarus water, but the composition was completely different. By the look of the molecular structure, it shouldn’t have been in a liquid form at all. 

All these findings lead back to one person who may have answers: Danny Fenton.

According to Tim, who’s already broken into Danny’s dorm room and checked over all the labs he has classes in, Danny has some concerning items in his possession. Various inventions and little metal knick-knacks put together by a practiced hand. He was also the one to find all the information that went into Danny’s file when it was first being made: social media posts, school report cards, news articles about his parents… everything. 

And then he had an emergency mission to take with the Titans that swept him out of Gotham leaving Duke to tackle this investigation on his own. 

He doesn’t have Tim’s natural skill in stalking and invading privacy. He hates breaking into people’s spaces and following them around, but needs must and he has to force himself to work through the discomfort. 

It’s a good thing he did, too. Danny’s leaving his dorm after his last afternoon class, hood up to hide his face and something held in the front pocket of his hoodie. He ducks around people on the sidewalk easily, almost as if he’s gliding through the crowd instead of walking. 

Duke follows from above, bending the light around him to hide him from sight. 

He walks for some time, weaving through alleys and streets as if he’s been in Gotham his whole life, leaving behind the university campus to head towards Otisberg. There’s something strange about the way Danny walks, as if he’s moving around people who aren’t there, guided by something Duke can’t hear. Even using his meta abilities doesn’t do much beyond show him where Danny’s going to be in the next few seconds. 

He continues to follow Danny on the rooftops, walking along the edge to keep him in sight. 

Then Danny stops behind an apartment building and tilts his head back to look up at it. He tilts his head to the side, then nods and looks around the empty alley. Duke crouches down, keeping his eyes on Danny in the hopes of catching him in the act—

Danny disappears.

Duke curses under his breath and jumps down from the roof, putting more strength into his abilities as soon as his feet touch the ground. 

The space where Danny was has a faint outline, oddly enough. He’s never seen that before. From it is a semi-transparent trail, smoke-like and a pale green leading into the building. It goes straight into a wall, as if Danny walked through it.

He can’t go in and search the entire apartment, but he can grapple up and take a look into the hallways to see where Danny’s heading. If he was looking up, then that’s where he should be heading. 

It doesn’t take any effort to scale the building. There are ledges and windowsills and plenty of handholds for him to propel himself off of, and paired with his powers, Duke is able to find the correct floor in just under two minutes. 

The green smoke slowly dances through the air of the ninth floor, on the east side of the building. If he’s been counting the rooms correctly, then the target of tonight’s burglary has to be apartment 924. 

The curtains are drawn on the window he makes his way over to, and his abilities don’t show him anything helpful for the immediate future. He hates going in blind, especially to a civilian’s home, but capturing Danny takes priority. Duke picks the lock and slides the window up slowly, making sure it stays quiet, then slips into an empty bedroom. 

He makes his way out into the hallway on silent feet, keeping a wary eye on the thin smoke strands of green, curling along the walls. The rest of the apartment is empty as well, pale sunlight slanting across the floor through the blinds. 

Everything is still and silent. Danny’s nowhere to be found. 

Did he miss Danny leaving, somehow? Was this a misdirect to get him out of the way while Danny stole from another location? Did he know Duke was following him?

But no, his ears pick up on the faint sound of clothes rustling. 

Cautiously, Duke turns towards the front door, where the door to the coat closet is open. He focuses on what’s going to happen in the next twenty seconds and sees Danny panic, then disappear from sight again, but a transparent outline of his body is visible just enough to show him where he runs to. Best not to spook him; Duke pulls at the light around him and bends it to hide him from sight.

Then he moves along the wall, getting around the open door without bumping into anyone or anything. 

A figure in front of the coats, shoving them to the side roughly, flickers in and out of view, almost like a reflection in water, distorted by ripples on the surface. 

Danny pops back into visibility suddenly, scowling at the coats. “Are you sure it’s in here?” he asks the empty air. 

There is no answer, but Danny acts like there is. He rolls his eyes and says, “It’s a favor. That I’m doing for you. I can literally stop right now and you wouldn’t be able to stop me.” He shoves aside another heavy winter coat, then sighs. “Why don’t you look for it, and then tell me where it is.”

He steps back and bumps into Duke.

Danny whirls around, eyes wide, and blast of green light has Duke crashing back into the wall, trying to blink spots out of his eyes. 

“Wait!” he yells, grabbing for Danny before he can run off. “I just wanna talk!”

“Standing right behind me like a serial killer does not make you look like someone who wants to talk!” Danny yells back, slipping through his hands like mist. 

“I just have a few questions!”

“Well, I have a question: why?!”

“Will you hold still, we’re being too loud!”

Danny escapes to the other side of the apartment, next to a window looking fully prepared to fling himself out of it. But he does stop yelling, so Duke is counting it as a success.

“Why is the Signal coming after me?” Danny asks, glaring at him suspiciously.

“Dude,” Duke says, “You’ve been seen outside of every single building that’s had a burglary since you first arrived in Gotham. All the Bats are after you, they just sent me because I’m the only one active during the day.”

“All the Bats?” Danny repeats, losing what little color he had in his face.

He looks legitimately scared, pale enough to be concerning, and Duke drops his guard and tries to relax the tension in the apartment. “I’m not gonna turn you into the cops or anything. I just had questions and you seem like the most likely person to have answers. That’s it.”

Danny still looks wary, ready to run at a moment’s notice, but he doesn’t leave when Duke approached casually, leaning his weight against the couch. 

“So,” he begins, “What’s the deal with all the thievery? It’s rarely something super rare or expensive.”

There’s a long few minutes where Danny doesn’t answer, looking anywhere but at Duke. Then he twitches a bit and glares off to the side, and says, “I taking items that are contaminated with ectoplasm to help ghosts move through the veil and leave Gotham.”

That tells him nothing! That just gives Duke more questions! But at least it’s an answer, the first one any of them have got.

“I think you’re gonna have to explain a little more.”

“Ghosts are real, alright?”

“Yes.”

Danny stops. Squints at him. “What do you mean, ‘yes’?”

“Ghosts are real,” Duke repeats, “There are a few who help heroes or are heroes themselves, but that’s more on the magic side of things so I’m not super familiar with it.”

“Magic,” Danny says slowly. “Sure, alright. Um. Yes, ghosts are real. And there are a ton in Gotham who need help moving on, but they’re too weak to get past the veil. Something about Gotham has made the veil super strong, so they need a little boost to get through. Additional ectoplasm bonded helps with that.”

“And that’s why you’re stealing random things?”

“The ghosts I help can kind of sense ectoplasm-infused things, but they need me to grab them since they can’t hold anything without a physical body.”

Duke nods slowly. “Okay, that’s starting to answer some things. We have found those objects in the last places missing people were seen. Any idea what’s going on with that?”

“Yeah, those people were already dead.”

The way Danny says the most concerning answers as if they’re nothing is really throwing Duke off his game. He was expecting to be calm and serious to keep Danny from freaking out too much and look like a legitimate hero. But as soon as Danny started talking, all his nerves fell away and Duke is left grasping for composure. 

“They were…”

“They were ghosts, yeah. And they needed to get through the veil. But they were also able to possess their own bodies and didn’t realize they were dead until I had to break the news to them, which is why it looks like living people just up and disappeared.”

“Okay… What about the green stuff we’ve been finding?”

“Ectoplasm.” Danny holds up a hand and a neon green light surrounds it. Except it looks more solid than light, as if it can be touched, and it moves on its own like fire around Danny’s fingers. “It’s what ghosts are made of.”

Oh. If Danny has ectoplasm, does that mean…

“Are you dead?” Duke asks, heart dropping. 

Instead of looking upset about the question, or even disturbed by it, Danny just shrugs and waves his hand back and forth. “A little.”

“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Duke says, trying to resist the urge to rub his temples. It’s a habit he didn’t mean to pick up from Batman, and it would just look silly with his helmet in the way. “You’re just doing all this to help ghosts?”

“Yeah. Basically. They asked for help man, of course I was going to help them.”

Danny’s a good person. He’s just a good person to ghosts. But this is good news either way, and he can let the others know that Danny isn’t the next Catwoman and is entirely unconnected from any drug production. Everything that made him look like a criminal is just the fault of ghosts. 

“Speaking of,” Danny continues, “Looks like they found what they need, so I’m going to grab that real quick.” He pushes off of the wall and heads for the closet again, moving past Duke without any fear. Duke follows, keeping a few feet of distance between them so Danny doesn’t feel trapped, and watches as he shoves aside the coats again and pulls a shoebox out of the depths of the closet. From it, he takes a single intricate lace headband and holds it up.

It looks normal, if a little old, but when Danny sends ectoplasm through it, the lace lights up and holds the glow. 

He pulls some strange contraption out of his pocket and holds it up to the headband. It makes a few beeps, then Danny mutters, “7.4 millisieverts. That’s enough to get you through the veil.”

Another concern Duke can let go of: Danny’s not creating weapons like his parents have, he’s just measuring ectoplasm through his own inventions. 

Maybe he could talk to Bruce or Tim about getting Danny an internship at the R&D lab in Wayne Enterprises? That way they could keep a closer eye on him while seeing what he can create in some of the best laboratories in the country.

Well, it might take having them meet Danny before they trust him enough for that, but Duke is sure he can make it happen. 

“I better go see this through, then,” Danny says, shoving the contraption back into his hoodie pocket. He gives Duke a small awkward wave, then pops out of visibility. “I’ll see you around, I guess?” he disembodied voice hedges, and Duke smiles.

“I’m sure I’ll be able to find you again.”

“Cool. I gonna go now!” 

He doesn’t see any sign that Danny’s left, but he gets a feeling that he’s alone now, the apartment suddenly emptier than it was before. 

As strange and concerning as Danny and all his bizarre actions were, Duke is glad he was able to finally talk to him and get some answers. Knowing how Gotham pulls people him in, it’s only a matter of time before the other Bats are exposed to Danny’s kind of strange. He’s already looking forward to it. 

For now, though, he has a file to update in the Hatch; POTENTIAL THREAT will be removed and replaced with GHOST HELPER. 

If anyone goes snooping into his files and gets confused, then that’s their problem. Duke’s explained enough. And Danny can take care of the rest, once they go through the effort of tracking him down. Duke's done his part, he's ready for the rest of them to step up to his level.

He can’t wait to see what other kind of trouble Danny can get it into.

[fawn-tongues]

Safe Bet

[inkskinned]

it is all chaos and entropy. the thing is that the chaos and entropy make it beautiful and lovely.

yes, it's true that nature and the universe are uncaring and unspecific, and that is terrifying. i have lived through some of the unfairness - i got born like this, with my body caving into itself, with this ironic love of dance when i sometimes can't stand up for longer than 15 minutes. i am a poet with hands that are slowly shutting down - i can't hold a pen some days. recently i found a dead bird on our front porch. she had no visible injuries. she had just died, the way things die sometimes.

it is also true that nature and the universe are uncaring and unspecific, and that is wonderful. the sheer happenstance that makes rain turn into a rainbow. the impossible coincidence of finding your best friend. i have made so many mistakes and i have let myself down and i have harmed other people by accident. nature moves anyway. on the worst day of my life she delivers me an orange juice sunset, as if she is saying try again tomorrow.

how vast and unknowing the universe! how small we are! isn't that lovely. the universe has given us flowers and harp strings and the shape of clouds. how massive our lives are in comparison to a grasshopper. the world so bright, still undiscovered. even after 30 years of being on this earth, i learned about a new type of animal today: the dhole.

chance echoing in my life like a harmony between two people talking. do you think you and i, living in different worlds but connected through the internet - do you think we've ever seen the same butterfly? they migrate thousands of miles. it's possible, right?

how beautiful the ways we fill the vastness of space. i love that when large amounts of people are applauding in a room, they all start clapping at the same time. i love that the ocean reminds us of our mother's heartbeat. i love that out of all the colors, chlorophyll chose green. i love the coincidences. i love the places where science says i don't know, but it just happens.

"the universe doesn't care about you!" oh, i know. that's okay. i care about the universe. i will put my big stupid heart out into it and watch the universe feast on it. it is not painful. it is strange - the more love you pour into the unfeeling world, the more it feels the world loves you in return. i know it's confirmation bias. i think i'm okay if my proof of kindness is just my own body and my own spirit.

i buried the bird from our porch deep in the woods. that same day, an old friend reaches out to me and says i miss you. wherever you go, no matter how bad it gets - you try to do good.

[robinfollies]

KEEP THE DANGER OUT // KEEP THE DANGER IN

[egophiliac]

MOMO!!!!!!!!!!

[naffeclipse]

I've been musing over a few thoughts inspired by this ask about a mafia-ish style of Apex Polarity without it being too close to Pearl Eye, and after watching a few videos of Orcas hunting their prey (which included dolphins), landed on a sort of Mafia inspired Apex Polarity AU

Also not to add another Y/N to Orclipse's growing collection but this Y/N is a white-beaked dolphin. Look! They're so beautiful!

Sirens are cunning, brutal, and take everything with teeth and claws. The strongest kill and maim at a whim. As a siren who's not particularly strong, though incredibly agile, with a tail streamlined and dark gray with white patches, fins curved and mostly black, you're somewhere at the bottom. You're doing your best to survive and avoid trouble. You pick your battles and you pick your escapes, and most importantly, you stay alive.

But then you do something really stupid: you venture where you shouldn't have.

You don't usually swim so far up north but you're hungry, and the thought of a few tasty squids distracts you from the silent waters and vast, blue emptiness. You realize a bit too late that you're not the only one hunting.

You catch the first orca siren in the distance as a dark figure, and then another. Two who immediately cut through the water, charging straight for you like shadows. Though you turn tail and bolt, you quickly spot them in the corner of your vision. They easily keep pace, their size and strength overwhelming as they flank you on both sides, wide grins flashing their deadly teeth. You can hardly look at the mismatched color of their eyes as you dodge and weave, diving down only to be cut off by one with midnight blue colors at the tip of his flukes, and shooting off to the left just to almost be snatched by the black-bone claws of a siren with bright yellow fins framing his head.

They're toying with you. You know that for a fact in how they just barely keep back, corraling you onwards, draining your already spent energy, and picking at your panicking pulse. You have no choice but to avoid the edges of their jaws and the tips of their talons, and swim in the direction they want.

You near a field of ice floes floating on the water, and though you cut into the jagged structures dipping into the sea, the orca sirens never lose you. A desperate need for air pushes you onward. One small drop of hope still burns in your chest. Despite the aching of your muscles, you steal a gulp of oxygen and dip back down once more, charging away—

Only to run smack into a third orca siren.

This one grabs you, his burning red and orange colors filling your vision. The other two orcas join to help their kin keep you in place long enough for you to truly regret ever venturing here. Between the three of what you can only assume are brothers, hands hooked over you shoulders, claws clutching your wrists, and palms pressing into your hips, you're a fish caught in a net.

You brace for a voilent end. It never arrives. Instead of digging into your sweet meat, the sirens offer you a deal. The tips of sharp fingertips trace your jawline and the soft inside of your arms and down your slick tail while they explain.

You keep watch for human ships and report back when they're getting close, and in exchange, you get the best food you can imagine, the entire Arctic Ocean to swim, and anything else you'd like. The best benefit? You're under their protection. Of course, they expect utter loyalty from you. You are no one else's. Failure to devote yourself to this work and the brothers would mean a grisly fate, but hey, you're nothing if not eager to not be torn apart. So you agree.

You have a few questions about this whole arrangement, struggling to understand why they, powerful orca sirens, bother with a smaller fish like you when they could rip you limb from limb and be done. What's with the human ships? Why task you to this? Are you just fodder so they can keep their fins nice and unscabbed? They reassure you that they'll explain in due time (the sunny one booping your nose, much to your chagrin), but for now, all you know to know is that the human ships are a problem, and you are their solution for it. You've never really encountered humans before, but they've never really encountered sirens, or so you thought.

The burning red one lets you go, but you don't slip away too far before he tugs on your flukes and tells you to follow him. It's not a request. The darker blue one leaves for a moment, jetting away as the other two guide you to a nice resting place on an icy shore. They introduce themselves, and then their brother reappears with a squid in hand, half dead, and an insistence that you eat—they could tell during the chase that you didn't have all your energy.

And that's how you unwittingly join a very powerful pod of orca brothers who may or may not be teasing and taunting you simultaneously.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

[RHETORIC - Legendary 14]: Convince Kim you are in a timeloop.

(ISAT side of the swap)

[b0nelessdoodles]

started this before mystic flour dropped and then was too busy trying to pull her to finish this lmao anyway tfw you and the besties are going nuts or something

[harbingersglory]

i know i said more dom!reader blah blah blah sorry arlecchino rotted my brain severely. tmasc bunny!arle giving me severe brain damage /pos

(he/him prns used for arle)

at a glance, the big ears and small puffball of a tail might temporarily make you think Arlecchino is far sweeter then he actually is. how could anyone who looked so cute be anything but, right?

but you know better. you serve under Lord Arlecchino - literally. tucked under his desk while he makes you slobber and choke all over his strap. you barely get to breathe with his hand fisted in your hair, keeping you right where he wants you. if you've been particularly exemplary on your little missions, he might even let you sit on his lap. though whether thats worse or not is debatable, making you cockwarm him as he works. and you'd better keep quiet, too. he's not above muzzling you or just straight up shoving his fingers into your mouth to silence you while you squirm on his lap.

maybe if you last until he's done he'll fuck you properly. bend you over his desk and pound your pretty little holes until you're unable to stand. he'll still make you clean up his strap afterwards, of course.

it's when he's in a bad mood that he really gets going. sheds the act of polite, dignified little bunny. no, he's here to break you in and use you like the little toy you are. and you'll let him, won't you? drooling all over his strap when he fucks your throat raw, drags you into the nearest room the moment he sees you to watch your eyes roll back into your head as his cock stretches you out..

he's just as much of a mess as you are when he's this pent up, though. he doesn't bother keeping up appearances when he just has some pent up stress to get out. if you could even think straight you'd notice his puffball of a tail wagging and his ears drooping as he ruts into you, panting and grunting against your ear when you cum around his strap for the tenth time. you could almost swear you heard him whimper, but you'll be in a world of punishment if you mention it the next day (he absolutely did).

[backpackingspace]

Its always neoptolemus was unhinged. Neoptololemus took his father's rage and pride and doubled it. And never odysseus taught him the art of war crimes

[al-luviec]

juvie buddies

[oofuri2003]

[thephooka]

I've been dreaming of making a webcomic for nearly half of my life, and I've just started actually working on that, but... do you think it's worth it for me to start even with the decline of the scene? White noise is quite possibly my favorite piece of media, period, and it's in a format I love, so I figure you're a good person to ask the thoughts of.

(In reference to this post, I am guessing.)

ABSOLUTELY! 100%! MAKE YOUR WEBCOMIC!! Please don't let the whinging of us old heads deter you from making a project that you're passionate about.

I think it's important to ask yourself what would make it 'worth it' in your mind. What do you want out of making a webcomic? Is it that you want to experience the act of creation? Do you have a story you need to get out? Is your goal to get a book printed? To have a large audience? To improve your artistic and storytelling skills? To make a living on your artwork? To make merch? Some of these are way harder to do today, but some of these are goals that you will reach simply by making your webcomic.

If it helps at all, I had to do a lot of this kind of talk to myself when I was starting in 2011 (less because of the scene and more because I was low in self-confidence.) The only way I could get myself to start posting WN on Smackjeeves was to remind myself that I was doing this for myself only, and maybe no one would read it, and that would be ok, because if nothing else I would be making something I love and I would learn a lot doing it. 13 years later and I'd consider my goals met, even if I stopped WN before I'm truly done with it.

(Which speaking of, I feel very strongly that unfinished or abandoned webcomics are not a waste of time for either the reader OR the creator. Just because a story doesn't get an ending--or gets an ending you don't like--doesn't mean it's without worth!!)

The webcomic scene is not going to fully disappear anytime soon--it's just suffering the same corporatization that has gripped almost every art scene at some point in some way, and I think that problem has been compounded by the consolidation of the internet into a few social media platforms. But those platforms will crumble, and the corporations will bail once they can't squeeze any more money out of webcomics. The scene won't ever been the same as it was in the 2010s, but that's how time works, and that doesn't mean it won't ever get better than it is or that there's not gems to be found now. The only way it gets better is if more people make and read webcomics!

[macbethz]

hes just like me fr