#but therein lies the tragedy

[ardentpoop]

remember when sam signed up for the exact same fate with lucifer and everyone around him agreed that sacrificing himself was Correct since the apocalypse was His Fault

remember how he spent the entirety of s5 being made to feel utterly worthless and not a single person in his life intervened or even asked him how he was coping

remember how he DID spend an eternity trapped with lucifer and michael who had nothing to do to entertain themselves besides torture him (and adam, oops)

[elapsed-spiral]

Also remain proud of:

[sohelish]

tfw you realise that Hel's father was basically doing eugenics stuff...

like idk why, but I think I never called it that? even though that's the thing. I guess I was just too focused on the family's interpersonal drama to label what her dad was doing lmao

[trisshawkeye]

I can't now find where I mentioned it earlier but I wanted to expand on a thought about Black Sails as a tragedy. It's not so much about individual characters reaching particular endings. Rather, I think the central tragedy is that there is this fight - this war against the world, against civilization itself, which is the driver for everything Flint does and arguably the entire plot - that then doesn't take place. The story goes right up to the brink of this conflict, and by the end it's not just Flint raging alone against the world with whatever pirates can be persuaded to follow him, but it's Madi and the slave revolt and an entire people driven by what has been done to them and to their ancestors, it's something so much bigger than the individuals involved, with potentially world-changing consequences, history-changing consequences, an entire overturning of the colonising powers in the Americas.

And therein lies the tragedy, because we know the history, and we know that this story isn't just a Treasure Island prequel, it's interwoven with historical individuals as well and places itself in that context, and invites us to imagine what could have been while at the same time haunted by the spectre of how history actually plays out. The tragedy is that the war never happened. We know from the beginning that the war against civilization could never have been won in this story, but it still invites the imagining - what if, what if?

And so the audience is forced into the position of Silver, who is confronted with this vision of the future so ardently pursued and believed in by Madi and Flint, and cannot imagine it playing out. Silver, because he never believed in this fight to begin with and only knows that he will lose the ones he loves to it; us, because no matter how much we may believe in the cause, we know that they don't win, that there never was a slave uprising and pirate revolt that overturned the entire New World. Silver cannot bring that future about. All he can do is end the story.

Black Sails asks us to imagine, what if the treasure was not just a chest of gold, but an entire possible future that was killed and buried in the ground on a lost and forgotten island?

[padawan-historian]

If you are talking about the human tragedy and climate disaster impacting Hawai’i ONLY in relation to tourism or your (postponed) vacation plans . . . therein lies the problem.

Hawai'i is not an "eat, pray, love" trip nor is she a cultural theme park.

Hawai’i is a collection of communities with deep indigenous roots and ancestral identities (many queer + colorful) that American + European colonizers once attempted to eradicate.

In the present day, empire-builders and colorblind colonizers are attempting to gentrify and commodify these ancestral spaces, not to benefit the indigenous, diaspora, and immigrant folks (folx) who steward and preserve those waterways and lands, but to protect the interests and properties of billionaires on vacation

Afronaut Note: This is not a discussion about policing language or shaming folks in your neighborhood who are sharing vacation pictures or lamenting their travel plans. This is about expanding our horizons to center decolonized, ancestral, and communal spaces. Imagine if after the Japanese tsunami (2011) or Hurricane Katrina (2005), people shared vacation pictures and complained about having to cancel their graduation trips.

Original post from @seedingsovereignty

——

"Our culture has to be the core of our mana." Dr. Haunani-Kay Trask (1949 – 2021)⁠

A leader of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement & a fearless leader.⁠

Her memory is needed during these times. ⁠

Support the People of Hawai’i

[vitospaghetta]

Leon's flirting in Infinite Darkness

This scene has, since day one, been one of my favorites in Infinite Darkness. The series did an excellent job at bringing a lot of aspects of Leon's character to the surface. Things we were already very familiar with, like his kind and attentive nature, but also darker aspects of his character he generally tends to keep hidden, such as his anger, his resentment, and the extent of his trauma regarding Raccoon City. What I love about this scene is that it is also a prime example of one of those darker aspects of Leon's character. One that is integral to understanding who he is as a person — his desperation.

I've seen the idea of his flirtation with Shen Mei in this scene being interpreted as platonic become popularized. For some people, choosing to ignore what is being presented here is easier than accepting that Leon S. Kennedy would ever be okay with going on a date with someone already in an established relationship. Though I think that idea discredits the deeply human sentiment present in this scene. As morally objectionable as Leon's actions are here, there's something incredibly authentic about them. Unknowingly, he's disclosing his desires, and not just sexual ones.

It's very clear that Leon is asking her out to dinner with romantic intent. This comes down to my own personal life experience, but I've come to understand this as a universal truth: when a man you hardly know asks you to do anything with him, it's a date. He is asking you out romantically, guaranteed. In the case of Leon in this scene, when you take the context of Shen Mei being in a relationship and Leon's lifestyle into account, you can paint a clear picture of him not only asking Shen Mei out on a date, but he's doing so to get his foot in the door, so-to-speak.

He's not looking for longevity, he's doing this with the sole intention of sleeping with her. That's why he disregards her relationship — approaches this with a shameless 'I'm willing to be the mistake she makes at least once' mentality — because he's not looking for a relationship. He's desperately yearning for pleasure; for the burdens of his life to melt away, even if the moment is fleeting. Even if it comes at the cost of someone else's relationship. An act of selfishness — something we don't often see from Leon — but desperation has a way of making people act impulsively. I think this speaks volumes about his character.

Leon lives a life that doesn't allow for him to be able to settle down. Given how compassionate and empathetic he is, he more-than-likely views relationships as impractical at best. He'd constantly feel like his happiness would come at the cost of his partner's, and that's not something he could live with, so he submits to loneliness. It's practical, it's fair, and it's the only option that makes sense given his career. A long-term committal relationship is just another opportunity his service to the government has taken from him, and while he can have it, he will not willingly drag someone else into a relationship that would surely be filled with disappointment to do so.

So instead, he seeks momentary pleasure. He flirts with women like Shen Mei and Hunnigan while on duty. He self-sabotages by pursuing emotionally unavailable women like Ada. One could argue that flirting with Shen Mei and Hunnigan are also him self-sabotaging, as they are also women that are most-likely going to reject him due to the professional nature of their relationship. He's going out of his way to avoid genuine connection, and therein lies the tragedy of it all.

At the end of the day, he craves normalcy. He yearns for a life he can't have and deeply resents being denied it. Moments like this are just displaying how Leon navigates the circumstances of his life, actively denying himself a happiness he is so deserving of, but deems as unfair to others. He wants to feel needed and appreciated in a way that makes him feel like anything other than a weapon pointed at the government's problems — to feel loved, in the most intrinsically human way possible, even if it's only for one night with someone and ultimately means nothing in the end.

This moment perfectly encapsulates something that has always been a crucial component of Leon's character, the extent of his tragedy — the lonely and isolating nature of a life he didn't choose.

[cemeterything]

we don't know what VAL was like before she became VAL, and therein lies the tragedy of her, but something that eats at me is that what we do know of her life doesn't suggest that she was much better off before. i don't doubt that part of her motivation for joining the war effort was probably rooted in that hateful, ignorant patriotism that hurts everyone and everything it touches; misguided faith in the propaganda she was sold, and perhaps even a capacity for cruelty that already lay festering within long before her transformation. but she volunteered. she wasn't a soldier returning to the active duty she'd trained for. and even if she didn't know that she'd have her personhood flayed from her to make room for a god of lies, she knew she was signing up for war. and happy people, those who are genuinely content with their lot on life, aren't generally in a hurry to throw that all away to serve on the front lines. we hear in the podcast about how even the truly desperate are more afraid of conscription than of going hungry. which begs the question of how utterly miserable the woman who became VAL must have been, how desperately alone, to see signing up as her only way out.

[aziraphales-library]

Hello! Thank you all for your generous work in the community! after s2 I need some really fluffy fanfic because I ache,

I need something very very fluffy, totally non-explicit, asexual, I love some fat aziraphale related fluff, maybe a length of 4k-50k? It can be more or less. I have read everything from ineffablefool. human au are preferable, but if it isn’t it’s also fine.

Anyway, thank you very much for your time, I appreciate all you do <3 :)

Hi! We have tags for all this: #fluff, #asexual, #chubby aziraphale, #human au. Here are some fics that may or may not have already been recommended...

with the help of a cat, or two by whicorzoo (G)

In which the cat in the window of the flat right across from Crowley's is unfairly perfect, so on a particularly whimsical night, he decides to put up a sign in his window to tell his neighbor as much. By morning, he's forgotten about it, until he sees it in his window and regrets the decision entirely. He expects to have his cool, intimidating facade never taken seriously again. He does not expect a response.

The Art of Human Nature by IneffableDoll (T)

Crowley is a painter who has only ever had an eye for nature. That is, until a client named Aziraphale commissions her for a painting to boost her self-confidence, and Crowley discovers that her client is as beautiful as the Earth itself. Then she goes and catches feelings, because she’s a disaster.

Therein Lies The Beauty by BlackUnicorn (NR)

After receiving an unexpected invitation to his brother’s wedding, an unfortunate realisation about his old suit, and the inconvenient news that his trusted tailor had closed down, Azra Fell finds himself in Devil’s Wear and his world turned upside down. OR Two trans tragedies accidentally steal each other's hearts and then simply never give them back.

Around the World in 80 Cakes by cookie_full_of_arsenic (T)

This is a queerplatonic love story between Aziraphale and Crowley. Or possibly between Aziraphale and cake. There will be recipes because I'm extra.

Across the Line by hope_in_the_dark (T)

Ezra is a student in his final year at University College London, and he’s in love with a man he’s never spoken to. For months, Ezra has been tipping (and pining after) a musician named Crowley every time he sees him. He thinks that Crowley hasn’t noticed him, but Crowley has. A love story that begins with, of all things, the saving and handing over of a book.

Do I wanna know? by KissMyAsthma (M)

Aziraphale and Anathema are both closeted queer people, and they decide to do what any sensible closeted queer people do - they form a fake relationship, to shut the mouths of their families and shoo away unwanted suitors. Their comfortable arrangement is put into question when a school reunion makes Aziraphale reconnect - or connect, really - with his school crush, Anthony Crowley. But past is past, and now that they’re both adults, Aziraphale is just glad to make a friend. If the friend finds himself interested in Aziraphale… Well, there’s nothing for him to do since Aziraphale is taken, right?

- Mod D

[notori]

Everything going on with Delilah right now is bringing me back to the emotional state at the end of C2 with BeauYasha and the red eyes. I spent the last however-many months of that campaign so stressed out of my mind because I thought the eyes would rip Beau and Yasha apart in tragedy and I so badly wanted for them to be happy.

These are very different ships, of course, but both involve people pulling themselves out of the muck to find love again when it seemed impossible. Laudna giving in to Delilah is much like an addict, and Beau continuing to read the book was integral to her curious nature. Both indulged in a type of compulsion that bit them in the ass.

But in the same vein, I feel like Delilah's presence is narratively very similar to the eyes. This device exists to stress the fuck out of the players, the characters, the audience - to cause angst and tension. But, like the eyes, like addiction in general, it is not a death sentence by itself. It is a fucking intense hurdle, but it can be overcome.

I am most afraid of Laudna dying (whether literally or on a mental/spiritual soul magic level) to Delilah because it would confirm to her, in character, what was supposed to be a funny joke out of character: That she was simply not designed to be loved. That would destroy me.

This isn't to criticize player choices! Honestly, brilliant RP and acting and wonderful storytelling. It's just the gamble you have with TTRPGs because it's impossible to know how it ends. Even the DM has only a framework and an idea, the players and the dice do the rest. We can't just flip to the end of the book to know if there's a happy ending, we can't ask our friend who watched the series last year if it has a happy ending. We just have to gamble with our emotions and the story and therein lies the rush. But omfg. I need this to end well - regardless of the middle where there's all the Delilah fuckery - I need it to be something they overcome rather than lose to.

[myfandomscollide]

Some TMA thoughts.

One of the greatest things that I enjoy in regards to The Magnus Archives is the meta tragic humor that is the existence of Elias Bouchard. I don't mean to belittle his importance to the plot and certainly recognize that his situation was unfortunate. It's funny how everyone views Jon Sims as the antichrist, when this also applies to Elias too. He was certainly just as chosen for a role as much as Jon was.

To those people angry about the synced ao3 tags of Elias and Jonah, therein also lies tragedy. The funniest thing about that situation is the fact all the blame, hatred, disgust, and fear, all falls back on a name; the final remnant of a person who cannot and could not fight back. In universe, it's a corruption of great proportions, the usurpation of a man unprepared for what he sought. Jonah wholesale subsumed Elias's life, and this ripple effects the way we view Elias in real life. Concurrently it is another twist of a knife that drives further irritation deeper when one attempts to assign the proper credit for the events transpired. Deliberate misattribution of critical events is horrifying too and is so effortlessly executed by Jonah, almost like an inverse plagiarism. Seeing people frustrated about that in tagging delights me in a way, that if one chooses to engage meta-contextually, the acts perpetrated by Jonah bleed upwards into our reality and afflict it too. Continuing to hate Elias in general, you perpetuate the narrative established by Jonah. The Magnus Archives as a podcast written by Jonny Sims is creative and all the more chilling as a result.

[foreststarflaime]

Ok so I was translating the Iliad for fun last night as one does and oh my god it’s them?? Genesis Rhapsodos is a homeric hero in this essay I will

“Sing to me, goddess, of the accursed wrath of Achilles son of Peleus, who caused countless pains for the Acheans, and sent forth many stout souls of heroes to Hades, and made them spoils to dogs and to every bird of prey, and the will of Zeus was accomplished, from when first the son of Atreus ruler of men and divine Achilles stood apart in strife.”

-Homer, Iliad, I.1-7 (translation is my own)

But like the more I think about it, the more it just…fits him perfectly? Strap in boys this turned into a long one, I’m putting my ‘useless’ degree to good use

So a huge drive for Homeric heroes is pursuit of kleos (κλέος, meaning glory), it’s what their societal values are built off of, and it’s what Genesis builds his life off of too. It’s why he can’t let himself coexist peacefully with Sephiroth—for Genesis’ glory to spread, it can’t be eclipsed by Sephiroth’s. Kleos is earned primarily through being remembered in song, and you don’t see Shinra making any propaganda with Genesis in it (at least disproportionately not as much as Sephiroth).

And that’s another thing—Genesis’ desperate will to live. A big part of the appeal of kleos is that it grants you a sort of immortality, to live forever in the minds of humanity as long as the songs about you persist. There is a way to earn kleos without being the best hero around, and it’s to be killed by the best hero around—in passages where heroes go on killing rampages, there’s little catalogues of everyone they kill, like little graveyards of poetry that let them live on after death. It’s not a dishonor to them, rather the opposite since they died bravely fighting someone they just couldn’t beat.

This isn’t the way Genesis wants to earn his kleos, though, and he’s desperately afraid of it. We see in his reaction to degredation that he will do anything to avoid his own death, lashing out against everyone in pain and fear. He wants more than anything not to die, but he doesn’t want to end up a footnote in the rampage of someone greater. He wants Achilles’ fame, but fails to see that this fame was conditional upon his death. The most famous part of Achilles’ story that survived, after all, was his heel.

And then there’s how his friends fit into the story. As you can see in the quote from earlier, Sephiroth fits well as the Agamemnon to Genesis’ Achilles. Agamemnon leads the assembled Greek forces because he has the most men, the most fame, but Achilles (putting aside the matter of whether he is or not) doesn’t want to be seen as inferior to him, and is infuriated when Agamemnon does something he sees as a slight against his kleos. From Genesis’ perspective, this fits Sephiroth exactly. From Sephiroth’s perspective, naturally this is not the case, but therein lies the problem—he’s in a different genre from Genesis, one that becomes incompatible when put in the context it’s in, and this dooms them to tragedy.

It’s a similar problem with Angeal. Honor and glory are similar enough to be the best of companions, but they are not the same thing, and it’s something that is easy to forget. The difference is most clear, again, in the context they’re in. Genesis is so busy chasing immortality in kleos that he forgets that honor is not immortality, and Angeal’s will to live fails when his honor does, and he loses him.

Angeal and Sephiroth are both their own genres, causing misunderstanding and ensuring the tragedy that occurs, but they fit in just enough with the context of Homeric heroes to not let Genesis see his mistake.

Important for him also is the definition of monster to a Greek—two different creatures mashed together in a way nature isn’t supposed to go. That’s it. And by that definition, he is a monster, though we’d still call him human by our definition. And that’s just…ouch. In the fundamental rules of his world, he is inarguably a monster.

But the tragedy of that is that he’s just so painfully human, as are all Homeric heroes—so horribly, humanly flawed in such a loud way that the world cannot ignore it, and is pulled down with him.

Okayy wrapping it up with a few fun facts because this is turning into the essay I didn’t mean it to be, his last name Rhapsodos (Ῥαψῳδός) is a Greek word that translates roughly to bard, and specifically to a bard that recites epic poetry. Like the Iliad. It’s so unbelievably perfect for him, good job square enix! And the fact that this quote from the Iliad has goddess instead of Muse like the Odyssey, it was fated! Also, not that noun genders really mean anything, but the Greek noun genesis (γένεσις) is actually feminine, so win for genderqueer Genesis propaganda

Anyway where did my afternoon suddenly go, this was supposed to be a short fun thing, I should really be working on my thesis (which coincidentally was inspired by him, I’m in too deep send help) if you read all this I love you forever lol bye

[crowcaws]

FMA is obviously full of tragedies and some are lot more talked about than others but I DESPERATELY need everyone to stop sleeping on the scene where Pinako and Ed dig up the body the boys transmuted. It's a short but very potent scene for Ed's character, his drive, his philosophy, and the kind of brother he is.

The way Ed keeps digging even though it makes him physically sick. He can only laugh as they discover the body isn't Trisha. The truth, as Ed says, is that a dead person can never be brought back to life, be it by the rules of alchemy or the rule of god.

This means he and Al lost their bodies for someone who wasn't their mother, but he is also able to let go now that he has closure. The body haunted him, but this is the scene where Ed is finally able to start meaningfully moving forward.

(The body being Not Trisha™ also raises questions of whether Al's soul is really Al, but that's a crisis of identity that is a separate issue altogether. )

But the best part of this scene is where Ed still insists on giving the body a proper grave and a headstone, because it's still a person. Pinako's inner dialogue points out that most people wouldn't consider it a person, but Ed can't think that way because it would be an admission that Al isn't a person either.

Ed is the less compassionate and more abrasive sibling, but he will always have a unique ability to see humanity where nobody else would because if Alphonse can have personhood in his state, then so can anyone else. It's this unbreakable faith in Alphonse's humanity that allows Ed to be the kind of hero he is. Without that, he might never have been the person who believed Ling was still alive somewhere in Greed.

Therein lies the dichotomy between Scar and Ed that Nina's death sets up early on. They're very similar people: Both of them lost their brother, in a way, and both of them carry that. Ed's brother still has a chance, Scar's doesn't. In Nina, Scar sees a monster with no hope, too far gone to ever regain her personhood, and grants her eradication as a mercy. He doesn't see it as a murder because there is no person there. Ed is hit so hard by Nina's death because he knows that is the kind of "mercy" that Scar, and perhaps anyone else, might think is the only option for people like Nina and Al, and he will always refuse to accept that.

[headphonemouse]

Kim Dokja's line from chapter 388, "Marry Bihyung? I'd rather kill myself." Could also mean "Engage with the media? I'd rather kill myself." which we all know is truer than it seems and therein lies the tragedy aaand post

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.197 thoughts

[Rider Kick!!!]

(Contents: speculation - Haruka, thematic analysis - life)

Tozuka, we need to talk about your sense for chapter titles. It's "ready, get set, go" not "get set, ready, go." Maybe it's different in Japan?

Anyway

HARUKA DEVELOPMENT!!!

Seeing that Haruka's soul is still her child self from her original backstory, I wonder if we'll be seeing a flashback of how her tragedy was averted. Given Isshin XII's statement that Haruka's heart hasn't matured, my supposition last week that Fuuko's soul resembling her appearance from when she just joined the Union symbolizes that she's the same person at heart seems to have been correct. The shape of a person's soul is a reflection of who they are; Andy is an old soul, Fuuko is a member of the Union, Lucy is a free spirit, and Haruka is a scared child. Cowardice has been a core trait of Haruka's the entire time, and while this arc seemed to suggest that she'd grown out of that between loops, this moment implies that just because she's braver doesn't mean that she isn't scared

Presumably the circumstances of her becoming Unbreakable contributed to her soul taking that shape, a moment in her past that she can't move on from. I doubt her father died the same way this time if at all, but even if it was just the shock of seeing her grandfather die of natural causes, I could see that rooting Haruka's heart in a particular time. It would also be interesting if Tozuka uses that plot point to elaborate on why Haruka got into cobbling, what inspired her to make that choice specifically, and how her relationship with Top developed after she saved his friends. I don't know if that's a story that Tozuka is interested in telling, but it's one I'm interested in reading, for sure!

The other major element of this chapter was Isshin XII's advice to Haruka. "Use the power of those who never merely live and die." Therein lies the thesis statement for this arc and possibly the entire series: "[humans] never merely live and die." We aren't alive just because blood pumps through our veins (Victor's original view) or because we have thoughts in our heads (Andy's original view); we're alive because we can form connections, because we can leave an impact on the world, because we can create

A beast lives on instinct. A beast kills and eats to survive and breed, and one day dies so that something else may feed and survive. As UMA Beast said, beasts do not desire coexistence. I would argue that they don't desire anything, their biology simply compels them to eat and procreate, even if they don't have what we would call an "understanding" of the purpose of their actions

A human, though, can eat to survive, but doesn't have to. Eating can be a purely utilitarian experience, just a way to fuel up the body for the next day, but people don't typically do that. People cook, they maximize the taste of the dish as well as the nutritional value if they even pay attention to it in the first place, and they partake of their meals communally. We do understand the purpose of eating, but that purpose is of secondary concern to anyone outside of a life-or-death scenario; instead, the priority is to enjoy our meals, whether it's through the company we keep, the flavor of the dish, or even simply the joy of creation

And that, I think, is where Unbreakable's true power comes from. Unbreakable isn't slapping two scraps of metal together and calling it a shield, it's an artform, a craft that one dedicates their life to, the culmination of skill and pride passed down for generations. It's not enough to simply know how it works; watching a knitting tutorial on youtube isn't enough to create a beautiful quilt, you have to understand the materials and the tools and the techniques intimately

There's no pride or craftsmanship in Beast simply growing Unbreakable armor. Does a tortoise build its own shell and take pride in it, or does it simply happen to grow around an otherwise oblivious reptile? As I've said a thousand times, Undead Unluck is a series about "the proof of a life lived," and the mastering of an art, the inheritance of a legacy, is just another in a long line of angles that Tozuka has chosen to tackle this theme from

Haruka's new Unbreakable, seemingly able to reconfigure her armor to match someone else, suggests that she has achieved that mastery and pride. Unbreakable is not about rigid conformity to one shape, it's about the ability to adapt to the scenario; "the reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the oak which breaks in a storm." Beast has no understanding or appreciation of the effort that forged Unbreakable itself, much less the armor it creates, and thus does not have the pride nor conviction to allow for it to be flexible or adaptable

Beast has Unbreakable, but he does not have the spirit to create. Beast devalues that which proves that one has lived, and that will ultimately be his undoing

Until next time, let's enjoy life!

[eleccy]

despite everything, based on what we saw in turnabout succession? kristoph was never outwardly evil to klavier. he was extremely patronizing and overbearing and annoying, but like... some of that is what you would classify as normal big brother behavior? no doubt their relationship at that point was not good. but. i think kristoph enjoyed being an older brother, back in the days. he played the games, he told stories with the voices, he gave klavier goodnight kisses and hugs and everything. and therein lies the tragedy goodnight folks

[oooooo-shiny]

So I’ve had this idea kicking around in my head for a while. First off it’s a Twin AU thing for Damian and Danny, as in that’s a prerequisite. Then like, two hiers is a whole lot right? Ra’s al Ghul probably doesn’t want to deal with that. But how do you choose?

Well I mean… why not a fight to the death? That checks both boxes at once - now you have one hier AND you know which hier is better at (obeying you) fighting! So. Old Ra’s sets the two boys up to fight. Little Danyal gets a sword through the gut.

Danyal becomes a ghost with all the ambient ectoplasm in his home (I’d say the al Ghuls are extremely contaminated with ectoplasm in general) and his strong will. He doesn’t remember everything and he’s a pretty cute and innocuous kid. (He’s like 7) Especially once you get past the sword in his gut. Both his body and his sword were burned after his death, so Danny is the scabbard for the spirit of his sword.

Danny goes on his own adventures and grows as a person (but never in age). He has friends and enemies and learns that he can be soft. Then, there’s a summoning. The summoner wants someone related to Damian by blood - that’s all that matters. Danny comes through. The tension is high and the situation’s gunpowder. Danny recognizes this. And he knows someone will light a match. His death, his creation, was at the hands of his brother. He doesn’t know him as well as he could - it’s been years and Ra’s made en effort to keep them apart often - but Danny loves Damian. Respects the gift that his own death brought him. That the after was better than his life.

Danny offers up the sword in his chest to Damian. He rarely unsheathes it - it’s powerful and pulling it out is a risk. Risk to whoever’s at the end of the blade and to himself. Having his core exposed to the open air when he wields his sword in hand is not exactly conducive to a ghost’s continued health. The situation is dire and so Damian takes the sword. Offering up one’s death has a lot of meaning. It’s akin to offering one’s heart on a plater. When humans have their hearts out of their body, they stop functioning. Ghosts are much the same. Danny’s core and the sword are not meant to be separate.

Therein lies a bit of a conundrum.

Danny’s form dissipates as easy as morning mist beneath the sun as Damian grips the hilt.

The sword is powerful, of course. It doesn’t loose it’s power just because it’s in someone else’s hands. It’ll strike an enemy regardless of possessed invincibility. It cuts through anything required of it, but running an appreciative hand along the blade has no consequence. It glows - a weak, steady neon that waxes in the dark and wanes in the light.

Damian often keeps the lights off in his room now.

You could say that Danny’s still around but in the sword now. Maybe permanently, or maybe he’s just sort of hibernating. You could say Damian killed his brother twice and Danny died by the sword twice. You could even say that Danny giving up the sword allowed him to pass on and he’s at rest and he’s been forced awake this whole time. That he had been making the best of a bad situation in the meantime since his death. Personally, I’d probably go with the first option. I’m not the best at dealing with tragedies. But that sweet sweet angst….

Either way, I’d really like to see a story with Scabbard Danny! I’m trying to be the change I want to see in the world, but I’m not great at metaphorically putting that pen to paper. Which is just absolutely great (sarcasm).