#even a tiny bit

[scrambledd3ggss]

You know what bothers me in Spy School? Nobody cries. From what I can recall (I have to reread a lot of the books) no one has just cried. Like openly sobbed. And they’ve all almost died before? I think that’s a pretty good reason to cry, is it not? Would love to see at least one character (preferably Ben or Erica -sorry) just cry a little bit

[lilfoxay]

So... what if I posted an out-of-context bit of a story from like a year ago that I still haven't finished? Without any warning or explanation? I haven't like... revised it even. And it's bad because I sucked a year ago (just kidding, I'm working on the negative self-talk). It is edgy, it is about angels and shit, I am living my middle school power self-insert fantasies and the only person who can stop me is me when I regret posting this immediately after I hit the button. It's below the cut :P

“Unimportant. Why isn’t their soul out yet?”

“Complications,” Oxy walked forward to stand next to the mortician, as both of them studied me closely. I averted my gaze, and quickly found the floor to be a point of interest. “Their soul fights back.”

“Fights back?”

“Happens very rarely, only with the–”

“Souls of angels,” The room filled with an oppressive silence as all three of us pondered the situation we were in. However, I felt pitifully out of the loop. “Is there any chance we could still try?”

“Yes. But neither of us will like what we see, or what they’ll do to us when they get their memories back.”

“We can handle one bird-brain.”

“I’d be offended, but there’s no time,” The mortician cupped their hands around Oxy’s, and soon they both wore blue, crackling spectral gloves tipped with gleaming claws. “On three,” With a grim nod, Oxy plunged their claws into my chest, and the cold feeling spread throughout my body once more. The mortician stepped up next to Oxy, and both their claws now anchored themselves into a part of me I did not know existed. “One,” Both of them shifted their stance. “Two,” The claws hummed louder, and the otherworldly sparking increased in frequency, leaving the room aglow in a pale blue light. “Three!” With a heave, they both tumbled backward onto the floor, pulling me out of my body as they went. Pulling… us… out of our body. I was bent over the steel table, the claws still embedded deep within my torso. Hands that weren’t mine tried to grip their arms and yanked me free, only to pass through them uselessly. Voices that were never my own cried out from my mouth in a cacophony of shouting and sobbing and begging and suffering. I saw through dozens of eyes. I grasped and tugged desperately at the clothes of those who had rent me from my body with a sickly number of hands to no avail. I towered above them, my head scraping the ceiling of a room that even they could not reach. As they both stood, unflinching as the hands attempted to pull them towards us, I could barely think over the storm of screams in my head.

I could not see my reflection. Oxeleure and the mortician’s eyes remained hidden from my view. The room had no mirrors. The metal on the table before me was dull and dirty, but it was better that way. What little I could see of myself, the reactions and body language of those who stood before me, they were enough.

I was a monster.

And yet they did not hesitate.

“The table! Hurry!” shouted the mortician as they dug their spectral claws into one of my arms.

“No need to tell me twice, I’m not an idiot.” Oxeleure soon followed suit, and with a snarl they dragged me down and onto the table. They fastened the shackles around one set of my arms and my ankles, as the rest of my limbs punched and clawed at them in retaliation.

“Jonas, get in here! Bring the potions!”

“What’s the hurry, I thought you were a profe- holy shit!” All of my eyes stared back at them as I struggled against my binds, my many arms uselessly passing through anything I tried to touch.

“Just shut up and get the potions to the body! I don’t know how long these binds can hold something like this!” Rushing forward with an armful of bottles, Jonas let them fall at my body’s feet as they tilted my head back. Cracking open three of the narrow vials, they balanced them in my mouth and pulled two handfuls of needles from their apron’s pockets. Disembodied golden hands, shining with the same energy as the orbs that had healed me, appeared around them and grasped the needles, urgently opening the rest of the vials and collecting as much of the green liquid as each could hold. I watched as they jabbed the needles into my neck, my arms, my legs, and even a few in my heart. I could see my neck turning pink as the liquid from the bottles in my mouth ran down my throat and seemingly brought my body back to life, without me in it. One of my hands once again tried to go for Oxeleure, grasping at their forearm. This time, it connected. They tried to wrench away from my grip as my other hands lurched greedily towards any hope of freedom.

“Uh, Circe, what does it mean when it stops phasing through objects?” The mortician slowly turned to see, as if scared to confront the reality of the situation.

“Thought you would know that by now like you seem to know everything else. It means we’re running out of time. Prepare to move the spirit,” They deftly dodged my arm’s pathetic attempt to claw at them. “Jonas, is the body ready?”

“Yeah, yeah. About as ready as it’ll ever be,” They turned to the mortician, their eyes glowing suns against the sickly blue hue that filled the room. “Tell me when.” The mortician and Oxeleure dug their claws into the pair of shoulders closest to my head, tensing their muscles in preparation.

“Okay in three, two, one…” The shackles flew open, their runes extinguishing, “NOW!” They both yanked me up from the table, hurling me towards the body as the golden hands injected the rest of the potions into my corpse. Against my will, my many sets of arms braced themselves against the chair and pushed back. The golden hands let the needles clatter to the floor as the blue energy coursed around them. Growing claws of their own, they burrowed deep into my bones and my chest, and I felt my hands slip through the chair as I screamed in agony. With a heave, Jonas, Oxeleure, and the mortician finally shoved my spirit back into my body. The glow from my own soul vanished, as well as the light from the claws and spiritual hands, as they all fell to the floor in exhausted silence.

“Swear to God… if you die after all this shit we just went through…” Jonas growled between gasps. Sharing their sentiment, Oxeleure crawled forward and clasped my leg. It was almost as if the sudden ‘attack’ scared me back to life. I lurched forward, gasping and panting and coughing and living for the first time in days. The mortician recovered the fastest, getting to their feet and dusting off their clothes. I felt firmly rooted in my own body once again, and for the first time, started being able to register the details of my surroundings.

[schrodingers-catgirl]

help my extended family leave palestine.

edit: decided to add my family friend's gofundme link here too. once again. please read through the notes. remember that these are real people, who are living through this as you read. this is my family. theyre all amazing people and i love them dearly stop scrolling, and take a minute to read about their story. i cannot stress enough that, when it comes to donations, every little bit counts. if you feel guilty and powerless about the situation in palestine, and you want a way to help, here it is. please, if you have even a little bit to spare, consider donating. If you don't have anything to give, at least reblog to spread the message.

[hiwelcometothemonstersancturary]

wow guys, i cant believe the player character from hit mascot horror game Poppy Playtime actually saved all monsters, killed the Prototype and left with their newfound family! cant wait to see how the authorities will react to this weird family that just formed!

[bookshelfdreams]

yk when you see someone share a finished handmade item that they clearly spent a lot of time and money on and it's just. The absolute tackiest thing you have seen in your life. And then you ask yourself why someone would waste all those resources on such an eyesore.

(no, of course you can't relate to that because you're a much nicer person than me)

In any case.

BEHOLD!

A wool coat!

The top fabric is handwoven and handspun, the whole thing is sewn by hand, too.

Leftovers. Barely anything, all things considered, which is very satisfying.

This thing took me well over 3 years to make, on and off. And now I'm done.

Thank you for your attention.

[bluerosefox]

Gray and Graysons

One of the Bats has a secret. Something they never told to the others.

They were so very young but they have memories of a sibling, so small and tiny. They remember the burst of warmth they had in their heart when they held the tiny baby for just a moment.

But they weren’t allowed to keep them, their family couldn’t raise them. Money was tight, just enough for three but not for four, despite their shows always bringing in a crowd it was getting harder and harder for the world to be wowed by them in the new age and their sibling was too small and tiny and needed to be cared in a single place than for them to be on the road. Their lifestyle was not good for his tiny sibling apparently.

They had to watch as their parents gave his sibling away to people in suits, them promising to give his baby brother to a loving family when they find a ‘home’ for him. He watched his parents try to be strong only for his mother to break down once the car left down the road, his father holding her and apologizing, the rest of the circus troupe all silently coming over to give the heartbroken family condolences.

Richard ‘Dick’ Grayson had tears running down his face when he last saw his baby brother.

A brother he got to name before he had to be given away.

Daniel ‘Danny’ Grayson.

-x-x-

Dick never told the others. If anyone dug deep into his past they might find his brother’s birth records maybe, if someone got around to digitizing the paperwork for him but given the fact he was placed in the US childcare systems just a few days after his birth and the fact that Dick was still pretty young they most likely believed he didn’t remember his baby brother now. Not after so many years.

But they were wrong, Dick remembers. And he kept the secret close to his heart and memories.

And the only physical evidence he had was a single picture of him holding his brother, a smile on his tiny face towards their father who had taken the photo of them together. When he had lost his parents, lost most of the things that connected him to them, to his past in the circus that had been his whole life, had been taken from him in Gotham’s ruthless childcare system, he held on tight to the picture in secret. Hid it away from anyone trying to rip it from him, hid it from Bruce when the man took him in days later, hid it from Alfred despite how gentle the butler was towards him. He couldn’t, wouldn’t risk losing his photo at the time, he hadn’t trusted anyone and by the time he did he didn’t have the heart to reveal it.

So yes, the existence of his baby brother Danny was his most guarded and best kept secret.

So that’s why Dick, as Nightwing, nearly died from a heart attack when leaving a Justice League meeting he spotted a familiar face among one of the new engineers working in the Watchtower.

It was like seeing a young version of himself. Only, Dick could see that the young man was more than a copy of him, so much more than a clone. He held many traces of John Grayson but also had a bit more of Mary Grayson than Dick did. Small details that Dick foggely remembers taking note when he had held his baby brother.

“Hey, hurry up with that report Gray!” Shouted the head engineer from down the hall, his hand beckoning the young adult to come over.

“Coming! And boss, I told you Danny is fine!” Danny shouted back before hurriedly leaving a stunned Nightwing.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Sorry for not having a Year of the Dragon MDZS artwork; Unfortunately, I can only picture Dragon LWJ in this particular flavour.

[vaspider]

Someday, I will recover from how quickly some people flipped like a switch on whether ertain parts of me were Amazing and Awesome once I crossed over a certain line of butchness. Like, at a particular point - whether it was when my voice dropped a certain amount or my chin got stubbly- my anger and my stubbornness and my iron-spine 'no, you can't steamroll me' changed in their eyes. These personality traits went from being the Feisty, Admirable, and Attractive behavior of a Spunky Feminist Lady to the horrible actions of a Thing that just embarrasses them.

I could even have dealt with it if I just got a pass for standing up for myself or being angry at the state of the world - if I'd passed into these people's man-gendered behavioral class, you know? Men are supposed to not let people roll over them; they're allowed to be angry. But I didn't get that, either. My anger was suddenly real enough to be upsetting and frightening, but not legitimate enough to be respected. I occupied a Thing space, a sudden nothing in between, where the same person I'd always been went from being admirable and desirable to actively repulsive.

It's also a hell of a way to find out that people didn't take your anger very seriously before - all of a sudden your anger is real enough to scare people means your anger before wasn't... really real.

Someday, I'll get over that realization. Not today, though.

[civetside]

howdy tombies here's an astronaut AU i thought would be funny, we taking the space part of lesbian necromancers in space and we making that the main thing

[pianokantzart]

One little change in the Japanese dub compared to the English version is right after Kamek tells the prisoners that they're going to be sacrificed...

Luigi doesn't say "Mario." He says "Kowai yo, Niisan" which I believe translates to "I'm scared, Big Brother."

Which means he speaks out loud as if he's talking to his brother as a method of calming himself down.

I am very normal about this.

[s0fter-sin]

soap's whole deal being sniper and demolitions gets me going bc on the surface they sound so different but when you get into it, you realise it's bc soap's smart

sniping is all math; calculating distances and wind interference and bullet drop. something i think people overlook is he was listed as a sniper first so it can be implied that he's better at it than demolitions. he does more sniping in both campaigns than demolitions work; in capture or kill, ghost specifically calls on him to take down the aq snipers

and demolitions is math with a hit of chemistry; knowing what mixes with what, knowing how much to use, recognising environmental factors and adjusting accordingly. it's not just about the boom; so much work goes into contained/ planned explosions. especially when having enough power for a breacher charge and not bringing down the whole building is the difference between mission success and failure

the chemical bombs he makes in alone can't just be any old cleaners, they have to have the correct reaction to each other; he just knew off the top of his head what would mix with what to create what reaction. he would also potentially have to recognise them by sight/smell bc they would’ve been written in spanish

soap would also have to know architecture; recognising structural integrity and weak points so he knows exactly where to plant a charge to bring it down and how it'll come down

he has an incredible soldier's mind people just forget that bc he's sociable which itself is a skill

we know he tends to buck against orders he doesn't agree with like when he pushes back against ghost in capture or kill and shepherd when he tells them to release hassan

he gets closer to people and sees if he can trust them and that's when he follows them without question. really think about how he talks to alejandro and rudy; he asks about their home and alejandro's family and rudy's relationship with him. those aren't questions you ask a stranger after a few hours of knowing them. that's not even touching on his relationship with ghost

he also deliberately brings people of higher ranks down to his level; talking informally with ghost and giving him a shoulder punch, addressing alejandro (a colonel!!) by his first name and rudy by his nickname despite literally just meeting them. he personalises all of them and it’s in direct opposition to the reason most characters do that; it’s not due to insubordination or lack of respect, the more he respects and trusts someone, the more casual he is with them

he digs into people; he wants to know what makes them tick and that determines if he can one, trust them and two, follow their orders. once he decides that, he's the ultimate soldier; he bleeds loyalty which makes him vicious when that loyalty is taken for granted

he isn't naive or bubbly or insecure; he's an incredibly smart and aware soldier. he's aggressive and bloodthirsty and loyal and intuitive and i love him so much

[kyuhu]

pwetty

[treasureplcnet]

inverness here they come!!!!

[mossymandibles]

Quickie thing of Yuna having a stern talk with baby Kraw about survival skills.

Like damn dude get it together you let all those womb snacks go to waste.

[rexwrendraws]

the circus is coming to town, and what a selection of curiosities it has... 🎪

As soon as I saw the posters @amielot drew for the circus in their Horse Girl AU, I knew I had to try my hand at coloring them in! This AU has stolen my entire heart— if you haven't looked through the AU comics yet, DO THAT RIGHT NOW!! THEY'RE EXCELLENT!!

This poster is my colors on @amielot 's drawing, using @aquabluejay 's summoning circle asset in the background :) Insp under the cut—

Colors and textures were greatly inspired by painted circus/carnival posters, especially this one:

[sunderwight]

Thinking about the weird camaraderie that exists between demons but not angels in GO.

Have we ever seen two angels who are actually friends? Or even friendly to one another? We have met angels with a capacity to be friendly in general, but I think the closest we've come to two angels actually getting along would be Gabriel making a point to laugh at Sandalphon's terrible "can't have a war without War" line in S1.

Most scenes between the angels actually seem to have an undercurrent of absolute hostility. Teeth-clenched teamwork. No wonder it took them so long to notice that Aziraphale wasn't on the same page as the rest of them! The rest of them are barely on the same page as one another, either! When Gabriel goes against the majority vote, no one bats an eye at demoting him and wiping his memory. Michael and Uriel immediately begin vying for his job. The only times we've seen angels team up is when they're working together to bully someone else, like when they're trying to intimidate Aziraphale in S1 or going to the aftermath of the bookshop raid in S2.

Saraqael's overall neutrality towards Muriel is the closest we get to two angels in Heaven getting along, and it's more a lack of hostility than any kind of friendliness. At least until Gabriel loses his memories and Muriel shows up to spy on Aziraphale, and Aziraphale decides to be kind to both of them.

Demons, on the other hand, actually seem to form alliances and even friendships among one another. Hastur and Ligur are awful, but Hastur seems genuinely distraught over Ligur's death, not just fearful of suffering the same fate. Shax and Furfur conspire together and even though the 1940's investigation into Crowley's fraternizing doesn't work out for Furfur, it's not due to any double-crossing on Shax's part. Unlike the angels, who stick almost exclusively to making threats until the Metatron decides to try dangling a carrot at the end of the season, demons actually offer rewards to other demons when trying to work together. Beelzebub offers Crowley a promotion if he can bring them Gabriel, Furfur offers to back Shax up politically if she goes for the Duke position opening, and Crowley successfully stalls Hastur in S1 by pretending everything was a test and he's going to be put in charge of a legion as a reward for passing. They're still not great at socializing, but they're significantly ahead of the angels.

Of course, it's a fact that demons are awful to one another (Eric's treatment is really bad, they throw that random demon into holy water just to test it, "it'd be a funny world if demons went around trusting one another", etc) but they still seem more capable of forming friendships than the angels do.

I think that's because Hell cramps and crowds everyone together to try and increase their suffering and hostility, whereas Heaven isolates angels to decrease the odds of questioning or rebellion. Hell's methods are unpleasant, but it still ends up putting demons together, and some of those demons inevitably forge alliances and make friendships. Because as Crowley and Beelzebub demonstrate, demons are still social creatures with the capacity for love and affection, even if it's strongly discouraged and buried under nine million layers of trauma and a cultural mandate against kindness.

Angels are the same, but isolation makes is harder to form connections than overcrowding. Muriel and Jimbriel are both so eager to make friends, but Muriel's spent the past millennia shut in an empty office, and Gabriel has been distanced from his peers both through his position and also through Heaven's culture of fear and surveillance. He only breaks away from it when he finds something that's stronger than "choosing sides" (stronger than the fear of being rejected by Heaven and Falling, in fact strong enough that Falling seems worth it if he gets to be with someone he loves). Both Muriel and Gabriel are only able to start forming connections when they're away from Heaven.

I just think it's interesting that demons, despite being supposedly devoid of love, have an advantage in forming relationships compared to angels. Angels are supposed to love, but have far fewer opportunities to actually do so. Demons aren't supposed to love, but they make connections anyway.