#existentialism help

[knifearo]

being aromantic is like. hey btw you're going to live a life that is the culmination of most of society's worst nightmares. sorry lol ✌️ but then you turn around and take a really good hard look at it and it turns out that living in that nightmare is fucking awesome and you get to wake up every day and take that fear that other people have and laugh and hold it close until it's a great joy for you instead. and being happy is a radical act that you define instead of someone else. and you're sexy as fuck that's just a fact of life i don't make the rules on that one

[obsessedwithstarwars]

Jazz takes care of a de-aged Danny, and they lay low in Gotham. But just because Danny’s body is younger doesn’t mean his powers have lessened. In fact, they’ve only grown harder to control. Having the energy of a child makes containing his powers harder (just like when he first got them) until they realize that Danny’s powers are much easier to control when he can get rid of some of his excess energy. Jazz hears about a free gym open to all that is also meta-proof (more durable) from a wonderful woman at the library. (Lookin at you Babs)

The gym has a gigantic kids play area, along with classes for all ages and a training area complete with an American Gladiator style obstacle course for adults. Jazz will use the obstacle course sometimes when her boss has fully ticked her off. Stephanie and Cass volunteer there whenever they can. Jason always sends the alley kids there too because it’s close by and a safe place. Dick leads a class there whenever he can.

Dick actually holds the record for the obstacle course. Until Jazz gives it a go after a particularly trying day. She doesn’t realize there’s a record. She never would have used the course if she’d known. Training with Pandora and Fright Knight gave her plenty of advantages with how she can use her liminality and she definitely doesn’t need to stand out.

But again, she doesn’t know there’s a record. Or that someone saw her going repeatedly through the course (Stephanie) and decided to time her on her next go. (She doesn’t film without permission because she’s respectful of boundaries like that) She does post Jazz’s time in the Batfam group chat to take Dick down a couple notches though.

Or someone else (not Batfam, just a random citizen) takes a video of her doing the course and posts it on the internet and now they (Jazz and Danny) have to stay one step ahead of Vlad, the Batfam, their parents, and avoid the GIW. How hard can it be?

[psykopaths]

Save me from myself

[oldbutchdaniel]

what i need is for daniel to realize at different points that his past/present/future relationship with armand is EXACTLY like the parts of louis' and lestat's relationship he mocked the most. ie "is THIS the fucked up gothic romance?" "are WE the whiny existential queens?" he doesn't have to do this out loud but i want his relationship with armand to be so disgusting and hot and terrible that he reaches brief moments of clarity. and i'll be able to tell he's thinking it just based on the look in his eyes

[nicheguides]

How to Distract Yourself from your Quest for Purpose

looking for purpose is hard! harder than you realized… maybe give it a break, just for a bit~

[mourn-and-watch]

the way cole makes varric conflicted is so delicious i think. most of the characters are uncomfortable around him because they're genuinely terrified of demons and the fade and magic in general but varric is a completely different case. the thing is, he doesn't see cole as a demon at all because he doesn't want to.

he acts like he doesn't care about this stuff. that's a little weird kiddo around here and he wants to befriend him. teach him something even. why not. that's a little guy who's a little too good with knives and can't pick up a single social clue at the same time.

but there it is. the "he could have been a person" line if cole is made more spirit. varric is so upset about it because it's not like he saw cole as, well, a spirit who got a little too human. for varric, he was a human first, a weird kid second. the spirit part didn't even come into consideration because. well. it would make him question things. you know where it goes.

every time he starts bitching about anders he brings up justice. justice drove him mad. justice took over him. justice this, justice that. justice is a scapegoat because the thought that someone varric was friends with was actually willing to blow up the chantry and it wasn't just some evil demon's wish is a very unsettling one. varric's friends may be crazy but they're cool and make no irreversible life decisions of that extent, don't they? blondie turned out this way because he let a demon possess him and make him do terrible things. completely out of the blue.

it's either varric's ex-friend has never been driven crazy by some inherently evil entity and there was a whole other person around him all along and that anger he used to mock was coming from the same place as compassion's urge to become a killer or that little weird but kind kid he started to care about has never been and will never be a real kid. he can't have both. a bitter pill to swallow for someone who has never picked a side in his life

[baeshijima]

remember when we were all speculating pre 4.0 after the livestream that neuvillette would be some kind of mastermind controlling everything behind the scenes, but in reality hes just a gentle soul trying to navigate the ways of being human and protecting fontaine

like

okay. sign these papers for our marriage ig.🧍‍♀️

[solivagantingrebel]

Soap who falls in love hard and fast.

Soap who believes in love wholeheartedly to the point that he does everything he can to make any relationship he's in work even at his own expense. Soap who has to face disappointment at the end each time knowing he gave it his everything and it still didn't work out.

Soap who grapples with the reality that just because he does everything he can doesn't mean things were meant to be that way. Soap who slowly gets disillusioned by the notion of love. Soap who thinks that maybe they were right, maybe he did get hurt more because he wore his heart on his sleeve and dove into relationships with his bare chest like a lovesick eejit. Soap who decides that he needs to stop acting like one.

Soap who shoves his feelings aside to focus on other things in his life. Soap who focuses on building things that are tangible and long lasting. Soap who cherishes that his career, finance and family don't make his efforts look wasted. Soap who convinces himself that it's enough. Soap who tries to convince himself that he's changed.

Soap who catches himself spiralling down that hard and fast pit again around a certain Lieutenant. Soap who panics and tries to ignore his feelings. Soap who deeply represses. Soap who keeps his distance. Soap who backs off when he's told to, gives space when Ghost needs it, doesn't flinch when he puts up walls thicker than steel between them.

Soap who digs through what's given to him anyway because he hasn't truly changed, his feelings have never disappeared. Soap who is terrified of finding himself at the start of the cycle he knows the end all too well of.

Soap who prays again after years of not doing so, to a God he hasn't spoken to in a while. Soap who is hoping and begging for things to be different this time. Soap who wants Ghost to be the exception to every experience he's had in his life so far.

Soap who tries to convince himself that if he can do things differently, things will end differently. Soap who can't help but be himself.

Soap who falls in love hard and fast.

Soap who gets addicted to his smile whenever he gets to see it. Soap who discreetly stifles his laughs at his dumb little jokes. Soap who sees how much he cares despite his reluctance to directly admit it. Soap who starts loving and trusting him regardless.

Soap who decides that, if he is meant to crash and burn from the start, loving Ghost wholeheartedly is a damn good reason to be a martyr anyway.

[nelkcats]

Creator (and half of an existential crisis)

After watching Barbie, Danny ended up with a question, if Barbie was an idea that lived in his own world created through imagination, was it possible that he was also an idea imagined by someone else?

At first the idea seemed absurd, and he even laughed at the comparison, would he be in a comic book? A toy? Or maybe his life was a cartoon; each option sounded illogical, but there was always a part of his brain that told him, is it possible?

So he did the same thing he does with all his existential doubts: complain to Clockwork. And Clockwork as usual was no help at all, he answered him in the most cryptic way possible.

"We are all someone's idea, even if it is not the reason for our existence."

Danny took that as a yes, and after giving Frostbite an excuse (although it felt wrong to lie to the Yeti), he lent the Infi-map and asked him to meet the first one who "imagined Phantom."

And he ended up in Tim Drake's room, with a British butler looking at him with a raised eyebrow and a guy who seemed to have very little sleep in his system.

[thescrapwitch]

Bilbo is sitting on a bench in the afternoon sunshine, enjoying the quiet peace of Elrond’s garden, when he sees her: a tall, dark skinned woman with curly black hair and a warm smile. The fact that someone who looks neither elf nor Maiar is in Valinor startles him. Makes him sit up straighter, drop the book he was reading to the ground. All in black, wearing a dress not unlike a Gondorian noble with a peculiar pendant dangling from her neck, she makes for a strange sight. But her smile is so kind, so gentle, and it makes him smile back.

Bilbo debates, briefly, about getting up to shake her hand, but his legs have been very weak the past few days. He does not want to rise only to crash face-first into the dirt by her feet. That would be rude. So he stays sitting on the bench and gives her a friendly nod.

“Good afternoon,” he says.

“Good afternoon, Bilbo Baggins,” she says. Bilbo is not surprised that she knows his name. As he is one of the three hobbits in the blessed lands, it would be more strange if she didn’t. But she says it with such familiarity that it makes him frown.

“Forgive me, my dear,” he says, “but have we met before?” He knows her. Bilbo knows he knows her, but he can’t quite put his finger on it. Like he sent her an invitation long ago and, now that she’s come as promised, completely forgot about their plans. “Were you a guest at one of my birthday parties?”

She laughs. “No. I don’t normally get invited to those. But I heard your eleventy-first one was quite the event! ”

A shame. She seems like she would have been a wonderful guest. “Could you tell me where we met, then? I know we must have met somewhere, but my brain is not as nimble as it once was, and the memory is escaping me.”

“It was less a formal meeting,” she says, “and more like having crossed paths many times.” Her eyes, which do not carry light the same way an elf’s would, are very, very dark. “I watched as you avoided becoming troll food, as you stumbled in the dark and traded riddles with Gollum, as you crept into Smog’s lair and fumbled as the Battle of the Five Armies tore at each other. But you escaped all of that unharmed, and so we never had a chance to be properly introduced. Until now.”

The answer hits him then, the knowledge rising up from his heart. Oh. Of course he knows her. He’s always known her. It was just easy to forget these past years in Valinor. “Death.”

“Yes.”

“Is it time then?” Bilbo feels, suddenly, very self-conscious. He’s wearing his second-best waistcoat today and wishes he’d worn his first-best one instead. He would have, certainly, if he knew such an important guest was coming to visit him. “I am dying?”

“You are dead,” she says, taking a seat on the bench beside him. Death does not appear to be in any hurry, no grabbing or pulling him along to wherever mortal souls go. Instead, she tips her head back to bask in the sunshine. “Mind if I rest my feet? I don’t normally have to travel this far for work, you know. Still, a change of scenery is always nice. Have they been good to you, these immortals?”

“Yes,” he says, because they have. Elrond and dear Gandalf and all the other friends he’s made in this land. He will miss them all, and hopes they will not be too upset to find him gone. He hopes that they will take care of Frodo and Sam, and that they will not waste a long time grieving. Then, because he cannot help but be curious, even at the end, he says, “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

“Not at all,” she says. “Take your time. The dying part is already over with. You don’t have to go on until you’re ready.”

She really is so very polite. A shame Bilbo never had the chance to invite her over for tea. He is certain that Death would have had lovely stories to share and impeccable manners. “From what the elves have told me, the Vala Mandos is in charge of death. How is it that you are here for me and not him?”

“Mandos manages death for the elves,” she corrects, not at all upset with the question, “and Aulë the dwarves. But mortals, humans and hobbits, you come with me to receive my gift.”

“You’re a much different god than him.”

“Oh, don’t call me a god.” Death gives him a grin, a flash of bright humor. “That’s too fancy a title. I’m less a divine being and more…more someone with an endless task to do. That’s all.”

“My nephew, Frodo, and his Sam, will you come for them too?”

“Someday,” she promises. “But not yet.”

“Good.” Not that he wants Frodo or Sam to die, but all mortal things must, and he’d rather they had a friendly face for such a journey. Let this one be much kinder to them than the road to Mordor was.

They sit in silence for a moment longer. Bilbo takes one last look at the garden, at the bluebells and primroses that Celebrian planted, at the robins searching for worms, at the book which has fallen from his hands and landed half-open on the ground.

It was a good life, he thinks, and a long one. But all stories have to come to an end eventually, and this will be as best an ending as I could ever have hoped to earn. He stands up, straightens his waistcoat, and looks Death in the eye. “All right. I’m ready.”

Death stands up as well. There is a softness in the way she looks at him that erases any fear or dread Bilbo expected to have when his time was up. It feels more as though he is going on a long walk with a dear friend.

“What is it like, this place of endings beyond the circles of the world? Is it…nice?”

“You will see when you get there,” she says, and holds out her hand. “Think of it as one last adventure.”

“Oh, I do like the sound of that,” says Bilbo. He takes Death’s hand. “Well then, lead the way.”

[pratchettquotes]

HALLO.

Verence drew himself up to his full height, or what would have been his full height if that part of him of which the word "height" could have been applied was not lying stiff on the floor and facing a future in which only the word "depth" could be appropriate.

"I am a king, mark you," he said.

WAS, YOUR MAJESTY.

"What?" Verence barked.

I SAID WAS. IT'S CALLED THE PAST TENSE. YOU'LL SOON GET USED TO IT.

The tall figure tapped its calcereous fingers on the scythe's handle. It was obviously upset about something.

If it came to that, Verence thought, so am I. But the various broad hints available in his present circumstances were breaking through even the mad brain stupidity that made up most of his character, and it was dawning on him that whatever kingdom he might currently be in, he wasn't king of it.

Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

[luvparidhi]

❛go with the flow❜ ke naam par kab life beh gayi pata hi nahi chala

[chelledoggo]

cinematic parallels

[hilacopter]

idk who needs to hear this right now but constantly being so very sorry and feeling so very guilty over your existence as part of a privileged group is not activism and you're not a bad person for not being constantly miserable

[bearotonin-international]

Manny may be young, but he is already acquainted with Existential Tuesday existentialism

[keydekyie]

"You’ve seen the very worst of me, and you’re still here, and I don’t know why. And it scares me so much, not just because I’m afraid you’ll realize what I am, and that I’m not worth it, but because… because now I’m afraid you won’t."