#fix what you broke

[kanthony]

are we praising today not me

[owlstar97]

KEVIN LEVINE’S (CREATOR OF BIOSHOCK) UPCOMING GAME…

J U D A S ( 2 0 2 5 )

[bluevelvetea]

So start by saving me, Itadori.

(Find my reference here)

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 134

One of the young justice members is complaining about how their parents or mentors benched them after getting injured. 

And Marvel snorting and saying that that reminds him of Phantom. And of course, the YJ crew, ask who that is. 

“Oh Phantoms my big brother, pops never really understood our human halves or limits so…” and he just shrugs like he didn’t just drop Lore. And the teens smell blood in the water, they want to know more. 

[guinevereslancelot]

what was with cameron house md she spends 90% of the episode saying she wants their patient to die bc he's a genocidal dictator and her colleague husband says "babe it bothers me for ethical reasons that you want our patient to die :(" and she said "hm maybe you're right :/" but when it comes down to it the genocidal dictator lays a finger on her in an aggressive manner and chase instantly commits medical malpractice to murder the guy and then when he tells her she LEAVES HIM bc boo hoo he's a murderer now like GIRL he killed a man for you!!! he's wracked with catholic guilt!!! he's being crushed beneath the weight of his sins because he chose his devotion to you over his devotion to god!!! he literally could not get any sexier at this moment in time!!!

[autism-alley]

hi originally posted this at the end of a long thread of back and forth, here’s the og post if you want full context but i feel like this needs to be its own post especially bc i keep seeing this argument being made—the argument that the kids (in this case it was annabeth) SHOULD just know the monsters are monsters and who they are and how to defeat them before ever encountering them, that it’s a problem if they don’t.

the problem is not if 12 year olds should recognize a trap when they see one, even if they’re smart 12 year olds, and if that’s realistic. that is entirely beside the point.

the problem is rick riordan wrote a book series whose formula is bringing myths to the modern age and he’s not sticking true to that in the show—percy jackson and the olympians’ Shtick is taking these classic, ancient threats and giving them a new face. these traps work because these kids are not walking into a cave marked with Get Out and getting ambushed by monsters—the monsters are disguised as harmless mortal human beings, in harmless mortal human being places (for the most part) and i think we—and more importantly, the show—are all forgetting the mist, the magic involved here. it’s not just that medusa is a “creepy lady with her eyes covered” it’s that there is ancient magic at work here, magic that, like the systems of abuse pjo exists to criticize, has been evolving and continuing its malevolence for millennia. it’s formulaic, that’s the point. it’s the same trap you’ve learned about all your childhood, the same trap a thousand children before you learned all their childhoods, and still, it works. you fall into the trap. because that’s how generational abuse works. it’s a trap. it isn’t enough to learn monsters exist, what they look like from a second hand story that originated thousands of years ago. if you want to escape alive, you have to adapt as quickly as they do, recognize their face, and ultimately, beyond any individual trap, the game itself has to change. real, generational change.

so. the problem is rick riordan wrote a series with a formula for action that perfectly captures the overarching, systemic conflicts he was commentating on, and then threw that formula out in the show because it was “unrealistic”. i don’t give a damn about realism when it works to the detriment of the story. this is a story about generational abuse, yes, but it’s told through ‘a tale as old as time’ and that’s why it works so fucking well. and when it comes to basic storytelling, if your characters know the threat before they even walk in and you do practically nothing to then make up for the stakes you have removed, that’s a flaw. now you’ve lost the entertainment value for your audience, on top of also lessening your themes.

something else that is so. honestly soul-crushing as a writer and a creative, is that to me this is reflective of the way we are now afraid to tell earnest stories. stories where we care not for listening to the people who want to pick apart fictional, mythical, fantasy stories for not being “realistic” instead of aligning with our target audience who acknowledges reality is not what makes a story. think of your favorite movie, show, book, comic, what have you—has the reason for your favoritism ever been because it is the most reasonable, the most grounded, the most practical out of any you’ve seen? or is it because of the emotion? the way it speaks to you, to your life and the person you are? the journey it takes you on? is the percy jackson and the olympians book series so good because it’s inherently realistic?

the secret to storytelling is, very simply, focus on your story. everything else is secondary. if it’s written well, it doesn’t matter to me that the characters walk into a trap that, to the audience, is obviously a trap. because i can understand how the characters don’t know it, and how the story falls apart if the narrative just tells the characters it’s a trap from the jump. that’s what dramatic irony is—first used in greek tragedies! this is literally a tale as old as time in every sense except for the end—where it’s happy. and it’s not earned if we don’t first see, over and over, the status quo as a tragic trap.

it’s not about if annabeth (or the other kids) is “smart enough” to not walk into a trap, or about if she’s just too prideful to not walk into what she knows is a trap (or any reason that could apply to the other characters), it’s that annabeth, at the end of the day, is a character. she is a storytelling tool for the messages of the narrative. that doesn’t make her any lesser. in fact ignoring it reduces her, because it reduces what she represents. it’s about how rick riordan, or whoever else at disney, has fumbled the storytelling bag so ridiculously hard that they can’t take the simple, effective formula outlined from start to finish (by good ol 2009 rick himself) and adapt it to the screen without answering the most unimportant, derailing, anti-story questions.

[destefaniart]

The sins of the father

shall be visited upon the son

[tennessoui]

au where jedi healers take a vow not unlike jedi temple guards, but instead of wearing a mask and becoming anonymous, they give up their sight and wear blindfolds to allow the Force to guide their every action. it’s also supposed to blind them to their patients’ differences, which used to be symbolic but since the war between the jedi and the sith broke out, has become much less so

because jedi healers are supposed to heal regardless of if their patient is a jedi or a sith, when they’re deployed on battlefields after the fighting is over, they use the Force to heal every injured person they come upon.

anakin skywalker, who was chosen from the creche and agreed to follow the Healing path at the age of 9, thinks it’s sort of stupid that they have to wait until after the fighting is over to begin to help because he can feel people dying in the Force, he can feel their pain--

young general kenobi, who remembers his old creche-mate anakin skywalker and how blue his eyes once were, thinks it’s beyond foolhardy that this healer is stealing out across an active battlefield, blindfold over his eyes and bending down to heal karking darth maul and single-handedly diverting all of obi-wan’s attention away from the droids and sith legion because now he has to make sure he’s ok he can’t just leave him to the whims of the Force, he’s unprotected and he’s going to get himself killed----

it’s a headache and a half for everyone involved because general kenobi keeps abandoning his battle strategy and sometimes even position to ensure healer skywalker’s safety and healer skywalker keeps dropping everything and everyone the moment he feels obi-wan kenobi get hurt in the Force to rush to his side, Force Vow of Healing Equality be damned.

but......the Council keeps deploying them to the same battlefield because healer skywalker is never more effective as when he knows he must heal fifty mortal wounds before he can rid general kenobi of a headache, and general kenobi is never as ruthless as when skywalker is on the field close to him, in potential harm’s way

despite how much they insist they hate each other 

[qpjianghu]

let ruin end here let him find honey where there was once a slaughter let him enter the lion’s cage & find a field of lilacs let this be the healing & if not    let it be —"little prayer," by Danez Smith || Mysterious Lotus Casebook

[sseniita]

hero; never learned how to drive

“Ever thought about retirement?”

“We don’t get that luxury.”

Hero glanced at the expensive car she was sitting in. Spotless and shiny. She noticed Villain’s silver watch, also seemingly expensive. 

“What luxuries can I have? I’ve never even driven a car.” 

Villain noticed the undertone. 

“I inherited this car from my father. It’s sentimental.”

“You hated your dad.” she sneered. Villain chuckled. 

Hero continued staring out the window. She felt annoyed at the frost growing on the window for a second until she realised she wouldn’t be able to see anything in the pitch black darkness anyway. She imagined the mountains that must’ve been there and flying past them, then she imagined how it must feel to want to fly and not be able to. She smiled. 

“You think…” she hesitated. “if I lost my powers they’d fire me?” 

“Mm. They’d probably keep you. Like a mascot of sorts. Maybe build a statue.” He said, nonchalantly. “Maybe in front of city hall,” he added. Enticingly. 

“I’d like a statue. Maybe in solid gold.” 

“You’d be lucky to get bronze if you lose a leg or something.” 

“What if I died?” 

Villain stood quiet. Hero waited for an answer. The motor was making a funny noise. 

“What do you mean what if?”

“Well. I’d like to retire.” Hero decided. Rather quickly. 

Villain’s mood was something tricky to read. Over the years Hero had become fluent in deciphering it, but she always imagined it wasn’t her becoming fluent- rather it was him speaking her language. Regardless, both options suggested some sort of intimacy Hero and Villain quietly shared and one that Hero held pride in.

“Retire?”

Hero decided she was feeling particularly lucky tonight. “Ya! You could come too! I was thinking we could start with a European museum trip for me. Maybe visit Japan for you. We’ll end up on the beach somewhere in Cuba-”

“Cut that out.” he interrupted. Hero noticed the slight stressful swerve of the car, but kept the lightness to her tone.

 “Don’t like my plan?” 

“I don’t like this game.” 

“What game?” 

“This one. You. Playing with the idea that you and I won't forever be what we are.” 

“And what am I?” 

“A hero.” 

“I hope not at 50.”

“You won’t make it to 50. Maybe at around 38 you’ll have a battle and die bravely and honourably in an impressive way as you save the planet-” 

“-then will I get my statue?” 

They continued quietly down the road. The sound of the car getting increasingly more present, Villain’ knuckles, getting progressively more white on the steering wheel. Finally, once they turned on the main road and the streetlights reappeared, they stopped. Villain got out of the car. He opened the passenger seat and signalled Hero to get out. She did. 

“You know I can fly, right? Deserting me here won’t do any-” Villain offered her the car keys. 

“You drive.” 

Before Hero could argue her body betrayed her and she already had a huge smile plastered on her face and the car keys in her hand. She should have caught onto the driving manual really quick, she was always a quick learner. But she couldn’t help but love the feeling of Villain’s hand on hers as he guided her through the gears five times over. Villain was uncharacteristically patient tonight.  

These were the pair’s favourite type of night. Of course, they’d both enjoyed drunken escapades, scheming all-nighters, and undercover missions, but rare occasions of dreadfully boring mundane activities were the best. It gave Hero a chance to play a normal woman- in this case: a normal woman learning to drive. And it gave the Villain a chance to catch a glimpse of how it could have been if they had met under different circumstances. 

The night ended, as per instructions of the Villain, by crashing the car into a ditch and the long walk back to town, side by side.

[adastra121]

I think everyone’s routes are going to have a degree of “I can fix him,” but to be honest, my MCs aren’t doing too well themselves.

I’m plopping them at the Touchstarved LIs’ feet like, “Here. Fix him.”

[savvylittlecoxswain]

Growing up, Bobby was accustomed to feeling pain when someone touched him. His body would ache so much from the infection running rampant in his body that he couldn’t even handle the loving touch of his parents, nevermind the doctors’ and nurses’ poking and prodding. Even now that he isn’t pain, he still carried an aversion to touch into his young adult years.

Most people don’t ask before touching him, so when Don asks he can’t help but cry.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

okay i was gonna make a post about how migraines feel like taking constant minecraft damage except your health bar is infinite, BUT UH. @staff WHY IS MY DESKTOP DASH COMPLETELY FUCKING REARRANGED. PUT IT BACK THIS SUCKS

[slitherpunk]

i don't care if it's "horizontal lines" and "two rectangles" nowadays. i will always call them "start" and "select"

[hersurvival]

My heart was shattered.

Destroyed like the shotglass you furiously swiped off the coffee table, exploding shards in all directions, glistening in the carpet.

Twelve consecutive days of us not speaking, of me crumbled inside myself, in shambles, the gaps filled with guilt.

Guilt which was not deserved, born of your insecurities, presented as mistrust, to you it was the end of the world that perhaps I wanted more.

Until you'd drag me from the void because you found one more thing, one more thing to yell about.

I begged, let's get it all out, I cannot keep doing this, we are almost ruined, and you promised you were finished.

What a lie that was.

This was before you threw glass in a rage, in the midst of a four hour ordeal where you were being hateful and unfair, shutting me down whenever I tried to defend myself.

This was about you, not me, not us.

You got so drunk as I sat on the floor sobbing, you fell asleep mid-thought, hunched over on the couch, and swore you remembered none of it in the morning.

And you had the gall, the nerve, the audacity to ask for one more chance, as if I had not been clear I was at the end of my rope the night before, as if this was a stupid mistake, almost two weeks of fighting, of swearing you didn't mean any of it.

As if this was acceptable behavior after ten years of being together.

And this is how we broke the dogs, as we fight and scream with cruel words, shattered glass, misaligned beliefs - well, a dog can only fight with growls and claws and teeth.

[heymeowmao]

长相思 | Lost You Forever S1E14 ° It's not for us to judge who they are.