#inverse awakening

[caliburnabsolute]

Inverse Awakening: Henry

It's everyone's favorite boy! And certainly one of my favorites, for that matter. Henry in this AU is simultaneously much different from how you'll remember him, and still the same old Henry, crows and all.

Henry ends up joining the army much sooner than in canon. For some reason there's a character slot between Sumia and Lon'qu's recruitment? It isn't for Donnel—his slot comes after Lon'qu, the way I have this arranged—but I don't recall anyone else that you can recruit between those two? Bit weird, but whatever. Either way, with his earlier recruitment, I had to think of a way to justify him showing up at the Ylisse-Ferox border, and between that and my reintroduction of the magic triangle (as I mentioned in Aversa's post), I had an idea...

The beats of Henry's backstory in this AU are largely similar, though it starts to diverge early on. Rather than being sent to a boarding school or orphanage as a boy, Henry was dumped off at a monastery on the border of Plegia and Ylisse, where he was taught the tenets of the Nagaite faith. His experiences were exactly as miserable as they were in his canon backstory, but that didn't stop him from being sworn in as a preacher in the name of the divine dragon. Of course, Henry being Henry, he was rather... eccentric in the way he practiced and taught his faith. Outright radical, even. With his sermons proving more macabre and borderline sacrilegious over time, the papacy deemed him unfit to continue serving the church, and he was cast out.

Now, Henry travels across Ylisse as a simple vagabond, continuing to share his unique apocrypha to any who will listen, always with a murder of crows at his beck and call. He still dresses in the robes he had as a clergyman, though they're tattered and worn after years of travel. With such a directionless way of life, it's not hard to sway him into joining the Shepherds—excommunication be damned (hah), they'll take any help they can get.

Rather than being a Dark Mage, or even a Priest, Henry's a Light Mage now. To differentiate it from anima and dark magic, light magic would provide its wielders a variety of minor stat boosts, like Hoshidan scrolls in Fates. Upon promotion, he can become a staff-wielding Bishop, as all Light Mages can, or he could become an Exorcist and take up dark magic, like his canon self. Every non-lord character gets their own alternate promotion for their base class, in addition to the default promotion path. Henry's Second Seal classes, meanwhile, include Thief and Priest.

[pkettles]

some FEA x Slayers

just bcuz i can. lol!

[rivilu]

Important things to teach your runaway mages pt2: Hand-to-hand basics.

[fdelopera]

Never Again is NOW

This evening marks the beginning of Yom HaShoah. This Jewish holiday and Holocaust Remembrance Day marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Yom HaShoah is different than International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we mourn the 6 million Jews, as well as the Romani and all the others who were systematically slaughtered by the Nazis during World War II.

Yom HaShoah is the day for Jews mourn our dead and to remember the Jews who heroically fought back against the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. We mourn the 6 million Jews who were murdered the LAST time the entire world was infected by the mind-virus of Jew-hate.

In the midst of this current global tidal wave of Jew-hate, we Jews say NEVER AGAIN. Never again is NOW.

And a reminder to non-Jews who might try to steal this phrase:

Never Again is a Jewish phrase. Period. It doesn’t belong to non-Jews.

Never Again refers to the Shoah, and to the THOUSANDS of years of violent Jew-hatred we have endured before then.

Never Again states that we Jews will NEVER AGAIN be slaughtered by the millions.

If you are a goy, and you use this phrase for any other purpose, you are engaging in cultural appropriation.

You are appropriating Jewish trauma and pain that IS NOT YOURS.

Unless you are willing to shoulder the burden of 3500+ years of Jewish history, you do NOT get to use this phrase.

If you steal Never Again for any other context, all you are doing is broadcasting that you are a Jew-hating bigot who engages in Holocaust Inversion.

And you can take your antisemitic bigotry and go fuck off into the sun.

.

Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, borei p’ri hagafen.

Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’ratza vanu, v’shabbat kod’sho b’ahava uv’ratzon hinchilanu, zikaron l’ma’aseh b’reishit. Ki hu yom t’chila l’mikra-ay kodesh, zaycher l’tziat mitzrayim. Ki vanu vacharta v’otanu kidashta mikol ha’amim. V’shabbat kod-shi-cha b’ahava uv’ratzon hinchal tanu. Baruch ata Adonai, mi’kadesh ha Shabbat.

(Blessed are you, Lord our G-d, Ruler of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.

Blessed are you, Lord our G-d, Ruler of the Universe, how has sanctified us with his commandments and favored us, and given us in love and favor his holy Shabbat as an inheritance, as a remembrance of the act of creation. For this day is the beginning of all holy days, a remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt. For you have chosen us and you have blessed us from among all the nations. And you have bequeathed us your holy Shabbat in love and favor. Blessed are you, Lord, who sanctifies Shabbat.)

.

Feel this, to all those races, colors, and creeds, every man bleeds

For the countless victims and all the families of the murdered, tortured, enslaved

Raped, robbed and persecuted — Never Again

To the men, women, and children who died in their struggle to live

Never to be forgotten, Reuven Ben Menachem, yo…

.

My own blood dragged through the mud

Perished in my heart, still cherished and loved

Stripped of our pride, everything we lived for

Families cried, there's nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide

Tossed to the side, access denied

6 million died, for what?

.

Yo, a man shot dead in his back

Helpless women and children under constant attack

For no reason 'til the next season and we still bleeding

Yo it's freezing and men burn in Hell, some for squeezing

No hope for a remedy, nothing to believe

Moving targets who walk with the star on their sleeve

Forever marked with a number tattooed to your body

Late night, eyes closed, clutched to my shotty

Having visions, flashes of death camps and prisons

No provisions, deceived by the Devil's decisions

Forced into a slave, death before dishonor

For those men who were brave, shot and sent to their grave

Can't awaken, it's too late, everything's been taken

I'm shaken, family, history in the making

.

Never again shall we march like sheep to the slaughter

Never again shall we sit and take orders

Stripped of our culture, robbed of our name

Raped of our freedom and thrown into the flames

Forced from our families, taken from our homes

Removed from our G-d then burned of our bones

Never again, never again, shall we march like sheep to the slaughter

Never again leave our sons and daughters

Stripped of our culture, robbed of our name

(Never again) Raped of our freedom and thrown into the flames

Forced from our families, taken from our homes

Removed from our G-d and everything we own (Never again)

.

Some fled through the rumors of wars

But most left for dead, few escaped to the shores

With just one loaf of bread, banished

Called in for questioning and vanished, never to be seen again

I can't express the pain, that was felt in the train

To Auschwitz, tears poured down like rain

Naked, face to face with the master race

Hatred, blood, and David, my heart belongs to God and stays sacred

Rabbis and priests, disabled individuals

The poor, the scholars — all labeled common criminals

Mass extermination, total annihilation

Shipped into the ghetto and prepared for liquidation

Tortured and starved, innocent experiments

Stripped down and carved up or gassed to death

The last hour, I smelled the flowers

Flashbacks of family then sent to the showers

Powerless, undressed, women with babies clumped tight to their chest — crying

Who would've guessed — dying

Another life lost, count the cost

Another body gas-burned and tossed in the Holocaust

.

Never again shall we march like sheep to the slaughter

Never again leave our sons and daughters

Stripped of our culture, robbed of our name

Raped of our freedom and thrown into the flames

Forced from our families, taken from our homes

Removed from our G-d and everything we own

Never again, never again, shall we march like sheep to the slaughter

Never again shall we sit and take orders

Stripped of our culture, robbed of our name

(Never again) Raped of our freedom and thrown into the flames

Forced from our families, taken from our homes

Removed from our G-d then burned of our bones (Never again)

.

Never Again. Never Again.

.

From the USA to Afghanistan

From Israel to Pakistan

From Iraq to Iran

To Russia, Poland, and France

From China over to Japan

Worldwide

Never Again

.

Shema Yisrael Adonai eloheinu Adonai ehad

(“Hear O Yisrael, the Lord is our G-d, the Lord is One.” The Shema is the most important prayer in Judaism. It is the declaration of our faith in one G-d. Jews say the Shema prayer every day, in the morning and evening. And we also say the Shema before we die.)

FIRE!

*GUNSHOT*

[theweeklydiscourse]

This is an interesting line for several reasons, the biggest of which is Mal’s choice of hyperbole when expressing his love for Alina. The implications of this passage are sexual in nature, this is made most obvious by the imagery of “dancing naked” and Mal isolating aspects of Alina into “parts”.

He says “even the part of you that loved him” which to me, indicates a certain level of discomfort Mal still has with Alina’s sexuality and attraction towards the Darkling. This discomfort informs his division of Alina into parts, distinguishing his perception of Alina from “the part” of her that stepped outside of that role. When this is placed alongside his insinuation of Alina’s sexual attraction, it becomes clear that Mal has difficulty reconciling the two versions of Alina that have appeared.

It’s not a coincidence that the most exaggerated example he can conjure is dancing naked on the rooftop of a palace. Referencing the Little Palace functions as a symbol of Mal’s perceptions of Grisha, where the palace is a grand example of their perceived decadence and priority to the monarchy. Throughout the book, readers will see ordinary folk expressing resentment towards the seemingly better treatment that the Grisha get. Sometimes, the Grisha are portrayed as overtly spoiled and haughty individuals as well (even though they have less freedoms and are at a great disadvantage) To Mal, Alina dancing on top the Little Palace is meant to evoke a sense of careless hedonism and excess that he resented her for earlier in the book.

The “dancing naked” part is obviously a euphemism for sex, and it predictably aligns Alina’s relationship with the Darkling with her sexuality. The Darkling comes to be associated with maturity and sensuality, he fits into the archetype of the “dark older lover” who awakens Alina to a new world. Despite the fact that they never have sex or confirm their relationship under any title, the erotic nature of their relationship is in stark contrast with the comparatively chaste and childlike relationship Malina represents (Pretty ironic considering that Mal and Alina have sex in R&R)

This fits into the narrative of purity in Shadow and Bone. Alina aligning herself with the Darkling would mean embracing pleasure, power, and sexual desire, and that is something that the narrative deems as immoral or “greedy”. Inversely, going with Mal becomes the “pure” and humble option where she forgoes power and fame for Mal’s sake. This is where Alina is divided into two halves (in Mal’s view) there is the Repressed Alina, who he knows from childhood and wants to stay with, and the Sun Summoner Alina, whose maturity and newfound strength draws her further away from him.

The former was committed to staying with Mal at the expense of herself, while the latter found fulfillment and realized desire elsewhere. Repressed Alina is characterized as a sort of virtuous and humble person (even when that is quite the opposite) whereas Sun Summoner Alina is characterized as greedy and prone to corruption. This serves the narrative of purity culture in the trilogy by eventually framing Mal as the voice of reason in response to Alina’s supposed corruption.

According to the narrative, the worst thing Alina could be is similar to the Darkling. She can’t desire power or sexual fulfillment (from anyone other than her predetermined husband) and is left in a state of immaturity once she loses her powers. She will stay in the garden of childhood with a man that could never truly recognize the multifaceted nature of her identity.

[zukosdualdao]

a soft place to land

zutara month, day 16: injury recovery, @zutaramonth

summary: in the aftermath of an assasination attempt on katara, she finds herself safe in his bed, zuko looking after her from the bedside.

warnings: assasination/murder attempt, complicated thoughts about punitive judgment and executions, etc, excessive use of adverbs, lmao.

other notes: title taken from "a dream is a soft place to land" from waitress.

Katara’s eyes flicker open. She immediately sets to prop herself up on her elbows, struggling not to groan with fatigue and discomfort as she does. 

The sheets underneath her are gold and silken, the room around her faintly familiar.

She’s in the Fire Nation. She’d been here as an Ambassador for the latest treaty revision. A servant… a man dressed as a servant, anyway, he’d served her tea in the private chambers kept for her here, and her throat had begun to swell, panic building as it did, chest burning as the door slammed ominously shut behind him. She remembers lifting her hand shakily, trying to guide her blood to keep the toxins from working through it, but she couldn’t tear it out of her without extracting her own blood, it was no use, she couldn’t think—her head met the floor, brow slick with sweat, she was going to die…

As she looks around in the darkness, it occurs to her exactly where she is now.

“Zuko?”

He’d come looking for her just in time.

The last thing she remembers before her awakening is the taste of something herbal and sickly sweet, being overcome with sick and the aftermath of bile, Zuko’s gentle hand cradling the back of her head, and then succumbing to the darkness.

“I’m right here,” he says quietly in the dark, and when she turns just slightly to her right, she can see shadows cast over his house face. He’s sitting in a chair by her bedside, folding in on himself and wringing his hands until he casts his worried gaze up to meet her eyes. “It’s okay. You’re really okay.” He sounds almost disbelieving. “How do you feel?”

It’s quite the inverse of the last time she was here when he was the one prone on the bed, marked by lightning, and she waited up all night for him to wake again, too wired to sleep, needing to keep a weathered eye on his wound.

“Not amazing,” she manages a bout of shaky laughter. “But I’m alive, so that’s something. How did you know what to… ?”

Zuko was alone when he arrived and fed to her what must have been the antidote, though she thinks she remembers the patter of other footsteps arriving after the fact, possibly a sea of medics.

At this, Zuko leans back in his chair a little, rubbing an embarrassed hand at the back of his head. “Oh—my mother learned about plants and things from her mother.” Zuko’s mouth tilts into a frown. “I think she was an herbalist? I’m not sure.” He shakes his head. “I didn’t know what they’d used but—we keep something stocked here. It’s not a cure-all, but…” Shrugging again, he sighs. “Thank Agni it worked.”

“Forget Agni,” she murmurs. “Thank you.” Something that might have been panic if not for her weariness swells in her chest suddenly. “The man… ?”

Even through the darkness and the haze she still finds her mind in, she catches the way his pupils dilate, the way his posture stiffens. She’s seen him angry like this before. Protective-angry. She imagines his fingers are probably curling hard against the edge of his chair as he grips it, but looking down to check seems difficult and unnecessary. “Hired assassin.”

“Oh.” It’s sort of strange to think she’s an important enough figure that someone would try to assassinate her, that her death wouldn’t be a simple murder but rather to make some political statement or another. “That’s new. For me, anyway.”

Zuko’s had a few attempts on his own life in the past year, as she recalls. Most of them she read about through letters after the fact—she was here for the last one, though, and thank the spirits for that. Stab wounds are simple enough to heal with her bending—if they don’t bleed out first, which can happen more quickly than one might expect. Needless to say, Katara’s glad she was around.

Zuko says the next like an oath. “The assassin is being dealt with.” With a confusing mix of shame, fear, and relief, she wonders how. Zuko’s not the type to execute, certainly not without trial, which is how things would have been done in the Fire Nation in days past. Mostly, she’s relieved for that, but still, she finds herself wondering whether she’ll regret being such a ready proponent of the right to trial and imprisonment over execution in the weeks to come. There is a swallow of fear in her throat, but it might wisp away once this isn’t all so fresh. 

But perhaps that’s something to think on later.

 “So are his benefactors,” Zuko spits out the word like it’s full of poison itself. “I’ve written to your father and Sokka and to Aang,” he adds. Katara’s stomach clenches unpleasantly in a way she suspects only has a little to do with the day’s events. Zuko doesn’t know she and Aang haven’t spoken in months, that they’re no longer together. “Spirits, Katara, I’m so sorry.”

Katara frowns as she leans back against the pillows. “What for? You didn’t poison me.”

“It was done on my watch, in my palace, because some group of fucking noblemen I’ve been trying to appease are—I keep trying and failing to make things better, and instead…”

“Zuko,” she glares at him in the hopes that it will quiet his self-recrimination. It does, quite efficiently, and she smiles. “Not everything gets to be your fault. Will you just accept my thanks for saving me instead?”

At this, she yawns, and she watches as his expression softens in the dim light of his bedroom.

Zuko rolls his eyes then, but there’s a faint smile playing on his lips, too, and she’s glad to feel the mood lighten again, though she can feel weariness starting to take her once more.

“That’s what you and I do,” he allows quietly after a moment, his (pretty, she thinks hazily, so pretty) amber eyes shining with the truth of what he’s saying. “We save each other. Get some more rest, Katara.” 

Still a little awake, but with her eyes closed, she asks drowsily, not even sure she manages the words, “Will you be here when I wake up?”

Zuko’s answer is quiet but certain. “Of course I will.”

Katara hums as she falls back into the allure of sleep, safe with the knowledge Zuko is watching over her. 

[tourettesdog]

DPxDC Prompt where when Jason is resurrected, he does not become fully conscious. He lays in his coffin, at rest while his body slowly absorbs the ambient ectoplasm of Gotham and tries to fix the improper formation of his core.

The rest is not altogether peaceful. He often has nightmares, and has no way of escaping them. The ambient ectoplasm in Gotham is sustaining Jason, but what repairs the ectoplasm is managing are agonizingly slow.

-

Danny has been living in Gotham for awhile, having moved there with Jazz as soon as she turned 18. Gotham has its own host of ghosts, but Danny feels at ease without the constant strain of ghost fights.

That is, until he feels something amiss in the Gotham cemetery.

The cemetery feels wrong, in a way Danny can't place. It reminds him of Amity, how restless it is-- only different. Wrong. He keeps visiting the cemetery, trying to find the source of that feeling. The entire graveyard is saturated with it, and all Danny can do is sit in the graveyard and talk into the quiet. He lets emotions flood from his core, trying to exude an air of calm that might settle whatever restless spirit haunts the grounds.

It works, at least. The sense of restless agitation eases when Danny flares his core, settling into a quiet comfort.

It becomes stronger, too. Danny can feel it coming from a newer section of the graveyard, and he curiously wonders why he's drawn more and more to a single line of headstones.

Wonders why the one on the end seems to stand out, the name Jason Peter Todd burning itself into his dreams.

Wonders why he feels a kinship with this boy's grave, when he can't even see a ghost attached to it or feel any resonance of a core. Nothing stronger than the blob ghosts that haunt the grounds, at least.

Only ever those strange emotions and that restless energy that quiets with the sooth of his own core.

Yet one day when Danny visits the graveyard and flares his core, he's startled when another one answers his.

-

[I originally posted this prompt in the Batpham server and it ended here, but several of us expanded on it and what I’m posting after this are the additions I added in that discussion, some of it edited.] Jason never actually digs out of his grave. When he finally awakens and tries to dig at the coffin he actually slips through it into the soil above. A hand thrusts its way through the soil and pulls him the rest of the way up

Danny is the only one present when Jason comes out of his grave-- when he pulls him free, a ghostly inversion of Robin who he knows to be a halfa. In his confused state, however, Jason does not linger in the cemetery. He runs off, and even though Danny's half ghost and can get around fast, Jason is now too and knows the city well enough that he manages to slip away. He's terrified, confused beyond reason, and hiding.

Jason hangs about the city, and at times he goes up on his favorite gargoyle to think-- and that's the first time Babs sees him. She thinks it's just a mistake-- her own imagination-- because as soon as she looks again, he's gone.

But it keeps happening. Dick swears he sees Jason near the manor grounds when he goes to visit. Alfred swears he sees him in the rear view mirror of the car one day. Tim swears he sees him while heading home one night. Bruce sees him on patrol, long enough for the two to lock eyes, but before Bruce can even open his mouth he's gone. And Danny isn't helping, because he's Looking for Jason still, trying to help, and this suspicious kid keeps turning up in the weirdest places and at a glance he looks like Jason too.

And it fucks with Bruce's head so badly. He can't say anything about it for days, and when he shakily admits it to Alfred the butler tells him he saw the same thing-- and when the others also share this, all of it lining up too perfectly, that's when Bruce approaches the grave and finds it empty.

During this, Jason naturally grows more bold after his initial shock and confusion dies down. He's a bold and smart kid, even if he's confused and afraid. He's just trying to investigate and see how Gotham (and his family) are doing and figure out how he can approach Bruce. He sees Tim and can’t help but feel forgotten and replaced, but without the rage from the pit he's trying to be a bit more level-headed and think things through.

Jason is also learning more about his new physiology, which keeps him distracted and his mind busy. Trying to figure out himself as much as those around him. But some things still haunt him and cannot be so easily ignored.

An encounter with the Joker sets Jason off.

Jason sees the Joker and that rage and hurt builds inside of him and he manages something similar to a wail. It's the most broken sound Danny's ever heard. It's nothing like his wail, it's more like choking and static and more a feeling in the chest than a sound. Jason died from inhaling smoke and didn't have any dying screams. It’s a shattered, raw wall of reverberating emotion that has no justice.

And Danny goes to it-- stumbling, because it's raw enough to punch at his core-- and he just finds the kid he's been looking for knelt on the ground, keening and sobbing his heart out. Danny goes to comfort him, tentatively wrapping an arm around him while they're surrounded by Wreckage (and a clown-shaped dead body).

And when the bats get there they finally get a good look at the specter they've been seeing all around Gotham, and it's absolutely Jason-- with another boy beside him... And the Joker's body, twisted and bloody. But when Bruce gets close, Jason startles, visibly terrified and hurt, and Danny hides them both from view and whisks Jason away to hide him.

Bruce let the Joker live-- and now Jason has killed the man and that horrified expression he caught on Bruce's face won't leave his head. He feels like a monster, destroyed with grief and hurt, and doesn't know what to do.

Danny takes Jason home, and he’s just a fucking Mess. When they get to the apartment Jazz is just about to leave. She was sleeping but the reverberating “wail” woke her and she’s been in a mad dash to grab all of their weapons to storm out and see what the hell has happened.

But right before she can leave, Danny appears with Jason in tow and all of Jazz's questions die on her tongue when she catches sight of the kid. Danny's told her a lot about Jason since he first met him-- and about the cemetery even before then-- and she's been trying to give advice and help out in whatever was she can from a distance. And now, seeing this kid actually here and just the sheer wreck that he is, she can't help but feel fiercely protective of him. She doesn't even know what happened down in the streets, just that Jason's in distress and needs help.

No questions asked, she helps Danny sit him down on the couch, wrap a blanket around him, and make some hot chocolate to try and get him to relax. She certainly has plenty of questions she Wants to ask, but that's not what's important right now. Right now she just has two severely shaken boys that need a safe place and time to calm down.

And even once she knows what happened, Jazz is nothing but supportive. Hell, she's happy to see the Joker is gone, but she doesn't focus on that because it's also not what's important. Instead she just does what she can to make a comfortable space and lets Jason know she's there to listen if he needs to talk.

And at first Jason is hesitant around Jazz-- and alarmed at first that Danny brought him to someone he doesn't know-- but Jazz is so patient and understanding. Jason can't help but relax around her. In a way it hurts, because it reminds him of his own family, but he'd rather have this than nothing, not knowing what reception he'd get back at the manor.

Danny's terrified Batman will want to hunt them both down. He knows this kid used to be Robin, but Jason's own reactions to Batman aren't making Danny feel more secure. If anything, he has a bone to pick with Batman himself now.

And Bruce is just left to reflect on what's happened, knowing that something of his son is still lingering. And he can't stop thinking of that Feeling the wail Jason made left in his chest. He keeps going back to his empty grave, hoping he might find him there. Hoping he might get to apologize to more than just the flowers.

Danny finds Bruce at the grave-- as Bruce, not Batman-- and he puts it together. He thinks he already knew it too, since while he refused to look up Jason Todd's name, it's Too Familiar.

Danny confronting Bruce angrily, expecting the man to rise to his challenge, but all he's met with is just a grieving father who desperately wants to see his son again.

And Bruce recognizes this kid and knows Danny knows where Jason is, but instead of demanding to know where he is he just asks if his son is okay. Because after feeling that wail and seeing what he saw that day, Bruce knows Jason must resent him. He doesn't even know what Jason is anymore, but he knows he's still the kid he loved and he's hurt and Bruce doesn't think he can fix that. He just wants to know if he's okay, and for Danny to tell him that he's sorry. That if Jason ever want to come home, the door will always be open.

Jason is terrified too cause he truly wanted to kill the Joker, but he didn't expect to If he was going to kill him, it would be in a way he could feel with his hands. But the way he did it was in an uncontrollable show of power that he's not sure he could have stopped.

And Danny keeps trying to reassure him that he not only will get a better hold on his powers, but that he's not a monster. That what happened wouldn't repeat itself because the only reason it happened in the first place was because that was the man who Killed Jason and ghosts are emotional beings. It’s still a struggle.

Unfortunately, the Fentons make their way to Gotham. News of what is clearly a ghost killing a person-- villain or not-- is big enough to reach them in Amity. Jazz and Danny were only in Gotham because the parents couldn’t stomach their son being Phantom-- assumed Phantom was overshadowing Danny and turned a moment of trust into one of betrayal. The siblings were trying to lay low, but... well it was Phantom that was seen with the other ghost.

The Fenton parents come to the town with an entire Arsenal and approach the Batman, going on and on about ghosts, how dangerous they are, and in particular how dangerous These ghosts are. They lament about the Death of their own son, and the entire time Bruce is just-- shocked. He wasn't even sure what Jason was, and while the word ghost does seem to fit it still feels like his heart breaking all over again.

And he can't forget how broken Jason seemed, and how protective this Phantom was of his son. He doesn't believe the Fentons, but he does Fear them. He fears what they might do, and that's when he learns about the GIW and that these people are acting Lawfully in telling him, to his face, that they want to hunt down his son.

[morsmordream]

my random HP family headcanons that i firmly stand by

(not canon compliant)

creature blood was remarkably common in the older family lines that existed before modern-day laws. it is rather rare that these families produce true creatures themselves, even half-blooded creatures, but the blood can often manifest into family gifts. for example, creature blood is how the slytherin line have their ability to speak parseltongue.

the black family are world-renowned in various fields. they’ve produced countless scholars, and some of the finest duellists of each generation. but the family specialty, that everyone learns, is curse-breaking and it’s inverse. there’s a terrible item in the family vault that could kill you if you touch it? contact the blacks. you need an object enchanted to persuade someone into supporting a wizengamot bill? contact the blacks. expensive as their services may be, it’s always worth the money. customer satisfaction guaranteed.

the black family have held their reputation for dabbling in the darkest of arts, even black magic, since their very beginning. their family name comes from their reputation of practicing black magic. this is separate from dark magic, and is a dead art today. whilst books exist in the darkest corners of very few family’s vaults and libraries, the sacrifices required have deterred anyone who picked them up for centuries. a branch of black magic involves the summoning of beings from beyond our world, ‘demons’ as they are often referred to. the summoning of a shape-shifting demon, and subsequent procreation with, is a potential reason why only the black family have metamorphmagi in britain today- though this claim is unproven, and no longer proudly claimed by the family itself.

the malfoys have veela blood, especially these days. it was a rather scandalous affair when abraxas malfoy married a french witch, amelie bonnacord, who had been adopted into a notable pureblood family and happened to be a veela. the malfoys already had distant veela ancestry, making abraxas resistant to the veela allure. their children, lucius and lydia malfoy, were therefore half veela, and her grandchildren, including draco malfoy, a quarter veela. the veela allure seemed to work differently with men, and little was known about it as men born to those with veela blood was rare. the malfoys spend most holiday seasons in france, visiting family, and all speak fluent french.

the potter family never have been, and never should be seen as, a sparkling beacon for light magic. as necromancers by blood, no matter how much time passes since their amalgamation with the peverells, they naturally lean towards darker magic to facilitate practicing the art. not every potter has dabbled in their family gift, it’s not a requirement, but the ancient books in the family vault cannot be destroyed and will always return to the vault after a necromancer passes.

a few centuries into the past, the potter family migrated to india before a couple of branches returned to britain in the early 20th century. fleamont potter and his cousin, charlus potter, were the first potters to be born on british soil for centuries. fleamont potter married euphemia patil, a half-indian british witch, and had james potter. james potter, upon marrying lily evans, had harry potter- who was half indian.

the lupin family have a long history of naturally born werewolves, hence their family name. as time went on, and laws changed, werewolves born into the family would assimilate into packs instead of living as wizards with a dark secret. with time, fewer and fewer werewolves were born into the family, and the werewolf blood appeared dormant. remus lupin became a werewolf through an attack from fenrir greyback- the first werewolf in the family in several generations. his condition did not pass onto his son, but it is possible that remus being a werewolf may awaken the possibility of future werewolves in the lupin line in generations to come.

the weasleys hail from an old irish clan, one which they no longer practice the traditions and magic of- deeming them outdated in an age where they are deemed ‘blood traitors’ for their love and acceptance of muggleborns. the family magic is largely based around the elements, and is only really practiced by bill and charlie- though fred and george dabble in it from time to time. due to turning their backs on tradition, the weasley manor wards refused to grant entry to those in the family who did not practice their family magics- which is why they live in the burrow instead.

the weasleys fall from grace is infamous in pureblood circles. before the first war, they were actually a rather wealthy family. arthur weasley’s auror wage was enough to live off with two less children, and their vault was plentiful. molly added to their income by authoring books on household charms and tutoring pureblood daughters in etiquette. unfortunately, molly encouraged arthur to funnel money into the order of the phoenix to help with the war- they were not active participants, rather financial backers. by the war’s end, the family vault had been halved, they had two more children, and molly had quit authoring books to raise the children. she soon quit tutoring too, turning her back on other pureblood families due to her paranoia that anyone who hadn’t aided the order in the war were all dark and thus contributed somehow to her brothers deaths. soon after, arthur left the aurors and moved to head the misuse of muggle artifices office at molly’s insistence, due to her persistent paranoia- this time that something horrible would befall him as an auror. this caused another significant drop in the family’s finances, gaining them their reputation of being a poor family with more children than they can clothe.

the nott family are descended from viking clansmen in norway, and the majority of the family are still based there today. they’re very proud of this heritage, and every child born into the family is trained extensively in hand to hand combat from a young age. the nott family additional pre-schooling education also includes the language of old norse, nordic history, ancient runes, and runic magic. the england-based branch of the family add norwegian on to this as well.

the gaunt line, and subsequently the slytherin line, are only extinct in britain (the cursed child is not canon to me idc about delphini). a branch of the family, descended from one ominis gaunt, live on in france and have long abandoned their practices of inbreeding. the branch or branches of the family that remained on british soil rapidly squandered all that remained in their vaults by the turn of the 20th century, leading the family to financial and societal ruin with only their heritage and a few heirlooms remaining intact.

the lovegood family are rather notable as one of the few remaining seer lines in britain. pandora lovegood, upon marrying xenophilius ollivander, found her own seer ability passed down to her daughter luna. many overlook their seer lineage and focus more on the family’s eccentricity, forgetting that true seers rarely speak in plain language- they cannot always just speak the truth of what their visions show them, they must relay what they have seen in a way that makes others search for the answer. it’s not that hard to understand when you actually try it.

[mageknight14]

One of the coolest things about Neku and Sho’s respective dynamics with Rindo in NEO TWEWY is how they twist around expectations with Sho, one of the main antagonists from the previous game, being the one who gives genuinely helpful advice towards Rindo while Neku, the enlightened protag, gives him the wrong kind of advice.

While is it true that Sho is mainly using Rindo and the Twisters in order to further his own goals/agenda, every single piece of advice/information he gives them ends up being helpful in some way and stays relevant up to the end

-Don’t just overly rely on me, actually reach out and recruit others (Nagi and Shoka, who end up being incredibly important and useful)

-Synchronize all your powers/talents together in order to achieve a greater goal (Nagi’s Dives, Operation Awakening in its entirety)

-Get the jump on the other teams and take them out before they become a problem later on (W1D5 with Rindo using his time travel powers to reroute the DRS, W2D6 where he uses his time travel again to find out more about Motoi and discover the truth about him, etc)

And last, but certainly not least, warning Rindo about the dangers involved in using his powers and giving him exactly the information he needed to relay back to Kaie and Rhyme in order to save Shibuya.

On top of that, there’s a distinctive pattern where everytime Rindo/the team shows signs of trying to overly rely on Sho, he immediately threatens to leave and pushes them to achieve more for themselves via sink-or-swim. He’s the face of the game’s Hard mode for a reason.

By contrast, when Neku shows up to join the party on W3D4, he starts to unintentionally take Rindo’s place as the leader, with the Reports themselves noting how Rindo is starting to stagnate with his growth once again when he has someone to overly rely on.

This continues on up to W3D6, where Rindo actually goes against Neku’s order to not time travel in order to not fall for Susukichi’s trap.

I think what’s most impressive about this is how it’s all in character for them. While Sho has been noted above, what Neku’s advice towards Rindo is a logical extension of the lessons Hanekoma passed onto him.

Mr. H’s words is generally great life advice that still applies to the themes of both games but Neku’s specific application of it boils down to telling Rindo that no matter what happens, he needs to just let the chips fall where they may. To make the most out of a bad situation.

And while that works great for someone like Neku, his application of Mr. H's advice is exactly the sort of excuse to defer to authority that Rindo has been blindly grasping for over and over the entire game, which is shown prominently in his convo with Haz.

That he should just move on and try to accept the outcome but Rindo actively rejects that to take the ultimately harder but better road for everyone involved. To take responsibility for his actions and fight hard for what he wants instead of just letting things just pass over.

Rindo is a deliberate inversion of Neku as a protagonist. What works for the latter isn’t going to work for the former and vice-versa. And that’s perfectly okay. There’s a reason why Rindo’s theme, the World is Yours, has this as an opening line.

[findmeinthefallair]

It's sad how she locked up her emotions and became so stoic and seasoned in battle, but with all that happened, along with her dad's ongoing behaviour..it's so understandable. The way she was when she was younger..was just like Mark when his own powers awakened at a much later age. But it's safe to say that in the beginning of S2 it'll be an inverse again, whereby Mark is numbed from S1's finale while she has managed to reconnect with a good portion of that inner child of hers once again.

[beaulesbian]

wano & egghead spoilers (up to current chapter 1108)

there's some interesting connection between the eyes of zunesha, luffy/joyboy and the iron giant on egghead

in the zou arc with zunesha's first introductions, each time they were on the page their eyes were big black holes, seemingly empty or hollow:

in wano arc, when zunesha got the first feeling that joyboy could appear, and was on the way to wano, their depiction was in inverse - which could still mean hollow black eyes and lighter color body, but in the shadows:

and then, when it seemed luffy died, his own eyes were very similar - black and hollow, dead and still, like zunesha's.

(this similarity especially here between them is very interesting (dead and still), and i hope we learn more about the 'crime' zunesha did, if i remember correctly, around 900years ago? and what exactly was their punishment, beside to wander around the world forever, and who were they in relation to joyboy..)

UNTIL !! luffy came back to life! not only as luffy, but with something of joyboy's spirit alongside him and unlocking/awakening his gear 5 of the sun god nika devil fruit. zunesha's eyes began almost glowing. bright and light (with hope and sun!):

and in this panel above was also another interesting thing - since then for a few panels/pages, we didn't see luffy's eyes - he had them covered, first with his hair, then even with his hand! (so much that the pose also ended up on his new bounty poster):

(when i first read it, it made me think as if he was getting used to the light/sun again after a long time, and had to shield them to protect them)

it feels that maybe the focus somehow shifted from his usually determined eyes - to his smile when he's fighting in gear 5, to give even more emphasis on him bringing laughter, joy and freedom to the people he's fighting for, so much that many times he's having his eyes closed or covered, even on egghead:

(there's still many panels where they eyes aren't covered, but it's even more curious when they are, especially on purpose, like with that bubble text above^)

even this last page of 1108, first we get to see a very intense look of luffy/nika being serious, angry and even terrifying with his power to grip both saturn and kizaru at once, and then a huge smile with eyes of similar intensity as saturn, still with something terrifying in that expression:

now with the zunesha and another connection - the iron giant on egghead.

when luffy went into gear 5 against kizaru, for few pages he was fighting in his giant form, and two times in those chapters it goes to focus right on the iron giant, who's eyes started to glow, as if he was waking up, as if he started to come back to life:

(again, looks really similar to zunesha)

i really want to see what exactly is connecting them, these beings over 900years old (with the iron giant even attacking marijoa 200years ago) very possibly it's the feeling of joyboy's presence, so i hope there could be more exposition on who exactly joyboy was.

--

and then there's another connection with different looking eyes, and that's of the gorosei/five elders, in their awakened devil fruit state:

and especially, since he's been there more than the others, with saturn having these eyes when he gets very angry. (glowing? fire? poison - as there was mention the ushi-oni he's based on do have poison, and in the new chapter it was also mentioned that he's covered in poison.):

(I'm very curious how this will be animated/what colors. if it's gonna be differenciated from those of zunesha/iron giant/luffy, or if they will keep these similarities. i always love to find how luffy can resemble someone he opposes (kaido & big mom especially) bc he might be chaotic/having fun and be selfish, but never in the way his enemies are. he's always looking after the people who were kind to him/helped him, and doesn't want anyone to suffer. so it's always great to see how he use their similarities against his opponents to bring them down and win).

how is that saying, eyes are the window to the soul?

in the eye of the hurricane? or-

"the D will always cause another storm?"

[caliburnabsolute]

Fire Emblem: Inverse Awakening

Okay, time to rant about my FEA AU! It's based around the idea of reverse recruitment hacks, which take a Fire Emblem game (typically older ones like the GBA titles) and swap around the order you amass your army in. FE7's reverse recruitment hack, for instance, puts the immortal archmage Athos in the place of Lyn, and it's... wacky.

A part of me wondered, what the hell would a reverse recruitment thing for Awakening look like? It's not really a clean-cut thing to figure out, especially considering the entire second generation, so I figured I'd stick to just the first generation. Then it hit me. The Spotpass units.

For proper context, Awakening has six bonus chapters available through the 3DS's Spotpass system. They unlock right before the final chapter and allow you to recruit major bosses and NPCs. The ramifications this had on my reverse recruitment musings were huge.

So, this quickly went from a curiosity to a thought experiment as I found myself trying to rationalize what Ylisse and Valm would look like with all these batshit character swaps. I let myself fudge the swaps a bit to fit better, but I like what I've developed for this AU, and I'd like to do something with this in the future. For now, I'll stick to rambling on Tumblr.

Spoilers for Awakening under the cut, in case you're worried about that.

So, let me start this AU shit off properly by talking about the new Robin, as well as the AU's namesake: Aversa.

Yeah, this just made too much goddamn sense. I mean, shit, they're already siblings, so we're already starting on an easy and intuitive swap.

So, in this AU, Aversa's the one who escaped the Grimleal and ended up in some random-ass field in southern Ylisse. As a result, without Validar's influence or any memory of the atrocities she's committed in his service, she's mellowed out a lot. She's not quite as amicable as Robin was canonically, but she's more sardonic than outright cruel.

On the subject of Robin... I'll get to him when I get to him. Don't want to give away too much too soon.

Aversa, being just as tactically minded in this AU as her brother, has her own version of the Tactician class that wields lances and dark magic. (I'm a sucker for the magic triangle, so if I ever turn this into a fangame, I'll be using that instead of what Awakening has.) Since Aversa's a Dark Flier in Awakening, I'm tempted to put her on a pegasus for her version of Grandmaster as a nod to that. She'd be able to reclass to Pegasus Knight and Dark Mage as well, provided this hypothetical fangame uses Awakening/Fates' reclass style.

I haven't gotten around to drawing designs for this AU yet, so I don't have any visual reference for what this Aversa would look like yet. It's not anything too drastic, just Aversa in Robin's tactician robes.

[felikatze]

On Eveyle in Heroes

hi so. there was this voiceline of eveyle's going around, right.

The other Veyle does not seem to awaken here... Did you murder her for me? How sweet!

And like the obvious gut punch reaction is. what the fuck. did summoning kill normal veyle. i posit. no. it did not. i posit--

the inverse is also true.

Before I came here, I was on a search for my kin, and I kept waking up in unfamiliar places. Thankfully, that hasn't happened since I came to this world.

This is a voiceline from Veyle: Gentle Dragon.

So. A few things. Veyle referrencing Eveyle means that this is NOT a post-canon Veyle. Considering her other voicelines on being a defect and dragonstones I'd say she's a lategame Veyle who hasn't quite hit her big character moment yet (which was murdering Eveyle. Go figure.)

And obviously Eveyle can't exist in a post-canon state either (she would be dead), so Eveyle comes from some nebulous mid/late-game state before Veyle's big moment as well.

So. These two come from. the same point in time.

Another thing. Emblems in Askr have physical forms. Let's here it from Mr Of Beginnings himself.

As an Emblem, I am not accustomed to being corporeal. I can fight as a Hero here—and even eat!

This is a quote from Emblem Marth. Somehow, summoning gives the usual incorporeal Emblems a physical form, even though they are nothing more than spirits.

And let me be clear here. FEH is the definite nail in the coffin that Emblems are not the characters themselves. Let's have Mr Of Beginnings clarify for us one more time -

1. The original Marth dwells in this land as a Hero? An odd circumstance. 2. Do I resemble the Marth you know at all? Or is he truly different?

Listen to me. Look me in the eyes. Emblems are artificial recreations of a person based on outside expectations of that person. They are people, but they are still creations with a purpose.

What I'm getting at here is blatantly obvious.

Eveyle - what is she again? Eveyle is an artifical creation of Zephia's, one meant to embody Sombron's will, based on what she and Sombron perceive that Veyle should be. That Eveyle is not simply some "amplified fell dragon instincts" should be abundantly clear not only in how Zephia was able to control Hortensia in an identical manner (Hortensia is not a Fell Dragon, she is a human girl) as well as the infamous helmet needed to induce this personality in Veyle after Veyle begins rebelling against Zephia's spell.

Eveyle is not some form of magic DID, and is not meant to be.

What I think is that Veyle: Gentle Dragon and Veyle: Fell Succesor are the from the same world and used to share one body. Being summoned to Askr gave each of them an individual form, through the same magic that gave bodies to the Emblems. Therefore, because they're no longer occupying the same brain, they obviously can't sense each other anymore, either.

So no, there was no murder involved.

......the potential narrative in this is actually really interesting.... like yes obviously Eveyle is the embodiment of the expectations placed on Veyle and Veyle killing Eveyle is ultimately symbolic of Veyle taking agency of her own life, abandoning her desire for love from her father in favor of the family that actually loves her back, flaws and all.

But to give this construct of both literal magic and narrative significance its own agency and personhood.... hm. hm hm. you can do some interesting things with that.

[loveemagicpeace]

🧁🍸Observing Signs🎸🎮

🌸Cancers always loudly repeat how good, sincere and honest they are. Their energy is always focused on care and emotions, and a lot of times they overexpose it.

🤹🏼‍♀️People with Leo MC love to bring out the drama and they love to smear people publicly. People with Scorpio MC like privacy and don't like to expose their life publicly or share it with others

🧚🏼‍♀️Pisces have anger issues especially that one with mars or mars in 12th house. Many times I notice that people with too much pisces or exposure to it, find it harder to express their feelings & actions, and that's why it often awakens a feeling of anger in them.

🌙Your rising sign shows up among people you know & you are close to them. Your MC shows when you are among strangers or in the company of several people.

💗Synastry 7th house is not always good. Because this house shows your opposite sign and it can mean that the planets that fall in this house show how you are the opposite of the person.

👩🏽‍🤝‍👩🏼In friendship, you will get along best if you have the same Venus or the same energy as your friend, for example: Scorpio Venus & Pisces Venus. Because both will like the same things, have the same way of expressing and showing love, and both will value friendship in the same way. Mars is also very good if you have a similar one because your energy is expressed and seen in the same way. Venus sex Mars is also good for long term friendship.

🧩Venus in Aquarius value friends, spending time with them and putting them first. ❣️Venus in Libra emphasizes relationships, romance and is constantly looking for true love and someone to share love with.

💙Aries rising are always looking for a new hobby. They are always putting energy into something else and always starting something new. I also found that they are not really that open or fiery when you get to know them.

🌛Moon in house represents where do you feel the best emotionally. For ex.: moon in 6th house you feel best when everything goes according to plan, when you are doing something for your health, you are productive.

🏄🏻‍♂️Uranus is the planet of difference and represents where we feel most different from others and in what way.

🧘🏽‍♀️12th house is connected to the subconscious, which means that the planets here have power when we start to connect with our subconscious. This is when we begin to better understand our energy.

🛼I often notice that people with scorpio, capricorn, sagittarius, aries have tattoos or are more prone to them than other signs. Maybe aquarius but I think that they are too rebellious to have them.

🦋When I see T-shirts with inscriptions, cartoon characters they always give me vibes of cancer & pisces. Both of them are more inclined to me that they like children's things or inscriptions.

🎸Someone with Cancer and Sagittarius in their chart will always vacillate between crazy decisions or safe ones. On the one side, the energy will pull you to go somewhere, do crazy things, have fun, just chill with friends, have no worries and enjoy the moment. On the another side , you'd rather be at home, watching movies, feeling comfortable and cozy.

❤️‍🔥Signs that have intensity in them and love people for themselves, such as Scorpio, Pisces...will never get along well with signs that are too outgoing and chill. For example: Aquarius, Gemini...and these signs will always bring out the worst in you. And this is not meant if a person has only one sign of this because the energy will be different. This is meant if a person has several signs, aspects that indicate that the person is jealous, intense, implusive. And inversely , a person who has several signs that indicate that the person likes to be free, chill.

📖3rd house it also represents your best friend, which means that this is the sign with which you will have the most in common when it comes to conversations, views and thoughts. Because this sign represents how you think and what your thoughts are. It also represents what kind of books you prefer to read.

-Rebekah🦋🧚🏼‍♀️🎸

[wyrdle]

!!! How does Sho fit into SEES in this AU? Does he awaken to a Persona naturally? (Love it so so much it's sooooooo cute!!)

I'm still planning a ref sheet / getting things in order for Sho, but I'm thinking he has Minazuki as an alter, having DID from young (he still came from an orphanage, so likely experiences there led to his mental illness). He's managing it well now though. Likewise Shuji does pick up on mental health support, which goes a long way for his later mentoring of SEES.

Personas manifest through the strength of your social bonds, so I reckon his bond with Dad!Ikutsuki and eventual Mitsuru and Akihiko and others led to developing a Persona naturally, shared with Minazuki.

As for how he joins SEES, I think it'd be voluntary on his part. Unlike canon Shuji, Dad!Ikutsuki likely hesitates more about recruiting teens to the group, having residual guilt from being involved in the lab explosion himself. For Sho, that concern is twicefold, so Sho had to insist quite a bit to get in. He mirrors Mitsuru a little bit in his motivation to join.

I enjoy thinking of Inverse!Ikutsuki as being a concerned parent to all the SEES gang haha. There's some angst with him feeling useless as he sends out child soldiers, plus things like Akihiko getting hurt/Shinji dying are big :((( (I wish canon Shuji did all this whilst being a lying asshole haha. Booo at the writers for not turning his betrayal into a knife and then twisting it in everyone's guts lol)

Anyway, have some ikutsuki and sho haha

[purgemarchlockdown]

Through the body of the monster fantasies of aggression, domination, and inversion are allowed safe expression in a clearly delimited and permanently liminal space.

Escapist delight gives way to horror only when the monster threatens to overstep these boundaries, to destroy or deconstruct the thin walls of category and culture.

When contained by geographic, generic, or epistemic marginalization, the monster can function as an alter ego, as an alluring projection of (an Other) self. The monster awakens one to the pleasures of the body, to the simple and fleeting joys of being frightened, or frightening—to the experience of mortality and corporality.

Kotoko: ...Fufu... This feels so good.