#is a bit terrifying

[lazy-sixteen]

'Unconditional Love' - Jayce's feelings towards his partner

Thinking today about what made Jayce' and Viktor's relationship so extreme, Romantic, so oh-shit these two nearly ended the world with their Divorce Arc, and from Jayce's end I would say it is that he took the concept of "Unconditional Love" and really cranked it to the high-setting then welded the dial there.

Let's start at the end.

ii. Love

Jayce loves Viktor. No one (at least in these more enlightened days of post-Season 2) is arguing this. He's drawing the guy in his diary/research journal, he's loudly proclaiming Viktor the co-inventor of his life's work, he's throwing a city founder and respected mentor off the Council, and simultaneously making both Orpheus and Dr. Frankenstein look like pussies with his resurrection antics. There is so much great meta and analysis that points out how much he loves Viktor, and the more details you examine in the show the more evidence you find.

I think the only point I'd like to add here, is that is really is genuinely love motivating him. He's not obsessed with his imagined idea of a perfect partner nor dependent on Viktor as the more confident half of their partnership, it's all love.

The obvious example of not just wanting a 'perfect' or easy version of Viktor is Jayce's speech about always respecting/admiring him with his imperfections their mind meld at end, but I think the bridge scene also counts. While they do argue about it, Jayce never wants to change who Viktor is. When they fight at the bridge about Zaun, Jayce apologizes for saying something classist/insensitive immediately instead of trying some bullshit 'well, you aren't like the rest of them'. He's not perfect about it, but he'd chose to learn and grow as a person over trying to erase where Viktor came from because he loves his partner as a whole person, not just the parts that are easy for him to understand/love.

Additionally, when Viktor leaves him (after Jayce basically vomits up his heart on a rambling silver platter, lol), Jayce is so obviously emotionally devastated - but he does respect Viktor's decision and is able to continue functioning. For the first point, Jayce doesn't try to physically stop Viktor from leaving or follow him after Viktor makes clear he wants space. Afterwards, while Jayce is obviously an emotional wreck (sleeping in the lab), the second Heimmerdinger and Ekko turn up he's able to pull himself together enough to Problem Solve and muster the emotional energy to genuinely care that the Hexgates might be polluting a community in Zaun. Jayce is definitely a wreck after Viktor leaves, but he respects Viktor's decision about leaving and is able to function independently.

( Of course of note, Jayce didn't respect his promise to destroy the Hexcore - so you could say that the respecting Viktor's decision to leave now is either a case of Jayce trying to learn his lesson and grow in regards to respecting his partner's choices, or a you could say the situation wasn't equivalent since Viktor asked him to promise something that would lead to his partner's death while Viktor was obviously very emotionally compromised after Skye's death and Jayce had just stopped him from committing suicide - i.e., Jayce didn't honor that promise bc to him, it appeared to be an extension of Viktor's suicidal intention.)

Anyway, the point is, it is about Love for Viktor as he is, not just that he's important to Jayce's success or caring about the easy parts like his intelligence. Jayce just totally and completely just loves his partner. Onto...

i. Unconditional

And, here's where Jayce gets absolutely freakishly, unhealthy do-not-try-this-at-home with it, there is absolutely nothing Viktor can do to himself, to other people, or to Jayce that will make Jayce love him any less. It is beyond 'would you love me if I was a worm' and hits 'would you love me if I killed everyone you loved, desecrated their corpses, then killed you?"

(Jayce, said 'Yes, obviously. Also if you did that more than once and let me be tortured for several months. Anything for you, baby.")

On the first point (nothing Viktor can do to himself) in Season 1, it was remarked upon by Singed that Viktor using very illegal drugs and trying to alter his body with an unstable dangerous magical artifact might freak Jayce out/make him leave. Viktor verbally disagrees with this sentiment, but he also hides what is doing from Jayce. While some of that could be to protect Jayce if his experimentation gets discovered (see, very illegal drugs obtained from exiled mad chemist who worked/works for a drug lord), part of it is likely intended to represent hesitancy or fear that Jayce might be disgusted at what Viktor is doing.

Contrary to Viktor's/Singed's predictions, Jayce simply does not seem to care. We never seem him react specifically to the metal arm/leg, but given that he used Viktor's research notes (Which would include fun, savory details like 'carving runes into his flesh' and 'injecting Shimmer') to resurrect him into a completely purple, metal, magic immortal creature and then reacted to Viktor's horrified "What am I?" with a adoring, love-sick "You are alive." complete with half-naked hug and nuzzling - we can safely assume he would not have loved Viktor any less for the purple-metal arm+leg.

This continues on, Jayce is fully willing to kneel/try the power of love confession at the fully metal and horrifying split-face looking Machine Herald. In fact, I think his speech at end works so well because it is given to someone metal and removed from humanity - he loves and respects Viktor both as he was with his disabilities and on the other end, as someone who had removed every weakness from his body to the point of becoming closer to a machine-god than a human.

Okay at this point, we can say that Jayce's affection is still sweet (and parts of it are good, touching, and healthy - if you love someone you Should be willing to grow as a person and try to correct your biases, you Should accept their disabilities and care for them as part of what makes up your loved one's life), but moving us closer to off the rails - there also doesn't seem to be anything that Viktor can do morally / do to other people/ do to Jayce himself that matters either.

This is best shown in the Hell Dimension - Jayce spends several months in a Saw Trap slowly going insane, in severe pain and desperate loneliness (seriously that level of 'no human contact' is enough to qualify as torture on its on). He see the world absolutely ruined, everyone either dead or transformed into creepy porcelain dolls (dead and having their corpses corrupted/puppeted/used). He climbs to the top of the former Hexgate, corrupted into a monument to his failures, sees his future corpse kneeling in defeat, and looming over it the Mage, who saved him as a child but also set him on the path to magic, made him in integral piece of the mechanism the ended the world, and is furious!! He's angry and accusing, and looks like he's about to start screaming or trying to fight!!

Until the mage, pulls back his hood and reveals he's older Viktor - then, oops never mind, Jayce instantly is no longer mad - just amazed and happy. To me at least, it is parallel to Viktor waking up transformed out of the magic goo and Jayce instantly hugging and exclaiming happily he's alive! Jayce meets Viktor's eyes over his own corpse in the middle of a world-wide graveyard, and instantly his mood switches from fury to joyful recognition. The next scene we see (chronologically, not story-wise) is him willingly kneeling and Old Mage's Viktor's feet like a warrior being knighted, taking the hammer from his own corpse, and promising to save younger Viktor.

(And to me at least, that is implicitly Jayce's and Old Mage Viktor's priority here based on how they phrase it, - not to save the world from Viktor, but to save Viktor from having to suffer the loneliness and guilt of ending the world).

Like holy shit, Jayce not only loves Viktor so, so much, this is an 'in all times lines, and all possibilities' he loves him. He loves Viktor so much it is a universal constant - with no limitations or boundaries (including such healthy ones as, maybe I should take a step back from a relationship I know is 99% likely to kill me).

AND, and!! This makes me especially insane - this is not a problem Jayce has in his other relationships. He is perfectly capable of loving and caring for other people while still maintaining boundaries, or pulling away from relationships that hurt him. This is 100% a Viktor-only thing.

We see Jayce pull-away and stop confiding in his mother after she hurts him by declaring him insane in front of the counsel (we never see them really talk one-on-one after that scene in his bedroom). He break-ups with Mel in the Counsel Room over both her using Jayce as an investment/puppet ruler (which she was, part of Mel's character arc is learning that conquering through manipulation/politics is still conquering) and his own survivor's guilt that she saved them and not the rest of the Counsel (not her fault, she did in instinctively with a power she didn't know she had). And he maintains that distance, he's comforts her a bit later when she reaches out about feeling used, but generally remains physically and emotionally closed off.

(Sidenote rant about how I actually really love Mel and Jayce's tragic, doomed bi4bi romance cut for time)

Like Jayce has limits, he can love people genuinely but pull away when he feels they are hurting him or he's hurt by what they've done. Just, only for other people.

In conclusion, Jayce loves Viktor unconditionally, in all timelines and all possibilities: whether he's his human and dying lab partner or an eldritch magic-machine god, whether he's saving Jayce life or killing him - that love is truly unconditional

[ashleymeow]

This boop feature is genuinely a reluctant lurkers worst nightmare

[chloesimaginationthings]

"They call it the MANGLE" - FNAF 2 phone guy

[glitter-stained]

Prompt:

After Red Hood stopped killing and someone leaked footage hinting that he's the second Robin, he expected to fight for every morsel of territory, for everybody to desert him and the murder attempts to triple.

And, well. It's not like he doesn't find himself in a rigged warehouse on Monday, walking off that one explosion with singes on his back. It's not like on Wednesday, a bullet pierces through a hole in his armour and he's losing half his blood in an alley. And sure, someone takes advantage of him throwing his helmet away on Friday (he was out of grenades and needed a bigger bomb) to fear gass him, but it's fine, he can function normally under fear gass nowadays.

Except. Except nobody deserts him. By Monday, the attempts have completely stopped. He walks into a meeting with his men and sees his goons' hands won't stop shaking, and even his lieutenant won't look him in the eyes.

Jason is confused, and so are the other bats, but soon the rumours reach their ears: you can't go after the Red Hood, because no matter what you do, once you've targeted him it's over, like a dog with a bone, he'll get you eventually- no matter how you shoot or how many explosives you use. It doesn't matter that the Red Hood doesn't kill, because the Red Hood doesn't die.

[moonlightcycle571]

I need Joker to fear Captain Marvel so dam badly. Let me explain.

So we know how we, as a community, all accepted that Billy Batson / Captain Marvel is the most egregious Tax Evader of DC (for this who don’t know, there was a whole poll and our boy Billy won out of literally everyone, including supervillains).

And in the Batman Cartoon (and some comics), it’s stated that Joker is terrified of the IRS.

I think you see the picture.

Joker: I may be crazy enough to fight Batman, but I am NOT crazy enough to deal with the IRS

Captain Marvel: lol imagine doing your taxes

Everyone present: w h a t

*clip goes viral*

IRS Agent: So, Captain Marvel was it? According to this footage, you have no been paying your taxes

Marvel: prove it.

IRS Agent: What?

Marvel: to make me pay anything, you need to know who I am and what’s to pay. I got nothing to pay.

IRS Agent: that’s not-

Marvel: not even Batman knows who or what I am. For all you know, I could be living in a multidimensional rock situated in, quite literally, the middle of nowhere.

IRS Agent: …

IRS Agent: I- w h a t

*some time later*

IRS AGENT: YOU BORE A STRIKING RESEMBLANCE TO LATE CC BATSON. SOMEONE WHO HASNT PAID TAXES IN 70 YEARS! YOU OWE US TAXES

Marvel: no I’m not

IRS Agent: Don’t try-

Marvel, holding the lasso of truth: I am not CC Batson, I don’t owe you shit. Plus he’s totes dead so can’t be me.

IRS Agent: DAMMIT

Joker: This mofo is crazy! Crazy? I was crazy onc-

*later*

IRS Agent, in Fawcette: why is none telling me anything!!!! You, Child, what do you know of your local hero?

Itty Bitty Billy Batson: lmao aren’t you that Agent harassing Cap

IRS Agent: it’s not harassment if he owes the government taxes

Billy: good luck taxing anyone in Fawcette lmao, magic doesn’t give a shit about that. Also we have different currency’s that just switches on random basis. So unless the government takes Drachmas, you’re cooked

IRS Agent, on the verge of tears: this has never happened before

Lex Luthor: WRITE THAT DOWN WRTE THAT DOWN

Bonus:

Billy: you know, I know someone who has been commuting tax evasion, tax fraud and more charges. His name is Ebenezer Batson. That’s E B E N Z E R and he lives just outside of Fawcette. Can’t miss him.

IRS Agent, who has a fridge with ‘CC Batson’ and is more than happy to get old man prey: thanks kid

Bonus 2:

Billy: Sweet, the IRS put my uncle in jail and the police gave me back my inheritance. Now to convert this into Fawcette currency (they will not be taxing this money)

Joker, visibly weeps

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Soup solves everything.

[arrimorr]

Whatever the hell Bill and Ford have going on in the books is so funny to me because, like, we have Journal 3 where Ford spends some time one-sidedly pinning over that asshole and the Book of Bill has Bill one-sidedly moping over Ford AND IN ANY OTHER, NORMAL SITUATION that would make this weird clusterfuck of a relationship mutual but somehow it still always stays one sided, if you get what I mean

[gotchibam]

Ogerpon & Darkrai ko-fi doodle for CyclopeanSpook!

[dreamweave01]

POV: You're the poor sap who just upset Junior around his Uncle Dee-Dee.

I actually ended up having a lot of free time today, which was super nice and very unexpected :D

I've gotten to play around a lot with Leonardo's timeline recently thanks to what I have planned for What A Nightmare, which is a lot of fun because I've fleshed out his world a bit more than I have Raph or Donnie's, (so there's a lot to play with hehe)

That also means I get to practice drawing folks I don't usually get to draw too much.

So here's a Junior and Master Donatello because I had a heart attack and thought I had forgotten how to draw Leo's Donnie for a hot second :D

[saragrosie]

Some movie face sketches I did while watching dungeons & drag queens s1 (was so amazing)

Rough crab/recovery era stuff I don't like as much below but you gotta see the vision: I know some relationship drama happened right before sm3 that caused Ivo's crash out listen to me. Listen.

[factsilike]

Something that I personally appreciate in MDZS is how WWX's fear of dogs is shown and handled.

Like so many stories, irl and in fiction show dogs as totally harmless uwu beings that will only protect you and lick your face, so personally for me it's nice to see a story where it's acknowledged that some dogs can be very vicious and violent, that they can and will bite you at any provocation, and that they can be very dangerous, especially to a young child, and in the end it's completely fine if you don't like them.

And no one who truly cares for WWX tells him to just get over it either; LWJ goes out of his way to protect him from them, with or without WWX requesting it (and he never makes fun of him or ridicules him for his fear), JL too (begrudgingly but firmly) gets Fairy to leave the scene when WWX is shown to be near catatonic with fear around her.

Just something that I think personally validates my own fear of dogs.

[captmuldoon]

Carol Maso - The Art Lover

[schemelin]

I wish you were here

[tending-the-hearth]

Ponyboy: Johnny’s the gang’s pet, he’s everyone’s kid brother, they just put up with my because I’m Darry and Soda’s little brother :( The gang: *fighting for their lives against their Mother Hen™️ instincts the second Ponyboy is out of their immediate vision*

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

attempt to return to normalcy

[shadelorde]

peri having a Time