#love writing them

[awkwardgtace]

Self Reflection

hey hey day 11 we have melancholy. This time I went more for the overwhelming feeling of the story rather than my usual methods of taking prompts. Will add this to ao3 once the ddos is over

Kaiju Ash is thinking about their life, both current and former. Unsure what they want if they should let things continue as they are.

TW: Mentions of death, probably other things i'm not realizing please lemme know if I should tag them.

Self Reflection

I stared at the clouds as the water fell over my body. I never stood for storms before, but I wanted to clear the dirt from my skin, or rather scales. Alessia said it, my body was no longer human skin. I was covered in something more like carapace. After a day of begging I did promise the two I would use the next storm to clear the dirt and leaves from me. Of course they had to stay in the small house, one made of my vines. Even with it separated sometimes it let me hear, let me know things I shouldn’t. Now was one of those times.

“We need to go into a town soon,” Alessia said. I frowned, if they left I shouldn’t let them back. It wasn’t safe near me. I closed my eyes as the water continued to pelt my body. I sort of enjoyed the feeling of the rain on my eyes. I knew that wasn’t normal.

“You know if we both go Ash will need convincing to bring us back,” Delphia said. Despite the way their voices traveled, I enjoyed hearing such normal talk between them. I didn’t even know this could happen. I should stop being shocked when the vines become an extension of myself.

“So you stay.” The two sounded happy, it had been too long with me. They should leave. I tried not to react to their words. If I moved it would still bother them despite the security we’d managed to create. 

“No, there’s too much for you to get alone. Too bad Ash can’t just grow everything we need.” The unflinching trust continued to hurt my heart. The willingness to abandon their world, their lives, just everything… I didn’t think I could ever feel worthy of their actions and choices. “Plus I’m a bit better at hiding from people than you are. We can’t have someone following us.”

I wanted to keep listening, but the vines decided I’d heard enough. What would happen if someone followed them? If someone new found me? I had met other humans, ones I helped to get to safety. Those ones might not have discussed my existence, or maybe no one believed them. I shook my head, I couldn’t think about people like that. I wasn’t something else, I was human… wasn’t I?

I walked away from my miniscule loves. My focus was at the edge of the forest. The forest that fit me, that grew around me. Trees tall enough that they hid me even when I stood. This wasn’t natural or normal. I ran my hands, more precisely my claws, over the bark. It was stronger than the trees I faintly remembered from my life before. When they weren’t just a little taller than me. 

It didn’t take long for me to reach my goal. I stood next to the town that I’d turned into a grave. It still hurt to think of what I’d done. Delphia and Alessia were convinced it wasn’t my fault, but it was. I could have listened, I could have gone back to sleep. So many lives would have been saved if I had never woken up. The days I dreamed, the times I woke up to phantom feelings of arms around me, were all ones I wished I got to live more often.

I started to reach out towards the edge of the trees. I could leave, I could reveal myself to the world. It would free Alessia and Delphia. It would change things, explain so much. Possibly even make others be believed. My claws hovered near the edge, my hand was shaking. I couldn’t remember what would leave me scared, but revealing myself was terrifying. My memories before this, ones that didn’t include Alessia and Delphia, were still too hazy. Sometimes it felt like they were fading away, that if the others weren’t with me I would lose everything that explained who I was.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” a small voice said. It wasn’t coming through my vines, it was masculine. Familiar. A shiver ran through my body, water fell from places it had pooled on me. The only thing that reminded me that rain was falling all around me.

“Leave then, I’m not walking away,” a new voice. Also masculine… Also familiar… I was frozen, the strange scales or carapace caught water all over me. That didn’t matter, those voices… Those voices terrified me.

“So you can disappear too?” I was tempted to try and find them. To face the terror in my blood. They were going to be the same size as the others… I couldn’t risk doing anything to them.

“I’m finding them. This is the last place they checked in from.”

“You know how likely it is that they survived out here this long?! Their car isn’t even here! At least wait until the storm is over.”

“You can wait until the storm is over. If my sister is out there I’m finding her. I’m dragging them both home because if she’s there so is Alessia!”

My heart froze. They… these voices wanted Alessia and Delphia. Were they from that life? That time that I can barely remember? I felt it as they entered the forest. My forest. One storming ahead, something in my mind tingled at the knowledge. As though it was something that bubbled with joy and memories.

“Strawberry, we should at least stay together!” I stumbled at those words. A thousand arrows attacked my heart. I knew those words, I knew these people. I knew these humans. “Shit, run!”

They were running because of me. Something I did, my steps or my vines I didn’t know. I had to stop them, protect them from the truth. From finding the damage I’d done by existing. I heard screams. A part of me wondered if Delphia and Alessia would hear them. If they’d hate me for what was happening now. Another part thought they should and then they would leave.

I heard shouts as my vines grabbed the two humans. I was conscious of the choice to grab them. I focused on keeping the movement of my vines slow even as I crouched. I was still towering over everything. The vines stopped just at my eyes. It was like the day Delphia and Alessia returned to my life. One face of anger and fear, another of something akin to a calm understanding.

“Rhys, do not say a thing, do not ask questions, I will get us out of this,” the angry one said. He had scars on his eyes, the shape of an X on each. They were a pale contrast on his dark skin. Silver hair that had fallen in his face and hung heavily due to the rain. Mismatched eyes like my own, different colors though. A brilliant emerald and striking violet.

“Vincent…” Rhys said it, at least that’s what I could assume was his name. Salmon hair, tan skin, pink eyes that saw through me. I knew this person, I’d spent a lot of time with him. A flash in my mind, someone yelling with the pink eyed man laughing beside me. I pushed him, a smile playing on my own lips.

I brought a hand up to shield them from the rain. Both stared at me, unflinching eyes. I… I shouldn’t have grabbed them. I should have left them to wander, only blocking them from going too far. Instead I took my other hand below them. Another thing I learned I could do, the vines moved over to my skin without a need for me to try. More screams.

I stood, slower than normal to be safe. I looked around the world, these two on my hand a stark reminder of what I’ve lost. I kept my hand low. It was difficult, but I knew raising them too high might cause them to be hurt. I was lucky Alessia and Delphia had been safe. I made the choice to change how my vines held them. Holding them safely together instead of apart. I could hear the mumbles from them, reassurances that they would survive. 

I could speak, I could tell them. Words didn’t occur to me, the ones to fix this. I… I wanted them not to know who I was. More memory flashes made it hurt to imagine them scared of me when they knew it was me. I took the steps I needed to return to Delphia and Alessia. The small women were waiting for me, ignoring the rain still pouring from the sky.

As soon as I brought my hand close the men I held reacted. The words were… not kind. I didn’t want to think about the consequences of how they acted. Directing my vines to set the men down was easy, the two grabbing Alessia and Delphia and trying to hide them from me was not. I still couldn’t make my voice work. When they knew it was me, would they still be scared? Was I not something to be trusted? I wasn’t… I wasn’t a human no matter how much I wanted to believe I was… was I?

“Rhys?” Delphia said. She was trying to pull away, to be in my view. It made me feel happier, warmer, more human. “Let go of me. What are you even doing here?”

“We came to find the two of you. It’s been months with no contact!” Rhys shouted. The shout made me jump. It was louder than I expected, but my jump caused both men to lose their footing.

“Vincent, Rhys calm down. We’re fine.” Alessia looked up at me with a bright smile. Another thing that made me feel human, gifts constantly offered by them. “We found them. We found Ash.”

Both men stared at me. It didn’t take long for Rhys to be on his feet holding Delphia’s shoulders. I wanted to pull him away. To stop him from hurting her. He wouldn’t… Rhys wasn’t that person. I knew that. Vincent was glaring at me on his feet. It… I knew that glare. I knew him too. I hated this terror budding in my heart.

“Del, that-that thing is not Ash!” I closed my eyes. I needed to stay calm, but my tail didn’t agree. The loud thumps of the appendage were already causing the four ant sized humans to stumble. “This is proof! That thing is a monster and we need to escape.”

“No.” Delphia set herself free. She actually came closer to me. I brought my claw near her, she reached for it. Vincent pulled her back, he had a firm grip on Alessia’s wrist too. Something rumbled up deep in my chest, I had never noticed the growls I could make before.

“That is not a human reaction, Strawberry is right. We need to get away from this thing. You two are brainwashed.” Vincent had always been harsh. My brain had so much firing at once. Times with both, pushing Rhys to speak to the glaring man. Vincent unsure how to admit his own feelings. Smiles with both of them, nights where I spent time away from Alessia and Delphia. Where I spent time with another family, my new family.

“Who cares!? This is Ash and we’re not brainwashed. You two shouldn’t even be here. Go home. We’ll be back once we’ve fixed this.” Alessia’s firm voice calmed me. The rumbling in my chest disappeared. The ones most important to me were fine and didn’t see me as a monster.

“It can’t even talk that isn’t Ash! I know you miss them, but they died. Just like everyone else when this forest popped up, please just let us try to figure a way out of this and get home. Everyone’s been worried about you two and this constant searching.” My chest rumbled again, but there was more pain than anger.

“Will you stop talking like they aren’t here? Like they can’t understand you!? This is Ash, you're both just being cruel. It’s… how can you treat them like that!? You both were as devastated as we were when the news came and they’re here and you’re treating them like a monster that can’t even speak!”

“It can’t speak! All it’s done is growl. It probably just decided to look like them.”

“I do speak, I.. it is me,” I whispered. Despite the safety my vines promised my voice I was terrified. Now those humans would know who I am. The memories of happy times would be tainted by fearful faces. The men stared at me with a cocktail of pain, shock, and fear.

“They’re really alive, Rhys. It’s them.” Delphia was grabbing Rhys’s arm, trying to make them listen.

All I could do after that was watch them. Words exchanged all while the staring continued. I wanted to do something. Find a way to prove who I was. It was clear they didn’t believe in me. They only saw a monster. The pain I feared came together the longer I watched them. 

“Fine, we’ll get your supplies and come back. We’re staying at least for a few weeks,” Rhys said. 

That would make sense, it would work. There would be room in the house for the two of them. Although… I could almost remember what their home looked like. At least Rhys’s home I couldn’t recall if Vincent lived there. On top of my claws a small square of vines appeared. I pushed the cube off, vines trailing off my claw. I snapped it before the cube settled next to the home I barely remembered.

“Is that our house?” Vincent said. It was always him when there was a strange mixture of shock and suspicion.

I watched Rhys walk in, despite Vincent calling him back. The man walked out and stared up at me with awe. Vincent grabbed his arm, but stopped. I wasn't sure why. It didn’t matter, they were too far in the forest for a human to walk back in a reasonable time. It looked like they were slowly realizing it.

“Well we should go… assuming ‘Ash’ will take us… and pick us up when we get back,” Rhys said. It was clear they didn’t believe it was me. That I was some monster that Alessia and Delphia had trained. Maybe I was.

Regardless I offered my hand. The two didn’t move. I wasn’t sure what to do. I noticed Delphia pointing towards a loose vine. I should grab them? I tilted my head. She nodded, reading the question despite how hard it must be to read my face. So small and delicate. In the back of my mind I knew those words didn’t suit the men my vines were grabbing.

“Woah, easy with the vines godzilla,” Vincent said. The words hurt, but the nickname stuck out. Vincent… he gives people nicknames; it's a part of him. I… calling me something else might be good. I set them down in the center of my palm. Where I knew I could keep them safe. Ant sized humans… How had I started to trick myself into thinking I still was one.

I stood, with my hand at my waist to avoid hurting Rhys and Vincent. Only a few steps to travel what would take them days or weeks. I couldn’t call myself human. Near the edge, not quite outside the trees that towered thousands of feet over humans… over creatures I was starting to struggle to believe I ever was one of. I crouched again, setting my hand down and hoping the two I could faintly remember laughing with wouldn’t show me more fear.

They stumbled off my hand. Stared at me with emotions I couldn’t understand.

“If you really are Ash. Alessia says she’s finding a way to turn you back. If it works well… I’m glad they found you and I’m sorry… for treating you like a monster,” Rhys said. My eyes widened. Vincent pulled Rhys towards what I knew had to be a car. It was so small… I constantly found myself in awe at the trust Delphia and Alessia put in me.

“You’re keeping the nickname whether you’re Ash or not. Godzilla fits you pretty damn well,” Vincent pushed Rhys towards a door as he spoke. I stood up straight as I watched both men climb into the vehicle. It was hard, I could remember riding in one. The danger it posed before. Only now could I crush it like a bug. I… I didn’t like thinking like that. 

I watched it drive off. The distance it covered would be faster for me. I could travel farther than I had ever dreamed. Yet I had to stay within these trees. Where nothing could find me from above and I controlled the ground. I stared at my clawed hand, looked over the scaled body I now existed in. I wasn’t human.

My vines apparently wanted me to know this. They pulled back from my skin, the skin akin to stone. It looked like stone when I focused on it. Other vines pulled my tail forward, even with the rain that continued to pour I could see the red smears that I never cleaned off. Remnants of what I’d done, who I’d hurt. People with names and faces I couldn’t remember or know.

I didn’t know why the building was unharmed that day. Why the people had survived and stayed past the terrifyingly large trees. Maybe I had disrupted them. This monstrous body was covered in sin after sin that I could never escape. I turned to look at where I knew Delphia and Alessia were. Humans that loved me… that loved a me that was dead. 

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I love you and I miss our life, but I don’t think I can go back. After everything I did… Everything that happened because of me. I don’t deserve to live a simple human life again.”

I wouldn’t tell them now… I wouldn’t end our time yet. I would wait for Rhys and Vincent. Wait for them to leave and when- when supplies were next needed I would tell them. I would send them off and lock my forest away from humans for good. No one would be at risk because of me or anything I might cause.

[so-many-ocs]

[on the verge of having a complete breakdown] i need to make some kind of list or perhaps sort things into categories

[tacticalprincess]

simon and könig being unable to stop bickering for a second, even when they’re balls deep inside of you. they’ve got you in an Eiffel Tower, könig’s cock filling your glossy pussy while simon stuffs your mouth. it took ages of convincing for them to even consider this position, but eventually they decided to put their discrepancies aside for the sake of you, their precious, spoiled little thing. it didn’t last very long though…

“jackhammer much, mate? you’ve got her choking on me over here.” simon points out, his heavy hand stroking your hair soothingly. könig’s using your hips as leverage, bucking into you at a rabid pace, each of his thrusts lurching your body forward and forcing you to take more of simon’s dick down your poor throat. “what happened to treatin’ the princess with care?”

“it’s okay, she likes it. isn’t that right, maus?”

your cheeks warm up as you hum around simon’s dick noncommittally. nothing gets passed the l.t though, and suddenly he’s gripping you by your hair, pulling your mouth off his cock.

“wait, you let him fuck your face?” he asks, sounding genuinely offended.

you wipe the line of spit that trails from your swollen lips all the way to his still hard dick, hovering just out of reach. you huff. “he’s more sadistic than you…” you say sheepishly in response, voice staccato from könig’s thrusts.

“you tellin’ me i’m the soft sex guy? the aftercare fuck?”

“‘s alright, mate.” könig reaches over your naked body to pat his comrade on the shoulder. “youve got boyfriend dick. happens to the best of us.”

[ronanlynchbf]

tshirt that says NO LIVE ORGANISM CAN CONTINUE FOR LONG TO EXIST SANELY UNDER CONDITIONS OF ABSOLUTE REALITY

[corantus]

butch nonspecific bean bag bears. they should let me design toys for children actually

their names are handy, married, grease, and freak ❤️

[erabu-san]

I enjoyed every second of this quest

[This art has platonic intention. Thank you for not tag ship!]

[inkskinned]

at some point it's just like. do they even fucking like the thing they're asking AI to make? "oh we'll just use AI for all the scripts" "we'll just use AI for art" "no worries AI can write this book" "oh, AI could easily design this"

like... it's so clear they've never stood in the middle of an art museum and felt like crying, looking at a piece that somehow cuts into your marrow even though the artist and you are separated by space and time. they've never looked at a poem - once, twice, three times - just because the words feel like a fired gun, something too-close, clanging behind your eyes. they've never gotten to the end of the movie and had to arrive, blinking, back into their body, laughing a little because they were holding their breath without realizing.

"oh AI can mimic style" "AI can mimic emotion" "AI can mimic you and your job is almost gone, kid."

... how do i explain to you - you can make AI that does a perfect job of imitating me. you could disseminate it through the entire world and make so much money, using my works and my ideas and my everything.

and i'd still keep writing.

i don't know there's a word for it. in high school, we become aware that the way we feel about our artform is a cliche - it's like breathing. over and over, artists all feel the same thing. "i write because i need to" and "my music is how i speak" and "i make art because it's either that or i stop existing." it is such a common experience, the violence and immediacy we mean behind it is like breathing to me - comes out like a useless understatement. it's a cliche because we all feel it, not because the experience isn't actually persistent. so many of us have this ... fluttering urgency behind our ribs.

i'm not doing it for the money. for a star on the ground in some city i've never visited. i am doing it because when i was seven i started taking notebooks with me on walks. i am doing it because in second grade i wrote a poem and stood up in front of my whole class to read it out while i shook with nerves. i am doing it because i spent high school scribbling all my feelings down. i am doing it for the 16 year old me and the 18 year old me and the today-me, how we can never put the pen down. you can take me down to a subatomic layer, eviscerate me - and never find the source of it; it is of me. when i was 19 i named this blog inkskinned because i was dramatic and lonely and it felt like the only thing that was actually permanently-true about me was that this is what is inside of me, that the words come up over everything, coat everything, bloom their little twilight arias into every nook and corner and alley

"we're gonna replace you". that is okay. you think that i am writing to fill a space. that someone said JOB OPENING: Writer Needed, and i wrote to answer. you think one raindrop replaces another, and i think they're both just falling. you think art has a place, that is simply arrives on walls when it is needed, that is only ever on demand, perfect, easily requested. you see "audience spending" and "marketability" and "multi-line merch opportunity"

and i see a kid drowning. i am writing to make her a boat. i am writing because what used to be a river raft has long become a fully-rigged ship. i am writing because you can fucking rip this out of my cold dead clammy hands and i will still come back as a ghost and i will still be penning poems about it.

it isn't even love. the word we use the most i think is "passion". devotion, obsession, necessity. my favorite little fact about the magic of artists - "abracadabra" means i create as i speak. we make because it sluices out of us. because we look down and our hands are somehow already busy. because it was the first thing we knew and it is our backbone and heartbreak and everything. because we have given up well-paying jobs and a "real life" and the approval of our parents. we create because - the cliche again. it's like breathing. we create because we must.

you create because you're greedy.

[kymsys]

'It was late spring, the first time all year that the sunshine had any real strength behind it. Satoru was wittering on about something inane as always — Tentomon or something equally ridiculous.

There was nothing special about the moment. Not really. Except for the fact that Satoru had shrugged off his jacket in the heat. It was draped around his shoulders just so, exposing the long column of his throat, pale after a long winter. Really, there was nothing special about the moment. But when Suguru looked at the boy silhouetted against the spring sky, bright and blue and boundless and beautiful — just like his eyes, Suguru thought — his heart skipped a beat all the same. With all the sight afforded to him, Satoru never missed a thing. So it was risky, what Suguru did. Later, when he was looking at his new phone wallpaper under the cover of darkness, grinning like an idiot, he'd wonder how he ever got away with it. Yet, if Suguru's yearning to capture that perfectly ordinary moment forever was stronger than all reason, perhaps it was stronger than the Six Eyes, too. After all, not even Satoru could stop time.' - by my beloved @fushiglow ♥

(( also glo says: FUN FACT! Tentomon is voiced by Suguru's VA — ergo it's Satoru's favourite Digimon, obviously )) ---------------------------------------------------------

freshly added headcanons: • gojo at some point randomly barged into sugurus room and put glowy stickers all over his ceiling • suguru has gojo as his phone wallpaper, but keeps it a secret • suguru is a hamasaki ayumi fan • the cinnamoroll phone charm is from gojo who spent almost an eternity getting that out of a gatcha machine for him • they were happy

[mikakuna]

when he was robin, bruce could never even slightly raise his voice at jason before feeling like the biggest asshole alive because jason's eyes would get all watery and his bottom lip would tremble and he'd tug on the ends of his shirt, all while looking up at bruce. he'd give a quiet snotty sniffle that should gross bruce out but instead makes bruce's heart SHATTER.

every morning after a fight, alfred would walk into the living room to call them both to eat and he'd just see jason in his dad's lap, giggling while driving a toy car up bruce's arm with a million new toys scattered around the room. bruce sits there with his head tossed back, eyes closed, and an abandoned newspaper in his left hand (he's half asleep bc he spent the entire night ordering shit). he also has glittery stickers pasted on any area of bare skin, including his face.

i don't think jason realizes he has this power. he's just genuinely a kid who gets very emotional when an adult gets cross with him (bc hello this caretaker child would not be able to hand that). any fight with bruce or alfred, he has to fight the urge to burst into tears so hard (he doesn't wanna be a burden) that he just ends up looking heartbreakingly upset, and more like a child than bruce has ever seen him.

[hailsatanacab]

Family Dinners - dpxdc

"Holy shit, you're Bruce Wayne!" Danny gaped, jabbing a finger at the man sitting at the head of the table.

The bustling dining room goes silent as everyone turns to look at him.

"Danny, who did you think was going to be here?" Tim asks, disbelief plain in his voice and Danny feels his face flush red.

"Sorry, I, uh, I guess I just never put it together. Tim Drake-Wayne. Wayne Manor. It, uh, makes sense now." He laughs sheepishly and scrubs at his neck before slumping back down into his chair.

"Well," Tim says with an indulgent sigh, "at least I know you're not just friends with me for my connections."

"Yeah, I'm really sorry, I just never thought about it, I guess."

Danny sinks lower as everyone around him laughs. Come to dinner, he said, the food is the best, he said, ignore the family, he said. Danny really wishes he'd listened to Tim and just ignored them—almost as much as he's regretting accepting the offer in the first place—but... he's having dinner with Batman.

Ancients, that's so weird!

The last time he saw Batman was in the future and, suffice it to say, it was not going well. There hadn't really been time for family dinners there.

Wait. Family dinners?

He peers around the table, openly gawking at everyone as it all clicks into place.

"Everything alright, Danny? Now realising who everyone else is?" Tim asks with a roll of his eyes.

"Uh... something like that..." Danny mumbles as everyone laughs again.

From further down the table, the smallest Wayne scoffs and clicks his tongue.

"I thought you said he was smart, Drake?"

"So, you all do it, too, then?" he asks, ignoring the jibe. Danny's only a little bit jealous as he thinks of how much easier they must have it, how much easier it'd be if his family had been on his side, too. "You all work together?"

"Nah," Dick says from across the table with a brilliant grin. "Tim's the only one that works with Bruce, we all have different jobs. I'm a police officer in Bludhaven."

"Disgusting." Danny blurts out without thinking—because seriously, what kind of self-respecting vigilante would also be a police officer?—before clapping a hand over his mouth. "Sorry."

The whole table laughs again, the loudest being the blonde girl a few spaces down from Dick. Look, Danny wasn't really paying attention to names when they were all paraded in front of him. Dick only gets remembered because his name is a joke.

Come on, Danny, recover!

"That's, uh, not what I meant, though."

"Oh?" Dick asks, cocking his head slightly to the side. Is it Danny's imagination or does his smile tense slightly?

"Yeah, I mean like, you know, in costume. It must make it so much easier to have everyone together like this."

"Costume? What do you mean?"

Yeah, Danny's not imagining it, everyone tenses up at that. It's really only now that he's realising that this probably isn't how he should bring up that he knows about their... night time activities. In fact, he probably shouldn't be bringing it up at all.

"Uuhhh..." Danny looks wildly around the table as he continues making his stupid noise. Think, think, think! There must be a way out of this!

"Danny?" Tim asks, looking concerned.

"Oh, Ancients, this isn't how I wanted it to go at all," he mutters, slipping even further into his chair. He's almost on the floor now and he so, so wishes it could just swallow him up.

His real first meeting with Batman was meant to be cool! He had planned to be Phantom, maybe save them from a tight spot, prove his worth as a mysterious and powerful ally as thanks for the help Batman gave him in the future.

"Danny, what are you talking about?" Tim starts tugging on his sleeve in an attempt to pull him back up from his pit of despair.

Eventually, Danny relents and sits up straighter, hiding his face in his hands and whining all the while.

"I'm sorry, I just didn't expect him to be here and it threw me off so now I look stupid and it's so embarrassing!" he wails, flailing his arms wide. "Why wouldn't you warn me that Batman was your adopted dad, Tim? Couldn't you have let me know?"

"I'm sorry, what? Danny are you alright? There's no way Bruce can be Batman, look at him!"

"Yeah," the blonde girl laughs from the bottom of the table, "look at him! That's a wet noodle of a man! Batman can actually do things, B is incapable of pretty much everything."

"Thank you, Stephanie," Bruce sighs, massaging his forehead.

It's... Those are the first words Danny's heard Batman say since everything went down and it's enough to knock him out of his embarrassment.

It's really good to hear his voice again. Especially now, when it's strong and healthy and full of personality—even if that personality is little more than a tired father right now—far better than how it had been, at the end.

Danny sits up, back straight, and grins. He's got this. He remembers it perfectly. Some people count sheep to fall asleep, Danny repeats his mantra to be certain that he'll never forget it.

"Gamma alpha upsilon tau iota mu epsilon, 42, 63, 28, 1 colon 65 dash 9."

Once again, the whole table falls into silence.

"Holy shit..." breathes the other D name (Duke? Danny's pretty sure he's Signal) from opposite Stephanie. "Isn't that...?"

"The time travelling code." The littlest Wayne says stiffly. "We have met in the future?"

"That's not just the time travelling code, Dami." Dick says, looking between Danny and Bruce. "That's the family time travelling code."

Danny's grin freezes in place.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"1 colon 65 dash 9." Dick explains, still flicking between him and Bruce. "It means you've been adopted into the family and we should all treat you as such, no questions asked."

"Tell you what, I'm about to ask a question." Danny says, dumbstruck. "You just told me it was a code to identify time travellers, not anything about being adopted! What the hell, B?"

Bruce looks about as shellshocked as Danny feels.

"We must have been close," he says finally, after opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water a few times.

"No! Not that close!" Danny reels back, taking a deep breath ready to refute it all, but... "Well, I mean, you found me when I first got stuck, and you helped me get better despite being... And then we fought together against the, uh, bad guy, before he, um, he... before you couldn't."

An uncomfortable beat passes while they all pick up on what Danny tried so hard not to say.

"So, you're not from the future, then, you travelled there and came back?" Tim asks, breaking the tension and leaning forward with a glint in his eye.

"Yeah, it was a whole end of the world thing, but don't worry about it," Danny says with a hand wave, "It's all kosher now, won't ever happen."

"What did happen?"

"Seriously, don't worry about it, we cool."

"How long in the future was it?"

"About ten years? You were pretty spry for an old man, B," Danny laughs, wishing they'd get off the topic of what happened and get back to the adoption bit.

Everyone shares degrees of a cautious smile as they relax out of the shock, and Dick—whose grin is the biggest—says, "No wonder you got the family code, you're already riffing on him like one of us. How long were you there for?"

"A week, before I managed to get back to my present and stop him then."

"A week? Jeez, B, that has to set some kind of record, seriously."

"Oh!" Danny says, sitting bolt upright and blinking in surprise before pointing at Dick and bouncing in his seat. "You're Nightwing!"

"What?"

"That's exactly what Nightwing said when Batman told me the code! Makes so much more sense now."

Dick laughs and claps his hands, delighted.

"You were not formally adopted?" The grumpy small one—Dami?—asks, his face pinched.

"I didn't even know I was informally adopted."

"And your parents? Are they alive or dead?"

"Damian, stop—"

"They were dead in the future, but they're alive now." Danny says, looking down. He fiddles with the tablecloth, twisting the fabric around his fingers as he fights down the pang of sadness that he always feels when he thinks of them now. He forces a bright smile on his face and hopes it doesn’t look too strained. "I just, uh, can't talk to them much, anymore."

"Damian," Dick warns, "1 colon 65 dash 9. Treat them as family, no questions asked."

"This is Damian treating him as family, the little turd has no manners." Tim scoffs, rolling his eyes, but he gently bumps shoulders with Danny to knock him out of his funk. Danny can't help but send him a watery smile.

"I have the most exemplary manners, Drake, unlike some people." Damian spits, crossing his arms with a pout. "I was merely ascertaining his status to see how he could possibly fit into the family."

"I know this is all a bit sudden, Danny," Bruce smiles, ignoring Damian and reaching out to lay a warm hand on his arm, "for all of us. But if I felt strongly enough to give you that code after spending a week with you in the future, then you are more than welcome in this family, if you so choose it. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we'd like to get to know you a bit more."

"I know a threat when I hear it, Bruce." Danny snorts. "But, yeah, I get it. I'm sorry this is all so weird, it really wasn't how I wanted to find you again, but... I'm glad I did."

"So are we, Danny." Dick says, with a warm smile. "And formally or not, 1 colon 65 dash 9 means you're family. Welcome to the fun house! No take backs or refunds, sorry. You're stuck with us."

[biboomerangboi]

Hua Cheng essentially cockblocking himself for possibly all of eternity will literally never not be the funniest thing MXTX ever wrote.

Xie Lian was pretty much completely in love with him the second he saw those lanterns (and completely oblivious about it) and then we get the wonderful first kiss underwater moment and Xie Lian is basically drawing hearts around Hua Cheng every time he sees him. While like quietly dying cause he literally has no idea what to do with it. Like at this point he doesn’t even really understand that he is head over heels totally gone for this man.

Until Hua Cheng is like I have a beloved I just haven’t won them over yet. Which he thinks is perfectly reasonable because his self esteem is the worst and he doesn’t understand how he could have won Xie Lian over yet. (He’s only on step 22 of his Marrying Dianxia 3000 step Master Plan ((that he debates throwing out on a regular basis because he doesn’t deserve to even dream about wanting Xie Lian)). So course he’s like yeah I have this wonderful noble beautiful beloved I just haven’t won them over yet wink wink nudge nudge.

But Xie Lian is like oh of course obviously I don’t deserve nice things and fuck I actually wanted him so badly I’m actually in love with him and now I will resign myself to never being happy for his sake. (Their combined self esteem is truly a so low it’s a hole in the ground which is hilarious because they think the other person is to good for them and unattainable forever because they literally have the same neurosis.) So he starts boxing up his feelings forever constantly wanting Hua Cheng and feeling guilty about it and literally dying inside because he wants Hua Cheng like he’s never wanted anyone.

Like essentially books 3 and 5 only happen because Hua Cheng has now cursed them both by saying he has a beloved because Xie Lian believes he isn’t wanted and therefore any nice thing Hua Cheng does is just him being nice and not Hua Cheng pulling out steps 23-34 of his plan thinking he still hasn’t won Xie Lian over. (He has he so has but he shot himself in the foot so badly it’s painful to read).

Like thank the Gods Hua Cheng is so unhinged and created the cave of 10000 Gods cause Xie Lian would literally be at his own wedding to Hua Cheng still convinced he wanted someone else and this was in fact a thing they were doing to solve a case together otherwise.

Like he needed something that unhinged to put 2 and 2 together otherwise he never would have caught on he’s Hua Cheng’s beloved. Meanwhile Hua cheng is like 🥺 he’s going to think I’m a weirdo now and I’m only on step 50 of the plan 🥺 like the two of them wouldn’t have been fucking nasty 2 books ago if he just kept his mouth shut and didn’t cockblock himself so violently.

[comradekatara]

the siblings ever

[darcyfirth]

knives out movies really just went from a nurse who cannot lie to a teacher whose acting skills can fool so many people not even the jeremy renner hot sauce drop in her nose can hold her back from playing dead i just love the diversity in our female leads

[zosanbrainrot]

part 2 of Zoro in WCI

01 02

I tried to write something to sum up my thoughts on this, but then it got longer and longer and tbh I'm itching to write a fic set in this AU djjdkf I think I could develop on their inner feelings more than in the comic form

Before posting the first part I didn't realize people had such strong opinions on how this would play out lmaooo

imo, of course Zoro wants to fight Sanji, not with actual intent to harm (they threaten each other on the daily, come on), but because that's how they are together, how they communicate. He respects Luffy's decisions and their goal here, which is to learn what's really going on with Sanji, but he's gonna be pissy about it all he wants. They both have so many intense and conflicted feelings about this and neither has any idea how to resolve them. So they fight.

ofc yall are free to headcanon this interaction any other way you want <333

[llamahearted]

two people will go through similar things & learn to cope in different ways

print ♥︎ song

[inkskinned]

i love when words fit right. seize was always supposed to be that word, and so was jester. tuesday isn't quite right but thursday should be thursday, that's a good word for it. daisy has the perfect shape to it, almost like you're laughing when you say it; and tulip is correct most of the time. while keynote is fun to say, it's super wrong - i think they have to change the label for that one. but fox is spot-on.

most words are just, like, good enough, even if what they are describing is lovely. the night sky is a fine term for it but it isn't perfect the way november is the correct term for that month.

it's not just in english because in spanish the phrase eso si que es is correct, it should be that. sometimes other languages are also better than the english words, like how blue is sloped too far downwards but azul is perfect and hangs in the air like glitter. while butterfly is sweet, i think probably papillion is more correct, although for some butterflies féileacán is much better. year is fine but bliain is better. sometimes multiple languages got it right though, like how jueves and Πέμπτη are also the right names for thursday. maybe we as a species are just really good at naming thursdays.

and if we were really bored and had a moment and a picnic to split we could all sit down for a moment and sort out all the words that exist and find all the perfect words in every language. i would show you that while i like the word tree (it makes you smile to say it), i think arbor is correct. you could teach me from your language what words fit the right way, and that would be very exciting (exciting is not correct, it's just fine).

i think probably this is what was happening at the tower of babel, before the languages all got shifted across the world and smudged by the hand of god. by the way, hand isn't quite right, but i do like that the word god is only 3 letters, and that it is shaped like it is reflecting into itself, and that it kind of makes your mouth move into an echoing chapel when you cluck it. but the word god could also fit really well with a coathanger, and i can't explain that. i think donut has (weirdly) the same shape as a toothbrush, but we really got bagel right and i am really grateful for that.

grateful is close, but not like thunder. hopefully one day i am going to figure out how to shape the way i love my friends into a little ceramic (ceramic is very good, almost perfect) pot and when they hold it they can feel the weight of my care for them. they can put a plant in there. maybe a daisy.