Prompt 331
Demon twins? Demon twins.
Damian? Good at the assassin side of things, at least for a four year old, but Danyal? He’s okay, but he’s far better at things like poisons and bookkeeping. Which is honestly? Okay. They’re the League of Shadows, and sure a majority of the members are assassins, but it’s definitely not all there are. So? Danyal starts getting medical training.
Not to say that either of the boys don’t know their fair share of violence and healing- it’s just better to let them play to their strengths. One doesn’t keep a league over centuries if they just have one type of warrior, or even just warriors. A variety is needed.
So one gets trained more towards the business side of things. Damian may be better at wielding the weapons and killing- even if neither have had their first kill quite yet- but Danyal shows far more proficiency at acting, at masking who he is and gathering information.
Damian, when he’s first sent to their Father, doesn’t mention his twin. Not because he’s jealous or hates him or anything like that. You just don’t talk about someone in an undercover mission in the League, and it’s not something he realizes isn’t a rule everywhere.
Needless to say, the Bats have more than a mild freakout the first time Damian mentions a twin who will be coming to the manor now that his mission is over.
1K notes
·
View notes
Just watched the latest Starkid livestream - yes of course I was awake at 5 am on a Sunday - and I love this very specific throughline of Darren's life. It is especially clear after listening to his recent episodes of And That's What You Really Missed. Darren has always pissed off the people around him by being happy when everyone else was stressed.
Nick and Matt went on a mini rant about their experience making Starship and how the show was so derailed by Darren getting cast in Glee. He barely managed to write half of the intended songs for that show - all in his trailer on the Glee set. Matt specifically recounted the story of Darren popping over to Chicago to surprise his friends while they were rehearsing and it was hilarious. Darren being Darren he thought they would all be thrilled to see him and just thrilled to be doing a new musical, but instead he was met with dead silence, followed by a demand for the rest of the songs.
This man is forever happy to be making fun things with a big group of people. And the people around him have to deal with it.
The actual world inside Darren's head VS everyone around him:
81 notes
·
View notes
'Death Scream is a demon curse. I haven't killed one yet who used that ability'.
Yoo Mia's cheeks puffed up from beside him and she asked, "What is it Oppa?"
"It's nothing." Yoo Joonghyuk hesitated for a moment before adding, "…It seems that guy is doing something bothersome again."
"That guy?"
"There is such a person."
Yoo Mia watched her brother, who had spoken in a cold voice. There was a nuance different from usual in his voice. It was a small change, like a grain of rice, but Yoo Mia was able to perceive the change. It was because Yoo Joonghyuk was her oppa.
"Are you referring to that ugly ahjussi?"
"…"
"Oppa looks happy when talking about that ahjussi."
Yoo Joonghyuk was embarrassed when he saw his smiling sister and he replied sharply. "You are mistaken."
"Is that so?"
Joonghyuk: "That guy" (affectionate)
CALL HIM OUT MIA
146 notes
·
View notes
lucy gray baird's philosophy
I want to "yes, and" this great meta post by @burst-of-iridescent. Specifically this part:
by the end of the book, coriolanus gives in fully to dr gaul’s way of thinking simply because it excuses him from accepting blame for his actions. if he killed sejanus, it’s because he had no choice. if he betrayed lucy gray, it’s because she would’ve betrayed him first. coriolanus refuses to believe in the goodness of humanity because that would have meant accepting the goodness that existed within him, and with that came the potential for making a different, better choice - potential that he knew, deep down, he had wasted. attributing his crimes to an innate evil that no one can overcome means that he can’t be held accountable, because it’s out of his control.
This got me thinking about how much Lucy Gray's worldview rejects of this way of thinking (and of a Calvinist*/ableist "some people are just born evil" pov people try to impose on the text, which people think is condemning him but actually... accidentally agrees with him that he was born evil and therefore can't help it??????). The book begins with several quotes chosen by the author, but I believe the one that represents Lucy Gray's worldview is Rousseau, who believed people were born with fundamental goodness.
Here's a source on him:
(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
And here's the quote Collins opens with:
“Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.”
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, 1762
That's Lucy Gray's pov she's come to through living and reflecting as an artist; someone can disagree with it (of course, all of these questions are open for endless debate; they have been debated endlessly!) however, it's important to respect that is where she's coming from, not being foolish or naive. It is a worthy pov that should be respected, even if you disagree. And that she came to this pov through a hard life and from much thinking and she expresses it beautifully in her art.
Here's the key exchange from the book, after Coriolanus has taken on the idea that people are just awful and her articulating her philosophy in response:
(Ballad, 495)
She's not naive. She recognizes the nuance that Rousseau does, that society shapes us. And Panem is pretty clearly a society led by people applying all the pressures they can think of on people toward evil. (And, after his heel turn, Coriolanus' is going to innovate some new pressures...) Clearly there are situations and circumstances that form us before we have much say in it, but that's not the same as being born evil.
The difference between inherent goodness and a corrupt society is, for Lucy Gray, a lot of hard work. It's a struggle. This repudiates both the version of "born evil" Coriolanus himself takes on, which relieves him of responsibility, and the self-righteous, Calvinist and/or ableist pov people keep arguing for, which makes "normal" people feel like they can be sure they're good (and ignore how we are all complicit in evil to some degree or another) because they have a "good" normal brain or they were just born so pure as a soul predestined for heaven. No, for her, everyone has to do the work. To her it's everyone's "life's challenge to try and stay on the right side of that line."
Even more pointedly, the love song she wrote him before his betrayal, "Pure as the Driven Snow," articulates her philosophy in the opening lines:
(Ballad, 481)
Again, we have her personal focus on the work of "staying on the right side" of good and evil after being born good into evil circumstances. She knows it hurts; she's led a hard life herself. "It's rough as a bair" to do that work, it's "like walkin' through fire." But it is doable.
Lucy Gray meant it as a love song but IMO "Pure as the Driven Snow" ends up a lament for the boy Coriolanus was and her love that he betrayed when he betrayed himself. And it is a direct rejection of his excuses, it is inadvertently reading him for filth for the lies he tells himself that all the world is the Games arena, all people are selfish and bad, and he isn't to blame for what he's done because he just wants to come out on top/be the victor of this "natural" "war of all against all" that is Gaul's philosophy (related to the Hobbes quote Collins begins with; I wrote a meta on that here) that he adopts.
I see her demeaned as a foolish girl who just "like bad boys" and I get so frustrated. I also get frustrated by the view that she must not have ever been sincere in loving or trusting him because IF SHE WAS then she would be a fool and his betrayal would somehow be her fault. And she'd reject the idea that she's "good" just because she's so pure or that anyone can claim we're good without doing a lot of hard work.
(Ballad, 482)
She is so thoughtful and interesting as a character. And she didn't just "like bad boys" - Coriolanus showed only his good side to her until the very end, once he'd decided to kill that part of himself. She had no way of knowing. Sometimes you trust someone and they betray you, it doesn't make you wrong, the shame is all theirs.
*Strict Calvinist predestination is some people are just predetermined to be bound for heaven and some for hell, some people are just born good and others are born bad. A lot of people in fandom seem to love Calvinism idk why. The ableism bit of this should be self-evident: there is no such thing as a "bad" brain type completely incapable of morality or a "good" brain and neurodivergence is not the source of all evil!
131 notes
·
View notes
If I see one more skinny actor fancast for Jamie Reynolds (a canon plus-sized character), I'm gonna go bananas.
Listen, I've done it as well because it had slipped my mind that Jamie was canonically plus-sized when I first read ggbb. However, ever since rereading it, I've realised that he is plus-sized and should be cast with a plus-sized actor. I think a lot of people are too focused on fancasting someone who looks like Jude (Connor in the show) that they are forgetting that Jamie is not skinny.
Remember: fancasting is fun, but take into consideration significant attributes when fancasting. To put it bluntly: Jamie Reynolds is not skinny. Hope this helps!
20 notes
·
View notes