#negotiating with the dead

[wordshaveteeth]

Perhaps… writing has to do with darkness, and a desire or perhaps a compulsion to enter it, and, with luck, to illuminate it, and to bring something back out to the light.

- Margaret Atwood, Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing

[breesperez139]

Dc x Dp Prompt #3

Immortal Ghost King Au:

Daniel Fenton was crowned as High King Phantom of the Infinite Realms on his 16th birthday. He knew many were opposed to him being crowned at such a young age (he was too), but the Realms had gone too long without a ruler and it was getting restless.

The Realms were sentient to some extent. It can not run itself as it has no form but it chooses a host, a King if you will, to fulfill its wishes. It may have lived on an entire millennia without a ruler, but it was only out of sheer luck and the contributions of countless gods that it had survived. The Infinite Realms needed a King and Danny Phantom was the only contender.

So the people were ignored and their boy king was crowned. However Phantom was young and naive, a child as both a human and a ghost. Even worse, he knew nothing about being a king. But the little godling would learn and learn he did.

Most kings were taught before they were coronated, but Danny had no such privilege. His coronation came and left with the wind. His private lessons overshadowed any thoughts he had left of mortal schooling. And Danny gave up on living a normal human life.

That last part was perhaps the easiest for Danny. Amity Park was already considered too liminal for them to have any “sentience”. The GIW had all but declared war on the Realms with their continuous violent actions upon his people and the land itself.

It wasn’t difficult for Amity to give up their “rights” and “humanity” either. They said good riddance to the world that never helped them, to the heroes that ignored their cries for help. And they bowed to Phantom, declaring him their King, just as he declared them citizens of the Infinite Realms.

He welcomed his liminals with open arms, vowing to protect them from any harm that would come their way, just as he would with any of his other citizens. He gave them a home in the Realms, an island- no a haunt of their own should they wish to truly reject the land of the living, and they accepted. Not many wanted to try their luck against the human government.

But with a God, no, their King on their side, they knew their safety and happiness was all but assured. After all, it was Phantom who protected them even as they turned their own backs at him. It was Phantom who fought against foes that could have erased him from existence.

And of course it was Phantom who would now receive any and all support he could ever want and need should he declare war against the humans of Earth. No, there was no need for people of the Infinite Realms to worry. High King Phantom was a God after all. It was only ever his right to exact divine punishment onto those who opposed and threatened his will. It was not their fault if the humans actively went against his will. No, the humans had no one but themselves to blame for whatever came for them.

[ew-selfish-art]

DP x DC AU: Danny desperately wants to find the explosion guy. Tim is really good at covering his tracks... he didn't account for ghosts.

The explosions make it onto TV as purported terror activity and most people haven't heard of that part of the world much less ever given a second thought to care about it. The only real reason it gets reported on has something to do with the Justice League and... Danny knows too much.

He's been in training for Clockwork's court (which he's suspicious of- feels like kingly duty bullshit- but Danny is playing along out of curiosity for now) and he's learned a lot about how the living and non-living worlds collide. That means learning about CW's usual suspects- one of which just happened to have a ton of bases around the area Danny was seeing on the news.

It didn't take long for Danny to try to piece together that whoever blew up Nanda Parbat was trying to fuck with the League of Shadows, and was doing it successfully. Less green portals in the world the better, same goes for assassins. But it gets Danny thinking... Maybe he can employ similar tactics on the GIW Bases that keep spawning on the edges of Amity Park. It would at least set them back while he and his friends navigated the help line desk to request Justice League intervention. None of them can leave Amity Park, so outreach is going to have to be creative.

So Danny figures he'll just find the guy. Call up some ghosts who were there, or er, came from there and get a profile and track him down. But the ghosts keep saying it was The Detective. Annoying!

Danny goes full conspiracy theory, gets Tucker and Sam involved, and begrudgingly asks Wes Weston his thoughts.

He hadn't expected Wes to garble out a thirty minute presentation (that had 100 more slides left to go before he cut it off) about how Batman totally trained with a cult and so did his kids. Danny kind of rolled his eyes but... hey, new avenue of searching in the Infinite Realms at least.

The ghosts confirm that Bombs is for sure not Batman's MO- But maybe his second kid would know? The second kid was already brought back to life though, so no way to easily reach him... Danny starts to realize that this might be the work of a Robin now. Wasn't the red one known for solving cold cases? (Sam provides this information- its a social faux pas to not know hero gossip at Gotham Galas- everything she's learned is against her will).

It all comes to a head when Danny goes about the hard task of opening a portal for the guy to come through at just the right time, explain the infinite realms so he doesn't panic and then describe what the fuck was going on with the GIW. It takes months, just over a full year, of random (educated guesses) portal generating- Finally, Red Robin drops into the land of the dead.

"So, you're the guy I've got to talk to about explosions right?" Danny enthusiastically asks.

Tim thinks he's died and landed in the after life following 56 hours of being awake and plummeting off the side of a building into a Lazarus pool. Nothing makes sense about the kid in front of him.

"Yeah, I got a guy for munitions." Tim answers cooly.

"How do you feel about secretly sanctioned government operations that violate protected rights?"

"Gotta get rid of 'em some how. Need me to point you in the right direction?" This might as well be happening.

[edwinspaynes]

Both Edwin and his notebook were normal objects, once. He would have carried it in his bookbag or in his pocket, taking notes about detective novels and coursework.

But then both Edwin and his notebook were taken to Hell. Maybe he hid it under a floorboard; maybe he hid it in a hole in the wall. It was his salvation, writing notes in it while he was down there, creating maps and escape plans and little drawings while actively being tortured for decades. It didn't just enable him to escape Hell; it provided him with a refuge while he was there.

And then he got out. With the notebook.

He slipped it into his pocket, maybe, or he held it in his hand. But he walked through an entirely new world, and he started to take notes in it again about what it was like to be a ghost. Ghost rules. Facts and historical events in this new world he lives in, this new world he cannot yet fathom.

That notebook is his constant comfort. And now he's a boy back at St Hilarion's, 73 years of horrors later, taking notes in the same logbook he'd had when he was alive.

Over time, he realized: Hell changed the notebook. Just as Edwin was an eternal being, the notebook was now an eternal thing. The pages inside were limitless, and he will always be able to use it.

Edwin's relationship with his notebook must be so rich, and so nuanced. I wish we had season 2 and could delve into this more, because it's so fascinating to me and I love him so much.

[danwhobrowses]

I have to say when it comes for episode 107 I'm on the camp of this feeling wrong. Like, two gods' plan is to just let Ludinus just have his way? And just assume that the vessel won't get them? The Wildmother showed Orym the time Predathos came to town, it took out two of them in a blink and the Titans did the heavy lifting, it chased them from Tengar to Exandria without concept of navigation so it's foolish to think they won't do the same this time around. Running forever isn't a life even the infinite should be pursuing. Corellon is cheeky and flirty but it's a mask for being deflective and honestly a little cowardly. What you're asking and trying to persuade with gifts requires the Hells to entertain sacrificing one of their own, which they shouldn't (and I'm hopeful they won't, because that'd be to me at least be a character betrayal since they have always prioritized each other over the gods) consider doing even for any kind of promise, and treating it like it's a necessity, as if leaving like you've decided you want to do now is your 'sacrifice'? Even if being a vessel and still being of sound mind was a viable option with proof that it can work that way, there are too many unknown factors that it seems not even the gods have answers for, so it should all trail back to the fact that this is STILL not a risk worth taking and Ludinus should not be having his way.

I guess part of this feeling comes down to the fact that this was not what I was hoping to get out of the episode; I'm always open to being surprised (because I often am) but it has to be in a good way, this was not a good way. But we'll have to see where it goes, this is a proposal of two gods against a majority yet to say their piece and could still be heard out, I still trust Matt's vision and Abu DM's like smooth butter, but the god debate admittedly continues to wear on me - we were already in a state where we were open to talk but now they're conspiring against one another too? Can we not just focus on Plan A: Unite to Stop Ludinus from releasing Predathos? Evoroa literally said Ludinus' plan is to divide why are we sowing more division? Couldn't just kill Zathuda and take his dragon for Fearne...this should've been Bell's Hells' big win to make up for Otohan but now for me at least it feels a little sour.

[terresdebrume]

Little spoon Charles Rowland, reblog if you agree.

[shannonsketches]

lays on the floor i am once again thinking about the goku geets foil in terms of their experience and perspective and parenting

tl;dr: Goku sees letting his child do serious battle as a gift, and Vegeta sees it as a failure.

a lot of the 'goku's a bad father' discourse comes from how he trains/puts Gohan into fights and either doesn't know or doesn't realize that Gohan wants to be a scholar and not a warrior; the reason Gohan keeps joining the fray is because he doesn't want to see people he loves get hurt, right, because that's been his entire experience since Raditz showed up (and remains so until Cell dies).

The discourse re: The Cell Games is interesting though, examining the 'how could Goku not know/how could Goku volunteer his child so blithely' etc and his similar attitude toward the kids fighting in Super('s manga), and it's part of why I say/write/read Goku as deeply inconsiderate but never malicious (and this does tie into the foil with Geets lemme just); Goku's experience with serious combat is fun, and exciting.

Goku volunteering Gohan to fight Cell was something Goku considered a gift to Gohan, to be able to flex his power and go all out on an enemy that could handle it/required it -- that's something Goku wishes he had the power to do, especially at Gohan's age! That's super exciting to Goku. It's not pageant mom forcing her kid to do what she wanted energy, it's Goku being sweet and pure and sharing something he thinks he has in common with his kid. Vegeta says Saiyans live to fight! Goku's entire life has been spent bonding with competitive martial artists! It never occurred to him that someone so naturally powerful and talented wouldn't enjoy fighting.

And Goku does not read subtext, that's not a skill he has, so by the time Piccolo spells it out for him, he's genuinely sorry to have put Gohan in that position.

But in Super('s manga), the larger picture of Don't Put Children in Traumatic Situations still doesn't really occur to Goku, because he doesn't consider battle traumatic, no matter how emotionally intense it gets. Goku doesn't hold onto things. Goku lives and lets live, as long as he doesn't have to kill you. That's his super power. It's why he can be friends with all of these people who have done him and his loved ones and his planet so much harm. He consistently ends earth-shattering battles with, 'that was fun, let's do it again sometime'

Vegeta, on the other hand (see I told you I'd get here, I promised), has had the complete opposite experience. Vegeta considers others heavily, it's what made him very good at being malicious. Vegeta does this for survival. Vegeta's climb to the top is for the vantage point, not the view. He's not looking to the stars dreaming about what else it out there. He's squinting at the dark trying to kill whatever it is before it kills him and his home and his family. again.

Vegeta is a child soldier, who has distinct recollection of his culture being built on the rearing of child soldiers. By the times the cell games come around he is experiencing having a child for the first time, and after seeing (a future version of) that child die in battle, he seems to take on a much different opinion on letting kids fight.

Vegeta comes from a culture in which you send your child off-world to conquer a planet, alone, once they're old enough to walk. The stronger kids go into war zones. Vegeta was giving strategic orders to fellow elites by the time he was five. He was treating Gohan like a soldier when he was five.

But, by the Buu saga, Bulma tells Gohan that Vegeta says Trunks is old enough now to start proper training -- when Trunks is eight years old. Even then, Vegeta's telling Trunks not to push himself too hard in the gravity room, to stop and leave when it's too much for him to handle. Vegeta kills himself trying to prevent Trunks and Goten having to fight Buu. He jumps in to protect the kids when the fight gets too intense in Yo! Son Goku and Friends Return. He begs the kids not to fight Beerus in Battle of the Gods when he's barely conscious. He snaps at Goku any time he suggests them for intense battle in Super('s manga).

Vegeta sees it as not being strong enough to handle a problem, Which totally definitely doesn't have anything to do with some kind of deep-rooted trauma about placing the responsibility of making up for your weakness on your children that Vegeta's had to deal with since becoming a father and he for sure doesn't take it personally when a parent volunteers children to solve problems they had nothing to do with. He's fine! It's fine.

He does not want Trunks or Goten anywhere near a real battlefield (Bulma and/or the other adults seem to be helping to enforce this; in Res F, Trunks and Goten are not invited to go to the Freeza fight, and in the Moro arc both of them were asked to go be rangers in 17's absence again, complaining that nobody told them there was a fight happening at all), because it's got nothing to do with them. They shouldn't have to fight for their -- or anyone else's -- lives. That's the adults' job. That's his job.

Because to Vegeta, it is a job. Soldier, guardian, prince, lord, whatever. It's a role he has to fulfill, and his pride (and a whole lot of trauma-informed necessity) drives him to be the best at it, period, the end. It's an obligation that he must fulfill, because he's decided he's personally responsible for [gestures to the earth] all of this and its survival. It's where he keeps all his stuff!

For Goku, it's a game. He just wants to fight the strongest guys, and it's his understanding that everyone else wants that too. If he's not the best, GREAT! That's more to look forward to. A whole new rabbit to chase to who knows where. It's adventure! It's exciting! So of course the kids would want to get in on it! He LOVED doing this kind of stuff when he was a kid.

Goku has two hands! ...for former villains Vegeta and Piccolo to try to wrestle away from all the other, much worse villains who do not want to play with him.

[chamerionwrites]

See I honestly do find the prequels-era Jedi an interesting (and at times painfully recognizable) portrait of institutional violence in that...they aren't cackling villains. They're mostly sympathetic well-intentioned individuals who via a combo of traditionalist inertia, ideological blinders, proximity to power, a dash of plain old arrogance and a liberal seasoning of end-justifies-the-means compromise end up being at best indifferent to and at worst deeply complicit in some pretty heinous injustice. I don't even think this is a completely against-the-grain reading on my part. At the end of the day it's a pretty mild critique, but it's hard to argue that the PT is entirely uncritical of the Jedi imo.

Unfortunately the narrative is never interested in really sinking its teeth into that. And even more unfortunately, a chunk of the fandom will clutch its pearls in horrified outrage if anybody else is interested in sinking their teeth into that

[budgiegryphon]

This year's r/place really fucking sucked, terribly run and an obvious(failed) distraction, but we did get some nice stuff done

Another bench! 45 communities! Here's the fully planned piece, Quote sadly got added last minute and wasn't visible before blackout.

Full character list below the cut.

Batter from OFF, Beheaded from Dead Cells, Ori from Ori and the blind forest, Bugs from APICO above Ori, Moon from Outer Wilds next to bugs, Purple guy from FnAF, Mae from Night in the woods, Omori from Omori, Commando from Risk of Rain, Madeline from Celeste above Commando, Engi, Bosco and Lootbug from Deep Rock Galactic, Soul Knight logo below Engi, Tiny Niko on top of Bosco, Sprite Companion from Hyperlight Drifter next to Tiny Niko, Isaac from Binding of Isaac, Chompy from Bug Fables underneath Isaac, Engineer from Factorio, Strabby on Engineer's shoulder, a penguin from Starbound, Junimo from Stardew Valley, Oneshot bulb above Stardew Valley's apple, A router from Mindustry, Keg from sea of thieves, Lamb from Cult of the Lamb sitting on the keg, Monika from DDLC above Lamb, Fishbowl from FSSH, Spooky from Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion, Whiteface and flower from IMSCARED above Spooky, V1 from Ultrakill, The Conductor from Final Station in front of V1's legs, Moth from Sky: Children of the Light above V1, Apollo from Ace Attorney bottom right of V1, Gnome from Everhood, Rivulet on Looks to the Moon from Rain World, Gail from Phoenotopia above Rivulet, Captain Viridian from VVVVVV above Gail, Flowey from Undertale below Looks to the Moon, Grimm from Hollow Knight, Paprika from Them's Fighting Herds above Grimm, Deltarune red heart above Strabby, King Slime in front of Grimm, The Spiral Heart from Grime next to Grimm, Carp from Lisa, Richard Mask from Hotline Miami above The Spiral Heart

[wordshaveteeth]

Where is the story? The story is in the dark. That is why inspiration is thought of as coming in flashes. Going into a narrative – into the narrative process – is a dark road. You can’t see your way ahead.

- Margaret Atwood, Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing

[edwinisms]

love seeing that the tag is trending. as if it means anything

[plusvanity]

Euroman and Deed cause.. why not?

Ko-fi l  DeviantArt

[rexscanonwife]

What if I told you Barb is a he/him lesbian to me? What then?

[wangxianficrecs]

monsters cannot break her stride by Stratisphyre

monsters cannot break her stride

by Stratisphyre (@stratisphyre)

G, 3k, Wangxian

Summary: The people of Yiling looked determined to avoid meeting his eyes at all costs, for all Lan Xichen was an invited guest of the residents of the Burial Mounds. In the last days of a losing battle, Lan Xichen seeks out the only person potentially capable of helping turn the tides against Wen Ruohan. Kay's comments: Be warned, this story goes hard and doesn't pull punches! A canon-divergence stories where Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji go to Yiling to search out the help of the Yiling Laozu - Jiang Yanli. Previously, she's been part of the Sunshot Campaign already, but withdrew suspiciously after Wei Wuxian's death and has hidden herself in the Burial Mounds with the Dafan Wens since then... I really enjoyed this story, a super creative canon-divergence! I'm usually not one for stories where someone else is the Yiling Laozu, but this one had me hooked from start to finish. Excerpt: "His puppets are nothing to us," Jiang Yanli stated dismissively, forcibly reminding him of the terrible power of her seal. Where it came from, or how she came to possess it, were subjects of greater speculation than any of the choicest morsels of intelligence gleaned from across the battlefield. How had a young lady with poor cultivation and little training gained the knowledge and skill to use such a tool? Even beholding her now, Lan Xichen could find no insight. Time to give up on the facade of equality. "Please, Lady Jiang. We are facing our most desperate hour." The intelligence Meng Yao fed him from Nightless City had dried up, and while he feared for the other man, he was also realistic that the tenuous advantage the information had provided was all that had kept them alive to this point. "I am authorized to make generous arrangements to convince you to return. "The other Sect Leaders have agreed that, should you be willing to join us, we will honour your claim to the Burial Mounds, and offer clemency to all those who reside within." Mingjue had been apoplectic with rage at the proposal, and it had taken every soft word Lan Xichen and Nie Huaisang could muster to calm him. "Sect Leader Jin himself has offered to reinstate your engagement to his son—" "How dare he," Jiang Yanli snapped, hard rage colouring her voice with promises of violence. "He seeks to place me under the control of the Jin?"

pov lan xichen, pov outsider, canon divergence, yiling laozu jiang yanli, dead wei wuxian, fierce corpse wei wuxian, sunshot campaign, negotiations, diplomacy, politics, hopeful ending, angst

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

[terresdebrume]

Prompted by a fic I was reading: would Charles be likely to have learned Punjabi at home ? (As in, enough to actually be able to sustain a conversation in it, even a simple one, to say nothing of actual proficiency in the language)

My instinct is to say no for a couple of reasons

(Note: This is not to discourage people who want to write bilingual Charles! I just like thinking about people's relationship to languages and also it's relevant to my prep for my down on my knees series)

Rowland Sr. is a violent man who hit his son on the regular. Charles' dialogue implies that he did not hit his wife, but with a man like that the threat of it is never gone

Mrs. Rowland, per Charles, was "just quiet". This, plus the glimpse of her we have in the mirror and in Charles' trauma flashbacks implies a woman who likely survived in her house through self erasure and deference to her husband

Rowland Sr is explicitly likened to Devlin Sr, which suggests a controlling man who constantly found fault in Charles for varied and likely nonsensical reasons

All this leads me to think that for Charles to speak/understand Punjabi in canon would require his mother to be allowed to use Punjabi with him to a degree where he could have built actual fluency which to me seems... Unlikely to say the least.

First of all, like I said, Rowland Sr is a controlling asshole who wants to know everything going on in his house, which makes it unlikely that he would be fine with his wife and son having a "secret language" of their own, which means the first step to get bilingual Charles in canon would be to have bilingual Rowland Sr. Not impossible, but given the way people thought about language in the 60s/70s when he would have met his wife, unlikely imo.

Even IF Rowland Sr was somehow bilingual in Punjabi (which you could have if you wanted) I think it's important to remember that the way bilingualism is perceived right now on Tumblr is not necessarily universal. Assuming Charles spoke Punjabi at home, on top of all the assumptions above, also assumes:

His parents didn't subscribe to the wisdom of the time, which is still widespread, that hearing more than one language at home would impede the acquisition of speech for children

His parents felt that Punjabi would be important and/or useful and/or not an obstacle that he would have to overcome when trying to fit into British society at large. I don't know what would have been the consensus in the UK in the early 70s when Charles was born, but I can tell you that people of Charles' generation in France generally don't speak the immigrant parent's language because the attitude of the time was that to do so would be detrimental to the child (that said, the UK does integration differently so I could be missing something there)

There are other factors that can influence practice and understanding of a language: I imagine Charles' relationship with his mother would play a huge role there, as well as people's reactions to his usage of Punjabi outside the house (would he have people to practice with beyond his mother? If so, would he have wanted to?) and tbh you can probably make sense of a lot of permutations

But between the above and the fact that Charles' costume design makes no reference to his heritage that I could spot beyond the cricket bat* I think if Charles does learn Punjabi it's more likely to be a choice he makes as a teenager/after he dies than something he was taught at home

*He does have visible antiracist politics but those are not the same thing as a particular connection to India and Punjab, which I think would be a bit of a requisite for him to actively learn the language later on

[itstimeforstarwars]

I like to think that Obi-Wan has weird plants that he keeps on the ship during the war because after living with Qui-Gon for so long it's weird not to have any plants and no Cody he doesn't even like plants why would you even think that--