Fuck whatever DC is doing with the al Ghul's characterizations and story lines, I've decided that from now on the al Ghul's are gonna be DC's version of the Addams Family instead.
Now I don't mean just give the various al Ghul's the exact personalities of the various Addams and call it a day. That's boring, that erases all the interesting parts of the al Ghuls, that's just using "find & replace" and not actually adding anything. I mean give them the vibes of the Addams Family.
Keep the al Ghul's as the al Ghul's with all their scheming and machinations and world domination attempts but give them all the unhinged energy, the casually insane view of the world, the deranged levels of love and devotion for family. Make them that group where objectively they are batshit insane but also you cannot argue with the fact that they are indisputably the most stable and functional family in the entire universe.
They're creepy, they're kooky, they're mysterious and spooky. Ra's many opulent homes and impenetrable fortresses are a museum and the al Ghul's really are a screa-um whenever people come to see-um (or when they lay waste upon their enemies in a surprise attack that has been planned for months and is just the first domino in a series that will ultimately lead to achieving a far greater goal).
They all love each other and want each other to be happy, they express this primarily with stabbing and murder attempts (its fine, death is a thing that happens to other people).
And forget the League of Assassins being a cult. Just make the whole vast globe spanning organization a collection of cousins/aunts/uncles/dear old friends ect. No one (not even the al Ghuls, if they cared to keep track of such things) is sure who is actually related to them and who just got absorbed into the ever expanding family tree based on their vibes being right.
(Is Sensei Ra's father you ask? Well he's certainly someone's father - probably.
Anyway have you heard about Cousin Cheshire? Despicable poisoner of a young woman, capable of the most horrific things imaginable - yes she is the sweetest dear. Like I was saying though, she just had a baby!
Everyone in the family is just so excited to throw a baby shower to celebrate! Ubu has really gone all out with the spike traps, he does so love getting to welcome a new addition to the family.
Talia of course has cultivated a brand new strain of the most toxic plants imaginable to make a brand new kind of necrotizing poison. You know, as a nice little romantic gift for Cousin Cheshire and that young man of hers. It really is so important to make sure you take time for you and your partner to go on dates and have a few pitched battles to the death on dark rooftops in the pounding rain when you have children.
Now there is some to-do about it all of course, you know how family get together can be. Everyone is arguing over who should get to give little Lian her first weapon and what it should be. Nyssa is pushing for grenades but Ra's is insisting on a sword - he's traditional like that you know - but Dusan has the vote so far on throwing knives. You know the kind that have the little divots along the edges of the blades them to make it easier to get the poison you dip them in to stick.)
I'm just saying that the al Ghuls should be a delightful cross between the Bond Villains they were originally conceived as and the lovingly unhinged Addams Family. It just feels correct in my heart.
(Again keep the interesting aspects of the characters and the nuances of who each of them are like their drive to save the world through destroying humanity and their strong environmentalist leanings and their constantly playing 5D chess and everything, but like, take away the racism and the cartoonishly evil for no reason bullshit and give them some fun feral energy to go along with it).
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31 October 2023
ok going to write this down before my self-esteem and mood go down, but I've always been very perplexed by friendship and how it works and like, why people like me or are friends with me? and I had some thoughts! (this was longer than I thought it would be lol more under the cut)
So in the shower I was thinking and it is somewhat based on common interests, but NOT in the way that I was thinking of common interests before. It's not like "well we both like dinosaurs so we're friends", its often deeper interests that are connected to identity to some extent. or like shared values, beliefs, but not all of them have to be the same. like just because my friend enjoys a certain type of music that I don't like and often goes to events of that music, doesn't mean we can't be friends because we still have common ground in other areas that can connect us and other events we can go to together.
but still, a friendship is likely going to be frustrating and not work out well if one of the parties has a value that directly clashes against the other in a very material way. like someone who values punctuality, communication and following through on plans isn't going to get along great with someone who is flakey, difficult to contact and often late. But! that also doesn't mean that people can't get along with you because you have different values, beliefs or because you struggle with certain things. like my internalized beliefs around tattoos doesn't make me a bad person, nor a bad friend, and my friends acknowledge that it comes from a more deeply rooted issue and don't take offense to it.
People are also able to accept that you have struggles or limitations (most of the time) and are able to compromise. Like I'm unfortunately often +/-30 mins late because of my disability; I end up needing extra time to lay down that I didn't account for or my body can't move as quickly as it does on other days or oops I dissociated and forgot to do things. I make sure to ask people close to me if it bothers them if I'm late, so I can make sure I set aside even more time to prepare for something if it is the case. Plus there's certain events that have a timeframe of when you can arrive without it being weird, those are hard to figure out though. I think as long as people are secure enough in their identity, values and beliefs, they don't take mine as a personal attack.
sidenote: you can also take care of needs during the time you see friends and don't always have to be 100% prepared when seeing them. I can tell them I need to eat and go get food. this fluctuates based on my sensory difficulty level and cognitive processing abilities of the day but I am allowed to "inconvenience" others with my needs
And friendship, making new friends in particular, is often genuinely about vibes, whether or not you simply "click", which you don't have much control over nor can you always articulate why you didn't have that moment of connection with someone. Because there's a lot of entirely decent people, who I've shared values with and shared perspectives with, who I just didn't really "click" with. I'm still trying to decipher whether that's something that happens instantly upon meeting or can be built up, and if it can be built up, does that result in a fulfilling friendship? or is it always sort of going to be difficult because you're unsure of the connection?
It's also sometimes hard for me to remember what common ground I do have with friends, but sometimes "events" can be going for a walk in the park, sharing a meal or going to some common place like a zoo, aquarium, museum. Just often in the depths of my sadness and isolation, I forget I have interests and I forget that even if I'm not hyperfixated on something, there are still enjoyable activities. That I can do by myself and/or with others.
When I was doing poorly before leaving for the US, I perpetually had the question on my mind of "why are people friends with me? what do I bring to the relationship?", mostly because I was seeing only the differences I had with others and not any of the things we have in common. And it is genuinely hard because a lot of normal interests are things I find difficult, don't enjoy or even find repulsive a lot of the time (music, movies, comics, video games). So I think this will be an interesting period of rediscovering my interests and things I have in common with others.
But I can nevertheless be a bit appeased by remembering that there are things I can do. I often need accommodations, but that doesn't make me a bad person either.
And I don't need to compensate for my weaknesses by trying to placate people with gifts or actions and try prove to them I'm worthy of their friendship.
Like yes maybe going to a museum will be a full day of effort for me, but I can also request a wheelchair, wear noise cancelling earbuds, go at a time where there's less crowd, ask a friend to contact the establishment to verify information related to those things. My life is going to look a bit different than what it looked like before, and yes maybe I will have to put additional requests on my friends, but others not being able to accommodate me doesn't mean I shouldn't or don't have those needs.
Another addition is that people like me, and are friends with me, because we did have that connection, and clicking moment, and have continued to maintain and work on our friendship by spending time with one another and showing care. But people don't like/dislike me because of fundamental traits to who I am really. It's not that deep if I don't feel a connection to a new person. It's not that deep if there's a trait someone doesn't like about me, or I about them, and that's the reason why we don't pursue a friendship. It's not because my life is hard and that I have struggles and difficulties that people dislike me (I think? I mean it can be off-putting but hopefully not the full reason if they are capable of handling that emotionally). A lot of my friends have stuck by me through very difficult moments and have supported me in them.
I still struggle with feeling guilty about having difficulties in my life and probably more often than not, bringing negativity or intensity to a situation where I'm not realizing that's what I'm bringing because I'm in a bad place so those thoughts feel normal to me. I'm still honestly not sure how to navigate that, because I want to respect my needs for reassurance and connection with others, but I also don't want to drag my friends down with me or put heavy things on their conscience when they can't handle it. Part of that is checking in with them before bringing up something heavy, but it's not always easy to know what others consider to be "heavy"; a lot of normal parts of my life are things that are heavy that I don't take the time to recognize as such. I guess that's also why it's best to have a friend group of others you can turn to when someone isn't available.
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𝝑𝝔 an: so i got like 3 requests ab jealous cool bf sukuna x loser gf dynamic but i won’t be able to tag em since you know they were sadly anonymous. i decided to combine them into 1 fic hehe, hope you guys like it!! read more about cool bf sukuna x loser gf reader here!!
cool boyfriend sukuna doesn’t get jealous, alright? he is not insecure or anything like that, he trusts you and you trust him so it doesn’t matter to him if someone tries to woo you or something. but you can be a little dense sometimes since you haven’t experienced a lot of the things people usually do in their teens.
still, he likes to think that you’d be smart enough to reject anyone who tries to make their advances toward you, albeit he is sure if you do it will be in a very polite and a sweet way, much to his dismay. but it’s just the way you are and sukuna loves his loser girlfriend.
but he doesn’t know what’s going on through your mind when this happens;
“do you wanna maybe go out tomorrow?” some guy from your class asks you, a nervous smile as he awaits your answer. you continue collecting your things into your bag and look up at him with a small smile, naively thinking he wants to study or talk about your shared classes.
“sure!” you chirp and then briefly glance at the door of the room only to find your boyfriend standing there, hands in his pockets and a deep frown on his face as he stares at you two.
the guy in front of you almost jumps in excitement from your answer, stuttering out that he will text you later and leaving the room.
“what did that nerd want?” sukuna asks you as soon as you exit the class, his arm taking it’s usual spot on your shoulders.
“oh, nothing much, just asked if i wanna go out tomorrow.”
at that, sukuna’s steps come to a halt as he squints at you with a confused look. “and you said..?”
“i said ‘sure’.”
he exhales deeply before hits the back of your head with a disgusted look on his face, ignoring the way you stare at him in bewilderment, hands flying to rub the spot. but he doesn’t give you time to process anything, tugging you into one of the empty classes and locking the door.
“sit.” sukuna orders, leaving no room for complaint as he lifts you up to sit on one of the desk, planting his hands beside your thighs on the surface as he breathes heavily.
“‘kuna..?” you ask, unsure if you should even say anything while he’s angry at you.
“are you dumb?”
you pout, brows pinching together as you look up at him in genuine confusion, “why?”
“the dipshit asked you out and you said ‘sure’?”
“we were just talking about the lecture so i thought he wanted to study together.” you look down at your lap, fingers fiddling with the hem of your shirt nervously. “i didn’t realise he meant it like that.”
as mad as sukuna is, he can’t resist that sad little pout on your face; the way your eyes get all wide and bottom lips juts out defensively, cheeks puffing a little. and he is sure you’re not lying to him because he knows you.
he moves away from you, taking a deep breath to collect his thoughts and calm down.
“are you mad at me, ryo?” you ask innocently, hand instinctively finding his to tug at his fingers so he doesn’t move too far, although a bit unsurely. “‘m sorry.”
“i’m not mad.” sukuna intertwines your fingers, pulling you into himself gently. his other hand suddenly finds your face, squishing your cheeks together roughly as he shakes your head from side to side with a sinister smirk. “pull shit like that again and i’ll kill ya.”
“ow, ow— sukuna!” you whine, trying to peel his hand of your face, but he doesn’t let go until he kisses your plumped lips a couple of times. “you’re so jealous!”
that wipes the smirk off his face very quickly.
“i’m not, loser.”
you poke his cheek with a bright beam on your lips, “you are, heh.”
“gettin’ cocky, aren’t you?” he pushes your face away with his palm and steps away from you, leaving you to trail after himself with small giggles escaping you.
suddenly sukuna smirks, his arm around your shoulders tightening it’s hold, “i’ll still beat the shit out of him tho.”
“sukuna, no!”
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