#that that song is now immortal

[nelkcats]

Siren's Judgment

Whenever someone died, Jason swore that he heard a song. Sometimes at the moment of death, other times during the funeral. But it was always present. He felt that it was calling him.

On one occasion, when Zatanna commented that the veil with the "dimension of the dead" was weak he heard the singing again. And he decided to follow it, perhaps on impulse.

He arrived at a cemetery, where a boy with white hair was singing softly to a grave. A small white sphere rose from the grave and the spirit of a girl formed around the sphere. She was laughing, and dancing around the boy. When the girl disappeared into thin air the boy stared his toxic green eyes at him.

"I was waiting for you Jason Todd" the boy said, not without kindness "I know you're not under my jurisdiction anymore but I'm worried, are you happy here?"

"What do you mean?" Jason muttered in confusion, he felt strangely calm but that only heightened his caution. "Who are you?"

"You can call me Danny" The halfa replied, giving up at keeping his name a secret, he knew that this particular soul was stubborn anyway "I'm the one in charge of taking the souls to the other side, but yours never wanted that, so I need to know, are you happy or no?"

"I don't know," Jason finally answered with a frown, "why do you want to know?"

"It's not important" Danny shrugged "I'll stick around until you figure it out, the veil will be weak for a couple of months anyway."

And with that said Danny stayed next to Jason, becoming visible only to him. The halfa needed to know that letting him revive was not a bad decision. And besides, he had to guide him in the path of the halfas later.

Jason just thought that the ghost of a mermaid was haunting him. He wondered if he should alert someone about that.

[y-rhywbeth2]

"The so-called Bhaalspawn grew up haunted by dreams of death and found themselves imbued with strange powers. Age had little effect upon them once they had grown to maturity..."

I was already sort of aware of the extremely vague aging of Bhaalspawn in 5e, but it's nice to have it confirmed again. While I acknowledge that certain Bhaalspawn have aged in this edition, I'm still going to link it to 3.5e's "they're immortal." Hey, no Bhaalspawn has ever died of old age, so there's nothing to contradict that.

I will also be taking "Bhaalspawn had their nightmares all their life growing up, not just when they hit 20" and running with it.

(I'm not entirely clear how they age in this edition. They age, but don't grow infirm, and Sarevok expects to be around for generations to come despite already being 100+ and apparently supposed to be looking like he's 60. Immortality without youth? Elminster-style? How does it impact Bhaalspawn whose mortal ancestors have lifespans longer than humans? While the tabletop oneshot with the VA's wasn't canon, I know Imoen cameo'd and she hasn't aged a day in that.)

[maitaiwiththecorpses]

Y know the “the love of your life will the death of you” prophecy that Aiden got? Back then I thought it was dramatic ITS NOT THOUGH I GET IT NOW

[pretty-vizitor]

ALEX.,,

Just in case you've never heard it and subsequently don't know what a Wild choice this is:

[cryscendo]

a composer but never composed.

↳ “from now on, we are enemies” | fall out boy

[mishapen-dear]

(ao3)

The worst thing, Bad knows, is the way that nothing changes. 

The clouds move slow across the sky, gentle giants on an eternal trek. The waters dance with fish; the brooks burble and sing. Grass grows. Sheep eat. Grass regrows. 

On, and on, and on, and on. 

Bad breathes in, slow, and holds it. 

It’s enough to go mad over. To become enraged for. To rip everything down just so that everything can match the- the keening lack in his heart. Grass grows. Grass has always grown. There is nothing that could ever stop grass from growing. 

His hands are curled into the ground at his sides. He clutches handfuls of the wretched plant and pulls, almost gently, and doesn’t snap a single blade.

He exhales, slow, and doesn’t inhale again. What point is there? He’s alone. No one will know whether or not he needs to breathe. He’s been alone before- days that Dapper doesn’t wake up, days where the other eggs are with their other parents. Days where he falls asleep in his chair and the ghosts are left to amuse themselves. He’s been alone before. 

He’s lost before. 

There is a sob in his throat. He refuses to let it out. It chokes him, and he takes another deep breath to try to settle it. 

There’s always- he misses Skeppy. Of course he misses Skeppy. He can’t lose Skeppy, but Skeppy isn’t here.

Dapper isn’t here. Pomme isn’t here. Richarlyson. Leo. Ramon. Chayanne. Tallulah. They’re-

Bad tears the grass out of the ground. He stares at his hands, dark claws curled around torn green plant. He tries to imagine the grass is white fur instead, but he can’t find the enthusiasm. That’s okay. The anger will be back later. 

He just- he can’t feel much beyond the loss, right now. The lack. The empty, quiet island where sheep eat grass and clouds keep moving and no eggs place any signs at all. That’s not okay, but he knows that, at least, will change. That’s how grief works. The world ends, and you end with it, and while you claw yourself up from the rubble the world ends again and sends you back under, and then again, and then again, but by the third go around you know what the tremors look like. You start to predict where it hurts the most. Then the world keeps ending but the ending just becomes a part of your world, and sometimes everything shakes but you shake with it and it’s not okay but it’s better. You get so used to the shaking that sometimes you forget that your world ever ended at all. 

How long will it take for him to forget them? 

Bad leans forwards, slowly, until he slumps into a miserable little puddle of limbs. He presses his cheek into the cool grass and when the sob rises up again he bites it back with teeth. The sun is blocked by a sombrero, now fallen awkwardly over his face, that Foolish had cheerfully placed on his head hours before. Bad doesn’t know why Foolish had put it there- except he does, and he’d seen it in the in the slightest tremor of Foolish’s smile, and so he’d kept it on. 

He can’t see them, but he can hear them laughing. Mouse, Jaiden, and Foolish, just around the corner. There have been so many people ‘just around the corner’ today. They’re so loud. They’re not the right type of loud. He feels guilty for the way that they’re comforting him, that he’s taking up their time, and then he feels angry that he feels guilty because he remembers the cage, and he knows what he really means to them, and-

They’re still here. The eggs are gone, and they’re still here. 

Forever isn’t here. 

Forever hasn’t given him a gift basket yet. 

…

…It doesn’t work. It’s a close thing, though- there’s a flicker of irritation at the thought of Forever’s awful, handsome face. Not anger, not nearly enough emotion to fill the void that is Bad’s heart, but maybe it could be. He’ll try again tomorrow. Isn’t that fun? Isn’t that something? There’s so much emotion he can’t feel any of it at all. 

Maybe it’s a bad dream. There were no remains. There was just Dapper’s top hat, and Pomme’s beret. No shell, no dead eggs. No eggs. It’s driving him mad, the maybe-yes maybe-no nature of his children’s fate.

He thinks, maybe, that tomorrow he will build a drill. 

Today, the world is dark beneath the sombrero, and the grass is scratchy and full of small twigs. Foolish laughs once, too loud. Automatically, Bad pushes himself up, because he knows Foolish, and knows how long he’s been away from the group, and he feels sick. He fumbles for his warpstone and- Foolish’s head pops around the corner- Bad freezes. Too late. 

Foolish looks at him, grin bright and neverending. Bad looks back. He can’t bring himself to say anything- he drops the sombrero at their feet. 

Foolish’s smile fades. Bad activates his warpstone again and, though the particles, he sees Foolish give him a sharp, left-handed salute. Bad can’t bite back his little laugh; Foolish knows him, too.

And then Foolish is gone. The world is purple. Then the world ends, once again, in Bad’s home. All of Dapper’s machines have stopped. Echoing noise to almost-echoing silence. Ah. Right. None of the island’s machines are working correctly. Bad will have to make a smaller drill. But he will build his drill, and he will dig, and he will find his son. 

“Dapper?” he calls, his voice cracking. The sound echoes. Only the animals answer back- they’re the only thing that stops the base from being completely silent. Grass grows. Sheep eat. Grass regrows. There’s so many animals here. What good company. It occurs to Bad, suddenly, that they’re good company. Dapper is gone, and his animals are still here, and Bad- 

He won’t kill Dapper’s pets. He is suddenly holding his scythe and he won’t hurt his son’s pets because he can’t trade them for his son and there’s a special sort of heartache to the fact that his son left behind instructions to machines that don’t work and so many animals that can’t keep Bad company the way Dapper kept him company and Bad- 

He’s holding his scythe. He’s holding the Sunshine Protector. He tries to take a breath but it comes out stuttery and he bites his tongue and. Dapper was-is always so sweet. He made Bonnie to keep Bad company, and Bad is always haunted by little ghosts but now most of all he is haunted by the love of his son. 

“Where are you?” His voice cracks on the third word. He stumbles to Dapper’s room and doesn’t think about the fact that they never got to build one for Pomme.  

The hole in his heart could swallow an island. 

Please don’t take- 

The scythe gets left outside. Bad can’t bear to look at it. Protector. There is a secure door in front of him that keeps nothing secure because now there is nothing to protect and Bad- 

-my sunshine away. 

He falls to his knees next to the empty bed. He chokes out, “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you, Dapper.”

When the sob rises again, he lets it.

[itty-bitty-sunshine]

I am a soul inside a vessel

My boys ask me, "sing a song"

And so with my voice I start to trill out

They make me feel like I belong

They compliment my imagination

I tell them the story's "are all true"

It was a world-an older nation

One where lilting Starling's flew

Please stay with me, in these walls, oh friends of mine

Pretty please, don't leave me to die~

So that when time flies, and things go awry

I'll still have peace of mind

Stay by my sides, oh brothers of mine

Because I may never die

(What if "Fish inside a Birdcage" was about Perkeo :> )

Hi anon I'm kissing your brain this is great

[hum--hallelujah]

hwat if they play Immortals instead of Centuries

[skrunksthatwunk]

sometimes you need to go back and listen to the music you liked when you were 13 because it's good for you. and no im not talking about like emo nostalgia in this case we have enough posts about that. im talking about dad rock. actually im just talking about barenaked ladies

[majorshatterandhare]

In Stranger, I think Brian’s voice getting harder to hear with the other voices is meaningful.

I interpret those voices to be other people finding out and disparaging him. I think where Brian (Tsuru) is from robots are lower class and the idea that a robot would marry a human is absurd, but marrying one while lying about your identity is dastardly. But now he is on a different planet and here they do not have sentient robots. Keeping it a secret is to protect his husband so he can be as innocent as possible should they be found out and prosecuted (he’s still thinking in terms of where he used to live). A monster is semi-literal because the husband has not seen an android before and he is astonished. But people fear what they don’t know, and he becomes angry at Brian (Tsuru) for lying.

As more voices are added more people are finding out about what he did, yet failing to actually listen to him. His husband doesn’t even listen.

I don’t think the husband went and told everyone, but that he was mad and either someone found out by spying or he told one person and that person spread it and those people spread it, etc.

[namcelestial]

nctzens of all units please wax poetic in the tags about YOUR nct song. what's bringing you out of a month-long coma

[theotherrichardpapen]

nigel & alex - to be haunted by your love

henri nouwen // like minds (2006) // death - melanie martinez // pope alexander - crywank // her mother's kiss - eugene carriere // sometimes i fall asleep thinking about you - catarine hancock // the song of achilles - madeline miller // achilles lamenting the death of patroclus - gavin hamilton // lee martens

[maitaiwiththecorpses]

the only time i'm happy Aru Shah isn't a super popular book is when I'm at the library looking for it again.

[queenofapeacefuldawn]

Mini, stressed out: Did we— did we accidentally leave Rudy at DisneyWorld?

Aiden: What do you mean by "accidentally"?

[mortellanarts]

One layer challenge except it wasn't a challenge I was just losing it