#the three things in question are:
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huesofvioletandpurple · 8 months ago
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my not-so serious theory on what's up with Whit is that he's not the traitor, nor the mastermind, nor is he timelooping, but he just does not have the same amnesia as everyone else. however at this point it's too late to bring this up without it seeming Extremely suspicious because no one else seems to share his same predicament. so he just keeps it to himself until he finds a good way to share it. bearer of the curse and all that. this explains exactly three things and nothing else
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wackywatchdotcom · 3 months ago
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do you see my vision.
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brainrotcharacters · 10 months ago
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makes me giggle to think of X2 Logan meeting dp&w Logan when this is a thing
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#“don't tell me you fuckin liked it 🤨” “you have no idea 😃”#x2 logan is going to see that in the tva screens and go 🤨😳🏳️‍🌈⁉️#dp&w Logan going “you don't understand he's fucked up he's my favorite of these assholes”#and then turn around and yell at wade “FUCKTARD”#hear the distinct “oh he's adorable can't resist flirting with me across the room LOVE YOU TOO SHITFACE”#“KEEP AN EYE ON OUR DAUGHTER OR IT'S MY SWORDS IN YOUR DELICIOUS ABS IN THREE SECONDS”#x2 Logan going 🤨 at the daughter in question mary puppins#Logan being as hung up on Jean as he'd been might just Reconsider mr wade wilson#👀👀👀👀👀👀👀#pspsps Logan#one rainbow brigade bitch to another? i dont think jean can do that#she clawed u up that one time but see what walmart santa claus is doing here#he's riddling you with bullets ✅ fuckin emptying the cartridges on your scrumdiddlydumptruck ass#he's stabbing adamantium ADAMANTIUM swords in you up until the sword hilts ✅#Logan listen#jean needed to be with phoenix first before Doing All Those Things Which She Did With You#but Deadpool? Deadpool is in it for the shits and giggles#Look. I'm not a woman of science. But there seems to be Chemistry among us.#I'd hit the emergency meeting button but i don't fucking want to 😁#deadpool and wolverine#deadpool#wolverine#deadpool 3#deadpool 2024#logan howlett#wade wilson#poolverine#deadclaws#Deadpool and Wolverine Honda#Deadpool and Wolverine Honda Odyssey
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benevolenterrancy · 8 months ago
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("Always. Continuously. With increasing apprehension, and decreasing hope. I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you every Tuesday. I will love you as a corpse loves the beak of the vulture. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this." -- paraphrased from The Beatrice Letters, Lemony Snicket)
#svsss#bingqiu#luo binghe#shen qingqiu#lbh#sqq#i've been working through the series of unfortunate events and somehow that series has paired really nicely with svsss#the themes of cycling violence and what's justified and what isn't and what can possibly be done differently#and how trying to bring love and honour into the midst of it really changes nothing but also changes everything#it's just *chef's kiss*#i don't know how i can quite do my thoughts justice but i've spent the past few weeks quietly going between the two series (and mdzs and tg#as well if we're being honest they all hit similar questions and themes) and just reveling in the pain and ambiguity of it#everything is interconnected and it means you can never know what trauma and pain and necessity has shaped a person#each story goes too far back to ever ever EVER possibly see the full extent of it#at that level even communication itself is nearly impossible.#and because of that it's almost impossible to change anything. beat yourself apart and the outcome is the same#and yet ATTEMPTING to change things ATTEMPTING to do the kind thing the honourable thing is absolutely critical#because while you can change nothing you also have the capacity to change EVERYTHING#aaaaaaah i don't even know what i'm saying#but i read the beatrice letters today and the love letter just. killed me.#(obviously i cherrypicked some lines because it's three pages long but those ones felt right)#''i love you like a corpse loves a vulture's beak'' i just. can't get over that line.#to be completely changed. altered. destroyed. redeemed. purified. desecrated. reduced to nothing yet entirely necessary for another's life.#what a FUCKING line#anyway i was either going to blow up from thinking about it or else i had to exorcise it via art from an entirely different series#i've already done svsss and discworld why not throw a series of unfortunate events into the mix#i'll be honest folks i did not expect svsss to be the mxtx series that would fuck me up the most about the main ship#bingqiu is something else. i don't even know how to begin to approach my feelings on it. impossibility and necessity all at once#bizarre#my art
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puppetmaster13u · 2 years ago
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Prompt 105
 A cult summons the ghost king. Except they don’t. Instead they get these tiny white-haired triplets of toddlers blinking at the summoning circle looking confused. 
 They’ve gotten the ghost princes and princess instead. 
 The very young princes and princess who are none too pleased and going to cause problems on purpose for both rogues and heroes alike. As godlings de-aged into their ghost age are like to do. 
 Meanwhile in the Realms, Pariah is staring down at where his trio of ghost toddlers that Clockwork had handed him when he had first woken up and was still groggy just disappeared from. He looks over at Fright Knight, his dearest brother, who looks just as shocked. 
 Clockwork is going to kill them both if they don’t get the kids back now. 
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i-may-be-an-emu · 2 months ago
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When I saw this I genuinely had to go and curl up in a ball and cry for a second, it honestly means a lot to be seen.
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mukimokai · 3 months ago
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genin 🍡trio doodles
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itsahotminuteinbetween · 4 months ago
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something something hair holds memories
(this is for my ppt au)
the context is that Earth had a minor flashback in the first two weeks that made her uncomfortable being in her own body, but because there aren't any spare parts for her in this dimension (and because Eclipse refuses to let her make any impulsive modifications while he's around), the only change she could think of making was cutting her hair.
Eclipse walks in on her and tells her to put the scissors down and waits until she's a bit more present to ask if she actually wants her hair cut.
She does. So he cuts it. Because it's synthetic hair, it can't actually grow back, so she's sort of stuck with it short. But she's happy with it, so it's probably fine
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willczek-art · 1 year ago
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NPMD Tarot - The Hierophant
Others from the series: The Devil, The Lovers, The Star, Strength, The World
Symbolism + some WIP/alternatives are under the cut C:
My intuition put Grace as the High Priestess, but from what I've read it's more about spirituality and intuition, while the Hierophant is all about strong traditional beliefs and ruling/leading, so it fits her way better! :D
Left side/Beginning has the dance cancellation sign, since that was her mission and Max was her first victim, while on the right/Ending is Jason and the Black Book, her mission and source of power has changed.
Halo= superiority, holy mission, Red as a sign of danger/death to come (which is why the light it's only on the boys)
She's sitting on what's supposed to be the bleachers C:
Doodles:
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confetilly · 1 month ago
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I put the stupid kerdly making out drawing back on public again.. ( to anyone who knows) but I am definitely not gonna share it to other social medias.. it stays here. I guess.. gulps.. its just a kissy drawing..
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arcticclimes · 9 months ago
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cupophrogs · 1 year ago
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How powerful is the anon magic? Because what if I just....
REVIVE MAMA SPIDER REVIVE MAMA SPIDER REVIVE MAMA SPIDER REVIVE MAMA SPIDER
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“That may not be the best idea. I’m sorry.”
(scene inspired by @bumblehoneybee's fic "You're Safe With Me" GO READ IT NOW)
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bisclavret · 8 months ago
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like many who have suffered at the hands of bbc merlin before me, i recently indulged in a thought experiment in which i outlined my own version of seasons 3-5 that stay thematically and tonally in line with the show (except they're less fucking stupid). but then i quickly realized that focusing on details is pointless: all you need is to solve the one Big Problem the show has, and the rest will follow. the problem in question? ✨morgana✨
i like the first two seasons. s1 achieves what it sets out to do and has fun while doing it, and s2, while flawed, sets up a ton of potential that the following seasons unfortunately squander, beginning with the insidious season 3. you can only distract me with cute knights and goblins and fart jokes for so long before i start seeing through you, evil, evil season of television.
my hypothesis is that if the writers had crafted s3 morgana into anything more sympathetic than a violent half-alive poltergeist that can never be reasoned with because she's suddenly terminally off her rocker, everything would've fallen into place. a sympathetic morgana would've made real, valid arguments against uther (and arthur) that wouldn't just be the ramblings of a woman possessed. her betrayal of arthur would have stemmed from her feeling increasingly morally superior to him because of his complacency in the face of their father's tyranny. under morgause's guidance she would stop believing that arthur is capable of change, and the whole point would be that she might actually be right. arthur would have to actively try and prove her wrong, instead of getting praised for doing the bare minimum because the bar is on the floor.
furthermore, morgana's prophetic dream about arthur and gwen becoming king and queen and her decision to prevent this however she can is a direct parallel to merlin learning about that same prophecy and making it happen by any means necessary. merlin's desires about his and arthur's futures are subtextually fueled by gay love and devotion, so why couldn't morgana's be? why couldn't she properly express her bitterness that arthur gets to be with gwen in a way she can't "took gwen away" from her, instead of suddenly declaring that gwen is nothing more than a servant, after two seasons of demonstrating again and again that she loves, values, and respects gwen more than anyone else in that godforsaken castle?
following this, an angry and emotionally volatile but still sensible morgana asking gwen to stay by her side during the coup of the castle in the s3 finale and gwen going behind her back to help arthur and the knights would've hurt like a bitch. double-sided betrayal! gwen having a real plot! the proper beginnings of a toxic yuri that would shape a generation!
then there's the utter hubris of having morgana shoot arrows at the same civilians she worried herself sick over for 2 seasons — even morgan, her medieval counterpart that was rooted in every sexist trope in existence, doesn't just go around killing senselessly but instead has (often petty!) personal vendettas against gwen, arthur, and the knights. morgana had every right to be sick of the pretensions around chivalry in camelot (she was always quick to mock it, even in s1), and to lash out at the knights and soldiers after years of feeling powerless in a castle full of armed men that blindly followed her oppressor. the show conveniently forgets that morgana was victimized as a woman as well as a sorcerer those first 2 seasons.
but like i said, this is not just about morgana. allowing her to remain a real and multifaceted character even as she betrays everyone in pursuit of her ambitions would've given the rest of the core four more interesting conflict to work with: merlin because he would have to experience real consequences to his actions, arthur because he would watch his sister go against his father (and his knights, and his birthright) and experience some actual internal dilemmas about it, and gwen because she would be forced to choose between morgana and arthur without the pretense that it's an obvious or easy choice for her to make.
even morgause and gaius would come off more interesting as mentors: neither one inherently evil or inherently good, both jaded by events that happened before our protagonists were even born, both heavily influencing morgana and merlin into fulfilling roles that they think are appropriate, but that morgana and merlin may not have chosen for themselves had they not been under their care.
you get the gist. if the show followed its own setup, morgana's mistakes wouldn't lie in cheap and senseless acts of violence but in alienating the people she loves because she is too hurt and jaded to trust them. meanwhile, everybody else would feel guilt over "failing" her and yet they would be too caught up in their own (sometimes flawed!) beliefs of right and wrong to truly see her point of view.
arthur would convince himself it was sorcery that corrupted her. merlin would know that isn't true but he wouldn't be able to argue without confessing everything, which is the defining conflict between him and morgana and it's cheapened when she's just an evil witch caricature and merlin is framed as inherently virtuous in contrast. gwen, too, would become a more active participant in her own life by choosing arthur over morgana and choosing to rule camelot with him instead of just waiting politely to see where things go.
and, of course, uther's downfall and death would be quick, final, and completely earned — when and why did the show even decide he of all people was the sympathetic villain, anyway?
lastly, and perhaps controversially, i think morgana should've learned merlin's true identity by season 4. her being the first of the main characters to find out makes perfect sense considering their shared history and their interconnected and mirrored arcs. even the show seems to agree, considering she does find out a little before arthur. but the narrative itself tried pointing flashing neon arrows towards this way earlier — there is a whole entire episode in s4 where merlin being emrys is repeatedly spelled out for morgana and she still isn't allowed to see it. that episode makes her look like the stupidest person to ever live, which is pretty funny im not gonna lie, but also another frustrating thing in the endless string of frustrating things that make up this show.
morgana learning that merlin has magic would've transformed the source of merlin's anxiety from a crippling fear of being outed someday to the crippling fear of knowing she could out him at any moment. this would make him want to beat her to the punch (perhaps he'd consider killing her for a minute and decide against it because she isn't a cartoonishly insane evil person in my version of events) and maybe he would even feel some tentative excitement at the idea of coming clean, now that it seems inevitable. after all, he always intended to tell arthur eventually! and i think gaius would have to admit outright that he does not want merlin to tell arthur he has magic because he, gaius, simply cannot risk such a gamble. it would be so interesting to see gaius and merlin clash and disagree once it becomes obvious that it's not merlin that isn't ready for the reveal, it's gaius. delicious!
with morgana's knowledge looming, things would inevitably spiral into a magic reveal by the end of season 4. i picture this season as an absolute mess of miscommunication between everyone at camelot, which is, y'know, canon. growing increasingly cunning and vengeful, morgana would use this tension to her advantage, destabilizing the court from the outside while she creates alliances with other sorcerers outside of camelot (instead of living alone in a hovel for no reason — morgana le fay i'm sorry i'm so sorry they gave you agravaine instead of your all-female entourage oh my god).
and here's where the events would change beyond recognition (aka here's where the meta becomes the fanfic i refuse to write). picture it with me: a militia of sorcerers infiltrates camelot and arthur and gwen have to set aside their differences (assuming gwen kissing lancelot and arthur overreacting happens, which it should) for the good of the kingdom as well as for love. picture high priestess morgana in her element, side by side with a bunch of misfit sorcerers that aren't so easily vilified, chopping down camelot's soldiers and knights and assuredly making their way to the newly-minted king.
then, just as it starts to seem that all hope is lost, in swoops merlin (the actual merlin, not his old fart disguise) on dragonback (kilgharrah hates morgana so much i know his sexist ass would stoop to anything to stop her)!!! imagine merlin showing off the extent of his powers in front of everyone and preventing the sorcerers from getting any further, declaring loud and clear that camelot is protected by him, by emrys. imagine that display of power alone being enough to send everyone home.
imagine the loyalties clearly drawn: merlin on arthur's side, morgana on the sorcerers'. imagine arthur, feeling confused and betrayed by everyone at this point, banishing merlin despite everything he's done for him in the angstiest, most emotionally dysregulated scene the show had ever put to screen. imagine merlin starting season 5 free at last but very lonesome, an embittered dragonlord like his father. imagine the absolute mess camelot would become without him, even with gwen — now queen guinevere — there to pick up the slack. imagine arthur actually earning merlin back, finally growing into his role as king as he does so. imagine the reunion.
all this and more could've been not just possible but inevitable if morgana was allowed to remain a complex character that is neither inherently good nor inherently evil: it was undeniably the biased and one-note treatment of morgana's downfall by the writers that set the precedent for literally everything else that happened after merlin chose to poison her. the show wouldn't have even had to jeopardize its tone or the monster-of-the-week vibe, all it would've had to do is admit that even the "good guys" are capable of mistakes and what makes them good is the ability to feel remorse and change for the better. (as opposed to uther, who was miles beyond redemption since way before the pilot and deserved to lose everything and die alone. OBVIOUSLY???)
in a world where morgana remains multifaceted and sympathetic, mordred would get a better arc as well, so if we really wanted to, we could still end on the same tragic note that the show ended on. with so much harm inflicted onto so many innocent people by the pendragons for so long (including mordred and the many druids and sorcerers that raised him), it could realistically end up being a little too late for anything more than one shining glimpse of king arthur and the sorcerer merlin's short-lived golden age before fate catches up to them. glimpsing that reality just to immediately lose it would've been far more satisfying and far more tragic than whatever the writers thought they were doing with all that pointless carrot-dangling.
and finally, an ending in line with morgana's new and improved arc. in this version, rather than bleeding out on the forest floor alone, she would channel the morgan le fay we know from the legends: sobered up by the reality of her brother dying, she would use her high priestess status (and perhaps also her pendragon status) to be granted passage over to avalon alongside arthur on the boat — a one-way ride — just to make sure he gets there safely. this is her penance for the harm she has caused, the same way arthur's penance is to die and leave the true ruler of camelot (gwen) behind to achieve everything he was too slow and indecisive to build while he still had time.
merlin's penance, then, would be to stay behind and watch them cross over without him, waiting and waiting and waiting until they come back or until he can finally join them. which is a bit fucking harsh if i'm honest, so i'd at least make it slightly more faithful to the legends by having him return as an old man and letting him take a long nap under a tree by the shore, his body slowly enveloped by vines like the cobwebbed fisher king in 3x08, never fully sure if he's dreaming or if there really are strange shapes fading in and out of the fog over the lake. still tragic, but nevertheless a little more open-ended and whimsical than [TRUCK NOISES] THE END!
#[johnny the dragon voice] ✨ MORGANA ✨#tldr: if you treat your villain with nuance then more nuance will follow and your story will be better for it! groundbreaking i know!!!#what im also getting at is that morgana broke free FIRST so she DESERVED to become the morgan le fay of legend#way before any of the others grew into their own roles.#morgana#bbcm#bbc merlin#analysis#merlin meta#morgana pendragon#theres no focus on the knights here but if you know me you know how angry i am about s4 and s5 gwaine at all times#so in a story with a more nuanced portrayal of villainy and knighthood i think he would openly question his choice to become one#and maybe he'd leave for a while#go home and sort out his daddy issues. have some fruity subplots along the way. visit merlin during his dragonlord era. that sort of thing#and interact with lancelot at least once!!! for gods sake#but i dont see lancelot surviving sorry. that dude will literally die for anything#also scientists and tv execs had not yet discovered bisexuality in 2011 and he already had everyone acting unwise#in ways that barely got past the censors :/ unsustainable#elyan however shouldnt have died. i know gwen ruling alone with only the lamest knights in her service is “the point”#but its a stupid point. elyan is her best knight and they rule camelot together. working class heroes etc.#poetic justice for their father who was murdered by uther + a fun narrative contrast to morgana and arthur#nightmare siblings of all time. banished from the mortal realm for their crimes. could never rule together. stinky#ANYWAY. I HAVE THREE (3) EXAMS DUE THIS WEEK. HERE'S TWO THOUSAND (2000) WORDS OF BBC MERLIN ANALYSIS.
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trafalgardlawless · 15 days ago
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listen i do appreciate canon marineford for the tragedy it is. however it does happen to also be extremely funny.
ace is on his knees on the execution platform, the same place the father that he despises and has tried to define himself outside for his whole life had knelt, thinking this might be the most fitting ending to the life long crashout ace started when he found out who his father was
and then in comes LUFFY, his cheerful persistent little menace of a brother, who has come to COP CENTRAL to break ace out PUBLICLY.
Not only that, but he’s staged a mass break out of the formerly inescapable prison IMPEL DOWN (HE WASNT EVEN LOCKED UP IN THERE? SO EVERYONES A LITTLE BIT CONFUSED AS TO HOW THAT HAPPENED???)
He also kind of looks like shit? But he’s fighting like he’s on day three of a methamphetamine high so no one can be sure how injured luffy Really is.
side note: luffy tanked a lung full of Kills You Dead Toxin and then got shot full of Lowers Your Lifespan Drug and on top of all that, DEMANDED the Super Lowers Your Lifespan Drug when he realized he might need anything resembling recovery time.
as an elder sibling myself, ace might’ve been truly grateful for being loved at the end, but i KNOW there’s a part of him that was INFURIATED that his kid brother managed to crash out harder than he did like OMG STOP COPYING ME FRRRRRRRRRR.
#one piece#marineford#portgas d ace#my posts#imagine being upstaged at your own execution by the snot nosed kid brother you used to bully for sport. PERSONALLY I WOULD BE FURIOUS.#ace looks at luffy like: surely his disregard for his own life and reckless actions have nothing to do with my influence on him as a child.#surely not!#ace and sabo raised each other and luffy. and i do think that the crashout gene that the three of them seem to share is directly bc of that#like luffy and sabo were professional crash outs before. like there’s a certain level of ‘idc if i get beat to shit i’m taking you with me’#that growing up fighting tigers and bears and wolves or whatever instills in a person#but after marineford? you cannot tell me that luffy and sabo aren’t fighting for the empty throne of crashout king in aces honor.#sure they have REASONS for what they do. but the casual disregard for ANY personal consequences post marineford is kind of awe inspiring.#after luffy beat enels ass with the golden mii fists after getting his ass beat into the ground three full times i truly thought that#was as far as luffys ‘crashout harder than my opponent’ strategy went. pre time skip luffy crashouts are NOTHING compared to post time skip.#and given how sabo is rolling in the manga rn he’s doing the same thing#like it’s one thing to want to fight someone bc they fucked with a homie#it’s another thing entirely to think the solution is shouting your name address and social security at them repeatedly#before you fight Unkillable David the Destroyer with nothing but hands flip flops and a dream#before marineford he was somewhat cognizant of his own mortality. not by much mind you but enough to have that shit make him pause for a#second#i promise that if crocodile had the same amnt of advantage over luffy and tossed his ass into the sandpit after beating luffy to a pulp#luffy would EAT the sand and get back to fighting crocodile#crashout is an excellent word. that describes such a specific state of mind and set of actions. and it is THE most succinct answer to the#question: what the fuck is wrong with the ASL brothers.#the only difference between an irl d1 crashout and monkey d. luffy is that he’s dodged most if not all consequences.
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puppetmaster13u · 1 year ago
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Prompt 216
“So we all know that Damian is trying to sneak in a new animal, right?” 
 “I mean, yeah, he only starts sneaking around like that when he’s sneaking something he shouldn’t be, and the box was pretty obvious…” 
“Are we going to ask about it or…” 
“Nah, plausible deniability when Alfred or Bruce inevitably finds it.” 
Later, Duke will regret listening to Dick and Steph, because there is now a massive fucking dragon glowering down at all of them from the back yard with nine heads. Each of which do not seem pleased. It might be time to question what Damian might have brought home this time…
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pcr-alice · 10 months ago
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DPxDC - Morning Tea
also on AO3
Cass didn’t like this room.
It was cramped and full, thick with the woolen scent of Bruce’s suits and tuxedos and overcoats, the remnants of dry cleaning and the plastic bags it was returned in, leather shoes and belts and their oil and polish mixed with the harsh bite of disinfectant spray. Lit by a single bulb, warm in color, lacking in brightness, barely illuminating the shelves, not even attempting to attack to darkness around their feet and under the hanging clothes.
But she was wrapped around Steph’s arm to ground herself.
Danny walked straight to a jewelry box with the confidence of someone who knew what they were doing. For anyone other than Cass, it would have been convincing. He was sure of what he was doing, yes. Unsure of being here and actually doing it. She could see the dart of his eyes in the unknown space and the apprehension when he opened the box lid.
It released a surge of noise from the dozen or so watches inside, all ticking at their own cadence, some three, five, eight times a second, none of them synced, muffled by the stifling fabric packed between the shelves, saturating the hazy space.
But whatever Danny was doing was confusing enough to distract her.
He eased into the rhythm of his task, removing the watches one-by-one and examining them briefly, turning them over and lifting them to his ear to listen to. Some went directly back into the box. Others he set out on the shelf they had cleared off for him. Having picked out a selection he seemed pleased with, he began rearranging them into an order she didn’t understand. It was slow going. He would compare two at a time, one in each hand, raising them to his face for a closer look or closing his eyes to focus on the sound.
“Can’t you go any faster?” Steph hissed.
Danny flinched microscopically out of reflex, but relaxed almost as quickly and turned to face them, clearly comforted by their presence.
“Would you like to do it instead?” He sassed back.
Steph groaned. Danny met Cass���s gaze.
“You good?”
Cass nodded and squeezed Steph’s arm tighter. Danny was always good at checking on her when she needed it, and Steph knew how to lead her away from (or out of) overwhelming situations. He smiled in response and turned back to his work.
“How come you’re only nice to her?”
“I’m favorite.”
Steph pouted dramatically.
“Damn Cass, going for the throat.”
She laughed noiselessly and leaned into Steph harder, knocking her out of her pout and into a snort.
“Ahem.”
Steph shrieked at the sound of a throat clearing behind them and whipped around to the doorway. Or tried to. Cass still held her arm tightly, so she ended up half-twisting her lower body and raising her free hand in a pathetic excuse of a guard as she looked up to see Alfred staring down at her with a single raised eyebrow.
“Good Morning, Miss Stephanie. I must admit, this is not what I expected to find when I heard you two whispering in a back room with our guest.”
“Morning, Alfred!” Danny greeted over his shoulder.
“Good morning to you as well, young Master Danny. Might I ask what brought about your sudden interest in Master Bruce’s collection of timepieces?”
“Hm? Oh, I’m fixing this for Steph.”
Steph shrieked again as Danny turned to face them, holding a single watch in his hand, revealing a white porcelain teacup with elaborate painted flowers and gold trim around the lip and handle sitting in the middle of a partial circle of watches. Perfectly split in two.
“Traitor! You said you’d help!”
“I said I’d help fix the cup. You’re on your own.”
“He’s right,” Cass insisted.
Steph sighed heavily and leaned her head on Cass’s.
“You’ve gotta teach me how to be the favorite.”
“I was wondering where I misplaced my morning tea,” Alfred mused.
“Hey Alfred, what’s the time on your pocket watch?”
He carefully pulled the chain from his pocket and clicked the cover open.
“Ten thirty-four.”
“Give me a mark when that crosses to ten thirty-five, please.”
“I hope these two won’t make a habit – mark – of involving you in their mischief.”
“It’s only fair,” he turned to face them, having placed the final watch down on the shelf, “they get caught up in plenty of mine, too.”
“That’s not exactly reassuring, Master Danny,” Alfred closed his pocket watch with a click and slid it back into his pocket.
“Don’t worry, I haven’t broken anything in the manor yet. That’s just Steph.”
“Ugh, why do I even talk to you?” Steph muttered with an exaggerated eye roll.
“We’re favorite.” Cass answered cheerfully.
There was a tick from behind Danny and Cass’s shoulders relaxed. It took her a second to realize that all the watches were now perfectly in sync. She tilted her head in confusion, and Danny clocked her movement.
“Oh!” Danny exclaimed.
He stepped to the side to reveal the shelf behind him. On top of it was a perfectly repaired teacup.
“What.” Steph blurted.
“Good as new!” Danny gestured with his best jazz hands, “Er, as two hours ago at least.”
They were all silent for an elongated second before Steph gathered herself.
“See, nothing happened! We’ll be home for dinner!”
She grabbed Danny’s arm and yanked him out of the room, dragging him as she ran down the hall.
“Wait, I didn’t clean up! Sorry, Alfred!” Danny called back.
Alfred waited until the noise of their footsteps disappeared behind a slammed door. He sighed fondly and stepped toward the shelf. The watches were laid out in a circle except for the very bottom, where there was a small spot of something red. Alfred scrunched his eyebrows. Blood? He picked up the teacup to look closer, but when he moved his arm away to set the teacup down somewhere else, the mark was gone. He stared at the spotless shelf for a few seconds before making a mental note and moving on.
He picked up the watches one-by-one and meticulously wiped them off with a small cloth before placing them back in the jewelry box, reminiscing as he went. This was the first one Thomas had bought for himself, that one was the one Martha had bought for him, that was the one that Bruce… Hm. Did Danny realize these were laid out in the order they were bought? Alfred made another mental note.
He closed the jewelry box lid and went to pick up the teacup, only to find it full of tea. He glanced behind him to find a still empty closet. When he looked back to the teacup, he noticed it was sitting on a small green piece of paper. He lifted the teacup by its handle and picked up the paper with his other hand.
Your morning blend was delicious. Enjoy one of my favorites. CW
Alfred stared at the note for a few seconds, finally noticing the wonderful scent that had permeated the air. He took a small sip.
“I see why it’s one of your favorites,” Alfred lifted the cup in a polite toast.
He slipped the note in his pocked and flicked the lights off as he walked away.
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