#they're too cool for that

[ardienothesieno]

OC Writing

idk im bored and procrastinating and the guys wont get out of my head

uhhhhhh tw mildly suggestive

lesbian robot and their cool girlfriend have a conversation and some not-so-cool shit happens

angst angst angst angst angst--

They were interrupted from their writing by the sudden entrance of someone into their chamber. They dismissed the screen hovering in front of them, spinning towards the access shaft to find--

"Hey Ash," Fireflies said, head poking out of the tunnel.

If Ashes from Above had been built with a mouth, they would be beaming. They slowly released the zero gravity in their chamber, gently lowering Fireflies to the floor, and brought their puppet in close. Fireflies laughed, grabbed the sides of Ash's face, and booped the tip of her mask against their forehead. "Morning, love."

Ash let out a giggle, and threw their arms around her. "You haven't come to visit for 4 cycles! I was starting to get worried." "Your overseers follow me constantly! You could have checked in any time." "I did!!" Ash huffed. "But you said you don't like being watched all the time, so I tried to leave you alone. Mostly."

They pulled away from the embrace, wheeling away to hover over Fireflies. "So what brings you to finally break your solitude?" They teased. "Ran out of groceries? Wanted to come lecture me on my lack of work as of late?" "Am I not allowed to just come talk to a friend?" "Friend??" Ash kneed Fireflies in the side of the face (gently) and spun away to a higher height. "We're just friends now, you say?" Fireflies laughed. "Sorry. Best friend." Ash scoffed, causing Fireflies to laugh even harder. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Best of best friends who is such a bestest best friend that I commit unthinkable karmic sins for them." "Better," they responded, looping around their mechanical arm in mid-air.

"But seriously, why today? I thought you usually took the first of the week to paint." "Um. Usually, yes. But, I, um... I... I'm just having a bad day."

Ash stopped spinning and immediately brought their puppet up to her, reaching behind her head to unclasp and gently lift off her intricate golden mask. Fireflies did look more tired then usual. Dark circles surrounded her drooping eyelids, and her lips were dry and cracked. Ash took her face in their hands, tenderly. "...Is this about Blanket?"

It had been a little over one year-cycle since the mass ascension, when their friend and Fireflies' cousin A Blanket, 32 Stitches per Row had ascended with the majority of society. Ash had tried to convince him to stay behind. They had tried to convince all of them to stay behind. Only 152 of their citizens had listened. Who had trusted in Ash's abilities to care for them after the collapse of society. And they were doing a mighty fine job, if they were to say for themself!

"I... Sort of. It's partially about Blanket, but there are some... some other things." "Do you want to talk about any of it?" Fireflies looked away, pursing her lips. "Maybe later." "Can I do anything, then? To make you feel better?" "Just... sit. And talk to me. Please?"

And so they did. They curled up with Fireflies in a corner of their chamber, Fireflies fidgeting with a pearl, Ash talking about everything that had happened in the past 4 cycles. They talked about their conversations with Lingering Fog and Smoke upon Droplets of Rain, their ongoing argument with East of Eden. They talked about how Calling Voids had been rambling about philosophy in the group channel, and how it had gotten so annoying they had to mute it. They talked about their remaining citizens, and all of the weird things that they had caught on their overseers.

"I've noticed some people acting a bit strange. Not noticeable enough to be a concern, but a good portion of my inhabitants have been... quieter, lately. Some of them have been visiting the temples more often. I know it's irrational... but I do worry that some of them intend to ascend sometime in the near future."

Fireflies tensed, hand curling around the pearl in her grasp. "I... will admit that there are... rumors." "Rumors?? Of people wishing to ascend????" "Yeah. Some... some people have been talking about how you don't have the resources to keep the colony going. That we need to ascend before it's too late and we all starve to death." "But that's nonsense!" Ash cried, sitting up straight, Fireflies sliding off of their lap with a grunt. "Did no one read my sustainability proposals?? I have solutions for all of that!! There are enough stores to last two and half year-cycles, and I have plans for when they run out! Purposed organisms, to hunt lizards and other wild creatures in lower altitudes! Factories that could be repurposed into greenhouses and mills! I have everything planned out, and backup plans for if those plans don't work!!" Fireflies grabbed Ash's hands, lowering them and squeezing gently. "I know, I know love, I'm sorry. I trust you. I know you'll keep us all safe. But not everyone has the same faith in you as I do." "I just don't... I've worked so hard..." "I know. I know. I'm so sorry. It's going to be okay." "Should I rewrite my proposals? Make them clearer, make my ideas more palatable? Make sure there's nothing I missed, that I can keep everyone happy and alive and safe and--" "Ash!" Fireflies grasped their hands tighter and yanked their attention to her face, her dark eyes, the small stripes on her snout. "Shhh. It's okay." There was a beat of silence. "Promise me," Ash whispered. "That even if everyone else leaves, that you won't. That you'll stay with me until you can't anymore." Fireflies paused. "I... okay. Yes. I- I won't leave you behind, Ash."

Ash stared at Fireflies before slowly nodding and slumping back against their arm. "Let's... talk about something else. Anything else." Fireflies whispered, snuggling up to Ash's shoulder. "Anything?" "Anything."

Ash thought for a second. "Um. I have a routine maintenance check today? My two remaining mechanics should be going through my structure around now, and will send me any repair orders that need to be executed in the future." "Mmmm. Anything else?" "My overseers have reported 72 yeek sightings over the past 20 cycles." Fireflies chuckled. "That is pretty random." "You said anything."

They laid there for several minutes in silence, enjoying each other's company. Quietly holding each other close. Ash received 17 alerts while they were lying there with Fireflies, of which they all ignored. The only thing more important then this moment would be something completely catastrophic, like a system failure. And the chances of that happening were so slim...

They were beginning to think that Fireflies had fallen asleep when her citizen drone beeped and she sat up with a start. They turned away as Fireflies opened her messages. One of the main rules of their relationship was privacy. Fireflies didn't want Ash peeking through her private conversations and files, and Ash didn't want Fireflies wandering through their memory complexes without permission.

"I. Um. P-probably have to go soon." Ash turned back to Fireflies, and noticed how panicked they looked from reading whatever message they had gotten. "Are you okay?" "Yeah. Uh- yeah. Just... have to go to a meeting. Sort of. It's... complicated. I don't know." Fireflies looked more and more stressed with each passing second. "...Alright. You should probably get going then." "No!! No, I- I have a few more minutes," Fireflies blurted, grabbing Ash's hands again. "...Besides, there's something else I want to do first." "Oh?"

Fireflies pressed her lips to Ash's face. "Oh..." Fireflies laughed, breathily, and wrapped her arms around Ash. "It's been too long since we did anything like this." "Agreed," Ash whispered, burying their hands in Fireflies' hair-tentacles and pulling her forehead against theirs.

Another alert popped up. They dismissed it.

Fireflies made a small noise and pulled Ash even closer, pressing them against her. Her breath was warm and fast on Ash's artificial skin as she frantically whispered, "I love you. I love you so much, Ash. I love--"

- - -

13 Fireflies Amongst Falling Leaves let out a sob as Ash's puppet went limp in her arms. As the chamber lights went out. As the structure around her shuddered and went silent.

She clutched the avatar of the person she loved as the machinery that made up that person deactivated. As the temperature around her started to drop. As Ashes from Above died.

And Fireflies cried.

Her sobs were broken minutes later by a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Hundreds of Birds Trapped in a Vortex, one of Ash's mechanics... and the ringleader of the shutdown.

Ash had been right in their suspicions. A good portion of people were worried, and wanted to ascend. Almost all of them did, at that point.

Many of the remaining citizens had spent the last hundred cycles working on raising their karma. Slowly packing things away, shutting down factories and machines, desperately trying to avoid Ash's notice. It would break their heart to see them all to leave, the ringleaders had said. It was kindest for them not to know, the ringleaders had said.

Fireflies was told to distract Ash while the mechanics shut down their systems. And here she was, Ash's puppet lying dead in her arms.

She would have stayed. If they hadn't made the decision to kill Ash when they left. She would have stayed with the iterator she loved until the day she died.

She had no choice, now.

"I'm sorry," Vortex whispered. "I'm so sorry, Fireflies. It was the kindest thing we could do." He grabbed her arm and pulled her to standing, Ash's body falling to the ground with a clang. "Come on, we should get going." "I-- but--" "They're in a better place now, Fireflies. Perhaps we will meet them again in the Great Beyond. Come along now." "W-wait."

Fireflies twisted out of his grasp and stumbled over to Ash's body. She knelt down and shakily removed her scarf, wrapping it around their neck. Their hands trembled as they reached up to slide Ash's metallic eyelids shut. She pressed one last kiss to their forehead, choking out a goodbye to unhearing sound sensors.

Fireflies stood back up and walked over to Vortex, who was standing by the main access door.

The rest of the city was waiting in the mines, ready to venture down to the golden ocean at the bottom of the world.

13 Fireflies Amongst Falling Leaves left the puppet chamber of Ashes from Above for the last time.

Goodbye, my love. I'll see you in the Great Beyond.

[ellsieee]

Why is ep 2 of Bad Guy not out yet?? Doesn't Suk usually do the early release on Weds? I'm losing my mind here. One can only rewatch ep 1 and the uncut so many times.

[starry-bi-sky]

don't you want to be a cult leader? - danyal al ghul au

this is mostly a joke post but i thought it was funny and had to share so--

his first mistake was, obviously, inheriting his father's inability to see an injustice and stand still. -- actually, danyal's first mistake was his lair being so big. a mountainous island with a large temple in the center resembling his old home in Nanda Parbat? With sprawling foliage and rivers and streams and waterfalls galore? What was he going to do with all that space? Let it go to waste? He had plants there! Native trees of the ghost zone growing from the soil! He couldn't let it all be left unchecked!

So naturally after helping a fellow teenage assassin ghost -- who he later learns is named Akihiko, -- from Walker of all people, he sent them over to hang low at his lair until it was safe enough for them to wander around the Zone. Walker couldn't get through Danyal's astrofield if his life depended on it, and trust him -- he's tried. Danny was clearing out debris from his stupid transport vans for weeks.

Honestly it wasn't so bad, he and Aki really quickly became fast friends and Danny loves having a sparring partner close to his level again -- he hasn't had this much fun fighting since he left the League. Aki was very dedicated and levelheaded, the both of them clicked really well because of it.

Nonono, the real trouble began after Danyal met some long-passed League members and allowed them to come join his island as well. Apparently they had made a few enemies of the zone, and maybe Danyal still felt some loyalty to the League. He couldn't just let them be left to rot. Their zealotry could be overlooked so long as they kept it contained and helped him take care of his island.

And it.. snowballs from there? He meets a teen squire aptly calling himself Ambroise -- whether that was his living name or not is yet to be seen -- who died during feudal france, who is just about as dramatic and passionate as every french stereotype makes them out to be. He calls Danyal "my moon and great muse" -- which is both flattering and little uncomfortable, but Danyal's grown up in the League as the Grandson of the Demon Head, he is used to mild worship. he passes it off as nothing more, nothing less. -- and while his energy is overwhelming on the worst of days, he helps Danny draw out of his shell more in ways that Sam and Tucker still struggle with.

Him and Aki butt heads a lot, but the two seem to hold the other in at least some positive regard, so Danny doesn't worry too much about them fighting while he's gone. It only becomes a mild issue when Aki also begins calling Danny "my moon". It's a little sweet, so Danyal brushes it off.

Then he takes in a troupe of ghosts some time after he defeats Pariah Dark and they begin calling him "great one" just as the yetis do in the far frozen. This is where he meets the twins -- a pair of sibling ghosts who call themselves Trixie and Missy (short for Trick and Mislead) -- who aren't quite as passionate as Ambroise but more energetic than Aki. Eventually they also start calling Danyal "my moon" and attach themselves to his hip, even within the living. They like to hide in his shadow and cause trouble for the rest of the students. He makes sure they don't hurt anyone.

He's pretty sure Aki is jealous, same with Ambroise, but he can't be too certain other than the fact that they become much more lingering (re: clingy) whenever he visits the island.. Something he's trying to do much more often these days due to the increasing amount of people living there now. Since when did he become so popular?

Then there's Pēnelópeia from the Greater Athens, who ran away from home and joined his Island after he ran into her while she was being chased by Skulker -- and he's pretty sure the reason was because of her chimeric appearance. Her strange eyes and mismatched wings and lion's tail and talons. She assimilates into his friend group very easily, she gets along well with Ambroise and Trixie and Danny usually finds the three of them climbing the trees to pluck the most fruit from the top. They can fly and he knows it, but they prefer to climb.

Then finally there's silent poet Akkara who comes from ancient mesopotamia, who gets along most with Aki -- which is no surprise there considering their similar personality dispositions. he watches Aki and Danyal fight each other and leaves comments on this or that that he notices. He writes Danyal poems on clay tablets and leaves them by his room.

They're one big mismatched group of outcasts, and Danny's got the other ghosts on his island to tend to, because they're living on his island and he wants to be hospitable even if he struggles with that. But he spends the most of his time with them.

Sam and Tucker are making fun of him. Tucker jokingly tells him 'careful Danny, at this rate you're gonna start a cult'. Danny really wishes he had taken that joke more seriously.

He just. keeps. collecting people. Wayward souls lost in the zone, looking for shelter or refuge from something or other -- whether that be another hostile ghost, or a past afterlife, or just a purpose. Danyal finds them, he takes them in, offers them a place on his island until they are ready to leave. Many seldom do. He's not complaining -- he has the space, and it feels like it's only ever growing.

His close friends, his "inner circle" as he's heard the others call them, keep insistently calling him "my moon". He starts calling them his stars, because then it only feels fair. They're his stars, this is his constellation. It becomes a thing; little star halos begin forming behind their heads, picking them out from the rest. He loves them so much, it's hard to place. Sam and Tucker are also his stars, but they reside in the living realm, they're his tie to Life. Meanwhile, his friends here know what it's like to be dead, and sometimes its nice to relate.

Those living on his island keep calling him "Great One" and he's beginning to notice zealotry in their care for his island. He really, deeply appreciates it. His close friends gain nicknames -- as his stars, it's only natural for him to pick them out from the cluster in the skies. Akihiko, his Sirius and bright star. Trix and Missy, Castor and Pollux, the twins and troublemakers. Ambroise, his zealous Antares and close friend. Penelopeia, chimeric and loyal Vega. And Akkara, his Arcturus and strength.

It's ridiculous how long it takes for him to notice; he is, of course, a deadly trained assassin. He is meant to be observant -- and normally he is! But somehow this becomes a blind spot. One that becomes too big to be dealt with by the time he realizes it.

He should've noticed when Aki, his Sirius, stood beside him one day while Danyal looked over his island and saw the sprawling spirits carrying on about their afterlife and bowing to him as they saw him, and said: "I looked down into the depths when I met you; I couldn't measure it." They aren't one for flowing prose, it took him so off guard he was silent for over a minute before he finally spoke.

Danyal should've recognized devotion for what it is, and yet he didn't. He should've recognized it when Antares began spouting praises about him, crowing about his radiance and resplendence to the heavens. He just brushed it off as Ambroise being Ambroise. He should've recognized it when Trix and Missy nearly broke Dash's leg after he knocked Danyal's books out of his hands, he excused it as them being protective. Of them coming from times where such violence may have been customary -- after all, that's what he used to be like. What he was still like, sometimes, when his emotions nearly got the better of him.

He should've noticed it when the people living on his island followed his word like gospel, looked at him like he hung the stars in the sky. When his friends gifted him a shawl with the moon phases delicately embroidered into it, with silver, shimmering thread and moving stars lovingly stitched into it. Their constellations seen clear as day in the dark fabric. When he found small shrines dedicated to him -- but they lacked any image of him beyond stones carved to look like moons, so he ignored it. When the religious imagery began popping up.

He really, really should've noticed it when a bunch of cultists accidentally summoned Antares, and Antares had turned to him when he arrived and called them heretics. But he was so centered on the fact that they had kidnapped one of his stars, that he hadn't paid much attention to what Ambroise had said.

Sages say that faith is blind, they should also say faith in you is even blinder.

It really only hits him one afternoon while he's sitting in Sam's room studying with Tucker, Missy and Trixie lounging at his feet, Aki sat on his right, Penelopeia braiding his hair, Ambroise draped against him, and Akkara lurking over him. Its one of the rare few times they're all in one room together.

It hits him like a bolt of lightning. He looks up from his textbook. "Oh Ancients," he says in no amounting shock. Everyone looks up to him.

"I've become my grandfather."

[blondie-drawings]

Good lord this tomb is full of shitposts 😳😳 pt 1/pt 2

[aethersea]

I do think Blazing Saddles handled its one depiction of native americans very poorly, and the full extent of its representation of chinese workers on the railroad is they were literally just there. not even one single speaking line. unclear if this is worse or better than the redface.

it's fucking phenomenal at lampooning antiblack racism though. extremely blatant, extremely funny satire, which is constantly and loudly saying "racism is the philosophy of the terminally stupid at best and morally depraved at worst, and we should all be pointing and laughing at them 24/7"

plus the main character is a heroic black man who has to navigate a whole lot of bullshit but is constantly smirking at the extraordinarily stupid racists and inviting the audience into the joke. the one heroic white character is a guy who was suicidally depressed until he met the protagonist and they just instantly became buds, and he's firmly in a supporting role the whole time and happy to be there. the protagonist saves the day with the help of his black friends from the railroad, and uses the position of power he was given to uplift not only those friends, but all the railroad workers of other minorities too, in an explicit show of solidarity.

anyone saying "Blazing Saddles is racist" had better be talking about its treatment of non-black minorities. it had better not be such superficial takes as "oh but they say the n-word all the time" or "they have nazis and the kkk in there!" because goddamn if that's the full extent of your critique I very seriously suggest you read up on media analysis. there is too much going over your head, you need to learn to recognize satire.

[umblrspectrum]

hi heres art so you pay attention to me now go read the tags

[kuromi-hoemie]

i am not immune to transmascs in sweatpants and a sleeveless top

im rly fucking weak about it actually

[i-eat-novels]

mxtx fandoms be like 😔🙏

[thatgothsamurai]

i watched exhuma!!

[wasyago]

squeaky_toy_sound_effect.mp4

[cozylittleartblog]

gooseworx in the glitchx livestream: i want to see people draw jax in a suit. people should draw him crying

me: sure thing, boss o7

[hoofpeet]

Potentially weird habit but. When I get really fixated on an oc/blorbo or whatever I get embarrassed thinking cringey shit "In front of" them. Like ah fuck I was cringe in front of my imaginary fursona. shit

[humming-fly]

It's dark Arthur, pull out your lighter.

(practically I know john is most easily portrayed as a normal hooded guy with a mask but deep down my heart of hearts still belongs to mergo's wet nurse)

[liauditore]

i forgot what his ingame name was and had to scrub thru a bunch of videos looking for him like a cryptid and i think that's incredibly joe hills of him

[carrotkicks]

thinking abt the "dazai and chuuya elope and join the ada together" au again..

[novelconcepts]

I really think we as a society don't give enough credit to performers who thrive in an ensemble situation. It's always obvious when an actor is excellent front and center, and we're constantly rewarding that skill set with awards, but god, there's something to be said for the power of a true ensemble piece. People who are so good at reading one another and playing off what they're given, tossing the ball and knowing when to turn it into a grenade. As much fun as it is to watch a solid monologue or a solo show, I always find it so much more thrilling--and so much more authentically lived-in--when there's an ensemble just feeding one another in every single scene. Who do I look at? What is everyone else learning and deciding even from the background? This is what life looks like, and actors who really shine in that environment have really become my favorite to follow.