#thoughts on my short king

[starry-bi-sky]

this just in: danny fenton is just as much of a mask as Brucie Wayne? - another danyal al ghul au

Turns out, being placed in a civilian family who have no knowledge of your background is actually detrimental to the health and development of a child assassin due to lack of proper support! Surrounded by strangers in a foreign city, Danyal Al Ghul does as assassins do best. He hides. Espionage is one of many teachings one learns in the League, and it only takes half a day for Danyal to construct a new persona to hide behind: Daniel Fenton.

By the time dinner rolls around, Danyal al Ghul is safely and securely tucked behind the face of Danny Fenton; brand new adoptive child of the Fenton family who came from overseas. A shy, quiet little boy with a thick accent and curly hair, with brown skin and blue eyes, and an avid interest in the stars. The best fictions are always cobbled together in a little bit of truth, it's some of the only truth he ever lets through. He apologizes in a meek voice for his behavior early, he didn't mean to be rude, and he watches the three of them eat it up with coos.

Lies roll like silk against his lips, he struggles to meet their eyes and offers them his weakest, shyest smile. It's too easy. It's easy to go from there.

Danny Fenton, adoptive son, shy and awkward and unconfident but friendly. Who struggles in his classes and isn't the brightest, but tries his hardest. He makes bad jokes and has a quick tongue and a sarcastic mouth. He wants to be an astronaut. He's got the best aim in school, and is a terrifying dodgeball player. He's one of the least athletic kids in his grade.

It's like playing two truths and a lie, but there's only one truth, and the rest are lies. It's easy to pretend when he knows it's insincere.

Danyal Al Ghul, grandson to the Demon Head. Deadly, trained assassin. Has spilled blood, has had blood spilt from. Environmentalist, animal activist. He loves the stars. He owns a calligraphy set. A sharp tongue, an even sharper blade. He's clever, quick-witted, he would be top of his grade if he tried harder. He purposely doesn't.

He misses his family. He misses his mother, and he misses his brother. Mother visits a few times a year, so few times that he can count it on both hands. He cherishes every visit, as brief as they are. It helps remind him who he is.

Sam and Tucker are Danny's best friends. They've never met Danyal, but Danyal's met them.

It becomes routine to become Danny Fenton. As familiar and as easy as pulling on a shirt in the morning. Danyal wakes up and is always first to the bathroom in the mornings; stares at himself in the mirror until he can finally see Danny staring back at him. At night, he locks his door and sheds the mask.

Dying throws a wrench in his mask; splits a crack straight through the porcelain. He's able to smooth it over with sandpaper and liquid gold, but it's a little hard keeping his ghost form under wraps. It instinctively wants to shift to show his true self. Danyal can't have that, he's spent four years as Danny Fenton, he'll spend another four as him as well. Even if the feeling of the hazmat suit in his ghost form feels restrictive, like a too-small shirt suctioned to his skin that needs to be peeled off.

He'll live. Er-- well, you know what he means. It's frustrating however, trying to keep his Danny Fenton mask up even as Phantom - fighting in the air is something he needs to get used to, and the sudden propping of powers throws him off. But he is nothing if not adaptive, and he hates that he needs to slow his own skills down in order to keep pretenses up in front of Sam and Tucker.

The first time Danyal summons a sword when he's alone, is one of the few times Danyal gets to grin instead of Danny. He's fighting Skulker, and from an invisible hilt he draws a katana from thin air. It startles them both. Skulker takes a step back at the smile that spreads across his face.

They're both silent as Danyal examines his new sword.

"Do you know what people like me do to people like you, poacher?" Danyal finally asks him, the accent he began to hide a few months in slipping through. He drops all pretense, dragging the flat end of the blade slow and appreciatively against his palm. It's a good make, and when he cuts it through the air, it slices through like butter. He looks up at Skulker with a smile; "are you ready to find out?"

When Sam and Tucker ask about why Skulker seems so skittish around Danny now, Danny shrugs at them and says with a playful smile; "I don't know, I guess I kicked his butt too hard after our last fight." and he watches as Sam rolls her eyes exasperatedly, and Tucker snickers with his own joke.

By the time he reunites with Damian before their 15th birthday, Danyal is buried beneath so many layers of Danny Fenton that his brother will need a shovel to dig him out. He's not sure what he'll find.

[eggwishing]

short & stout rose And awkward and gangly dave >>>> i think rose would move with a ferocity like she could accidwntally bump her elbow onto the corner of a table and the table would crumble . dave posture’d be so rigid that he’d fall like a tree and shatter like glass from a light breeze

[stbot]

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies ↳ 1x06 | 1x10

[c-kiddo]

at one point i didn't like caduceus' epilogue, that he just stayed home for a long time and eventually travelled again and eventually calliope joined him too. but i think actually i love it. something so gentle about him returning home to a temple that was once empty and lonely but is now healing and full of family who he loves so much. and to not have anything particularly asked of him apart from tending the garden and his small routines. especially thinking about how tired and sad he is by the end of the campaign, compared to the beginning when hes so giddy to just be interacting with people and seeing things he's never seen before and to have guidance from the wildmother. and then later, after aeor and so many more horrible things have happened, he admits to calliope that its too much and the outside world is scary and big and he's so so tired and he keeps saying how tired he is. so basically ideal ending that he gets to go home and get better and heal enough to be excited when he heads out into the world again

[insomniphic]

Did you base the headgear of your lore accurate odysseus on anything specific?

Honestly it was more of an amalgamation of many other interpretations of Odysseus — from beard, face structure, to hair. The hat just looked cooler than the ones that sculptors usually depict him wearing 💀

Like— look at that hat. Isn’t it just a silly hat? 💀💀 I know it’s for sailors and stuff but common

This was the post the anon was mentioning :)

[spaceratprodigy]

✨🌙 Iris and Tristan ☀️✨

@bogchampion — this one's for US and ONLY US!! a lil trissy n iris.. as a TREAT ☝️

> pose reference <

Commission Info | Ko-Fi | My Links

[dire-vulture]

woo!! I finally got Garua fully gened and dressed which means all my Size Record Tundras are complete!!

Shortest tundra - 2.43m - Garua (#63943340) Longest tundra - 4.82m - Brightsoul (#29919062) Shortest wingspan - 2.39m - Arpeggione (#66282436) Longest wingspan - 4.53m - Meridian (#64521214) Lightest tundra - 140kg - Blessing (#71313442) Heaviest tundra - 450kg - Skunk (#73710183)

[birddcandle]

Empires ZombieCleo!! ClayCleo? Clayeo? Yeah sure

Once again for @shepscapades ‘s Hermitcraft Character Design Event!! Some notes about the design and idea in general under the cut :0

I thought that Cleo would fit the Mezalean Empire very well since it is pretty much canon that Joel made all of his citizens through armour stands or clay, so I figured Cleo could be an armour stand maker/clay sculptor!!

There are also two versions of their design based on two ideas:

Cleo’s regular zombie skin is where she travels to Mezalea by request of the Mezalean King (and maybe some recommendation from a certain blue-haired man), and they are able to use their skills to help create new citizens for Joel

Cleo’s secondary design comes from an idea I had where they are one of the first citizens of Mezalea created by Joel, but since they were one of the first, she is sculpted from various colours found and created from the clay in the mesa

It is also possible that she was sculpted from one colour but they kept cracking, so she or Joel repaired her using different colours they had on hand

They also have green eyes for their regular zombie skin because that is just. Her regular skin, but she has brown eyes for her clay version since she was sculpted by Joel and in his image!! Every citizen sculpted by Joel has brown eyes and probably looks a whole lot like Joel lol

[crehador]

man i knew kinjou was Smol but i did not realize he was This Much smaller than even aoyama until seeing this image (dvd vol 2 cover)

[inksandpensblog]

We completely misinterpreted the hug scene

I was going to make this into a nice, well-composed essay, with each section talking about a different aspect of the episode's construction or execution, and about narrative theming and character arcs, and about why so many people thought this scene was enough to ruin the episode for them. I was going to do that, but then it took me eleven hours to try and narrow down what the actual problem with the scene was, when taken into context with the entire rest of the episode and episode 29; and then another three hours to realize what the actual intent of the scene had probably been and why nobody, including myself, seemed to have picked up on it (except for Lui and @k1ttyadventurer apparently-). So instead of the nice essay, you're getting a conceptual overview of my entire thought process, from beginning to end, as I tried to figure out the deeper reasons behind why everyone hated this scene so much, and then why we all had it wrong. You're welcome.

For the sake of internal consistency, I'm invoking author's bypass and using the names my server-mates and I have picked up for these characters. King shall henceforth be known as Mango, his child as Apricot, Purple's dadfigure as Cobalt, and Purple's momfigure as Orchid.

--

What started me on this path, was this thought: We didn't like Mango's reconciliation with Purple, but aside from pacing issues, Mango's arc (thematic, character, narrative, etc.) is pretty solid. So if the problem isn't with Mango's side, it must be with Purple's.

So, what was wrong about the way Purple's arc was written? Was it just that reconciliation scene in episode 30, or was it something from back in episode 29 that didn't show its full implications until now?

But, again, Purple's arc in episode 29 alone is pretty solid. So, the problem was just the reconciliation scene. And, again, for Mango's arc the scene works, it's only for Purple's that it doesn't.

So, what's wrong with it? Does this scene contradict episode 29 in some way? That's how a lot of us felt, at first, I think. Purple learned last episode that he didn't need acceptance from Cobalt, and he follows through on that in this episode, choosing to do what HE thinks is right and not what he thinks will earn him approval, and his reward is...symbolic acceptance from Cobalt? It didn't make sense, and sat wrongly with many of us.

--

But I still couldn't pin down why this didn't work, so I circled back. Maybe it was the relationship dynamics? Was that why many of us didn't like the idea of Mango being Apricot's father instead of their older brother, at first?

--

But then I noticed something amazing: if you watch the episode while viewing Apricot as Mango's sibling, and then watch it while viewing Apricot as Mango's child...nothing about Mango's arc actually changes, on a thematic level. It all still works, no matter which interpretation you go with.

Why, then, is the distinction given so much emphasis? Why is it important that we know that Apricot is canonically Mango's child, if it doesn't change anything about Mango's story either way?

Because what it DOES change, is the implied dynamic between Mango and Purple, and the number of inverse parallels in their stories.

--

I also think that at this juncture it's important to note that Mango seeing Apricot in Purple is something nobody seems to have had a problem with, even people who didn't like the episode. It's literally just Purple seeing Cobalt in Mango that people had issues with. Purple's side of the story, again, is the one that seems to be flawed in either its construction or its execution.

--

Now, while the status of who Apricot is, to Mango, doesn't influence Mango's story much, something about Apricot that does hold heavy sway over Mango's story is Mango seeing Apricot in Purple. And, since this seems to be paralleled by Purple seeing Cobalt in Mango,  we'd naturally expect this element to have an equally weighty effect on Purple's story. But what does Purple seeing Cobalt in Mango actually DO, for Purple's story?

--

@kikoqueenofrats and @luizastarry mentioned how after seeing Mango's backstory, seeing him be likened to Cobalt felt wrong. Specifically, that if Mango was meant to become a new parental figure for Purple, then having him become the new Cobalt, instead of, say, the new Orchid, felt really wrong, given how poorly Cobalt treated Purple (and, in my opinion, given how well Mango appears to have treated Apricot, whom he had recently likened to Purple earlier in the scene).

This is when Lui first brought up the idea that maybe the hug scene wasn't supposed to be a comparison after all, but was actually supposed to show how Mango and Cobalt were different. @iluvylalevu brought up pacing issues again, as a possible reason why the idea wasn't communicated clearly enough to the audience. Then they both discussed how some different body language from Purple in reaction to Cobalt's approach would've gotten this story point if it was indeed the intended point of the scene across to the audience a lot better; made the irreconcilable differences between Cobalt as Purple knew him and Mango as whoever he became over the course of this episode a lot clearer. 

I missed what Lui had already figured out, though, because my eyes caught on the body-language conversation, and it made me remember something: Cobalt, again and again, no matter what, forcing Purple to get up again when he fell.

--

So, I muted the video, and watched the hug scene again, and observed Purple's body language. He doesn't look like he's expecting he'll need to fight, but...in my opinion, it doesn't look like he's expecting a hug, either.

--

...maybe what he was seeing, during that moment in episode 30, hadn't been Cobalt turned around and returning to accept him, like he'd learned to stop yearning for in episode 29. (And really, would it be in-character for Purple to imagine his dad doing that? I think he knew his father better than that.) Maybe he’d seen Cobalt coming to admonish him, again. He had just defied Mango, after all, and then failed to stop him. And Green and the others weren’t here, to accept him regardless of his failure. And Orchid wasn’t here to catch him, all that was left were petals. And when it wasn’t Orchid standing over him to shelter him, it was always Cobalt, looming. But he knows it’ll be worse, if he stays on the ground. So he gets up.

And then the hug closes in, and Cobalt is gone, and it’s Mango.

--

The episode isn’t trying to compare Mango to Cobalt, like some questionable construction and execution choices for the scene led audiences the web over to believe. Instead, it’s contrasting them. Mango isn’t “the better Cobalt,” he isn’t “who Cobalt should’ve been.” He isn’t “the Cobalt Purple needs,” because episode 29 established that what Purple NEEDS is to get out from under the shadow of Cobalt’s expectations. Mango isn’t Cobalt. Mango is Mango. And Mango accepts Purple, not because of anything Purple did, and not even because he saw Apricot in Purple; the only time Mango saw Purple as Apricot was in the wall drawing, never when they were looking directly at each other, never the same way that Purple mistook Mango for Cobalt. Mango accepts Purple, because he’s Purple. Just like Green said his friends would.

Which is much less of a rancid vibe than what we’d all thought we were seeing, when all of us most of us first saw the episode.

--

I'd like to thank my server-mates for letting me figure this out, and for asking me to make sure it's shared.

[starry-bi-sky]

Love and hate can sometimes cross wires - DPXDC Ficlet

She props her up against the far wall, and kneels before her, fingers deceptively gentle against her cheek. Danyal is cold and trembling, her once bronze skin now dull. She meets her other half— self— sister— mother— predecessor’s eyes, and they are still wet. But now they are sharp, focused on Her face.

Danyal takes a shuddering breath, one that wracks itself down her spine. One that She can feel sinking into her — their? — shared soul. “You’re going to kill me.” She says, matter of fact, something like grief choking in her voice, making it shake.

She blinks at Her mother—sister—friend— predecessor, a feeling She knows is horror but thinks is hatred filling up Her lungs. Her cool palm trails kind down to her throat, Her talon fingers wrapping around the fragile skin. With very little effort, She could break her little neck. “Yes.” She murmurs, a sound only the two of them can hear. “I am.“

Her mother-sister-other half— predecessor shudders again, and yet makes no sound. Simply goes limp with acceptance in her arms. She doesn’t bother to even fight; she looks tired. Make it quick, it’s like she says.

I will. She promises, running the gentle padding of Her thumb along her jugular. It’s the only mercy She thinks She’ll ever give. But first…

“Give me a name?”

(Mother— sister— mine—) Danyal stares at Her, confusion parting her slowly paling lips. There’s silence between the two, thickening the air like the rise of an oncoming storm. Hurt and rage begins to toil beneath Her skin. Was the thought of naming Her so abhorrent, that she’d rather not say a thing at all? Her name is nothing?

Before She can take Her anger out, Danyal breathes in sharp. The sound is painful, jarring like jags of broken glass. She raises a hand, her palm — rough and calloused, proof of her fourteen years of life, of hardship — finds Her cheek too. It’s almost loving, the way Danyal swipes her thumb across Her skin, her clammy fingers tucking a strand of hair behind Her ear.

An emotion sweeps across her, boiling and toiling, burning hot and consuming her whole. Thick, bubbling in her throat, curling behind her teeth and under her tongue and tinging her peripherals with spots. An overwhelming emotion.

It must be hatred, she thinks. What other feeling can encompass one so much?

When Danyal breathes out, so with it comes a name; “Layal.”

Danyal always did love the nights.

(If you ask the Mother of Monsters why she killed Danyal al Ghul, she’ll tell you it was because she loved hated her.)

[wigglebox]

Shh, don’t tell him 💚💙 [x]

[stbot]

#cynthia x lydia crumbs

[whump-queen]

“You did so well”

It’s the way whumper says it—the way they speak to whumpee. It’s their voice—half the time angry, biting, and degrading, only to mutate into something sickeningly sweet in the aftermath of the pain, when whumper leans in close with sticky murmurs of affection—of mocking praise.

A toxic, slimy liquid that drips from whumper’s lips and oozes thick and heavy down whumpee’s ears and neck and shoulders.

It makes whumpee’s skin crawl. 

Or at least, it did.

At first. 

But there comes a point, during the more creative of whumper’s tortures, where the pain becomes too much, where the excruciating burn of the knife or the sear of the brand is blacking out whumpee’s brain and shoving their head deep underwater, shrinking their existence down through a tiny pinhole, only to be materialized again on the other side, dazed beyond belief, panting and shaking and still bound in whumper’s arms. 

It’s those precious few moments of reprieve in the aftermath, where the warmth of whumper’s shoulder against their cheek is enough for whumpee to sink into it— For their teeth to unclench, for their shoulders to slump against whumper’s torso, for their shaking knees to crumple into whumper’s lap.

For each part of them to give up—to give in— until they’re spilling hot tears into the fabric between shaking, heaving breaths, staining whumper’s shirt with the small beads of blood that still weep from their bitten lip.

Whumper only holds whumpee’s head tightly against their shoulder and let’s them ride out the sobs. 

tags—>

taglist: @whumpshaped  @whumpsday  @emmettnet  @a-whump-sideblog  @whump-it-like-its-hot  @wolfeyedwitch  @whumper-soot @unorganisedalienrubbish  @kira-the-whump-enthusiast @hidden-dreamland @whumpedydump @lonesome--hunter @ashh-ed @whump-in-the-closet @oriantthegiant @banditosong @anonymustyou @feralwhump @jieunie-23 @whumpasaurus101 @morning-star-whump @whmp @captain-bo-bob-bobby @the-beasts-have-arrived just ask to be added or removed <33

[blubberingblobmonster]

me when episode 7 season 4 of lego monkie kid

[tunnelduck]

Friend: wolverine is canonically a little dude. He's 5'3". Hugh Jackman is just a beast.

Me, who had only seen the live action movies: [proceeds to consume every animated x-men show known to man for my short king]