#unending night

[fieriframes]

[The curtain falls on the Unending Night and we in Flavortown remain. Will we see you all again? I lean on this new dawn's hope. You will remain ever in our hearts. Et in Flavortown ego. We are here. We are here. We are here.]

[carebeardean]

cas saving dean is so legendary even outside of supernatural itself that I’m shocked as a first time show watcher how much it’s actually about dean saving cas.

dean is probably the first person to treat cas like a human being with a choice—dean, who doesn’t believe in angels, who’s been failed by heaven again and again, who has every reason to write him off entirely. he’s furious with cas for going along with the plan to destroy humanity because he believed better of him. and like some fucked up version of the velveteen rabbit, by treating cas like a person, cas becomes human

dean calls him cas, and it sticks. dean loves humanity so stubbornly, so fucking fiercely despite everything, that cas stops and looks, for the first time in millennia. he wakes up. he doesn’t have a choice, seeing dean, who’s tortured and been tortured for decades, refusing to give up on people. dean who should be broken, who should be lying down and never getting up, spitting at god and his angels with blood in his teeth, for strangers. for people who will never know his name.

imagine, loving so much angels slip down from heaven just to see. to understand. to touch…

[aure-entuluva-2407]

king of fools

original

[suriquesse]

for @manweweek. ⤷ day one: family | breath & air

[cajunfoxnight]

So following that, I'm guessing Val is also eats the most

Ah no, that honor would go to Gambit, with Rags making it for close competition 🥲 (RIP Gus's wallet)

[july-19th-club]

i have no mouth and i must scream speech but for about insomnia hate hate hate let me tell you how much i have come to hate being awake

[supercalafragilisticxpalidocious]

Walking around asking people if they listen to podcasts like I’m a bee trying to flirt

[essektheylyss]

Felix/Merlin 200k slowburn rivals to stoner buds (pun intended) to lovers

[apamates]

RGU, ep. 23: Qualifications of a Duelist | Fool's Fate, ch. 18: Ice

[etoilesombre]

[captain-ghost]

The valley? You better believe it's dark. The flames? So fierce. You're not gonna believe this next bit but the journey is unending, and the night? Yeah, it's without mercy.

[vechter]

SOLILOQUY ON THE NEW MOON, Sarah Lao (x)

dick grayson btw

[ishgard]

#30: ...as comfort for whomever you draw from the hat! :3

Thank you! I'm going with Early-ARR Ahru and K'jhir! 😌

K'jhir was slipping again... The long, dark shadows of his past were never far from him, fangs bore deep into his ankles as they were. He dragged them everywhere, and they dragged him down.

On the cusp of sleep he found himself once more in those dim, candlelit rooms. The smoke of incense aetherically aspected to sway the shadows choked his senses, rousing the void gate within him to hand over the reins of control to something from beyond. Hunger, violence. He couldn't remember half of what he'd done, but the fragments were enough to haunt him.

Ahru found him sitting on the docks outside the Waking Sands, gaze stretching out over the dark waters and starlit skies. But he had that look to him as if he wasn't seeing any of it, like his gaze was pinned on the darkest parts of the sky between stars and his mind was slowly being swallowed into it.

She didn't know what to do at times like these. Words seemed paltry and hollow, and as natural as it came to her she was reluctant to startle him with physical touch. So she settled for settling down beside him, slow and quiet, letting her legs dangle over the water.

For a long few moments he didn't even seem to notice her, which struck her as... bad. She'd have sooner expected her simple presence to startle him. Instead the still silence stretched on, broken only by the rhythm of the waves and the occasional, distant drunken laughter from the taverns.

"Ahru?" His voice sounded a touch slurred -like he was just waking up- as he half-turned towards her, brows raised in surprise. But somewhere deep down, he realized he'd been aware of her for a while now, and it had only just 'clicked'.

She lit up, ears perking as she smiled at him. "How're ya feeling?"

His expression soured briefly; brows furrowing, lips pursing. Then, slowly he shook his head, but said nothing.

Slowly she shifted towards him, and slower still she reached her hands up towards his face. He watched her with slight confusion, but no particular sign of discomfort or disapproval - perhaps even a hint of curiosity, so she gently cupped his face between both her hands and brought herself closer.

"Well whatever it is, you're not alone, okay? If nothing else, remember that." She struggled with herself a moment, fighting the urge to just give him a big, tight hug, knowing he'd probably just tense like a statue against it.

Somewhere in the recesses of a sun-blurred memory she could recall her dad kissing her bruised knees. 'The cure to all ails', he said with a grin as he ruffled her hair.

So instead she brushed aside Kajh's hair, and leaned in to press a kiss against his forehead. Then she drew back, but not without giving his hair a small tousling.

But K'jhir just blinked back at her, as if that small gesture had entirely quieted every process in his mind. Which, all things considered, was more than welcome. The shadows hadn't all gone from his eyes, but a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth just the same.

"Thank you, Ahru."

[doedipus]

the thing is that I generally do get along pretty well with my folks these days, I just cannot fucking stand living with them

[starculler]

strap in for this week's fic flavor: the failsafe episode of season one of the young justice cartoon except the simulation just won't. fuckin. end.

(fics that inspired this at the end)

If I ever did sit down to make my own fic, I'd split it in 3 parts:

The Simulation: bits and pieces of the 40 years Dick lives after most everyone he knows has died

The Return: the immediate aftermath and healing from the trauma of having not-quite-actually lived a whole life only to wake up and find out it was all fake. nothing traumatizing about that whatsoever.

The Unintended Consequence: aka the twist I'd love to add and would hint to in the second part - finding out the simulation, through martian mind fuckery, pulled from the real world (and in many cases, from real minds). Dick meets a bunch of people he didn't think were real outside the confines of his simulated life. A bunch of rowdy, heroism-inclined teens across the years get to meet the sibling/friend/mentor figure they all dreamed up one night.

(actual idea snippets under the cut)

.

Dick Grayson is 14 and most of the world's heroes have died. He planned a suicide mission that left him the sole survivor of a doomed team he helped found. The invasion may have been stopped, but is this really the price he wanted to pay?

The first face he sees in the infirmary is Roy's, and he has to close his eyes and just breathe for a few minutes because for one painful moment he'd thought it was Wally. But this isn't the world where his best friend miraculously survived alongside him. This is the one where he got his best friend killed and didn't even give him the courtesy of following behind him. Behind them.

.

Dick Grayson is 27 and has lived longer without Bruce than with him. The invasion's anniversary is always a tough day for him, but that morning seems especially harrowing. He'll get shit for it later, but can't resist stepping out onto the balcony of the manor's master bedroom (Bruce's old bedroom) for a smoke -- his first since he'd promised to quit if Jason, just 15 then, did too.

"Bad habits tend to pile up," he'd said, a rueful quirk to his tired grin. He'd tapped the cigarette twice on the railing and added, lower, "and this one's especially nasty, huh."

He inhales, watches the sun creep across the horizon, and lets acrid smoke burn through his lungs for a long moment before blowing it out in a small cloud. His eyes water, but he doesn't cough. It tastes just as bad as it did the first time he smoked one, not even a year after the invasion and treading water as Robin proved insufficient.

There hadn't been enough heroes to go around then, and Dick had been trained by one of the best. It hadn't been fair, but it had been his plan that had ultimately stopped the invasion. His shoulders everyone's expectations fell on.

He takes another drag, then smudges the lit end against the rail he's leaned on when he hears a boot scuff purposefully against the roofing above him.

"Todd and Pennyworth will be upset with you."

He doesn't turn around. Damian doesn't jump down to join him.

.

Dick Grayson is 54 and wakes up in a room full of ghosts. He hears his long-dead father-figure tell his long-dead team about a simulation they weren't meant to win. A training exercise gone wrong and only half a day spent under their mentors' careful, if slightly panicked, supervision.

He looks at his hands, watching the way his gloves crease when he flexes them in and out of tight fists. He looks at his team, their eyes a little haunted but shoulders slumped with relief even as they grumble. Batman's heavy, gloved hand settles on his shoulder and the weight of it is a nauseating mix of foreign-familiar.

He opens his mouth. Closes it.

Tears prick his eyes behind his domino mask, and he tells himself the suffocating, acidic void building in his chest is just some leftover side effect of the ordeal and not the grief-guilt of outliving yet another family (no matter that they hadn't been real in the end).

.

Dick Grayson is 16-going-on-56 and well used to the coincidences piling up between his simulated life and the real thing. Some of it -- missions and villains he remembers cropping up -- he's marked for Bruce to review and sort as he pleases. Some -- security for the cave, team building anecdotes, and training regimens -- he's shared with the team. And some he keeps only for himself.

Tim is one of those. He knows it's not fair to the kid (so much smaller now than he ever was when Dick lived his simulated life), but he can't help being selfish just for this. Tim is the one kid he's sure he didn't make up, and if Dick's taken to babysitting the kid just to be near at least one member of the family he built for himself in the wake of the worst days of his life .... Well, anyone who says shit about it can happily stand in line to have their teeth kicked in.

Despite this, it still catches him off-guard when he sees a familiar face pop up in one of Bruce's reports.

Jason Todd, caught boosting tires off the batmobile, is nearly the same age now as he was when Dick met him. He stares at the words, but none of them really sink in beyond the kid's name and address. He's moving before he's even made the decision.

He's used to the world kicking him when he's down - lived it for 40 frustrating years. But he has Bruce again. And things with Tim have been so good. And he's always been selfish when it comes to family. If he could just see Jason. If he could just meet him. If he could talk to him.

If if if if if--

.

Inspirations:

Circles in Shattered Mirrors by InfinityIllusion

Fine (But Not Okay) by CharlotteDaBookworm

Verisimilitude by mutemelody

[cynthiav06]

What makes Klayley different from other series ships for you?

I am assuming you mean other ships in the orignals by that.

It's the really simple case that's not simple at all. It's the underlying passion between them that just won't go away no matter who they take as a lover. The burning anger, loathing, care, loyalty, and the inexplicably undying connection that keeps them tethered to each other always and forever, come hell or highwater.

Mikael almost killed me and the baby, but i can't help but be more worried about how Klaus suffered all these years, I need to comfort him.

The witches are murdering me and the baby. Forget Elijah , I need Klaus here.

The witches stole baby hope? Not important right now, Hayley's dead, and I need a moment or several to take it all in.

I don't really love Jackson, but Klaus needs me to marry him, so I will.

I have to deal with my newly risen from dead mother and father, but whether Hayley's new husband is treating her right or not is more important.

Hayley tried to run from me, and I am extremely furious, but I can't bear to kill her or physically hurt her.

I will hate Klaus forever, but I can't really hate him at all.

My siblings are in trouble and may need my immediate help, but the road trip with Hayley is the best fun I have had in centuries, and I love it too much to stop now.

I am the strongest and the proudest being on earth. I kneel to no one, especially not to scum like Lucien, but he has Hayley, and I would never let her die. She means too much to me. I have to kneel to save her, no problem, I will do it a thousand times if it's to save her.

I love my Pack a lot, but the Mikaelsons are dying, Klaus is dying, so my pack can go to hell. I will save him and the Mikaelsons even if I die .

I have to let go of my dignity as a wolf and kill, lie, massacre all to save Klaus and Mikaelson family. And I used to have a problem with that, but it's for Klaus, I can't watch him suffer, so i will do it gladly.

Klaus is going around the world, massacring everything in sight and trying to cut contact, but I will never give up on him.

Being in New Orleans near hope will bring forth Apocalyspe that might kill hope, but Hayley's missing, so all else be damned.

I am being killed, and Klaus is being attacked by Elijah. He's hurt, Hope's hurt, so I am going to kill Greta and sacrifice myself for them because Klaus and Hope are my family Elijah be damned.

My daughter is dying and meets me in the afterlife, but the second I hear Klaus's voice, I know all will be alright.

My brother, my companion, my only confidant who I would go insane without is dead to me for good because he killed Hayley, and there's no greater offense than that.

I am in hell. My heart feels empty. Hayley is dead. I can sacrifice Elijah to save hope and kill the hollow, but I vowed to Hayley that I would do anything to save our daughter so I will sacrifice myself. [Also because I can't live without my little wolf]

So yeah, it's you know, soul shattering stuff like this that keeps me hooked to Klayley. Nothing huge. This and all the other essays I wrote should be plenty enough evidence as to why. (Sorry for the late)

And here's the thing anyone who watched the Orignals and isn't blind should be shipping them intensely, too.