#well enjoy!!

[slightlyunconventional]

PLEASE more Sick sneezy k//az b//rekker if you can!

absolutely anon! it would be an honour

keep the s&b/soc requests coming guys i love it

i present:

tired (alternatively, "in which k/az b/rekker and his cold-ridden self pine over i/nej and learn why stifling is in fact bad")

A soft knock at the door. “Can I come in?”

Kaz’s eyes flickered open, clouded by exhaustion. He hadn’t slept in days, and as a result of this seemed to be fighting to stay conscious every waking moment. Running a leather-clad hand across his face and sighing, Kaz replied to the inquiring voice.

“Now’s… not a good time.”

He could almost feel Inej's disapproving frown. Another sigh escaped him. “Give me five minutes.”

Saints, the things I do for these people, he thought, shaking his head at no one in particular. Kaz sat up in his seat, straightened the cuff his face had slowly been sliding down as he strained to stay awake, and fixed a few stray pieces of hair that had slipped from his pristinely groomed head. He took a single sip from the glass of water on his desk, grateful for its coolness against his sore throat. A quick, tentative dab at his nose with a tissue, then he was up opening the door to Inej.

“Do you need something?” he asked, regarding her with an eyebrow raised.

She ignored his question, instead replying, “How long has it been since you slept?”

Kaz was slightly taken aback by this. Here he’d thought his lack of proper self-care was rather surreptitious, but then he supposed nothing escaped the observant eyes of the Wraith.

“And, yes, I’m referring to those circles under your eyes. You look awful.” Inej added. She folded her arms. Despite the girl’s slight stature, Inej easily managed the look of an intimidatingly concerned mother.

“Thanks,” Kaz said humourlessly, “Seems I’m doing that a lot lately.”

“You know what I meant.”

Of course I did, I just wanted to see you smile.

“You still haven’t answered my question. How long has it-”

Kaz stopped listening as a distasteful buzz took up residence in his sinuses. It had intensified tenfold before Inej had even finished speaking.

“-gGNKTt!”

The tightly-pinched stifle left his head spinning. He blinked back stars as Inej whirled around to face him.

“...What was that?” she asked, tone almost demanding.

Kaz huffed. “Nothing.”

“Do you expect me to believe that?”

He couldn’t reply - his nose burned with the same fiery insistence as moments ago.

“-heh’GNKkxt!”

Despite being contained perfectly between gloved thumb and forefinger, the sneeze still possessed a rather wet quality. It prompted a thick sniffle from Kaz.

“That was a sneeze?” Inej asked incredulously. Kaz saw her holding back a smile and fought not to roll his eyes.

“Yes, if you must know,” he replied, voice already dulled with congestion.

Inej cocked her head to one side. “You shouldn’t stifle them like that, you know. It causes damage.”

If Kaz had five kruge for every time he’d heard that from someone. This time he did roll his eyes. As if I’m not damaged enough, he thought.

“I can’t help it.” A lie.

“Oh, of course you can’t,” Inej teased. “So you’d still do it if, say, I pinned your hands behind your back? Would your dignity be able to survive that?”

Kaz ignored the warmth that rose in his cheeks.

He simply said, “Don’t push it.”

Yet again, before Inej could even think about responding, Kaz was crushing a third sneeze expertly between his fingers.

“hhaH’GNKXxt!”

Inej’s brows furrowed in concern. “That’s not normal,” she said, eyes narrow with worry, “Bless you, by the way, if that even warrants a blessing.”

He sniffed wetly in response, nose reddening by the minute. Inej seemed to clock this as she spoke again.

“You’re sick, aren’t you?” she asked. Kaz couldn’t help but notice the glow cast on her bronze skin by the autumn sunshine. He shook the thought from his mind, then shook his head at Inej.

“I’m fine.”

“Again, do you expect me to believe that? I don’t think “fine” people look as exhausted as you do.” She appeared to think for a moment, head tilted ever so slightly skyward. “It was that ridiculous negotiation from last night, wasn’t it? It was bucketing down all evening. Saints, Kaz, when did this start?”

“I… don’t know.” Another lie. He had known exactly when it started - one telling sneeze muffled clumsily into the towel he used to dry his hair of rainwater. Inej didn’t need to know that, though. She probably still does, somehow, Kaz acknowledged.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You really aren’t acting yourself.”

He scowled halfheartedly. “How am I supposed to act?”

Inej simply sighed. “I’ll leave you to it. Do you need anything?”

Scathing words caught on Kaz’s tongue, his mind eager to push away any and all help he was offered. He bit it back, shook his head.

With a soft, sympathetic smile, she turned to leave, evidently still teeming with worry.

“I’ll come and check on you later.”

Kaz waited for Inej’s footsteps to fade before succumbing to the reignited inferno in his sinuses. He snapped forward with a pair of wrenching sneezes.

“hH’GKKTSCHh! Hah..hUH’kKTSCCHHh!”

Saints, this is going to get old, he thought in frustration.

-

A knock, again, softer this time, though. Kaz lifted his head wearily, rubbing absentmindedly the haze of sleep that had misted his vision. He turned the situation over in his mind, waiting for something to click. Then he realised - he’d been asleep, at his desk, where any wretch could have seen him, done anything to him. The thought made a cold feeling settle in his stomach.

“Kaz? Everything okay?”

The cold thawed a little at the familiar voice. Inej.

He rubbed his eyes tiredly again. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Kaz didn’t really know if he wanted to face anyone at the moment, but his mind was made up for him when the door creaked slowly open, followed by Inej, who held a cup of something steaming in her graceful hands. “Saints, Kaz, you look even worse.”

“Thanks. What time is it?” he asked, rubbing a hand across his face.

“About nine. In the evening,” replied Inej, voice gentle, doting. A bolt of panic cracked through Kaz. He’d been asleep five hours.

Inej set the cup down on Kaz’s desk in front of him. He regarded it warily.

“It’s chamomile with a spoonful of honey. And a mint leaf - that should help to… clear the airways.”

Kaz still looked puzzled.

Inej sighed exasperatedly. “It’s tea.”

“Tea,” he repeated.

“Yes, yes, I know. Dark and mysterious people only drink the blackest coffee! But that won’t do you any good. This will help you-”

“Thank you.” Kaz said quietly.

“-feel better. Oh.” Inej paused, watching the dark-haired man closely for a moment. “You’re welcome.”

Kaz glanced at his hands, no, at his gloves. He wondered if it would be okay to take them off. She won’t mind, he reminded himself, she’s not like anybody else.

He slid his black gloves weakly from his hands, allowing his own pale, slender fingers to curl around the cup of tea. Warmth seemed to spread throughout him, enough to settle the shivers that kept plaguing him, even for just a minute. He lifted the mug, acutely aware of Inej’s eyes locked on him, on his hands. She’d seen him without his gloves before, many times, but Kaz still recognised her gaze fixated on him every single time. A part of him welcomed it. He’d gaze at her often, too.

Inej appeared to note the way he held the cup so tightly.

“Are you cold?” she blurted without thinking. He looked up at her and raised an eyebrow.

“No.” The third bold-faced lie. He could tell this time she really didn’t believe him.

“Then why are you gripping that mug like it’s the only thing keeping you alive?”

He ignored her, instead lifting said mug to his mouth. Steam wafted into his face, taking both him and his nose by surprise. The humid wisps teased out a sneeze that he was far too exhausted to suppress.

“hhH’gGGKTCHHUHh!”

The mug he was still holding jolted upwards, a sharp motion which mirrored his own snap forward. He wasn’t done. The ferocious tickle refused to back down, and he was left with his face slack, lips curled up in almost a snarl, before the burn climaxed and bent him in on himself with a tearing-

“haH’KZZXSCHiew!”

Kaz didn’t even notice the scalding tea pouring down his wrist.

“Saints, Kaz!” Inej rushed forward, taking the mug from his hands and quickly wiped the hot liquid from his skin and shirt. A glance back at his face told Inej that Kaz still was gearing up for another explosion. By now, his nose was pink, close to red around the rims of his nostrils which flared desperately with every hitch of his breath. Two more sneezes volleyed through him, seeming to rock his entire form.

“hAH’GKKSCHHh! huh-HUH-HH’GKKTSCHEW!”

The double left Kaz panting, gasping for breath, eyes brimming with tears. All attempts at stifling had gone straight out of the window. He looked up at Inej, whose face was full of concern. Justified, I suppose, he thought.

“Do you still want to tell me you’re “fine”, Kaz?” Inej asked in disbelief.

“...It’s not as bad as it looks?” he tried.

“Oh, it very much is,” Inej said sternly. Then, her face softened. Kaz was still knuckling his nose with one pale hand. “Don’t fuss at it so much,” she said, “you’ll just keep making yourself sneeze.”

He huffed, not unlike an annoyed infant. Inej handed him a small travel-pack of soft tissues.

“Here, these should help. And you still look cold. You ought to put on an extra layer or two.” Inej didn’t expect the submissive nod she received in response. “I know how much you hate being coddled, so I’ll let you be. But I will be checking on you every hour, okay? Don’t do anything stupid.”

Inej was sure she didn’t imagine the sound of Kaz’s head collapsing into his arms as she left. She couldn’t resist a glance back into the room, and, sure enough, he was already fast asleep. The door clicked quietly behind her as she tiptoed down the stairs.

[druid-for-hire]

[image id: a four-page comic. it is titled "immortality” after the poem by clare harner (more popularly known as “do not stand at my grave and weep”). the first page shows paleontologists digging up fossils at a dig. it reads, “do not stand at my grave and weep. i am not there. i do not sleep.” page two features several prehistoric creatures living in the wild. not featured but notable, each have modern descendants: horses, cetaceans, horsetail plants, and crocodilians. it reads, “i am a thousand winds that blow. i am the diamond glints on snow. i am the sunlight on ripened grain. i am the gentle autumn rain.” the third page shows archaeopteryx in the treetops and the skies, then a modern museum-goer reading the placard on a fossil display. it reads, “when you awaken in the morning’s hush, i am the swift uplifting rush, of quiet birds in circled flight. i am the soft stars that shine at night. do not stand at my grave and cry.” the fourth page shows a chicken in a field. it reads, “i am not there. i did not die” / end id]

a comic i made in about 15 hours for my school’s comic anthology. the theme was “evolution”

[melimelotus]

[autumn-may]

Mostly spoiler free summary of my viewing experience

[sylvrndoodles]

[catmask]

sometimes while i think about that while a lot of adults did not treat me very well as a kid i also get a lot of 'in hindsight this person was so good to me and i didnt even realize it until now' as an adult. today i was thinking about how the first anime convention i ever went to was when i was 10 and i asked the man working the manga cafe what manga was/what a good place to start was (because the con was very overstimulating for me and i had gotten lost) and he asked how old i was before recommending yotsuba and asking if i wanted any water or something to eat. its really simple but theres a lot of bad things that couldve happened or he could've been careless in his recommendation, but instead yotsuba has remained one of my favorite manga for years, and probably a large portion of why i continue to read manga as an adult... i think adults who try to involve kids in the world safely/kindly even in little ways make so much more of a difference than they ever really know.

[queerdraws]

it's zoro's birthday!! happy birthday big guy, may you say many more insane things to your enemies in the coming years

[maskednerd]

[industrations]

Ice cream date 🤍

[gatoiberico]

recently played skyward sword and OOF it's so damn good

prints | also playthrough on my gaming channel!!

[pluvioseprince]

kabru loses the plot

[humanharvest]

for the butch lovers

[amphibianaday]

day 1527

[hailsatanacab]

Family Dinners - dpxdc

"Holy shit, you're Bruce Wayne!" Danny gaped, jabbing a finger at the man sitting at the head of the table.

The bustling dining room goes silent as everyone turns to look at him.

"Danny, who did you think was going to be here?" Tim asks, disbelief plain in his voice and Danny feels his face flush red.

"Sorry, I, uh, I guess I just never put it together. Tim Drake-Wayne. Wayne Manor. It, uh, makes sense now." He laughs sheepishly and scrubs at his neck before slumping back down into his chair.

"Well," Tim says with an indulgent sigh, "at least I know you're not just friends with me for my connections."

"Yeah, I'm really sorry, I just never thought about it, I guess."

Danny sinks lower as everyone around him laughs. Come to dinner, he said, the food is the best, he said, ignore the family, he said. Danny really wishes he'd listened to Tim and just ignored them—almost as much as he's regretting accepting the offer in the first place—but... he's having dinner with Batman.

Ancients, that's so weird!

The last time he saw Batman was in the future and, suffice it to say, it was not going well. There hadn't really been time for family dinners there.

Wait. Family dinners?

He peers around the table, openly gawking at everyone as it all clicks into place.

"Everything alright, Danny? Now realising who everyone else is?" Tim asks with a roll of his eyes.

"Uh... something like that..." Danny mumbles as everyone laughs again.

From further down the table, the smallest Wayne scoffs and clicks his tongue.

"I thought you said he was smart, Drake?"

"So, you all do it, too, then?" he asks, ignoring the jibe. Danny's only a little bit jealous as he thinks of how much easier they must have it, how much easier it'd be if his family had been on his side, too. "You all work together?"

"Nah," Dick says from across the table with a brilliant grin. "Tim's the only one that works with Bruce, we all have different jobs. I'm a police officer in Bludhaven."

"Disgusting." Danny blurts out without thinking—because seriously, what kind of self-respecting vigilante would also be a police officer?—before clapping a hand over his mouth. "Sorry."

The whole table laughs again, the loudest being the blonde girl a few spaces down from Dick. Look, Danny wasn't really paying attention to names when they were all paraded in front of him. Dick only gets remembered because his name is a joke.

Come on, Danny, recover!

"That's, uh, not what I meant, though."

"Oh?" Dick asks, cocking his head slightly to the side. Is it Danny's imagination or does his smile tense slightly?

"Yeah, I mean like, you know, in costume. It must make it so much easier to have everyone together like this."

"Costume? What do you mean?"

Yeah, Danny's not imagining it, everyone tenses up at that. It's really only now that he's realising that this probably isn't how he should bring up that he knows about their... night time activities. In fact, he probably shouldn't be bringing it up at all.

"Uuhhh..." Danny looks wildly around the table as he continues making his stupid noise. Think, think, think! There must be a way out of this!

"Danny?" Tim asks, looking concerned.

"Oh, Ancients, this isn't how I wanted it to go at all," he mutters, slipping even further into his chair. He's almost on the floor now and he so, so wishes it could just swallow him up.

His real first meeting with Batman was meant to be cool! He had planned to be Phantom, maybe save them from a tight spot, prove his worth as a mysterious and powerful ally as thanks for the help Batman gave him in the future.

"Danny, what are you talking about?" Tim starts tugging on his sleeve in an attempt to pull him back up from his pit of despair.

Eventually, Danny relents and sits up straighter, hiding his face in his hands and whining all the while.

"I'm sorry, I just didn't expect him to be here and it threw me off so now I look stupid and it's so embarrassing!" he wails, flailing his arms wide. "Why wouldn't you warn me that Batman was your adopted dad, Tim? Couldn't you have let me know?"

"I'm sorry, what? Danny are you alright? There's no way Bruce can be Batman, look at him!"

"Yeah," the blonde girl laughs from the bottom of the table, "look at him! That's a wet noodle of a man! Batman can actually do things, B is incapable of pretty much everything."

"Thank you, Stephanie," Bruce sighs, massaging his forehead.

It's... Those are the first words Danny's heard Batman say since everything went down and it's enough to knock him out of his embarrassment.

It's really good to hear his voice again. Especially now, when it's strong and healthy and full of personality—even if that personality is little more than a tired father right now—far better than how it had been, at the end.

Danny sits up, back straight, and grins. He's got this. He remembers it perfectly. Some people count sheep to fall asleep, Danny repeats his mantra to be certain that he'll never forget it.

"Gamma alpha upsilon tau iota mu epsilon, 42, 63, 28, 1 colon 65 dash 9."

Once again, the whole table falls into silence.

"Holy shit..." breathes the other D name (Duke? Danny's pretty sure he's Signal) from opposite Stephanie. "Isn't that...?"

"The time travelling code." The littlest Wayne says stiffly. "We have met in the future?"

"That's not just the time travelling code, Dami." Dick says, looking between Danny and Bruce. "That's the family time travelling code."

Danny's grin freezes in place.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"1 colon 65 dash 9." Dick explains, still flicking between him and Bruce. "It means you've been adopted into the family and we should all treat you as such, no questions asked."

"Tell you what, I'm about to ask a question." Danny says, dumbstruck. "You just told me it was a code to identify time travellers, not anything about being adopted! What the hell, B?"

Bruce looks about as shellshocked as Danny feels.

"We must have been close," he says finally, after opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water a few times.

"No! Not that close!" Danny reels back, taking a deep breath ready to refute it all, but... "Well, I mean, you found me when I first got stuck, and you helped me get better despite being... And then we fought together against the, uh, bad guy, before he, um, he... before you couldn't."

An uncomfortable beat passes while they all pick up on what Danny tried so hard not to say.

"So, you're not from the future, then, you travelled there and came back?" Tim asks, breaking the tension and leaning forward with a glint in his eye.

"Yeah, it was a whole end of the world thing, but don't worry about it," Danny says with a hand wave, "It's all kosher now, won't ever happen."

"What did happen?"

"Seriously, don't worry about it, we cool."

"How long in the future was it?"

"About ten years? You were pretty spry for an old man, B," Danny laughs, wishing they'd get off the topic of what happened and get back to the adoption bit.

Everyone shares degrees of a cautious smile as they relax out of the shock, and Dick—whose grin is the biggest—says, "No wonder you got the family code, you're already riffing on him like one of us. How long were you there for?"

"A week, before I managed to get back to my present and stop him then."

"A week? Jeez, B, that has to set some kind of record, seriously."

"Oh!" Danny says, sitting bolt upright and blinking in surprise before pointing at Dick and bouncing in his seat. "You're Nightwing!"

"What?"

"That's exactly what Nightwing said when Batman told me the code! Makes so much more sense now."

Dick laughs and claps his hands, delighted.

"You were not formally adopted?" The grumpy small one—Dami?—asks, his face pinched.

"I didn't even know I was informally adopted."

"And your parents? Are they alive or dead?"

"Damian, stop—"

"They were dead in the future, but they're alive now." Danny says, looking down. He fiddles with the tablecloth, twisting the fabric around his fingers as he fights down the pang of sadness that he always feels when he thinks of them now. He forces a bright smile on his face and hopes it doesn’t look too strained. "I just, uh, can't talk to them much, anymore."

"Damian," Dick warns, "1 colon 65 dash 9. Treat them as family, no questions asked."

"This is Damian treating him as family, the little turd has no manners." Tim scoffs, rolling his eyes, but he gently bumps shoulders with Danny to knock him out of his funk. Danny can't help but send him a watery smile.

"I have the most exemplary manners, Drake, unlike some people." Damian spits, crossing his arms with a pout. "I was merely ascertaining his status to see how he could possibly fit into the family."

"I know this is all a bit sudden, Danny," Bruce smiles, ignoring Damian and reaching out to lay a warm hand on his arm, "for all of us. But if I felt strongly enough to give you that code after spending a week with you in the future, then you are more than welcome in this family, if you so choose it. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we'd like to get to know you a bit more."

"I know a threat when I hear it, Bruce." Danny snorts. "But, yeah, I get it. I'm sorry this is all so weird, it really wasn't how I wanted to find you again, but... I'm glad I did."

"So are we, Danny." Dick says, with a warm smile. "And formally or not, 1 colon 65 dash 9 means you're family. Welcome to the fun house! No take backs or refunds, sorry. You're stuck with us."

[hinamie]

thank u canon plant nerd megumi for my life

bonus:

[araneapeixes]

idk how long it will take me to color this and i really like the lines so enjoy<33