#who is also largely trusting

[haunted-xander]

BBS is a tragedy in many ways, but one of the things that gets me is that the catalyst, the one big thing that caused this mess to begin with, is so avoidable.

Like, the story starts primarily because Terra starts to fear himself (because of the darkness he has unwittingly 'used') and this causes a spiral of doubt and obsession. A spiral which he could've escaped from or maybe not even started if he just 1) had been taught the balance between light and dark properly (that darkness is more than just unquestionable evil, that light is more than unquestionable good, that they can and should co-exist in balance), and 2) had consistent socialization from more than the same 3 people.

Like. BBS is a cautionary tale about what happens when people aren't exposed to a wide enough variety of people and, therefore, end up naive and overly trusting because they never learned that people have ulterior motives. Terra is consistently manipulated and used by people literally everywhere he goes, because he can't see that they might not have the best intentions! He can't see the red flags because he doesn't know there are red flags to look for!

Xehanort knows this. It's why he targeted Terra to begin with: because he would be susceptable to his words. The main reason he couldn't use Aqua is because she was too confident in her own values, she didn't have the seed of doubt that Terra had. It's the only thing that prevents her from being used the same way he is, even though she is just as naive and trusting as he is.

Ven probably has it the worst socialization wise. Unlike Terra and Aqua who, presumably, has/had a family and life outside of the Land of Departure prior to beginning training there, Ven doesn't remember anything before then (not that he had much he'd be happy to remember anyway). And since he's the youngest and most 'fragile' one (due to being in recovery for most of his time here), he gets somewhat coddled and shielded by everyone else. Not to mention the way Eraqus completely forbid him from leaving and never intented for him to ever see worlds outside the Land of Departure. Sure, Terra and Aqua aren't typically supposed to leave either, but at least they'd be allowed in certain situations. Ven wouldn't.

Ven isn't allowed to interact with anyone outside of home. He's not allowed anything that involves the outer worlds. (He and Naminé are a bit alike in that sense. Though at least the people he's stuck with are nice to Ven and do genuinely care for him, unlike Naminé...)

BBS happens largely because Eraqus failed as both a teacher and a parental figure to all of them, but Terra most of all.

[starry-bi-sky]

Part SEVEN of "Clone Danny"

Red Robin, Danny recognizes, steps away from him as he sits up. "My name is Phantom," he signs, blinking the exhaustion out of his eyes. (From Red Robin's perspective, it looks like he has no eyes. There lacks his signature green glow.) "I'm not a gang member, just an out-of-town vigilante."

Red Robin frowns at him, an uncertain grip on the bō in his other hand. "Phantom?" He repeats, no lacking amount of suspicion in his voice. "How can I believe that?"

Right. Yeah, okay, that's fair. Danny shrugs at him, and slumps against the wall. "Google search?" He gestures, he's been out in the daytime before and he's seen the news articles about him.

Red's eyes narrow at him and Danny simply draws his knees up and faceplants into them, half-listening to Red's murmurs into his comm while also trying to get some extra-shut eye.

("Oracle, can you pull up anything on a vigilante named Phantom? The guy here is claiming to be one." Tim says.

"On it."

"Is this Phantom wearing a white mask?" Bruce asks, his voice gruff like an aftershock. "There's a vigilante who shares the same name, but he resides in Illinois."

"Is this guy from that Amity city you visited ages ago?" Says Tim, before shaking his head. "Don't answer that. Yes, he's wearing some freaky mask. I said it reminded me of Hood's helmet for a reason."

"I've got something," Oracle interrupts, "Bats' right. as usual. The Phantom of Amity Park, not much stuff of this guy but he's only been out for over a year. Apparently, his rogues' gallery consists of ghosts."

"Oh great.")

"Look tell the Batman that I'm sorry for trespassing on his turf," He signs irritably when Red Robin eventually starts talking to (re: interrogating) him again. "It's not like I want to be here."

"How did you get in Gotham anyways?" Red Robin questions, batman was on his way to help deal with the situation but Tim doubted he wouldn't get caught up on the way with dealing with petty crime. "Your turf is nearly a thousand miles away from here."

"Two words." Danny deadpans, "Teleport ghost." (Red Robin winces sympathetically.) "I'm keeping this bastard in the thermos for a month for this alone."

(Danny was ignoring the slow-choking anxiety growing in his lungs over how he was gonna get home. He never takes his phone when he goes out, the risk of breaking it was too high. He had no way of contacting anyone to get him home.)

(He swallows the growing lump in his throat, and buries the feeling in the back of his mind.)

"Thermos?"

Danny unclips his Fenton Phantom Thermos off from his belt loop and shows it to Red Robin. "My ghost-catching device," He says with one hand, tilting it carefully for Red to inspect. "I wish I could say I made it, but its a FentonWorks invention."

(He wasn't sure if it was a smart idea to say who it belonged to, but saying it wasn't his probably loosened up any tracks on him, right?)

"Do you work with these Fentons, then?" Red asks, and something dark and shadowy flickers from the corner of Danny's eye. He glances over, and sees nothing, and his hackles raise.

(Either that was Batman, or a ghost, or Danny's mind playing tricks on him. He couldn't feel his ghost sense building in his throat, so he decided it was either the latter of the former.)

Danny snorts, quiet and gruff. "No." He clips his thermos to his belt again, stifling a smile on his face. "The Fentons hate me actually, I prevent them from catching ghosts themselves. Their son gives me their tech."

He had a cover story, so he might as well stick with it, right?

Batman shows up at that moment, appearing atop the little roof where the door is, and giving Danny a heart attack when he speaks in his low, rumbly voice like thunder rolling in, "Why would they hate you for that?"

Danny shoots up to his feet with a startled yell in his throat, clutching his chest as he whirls around and looks up. He nearly runs into Red Robin, and signs a few choice swears at the Bat.

"wow you're scarier in person, asshole."

"you didn't answer my question."

"Of course I didn't, you scared me." and Danny takes a trembling step back when the Batman jumps down and lands on the roof in front of him. He's faced ghosts before, but somehow the living is always scarier.

"But, um, the reason is a bit.. complicated, I guess." He says, fingers beginning to shake as his adrenaline wears off. God is he tired. He wants to go home. "The Fentons are the local ghost hunters and local crazies. I don't know if I can call them mad scientists because they're harmless to the living."

"But they're extremely anti-ghost. I've heard from their son multiple times the very unethical things they would do to ghosts if they got their hands on one."

Danny 'talks' a little more before calling it quits, even telling Batman that he can't tell him more without putting his identity at risk.

Plus, its getting harder and harder to hide his bone-deep exhaustion and his growing fear of being stranded in the most dangerous city in America with no way home.

"I would love to tell you more, believe me I'm dying to." Danny signs, shaky sarcasm dripping from his fingers. His hands are visibly trembling and he's withholding a slowly growing panic attack. "But I would like nothing more than to figure out a way to get home."

"Do you have no one to contact?"

"Sort of. But only one of them could probably come get me and get me back to Amity by sunrise. And I have no phone."

That one person being Ellie.

=====

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 4.5 (Dani interlude) Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 7.5 (Dan Interlude) Part 8

Taglist: @the-navistar-carol @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @gin2212 @youracearocroatneighbour @luckybyrdrobyn @deeplyconfusedbear @epilepticnerd @beautifulmomenttodrawblank @sara0055 @blusunkhild @letmesayfuxk (?) @latheevening226 @tkiesai @rosedasy @meira-3919

[angelsandmen]

I love charthur but also thinks a lot ab it in a "a guy who's only real (arguably) relationships of any sorts involved him changing or hiding parts of himself and a guy who's probably never been in a long term relationship due to being on his own for twenty-ish(?) years walk into a bar together and try to hold hands" kind of way

[captainbuzzard]

was clearing out my phone's gallery and once again realized how much art i never posted here, so here's a stijn strongbody!

[ID: a digital line drawing of Stijn Strongbody, a middle aged Japanese man with four sheep's horns, and, barely visible before the canvas cuts off, four arms. he holds a pencil in one hand as he looks off to one side with a good-natured, contemplative expression.]

[cthulhusstepmom]

It's a pretty unanimous conclusion that Ghost can't find out about the reptiles, for his own sake, at least until Hugo and Wee Man have found forever homes. Soap isn't stupid, he knows that he won't be able to keep it up forever, he's just asking for a little more time is all. Naturally this leads to some shenanigans.

One day in early summer, Soap's sitting at a rickety picnic table near where he and Ghost go to smoke. It's isolated from the rest of the base and it's pretty solidly established as Ghost's territory so he doesn't have to worry about people. On the table is Peach, the beardie with mbd named in honor of his boy at home, enjoying some natural uvb and dandelion greens. He's arranged a meeting with the people he's found for her next weekend and he's spoiling her nonstop until then. All of a sudden there's a tickling in his hindbrain, the sort of feeling you get when a big cat is just out of sight. It can only mean one thing. Ghost. Panicking only a little bit, Soap frantically does the only thing he can, he shoves Peach up his shirt. What follows is probably the most awkward conversation he's ever had with his Lt. which is a shame because the fair weather has put Ghost in a truly legendary good mood. Soap is a highly trained operative, he's stared his torturers in the face and laughed at them but the pain of razor sharp little bearded dragon claws scrabbling at his chest and catching on totally regulation nipple piercings is enough to make his eyes water.

A few days after Peach goes to her new home he ends up filling the vacancy in the rescue hotel, it never stays empty for very long. This time the poor critter is a baby blue tongue skink rescued from an abandoned apartment building in a warzone. The private that brings him the lizard looks about as nervous as can fucking be, he can't really blame the poor lass what with Ghost looming in the corner like the specter of death itself, deadly silent and exuding enough malice to curdle their breakfast on the table and turn the fish belly up in their tank. Thankfully the box is discreet with a few nondescript airholes cut in the side. The private thanks him stutteringly and flees the rec room like her heels are on fire. Ghost doesn't say anything, simply raises an expectant eyebrow while Gaz and Price studiously drop peas into the fish tank. Soap just shrugs "care package" he says with a cheesy wink. Ghost scoffs and it's seems like it's put to rest, though his Lt. sticks to him like glue for the rest of the day.

The closest he'd come to discovery was late one night. He'd screamed himself awake about a half hour before and, unable to get back to sleep, is just cuddling on his bed with Wee Man. A quiet, almost hesitant knock on his door brings his attention away from the snake. It's so quiet that he almost writes it off as his tired brain playing tricks on him. But then whoever it is knocks again, a little more firmly this time. Quickly, Soap disentangles himself from Wee Man, leaving him to explore the bed, anything he could get into is locked and he's too big to get into any crevices anyway. Cracking the door open he doesn't know what he expects but it sure as hell isn't Ghost, dressed down in loose pajama bottoms and an old ratty hoodie with a soft black balaclava hugging his face. He suddenly becomes very aware of the fact that he's just in boxers.

"Ghost?"

His Lt squints a bit at his name, almost as if he wasn't sure he'd get this far.

"Couldn't sleep, heard you were up..." probably the most tactful way to acknowledge his screams of terror "...can I come in?"

Cold panic flushes through Soap, only made worse by the scaly nose he can feel start to nudge his leg. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Wee Man, social butterfly that he is, is trying to force his head in between the crack in the door and Soap's leg.

"Och I dunno, it's a right fuckin mess in here right now." He hedges trying to gently maneuver a living rope of pure muscle longer than he is tall with just his bare foot. The crestfallen, vulnerable expression on Ghost's covered face makes something in him cry out. His Lt. starts to say something but Johnny doesn't let him finish. "But if ye'll lemme put some pants on I can make ye some of the chamomile tea ye like? We could go to yer room if ya'd like, might be able to see the floor too." He winks, seeing the exact moment Ghost notices his state of undress, the tops of his cheeks going the slightest bit rosy. And maybe it's that time of night where nothing quite feels real but he could swear he sees his Ghost smile a relieved smile.

"I'd like that."

[rowenabean]

.

[antianakin]

So I've been thinking about those posts that have gone around protesting the fandom inclination to not like villain redemption arcs because of the puritanical values that go along with believing people don't deserve the "rewards" that come with redemption arcs, usually: love, acceptance, understanding, etc. and the idea that no person deserves to be denied the basic things every human being should be granted.

And, of course, applying that to Anakin.

Because as someone who does not truly LIKE Anakin, I'm usually the first person to not be inclined to forgive Anakin post-child murder, post-genocide, post-betrayal. I'm generally the first one to believe Anakin can't get better once he's chosen to do his worst. I've called him a rabid bear that just needs to be put down for his own sake and everyone else's. There isn't a cure at this point, he can't be saved or redeemed.

Even Luke doesn't really REDEEM Anakin, Anakin's still only doing what he does to save someone he likes. Great, he throws down a regime to save a family member, where have we seen him do that before? Oh right, when he threw down democracy to save his wife and instigated the beginning of the Empire. He didn't destroy the Empire because he wanted to make amends. He didn't kill Palpatine to save the galaxy he'd helped destroy. He didn't do any of it because it was just generally the right thing to do or because he recognized just how much pain he'd caused and was seeking to do better as a person overall. He does it to save ONE PERSON, and we can pretty solidly say, he wouldn't have done it for ANYONE ELSE, probably up to and including Leia.

Which makes me believe that had Anakin miraculously survived killing Palpatine, he wouldn't necessarily be a better person. He wouldn't truly work to make any kind of amends to the galaxy he'd brought so much pain to.

And what kind of amends could he even DO at this point that would make any kind of difference? He's committed like 167 genocides at this point, oppressed an entire galaxy, killed billions of children on a whim, destroyed whole planets. What can he POSSIBLY do to make any real amends for that? What could possibly make up for that in any meaningful way? He can't undo the Jedi genocide and quite honestly no one should ever let him near a Force sensitive person, especially a child, again. He can't undo the three decades of oppression, he can't undo the fact that the Republic that existed has been basically burnt to ash and needs to be rebuilt from scratch and, again, quite honestly, no one should ever let him near politics ever again.

The best thing Anakin Skywalker can do for the galaxy at this point if he manages to survive is just disappear from it. Whether he dies or just walks away and spends the rest of his life meditating on everything he's done wrong and leaving the galaxy he's brought so much pain to well enough alone, I don't care. Luke can go visit him if he wants to, I guess, but no one else should have to deal with him.

I think that's where my biggest grievance lies in any kind of "Vader Lives" AUs, or "Vader changes sides inexplicably post-genocide" AUs. Because generally, now EVERYONE ELSE IN THE GALAXY has to deal with him like he HASN'T committed genocide. Like he HASN'T murdered mountains of children for the sake of selfishness. As if he isn't someone who would happily do so again if it came down to it as we see in ROTJ when he happily brings down another government to save one person. If saving Luke in that moment had required another genocide instead of just killing Palpatine, we all know he'd have done it. He absolutely would've murdered any number of children to save HIS child. Because he hasn't truly changed and his motivations for saving Luke are almost exactly the same as the motivations he had for saving Padme, it's just that the requirements shifted and the galaxy got very lucky that saving Luke ALSO meant taking out the Emperor and Anakin himself.

Why should the galaxy at large be obligated to share it with someone who would have happily killed them all not so long ago, just because Anakin MIGHT one day learn to be a better person? Why are they obligated to just live the rest of their lives hoping he doesn't decide to go ahead and commit his 168th genocide if Luke stubs his toe on the wrong planet? Why is their fear acceptable in favor of Anakin getting a chance to be good?

Once he's decided double genocide is acceptable? Once he spends DECADES oppressing everyone he can find because misery loves company? I don't really see a way out for him that isn't vastly unfair for everyone else.

[revenge-of-the-shit]

It's comforting to read fix-it fics where Padmé becomes Chancellor and fixes everything but these also miss part of the point. Palpatine didn't come to political power by himself. He rose to it, as she said, with thunderous applause. There were millions and millions of people out there who were in power who were complicit in the corruption of the Senate. It would be so, so interesting (and also so devastating and uncomfortably familiar) to see a story where Padmé becomes Chancellor and nothing changes at all beyond some surface level policies because she's surrounded by a body that refuses to do anything. If anything, some of the policies she'd pass would actively harm marginalized groups out of ignorance, given how she lives and breathes privilege and has no lived experience with what said groups go through.

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

A lot of people including me😔 are like "Oh x character should get altean alchemy" (it is mostly Lance but sometimes it is Keith and even Shiro) but honestly? I kinda being to partial to- "actually humans should get their own brand of quintessence manipulation like Balmerans, Olkarion, Galra etc etc that got triggered due to the War and it should be tma avatars level of fucked-up-if-true cause i think it would be funny ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

[xbadnews-a]

pov: modern!percy trying to explain to you that necromancers killed his family

[wizardnuke]

i love the empire kids so so much i feel like i am losing my gfuckinf mind. ohh my god empire kids

[datastate]

okay yeah that should be it i can now sleep at peace

[wtfcl0ud]

saw smth i did not agree with an injustice being done n at first i was silent for way too long but it cldnt n wldnt leave ne alone so eventually i spoke up n it was scary n im having post anxiety n i feel like i did smth wrong n the other ppl hate me n will judge me negatively but what they did was not nice n not correct so yh who cares if i cry now nothing gets done without a bit of discomfort ahaha

[chocobox]

catching glimpses of self ship community drama is always like damn. okay. and why on earth do you care. can't you just post about taint and keep it moving or whatever. by attempting to create a 'safe space' for only the most palatable & understandable of individuals, by choosing to drive those who stray from your definition of morality away from your 'safe' community, you push those most vulnerable into dangerous circumstances. communities wherein their weaknesses shall be preyed upon by those you denounce. you play directly into their hands, all for an excuse to pat yourself on the back. thus, i must wonder, what is so safe about this community you've cultivated in the first place? your veneer of acceptance and righteousness makes no room for those stuck in between, nor is there included a moment of good faith or hope for a possibly misguided fellow man. of course, though, it was never you who cared. that was never the point. if your long, elaborate byf was mere virtue signaling, intended to show those who already agree with you that you're one of the good ones, all i ask of you is... did it work? are you as good as you want to be?

[honeyrisuke]

im currently active in writers forums and it's quite upsetting how every week or so there's a new discussion that amounts to "should non-native speakers be allowed to write"

because some people out there will straight up start a convo like "if you cant speak or write perfect flawless english you shouldnt write books or fanfiction or participate in any type of creative writing because its grating to read and just wrong", and then someone points out that some people have reading disabilities or aren't native speakers and may just need another correction pass by a reader.

And that first person will bounce back like "yeah but that doesnt change that its bad and grating to read and they should just not write at all/only write in their native language, because its 'destroying the english language'"

and I've never participated in these because I'd rip their heads off. English native speaking monolinguals online sure have some fucking nerve