#but this took a turn i didn't expect

[carionto]

Blot out the Sun

It's hard to comprehend the true scale of Human engineering. Even if you see one of their capital ships as it gets bigger on approach and does not stop getting bigger until you can no longer see one end to the other. It's like trying to grasp how large a city is - you've been on the street level and you've seen it from a bird's eye view, but that never gives you an idea of how precisely big it is. It just is.

Which presents a unique problem, because unlike practically everyone else in the Galaxy, ALL human space ships (and even most space stations) are capable and often prefer to land directly on planets instead of shuttling. When there is an atmosphere, the sheer displacement of one such vessel can cause days worth of chaotic weather patterns and even seismic activity should they decide to land. As in proper land land, as in - landing struts skyscrapers touching the physical ground.

The simple act of a Dreadnought coming to a halt above the surface of a populated planet is considered an act of war.

Suffice to say, nearly everyone has banned Human ships with a displacement of over 200'000 tons from landing, and nothing over 2.5 million tons can even enter the upper atmosphere layers of their planets at all.

Given how chaotic Earth's weather is already, (and the things they're willing to do to it) Humans don't have much problem with that.

It is quite a spectacular event, however, when on a sunny day, all of a sudden a huge form begins to take shape far above the few clouds there are. Millions of tiny lights blinking away on this gigantic dark metal body. Hobbyist astronomers and enthusiast engineers all look through their telescopes, identifying individual markings, hatches, docking ports, weapons, anything and everything of note and not.

Then it flares up.

A fireball streaming gently down towards your world. It is already as big as the sun in the sky, and nearly as bright, but you know it is dozens of kilometers away still.

The heat from the breaking sequence dies down. A shadow begins to loom along the horizon. Slowly, ominously. Still so far away, yet it dwarfs and snuffs out whatever cloud coverage there was, the heat pushing the water along the sides of the behemoth and further up.

The wind is picking up. It's getting warmer.

And darker.

It was day time, now it is beneath the belly of the beast time.

It comes to a halt, only one kilometer above the ground, two hundred and twenty meters from the tip of the tallest building. You can barely see the edge of the horizon - it is just a thin strip of hazy blue, everything else is metallic darkness illuminated by the lights from the city and the massive ship itself.

Then they descend. Hundreds of small ships, all uniform in core design, yet individually decorated and no two are truly alike. Troop transports. They land everywhere.

In unison, the landing bays open and out step the soldiers.

In their off duty clothing with bags and backpacks and suitcases.

It's mandatory leave and we're in Neo Las Vegas, and the city paid to put on a show like no other. Have fun boys and girls, the night will never end!

#humans are space orcs #humans are space australians #humans are space oddities #humans are deathworlders #humanity fuck yeah #carionto #so this took a random turn #i didn't expect that #and i'm the author

[apoptoses]

It’s rare that he gets to see Daniel’s first meal of the day. He’s picked through his memories, he knows that on the Night Island he tends to wake in the afternoon, stumble down to the kitchen to graze. Daniel takes advantage of the ability to call their private chefs in to make him bacon, eggs. Food that sits heavy on his stomach so that he has to wander back to bed to sleep off the rest of the day. After that it doesn’t much matter, Daniel thinks. He’ll get Armand’s blood and that’s enough to hold him over. A cycle of snacking and blood sharing that repeats and repeats and repeats.

“LIsten, we need to make a pact,” Daniel mumbles between bites. “No more west-bound long haul flights. At least not without a couple days between each layover.”

Armand frowns. “Was it so burdensome to fly without me beside you?” 

It had been odd, departing in the evening in the cargo hold, trapped within the box that contained his coffin. Moving backwards through time. To leave in the dark but arrive in the middle of the morning- it creates a certain kind of inertia, he finds. 

Perhaps it’s what they mean when they say ‘jet lagged’. All of that effort to only be in a place for a week and then they’ll be moving on. Tickets to Thailand, to Nepal, to Greece. They wait in Daniel’s bag. More travel, pre-planned, predestined. A time limit on every stop. Armand wonders how exhausted they’ll both be by the end. 

Daniel spears a vegetable on his fork. He shrugs. “I don’t like it. Being without you.”

Without the blood.

This too, Armand recognizes from his youth. The ravenous fits that come between the tastes of blood. He remembers clearly being sixteen and not eating for days after the drinks his master had given him, and then falling upon the table and out eating all of the other boys.

There’s hollows beneath Daniel’s eyes. A sharpness to his cheekbones that hadn’t been there when they’d met, and perhaps that’s a sign of the march of time- he is, after all, creeping up on thirty now; no longer the wide eyed boy Armand had met but a man in his own right. But then-

His spoon clacks against the glass parfait cup. Daniel digs in straight to the bottom where the ice cream is, bypassing the fruit and whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Somewhere near his lap comes the sound of his insides churning. The wet sound of his stomach straining to accommodate that which he hasn’t consumed in- days? Weeks, perhaps. Armand can’t keep track.

He should be doing better than this. He ought to be taking better care of him but Daniel makes it so hard. The world makes it hard, with how anything and everything can catch his fascination. Like right now.

Something bubbles beneath the surface of him. A desire he can’t quite put a name to, a thread he’ll have to pull at until Daniel unwinds and he understands what it is that he seeks. Some unfinished business from the Copley, perhaps. The meal wherein he’d fed Daniel a bit of everything, only to depart before he could see the effect it had upon him.

There’s so much more he understands about Daniel now. And still so much to find out. He’ll never know him intimately enough.

Armand rests his chin on his hand. He takes in the way Daniel’s tongue sticks out the slightest bit when the spoon nears his mouth, the bob of his adam’s apple when he swallows. Daniel licks an errant blob of whipped cream from his upper lip and it leaves his mouth glossy with his saliva.

[AO3]

#hahaha this took forever fuck #i didn't expect feeding kink to turn into 14k #still didn't do the bonus scene maybe i will if there's enough interest #armand/daniel #devil's minion #vampire chronicles #vc fic #apoptoses fic

[recurring-polynya]

howl, zabimaru

bonus: here it is in two other colorways

#zabimaru #my fanart #is this...folk art? #this is a birthday present for renji because srsly who wouldn't want a linocut of their own bankai? #happy birthday renji! #i think this was more process than product but i had a pretty good time making it #sorry i couldn't decide between the colors so you get all of them #this is so awful but the purple version is actually based on RENJI'S STUPID TOQUE FROM ROLLING STAR #or at least at made it at the time that i was trying to color-correct that screenshot #i was just going thru the gradient maps that i had and was like 'oh no this looks good' #this is all digital btw #made possible by the bardotbrush art maker's club block print toolkit brushset. thank you lisa! i hope you never see this!! #i actually did take an actual block printing class once. it turned out it was less of a class and more of open studio for 3 old dudes #and as a result it took a ton of time outside of class that i didn't really expect #and i had a baby at the time and i also sucked at art then so i didn't re-enroll when it was over #point being: i think it would funny to go back and do nothing but 20-year old anime-themed block prints #you laugh but there was a big ass print someone made of totoro hanging in the room and it slapped

[thesadpilotclub]

The fact the Dagger Squad, Top Gun pilots with 10 yrs exp., don’t know Maverick - an infamous war hero with 30+ yrs - says something about what Maverick’s been involved in.

The man is Special Ops, maybe even Black Ops. He spent his years working with a specific team - With Ice, and then under Ice’s command. He became a ghost. Unknown to anyone except his teammates & high command.

And Bradley wouldn’t admit it to himself, but it made him nervous when he didn’t know where Maverick was. Uncle Tom couldn’t tell him either. He tried not to think about it. Tried not to think about the fact Maverick already bought himself a burial plot next to Goose & Carole. If Maverick died on a secret mission, there wouldn’t be a body to bury. His father wouldn’t want that, and neither did Bradley. He may hate Maverick, but he still wanted his family to be all together in the end.

#wow this took a turn I didn't expect #that escalated quickly #pete maverick mitchell #bradley rooster bradshaw #top gun #top gun: maverick #tgm #tom iceman kazansky #top gun thoughts

[wexhappyxfew]

I hope I'm not too late, but you know I'm going to request something for Flo and Benny🖤 Maybe 12 from the "It's Spring!" writing prompt list? - @lostloveletters

ah hello battie ( @lostloveletters )!! not late at all! i was BEYOND excited to do some more with Flo and Benny - those two have captured my heart and i'm so so glad they seemed to do the same for you!! please enjoy my take on the prompt you've sent in - and let's just say, despite the happiness of the prompt, my recent emotions of episode 5 seemed to take over and here we are :)

prompt: rolling down the window of the car

featuring: Flo Godfrey and Benny DeMarco

The feeling would always remain cathartic in a way she couldn't entirely describe to anyone close to her.

Watching the B-17s take off in energetic fashion towards the sky, aligning in perfect formation to the morning haze of what the day was to bring, smelling sweet air, feeling the cool breeze, sitting there watching that 'bucket of bolts' as Wink liked to call them, take off into the sky, the small voice in her head saying they'd all come back. That they'd all be okay. Sometimes it was just a white lie to convince her to calm down.

But it was nearly sundown, 17 out of the 18 planes that had taken off had returned, the pilots and their boys were eating well and washing up and enjoying the feeling of standing on solid ground again. And Flo's stress levels had lessened slightly - well, slightly was a loose-leaf term for it. They'd dropped about a percent before Lemmons started yelling about one of the controls for the plane propeller on Brady's fort that had taken more blows than she had bargained for earlier.

"God, just... give it another go!"

Lemmons was yelling from somewhere down in the plane propeller to her left - closer to the first and second engines on the fort. Clearly, flak had done it's horrendous job more than either her or Lemmons cared to admit. Flo, sat in the pilots seat, flicked the metal probe on the switchboard and heard the gutteral and pathetic whir of the propeller trying to start up, but to no avail, stutter to a stop.

"Nothing!" Flo yelled, pulling open the window in the cockpit, "Look, Kenny, I think we gotta jerry-rig it!" Lemmons' faced appeared and her offered her a surprised brow raise.

"Jerry-rig? Who the hell-"

"My father showed me how to do it on a boat one time-"

"A boat?! Listen, Godfrey, that's a boat, this is a plane-"

"Yes! But it should work just the same-"

"Florence Godfrey is that you?" Flo froze about mid-speech, the same turning into samey, which was hardly even a word.

Slowly averting her eyes from the propeller and the sad excuse for engines, she looked down on the ground, past the wings of the fort and found Captain Benny DeMarco standing there, uniform on, tired eyes, a smile on his face, and a slightly bloodied bandage hanging around his neck.

Hanging out the window, looking like an eager, excited dog in front of a Captain was surely not the picture she wished to paint but the sheer surprise that took over her face was equally uncalled for and warranted. Flo could briefly see Lemmons looking up at her with a smirk on his face.

"I-"

"She'll be right down!" Lemmons yelled, the grin on his face widening as her eyes followed, "Go on, get going, I'll jerry-rig this-"

"You were about to argue with me that that was the last thing you wanted to do-"

"I'm jerry-rigging it." he said, then smirked, "Go." Flo smiled at Lemmons before turning her attention back on the Captain stood on the tarmac, that soft smile on his face.

"If this was a car, I'd tell you to get in; I'd roll down the window as kindly as I could, too." she called to him a grin on her face, "You'll have to meet me on the other side though, where I'll make a less-than-stellar exit." She watched Benny laugh at her words and shake his head.

"You could probably give me a run for my money!" he called up to her, before sending her a wink as he disappeared under the plane.

Flo quickly looked down at her clothes, the minute she took to reevaluate herself enough to notice the grease stains, the minor paint job cropping up on the ends of her OD top, and the tear in her shoulder from where her top had gotten caught on a piece of metal bent awkwardly from the plane. Spinning herself around, she moved through the center of the plane before making her, as expected, less-than-stellar exit onto the tarmac, and finding Benny there right in front of her - holding a hand against her head, gray beanie covering flying braids that needed redoing, the slight, night wind brushing her crimson cheeks.

"Didn't think I'd be seeing you tonight," Flo said as she approached him, her eyes darting to the bandage hap-hazardously wrapped around his neck, the red spot lingering lower on the wrap, her smile fading slightly, "are you okay?" He seemed to sense her worry and reached up to gingerly touch the bandage and shook it off, smiling at her as she came closer.

"Just took a bit of shrapnel from a blast up there, nothing to worry about," he said, but she could see the bit of pain that ran over his face as he stood there. She became slightly distracted by the scent of his cologne hitting her nose - the sudden realization that she probably smelled like a greasy, wet rag making her want to crawl into a hole. She looked up at Benny, deep brown eyes soft in the light of the sunset, focused solely on her. He could've gotten himself straight to a warm meal, but instead was stood outside with her - he'd just flown a plane over Germany and back, she'd spoon feed him dinner if it meant it brought him comfort.

"If I'm holding you from your meal, I'm sorry I just-"

"No, no," Benny said quickly, stepping forward, placing his hands on her shoulders, the presence comforting in a way she hadn't felt in months, "no, not at all……I, uh, just….wanted to thank you, for a few nights ago. The dance." A smile broke out on her face and she let out a small laugh and looked up into his eyes again.

"Sometimes with all that's going on around," he looked around at the airfield and then looked back at her again, "just, dancing with you, brought me away from the war for a bit. Never knew how much something like that could mean in the moment until you're standing there….especially with someone like yourself."

"Benny…." she whispered, but his smile softened, as he reached out and gently tucked some of her lose flyaway hairs behind her left ear, his hand warm, thumb lightly brushing against her cold cheek. Her heart stuttered - Benny DeMarco, that look in your eye…..

"I know, I know, it's war. Flying B-17s, you can't exactly go around saying stuff like that, knowing that well…." Benny trailed off his trembling words and looked back at her, a riddled air of confidence and calm filling his eyes in front of her, "life's too short not to say something like that, even with the Germans breathing down our necks. And I'd regret it everyday if I never said it to you. Knowing how much it meant…." to both of us, her mind whispered. She watched him.

Her emotions were suddenly in five different directions, all good directions, she reminded herself - for a moment, her heart pounded and her mind raced, and the reality of war ebbed in and out of her vision. But here was someone, looking at her like he'd lasso the moon for her, in the midst of war, showing up to the plane she was losing her mind over a propeller about, when he very well should be sitting down and eating up, thanking her. And really, she should be thanking him.

Flo stepped closer to him, his light breathing fanning across her face, his cologne still overwhelming her nose, but still oh-so-enjoyable, and his presence warm and inviting and there.

He was right there.

Inches.

And she hugged him, wrapping her arms, careful of the wrap, around his neck, and hugged him wholly. Where she was enveloped by him in every way possible, where for a moment it wasn't the two of them on a tarmac, one having just finished off a mission against the enemy while the other was fixing up the planes for the next, but where it was the two of them, in a different circumstance, a different way. Where war wasn't the backdrop to their emotions that lingered at the borderline. Softly, she shifted her lips to his ear and pressed a soft kiss there.

"Thank you for for everything," she whispered, "because for once, war has shown me that hiding anything I feel will only be regretful in the long-run." Flo slowly pulled back, staring up into Benny's tired eyes, and smiled softly.

"In another world, we're dancing at the Ritz, just you and I and Louis Armstrong above us," she whispered to him, his eyes hazy and soft, like he were imagining a world like that, too, "we're dancing and there's no war. And it's just us." Flo helped him to stand on two feet that day on the tarmac, on the ground. They lost men everyday they went and flew missions - men they trained with, grew with and flew with. Flo was sure of one thing - no matter what transpired above the clouds, she wouldn't lose Benny.

Benny wouldn't ever lose her.

#brb going to go cry now over these two! #thank you for this prompt #definitely took a turn i didn't expect but enjoyed it the entire way through #tackling emotions neither know how to feel but letting themselves feel it anyway #and letting those emotions happen too #yeah my heart #masters of the air #mota #bernard demarco #florence godfrey #flo x benny #these twooooo #+ken lemmons appearance bc he and flo are basically a package deal #those last few lines? yes very purposeful bc 😭 #mota writings

[2hoothoots]

"Dion! Dioooon!" Mirtala’s voice rang out across the campsite; clear like a bell, pleading like a kitten’s mew, and shrill in the way only the cries of a five-and-a-half-year-old girl could be. Dion winced. Nona had always said, ever since the day Mirtala had been born, that she had ‘a good pair of lungs’. Dion thought that was a nice way of saying that she was loud. She’d been a loud baby, and now she was a loud little girl, who didn’t seem to have realised that she didn’t need to yell all the time. Especially when the person she was trying to talk to was only a few feet away through an open window. He sighed, fixing his own grim expression resolutely in the mirror. “What is it?” Mirtala’s bells jingled, and in his peripheral vision he could see her stretch up to put her little hands on the edge of the dressing-room windowsill. "I have a question," she announced. "Can it wait?" "No! It's important!" "I'm kinda busy here, Tala–" "But it's the importantest!" This was not a battle he was going to win. Dion put down the pot of pomade, and turned to where Mirtala's huge blue eyes were peering up at him through the open window. "Fine," he said. "What do you want?" Mirtala, with some ceremony, tucked her hands behind her back and tipped her head. "Are crabs fishes?"

i've been off work this week, so finished up this long-neglected wip! a couple years before the events of the games, Dion takes Mirtala and Raz to an aquarium.

#psychonauts #my fic #featuring fluff and sibling banter and the vague melancholic energy that dion inevitably brings to a fic #didn't expect this one to go so long (nearly 6k words! wow!!) but i'm very happy with how it turned out #really wanna set aside more time for writing this year #back when i took public transport to work i'd write a lot on my commute #just getting ideas down on my phone #but my current job i drive to. so obviously i can't do that lol #gotta figure out another way i can fit it in

[doberbutts]

Can we get a cross section photo of one of those pretzels

Your wish is my command

#they deflated a little when I took them out of the oven but they're still yummy #didn't follow a recipe for these and they turned out better than expected

[carrottyshark]

Boom! Small art log! The Amane one was supposed to be for her birthday but I didn't get to finish it in time ༎ຶ⁠‿⁠༎ຶ

The rest are Milgram OCs although I don't really know what to do with them yet so they're just sort of there vibing for now

#Here's to me hoping that I at least finish the Amane one #Also kudos to Krita being free and their brush engine I made one brush and my life took a complete turn #Most of these are studies with it but I didn't expect to get too into it #Last one is an IbisPaintX app revisit because it's been a long while since I tried it and... rain effect my beloved #By 'no idea what to do with the OCs' I genuinely have no clue but hey it's fun #They'll probably increase overtime too #If anyone recognizes Krow and Yui you have my biggest respect! :D #ocarrotty #carrotty art old and new #milgram

[dazais-guardian-angel]

kinda wild to me that one of the most compelling aspects of both Chuuya and Kunikida's characters to me, that I never really see talked about, is how they're heavily set on a doomed crash course towards complete and utter destruction, and how I am so, so worried for them both.....

#bungou stray dogs #been thinking a lot about chuuya lately (shocking for me i know (said with no sarcasm truly lmao it is rare for me)) #cause of the 15 manga and also playing the fucking jeht quest in genshin impact ugh (where's the one dual genshin bsd fan who Understands) #but like this pressure has been building up for chuuya for so long due to being used and manipulated by all these people #first the sheep then mori then verlaine then still mori now #he was groomed since childhood just like dazai #but unlike dazai he didn't have an oda to help him get out of the mafia........ he's still stuck there #and his personality is different from dazai's. dazai was more self-aware imo (but still a groomed emotionally abused kid don't get me wrong #but chuuya's whole thing is needing to belong and wanting a leader to be loyal to but ending up in positions of leadership himself #which makes him feel pressured but he accepts and stifles any negative feelings just because he wants to belong #and all this crushed him with the events in the light novels and yeah he went through character growth but he's...... Still In The Mafia... #and that fucking scene asagiri added to the cannibalism stage play i don't think hardly anyone even knows about bc IT'S NOT DISCUSSED ANYMO #where mori emotionally manipulates him with the flags!!! and it deeply hurts him!!! and he presumably deals with that shit all the time!!! #it is WORRISOME. it WORRIES ME okay. #chuuya doesn't have anyone who can save him from the mafia (dazai is in no position to okay; it's all he can do just to try to save himself #and it's so so scary. it spells awful things for him. #didn't asagiri say he'd have a rough path or something??? and he added that fucking scene in the play!!! it haunts me!! #i fully expected this shit to hit a turning point in the meursault arc but we can't have nice things i guess #and as for kunikida a;lskdfl (took me this long to get to him oop) literally the ending of Entrance Exam (the novel) is just #One Big Foreshadowing for Kunikida's downfall #he's compared to the azure king for a reason. Sasaki saw the azure king in him for a reason. it's fucking worrying!!!!! #there hasn't really been anything like that since in the manga (just like for chuuya lol ugh) but he's TERRIBLE at coping with his trauma #and it only gets more apparent once shit hit the fan in the doa/hunting dogs/meursault arc #it's not good!!! i'm worried for kunikida too!!!! #even if the manga isn't focusing on this these worries are always in the back of my mind man #both kunikida and chuuya are doomed to hit some kind of breaking point eventually and i await those moments with dread yet anticipation #i want dazai to be able to save kunikida from the despair being too good a person brings the way he couldn't save oda #and chuuya.... if we get a scene with him & mori mirroring the one in dark era where dazai finds out that mori orchestrated the kids' death #oh man i think i'll fucking die (give it to me i need to cry)

[unsanedes]

How was Theo Raeken one of the most irredeemable villains in Teen Wolf?

I do understand how deeply rooted the pack's hatred and resentment of Theo went because he; one, manipulated them all and almost trashed their relationships for good; and two, he murdered Scott fairly easily (couldn't have been good for the ego).

SKSKSKSK, okay I'm joking on that last part because Scott doesn't have ego problems and it wasn't easy for Theo to murder him.

STILL, though, even after Theo came back from hell, everyone still treated him like the #1 threat around. Admittedly, I know that it's because he killed Scott and because he was a menace to society in season 5, but like... Scott still believed in Peter's ability to change. Scott believed PETER could change... Oh, but believing in Theo's ability to change was the hard one.

Yes, Theo did horrible things and he killed his own sister, but outside of the writing, I don't see Scott not sympathizing with him to some degree. It felt wrong that Scott didn't immediately do the math and feel bad when he realized that Theo was only 9 when he was taken by the Dread Doctors.

Scott should have been able to feel badly for him and still think he was capable of redemption like he did for Peter. The writing just wouldn't allow him to, though.

Also,

Peter was a creep towards Lydia in season 2 and Theo never had that problem. He was equally violent towards everyone and wasn't creepy with women. So, it's just funny how Jeff Davis wrote a full redemption for a grown man who had been creepy towards a teenaged girl, than one for a teenaged boy who was severely abused and traumatized by literal monsters.

PS: I say this as someone who does like Peter towards the end of the series, because having a daughter definitely changed him for the better.

#This took a turn I didn't expect it to #Whoops #teen wolf #theo raeken #scott mccall #peter hale #let's look at a take on Theo being redeemable

[chibinightowl]

Father Todd only looks up from his book when the world around him goes silent. No birds singing, no chipmunks arguing, no crickets chirping. Even the rustle of the leaves as the breeze blows through the trees has vanished.

"Oh, it's you," he says almost dismissively. Ever since he moved out of Gotham to this small parish in the country, he's been entertaining a most peculiar visitor. Then again, there's not many priests quite like him either, so that's part of the attraction, or so he's been told.

Humans don't die and come back to tell the tale.

And the being standing just out of reach of Jason's favorite reading spot under the great oak tree in the cemetery of the small church finds him most fascinating indeed.

The Fae's lips pull back in a smirk. "Only you, Father Todd, are so flippant in the face of an immortal Fae."

"Everyone is mortal," Jason says and looks over the rim of his spectacles. The Fae had given the name Timothy when he asked what to call him the first time they'd met. A rather unlikely name, given the Christian connotations, but Jason had asked in the correct manner and this was his answer. "All I need to do is find the right horseshoe or length of chain to prove your mortality to you."

Tim laughs, his unearthly voice ringing like bells. "Many have tried," he says and holds up his wrists. Jason can barely make out what look like scars encircling them. Of course, the fae's skin is pale and colorless as ice, so it's difficult to be certain unless he comes closer.

Which he won't and neither will Jason.

Shrugging, Jason closes his book and tucks the volume into his cassock. It seems like Tim is in a feisty mood--not that he can claim to even begin to understand the whims of the mercurial Fae. But when Tim banters about mortality, there's usually only one reason for it.

"Did Robin die again?" Jason asks.

Tim's pointy ears twitch, the only indication he gives that Jason hit the nail on the head. This is a sore spot for him--he hates to come asking for what amounts to a favor. It's supposed to be the other way around, after all.

But Jason, he's not like other priests. Hell, he's not even like most people. What he can do... Well, if the Church ever finds out, he'd be excommunicated and burned at the stake. Maybe this is why he entertains the Fae as he does--every small favor he does is credit for a larger one he might never have to ask but will if the need ever comes.

He's already died once, he doesn't relish doing it a second time.

"Where is he?" Jason rises from the grass and removes the spectacles he uses for reading.

Tim doesn't say anything, but reaches behind a gravestone to retrieve the small, broken form of Robin.

Jason doesn't ask what happened and Tim doesn't volunteer the information. The little Robin's wings are twisted and there's a gash along one side of his body, so it's not difficult to guess a cat might have been involved.

He holds out his hands. "I do this small favor for you," he intones, just to make sure they're on the same page.

A pained look passes behind Tim's unearthly blue eyes. They do this every time and the Fae has to accept before Jason proceeds. He strokes Robin's little head with one long and elegant finger. "I accept," he says, voice barely audible to Jason's ears.

Robin is placed gently into Jason's hands.

Carefully, he cups them so that Robin is nestled within and closes his fingers around him.

Then Jason lowers his head and begins to pray.

Sometimes it doesn't take very long at all. Other times, he's standing there until the sun sets and the sounds of the night greet him.

Today is one of the former.

He finishes his prayer when he feels a light tapping against his palm.

Unclasping his hands, Jason reveals the newly resurrected Robin.

"Oh, thank you!" the small Fae says as he takes flight and buzzes around Jason's head. "You're my most favorite human ever!"

"You're welcome, Robin." Jason smiles as the little Fae darts over to Tim and starts chattering at him.

There isn't anything else to be said, so he nods to Tim and makes to leave the cemetery.

Before Jason makes it more than a few steps, a hand catches the sleeve of his cassock, stopping him in his tracks.

Tim never touches him, so this is new.

The Fae steps around to face him, those elegant fingers tracing across Jason's body. He holds back a shiver--not of fear, but of desire. Jason is no stranger to the joys of the flesh, and he takes his vows most seriously. But there are times--like now--when his knees and resolve grow weak.

"When will you request a favor of me?" Tim breathes, his face, his body, almost touching Jason's own. Those dangerous fingers tap the silver crucifix peeking out from under Jason's collar.

"You know when," Jason responds. "A life for a life."

"This is ten lives I owe you now." Tim taps Jason's lips this time.

"Then that's ten times I expect you to save me."

Tim laughs quietly this time, his amusement plain as day. "Oh, I will rescue you, my little priest. I will take you and bring you under the hill where you belong." He retreats, as does his lingering touch. "You are mine and I do not intend to share."

"I belong to God," Jason states firmly, but Tim only laughs again, this time loudly like he did before.

"You belong to me. I am only sharing you with this pesky mortals." With that, the Fae vanishes in a beam of sunlight, taking Robin with him.

Jason sighs and glares at the light, more than a little peeved.

Looks like instead of finishing his book tonight, he gets to spend it on his knees praying-- for what, he's not entirely sure but forgiveness sounds like a good place to start.

#chibinightowl writes #jaytim #father todd #fae tim #don't ask where this came from #it just sounded fun in my head #and then took a turn I didn't expect

[minzbins]

MY TOP 5(-ish) ALBUMS FROM JANUARY TO JUNE 2023 (in no order of release)

REASON – monsta x ; title track+my fav song: beautiful liar THE PIECE OF 9 – sf9 ; tt: puzzle / fav song: love colour SECOND WIND – bss; tt+fav song: fighting FML – seventeen ; tts: f*ck my life & super / fav songs: all 5-STAR – stray kids ; tt: s-class / fav songs: fnf, super bowl, hall of fame I NEED LOVE – dkb ; tt+fav song: i need love

i was tagged by the lovely @jikyu, thank you so much 🧡 and i feel like i am incredibly late to do this so idk who to tag, but if there's anyone who wants to do it that hasn't feel free to say i tagged you!

#i love to break the 'rules' and make it top 6 instead of 5 <3 #this took so much longer than expected to make bc i am way too distracted rip sdkjfhsfl #anyway actually kinda happy with how it turned out in the end :') #mel talks #tag games #!melstuff #flashing tw #really hope i didn't make any mistakes in this but if i did then so be it shjdshkjskfkl </3

[boundinparchment]

...Arle's story quest is actually bonkers.

#lol bet i know the only experiment D and A worked on together is #it's actually really obvious as long as you pay attention #that took a turn I didn't expect

[xiaoluclair]

whoop whoop for bread give pic show me

bread 😁🍞🥖 ❕

#'phallic but beautiful' as elle said #had to take off some of the garlic pieces bc Bleugh burnt taste . deffo should've put them Into the bread instead of on top #but the tomatoes taste Sooooo nice like and for what i didn't play a single role in those tomats other than Chop. next time ill just fuckin #eat the tomatoes #but it TASTES PRETTY GOOD #like Wayyyy better than i expected it to . #Possibly bc i took the bottle of oil and turned it on its head over the dough #Still #xiao: asks #asks: miscellaneous #zhalia my beloved #ty for taking interest in my Bread Baby 😁😁💛

[goldendoodlerlockerlove]

I finally wrote the next part of my Pre-Canon Boblin series!! :D

Bob finally proposes in this one~

Oh yeah, and Linda is pregnant--

#boblin #teeny tina is in linda right now 🥺❣️ #i'm actually really proud of this one #it took me longer to write than i expected but i like how it turned out #i can't believe i wrote this but i didn't even write anything for geneuary pffffffft (it's okay i made a drawing for each day instead) #who knows maybe if i have time i'll write something short or maybe share one of my old fics #the proposal story is actually based on the fact that my dad proposed to my mom on top of a ferris wheel #i also chose linda's middle name because that's my best friend's middle name!! i wanted to give her one for the proposal

[darlingbudsofrae]

about the pro-allison thingy...

I am one of the firm advocates and believers that Allison Reynolds would either go pro or do both (fashion and exy) but recently, I’ve been thinking about her ec and I think I’m beginning to see where Nora came from.

The short summary of the argument for the point of Allison choosing to go pro is this: Allison gave up her millions of dollars of inheritance for exy, got disowned for persisting to play it, and pretty much chose a bastard sport over her privileges. She fought tooth and nail to be a part of the court and despite her looks, she brawled with the best and the best. Therefore, it’s only natural that she pursues it in the future, right? Right??

That’s what I thought too, but then that leaves a new question unanswered: why is it given that she pursues it in the future? Does that mean an effort of fighting for something you love is futile unless it’s the end goal? Does your passion for something need to be your destination for it to be a worthy dream to fight for?

And I will be completely contradicting my prior Allison-centric posts but no, I think the answer is no. Because the truth is, Allison didn’t fought for exy. Exy was the thing that made her fight back from her controlling and overbearing parents, it was the thing that made her feel alive and free. And while she chose to play collegiate exy over her millions of inheritance, it isn’t something she necessarily see pursuing in the future and I think that’s okay. It doesn’t make her fight for it worthless and it wouldn’t render that choice a downgrade to her character because the fight wasn’t about exy at all. It’s about what she wants and exy just so happened to be the catalyst at that moment. She didn’t gave everything up for a sport she ended up not pursuing full-time— she gave it all up for control of her life. And if what pushes her to do so is not a dream she plans to pursue full-time but a mere hobby that she could come back to from time to time, something that gives her a short thrill but not the thing that she can see herself doing for the rest of her life, the stop point or journey along the way but not necessarily the destination— is that really so wrong?

#i had a point and i'm pretty sure i can articulate it better in my native language but u'r stuck with this and maybe that's okay too <33 #all for the game #aftg #the foxhole court #the raven king #the king's men #nora sakavic #allison reynolds #i guess what i'm trying to say is that is it really a waste to fight for something if it's not the thing u'll pursue in the future? #like can't we just fight for what we want now regardless if it's a forever thing?? #does it need to be a lifetime pursuit or can't we just fight for what we want without catering to anyone's expectations?? #idk i'm just saying can't we be passionate just for the sake that we love it #i swear i could articulate this better in my native language y'all english is hard #give it a few days i'm sure someone in the fandom could articulate this better than i ever could lol #i still like the idea of allison going pro but i don't mind now if she pursues being in fashion full time #like good for her whatever makes her happy u go girlboss #also in another edition of me reaching cuz i'm pretty sure nora didn't thought this deep abt it but if she ever did honestly respecc bruhh #also supplemental: in the chance that what she is fighting for is actually exy it still doesn't mean she has to go all the way #your passion is still valid regardless if you go full-time or nadda #this took a peachy preachy turn lmao i'm leaving if u'r reading this hi ily <33 #bye #raeraegoaway