#i like to think that all the kids are liminals and have powers but some aren't out about it as others

[dead-girl-tells-stories]

DP x DC Prompt: The Watchlist

Batman has a watchlist. A list that contains every individual who could become a rouge and a contingency plan for if they did.  

And while they, his children, often make fun of his paranoia and him for having it, they totally understand why he did. They lived in Gotham, for Christ's sake. Where everyone’s just a pin drop away from being the city’s next big villain, forcing the bats to scratch their heads while playing cat and mouse with a sicko for a good few weeks. And while they won’t admit it, the list has helped them a few times. 

But that won’t stop them from making fun of any of the list’s new developments. Because you see, there was a new list. And it wasn’t just a watchlist. No, no, no. It was The Watchlist.

It was a new development after he and Robin went on an out-of-state mission to investigate some town in bum fuck nowhere Illinois. And it was under some pretty tight security as well, so they were expecting something good, like mad scientists or evil mayors. Not profiles of the kids who lived in the town. And while there were a few metas and vigilantes that made the list interesting, by the end of it all they just seemed to be teenagers. 

Until they saw Damian. They hadn’t seen him since he came back from the mission with B. He looked tired. Like ‘Tim hasn’t slept in a week and is surviving on just coffee beans’ tired.

“Ah, I see you all have found it. Good. A few of them will be arriving next week as they’re a part of Gotham Academy’s student exchange program. At least three of them will be staying in the manor with us. Father will need you all to be on standby and to be ready for any possible scenario. Please, for the love of all that is good, do not encourage them in any way, shape, or form. And please do not dismiss them either. The outcome of doing that will be much worse. Is there more that I should add? Yes. Will I? No, because you won’t understand. Not until you've seen what I have.” 

The demon child sighed, then looked them dead in the eyes. “Godspeed to us all.” Then walked away.

Okay, they were scared now.

#dp x dc crossover #dcxdp #dp x dc prompt #dp dc crossover #dpxdc #dc x dp #dp x dc #Batman and Robin went to Amity Park to investigate two mad scientists who were dealing with Lazuars waters #and instead #witness teenagers dealing with The Horrors (tm) like it was an everyday thing #because for them it is #Bruce KNOWS that the moment any of these kids crack its the end of the world as they know it #i like to think that all the kids are liminals and have powers but some aren't out about it as others #Danny knows that there's an outside entity in Amity but they don't seem hostile #protective even #so he leaves them be #i'm honestly not too sure what the profiles would look like #but i do know that they would look pretty normal until you either read into them too much #or was there to witness the shit he has witness #he's scared of those kids #but also want to protect/save them #cause the GIW still exist #and while not bad parents Fentons they aren't really good either #none of the parents are tbh

[zylev-blog]

Danny has a new rogue. The man is going by the name of Freakshow, but most of the whispers he’s heard have labeled him as the Joker. The Joker pings as a liminal, so Danny has been trying to find him. Problem is, the Joker doesn’t stay in Amity Park. The man is mobile, and the more Danny leaves Amity Park, the more he’s hunted by the GIW. This makes it harder to hunt the man, but he knows that Joker is dangerous. Unstable.

And he really hates clowns.

He’s chasing the Joker through New Jersey when a red blur knocks into him and drags him away from the Joker. He has enough sense left to realize he’s being moved in superspeed before he’s head butting the man holding him and turning intangible out of his arms. He hears the man in red groan and hold his bleeding nose.

“Wait.” The man in red pants, “The Joker is dangerous.”

“I know he is.” Danny tells him, “That’s why I’m taking him down.”

“You’re not working with him?” A man in black asks.

“What? No!” He gestured to himself, “I don’t have this getup because of him, you know. I’m a dead kid. A ghost. He’s messing with the living while carrying traces of the dead, and that’s wrong, you know? Once you kill so many people, it offends the dead and we have to intervene. Once you pass that point, the dead takes your soul. He’s already on his way there.”

“You don’t look dead.” The man in black says while the man in red looks away from him.

“Yeah? And you look like a bat. You don’t have room to talk when you look like a furry.” He rolled his eyes.

“I’m Flash and this is Batman.” Flash introduced himself and his partner, “We and the Joker are from another dimension. We’re trying to take Joker down before he merges our dimensions and takes over both of them.”

“Ugh, not more interdimensional bullshit.” Danny swears. “You can call me Phantom, by the way.”

“You don’t seem suprised about this.” Batman prompts.

“Yknow, after the fifth attempt at interdimensional war you get used to it. This dimension has the most… uh, what did they call it? Oomph? I think it means like, this is the most powerful dimension out of all of them. It doesn’t take long for us to kick them back where they belong. But this Joker dude, he’s persistent.” Danny shrugged.

“I know Joker the best.” Batman told him.

“As long as Joker ends up back in his dimension before he merges ours.” He grimaced. “Been there done that once, it wasn’t pretty to undo. It nearly destroyed both of our dimensions, but some things aren’t supposed to be merged.”

“To work together, we need to know what you can do.” Flash glanced at Batman.

“Do you want a list?”

#dp x dc #dp x dc au #dp x dc writing prompt #dp dc crossover #dp x dc fanfic #dp x dc prompt #danny phantom crossover #dp x dc crossover #danny phantom #dp crossover #dpxdc prompts #dpxdc #dcxdp #dc x dp crossover #danny is ghost king #ghost king danny phantom #flash batman and joker are in the dp universe #danny is so done

[sunderwight]

thinking about reverse SVSSS AU where the demon characters are human and the human characters are demons (LBH is still both), but cultivation society operates more like MDZS so that the demon characters can preserve their ruthless clan politics and inheritance systems, and but demon society (which the formerly human characters are now part of) operates more like the ghosts in TGCF, where it's mostly a free-for-all of powerful demons establishing whatever kind of system they please in whatever space they can carve out. I think that'd preserve the meritocracy elements and "twelve different sects in a trench coat" qualities that cang qiong has as an organization.

so the peaks are instead these sort of liminal space cities which are ruled by the most powerful/influential demons, who choose their successors (at least ostensibly) based purely on talent and ability. instead of the sprawling alternate dimension demonic realms of PIDW, they're more like pocket dimensions which can only be accessed if you know the secret ways, existing in the shadows of otherwise seemingly normal towns, mountains, cities, forests, etc. humans sometimes wander into them by mistake, although whether they can get back out again or not depends a lot on which demon lord's domain they were unlucky enough to stumble upon.

Mobei Jun and Sha Hualing are still the heirs of their respective sects/clans, which are among the most powerful sects around. The CQMS peak lords are the rulers of twelve allied demon settlements. Tianlang Jun was the heir of the strongest sect, sort of like Wen Ruohan if Wen Ruohan's biggest motivation was to have his Hot Girl Summer rather than conquering everything, but after his and Zhuzhi Lang's disappearances their sect lost a lot of clout. Su Xiyan hailed from a wealthy demon phantom palace, known for its exceptional hostility towards humans (this version of HHP definitely literally eats people).

The demons-turned-humans are still exactly as cutthroat and dubious as in PIDW. Sha Hualing still wants to kill her father to take his position, Mobei Jun's uncle still tries to assassinate him, the cultivation world has an underground business in trafficking demon body parts (officially decried, but unofficially often consumed to help boost cultivation or create certain tools), the sects often go to war with one another and tend to wreak havoc on the secular human governments and societies whenever they do. All that sort of stuff.

On the humans-turned-demons end, demons in this setting are sometimes born the same way as humans -- two parents of compatible genital orientation get it on and some months later etc etc, which is how siblings like Liu Qingge and Liu Mingyan happen. But sometimes demons also just sort of manifest out of concentrated pockets of demonic energy. Some demons come from humans (SJ and YQY were both born from the unquiet ghosts of slave children), some come from animals (SQH was a pet hamster who was tormented enough to become a demon hamster, and then cultivated enough to take on a human shape), some come from collisions of powerful elemental forces such as volcanoes or floods (Su Xiyan).

So demons have a lot of apprenticeship and teacher-and-student style familial relationships, and demons looking to build families often will risk venturing out into the human realms and trying to find other isolated demons to bring into their fold. Demons alone in the human world are highly vulnerable to being hunted, killed, or enslaved. This is also why there's such a high percentage of "orphans", and contributes even more to a demon like SJ (no parents) resenting a demon like Luo Binghe (found and adopted by a kindly older demon almost right away).

So in the original PIDW, Luo Binghe is a kid who thinks he's a demon and grows up under the cruel and resentful talons of the Lord of Qing Jing, Shen Qingqiu. Every twenty or so years the demon settlements manifest much more strongly in the human realms, during which time they are a lot more vulnerable to attacks from humans. To help deal with this this, the demon rulers traditionally host big, dramatic, scary events that bring everyone within a certain geographic range together, the better to put any righteous sects off the idea of trying to single them out and attack. Most of the smaller settlements clear out entirely in preparation, leaving "ghost towns" where the buildings appear but the demons and anything too valuable to risk leaving behind are all gone.

This Demonic Alliance Conference is a time for contests, trials, matchmaking, partying, festive hunts, trading, and big displays of power. What could be a massive weakness instead becomes a big celebration, and a time for mingling and making new connections.

In PIDW, after suffering years of abuse at the hands of his cruel master, Luo Binghe attends the DAC in hopes of securing some better place for himself in demonic society. But when the righteous sects launch an unprecedented attack on the event, his human heritage is revealed, and Shen Qingqiu tosses him into the twilight space between realms in disgust. Binghe is forced to navigate the hollow and desolate place, locked into his newly-revealed and very weak human form, until he bonds with the legendary Xin Mo blade and effects his escape. Then he sets about bringing the righteous sects to heel (his bloodline means he's heir to one of the biggest sects around, even if they've fallen on hard times the past 20 or so years) and of course conquering the demon realms, and taking revenge on Shen Qingqiu, all while accumulating a record number of wives.

Shen Yuan transmigrates into Demon Lord Shen Qingqiu, ruler of Qing Jin settlement, a haunted bamboo forest in the most cursed mountain range ever.

Downsides -- he's of course destined to be dismembered and/or shoved into a pickle pot by the protagonist.

Upsides -- he's a demon with amazingly awesome demon traits! He has talons! Fangs! WINGS! Also, Binghe is a little demon bun and he is so cute, like a puppy with his fluffy wolf ears and baby claws and darling bright red eyes. Who could ever persecute such an adorable monster boy?! His tail literally wags when he's excited!

Plus Shen Yuan gets to spend as much time investigating cool beasts and other demons as he likes. He's in heaven. Well, not literally of course, but for his standards. Pretty close. Almost worth the price of admission!

#svsss #scum villain's self saving system #scum villain #bingqiu #for this I think also that heavenly demons aren't really a thing #so lbh is actually more over-powered on his human side thanks to the sect/clan system and the political weight of his bloodline

[alyakthedorklord]

Welcome to Danny’s Part 2

People have been asking for more of this ^^ so here you go, have a really long word vomit of stuff i think is funny

(IM NOT WRITING THIS FIC GDI I HAVE ENOUGH WIP’S!)

Danny’s restaurant is ALSO manned by-

Tucker, who will fix your tech for free, has tattoos of hieroglyphics and lines of code that shift around when he gets busy.

Sam, who makes an express line for veggie orders. If you try to order meat from sam all the potted plants start trembling.

Jazz, who has a special booth in the back and Magically makes people dump their deepest secrets to her in streamlined Liminal Powers Therapy. (It’s a bit weird but hey the people she targets feel better so whatevs.)

Dani, who shares pictures from tourist traps she's visited, though there’s also some REALLY WEIRD pics of alternate realities and cult shenanigans mixed in. Some of the older patrons are concerned. She’s a little too young to do all this alone- actually, how old is she? Her father looks like he’s in his early twenties…

Dan, who is working here while “on parole” and often loudly argues with Danny about it.

“I don’t want to work in your stupid shop, Dad!”

Dan is two whole feet taller than danny and three times as wide i will not be taking constructive criticism. He’s a whole silver fox. There are some ladies who have a crush on him and they’re really concerned if he’s legal bc danny is younger than them how is Dan his child-

“Dan, how old are you?”

“I don’t know, like, a hundred sixty something?”

(Lady turns to look at Danny, who shrugs and smiles.) “time dilation. What a world we live in. Dan, kiddo, can you get some more napkins from the back?”

“Ugh, fine, dad.”

The first villain Danny ACTUALLY fights isn’t the Joker. It’s Condiment King. Dan runs away from him, which is already weird bc guy is MASSIVE, and the condiment king chases him bc YES SOMEONE FINALLY FEARS HIM PROPERLY.

Danny bursts out of the shop in righteous fatherly fury and beats the snot out of him. Everyones is confused bc… what? Dan is massive? Why is he scared? Why is the twink beating the snot out of condiment king?

“Dan had a traumatic experience with Burger Sauce.” Danny explains, glaring down at the rouge at his feet. He kicks him, growls, “Don’t mess with my kid.” And walks back inside.

No one asks, bc this is gotham. Asking is rude, and also it lessens the Mystery that is Danny’s. No one knows how the kids came into existence. No one knows, before someone from out of town (metropolis, ugh) asks about the sign.

The sign outside the shop says:

Welcome to Danny’s!

Do no harm and no harm shall befall you.

Start nothing and nothing will be ended.

We have baseball bats and fists and a mean swing.

This establishment does not serve- guys in white (suits), Vlad, Transphobes, Vlad, Clowns, VLAD.

Do not ask for the secret menu. If you can get it, Danny will offer it.

(Don’t scare the other customers, please.)

When asked who Vlad is, bc he’s banned three times, Danny just kind of sighs.

“He’s my kid's other parent. He’s an obsessive creep who completely ignores Danielle because she’s a girl, rolling in money but won’t pay his child support. You know how it is.”

Several goons ask what he looks like so they can keep an eye out. Dani happily tells them “look at Dan, take away Dad’s features, then convert 30% of his height and weight into smarminess.”

It's an effective description. Vlad gets full body tackled the moment he enters the neighborhood. Danny gives the goons free fudge (family recipe, one of the restaurants signatures)

One of the reasons Danny’s is so popular is bc its open 24/7. (Unless its one of those weird times where all the doors are locked and if you look through the window blinds theres nothing but a starry void.) One of the reasons Danny’s is so weird is bc Danny is ALWAYS behind the counter. Always. Round the clock. He doesn’t sleep, eat, anything. Some people swear he has a twin he swaps out with (clones).

Sometimes, after a really difficult customer, Danny will let out a really long sigh and mutter “time out” before glitching into a new position, with a new shirt and combed hair. No one mentions it.

Theres a deal that’s just, “beat danny in a fight you eat for free.”

The deal extends to both Dan and Dani as well. Even if you lose you get fudge as a reward for courage.

No one ever wins.

One time, a couple brought their kid, recently discharged from the hospital. Danny comes over to them and grins. “Hey, kiddo! Bet you gave your parents a scare, huh? Pulled through in the end. That means you get the secret menu!”

Parents: hey wtf?

Danny, handing over a perfectly normal menu: 😀

Kid: “ooh mommy look at the glowy stars!”

Parents: !?!?!?

Danny: 😁

Old man Dave, whose heart has stopped like three times now: “Oh don’t worry about that, prices are the same and it will help your kid feel much better. Danny’s just a little weird.”

After all, it’s not just full ghosts that get the menu. If you’ve been dead, heart stopped, soul out of body before being popped back into place, then you get it. There’s actually a pretty high number of people who get it, bc this is Gotham. People get resuscitated after rogue attacks. The ecto actually helps stabilize their soul after getting jerked between life and death so rudely.

The secret menu that they’re given is just a normal menu, scribbled over top with an ecto pen, invisible to non-secret menu havers. Different “ecto-levels” to choose from, and three extra dishes. There’s also instructions to get into the “back room” for those who can’t go intangible, though it comes with a disclaimer “not for the faint of heart.”

There’s also a small note at the bottom- “do not share food.”

Anyways, as per original post. Tim herds Joker into Danny’s radar bc he Cannot Deal Right Now. He salutes Danny, who waves back, grinning like he didn’t just come at the Clown Prince of Crime like a feral badger on crack cocaine. “Heya, Red Robin! You want a coffee?”

“Please.” Tim sighs. “You’re the best, Danny.”

Jason looks between tim and the shop danny just vanished into. “Uh, what?”

“Danny doesn’t like clowns.” Tim explains. “Or condiment king. They get close, Danny takes them out.”

Jason is incredibly confused, bc he just came back from an out of town mission, but this place is right on the edge of his territory and he should definitely know about it. He asks tim, who just shrugs.

“That shop is weird. It’s like a grocery store at 3am. I stumbled in there after a rough night and Danny just whipped me up the best coffee i've ever had. Still can’t find their website. I swear it’s bigger on the inside and the door keeps swapping from one side of that fire hydrant to the other.”

Danny comes out and passes Tim a massive coffee cup. “Come back and talk shop with tucker, okay? You’re welcome any time. Both of you, actually.”

He gives Jason a weird look and then goes back inside.

Jason, who is a little concerned that the reverence tim has is more than his average weird worship of coffee (it's just that good) goes back the next day in civvies.

He gets offered the secret menu, danny does the eye thing, Jason retreats to look at the secret menu. Unsure of what just happened, he texts tim.

Jason: Why was i given a “secret menu”

Tim: WTF WHAT DID YOU DO TO GET THAT

Jason: IDK THATS WHY IM TEXTING YOU

tim: I'VE BEEN GOING FOR MONTHS I’M A LOYAL PATRON WHAT DO YOU HAVE THAT I DONT

Jason: the secret menu apparently (image)

Tim: …thats just the normal menu???

Jason: no? It looks like a kid went ham with a neon green marker tf?

Duke: you know this is the family chat right?

Steph: order the waffles

Jason: you order the waffles. Wtf is an ecto-level.

Jason asks for what danny recommends, Danny immediately gives him a milkshake and tells him it's on the house bc he “looks rough.”

Jason is kind if offended, bc he actually got a decent sleep- but then he tries it and its like.

Oh.

Now. Between the stink Tim is making, and the sudden worship that Jason has of this shops milkshakes, the BatFamily is now Curious and will Investigate.

Are the milkshakes really that good?

The full force of the Wayne Family™ isn’t exactly subtle, so they go in twos and threes over the course of a week.

Damian gets offered the secret menu, and is also directed towards Sam’s express vegetarian line. Danny just Knew. Damian accuses Tim and/or Jason of pulling a prank on him, but they both swear up and down they didn’t say anything.

Both Steph (i think? Did she fake her death or actually die idk) and Cass get the secret menu, and they keep trying to ask Tim what certain things on the menu mean. Tim Cannot See what they’re talking about. He’s starting to get frustrated. Is it some sort of magic spell?

Tim takes Kon to Danny’s. (Is it a date? A test date on a low-stakes investigation? Maybe.) Danny, who is really starting to enjoy messing with Tim, gleefully offers Kon the secret menu, and Tim the normal one. Tim bangs his head on the table.

Dick doesn’t get a secret menu, but he does notice a couple disappear through the wall. He’s almost certain he’s seen them before, but it will be a while before he remembers Kitty and Johnny from his early Robin Days.

Duke is also not offered a secret menu, but he can see the writing anyways. He can also see that some of the patrons have weird auras, and what on EARTH is up with Danny himself? He tries to ignore it, up until Steph gets him to order one of the specials off Cass’s (secret) menu. And Danny just kind of sharpens, the air going cold.

“I didn’t give you that menu. Just because you can read it, doesn’t mean you want it. Order off the right menu, please.”

Duke, freaked the hell out by the Biblically Accurate Horror that Danny is shifting into, orders off the right menu and apologizes.

“Oh, it’s alright!” Danny flips back to cheerful in seconds. “It’s just that it wouldn’t be completely healthy for you to eat it, even if you are part immortal.”

Duke bluescreens.

Alright, somethings definitely going on.

Tim and Jason both order the same thing- an oreo milkshake, one off the secret menu, one off the normal menu. Jason confirms the one from the normal menu does not taste the same and isn’t as good. Tim cannot confirm the other way around, because Jason nearly punches him when he attempts to taste it.

They take samples home, analyze them, and go over anecdotes from other patrons, trying to figure out what makes Danny’s so weird. What makes Kon, Cass, Jason, and Damian different?

Wait a second. Kon, Cass, Jason, Damian. The ones that died and came back to life.

It’s around this time that Dick remembers where he’s seen Kitty and Johnny before. Lovers from two houses, both alike in (in)dignity, had a romeo-and-juliet-esque escapade across Gotham, ending in high speed chase with Kitty’s gangster father and a fatal motorcycle accident. Both are dead. Both are in Danny’s.

Danny’s has something to do with death.

Having heard a couple stories about food of the dead, they notify Bruce (who is very concerned as to what exactly his children have been putting in their mouths) and then call in the magic users of the justice league.

It’s a mess. Dan calls Constantine a whore. Deadman and Secret (i think thats Tim’s ghost friend?) get abducted to the backroom. Dani clocks Capt. Marvel as another kid who looks older than he actually is, with magic powers, and his showing him her REALLY interesting travel photos. Zatanna is like “this place needs an exorcism” and danny just goes “ma’am please don’t exorcize my customers.”

Tag list (if you saw me attempt this before no you didn’t)

@nappinginhell @apointlessbox @thegatorsgoose @chaos-n-kindness @mimilikey @phoenixdemonqueen @treepainting @sjrose1216 @akikkobara @malice-of-the-sunrise @idontgetpaidenoughforthisshit @randomkiddoscrewingaround @call-me-strega @blankliferain @somera-rubina @wordsgohere95 @rukiaai @mirellacoco @stargazing-bookwyrm @bathildaburp @littlefeather345

#dp x dc #long post #dp x dc prompt #idk what im doing #welcome to danny’s

[stealingyourbones]

TW for mild unreality

So in a lot of DP x DC crossovers I notice that everyone instantly makes the connection of infinite realms = ghosts. But what if they didn't? I mean, to most humans ghost equals dead person. Not everyone in the infinite realms is dead.

Instead, what if everyone thought it was a realm similar to the Fae Realms? A place where everything is only as real as you want it to be, where the land itself lives and breathes and changes it's form every which when. Perhaps that's why the Fentons think of ghosts as mischievous semi-sentient tricksters, they misread some older texts talking about them.

And they could be right in a way. What if dead ghosts are actually the souls of people who caught the attention of the realms/someone in them and so the realms grabbed their soul upon death to keep. If liminality means you're a guaranteed ghost then maybe that's the realms' way of keeping track of Interesting People so they know when they're up for grabs (they were patient and let you live out your life without interference, it's only polite).

But then, why are ghosts so quick to jump to fistfights now instead of battles of wit? Well that's because of Pariah Dark. The older kings were all the cleverest, the smartest, and perhaps Pariah was clever in a way (he turned a battle of wits he would surely lose into a battle of power after all, and that takes some wit in and of itself) but he valued power and physical might more and so the realms changed to reflect that. And then Danny came along. A small baby child who beat Pariah AT HIS OWN GAME. A child who employs both might and wit in equal measure because he knows the value of both. That small child, king of Ice and Snow, Little Prince, Boy King, a Strategist, a Warrior, that tiny kid is now the King. And the realms change once more to reflect that.

So when Danny is crowned King the ghost zone goes back to being similar to Faerie, only with more fights because Danny is not afraid to straight up punch someone (he's kinda feral like that).

So on the DC side of things maybe there's a summoning (accidental or cult induced), or Danny ends up in the watchtower/Gotham/important place, or maybe the League decide they have enough time to scout out Amity Park and figure out what's going on. They meet Danny, who calls himself a ghost, and are like "You're not like the other ghosts I've met but I don't know enough to refute that" and eventually it gets back to Constantine about this "ghost" boy, and he FREAKS OUT. This is an Infinite Realms denizen, a people similar to Unseelie Sidhe in all the legends, him being a ghost just means he was (or would be, time likes to wander in the realms. Sometimes the present is the future and that past has Not Yet Occurred) interesting enough to nab when he died! And they've been TALKING to him?? That's how you get their attention! You don't want their attention! It's bad enough that Red Hood has a guaranteed fast track there with the sheer amount of Realms Energy swirling around him ever since his resurrection he doesn't need any more people putting up massive I AM HERE signs willy nilly! Just because most denizens are willing to wait until you die to try and steal you away, that doesn't mean that all of them are. And now that Pariah Dark is gone, and the New King is perfectly willing to entertain wit and humor in his court once more, well. It's free real estate.

TLDR the Infinite Realms are Fae-Adjacent and Constantine is Terrified.

I-

this is just incredible. I have no words. I am in awe.

#bones replies #halfcybergremlin #dpxdc #dp x dc #danny phantom

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

Stupid thought: Ghosts under a hundred years are babies no matter how old they are. However it’s acknowledged their human ages matter.

Danny is a baby. Johnny and Kitty aren’t. Both were killed during the Salem Witch Trials as witches. Shadow is in fact Johnny’s magic still sticking around. However they adapt to the times compared to other ghosts who died. They like their new style.

Johnny notices first and stops right away to talk to Danny who is stunned. He’s fought ghosts before who just attack?!

Johnny: You feel old but like I can tell it’s just echoes of power kid.

Johnny abandons his plans for Jazz and goes back to the Ghost Zone to talk to Kitty. Both come back and begin helping Danny with Ghost stuff. They become his ghostly parents/older siblings. Mostly older siblings.

So they aren’t rogues. Though they will cause mischief.

Then the GIW attack Danny after figuring him out. Vlad is a bitch and helps. Cause he wants to save Danny and be his ghost dad. Johnny and Kitty are around. They grab Danny when he’s injured and book it. They can’t go to the Ghost Zone though, cause the GIW tracked Danny to the place and realized his identity. Maddie and Jack are confronted and upon learning their son is Phantom… yank out their guns and shoot the agents. Jazz runs to the basement and wrecks the portal. All three are arrested.

Johnny and Kitty run with Danny all the way to Gotham where a natural stable portal is, hidden deep under the rock. Gotham’s Spirit stops then.

GS: He’s to human. He needs to recover here yes, but can’t go full in for to long.

They do take him to see Frostbite while Gotham does her thing. Arranging for an apartment to mysteriously become available, then to find a stash of dirty money, all that.

Johnny and Kitty manage to pass as meta. They hide what they are cause the old Laws say they have to.

Johnny ends up working with Jason as part of the Red Hood gang while Kitty works in a beauty parlour. Danny is in recovery. But when he’s okay, he begins working with Tucker (who along with Sam booked it out of Amity and are hiding out in a bunker Sam’s grandma has) to destroy the GIW.

Jason eventually gets roped into the chaos as he’s liminal. He is more then happy to blow up some government agencies. More so when Maddie and Jack break out with Jazz to run to Gotham to. Suddenly there are two mad scientists who work in Crime Alley with Red Hood.

Few people are happy. I’m not sure if this is during the early days (if so, Johnny murks the clown) or not but Batman is not happy. Meanwhile the Fentons are happily churning out gear for Red Hood cause both have little morals, Jazz is helping expose the GIW and the JL cause they all think they knew (they didn’t. New laws said the hotline had to be operated by a civilian who was easily bribed, thanks Luthor).

I have no idea where this would go other then ��Johnny and Kitty are Danny’s ghost parents/siblings who run with him to Gotham and cause chaos with Jason and Danny is a baby crime lord’.

I mean you can go bad reveal Jack and Maddie but the idea of them going: you know what? FUCK THE GOVERNMENT before going evil is funnier.

#dpxdc #dc and dp #I like Johnny #and kitty #first episode I ever watched #I like these two #baby ghost Danny #Johnny is smarter then he lets on #but he’s also an idiot to

[bestworstcase]

@cryptidblues tumblr Ate this ask for some reason so copying text from the email notif

See I’ve always thought that the mechanism through which cinder stole the maiden powers (bug) from Amber made her a Grimm hybrid. And THATS why Ruby’s silver eyes worked on her at the top of beacon tower; regardless of the presence of the wvyern. Because underneath her skin she was Grimm (and still fully human). “Your newfound strength brings with it a crippling weakness”/“You said the light only reacts to Grimm but…it reacted to Cinder”/“perhaps there was something that you just weren’t seeing?” Leading from that the implicit threat of “Oz can’t defeat [Salem]”/“but maybe someone else can?” to Salem is not that Salem could be eradicated by silver eyes (go poof like other Grimm) but rather be put back in The Tower by silver eyes. By being turned to stone. Still immortal but frozen. Trapped. Her Freedom completely sundered. “You thought there was no greater punishment we could bestow upon you?”/“Your light comes from his brother”/“The god of light…his eyes”. There’s an assumption that Salem is invulnerable, no personal skin in the game, “she’ll come back”, nothing effects her, nothing sticks; but her running this risk of being petrified by silver eyes gives depth and high stakes to any interaction she has with Ruby face to face (and her possible complex relationship to a hypothetical favorite silver eyed lieutenant). ᓚᘏᗢ

the reason i Don’t believe the grimm beetle made cinder vulnerable to the glare atop beacon tower is that ruby hits her with a second full-blown glare in atlas towards the end of v7 and—even though cinder by that point has a whole grimm arm—cinder flies away from that one unscathed. either:

a) the implication salem makes in v5 that cinder can learn to resist the glare is true,

b) there is an additional, unknown but more important factor besides “grimm” involved here, or

c) both.

i think the answer is probably both, although more b than a. (maria sees the flash coming from the god of light’s eyes and concludes this power came from him; but she couldn’t see that ruby’s eyes were silver until she saw their light go off, and she missed those two silver-eyed children of ozma’s. “maybe there’s something you’re not seeing” is true of her, too)

(the silver light evokes the pure white of the void between realms, where the dead travel from life to death and the souls of the living and the dead can meet in between. ozma passes through this liminal space every time he dies and reincarnates, and his children with a mortal woman have silver eyes. after ruby witnesses pyrrha’s death and her light erupts, the hand cinder used to kill pyrrha is destroyed and ruby spends months hearing echoes of pyrrha’s final words—which she wasn’t there to see—haunting her dreams. there are butterflies, classic symbols of reincarnation and in certain cultures historically identified as psychopomps, all over the scene where maria discusses her theory. maria is also philosophically wrong in her conception of creation/life as “enemies” of destruction; destruction feedslife and exists in balance with creation, and the glare itself is definitionally destructive. silver eyes have something to do with death.)

the kids at least, per nora and “maybe someone else can [destroy salem]?” do seem to be thinking in terms of ruby’s eyes being the silver bullet that can stop salem if not destroy her outright, and ruby has the wyvern example to look to to be thinking about trapping salem in stone forever. but then the leviathan is there to raise the possibility that petrification is not necessarily forever, and salem herself seems unconcerned when ruby’s eyes start to flash in ironwood’s office. plus again the implication salem makes that the glare can be resisted: if that is something she taught cinder to do, it’s something salem must be able to do too.

i do think the glare is probably capable of hurting her somehow—i have my own specific headcanons as to how for Fic Purposes but in terms of textual speculation, what happens if you take a grimm woman who can’t die and blast her with the grimm-killing light from the threshold between life and death? it sounds painful, if nothing else.

but if the leviathan could break free after being petrified, and salem is both immortal and human and thus able to, like cinder in v7, resist the glare in some way, i think being turned to stone or encased in stone is not likely to slow her down for very long. although i can’t imagine she would enjoy the experience.

the other factor to consider is that—well, quite a lot of the fandom assumes the point of silver eyes is to “purify” the grimm out of people, for example saving cinder from her grimm arm, and on the basis of maria’s theory that is an easy extrapolation to make; which is to say, after the experience in the ever after, i wouldn’t be surprised if the idea of “purge the grimm out of salem to make her herself again?” was broached on the heroes side. the reality though is that being grimm is not what’s wrong with salem and becoming grimm is something she chose, or at least accepted as a possible consequence of what she attempted to do when she jumped into the pool of grimm, and using silver eyes to try to Force Her to go backwards is probably not a good idea and not something that will work. she is change incarnate—that’s what destruction means.

so there is a thematic challenge here that might be explored; seen through the lens of maria’s theory, silver eyes are anti-change (preservation) and therefore anti-theme (destruction is part of life, not the enemy of life) so her theory is incomplete and the most obvious way to fill in the gaps and arrive at the whole truth is to test the glare against salem herself, because she is change. 

and because rwby is so thematically driven i’d anticipate this happening concurrently with salem turning in a new direction, which intersects in very interesting ways with what is being set up vis-a-vis needing cinder to open the vaults vs wanting cinder to be alive, safe, and free. (i think the momentum there is toward salem being forced to choose between getting the crown and protecting cinder, and she’ll sacrifice the crown for cinder’s sake; the… possibility of silver eyes being involved in that scenario is obvious.)

#silver eyes my windmill. #there’s also details like jaune—no one else #just jaune—flinching when ruby’s eyes go at haven #you know. the kid with the death wish. very interesting

[slow-writer]

TMAGP Episodes 7 & 8 Reactions

That was totally my face during both episodes, I swear.

Spoilers below!

Okay, I'm freaking out on a cellular level, it feels like.

Episode 6 had the introduction of new OIAR employee, Celia Ripley, who is voiced by Lowri Ann Davies. Those of us from the TMA fandom recognize her as the voice of Lynne Hammond who later became Celia because her name was taken from her after the Change. There have been speculations on whether she is playing the same Celia (even though this is a separate universe) or if this is just a little wink from Jonny and Alex behind the scenes. But then came the next 2 episodes.

The sheer amount of lore that was dropped in these 2 episodes has the fandom REELING. So, let's get into what we've heard!!

EPISODE 7: Right off the bat, Celia not only references that the dated computer system is basically better than "wrestling with tape recorders and manila folders." This feels like a TARGETED MISSILE at the TMA fandom. But right after that, she asks if any of the spoken cases have anything in common, and if there's a way to search the cases that have common threads, like, "Oh I don’t know. Every case about being buried alive or meat or… whatever." And if that wasn't enough, she recognizes the voice that Alice calls Chester (AKA, John!).

Those statements alone have me thinking with 99.99999999% certainty that this is the SAME Celia from TMA (or at least, she's tapped into her memories in some way).

Apart from Celia, we have Hilltop being referenced in a case, which could very well mean that it's a similar situation from TMA. Very possibly a rift in space-time or whatever. Some nexus of power or something.

Then Sam received a supposedly internal email from someone called "John" that contained an address and a name. Does this mean that John is truly trapped in the computer system like we've all been theorizing? Is this his attempt at making contact and warning Sam not to follow in his footsteps? AGH!

And then we have poor Colin, driven mad by whatever's corrupting the code he's been trying to maintain, taped over his webcam, and full on refusing any electronics to enter his office (that weren't already there, and he must have clearly tampered with them so they cannot spy on him). He even attacks Sam when he pulls out his phone. That man has a lifetime subscription to Paranoia Plus, if you ask me, poor thing.

Lastly, we get confirmation that Lena at least tried to kill Klaus, but may not have succeeded, and Gwen's blackmail of her puts her in a new role of "External Liaison," whatever that may be. (Oh boy, oh boy.)

And if that wasn't enough, we have today's episode....

EPISODE 8: No preamble on this one, just straight into a case. And man, are we having fun with the whole liminal horror plus Stranger vibes in this one! But the GOOD SH*T comes after the case ends.

Poor Colin's been put on Mental Health Leave, so I'm really hoping that wasn't the last we'll 'see' of him. And the banter between Gwen and Alice has much more of an edge now that Gwen's been promoted. But!!!

Sam and Celia went off together after they ended their shifts early (ooooh), and who did they meet?

GERRY EFFING KEAY AND HIS 'GEE-GEE' GERTRUDE!!!!

And I checked, yes, they are 100% voiced by their TMA counterparts, Jon Gracey and Sue Sims (Jonny's mom).

Gertrude calls Gerry her grandson (though I'm curious if this means Gerry's actual mother is dead here too, and when Gertrude stepped in as a surrogate, or if she's actually his grandmother).

When Sam and Celia ask about the Magnus Institute, they both kind of go quiet, like they don't know what they're allowed to say or if they can trust these strangers who randomly showed up to their house. Sam reveals that he was part of their "gifted kids" program (hello, ARG info!) and saw Gerry was also listed and wanted to "swap stories." Gertrude seems to want to push them away, all protective, but Gerry just says he doesn't remember much.

Did Gertrude blow up the Magnus Institute in this universe and adopt Gerry after she found him there?!?

And finally, after Gertrude kind of rushes them out, Celia makes a deal with Sam. They agree to keep track of anything that falls under each other's mystery interests. Because she's "doing a favor for Georgie" (HFGJHFD!), she needs to look into "Weird physics stuff: time travel, other dimensions, teleportation, all that good stuff."

Was Celia sent here from the TMA dimension to do recon?!?

Anyway, there's so much more to dive into, but those are the things that are currently making my brain buzz. How has your Thursday been?

#the magnus archives #the magnus protocol #tmagp #tma #spoilers #lore #im freaking out here wtf

[feraliminal]

Titan TVman and Beowulf are Basically the Same Character: Why Skibidi Toilet Is Folklore

It’s been a long time since I’ve touched the hellsite (I used to doodle and write dirty fic), but I’m fascinated by the silly toilet men videos, their popularity, and the confusion about their popularity. And because I’m a huge nerd and always want to know why people do things, I wrote something. It’s too long to leave on my Notes app and forget about, and I’m also not letting skibidi toilets anywhere near my serious blog. So I actually came back to Tumblr for this.

(Also the first stupid doodle I’ve done in forever, here’s the original meme.)

Toilet humour is obviously a huge part of why it’s so popular, and imho it’s a poop joke that got bigger than the creator intended it to. Toilets are endlessly amusing, particularly for kids, because learning to manage your waste is essential to being a civilised person but something that no one really wants to do. Some of the first conflicts between kids and their parents are often around cleanliness and potty training, and as we get older, the toilet is one of the few places where we’re first alone, particularly if we share a bedroom with siblings. Childlore and fiction about childhood is full of toilets: bullies that strike in school toilets, toilet ghosts like Bloody Mary and Hanako-san, people who died on the loo, and rats or spiders that bite your bum. It’s a classic example of a liminal space that looks mundane but could be full of scary shit.

So that’s my first smart theory, Skibidi Toilet is a contemporary haunted toilet story with something to do with dirt and discomfort vs tech. Clever theories about symbolism are fun and I think symbolism that feels relevant and familiar might be why something first attracts someone’s attention, but I don’t think it can explain the thing having fandom.

The only thing people love as much as poop jokes is stories about cool guys having punch ups, and there’s plenty of that as well. Visually and thematically, Skibidi uses all the tropes that we love in serious popular media - fights, explosions, monsters, giants, noise, the aforementioned cool robots. Swap out skibidi toilets for alien invaders, and cameramen with plungers for cyborgs with swords, and we’d have a respectable alien apocalypse story that’s identical to five other summer blockbusters. But as it is, it’s so ridiculous that it can only be a silly little internet video.

There’s a video by MatPat making a convincing argument that it’s actually about the conflict between independent content creators and the conventional media industry. But again, I think it’s also probably only indirectly what’s turning curious views into millions of subscriptions, especially since the earlier netlore was pretty niche. I think what viewers are picking up on is the dissonance between cool robots, apocalypse horror, and silly toilets, evidenced by most of the comments on YouTube being variation of “why is this actually good”. It’s got the same vibe as other stuff I’d classify as creepypasta-style or meme-style horror: Five Nights at Freddy’s, Among Us, Homestuck, and so on. In meme horror, there is an in-universe threat to characters that’s not played for laughs. However, something like a ridiculous gimmick, a parody of pop culture, or a dissonantly cute art style makes it clear that adult viewers who understand it as fiction don’t have to respect the threat.

The line between feared and respected has always been thin. A cool example of this is the word aglæca in Beowulf and other Old English texts. Aglæca is a debated word because it’s mainly used to describe monsters and demons, but is sometimes used to describe heroes and saints. Both the human hero Beowulf and his monster opponent Grendel are called aglæca. Based on this use and its etymology, some medieval studies scholars think it means something more like an uncanny and powerful outsider. I think a big part of meme horror’s appeal is that it’s still got heroes who are more or less serious characters fighting serious battles. We can respect the characters and their struggles even if we don’t fear the absurd stuff. I’ve chosen Titan TVman for my silly title because they’re the character that best embodies the “uncanny hero” aspect for me, but tbh I think that most meme horror heroes/anti-heroes seem to be these character types.

We know that enjoying horror fiction helps some people manage anxiety and fear, and comedy horror can help us laugh at fear. With the retained seriousness besides the playfulness, meme horror might be more beneficial than basic serious or comedy horror as a comfortably uncomfortable middle ground between the two. Cringe is currently having a cultural moment too, where concerns about and celebrations of being cringe are everywhere, so it might also give us a way of exploring and processing our feelings about embarrassment as well as fear.

Memes, and therefore meme horror, are very amenable to being collaboratively and spontaneously adapted and spread by regular folk. They’re a new form of folklore, essentially. They address stuff that’s relevant to the lives of regular folk, including ugly and uncomfortable things. There’s even a theory that the culture of the very online has began an era of “secondary orality” where how we spread stories on the internet replicates how we used to spread folk stories by word-of-mouth. Secondary orality is a double-edged sword, as it can build creative and supportive communities, but also spreads conspiracy theories and hate. No wonder some of us might not be having our needs fulfilled by regular horror fiction, if we’re facing the bad kind of secondary orality as well as everything else that’s going on in the world. (More allegories! An increasingly absurd and hostile world is another theme in Skibidi Toilet.)

The 1938 book Homo Ludens argued that doing things just for fun has defined features and benefits: play gives us freedom to express ourselves, it’s separate from everyday life, it allows us to construct new worlds with new rules, and it’s never compulsory or for profit. When we’re bombarded by media that’s designed to extract the maximum amount of profit from us, engaging with mainstream entertainment might sometimes feel not as playful or as voluntary. But by being a bit cringe, meme horror retains the appearance of being indie and just for fun even if it becomes obscenely popular.

So, for me, this is what Skibidi Toilet is about. It’s about new folklore playing the same role as old folklore, even if it looks like silly toilet men videos, because we’re essentially the same people as our ancestors telling monster stories around the fire.

#long post #anthropology #folklore #skibidi toilet #skibidi lore #skibidi wtf #horror #memes #my art

[indierpgnewsletter]

Itch Roundup for August and September 2023

Welcome to the bimonthly round-up of interesting games released on itch.io. Like every edition of these, this one is also jam-packed with the creativity, joy, and weirdness of the itch design scene.

Hark! Says the Frog Magus: An ENNie-nominated, system-agnostic dungeon delve born out of love & fascination with all things amphibian, gets a new version which looks wonderful. (Diwata ng Manila, Dinoberry Press)

Bracknell Horror, Roseville Beach Zine 3: I recently checked out Moonlight on Roseville Beach and it’s a really interesting Psi-Run hack for running very pulpy, very queer mysteries with a cosmic horror angle. I think if you like Brindlewood Bay, you’ll also really like this game. (R Rook Sutdios)

This Mortal Coil: This is setting/hack for Liminal Horror with a weird sci-fi bent. You’re “a space traveler-turned-necromancer on a quest to achieve eternal life by constructing a magical device known and… mastering the forces of the Negaverse”. Seems like a really lush production. (David Garrett)

Dolly, We bought A Dream House: Barbie-inspired game of building a dream house. Think a map-drawing game but way more pink! This can be played be solo or with friends. (Plotbunny Games, also available in German)

Bxllet Clip, The Pinxp Issue: Celebrating the third anniversary of the very punchy, very metal gunslinger game BXLLET, a big zine with expanded content for the game, including a whole new hack by Adira Slattery about girls with demon guns. Most indie games don’t ever get long-term support so this is really cool to see. (Wheels within Wheels Publishing)

Eleventh Beast: A solo monster-hunting trifold game with a very slick design and heaps of grungy Victorian vibes. Exeunt Press, publisher of the Ennie-nominated Exclusion Zone Botanist, do very good work.

Esper Kids: A free one page Lasers & Feelings hack of middle schoolers with psychic powers, inspired by Mob Psycho. Also, someone’s first game, yay! (Robyn, Bitbirdy)

Hiss, A Village Doomed: A creepy town, a pressure cooked scenario, dungeons, NPCs. This is a horror-themed, 30 page module with some great design, meant for an OSR style game. (Idle Cartulary).

Coffee & Chaos: This is a coffee shop game where you bring your characters from your main game (D&D?) to play a one session of low stakes alternate universe shenanigans. (CobblePath Games)

Adventures in Purva City: This is an alternate setting for teenage superhero game Masks. It’s a far-future Mumbai/Bombay and comes out of a huge West Marches style Masks game that I never got to play but have heard lots about. Very cool! (Illicit Peanuts)

-------

My usual disclaimer that I haven’t read or played these games. Usually, I have only seen their store page. But they look cool and sound interesting and they might be something you want to buy. Or you might give the creator a follow on itch. Go wild!

This was originally published in the Indie RPG Newsletter.

#indie rpg #ttrpg #ttrpg community #ttrpg design #ttrpgsolidarity

[sassysadisticsarcasms]

DP Head canon/Prompt #1

In the show, ghosts are portrayed as beings made out of a substance colloquially known as ‘ectoplasm’. With the rumble-tumble half-assed science we’re given in the actually show, this is left relatively unexplored. We know, colloquially, that that ghosts have certain ‘cores’ that are essentially center of their being and have some determination factor in the abilities presented per ghost.

Not a bad foundation, so of course I had to add something to it.

What if, in typical circumstances, ghosts can take several years to fully form. Take Vlad for instance, it is referenced multiple times in the show that he took a decade to finally roll over into the halfa life. For a moment consider enzymes. Enzymes, as catalysts, work by lowering the activation energy needed for a reaction in certain circumstances. 

Living people would act as the substrate (what the enzyme catalyzes for the non-science peeps), and ectoplasm would act as the enzyme. The less ectoplasm, the less likely, weaker, and slower a ghost is to form. The more ectoplasm, the more likely, stronger, and faster a ghost is to form. 

Of course, this is ignoring the cause of death and emotions during the occurrence of said death, but hey, I’ll save that for a different head canon. 

Basically, the thought I had was that when death occurs and all the right circumstances have been met, that is when a ghost core forms. The core will default into a state of intangibility and invisibility, and follow the unseen ley lines of liminal space back to the Ghost Zone. Form there, the core would spend years just kind of vibing, absorbing the ambient ectoplasm of the zone until it reaches some predetermined threshold.

(Halfa’s, since there liminal, rely on the ambient ectoplasm of liminal space during their formation)

Thus Danny’s formation would be kind of confusing for everyone. I have this idea in mind that most ghosts would view the zone as some sort of mother goddess or unfathomable being deserving of the utmost respect. 

Like it’s standard practice to appreciate the realm for basically treating ghost cores like the first born child of new parents who have gone to all the parenting classes and read all the ‘how to not kill your child in the first ten years’ books. Heck, even Pariah had lines he didn’t cross when it came to disrespecting the zone.

Compared to Danny who basically had so much ectoplasm blasted at him in such a short period of time he instantly became a ghost. 

(Think less of the panicked, loving care of a new parent, and more so one of those ‘I just thought I was fat till this baby slipped out of me.)

Consider Phantom to just be a really, really premature baby ghost. 

I think this would be a really fun way to explain why Danny has such trouble with his ghost powers at first. Like how a lot of premature babies have trouble with lung development, his core had a harder time stabilizing and meeting the threshold for how much ectoplasm he needed. 

I think this could also explain why Danny has a lack of knowledge in most things ghost related. While all the other ghosts where safe in the zone being spoon fed knowledge by an eldritch goddess, Danny just kind of existed and was then expected to adapt to violence being his only interaction with other ghosts. 

I just feel like this would set up such great interactions with other DP characters. 

Like maybe one day Ember floats up to Phantom and is like, “Hey babypop! You coming to the Summer Solstice Festival in the zone tomorrow? I’m playing.”

And Danny just looks up from where he’d just punted Skulker into the ground with distrustful eyes and stiff posture. He’s just kind of confused by the random invitation and more than a little wary. If this festival is anything like Ember’s last festival, well... he wasn’t sure he wanted to attend. Naturally, Danny’s curiosity would take over and he’d question Ember with a stupid one liner.

Ember, of course, would be like ‘oh haha, what’s the SSF you’re so funny’ and then she’d realize Danny wasn’t kidding. Obviously, she would be shocked because Ember’s was fairly sure ghosts new about the festival whether they wanted to or not.

“Jeez, Babypop, you really are a baby.”

“Am not! I’m nearly fifteen!”

“Not what I meant, dipstick. When did you become a ghost?”

“Almost a year now, why?”

“She means when did your core form, welp.”

“A year ago. What do you want?”

It is then that both Skulker and Ember realize they’ve been fighting a literal fetus. 

#ghost zone #Danny Phantom #dp prompt #dp headcanons #baby phantom #ghost cores #danny fenton #ember #skulker #danny is fetus by ghost standards #sentient ghost zone

[gendrie]

They thought they were hunting her, she knew with all the strange sharp certainty of dreams, but they were wrong. She was hunting them. She was no little girl in the dream; she was a wolf, huge and powerful, and when she emerged from beneath the trees in front of them and bared her teeth in a low rumbling growl, she could smell the rank stench of fear from horse and man alike. (Arya, ASOS)

little red riding hood is, of course, the classic fairy tale of a girl traveling through the woods on the way to see her grandmother while pursued by a wolf. the plot is simplistic, but the symbolism is loaded. its deeply concerned with power dynamics; between girls and beasts in particular. the tale has been told countless times and has just as many interpretations: its erotic, its a puberty rite, a cautionary tale on stranger danger or carnal desire and so on. some have chosen to reinterpret the tale through a feminist lens too. 

Many fans might appreciate that Arya was the name chosen for the alpha female. It's no surprise that Martin has been fascinated with wolves since childhood. The Stark's direwolves are central to the plot of both the books and the show.

"Well, they're mythic. I think even as a kid I responded to the werewolf legends and the wolves in the wood and, you know, Little Red Riding Hood and all of that," says Martin, who claims his choice for the Stark's direwolf banner came from a gut feeling rather than an attempt at symbolism. - GRRM [x]

this story originated during the middle ages in france during a period where wolves were viewed with hatred and fear as is fairly typical of an agrarian society. until recently, the wolf has always been the villain. the girl’s role in this tale is where there’s variability. in the traditional oral folklore of little red riding hood the girl outwits the wolf and escapes. this changed later with the two most well known written versions of the tale, by charles perrault and the brothers grimm, where the girl is devoured or saved by a man, respectively. mercy reads a lot like a twist on ‘little red riding hood’ more in line with the original and i think that tale’s themes could continue be applicable to arya’s forthcoming arc.

Another interesting thing he mentioned: he mentioned the coming of age of Arya in Braavos in the context of how a writer had to discipline himself to write only as many chapters as were necessary to serve the story, saying that what Arya was dealing with in Braavos could make a worthy young adult novel in its own right. - GRRM [x]

grrm considers arya’s storyline in braavos to be a coming of age. this is intended to be the part of her arc where arya journey’s from girl to (very) young woman. which, yeah, is ridiculous, as arya is barely 12. he couldn’t get the 5 year gap to work so that’s what we’re left with. personally? ive accepted that. there was already an insane precedent anyway. sansa was a month shy of 13 when married to tyrion. dany was also 13 when she married drogo. both of their stories involve sexual desires - both theirs and those of the men around them. jeyne p. as “arya stark” has been forcibly married as well. that was a major plotline in adwd. i do not see arya becoming a child bride nor having sex so in that regard it will be tamer, but with mercy sexuality has been introduced to arya’s story in earnest.

The smell of blood was heavy in her nostrils… or was that her nightmare, lingering? She had dreamed of wolves again, of running through some dark pine forest with a great pack at her hells, hard on the scent of prey. (Arya, TWOW)

arya’s twow arc opens on a familiar note; her waking from a wolf dream. whether awake or asleep blood, wolves, and the forest are all constant imagery for her. she rarely has a chapter that doesn’t feature all three. these are also significant symbols in little red riding hood. forests are a liminal space in fairy tales, a representation of the subconscious, a place outside the rules of society. this is arya’s realm even while she’s across the narrow sea in a city. every night her mind wanders back to the woods where she is not stuck in the vulnerable body of a little girl but a strong, swift, fierce she-wolf. arya is an interesting character as she is both the girl AND the wolf. the wolf is a standard fairy tale villain - a male figure both ravenous and deceitful: little red riding hood, the three little pigs, the boy who cried wolf. the big bad wolf conjures an image of terror.

"Some will tell you that they are demons. They say the pack is led by a monstrous she-wolf, a stalking shadow grim and grey and huge. They will tell you that she has been known to bring aurochs down all by herself, that no trap nor snare can hold her, that she fears neither steel nor fire, slays any wolf that tries to mount her, and devours no other flesh but man." (Brienne, AFFC)

asoiaf plays with that, historically european, villanization of wolves while also offering another side to this animal. the direwolf is the sigil of house stark and in many ways that family is the heart of the story. several of the viewpoints characters, arya included, share their souls with wolves. they are, in spirit, the feared werewolves of european folklore. within asoiaf the wolf is monstrous, savage, feared and sociable, protective, intelligent. 

The sound of horses turned her head. Men. They were coming from downwind, so she had not smelled them, but now they were almost here. Men on horses, with flapping black and yellow and pink wings and long shiny claws in hand. Some of her younger brothers bared their teeth to defend the food they'd found, but she snapped at them until they scattered. That was the way of the wild. Deer and hares and crows fled before wolves, and wolves fled from men. She abandoned the cold white prize in the mud where she had dragged it, and ran, and felt no shame. (Arya, ASOS) 

nymeria’s (and by extension arya’s) pack is one of the best examples of that dichotomy. by the people of the riverlands they are a greatly feared thing. septon meribald’s words paint a dark picture, but its mostly an exaggeration. we see through arya’s eyes that is it not typical for the wolves to seek out humans. it’s the opposite. they actually flee before them. nymeria leads her pack away from people. unless they are posing a threat to arya or just happen to be caught up among the sheep. they aren’t monster. they’re animals. 

"Meanwhile, this daughter of his has been fetching and pouring, a fat little thing, eighteen or so—" "Thirteen, more like," Raff the Sweetling drawled. (Arya, ACOK)

in little red riding hood the wolf is, generally, interpreted as a sexual predator. it represents a man’s “animalistic instincts” which he tries to conceal with a disguise to get a young girl in bed. raff is definitely a predator. he did not just kill lommy, but participated in the gang rape of a child and many more. as a reminder in mercy, he comments upon how gregor clegane would give his victims to his men to further assault. the mountain and his men consistently commit the worst war crimes of the series. in this text raff isnt a wolf he’s a “rat”. arya has seen his crimes because she was once at the mercy of him and his fellow soldiers. but not anymore. now raff the sweetling will be at her mercy. in a subversion of the tale it is arya, the wolf girl, who goes after the predator. 

Am I too young for him? she wondered. Too plain? Too skinny? She hoped he wasn’t the sort of man who liked big breasts on a girl. Bobono had been right about her chest. It would be best if I could take him back to my place, have him all to myself. But will he come with me?

these are definitely not the sort of innocent internal thoughts we’d typically associate with a young girl. arya has been exposed to a lot. she has spent time in brothels where she sees girls and women entertaining men so she has some knowledge of seduction. she’s also been a witness to a great deal of sexual violence from a very young age. raff is (one of many) responsible for the loss of arya’s innocence. as she prepares to entice him her language takes on a very sexualized tone despite her violent intent.

He’ll want me or he won’t, she thought, so let the play begin.

She could not give it up. She wanted him so bad.

Mercy looked down at her feet, so shy. “Izembaro said to please the lords,” she whispered. “If there is anything you want, anything at all… “ “I’m Lord Rafford, sweetling, and I know just what I want. Hike up those skirts now, and lean back against that wall.”

all these lines use “want” to express desire. in raff’s case for sex and in arya’s for blood. mercy as a chapter is full of sexuality references. to an extent that is still.....somewhat shocking. arya herself makes references to oral sex, erections, and orgasms. rape is also prominent in mercy. arya plays a rape victim in the ‘bloody hand’ and many interpretations of little red riding hood view the wolf’s actions towards the girl as rape. 

“Not here. Someone might see. My room’s not far, but hurry. I have to be back before the second act, or I’ll miss my rape.” [Raff] grinned. “No fear o’ that, girl.”

to a man like raff there is no difference between sex and rape. he is every bit the villain in a fairy tale. 

He grabbed her wrist. "I'll do the teaching. Time for your first lesson." He pulled her hard against him and kissed her on the lips, forcing his tongue into her mouth. It was all wet and slimy, like an eel. Mercy licked it with her own tongue, then broke away from him, breathless.

arya is still innocent in many ways, like little red riding hood, she is a girl who has yet to have her first period let alone feel actual desire or have sexual experiences. raff threatens to “teach” arya before aggressively forcing a kiss on her. nothing in mercy is an expression of arya’s own sexuality. she just uses the idea of it as a lure. to her it’s a “play” where arya is pretending to be an older girl, copying the things she has seen around her. 

“Mummers are the next best thing to whores.” “Might be, but this one is a child.” “I am not,” lied Mercy. “I’m a maiden now.” 

arya can play the shy maiden. she is, however, a very dangerous girl. raff is mistaken in thinking he’s the big bad wolf. in the charles perrault version of little red riding hood the girl removes her cloak and clothes before climbing into bed where the the wolf devours her. unlike the later grimm version there is no man with an axe to save the girl. in similar fashion raff attempts to get arya out of her clothes. 

“You’re not going anywhere.” He pulled her roughly to him. “Get those rags off, and I’ll show you how old I am, girl.” 

the performance comes to an end after she incapacitates and kills raff. he does not get her out of her clothes nor does he eat her all up like in the fairy tale. arya turns the tables on this tale revealing she is the wolf. here a little girl and a fierce wolf exist in a singular character. those archetypes tend to be stuck at polar opposite ends in fiction as they to represent totally different, presumably contradictory, ideals. the wolf is evil and deeply associated with wilderness and the devil. he is hungry, violent, and sexual. in a “civilized” christian society these concepts make people uneasy especially when they’re present in girls. girls are supposed to remain pure and clean. they are not supposed to hunger for food or blood or sex. the wolf is a warning for young girls against those hungers that will corrupt them. the message is clear: be good, be obedient, be chaste. 

The priest lowered his cowl. Beneath he had no face; only a yellowed skull with a few scraps of skin still clinging to the cheeks, and a white worm wriggling from one empty eye socket. "Kiss me, child," he croaked, in a voice as dry and husky as a death rattle. Does he think to scare me? Arya kissed him where his nose should be and plucked the grave worm from his eye to eat it, but it melted like a shadow in her hand. The yellow skull was melting too, and the kindliest old man that she had ever seen was smiling down at her. "No one has ever tried to eat my worm before," he said. "Are you hungry, child?" Yes, she thought, but not for food. (Arya, AFFC)

but girls hungers aren’t truly unnatural they’re just shamed excessively compared to boys. arya is a character who hungers a lot. starvation is a frequent issue in her chapters as she navigates a war-torn countryside. arya has also faced one injustice after another and hungers for justice, revenge - however you want to frame it. 

The biggest toms would seldom win, she noticed; oft as not, the prize went to some smaller, quicker animal, thin and mean and hungry. Like me, she told herself. (Arya, AFFC) 

arya never viewed herself as innocent or good either. that’s the default for young girls, typically, but arya has been made to feel that she is bad. for that she does feel insecure and ashamed and guilty. at the same time arya fully embraces her wolf side where she finds comfort and strength. her skinchanging abilities provide an internal world where animalistic desire is all that matters and there is no fear or shame. the wolf is a source of power for arya. with cats arya finds empowerment too. her deep connection to nature has given her an outlet for all those dark feelings and actions that the fairy tales warn girls to avoid at all costs.

"The girl is as wild as that filthy animal of hers," Cersei Lannister said.

"She has not said a word since they brought you back. She is a fierce little thing, my lord. I have never seen such anger in a girl." (Eddard, AGOT)

arya is often remembered for her messy hair and being covered in dirt. she strays off the path into the woods, gets covered in mud, talks to strangers. her nature is sociable, outspoken, and fierce. her anger, so frowned upon in girls, is noted more than once. this aspect of her character defies the ideals of girlhood purity that are enforced by society and stories like little red riding hood. 

“Or would you sooner be a courtesan, and have songs sung of your beauty? Speak the word, and we will send you to the Black Pearl or the Daughter of the Dusk. You will sleep on rose petals and wear silken skirts that rustle when you walk, and great lords will beggar themselves for your maiden's blood.” (Arya, AFFC)

sexuality is a major theme in little red riding hood and i expect this trend to continue in arya’s arc beyond mercy. it seems likely bellegere otherys, one of braavos’ most famous courtesans, will mentor her at some point. arya has seen a lot of blood, but her own moonblood is another matter entirely. her flowering will likely introduce her own sexuality to some extent. and since arya is less concerned with social convention and its notions of being a “good girl” there is really nothing holding her back. 

#asoiaf nonsense #arya stark #been sitting on this on for awhile #bc its clearly a controversial topic #but idt this is too bad #no worse than the material itself at least

[thenightfolknetwork]

Hello! I'm a big fan of your network and I find your advice very soothing after a long day of studying. I was wondering if you can help ease some worries I have about a future career? I'm from the states, and I'm entering into my final year of college. I'm planning on becoming a teacher for middle school (unfortunately I'm unsure of what you call it overseas where you are? I want to teach the age range of around 12-13 year olds. My apologies). I've really enjoyed the program so far! I've made quite a few creature friends entering into the career as well, both in and out of my genus. Unfortunately, there's some harmful fear-mongering and stereotypes surrounding my genus, specifically with regards to kids? And they're just the most ridiculous, too? Like, these people think I'm gonna kidnap their kid and pull them to the nearest lake and drown them! Seriously.

Regardless, I'm rather worried about how they could affect me in my future career. I'm not very good at ignoring how people perceive me. While I was working as a lifeguard over the summer, I felt very on-edge and hyper aware of every sapio who looked at me funny. Even though many of these stereotypes are easily disputable, I've still seen quite a few articles spreading this misinformation alongside a wider surge of similar misinformation regarding other genuses. I guess my question is, how do I cope with this?

I'm sorry you're having to cope with this kind of prejudice, reader. Liminal culture in the United States is not – obviously – my area of expertise. That said, we certainly have our fair share of bigotry and anti-creature sentiment here in the UK, so I have high hopes I'll be able to help, at least a little.

The first thing I would stress to you is that it is far easier to be vocal in the name of hate than acceptance, and that venom and vitriol will sell more newspapers (or garner more clicks, as the case may be) than open-mindedness and a live-and-let-live attitude.

Do not mistake the loudest voices for the largest population. Very often, they have been artificially amplified by a media industry that knows the selling power of outrage.

Besides which, people are not generally speaking inclined to march in the streets and wave home-made placards at news cameras for the sake of telling the world, “This is an issue I have no strong feelings about.”

I don't think you should be trying to ignore this issue. But you need to be able to see it for what it is – a loud, vocal minority whose success is due more to the passive silence of the majority than any truth or charisma on their part.

After all, their beliefs are patently absurd! The world is full of aquatic creatures who manage to go their entire lives without drowning anyone – or at least, nobody who didn't deserve it.

Rather than ignoring these people, I think it would be healthier and more fulfilling for you to actively seek out ways to counter their ridiculous narrative.

Look into opportunities to get involved with cross-community education projects. Make your classroom an explicitly creature-friendly space. Support the children you teach and their families to learn more about liminal folk.

In short, let your own liminal life stand as example of the good that can come from mixed genus communities.

There will always be people out there determined to believe the worst of anyone they consider to be the “other”.

But with time, energy, and kindness, we can build a world where they are seen and understood for what they are – small-minded bigots more interested in making themselves feel important than in building any kind of lasting, healthy community.

And if they really get up your nose, remember: you can always drown them.

#answered #monstrous agonies #the nightfolk network

[harlowehearse]

Hello again!

I just wanted to stop on by and ask some questions on your lovely and creative world building!!

My main thought was how you stated that skin taker is dead, yet in some way still alive? Is it an abysmal thing? Like you can’t fully kill one until they are due to die?

Also I love hearing your headcannons! And would love to hear more of your ideas on abysmals and maybe even how the puppets function, say like if something cut there string?

Keep up the work mate, it’s incredible!

First of all, AWAWAWAWWAWAA thank you!!! I'm glad you like my silly puppet thoughts.

Second of all *points to Skin-taker* I have no clue what the hell that thing is!

I do definitely think he's dead and thats that. I feel the whole "abyssians can't actually die" deal may over complicate thing a bit, he's just undead yknow? Maybe because of necromancy shit but I like things better if it was vague and he was just... *gestures vaguley* like that.

You can kill an abyssian I think but it's really hard, and you'd have more luck banishing them back to the abyss (the realm the abyssal kingdom is found). I've had the idea that if an abyssian is banished from candle cove back to the abyss in their place will be a corked bottle with a spell that can summon them back, and holding onto it is like a curse cuz if you do you'll have the inexplicable urge to open it but also if you just abandon it you're leaving it for who knows to open and unleash.

I've considered that maybe on top of skinning him Poppy managed to banish whatever was left of Skin-taker and after the fight he was just NOT okay in any physical mental or emotional way, so he just threw the bottle out into the ocean and later on Horace was the one to find it. I kinda like and dislike this cuz it gives more distinction between necromancy and summoning as different types of magic, but also I feel candle cove should be kind of.....idk empty? Vague? I feel really detailed and complex world building and lore could disrupt the creepy, liminal, twisted childrens tale vibe it's got going on. But yknow it's still fun to think about.

I don't have any in depth thoughts on how the puppets function and their anatomy or anything, I just really really like the idea of throughout the series them being....surprisingly organic in a lot of ways and it's just never explained and you're left there just wondering "Why can they hear a heartbeat while in the bowels of the ship?" "Why is the sound of crunching bones coming from that plush doll?" "Why can they bleed?" Idk I just like leaving some things up for the imagination.

As for their strings I actually do have a headcannon about them! Only the characters on the show who become aware of the audience somehow can see their strings, but don't necessarily have the power to cut them. Skin-taker can see his and, at least appears not to or is too far gone to mind. He fidgets with them a lot actually, like a kid messing with their shoelace.

Red Mary and Gorger (ManBearPig) are the only characters who can see and also interact with everyone elses strings. Gorger, because as Grimmes sort of insert of himself, is the most aware of the nature of candle cove as a TV show and actually plays a role in keeping things in line, keeping the story going how it's supposed to. I assume if someones strings get cut it's like cutting an unnessecary character from a story. Any trace of them is wiped from the world and just their husk is left. There's a lot of limp, lifeless puppet and doll bodies scattered throughout Gorgers cave. *points to Mary* She's just a terrifying fucking freak. She's burnt her strings she says, and remains despite it.

#candle cove #asks #head cannons

[lazerswordweilder]

This definitely isn’t the best, but I sat down to watch a Ranboo stream and suddenly realised I was two hours in and had this. Not my best art, but I still liked it :)

This was going to be in the tags but it exceeded 30:

I do not have an already existing au for this btw but from what I gathered pretty much Danny's at a high school/college at Gotham, he woke up on the street with his last memory being some dramatic fight ending with something about clockwork. these aren't blanks in his memory, those are blanks in my memory. but yeah. he's depressed, and can't contact his family or even know if they're alive. he tried drinking but his core burning even the strongest alcohol in seconds. he's aiming to become an astronaut in this universe, because doctors here aren't aware about his 'accident' aka the first few minutes after the portal where his heart stopped, that permanently scarred his record because they didn't have a clue what caused it, so he couldn't go to space because of safety risks. he is destroyed emotionally though, and is only really giving it a half assed attempt, which still puts him on the Waynes and/or Bats radar because he has: otherworldly (ghost zone) and insanely advanced (have you seen tuker? or the learning machines Lancer used) tech. he also has experience and idea from geniuses like tuker, his parents, himself, technus, also a load of dead geniuses. Yeah but, he’s the smartest kid in school by miles, but a complete and total loner because of how much he’s hurting. Everyone thinks he’s weird.

^^^that’s pretty much all I thought about while drawing it. But I’d imagine he contemplates killing himself but can never bring himself to because his ghost half has respect for the dead instincts and he can’t bring himself to get taken out like that, he wants to go out fighting, struggling, fighting tooth and claw, in a blaze of glory. I’d also imagine he tries not to know the bats, also ghostly respect, at least one of them is a ghost of some sort, and a lot of them are liminal or ecto contaminated, he doesn’t want to mess with them. He just shows up to class with coffee fit for Tim, and survives.

Then I’d imagine he ends up in a relationship, either strong platonic, or family/brother(maybe even father???), or strong sexual/romantic, with one of the bats (probably one of the siblings cause age differences y’know, but let him stew around in his emotions for years, then throw him at the older bats if you want) and then they help him get back home. He gives them all unmelt ice necklaces that can be used to summon him in return (thousands of years into the future most are still family heirlooms and they become incredibly powerful magic artefacts that summon the king of the dead himself), both for emergencies and just catching up.

#my art #lazerswordweilder writes #dpxdc

[gilbirda]

I fee like people are milking the Anger Management ship a little too often now when there are other ships they can go with. The only Danny x Cass ship that sailed and I’ve seen is in Lex Luther’s Ascent from Supervillainy to Fatherhood 😃 I kind of want to see Jazz and Dick getting closer because of being the oldest and/or Danny and a super kid! Danny x Duke is a ship that no one wants to dip their feet in 😔 they could bond over having powers or maybe everlasting quartet 🤔 (sam x danny x val x tucker) sorry im good at giving ideas out im just horrible at executing them 😭 also, Jazz x Babs? their ship Name could be Oracle Specter? Bc some hc jazz as a liminal and oracle liminal doesn’t sound as good 😀

Friend, I'll be real with you, I don't see the point of this message.

The following answer is not for you specifically, is to everyone out there that has said something similar. I can't just ignore it anymore.

I will say this once: why the need to stomp on something to highlight another? Why start with "I think Anger Management is too common/used/repetitive, when we could be doing this instead."

I'm sorry but this rubs me the wrong way, and I cannot find in me the energy to play nice when it isn't the first time I've seen people stomp on my favorite ship for the sole purpose to try and highlight other ships.

The sad part? I like other ships. Jazz/Dick (Nightbirds), Danny/Cass (Dead Silent) and all those you mentioned are okay.

(Jazz/Babs is Red Dead Redemption, but it can be changed)

Like, what's the point? Guilt trip people into making content for other ships? Make me feel bad enough so I write for other ships instead? I am not the DPxDC ships wizard, I don't wake up one day and decide which ship becomes popular.

I just saw the potential for Jazz and Jason, how interesting their dynamics could be, and run with it. I'm happy that my rarepair has become so popular that it has antis and detractors, it's such an honor to have started the fire that took my OTP out of rarepair hell.

But, please.

If anybody out there likes other ships? That's great!

Now go make content for it.

Don't go into mine, or other writer's, inbox and try to guilt trip people into making content for your ship. Or make vagueing posts in the Anger Management tag complaining about it.

Be the change you want to see.

I wrote nearly 100k words of my ship before I saw other people that wasn't me making posts and AUs about them. Before I saw more fics with that ship posted in AO3.

I just sat down and made content.

"Why are people sleeping on these ships?"

"Why isn't [CharacterA/CharacterB] more popular?"

"Anger Management is great, but I'd prefer if it was done this way instead."

THEN GO MAKE THE CONTENT YOURSELF.

Again, this isn't an attack on you personally, is a PSA to anybody out there being pissy about Anger Management and shitting on it just to make other ships look better or more interesting; or wondering out loud why this ship is popular and their ship is not, behaving as if it were all a plot to make Anger Management more popular on purpose.

Stop that.

Multiple ships can coexist in peace, no need to put down the popular ships unnecessarily. Is not rocket science.

#gil answers #mynameisnotlaura #im sorry i dont mean this in a rude way. the ask rubbed me wrong #im seeing people pissing on anger management IN THE ANGER MANAGEMENT TAG #no need to be nasty to a ship people #im human and i like making my characters kiss and thats it #im not an evil mastermind that decides this ship became popular and forced everyone to like it #i just wrote silly little stories #and others ships are great #but coming to my inbox and piss on my OTP is not a smart move