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laufire · 9 hours
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not very good at asking for things that I want
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laufire · 14 hours
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There is a tide in the affairs of men. A visionary vampiress, belonging to a matriarchal society of vampires with praying mantis-like habits, saw the apocalypse as an opportunity to subjugate humanity and elevate her species in a new world order, after the outside world became inhospitable to humans. Between the choice of risking falling prey to the walking, rotting corpses that roam the exterior, and a life of servitude under the civilised blood-sucking monsters underneath, many submitted to the second option. Nonetheless, there’s those even among her own that don’t appreciates living under Lucretia’s iron fist; around every corner a conspiracy against her brews, right as election season approaches.
read a teaser
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laufire · 14 hours
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written for the prompt "drunken confessions, but with only one bed" for a get your words out challenge. dcu comics. bruce (& jason). grief, introspection. 1.6k. The clock marks the start of April 27th, military time; Bruce enters the new day with the stench of alcohol firmly sunken on his breath.
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laufire · 14 hours
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I wrote a few ficlets for the three sentences ficathon these last few weeks, and I just crossposted them in ao3, so I thought I'd share them here!
took ill on thursday (100 words)
prompt: dc comics, any, never could get the hang of thursdays. gotham city & jason todd, stephanie brown. canon compliant, post-war games/pre-utrh.
comparisons are odious (100 words)
prompt: dc comics, joey wilson, like father like son. dick grayson & joey wilson. canon compliant, post-judas contract. can be seen as gen or pre-slash, ymmv.
sugar glass wings (100 words)
prompt: dc comics, mia dearden, future. mia dearden, canon compliant, circa green arrow (2001).
a roof with a view (100 words)
prompt: dc, any, wing!fic. batman & robin, canon compliant, pov outsider.
a son's land (300 words)
prompt: dc comics, jason todd, no man's land. gotham city & jason todd, canon divergence, no man's land au.
a new language (200 words)
prompt: dc comics, any f/f, late nights. cassandra cain/barbara gordon, canon compliant, circa batgirl (2000), unrequited crush.
oracle travels (100 words)
prompt: dc, any birds of prey member(s), wing!fic. barbara gordon, canon compliant, oracle!barabara.
remembrance (100 words)
prompt: dc comics, kara zor-el, remembering krypton. kara zor-el, canon compliant, kara & krypton.
and here you can see my prompts (some of which already received fills!)
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laufire · 16 hours
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batgirl #35
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laufire · 21 hours
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I just found this tiktok account that demonstrates sex positions and it is sooooo useful if you're writing sex and want to see certain things demonstrated. I was literally just looking up diagrams but something about seeing it in motion helps conceptualise the scene 🤔
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laufire · 22 hours
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Want to make a post about Batfandom obsessively latching on to depictions of brown and Asian female characters as Wicked Rapists Preying On Pure Innocent White Men.
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laufire · 22 hours
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im really such a big "jason does not touch cigarettes after his resurrection" truther bc i love the contrast btwn surrounding himself with symbols and reminders of his death, of the way he's purposely this big gaping open wound, but only in a way that fits the narrative he's trying to build for himself. he believes there's no part of that personal tragedy he hasn't or won't face, but he hasn't ever allowed himself to think about sheila haywood. if you asked him why he doesn't smoke he'd say something dismissive about how he already died inhaling smoke once, he's not in a hurry to do it a second time, and then he'd casually be hanging around in buildings he rigged to explode, no sweat. and he doesn't have any problem with the scent of cigarette smoke either, and fuck you for asking, he's only nauseous because he ate something off this morning, finish your cig he's just gotta get some air.
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laufire · 24 hours
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i find what draws me to narratives and characters these days is a writer who is willing to explore the full spectrum of what it means to be human. and that means acknowledging that a lot of us are not paragons of virtue that are always acting in ways that are objectively kind. too many people come from the perspective of believing they are good and thus anything they say or do must be good also without truly grappling with what it means to be kind and the politics of that kindness (whom it's deemed to be acceptable to be kind towards, whom it's deemed to be acceptable to target for unkindness). i have encountered a lot of Perfectly Nice people whom have deemed me an acceptable target for unkindness, for instance, because i happen to fall into certain categories and thus i confess i am jaded and cynical after a point.
that said, i do think it takes a lot of empathy and care from a writer to purposefully want to enter the thoughts of someone they might consider reprehensible and worthy of shunning and deciding to acknowledge their humanity*.
*i say this to a point because, there are just as many people who like to wallow in the depravity of humans, often at the expense of those they victimise, because they have a might makes right worldview they haven't challenged and direct more empathy towards those they believe have a proximity towards power over those who are cast as powerless in their eyes. i think that's a trait inherent to many of us that has to be actively countered and unlearned, tbf, and something still very worthy of delving into in fiction!
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laufire · 1 day
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Wondering who Jason Todd could have become if Batman didn't find him. He's still the extremely cunning and fearless guy who in another life conquered Gotham's underworld in a long weekend, just with no guide rails.
My current favourite option is Gotham's go-to guy for replacing your skylights after a vigilante has dramatically smashed their way into your warehouse.
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laufire · 2 days
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i want jason to bugs bunny slade... he showed up in utrh for all of 30 seconds to hire comically inept assassins for black mask and then leave, that doesn't count, i think jay should have got to ruin slades whole week. as a special treat
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laufire · 2 days
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Slade Wilson is one of my favorite characters, not because he’s any kind of redeemable (we’re not gonna sit here and defend him on anything. He did that shit in Judas Contract lmao), but because the Nanosecond he shows up, the quality of life for whoever he’s antagonizing that week immediately goes down. Like their day is ruined. Entirely. Their week is Fucked because Slade Wilson dared to show his cunt self lmao, and it’s funny every time.
Dick Grayson gets like 70% more mentally ill and downright homicidal whenever he shows up, and it’s funny every single time.
Oliver Queen? Fuck that guy In Particular, says Slade.
Dinah Lance? Her whole wedding TRASHED because he hates to see a girl winning.
Always love to see Batman even more pissed off than usual whenever Deathstroke shows up.
Actual menace. Cunt of a man. I love it
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laufire · 2 days
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for my 100th post (!) i thought i would, at long last, make a catch-all analysis on victor and elizabeth’s relationship, their marriage, and why specifically it was incestuous. throughout i may mention my interpretations of caroline’s past and her pseudo-incestuous relationship with alphonse, which you can read here. it’s not necessary to understand this post, but you’ll miss some of the nuance of the relationships between the frankensteins without it
in the 1818 version of the novel, elizabeth is the paternal first cousin of victor. she is, like caroline, similarly upper-class but falls into misfortune when her mother dies and she is left under the care of her father. these parallels become important later. after elizabeth’s mother dies, her father writes to alphonse “….requesting [Alphonse] to take charge of the infant Elizabeth” and that it was his wish “…that [Alphonse] should consider her as [his] own daughter, and educate her thus” (1818). that is, it was explicitly intended for elizabeth to be reared as a daughter to the frankensteins (and thus victor’s sister). 
in the 1831 edition, caroline specifically has an interest in elizabeth because she sees herself and her own situation in her, a background that mirrors her own. i’ll directly quote a post of mine instead of reiterating the same point. essentially: from the beginning caroline deliberately sets up parallels between herself and elizabeth. she wants a daughter, and adopts elizabeth specifically because elizabeth reminds her of herself, but grander: like she was, elizabeth is also a beggar and an orphan and homeless, but her story is more tragic, she is more beautiful, her debt to her caretakers more extreme, and her romantic relationship will go on to be more explicitly incestuous. through elizabeth and victor, caroline will perpetuate her own abuse. the difference is, unlike her own, this is a situation caroline can control.
from the beginning, at six years old, victor and elizabeth are raised with the expectation that they are going to be wed when they are older. as an adult, elizabeth reflects “that our union had been the favourite plan of [their] parents ever since our infancy” and that “we were told this when young, and taught to look forward to it as an event that would certainly take place” (1831). this is because of caroline’s “desire to bind as closely as possible the ties of domestic love” (1818), and so she is raised as victor’s “more than sister” (1831). they are encouraged to play at the role of mother and father/husband and wife together via raising and educating their younger siblings, particularly ernest. ernest is described as being victor’s “principal pupil” and, during his illness in infancy, elizabeth and victor were “his constant nurses” despite caroline, alphonse and maids/servants/caretakers being available
simultaneously, caroline grooms elizabeth into being a mini-me, calling her her “favorite” and encouraging her to embody the same values as her. caroline does all she can to have elizabeth be what is, essentially, a second version of her, while all the while dictating a marriage to her son
this becomes even more significant, when, on her deathbed, caroline reinforces her wish for victor and elizabeth to marry: “My children... my firmest hopes of future happiness were placed on the prospect of your union. This expectation will now be the consolation of your father. Elizabeth, my love you must supply my place” (1831). by attempting to replace herself with elizabeth via telling her to “supply her place” (of mother/wife) to the rest of the family, caroline is not only dictating a marriage between brother and sister but now mother and son, as elizabeth shifts from a sister-figure to victor into a maternal substitute, and simultaneously is his bride-to-be. as a result the roles of mother, sister and wife become conflated in victor’s mind—to some degree, there is no one without the other.
there’s deeper things at play here too, namely that it creates victor’s later emotional obligation in honoring his mother’s dying wish to go through with the marriage (furthered because it is the “consolation” of his father… alphonse also says something to this effect after victor gets out of prison), but i have enough to say on how victor is relied on as a pillar of emotional support by all of his family that it warrants its own post
this subconscious shift between the role of sister figure to mother figure is further emphasized when, during his dream at ingolstadt after the creation of the creature, elizabeth morphs into caroline in victors arms: “I slept, indeed, but I was disturbed by the wildest dreams. I thought I saw Elizabeth…Delighted and surprised, I embraced her; but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms” (1831). that is, she literally changes from sister into mother. this is also the only kiss in the entire book, and the only instance victor and elizabeth display any affection for each other that is explicitly non-platonic (and elizabeth’s affections towards victor generally feel more motherly then amorous, particularly in contrast to the romance of felix and safie), and during it, she turns into victor’s mother and decays in his arms.
but why make the creature in the first place? well, as the common misconception goes, it wasn’t about reanimation (which was only mentioned once in a throwaway line) it was about creating new life. what victor wound up doing what was not reversing death, but what was, essentially, an alternate method of childbirth. this is a significant detail when considered in the context of victor and elizabeth’s relationship: victor’s goal was to create life, and he, at great lengths, intentionally circumvented women (elizabeth) in this process. why? so that he could dodge an act of incest—marrying elizabeth and providing the frankenstein heirs and carrying on the family legacy, which is what his family expected him to do.
there’s evidence to suggest elizabeth views victor as a brother. elizabeth indirectly acknowledges this relationship during justine’s trial, when she stands up for her defense: "I am," said she, "the cousin of the unhappy child who was murdered, or rather his sister, for I was educated by, and have lived with his parents ever since and even long before, his birth…” (1831). here, elizabeth calls herself the cousin of william (which is notably what she refers to victor as, both when they are literally cousins and when they have no blood relation—either way, a familial term) and then corrects herself, that she is actually william’s sister. her reasoning for this? she was raised and educated by the frankensteins alongside him ever since she was young. if you follow this logic, by extension she also considers herself ernest’s—and more relevantly—victor’s sister.
there is an egregious amount of subtext that suggests victor also views elizabeth as a sibling as well. before victor leaves for his vacation with henry, alphonse tells him that he has “always looked forward to [victor’s] marriage with [his] cousin as the tie of our domestic comfort” because they were “attached to each other from earliest infancy” and “entirely suited to one another in dispositions and tastes.” however, he acknowledges that because of this, victor may, perhaps, “regard [elizabeth] as his sister, without any wish that she might become your wife. Nay, you may have met with another whom you may love; and, considering yourself bound in honour to your cousin, this struggle may occasion the poignant misery which you appear to feel” to which victor replies: “My dear father, re-assure yourself. I love my cousin tenderly and sincerely. I never saw any woman who excited, as Elizabeth does, my warmest admiration and affection. My future hopes and prospects are entirely bound up in the expectation of our union” (1831). that is, he answers, no, he has not met any other woman he would rather marry, yet skirts around the former half of alphonse’s question and doesn’t acknowledge whether or not he views her as a sister or not.
this occurs again after victor is released from prison in ireland when, elizabeth, in a letter, does eventually ask him if he wants to back down from the marriage (this same letter features elizabeth literally hitting the nail on the head when asking if victor was going through with the marriage because he felt honor-bound to their parents). however, she poses this by asking: “But as brother and sister often entertain a lively affection towards each other, without desiring a more intimate union, may not such also be our case?...Do you not love another?” to which victor honestly answers no, he has not met any other woman. however, it’s not addressed whether he’s in love with elizabeth herself, nor does he address whether or not their affection towards each other is akin to that of siblings–again he entirely ignores it.
when victor and alphonse return to geneva after his release from prison, alphonse proposes victor’s immediate marriage to elizabeth, to which victor remains silent. alphonse then confronts victor once more: “Have you, then, some other attachment?” victor responds: “None on earth. I love Elizabeth, and look forward to our union with delight. Let the day therefore be fixed; and on it I will consecrate myself, in life or death, to the happiness of my cousin" (1831). yet the “hopes and prospects” that victor saw bound in their marriage earlier was, in fact, his own death–which was “no evil to [him]...and I therefore, with a contented and even cheerful countenance, agreed with my father, that if my cousin would consent, the ceremony should take place in ten days, and thus put, as I imagined, the seal to my fate” (1831). victor sees going through with a marriage to elizabeth as suicide, and embraces this.
they are both mutually hesitant and describe feelings of dread and melancholy on their wedding day itself. at the very least this indicates a lack of romantic interest in each other. after the ceremony, when they row out on the boat together, victor has a thought that is perhaps the most blatant example of his romantic disinterest in elizabeth: “Then gazing on the beloved face of Elizabeth, on her graceful form and languid eyes, instead of feeling the exultation of a—lover—a husband—a sudden gush of tears blinded my sight, & as I turned away to hide the involuntary emotion fast drops fell in the wave below. Reason again awoke, and shaking off all unmanly—or more properly all natural thoughts of mischance, I smiled” (Frankenstein 1823). victor also makes it clear to the narrator (walton) that they did not consummate their marriage before elizabeth’s death, which suggests there was hesitance or disgust around the concept. 
this is a neat little aside and more circumstantial evidence then anything else, but it is pretty well known that mary shelley's works tend to be somewhat autobiographical, and that her characters are influenced by people in her own life. this is most obvious in the last man, but its also present to a lesser extent in frankenstein, wherein victor's character is inspired by (among others) percy shelley. percy wrote under the pseudonym victor, which is believed to be where victor's name may have come from—and elizabeth was the name of percy shelley's sister.
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laufire · 2 days
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'don't get inspired by my style' is such a funny thing to say. do NOT let any art i make have any lasting impression on you. only view my work if you are going to men in black mind wipe yourself later. the territorial defensiveness over "art styles" is a disease of the mind stg
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laufire · 2 days
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fanon almost always picturing jason as completely and willfully isolating himself is such a huge misunderstanding because of course, he does it at times, but more often he reaches out and is quite vocal. he might not speak of what is actually important, he might do it all in a volatile way, or with a number of possibilities of backing out that makes it more into a self-sabotage than a viable plan, but his whole character thesis post-res is trying to explain something indescribable, trying to come back to places and people who are no more, and hence the extremes in the way he communicates. but he is almost always trying to communicate something, to the others and to himself. the fact that it does not go well and that he often cannot stick to it, disappointed by how fruitless these attempts are, is a whole another thing; and he will be back to try again anyway.
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laufire · 2 days
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What's distressing, but also important to understand, about JK Rowling hitting the "Denying trans people were targeted in the Holocaust" point is that it's kind of the last stop before she just goes full alt-right weirdo.
Joanne is denying the Holocaust (if a group was targeted, denying they were targeted is Holocaust denial) and that's going to lead to pushback from historians and experts. But Joanne is too deep in to believe what anyone who disagrees with her says, so she's just going to dismiss what those historians and experts tell her. And once she's disbelieving them about that one thing, well it's just a tiny step to start disbelieving them about other things.
This isn't by accident either, transphobic circles are swarming with far right agitators, ready to use hatred of trans people as an in to recruit people into their causes. They have handbooks for this sort of thing and they are, unfortunately, good at it. I suspect Joanne will be spouting coded versions of Great Replacement stuff by the end of the summer.
This is not a plea to try and pull Joanne out. She's too deep in, and even if she wasn't, she's already demonstrated an inability to examine her own prejudices, an unwillingness to hear criticism and a weakness to flattery. She is perfect recruitment bait for people who know what they're doing, and my impression is she's surrounded herself with people like that.
No, this is to understand two things: First is to use her as an example, to understand how a well meaning liberal can chase their own prejudices down a very dark rabbit hole. We are none of us immune to propaganda and even if we can't change what's happened to her, we can at least use it to protect ourselves.
And second is to understand that one of the main reasons you can't pull Joanne out of the transphobic pipeline is cause she is the pipeline now. She is the transphobic banner bearer now, she is funneling money and attention to these groups, she is their most famous celebrity and she is helping recruit people. Being able to show people how far she's gone, how deep into the right wing rabbit hole she's going, is important to help other people who still think she just "Had some concerns" know where her path leads.
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laufire · 2 days
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Donna Troy by Stjepan Šejić
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