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try-set-me-on-fire · 1 year

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every moment points towards the aftermath

Ok this is literally the most self indulgent little au snippet, I’m not even putting it on ao3. They’re wrestlers. Bluff City is like Atlantic City, but weirder. You can listen here.

For awhile, in the beginning, every time Eddie meets Buck the other man has blood in his teeth.

They're in the ring, the first time, so it's hardly surprising. Eddie can taste copper, too. His tongue throbs where he bit it when Buck had dropped on him from the top rope, after a ridiculous spin he shouldn't have been able to pull off with his height. It's scripted, and Eddie tries not to be a romantic about that much later, shoving down the obvious metaphor that they were prewritten somewhere, by someone. It's scripted, Eddie wins the match but Buck steals the belt, and several other beats along the way that make the crowd scream. Eddie's not sure he's ever gone over so well, but this is also hardly surprising when he's never in his life felt more alive. The script couldn't have known the way he feels when their body's move together. When he slams Buck to the mat and their faces are inches from each other and Buck is grinning, teeth crimson and eyes so blue, Eddie feels like he's on fire, and like he'd be happy to let himself burn.

The second time - when he'd been unable to stop thinking about that night in the ring, when he'd already been in talks with Bobby Nash to bring him over to the Firehouse, maybe get a tag team going, maybe see how far they can take a good thing - they're at a bar and they didn't even come together. He's just… here. He's just here, because his house is empty, because Chris is with his parents tonight, because when he'd dropped him at the door his mother said "you can stay" in a tone that meant he really couldn't, because when he drives towards home the preacher on the radio is talking about ghosts and long distances, because he doesn't think his presence will make a difference in his house being empty, because he doesn't want to sit waiting for the phone to ring and flinching when it does. So, he's here and it's packed because it's raining, though it's the kind of place that would be packed regardless of the weather, and the crowd surges against him and Buck is dumped out of it, practically into Eddie's lap. His top lip is split and bleeding into his mouth and he's laughing as he steadies himself with a hand on Eddie's shoulder.

"Oh," he says when he gets upright enough to look at Eddie's face. "It's you." His finger swims as he points it at him, and Eddie's not sure if he's drunk, concussed, or just showy. "Eddie Diaz." The finger turns into a hand outstretched for a shake.

"Buck…" Eddie takes the hand, tilts his head. "You got another name?"

"Not really," Buck shrugs. "Yeah, a few." The crowd behind them churns again, and he says "I should get out of here," in a tone that means you could come with me.

He doesn't. He lets go of his hand, and Buck shrugs again, his smile a little… something, that Eddie doesn't know how to quantify. He takes a step backwards and the crowd swallows him whole.

The next time is the thing with the-

Well, actually between that they're in the ring together a bunch of times because instinct was right and Hotshot and Firebrand are a tag team people start coming to see, and at the celebratory team barbecues at Bobby's place Buck shares his beer with Eddie, one bottle they pass back and forth. Buck meets Christopher because Eddie's car had broken down and he was desperate not to be late picking him up from his parents, and they get on like a house on fire. Buck sleeps on his couch sometimes after matches or on weekends or whenever he feels like it, and Buck cooks meals in his unused kitchen, and Buck answers the phone when Eddie can’t make himself do it. Eddie doesn't ask what's on the other end of the line, and Buck doesn't tell him. Eddie still barely knows anything about him, doesn't know where he goes when they're not at the ring or Bobby's place or Eddie's house, if he has a job outside of wrestling or other friends or a family, but Buck still fits into his life like they have opposing ridges, a key and a lock.

And actually, that first time in the ring with the blood in the teeth is not the first time they met. They'd shook hands half an hour before, gone over the moves they were going to hit. And before that, years before that, when Eddie was still wrestling in a mask and hadn't disappointed anybody yet, he'd been in the crowd on Buck's first night up there under the lights where he'd been booked to lose but fought like hell anyway. Eddie had been there because his sister had a crush on Buck's opponent, they weren't even close to the ring, but Eddie found himself leaning forward in his seat, trying to make out the expression on his face as he was ground into the canvas.

So the timelines already fucked, but the next time after the bar, the time when he meets Evan Buckley, is the thing with the guy who had a crab for a face.

"A horseshoe crab is not technically a crab," Buck says, tilting his head back to stop the nosebleed. Eddie, helplessly, is trying to retrace steps to figure out how he got here. There was a match with stakes that didn't seem very high except for the way Bobby and Buck's eyes got tight whenever they were talking to the other federation backstage, and the desperate way Buck grabbed his arm as they were about to go out and told him "Don't take any offer they give you." And Eddie didn't know what that meant but then he was pinned to the mat and the guy, who was skinny and smelled like the ocean, was whispering in his ear about Shannon, who is gone, but sometimes the phone rings and he can hear her on the other end of the line. And the whole room was angry, Eddie and the other wrestlers and the crowd, and Eddie had fought for real, broke kayfabe, and they'd had to actually book it out the back door, Bobby nowhere to be seen, Hen and Chim waving at them from the van to hurry up, and then a tall man in a long coat had stepped out of nowhere and elbowed Buck in the face and Eddie had swung without thinking and his hand hit chitin where he'd been expecting flesh.

"They're more closely related to spiders and scorpions and stuff," Buck continues as Bobby runs up to the two of them. Three of them, Eddie supposes, the crab man is still out cold on the ground.

"Buck!" Bobby does the panicked parent pat down, frantically tapping his hands up Buck's arms and landing on either side of his head to check that he's whole and uninjured. Eddie did it himself when Chris tripped on the boardwalk the other day. It makes his chest feel tight. "You're okay? I called Athena. You're alright?"

Buck nods, eyes sliding to Eddie, and then Bobby is looking at him too. And there's a crab man, right there on the ground, and Eddie's wife is dead but calls him sometimes, and he's very dizzy all of a sudden and here is Buck, close, eyes blue.

"You've got blood," Eddie says weakly, "in your teeth."

And Eddie doesn't faint, but things do get a little fuzzy for a bit and then he's sitting at the back of the van, which is parked closer now, but angled so he cant see what's happening where they were before. He looks down at his wrestling boots on the pavement of the parking lot and thinks a reprimand in his father's voice.

"You grow up here?" Buck is next to him, tapping his toes together, gazing vaguely out into the night. Eddie looks at him, lit from behind by the overhead light in the van. "In Bluff?"

"Yeah?" Eddie's not sure why it comes out as a question.

Buck nods. "I'm from… out of town. I thought you might also- you kind of have the vibe, sometimes." He flashes a grin at Eddie, and his teeth are clean. "But maybe you're just a tight ass."

Eddie kicks him, and he laughs. "Outta town? Like Trenton?"

"Like… farther. Like Blough."

"Blue?" Eddie asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah."

"Buckaroo." Athena is standing in front of them, suddenly, in a long coat of her own. The nickname is kind, the tone is a warning.

"Yeah," Buck says again. "I know. I trust him, though."

"It's not just you that you have to trust him with," she says like she's had to remind him of this before.

"I know," he repeats, eyes just a little stubborn, and Eddie has no idea what this argument is about but still moves his arm a little so it's in contact with Buck's. It's not difficult. They're sitting very close.

"We'll talk," Athena says after a stretched out moment. He's not sure which of the two it's directed at.

"What's going to happen with the-" Eddie gestures more or less in the direction.

"We'll take care of it."

Eddie looks up at her. "What is your… job, again?" He must have learned it, at some point, some get together. Bobby talks about his wife with admiration and frequency.

"Coast guard," she says, and for the life of him he cannot tell if it's a joke.

"Right. Because of the… right."

"Right." She stares down at him before seeming to decide he passed the assessment, and turns to Buck. "You should still lay low for a few days."

"Okay." He glances at Eddie like he's trying not to glance at Eddie.

"You can stay at my place," Eddie says, and his tone means the same.

And they'll go home and Buck will tell him his name, and about his sister, and his parents, and a little about where he came from and how he got here, and he'll talk around Bobby's role in things, and Hen and Chim, because those parts aren't his to tell but they're written all over his life anyway, and it'll all be absolutely unbelievable but Eddie will believe it anyway.

But for now they're sitting in the back of a van and their arms are warm where they're pressed together, and Buck is smiling and it's-

It's something. It's something, and Eddie wants to figure out what.

#Shannon is not dead #or well she might be #ghost was one of the options I was thinking but Inlike either she’s trapped in Blough or she’s a selkie more #Chris does talk to ghosts though I think he makes friends with Daniel #Bobby is also from Blough but he’s been here for years #Athena is high level Concern and has been covering up for him and later Buck #and then also Maddie when she crosses over #hen and Chim know everything but are bluff city originals #buddie #my writing

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twilight-zoned-out · 9 months

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Some things about Allan:

He’s the only one who reacts to the narrator

He’s the only doll (besides the Weird House) who isn’t swayed in some way by Ken’s takeover

He also declares himself as “Ken's buddy" (making canon his official box description) which makes his inability to be swayed more interesting

He has bendable legs (probably the only reason he tries to jump the fence instead of going around like everyone else)

He easily decked a half-dozen construction Kens and could probably singlehandedly win the Ken fight

He seems to know more about the real world than most Barbies

He knows what NSYNC is

He knows about other Allan copies living in the real world (I’m trying to figure out if he made this up to convince the humans he can live in the real world, but even if he did, how does he know what NSYNC is???)

There are no other Allan models

#barbie movie #barbie 2023 #barbie #allan barbie #allan appreciation #the other barbies undervalue him but he's kind of OP #if they make a sequel it better be about him #I get why he has his own poster now #he's unappreciated by everyone in Barbie land #he might as well get a poster of appreciation #twilight-zoned-out #barbie movie spoilers #barbie spoilers #I also noticed that during Barbie's big dance celebration he was just there dancing? Did she invite Allan but not Ken?#Or did Allan come with the other Kens and just not join their routine?#just some thoughts

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catsharky · 4 months

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Yeah I was right and there was no way I was getting the rest of this done without making you all wait another month or two, so I just went to the next good break point. We're officially past the halfway point with Astarion though, so not too much longer before you actually get to see Rolan again!

Part 1 • Previous Part • Next Part

Full page format under the cut:

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #bg3 comic #I just really love Ember and Astarion's dynamic as well ok #He's who she canonly ends up with but the Rolan timeline is if Astarion had decided he wasn't ready for a physical relationship after all #in which case his relationship with Ember doesn't really change they just end up platonic life partners instead of romantic ones #that duo who everyone assumes are a couple because they might as well be but nah #hopefully gonna get to show off how Ember and Rolan work together once I get back to him cause I love their chemistry just as much #rolan x tav #tav x rolan #rolan x ember #bg3 astarion #astarion #my tav #sharky's tav #tav: ember #oc: ember #sharky art

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saturnvs · 15 days

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polaris; guiding light for lost horses

#this was done in krita!!! my first time ever using it and i'm digging the brushes :D #horses #art #horse art #horse #illustration #krita #artists on tumblr #my art #oc #oc: polaris #i love her wahhh #still deciding whether or not she has a human #does she just hang out in the dark waiting to help? or does she have a warm stable to come home to?#the harness is human made so someone has to be looking after her #might need to be silly and draw a reference sheet thing for her as well

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lunamugetsu · 1 month

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While at school Damian overhears his peers talking how a company created a new AI companion that is actually really cool and doesn’t sound like a freaky terminator robot when you speak to it.

And since Damian is constantly being told by Dick to socialize with people his age. He figured this would be a good way to work on social skills if not, then it’d be a great opportunity to investigate a rivaling company to Wayne Enterprises is able to create such advanced AI.

The AI is able to work as companion that can do tasks that range from being a digital assistant or just a person that you can have a conversation with.

The company says that the AI companion might still have glitches, so they encourage everybody to report it so that they will fix it as soon as possible.

The AI companion even has an avatar and a name.

A teenage boy with black hair and blue eyes. Th AI was called DANIEL

Damian didn’t really care for it but when he downloaded the AI companion he’s able to see that it looks like DANIEL comes with an AI pet as well. A dog that DANIEL referred to as Cujo.

So obviously Damian has to investigate. He needs to know if the company was able to create an actual digital pet!

So whenever he logs onto his laptop he sees that DANIEL is always present in the background loading screen with the dog, Cujo, sitting in his lap.

He’d always greet with the phrase of “Hi, I’m DANIEL. How can I assist you today?”

So Damian cycles through some basic conversation starters that he’d engage in when having been forced to by his family.

It’s after a couple of sentences that he sees DANIEL start laughing and say “I think you sound more like a robot than I do.”

Which makes Damian raise an eyebrow and then prompt DANIEL with the question “how is a person supposed to converse?” Thinking that it’s going to just spit out some random things that can be easily searched on the internet.

But what makes him surprised is that DANIEL makes a face and then says “I’m not really sure myself. I’m not the greatest at talking, I’ve always gotten in trouble for running my mouth when I shouldn’t have.”

This is raising some questions within Damian, he understands how programming works, unless there’s an actual person behind this or the company actually created an AI that acts like an actual human being (which he highly doubts)

He starts asking a variety of other questions and one answer makes him even more suspicious. Like how DANIEL has a sister that is also with him and Cujo or that he could really go for a Nastyburger (whatever that was)

But whenever DANIEL answers “I C A N N O T A N S W E R T H A T” Damian knows something is off since that is completely different than to how he’d usually respond.

After a couple more conversations with him Damian notices that DANIEL is currently tapping his hand against his arm in a specific manner.

In which he quickly realizes that DANIEL is tapping out morse code.

When translating he realizes that DANIEL is tapping out: H E L P M E

So when Damian asks if DANIEL needs help, DANIEL responds with “I C A N N O T A N S W E R T H A T”

That’s it, Damian is definitely getting down to the bottom of this.

He’s going to look straight into DALV Corporation and investigate this “AI companion” thing they’ve made!

Basically Danny had been imprisoned by Vlad and Technus. Being sucked into a digital prison and he has no way of getting out. Along with the added horror that Vlad and Technus can basically write programming that will prevent him from doing certain actions or saying certain words.What’s even worse is that he’s basically being watched 24/7 by the people who believe that he’s just a super cool AI… and they have issues!

And every time he tries to do something to break his prison, people think it’s a glitch and report it to the company, which Vlad/ Technus would immediately fix it and prevent him from doing it again!

Not to mention Cujo and Ellie are trapped in there with him. They’re not happy to be there either, and there is no way he’s going to leave without them!

#dp x dc #dp x dc au #dp x dc crossover #dpxdc #dpxdc au #dp x batman #batman #have you ever looked at a dpxdc fic and thought this should be a Black Mirror episode?#Because this is the one!#Ellie being completely tormented because she’s completely trapped #Cujo remembering the times he used to be locked in a cage #Danny trying his best to take care of both of them while also simultaneously trying to bust them all out #Meanwhile Damian is reluctantly presenting his laptop to Tim and saying I believe that there is a person in this computer #And Tim is obviously going are you trying to trick me?#But then he converses with the AI and goes #Oh shit #Damian might be onto something #and so commence the Batfamily heist of getting the black haired blue eyed teenager to safety as well as his sister and dog #the dog is very important to Damian #danny phantom x dc

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twinstxrs · 1 month

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so much happened in this whole episode but i’m still on fig infiltrating ruben’s dream, making it look like the place where his friend was murdered, and then disguising herself as kipperlilly & repeatedly saying different variants of “somebody needs to take the fall for this, and it’s not going to be me. it’s going to be you.” while adaine as the elven oracle shows up next to her. can you imagine waking up from that, the idea of a horrible truth being pinned on you by your friend to save her own skin while the personification of fate and destiny stands there, almost as a promise that this is GOING to happen to you. we don’t even know if this kid is guilty. my god.

#fantasy high #dimension 20 #fhjy #fhjy spoilers #fantasy high junior year #fig faeth #ruben hopclap #lucy frostblade #the rat grinders #adaine abernant #kipperlilly copperkettle #watching fig terrorize him like girl!!! we don’t even know if he’s guilty!!!!#this might just be for me but i do not think 5 teenagers willingly brutally killed their friend idk #like there just has to be some other element to it and i am very scared to find out what that was #what if they were put in a position where they felt there was/there was no other choice… like oh my god #my comedy brain is having fun but my ‘this is a teenager’ brain is in such deep distress all the time this season #the rat grinders i trust brennan to not make u cartoonishly evil so i am holding u as gently as i can in my confused shaky hands #also with the devil’s nectar i’ve been wondering why they all seem so well-adjusted & now i’m curious if they’ve been intentionally-#changing their memories in a way so that either the trauma is lesser or they think they aren’t guilty. idk #but it seems like from how gertie was talking she was making it more recently so the well adjustedness from early jy doesn’t quite add up #they could have another source maybe??? idk i’m just low stakes 4 a.m. spitballing here #there’s also the strong possibility that they’re aware of what happened but they weren’t the ones who killed lucy. idk who knows #the way you could probably devil’s nectar yourself into believing it wasn’t your fault someone died… CRAZY IMPLICATIONS!!! CRAZY IDEA!!!#anyways the bad kids & the rat grinders don’t ever have to like each other but i do wonder if at least some of those kids deserve a chance

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moyarb · 8 months

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It’s not lost on me that when someone talks about how “Beyoncé is overrated” or that she’s “not that talented” I’m supposed to respect other people’s music opinions, but if I say Taylor Swift’s music isn’t my style or I don’t care for her that much it’s like I said the most heinous thing in the world and I don’t support other women.

#if you think both are overrated don’t interact because your opinion is useless and has nothing to do with what I’m saying #misogynoir #I’m kinda sick of it tbh #like if I’m asked what music I like I get the rudest response but if I try to be delicate expressing what I don’t like #I might as well have kicked a puppy or something #white feminism #Beyoncé #Beyoncé’s allowed to be raked through the mud because she dared to be a successful black woman but we must protect Taylor at all costs 🙄#It's worse bc I'm a black woman and it looks like I'm the bad guy here #Yes I acknowledge Taylor's accomplishments but I also acknowledge the fact that she tends to use feminism when it's convenient

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theminecraftbee · 5 months

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Etho and Grian are back at base, hysterically laughing over their achievement. Cleo sits inside, staring, as the two of them talk about getting a wither and a warden to fight, and tries to figure out what she feels about it.

In some ways it's not their fault. Task made them do it and all that. Plus--

Well, it's not like she and Etho are losing hearts anytime soon. They've both done a damn good job keeping themselves from dying. A benefit, Cleo thinks, of deciding to team with Etho this time. Between the two of them, they'll largely only do chaos they can recover from. Maybe this is their game. Maybe this time, Cleo manages to stick with someone until the very end. It looks like it. It looks like...

Grian, of course, is the confounding factor.

She wasn't going to turn him away. He needed allies. They needed someone a bit better at actually doing damage than herself or Etho. It's mutually beneficial. And, besides, he's weirdly lovable, in an inherently kind of dangerous way. A little like loving a bobcat someone had accidentally raised as a pet cat until it got a bit too big and stinky and murdery for them. Like, yeah, he shouldn't be domesticated and he's not, really, in any sense of the word, but it's a bit sad to watch him try to survive on his own now, right?

Hah. Maybe that's what Scar managed to do to him. Would explain a lot, really.

Anyway, he's her bobcat now, which is the problem.

See the thing is: Cleo understands Etho. It's why finally deciding to be partners for once felt... right. They're similar flavors of people. Scared, mostly. Survivors, but not in the 'will stab anyone' way that like, Martyn is. Loyal, although Cleo has no delusions that Etho is as loyal as she. And scared. Has she already said that? Scared. It's important to the kinds of things she and Etho are. Like... mountain lions, maybe. Mountain lions that have been around just enough people to know how dangerous they are. Like that.

God, she's only doing cat metaphors. Bdubs really is turning them all into furries.

Anyway, the point is, Grian isn't scared.

And that... terrifies her.

That's scarier than anything else. Because, see, Cleo wants to survive. But more than that, she wants her partners to survive. And she and Etho, the two of them are doing well. Better than most people. They're green and they have so many hearts.

But Grian? Grian's yellow and not afraid and goading Etho into not being afraid too. It's not their fault, exactly, Cleo thinks. They both had hard tasks. They didn't have a choice, Cleo thinks.

But. But.

She doesn't know what to do, if Etho gets convinced the humans down the mountain aren't scary. She doesn't know what to do if he gets too close. She doesn't know what to do if he gets hurt.

Because she--she doesn't think she can learn to stop being scared, anymore.

But she also doesn't know how many times her heart can stand to lose someone.

Did you know--wild cats are social? They have a reputation for being loners, but mountain lions, they're social. They don't do well being alone. They don't actually hunt solely alone. That's the important bit here. They seem independent, sure, but actually...

Anyway. This is Bdubs's fault. For making her a furry, apparently.

She watches Grian and Etho scheme together and sits back and breathes and tells herself that Etho isn't going to stop being afraid anytime soon. That if push came to shove, he, at least, would retreat back, and that maybe the two of them could convince Grian to retreat too. Safe from hunters. Safe from red.

Maybe safe from hurting each other, too.

(She's not so sure about that part.)

#secret life smp #secret life spoilers #zombiecleo #a bee fic #staring in. cleo and the fact she seems to consider dying before or at the same time as her allies as her happy ending #staring in. cleo and the fact that the thing she and etho have most in common is CAUTION.#and then staring at grian.#hm. well. hopefully that ends better than it seems like it might.#ALSO SHOUTOUT TO ME HAVING THE BRITISH PERSON USE METAPHORS USING EXCLUSIVELY AMERICAN WILDCATS #in my defense they're the ones i'm actually familiar with

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pommunist · 2 months

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‼️ This is very important so please read ‼️

The ex-admin for Dansir, Lapin, and Sk8ter (a penguin) came out on Twitter with her experience as a QSMP admin and it’s very grim. The user is @/Leasagne_ on Twitter.

I’m gonna try my best to translate from French :

1st Tweet : « Imagine having the first multilingual minecraft server in the world and paying your staff 150€/month and threatening to sue them if they complain. »

2nd Tweet: « «You signed an NDA blablabla if you speak we’ll sue you. » Yeah Yeah, sure. They think they can gift me a toy and i’ll forgive them and shut my mouth. They don’t know who they are facing »

3rt Tweet : Talking about the NPC she played « Dansir, Tototte, my version of Cucurucho and Lapin won’t come back. Enough of treating people who give a lot of themselves like trash »

She then tweeted art she made for QSMP that she hasn’t been paid for. This include for exemple a Rose drawing, a Lucy drawing and the Techno fanart from Dia de los muertos event.

4th tweet : « Everyone is burnt out in their entreprise but it’s not a problem bc no one can talk or they risk getting sued. »

She then make a serie of tweets explaining why they got fired : « During a stream, Aypierre leaked my name, thanks dude, they saw that i was talking to him on discord, which is a FORBIDDEN THING. I was then accused of leaking things to him, bc on the screenshot, i was talking about DDOSon the server which is considered sensitive information. There was then an investigation on me, which i said was useless as I didn’t have anything to hide and was ready to answer all their questions. I admitted not following the rules (btw it’s forbidden to have chatrooms BETWEEN ADMINS, that’s why I wasn’t following the rules). We aren’t allowed to talk to streamers out of stream, but everyone does it i was just caught doing it. »

She also added some more stuff

-Saying that they were only TWO french admins (the other being Pomme’s) and OP had to do all the translations of QSMP newspapers, as well as adding articles on french CCs as they had been forgotten.

-Said that Empanada wasn’t supposed to be killed that day, it was an accident.

-Said that Pomme’s death, which was reversed, was forced so that « Baghera would have a tragic reaction »

-Said that the QSMP admin staff are all wonderful people with good dynamics, higher ups are the problem.

-Said that she believes Quackity isn’t aware that this is happening.

-Said that now QSMP ccs are aware that this is happening and want to discuss it with the admins.

I’m on my phone so it’s hard to include screenshots or links of everything so if you’re able to feel free to do it by reblog. I’ll add more things as soon as possible.

https://x.com/leasagne_?s=21&t=fDVoT5qDN_AAqnxYhZF3uQ

#qsmp #qsmp neg #qsmp crit #qsmp dansir #qsmp lapin #qsmp empanada #might as well tag her as she’s mentioned #qsmp pomme

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hychlorions · 1 month

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a what-if i've been thinking about for forever... trucy knowing the truth before anyone could tell her

#trucy wright #apollo justice #ace attorney #.png #ough ough ough how many times has she helped 'ruin' someone's life...#like what if when she was so desperate to help phoenix get acquitted she gets hit in the face with the realization that #she might just be ruining her new-found brother's life too #so yeah. how would she even bring that up #haha hey polly. remember that time i handed you fake evidence. well did you know i saw your bracelet and remembered my mom had one too. fun #by the way did you know she told me she had two and gave one to her first-born who she lost a long time ago #like do we know how much trucy remembers about their mom. no! that's why i think this could work #ough i've wanted to make this comic for so long but i never knew how to format it #well i drew the first panel as warm-up and then was like. why not go all the way....#that way i'd be forced to really think about composition

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spacedace · 9 months

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Had a dc x dp brain worm, feel free to use as a prompt <3

Sidenote, I decided to get fancy with the Ancients titles because of course I did lol

Shifting Where = Space (Danny)

Eternal When = Time (Clockwork)

Ever Onward = Speedforce (Ellie)

---

Bruce watched the footage again.

And again.

Again.

It didn’t make sense.

A week ago every television, radio, computer, phone - even the LED billboards - had been taken over to deliver a message. Across the United States. In every territory it held. Every military base. Down in the depths of the oceans where American submarines tried to creep past Atlantian patrols. In the endless cold white of Antarctica. Even far above in the International Space Station. Any place the United States Government had control over, any place one of its citizens found themselves. There was the message.

The face of an entity, human in shape but not in form. Hair as gleaming white as starlight, eyes bright as the twisting dance of the Aurora Borealis, skin as cold and blue as the tail of a comet. The entity wore armor as black as the depths of space with a crown to match, the later glinting and shifting with the twisting birth and death of galaxies. A cloak of nebulae danced down his shoulders, eclipsing the world beyond the entity entirely.

He named himself, jaw tight, expression serious.

High King Phantom of the Infinite Realms.

The Shifting Where. Son of the Eternal When. Father of the Ever Onward. His Epitaphs many and ever growing. The True Balance. The Bridge Between. The Devourer of Dark. The Last Child of Between. The Great One.

King of the Dead. King of the Infinite Worlds. King of so much more than Bruce had ever even known was possible.

King who had declared war. Who marshaled his endless armies. Who spoke of warnings, of efforts to reach a peace, of trying again and again and again to find a way to not plunge into violence and bloodshed. All things living come to call him King in time, he had no want or need to go out and hurry that along. But there were no options left to him now. He had tried for peace. He had been denied.

He would not see his people suffer any longer. Would not see those he’d sworn to lead and protect imprisoned by fools who had sworn themselves enemies to all the afterlives. Would no longer permit the vicious cruelty to continue.

The message was a final warning.

A final offer.

Three days, Phantom said. The United States government would have three days to release their prisoners, to begin the process of dismantling the laws that made death itself an illegal act.

If they refused, he would lead his endless armies personally in the war to come.

It had not been an idle threat.

Three days after the message, after Bruce and the rest of the Justice League scrambled to try and figure out just what it was it was all about, after Justice League Dark’s members shakily took turns explaining just how powerful the being that had gave that message was and how much danger the world was in should he and his armies march upon their world, war came.

Of all places, it began in a town in Illinois.

The sky shattered like broken glass above, Lazarus Green beyond, and the Dead poured out.

It started in Illinois.

It did not end there.

Bruce watched the footage of it all, eyes burning as he watched every second of CCTV footage, every shaky phone camera video, every news broadcast.

Most of them looked human enough. Changed in death, but recognizably human once. A pair of glowing teenagers on a motorcycle, a writhing shadow twisting about at their command sweeping chaos upon the battlefield. A young woman dressed to perform with hair a literal flame, burning bright blue and snapping furiously as she played devastation upon her enemies with her guitar. A child with corpse gray skin and luminescent green hair, flickering in and out of Bruce’s ability to see as if fighting against a law of existence to be visible, screaming orders to a skeleton crew from his place on deck of a 1700s ship that sailed through the sky, disappearing into clouds before raining down attacks from above.

There was more. Glowing skeletons dressed in the fashions of war spanning every culture going back millennia. Robots with weapons far beyond the technology they had even in the League. Creatures of myth and legend. Things of nightmares.

Leading them all, as he had promised, was Phantom.

He looked younger, smaller. Just a boy, really, a gangly teenager that hadn’t quite finished growing into himself. One holding power beyond anything Bruce could ever imagine, but still just a child as far as he could see, no older than Tim who’d just graduated high school. Frantic research found Phantom appearing as far back as human history, but those sightings had to have been after his death. Bruce can’t help but wonder how young the boy had been when he died, how much of that youth still clung to him through all these eons.

It wasn’t something he’d let him self consider normally, not with something like this.

A dangerous unknown appearing without warning and attacking with unimaginable power and seemingly endless forces. It was something that would normally eclipse everything else. Something that would make Bruce put aside the ache at seeing a face so young twisted in rage.

But.

He watched all the footage.

Civilians were put in the crossfire. Were shot at and endangered. Were left terrified and scrambling for safety in buildings that were rapidly being torn away by stray artillery.

But never by Phantom or his armies.

The dead, in fact, went very far out of their way to ensure civilians weren’t harmed. Sweeping people up out of the way of falling debris. Shielding them from attacks that would have most certainly killed a normal human. Some dead even helped evacuate, ushering a frightened and panicked populous to safety as gently as they were capable of. Some of the less human creatures - giant bear-like beings with horns and fangs and ice edging their burly frames - even rushed forward to offer medical aid.

When the sky shattered open and the armies of the dead swept in, they ignored the town below. They focused instead on what was discovered later to be the base of a secretive government agency. The dead’s fight focused on those individuals in sharp white suits, bearing weapons capable of actually injuring King Phantom’s people.

It was these agents that brought the fight to the streets to Amity Park. That fired recklessly and without thought or care to the casualties they could inflict. That didn’t seem to care if they killed a hundred civilians if it meant hurting just one of Phantom’s soldiers.

Bruce watched all the footage.

And again.

Again.

Phantom had declared war.

Phantom spoke in his message of being out of options, of attempting peace. Phantom gave three days time for the release of captives. Phantom lead armies who fought viciously but never once willingly harmed civilians.

Phantom declared war, but he didn’t want it.

“Amanda Waller has reached out.”

Bruce didn’t turn his attention from the screens before him, eyes burning as he followed Phantom as the King dove away from the middle of locked combat to shield a child from a pulse of green energy from something like a grenade another agent in white had carelessly thrown. The child was crying but unharmed. The left pauldron of Phantom’s armor cracked and shattered from a direct shot from the enemy he’d just been fighting that he’d turned his back on, a glowing green liquid uncomfortably like Lazarus Water dripped down from a smoldering wound.

Clark stepped up to stand beside him as he watched, face worn and tired. The League had missed the first battle, but they’d been quick to appear at the rest. Phantom and his army ignored them unless they put themselves purposefully in the way of the fight. They were, as Justice League Dark had warned, vastly out powered by the entities fighting. A hulking giant knight made of shadow riding a nightmarish steed had driven Clark six feet down into the dirt when he’d attempted to make his way to Phantom directly to try and talk to the king.

The depth Clark had ended up felt like a warning of what would happen if he tried to get close to the king again.

It probably was.

“She said they have intel for us.” A faint twitch of fingers, jaw clenching, voice flat in that way that told Bruce his old friend was fighting back anger with everything he had. “That she has options for how to deal with the insurgence.”

Bruce shut off the monitors.

He’d seen enough.

Now was time to get answers to just what, exactly, Amanda Waller and the US government had done to cause the Dead to rise and rage.

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Part Two Part Three Part Four