Cassie is explaining to Kon and Bart some of the reasons why Wonder Woman is, without doubt, the greatest hero of this age. They’re both too tired from the mission they just went on to leave so Cassie’s had a captive audience to lecture about her favourite topic for the past half hour.
She’s having, quite frankly, a fantastic time.
As she’s moving on to her next point and Bart and Kon are letting out identical groans Tim comes in and starts making a coffee. For a moment Cassie wonders if she might be able to drag Tim into the audience of her presentation, he’s probably just as tired from work as Kon and Bart are from their mission, but then she realises Tim’s already listening.
This wouldn’t shock her, for all his flaws Tim can be an excellent listener at times, but Tim isn’t wearing a listening sort of expression. He’s looking at Cassie with the sort of complete shock that only belongs on the faces of burglars caught in the act, mouth hanging slightly open and eyes rounder than can be natural. She’s about to ask him what’s up. She’s about to check to see if he just had some world shattering revelation that’s going to save them all a world of hurt in the near future, but then Tim says under his breath, so quiet Cassie almost doesn’t hear, “WonderTrash96” and Cassie is suddenly worried about very different things.
She takes a moment to curse her twelve year old self, well thought out arguments as to why as a hero Wonder Woman really is beyond reproach and all, for being idiotic enough to run a fan blog and not anticipate that it would come back to haunt her later on.
Then, before Cassie can curse her twelve year old self too thoroughly, she has the thought that Tim would have to know her childhood fan blog very well to recognise an argument she made there years ago. Then she remembers the semi-regular discourse she used to get in with a batman fan blog and how Tim has said a lot of the exact same things as that blog used to.
Cassie bolts upright, her eyes narrowing. “You” she hisses.
The two of them look at each other for a second, reliving years of vitriol in a moment.
Tim shakes himself and in an instant he looks normal again. “I would like to propose we never mention this ever again for the sake of both our reputations.”
Cassie nods slowly, relaxing back into the couch. “I have always loved a good state of mutually assured destruction.”
Tim gives a short, sharp nod in return and leaves with his coffee. Kon and Bart both look a little like they might want to ask what that was about but are too tired to do so. There’s a moment of silence before Cassie comes back to herself.
“Along with her contributions to the 1983 United Nations summit-” she starts, talking over Kon and Bart’s groans and absolutely not thinking about the level of dirt she and Tim have on each other now.
~
That night, Cassie gets messaged on an account she hasn’t touched since she was fourteen.
(22:34) I can’t believe you haven’t come up with better arguments since you were twelve.
(22:36) fuck off She types back.
She’s grinning before she even hits send.
@elowenp hands over 🙇♂️🙇♂️ demoncat is actually my greatest weakness and this piece referencing this part (below) of their fic!!
the outfits r kinda generic but i was rlly happy how selina turned out. i will make more pieces based on their series “stay” but drops this n runs for now! this is my first time trying this layout, i didn’t rlly enjoy it but i was too deep to not not finish it 🫥 but i hope it is still not too bad!
fic is linked here, please give it a shot!! damian is rlly cute there but the demoncat dynamic hits like … rlly good.
happy pride from your local queer robin :]
Carpenter walks up to a near complete mark of the wither tide, Faulkner muttering incoherently at its centre, and scuffs it with her boot.
Faulkner looks up with crazed eyes the moment she alters his masterpiece. Carpenter grips her shard of glass tighter and feels it cut into her hand. Blood drips to the ground and Carpenter suppresses a bitter laugh.
One last offering to the Trawlerman.
“You should run, Carpenter,” Faulkner warns, his voice quavers but not with anything so mundane as nerves. His body can barely contain his excitement, the fervency of his devotion. His gaze sharpens and Carpenter balks as she feels the water surrounding the pier pulse in rhythm with his heartbeat. “I’ve told you before that it would be unwise for you to test which of us our god loves more.”
Carpenter's pace as she walks through the wither mark, bad leg dragging against the floor and destroying all Faulkner’s hard work, does not change. She remains steady and is rewarded with a voice that does not quaver as Faulkner’s does. “You know as well as anyone that I have never proclaimed myself to be wise.”
Faulkner huffs out a laugh and Carpenter smiles a familiar smile. It drops as she remembers what she’s about to do. Faulkner must see it and mirrors her expression before his eyes go distant.
“I suppose we’re soon to part ways then?”
Carpenter pauses for a moment. “That would not be an unreasonable assumption,” she allows.
Faulkner nods as if this is the only answer he had been expecting. “Well then, I suppose if we are to end this as enemies, we’d best do it as the sort who love each other.” As he speaks Faulkner daubs himself in the marking of the Trawlerman once again. The mud from the last time he did so still stains his skin but the marks he paints now lose no clarity because of that. Once he appears to be finished he turns away from the prayer marks that have been gradually consuming his body to meet Carpenter's eyes. “May your peace find you on a lonely road."
Carpenter swallows dryly, suddenly very glad of the reminder Paige’s parting words had given her. “May your peace walk on with you for a while.”
She and Faulkner exchange sad smiles. Then Carpenter is raising her glass and running towards Faulkner as fast as her broken and bleeding legs will carry her. Then Faulkner is readying his stance and screaming his prayers to the river with more conviction than Carpenter knew a human voice could contain. Then Faulkner is raising his hands skywards and then-
~
The river rises
The river rises and it is not a flood as was written. As Nana Glass told stories of. As Carpenter dreamed would seep upwards to drench and drown her doubts in silt.
The river rises and it is a tsunami.
~
Carpenter, limping and shattered and shaking, is faster than her river.
She reaches the centre of the wither mark, reaches Faulkner. His eyes widen a bit as she does so, as if he can’t quite believe that his river would fail him in his moment of triumph.
Carpenter has known her god far to long to think it reliable.
She plunges the shard of glass into Faulkner’s left eye. He screams in pain and Carpenter mutters a quick prayer that his death will be quick, there is little else she can do for him at this point.
Then Faulkner manages to stop screaming, keeps his cries of pain trapped in his throat and lets something different flood out.
“You should have aimed for the prayer marks,” he hisses, teeth bared as blood drips down his cheeks in a crimson tide.
Shit.
There isn't much she can do after that.
~
-crashing waves full of weeds and bracken and crawling angels of the river. Water filling her lungs and mud wriggling into her eyes.
Something twists her leg. A thing with claws that are too huge to be any crab or lobster that Carpenter can't see through the filth of her god.
The pain is huge and impossible but even as tears fill her eyes Carpenter finds it in herself to be grateful. Of all the ways her river knows how to do harm this is perhaps one of its least awful.
She wonders if it’s a boon. A final thank you after her years of faithful service. Considering what she’s done for her river Carpenter finds this to be a rather weak acknowledgement of her efforts and stops feeling grateful.
Then she’s crashing tumbling through dodgem cars and her river is a whirlpool with her at its centre and if she could just breathe then-
~
When Carpenter wakes up, it’s to her shock that she’s still alive.
This is better thanks of my service, she thinks in the direction of her river. She sits up with a grunt of pain and begins to inspect the damage.
Her leg is fucked. It’s no longer bleeding but in a cruel twist of fate it’s been sanctified. The flesh is hard and rough. Calcified. Carpenter can feel layers upon layers and limpets, with other squamous things sandwiched in between, clinging directly to her bone.
Where her new flesh meets her old she itches.
There’s also the fact that she has no idea where she is.
Or, maybe she does. That patch of bulrushes looks sort of familiar and she’s sure she heard this same bird song she's hearing now at some point during her and Faulkner’s pilgrimage.
She drags herself upright and finds that she can put weight in her new leg even if it makes her somewhat unsteady. She hobbles about the bank, moving inland.
Then she sees the body.
It’s not much of a body. More like a skeleton, picked clean by birds and angels of the river alike. Despite the fact that it’s lacking most of its distinguishing features, Carpenter knows in her soul that this is the body she and Faulkner saw near the beginning of their pilgrimage. Right before everything started to go to shit.
Carpenter let’s out a harsh laugh as she realises this, the sound of her torment echoing across her still and silent river.
“You’re telling me that was all the god damn exposition?” she screams at her god, angry tears blurring her vision.
Her river doesn’t answer her.
Carpenter sighs, it’s not as if she expected anything different. She picks herself up and starts trying to figure out what to do now.
She laughs again, gentler this time. She bets that Faulkner is doing the exact same thing.
this is genuinely just me trying to be @shanastoryteller
From the very first time Adora transforms she feels a power sing through her and knows it will be there till the day she dies.
Then she realises that that might not be true, because maybe she can’t die any more. The concept of mortality seems small now. Something for lesser people, the ones she can squash under her heel like ants. Eternity doesn’t seem like such a long time with the power of the hidden stars that are as old as forever humming through her veins.
She wonders if she should mention any of this to her new friends, how even when she isn’t transformed she can feel the universe revolving around her. She thinks back to Catra turning away from her (because somehow somehow somehow Catra just knew). Instead she just hopes that the life she could spend with these people might last an eternity all on its own.
Batman by Sanford Greene
people do NOT talk enough about the concept of bruce as a creator like??? two face??? joker??? himself???? the idea of him trying to make up for all his monsters by creating children vicious enough to fight them?????
margaret atwood // doom days - bastille // azra t. // carry on - rainbow rowell // romeo and juliet - william shakespeare // cruel summer - taylor swift // gregory orr // red, white, and royal blue - casey mcquiston // romeo and juliet - william shakespeare // cruel summer - taylor swift // erica jong // sober ii (melodrama) - lorde // romeo and juliet - william shakespeare // the raven king - maggie stiefvater // ghosts - florence + the machine // tamerlane - edgar allan poe // the raven king - maggie stiefvater // cruel summer - taylor swift
Excalibur, the legendary sword of King Arthur, was the mightiest weapon of that era. However, as time passed and mankind evolved, so did the sword. You work at a local antique shop when one day you discover something you don’t remember being there before: a rather peculiar looking pen.