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confessedlyfannish · 25 days

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Writing Prompt #12

Bruce is reading the paper when the pour of Tim's coffee goes abruptly quiet. It would be hard to pinpoint why this is disturbing if it wasn't for the way the soft, tinny sound the vent system in the manor makes cuts out for the first time since being updated in the 90s. The pour, Bruce realizes, has not slowed to a trickle before stopping. It has simply stopped. And there is no overeager clack of a the mug against the marble counter or the uncouth first slurp (nor muttered apology at Alfred's scolding look) immediately following the end of the pour.

Bruce fights the instinct to use all of his senses to investigate, and instead keeps his eyes on the byline of the article detailing the latest set of microearthquakes to hit the midwest in the last week. Microearthquakes aren't an unusual occurrence and aren't noticeable by human standards, which is why this article is regulated to page seven, but from several hundred a day worldwide to several hundred a day solely in the East North Central States, seismologists are baffled.

Bruce had been considering sending Superman to investigate under the guise of a Daily Planet article requested by Bruce Wayne (Wayne Industries does have an offshoot factory in the area) when everything had stopped twenty seconds ago. That is what he assumes has happened (having not moved a muscle to confirm) in the amount of time he assumes has passed. His million dollar Rolex does not quite audibly tick but in the absolute silence it should be heard, which confirms the silence to be exactly that—absolute.

While Bruce can hold his breath with the best of the Olympian swimmers, he has never accounted for a need to remain without blinking without being able to move one's eyes. Rotating the eyeballs will maintain lubrication such that one could go without blinking for up to ten minutes. But staring at the byline fixedly, he estimates another twenty seconds before tears start to form.

These are the thoughts Bruce distracts himself with, because he doesn't dare consider how Tim and Alfred haven't made a (living) sound in the past forty-five seconds. About Damian, packing his bag upstairs for school after a morning walk with Titus that was "just pushing it, Master Damian".

There is a knife to his right, if memory serves (it does). In the next five seconds—

"Your wards and guardian are fine, Mr. Wayne," the deepest voice Bruce has ever heard intones. For a dizzying moment, it is hard to pinpoint the location of the voice, for it comes from everywhere—like the chiming of a clocktower whilst inside the tower, so overpowering he is cocooned in its volume.

But it is not spoken loudly, just calmly, and when he puts the paper down, folds it, and looks to his right, a blue man sits in Dick's chair.

He wears a three piece suit made entirely of hues of violet, tie included. He has a black brooch in the shape of a cogwheel pinned to his chest pocket, a simple chain clipped to his lapel. Black leather gloves delicately thumb Bruce's watch (no longer on his wrist, somewhere between second 45 and 46 it has stopped being on his wrist), admiring it.

"You'll forgive me," the man says with surety. "Clocks are rather my thing, and this is an impressive piece." He turns it over and reveals the 'M. Brando' roughly scratched into the silver back. He frowns.

"What a shame," he says, placing it face side up on the table.

"Most would consider that the watch's most valuable characteristic." Bruce says, voice steady, hands neatly folded before him. Two inches from the knife. To his left, there is an open doorway to the kitchen. If he turns his head, he might be able to get a glance of Tim or Alfred.

He doesn't look away from the man.

"It is the arrogance of man," the man says, raising red eyes (sclera and all) to Bruce, "to think they can make their mark on time."

"...Is that supposed to be considered so literally?" Bruce asks, with a light smile he does not mean.

The man smiles lightly back, eyes crinkling at the corners. He looks to be in his mid thirties, clean-shaven. His skin is a dull blue, his hair a shock of white, and a jagged scar runs through one eye and curving down the side of his cheek, an even darker, rawer shade of blue-purple.

The man turns the watch back over and taps at the engraving. "Let me ask you this," he says. "When we deface a work of art, does it become part of the art? Does it add to its intrinsic meaning?"

Bruce forces his shoulders to shrug. "It's arbitrary," he says. "A teenager inscribes his name on the wall of an Ancient Egyptian temple and his parents are forced to publicly apologize. But runic inscriptions are found on the Hagia Sophia that equate to an errant Viking guard having inscribed 'Halfdan was here' and we consider it an artifact of a time in which the Byzantine Empire had established an alliance with the Norse and converted vikings to Christianity."

"The vikings were as errant as the teenager," the man says, "in my experience." He leans back in his chair. "I suppose you could say the difference is time. When time passes, we start to think of things as artistic, or historical. We find the beauty in even the rubble, or at least we find necessity in the destruction..."

He offers Bruce the watch. After a moment, Bruce takes it.

"The problem, Mr. Wayne, is that time does not pass for me. I see it all as it was, as it is, as it ever will be, at all times. There is no refuge from the horror or comfort in that one day..." he closes his hand, the leather squeaking. And then his face smooths out, the brief severity gone. He regards Bruce calmly.

"You can look left, Mr. Wayne."

Bruce looks left. Framed by the doorway, Tim looks like a photograph caught in time. A stream of coffee escapes the spout of the stainless steel pot he prefers over the Breville in the name of expediency, frozen as it makes its way to the thermos proclaiming BITCH I MIGHTWING. Tim regards his task with a face of mindless concentration, mouth slack, lashes in dark relief against his pale skin as he looks down at the mug. Behind him, Bruce can see Alfred's hand outstretched towards the refrigerator handle, equally and terrifyingly still.

"My name is Clockwork," the man says. "I have other names, ones you undoubtedly know, but this one will be bestowed upon me from the mouth of a child I cherish, and so I favor it above all else. I am the Keeper of Time."

"What do you want from me?" Bruce asks, shedding Wayne for Batman in the time it takes to meet Clockwork's eyes. The man acknowledges the change with a greeting nod.

"In a few days time, you will send Superman to the Midwest to investigate the unusual seismic activity. By then, it will be too late, the activity will be gone. They will have already muzzled him."

"Him."

"There is a boy with the power to rule the realm I come from. Your government has been watching him. The day he turned 18, they took him from his family and hid him away. I want you to retrieve him. I want you to do it today."

"Why me?"

"His parents do not have the resources you do, both as Batman and Bruce Wayne. You will dismantle the organization that is keen on keeping him imprisoned, and you will offer him a scholarship to the local University. You and yours will keep him safe within Gotham until he is able to take his place as my King."

This is a lot of information to take in, even for Bruce. The idea that there could be a boy powerful enough to rule over this (god, his mind whispers) entity and that somehow, he has slipped under all of their radars is as frustrating as it is overwhelming. But although Clockwork has seemed willing to converse, he doesn't know how many more questions he will get.

"You have the power to stop time," he decides on, "why don't you rescue him? Would he not be better suited with you and your people?"

"Within every monarchy, there is a court," Clockwork. "Mine will be unhappy with the choice I have made," he looks at Bruce's watch, head cocked. "In different worlds, they call you the Dark Knight. This will be your chance to serve before a True King."

Bruce bristles. "I bow to no one."

"You'll all serve him, one day," Clockwork says, patiently. "He is the ruler of realms where all souls go, new and old. When you finally take refuge, he will be your sanctuary." He frowns. "But your government rejects the idea of gods. All they know is he is other. Not human. Not meta. A weapon."

"A weapon you want me to bring to my city."

"I believe you call one of your weapons 'Clark', do you not?" Clockwork asks idly. "But you misunderstand me. They seek to weaponize him. He is not restrained for your safety, but for their gain."

"And if I don't take him?" Bruce asks, because a) Clockwork has implied he will be at the very least impeded, at worst destroyed over this, and b) he never did quite learn not to poke the bear. "You won't be around if I decide he's better off with the government."

"You will," Clockwork says, with the same certainty he's wielded this entire conversation. "Not because he is a child, though he is, nor because you are good, though you are, nor even because it is better power be close at hand than afar.

"I have told you my court will be unhappy with me. In truth, there are others who also defend the King. Together we will destroy the access to our world not long after this conversation. The court will be unable to touch him, but neither will we as we face the repercussions for our actions. I am telling you this, because in a timeline where I do not, you think I will be there to protect him. And so when he is in danger, even subconsciously, you choose to save him last, or not at all. And that is the wrong choice.

"So cement it in your head, Bruce Wayne," the man says, "You will go to him because I tell you to. And you will keep him safe until he is ready to return to us. He will find no safety net in me. So you will make the right choice, no matter the cost."

"Or, when our worlds connect again, and they will," his voice now echoes in triplicate with the voices of the many, the young, the old, Tim, Bruce's mother, Barry Allen, Bruce's own voice, "I will not be the only one who comes for you."

"Now," he says, producing a Wayne Industries branded BIC pen. "I will tell you the location the boy is being kept, and then I would like my medallion back, please. In that order."

Bruce glances down and sees a golden talisman, attached to a black ribbon that is draped haphazardly around the neck of his bathrobe, so light (too light, he still should have—) he has not felt its weight until this moment.

Bruce flips the paper over, takes the pen, and jots down the coordinates the being rattles off over the face of a senator. By his calculation, they do correspond with a location in the midwest.

"You will find him on B6. Take a left down the hallway and he will be in the third room down, the one with a reinforced steel door. Take Mr. Kent and Mr. Grayson with you, and when you leave take the staircase at the end of the hallway, not the elevator."

The man gets up, dusts off his impeccably clean pants, and offers him a hand to shake.

"We will not meet again for some time, Mr. Wayne."

Bruce looks at the creature, stands, and shakes his hand. It feels like nothing. The Keeper of Time sighs, although nothing has been said.

"Ask your question, Mr. Wayne."

"I have more than one."

"You do," Clockwork says. "But I have heard them all, and so they are one. Please ask, or I will not be inclined to answer it."

"What does this boy mean for the future, that you are willing to sacrifice yourself for him?"

There is a pause.

"So that is the one," Clockwork says, after a time. "Yes. I see. I should resolve this, I suppose."

"Resolve what?"

"It is not his future I mean to protect," the man says. "It is his present."

"You want to keep him safe now..." Bruce says, but he's not sure what the being is trying to say.

"I am not inclined," Clockwork repeats, stops. His expression turns solemn, red eyes widening. In their reflection, Bruce can see something. A rush of movement too quick to make heads or tails of, like playing fast forward on a videotape. "Superman reports no signs of unusual seismic activity. With nothing further to look into, you let it go in favor of other investigative pursuits. You do not find him, as you are not meant to. He stays there. His family, his friends, they cannot find him. His captors tell him they have moved on. He does not believe them, until he does. He stays there. He stays there until he is strong enough to save himself."

Clockwork speaks stiffly, rattling off the chain of events as if reading a Justice League debrief. "He is King. He will always be King. He is strong, and good, and compassionate, and he is great for my people because yours have betrayed his trust beyond repair. He throws himself into being the best to ever Be, because there is nothing Left for him otherwise. We love him. We love him. We love him. My King. Forevermore."

The red film in his eyes stall out, and Bruce is forced to look away from how bright the image is, barely making out a silhouette before they dull back to their regular red.

"I am not inclined," Clockwork says slowly, "To this future."

"Because of what it means in the present," Bruce finishes for him. "They're not just imprisoning him, are they."

"They will have already muzzled him."

Clockworks is right in front of him faster than he can process, fist gripping the medallion at his neck so tight he now feels the ribbon digging into his skin.

"Unlike you, Mr. Wayne," and for the first time, the god is angry, and the image of it will haunt Bruce for the rest of his life, "I do not believe in building a better future on the back of a broken child."

"Find him," the deity orders, and yanks the necklace so hard the ribbon rips—

Clack!

"sluuuuurp!"

"Master Timothy, honestly!"

"Sorry Alfred!"

#i feel like I'm going to reread this and want to add other stuff #but I also just want to post it and get it out there #fun fact i scribbled a bunch of lines down at 2am bc i didn't want to forget them #im bad at multiple drafts #my writing #dp x dc #dp x dc au #dp x dc prompt #dp x dc crossover #danny phantom #batman #i live to make everybody dramatic #but also i subscribe to a world where clockwork doesn't know how NOT to be dramatic #lol he's a ghost from all of time he doesn't know how to speak to humans and tailor it to the century let alone the decade #and his favorite little girl who calls him clocky loves how he speaks so #he doesn't need to change for nobody #nor feels inclined to #also I feel like as god he's way more inclined to threaten to get what he wants than like...be vulnerable #jazz: let's unpack that #clockwork: we never do #jazz: are you saying that because it's true or because that's what you want to be true?#clockwork: ...#also I cannot take credit for BITCH I MIGHTWING #wish i could #that is cash money right there #shoutout to 11thsense

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funeralflow3rs · 1 year

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okay but listen,,, listen,,, are you listening,,, I cannot stop thinking about how the cauldron loves elain and its just... SO interesting to me that the MOMENT she pops out from the depths she's given a mate. there were any number of people there that could have been "assigned" to her ( if ur picking up what I'm putting down lmao ) the cauldron peered into her soul and saw all of her wants and needs and gifted her with the person that embodied all of those things and then some.

I will never stop thinking about this actually.

#elucien #elain x lucien #like lmao az was right there and he could have been chosen but nah #the choice is still hers and she's gonna makes a wrong one first for Drama but the elucien build up is gonna be SO good fr #also something else I was thinking about tonight on the subject of acotar mates is that the cauldron doesnt nessicarily choose 'love' match #it chooses mates people that will shape history above all #if the poor match that was Rhys's parents didn't occur he wouldn't exist #I am fully subscribed to the high king and queen elucien theory tbh and I think that is ANOTHER reason why they were matched #if anyone is capable of ruling prythian its them #anyway that being said they're going to shape history AND elain gets the love of her life is where I was going with that #elain: I need sunshine #the cauldron rolling its proverbial sleeves up: OH?????

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daisies-on-a-cup · 5 months

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i think while we can acknowledge the queer subtext and themes in the show, it's important to not forget that, historically, women of color have been robbed of their right to be a woman in their own way. it's terribly difficult for a woman of color to exist in any media in a more traditionally masculine way without immediately pivoting to see them as a man because of those feminine traits not being on the surface. the bias of white femininity allows for more masculine white women the grace to still exist as women in their spaces- a grace that poc women are often not allowed. the show creators have stated that mizu is a woman, someone who reflects part of themselves, and while it's fine to have various headcanons about mizu's gender identity, it's not fine to disregard the creator's intent with a character like mizu. mizu represents a lot of the struggles mixed race and mixed cultural women feel and go through, and i personally resonate with her as well as a mixed asian-white woman. again, there's a lot to be said about the queer themes in the show, but the show itself is not a queer show. there are elements there, but the message and plot line i don't believe surrounds a queer allegory so much as it does about poc women struggling to find a place to belong without subscribing to one race or feminine or masculine trait over the other and still be seen as a woman

#again im not saying that there arent queer themes in the show- there totally are and those are important #but mizu's story is not necessarily one about a queer story #parts dont equal a whole and all that #its important that these things can coexist but one cannot go into blue eye samurai under the assumption that its going to be a queer story #you are going to be disappointed by what comes if you do #go into it with an open mind and heart and empathize with mizu's struggles as a woman- and at the same time acknowledge #all the other women characters and what they are struggling with too #dont ignore them for the sake of a ship you like or a hc you subscribe to #blue eye samurai

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carnivalcarriondiscarded · 7 months

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WHAT DO YOU MEAN FANTASY AU HOME FINDS WALLY A LOVER AND THAT ITS COMPLICATED?????

AM I SNIFFING SOME LORE????

OK LISTEN YES AND NO YES AND NO it's not so cut and dry!

most if not all of my decisions in au-crafting stems from the source, my understanding of it, and my interpretations. so warlock!Wally & patron!Home's relationship is how i view their relationship in ~canon~(albeit slightly more intense due to the change in situation). in short: devoted, codependent, intimate, a little strange, and unable to be labeled

so i wouldn't say that Home looks at Wally with outright/explicit romantic feelings, because it's more complicated than that. plus i'm an aro Wally truther. i actually have a ramble post queued up about exactly this so i won't say anything more on the matter rn

#they're weird about each other and lets leave it at that!#home does love wally. so fucking much #enough that it goes beyond 'platonic' but it isn't really romantic-#they've got their own shit going on!#ancient demon & the puppet it inhabits!!!#cause i doubt home really has a sense of 'traditional relationships' that can be found in our society #they're Out Of Touch!#and therefore can't be influenced by / subscribe to our views & relationships with... well! relationships!#they can be called Partners i suppose!#that's a word with a wide range of interpretation which fits #coworkers? accomplices? business partners? lovers? friends? who knows!#neither of them care to figure it out. they're simply wally & home <3 #rambles from the bog #wh fantasy au #aha its funny... in the source material wally lives in home...#but in this au home lives in wally.... a little trade there!#but it works! this way wally can feel home's intentions and feelings (when home wants to share)#and theres a comfort in them staying together at all times...#wally & home have known each other for much much longer than they've known the rest of the neighborhood

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buttercup-barf · 1 year

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When in doubt, and without access to your tablet, scribble some gijinkas on the back of calendar pages, and edit the ones you liked the most. Worked for me!

With Pepperman's brains, brawn, dashing looks, incredible talent, silky voice, tactical prowess, quick thinking, and Vigilante's great amount of explosives, surely they'll defeat that rascal together!

Okay, maybe these were all just an excuse to adapt the blorbos to my anime-ish style.

Pizzahead and Noise would shoot a puppy in the face.

Funmy how I ordered the images so that it looks as if Mister Stick is looking at- Uhm. Uh. I c. Uh. ... I can explain.

Peppino Spaghetti is so babygirl to me. I wish Italians were real!

#[cracks knuckles] hoo boy let's go #pizza tower #pepperman #vigilante #does anybody use the tag ''vigilante'' outside of the funny cheese man?? i should probably check #peppino spaghetti #fake peppino #still hurts my heart to call him that. you know what. new headcanon. he's just peppino. they are both peppino.#i mean. two people can have the same name! ... and face! even if one of them looks like he's made of dough!#gustavo #pizzahead #the noise #noisette #mr stick #yes i subscribe to the headcanon that noise's weird hat is rodent ears. sue me for being based.

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dhmis-autism · 8 months

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My headcannon is that Duck has been in a state of awareness throughout the series much like Yellow was in Electricity, the visual tell for this bring their big ass eyes. Yellow's enlarged sclera is obvious because his eyes are radiation green. Duck's eyes are brown so they just look like slightly bigger black dots than the others. What I'm getting at is Duck has some awareness. He's just naturally deranged.

HAHAHAHA! OH MY GOD! okay! from MY POV, the idea of Duck having any awareness about their situation at all is so fucked up.

The pupil thing could be a good way to hide it, and totally a route I could see BB&J (becky,baker and joe) taking, realistically. He also does just have MASSIVE pupils.

Anyways, the reason that ideas super duper fucked up to me is because um… well one of Ducks main motivators in like EVERY episode is just keeping the three of them together. Even in eps like Jobs or Family where they're separated, he spends all his energy and spare thoughts on the other two (where are they, what are they doing, who are they talking to, ect). Now I assumed this was because their little trio-ship is the ONLY thing in that house that matters to him or that he even remotely cares about.

But sure, let's get meta with it and say for the sake of argument that Duck has been FULLY aware of the fact that they're in a forever looping TV show and that theyre puppets.

That makes some lines like "That's not allowed (in reference to going outside of the house)!" and "People are dying to know what your final guess would have been." a lot more … explainable I guess? But it also makes his weird dedication to keeping the three of them together undeniably sinister (e.g is he doing this bc he knows who Lesley is or something?? Is he doing this bc he's aware theres nothing for them OUTSIDE of this house??). It means it's not that he tries to keep them together BECAUSE he cares about them, he tries to keep them together for the sake of the keeping the SHOW GOING.

It also means he is WELL AWARE that the other two are miserable in that house and just DOES NOT CARE, because he thinks the three of them being together is better than the alternative. It also would kind of paint the "I like looking at you too" scene in a bit of a different light,no? For all we know, he could be referring to Red (the puppet) as opposed to Red (the character).

I don't even think him being aware would make him… deranged, I think it would literally just make him ACTUALLY irredeemable. Which I'm fine with! Best boy either way! A character doesn't have to be morally sound for me to like this, just interesting. But like. think about the implications of what you're saying here.

#NOW I DONT SUBSCRIBE TO THIS AREA OF THOUGHT MYSELF #I JUST THINK ITS A REALLY INTERESTING FUCKED UP AVENUE OF THOUGHT TO GO DOWN #IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT ITS VERY MESSED UP #but no really i think duck is a lot more surface area than that. i think hes very surface deep. i think he 100% believes everything he says #and isnt deceptive at all actually #like he says he considers them a family and he REALLY feels that way. i think he REALLY has never played beach volleyball #lololol anyways #my dhmis postings

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fabledteeth · 6 months

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anybody else play a cleric durge and felt like they had to come up with some ridiculous reason as to why their pc would wake up believing they worship a god that’s not bhaal? ophelia’s is “i can tell i used to worship a god and can’t remember who, but i have some sick fucking lightning powers and i love carnage destruction and chaos, so that probably means talos is my god. yeah that checks out”

and it’s just. not even fucking true. she was absolutely Not a cleric before the nautiloid, and she definitely didn’t worship talos. he just happened to fit the description

i like to think talos sees her going through this process and just decides to feed into her delusions and grant her cleric powers because he thinks it’s funny

#if anyone has rationalizations like these i’d love to hear them lmao it’s such a funny concept to think about #also im at start act 3 and ophelia is going through it because 1 she knows she’s a bhaalspawn now and 2 she’s had her redemption arc so-#she doesn’t really subscribe to talos’ preachings anymore. so it’s a bit awkward #anyway once she’s rejected bhaal and withers has brought her back I’m gonna respec her to worship kelemvor instead #because he’s the closest i can get to having her worship jergal lol #and she’ll get to keep her death fixation <3 #only problem is her dating fangs but i like to think withers is like ‘kelemvor listen. i know her taste is terrible. but she’s saving the-#sword coast. please. please make an exception. just this once’#and kelemvor begrudgingly accepts #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #bg3 dark urge #bg3 tav #oc ophelia #ALSO!!! highly recommend having talos be your durge’s god a lot of his dialogues (and evil cleric dialogues in general) go super well-#together with durge

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crimeronan · 4 months

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i should probably clarify for the sake of being sensitive re my tags on the vid i just reblogged: some people do in fact get sad enough to kill themselves when they get caught doing bad things. i could be wrong in my assumption that somerton absolutely did not do that. i also don't really care whether he did or not because it's so unbelievably tacky to open an apology with "i don't want to make this a sob story, i was just so sad i tried to kill myself and everyone who has a parasocial relationship with me needs to feel bad/guilty/worried on my behalf, and everyone who doesn't have a parasocial relationship with me needs to feel bad/guilty/worried if they wanted to hold me accountable for anything. but i'm so sorry for making this a sob story! it's not like this is a prerecorded video that i have full editing control of or anything"

like.... i don't care if you actually were in the hospital or not. you chose to open your apology video with the most blatant and pathetic kind of emotional manipulation possible & i don't care for it. it's literally no one's problem except yours and your loved ones' if you were in the hospital. it's no one else's responsibility. certainly not the responsibility of the people you wronged.

people doing this shit brings out my lowest-empathy tendencies because it gets to my high-empathy friends and i've known too many people held hostage by their partners/friends/parents threatening suicide over the years, so whenever i see people being like "oh, he really does seem upset, though" i'm like.

listen. i know he looks sad in the video. i know he's saying he wants to be dead.

You Don't Have To Fuckin' Believe Him.

#it's all part of the grift it's all part of manipulating your audience for money.#whether he's actually been in the hospital or not. it shouldn't be part of his public statement afterward!#it's just. whenever i see someone crying really sadly and wetly to make people console them about something they did wrong #so they don't actually have to change their behavior or reflect on themselves or in this case.... stop making money...#i'm like oh alright. pushes up sleeves. are you trying to do this to people i care about?#because if you are then i am going to step between you. and i am going to be So Fucking Scary.#I Will Be So Scary. I Don't Have Many Berserk Buttons But This Is In Fact One #suicide #james somerton #i don't think most people here even give a fuck about whether he's suicidal it's just i know those tags might read like #'i think every suicidal person in the world is manipulating people for attention' or whatever #and that is not the vibe. james somerton who emotionally manipulates 83727749 youtube subscribers is an outlier-#i gotta go to bed. what a headache of a man. wow.#youtube drama

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