The Trades - 1x05

A Persuasive Argument - dpxdc

"Great!" Danny says, clapping his hands together to get everyone's attention. The dinner table falls silent as everyone looks towards him. It's a full house today and, honestly, Danny's a little nervous. "I'm sure you're all wondering why I gathered you here today."

"It's dinnertime. In our house." Duke mutters, while doing a very bad job of concealing his yawn. He holds his fork poised over the braised beef, but, just like everyone else, still looks towards Danny before tucking in. It's intriguing enough to wait.

"Yeah, no one misses Alfie's dinner." Dick says, with a brilliant smile that Danny can't help but return.

"Precisely! What better time to talk to you all than when you're all actually here!"

"Wait, I thought you came round to work on our English essays?" Tim asks, blinking owlishly.

"I'm afraid I've lured you here under false pretences, Tim."

"This is where I live."

"I would still really appreciate help on that essay though, I mean, what the hell is Hamlet even about? I just don't get that old time-y language, like 'Hark! A ghost hath killed me!' - absolute rubbish, what does that even mean?"

"The ghost never kills anyone in Hamlet, he's there to tell Hamlet that he was murdered. Have you actually read it?"

"No, but it sounds like you have. Tim, I want this guy to help me with my essay instead. I know for a fact that you haven't read Hamlet, either."

"So? We don't need Jason, I've read the Sparknotes."

"Hi Jason, I'm Danny, pleasure to meet you, summarise Hamlet in three sentences or less."

"Am I auditioning to help you write your essays? I can't believe you’ve gone through your whole school life without reading it, it’s good!"

"Hamlet, along with a number of other classics, was banned in our house because it portrayed ghosts as intelligent and sympathetic beings rather than evil, animalistic beasts. I didn’t even get to see The Muppet's Christmas Carol until last year with Tim! It was surprisingly good, and I hate Christmas because everyone always argued and it sucked. But we're getting off topic. I—"

"No, no, please go back to that, because what the fu—"

"Boys, please." Bruce interrupts, looking to the world as if he wants to hang his head in his hands. "Danny, you were about to say something?"

"Oh, yeah, Mr. Wayne! Thanks!"

"Please, call me Bruce."

"Well, that very succinctly brings me to my point, because I'd actually really like to call you dad."

Nobody says a word. Nobody even blinks, all as shocked as the other, watching open-mouthed as Danny pulls his laptop out from beside his chair. Bruce can definitely feel a headache coming on.

"Before you say anything, I've prepared a 69 slide PowerPoint presentation on why you, Bruce Wayne, should adopt me, Danny Last-Name-Pending. Please save your questions, comments, and verdict until the end, thank you."

oh, uh, this...this isn't Silver's backstory after all.

hii!! if your requests are open could u make a masc mood board, preferably no paci, age about 4 or ranging 3-5? the theme could be kindergarten naptime, but anything is fine!!:)

Here you go!!

Crocodile couldn't digest Mihawk and Buggy getting closer at first. Everything about their shift in dynamic bothered him.

It was another boring late night when he first realised the two were closer than he anticipated. He was sitting in his office, staring at the papers in front of him in futile effort. His eyes were refusing to focus and let him read their content. He had lost track of time once again, as he did almost every night. Overworking came as naturally to him as breathing. He slowly got up from his seat with a sigh as he realised he couldn't get work done in his state, so he might as well get some sleep to work tomorrow.

Work, work, work. That's all he'd ever known. Because even when the whole world is against you, hard work always paid off. Blood, sweat and tears never betrayed you like people did. He had always lived his life according to this ideal, and he didn't have any plans to change it anytime soon.

He walked out of the office to make his way to his sleeping quarters, but stopped in his tracks as he was passing by the library. The sound of chatting and laughing was hushed, but still obvious in the silence that covered the island during the night. Normally he couldn't care less about some crew members doing God knows what, but his tiredness made it harder to think. So, he couldn't ignore his curiosity as instincts took over, his feet acting on their own. He tried to listen in, walking closer to the tent walls separating them. He quickly realised it was the clown and hawk eyes on the other side, which was ridiculous. What were the two of them doing in the middle of the night at the library? It seemed they were talking about stupid, random things. He heard something about nail polish, utterly useless.

Crocodile would have left after satiating his curiosity, but something kept him in his place. That something was the fact that the two men addressed each other by their names. Mihawk and Buggy. Not hawk eyes and the clown. Since when did hawk eyes respect the clown enough to address him by name? So, he kept listening in instead of leaving, even though he really should have gone to sleep by then. The conversation shifted... to how soft hawk eyes' hands were? Weird. Then it was completely silent. Even weirder. It took everything in Crocodile to not barge into the room to see what his colleagues were doing. But he didn't care, he didn't have any reason to. So he just left, not caring if the other two could hear his angry stomping through the thin tent walls.

Over the next week, he was hyper aware of every interaction the two had. The soft lingering touches, the quickly exchanged looks, the sheer amount of care hawk eyes seemed to have for the clown... it all baffled him. What did Mihawk see in that mess of a man painted over with an even bigger mess? And why did it bother him so much? They were two adults, they could do as they pleased and it would be none of his business. But something kept eating at his insides whenever he saw the two together. It was probably because whatever arrangement they had going on went completely against his initial plans for Cross Guild. He thought he would be using Buggy with Mihawk by his side, and the man would support him. And that was indeed the case at the beginning, the two of them bullying the clown relentlessly, just for fun sometimes. But the swordsman just had to go betray him and go soft. He really didn't get it. What could Buggy have done to do a complete 180 on this man?

When he reluctantly approached Mihawk about it, discreetly of course, the man simply said they had a book club. What a ridiculous excuse. "Do all book clubs entail fucking each other?!" Crocodile wanted to ask but bit his tongue. He had no proof of a sexual relationship going on between the two, but the signs were alarmingly increasing. He saw Mihawk walk out of Buggy's tent one morning! But again, it was none of his business...

The late nights he spent in his office slowly turned from working overtime to thinking about what the two men were doing. There were very few things that could make him stop thinking about work, so that meant this situation was getting out of control. Crocodile hated losing control. He had to do something, but he didn't know what. He didn't have the right to stop whatever the two were doing, but he clearly couldn't just ignore them either.

While Crocodile was losing sleep over this, his struggle was not hidden from the watching eyes. Everyone realised there was something wrong with the man. He was much more irritable than usual, so everyone was acting more careful to try and stay in his good graces, but it was getting harder and harder every day. It was affecting crew morale, and therefore a lot of the Cross Guild functions. Buggy and Mihawk were enjoying watching Crocodile struggle with his feelings at first, but when they realised it was starting to affect their business they decided to cut their fun short and try to get the man to stop ignoring his feelings.

Easier said than done.

It took a lot to make the man see they liked him. In the end, it was the small things accumulating over time like hawk eyes offering to give him a massage after a long meeting, the clown offering to polish his hook, Mihawk making him breakfast, Buggy feeding the fruitwanis... Crocodile was confused to say the least, but he would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the extra attention and care. He couldn't help but reciprocate the acts, being a lot softer with them both. It hit him one random evening, when they were having dinner together.

"Are you two courting me?"

Buggy and Mihawk shared a glance and broke into laughter.

"Thank fuck, I thought he'd never catch on."

"Took you long enough."

Let's just say they made up for all the lost time that night.

goofy hermit doodles!! because uhh why not!!

When you put a canary in a coal mine, you don't expect it to come out alive.

just some casual early morning fishing and some not-so-casual evening pining after your best friend

mini explanation of how this would take place if it were a prequel to the dangers of not confessing comic

After ozai’s defeat, they finally take a break and go on the fishing trip they lied about. And it’s amazing, and fun, and Zuko’s heart is aching throughout every second of it. Because he’s drowning under the weight of his impending duties as firelord. He has Responsibilities. But all he wants to do is be with Sokka and have the time relaxing with the people he cares about, actions that he was deprived of during his youth. And Sokka’s about to be halfway across the world, back at his home, where he belongs. And it would be selfish to ask Sokka to stay. And even more selfish to tell him how he feels when he knows soon the trip will be over, and it will never work between them, and Sokka probably doesn’t even feel the same way. So he stays silent. 

And misses his chance.

26.10.23 || Having a caffeine-induced archive high from the tiramisù I had at dinner, hoping it lasts me the next three years

Oh my god I woke up this morning and my Stardew Valley meta post had almost 150 notes????? Hello?????????? Anyways I started writing this last night because @moon-is-pretty-tonight left nice tags on the original so thank you so much!!

We know from the starting scenes of the game that the farmer's grandfather loved Stardew Valley. So why did he leave? Pelican Town is a good place to grow old; George and Evelyn are just fine. It's a fine place to raise a kid, but maybe he just wanted to raise his child closer to real schools and other children.

Or maybe, just maybe, he understood.

Was there a day when he was in his thirties where he looked at his friends and realized they weren't like him? That he could run faster than them, work longer, explore deeper into the hidden places of the valley?

Was there a day when he went to the wizard to ask him for help, for knowledge if nothing else? Did he learn then that his family was different? Special? Chosen? And how did he react? He couldn't possibly raise a child in the valley if they would be as strange and fey as him. He had to leave. There was no other way.

But years later, on his deathbed, did he regret that choice?

Is that why he gave the farmer the letter?

Is that why they went back home?

When the farmer steps off the bus that first day, the valley is still on the cusp of winter, just barely tipping over into spring. The flowers are starting to bloom, but a chill still hangs in the air. As soon as the farmer's boots touch the soil there's a change. The air gets warmer. The trees get greener. Not by too much, not all at once, but it changes.

The junimos watch the farmer as they do their work. They're new to farming, but take to it with frightening speed; their first batch of crops is perfect. None of the townsfolk tell them that parsnips don't normally grow in less than a week, that cauliflowers don't grow to be ten feet tall, that fairies don't visit when the sun goes down and grow potatoes and beans and tulips overnight. The junimos talk amongst themselves in their strange, wild language, and agree: this is the one. They're back. The valley recognizes its own, even when they've left for a generation. The farmers have come home.

Things change fast in the valley. The community center, empty and decrepit for so many years, is rejuvenated. (Lewis says it was abandoned only a few weeks after the farmer's grandfather left. Strange coincidence, he says, that it both came and went with the farmer's family.) The mines and the quarry, similarly abandoned, are explored for the first time in ages. The town becomes cleaner, brighter, more vibrant, happier.

And it is happier. Not just the environment, but the people. It's the talk of the town for weeks when Haley does her first closet purge. Leah's art show in the town square is a huge success. Shane's smiling for the first time since he moved to the valley. All of them, when asked, say it's all thanks to the farmer.

People love to ask why Lewis didn't fix the community center on his own. Why Willy never repaired the boat to ginger island. Why Abigail or Marlon never went down to fix the elevator in the mines, or why Clint didn't fix the minecarts.

But isn't it so much more interesting to ask how those things were there in the first place? How they got so broken down? If the stories the townspeople tell are true, the valley was once a beautiful place, flourishing and full of life; why did that change? When did it change?

Was it when the farmer's grandfather, the locus of the valley, its chosen representative, left town?

And if so, what happens when the farmer comes back?

(Part 1) 😈 I should have never been given the power to draw.

hello :) could you maybe explain a little bit how dan wootton blackmailed louis?

ugh sorry for taking a while to get to this. The problem is I feel like the only two ways to answer this are by spending a week and a half of full time labor sifting through old posts and evidence to get every detail right and lay out an airtight case, or to halfass something very serious, and so I felt a little stuck. So since I can't seem to find a good halfway point, apologies but here is the half assed version, if you want to get into it more I invite you to do your own deep dive or talk to other people, but here's how I remember things. Louis has almost never on video explicitly said things about Larry not being real and/or anything negative about fans and their theories (mostly the opposite), up until the last couple years when he obviously decided to make a major change he didn't talk about Freddie much at all let alone saying he was his kid, honestly not that much about Eleanor even; except for in two major interviews with Dan Wootton, each of which lined up with a serious traumatic Tomlinson family event that they managed to keep out of the tabloids until the very end (Jay's illness and Fizzy's struggles with substance abuse). After the fact of those events a lot of small things that didn't make sense at the time came together to look very much like Louis traded those interviews (and those answers) for having his family's private matters kept private. Story trading of this kind is a publicly known real thing that happens, and there were various clues that suggested he was being leaned on about those stories to lend legitimacy to the idea that it was something that happened in these cases. Given what we know about Dan Wootton and how he operates even before the recent flood of information and even more now, I think it's more than likely that he has been holding the threat of outing Louis (as he has done to many other public figures) over his head for over a decade, and has used his family's tragic struggles to get Louis to dance like a fucking puppet for him and I will REJOICE at his downfall when it comes whether it is now or 20 years from now... because someday it will, he has made too many enemies to stay above it forever

An AWS comic

Oh My!

whoops i asked in the wrong place. would you be willing to do a request of the vargas boys in a SAW trap? thank you in advance <3

Day 2 - Was it not obvious enough

[Click for HQ]

Alright. Hear me out. Corpse AU, but actually Headstone AU.

And that’s all I got.