Everyone knows not to frighten etho. Even if it'd be really funny, it's just not worth it. When Etho gets startled or jumpscared or frightened, he pops outta existence a little bit. He's a bit of a phantom, not the sky rats but like literally, he's a ghost.

He's not very good at being dead, not like Cleo who had full control of being a zombie or Joe who has.....some control of the jopacity...jhostlyness or whatever it is that they've got going on. Etho sucks at it, and whenever he gets startled he pops out of sight. Fully invisible, completely intangible. And he can't control it at all! He just has to wait until his nervous system reorient itself.

Poor Joel doesn't know this. Double life stabilized everyone's wonkyness for the sake of the games. So scar didn't get birdbrain'd, Jimmy didn't get hypothermia (cause despite popular belief, most netherborn are quite cold blooded to cope with the hot environment), martyn didn't have a sudden urge for human meat, and Joel didn't become a phantom. Etho was also unable to disappear which was painful but otherwise nice.

So one day Joel gets the bright idea to sneak up on Etho and scare him shitless, because it's funny and Joel shows affection via pranks and annoyance. Poor Etho didn't know what hit him, one moment he's quietly pulling weeds in his garden, the next he's scared out of his mind and completely gone.

Luckily Etho had signs on hand so he can tell Joel how uncool that was and how annoying it's gonna be to wait to come back.

Joel, to his credit, does feel really bad and since Etho's unable to finish his gardening, Joel offers to do it for him. Which he does, which is hard work, so Etho offers him his spare room so he doesn't have to make the journey all the way back.

It's not that far but he gets really lonely when he's all ghostly and he wants company.

Joel doesn't take up too much of the bed. Etho's cold, without the warmth of the sun or his jacket he's freezing in his little purgatory. Joel wakes to a presence, something not quite there but heavy against his side. It's Etho, unsurprising, who's still cold and a little transparent but peaceful all cuddled up against him.

He rolls onto his side so he can pull Etho closer, allowing him to press his cold nose into the crook of his neck. He won't scare Etho anymore, he'll find another way to show his affection.

Probably.

-carrie

Really, it's disappointing that it actually distresses Etho, because it's the funniest reaction ever. Does Etho understand how much prank potential this has? How funny it is that he just poofs when he's scared? It's hilarious. The fact it feels terrible sucks.

What Joel found out surprisingly quickly is that Etho is a lot jumpier than he expects. Joel knocked on the door, for goodness sake! What else is he supposed to do?

So far, wrapping his arms around Etho and giving him a gentle kiss has worked best. Etho says the fact somebody is touching him helps. Hardly like Joel needs an excuse to get his hands on Etho more often, but he'll take it.

Harrow the Ninth Reaction - Chapter 25

hah, she’s telling the Emperor Ortus the First kissed Cytherea as part of a gossip tea sesh, this is hilarious. also what with this and the Silas & Gideon meeting last book, dramatic tea parties are becoming a staple

‘Harrow do something normal’ omfg, GOD thinks Harrow is being too weird. he really just told her to get a life

and Harrow does what many a person does in an existential crisis - learn how to cook!

girl hasn’t slept for six days? idc if she’s a Lyctor, she’s gonna pass out soon

the whole the Emperor serving the food at the table - what with this and calling his Lyctors his children, there’s a weird emphasis on almost forcing domesticity

Harrow added all the veggies Ortus the First doesn’t like, she’s so petty lol

WHAT THE FUCK. she put HER OWN bone marrow in the soup to murder him from the inside out???? ok i absolutely double down on never wanting to eat anything any of these people make. i see this is the book to traumatise me with cannibalism, i’m not eating soup ever again

‘his eyes were the eyes of death’ also holy shit this guy in general is very powerful, and it think this is the first chapter to really get it across. also wdym its been a thousand years since you ate human being, dude - again suggests that he did also take part in a similar process as the Lyctors to become what he is now?

also, you’re not okay with them trying to kill each other in front of you, but anywhere else is fine? what kind of a rule is that?

Harrow when this sleep deprived is, uh, unhinged to say the least.

also Mercy gradually decreasing the ages that she’s calling Harrow is hilarious, at a certain point she’s just going to be calling her a toddler

fuck me this chapter was something else to read, i think its probably the first chapter to properly shock me like Gideon the Ninth did

Damiana and Cassandra both gre wup in the League of Assassins, right?

Do you think they ever discuss their shared experience in the League, their shared trauma?

I imagine Cass would become Damian's go-to whenever he needs to vent League trauma with somebody who'd understand and she would be the one who gets the ball rolling in him realizing just how fucked his upbringing is

I imagine he'd do the same with Tim post BruceQuest, and Tim and Cass would bond over League trauma as well

Jason would be there too. I think Damian and Cass would bond the most because they grew up in the League, and Damian and Jason (before the BruceQuest) would bond from having been in the League most recently.

Tim spent the least amount of time with the LoA, but he gets added to their club cause he spent a few months with them. Their dynamics would be hilarious too. Tim and Cass would usually be on team together against Jason and Damian if either Jason or Damian start a fight with Tim. They keep trying to bond and heal over their traumas with LoA, but get distracted by their now sibling-like hatred for each other (similar to when your siblings chews too loud, so you consider murdering them).

I also like to think that Jason got them all shirts for being in the LoA trauma club.

Jason has shirts for people who have tried to murder Tim, but now are his allies. He's a bit shocked by how many shirts he had to make. He got Tim one singular chili hotdog in sympathy of how often he's befriend his attempted murderers.

But, yeah. Cass helping Damian through his LoA trauma would be a huge aid to the kid in understanding what was acceptable in his childhood and what was not. Cass heals from this too and starts to learn what memories were fucked.

It's canon that Cass jokes with Steph about their fathers being cruel.

If I were to dissect it a bit more, Cass and Jason would understand LoA dynamics the most with Damian. Cass would probably know background traditions and methods a bit more than Jason. Jason would know the most about working/being around Talia. He could help Damian through his conflicting feelings about that. Tim could help Damian with his experiences with Ra's.

Just the batfam and using unorthodox ways to heal from their similar traumas

The shuffle song being named "Ringing evil phone" is hilarious to me for all the obvious reasons, but also because of the fact that Ritsu speaks fluent English (Operetta). While I'd assume the rest of them got a translation, Ritsu almost 100% knows exactly how ridiculous that sounds from a full English perspective and decided to go with it because on god he needs to see how this turns out.

Every time he sings that title in a sexy whisper™️ along with four other people who Do Not Realize he probably thinks it's the absolute funniest shit and gleefully hopes Eichi is regretting ever approving this (meanwhile Tsukasa came to support his senior and is currently having an aneurysm in the front row).

wilson you are so strange baby

ok ok everyone please, ignore for a moment that this is a clip of The Quote. please just ignore the words and look at dans body language cuz its killing me LMAOOOO

and now for something stupid

Inevitable😈✨😳

Short comic based on THE ONE LINE Aaravos said at the end of that one trailer. You know the one~

after seeing a few posts i can’t stop thinking about Bruce’s moral compass and how far it goes like did he refuse to drink underage? did he lecture and was honest to god genuinely upset when he found dick in his latter robin days high as a kite with Wally or something? Does he see litter on the street and pick it up and put it in the trash? Does he wait five minutes at a crosswalk waiting till the traffic light turns red because jay walking is his worst nightmare? In his billionaire playboyness did he refuse to sleep with anyone if they were married? Does he never have a parking ticket because he would rather be late to a board meeting then dare go above the speed limit? Did he go to Tim’s room once and see a one way road sign hung up and covered his mouth in horror because his son stole that?

and i know he separates his Bruce Wayne persona and Batman but like what if the one thing that connects them both is that goddamn moral compass? Like he’s on patrol and sees some kid sneaking out at like 3am from their house and just looms over them with a dead expression until they go back in? He peeps out behind this random guy in the little cubical he works in and gravelly whispers that he needs to move his car from his parking spot. He sees this couple trespassing and throws a batarang before they can go any further as a warning.

and oh my god now I’m imagining that scene from avengers age of ultron like the whole batfam are fighting this big bad and they’re all speaking through the comms and one of the kids a little exasperated is kind of like “you sure we can’t kill?” and batman in a zone kind of says in his dark voice without thinking says “it’s illegal” and then he’s like wait no- and everyone kind of just laughs at him and makes fun of him for it for like his entire life and i just think this is my favourite thing ever

lawmane happening right in front of Light with the thinnest veneer of deniability while Light is completely oblivious because all indicators of romance and sexuality go right over his head (repressed or aroace: take your pick) is one of the funniest versions of lawmane

I assume that you are my friends and also very very cool and also that your headspace may or may not consist primarily of one massive polycule that keeps expanding when I'm not looking

THE POLYCULE DOES KEEP EXPANDING LIKE YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE LMFAO AIAISIDKFKCNSKFF

-Electrochem

not to sound like some guy who takes kids shows way too seriously but was anyone else really upset by those cartoon episodes that were like “omg actually everyone hates the protagonist bc theyre annoying and their lives would be better without them and thats the punchline” growing up. 

love in the episode cold fire kes almost kills tuvok and he just goes “you may feel remorse, possibly regret. i’ll tell you right now, i don’t mess with that shit so cut it out rn” 😭😭

Get yourself a mentor figure whose take away from almost being boiled alive by your mind powers is "I've gotta mentor her even more." Also Tuvok's eyes turned yellow! Which I found interesting!

This is the third novel centered on a Squire that I pick that has a main plot line about inheritance (I did dnf The Squire's Daughter before I could tell if that was going to be the case as well), and I'm thinking that if it wasn't that Wives and Daughters came over a decade before these, I would think Gaskell was lampshading the inheritance trope in it.

*points at Jean-Paul Valley* THE MOST DISAPPOINTING THING ABOUT THIS MAN IS THAT HE ISN'T CANONICALLY "The Normal One(TM)"