“Drake.” The hand in his was cold. Not because it belonged to a corpse, but
because the night was cold. Cold and bright and pitiless, fresh snow glittering
perfect under the waning gibbous moon like diamond sand. “Drake. Stay awake.”
Drake, because he was insane, smiled before he said, “I don’t want your
pity, Robin.”
It was a very familiar sort of smile. A League smile. Untouchable with cold,
rather than warmth. This struck Damian as an entirely unproductive attitude
under the circumstances.
“It’s not pity,” he scoffed. “Grayson would never forgive me if you died on
my watch.”
“Mm. Of course.” Red Robin’s eyelids flickered, and it was difficult to be
sure whether that was sleepiness or derision. The cold hand gripped his for a
moment. “Self-preservation.”
Damian couldn’t tell whether Drake was mocking the idea that Damian was
being selfish in this moment, or the idea that he might not be, and felt
absurdly defensive of both possibilities. He chafed his hands together around
the one impersonating part of the frozen landscape. Was Drake’s skin always
this disgustingly pale?
“If you had more of it, we wouldn’t be in this situation,” he muttered.
“Is this a we situation now.” Asked the vigilante with 80% of his
body frozen into the surface of a lake full of tiny bombs.
“Since I’m as liable to be blown up as you, yes, you useless sentimental garden
ornament.”
“Pfff.” That sound…wasn’t actually derision, and when Damian looked up
from ice-white fingertips in time to see a smile that was less League and more
Titans fading from slightly grey lips. “Nice one. No swearing or death threats
even. Just a tasteful allusion to my imminent transformation into sculpture.”
“Tt.” This didn’t rate verbal acknowledgment.
“Dick’ll have you making with the puns any day now I bet.”
Damian brought their linked hands to his mouth and puffed air over them,
blood-hot from deep inside his lungs. Unlike Drake, he still had every layer of
his insulated winter uniform on, besides the gloves he’d taken off to enable
this half-assed attempt at sharing body heat. In comparison to Drake he felt
like a human furnace.
A dragon, even. Hah. There, a pun. He refused to share it.
Triggered by another post I didn’t want to hijack:
Excalibur.
In the legends, Excalibur comes out of a lake (although some versions have Excalibur as the sword in the stone, those are later…the sword Arthur pulls from the stone breaks and he goes to get a better one).
From the “Lady of the Lake.”
Here’s the thing.
In northern Europe in the Iron Age all the way through to the early Medieval period, most iron came from bog iron. It was hard to smelt, because it was a rather low grade ore, but you didn’t have to mine it and it was a renewable resource (in about twenty years you could just come back and get more, because it formed constantly).
Meaning that the iron used to make a sword came…out of water.
In most fairy stories, fairies don’t like iron. So the vision of the Lady as some kind of fairy or elf? Not likely.
The idea of her as a druid? Maybe.
But what’s far more likely is this: The Lady of the Lake was a smith.
But….but…
The Celtic deity in charge of smiths and ironworking was Bridget, a goddess. The mystical associations with the Lady would fit with her being a priestess of Bridget…and thus, a smith.
IOW, Arthurian people, maybe we should not be visualizing the Lady of the Lake as a slender, graceful woman in a gown…
I’ve written enthusiastic comments to fics I really liked and if the writer only give me a superficial thanks to my detailed, multi-para comment, realistically, I probably won’t keep giving more of them.
If I did, I’d end up feeling like a greedy weirdo fangirl.
I think it’s safe to say that real-life social rules feel pretty legit in the world of commenting on fanfic. If you run on and on about something in real life and then someone says very little in return, that’s just incredibly socially awkward. You feel like you’re boring them or you’ve done something very wrong. That’s what it feels like in comments when you can’t engage the writer to even comment back. It leaves you feeling like you’re socially inept and unlikable.
It’s different if you just say, “That was great, thanks!” and the writer only gives a thanks back. That’s a perfunctory social contact, like saying hi to acknowledge the mailman or something. Neither of you wants to get into it, but you both want to be polite.
But if someone writes you paragraphs on how much they liked your fic, guys, don’t leave them hanging! They won’t keep writing you those lovely comments if you ignore their attempt to connect with you. That’s a clear sign that they like you and your work and want show you how much. Give them a little something more than a simple thanks back.
I’ve made some very good friends through commenting on other people’s work and as a writer connecting with my readers. Keep the dialogue going and I don’t think you’ll ever regret it. It’s to everyone’s advantage and you might even make a good friend or two.
–Mod M
I’m fine with one comment at the end. Especially if you mention the other comments I made! I find that I’m slightly more likely to form a relationship with the authour that way, actually.
When you give me one, longer response, it can open things up for a continuing conversation. Short responses to each message tell me you appreciated my comment, and I leave it at that. I’ll comment again on the next fic.
Both are positive, so it depends on the outcome you want. Do you like long discussions in the comments? Are they stressful?
Okay internet, fashion advice please!
Yukio, friend of the X-Men, needs an Oscars level formal outfit.
It needs to be punk, formal, and appropriate for a 30 year+ Japanese woman whose wheelchair keeps her from leaping off buildings but not from beating people up.
I just realized that Ororo would attend with Callisto on one arm and Yukio on the other. Callisto’s suit isn’t hard to design, but I don’t know enough about Japanese fashion OR high fashion to figure out Yukio.
I have a Chrome addon that compares numbers to things that are roughly equivalent. This one took me a minute to figure out:
1.2 trillion US 2017 dollars [≈ One Starbucks latte per day for a year].
I wore this for Labyrinth of Jareth!!! I was inspired by Visioluxus for the creation of the mask! I kind of did it really last minute but it’s paper so it was quick to create!
I’ve always been really interested in the design of Angels since their descriptions are pretty abstract.
So!!!! I’ve been dying to talk about this and as of today I can: I wrote the official Minecraft graphic novel, being published by Dark Horse!
I am so stoked about this! Minecraft!!! I’m very pleased and so proud of the story I got to write, and adapting Minecraft into a comic was a blast! The book is going to be drawn by @sarahssketchbook and lettered by @johnjhill. It’ll be out in stores in summer 2019, but a 6-page preview is in American Target stores RIGHT NOW (and if you click-through on the link you can read the preview pages that were posted as part of the Newsweek announcement!).
kiragecko 