"I am a knight who just made my charge. Now what?"

what a freaking dork

presented without context or explanation cause i have none

Learning that Jason was Red Robin first (during Countdown to Final Crisis) and that Tim actually stole that name and costume has made my entire week. Honest to god Tim Drake is the funniest character of all time. Imagine getting your ass beat for stealing from a guy and then doing it again anyway, top-tier character choice. I think he should take Red Hood next.

@colorschanging Look at this! (x)

Do you think Gotham cops have tried this? Did Dick ever try this?

... ♥

been thinking about them a lot lately

Humanity has finally reached the stars and found out why no one had contacted us. The universe is in a sad state. As such, Doctors without Borders, Red Cross, and many othe charities go intergalactic.

The thing the recruiters don’t tell you about space battles is that you die slowly.

Ships don’t blow up cleanly in flashes and sparks.  Oh, if you’re in the engine room, you’ll probably die instantly, but away from that?  In the computer core, or the communications hub?  You just lose power.  And have to sit, air going stale and room slowly cooling, while you wait to find out if the battle is won or lost.

If it’s lost, nobody comes for you.

It had been about half a day (that’s a Raithar day, probably a bit shorter than yours) and Kvala and I were pretty sure we had lost.  Kvala was injured, Traav and I were dehydrated and exhausted, and Louv was dead, hit by shrapnel when the conduits blew.

Most fleets give you something, of course.  For Raithari, it’s essence of windgrass.  I looked at the vial.

“It’s too soon,” Traav said.

Kvala gestured negation, shakily.  She had been burned when conduits blew, and her feathers were charred, and her leftmost eye was bubbly and blind now.  Even if we were rescued, she probably wouldn’t survive.  “You know we’re losing the war.”

They couldn’t deny that.  “It doesn’t mean we lost the battle.”

“Doesn’t it?  The Chreee have better technology.  Better resources.  And they have their warrior code.  They don’t care if they die.”

“We can’t give up!” Traav protested.  They were young, a young and reckless thar who had listened to a recruiting officer and still believed scraps of what they had been told.  “Any heartbeat now—”

There was a clunk.  Something had docked with our fragment of the ship.

“You see?!” Traav crowed triumphantly.

Kvala exchanged glances with me.  The Chreee never bothered to hunt down survivors.  What was the point, after all?

The Aushkune did.

There weren’t supposed to be Aushkune here.  They were supposed to hide in nebulas.

But if there were—

If there were, we were too late.  The windgrass couldn’t possibly destroy our nervous systems in time to stop the corpse-reviving implants, and once you were implanted, it was over—or it would never be over, depending on how you looked at it and whether Aushkune drones were aware of anything—

Footsteps.

Bipedal.  The Aushkune were supposed to be bipedal.

And then the blast door opened, and a figure stood in it.  My first thought was, robot?  That’s almost worse than Aushkune . . .  But no, it was a being in some sort of suit.

Who wore suits?

“Friendly contact,” the suit’s sound system blared, as the being moved over to Kvala.  “Urgent treatment.  Evacuation.”

“Who are you?”  Kvala struggled upright.

Despite the primitive suit, the blocky being was using up-to-date medical scanners.  “Low frequency right angle shape,” it explained—or maybe didn’t explain.  Two more figures came into the room and put Kvala firmly onto a stretcher.

“You’re with the Chreee, aren’t you?”  Kvala was not at all happy to be on a stretcher.

“Not Chreee,” the sound system said.  “You Man.  Soil Starship Nichols.”  The being hesitated.  “Rescue Chreee as well.  On ship.  Will separate.”

“You what?” I said faintly.  Who would do that?

“Oath,” the being explained.

“What kind of oath?  To what deity?”

The shoulders of the being moved up and down.  “Several different.  Also none.  For me, none.  Just—oath.”

I exchanged glances with Traav, who looked as unsettled as I was.  I had never, ever heard of groups cooperating when they couldn’t even swear to or by the same power.

The being scanned me.  “Have water,” it said.  “Recommend.”

Raithari have fast metabolisms.  I could—would—die of thirst quickly, and painfully.

“Where will you take us,” Traav asked, “after you give us water?”

“Raithari to Raithar.  Chreee to Chreeeholm.”

“Chreeeholm would kill them for failing,” Traav remarked.

The being hesitated, and then said, “War news sometimes bad.  Sometimes lie.”

We had learned long ago not to believe the recruiting officers, but what did that have to do with anything?

“And you—what?” I asked.  “Just fly around looking for battles and rescuing victims?”

The being seemed to consider this.  “Best invention of soil,” it said finally.

Most of what it was saying didn’t make any sense.  Did it worship soil?  But it had said that it had sworn to no deity . . .

Madness.

On the other hand—war was a deliberate, rational act by deliberate, rational people, and I wanted no more of it.  So why not embrace madness and see what happened?

“Soil Starship—Rrikkol?” I asked, stumbling over the word.

“Yes.  Soil Starship Nichols.”

I followed the being in the suit.

Took me well over a minute to realize "low frequency right angle shape" was Red Cross.

I love how this shows the weirdness both of language and of culture. Excellent writing!

"Soil Starship Nichols"

This is what took me a moment.

Earth Starship [Nichelle] Nichols

Excellent writing! I loved this!! (I caught the Nichelle Nichols’s not but was lost by the Red Cross one 😂😂)

This is so ...so what I want my fiction to be. Great work.

Was reminded as I was flicking through comics that I’ve never actually read the two Tomasi Movie Night Scenes beside each other.

So here they are:

Nightwing #151 and Batman & Robin #20 (2009)

Dick, Alfred and Tim working around each other to make the strawberry smoothies.

Tim getting the blender. Tim tossing Dick the icecream scoop. Alfred chopping strawberries. Dick scooping icecream and running the blender. (Tim making popcorn in the microwave v Alfred making it on the stove HAH)

The theatre room. Alfred bringing in the food and closing the curtains. Tim setting up the DVD and tossing the remote to Dick. (Bruce stepping into intercept the remote)

The seating order is the same (though everyone lose their side tables to fit in Damian!) The Magnificent Seven v The Mark of Zorro.

(Also Nightwing ends the issue; Batman & Robin starts the issue)

It’s interesting seeing them together. Nightwing is about the gap. Batman & Robin is about the gap being filled…but it’s been filled with the return of Bruce. Damian is there but he doesn’t know how to be part of things yet and he’s just lurking, observing everything, determined to convey he’s above all do this but very careful to make sure he’s migrated to be near everyone else before they’re fully set up.

more of them lets goo!!!!

I love when artists draw damian in this pose. he is such a little Shape

Taking my son out for enrichment

they don’t make shows like this anymore

best brownies in the known universe (at least, according to my grandma)

some year and a half ago when i was getting ready to move out i combed through all the family recipes that lay lost to time and one of the ones that i found was my grandmas brownie recipe. idk where she got it from (nor can i ask cause she has dementia) and its a printed out email she sent to my mom in june 2000. but by george these the best brownies i have ever tasted. would she be pleased that i am sharing this recipe with my vast following? absolutely.

YOU WILL NEED:

5 tablespoons butter (unsalted) 1 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate (or as much as your heart desires) 2/3 cup unsweetened good cocoa powder 1 cup sugar (white) (superfine preferred, normal works fine) 1 cup sifted white flour (can use gluten free) 1/2 teaspoon baking powder as much cinnamon as your heart desires (your heart needs to desire at least some cinnamon. its essential to the recipe) 3 egg whites 1 egg splash of vanilla extract (again, non negotiable step!)

preheat your oven to 325 degrees. grease a square baking pan (9x9 preferably).

in a small saucepan over medium heat melt the butter and baking chocolate. while that is melting, sift together the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a small bowl. once the butter and chocolate is done melting add the cocoa powder and cook it together for 1 minute. add in the sugar and stir. it will get very thick. this is correct.

set that aside to cool. while thats cooling take a large bowl and put in your egg whites, egg and vanilla. beat it up with preferably a whisk but you can use a fork if youre fresh out of whisks. once the chocolate is cool enough to not scramble your eggs dump it in the eggs and mix it together. add the flour in gradually and keep mixing until its smooth and happy.

spread into your greased baking pan. put it in the oven for EXACLTLY 18 MINUTES. very crucial step. they will come out slightly under done. that is what we want. as they cool they will continue to cook in the pan. we dont want them to get hard and sad. they are not good when they are hard and sad. do not overbake them. you will be sad.

slice them up and as the official last step on the original recipe says: EAT ENJOY AND MAKE MORE! (theyre very good with mint chocolate chip ice cream)

ARE THESE FUDGY CHEWY OR CAKEY PLEASE THIS IS IMPORTANT

FUDGY !!!

RECIPE IN GRAMS cause it was bugging me, op i hope you dont mind (i did the math but any correction is welcome yall)

70g unsalted butter (there's salted?? the things i learn on here)

28g+ baking chocolate (google tells me this is a chocolate bar that has little to no sugar in it and no its not the same as dark chocolate)

65g unsweetened cocoa powder

200g extrafine white sugar (or granulated sugar if you must. This is *not* powdered sugar btw. powdered sugar has a different cup-to-grams ratio. Id never heard of extrafine sugar before but i went on a google rabbit hole and yeah it exists here too lol)

120g white flour

2,8g baking powder (lets make this 3g yall we're all gonna eyeball it anyway cmon)

Cinnamon (to taste, at least a little bit is needed for real tho)

3 egg whites

1 egg

A splash of vanilla extract

-----------------------

Preheat oven to 160-165°C (325°F is technically 162,7 but ehhh you do you)

Grease a square baking pan (23x23cm or as close as you can get i guess)

Follow OP's instructions

Bake for 18 minutes on the dot

NOW IN GRAMS!!!

for real tho everyone saying they want to make these as graduation treats/study snacks is warming my heart my grandma is a big fan of academia and worked at a bookstore for several years she would love to know her brownies are making their way around as study motivation

Art by JuYoung Ha