napaladinosaur

-ancient roman posca: water, red or white wine vinegar, honey, salt, herbs (coriander, mint, thyme)

-switchel: water, ginger, vinegar, sweetener, lemon, salt

-ayran: yogurt, water, salt, mint

-sees the reports of the heatwave in Europe-

Dick used to climb up on Bruce's shoulder and sit like a parrot. He doesn't mutter a "Bat" prefix to common household items. He doesn't cuddle up under Bruce's ribs so tight on patrol that Bruce can feel him under the layers of armour.

Jason doesn't need Bruce's help to reach anything now. He doesn't ask for Bruce's help with a difficult word in his book. He doesn't do that excited, overwhelmed smile when Bruce gives him praise.

Barbara has grown into an exceptional woman who is unafraid of anything, the family's rock but that still doesn't mean he misses the kid who used to come to him for leadership. He's so proud of the woman she's become.

Tim doesn't talk Bruce's ear off on patrol, no, he's laser-focused now, he's locked in and there's no time for a run down of Tim's day. Tim doesn't take his battered old Nikon camera everywhere with him any more.

As for Steph? Steph hasn't really changed to most people, she's still daring and headstrong, she still has that zest for fun but Bruce sometimes misses how it was before, when she was more carefree and hopeful, when she could trust herself completely and didn't brood over every mistake.

Cass doesn't tug at Bruce's sleeve to get his attention any more or get as excited about things as much. She can speak for herself now, she's much more confident and while Bruce is proud of her, sometimes he misses being needed.

Damian no longer shows Bruce his sketches or grades, he just tells Bruce his drawings are private and his grades can be accessed through the app. Bruce tries not to feel hurt, Damian is independent and no longer feels to need to earn Bruce's love through achievement etc but Bruce misses that way that Damian would try hold his smile back and try not look so pleased.

Duke no longer gives Bruce those glances at the side of his eye like "the fuck are you getting me into here" or seems fazed by anything. He takes everything in his stride now. Weird shit happens and there's almost no surprise in his eyes. Bruce is proud of how much confidence Duke has but god he misses those expressions.

But they DO.

Fics in which Ilya tells Shane they can open up their relationship AND THAT HITS EXACTLY HOW YOU'D THINK.

(PLEASE direct me to any I am unaware of.)

You Keep Me From Slipping Away, Not Crying

When You Hold Me, I'm Alive

what a wicked thing to say

Oh, I'm Tricky But You Figured Me Out

Oh, I Thought You Were Good

Buckle On Your Belt

gold in the offering

Exhibit A

Fics in which one thinks the other has moved on:

One Day I'll Watch You Leaving...

"and the universe said i love you."

Darth Vader the death god, this is perfect. He doesn’t set out to create this persona, not really. He doesn’t really plan anything that pertains himself anymore, anyway, but… he is the most lethal person in the universe. He kills and tortures and destroys, and he knows no mercy. His black cloak and mask is easily recognizable among the white armor of the Stormtroopers, and they feel safer when he’s around. He can’t be killed, they say, can’t be touched by enemy fire. When you stay close enough to him, they can’t reach you, either. He can protect you from cruel and incompetent officers, he can punish them. You can feel his power in your bones, can feel it make you stronger. As long as you follow his orders, you are safe, but nobody can help you if you displease him. He is a god, after all. He does not know mercy.

Padme Amidala is much more of a local myth, really. Both the Rebellion and the Empire try to co-opt her for their own ends, but… she just wasn’t that important to the bigger picture, you know? She was a senator during the Clone Wars, and she gave some nice speeches, but soldiers don’t really care about senators. She was beautiful and clever, and she is remembered kindly, but the only place where she is really a legend is Naboo. There, she is not a senator, but the queen who freed them, the queen who made peace with the Gungans, the queen who fought. Her picture hangs in almost every house of Naboo, dressed in traditional robes, her make up and hair perfect. She doesn’t look like a person, not really, more like an idea. They say that one day, when the time is right, she will return for them, and save Naboo again. She is theirs, after all, their queen. The only one that matters, really.

Luke Skywalker, the boy who blew up the Death Star, a soldier and a trickster and a boy. The first legends start after the battle of Yavin, after he was one of three pilots who survived, after he destroyed the machine of death. He was just a nobody, a nineteen year old farmboy, and yet he was the only one who succeeded. He can’t be human, can he? Not really. He must be some sort of demigod, young and reckless but powerful, still. Stormtroopers fear him, because this boy… their blasters bolts don’t hit him half as often as they should. Sometimes they do, that’s how they know he’s not like Vader, who is untouched by violence, but… they know they are good shots. And yet, they can’t kill him. And the rebel soldiers know that, too. Nobody tells him that, and his friends don’t really believe the legends, because they know him to be an idealist and a dork and the guy who was freezing like hell on Hoth because he’s from the desert, but… the rebels who don’t know him? He’s their myth. And then Bespin happens, and he survives a fight with the god of death himself, actually survives, and how can you not think of him as a demigod, as a spirit, maybe? And they are proud of him, because he’s theirs. Stormtroopers though, they are terrified, because they know better than to expect mercy from gods.

Leia Organa, the Last Princess of Alderaan. They don’t call her queen until years later, don’t really remember that Winter exists, either. She’s a symbol, more so than she is ever a person, because Leia herself, Leia the person, she’s on the edge of breaking, she’s full of hate and grief and despair, and that’s not inspirational, is it? So she lets them believe it. But there are legends about her, legends about her standing and seeing her planet be destroyed, of her surviving, still and beautiful as a statue, but alive, powerful. The Princess most of the rebels know wears white, long, beautiful gowns, her hair in complicated braids. She speaks loudly, with a clear, strong voice. She stands, despite everything. She stands. And she survives. Soon, there are rumors. She can’t be killed, they say. She was a prisoner aboard the death star, she saw the destruction of her home planet, and yet, she lives, yet, she fights. If she’s not dead yet, can the Empire even touch her? Can she even bleed? Or is she made of ice? Or is it fire? For Leia Organa is a myth of duality. The white princess made of ice, and the passionate fighter with fire in her veins, a blaster always at hand and the best at inspiring troops before a desperate battle. Ice and Fire, that’s what Leia Organa is made of, not flesh and blood. She’s the only one who sort of realizes the myth that’s grown around her, and she uses it, sometimes. Not too much, because she can’t control it, but sometimes.

Imagine stormtroopers praying to Vader as He-Who-Brings-Death and entreating him to pass them by; at first in jest, but who knows what’s serious any more when half your unit is dead and you only barely survived.

Imagine stormtroopers swearing “May Vader take your soul!”

Imagine stormtroopers hearing of Vader, then seeing him in person, and being held back by their fellows, from kneeling in front of him.

Which would make Luke’s fight at Bespin like four extra levels of nerve-wracking. I mean, he doesn’t know if Vader is human. As far as he knows, he’s an eldritch death deity straight out of Tatooine nightmare folktales. Of course, then Luke has to Learn Some Things, and everything is confusing and terrible for a couple days and then like probably a week later when the “he survived a fight with a god of death” whispers start circulating he might start actually thinking about it.

There’s got to be a weird mishmash of beliefs among the Alliance anyways; vague memories of the Jedi Force tradition overlaying it, used in expressions, but everything combines with all the traditions and beliefs from all the different worlds and cultures the Rebels hail from.

I am now imagining someone trying to comfort Luke, from what they believe he believes is a close encounter with the god of death. They tell him “no that wasn’t the god of death, the real god of death doesn’t bother to fight because everyone comes to Them in the end, that was just an incredibly dangerous maybe-human maybe-droid”.

Someone else tells him to sprinkle pure water in every corner of the room he sleeps in, and to wear his socks inside-out, so that the hounds of Death will lose the scent if they come to track him down, on their master’s bidding. He asks if he needs to be worried about a security breach; no, he’s answered, mortal security can do nothing against the hounds, not when they have his scent after a close brush with Death, so he needs to remember, water and inside-out socks.

And this is not the delusion of a rabid Dooku stan, though I acknowledge that part of myself with grace and acceptance. Stover’s Revenge of the Sith novelization is part of a trilogy of books, two of which, Yoda: Dark Rendezvous and Labyrinth of Evil, came out in the months before Revenge of the Sith was released in both novel and film. The trio of books were uncommonly well-coordinated by their authors, who had privy to a lot of Lucas’s direction and spoilers for the film.

Naturally, we fans looked to them for clues about what would happen to our guy in the prequel finale, as Labyrinth actually takes place in the days and hours before the final attack on Coruscant.

Some notes on Dooku in the lead up to his death:

Dooku is incredibly disenchanted with the war and what he views as Sidious’s overengineering, doesn’t know why he can’t just win outright

“Could a depressed person do this?” where “this” is have a explosive missile trained to his location 24/7 with a little button he can push to drop it on himself, Dooku don’t make me tag cw: suicidal idealation on a meta post please

Asajj Ventress outright tells him in YDR: “You stand too much in [Sidious’s] sun” and warns him that they should team up against him before Sidious kills Dooku

is on the verge of changing sides back over to Yoda outright during their parley and only doesn’t because he’s interrupted by Anakin and Obi-Wan bursting in, a situation that Sidious machination-ed to look like the whole surrender offer was a set up

Even in spite of this, he STILL daydreams about going back over to the Jedi in the hours before RotS, and thinks they wouldn’t have him by now

Spends hours of his work day analyzing footage of Obi-Wan and Anakin bickering and bantering and thinks about how wonderful their bond is and how amazingly they work together as a team and how happy it makes him to see it

All this really painted a portrait of a guy who was exhausted, fed up, felt trapped in a web of his own making, and just wanted to go home. It truly felt possible that Dooku would do something, anything, other than die in the first five minutes of the film hardcore committing to the galaxy's stupidest bit.