Literary Nightowl

Reader. Fanfiction writer. Lover of most things Batty. Majority of my writing can be found on Ao3 under chibi_nightowl. Occasionally 18+. Header by ComeBackOlivia (GoAwayOlivia on Ao3).

[krizariel]

You’re from a whole other world

A different dimension

You open my eyes

And I’m ready to go

Lead me into the light~ 🎶

Based on @chibinightowl ‘s Moon, Ice and Snow series

[biglawbear]

I finished reading The Lord of the Rings for the first time in my life. With all of *vague gesture at everything* this going on.

I Am Not Okay

[biglawbear]

You have to understand. I watched the movies maybe once as a kid when they came out twenty years ago. I've somehow avoided learning like anything about these books my entire life. Literally everything about these books was a complete unknown and surprise to me. Totally blank slate going on. I barely even knew how it ended.

Holy shit.

[biglawbear]

Frodo didn't complete his task. Sam literally carried him up Mount Doom. And when he got to the end, he couldn't throw the Ring away.

But for Gollum biting it off with his finger, it wouldn't have been destroyed.

So Frodo's journey saved the world nonetheless.

And it broke him.

It was too much for him to bear. He could no longer live in the Shire or live in Middle-Earth. He wasn't of the world anymore. He had to go to the Undying Lands.

He took on the task that no one else would. He saved the world. Everyone got a happy ending. Aragorn became King, Sam rebuilt the Shire, Merry and Pippin became heroes. They all lived in renown.

But Frodo had the hardest task of all. No one else would do it. A simple hobbit who came by the Ring by chance. Not a King, not an immortal. Not a wizard. No power save his will and his friends. And he did it and saved everyone.

And he never got to rest. He never got to remain in peace. The task destroyed him. It was too much.

But there was no other way. Nobody but a simple hobbit could bear the ring all the way to Mount Doom and resist its power so long. Not a man, not an elf, not a wizard; they would have succumbed. Gandalf knew this, which was why he chose the hobbits in all his designs.

It's amazing that one of the precedent setting works in the fantasy genre holds up so well because it subverts what ultimately became the genre's core tropes. The hero was not the King, or a chosen one. In fact, the hero not being the King was a key point that allowed Aragorn to distract Sauron and allow the task in the first place. The hero was someone unassuming but courageous, who did the thing because no one else would, even though it was just by chance he came upon it.

But Frodo couldn't resist the Ring completely. He wasn't superior to anyone else in that way. And in the end it left him broken. The burden crushed him. No one else could do it, and in the end, he couldn't either. He wasn't so special that he was invulnerable.

I'm not okay. Holy fuck you guys.

[biglawbear]

It's been a week and I'm still not over this, I'll never get over this.

Something that I've been thinking about, as I struggle with depression and anxiety and *another vague gesture at everything* is that LOTR does not criticize Frodo for being broken. It does not shame him or deny him what he needs.

The task was too much and it broke him and that's okay. His friends nonetheless take care of him and let him go with understanding. The book doesn't treat it as a bad thing.

This seems to be a theme throughout the books. The characters rest and heal. They spend time recovering in Rivendell, Fangorn, Lorien, Ithilien. It's treated as good and necessary. They don't heroically endure endless torment from the second they set out until they're done.

And in Gondor's march from Minas Tirith to Mordor, Aragorn recognizes that some of the very few men he's taking with him don't have the heart to go to battle against the Enemy. And he says that's okay. He gives them other tasks the they can do. They hold other strategic points. They aren't shamed for not going all the way, or kicked out, or told that they aren't manly or whatever. Their limitations are recognized and respected. The task was too big and it was okay that they couldn't do it.

I don't know man. I've held on through some absolutely crazy shit. White knuckled through mental health crises when my doctors were begging me to take a break, to go to the hospital before I hurt myself. My therapist has tried to slow me down and tell me that I've been going through it and it's understandable that I am feeling some kind of way. Even one of my colleagues remarked that I've had an absolutely fucking wild career and that I've seen more as a lawyer of seven years than she has as a lawyer of forty. But I've gotten it into my head that I have to be strong, I have to be independent.

Fuck me, man, I'm currently white knuckling through life and hanging on by a fucking thread. A few weeks ago I was about an hour away from checking myself in to a mental health facility until my best friends swooped in to help me. And then I went right back to work.

And then I read this book. This fucking brilliant and beautiful book written by a man who had seen the horrors of war and spilled it all over the page. And I read it for the first time as an adult with full understanding and experience of what it all means. And it hits me like a fucking truck.

And it says that you can't endure everything. That at some point you need to rest and heal. That if you take on too much you will break. And that all of that is okay.

How am I supposed to move on with my life after reading this?

[three--rings]

Certainly there are many messages within Lord of the Rings, but you have to think that Tolkien would have been happy that this message in particular was still being conveyed all these years later.

[haveyoureadthisdcfic]

The Accountant

Have you read The Accountant?

Yes, previously

Yes, now that you've recced it to me

No

Voting ended onOct 9, 2025

Authour: @chibinightowl (chibi_nightowl)

Subfandom: Batman

Media: All Media Types

Relationships: Shippy (Jason Todd/Tim Drake, Jason Todd & Dick Grayson)

Year: 2021

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Implied/Referenced Death

Summary:

The last thing Tim needed was to get involved with someone who worked for Gotham’s meanest crime lord—or was him. Either way, getting into bed with the Red Hood was a really bad idea.

Submitted by @kiragecko

Submitter's comment:

This is FASCINATING worldbuilding! Tim isn't a Bat, and the Bats are such a different shape because of that. TIM is such a different shape because of it! Jason and Dick have SUCH a cool relationship that it deserves focus, even though it's a relatively minor part of the story. Love how concussions are actually a big deal. Just really interesting, and ... hmm, how do I put this? It seems like the allosexuals would find it hot. I'm enjoying it a lot, but it feels like some of you guys might get another whole level of enjoyment. I'm very happy for you if you do!

[chibinightowl]

I swear to all that's holy I haven't abandoned this fic. It's like my magnum opus and is just taking some time.

[kaylapocalypse]

Back to reading True Detective Fic and God I’m just so overwhelmed by how much more I enjoy love stories about people in the twilight of their lives.

I definitely get how sometimes older people prefer to consume content about being young, sexy and full of vitality while falling in love or whatever. Like I grasp the nostalgia and wish fulfillment of that concept, but I simply do not care about that very much!

It’s just way more compelling to me to read/watch someone who is like 50+ who knows themselves so well, who has history and relationships and baggage, who has sort of settled so comfortably into monotony. Who then meets someone else, someone who is also just a pile of old bones strung together through power of will, and their world just bursts into flames.

And everything that was comfortably pastel, surges into neon. And they’re forced to confront that they can’t control new things entering their life and shifting it off its axis.

And I’ve said this somewhere before but there is this moment where they have to confront that love has come for them when they’re not their most presentable! When they’re not their most beautiful! When they look like a roadmap of the time they’ve spent living! And they have to share that with someone brand new!!!!!

And they have to be okay with what they have the strength to do!

And they have to confront the limitations of all circumstances related to that!

It’s just so staggeringly romantic for someone to look at someone else and be like “This is all I have. This is what is left. But…by god, if you’ll take me as I am…Please take me as I am.”

I’m sorry but two hot cool twenty-something year olds just don’t hit like that does. Two people in the prime of their lives just doesn’t hit!

Two people crashing into each other’s orbit when they feel like it’s too late to start a family (they do) too late to have a big wedding (they do), too late to see the world together (they do) and walking boldly towards that anyway is so !!!

It makes me feel like my brain is on fire

[snowzapped]

The Red on Red Cookbook is now available for pre-order on bigcartel. I contributed 2 arts for @chibinightowl's recipe of Fried Pickles with Spicy Garlic Aioli and with the Filipino dish Arroz Caldo.

Pre-order now. All proceeds go to World Central Kitchen. :D

[chibinightowl]

I MADE FRIED PICKLES. If you're a fan of Tuesday Nights, then you know why I had to tackle this recipe. I swear, my fics are secretly an ode to my favorite foods. Go and check the cookbook out!

[chibinightowl]

Hi! I'm sorry if I seem intrusive, because I am intrusive. I've read your work "The Accountant," and it's great, it's literally one of my favorite works on AO3. But that's not the only reason I'm here. Are you okay? You haven't responded to the latest comments, and the last update was in March. Please, I hope you're okay.

I am alive and kicking, I promise you. Thank you for checking on me! I've recently rediscovered my laptop exists and have been poking at some WIPs one paragraph at a time.

[angel-of-the-redacted]

Reblog if you've found friendship because of your fandoms.

[writing-prompt-s]

They stole you from your world when you were but a young girl, and they forged you into a magical weapon that has been feared across the cosmos. Now that the war is over and you’ve won, they send you back to the moment before they captured you. The skills, PTSD, and memories? Those never fade.

[writerben01]

Teardrops stain my drawing, smudging the crayon markings that are as blue as drowned lips eating birthday cake.

“Are you going to have another tantrum?” Miss Daisy asks. “I thought you had gotten used to mommy leaving?”

Of course I cried that morning. It was the first time seeing my mother in decades and she had nothing on her mind but the early meeting she could not be late for. “I’m sorry, miss.”

She hands me a tissue. “Big girls don’t cry.” She looks at the picture. “Are you drawing a dolphin, dear?”

I shrug. I’m not sure what I’m doing. In Alfheimr there was no use to drawing. My fingers are so used to writing letters and numbers that I find it hard to draw. But the colour speaks to me.

I remember a birthday cake, covered in blue frosting and topped with seven candles. Susan smiled as she blew them out. Nobody needed to guess her wish but we made silly guesses anyway. We were laughing in the hollow expanse of Alfheimr’s dining hall, and for a moment we forgot about the thousands of other tables in the hall celebrating birthdays that day. It was just the twenty of us, formed into unbreakable hær, making a home for ourselves.

But then I’m also thinking of Susan turning white under icy waves when her önd was not strong enough to keep her warm. Nineteen terrified hands reaching for her as she sunk away, her smile now as permanently etched on her face as in my memories of her.

We begged our seggr to slow down and she refused. We cried that we just needed more time to learn. But time was the one thing that was in short supply. The loss of life was not only a calculated risk, but a guaranteed expectancy. No gradual awakenings for us. We were thrown into the deep and we would either sink or swim.

There were so many girls, and they needed only one queen.

Keep reading

[exhaled-spirals]

« If you have to ask yourself where you will find the time to read, it means the desire isn’t there. Because no one has the time to read. Children don’t, teenagers don’t, adults don’t. Life is a perpetual obstacle to reading.

“Reading, I’d love to, but what with my job, the kids, the housework, I don’t have the time.” “You have so much time to read—I envy you!”

How is it that Ms X, who works, runs errands, raises kids, drives her car, loves three men, goes to her dentist appointment, is moving next week—how is it that she finds the time to read […]?

Time spent reading is always time stolen. Like time spent writing, for that matter, or time spent loving. Stolen from what? Let’s say, from the duty of living. Which is probably why the subway—this stinking symbol of the duty of living—is the world’s largest reading room.

Time spent reading, like time spent loving, increases our lifetime.

If we were to consider love from the point of view of our schedule, who would bother? Who among us has time to fall in love? Yet have you ever seen someone in love not take the time to love?  I’ve never had the time to read. Yet nothing has ever stopped me from finishing a novel I loved. 

Reading doesn’t belong to the societal organisation of time. Like love, it is a way of being. The issue is not whether or not I have the time to read (no one will ever give me that time) but whether or not I will gift myself the happiness of being a reader. »

— Daniel Pennac, Better Than Life

[haveyoureadthisdcfic]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Have you read The Warehouse on Chester?

Yes, previously

Yes, now that you've recced it to me

No

Voting ended onDec 8, 2024

Authour: @chibinightowl (chibi_nightowl)

Subfandom: Batman

Media: Comics

Relationships: Shippy (Jason Todd/Tim Drake) (but with a LOT of Jason Todd & Roy Harper)

Year: 2019

Summary:

“Tim wants to take me out for dinner at the fake restaurant you made up.”  Roy laughed so hard he just about fell over. “Oh, you are so fucked, man.” “Shut up.”

Submitted by @kiragecko

Submitter's comment:

A REALLY fun fic about the lengths someone can go to to avoid embarrassment. (Like, really really funny!) Add a bit of sunshine to your day!

[chibinightowl]

"Okay, hear me out..." Jason says earnestly, nudging the paper-lined basket of his newest creation across the bar to his partner. "They're really good."

"That's sacrilege." Tim doesn't sound convinced in the slightest and glares at the unoffending plate between them. "You put cheese in them!"

"Yeah, I did. Havarti, which goes really good with dill, which is why those are dill pickles."

Tim makes a face. "And what did you do to the aioli?"

"Sriracha ranch."

Down the way, Colin glances over and snickers just loud enough for Jason to hear. "I even had Colin try them since you were out of town forever."

It's a low blow since Tim really hated being gone as long as he was, but that's what happens when you're running a biotech company. "What about Roy?"

"Roy has the palate of a college frat boy so nice try. He inhales everything."

"They're really good, Tim," Colin says. "Would Jason lead you wrong?"

"No," Tim replies slowly, though he's still giving the pickle spear deep fried in a wonton wrapper the evil eye. "It just feels like sacrilege."

"One bite," Jason encourages. "Just one bite and if you don't like 'em, you'll never see 'em again."

Gingerly, Tim picks up the new version of his favorite deep fried pickle and dabs it in the sauce. Then, looking like he's been asked to spend time with Damian, he takes a small bite.

He chews. Swallows.

Jason waits, then grins from ear to ear as Tim goes in for a second, much larger, bite. "Told ya," he laughs.

"Shut up." Tim takes a third and final bite, then pouts when he realizes he's only been given one pickle. "Do you have any more?"

[fishbonesart]

Care for a drink?

[coderedjaytimzine]

WE’RE LIVE JayTimJay Fans!

You can purchase the zine at our shop!

https://coderedzine.bigcartel.com/

[coderedjaytimzine]

The time is approaching. Please read our most recent announcement!

Code Red Zine

[chibinightowl]

Been meaning to get these up for a while, but hey, life!

So many thanks to the lovely @snowzapped, who I swear shares the other half of my brain when it comes to all things JayTim.

These pictures are from Chapter 12 of The Accountant.

[chibinightowl]

Hello! I've been re-reading a lot of your fics recently and just got flooded with thoughts.

I've seen a lot of strays that sometimes accumulate near bars. Most of the time they're just hungry, though occasionally you do find a dog or a cat, who, for some reason, decides that they're going to have their litter there. What would Jason or Tim in the Tuesday Nights verse, do in such a scenario when confronted by a litter like that? Because taking care of them is a big investment and if you get attached you're doomed because giving them up is hard. If it's an especially young litter, you can't exactly relocate them either, because the parent may not take kindly to it.

Well, if Damian weren't such a little shit in this AU, I could see him getting involved. Spaying, neutering, rehoming, that sort of thing.

To be honest, this ask ties in to what I always envisioned for what I've brainstormed as the final story for the series. I'm not sure if I'll ever write it, but the TLDR version can be found below the cut for those who want to avoid spoilers.

When Damian is out of prison, he's rather aimless for a time. All his prospects, everything he had going for him, is gone thanks to his pettiness. He winds up talking to Jason, at first to apologize to him for what he'd done, but then to learn more about him and his 'something from nothing' story. I think during this time, Damian also meets Colin (I've always loved that friendship).

Of course, Tim isn't exactly thrilled about this series of events. He's been on the receiving end of Damian's schemes for years, so he is convinced this is just another one and he warns Jason endlessly (to the point where they get into some arguments about it).

But Jason has always had a good head for people and while he's wary about Damian's presence, he takes the time to talk and listen. I think during this time, that's when Jason finds one of those unexpected litters just outside the loading dock. Damian is entranced because he's never had a pet before (I can't remember if I ever put Titus in this series, so let's say I didn't for the sake of things) and the kittens are just so small and helpless.

The long and short of it is that Damian eventually finds his calling and starts a non-profit animal rescue for dogs and cats in the Bowery. Bruce is very proud of him and the Wayne Foundation becomes a donor. Tim is still wary, but will at least give Damian the time of day. Colin has a new best friend and loves working at the rescue. And Jason? Well, he's just happy Tim is talking to him again and does his best to keep his 'I told you so' comments to a minimum.

[chibinightowl]

Super thrilled to see you are doing the timjay zine! That quote from Tuesday Nights is one of my favorites.

Thank you! I hope you enjoy the fics I wrote for it!