our gift to the world. our champion.

violence is regrettable... but peace is worth fighting for.

[lifeinpoetry]

I’m sick of your world / that lets the outside disguise the inside.

Louise Glück, from “Circe’s Power,” Poems 1962-2012 (via lifeinpoetry)

[dianathcmyscira]

nctmyfears‌:

Jess trusts Diana. She trusts the trinity completely, really. There’s just something about them that makes it hard not to, especially when you’ve idolised them for their strength and their courage and all of the amazing things they’ve done over the years. Which makes this that much more difficult. Because Jess is supposed to be able to help them now. She’s supposed to have the power to make a difference, and instead.. she’s failed. Just like Diana said. “How, though? After something like this…” Jess sighs and shakes her head, her gaze shifting down towards the ground as she crosses her arms over her chest, shoulders slumped and hunched forward, unconsciously making herself smaller.

“We cannot change what happened now, but we can prevent it from happening again. We’ve been... too lax in allowing these things to happen, in simply reacting. We should have been more proactive.” It’s contemplative, and righteous on behalf of all they lost, but calculating. Despite knowing things operated differently here, Diana can’t help but feel the people here have it all wrong. This could have been prevented, had they only been more direct. She squeezes Jessica’s arm in a gentle- for her- but firm grip, and tips her head to look her directly in the eyes. “We are powerful, and we’ve sworn ourselves to protect the innocents. We must do more in the future, think more practically about this. Arkham Asylum was not the best place for the Joker, given the times he escaped in the past.”

[violentwavesofemotion-deactivat]

And me, with my wounds, with my violent blood, with my painful and untranslatable experiences,

Daniela Crăsnaru, from Letters from Darkness: Poems: “Oxford Street,” (via violentwavesofemotion)

[shieldthcm]

@dianathcmyscira | starter.

     the look on bruce’s face when clark had left the GCPD stirs something like resentment in clark’s chest when he thinks about it too hard. the joker murdered his wife, his baby, his city ; clark had been kind to end it so quickly. still – “ was i wrong, diana ?? ” it’s not quite clear if he wants an answer because clark isn’t quite present at the moment. mentally, he’s entirely shut down. even if diana were to rationalize the last three hours, clark wouldn’t process a second of it. 

    still, her presence isn’t unwelcome now, even if clark had protested initially. he doesn’t want an audience for his grief. no one should see superman as he is now - a man beyond repair who can’t even manage to wash himself of the blood of the man who took his whole world away. 

[dianathcmyscira]

“You did the right thing.” Through the whirlwind, a sudden clarity had come upon Diana. A sudden blinding truth of everything they had been ignoring, had been letting slip by clinging to the beautiful, optimistic ideals of a more peaceful world. But that wasn’t the truth of now; sometimes peace had to be fought for. Her voice is level, gaze  even, with a fire burning passionate in her eyes. “He deserved far worse.” The venom rises in her tone, a declaration of love and pain on behalf of every human soul that perished in Metropolis, and a deep fervor for Lois and the baby. She reaches forward to grip his forearm to steady him, bring her eyes to hers.

“We have been wrong to let this happen. We have reacted and protected monsters from true justice and it has led to this. We have not done enough to protect the people of this world...”

[hjbfsdhjbfjhsdbfhjsd-deactivate]

We needed some privacy and I thought this would be the perfect place.

The Trinity in Justice League of America #20

[dianathcmyscira]

cobblerofweapons‌:

   disbelief had quickly emerged by the words coming from the amazon. for so many years of his life, roy had looked up to many of the justice league members. none of them were perfect, far from it, but they had always done what was right. they were heroes. this was wrong. it felt wrong, off. “bullshit, diana. all of us have chosen to keep fighting. sure, maybe we’re all pulled in someway or another but i sure as hell could have given this all up to just be a father. i’m not going to deny that we failed metropolis. no one in that city deserved what happened to them but that does not give us a right to determine whether or not the people responsible for this atrocity gets to live or die. once we do that, we become just as bad as they are. there is a line that we, as heroes, do not cross. we do not become killers.”

Her eyes widened with genuine, horrified shock, her head already shaking as her face settled into a more stern expression. The people in the world of man had always seemed strange, flighty, prone to clinging to tight to destructive beliefs, yet this all crossed a line. “You are saying the Joker’s life is worth more than every innocent in Metropolis? He deserves to live more than them? That we could somehow be just as bad as he is by preventing this or any other atrocity from happening again? Every single time we let something like this happen we are saying that our own moral high ground and the Joker’s life is more important than those he might choose to kill. I did not stand by while the Nazis slaughtered innocents, I do not understand why everyone expects me to do so now. This man has declared a war upon humanity and yet we fumble with futile solutions and continue to allow him the chance to kill again.”

[dianathcmyscira]

howwondcrous‌:

           This is horrifying. And Cassie ?? Is more than speechless. Diana’s words almost go in one ear and out the other from the fact that Wonder Girl is experiencing nothing less of disoriented shock - but then, her attention is turned towards Diana as she processes the words, and then … then … shock turns to disgust. One would believe it be absolutely asinine for Wonder Girl to lash out at her mentor, but this is not what Cassie believes in and frankly ?? She’d believe Diana be the same.

           Until now.

           ❝ Do you fucking hear yourself ?? ❞ An angered voice raises, Cassie’s form nearly shaking. ❝ It’s not  “valuing” his life over the people that are DEAD. This is not Themyscira, Diana, and just because you  k i l l  someone doesn’t mean you’re doing the right thing, LET ALONE taking his side when dozens of others are dead !! Why do I have to be the one to tell the thousand year-old Amazon that two wrongs don’t make a right ?! ❞

Her eyes widened at Cassie’s sudden expletive, but then flashed with a righteous anger on behalf of the millions dead in Metropolis. It baffled her that no one could see that this had gone on for far too long. They’d let terrible tragedies happen for years now, and even with this, the destruction of an entire city, people still believed clinging to a false moral high ground matter more than saving innocent lives.

“Equivocating the death of one man, a mass murderer, to the lives of millions of innocents is insulting, Cassandra. You say two wrongs don’t make a right, but how on earth is allowing the Joker to murder unchecked the right thing to do? The gods gave us these powers to protect the innocent. We have not done so. Having the power to stop something yet being complacent and allowing violence to happen while you watch is akin to committing it yourself. How many people must he kill before we stop him? Another million? Another twelve? How many friends must we watch die because of him?”

[lifeinpoetry]

I know / there is violence in all of us

Margaret Bashaar, from “The Seduction of Snakes,” Some Other Stupid Fruit

[dianathcmyscira]

svpernovcs‌:

kon’s lip wobbles for a second, and he has to turn away to hide it.  for a guy who’s died before, been beat to death, kon thinks it’s safe to say that he’s never felt half this bad.  he spares diana a scathing look.  “ you’re barking up the wrong fucking tree, ” he spits, fury creeping its way into his voice.  “ that’s not how being a freaking hero works. ”  he can’t even believe he’s hearing this, and he can’t stop thinking about how he knows it would turn cassie’s stomach.  he thinks about how heavy gar’s body had been in his arms, and kon is afraid he’ll throw up again.  

“We do not deserve to be called heroes. We have stood by to watch the world burn. I held her corpse in the middle of a nuclear wasteland once populated by millions because we allowed him to escape and murder again and again. We are culpable, Kon.” Diana left Themyscira to help the world of man achieve peace, to protect the innocent. There had been a critical failure in both. Her eyes flashed with ferocity, but she reigned herself in with the reminder that everyone had lost, and she placed a firm grip on his arm. Not as a threat, though she’s never been a comforting figure either. “I am not advocating for thoughtless slaughter, nor the bypassing of a system of justice, believe me. I am only saying... what we have done has not been enough.”

[dianathcmyscira]

divincdfuture‌:

     “ we aren’t executioners. ” barbara grits out. at times like these, she feels the shadow of pain in her abdomen and a hand falls to rest at her hip, fingers brushing the scar she knows is covered by her shirt now. it’s not as if diana’s feelings aren’t echoed. barbara understood jason best after her own injury and it took her years to come to terms with her own morality, her own ethics. “ what are heroes without boundaries, diana ?? you justify one and you justify them all. that isn’t a choice we get to make. ” though, when she thinks of lois, of clark, and the people of metropolis, she thinks it wasn’t a choice they got to make either. barbara can’t fight that, won’t fight diana’s one truth: they did fail this time.  

“And we are a poor excuse for heroes.” Her eyes light with fierce compassion, and outrage, a burning righteous energy on behalf of the dead innocents of Metropolis. “Justice is not a weak justification for a moral failing, an impulsive action. It is not a justification to see the destruction one man has wrought and know we have been instrumental in allowing him to do so, and know that allowing him to continue would be the immoral thing. We didn’t protect them, any of them. It may not be my choice to make, but I don’t see how anyone could choose that man over Lois, over all of Metropolis.”

[nctmyfears-blog]

“What do we do..” Jess murmurs softly as she stares wide-eyed at the empty, smoking crater - at all that’s left of Metropolis. She’s never been in this situation before - the Lanterns have faced all kinds of disasters, things she’s had to be a part of one way or another, but never like this. Never where they’ve failed so badly, lost so much. Not just a city - though that’s horrifying enough in itself - but Lois. Lois, who meant so much to Clark. Lois, such a bright spark in everyone’s lives - Lois, who Jess should’ve been able to find with her ring. Guilt wells in her heart as her gaze shifts to Diana, still wide-eyed in the hope that the amazon will be able to offer her an answer. “What do we do?” She asks again, hoping she doesn’t sound as small as she feels. [ @dianathcmyscira ]

[dianathcmyscira]

Diana’s eyes swept over the ruins of Metropolis slowly, as if holding out one last hope that she could blink and this would all disappear, or that if she only paid enough attention, she could save some miraculous survivors. But she was more sensible than that, and the tragedy had hardened her heart. They needed to move forward. Be better. Standing around waiting did not solve any of this. She tore her eyes away from the horror to look over at Jess, and reach out a firm, comforting hand to her arm. “We must protect the rest of the world as it gathers itself. In the future... we must learn from this. We failed the people we have sworn to protect.”

[violentwavesofemotion-deactivat]

There is blood everywhere  and I am lost in it. I breathe blood, not air.

Kelly Cherry, from Rising Venus; “Lady Macbeth on the Psych Ward,”

[dianathcmyscira]

cobblerofweapons‌:

    roy could hardly deny that the thoughts had sometimes crossed his mind. why did they let the villains keep walking when imprisonment and other methods didn’t appear to work?? they kept hurting people, killing people. and now the joker had destroyed an entire city, had destroyed so many lives. roy knew full well had someone hurt lian in any way he wouldn’t have held back. but – roy also knew that was the job. they were the heroes. “i get it. i really do. hell, if someone had taken lian from me i don’t think i’d hold myself back from killing them. but at the end of the day we don’t get to decide who lives and who dies. that has never been our job. we keep fighting to make the world better, that’s what we do. if we suddenly started deciding who lives and who dies – that just makes us hypocrites. the joker will be brought to justice. i know we’ll all make certain of it.”

Diana impassively watched Roy, taking in his argument and finding none of it touching her heart. Those were the same words that had been said over and over by her allies here, and it had gained them only destruction and pain. She wanted to save the world of man, had been beating herself against this problem for decades, and had respected how Bruce and Clark wanted to do things, but surely they’d see now, in horrific detail, that it simply wasn’t enough. They weren’t saving any innocents, only prolonging the time they had before they were inevitably killed by the murderers that the League let go again and again. “This job was not given to us. We created it in reaction to the injustices we saw in the world, we chose it, and what we have chosen to do has not been enough to protect people. Have you seen Metropolis? How dare you say we’ve made the world better when we allowed that to happen. The justice we brought him to the last time we caught him led to this. What will this next justice lead to?”

[dianathcmyscira]

“Someone like the Joker would have been put to death in Themyscira long ago. No civilized society would have allowed this to continue for so long. What justice is there in valuing one man’s so called right to live over the dozens he’s murdered? Over the millions?” The images of Metropolis decimated still played in her mind, and the sight of Lois’ corpse- kind, witty, lovely Lois, who made Kal smile sun bright smiles and lit all their lives with her charm- would not leave her. She could not allow it to leave her. Diana shook her head bitterly, eyes hard. “We have failed.”

[dianathcmyscira]

@nctmyfears

“Your form still needs work.” Diana corrected the placement of Jess’ arms, her voice firm but not unkind. “But you’ve much improved since first joining us. Your hand to hand could eventually be enough to keep you safe should anything happen to your ring, so long as you don’t emulate Hal’s training method.” She’s joking, mostly.

[dianathcmyscira]

nights-cowl‌:

     pride and ass hit the mat at the same time, and bruce groans just a little – in a way he never would in front of a less trusted friend.  maybe he has been eating too much, or maybe bruce is just getting old.  without an impressive alien physiology or gifts of the gods, bruce will age and his joints will get creaky and every beating will feel a little bit worse than the one before it.  but that’s no excuse for getting sloppy, so he gets to his feet and rolls his shoulders until he gets a pleasant popping from them.  “ again, ” is all he says, perhaps not as close to lighthearted as diana.  

Diana laughs a short, soft laugh, offering her hand to him as he stands. It does not escape her that of the three of them, Bruce is the most decidedly mortal, yet he’s always been extraordinarily competent, and it would be insulting for her to hold him to any lesser standard. As ever, she does not like to follow that line of thinking to its logical conclusion. The time with the League had been her best in man’s world, and her heart ached to think of it changing with the eventual loss of Bruce- of most everyone, truly. Time had never been kind since she’d left Themyscira. “You’re certain? I would not like to hurt you.” But her teasing is offset by her settling back into an easy fighting stance, one as familiar to her as breathing.

[dianathcmyscira]

poison-veined‌:

“Yes. Thanks for the tip.” Ivy smiled with genuine pleasure. “I’ll take care of it so you don’t need to get your hands dirty, Princess.” She was looking forward to dealing with these people -showing them the true force of nature that they had taken for granted.

“It is not my own hands I worry for.” The JLA was an important operation, and she an important figure in it. Despite her willingness to do what it took, that wouldn’t necessarily reflect well. “I will need you to swear you won’t divulge where you’ve received the information from.”