#half-light

[antigonick]

the voice in my head said

LOVE IS THE DISTANCE BETWEEN YOU AND WHAT YOU LOVE WHAT YOU LOVE IS YOUR FATE

•

[...] then the voice in my head said

WHETHER YOU LOVE WHAT YOU LOVE

OR LIVE IN DIVIDED CEASELESS REVOLT AGAINST IT

WHAT YOU LOVE IS YOUR FATE

—Frank Bidart, excerpt of "Guilty of Dust", in In the Western Night (Half-Light)

[saschirmations]

This comeback is sponsored by ol’ faithful (Disco Elysium skill portraits & tonal whiplash).

[grassknotts]

KAREN, THE ANNOYING CUSTOMER - "Excuse me! I asked for a large!" ESPIRIT DE CORPS [Medium: Success] - Your coworker flashes a brief look, almost imperceptible, but you know it. She did not ask for a large, and your coworker knows it. You know it. Karen probably knows it. LOGIC [Challenging: Success] - Most likely, she saw a social media post saying she could try this and get a large while only paying for a medium. Oldest trick in the book. EMPATHY [Trivial: Success] - It's a pity it still works as often as it does. DRAMA [Formidable: Success] - Worry not, we'll simply play her game, Sire! If we put on a performance and give her what she wants, she'll be out of here all the quicker! AUTHORITY [Medium: Success] - No! Stand your ground, damn it! This is your damn territory, show the bitch she can't treat others like this. VISUAL CALCULUS [Easy: Success] - She's getting impatient. Better say something. HALF-LIGHT [Medium: Failure] - Don't worry, guys. I've got this. YOU - "Kill yourself."

[imsofuckingnormalrightnow]

[finemealprompt]

DP x DC Prompt #20

Duke hadn't believed his father when he told Duke he had his "infinite blood" or whatever. Duke wasn't an immortal. To think he would be was ridiculous.

But Damian's old and gray, mentoring the next Batman. And Duke's still young. He's still in his prime. He isn't aging. Maybe his father was right. Maybe he's immortal. But he doesn't want to be.

He's already watched too many people he care about die, he doesn't know if he'll be able to stay sane if this continues.

Turning to Doctor Fate, he asks for help in losing his immortality. He's directed to the "Infinite Realms." Specifically, to a being that has been referred to as "The Great One."

Duke looks for him hoping he can help. He wasn't prepared to find a being that was more beautiful than anyone he's met before. He can almost hear his siblings teasing him in his head.

[everliving-everblaze]

every day a new 600-page poetry book that i don't have time to read manifests itself on my nightstand. surely this is through no fault or actions of my own

[vio-lenceee]

self-awareness, self-destruction, self-pity

[missedstations]

"Half-Light" - Frank Bidart

That crazy drunken night I maneuvered you out into a field outside of Coachella—I’d never seen a sky so full of stars, as if the dirt of our lives still were sprinkled with glistening white shells from the ancient seabed beneath us that receded long ago. Parallel. We lay in parallel furrows. —That suffocated, fearful look on your face. Jim, yesterday I heard your wife on the phone tell me you died almost nine months ago. Jim, now we cannot ever. Bitter that we cannot ever have the conversation that in nature and alive we never had. Now not ever. We have not spoken in years. I thought perhaps at ninety or a hundred, two broken-down old men, we wouldn’t give a damn, and find speech. When I tell you that all the years we were undergraduates I was madly in love with you you say you knew. I say I knew you knew. You say There was no place in nature we could meet. You say this as if you need me to admit something. No place in nature, given our natures. Or is this warning? I say what is happening now is happening only because one of us is dead. You laugh and say, Or both of us! Our words will be weirdly jolly. That light I now envy exists only on this page.