#;; IT'S HER FAMILY'S ***SEAT***

[bluerosefox]

Saying Sorry Will Never Be Enough

Feeling a bit angsty so I had this idea.

Danny is dating one of the Bats/Birds, and everything is going great, amazing even! They know each other secrets (from powers to everything etc), they have a wonderful place to live (even if its in Gotham), Danny is in college on the way to becoming a space engineer (and he does side jobs for unrestful ghosts), he's actually getting sleep again since leaving Amity Park, gets along with their friends and family (those who Danny or his partner still talk to, up to the writer), there is even talk about marriage and perhaps adoption/kids in the future between Danny and the Bat/Bird he's dating!

Everything is setting up for a good life in his future, something Danny didn't think could have after his accident. He was happy finally, and currently packing up his old apartment because he's moving in with his partner in a few days.

So he felt like his core was being pulled out of him when he opens his apartment door one day receiving a knock to find his parents, who had hadn't seen since they kicked him out of the house after coming clean about being Phantom (their words of anger and denial that their son was 'dead' and now a monster, still hurt)

Sure they didn't attack him or proclaim he's dead but still their last words and anger HURT.

Danny didn't give them a chance to open their mouths, both looking nervous and guilty, before he slams the door close and turns invisible, grabs his phone, and fly's out of his apartment to his partner's place in a panic attack.

His partner, isn't happy.

[bet-on-me-13]

Bruce Wayne was never Batman.

So! The night that Bruce Wayne's parents got shot, he developed an Unbreakable Resolve. He needed to get rid of the Crime that had taken his Parents away from him, no matter what.

But that night, he also developed a deep-seated fear of Death. He was face to face with his own Demise and instead of dying himself he saw his Parents die instead. He was Terrified of ending up like them.

But he still needed to stop Crime. He couldn't just let criminals go unpunished, and while he was still using his wealth to try and prevent it before it began, he knew there needed to be something to stop crime After it had been committed. And the Cops were useless on that Front.

He eventually found a solution while looking through his Parents Family Heirlooms.

Ancient Books dating back to the founding of Gotham and even before then, telling of a Creature from another world who his Ancestors had helped in the Past. A Being of Fear and Shadow, who owed a debt to the Wayne Family. He needed that Being. A Monster of Shadows and Fear was exactly the answer to scaring criminals away from committing crimes and punishing those who did.

But he needed to find the Being from another world first.

So he left home, traveling across the Globe training with the best Magicians and Demonologists in the world in search of the Monster who owed his Family a Debt. His travels took him far, from the streets of LA where he met a man named Zatara, to the Snowy Mountains of Nanda Parbat where he learned of the Lazarus Pits and the Demon's that came out of them.

While studying the Lazarus Pits, he was trained by the organization who guarded them. They despised Weakness, and while their leader was in awe of his Intelect he was less impressed by his body's conditioning. If he was to study the Lazarus Pits, he would first have to earn the Right in Combat.

He eventually managed to pass their Tests and eventually left them, having handed over a Copy of his research as the price for being allowed to Study the Pits.

Years later, he finally returned to Gotham, fully equipped to Summon the Being that owed him a Debt.

Bruce drew up the Summoning Circle as perfectly as he possibly could, he had one shot at it.

A drop of his blood and a splash of Lazarus Water later, and the Circle began to glow an ominous Green. Slowing, a shifting shadow began to emerge from the Circle, at first only a mass of writhing darkness before their form Solidified.

The Books he had found on the Spirit said that it would take the form of the Summoners Greatest Fear, which just so happened to be Bats for Bruce. The Form that the Spirit chose reflected that, with large Dark Wings falling over their form as if they were a Cape, and horns looking like the Ears of a Bat. From the Darkness, two glowing eyes appeared.

"Spirit, hear me. My name if Bruce Wayne, and I am calling in the Debt owed to my Family centuries ago. My City is plagued with crime and malice, rotting from its Core. My efforts to prevent Crime from the side of the Light have been in vain, Crime persists despite my efforts. In order for my vision to be fulfilled, the Criminals of this City must have their hearts pierced by Fear. Fear of Retribution. Fear of Consequences. Fear of Vengeance."

Thoughout bis Speech, the Shadowed Figure stayed silent.

"That is why I have called you here. I want you to stalk these streets, punish the criminals of this City and strike fear into their hearts from the shadows, so that they know to stay in the light. I don't want you to Kill them, never kill them. Let them live with that fear in their Hearts until their final days."

After he finished his speech, the Figure finally spoke.

"Your Quest is an Honorable one. You seek the betterment of your people's, and are unafraid to resort to drastic measures to achieve that goal. It reminds me of my Liege's resolve." It Spoke, it's voice low and rumbling. "Very Well. From this day forth, I shall protect your City from the Darkness in its own Heart. I shall be your Dark Knight."

...

Had this idea out of nowhere and needed to write it down. In this AU, Bruce still wants to protect his City from crime, but is understandably traumatized from seeing the Deaths of his Parents. He has a deep-seated fear of Dying, so he chooses to forgo fighting crime himself.

Instead, he finds out about a Spirit that his Ancestors helped long ago, and decides that the most logical next step out be to Summon a Demon to protect his City. Instead of training his Body for a decade to become Batman, he trains his Mind and Studies as much about Magic and Demon's as Possible.

He still knows how to fight because he trained with the League. He approached them with an offer to study the Lazarus Pits and give them his findings, and they accepted. But Ra's didn't want a weakling on his Base so he also required Bruce to train his body. He saw his potential for combat, and was so disappointed that Bruce had chosen a different path. He could have been Great!

Bruce still has a thing with Talia that produces Damian, he is still a point of interest from Ra's since he is insanely smart and has huge potential, and he knows how to fight pretty well. Albeit not as well as in Canon.

Bruce becomes the Benefactor/Guy in the Chair for Fright Knight (who is the one he summoned if you couldn't tell), who looks like a "Bat Man" because of Bruce's fear of Bats. Fright Knight agreed to this because 1.) He had a debt to pay, 2.) Bruce reminded him of Danny, and 3.) He respected Bruce's ballsyness to Summon a demon and command it to protect people.

Bruce still adopts his Kids, but there are some changes.

Dick is adamant about fighting Crime, and eventually Bruce is forced to let him go on patrol with Fright Knight, who has started going by Batman. Thankfully Frighty managed to give him some blessings so he had minor powers and would be safer.

Jason is mostly the same, and he is so excited that Robin actually IS Magical. When he dies, Fright Knight, who had gotten attached to their Family, goes into the Zone to search for him. He is unsuccessful unfortunately.

Tim is kind of funny. He figured out that Dick was Robin, and Jason was the 2nd Robi , but assumed that Bruce was Batman. When he approached Bruce about becoming Robin so he would stop going down his violent Cycle, Bruce Redirected him to talk to Fright Knight, who was not taking his failure to find Jason well.

Damien grew up knowing that his Father was a Genius, and the Master of the Batman, which gave him a bit of an Ego. At first he thought of Fright Knight as a Servant, and tried to command him like he did with Alfred. Frighty corrected him quickly enough.

Any more ideas for this AU? I have so many, but I think I need to stop for now.

[vaguely-concerned]

you know it is hard to not feel for caterina a little in my worldstate. she loses sight of lucanis for a couple of months while her other grandson has her in jail for grandmother time-out, and by the time she sees him again he is in full undying devotion mode for the guy she sent to get him back. her grandson finally brought someone home, and it's a fairly low-level elven mortalitasi whose family background is 'idk we found this baby in a crypt and liked their vibes' who will not be giving her any biological grandchildren. not even one of the politically well-connected scheming mortalitasi, which could at least have been useful (nevarra is a bustling market for the crows! twenty contracts on the king alone and still going strong! still a payday baby let the good times roll!), but one of the dutybound earnest little freaks they keep down in the necropolis to wrangle skeletons and write esoteric papers and who frankly don't care that much about murder b/c death comes to us all in its own time anyway trust us on this one. lucanis looks at him like he hung the moon, the sun, every celestial object and glittering star in the sky, like he's the only real thing in the world. and in caterina vision she sees this weird little slip of a goth mage guy wearing too much kohl who cracks jokes at strange times and is so hard to read but also gives her the unmistakable flinty 'I'll try to keep this civil if you do the same. If.' eye contact over lucanis' shoulder sometimes, with the utter grave calm that only someone who's a speaker to the dead (and the dead are savage) and who has killed several gods and wouldn't back down from second deicide if necessary could bring to bear. she sucks and deserves this and more but she also does have a whole Situation on her hands here

(I love that rye's relationship to lucanis' family is basically 'I met some of the most insufferable people. but, they also met me'. he tangoed with the god of lies and betrayal so he could waltz his way through a dellamorte family dinner relatively unscathed)

[casino-lights]

it really feels like Illario sees the Crows as his job while Lucanis sees the Crows as his entire purpose. we don't get any solid look into Illario's personal life, but we can see that Lucanis seems to take the job home with him. he doesn't sleep in a normal room because it's safer to be in the pantry where it's dark and has only one choke point. he keeps a log with his entire schedule almost down to the minute and he spends hours maintaining his equipment weekly, if not daily. he doesn't have many hobbies or contacts outside the Crows themselves and the job he's on at the moment. even prior to his imprisonment, he's shown to pretty much be "on" all the time, whether he's planning his jobs, making connections to help him with those jobs, or just honing his skills, like his sensitivity to magic or his listening abilities.

meanwhile (also from the wigmaker job since veilguard didn't give us much of anything about Illario except for a mustache-twirling villain arc) we know Illario is easily distracted by the idea of a good time and thinks about things outside of work, but he also likes his contracts straightforward, without unnecessary risks and witnesses. he just wants to get the job done, celebrate, and go home. maybe not in that order. I don't tend to take datamined info as canon but according to that, he likes dueling and gambling, which he would need to be at least somewhat sociable to participate in since I doubt Thedas has invented fantasy sports betting yet. he seems to have more of an interest in activities outside the Crows, where Lucanis dedicates almost all of his free time to either working or preparing for work.

veilguard seems to be one of the first times Lucanis actually has new people to coax him out of his shell. it sounds like when he was younger, he spent more time with Illario and did more fun things with him like sailing and adventuring, but they seem to have grown apart somewhat since then. I can't help but wonder if it's due to Caterina's increasing age and the growing awareness Illario has of her favoritism toward Lucanis. maybe Illario always wanted to make a bid for the seat of First Talon and was trying to distance himself from Lucanis by spending less time with him, or maybe Lucanis was too focused on his work or away on too many jobs thanks to his new reputation as the Demon of Vyrantium. whatever the case, I can't help but wonder if the difference in their lifestyles is what cost Illario Caterina's favor. Lucanis was more willing to give up everything for the Crows, and Illario seemingly wasn't.

I wonder if Caterina would ever find it in herself to be proud of Illario, even a little bit, once she's faced with the fact that he can be cunning and ruthless and determined to lead, where Lucanis has always been content to just follow her. I wonder if she could ever admit that she played favorites and consistently underestimated and undermined Illario, or if she's too deep in her own bias to notice how like her Illario could be.

[etirabys]

my sister lets her toddler have about an hour of screen time a week. two feelings I have about this are

1) there sure does seem to be something going on with kids and screens (although my bet is that TV is fine and games are mostly fine and social media is bad), so her approach seems possibly optimal

2) the long screaming rages my niece goes into when the mickey mouse video is taken away (which my sister takes as evidence of the frightening addictiveness of screens) during a boring meal with adults and no toys looks pretty much like how I'd feel if someone took my book away during a boring meal with adults

[princessanneftw]

King Charles III and Princess Anne attending the annual Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 9 November 2024

[alexiethymia]

With the reveal that Aduo didn’t actually want to be the mother of the nation, looks like we now have a concrete path to a happy ending for Jinshi.

Though I actually really want to see him as the Emperor one day (at least for a time), it would be thematically appropriate if Jinshi takes not after the Emperor, but after Gaoshun and becomes the retainer of the future Emperor.

[bimbroad]

fighting the urge to write a s2 canon divergence fic where the hextech cosmic horror is replaced with extensive medarda family drama (+ rell + kino is alive bc idc) & everyone thinks she’s too good for whichever partner she chose and should break up and marry someone from noxus instead actually

[makorragal-312]

So, just so I'm clear...we're all in agreement that Gerrard and that bitchass councilwoman are in cahoots together, right?

[soars22]

I am going absolutely feral over Tallulah telling Phil about the situation with Forever when none of the other eggs would.

Like. She’s had so much trauma recently (and in the past) of people leaving and keeping secrets. She isn’t the same, trusting egg she was before she went missing and it shows. When she found out Phil lied to her the other day she was LIVID to the point that it ruined some of the trust she had in Phil. Not completely; he’s still her papa, still the one who stepped up when Will had to leave, but that’s still a big hit to an egg who’s had to go through too much too fast.

And even after all that-even after the one adult she could count on lied to her and betrayed her trust- she still told Phil anyway. Because he apologized and promised to never do it again and because after everything, they still trust each other implicitly.

[bisupergirl]

THE SUPERMAN FAMILY (1974) #214

in a perfect world there would've been a long b-plot in supergirl vol 2 about kara trying to reconnect with lena (or with lena trying to reconnect with linda) after not seeing her months after this. especially with the reveal at the end of this issue that lena somehow forced herself to forget the connection between kara and supergirl—so there's that deep resentment she has for supergirl for hiding the fact that lex is her brother, and then her love for kara (linda) and the years long close friendship that they've had.

kara having to contend with her guilt over keeping lex's secret and the way it's effectively destroyed her relationship with lena, while also lying to her again as linda by concealing the fact that she's actually supergirl.

also i think "damn i didn't think you'd be this dramatic about this :\" is the funniest possible reaction kara could have to lena finally finding out she's been lying to her for YEARS about her connection to lex. if i were lena i'd simply never stop trying to explode supergirl with my mind.

[whyeverr]

"Did it happen???? Can I come up now????"

[laughs] "It happened!"

"Let me see the ring! Aww! So cute."

[puppppppppy]

i feel like. theres designing a character with certain themes and motifs in mind, and then theres making a gijinka for the water bottle on my nightstand

[cinamun]

Affection | Next

[cctinsleybaxter]

Nosferatu 'fit check (night flier soundtrack for scale)

[pea-green]

LOOK at this pic of my housemate + the boy!!!!