#ALSO HIS BESERKER THING

[autumn-may]

Thought about saïx/isa again

[starry-bi-sky]

Blood Blossom Au: Baby's First Commissioner Meeting :)

TL:DR This Post: Danny (orphan) gets poisoned with blood blossom extract by Vlad. He runs away from him and ends up under the care of one Pre-Robin Battinson Batman! Starry is loudly pushing her batdad agenda.

(Also known as "Late At Night, When The Nightingale Sings" on my ao3!)

This was a fun rough idea I've been sitting on for weeks, thinking about how Commissioner Gordon and Nightingale's first meeting might go.

---------------

Commissioner Gordon likes to think that he's adjusting to the new normal of Gotham very well, -- the new normal being grown men running around dressed like bats, in military-grade strength body armor, committing acts of vigilantism, -- and slowly, little by little, he was no longer being surprised when this new normal pops up out of the shadows like the world's most terrifying daisy. His shaving lifespan thanks him for it.

....

The kid is a surprise though.

Granted, he seemed to be a surprise to the Bat too.

There's been a string of murders lately, -- which, in Gotham, is kind of like saying there's been another storm during monsoon season. And there's just been another; in some dilapidated building down in south Gotham, with the broken, boarded-up windows and mildew-crawling walls to match. The victim is a man in his thirties, multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, left in the center of the room for the blood to pool out around him.

The place is already secured when he arrives, the building swarmed with officers and the forensic detectives. The Bat emerges shortly after he does -- or, he might've been here the whole time, hiding someplace dark and shadowy. For his own sanity, Gordon doesn't think about it too hard.

The kid is a surprise, and he appears like a bolt of lightning.

He shows up in the middle of a conversation Gordon is having with the Bat.

A whistle, sharp and loud, slicing through the air, meant for open air rather than a confined space. Gordon's ears pierce and protest the sound, and the solemn, murmured chatter floating through the room abruptly cuts off like the swing of a gavel. As he turns towards the sound -- as they all do -- he swears, up and down, that he sees Batman's shoulders jump, just slightly.

At the source, perched on the window, is a boy. A boy in a gray-blue scarf and an oversized black hoodie, one that hangs off his frame and has ace bandages wrapped around the wrists in some attempt to cinch the sleeves. The hood is up, big like the rest of it, and threatens to swallow the upper half of the boy's face whole in the fabric. What upper half Gordon can see, is smeared with some kind of opaque, black face paint. He's holding onto the side of the frame with one hand, on his hip is a grappling hook. A familiar grappling hook.

Gordon has multiple questions, and his officers tense up.

Martinez puffs up, brows furrowing as his face shapes into a frown. Shoulders rolling back. "You can't be here, kid--"

The reaction is immediate, like a spark to gunpowder, the boy yanks his fingers from his mouth and his mouth twists into a scowl. Head snapping over to Officer Martinez, his hood manages to stay on but Gordon swears that as he bares his teeth, the glint makes them look sharper than they should be. His voice is rasp and quiet and harsh; snappish in its hissing; "Put a fuckin sock in it, Martinez. I'm not stayin."

Martinez reels back, and the boy immediately veers his attention off him. Like a switch, his demeanor drops. Despite half his face being covered, his mouth twists into a cringing, apologetic smile. Slanted and off-beat, embarrassed. It'd be disarming if this wasn't Gotham, and if he didn't just hiss at Martinez like he was about to bite his head off.

"Sorry." He whispers, voice deceptively polite and softer now. Gordon has to strain his ears to hear him. "I was looking for him."

He points his finger towards-- Gordon? No, Gordon follows the direction, and finds himself looking at -- the Bat.

The Bat, who always looks stiff as a pole, now looks even stiffer. Somehow. Well, the explains the grappling hook attached to the boy's waist.

"What are you doing here?" The Bat says, gruff and unable to completely smother the stumble of surprise in his tone.

The boy still holds a sheepish smile, and slips off the window ledge. His feet hit the creaky boards with a near-silent thud, the Batman finds his feet and rapidly begins crossing the room.

Gordon notes the slight tremble in the boy's legs as he straightens. He adjusts his scarf, which droops close to his knees now that he's standing, and slings a backpack -- how long has had that? -- off his shoulders. When the Bat reaches his side, he does as he always does, and looms over the boy like a spectre. A threatening mass of shadows cloaked in all-consuming black. Standing next to him, the boy looks teeny in comparison.

The Bat is a man who terrifies even the most hardened criminals, Gordon has seen grown men shiver in fear at the mention of his name. And yet when the boy looks up at him, he doesn't even flinch.

Instead, his sheepish smile melts away like ice under the sun, holding only traces of his previous embarrassment. It remains as a shadow on his face, a small upturn at the corners of his mouth. The boy pushes his hood back just enough to reveal glinting, ice-flint eyes surrounded in tar-black face paint. He holds the backpack up with one arm. "You forgot this."

[seaslimes]

Recently saw this film with my partner & thinking about it pretty consistently. Definitely not a film for everyone but, if you like campy Faustian Bargain stuff that inspired the BESERK ECLIPSE HELM, check out Phantom of the Paradise.

Also the incredibly talented Paul Williams, as in a major composer for the Muppets, basically plays himself as an evil devil-may-care super celebrity recluse. What's not to love?

[the-faultofdaedalus]

watching avengers assemble (specifically that episode where steve has to bodyguard victor) and like

its a little weird for thor to be criticizing victor and his country right. like sir. you are the heir to a non-democracy surveillance state. odin has (implied) almost complete control over asguard as a country. heimdall can see fucking anything and any one at any time. and in EVERY situation where that isn't the case, it is always presented as a Bad Thing, and not a... vaguely horrific lack of privacy.

like,,, thor buddy i dont think you have a leg to stand on here

[csyched]

YES and i think it’s too cute how the serious Guy of the group gets the silliest looking demon … especially with the movements. vayu’s evade move is a little spin + hop, the crit move in DDS2 is literally this:

and then there’s the wiggling and the head swaying when affected by an ailment. OH and the level up spin also in DDS2. (both the crit and level up animations were changed from the first game just to be more over the top lol) can this guy get any sillier ??? i love you vayu

can you imagine being some military guard with a gun fearing for your life because you’re about to get eaten whole by a demon and the demon literally looks like this

[lukasdoodles]

Wanted to talk abt some of my Jesse headcanons bc they r creatures to me (General hcs bc they have slightly different stuff depending on the Jesse)

All the Jesse's play different routes to me, with slightly different choices and experiences. But they're all a little aware that their actions are not their own, some more so than others. Green suspenders/red hair clip are the most in tune with that awareness, so they're a lil more messed up/unhinged than the rest. (Plus they've done multiple playthroughs to me, and while no one remembers the playthroughs they DO have an odd sense of deja-vu) and all the jesse's r he/they/she with no particular preference

Green suspenders Jesse (my fav and the one ill prolly talk abt the most lol) has a LOT of scars but hides them under his clothes. The only one he cant hide is the one across his nose, that he got from Aiden during sky city, but he breaks Aiden's nose in return so its all good :3 Other scars come from various random enemies/mobs, but most of them come from failed quicktime events or the witherstorm. ill prolly doodle it out sometime :)

Some of the Jesse's have tattoos! Navy/purple suspenders Jesse has a red witherstorm tattooed on their back, Pink suspenders has misc sleeves and a love for rhinestone/gem-like art, Yellow hair clip has black flowers on her shoulder/back, and Blue hair clip has white doves on her wrists (matching with Petra, who has black crows :3)

After the events of season two, Jesse becomes a bit of a shut in. They still hang out with friends and make public appearances for Beacon town, but the admin left them with a bad reputation, and many people are still mad at Jesse for things they never did. Jesse prefers to stay inside and work on paperwork, have Radar make the public appearances and all that. Lukas is the one who shows up to pull Jesse away and make them rest most of the time, with Jack and Nurm showing up as well as Ivor and Harper visiting every now and then to make Jesse rest.

Jesse doesn't forgive any of their enemies that easily. He gets along with Ivor slowly, building trust and finally *really* trusting him only in episode seven. They start to trust Lukas more in episode four. Aiden isn't forgiven easily, Jesse more-so puts up with him bc Aiden is trying to better himself on his own accord, and Olivia is giving him a chance to change (Aiden comes back to the homeworld and becomes Olivia's apprentice on accident and also they r in love) But its easier for Jesse to forgive Maya and Gill bc they were just loyal to a fault, and are trying to be better people after it all (Plus Jesse grows a soft spot for Maya when he sees the way Radar looks at her [they r also in love]). Jesse has mixed feelings for Cassie Rose, understanding the sentiment and wanting to go home, but despising her for murdering innocent people/trying to kill their friends. Cassie sends Jesse threats every now and then, Jesse almost wishes they could reach out and help Cassie somehow, but at the same time they wouldn't care if Cassie had died in that pit oh so long ago. Jesse used to have mixed feelings about Harper, but Harper risked everything and wasn't REALLY meaning for Pama to go beserk the way it did. Jesse forgives her easily, but is hesitant when she reveals Pama V2 lol. Hadrian and Mevia aren't forgiven. Simple as that lol Jesse hates them. Stella was a rival, but not really an enemy, more so just an annoyance. Jesse doesn't hate her, she does some bad things but comes thru in the end to help. Jesse would've taken her in as a second secretary had she not gone out to work first-hand and help salvage Champion City/help rebuild for the few survivors. He still appoints her as an ambassador and welcomes the survivors to beacontown while they rebuild. Romeo doesn't get forgiveness, most Jesse's will try and leave him to die but those that save him will make him work for redemption, borderline bullying Romeo to be better.

Jesse is a silly lil guy, no matter what :3

[daddiel-ish]

you know, when you mentioned that Barto ships Luffy and Fem Law, I can't help but imagining Barto's hobby is writing and publish LAwlu fanfictions. And Law going beserker and going to hunt down a certain fanboy. XD

Ahahahah poor Barto tho!!!

I think Barto's fics would be pretty popular, like he is the 1#Luffy's fangirl, so his works have to be pretty good ... or at least very passionate

Maybe Law heard someone talk about these stories of her and Luffy doing reckless things, doing IT in some weird places (not that she denied to have done that, but wtf) or doing the most romantic thing that surely never happened (she heard someone talking about romantic stories set in Dressrosa). Maybe... she also read one, and THAT one made her snap, and yes, why not? She started to hunt Barto down without telling anyone why she was doing that, claiming that "everything will be clear once Kikoku would have reduced Barto to a talking head and nothing more"

(Imagine if this thing blows up and people start to write stories about the surgeon of death and the king of the pirates...what a timeline would it be)

[purplestars222]

Hazbin hotel headcannons!!!!

just general stuff i think the characters do!!

(radiodust, staticmoth, vees are poly, chaggie, pentniss, little bit of radioapple if you squint, also one sided huskerdust/angeldusk)

characters: Alastor, angeldust, lucifer, charlie, vaggie, husk, sir pentious, arackniss, baxter, niftyz cherri bomb, the vees.

cw: nsfw!!! valentino

Minors do not interact.

definitely vapes. since he has to stay sober, i think he would vape to take the edge off a bit :)

Angeldust

in an attempt to get alastor to actually like him, he lays off the flirting a little, and cooks for him from time to time, he mainly just makes different pastas

He teaches alastor italian, and alastor teaches him french

Hates arackniss most of the time, but loves teasing him about being a bottom with pentious (hes a switch)

Alastor

he cooks for others to show he cares

i dont think he'd be a fan of imps ir hellhounds, idk why i just get that feeling

HE IS STINKY.

hes curious about arackniss because hes the opposite of angel, so they have drinks together sometimes- alastor always asks questions about angels past

he doesn't believe that he likes angel at first, but angel starts letting his walls down, and alastor realises hes actually an interesting individual!

Charlie

she just wants her dads to get along!

she puts together trust exercises specifically for alastor and lucifer to get closer but it drives them apart

She loves taking care of vaggie, it makes her feel useful. Whenever vaggie isnt feeling well, she only lets her leave bed when necessary. She gets everything she needs.

Lucifer

hes a switch but prefers to bottom, lillith 100% pegs him.

Cooks breakfast at the hotel on weekends for the main guys- alastor started helping too out of spite, trying to make his food taste better.

Always does things to prove hes better than alastor, hes mainly just trying to get als attention but he pays him no mind.

Vaggie

If anyone looks at charlie the wrong way or touches her without consent she goes fucking beserk. If she ever finds out about what valentino did, she'll kill him herself.

Husk

has a pretty close relationship with lucifer! they play board games together and lucifer sometimes vents to her

they shit talk alastor together

vaggie vents to him aswell

him and angel watch movies together sometimes and cuddle! alastor does not approve, but him and angel arent together so he cant really do anything, because it makes angel happy.

Sir pentious

He loves angels chest fluff and sometimes purrs into it when they're cuddling. angel teases him for it, but in a cute way

he practises magic tricks with angel when they're having a movie night.

him and angel sometimes fuck, for angel is just sex with a close friend but husk really likes him, husk just knows alastor likes angel too and he does NOT wanna fuck with alastor.

when angel and alastor get together he hides away in his room for a few days, he only tells charlie what happened

Autistic. Most autistic guy in the show (until we get baxter at least)

Doesn't understand why niss doesn't say hes only half a bottom when angel teases him about it

when angel asks about his sex life with niss (as a joke) his whole face turns red and he screams "Itss none of your businessss!!" and slithers off as fast as he can, angel thinks its fucking hilarious to get him flustered

Nifty

Proudest dad of his egg bois, he sometimes makes little outfits for them and they out on mini plays for him and arackniss about very random stuff, they can never tell if the plays are based on true events or not.

he has a giant heat lamp in his room, he lays under it and reads

She plays with dead bugs, her favourite thing is playing with corpses of dead bugs in front of other bugs

She has a pink bed and her room is always spotless

she loves alastors cooking, she refuses to eat lucifers food if alastor has cooked something too

straight, during pride she puts an excessive amount of pride flags everywhere, every different type too, the hotel is covered in them.

Arackniss

him and angel tease each other alot. arackniss mainly teases him for being in love with a red deer.

he confesses first to pentious, and pentious is a flustered mess.

hes overprotective with the egg bois, he kinda freaks if one is missing

smokes in the hotel lobby even tho charlie hates it, vaggie yells at him all the time for it

he always needs pentious' tail wrapped around at least one of his legs to sleep, the contact gives him comfort

he loves tying pentious up during sex

Cherri bomb

Baxter

autism!!!!

if you touch anything in his lab he will have a meltdown- everything has its own perfect place and it cannot be adjusted.

he accidentally blows up his lab alot, it causes alot of hotel damage

he uses his little light to read at night

definitely believes in some crazy ass conspiracy theories

only at the hotel to research the whole redemption thing.

he loves leviathan

tells people to eat spoonfuls of vegemite as a prank, when alastor enjoys it she doesn't find it funny anymore and stops

Vox

when people piss her off she speaks with a real hardcore aussie accent and uses alot of slang, also talks fast.

she is aboriginal :3

she secretly watches bluey with angeldust

she absolutely loves making people try australian snacks like fairy bread, jaffas, pavlova, sausage sangas, smiths chips on a sandwich ect

pentious and her are besties!

(i love my aussie girl <3 none of you are allowed to disagree with me because these are my headcannons)

glitches when hes about to cum

Velvette

gets overheated during sex sometimes so he has to stop to cool down

his penis is robotic and it can pop off and back on. he has a bunch of different ones he can use, val can choose what one he uses.

listens to musicals and sometimes performs them with val, specifically heathers

hes really jealous of angeldust, he wants val's attention as much as he can possibly get it

Vel & val play video games on vox's screen sometimes. Velvette always beats him at whatever theyre playing cos that fucker is blind

Valentino

Prefers having sex with women, only man she really ever fucks is vox, most the time she just fucks her models.

practices makeup on valentino, also constantly makes fun of him for being blind & bald

she does drag with valentino and they out on little fashion shows for vox

He can only see 3 metres in front of him

Vox and vel have to help him with paperwork

Vox gets mad at him because of how many cords he has lying around

has the most insane sex toy collection, he has everything.

he vents to vox's sharks sometimes. he knows vox can hear him but he just pretends he doesnt know

ty for taking the time to read!!! drink water and eat today darling!!! <33

[dreamii-krybaby]

Ok i haven’t rlly spoken about EP7 bc I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY that my brain can’t put it into words, like bro I gotta process words…wordssss man, and organize them in an understandable human language

But I will say this with not to much elaboration

SPOILERS FOR EP7

Warning: This is so fucking long holy shit this was originally going to be super short but my ADHD went beserk holy shit-

So it seems that Yeva is the only drone who successfully has had the “Patch” aka cure work on her in some way (Patch version 2.1.8 according to the files shown in EP7)

perhaps isn’t a one off cure and constantly needs updates bc the solver somehow is able to by pass the previous patches

or it’s simply the only version that has successfully worked and the rest hasn’t, because all of the other test subjects has gotten no effect or got their cores corrupted

and in Nori’s case, it was on progress

But the patch doesn’t seem to get rid of the solver immediately, either it needs constant updates for it to slowly kill it or it keeps it at bay but doesn’t necessarily gets rid of it, maybe it prevents possession or lower it’s chances drastically

Now this is very interesting, it makes much more sense why the first thing they did when Nori got possessed by the solver and shit started to go south they wanted to get Yeva, she is the only one who has somewhat of a success on the patch project.

Or maybe they wanted to bring her so she could calm her bestie down or put her in place lol.

As to why Mitchell left her outside of the cathedral, I think is because he didn’t trust her and feared her, due to her off-standing cold behavior. Like the way she looks at him, how she didn’t want mitchell to hold her hand and sort of slapped his hand away, and well him just witnessing the horrors of possessed nori. And when he saw the sentinels had broken free, he may have used the opportunity for them to kill her off by locking her outside

The other reason as to why Mitchell left yeva is bc he simply well- lost her. Maybe when he looked back at the sentinels had broken free he lost sight of her and assumed they might have gone after her

And it may reinforce my idea that she purposely went outside with her husband to find the cross usb with the patch, she already had plethora of motives imo but her main one would be to find this patch and give it to her daughter.

And with yeva having the patch which may given her more control over her body may explain how Doll also has more control over her body, since she inherited Yeva’s patched version of the AS

or maybe that didn’t happen bc that contradicts with my idea that she was after the patch for her kid due to weird genetic shit, unless the AS somehow bypassed the patch or some shit idk

Also her death makes much more sense, in a previous post I analyzed the flashback scene in EP3 and came to the conclusion Yeva died first, then her husband. Knowing that she was willing to put herself in danger for Nori moments before the core collapse.

LIKE I DONT HAVE A VIDEO BUT IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY AT THE EPISODE YEVA IMMEDIATELY PUSHES NORI BEHIND HER AND PUTS HERSELF IN THE FRONT TO PROTECT HER AS SOON AS THE CORE IS MOMENTS FROM COLLAPSING

She is definitely seems protective of the people she cares, and she is willing to endanger herself for them. Which may explain why she died so easily to V.

Perhaps she thought that by sacrificing herself her husband and kid had a higher chance at survival.

AND IT WORKED, sure, her husband died right after her leaving her kid with no guardian and Doll did die in the long run but in that moment Doll DID survive.

Which actually, if she indeed sacrificed herself for her family makes it…so much sadder, like it worked….but not quite….and failed in the end, her sacrifice was worthless in the long run. :(

GODDDD I LOVE HER CHARACTER SO MUCH :(

SHE GENUINELY SEEMED SO NICE AND CARING AND PROTECTIVE OF THOSE SHE CARED ABOUT AND IS CLEARLY WILLING TO ENDANGER HERSELF AND SACRIFICE HERSELF FOR THOSE SHE HOLDS DEAR I CANT-

IT MAKES HER DEATH SO MUCH MORE SADDER TO ME GOD-

LIKE I LOVE CHARACTER WHO ARE COLD AND STAND-OFFISH BUT DO A 180° WITH THEIR LOVED ONES AND ARE ACTUALLY VERY SWEET AND KIND AHHHHHHHHHHH

Ok enough of me going bonkers over dead mom who haunts narrative, my other explanation as to why she died to V so easily, contrasting her absolute girlboss of an introduction in EP7

First of all, V is a disassembly drone, a new unknown mysterious species to Yeva. And DD’s have the AS and Yeva may have tried to use her AS against V which didn’t work wich may have caught her off guard. There can also be the factors she might have been not in the right mental and emotional headspace, we don’t know how much time happened between the core collapse and her last moments, a lot of shit could have happened that may have taken a toll on her, affecting her combat abilities.

Also am pretty sure your brain will go bonkers when a literal angel of death tries to kill you, your husband and your child.

Also let’s not forget that she MAYBE thought that she did deserved to give up her life for Doll not only to give a better chance of survival but because like Nori, she blames herself for making Doll start living a horryfing situation. It was HER genetics who passed down the AS to her OWN CHILD, she may have not known better but I cannot imagine the amount of guilt that must have caused her. She KNOWS what the AS is capable of and she just accidentally passed it down to someone young and innocent who is also her own kid.

LIKE HOW AM I STILL SEEING MORE LAYERS OF YEVA JUST BEING ABSOLUTELY TRAGIC

God she deserves so much better. :(

Well tbh a lot of these things am mentioning is me trying to figure out how the hell Yeva saved Nori from the solver while serving cunt only to wind up dying to V with a simple bullet to the head. Am I on copium?

Tbh I understand more on why Doll was so hellbent on revenge, I too would kill to avenge Yeva (YEVA MY GOD I LOVE HER SO MUCH MY BABYGIRL YOU DESERVED SO MUCH BETTER-)

Also yeah I could make a whole essay on Doll’s death, I fully expected her death but I feel the way they executed it didn’t do her justice at all.

Even if I find her super frustrating I like to think she is in robo-heaven with Yeva now, hopefully with her dad too.

Anyways I have more to say but I think I’ll leave it for other posts

[jazzmckay]

'Killing's what swords are for': an Oghren analysis

companion piece to my other meta, 'I am your Paragon': a Branka analysis"

upon walking into the orzammar commons, you encounter an argument between two groups of dwarves that turns into a fight, resulting in one being killed. this is your first introduction to the political situation in orzammar, to bhelen and harrowmont, and to dwarven culture itself. the captain of the guard laments that the warden--an outsider--happened to arrive in time to see this, as it makes the dwarves look violent and disorderly. he seems to disapprove of the fight being witnessed by an outsider more than he disapproves of the fight happening at all.

behind him, a grand bridge stretches across the city, a bigger and more eye-catching landmark than anything else around it, even the doors that lead to the diamond quarter, which houses the shaperate and the royal palace. this bridge leads to the provings, where dwarves pit themselves against each other, sometimes to resolve grievances, sometimes just to fight for fighting's sake.

the dwarves are fighters. with the constant threat of darkspawn pushing at the borders of what's left of their empire, they have to be.

orzammar is also thoroughly structured. the caste system defines who a person is--who they must be. everyone has a role, given to them by birth. there are rules, and the dwarves follow them strictly. duty is the most important thing, and the cost of rebelling is steep. if an individual should step out of these rigid boundaries, the only recourse is an honourable death by joining the legion of the dead. otherwise, the casteless are left in the destitute dust town, or they go to the surface; both options involve that dwarf being removed from their people's records, no longer a recognized member of their society.

between this strictly regimented system and the value placed on their warriors and defenders, dwarven society exists on the razor's edge between violence and order. in some ways, it's a blend of the two. in other ways, the impossible dichotomy can ruin a person who only ever sought to be what orzammar needed them to be.

oghren is a member of the warrior caste, and he is also a beserker. his purpose in life is to be a fighter, a defender, a protector. the warrior caste is the sword and shield of orzammar. without them, darkspawn would likely overwhelm the legion of the dead and then lay siege to the city, and so they are trained--and expected--to be as fearsome of a warrior as they can be.

as a warrior, oghren was successful, and gained respect and renown. being an exemplary member of the warrior caste, he was chosen to marry branka, who was an exemplary member of the smith class. oghren was already interested in felsi, but he did his duty to his people and gave her up to marry branka. they were both recognized for their accomplishments and upheld as role models, all the way to branka eventually being named a paragon, a living ancestor, akin to a god.

and then branka disappeared.

and orzammar gave up on her.

anyone you talk to about branka will tell you what a genius she was, about the invention of hers that earned her paragon status. they'll also tell you that she's been gone in the deep roads for so long that there's no way she's still alive. people have accepted that she's gone, and it's a waste to send search parties out after her, as they'll just lose more people in the process.

oghren can't let this go. branka is his wife, and it's easy to see how much she means to him--even though their relationship was rocky--in how he talks about her accomplishments, her cunning, her tenacity. to him, it's a disrespect for orzammar to give up on her and assume her dead. he's convinced she's still alive out there, and the lack of belief from others, the lack of action, is maddening for him.

oghren describes being a berserker as "mad rage". he says:

Oghren: The hard part is getting in touch with your rage. We all learn to hold that back. It's why we don't kill every duster who looks at us sideways. You need to shut that off.

being a beserker on behalf of orzammar means unleashing that mad rage in defense of the city, and when orzammar abandons oghren's wife, their paragon, he is understandably livid. this leads to him demanding action, and killing a lord's son who doubted branka was still alive, in a duel that was meant to only be to first blood. the warden first encounters oghren when he's arguing with loilinar ivo about the lack of support for branka, and he'll explain the situation oghren is now in, two years after branka's disappearance and as a result of him killing that lord's son:

Loilinar: It was a huge scandal. Oghren should've been executed, but he'd won honours in the Deep Roads. Instead, they stripped him of all weapons, and forbid him from engaging in fights within city limits. If he breaks the decree, he'll be exiled.

loilinar also aptly refers to oghren as "practically gelded". oghren is a warrior, and a berseker, who served orzammar well enough to gain honours and be part of an arranged match. his rage has been a tool for orzammar's protection. he played his role perfectly, up until orzammar abandoned branka. he gave everything to orzammar, and only lost everything in return. he may not have been exiled immediately, he may still be oghren of house branka, but house branka no longer exists in the eyes of most. the entire house, oghren excluded, disappeared, and is presumed dead. oghren is still allowed in orzammar but he isn't allowed to carry weapons, he no longer has his family, he no longer has his people's respect. the only thing that's left to him now is drinking away his sorrows and trying, again and again, to convince someone, anyone, that it's worth sending a group after branka.

when you first get to speak with oghren, he's drunk, angry, and distrusting. he calls you out for doing dirty work for one of the potential kings. he doesn't believe you genuinely want to help him find branka out of the good of your heart. and what reason does he have to think otherwise? no one else is willing to help him, especially not without ulterior motives. the warden is just a stranger, or worse, a lackey for the kinds of people who have disrespected branka and ignored his pleas. his rage has been simmering without an outlet for two years. his city has given up on him as much as it gave up on branka. the oghren you meet is a shadow of his former self, beaten down, practically a nobody.

oghren was orzammar's sword. killing is what he is for. all he ever tried to do was be what orzammar needed him to be, to fit in that strict caste system, but how could he, when he was taught to give into a wild, mad rage, within a society built on rules and order?

oghren himself says it best later on, when you ask him about the warrior caste:

Oghren: You get a sword or an axe and are told to go out and defend your city. It's the best thing in the world, that is until you try to live in the city you saved. I mean, they train you to kill, teach you to harness your rage at the first noise you hear, then try to set a hundred sodding rules about it. Like those Provings. Ancestors show their favor through the strongest arm, right? So why so many rules saying how to fight and when you win, and not to bloody kill? Killing's what swords are for! You toss a nug to a deep stalker, you don't expect it not to eat the thing, right?

while branka is lost and doomed in her drive to live up to orzammar's standards, oghren still has a chance for escape. after completing paragon of her kind, oghren leaves orzammar without any hesitation. becoming a surfacer is exile, it is to be casteless, and many dwarves are wary of what lies beyond their city, with that vast open sky above. but oghren doesn't hesitate, and he's hardly fazed. later, he expresses that he doesn't miss orzammar:

Oghren: What? Miss Orzammar? Are you mad, in addition to being ugly? They treated me like a puddle-fly back there. I'm never going back.

and that he prefers the broader, less strict world of the surface:

Oghren: No one has any idea who you are. Or what you're doing.

in essence, he's free. he has a blank slate. he isn't a member of the warrior class, he isn't the husband of a paragon, he isn't oghren of house branka. he is a companion to the warden, and will fight against the blight, but these are connections he chose and willingly aligned with. when all this is said and done, he can do anything he wants with his life.

oghren's personal mission isn't just about hooking him up with an old flame. it's about helping him get what he truly wants, if felsi will have him back, and a second chance at a life that will make him genuinely happy. in the awakening dlc, his personal mission then is about balancing the person orzammar made him into with having a family. everything that happened in orzammar has left a mark on him; settling down completely may never be possible for him. he feels like killing is all he's good at, and now he has joined the wardens as well, but with the right encouragement, he can embrace fatherhood.

it may not be the most picture-perfect ending, but it works. oghren has gotten to make choices for himself, and the grey wardens provide him an outlet, give him the chance to still fight orzammar's main enemy on his own terms, and to fight along comrades who are all equal, who see him as a brother-in-arms without any politics, expectations, or additional obligations in play.

in the oghren the family man quest, when encouraged to stay in touch with his family, oghren says:

Oghren: And hey, (chuckles) the little one will grow up thinking Daddy's a great hero.

and maybe that is all oghren needs to be happy, in the end, after giving all of himself to every fight he has faced: to be seen as a hero.

[yuri-is-online]

Yo I just found your old dnd yuurollfellgrimgiddle post and here's how I imagine the dynamics:

Rollo and Yuu are in the "will they won't they" stage where they're clearly in love but something is holding them back and giddle is trying so hard to get them together. Fellow is also trying because he want giddle to be happy but honestly he just finds this whole thing funny if not slightly inconvenient.

Here's the thing though: they're already together. Rollo is just super private with his relationships and Yuu just thinks that everyone already knows about their relationship status and just thinks giddle is trying to get them some alone time to go on a date or something like a good little partner in crime.

Fellow has somehow been roped into the strangest qpr with rollyuu you've ever seen. You would swear he hates being in this party from the way he acts around his partner's but then you see Rollo and yuu sitting on a couch holding hands and fellows just. On Yuus lap. Just counting his madol and squinting at it like it will someone be more if he counts it again. He is the pathetic skrunkly straight man to Rollo and yuus comedy act and he's also secretly an entire circus right along with them.

Grim swears he's the boss. Apparently they are under poor management because the boss is easily swayed by tuna.

Giddle is the menace child and the actual boss because he's the only one everyone actually listens to. He knows this very well.

S.LKEUJBG;KDUTBHG the magic pipe... I Barbarian Yuu can have the ability to make anything a weapon just like Lancelot Beserker.

RolloYuu being already together but not mentioning it is cute but not exactly what I had in mind? Rollo is a Law Domain Cleric, and he worships Erathis the goddess of civilization, she isn't the biggest fan of barbarians who tend to live in the wilds as nomads. Rollo's attraction to and desire for Yuu is something he feels great shame for, but he finds their rage towards those who hurt the party to be holy and purifying. His goddess values community and the desire to protect it, does that not make Yuu pure? Are they not the very image of holiness when they're covered in filth and blood, voice cracked with their screams as they reach to check him over as if he isn't the healer and armored with more than some scrappy cloth. And don't even get him started on Fellow, he's little more than a common thief and huckster but there's a gentleness to the way he cares for Gidel and now Grim. He'd be a genuinely good father, and is a strong family unit, found or otherwise no matter how it looks, not also sacred to Erathis?

Fellow doesn't so much find this inconvenient as he does sad. He and Yuu are both very worried about Rollo, Yuu always has been but the longer Fellow stays with this party he "hates" the more he's able to pick up on the little things troubling his "friends." Fellow and Yuu have long talks about how best to help Rollo, what they'd like to do if they ever make it big (Fellow does the accounting, he's got a little cottage picked out that he wants to move Gidel before it's too late for him to actually go to school), and debating over strategy for the next job they agreed to take on. He doesn't fully realize when that little house he keeps thinking about has Rollo, Yuu, and Grim in it too but he sort of just rolls with it and doesn't fully think to complain about it. I'm not the biggest fan of poly stuff so I'm not the greatest with thinking about dynamics??? But in my mind they all sort of dance around each other until Rollo accepts his feelings and brings them all together. It's not a super noticeable difference to outsiders, but Gidel and Grim both see that you are more relaxed and less tense now. They immediately start playing you guys off each other when trying to get what they want.

Gidel and Grim have a secret alliance. Grim thinks he's the boss. Gidel knows that he's the boss. No critiques there.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

Catradora fan here but I wanted to ask if you think it would've ever been possible for catradora to be done well by the show? It's obviously not a perfect ship but I wanted to know if you thought it had any potential at any point as a viable ship or not? /genq

first off, props to you for being respectful and open to different opinions! it's the bare minimum but not a lot of c//a shippers do that, so i really appreciate it.

secondly, yes. i think the ship did have some potential and there were definitely ways to make it less toxic (and not incestuous) so let me just go through a few things i would change if i were to rewrite this ship:

1. catra and adora would not be raised by the same parent or portrayed with a sibling dynamic. instead they're just close friends, and shadow weaver would be either catra's or adora's adoptive parent. i personally think it would be interesting if shadow weaver was catra's adoptive mother, and hordak was adora's father figure.

going on a tangent here, there's a bunch of reasons why this would be a good choice. one, apparently in the 80s she-ra, hordak was like a father figure to adora, since he's the one who found her and brought her to the horde. the latter is also the case in the reboot so they really could have given us an interesting father-daughter dynamic with these characters.

two, it would create an actual connection between hordak and adora. in the show, we barely see them interact at all, despite them being enemies. it was always adora vs catra, and not adora vs the horde (and hordak). hordak doesn't even have to be abusive or toxic towards adora, in fact, it would help a lot with his redemption if he was actually a decent parent. teaching adora wrong morals, of course, but ultimately caring about her. it would also increase the emotional impact when adora leaves the horde, because she would be cutting ties with a person who genuinely loved her, despite being an evil warlord.

2. catra would show some restraint when fighting adora. the thing that most stuck out to me in spop was how remorseless catra was when fighting adora. it's not even that she's fighting to win or because she had to, she just liked seeing adora in pain. there's no coming back from that.

so i would write catra to be a little more compassionate and not hurt adora more than necessary. i would also add in parts where she's shown to care about adora, despite being on opposite sides. catra wouldn't brainwash adora and revel in seeing her go beserk, or try to gaslight her into staying, and for most part, she would try to avoid a fight with adora.

this would help the story stay true to the “i always loved you” dialogue, because it shows that catra cares about adora deeply, instead of telling us. what spop did was show us catra hurting adora over and over again with zero guilt or remorse, and then have other characters talk about how much catra loves adora or how perfect their chemistry is. not convincing in the slightest.

3. catra's redemption is more detailed and starts earlier, preferably in s4, after the portal incident and angella's death. this goes without saying because her redemption was the worst part of c//a. instead of having her do one good thing and slapping the good guy label onto her, i would show her actually facing consequences of her actions and trying to do better.

the characters wouldn't just gloss over catra's actions but would instead hold her accountable. and she would actually work on her toxicity instead of just saying “sorry i got angry, i'm working on it” and then proceeding to not work on it. i would only get them together after catra is at least 90% redeemed and in a healthier mindset to be in a relationship.

4. adora's arc would get more focus and a satisfying conclusion. in s5, adora's search for her origin and identity is abandoned in favor of c//a. this is so disappointing and just shows that the writers could not give two fucks about adora, the main character. so yeah, while c//a would still get its moments, i would not sacrifice adora's development or arc for it.

5. c//a would not be the “heart and soul” of the show. one of the many things i hated about s5 was how everything revolved around c//a.

glimmer and bow were reduced to the wingmen and paired spares, none of the other characters mattered, angella was completely forgotten, hordak didn't get enough screentime, and horde prime was a weak and badly written villain. all of this was because the creators focused too much on c//a (and even then, failed to make it romantic or appealing). so yeah, while i would still write c//a as a canon ship, i wouldn't sacrifice everything else just for this ship.

thank you for your ask, this is something i've wanted to talk about for a while now!

[schellis]

HFR has solidified its place in my brain so you know what that means! New AU variant of my persona/oc and this time she gets a full ref sheet :] (and also trying to replicate the HFR talksprite style)

Thyme! Sent from a rival tech company to investigate rumors of the development of a controlling AI, she follows Chai and the group from a distance until getting caught by Kale and Korsica at the end of the R&D arc. With Chai making more progress than expected, she manages to strike a deal with the CEO, overlooking the trespassing in exchange for her assistance with dealing with The Defect. After the events of the game, the deal gets shifted to Roxanne, where Thyme's side of the contract changes to temporarily work as a bodyguard for the Vandelays as the company works to bring things back to normal.

Plot & Post-game involvement under the read-more, but also I made a ToyHouse page with some more info all in one place.

STORY/PLOT INVOLVEMENT, During game & post-game Due to my worldbuild of Universe Alpha fitting pretty well into the world of Hi-Fi Rush, I've brought a bit of her backstory from her original universe into this one. Brief explanations will be present in the "Background" tab, so that's what mentions of "Zenith" refer to.

PLOT/STORY INVOLVEMENT: Thyme is technically introduced into the story towards the end of Track 4 as the gang gets into Zanzo's office to get information on SPECTRA (Technically Chai and the group don't know about her until Track 12, when she Actually shows up). She's originally sent to Vandelay Island during the Project Armstrong festival to blend in with the new recruits and figure out what SPECTRA is and if it could affect Zenith's cybernetics. Purely information gathering, no direct involvement.

That is, if things went to plan. After deciding to secretly follow Chai and the others through R&D as they had a better idea of where to go, she gets caught by Kale and Korsica right before they enter Zanzo's office, during the second-to-last cutscene in Track 4.

After being interrogated by the two bosses, she willingly gives the general notes of why she was sent here by Zenith and offers a deal, given that they're dealing with a bit of a Defect problem. In exchange for her assistance- especially with her knowledge and skill around fighting and getting people to disappear quietly- Vandelay would overlook the trespassing transgression. After a bit of time being stuck in the security cell, the Deal is made after Chai successfully gets through the Security Department and Korsica gets Fired.

She shows up in the plot proper either during Track 11 or 12. Two options occur, where I'm leaning towards the second.

OPTION 2: [ADDITION TO KALE'S FIGHT] - As Kale calls for the platform to rise, she enters the stage and jumps on, basically making the fight a 2v1 in some respect. This would make the fight harder in its entirety, but there is a noticable dissonance between the two. I think friendly fire would be really funny (speedrun strat. get the two of them constantly getting in each others way) - When Kale summons lightning to enter the Beserk/Overcharged state, she gets hit and is flung to the side of the arena and is out of the fight early. Back to a 1v1 like the actual game. - Hey that lightning actually did a lil something. She's in her Overcharged state now, and once the platform hits the bottom of the tower again, right before Chai calls upon the other three to join the fight in the final set of QTE's, she crashes to the bottom, ready for a last stand, trying to both defeat Chai and divert attention from Kale. You don't actually fight her fully in the Phase 3 / Overcharged state during this portion, where her main actions are to block any attacks aimed at Kale and direct Chai towards the opposite side of the arena, away from the SPECTRA terminal. - Doesn't quite work out in the end considering Chai is fated to win, but both bosses are defeated after the final QTE's. Yay yippie!

Thyme can't be fully fought within main game, but Chai can fight her through all three phases as an extra stage in the "Power Up, Tower Up" arcade mode challenge, where she is an unlockable optional Stage 26 after going through a post-game cutscene where she's formally introduced to the rest of the group during a meeting in Roxanne's office.

POST GAME After her deal with Kale fell through with his defeat and the shutdown of SPECTRA, she created a new deal/contract with Roxanne- with the involvement of Oliver Faulkner (CEO of Zenith)- to provide her services to the Vandelays as a replacement to her part of the original contract, becoming a contractor from the Erinyes Division of Zenith. With Kale out of a position of power, he can't fulfill his end of the deal, and while Thyme could continue her end, the deal is considered void. However, she still needs to avoid her mistakes causing a bad relationship between two tech giants. Thus, the new deal works out for both parties, as well as creating a more positive relationship between the two companies. That's always pretty good.

> [Also working with the idea that none of the Vandelay bosses die after being defeated, just put in the hospital or something. I like them enough to not want them to die and I didn't see any blood or dead bodies so they're just Not Dead. For sure. /lh]

In the meantime, she works as Roxanne's personal bodyguard (as Peppermint most likely would rather be doing her own thing without someone watching so close) until Kale recovers, where she'll be transferred over to guarding him, especially as the shifts in power in the hierarchy of Vandelay Industries caused a pretty big stir after the ending of the game. During overall post-game story, she's mainly around Roxanne or Kale, and occasionally looking out over campus at the top of the SPECTRA tower.

While he's recovering, she's been visiting occasionally, finding that he's not bad to talk to after getting more acquainted. Once he's recovered and she's been transferred to guarding him, she's found herself a place within his inner circle despite seemingly not aligning with his goals initially. (Personally I feel like Kale needs people that he can talk to that don't either idolize him or play nice in order to get something out of him, so I'm throwing Thyme in there to make post-game developments. Get him some actual friends /lh.)

Her relations with Chai and the group are... complex (and a bit confusing to her), mainly due to her being such a strong threat. But with her making it quite clear that she had no personal vendetta against Chai and still does not have any reason nor want to be a threat (to them), she's at least been able to become somewhat friendly acquaintences- familiarity of which heavily varies between each member of the group. [Ex: Being closer to Chai & Korsica than Peppermint]

[quitealotofsodapop]

Why do I get the feeling they'll try to bring Nez Ha's friends along with them for the LBD thing? They're reptiles, cold ain't good for them, and since they're tagging along they'll have to be put in the know about Nez Ha being a god

I can imagine in the ice-cold corruption that LBD brings, many reptilian'/amphipious demons would be forced to flee Megapolis to more arid/warm climates, something thats kinda hard since the inland areas of china get super cold at night.

I can imagine a situation during "Smarty Kid" where instead of the Goldfish Demon just being a huckster/obstacle for MK to overcome, he's more of a legitimate conman whos charging the clothes off people's backs to get them safe passage to the Gobi/Central Asian deserts away from LBD's influence

Cue Nezha encoutnering a caravan of his schoolmates and their families, and going beserk on the goldfish demon for taking advantage of people in a crisis. Nezha is a protector god above all else, and you know he'd rat the goldfish out to Guanyin. The demon families are uber thankful for his and the gang's help.

Nezha's friends likely don't have powers of their own, but they are amazing cheerleaders for the guy. He has nightly video-phone calls with them while on the journey - sadly he could not risk taking them on the mission, no matter how much they wanted to go.

They also tease tf out of him when they call in and see a certain beautiful east sea dragon-prince relaxing next to him >:3

[utilitycaster]

If you have time, I'd be really interested to hear any thoughts you have about the Bad Kids in terms of party/combat mechanics! I know they have a number of homebrew abilities/items that make them a little different from RAW character builds, but what do you think about them in terms of party balance or combat effectiveness? The thing that usually leaps out to me is how many of the Bad Kids are able to buff each other in and out of combat, and they seem to work fairly cohesively in battle. What's your read on them?

I don't have a ton of thoughts - in general, assume my CR thoughts will always be much more involved in part just because I'm more involved and also the ease of looking up information for CR works - but what does interest me actually is that the Bad Kids started off a pretty standard split of three casters (all competent support casters but capable of damage) and three martial classes, and that everyone but Adaine has undergone a subclass change, a multiclass, or more, and nearly all those changes were in the direction of higher utility and support. Adaine meanwhile was always a divination wizard which is simply a fantastic class and subclass with high utility and cool abilities so there's no need to change:

Fabian was originally a champion fighter, which is a great subclass but not really focused on party support other than being extremely good at killing foes and a decent tank. During season 2 he switched to battlemaster and multiclassed into bard (college of swords). His focus is still primarily on damage, but he can now maneuver and aid allies with his fighter abilities rather than just being super good at hitting, and he has the spells and inspiration of a bard, arguably the class most defined as a support/utility class.

Gorgug was originally a pure barbarian, and branched off into artificer late in season 2. It's a weird multiclass and one that Brennan has worked with Zac to homebrew but it did make a lot of narrative sense for him, and he then put the work in this past season. Artificers are also a good support class, whereas barbarians (especially Beserker, which he originally was) are also all about tanking and damage. By multiclassing into battlesmith he adds familiars onto the field, and maintains taking abilities.

Fig was originally college of whispers, which kind of sucks as a bard subclass, and so switching to lore, which gives you more access to spells and ways to help your allies helped. She also addressed the lack of bard ability to do damage by taking first a level in hexblade, and then multiclassing into paladin. She can still serve as support, and frequently does via inspiration and healing, but she now has pretty much all options available to her.

Kristen was originally a life cleric and is now twilight, and honestly both are super strong but twilight has a wider array of powers whereas life is very strongly healing-focused. Clerics also just get exponentially stronger as they level up and get higher level spells.

And finally, Riz switched from inquisitive, which is a solid rogue class in terms of solving mysteries, to arcane trickster, which gives him access to spells, dramatically expanding his repertoire. Also, to be honest, rogue abilities at high levels are really good, it's just, you spend a lot of time in levels where all you get is sneak attack.

So: all the martials ended up with some amount of spellcasting, the most pure support caster took some wise martial dips, and clerics and wizards are just really good classes that get better as you get more powers. You end up with a party that, as you say, can all buff each other.

[glow-worms-are-believers]

Pride and Prejudice AU Anger Management (dp x dc)

Guess who just finished reading+watching Pride and Prejudice? And guess who’s now obsessed with making an Anger Management AU based on it? It’s me babyyyy (btw it's sorta more of a fusion than a proper AU I think?)

Casting: Jason as Elizabeth, his siblings as the bennet sisters. Alfred is mr bennet, Bruce is mrs. Bennet except they’re not silly they’re instead paranoid and emotionnaly stunted.

Jazz as Darcy, Danny as Georgiana. 

Kon as Bingley (with Tim being Jane looool)

Vlad is lady catherine and dani is cousin anne.

Wickham is both the Al Ghul (Talia and Ra's) they pretended to be nice to the Fenton before trying to enslave/exorcice Danny.

Plot (which is basically just P&P but like slightly modified so it works):

Jazz & Danny got spit out the pits. The Al Ghuls pretended to be kind and honorable and stuff, and Jazz was just so happy the dimension they ended up in had some nice (though weird and formal) people. Then, she ends up finding Danny tied up and Ra’s talking about what an interesting specimen he is, and how he’ll help them figure out how to be immortal and all that. Jazz goes full-on Beserk mode and destroys the base + burying pits.

Vlad and Dani end up there too a little later, but she doesn’t tell them the specifics just not to interact with the League of Assassins. Danny is hurt and Jazz is still a bit feral. They end up in Kansas where the Kents offer them a place to stay for a while. So they do stay, and Superman+family end up being really nice people. She doesn’t tell them about the Ra’s, just that the trip between dimension was rough. She also says nothing about Danny’s power and keeps that secret because he’s still hurt and she doesn’t want anyone trying to take advantage of him.

Magic users recognize her as Queen Regent of the Infinite Realms and like everyone who’s met her agrees she’s a fair and kind ruler, so they respect her a lot. So Captain Marvel, Zatanna and Wonder Woman (after they mention Pandora) all vouch for the Fentons and they’re generally just considered really powerful and benevolent.

Anyways danny is severely injured (plus his powers are really reduced) and Jazz is so stressed about it not to mention the queen regent thing (she has paperwork and correspondence with Frostbite, Pandora and Clockwork for all kind of stuff to do, including making sure there is no war after the future King was kidnapped by humans wanting to experiment on him again!!!) plus making a good impression on the league. So she comes off as a little bit stand-offish especially to the heroes she doesn’t know super well. She’s been burnt by the Al Ghul and is just so busy and stressed she has little energy for socialization. She accidentally snubs Dick which everyone in the batfam takes as an insult plus a lot of the younger generation heroes do too. General consensus is that she’s a bit stuck-up and only makes an effort for the big names (Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel). 

Jazz makes a comment about Jason after Kon teases her about him (like “I know his type, pretty bad boy with a list of issues a mile long, not to mention how shit at emotions the bats apparently are”) and he overhears and is like not like I would want to end up with such an arrogant snob no matter how handsome she looks.

So anyways, they end up going on a few missions together and Jazz gets to see that Jason is actually a really good person who does his best and wants to help everyone so bad. Also, he’s so good with kids and Jazz is 100% sure Danny would love him despite him hating most of her previous boyfriends.

Meanwhile, Jason sees how she keeps taking down the villains faster than him and even takes on some of his that he was handling thank you very much, and assumes she’s being condescending instead of trying to be helpful. 

She also talks about school that she’s started and how much she enjoys it because she heard he likes to read but he takes it at a dig at how he never completed his formal education which is a sore spot. She also sometimes completely disregard his suggestion when they go after supernaturals which fair but like super rude?! But it’s just Jazz being used to being in charge and having to wrangle a bunch of go in first, think of a plan later type of people.

(Talia has come by and fed the batfam an edited story of what happened with the pits, which makes Jazz look really shady.)

Danny sees Jazz is completely crushing on this dude and after hearing her talk about him for so long, he’s on board with Jason and also curious to get to know him. Danny tells her to go for it and ask him out. Meanwhile, they each agree to tell Vlad nothing, because he might not be as crazy as he used to be, but he’s still a complete ass.

So at some point, after a mission, she takes Jason aside and asks him out, while insulting his family accidentally (like makes a joke about reserving an extra table for his brothers to spy on them). She means it as a gentle tease, but Jason takes it as a giant insult, since it’s also super true so instead of just saying no, he goes for the snark.

“Thanks and all but I dont date future villains.”

Jazz is fucking insulted. “Ok wow. From what I heard everyone in your family has at least one alternate version of themselves whos a villain, so keep talking shit?!”

“Not even trying to hide your contempt for us now are you?”

“I don’t have contempt for you guys.”

“No? You told Kon he shouldn’t date Tim!”

“That is NOT true! I said to take it slowly while he deals with his identity issues as a clone first to make sure he doesn’t jump into something new while he’s not ready!”

“Yeah, sure. I’m sure it’s got nothing to do with how 'shit at emotions' my family is.”

“Well, it doesn’t help that you’re all emotionally stunted, no!”

“That’s your excuse for Tim, sure. But what about that nice little tale Talia told us?”

“Talia Al Ghul?”

“Yeah. Now why would a hero like yourself cause the complete collapse of a secret organization they should have no knowledge of considering they had arrived in the dimension less than a week ago? I mean, I know they’re assassins and all, but I thought you guys had landed in Smallville, Kansas. That’s a long way to go if you really didn’t have designs on the fucking pits. Did you or did you not burry the pits where no-one except someone who can go invisible and doesn’t need to breathe could access it?”

“I did.”

“And you want to tell me you’re not a villain? You may have everyone else fooled, but I know what you are.”

“Fine,” she says. “If that’s what you want to think. Sorry you had to endure my presence for so long.”

She leaves him a note still, because she knows at least some of the batfam have had contact with the pits. She knows he’s a good person and actually really trustworthy plus how much he cares about children, so she trusts him with Danny’s secret. She explains how Talia and Ra’s have plans with the pits and liminals, and to look out for himself. She tells him to verify with Zantanna if he wants because she’s the one who helped put up the wards to hide Danny’s presence while he recuperates.

Jason is like, ok so maybe she’s not a future villain. So he feels a little bad about his outburst plus dumb about trusting Talia about anything, she’s a liar that is well-known. But he still stands by turning Jazz down coz she is genuinely sort of a snob a lot of times.

After that they go on a few missions together and Jazz acts much better, she actually listens to his feedback even if most of the time she doesn’t need to when it’s supernatural beings. She also seems way less wound-up and doesn’t say a word about how emotionally constipated the bats are, which she used to do way more often. She’s being polite, kind and open to suggestion and Jason is like so maybe I judged a bit fast. He also starts to see how many responsibilities she actually shoulders (Queen Regent, her brother, Justice League stuff) and he’s a little humbled by how well she does it. At some point he meets a Realm Ghost who talks about what a great Queen she is and all that she’s done for them and Jason starts feeling some feelings.

They meet up again for a low-level mission with a supes, it’s like undercover/surveillance about white collar crimes or something, and the vibe between Jazz and Jason is super good until he gets a call. 

Damian/Cass end up captured on a mission by the Al Ghuls to experiment on. All the batfam is losing their minds and Jazz is like this is my fault they know about ectoplasm at all, because she trusted them and talked to much while Jason is like no I’m the one who should’ve told them. 

Jazz goes and rescue the batkid. In exchange she offers one vial of pure ectoplasm (ecto dejecto) which she was saving for emergency in case she gets injured. She tells the Al Ghuls this is worth all the test subjects “from which you’ll try and extract it and it probably won’t work. So do your crazy experiment on that and leave liminals alone.”

So yeah the designated batkid is rescued (tho they don’t realize by who cause they’re unconscious) and Jazz asks Superman to take the credit for it. Jason learns it was Jazz and feels so guilty and grateful. He bakes/cooks something and goes to thank her. He meets Danny who is super excited to meet him and doesn’t know about the messy rejection coz Jazz didn’t tell him because she thought she might have deserved it a little bit. 

So Jason sees how sweet Jazz is with Danny and how much more relaxed she is at home and he’s like ok, so maybe, maybeee I have a feeling about this. Meanwhile, Jazz is still completely gone on him (the man can cook!) and Danny approves. Jazz doesn’t really have the heart to tell him it’s not happening.

All the while, because of Jazz’s connection to the pits the batfam are super suspicious of her and keep making digs at her. Jason feels terrible about it (since she literally saved the batkid) but Jazz just takes it and answers back politely, cause she likes Jason still and doesn’t want to antagonize his family.

Meanwhile, Kon and Tim started dating and the whole batfam are like ‘finally!’ Kon defends Jazz anytime one of the batfam says something about her and they think he’s a little naive but they like him so they stop when he’s there.

Vlad ambushes Jason at some point and tells him he’s not allowed to date Jazz. And Jason is just like “fuck you I do what I want”. He eventually admits to Vlad he isn’t dating her, but when Vlad asks him promise he never will, Jason says “I’m not promising that, she and I can do what we want.” 

At some point Jason and Jazz meet together by coincidence, and it’s a little awkward. Jazz has not been able to forget about him, she just likes him a lot so she goes, “I heard Vlad came by.”

“Yeah, what a weirdo.”

“Yeah, Sorry about him.”

“Hey you have to deal with my crazy family, it’s only fair.”

They laugh

“Sorry if this makes you unfomfortable, say the word and I’ll never mention it again, but I can’t help but ask. I still like you a lot and I wanted to know, could you maybe might have changed your mind about a date?”

“Yes. Uh, I mean for the date, yes I’d like to go on one.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I, actually, Um. I like you a lot too?”

So they end up dating and they actually like each other a whole lot. Danny is over the moon, as is Dani. Vlad still thinks Jason isn’t good enough for Jazz. The whole batfam is like wtf, I thought you hated her. Dick is the first to be like gotta make an effort for Little Wing’s girlfriend and ends up thinking she’s actually pretty cool. The rest are slower to follow, and Bruce is snail-pace. Alfred just likes that Jason is happy so he’s all for it.