#After Shine

[all-risejd]

After Shine Part 1 (Damian Priest x OC) (Eventual The Judgment Day x OC)

Danika

June 16, 2018 - Dallas, Texas

She’d been back from Japan maybe five days, and was riding the uplifting high of being close enough to California she swore she could smell her momma's cooking. Tonight was going to be amazing, she could feel it in her bones, she wasn’t exactly sure why Cage had sent her on the road with his talent, when a group of them decided to work Ring of Honor, but she’d spent the last year touring with some of the most irritating bastards she’d ever met (she sort of loved it though). The move to New York almost two summers ago, alone and in the big city, had been disarming. She swore looking back she’d spent most of the first two months crying herself to sleep.

Danny Cage had been a friend of her fathers, sort of, and he’d ‘taken her in’ out of respect for how famous her dad really was. He hadn’t actually known what to do with an almost eighteen-year old girl who wasn’t at all interested in the limelight of the ring. It’s how she became an Influencer, she supposed, they traveled constantly, so she started a blog, and back then she could make little short stories with some of Cage’s younger talent. There was one man, Martinez, that she tended to stick close to. He was large and big, and just this side of dangerous, but he’d saved her ass more than once in Japan - she’d never forget the night he punched some handsy Englishman for copping a feel of her, when she’d come to collect them from a bar. 

The thing about Martinez was he didn’t want her around, not really. But she was always underfoot. She wanted him to win, he had the power and the drive, and fuck the charisma once he got stared in the ring - he was damn hard not to look at. The thing was, he was mean. And more often than not she suffered for her attempts at helping him, but there were days (sometimes even two in a row) where he would talk with her in Spanish about his home, about his familia, about who he wanted to be, and in turn she told him stories of her familia, of being adopted by a huge Latino family, and how lucky she was. Then there were rushed mornings, where she was tossing women (sometimes multiple) out of his hotel room, and running around doing last minute checks to see if he had anything, before corralling the still intoxicated, angry bull of a man toward the taxi.

“Hey, kid, you're dad’s on the phone!” Cage shouted, and motioned to his cell phone - her’s was dead.

“Thanks, Mr. Cage.” She hurried to him, around the pool, side stepping the large man in question who was drinking before ten in the morning, stretched out over a lounger, he shot her a smile, which made her blush. “Papi?” She said into the phone, a grin pulling at her face as the familiar noise of home sounded behind her.

“Hola, Danika, we are going to come tonight to the matches, Dominik wants to see you.” She smiled warmly, Cage was just going to love hosting the Mysterio familia. “How was Japan?” She launched into telling him all about the customs and their version of wrestling, and how she’d met Chris Jericho, and boy was he protective of her, she talked about the fashion and all the gifts she’d brought back for them, but mostly she asked about her younger sister Lainey, who Dominik had been visiting with while she’d been out of the country (six months in Japan was longer than she’d anticipated). 

“We are actually going to bring her with us tonight.” Danika’s heart soared damn near out of her chest. “And Cage has agreed, you need a vacation, so while we have custody of Delainey and are waiting to figure out what’s going to happen with your mom, you're coming home tonight.” She couldn’t help but grin even wider, after they talked a bit more, and she got off the phone, she wandered back to the pool, settling onto the lounge next to Martinez.

“¿Qué te tiene tan feliz, pequeña?”

She shot Martinez a look, she knew he knew English, probably more than he let on, she responded in kind, “Mi familia is coming to the show tonight, and I’m going home for a while afterward.” The man lowered his sunglasses to look her over, he shot her a toothy grin, it both unsettled her and made her want to vibrate out of her skin, “I might even miss you.” She admitted, after a long moment. 

May 21, 2020

Danika Wesson moved through her bedroom technically cleaning up, she’d finished her weekly list of projects from AEW’s Talent Development and had set up social media accounts for several new talents under him as well as worked with them to do their first videos and pictures. She herself had spent the day doing an unboxing of new Mysterio gear for YouTube. She had to have the whole bedroom cleaned and in top shape for the weekend because she was getting a weekend visit with Lainey. Now, with a pregnancy test clutched in her hand she was pulling all the laundry into her arms and headed for the bathroom she shared with Dom and Aalyah. Her room was still covered in more Mysterio merchandise than she would like, but she’d get over it. 

Living with the Mysterio’s had been… an adjustment in her youth. Now she was just the third kid in the second floor of the house who did laundry because it was Dom’s job to clean the bathroom and Aalyah’s job to vacuum their floor. “Dominik!” She called over her shoulder, Aalyah was mercifully in her bedroom ignoring them. Dominik appeared in his doorway, basketball shorts and a comfortable looking gray short sleeve shirt. “Help?” She gave him a curious look, he glanced at the maybe seven articles of clothing she was holding with a raised eyebrow. “I need your help, Dominik, in the bathroom.”

“Oh.” She watched as his eyes widened a bit, a mischievous smile on his face like he thought they were going to mess around (they were not doing anything remotely sexy with either Aalyah or Angie in the house, she had rules), then he was following behind her. She let him open the door, in their teen years they had spent a lot of time being fussed at for being in the bathroom together, and with old habits dying hard, Dominik immediately locked the door behind him as she tossed the laundry into her purple hamper. “So no period then.” He cocked his head to the side, looking down at Danika, who hadn’t really thought much about their height difference until recently. 

She cut her eyes at him, “Wow, Captain Obvious. Glad to see you have made it to the party.” She rolled her eyes, and stepped closer to him, “Do you really think I would risk moms wrath by sharing the bathroom with you otherwise.” She pinched his chest, above his left nipple, another holdover from their youth when they pushed boundaries of friendship often too far. Or at least Angie, their shared mother, had thought they were pushing boundaries back then, relatively speaking things had been pretty tame. Sharing food, Dominik reading to her while she was taking a bubble bath, tickling and shoving at each other, once they handcuffed themselves to each other, and there was a whole summer they spent reenacting scenes from Jackass.

Dominik snickered, “You could have just agreed. A nice yeah Dominik you're right I didn’t have my period this month would have been fine.” He had morphed his voice into something resembling a girl but it sounded more hilarious than accurate. 

“I don’t sound like that.” She huffed but grinned at him nonetheless, “And it’s been two months.”

“Well that’s a bit more serious than I thought.” He moved to sit on the sink, another thing Angie would have their asses for, sinks and counters were not made for butts. “Are you sure it’s not what happened when we were younger?” His voice was a bit worried now, “You went like five months without a period then had like… cyst or something.” Bless his heart, he was trying. 

She gave him an appraising look, “I mean I guess it could be but Dr. Keyes removed my right ovary and all that jazz.” She shrugged. “I have a test, figure we might as well do this now.” She brandished the test at him only for him to yank it out of her hand, he immediately tore into the box and started reading the instructions. Never let it be said Dominik didn’t love to know everything. “You gonna share with the class?” She pointed at the directions. 

“You just pee on the stick.” He shoved it back at her, “Once you do that, we just wait two minutes.”

She took the pregnancy test and narrowed her eyes at him. “I know we fucked multiple times but I dunno if I want you to hear me pee…” There was a bit of desperation edging into her voice. 

Dominik laughed, hard. “I can pee in the tub while you pee on the stick. We can pee together.”

“I hate you.” She snickered, “By all means pee in the tub, heathen.” She waited for Dominik to climb off the sink and slowly walk around her to head for the tub, he wrenched the shower open just as she pushed her yoga pants and underwear down. “How do you even…” She trailed off as she figured out how to hold the stick and not pee on her hand. Settling down over the toilet, pointedly facing away from Dom and the tub, she cleared her throat, “Together or whatever.”

It was weird. She was so relieved to drop the test in the sink and clean herself off, she closed tre toilet and sat on it, before pulling the test back into her hands, and folding her hands around it, protecting it from view, while Dom moved back to sit on the sink, his shorts back in place. “Two minutes.” He set the timer as he kicked his legs out looking like a much younger boy than the 23 year old man he was. 

“Two minutes.” She agreed, “So did you talk to Megan? Are you two gonna patch things up?”

“Negative ghost rider.” Dominik offered as he looked up toward the ceiling, “She uh, well she didn’t like me being on the road and she hated our friendship. Like how am I supposed to explain that my parents adopted you but you aren’t my sister when Aalyah introduces you as our sister to everyone.”

“Tough break, boo.” She offered almost sweetly. Megan and Dom had been on and off since they were in tenth grade. Danika was honestly happy to see her gone, not because she wanted to be Dominik’s girlfriend but because Megan had a tendency to make Dominik’s life hell. In fact Danika had only just managed to talk him out of marrying the monster the previous Christmas. 

“You get all your work done?” Dominik asked not so subtly to change the subject.

She let him have it, “You mean the unboxing for Rey and the stuff for AEW? Yeah. I got it finished.” She let out a long sigh, “I think Cody has more talent he wants me to fly out and meet.” She admitted, “So I can finish setting up the accounts and can finish getting everyone started on their socials, plus Cody wants me to do a series of soundbites for him.”

Dominik hummed, “You should have finished going to school for filmography.”

“Shoulda, woulda, coulda.” She hummed, impatiently, “How much longer?”

“Like a whole ‘nother minute.” Dominik turned his attention back to her, “Do you want kids?”

“That’s an odd question, considering we are sort of on a knife blade here.” Danika huffed, “I mean, yeah, I like the idea of kids, I don’t want kids that… I don’t want kids with someone who I’m not sure is going to be around, I don’t want a repeat of my childhood.”

Dominik was silent after that, contemplating what she had said, she would bet. He had wanted to be a dad since literally the third grade. His phone alarm went off, announcing they could look at the test, Danika didn’t move, her whole body was frozen, it felt like moving was impossible. Dominik, thankfully, grabbed the test from her folded hands. “Oh.” He whispered, before he climbed off the counter, and knelt in front of her, “Danika, am I someone who you think is always going to be around?”

She jerked the test out of his grasp and looked down, two pink lines. “Oh.” She let out a little giggle, “Well, Dominik, I think I made another one of your dreams come true.”

Dominik was silent again, “We don’t have to do this.” He cupped her face, “I want you to be happy too, we both know I’ve wanted kids since I was like seven, but…” He trailed off, “If you aren’t ready for this, then I’m not ready for this.” He assured her.

Before she could answer there was a harsh pounding on the door, “I have to pee!” Aalyah shouted.

“GO DOWNSTAIRS!” Dominik and Danika both screamed back at her.

“OH MY GOD, MOM, DOM AND DANI ARE IN THE BATHROOM TOGETHER!” 

“Dios, she gets older but does she get any more mature?” Danika hissed, but leaned into Dominik’s hands, “I want to have children with you, I’ll give you all the babies you want, I know we aren’t in love like that, but I do love you, unconditionally and forever. I know you won’t-”

“MOM!” Aalyah shouted, followed by, “MAMI!” 

“Dios.” Dominik grabbed the test and shoved it into his basketball shorts pocket, he hauled Danika to her feet, unlocked the bathroom door, and yanked it open to glare down at Aalyah, “Being the bratty little sister should end at eighteen.” He snapped, “We are both over eighteen, and can be in the bathroom alone or together if we wa-”

Angie had climbed to the second floor, and was looking between the three of them, “¿Qué son todos los gritos?”

“They were in the bathroom together, again, with the door locked.” Aalyah looked positively excited to say it aloud, Danika rolled her eyes violently from where she was hiding behind Dominik.

“Mom,” Dominik sighed, “I was helping Danika with something, yes it was in the bathroom, yes the door was locked, her belly ring got messed up, she lost the ball and we had to change it.” He offered unamused. “Now, if you could just move-'' He made to push around Aalyah, who pushed back, the jostling dislodged the pregnancy test which he hadn’t put into his pocket properly. 

Danika wanted to scream, she reached for the test at the same time Aalyah did, the younger girl snatching it out of her grasp, “OH MY GOD, YOU'RE PREGNANT!”

“Can we stop screaming?” Danika snapped, she grabbed the test and pulled it back.

Angie was talking in spanish far to fast for her to keep up with, but she caught the jist of it - Angie was bemoaning the fact that she’d let Rey talk her into adopting a street kid from the wrong side of San Diego, with a dash of the shame that Danika would bring to their name (although she largely used the Wesson last name publically, legally she had been adopted by the Mysterios, making her legal last name Gutiérrez). 

Dominik glared at Aalyah then looked directly at his mom, “Detener. Danika está embarazada de mi hijo.”

Angie looked for a moment like she’d been slapped, “You're child?” She clutched at her heart, “What?”

Dominik and Danika shared a look, with Danika shrugging her shoulders, Dominik had opened this can of worms so he could close it. “When Megan and I broke up I was heartbroken, Danika and I might have drank that bottle of tequila we told you we didn’t drink.” Her eyes widened, “And we uh, well…” He looked at Danika for support, she instead sent Jefe a text message, Rey would be home within the next few minutes, and she could tell this was going to be a fight the level of a Latino telenovela if the man didn’t come sooth his wife, quickly. “Look, before that we’d never had sex, and we’ve sort of messed around since then, but-”

“Eres hermano y hermana.” Angie looked close to tears.

“Legally, yes.” Danika agreed, “Biologically, no. We’ve tried to explain this to you multiple times. We don’t see each other as siblings, yes both of us look at Aalyah like our little sister, but Mom, we are best friends.”

Angie shook her head, “Tendrás que casarte ahora.” 

The front door opened and closed, downstairs, the alarm system pinged to let them know. “We are not getting married.” Dominik countered, irritated. “It’s not happening, we aren’t in love.” Dominik snapped, his voice going hard, “We are never going to get married.”

“Hey, now, we have an agreement about your fortieth birthday.” Danika wiggled her eyebrows at him, “If you haven’t gotten married by the time you're forty and I’m thirty-eight we will get married.”

Rey snickered as he joined them, “I remember this agreement, you two signed it in crayons.” 

Dominik looked between his father and Danika, “Ok, well, we aren’t getting married right now.”

“Why would you get married, mi hijo?” Rey looked perplexed.

Seriously, it was a wonder to Danika that they didn’t have a WWE themed reality television show. 

Aalyah chose that moment to cackle, “Because Dominik got her pregnant.”

There was a long stretch of Rey’s eyes darting between Dominik and Danika, with Angie sniffling to herself, and Aalyah pitched forward in a way that suggested she wished she had popcorn. Finally Rey cleared his throat, “What are we doing about this?”

“We hadn’t decided yet.” Dominik cleared his throat, “We were talking about our options and what we wanted to do when Aalyah started being her usual bratty self, and caused this whole argument.” Dominik explained, exasperated. 

Rey hummed, “Danika, cariño, what do you want to do?” 

“Jefe, I would like Dominik and I to talk about it privately, once we have a decision we will let you all know.” She cast her glance to Aalyah, “That’s my shirt, asshole, give it back.” 

“You’ll be too fat to wear it.” Aalyah sang as she walked back to her room.

“I thought you had to go to the bathroom!” Dominik snapped after her.

Aalyah cackled, “I never had to pee, I just heard you two talking in the bathroom and knew the door would be locked.” 

“Oh, you little-” Danika made to give chase, but Dominik caught her around her middle.

“Not so fast,” He tutted, “You're carrying my child, and I don’t want the little bean to inherit whatever ridiculous gene it is that makes you and Aalyah act like children all the time.”

“That’s rich.” Rey huffed, “You usually start their little fights.” Rey looked pointedly at Dominik, then at Angie, “We will support their choice, mi esposa, let them make it.” He took her arm and started to steer her down the stairs, “I will say, if you are going to give us grandchildren, at least let us do something Catholic for their birth.” With that Rey headed them down the stairs.

Danika growled under her breath, “Come on.” She tugged him back into the bathroom, and locked the door. She reclaimed her seat on the toilet, and motioned for him to kneel before her again, “Alright, take two.” 

He snickered, “Danika Wesson Gutiérrez, my best friend, my soulmate, my hero, and my ride or die, would you do me the honor of having my baby?”

She burst out laughing, unable to hold it in, she laughed until she felt the tears start on her cheeks, “If you ever propose to anyone let me write the script for you, boo.” She giggled, “Alright, let’s do this, we’ve always been good together, you are my knight in shining armor, I mean you did ride across San Diego to the scary part of town to rescue me, and you punched that guy in ninth grade who told me I couldn’t be a Gutiérrez because I wasn’t Mexican, and you-” 

He cut her off with a chaste kiss, just a press of their lips together, “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” She nodded her head, their noses bumping, “Dominik, I’d be no one without you, I’ve always wanted to have kids, and if I were going to accidentally get pregnant, I am so glad it’s with you. Cause come hell or high water, as Uncle Adam says, we are always going to have each other's backs.” She nuzzled his nose, “Now aren’t you meant to be packing for SmackDown?”

He rolled his eyes, but stood, ruffling her red hair as he went. The both spilled back out of the bathroom, pushing at each other and laughing, until Dominik veered off into his room, no doubt to actually pack up for his and Rey’s upcoming flight. She headed back to her room, and gazed around the piles of Mysterio merchandise. Her life with the Mysterio’s might be a rollercoaster, but she wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. She ran her hand over her flat stomach, mostly to reassure herself that there was a little baby growing in there. 

Dominik had promised her adventures, when he came to rescue her on his bike when they were eleven and thirteen (with Dominik being the older one), and he’d yet to disappoint. 

[dapper-lil-arts]

What if Celestia had Whatsapp 🤣🤣🤣

[otiksimr]

Poorly drawn Onix line (With a slightly less poorly made Steelix)

[lemonboyjosten]

— the foxhole court (2013)

— the sunshine court (2024)

[canisalbus]

Ok ok hear me out: it could end in tragedy,, AND have a happy ending. The attempt(s) on Machete’s life force him to flee, he doesn’t even have the chance to find Vasco. Cue gay longing for at least a few years while Machete despairs over the loss of his love, his life, his status. He and Vasco only reunite (again) in their later years. Their relationship is forever flavored with loss and loneliness, but that only means they savor every moment that much more

I also I would like to see them as old men. Vasco would be so droopy :)

You gave me such old dog brainworms.

[quantumshade]

can anyone explain to me at what point rose tyler was "unbelievably stupid". was it when she was inventing transdimensional travel

[bluerosefox]

Presence Pressure

Danny learned the reason why both his adopted parents and the GIW find it a little hard to somewhat track him down in human form (unlike when he's in ghost form) is because when he was still in the LOA he learned to suppress his presence (he was always good stealth, blending in, and other things like that, unlike his brother who didn't have the patience for it) and he does it subconsciously in human form but not in ghost form.

After finding that out he starts to train his ghost form to suppress his core/presence to that nearly of a blob ghost (and boy has it been fun being able to sneak his way into fights when his rogues come to town. Skulker is both the best and worst, he enjoys the challenge, Danny won't lie he enjoys testing his abilities against the 'greatest hunter')

Once Danny got a good handle on it, his parents suddenly burst into his room and announced that they're heading to Gotham tonight!

Cause apparently that 'ghost scum' ecto-signature has been detected there and they finally found it after months of recalibrating their inventions to find his trail. (And where his parents went the GIW have their eyes in his parents which meant they're not to far behind)

Danny is stunned (he forgot Damian and his DNA were very similar due to being 'hand-crafted' and the fact they grew up around the Lazarus Pits, that Danny suspected was dirty ecto now)

Oh... oh no.

[shadowduel]

eye of the beholder

[bet-on-me-13]

Ellie wasn't born a Halfa

So! Jason just found something weird. Or rather. Someone.

A little girl, no more than 6 or 7, crying behind a dumpster in an alleyway. Now, as unfortunate as it is, this isn't that strange a sight in Gotham. Kids are always running away from home, getting lost, being left homeless after a mugging gone wrong, but this time was different.

Because the kid was glowing.

When he found her hiding behind the Dumpster, a medical gown being the only thing she had to protect herself from thr frigid Gotham Winter, he didn't hesitate to give her his Jacket and take her to his nearest safe house.

(Actually it took a little while to convince her to accept the Jacket, and even longer to get her to agree to being taken to his safe house, but they got there in the end.)

When he had finally gotten her set up in a side room of the Warehouse, with the most comfortable bed and thickest Blankets he could find, he tried asking what had happened.

"Daddy lied." She said. "He said he loved me, but then he made another kid and said he didn't care about me."

And, once again, it was unfortunately not that uncommon to see runaway kids from neglectful homes, but the way she said it raised some flags in his head.

"...and, how did you end up in Gotham?"

"I ran. He said I was a spare, and that scared me."

Well, that was even more horrible than he had anticipated. What kind of monster tells their kid that they're a spare?!

"And, I'm sorry if this is a touchy subject but why are you glowing?"

She just buried her face in the Blankets and shook her head.

"Alright then, that's fine. You can tell me when you're ready, or even not tell me at all, I'll accept either or".

For the next few weeks, Jason juggled running his newly created criminal empire and raking care of the kid. He still hadn't gotten a name out of her, but she said to call her "Dp" instead. 'It's the best I'm gonna get', he thought.

It was only after a few more weeks, right before he was about to begin his Plan of confronting Bruce about the Joker still being alive, that she approached him and agreed to tell him everything. He was actually really glad that she finally seemed to trust him enough to tell him.

"Okay Dp, you can start wherever you want."

"...well, I guess I should start with my name..." She started, "...or rather, my lack of one..."

"What?" Asked Jason in a soft voice.

"I, I don't have a name." She explained, "Daddy never gave me one. He just called me DP-2."

"...what do you mean by two?" Asked Jason.

"It-It's my Experiment Number." She said, stuttering a little, "I'm not a normal person, I'm a Clone. I was made to be daddy's perfect child, but I was just the test run. He said that I wasn't needed after he made DP-3, and that all I was good for was spare parts."

Jason felt his throat dry up. Dp was a Clone? Of who? Who made her? What right did that guy have to reject her?! Who in their right mind would make a Clone and then reject the Clone?! How dare he!

The Pits perked up

He felt the Pits rising a little, but managed to push them down. Dp needed support, not the Pits.

"It's Okay kid." He said, holding her had reassuringly. "It's perfectly okay to be different. I accept you as you are, and I'm sure as hell not gonna abandon you that easily. Or, ever really. You're stuck with me, whether you like it or not."

She giggled, and hugged him. A thoughtful look crossed her face, and she pulled away.

"There is one other thing...you know how I glow sometimes?" She asked.

The Pits felt a sense of dread

Jason felt like he wasn't going to like this. "Yeah?"

"Well, when I said I was meant to be a Clone, I never mentioned who of." She explained slowly. "He's a kid named Danny, and when he was 14, he had an accident where he died and came back as a Half Undead."

No...

Jason really wasn't liking where this was going.

"When Da-Vlad tried to make me, he realized that those powers couldn't be cloned..." She paused here, seemingly gathering the courage to continue. "...they needed to be added afterwards."

NO.

He didn't. He had better not have, for his own Fucking Sake, he had better not have done what Jason thinks he did.

"So one day, he took he down to the Lab, and he put me in a big machine." He voice broke a little. "He locked me in there, and then I think...that I died..."

...

For once, Jason felt completely in tune with the Pits. He was going to Kill that guy.

...

Sorry if this feels a little rushed, I kept going back to add or change parts of it.

Basically, Vlad realized that you can't Clone a Halfa. So, he made a workaround. He just stuck his first Viable Clone into a Portal, and let the machine Kill her. When he realized that it worked, he knew he had no use for Ellie anymore aside from spare parts.

And he told her as much, Vlad is a fucking asshole.

Ellie, of course, got scared and ran away. She ended up in Gotham, and was adopted by Jason right at the start of his Criminal Career.

When Jason finally hears about the rest of his kids' Backstory, he decides that Batman can wait his turn. He needs to go Kill that Vlad Bastard.

[flowerontoast]

the yttd era is back

[mobius-m-mobius]

Owen Wilson and Tom Hiddleston at the FYC Emmys 'Loki' panel, April 13, 2024

[thelaurenshippen]

911 really is such a good reminder of the particularly kind of joy that is weekly, seasons-long shows with many episodes per season. every character gets a moment to shine even in a truncated season. the satisfaction of seeing characters grapple with stuff that happened YEARS ago. having multi-episode arcs and one-off arcs that are equally enjoyable. beach episodes (metaphorical). I know we're all saying this all the time but why can't more tv be like this

[scribz-ag24]

vast ice mountain but you see future trio's thoughts

[bigfatbreak]

Birds of a Feather previous / next tw: anxiety attack

[madamemiz]

donchta hate it when your robotic coworkers that you had a silly crush on get trapped in the unexpected collapse of the place you used to work at, only to have a barely recognizable personality that feels both familiar and like a stranger greet you when you finally manage to get through the rubble later and find them?

idk i think it kinda sucks when that happens personally :/

bonus:

[seafoamdew]

That scene in fics where Jack gets his powers back. But it’s low key chilling af and Hiccup reacts as any superstitious Viking would do.