#I can make them worse

[birdybumbles]

Watched the 2016 Jumanji and the second movie and immediately wanted to write a young justice version. Like core four get sucked into superhero video game and have to save the world to get home yfm?

Tim would be the little nerd boy who knows way too much about the superhero world and games and other braniac shit and he picks the Red Robin character. Same backstory minus the capes and the Waynes. Neglectful parents, self worth issues, all that fun stuff that makes nerdy movie kid wanna stay in the game at the end of the first movie.

Kon is the Fridge character. Jock, too cool for this shit, not that bad just a little too absorbed in his own shit and invests his worth in how good of an athlete he is instead of anything else. Probably not a clone, but divorced dads and maybe living with Lex? Definitely falls for Tim and fully refuses to deal with that until they almost die together.

Cassie is the pretty girl. Her family and family friends all seem so close to each other but she feels like an outsider as the only one not born in their hometown and having an absent father. She's prob like an Instagram model and uses the pretty girl stereotype to outrun her loneliness and self worth struggle. Might be kinda fun to have her and Kon be estranged exes too.

Bart is the socially awkward but equally chill girl. He's a little out there and tends to just speak without thinking which gets him in trouble. He's not a loner exactly but he's a niche interest that not many in their boarding school are into. He's super smart when he wants to be and really good at going with the flow. Only a little bothered by the way he can't make close friends like the rest of his big family.

Might actually fuck around and write this one too I never do lighthearted fics

[localcanadiancreature62]

My stance on how i treat my blorbos ISN'T "I can fix them" "I can make them worse". It's actually "I'll break them and THEN fix them". Like they'll go through the most traumatic, unimaginable horrors ever and they'll get therapy as well as a drinky drink if they were a good sport about the Horrors™. You see i like to see my faves heal,but to see them heal i have to hurt them.

Rant under the cut.

I'm not like other angst writers who are allergic to happiness *looks at my mutuals Aria and Angst*. They just have to go through a horrifically terrible time before having a good time. I literally give all of my faves more baggage than they already have only to fix it soon after pfft. Also i don't like sad endings,i physically cannot write them, because i will Cry. Like what even is the point of making them go through the Horrors if they come out as an unrecognizable husk after?. I break them and i fix them,but other people just break them break them break them break them break them until there's nothing left. Like i get where you're coming from. Becoming totally changed by trauma that there's no coming back is interesting. But like,bruh. Not my cup of tea. K rant over. Thank you for listening to my ted talk.

[meltovv]

"Come on Ashley, we said, we wouldn't do this."

[captaincrazycreative]

HolyGhost au where they're a 1950s couple trapped in a miserable heterosexual marriage who've been trying to poisen each other for the past decade

[dracocheesecake]

I love you characters with crooked/imperfect teeth (Kai and the Chameleon specifically)

Her little teef gap 🥺💚💖💚💖

Him chipped teefs 🥺💚💖💚💖

[discocandles]

"i can fix them." "I can make them worse." I can make them cringe. I can annoy the shit out of them.

[suzistan420]

Be the zhaoko you want to see in the world.

Note: I need to get a better camera, I use a second hand 5 year old Android phone and it shows.

[agonizingdespair]

"I can fix them" "I can make them worse"

I can't make them worse because they're already at the very bottom, but so am I which is why I like them. We're gonna go be evil monsters together now, only sparing one another because we find the sheer twisted malice we possess commendable and attractive. Kindred spirits in sadism and chaos!

[idonotbitemythumbatyou]

hey! i really love your fic but i’m just wondering if you could hint at all about how everyone will end up. right now it feels like everyone will get a nice satisfying ending or show some growth or near happiness except for tom and greg. which is kind of a reverse of the show’s ending i guess. just curious thanks!

(The fic in question : The Kids)

Oh this is an interesting question, and I suppose it depends on what you mean by a happy ending. I actually think there’s been a lot of character growth for Greg (and Tom - but he’s not a POV character in this fic until the epilogue). Greg has done more self reflection than I think is even realistic for him - all because I self-indulgently wanted to write my thoughts about him (and Ewan) somewhere.

 The thing to remember is that not all character growth is positive. Connor, for example, experiences negative character growth in The Kids - but he’s perfectly happy doing so.*

For a short answer of whether Tom and Greg will be “happy” in the end of The Kids, that’s a resounding “no.” Wait! Don’t walk away!! It’s not out of malice or because I want to punish them. I’m simply following what I think would happen next, and what choices I think the characters would make next. 

I would also disagree with the premise that Tom and Greg end up in a happy place in the show. I think I might be in the minority in the fandom - and certainly among tomgreg shippers - but I didn’t see the stickering as all that romantic and positive. I found it thrillingly fucked up, but not sweet. 

Throughout the show, Tom is his most vulnerable and human in front of, and for the sake of, Greg. And Greg shows himself over and over again to be literally-just-some-20-something-guy, and not equipped to receive all that emotional energy. The finale brings all that to a head and, I think, cements them into an entirely new dynamic. Tom is now powerful enough to have whatever he wants - but his emotions are a greater liability than they were before. He wants to keep Greg, but for his own safety, has to compartmentalize him into an object, thus muffling his affection for Greg into the affection one would have for an object. To me, that is a fascinating place to pick up a relationship, and part of the reason I had the physical element of the relationship only start at the finale of the show. But I do recognize that most people interpreted that moment differently. 

The reason the siblings have shown such growth so quickly in my fic is because the cage door opened for them in the finale.** But Tom and Greg both still work at the poison factory, and if there’s one thing the show taught us, it’s that the only way to be happy is to not work at the goddamn poison factory.

I don’t want to spoil the final chapter and whether Greg actually leaves and goes to college, or stays with Waystar - and thus Tom - but to realistically consider options:

I don’t see Tom ever leaving his CEO position without being forced out. He worked too hard to win, and it’s more important to him than his own happiness. So Tom will continue to be satisfied but largely unhappy. Sorry Tom, buddy. You’re my favorite character. But you made this prison for yourself. 

If Greg goes, he and Tom are no longer together, but Greg has a real chance at happiness, if not the satisfaction of being mega rich and powerful (though he’ll still be ridiculously wealthy). This is by far the best outcome for Greg, and worst for Tom. But if Greg chooses this, he will be unhappy in the short term, and end the story unhappily.

If Greg stays, he and Tom will stay together, but they will never be open about the relationship. It will probably be an open secret in future decades, but eventually Tom will be too rich and powerful for anyone to say anything about it. They will not be happy, but they will be satisfied. 

To me, character truth is the most important thing when writing a fic, and it was love for the characters that inspired me to write The Kids in the first place. So it just depends on whether you find my interpretations of the characters truthful, and if not truthful, then at least interesting. 

-----

*In the next chapter, I even have a moment where Greg thinks “Maybe it was a sign that he was growing as a person that he had developed enough self awareness to realize:” and then he says just the worst, most regressive, self-own imaginable. It’s bad, but it’s still growth. It's still coming to a new conclusion based on new experiences.

**though the cage door is only open temporarily for Shiv. After maternity leave, she's doing a perfect swan dive right back into the poison vats. And she, too, will continue to be miserable. yay. :(

[dudefromwormhole]

"I can fix them" "I can make them worse" WELL HOW ABOUT "I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT FIX THEM HOWEVER I CAN SLOW THEIR CRIME RATE DOWN"

[beliscary]

chewing on the concept of the "conductor of light" like bubblegum

[foxsinstoxins]

Between my revived love for Endeavor, Brock Samson keeping me locked in a chokehold, Grimmjow being all over my dashboard, and my love for angry men who are trying to redeem themselves, I have been DYING of THIRST and I YEARN TERRIBLY

[butteryheart]

Don’t bang the off putting guys—

WHY NOT I NEED THEM 😭

[mythical-lotus]

"I can make them worse" demon making sure their still-living mortal partner goes to hell when they die so they can keep hanging out