#I need some time. I thought about working on a meta today but I just couldn’t

[raelle-writing]

Hope you’re doing ok! Sending lots of love your way! 💕

Thank you 🥺 tbh I’m not doing well. All the hate Kerri and I got on twitter yesterday really impacted me and my mental health. Kinda ruined the show for me tbh - hopefully it doesn’t last. I haven’t been able to write meta or fic at all today, I’ve just been reading a book and watching TV.

It’s shit like this that gets under my skin. These people seek ME out and come to MY account to reply to me and say this shit when I’m usually just writing analyses or theories. This one in particular was in reply to me calling out a mutual for saying that I needed to “touch grass and stop normalizing things” because we said on our fan account that we can understand why Phee and Jin act the way they do and that they were stupid kids so we don’t want to condemn them for it. They replied to me saying that, and to our fan account saying we’re shitty. They don’t follow me or the account. They just sought us out to do that.

We had to post an entire clarification that when we analyze and explain things we’re not normalizing them or saying they’re okay, we’re just talking about the details of the show.

I KNOW Jin has done bad things. I’ve never said he didn’t. So has Non and Phee and literally every other character in the show. But the only people getting their morality questioned about it are people who like Jin. It’s infuriating.

And while they’re out there making us feel like shit for relating to or enjoying characters, they’re also cheering for New to murder everyone. And when we Jin defenders pointed out that Murder Is Also Bad and turned the moral mirror back on them for being sanctimonious hypocrites they just pointed and laughed and said “why are you watching the murder show if you don’t want murders?”

This fandom fucking sucks and I’m not sure I want to participate in it anymore.

Sorry for the rant, thank you for the message 🥺

[zeb-z]

“bad and pierre were the heroes of today the server will never know how they sacrificed their reputation to save everyone 😞” yeah and they will never know either, what are you talking about. they made their decisions without having any of the information elquackity had - there were no heroes making a difficult decision to save who they could save. there was no honor in their actions today. bad assumed everyone would be using the same underhanded tactics he planned on using. pierre just wanted to win, survival his priority even if it meant the cost of the others. any so called “heroism” was entirely accidental.

[baambastic]

“Drake,” Damian announced, “I require your presence at an outing this afternoon.”

“‘Hello, Tim, how are you?’ ‘I’m good, Damian, and how about you? Did you need something?’ It’s usually considered polite not to walk in and immediately make demands of people, Damian,” Tim replied from where he was hunched over his keyboard. He didn’t look over at his unexpected visitor, but he bet the brat was rolling his eyes.

“Whatever. Will you do it or not?”

Tim hummed. “Depends on what this ‘outing’ is. And why you didn’t ask Bruce or Dick to take you.”

“Father and Grayson are both imbeciles,” Damian huffed.

“They’re too busy today, you mean?”

“I meant what I said. Are you an imbecile like they are?”

“Again, you haven’t told me what it is you want to do.”

“Fine,” Damian grumbled. “Colin has asked me to do something called an ‘escape room’ with him. It sounded mildly diverting, so I looked into it. There’s a recently opened establishment for such an activity, but we need four people to participate.”

“And you want me to be one of those four,” Tim concluded. He pushed himself away from the computer. “I’ve got time, so sure, I’ll come with. Two things, though.” He paused for dramatic effect.

Damian crossed his arms impatiently. “Yes?”

Tim grinned. “First, who’s this Colin?”

“An acquaintance. He assisted me in apprehending Victor Zsasz not long ago.”

“Is he around your age?”

“Approximately.”

Was he some sort of meta, then? How else would a (presumably untrained) kid be able to handle Zsasz? Tim decided to file that away for later inspection. At least it sounded like Damian was making friends. He definitely needed some. “Alright then, second thing. You said you needed four people. Even with me, you only have three. Who’s your fourth?”

Damian looked away. “I… hadn’t gotten that far yet.” Was that embarrassment Tim heard in his voice? Damian was usually too proud for that.

“Okay, not a problem. I can wrangle us another person.” If the person he was thinking of could make it, both Damian and them could get a lot out of this. Hurrah for two birds with one escape-room-shaped stone.

“Very well. Colin and I will be waiting outside for you. I presume this fourth person will meet us at the establishment?”

“Probably, yeah. Did you really leave Colin on my doorstep?”

“He did not want to enter, I would say because he thought he might be unwelcome. A stupid notion; you are far too trusting.”

“Thanks,” Tim said drily. He waved towards the door. “Alright, lemme make this call.”

Damian nodded and walked away. Before fully exiting the room, though, he turned back to Tim. “What are you working on, anyway?” he asked.

Tim hummed. “Nothing much. Just preparing.” He didn’t offer any further explanation. After a few moments of waiting expectantly, Damian huffed and left.

[apiptosis]

I still have no clue how Tumblr works but here's part 3

The third member to meet Danny is none other than our resident Demon brat.

It was rare that Damian could truly relax. In the league he had to constantly be the perfect heir, the perfect assassin. When his mother got him out it was just as hard when he had to compete with four adopted brothers, Gordon, Brown and the infamous Cassandra Cain.

It was difficult to find someone who could understand him and what he had been through and still put up with his bulshit. Damian was man enough to admit that his own attitude did not help him so when he found someone who would, whom he could let down his walls with, he grasped on with both hands.

"You seem to be thinking quite hard there Damian." A soft voice drew him from his thoughts. Damian looked her deep in her eyes freely let her peer at his thoughts. He knew she would not pry unless needed but he freely gave this.

"Just reminded myself how fortunate I was to have you." Damian admitted while they sat at their impromptu picnic.

It was rather rare for them to have dates in Gotham but today was a rare time where it was possible. The smog that always filled Gotham was almost completely absent today here in the forest at the edge of the Wayne property and perhaps most importantly, his father was off world with Cain and Grayson.

While most of the public believes Batman has a 'no metas allowed' rule, it was most certainly not true. What is true however is that his father is an overprotective idiot at times and would hover/spy onto their date.

"Dam-"

Whatever Raven was about to say was interrupted by a small sonic boom from just outside of the property that had both of them on their feet, their little picnic forgotten.

All too soon they found the source. A behemoth of a man was playing with a giant dog?

"Drop the stick boy!" The green beast dropped a log for want of a better word. "Good boy, wanna go again?" The beast gave a bark like artillery fire, tail waving like rotor blades. The man pick up the log and launched as though it was a javelin with a "Fetch Cujo!"

With one last artillery bark the beast bound after with great speed.

The man let out a deep sigh as he fell back into the shade of the nearby tree. "Man I wish I had more off days like this. Mhmmm, people? Hello there. Didn't think there would be people this far out. I'm Danny."

The man, Danny, waved as he lazily greeted them from where he lay on his bag in the shade. Danny lay so openly and without care that they could easily observe him.

Danny was very obviously a meta, his lazy smile with far too many sharp teeth, elfin ears and skin that was almost paler than Raven's. Most glaring was his height at seven and a half feet and shoulders nearly half as broad. (see Drake I can learn your freedom units)

"Damian" "Rachel" they introduced themselves.

"You two out on a date? It's one of my rare days off so I was planning one myself but unfortunately my girlfriend's dad needed help so she's out of town with him and her brother." Danny offered up freely. There was no hostile intent as far as Damian could tell. 'His intentions are true and there is no amniosity. His mind is well protected though.' Raven shared with telepathy.

"I take it your job is rather taxing?" Damian prodded.

Danny snorted "Nah man, I'm a university student, Aerospace engineering. The degree is kicking my ass but that's due to the amount of stuff I have to do. It's like they are afraid that I will have free time because I swear some of my projects and tests aren't for engineering.

Last week I had to write a chem exam and yesterday I had to submit a project that I'm pretty sure was a business model in disguise. If my luck holds out I might get a psych test next week. Ugh I'm already half dead, now their trying to get me to fully dead."

That was... concerning. It sounds like danny was possible rogue material and the university was trying their best to keep him from actually going rogue.

"So your taking a break and playing with you dog?" Raven asked.

"Yeah, Cujo is a sweetheart but it's hard to play with him here since people keep attacking him when he's in his large form." Danny explained as the dog bounded back without his stick. Worryingly there was a bit of blood on him. The dog had obviously been in a fight.

"Again buddy? Why can't they just leave you alone. Let's see what it's this time." Cujo dropped a finger on the ground with a very familiar green ring.

"He's a rescue I suppose but he was originally a guard dog and he was trained to disarm people when they attack him so I keep having to stash away guns and the like. With how crazy some people are I really should be prepared for things like this."

The ring seemed to sluggishly work it's way off of the finger before shooting straight for Danny.

"Daniel Fenton of -"Danny swiped the ring out of the air and held it in a tight grip. "Nah ah, I already have one green magic ring and I don't want a talking one on top of that!"

Danny rummaged through his bag before pulling out his thermos that smelled like coffee and chugged it like he was drakes long lost twin and managing to seal it into the thermos.

"There, I'll figure out what to do with that later."Sigh."well I guess we can talk at a later time but after that I'm heading home. Cujo shrink!"

The massive beast of a dog deflated like a balloon till it was the size of a small dog, happily trudging sfter it's owner as they hiked in the direction of Gotham.

With a glance to Raven, he confirmed that she was just as bewildered by the interaction as he was. Eventually they returned to their date, no use in letting odd encounters ruin their day, but Damian kept the name in the back of his head for now.

Later that night Damian found himself in the watchtower, going for the terminal so he could research this Daniel Fenton. He would have done this at home but Drake hogged the bat computer, nou doubt pinning after his coffee crush.

Along the way he found a small congregation of heroes trying to drown out Guy Gardner but also had to listen to his report as his hand was quite bandaged and missing a finger...

"On my patrol I nearly got Final destinationed by a flying log and then I got attacked by a green beast that wouldn't go down no matter what I thew at it. To make matters worse it was able to bite off my ring!" Guy complained incessantly.

Suddenly it made perfect sense why Danny was so upset but accepting of people attacking Cujo. How many times has this happened to him? How many times had the guy patched up his dogs wounds because people attacked him. How many of those time was it a hero who attacked Cujo? Damian could feel for both Danny and his dog.

"Sounds like you attacked a dog playing fetch and got upset when you couldn't hurt a dog for playing. Neutralizing an attacker's weapon is the bare basics of any guard dog's training." Damian found himself snapping at the man. Superman nodding along with him.

"Robin is right, while I am very concerned about you losing your ring, I am also concerned that you would attack a dog for playing fetch. I do the same with Crypto." Superman chastised Guy sternly.

[hoodielord]

Green eyes in the fear fog.

For half a second, Steph thought today would be a decent day. But no, not in Gotham.

Steph's current events professor, who was also the head of student affairs, had offered extra credit to help give college tours. Look, she had to take the extra credit she had to, even if it meant that she had to be a tour guide. It wasn't hard, just annoying.

The group was small, only five people, but two of them stuck out. A brother and sister. The brother was the definition of adoption bait blue eyes, black hair, vigilante tendencies withholding. The sister was at least as tall as Jason. She had orange hair just like Babs, you'd think they were related.

Anyways, Steph's new mission was to make sure the kid and Dick never met. The kid would not stop making puns. Some of them earned him a laugh but some earned him a smack from his sister.

"Aw, come on, Jazz, it was funny."

"You can do better." she shrugged.

" Sounds like a challenge." A wicked smirk appeared on his face.

" Danny, please don't."

"Challenge accepted."

Yep, I'm definitely keeping him away from Dick.

But something was off about them other than looking at the crime capital's university. They could probably be metahumans. Their eyes seemed to slightly glow blue. They carried themselves as they had already expected danger. I mean, it pays to be prepared, especially in Gotham, but they aren't from here.

If the siblings weren't already on a list B has they should be now. Jazz had been almost ecstatic when we were moving through the psychology department. Danny was practically bouncing off the walls when it was time to go through the engineering and physics departments. Definitely should keep an eye on them.

It was reaching the end of the tour in the cafeteria. Another weird thing about the siblings was their reaction to food. They seemed to have this sort of optimistic curiosity like they were happy to have food to eat, but at the same time, they were poking to make sure it wouldn't attack or something.

Talking with the siblings was interesting too. Danny was buzzing about the engineering department. He went into a great rant about a project that Wayne Enterprises was working on in the aerospace engineering division. Maybe she should keep him away from Tim, too.

The conversation died quickly when a shriek rang out from down the hall. Steph turned quickly to see green fear toxin fill the cafeteria. Swarms of people ran for the exits knocking each over. She quickly dug through her bag and pulled out her gas masks, one for her and her backup.

"Jazz? Jazz, where did you go?" Danny called. They must have gotten separated.

Damn, she needed another one for the siblings. She shoved her spare into Danny's hands.

" Put the mask on and head for the exit."

"But I need to find Jazz."

"I'll find her. Put the mask on and go." Steph yelled as she went further into the fog. Quickly, she sent an alert to Oracle. Signal is on patrol right now, but more bats might show up.

It was dense she could barely see in front of her. There was some noise up ahead. Someone was screaming. The yelling grew louder as she rounded the corner.

"Stop! Get away!"

It was Jazz. She was practically growling. Her fist slammed into the concrete wall, leaving a deep impact. She was clearly affected by the Fear gas. A meta affected with fear gas, not good.

"Stop! Don't hurt him. He's not a monster! He's my little brother!" Jazz had gone from fury to sadness as she practically begged for her hallucination to stop haunting her.

If it wasn’t the meta thing it was whatever she was hallucinating that caught Steph’s attention. Definitely on B's list now.

"Isn't it interesting what fear does to the mind?"

Steph saw Scarecrow emerge from the fog.

"I saw you in the psychology department. Your eyes lit up like a fire. But now they are clouded with fear."

A chill went up Steph's spine. She quickly checked her mask for leaks but didn't have any. Turning her attention back to Jazz and Scarecrow, she saw something. Green eyes shifted inside the fog. They looked like a predator hunting its prey. For a second, they look like Jason's.

From behind Scarecrow, the eyes stopped, and a figure emerged. A baseball bat slammed into Scarecrow's face, knocking him to the floor. The figure came into full view now. It was Danny his eyes were glowing green.

He knelt down to Scarecrow.

"You really don't have any brains. Do you Scarecrow? If you did, you wouldn't have hurt my sister." His voice was downright, frigid.

He turned and rushed over to Jazz who was still trying to convince her hallucinations to stop.

"Jazz, it's okay. Come on, I'm fine. It's okay." His voice was soft and gentle as he helped her up. Jazz mumbled a little as she stumbled down the hall.

Steph quickly caught up to the siblings slinging Jazz's arm over her shoulder.

"Sorry, I couldn't help earlier," Steph spoke quietly.

"It's fine. Not everybody can be a hero."

Steph wanted to laugh at the irony of that statement, but she just nodded.

"Sorry about the tour too."

"It wasn't all bad."

" Oh, the rouge attack and poisoning wasn’t bad?" Steph asked sarcastically.

" Our hometown is haunted and our community college is funded by my godfather. And he is a rich fruit loop.”

‘Ghosts?’

“You know Gotham University is funded by Wayne Enterprises right?”

“Annoying crazy fruit loop or weird himbo? Hmmm. Yeah, I’m going to have to go with the himbo on this one.”

Steph laughed at that one. Bruce is going to want to hear about this but she’ll keep him away from these siblings for a little while.

[actual-changeling]

Welcome back to Alex's unhinged meta corner, and today I have something surprisingly not kiss-related—though it is still about the final fifteen because hey, gotta keep the brand image.

I read this post by @goodoldfashionednightingale and began typing a small response. Then I made the mistake of drinking half a litre of coffee on an empty stomach right after taking my adhd meds and my brain began vibrating at the speed of light.

But oh, have I discovered parallels. This, my friends, is about the nightingale, where it comes from, what it means, and what the fuck happened in part 3 of 1941.

Ready? Let's go.

Now, as OP said in her post, s1e3 is important. In the script book, Neil himself says that these flashbacks are where the producers would tell him to cut scenes to save money. They suggested every single one—except for the one he ended up taking out, which was the bookshop opening scene set in 1800. The others are building blocks, you need them to see how their relationship progressed and what kind of important milestones they had.

(side note: author is very miffed that english does not have a separate subjunctive form like german which makes quoting lines way more confusing than it has to be)

The one I want to mention is neither 1941 nor 1967. No, what I want to talk about is 1601. This might be about to get a bit rambly but I will do my best to keep it tidy.

The focus of that flashback is on the Arrangement, yes, but it gives us a lot more information than that.

they both see Shakespeare's plays regularly, maybe even meet in the crowd

Crowley prefers the comedies

Aziraphale does not seem to have a preference, he enjoys the tragedies and presumably the comedies too

there is an oyster woman selling food -> reference to their meeting in Rome when Aziraphale tempted him to try some oysters

Aziraphale reflexively denies their relationship

Crowley might say he is not worried but circles Aziraphale the entire time, keeping watch

they both ask favours of each other and both agree to do them

What stands out to me in relation to what I am about to expand on is the line that Crowley delivers after Aziraphale's little 'buck up'—which Crowley finds adorable btw but that's a post for another time.

"Age does not wither nor custom stale his infinite variety."

Why would he say that? What exactly is prompting this? WHY say that specific line?

At first I thought it might be to tempt Shakespeare because he does commit art theft by just copying that line down, BUT I think there is more to that. So much more, in fact. I am wiggling now because I am very excited about this and my adhd meds are kicking in anyway.

First things first: the line itself.

It appears in Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra, a romantic tragedy, which was first performed in 1607 aka six years after this meeting. Enobarbus is talking about Cleopatra and describing why Antony won't leave her. Her.

Ccrowley uses his—again, who is he even talking about? Hamlet? Shakespeare? Random poetic quote?

No, I think this line is about Aziraphale and it's a code. Right after, the next line from Aziraphale is "What do you want?", meaning that this is their code phrase for 'I have a favour to ask of you'.

Age does not wither nor custom stale his infinite variety

Age will not affect his appearance nor will he ever become boring to Antony. Crowley, who later chooses the name Anthony for himself, tells Aziraphale, an immortal, that he will never age and that he will never grow bored of him.

It's flattery, pure and simple, and it's code at the same time. This establishes the important fact that they might use more of Shakespeare's work as code/already have a system in place (even though he steals Crowley's line for later).

They play their little morality game of back and forth, Aziraphale agrees, Crowley probably manipulates the coin toss, and THEN we find out that the oyster woman is called Juliet.

Why? What is the meaning of that? Why give her a name and that name in particular? Why bring the sexy oysters back into it?

Romeo and Juliet premiered in 1597, so it is safe to assume they have both seen it by 1601, but this is mostly for the audience, not for us-or is it?

Aziraphale gives Crowley puppy eyes until he agrees to make Hamlet popular, and while I don't think Juliet itself is a code word, although it's very interesting that the OYSTER woman is the one with that name (especially adding what we now know about Job), Romeo and Juliet might be.

Yes, the Nightingale song came out in 1940 but the bird has been around for much, much longer, and, as many probably know by now, also shows up in Romeo and Juliet.

This is where I am starting to vibrate at the speed of light because listen to me. Listen.

Crowley is Juliet. Anthony J. Crowley. Antony Juliet Crowley.

(side note: I'm not saying that Crowley chose it based on that—though I am not not saying that—but that it is a clue for us at the audience.)

Why do I think that? In the play, Romeo spends the night with Juliet and then goes to leave as the night begins to end. Juliet tries to stop him and tells him that the birds they are hearing aren't larks, which sing at dawn, but nightingales, which sing at night.

Who is the one always pushing for more? Crowley. He is the one trying to convince Aziraphale it's safe, they're safe to spend time together.

Romeo disagrees with Juliet and says 'I must be gone and live, or stay and die'.

Leave and stay alive, or stay and hell/heaven will punish us. It gets even better though.

We all know how Romeo and Juliet ends: Romeo thinks Juliet is dead, kills himself, Juliet finds him and then kills herself too.

Hey, do you know how Antony and Cleopatra ends?

Antony thinks Cleopatra is dead, kills himself and dies in her arms, then Cleopatra also kills herself—by snake poison; Romeo also died by poison.

The parallels are THERE. They are jumping down our throats! Two tragedies, two sides, several familiar names and phrases, same fear, same ending.

I think by now you can guess how this ties back to 1941.

We do not see how that night ends, but we know it ends. One of them wants to stretch it out, maybe even quotes Romeo and Juliet because look at the setting!

Candlelight, wonderful night they spend together, the threat of Crowley's early demise, and, to quote the play once more, this time Romeo: I have more care to stay than will to go.

Crowley thought it was his last night on earth and went with Aziraphale to his bookshop, to be with him, because he cares more about that than the fact that he will be dragged to hell come morning. Do you remember?

"Expect a legion to come for you first thing tomorrow" THAT is the threat. They have until dawn, just like Romeo and Juliet, which is why she is so desperate for the birds to be nightingales. Fortunately for them, Aziraphale saves the day, BUT there is NO SECURITY. They do not KNOW if a legion will still show up or not. If dawn is a deadline and they will need to fight.

Sure, they improved their chances, but who knows? Maybe they will come for him anyway, it's not like hell is all fair and square.

The best part: it gets even better.

Juliet eventually panics and tells him to go, and Romeo drops a line that huh, sounds oddly familiar, doesn't it?

'More light and light, more dark and dark our woes!'

Remind me, what does Aziraphale say again? Ah, yes. Perhaps there is something to be said for shades of grey.

There is more. Yes, even more. We know the whole rescue relies on a magic trick, a switch. Guess what Juliet yearns for while telling Romeo to go save himself?

Oh, now I would they had changed voices too. While they did not for Romeo and Juliet—they kiss and part—they did for our two. One fabulous switch and we're good.

(side note: Toads? Associated with hell. Larks? Associated with the dawn, yes, but also heaven since Romeo says 'Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat the vaulty heaven so high above our heads.')

So, this was a whole lot of information, let's see if I can summarize my thoughts.

I believe the nightingale is a code word that has existed even before 1941 and gained a lot of importance over the years. In 1941, the song is added to the meaning and whatever happened between the two that we have not seen yet, it fundamentally changed their relationship. Maybe they kissed, maybe one of them tried to convince the other to prolong the night but they parted on not-great terms.

The nightingale and the song become a symbol of hope, a goal to achieve, another uninterrupted night, maybe, or an uninterrupted life.

When they part in the final fifteen, it's morning. Crowley points at the sky and says "no nightingales", which at that point has several different layers to it.

No nightingales because their night is over, just like with Romeo and Juliet, and please, please allow me to add another detail, because I am frothing at the mouth over this. The scene I quoted, known as balcony scene, do you know what it is preceded by?

A ball.

Star-crossed lovers defying their sides, falling in love at a ball, getting a hurried, wonderful night together but torn apart by danger of punishment, the nightingale as a dream, as a wish for unhurried time together. Family rejection, torn apart by parents, willing to die for each other so they can reunite in death.

No nightingales. The ball, the romance, is over, their dancing is over, heaven is tearing them apart, and Aziraphale returns to heaven while they are both stuck in a pit of misunderstanding and miscommunication, all bound together by fear for each other.

The thing is, Crowley hates tragedies, he never liked the "gloomy ones", and he does not want them to end in one—luckily, this isn't the end. Yes, they kiss and part, but the play keeps going. We have an entire act 3 to fix what Romeo and Juliet couldn't, to ensure that this is a COMEDY, not a tragedy.

Both Antony & Cleopatra and Romeo & Juliet died out of fear, hurried into making bad decisions because they knew what would happen if their sides were to catch up with them.

Crowley and Aziraphale can reunite heaven and hell with love, not death. This is THEIR story and they are writing the ending. No more day and night, no more deadlines, no more hiding and sneaking about, no more fear of larks and sunshine.

Good Omens will end the way it began: In a garden with two no-longer-star-crossed lovers embracing the song of a lark as well as that of the nightingale.

I hope this made sense to everyone who was no present while my mind started to vibrate itself into a puddle because the thing is I can see Neil doing all of this completely on purpose.

Thoughts? Questions? Additions? Come and join me in my insanity and until next time I have a mental breakdown over this show (probably in like two hours).

[magickizu]

The New Girl

Crossover dp x dc. So I've got this time line in mind, for my crossover AU and this is a snippet of it. Will post more of it; will make a master post at some point soon.

In order to further Damian's social skills, keep up illusions and maybe in an attempt to give the boy some form of normality in his life Bruce negotiated with him to attend High School. The only condition Damian set, on which he would not budge, was that Jon and him will attend the same school, to not start off completely alone.

When a new girl got transferred to their school, who happened to share a majority of their classes, a few things changed for both boys.

Math is boring. High school in general is boring. Not to mention, that he already knows most, if not nearly all of what the teachers say anyway! It's just frustrating... Especially, ever since his classmates found out who he was, which didn't take that long due to public appearances of the Wayne family. So many people, try to be cool or smart or pretty in front of him for his attention, to gain his favour and with that his status. The same shallow talks and compliments from galas and high social events. Honestly, if Jon wasn't here to make it bearable in any way, chances are Damian would have made sure, his first day would've been his last.

Not to mention the materials taught here are so dry for the most part. There are things and concepts that are good, sure... But for the most part? It felt so useless. When would someone like him, someone who was going into the medical field, ever going to need to know that in Poe's works-

Damian sighs. It's Monday morning and math is supposed to start soon, the first double period of the day. He already sits in his chair, materials open. He can hear a particularly noisy group of girls chit chatting about 'grand, expensive weekend getaways' and how 'school is so easy right now', as they deliberately sit a row in front of him... tt, a special form of mental torture, that he has to go through alone for now, as Jon actually had a doctor's appointment and it takes a while to fly back. The rumbling comes to a halt, as the teacher walks in, yet picks up in hushed whispers again, as a new girl steps in behind the teacher. After a few shared thoughts the class quieted down, as the teacher stood behind his desk,

"Class, from today on we have a new student with us, I expect your best behaviour only. Would you introduce yourself, please?" The teacher turned to the girl, she looked at him for a moment then sighed.

"'kay... Hi, I'm Ellie Nightingale. I uh... Just moved here with my family from Wisconsin and yeah..." As she talks, it's definitely clear; she has a thin midwestern twang but strong enough to notice, a light tan and soft freckles. Although the black hair and blue eyes do seem familiar... But the white streaks, that didn't really look natural, throws him off and the electric blue in her eyes, that barely balances the line to normal; even Kryptonians have a more natural blues. Yet Damian just knows, if he wasn't so observant, he could have missed it. Just a meta, he thinks.

"Well, welcome to Gotham Academy Ellie. Go and take a seat, please." The teacher says, the Nightingale girl nods and scans the room for a free seat. The girls in front of him started to cackle already, tt how moronic... Yet he does nothing to clear the seat next to him, even though he knows fullwell that the seat next to him is one of the two empty seats. But he is not about to sacrifice his -somewhat- peace here, for no good reason, and so the lesson begins.

The teacher introduced a new topic, as he spoke and explained, Damian noticed the girls in front of him giggling and then he saw it: a paper ball zooming through the room, hitting the new girl in the head in a moment of inattentiveness from the teacher. Well that's just rude and unnecessary, she didn't even do anything yet. Damian rolled his eyes at these childish antics. Throughout the rest of this double period of math, the behaviour continued; paper balls thrown, cackling into her direction and one of them, Sabrina Portman, made snide comments towards her. Damian just observed, of course he'd intervene if it became too serious, but Nightingale held herself quite well so far, ignoring it well. At least until the teacher had to leave the classroom for a very brief moment, leaving the students unsupervised for only a few minutes.

"Hey, soo... you're really from Minnesota or something?" Portman asked, the class just watched.

"Wisconsin, actually." Nightingale spoke, without looking up from her text book. Good priorities, he admitted to himself. The girls giggle.

"So did you like grow up on a farm or something? Because you kinda look it, country bumpkin." Damian scoffed silently, the rest of the class seemed to snicker at this. "How'd they even let you get in here? Because I kinda doubt, that a farm dweller like you could afford it. Sorry, not sorry." More snickering, Damian just gives Portman a snide and slightly disgusted side glance. At least Jon isn't here to hear this, that boy would be furious. ...on second thought, that is really not acceptable in any form-

"Ow, ou, ouch! That sting! That burn!" Nightingale threw herself over dramatically onto her table, just to prop herself up again, grinning with a weird mix of mischief and indifference. "Be honest, two entire periods and this is the best you can come up with? Well I guess you're right, I wouldn't wanna pay the amount of people necessary to educate you either." Damian blinked, the rest of class looked dumbfounded, Portman seemed absolutely flabbergasted. Yet the raven after a moment of silence, couldn't help the very subtle way the corners of his mouth would form an infinitesimal smile. Then his breath hitched, as their eyes met directly, time stood still for the moment as did his heart, skipping a beat only to make up for it, by beating faster. But it was over just as fast as it came by. This feeling, still stuck in his throat like a lump he can only hardly swallow, the tingling in his head and stomach. He drew in a sharp breath, it hit him, ran through him like a shock. A feeling he knew all too well... Could it have to do with her powers? It had to be, she must be a meta, that's the only explanation. The slight metallic taste, similar to blood, of the feeling, still lingering on the back of his tongue and down his throat, his heart just slowly calmed again and now he understood it wasn't just stunned silence filling the room in-between his classmates. It was something else:

Pure fear.

Damian had to keep an eye on the new girl, just to make sure nothing happened...

"You did what!?" Jon gasped in utter disbelief, gaining a confused look from his best friend. They sat in the cafeteria, Damian sat them down in a spot to keep watch over the new meta. To be ready, just in case. But for the moment right now, the kriptonian in front of him held his attention.

"I didn't...-" He got cut off by said half alien.

"Exactly! You didn't do anything- honestly Dami, you see someone get bullied and you do nothing??" The boy bit down on his snack carrots in a huff, the clear disappointment still on his face. The other also huffed.

"In my defence, she handled herself very well, there was no need for me to step in and help-"

"Damian..." The bigger one laid his head into his hands and sighed, defeated. Sometimes Jon really wished Damian's vast knowledge would also incorporate a few more social skills, on the other hand he's probably never seen real bullying. "It is. This is bullying. And you step in, not because they can't handle themselves, but to show comradery and that they are not alone."

"Hm..." Jon was right, he himself thought what happened was truly unacceptable, as Damian took another bite of the breakfast Alfred made him. "You're right... I suppose I should apologise for my incorrect behaviour yesterday." It had been rather quiet the rest of yesterday and for the most part of today, except that Portman's friend group talked about her in hushed tones. One glance over, Nightingale sat alone at a corner table headphones in and scrolling through her phone while sipping on a juice box. Damian sighed defeated and made a motion to stand up, "Are you coming with me or would you prefer to stay seated?"

"Hm? Mmh... I'll join." Jon thought it over, maybe he can help Dami when he's got trouble putting his emotions into words.

Nightingales eyes shot up at the two boys immediately, as they stood in front of the table and Jon could feel a slight shudder down his spine... Damian didn't exaggerate, there's something almost sparking, not sparkling but like lightning sparking, in her truly electric blue eyes.

"Hello, Nightingale. I am Damian Wayne, this is my best friend Jon Kent, we share-"

"I know, same class. What do you want?" She cut him off, seemingly a little tense, training her eyes to keep either of them in view at all times. Both boys knew that look, yet they were a little taken aback by the harshness of her tone.

"...right." Damian cleared his throat, that bone chilling and irrational feeling comes back. "I wanted to apologise for my lack of comradery yester- and today as well. I should have at least said something, even if solely to stand up in solidarity." Slurping on the straw of her juice box, she listened, processed, only to look confused at them. Jon decided to say something,

"What he meant to say was, that it was not okay for you to be bullied and we will help if we see something happening. We also know it's hard to find new friends in new surroundings and if you'd like you could sit with us?" Damian nodded, Jon can put his thoughts better into words- at least for their civilian forms. Well... Damian has gotten better, he just likes that Jon knows what he means but as if he'd ever admitted to it. Vise versa too; Damian can formulate words better when there're reports and other hero related issues. Sure Jon learned over the years, but this just feels more comfortable and he likes how close it shows them to be.

Nightingale looks them up and down, her eyes narrow slightly, thinking, contemplating about something. "Thanks, but I'm fine. I can handle myself."

"Are you sure? We really don't mind-" Damian put a hand on Jon's shoulder, pulling the attention of the bigger one towards himself.

"The offer still stands. See you around, then." He nods and pulls Jon away, who looks confused.

"Why did you keep it so short? Sure, she was a little defensive, but..."

"Not just defensive, Jon. She kept her guard up constantly and walls sealed shut; this conversation would have led nowhere." Damian explained his observations, "trust me, I should know..." Recognition of this behaviour flares in his eyes and Jon understands immediately, nodding in understanding. Then a small smile forms on his face again, growing,

"Then we have to make actions, speak louder than words. And consistency is key! I mean, for how long did I annoy you, before you realised I wouldn't go?" Damian gave him an honest smile at the now fond memories, he hummed in agreement, which in turn earned a bright grin from the Kryptonian.

"It is settled, then. I also highly suspect she is a meta. If we get close enough, we can properly guide her to the good, when the time is right."

"Yes, let's go!" Jon laughed, that settled it most definitely for their plan,

Operation: The New Girl

Goal: befriend the new meta, before the wrong people get to her and use her powers for bad.

[wandixx]

Ghost of fries and Hero of cookies part 2

All work words count: 14 593

Words in this part: 1 794

Summary of whole work: Duke wasn't expecting to wake up from his quick rooftop nap to some meta kid with fries. He also wasn't expecting kid to stay Or Danny asked Dani to stay safe while she was in Gotham. Where would she be safer than under the wing of local hero? And he looked like he needed bad day combo anyway

This part summary: Of new names and teasing

Beta read by @audhumla-sailor though English is second language for both of us, so proceed with this in mind. I also know all of the charaters through fics alone, so probably ooc. Stay catious if it's something you don't like

First part

Duke knew that Dani was in their agreed meeting point, he even vaguely knew where she was floating but not much more. She used her invisibility, which was weird since she knew it didn't work correctly on him. It was fifth time they met, of course they knew. 

"Hey Signal, remember how you said that I need a codename if we're going to hang out in future and that all my previous ideas were horrible names?" a disembodied girly voice asked. Duke smiled. Ever since he raised the idea, the girl would come up with ridiculous names to be called, proposing them with absolutely straight face. It was expected from someone who thought Dani Phantom was a good alias. It didn't make her ideas any less amusing.

"Of course I do. Whatcha got for me today?"

"Alright, since you don't let me be a name stealer, I decided to take a sheet from local nightlife's notebook–"

"You mean take a leaf from their book?" He was sure she was rolling her eyes on him, but it didn't stop him. No one could maim English language like that with him around.

"Whatever. I chose to steal their idea and became a bird. It's only fair since I can actually fly!"

"Can't exactly disagree. So, what did you get this time?"

"You'll like that, I promise. But now, I introduce to you…"

Duke got ready to shut down every Robin iteration and all Birdgirls he could think of.

"HOOPOE!" Dani yelled, popping back to the visible spectrum. She was covered in bright orange cape with weirdly shaped hood and flimsy mask "I even did some costume changes to fit the name better–" in all honesty, one, yeah, he wasn't blind he realized, two, he needed a moment to remember how these birds looked (his first thought was 'wait it's a thing?!'). But then he got it and yeah, those were funny little creatures, just like Dani. It fitted her "–so even if you don't like it, it doesn't matter," she added, sticking her tongue out.

Duke patted her on the head. He was there, he knew it mattered.

"It's a great name Hoopoe"

Dani visibly though probably unconsciously, relaxed. Her mouth curved into a proud grin and her aura brightened. Normal auras didn't do that. He got used to Dani surprising him like that sometimes.

"Of course it's great, I made it."

Duke chose to not remind her about almost two dozen times she came up with absolutely not great names or about the fact that technically she didn't quite make this one either. He wasn't in such a petty mood. Maybe in future if he needed blackmail.

Oh, it was such a Bat thing, wasn't it? He needed to spend some more time with his civilian to get it out of himself, he liked his ability to interact with normal people in a healthy way. 

*

"Wait, is your mask a paper?"

"What else could it be, titanium?"

"If you stop three muggings on the next three patrols each I'll get you a better one, okay?"

"Hey, my mask is perfectly fine"

"Yeah, but it can tear too easily. I can get you a mask that is more sturdy."

"Aha."

"It's the same material every Robin and Nightwing wear…"

"Don't care, my mask is flawless"

"..."

"Okay, better mask would be cool"

***

On the third patrol Dani joined, about a week and a half ago, they exchanged numbers. Duke knew how hard it was to come to terms with new powers on one's own and God strike him with a lightning or something if he ever lets anyone go through similar bullshit. Especially since she didn't seem to have anyone taking care of her. Girl her age shouldn't be able to hang out or respond to messages within ten minutes at any given time. Only twice she didn't do that, because she was on a celebrity hunt for autographs as she later explained. He would be teased endlessly if any Wayne or their associate learned about it, but he considered introducing Dani to Bruce. She needed help, okay?! He didn't inherit adoption tendencies.

But he hadn't done that, partially because he didn't want to scare Dani off and partially because of fear of teasing. And bet. Because of course in the meantime somehow there happened a bet. 

He smirked at the video Dani sent as a response to the hydration check. She was tossing a coin and playing an elimination game to pick one juice from eight drinks she had. Steph jumped over the back of the couch to join him. At the start she was in front of him so to do that she had to run around the furniture but such minor inconveniences couldn't even wish to stop her dramatics.

"You're smiling at your phone ergo you either text your secret girlfriend/boyfriend/enbyfriend or watch memes. Show me the memes," she demanded, nudging him in the arm. Duke chuckled.

"Wrong guess. I'm texting my sidekick," they agreed it would be a funny way to introduce Dani to people who asked. Duke tried his best at this whole having sidekick thing anyway. As well as he could without help from other Bats because of this damn bet.

Steph froze for a moment.

"Your what–"

"And the lucky winner is… an apple with mint juice! Damn I really hoped it would be lemonade,"  Dani from the video announced cheerfully before opening the bottle" Shame it didn't make it past semi-finals. Happy hydration break. I'm going on an autograph hunt so I may not respond for the next two hours or so. Wish me luck, bye~"

Duke paused the video before it replayed. He glanced at Steph who finally rebooted.

"How come you got a kid and I learned about it just now?"

“In my defense I'm like 60% sure you're the second person in the family to learn about her. Depends if Tim got his ‘I have to know everything, gotta check body cams’ paranoid spree in the last two weeks or not. There was no teasing from Babs or anyone else if I'm being honest and no lecture from B, so they have no idea.”

“First was Alfred?”

“First was Alfred. I still don't know how.”

“That's our grandtler for you. You are forgiven but you have to tell me everything about her,” Steph demanded excitedly. “And show me the photos''

Duke snorted.

“She goes by Hoopoe and is about Damian's age. She can tell you her real name when B inevitably finds out and tries to interrogate her.”

“What if Spoiler drops by during the day?”

“You can try but give it another week and a day, okay?”

“Why?”

“We have bet that I'll hide her from B for three weeks. Tomorrow is the end of the second week. We both know how he is, he'll have questions if you randomly show up during the day."

"Stakes?"

"Speedster worth of winners favorite Batburger meal, 2 quarts of chosen drink and cookies"

"Valid. I ain't snitch, but I want to know more. Is she a meta?”

"Yeah. Powers I know of are invisibility, intangibility, superspeed, enhanced hearing and flight. Probably more. I think she already had some training with it because she has quite amazing control over this stuff. Like, it comes naturally to her. But her hand to hand is atrocious."

"Are you jealous?"

"No."

"Omg, you totally are! Don't be, she is just a baby with a better idea of what's going on with her powers than you have with yours. There is nothing to be mad about Duke, it's okay Duke–"

"Keep going and I won't tell you anything about her," he dared, trying not to snort. 

"Sorry, sorry, you're doing great, please continue," she nudged his arm again "Don't be such softie, dude" He stared at her at the comment, disbelief clear on his face. Steph at least then looked a little ashamed "Okay, sorry. You're honestly doing far better than any of us would. Excluding Cass and Alfred."

"Excluding Cass and Alfred," he agreed easily enough.

"So, you think your kid has some training with her powers," she recalled eagerly.

"Yeah, probably from when she was helping her cousin. He is a hero in Amity Park, Illinois, his name is Phantom. It took very little digging even though Hoopoe does her best to stay mysterious. I swear this kid has no brain-mouth filter. But! I got my second shovel talk from her cousin!”

“The what?”

“After a week of hanging out with her, I got message on Signal’s twitter from Phantom that basically read as ‘I have nothing against you, really dude I’m a fan but here is list of my most powerful enemies, and let me tell you, there were some scarily powerful guys there, I won with all of them, if something bad happens to Hoopoe I can and will destroy you.’ After some research, yes, I think he could try and have considerable chance of success. Even if he didn’t fight would be painful enough to be a lesson. He and Hoopoe have the same powers and she worked with him for some time. She most likely learned then. She was called Dani Phantom, boy went by Danny Phantom then”

“Dear gods, their aliases were so horrible, who even let them go with it?! Are those their first names?!” Steph sounded genuinely offended by it.

“I don’t know,” Yeah, he knew, but he preferred to keep at least this secret to himself ”In boy's defense, because Hoopoe came much later,  he was fourteen and Amity went to shit really fast, so alias was probably not his first concern. And it’s much better than Invioso-bill, name he was given by the press. And he uses some intense gaslighting to make people believe it’s just Phantom now. And allegedly they’re both ghosts. Apparently ghosts don’t exactly have secret identity”

“You doubt it”

“You would too. She eats, she breathes and she is tangible by default. From what I know, ghosts don’t do that”

“They don’t, I checked. I went on a research spree when I first learned about Deadman. I just thought it was so cool you know. Ghosts being real and all,” Steph leaned towards him, almost vibrating with anticipation.

“Really?” he asked, knowing what he was getting into.

“Yeah, you see…”

And on she went, releasing expected infodump as if she waited for this opportunity ever since she first read about it.

********

Some additional name getting shenanigans

Signal: I won't call you Dani in the field

Dani: Why?

Signal: Ever heard of secret identity? Name is, like, half of it. Disguise is other half but it can be exchanged with lore. Superman made it work. Just make up enough lore for people to not question it.

Dani: Oh, okay *gremlin^2 mode activated*

Random they just rescued: And who are you little one?

Dani: *looking them dead in the eyes* I am clone of dead child hero, travelling around the world to find identity separated from my template befre mistakes made during my creation make me turn into puddle of primordal liquid and my conciousness fades forever

Random: *petrified* What?

Signal: *internally* I have miscalculated

Dani: Kid Signal

Signal: No.

Dani: It works in Central

Signal: We're not in Central

Dani: Signalgirl

Dani: I mean, Batgirl exists

Signal: No.

Dani: Monochromatic Signal. Y'know, Red Robin route?

Signal: ...

Signal: Just no. Don't make my name part of your name

Next part

Do you want to see some Hoopoe doodles I made? There were redesigns!!!

[unhingedangstaddict]

S8E15 Meta Fic - Warning Spoilers Ahead Words: 695

Ravi had been warned about the 118 A-shift a long time ago. He’d heard whispers about them at the academy and after he was assigned to the 118 B-shift, they told him all about the A-shift.

“They have the worst luck of any shift, any station in LA.”

“They’ve all nearly died like a million times. Seriously.”

“They take work-family to a whole new level.”

“They’re like weirdly co-dependent.”

“Don’t get attached to any of ‘em.”

At first Ravi thought everyone was being dramatic. And he quickly learned how wrong he’d been to underestimate what he’d been told. Ravi knew that if he really wanted to avoid any trauma, he was in the wrong line of work. But he didn’t need any additional, unnecessary heart-break or trauma. He’d already had enough from his childhood to last a life-time. So Ravi tried to keep his distance, not get attached. Ravi worked with them when needed, when it was requested of him. And yeah, he liked working with them- could’ve done without Buck chasing him with a chainsaw- but overall, they were a great team and they all cared very much about their jobs and each other. 

Still, Ravi kept his emotional distance as best he could. He said he really didn’t know them when the police stopped them during the treasure hunt. He only allowed himself the respectable amount of concern for Eddie when Ravi learned Diaz had been shot. Ravi worked with them without allowing himself to get too caught up in everything they all had going on. On the edges of their group, on the outside looking in. Sure, he went out with Buck for drinks when Buck was missing Eddie- just to throw the poor guy a clearly much-needed bone-, and besides he’d dumped Buck with Kinard and dipped at the first opportunity.

Then the bus crash happened and Ravi failed to clear the car, and found himself beating himself up about it, at the bar with Buck again, confessing he was gonna quit. And Buck told him no, and… he actually listened and didn’t quit. But Ravi told himself wasn’t getting attached to them. He was still just on the outside looking in. At least that’s what he told himself.

And suddenly he was trapped inside a locked bio-lab with Hen, Chimney, and Captain Nash and Chimney had Ebola’s nastier cousin, and there was an antiviral right there and some US Army Colonel was ordering him to stand down, threatening domestic and international terrorism charges and time in supermax.

And Ravi couldn’t deny that he’d been sucked into the 118 A-Shift’s weird codependent family anymore. Not when the possibility of terrorism charges and supermax prison was staring him in the face and he looked at the security camera, grabbed his radio and said, “If you wanna stop me, Colonel, come and get me.”

Once Chimney had been given the antiviral and it looked like they’d be out of the lab soon, Ravi confessed to Bobby, “I was gonna quit today. I’m glad I didn’t.”

“Me too. We wouldn’t have been able to get through this without you, Ravi.” Bobby told him and clapped him on the shoulder.

Behind his breathing apparatus, Ravi smiled at Bobby.

They finally got out of the lab and suddenly Bobby wasn’t right behind them. And while being decontaminated and answering some questions for the army and the FBI, Ravi learned Bobby wouldn’t be leaving that lab. It didn’t even feel real. How could it? How could hearing that Captain Bobby Nash was dying- maybe already dead- feel real when the entire 118 was separated, isolated from one another. How was a family supposed to grieve when they couldn’t even be together as a family? 

Because Ravi hadn’t actually committed any crimes, and didn’t need medical attention he was released pretty quickly. He kept a brave face as he went outside to find Karen and tell her that Hen was okay, Chimney too. And quickly Ravi found himself in the arms of Hen’s wife while crying over a captain he promised himself he wasn’t going to get attached to. So much for being on the outside looking in.

I told myself last night that I wasn't gonna write this, but I just couldn't stop thinking about Ravi "I barely know these people" Panikkar crying over Bobby with Karen, so I put myself through the horrors of rewatching parts of the ep so I could bring this to life. Lowkey thinking about doing a little series exploring how different characters (especially some of the side characters) feel about the whole thing like I did with this one

[roarrrgame]

Just thought of another thing in Dragon Age Origins that I believe did not age well:

If you sleep with Zevran, you get a huge boost to his approval; but if you break up with him immediately after, you don’t even lose half of that approval points, and he doesn’t even seem mad about it.

Most Origins fans are Gamer dudes so they probably wouldn’t abuse this for approval, since a lot of them are weird about gays, but if not considering gender, it does seem to encourage manipulative behaviour towards (yes I know) fictional characters.

The player gets an easy cheese without losing anything - they get to use and dispose of a young beautiful elf without any pushback, and they don’t even have to learn why it’d be so easy. They can also be romancing another companion at the same time before committing to them. This is another case like the dark ritual which I think only seems acceptable because of the characters’ genders.

I really like how in BG3 if you break up with Karlach after sleeping with her, you get -100 approval. Zevran obviously has a completely different personality, but at least Astarion, who ran because Zevran walked, has a heartbreaking scene after sleeping with you at one point, where he realises he has been used.

I know Zevran has a lot of carefully hidden trauma that he’s only willing to open up when his approval is high enough, and he has a somewhat unhealthy relationship with sex as is common among abuse survivors, so the approval changes seem to track.

However, like the dark ritual, on a meta level, I really don’t think the tone-deaf design could or should make it into a game today; and having seen David Gaider’s indie work Stray Gods, I don’t think he would write it into a game today, either.

It’s also one reason why I don’t want a DAO remake at least for now - not only that EA/BioWare seem incapable of it now, but I think a few points in the writing need a bit of change, but any change made to the writing would have a lot of Gamers cry woke/modern writing etc. I’m so tired of it. Just leave the game be.

I do wish DA2 could get a remake/GOG release, though. The game would be a peak old game with some polish.

[nabi-unveiled]

Secret Relationships is a seesaw for me. I'm enjoying the ride, but my thoughts about it change every episode.

I'd love it if the writers are setting this up as a three-headed beast demonstrating different types of manipulation or if Da-on flips in some way, but I don't think that will be the case. For now, I still hold to my earlier analysis that we're supposed to ignore Sung-hyun's boundary crossing and treat him as the White Knight.

I've watched today's episode multiple times now (once properly and twice as background noise) trying to piece together my thoughts. (I'm saving any true meta until after tomorrow's episode. I need to finish a script for work tonight anyways.)

Here are some interim thoughts after episode 5:

Just like Da-on left the car, he really needs to leave the country. Preferably on his own with a job in a different company. Send sis money so she can move out on her own too.

Su-hyeon absolutely doesn't deserve the company. Kick the angry nepo baby out.

Jae-min and Su-hyeon should really go fuck their problems out. Be toxic together and take yourselves out of the dating pool. Give us a proper NC scene so we can enjoy it. (I know that isn't going to happen though. It's a Korean BL.)

I really dislike overeager puppies. Even when they're the white knight in a makjang. Even when they have the "blinding light of love" behind them. I'm just trying to decide if that's my personal problem or the show's problem.

In future episodes, I hope Sung-hyun takes his own advice and dials it back a notch or two. I doubt he will.

So with that in mind, I'm really hoping that Da-on lives up to this bit of dialogue...

And walks into his apartment with Mr. Violent while leaving the puppy dog outside in the cold.

Am I a horrible person for that wish? Probably. Do I care? No.

[justatypicalwizard]

Meta-isekai | K. Bakugo ✧ Act II Scene II

-`♡´- In which Bakugo gets isekaied into a shoyo romance. -`♡´-

Peak stupidity ⋆ ˚｡ ⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚｡ ⋆

Act II ༊*·˚

Scene II: My two best friends MUST get together

ʚɞ Bakugo could end the day as it was, if not for the fact that it was not even 11 am and he still had a whole school day to work through.

ʚɞ After washing his face in one of the outside basins, he retreated to the gymnasium for further events. His next competition wasn’t about to start in two hours so he had to kill the time.

ʚɞ Mere seconds after he entered through the side door Denki-stupid-Dunceface grabbed his arm.

“Listen, I need your help.” He whispered.

“Let go of that arm or…”

“Shh. I have a plan for, you know, the thing we were talking about.” Denki looked left and right as if he was reporting top-secret information to Agent 007 himself.

Bakugo felt himself in a trap. It would look dumb as hell if he let it show that he had no idea what they were talking about earlier. It must have been the other Katsuki. With a grunt he breathed out an irritated “Go on.”

As if giving a kind candy, Denki’s face lit up.

“Okay, so, me and the others from the techn-club made a set up for today and the teachers let us put it up when the Sports Day event starts. We wanted to do the thing they do in America, like on the football games. We have a camera that’s connected to a, sorta, big TV and we can broadcast live!” Denki spoke like he just safely despatched Apollo into space.

Bakugo thought about the fluid, unclear timeline he found himself in. Somehow, he was unable to clearly read the year he was in. Every calendar was ripped, stained or out of date when he tried to read the year.

“A lot of people know already and are looking up to the Hug-Cam!” He squeezed his own arms in a cheesy manner. “The teachers didn’t let us call it the Kiss-Cam unfortunately.”

“What a pity.” Bakugo snarked.

“So, we need to get Kiri and Mina on the screen together. Ugh, man I just can’t stand the tension any more, like, just go out already!”

So that’s what this whole mascarade was about. Getting Kirishima and Mina into an embarrassing situation so that they, in some twisted manner, look into each other's eyes and realise they are deeply in love. How come Bakugo never watched trashy romance dramas but still knew the gist of most of the plots. Must be social media influence or something.

“I can hold onto Mina but I need someone to make sure Kiri will stand in the right place in the right time. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah, leave it to me.”

ʚɞ After talking out the painfully stupid plan, Bakugo set off to look for his red haired pea-brain of a friend. The blonde had to remind himself of the benefit he would get out of making a clown of himself.

“I like it when you know what’s good for you.” The Cat emerged from under a bench and started trodding lightly after the boy. He only grunted in response, whatever it was supposed to mean. “We did talk about how helping your friends and harvesting their love energy will add to our cause. You better not fuck it up.”

He swore to god, if he could, he would kick the dumb cat. But that later. Now Kirishima, who was standing among some guys in basketball outfits. Bakugo walked beside him and asked him to follow. Kirishima, despite asking multiple times what was the matter and not getting an answer, still followed like a puppy right into the spot where they were supposed to meat with Denki.

“Dude, can you tell me?”

“Just stand here for a while.”

“Well, okay.”

It was really not that hard. Why all the conspiracy when you can simply tell people to do something.

Soon a weirdly shaped camera emerged into view. The rather big, but only, TV in the gymnasium played an image of the inside of itself, with multiple people running away from the lense of the Hug-Cam, some laughing, some actually panicking. Mina followed short after Denki who was yielding the set-up.

They came closer to Bakugo and Kiri, Denki pointing the lense towards the floor as if only testing how the image broadcasted. When Mina came forward to meet the two boys, cameraman himself betrayed and pointed the lense straight at the three. In that moment Katsuki stepped out of the image, leaving only two dumbfounded people looking at the TV, seeing their own faces in it.

“Well, looks like we’ve got the first victims.” Denki laughed making the image shake and blur his friends messed up faces.

“You weasel!” Mina turned towards him but soon she realised multiple faces were looking her way. Kiri was standing behind her laughing sheepishly and shrugging. Shortly after they gave in gracing the whole gymnasium with a sweet little hug.

“Just get together already.” Bakugo huffed, making them turn. Mina pointed a finger his way wanting to say something but he shushed her. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

None of them told him he’s wrong. Later that evening, after the school sports day Kirishima will wait for Mina by the school gate and they will take a stroll home that will ultimately lead to their first date.

Denki still smiled, although he found Bakugo’s blunt straightforwardness cranky. Well, it worked so whatever. Because of that he didn’t realise he was holding the camera tiled and it was now facing Katsuki and someone behind him.

That someone was Yaoyorozu who was stunned seeing her face on the TV and currently being pushed by her friends towards the blonde boy.

“Come on, he’s the one who won the martial arts.” One of them whispered.

When she came in close, Bakugo and Denki finally realised what was going on but another bunch of love starved idiots was looking their way.

“Nah.” Bakugo put his hands in his pockets walking past the girls. Many faces went down. “Follow me.” He threw to Denki over his shoulder.

Without much more to do the poor cameraman did as he was told. Bakugo found the Crush and without waiting for Denki to follow both his footsteps and the situation, he slinged his arm over Crushe’s shoulder.

“Look who’s on TV.” Bakugo pointed towards the screen that just started to show the image of them two. Denki finally caught up.

WIthout further ado Bakugo went on, as if nothing ever happened.

ʚɞ That day the blonde rose in the schools little universe to king of martial arts and a supposed cold heartbreak. 

Tag list: @ita606 @blueberrysoaps @bakunianadecorazon @makaroni-and-chez

[hollow-lime-green]

the t/b discourse is so dumb. is it not embarrassing for people to get genuinely heated over which fictional man they think takes it in the ass ? this is supposed to be For Fun, isn't it ?? idk, i like to have fun !!

fandom discourse in general reminds me of what it was like working with young children. certain kids would always get into arguments over nothing and we can try to fix it but at some point it's like... you guys don't Have to talk to each other......

people in fandom spaces need to learn this lesson. preferences are preferences, not laws, and it's 100% your responsibility to cultivate your experience around those preferences. no one else's. filtering, blocking, SCROLLING, are all features of tumblr and ao3 for a reason

but this would be asking fandom members to be Rational,, and ive long since given up hope in that respect

it is gigadumb. but, for what it's worth, i think it's actually worse than that.

i care about dick in ass; I love writing dick in ass; there's so much you can do with dick in ass. as a dick in ass expert, i would bet these people don't really care about dick in ass. what I think they do care about is fandom wank. fandom can turn fine wine into lead water with a proficiency even jesus christ would be awed by.

more under the cut, but the short version:

it's more emotional than logical. if you tried to explain to a normie why so many people ostensibly care about mlm dick in ass, they would either send you to a sanitorium or put you on the shortlist for translators needed when the aliens invade

yeah, these people are children (many such cases). and to be honest, i think this is fairly age appropriate behavior. not good, not real appropriate, but expected. teens are fucking assholes.

you are extremely right about curation, anon. fujos have fought and died (maybe) for curation features like tags/filtering, blocking, and yaoi titty mousepads. use them, folks.

so, discourse meta thoughts (wow this got longer than I meant it to) -

it is a time-honored fandom tradition to create heated, vitriolic discourse out of… fucking nothing, really. you might not go in having a stance on t/b dynamics (and a thousand other things in other fandoms - aroace hcs, race hcs, neurodivergence hcs spring to mind but there are many). but if you then get a stance fed to you, and then that stance is portrayed as correct, either analytically (characterization, textual support) or morally (rabbit hole I won't go down today), then you may get emotionally attached to that stance. and you may also get emotionally attached to arguing about it.

this is one of those things where the social activism brainrot of social media (particularly twitter/tumblr) really drives things. and I'm not saying this isn't the space for that. it is. even though it can be extremely toxic, I think there is still some long-term benefit to having a space where people spew nuclear grade radioactive bullshit takes, that eventually, when looked at from a bird's eye view, can add some context to larger discussions of social issues, how people feel and how their personal context affects that. one example i would give for that is fandom puritanism in general. it's wacky and absolutely regressive, but it's interesting to see and note the shift, and to think about why that is happening to late genz/gen alpha, what societal factors have promoted the backswing, etc. (again, I am just extremely Interested in Trends)

but tumblr/fandom is not just a forum. as a social media site/social community, you can actually grade the politics and wanks with numbers and clout, and there is an incentive to Say the Right Thing to get your little tamagotchi numbers reward. the act of Saying the Right Thing (which actually presents as being a self-righteous asshole online) then carries its own little serotonin boost. wank can be extremely addictive, and with fandom wank in general, we like to conflate what should be non-issue content preferences (like t/b) to our identities and politics. and that's not shocking. fandom is a queer space therefore it is also a political space (not because lgbtq+ identities should be political, obviously, but because a lot of conservative assholes are forcing it to be)

anyway, you can see where all of the heat comes from. this is an opinion, but it is a pretty well-informed one. because you will never not catch me with a strangeaeons/contrapoints/sarah zed deep dive video essay into fandom wank in the background. i find these phenomena extremely interesting. fandom drama is my dentist office fish tank.

when i was in high school, i was an extremely militant atheist, online and offline. i am a stem girlie (and i have issues), so to me, it was important that i was Right and everyone knew i was Right. i was also in the south, gay marriage was not yet legal, and the westboro baptist church was in the news all of the time. so freedom of/from religion was a pretty salient topic, but I was still a dick about it. and i did it because the debates and the memes and the Being Right of it all really recharged me in a way that was very toxic when you look at it objectively. i was transmuting negative emotions into positive feedback, but hurting others and working myself up in the process.

the reason i fell out of it was not that i magically started listening to religious people, someone changed my mind with a good argument, and gained a new respect for them. it was because i got bored. i had gone through the people in my real life that I could have the debate with, and the internet memes started getting repetitive. i was weaned off of my serotonin boost (also gay marriage was legalized and the vibes of the time were getting better, so i could put down my sword).

my point with this is that if you actually want to end this discourse, you have to stop feeding the beast.

curation is key. if you curate your feed, like I have probably done unintentionally, then you can largely step away from this bullshit. and when you do get the bullshit, the best thing to do is not engage and move on, because you will deny the rage machine its essential fuel - interaction. but walking away is extremely difficult to do, because the thing is - that little serotonin boost and righteousness - it goes both ways.

i'm not going to blame people for biting back when they get cyberbullied. it's natural and human and it is good for the community to stand together and fight back against vitriol. and it is also unfair to tone check those responses, especially when they are direct responses to direct emotional attacks. but i will point out that it's probably not the most effective way to end the discourse, if that is your goal.

because ultimately, they're not going to feel chagrined when you call out an anon post, they're going to feel a bump from the attention. they're not going to be impacted by a victim statement or some show of the harm they are causing; because they feel in a way that it is healing them. people aren't sending hate because they want to deeply, critically engage in a debate and their minds could be swayed by the right words; they're doing it because they're having fun.

[dipperdesperado]

Get Organized!

I recently made a post about how to get started in doing radical stuff. Said otherwise, that post was meant to answer the question, “Where do I go, when I know the world is fucked?” This post covers similar ground, but is more interested in the theoretical side of things. Not to say it won’t be practical. It’s just saying that if you’re not the kind of person that can read a little bit and feel confident to act, or you like having a little bit more scaffolding, that you also deserve a resource. I’m hoping to contribute to that today. As the title says, we’re going to be focusing on organizing. This is one of those things that is said a lot, but is actually defined much less often. Tangentially, you should be aware and ready for this for literally everything relating to politics. Any word that you hear used, you should always ask for a definition. Many a movement would have gone differently if folks spent more time trying to find semantic alignment. Anyway.

When I say organizing, I mean catalyzing the energy of folks, acting from a specific theory of change. A theory of change is a thought process or method to create some kind of social impact in a particular context. When the world sucks in some particular way, and you want it to stop sucking, the answer is to organize, in the way defined above. By organizing, we lean on the idea of collective power to create changes that are currently only afforded to those with authoritarian power. It’s a game of evening the odds.

I will also note that this assumes that you are going to be framing your work around broad-based movements, that have (mostly) aboveground (as in “legal”) tactics. This is not necessarily a statement of what is correct; small groups that are in concert with larger movements are also able to be successful, even when doing more confrontational tactics.

So, to organize, I’d say it would be useful to be involved in movements already. You can look at my radicalism 100 post to see how that could look. Either way you have to know what your where your niche(s) lie. In other words, what sits in the middle of the intersection between what you like to do, what you are good (or can become good/have a willingness to become good) at, and what is needed in your context. I tend to center the local level, because that is the area where influence is more tangible, and fits into how I see a resilient world coming to fruition. So, you have to ask yourself, “What can I do, that I would enjoy doing, in my community?” Then, you should find some other people who are in that same vibe. Depending on your approach, this may take no time at all, or a lot of time. I listed some ideas for finding folks in radicalism 100, but to reiterate: look for social medias and IRL presences of people who are into the same topics, and connect with them. See where you can plug in, and see where the contours of organizing in your local contexts are. Ideally you can see places where gaps can be filled.

Once you find an issue that you think has potential, and you have a couple of people to do some organizing with, you have what I think of as a catalyst group. This group is meant to start (or assist) in a certain kind of reaction, but not lead it. Trying to control movements is both futile and antithetical to liberation. So, to ground us, we have two very important ingredients: a topic/issue/area of focus to organize around, and a group of folks to work with. Once this is in place, you can co-create a strategy with your organizing team. I’d recommend employing an encircling strategy as your long-term or meta strategy, where multiple sub-strategies and campaigns happen within this frame. Essentially, this allows you to employ campaigns across a matrix of tactics. Within the encircling frame, you can create a campaign (what I consider a “short-term” strategy). Campaigns are a series of actions over time. Strategies are a series of campaigns over time.

A useful way to think of strategic planning is by separating the process into stages, grouped by movement size.

Small: Organize small actions/protests, figuring out ways to build movement visibility and interest

Medium: Focus on scaling up the participation, through mobilizing efforts. Promote your actions, get people involved, and encourage meaningful action.

Large: Create a movement. The kind of thing people hear about.

To organize on the smallest level, the easiest thing might be to just do plan actions that are well within your team’s capacity, organize those actions, and execute. If you can swing it, I’d really recommend to not lean too much into symbolic actions. There are risks with every action, no matter what legal frameworks your locality has. If you’re going to do something, you have to be very intentional with:

what you hope to accomplish through the action

a high likelihood of success for the action

doomsday planning in case something goes wrong

If you’re able to do this, then you will be leagues ahead of a lot of other folks. This is not to make it a race or a competition, but it is moreso to say you can symbolically represent and catalyze action without becoming a martyr.

As you’re doing actions, you should be refining your idea of who’s impacted by the issues more and more. As that picture gets clearer, you should spend more and more time understanding and listening to those folks. Ideally, you get to a point of co-creation, where you are enabling people to fight for themselves and build their autonomy. That is the kind of thing that prevents movements from dying. Organizers should be trying to put themselves out of business, in a sense. Catalysts should be able to come from anywhere.

To scale up, I’d recommend a focus on meeting folks. Take the ideas of deep canvassing, where you empathetically have conversations with whoever is impacted by the issue you’re responding to, through the lens of giving power to those people. Rather than asking them to feed into some established system of power, encourage them to take action into their own hands, as a collective.

I’d also recommend that as capacity grows, build a “positive” or “constructive” power. This can look like a lot of things. Whether it is a block club, neighborhood pod, community council, or community assembly, dedicate energy into creating spaces where people can start building their democratic and consensus muscles. These can simultaneously act as the training ground and alternative governance structure that allows folks to start making decisions for themselves in a very specific way.

This will ideally allow the movement to really start to be intersectional. It should be intersection minded from the outset, but that can be difficult to meaningfully actualize in the early stages of the movement. since single-issue movements are inherently brittle (if your movement revolves around getting something on a ballot, winning or losing just ends the movement)—there are throughlines that connect all movements, and those lines should be made visible and traveled. Environmentalists should fight for housing rights, LandBack, Reparations, and a host of other things. The more developed our networks, the stronger our movements will be.

[nofomogirl]

One of many roots of ineffable husbands' misunderstandings

There are many reasons why the S2 finale took us by surprise so much, and one of them is that we gaslighted ourselves into believing that Aziraphale and Crowley understand each other on the deepest possible level.

They don't.

Because they never talk. Not openly. Not about things that really matter.

I'm sure they've made a plethora of accurate observations about each other over the millennia, yes, but at the same time missed just as many things and formed just as many wrong assumptions.

We know that now.

For the last five months, we've been collectively shattering the illusion (most of us, anyway), and today I wanted to add to that noble effort. Something occurred to me while I was working on another post and I think it deserves to be its own thing rather than a sidenote in another lengthy meta.

It's probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but here I go.

Crowley doesn't actually understand how Aziraphale makes decisions.

I was rewatching season 1 to confirm some things for my next analysis, as one normally does, and I had a minor epiphany about the scene where Aziraphale agrees to get involved in stopping Armageddon.

Let's recall how it went.

Crowley started listing things Aziraphale would lose along with Earth, and things he would have to endure in Heaven.

Aziraphale rejected his idea and tried to leave.

Crowley hooked Aziraphale back in by inviting him for lunch.

Crowley let Aziraphale enjoy his meal and relax.

Crowley bought himself more time by inviting himself over for drinks.

Crowley started giving more examples of things Aziraphale could enjoy on Earth that he wouldn't have in Heaven.

Crowley went on a rant on how nasty Armageddon would be.

Once more Crowley described just how miserable Aziraphale's life would be after Armageddon, for eternity.

Aziraphale cracked and admitted he didn't want Armageddon to happen. However, he insisted he could not disobey God's will.

Crowley pointed out that it might be God's plan for Armageddon to be prevented, that Aziraphale's duty as an angel was to stop whatever the demons were planning to do, and since right now they were planning to bring about Armageddon, he should stop that.

Aziraphale finally agreed and shook on it.

Until now I never questioned that it was a masterful temptation by temptation master Crowley and every stage was purposeful and absolutely necessary to achieve the final goal.

First Crowley made Aziraphale really want to prevent Armageddon and then helped him reframe the situation in a way that would allow the angel to do what he wanted. He gave him an excuse. A plausible deniability.

But what if that wasn't it?

What if what Crowley was actually doing was taking one approach after another until something finally worked? What if Aziraphale didn't really need any softening or priming, and Crowley had just wasted a whole day on ineffective tactics because he didn't know what would do the trick until he finally chanced upon it?

The more I thought about it the more convinced I was that that was the case, and right now I can't believe I was clinging so tightly to the idea that Crowley knew what he was doing with Aziraphale.

Because if he really did understand his angel as well as I used to believe, why would he be so unsuccessful at reaching him when it mattered the most?

A popular interpretation is that in those crucial moments, Crowley simply lacked time, and convincing Aziraphale always required time. When time was lacking Crowley's finesse was useless against the angel's stubbornness, so he failed.

I can see how that makes sense, but as I've said, personally, I changed my mind.

The interpretation I'm suggesting is that Aziraphale never needed all that much time to be convinced of something. It only took Crowley so much time because he was pushing his buttons blindly until something worked. Because he didn't know what the right one was, and when he had only one chance he would always push the wrong one.

So, how does Aziraphale make decisions?

He chooses what he thinks is right.

Yes, it can get rather complicated. On the one hand, he is heavily indoctrinated, and it impacts his judgment. He can just embrace the most ridiculous piece of celestial propaganda on occasion and stick to it stubbornly. On the other hand, we know that his sense of right and wrong isn't really tied to Heaven or even God. We know because we've seen choices he'd made in the Job minisode.

But while it may not be easy to predict what Aziraphale will deem right in any given situation, the fact remains that this is what it comes down to. This is what ultimately informs his choices, especially the big ones, and the most effective way to persuade Aziraphale to do something is by proving to him that it would be the right thing to do. Or that the other option wouldn't.

I don't think Crowley realizes it. And there's a good reason why.

A great many choices aren't about right and wrong. They're just choices between two equally neutral options. Sometimes two equally ambivalent options. Either way, not really moral choices.

The problem with Aziraphale is that while he's managing perfectly fine small morally neutral choices, he's not very good with big ones. I believe that he expects all big choices to be moral choices and he has trouble making them when they're not. I've seen quite a few posts here arguing that Aziraphale is incapable of choosing his own happiness for its own sake, and I wholeheartedly agree.

And Crowley doesn't understand it.

He's not that far off the mark when the choice really is a moral one. When he was trying to convince Aziraphale to the Arrangement his arguments were about how the end result would be the same, ie. how it wouldn't be wrong. When he was trying to convince Aziraphale to kill Adam, he was pointing out how it would save everybody.

But when the choice isn't inherently a moral one, he doesn't understand why it's difficult for Aziraphale.

And in the most dire situations, he doesn't understand he could maybe try and go this route.

[queen-of-deans-booty]

Fan Fiction: Final Part

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~1.9k

Warnings: canon angst and violence, extra angst

Summary: Not only did Chuck write books about your lives, but a damn musical theater is putting a play on about your goddamn lives. You try to let them handle this one on their own but they're not letting you go, and it's time to bring insurance to make sure you never leave them.

Season Ten Masterlist

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Supernatural. All credit goes to their respective owners. I love seeing any and all comments <3

x

Marie and Maeve are back in the auditorium but Marie is panicking.

"Hey!" Dean exclaims and rushes over to Marie. "Are you okay?"

"Not really," she gasps.

"Why don't you guys calm her down and I'll find wooden stakes in the trunk."

Sam leaves and Dean kneels down to get on Marie's level.

"Is Marie gonna get eaten?" Maeve asks.

"If we're lucky," you glare.

"Nothing is going to happen. Don't listen to her. Marie, look at me." When she does, he continues. "As soon as that curtain rises, we're going to be there to take out Calliope."

"This is all my fault. If I hadn't written this dumb play, none of this would've happened."

"First of all this play isn't dumb." You open your mouth to say something when Dean glares at you. "It's not dumb."

"I thought you didn't believe in this interpretation?"

"I don't. Like, at all, but you do. I need you to believe in it with all you've got so we can kill Calliope and save your friends. Can you do that?"

"Yeah." She takes a deep breath. "If Sam, Dean, and Y/N were real, they wouldn't back down from a fight. Especially my sweet, brave, selfless Sam. There's nothing he can't do."

"I'm not touching that subject," Dean shakes his head.

"Okay, let's do this!" She grabs a dark wig that the young woman was using who was playing Sam. "I understudy Sam. I used this for my one-woman Orphan Black show, last year. it's gonna have to work for Sam." She puts the wig on her head. "Writer. Director. Actor. I'm gonna Barbra Streisand this bitch."

Guess it's time for a fucking show. People pile into the auditorium once the show is about to begin to see this either rock or go up in flames. The curtains are closed so no one sees what's happening backstage. The girl who plays Dean walks past Dean wearing the amulet that Sam gave him all those years ago. You're not sure what happened to that necklace.

"The Samuelt?" Dean asks Marie.

"That amulet is a symbol of the Winchesters' brotherly love."

Sam comes back with three wooden stakes he's prepared for the fight that will happen. He hands you yours, and you yank it from his grasp angrily. All the girls line up and Sam scans them with a frown.

"Wait a second, where's Chuck?"

"Oh, I love him, I do, but the whole author introducing himself into the narrative thing is just not my favorite. I kind of hate the meta stories," Marie says.

"Alright, listen up, girl," Dean announces. "Now, you're all here because you love Supernatural. I know I have expressed some differences of opinion regarding this particular version of Supernatural. Tonight is all about Marie's vision. This is Marie's Supernatural. So, I want you to get out there, I want you to stand as close as she wants you to, and I want you to put as much sub and add text as you possibly can. There is no other road. No other way. No day, but today."

"Did he quote Rent?" Maeve whispers to Marie.

"Now, you get out there, and you kick it in the ass!"

The girls cheer from the pep talk and encourage each other. They all separate to either go backstage or on stage as they get ready. You and Dean stand on one side of the stage while Sam stands on the other side, all with stakes in hand. Marie slips through the curtain to address the audience.

"This is stupid," you hiss at Dean.

"Shut up and keep an eye out."

"Good evening, everybody! Welcome to our production of Supernatural. I'm not gonna lie. It might be a full-on Gallagher show opening up this piece. Uh, those of you in the front rows may want to use the ponchos we provided for you under your seats. You may, in fact, get wet on this ride. Um, I would like to thank the cast and crew--"

"She's stalling. Let's do this," Dean says to Maeve.

"Copy that. Curtain, kids. It's showtime."

The music starts playing, making Marie jump in surprise.

"That concludes our introduction for the night. Everybody sit back, relax, and enjoy the show."

Marie scurries on stage as the curtains open. The beginning number of singing your life introduction sounds and the girl who plays Dean steps forward. The song you heard when you first arrived starts playing, and she goes through the song about how John and Mary got together, had Sam and Dean, your mother dying, blah, blah, blah.

Dean seems to be enjoying the song while you're absentmindedly playing at the thing on your neck. You can't fucking believe Dean did this. When did he have time to search for something like this? Has he been planning this for a while? Was Sam in on it? You look over at Sam in time to see the big scary scarecrow appear behind him. Apparently, Dean sees it too because he starts warning his brother who is confused.

"Turn around!" Dean yells slightly lower than the music playing. Sam turns to face the scarecrow who grabs him. This is all happening while the girls on stage act and sing. "Come on."

"Do we have to," you complain. Dean drags you along backstage to get to where Sam is, but the younger brother is nowhere to be found once you get to his spot. "Where the hell did he go?"

The first act ends and goes straight into the next one where Fake!Dean and Fake!Cas are having a conversation on fake phones.

"Okay, you can pop in tomorrow morning."

"Yes. I'll just wait here, then," Fake!Cas sighs.

Another song starts playing which is a solo moment for the girl who plays Cas. You and Dean rush over to Marie who is already backstage. Apparently, she saw the moment Sam was taken.

"What do we do now?" she panics.

"Just, stick to the plan, okay? Keep singing until the scarecrow comes for you."

"Don't die, okay?" you grin and pat her back as you walk away from her.

Marie walks on stage as soon as Cas' part is over so she can begin singing her part as Sam. She is nervous about what's about to happen but is acting like a professional. The scarecrow appears behind Marie to consume her, and that's when Dean jumps into action. He jumps onto the scarecrow, forgetting he's on stage in front of a large audience. Both Fake!Sam and Fake!Dean keeps singing as if this isn't happening behind them. You look to the audience to see one of the members in the front row put his poncho on.

The scarecrow and Dean wrestle before the monster throws Dean across the stage over to you. He slides right in front of your feet, and Dean glares up at you.

"Help!"

"Fine," you roll your eyes.

You twirl the stake in your hands as you walk onto the stage. You're not fucking scared of this thing. You'll fucking take it down before it realizes what's going on. The scarecrow runs at you to tackle you but you quickly move out of the way before he can touch you.

"Missed me!" you laugh.

You jump onto the scarecrow's back to strangle him but he grabs both your arms in retaliation. He uses all of his immense strength to flip you over him and to the front of the stage. You quickly get up and ram your stake into his chest. You turn him so his back is facing the audience and yours is facing the backdrop of the set. You step back from the scarecrow when you see it start to tremble.

The scarecrow explodes in a purple goo substance, covering almost everyone in the audience. A bit of goo gets on your jacket to which you huff out in annoyance. You walk toward Dean and shove the stake into his chest.

"You're welcome," you scoff and walk off.

Silence falls on the audience until the guy wearing the poncho stands up and begins clapping. Everyone in the audience follows suit, and Dean steps next to a starstruck Marie.

"Take a bow, Sammy."

Marie, Dean, and Fake!Dean takes a bow for the audience. It's a good time to take an intermission for the rest of the crew to get ready for the final act. Sam suddenly appears with Ms. Chandler and the other young girl who went missing. It's time to finally get out of this shitty town and back to the Bunker, so Sam and Dean are saying their goodbyes.

"You did good out there, kid," Dean says to Marie.

"You're not so bad yourself."

"You know what? This has been educational to see the story from your perspective. Keep writing Shakespeare."

"Even if it doesn't match how you see it?"

"I have my version, and you have yours."

The light starts flickering to signal it's almost time to go on again.

"One minute, folks. One minute," Maeve announces.

You and Dean walk away from Marie, but she stops him from going far.

"Dean?" She must believe you're who you say you are. "You should have never thrown this away."

She gives him the prop Samulet he noticed earlier. Dean chuckles as he takes it, and he admires it.

"It never really worked. I don't need a symbol to remind me how I feel about my brother."

"Just take it. Jerk."

"Bitch," Dean automatically says.

He quickly realizes it's not Sam he's talking to and blushes in embarrassment. Marie laughs at him before turning to you.

"Y/N, look, I don't know what's going on with you, but the Y/N I read about has a love so strong for Dean that nothing can break it. I just thought you'd want a reminder of it."

You take two steps closer to her before Dean has a chance to do something.

"The last thing I'd want to remember is my lame-ass excuse of a husband."

You turn and walk away, not missing the way Dean's eyes fill with sadness and hurt. What you're saying to him and about him is really hurting him, and that fact brings a smirk to your face. Dean pushes back the tears and walks to Sam.

"You know what, Dean? You were right. Staying cooped up isn't helping us. We need--"

It's as if the universe aligned perfectly because the next scene starts with Fake!Sam and Fake!Dean in the car. They're having a conversation that perfectly fits with what Sam was about to say.

"We need to get back on the road, Dean. Doing what we do best."

"What is that?" Marie asks.

"You're right, Sammy. Out on the road. Just the two of us."

"The two of us against the world," Fake!Sam says.

"What she said," Sam smiles and nudges his brother.

The scene moves onto a different one where all the characters get on stage to sing a cover of Carry On Wayward Son. Characters you know in real life. A girl steps on stage that you're not sure you recognize, but when you do, a smirk grows on your face.

"Who's that?" Sam asks Maeve.

"That's Adam. John Winchester's other kid. He's still trapped in the cage in Hell with Lucifer."

Poor son of a bitch.

"Carry on my wayward son / There'll be peace when you are done / Lay your weary head to rest / Don't you cry no more / Once I rose above the noise and confusion / Just to get a glimpse behind this illusion / I was soaring ever higher."

The song continues as Sam and Dean watch with raw emotion in their eyes.

"Masquerading as a man with the reason / My charade is the event of the season / And if I claim to be a wise man / It surely means I don't know / Carry on my wayward son / There'll be peace when you are done / Lay your weary head to rest / Don't you cry no more / Carry on."

You grab both of their shoulders and fit your head between theirs so they both can hear you above the singing.

"I am so glad I don't have a soul because that was painful to watch."

When you leave, Dean turns to Sam with tears in his eyes.

"Purifying her soul better work because I need my wife back."

x

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