#I seriously should draw Jay more

[yoinkschief]

I got a new haircut :3

Full picture under the cut

[marsbotz]

Don't wanna go off anon yet but i feel you so hard on geode dying out. I went inactive in the fandom for 3-ish years and suddenly it was NOWHERE and it made me so mad since it's like..... Well i hate to participate in "shipping wars" but it's the best relationship in ninjago and it makes me so sad to see since they're so entertaining. #BRINGGEODEBACK2023

THISSSSS. they have literally so much chemistry and balance each other out so well… AND ITS INTERESTING and complex….. and just so so good. i miss them. it rlly is interesti g how the fandom consensus shifted seemingly out of nowhere for which ships r popular. learn ur history btw new fans vvv

[jayskai]

i’ve been thinking A LOT about making comics lately helppp 😭

[thelonelyshore-if]

requesting a Jay nsfw alphabet pleease 🙏 I haven't seen much love for them yet but they're my fav :p

Jay alphabet under the cut c:

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Jay is quite gentle and tender after sex, very doting and affectionate. And sleepy lol.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

They really like their chest, I think. They’re proud of how they look and getting attention on their chest/nipples drives them crazy. As for a partner, they’re not picky, but they like thighs, hips, and ass–anything they can get a good handful of.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

M!Jay really enjoys cumming inside his partner (with a condom, if necessary. He’s not looking to get anyone pregnant rn). He thinks it’s hot. F!Jay, on the other hand, doesn’t have much of an opinion on cum one way or another.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Their nipples are pierced! It isn't something they advertise, though they like how it looks and it isn't truly a secret. 

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

Jay is fairly experienced!! They’ve had a couple of long-term partners, and they definitely know what they’re doing.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Hmmmmm F!Jay enjoys cowgirl if she’s bottoming–she enjoys getting to set the pace–and missionary if she’s topping. M!Jay also likes missionary, regardless of if he’s topping or bottoming. They like being able to see their partner’s face.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

They’re a pretty mixed bag. They think sex is fun, so it doesn’t bother them if it’s a little more light-hearted at times. Typically they take it seriously and try to be romantic/passionate, but aren’t afraid to laugh, either.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

F!Jay keeps her bikini line shaved; M!Jay literally could not care less he doesn’t think about that sort of thing lmao.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

It depends fully on the vibe in the moment, I think. Jay can be very attentive and gentle and romantic…and they can be passionate and unrestrained. They’re typically dominant, but it isn’t a requirement if that isn’t what their partner is into.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

They enjoy touching themself in the shower before bed. It's practically part of their nightly routine–they find it a really nice way to wind down from their day. 

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

They aren’t super kinky, though they’re open to trying out things their partner wants to try. That being said, they do want to try out bondage–tying up their partners sounds very, very fun.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

Honestly anywhere private. The bedroom and shower are perfectly valid options. Also, there’s something very hot about making out on the couch and ending up having sex.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

Jay’s a romantic at heart so a lot of what gets them going is spending time with the person they love. Physical proximity–like cuddling–often turns them on, as does just…being with them or admiring their body or what have you. Also, seeing their partner in Jay’s clothes makes their brain short-circuit c:

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Anything public. They have a reputation in town to uphold, and they're also just really not comfortable with it. They feel like sex should be a private thing. 

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

No preference with giving or receiving. Watching their partner suck them off/eat them out drives them crazy, but pleasuring their partner turns them on a ton, too. They like both. 

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

Anything and everything, but they do enjoy drawing things out. They could spend hours making a partner come again and again…but hard and fast is equally hot. Depends on the mood. 

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

Jay isn't terribly fond of quickies. They want to take their time ;)

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

They're open to trying new things, but they'd be following their partner's lead with it! There are only a few things they personally want to try out that they haven't before. 

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

They both can last for quite some time…but they're aren't big on multiple rounds. More than anything because they get sleepy afterwards 😴😴😴

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

I think F!Jay has a small collection of dildos and vibrators, as well as a strap. M!Jay does not and hasn't really experimented with toys, but would be open to it…especially using them on a partner.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

They both enjoy teasing a partner–they like stretching things out. Making them squirm. But they don't really like being teased, personally. 

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Jay is actually fairly quiet in bed!! They'll whisper soft affirmations and praise and dirty talk, but they're not all that vocal.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

Jay is really, really good with their hands.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

They're fairly comfortable in their body, but they're kind of shy about showing it off. Less so with a partner, but they'll still be a bit bashful. Jay is athletic and they're fairly muscular. Also, as mentioned, they have their nipples pierced.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

I'd say average! They enjoy sex and masturbation, and it's something they like in a relationship, but it's also not something they need by any means.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Very quickly. Sex wears them out lol. But they really enjoy cuddling after--nothing sweeter than falling asleep with your partner in your arms after sleeping together <3

[ivelle-serenity]

Skateboard 3

Wind breaker

fem bodied reader | smut | action | pwp | jayjo/fml | vinny/fml | wooin/fml | joker/fml | owen/fml | enemies to lovers | angsty | the other woman (?) | reverse harem | fluff | all characters featured are 18+

author's note: the sexual tension between the fml and the sabbath plss 🥹

✧˖° — windbreaker men

✧˖° — mdni, smut, description of not safe for work content.

✧˖° — this is a story not one shot.

"What do you need from me again?" I said with annoyance.

Just as I expected, the Sabbath Crew was still here. Even after my conversation with Jay earlier about the assignment we were going to do together, they waited for me to finish. Joker was leaning against the car while Wooin stood beside him. Vinny and Grim were at the back of the car, seemingly indifferent to my presence.

Vinny and I made eye contact, so I gave him a sharp look in return. His gaze remained cold, so I looked away.

"Are you seriously considering joining that useless team?" Wooin asked irritably, hands tucked in his pockets. I crossed my arms in response.

"I don't see why you're so bothered about it," I retorted.

Since the day I arrived in Korea, Wooin was the first person I met here. He approached me first and shockingly, he already knew my name. That's why we ended up in a situation where I was going to sell my bike to him because he said he wanted to see it when we met again.

Wooin approached me with a swagger.  "I offered you a spot in our crew, but you turned it down. You'd rather side with Hummingbird?"

"They don't even compare to the Monsters," Joker muttered.

"I-I'm not really going to join," I looked at Vinny. "I just challenged Jay because I was bored. I already told you, I'm done with biking—"

"Do you think anyone will buy that lame excuse?" Vinny cut in, moving closer. "After all Wooin did for you, this is how you repay him?"

His words left me bewildered.

"Vinny," Grim scolded. I became even more confused.

"Your family owes some money to Sangho, right?" Wooin smirked evilly.

My face drained of color at the mention of that name, a figure my family had been evading for a long while. Fear was written all over me, but I struggled to maintain composure. How did they find out? Are they connected to him somehow? What kind of mess have I landed myself in now?

"H-How..."

"I've already settled it, Demitra," he murmured, drawing closer. "Just join us. Simple, isn't it?" He grinned, locking eyes with me. My heart raced, and I found myself fixated on his lips. Swallowing hard, I tried to snap out of it.

What's happening to me? I should be afraid of this man. Demitra, wake up! No matter how attractive these guys are, you shouldn't be easily swayed.

"Why? Why are you doing this?" I whispered.

"We know who you are, Demitra. The Famous Biking Princess of the Underground," Wooin continued, causing my face to pale even more as I stepped back.

"Korea's underground is better than your own country. Why not give it a try?" Wooin brushed aside a strand of hair blocking my face, tucking it behind my ear.

"You did a background check on me. What the heck?" I retorted, a mix of anger and disbelief in my voice.

He laughed. "You and Joker would definitely get along. He's into underground cage fights too," He gestured towards Joker, who was also watching me intently.

I was too angry to speak. I can't believe these guys. I don't know what they want from me, but there's one thing I need to worry about. They found out my identity that I've been avoiding for so long. Yes, they are not the only ones to become addicted to bikes; I did too. That's how I earned the title of Bike Princess in the underground because I used to take on challenges there. I raced against others for money, and obviously, I always won, which made my name famous back then.

But that's all in the past. I want to forget about it because my life wasn't great while I was in the underground. While I enjoyed spending my money, it came at the cost of my parents' suffering. I was immature back then, unaware that my parents owed a huge debt to a man named Sangho.

I shifted my gaze to Wooin. This man paid my parents' debt just like that. It was so simple for him.

I lowered my head, realizing I had no reason to be upset with someone who had helped me.

"Why do you want me to join your group when it's clear that some of your members don't agree?" I glanced at Vinny, who appeared affected by my words.

"I don't want you because you'll only make things worse for us," Vinny stated bluntly. "Some of them are getting too fixated on you."

Wooin and Joker both turned to look at Vinny almost at the same time. Their intense gazes made me feel flustered. My heart raced, and I could feel my cheeks heating up. Why would they be obsessed with someone like me?

"Hey," Joker warned Vinny.

"Shut up, you're into this too. Damn it," Vinny cursed.

"I-I'm sorry..." I bowed my head. They fell silent. "But I can't join your crew, not after what happened to me in the underground." My voice trembled, recalling the dark past. I felt the intense gazes of Wooin and Joker.

"But I'll do whatever you ask..." I tilted my head to meet Wooin's eyes directly. His gaze darkened, but he maintained a playful grin "In exchange for your help."

He nodded. "Get her in the car. We'll talk in a club. We'll discuss what happened to you back then--"

I interrupted Wooin. "I can't talk about that," I said abruptly. He furrowed his brow, waiting for more. "I know you have ties to Sangho."

"What has he done now?" Vinny asked impatiently.

Avoiding eye contact, I noticed Joker taking the skateboard from my hands. I looked up at him, finding his face void of emotion.

"Did he touch you?" he whispered. I quickly shook my head and hesitantly glanced at Wooin. They all watched me intensely, as if I were prey. Their looks stirred something within me. Joker and I weren't close—hell, he was practically a stranger to me. But the way he acted made it seem like we were close to each other.

"No," I replied. "But I've made some enemies in the underground. I had to escape because I knew they would kill me. I ran into dangerous people while racing. I believe they were also associated with Sangho." Heat rose in my eyes as I spoke.

Joker tensed up visibly. Grim shook his head and opened the car door. Vinny, on the other hand, seemed skeptical. Wooin's eyes held a hint of amusement.

"No one's going to touch you," Wooin approached me and gently held my neck down to my collarbone. "I've already taken responsibility for you. No one has the right to harm you; you belong to us now, whether you like it or not," he whispered huskily.

I met his gaze, and we locked eyes for a long moment. Why was someone like him helping me? Was it because of my biking skills? My breath quickened as I glanced down at his lips.

"Let's go. Stop teasing the girl, Wooin," Grim's voice broke the moment from the car.

"She's teasing me too, can't you see the look on her face?" Wooin replied playfully. Vinny shook his head and rode off on his bike. I parted my lips and lowered my gaze to my feet.

Vinny's discomfort had a strong impact on me, and I couldn't focus on what Wooin was saying. I knew he still held some resentment towards me. If he didn't want me to join their group, I wouldn't do it just for him. I didn't want to be part of their crew if Vinny wasn't comfortable with me being there.

"Don't worry, Demitra. Vinny will come around to liking you soon. Your beauty is irresistible," Wooin said, his tone playful and uncertain.

"I cannot join your crew, even if you say no one will hurt me. Vinny doesn't want me to be part of the Sabbath, and I don't want to upset him further,"

Wooin's expression suddenly changed, and Joker also looked at him. "And now he's making me furious. I will fucking kill him--"

"I'll go talk to him," Joker assured his friend. "I'll handle it."

"I don't believe it, you might just end up punching him," Grim said from inside the car.

"My decision is final," I said formally. "I will help you the best I can. You can ask me anything. I can also share my knowledge when it comes to racing," Wooin still looked frustrated.

"I still don't like this. We want you in our crew, can't you see that?" Wooin whispered. "If only I could mark you as ours. I want to protect you from those Hummingbird losers."

Wooin's words caught me off guard. I glanced at Joker to gauge his reaction, and both he and Grim seemed serious.

"This is nonsense. Why would a famous crew want me?"

"You might be surprised if I tell you," Wooin licked his lips, showing off his long and sharp tongue. "Let's just say I get turned on by watching videos of you racing. Damn, how can you be so good?"

[jayladfanpage]

What would be your ideal Outlaws team + how would you go about writing/constructing it? <3

My ideal team is, maybe a little predictably, Jason Todd Eddie Bloomberg and Rose Wilson.

Gosh uhm!! First of all, little to no Gotham issues. I prefer Jason when he isn't in Gotham, or is at least not interacting with the Bats, so it's just easier to have him be somewhere else. Most likely, I'd start it off in Hollywood, because I see it starting with Freshly Revived Eddie (p sure he like, just got revived in the new Flash?) not really understanding what happened for him to die and plus he's just... alone. So he texts Jason and Rose to come visit him! But then when Jay and Rose get there (already skeptical bc hello, Jason hasn't seen Eddie since they were 15 and Rose is literally Eddie's ex) Eddie gets kidnapped by a demon/magician/brother blood/etc and Jay and Rose have to go after him and that sets up the start of the comic

I'd take a more magical route with it, personally. Obviously to connect it to Eddie's whole thing as a demon hunter but also to try and fix the All-Caste stuff that Lobdell came up with. Lots of potential there if it came from a better writer. I don't think Rose does anything with magic in canon, but I do always enjoy watching characters have to adapt to seriously fucked up shit. (Plus, she has Slade's meta powers. She'll be fine.)

This is also like, you know, THE daddy issues team. So many conversations to be had between Jason and Rose about their dads bc Bruce and Slade are eerily similar in how they cope with their respective issues. Jason and Eddie can also connect over their bio dads being kind of shit (I say kind of because there's nothing I hate more than physically abusive Willis Todd. I am not kidding when I say that's the worst Jason retcon that Lobdell has ever come up with) and how they never felt wanted or loved by their parents. All three of them can relate to how their parents' abandonment (or, in Rose's case, Slade's lack of knowledge) shaped them as people. Lotssss of parallels to be drawn here

Also, obviously, Roy Harper cameo. But get this. He's here because of ROSE. I do enjoy platonic jayroy (and romantic but I don't want it to be canon) but I think the connection Roy has with Rose is a little deeper. I think he'd want to check on her after so many years (he was her foster dad! for fucks sake!) and make sure that she's doing well, considering he knows how Jason can Get.

There would also most likely be a YJ/Tim's TT crossover because duh, Eddie and Rose were in TT03 and Jason has his whole Thing (negative) with Tim, but I'm gonna be so vulnerable here and admit that the only TT03 issues I read are the ones with Mia in them + #42 + the one where Rose lights up her cigarette with Eddie's mouth fire. So, you know, can't give much insight here. Not really a Titans fan regardless of the team itself but if this Outlaws was to ever happen I'd want the author to include them in something.

Also, I think we should get a special issue where Slade repeatedly gets his ass kicked. Rose doesn't even participate but Jason and Eddie do it in her honor. Just for funsies

OH ALSO. I'd want them to bring an artist from the 2000s back. I just don't like the current art styles nearly as much </3 unless it's Ngozi. Ngozi's art is too cute to say no and I would kill to see her draw Rose!! Or or, Jason Fabok, because his art is just everything

[boyfridged]

Howdy! Any chance you remember where your header (the image of Jason getting shot and his helmet breaking) comes from?

Also, on a wildly different note, and sorry if you’ve talked about it before, but do you have a strong opinion about Jason having a dog?

hi!

why yes, it's only my favourite post-res jason panel of all time... it's from countdown #46 and it's everything to me... the foreshadowing. the fact that we did not see jason as the red hood for at least 70 issues after that. it was a promise that jason would abandon the red hood identity, and we do, in fact, see him completely maskless in his last scene of the title. and then post-countdown jason's character got taken over by morrison who completely ignored all previous character development. and i will be grieving it forever...

irt the second question: i never talked about jason having a dog, i don't think so! (or maybe i did on my old blog, i've been around for a while). i think it's a sweet idea but also a bit of a cliche... the best thing that could be done here would be to draw some parallels between an abandoned dog and jason's own emotional state-- and to accentuate his loneliness in a way. but it's usually just used to point at jason's softness, which i do not mind either, but it's a bit overdone in fiction altogether. however, i also recall reading a quite nice fanfic in which jay got an assistance dog, but as you can guess it was paired with a depiction of disability that i would not suspect the dc editorial to be willing to engage with.

as to jason's canon dogs -- i must admit that i do not care for them much, because lobdell did not seem to truly care for them either (and i do not care for lobdell anyway, so it was a bit of a lost cause for me in the first place -- i can't exactly bring myself to take his ideas seriously with some very sparse exceptions). and i also have to add, that at this point, canon-wise, i'd i fear another haley the dog situation.

i think my favourite jason & dog duo would be (exisiting mostly in my head) (pre-mortem) jason & ace. obviously ace does not exist in jason's robin era, but i like to imagine he did and was quite old, retired from any bat-related duties, and that they developed a quiet sort of friendship. in comics, ace is brought back into narrative later (in n52 i believe?), with jason already as red hood, but tbh i'm not a fan of this move; i'd rather he was more firmly associated with dick's robin days. and if jay was to take in a dog, perhaps it should be because it reminded him of ace too... another symbol of him just never quite letting go.

[razzle-zazzle]

Whumptober Day 31: Asking for Help

"I'm alive, I'm just not well."

2376 Words; Coleverlord, various points pre-pilots and end of s1

TW for bugs, body horror imagery

AO3 ver

The sky darkened, Pythor’s laughs echoing across the empty city.

They were too late. The ground trembled, ancient stones creaking and cracking under the sudden strain. Cole stumbled back as the spiral in the arena gave way, a million marching ants blotting out the sun as a giant moving shadow lifted from the ground. The darkness shifted, parting to reveal scales and fangs and two baleful eyes—

She’s gorgeous.

More powerful than I ever imagined.

Beautiful, pure DESTRUCTION—

Yeah, yeah, Cole got the picture. He reached out to steady Kai as the Devourer slithered all the way out of her hole, frills flared. Off to the other side, Pythor was singing similar praise, as though the massive size of the Devourer wasn’t intimidating to him in the slightest.

Which made it all the more satisfying when the Devourer swallowed him whole.

(Cole’s chest lurched when he realized that Wu had been swallowed, too.)

+=+=+=+=+

Wu’s new student wasn’t what Cole expected.

Though, to be fair, Cole wasn’t sure what he expected. So maybe this was normal. Just…

The guy would not stop yapping! He’d introduced himself as Jay Walker, which Cole was pretty sure was a joke except the guy seemed completely serious, and hadn’t given the words any chance to breathe before rambling on about how high up the monastery was, seriously, why did every mysterious mentor figure have to live in fuckass nowhere, did this place even have running water, and wow this mountain air was so much different from the desert, not that he would know that of course because he was totally from the city and not some weird place like a scrapyard, haha, hey where are you from, what’s your name, is there any way he can get his hands on some scrap metal to work with—

“You talk a lot.” Cole commented, the moment Jay stopped to take a breath. It had been a neutral observation, the termites crawling along his bones more confused than annoyed.

But there must have been something about the wasps in his chest, or the worms in his gut, because Jay suddenly deflated, drawing in on himself. “Sorry, I—sorry.” And he scurried away, down the hall to where Wu had pointed out their bedroom, leaving Cole standing alone in the hallway.

“I didn’t mean…” Ugh. Whatever. Cole knew the effect he had on other people. Wu seemed to be somehow immune to it, probably because he was some kind of dragon in disguise according to the spider in Cole’s brain. But Jay wasn’t a dragon—heck, he was probably nervous talker. Cole should have known it wouldn’t take long to unsettle Jay—it never did.

Cole sighed, and made his way out to the yard to train.

+=+=+=+=+

“It’s gone.” And so was the Destiny’s Bounty, shattered pieces spread wide across the sand. Cole walked to the back of the cave, trying to calm the wasps buzzing in his chest.

“That was too intense.” Kai was panting as he removed his hood, chest heaving as he leaned against the sand bank.

“There’s no time to rest.” Zane urged. “We need to warn people, before it becomes bigger.”

I say let her play, Vessel.

“Bigger?” Jay stood up, “BIGGER?” His voice was edging into hysteria, now, and Cole wanted to take the spiders that were crawling up Jay’s back and snuff them out, “That thing in one bite just crushed our entire ship!” He started to pace around, gesturing wildly. “We need to save as many as we can, we need to find some kind of refuge—oh! The Serpentine Tombs! Yeah, they’re underground, sure, we’ll be without sunlight for months, but they’re perfect!”

“What, and just give up?” No, no, Cole couldn’t give up, he always kept going on no matter what, because it was what he was good at and because ninja never quit—

“We have no chance against that thing!” Jay argued back. Cole wanted to punch him, to grab him by the shoulders and shake him—

To find every shadow that made him doubt himself and BURY IT—

Protect your own, Vessel. Let the Devourer play.

“Guys! Is this what Sensei Wu would have wanted?” And there was Kai, interjecting himself into the argument so seamlessly, “Just running and hiding? Giving up?”

A tactical retreat is not giving up, Vessel.

“But… he’s not here anymore.” Lloyd mumbled. The conversation continued on, Kai urging them all to remember Wu’s teachings—

The spider in Cole’s brain sang so sweetly, spinning a web across his thoughts. He lost the thread of the conversation as shadows blotted out his vision, so many worms starting to eat at his flesh. He imagined his chest splitting, ribs opening up into bloodied wings as a spider emerged from his head, every inch of his body shifting to accommodate its new master—

“Cole?” Zane’s voice cut through the premonition, his hand on Cole’s shoulder.

Cole shook his head. “Sorry. Lost focus.” It wasn’t the first time It showed him that—Cole knew how his path would end. But it wasn’t time for any of that, yet—there was a snake to catch. Zane and Cole ran out into the sands, calling the vehicles hidden in their golden weapons to join up with the others.

+=+=+=+=+

Jay was… Cole was pretty sure Jay was still avoiding him. Sure, Wu insisted on them training together, and Jay didn’t skip out on that—not after Wu saddled him with scrub duty for skipping—but Cole barely saw Jay outside of the training yard. He could hear him, of course, either chattering to Wu or doing something with metal that was loud—

But Cole doubted Jay would ever really like him. And he didn’t have high hopes for the new student Wu was bringing in soon. Or… today, it looked like, Cole coming to a stop at the edge of the yard as he noticed the new arrival.

“New student?” Cole asked, drawing Wu’s attention. The guy next to him turned as well, regarding Cole with not quite hostility, not quite interest. At least, insofar as Cole could tell.

“Hello. I am Zane.” The new guy introduced himself, holding out a hand. Cole took it, ignoring the isopods scuttling under his skin and the centipedes biting at his spine. Zane’s pleasant smile did not change as he and Cole shook hands—was he like Wu, then? A dragon in disguise, unbothered by the spider in Cole’s brain?

No, he feels as normal as you mortals come.

Okay. That was… huh. “I’m Cole.” Cole said, waiting for the moment where Zane would yank his hand back and find somewhere else to be. The moment where the shadows clinging to his feet reached over to Zane’s ankles—

“It is nice to meet you, Cole.” Zane said instead, releasing the handshake normally. “I sense we will do great things together.”

Cole’s face burned. That was—oh, wow.

Vessel, don’t get attached.

The spider in his brain bit down, millions of termites digging into his bones. Zane’s smile finally faltered, face returning to a neutral expression, and Cole pulled back. Shadows curled at the corners of his vision—he should leave. Zane was already walking away.

Wu had disappeared somewhere—to go find Jay, maybe? Zane was poking around the training course curiously. Cole should definitely leave, before he unsettled Zane further. Maybe he shouldn’t have accepted Wu’s offer. Maybe he was doomed to always be stuck in the spider’s shadow, only truly loveable by the very thing that made him so unloveable—

“Do you want to run the course with me? I’m afraid I don’t know how to start it.” Cole flinched, stumbling over flat ground and falling to the dirt in surprise. He rolled over, looking up at Zane, face getting progressively hotter—

“I.” Cole sat up slowly. “You startled me.” Which was definitely not what Cole was used to.

“My apologies.” Zane offered his hand, but Cole stood on his own.

Hm. Maybe Wu taking on other students wouldn’t be too awful.

+=+=+=+=+

“ZANE!”

Shadows clawed at Cole’s brain, and the Devourer withdrew back into the earth. House centipedes scrabbled at Cole’s bones, a million buzzing flies in his ears as he fought to escape his seatbelt. “Is everyone okay?” He needed to get out out out—

Vessel, calm—

“Right here.” Zane’s voice cut through the buzzing, canisters clanking as they fell away. Cole winced—half of Zane’s face had been scraped right off, revealing the metal beneath. “That was close.”

You still want me to let her play? Cole wondered, even though he knew—whatever the spider wanted, It would get. And It wanted the Devourer to cause havoc, to “play.”

I will not let you come to harm, Vessel.

It was the most that Cole could expect It to concede. He picked his way out of the wreckage, making his way over to the others. He didn’t care if he got hurt—he just wanted his friends to be okay. Was that so much to ask?

“Too close.” Kai agreed.

“Perfect. Now that was a total failure!” Jay complained.

“Not total!” Kai argued, “Did you guys notice, on its forehead—it has a weak spot!”

I thought I removed that…

“Ohhh, great, lemme make a note of that.” Jay chirped, miming writing a note. “Giant snake has wee itty bitty weak spot that’ll be TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO GET AT BECAUSE THE THING IS TOO RIDICULOUSLY HUGE TO DO ANYTHING TO STOP IT!”

“Are you done?” Nya asked. Jay heaved, hissing through his teeth before, “Yes.”

“Guys, where’s the Devourer going?” Lloyd asked, pointing to where it had surfaced again and was beelining away. Cole flinched the moment he recognized the route—

“It’s going to Ninjago City!” Zane announced.

Ohhhhh, that was not good. If it ate something that big—

Shadows bloated out Cole’s vision. He stumbled, feeling the vague sensation of a hand on his arm through the haze of worms squirming under his skin. The spider still wanted the Devourer to play, still wanted Cole to stay out of the way—

But how was Cole supposed to do that? Jay’s parents were in Ninjago City. Jay would be devastated if they were eaten. Cole couldn’t just stand by and let that happen. He was supposed to protect his own, wasn’t he? There was no way Jay wouldn’t go to Ninjago City—

Fine, then. Go and throw yourself into the jaws of death.

I’ll pull you out, but I won’t stop you.

+=+=+=+=+

Wu’s new student was brushing his teeth. Cole, Jay, and Zane watched from the rafters, waiting for the perfect moment to strike—

The new guy shifted, glancing over his shoulder. The spider in Cole’s brain spun a web of shadows, Jay and Zane shifting in response—

“What the—” Now! Cole jumped down, scythe flashing in the lamplight. Twin thuds signaled Jay and Zane’s arrivals, the three of them completely surrounding the new student, who tightened his grip on his toothbrush.

The next several minutes were a riot of chaotic thrashing about. The chase brought the four of them through the halls, back up into the rafters, out onto the roof—at some point, the four of them had eschewed proper technique entirely, devolving into a chaos of thrashing and grappling. Cole’s head was pounding, the spider in his brain biting, shadows swirling into his vision as they all fell from the roof out into the yard—

The new student grabbed a training sword and hit Jay with it, forcing him back. Cole untangled himself from Zane and stood, leveling his scythe at the new guy—

“Enough.” Cole muttered, the pressure in his head intensifying. The shadows clawed their way up the new guy’s pajamas, making him flinch back as Cole tried his best to loom. Cole advanced a step, and the guy fell backwards onto his ass, face contorted in a scowl as he scrabbled for his weapon—

“Enough!” Wu’s voice cut through the night, bringing them all to a halt. The wasps in Cole’s chest subsided, the shadows retreating. The new guy stood quickly, knuckles white around the hilt of his sword—but he was otherwise fine, standing tall like he hadn’t just taken the brunt of the shadow in Cole’s mind.

Wu explained—wait, had he not told this guy that he had other students? Really? Cole shrugged—Wu withheld the strangest things. Their practice gis were exchanged for new ones; Cole’s new gi was just as black as before—

The color of the earth, and the shadows that hide within it.

The shadow sounded vaguely proud. Cole’s shoulders hiked, his face flushing behind his mask—

“What was that?” Kai was asking, gesturing loosely towards Cole.

“That was you getting totally Coled.” Jay bragged, before launching into a litany of his habits. “…a little bit of poetry—”

“More like mouth of lightning.” Cole commented, focusing in on the current conversation. He nudged Kai with his scythe. “Nice to meet you, kid. I’ll watch your back.”

+=+=+=+=+

Slime exploded outwards, splashing across what felt like the whole city. Cole stumbled back, grabbing onto Kai’s arm—the sheer force of the wave was almost enough to knock him to the ground. But he stood, shadows lacing into his bones to hold him steady, and the wave subsided.

Ewww, everything was sticky now. And the spider was scurrying around Cole’s skull, hissing displeasure at the Devourer’s death.

They made their way down to street level, Jay running over to his parents and being pulled into a hug. Garmadon was nowhere to be found—

(“You won’t give them back.” It wasn’t a question. It was barely even an accusation.

Garmadon shrugged. “What other choice do you have?” There was no point in denying it.)

Cole gasped. “Sensei Wu!” And there he was, standing up in a particularly thick patch of slime, looking none the worse for wear.

Of course he survived. Did you expect anything different, Vessel?

All six of them piled into the slime, tackling Wu in a hug from every direction. Cole’s arms ended up around Jay and Zane, his face pressed into the junction of Wu’s neck and shoulder. He got a faceful of slime for it—but he just didn’t care. His friends were all together and safe and whole—

Cole was doomed, he knew.

But he could still enjoy these moments while they came.

[cleromancy]

i do think that insisting we should ~let~ jason get his own ~stuff~ instead of just ~stealing his big brother's~ (real actual opinion regarding jasons friendship with roy i had to see with my own two eyes) ... is coming from a very bland and ahistorical place wrt jason characterization.

like, not even going to start talking about brothers in blood bc im not going to ask you to take the "tentacle monster jason steals a nightwing suit and vores a guy" arc seriously for characterization choices...

but look, i really don't think it would be wrong to call jason the hand-me-down robin. for a while jason inherited what dick either left behind, or else walked behind him in his shadow. and looking at preboot jason specifically, post-resurrection jason has a complex relationship to the relics and symbols of the past--and what they mean to the tragedy of his life and death--where they simultaneously make him angry, he resents them, but also he actively surrounds himself with them at all times. it's part of his whole thing where he's purposely making himself a revenant; this is not something he's likely to give up doing as long as he's going by the name the red god damn hood.

anyway. robin. ...can i just say nuff said? whether its the copy-pasted circus background strawberry blond colorswap jason or how being robin gives him magic, robin was this whole thing for him, you might have heard about it. probably you can draw the connections yourself.

but as far as hand-me-down friendships go--this is, very explicitly in the text, the deal with jason!robin and donna in their very moving situation in new teen titans. she saw the uniform and wanted to react as though he were dick and look to him to lead, and at the time Jason's not at all offended, but he does have to establish that. he's not dick, which was what she was looking to him to be. and they do rekindle their relationship after jason is resurrected but ummmmm. it was in countdown lol. there was a lot going on in countdown.

anyway jason and *barbara* is significantly less on-the-page than jay and donna--btw all of this is preboot do not talk to me about post-reboot barbara. i am not joking--but he did fall into a friendship with her too, and what few interactions we do have from that time are both really cute and very reminiscent of robin-dickie and babsgirl. on top of that barbara was his tutor, and she was one of the (counting on my fingers) four. i believe. people at jason's funeral. shes notably absent *during* under the hood except for a conversation bruce and dick have about how she washed her hands of them lmao, and jason explicitly making a parallel btwn what the joker did to him and to her in the climax. after that i don't recall any incidents of her mentioning him or anything like that... not off the top of my head anyway.

anyway. there is also, of course, bruce. according to starlin, who we hate, something something bruce was lonely and missed dick so he scooped a new orphan off the street. whatever starlin. wolfman also toys with this idea but with significantly more nuance, leaning into the ways bruce might be different with a second war-- oh, excuse me, what was that?

yeah see bruce actually adopted this one

which is where the hand-me-down thing starts quivering trembling falling to pieces. it is, i think, a pretty fair reading of *whistles* the time period immediately before, up through, and after the crisis was redefining bruce and dicks history together to take it as... bruce was a lot less complicated with jason than he was with dick. not out of loving dick any less, because. well. bruces interpersonal issues have never stemmed from a deficit of love for the people he hurts, and lets down. and i do think thats a whole nother post, and its certainly not the only reading even just of the bits of canon im referencing right now, but for the sake of argument just suppose bruce was more consistent, and tbh *way* more of a dad, to robin-era jason than he was to dick.

but jason, i think, was too young to get that, without also the outside perspective that would let him see that bruce and dicks relationship wasnt *just* strained bc dick left. that actually maybe dick and bruces relationship was, fundamentally, a whole different animal than what jason had with bruce.

and we do have indications that jason saw dick as a perfect example he could never live up to (remember when i said i wasnt going to get into brothers in blood. Well i lied. its almost as gauche as it is outlandish). and as interesting as it is to consider how jasons perspective would have developed as he grew up if he had that stable loving relationship with bruce--and, imo, personally experienced it falling apart in real time the way dick did--thats not whats on the page. so, again, we have jason and these relationships and perspectives from before his death, frozen forever, and we have jason the revenant wreaking havoc on two relationships in particular--the one with bruce, and the one with dick--and, for the most part, leaving the others from before his death alone. (iirc, he pretty much stumbled into the thing with donna instead of seeking her out... don't actually take my word on that one though.) even alfred--and we do actually have interactions that support that they were pretty close, it's not just fanon; among other things theres a tear-jerker that culminates in alfred and jasons ghost having tea together--jason doesn't especially make any attempt to connect (or menace, as the case may be) except for the fucking rare first edition book thing, which was 100% about bruce anyway. god i love the fucking first edition book thing.

anyway. after his big bad master plan very literally blows up in his face, jason proceeds thereafter to rattle around the dc universe(s), deeply lonely and ever so fucking unwell, aimlessly menacing people, causing ruckuses, being a scoundrel, etc. also! murder. lots n lots of murder. he's a busy little bee. (for the record--anytime someone says jason tried to kill someone, go ahead and double check that for yourself. imo the only time A Wild Jason Attacked! and its actually ambiguous whether he expected them to survive--preboot--is battle for the cowl. generally speaking when jason puts his whole hoodussy into killing someone, he succeeds.) (battle for the cowl is also, for the record, one of the worst books detective comics comics has ever fucking shat out. worse than the tentacle monster jason vore arc, which is at least FUN. ----and also, i do think its worth noting that both possible victims of gun batman [large version, not to be confused with gun batman small version], tim and damian, are up and about pretty soon after what do look like potentially lethal injuries. and tim Jason does have pretty good reason to think died albeit from a wound that absolutely should not have killed him (but from jasons pov its like he hit tim with a batarang that shattered and killed him instantly which is. really funny). it's just like. we don't really know what was going thru tony daniels mind at the time. like *if* tony daniel had any thoughts at all, its entirely possible all he had between his ears writing/drawing it was lint and elevator music.) (this isnt even me being a jason apologist, this time anyway. i think if jason had killed tim for real that would have been high camp. battle for the cowl is just so goddamn badly written and stupid.)

anyway. no, i don't think what jason needs is to Stop Stealing Dick's Friends. i also think that "he was dicks first >:(" re roy is the dumbest argument ever to say as a person reading comics, but also extremely funny bc. well. dick would agree with you. dick would love it if jason got his own friends and left his (not jason's >:()(dick's)(dick's friends) alone. however like. dick grayson is not well. i know i distracted you by talking at length about what an absolute basket case jason is, but dick is also an insane person and prone to irrational jealousy and can not, and should not, get everything he wants. sorry dickie but the good news is: theyll still be your friends even if they're also jasons friends. and, given the fact that jason is extraordinarily prickly and difficult to get along with (on purpose), theyll probably even still like you better.

anyway look. what it boils down to is, post-resurrection jason as a character will always be defined by his own death. not only is it the central trauma of his life, he actively remade himself around it. and part of that is how he relates now as the self-made revenant to the hand-me-down pixie boots he used to fill. and you want him to completely stop doing this...why? because itd be "healthier"? what are you, a cop?

but no really like. yeah actually i do want jason to make some better choices, be on the stable side, be a fully developed antihero who poses a moral counterpoint to the bats, asks difficult questions, causes problems on purpose but not in a way where he's purposely burning down everything he loves, etc. i do want those things. but i think ripping him away from his past makes (...made...) him unrecognizable, and generic, and doesnt really take the character in an interesting direction that actually tracks with the character concept established in under the hood and developed (such as it was) in the *waves hands* aforementioned stories. according to ~me~ anyway, obviously when it comes to writing everyone can do what they want forever, unfortunately up to and including my enemy scott lobdell who i would dearly love to kill with a rock. for his crimes.

did i ever actually explain why i think its interesting & compelling for jason personally to keep throwing him at dicks friends? ...maybe not. but i did lay some groundwork and talk about one of my favorite boys. and in the end well roy is one of my other favorite boys so like. stream green arrow, vote worlds finest: teen titans, put your money where your mouth is and support our boy. (i am referring to roy obviously. jason can die in a ditch.)

[xaeyrnofnbe]

i lied, i just drew these two. (sorry to anyone who expected more, i do still really like this au so i’ll probably add more character designs in the future, i just kinda ran out of steam after drawing my two favorite dudes from it.)

Gillion (displaced) and Gillian (prime/human gillion/gill with an A) are the partial focal points of my au, Zeros To Heroes And Beyond (or ZTHAB.) the au is built off of the patreon just roll what-if oneshot, Zeros To Heroes, in which albatrio + ollie are wannabe superheroes in the prime defenders universe.

(more explanations and versions of the drawing plus some notes on the designs under the cut) (like seriously i go on for a while)

the oneshot itself is nothing particularly thrilling, they’re basically in fortnite. that’s the best way i can think to put it. it’s a battle royale with other wannabe heroes and villains. but it has IMPLICATIONS. chip jay and ollie, they’re from prime in this universe. they even have powers unique to the versions of themselves on mana. but gillion? he’s described as being the exact same. disoriented and excited. same clothes/armor and everything. which really got me thinking

i think the oneshot exists in a timeline where rather than being banished from the undersea, gillion was banished from mana altogether. to a different dimension entirely. one where he’s not supposed to be because, as is established with his friends (and drey ferin at one point) in the what-if, this version of prime has its own versions of characters from mana. so i think it’s only reasonable to assume there’s also already a gillion there. and maybe this human gill knows all this. maybe he’s jealous of his fishy counterpart filling the role he should be in.

thats the prime side of the idea. if you observe the Zeros To Heroes And Beyond tag, you’ll see the development and brainstorming and other ideas i’ve had, including what would happen to the chip and jay on mana without a gillion to drive them forward. it’s also been a pretty collaborative story, if you were a part of adding ideas to this please lemme know so i can credit you.

also feel free to send me asks about these versions of the characters, as well as just the au in general. i’m more than open to questions, suggestions, and the like ¦] oh and you can also use these designs if you want, as long as you @ me so i can see what you did with them

(additional characters relevant to the au are edyn, finn, lizzie, caspian, marshal john but he’s just kind of there, ava but more so her presence, arlin at some point probably, and of course everybody on mana. and the prime defenders probably are relevant as well.) (i’m also thinking about making prime!pretzel some kind of domestic animal like a cat or a dog. maybe a bird?)

[obigem]

The bell rung at the start of free period. In just an hour more she'd be out of time, and like she predicted, she wasn't able to convince a single person to be her last qualifying member.

She sighed to herself as she stared up woefully at her defaced campaign poster.

Izzy was right. People will draw dicks on just about anything. Even on impossibly highly placed posters.

The poster was emblematic of all her hopes and dreams right now. A blemish on her pefectly laid plans and desires for her future. Forever defiled and unable to be fixed.

As much as her presidency meant to her, the debate club meant more. That was her brain child. Oasis Springs' first of its kind. She wanted to be able to say that she did that. She created that and brought home a regional win at the year end debate trials.

But now that would never happen.

She couldn't hold back the tears any longer. It hurt knowing that she had failed at something she really wanted, and there was nothing she could do to fix it.

As the tears began to roll down, who should stumble upon her but Jai.

He would often workout in the gym area during free period to bulk up for football, so he wasn't expecting to find Cordie there in tears. But now that he'd seen her, there was no way he could just walk away.

"Cordelia, what's wrong?" He asked noticing her tears as she turned.

"What? No, it's nothing." She quickly turned from him once she was sure he saw her face.

"Don't say that. You're crying. What is it?" Jai glance up to where he was sure she was looking. "Oh, the poster. People are jerks. We'll take it down and put a new one up. It'll be OK."

"Not, it's not that." Cordelia shook her head. "It's my debate club. I don't have enough members to qualify as a club. I tried so hard, and it just wasn't enough."

"Don't say that! I know you gave it your best effort. It's not over yet. The deadline is not till noon."

"Jai, it's over!" She sighed. "It's my own fault. I wasted so many opportunities to recruit more people, and then I got distracted. If I had taken it more seriously and really devoted myself to it, I could've made it happen. Instead I—I—" Her lower lip began to tremble.

[dramatic-squirrel]

Daminette December 2022 Day 2- Baby

@maribat-calendar-events

The loud music of the carnival around them deafened their ears, but the noise didn’t deter Marinette’s excitement. It was impossible to not be excited by the rides, attractions, even the clog-your-arteries carnival food. In fact the only person more excited than Marinette was Mar’i.

It was a bit disappointing that her date with Damian got hijacked by a three-year, but if there was any three year old Marinette wanted to spend time with, it was Mar’i. She was the best, and not just because she could fly and shoot energy from her hands. No, probably the best thing was the fact that between her and Mar’i they could get away with anything, which was the best superpower. 

Marinette held one of Mar’i’s hands while Damian held the other, careful to make sure no one got lost. And the little girl led them towards their first ride of the carnival, a merry-go-round.

“I refuse to ride on something as silly looking as that,” Damian immediately refused.

“Oh come one Damian, it’s not that embarrassing. And I’ll go on too.” she coaxed. “Besides,” she turned to address Mar’i, “wouldn’t you prefer to ride with Uncle Damian and me, Mar’i?”

“Yeah! Please Uncle Dami?” And then she looked at him with the most forlorn expression she could muster. To say no to that face would be beyond cruel. Without saying another word, Damian got on the ride and sulked the entire time. But that didn’t stop Marinette and Mar’i from having fun.

The next place Mar’i dragged the couple to was a carnival game. It was a simple dart throwing game, and while Mar’i could have won the game if they let her (energy blasts could do some serious damage to balloons) they convinced the toddler that she could have any prize that Marinette or Damian won. 

Marinette went first, but it became pretty hard to concentrate when her boyfriend kept distracting her. “You suck at this. No not there, aim higher.”

“I know what I’m doing Damian.”

“Clearly not Angel. Here, hand it over, I’ll go twice.” He grabbed the darts from her and threw each one in quick succession. Then putting another five dollars down, he grabbed another set of darts and swiftly threw them. Needless to say, each dart hit their mark. Turning to her, he had a smug look on his face.

And even though she should have been more upset with how he ambushed her turn, she couldn’t help but look at him with love in her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, you did really well,” She complimented and a faint blush began to spread across Damian’s face. “What prizes do you want Mar’i?”

Mar’i looked at the selection of stuffed animals before pointing to two of them “The birdy and the bug.” Unfortunately, she couldn’t hold on to them while Damian and Marinette held her hand, so she gave each of them one plushie. To Marinette, she gave the blue jay and to Damian the ladybug. Soon her attention was drawn to something else. “I wanna do that!” she cried, pointing to a face painting stall.

“Of course. What do you want? Hearts? Bats? Or maybe some butterflies?” 

“Stars! Just like Mommy.” 

“Ok. And what about you Damian?” The look of horror that crossed his face made Marinette burst out laughing.

“The merry-go-round was one thing, but I draw the line here,” he scowled at the two of them, preparing for what they might throw his way.

“Well, I think I’ll go for some flowers. And for you…” she pretended to think for a bit. “...what do you think Mar’i?”

“A cat! He can match Alfred the cat!”

“I think that’s a wonderful idea. Our grumpy cat needs some whiskers so everyone knows to stay away.”

Damian didn’t comment but a bad feeling began to settle in his gut. It was proven right when ten minutes later he ended up in the chair. He wasn’t even sure how it happened but he knew he wasn’t the only one to give way to Mar’i and Marinette. Even Alfred the butler couldn’t resist.] the two of them combined.

“Oh come on Damian. It’s not so bad.” Damian looked away, giving her the silent treatment. “Seriously, it’s less of a cat and more like a tiger, it looks cool.” And Damian knew she was only placating him, but nonetheless, he began to feel a bit more comfortable with his new feline features. That was until Grayson showed up and ruined the whole thing.

“Oh my god… Damian, you look so cute!” A flash went off before Damian could look away, murder in his eyes.

“Daddy!” Mar’i practically flew into Grayson’s arms. “I want to tell you all about the things we did.”

“And I’d love to hear it.” Before Mar’i could go on a long tangent, Damian interrupted.

“Delete that picture this instant, Grayson, or I will skewer you with my katana the next time we spar.”

“Oooh, send that pic to me Dick. Also real quick, take one of me and Damian together.” Marinette pulled Damian close, both for the photo and to prevent him from maiming Dick. Another flash went off. “Awesome. Thanks Dick.”

“Sure, no problem. Thanks for taking care of Mar’i for me and Kor’i.”

“It’s fine, Mar’i’s a joy to be around. I hope I have a baby as sweet as her one day.” At Marinette’s words Dick got a sly look on his face.

“Oh my, I didn’t realize you were already thinking about having kids with Damian, little bug.” For the first time that night Marinette’s face erupted into flames. She hid her face beneath her hands.

“Please forget I said that,” the muffled words were just barely audible.

“Did you think of names already?” Dick ignored her. “What about you Damian? Do you hope that they’ll have her eyes?” The murderous aura around Damian increased.

Grabbing Marinette’s hand, he dragged her away from Grayson, while simultaneously scrubbing the paint off of his face. “We’re leaving. The longer we listen to your idiotic babble the more stupid we become.”

Dick couldn’t resist one final shot. “Don’t go trying to make those babies now! Act responsibly and wait for marriage!” Marinette swore her face couldn’t get more red.

[brooklynislandgirl]

character info sheet.

Name: Elikapeka Ailine Alohaekauneikahanuola'wahine'Ilikea Riley, but goes by anglicised Elizabeth Irene.

Name meaning: Fully translated, her name means "love alights here {like a bird}-the breath of life is a fair skinned woman who brings peace and whose promise is God." You can see why she normally just goes by "Beth" {which means house/home}.

Alias(ses): Maga Elizabeth Kahu Pono bani Verbena, bani Sögumaður, Initiate Exempts of Prime, Adeptus of Forces and Entropy, Master of Life and Spirit. {{Amongst formal magickal circles, bani means 'of the house of' and is used first to tell of her Tradition [Verbena], and second to honour her cherished mentor in the magickal arts. Initiate/Adept/Master are ranks attained in those particular spheres of magick, and maga is singular feminine of magus, or mage}}

Two pictures you like of your character:

Three headcanons you never told anyone:

If Beth had been born fully Rokea {wereshark} rather than just as Kinfolk, her swimming jaws {shark} form would be that of a tiger shark, instead of the nurse shark she jokes about being.

While she's very much a cat person, Beth tends to love "ugly", unlikeable, misunderstood creatures, because no one/nothing should ever have to feel hated/unwanted simply because they aren't ideal.

She experiences a sort of existential dread that the more time she spends away from Hawai'i and her ancestors, the more she's losing her own identity. She wonders if she's now more haole than she cares to admit.

Three things your character likes to do in their free time: I. surf II. sketch/draw/paint III. knit

Three people your character loves/ loved:

Andrew Riley {her brother}

Jay Morgan {Her hanai-sister}

They know. {no, seriously. like it can't be more obvious}.

Two things your character regrets: I. Not ever being good enough, no matter how hard she tries. II. Being related to the Admiral Three phobias (fears) your character has: I. Darkness II. Peanut Butter III. The L word / Emotional Intimacy ~*~

tagged by: my dear @bewitchingbaker

tagging: Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

[wild-grinders]

Wild Grinders: The Fan Analysis (Pt.3)

First Previous

if anyone has finals, consider this as a gift for making it through

Alright, it’s time for the third part of the analysis. It took awhile to actually begin writing this because I don’t want to dive into my self-indulgent yuri-beam reboot. And we shouldn’t nitpick to make the series ‘better.’ However, there’s a lot for Wild Grinders to improve on that that leaves you thinking, ‘Actually, we should rework it entirely.’ And that’s what this is. The best way was to organize it into 3 categories: Theme, Plot, and Characters. Most of this analysis is going to focus on the writing because animation is not always in our control. (And we kinda covered animation in the last part and said it needed a whole renovation).

That being said, this part of the analysis is primarily focused on keeping the structure of the TV series and the original vision that Rob Dyrdek has. (To the best of my ability).

[Part A]

Let’s assume that the script is taken seriously. Wild Grinders need to have a better overall theme because the wacky skate tricks didn’t do enough to draw in attention.

The current theme of Wild Grinders doesn’t exactly work. As mentioned in the second of my analysis, the writers were trying their best to appeal to the Gen Z audience. Usually by means of implementing modern pop culture references and putting social media in the spotlight in the latest episodes. While the writers aren’t wrong about the technology/socmed obsession amongst children, they missed out on an extremely alarming picture. They didn’t notice why children were becoming gravitated to this era of internet.

Recently, I have been learning about the way that society treats children and teenagers. (Awkward sentence, sorry). But I find myself learning more and more about the ways that society puts control on what kids can and cannot do. Many adults make the decisions to remove places to hang out such as parks and even skate parks (reason: to prevent drug dealers). In the age of our digital era, theaters and physical media are diminishing in favor of online subscriptions. Basically, kids are losing public spaces where they can hang out safely.

And it does NOT stop there. Cops are constantly being funded to ‘handle’ teens who are loitering (Why? Because they don’t have places to hang out). I don’t want to go on an off-topic rant in this analysis, but this post sums up what I’m trying to talk about. It really makes your brain think about the ways that society fails to let kids… be kids. Society uses harmful tactics to remove teenagers for ‘the greater safety’ of property. And I doubt that adults will listen to younger people who speak up about it. Instead, society would rather complain about raising a generation of phone-addicted youths. Older children and teenagers will be threatened and put into dangerous just by being outside because cops have control on where they can be. And by having ‘suspicion’ on teenagers is absolutely allowed in their rulebook to put a kid in a police station.

This is what Wild Grinders should have focused on as the whole theme if you consider the setting it takes place in (2010ish). If the writers wanted to talk about the phone-addicted kids, then they should have questioned why it was happening in the first place. Not only that, but it’s just a perfect theme for Wild Grinders. Reason one, it’s completely different from Rocket Power (their main theme was the history and safety of extreme sports). Reason two, it fits for the main cast. Lil’ Rob is literally the embodiment of ‘screw your authority!’ Jay Jay and Spitball are literally POC characters that the police often go after and the series could have delved into this. In Ketterville-canon, Jack Knife is homeless and lives under a highway, he’s 100% anti-cop. Emo Crys could have went to Linkin Park territory and his archetype was meant to be an intensely rebellious soul. And Goggles? He has the camera to capture video evidence of everything they go through.

Is it possible to air an anti-cop TV series? Nope. But it’s very possible to write and utilize it for what Wild Grinders is. A group of preteens who want to just hang out and skate. In fact, a few of the episodes featured the Wild Grinders being turn away by security and cops when they wanted to find a place to skate. However, they just obeyed in favor of ‘sending a good message to kids about obeying the rules.’ And the script writers didn’t think to push it further than this. But man, they could have done something else entirely if they went to the territory of police brutality used on adolescents. The Monster High Movie, Ghouls Rule! actually did something like this! The movie managed to present a family-friendly version of what ‘police brutality on teenagers’ feels like. To be specific, it wasn’t until 2020 when MH fans became aware of this hidden message and began openly talking about it on Tumblr and TikTok. But to keep it brief, Monster High movies were able to explain police brutality and racism incredibly well. And it’s possible for Wild Grinders to use this a whole theme for a series about kids who want to skateboard in an anti-children and anti-loitering system.

But anti-cops won’t be the only theme in Wild Grinders, there’s another theme that I would love to see; a coalition of diverse skaters. Rob Dyrdek’s vision when creating the Wild Grinders’ characters was to have a diverse cast who were brought together by their love of skating. The idea of diversity has always been intentional for Wild Grinders, but the writers did NOT utilize it enough! They attempted to make the cast be diverse in personality, but they made all of their backgrounds vague and look like they were all normal American kids by hiding their families. Not only that, but they missed out on multiple opportunities to create other skaters outside of the Wild Grinders skate crew. (We’ll talk about this later). In the second season, they were close to introducing the ‘Street Rats’, the crew that Squeaks was apart of. But 2015 happened and Rob Dyrdek packed up his TV series because he didn’t have the motivation to continue Wild Grinders. But we can’t really blame Dyrdek, he was going through a rough patch at the time and the studio screwed Wild Grinders over (in animation and the writing). And that’s why I’m here to talk about what should have been done. And most of it is to improve the writing! The writers were adults who didn’t bother to understand what kids wanted more of at the time and began to parody off of other kids’ TV series.

But yeah. If the writers weren’t bent to the idea of kids-being-incapable-of-thought-processing, then we could see more effort being put into the theme. And not just that, but some of the writers just weren’t here to write for kids and wanted to write Adult Swim jokes. Do I have a passive-aggressive voice about these adult writers? Definitely. Children deserve to consume media that has good writing about meaningful messages in the world.

[Part B]

Next step, Wild Grinders needs to use these two main themes for the plot.

We know for a fact that Rob Dyrdek never planned for a real plot in Wild Grinders. If we were to take his route, Wild Grinders will eventually become boring because a good plot draws people more than the quirkiness. In order to draw people through quirkiness, the visuals need to exceed expectations (clearly something that Wild Grinders failed to do in animation). Therefore, we need to think about a plot for Wild Grinders because it does NOT have the budget for a Kyoto Animation or BONES Studio anime. The plot is compensation here!! It needs to be worked on well!!

Let’s diverge from Rob Dyrdek’s ideas. He wants to make an amazing, cool, and crazy series. But in order to do something like this, you do need some sort of plot. Conflict in writing can lead to all sorts of situations that causes to the characters to be cool, crazy, and amazing.

There is some plot in the writing of Wild Grinders, each episode being 13 minutes long and trying its best to implement one. Most of the episodes have decent plots, but these plots didn’t grab the audiences’ attention, unless you actually liked Wild Grinders as a whole. I don’t know the most professional way to explain this, but Wild Grinders needs a build-up to a greater plot, it needs an actual ‘Big Bad’. Or it just needs a longer run time to build it up better. Some of my favorite small, plot-driven episodes were ‘Midas Touch’ and ‘Skater Who Cried Wolf’ because it didn’t rely on wacky quips to make it entertaining. ‘Skater Who Cried Wolf’ made the animation put extra effort in enhancing the setting, by having Lil’ Rob and his friends watch a horror movie on a school night and then making a ghost-hunting green-filtered screen chase around in the woods. It was just a cool episode compared to the rest. But ‘Midas Touch’? That episode will always be my weakness in Wild Grinders. It focused on a character other than Lil’ Rob, but the plot would be rushed because of the runtime. I wanted to see deeper into Goggles’s character when he decided to become popular. Hell, I wanted to see him be mean to his friends and let the popularity get into his head. (Well, we did see this in ‘Going Hollyweird’, but even that was short). But the resolution to ‘Midas Touch’ was simplified where Goggles’s just cries about not being able to nerd out. No. I want more inner conflict on his side and his to feel deeper regrets other than rejecting a movie screening. While these episodes are both quick and easy plots, ‘Midas Touch’ contributed to the greater idea that is known as character development. Something that is essential for a greater plot. Can I elaborate why this is? Not really, but you just have trust me that it does work.

Anyways, let’s get into the real idea here. Using the themes of diversity and cops abusing their authority on the youth. The main plot will have to involve a large-scale conflict against the police force that bans skateboarding. That’s it. That’s the plot. But it will need to developed throughout the series, carefully placed in different episodes until it becomes a more blatant problem. Think about it for a moment. The first episode makes an off-hand reference to the way that police ‘warn’ skateboarding kids to stay away from the mall. Then it leads to episodes where characters are being arrested for ‘loitering’ in an outdoor public space. Finally, there’s an entire ban on skateboarding in the whole city and you’ve got a group of kids who are willing to challenge it. This is what the writers completely missed out on because they didn’t put themselves in the same shoes of Gen Z youth.

And we can add more to this mix. We need to add in a diversity of skateboarders, they all come from different backgrounds and have different experiences, but they share their love of skateboarding and do their best to protect each other in a world where adults rule over them. Wild Grinders needs LGBTQ kids, teens who want justice for their POC friends, and young adults who are willing to listen to them. They all love skateboarding and they’re sick of adults who want to take their skating spaces away from them.

Wild Grinders was able to make this a plot, but they didn’t.

[Part C]

We need to talk about the characters. We’ve got a lot and we’ve got nothing going on for the cast. As stated before, Rob Dyrdek wanted to create a diverse cast of skateboarders. But he didn’t do the best job at balancing them as characters. Obviously, Lil’ Rob was the main character and got all the attention, but it got to the point that he was considered a Gary Stu because of it. There’s such an imbalance between him and his friends. The TV series didn’t do ALL of the Wild Grinders any justice. They were all watered down to adore Lil’ Rob and when they never got any real development. There was an attempt to balance the characters, but they were lacking. They were always reduced to their conventional personalities and felt static and sterile. Lil’ Rob clearly has the majority of episodes that focus on him.

It’s shocking that Emo Crys has the least amount of episodes considering his popularity and the fact that Rob Dyrdek always hyped him during the first wave of toys. But it’s important to note that the rest of the cast often got their spotlight stolen by Lil’ Rob when they were meant to have an episode dedicated to them. ‘Wild BFFs’ is an oddball on here because it didn’t really contribute to Jack Knife’s characters, but it was an episode where Lil’ Rob didn’t take it away from him. Either way, these were the episodes where the writers tried to put some spotlight on the rest of the main cast, but these episodes fell short. Jay Jay and Emo Crys had the most lukewarm episodes where Lil’ Rob usually has to solve the problem. ‘Wild Grinder with Two Heads’ was the only episode where Lil’ Rob was actually cut off, but both Jay Jay and Emo Crys had to share this episode. Honestly, it wasn’t exactly the best episode because it was one of the ‘wacky’ ones and it’s just brings secondhand embarrassment to watch it. It’s great to see 2 different characters (one of them not being Lil’ Rob) have to work out their problem together, but I would rather have it be a handcuffs situation where they were forced to work out their differences. Spitball is clearly the quiet character and that makes some excuse for his lack of episodes. To keep him mysterious. Goggles had the best development out of everyone in most of his episodes, but it still feels underwhelming until ‘Midas Touch’. While it looks like Jack Knife has a lot of episodes, there’s something that pisses me off about them all. It’s his Sprawl City-canon personality. He was reduced to being the dumb, uneducated American with a southern accent. This funny persona basically demolishes him from having a meaningful character arc. I want the Ketterville-canon Jack Knife for a lot of reasons, but mostly because the whole point of his character was being the kindest out of all the Wild Grinders despite the fact that he was poor and made to always be the joke. Before the production of the TV series, all the Grinders had expression sheets drawn by Tracey, only Emo Crys’s sheet being released. However, there was a tweet that revealed a glimpse of Jack Knife’s sheet where he was like full-on, pissed-the-hell-off.

The only reason why they could never let Jack Knife be angry in the series was to probably avoid him from looking like an angry redneck due to his strong southern accent being permanent later on. If they stuck to the Ketterville-canon and original voice actor for Jack Knife, we could have had an episode where he finally snaps after being docile for long enough. My boy was meant to slash tires and defend his friends when they are mistreated!!

Speaking of Ketterville-canon, it was very fleshed-out and made the characters unique and interesting. You want to know why Spitball got his nickname? He used his spit on people because he thought it would heal wounds from a story he heard. The writers should have made Emo Crys way more moodier and Jay Jay deserves more screen time of his hobbies. The rest of the cast needs to have conflicts (both internal and outside) of their lives and be able to resolve them. The writers avoided anything that would truly challenge the characters in favor of keeping a conventional typecast. And we aren’t done yet. Another improvement on characters we need is: less antagonists and adults that appear for an episode. There’s too many one-time villains in the TV series than like, actual kids who are the same age the Wild Grinders. No, this doesn’t mean we need a girl skate crew to play as girlfriends. Absolutely not. We need different kids who love to skateboard. We need gay and trans kids. We need to see black and brown skateboarding kids. We need to see new designs for characters and skate crews who can make challenges and befriend the Wild Grinders. If kids are going to watch the TV series, they deserve to feel seen because Wild Grinders make more celebrities and adults in the cast where they don’t do a lot. (Unless it’s Lil’ Rob’s mom. She contributes more to the story than the actual antagonists).

Anyways, we need better development for the main and reoccurring cast. But we need to see a diversity of skateboarders as well to create unique plots and encourage character development by having them interact with the Wild Grinders. I’m tired from writing all of this in one shot, but it’s sincerely tiring that the script writers wrote everything the way it is in the TV series.

Apologies if any part of this analysis feels rushed or incomplete, it’s the week of finals and my brain isn’t working (and threw off everything I was supposed to write about the analysis). To the few people reading this, thank you and hope that this enhances the brainrot. Feedback is very appreciated on my end.

[chellyore]

Screw it. Ninjago monster au. I got bored and well since I'm pumping out writing more than I should. Here. Also I might create artwork of the monster designs or mythical designs. I'm debating, but yeah enjoy my brainrot.

I'll give you all chapter one here though, cuz I'm crazy. Enjoy and who knows, maybe artwork will come of this, because I like drawing dragons, vampires, etc.

The sun shone bright orange along the golden doors of an ancient building. Nearly blinding the three underneath the gold archway. 

“Nya, are you ready?” An elderly lady asked as the water ninja came up. 

“Yep, and Pixel is coming too.” 

“That is fantastic.” A nindroid beams as his blue eyes lit up upon seeing the female Android. 

“I don't get to come out too much.” Pixel says as she then gets onto the boat. 

“Did you bring Samurai X?” Pixel beams down at Nya. She then turned to a group of four ninja, currently waving off their Master. 

“Alright, you boys know how to run the Monastery while we're away?” 

“Of course we do, sis.” The red ninja Kai, smiled with his head tilting back. 

“Yeah, sweep, clean, do dishes.” Jay, the blue ninja counted. 

“Oh, and to mention the cooking.” The black ninja, Cole, grabbed his mouth. 

“We got it under control.”  The last ninja, Lloyd, the legendary Green ninja beamed. The woman shook her head, and smiled. 

“I was curious about the computer, do you know how to call from it?” Jay shoved Cole's hand away. 

“Yep, I got it and I can do any repairs if needed.” Nya giggles at her boyfriend and both then share a hug. 

“Nya.” 

“Well, Master Wu is calling me. Bye guys, and don't ya know.. .burn down the Monastery.” 

“When have we ever- oh yeah.” The boys groan at the fire ninja. 

“Seriously Kai, out of all us you're more prone to.” 

“I forgot, but-” He watches the Bounty taking off and turns back to his brothers. Cole smiled widely beside Jay, and Lloyd just started walking to the door. 

“Well, come on. We deserve a break.” Everyone gave gleams as soon they reached a room, with a massive TV and sofa. Cole went to grab snacks, Jay played with the cords for a second and plugs them in, and Kai and Lloyd were just guessing who would win the game. Cole swings the door open with his legs and places down bowls of chips, chocolates, popcorn, really anything that could be considered a snack. 

“Are you all ready for me to beat you all?” Kai gripped a controller. 

“Yeah, right Jay, I'm gonna be the one to beat you.” Suddenly the game started and Lloyd gave a knowing side smirk as he immediately began slamming buttons. 

“HEY!” 

“Should pay attention better!” Everyone quickly began moving buttons as a certain green character was taking the lead.  

They played for hours, eating, drinking, occasional breaks to use the restroom, but kept playing. 

“I WIN!” Kai jumped up as he proudly stood on the sofa. Jay eyed his controller. 

“Take that Lloyd!” 

“Good game, but we should get more snacks.” Cole looked at the empty bowls. 

“Yeah, I need to stretch my legs.” Lloyd yawns, popping his neck. 

“Alright, time for a break.” Kai giggled as he jumped off the couch. 

“Aww, but I was so close!” Jay frowned, and Kai gleamed. 

“Maybe next time, but my eyes hurt from staring.” 

“I just need more snacks and I can go again.” Jay looks over at Cole. 

“You're on, Cole!” Lloyd yawns again and Kai went up to him. 

“I'm gonna head to bed.” Kai nodded and the green ninja left the room, heads to the restroom. He uses the shower quickly and gets on his pjas. He then shivers through the hall till he makes it to his room. He curls up into the green blankets, and sighs as his hair was still wet. 

“Have to wait.” He muttered and went over to his closet. He dug around for a moment, digging up old swords, Gis, and he stopped for a second. 

A small black hood, with faded bone shapes and a number 5 in green. Lloyd lifts it and gives a slight gleam, folds it, and places it away. His eyes then see the pages of color and space. 

“There it is!” He scooped it right up, and silently curled up into his bed and pillows. 

He reads it till eventually his eyes close. And like that everyone was asleep. Kai in his room, with his fifty blankets, and Cole and Jay in the same room they played games in. Cole deep in slumber on the couch, and Jay in the chair, curled up like a burrito. 

“How long do you think they will sleep?” 

“Hopefully long enough for this.” 

*creek* 

The glass reflected their hood and their floating arrival. One looked down at Cole and Jay. 

“Now?” The bigger hood shook. 

“We must find their master's room.” 

“Huh?” The beings flew straight down to the back of the couch, where they heard springs move as the male sat up. 

“What was that?” His voice muffled with a hint of dryness. 

“Now?” The little being asks and suddenly Cole jumps over the sofa. 

“WHO ARE YOU!?” The two creatures flew up. 

“AAA!” They glance at a terrified  auburn-haired man. 

“COLE!” 

“GET THE OTHERS, JAY!” Jay shakes his head, and feels his legs stiffen upon seeing the two sets of red eyes. 

“KAI, LLOYD!” 

*SWOOSH* 

“AAAAAAAAA” 

Lloyd lifts himself right up. 

“JAY!” He jumps himself onto his feet and grabs the sword by his bed. 

“I'M COMING!” Lloyd watches Kai sprint before him and immediately clutches his sword. 

“IN HERE!” Kai slams the door right open and Lloyd rushes to his two friends, laying on the floor. 

“What happened?” Cole clenched his jaw, showing his teeth, and Lloyd watched as his eyes began to water. 

“Cole?” 

“COME BACK HERE YOU FUCKER!” Lloyd lifts his head at Kai's yelling and grips his sword. Jay stood up, though still with a little help from the chair. 

“That was weird, right?” He glances at a curled up Cole, who only stares up at him in tears. 

Lloyd brings his sword right to his face, and stares up at a bright purple ball. 

Cole shook as the blue ninja picked him up. 

“AAAAA!” 

“FUCK!” 

Jay listens to Lloyd and Kai's screams and shakes his head as two figures fly above him. 

“Sorry, Cole.” He places the pained man against the chair. 

“HEY!” The figures turn to Jay, which is when Jay notices something shiny in their hands. He jumps onto the sofa, and tucks his legs. 

“Bye” 

*snap* 

*Thud* 

Jay lifts his head from the floor and breathes out. 

“NOW THEY CAN TELEPORT!” He tugged at his eyelids. 

“Jay.” The man turned, where he only saw Cole's hand on the chair. Or what he hopes is him, because the hand was fully black and had pieces of ripped sofa stuck to the longing claws.  

[phoenixglacier]

I’m just rambling, okay? There’s no point to this rant. You have been warned.

The thing about being a comics fan (been in DC comics for about six months now) is that unlike any other fandom I have been in, there is no One True Canon as far as I can tell.

No, seriously. Unless you were born in the last few years, your canon has been recooked into so many different recipes by writers and artists and editors who all probably violently disagree with each other. When I started reading and needed to log all of my comics to get some semblance of a reference sheet, I used to include the credits and highlight the names of writers and artists that did really well. And the flipside, you know. My own personal blacklist.

Starting out as primarily a Tim fan and a Damian fan simultaneously means I got used real fast to reading comics that sucked bad for one character but also mind-blowingly nailed it on another. What is a comics reader to do? You know, I come from certain fandoms where the canon was nailed down, and every undoing of it was deliberate, and I do do that. My 232+ epilogue of Percy Jackson isn’t public, but you better bet I combed through the canon with the same devotion that I highlighted every printed line I was going to change. But I’ve come out of comics a desensitized reader. Do I get the urge to edit and redraw every panel of Nightwing 2016 Issue 43 to undo all the truly desperate and honestly failing attempts to portray Roy as stupid (it doesn’t even work because he’s so smart he gives like 90% of the exposition in this chapter and always has an eye on the small child out of fatherly instinct) and to remove Cheshire (because what was even the point of her in this chapter? And if she wasn’t plot-relevant then why would you include her terrible characterisation for the sake of it) but keep a large chunk of the overall premise to preserve what I think was reasonable (if slightly nuked) characterisation of Damian being all huffy that he tsundered some time with Dick only to have Dick’s friend come in and he’s adorably and understandably jealous and yet he succeeds at telling Dick that he wants to spend more time with him at the end and then he and Roy bond over being slave-driven by Dick for the rest of the night… Where was I? Oh. Right. So, I mean, yeah. I do.

This is my way of interacting with media. Sure, I’d like it to be perfect and not have Fabian Nicieza nuke Damian in an attempt to make Tim and Dick more justified (based solely off of Nightwing 1996 #138 of the Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul series and honestly I should give him more credit because Damian specifically has a long blacklist and the only reason why I’m this harsh on him is because he wrote Dick and Tim beautifully and a few little tweaks would make me frame this chapter). But there’s a space for me to work with, as a writer.

So, okay. Flash writers are dedicated to the whole Flash cast and brought them back in canon, which is so important and useful honestly. I give the Flash family a big star sticker, formally adopt Wallace and Avery into the family, and set to work giving them daily lives. Everything’s great! (Jai. And his chronic pain. Is so important to me because it draws on my own experiences. I won’t go into it here and you’ll never get to see it unless…)

I timelines ages in the fandoms where it matters. It doesn’t matter in DC. It can’t. Dick has been alive for 84 years + pre-Robin, and he’s like twenty-something. Hitting thirty for the lols. You don’t age until you do. You know how you enter college and everyone graduates at different times depending on the density courses you take? Just me? Anyway that’s how ages work in DC and it’s not concrete and just don’t think about it.