#I wish dc would take her more seriously

[misspickman]

Like in my head cassie is a butch lesbian but i know this is never going to be real in dc so im not like Angry they don't make her more masc i just wish she looked more serious instead of like hey im a teen girl who Just became a superhero, which Worked before bc it was true but now shes been wonder girl for longer than yara and yet yara gets a cool fit and cassie gets. This

[fluentmoviequoter]

Bats Need Lives Too

Requested Here!

Pairing: Bruce Wayne x wife!reader

Summary: Bruce and the boys have bad days, and as their mom, it's your job to make them better.

Warnings: Bruce and Damian are on the autism spectrum, Jason jokes about dying, mentions of murder and Joker, fluff and comfort

Word Count: 2.1k+ words

Masterlist Directory | DC Masterlist | Request Info

Photo from Wayne Family Adventures on Webtoon (via Google)

A/N: I don't have autism so I based this depictions off research and common symptoms; if it's inaccurate, please let me know and I'll do my best to fix it!

“Bruce!” you yell from the top of the stairs. “Damian!”

You pause, but there’s no reply. Taking a step down, you hit the creaky stair that Bruce hasn’t fixed (for security purposes).

“Ma,” Jason greets as he comes up the stairs. “I’m going to go get some sleep. I told B and the demon brat to do the same, but you know them.”

You smile at his attempt to stay on your good side and wave him past as you wish him a good night. He has a room at the manor like all of the kids do, but it depends on their day and Bruce’s mood as to whether or not they use it.

“Bruce, honey,” you call again as you descend into the Batcave. “It’s time for bed. You too, Damian.”

“We’re almost finished,” Damian replies without looking away from the screen.

“Bruce,” you repeat firmly.

“Almost done,” he mumbles.

You look up toward Wanye Manor, then reach over Bruce’s shoulder to turn the computer monitors off. Damian huffs as Bruce continues to stare at the black screen.

“Boys,” you begin again, squatting between them with a hand on their shoulders. “I know you’re getting close, but you have to sleep. Especially you, Dami.”

Damian considers it for a moment, then nods. Bruce turns toward you slowly, and you smile when his eyes meet yours.

“I’ll hug you both until you agree to go upstairs if that’s what it takes,” you threaten.

That threat used to be more effective before Damian came to expect your hugs daily. Both he and Bruce, all of the Bats for that matter, tend to run from love, but you’ve become the loving mother they need, even when they don’t like it.

“Go to bed, get some sleep, eat some breakfast in the morning, and I promise Gotham will still be here when you’re ready to investigate more.”

Damian slips away from your hand and walks toward the stairs. He calls a weak, “Goodnight,” over his shoulder as you take his previous seat and look at Bruce. He looks tired, though you’ve come to expect it now.

“Bad day?” you murmur, gently taking his face in your hands.

“Will I always be two steps behind?” he asks against your palm.

“If you don’t stop to rest, you’ll be three steps behind,” you answer honestly.

“You’re supposed to say, no, love and light of my life, you’re doing great,” Bruce teases.

“And you’re supposed to listen to me. Now, are you going to bed with me, or shall I invite Goliath to keep your spot warm?”

“When did you become the bad cop?” Bruce asks as he pulls you up and against his chest.

“Since your children started acting just like you.”

“What will Alfred think?” Bruce asks dramatically.

“That he deserves five times as much vacation time now that there’s so many of you.”

When Damian’s teacher at Gotham Preparatory called you in for her concerns about Damian’s behavior, you took what she said seriously. You knew about Damian’s past and his family, of course; when she kindly suggested having him screened for autism, you already knew what the doctor would say. You’ve suspected for years that Bruce was on the spectrum, but having him or his children screened would be a Gotham Gazette headline and a press nightmare that you did not need. So, you did your own research on how to help your boys whenever they need it. Within a few days, Damian was interested in your new approach and set out to learn about the disorder with you.

“Dick told me it was impolite to call people disgraces, but disordered is acceptable?” Damian asked as he read an article on the screening process.

“The person isn’t disordered, Dami, it’s a neurological and developmental disorder. That just means the way you learn, and act isn’t the same as normal people,” you explained. “Though, personally, normal has always felt like more of an insult.”

Damian tutted in agreement before he continued reading, and you smiled as you flipped through a list of symptoms you’ve seen in the manor for years. Many of them had occurred before Damian came along.

“Hey!” Dick calls as he and Jason enter the manor. “So, gala tonight. Is it mandatory?”

“It is,” you answer with a sympathetic frown. “Though if you bring a date, I’d be more than happy to make up excuses for why you leave early.”

“That’s never gotten me out of patrol before,” Jason argues.

“Are you talking about when Poison Ivy doused you with her plant toxin?” you reply.

“I wanted to leave early with a date.”

“She would have killed you,” Dick interjects. “What is wrong with you?”

Jason shrugs as he uses his default answer of, “Died once.”

“That’s enough,” you stop them with a chuckle. “Yes, you have to come to the gala, but you don’t have to stay the whole time. Especially if you’d like to take Damian with you when you leave.”

“I thought he was doing better,” Jason says.

“He’s getting better at the social communication issues, but, you know, it’s Gotham and he’s got a social battery just like the rest of us.”

“Is that why you’ve been separating him and Bruce?” Dick asks.

“Just on the bad days. They need space and a chance to do something they actually like. It’s worked better than anything else, and then, when they’re ready, I force them to receive my love.”

Jason shudders dramatically before you direct them to see Alfred for their suits for the gala. Dick and Jason both hug you on their way out, and you sigh as you return your attention to a memo for Wayne Enterprises about Bruce’s upcoming sabbatical. He doesn’t know it’s coming, but he needs it, and you will make him take it.

The night after the gala, you roll over in bed and reach for Bruce. His side of the bed is empty, and you open your eyes after your arm meets the cold sheet where your husband should be. You swing your legs off the bed, reach for your robe, and sigh tiredly. Bruce has been running himself ragged recently. You know why, there’s been a string of murders and timed escapes from Arkham, but he can’t solve everything in a night sitting in the Batcave.

He's been Batman more than Bruce the last week, and it’s time for you to step in and intervene. The Batcave is cold at night, and you pull your robe tighter around you as you walk toward Bruce’s back. He’s still in his cape and cowl, and when you sit beside him, he glances over quickly but pointedly avoids your eyes. You lay your hand on his arm, but he rolls his shoulder and opens the same file for the third time since you arrived. He’s getting obsessive and repetitive, and if you don’t stop him now, he’ll get impulsive and get himself or one of your kids hurt.

“Bruce are you okay?” you ask softly.

Bruce stands quickly, knocking his chair over and letting your hand fall back to your lap. “Do I look okay?” he exclaims, throwing his hands up.

You raise your hands but don’t speak. Bruce turns away quickly and reaches for the computer controls. Slowly, you stand and place your fingers over his wrist. Bruce slows but doesn’t stop or look at you.

“Why are you wearing the cowl?” you ask.

“I have to stop him before he does it to someone else.”

“Joker?” you guess.

Bruce’s jaw tightens, and his forearm stiffens beneath your touch as his fingers curl into a fist.

“Bruce, you need a break. A real break, not just a walk around the manor while you think about it.”

“And if it happens while I’m on a break? Then I have even more blood on my hands!”

You shake your head and take his hands in yours. “It will be on mine, too, then. But do not take yourself away from me and the boys because of him. He’s done more than enough.”

“I have to finish. Batman has to end this.”

“And you will, but right now, you’re only hurting yourself and the people closest to you. Exactly what he wants.”

Bruce drops his head before he releases your hand to rip the cowl away from his face. You smile at him, but his eyes are on the floor.

“You need sleep,” you whisper.

Bruce nods and turns away from you to remove the rest of his equipment. Your love may be tough love sometimes, but it is what Bruce needs on days like today.

“Where are the boys?” you ask.

“Damian’s here, in bed. Dick and Jason are in Blüdhaven and Tim is on patrol.”

“Alone?”

“Helena’s with him,” Bruce assures you. “He’s safe.”

“Then leave Batman, the files, the lack of sleep, all of it down here, and let’s get you somewhere safe, too.”

Bruce allows you to lead him upstairs and into bed, but before you can ask if he feels better, his arm tightens around you as he drifts to sleep.

“Good morning,” Alfred greets.

“Good morning, Alfred,” you reply. “Bruce won’t be joining us just yet.”

“Thank goodness. If only his child felt the same urge for resting.”

“Damian?” you assume.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I’ll bring him to breakfast. Thanks, Alfred.”

Alfred nods and resumes cooking as you begin searching the manor for Damian. He tends to gravitate toward the room with the most swords, the display room on the third floor. As you enter with a knock, Damian keeps his eyes on the floor. A row of model cars is lined up before him, and the weapons on the wall are untouched.

“Hi, Dami,” you say.

“Mother,” he answers quickly.

“Are you practicing or playing?”

“There is no reason to continue practicing,” he answers.

You take a deep breath as you lean against the back of the chair. Damian has done this before, restricted himself from one of his hobbies, and it’s the hardest thing to bring him back from.

“Why not?” you inquire.

“I understand that there are more things I should know how to do, regardless of my interest in it.”

“Dami, you can do what you like. You don’t have to be a stereotype.”

“I am not a stereotype; I am simply expanding my skillset.”

“By…”

“Memorizing the make, model, and best year of popular cars.”

“I see,” you respond as you sit in the chair. “And these are in… year order?”

“Alphabetical model.”

You nod and look at the row of cars. “Is the blue one a Corvette? Because it should be on the other side of the Camaro.”

Damian freezes momentarily before he sinks to his knees and flips the car over. He sets it down and shoves it harshly, sending it into the wall as he presses his fists into the floor. You move to sit beside him but don’t touch him.

“Breathe,” you encourage. “It’s okay.”

“I can’t change them,” he mumbles. “It doesn’t work.”

“That’s okay. Put them however you want.”

“Will Baba allow me to patrol this evening?” he asks, changing the topic.

“That depends. He’s taking a break right now.”

“Then I should be out defending Gotham!”

Damian stands quickly and pulls a katana from the display case. He looks at it, then returns it.

“Dami, not right now,” you say as you stand.

“I don’t need Batman with me!” he argues.

“I’m not saying you do, Damian. What do you need here, in the manor?”

Damian shakes his head, and you remain in your place. Damian’s shoulders drop slowly, and he picks up the Corvette he shoved away to return it to its place. You smile when he looks up at you, and Damian stands closer to you as you tell him that Alfred is making breakfast.

“C’mon,” you urge him. “Let’s go eat and when Bruce wakes up, you can ask him about patrol.”

“Perhaps I could take a break as well,” he suggests.

“That would be nice,” you agree. “Maybe you’d like to join me for a movie night.”

“Movie night?!” Dick yells from the dining room. “I’m in!”

You and Damian shake your heads together as you walk in.

“Maybe it should be a family night,” Bruce interjects from the head of the table.

Damian sits beside you as you begin discussing which movie to watch. While Damian joins the discussion, Bruce meets your eyes from across the table and mouths, Thank you.

You shrug. You’re the mom of Gotham’s Bats, it’s your job to keep them in line and remind them to live.

[hana-no-seiiki]

BROKEN EXPECTATIONS, NEW ASPIRATIONS (I/III)

⟣┄─ ˑ 𝐈. ✧ yandere! batfam + dc heroes x yandere! alien! reader (ft. ocs of mine, and other dc characters)

synopsis: you weren’t as innocent and benevolent as they thought you were, but that just makes things all the more exciting

tw/cw: dddne, reader is yan (platonic for this part, romantic for future parts(diff people). yandere themes, general violence, torture, sadist reader, incest (one-sided/not reader n it’s a brief mention so it’s not a main part of the story oh god-). reader is half based on jingliu/jingyuan from honkai star rail + laezel from bg3 worldbuilding. and there’s also a bit of malenia/miquella inspirations. reader has a background. reader’s alieness is explored/talked about. op! reader. wish fulfillment.

in short this was an oc insert of mine that i reconfigured for you guys to read. not your thing? scroll past thenks.

[next]

YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THE KINDEST, MOST LOVING PERSON THE BAT-FAMILY EVER KNEW. You were so gracious with your benevolence that each and every vigilante took it upon themselves to take care of you at all moments lest you fall into unsafe situations or the hands of people who would ruthlessly take advantage of you.

Eventually, they forgot the fact that you were the sibling of the notoriously violent DAYBREAK, a vigilante that could be easily called a villain or terrorist instead if it weren’t for his close affiliation and friendship with the old Teen Titans crew when he was younger. He helped once in a while, but only if it meant he had free rein to cause carnage.

“This is useless, they won’t fess up.” Jason grunted as he fumbled around with his weapons, all broken after the battle just moments prior. Aliens and their abilities always made him feel so small in the grand scheme of things, and especially when they completely obliterated his entire arsenal.

Tim groaned, his back ached from the amount of times he was flung away towards whatever wall or ally the enemy wanted him to go to. He was used to being man-handled and even enjoyed that once in a while, but not in that way. “Aren’t they one of your kind? Cant you like… I don’t know…”

Your brother huffed, a pout on his pretty features. Quite similar to yours. Yet, he doesn’t spare the rest a glance. His eyes were trained solely on a restraining spell he managed to conjure as a last ditch attempt to stop the fight before it got . . . irreversible. Usually he’d just disintegrate whatever or whoever even looked at him wrong but even this titan-like intruder was proving to be a pain in the ass. “I can’t believe you, doesn’t mean we’re the same kind or whatever that means that—“

“He’ll be lucky to be even considered as one of us, filthy —“ The massive form spoke. Its metal like body clanging as it struggled in the spell’s area of effect. A soldier from your home planet, not as well trained as your brother — but he was brimming with aetherial ardor. A sort of magic source your people used.

“Okay, that’s it.” [Brother’s Name] groaned, summoning the last piece of his strength to open up a terminal. “Hey mooncake, need ya to do something for me.”

“No, we aren’t letting [Y/N] anywhere near this one. They could get seriously hurt. We were barely even able to—“ Dick held him by the shoulder, only to get burned by your brother’s leaking ardorial energy.

“Relax. Besides I’m not in your team. I don’t have to follow orders from you.”

“Daybr—“ Rachel, her cape almost completely burnt and tattered opened her mouth to admonish him.

But the sound of your sweet voice (more like hoarse, and half awake) silenced them all, “What do you need help with this time?”

“[L/N] don’t listen, go back to sleep, beloved.” Damian moved in from behind, learning from Dick’s mistake and instead using his blade to warn [Brother’s Name].

But if anything, that made the man more excited to annoy the “demonspawn”.

“Oh, mooncake you can’t believe who I stumbled upon today! Smile for the camera why don’t you?”

[Brother’s Name] flipped the terminal to show your face.

“You’re . . . General [Y/—“

And then flipped it back, showing his injured body. “He hurt me real bad. Look.”

Your face does not move nor your voice waver,

“Come back to the base.”

“No.” Black Canary, Dinah, slammed her hands on the table. She couldn’t believe this. It was already bad that they allowed you to be involved in their line of work, now they were letting you come face to face with a being that almost wiped an entire team of experience fighters? What were they thinking?

“That . . . thing is dangerous. We cannot allow this to continue!” Arthur concurred. He saw the state of your brother. A civilian like you had no business with something so dangerous.

“Unfortunately I have to say no to your refusal as well.” You calmly responded, “This situation is under the jurisdiction of the Fleet. It is only right that Daybreak and I deal with it.”

“Father you can’t possibly allow them.” Damian gripped your shoulder as he pleaded with Bruce. He had known you the longest next to Tim. You were barely able to hold your own as a normal student. Not that he was looking down on you, but if you couldn’t even fight for yourself in conversation, how could he let you be around that monster?

Bruce closed his eyes in deep contemplation. He studied your kind comprehensively. He did so for every vigilante and villain alike (Contingencies were his specialty) From how your magic system worked, to how society and customs were like. A lot of his knowledge came from Clark, who had also done his fair share of investigative work into your background.

He of all people in this line of work knew how dangerous you and [Brother’s Name] can be. He had done his calculations based off of what Daybreak could do. But curiosity drove him further.

“Fine.”

“Father!”

“But the whole league will be watching you, alongside the Young Justice and Teen Titans.”

“Sheesh, overkill much?” Daybreak, now plain [Brother’s Name] in a bunch of casts, piped up.

You nodded, quite honestly just aching to get out from this stuffy room already. “That is fine.”

Before you left, you head swiveled to take one last look at your sibling, building up whatever emotions you needed to see the job through, “Get some rest, brother.”

“Are you kidding? I gotta watch this.” Your brother laughed in earnest, almost-too-wholesome-for-him manner. You managed to understand why as his eyes scanned the people in the room.

He wanted to see them react to your true nature.

Your form finally disappeared from his sight as his eyes finally settled on another image of you glued atop a folder. “What are those?” He pouts to gesture at the objects, too injured to move his limbs.

“Files on [Y/N] and the being.” Bruce answered, opening up the screens for the cameras to the interrogation room.

[Brother’s Name] knows you’d give him a sermon for using his powers while he was already banged up but he had no choice. His arms were too broken to open up the folder after all. “You guys work quick.” He commented as the papers levitated and flipped through itself.

His eyes scanned the typewritten document swiftly, smile growing by the moment, “Pffft — kind hearted soul? Who wrote this?”

“It was compiled by me, but our sources vary from vigilante to civilians.” Clark mumbled. As one of the only other aliens, and people who could feel aetherial arbor. He felt your presence, your anger leaking earlier. It was heavy, as if the world was suddenly placed upon his shoulders. Yet he felt no fear for his own safety, only yours.

The gigantic door before you slid open revealing the enemy the vigilantes struggled to subdue earlier.

The soldier stood upright, sensing your presence. The rumors were true it would seem. Many wouldn’t be able to spot it, a testament to whatever you did to conceal your prowess, but they immediately recognized the magnitude of your ardor practically oozing around you.

He was expecting your anger. He knew of your protective nature towards your brother.

“My apologies.” But you didn’t. Instead you began nursing their injuries, repairing their armor, and even initiating casual conversation. “It must have been a long journey. I can’t help but resent whoever sent you here.”

“Your Excellency! I came of my own volition.”

“Oh? But judging from your armor you must be one of the knights.”

“Yes, 512th Squadron of the Imperial Army.”

“Of course, my eldest brother’s . . . “ Your fought to keep your hands from clenching. A gentle smile on your features remained unshaken even by the sudden revelation.

“Y-yes, your Excellency. It took many jumps for me to get here on my own.”

“Alone? What did you wish to come here for?”

“I-I wished to meet you but those Earthlings wouldn’t let me.”

“Mm. And so you fought them. As is right for one of our kind.” You brought out a handkerchief and wiped down your hands after finishing the task at hand. Then you took a seat in front of them.

“You understand! Of course.”

“Actually I came here to bid you to return. The Emperor misses you dearly and wishes to see you.”

“Do you know why he does?”

“N-no?”

You looked down. Voice soft, relaxed shoulders, a solemn tone, and a tremble to add on top. “My brother. He wishes to have a child with me. To use my powers in the form of a future heir to the throne.”

“I am not quite ready to have a child yet.” Nor were you interested with being a babymaker for that tyrant. But that wasn’t an appropriate excuse in the grand scheme of things.

“I understand! Your Excellency is quite young and even then, you have saved countless of lives. You deserve only to do as wish and nothing less.” The soldier slammed the floor in front of it. “Besides, his Majesty had already taken so many concubines I’m sure an heir wouldn’t be needed anytime soon.”

You nodded. A moment or two of silence for your mind to recollect everything that has been said before you execute what you came here for in the first place. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath. “How incompetent must the new Imperial General be at the moment?”

“Pardon?”

“Information is the most valuable asset to any sort of battle. As a general I kept a tight leash on it. Lest it spilled and caused unnecessary ruckus.” My knights were drilled, put through fire and blood, wiped clean before they were thrown back into hell again. And most importantly they were taught to sew their mouth shut or die. You, you just spilled everything I needed to know the moment I showed that I cared.”

“Your Excellency, I —“

“I was only going to punish you for trespassing. A measly act of destroying your Aetherial Helix.” “But in all honesty, I might be doing that brother Emperor of mine a favor by going . . . further.”

“N-no, you wouldn’t, you’re—!” The soldier was about to defend you even in its dying moments. But as it truly recounted all that has been told about you from its peers and seniors, it realizes one truly fatal fact.

You were never known for benevolence.

“Please! I did this all for you! I only wanted you back as my General!”

“Let this be a lesson.”

“No, please ! I- I - I beg of you—“

You looked up to the ceiling, beyond it — the stars and the infinite darkness you once called your home.

“And so I’ll continue to wield your blade, until I cut the stars from sky. I will protect you even from the gods I serve.”

You chant. The blood on your hands once again becoming too visible and distracting.

“Thank you for your service, soldier.” You deeply bow your head to the disintegrating corpse beneath you. Allowing the fallen's drained life essence to cover your forehead. [Brother Name] smiles. To others it may seem to have been a sign of respect — but to your kind, you were simply absorbing the spoils of battle. Taking in the dead and disgraced's remaining imprint on this world.

“My deepest apologies for the mess and time it took. The matter has been dealt with.” You returned. The blood, having dripped down your face, had dried and turned dark.

“I hope this has not soured your view on me.”

“Not at all . . .” Tim was the first to speak at your return. His fingers unconsciously replaying the footage of your . . . execution. Millions of questions already shot across his head as he was eager to probe you on them one way or another.

If anything it only made their obsession with you worse.

“Let me be your sinner, brother. This oath I shall never forsake.”

[awhoreintheory]

okay so MCU canon Peter in DC is all funny and games but what about comic canon Peter? Peter who’s in his 30s, whose life is falling apart(again) and has clones to deal with(man I hate the fact that Ben became evil :(.)

extra points if Miles and/or Mayday is with him. This single dad is STRUGGLING. And the bats wanna help him/his kids cause man! Look at them :(

(extra extra points if Dick = Richard Parker. That’s a whole nother can of worms. Like the bats are thinking Peter = Family of Dick they didn’t know but NO! It’s actually Dick’s son! Dicks a granddad!)

I want to PSA to anyone sending asks/requests, I'm not ignoring you!! I'm just a slow writer!!! I hope you enjoy though <33

Peter B. Parker could, 100%, picture landing in (yet another) alternate universe. You know what? As a matter of fact, he expected it.

What he didn’t plan for, however, was being stranded in another universe with his baby girl strapped to his chest. 

But here he was, crouched in a narrow alley in the darkest corner of Gotham City, New Jersey. From the name alone, Peter knew he landed himself in a section of the Multiverse Miguel had expressly labeled as off limits. It wasn’t his fault he’d landed here, though!

One minute he’d been web-swinging through New York, enjoying a rare peaceful day with Mayday babbling happily, and the next he was crash-landing onto a grimy rooftop in the most dangerous city he’d ever seen. It was like New York turned up to eleven, all shadows and towering gargoyles, dripping with rain that seemed perpetual. The interdimensional bracelet he’d been given to travel the multiverse was sparking and smoking in his pocket— total toast. He was officially stranded. 

Ok, so it maybe, kinda sorta, been an eensy weensy, tiny bit Peter’s fault. 

Peter’s, very high-tech and likely expensive bracelet had been, uh, scratched in a fight the day before. Barely even a nick! He swears he could’ve reattached the wires and fixed the screen. 

He probably should’ve also taken the watch out of his robe pocket before he started swinging Mayday to daycare. 

MJ was going to be so mad. 

It became evident early on it’d take a little bit to find a way home, or for someone to find him. If it had just been Peter, he could’ve roughed it on some rooves and abandoned buildings. It wouldn’t be a big deal, he knew he would be getting home eventually. Being a little smelly was the least of his worries. 

But he had his baby girl with him. 

So, with the money in his wallet, he found an under-the-counter, rundown but otherwise warm, apartment in a place called Crime Alley. (What a seriously terrible name) Peter started pulling together whatever side gigs he could, fixing appliances, tuning up electronics, just enough to get by. Even for a guy who was used to scraping by, the situation felt bleak, especially with Mayday depending on him. 

His little red-headed whirlwind was still too young to understand what was happening, but she noticed the tension and started clinging to him more tightly. Peter knew he couldn’t keep this up forever, but he wasn’t sure how to trust anyone in a city that had both criminals and vigilantes lurking around every corner. When he spotted someone in a cape swinging overhead, he instinctively hid in the shadows, holding Mayday close, her tiny face tucked into his shoulder.

But the Bats noticed him. 

It was hard not to notice a single dad with no records, no job, and no explanation for why he was squatting in Gotham’s most dangerous neighborhood. Bruce, ever vigilant, put out word to the family to keep an eye on him. 

Jason, who patrolled Crime Alley, wasn’t thrilled about the idea. “A guy moved into my turf with a baby?” he grumbled to Tim. “Either he’s got a death wish, or he’s crazy.” 

Tim, on the other hand, was fascinated by the mystery. He dug through every database he had access to, and then some. But “Peter Parker” returned zero results— at least, none that matched this Peter Parker. no criminal record, no birth record, no online footprint. It was like he just spawned in! 

Dick didn’t have a whole lot of opinions. He thought the man was nice, though he had only met him once in a routine mugging. He evidently cared for his daughter, and matched Nightwing’s wit and humor pretty nicely, too. He looked annoyingly familiar too. Maybe it was Tired Dad Chic? He kind of reminded him of Bruce, in a way. 

Steph seconded the funny part. This Peter guy could be one of those dark-humor comedians. 

From what they observed, and conversations supplied by Jason (who was his neighbor in a series of fortunate events), Peter really did seem to just be an ordinary guy.  

Then one night, Peter was picking up groceries from a corner store when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to find a man in a ski mask brandishing a knife, gesturing for his wallet. 

“Hand over the money, and I won’ hurt ya’ kid.” The man threatened, waving his knife around threateningly. Peter tensed, dropping his groceries in favor of cradling Mayday closer. 

Peter blinked at him tiredly. “The best I can offer is some lint and a can of beans.” 

The man tensed, stepping closer in an attempt at intimidation. Peter thought that his face turning red with anger was kind of funny.

“Don’t fuckin’— are you makin’ fun of me?” The man fumed. Peter might have let out a sleep-deprived chuckle, partially forgetting to respond. 

The mugger lunged, and before he could dodge, Peter felt a searing pain in his side as the blade plunged in, his vision blurring with the shock. Normally, Peter would’ve disarmed the guy without breaking a sweat, but tonight, with Mayday in his arms and his body worn from days of restless sleep, he kind of just… blinked and the knife was there. 

Peter blinked again, then looked back up at the man.

“Oh, wow,” he said, his voice dripping with deadpan sarcasm. “A knife in Crime Alley? Super original. Really, I’m honored to be a part of your creative process.”

The mugger blinked, clearly caught off guard. Peter rolled his eyes, adjusting Mayday to better apply pressure to his side. “Next time you stab a guy, maybe aim for someone with insurance.”

The mugger stumbled back, looking increasingly confused by Peter’s lack of fear. Peter sighed, bouncing Mayday gently as she began to fuss. “Listen, I’m already running on no sleep and the caffeine fumes of yesterday’s coffee. And now you’re just making my night even worse.”

Peter winced, feeling the slow but consistent leak of blood. His healing factor was helping, but it was dulled due to lack of sleep and hunger. 

Between one long blink and the next, someone had jumped down and knocked out Peter’s would-be mugger. 

After another blink Peter realized he was on the ground, Mayday’s wails filled the air, her cries echoing down the alleyway, and Peter tried to smile through the pain. “It’s okay, baby,” he mumbled, clutching her tightly. “Daddy’s fine… just a little… scratch.” But his vision was going hazy as he pressed a hand to his bleeding side. The world began to spin.

One of the vigilantes that Peter recognized as Red Robin rushed over, talking hurriedly into a comm. Peter blinked up at him, his mouth curling into a weak smile. “Hey, nice costume,” he muttered. “Does the utility belt come in dad sizes?” 

Red Robin blinked in surprise, but otherwise keept his focus as he worked to stop the bleeding.

“It doesn’t, unfortunately.” Red Robin offered, popping open his emergency med kit. “I’ve got help on the way, ok? Stay awake for me.” But his attention was snagged when Mayday, overcome with distress, reached out to him, her tiny hands gripping his arm. She wasn’t just clutching it— she was sticking to him, her fingers locked like suction cups on his suit. Tim’s eyes widened as she scrambled up his arm, scaling it like a bug on a wall. 

Red Robin took it in stride, scooping Mayday up as he continued to work. Peter had been on the Meta radar for a bit— a few things here and there just a little off, and it was mostly based on Red Robin’s time spent with super-powered individuals. 

But as he patched up Peter, he discreetly swiped a sample of blood, stashing it in his belt just as the Batmobile pulled up. 

—

Later that night, he ran the sample through the Batcomputer, expecting some small lead. A Meta, possibly insect-based? What with how the kid had stuck to him. Instead, the results left Tim absolutely speechless. 

Peter Parker, the man who was in his early 40s and a single father, didn’t just match someone in the system— it matched Dick Grayson.

Not as a brother, or a cousin, but as a son. 

Tim must’ve ran the test at least 100 times. It came back the same every single time. 

Tim called Bruce and the rest of the family, each of them crowding around the screen with varying levels of shock and amusement as the analysis rolled in. Dick was dumbfounded, staring at the results in disbelief. 

“You’re telling me this guy is my… son?” he stammered, struggling to wrap his mind around it. 

Bruce, socially unaware in all his glory, tried to comfort Dick. “He’s likely from far into the future. Barry said there was a ripple in the timestream around the time Peter showed up.” 

“So what does that make Mayday?” Jason asked, snickering. 

“His granddaughter?” Steph said with a teasing grin. 

“Wow, Dick. You went from a dad to a grandpa in the same minute.” 

“That’s gotta be a world record.”

“You think we can submit this for a Guinness World Record?”

Dick groaned, rubbing his temples as Jason laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. 

“He’s from the future, right? Something must’ve gone wrong on his end," Tim said, folding his arms with a thoughtful look. "He’s definitely got the skills. Moves like you, Dick. It's obvious he's had training.”

Dick couldn't help but smirk, puffing up a little with pride. “Of course he does. He’s got Grayson blood in him, after all.”

Jason snorted. “Yeah, because the whole ‘falling on his face with a baby strapped to him’ bit? So graceful.”

Tim rolled his eyes, trying to stay on track. “Look, I don’t know why he didn’t come to us for help in the first place, but the point is, he’s family. We should get him back to his time, if that’s even possible.” He looked over to Bruce. “Are any speedsters available? Maybe the League could lend us Wally or Barry—"

“Hold on,” Dick interrupted, frowning. “I’m not sure we’re ready to ship him off just yet. The guy’s been trying to make it on his own. He’s got a baby to look after, and I think he’s afraid of dragging us into whatever’s going on with him. You know this family and their pride.”

Damian, who had been silent up to this point, finally piped up, his arms crossed. “I’ve seen him with the baby. She’s… persistent.” There was an almost begrudging respect in his tone. “But he clearly doesn’t have the resources to keep her safe here. If he did, he wouldn’t be living in Crime Alley.”

Dick nodded. “Exactly. The guy’s holding it together with duct tape and dad jokes. We can help him and get him back on his feet while we figure out a way home.”

Bruce, listening intently, finally spoke up. “He’s right. Until we find a way to get him home, Peter and his daughter stay here. We’ll pull together whatever resources we can to help them both.” 

Steph and Tim shared a look. He just wanted to meet his grandson and great-granddaughter. 

There was a beat of silence as everyone absorbed the decision, and then Tim looked at Dick, a small smirk playing on his lips. “So… you ready to be a dad, Dick?”

Dick flushed, looking a mix of horrified and pleased. “I’ll just stick to ‘Uncle Dick’ for now. Baby steps.”

EXTRA:

“Hey,” Jason drawled, barely suppressing a smirk as he looked over at Dick, “you think we can submit this for a Guinness World Record? Fastest unplanned parenthood, or maybe most confusing family reunion?”

Dick rolled his eyes but couldn’t quite hide his grin. “Very funny, Jay. Maybe we can submit you for most inappropriate comments per minute.”

Jason chuckled, clapping him on the shoulder. “Just saying, man, it’s impressive. One day you’re Nightwing, lone acrobat extraordinaire, and the next? Boom— you’re the proud father of a scruffy, interdimensional— what'd you say it was, Tim? Spider-dad? A Spider-dad.”

Tim snickered, glancing up from his laptop. “We’re all just living in a 'Strangest Family Reunion’ reality show at this point. Besides, if anyone’s submitting to Guinness, it should be Peter for most relentless optimism under terrible circumstances.”

Bruce cleared his throat, giving them all a look. “Enough. This isn’t a joke. We have a situation to handle here.”

Dick, still grinning, turned back to Bruce. “All right, fine, we’ll save the record-breaking for later. Right now, I say we start by finding this guy and getting him some real help.”

[bxd-decisions]

"IT'S JUST THE BEAST UNDER YOUR BED. IN YOUR CLOSET, IN YOUR HEAD" ⸻ RYOMEN SUKUNA

◈ SYNOPSIS︙ Many people didn't survive his wrath. Once he found his way inside of your head, in your dreams. Being in a vulnerable state meant death, whenever Ryomen Sukuna was close by. So many rumors were heard about him being the most terrifying killer out there. God, he didn't even exist, it was just in everyone's dreams. However, no one survived if he made an appearance. And that damned night… it happened to you… and your best friend. You had never seen such terror in your life before. But again, it was your fault in the first place. 

◈ PAIRING︙ Ryomen Sukuna x fem!reader

◈ GENRE︙ dark content, horror, smut, nightmare on elm street kinda AU

◈ WORD COUNT︙ 2k

◈ WARNINGS︙ dark content, horror, blood, murder, smut, monster fucking?, Oral sex (Fem!recieving), Dom!sukuna, sub!reader, fem!bodied reader, rough sex, penetrative sex, incubus nightmare, unprotected sex, scratching?. Let me know if I missed any!

◈ AUTHORS NOTE︙ I need to calm down with the DC💀

REBLOGS & FEEDBACK APPRECIATED!

Many people didn't survive his wrath. Once he found his way inside of your head, in your dreams. Being in a vulnerable state meant death, whenever Ryomen Sukuna was close by. So many rumors were heard about him being the most terrifying killer out there. God, he didn't even exist, it was just in everyone's dreams. However, no one survived if he made an appearance. 

And that damned night… it happened to you… and your best friend. You had never seen such terror in your life before. But again, it was your fault in the first place. 

"I heard that this Ryomen Sukuna… he's hot." you found the whole thing amusing, as if such a killer who haunted your dreams existed. But your best friend believed in it, and took it seriously, the fear present on her face would tell you that, "I-I don't think you should talk about him like that…" she got more nervous by the second, however, you dismissed her fears. 

"Oh come on! I'm sure that son of a bitch doesn't even exist, even if he did, I wouldn't be scared of him. Maybe I'd get a good fuck out of him." officially, you were joking, and the smallest of smiles crept upon your friends face, whereas you burst out laughing at the dumb joke. However, it died down immediately, for the lights… all of them, in the entire neighborhood, had gone off. It was a power outage, and it was already past midnight, you wouldn't lie, it spooked you slightly. Your friend on the other hand was petrified to death, again, you laughed it off and turned your phone's flashlight on, giving her a reassuring smile, "It's okay… it's just a power outage… nothing bad." 

Moving to sit beside her, you pulled her into your side and began to play with her hair in a soothing way, "Maybe we should sleep, you'll see, it'll be okay." Once again you smiled reassuringly and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. She nodded and returned a smile, climbing under the covers with you, "I'm tired… Can you hold me?" your friend was still terrified, and she wanted to be held until she slept, and obviously you obliged, wrapping your arms around her, allowing her to be the small spoon

"I'm here, just get some rest." You made sure to play with her hair, watching over her until she eventually fell asleep. 

You turned your back to her sleeping form, staring out the window for a while, all you saw was pitch darkness, it was like there wasn't even a moon shining. 

"Whatever…"

Your eyes felt heavy, you were tired. You finally allowed sleep to take over you, however, you wished you hadn't.

Opening your eyes once more, you sat up on the bed, looking next to you, your friend wasn't there anymore, "She probably went to the bathroom or something…" you sleepily muttered to yourself as you got off the bed and stumbled over to the door. You opened the door, and were greeted by the dark halls of your home. You knew your way around well. You went downstairs to have a glass of water. On your way to the kitchen, you stepped into a wet puddle of something that was on the wooden floors, instinctively, you turned on the light, wanting to scream at what you saw. 

Blood. You were stepping in… blood, and from the looks of it, it was a lot of blood. Someone clearly lost a lot of blood.

Your eyes filled up with tears and you instinctively covered your nose and mouth with your hands, doing so rather aggressively. You felt as of you lost your ability to breath, or it was stuck in your throat, as you did your best attempts to not scream out in absolute terror.

Slowly and steadily, you managed to gain control over your breath, and you began to follow the trail of blood, it went into the kitchen, and once you were in the kitchen, you saw something that was seriously terrifying. Where there was supposed to be a wall, was darkness, as much as you were telling yourself to not go any further, you couldn't help yourself but to, slowly but surely you inched closer to the darkness st the end of the kitchen, and the moment your stepped in, you couldn't contain your screams of horror, for all you saw was the skulls and skeletons of millions of humans on a pile, and on the top of the pile, was a man sitting there, as if those skeletons served as a throne for him. 

"Oh shut up, stop that annoying screaming." The strange man sighed in annoyance, and not even in the blink of an eye, he stood behind you, "Aren't you a special thing, huh?" he laughed, a deep and sinister laugh into your ear, you could feel his hot breath tickling your skin and it gave you goosebumps. A soft gasp fell from your lips from it, you didn't know what to say to him, all you were able to do was stand there, your eyes widened from fear, your skin paler than usual… it wasn't… him? Right?

"Tch, you know I heard what you said, you brat. You clearly said… you'd let me fuck you… Did something suddenly change?" He once again whispered against your ear, before moving his mouth to your neck, biting down on your skin, followed by kisses all over. You shivered by his touch, another soft gasp escaping your lips, and you finally found the courage to speak, "W-where is… my friend… the girl who was with me?"

He continued to leave kisses all over your neck, letting out another deep chuckle, "What do you think I did? Now shut up, and let me fuck you, before you end up on my pile of skeletons over there." with zero effort, he turned you around to face him, looking down into your mesmerizing eyes. He had to admit, you were beautiful, it would be a waste to kill you, he wanted to have some fun first. 

Your eyes were stained with tears, and Sukuna was so proud of that fact, he let his thumb catch your tears before they spilled, thereafter tasting it, it was an odd taste to him. 

He suddenly snapped his fingers, and again, his odd powers had you teleport to your room. Right, this was a nightmare. Sukuna shoved you onto the bed without any warnings, and in an instant, his hands were all over those thighs of yours, his face between your legs. He was in a good mood for once, therefore, he without any permission or warnings, used his teeth to rip your panties off of you, finding his way where he craved to be. He wasted no time, he licked a long, delicious stripe on your cunt that was surprisingly dripping already, earning a gasp from you, lord, you didn't think this… monster would make you feel so good, but apparently he did. 

Your hands found its way to his pink locks, pulling and tugging on his hair as you let out desperate moans while he licked and sucked your clit, and every now and then, pushing his tongue passed your dripping hole. Your taste was intoxicating and you were able to see and feel just how much Sukuna was enjoying himself. The way his claws dug into your juicy thighs, the animalistic groans, and the way he was eating you out like you were his last meal, told you all you needed to know. 

But the same could be said for you, you were having the time of your life, he really knew how to use his tongue alright, it moved all over your needy cunt, bringing you closer and closer to your orgasm that you were so desperately craving, "P-please… let me cum…" you begged him, your hands gripping onto his locks whilst your thighs closed around his head, keeping him there. He smirked against your cunt, and as a response only sucked harder and rougher on your clit, drinking your nectar like it was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted. It was time to let you have your release, well, the first one at least.

And finally, you fell over the edge, letting your orgasm wash over you, allowing Sukuna to consume it as if he would die otherwise. Groaning, he licked you clean from all your delicious juices, thereafter teasing your already sensitive cunt with his tongue, however, he also needed some sort of release. Therefore, he could sit up and let your legs wrap around his waist, his hands making his way to his pants, undoing his pants whilst giving you a devious smirk.

"Now I'm gonna fuck you till you pass out." he chuckled sinisterly, finally freeing his heavy, throbbing cock, it made you drool at how big he was. "Fuck me please…" you begged the man again, he was so amused at how effortlessly he had turned you into his bitch, and he didn't even try if he was being honest, but he certainly wouldn't complain.

"With pleasure…" Sukuna lined up with your wet entrance, and in a swift movement, he filled you up with his cock. It felt like you were getting split in half, "Oh fuck…" you gasped, feeling like the air was knocked out of you, but he gave you no time to adjust to his size, he just mercilessly started to pound himself into you, but you weren't gonna complain, he felt too good.

Sukuna groaned, his hands once again gripping onto your thighs while he kept railing you, he moved so rough you heard the bed creaking and your body would jolt from the impact, "You're so fucking tight." Sukuna groaned against your neck, his movements not at all slowing down. He loved how you felt, you were tight and wet, it was thrusting into velvet, and he was certainly having the best time of his life. He would do that forever, well… if he ignored the fact that he was slowly reaching his peak, and the same could be said for you.

Your walls were clenching around his cock in the most delicious way, Sukuna was sure that was the most amazing feeling he had ever felt, and you were making things difficult for him, therefore he growled into your ear, "You better cum for me." he was ordering you, and who were you to deny that? It's not like you could hold yourself back any longer, within a few seconds, your second orgasm would hit you like a speeding train, earning the most melodious and beautiful moans Sukuna had ever heard in his life.

Sukuna kept on pounding into you, he was chasing his own high, and he was getting more and more desperate ny the second, you could tell by how rough he kept railing you, and how his claws pierced your skin which made you wince the slightest bit, but the pain was balanced with the pleasure you felt, and soon enough he would finally break and fill you up, emptying his balls inside of you with a delicious groan, his hips stilling, slowly calming down from his own high.

"That was… amazing." He muttered breathlessly and you couldn't help but to agree, you had completely forgotten that it was all a dream. After a few more moments of feeling your tight warmth, he pulled out and stood up from the bed, fixing himself up and sighing. 

"Well, I got what I wanted now." he muttered, thereafter he glared at you, with yet another sinister smirk on his face, "Guess it's time to finish this off." his statement was filled with malice, and you already knew what was about to happen. 

Would begging him to spare you even be helpful? Probably not. Therefore, you shut your eyes and braced yourself to get torn to shreds, however, after seconds of waiting for your demise, it simply didn't happen. Opening your eyes, you looked around the room, but immediately shut them again as the daylight was blinding.

You finally opened your eyes after a few moments and looked around the room, trying to figure out what had happened the former night.

TAGS: @tokyometronetwork @mxhitos

[laughterbynight]

Possibly unpopular opinions incoming which means post it before bed, natch.

I actually think Tim in a trio would be cute. I don’t trust DC not to make it weird of course but as far as headcanons go I could see him trying that out for a bit. One partner is of course Kon. DC can fight it all they want but I do think someday (maybe when I’m 70) Tim and Kon will end up canon.

Anyway, temporary trio wise I think Tim, Kon, and maybe a new character. I have no issue with Bernard but I always feel like DC shoved him in there to cut off timkon talk so I have a hard time seeing him as anything permanent y’know? But then again that would work as a transition into timkon when the trio ends. Amicably!! I’m so not here for drama.

I’d like to see a woman in there maybe, for some balance. No not Steph. I know some fans are still really married to the idea of them but the whole manic pixie dreamgirl thing has never been my jam personally. That’s why I’m generally attracted to the batfam. I like stoics. Yes, Dick isn’t my fave either (drawing all kinds of targets on myself tonight).

I feel like figuring out sexuality is so…basic and static in comics. Like yeah they talk about it being a journey of discovery but we don’t really *see* that, they just say it.

I think I’ve seen Bart as a popular third. Idk if that’s in line with him as a character at all since I’m less familiar with him but I’m open to it. I do kinda like the idea of an Amazon about their age. I know the supe/bat/amazon thing is common ground but hey it works really good. I can’t argue with it. I like reading superwonderbat too. Sue me.

If we wanna shake things up it would be interesting if it was a male Amazon. I mean we know men aren’t allowed to stay there so they must go somewhere. I think it would be interesting to see a male character from a culture where women are in control and that’s considered normal. No hate about it just, yeah that’s how it is here. I get bored of the sausage club that is the batfamily but I’ll take it if that means an interesting third.

sidebar: I really wish Cass was in more stories and we could have more girldad Bruce moments. I feel like DC tries to do the “girlpower” thing by putting all the girls on teams together and honest to god I do not care. I wanna see Batman and his kick ass daughter and her brothers, together.

It’s almost a shame Cass was adopted bc she would fit as a good third but of course we can’t do that for obvious reasons. Maybe in an AU, but I’d be more sad if she didn’t have batdad instead.

Anyone have any ideas about a third? I’m curious. Keeping in mind they'd need to get along with Tim and Kon on some level obvs or why would any of them bother.

Edit: How do we feel about Connor? I realized the rep for Ace characters is abysmal and I think Tim and Kon would be really sweet and understanding compared to like, idk a lot of other characters in general. Tbh I think of Tim as demi but idk if DC can handle that Bi was hard enough for them. But then I think I’d want them to stay a trio too. Idk y’all is Connor around their ages I seriously can’t keep up with how DC rearranges timelines. I DO know it would probably cause Bruce and Ollie to get catty with each other around the holidays and that’s always a bonus in my book.

So many ideassssss

edit edit: wait that’s two Connors. I shouldn’t do this at 1am. That would also be funny tho.

[bestangelofall]

Think about... a new Red Hood comic book series... written by judd winick... art by nick robles...

That would be nice, wouldn't it?

I know we are always talking about Nick Robles' horny art lmao (and for good reason) but seriously, his style is really really pretty. I really like his art in The Dreaming: Waking Hours. Perfection.

I am also very partial to Phil Noto, and I'd sell my soul to have Phil Noto drawing Jason, *especially* Jaybin. IT WOULD BE ADORABLE. There's just a sense of movement[*] in Noto's art that I think would go really well with Jason (especially if it were for a story with a—ah... non defanged Jason, shall we say.)

[*]I know some/a lot of people don't like Noto's action scenes, but I do. I don't know why, they hit differently.

As for the writer... Winick would be cool, since he's the creator of (resurrected) Jason. Apart from him, maybe Rosenberg could be a cool choice.

but I'll be honest and say that I'd be very interested in seeing a more poetic writing style for a Jason comic (although, UTRH is quite poetic at times). Yes, I am talking about Marjorie Liu. I AM SORRY I am just completely obsessed with her work on BW2010, and if I had any say, she would write every comic book ever (maybe we could let other writers write too... under her supervision 🧐).

(Please note that I am saying this because it would be my personal wish fulfillment. I don't think she ever wrote for DC. For all I know, she might hate Jason and write him like Morrison did lol.)

tl;dr: Winick an Liu partner to write it, and Noto and Robles take turns to do the art.

Thank you so much for the ask! :D

[s1urpjuic3]

Hi guys, it's me again, here to give my 2 cents on a another fandom.

Now, I felt the need to do this because as I pleasantly scroll through some Jarley content, I see 'Shipping a toxic couple is gross' 'Jarley is weird' 'Their not even together anymore' (If I could find the original post, I would so tag whoever made it because TODAY I CHOOSE VIOLENCE'

This literally might be my first ever (Omg they're so cute together as a kid. THis is my childhood right here. Jarley. Now, I respect and love her and Ivy as much as the next, but as a child, I didn't see the toxicity and the violence of Jarley, all I saw was my favorite cartoon villians, and it's just carried along to who I am now.

The main flaw about this is that THIS. IS. FICTION. Not even like, Game of Thrones or King of the Hill fiction. THIS SHIT WAS ORIGINALLY MEANT FOR FUCKING KIDS! Mf an 8 year old don't gaf abt or know about no abuse and shit. (Unless they come from that type of household, in which cases I completely respect that) Like, it's no reason that people should be this pressed over CHARACTERS that you literally can write them to act different. The writers of DC comics decided that 'Hey, this is how we want Joker, and he's never gonna change or treat Harley right' They could just as easily wrote it another way, henceforth, fanfic writers writing it a different way.

It's not about them being toxic it's about them matching each others' freaks. Everyone acts like Harley isn't fucking insane either like be so fr. She was gonna break eventually either way. The freakyness is rooted deep down inside her fr fr.

I personally/secretly wish their relationship was more like Cleo and Deuce from Monster High (Yes, I'm comparing them to someone again, I can't think of anyone else rn) Where; Yes, the Joker is mainly still and evil shitty Batman-obsessive weirdo, but he was always nice to Harley, and Harley was just like "Radical dude" (Lmaoooo) But in all seriousness, a plot where they both mutual respect each other, make realistic mistakes and hurt each other, but work it out in the end would have been great.

But I love the fact that the writers touched on the topic of abuse. I feel like not enough comics/media or anybody really talks about things women go through, or they romanticize it. I don't think anyone who ships Jarley wants to take away from what she went through. You can love them together and still not like what The Joker did to her. These feelings don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Anyways, this is too long again. Love y'all open minded Jivey fans. To the rest of y'all though? Eat dick and ☠️

(Side note: I reblogged a post on my page that talked about fans making Poison Ivy a one-dimentional character by making her entire personallity about Harley so HA SUCK ON THAT)

[ntaras]

Thanks for the link!! Dude went waaay too far, he seriously wants MK v.s DC to be canon ahzah. I want to slap him whenever he calls Raiden and Fujin demigods lmao. Like, Elder Gods>Gods>Demigods (or half-gods) it really isn't that hard, man. 😭 If we follow his logic then what are Taven, Daegon and Rain supposed to be? And spare me your titans crap. Out! Out!

And we really ignoring the Tempest creating Chaosrealm? 😔 At least they might have referenced it with how it came to be in MK1 ig. At least, he acknowledged Deception lore with the soul stones and the sorcerers in the Nether.

Okay so now I'm just gonna ramble about Frost. 🗣️

The small attention given to Frost and Nitara is cool. Although when it comes to Frost, it kind of sucks because on the surface it really looks like a bad case of "this character is evil because they had a rough childhood but we are not going to delve in the why and the how it affected them". The "bad childhood" is such an easy card to pull when it comes to explain a character's motivation and it COULD be good if writers actually chose to acknowledge and treat it properly. However, the way it's presented in MK11 is weird and frustrating because while we are made aware of Frost's struggles (her false feelings of not being good enough in Kuai's eyes, her feeling like she's always underestimated and unworthy, her wanting to prove herself to an unhealthy degree) they're never developed and explained. Paired with Kuai Liang's claim that he gave her a home and that she was a talented student, it makes Frost look like a major dick who's just overly arrogant, who just killed her mom for no reason and who actually takes pride in it.

You have to dig yourself to at least try to understand/come up with an explanation related to Frost's issues with authority, her arrogance, why she clashed with Sonya upon meeting her the first time in DA, why she rebelled against Kuai Liang while simultaneously wanting to earn his respect... Which she DID but she fucked things up herself!!! And it makes me sad because Kuai Liang was genuinely proud of her and cared about her. Frost finally had the love and attention she wanted and there's no doubt she would have become grandmistress after Kuai Liang at some point but she had to ruin it herself because of some sick thirst for even more power.

And while I actually really like the "bad childhood" and "found herself participating in death matches" elements brought by NRS, I struggle to understand Frost's problem with the truce between the Lin Kuei and the Shirai Ryu in this timeline. It comes from nowhere and just makes Frost look like a grade-A asshole for no reason. It even results in Kuai Liang no longer caring for her when he used to be more sympathetic to her in the Midway timeline... Until Deception and that's because she slaughtered a good chunk of the clan!!! In MKX, Frost had just rebelled against a truce. I don't think we are even told if Kuai Liang at least attempted to talk to her and understand what she was going through. He just cast her out and like, yeah, I can understand why he'd be mad but at the end of the day it makes both Frost and Kuai Liang look like assholes lmao.

I really like Frost and I wish she wasn't just reduced to a lost cause because at the end of the day she's just a troubled young woman who obviously went through a lot. Kuai Liang himself had a rough life and that's why I just hate that he doesn't at least try to be considerate with her and understand her story. You'd think he would be made aware at some point that Frost fought in death matches??? Like, I mean, that's such a fucked up thing to do. How did Frost even find herself there?? The way I see it, Kuai Liang was turned into a weapon while Frost had to turn herself into a weapon in order to survive and I think that's a neat comparison, especially when you consider Frost willingly cyberized herself. However, they sadly never address it.

I'd loooove to know more about Frost's family life. I'm still working on my headcanons but I'd like to go in a direction opposed to Kuai Liang and Bi-Han. Like, while the brothers were trained and pressured by their father to master their cryomancy, Frost's mother wanted her to conceal her powers in order to live a normal life. I definitely don't think she was a good mom, therefore, she was quite rough and commanding in the way she forced her daughter to hide that part of herself that Frost struggled to control and it made their relationship really tense. I definitely don't think Frost loved her mother but I also don't see her willingly killing her in cold blood. I mostly see it like, Frost's resentment toward her mother grew so much that a fight between them caused her powers to go out of control and cause her mother's death. Self-defense might also be to consider. Maybe. idk. that's pretty much a W.I.P and I like to consider every possibility.

Okay now that I'm done, I'm really curious to hear your take on Frost. 👀

i think dominic needs to just make his own game so he can write whatever lore he wants instead of doing what he currently is doing and we’d all be happier.

to be fair i forgot about the tempest being a thing but i am not an official writer so what excuse does he have. (also looking up the tempest led me to being reintroduced to zaggot cause i have not read the older comics in yearssss. but what a name.)

but frost!!!!!!!!! i agree with pretty much what you said about her. i adore her but for some reason she cannot get a complete arc nor an attempt at digging into her character. she deserves the recognition that mk12 bi-han is getting because he is a carbon copy of her but that’s another topic.

i adore how self-sabotaging and aggressive she is, but i wish she was actually given reason behind her character! frost being confirmed to have a shitty childhood and killed her (also shitty) mom does offer reasoning behind her personality but i wish it was actually explored in canon. like you said, you really have to dig to figure out the reasoning behind frost’s actions because she’s one of the many characters who are not given much for the audience to work with.

but i’ll take the scraps :,)

like i said i agree with pretty much what you said about her, and i think we’re in the same boat regarding headcanons. i’ve also thought that she forced to conceal her powers by her mother, which also begs the question on if frost’s mother was a cryomancer or if her father was. had it been her father, i wonder what happened to him considering there’s no mention of him (because frost specifically says she killed her mother). i’ve thought about if her father was somehow not in her life (be it that he died when she was young, before she was born, or left her and her mother) and he was a cryomancer, it caused her mother to force frost to suppress her powers because she did not know how to deal with it. but if it was her mother who was a cryomancer, her own mother could’ve tried repressing frost’s powers as a means of protection (protection being isolation of her daughter) or a projection of her mother’s own shame/issues about her cryomancy.

either way, i think she was forced to repress her cryomancy by her mother (which i think would be painful, because cryomancy typically shows up when the cryomancer is older but frost is on the very young side. she ultimately was alone in dealing with this unknown power.)

i do not think frost killed her mother out of cold blood either! it was ultimately just the result of of poor parenting and resentment building up on both sides. and the way her mother raised her lead frost to having issues with authority, for example, kuai liang.

i think i’ve briefly mentioned it before, but i think frost views kuai liang like her mom. like, there’s a part of her that views kuai liang as the closest to “kin” because he is the first cryomancer she’s met. above anyone he would understand her isolation and rage, and i think in turn she would understand him in a way. i think they’re both characters who have walls up but at the same time having a shared power automatically reveals some vulnerability to each other. but frost has IMMENSE issues with her vulnerability, and i don’t think she’d easily be open to another authority figure when she already dealt with her mom.

with kuai liang being her mentor i don't think she can help herself from automatically linking him to her mom and as a result wanting to take control before another authority takes control of her and suppresses her. she doesn’t want to be a child anymore, but be the ultimate authority (which only causes her to act more childish- with extreme naivety and rebellion).

and going off what you said about kuai liang being forced into a weapon while frost chose to become a weapon, i think being a weapon is what frost views as the ultimate authority (or in other words, violence is the ultimate authority to frost).

i do think kuai liang would have known about frost being in death matches (which i also have no clue how that girl got involved in them) and had to teach her fighting methods different from how she used to fight, or even teach how to be better at whatever methods she used to use in those matches.

also fun (and unfortunate) fact, had the mkx comics continued we would have gotten A LOT more focus on frost because her and kuai liang are meant to parallel hanzo and takeda. she could’ve gotten a fully fleshed backstory and yet we were robbed as usual

in the end despite all of frost’s flaws and mistakes, i genuinely think she should be redeemed instead of only being a lost cause. i hateeee how dismissive kuai liang is of frost and how easily he gave up on her in the nrs timeline. like i do think she represents a metaphor for kuai liang as the final challenge he has to overcome in order to finally redeem the lin kuei, and she does some very messed up things that really push kuai liang towards the edge, but because of that metaphor i really think it’d be fitting if frost’s redemption was also kuai liang’s completed redemption of the lin kuei. (i also do think her being a metaphor for being kuai liang’s final challenge to redeem the lin kuei can explain her issue with the shirai ryu as the clans used to be enemies, but idk it’s just an attempt at trying to make it make sense in a thematic way lol.)

it would also allow kuai liang rest because i do think his story needs to (or at least needed to considering we won’t have sub-zero kuai liang back) end, and i think it should end with “sub-zero” being passed to frost because she should get to a point where she deserves to be grandmaster.

anyways to sum this up i wish we got her backstory because i am sick of people (the writers) dismissing her as an ungrateful brat who’s a lost cause… she deserves her story!!! she deserves to grow as a character!!! i love her dearly and i appreciate her <33

[spider-jaysart]

Would you be willing to share your character sheets/episodic ideas for your imagined supersons series? If not totally fine! A supersons animation would be so amazing tho btw I agree! I wish Warner bros was still the titan of children’s animation like it was when I was younger 😞

@katekanemybeloved

Ooooooh, yes!! I would be very delighted to share them!!! (And also, yeah, I wish that DC would go back to making bomb superhero cartoons again too :( like their cartoons were a big part of my childhood, ESPECIALLY the og Teen Titans cartoon series, which was and still is my top favorite animated series because of how awesome it was and still is!!!✨✨✨✨)

So here are the ideas that I've been having for my imagined series for a while now:

Some episode ideas:

Damian unfortunately has to babysit his baby neice Mar'i (who is 2 years old) for a night, even though he already had something planned on that same night, which was an investigation that he had wanted to learn more about since no one is taking it seriously enough to do it but just him. But everyone else in the family was said to be pretty busy that same night with missions of their own and Dick and Kory were needed somewhere very urgent that very night, so they chose Damian to be in charge of taking care of her until they both came back, so it upsets him very much since it interrupts his original plans. He's not very close with Mar'i either and finds her kind of annoying since he's not usually around such young kids her age. So on this boring night, he gets the idea to take her with him on his investigation instead and brings Jon along with him too, since he had came over to visit and hang out with him while he was babysitting. And during this fun adventurous episode with Jon, Damian, and little Mar'i, Damian later begins to actually develop a stronger care for his little niece and begins to not get so annoyed with her so much and actually starts to enjoy being around her more.

Damian has to get braces for a short time after an accident involving his teeth had happened during a mission, and he has to now try to learn how to deal with them for the time being, since it involves a lot of work and also kind of embarrasses him since some of his brothers and the other heroes playfully make fun of him about having them, especially since it kind of messes with his speech a little, which doesn't help him at all when trying to be a tough hero who needs to be taken seriously.

Jon and Damian both get sent to a summer camp since Clark and Bruce as Father's both think that besides their kids living the superhero life, they should also be able to have the chance to live like actual kids once in a while too before they lose the chance to actually do so when they finally reach adulthood in life. Damian's bummed about it and tries to find a way to leave the place, Jon's not upset about the situation at all and thinks that it will actually be a very fun experience to have. Though, they both later find out that there's possibly a very strange and dangerous creature lurking around the campsite that might just have a very big appetite for kids their age. So the Supersons both try to secretly investigate this mystery together to prevent the possible danger coming to their classmates there and get to also experience some of the fun things about summer camp too while they do so.

One day Jon begins to learn about the new fact that while he does like girls, he also actually likes boys too and is actually a bit confused by this, and thankfully has support on his side from family and friends while going through this new discovery about himself.

Jon is always hiding the clutter in his bedroom away from Clark and Lois by always shoving it all in his clothes closet. Though, one day while he's hanging out with Damian in his room, they both decide to play a video game together, except the controllers are missing, so Jon goes to check in his closet to see if he had thrown them in there by mistake with the rest of his mess and actually finds a shocking surprise for himself after he does so. He finds a big mysterious deep black hole on the floor of his closet that was never there before and believes that it has sucked all of his clothes and mess into it self. Him and Damian both then accidentally get sucked into it too after looking a little too close at it and have to now figure a way back out into Jon's bedroom as they both also learn about this strange new dimension together.

Damian decides to use the Batmobile behind Bruce's back one day during a mission with Jon and accidentally crashes it too during a road chase in said mission, so now him and Jon both have try to hide it and get it fixed on time before Bruce finds out about it.

Baby Mar'i gets involved in another mission with the Supersons again, except the three of them end up swapping ages in this one, so she gets turned into a kid while Damian and Jon are both turned into 2 year olds by the bad guy in their mission. So the three of them have to figure out a way together to stop this bad guy who's on the run and get said bad guy to turn them back into their normal selves before the spell becomes permanent for them all

An earth 11 episode of genderbend Damian and Jon just for fun

A school dance episode where some fun chaos happens for Damian and Jon

And of course there would also be fun episodes for all holidays during each year too (Valentine's, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc)

There would also be a birthday episode for Jon too

There would also be villains and bad guys for them to face in a lot of episodes

I have many more ideas but then it would probably turn this into a really long post lol

Character sheets and designs!!:

(Be sure to click on them for better quality!)

Damian and Jon in their hero and civilian outfits (So you know how Star from Star vs the forces of evil changes her outfit in episodes sometimes? Well, that's what Damian and Jon would also be doing sometimes in episodes in their civilian outfits too, which explains why they have more then one lol)

A closer look at them

Damian and Jon together

And Mar'i in her little Nightstar dress and normal dress (the blue star on her normal dress is supposed to be a little nod to the blue on Dick's Nightwing suit, while the star is also a nod to Starfire)

(These are all of the ones that I have for now, cause I have the other characters sheets too but then I would have to digitalize them first)

Ships involved:

Dickkory (they would already be married to eachother during the whole series and would already have baby Mar'i)

Bbrae (they would be engaged to eachother for the first season and a half of the second one, which would give us a fun wedding episode when it's time for them to marry. They would then be married to eachother for the rest of the whole series after that, but they wouldn't have any kids yet though until the final season of the series)

Timber or Timkon, or maybe Timber first and then later Timkon (not in a rush though)

Probably Damijon (I would probably continue to keep them as best friends throughout the whole series or maybe turn them into a cute ship very much later on in the series, since they do have a very great dynamic and chemistry with eachother as characters and as best friends...and also because their my otp :| but idrk)

Voice ideas:

For my imagined series, I've also always imagined Kon having the exact same voice as Marco from the Star vs the forces of evil series, cause it's also just the type of voice that I can always hear him speaking in whenever I'm reading fics or comics with him in it for some reason

And for Jon it would be a voice that sounds energetic and friendly

And Damian's would sound like the mature type of voice but still sounding like a kid and with maybe a bit of an accent in it too

For the Titans, Dick, Starfire, Raven, Beast boy, and Cyborg, I would give them the same voice actors that they've had for the og animated series and the new reboot series (cause it just really wouldn't be the same without their talented voices!😭)

Little other things:

Damian would be 12 years old in the series while Jon is 10 1/2 years old, so they would both still be in middle school in the series

Tim and Kon would be 16 years old

While Jon and Damian may be eachothers very best friends, they also have their own little friend groups. For Jon's friend group, it's Kathy, Billy, and later also kid!Jay and for Damian's group, it's Maya, Colin, Maps, and Tai Pham (they would all also team up as a whole group together sometimes in episodes)

I'm thinking of maybe adding a very young Chris Kent as a young brother for Jon and Kon so that he could grow up with Jake Grayson as a best friend after he's born and then they could also become the young Starburst duo together in the future, or maybe just adding him in as their brother as planned and letting him be around Jon's age instead

While Blackfire and Starfire may have their differences with eachother and even though Blackfire might not always treat Starfire in a good way like how she should as a sister, she sure does love her adorable baby neice Mar'i a lot

Baby Lian exists and has play dates with Mar'i

And yes, Jon would still be taller than Damian in the series lol

Duke would be in the series too (cause he deserves more love) and would also be a Batkid in the Batfamily

I would give the series a very fun and cool memorable theme song while a very fun animated intro is showing off examples of what their awesome adventures together as the Supersons is like (like something similar to Star vs the forces of evil style) everytime before an episode actually begins

It would definitely be a fun comedic show with humor to laugh at all the time but it would also become serious at moments when it needs to be (like the og Teen Titans animated series for example)

It also wouldn't be a show that's aimed at adults like the mature Harley Quinn animated series and it also wouldn't be a little kiddies type of show either, it would actually be the type of show that anyone of any age can enjoy, like the many other kids cartoons out there like: the og Teen Titans animated series, Star vs the forces of evil, Gravity falls, Steven universe, and many more

Cool and fun action scenes would definitely be included in all episodes of the series everytime whenever they're fighting bad guys and villains

Thank you very very much for the ask, @katekanemybeloved ! :D I really enjoyed sharing this!💖

Tagging: @quartzgallery @theredheaded-stuff @camo-wolf @paladin-of-nerd-fandom65 @cats-and-katanas @nobodycallsmerae @batboyblog @teeeentitaaans

[kitzatara]

I know fans using the term Logomancy to refer to her backward magic, but I felt like there's more meaning to the title itself. The suffix "-mancy" actually refers to divination and prophecy. Therefore, any word ending in "-mancy" describes a form of divination, such as cartomamcy, which uses cards or tasseomancy, which uses tea leaves. So, Logomancy here basically means divination using words.

Just some thoughts about this! Also, I felt like only speaking backward to do magic is quite limiting to the term. Consider my interpretation, Logomancy could do much more like for example, with word play and riddles and stuff, IMO.

Okay so I have lots have thoughts about all this. I have a farfetched explanation for the logomancy, i don’t think backwards speaking is limiting, and she has cast spells lots of different ways in the past, so let’s get into it!

So with the mancy thing, I think it’s really funny/interesting how any type of mancer has come to mean that’s the type of powers they have as opposed to meaning divination. Like across all modern fantasy media everyone knows necromancers as people who raise the dead and have death magic powers. I do kinda wish it would go back but, not

With Zatanna i like that it’s called Logomancy because it’s a pretty unique type. Not many other characters are referred to a logomancer. It sounds cool, it’s camp lol. But you can kinda make it fit as “divination” because everything she says backwards comes true. So you can almost classify her spells as predictions that just immediately come true. It is a stretch but it’s technically true. She also does have the power to see the future and can do tarot so she can canonically divine with her magic, which helps it be defined as a divinatory power lol.

And she has cast spells with rhymes, through song, palindromes, runes, she’s done a whole lot.

Moving on to logomancy being limiting, and sorry this will get a bit ranty but I disagree. There’s this weird discourse around Zatanna speaking backwards to do magic and this idea that because she speaks it’s not practical, or that it means other magic users have an advantage of some kind. Which just isn’t true, and even if it were I think people forget that supeheroes are inherently impractical. They’re all a little silly, a little campy, it’s entertainment and we don’t need to logic our way around speaking backwards to cast spells.

And I’ve noticed characters with vocal powers in particular catch a lot of flack, “they need to use their voice/mouth” as if super strength doesn’t require muscle, or speedsters don’t need legs, or green lanterns don’t need appendages, or that psychics need brains, etc. All of them need something to use their powers, yet Zatanna and vocal heroes get treated like it’s a weakness which goes back to her powers being constantly disrespected.

Yes, Zatanna can do magic without speaking, but I don’t think that should be the norm,and I don’t want her doing nonverbal magic more than her backwards spells. She shouldn’t have to do nonverbal magic in order for her to be taken seriously or not be treated as a threat and powerful. And I feel that these discussions about having to prove she can do magic without talking shouldn’t really be a discussion. Logomancy is as old as Superman, it’s a tradition as old as DC’s premier Superhero and I’m tired of pretending that she’s somehow limited by using it.

Writers constantly gag her to depower her and if we want to talk practically it’s actually so difficult to prevent someone from speaking. And even if it weren’t, Zatanna is one of the top escape artists in DC continuity. Her Batman and Mr Miracle are the trinity of escapology, and we’re saying rope and duct tape can hinder her? And if it really were her weakness she could very easily take precautions to prevent that from happening. And then all of that is moot because she really can do magic without speaking and does it all the time.

It’s just frustrating because there’s so much to unpack with the discussion and so much history to disprove it. That’s the end of the rant part lol

Sknaht rof eht ksa!

[northoftheroad]

Can I ask on your opinions on Dick and Kory's relationship?

Please and Thank You.

Hi,

I like them! 🥰 Even if they've sure had their fair share of bad writing (or sometimes maybe it’s more about writing that I don't like, to be fair). I think they had an interesting dynamic. They learned a lot from each other, Dick had to overcome personal obstacles to accept how much he loved her and wanted to be with her. They were such a cute couple for some years. Not perfect, but 1), nobody is, and 2), storytelling needs drama, and for that to happen characters have to make mistakes, make bad choices etc. (But I do wish writers drew the line at going completely against how a character has been written for years…)

However, that being said, I wouldn't like DC to break up Dick and Barbara just to get Dick and Kory together. In my opinion, both can be written as awesome couples, and I want Dick’s most prominent relationship feature to be that he takes them very seriously indeed (as a serial monogamist). If Dick/Babs ends in the near future (who knows what Tom Taylor is planning, or his eventual replacement), I'd prefer Dick to stay single for a long period.

Though it would be neat to get more stories from universes (or times) where Dick and Kory are a couple, like Kingdom Come.

[mamawasatesttube]

What are ur thoughts abt Roxy Leech?

OOOOBH roxy sweetheart im so sorry you were written like that. take my hand. come with me. i can fix you. i can take you somewhere karl kesel won't ever touch you again come on honey take my hand

more seriously, i really like the idea of her + where her narrative could have gone. girl who starts out working with her shitty dad's shitty schemes and not caring that she's manipulating and hurting this kid, but then grows into actually caring about him, recognizing that how her father treats him (and frankly uses her in the process thereof) is wrong, and becomes so ashamed of it all that she chooses to break away from her dad, despite loving him as the only family she's got, to do her best to do right by a kid she's grown to love as a little brother, to the point of risking her life for a shot at saving him, despite her father's protests...

it could really have been such a good and compelling narrative if they didn't try and shoehorn in shitty "jealousy" with tana and whatnot all the time. also the copaganda. but i mean, it's 90s dc, of course there's copaganda lmao.

honestly i would have loved some closure and more development re: roxy realizing rex's treatment of kon was so incredibly fucked up. because we certainly saw the roots of that, but after the roller coaster incident they simply never actually got to talk about it, save for a little during the mariokart in real life stuff. but i think roxy actually coming to terms with that kon deserved better and this was Wrong, before kon himself realized that, could have been sooooo good. kon's too forgiving and too innocent still at that stage in his narrative but GOD. him having one actual supportive friend in the early days. love it wish what could have been.

(also like some of roxy telling him hey what i did to you back then was shitty and i do owe you an apology. it was wrong and i'm sorry. bc god knows kon is NOT accustomed to anyone around him taking accountability for anything rather than blaming him for literally everything that goes wrong. imagine ... IMAGINE.......)

im just a simple man. i think about how she was one of the only people to be genuinely fond of him in those early days and she gave him a nickname (SB) rather than calling him "superboy" or "kid" all the time and i just. AOUGH!!!!!!! sometimes i toy w the idea of writing fic abt older post-resurrection etc kon reuniting with her. theres just so much to potentially be said there.

ALSO i think she could kiss lori luthor. AND POST.

[nikatyler]

So, let the final Myri spam begin! I took over a thousand screenshots so let me pick some for you. What have I been up to these past three days, besides screaming?

Well, first off, killing enemies in very satisfying successful ways. Wish I had a video of this tbh, the guy just fleeeeeew

Hugged the vampire a lot while it still made sense for their relationship...

This set the tone for her entire day, tbh.

And so we descend.

In his defense, that was a 30 dc 💀

Not even gonna get into this part because ughhh. I have so many thoughts we'd be here forever. Let's just say that he says some ugly things here when you talk to him after Sebastian, and I hate to say I kinda get it. I'm not happy about getting it, but I get it.

Excuse me while I take a break to scream again

Before I post a hundred more pictures of just his face in there. I wanted to try something. I temporarily separated him from the party. Enjoy this picture. He looks so silly alone on the elevator.

Hey asshole

"I always get what I want" a tummyache and dance fever? As you wish sir, as you wish! Anyway...bring Astarion and his ghoul boyband in!

No seriously who farted. Cazador would like to have a word

Alright, no more farting jokes. We're off to a great start, aren't we?

We're not gonna talk about how I picked something else first and he left our party, oops 💀 Time for the persuasion check! To be honest, I was like, if she rolls high enough, I'll change my plans but…oh yeah, nevermind, not happening.

(x)

[1indigoisles]

Chapter 1 - All Excerpts

Who in their right mind would choose to ‘live’ in a graveyard of a town in Rhode Island over one of the sunniest places in the world, Flagstaff, Arizona?

Well, I did.

Lila must think I’m crazy. She definitely did.

My mother (that’s Lila) had always been a traveller, a hare-brained traveller who had once left half of her possessions in the States on an immigration to India for the winter. What happened to that half, you may imagine? Only the unknown force that made Lila my mother knows. Don’t get me wrong, Lila’s the best, but we were less mother and son and more the adventurous traveller and her wary follower.

Why would I choose to travel then, since another option was given to me? Well, I’ll get to that.

My life story was simple. I wasn’t a miracle, but I wasn’t a mistake either. I just happened, and I happened at the wrong time. My father’s name is – or was, I don’t really know – David Garamond and that was pretty much all I knew about him. Lila was efficient in cleaning up mistakes from her past. But she wasn’t the secretive type either; she didn’t mind talking about her past, and would tell me stories about her time with David. She would talk like they were fairy tales, which many real-life love stories are before they burn out into ashes of leftover feelings where the fire of love and hope used to be.

Lila Teigen and David Garamond were high school sweethearts, and were still going on strong well into college. They were a stable couple, which was saying something, considering how young they were. Young love tended to go wrong. But nothing went wrong for them, at least not then.

After completing college, David asked for her hand in marriage, even though he never got the blessing. Both Lila’s and David’s families were against it, and they promised to turn their backs on the pair if they did get married. But that didn’t matter; they were deeply in love, intent on forever happiness, and expecting a child, which was why David had proposed in the first place. Nothing had gone wrong around this part either. David was the guy fantasy talked about, the hero of the story. Lila had really thought that that would be her happily ever after.

But real life doesn’t have a happily ever after. It never did.

And we have now arrived at the part where things went wrong.

David was nowhere to be found on the day before the marriage. He’d gone out on a stormy night, saying he had some last-minute things to take care of and just... vanished.

And that was where the story ended. Lila would tell me nothing about what happened after that, about any of her struggles with being a single mother, if she ever found David again, or even why she took up the habit of travelling around when it was obviously much easier and cheaper to settle down in one place.

No. Fast-forward 16 years as a nomad named Kenneth Teigen on this planet, and I am currently scowling at the million dollar question of where our next voyage will take us while still recovering from the shock of having to answer said question. ‘Most difficult decision of my life’ hadn’t exactly been on my birthday wish list.

And it wasn’t as though we could go just anywhere, either, which actually made things a little easier. Lila’s job as a digital marketing strategist paid well and steadily enough, but I couldn’t exactly suggest we hop on the next plane to Greenland, now could I? Not that I ever would.

No, Lila had narrowed down my choices to two places that contrasted each other so much and were so far apart that I was fairly certain Lila had just dropped the question on my head as an elaborate prank.

"Flagstaff, Arizona, or Knightville, Rhode Island?" Lila had asked me when my school year in DC was over.

"What?" I looked up from my book, The Picture of Dorian Grey.

Lila unceremoniously flopped down onto the red bean-bag chair and regarded me seriously, which would have been comical, had she not said the things she was about to say. "What would you pick," she began again, slower, "Knightville in Rhode Island, or Flagstaff in Arizona?"

I replied, surprised, "And you're asking me this because...?"

"Because this decision is officially yours," Lila said, a smile tugging on her lips as though she were giving me some good news. "You are going to decide where we stay for the next year." There was a glint in her eyes that could only be described as defiance as she pronounced her last statement.

"No," I immediately told her.

The glint died away. "Why not?" she asked, like a child asking her parent why she couldn't get candy even though she'd done her homework.

"Because I have no idea what to choose," I said bluntly.

"But I gave you only two options," she protested. "It can't be that hard!"

"Hard?" I asked incredulously. "You're asking me to choose where we're going to live for the whole of next year!"

"Between just 2 places!"

"Doesn't make it much easier, Lila!"

She looked bewildered, and a little hurt too, for which I felt a poorly disguised twinge of guilt.

Seeing me soften, perhaps, Lila went full-on puppy-dog mode, and while I had seen it coming and should've been able to resist it, I couldn't.

So, cursing the next several generations of Lila's bloodline (which wasn't smart, since I was one of them), I conceded to her wishes with a grumble.

Now, I don’t know why I chose Knightville. It wasn’t as though it was a good travel destination or a hot tourist spot; it was cold, constantly raining and foggy, and the only colors it ever saw were white, black and different shades of grey.

I just felt, I don't know, compelled to choose Knightville, like there was something the remote town whose name I had never heard of before had that much less remote Flagstaff didn't.

I wasn't fond of it.

Nevertheless, the choice was befitting. Apparently my great-aunt Charlotte (late) had once lived in an old, slightly rickety house at the edge of town. Apartments were non-existent in small communities such as this, and it wouldn’t cost Lila a penny (except for maintenance).

Plus, the house was kind of homely.

It was a one-storey dwelling, painted a pale blue, with a brown, slanted roof. The inside was all cream-yellow walls and creaky wooden floors and the smell of good old 1950s vintage.

I didn’t dislike it, so that must have meant something.

Dinner that night consisted of Chinese take-out and ice cream for desert. I hadn’t spoken much till now, sitting in mindless silence, thinking about nothing, and staring at a small, perfectly circular hole (or was it just ink?) in the wooden floor.

“This flavour of ice cream is amazing”, commented Lila. I’d been, after all, silent for an unknown period of time, and a brooding silence of any sort from my end rang alarm-bells in Lila’s mind.

The truth was, I’d had this strange feeling ever since Lila’s car careened into Knightville. I felt... out of my own body, like I was breathing something entirely other than oxygen, that I was eating foreign food, having this foreign food with another person, that I was in another world, with alien roots that ran in alien soil. Like I was someone else. It was a creepy feeling, and it made my skin crawl.

But none of this was real. It was probably my brain’s way of punishing me because I’d intentionally forced myself to survive in a place that I didn’t like when I had total opportunity to live somewhere else.

“It’s pistachio flavoured”, I said, coming back to reality, “one of the worst ice cream flavours invented in the history of bad ice cream flavours”. I scrunched my nose with distaste.

“It is not”, insisted Lila, “you just don’t like it ‘cause it’s weird. I happen to like weird. Quite a few people do. Weird is good. Weird is different.”

But I would not indulge myself in the weirder aspects of life. While Lila was fawning over her God-awful ice cream, I was silently enjoying classic chocolate.

***********

School was due in a week, a week which was spent placing our furniture in the house, a difficult thing for a family of two to accomplish. Still, this was not our first rodeo – we’d done this exactly 14 times now – but regardless, we never got any better at arranging furniture in an apartment, let alone a house. Or faster.

“Well, the bed’s done”, Lila huffed, a hanky tied to her head, rivulets of sweat rolling down the sides of her face.

“Yeah, your bed,” I said, wiping my forehead, mentally accepting my fate. “I’ll have to sleep on the couch, won’t I?”

“For now,” she said sheepishly, off my glare.

I got up from my seat at the floor and declared, “I am officially done with today. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've gotta get out of this house and pray to all the heavens above that it is raining.”

So saying, I saluted in her direction and stalked resolutely down the stairs.

Fortunately, my prayers (which were not yet made) were answered. I stepped out the front doorstep to find rain falling in gentle sheets, letting it progressively wet my clothes as the cool droplets shifted through my hot, sweaty hair. I combed the strands back with my fingers and faced the clouds above, feeling the cold water sting my face like surprises.

I was not, in general a fan of the rain, but I'll admit, it could be beneficial at times.

It was then I noticed a house, a small way across the road, and a girl walking out of it, a black umbrella plopped on her shoulder.

From what I could tell, she had long, straight black hair and wore dark clothing that spanned her entire body. She was walking briskly, like she was on a clock, and kept looking around, her eyes darting everywhere at once before stopping, and lingering on me.

I froze, and felt my heart stop beating for a second. I didn't think about how beautiful she looked, not at that moment at least. I didn't think about how strange it was that she herself froze and stopped to stare at me. I didn't think about how she then abruptly turned around and practically ran down the street, away from her house and my line of sight.

I could only think about her eyes, which were not one, but two colors, for two irises. One was the black of tar and midnight and the other was the blue of clear skies and forget-me-nots. There was no other way to put it; her eyes were beautiful.

Heterochromia was not an unknown concept to me, and for all its uniqueness, it could also look rather plain on some people. But something about the girl's eyes struck me in the strangest way. And it was that strangeness that froze me; I wasn't easily bedazzled.

It felt wrong and right both at the same time, like a sharp needle poking at your skin, but not hard enough for it to bleed.

Her eyes may have been beautiful, but they were hard, reflective, blank, and cold and sharp as shards of ice, like her soul was hidden in walls and walls of titanium, that the blue and black of her eyes were the only walls we saw.

Eyes that I would lay awake at night thinking about.

***********

The few mornings after that were as grey and lifeless as the last one. I wondered as I woke, not for the first time, how the people here could wake up to this almost every morning and still have the energy to start their day and do whatever a regular life demands of them. For even after a good night’s sleep I felt tired, the kind of tired that I wasn’t sure would be easily remedied by a cup of coffee. Maybe half a dozen could work.

I shook my head. I was being pathetic.

I forced myself out of bed and got ready for school.

In the bathroom, I stared at myself in the mirror as I brushed my teeth. Fair skin was part of my genetics, and so was my gangly height of six feet, which did no favours to my breadth. My facial features were too-sharp and my body was lean (the gym and I have a difficult relationship). My hair was an ordinary brown with a coppery tint to it that refused to stay neat, and my eyes, deep-set, were leaf-green.

There was nothing much remarkable about me. I sighed and spit the minty toothpaste out.

Lila, on the other hand, was pretty. She had hair redder than mine, a Madonna-like face with high, sloping cheekbones, and green eyes that were always lively.

When I was done criticizing myself in the bathroom, I took a shower and wore an ordinary faded red sweatshirt and loose jeans.

I went downstairs.

Lila was, naturally, awake, and bustling about the kitchen, performing multiple tasks at once, as was her way, such as juggling her steaming hot cup of coffee in one hand, while trying to explain to her new-found friend, Catherine, who seemed to keep surprisingly military hours, all the reasons why she could go down to the book-store with her after she came back home at eight ‘o’ clock in the evening over the phone, that was, by the way, sandwiched between her ear and her corresponding shoulder. At the same time, she was trying to pack our food (she’d always insisted on home-made for first days at school). It might all end in disaster. No, it probably would end in disaster. It’s Lila we’re talking about, after all.

“Lila, don’t keep your coffee cup so close to the edge of the counter!” I grumbled as she accidentally pushed it off in order to turn to me as I came down the stairs.

The cup made crash-landing, but it was plastic, so it didn’t break. Burning-hot black coffee infiltrated the floor of the kitchen and splashed against the previously pristine white cupboards, curved layers of coffee-brown partially covering them. On the ground, the liquid pooled like water.

Lila, on the other hand, had jumped back five miles, dropped her phone onto a fuzzy carpet, and was looking at me reproachfully.

With a mental curse I said, “oh, god.” And, shaking my head, I came the rest of the way down the stairs, walked past Lila, and opened a cabinet with cleaning towels in it.

I picked a white one with bright red stripes, and handed it to Lila, who gratefully took it.

I picked one out for myself, an orange one with black boats patterned on, and sighed, “come on, Lila.” And after selecting other cleaning weapons of our choice, we dived into the mess.

So obviously, it was with easy conversation and synchronised working that we went our separate ways.

Lila would lock herself up in her office with her laptop and an assortment of files, documents and fidget-toys, whereas I would shimmy on my bike and make my way to Knightville High School.

***********

At the gates of Knightville High School, I stopped.

I looked at my bike, which was parked (squeezed) between two cars, then I gazed back at my new school once more.

The building was greyer and duller than any other building I’d ever seen. It wasn’t too tall, four storeys high, maybe, with Knightville High written in huge red letters at the entrance.

I gulped. Who was I kidding? I was nervous as hell, which was totally idiotic; I’d done this a million times now.

Maybe it was just the fear of being in the spotlight, the downright spooky atmosphere of Knightville, or I was probably just way in over my head, and I suddenly had the totally irrational desire to get on my bike and ride back to DC.

Or, I told myself sternly, I’m overthinking the entire thing, and I should stop dawdling at the front of the school gates and just get it over with already.

So, thinking this, I took a deep breath, and went in.

***********

I’d hoped for a few minutes, at the very least, of peace.

Instead, I was immediately ambushed at the entrance of the main hall of my new school by a girl just a few inches shorter than me, with a bright expression that I would soon come to know was her being cheerful.

At first I’d thought her hair was on fire, and she had galloped to me expecting a waterfall to sprout out of my backpack. A fraction of a second later, though, I realised that that was just the color of the girl’s hair, burning orange, not red, orange, like fire.

Her hair was bright orange. She had hazel eyes with flecks of green and gold in them, sweet pink lips that looked naturally dyed, and freckles that covered the apex of her nose and cheekbones like dust. She wore a white tank top that should be illegal to wear, a brown leather jacket to cover it up, fashionably tattered and faded jeans, and a bright smile that could give the sun and the stars a run for their money.

“Hi,” she said, in a naturally crisp and friendly voice, “I’m Jolene Frost, head of Knightville High’s welcoming committee. Welcome to Knightville High!”

I jumped. “Hello,” I managed to stammer, “I’m Kenneth Teigen.”

Jolene’s eyes flickered almost imperceptibly at ‘Teigen.’

“What?” I asked.

“What ‘what’?” Jolene looked a little bemused.

“Never mind,” I muttered.

She regarded me for a long moment, not like I was acting strangely, but more as though she’d just discovered something about me that told her there was more to discover.

Then she peered over my shoulder as though she’d just spotted someone, and called, “Rowan, Rowan!” I turned around, but I couldn’t be sure who she was calling. A beat passed. No one came, and no one looked at her weirdly for shouting that name, possibly because she was popular and wouldn’t have cared about it anyway. With an exasperated sigh, she flipped out her phone and dialled a number. She held up a finger that told me I should wait a minute and heard the phone ring twice before the person on the other end picked up.

Jolene did not pause to say ‘hello’ to make sure the person on the other end was there, instead immediately speaking into her phone, “Rowan Frost, if you do not emerge from whatever hidey-hole you’ve found for yourself, I will whisper your middle name to the new kid.” She said the last two words as though it would be a treacherous fate for Rowan, who I now realised was Jolene’s brother.

A reply came from the other end. Jolene retorted, “oh, I will, and I will do it seductively for good measure.” She seemed to have either not noticed my slight discomfort at that, or she was ignoring it entirely.

“Relax, I’m here,” came a child-like voice. A boy an inch or so shorter than me approached us, detaching his phone from his ear as he did.

Jolene smiled a winning smile, and leaned in to loudly whisper, “It’s Duncan, by the way.”

“You said you wouldn’t tell,” reproached Rowan while looking affronted, before abruptly grinning slyly, “Mildred.”

Jolene shrugged, clearly not the reaction Rowan had been hoping for. “I have no insecurities about my middle names. No one will ever call me Mildred, unless, of course, they have a death wish.”

“You just said you had no insecurities.”

“Mildred is a disgusting enough name to hate without being insecure about having it.”

“So is Duncan.”

“No, it’s only you who hates it because it’s old-fashioned.”

“I don’t understand why that isn’t a good enough reason on its own.”

While they went on with their incessant banter, I studied Rowan a little more closely. He had ash-blond hair that was more ash than anything really, and big grey eyes that at first seemed to be comparable to the grey of Knightville’s sky, but soon, it would look more like silver, gleaming and refracting in the light.

He had a long, thin face that had a fine sort of bone structure to it, all angles in some places, all softness in others. His body looked wiry and his shoulders were slim, similar to a girl’s. It was then I drew to the conclusion that ‘handsome’ was not a word that could be used to describe him – he looked more... pretty, yes, that’s the word. He was rather pretty.

“Shouldn’t we be showing the new kid around instead of wasting time arguing?” said Rowan a little grumpily, after Jolene had thrown a cutting remark at him.

“Perhaps,” Jolene allowed, “but maybe we could just skip the tour.” She turned to me, “don’t worry, the school layout is really simple. You’ll get it as we go along.”

The Frost siblings then took me along the halls, to my locker, through various classrooms and labs, the library, the canteen, the infirmary, other staffrooms, all while accompanying it with more banter, assurances that I could ask questions if I had any, and other interesting details, like a long crack that spread across the floor in front of the chemistry lab that had always been there. It was thin, but not so much that it wasn’t noticeable – in fact, I’d noticed it before Jolene had told me about it – and pitch black, as though it had been drawn on the ground with a marker of the darkest black, and shaped like real-life lightning, starting and ending abruptly. It was strangely unsettling to look at.

“Following so far?” Jolene asked, when I spent too long looking at the scar on the floor. “Any questions?”

I looked up, and spotted someone, walking briskly down the hallway. “Actually,” I said, nodding my head in that direction, “yes. Who is she?”

***********

It was that girl, the girl I’d seen a few days ago, with the black-and-blue eyes. My neighbour, I thought. Strange to see her here.

It wasn’t as though I was particularly surprised to have spotted her; Knightville High was the only high school in this town.

I just hadn’t expected to see her again so soon.

Even as I asked her the question, I could see Jolene’s expression change ever so slightly when she found who I was referring to, into something that was hard to coin. It was the kind of expression someone would put on to hide what they were truly feeling.

“Scarlett Raynott, I think that’s her name,” Jolene said, her voice a little away from her person. She turned to me.” Why do you want to know?”

“I saw her a couple days ago,” I said, still looking at Scarlett as she disappeared around the corner. “She lives in the house opposite to mine, at the edge of town.”

“You actually live in that rickety old house?” Jolene asked incredulously, though with the thin air of someone trying to change the subject.

“It’s not that old,” I said, frowning a little.

“It’s not the fact that it’s old,” perked up Rowan faintly, who, up until then, had been silently daydreaming, “which it isn’t, really, compared to other houses, it’s just the way it looks old. And not very pleasant. We all call it Bleak House – not a very creative name, sure, but it stuck.”

“And now people actually live in Bleak House,” Jolene mused.

“I think that’s an overstatement,” I said. “It’s not that bleak.”

“Some people died in there, didn’t they?” Rowan asked Jolene.

“What?” My head snapped up.

“Fourteen people, I think, back in ‘95,” Jolene said.

“Fourteen people?” I echoed, horrified.

“All murdered, weren’t they?” Rowan went on, unfazed.

“Police never found out who it was,” Jolene confirmed, shaking her head mournfully.

“Wow, you guys talk about murder with such ease,” I said.

Jolene grinned. “I would be more worried about living in a haunted house, really.”

“My house is not haunted,” I said, trying for a withering look but grinning instead.

“They say that there are fourteen small dots on the floor, the places where those fourteen people had stood when they were killed,” mused Rowan. “They were drawn on by the murderer.”

I shuddered minutely. “They never found him or her?”

“No, and that’s what’s really troubling.” Rowan stopped short, as though that last part was something he hadn’t meant to say.

Jolene, on the other hand, was now staring at the space where Scarlett had last been, before vanishing from view, and I felt I had to ask, “do you know her?”

Jolene’s eyes flashed in understanding. She smiled softly, like she held a secret, close enough to her that no one else could see it, hard as they tried, and answered, “nobody knows her.”

And it was precisely then that the bell rang.

***********

Nobody knows her.

Dear God, why had I said that? Not that it wasn’t true, in a sense. Saying that Scarlett Raynott didn’t trust easily was the understatement of a lifetime. Scarlett had been my best friend and loyal companion ever since we were kids, and even still, I constantly felt as though I didn’t really know all of her secrets; most of them, maybe, but not all.

I pushed that thought away. We, Rowan and I, had bigger things to think about.

Like how Lila and Kenneth Teigen had taken one look at freaking Bleak House and thought, this seems homely, why don’t we move in? Like how they now lived as close to Scarlett and endless danger as they possibly can get. Like how Kenneth had actually seen Scarlett, and recognized her.

Like how the Teigens knew that Knightville existed at all.

If I were normal, I would turn to Rowan, talk about what to do next, maybe even seek assurance that everything would not, in fact, go to hell.

But I was not normal, and you knew you weren’t normal when there was something fundamentally wrong with you and there was no term in psychology or any other science in existence that could describe it.

There had been a time when Rowan could bring me comfort and reassurance, with his simple, meaningful words and the thoughtful arch to his brow. But now, it was all I could do to smile and be playful and take up the role sisters should, to keep the pretence, to maintain what we had as siblings. No, Rowan was no longer my sanctuary, the sanctuary he had been when I was young and normal; he was someone who injured me everyday without even realising it, someone around whom I could never be myself, someone who would turn away with disgust if he knew the truth about me.

The second the bell had rung, Kenneth had taken one look at his time-table, muttered a swift “sorry,” smiled apologetically as he did, and bolted. Rowan had looked thoughtfully at Kenneth’s back then, and I could not help but do the same. Kenneth was never meant to be so... human. He was never meant to have a kind undertone to his deep, forest-green eyes, he was never meant to have such a steady set to his face, the kind that would remain the same even if flames of the tallest heights danced on the water of oceans and turned the earth and everyone on it into ash.

I was never meant to like him in the ten minutes that I knew him.

And as he went, I could not help but notice that he had disappeared around the same corner, where the classrooms began and the main hall ended, as Scarlett had, just moments ago.

I turned to Rowan with a fake smile plastered on my face. “Well, that went well.”

“Spectacularly,” Rowan said seriously, “your acting skills were truly flawless.”

I smiled winningly. I knew he was being sarcastic, but I also knew that going along with his sarcasm threw him. “Why, thank you, kind brother mine,” I said, adding a gallon of sugar to my smile and trying to ignore the sting of the word, ‘brother’.

Sure enough, Rowan narrowed his eyes, and I grinned triumphantly.

But of course, he just had to ask the million-dollar question. “What should we do about Kenneth?”

“No idea whatsoever,” I said cheerfully, as though I wasn’t losing my mind either. On a more serious note, I added, “maybe, for now, we should just keep tabs on Kenneth, what his classes are, where he comes and goes, and try and keep him away from Scarlett in general.”

“So basically stalk him,” Rowan said.

“Got any better ideas?” I asked.

Rowan’s brow suddenly cleared, and I knew what he was about to suggest. “I could always-”

“No,” I said immediately. “You could never go on for that long. It would drain you.”

And I don’t want to see you like that, I almost said, but held my tongue. It might reveal too much.

Unable to look at him any longer, I turned my gaze back to where Scarlett had disappeared, turning my attention to the issue at hand, and the reasons why the situation was this pressing.

Because everyone in this town knew the name 'Teigen.'

And we knew that name because of two people, because of the two people, because of the people who managed to get away.

***********

I was probably the only person ever to get lost in Knightville High School.

It was the middle of the school day, and I’d just spent what Jolene would surely call a productive lunch chattering away about several topics, murder included (I guess the Frost siblings like talking about this stuff). It was also when I discovered that Rowan could paint like Picasso, and Jolene wasn’t a terrible hand at volleyball either.

I look at the Frost siblings – Irish twins, I was told they were – and cannot help but think that they seemed in no way siblings at all. Very good friends, maybe, but not siblings or any blood relation at all. Siblings tend to have an invisible bond to them, something that marked them as a unit, but there was no such tether to Rowan and Jolene.

Even their overall closeness was questionable; Jolene had not caught Rowan’s eye even once throughout our conversations, the way that siblings did when they shared secret opinions. And if Rowan had noticed, then it was something that had been going on a long time, since he hadn’t seemed bemused or bewildered by it in any way.

There was also the matter of how they didn’t look alike at all.

But I could not think about that now. If I did, I was going to be late for English.

I soon realised, rather stupidly, that I’d been close to the classroom all this time. Cursing my idiocy, I made my way to the open door of the classroom as though it led to heaven.

And that was when I bumped straight into a girl.

Our shoulders collided messily, I almost tripped over my clumsy feet, and my copy of King Lear fell spine-first onto the other person’s foot, making them flinch in surprise.

“I am so sorry,” I immediately said, and bent to retrieve my book.

The girl didn’t say anything – just did the same for one of her own things, a leather-bound sketchpad with the silhouette of a crow on it as the cover design.

And it was then, kneeling on the ground and apologizing faintly, that we finally looked at each other.

Scarlett Raynott was staring right at me, her blue-black eyes fixated on mine. Her skin was deathly pale, as though it’d been first drained of all blood and then white-washed for good measure, contrasting starkly with her dark hair. Her blue eye glittered like a gemstone, but her black eye remained stubborn of light, completely dark. Her expression was totally neutral.

And something was wrong.

Something was very wrong.

But before I could name or place what that something was, Scarlett was getting back on her feet, not even sparing me a look as I did the same, and she was stalking away, her shadow clinging to her feet.

It barely registered into my mind that this was the first time we’d actually met, because something more disturbing caught my attention; two identical narrow, white slits at the apex of Scarlett’s shadow, where her head was.

I squinted.

Were those eyes?

I just thought a compilation of all the excerpts of each chapter would be easier to follow, hence this.

Taglist: @jeahreading, @mayaheronthorn, @damn-this-transgirl-hella-gay

[eldritchships]

ELIJAH!! (sound of me pulling up a chair.sfx) please tell me about your dc s/i.. I wish to know about the wizard..

Of course!!! I would love to :D

Hextrum (any pronouns except she/her) is a skilled and dedicated spellcaster. He gravitates towards working in teams, rather than alone, so you'll often find him standing by the arm of other powerful supervillains as a hired enforcer.

On first glance, Hextrum actually appears to be incredibly bland and boring. They take professionalism very seriously. This gives him something of a secret identity, as no-one believes this guy could transform into a bodysuit-and-leather-clad spectacle like some kind of Sailor Moon villain (but he can and will, when push comes to shove).

I haven't put a whole heap of thought into Hextrum's ultimate goal, but it's entirely possible that they're using the supervillain gig to fund their magical studies, so that they can become an even more powerful wizard.

Here's a couple images of Hextrum that I've made through picrew, but bear in mind that I can NOT recreate his elaborate wizard ensemble in these things

(Sources: 1 2)

Also not pictured is his wizard staff, which has a wooden carving of a boar at the top :)