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inknopewetrust · 4 years ago

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In Another Universe (Marcus Moreno x Fem!Reader)

Summary: If Thanos’ destruction wasn’t enough, being blipped into another universe was worse. After finding yourself in the universe of We Can Be Heroes, you must maneuver your new life and relationships while trying not to dwell on the one you lost.

Pairing: Marcus Moreno x Fem!Reader (We Can Be Heroes)

Word Count: 4.3k

Warnings: Some descriptions of violence, nothing extreme.

A/N: *Gif not mine.* Thanks so much for requesting this @jupitersmoon167 ! I just have to say—not only did I love writing this, but it’s like a whole ass fic in one. Request are currently OPEN, see request guidelines in bio for details!

In an instant, the world you once knew was gone.

The last thing you remembered was the sensation of fear. But it was ethereal, painless compared to anything you’d ever experienced before. Fighting with Nat was worse than the affects of Thanos’ snap, well, for you anyway.

It wasn’t until you woke up in a world that felt so incredibly familiar yet so incredibly foreign at the same time that you realized what ever event the snap set off, it wasn’t one that brought peace to anyone.

“Y/n! Come play with us!”

The moment of relapsing memory was broken by the sounds of children running and shrieking in the park. The sound was strangely comforting because it reminded you of home, of the little one you had to let go, and the found family you may never see again. But the little girl that screeched your name from across the park on the metal bridge reminded you that there was something good in this world, even if it wasn’t your own.

“I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

The voice sounded beside you on the other side of the tree before you even managed to budge from your leaning stature against it. Nothing Missy ever did went over Marcus Moreno’s head. He watched her like a hawk, as if his eyes were glued to her every movement but you couldn’t blame him. Missy was his life. He did everything for her.

“Don’t approve?” You quirked your head to the side with a smirk that you knew Steve would have said it reminded him of Natasha. Natasha, Steve, Tony...

“Well she doesn’t know you like we do. I think it’s best if she keeps her distance. Not to mention for the safety of the other kids...” Marcus trailed off as his gaze tracked from your own to the playground and the group of Heroic children that littered the place. It was chaotic, but normal? You didn’t know what was normal or not anymore so in truth, you felt it didn’t even matter.

“I don’t hurt children. I would never hurt a child.”

“How are we supposed to know that? What have you done but lie to all of us to make us believe you wouldn’t kill us all right now?”

“Are you trying to make me angry, Marcus?”

Your eyes narrowed as you crossed your arms over your chest. You knew they didn’t trust you. You knew they had a hard time believing your story, even after a year but yet they continued to let you go on missions. They continued to invite you to group luncheons and trusted that you wouldn’t sell their secrets to their enemies.

“Testing your patience.”

“If you didn’t trust me with your daughter, why did you let her eat the food I brought? Why do you let her come to headquarters-”

“Because The Heroics are family. This whole thing-” He rose his hand and gestured to heroes and their children gathered and played around them.

“-is her life as much as it is mine. You came here from some “world” that we’ve never heard of that apparently looks a lot like this one. You are the stranger here, not her and especially not at headquarters.”

Marcus huffed in aggravation and stalked away from the tree and to Anita who had been set up at a picnic table not far from the playground. Anita watched her son make conversation with the newest Heroic and shook her head in a brief and tiny fashion as her son walked toward her with a plume of invisible smoke coming out of his ears.

“You shouldn’t be so rude, give the girl a break. She’s lost everything and everyone she’s ever know and I’d be lying if I said she wasn’t a brilliant fighter. The training she could give all of you is worth more money than we spend in a year fighting aliens.” The look on Anita’s face was critical of Marcus. The son she knew, the one she raised was not cynical or mean. He was kind and loving and a father who would have wanted Missy to have strong women in her life.

“She doesn’t belong here. She isn’t a Heroic and she doesn’t need to talk to Missy any more than she does already.”

“But does she seek out Missy at headquarters or does Missy seek out her?” Marcus couldn’t recall if Missy’s interactions with you were brought on by his own kin. He found the girl hanging upside down on the monkey bars with Guppy below her jumping up to try and touch the long, black locks of his daughter. She looked so carefree, so full of joy until she flopped back onto her feet and turned her gaze toward the tree, almost ready to yell. Marcus followed her eyes only to notice you had gone, like a ghost, and Missy was seeking you out.

In The Heroic Headquarters, you often wandered the halls aimlessly, minding your own business as your thoughts were filled with the events that happened exactly one year before. It was already your one year anniversary in this new world. But my God, or to whatever God was out there, you missed your old life. Even if life wasn’t exactly the most glamorous before Thanos arrived, you had found a comfortable family in Natasha, Steve, and the others who stayed behind at the Avenger’s Facility in New York. Natasha was your sister in all things but blood and you would do anything to see her again. Steve had been the one to lean on when your memories of Russia, of that room, of the little one you had to give away, came flowing back in waves too ample to deal with alone. They were everything to you, everything.

And now you sat alone in an office you were sure was once a broom closet and lie in wait for the other heroes to come, visit, to extend a gracious hand to someone who is hurting but it never came. Every day that passed made that more clear. Even the materials they gave you were sub-par to the advanced ones that scattered the offices of the Heroics. You wondered how this world’s technology was so different from your own and no one knew of it. This multiverse, this time continuum that has taken place is far beyond any knowledge you claimed to have. It took nothing to image Tony or Bruce having an absolute field day with all of this.

“Ms. L/N?” A knock alerted you that a visitor had in fact found your small, grungy door in a vacant hallway.

“Come in!” Who were you to ignore a visitor when all you could think of was the family you’d never see?

Anita Moreno cracked the door open and popped her head in with a smile. She quietly closed the door behind her as she took a seat in the broken desk chair situated across from your desk. You wheeled as best as you could from behind the computer to give her a small, welcoming smile.

“What can I do for you Mrs. Moreno?”

“Please, it’s Anita. You’re a Heroic now, no need for the formality.”

“I’m not-” It wasn’t a chuckle that sounded with your denial. It was a stone-cold denial of being a Heroic because it erased what you really were, an Avenger.

“You are here. You are here.” Her tone wasn’t offended, but re-assuring in her proclamation. Anita could read people like books and you doubt you evaded her abilities by being from another universe. She was far too skilled to let people and their problems fall under a radar.

“I have a request for you, well two to be exact.” She looked up from her folded hands expectantly waiting for you to nod, allowing her to continue on.

“First, I have a mission for you with Ms. Vox and Marcus. It’s nothing too concerning but it needs to be taken care of. And for my other request, I’d like you to help train Missy.” You were sure if you had been drinking anything from water to vodka that it would have found itself all over Anita, but you managed to stay mum and concealed.

“And Marcus approves of this?”

“He doesn’t know.”

“Going behind your son’s back and letting his precious daughter train with a woman he sees as a weapon? My, Anita. You have taken me by surprise, I must say.”

The elder woman smiled slyly as if she were getting away with a far more terrible crime. Missy was just as important to her as she was Marcus. Anita was not going to let Marcus’ prejudice against you prevent Missy from looking up to an accomplished and heroic woman as yourself.

“As long as Missy comes home with no scrapes or bruises, there should be no problem. You can use one of the rooms here and I’ll make sure his card can’t access it. I’ll bring Missy in when she’s done with school, leaving about an hour for her to work with you.”

Anita rose to her feet, preparing herself to leave the room but instead, she turned back around, looking you dead in the eyes and for once, looked like someone who cared.

“I don’t know what your world was like. I don’t know who you were there or the family you left behind, but this is your world as much as it is mine, Missy’s, or Marcus’. He shouldn’t be so cruel. I see how you look at the girl, like she’s special. She is. But I couldn’t help but think it was something more...” She trailed off her speech just as Marcus had that day at the park. Like mother like son you suppose.

“Did you have a family? A child—I mean?”

For the first time in your life you were speechless. Was it that obvious? The longing? You never spoke of the child, not even to Natasha or the others because it was far too painful to recall. The Red Room was traumatic enough and by barely escaping to save the life of a child you so desperately wanted only to give it away to protect its life was worse. You didn’t know where she was or who she lived with now. Her life was an illusion to you if you could craft one. That alone broke you, chilled you to the bone. You held her for two minutes before they took her from your arms to give to another and it would be the one thing you would always regret.

“You don’t have to answer-” Anita backed away from the question when she analyzed your reaction. But she was the only one who cared enough to get to know you and that opportunity for connection was slipping away.

“Yes.”

“Yes, I did. I don’t know her name or if she’s... if she’s alive anymore but I did. I had to give her away. She would be ten.”

“Oh I—I am sorry, I didn’t know.”

“No one does.”

Anita could only nod and attempt to leave again but was halted by your voice.

“Thank you for coming here.” She nodded, acknowledging the difficult transition she knew you were having.

“When is the mission?”

“Two weeks. I’ll, um, bring Missy tomorrow. I’ll send a message about the room later today.”

She left with a twist of the door handle, leaving you with the thoughts of the girl who you tried to, but never could forget. But Missy helped to fill that gaping, vacant hole in your heart. After the first week of pure hesitancy, Missy came running in every day after school with a wide smile, bragging about the grades she received, the friends she had, and the way her father always put her perfect grades on the fridge when she got home.

Missy let you into her life without you asking for it. Even with the distance you tried to give her in order to protect yourself from any kind of unintentional attachment with the girl, she melted it with a look in her kind, young brown eyes and her shining smile. Missy treated you like the adult and role model she wanted, not some foreign alien that the Heroes treated you as.

“How do you know how to do all this stuff?”

Missy was stretching on the red mat while you built an obstacle (of sorts) but only half of her attention was on the task you had instructed her to do. It was the second week of your daily training with Missy and she was disappointed to hear that tomorrow, you would be off on a mission, therefore her favorite after school activity would have to wait.

“I was a spy for many years and I had been in this academy of women fighters.” That’s the only explanation you could give her without truly telling her what happened to you in Russia. The horrible, wicked people who experimented and forced you to become a weapon on behalf of the state.

“And what about your old team? How did you meet them?” She sat up now on her knees in an anxious, excited inertia.

There was an initial hesitancy with that question, though you had to ask yourself why. Why, after a year of being in this new world, were you still not willing to be open and voice your story to someone who wanted, someone asking, for it. But what did you have to lose but divulging in this girl’s questions? Nothing. Heck, Nat would probably be proud that you let your guard down enough to make a connection in the first place.

“I met them through-”

You didn’t even get passed the fourth word when the door to the training room slid open and a very, very, angry Marcus charged in with Anita on his tail. She looked pleadingly at you as he grabbed his daughter off the mat on the floor and grabbed her bag from the highest stack of mats to his left.

“Marcus please!” Anita tried to plead with him but he did not listen.

“No! I told you I don’t want her anywhere near her and what did you do!?”

Marcus tossed the bag to Missy who barely caught it in her trembling hands. She had never seen her father break the cool façade he wore on the daily.

“Dad-”

“You go with her. I am not going to have this conversation with you now, but when I get home, you better believe that we will be having a long talk about this.”

Anita wrapped her arms protectively over Missy and practically dragged the girl out of the room while Marcus stood with his hands splayed on his hips in anger. Maybe if it were another universe you would have found it just a little adorable.

“I had my suspicions that this is where she was. Three days ago when my card denied me access to this room I knew someone was lying to me about it.”

“Marcus, you’re over-“

“I am NOT OVERREACTING!” He shouted with a blazing fury. His eyes were filled with nothing but a fatherly rage.

“I asked you to not go anywhere near my daughter and here she is training with you like some—some prodigy! She is my daughter!”

“You think I don’t know that!? Do you really think I am that stupid to not notice the girl is your daughter? She’s just like you!”

“If she was just like me, then she wouldn’t have run off every afternoon with a deadly stranger.”

You shook your head at him with petty laughter.

“You are the most ridiculous, most annoying, and most PRETENTIOUS PERSON I HAVE EVER MET!”

Rage continued to boil up his body like a pot of water. Had Marcus ever met someone he found as infuriating as you? No. Had he ever met someone like you? No. Had he ever been slightly curious about you? He wouldn’t answer that question. Besides, now he was playing protective dad and he never had been given a reason to trust you.

“If you had a child, I bet you would feel the same.”

You think he meant it as some sick burn but he had no idea, none of them did. So your brows lifted at him as a smirk graced your face knowingly.

“If you cared for a second to get to know me— you would know the answer to that question.”

More than a deadly spy, though none of them ever cared to know more than what your profession suggested.

You left the room in an abrupt haste following the confession. A part of your conscious still wasn’t sure whether or not telling everyone every little detail about your past was a good idea, let alone a safe idea. But every night you thought of the family you disappeared from; how you wished you could have told them everything about your past before they disintegrated into dust around you. If you couldn’t do it then, maybe you could do it now.

The next day happened to be the mission Anita had set up for Marcus, Ms. Vox, and yourself. While Marcus waited in uniform with the singing siren pacing the room, he was sure you weren’t going to walk through those doors. One side of him felt that you were the kind of person who ran away after exposing some deep secret, the other thought maybe you just quit. But when you waltzed in with your weapons and uniform perfectly pressed, he couldn’t make eye contact.

If it weren’t for Missy’s dotting on your character that previous evening, he probably would have still been angry. But there was little doubt in his mind that Missy would lie about someone she trusted, so maybe he could give you a chance. That belief quickly turned when you wouldn’t speak to him or even look him in the eye five hours into the mission that had you all stuck in a building across from an increasingly suspicious studio apartment. According to Anita, this is where technological weapons were being stored and the mission was to identify the weapons and alert headquarters so they could send an extraction team. Unfortunately the view was poor and between the three of you, only three pieces of equipment were identified.

“I think we should try and sneak in.” The suggestion came from Ms. Vox who appeared a bit eager to be on an incredibly serious mission. Marcus tried to look at you for an opinion but you gave him no audience.

“If we go in, someone needs to stay behind to keep guard.”

“Maybe I could keep guard and you both can go in?”

The proposition was most unwelcome. You and Marcus, together, on a mission that was possibly deadly, and you still wouldn’t look each other in the eye.

“Or I can go with one of you?” Ms. Vox’s voice was straining but she walked on egg shells to get an answer. Be the bigger person, be the bigger person.

“Marcus and I will go inside. Vox wait down the hall from the door and you need to press the call button on the watch if you see anyone. If we are not out of the apartment in five minutes, alert headquarters and let them bring in the team.” It was a demand and no questions were asked as Ms. Vox rose first to leave the room, followed by you, then a concerned but unquestioning Marcus.

To the building across the street and down the hall, no words were exchanged between the two of you. You both kept quiet as the room came closer and all weapons were drawn in protection.

“You take the left and I’ll go right.” Again, he didn’t question it but he did nod, meet your eyes in understanding.

For starters, the apartment was entirely open concept. The floor was lined with rows of computers; all had been wired to one another and their screens were a blinding blue. You looked up at Marcus as he rounded the row nearly three yards in front of you. The look he returned was unsettled by the scene.

“What do you think they’re doing here?”

“Beats me. I’ve never seen anything like this before.” And it was true—he truly hadn’t. Most of the time missions were against some alien breed, certainly not old junkie computers from his childhood. You lowered your gun for a brief moment, pressing a key on the closest keyboard and all the computers went black. The light from two sets of comms were the only light in the room until a stream of three, then four, then five lines of green invaded from the window. Slowly they crept on the floor until the met a black boot and trailed up the targets body.

It took no time for you to realize what it was.

“Get down! Marcus get down!”

You practically barreled into him as fast as you could, wrapping your arms around his torso as his swords went flying in the opposite direction. Gunfire erupted around you both as you scrambled to drag his body with yours to a corner away from the windows.

“Are you alright? Can you hear me?”

All you could illicit was a nod in combination with a panic gaze. It would take four minutes for the rest of the Heroes to arrive and find the two of you. But whatever happened in Marcus’ brain the moment he saw you tumbled towards him in his moment of peril, changed the dynamic.

It first began as complete acceptance into the team. No one questioned your actions and your abilities were praised just as much as the others. Marcus didn’t keep his distance, but also allowed Missy to continue lessons after school because he trusted you. You saved his life and if it weren’t for you, he would have never seen Missy again.

After about a year of acceptance, Marcus attempted friendship. He would ask you to do things, outside of work, especially when they involved Missy. Bowling, Pizza nights, ice cream runs, game nights; they all became normal after the first few times of pure hesitancy. Although you weren’t entirely comfortable with the idea because of how he treated you in the past, you could tell it was an honest effort. You also would be lying if you said you didn’t have any fun doing those things.

In your fourth year in this new universe something else happened—something unexpected. Instead of what had become a usual game night, Marcus asked you on a date. Your initial reaction was to say no, laugh at the attempt, and return to the monopoly game (yes, you did find it strange that this universe had many similarities to the other). But the “what if” question lingered after minutes of contemplation so you said yes. And you would be lying again if you said anything other than it was “the best date you had ever been on.”

And somewhere in that fifth year of living, Marcus asked you to move in with Missy and himself, and you said yes. Finally, a family of your own that wouldn’t disappear at the snap of a finger. Every day you thought of what Natasha would say to you if she knew about this. One part of you wanted to believe that she would be surprised but proud, while the other believed she would laugh and call you soft. In reality she would have responded both ways.

Every morning you woke up to a man who looked at you as if you held the world in your hand. How you went from enemies to lovers was beyond your comprehension but you didn’t want to question it further. The way he would hold your hand on difficult days, smile at you from across the table, kiss you goodnight, love you until you believed you couldn’t be loved anymore. It was those things you didn’t have in that other world that you just held onto with a tight grip now.

As Marcus readied lunch in the Kitchen, you helped stack new books on Missy’s bookshelf with her. The girl had grown so much over the years and was making her way into becoming the leader Marcus, and Anita, wanted her to be.

“I left a box out in the hall, do you think you could get it?” Missy asked as she admired the cover of a fantasy book in front of her. She looked up with her big brown eyes that reminded you so much of the man in the other room that you couldn’t deny her anything.

“Sure. Be right back.”

But you never came back.

Because you woke up with a jolt on the dirt ground of a forest you hadn’t seen in years.

Wakanda.

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a-student-out-of-time · 4 years ago

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Twisted Sister Arc Review Part 1

Hi guys I’m the Anon who does the reviews around here…guess you could call me the Review Anon? Wonder what the lore behind me would be…anyway that doesn’t matter! Point is, I have an Arc to review and Jesus is this a big one. So big that A) I’m doing submissions (with permission from the Mod of course) and B) I’m splitting the review into 3 parts. Heavy Arcs are Heavy and a LOT of stuff happens here so let’s get right into it!

So, the parts of the Twisted Sister Arc are first the Massacre, second is the Mindwipe and third is the Prison Break. Last one doesn’t start with M but I’m not doing rhyming here, but that’s enough time wasting let’s get right into it~

Massacre

Easily the darkest part of the Arc but given the Arc is basically Kanade being a Slasher Killer here, what do you expect? While Danganronpa is a franchise about murder, and we had serial killers in it both canon and fanon the nature of the Killing Game means that a full-blooded mass killing akin to many slasher films hasn’t really occurred in the franchise before. This makes Kanade’s bloody rampage here even more disturbing, as while we have had mass killings before, see Mukuro’s rampage through Giboua Middle School in Killer Killer, those are established as backstory drops for the characters, we never actually see one being carried out in action. And going back to that massacre, Mukuro only did it because Junko thought her sister’s killer intent might have slipped and it’s to prove to her she is still a killer, but here Kanade is killing for cold blooded revenge. And she doesn’t just kill a bunch of randoms as she brutally murders Iroha, Peko, Akane, Nekomaru, Sonia and Kokoro very brutally and very effectively. I knew something was up given that the entire school went into lockdown and all the fighters from Class 77-B were geared to fight Kanade to the death, and Kanade is such a pansy of a fighter that Sonia beat the living shit out of here, and Syo was taken down by the QC, and we all know how terrifying Syo is. But once the bodies started to drop, I knew that the first time that Hajime would reset on purpose was coming up and there were so many questions. Who set Kanade up for this? Someone had to be helping her…. but who and why? Juu could have let her out but he couldn’t have supplied Kanade with her tools and intel (more on that later) so it has to be someone else.

Within the darkness of this timeline there is of course your heroes. There are those like Peko who got a lucky shot on Kanade which set a chain line of events leading to Kanade’s death, Mikako who made Kanade’s injuries worse and Kokoro who stabbed Kanade in the eye. But those small victories led to total loses as even if Peko didn’t die, she would be crippled for life and moreover she failed to protect her classmates from Kanade’s wrath, and Mikako lost her mother, just as she started to finally connect with her. You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned two names yet, and that’s because they deserve their own paragraphs, I am of course referring to Nikei and Hibiki.

I’m gonna start with the next person who attacks Kanade and that is of course our Journalist boy here. To say this day has been terrible to him would be a massive understatement as one minute he is suffering an energy crash from downing one too many Red Bulls and having lewd thoughts, to running faster than if he happened to be in Mexico (Seriously, if you happen to be a journalist just don’t go to Mexico) to Hope’s Peak and thanks to Ankle Effects, arriving alongside Hajime to a bloodbath. There’s his constant refusal to accept that Iroha is killed, even though we as the audience knew that given Iroha tried to stop Kanade as soon as she arrived at Hope’s Peak and that Kanade was seen by Sonia and co chopping up security guards, the likelihood of her survival was next to none. This carries on from the conversation Nikei had with Yoruko in the previous Arc where he still believes he is dangerous and that he doesn’t see the other Voids as friends or equals, but rather he took the role as leader because he wanted to have power for once in his life, something he alluded to in the Void Theatre during Chapter 5. However, his reaction to Iroha’s unknown safety, and eventually the truth that Kanade really did butcher the poor painter, proves otherwise. While Nikei’s relationship with his fellow Voids canonically won’t get revealed until LINIQ decides to get around to doing the Onmake mode, in which one of the stories in that is going to be about Void pre Mikado- with someone, most likely Nikei, being the POV character, here the fact his first thoughts upon finding out his ‘little sister’ is dead is to disregard the no-killing rule and just beat Kanade to death, proves that he does care about his fellow Voids, but is in several layers of denial. Out of all the Voids, Nikei is easily the most guarded and paranoid of the lot, and while the others have loosened up around Hajime and co, Nikei still has a lot of inner demons he has to deal with before he could truly open up to the rest of the QC. And Kanade chopping his right hand off, doesn’t help matters though I do give Nikei credit that unlike in the OG timeline, where upon his right hand been blown up by his exploding gun, he just broke down crying, here, he tries to carry on the fight regardless, or he would have had the other person I need to talk about didn’t show up. This is pretty important to establish that while most of the Voids now are pretty far removed from their canon selves and are unlikely to regress back in that, Nikei is still closely tied with his bastard canon self and more work needs to be done for him to detach from that.

But moving on from someone who needs to get some work done, let’s move onto someone who has seen the natural conclusion of their character development, Hibiki! Ever since Hajime and Chiaki rescued Hibiki from her twisted sister (*rim shot*) back in July, she has been making a ton of progress, firstly coming to terms with what Kanade did and her true nature, developing friendly healthy relationships with Class 77-B, the QC and of course a romantic relationship with Hajime. It seemed kind of cliché for Hibiki to fall for Hajime but then again a) Danganronpa can be cliché at times and B) As a Danganronpa Protagonist Hajime cannot turn off his swag. Then there is her officially joining the QC, learning how to fight and being a complete and utter badarse and a caring lover when needed as she confronted Hajime back when he died the second time. We all knew it was only a matter of time when Hibiki had to confront her sister and when Kanade broke into the school, we saw fully, how much Hibiki has grown in the past 3 months. The old Hibiki would have curled up in a corner terrified, crying and probably going into the Puppet State. Here though, Hibiki’s FIRST THOUGHTS upon finding out that Kanade is more dangerous now is to done some armour and get some weapons, and face her sister head on with no hesitation. All without going into the Puppet State at least once, which probably means that its more or less gone now. Kanade tried to talk her sister out of fighting her, but Hikibi isn’t buying Kanade’s insurance anymore and a fight breaks out. If this ever gets animated or becomes a visual novel, I would love to see the Hibiki vs Kanade fight animated as its brilliant, its epic and it’s just so satisfying to see Kanade getting the living snot beaten out of her. You could argue that Nikei’s mauling of Kanade was like that but there, Nikei was more or less in grief due to Iroha’s death and the whole thing was as painful to watch as the final fight in Captain America: Civil War, not saying what because spoilers ahoy. Here though is a glorious battle, as Hibiki gets to deliver justice onto her demonic sister and it is SO SO satisfying, given that a reset happens shortly afterwards.

And sadly, with that, we come to easily the weakest part of not only this part of the arc, but the arc overall, Yasuke’s multiverse theory. It could be written better, and even the Mod agrees that the way it was presented shouldn’t have been the way it worse, that having Umeko throw some ideas at Hajime and him coming to the conclusion that they might have been living in a multiverse be better narrative then Yasuke be like ‘Oh hey I am suddenly an expert on Time Travel now’. It would make Hajime breaking his no kill rule that much more impactful as he doesn’t have the excuses of not only Nikei’s who was currently going through a mental breakdown, and in the current plot where Yasuke more or less planted the seed of doubt in Hajime’s mind. Yasuke still has a role to play in this arc but during the Massacre timeline, I feel like he could have been removed entirely from the plot and not only would it have made no difference, but then most readers wouldn’t be complaining about it as much as Yasuke being a general A-hole wouldn’t tick them off. I’m not saying ‘THIS IS AS BAD AS ONCOMING STORM’ as that Arc was just a giant clusterfuck of a mess, and aside from this one part, the arc is very strong overall, but I will give criticism when due. I’m not mentioning my thoughts on Yasuke as a whole here because he’s more relevant in other parts of the Arc. However, Hajime killing Kanade and himself at the same time is brilliant and seeing Kanade begging for her life as Hajime throws her out of the window is so satisfying given not only all the crap she has been dealing up until that point, but also because in SDAR2, she was 100% fulfilled with the events at that point and given it was HIBIKI who was begging for her life then, let’s just say karma is a bigger bitch then Kanade is.

And that concludes the Massacre part of the Arc as Hajime kills himself and Kanade at the same time and he goes back to just before Nikei started to have indecent thoughts. No time to look at the 3rd page of the national newspapers’ boy, we got a serial killer to stop! And with that I’m stopping here as the Massacre part is finished. But this review is far from over, this is just here because otherwise my, the Mod’s and everyone else’s brains won’t be able to process all of this. Stay tuned for part 2 when we cover Kanade’s capture, a scrum debate among the QC and a bold move by the Mod which I do wish will come up more! Until then, Adios! - Review Anon

//Part 1 of 3

//Finally get to submit these

#mod talks #a student out of time #submission #review-anon

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bigskydreaming · 5 years ago

Note

In the extremely unlikely event that Bruce dies for real, or finally retires, who out of his various children do you think should (not could) inherit the Cowl? Just based on skills and temperament, who do you think would be a perfect fit for the next Batman?

I’m a firm proponent of the Cass For Batman movement.

Here’s the thing…..I think by the time any of the Batkids are old enough/tall enough to pull off the cape and cowl look….any and all of the Batkids have the skills to be Batman, or hell, even to surpass him. I’ve always said the high concept of the Batfam is that they’re a family of Mary Sues, that’s their point. Put any one of them in a room with any non group of Bats, and they’re all by default likely to be the most skilled, best fighter, etc, etc. But them together….eh, too many people IMO spend too much time trying to rank them when it seems pointless to me…..you put a family of Mary Sues all together in the same room, they’re all still Mary Sues. (And keep in mind, I’m not using Mary Sue as an insult. Obviously. I love them all, lol. And Batman is the original Mary Sue as far as I’m concerned).

So bottom line is, any one of them could be Batman, skill-wise. Cass I think is the only one who has consistently truly wanted to be, temperament and ambition wise.

I was a big fan of Dickbats, when he wore the cowl. He was good at it, both times, after Bane and then when Bruce was believed dead. He’s Bruce’s eldest and has been by his side the longest of all of them, there’s a degree to which part of me wants to say it should always go to Dick after Bruce, just in acknowledgment of all of that, but honestly? It shouldn’t IMO - again, I liked the Batman we got when Dick wore the cowl before, but it took a toll on him from a character standpoint, because he’s never wanted to be Batman is the thing. He wants to be his own person, of his own design….yeah, he stepped up and made being Batman work for him, on his terms, but it was never his first choice, and IMO never would be, and I’m all about Dick getting to choose. So no, it shouldn’t be him.

There’s at least one Earth in the DC Multiverse where Jason became Batman and was good at it. But with Jason its all about temperament. I honestly don’t think Jason wants to be Batman, not anymore. He wanted to be Batman during Battle for the Cowl, but that Jason was written extremely OOC then and by Morrison as well after that, IMO. He cared more about making a point to his family - or at least Bruce (or even just the ghost of Bruce) - than he cared about innocents, and that’s never been a take on him I find convincing or compelling. I’m fine with Jason killing, I’m behind him on a lot of occasions, but that’s only a Jason who kills out of empathy for the victims who will never see justice otherwise, because a broken system just flat out doesn’t care about them.

And I think ultimately Jason’s biggest grievance with Bruce is he sees Bruce’s refusal to kill his murderer as proof that Bruce ultimately doesn’t care about Jason, based on an inverse of the same logic - and with this being something that Jason has trouble just flat out owning up to in that specific sense (at least after UTRH), because he refuses to be a victim, and Bruce has already made his choice there once, as far as Jason’s concerned, and Jason is too proud to beg or ask a second time. But during the Battle for the Cowl era, Jason wanted to be Batman, but to prove a point, that his way of being Batman is better than Bruce’s, and like I said…..that just never felt like Jason to me. His conflict with people is often based on him believing he’s right, but its not truly about proving that or needing to, IMO….he just believes he is and does what he does. He craves being avenged, not being validated.

So bottom line is, I don’t think Jason in this main Earth would ever really want to be Batman, because BFTC aside…..I think he’s perfectly aware and comfortable with the fact that his way is not Batman’s way. That who he is by choice is not who Batman is, or would really choose to be. And he’s fine with that. The thing about Jason, as far as I’ve always seen it, is he’s never been upset that Batman wouldn’t kill the Joker, his murderer, that Batman wouldn’t avenge him. He gets why Batman wouldn’t. The thing that he can’t ever really reconcile is that Bruce, his Dad wouldn’t avenge him, whether as Batman or just as a grieving father. And that ultimately has nothing to do with Batman as a concept, as a hero or anything with someone who is not Bruce under that cowl. And thus who and what Batman is, ultimately has nothing Jason really needs or wants to be.

Tim, just like the older two, is more than capable of being Batman…..but he doesn’t want to be either. He’s afraid of who he might be as Batman, ultimately. He’s more than once been shown visions of a future where he’s Batman, or faced time traveling future versions of himself as Batman, and its never been a pretty picture. Tim as Batman, in the various futures he’s seen that come to pass in, almost as a warning, is someone who in each of them has kinda gone full Dark Side, embraced the idea of vengeance over justice, or total control over even the chance of chaos befalling someone he cares about, etc. Because Tim does have these tendencies, I’ve always maintained, and he’s not oblivious to them either. He doesn’t deal well with loss, and has a tendency to lose himself in his refusal to accept loved ones as being gone (even though yes, admittedly he is sometimes right to), or just….a denial of the way things are.

And Tim, like any of the Batkids, is more than capable of circumventing the way things are, by virtue of genius inventions, time travel, etc, or manipulating powerful beings into acting exactly as he needs them to in order to achieve some end, etc. So the thing is, any of the Batkids losing themselves to their refusal to accept things the way they are, the natural order of things, is a potentially dangerous thing, because there is very little they aren’t capable of when they put their minds to it, but Tim is the one who is most afraid of this possibility. Dick rejects the possibility as willfully and stubbornly as he can, when people try and force it on him. Jason has at times accepted it and not looked back until much later if at all. Cass has lived it and found it to be her worst nightmare, and Damian was taught to embrace it and had to unlearn that.

Tim is distinct in this regard, in the sense that he’s the one most afraid of being tempted by it, and afraid that he could be tempted…….its not so much that he’s walked a fine line with this in the past, he’s never really done all that much in terms of becoming the future versions of himself he fears, here and now in the present….but he is aware that something about him and his choices attracts the likes of Ra’s al Ghul’s attentions the way Dick attracts the attentions of Slade, Cobb and various other assassins. Ra’s tends to focus on Tim and trying to get him to side with him, more than he really ever does the others, not because any of them couldn’t be just as deadly were they to side with them, but rather I’ve always viewed it a matter of temperament……I think Ra’s has always viewed Tim as being the one he has the best chance of convincing to side with him or try things from his POV…..because he knows or believes, or at least Tim sees it that way, as Tim being the one who could be potentially sold on the idea of total control. Of having the power to ensure nothing harms anything that he is protective of, that he has power enough to stop even death from reaching his loved ones.

But, at the same time, Tim is also the Batkid who is most invested in…..kinda….preserving the idea, and the reality, of the Batman who has been his hero since he was a kid. The Batman that he tracked down and sought out in order to try and help him in any way he could when he was only thirteen. To try and keep safe and to keep from becoming the darker version of himself he was becoming after Jason’s death in his grief.

Like….to Dick, Batman was always just Bruce, his partner….he wasn’t someone he had a lot of preconceptions about before he met him. He’s never really been anything but Bruce to him, and thus he’s never actually been some larger than life figure. He’s known him as his guardian and father figure as much as he’s known him as his mentor and teacher…they go hand in hand for him, not really much of a time gap in between him being the one and becoming the other. So in as much as Dick has always looked up to Bruce from an early age, Batman has never been any kind of mythic ideal for him….its just Bruce in another guise. His guardian, friend and eventually dad.

And then to Jason….I’ve talked about this before, but I think Jason and Dick are both the reverse of Tim and Damian because the latter two came looking for Batman and stayed for Bruce, but the older two came to trust Bruce first and only came to trust Batman because of that. And so to Jason, Bruce was his dad even before Batman was his mentor and partner, and no matter how much Jason may have enjoyed being his partner at times and wanted to impress him as Robin, it was always Bruce that Jason valued far more than Batman. If he had to choose between the two, he’d choose Bruce every time, and at times I would describe their conflicts even before his death as being the result of Batman kinda getting in the way, when Jason just wanted to talk to Bruce, his dad.

But to Tim….even while its not like Tim as Robin was naive or had this unrealistic view of Bruce or the fact that he was as human as anyone else….and even though its not like he didn’t value Bruce for who Bruce was aside from Batman, and eventually see and value him as his father……there’s always been a difference to the way he speaks of Batman, the idea of Batman. He’s the first of the Batkids to ever really approach viewing the cape and the man underneath it as something….necessary to Gotham. That the city or even the world needed, the way Batman was before Jason’s death, and that Tim felt driven to try and bring him back to. Dick and Jason were both aware of Bruce’s good qualities and all the things Batman did to protect the world of course, but while to them that was more or less just Bruce doing things in the way that made the most sense to him or worked best for him, Tim’s the one whose first real glimpse of Batman and view of him was formulated at a distance, where all he could really see was what the Batman presented to the world and thus represented, before he was close enough to see the man behind the mask.

So he’s the one to first or most wholly truly grasp the symbol of Batman….and that’s what I’m trying to get at there. He respects what Batman stands for, the necessity of that, the Batman he’s dedicated so much time and energy and his own life to safeguarding and preserving that heroic/protector spirit of his as much as he has prioritized physically guarding that Batman’s back as Robin…..like, Batman as Tim wholly believes Batman should be, matters far to much to Tim to ever ‘jeopardize’ by giving into Ra’s temptations, or his own dark visions or future glimpses of who he might become. And so no, Tim would never want to be Batman either, because he’s afraid of the Batman he might be, and its too important to him that Batman be what Tim believes the city and the world needs Batman to be.

And then there’s Damian, who again, is more than capable, at least by the time he’s an adult, and unlike pretty much all the others, has spent most of his life intent on becoming Batman. He’s always viewed it as his birthright, his destiny…….but that was before he came to Gotham, met his father as well as his brothers, and was Robin to Dick’s Batman. There’s a lot of reasons why I think whether he’s even totally realized it yet or not, I don’t think Damian still wants to become Batman even as of this point. Such as the fact that with the right writers, he’s discovered that he likes the freedom to choose who he might be, the unknown of it all rather than the certainty and thus the restrictions of being confined to an inevitable destiny. Various events since he’s come to Gotham, like him dying, discovering his grandfather intended to try and use him as his new younger vessel, etc….many of them to different degrees have made him view fate as being just as likely to be a trap as it is to bring the freedom and power he once thought his fate promised him. He’s still young (and he’s still written by a bunch of shitty writers who see him and think “Oh, this is a brat with an attitude and a history of violence, that means he’s basically the Antichrist like that other Damian was, yes?”) so there’s a lot of stopping and starting with this character growth, but the growth is there, if you focus on it and not just the writers who are like “I see a kid named Damian, I write that kid named Damian as pure evil, cuz I gotta, its the rule.”

But also……there’s an endless number of ways in which Dick and Damian are the mirror of Bruce and Dick at their beginning, and this is just one more of those to me. Because I think deep down, Damian no longer wants to be Batman, not all that dissimilar to how Dick never wanted to be Batman. Because it was never that Dick didn’t respect everything Batman stood for, and I don’t think it was ever that he was afraid of drowning in the darkness typically associated with the mantle….because Dick was the one who was truly in the dark spot when he first met Batman. Batman was his light before Dick ever climbed out of his depression, reignited his own inner light, and became Bruce’s light too. So Bruce’s Batman didn’t ever equal just darkness to Dick in the first place. No, Dick’s real issue with being Batman was always just that it wasn’t him…it was his dad. He didn’t want to wear his dad’s old clothes, he wanted to be someone that was uniquely and distinctly him.

And I think its the same thing for Damian at this point. Even though he’s been Bruce’s Robin as much as he was Dick’s, Dick was Damian’s first Batman, the one who made him Robin in the first place. And I think despite what Damian grew up thinking Batman was….when he came to Gotham he really only had enough time to grasp the fact that nothing he thought he knew about Batman or his father was accurate….before Bruce was believed dead. So the new image he formed of Batman, of who and what he was, the Batman that replaced those false impressions…..was Dick’s version of Batman. And now, I think, that’s forever kinda immortalized in Damian’s mind as what Batman is supposed to be, and so I don’t think he wants to be Batman anymore, because that’s not him.

And not even because of insecurity, like he wouldn’t be capable of being that Batman, but rather because I think Dick is the one who taught him to seek more for himself than just what he’d been told was his destiny by others, to choose it for himself….and so I think Damian would never truly want to be Batman at this point because to him, Batman is forever the guy telling him to be his own man, something new, something he hasn’t even thought of yet…..not just some other version of the identity he’d thought was his destiny since he was old enough to talk.

Duke also would be more than capable of being Batman, and I could see certain AUs where it might end up being him, and I’d like to see some of those AUs, but ultimately I don’t see him wanting it either for much the same reason as most of the other boys: Duke’s someone who’s also found power in finding himself in his own identity, building his own mantle and persona and name for himself from scratch as The Signal, rather than step into the shoes left by someone else. I’m short changing Duke here, as he deserves more than just that sparknotes paragraph, but this post has more than gotten away from me already and its late, so I will happily come back to that at a later time if anyone wants.

But that brings me back to Cass. As I said, its not about her being the best fighter of them, like, that making her inherently more suited for the cowl skill wise or whatever….since any and all of them are hyper-competent across the board and possessing their own various specialties. So they’re all more than skilled enough. But its a temperament thing, the thing she has marked off in the pro column of “Why I Should Be Batman” that none of the others do. Its that of all of them, she’s the one who truly wants it, and for the right reasons. Who sees power in it, for herself, the kind of power that she would choose to wield in defense of others, power that she wants to be the kind that defines her and who she is as a hero. As opposed to the boys who see it as something they’re leery of, or that they feel embodies a sense of self that just isn’t them.

Any of the boys as Batman, just like Dick did, would likely do better at it than they thought. They would likely do so through each of them subtly redefining it in their own ways, making it their version of Batman, a Batman each of them could comfortably be, without losing themselves in it. But the same isn’t true for Cass, I think, because that’s the point: she wants to be the Batman that Batman already is, to her.

She wants to fill those shoes, because of all of the kids, she and Tim I think are the closest here, in that they’re the two who never fully stopped seeing the larger than life symbol of Batman, even after getting to know and love the man underneath it….but while for Tim, that symbol was more about what it represented to Gotham, what it could be for the world….for Cass, that symbol was more about what it represented to her. Batman was her hero, before she ever saw him be anyone else’s…..he was what saved her, that made her believe she was worth saving, and Batman, that Batman, is what Cass in turn wants to be for other people. The hero for them that he was for her.

At his best, Bruce has been many things to his various children, as both Bruce Wayne and as Batman. He was the light that first showed Dick the way through his trauma, he was the father that Jason never had, he was the symbol that Tim believed in from afar and that lived up to that promise even when Tim met the man underneath, and he was the legend that Damian heard and wanted to be.

But for Cass, and only Cass….he was all of those things at the same time.

And that is why I think Cass is ultimately the only true successor to the Batman that is, (or at least, the Batman that he is, when at his best aka not written by Tom King or those of similar ilk). Rather than a successor who would become a Batman in name, but with their own individualized take and reinterpretation of the cowl and what it means or stands for when worn by them. And its why I think Cass is also the only one who truly wants to be that successor, and for reasons she finds fulfillment in, rather than seeing as baggage that weighs her down or keeps her mired in the past, in grief, stuck walking the same path someone else already walked. She knows who Batman is to her, and what his symbol represents, and she knows that its everything she wants to be, and nothing that she would feel trapped or limited by, rather than empowered by.

I think any and all of her siblings have the potential to someday mirror their own pasts with Batman and Bruce, and who he was to them:

For Dick, being who and what Bruce was for him when he needed him first - that means being Dick Grayson, with Batman merely a secondary title. Just like it was Bruce Wayne he had needed, with Batman merely incidental to that….and all of this being born out as true with Damian, when he ultimately responded to Dick’s efforts to reach him far more than Dick-as-Batman’s.

For Jason, being who and what Bruce was for him might mean being a father someday - and with who he is as the Red Hood potentially being the thing that gets in the way of that, just as Batman was what sometimes got in the way of him and Bruce. And thus with the Red Hood being the thing he might have to choose to hang up and put behind him, if he truly wants to learn from the mistakes his father made with him.

For Tim, being who and what Bruce was for him at first, would ironically mean being the darker, grief-driven version of himself that needed someone else to remind him of who he was…..a version of himself for some precocious would-be hero to save the way Tim had once been determined to save Bruce from himself.

And for Damian, being who and what Bruce was to him at first, would unfortunately mean being in someone else’s eyes no different - and no more approachable - than the legend Bruce originally existed as for him. It might mean being distant and out of reach even as what someone really needed was for him to be there and in the flesh. And thus by extension meaning that given the choice, Damian would likely prefer to be for that someone what Dick taught him to be, what Dick was for him…..real and present for that someone else, even if they weren’t that person’s first choice.

And so only for Cass, would being who and what Bruce was for her, mean Cass being someone’s hero. The person who saved by inspiring, just as Batman had saved her by inspiring her. Protecting her by the mere act of proving that he wanted to protect her. Who gave her a new life just by showing her what was out there and what that life could look like.

That’s the Batman that Gotham’s future needs. The same Batman she needed, and the one only she can truly be because of that.

And that’s why IMO it should be her who ultimately takes their father’s place as Gotham’s Dark Knight.

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anistarrose · 5 years ago

Text

Some Sunny Day - Ch. 13: Isomers (Gravity Falls - Same Coin Theory)

Summary: Ford shares an unsurprisingly scientific metaphor, the sun sets, and the day comes to an end.

Warnings: some self-blame and looking back on suicidal thoughts, but it’s mostly comfort and talking through things

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14947964/chapters/46028998

The Beginning

It’s finally here. The final chapter!

(The Same Coin Theory is by @dubsdeedubs and @renmorris!)

***

The sun was just beginning to dip beneath the treetops as they headed back to the Mystery Shack. The sky was still cloudless, but now took on a purple hue close to the horizon. Stan and Ford walked together, arms thrown over each other’s shoulders, reluctant to let go.

They nearly lost their grip, however, when they reached the Shack to see Fiddleford’s search party waiting for them, and Wendy barreled up to knock the wind out of Stan with a hug.

“You guys, we were so worried! You better not ever disappear like that again, Stan, or — or I’ll —”

“Yeesh, you spend one year working for someone else and suddenly you get to boss me around?” Stan grunted. “Gimme some room to breathe here, at least.”

Wendy laughed, and let go of him. “Now that sounds like the Mr. Pines I know.”

“Yeah, I…” Stan smiled sadly, rubbing his ribs. “I think, even today, I’ve never been anything but the Mr. Pines you knew… I just didn’t always feel like it.”

“But you’re doing better now, right? Mabel chimed in. “You feel like yourself again?”

Stan gave a slow nod. “I think so. Having something to yell at that wasn’t inside my own head… I think that helped.”

“That’s such a relief,” Wendy told him. “Sounds like you’ve got a hell of a story to tell, though — if you want to,” she quickly added.

“Someday,” Stan said. “Not now, but someday.”

Fiddleford watched the exchange, nodding approvingly at first before a thought seemed to dawn on him and his eyes suddenly lit up with concern. “This is all rightly touching, and I’m as relieved as anyone to see you safe and feelin’ like yourself, Stan, but… have y’all eaten anything since this mornin’? You don’t want to end up just keeling over from plain ol’ starvation, not after everything ya’ve survived today.”

As if one cue, Ford’s stomach rumbled, and he smiled sheepishly. “Well, Fidds, this is probably going to remind you of our college days…”

“You didn’t even eat this morning, did you?” Stan muttered.

“I think I had half of a granola bar, around eight-thirty? Maybe closer to a third of —”

“That’s it, we’re ordering pizza right now!” Mabel declared. “And ice cream too, ‘cause you deserve it, Grunkle Stan!”

Stan bit his lip and closed his eyes, instinctively trying to suppress the tears he could feel coming… Ah, screw it. It’s Mabel.

He opened his eyes and reached down to ruffle her hair.

“You deserve it too,” he said softly. “You all do. I wouldn’t be here without you.”

“Neither would we, Grunkle Stan,” Dipper told him, gently taking him by the hand. “You’ve saved us too, don’t you ever forget it.”

The others began to file into the Shack, and Stan followed, holding Dipper’s hand on one side and Ford’s on the other as Mabel scrambled ahead to hold the door open. He felt the field from the unicorn hair wash over him, temporarily neutralizing the power to reshape reality and blocking his ability to see outside the barrier’s limits, and made a beeline for his chair in the living room, where he immediately sat down to rest.

Rest. It had been the furthest concern from his mind an hour ago — because yes, he’d wanted to die, but never because he was tired of living. He’d wanted to die to protect his family from the demon that he feared that he still was, to serve justice against wrongs from a previous life…

Because he thought his death would be best for the universe, not because there wasn’t anything else he wanted out of life.

But now, as hard as it had been to convince himself, he knew he was Stanley Pines — an actually half-decent person who was allowed to want things — and right now, Stan just wanted a nice, peaceful, temporary rest, here in his home and alongside his family.

So he turned the television on to a familiar Ducktective rerun, and smiled as everyone gathered around him to watch as they waited for the food to arrive. He still grimaced from time to time, as new memories of Bill’s would pop into his head, but something was taking the sting out of them — he wasn’t drawn towards dwelling on them anymore, he realized, not with his family around him. Not with Mabel on the ground by his feet, still laughing at jokes she’d heard plenty of times before, and Dipper at his side, pointing out foreshadowing with a proud smile on his face.

One by one, memories of anger and suffering returned only to be drowned out — not by denial this time, but rather a flood of competing memories of joy, of relaxation, and of family bonding.

***

“Thanks for leaving a note,” Ford told Stan as he sat down in the grass a few feet away.

“Well, you still worried, didn’t you?” Stan asked. “That’s why you’re here?”

Here was the clearing where Bill’s statue rested, the clearing where the blue fire had first flickered up around Stan’s hands and began to drive away the dark, dark fog of denial that he’d cloaked his memories in. But now, the only fires visible were the stars in the sky, a million little lights illuminating the statue from above.

All those stars had their own stories, Stan realized, stories he could see if he wanted to — but he didn’t feel the need to look, to turn his all-seeing eye so far away from home, not when everything he could ask for in life was right here with him.

Through hardship to the stars? Nah, through hardship to family is enough for me.

“Not as much as I would have worried had you not left it,” Ford replied after a long pause, disrupting Stan’s thoughts. “I just… wanted to make sure you had someone to talk to, in the case that you wanted to talk. I’ll leave if you don’t want me here —”

“No, you can stay,” Stan told him, then after an awkward silence, he asked: “Are the kids asleep?”

“As far as I know, yes.” Ford must have noticed Stan’s sigh of relief, because he added: “Please don’t blame yourself for making them worry so much. You know that no force in the multiverse could ever stop them from doing their best to be there for you.”

“Yeah. I don’t —”

Stan almost said I don’t deserve them, but caught himself. Ford wouldn’t want to hear him say that, and… well, even though intrusive thoughts of self-doubt still lurking in the back of his mind tried to convince him otherwise, he knew that it just wasn’t true.

“I just kinda felt like I needed to take a look at the statue again,” he told Ford. “Since I haven’t come near here since… this morning.”

Ford nodded. “I guess we’ve learned a lot since then, haven’t we?”

“Hard to believe all that went down in just one day.”

“Well, there were a few things that ‘went down’ outside of time itself —”

“Oh, come on, Sixer. You’re seriously gonna bring your nerdy technicalities into this? Now?”

For a second, Stan feared that he’d put a bit too much anger into his words, had said something that sounded too much like a thing Bill might say — but Ford started to laugh, loudly and genuinely, and after a moment’s hesitation, Stan did too. It felt like an incredible weight had been taken off his shoulders — the two of them had gone too long without any banter, any jokes, any good-natured mocking. It had only been a day, but that day had felt like an eternity, like it too was maturing at a rate completely independent of the passage of time.

(Or maybe, the weight on Stan’s shoulders was still there, but he was no longer bearing it alone.)

Their laughter fizzled out, and for a while, they sat there in silence together, alternating looks at the statue with looks at the beautiful cloudless night sky. Now there was something Stan would be happy to use his powers for — making the sky clearer for family stargazing nights, and keeping the rain away when they wanted to go camping.

The idea improved his mood, so for a while, he held off on bringing up the topic that had been bothering him for the past few hours. But eventually, Ford began to awkwardly shift in place as if thinking about starting another conversation, and Stan finally said:

“I have… what’ll probably be a hard question.”

Ford turned to look at him, a reassuring smile on his face. “I’m ready to hear it.”

“It’s, uh… it’s just that I’m not sure if I even know what answer I want, and…”

“It’ll be okay.” Ford scooted closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to say it if you don’t want to, of course, but after everything we’ve already gotten through today… I think we’ll be able to find a good answer, together.”

Before he lost his nerve, Stan blurted out: “Do you forgive me?”

Ford let out a long, slow sigh. “I… had a feeling it was going to be something like that, and… I’ve been thinking about that a lot myself.”

He withdrew his hand from Stan’s shoulder, as if sensing Stan’s wish for a bit more space. “If you don’t mind me asking, do you know if you want me to forgive you?”

“No,” Stan decided at that instant, voicing his answer with a vehemence even he hadn’t expected. “No, you shouldn’t. Because that stuff…”

He looked down. “That stuff I did to you just wasn’t forgivable. And I’m different now — I’d never do that again, I know that — but that doesn’t just make all that shit okay, just because I realized how fucked up it was. So… don’t forgive me for it.”

Ford’s expression changed into a strange sort of smile, something sad but not hopeless. “That’s… that’s a fair point, about it not being forgivable. And for the most part, I’d think I’d say that I agree — but with just addendum.”

He took a deep breath. “It’s a long addendum, though, and I’m not sure how best to phrase it. I hope you’ll bear with me.”

Stan nodded.

“Now, I’m no philosopher,” Ford began, “but I’ll say this: the idea of holding someone accountable for actions they don’t remember is generally regarded as… a gray area, at best.”

He paused, as if a word was on the tip of his tongue. “And your case… I think your case may actually be more clear-cut than most, due to the sheer severity of your amnesia. Bill is gone, destroyed by the loss of his memories, which leaves you with no reason to be blamed for his actions even though you arose in his place. And if someone doesn’t deserve the blame for something in the first place, then there would be no need to forgive them, wouldn’t you say?”

“But I remember now,” Stan cut in. “Those memories didn’t stay lost.”

“They stayed lost for sixty-two years,” Ford replied. “That’s got to be more than enough time to become someone else altogether. To change so much, to mature so much…”

“Into a totally different entity? I know I’m not the same as he was — I know I’m better — but me and Bill, we were still made of the same stuff. I see what you’re trying to do, and I appreciate it —”

Ford snapped his fingers. “Exactly! That’s the metaphor I was looking for!”

“But someone’s still gotta be responsible for — wait, what?”

“Made of the same building blocks, in the same ratios —” Ford was beaming all of a sudden, and gesturing wildly as he only really did when talking about science. “But assembled together in different ways, and producing vastly different properties!”

“I’m sorry, but I have exactly no idea where you’re going with this.”

“Do you remember what constitutional isomers are? When two molecules have the same chemical formula, but different connectivity between the individual atoms?”

“Yeah, and that’s relevant because…?”

“Because they’re made from the same components, but no self-respecting chemist would ever say that they’re the actually the same compound!” Ford explained. “Different names, different chemical and physical properties — just like you and Bill!”

At that, Stan almost laughed despite himself, because the whole conversation — the rambling on, the elaborate metaphors, the science — was all just pure Ford. And truth be told, as much as he might grumble and complain about the complexity and nerdiness of Ford’s preferred brand of analogies… there was no way he’d rather have conversations like these than the Ford way.

“Okay, go on…”

“Like — take ethanol and dimethyl ether, for example. They have the same amounts of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in their chemical formulas, but if memory serves, dimethyl ether will release more energy than an equal amount of ethanol when you burn it. Because of the different ways their atoms are arranged, their respective destructions will have different effects upon the world.”

Ford took a breath, and continued more slowly:

“When I believed that Bill had burned and died, I felt no grief for him. The end of the being known as Bill Cipher was no loss to me, or to the rest of the world. On the contrary, there was rejoicing. But when I thought you were gone…”

He laid a hand on Stan’s shoulder.

“Stan Pines cannot be destroyed without leaving behind an immense amount of grief. That’s one of the many differences between you and Bill — you saw that grief when we thought your memories were gone, and even given what we now know, it still holds true. Unlike Bill, you mean everything to us — no matter how much you two have in common, you have too many different properties, too many different effects upon the world, to ever be called the same, just like two isomers cannot be called the same compound. As far as I’m concerned — and as far as anyone should be concerned — Bill Cipher really is dead, and I couldn’t be happier.”

“I think… I get what you’re saying,” Stan said. “Now don’t get me wrong, I’m still not sure an entire chemistry lecture was the best way you coulda explained it, but… I think I like the point you’re making there.”

Ford chuckled a little. “I’m glad. You and Bill — you’re inherently and inextricably connected by your origins, but no one would ever mistake one of you for the other…”

He paused, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. “You know how to use a toaster, for one thing.”

“Okay, why the fuck do I have such vivid memories of Bill not knowing how to do that?”

“He got so defensive about it, too — insisted humans were the crazy ones for wanting to cook bread twice!”

“What a dumbass! Good thing he’s just a statue now.”

“It’s appropriate, because the statue is exactly as good as he was at using a toaster.”

Much to the disappointment of any nearby wildlife attempting to sleep, their raucous laughter took a while to die down. When it finally did, Ford checked his watch.

“Huh,” he murmured. “It just struck midnight.”

“The day’s over,” Stan added. “Finally.”

Ford laid back, hands behind his head as he gazed up at the stars.

“You know, when Bill told me — well, sung to me — that we’d meet again some sunny day, I didn’t think it would come true so literally.”

“And he really didn’t know where or when either, did he? Bet he wouldn’t have liked the song so much if he had.”

They both fell silent for a moment, before Ford continued:

“I think — at least, I hope — that I already conveyed this sentiment yesterday, if not the exact words, but… I’m really glad that you exist, Stan. And that you’re my brother.”

“Thanks.” Stan leaned back into the grass, feeling its cool blades tickle his arms and neck. “I am too.”

***

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Well, it’s been one year, thirteen chapters, and tens of thousands of words, but Some Sunny Day has reached its conclusion. Not too long ago at all, this day seemed impossibly far off — early this year, I thought there was no way I’d possibly be able to finish during the summer of 2019, but here we are! I’ve worked on this fic through good times, I’ve worked on it through bad times, I’ve grown so much as a writer and as a person…

And as cliche as this probably sounds, none of that would be possible without all the comments and kudos and reblogs and general support everyone has shown. I hadn’t expected a story based on a somewhat convoluted fan theory about a show that had ended years ago to resonate with many people, but I was overwhelmed in the best way possibly by the response this fic got. This project was probably the biggest creative challenge I’ve ever tackled, but it brought me so much joy. It feels so strange to let go of it now, but I’m also so excited to move on to new projects!

Of course, there are still a few sequels and extra tidbits coming, so don’t forget to keep an eye out for those! Or in other words:

We’ll meet again, Don’t know where, don’t know when, But I know we’ll meet again, some sunny day!

This is Rose, signing off.

#gravity falls #same coin theory #stanley pines #bill cipher #stanford pines #dipper pines #mabel pines #wendy corduroy #fiddleford mcgucket #fic: some sunny day #rosalia writes fic

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drawn-to-space · 7 years ago

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((Made this in 2 parts because apparently Tumblr has a 100 paragraphs limit))

Swap led Yumi over to stand in front of the closet. He looked far to excited. “okay okay this is really weird but when i saw this i just- i thought of- it’s not the same one but-” His magic sparked up and suddenly the area changed to look like the closet and surroundings of the Christmas Ball. Swap’s outfit also appeared to change to the same floofy blue dress he wore complete with little crown. “i-i thought of this! when i first met you!” He stepped into the closet and kept it open just a bit to peek out. “remember? i was in here and all upset because my friend embarrassed me in front of everyone and then-” He opened the door all the way, grinning with little stars. “then you came along! and you tried to help me. a-and it did help a bit…it was nice having someone there and you sounded really nice so i wanted to meet you and talk to you more but the ball was so short i didn’t get a chance really. so i came to your world to meet you! and…and i was right about you being nice. and i knew i wanted to be your friend and before i knew it i-i wanted to be more a-and…” A blush had shown up by now and he looked rather sheepish. “and it all started because i locked myself in a closet.” He hoped this didn’t sound too dumb.

She giggled, she did remember, how could she forget? Honestly, looking back at it, she's not even sure how something so minor became... this. She started being flustered too, however, she wondered why he was telling her all this. Not that it was bad, she does appreciate it.

"Y-Yeah, I remember. It was the first time I ever went to a ball. I don't even remember how did I even join... it's kinda like a weird fate. If my past self would see me know, I don't think she'd believe me that I ended up being your girlfriend."

She chuckled shyly.

" B-But anyway... w-why are you telling me all this for? N-Not that I don't like it. I'm just curious."

The illusion vanished and he stepped out to hold her hand. "i just...i thought of you. and how something so small became something so big. and i wondered what would happen if that never happened...but i'm so thankful it did happen. that you picked me. that we're together! i was trying to hide away and you found me. i want you to know that if you ever need help, you don't have to hide. i'm here for you. even if something happens and...and we don't work out like this. i'll be there. i-if you want me to."

He took a deep breath and looked nervous. "i've b-been hiding away for so long. keeping secrets...but i don't want to keep them from you. this is important so...you need to know this before we get too far. i...i need to tell you something. but...i wanna make sure you're ready to hear it. it's not a good thing. it probably confirms some of your suspicions. maybe will change your view of me. but that's okay. i won't blame you for anything....y-you ready to hear it? or would you rather i wait."

Yumi was smiling and blushing a lot, at first, but now she looked much more afraid than anything else.

She wanted to say that it was okay, that she was ready to hear what he’s been hiding, to hear about his past, about whatever he did. But… she couldn’t, because she knew that, deep down, she wasn’t.

“I… I-I don’t think I’m ready, Swap… I don’t think, I’ll ever be.”

She felt horrible, tearing up a little.

“I-I already have a pretty good idea of what you might tell me, considering what you told me, that day. I don’t think I need to know more than that… I don’t think I want to know more than that. Because I’m scared that- my view of you really will change…”

She took his hand.

“But… that doesn’t mean I won’t accept you, Swap. It’s not who you are now o-or maybe part of you still is… b-but, at least I know you’re trying to be better! A-and… even when you told me that, I-I still… I still love you, S-Swap.”

Aaaaand here comes the waterworks. He wanted to say something, but he didn’t really know what. He thought about insisting she knew what she was getting into. But seems she already did. He wiped at his tears with one hand and the other held tightly to her own. He really hadn’t expected that. He’d been ready for about any else but that. Mostly worst case scenarios. It was all so much. He was so thankful. She was so kind. “i-i love you t-too.” All of that stress just seemed to fall away all at once. He took a shaky breath and seemed to deflate. He was so tired. So much had been lifted off his shoulders. He stumbled forward into a hug and clung there. “s-s-sorry for worrying you…”

She leaned in and hugged him back, tightly, as is she never wanted to let go. Seeing him cry made her even more teary.

“N-No, I should be the one apologizing… I-I wish I was s-strong enough to fully hear you out a-and let you talk about your past. B-But… at the same time, I-I don’t think I need to know, because if what you did really was that bad… I-I know you tried so hard to be better, because you are better, Swap. I-I wish I could make you see that… e-even if I don’t know everything.”

She paused, smiling shyly.

“I-I love you, o-okay?”

She kissed him, hesitating for only a second, thinking about if this was an appropriate time to, but shaking off the feeling. Her lips stayed pressed on his for a little while.

If she ever asked he would tell her. But maybe she was right. Maybe it didn’t matter anymore. He wasn’t who he use to be. Despite it being less than 5 years ago since his change of heart he had changed almost everything about himself since then. Done so much to make up for what he’d done. He didn’t know if he’d ever stop feeling guilty. But he wasn’t that person anymore. The true killer was gone. He wasn’t Dr. Aster. He was Swap. He wasn’t a royal scientist, he was a guard in training, a multiverse traveler, someone people could be proud to call a friend. His tears started to slow and his thoughts stopped at the kiss. For now maybe he could just be Swap. The lucky guy who ended up with a wonderful girlfriend. He hesitantly backed off from the kiss. “i-if you e-ever want to know, j-just ask. b-but if you don’t, th-that’s okay.” He managed a smile. “i-i am better now. a-and i’m never going back to that. s-so…maybe it’s not th-that important.” He managed a brighter smile. He didn’t want to upset her. If he was being honest he had only planned to show her the closet. But it did seem like a good idea to bring up this. He didn’t want her to get too far into a relationship with someone she maybe didn’t want to. Was it weird to be excited about a closet? Probably.

She really felt bad, for not hearing his full story, not being strong enough to. She felt like, even though she still accepted it, she was partially pushing him away, keeping herself in denial. But, she doesn’t think she could handle it and she almost hates herself for it.

However, she tried to give him back a warm and reassuring smile. She was glad she made him feel a little better about himself. Really, was it that important?

“That’s good. I’m glad that… you know you’re better.”

He yawned, yeah he was exhausted. Using so much magic to keep things hidden and make such realistic illusions from a distance wore him out. Not to mention he of course hadn’t been sleeping well, like usual. “you feeling tired yet?” He really wanted to spend more time with her. But he also wanted to sleep. Maybe if she was tired then they could cuddle! The thought made his small blush grow. Sleep would also be a good escape from the growing anxious thoughts. Like what if she found out and actually hated him. She says she loves him now but- he should stop thinking so much. It wasn’t healthy.

Chain reaction yawn. But, she was also tired too, she hasn’t been able to get good sleep either. Even if it was just a little, she’s not used to using her magic, healing a small crack like that made her even more tired. She hasn’t slept since yesterday afternoon… jeez, yesterday afternoon was a bad day. She wanted to stay awake longer to talk more or just… do stuff. Technically, if they would just sleep with each other it would do the trick. But, that probably was to much, too embarrassing.

“Y-Yeah… to be honest, I’m exhausted…”

But, when she saw that blush, she though he was probably thinking about what she was thinking, which made her blush too. Well, there’s no hesitating now, you know he wants to, it would be stupid to not say say anything.

“U-Um… d-do you want to… s-sleep… together?”

She was playing with her scarf. But then she burst red, realizing what he might misunderstand it as.

“U-U-U-UM! O-Only sleeping!”

He burst into laughter at that. His blush got much worse but gosh it was hilarious! “couldn’t do that even if i wanted to! i’m a skeleton, silly! and don’t take me wrong but honestly that whole concept is disgusting to me.” He yawned again and snuggled closer. “i’d love to just sleep with you though.” He winked sleepily. Of course he had to be an ass still. He was always an ass

She was blushing furiously, nervousness overwhelming her.

“I-I dunno! I-I dunno h-how you guys… w-work! A-And that’s okay, I’m kinda or pretty much like that too, I-I know someone like that too.”

At least she didn’t have to worry about that. She was always afraid about how will her s/o would react to that.

“B-But, yeah… l-lead the way, I-I guess.”

It was kinda a relief she didn’t care for that either. He’d heard some humans were touchy about the subject. Why anyone could possibly like that? He’d never know. He smiled at her. “monsters in my world work a completely different way. much less…” He just made a disgusted face. “i’ll tell you later. but for now-” He yawned again. “let’s get some sleep.” He took her hand and led her off to the bedrooms.

She doesn’t think she wanted to know anyway, it would be way too embarrassing, especially talking about so soon, even if it wasn’t so “disgusted face”. It was too soon.

“O-Okay.”

Swap made his way to one of the rooms leading Yumi with him. It was one of the many untouched rooms in the massive manor. Something like a hotel room. Perfect for guests to stay several days and fit to accommodate humans, monsters, or anything in between. He shuffled over to the bed, kicked off his shoes, and flopped face first on the soft surface.

She giggled when he flopped his face on the bed. She had much more things to take off though. Her boots, her shoulder pads, her scarf, her glove, she placed her mask and brass knuckles nearby. Geez… She had do many accessories.

With a yawn, she sat next to him and layed down on her back, covering her legs with the covers. She shyly waited if he was going to get closer.

He laid in the same spot for a long time and it seemed like he wasn’t going to move. But he finally did. He looked even more tired now that he was on a soft surface but he crawled over and beneath the covers. He was too tired to be embarrassed and snuggled right up to his soft, warm girlfriend, sighing contently.

She thought maybe he had fallen asleep and was going to snuggle closer to him but, he suddenly got up and beat her to it. She blushed a little, but she did hug him back, smuggling a little closer.

It was a little odd having a skeleton cuddling you, but it wasn’t bad. After a deep breath and a small peck on his forehead, she felt relaxed, it didn’t take long before she had fallen asleep.

#drabble #fallball17 #dis.cord rp #thepositivescientist #~photon reading positive~ (yumi x swap)

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theskelejournals · 8 years ago

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Entry 35

As much as I don't like this, I think the flower was right. There is something going on, and it's not my stress causing it.

The dreams started back up again not long after mine and Pap’s duel. I was facing off against him again, but unlike the normal flow of the dreams, he knew exactly what I was going to do and always dodged perfectly. With a triumphant cackle, he wrapped me against a tree with vines and stared at me as if a parent scolding a child. I could break through if I wanted, all it would take was a wave of Blasters. But I was tired. I would let him have this moment.

"You really are so predictable," he hummed, "You do the same thing, say the same speech, and fight the same way every time we meet. You'd think you'd have learned by now. I was hoping you would.”

“and yet you still can't beat me,” I grunted.

His face turned dark in anger before he smiled. If you could even call that a smile. “You're the most fun to fight against thanks to your silly sense of justice that drives you. But I guess you really are that much of an idiot. There is no such thing as justice. You can't protect anyone. In this world, it's simply kill or be killed.”

I stared uneasily at him as more vines crept and wrapped around me. While he thought he had me trapped, I collected a bone attack from beneath him.

"I don't know how I can make it more obvious. Your sense of denial is incredible!" He got close, grin twisting ruefully. "Perhaps I should reset further back for you. Maybe then you'll finally get it."

Not giving him anymore time, I flexed my hand and the bones stabbed through him.

Then I woke up, having fallen off the bed and gasping for air. I sat there trembling for a moment, hand on my chest and over my pounding soul. Make what more obvious? What does he mean a reset? Was this really another thing I was trying to ignore? I was able to shakily make it to my journal and sat, looking over the older dreams. Then I flipped back and looked at the inscription on the back.

“Truth will survive through any timeway,” it said. I sat and thought about it for a while before closing the book and heading out for the day. I watched everything very closely.

And it was the weirdest thing I have ever experienced.

Today was yesterday. It repeated, it... reset. Pap and I did the same things as before, said the same things, and it was craziest dose of deja vu I've ever encountered. I caught myself doing and saying the same thing, compelled to follow this strange path even after I was aware what was happening. Pap, or anyone else, showed no signs of being aware of it. I returned to my lab with my journal in hand and looked over the notes again.

Those really weren't nightmares. Somehow, Flowey can control time. Those were timelines. The times I've fought him, the times he was friendly, when Pap died, they weren't dreams. They were another time’s reality. It would explain why they felt so incredibly real, why they hit me so hard when I wake up. My ability to see all this, was it the power of Gaster's "sight of time"? My remembering of things that no one else does, including Gaster himself? Did he know? Was he aware that this was an outcome? Could Gaster have predicted things with his own version of this power?

You know… this whole thing made me remember a conversation I had with him. Back when the time machine was just an idea. He told me that he theorized DT could be used to change time, to reset, and that he only remembered because of the injection of DT he had when he was young. So if this was a timeline reset… I could remember because of the experiments I did on myself. And he had said that the DT was what kicked his teleporting into gear, which I am now able to do. I’m a little confused why it happened after the accident, but I digress.

And then there’s this journal. He had shown this to me, this… exact book, telling me that he wanted me to use it for the time travel test. That he would enchant it so the pages would remember too.

“Truth will survive through any timeway. All you have to do is write it.”

Alright, ok. I’ll bite. This timeline business might be legit. The way this is falling into place… it’s too crazy to ignore. But this notebook. How did it end up in my hospital room? I didn’t have it on me during the accident. In fact, I never touched it before the explosion. I don’t have a clue what’s going on with that but… One step at a time, Sans. Ok.

Timelines. Timeways, whatever you want to call it. The multiverse could be a very real thing. This flower could be able to manipulate it, and I could be the sole viewer of it. So does Flowey have DT, or maybe something else entirely? Does Undyne see these strange shifts too? I know she had a dose of it when Alphys and I messed around, I don't know how much though. Pap doesn’t seem to notice anything, and if he has, he hasn’t told me. He has a small bit of it from when him and I were made from Gaster, but... Maybe he just doesn’t have enough. It’s hard to say.

All of this sudden information, this… realization of sorts. It's a lot of take in, but after grasping it and lining it up, it made sense. Perfect sense. Instead of fighting it, I embraced it. I’ll see where this goes. See if this revelation keeps proving itself. I'll have to watch everything close and pay more attention, but I've always been a crowd reader. Time to sharpen it. I'm done running away from things I don't want to accept. I can't run very far ‘cause of how lazy I am anyway. Heh.

The one thing that concerns me is that flower. I don't know how he came to possess time ability, or became sentient for that matter. But hey, we're talking about monsters and magic. Anything is possible I suppose.

If... he can reset, as he called it, what's to say what happens if he ever beats me? Kills me? Will I just wake up in bed after dying? Is it a coin toss I could either win or lose? What does he gain? Is his goal just to go through everyone because he's bored? How… how in all of the Underground can I fight something like that? - Sans

#undertale #sans #flowey #undertale fanfic #undertale fanfiction #gaster #determination #dun dun dun #journalverse #sansjournal2

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