#I'm also sorry if this comic was bad. This is for homework and I had 5 hours of sleep the last 2 or 3 days

[no-name-blu]

Papercuts presents: Metamorphosis

tw: Giant bug

OC Names:

Melissa The Magnificent

John Doe

[the-great-knight-gay]

Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man Review: Episodes 1 and 2

I've just watched the first two episodes of YFNSM and I have one thing to say...

I was fucking right. It's not a bad show.

In fact, its pretty decent especially so far.

Full review under the cut: *SPOILER ALERT*

Characters:

One of the MOST important factors this show needed to get right was the characters and BOY DID THEY.

Let's start with the supporting cast.

Harry Osborn is the character with the least screen time so far (his only appearances being the 'Good Deed' clip in Amazing Fantasy and a shot of him on television in The Parker Luck) so there isn't much to say about him yet.

Next is Pearl Pangan, a character who hasn't shown up much outside of being Peter Parker's older crush who seems like a genuinely nice person. She also seems to be a less academically inclined version of Liz Allen-Toomes from Spider-Man: Homecoming (by which I mean that Liz was the captain of the Academic Decathlon and Pearl hasn't really had any scenes that show she has that level of intelligence). The similarities between the two characters are high so it might lead to people asking, 'Why not just reuse Liz?'.

The answer is, why not? Reusing Liz would have been fun but she doesn't add much to the story (at least yet) and the usage of Pearl has quite a few positives. One, it raises awareness about some lesser known Marvel characters (Pearl is a minor super hero and an Agent of Atlas called Wave) and it allows for different stories to be potentially told in the future. This is the same reason they used Nico Minoru rather than a character like MJ or Gwen, both of which he met in College btw not High School - pretty much all Spider-Man media since the first Ultimate Spider-Man comics have decided his ENTIRE supporting cast should be in high school with him. Personally the easiest way to rectify that imo is to just make an adaptation where he's in college or got a job already (adapt the JMS run marvel I dare you) but one can hope.

The characters in the Oscorp Internship where also a fun nod to characters in comics (looking at you Amadeus Cho aka Totally Awesome Hulk/Iron Spider depending on the adaptation) and Carla Conners was a fun addition (also I better not see anyone hating on her for being a genderswapped and raceswapped version of Curt Conners - there is no part of Dr Conners character that is negatively affected by these changes - its still the same character)

May seems to be very similar by the MCU version (which makes sense) so nothing much to say there yet.

Norman is a character we haven't seen yet in MCU media outside of Willem Dafoe reprising his role from the Raimi movies and I am LOVING it. Colman Domingo is FANTASTIC in the voice role, bringing just the right amount of menace and authority to his voice. All I need now is for him to be able to play crazy and we can get a potentially amazing Green Goblin when the time comes (also his design is just *chefs kiss*)

Next is the character that might actually interest me the most.

Lonnie Lincoln.

Anyone who has seen The Spectacular Spider-Man (or read my screenplay on ao3 - sorry for the promo but I don't get many chances to advertise it) will know who he is. Tombstone, a vicious gangster and mob boss and in this show, he's... an American football player.

And I love it.

Saying that he's been just put into the 'nice jock' category, while accurate, does not think to scratch the potential of this character. There is a scene where he's walking home and it's revealed he lives in a rough neighbourhood. In that same scene, we see that he is helping his family out in quite a few ways (for example the part where he offers to help his little brother with homework) but the part that stuck with me was with his mother when he said that he'd talked to someone about fixing their car and how to get a cheaper price for it.

Money problems.

What I'm thinking they're doing is they aren't showing Tombstone as a mob boss. No. They're showing his descent from upstanding citizen and star American football player to gang violence. We already see that they've planted the seeds and we know they're going for the long haul with this show (It's been greenlit all the way up to season 3 already) so I'm incredibly excited to see Lonnie's arc play out, especially if we're going to get Tombstone by the end of it.

"Cold as Ice. Hard as marble. What else would you call a Tombstone?"

Next, we have the main character himself. Peter Parker. The Amazing Spider-Man.

This might be their best achievement yet in the show. They have Peter's dorky attitude and nerdy demeanour down to a T and it's so fun to watch. He's also a genuinely good person, just how Peter should be. A scene that stands out is the scene where he's caught a shoplifter who's broken down and crying in his eyes and he looks at them and he doesn't see a criminal. No. He sees someone who was down on their luck and asks the shop owner to give them a second chance if they give back the money they stole. It's beautiful and it's so very... Spider-Man. This is the exact kind of thing Spider-Man should be. A friendly guy who's just in the neighbourhood. It's a scene that's very reminiscent of Tom Taylor's Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man in all the best ways. (also the shop that was stolen from is called Pizza Time and that's already the best thing ever)

Animation:

Okay so some people have been saying the animation of this show isn't very good which I can say is not an unfounded concern. The effort the show has taken to emulate the original Ditko comics have had a slightly detrimental effect to some of the series.

There aren't as many background extras used in an attempt to mimic the original comics and lots of the shots don't use typically cinematic shading, opting instead to use brighter and slightly less rendered shots to emulate the older style. In some ways, this is actually really cool if you can appreciate the attempt to mimic the 60s style but it can be quite off putting for some people which I can respect.

There are also some issues with the 3d models. The characters mouths don't always move directly in sync and sometimes, for when they do use background extras, they are just 2d images in the back which can be quite unsettling when standing in the same shot as 3d models (there is one scene at a party where Nico is on the phone with Peter and in the background there's a completely unmoving 2d person who's eyes just seem to follow Nico and its quite unsettling).

HOWEVER, there are some incredibly beautiful shots too. Some shots are a direct mimic of older MCU shots from Peter's first introduction in CA:CW like the opening shot and final scene of the first episode which stand out as incredibly well done.

The best part of the animation is easily the web swinging which is so well done and one of my favourite parts of this version of Spider-Man so far. His movement is rough and unrefined as it should be for a Year One: Spider-Man but it is very reminiscent of the Insomniac Games style swinging (which in my personal opinion has the best web swinging in Spider-Man media since The Amazing Spider-Man 2) and it is INCREDIBLY fun to watch when it occurs. They actually focus some time on the web swinging too unlike some other adaptations which see him shoot a web and then THWIP out of the camera frame so we get to really see the extent of this web swinging.

Story:

This is the one where I probably have the least to say, mainly because we're only 1/5 of the way into the season so far and we haven't actually gotten much of the story revealed yet. However, it definitely has a LOT of potential.

Episode 1 establishes that the Spider that bit Peter came from a portal (alongside this universes version of Doctor Strange who is fighting a demon looking creature which is credited as Symbiotic Alien - Klyntar easter egg?????) which might be slightly different to some people but to me this gives me a heavy JMS vibes.

JMS wrote for Spider-Man from 2001 to 2007 and created what became the foundation of the Spider-Verse by introducing the Spider-Totems to the Marvel mythology. He said that the powers that Peter received did not come from the radiation, but the spider itself. The radiation is just what killed the spider. It was never even stated that Peter was the intended recipient of the powers and was hinted that maybe he was just in the right place at the right time when the spider died, which really hammers home the idea that anyone can be behind the mask.

The spider coming from a portal which also brings a symbiotic alien that looks hauntingly similar to Shathra (also a character introduced by JMS that returned to the Spider-Verse in Dan Slott's End of Spider-Verse story line) hints that maybe YFNSM is taking a similar approach to JMS , which is always a good thing. I mean that man wrote Back In Black. (OMD and Sins Past were editorial and should not be credited to JMS despite it being his run people)

Now in terms of the rest of the story, we haven't gotten many hints yet but there is a scene where Spider-Man fights Butane and sees a symbol on his gauntlet that looks hauntingly similar to the number 8. You know what has 8 limbs?

An octopus. Specifically, Doctor Octopus.

We already know Doc Ock is in this show. My theory is that Butane's gauntlets were made by him but my main piece of evidence that tells me that he's the final villain?

The final episode of the season is called 'If This Be My Destiny...'

ITBMD is one of the most famous Spider-Man comics of all time and the panel where Spider-Man lifts the heavy machinery of his body has become legendary. It was used in multiple adaptations of Spider-Man, including Spectacular and Homecoming. Doctor Octopus is also the main villain of that storyline.

Norman Osborn seems to be a character that they're setting up as a main villain for the complete show but not the main season just yet, similar to how the insomniac games treat him. They seem to be putting Doc Ock as the first big villain and then following up with Norman later down the line, maybe around Season 3.

All in all, this show is shaping up to be an incredible adaptation. What are your thoughts?

[explodingchantry]

hi sorry to come into your inbox for this but i just need. to gripe. every new bit of info we get about the new DA game is making me more and more preemptively tired lol. mostly the way it's looking like eeevery bit of lore that's been revealed has something to do with such and such book. or this comic over here. or this podcast from two years ago. or THIS podcast that is happening now that's a ~discord exclusive~. or this youtube series. or this random VA talk show. etc etc ad nauseam. i am so tired of videogames coming with HOMEWORK you're expected to do just to know what's going on

Please never apologise for sending messages!!

I think its honestly REALLY funny how bioware just doesn't know what it wants. On one hand they say that the new game is fine for newcomers, the way they did for dai, and use this as an excuse for how dumbed down some of the writing is - but then in the other hand the majority of the characters and plot beats have origins hidden behind pay walls.

It was already bad enough when, to understand each game properly you had to have paid for the previous one's dlc (want to know anders' past as a warden? Buy awakening! Want to know wtf is up with Morrigan and the eluvians? Buy witch hunt! Want to know who tf corypheus is and what hawke and varric even have to do with him? Buy legacy! Want to understand ANYTHING about veilguard? Play the descent AND trespasser, our epilogue that we hid behind a paywall!!!!!) and you know at least the dlcs were pretty good on their own so I could forgive it a little bit.

But there's so much extra media now omg I haven't touched a single one of the comics because I'm not rly into American comics, I've read almost all the books and some of them are genuinely fucking mid. And at least back in the day the books were more... Bonuses? You DONT need to read the stolen throne to understand anything on the games, but it's INTERESTING. it explores characters you mightve been curious about. I love that ! Or the last flight is really interesting, just, to see how the 4th blight was beaten, to get to know those legendary heroes, and know why griffons went extinct. A bit annoying because you do need to read it to also understand how the hell they're coming back - but it still feels a bit more like a bonus than a necessity.

But then we have asunder, which also in general just kinda sucks as a book, that is really really needed to understand the mage rebellion, Fiona, Cole, and the cure for tranquility. The characters will explain a lot of those things to you in game, but it leaves you with the certain feeling that you're missing something. It's a huge advertisement for asunder.

Similarly wicked eyes and wicked hearts is hollow if you haven't read the masked empire which is also my least favorite book because it's so damn fucking boring I literally never managed to finish it, but it's mostly because I hate Trick Weekes' writing lmfao. Gaider was wildly misogynistic but my god at least he was entertaining as a writer whenever he didn't butcher female characters.

That's two major plot beats in inquisition that require reading one of the books. And ofc it's major villain and another major plot beat that require having played the previous game's dlc to properly understand.

And since then we've had so much more. I don't know. It's just complicated because I *like* book characters showing up and the books having importance in the sense that, I like reading and I'm a lore nerd lol. But I think there's a lot of frustration to be had as to the sheer quantity of extra media you need to consume if you want to be invested in the story. Because you could say "well just don't buy them then" but I LIKE dragon age, it's story, and plot, but omg some of the books and comics are also so hard to find and so EXPENSIVE. I think tevinter nights costs like 20£ if you want it on paperback rather than Kindle, and don't get me started on the dozens of comics.

At least the podcasts and discord only content isn't nearly as offensive, imo, because they're free. But also there's another issue with all of this extra content - it's that it doesn't get fucking translated. Not often, anyway. Not in as many languages as the games do. That means there are many, many many many players and fans who are just not allowed to learn more about their favorite game series because they don't speak English, because theyre not rich enough to buy 10 books and 20 comics. It feels a bit wrong

[himluv]

Veilguard Critiques?

So. I've been thinking about it, as we approach the two-month mark since Veilguard released. Obviously, my feelings about the game are overwhelmingly positive, but I wanted to share the few things I felt less than thrilled about with the game. I dunno, for like, transparency? Or like, just because? Because there are a few things I didn't love.

Spoilers below, and also, don't be shocked if these are uhhhh pretty superficial (I fucking love this game y'all).

A giant complaint of mine that I've already talked about: Lucanis's SERIOUS lack of chest hair. I'm sorry, but that's just unacceptable. Thank you modders for fixing this almost immediately.

Trophies/Achievements. I think this is a very subjective complaint, but I've never hit 100% on a Dragon Age game in 15 years. They're all over 90% but there's stragglers. There's more to go back to. More to hunt. I like trophy hunting and having a silly reason to return to the games and play differently. So, to complete the trophies in 1.5 playthroughs felt... disappointing? That isn't necessarily the game's fault, it's the trophy list? But also, maybe it was an effort to make the trophies more accessible? idk man but I wish there were more to get, okay?

Similarly, the bugged Codex count and the chest counts on certain maps. These can probably get fixed with patches, but it still feels bad man.

Here's the doozy, the one that I think is my biggest and possibly most valid critique. Veilguard's nuance and depth relies WAY TOO MUCH on tie-in media. I spent over six months re-consuming all things Dragon Age (games, books, comics, and film/tv) before Veilguard launched. I steeped myself in Dragon Age to prepare for this game (mostly as a refresher because I've been here the whole time!). So, I was primed and ready. I had everything fresh in my mind, and I was fully prepared to consume Veilguard with as much information and lore knowledge as possible. And I genuinely think my experience was wildly improved because of it. BUT, you can't expect the typical player to do MONTHS of homework to prepare for a game releasing 10 years since the last installment. That is... just, not gonna happen for most players. And I think the overall reception of the game suffers because of it.

And... that's it. That's all that I felt genuine irritation at or critical of. There are things I wish we had more of – Rivain in general, more of the Crows that aren't Dellamorte, Cantori, or de Riva, more about the other Evanuris – but if I've learned anything in fiction critique, wanting more is rarely a bad thing. It means the reader/player liked what they had and want more. It's up to the writer to decide if adding more of those things actually serves the story being told. And in Veilguard's case, I don't necessarily think so. I think it would add more potential side plots and give more room for player choice, but when the base story is already ~80hrs, I can see why things had to stay tight. I don't find that to be a source of criticism, honestly.

[bluejaysandblackbats]

Catch and Release

Fandom: DC Comics, Batfam

Summary: AU where Jason doesn't die in the explosion and he and Tim end up attending the same high school months later.

Chapters: 3/?

Characters: Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Sebastian Ives, Jack Drake, Janet Drake

Relationships: TBA

Additional Tag: Jason Todd Lives, Jason Todd-centric, POV Jason Todd, POV First Person, Tim Drake Has Issues, Tim Drake Has Issues, Tim Drake is Not Robin, Jason Todd is Not Robin (Anymore), Bruce Wayne Needs a Hug, Alfred Pennyworth is the Best, Alfred Pennyworth Knows, Stalker Tim Drake, Jason Todd Has Chronic Pain, Jason Todd Has PTSD, Angst with a Happy Ending, Unlikely Friends, Injury Recovery, Emotional Baggage, Rage, Bruce Wayne is Bad at Communicating

Chapter Three: Timeout

The on-campus suspension wasn't that bad. It beat riding in the car with Dick. I finally managed to stop crying before we got to the school, so I had enough time to hold the icepack in my lunch to my eyes to look normal again. Mr. Ames sent me straight to the counselor's office anyway. The counselor was new, or I didn't recognize him. I sat down and looked around until he tapped on the desk with his pen. "Hey, Jason, I'm Mr. Finney... Can we talk about yesterday?" he asked. "Short-term memory's shot, but I'll give it a try on one condition," I replied. Mr. Finney nodded. "Can you open that window? I'm feeling shut in." I wasn't joking. I hid it well, but I'd developed claustrophobia from the accident. "Of course," Mr. Finney replied as he opened the window for me. "Would you like the door cracked?" I shook my head. "You were saying?" I asked. "Can we talk about the fight yesterday?" Mr. Finney repeated. I nodded. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. "I should've had better control over my feelings," I mumbled. "Jason, what were you feeling at the time?" Mr. Finney asked. The last thing I wanted to talk about was how I felt. "I was just sick of feeling weak," I answered. It wasn't a lie. I didn't have any reason to lie. That was the last substantial thing I contributed to the conversation. He wasn't bad at his job, not by far. I think he knew I'd be shut off. I'd give him nothing but breadcrumbs. "How long have you been claustrophobic?" Mr. Finney asked.

"I started having symptoms in April," I answered, "It's January now. Nine months."

"Because of the accident?" Mr. Finney questioned. I nodded. I shut my eyes as I recalled what it felt like to be trapped between my mother's body and the debris from the explosion. "Jason?" "I'm done talking. I don't-. I'm sorry," I stammered. Once I had the thought in my head, it took a while to push it back down. I squeezed my hands together to stop them from shaking. "Can I go now?" "Sure, Jason... You can go," Mr. Finney replied, and I walked to the designated campus suspension room. I'd never been back there before. I worked on homework while I was there until the lunch bell rang. Alfred made me two chicken wraps for lunch and a cup of pudding. After lunch, Bruce came to talk to Mr. Ames in person. They had a long conversation that resulted in Bruce taking me home early. "What's wrong?" I asked. Bruce shook his head. "Nothing. I want to know what happened between you and Dick this morning," Bruce whispered. I looked out the window. "You can't pick me up early from school to make me apologize," I replied. "What happened?" Bruce asked once more. I didn't want to talk about it. Maybe I should've. It might've helped. "Fine, but that's not why I picked you up early. I almost forgot we had to reschedule your Wednesday for today." "So, nothing on Wednesday?" I asked.

"Ophthalmologist on Wednesday morning and the optometrist right after, but you'll be there for the second half of school," Bruce replied.

"Are my glasses ready?" I asked. "They should be," Bruce answered. Even after my orbital bone fracture healed, I couldn't see well out of my right eye. "But they also want to see if Monday affected your sight." I grew silent. I knew Bruce wanted me to talk about what happened, but I didn't feel like talking about that. "Is Dick gone?" I asked. "No, he's gonna be here until the end of the week," Bruce replied, "Business..." I rolled my eyes. Business. "Don't be like that," Bruce chastised me.

"Be like what? I'm just peachy," I muttered. I knew Bruce was short with me, and I wanted to push him. I just needed him to snap back. "I have a role to play, Jason," Bruce explained. "You have a lot of roles. Hero, philanthropist, businessman, bachelor... Oh, and an involved father. Guess we both forgot that one, huh, Bruce?" I chuckled. Bruce pulled over on the side of the road and pointed his finger in my face before catching himself. "Hope you enjoyed that. That was your last cheap shot, Jason. I'm serious. You're on thin ice," Bruce warned. I grinned. "I've got tons more, though," I joked. "Enough!" Bruce yelled. I grew silent. "Jason, you've been more insufferable now than you've been in months. I'm sick of it. You have until we get to the doctor's to get it together. I get it. I do," Bruce berated me. He'd finally gotten tired of me pushing him. I didn't expect that to be the last straw, though. I shut my mouth and let him drive me to my appointment. I didn't know what to say to him anyway. I got what I wanted, and it was a hollow victory. I didn't have to see my Wednesday doctor, but Bruce made me go to a pulmonologist twice a month after my lung collapsed again during a bout of pneumonia in October. It was painful. The nurse checked me in and asked me a few questions before sending the doctor in. I sat on the hospital bed, staring at her as she checked my breathing for herself. "You got in a fight. Did you experience any shortness of breath?" she asked. The pulmonologist was no-nonsense, and she quickly got to the point. "Nuh-uh," I replied as she let me pull my shirt down. "What about school? Do you have P.E.?" she asked. I shook my head. "Any concerns or changes?" "Nope," I replied. She nodded. "Okay, what's wrong? Not a single joke?" she questioned. "I've told one too many today," I replied, "And today kind of sucked..." She nodded and sent me out to Bruce. Bruce embraced me as soon as I walked out the door. I would've pushed him away any other day, but I needed it then. I hugged back, and he pulled away. "I love you. I don't say it enough," Bruce whispered.

I walked ahead of him so he couldn't see me crying. He wouldn't start the car when we got to the parking lot. "I'm sorry," I mumbled. "You wanna grab a bite to eat before we go home?" Bruce asked. I nodded. I almost felt like myself again, but it didn't last. There was an explosion down the street, and Bruce left me to sort things out. He parked me outside the restaurant, and I ordered food and sat in the car. All the anger and bitterness I had toward him came flooding back. I ate my food in the car and waited until Alfred came to pick me up. "Master Jason-." "It's fine, Alfred... Can we go home now?" I asked. I don't know. Maybe there was no use in trying.

[spectralsleuth]

Now that we're entering into 2024, I'm asking some artists and writers that I follow:

1) What is the one piece you're most proud of from this past year?

2) What are some pieces that you would have liked more people to see? If you can include links, I'd love to go check them out!

3) What were your top three favorite pieces (art, comics, fics, etc) that someone else has made this past year?

(As always, no pressure to respond! Feel free to just ignore, or let me know if you'd rather I not send you these kinds of asks in the future.)

This is such a sweet and fun ask!! Thanks so much! I enjoyed seeing other authors answering this it’s so hype to get it myself.

1. This is hard to answer, because this year I tried to do something different with every fic I posted. When I got a concept I very pointedly didn’t shy away from it because it seemed difficult, or I thought I might be bad at it, so there’s something that makes me proud with each one. IF I HAD TO CHOOSE THOUGH I’m going to cheat and pick two.

What it Will Be I’m proud of this because it fell out of me SO EASY. I felt like the process of writing it was a testament to how hard I’ve been working at improving all year, and it came together very quickly and very well. I’m also proud because I incorporated @heckitall ‘s comic page to base it off of, and I’d never tried writing fic for a visual media like that. It was super fun!

On the OTHER end of the spectrum is Case of the Hidden City vs Lou Jitsu because it is VERY technically and narratively complicated and is by far the most ambitious thing I’ve ever written. It’s very hard, but I am VERY proud because I haven’t QUIT it. It’s not complete yet, but it is a good amount of the way there and I’m excited to finish it. Probably once I’ve recovered from surgery lol.

2. This sounds insincere maybe, but I really am happy with the engagement I get on my fic. I really do write my fic for me, and while I love to make sure as many people who want to read it can find it, at the end of the day I don’t like assigning people homework! I went through my whole works list and scratched my head and really tried to think of there was anything I wanted to plug, and I don’t think there is!

I guess I’ll post my lowest viewed, my Swanatello fic! @tangledinink ‘s AU I’m sure everyone’s familiar with lol. I knew that one would be lower when I posted it, if only because it has prior required reading (Swanatello). But I wrote it mainly because the AU was starting to reach a critical point and I REALLY wanted to write fanfiction of how I fantasized an ending might be, so I could go back and read it for comfort. I love Odette and the lore Kayson made for his AU, so I’ll plug this only because I think some people may have missed it!

3. Three works!! JUST THREE?? AUGH.

little kid with a big death wish

By @remedyturtles ! This made me leak tears the whole way through, so huge CW’s obviously. Not only was it one of the best fics I’ve ever read, but I got the privilege of seeing how talented Rem is behind the scenes a little and saw how they write and work and I really want to emulate them going forward. One of many all timer fics for me, for sure, I’d love to read any original fiction they put out.

The Whispering Forest and Other Tales

By @sroloc--elbisivni and @kithnkin ! I love love LOVE the feudal Japan fusion, the research, and the perfect blend of Usagi Yojimbo’s universe with what the Riseverse would have been like in this era. Even the little segues into what they’re wearing and eating is endlessly fascinating to me. Every single character is written to be the best and most interesting version of that character I could imagine. Theres Leosagi, there’s a PB&J murder mystery, there’s spookiness- AND Raphael Hamato gets wifed up!! WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT? I love people that write a fully fleshed story that could be a standalone universe, without losing ANY of the flavor or humor or narrative of the original source material.

And last is I’m Sorry, Teenage Mutant What Now

@tangledinink has such a good grasp of family and writing, and realistic portrayals of what would HONESTLY HAPPEN if you discovered literally any aspect of the ROTTMNT narrative. Not even taking into ACCOUNT the turtle nonsense, how do you unpack a family that’s been devoted to destroying a magic monster and sacrificing themselves, or a Dad that fought in a death match battle royale for over a decade, or a RIVAL CLAN OF NINJA? All the characters are written SO WELL, and Kayson does a fantastic job of never letting the characters or story fall into cliche tropes. Their characters are always super detailed, to the point where I really feel it if they’re hungry or hurt or itchy. Which is a weird thing to point out but they make sure you really FEEL the situation. Also like, turtles in highschool? Body dysphoria? My CO-CEO of Hamato Yoshi???

What a great year!! I had so much fun in fandom this year and made a lot of friends.

[solar-argo]

I FORGOT ABOUT THE OC-TOBER IM SO SORRY

I'm going on a road trip with my mom tomorrow tho, which means! A lot of time to draw! So i will try my bestest to do a few days LMAO

Anyway to tide yall over, have my lego monkie kid oc!! I love her with all of my heart.

I have edited her design a little, and given her a backstory!! I also finished the show. Giggles autistically. CW for below, season 3 spoilers for Lego Monkie Kid! As well as minor character death, but that's not a show spoiler

So, she has a little sister, Fēn, and she loves her little sister. Her parents are. Distant at best, so Qiu was kinda eldest daughter syndrome-ed by their parents. During the Lady Bone Demon attack, her house collapsed while her sister was at school (Qiu is in university, taking classes at night, and working part time to afford a babysitter for Fēn when their parents arent around, which is often).

Qiu wakes up in a pocket of rubble and is able to wiggle her way out, and stays at a hospital thats taking in displaced people while tracking down her sister. When she finally finds her, about a week later, she tells Fēn that she couldn't find their parents, but when people offer to try to help finding them, Qiu politely declines, and never does bother to put in effort to find them.

Considering Qiu is now the SOLE provider for her little sister, she drops out of her evening classes and searches for a full-time job that will take her despite her lack of degree. Her search takes her to Pigsy's noodles, where she's once again told that there aren't any openings. However, she is desperate for a job, and begs Pigsy to consider her. So, he hesitantly offers her a job in the kitchen; doing prep work for him, grocery runs when they run out of an ingredient, etc. She thanks him, and the next day she sends Fēn off to school, and goes to Pigsy's noodles.

Every weekday she leaves early to pick up her sister, and then comes right back, plonking her sister in a chair at the counter to do her homework. Eventually, Tang and Mei offer to do it, and trade off picking Fēn up from school. While she's at the shop, Tang and Mei usually keep her company, and, when it's not busy, so will MK.

Eventually, they find out that Qiu dropped out of school, and when they ask why, she shrugs and responds 'I couldn't afford a house, food, AND a babysitter while in school, so I had to sacrifice something.' They all feel bad, despite the fact that Qiu shrugs it off, saying that it was a part of life. So, MK, Mei, and Tang all band together and tell Qiu that they'll watch Fēn for free while she is in classes. Qiu cries, thanks them, and applies to uni again for the new school year.

Problems arise, however, during the first set of exams. Qiu needs to be at school in the morning, and everyone is busy in the morning; MK doing training, Mei training as well (I headcanon that after the arc was finished, Mei kept training to use the samadhi fire with Red Son), and Tang usually shopping with Pigsy.

So, on MK's day with Fēn, she's brought the flower fruit mountain, and gets to meet Sun Wukong. They get along... alright; Sun Wukong is a little awkward around her, considering she's a lot younger than MK, and he's not quite sure how to talk to her. They spend the day painting rocks while MK does chores around the mountain; Qiu didn't want them to work on fighting with a 6 year old right there.

On Mei's day, she takes Fēn to see Red Son, who has Mei work on her focus and control over the fire. Red Son, who has a MUCH easier time talking to her than Wukong, ends up sitting next to Fēn and playing various games with her while Mei trains.

On Tang's day, she gets dropped off with Sandy, who ends up having a several hour long tea party with her and Mo, complete with a comically small tiara for Sandy, and a pink ballgown for Mo. And of course, Fēn dresses up in her own blue gown, and doesn't ask Sandy why or how he had her favorite color ballgown. (He asked Qiu what Fēn's size was, and made a gown for her, just in case she ever came over)

And on the last day of exams, MK had training again; this time, with Macaque. Macaque was, to most people's surprise, very soft with Fēn. When MK arrived to his dojo, visibly frazzled with an excited 6 year old, he'd blinked, stared for a moment. He'd sighed, canceling training, and left the dojo, locking it behind him, before bending down to talk to Fēn, introducing himself, and asking what she wanted to do. And so, the 3 of them went to an arcade, MK and Fēn playing while Macaque kept an eye out. By the end of the day, Fēn was referring to Macaque as "uncle M"

That's all I got for now, and I did not mean for it to be so damn LONG?? Jesus christ- TLDR lbd attacks, oc becomes mom to her little sister, works at Pigsy's, goes to college, and The Gang babysits her little sister for her.

Mayhaps I should make a fic out of this. (I will never make a fic out of this, I do NOT have the motivation to write. Like, ever)

[heliosoll]

hi sorry if this is bothersome but u inspired me to make a winx dr and flora is my gf in my winx dr and i wanna know more about her 👀 just please tell me all about what she’s like in your dr as much as possible if ur up for it!! any storytimes? what is she like in general? what’s her aesthetic like? her likes and dislikes? interests omg

- 🪄 anon, i’m still here sorry i haven’t sent an ask in a while! i was trying to stop overconsuming info

OMG HIIII ugh i could talk about her all day please 🥰

I would definitely recommend watching the show or even comps on youtube! And reading the comics if you're up for that! Both of my DRs were a mix of the cartoon, movies, and comics so her personality in them is 1 to 1!

I would say in general, Flora can be very shy but she isn't as shy as people think! In a weird way, I think she's shyer with people she knows rather than people she doesn't. She's absolutely not afraid to stand up for herself and she can be very opinionated, especially if it's about something very important to her (she often advocated for things!). She's shyer when it comes to people complimenting her, but not so much with getting to know people or talking to strangers! Literally there are times when she complained about people not being social enough aljdghljahg. Although she was very shy with Helia so since you're dating her you might see that side of her more 🥰

Flora can be very chatty when she's in a good mood :) And she can talk forever about the things she loves (if you let her, she will absolutely talk to you for hours about plant care). And speaking of plants! Flora loves it when people help her with her plants! She doesn't expect it and she can feel bad asking because she doesn't want to force anyone or feel like a burden, but she does really like it when people spend time with her while she's gardening, especially if they're participating.

She can get very protective and mother hen like too! Her parents were relatively good at raising Miele and not making Flora do too much to help, but Flora kind of naturally wanted to help out with her and often acted a bit motherish. Now she gets like that with all of us, although it has gotten better over the years! She's not overbearing or anything but there were times when we would want to do something and would say something like "you can't, that's too dangerous". And she's not trying to be controlling or dismissing but it did occasionally feel like she didn't trust us. But again, it got a lot better and now she's just protective instead of overprotective.

In my DRs, Flora was very careful about what she ate! Not in a dieting way, but in an ethical way. She didn't mind eating meat as long as she knew exactly where it came from, how the animal lived, how it died, etc. Same with any vegetables or fruits! She outright refused to eat food if she knew it was unethical in any way (that includes a bad working environment). Thankfully, we didn't really have to deal with that a lot but certain planets weren't as strict with their rules so there were times like that.

Flora is very smart! She consistently had all A's and all her classes are advanced. She's also surprisingly good at managing her time! There were plenty of times when she would hang out with us but she still managed to study for all her classes, finish her homework/projects, take care of her plants, make time for dates, etc. And she slept at night! Girlie is insane actually I still don't know how she can do that

But speaking of school, she enjoyed all of her classes but she really liked Potionology! I'm pretty sure that was in the show at some point? But anyway, Flora loves potions! She enjoys making them, studying them, creating new ones. The whole thing! She has a bit of a chemist vibe honestly she really likes experimenting with things :)

Likes and dislikes... she likes romantic comedies, walks through Lynphean forests, cooking and baking, cuddling (!!!), holding hands, really any kind of casual intimacy, upbeat music, sun hats, fruit (!! she loves fruit, especially strawberries and watermelon), flowy dresses, and obviously gardening and other things related to nature. She likes dancing too but she can get really nervous if it's just her and no one else dancing so make sure to dance with her! For dislikes, anyone who shows their anger through yelling, anyone who hurts or disrespects nature, people who hurt or disrespect her loved ones, horror movies, she's not great with things that are too spicy, popcorn (because it gets stuck in her teeth), when people don't take serious situations seriously enough, and writing essays (she's good at it, she just finds it boring).

I wouldn't usually do this but since I don't think a lot of people are going to read this far, here's a link to a pinterest board I made with outfits she wore and things that are very similar! A lot of them she wore during our time on Earth :) And a board I just made for her bedroom aesthetic! It's not completely accurate of course but it does get the general vibe across.

If you want to know more let me know! I've said this before and I'll say it a million times!! I love my winx DRs so much and I could spend hours talking about them :') So def don't get worried about bothering me or sending too many questions about them!

[pastelslytherin]

SORRY I WROTE AN ENTIRE AUTOBIOGRAPHY BUT THANK YOU SOO MUCH!

Also I'll reblog on my main! It's just in case the matchups are actually closed or sum I don't wanna seem stupid on my main acc 💀 THANKS

Ok so I want my matchup for Attack on Titan 💪🏼

As for age range, keep it as people who were in the 104th! Aka teenagers lol

I'm male and bisexual but I sort of have a preference for men

I'm tan with brown hair, uhh ngl I'm pretty short 🗿I mean I'm still average but on the shorter side, I just gotta be honest here 😬 LMFAO but I don't think I'm ugly though, my eyes are dark brown and I think I have nice eyebrows?

As for my personality: ok so I'm ENTP and yeah I'm pretty loud, people say I'm funny and I hope so, I love going to big parties, I HAVE VERY MUCH FOMO (fear of missing out) and therefore ALWAYS involved in some sort of fight on accident 😂😂 some not-so-good traits I have would be I have seperation anxiety WHICH ISNT BAD just can probably get annoying for others. I want someone really understanding. I can have a bad temper, but I don't take it out on my friends, more so I get into problems bc of it! I kinda want someone who can calm me down for that 😅

As for hobbies: LOVE COMICS, VIDEOGAMES (story videogames only), I LOVE DRAWING, I actually really like watching wrestling as well 😄, AND I LOVE DEBATE (friendly debate ofc).

Also I'm really good at any musical instruments cause I've been playing the viola for 9 years 😶 so yeah people ask me for answers for music class

as for likes: I love tacos, pizza, donuts, parties, having philosophical discussions on the kitchen counter at 11:00 pm very strong on that actually

I really like people who are good listeners! And who are, god I hate using this word, but uh geeky? UGH I HATE USING THAT WORD!! but yes people who are into comics and videogames and all of that 💪🏼

Dislikes: READING GODDD I HATE READING IM SORRY I LOVE COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS BUT GOD NO I HATE READING

As in people, I really don't like rude people, ik that's kinda basic but I really don't. I also don't like (in a romantic way, I love these people as friends) overly smart people or overly dumb people, WHICH IS MEAN but like overly smart people make me feel dumb, and overly dumb people I can't trust to help me with homework 😶

And yeah I'm currently a student but I plan on becoming an occupational therapist (aka kinda just someone who works with kids who have a disorder I have and struggled with growing up 😅)

Love languages: I love both quality time and physical touch but also appreciate words of affirmation. I feel like I just ruined the whole point of this since I said everything 💀

But yeah in general quality time is my favorite to both give and receive! Like when you're together and just having a good conversation alone?? My favorite thing! Especially if it's in the kitchen at 11:00 Pm

But yes I want this matchup to be romantic, and for anyone I don't want...again just nobody old and not Mikasa ONLY CAUSE SHE REMINDS ME TOO MUCH OF MY SISTER 😂😂😂 IT WOULD WEIRD ME OUT LOL

THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN IM SO SORRY FOR WRITING MY ENTIRE LIFE STORY LMFAO ITS A BAD HABIT I NEVER STOP TALKING ABOUT SOMETHING LOL

Hello lovely anon! You assure you that you’re perfectly fine! I appreciate all the details of your request :) I hope you’re having a wonderful day!

Also, I’m so sorry this actually took forever :,D I had trouble picking and choosing characters because I feel like you can get along with A LOT of people. 

I match you with..

JEAN KIRSTEIN

Jean would match your energy and your tastes so well. He’s your natural one-up for parties, and the two of you could share a brain cell, for better or for worse. You’re both very sociable and can have rather intellectual and philosophical thoughts. He can seem like a hardass at first glance, though he has a huge soft spot for you. If anyone picks a fight with you, you know he’ll have your back and won’t hesitate to throw some hands for you. He’s a bit rough around the edges and can be crude in calling out someone’s BS, but he’s fiercely loyal and protective for you. 

He really loves spending time with you, and he’s very adamant about including you in group outings. It just doesn’t feel the same without you. He’s a super romantic guy, but he would definitely try to act cool about it, even if Connie and Sasha are ragging on him in the background. He’d be a bit quieter when it’s just you and him alone, but that’s just because he’s very comfortable with you. He can say anything that’s on his mind, and you can do the same. Overall, your relationship is very exciting, energetic, and communicative. 

Headcanons:

Like you, Jean loves a good conversation and would love to challenge you in debates. He’s good at coming up with counterarguments so the exchange can just keep on going. You could spend the whole day having a theoretical debate with each other and not realize it. Sometimes, your voices could escalate to the point where it sounds like you’re ARGUING arguing, but you and Jean are really just having a very passionate debate.

Jean thinks he looks good playing string instruments, but he’s not that knowledgeable in music. He usually comes to you for music tutoring, though he mostly likes it because he can hang out with you.

You’ve made a habit to have taco/pizza nights with Jean. It’s not the most “romantic” date, but it’s absolutely perfect. You usually take turns paying for each other’s food and try a different kind of taco or pizza everytime. If he notices you’re feeling down for some reason, he’ll surprise you with a donut. 

Behind all his grandeur, Jean can be very soft and quiet with you, as mentioned before. While he’s listening to you talk, he sometimes just brushes a knuckle along the frame of your face. He’s also really tall, so it’s easy for his eyes to just wander down to you. 

Late night talks with Jean are the most intimate. You two are just alone in the kitchen. Jean is probably cooking omelettes for you to impress you, while you sit on the counter and talk about anything. Sometimes you may talk about the grey areas of morality or you may talk about the characterization of some heroes and villains from video games or comic books. He mostly listens to you, but he’d also give you an honest answer of what he thinks. 

He really loves that you spend time with him because it makes him feel appreciated, and he feels energized being with his loved ones. Though, he would notice if you feel anxiety of being left out, and he would be quick to address it. He does everything he can to understand you and to make sure you also feel appreciated. 

Other potential matches:

Bertholdt Hoover

Pairing with Bertholdt for you is almost like when opposites attract. Your more extroverted and outspoken personality compliments Bertholdt’s more introverted and quiet personality, and you both tend to favor quality time. He would be so happy to just be near you, albeit he can be shy about it. He’d honestly be quite starstruck and amazed by your outgoing nature, and it takes him forever to talk to you. He likely shares some of your niche interests in comics and videogames, which he would have a lot of thoughts and feelings on but he doesn’t share them openly. He’s not at all confrontational for debating, but he does have a lot of introspective thoughts and is extremely observant. He can be a calming and gentle presence for you, especially when you might need reassurance. He also has perfect hands for hand holding, and the utter height difference is really cute. He would be one to truly appreciate and admire you and your goals.

Historia Reiss

She’s a very thoughtful person and can round out some of your rougher edges, and she’s super encouraging and supportive of you. She usually settles fights before they happen, and she’s the type to stick by your side no matter what happens. Surprisingly stubborn, she would also call you out on your temper and would be there for you to help deal with your temper. She might not be as extroverted as you, but she loves a good party, especially if it’s with you. She’s an attentive listener and would be genuinely interested in your perspective on things. You could hold a conversation forever with her, and she would ask questions to keep your train of thought going late into the night. She would also be a big fan of your artwork and drawings.

———

I hope this was alright!

Please look over this post before submitting a matchup request :) Thanks!

[study-with-wastel]

12-07-21 | this week is for workshop presential classes. Also since winter break is Next week, I'm having way much less homework so I will be studying french again. These are some old french notes from past year.

wabi-sabi (侘寂) studyblr challenge

A hobby you picked up and haven't really had the time to go back to/didn't end up liking that much

I picked up a lot of hobbies such as painting , artistic gymnastic, taekwondo ,comics, singing and football. I feel bad for leaving taekwondo because I didn't hate that sport but I probably won't do it soon xx. Then I actually didn't picked up football and I don't like it sorry hehe. On the other hand ,I don't refuse the idea of doing painting and comics again but my first interest right now is Voleyball and French plus some other skills such as sewing or excel xx.

Good luck💚✨

🎵Are you satisfied?- MARINA

[uwua3]

may I request taichi with friend/crush reader? reader asked taichi to help them dye their hair, and while the hair dye is processing they start to awkwardly flirt/joke with each other to the point that they don't notice how much time passed and the dye became too dark. i'm sorry if this is too specific, but thank you so much in advance if you do write it! take care! c:

hi hi, anon~ ☆ thank you so much for requesting! this made me sososo #Happy because taichi deserves all the love in the world 💗 !! ∪･ω･∪ please give our baby puppy nanao your heart 🥺👉🏻👈🏻 he deserves it! you also deserve love, anon~ ‧⁺◟( ᵒ̴̶̷̥́ ·̫ ᵒ̴̶̷̣̥̀ ) please accept all my #Love 💖✨ for this prompt! thank you for everything, i love you lots, okay? :D 💕

summary: when your best friend, taichi, texts you there’s an emergency, you come running to a bad hair day

author’s note: please love taichi lots, reader! that’s all~ have a good rest of your day and remember taichi & i will always love you sososo much !! (>◡<♡).:｡

word count: 3,055

music: dream boy – waterparks

bad hair day!

🍁🛹 nanao taichi

“where is he?!”

sakyo stared down at you, opening the door after waking up to repetitive pounding that nearly shook the whole dorm

you were still in your pajamas and out of breath—did you run over here?

before sakyo could angrily swear at you for making no sense just past midnight, you ducked underneath his arm and escaped around the corner

although some dorm lights were on, most of the rooms were pitch black as expected of it being a school day tomorrow. you were about to sprint into the slightly ajar door of room 105 before omi stepped out, an amused smile greeting you

“taichi’s in the bathroom, if you’re looking for him.” omi gestured towards the shared bathrooms at the end of the hallway, to which you gratefully thanked him and ran off again

(omi looked after you, a smile upon his tired expression. “kids these days.” omi yawned, heading back into his dorms and shutting the door softly behind him)

you didn’t take as much consideration into your actions before you slid into the communal bathroom, slamming the door behind you with uncontrollable force. you leaned against it, panting as you finally saw him

nanao taichi was sitting near the sink with three (3) boxes of random hair dye on the counters, very obviously confused and distressed

“taichi, what’s the emergency?!”

“my hair dye isn’t the right shade!”

“... are you serious?”

this was it. it was hair–dye day

except this time, it wouldn’t be just taichi’s hair transformation—you were getting a new look, too!

how did you get yourself into this mess exactly? maybe sleepily reading an urgent message from your best friend late at night declaring he was having an “emergency” wasn’t a good idea after all...

there was something about taichi’s big puppy eyes that couldn’t make you say no despite all your frustration, so here you were, tiredly following an overexcited boy down the aisles of the local convenience store

did i mention it was way too late? on a school day, by the way? i didn’t, well, now you know!

“taichi,” you called out, rubbing the sleepiness from your eyes and tried not to wince at the bright led lights of the display. taichi barely paid attention, humming an incoherent answer as he browsed the rainbow shelf of hair dyes in front of him

“don’t you think... we should wait until tomorrow?” taichi seemed to process your words a moment late, because he turned towards you, bewildered as if you were the crazy one

yeah, you were crazy. taichi definitely wasn’t holding three wildly different boxes of hair dye and debating between all of them. he also definitely didn’t mislead you into thinking something happened when all he had was s bad hair day. you knew you had to intervene or else his usual red would become kazunari’s palette

“tomorrow? what’s wrong with now?”

“it’s almost midnight, we have school in nearly seven hours, and i know for a fact you didn’t do your homework.”

(taichi flinched at that and you were unsatisfied to see you were right, as always)

“i know that, but!—” “it’s midnight.” “hey, new day, new you, right?” “we have school in a few hours.” “think of how cool you’ll be showing up with dyed hair!” “you have homework.”

“i know, i know,” taichi shrugged, holding the boxes up to his line of sight with serious consideration as he glanced at you. with one look at your tiredness, taichi put the red cart down and completely faced you, putting his hands on your shoulders with a pout

“come on, don’t be like that!” taichi whined, nearly stomping his feet when you just huffed and looked away. jumping so he stayed in your view, it was like a pet wanting attention and using its cuteness as its charm

“hey, hey, look at me, please~?” taichi dragged out, moving his hands so they cupped your cheeks. he made you look at him and all you saw was a backwards baseball cap on a head of nearly half black hair and wide cyan eyes. he looked fully awake, you wondered where his infectious energy came from

“turn that frown, upside down!” taichi turned the corners of your lips up with his pointer fingers, making you automatically smile with the way his giggle got louder. “that’s my best friend!” taichi patted your cheeks again and bounced back down to his heels, rocking back and forth on his worn down sneakers

“look at us! we’re two high schoolers about to make an impulsive decision! nothing could go wrong!” taichi laughed and although there were a million things that could’ve gone wrong, you just sighed with a smile on your face

“you’re right.” you said even if he wasn’t. taichi just picked the cart back up and tilted his head towards the dyes, asking for your opinion on what colors you liked

you chose red, too. when taichi questioned why curiously, you patted his head and responded with, “so we can match!”. the boxes of hair dye you both bought were red just like taichi’s face when you answered honestly

sneaking back into the bathroom to avoid the “you have school” lecture from a very pissed off sakyo who still couldn’t go back to sleep, you and taichi failed at hushed whispers. everything felt like a joke and it didn’t exactly help taichi found everything you did hilarious and comical

setting down the boxes like it was second nature, taichi let out a sound of excitement at the colors. even if you were running on little to no sleep, you felt the same with the adrenaline of looking like a new person in just a few hours

“we’re gonna look so cool!” taichi squealed, taking his time mixing the dye color with the bowl and brush quickly

you sat on the sink counter, swinging your legs as taichi leaned onto the surface next to you, rambling away about how popular red was this season and how all the students will fall in love with his trendiness

used to your friend’s lovesick, hopeless romantic antics, you fondly rolled your eyes as you stretched, stifling a yawn

“is that why you decided to dye your hair tonight?”

“... maybe. there was advice that having perfext roots would attract any woman in my favorite love advice column!”

“...” “do you think people will like my hair?” “they might think we’re a couple since we’re matching.”

taichi suddenly stopped mixing, staring at the bowl wide eyed at the red dye. you were about to ask what happened, before taichi nervously laughed and looked towards the ground

“u–us? a couple?! no way...” taichi blurted out, avoiding your eyes as he began mixing even faster

“do you want me to change my color then—?” you cautiously started, about to change your mind before taichi interrupted hastily, almost knocking the other boxes over by waving his gloved hands

“no! i mean, haha... no, no, it’s fine! don’t worry about it!” taichi laughed so you slowly nodded, not buying it but deciding to go with the flow anyways. you were too tired to think about it too hard

you both unanimously agreed that taichi would dye your hair first. after all, he had more experience doing this by himself until you came along

one thing though, you didn’t want to ruin your pajama shirt. after rummaging through his closet quietly, you felt a t–shirt land on your head and heard a victorious laugh from the doorway

lifting the shirt, you recognized the one–eyed monster graphic design on the front, its tongue sticking out with some graffiti text above its head

“are you sure? you always wear this one?” you hesitated to take it before taichi forced it back into your hands, his expression easy and humorous

“take it, it’ll look better on you, anyways.” taichi casually said and you wondered how many smooth pick up lines he’s been reading. but, one look at his light smile and you could tell he genuinely meant it

returning back into the bathroom wearing a black t–shirt, you had changed into his t–shirt as well. while you were making sure all the dyes were separated to avoid any accidents, you barely noticed taichi stop dead in his tracks

(how come you looked so... good, in his t–shirt? maybe, he should give you his clothes more often... taichi gulped, wondering why he was suddenly feeling this way. it must’ve been the lack of sleep, the tiredness of staying up past his usual bedtime, that’s all!)

“are you ready for the best hair day ever?”

unexpectedly, taichi was quiet for the next hour or so. you could tell from the way he carefully applied just the right amount on your roots to how he knew the time on the box without even looking

maybe it was the way neither of you had proper sleep schedules, but you nearly fell asleep when taichi began combing your hair. after letting it develop, taichi began evenly distributing the red color while humming a popular pop song from his playlist in the background

you didn’t know when you dozed off, but you woke up to a flash of a camera and heard taichi’s snickers right in front of you. rubbing your eyes, you sat up straighter to notice a plastic bag was wrapped around your hair with an empty bowl of red dye discarded in the sink

“morning, sleepyhead~!” taichi greeted way too happily at this hour, making you groan as you stood up. “you didn’t sleep, taichi?” you wondered out loud, noticing how he scrolled through his phone aimlessly with a nonchalant sound

“yawn—i mean! i’m not even tired, gotta wait for your timer to go off to rinse your hair!” (it was his rule that he was always the last person to sleep if he was with you) taichi proudly held up his phone and showed you the screen, as if you could see it from there

(maybe if you could, you would’ve prevented the disaster about to occur in the very near future)

“your turn, puppy. come over here.” you stretched and taichi squealed, running over just to nearly knock over the chair from excitement. taichi always liked doing things with you, and you pampering him made him feel a lot happier than he’d like to admit

“can you stay still?” “i’m trying~! geez, so mean first thing in the morning... uuh...” “awww come on, don’t act like a kicked puppy, taichi!” “woof...”

it was the saddest bark you’ve ever heard. you smiled even if taichi was squirming in his seat and pet his dry hair, your best friend automatically leaning into your touch with a content sigh as he closed his eyes. oh, finally! taichi went still, letting you start the dye process quickly

just like you, taichi was on the verge of staying awake and falling asleep. it was nice to have someone taking care of you like a little kid, not to mention how neither of you have slept for more than half a hour at time. as you applied the rest and making sure all the sections were even, taichi stirred in his sleep with a cute yawn again

“i’m cool, right?” taichi mumbled, seemingly getting closer and closer to snoring. you held back a snicker, nodding your head as you kept going with the dye. for your first time, it wasn’t even that bad

“yes, of course. you’re the coolest boy at o high, taichi.” you reassured truthfully, to which taichi pouted like a kid, crossing his arms and leaning his head back. you made sure none of the dye dripped off before you started painting the bright red on again

“that’s not true... juza and tenma go to o high... they’re so popular, everyone loves them.” taichi added on sadly, but you knew he meant it and it wasn’t just fishing for compliments. wondering why a boy as amazing as taichi would have an inferiorty complex, you frowned and tried to focus on applying the dye

“well, i think you’re the coolest to me, then. after all, juza and tenma don’t have this cool red hair!” you almost ruffled his hair but stopped, knowing it’d mess up the part. taichi must’ve sensed you were about to do so, because he let out a loud, sudden laugh with a big smile

“hehe, you’re the coolest to me, too!” taichi trailed off into a low voice, about to fall asleep for good. you wrapped his head to make sure the hair stayed in place, satisfied with your hard work and dedication to your best friend’s appearance

“do you say that to everyone you meet?” you joked, but taichi just shook his head vigirously, entering sleepy puppy mode anyways

“no, just you, you know why~?”

“why?”

“‘cause... i like y...”

taichi snored, his head falling lower as he fell asleep for good. you didn’t even process it, deciding to take the seat next to him without checking the time

time to get some shut eye...

you slowly woke up, realizing that you were now laying your head on top of taichi’s. he was almost drooling on your shoulder, even breaths leaving his lips as he continued sleeping. you lifted your head to look around for the reason why you woke up, until you noticed the constant ringing of taichi’s phone on the sink counter

“puppy, wake up, it’s time to rinse our hair.” you pushed taichi off, automatically waking him up as he rapidly blinked, trying to focus his blurry vision as he yawned

“... has the sun always been up?”

you froze, staring at taichi’s casual expression before it morphed into shock, his wide eyes finding yours with urgency. don’t tell me...

you rushed off the chair, nearly hitting it to the ground as you grabbed taichi’s vibrating phone, looking at the screen. instead of a timer for rinsing, it was labeled for starting the school day

“taichi.” you said, slowly turning to see him staring back at you. the realization dawned upon both of you severely. “we have school in less than a hour.”

mankai bathrooms were always chaotic in the morning, especially with twenty (20) plus boys all sharing one space. yet, today might’ve been the worst day to use the bathroom yet

you and taichi immediately began cleaning up and rinsing your hair at the same time, losing your minds over the lack of time as you two knew both your hair could not be saved

“what if i’m not cool anymore?!”

“can we focus on going to school on time?”

(banri and juza were exchanging their usual harsh morning greetings to each other, walking side by side to the bathroom only to hear taichi’s pierching shriek and your immediate scream back. they shared a look before collectively going back to their room, not wanting to know. it was the first thing they agreed upon in a while)

taichi dashed out of the bathroom with half a hour to spare, quickly putting on his uniform on without noticing omi who stood by the door, holding onto taichi’s backpack with an amused glint to his eyes

when taichi finally found his o high dark green blazer and pants (his dress shirt buttons were mismatched, but that wasn’t important), he was about to run right past omi before omi put his arm out, stopping taichi from leaving

“forgetting something?” omi held out taichi’s backpack with a packed lunch, making taichi exhale with relief as he took it gratefully. “omi, you’re the best ever!”

omi instead shook his head and crossed his arms, gesturing towards the bathroom where you were still cleaning up the red mess

“no, they’re the best. make sure you tell them that.” omi scolded gently, ruffling taichi’s hair but suddenly narrowing his eyes, looking the teen up and down with a confused look

“huh...? didn’t you dye your hair, why isn’t it that red?”

“don’t remind me, omi!”

(fun fact: leaving hair dye on for longer than 45 minutes will in fact, make the color much darker than intended)

(also... dry hair...)

you luckily brought your uniform, thinking the big emergency would require a sleepover. you stepped out of the bathroom and apologized to the bewildered and incredulous line that formed outside, rushing off to find taichi shoving a piece of bread in his mouth

“here! catch!” you assumed taichi tried to say, because his words were muffled as he threw you something from the kitchen. you caught it with ease, putting it in your pocket as you and taichi said goodbye to everyone in the dorms

you two didn’t even bother addressing why taichi’s hair was many shades darker and why yours was red as well. you two just left and prayed to whoever was listening you’d make it to school on time... or else

half way through making it out the door, you and taichi finally caught each other’s eyes and burst into laughter, nearly falling onto each other in the middle of the sidewalk like a bunch of weirdos

“yo! look at our hair!” taichi spluttered out, reaching up to touch your now red hair. you wheezed, trying to not cry from the sheer audacity of the strange situation at hand

“dude, look at your hair! it’s even darker!” you laughed and even though his bright red hair was apart of his identity, taichi couldn’t stop laughing just because he went through it with you

“am i still cool?”

“definitely, even cooler now, i think.”

the laughter died down and taichi wrapped his arm around your shoulder, grinning like there was no tomorrow

“you’re the best. i’m so lucky to have you.”

you suddenly remembered something you didn’t respond to just mere hours ago, and figured it was better late than never

“i like you, too.”

when taichi overcame his visible shock and multiple “are you serious?! don’t play with my feelings like that!” and figuring out you were being honest, he slipped his hand into yours with a visible jump to his step as you two walked to school

even if he wore gloves, his hands were still somewhat stained red from the hair dye that started it all

(“did you do the homework this morning?”)

(“... we had homework?”)

(“oh, taichi...”)

[triplethreatsonic]

Triple Threat Drabble: The Stranger

Here it is, the drabble I said I’d share with you guys! I’ve done a sort of hybrid thing with this where there are one or two images integrated into the text that are basically like comic panels. (think Diary of a Wimpy Kid but hopefully more classy.) So make sure you pay attention to them as you read! 

Also, this is a work in progress. So please don’t judge it too harshly :) 

Hope you guys enjoy this! 

___

Sonic was not a slow eater. He hadn't been one as a child, and at age seventeen he certainly wasn't one now. The hedgehog rarely spent more than a few minutes to inhale his food during lunch period. Today was no different— after making quick work of the cafeteria's lasagna, Sonic had pushed his plate aside and was now settled with his left leg comfortably draped on top of his right, one hand fiddling with his shoelace. 

Across the table from him sat his friend, Knuckles the Echidna. Knuckles, who was one of the slowest eaters Sonic had ever seen, still had half his meal on his tray and was gradually picking away at a small bunch of grapes. "Probably." His eyes stayed on his hands as he smiled. "I don't think it'll be too bad, though; I'm looking forward to the history paper."

Sonic smirked. "I bet you are. I wonder what you'll write about this time. Maybe"—he cocked an eyebrow—"the ancient echidnas?"

"How'd you guess?" Knuckles smile widened as he dropped the now-empty grape stem onto his tray. Then he sighed, stretching his shoulders back. "I doubt the library has any new books on the topic, though. Seriously, they need an upgrade."

“Man, you're telling me. The other day, I—!" Sonic's thought was suddenly cut short.  If you had asked him what he'd just been talking about, he probably couldn't have told you. 

"No way..."

Something, or rather someone, had caught his attention— someone on the opposite side of the cafeteria, who had just sat down at a faraway table perpendicular to Sonic's position. 

It was a male hedgehog— that much was obvious. Looking at him, Sonic could make out his dark jeans, white t-shirt, and thin red-and-black striped flannel with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. The stranger sat, seemingly in silence, listening to a white female bat sitting across from him. 

None of this was what made Sonic stare, however; it was his quills.

Their coloring wasn't necessarily unnatural for a hedgehog, but it was certainly unusual. They were black, the top of each quill traced by a long red stripe. Sonic had never seen anything like them. 

Except that he had-- several times. He'd seen them in his dream. 

"Hey, Sonic! You ok?"

Knuckles words yanked Sonic out of his trance and back into the buzzing world of the lunch room. "Wha—? Oh, sorry man. Heh, guess I kinda zoned out for a second."

"What were you staring at?" Knuckles turned in his seat to scan the room behind him. 

"Nothing!" The word flew out of Sonic's mouth much quicker than he would have liked. He quickly brushed it off with a shrug. "I just remembered something I gotta do before lunch is over. I'd better run—see you later, alright?"

Knuckles looked like he didn't quite believe him. "What do you gotta do?"

Sonic’s face smiled as his brain racked for an answer. "Uh, homework. Never ends, am I right?"

Now it was Knuckles turn to smirk. "Heh, right." He picked up his mini milk carton and took a swig. "Well, good luck. I'll see you in fifth."

"Later, Knux!" Sonic grinned and picked up his tray from the table, keeping his movements casual as he made his way to the garbage cans. Behind his calm exterior, however, Sonic's mind was racing. It was a coincidence. It was a weird coincidence. But that's all it could be, right? Just a really weird, off-putting coincidence that meant nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. 

So why was he so antsy all of a sudden? 

Frankly, Sonic didn't even know why he had left Knuckles in such a hurry with that dumb fib about homework. What was he hoping to do? Was he planning to talk to the Weird-Coincidence Guy? 

Well… it wasn't the worst idea. 

Sonic's eyes flicked upwards from his tray; the black-and-red hedgehog was easy to pick out now that he knew he was there. Sonic's hands moved automatically, scraping his plates as he kept his eyes fixed on the stranger. The white bat across from him finished her sentence, waved, and then left, walking out through the cafeteria's main double doors. The black hedgehog watched her leave, a soda can held tightly in his hands. He barely moved at all.  

Sonic dropped his plate unceremoniously into the designated bin. Now that the idea had entered his mind, he couldn’t shake it: he had to talk to him. As nonchalantly as he could, Sonic began weaving around chairs, backpacks and tables, gradually making his way to the strange hedgehog. 

He was practically on top of him now. Sonic stopped walking, the black hedgehog a mere four feet ahead of him. He was facing away, hands still holding that soda can. Without so much as a second thought, Sonic smiled and said the first, most natural thing that came to his mind: “Hey!” 

What happened next was the last thing Sonic had expected. The black hedgehog turned at his voice, saw him, and froze. His face paled and his eyes went wide. Something like an electric shock seemed to go through him, and the can in his hands crunched.  

Brrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiing! The five-minute bell shouted rudely across the cafeteria, startling them both, and they were drowned in a wave of standing students. The black hedgehog was instantly blocked from view as three hundred teenagers, Human and Animal, began gathering their things and preparing to leave for classes. 

“H-hey, wait a sec!” Sonic tried to see past the masses of knees and elbows, but quickly found that to be useless. He wasn’t one to give up easily, however; in seconds, Sonic had jumped onto the nearest table and was craning his neck to see over the sea of heads. Where could that guy have gone so quickly? Suddenly—there! Sonic barely caught sight of striped flannel as its wearer ducked around the corner of an adjacent hallway.

"Hey, dude, wait up!" Sonic was down in a flash. After shoving his way through the crowd he sprinted into the hall just as his target ran left down another. He called after him. "Yo, black hedgehog!" It became a game of cat and mouse as they chased each other down seemingly countless hallways and past endless classrooms. Sonic was fast on the track—the fastest in the state, in fact— but somehow this guy kept eluding him with all his constant turns. 

Sonic finally whipped right around the ten-billionth corner only to come to an abrupt halt— the hallway ended just twenty feet in front of him. Sonic looked over his shoulder, then back at the dead end. He was positive this was the direction the hedgehog had dodged... so where did he go? 

"Hello? Uh, you down here, man?" Sonic slowly walked forward as his question echoed in the empty hall. "I just wanna talk for a second."

Silence. 

Then out of nowhere a blur of movement slammed into Sonic's chest, smashing him against a line of lockers. Sonic's breath was knocked out of him, and it took him a second to realize what had happened: standing there, with his forearm crushing Sonic’s ribs, was the black hedgehog. His eyes were mere inches away from his own. They were a bight crimson— to Sonic's astonishment, the color he expected them to be— with a ferocious, wild expression in them. There was also the depth of something that Sonic couldn’t quite name. 

"Why are you following me?” he demanded. 

Sonic’s hands flew up like a man held at gunpoint. "Woah, dude! Chill! I'm … I'm sorry!” It was still difficult to breathe. "I'm just… I just wanna… wanna talk!"

They stood there locked in place for a moment, both hedgehogs panting. A minute passed, and gradually something seemed to shift in the black hedgehog's eyes. He glanced downward at the arm that pinned Sonic, then back up at the hedgehog's face. Then he backed a few paces, his hands lowering to his sides. 

Sonic pushed himself off the lockers and rubbed his chest. "Wow, you hit hard! You play football or something?" He gave the guy a smile. "Sorry. I probably really weirded you out back there—I said hi, but then the bell rang and you ran off and—"

"And you chased me." The hedgehog's voice was deeper than Sonic's when he spoke, with a sharp edge to it. The guy looked close to graduating— frankly, with his stern face, he barely looked like he belonged in high school at all. His arms moved to cross in front of his chest. "What do you want?" 

"Uh..." Sonics brain suddenly froze. In that moment he realized that beyond his first hello, he hadn't actually thought of what he wanted to say to this guy. "I… I'm not sure. I just wanted to say hi, I guess." 

"Why?"

"Well, um... aw, shoot, this sounds really stupid now." Sonic's smile turned sheepish. "I wanted to talk 'cause… you look kinda familiar?" 

Other than a slight eyebrow raise, the black hedgehog didn’t move. His voice dripped with contempt. "Where on earth would I have met you before?" 

"Heh, funny you should ask." Sonic shoved his thumbs in his pockets. "Uh, how long've you been at the school?"

"Three weeks." 

Sonic did a double take. “Wait— really? Like, it's your first semester? But… you look like a senior." 

"And?" 

"Oh, I dunno... I guess thats just kinda rare, you know? New seniors? I'm a junior, myself." Sonic smiled, but the black hedgehog didn't flinch. He cleared his throat. "Well, anyway… You really do look super familiar to me. It's kinda freaky, actually."

The dark hedgehog's eyes narrowed. "And why would you say that?"

Sonic wasn't sure what reaction he'd been waiting for— maybe a good laugh, if anything— but it certainly wasn't what the black hedgehog was doing now. His shoulders hitched, fingers digging into his forearms. Even more surprising was his face; it had that same haunted look Sonic had glimpsed before— back in the cafeteria, right when the stranger had first seen him. 

And then all at once it was gone, replaced by the earlier scowl. "That's ridiculous.” 

Sonic’s hand dropped down from where it had been resting behind his head. “Um… yeah. Yeah, it is.”

They stood there in a heavy silence. The black hedgehog drummed his fingers against his arm. “Is that all?”  

Sonic stared back at him. “… Yes.” 

The other hedgehog looked at Sonic a moment longer, annoyed expression unchanging. Then with a ‘hmph’, he turned away abruptly, walking back towards the hallway through which they had come. 

Sonic watched him leave. He felt the urge to say something, but nothing came to mind. Well, that was weird. What had he been expecting though, really? The whole reason for him talking to the guy was weird to begin with. It was funny; though Sonic was usually very confident around strangers, this whole conversation— which he himself had initiated— had made even him uncomfortable. 

Sonic began to turn the in the opposite direction to head to his own class— only find himself staring at the dead-end hallway again. Whoops. There was only one other way to go. 

The black hedgehog’s ear perked as footsteps echoed behind him, and he turned his head sharply. Sonic’s hands shot back up in the air again upon being caught. “Sorry, ignore me—my class is this way too.” 

The stranger glared at Sonic a moment, then turned back and kept walking. Sonic waited a second, allowing for some space, then continued on behind. 

There was almost no other sound as the two of them made their way down the hall. Sonic slipped his thumbs back into his pockets, trying not to look at the stranger. Eventually, he let his eyes drift to the back of the hedgehog’s head. What was up with the guy, anyway? He sure was a tough nut to crack— tougher than even Knuckles had been when they’d first met, and that was saying something. This guy refused to be warmed up in any way, shape, or form. Sonic had nothing to work with here, and it left him at a loss. 

Eventually Sonic couldn’t stand the silence anymore. “Hey,” he ventured, “sorry I got on your nerves back there."

If the other hedgehog heard him, he gave no sign of it.

A few more seconds passed. Sonic took a breath. "I probably shouldn’t have bothered you. It was kinda silly to say anything at all, to be honest. I probably wouldn’t’ve, either, if I’d only had the dream once. It's just weird, you know? ‘Cause I don’t even know you, but this guy that looks exactly like you is in the dream every single time, along with that other hedgehog—”  

“I don’t care!” 

Instantly, the black hedgehog was in Sonic’s face. Teeth bared, fangs showing, a threatening finger nearly stabbed Sonic in the eye. “I’m going to say this once, Blue Hedgehog. I don’t care about your dreams. I don’t care if I was in it, or that white hedgehog, or you, or anybody! And I’m tired of hearing about it.” 

They stood there a moment, with Sonic for once in his life standing perfectly still. The black hedgehog’s finger lowered as he growled. “Are we clear?” 

With the finger out of his face, Sonic slowly straightened. Ok, talking more was definitely not going to take any tension out of the air. He opened his mouth to give a simple reply. 

Then something clicked. “Wait... How did you know the hedgehog was white?”

The scowl on the stranger’s face faded slightly, the air seeming to still. “What?” he breathed. 

“The other hedgehog,” said Sonic, "I never mentioned what color his fur was.” Now he leaned forward, studying the stranger. He met his eyes. "How did you know it was white?”

The stranger gave no response. The blood had slowly drained from his face, leaving it ghostly pale as his mouth hung open wordlessly. 

Then suddenly his face clenched, and a hand jerked out to slap Sonic away. “Enough!” 

He dashed off. It took Sonic a second to recover from the unexpected shove. “Wha- Hey, dude, wait!" He sprinted around the corner ahead. "Where are you going—?!"

The black hedgehog was gone. 

Sonic stood staring blankly down the empty hallway.  What the heck? Thoughts swirled around his brain—half of them were questions, and the other half were answers that didn’t make sense. He leaned his left arm against the rough brick wall next to him. 

Had “white” simply been a guess? A stab in the dark? Was that the color everybody thought of when they pictured the average hedgehog? 

Or did he know, too?

Another blaring brrrring! from the bell startled Sonic out of his thoughts. “Aw, shoot.” He was late for chemistry. He took off at a sprint. 

A few minutes later, Sonic would come rushing through his classroom door. He wouldn’t remember that he needed to grab his textbook from his locker until he was already inside. No excuse would be given when when his teacher scolded him, declaring solemnly that being the school’s track star did not justify him arriving late to class. Later, when everyone was paired up for experiments, Tails would ask him where he’d been; cutting it close was normal for Sonic, but arriving seven minutes after the bell was not. Sonic would hesitate a moment. Then he’d give his best friend a smile, ruffling the fur on his head. “It’s not really important,” he’d say, “no worries. Let’s just get these reactions done.” 

Hours later, in dark of his bedroom, Sonic would still be thinking about that black hedgehog. 

[bigskydreaming]

Lemme get the timeline right, so Dick was about 15-16 when first Teen Titans happened, then he came back to Batgirl's debut, some time later he left for college & that was the issue where Bruce is kinda teary, looking at Dick's prizes, Dick teases him a lil? Or was that golden age? Then he's recruited by Raven, NTT happens, but the firing... I'm confusing these parts. He got fired after getting shot by Joker? He was Robin then so before Jason, but was he with NTT or in Gotham?

LOL don’t worry about being confused, because it very much IS confusing thanks to so many continuities and retcons.

Personally, I tend to go with pre-New 52 timeline and then just later stories like that timeline never ended and just kept going with New 52 and Rebirth stories....with any discrepancies being like....’flashback stories’ retroactively inserted at the appropriate point in the characters’ histories. That’s just my approach though, doesn’t necessarily work for everyone.

But pre-New 52, the ages up until Dick is around 16 or 17 are pretty flexible.....you can kinda pick and choose when you view the first Teen Titans having formed because there aren’t any hard age milestones to use as a marker. So regardless of what you go with, up until Dick was about sixteen, maybe seventeen, he lived full time in Gotham with Bruce, was Robin, and ‘moonlighted’ with the Teen Titans, who in their early years were kinda more an excuse to hang out with their superhero friends rather than like....a specifically focused team.

THEN is when it gets confusing, because enter the Age of Retcons:

ORIGINALLY, pre-Crisis of Infinite Earths, aka Retcon-Palooza, Dick went on to become Nightwing while he was still on good terms with Bruce. Bruce took Jason in and adopted him, but there was zero conflict with Dick over this....in fact, at this point in the comics, Jason was ALSO an orphaned circus acrobat whose family had been friends with Dick’s family, and DICK was the one who helped him after his parents were murdered, and took him to Bruce, which led to Bruce adopting him. 

(Fun fact, and part of why I side-eye people who dismiss retcons as ‘not counting’......Jason’s extremely iconic and well-known history as a street kid who Bruce found stealing his tires......only spanned about TWELVE ISSUES. Before his death, he literally only existed with that origin for about a year’s worth of comics....as opposed to pre-Crisis, when he existed for SEVERAL years worth of comics as the plucky acrobat who adored Dick and was always doing his homework and saying “Robin gives me magic” and stuff. Fandom lives mashing these two versions of Jason together, which is fine, but they have zero problem plying his twelve issues of having grown up as a street kid for angst, while being dismissive of other characters’ retcons, and that’s right up there when talking about Things That Make Me Go HMMMM).

Anyway, so originally, pre-Crisis, Dick moved on to become Nightwing when HE was good and ready, of his own volition, because he felt he was entering a new stage of his life and wanted to reflect that. And then HE gave Robin to Jason HIMSELF, like, literally bequeathed it to him, brother to brother, with Jason being appropriately grateful to HIM for that rather than crediting Bruce with it, who had absolutely nothing to do with it other than looking on fondly and proceeding from there with Jason as his partner. Dick then transitioned to living and working with the New Teen Titans full time in New York. 

He also briefly went to college at this time, but dropped out after just one semester or one year or so......which other people often skew to make it sound like he’s lazy or spoiled or just wanted to live off Bruce’s money all of which makes me gnash my teeth, lol.....nah, he already had the equivalent of several college degrees just from growing up being trained by Bruce. Dick dropped out for one reason only: nothing he wanted to do with his life benefited from a college diploma specifically, and none of the jobs he went on to work later required one. He’s a kid who comes from a family who never went to college either because they didn’t NEED to in order to do what they loved....and Dick was no different. People love to cite that Dick was already fairly old when his parents died and that’s why ‘he didn’t need Bruce to be his parent as much specifically’ or whatthefuckever....but then they turn right around and act like he should live his life more according to the expectations and standards of Bruce as opposed to.....in keeping with his first family and their priorities and whatnot. BUT I DIGRESS.

But anyway, at this point, he mostly lived in New York and came back to Gotham every now and then to visit or to help with cases. Babs had at this point been Batgirl for some time, before he became Nightwing, but again, the timelines are messy, so the only real marker that’s important IMO is that her history with Bruce and Dick as Batgirl predates Jason joining the family, AND post-Crisis, when Jason had his street kid origin.....I think she interacted with that version of Jason maybe once?

My point there is there’s a lot of piling on the angst and pointing back to Dick as the ultimate culprit, with people making a big deal about how Barbara and others were constantly comparing Jason to Dick and resenting him for not being Dick and this made Jason’s childhood even with Bruce especially difficult....but again, nah. The vast majority of the time Babs/Batgirl co-existed with Jason/Robin, it was pre-Crisis Jason, which meant that he was on great terms with Bruce AND Dick and Dick was on great terms with Bruce, all of which means....NOBODY WAS RESENTING ANYBODY OR COMPARING ANYONE TO ANYONE ELSE, THEY ALL COEXISTED JUST FINE.

NOW.

ENTER THE RETCONS.

This is where it gets messier and more complicated, because JUST LIKE the comics retconned Jason’s origin to make him a street kid - and which NOBODY has trouble acknowledging or balancing......the comics ALSO retconned Dick’s departure from Gotham. Now it was because there was a story in which Dick was shot by the Joker, Bruce freaked out about his safety, and decided the best way to express this was by firing Dick as Robin and alienating him. Dick lingered for a few weeks, its said, in the hopes that Bruce would change his mind, but when Bruce didn’t, Dick finally packed his bags and left to go live with the Titans full time, where he became Nightwing. Its further said that this was the last contact they had for about a YEAR AND A HALF.....with Dick being the one to make the first move to resume contact.....when he found out from the papers both that Bruce had taken in a new kid (Jason) and adopted him already, AND made him Robin.

(A name which no matter WHAT origin you go for in terms of what it means to Dick, is regardless HIS CREATION, the mantle HE made for HIMSELF, and was never Bruce’s to give away, whether or not you go with the take that it was Dick’s mother’s nickname for him, or it being a reference to Robin Hood, Dick’s favorite childhood hero).

Anyway, Dick confronted Bruce about this, and Bruce basically just....acknowledged this without actually ever putting the words “I’m sorry” or “I messed up” in there, and that was Dick’s one and only ON THE PAGE interaction with Jason post-street kid origin before A Death In The Family....which occurred like two story arcs later. 

(However, something I like to point out is the issue where Dick and Jason meet after both their respective retcons, was a FLASHBACK issue. It literally starts the issue off with the caption “One year ago”.....meaning that even though Jason died only two story arcs later and we never saw Dick and he interact on the page again, that issue was deliberately scripted in such a way as to allow for a good couple years to pass IN UNIVERSE....which, IMO, is where Dick and Jason’s sibling bond and dynamic had more than enough time to form. Just because Dick was on bad terms with Bruce doesn’t mean he ever took this out on Jason, and we know from later stories that they at least interacted a few times we never saw, like when the two of them went skiing together - so while people act like they barely knew each other because Dick was never around, IMO there’s literally no reason to assume that Dick wasn’t just as good about reaching out to Jason and forming a sibling bond with him after that first initial meeting, as he later was with Tim and Cass and Damian. In fact, given how familiar Dick and Jason seem to be with each other after his return to Gotham years later, IMO the thing that ACTUALLY strains credulity is the idea that before Jason died, he and Dick only interacted a bare handful of times. Nah. That doesn’t track.)

ANYWAY. That’s how all that played out those two different times, and why there’s so much confusion, BUT I maintain a huge part of that confusion is artificially produced.....by people deliberately trying to mix and match continuities in a way that just flat out doesn’t work. Sooooooo many times over the years, we’ve heard takes on how Dick ‘quit’ being Robin and then Bruce made Jason Robin and Dick resented both of them for this, but uh.....that’s the one version of things that DIDN’T ever happen. There were two distinct ways it played out. In the first, Dick quit voluntarily, and then made Jason Robin himself, and he and Bruce and Jason were all on great terms. In the later version, (the definitive version, because just like Jason’s street kid origin, it was the retcon, yes, but it was also never refuted or contradicted, the way it would have to be to ‘reset’ canon to that earlier sequence of events/state of affairs) - but yeah, in the later version, Dick was fired, Bruce made Jason Robin, and Dick resented BRUCE for this.

But people keep trying to play mix and match so Dick both quit - thus ‘giving up his claim to Robin/theoretically having no basis to object to someone else being Robin’....AND Bruce made Jason Robin - thus getting ‘credit’ in Jason’s eyes for giving him this mantle, responsibility and trust - with Dick then resenting Bruce for giving away the thing he ‘gave up.’

And that’s so disingenuous and obnoxious, when people try and play that game. They don’t want Dick to have ‘the right’ to the same complaints they have about Jason and Tim being ‘replaced’ but they also don’t want him to get credit for giving Robin to Jason because that would imply a strong brotherly bond and connection between them, one in which Dick clearly loves his little brother, and its just....uggggggh. So annoying.

BUT I DIGRESS.

Anyway, that’s the scoop, the buzz, the happening.

[the-clocktower]

Hey, CW! I love your blog and personally apologize that you were forced into making it (I feel that on many levels), but, uh, quick question... how bad are you at web design because this design is awful and I'm sorry. The body text is a poor font choice for readability, the tag color is the same as the background, everything blends in FAR too much, there's no visuals whatsoever which is fine, maybe, if the colors differed, but you NEED a background of #4d0066 and an off-white text and also

Danny waited patiently after explaining his plan clearly and concisely, giving his friends the time that they needed to think everything over before deciding. He gave them twelve seconds, which, really, that was plenty of time. “So? C’mon, let’s get to work! CW is only gonna be distracted so long.”

“No, no, no, back up here. You stole their laptop- They have a laptop?” Tucker looked some mixture of delighted and confused, Danny feeling a surge of empathy for the same exact feelings he had gone through when discovering the laptop and subsequently the blog that CW had actually made (an event shortly followed by Danny being forced to sit down and finish his homework). “And you want to… what do you want to do?”

“Change their blog, duh. I mean, look- Here, let me show you what it looks like right now.” Danny, still in his ghost form, flew over to Sam’s large and ridiculously extravagant bed before letting himself fall and bounce a couple times before settling, making sure he was stable before pulling the borrowed laptop out of his backpack.

Sam and Tucker were quick to settle on either side of him, both of them making similar noises of disgust and horror once Danny brought up the correct blog, which, thank you, honestly. CW finally made a blog and apparently knew nothing about design.

“Jesus… I feel like I might actually cry over this- Did they use the same color for the text and background- What is this font- Danny. Danny, I can’t- I’m having an attack.” Tucker dramatically clutched his heart and fell backwards as he ‘died,’ Danny snorting as he turned to Sam.

“Well… it could definitely use some work,” Sam admitted, taking the laptop and getting to the customization screen in a few short clicks. “There, now if anything happens, they can blame me and you won’t have to go around pouting at being yelled at.”

“I don’t pout,” Danny muttered, leaning up against Sam as Tucker scrambled and moved to sit on Sam’s other side so she was now in the middle, laptop easily reachable by all of them. “Okay, so, that background color has got to go first. Like. Now.”

“No, no, we need a title for this blog first,” Tucker argued, leaning over to jab a finger at the screen. “Look at that empty space. It’s making me cry, Danny.”

“Boys, boys, settle down,” Sam made a clicking noise with her tongue, clicking around on the screen before bringing up a list of themes - free ones, Danny noticed. Honestly, disgustingly rich and she still searched for whatever was free or cheapest, which… fair. “We’re changing this blog theme, first. It’s disgusting.”

The three were silent as they scrolled through the choices, communicating in grunts, mutters, and disgusted noises. Danny was almost sure they wouldn’t actually get anywhere before he was jabbing the screen hard enough to move it, “There. That one. It’s perfect-”

“We are not giving him a Miraculous Ladybug themed blog, Danny,” Sam sighed, Danny offended at how Jazz the tone she used was. “We’re all better than that.”

“Speak for yourself,” Tucker snorted, finally shaking his head. “Forget it, colors and title first, then blog. At least with colors we’ll know what we’re looking for better, right?”

“Alright, alright,” Sam groaned. “Colors and title first. What should we use for a title? I don’t know enough about them to choose anything good.”

Danny blinked as the two turned to look at him, panicking for a moment before blurting out the first thing that came to mind. The looks only turned into confused frowns and baffled expressions, which, okay, fair, since Danny had spoken in Latin.

Clearing his throat, he spoke it more clearly, giving a shrug, “Pulvis et umbra sumus. It’s something I learned when they were helping me with Latin, it just means we are but dust and shadow.”

Sam and Tucker went quiet, shared a look, and then nodded together before Sam was typing it in with a quiet, “Fitting.” It really was, when Danny thought about it, so, there. That was one thing done. “Okay, next up is title font.”

Clicking open the options, Tucker was half-shouting at once, “Comic Sans! Sam, we gotta give him Comic Sans-”

“No, no, choose that Grumpy one, now that is perfect.” Plus CW’s reaction would be hilarious.

“What? No- Comic Sans!”

“But Tuck, c’mon, the pun-”

“Both of you shut up,” Sam snapped, glaring at the two of them almost at once which was actually impressive, if Danny had to admit to it. “We’re giving them 1785 Baskerville.”

Danny and Tucker were both quiet, sharing a long look before Tucker decided he wanted to become a ghost ahead of schedule, “Boo, you goth.” He was shoved off the bed for his troubles, something which Danny managed to not laugh at if only so he wasn’t shoved off as well.

Once Tucker crawled back onto the bed they got back to designing, arguing over colors (“Oh my God, it should not be taking this long to have a sample color just pick something!”), font choices (“No, screw you both, we’re going to use Google Fonts like a normal family we are not having another fight over this!”), and which theme they should go with (“You know what? Screw it- Screw it! We’re just going to use the Tumblr Official theme like heathens and edit that!”)

It was taking longer than Danny thought it would, but slowly and surely the blog was coming together, Tucker having firmly taken over once it got to the actual coding part of the website, which was how they ended up with transparent textures to go with their background color (“Aw, but, guys, c’mon, this texture looks like stars! How cool is that!”), a transparent texture for the posts themselves (“I know you like your stars, Danny, but it won’t work with the font color and look, the parchment fits, don’t you think?”), and even a cooler looking blog title (“You know what? Here, no, we’ll put a text-shadow command on the title- There. That looks pretty cool, don’t you think?”)

There were a few hiccups along the way in choices (“No, no, make his avatar shape a square, because… you know. He’s such a square.”), but at the end they had a nice blog that really had taken way too long and Danny was half-certain that CW was about to show up and yell at them any second.

“You know,” Sam said at the very end, “This is still kind of a boring looking blog, everything considered. We could have gone way more crazy with all of this.”

“I mean… yeah, I guess so,” Danny admitted, closing the laptop and carefully putting it back in his bag. “But I didn’t want to like, you know, really make something crazy, I guess. I mean… Their blog sucked, but it’s still their blog, you know?” Danny shrugged, floating off the bed and giving a light stretch. “Dunno, just figured I’d tweak it a little to fit them better instead of having them waste time on it. You know, show off that wise old mentor who cares and has everything together and stuff thing.”

Danny barely even finished before a pillow being thrown at his face, Tucker laughing as Sam booed him. “You’re too nice! Get that sickeningly sweet attitude out of my room!” She was grinning even as she ‘yelled’ at him, Danny rolling his eyes with a laugh as he did as told.

Not even half an hour later and Danny was back where he started, laptop returned to its proper place and back open and waiting.

It was the latest ask that he saw in the inbox that had him pausing, Danny reading through the ask and unable to help himself whatsoever as he snickered before clicking the ask to respond.

you know what asker? you’re absolutely right so lets try this out

-Danny

            [Story and blog re-design by ibelieveinahappilyeverafter.]

[procrastinating-story-writer]

Bonds that Bind Us

Summary: Odin ordered for Loki to return to Midgard as punishment to atone for what he did in New York and S.H.I.E.LD agreed.

She was not expecting an assignment such as this to fall on her lap but she had nothing better to do. How bad could it be being Loki's warden?

Pairing: Loki x OFC Omidah Penwinkle

Warnings: multiple chapter story, violence, experimentation, language, angst, just to name a few.

A/N: Hello everyone! First off thank you for reading. Now, this story can be found on my AO3 account Onyx_Lenora_Traise and I wanted to post this on Tumblr. Enjoy!

Omidah looked up from the book she was reading when she heard someone call her name. Ever since she agreed (was forced) to live in the Avengers tower, all quiet time and privacy went out the window. She saw her godfather Coulson enter the room, a grim look on his face

(A/N: he's very much alive in this story. Always been one of my favorite characters from Avengers)

"what's wrong? You look real distressed," Coulson sighed and sat next to her, he was not happy with the news he had to tell her but it was Fury's orders

"Fury has assigned you to a mission but I don't think you're going to like it; I sure as hell don't."

Omidah raised an eyebrow, curiosity evident in her eyes, she knew all too well that when her godfather wasn't happy with a mission she had (which was rare), it was dangerous and life threatening and those were the best kind for her.

She giggled, "finally something to do! Please tell me it's really dangerous with lots of fighting,"

Coulson rolled his eyes at her excitement over the matter, she really was a strange young lady.

"Do you remember Thor's brother the infamous Loki?"

"yeah I remember him, how could I not? I nearly whooped his ass when he tried to escape from the helicarrier and I would have succeeded too if I didn't have you to worry about. I still owe him a beating for nearly killing you."

She knew that if Coulson had faced Loki alone that day and gotten the injuries he had without immediate medical assistance, he would have died

"Thor is bringing Loki back here on earth as a punishment from Odin to atone for his actions and he'll be confined to the tower with you as his warden."

Omidah stayed quiet processing the information related to her. She started to laugh. Coulson shot her a confused look.

"Oh my Ra! Do you have any idea how deliciously ironic this is?"

Coulson shivered when his goddaughter cackled (you know that comical laugh in animes when a twisted plan was in place?)

"So when will he be arriving? Where will he be sleeping? I need to prepare....oh my there is so much I need to look after."

Coulson shook his head in disbelief, she was taking this news well, too well for his liking

"Calm down Omidah sheesh, you're behaving like its your long lost friend that's coming for a visit. Why are you so excited anyways?"

She rolled her eyes "It's not everyday you get to meet a Norse god and now I'm gonna know two of them, plus I can finally have questions answered on magic and literature."

"Why can't you just ask Thor about all of that stuff"

"No offense to Thor but he doesn't really know the in-depth knowledge I seek and from what he's told me about his brother, well apart from what I've researched, Loki is like a walking, living fricking Norse encyclopedia. I'm kinda hoping also that he can give me an insight on some of my abilities, still rusty in some aspects.

Coulson give Omidah a have-you-lost-your-marbles-kind of look, she just smiled

"Relax I know what I'm doing, besides he's going to be here for a long time and eventually he will have to talk to someone, so I volunteer as tribute."

"I have to remember to get your brain checked for loose screws"

Omidah faked a gasp and threw a cushion at Coulson making him laugh

"but all jokes aside, I know what I'm getting myself into. The others won't agree with my methods of doing things but I never fail a mission. If Odin is sending Loki here to atone for what he did, he's not going to do so by being distant and locking himself in his assigned room which I have a good feeling he'll do,"

"So what's your game plan then," Coulson asked

"quite simple actually, I'm going to be his friend" she flashed Coulson a smile *any second now 3,2,1.....*

"YOU'RE GOING TO WHAT!?"

.

.

.

.

Sitting in the lounge, Omidah poured over the numerous files sent to her by Fury. The files contained information on the objective of her mission and information on Loki which she didn't need but due to protocol Fury sent them to her anyways.

Getting up and heading to the kitchen, she grabbed a glazed donut and a cup of coffee and headed back to the sofa. She needed to finish compiling her report of how she'll go about executing her mission; leave it up to the Director to give her extra homework. When she reentered the sitting area Tony was reading one of her files.

"If that was meant to kill someone you would be dead right now. Tony why do you have to be so nosy?"

Tony looked up from the file and grinned "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you didn't love me my dear."

"You're like the cousin I never had Tony, of course I love you. It's your need to poke your nose in everyone's business is what errs me," she said matter of factly.

Tony glanced back at the file he just read, an eyebrow arched upwards

"So eye-patch finally decided to give you a mission after 6 months and he felt it was a good idea to have you babysit a temperamental Norse god?"

"I'm not complaining, its better than nothing and besides I'm looking forward to this mission and before you ask why, it cause I think it will be a great challenge for me."

Tony studied her for a few seconds "knowing you and I know you quite well, it's more than one reason. Just be careful okay kiddo?"

Omidah walked over and gave him a quick hug "I'll be fine Tony, what I'm worried about is how you and everyone else feels about having Loki in the tower"

Rolling his eyes Tony flicked Omidah's nose "the hell Tony, what was that for?"

"Just felt like it and we'll be fine just as long as Reindeer games behaves."

She and Tony both knew it was easier said than done.

It took one week for Omidah to have everything prepared for Loki's arrival. Looking down at her watch, it showed half past one. She was informed that Thor would be bringing Loki by two.

Dressed in a simple olive turtleneck sweater and black jeans accompanied by ankle high boots, she stood on the balcony standing a distance away from the helipad.

Shifting her eyes back to her watch which now showed half past two. Omidah groaned in annoyance *Thor is late.....which is not really like him.....what's taking them so long?*

"Well this is very unprofessional, unless Odin changed his mind and decided to keep Loki imprisoned on Asgard." She frown at the idea "Oh goddess I hope that isn't the case,"

Pulling out her work phone she was about to speed dial Fury when a bright light descended from the sky and landed on the helipad. As quickly as it came, it vanished and left standing was Thor and beside him the infamous Loki as Coulson likes to call him.

She breathed a sigh of relief glad they didn't cancel at last minute but pulled a straight face and decided to mess with Thor a little bit for making her wait.

"Thor you are late by thirty minutes and twenty-five seconds, I was beginning to wonder if plans were cancelled."

Thor flashed her a quick grin "Lady Omidah I apologize for the delay but there was a slight mishap before our departure," he grumbled the last part while gliding his eyes in Loki's direction.

Omidah had to refrain herself from snickering. Leave it up to the God of Mischief to cause a mishap

"I see. Well mishaps do happen" she said with a shrug "but you're still late, so to make it up to me, you are not allowed pop tarts for the next week."

Omidah watched as Thor became slightly pale and looked like he was about to pass out. She started to laugh because he just looked like a lost puppy

"Thor I'm joking, I would never deny you pop tarts, you'll simply go into a coma without them but you still have to make up for being late okay?"

Thor breathed in relief and smiled "I'm thrilled that my pop of tarts will not be taken away from me and once again I'm sorry for the delay,"

Nodding she began to walk over to the brothers, a perplexed look crossed her features when she noticed the muzzle around Loki's mouth. The darn thing looked very uncomfortable and she thought it was very unnecessary. It angered her slightly. Wasn't Loki a prince of Asgard? Why was he being treated like an animal?

"Thor I would very much appreciate it if you removed that infernal contraption off your brother and please for the love of the river Nile take off these chains, he looks very uncomfortable. He's not a prisoner in Asgard but a guest in the Tower," She said with a slight irritation in her voice.

She felt eyes on her, so shifting her gaze from Thor she found Loki staring at her in confusion.

"Well if he didn't try to escape the moment he felt the dungeons, he wouldn't be in chains"

"Regardless he's here now so take 'em off, we still need to get him settled plus I need to report to Fury in the next half hour. You and I both know he gets like a cranky old lady when he's kept waiting"

Thor faced Loki preparing to remove the 'infernal contraption' as Omidah called it. Once it was off, the chains were next. Loki gently rubbed his wrists and looked back at the female across from him.

She sent him a gentle smile which only confused him further. He searched her eyes and found no hostility in them, just curiosity and slight excitement.

"Much better, thank you Thor. Well let me be the first to welcome you back to Stark Towers Mr. Laufeyson. My name is Omidah Pennwinkle and I'll be looking over you as you stay here." She grinned at her intro speech and the look of sheer confusion and disgust in Loki's eyes. He really didn't want to be there.

"Come gentlemen, there is much to do and I have...." glancing at her watch she turned and slowly started to walk back inside "fifteen minutes to do so before my boss starts screaming like a banshee in my eyes for reporting late."

The two brothers looked at her retreating form, glanced at each other and followed her through the waiting door. Loki groaned internally, he really didn't want to be there.

[allos-aro]

@cursed-nurse:

I thought psychopaths and sosiopaths and people with ASPD where like, bad people that I'm not supposed to support? I'm a bit confused. Sure, their aroness and/or aceness are still valid and they belong, but, Idk I'm just confused. This is the first time I've seen someone include sosiopaths and psychopaths in this kind of post and I don't know how to feel about it. Why did you choose to include them? Just asking because maybe I can learn something here 

sorry, i just saw this comment. i’m trying to figure out how to type this out without using a lot of run-on sentences, and i’m also homeworking really hard at the moment, but i’ll go ahead and answer this in a list of bullet points based on my own experiences and discussions with other folks who do identify this way (for disclosure, i have sociopathic tendencies that are influenced by other things in my mental health):

the stigma surrounding folks with ASPD specifically comes chiefly from the horrible bad actions of criminals that have been diagnosed with the disorder, which very few people with ASPD actually do. the diagnostic traits for ASPD that are described in the DSM-V often exemplify the most “severe” symptoms and demand a repeated “disregard for the rights of others”. many people who get evaluated for ASPD but do not receive the diagnosis inherently fail the test because they may have had a few instances of that kind of behavior, but learned to adapt (thus disqualifying the diagnosis). there is also the fact that many people who receive the diagnosis and opt for treatment learn coping mechanisms and other ways of expressing their symptomology without harming others, but it’s unclear if/when the ASPD label gets removed (or if it should be).

historically, the labels of psychopathy and sociopathy were applied with a broad, broad brush to anyone who was a “misfit” based on expression of empathy and morality (or the “lack” thereof, according to some interpretations). a classic example of this is autism being labelled as “childhood psychopathy” before the autism diagnosis existed.

for a lot of people who use the term “sociopath” and/or “psychopath” to describe themselves, the main defining trait that unites many of them is a combination of the following:

lack of either affective or cognitive empathy (often both)

lack of a “conscience” that fits in with the society around them (meaning: their moral compass may not point towards the “moral north” that many societies assume for its group members, or that it expresses itself differently)

a social disconnect from a vast majority of people around them, and little/no desire to try and connect it

and, finally, some set of experiences with people who appear to interact normally in society that has shown that they are, for lack of a better term, never going to be able to belong regardless of how hard they try

these traits can be found in a variety of different mental illnesses and neurotypys, including but not limited to: autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia spectrum disorders, most (if not all) personality disorders, dissociative disorders, and probably more that i can’t think of at the moment.

the labels are often used self-descriptively, less as a declaration of “intent to do harm” but more of a “warning” that they may not/cannot/will not be able to act like a “normal” person according to the dictates of society.

society allows for some flexibility of sociopathic and psychopathic behavior: depending on who you talk to, capitalism relies upon acting on a lack of empathy for personal gain. most americans i have interacted with find “America’s Funniest Videos” to be an entertaining show even though a lot of people and animals get terribly injured in the clips shown. dark humor is a common theme in comedy routines and comics.

however, if you act or think “too much” in that realm? then clearly you’re on the path to criminal behavior. (sarcasm)

ETA: okay I'm back

ultimately, there is a lot of nuance that usually needs to come to the table esp when it comes to how we have been trained to view mentally ill people. i'm not saying that everyone should go and immediately befriend someone who uses the sociopath or psychopath labels for themselves ofc, but thinking about why someone might use the label in context of how our society views mental illness, and how quick we are in our society to villainize people who, for whatever reason, don't "fit" with "goodness" even if it's not criminal, is important for this kind of discussion in particular.

bad actions are not to be excused of course, but the incidence of bad action paired with what society colloquially throws around as "sociopathy" and "psychopathy" is incredibly small. which is part of what leads to discrepancies in how labels are used and what they mean, depending on, fundamentally, how easy you fit into society's standards of acceptability.

shoutout to mentally ill and neurodivergent aros

psychotic aros? positively amazing!

autistic aros? absolutely awesome!

schizo-spec aros? utterly splendid!

dissociative aros? delightfully excellent!

sociopathic and psychopathic aros? valid and wonderful!

empathic aros? stupendously cool!

attention deficit aros? smashingly marvelous

other aros i didn’t mention who fit under mentally ill and neurodivergent? supremely sublime!