#I'm still going to explain what the “child-Titans” are

[marigoldwriter]

In my monstervese fanfic:

All the "child-Titans" having lapses of vision and being able to see through the Kaijus' eyes that they are linked: *suffering from extreme pain and discomfort since childhood*

Julian / G: Not me bitches!

[thevoidstaredback]

Honestly, Danny doesn't know how he gets into these situations. It's probably the fault of a deity or an Ancient or someone. It's most definitely Clockwork's fault.

Going on that mission with Constantine sounded like a good idea at the time, and Raven was going to be there! She's the best impulse control on the team. He realizes he should've clarified why Raven was going with them. Evidently, it was not to help or be impulse control for the Ghost King and the Alcoholic Soul Whore. (Don't tell Constantine that's his nickname) Raven was going along because she had business at Titan Tower. It should've been obvious, but Danny is not the most observant.

Either way, he was wrong. He thought going on this mission with John - there was a demon running around an apartment building and people were, apparently, quite upset about that - would deter the Justice League from hounding him like roaches. He was right about that, but also very wrong because the proteges took the opportunity to sniff him out like the bloodhounds they are. Unsurprisingly, Red Robin was at the head of the charge.

Raven, the traitor, sat back and laughed at him. She wasn't laughing, but it was obvious that she found his misery amusing.

Anyway, this lead to a citywide hunt for Danny. Anytime he spotted even a hint of any of the Titans chasing him, he was gone. He couldn't stray too far from Constantine, though, and Beast Boy had a nose like a damn elephant.

The chase lasted a solid three hours before he had to let them catch him, if only so that he could tell them to leave him alone because he's there on official JLD business. Not like that would actually work, but he had hope. Unfortunately, he forgot that Red Robin is Bat Trained.

Danny took a second for himself before the Titans caught up with him. Was this really better than Deadman harassing him about his first time in Gotham? No, it wasn't. It wasn't any worse, either, and he didn't know how to feel about that.

"Are you finally done running?" Red Robin asked, landing in a crouch in front of him.

Danny folded his legs to sit criss-cross in the air as the rest of the kids that had been chasing him joined RR. "You make it sound like I'm a criminal."

"You ran like one," Beast Boy pointed out. Fair, but rude. "And, dude, I don't know if you know this, but you smell horrible."

Danny placed a hand on his chest with a dramatic gasp. "How dare you! I took a shower just last week!"

Raven was now unamused.

Superboy gagged a bit. "He's right," A small shudder. "I couldn't smell it before, but I can now that you're so close to me."

He sighed with equal dramatics as his gasp. "I guess I can never get rid of the smell, even after all this time."

Wonder Girl tilted her head to the side slightly. "Oh? And what smell would that be?"

"The smell of death," John Constantine, ever a man of impeccable timing, turned onto the side street to join them. He largely ignored the kids in favor of the ghost child who isn't actually a child but no one listens to him when he explains that so he's probably going to stop trying. "It lingers. C'mon, kid, we've got a demon to exorcise."

Danny huffed like a petulant child, "Still not a kid!"

Constantine continued walking away. "Still don't care."

Part 4 Part 6

Tag List:

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[linkspooky]

GOOD SIBLING, BAD SIBLING: THE FIRE SIBLINGS VS. STARFIRE AND BLACKFIRE

What could two siblings born in a royal family where one is scapegoated and the other treated like a golden child possibly have in common? More than you think.

This post is making the rounds again and I thought it would be fun to make a longer post going into depth why I think Starfire and Blackfire avert the common trope of good sibling bad sibling, by comparing it to something that fails to avoid that trope. If you like doomed siblings or bad victims then click the readmore.

Good Sibling, Bad Sibling

To start off with I'm going to explain what I mean when I use the words Good Sibling, Bad Sibling. It's a trope that's an extention of what I call Good Victim, Bad Victim. It's when a story compares two victims of abuse, and one victim is a more acceptable victim while the other is a bad victim because they're not perfect suffering Cinderellas.

Victims of course still have agency in their responses, they're still culpable if their actions go on to hurt someone, they don't have a right to hurt others, but I think it's also true most people are quick to judge victims for not being strong enough to endure abuse when they haven't been in the same situation.

It's easy from an outsider's perspective to be "I wouldn't do that". It comes from a pretty shallow view that villainizes abusers and renders them as inhuman monsters when the truth is all abusers are still humans and anyone can fall into patterns of abuse whether they mean to or not.

One reason I hate this trope besides like, the fact characters that aren't perfect victims are often considered "too far gone" and murdered by the narrative, it's also just really shallow. In the end it usually comes down to the victim getting love and support healing and the victim who didn't have support getting worse. Which is like, a no duh of a situation. A person without friends or a support system or love in their life tends to not get better? Who woulda guessed.

Good Sibling, Bad Sibling shows up when two siblings are raised under the same house, sometimes even in the same abusive circumstances and one is a hero and the other is a villain. Another version of this tropes is the fact that if there are twins one of them is usually going to be a good twin and the other is an evil twin.

I can understand where this trope comes from because like siblings are a naturally close relationship, so it makes it a deeply personal conflict when a character's sibling turns against them. I don't even think it's a necessarily bad trope, if both characters are humanized equally which almost never happens.

Examples of this trope: Gammorra and Nebula, Mai and Maki, Shoto and Toya, Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, Itachi and Sasuke.

And of course, Starfire and Blackfire, and Zuko and Azula.

My goal is to show by breaking the source material, New Teen Titans and the Avatar Cartoon down the former averts the trope and the latter plays it straight.

The Golden Child and the Scapegoat

A common trope used in dysfuctional families is dividing children between a golden child, and a scapegoat. The parent often projects all of their positive qualities on a golden child, along with high expectations. While the Scapegoat has all their negative qualities projected on them, and is often blamed unfairly for the dysfunction in the house. They are scapegoated so to speak, and constantly the victim of things like shifting goalposts.

It's like a more extreme version of playing favorites with an extra dollop of abuse on top. Also to be clear, this is an abusive dynamic where both sides are abused. They're not being seen as parents by their parents, and they are essentially being pitted against each other. There are plenty of parents who will be just as harsh on their perceived favorite. Being the golden child doesn't really safeguard you from abuse, even if it seems to be the more favorable position to be in.

Also in general when discussing abuse, arguing over who has it worse is kind of a pointless argument.

Also sometimes the playing favorites is intentional. By splitting up siblings and putting them against each other, the parent gets more control over each of them like a divide and conquer strategy. After all an abusers primary objective is to maintain control over someone by patterns of abusive behavior meant to wear down their sense of resistance.

With that being established, comparing the two royal families is interesting because the "hero" sibling is the golden child in one version, and the "villain" sibling is the scapegoat in another. If anything this proves that both forms of abuse can be the reason for a villain's tragic backstory.

STARFIRE AND AZULA THE PERFECT PRINCESS

Starfire might appear at first to be the total opposite of Azula. One of them is a hero who's like entire character is built around her overflowing emotions and the love she feels for people. While Azula is cold, calculating, and often treats her own friends like pawns instead of people. Starfire also doesn't repeat the cycle of abuse, while Azula does.

If you look past that there's a lot of comparisons to draw between the two of them. They are both raised in warrior, war-like cultures. The Tamaraneans may be all about that peace and love but like, an early conflict with Starfire's is that because she was raised on a planet as a warrior she doesn't understand why other heroes have a no-kill rule.

Azula is also a product of her culture. To begin with she's raised as a child soldier, of a nationalist and imperialist nation who are actively colonizing half the war. Azula also contributes significantly to the war effort, and never shows any doubt to the values of her culture.

As a brief summary of their early characters, Azula is princess of the fire nation which went to war with the world. She's the daughter of the Fire Nation's absolute ruler. She's however, the second born and not ever expected to inherit the throne. She is introduced in season one when Zuko vents to an unconscious Aang about how everything has always been easy for his sister. In Season two she becomes the main antagonist, first tasked with retrieving her brother, and then decides to try to capture the avatar on her own. I'd also be remiss to mention that Azula is the most personal antagonist the heroes face, because Ozai is more of a final boss.

Starfire is an alien that was sold by her sister into slavery essentially (Blackfire is not a good person). She escaped to earth and became a member of the Teen Titans where she found a new family and worked as a hero. She's basically an immigrant to earth and there's a lot of culture shock. Starfire eventually returns home to her planet when it's in danger, and faces her sister as an antagonist.

This is another way in which they differ, Azula is the primary antagonist and negative foil to Zuko, and Blackfire is the primary antagonist and negative foil to Starfire.

While both basically have the tentative position of the favorite, while their sibling is demonized, it's made clear to them that they're not actually "safe" with their parents. Both sets of parents are awful and the origin of all abuse within the household. These characters also receive a slap in the face after being in denial for a long time that these parents will even mistreat their "favorite" child and treat them like an object.

Though, I would argue that Starfire is more in denial about her parent's abuse and will still see them as loving parents, while Azula is aware that her father could turn on her and strives for perfection to keep herself "safe".

Note Starfire is still saying this stuff after her parent's sold her into a political marriage.

Ozai: My decision is final. Azula: You ... you can't treat me like this! You can't treat me like Zuko! Ozai: Azula, silence yourself. Azula: But it was my idea to burn everything to the ground! I deserve to be by your side!

I've seen some people's unsympathetic readings of this line that Azula throws Zuko under the bus, but like... Azula doesn't want to be abused like her brother. What a monster. Let's see how you react when the father you thought was safe turns on you, I think most people would say or do anything not to get hurt.

I don't want to sound too critical of Starfire because she has her reasons (Blackfire abused her severely) but both Starfire and Azula seem to justify their parent's abuse to themselves by saying Blackfire or Zuko did something to cause the abuse. Sliding the blame from the abuser to the abuse victim. They participate in the parent's scapegoating of the the least favorite child.

I'd like to point out though that the ultimate cause of the situation is the parents themselves. The abuse started when they are children, and expecting Starfire and Azula as children to like, go out of their way to protect their abused siblings is expecting a lot out of them.

Like Azula is afraid to lose her position as the favorite because Ozai has demonstrated before that he'll horribly mutilate his children. Who would have guessed. Blackfire severely abused Starfire in their childhood, so she sees Blackfire as her enemy and not her parents who would have guessed.

In general too, expecting Starfire and Azula to be perfect siblings in an abusive household, and always protect their siblings, is once again a lot to expect from literal children who don't have fully developed brains.

However, I would say in both cases, they both try harder to connect with their sibling. This is where I get angry anons in my inbox, yes I'm going to make the argument that Azula was a better sibling than Zuko was to her. No I also don't expect Zuko to be a perfect big brother when actively being abused by Ozai. No I don't think Zuko owes Azula anything because she too prioritized her own well being over him that's what abuse victims do.

I'm just making the argument with in text examples that Azula does more things to help Zuko, and Starfire actively tried to befriend Blackfire before the sibling abuse started. In fact I think that's what makes both relationships incredibly tragic. It's not really two siblings who love each other on opposite sides of a conflict. It's that Blackfire and Zuko can't see past their own abuse, and can't love their siblings.

Once again I'm not blaming Zuko for priotizing himself, but I also think it's unfair to critcize Azula for taking care of herself and not sticking her neck out for Zuko when they were both being abused. Wow why are people extra harsh on Azula and extra forgiving on Zuko. It's almost like women are always expected to be perfect nurturers, and when they're not allowed to be complex human beings with flaws.

My old enemy the Madonna Whore complex you strike again!

Anyway onto the examples. The big one is that Azula invited Zuko back after Ba Sing Se, seemed genuine about wanting to help resstore his honor. This is also a sacrifice on her part, because as I said even when he was banished Zuko didn't lose the title of crown prince. His status as the heir was never in question and like, letting Zuko stay a prisoner in Ba Sing Se would have ensured his inheritance would fall to her.

Why don't you let him decide, Uncle? [To Zuko.] I need you, Zuko. I've plotted every move of this day, [Makes a fist.] this glorious day in Fire Nation history, and the only way we win is together. At the end of this day, you will have your honor back. You will have Father's love. You will have everything you want.

Now common criticisms people use to argue that Azula has good intentions.

1) Azula needed Zuko to turn the tides in battle. While Azula was kind of in a corner in the fight where Zuko turned she also had Mai and Ty Lee and the entire Dai Li on her side so I don't think she'd really assume she needed Zuko to defeat the avatar. Also she starts getting backed into a corner long after she made the offer to Zuko so she had no way of knowing that ahead of time. Also, also, she might have just been backed into a corner for the sake of drama, making it more impactful when Zuko shows up and turns the tide.

2) Azula somehow knew she might not kill the avatar and needed Zuko to take the fall. This one doesn't make sense because Azula doesn't have any idea that Aang didn't die, until Zuko hints at it. After that point, Zuko kept it a secret from her and refused to tell her even though the truth being revealed would impact both of them. Like for Azula to know ahead of time she'd fail to kill the avatar when she made her offer to Zuko, and then bring him back to take the fall would require some 4d chess on her end.

Two more examples are Azula goes out of her way to warn Zuko that he might get in trouble for visint Iroh so often. On the Beach she's the one who comforts him and retrieves him from their old vacation house. When they're in front of the fire and Zuko is troubled she asks him what's wrong and even asks if she's the one at fault. Whereas Zuko mocks her for not having problems when Azula confesses her mother thought she was a monster he doesn't say anything in response.

In Tales of the New Teen Titans we get a closer look at Starfire and Blackfire's childhood, and we're shown Starfire tried hard at first to get along with her sister. Starfire also, in spite of being a victim of Blackfire's abuse went out of her way to save her life twice.

Something Blackfire responded with by immediately trying to kill her. Blackfire, you are a piece of work. In both cases, I'd argue Starfire and Azula try at least to have a positive relationship with their siblings. Attempts that are almost completely one-sided. I don't want to demonize Zuko too much though, because as I said when you're actively being abused it's number one easy to see the other sibling as being better off, and only natural you would prioritize yourself.

Also, Blackfire was an adult and continued the abuse later on in life when she had more agency, whereas Zuko for most of the tv show was a minor and you shouldn't hold minors to adult standards. If I judge characters for having an imperfect reaction to abuse, or not being perfect siblings I can no longer call myself a bad victim enjoyer.

Both Starefire and Azula as I said, participate in the scapegoating. In both cases it's out of a desire to maintain their spot as the golden child, because they want to assume they're safe.

Starfire actively defends her aprents all the time, while insisting that Blackfire was evil to begin with. Which is understandable again because Blackfire's abuse is just so much worse than anything Azula does to Zuko. It's expecting a little too much for Starfire to see the humanity in her abuser when she's a lifelong victim.

Like little blackfire things: Killing her sister's pet.

Phsyical abuse, actively trying to kill her even before they were on opposite sides of a war.

Selling her into Slavery (where Starfire was sexually abused).

It's extra tragic because both are essentially blaming the other for their parent's abuse. Blackfire takes out her pain on Starfire as revenge for her parent's favoritism, even though it's not her fault. Starfire demonizes Blackfire because she refuses to confront the fact that her parent's are abusive.

This is behavior Azula engages in as well. If you read into her actions, you can tell she blames Zuko for his abuse, you can't treat me like Zuko, while also believing that if she can just make Zuko act more like a prince he won't provoke his father anymore. Once again, sliding the blame on the abused rather than the abuser makes Azula feel more safe, because she also believes if she's perfect Ozai will leave her alone.

Zuko and Blackfire: The Banished Prince and the DIsowned Princess

This is another pair of seeming opposites. Blackfire is essentially Starfire's most personal arch enemy, occupying the same spot as Azula. Zuko is a villain for awhile, but honestly he's bad at it, and until the end of Season 1 he's so ineffectual he's more comic relief. Blackfire like Azula is insanely competent and causes a lot of genuine harm to the protagonists, and is far far worse than Zuko or even Azula obviously. I mean I've already listed some of the things she did above, but she also let her planet be conquered by aliens, orchestrated not one but two cues, and tried to have her parents blown up on live television.

However, both characters are effectively disowned and banished from their country for their inability to fit in. Both are banished and excessively punished.

Blackfire is the first born princess of Tamaran and she should have been heir to her family, but she was stripped of her inheritance because she was born disabled. Every Tamaranean can fly except her because of a sickness that nearly killed her when she was younger.

That's right everyone, the disabled representation you've been waiting for the sibling abuser and war-mongerer.

I think Blackfire's abuse covers a common way parent's treat their disabled children, where they don't want to make accomodations and make it clear they' don't want to take care of a disabled child and spend all their attention on their abled children instead. This trope is often called "Better dead than disabled."

Also I'd be remiss to point out that Tamaraneas have access to hover technology so Blackfire's disability doesn't inhibit her in any way. Like damn, parents will do anything but try to accomondate their disabled child.

Zuko is punished needlessly for a small offense of speaking out of turn in a meeting for not wanting to sacrifice young soldiers, and then refusing to fight back against his father in an angi kai. At which point he's banished and sent on a fool's errand of hunting the avatar.

Blackfire's reason for being banished is uhhh, because she tried to kill her sister in combat training, but also she was stripped of her inheritance just before being born disabled. She awas punished for things she couldn't control before she did anything wrong.

Both siblings also try to make up for their trauma and perceived deficiencies by constantly projecting violence. Blackfire is like, obsesed with war, Zuko's definition of honor is more focused around glory gained by combat more particularly killing the avatar in the first season. Both of them actively participated in colonization, Blackfire helped colonize her home planet, Zuko burned Kyoshi village and helped Azula with Ba Sing Se. Blackfire brought back an army to colonize her home planet, then attempts a military coup of a rather peaceful reign her parents secured not once but twice.

Both are blamed for their parent's abuse, it's Blackfire's fault because she was a violent and unlikable child she made it impossible to love her. It's Zuko's fault, he just didn't try hard enough to please his father and fit in as a prince.

While I may sound overly critical of Avatar's writing I do like how they gave Zukio a lot of chances to make mistakes and screw up, and instead of condemning him or dismissing him as too far gone they kept reinforcing that he always had a chance to better himself.

Both characters are really jealous and tend to blame the other sibling who's treated as the favorite for their abuse.

Zuko: "You're like my sister. Everything always came easy to her. She is a firebending prodigy and everyone adores her. My father says she was born lucky. He says I was lucky to be born... I don't need luck though - I don't want it. I've always had to struggle and fight and that's made me strong. It's made me who I am".

Though to give credit to Blackfire, while as a child she blamed Starfire for everything and used her as a punching bag, as an adult she seems to understand that the cause of their conflict was their parents and in fact tries to explain this to Starfire multiple times. So she's matured enough to see that Starfire is ultimately a victim too.

As I said too, Zuko is a child, he's also like still actively being victimized by Ozai while at the same time under the notion that if he does the right thing he can earn Ozai's love for 3/4ths of the show it's easy to understand why he'd blame Azula for his position as the scapegoat instead of Ozai.

Zuko never attempts to convince Azula to change sides with him, or considers that an option. When Azula is like, falling through the air about to die he doesn't tell his friends piloting the bison to try to save her. His stated goal when fighting Azula in the fignal agni kai is to put her in her place. That's literally a line he says.

Zuko, the empath when noticing she's having a total mental breakdown says "She's kind of off" and decides to take advantage of that to win the fight. When Azula finally breaks down and is screaming and crying, he just kind of sits there looking bored.

I'm not arguing that Zuko owes her anything that's a personal opinion, just that it's inconsistent with Zuko's writing. Zuko is presented to us as a character revolving around redemption, that learns that love and forgiveness are key to growth and healing and then just... doesn't apply those same lessons he learned to his sister.

That same kind of hypocrisy is present in Starfire, but it's like intentional. Starfire's inability to empathize with her sister, when her entire character revolves around empathy and love shows just how damaged her relationship with her sister is. Even then Starfire like, saves her life twice and was never able to kill her. With far more reason to not empathize with her sister, while blatantly hating her, Starfire still has that tiny bit of empathy for her. It's also like, Tamaraneans are a violent warrior people, and they're also extremely emotional and full of love, Starfire embodies both sides of that.

It's not just Blackfire either, it takes Starfire a long time to learn that she can't just kill criminals (again understandable, a cultural thing, in fact people like Dick are a little bit too harsh on her for this instead of trying to explain and understand where she's coming from). It is consistent with Starfire's writing, she is openly loving, but she's not the team mom that's Donna.

Zuko like, not even trying to redeem Azula or just like, not really caring is inconsistent with the writing that's trying to tell us that deep down Zuko is a caring person that is going to help heal the fire nation by showing them a better path forward. Zuko's double standards towards his sister, and his unfairly blaming her for his father's abuse is not written as a flaw. Blackfire unfairy blaming Starfire for her parent's abuse is a flaw. Blackfire's abuse of Starfire is her own fault, which is something she continues to do well into adulthood.

Which is why it's kind of all the more baffling, that Blackfire is way worse, is humanized a lot more by her narrative than Azula is. Now we reach the final part.

The Final Agni Kai

Now to trash on everyone's favorite scene that I absolutely despise as the end to Zuko and Azula's arc, while praising what is my favorite arc in the whole New Teen Titans manga. In the series finale of Avatar, Zuko after reuniting with Iroh is tasked with challenging Azula for the throne in the Agni Kai. They fight, and Zuko comes out on top.

In what is essentially the final fight between Starfire and Blackfire, Starfire is alerted by her brother that things are going down on her planet. She leaves earth with the Teen Titans and returns to her planet for a second time. Where she learns that she is being sold by her parents into an arranged marriage, as a part of a peace agreement with the invading force of her planet. Something that Starfire does not take well too, because she's currently in love with her longtime boyfriend Dick Grayson.

I'm going to skip over the Soap opera that is Starfire and Dick, because it's soon revealed that Blackfire too has returned in order to orchestrate a coup to overthrow her parents once more.

In the end Blackfire reveals her plan that she's set up an ion bomb to hold the whole planet hostage unless her parents abdicate and declare her ruler. At which point, Blackfire succeeds.

Both plots involve the scapegoat finally reclaiming their heritage and beating their sibling for the first time, one is the hero, the other is the villain... or are they?

There's a reason I love one arc and hate the other. It's that Blackfire is eventually allowed to be her own seperate character from Starfire, whereas Azula is ultimately just a plot object to strengthen Zuko's arc. This is shown in just, the amount of focus Zuko and his inner world are compared to Azula, how he has one of the most lovingly tailored redemption arcs shown throughout the entire show whereas Azula's mental breakdown is rushed through the entire end.

However, to further illustrate this let me show how well the New Teen Titans humanizes Koriand'r. To begin with, we see their childhood from both perspectives, to show both are biased narrators. Starfire represents her sister as being born evil, while Blackfire believes Starfire being the favorite took all her parent's love away from her.

Blackfire also gets, sympathetic motivations that demonstrate she's also capable of love and craves it deep down but suppresses it because she believes she needs to be a weapon of war. Something that is directly stated by the comics and only like implied by offhand by the avatar show.

In fact Blackfire gets to star in her own comic which tells a story where she is temporarily blinded after her first defeat to Starfire. After feeling helpess she feels like she's lost the will to fight, the will to kill, the will to rule which is how she defines herself.

Blackfire survives with one of her soldiers who doesn't abandon her, and helps teach with her rehabilitation teaching her how to fight while blind. Their relationship grows so close that Dorion feels like the first person that ever took care of Blackfire, and she breaks down and admits how much she wants to be loved. She almost seems willing to give up her conquest.

However, Blackfire misses out on the chance to be loved because her fanatically devoted soldier tricks her into killing him in order to show her that she still has the edge to kill.

This also clues us into more complex motivations for Blackfire. She is actively a patriot who believes that her father's rule is weak (she turns out to be right) and believes that conquering her planet is in effect her way of saving it. She has to put on this persona because the cause is more important than anything in her life, even love.

(This also contrasts Starfire who has no interest in being a ruler and runs away to live on earth with her love).

Also I'd be remiss to mention at the end of this particular arc Starfire doesn't forgive her sister or reconcile with her. I've never believed she owed her that. The arc just shows that Blackfire a human being (or a tamaranean I guess) who is capable of both good and evil. That her motivations are more complex than being a power hungry usurper and she actually can have good intentions. She's more of an example of the 'Well-intentioned Extremist" trope.

It's the complete opposite of Azula who's reduced to the mad queen stereotype in the end. Which is another knock against Avatar, Blackfire might not be the best disabled representation in the world but as I said parent's only treating their disabled child as a burden and that disabled child watching their parents take care of and love their abled children is a real thing that happens all the time. The comic also goes to show how competent Blackfire is in sipte of her disability.

Whereas, I can't imagine what it feels like to see yourself in Azula's mental breakdown, only to watch her last moment on the show have her offered no support, and not even a single sign that she might recover one day. Blackfire's motivations are tied to her abuse, but she's not demonized for being disabled in fact she's fantastically competent. Azula's like, readuced to an inhuman, ugly monster, and her mental illness takes all of her agency away and once again we're shown no hope for recovery.

Azula is reduced to a screaming incoherent mess. She has basically no agency in the end. Not only does Blackfire have agency, but like she has acutal points to make? The story values her point of view and gives credence to it? Myand'r is a weak ruler. She's not wrong when she says that their parents are the source of abuse for both of them. In fact, the narrative directly states the ones who started the abuse are their parents while it only implies it again with Azula and Zuko. Maybe the reason so many people deny that Azula is an abuse victim is because we only see the abuse from Zuko's perspective not Azula's. Whereas we get both conflicting accounts of Blackfire and Starfire's childhood and the narrative trusts us to judge things with nuance rather than needing it fed to us.

The planet has been invaded twice now. She's also, like, more popular with her father's weak rule?

Also like the story shows us why Blackfire will make a better ruler than Starfire. The narrative doesn't really illustrate how Zuko will be a better ruler, it just follows the "good king" trope.

I mean it's a fun little parallel that both Zuko and Blackfire are both an exiled prince and princess respectively, who return home to take back their throne. On one hand though, it feels like Zuko does it out of like, wanting to reclaim his birthright, or his feeling that the throne is his destiny. That's part of Blackfire's motivation too, but as I said, Zuko never states onscreen how he plans to improve the fire nation, Blackfire's got like actual policies.

Which is where the difference ultimately lies, Blackfire and Starfire are ultimately characterized as two sides of the same coin who need to come together to save the planet. Killing blackfire or putting her down won't fix shit or end the cycle of abuse on Tamaran. Blackfire and Starfire are much like Tamaran defined by love and war, and there's love and war in Starfire, and love and war in Blackfire and they both need to find a balance between the two.

This is in contrast to Zuko and Azula who's final conflict is just putting Azula down like a mad dog, quite literally. Blackfire is allowed to be human, with good and bad traits, and like actual points to make whereas Zuko's narrative only cares about Zuko's thoughts, and in general instead of coming together the narrative seems to think the only way that Zuko can triumph is if Azula is dragged down into the mud.

Blackfire is a character, and Azula is ultimately just a plot obstacle.

So that's my long ramble on a sibling relationship I absolutely love, and a sibling relationship I can't love no matter how much I like Zuko and Azula individually.

[batsandbirdbrains]

Heyyy! I love love LOVE your Bad parent!Bruce but also the wholesome dad Bruce and it's torture lol! It honestly makes me think more about the what if Bruce was good Dad then became a meh dad and then fully bad dad?

It's him being a good dad to Dick at the start, where kid Dick was okay with doing the emotional work to understand him and Bruce helped him because he was younger and loved him then Dick got to his teen years and just it's exhausting being the understanding one? Being the one doing the emotional workload? And Bruce is not helping because he sees Dick growing up and he doesn't try harder to connect to him but also still sees him as a child that he became even more protective especially because he's now with the Titans more than him? Then the firing happens and they just disconnect and then Jason is here and Bruce is actually helping in the emotional workload and Dick is envious because why couldn't you be that to me??

Then Jason dies, Bruce hits Dick and Dick is just I'm done. But Tim comes and he doesn't need emotional connection on the surface so Bruce doesn't get better but Dick sees and knows and tries for Tim and makes Bruce a little more better but not like he was and not with Dick. But when Damian comes? Bruce can't see him as a kid, he's trying but the disconnect between what he knows and what Damian is doing isn't helping and what should he do-

And he's gone, and then Dick is the one responsible for Damian, and yes he's grieving his dad but the dad he really loved was long gone by this point and so when he takes on Damian and helps him emotionally he talks about the old Bruce, the one who actually treated a kid like a kid and the one who while awkward still was obvious in his love. Dick becomes Dami's Baba and Dami becomes his Robin.

When Bruce returns it's both him and not. Dami can't see the man his Baba talked about but no one else is questioning it and Dick said the he changed after Todd's death. Their relationship now is more work colleagues and the only trust between them is bc Nightwing kept helping for 6 months. Then Dami dies, and Dick dies and then Spyral and Bruce is getting worse, more Batman and mission than the person and the hero.

The amnesia arc happens but when Bruce gets his memories back he's hit by what sort of person he has become, by what he has done, by how much he changed, how could he become more general than father what happened WHY-

Lol I think I went too deep down the rabbit hole. I honestly also like the idea that when Bruce returned from the time stream something did change in him, like poison or parasite that made him worse and then led to the spyral beating + mission but by the time he gets his memories (which shocks his systems into recovery) Dick is already back and his relationship with a lot of people has soured. (In my ideal au Dick decided that he tried enough to explain and he is done doing the effort of building the relationship for anyone and so when they want to talk like civilized people he will explain. Of course this means that only Dami from the family knows the truth + The og Titans, a lot of other superheros were okay with his return but didn't ask him anything just assumed it's Bats normal ops (because yes he's everyone friends but not everyone needs to know)) Okay I'll shut up now lol.

This blog is all about going down rabbit holes and exploring their potential!! And this is such a fun one!!!

Bruce gradually becoming a worse and worse parent I think is prob a little easier to explain anyway than just having him instantly be like “I’m gonna beat the shit out of this child” ☠️

[levshany]

how do I put this. Even those who actually track our blogs and are interested in our Aus can get a little confused about what's going on here. but I'll try to explain anyway

we already mentioned the crossover between Anarchists and Tandem and even DRAWED them once, back when Tandem was in development (and by the way, this crossover is canonical for both AUs). Now this story has been continued >:D

Here's some context: It so happened that the Colibri wanted to see what alternative timelines looked like and ran into the king and the jester. Phil was delighted with Colibri and wanted to flirt with them. Jester Collie was categorically against it. so he immediately possessed Phill and tried to fight Tandem. he didn’t succeed because his fusion with Phil is extremely unstable. and here we are

Initially, @angstyhikka and I just drew these three pages, but then @lasymit supported the idea and made a drabble which she allowed me to add to the post :3

------------------------------------

"Let go, bitch! I'm not done with you yet!"

The savage creature desperately squirmed in Philip’s hands. It grabbed onto him, trying to either break free or, on the contrary, rush closer, glaring furiously and baring its shark teeth.

He held the clumsy, collapsing fusion at arm's length and looked at it with slight disgust. His tandem with the Collector was a strange but harmonious union. And what was writhing in front of them right now was the direct antipode of the word harmony.

“Well, I am,” he said distantly.

And with his other hand he grabbed the one sitting inside the demon’s body. Under the flesh soaked in titan blood, he felt a soft essence, like rubber or hot wax. The Collector from this universe felt completely different to the touch.

He stretched them, pulling them away from each other, disentangling them from each other. Paradoxically, bodies that should repel each other by the nature of their forces, like unipolar magnets, clung to each other very stubbornly. But Philip was still stronger with the power of the Collector in his hands, power which he clearly used better than the local... king of demons...

“Ouuuuch ouuuuch,” a boy in the robes of a jester, painted in red and black, shrank on the ground, wrapping his arms around his own chest.

He was not at all like his Collector. Philip had never seen his friend's material body before. But he knew he looked different. For some reason he knew this for sure.

"Who pulls a guy out like that!? Fuck!!", the now-green demon yelled nearby. And he clutched his head painfully.

What Idiots. They vomited three times while chasing him. Philip did them a favor by stopping this outrage.

Now these two were lying helplessly at his feet, groaning and gasping, trying to catch their breath and come to their senses. Now they are separated.

"What were you trying to achieve?" His question was almost rhetorical.

"It wasn’t me, it was all him!" like a child, pointing a sharp, protruding finger towards the Collector, the demon yelled. "I didn’t want to fight at all!"—here he gazed up at Philip with some strange look and batted his eyelashes expressively—"I wanted something else– something more interesting."

"Ohh fuck off, Maggie! You traitor!" came the shout from the red Collector. Philip silently decided to call him the Jester and the demon, by analogy, the King. Philip had already guessed his name. But he couldn’t bring himself to call this savage by that name. Not even in his mind. 

He ignored the King's vague attempts to take a tempting pose while still lying on the ground and grinding his teeth from the headache. He turned to the Jester.

"So you're in charge?"

Judging by King's behavior, it would indeed be reckless to put him in charge. But, having always been the decision-maker when paired with the Collector, by right of being the adult, Philip is accustomed to his friend almost never taking the leading role unless circumstances require it. Like a couple of years ago...

“Nuh-uh,” the Jester raised himself up on his elbow and rubbed his chest, inhaling deeply, greedily. "We're bros! Equal rights and stuff."

And he twirled his funny yellow gloved hand in the air.

Something in the Jester’s words pricked Philip. He didn't fully understand what exactly.. Until the King said, in a dramatic whisper:

"I no longer have a brother. You’re dead to me!"

And Philip stood there, trying to remember that the air was not hard, dense lumps, that it did not clog in the throat and did not press in the chest with a dull phantom pain. Meanwhile these two idiots, after a couple moments of aggressive looks, laughed out loud.

“Yes, I would strangle such a brother,” the King squeezed out, wheezing and squinting through laughter, “with my own-"

And he bent over, swallowing the end of the sentence with a cough as the toe of a boot hit him in the stomach.

"Philip! Philip... They've had enough... He doesn't know what he's talking about."

Philip's cheek twitched.

"Ouch... bro, save me!" the King squeaked hoarsely.

And this completely infuriated Philip. He swung his foot again, this time at the face. But he was met by an elastic wall. And the ground under Colibri’s feet, along with all the space, suddenly curved.

If it weren't for years with the Collector in his head, he wouldn't have realized what happened. But now he clearly saw how a couple of dimensions were distorted, folding space into a loop. He suddenly found himself not between the King and the Jester, but at a considerable distance. And these two were already close together. The boy helped his “brother” get up from the ground; King was now leaning on Jester’s shoulders, clutching his stomach. Perhaps Philip miscalculated his strength a little. This happens sometimes... Especially when it comes to emotions.

“Hey! Hitting people who are down is against the rules,” the Jester frowned. "Give us a timeout!"

Philip felt his jaw tighten. How the nodules rolled across his face. But the flaring rage, as it often happened to him, went away as easily as it filled the air in his chest, leaving reddish streaks before his eyes and pulsating power in his fingertips.

“Get out of the way,” he let his hands glow slightly.

"Ohhhh, what about a last kiss, star boy?" the King whined, clinging to the Jester and trying to straighten up next to him, as if hoping to reach Philip from a distance of ten steps and still get the coveted—

A kiss? Seriously, what the hell? Philip directed a confused, irritated look that bore all these unspoken questions at the Jester. He awkwardly shrugged his sharp shoulders, caught in the King’s grip.

"Don’t be mad... Philip, right? Don't be mad at him, Philip. His Majesty has a reason to be an idiot. And he didn’t mean it out of malice about the ‘brother’ thing.”

Philip looked at the Jester more carefully. The collector in his head was silent. But Philip sensed something from him. Philip also noticed the King’s uncomprehending expression.

“What’s wrong with ‘brother’?” The King sounded surprised.

And then Philip understood. And his face froze.

Yes... yes, what need is there to remember such things? He himself tried to forget for a long time... If he succeeded, would he be the same now as the king in front of him?

Looking at this wretched shell of a “King” who’d forgotten everything important about himself and the loyal “Jester” still standing steadily at his side, the Collector in Philip’s head began to sob. They both, it seems, had the same thought. It’s scary to look at the reflection of a future that never happened.

The jester smiled at him guiltily- at both of them. And then he confidently and widely showed about fifty teeth to his King.

"People don’t like such familiarity, you fool! You can’t just kiss someone the first time you meet."

"But it's okay to fight them when you first meet?" Philip was indignant...

Yes, it's Philip. He cannot refuse to call this man by his own name. Philip himself could one day become such a “king.”

------------------------------------

also @kenku97 helped us with translation and added this comment, I gotta show it to you ;v;

"I thought “The collector in his head sobbed” needed more context for people who aren’t as tightly wrapped up in these AUs as we all are. To understand why Collie’s crying, you need to point out how Tandem Collie sees himself in the Jester. They’re both caring for a Philip who is forgetting himself and the people closest to him. Jester is living out Tandem Collie’s worst fear: what will happen when Philip can’t remember anything anymore? What will become of their friendship? And it’s bittersweet because the King and the Jester are still friends, even though the Jester basically had to start over from the beginning. Jester Collie is quietly carrying all of those memories inside his heart of a friend who has basically disappeared while still learning about and loving the brand new person his friend has become. It’s so sweet and so sad.😭"

that's pretty much all for now It’s hard to return to drawing after the holidays. and this is not even a new art you see, but last year’s. therefore this comic cannot be considered the first work of this year sadly

[rubydubydoo122]

could you talk more about fanon vs canon tim drake? i havent gotten too far into the comics yet but have seen a lot of him (mis?)characterized by others

Just a preface, I'm not gonna crucify any Tim fans who find themselves writing these tropes, because it is fandom, and everyone's allowed their own interpretations of the character, I'm just personally not a fan of these takes on Tim because in my mind they just don't make sense for the character. If anyone has differing opinions, feel free to (politely) explain them to me, because I'm happy to hear them.

Ok, so much like Fanon Dick Grayson, there are two versions of fanon Tim Drake.

There's version A.) where where he's one minor inconvienience away from becoming a supervillain (I understand where this one comes from and I don't HATE it) and there's version B.) where he was criminally neglected as a kid and is infantalized (This version of Tim I Loathe)

I'll start with version A. I see where it comes from. Mainly the Red Robin 2009 run, but we have to remember that Tim was grieving pretty much everyone close to him during that era. He was being self destructive because of that grief, and yeah, grief changes a person, but Tim is the type of character who would still turn out good despite all the hurt handed to him. Oh! But Gun Batman-- Tim actively chose against being that. He would rather kill himself than let himself become a version of Batman who went against everything Batman stood for. I know there are multiple storylines where Tim meets and evil future version of himself, but those versions would constantly be like a weight on him to be good. All in all, if I had to choose between the fanon Tim Drakes, I would choose villain Tim Drake, as long as it's done in more of a character-study way rather than a 'He deserves to go evil, as a treat' because it's an interesting take with the right motives.

Now onto Version B. Loser Tim Drake. The reason I Loathe this version of Tim is because it usually involves Characters Assassination of the characters around him. Ok, so do I agree that Tim Drake was somewhat neglected? Yes. But goddamit, the way I see Jack and Janet portrayed, you would think that they were running from the feds or something. They were good people, just bad parents. Maybe a little immature to raise a child, but it wasn't to the point where they would probably need to call CPS. Neglect isn't black and white, and the Drakes fell into that grey-- which I personally believe to be a lighter shade. You do have to remember that a lot of Tim's introduction was written in the 90's where parenting styles were a lot different compared to Today. Still, they sent him to boarding school, meaning they made sure that some form of adult was taking care of Tim AND a lot of people try to make Jack Drake out to be the villain for stopping Tim from being Robin, and blackmailing Bruce for it, but... It's What Any Sane Parent Would Do? I'm 18, but I know if I ever had a kid, and then fell into a coma and then woke up and found out that my Kid was fighting crime in one of the most CRIME RIDDEN CITIES alongside my middle-aged neighbor who dresses up like a furry I WOULD CALL THE FUCKING COPS. But enough about the Drakes. Because not only does Loser Tim Drake assassinate their character, but why is 17 year old Tim the victim when it comes to 10 year old Damian-- "Oh he tried to kill him' They're both trained by assassins. They're both trained. They're both Trained. Why Is a Junior/Senior in high school hurt by the actions of a 5th grader. I have a similar age gap with my younger brother. We have had pretty brutal fights and the next day we're fine. I'm not going to get into "Attack on Titans Tower AUs" but I will say this, Every Time I Start To Read One Of Those, I Lose Half Of My Hair Because of How Bad the Characterization Of Both Jason And Tim are. Please, Read, The, Comic. Jason Wasn't Trying To Kill Tim. If He Was, Tim would Be Dead. ANd Tim was Snarking Jason Through The Entire Confrontation. Lastly, Why Has DICK 'BAMF' GRAYSON TURNED INTO TIM"S NUMBER ONE OP????!!!! DIck IS LITERALLY TiM's ChiLDHOOD HEro!!!!! NoT BAtMAN, DICK GRAYSON. And like, not only that, Dick and Tim are the most brotherly. I'm Begging, Please go read a 90's comic. Why is it, the only time I see Dicks Manipulative side in fanon, It's in opposition to Tim? I bet it's bc of Teen Titans Go. I bet the only Tim and Dick interaction they've seen is TTG Robin going "No BOdy cARes AbOuT TiM DrAke"

Sorry that ended up becoming rant-y, and less objective. Since actually reading comics, fanon Tim Drake gets on my nerves.

[princessofghosts-posts]

If you scrolled enough on this page you know that no character is safe from me when it cames to Nico's mistreatment. Not even Chiron.

I have a very grey opinion of him,I don't hate him but I also don't like him. He is in the middle of tolerance for me,because let's be honest,the guy made some questionable decisions during PJO for being the millennial teacher of legendary heroes and head of the only demigods's greek camp for years.

I see a lot of criticism about the "No one told Nico that his sister died,they were waiting for me to do so." scene,which is a good thing because it's fucked up. Chiron is the adult here,but he didn't do shit and waited for an already stressed and guilty Percy to tell the news. And while I love Nico with all of my heart and understand that he was extremely hurt by Bianca's death,telling Percy that he should have be him to die is just adding to his trauma. The poor boy is barely 14,saw 2 people he went on a quest with die (and he already bleamed himself for their death,even tho it's not his fault,before this) and had a whole rollercoaster for his mission to save Annabeth,while dealing with camp being shit to him because Thalia was back. And what does Chiron do? Instead of helping him,he give him another emotional draining moment with a 10 years old that had to process his older sister died and now he's alone,without a family. Great job Chiron,couldn't do it better.

And when Nico run away? Percy and Annabeth were the only one searching for him at the start,but when they went to Chiron and explained the situation (without telling about his parentage),he just went on with a "Oh poor soul,hoping that he will be eaten by the monster instead of joining Luke's side." Like,what the fuck? Who the fuck say that about a 10 years old to an another child,that even tried to get him back multiple times while the adult didn't do shit? Chiron,you good here? Because I'm pretty sure that this isn't the way you need to behave with children: who cares if they are demigods,heroes,war veterans or whatever else,they are all children. It's already rare to live past 16,18 if you get lucky,don't treat them like shit.

Nico was alone in a place he didn't know,and we all know the forest isn't a safe place even if it's inside camp (look what happened during Percy's first year there-). Instead of trying to do something he just goes on with his no sense. He didn't even try to do something about it. Percy and Annabeth did. Chiron need to thanks Nico's golden heart, otherwise it wasn't going to end nicely. And beside,I'm pretty sure that being eaten alive by a monster is worst than working with other demigods for a Titan that isn't even back yet. Chiron you need to check your priorities here. Also the irony that Nico wasn't eaten or joined Kronos,and just did his own things alone in THE Labyrinth,one of the most dangerous place for demigods,will always be funny to me.

But really,where is his teacher's wisdom at? Chiron trained so many heroes for all of his life,and now that it cames to modern children,or pre-teens,he don't know what to do or how to act? This is insane even for their standard.

And even tho he is the "legal guardian" of the camp,he still doesn't do much for Camp Half-Blood. Talking with the people that suspect something? Ok. Pretending to be someone's guardian to avoid them trouble? Fine. Help maintain camp's coverage as a strawberry field? Sure. Calling for reinforcements during a war? Thanks. Making the demigods respect camp's rules? Alright. Teaching some classes there and here? Good.

But these are simple things and quite frankly the bare minimum he should do. The demigods are all abandoned to themselves,by both their parents and even by the one that should help them. He isn't the worst,but he also isn't the best.

When Thalia come back,he favored her to Percy in any way possible,and the whole "She might be the child of the profecy since she is going to turn 16 in a bit." excuse is bullshit. Luke was not even half done with his planning during TTC,the real game started at the half of BotL,so it was impossible for him to be already ready for the final battle. They all knew that,Thalia too. But no,Chiron decided to focus more on her and ignore Percy,when he could have teached both of them. Again,thanks Chiron,such a good teacher you are.

There are moments where he comes in clutch: during SoM he is the one that save them from Luke's ship,and in TLO he calls for reinforcement during the battle against Kronos,and he is kinda there if some demigod wants to talk to him. But again,most of those things are bare minimum.

I don't hate him,but I just don't understand why he is so well liked when all of the time he just does....nothing? And give Percy more stress and problems (And basically hoped that Nico would be eaten-).

[plaudiusplants]

Listen I'm sorry if I've posted this before but in my defense I just tried to check and the tumblr search thing sucks :(

It's only in my head but a groundhogs day kind of thing where Someone Important is mad at the way Jason deals with his anger and jealousy so he has to keep doing the day over until he understands that Tim is a) not his replacement and b) a whole-ass child person inside that Robin suit and doesn't deserve to be beaten within an inch of his life (or harder, depending on the loop!)

The first day of the loop, he notices things that are just kind of weird. The same person gives him the same greeting at the same store, the same bat-alerts go off as yesterday saying that Tim is the only person in the tower. At first he wonders how Bruce could let him out again so soon, and then he spots something that he realizes is the same as yesterday; a newspaper or something. Maybe yesterday didn't happen like he thinks it did? Maybe it was just a very vivid dream? Anyway, there's a replacement who needs to be shown his place and by golly Jason will show him the light

I could see it being The Timeline as an entity, maybe a future version of Jason who wants one version of himself to have a shot at being friends with Tim sooner (without attempted murder hanging over them lmao)

The second day of the loop, Jason knows for sure this is the same day over again. He tries deliberately to change something just to see what will happen. He half-convinces himself that Tim engineered this so he heads to Titans Tower early and for the next few loops he alternates between beating Tim half to death, beating him fully to death, and trying to figure out what he's meant to do to get out of the loop

It takes longer than he anticipated to convince the Bats that he's in a time loop because he's already the crime lord that knows a disturbing amount of things about them, why wouldn't he know weird things like how the Batmobile needs gas today? It takes him a full week to accept the fact that he's going to need to take off his helmet for them to get anywhere with this conversation, and then it takes him many more loops to actually take his helmet off and get anywhere with that conversation

Somewhere in the middle of his umpteenth loop, he asks Tim why he's helping. Jason had explained…… too many times… what happened on that original day, and Tim is fully aware of the fact that Robin, his hero, his older brother who was younger than Tim is now when he died, has successfully murdered him in multiple loops and has beaten him into a coma at least twice as often. Tim says that Jason is still his hero, his Robin

Jason has to spend a few loops Thinking about things after that

On his final loop, he breaks into Titans Tower once more. He leaves the helmet and his guns in Gotham. He tells Tim what happened, from the beginning, because Tim has to be able to make a choice here, he has to be able to choose Jason as his brother and his friend, despite everything, and, Jason thinks, he has to be able to not choose Jason.

Tim is just happy to have his favourite older brother that he'd never met back in the family! He convinces himself that now that Jason's back Bruce won't need Tim anymore but Jason holds onto Tim tighter than Bruce or Dick realized he needed to be held and Tim finally relaxes

[themculibrary]

Hurt!Tony Masterlist

A Love Beyond Time (ao3) - HetreoSapian stephen/tony N/R, 1k

Summary: Doctor Strange falls for a normal Tony but can't stay with him

Baby blue eyes (ao3) - Dontreadme steve/tony N/R, 6k

Summary: Tony is staying up late again, working in the lab. Pepper makes him go to bed, and in the morning he works all the way to dinner time without noticing, but Steve does.

Steve brings Tony food and explains that he and the team are worried. Tony lets it slip how he really feels, and that pushes Steve to show Tony how he really feels too.

Becoming Belonging (ao3) - sahiya happy/may, pepper/tony G, 18k

Summary: Peter barely remembered the week after he came back, five years and two minutes after dying on Titan. But he did remember this: looking at Morgan Stark and feeling––to his immediate shame––wildly, insanely jealous that Morgan had had those five years with Tony and Peter hadn’t.

Branded (ao3) - KandiSheek bucky/steve/tony M, 40k

Summary: Every child is born with two marks, one from their mother and one from their father. They say that each mark represents a lesson your soulmates will teach you, that you can gain more and more as you go through life.

Tony was born with four. They said he was destined for greatness. If this is what greatness looks like then Tony doesn’t want it.

Bullying (ao3) - xMarrrvelx steve/tony T, 4k

Summary: Steve finds out that Tony has been a victim of bullying for ages…so, naturally, he wants to help.

Cold as you (ao3) - Spider_enthusiast T, 2k

Summary: But with Peter here, and with Steve gone, he felt vulnerable. As if he could break at any minute.

“Are you okay?” He asked him, “you’re shaking. Are you still cold?”

“Peter,” he whispered.

His eyes darted away from Tony’s and filled with tears. “I thought you were gonna die. You were- you were really cold.”

Cracks in the Armor (ao3) - DareDevilR21 steve/tony N/R, 28k

Summary: After a succesful mission to take down a HYDRA-base right under their noses in Manhattan, Tony is injured. Hiding his injury from the rest of the team, the team quickly starts to pick up on his off-character behaviour, and they're not letting it go just like that. As they try to get him to open up, Tony starts to distance himself while his physical- and emotional- state worsens. When push comes to shove, the team scrambles to show the genius he can trust them fully, with all of himself. Tony finds out along the way that it is not so bad to be taken care of - and to be cared for by- his friends. Basically some good Avengers vibes because Tony deserves it. Features a heavy dose of arc-reactor angst. Also, Steve has patience, which works out great for both of them.

Emergency Contact (ao3) - whumphoarder G, 4k

Summary: It’s not that James disliked his roommate, it’s just that they didn’t exactly get off on the right foot.

Or, in which fifteen-year-old college freshman Tony Stark needs a ride to the ER and James Rhodes is too responsible for his own good.

Guilt and Power (ao3) - starkstrangesorcerer stephen/tony G, 205

Summary: Stephen gets protective over Tony

Guilt Ridden (ao3) - ChaosPigeon12 stephen/tony T, 1k

Summary: Tony has always been one to assume the blame for every little thing, but what happens when he just can't bear it anymore?

Hush, Darling; Don’t Say A Thing (ao3) - STARSdidathing loki/tony T, 4k

Summary: It’s not easy to catch Loki unaware. It’s not easy nursing a century old yearning for revenge. But the best way to exact that payment on the Chaos God is discovered and left for Loki to contend with. Because the best way to hurt Loki is to take out the punishment owed to the mage on the mortal that he’s so besotted with.

I'm not hungover, I'm sick you assholes. (ao3) - Steel_Opal pepper/tony G, 1k

Summary: Something is definitely off with Tony, so why do they always assume the worst in him?

I need your help (ao3) - SomeSortofItalianRoast T, 1k

Summary: Tony Stark is badly injured. With no one else to turn to, he calls an old friend.

It Only Takes One To Break Hearts! (ao3) - May_Queen stephen/tony N/R, 47k

Summary: Silence filled the dimly lit bedroom. Stephen sat on the bed while Tony stood before him. The tension between them was palpable.

"Stephen, let me explain. It was nothing..." Tony began.

"I want a divorce," Stephen interrupted, his voice cold.

"What?" Tony asked weakly.

"I want a divorce," Stephen repeated, without looking at him.

Like a Mirror (ao3) - Bluemary loki/tony E, 168k

Summary: Iron Man is dead, Tony Stark is broken and Loki just happens to be in the right place at the right time. What would you do if you found your favorite enemy mute and in chains?

More Than Meets the Eye (ao3) - LokiNeedsHugs1031 loki/tony, steve/bucky E, 249k

Summary: Tony Stark and Loki have known each other long before the attack on New York. Tony is shocked to find that Loki doesn’t remember him at all, that hence the reason Tony being thrown out the window, that is until he’s slammed to the ground by The Hulk. When Tony sneaks a peek at the beginning of interrogations he discovers that the Loki that attacked New York has seemingly woken up from some kind of mind control, and is begging for help.

The meeting (ao3) - everythingispoetry G, 6k

Summary: She suddenly realizes that she’ll spend the next few hours in one room with half-naked and exhausted Tony Stark, trying to make sure he doesn’t die of asphyxia in the meantime. It’s not how she was hoping for a meeting with one of the Avengers to be like.

You're always there (ao3) - Conversationallychallenged steve/tony G, 1k

Summary: Tony has a migraine, Steve is a good partner, comfort ensues.

[liedownquisition]

The real villain in Roy's characterization & backstory & relationship with Ollie getting butchered is something Lobdell wrote around but had no control over: the compressed timeline & the fact that DC execs decided to Significantly Shrink the gap between the ages of the Titans to their mentors. People mention this sometimes with Dick and Bruce but their relationship holds up a lot better with the shift from "pseudo-parental mentor figure" to "pseudo-sibling mentor figure" than Ollie & Roy's does, in particular when you include Roy's addiction & their falling out.

I don't know what was going on in n52's Green Arrow run and I'm scared to read it (Ollie's naked face feels wrong), but at least within RHATO itself, Tynion writes a far crueler rendition of their relationship and it falling apart than Lobdell, who at the very least did have a moment when it looks like Ollie really realized how badly he'd screwed up with Roy & had harmfully perpetuated his alcoholism. He does seem like he means to help, but Roy already felt betrayed by him and refused it. This is not portrayed as a moral failing on either of their parts, but rather a conflict between people who love each other and hurt each other and don't entirely know how to fix it.

Contrast to Tynion's depiction where Ollie pretty much... picked him up for techy utility reasons only. Constantly abandoned him and refused to listen to his council despite literally being entirely what he kept the kid around for. Roy was Ollie's Q (& comms guy, technically) if Q was a literal child who received absolutely no respect and was constantly denigrated.

Tynion's relationship for them was (largely) unpaid child labor, arguably even borderline slavery itself. The... space where he was depicted working from felt like it was... just a trailer. Cramped and isolated feeling. Don't even get me started on the "therapy with Hugo Strange" bit. (<- that's a tangent for a different post, that plotline gives me a headache)

Lobdell re-spun that into opportunity: an internship with someone that Roy admired, a workspace with unlimited resources and free reign to make anything he wanted, a friend to rely on, and took him along to parties so he wasn't always cooped up.

Of course, the biggest issue for me with Lobdell's re-spinning of the re-spun relationship is... well. It doesn't really explain how Roy became a vigilante himself. He didn't know Ollie was Green Arrow & that revelation is how they fell out. How does that lead to his own costume & the Titans?

And, with Tynion's the biggest gap of information (note I'm not saying it's my biggest issue bcs I hate every fucking thing about it) is... well. Roy is depicted much younger in Tynion's version then Lobdell's, but still retains the idea that "Ollie picked him out of a drunk tank to be his tech guy." Set aside the issue of "How did Ollie even know he was CAPABLE of being a tech guy," I want to know what the fuck a child that looks anywhere between like... 10-14 is doing in a police drunk tank. Is he homeless?

Lobdell's implies Roy's living in Star for education purposes (mildly horrifying to me in a "I know he's actually white but especially considering they didn't entirely retcon his Native roots, despite not talking about them much, I have some concerns on the relevance of boarding schools to this matter") & idk, I think his dad might not have been dead? or at the very least died later. Which could be a catalyst for the drinking.

[cruilsummer]

the curse of freedom vs ymir's curse

Last night I finished attack on titan - it was something i had been dreading and postponing for a while, having received a few spoilers from the manga and seen mixed reactions from fans.

I'm not here to judge wether it was good or bad, or to make huge analysis of it as a finale - after all, i'm still digesting and understanding where i stand regarding that.

However, while watching these last chapters, I felt really close to Eren's character. It's funny, because he is purposefully pushing everyone away from him, and for most of the season, we barely see him. He is hiding not only from his friends, enemies and from everyone in between, but also from the watcher. And weirdly enough, that's when I got time to really think about him - and specially after the finale, i felt like sharing some of those thoughts.

When we think of young Eren, the child we are first introduced to, we know that freedom is a very important part of his character. He wants to see the world, to know the truth, to go beyond. He's also obstinate, vengeful and stubborn. Eren is a great main character not because he is the most powerful, the smartest or most skilled, but because he has a personality that is intersting to watch. He is flawed, he is human. And even after getting it wrong multiple times and not being the best, somehow he is magnetic enough to keep the best, wisest and most skilled around - either to protect him of protect others from him.

Jean Paul Sartre says that humanity has the curse of freedom - a burden. It makes us responsable for our choices, making it both a gift and a curse. I kept thinking about it the entire time I was watching this last part of the anime.

Because freedom has always been a key element to Eren's character. Both literally - the freedom of being away from the walls and seeing the world, and figuratively - the freedom of making his own choices, deciding who to trust, fighting for what he thought was fair...

And the worst thing that could happen to him, happens: he is the titan that bares the memories from everyone who has been in that position before. From the moment the touches Historia's hand on, he can't go back - now past, present and future coexist, and his choices don't feel like his anymore - it's just fate.

It's Ymir's curse robbing him from the humanity's curse.

He sees the outcome and knows it cannot be changed. It's impacting because, being Eren, he will try to change it. It's who he is: stubborn, obstinate, vengeful. Obsessed with justice, obsessed with freedom. But now he can't. His entire life he felt in charge, deciding his own destiny based on his perceptions of justice, his bonds, his story. But now he is not so sure - how much was already decided? How much was like that because of the ones that came before? And how does one just keeps living like that, not only questioning everything, but also being aware of all those different memories that used to constitute very different people? But how different can they be, if they all share the same memories?

That's the beginning of the end for him. And he knows that reaching the sea doesn't mean he is free, like he used to believe. He knows that killing every titan won't make him free either, and killing everyone outside Paradis won't either. He's lost his freedom, his gift.

On the other hand, we have Mikasa. Eren tells her that (just like him), she is not free. Her every action to protect him, her love for him, is just the Ackerman's curse. And that's where he gets it wrong. Because Mikasa is free. And it's a burden and a curse for her, unlike for Eren, because it would be easier if she didn't have to choose between saving the world and saving her best friend, the love of her life.

Parallel, Ymir's love for the King kept her hostage, wasn't healthy, made her unable to stop what became her curse, what would haunt all Eldians.

Mikasa loves Eren - and not because of her clan's curse. It's hard to explain what exactly makes us love - we simply do. But to make a long story short, and in an oversimplification, she loves him because of everything they lived together and because she knows him. And her love could be like Ymir's, and keep her hostage too. For the most part of the show, fans made fun of Mikasa for her love, called her a simp, said it made her weaker. But she was the one who killed Eren, because she knew that it was the right thing, even if it was the hard thing. She knew there was no other way. And, deep down, she knew that it was not Eren anymore - and at least she could be the one to, at last, free him. Give him what he had been seeking his entire life.

And that act alone is what touches Ymir and frees her as well. It's not Eren's death. It's Eren's death by Mikasa's hand. It's knowing that love can coexist with all sorts of mixed feelings, and that the freedom that comes with our condition as humans sometimes means that we make choices not only based on our love, and not only because they're easy.

Staying is easier because it means not changing anything - and it feels like no choice was made. We trick ourselves into thinking that leaving, changing and doing the hard things are the only decisions, because they imply movement. But staying is also a choice. Not changing is also a choice. That's our curse: living with the outcome of everything we chose to do and everything we chose not to do. Owning up and taking responsability for staying and for leaving. For hesitating or killing.

And don't get me wrong: it is not easy. As humans, we also have the burden of emotions, mixed feelings, traumas. Ymir's choice - and her love - were so complicated that they paralyzed her. And it was seeing that Mikasa's love was so equally deep that ultimately it made her move to do the right thing what moved Ymir too. And she could finally let go, even if it was the hard choice - because she had Mikasa's example.

Mikasa didn't stop loving Eren just because she killed him. She hadn't stopped loving him when he was terrible to her. She never loved him because of the Ackerman's curse - when the curses ended, she kept the scarf. She loved him when she mourned, and loved him even when she was ready to move on, and she died loving him still - altought love can change troughout somebody's life.

Setting Eren free, she sat Ymir free. And that made all Eldians free - well, as free as one can be, still bearing the burden of humanity. The ending shows exactly that: we can't control what people do with their freedom: what wars are started, whos justice empears, which cycles are repeated. But we can control what we do with our freedom, our choices.

And, just like it was Ymir's curse that ended Eren's freedom, it was humanity's curse, Mikasa's freedom, that ended Ymir’s curse.

[hermesgoestojuvie]

do you have any permes hcs or fic ideas?

oh anon u have no idea what you've unleashed. the permes fic ideas are all i have some days, alas, im not that accomplished at the whole idea to words transition as i wish i was. i'll go into a few more concrete ones under the read more

Quick note: So like. All the things I plan to write happen when he’s 18+. and there's no sibling or parent incest. (bringing that up cause i got an. interesting dm once.) So this is just a quick disclaimer of sorts. And I’m not hating on anyone who wants to write or read something dark! I mean for instance I have a time travel Percy/Hermes brainworm that is considered dark and probably not what a lot of people want to read, so i'll tag it as such.

The One Where There is a War

Explained a little more in detail here but I have no problem talking a little about it again. It was inspired by this one perpollo fic that I'm still looking for so I can link it, bc trust me, it is GOOD. (edit: FOUND IT!!!! HERE it’s by @ghost-bxrd)The premise of that fic was a war between the gods and demigods, and my fic is meant to draw from that as well as some elements from Lore by Alexandra Bracken. It takes place post-second Giant war, but I'm toying with the idea of having the war and all related events, like gaea's rising, happen when percy is maybe 19-20? I'm not sure yet though. I might keep the timeline as is instead. For now, just know that it is post-second giant war.

Anyways, the premise is the new war the demigods have waged on the gods, when Percy, already a conflicted party to the war, comes across an injured Hermes when he is separated from his group of scouts.

2. Warning: Untitled For Now But It Is The Dark!Hermes One

you ever read child surprise by aphroditesfavorite or the breezeblocks series by violetmoreviolent?

Both are perpollo, and while I've not caught up to child surprise (i'm two chapters in, its been in my marked for later for a while, and ive had the tab open for ages, i just keep getting distracted lol) i know that it does deal with a time-travel trope, with percy, post-second giant and titan wars, waking up in the past, the day athena and poseidon compete over athens.

from what i hear, where child surprise is perpollo, there is a dark, forcecful hermes scene, which is absolutely not meant to be shippy btw! i heard from a friend who has gotten farther than me that the aphroditesfavorite has also stated that the shippy comments received about that hermes scene has made them uncomfortable so like, dont go reading it for that guys please.

breezeblocks meanwhile has a take on dark!apollo, a more ancient apollo, in a way. an apollo that you remember IS an olympian and all that may entail. i actually have caught up with the latest updates, and it takes place in the present. i dont want to go spoiling, but I will say that like, the way its all unraveling and unfolding is just so interesting, im high key invested.

@ashilrak and @mrthology have also written an absolutely heartbreaking, gutwrenching, exceptionally glorious banger of a fic, HAUNT ME, THEN- that also really captures the otherness and ancient, almost older, aspect of the olympians.

anyways, the reason i bring these fics up is because i just really love the idea that percy was born from the sea, while also acknowledging that one of my favorite parts of the whole book series in the first place is percy's connection to mortality and to his mother. reading child surprise really was root of a lot of ideas of percy emerging from the saltwater fountain in athens at the time of poseidon and athena's competition, with the idea that the trip to the past coincides with unwanted percy's ascension. it is not the birth of percy jackson the demigod, but in half, percy jackson the deity (the other half near coming to fruition in tartarus before he forced himself to stop.)

all that^ was just a very long way to say, this fic, im not sure WHAT it is yet, or where the direction its going in is, but we have established permes in the modern era, the time slipping happens when percy is struggling with keeping his impending ascension at bay, and then percy deals with a hermes at his like. prime? if thats the word. having to reconcile that with the softer versions they know later.

3. The One I've Been Struggling With

i'm just gonna copy/paste some stuff from my outline, like just the first two pages. this is the most concrete fic wip i have lmao. its all very rambly bc thats how the process goes for me so sorry abt that! anyways, starts below:-

an au that is not modern times, but perhaps in the past? Ancient Greek times? So more “ancient greek minded hermes.” Or if you think there is a better alternative, that would work too, I’m all ears. Trickster god Hermes (which he is) and minor immortal(?) Percy.

i dont know what percy's situation is yet. need to figure that out

i was looking at a comic and thought, trickster god Hermes would definitely pull something like this on Percy. And then I thought, what if, trickster god Hermes, sees this one man (Percy) and falls in love with him. But this man seems to pine for a woman who doesn’t love him back, and so Hermes takes her shape. (I don’t know who this woman would be. Annabeth? It could be her, but I also love the bond Percy and Annabath have in general, she and him are incredible friends. Rachel? I loved her friendship with Percy too.)

Anyways, Hermes taking their shape made me laugh a bit because wow Percy is getting catfished by a god. And then I was like WHAT IF- Percy himself is a minor immortal like. A young nymph-ish type. A prince of Atlantis? A demigod turned prince of Atlantis? I am not sure what he is, but, I am going to use nymph as a placeholder until I figure this out. 

So sure, Percy is immortal, newly or otherwise, but he’s young and still not fully like, aware (I don’t know if that's the right word) about what it means to be immortal because he literally was born 20 years ago, which is normal mortal young man age. And Percy is like, “I’m as old as them and I want to live as them. I was them.”

His father is protective of course, he is aware of the way of the gods and how they chase pretty people. Poseidon warned him about gods, how they come and go, how he should never fall for one because loving one usually ends in tragedy or heartbreak- that to them hearts are easily won by tricks and discarded as easily. (Thinking again: mortal Percy turned immortal by marrying/mating with Hermes? Except, then I thought, Poseidon wants Percy to be immortal–if he thought Hermes showing interest and Percy reciprocating would allow for Percy to choose to be immortal he would probably begrudgingly allow it. So then….immortal Percy? Need to think)

The big Hermes reveal is when Percy is attacked or injured, or some other god shows up, and Hermes saves him but reveals his true form in the process. 

BACK TO THE PLOT!!!

Hermes was like, I will have this nymph, and that is FINAL. And Percy is kind even though he is not necessarily always NICE, (it may be ancient greek but new yorker percy is timeless) he's sweet and cares so much. he’s a hero and so loyal. he's brave and mischievous and genuinely good, and Hermes is just. Blown away, by the way Percy loves, so deep and it consumes you, to be the one Percy cares for, Hermes thinks there is no feeling like it.

Hermes tells himself that Percy can't possibly be deserving of mortal love. So what if golden haired Annabeth (placeholder for now, still dont know if we're going the annabeth route?) is a warrior who can run like the deer and loves the very woods Percy does. No, he needs a god's adoration, a force to be reckoned with at his beck and call to fulfill his every whim the way Percy himself makes others feel. If people would be loved the way Percy loves, everyone would be a god. 

I am laughing at Hermes taking the shape of Annabeth while talking to Percy, but also using the moment to talk up Hermes. Like if Percy is in his starry eyed about Annabeth phase, Annabeth wanting to have a sit down would be so exciting for him, and Hermes as Annabeth would be petty enough to be like lemme proselytize about myself, “have you heard of the great wonderful god Hermes?”

Percy being like, “Yeah my dad tells me every day, stay away from these people and then gives me a list of gods, why?”

Hermes immediately pissy

Percy is still talking, “so yeah Hermes is on the list too- why, Annabeth? Did something happen? you look...not well. Are you sick?”

Hermes, through gritted teeth, “with all due respect to... your father, I think you should hear about the god Hermes because he's not... whatever it is your dad said.”

Percy: Well, apparently the god Hermes fixates on pretty people and tries to get into their pants using trickery.

Hermes as Annabeth: CHOKES

Hermes-Annabeth: THAT IS SUCH SLANDER. I have never.... ahem, i have never heard of that about the god Hermes

^That was the first two pages. there's 11 more of me realizing writing is hard and i have commitment issues. but hopefully i finish at some point bc this is the fic ive poured some serious time in!

anyways, that was the three main fic ideas ive been tackling. i have had more that i immediately forget about, but just know, i can think about them all day!

[keirou-kun]

Rereading Nightwing: Year One and there's a section right at the front that's eating at me. Dick tells Bruce that he was late [to help with Clayface] due to Titans business, and that they'd just shut Brother Blood down for good [unfortunately the church is still there, but that's a problem for a later issue and they're not aware of that yet.]

Now, if you actually go back and read the New Teen Titans run from the 80s, you'll know exactly which plot this is; it's issues 40-41 [circa 1984; technically pre-Crisis but also the plotline immediately before The Judas Contract which was and from what I can tell remains Nightwing's 'official' public debut] and it basically involves the Titans trying to take down the Church of Blood again. Dick tries to go in undercover in the Church's homeland of Zandia and gets caught and brainwashed, and Blood tries to use him to kill the other Titans. It doesn't work, and Dick actually gets shot with some kind of energy-beam towards the end. So he's been out of the country, brainwashed, injured, comes home, sees the alert from Bruce, and immediately suits back up to get his ass to Gotham and help out.

Now, Bruce does not know any of the above happened; he just knows Dick didn't answer the beacon as fast as he maybe should have. There's already been friction between Dick and Bruce for a while now by this point; Dick's tired of being treated like a child, has been [rather successfully!] leading a team on his own for a good couple years at this point - a team which has literally saved the damn world by themselves, and knows better than to try for pity points with Bruce. So all he does is try to explain the basics of the Titans' latest mission, and Bruce shuts him down and snaps that Dick should have been at his side from the beginning. This, naturally, sparks another fight, which naturally does not end well, and the upshot of it all is that Bruce fires Dick and tells him to leave the Robin costume behind.

But I can't stop thinking about what Dick has just been through with his team. Wally has just retired for a bit, the whole Brother Blood mission that just went down and its brainwashing and Dick being already injured, and then Bruce giving him shit for not being dedicated enough to the cause and then firing him and forbidding him to be Robin…we don't actually get to see much of that argument, but Dick has never been the sort to throw his own troubles in someone else's face, so I can't imagine he'd bring up the injury/brainwashing. It's likely the argument focused more on his not wanting to be treated like a child, the fact that he has a team now Bruce and he's a leader and he can't be every-fucking-where at once and how dare you say he's not dedicated when this is literally his entire life and excuse him for looking out beyond Gotham City limits because there's a whole fucking world out there and honestly when these two get their blood up it just never ends well.

I don't really know where I'm going with this, it's just one more case of 'would things have been different, if Bruce had known the details?' Probably not, but you never know.

[cioud-berries]

The Autobiography of a Sinner || Chapter 2

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My favorite Reiner fic finally updated after months so I finally go the motivation to finish this chapter! I'm excited to write the next one now that we're getting into the main storyline! Idk if the next chapter will be big as these last two were. 

Please join my discord!! discord.gg/SPNmyV8qJR

ty for the support!

Summery:

The retelling of events that led to The Rumbling and the aftermath from the perspective of someone who was a cause of it.

~ (written as an autobiography it is first person and is like you are the one that wrote it.)

The perils of being in love with your comrade. Going from childhood friends, to finding yourselves in a strange land completely alone, will cause anyone to grow close. After certain circumstances, they become more distant than they ever had been before. Being forced to come back together again to save the world would seem more challenging than either of them would think.

Category:

Reiner Braun x Gender Neutral Reader

Chapter Warnings:

War, Depictions of violence, child indoctrination

Word count: 10,904

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<- Previous Chapter || TAOAS Masterlist || Next Chapter ->

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843-845

To the People I have Killed in War:

I know most soldiers prefer to die with honor. Dying under my feet isn’t honorable. Dying in my mouth isn’t honorable. Dying by my claws isn’t honorable. I am sorry I couldn’t give you the honorable death you deserve.

↭

I listened to my doctor, taking the full two weeks off. Even though this caused me to be behind. Not physically of course, but after everything that had happened with Viktoria, then with Reiner. I needed that time.

I had hoped he would come to me, at night like he normally would, and apologize for the way he spoke. That was merely wishful thinking.

Unlike Reiner, Pieck visited me a few times, wanting to check up on me. We started to become closer friends due to this. She would come to catch me up on what I missed. Courses were only a small part of what we would discuss. A main talking point of our discussions was how different we felt, now having the ability to change at will. Even though we haven’t tested that ability yet.

It was the second time of her coming over, I was truly expecting the first time to be the last, so it was nice for her to knock at my door yet again. I would be lying if I said, I didn’t hope it would be Reiner when my father called for me.

She came in, filling me in on the lessons quickly. After she finished, things went quiet for a moment. “Reiner got the Armored Titan.” She explained shortly. She obviously didn’t know how I would react to this.

“Really?” I asked excitedly, already forgetting about his words towards me. I shot up from the couch rushing to the door, “I should go congratulate him!” Peick got up too, she obviously didn’t expect me to be so enthusiastic, but she was ready to go along with it.

I had only taken one step out of the door before I remembered the fight. I stood still, my feelings fighting one another. I was truly happy that he had gotten it. But I just couldn’t get over how he treated me.

Peick already seemed to know that the fight happened, but not the contents of it. “What happened between you two?” She asked softly, now walking to stand next to me. “Reiner had said you two had fought, but nothing else.” She seemed worried for me, already knowing how attached Reiner and I had been.

I sighed out of tiredness. “I had always been there for him. Always willing to lend an ear when he needed it.” I sat down on the steps, not wanting to go back inside. “I tried going to him when I needed it, but he yelled at me and told me to go away.” I put my chin on my knees, looking forward out into the streets.

She too sat down next to me, but didn’t say a word. I don’t think she knew what to say. I was so vague she had nothing to go off of. But I couldn’t explain more, I would be risking both of our families. “Did he at least seem remorseful when telling everyone?”

She sucked in air between her teeth and had a weird expression on her face, from that I could tell he wasn't. I looked away, but she quickly tried to reassure me. “The wounds of the fight are still fresh. He’ll understand soon enough.”

❃

I truly dreaded going back. Not for the classes, nor training, but because of Reiner. It had been so long, in the eyes of a child. But I had no way of knowing how he would react. If he hadn’t gotten the power of the Armor titan, it would’ve been easier. If I wanted to, I could never have to see him again.

I went into class early, wanting to talk to my commander about all I missed. I knew Peick had already caught me up on most of it, but I wanted the military to see that I was willing to work hard for the position I had been given.

Peick, surprisingly, was the first person- besides me- to show up. I had chosen a seat against the wall, encouraging her to sit next to me. I didn’t want to be anywhere near Reiner. The two weeks gave me time to stew in the feeling of loneliness, which only made my anger towards Reiner grow.

A few more of my comrades filtered in. Marcel, followed by Annie. When Marcel noticed that I was there, he smiled and welcomed me back. Annie, on the other hand, said nothing, seemingly ignoring my presence.

Even though I knew it was inevitable, Reiner finally arrived. When he walked into the room, his eyes immediately locked onto mine. He wore his big goofy smile, acting like nothing had happened at all.

Lifting his arm, he pointed at his now red armband. “Look! I did it!” he happily told me.

Dramatically, I turned my head away from him. Not wanting to give him any attention. Even though I couldn’t see his face, I knew that he was pouting. “Aren’t you proud of me?” His tone held deep sorrow.

Even though I was upset at him, of course I was proud of him. The dreams we had been working so hard for, together, had been achieved. I couldn’t tell where our friendship stood though.

I couldn’t tell him that I was proud. I refused to give him that satisfaction. I turned back to him, seeing the saddest, heartbroken expression I had ever seen on someone. I opened my mouth to say something. I don’t even know what I was about to say. Our teacher walked into the room, cutting all conversations off.

“Good morning. Today we will be discussing transformation.” The man said. Reiner scurried to a seat, knowing he’d be in trouble if he interrupted.

The seat he found just so happened to be behind me. I was uncomfortable the whole lecture as I felt his eyes on me the whole time.

When it was time for lunch, I got out of the room as quickly as possible. I made my way to the spot where I had seen Viktoria staring into the sun. It had become my hiding spot away from the military, and that day I was using it to hide from Reiner.

When I arrived behind the building, I spotted the crate that Viktoria would sit on. I did the same as she would. I climbed onto the crate, back facing the wall. I then looked into the sky, watching the sun.

It was weird at first. This was the first time I had ever used my regenerative abilities. I thought that all the pain would’ve disappeared, but it felt as painful as it would without the power of the ten.

I wanted to look away as it began to hurt. It was my instincts. But I pushed myself to keep looking, trying to see what she saw, trying to figure out why she did it.

I know I was doing it to feel closer to her. To pretend as if she was still here. Pretend that she would walk around the corner and cover my eyes, telling me that I shouldn’t do something so stupid.

Deep down I knew she was gone. My eyes began to hurt more as the tears began to build up behind them. I wish Viktoria was there to wipe them away like she had always done.

Instead, I was interrupted by none other than Reiner. “What are you doing?” He asked, seemingly worried.

I don’t know how I didn’t notice him sooner. I snapped my eyes away from the sun onto him. There was a black blob that blocked my vision, making it very hard to see him. I could feel my cells repairing itself as my vision began to come back.

“Nothing.” Was all I said to him. My tone was harsh and standoff-ish. Things went silent. I decided to look back up at the sun, preferring it over the sight of Reiner.

“Hey don’t do that!” He said in a panicked tone, moving in front of me to block me from the sun.

“Why not?” I glared in the general direction of his face, not being able to see the details of it. “It’s not like it’ll cause any damage.”

His frame wavered. Seemingly forgetting that we now can heal ourselves. He then went silent again. Everything about this was awkward, and I was hoping it would cause him to leave.

My vision was completely repaired by the time he spoke again. And I was glaring into his soul. “What happened?” He whispered softly.

Frowning, my brows knit together. I pushed him away from me, not being able to handle being in his presence. With everything going on. All of the emotions of that night were coming back and I was not about to have him see that. “Don’t pretend like you did nothing.” I mumbled as I got off the crate, walking past him.

“I don’t understand! Tell me what I did!” Reiner basically cried out.

He began to follow me as I attempted to get away. My rage was at its boiling point. I snapped around, and shouted as loudly as I could “LEAVE ME ALONE!”

It stunned him. He froze as he looked completely shocked. I had never talked to him, or anyone, like that. I took his confusion as a chance to get away.

Turning the other way, I ran until I was out of his view. As I began to slow down, I realized how tired I was. I thought it was from all of the emotions I had dealt with in a short amount of time.

I slowly made my way back to class, the fatigue beginning to take over. When I arrived back at the classroom, Peick was already in her seat. She looked over at me with a smile.

“How did the conversation with Reiner go?” She asked. I looked at her confused, not understanding how she knew. I made my way to my seat when she saw my confused face. “I overheard Reiner tell Bertolt that he was going to try to talk to you.”

Now understanding, I responded. “I yelled at him to go away.” I sat down in the chair next to her. I crossed my arms on my desk laying my head down on them as I stared at her.

“You’re never going to make up if you don’t talk to each other.” She tilted her head down towards mine to see me better. I knew she was right, but part of me wanted to disagree.

“What if I don’t want to make up.” I mumbled, looking away from her.

“I know you do.” She stated matter of factly. Yet again, she was right and I still didn’t want to admit it.

I refused to answer her, which gave her the answer she was looking for. I looked back at her, even though I had nothing to say. Her face turned to concern. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Just tired is all.” my face also contorted in concern noticing her. “Why?”

“You look sickly.” She started to stand up, motioning for me to follow. “We have some time. We should go see the clinician.”

I got up to follow her. “I’m fine really! I’m just a bit tired.” I was complaining the whole way, but I still followed her as we walked down the hall.

We made it to the clinic, and the nurse began to look over me. As she did so, she asked me questions about what I was doing. I told her how I looked into the sun and my eyes fixed itself. She then asked me which titan I had inherited. When I told her, she immediately stopped, backing away from me.

“Your stamina is too low.” She told me. Even though she was trying to help me, I took it as an insult. “The Feline Titan requires a lot of stamina from its holder. Since it naturally has a low amount of stamina, small things such as healing your eyes, will take a lot out of you.”

I nodded my head, still upset at what I was being told. She dismissed us, saying I would be fine to go back to class. On my way out, she told me to get a good amount of sleep tonight.

When we arrived back at class, everyone was already there. Reiner still sat in the spot behind me, but he kept his head low, not looking at me. Even though it was what I wanted, it hurt me. I started to regret my harsh words to him.

Zeke entered the room alongside our teacher. He was there to explain transformation in more detail, as our professor could never experience such a thing. They mentioned how we would be performing our first transformation in a week's time.

Though they talk a lot, I couldn’t help but doze off. I could barely keep my eyes open. By the time we were dismissed, I was on the verge of sleep. Luckily no one other than Peick noticed, or I would’ve been in trouble.

She was the one to walk me home, making sure that I got there safely. The second I entered my home, I made my way to my room. I fell asleep the second I hit the bed.

I awoke to my sister knocking at my door telling me dinner was ready. I was groggy but I felt better. Dinner was mostly silent aside from my dad asking what I had done today. I left out everything with Reiner and what the nurse said. If I had told him that I needed to work on my stamina, he would’ve forced me to spend all my free time working out.

After I excused myself from the table I went to my room. Not having anything else to do so late at night, I began to work on my stamina myself, doing any kind of exercise I possibly could in my room.

Push ups, curl ups, planking, I did everything until I couldn’t move anymore. I had lost track of the time as I laid flat on my stomach on the floor, thinking I could do one more push up. I stayed like that for a while, not knowing how much time had passed.

The only thing that snapped me out of my trance was the sound of something hitting my window. I jumped up and ran to it. For some reason I thought it was Viktoria, even though I knew she was dead.

I frowned when I pushed my curtains aside to see Reiner at my window. Reluctantly I opened the window, planning on yelling at him to go away yet again.

“Why are you here?” I aggressively asked, keeping my hands on the rim of the window, ready to close it any second.

“I had to talk to you.” He kept quiet, not wanting to get caught. He inched closer to the window. “I don’t like not being friends with you.”

“Do you remember why I’m mad at you now?” I asked, cocking my eyebrow at him.

“No,” He put his fingers on the rim of the window, about to force his way in. “But I can’t figure it out unless you tell me. So I’m not leaving until you talk to me.”

I saw him grip the inner edge of my window, as he pushed himself up. I quickly slammed the window on his finger. I felt, and heard, a crack. Reiner yelped in pain as he pulled his hand back, pulling them close to his chest as he tumbled back onto the alleyway ground.

I opened the window again, leaning out of it. I was not expecting to hurt him so bad, but that's what he gets.

“You broke my fingers!” He shouted at me in pain, no longer worrying about being heard. It didn’t take long for steam to emerge from the skin of his fingers.

“They’ll fix themselves soon.” I rested my arms on the edge. “Don’t try to break into my house.”

He walked over to the window again, looking up at me. “Let me in.” He demanded.

“No.” I simply told him.

“Please.” He asked another time.

“No.” I repeated.

“Please. Please. Please. Please…” He repeated over and over again. He was determined to get me to talk to him.

“Why should I?” I have been very clear on my intentions to unfriend him, but yet he persisted.

“Because we’re best friends.” He was so absolute about his answer it shocked me. Even though I was giving him the same treatment he gave me, yet he wanted to try and fix the issue. He was stronger than me in that way.

“What if I don’t want to be friends with you anymore.” I hoped he would leave after that heartbreaking line.

His determination only wavered slightly. “Then tell me why.” He stared me directly in the eyes. “And then let me explain myself. If you still don’t want to be friends after. Then I’ll leave you alone.”

I thought for a moment. It was pretty hard to deny him, especially when he was looking at me like that. Plus, I could just say I don’t want to be friends after, and then I’d be free. It was truly a win-win.

I took a step back to let him in. With his still broken finger, he struggled to get through the window. He fell to the floor of my room with a loud thud, quite the opposite of Viktoria.

“Be quiet!” I quietly yelled at him. “My family will hear.”

“Sorry!” He whispered back.

I held my hand out to him, telling him to stop all movements. I don’t know how I knew, but I could tell my father was already making his way to my room.

I quickly motioned for Reiner to get into the closet. He followed my orders as I rushed to my door. I stood right in front of the door so my father would have no reason to look around.

He swung the door open, looking at me curiously. “I heard a bang.” He loomed over me, trying to get answers out of me. It was always hard for me to lie directly to him.

I played with my hands behind my back, not wanting him to see my anxiety. “I was training and I fell.”

He still didn’t believe my story, taking a step closer to me. “I also heard some yelling.”

“Oh yeah.” I tried to think of something quickly. “I think some kids were fighting in the alley.”

He looked past me to my open window. He walked over towards it, looking out of it. “If you think there’s people fighting in the alley, don’t leave your window open.” He scolded as he closed it and locked it. I quickly moved in front of my closet, trying to protect it but not seem suspicious.

“I know how to protect the family from an intruder.” I smiled slightly, thinking of how I protected the house from Reiner.

“You’d kill us too if you transformed right now.” He said, rubbing the top of my head. Walking past me, he headed for the door. I followed.

“I can do it without the power!” I protested. “I’m still a soldier.”

He smiled softly down at me. “You still have a long way to go.”

“But I’m doing better than most! I got the power of one of the ten!” Now it became more of me trying to prove myself to my dad. I completely forgot about Reiner in my closet at this point.

“Now you have to become the best out of the ten.” He told me with finality, closing the door on me.

I frowned at the closed door. I knew he was proud of me for getting this far, but I felt the dreaded weight of not being enough. He seemed to be softer with me now, but the expectations always loomed over that.

I felt like if I did anything wrong, this new persona of his would be ripped away in a second. The thought of doing something wrong drew my attention back to my closet. If my father had found Reiner in the closet, I don’t know what he would’ve done.

Walking to the door, I opened it. Whispering, I told Reiner. “You have ten minutes.” I had a new wave of anger thinking of my father not being proud of me.

“What did I do?” He asked.

“You pushed me away when I needed you most.” I said plainly.

Reiner sat there in thought for a moment, still in my closet. It seemed like he was trying to remember exactly what I was talking about, which made my anger with him grow.

His eyes widened in realization as he looked up at me. “When you came to my window?” He asked for clarification.

I only nodded my head in response. He stood up, trying to get closer to me. I backed away from him. “I was going to come and talk to you.” He tried to plead with me, still stepping closer.

“Why didn’t you then?” I continued to ask questions, crossing my arms over my chest, trying to keep him out.

“I was chosen to inherit The Armored Titan. Everything after that happened really quickly.” He waved his arms around as he tried to explain, trying to show his genuineness. “My memory of the days before that became foggy.”

I thought for a moment. I knew it was normal to forget things after transforming, even though I barely experienced much of it. But that still didn’t answer all of my questions. “Why didn’t you visit me while I was in the hospital? Or even after?”

“I was told I was not allowed to.” He said plainly.

Looking confused at him, I asked. “Who said that?” It was strange that Pieck was allowed to, but not Reiner.

“I went to visit you in the hospital and your doctor said you weren’t taking visitors at the time.” He began to ramble. “And then I mentioned visiting you in front of our professor and he said we weren’t allowed to visit you as you recovered.”

I was still confused as to why Pieck came to see me then. “Pieck visited me in the hospital and at home.” I told him.

“Well I don’t know then!” He raised his arms in defeat. “That is just what I was told.” He paused for a moment, walking close enough to me to grab my arms and pull them away from my chest. “But that doesn’t matter. I’m sorry for ignoring you that night. What did you have to say?”

I pulled my arms out of his grasp, turning around. “That doesn’t matter now.” I didn’t want to open up to him like that anymore.

He walked around me, trying to get a look at my face. “It does if you’re still mad at me.” I continued to spin around, trying to avoid him. He walked around me until he got fed up, grabbing my shoulders to get me to look at him. “We’re friends, remember? I can be here for you now. So tell me what’s wrong”

It was funny that he already knew that I would forgive him. The soft smile he had on his face while looking at me, made me break. All of the emotions of that night resurfaced as tears began to stream down my face.

“Viktora was like a mother to me.” I said in a sob. Reiner stayed still, giving me a sad look. “She didn’t deserve to be eaten.” The amount of saliva in my mouth doubled as my nose became runny.

Reiner pulled me in for a hug, just as I had done with him the first time he came knocking at my window. I didn’t have to explain anything else to him as he soothed me.

Even though I told him ten minutes, I believe he stayed for a few hours as I uncontrollably cried in his arms. He didn’t make one complaint, which made up for him ignoring me.

I don’t even remember him leaving. I woke up curled in a ball in the middle of my bed and a blanket lazily thrown over me.

Before heading to training, I made sure to stop by Victoria's house to feed the cats. I was told I had a week to clear out her belongings before the government took the building back. I only filled up a box full of small sentimental items. Such as, the note she left me, some jewelry that was in a small box, and the cardigan she would always wear. Aside from that, I could care less about everything.

I didn’t want to walk back into the house, but after clearing things up with Reiner, I felt better. The cats meowed at me angrily as I hadn’t fed them in a few days. They were more than fed well enough by the neighbors, but they knew that I would feed them more if I was coming around. I grabbed some of the cat food that was in a crate on the side of her house.

Using the cup that had been left in the bag, I scooped out enough food for all of the cats, putting it on the ground. They all scrambled to the food, beginning to feast.

When I made my way to the classroom, Reiner and I greeted one another like nothing had happened. Everyone saw the display I had shown him yesterday and seemed shocked by the sudden change. But no one questioned a thing.

As I sat next to him, our drill sergeant walked in. He told us that we would start that day with physical training and we needed to change.

❃

A week had passed by so quickly. I anxiously sat in the blimp as they flew us to a location far away from Liberio. This was the first time I had ever left the town, let alone been in a blimp.

I held my eyes shut as hard as I could, gripping onto my straps.

They were taking us to a remote location to practice transforming for the first time. They did this to make sure we wouldn’t cause any casualties in the compact town.

I whimpered as I felt us descending. I liked nothing about flying. The feeling of hitting the ground was rough, but it meant that we were finally safe.

Even though I knew we were on the ground, I still kept my eyes closed, not moving an inch. I heard my fellow comrades begin to unbuckle their straps, and I still didn’t move.

Theo Magath, our commander, started instructing everyone to line up and prepare to exit the blimp. That was when Reiner noticed that I still hadn’t moved.

“You have to get up,” Reiner whispered to me “Before he notices you.”

With Reiner’s words, I finally opened my eyes. The room was dark, aside from a small red light that stood high up on the wall. I quickly, but quietly unfastened my restraints. Grabbing my bag, throwing it on my back, I lined up behind Reiner.

Right as I stepped behind him, the metal door began to open. The bright light was blinding to us all. We groaned and covered our eyes, trying to protect them from the sun.

Commander Magath spoke up again. “These next few weeks will be tiring. You will be expected to push yourselves to your limits.” We all responded in unison with a “Yes Sir.”

In line, we exited the blimp. We were in a large field. On the other side was a small log cabin. Magath then told us to run to the cabin, threatening that the last person would not be receiving dinner.

Without another word, Marcel began bolting to the cabin. Everyone else followed behind. I didn’t even think to look back as I ran. I knew that my abilities would wear me out quickly, but I needed that food more than anyone else.

By the time I made it to the cabin, I was fourth to arrive, assuring my dinner. When I turned around, I found Reiner falling behind. I gave him a sympathetic look as he arrived last.

The door to the cabin opened, revealing Zeke Yeager . He seemingly arrived before us. Since he had already mastered his transformation, he would be the one helping us.

I did not know what to expect of our sleeping arrangements, but I didn’t expect for all of us to be sleeping together in one big room. We all had our sleeping bags laid out on the floor. There was barely any floor space.

The room was plain. There was only one door, aside from the front door. And it led to a bathroom. There was only one small shower that all seven of us would have to share the upcoming weeks.

As we waited for further instruction, we all sat on our sleeping bags talking. “Where is commander Magath staying?” Bertolt asked.

“Him and the others are staying across the field.” Zeke replied plainly.

“I bet their accommodations are much better than ours.” Annie commented.

“Of course they do. They’re our higher ups.” Reiner defended them.

“It would’ve been nice if we at least got one more bathroom.” Peick complained. I nodded along in agreement.

“If you’re so upset about it, you can just use the woods and the river near here.” Zeke shut our conversation down, not wanting us to say anything that could be considered treason.

Things went silent until Marcel spoke up. “What does transforming feel like?”

Zeke went silent for a moment, seemingly in deep thought. The only way he was able to describe it was “Power.” The word sent a shiver down my spine.

I looked over to Reiner, who had settled his sleeping bag next to mine. He looked at Zeke with a shimmer in his eyes. I could tell he was excited to have this opportunity, and I know he worked harder than everyone else to get here.

“I’m worried I’m going to hurt someone when I transform.” I admitted, bringing my knees to my chest and hugging them. The images of Viktoria’s first transformation flashed in my mind.

“I will be transformed, so I will stop that from happening.” Zeke replied.

“I’m super excited!” Reiner chimed in. I glared at him slightly. He just brushed over my very valid concern.

Commander Magath burst through the door. We all immediately stood to attention. He had all of us stand outside before beginning our training.

❃

Our training over the weeks was grueling. We would be pushing our limits before the sun rose until long after it set. The food was the worst. It was basically slop. But we all were too hungry to care. Shoveling it in our mouths, we treated it like it was the best meal we have ever had.

I didn’t mind sleeping on the ground as much as I thought I would. The only thing that annoyed me was Reiner waking me up. Bertolt slept on the other side of him. Throughout the night, Bertolt would sprawl out, getting into Reiners space, waking him up. Reiner would push him away, loudly telling him off at the same time.

This too woke me up. It was a routine that would happen at least once a night. One night, it happened over and over again. I’d be on the verge of sleep and Reiner’s complaining would wake me up. By the third time it had happened, I got up, taking my sleeping bag with me.

Carefully, I stepped over everyone’s sleeping body. I left the cabin, deciding to sleep outside under the stars. That night was the best sleep I had the whole trip. But I got bitten a lot by bugs. So I slept inside for the rest of the time, dealing with Reiner and Bertolt.

After a while, Reiner got used to Bertolt’s strange sleeping habits, being able to sleep through them, letting me rest peacefully.

By the end of our second week, it was finally time for us to transform for the first time. We were all told to stand in the woodline with Magath.

First to transform was Zeke. He stood in the middle of the field. After a short amount of time, a red lightning bolt came from the sky, striking down on him. In a blink of an eye a large creature emerged. A gust of wind soon followed, almost blowing us all away.

The sight of him was unsettling. It was the first time I witnessed one of the ten with my own eyes. I had the instinct to run when it started to walk towards us. The closer it got, the more details I saw. I wanted to throw up. But I knew I couldn’t move, or I’d be in trouble.

Zeke finally stood close enough to us. He kneeled down, extending his hand out to show a knife that seemed so tiny in his hand. Magath turned to us. “You’re up first, Leonhart.” He commanded.

Annie walked up to Zeke’s hand, climbing onto it to grab the knife. While Annie was in his hand, Zeke stood up. I watched her fallback from the unstable surface.

He carried her to the middle of the field, placing her back down. After she got off, he stepped back. There were a few minutes of nothing. Suddenly, a lightning bolt, just like what happened with Zeke.

Annie looked closer to a human than Zeke’s. But it still was unnerving. Her head looked around. She looked lost until her eyes locked on our group. In a moment’s notice, she began darting at us.

I grabbed Reiner’s arm out of fear. He stood still. Zeke tackled her to the ground. The ground rumbled. The sound of her crashing down sounded like a bomb.

Annie let out a terrifying shriek, trying to get out of his grasp. He grabbed the back of her titan’s neck, ripping a chunk out. The titan body began to rise in steam, quickly decaying.

The doctors began to run out from other places in the tree line. All going to Zeke, who was gently placing the chunk of flesh down. Magath followed along as well, going to see how Annie was doing. We all looked at each other in horror. All except Reiner of course. None of us dared to say a word, scared of speaking what we saw into existence.

They carried Annie off on a stretcher. I thought Magath would cancel the rest of our transformations. Yet he came up to us like nothing happened. “Braun. You’re up next.”

It was for the best that he chose Reiner. Everyone else was too scared. He happily made his way to Zeke, a little too excited for this.

Just like Annie, Zeke took Reiner out to the middle of the field. We waited for some time. Then some more. At one point we started looking at each other, wondering what was happening.

Zeke finally moved back to where Reiner was dropped off. He held his hand out. Reiner obviously said something, because Zeke told him. “It’s not going to work.”

A few minutes later, Zeke was walking back. When Reiner got off of Zeke’s hand, I could see all of the cuts Reiner inflicted on himself. Steam emerged from them, blood still dropped down his body. A doctor was slowly making his way over to the group.

Reiner looked devastated. When he stood next to me I whispered to him. “It’s okay, you’ll get it soon!” He turned to me with an angry face. Before he responded, he just nodded his head, looking back down at his healing wounds.

Magath Called out my name. I looked over to him. “It’s your turn.” I hesitated, looking up at Zeke. Magath called my name again, a bit angrier than before.

I dragged my feet over to the giant hand that laid before us. Reluctantly, I touched it, beginning to climb. It was a lot warmer than I had expected.

When I got to the top, there was a knife in the middle of its palm. The same one Annie and Reiner had used. I grabbed it and sat down. Zeke began to move. With my free hand, I braced myself, trying not to fall over from the dramatic movements.

It only took a few seconds to reach the middle of the field. On the way down, I felt as though I was going to fly off. I made sure to dismount Zeke’s hand as quickly as possible.

I held the knife close to my chest as Zeke began to walk away. I knew what I needed to do, but I was too scared to do it. I saw my reflection in the knife. Even the blood that Annie and Reiner had coated it in was gone.

With a deep breath I gripped the blade in my hand and closed my eyes. But I didn’t move from there. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. A defeated sigh left my lips as I went back to looking at the blade.

I put my pointer finger on the tip of the blade. I pushed my finger into the blade. It hurt, but I knew it wasn’t as bad as slicing my hand. I saw my blood come out around the tip of the blade.

Even though I was bleeding, I hadn’t transformed. I looked up to Zeke’s horrid titan form. I remember hoping that I didn’t look like that. Then everything turned black.

❃

I woke up in the makeshift clinic, confused. The nurse immediately got up from their desk and made sure I was fine.

They explained to me that when I turned, I immediately began attacking Zeke. They said that he struggled for a bit to get me off. I blinded him, going straight for his face. In the end, Zeke obviously prevailed, removing me from my titan.

After the nurse made sure everything was alright, they let me go. When I left the building, I realized the sun was setting. I looked around and saw that I was on the opposite side of the field. Instead of walking I decided to push myself, trying my hardest to get across the field faster than I had earlier in the week.

As I ran, I began to notice things. I was more in tune with my body movements. How my foot was hitting the ground, I even noticed a small mouse that was running away from me. It was weird, I was hyperfocusing on everything at the same time.

I reached the cabin in no time. I was out of breath, but I still opened the cabin door. Everyone was spaced out doing different things. Zeke and Reiner were missing.

I looked over to Pieck, who noticed that I had entered the cabin. “Where’s Reiner?”

Peick went to respond but Bertolt, who was playing cards with Annie, chimed in before she could. “He’s sulking by the river.”

“Could he still not transform after everyone else went?” I questioned, thinking that they would’ve let him try another time before calling it quits.

Pieck solemnly shook her head. I nodded in response, as a thank you, before leaving the cabin. I made my way to the river that sat not too far behind the cabin.

It didn’t take long for me to see Reiner’s blonde hair. He sat at the edge of the water. Knees curled up to his chest, he stared into the running water.

I moved to sit next to him. He didn’t move or say a word. We both looked into the water silently. I didn’t want to push him, so I let him speak first. “Why are you so gifted?” He asked, turning to me.

I laughed, before realizing that he was serious. “I’m not gifted.” I replied seriously.

“Yes you are.” He moved his chin back in between his knees. “You weren’t a last minute pick to become a titan shifter.”

“Neither were you.” I told him sincerely, moving my body to face him.

“Yes I was.” He responded sadly.

“No you weren’t!” I told him with a bit more authority. “You want to know how I know?” He finally looked back over at me, I can tell on his face that he wasn’t going to be amused by my answer. “When I went through the ceremony to inherit the Feline titan, I panicked.” I paused remembering that I killed Viktoria. Swallowing my sadness I continued. “One of the officers said that they should’ve picked you for the position.” I told him sincerely. “I was only able to proceed because Viktoria was able to calm me down.”

“Yeah but they still picked you over me for the position.” He huffed, looking back at the water.

“But they still picked you for the Armored position.” I replied, “Meaning you were thought of for two different titans!”

He didn’t respond to me. I tried to think of something else to say. “I think you’re more gifted than me.” I admitted sadly.

He yet again looked over at me. “How so.”

“You’re more determined than I could ever be.” Now it was my turn to start sulking. “I mean earlier today you came back with so many cuts. You were trying so hard to transform. When it came down to it. I hesitated. I could only prick my finger.

“You still were able to transform though.” He seemed to be getting fed up with the conversation.

“But that’s what I'm trying to say!” I expressed, scooting closer to him. “I know you’ll be able to do it soon. Because you’re so determined to do so. And I know that you’ll be better than everyone when you get it down!”

I finally seemed to get through to him as he softly smiled at me. “When will be the next chance you get?” I asked, curious.

“Tomorrow.” He responded. He looked back out to the water, but this time it wasn’t out of sadness. “They’re taking Bertolt and I somewhere else to do it.”

I tilted my head in confusion. “Bertolt couldn’t transform either?”

Reiner shook his head. “They didn’t let him. It apparently was dangerous to do so. So they’re having to take him far away so he won't hurt anyone.”

I hummed in response. A calm silence fell between us. Out of curiosity I asked “How badly did I mess up Zeke’s face?”

Reiner laughed at the thought. “Pretty bad.” He responded “It was like watching a feral street cat fight over food.”

“I looked like a cat?” I asked out of curiosity, not knowing what I looked like in that state.

“Oh god no.” He laughed again. “You looked horrible. Like a mix of a leopard and a rat”

I pushed him over. “I know you’ll look worse.” I said back to him.

“I highly doubt it!” He retorted, getting up, pushing me back. “Watch! I’ll be the best looking titan.”

“Nu uh!” I pushed him again. Even though it sounded like we were fighting, we had smiles plastered on our faces, and we were giggling between words.

“Maybe that’s why I haven’t transformed yet.” He cockily ran his hand through his hair. “My titan is too gorgeous to be looked upon.”

“Oh please!” I said, pushing him into the water. He was quick to grab my wrist, pulling me down with him.

We fell into the water giggling. It took a few minutes for us to catch our breath. Reiner got out of the water first, extending his hand to me. “We should head back. Dinner should be ready soon.”

I grabbed his hand as he pulled me out of the water. “I’m so hungry.” I complained as we began to head into the trees.

“I miss my mom’s cooking.” He added on.

We walked deeper into the forest. Even though I knew it was supposed to be dark, I could still see everything clearly, almost as if it were day, but everything was in a strange, different hue.

When we got back to the cabin, we were scolded by Zeke for being soaking wet. But we couldn’t care less. We were just happy to be together.

It was nice. It was the first time in a while that Reiner and I had fun together, without the looming of final selection hanging over us. I wish our lives could’ve stayed like that forever.

❃

The next day, Riner and Bertolt left before the rest of us woke up. As for the rest of us, we met with a specialist team. It was a team of two to three Marlenas that had studied the abilities of the ten’s abilities over multiple generations of use.

My specialty team was newer though. Since they only had old books of the feline titan over a century ago, and Viktoria. “Your abilities are more unknown.” The woman in the middle explained to me. “Which means you will also be helping us, telling us all that you have experienced that seems out of the norm.”

“The abilities that Viktoria had were: Nightvision, keen sense of surroundings, silent movements, heightened smell, and flexibility.” The man on the right stated.

“But we don’t know if some of those abilities are going to transfer over. We don’t even know if they were even caused by the titan, or if those were talents she was born with.” The woman on the left added.

The middle one nodded, bringing it back together. “Is there anything you’ve noticed different since your transformation?”

I sat in silence for a moment, trying to think of anything. “I definitely have been sensing things that I would’ve looked over. And I think I’m gaining the night vision ability, but aside from that, I haven’t noticed anything else.”

The next thing they had me do was transform. I was told that I would be in control this time, but I worried that I would lose control again, attacking the team.

They handed me a knife before stepping away. They all had clipboards, ready to start examining me. Again, I fearfully looked at the knife. I looked up at the team for reassurance. The woman in the middle nodded, telling me to go ahead.

I still didn’t have the strength to create a big gash to transform, so I stuck with the small cut. I took a deep breath before pricking my finger.

Just like they said, I didn’t black out. I could feel my body become enveloped in warmth. I couldn’t see for a few seconds, but when I opened my eyes once again, I was high up in the air. I could tell I was about the size of the cabin.

My body didn’t feel like my body. Well it definitely was no longer my body, but it still felt extremely strange. I tried to step back, but it felt even stranger.

Unlike most of the other titan shifters, I was walking on four legs. I knew that felt most right. When I looked down at my hands, they were closer to paw’s than human feet, but they didn’t exactly look like paws either. They were completely covered in white fur with black spots. When I tried to flex them, long black nails came out from under my skin. It didn’t hurt, but the feeling was strange. I became fascinated by it, retracting and protracting them while I watched.

The team walked back up to me once they were finished scribbling on their notepads. “Could you try climbing that tree?” They pointed at the thickets, the tallest tree in the area.

Mentally, I responded with a “Yes sir.” but the only thing that came out was a small roar. I was a bit taken aback by it. I walked over to the tree. My feet were unsynchronized, not used to having more than two feet to worry about.

After a bit too long, I arrived at the base of the tree. I had no idea how I would climb the tree. I attempted to stand on my back feet. I quickly lost balance, falling forward, face first into the tree. I gripped the tree with my claws to try and lessen the blow.

Once I regained my balance, I moved my front legs up the tree, still leaning the upper part of my body on the tree. I dug my claws into the wood, it was an uncomfortable feeling.

When I felt my claws were deep enough, I used the force of my back legs to jump up, putting my back feet on the tree. Instinctually I equipped my lower claws, perching myself on the tree.

Now that I was on the tree, I couldn’t figure out what to do next. I looked down at the team below, trying to figure out what I should do next.

“Try doing that again, now that you’re on the tree.” One of them shouted up to me. I looked up, trying to figure out how I was supposed to do that with no ground below me. I hesitated heavily. “Maybe try going faster this time!”

With that, I tried not thinking about it, hoping instincts would take over. That sadly wasn’t the case. My claws retracted once I jumped up, causing me to not grip onto the tree. My back feet couldn’t catch onto anything to save me, so I began to fall to the ground.

Although, my instincts kicked in before I hit the ground. In less than a second, I twisted my body around so my stomach was parallel to the ground. I kicked my back legs. They hit the tree, launching me forward and away from me landing on my team. I safely landed on the ground. When I turned back to my team, they said nothing, still scribbling their notes down.

They had me repeatedly try. Until I could reach the top of the tree. By the end of the day, they had me practice jumping from tree to tree. They said that I would be most useful in situations where I had things to jump off of.

When I was done for the day, I emerged from my titan form. Everything was hazy, and it felt weird to be in my normal body again. It took me a while to get the strength to fully get myself out of the flesh that protected my body.

By the time I arrived back at camp, Riner and Bertolt had returned. I immediately ran up to Reiner. My eyes held the question I wished to ask him. He smiled back at me, proud of himself. “I was able to do it.”

“I knew you could!” I happily shouted, hugging him. He tensed up in my arms, not hugging me back. I realized that this was the first time that we hugged where one of us wasn’t crying. I immediately let go, thinking he wasn’t enjoying it.

He then asked me how my training went. I explained to him how weird it felt to be in titan form and how having four legs was a big change, but I was able to complete one of the things they asked of me.

He simply smiled, nodding along as I ranted about how everything went and how exciting it was.

❃

After a week, we all understood our most important capabilities. The next thing they had us do was fight one another. At the time we thought it was stupid, thinking there would be no instance we would run into another titan shifter.

Bertolt went off on his own. They wanted him to focus on mobility. They had Annie and Reiner fight in fist to fist combat. For Marcel, Peick and I, we more-so had to play a strategy game.

Peick had to run around the forest and hide from Marcel and I. While Marcel and I would both have to chase down Peick, and fight each other to try to get to her first.

At first, I was overly confident in my abilities. Believing I could win it easily. But over time, Marcel was becoming a formidable opponent.

Our agility was almost matched, but he could cling onto trees better than I could, making him faster. My senses were better than his though, making it easier for me to find Peick.

Once he realized how quickly I was able to spot her, he would begin to follow me, knowing he would be able to get to Peick before me when we spotted her.

This would turn into us physically fighting. As the titan is named, his jaw was incredibly strong. But my claws are longer, thicker and stronger than his. I would focus on trying to tear his jaw off, knowing it would take some time for him to recover. So before I could get to his jaw, he would try biting my paws off.

While I had four paws, he only had one jaw. At some point, one of us would try to break free from the other, attempting to make our way to Peick.

After one of us had caught her, all three of us would emerge from our titan bodies, debriefing our fight. Sometimes, we would be fighting over any foul moves we did to one another.

The people conducting our training finally caught up to us. They all were impressed with our work, and decided to give us the rest of the day off.

We all happily transformed back into our titan forms, knowing it would get us out of the forest quicker. As we arrived back at the field, we heard loud crashes. When we emerged from the woods, we were able to witness Reiner and Annie’s fight.

They had always been done about the same time as us. Unlike them, we would still have to travel back to the camp. By the time that we arrived back, they were already done. So this was the first time I got to see Reiner’s titan. While I still have never seen what I looked like in titan form, I could already tell Reiner’s looked better than mine. I absolutely hated to admit it. He looked more human-like, while I knew I looked more like a monster.

❃

Almost immediately after training was finished, they sent us off to war. I thought my father would be happy. This is what he had always wanted for me. Yet the night before we were to leave, he took me out to our normal training spot.

I expected him to want to train, even though I definitely didn’t need it. Instead he wanted me to lay on the ground with him, staring up at the sky. I couldn’t figure out why he had wanted to do this.

We sat together silently, staring up. After a while he finally spoke up, explaining what we were doing. “Whenever I would go to war, watching the stars always made me feel better.”

I said nothing. I didn’t know what to say to that, nor did I really want to say anything. I had to wake up early the next day, so I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep.

“I always knew that your mother was watching the same stars. It always brought me comfort.” I turned my head, looking at him, still not understanding what he was getting at. He too turned to me. “So if you’re ever feeling lonely out there, just look at the stars and know that I’m watching the same stars as you.”

Not understanding what he was trying to get at, I could only nod along. I knew that I wouldn’t feel alone out there because I was surrounded by my friends.

Some more time in silence went by before he finally decided it was time to get up. I followed him, heading back to the house. I didn’t get too far before he called my name. I stopped and turned to him.

Before I could do anything else, he embraced me. As he held me in his arms, I felt him shaking slightly. “Please be safe.” He whispered in my ears. “Don’t do anything stupid.” He paused for a moment, slightly chuckling. “Like stepping on a mine.”

I hugged him back, enjoying the feeling of being loved by him. “My leg will grow back if I step on a landmine.” I chuckled as well. “Plus I will be in titan form so it will barely hurt.”

“Yeah.” He mentioned, not really thinking of that. “Well, still don’t be reckless or do anything stupid.”

“I won't.” I reassured him.

He still wouldn’t let go for a few moments. I heard him sniffle a bit. When he pulled away, he used his sleeve to wipe his eyes and nose, confirming that he was indeed crying.

It made me happy knowing how much he cared, even though he was the one that put me in this position in the first place.

❃

I was transformed. Bertolt had just transformed right out front of the enemy's walls, completely destroying it and a few of their buildings inside. They had Reiner and I run in from a distance.

I was ahead of Reiner, my smaller titan form and powerful legs made me faster. I ran through the hole Bertolt had made. My goal was to take out any people I saw who manned the guns atop the wall.

The military base was small. It couldn't have had more than ten or so buildings. All the buildings had about three floors.

I made sure to get far away from my entry point, knowing Reiner would be bursting through any moment and I didn’t want to be caught in the crossfire.

As I began to climb the wall, digging my claws into the bricks, I heard a loud crash, signifying that Reiner had finally caught up.

I had already got to the top of the wall by the time Reiner began his mass destruction. His goal was to destroy any important looking building. Honestly the main goal was to destroy anything in our path.

Now at the top, I headed straight for the big guns. Many people were in my way. Using my paws and mouth, I imitated any obstacle. I remember stepping on them. Their bones cracked beneath me. Biting into them as their blood gushed onto my teeth. I remember my next victims, watching me with fear, holding their guns to their chest shakily. I remember being proud of my actions. Proud that I was protecting my country.

The thought of all of it now disgusts me.

When Reiner and I almost leveled the base, I jumped onto his shoulder, being too exhausted to run back on my own. When we arrived back to the launching point, we quickly emerged from our forms, running for the blimp ready to take us away.

The second we entered, I collapsed to the metal ground. Reiner ran up to Bertolt who had sat in one of the seats “Did you see that?” He asked excitedly. “We were so cool! We’re all real heroes after taking out such an important base of the enemy!”

Bertolt barely responded as he watched my limp body on the floor as I looked up at them. The nurse was already checking me out to make sure I was okay.

Reiner finally turned around to see me. “Oh.” he awkwardly let out, now seeing why Bertolt wasn’t responding. “Are you okay?” he didn’t know what else to say.

“Do I look okay?” I asked sarcastically. The nurse helped me into a seat as we needed to leave as soon as possible. I was already feeling sick, so flying on top of that wasn’t the best.

Reiner sat next to me. He held his hand out to me. “You can hold onto me if you want.” Thinking it would be the only way to help. I graciously took his offer, but instead of just holding his hand, I crushed it as I tried my hardest not to puke all over myself. I could tell it hurt with his grunts, but he never complained or told me to stop.

❃

It felt as though we were thrown into mission after mission with barely any breaks. War got tiring quickly, but there was no way I could escape it. I was stuck with this life until I died in 13 or so years.

Even though I was tired, I was happy to have my best friend with me. When we weren’t on the battlefield we were normally goofing off in some sort of way, often getting in trouble.

The same cycle continued for years until one day. We were on break for about a week. They called all of us in early. We all knew it would be some new mission, but none of us expected how big it would end up being.

Everyone was sitting around the table. Titan Shifters on one side while the Marleyn officers on the other side. Reiner of course sat next to me. He was excited to get a new mission, like always. Excited to kill evil people to protect his country.

They began to tell all of us about the island of Paradis. All of us had learned about it in our studies, but were never told much details. But as an Eldian, we knew we would be sent off there if we were to defy the government.

I was confused, not understanding why they thought to share this information with us, until one of them said. “Five of you will be sent there to infiltrate them.”

“Alone?” I accidentally asked out loud. They nodded their heads as they continued. I already didn’t like the sound of this mission. In every mission so far, there were always Marlyan soldiers waiting to support us in running distance. But any support would be an ocean away.

Not only that, they said that we would have to stay until the mission was completed. Meaning I could be away from home for years before returning.

Our mission: Exterminate everyone on the island and find the titan shifters to return to Marley.

Once they finished their explanations, the head General stood up with a piece of paper in his hand. “The people that will be sent on this mission are.” He started. I closed my eyes, praying that I wouldn’t be sent. Reiner prayed, for a completely different reason.

“Marcel Galliard.” He read off first. My eyes shut tighter, knowing that my chances had just lessened.

“Annie Leonhart.” He read the next name. My fist balled up in my hands, nails digging into my palm. My chances lessened even more.

“Bertolt Hoover.” The next name was read off. I bit my tongue harder. Only two more names needed to be read off and I’d be free.

The General cleared his throat before reading off the next name. “Reiner Braun.” My eyes shot open as I snapped my head at Reiner. His face lit up in excitement. I was saddened at the thought of us being separated.

But then I remembered. They never separated us. Everything moved in slow motion as I turned my head back to the General as he finally read out my name.

My heart dropped as it felt as though all the blood in my body left. Everyone around the table clapped for us, but it only distorted and meshed together.

After the meeting adjourned, everyone went to talk to each other. I on the other hand stumbled out of the building. Walking back home was a complete daze. I am pretty sure I ran into multiple people, most of them insulting me afterwards.

The second I opened the door to my house, I looked for my father. Once I found him, I threw myself at him, sobbing my eyes out. He didn’t understand what was wrong.

We were told to not tell a soul about the contents of this mission, but I couldn’t help the words spewing out of my mouth. Truthfully, I was expecting him to tell me to suck it up and that I should be happy to have such an opportunity. But he did quite the opposite.

He screamed at the top of his lungs about how idiotic they were for sending such young children into such a theoretical plan that left so much room for uncertainties. He was scared for me. He was scared for Reiner.

He threatened to march into their offices to tell them what he thinks. I grabbed back onto him, holding him down and begging him not to, knowing we all would be in trouble if he told anyone.

Stopping, he turned around to me, leaning down he hugged me back, trying his best to calm me down, not even having the words. I sobbed in his arms until I fell asleep from exhaustion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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[celaenaeiln]

(catches me rummaging through the trash like a raccoon)

Tell me once again, I could have been anyone, anyone else

Before you made the choice for me (The vigilante bit was always Dick’s idea. But Nightwing was born from Bruce ripping Robin away from him.)

My feet knew the path

We walked in the dark, in the dark (the darkness surrounded both Dick and Bruce. it’s a familiar friend to them both)

I never gave a single thought to where it might lead (He was a child. How could Dick know what would happen to him in the future?)

All those empty rooms

We could have been anywhere, anywhere else (they could’ve been a functional family)

Instead I made a bed with apathy (“After the realisation of being used and shaped to become what the other person wanted, they’ve simply been resigned to where they ended up. Apathy.”)

My heart knew the weight

Ten years' worth of dust and neglect (Bruce was his dad… but did it really feel like it?)

We made our peace with weariness and let it be (but Dick, ever hopeful, lives on. hope masks his exhaustion.)

The moon will sing a song for me

I loved you like the sun

Bore the shadows that you made

With no light of my own

I shine only with the light you give me

(in my mind, i see it going both ways. early in life, it was Batman and Robin. they were so codependent of each other, they were basically one entity. Bruce could not stay afloat without Dick. Robin wasn’t able to shine without Batman. their relationship is borderline, mayhaps even truly, toxic. but neither can let go.)

Name your courage now

We could have had anything, anything else

Instead you hoarded all that's left of me (“These lines seem to indicate that the parent/partner/other person in the relationship with the singer was a control freak, perhaps even afraid of losing the singer. Instead, they resorted to manipulation to prevent this from happening.” well, do I need to explain?)

Swallowing your doubt

Like swords to the pit of my belly

I want to feel the fire that you kept from me (Dick, as Robin, wanted to rediscover himself with the Titans. without Bruce. Bruce wouldn’t let him.)

(jumps into the sewer grate and disappears)

*comes out with a leash only to glimpse a blur jumping into the sewer grate so ties up hair and starts climbing down, gagging all the way at the smell because my love for you will not be dulled by the scent of sewage*

The Moon Will Sing by The Crane Wives

I'm huge into songs with cadence because they're really addicting to listen to so when I started reading this, I could feel a rhythm so I thought I might like it. I was right!

Tell me once again, I could have been anyone, anyone else

This fits into the Oldest Daughter Syndrome post I wrote about where Dick on some level feels a sort of resentment towards Bruce. He loves him but the hurt from taking care of him when he could have been enjoying his childhood as much as teen vigilante can still lingers.

Before you made the choice for me (The vigilante bit was always Dick’s idea. But Nightwing was born from Bruce ripping Robin away from him.)

My feet knew the path

When he left he didn't know where to go or what to do but he knew what he wanted to be - a hero worthy of his own stage. And he knew subconsciously what needed to be done.

We walked in the dark, in the dark (the darkness surrounded both Dick and Bruce. it’s a familiar friend to them both)

All those nights patrolling together, laughing together, making the memories of a lifetime in a clouded gotham sky at twilight. They toured Gotham, flying through every crevices and warehouse over the years because they knew Gotham like the back of their hand.

I never gave a single thought to where it might lead (He was a child. How could Dick know what would happen to him in the future?)

Nightwing (1996) Issue #75

source: also @paladin-of-nerd-fandom65 because thank you so much for finding it because I spent a week looking for this 😭

He really didn't know. They both didn't.

All those empty rooms

this post. I often think of A Million Dreams song from the Greatest Showman because it's kinda portrayal of Dick's mindset as Robin and Nightwing. But there's one stanza that sticks out in particular in connection with this: There's a house we can build Every room inside is filled With things from far away The special things I compile Each one there to make you smile On a rainy day

And each time it just reminds me of how in the Golden Ages Dick and Bruce used to collect memorandum of their adventures together. And both of them look over it all and reminisce canonically. But Dick was the one who moved out, and I mentioned in my B&D relationship post long ago but Bruce literally sulks in a cave filled with adventures of their time together. When Dick leaves for college, Bruce actually shuts down the batcave and leaves the manor to settle in a new place to go on a journey of self-discovery to find himself anew/become more modern.

Batman (1940) Issue #217

We could have been anywhere, anywhere else (they could’ve been a functional family)

Instead I made a bed with apathy (“After the realisation of being used and shaped to become what the other person wanted, they’ve simply been resigned to where they ended up. Apathy.”)

Also how Bruce tried to kill his emotions are Dick left him behind so he wouldn't feel sorrow that he's gone.

My heart knew the weight

They both cried about each other leaving. Dick when Bruce fired him and Bruce when Dick left for college.

Batman (1940) Issue #217

Ten years' worth of dust and neglect (Bruce was his dad… but did it really feel like it?)

We made our peace with weariness and let it be (but Dick, ever hopeful, lives on. hope masks his exhaustion.)

The moon will sing a song for me

I loved you like the sun

Bore the shadows that you made

With no light of my own

Nightwing (1999) Issue #99

I shine only with the light you give me

(in my mind, i see it going both ways. early in life, it was Batman and Robin. they were so codependent of each other, they were basically one entity. Bruce could not stay afloat without Dick. Robin wasn’t able to shine without Batman. their relationship is borderline, mayhaps even truly, toxic. but neither can let go.)

Yes, that's canon.

Detective Comics (2016) Issue #1074

Name your courage now

We could have had anything, anything else

Batman vs Robin Issue #3

Instead you hoarded all that's left of me (“These lines seem to indicate that the parent/partner/other person in the relationship with the singer was a control freak, perhaps even afraid of losing the singer. Instead, they resorted to manipulation to prevent this from happening.” well, do I need to explain?)

There's just so many examples to give of this

Swallowing your doubt

Like swords to the pit of my belly

Batman vs Robin Issue #3

Quite on the nose actually. Or should I say sword.

I want to feel the fire that you kept from me (Dick, as Robin, wanted to rediscover himself with the Titans. without Bruce. Bruce wouldn’t let him.)

Teen Titans: Year One Issue #6

[itsdragonfire13]

Young Justice Crossover Rec

Been reading Young Justice fanfics again and wanted to deliever some of my favorite crossovers with different fandoms. Almost none of these are on AO3, or at least I didn't find them on AO3.

Justice League/Justice League Unlimited

How to Outrun Death by Lore55 Website: Fanfiction.net

Summary: Being dead was different from what he'd thought it would be like. In fact, as far as Wally could tell death felt an awful lot like laying on the snow in an insulated, friction proof suit.

Chapters 22; WIP. This is like the fic of Wally being the JLU Wally it's one of my favorites and I re-read it a lot.

They're Us by Goldenbrook15 Website: fanfiction.net

Summary: When the Young Justice land themselves in another dimension by accident and then manage to escape the entire Justice League (who strangely don't know them at all) and flee into the world outside, Batman can only come to one conclusion, "They're us, from a different world."

Chapters 27; WIP. The author did post their outline for the fic in the last chapter explaining how it was going to end, so in a way it is 'complete'

Better Late by Kyogre Website: fanfiction.net

Summary: In Endgame, Wally accidentally transports himself a universe or four over, into a world where there is no Flash or Justice League. At least, not yet.

Chapters 10; Complete. This is a short but still good one

We Meet Again by Takebuo Ishimatsu Website: fanfiction.net

Summary: Young Justice is accidentally transported to another dimension in which their mentors have no idea who they are. Things get complicated. Fast. YJ cartoon crossover into a world similar to JL cartoon.

Chapters 5; WIP. It's so good, but sadly only 5 chapters, even if the chapters are pretty long.

Of Masters and Students by monroesherlock Website: fanfiction.net

Summary: The Young Justice team wakes up trapped in another universe, one where their team has never existed. It's up to them to prove themselves worthy all over again to a group of rather unwilling mentors. AU TeamFamilyCentric

Chapters 28; Complete. This has to be one of my all-time favorite of the original Team getting sent to another dimension fics. I always love when I re-read it.

Return Stroke by viecamille Website AO3

Summary: No one in Young Justice has ever heard of the Speedforce. No one on Earth-12 has ever heard of the Flash. Super-speed isn’t always an easy power to handle. None of these facts are conducive to Wally’s return home.

Or: Wally’s stranded, Dick’s haunted, the JL are confused, and superpowers have a tendency to drive physicists insane. Oh, and Wally West is a founding member of the Justice League now. Whoops?

Chapters 1 WIP; Only 1 chapter so far, but it was made in March and it's so good.

Catching Icarus by Fantasyfire Website AO3

Summary: A bad encounter with magic banishes Superboy into another world. Stranded, the Kryptonian clone must deal with a whole new league and a much different Superman.

Chapters 13 WIP; I'm only on ch3 but I really love how it's going the relationship that building between JLU Superman and Conner is top tier.

Teen Titans

Brick by Brick by HookahPop Website AO3

Summary:

The Team was just trying to tie up loose ends. The light had been defeated, so they needed to make sure they stayed down. Robin was never supposed to be caught in the blast.

The Titans were just going on a simple mission. Control Freak would take two minutes tops, then they'd go out for pizza. Slade wasn't supposed to interfere and single Robin out.

The two Robins switch places, and no one is prepared for the consequences.

Chapters 12 WIP; A fun birdflash one, but also it's 12/15 chapters, so close to being finished.

Avengers/Marvel

Child Soldiers by McKennaC Website: fanfiction.net

Summary: When the Avengers investigate an illegal lab that's putting off radiation similar to the Tesseract, they find three young boys from another universe. While trying to send them home, they discover that the kids have abilities that rival their own. How can they handle having three child heroes in the tower?

Chapters 17; WIP. This is set before the start of Young Justice, by a few years, when Robin, Speedy, and Kid Flash were the only sidekicks.

Away From Home by JJ100051 Website: fanfiction.net

Summary: During a run in with Klarion, Young Justice is sent to an alternate universe where the Justice League doesn't exist, But instead the unorganized and scattered avengers do. Inspired by the great Avengers movie and Sparked by Canaryhowl

Chapters 10; WIP. Fun to see how the team would hold up against SHIELD when they let loose.