#Save Atlantis Week

[antebunny]

go away

After Bruce Wayne dies, it only takes Tim about three weeks to show up on Dick Grayson’s doorstep with a 3-ring binder full of evidence. He runs a finger along the top metal ring of the binder over and over as he waits for a response to the doorbell. All at once he feels thirteen years old again, clutching months of painstakingly collected notes written up neatly and sorted into sections. Dick never read any of it, yet Tim did it all again. Had his photos developed for ease of viewing access, included sources for all of his claims, stuck to his main points for clarity’s sake but has pages and pages of extra information in the back of the binder for when–if–Dick decides to give his idea a thorough look. 

But Tim is seventeen years old now, old enough to know where he went wrong the first time. Yesterday he spent hours coming up with argument after argument, approach after approach, to get through to Dick. Mr. Grayson, I’m so sorry for your loss. He’s probably tired of hearing that. Mr. Grayson, I have something I think you’ll want to see. Too quick to the point. If he doesn��t recognize Tim, maybe he’ll try Mr. Grayson, I know about your night life and I want to help. If he does, then maybe Mr. Grayson, I want to say I’m sorry about last time, but this isn’t like last time, I swear–

The door opens. Tim knows that it’s Dick by the smell. Sweat, unwashed clothes, and misery. How like last time. Dick looks like the epitome of grief, which is to say, not like himself. Dick Grayson is a creature of happiness by nature, of high-flying freedom, of beloved family and friends, a picture-perfect cover boy, always adored, always with a beautiful redhead, Batgirl or Starfire or Arsenal, yes Tim knows his type, always kind, always charming, always happy to be there. But Tim only ever seems to know him in these liminal states of horrible tragedy. 

Worst of all, Tim can’t quite tell if Dick recognizes him. 

“Mr. Grayson,” he begins, heart pounding so loudly he cannot hear himself speak, “I don’t think Mr. Wayne is dead.”

For a moment longer than Tim’s entire lifespan, Dick just stares at him. Blue eyes hazy and unfocused. One hand on the doorframe, one hand dragging through the stubble growing on his half-shaved jaw. He’s wearing an AC/DC shirt. Given Dick’s fashion tastes (bright colors) and Bruce Wayne’s music tastes, neither of which Tim should know, he is 98% certain that the AC/DC shirt used to belong to Bruce Wayne. 

When Dick finally speaks, his voice sounds like the death of all joy. 

“How many family members do I have to lose before you let me grieve in peace?”

Tim’s pounding heartbeat becomes a deafening white noise as Dick’s question pangs around his chest. His eyes sting so fiercly that Tim knows it is as visible as Dick’s misery. Nevertheless, he persists, if only for Bruce Wayne. No one else will save him if not for Tim. So even though his hero thinks Tim is a creepy little stalker with the unbelievable audacity to swagger into Dick’s life and tell him how to fix it, well. He’s not wrong, is he? What does it matter if Tim once upon a time dreamed of more? Saving Bruce Wayne is far more important than Tim’s nonexistent chances of becoming friends with Nightwing. 

“Jason came back.” Tim’s chin, lifted stubbornly, trembles. 

Dick’s face clouds over with a rage so terrible that Tim sincerely believes he’s about to get punched by Nightwing. Which wouldn’t be so bad. Tim deserves it, doesn’t he? Intruding on a stranger’s grief like this is probably a punchable offense. He’ll bear it all if only Dick listens, but it looks like he managed to blow it in the span of two sentences. 

In the end, though Dick’s hands curl into fists and his shoulders shake like traintracks, he turns his head at the last second and rests his forehead on the doorframe. Tears streak down his perfect jawline. Watching Dick Grayson cry is like watching Atlantis sink. It’s like watching the Mona Lisa go up in flames. Tim knows stuff like this is why Dick treats him like a celebrity-obsessed stalker living in a weird fantasy world where he’s a part of the Wayne family. He knows it’s why Dick hates him. Tim still can’t help that it’s captivating to watch.

“Go away,” Dick begs.

Tim has never felt more like the scum of the earth, yet still he’d persist if he thought there was a chance of getting Nightwing to listen to him. But there isn’t. So Tim, as lonely, rejected, unworthy and fucking correct as he is, sees himself out of the apartment building.

Two weeks later, he catches a flight to Lahore.

[bajoop-sheeb]

highlights from the martha wells larry j. ringer public library event today

Murderbot (the TV show)

Ms. Wells has been promoted from a creative consultant to a consulting producer yeehaw!

6 episodes were originally planned but Apple wanted more (never thought I'd be publicly thanking Apple for anything but here we are) so they added a cool new subplot

FILMING WILL START IN A FEW WEEKS in Canada

Does she want to meet any of her characters?

I *think* she said Murderbot wouldn't want to meet her haha

If Kai (from Witch King) had to come save you you'd be "really up the creek" so no

Which character does she relate to the most?

Murderbot ftw

Real TV show inspirations for the serials in the books

Sanctuary Moon = How to Get Away with Murder

Worldhoppers = Stargate Atlantis

Cruel Romance Personage = any telenovela where everyone's obsessed with a hot person even though they're really mean

Timestream Defenders Orion = Legends of Tomorrow

[kindredspiritsandgoodomens]

The Time Monster really is an iconic Classic Who serial -

Lots of people have to say "TOMTIT" repeatedly with straight faces

The Master announces himself by saying "I'm sorry about your coccyx too, Miss Grant"

The Doctor does backwards Twin Peaks Red Room speak

Mike gets charged by a guy with a lance, shot at with a canon and blown up by a V2 all in the space of five minutes

Sgt Benton (who is supposed to be on leave) I) manages to grasp a complex space time concept nobody else understands II) does not quite manage to eat a marmalade sandwich III) manages to get the jump on the Master twice IV) gets turned into a baby

There are some scientists of the week bickering about women's lib for no real reason

The Master cucks the King of Atlantis

The Brig gets so worried about Captain Yates he calls him Mike

The Doctor tells Jo about the time he was existentially depressed as a child and it's really sweet

Jo attempts to blow herself, the Master, and the Doctor up to save the universe because the Doctor can't bring himself to

When she wakes up she assumes she's I) dead II) 'in heaven or somewhere' and is fine with it - "groovy isn't it"

The Doctor insists on taking personal responsibility for The Master again over him facing external consequences and of course he escapes *sigh*

Kronos says gender is meaningless "But you're a girl" "Shapes mean nothing"

There's a minotaur

[copperbadge]

I was making breakfast and listening to an episode of Just King Things this morning, which is a podcast I do recommend -- two very smart English teachers are reading the books of Stephen King in publication order and discussing them. This could go extremely awry except they're both highly conscious of his failings as well as his skill, so they do really well handling a lot of his less salutatory content.

They've hit the point in King's ouvre (this episode was about Hearts In Atlantis) that follows his recovery from the car accident that very nearly killed him, where he was struck by a van while out walking. One of them pointed out that it seems as though he came back from nearly dying determined to write the wildest shit imaginable and only write what he wanted, which struck a chord in me this time despite having listened to this episode before. Perhaps because I was thinking about my own writing and where it's going in the short term (there are a couple of short stories I want to do that I don't quite have a way into yet). I generally don't think about the drift of my creativity in the long term because when I do I usually draw the wrong conclusions.

I don't really classify my life, the way some people who've had high-impact injuries do, as before-TBI and after-TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury -- the fairly severe concussion I had in January of 2020). For one thing, given I had to cancel a trip to NYC because of it, it may have saved my life; I almost certainly would have caught COVID as someone with known lung issues in New York at the time. For another, the TBI was way scarier to almost everyone else; for me it was just one more dumb injury I gave myself and I didn't even remember most of it so it hardly registered. I used to open the story of it with a joke about waking up not remembering going to bed the night before, but nobody ever found it funny.

It's true that there are changes it wrought in my life, though. Even practical stuff like making sure my living space doesn't have tripping hazards and continuing to wear a fitbit even though I don't really need to (the fitbit told us, the morning after, exactly when the concussion happened, because it registered a heart-rate spike when I fell). For weeks after, I had to move slowly and put off making important decisions because I couldn't trust my physical or intellectual judgement; I didn't even jaywalk in my own neighborhood because I couldn't be sure I was judging the cars' speeds properly. For about a year after I had periodic post-concussion syndrome which basically just slammed me back into concussion space, which wasn't painful or upsetting but was definitely inconvenient.

And it's also undeniable that my writing shifted after the injury. It's not necessarily because of the injury, since my initial recovery from the TBI and the declaration of quarantine happened at roughly the same time, and anyone who tells you that a years-long global pandemic didn't impact their artistic expression is selling you a line. But the last thing I wrote before the TBI was the first draft of Six Harvests, and aside from the Six Harvests publication draft, which had fairly minimal changes, almost all that I've written has been blue-sky, light-hearted, PG-rated romance. It's been on my mind that I've been writing different subject matter from what I used to, but the timing of it didn't strike me until just recently.

I don't mind, really. I love fandom and I support fanfic in whatever expression it comes, but I'm also happy writing my own stories. While I'm aware it's been years since I've meaningfully written fanfic, it doesn't bother me per se, as long as I'm writing. It bothered me much more when I could write fanfic but not original fic, especially in those last few awful months at my last job. I'm proud of the literary and non-genre fiction I've written in the past, but it's also much more trying and frustrating to write at times, so I'm enjoying having a different sort of challenge that feels more fulfilling in the process. I'm sure at some point I'll go back to literary fiction -- there are ways in which it's hard to avoid turning the later Shivadh novels into literary fiction, being honest -- but for now I like what I'm writing, and I'm writing primarily to please myself and without regard to what's necessarily rational or linear.

Just struck me, is all, that it's by far the most noticeable major shift in my work. I do sort of wonder what will be next.

[brucewaynehater101]

I remember this one shot where tim & bruce swaps bodies while bruce is as batman in some jla meeting. Tim just continues it perfectly.

This is the body swap au, btw

Anyways, would Tim do a good job as Batman?. I think if Tim sees the swap as something brief he would do his best. (But we all make them swap long enough to Tim having enough time for long term plans) so if Tim gaslights himself into believing they would swap back after some weeks, he would do better. He thinks he can do better as a way to show he can be Batman without being a evil one(he's fighting the gun Batman allegations).

Still, it would be funny that in his "I'm gonna fix Bruce's life while am here plan".

Tim acts less as a classic moody batman while in the atalaya. Gives more and kind advice. He talks with Superman about his situation with Kon. He helps Flash with his eating schedule. He helps Arthur with whatever is going on in Atlantis. He shuts off all of the surveillance on Bruce's coworkers, just to mess with Bruce.

He just avoids Martian tho.

Then, it's been a month since the swap. They don't seem to find any way back. Tim cannot lie to himself anymore and the Batman duties are becoming way too much.

Then Bruce dies in Tim's body.

Tim never wanted to be Batman, neither to be like Bruce. But he messed Tim up. Tim never wanted to be like Bruce Wayne. And now he is living his nightmare, every day since Bruce death, Tim has to wake up and avoid his reflection. Tim never wanted to be like Bruce Wayne and now everyone call him the wrong name. Bruce died and Tim does what he does best, he sacrifices. He ditchs his identity any hope of being Tim Drake, so Batman can rise once again.

.

.

(The last paragraph is a little darker end of the version of this au where Bruce dies in Tim's body. I happily would read some of your ideas where none of them dies tho. There's just so many aspects os this au we can develop more, also we need more bruce pov of this).

Here is the post being referenced!

[I'm sorry to say that 90% of Bruce POV's are just gonna be him suffering.... I can try, though. Put up a valiant effort]

Let's really pack in that angst, shall we?

For this AU, Tim has been compared to Bruce so many fucking times.

At first, despite his shaky relationship with the grieving man, he took it as a compliment. He was like his hero Batman!

It started with Alfred fondly tutting over Tim's capacity to neglect self care duties and his shared interests. The older man would sarcastically ask Tim if he was following Bruce's footsteps of being a loner who sits in his basement all day (just teasing and joking and slight reprimanding).

Then there were the heroes that remarked on Robin's uncanny ability to do the batglare or translate Bruce's grunts.

When Steph and Tim got into arguments (and Tim was being a grade A asshole), Steph would compare Tim's emotional incapability and distrust with Batman's.

Dick, in the heat of the moment, has yelled at Tim to stop acting like Bruce (they got ice cream afterwards as an apology).

Jason has tsked and grumbled and shouted about Tim being molded into Bruce's shape/image.

Even Babs has made a comment or two.

While they didn't mean to hurt Tim (unless they were fighting [for which they would both usually make up and apologize]), it caused a small dig and insecurity to Tim's own self-image.

He wanted Bruce to be proud of him.

Tim wanted to be nothing like Bruce.

Then you add on the 16th birthday, Bruce's shit with Steph, how Bruce treats his other kids, other canon events, gun Batman, and Tim losing the rose-colored glasses of childhood?

Yeah. Tim doesn't want to be Bruce.

It seems fitting, after stealing Robin, that he'd get stuck under the name of the man he grew to see as a warning.

It figures that his choice in saving Batman lead to Tim's loss of self.

[Hmm... I can do another post chatting about Bruce or no one dying if you would like.... Or someone else dying before the truth comes out :)]

[kitzatara]

TODAY IS ZATANNA’S 60th DEBUT ANNIVERSARY!!!

Exactly 60 years ago today, Zatanna came onto the comic book pages of Hawkman #4, and has continued to thrill and delight!

So to celebrate here on tumblr, this will be a post about fun facts and information about the one and only, Princess of Prestidigitation, Sorceress Supreme, and Mistress of Magic!

Zatanna is a human and Homo Magi hybrid born to Giovanni “John” Zatara and Sindella. Through Zatara she is of Italian descent, and related to Leonardo Da Vinci, Nostradamus, Cagliostro, and Nicholas Flammel. On her mother’s side she is of Atlantean descent and distantly related to Arion the sorcerer king and demi-god of Atlantis.

Zatanna primarily casts spells by speaking backwards, originally due to her connection to Da Vinci who wrote his journals in reverse. Later it was revealed to be a way to keep the Otherkind from the dark multiverse from finding and feeding on her. And while it is her go to spellcasting method she can cast spells without speaking, through rhymes, runes, song, and even psychically!

Since she can pretty much make anything happen by speaking it backwards she has a laundry list of magical capabilities and is considered one of the most powerful Justice Leaguers, and magic users in the DC universe. Having used her powers to stop many threats over the years and save countless lives.

Despite having near limitless powers Zatanna often suffers from being sidelined in stories, or nerfed to make her more palatable to the narrative. Usually due to a combination of sexism, being not as popular as other characters, or so that the other characters can have the spotlight. But when Zatanna gets to shine, it’s brighter than the sun.

Like many of her peers Zatanna has a no kill rule, and has actually never killed anyone in the main continuity/universe. She has also never died in main canon, a somewhat rare quality among comic characters.

Despite having a no kill rule Zatanna does have a bit of temper, as well as an over reliance on her magic powers. She is a self proclaimed “spellaholic” often using magic for mundane tasks and to get even with people who vex her. And when her father, loved ones, and children are threatened she has been known to lash out. But she always sets things right, and does the right thing in the end.

Despite her temper Zatanna is a very kind and loving character, she considers many of the League members to be like family, and is much beloved among the superheroes and magic users of the world. Her fierce determination to do good and put a smile on people’s faces even when she’s feeling low is a stand out character trait. She has even gone out of her way to protect her enemies, the people who caused her mother’s death, and civilians of people who have harmed her. Because at the end of the day she is a hero, and damn good one.

Zatanna is a complex and fascinating character with so much wonderful history to explore. And it’s so fortunate that she has her first ever Black Label solo called Zatanna: Bring Down The House. What better way to celebrate her 60 years than by checking it out? Issue #3 releases next week! And tomorrow (August 21st) Superman #17 releases featuring a rare team up between the Magic Maid and the Man of Steel. And below are some of my personal comic reading recs!

May you come to love her as I do

Yojne! 🎩🪄

[apocalypse-shuffle]

DIANA PRINCE | WONDER WOMAN (the flashpoint paradox)

—

“The Messenger Bird Sings” (Diana Prince x Fem!Reader)

| Infiltrating Themyscira to save a resistance member is a disaster. But it leads to unexpected consequences when the Queen captures you.

| SFW, open ending, infatuated!reader, (TW: captured!reader, spoils of war, unfettered murder), -dark!wonder woman

| pics via: Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox animated movie

| Here’s a link to the scene this is based on. The words/dialogue that are mine are mine and the words that are from the movie are not mine.

| 2k+ words

Sneaking around New Themyscira is a feat you didn’t think you’d ever experience but, lo and behold, here you were.

The island was beautiful in a way that reminded you of what used to be. It’s battle torn, but the skies are still bright blue and the air’s still unnaturally fresh and fizzling with magic.

Even if it’s not the same as you're sure it’d be on the original “Paradise Island”, the residual effect of the Amazon’s whimsy sticks to the place like it was fated to be. Like their magic lays as much claim over this part of what used to be Europe as they do.

It’s a drastic contrast to the wreckage all around you all.

“Alright crew, we meet back at the ship by dusk. This is an evidence gathering retreat and extraction mission so stay out of sight and do not engage.” Steve’s command stays quiet through coms even as he shifts to giving out individual instructions next. His voice a steady balm that you lock onto to distract you enough you don’t have to keep biting back your grin.

─────

It’s hours before anything worthwhile than ducking and hiding takes place.

Initially Steve’s group was primarily tasked with direct extraction of Lois Lane from behind enemy lines but you had run into her, and a small number of other survivors hiding in the nature reclaimed remains of what used to be London, first.

Your branch-off specifically is just meant to be gathering enough tangible evidence that the Amazon’s are taking human hostages to finally push the last remaining world leader to actually let Steve’s task force move in to save them.

Years ago you’d thought politics was hard to navigate. Now it was a literal minefield, one wrong move and someone would take off your head.

You’re hoping at the very least your wrong move doesn’t happen here.

The Amazons were brutal. What little clear footage that still remained showed their killing prowess off well. They didn’t level cities the way the Atlanteans did, but at the beginning of all this they’d conquered their way across the Mediterranean in less than a week and no one had even noticed.

The Atlanteans were too loud, even put up against the Amazons brutality and true disdain for humanity. Especially men. Atlantis had taken over the European Coast with brute force and luck that their extremely obvious assault couldn’t be stopped by any human forces.

If the human world had been anywhere near as technologically advanced and superhuman you’re sure that Atlantis would’ve fallen that day. King Arthur had put all of his forces, after the Amazon’s had near silently ran them off, into conquering Europe’s waters but he’d made a gamble in doing so.

The Amazon’s didn’t gamble.

Call it years of godly military practice coming into play or whatever but the Amazon’s were a strategic power house. They blew through everything they wanted to as if it was parchment paper in a way that the Atlanteans and their ‘throw everything at it until it sticks’ strategy could never.

The Queen didn’t take whatever she wanted, the rumored start of the war in the first place, because she was careless.

“Pilgrim to Mayflower, we’ve been caught in an ambush—”

Your radio crackles to life on your hip. You turn to your team leader but she only shakes her head. She gestures for you all to get closer together. She’s following protocol, if you have to leave team ‘Pilgrim’ behind you have to wait in silence five minutes before doing so, but if you get a response in that period you have to call in for backup.

Beside you Lois’s quiet as she stares at the radio in Boston’s hand, lip between her teeth.

The following crackle three and a half minutes in makes you all jump.

“—it’s The Queen. The Queen’s with them!”

This time it’s not Steve’s voice but a woman from his group. The air rushes from your lungs.

Queen Diana of Themyscira wasn’t careless.

Something presses down on the receiver and the sounds of screaming and gunfire reach your ears. Right behind it cheers of triumph follow.

All distinctly feminine sounding.

The Queen took what she wanted without hesitation because she was self assured in her prowess.

“Dammit to hell,” Boston curses.

Your heart feels tight all of a sudden.

The Queen.

The same one who started a whole world war because she didn’t bow down to such pitiful quirks as apologizing. The Queen who allegedly wore the crown of the woman she killed as a trophy.

When that exact crown, Atlantean in nature, crests over a row of rubble from toppled buildings towards you the sight of that golden headrest becomes an omen.

The Amazon’s are ruthless when they reach you. There’s barely a triumphant yell afterwards the fight was so close to already won once it started. In fact it’d probably be an insult to the Goddess Artemis herself to call it a fight at all.

A mild squabble maybe.

Like a kitten might give a gangly boy throwing her into a box to slowly meet its death. Or the inevitable but hopeless life of a fly when around a flytrap.

The Amazon’s had gained on you too fast for women who were supposed to be on the other side of the island right now.

As you’re thrown into the middle of a circle of stern-faced Amazon’s with your team, knocking right into Steve and his remaining crew, you start to feel a lot like a fly trapped because of its need to further inspect a predator so unequivocally greater than itself.

Your eyes prickle and your breath squeezes past your throat, but as you watch the towering few women around you your heart thuds not with fear but revelation.

In person the Amazon’s were every bit as terrifying as the stories and mission reports made them out to be, then some. Their armor was chinked and dusted with the brutal effects of war and yet they still seemed to glow brighter than the overcast sun as they set their ire upon you.

It was a lesson in skill to be present for the way they fought up close. Every strike and simple step was so clearly packed full with power and yet they moved as one graceful unit, where one woman leaned right two more would work to balance back out the open circle till closed again like feathers in the wind.

They were seamless even as they taunted Steve, held in The Queen’s lasso as he was. The center of everyone’s attention.

Something shamefully akin to envy prods at you incessantly. You do your best to ignore it.

Your fists clench and unclench at your side as you watch the warriors playing with their food. Lois looks like she can’t decide whether to throw up or throw something. For the sake of all your lives you pray she only vomits.

“You’re all Americans,” Queen Diana points out before tightening her hold on the lasso. Steve is forced to rise up on his knees at the movement, hands going to his throat in a fruitless effort to pry off the rope choking him. “But you’re going to tell me a little more about yourself. Who are you and what is your group’s goal?”

For a few seconds you all watch as Steve just…doesn’t answer. Your eyes narrow. Maybe the rumors about The Queen’s lasso were actually just rumors this time around, you’re pretty sure a gift from the gods isn’t supposed to have user defects.

The other Amazon’s seem to think the same thing as five of them huddle closer to their leader and soft murmurs travel around you from the ones that remain vigil.

“He’s resisting the lasso of truth! How is that possible Queen Diana?”

The Queen looks offended, jaw tightening.

“It’s not,” she says before wrapping more of the lasso around her hand and pulling Steve up so they’re face to face, his toes dragging in the dirt. “Who are you and what are you and your people doing in New Themyscira?”

You all gasp. Off to the side Boston starts to struggle, cursing up a storm as Steve truly goes red in the face. You can’t not watch her a bit impassioned, you know what’ll happen next. One Amazon, red haired and incredibly angry looking, kicks her in the face so hard that by the time her body falls to the dirt you can all tell she’s dead. Face crunched to all hell as her lifeless body faces you.

You shiver and look away.

“This is an outrage,” Lois murmurs.

You don’t argue in any direction with her, just turn back to The Queen.

“Thank you for shutting her up, Artemis. Now back to you, I believe I asked you a question.”

Steve can barely put up a token protest, still actively choking, before he starts to spill everything.

“My name is Colonel Steve Trevor of the United States Special Forces. Me and my team, the second of which was headed by the woman you just killed, Colonel Boston Knight, were tasked with gathering information about your base and with the retrieval of Lois Lane.”

The Queen’s brows furrow, “Who is this Lois Lane?”

You close your eyes. You can feel the very woman stiffen where she’s crouched next to you. Your next breath in feels too much like a hiccup.

“Lois Lane is a Politzer prize winning journalist who has been embedded in New Themyscira to gather intel on your Amazons for Cyborg. She’s…she’s also one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever met.”

Steve struggles, doing his best to clamp down on his jaw before some invisible force pries it back open and one of his trembling hands flick out to point. “And she’s over there.”

All eyes seem to shift to the woman no less than a foot away from you.

The Queen looks over at her with a haughty air as she takes in the new information.

“‘Most beautiful’ until me, that is,” she states while lowering him.

You're mesmerized as the glow of the lasso fades while she dismisses you all once again. The Queen’s attention quickly shifts to a blonde Amazon who nods and begins speaking immediately.

“Our information was correct, then, My Queen. Cyborg is amassing the outside world’s superhumans in an attempt to interfere in our war.”

“And he will fail,” her voice echoes across their foggy battlefield with surety. Wonder Woman scowls. “Now seize the Lane woman and take her back to our sanctum.”

“Yes, My Queen,” the blonde speaks up again as all the others quickly nod their assent.

Lois puts up a huge struggle, kicking out at a woman and briefly causing her to stumble before three more are on her. It takes a couple seconds before she stops, limbs twisted every which way as she’s held before the Queen’s unforgiving gaze.

She looks distinctly unimpressed as she and Lois stare down one another. The reporter definitely lived up to her reputation at least. Unfortunately so did Queen Diana.

“Go. I will deal with her later.”

They take Lois away and all you can do is watch.

The Queen glances over all of you again as the blonde waves the women off and then turns to Queen Diana with a wave in Steve’s direction.

“May I deal with this prisoner for you?”

She takes barely a second to decide.

“No, Persephone. The Queen of the Amazons is a servant to her people,” she rises then, taking Steve up with her and letting him dangle from the ropes. His gagging makes you curl in on yourself, “nothing is beneath her,” Queen Diana finishes as Steve takes his final struggling breaths.

The blood vessels on his face pop at the relentless pressure put on them as The Queen stares on impassively. The remaining Amazons cheer and the woman seems to bask in their praise.

“You must remember that this is a win for all of us!” Her exclamation is met with more cheers as she dangles Steve’s lifeless body through the air like a marionette.

“May the gods continue to look down favorably upon the daughters of Themyscira!” That cheer, from a dark skinned Amazon with snowy white hair, gets even Queen Diana calling out in excitement.

Their voices thunder around you all and in all your years both as black and as a woman you have never been made to feel so small as you do till now.

Like this, however, that feeling of absolute insignificance was damningly heady.

In the very next moment The Queen’s sharp gaze seems to snap to you and the skant air you’ve managed to gain seems to flee from your lungs in terror.

“Exactly sisters! And for that the fates of the spoils of our hunt today shall be decided by you!” She bows in mid air. “A gift from your ever faithful Queen.”

Seems the celebration won’t be stopping anytime soon then. You glance around at your teammates and see matching fear welling in their eyes.

Some of the people the Amazons choose are killed instantly and with gusto, others tossed between two of them like nothing as they’re tortured, some are even dragged away for who knows what, but you?

You’re left untouched.

Shaking you watch as everyone is picked off one by one around you and how in the rush The Queen's gaze still manages to stay locked on your form.

You’re watching her back with wide, nearly star struck eyes when she finally starts towards you. Your blood goes cold as she descends, carelessly dropping Steve in the process, before that damned lasso gets thrown around your body.

“Now you see that is a face of admiration!” She hoists you up into the air and your stomach drops. “Now tell me your truth, little human.”

“You’re…ethereal,” comes tumbling past your lips before you can hope to stop it.

The woman looks back at you in mild surprise before her laughter fills your ears.

“Of course I am.” She shifts you in her grip while motioning for the Amazons to move, hovering with you above them as they march back to their sanctuary.

You wonder if its location was one of the things Lois was going to share with you.

You were willing to bet it was too late to find out now.

─────

When you get back to the Queen’s new castle you feel like where they were hiding when they weren’t fighting should’ve been pretty obvious.

It was literally the former royal palace.

You walk in and can tell instantly that while some form of a fight must have occurred within the walls, the palace itself looked in otherwise perfect shape.

While most of the other Amazons that came with you disperse, some stay to debrief the Queen as she takes you along to the throne room.

At the entrance you’re met with a set of Amazons. Swiftly, they bow to their leader before opening the doors for her.

As you get a look inside your brows raise.

The throne that sits at the end of the velvet walkway is singular, first of all, and a lot bigger and more ornate than anything the British could’ve ever scrounged up. It makes even you impressed.

Queen Diana sits in it with all the air of a woman who knows without a moment of uncertainty that little can harm her.

In the following seconds she moves you to join her too, and you flush hard enough for a slight red hue to tint the deep brown of your cheeks.

The binding along your arms and midsection is so strong that you don’t even bother attempting to wiggle loose as you’re made to sit on the Amazon’s lap.

She’s completely self assured as she discusses her next steps with her council, and it makes you feel hopeless the way they blow off the US’s push back efforts as nothing. Easily solvable.

And all while you’re sitting on her lap like a trophy.

Eventually she dismisses everyone but the guards at the door and you're as alone as you’ll get.

You swallow thickly, glancing up at her through your lashes.

It’s a last ditch attempt but you try it anyway.

“If you kill me it’ll be all the US needs to join the war and deploy their forces.”

She looks down at you with a subtle raise of a brow.

“It’s adorable that you think you can scare me,” The Queen says. “Your government is so pathetic they jump at their own shadow. What threat could they ever possibly be to me when they can barely handle the problems within their own borders?”

She laughs, a boisterous sound that you feel just as much as you hear, and you’re unintentionally shaken in her hold. You knew it was a long shot but damn. She didn’t just shoot your idea down, she busted a fucking gut at it. You pout.

Yeah, you were screwed.

The Queen looked fucking unreal when she laughed though; you were a little winded.

NOTES: Hope you enjoyed!!! I love dark!WW, and she was too good looking in the Flash Point animation style; fourteen year old me literally couldn’t handle it.

Also— boy, has this one been in the works for a hot ass minute, but at least now it’s finally out.

In general, though, I’m trying to get out fics with more of The Trinity as a focus that aren’t just Batman fics. So yeah.

btw: if you’d like to leave a comment I’d very much appreciate it!

[ralfmaximus]

Heroes & main characters get hurt a lot in SF/action shows.

Bonked on the head to make them unconscious, hit with phasers set on stun, knocked out during a terrible vehicle crash at the end of a chase scene.

And next episode? They're fine. No TBI. No lasting effects. No trouble remembering things, no personality shifts, no anxiety about getting hurt again, phasered again. I mean a Star Trek phaser is like getting tasered, right? Same idea.

The Stargate series, like Trek, routinely transmogrifies its characters into monsters, uploads them into computers, swaps bodies, ages them into geriatrics or children, duplicates them, converts them into energy and back again thousands of times. With no lasting effect. Without extended recovery or rehabilitation.

Hell, they rarely even talk about it. Me, I still talk about the time I fell at a theme park and hurt my leg so badly I thought it might be broken. I limped for weeks, avoided stairs, watched my leg turn various shades of purple & green. And that was not nearly as interesting as having my DNA rewritten by The Ancients.

You know who gets it right though?

The Expanse.

Early in the series Holden & Miller receive a lethal dose of radiation, equivalent to watching a nuclear detonation way too closely. And very realistically, they soon start exhibiting the signs of severe radiation sickness: malaise, vomiting, whole body pain.

But because it is hundreds of years in the future, medical technology has advanced to the point that they are saved. Their radiation sickness is cured!

If this was Star Trek or Stargate, nobody would show any ill effects afterwards. Next episode they'd be 100% normal, and any future callbacks would be a throwaway line and possibly a joke.

Not in The Expanse. Here, our characters are shown to suffer the aftereffects of their ordeal. They have permanent subcutaneous ports installed in their arms so they can continue to receive medicine for the rest of their lives. Because as miraculous as 23rd century medicine may be, they cannot cure radiation damage. They can only treat it.

And if our characters fail to get their treatments? They suffer for it. They'll eventually die from it. And the show revisits that theme and never lets us forget it, because those ports are visible whenever our characters are seen without sleeves.

I was just thinking about this after watching the episode of Stargate Atlantis where Sheppard literally gets turned into a man-sized insect then at the end of the show he's shown completely healed. Ha ha, I was a bug. How wacky is that?

If that happened to me I'd never stop screaming.

[redrandomposts]

little mermaid alnst au except it's inspired by han christain andersen's version (the og), so

===

ivan was the prince of his nation that worships the moon and its tides, that is deep under the water, too far for visible light.

when he was six, he first braved near the shores accompanied by his friend, mizi. it's then he saw him. gasping for breath, fighting against the tides.

ivan managed to bring him ashore, and the guards had called him away - leaving mizi there. that was a mistake.

ivan had fallen in love, perhaps, with the boy he saved. the boy, however, had fallen in love with mizi. ivan could tell. when he visited the shore the next week, till was under an umbrella, sketches of mizi scattered around him.

ivan wanted to replace the pink hair for his black, the round eyes for narrower ones, he wanted and wanted and wanted -

- wanted to get rid of mizi so he could hold the heart that was rightfully his.

it was a poisonous thought. ivan was ashamed, he wanted to claw at his skin. how could he hurt his best friend just because she got something he wanted?

ivan visited that shore every week, leaving a gift, hoping that perhaps the boy will see him. however, as though he were mere dirt, till's eyes glided over him. ivan knew why; he was searching for bright pink hair and golden eyes, not the black that disfigures ivan.

in the following decade, ivan had been a tad too obsessive. he grew his hair out, hoping that maybe till's eyes will catch on black under the sea's surface. he forced himself to smile, practicing in the shards of ruined ships. and when he learned till was practicing music, he did so, too. he sang in the depths of the night, when the beach was lonely and the moon hangs high; he learned to compose, to string words and rhythm together to draw in the birds that fly above and the nocturnal fish underneath.

it wasn't enough. why wasn't it enough?

ivan couldn't take it. he visited his cousin, sua, and asked to trade his soul so he could try. he'd lose his tail for feet that stabbed knives into him, his gills for lungs that drowned with each agonizing breath, and eyes accustomed to the salty water for eyes that burned with each blink.

and, if ivan failed, he also gave up his bleeding heart and all its love. he also gave up the consciousness and the memories the sea brought to him. he'd also give up his existence and disintegrate into sea foam. the only thing he bargained for was a voice; a voice to tell till that he was the one who saved him, that he wrote songs and sang them every night.

on shore, ivan was left with only a coat that mizi had given to him, teary eyed as she asked him to live.

and there till was, visiting the beach again. till was a prince; not only in title but also demeanor. he carried ivan to his castle, where he was nursed to health. the room had parchment and ink ivan could write with, fruits in a bowl to keep him full, and a fire lit to keep him warm. a comb lay on the bedside table to keep the hair ivan insisted on growing neat. rings and necklaces and bracelets to decorate ivan, reminding him that he, too, was a prince.

and, even then, even after a week and so much time and effort -

why didn't till look at him? why didn't he visit the man he saved once? how come there were no servants aside from those to deliver meals? how come it felt as though ivan was taken by the sea and isolated in the city of atlantis?

was the entire wing of the palace empty? if ivan sang the songs he spent painstakingly long learning to make, would anyone hear him? he couldn't let that happen! gathering the letters he's written the past week, each a speech that he wanted to tell till, he was determined.

ivan gasped as he took step after step, tears welling in his eyes. he braved the knives in his feet, the aching breath of his lungs, the burning eyes that boiled in tears so he could see till. he was the sea's strongest warrior, for he could take all of this as long as he got to see till.

and mizi?

ivan stopped in front of a cracked open door, catching sight of familiar pink hair and gray hair. the letters in his arms fell, and the tears felt like molten magma from the underwater volcanos. the knives in his feet must have grown rust, for it hurt more than ever, and his lungs must be aching for air, because it felt as though he were drowning.

...of course. it was all futile. ivan grinned, looking down at his letters. every speech would go unsaid, every song unsung, every love unrequited.

letters scattered on the ground, cushioned by carpet, slipping through the door. black hair dissipated, pale skin crumbling; the only remnant of the mermaid-turned-human was sea foam, remaining on the clothing and parchment.

[mumms-the-word]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love 💕

You do this to me? On my hiatus? My two weeks of posting old stuff every day so people can read it if they want???

it’s perfect timing babe ilysm

1. In Fathoms Below - Atlantis AU where Gale is setting out with the Tadfools to find an Atlantis-like lost civilization

Why I like it: it seems to be my most popular fic but it’s also the most fun to write. I have some interesting things in store once this new-fic-hiatus is over~

2. More That I Want... - Ardynn comes back from the Ketheric fight to see Halsin waiting for her in Moonrise

Why I like it: Not necessarily groundbreaking material here but it was one of the first BG3 things I EVER wrote and I just wanted to hug Halsin so bad after seeing him waiting for me in Moonrise so I wrote it as a scene

3. the new librarian - (unofficial title lol) Gale meets the new librarian of Blackstaff Academy and she is...something

Why I like it: The desire to write this came out of nowhere and seized me by the throat and I couldn't not write it. Gale and a sassy librarian? Sign me up. I had so much fun imagining these two together.

4. Four Shared Baths - Smallish oneshots of baths my Tavs share with their romance partners, all collected in one post

Why I like it: I think about this one a lot. I just love the differences between each one and I like how some baths are sexy while others are playful. There's another one that's everyone's first confessions that I like too, but it's part of the hiatus reblogs so you'll see it soon.

5. Drowning - Ardynn faces her worst fear as she saves Gondian hostages in the Iron Throne.

Why I like it: It's possibly my all-time favorite fight scene I've ever written? I like to think I'm good at action/tension in writing but this scene is just...probably my best, if I do say so myself.

Some of these are coming back as hiatus reblogs haha but that's okay. Keep an eye out for other hiatus reblogs to see what other stuff I write!!

[princecharmingwinks]

Sterek Fic Rec - February 2023. Goodness, this month has been busy. But it is still Feb here so I’m taking it! Please enjoy the below :)

I Can Give You the Constellations by skoosiepants (1/1 | 9K | Teen)

“I’m just going to pretend this isn’t happening. I’m going to close my eyes, and when I open them again, I’ll be back on Atlantis, sleeping in my tiny bunk, eating reconstituted potatoes and putting googly eyes on rocks to freak out Jared.”

Or—

How Captain Derek Hale and Dr. Stiles Stilinski keep managing to save each other’s lives…in space!

5 Times Stiles Said I Love You and 1 Time He Meant It by literaryoblivion (1/1 | 3K | Teen)

Five times Stiles told Derek he loved him, and one time he meant it. (I mean title's pretty self-explanatory right?)

My Friend Thinks You're Cute by fairytalesandfolklore (1/1 | 2K | Teen)

A Sterek College AU And that's when Stiles sees him, standing in the middle of the crowd, swathed in a black leather jacket, eyes alight as he flashes Stiles the most dazzlingly perfect smile. Derek The Music Major. The guy Stiles has had a massive crush on ever since they shared a class together in Stiles's freshman year. The guy who went on to graduate later that spring and leave town to go on tour with his band. The guy who composed such beautiful music that it made Stiles fall even more stupidly in love with him when he happened upon one of his live performances on YouTube the following summer. The guy who wrote the lyrics to the song he’s currently up on stage singing motherfucking karaoke to. Derek Hale, Beacon Hills sweetheart, local legend, and international rising star.

you can wear my sweater (if i can have your heart) by elisela (1/1 | 12K | Teen)

“It’s fine,” Stiles says, but he stops at the bottom of the porch when Derek closes a hand around his elbow. His scent is evening out, mellowing from humiliation to embarrassment, and his heart skips a few beats when Derek touches him. “Really, I misread everything. Jordan said—” he stops, again, and Derek has to stop himself from asking because what Jordan said isn’t the most pressing issue.

“I thought you were joking,” he says, keeping Stiles’ arm still even as he starts to pull away. “Whatever Jordan said, he didn’t tell me. You’ve been teasing me for weeks, I didn’t think this was any different.”

Stiles turns to face him, and this time when he pulls his arm back, Derek lets go. “I’ve been asking you out for weeks,” he says, a thin trace of amusement through the resignation in his voice. “It’s fine, dude, just a misunderstanding. I’ll stop.”

We belong to the light (we belong to the thunder) by GreyHaven (1/1 | 3K | Explicit)

Stiles doesn't want to hurt Derek. Except when he really really does. And who better to hurt than a werewolf who will heal from anything he dishes out?

Not all treasure is silver and gold by princecharmingwinks (10/10 | 26K | Mature | Yes, this is mine!)

Captain Derek Hale is on a mission and he needs a fearless crew. His betrothed has been kidnapped, his family lives in exile and he harbours a dangerous secret. Enter Lady Erica Reyes, the perfect Quartermaster to join the crew. Erica has her own reasons for needing to escape her seaside town. An abusive father with a suggested 'arrangement' has forced her to create her own future.

A Derek and Erica friendship on the high seas, all in the name of love and family. Because not all treasure is silver and gold.

how to court a werewolf by graveltotempo (1/1 | 6K | General)

Stiles accidentally begins a courtship with Derek. Wary at first, the werewolf accepts, and Stiles ticks off all the boxes of a traditional Hale werewolf courting - oblivious to the whole thing.

Because of course he is.

Peter thinks the entire thing is hilarious.

Cora thinks that they deserve each other.

(spoiler alert: they do)

you could be the one that i love by whenwordsmakesense (1/1 | 2K | Teen)

It’s a good time in Beacon Hills.

Stiles thinks so, right until the moment he’s on his fifth bite of burger and his dad’s staring down his own.

“You know, son, one day you are gonna have to make your boyfriend meet me.”

Stiles chokes on his burger.

Dessert's on Me by halcyon1993 (1/1 | 4K | Explicit)

Derek comes home to find Stiles baking in nothing but an apron.

Re-edited 2nd February 2022.

Soulsick by theroguesgambit (1/1 | 3K | Teen)

Derek loathes this idiot of a soulmate, whoever they are. For not coming to Stiles’ call, for being too useless do just to this one simple thing, for failing Stiles, proving how utterly unworthy they are before they’ve ever met him. -- Stiles is cursed with a disease that will eventually destroy his soul unless his soulmate helps strengthen it. The pack performs a ritual to call his soulmate to his side. But days pass and no one appears...

Maybe they're already here?

princecharmingwinks special mention (Derek has some extremely hot lines in this! hot damn! And I love him so protective and Stiles is so smitten)

so now you've got the best of me (come on and take the rest of me) by mangotangos (1/1 | 18K | Explicit)

"It doesn't matter how hot Derek is, how Stiles barely comes up to his shoulders or how Derek's hands could probably fit really snugly around his waist. None of it matters, because he's basically a glorified babysitter for the foreseeable future and Stiles wants him out. Operation annoy Deputy Derek Hale into leaving begins now."

~or, the one where Stiles' dad hires Deputy Derek to be Stiles' bodyguard, Stiles hates him on principle and then 2 seconds later falls in lust (and love) and tries to seduce him into bed with his sexual prowess.

It was my birthday this month and it feels appropriate that I slipped in my big big pirate fic ;) See you all next week!

[chocolateteapotsvis]

Halbarry Recs: Mermay!

Pearl

Hal takes a dive to prove a point, he doesn't expect what he finds.

Sous l'Océan by 6Starlight6

Bruce et Clark parcourent l'océan, explorant sa beauté. Jusqu'au jour où ils font une bien étrange découverte quelque part dans l'immensité du Pacifique.

(via Google Translate: Bruce and Clark travel the ocean, exploring its beauty. Until the day they make a very strange discovery somewhere in the vastness of the Pacific.)

Just the Two of Us (We Can Make It If We Try) Ch5 by layspotatochipabs (@layspotatochipabs)

mermaidBarry! au Hal and the League travel to Atlantis to help Arthur with something. Although the situation may be grim, he can't wait to see Barry again. They've been separated for too long. And no, Arthur, Hal and the mer aren't dating. At least not yet.

Out of Red and Green: A HalBarry Week Tale Day 6: AU by StyAndTheBunnies

Hal falls from the sky after a rude battle; luckily, he falls into the sea - unluckily, his ring is discharged and he is drowning. /AU where Barry isn't the Flash/ (halbarry week, day 6: strange and weird)

Summer Halbarry Week 2019 Ch6: Peacefully by ceeloilights (@ceeloilights) (warnings in the notes)

Barry saves a brunette from drowning but doesn't seem to want to be saved when he's in danger.

If I missed your favorite, share it so we can all enjoy it too! And here's some other people's gorgeous Mermay art. Happy Mermay!

Pic inspired by Just the Two of Us (We Can Make It If We Try) Ch5 by layspotatochipabs

Halbarry Fic Rec Masterpost

Epilogue (basically straight from the fic):

[doe-writes-stuff]

A/N - More of the cowboy space dad, because honestly there is never enough of this fictional man. <3 This is just some of reader having a moment to just...acclimate after being pulled into everything that is Constellation. Sam's there to provide some much-needed company.

WARNINGS: None, drinking of alcohol. Tiny hints of flirting before relationship?

The ornate tumbler of whiskey burns like nothing else on the way down your throat, but damn it was much needed after the week you’d had. The glass gives a dull clunk as you set it back down on the Lodge’s bar top with a wince and a hissed ‘ahh.’ The first of the night, and likely not the last.

The headquarters of Constellation, for once, is silent. Well, save for the ever-present hum that the three artifacts emanated down below in the library. Even with the door to the library balcony shut, you could still hear and feel its looming, distinct presence at the deepest part of your subconscious. Some part of you is comforted by this, but the other shivers in a muted sort of horror at this ‘connection’ you seem to share with the damned thing.

Sitting on the stool with your elbows propped up on the counter, your head falls into your hands, fingers massaging slowly at your throbbing temples. As you waited for the alcohol to kick in and give your turbulent thoughts some respite, it was unfortunately impossible not to dwell on the very thing you were trying to forget about.

One minute, you’d been stuffed into a too-big mining suit and strapped with a cutter to mine on the little nowhere planet of Vectera. Argos Extractors. A simple contract. An easy paycheck. The perfect place to keep your head down, not make waves, and just…earn a living that wouldn’t draw the ire of the many powers that be. Trade Authority, Ryujin, GalBank, it didn’t matter who. Better to be a nobody and just…coast through your lonely little life and retire someday with enough for a decent ship all your own. That had been the idea, at least.

And then the vision had knocked your breath away, both literally and figuratively. The moment your suit had brushed against the metallic surface, colors and feelings and sounds you’d never imagined had assaulted your brain. There’d been vibration across your skull, what felt like a blindingly white-hot swelter of heat, but accompanied by a chill so icy you thought yourself frozen. All at once, you’d gotten the sensation of the galaxy expanding in size and scope tenfold. But when you’d come to, Heller and Lin standing over you with marked concern, the world had looked exactly the same as before. 

You could never quite convince yourself you hadn’t been yanked from one reality, given a glimpse of something incredible beyond words or comprehension, and dropped back where you’d come from with little regard for the consequences to follow.

Maybe that’s exactly what it’d been…in which case, a shiver ran down your spine again.

Whatever it had been exactly, everything had been upturned in that one moment. Pirates and a fire fight; adrenaline had coursed through your body as bullets whizzed past your helmet, all while still reeling and trying to make sense of the vision. Your hands had shaken for hours after the fact.

Then meeting Barrett—a man like no one you’ve ever met before—who’d practically thrown you onto his ship with his robot companion, sent off to bring the artifact that had given you such boggling visions to begin with to the rest of his team back on New Atlantis. As if you’d just waltz into some science club with that hunk of metal with little explanation for why you were there.

And that hadn’t even been the end of it…

Vasco had analytically drawled at you in its robotic voice that you must destroy the pirates that’d been on Barrett’s tail, and so you’d entered their base of operations, weapon in hand and senses surely left somewhere behind on Vectera, and taken them out. Pure luck had you walk out of there alive. Most of that day was coming back a little fuzzy. Hell, maybe it was just your whiskey at this point…

Speaking of, you pour another finger’s worth of the stuff into your glass, marveling at the amber liquid. This one was easier to knock back, throat already having experienced the sting and now anticipating it. Smoky with a hint of honey, according to the salesman. All you could taste was the burn.

At first, you think you just imagine it. The sound of distant footsteps. But the longer they went on, growing more pronounced the closer they came, you realized someone else was up just as late as you were. Odd. You contemplated getting up to leave before you had unexpected and perhaps unwelcome company, but knew it was too late. Whoever it was would hear you making your exit by now, and that little niggle of curiosity was wondering who might be coming your way. Presumably for a drink as well. Half a dozen more steps and your late-night visitor appears in the doorway. 

Sam, you think his name was. You’d only just met him and his daughter today, but the brunet cowboy had made an impression. Not many people outside of Akila chose to wear attire that resembled something in those antique western movies. By appearances, you’d expected some stubborn, prideful smart-ass typical of the planet’s residents. Instead, he’d been remarkably humble and charming. Definitely not the worst person that could have stumbled upon you at this late hour.

Surprise registered on his face when he spotted you already occupying a seat at the bar. Obviously he hadn’t been anticipating anyone else being awake. Then, his eyes flickered to the glass and bottle of whiskey you’d clearly already broken open with a little smile. “Long day?”

Your laugh is nothing more than a huff of breath. “Long week.”

He nods, gaze drifting around the room. You see the moment of hesitation, where he stays standing by the entrance, unsure of if he would be welcome to join you. Ah, a gentleman as well. Figuring his company wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, you give your head a jerk to the stool beside you, already reaching for one of the upturned tumblers further down the counter.

He sits with a long sigh, gratefully accepting the glass and nodding when you lift the whiskey in silent question. You eyeball a finger’s worth into the tumbler, but he clears his throat and gives it a tiny jostle.

“Better make it a double.”

A wry, curious smile curls its way onto your face as you look up at him, but you do as he asks. “Long day for you, sounds like.”

“Not really.” He brings the glass to his lips, downing the contents with little more than a wince in response. “Just a…long conversation.”

“At this hour?” You hadn’t heard anyone else speaking when you crept off to the bar by yourself earlier, but then again, you weren’t exactly sure where Sam’s room was. He gave a slow nod.

“Ex-wife.” There’s some sort of emotion in his tone, but it’s impossible to tell what. He doesn’t give much away with his expression, just stares down into his now-empty glass. “Work takes her all over the systems, so…our talks are often at odd hours.”

“Ah.” You’re not sure how else to respond to that, and decide that a simple acknowledgement of his statement was enough. He doesn’t continue, and you don’t pry. Based on his behavior, the topic of ex-wives was most certainly not a can of worms he was eager to open with you. Hence his trip to the bar. And truthfully, you weren’t in much a mood to listen to that right now.

Figuring more alcohol was the solution to both dilemmas at hand, you pour another round of whiskey in both of your glasses, which Sam doesn’t object to. The glasses are knocked back simultaneously, and thunk only a second apart back onto the counter. That warm, familiar buzz tingles your fingertips and chest. Wonderful.

Hearing your own sigh, Sam suddenly gives a low chuckle under his breath, before turning his head to face you. “So, first week. I take it Constellation’s been a bit more than you bargained for?”

“You have no idea…” The admission is accompanied by a weary shake of your head, which only caused Sam’s grin to widen further. “If you had asked me a month ago what I’d be doing with my life, I’d say something like…wasting away in some dark, dank cave on a planet no one’s heard of. Something boring. Forgettable. Hunting down unexplainable artifacts to unlock the ‘mysteries of the universe,’” you say with air quotations, “was nowhere on the list, believe it or not.”

“Quite a career change.” He posited with amusement, then crossed his arms and leaned on the counter, interest plaguing his expression. “What we do, it…ain’t for the faint of heart, sure. I mean, meeting Barrett is an experience all its own. But come on, do you really miss mining of all things?”

“It’s not that I miss it, exactly. It’s…” You drift off, eye rising to the ceiling as if searching for the right words to explain. Accompanying it is the slightest sensation of spinning, so your hands grips the edge of the counter. “It’s more like…I had already prepared myself for a few decades of boring, inconsequential work. And all this,” you gesture at the Lodge around you, “is nothing at all like that. I’ve…lost my footing, I guess.”

“Yeah, but…” Sam grimaces a little, eyes narrowing as he shakes his head, unable to understand, “…mining?”

You get the impression your career choice—former career choice, you remind yourself—was somehow especially bewildering to the cowboy, and can’t help the grin. “There’s routine. Familiar people, familiar terrain. You wake up each morning, and do the same thing you did the day before, and the same thing you’ll be doing the next day. Mine, lunch, mine some more. If you’re trained, then you work some equipment. Boring. Easy. A guaranteed paycheck for as long as the vein is plentiful. It’s…comforting, in a way, to always know what will happen next. Go in, get the job done, extract. Then, it’s off to the next mine and it starts all over again.”

You think you see the man shiver in his stool beside you, and laugh at the reaction.

“Sorry, but I ain’t seein’ the appeal in anything you just said.” Another laugh from you. Sam seems to be very good at getting you to do that. “You’ve just described a nightmare to me.”

“It’s definitely not for everyone.”

“Honestly, you don’t strike me as the type to want something like that either.” He goes on, and this piques your interest.

“What gives you that impression? We just met today.” You point out, and he concedes the point with a tilt of his hat. “You can hardly know me all that well.”

“Fair enough.” Sam inclines his head in understanding, then reaches over to grab the bottle of whiskey, pouring himself another. He flashes you an easy-going smile as he lifts his glass. “Just thought that…well, maybe I’d like to.”

It’s easy to blame the whiskey when you start questioning his meaning behind that. He just continues looking at you, and it’s somehow difficult to look away.

“Once you find that footing again, I get the feeling you’ll really like it around here. And, uh…between you and me?” After a conspiratorial glance around the empty bar, he leans in a bit closer. “The Lodge, the others…don’t get me wrong, they’re great. But there’s something about  being out there, on a ship, among the stars that feels right at home. Never knowin’ what you might find at your next destination, that sense of adventure and freedom.” He shoots you another smile. “Discoverin’ the mysteries of the universe is a bonus on top of it all.”

You find yourself nodding along, mesmerized. Some part of you thought you could listen to him talk for hours. Mining had seemed like the most secured and consistent source of income available to you at the time. But it wasn’t your passion. It wasn’t what you wanted to do. It just…seemed like the correct decision to make at the time. You’d resigned yourself to being stuck deep in the rock for years to come, and now? That distant and foolhardy dream of having a ship all your own to travel across the stars was beating against the box you’d stuffed it in up until now.

Whether it was the alcohol or just Sam himself that kept him talking, you could’t be sure. He leans back a little, with a rueful shake of his head. “I know I’m ramblin’ at this point, but…there’s too much beauty in this universe to just…sit back and let your life go by without seeing it all. You know?”

“Yeah.” And you do. Or, maybe this buzz was making you nostalgic. “I think I know what you mean.”

“Good. I’m glad.” He seems happy with that admission, and you feel pride at having earned his favor somehow. You liked Sam. From what little you knew about him, he was a good person to have around. Not bad company, either. Having had this talk with him just solidified those positive traits you’d initially seen.

Which, speaking of…

“You mentioned having a lead on one of the artifacts earlier, right?”

“Back in the day, Solomon Coe, the founder of Akila City drew up some maps that I think should point us in the right direction. They’re locked up in the GalBank vault there.”

Mulling over that information, and taking a few seconds longer than you’d like to admit to put the family relation part of it together, you finally nod and offer a smile. “Then…what would you say to traveling together?”

“Heh.” Sam’s expression brightens a little at the proposal. “Up for adventure already, huh?”

“I think so.” It seems strange to say after having been overwhelmed by the past week alone, but with a pleasant buzz and someone as charming as Sam to help you into this new life of yours, well…it was easier than you anticipated to shed the anxiety and embrace the anticipation of not knowing what awaited you with Constellation. He could be real convincing.

Then, you give a little laugh. “That’s as long as the hangover isn’t too terrible in the morning, of course.”

“Trust me. We’ll both be feelin’ it tomorrow. This stuff’s no joke.” Sam says, picking up the whiskey bottle and reading the percentage of alcohol. Then setting it down, he pins you with another look that you think peers right into your soul. How the hell did he do that so easy? “To answer your question, I’d love to travel with you. Oh, uh…as long as you’re alright with me bringing Cora along.”

Cora? Right, his daughter. “Isn’t she 12?”

“She goes wherever I go. We’re sort of a package deal. Non-negotiable.” Sam explains with a shrug. He must see hesitation in your expression, uncertain if bringing a child along would be all that wise, so he adds, “She’ll stay on the ship if we’re somewhere safety might be a concern.”

“Under those conditions, then I accept.” You say. If anything, Vasco could lock down the ship and protect her while you were away.

“Great. She’ll be thrilled to hear that.” His smile is wide and infectious.  Then, glancing at his empty glass of whiskey, he sighs and sets it downwards on the counter. “Better call it for the night. We’ll be sorry enough as is in the mornin.’”

“Yeah…” You agree, feeling more drunk now than tipsy. A deep, drunk sleep was exactly what you needed now. It was sad to have the conversation come to an end, however.

He peels himself out of the stool, then hangs back to make sure you were steady on your feet. You flash him a grateful smile, but gesture that you’ll be fine making it back to your room. It’s a short walk there, and you turn to your companion. “I’ll see you and Cora in the morning then.”

“Bright and early.” He promises, then chuckles. “Or late. Whichever the whiskey allows.”

Your smile widens. “Goodnight, Sam.”

“You too, Y/N.”

[ragnarokhound]

>:3

just saying Icarus au would be too easy for this rn

uhhm

JayTim fire water personalities, clashing, hurting each other, fitting together as opposites

still not really an au hmmm

just gonna keep throwing ideas here

ohh wanna see a mermaid au in your style

or one of those free willy mermaid aus

deaging 🤔 of one character and the other gotta take care of them

bound by magic (in what way? who knows)

take ur pick

For the ask game!

AUGH ABYSS HOW DO I CHOOSE

But omg mermaids is so fun... It is one of my all time favorite self-indulgent urban fantasy aus haha, I still want to finish my teen wolf mermaid fic... Someday...

Mermaid aus are so good for the yearning. The secret keeping of it all, the 'we're from different worlds and idk how it will work unless one of us makes a sacrifice' of it all. And I kind of sort of already played this trope straight with the selkie fic I wrote for jaytim week this year, haha (selkies aren't technically the same as mermaids, but there's a big overlap there lol)

But I also like that the existence of Aquaman in DC lets you flip that trope on its head while still complying with canon! There totally could be real life mermaids in DC because low-key there already are lmao

This isn't quite what you asked for, but in that vein:

please entertain with me Atlantean!Tim who admires the Bats from afar. Most of my exposure to Atlantis/Aqualad is via the Young Justice cartoon (the glow up between the first seasons and the later seasons is still insane to me lol) so please imagine Tim found out about Robin when YJ made an appearance in Atlantis, or Tim got himself on the same track as, say, Lagoon Boy and hopes to join one day. He has the biggest crush on Jason Todd and Jason doesn't even know he exists

There are two vastly different directions I am torn between from here, but the funnier one is: Tim basically follows Jason home to Gotham. Cue Gotham getting a new harbor cryptid that's just an Atlantean with a crush and a very robust immune system lmao

Tim gets horribly sick for the first week or two (he's not keeping track) while his system reacts to the bullshit that is Gotham Bay - but he is determined to stick it out. Naturally, he gets found by a bat while he's shivering near the docks one day, following up on rumors about the kid from the black lagoon who keeps dodging harbor security. Bonus points if it's Babs, and she agrees not to tell Batman and Robin, at least until Tim is healthy. Bonus bonus points if it's not a bat who finds him, but Catwoman :^) (Fishy-fishy, I wouldn't let a goldfish swim around in this water, where are your parents, you're coming home with me--)

Meet-cute between Jaybin and Harbor Cryptid Tim involves a smuggling operation that Jason's been tracking. During the sting, he gets in over his head, ends up in the harbor, and Tim saves him from drowning

Jason knows Bruce hates it when Supers and other capes come to Gotham. He knows who Aquaman is. Ergo, he has to keep Tim a secret from Bruce. Cue sneaking around and hiding from Batman and all kinds of teenage dating tropes and shenanigans. Tim blushes 24/7 because, omg he's hanging out with his crush and he isn't freaked out by the whole Atlantean thing and he's helping Robin wow; meanwhile Jason is fascinated by Tim, exhilarated to have a secret from Bruce, and wondering more and more what it would be like to hold Tim's hand.

(Bonus: When Bruce finds out about Tim, the first thing he does is tattle on him to Aquaman. Follow those dominoes down to Tim being an Aqualad equivalent on the Young Justice team a few years down the road. OwO When they find Red Hood with the League of Assassins, Tim is right there with Dick trying to get him back.)

When I started writing this out, I did not intend for this to become cute baby jaytim with an atlantean twist, but that's where it ended up going haha

[dr-futbol-blog]

Trinity, Pt. 7

Next, we get to see something that we have never seen before, which the show could not and went out of its way not to show us before this moment, and which we will not see again for a long time after this. We see a truly private moment between Sheppard and McKay, both completely unguarded, how they are around each other when there are no people around. As discussed previously, it seems like Sheppard's quarters are removed from where most people have their living spaces, in a tower in the part of the city that had been inhabited by the Athosian refugees before they relocated to the mainland. But even so, as we shall soon see, Caldwell's presence on Atlantis is still felt even during this private interaction.

We see Sheppard come to the door of his quarters and open it, and we do not know whether McKay had somehow alerted Sheppard to his presence, whether Sheppard just knew he was there, or whether he had simply been on his way out of his quarters and McKay had been waiting for him. It does look like he was on his way to just open the door. Regardless, McKay had come to Sheppard's quarters specifically to have a conversation with him. He sounds slightly out of breath, like he is either nervous or had exerted himself on the way there. While Sheppard seemed exhausted during the meeting and we have seen several indications that he has been sleeping in his jacket, he has now removed that at least, wearing a black shirt. He looks sad, as he opens the door. His eyes are soft and full of sympathy.

Let me point out, to start with, that once more they do not greet each other. There are no hellos, how are yous, what are you doing behind my doors. The two of them have an on-going conversation that never ends but is only temporarily put on pause when they have to vacate each other's company, and so they always just pick it up as though it had never ended, as though they had never said good-bye. McKay does not give Sheppard an excuse for why he is there because he needs no excuse. No "Hi, I just happened to be around" or "Hey, I was wondering if you have a minute" is required because they both know that they belong together, that if there weren't a hundred different things making it impossible between them, they would never be apart from each other. And so, McKay gets right to the point:

McKay: Harry K Daghlian. Sheppard: Who?

Interesting here is that McKay picked Harry K. Daghlian as his example, as while he was the first to die on the Trinity project, the so-called "demon core" that killed him also killed another man. What McKay tells Sheppard about Daghlian is not true. He fell into a coma following his accident and died three weeks later, never waking up again. But the other scientist, Louis Slotin, died a much more agonizing death from an accident that resembled what happened to the Ancient device, and he at least tried to make something good come out of his accident. Slotin was a Canadian scientist whose background does bear some resemblance to that of McKay. At the time of this death, he was hailed as a hero that had saved the lives of his colleagues through his brave and selfless actions but the story has since been revised to admit his reckless behaviour while "tickling the dragon's tail," using improper and unsafe procedures, endangering others in the lab along with himself. Some good did come of his death because it led to removing the human element from criticality testing that has since been made using remotely controlled machines. The fact that McKay chose Daghlian as his example rather than the man that more resembled him and this particular circumstance but whose actions may not have supported the point he was trying to make does tell us something.

Now, as McKay is talking to Sheppard it seems like Sheppard does not say anything. Some people might interpret this as Sheppard being angry at McKay for something when there is really no reason for him to feel any anger whatsoever toward McKay at this time. He feels sympathy, if anything, Sheppard wishes there was something he could do for McKay. He does not enjoy seeing the other man in pain. Sheppard is not quiet because he is angry or because he has nothing to say, he is quiet because this is how they communicate when other people aren't around. They do not need words to say things. McKay is talking using words because he has things to say that he had rehearsed for this precise moment, that he wanted to tell Sheppard. He needed to say the words. But Sheppard is not being quiet. He is responding to McKay using his eyes in a way that he knows McKay can understand. They are having a dialogue here.

McKay: He was a scientist, worked on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. He was only twenty-six years old. Accidentally irradiated himself while performing a critical mass experiment on two half-spheres of plutonium. Sheppard: Yes, and? McKay: Took him a month to die. Sheppard: Okay. Very sad.

McKay: While his body was slowly shutting down from radiation poisoning, you know what he did with his last thirty days? Sheppard: Obviously not, but you're about to tell me. Go on, then. McKay: He worked. Sheppard: Oh, okay. Of course he did. McKay: He tried until...

McKay: ...his last breath to understand what had happened to him so that others could learn from the tragedy, so that his work, his death, wouldn't be rendered meaningless. Sheppard: Your work isn't meaningless, Rodney.

McKay: Now... have you considered what would have happened if they'd just shut the Project down after that? Sheppard: This is different.

While "This is different" are the first words Sheppard says out loud to McKay, the whole point of this scene is to show us their wordless communication, their closeness. That bond that is closer than that even of a task master and a trainee, that bond that is deeper than words. This isn't Sheppard stonewalling McKay, this isn't Sheppard having nothing to say, this isn't Sheppard not bothering to say anything, this isn't Sheppard being too cool for school to talk. This is them having a full conversation. Sheppard says only four words out loud but he says much more than that, and McKay can read him, knows what he is saying that he isn't saying. This is that unsettling ability to read each other's thoughts. When Sheppard finally does say words out loud, his tone is soft. This is how he speaks to McKay when no one is around to hear them. You can hear the love in his words, the sympathy, how much he feels for McKay.

McKay: Is it? Collins' death is a pointless waste of life unless something comes of this, and I am not sure that I can... Sheppard: Don't. McKay: I think I know what happened.

Sheppard can hear the pain and anguish in McKay's voice. One wouldn't need to know McKay half as well as he does to be able to tell that he is not alright. Seeing McKay in so much pain and not being able to do anything to help him is breaking his heart. Now, as McKay implies that he may not be able to live with it, to live with his guilt, we see Sheppard blink. Sheppard himself associated blinking being near the breaking point in Poisoning the Well (S01E07). Previously, we saw him blink when he thought McKay had died on the Ancient satellite platform in The Siege (S01E19). McKay does not say it, he never finishes the sentence. He is not implying that he would take his own life, merely that he does not know if he can go on. But the mere implication that he might not be able to go on stabs an icy sliver of fear directly into Sheppard's heart. There are many things that he might be able to protect McKay from if he really put his mind to it. McKay simply giving up may not be one of them.

But then, just as soon as he has allowed Sheppard to see the full extent of his pain, McKay seems to shift gears. He wants to fix this, he needs to fix this. And clinging to this hope, Sheppard lets him know that they are in this together:

Sheppard: Let's hear it. McKay: Can I come in? Sheppard: No.

This is the most interesting thing to happen not just in the episode but possibly on the entire show. This is such a strange thing to say from a team leader to team member or from a friend to another. Here is a man who has just lost a colleague and is clearly in a lot of pain and wants to talk about it. He asks if he can come in and talk. If Sheppard was his team leader, it would be his duty to let McKay in and have a talk. To talk this over with him. Seeing to and assessing McKay's condition for the field is something that Sheppard should be occupied with, it is his duty as team leader and it is something we saw him do to both McKay and Teyla in The Gift (S01E18). And if they were friends, it would be the kind thing to do. Again, there is no reason for Sheppard to tell McKay this, to not let him in, if they are just colleagues. Either he is being a huge asshole for no reason, or he was doing something illicit in his room that he did not want McKay to see, had someone over that he did not want McKay to see (of which we have zero evidence), or he just generally wants to keep his quarters as a private space (we see people in his quarters later plenty of times, and we saw Weir walk right into his room in Home S01E08, so this is not true either). Maybe it was really messy that day, the maid had a day off. What ever.

This scene, this exchange MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE unless they have a history of having been romantically and sexually involved with each other. The only reason for Sheppard to not want McKay to come into his quarters and to tell him no, and for McKay to accept this without comment or argument, is if McKay knows what the reason is why Sheppard does not want him to come in. And that reason is because the last time McKay had come in (likely between Duet and Condemned), something had happened. Something had happened of which Sheppard did not want a repeat, not just then. They were both much, much too emotionally fraught at that moment for anything besides heartbreak for both of them to have resulted from Sheppard letting him in.

Because the previous time, the previous time McKay had come knocking on his door to talk they had ended up in bed, having sex. That is a thing that happened. We see an echo of this in every scene with the two of them in Sheppard's quarters from henceforth in how Sheppard always needs some kind of a barrier between himself, the bed and McKay like he fears that if he isn't holding a golf club, hiding behind a magazine they will end up having sex again. That is the only explanation for this exchange. And here, Sheppard was afraid that it would inevitably happen again if he let him in, and with Caldwell around he could not take that chance. And he knows they would both just feel worse as a result. It might make them forget for a few hours, but it would not make the pain and the guilt and the sadness go anywhere. They would still be there, after. He did not want to feel used like that. He wanted it to mean something, like it had before. But he is not unkind as he tells McKay no.

McKay: The Ancients had it wrong. Sheppard: I can't believe this. McKay: Our mistake was using their equations. Sheppard: Are you serious? McKay: Look, I just did the calculations again myself. I did them three times just to be sure and I am positive the problem is in the automatic containment protocols. Sheppard: OK, what's your fix?

McKay closes his eyes briefly as Sheppard tells him no, clearly both pained and frustrated by this. And it is not the fact that he is having to explain his theory out in the hallway that is his problem, it is that Sheppard does not seem to trust him. While he told himself that he had not come here for comfort, he had only come here to get Sheppard to support his proposal to continue the work, his need to be comforted could be seen from space. He tells himself that he had not come for that but he certainly could have used it. He wanted to lose himself, to forget if even for a moment. He had not come here for that and Sheppard did not seem to trust him because they both knew where it would, inevitably, lead.

McKay: I am proposing that we adjust the field strength manually. Sheppard: You saw how fast it spiked on you.

And this is Sheppard's problem. This has been Sheppard's problem all along. How quickly it spiked on you. What might happen to McKay and how quickly it might take place. How dangerous this is to McKay. How McKay is being reckless with his own safety, and how helpless and out of control Sheppard feels about this situation.

McKay: So we don't operate the generator at anywhere near its potential. Look, there's no need to be greedy. Even operating at fifty percent, it'll still generate the power of a dozen ZPMs. Sheppard: How come the Ancients didn't figure this out? McKay: Maybe they were caught up in the heat of battle. Maybe they thought they needed as much power as they could get. Maybe they weren't smart enough. Sheppard: And you are?

It might be easy to take Sheppard's question here as evidence of McKay's hubris. Sheppard does confess multiple times over the years that he thinks that McKay is arrogant (it's not a deal-breaker for him) but that unlike the Ancients, McKay sometimes had good reason to be arrogant and that unlike the Ancients, he always tried to fix his mistakes. But Sheppard interpreting McKay as arrogant is largely projection on his part and it is especially this, his feeling of inferiority when it comes to intelligence, of not being the smartest man in the room that McKay is in, that causes him to feel this way. But like McKay tells him here, he does not think that he is smarter than the Ancients. He can freely admit that. What McKay refuses to admit is that he is desperate, just like the Ancients had been desperate, and in this he may well be repeating their mistakes. Admitting to himself that he is not as smart as the Ancients is easy, admitting that he is driven by guilt and desperation is more difficult. That is a mirror he has not dared look into yet.

McKay: No, I didn't say that, but I have the benefit of hindsight. They didn't. Sheppard: McKay, how do I say this... McKay: Look, this is big. Sheppard: Big? What's big? I like big. McKay: This is the wheel, the light bulb, the hot dog big. Sheppard: Did you just say "hot dog"?

You can see that this is where Sheppard changes his mind. It is not the mention of the hot dog, although he does do a double-take on that since it is both an unexpected thing to say and very McKay at the same time. Trying to appeal to his All-American sentiments. But this is the first time since the accident that McKay sounds like he isn't just doing this as an act of penance, as self-flagellation. Like he actually believes in this. And Sheppard wants so badly to believe in McKay too. He is conflicted in wanting to give McKay anything at all that the man might want and to protect him at all costs. Of doing what is right by McKay and keeping him safe. Sheppard is a worrier, like he told Ronon. And it isn't just out of the goodness of his heart that he is this way. Sheppard is haunted by his own past mistakes and it is because he knows the pain of loss that he is this way, that he treats McKay as he does. He should loosen his grip. He should learn to let go. He should trust McKay.

Sheppard: Best case scenario? McKay: I win a Nobel Prize. Sheppard: Worst case scenario? McKay: We tear a hole in the fabric of the universe... which is much less likely to happen than the Nobel Prize. I mean, look, the risks are nothing compared to the potential benefits. Elizabeth will listen to you. I have never asked this of you before, but I think I've earned it. Trust me.

Now, because McKay mentions the Nobel Prize here as the best case scenario, some people take it to mean that that is his motivation, that he is doing this to stroke his ego and that he really wants the recognition. But that isn't true. In First Contact (S05E10) Daniel Jackson mentions that McKay probably could have won the Nobel Prize many times over, and maybe that is true. But this is a dream that he had knowingly given up when he had taken up a career in contracting for the military. If the Nobel Prize, if recognition and adulation of the masses were important to him, he would have chosen something else. He might have become a Dot-Com millionaire like his counterpart in SG-1 episode The Road Not Taken. Contracting for the military, he gets to be at the cutting-edge of scientific research and is guaranteed funding but the prize that one has to pay for this is giving up an illustrious career, giving up fortune and glory for the chance to make a difference.

And McKay had made this choice long ago. He is not hankering for the Nobel Prize. He merely presented this to Sheppard as the best-case scenario. And note that he did not specify Nobel Prize in Physics, either. He might have been referring to the Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel Prize. McKay really, truly thought that this technology could be used to end all wars. That it would usher mankind into a new Golden Age. That it would safeguard this galaxy from the wraith, and help them undo the mistakes that had led them to their current circumstances. That if there was no need for war there would be no need for militaries and the two of them could just... be. That is his best-case scenario.

Now, McKay is asking Sheppard to talk to Weir on his behalf, believing that he will be able to convince her better than he can. And it is true that Sheppard has much more expertise in maneuvring Weir into going his way. But the way McKay goes about this is interesting. He tells Sheppard that he thinks that he has earned his trust. Because McKay well and truly believes that he has to earn trust, that he has to earn love, that he has to earn acceptance from people. He believes that it is through his deeds that he gains worth, and that he has performed enough feats of brilliance for Sheppard that it has to be worth something, it has to count for something. He has tried so hard to earn Sheppard's respect, his trust, his love. He has been working to this end almost ever since they met. But at the same time, the way he says "I have never asked this of you before" contains the belief that he is entitled to ask. That he is within his rights to ask this of Sheppard. That they share a tacit understanding of the ties that bind them together and that it is the love that they share that obligates them to both give and to take in turn.

But because Sheppard does not think like McKay does, this isn't what he hears. He does agree that McKay has earned his trust. He has earned his trust by being there, at his side, unwavering in his loyalty. McKay has always come through for him, and he does not think about the things he has managed to do so much as the fact that he has always given it his all, has been willing to do the right thing even at the cost of his own life. McKay tells him that the risks are nothing compared to the potential benefits, and he wants to believe this to be true. Not about the experiment, but when it comes to the two of them. McKay has saved his life over and over again. McKay has kept his confidence. McKay has seen him at his most vulnerable and he in turn has been allowed to experience the same with McKay. Of course he has earned Sheppard's trust. He should trust McKay. He has every reason to trust McKay.

McKay is not the problem.

Continued in Pt. 8

[theshadowbendersblog]

*Big One Piece Spoiler ahead*

I'm currently watching this show which aired in 1982 and ran for like a year, called "Mysterious Cities of Gold". It's quite an old series and very hard to find. Over the past couple of years many fans tried to upload it on various sites all over the internet but for some reason or the other, the show was taken out only a few weeks or a couple of months after the show was uploaded. Even if you try to google the show, most of the sites will tell you it was only one season but in reality it was 4 seasons. If anyone is up for it, I can provide links if it's still available. I was lucky enough to have been able to download all 4 seasons of it.

The show is interesting because it has so many similarities with one piece and i think Oda took some inspiration from it because

1. Back when the first season aired, Oda was probably just a kid

2. It even aired on Japanese television soon after, with the name "Taiyou no ko Estaban" (son of the sun Estaban)

The show is about the protagonist Estaban who lives in Barcelona, somewhat parallel to Luffy. Estaban can also command the sun and make skies clear even during the strongest of storms or rainfalls.

There are 3 more characters who run parallel with some op characters, Zia, an Incan girl who can read old and rare Incan texts and thus the Spanish govt. was always after her and in several instances they kidnapped her to find out what the incan scripts said about the cities of gold (El Dorado). She's parallel to Robin's character. There's a guy named Tao who's a descendant of an old advanced civilization called Mu who were known as the people of the Sun. They were famous for harvesting and using the power of the sun and they were technologically advanced (again somewhat parallel to the ancient advanced civilization in op). He's just like Usopp, good at fixing things and very crafty. In fact it was him who first provided the team with their first ship called Solaris. It had solar panels instead of sails and it had the power to run the ship 100 times faster than a normal ship running on sails. And just like Going merry, it got destroyed in an event. The second mode of transport they got was not a ship but a plane that looks like a bird.

Estaban was saved by a Spanish govt. navigator when he was just a baby. Ten years before the current timeline, the navigator named Mendoza (somewhat parallel to Shanks, since he uses one handed sword techniques and saved Estaban in the sea just like shanks saved kid Luffy) spotted a wrecked ship on a stormy night and the only survivors were Estaban and his father. The man hands Estaban over to Mendoza and then he was washed away. Ever since, Mendoza had been keeping an eye on Estaban. Estaban's father also handed Estaban a medallion on his neck that turns out to be one of the 2 keys to open 7 cities of gold that is scattered all around the world.

The story goes like this, many years ago there existed 2 advanced civilizations, Mu and Atlantis. They fought a huge war against each other over power resources. Alas they ended up destroying each other. Later some survivors of the Mu empire built 7 cities of gold all around the world where they hid tonnes of gold and several ancient technologies for the betterment of the world, and handed down 2 medallions to 2 generations of families. And as time passed, the medallions kept getting passed on among certain families and one ended up with Estaban and the other ended up with Zia. The high priest of the first city of gold (turns out he was estaban's father) said that the advanced civilization was so powerful and so technologically advanced that the survivors of the Mu empire knew that any adult who gets their hands on these powerful resources and tonnes of gold, would surely get greedy and fall to the bad side. And if the adults started fighting for these powerful technologies, they would end up using these advanced technologies again to destroy the world.

This is where it gets important for guessing what one piece could be. The high priest said the cities of gold and the keys to their doors were wished to have fallen into the hands of kids, because a child's innocence and wonder would never let the advanced technologies be used for bad purposes, like greed for power and war.

We are now aware of how there existed an ancient advanced civilization in one piece too, that created cool robots like the one in Egghead island. And to think the robot is so advanced that even a man like Dr. Vegapunk couldn't get it activated or figure out what fuel does it run on.

What if, one piece is a child's toy? A toy that children of the 800 years old ancient civilization built and played with!! This is something Oda could do, a gag ! And he simply doesn't do gags, he makes things so silly, yet so meaningful. Where, if this theory is taken into account, and we consider that the one piece is indeed a toy that the children of the ancient advanced civilization played with, at the same time it could also turn out that the toy itself was so advanced that it was like a powerful technology for the normal humankind.

To support my theory even further, back when Roger and his crew visited Laugh-tale and figured out what one piece is, Roger laughed and even said something close to "I came at a wrong time, this is not my time to reveal or use the one piece". It's something that people are so serious about that they wanna turn the whole world down. But only someone with the innocence of a child can actually use the one piece, since no adult can value a toy as much as a child can. Which is why if recalled, op has always shown how boys like Luffy, Chopper, Usopp and the boys from Punk hazard are so fascinated with robots and cool mechanical machineries. And the term "man's romance" is always stressed at times like these.

If anyone has seen Ben 10 alien force and recalls that one episode where a mysterious cube shaped alien technology was mimicking anyone who attacked it, like Gwen, Kevin, their powers, and even transformed into every one of Ben's aliens and it seemed like a totally destructive and advanced weapon. But it turns out, it was just a child's toy from some higher dimension and the child's mother later came to earth and picked up the toy, saying that her kid had dropped the toy somewhere back when they came to the lower dimension on the earth, for a family picnic. Or to hang out or something like that.

I feel this little Ben 10 alien force scene is a coincidental yet strong correspondence with the theory i have proposed above. In short what I'm guessing is, there's a huge chance that in a story like one piece where Oda likes to just mess around like what children would like the most, with cartoonish art style and funny gags, where he not only shows us serious stuff, but never fails to make us laugh with his cartoonish composition of manga panels and the over all story, the one piece could very well be just a toy, like a robot or some sort of weapon or a machinery, which to normal humankind, would look like a powerful weapon and the adults will surely try to obtain it for their selfish desires. Whereas, only a child's innocence could make the utmost use of it.