#a lot of times it feels like conner is written like he happens to be a teenager

[jesncin]

Conner Luthor goes to National City High.

I have!! Big feelings about Conner's Smallville arc and how I wish it went deeper into teenage superhero angst and relationships,,, so have more moody clone stuff.

[sundrop-writes]

Your First Kiss With Dick Grayson

Dick Grayson x Gender Neutral Reader

Summary:

The Titans have faced a lot together, but never something quite as troubling as the possible return of an inter-dimensional demon that shreds apart worlds and leaves nothing standing in its wake.

You hate to admit it, but even standing with your team - you're afraid. Dick tries his best to comfort you, but for once during his career as noble, selfless team leader - he takes a moment to be selfish, and does something that he has been avoiding doing for years.

Dick Grayson x Gender Neutral Reader. Childhood Friends to Lovers. Angst and Fluff. Set during Season 4, Episode 6.

Word Count: 2,900

DC Titans Masterlist | AO3 Link

Detailed warnings and author's notes below the cut.

Warnings: this one is a bit more on the angsty side; this fic features major spoilers for season 4 (and for the majority of the show) - so if you're watching it for the first time or you haven't seen it yet and you want to watch it spoiler free, then avoid this fic for now; the reader character is completely gender neutral - the only pronouns used for the reader are you/yours; the reader is one of the original Titans; the reader and Dick are childhood friends through the Justice League - the reader is the adoptive child of Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (the reader is a talented marksman and trained in combat); the reader is mentioned to be an orphan (again, aren't all good superheroes); major pining from Dick - he has had a crush on the reader since they were kids (most of this is from his POV, so it's not specified if the reader has returned his feelings for just as long); mentions of canon character deaths; a lot of this is from Dick's POV so - warnings for Dick being emotionally constipated and referring to romantic feelings as a 'disease'; this is an AU where Dickkory never happened; mentions of canon violence - not described in graphic detail; mentions of the apocalypse/the world ending (and the anxiety this can cause); the reader is feeling extreme fear/anxiety due to the possible end of the world; technically - unresolved pining. I believe that's it.

A/N: The second part of the First Kiss series! I had a lot of fun with this one. This is the first really romantic fic I have written for Dick, and I enjoyed it so much omg. I was so tempted to write an enemies to lovers version with him, because he annoys me so much in the canon, and I feel like 'kissing in the middle of a heated argument' would work so well with his character - but maybe we'll save that one for Jason (or Hank, idk). instead, I went with emotionally constipated Dick Grayson, because that is sooo canon. he would not admit his feelings for someone if he had a gun to his head. and I had a lot of fun writing this mostly from his POV. I feel like he is such an interesting POV character to work with, so I might do more from him in the future. anyway, please enjoy!!

...

Stress. 

There were few other words to describe the horrible feeling that was dense in the air around them. 

Everyone was looking to Dick for answers, and unfortunately, he had none. Sebastian was missing, likely kidnapped by Mother Mayhem in order to complete a ritual that would likely mean the end of the world. Rachel had lost her powers and the Titans needed her unique form of magic now more than ever. Tim was impatient, annoyed because Dick wasn’t letting him use the minimal training that he had. But of course, Dick was hesitant to let the next would-be Robin off the bench after what had happened to Jason. 

(Dick could barely bring himself to think about Jason these days.) 

Kory was having difficulty controlling her newfound powers, and so was Gar. Which left the team weakened on all sides. Jinx was helpful on the magic front, but she was far from easy to control when it came to executing plans and corralling her rather wild personality. 

And Dick didn’t even want to think about what was happening with Conner. He just had to pray that this whole shaved-head, Lex Luthor impression was part of his mourning for his would-be father, and hopefully - it would be temporary. 

All of the chaos among the team left Dick leaning on you. As usual, you were likely the only person on the team who wasn’t experiencing any extreme drama. You were the only Titan with some true stability. 

And you were the person on the team with the most experience. Even more than Dick himself. Beyond being part of the original Titans team that had helped to found The Tower, you had been trained under Oliver Queen, who was part of the Justice League as Green Arrow. Ollie had taken you on as his own child when your parents died and left him as your carer in their will. Naturally, early into your childhood, he had started training you in the art of combat and marksmanship - so you grew up with intense skill. 

You and Dick met soon after he was adopted by Bruce. And much like Donna, you were a kind face and a wise voice that kept him mentally grounded well into adulthood. But you were also someone mischievous that made him smile; someone he could always turn to for a well timed laugh. 

You always kept him sane. 

And very much unlike Donna - soon after he met you, Dick started to develop feelings for you. 

Of course, back then, it was just a silly crush. When he told Donna about it at the time, she laughed. And when he had hidden his face in embarrassment, she then told him that it was ‘cute’. She told him that you two would be good together when you got older. So naturally, Dick took her words as biblically concrete advice. 

He decided that he should wait for you. That the two of you would be good together when you got older. 

So he waited. 

And he waited. And eventually - life got in the way. 

He had a huge falling out with Bruce, things at the Tower went south. It was never the right time to tell you. How the hell could he tell his best friend that he had those big, terrifying feelings mounting inside of him, worsening each year like a disease? 

It was never the right time to tell you because he was dodging disasters left and right and he needed you more as a friend than as a lover. He needed you as a brick wall to lean on. He needed you as that voice of common sense in his ear - the leader’s loyal first mate, giving him advice behind the curtain and keeping his head on straight. 

He didn’t need to tell you about his awful, festering feelings and have you gone from his life too. 

When Garth died, and then Jericho died and the Tower shuddered, it still didn't feel like the right time. Wounds were tender and even if you were never downright angry at him like everyone else was - you needed your space. Dick respected that. 

That day, you stood at the mouth of the elevator, about to leave for Star City to go and lick your emotional wounds at Ollie’s for a while, and you looked at Dick with tears in your eyes - looked at him like you were waiting for him to say it. But it wasn’t the right time. 

He still thought about you every single day when he was in Detroit. And then - he showed up at your door with a scared little girl, needing more advice, needing that brick wall again. It was only natural that when chaos found him, he needed your help. 

He hated that your advice was to call in Dawn and Hank. He relied on you, and you relied on family. And he hated that they were waiting at your apartment, called against his will once he had left to do some more sleuthing. 

But he found that you were right when he saw how Dawn bonded with Rachel, when Hank put up a vicious fight against those strangers who came to collect her in the name of her father. 

Watching you get thrown off that roof sent Dick’s heart through his stomach. As he clung onto the rooftop with his fingers and the muscles of his arm burned, all he could think about was you. As you sputtered out blood and he cradled your head, unsure of how to help you, terror gripped him in a way that it never had before in his life, because he realized that he might actually lose the most important person in his life. 

As you lay in the hospital, a set of machines barely keeping you alive, with Dawn loyally holding your hand in comfort and Hank seething to get revenge on the people who had hurt you - Dick ached with regret and not having told you. 

Still, when you showed up at that house in Ohio, somehow magically awakened from your near death by Rachel's powers - Dick felt that it just wasn't the right time. He swallowed his regrets like ash in his mouth when he reunited with you, hugged you tight. He didn’t even consider telling you about his feelings to be on the radar of possibility. 

When you came back to the Tower to help bring in Doctor Light - it just wasn't the right time. When you showed up in Gotham to help bring down Red Hood - it just wasn't the right time. 

Even when Dick died and was brought back to life by some strange magical pit, a pool of waters that brought him dreams of a far off life with you - it still wasn’t the right time. 

You were there to Dick's call, loyal and waiting, every single time. You looked at him with as much love and longing in your eyes as he needed (at least, according to Dawn and Donna you did) - but still, it never felt like the right time. 

It never felt like the right time to destabilize his entire life by uprooting the one good friendship he had. It never felt like the right time to truly fuck things up with you. 

Now, because of some cult that Dick believed to be long gone and a stupid blood ritual, the world was ending, and it still didn't feel like the right time. 

He wasn't the son of a demon from another dimension, but he still felt cursed. 

When Dick saw you slip out of the room, clearly trying to sneak away from the group, his stomach twisted with nerves. It was rare that you of all people cracked under the pressure. It was rare that you needed to escape from the madness for a breath. He mumbled an excuse to Kory and then chased after you, knowing that it wouldn't be hard to tell where he was truly going - but truthfully, he didn’t care. 

He easily caught you in one of the late night deserted halls of STAR Labs. 

The many glass walls overlooked the city - a collection of bright lights that made up Metropolis. Thousands of people that you never knew, that you had never met before. People that all seemed too important now as you contemplated their lives; thought about the fact that you might not be able to save them. 

Dick saw the sickly look on your face, the glassy sheen of guilt in your eyes even from far off as you leaned on the polished titanium railing that separated the upper floors from the atrium. His footsteps echoed in the empty hall and you heard him approaching from far off. He made no effort to sneak up on you or conceal himself, not wanting to startle you when you were already in such a distressed state. 

The minute you looked over your shoulder and saw him, your face broke from that dark, doomed frown into a haste smile, and you reached up to wipe away your tears, attempting to be subtle with that motion. You were trying to hide yourself from him. 

Dick came to stand beside you, resisting the urge to pull you into his arms. He desperately wanted to shelter you away from any fear you might be feeling. Maybe it was selfish; wanting to hold you, wanting to protect you from anything in the world that could possibly harm you. Maybe it was downright idiotic - because realistically, he knew that couldn't protect you from this kind of harm. He couldn’t protect you from the world ending. 

“Y/N-” Dick murmured your name gently, clutching a fist tightly by his side to resist the urge to reach out and soothe a hand over the trembling muscles of your jaw. 

You were holding in a sob, and it came out as a harsh, sarcastic laugh instead. 

“I know.” You said. “I know. You're doing that Team Leader Guy Thing.” 

You tried to make it sound playful and joking, but with your voice wet and soaked with worry and fear, it came off as a pathetic bid to deflect. 

Dick wasn’t sure how to reply. Because yes, he was doing that ‘Team Leader Guy Thing’. He was trying his best to, anyway. 

“You're gonna ask ‘are you okay?’ and I'm gonna lie and say ‘I'm fine, boss. All good.’” You continued. 

At least you were being straightforward about it being a lie. 

Dick wished that he had something genuinely helpful to say, but his throat stalled with dryness and his chest ached at seeing you so distraught. It really wasn’t something that he was used to. 

“I mean, it's not like it's the end of the world.” You let out another dry, sarcastic laugh. 

Then, there was a moment of silence - a beat of realization as your chin quivered and more thick tears rimmed your eyes. 

“It's - it's only the end of the world.” You spoke these words heavier, dropping any false laughter in your tone - it truly hit you. Any further jokes you could make left you. 

Dick choked on his own tears when he heard the aborted sob in your chest - something that came out as a whimper when you reached up to clutch at your heart. 

You were genuinely terrified. Terrified that the Titans wouldn’t be able to find a solution in time. Terrified that everyone was going to die. Not just the people you loved, but - everyone. 

“Hey, come on.” Dick said, his leader instincts, his natural caring for you kicking in. “We've been through worse.” 

Working with the Titans, you had been through a lot. Drug busts, battling against costumed psychopaths, the loss of a dear friend to a dangerous assassin. But you weren’t sure that you had been through something worse than this. Everything the Titans had been through had never affected the world on such a large scale. 

“Have we?” You argued gently. 

Perhaps not. Maybe the only time the team had been in such dire straits was the first time Trigon attempted to come to earth. But that had been when Rachel had been armed with her powers and had been prepared to take him down. But Dick wasn't going to voice those thoughts to you. 

You waited in agony for him to say something, and your tears finally breached - rolling down your face in hot tracks, laying marks of the true fear you were feeling, laying it all bare for the first time. Dick knew that his own eyes reflected that same glossy hurt now, if only for the pain he felt in seeing you cry - something that was so incredibly rare over the time he had known you. 

Dick reached out and gently cupped the side of your cheek, running his thumb across your face and wiping some of those tears away. You were so startled by the tenderness of the touch that you couldn't help but to let out a whimper, and you felt frozen as Dick spoke his next words. 

“It's gonna be okay.” He told you, trying his hardest to sound confident in the words. “We're gonna get through this. I know we will.” 

This time, unlike many before, you couldn't be inspired by his confidence. 

“Have you - have you considered what happens if we don't?” Your voice barely reached above a whisper, barely daring to tempt fate with this possibility. 

Honestly, Dick had not. In these kinds of situations, he didn't allow himself to focus too much on the negative. As the team leader, he did have to take all the possibilities into account. It was something he had to do in order to keep everyone safe. But if he focused too much on death and darkness, much like Bruce did, then he knew that paranoia would overtake him and his team would get caught in the crossfire. 

He had to spend his time coming up with solutions to fix the problem rather than spending his time caught up in knots, worrying about what would happen if he fumbled and didn't actually fix things after all. 

The literal end of the world? It just wasn't a possibility in this mind. 

But right now, standing there, staring into your big eyes, glossed over with fear as you looked to him for answers - there was only one thing that Dick could think of. 

And it was so incredibly selfish. It didn’t have anything to do with the team or being a good leader. It didn’t have anything to do with helping the others. 

Dick brushed his thumb over your cheek again, an incredibly tentative touch that had your skin tingling. You let out a small sigh, and the world froze around you when he leaned in - slowly, moving toward you at a pace that more than gave you time to escape if you wanted to. But you found that you didn’t want to. You found his closeness to be an incredible comfort in these moments of mental chaos. 

And so, he gently planted his lips on yours. 

It should have come as a shock - your childhood best friend kissing you. But in that moment, it just felt right. All you could do was shut your eyes and lean into the kiss, reaching up to grip his wrist, keeping him close to you as you leaned into his smothering heat. His lips were surprisingly soft, and he tasted like coffee - using caffeine to keep himself awake for days, trying to marathon a solution against the impending doom. 

His kiss was firm but so giving - a touch that easily swallowed you up with heat from the top of your head all the way down to your toes. It was a sensation that pushed out the rest of the world, smothered any worries about who or what might bring an end to it. 

It was the most tender, but most wonderfully passionate kiss that you had ever experienced in your life. 

When he pulled away, you sucked in a sharp breath, suddenly feeling incomplete without his lips on yours. The shock then began to set in, like pulling the knife from a stab wound and feeling the blood rush out of you freely. It created a dizzying mixture with the heat that was now boiling under your skin. 

Why? Your brain screamed out as you stared at him. When? How long had he wanted to kiss you? How long had you been missing out on Dick Grayson? 

Dick could see all those questions bubbling beneath your surface as the fear in your eyes shifted to confusion, and he finally decided to speak. 

“I'm sorry.” He said quietly. “But if the world does end, I couldn't die without knowing what kissing you is like.” 

“Dick-” You sighed, about to go on a long rant about how he could have done that years ago, about how he should have - and the end of the world was a shitty excuse. 

But you abruptly cut off your own words when more footsteps squeaked down the hall - the rubber soles of sneakers scuffing against the polished floor. 

Dick jumped away from you as though he had been burned, clearly wanting to keep the interaction private. Both of you tuned to see Gar approaching. 

“Dick?” He posed. Gar had a look of confusion, clearly wondering if he should question what was going on between the two of you but swallowing it. 

“Yeah?” Dick replied. 

“Um - Conner's missing.” He announced this in a nervous, meek tone, not wanting to bring the team leader any more bad news. 

“What?” Dick gaped. 

There was no time to further discuss what Dick had said to you. With the end of the world in your hands, it easily fell to the back of your mind. 

...

If you enjoyed this fic, check out my DC Titans Masterlist for more of my other fics!! And please consider reblogging and commenting on this fic to tell me what you liked about it.

[cheemscakecat]

A slight opportunity missed.

So, there’s not a whole lot that I’d change about Hank and Connor’s storyline in Detroit Become Human, but that being said.

The story takes place in 2038, and Hank is a Millennial.

Millennials don’t have that Gen Z knowledge of new technology, but they do have a pretty decent understanding of it and some have healthy skepticism. They aren’t like Boomers, who struggle to adjust to using new tech and fall for more scams. Like AI generated photos and scam emails.

There are Millennial parents that buy IPads for their literal infants and let them get brain rotted, but Hank doesn’t strike me as the type to do that.

I think there’s a missed opportunity to make Lieutenant Anderson the type of Millennial who doesn’t blindly trust new products in tech. He’s like the sensible Millennial who thinks linking your house up to an Alexa to control the lights, appliances, and doors, is dystopian. Literally does not see a point in doing all that.

Bro probably took one look at the Metaverse trailer, knew it was gonna be dog water, and laughed at its failure. Hank probably used to mess with phone scammers like this Officer:

Another change I talked about previously is having Conner be in use before the first deviant case, helping with unrelated cases. That way it feels like the Police have a reason to trust Conner enough to include him in the Cyberlife related cases. It’s highly suspicious for them to insert a police Android during an investigation that could make or break their company.

I would write Hank as still having reservations about using Connor, since he’s skeptical of Cyberlife’s intentions. He thinks Cyberlife is using this walking, talking recording device to mine information from the Police department [Which is true].

You know that scene where Connor scans Anderson’s desk to figure out his interests and break the ice? That would literally just make Hank feel like he’s right about the data mining. I’d have him sit down, not stoked about the android but resigned to deal with it, then get progressively more frustrated by Connor’s attempts to act friendly.

Then Hank stomps to the chief’s office and starts refusing to work with the android. Only to be told he has no choice. Lieutenant Anderson disliking Connor, not just because of what happened to Cole, but because he’s smart enough to think Cyberlife is using him as spyware, would be an interesting factor in their relationship.

I think the turning point where you can actually befriend Hank would be when you show up at his house and sober him up. Because a regular machine would probably just stand in one spot and call an ambulance. But Connor very stubbornly moves Anderson to his bathroom and starts briefing him on the mission once he’s sober.

One would assume this android is programmed to wait for an ambulance and confirmation that Hank’s okay, then request a different human cop to help with the investigation that night. But Connor’s actions are much more human and “illogical” than that.

He’s impatient and stubborn, two traits that Cyberlife androids aren’t programmed with. Maybe the Traci Models, but 9 times out of 10, impatient and stubborn androids are bad for business. Any adult should know that, Hank included.

The meaner interrogation could have been written off as Cyberlife programming a bunch of dialogue into Connor based on cases and movie scenes. That was at work, and for all Anderson knows, Connor was always programmed to be able to intimidate criminals. But it’s a lot harder to write off an Android dragging you to the bathtub and refusing to take no for an answer about investigating that night.

That’s human. Illogical, stubborn, overstepping his bounds… and human. Leaving the car at the murder scene, despite being commanded to stay, could have been written off as Connor’s spyware programming too. Not attitude or impatience. But in retrospect, it would make sense as part of his personality too.

[mamawasatesttube]

for the ficlet thing: “You're still asleep, aren't you?" (w timkon,,,yeah) :3

Muted blue-white light from the TV washes over the living room, paints the walls in dull grey as it flickers across Kon's face. Tim's head is a warm weight on his shoulder, his hair tickling slightly against Kon's neck. He dozed off a few minutes ago, breathing soft and slow as rain pelts the side of the farmhouse; it's not even late yet, but Kon knows Tim's been through a lot lately. It's good he's resting.

But he'd rest even better if they just turn off the TV and head up to bed, so. Kon could just carry him, but...

Lightning flashes outside; thunder rumbles in the distance as the house creaks in the wind. Kon stares at the window and swallows, hard.

Tim wouldn't just doze off on anyone's shoulder. Even as Robin, he preferred to curl up in weird little secluded spots, though he definitely fell asleep on Kon or Cassie a good few times. But he's gotten more guarded during the year Kon was, uh, dead, pulling into himself, pushing even Cassie away. And yet, here he is, snoozing away against Kon.

Something tightens in Kon's chest. He's been thinking a lot, lately. There's words that've been dancing on the tip of his tongue for months now, words he's kept swallowing down. Maybe he ought to finally take the plunge. Tonight feels cozy and safe, like the storm's cut them off from the outside world and all its perils and fears, and Tim is so trusting, so vulnerable in his sleep.

Kon takes a breath. Swallows hard. Breathes out.

"Hey, Rob." He gently nudges Tim, squeezes his shoulder. Fantasizes, for a moment, about skimming his hand down to the side of Tim's waist, but holds back. "You wanna call it and head up to bed?"

"Mmnh?" Tim's voice is so much softer than usual when he's sleepy. His eyelashes brush Kon's collarbone as he blinks. "Nnh, 'm awake..."

Kon's heart flip-flops in his chest. He chews at his lip. Lightning flashes in the window again, lighting up acres of farmland in a brilliant flash. Tim's hair smells like Kon's shampoo.

The words bubble up in Kon's chest and rise up his throat, and suddenly he knows if he doesn't say them now, he'll never say them at all. His heart thunders in his throat.

"Rob, I've, uh... I've been wondering something."

Tim hums against his shoulder. His fingers twitch slightly against the side of Kon's knee. "Mm?"

You don't touch most people like this, Kon wants to say. I don't let most people touch me like this. I've always been so conscious of how people see me, here in Smallville. I never knew who "Conner Kent" was before. But I never worry about any of that when you're with me. Why? What do you do to me? Do you even know you're doing it?

He doesn't say any of that. Instead, he chews at his lower lip again, staring at the TV. It's a rerun of some oldies show; Ma likes to watch 'em in the evenings sometimes.

"Before Cassie 'n' I broke up, we... talked about some stuff," Kon says haltingly. Maybe he should've taken a page outta Tim's book, written this all out before he tried to say any of it. "About, y'know. Us. What all happened while I was... gone." He can't bring himself to say dead, not to Tim.

Tim's quiet. He isn't stupid; he probably knows where Kon is going with this. He knows Kon knows there's an ocean of unspoken things between them, these days, things they both know but haven't managed to put into words. Things like why Tim tried to clone him a hundred times. Like the new colors on the Robin uniform in all the photos Kon saw from before Tim took on his new mantle. Things like...

"You and her dated for a second," Kon says, quiet. Maybe he's finally trying to cross that ocean. "She told me that she was trying to use you to see me. But that... that makes me wonder, Rob. If Cass was trying to kiss me through you, then..."

His heart is in his throat; his blood roars in his ears.

"Then what were you thinking, when you were kissing her?"

The question hangs in the air. Tim's silence is louder than the thunderstorm raging outside.

Kon stares straight ahead, suddenly terrified. Maybe he's wrong. Maybe he got it all backwards, and Tim really did just have feelings for Cassie he never acted on until Kon was out of the way, and his guilt for it was behind his intense grief for Kon. Maybe he—

Tim snores softly.

The tension pops like a bubble. Kon looks down, incredulous. "Right. Of course. You're still asleep, aren't you?" he mutters, more to himself than to Tim. He doesn't know if he's disappointed or relieved. Honestly, it's on him; he should've known better than to try and actually talk about any of it while Tim's so sleepy. He just... it just felt...

Well, it doesn't matter now. Kon blows out a deep sigh, TTKs over the TV remote, and turns it off.

"Mmph?" In the sudden quiet, Tim shifts against his side. "I'm awake, I swear..." He yawns, covering his mouth with a hand, and then lifts his head to blink blearily up at Kon. "Sorry. What were you sayin'?"

Kon shakes his head with a rueful smile. "Nothing important," he says, and ruffles Tim's hair. "C'mon. Let's get you to bed."

[emoticonheart]

lol kinda spontaneous, but the next chapter of the burp soulmate story inspired by @moraygrotto is here!! as always, i'll link the story on ao3 here and post it below as well!!

The line in front of the nearest SIMA building was, as expected, extremely long.

SIMA-- which stood for Soulsign Identification and Matching Agency-- was an international organization meant to help expedite the process of finding someone with the same soulmate sign as you. It was supposedly a simple process; all you had to do was prove that you had a soulmate sign, and they would add it to the registry. Once there was a match with someone else, you would get a text or a call. Sometimes, if the sign was too vague (like: i can feel whatever emotions my soulmate is feeling) then a list would be mailed to you with people that have similar soulmate signs. From there, you could at least try to narrow it down.

The organization was meant to make it easier to find your soulmate, especially if said soulmate lived on the other side of the world, but the way the organization was RUN made it harder that it should've been. The long wait times were a prime example of this.

But Sierra didn't seem to mind, and so the two of them took their spots in the back of the line, a smug smile on her face.

Conner stood awkwardly next to her, sweating with nerves. One of the things that came with registering your soulmate sign with SIMA was that you were given a new ID on the spot, one that had your soulmate sign written just below your picture. You'd have to trash your old ID and replace it with the new one, and Conner did not want to replace his old drivers license with one that has BURP SYNCHRONIZATION or something like that written on it.

He was hoping that since he had already found his soulmate, he wouldn't have to worry about registering, but it seemed Sierra had other plans.

As they crawled their way through the line, they approached one of the SIMA agents, who was watching over the line.

"Excuse me, sir," Conner said, getting his attention. "About how much longer should we expect to be waiting in line?"

"Two hours," he said sharply.

Conner frowned as he turned to Sierra. "Are you sure you don't wanna come back a different day? Maybe we can get here right as they open on Saturday and maybe the line won't be so--"

"Nope," Sierra shook her head. "We're doing this today."

Conner sighed. So be it.

They continued to wait in line in silence, until suddenly a commotion in the front of the line caused Conner to look up.

"Fuck!" someone shouted from up front. "Someone up front reeks!"

A bunch of people began filing out of the building as quickly as they could, pinching their noses and waving their hands in front of them. Conner took this as a sign to leave, but before he could take a step, Sierra grabbed a hand.

"We're staying," she said.

"But, everyone else is--"

"That just means our wait will be shorter."

Conner sighed. There really was no getting out of this.

By the time everyone had cleared out and order had been restored, Conner and Sierra found themselves to be next in line. As they walked toward the next available agent, they passed by a man in a suit and tie making his way towards the exit. But first, he looked over at the two of them and winked. "You're welcome."

Conner just gave him a weird look, but Sierra whisperered. "He probably set off a stink bomb so that he could be first in line. I've heard that's been happening a lot recently."

Conner frowned, but decided not to ask anymore questions. As they approached the desk, Conner could finally pick up the stench lingering in the air. Yeah, definitely a stink bomb.

The lady on the other side of the desk looked like she wanted to die. "IDs?"

Conner and Sierra slid their driver's licenses over to her. She took a quick scan of them before sitting back down, but she didn't give them back.

"Are you both registering under the same soulmate sign?"

Sierra nodded. "We just need new IDs."

Conner's heart dropped. So that's what this was about? But he specifically didn't want a new ID!

He opened his mouth to tell Sierra just this, but she must've sensed what he was about to say, because she shot him a glare that made his blood run cold. He kept his mouth shut.

"Fine," the lady said. "And what's the soulmate sign you'd like to register yourself under."

"I'm sure you don't have this one in your registry yet," she smirked. "'Burp synchronization.'"

She gave Sierra a look behind her glasses. "Come again?"

"It's simple, really. When I burp, he burps. And when he burps, I burp."

"Are... are you sure that's what your sign is?"

Sierra raised an eyebrow cockily. "Want proof?"

Conner began waving his hands, already seeing where she was going with this. "Sierra, no. No no no no--"

RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP

Without warning, Sierra opened her mouth and ripped an insanely loud belch, one that echoed around the walls of the entire office. And since Conner didn't have time to close his mouth, his burp was just as loud, making the volume of their combined gas almost unbearable.

When it was over, Conner slapped both hands over his mouth, burning from embarrassment from head to toe. Sierra, on the other hand, just smirked at the agent.

"That good enough for ya?"

Conner made the mistake of looking around, and he saw all the eyes on them, all the looks of disgust. Oh how he wished the ground would open up and swallow them whole.

The agent sighed. "I guess so. 'Burp Synchronization' it is. I'll go ahead and print out those new IDs."

Sierra smiled as the agent walked to the back office to do just that. Once she was out of sight, Conner glared at Sierra. "What the hell was that?"

"What?" she said innocently. "She said she needed proof!"

"So you had to embarrass me like that?"

"I didn't mean to embarrass you, but what else were we supposed to prove it?"

"Why do we even need new IDs in the first place. Soulmark IDs are only for those who need extra help with finding their soulmate, but we already found each other!"

Sierra rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You wouldn't get it."

"You're right about that."

The two of them crossed their arms and huffed as they turned away from each other. Conner just couldn't wait for this to be over so that he could go home and forget all this embarrassment.

Finally, the agent came back and slid their new IDs over to them. Conner frowned as, sure enough, BURP SYNCHRONIZATION was plastered right underneath his ID photo.

Joy.

"Here you go," she said "NEXT!"

The two of them quickly shoved their new IDs in their wallets before making their way out of the building. As soon as they were out of the stuffy office, Sierra waved to Conner.

"Well, uh, see you later, I guess."

"Wait!"

Sierra stopped trying to walk away and turned to Conner, an eyebrow raised in question.

"Can I... have your number?"

Sierra's face twisted in disgust. "Why?"

Conner ignored the sting that came along with that as he shrugged. "I mean, as much as you may not like it, we are soulmates. Don't you wanna at least try making this work?"

Sierra narrowed her eyes in contemplation before finally sighing, making her way back over to him. "Fine. Give me your phone."

Conner did just that, and he watched as she aggressively typed out the number on his phone before handing it back. He took a look, and saw that she had already sent herself a text with just his name, assumedly so that she could save his number on her phone.

"There," she said. "Now, just don't blow up my phone, okay? Let's take things slow."

Conner nodded. He couldn't agree more.

As Sierra walked away for good this time, Conner couldn't help but pull out his new ID. Tears began forming in his eyes as he took at the two new words plastered on it.

What did he do to deserve this?

[unreasonablekiwi]

Introducing Orchid Valley Investigation Services

(All art included is mine, most of it being made late last year)

Orchid Valley Investigation Services is my currently running DND horror campaign set in a fantasy 1999, where magic is rare and dying, between October and December.

The campaign follows party of four detectives who were transferred to the shitty fairytale tourist trap of Orchid Valley to replace the many missing (and dead) investigators, leading them to look into the odd and highly magical events in town with the help of an odd radio host and a potentially malevolent being. From magical doors and eldritch gods to one massive time loop and a magic bubble keeping them in town, this town is kind of crazy and crazy familiar. Can they figure out what's really going on in Orchid Valley before time runs out? Or will they die again and keep the cycle moving?

This campaign is heavily inspired by various songs from the Lemon Demon album Spirit Phone, as well as various horror games and the StarKid Hatchet Field series.

I have a written recap for pretty much every session that I may share in the future once I find a good platform for it! Feel free to ask questions or look for more information using the orchid valley investigation services tag

But if you're interested in further details, feel free to keep scrolling but be warned

.

Also, a lot of words, like a lot.

.

Player character info

Now let's talk about our four detectives, aka my friends player characters.

Bwink (any but she/her) - a tiefling with a crap ton of money due to being one of the many children of Mammon. Bwink is a sweet guy, but only talks through signs and covers their body in a shadowy cloak due to being bullied in their youth. This is due to their belief that they cant be bullied if no one can perceive them. They also have access to futuristic technology due to Hades/Hell being accessible to a multitude of worlds. Bwink was transferred to Orchid Valley due to the others at their station finding his behavior weird and not liking xem.

Dav aka Conner (he/they) - a changeling who left their family on bad terms due to having different views on how to live life, with his parents wishing to stay in one disguise forever while Dav wanted to live and try out various lives. Conner the boring and very normal detective is one of these many lives, but this time it fulfills his dream of becoming a detective to help others. Conner was transferred simply due to the station needing to send people over to Orchid Valley.

Dagfinn Rusten (he/him) - your classic human noir detective inspired by Dean Supernatural, Edward of Full Metal Alchemist Fame, and some guy from Bioshock Infinite. Dagfinn was always interested in science at a young age, with his hobby accidentally convincing a bunch of adults that he was responsible for the house fire that killed his parents at age 7 or 10. He went to juvy for two nights before his aunt came to fetch him. He grew up with his aunt and her boyfriend Detective Withers, the lead detective on the case of his parents death, until he was old enough to become a detective himself to try and finally solve his parents case. But this would lead to his Aunts death, Withers disappearance, and Dagfinn losing his hand while trying to escape a kidnapper who sent him a false lead.

Dagfinn would be alone as he made his own prosthetic hand until a mystery salesmen gifted him an odd raven, claiming it was a gift from his dear aunt. He'd soon then transfer himself to Orchid Valley years later after getting a letter from a mysterious person claiming to know what happened to his parents...

Gregory Gigante (he/him) - and last but not least we have the goliath Italian mobster wizard Gregory, who became a cop to be a mole in his hometown Allentro in order to lead the police away from his family's affairs. But that plan was ruined when he was transferred to Orchid Valley due to the low staffing.

None of the party members started out knowing eachothers secrets, and they're currently being slowly revealed in character arcs. Dagfinn is the only one to have been fully explored yet, with Gregory's secret currently being built up to in, unfortunately, the worst mystery I've done for the campaign yet.

We only have like. One or two more session before it finally ends though.

Story Summary (Before the Show)

As briefly hinted at in the beginning, this story is a time loop adventure. So let's lay out what's already happened before the campaign began...

This here is Arthur Graves, the local radio host of Orchid Valley.

Him and his sister Adaline were orphaned at a young age and were kicked out once they got too old for the system. He barely survived school with the others looking down on him until him and Adaline were taken in by the old radio host: Johnathan Graves. The two would go on to help their father with his show while he'd help support them with their dreams, with Adaline wanting to become an actor and Arthur wanting to go into the older art of potion making. Things were pretty good until the two had to drop out of college to take care of their dying father, with them taking up the mantle of radio hosts once he was gone... Now that Arthur was older, and way nicer to look at, him and his sister started getting more attention. More friends. But Arthur still felt like an outsider. That was until the party first arrived to Orchid Valley.

Before the time loop he had befriended the party through Bwink, who he had fallen in love with. While the party would investigate, Arthur would kind of work as a "Man in the Chair" type of guy and try to research and help them when he could. But when they mysteriously went missing while investigating the death of the local rich guy Bloodworth, Arthur got pretty worried. For the first couple weeks he remained positive since he knew Bwink had the power to save them from death, being a prince of hades, but they never came back.

Months passed and he couldn't wait any longer as the case was dropped. He grew worried, antsy, and began to have strange dreams of blue moths. He didn't know what to do until a blue moth faced man visited him, claiming to be a god. Claiming tha he knew how to save his friends. Claiming that all he'd need to do is find a book kept in the abandoned west side of town... Desperate, Arthur took the deal. Beginning the time loop.

Now, let's switch over to this so called gods, or Hurtragas Ervs, perspective.

In this world, multiple timelines and universes exist. And Hurtragas Erv, or Arthur Graves if you scramble it up a bit, is from an alternate timeline where he never managed to save his friends and was completely corrupted by the dark magic from the book he used for the timeloop.

He became so corrupted he lost his true sense and accidentally destroyed his timeline before being scooped up by the entity of time Record Keeper and placed into time anaomly jail. From here Hurtragas attempted to use his powers to escape, but could only find a way to project his mind into other worlds, where he found the current timeline Arthur freaking out. Recognizing the time and place, Hurtragas had the great idea of helping this Arthur save his friends with his knowledge of what and what not to do so he wouldn't end up like him. Communicating with Arthur through technology and his dreams, they began their work.

Things were going well for awhile but as they worked together Hurtragas started to get upset as this Arthur used their knowledge to come up with better solutions faster then he did. So Hurtragas Erv began to get jealous as he watched Arthur interact with his friends.

So Hurtragas came up with a new plan. Once Arthur gets closed to saving his friends, he'll take over Arthur's body and replace him! It sounded easy enough, but Arthur was already starting to notice something was up as Hurtragas began getting more aggressive towards him when Arthur started asking questions like "why are you helping me?" with no answer but yelling. This behavior lead Arthur to come to the prediction that he'd try to replace him so Arthur warned his friends to get rid of him if he showed up and was acting weird.

And that's exactly what the party did once Arthur(?) showed up and greeted then differently.

With the loop reset, Hurtragas tried to cover up what he did, hoping that maybe Arthur would forget. But if anything, he forgot that Arthur was the only one who ever remembered what happened during the loops and their deal was broken. Hurtragas got upset and left, promising to make Arthur's life hell while he continues the loop to try and save his friends. And make his life hell he did, from misleading the party to not trust Arthur, to trapping Arthur in his own apartment, and to possessing their dear sister Adaline to kill Arthur before he can try and save the party from the final event. Loop after loop, Arthur began to slowly start loosing it until the newest loop, leading us to where the campaign is now.

But before that, here's what Arthur used to look like (what the party thinks he looks like from posters) to what he looks like now after multiple loops and uh. Being stabbed.

Campaign summary so far, and the future of the campaign

The campaign takes place during two loops, mainly for the reveal to my players that it's a time loop! I'm going to do my best to make this summary a lot uh. Shorter then everything else-

Part one - Before Loop Reveal

The party meet for the first time as they arrive in Orchid Valley and get to know eachother whole they wait for their meeting with their boss Diana Widower. In this meeting they learned that they're here due to all of the other staff going missing or dying a horrible tragic death and that most of them were specifically chosen to visit Orchid Valley due to being seen as expendable. But! Diana clarifies that as long as they can do their job right, they well. Get the job and free housing in the neighboring apartment complex. So the party takes a few days to get settled in and meet their new coworkers Ve, Mary, and Guy Mann before shit starts getting weird.

Gifts of various flowers from two anonymous A.G's, and the strange feeling of familiarity as they wander around town putting up warnings to avoid any out of place doors after being sent to investigate one of the doors at an abandoned church in West Ridge and finding the dead body of the teen server that vanished after making them breakfast.

From this first job they learn how shitty of a detective Guy Mann is, and meet one of their mystery gifters Arthur Graves over a radio tip line where he quickly starts to help as if he already the situation, and laying the grounds of the timeloop.

From there they go the rest of the first month investigating a magic office at work and revealing the fate of a coworkers missing father, failing to find stolen case files, attempting to find where the new radio station is, committing various food crimes, communicating with a suspicious voice over the phone, finding stolen antiques, helping a ghost pass on, talking with a shadow monster in a magic store, saving a girl from cult an meeting an oddly friendly(?) eldritch god of creation, releasing furbies into the wild, saving Mary from her ghostly date, acting as security at a Halloween Festival, learning Bwink's uncle Lu is the Lucifer, having a really weird shared dream, reenacting the dream to save a few coworkers, and last but not least.

Meeting Dagfinn's uncle Detective Withers to investigate an eerily familiar case when compared to Dagfinns past, and learning he was the monster all along as Dagfinn has his heart rippef out and the loop resets. But not before confronting the being of death in his train, unfamiliar and confused.

Part 2 - After Loop Reveal

Simply starting back at the first day of Dagfinn's arc and mentioning a few events that are different now, the party now have to try and solve the mystery again.

But now the players have information their characters don't know of due to the party's memories resetting, so they have to ask more questions and try to do things to trigger a characters memories or past feelings - a mechanic from the very beginning foreshadowing the timeloop. Oh and the only sign that something is different to the characters is Dagfinn finally noticing the scar on his chest from his heat being ripped out in a few loops, Bwink's upgraded phone, and a feeling that all of their flowers were swapped out. Which surprises Arthur when they call about it as he, for one of the first times ever, shares that something is new. What exactly, he doesn't get to say.

This time they stop Withers and save the visiting Allentro cop Mike, who was attacked this time because he came along with them this time.

So with new vibes from the past, the party works on investigating newer mysteries such as the bubble keeping them in town, why Mike can't leave town, trying to find out why Arthur is being censored magically, why Arthur is trapped, who the mystery spooky phone voice (or Electro) is, and helping Mary's murderous ghost date pass on. All while they're trying to solve two murders, which is starting to look like the Allentro Mobs affair...

And that's about where we currently are. Not many of the mysteries have been officially solved, but Conner's player has gotten really close to a lot of the plot points through theorizing. Like. Predicting the future but having such low confidence they don't think they're right.

Future of the Campaign

The rest of the campaign will roughly be as follows (minus mission specifics):

- discovery that Gregory is a criminal but is now more willing to work with the police due to their unique situation.

- more Arthur and Adaline interactions through missions.

- Dav changeling reveal at his own birthday party.

- Bwink heritage reveal at Thanksgiving.

- Arthur counting down to the date he agree to meet Bwink, starting December 1st, while giving odd advice and hints to... something?

- The mansion murder happens and the party try to investigate it the first day.

- The second day the party is going in for investigation but is side tracked by Arthur's recently concerning behavior and the sounds of him getting attacked while on air.

- Them helping Arthur and finally reuniting, before leading into part 3 of the story.

And that's about everything!

If I end up sharing more art you now know the context. Hurray, I guess.

Hope you enjoyed and feel free to ask me about my characters and such!

- Unreasonable Kiwi

[seven-stars-in-his-palm]

ok. i took a long, long time (song ref) but hi!!!!!!!!!

1. titanic fic (*cue shit-eating grin*). umum. im curious if there's anything about the morse code yet. or codes in gen actually. so. sentences with the word "code" :3

2. titanic vid!!!! Idk if you like the engineering aspects, but there still were a ton of other facts sprinkled in (spiral staircases, people that monitored coal balance, separate staff room for firemen, how they got air down there etc) https://youtube.com/watch?v=4begc_U8ygI#searching

3. surprise!! this is an interview. i have some Official Author questions for you (feel free to pick and choose, come back to this later, or just striaght up ignore lol):

3a. Do you have any authors (professional or not) that you aspire to be like one day?

3b. Following that up, are there any specific works (again, published, professional, etc or just amazing amateur works!!) that really inspire you?

3c. What made you start writing? I'm curious on anything that led to the conscious decision, of course, but additionally do you think there was anything you grew up with that "planted the seeds"? Was it any of the people from question 3a?

3d. What's the silliest (/pos) idea you've ever had for a fic? If you didn't write/publish it, why not? Was it a recent thing? If not, do you think your experience would have influenced that idea today?

if those dont make sense u can send me a messgae or something 👍👍👍 goodnight

ITS BEEN THREE DAYS but im here okay……. lets do this. hi pep :>

1) alas, i’ve been focusing on a lot of other things so i havent reached a written point of the Code Usage, which begins in like chapter 3-4. sorry man 💔 (progress has been made ! just not as much as i’d hope 😭)

2) FUN FACTS?!??!??!??!!?!!? IM WATCHING A DOCUMENTARY RN BUT IM YOINKING THIS RIGHT AFTER YIPPIE!!!!!!!!

3a) uhmmmmmmmm i dont exactly pay attention to authors as much as i pay attention to books but you know what. rick riordan. not because of anything he’s done or written but because of his audacity to write 20+ books in the same universe and still get 100000000000000 people 1000000% invested in it. i wanna write sequels forever. can i be him

3b) OHHHHHHHH UHM UHM UHM UHM the thing that got me into fanfic specifically was the fic “versability” (it was a gf fic about ‘what if ford never made the portal’, written like 2015-16, and yeah i did know of and even read a bit of fic beforehand but i was never into it) but just READING ? the land of stories by chris colfer, easy. mmmmmmmmm that was my fucking Thing. if i wasnt a baby at that time i would have WROTE. SO. MUCH. GOOD GOD. IT WAS MY THING. THE THING THAT GOT ME INTO NOVELS. URGH. alex my iconic mentally ill bisexual, conner my precious cynical boy. i need to read those again my GOD now i think about it that was fairytale fanfiction that happejed to bepublished and ohhhhh it was beautiful. im gonna read jt . iM GONNA DO IT!!!!

3c) in writing in general or just fanfic? for fanfic its that one day i had an gf fic idea (that i had to heavily revise/rewrite, but it did end up getting out eventually) that i hadnt read anything like it, and i wanted to see it. decided: hey, im shit at writing, but might as well!!!!!! 65k words later, its not a joke anymore. im a Writer now :) but as for in general, well ofc reading books. people told me in the past im creative and should get into book writing if you like reading so much. i decided well im gonna do it professionally, but might as well do something tiny, so i well uh wrote. im not gonna tell you but it certainly was Something. classic isekai mary sue dramatic plot hybrids etc etc etc but actually the queen the mc is “related” to is actually polyam and was in a relationship with both their dad and their mom and the big villain is the queen’s sister who’s pissed that both of her lovers ditched her for the human world (but actually they had to break up because because the society was not polyam friendly. there just happened to be a war after that). everything else was basic isekai except for that little crumble of lore. the queen was a bisexual. the dad was a pansexual. the mom was a lesbian. i think i ate there to be honest

3d) mmmmmm i gotta think. there was definitely a gf x amphibia au where ford got ploped in amphibia and the plantars IMMEDIATELY stole him and wrapped him up in their adventures right when the plot starting becoming a thing (early season 2). there’s one where stan and ford just….. climb a tree. it’s laced with a lot of philosophical talks straight from good omens knowledge but ultimately its just goody fun. mmmmm theres one where gabriel has no idea what crowley looks like, but he DOES know what Bildad The Shuite looks like, itd be tiny but so so so so funny. the gf/gomens crossover…..a human au based on that one tumblr post about a necromancer bringing people back from the dead to fuck with the killer and opening a discord support group….. the s1 humans + aziraphale being the victims, crowley the necromancer, and the s2 humans being the nosy outsiders who Notice things happens but can never say shit. oughhhh……… Yeah. yeah, thats good. most of these are recent except 4 the amphibia one, wouldnt change much about it even with the shit i know now EXCEPT being able to handle the relationships/emotions between the characters better, ive certainly gotten better at it and i love it. i havent published any bc either i started but couldnt finished, or just thought it was neat and moved on to plop it in the ideas folder and wait 4 inspiration.

OKAY THATS A LOT BUT THERE YOU GO sorry for the wait, man. you’re my best cupperty you know that right 🫵 ANSWERS!!!!! and ill work on titanic as fast as i can, it hasnt been forgotten !! i just gotta mow the grass….. (“short” fic wips)

[azurezfiction]

What are your favorite ships for Power Rangers characters? Especially for characters like Conner and Javi?

That is a very loaded question! I have a lot of ships that I have for my favourite characters (main of which can be considered rarepairs or crackpairs). Before we get to those, let's tackle Conner and Javi first shall we?

So, for Conner. When it comes to shipping for him, I tend to lean towards outside of the Dino Thunder team. (mainly because you can tear CassidyxEthan from my cold, dead, rotten corpse thank you very much). A friend of mine and I joked about the DT rangers meeting the Squadron rangers, and Conner immediately swooing over Xev and Telosi.

Look me in the eyes and tell me Conner wouldn't immediately start simping over Xev, Telosi and their muscles.

He probably also has a thing for Cole. Especially those biceps and Ryan. And Shane. And Hunter. and Dustin. Adam. Rocky. Definitely Jason. Big time. Eric is out though. He shares a name with Conner's bro, and that's a major no. He'd absolutely go ga-ga over Dillion. Damon's, TJ, Mike C, and Leo too. Chad.

I'd say Joel too but... lets be honest, no one can win against Angela Fairweather. No one.

Anyone with muscles, Conner's there. But when it comes to romantic involvement for shipping? Xev, Telosi, Dillion, Cole, possibly Shane. Depending on how it's written, DustinxConnerxHunter... long as Dustin isn't Erik McKnight's teacher, I'm good.

Now, for Javi...

I'm blaming @skyland2703 for my growing fondness for JavixAmelia. It's a very cute couple, and I can't believe I never thought of them as a ship until I started seeing their content. Another friend of mine has also made me a fan of Javi x Ollie too, and with Russell's (Zayto) recent tweet it does make me curious if Javi x Zayto will happen or the potential it could hold.

As for my favourite characters... I have a variety of ships~ I'll go in order of series that way no one gets left out or behind.

MMPRS1-Turbo 1: Katherine x Billy; One of my top OTPs of all time. I really wanted them to have nice things. Tommy x Jason, Tommy x Kim: These two have my heart~ And you can't tell me something wasn't going on between Tommy and Jason through the series. Adam x Rocky, Adam x Rocky x Aisha x Tanya, Adam x Tanya, Rocky x Aisha, Aisha x Shawna, Aisha x Tanya; Do I really need to explain? These four are pretty much rock solid. Splitting them apart if like a huge NO imo. Turbo 2-Wild Force TJ x Cassie; Lets be honest, the Phantom Ranger was never gonna stick around for Cassie. She needs someone dependable in her life and that's TJ. Zhane x Andros: Once again, utterly blaming a friend of mine for this. I've fallen down the rabbit hole and can't seem to get out. Zhane x Astronema/Karone: I can't help it. It's a cute ship! Mike Corbett x Carlos Vallerte: My OTP of Power Rangers. I forever be shipping them and hopefully getting my motivation to actually get writing them, I read a fic several years ago that made me ship them. Unfortunately that fic no longer exists. Kai x Damon; literally don't know how I came up with this one, but I thought it would be pretty cute that the engineer/mechanic and the uptight soldier would hook up with one another, and Damon endlessly flirting with him non-stop even during work hours~ Ryan x Carter: My OTP of Lightspeed. I feel like Ryan would be great for Carter, helping him come out of his shell a bit and be a more explorative while sharing quiet moments when it's simply the two of them. Dana x Taylor; Soft military nurse that will kill you with kindness and Taylor that disciplined military pilot that can kick your ass with a glare? It can't go wrong! Nancy x Kelsey: It's match made in heaven. PROVE. ME. WRONG. Eric x Wes, Eric x Wes x Jen: It's inevitable that they three will end up together. And you can FEEL that chemistry/tension between Eric and Wes on scream. They definitely have something back during their school days. Katie x Trip: Do I need to explain? Merrick x Cole: I have a weakness for these two, it's just... they simply FIT together. Ninja Storm - RPM Dustin x Hunter: I like how the two bounce off each other, and their aesthetics that match together. They definitely have very good chemistry together and I can see them ending up together at the end of Ninja Storm. Ethan x Cassidy: LET. THEM. HAVE. NICE. THINGS. Sky x Bridge: I know, I know. I've been pulled on the Sky x Bridge train, but you can't tell me there isn't something going on between them. Vida x Chip: I really love these two. I know they are best friends and everything, but at the same time, I feel like their romance is something very believable that can happen between them. Giving it the proper time to grow. Xander x Nick: This is a guilty pleasure of mine but like... *squints* like you can't tell me that the two had SOMETHING happening when no one was looking. RJ x Casey: Need I say more? There's no heterosexual relationship about them. Dillion x Ziggy:... Just let me have this. Please? They personally had more chemistry in my eyes than Dillion and Summer. But that's simply me. Flynn x Gemma: SOUL MATES. Samurai to Dino Fury/Cosmic Fury(?) Jayden x Antonio: THERE IS NO HETEROSEXUAL EXPLANATION FOR THESE TWO. Gia x Emma: I say by what I say when I say Gia should have been leader and red. Noah x Orion: Nerdy boy and alien? SO MUCH POTENTIAL! Tyler x Shelby: One of the few times I do enjoy the main couple in the show~ Matt Griffin x Tyler x Ivan: I blame my friend for this but you can't tell me it wouldn't be interesting. The modern cowboy, the explorer, and the knight? Imagine the shenanigans! Izzy x Fern: QUEENS. They deserver EVERYTHING! I don't really ship a lot involving Beast Morphers, Ninja Steel, or Dino Fury yet. I'm waiting to see what Cosmic Fury holds first to see how the relationships grow and change for the second season.

My number 1 crackship of all time:

Dane Romero x Mr Kelman x Andrew Hartford: Involving time shenanigans that ensure all three are around the same age and being able to be in love and be together without any problems. I have NO idea why or how I came up with this ship, but it's mine and I love it~

[mimbotomy]

fanfic writing asks: 10, 12, & 16!

Questions found here!

10: Favorite line or lines of dialogue that you've written

I actually did a similar prompt a while ago and while I couldn’t decide between a bunch of quotes then, I think I've narrowed it down to this little snippet from chapter 5 of The Children of Kephallonia, With No Hesitation:

So when their training session ends so they can eat, Kassandra beckons Phoibe over, kneeling down to grip her shoulder and look her easily in the eye. She is not Nikolaos - she will be better than Nikolaos - but there are no other words than the ones her father gave her so long ago, “You are my greatest pride, Phoibe. Remember that.”

12: What WIPs do you have going now? Are you excited about them?

Besides my posted fics, I have three WIPs that’s I’m actively working on, and by actively working on I mean I’ve opened them in the last month and think about them constantly and especially when I’m trying to work on my posted fics 😂

First is A Flap of an Eagle’s Wings, which will be my second Odyssey time travel fix it fic, except Kassandra and two others come back a lot earlier than in Rebirth and accidentally end up setting everything on fire in an attempt to fix things.

Second is my untitled time loop fic, in which Alkibiades keeps waking up the day Perikles and Phoibe dies. Chaos ensues.

Third, the Percy Jackson trailer inspired me to go back to my crossover fic which somehow ended with me starting a NEW FIC. So now I am working on the Personal Journal of Herodotos of Samos - with unauthorized annotations from Kassandra the Eagle Bearer and Barnabas of the Adrestia - from Delphi to Athens to Sparta to Atlantis and everything.

16: 3 favorite comments ever received on fanfic.

A little long, so I put them under a read more!

From the Children of Kephallonia, A Night for Blood

This story is awesome! I love Assassin's Creed but I never find any good fics for it. Then, while searching for an Edward and Conner fic (not romantic, mind you) I found this gem. You are righting a wrong that I didn't think would ever be fixed. On top of that, your writing is superb. I don't think I found a single grammatical error in seven chapters. I don't think that's ever happened to me before. Your descriptions are vivid and the characterization is excellent. Well done! I hope you continue with this fic, because this is incredible.

From Rebirth, Sparta II

That was so cool. Kass sounds like she's a force of nature, literally blowing everyone away multiple times or shaking the ground when she and Alexios spar. Also the constant, jumping and flipping gives the fight scenes some movement and make it feel fast paced. Which actually makes me compare Kassandra to a bird, all mobile and flipping and flying around. I guess the Ikaros part of her soul is influencing her. I like seeing how other people see Kassandra because it's like, do they see her as a demigod more, do they approve of her un-Spartan like lifestyle and all that. Also I like Stentor's point of view he's just done with it all or Nikolaos' gemeral confusion on what the hell is going on. They're funny 🤣

From Not a Málakes Ravenclaw, Molly I

I don't understand how you keep making great fics, and making them all feel new, and not just recycled ideas from your other fics. I didn't think a Harry Potter/Ac Odyssey fic would work but here we go with me wanting another chapter after I just finished reading what I'm thinking is gonna be another great fic from you. I like how Kassandra says all they traumatizing things and the other are freaked out that she's just nonchalantly saying something so crazy, like confirming God's exist or that her dad threw her off a cliff at such a young age. Thank you for writing these great fics, I'm always excited when I see you upload another chapter.

[kryptonianclone]

13. what themes/motifs do you hope other people notice most about your character?

Questions for muns || Accepting

Oh man where to begin. With writing Kon my core themes that I always try to touch on is, understanding personhood, found family, nature vs nurture, bodily anonymity and consent, identity, legacy, paternal relationships and the ethics of cloning.

With Kon I think identity and family are the core of his character. All Kon ever wanted was to have parents. A family. For a good portion of his life he was just called Sup.erb.oy. I like to touch on things that are brought up in his solo series but never really fully explored or touched on again. Kon struggles with being a clone in his early days with people repeatedly not understanding how he could be so young but look sixteen or the fact that he doesn't have a real name or a family. Greta brings up in young justice that Kon just can't understand something because he never had parents and I think that's something that cut him very deeply. Clone rights and the ethics of cloning comes up too but they're never touched on in a way that's meaningful. I like to delve in to that and write about how he struggles with this aspect of life.

Kon spends a good portion of his solo dating adult women, that fact is something that fandom shys away from because it's uncomfortable. They'd rather erase it from Kon than do something with it. Consent is an issue that comes up with Kon over and over. Superboy 1994 is written as a young boy's power fantasy. He's cool, he's dating cool older women, he's so powerful. But erasing this aspect of Kon's life to me feels cheap. To me it feels like erasing this aspect of Kon's life would be saying that men can't be victims too. I will always view his solo as a story about a young boy who was taken advantage of from many angles. Not just romantically/sexually. This exploitation of his youth and his nieaveness really shaped Kon and how he views the world. I like to explore that. He has to come to terms with what happened to him but also he has to come to terms that he can never get any kind of justice for how he was taken advantage of. Kon has to find away to make peace with this and find a way to heal from it.

With family Kon's always wanted parents and specifically he's always looking for a strong paternal relationship. He has dubbliex and to a lesser extent Guardian in his early days but he feels very strong ties to Clark because Clark was where he came from, he was made in Clark's image to replace him. Who even is Kon if he doesn't grow up to become Sup.er.man? Kon kind of lacks an identity of his own and when he thinks he's figured himself out his world comes crashing down again when he finds out his other DNA donor was Lex. What does that make him now? Good? Evil? and you see this happen during his storyline the rejection that he faces when this is brought up. Kon feels very tied to his genetics and I really like exploring the ideas of just because your parents made you doesn't mean you have to follow their footsteps.

Working through and finding yourself and having to do it in such a short space of time is just a really fascinating aspect to me and adding being a clone of someone else who has an impossible legacy and huge shoes to fill is so intriguing and interesting and you can do so much with that. Kon knows who he is as superboy but he has no idea how to be Conner Kent. And writing the struggle of that balance is interesting to me. Kon's platonic and found family relationship with young justice is also incredibly interesting. I would have really loved to see just more with the team on their off time. Strong platonic bonds is always going to be one of my favourite things to write. Kon is a character that has a lot of love to give and really just wants to be loved back. We get this fantastic issue of how Kon's mind works and how he views all of his personal connects and how he deals with the guilt of not only his ex girlfriends dying but almost losing bart too. Going in and exploring how Kon handles that kind of grief and the fallout is something that is so rarely touched on and in fandom unless you're a specific shipper i never gets touched on.

And kon not only had to come to terms with the loss of a friend he has to also come to terms with the fact that he isn't as untouchable as he thought he was with his own death too. Exploring the fallout of these losses, the loss of a friend, a lover, your childhood that you only had for the briefest of moments is just something that Kon doesn't really get to talk about with anyone but it's something that I can explore. The Kon I write has gone through it all and I try not to shy away from what happened to him and I try my best to handle everything I write with care but these are the kinds of things that really makes me enjoy writing kon. Sorry this got so long I've just been writing him for so long that I have a lot to say and a lot that I find interesting.

[spectre-writes]

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. Let's spread the self-love 💞

Thank you! Um... now I actually have to think...

Low Profile

My first trigun fic (written while stampede was still airing) so I've got a lot of fondness for this one. Basically Vash getting himself into trouble sneaking off to help a town's plant and the gang coming to the rescue, which is a fun little premise, and Wolfwood being all angsty about it.

Sometimes it's not only glass

My second trigun fic lol, but I enjoy putting Vash through the wringer, and it also gave me a little more confidence writing from his pov. Just, you know, thinking about July and what particular triggers it could leave him with.

Gaining ground

Ah Overwatch... my biggest obsession for seven whole years. I'm still sad how the game's been treated (and not please with Blizz as a whole). But man does it have some interesting characters. And, look, I know Junkrat is always played as a joke in canon, but the guy grew up in a nuclear wasteland and has zero clue how to function in regular society. He's twenty-five, he never learned the morals we take for granted, he's dysfunctional, paranoid, obnoxious, he wants friends but has no idea how to make them, I want to study him like a bug?

So yeah I wrote about him joining Overwatch and D.Va and Lucio realizing he's around their age and inviting him to play video games? And him somehow having to navigate all of that and figure out what it is he wants?

It's my longest fic, and I have a bunch of side-fics for it too from other character's povs. Just... very fond of this fic/series as a whole, and I do want to finish it eventually.

No face but my own

Borderlands is such a comfort game series to me. I poured a lot into this fic, but sadly it never got much attention (which I think is probably largely to do with the fact it's a gen fic following a dlc character for an older game).

At the time, I was going through a bout of depression, and I hadn't written for a long time. Was feeling like maybe writing just wasn't something I had the ability to do anymore. But, I started writing this one as little snippets. Just a few unconnected paragraphs for scenes. And slowly it began to grow.

Timothy Lawrence is like... a mess. Like, such a mess. But that was what resonated with me, and honestly pouring out the sense of stagnation and listlessness and the lack of control over your own life, the bitterness and self-loathing, not wanting to die but not feeling like you're living either, losing touch with a craft that had used to be special to you...

Putting all of that to paper was cathartic. I mean, I never had full body plastic surgery, got disfigured by my boss and then trapped on a casino full of people trying to kill me for seven years, but it's more about the emotions? This fic was kinda personal so I'm sentimental over it.

A Different Number

I'll be real with you... Detroit: Become Human is not a good game. It's even a problematic game. But I'm an absolute sucker for androids?

RK900 doesn't really exist as a character (he gets a few seconds screen time in one route ending) but the general fandom interpretation of him is as this cool, big bad Conner who's meaner and more cold/logical than his predecessor. But I figured... let's make him a little ridiculous.

He wasn't around for the uprising, history has already happened and he's the most advanced model ever made but no one needs him, and every single human keeps mistaking him for Connor. He's got massive feelings of inadequacy comparing all he's done (nothing) to all the other androids have done, and the fact he's always in someone else's shadow, paired with a massive ego from being 'better' than them (which he clings to cos it's all he has that's noteworthy).

He's petty and immature and he carries a potted plant around with him to murder scenes because he can't let his coworker assassinate it but can't let him win by leaving it at home. It's just a really fun personality to write?

[soil-just-needs-water-to-be]

Chapter 10

Word count 2043

I know I said yesterday I’d only post a chapter a day but there’s no point leaving it when I’ve written a lot I’ll just post what I have and then update it when there’s an update ready

I hope everyone likes it so far there’s not really much trigger warnings for this one

Matty's POV

3 o'clock rolls around well quicker than I thought it would, I catch myself packing up and then Miss Conner's walks in holding a million folders and papers

"Would you like some help there miss ?"

"I've got it Matty , but thank you." She ends up placing the pile on the desk in-front of her and sits herself down at her computer "So Matty, have you had any other though about what might be causing you too feel like you need to escape!?".

Placing my rucksack back onto the floor I slouch back into the chair and start biting the skin around my nails "there's a lot really" this doesn't come out as confident as I felt it would , it was more of a mumble then anything else.

"Sorry?"

"I just said there's alot of things really that are bugging me", I pull my blazer around me tighter so I feel warmer "it's just a lot of anxiety about stuff I think"

"About anything in particular?"

"Just everything at this point, school , home , what I'm going do after school like I know what I want to do but I don't know if it's ever gunna happen", I'm talking with my hands being a little over dramatic my words as this is the only way I can concentrate right now.

"Is there anything that's upsetting you the most or giving you the most anxiety" , She's typing on her computer probably taking notes on this conversation for the school counsellor

"I don't really know what's bothering me most , it's just everything is changing, anytime anything gets to loud or something I just get overwhelmed and my ead start spinning it's like a constant ead ache", my heads in my hands again, I'm stressing even thinking about it, it hate all of this.

"So is it always just noise or is there other things that make you feel that way?"

"I don't know maybe crowds and when things get to much and I try to do a lot at once that kinda makes me ill."I'm resting my elbows on my knee at this point basically talking to the ground my leg is bouncing and I'm racking my hands together

"Does this usually happen when you get on edge or anxious", she's gesturing to what I'm doing

"Maybe , but I feel like it's something I've always done". Trying to make a conscious effort to not do it it's makes it arguably worse.

"Is there anything else you'd like to talk about right now?, is there anything you think would help with it?"

"My fiends are helping and my mum knows so she understands and she's trying her best to voice my opinions in a way I never knew I needed"

"Is that all you need" looking around I'm trying to think of anything else I might need but there's not really anything I can think of right now I just want everything to feel right.

"I don't think so, can I go now?, I've got stuff to do"

Smiling at me she checks the time and the end of school is approaching "yes , that will do for now, but I'll be having another catch up soon."

At that I thank her , pick up my rucksack and leave making my way down to the front gate to wait for Ross and Jamie. Sticking my headphones in , I scuff up the walls until the bell goes to let everyone out, George hasn't messaged back since out last conversation , I decide I'm gunna do something wild I open my phone and message him again.

"Your fit too" , I send the message with a picture of myself and I'm smiling my cheeks are red from the blush that overcame me when I wrote the reply. Risky again I'm not gay but he's different

The bell goes only a couple seconds after and just stuff my hands in my pocket along with my phone and just wait for them to come down. Shivering because although its May it's still freezing and I didn't bring a jacket. Once the majority of the school is out Ross and Jamie come sauntering down the path.

"Guys come on we ain't got all day", jumping around bouncing from each foot to keep my body heat up . When the boys reach me I notice Jamie isn't even wearing his jacket so I quickly steal it from him as he's always warm so I know it'll keep me warm.

"Oy Healy , what you doing?" . He starts running after me but I'm as quick as a fuckin race horse so I'm off in a flash

"Just cold out innit". I pull his jacket around me and get cosy, I can't remember the last time I felt someone else's body heat who wasn't my family, other than a quick pat on the back or arm round my shoulder. It's nice , in saying that I can't remember the last time I was able to get body heat I don't let people in anymore really. "It's warm can I have it till I get home, I'll bring it back tomorrow?"

"Don't you ave your own jacket Matty". He doesn't come back for it , he wasn't really bothered anyway "You can ave it for now, just remember to give it back"

"Thank you"

"What you doing tonight Matty ?", he's probably inkling to playing online with me once he's finished work which I'd be down for.

"Nothing tonight , I'll be calling George later , but if you wanna go online later I'm down". The town is quiet for this time of day most of the kids arent wandering around like usual , the sky was pretty ,blue and grey but also looked like it might rain later. I like rain it's peaceful

"Yo Matty!!!" , I'm startled out of my trance by Rosses voice

"Sorry what ?". There both just stood looking at me. Like I'd missed something

"I said are you and George going steady" he winked at me like the pest that he is

"What are you talking about"

"I'm just kidding man"

"No serious though, I know you guys tell me everything so I know the answer anyway but have you guys ever met a guy and they've made you think you might not just like girls."I slow my walking down a bit so they could catch up with me because I really need to talk about this right now and I'd rather it not be shouted to the entire street

"What do you mean?". Just two and a half straight men walking about Manchester talking about men is not how I saw my Tuesday going

"I don't really know what I'm talking about, just asking if you've ever questioned if you were straight really". I don't really look at them while we walk just in case there looking at me like I'm a mad man

"Not me no , but I know McDonald here has a big man crush on a guy in 6th form". He shoves Ross into a fence next to us playfully then Ross comes running after him. I'm just trying to stay out the way but still laughing

"DONT TALK SHIT SQUIRE", Ross has somehow managed to get Jamie into a headlock and got him trapped

"Bro I ain't talking shit , I've seen the way you look at him." After struggling out of his hold Jamie comes back to me and wraps his arm around my shoulder "What we're you thinking about anyway Healy , what's got ya brain muddled or who should I say ?"

"Just asking really that's all" , I can't be telling them anything yet they'll just be taking everything way out of context and I'm not even sure myself.

"Have you got a thing for a lad like Matty?", Ross has joined us again after sorting himself out "we wouldn't judge you, you know , really we kinda thought you might be at least Bi?"

"I'm just voicing things man honestly , like I've never been with a guy , may have had a few turn my head but I didn't know if it was just a hormone thing or general curiosity or what"

"Would it really be any different though at the end of the day right , if your in a dark room and someone goes down on you would you really know the difference anyway!?" . Ever the philosopher is our Jamie

"I wouldn't mind that's all I'm saying". I try shrugging it off like it's no big deal but really if it wasn't a big deal it would be much easier to just say it "I'm just saying would it really matter , like if I might have a small thing for someone who wasn't a girl , like it's not all men it's just this one guy , there just different, what would that mean ?"

"We'll just give it a go lad , if you never shot you never know right", Using our own lyrics against me is just the right way to go , Ross has always got a way of helping me understand things "and it wouldn't matter to us"

"Thanks guys, I knew you'd help" we have now arrived at Jamie's house we watch him walk in so he's not mugged right at his front door , and we make our way to Ross' which isn't far from mine. I love Jamie but Ross is a lot better in these situations

"Honestly Matty , you know if you like a guy it's not a big deal I'd say go for it", Ross is my best mate we've been friends for years and he always knows what to say he's rummaging around in his pocket probably for gum before he goes home so I pass him mine

"So the guy in 6th form what's he like then ?" , I don't feel like I've spoken to him much recently so I never really knew about the guy "what's his name?"

"It's not really a thing we're friends he's in my Biochem class , but his names John and Jamie's not wrong I do find him really interesting , but it's just a little different to what I'm used too"

"I understand that", this makes me laugh quite a bit this is not how I saw things going. This is just not how things were with us

"So your guy , is it George?, I won't tell Jay it can just be our thing for now"

"I don't know anything about all of it right now , like hell he's attractive but I don't know all that much about him ?", Talking about him makes me blush even at the thought of him and I'm smiling

Ross must have noticed it "He must be attractive if he's making the mighty Matty blush , your like a little diva when it comes to finding relationships"

"Right the thing about that is , I fuck up like a lot so I tend to keep relationships online or to that extent and I just never really see them , I've found plenty of people attractive"

"I mean that's fair, why do you feel the need to keep people pushed away , I don't mean us guys and your family but like say when you meet people your just always sure your gunna mess up so you don't even let them be close". He stops for a second really asking the question, really thinking about what to say

"I don't know Ross , like you said I always just think I'll mess up so if I keep them at bay there not gunna be upset when I inevitably do mess up they won't care". Really thinking about it I've never very often been with people from around here , online relationships are just easier to deal with and when I mess up they don't feel that upset as it would if I messed up right in front of them.

"You know your far cooler and understanding than you let yourself believe just give yourself a try Matty honestly your an amazing guy trust me". Hugging me close before he goes into his , leaving me with his words of wisdom for the day "see ya later Matty"

"See ya Rosso" . I spend the rest of the journey home it's only about five minutes just thinking about what he said.

[localwebslingers]

The room fell quiet when Peter leaned forward and braced his arms on the counter as Harry looked over the equation and notes, nodding slightly. He didn't expect them to be burned, but it was appreciated. It was about as thorough as it could get in making sure information on paper wasn't found. Shredders weren't even as effective, enough against most but it wasn't a sure way. He'd have trusted Harry to keep the page, if he wanted to.

He tilted his head watching Harry grab the other sheet of paper and write out part of another equation. One that looked like it was very similar, but not quite the same. Similar but different, apparently that really did account of the serums between their two universes too. Or at least with the one that let Conners become the lizard that terrorized the city for a time. That in and of itself seemed a little incredible and surprising to see. Looking over the one Harry had written, Peter could see where the gaps were to make it different, or where other things were instead, maybe.

If the serum Conners made was only the baseline of the one that Harry had been using, then it would make sense that it was only part of a larger equation. One tht was probably a lot more complicated.

"That algorithm is to make sure the different genetics balance properly and can co exist. If it's done correctly, it would bond completely and any changes would be perminant, becoming engrained completely in the genetic code of whoever, or I guess whatever, it was being introduced to." Peter explained. He knew that for a fact, after all. It's exactly what happened to him. There was no "cure" or way to reverse what happened, the spider DNA was completely blended to his own and if the powers hadn't worn off by now? It was safe to say it permiated every cell in his body and was just him now.

The mention of the simulations gave Peter pause a moment, "...be careful with them if you do run any. Conners and I ran simulations too and it proved that the serum was successful after a few runs, stable and balanced right, but there wasn't a way to predict the change that ended up happening. At least not the kind that we ran." maybe the ones that Harry had access to or could make had the ability to check for more anomalies that they couldn't. It was one of the things about it Peter didn't feel right keeping to himself though, just in case.

"If you have any questions about the equation or serum...I mean I don't know how much I can answer but I'll tell you what I can. Even if you don't want to write it down." at least he'd still have it.

\\ @inhcritance \\

He held Peter's gaze steadily, believing he was aware of what he was asking, for all he knew it was all part of a story far larger than he was seeing. And that was okay, he thought. Theirs were complicated lives, and he was already asking for a lot.

He still wished, with a serious, faintly mournful nod, that Connors' story had gone better in another universe. That somewhere, out there, at least one version of Curtis Connors had managed to change the world without destroying his life or others in the process.

Just like Oscorp had done, in a way, because despite everything Oscorp represented for Harry -a chance at doing better, a chance at surviving, a chance at using all the power Oscorp held to try and make the world a better place- he was far from blind to what Oscorp had done. What it kept doing.

So at the warning, he met Peter's gaze steadily, then nodded.

"They won't learn anything in this conversation from me. Not here, not where I come from, not anywhere else." He promised.

Because it might change a lot, it might not, but it was not his secret to share and he would respect that.

And then he was looking at a formula, after a quiet, heartfelt 'thank you', and for the next short, few minutes he focused on reading it, on understanding what he was seeing. It was a piece in a much larger puzzle, he knew it, and it didn't really parallel anything he had... not directly. Indirectly, however...

"I'll burn these notes once we're done with the conversation." He told Peter, taking a clean sheet from his stack and a pen, and then, after a moment, putting a part of the formula he was using into writing. Not the whole of it, and only partly because it'd take most of the sheet.

But he wrote down the two parts of the formula that could relate to the decay rate, and he considered the thought of using human genetics on another species first, because that? That was interesting, and it made sense, complex as it could be.

"I'll need to give it a lot more thought." Harry admitted, after a few moments, forcing himself not to hunch over his writing, to avoid blocking it from Peter's sight. "But I did most of my work in adjusting my serum's decay rate so that it would not be permanent. But some similarities are marked enough. I can definitely move away from that 00 decay rate on the next iteration, because balancing the factors might give something stable, but also something definitely far too strong. I'd have to run like a few dozen closed simulations, and this is just a theory, and it's too soon to say anything, and getting a terrarium might be a good idea, but... but I'm rambling." He exhaled. "This is a lot to think about. I appreciate it."

@localwebslingers

[ectonurites]

I see a flashback to Tim and Cassie kissing and I’m just like yes the trauma of missing your shared dead boyfriend

NO FOR REAL like.

for context, this was in the previews we got this week:

(Preview for Dark Crisis: Young Justice #1)

Revisiting these moments now, in the aftermath of Tim realizing he's bi, written by the same person who wrote that revelation... I think could be utterly fascinating. Especially because Meghan Fitzmartin had even referenced Kon's death during Tim's coming out story:

(Batman: Urban Legends #5)

Like, knowing that Fitzmartin is about to be digging into this group's history and specifically stuff around Infinite Crisis/in the aftermath of Kon's death... that line feels way more intentional now than it originally seemed when this released.

When I first saw this line, my interpretation was basically "Kon is commenting on how Tim wanted him back so badly when he was gone (Kon knows about the cloning attempts and how Tim & Cassie tried to find comfort in each other, I think the only thing he doesn't know about is the close call with the Lazarus Pit water in Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul), yet now that he is back after another situation he'd been lost- Tim's kinda ignoring him... which is making him worried that something's wrong," and I don't think that interpretation has changed. The thing that now has a slightly new light shone on it imo is maybe why this line was included at all.

After the Gotham Outsiders podcast interview shortly after UL #6 came out, in which Fitzmartin had compared Steph & Kon's respective importance & history irt Tim:

[starting from 22:48] Interviewer: Soooo- my boy Conner Kent- [laughter] Can we hear this- In your Urban Legends story, and he and Tim have a complicated history of being read as queer coded, was any of this running through your mind while writing their interaction Fitzmartin: I mean, I’ve-I’ve seen the internet. I’ve-I’m aware. I’m aware that the internet exists. Umm… Interviewer: [overlapping] Alright Fitzmartin: K-Ya know. Conner is part of Tim’s history just like Stephanie is part of Tim’s history in-in varying different degrees in varying different ways but, um, we are who those around us- we are what others around us are- ma-uh- make us to be. And. so. Interviewer: Right- Fitzmartin: [overlapping] I’ll leave it at that- Interviewer: That’s a fair- fair answer, I will take it.

I had mainly just (realistically) seen it's inclusion (on the same page as his scene with Steph) as... part of showing that closeness between them, and specifically including something with a connection to their newly restored pasts to acknowledge their history, and figured I was just reading way more into it than was intended (which admittedly I definitely still am).

But now that we know Fitzmartin's going to be addressing that exact period of time at least a little bit... It does just feel more intentional that she brought up Kon's death specifically. I think the odds just now feel a bit higher of seeing unpacked some of the dynamics behind what happened in the aftermath of Kon's death that we as fans have often seen as present (the parallels between how Cassie was feeling about Conner and how Tim was feeling about Conner) but that were never like officially canonically said to be there. Not a sure thing of course, but it just feels a lot more possible that it'll be addressed now.

Plus, ya know, Fitzmartin did establish he's "always kind of known" he was attracted to boys, but just hadn't had the brain space to reach that point of "personal enlightenment"

(Batman: Urban Legends #10)

So basically what I'm saying is that Dark Crisis: Young Justice could be a place where we get that statement expanded on a bit, and get some of Tim's previous actions re-contextualized now that he's had this revelation. Who knows! I'm just... utterly fascinated by what we have coming down the line now.

[yjwhatif]

EPISODE 16 NOTES… (Spoilers)

First and foremost Forager is a good soul and I love him with everything I have.

Forager having to explicitly tell M’gann that gar is not okay kinda stresses how little she’s considered his feelings throughout this emotional experience - she just takes Gars words at face value and doesn’t push to properly check - that’s like her taking harpers “we were just roughhousing” as enough of a reason and moving on to the next kid. Also how long has she been back? Long enough to get Em’ree settled with a job, long enough to be closing conners affairs and getting support casseroles from everyone - so a few days at the least - yet she hasn’t seen her brother? She just assumes he’s alright because he always is - even though she knows what fake m’gann said about his unprocessed trauma. He experienced the same loss as you m’gann!

The way Arion stresses “failure” feels like planted information from someone who does consider him a failure — Vandal

Is Arion’s keeper the female purist from the comics?

I love the s1 mission briefing vibes!

Yes M’gann you were there through all gars losses - but you never stressed distance from the world of superheroes and dangerous missions, you never pushed him towards talking about the emotions he may be going through and not acknowledging — you always strived for distraction over acknowledgment - which is what she’s trying to do now with her own grief for Conner - gar is providing her a distraction. Had she actually pushed gar towards professional help when he was younger then maybe he wouldn’t have reached the point that he’s at now.

The fact that gar was so young when he lost all his family - his mum and Rita - it makes sense that Tula, Jason and Ted would have registered as major losses to him - whether he made much connection to them or not. After losing essentially two separate families in not a lot of time, M’gann and the team became a new family and it’s not surprising that he might get attached to anyone who joined that family. Any loss would measure the same weight on his heart.

This soppy family shit is just so freaking pure — PROTECT LA’GAAN!!

“We never say goodbye” 😭

La’gaan head bops the baby bump — WHY ARE THEY SO SICKENINGLY CUTE!!!

Wyynde getting frustrated by Kaldur’s unhealthy behaviour is sad — but I do like seeing their one sided argument - it feels authentic. This is the right moment to show conflict within the relationship - it’s been built up well from what’s happened in the previous episodes. It’s not just thrown in for a bit of pointless drama. It is a really strongly written relationship that continues to develop the characters and narrative - instead of creating conflict for conflicts sake (like most things do). They feel like a real couple who react to things like real people - not just biting each other’s heads off every five minutes.

Delphis has such curious sibling vibes and I love her. Also I love that she glows for emphasis.

Exasperated wyynde is the best - and we’re all on your side. He just cares so much about his workaholic boyfriend!

Purple eyed Wally looks kinda evil

“It’s a long way to jump…” ☹️ sad Conner makes me sad.

Virgil & Jaime are the ultimate hype boys - also I don’t think we’ve seen Jaime this enthusiastic since the reach were controlling him… and when he was a fate induced insecurity puppet. I like how they keep looking at each other — gotta get those timings right. And I really like that it’s Jaime who makes the mistake in word choice instead of Virgil.

I’m glad Cassie is the one who’s angry - she has the right to be - gar dropped all responsibility of leading on her without any explanation - and she took it because she cares about the Outsiders and gar. She’s got to be feeling the stress of leading, losing a member and friend, losing gar and also dealing with the unrest caused by gars situation. She’s allowed to be angry at gar, though she still brings it down a peg to explain what he means to to her - emphasising that she still cares about him even if he has hurt her feelings.

“Neptunes beard, wyynde he looks like you!” — *stage whisper* it’s the eyebrows!

“Well some of us are the direct descendants of the old heroes.” — No Wyynde, you are Arion’s child and you just don’t know it yet!! And no I am not giving up on this theory — LOOK AT THEIR EYEBROWS! (If you do happen to be confused I will kindly direct you to this post and this post. 😁)

Kaldur’s losing his focus/objectivity by choosing speed over vigilance. 😬

I don’t trust guard girl!

Gar doesn’t need guidance counsellor M’gann - he needs his sister m’gann — she gets a genuine reaction from him when she starts opening up about her own pain in a genuine emotional way - not her professional fix the problem way.

Delphis is a queen and we all love her for it.

Teamwork & comfort - the perfect mission duo.

Forgagers speech is iconic and I expected nothing less! Congrats on being the Valedicto-narian Forager!! 🎉

Yay I got through all the episodes before the new one drops — even if it is just bearly. I am so excited and so worried to see what happens next episode - here’s a post on why - but I guess we’ll find out tomorrow whats to come.

I’ll see you then…

LB

[fineiwilldoitmyself]

Coffee shop and Bookstore AU

We love some classic coffeeshop au! Bookstore au! Malconnor.

In the au, the Hermes cabin owns a coffee shop, and the Athena cabin has a library right across the street.

Because of how crowded cabin 11 is and their father being the god of merchants, owning any sort of business is a good idea.

They managed to steal get enough money to buy a shop and put in the necessary equipment and furniture.

Athena cabin owning a bookstore is literally canon. They just appreciate knowledge and what better way to spread wisdom and knowledge then getting a bookstore.

Some of the books there are probably written by the Athena kids themselves. And there are just a bunch of trinkets decorating the place.

One day, Conner and Malcolm are both running late for some reason. And since their stores are close, they just, crash into each other. 

Literally, they are both running, not paying attention to what’s ahead of them and just collide.

Connor would look at Malcolm and just think internally, “Oh no, he’s hot!!”

Malcolm would stand up, say a bunch of apologies and run across the street to get in the bookstore.

And then like, in the middle of the day when Malcolm is eating lunch, he just remembers what Conner looked like and screeched.

Like, “Frick, I crash into and embarrass myself in front of a cute boy.”

Connor and Malcolm meet again when they are closing the shops and it’s just extremely awkward.

Another way they meet is when Malcolm gets hungry, and he goes to the coffee shop across the street, and when it’s his turn to order he just makes eye contact with Connor, who just happens to be on register duty.

And they both just get internal gay panic because they think the other is the most gorgeous person to ever grace the Earth.

And ever since that day, Malcolm would just go to the coffee shop and just look at Connor making drinks and rushing around to get food and beverages for the customers.

Connor notices and would just smile to hide how nervous he is when he sees Malcolm.

One day Connor manages to do the classic “put my number on the cute customer’s coffee cup” move and it actually works.

They just talk with each other, and they become rather close friends over the next few months.

In one of these talks Connor finds out that Malcolm works across the street and the next day, he got up early and bolted to the bookstore (my boy is so lovesick I can’t even-)

Connor really enjoys staring at Malcolm and admiring his beauty. He also likes listening to Malcolm ranting about a book he read. He goes to the bookstore just to catch glances of Malcolm sitting on a table and being completely focused on whatever he is doing.

So, they just go back and forth visiting each other’s shops and talking for a few more months.

 And it’s like that until their siblings start asking them questions.

I feel like they would deny any thought of having romantic feelings for each other, but it wouldn’t take a lot to get them to accept their feelings.

I am also a firm believer of both of them being dorks in love. Connor not knowing how to show his affection to Malcolm without teasing or pulling pranks on him and Malcolm generally not understanding what he should do and how to not make their interactions awkward. But they are both trying their best and it’s really cute.

Because of this, it takes a while and some outside help from their siblings to get them to confess to each other.

Now, there are a variety of ways they can confess to each other, so I will leave it up to your imagination to chooses how they get together.

After they establish their relationship, Connor just goes to the bookstore to get Malcolm the Athena kids some food and drinks. 

Sometimes Malcolm goes over during Connor’s lunch break to talk with and just spending time with him.

And at some point, they might get a small house and live with each other and a few pets (maybe a cat and a dog and possibly a hamster).

And that’s all I have so far. Feel free to add in any other head canons you have for this au. Have a great rest of your day/night/afternoon. 🙂🙂