#already added to the different relationship he has with crime fighting

[synergysilhouette]

9 hot takes/unpopular opinions with DC and Marvel Comics

Originally this was a Marvel-exclusive post with just 5 hot takes (because I was NOT ready to defend myself against people who disagreed with 10), but some of my hot takes were things I shared with DC, so I thought I'd just do a 10-point hot take post on both (only to realize I miscounted this after posting, so it's just 9). And these opinions are slightly generalized, with very few focusing on individual characters. This is largely still an X-men post, but has some other things.

Different codenames--It's fairly common in comics books for a character to take a codename that someone else already had, either for story purposes (ie to honor the character) or for marketing reasons (certain names carry a lot of weight and would make people more interested in an unrelated character). That said, it's very unimaginative and boring to me. Unless you're purposefully trying to steal someone's identity or deceive someone, get your own codename.

2. No magical mutants--(Dislaimer: BIG X-Men fan). Okay, everyone's gonna kill me for this, especially since this has been a staple since I got into comics, but I'm not the biggest fan of it. At the very least, stop doing it going forward. I'm not against mutants having fantasy adventures and villains (ESPECIALLY as a fantasy fan), but being mutants is supposed to be what unites them, having powers derived from human evolution and the consequences that come with it. Not saying every story has to be about racism and how they overcome it, but I do think characters with powers independent of their mutant status kind of cheapen the experience. It's almost like "why be a mutant at all?" And for some characters, it's not entirely clear what powers are mutant, and what are magical. While having magic powers would get some prejudice, magic is treated a bit differently in the Marvel universe, from what I've seen. It's almost like "What are you fighting for?" It kinda reminds me of how Chris Claremont had Scott marry Madelaine, start a family, and wanted to retire him from the superhero business--but you don't retire from being the victim of racism. I think this is why Krakoa was so fascinating to me since it's founding was based on helping mutants escape the prejudice of regular humans.

3. Families/marriage--It's often said that couples in comic books don't last because writers don't know how to keep them together and interesting, along with the misguided belief that adding kids to the equation automatically makes you boring and retired, even though this isn't necessarily true. Plus there's also the publisher's preference to "shake things up" in order to keep people engaged, even if we were happy with what we had, meaning messy breakups, death, etc. It's all about how you write it, and relationships in comics shouldn't be treated like they're that flexible. We love consistency.

4. Stoic Batman needs to stop being the default--Most modern depictions LOVE to depict Batman (and Bruce Wayne) as emotionally distant, cold to those he cares about, and prefer to do things on his own because he believes he's the only one capable of doing so. The reasoning is often just because it's cool to be edgy (another issue I have with comics), and sometimes chalking it up to trauma, but in the world of comic books, I feel like you don't have to depict him as consistently a jerk about it. Batman's most emotional and compassionate moments are some of his best. Not saying he needs to have a bleeding heart, but having an emotional core isn't a crime.

5. No uniforms--This is just a matter of preference, but I don't like uniforms. I count uniforms of one of three things: having the same/similar colors but different styles (ie W.I.T.C.H.), having different colors but the same/similar style, or both the colors and style being the same or at least similar. I was never a fan of it, preferring individuality in appearances and personal style.

6. No major sexuality changes if you've been depicted as a certain sexuality for 15+ years--As a gay guy, this frustrates the heck out of me. Aside from drawing attention away from LGBT+ characters who debuted as such or were addressed as such early on, major characters getting sexuality retcons feels like a betrayal of character consistency (again: WE LOVE CONSISTENCY). I like to use Iceman as an example, because a lot of people say he was gay-coded when people argued against him coming out as gay. Yeah...in my opinion, he wasn't gay-coded, he just had a backstory that could be READ as gay-coded, matching his new sexuality; there's a difference between being coded and it just conveniently serving the current, unrelated narrative. And Bobby's sexuality has almost become a persoanlity trait for him like that's all he's got going. I have a similar issue with Tim Drake, who's depicted as bi now, with bisexual-debuting character Ghostmaker (a member of the Batfamily who was shown as bi shortly before Tim was), gets less attention. And given DC's mistreatment and mismanagement of Tim, them making him bi feels like they were desperately trying to find a way to market him in a way different from the other Robins when everything else was failing. Even ignoring my regular feelings about sexuality retconning (though I should note that an artist for Tim in the 2000s did try to hint at him being into guys), DC's had major issues with characterizing Tim as indecisive when they have to walk back on decisions they make because fans don't like it, ie Tim's "Drake" codename and costume. Because of that, him being bi feels like DC subtley trying to double down on him being indecisive/of two minds, which is insulting.

Sorry for the rant! But that brings me to my next point.

7. Tim Drake is continually being set up to fail--ARGUE WITH THE WALL. This topic is a bit more heated for me than others, but it's true. Tim joined Batman because he saw how he changed emotionally when Robin (Jason Todd) died, as well as having a family, a social life, and was the smartest Robin at the time, as well as becoming Robin voluntarily. However, with time, this was changed; the other Robins became more tech-savvy and Tim became and orphan and was adopted by Bruce Wayne, removing Tim's sense of identity to a significant degree. On top of this, any teams he led or friend she had were sadly underrated himself, preventing him from using any A-list connections outside his family to elevate his own position. Plus Tim has usually always been happy as Robin, but several situations have arisen where him advocating Robin as Batman's partner instead of sidekick have been undermined by others trying to tell Tim to do something else that was "his own." However, when he tries this, DC does it in a way that is uninteresting or annoying to the fans, like the aforementioned "Drake" debacle (brown as a costume choice isn't very eye-catching, and using part of your name as a codename in the modern era should be outlawed). And even when he got a comic of his own after he came out as bi, DC had the art done by Riley Rossmo, whose art style was...not great, only getting a different artist towards the end, but it was very clear that they were kinda just giving him a solo just to say they did; he didn't have an artist to actually do him right, nor a story that felt empowering to his character or unique.

8. Skintones should be more consistent--It's a personal opinion of mine (especially for POC) that a (human) character's debut skintone should be their canon skintone, no matter how light or dark it is, with little room for variation. A lot of characters end up looking WILDLY different, sometimes with even different facial features and eye colors. I feel like there should be a comic bible for this.

9. Krakoa should've lasted longer--Is this a hot take? Inn any case, it was really fun seeing some villains turn over a new leaf, familiar characters go down a new path, and new characters/underrated mutants getting attention. Definitely feel like this should've been at least 10 years long.

[thenonbinarydetective]

No matter how many robins are there, dick grayson is always no.1. Only him and cassandra actually feel like a mirror of Bruce...other robins feel mishandled or having unresolved issues

Well he is the first so sure. But he has some problems right now. Especially concerning age. But if we’re extending to batgirls a little bit which I’m assuming we are with the Cass mention it’s more of a problem with Babs. However, it’s not helping him either. And also displays of his competence and independence which isn’t supported by slotting him back into Gotham whenever some writer feels like it. I’ve said to before that sometimes it makes sense and sometimes they just wanna write dick

Honestly this may be weird but sometimes everyone else feels like half resolved. Damian I don’t mind because he’s literally 14 he doesn’t need his shit resolved right now. He’s basically just realized he has identity issues because his dad is Batman and the multiverse as fixated by tom king decides he can’t have any other purpose. But he wants other purpose (unrelated but ultimately I don’t think he’s ever going to be Batman outside of possible futures/elseworlds)

But they can move past Jason’s whateverness by just doing the shit I’ve said before. Which is simply making the decision they wanna make and put in the effort

With Tim we gotta force the writers to move him from Robin. Yea yea repeated discourse. I know but you brought it up lol. The thing is a lot of the writers we have now were Tim Drake fanboys in the 90s and want the chance to write him as Robin themselves because now they can. Part of me would respect that but another part of me knows that they could write one-shots/elseworlds/whatever’s that have that and remember that he needs to grow the fuck up (with young Justice). Yes this all ties back to Bruce.

Duke is kinda the same ig. He’s supposed to be the daytime hero but they kinda overlooked that and started putting him on the night shift. Without ever saying he stopped day work so…we just need to know if he’s getting bat overtime benefits. Also his mom is totally good again. Totally fine and recovering and flirting with Black Lightning (who could blame her?) and that’s not been talked about. The Thomas family seems to be disappearing into the batfamily which I really do not think should happen. I don’t mind Bruce keeping a room available for Duke if and when he needs it but his family should be prioritized more if we wanna keep them alive. If DC doesn’t, at least give them the honor of a send off. I still don’t think they should though

Steph is probably the only one that will not be fully and truly resolved because of misogyny. I know it might sound like me using it as a buzz word with her at this point but it’s true. A lot of men don’t wanna cover the problems with her because the problems WERE MEN. They know about the sexism leaked into comics and that Bruce and Alfred in particular were so sexist during her time as Robin. And they’ve tried addressing how much he regrets doubting her or mistreating her or whatever but that doesn’t fully address the problem. Like there’s still more and it’s a problem some male writers aren’t comfortable with fixing cause they would cause it in their own way.

[melloollem]

Before The Great Fall|| Jason Todd (Robin) × No reader gender

Summary: You and Jason have become friends because you have a habit of walking around the city at night and Robin has a habit of taking you home.

Warnings: Comfort, teenage Jason Todd, slight flirting (The relationship is much more of a friendship), English is not my native language.

(DC masterlist)

"Where are you going so late?" A sudden voice said, making you stop abruptly and look up, trying to find its speaker, Robin. You wondered if Batman forced him to train that voice, it was so distinctive.

"Aren't you too young to be walking alone so late?" You hadn't found him yet, but now he seemed to be coming from a different, closer place. You turned your head in various directions trying to find him. "Aren't you too young to go out at night to beat up criminals?" You retorted, already frustrated by his behavior, wondering if he was going to show up.

"I'm here" Jason was enjoying how lost you looked. Before you had a chance to locate him, he dashed to your side, you turned away abruptly at the sudden appearance, the boy laughed, it was something that never lost its funny "It's never too early to start fighting crime" His voice tried to copy some kind of charm, the kind seen in movies. Now it was your turn to laugh. "If you say so," you shrugged, finding Jason's behavior hilarious.

Your reaction confused him, had you liked it? He dismissed the question with a shake of his head. "So... where are you going?" You thought about giving him an acid answer, but gave up because of how interested he seemed. "Flat tire," you said with a sigh of defeat. Jason's gaze fell on the bicycle you were carrying next to your body. It was so old that he wondered if it had really worked before the flat tire. You raised an eyebrow as you realized how much he was staring at the object in your hand.

The vigilante grabbed your bike and turned the other way. Your eyes followed the scene with attention and displeasure. "Are you going home" He answered your silent question, receiving a roll of the eyes from you. "There's no crime going on? Do you really need to keep an eye on me?" You haven't moved an inch.

"It's Gotham, it probably is" He shrugged simplistically "But tonight this is my area and if you're in it, I have to make sure you're safe" You didn't want to go home, but there was no point in arguing with Robin or he'd win, or his defeat wouldn't matter and you'd do as he said. You let out a sigh before hurrying to catch up with him. "If some super villain is following you and I'm about to die tonight, I hope you die with me," you complained walking alongside him, Robin laughed.

The two of you walked in silence. Now that you no longer had to look around, you let your thoughts take over, but Robin snapped you out of it by asking, "Where were you going so late?" You rolled your eyes at how insistent he could be. A stupid grin took over your face as you said, "I was going after crime, I'm..." You couldn't think of a hero's name fast enough to complete your joke.

"If you're a crime fighter, you'll lack appropriate attire" He looked you up and down, and you found his insinuation a little offensive. " Said Robin in his underwear," you whispered, but it didn't go unnoticed by him, who pushed you slightly with his body. His first choice of look hadn't been the best, whatever, Couldn't you forget that?

"I'm just kidding," you said when you noticed the boy's new bad mood, but your voice still sounded provocative. It was your favorite pastime to get on the vigilante's nerves.

"Answer my question" You rolled your eyes. "You're very nosy, don't you think?" Before he had a chance to respond, you added, "I didn't have an exact destination, I just went out to think for a while." Robin's eyes went down to your hands and the anxious way you waved them.

He hated the way that whenever things got bad at home, you left for Gotham without considering the dangers. He wanted to say something comforting about your family situation, but he knew you'd only get uncomfortable and try to change the conversation.

"You shouldn't do that, it's dangerous," Jason scolded you, even though he knew it wouldn't change your attitude. You couldn't walk around the city thinking that he would always show up to save you in any situation, you only believed that because it was what had been happening for months.

"Why not? That's how we met, you should be grateful to finally have some friends" You returned to your amused tone. He narrowed his eyes at how astute you were at changing the topic, but decided to let it go.

"You're not part of my personal life, why do you always assume that I don't have any other friends?" The answer came out in a monotone, he didn't know why he was still trying to fight you. "Who would want to be friends with a boy who goes out at night to fight crime? That's a sign of insanity to me," you said as if it were obvious.

"I don't think you understand the meaning of secret identity" He used his free hand to point at the mask covering his face, and you decided not to answer him.

The journey went smoothly, soon you'd be home. Jason thought you wouldn't say anything the whole way, but you did. "Do you think there's any chance of me getting out of Gotham?" The way you looked at him surprised Jason, like someone who thought he really had the answer to everything.

"Maybe, well, do you really want that?" The way his voice sounded more natural didn't go unnoticed by you. "I wish, but it seems that no one can escape Gotham, really escape." The simplicity of your speech made your lack of hope evident.

"Gotham has the lowest real estate prices in the region" Jason justified the phenomenon. You raised an eyebrow, expecting something more motivating from him, shouldn't he be a hero?

"You can be the one to change that" That was the wittiest and most realistic thing he could say, you accepted it gladly, at least he had tried.

"At least, if I stay, you'll have some friends" You brushed aside the seriousness of the conversation, not prepared to deal with it. He laughed quickly, with no chance to retort before he heard a call in his ear. You recognized the tension in his face, knowing there was some crime going on nearby.

"I'm in." You caught his attention, pointing your head towards your apartment, which was just ahead of you. "You can go." You took his bike and continued on your way. "Be careful, Robin." You shouted without bothering to look back, knowing he wasn't there.

＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿

This writing is intended to imitate those movies in which the characters just walk around while having a dynamic and intimate conversation. I hope you enjoy the relationship I build with Jason.

[blu3-ja3]

Hi! More context for my Cursed Gotham au! More specifically I was thinking of context for Jason and eventually the LoA and Talia. Eventually it led to all of this and I added more details to the Batfam timeline. There have been some changes to quite a few things like certain backstories and ages of certain characters.

So I was thinking that Thomas and Martha knew the Al Ghuls and were friends for a bit, Bruce and Talia both weren't born yet, maybe Martha and Mrs Al Ghul are pregnant together. Anyways during that time they make each other the godparents of their child, skip to them having a falling out because the Wayne's find out about Ra's hobby (League of Assassins).

So because there's paper work when the Wayne's are murdered little Bruce is sent to live with the Al Ghuls for a bit, like I'm thinking a year and a half because Gotham's justice systems are slow and Alfred is having trouble proving that the paperwork stating the Al Ghuls are the godparents of Bruce was nullified. So lil Bruce is trained to be Ras next in line, man's crazy and obsessed with immortality. Anyways lil Bruce just thinks he's being trained for self defense, so he can save people. Because if he could've done the thing he's seen the instructors do then maybe he could've saved his parents.

Alfred gets custody of lil Bruce and sees the kid really enjoys his martial arts. Alfred also sees how much lil Bruce hates being in the Wayne Manor and decides to take Bruce traveling to learn cool ass martial arts from different masters. Eventually when Bruce is a teen he goes back to Ras to finish his training, Bruce doesn't know that Ras is making him into a weapon. Mrs. Al Ghul is dead and Bruce doesn't know how. Talia and Bruce have a bit of a romance, nothing serious but the building bricks for their later relationship that leads to Damien's existence.

Bruce gets curious about Mrs Al Ghul's death and puts his detective skills to work and learns about some of Ras's plans. He learns of Ras making him into a weapon not the part of taking over Bruce's body. He also learns that Ras killed Talia's mother. Anyways Bruce gets pissed and is like nope I'm out, he tries to convince Talia to come with him. Talia refuses and they get into a big argument, they both say some hateful and horrible things before Bruce reveals Ras's hand in killing Talia's mom. Talia tells him she already knew and Bruce says that Talia is just like Ras before leaving.

When he's back in Gotham he's sad loner Bruce Wayne see Robert Patterson's Bats and becomes the vigilante. He gains a bit of a reputation for being extremely brutal and violent. Like I said originally Bruce didn't name himself, Gotham's people named him Batman. I'm thinking of a new reporter who writes articles talking about the local cryptid like being whose fighting crime. Like all the pictures are blurry as hell and all you can see are the squinting whites of his cowl or really blurry Batman shaped pictures of him flying across Gotham and kicking ass. Eventually as an off hand comment the writer calls him a bat man and the name sticks.

Bruce at like 16 is emancipated which officially makes him the CEO of Wayne Enterprise's and the owner of all his father's previous projects and money. Corruption has a chokehold in the business ranks due to a power vacuum. Bruce immediately starts rooting out corruption from Wayne Enterprises, initially wanting to fire everyone and start over completely. Alfred points out that if he does that he'll also fire the innocent people who had nothing to do with the corruption.

So begins Bruce's investigation of his own company, he notices that everyone is underestimating him. They think he's a stupid kid so he uses that to his advantage, he plays dumb for everyone including the media. 'I had no idea Mr. Kendall was embezzling from the company, I was going to give him a raise because if he needed more money then I'd like to pay him more but then Ms. Penelope told me where the money was going and showed me the ledgers, yes exactly... Hmm? Oh I found out because I was in his office looking for a pen, I saw the papers and didn't recognize them. Oh Ms. Sullen's front information just kinda showed up on my desk I hadn't a clue what she was doing!'

Bruce also set up the Wayne foundation to help with Gotham as much as possible; public housing, roads and parks, funding for schools, helping with health care. If Bruce can throw money to help fix a problem in Gotham he's doing it. Gotham loves their Loner, Emo, Socially Awkward Teenager, Golden Boy, Bruce Wayne and they'll defend him till the end. Like the one time a Metropolis reporter who had a live interview with a newly 17 years old Bruce and asked a rude as hell question that caused Bruce to freeze up a bit. The Daily Plant had to make a public apology to Bruce and fire the reporter.

Bruce also helps build and fund Arkham Asylum, in official interviews and outside of official interviews Bruce always has the same stance when keeping the Asylum up and running. That stance is that people deserve a chance to change, no matter how corrupt they think they are. Bruce makes a joke about Batman needing to go to Arkham, not for the vigilantism but for the fashion choices. I love the idea that Bruce Wayne has a bit of beef with Batman.

Bruce went to the Hailey's Circus and witnessed the death of the Flying Graysons, there's video of 18 year old Bruce Wayne running from his seat, jumping a barrier at the front, and quickly scooping up a little Dick Grayson from where he sat next to his parents bodies. In the video it shows Bruce holding the small boy and quickly making his way out of the tent with his butler/caretaker quickly following behind them. Gotham isn't at all surprised when the young man adopts Dick.

I think initially Bruce doesn't tell Dick about being Batman, like he's training Dick because it's a relatively healthy way of getting rid of all the anger the kid has. Bruce also takes the kid to therapy cause Bruce goes to therapy. I think little Dick knows Bruce has social anxiety and is immediately like Take me to all your public events! And Bruce does but is incredibly confused???

But it works well, when Dick feels Bruce getting too anxious about the crowd and attention Dick starts performing circus tricks. It takes all the attention away from Bruce and Dick is used to it, he loves the attention it reminds him of his parents in a way. It's their normal for a bit until one night Bruce as Batman is badly injured and stumbles back home only to collapse in a very visible place for little Dick to see. A Dick who's supposed to be in bed hours ago but couldn't find Bruce after a particularly bad nightmare. A Dick who sees his father figure bleeding out in front of him.

After Alfred saves him, Bruce has to explain to Dick why he kept it a secret for two years. Dick immediately is like I'm going with you, I'm helping you catch bad guys. Bruce is reluctant but concedes for only one case, that case being bringing in the killer of Dick's parents. A case that Bruce had been working on since that night, a crime lord by the name Tony Zuko came to the circus demanding protection money from the ring master who refused. As punishment Dick's parents were killed.

Que Dick making the Robin costume and demands no pants, he's a master manipulator and gets his way. Bruce is very hesitant about all the bright colors as well but Dick reassures him that if he can hide wearing this he can hide wearing anything. Bat doesn't immediately take Robin to find Tony, they kinda have a trial run for like a week. Bat sees that Robin is capable and proves himself to be able to hide well.

They eventually bring Tony to justice. Robin is a little menace that Gotham falls in love with and goons fear. Like I said Dick was the feral murderous Robin, goons can't hear a child's laughter without flinching and getting twitchy. Like Robin is as much as cryptid as Batman because no child can do the absolutely impossible stunts Robin performs on the regular. Not even Gotham's beloved Dick Greyson-Wayne, which starts Dick's public feud with Robin. Dick constantly "tries" to perform Robins tricks and fails, he even goes so far as to fake a broken bone after trying to do a trick at a Gala.

When Dick's like 11 Bruce helps form the Justice League, he begs to meet Superman. When Dick becomes 13 he finally gets to meet Superman, Dick also becomes the leader of the Teen Titans; Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and Beast Boy. 3 years later Bruce stumbles across Jason Todd stealing the tires off the Batmobile (Dick called everything in the cave bat- as a joke which Bruce joined in on. It was a joke until Bats said Batcomputer in front of the JL and he just committed to the bit.) at first Bruce wasn't going to bring Jason into the vigilante side of everything.

Bruce didn't keep the secret as long as he did with Dick, after a month Dick let it slip accidentally. All three had a serious discussion that night at dinner. Dick wanted to become his own hero but didn't know who just yet. Bruce and Dick came up with the mantle of Red Robin as a temporary mantle until Dick figured out his path. Dick would stay as Robin during the months it would take to train Jason and then once Jason was ready they would exchange mantles.

They make a new robin suit for Jason because Jason is tiny, like he's severely malnourished. The new suit has shorts because Jason likes shorts and more pockets for snacks, Bruce also brings more snacks for patrols. Because Jason is smaller than Dick, Bruce gives Jason a boe staff. At 19 Red Robin helps Superman and Supes tells Dick about the Kryptonian superheroes. Dick becomes Nightwing in honor of Superman and Batman.

Robin at 12 saves a 5 year old Tim Drake from something minor, like baby genius Tim is trying to take pictures of the different species of nocturnal birds in Gotham. Baby Tim is on a roof trying to get closer to the edge with his camera and almost falls but Jason saves the kid. Que a very smart small child becoming absolutely obsessed with Robin and sneaks out to capture pictures of him, Nightwing and Batman. Jason helps form the Young Justice League; Mrs. Martian, Speedy, Kid Flash, and Aqua-Lad.

Two years later when Robin is 14 he's killed by the Joker, who beat the boy nearly to death before blowing up the building Jason was in. Before this Joker was getting increasingly deranged with his laughing gas and traps. Batman didn't notice mostly because he'd been able to cure the joker toxin and escape any trap before it was set off. Superman was off world when Bats called for him so it took a while to get back to earth.

When Superman arrived in Gotham he found Batman beating a nearly dead Joker on a live broadcast. After he had killed Robin, Joker decided to taunt Batman and try to lead him into a trap. Unbeknownst to Joker Batman was fully ready to kill him, Bruce was ready to break his one rule and then turn himself in. But Superman stopped him, he pulled the man away from the unconscious body. The last thing Gotham heard was the broken wail of Batman before the broadcast was cut off.

Joker was taken into custody and placed at Arkham until deemed mentally well. Gotham mourned the loss of the young Robin and kinda turned a blind eye to Batman's sudden increase in violence. A month later Bruce Wayne holds a closed casket funeral for his son Jason who died fighting illness. Jason is buried in the private Wayne plot at the graveyard next to Martha and Thomas Wayne. There is a memorial statue of Robin in the park.

A young Tim Drake tracks down Dick Grayson to Jump City and Titans towers. Tim begs the man to go back to being Robin. Dick refuses to go back, he's mourning his little brother and can't go back to vigilantism. Starfire has to remove Tim from the tower, Tim decides to become Robin himself. Tim sneaks into the batcave and is found by a very confused Alfred. Tim tells Alfred everything including knowing the secret identities of Batman.

Tim at 7 takes the mantle of Robin and does his best to prevent Bruce from killing criminals. Barbra Gordon becomes Batgirl to hopefully prevent Batman from accidentally killing someone in his violence. After a few months of Tim as Robin, Dick holds an intervention for Bruce with Alfred and Tim. They all managed to convince Bruce to take some time away from Gotham and go traveling. Dick promises to take on the mantle of Batman temporarily while Barbra continues being Batgirl and Tim continues being Robin.

Bruce first goes to travel around parts of India while there he meets with Talia again, they're both untrusting of each other until they realize it's a coincidence. They decided to travel India together and in the process have a relationship picking up where they left off as teens. They travel together for 3 months until they have another falling out, less intense as their last one and they both mutually agree to just be friends. Bruce learns Talia is trying to disassemble the LoA from the inside and he isn't happy about all the risks she's taking.

They split up and travel separately, Bruce continues his backpacking across the Eurasian continent. After another 3 months he returns to Gotham having figured his shit out and isn't violent. Dick is happy to give back the mantle of Batman back to Bruce and he becomes Nightwing again. Dick goes to Bludhaven and becomes their vigilante. Bruce and Tim run around and prevent crime until Joker breaks out of Arkham and kidnaps Robin.

Bruce is quick to notice Tim missing because Barbara is his babysitter and the Drake's had to leave for a business trip. Both Barbra and Bruce find Tim within two weeks of him being in Joker's and Harley's capture. Harley snaps a bit from all of Joker's torture and attacks Joker when he tries to harm Tim again. In the fight Joker throws an explosive at Batgirl that catches her off guard and paralyzed her. After Joker is placed in cuffs, Harley reveals that Joker was using Tim as a test experiment for his newest Joker Toxin.

The Drake's are contacted and told it would take time to create an antidote for the young boys. They relinquish their parental rights and vanish from the public eye, Bruce steps in and takes in Tim. It takes 4 months to find an antidote for Tim but there are still lingering effects on Tim from his time with Joker and Harley. So Tim is benched and helps Barbra create the Oracle system to help Batman while he's patrolling alone. Jim is only told the Barbra was Batgirl none of the others reveal themselves.

Stephanie Brown becomes Robin at 10 after she helps Batman take down her father. She stays in Gotham with her aunt and mom after convincing her mother to stay because she has friends here. Steph helps Cassandra and the two become inseparable, Bruce later adopts Cass who becomes Black Bat. Stephanie and Cass ran around together for a few years and attended school together.

Scarecrow releases a batch of fear toxin that was mixed with Joker's Laughing Gas, Duke's parents have an adverse reaction to the conditions and the current antidote doesn't work. Bruce takes in the young boy and covers all expenses to keep the Thomas parents safe until they can find a cure. When Duke was exposed to the Toxin his powers manifested, he and Bruce talked about Duke becoming the Signal.

Bruce and Selina begin their relationship as civilians, Harley and Ivy are released from Arkham and live normal lives in Gotham. Harley becomes a therapist for the Gotham vigilantes, Tim has recovered enough that he requested to become Robin again at 13. Stephanie gives the mantle to Tim and she becomes Spoiler.

Tim starts a new team of Teen Titans with Impulse and Wondergirl, their first mission causes them to accidentally stumble across the cloning facilities where Superboy Prime was being created. They release Kon and they form their team under the instruction of Nightwing and Starfire. Tim leads this team for multiple years and ends up in a relationship with Kon.

Talia is on the run from her father with Damien ending up in Gotham and comes across a freshly revived Jason, she doesn't know how he's back but she takes him in. She finds a second Lazarus pit under Gotham and puts Jason in for a short time. She continues with her plan and takes both Damien and Jason to Bruce. Talia explains to Bruce everything she knows including Ras's plans to steal Damien's body, she explains what she knows about Jason and how to help the catatonic man. She doesn't know how he came back but decided to help him by placing him into the pit.

Bruce takes in both boys and offers refuge for Talia which she denies. It takes months for Jason to have some semblance of normal again, not enough for him to go out patrolling but enough that he's helping Oracle from the Batcomputer. He's still dealing with a little bit of pit madness but not as severe, he's being helped by Roy and his daughter.

After a few months Tim passes the mantle of Robin to Damien and becomes Red Robin until he figures out his own vigilante name. Damien meets Jonathan Kent and they become the superson together, Jon helping curve some of Damien's awkwardness from being raised by multiple assassins. Cassandra also helps because she gets what Damien went through.

Damien is the first introduced to the public and when Jason is ready Bruce makes a story claiming Jason was in witness protection services because he saw the death of Robin. Gotham is so excited to have the boy back as well as the newest Wayne.

So the current Wayne Family is Bruce, Dick, Jason, Tim, Cass, Duke, and Damien. Steph has her own family and so does Barbara.

The romantic relationships for everyone are as follows:

Bruce and Selina

Dick and Kori

Jason and Roy

Tim and Kon

Cass and Steph

[sleepydaemon]

I feel like we get to learn a lot about the heroes just by their costumes, which is some FANTASTIC visual storytelling on the part of the YJ creators.

Robin has a fantastic arc where he decides that he still wants to fight crime and save people, but he doesn't actually want to be Batman. And this is shocking, but at the same time, his costume is RED and YELLOW. YJ Batman wears black and grey, with a muted brown belt. Robin's colour scheme has set him apart from Batman from episode 1!! Of course he's not going to be a perfect carbon copy!!!

Artemis's costume, on the other hand, resembles Green Arrow's very closely from a surface view. They both have the multiple shades of green, quiver over the shoulder, utility belt around the waist, and her mask even gives a similar visual impact to his hood! There are differences, obviously, but in general Artemis is very much trying to look like she belongs on the team, and her supposed relationship with Green Arrow is her one ticket to achieving that.

Speedy, on the other hand, looks VERY different from Green Arrow (even before he rebrands). The colour difference seems the most drastic out of all the pairs, and his hat especially separates him from Green Arrow. He wants to be his own hero, and visually he looks like his own hero (though his costume is probably also the dorkiest, which might be contributing to his anger issues).

Superboy kind-of has two costumes, the pure white cadmus suit and the costume he picked out, neither of which bear much similarity to Superman’s costume. He keeps the symbol to signify his choice to be a hero, but he has to grapple with Superman’s rejection of his existence immediately, and is choosing to be visually distinct.

Aqualad is quite visually distinct from Aquaman, but the similar details of their costumes make them match. The design of their shirts, the ‘A’ symbol on their belts, the darker pants. They are two heroes that pair together well, but who have their own skill sets. I think this really contributes to how grounded Kaldur is as a leader.

Miss Martian's costume is very similar to Martian Manhunter, with blue cape, red X, and green skin. There are minor differences, but they don't visually separate them, instead making her seem like a miniature version of him, because since she wants to be a green martian, just like him!!!

Kid Flash matches pretty well with Flash, but they add all these little details (the goggles, the hair tuft, the snack compartment) that manage to really show his personality, which is already so big.

Zatanna’s costume is almost identical to Zatara’s, showing that they are clearly close and adding a visual element to Zatara’s overprotectiveness. But then Zatara gets taken over by doctor fate, which completely changes his costume. So it ends up with Zatanna replicating a costume that DOESN’T EXIST ANYMORE!! WHICH IS SUCH A POWERFUL REPRESENTATION OF HER LOSS!!!

Idk man it’s all just so good

[astrophileous]

I'm in It for the Money

Part 1 of 4 from The Countdown series.

The above image does not indicate the reader's physical appearance.

Pairing: Derek Morgan x Female Reader

Synopsis: When Derek is forced to go undercover for a case, he doesn't expect to encounter the past that has haunted him for years.

Word Count: 4400-ish

Warning(s): STRONG NSFW IMPLICATIONS (nothing too graphic but MINORS BE ADVISED), past trauma/abuse, child abuse, undercover life, mention of dead animals, estranged parent-child relationship, discussions about organized crime (including but not limited to narcotics, firearms, human trafficking), mentions/talks of serial killers, cursing and other foul language, smoking (cigarette), implied age gap (undefined) (pls lmk if I miss anything)

Author's Note: another special shout out to @avis-writeshq for beta 🥺💞 I hope you like this one! Pls don't forget to leave a LIKE+COMMENT+REBLOG tyyy ❤️❤️✨️✨️✨️

Criminal Minds Masterlist

The abandoned factory smelled like piss. It was the first thing Derek reckoned the moment they stepped into the darkened lot. Perhaps it was the meager visibility that caused his other senses to heighten. He swore he could almost hear a dying rat fighting for its last breath deep in the imposing darkness, but he might as well have been hearing the rush of his own blood.

Next to him, Agent Temples lit up a cigarette.

"I must say, until last month, I thought I'd seen all kinds of evil there are," Temples said before taking a long swig. "But a syndicate of serial killers?"

"Evils come in different shapes and sizes." Derek jerked his eyes towards the other man for emphasis. "Believe me."

A cloud of smoke appeared in front of Temples' face before it dissolved into the pitch blackness. "You've seen them all, haven't you?"

Derek didn't warrant him an answer. Instead, he steered the conversation towards the case at hand. "Tell me about your UC."

Temples relented. "She's been under for four. Smart, perceptive, vigilant. She was in the bureau for a short while."

This new piece of information tugged at Derek's intrigue.

"Really?"

"Your loss, our gain." Temples shrugged. "You'll know when you see her."

Derek nodded his head silently.

He stared at the tall windows on the distant wall. The foul odor around him had dwindled since his eyes adjusted to the feeble light from the moon. Either that, or Derek was subconsciously building resistance towards it. He couldn't decide which one was worse.

Agent Temples was flicking the butt of his cigarette when the first roar of an engine echoed in the distance. Derek's instinct kicked in, pushing his body to its full stature the second he saw what looked like a motorcycle light penetrating the window. Soon after the sound of the motorcycle reduced to nothing, Derek saw a silhouette slipping past the gap of the dingy entrance to the factory.

Temples called out to its direction, "You're late, Ghost."

The silhouette sauntered closer in the dark—proving claim to its name—before arising in the light like a doomsday's salvation.

"Patience is a virtue, Jimmy," you said in a tantalizing sneer.

Inside his chest, Derek's heart ceased to function.

From where you stood, your eyes had caught sight of him, too. Derek saw the flicker of recognition in them, maybe a little something more as well, but you schooled your expression faster than a blink of an eye.

"There was urgent business to take care of," you added.

Agent Temples hummed in interest. "Possible lead?"

"Debatable." You shoved your hands inside the pockets of your jacket. A casual gesture to the untrained eye, but the profiler in Derek knew it was an attempt to hide. From him, maybe. "I need more time to confirm."

"You do that. Meanwhile, there's someone you should meet. Agent Morgan, this is Ghost, our UC."

Temples proceeded to say your real name to Derek. As if he didn't already know it. As if the name hadn't haunted him every day and night for nearly the past five years.

"And Ghost, this is—"

"SSA Derek Morgan." For the first time since you walked in, your attention finally meandered his way. Derek burned under your blatant perusal. "Behavioral Analysis Unit. FBI."

Temples' surprise was glaring. "You know each other?"

"We did," Derek spat.

You appeared bemused at Derek's callous display. He, on the other hand, didn't find the whole thing amusing at all.

"We do," you eventually said.

Temples didn't seem to notice the existing tension in the air. If he did, he chose to say nothing. "This is great news! You guys know each other, so you can get everything settled yourselves." By a miraculous coincidence, Temples' phone started to ring. "Now, excuse me for a moment."

You waited until Temples was out of earshot before addressing Derek, "Fancy seeing you here."

"Yeah. I wish I could say the same."

You smiled somewhat sadly at the taste of venom in Derek's voice. The damp and moldy air in the forgotten factory stood no chance against the sting of Derek's cold glare. It was easy for your body to ignore the chill, pretending that Derek's indifference didn't bite through your skin. Your heart, though, was a different story.

"I didn't know it was gonna be you," was what you ended up saying after a full minute of silence. "When Jimmy told me that someone would be coming in, he didn't tell me anything else. I wasn't expecting you."

It was the most sincere string of words you had uttered since showing up in front of him. For a moment, something twitched in his chest, and Derek loathed the fact that you still had that effect on him even after years had passed. But as frustrating as it was, Derek didn't think petty would suit him well as a middle name, so he swallowed the bitter lump and forced his shoulders to relax.

"So, this is where you've been all this time? Living as a ghost?"

Derek's passing jab at your nickname didn't go unnoticed even if you chose to pay no heed to it. "I met Jimmy on a case, back when I was still with the bureau. He offered me the job."

"Is that why you ran?" Derek pretended not to see you flinch. "Or did you go to ATF because you ran?"

"You know I've always wanted to go under."

"As if you couldn't do that in the bureau."

"In the bureau? Yeah, maybe. But do you really think I could've done it back when I still had my old life?"

Derek bit his tongue. There was no mistaking what you meant by that.

Do you really think I could've done it back when I was still with you?

Something was boiling in the pit of Derek's stomach. He recognized it from those few months following your sudden departure from his life. Before tonight, Derek thought the wound you administered had scabbed over with time. But one encounter with you, and now those scars were opening up and bleeding again, all over the place.

"You used to say people who run are cowards."

Your head whipped towards him. In the darkness, Derek could still see the brush of disbelief across your face. He wondered, then, what had you looking so taken off guard. Was it the fact that Derek still remembered something you had said to him many moons ago?

In the end, your response was to avert your gaze from his face.

"Well," you began, "maybe I am one."

Thunders were feuding inside your chest. They squeezed around your heart like a garrote, making you gasp for air until you forgot how to breathe properly without doing so.

A few seconds later, you finally completed the fifth and final round of your torture.

"Time!" Derek called out as soon as you passed the finish line. "Four seconds faster than your last. Not bad."

Your heart was still galloping at a thousand miles per minute. The voice that rose when you spoke up resembled a choking fish out of water more than anything else.

"Not bad, but not good?"

"I think you can do better."

A sarcastic chuckle rumbled from your chest. "Any faster than that, Derek, and I might die."

"Don't deny your potential before it becomes real. You're so much more capable than you allow yourself to believe." Derek grabbed a bottle of water that he had prepared for you. "Here."

You accepted it with a quick thanks. "I've always hated running. It's something that cowards do."

"That's an extreme notion to have."

"Well, my family had a tendency to do it, and all of them are cowards," you said nonchalantly, a stark contrast to the weight carried by your choice of words. "My mom ran every time my dad beat my brother and I to the brink of death, and Dad ran when the police finally got on his ass about it."

Derek visibly softened after hearing your rancorous confession. "Your mother's still calling?"

The bitter scowl on your face was enough confirmation for him.

The first phone call arrived around four months ago. You had dropped the call as soon as you realized who was on the other end of the line, after which your mother resorted to leaving you an abundance of voice messages instead. All of them were deleted without a listen, and you found yourself blocking every incoming call from an unknown number just for the tiniest bit of chance that it might be from her.

Exactly a month ago, your mother suddenly showed up on your doorstep.

It was already alarming when you realized that she had somehow gotten a hold of your contact information. To then find her in front of your home was worse. You nearly didn't recognize her when you first opened the door; not with her thinner cheeks and sunken eyes. She looked nothing like the woman you remembered from the routine nightmares, but the shadow of terror in her eyes was one you knew quite well.

"It's good to see you," she had said after begging you not to slam the door in her face. "You look great. Healthy."

"Considering the last time you saw me, I was drenched in my own blood, I'd say that's an understatement."

She physically winced at your reply. "I paid your brother a visit before coming down here. Can we go inside?"

"No." You closed the door behind your back, pressing yourself like a royal guard against it. "Whatever you want to say, we can discuss it here."

The woman whom you once called mother darted her eyes everywhere. At last, she settled on pinning her gaze towards a point right beside your ear. "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

You scoffed. "Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"What? No—"

"Do you need money? Is that it?"

A look of offense scampered by your mother's face. "Is a mother not allowed to ever see her child?"

"If I had a mother, then sure, she could see me. You're just a woman who stood by for years while I was bruised and battered every single day of my childhood." Tears had started to stream down her face, but it did nothing for you. It wasn't like she was ever affected by your desperate wails and cries when you were little, anyway. "I never hope to see you here again. If you keep coming, I'll be contacting the police."

You had slammed the door on her face after that, and thankfully, her phone calls and messages promptly stopped, too.

Until last week.

"She's sending text messages this time," you eventually said.

Upon hearing your answer, Derek gestured towards the bleachers behind him. You sighed loudly, albeit still obliging his silent request as you took a seat on the second lowest bench. Almost the entire track field was in your line of sight from where you sat. In the distance, you could see young cadets from the Academy training together. The scene brought a smile to your face. It reminded you of memories from a lifetime ago.

When Derek sat down, he didn't leave any gap between the two of you, pressing your sweaty thigh with his toned one.

"What are you planning to do?" Derek asked.

You opted to chug the rest of your water instead of replying.

"You threatened to report her to the police last time. You can choose to make true of that promise. Maybe it'll force her to stop for good."

"Or?"

"Or—" Derek glanced at you, his eyes sincere and not at all captious as he spoke, "—you can choose to try hearing her out."

Your face contorted into a grimace. "Are those two my only options?"

"Your third option is to do nothing and let her keep stalking you. Possibly until the aliens decide to invade the earth, sending humanity into extinction."

"Hm." You dropped your forehead on Derek's shoulder. "That sounds tempting."

You shut your eyes against the soft material of Derek's T-shirt. The smell of his detergent mixed with Derek's natural musk served as an anchor for the adrift ship of which you were the captain. Derek's presence was always a reprieve in your otherwise bleak life. Derek was comfortable. He was your safe haven.

"I know I have no right to speak about this, but I think it needs to be said," the man added.

You lifted your head to stare into Derek's eyes, the same ones who had crowned you as their sole center at that moment. His hand was warm as it crept towards the nape of your neck.

"Take it from someone who lost one of his parents at a very young age. You will end up regretting the things you didn't do a tenfold more than the things you did do." Derek's thumb swept over your eyebrows, smoothing out the creases until you were pliant underneath his touch. "I'm in no way saying that my situation is comparable to yours. I will never understand what you went through with your family. All I know is, I don't want you to wake up one day with any remorse about the past."

Derek's advice was sealed with three gentle kisses: one to your forehead, one to the tip of your nose, and one to your lips. You left one of your own on his jawline for good measure before burrowing yourself further into his side.

"I hate it when you're right," you grumbled.

"That kinda sucks, considering that I'm right all the time."

"Yeah, you are." You hid your smile on his shoulder. "Which is why I really hate you."

Less than two minutes later, Agent Temples re-emerged from the dark.

"Sorry about that, folks. What'd I miss? Have you two walked through everything?"

"Actually," you began, "we haven't even started yet."

"We got caught up... reminiscing about the past," Derek fabricated smoothly.

Temples didn't seem to detect the lie as he said, "Alright. We can go through it now. Ghost, you wanna start us off?"

You spontaneously stretched to your full height underneath the newfound attention. "I've been planting the seeds for months now. Hopefully, no one gets suspicious whenever Morgan decides to come in."

"What's the story?" Derek asked.

"You're a friend of my brother's. I've known you my whole life," you replied. "I orchestrated a malfunction in one of the orders a few months ago. We've been looking for an explosives expert ever since. That's you."

"And you're sure it's solid?"

"It's a perfect cover considering your time in the bomb squad. Just in case, though, Jimmy will handle your background." Your eyes flitted towards Temples, who nodded in confirmation of your statement. "By the time it's done, you can say goodbye to SSA Derek Morgan from the FBI. It'll look legit."

"Don't worry." Temples patted Derek's shoulder. "You're in the right hands."

"What about you?" Derek asked again.

You tilted your head curiously. "What about me?"

"What's the story you told them? Nothing good about a solid cover if yours isn't just as sturdy."

You squinted your eyes at Derek's strange question. It sounded, somehow, like he was questioning your work for the last four years, as though he only came up with it as an absurd act of retribution for something that could now be declared as history.

Or, perhaps, you were the one being paranoid because of your past mistake.

After all, you still didn't know how to move on from the guilt even to this day.

Before you could come up with an apt answer, Temples suddenly beat you to it, "You don't need to worry about that. Nobody dares to question Ghost. The Big Boss is sweet on her."

"Jimmy."

"The Big Boss?" Derek's glare pierced right through you. "You mean Kreczmar?"

"What can I say? Ghost is an expert when it comes to fraternizing with the enemy."

Temples could be a sleazy bastard sometimes, and right now, you wished you could punch that toothy grin straight off his face.

"Aleksander Kreczmar is an assignment. A means to an end. Nothing more, nothing less."

You didn't understand why your eyes blithered towards Derek as you made that proclamation. The way he was studying you, though, made you feel like a cell under a microscope. A small part of your brain had fleetingly assumed that it might be jealousy, but you pushed the hope away before it could sediment further into a foolish delusion.

"This changes things," Derek said out of the blue. "The fact that you're in a relationship with him—"

"I'm not in a rela—"

"—would never make him approve of me. He's a man with an ego. He's not gonna like his woman bringing in some guy she knew from the past."

The objection died in your throat.

Derek was making a lot of sense.

"You're the profiler," you shot a little too sourly. "What do you suggest, then?"

"Simple." Derek smirked, a picture of smugness and spite as he looked at you. "I'll tell him I'm in it for the money."

Derek pulled out with a hiss, immediately missing the warmth he had been enfolded in just a few seconds prior. He peeled off the condom before tying it securely, throwing it straight into the garbage can in the corner.

"Why did you decide to join the FBI?"

Your question brought out a laughter deep from Derek's chest. His eyes took in the view of your exposed upper body, mirroring his own state of undress, while your body's other half was covered haphazardly by the flimsy material of Derek's sheets.

If he didn't know any better, Derek would be wondering how you still managed to stay lucid even after the hours the two of you spent on his bed, and a few more hours around various corners of his home. But Derek could read you better than most people by now, and he could distinguish the sign of post-coital bliss glistening over your irises. Underneath the gentle glow of his bedside table lamp, you were a sight for sore eyes.

"Why do you ask the most random questions after sex?"

"Because people are usually more honest after sex."

"And you know this, how?"

"I read it." You slithered into a new position as you responded, flumping on your stomach with your chin pressing on Derek's abs. He looked down at you in wonder. "Your brain gets drowned in oxytocin every time you cum. The love hormone, people call it. Oxytocin promotes the feeling of trust, hence the truth bomb."

"Hm. You sounded like Reid just now."

"Why do you know what Spencer sounds like after sex?"

Derek grabbed a handful of your ass, squeezing until you squealed at him for mercy.

"I think I was always destined to follow in my father's footsteps," Derek replied at last. "I picked law in college 'cause it made sense. Joined Chicago PD 'cause I felt like it was up to me to continue the job my father couldn't finish."

"And the FBI?"

"It was my first experience of staring evil right in the eye," Derek said. "The first time I truly felt scared on the job was back in the bomb squad. I got tired of having my life taunted by a bunch of scrap metals. Joining the bureau gave me the chance to stare directly at the people responsible for these crimes."

"You want to challenge them to their faces," you concluded.

"Exactly. I wanted to put a face on the crimes. When I realized that these people were just a bunch of fucked-up morons and sick-minded souls, going up against them wasn't as frightening anymore."

Derek's gaze roved over the entire ceiling as he spoke. His fingers on your shoulder drew abstract patterns that triggered an expanse of goosebumps on your skin. The alarm clock on the bedside table mocked you from the corner of your eye. Its little hands were swords, threatening you with the knowledge that you had to be up and out of Derek's place in just five short hours.

Your stomach churned at the thought.

"What about you? Why did you join the FBI?"

The question arrived as a welcomed distraction. It provided you with an excuse to push the thought of your inevitable flight to the back of your head.

"Do you want the honest answer or the default answer?"

Derek looked down at you in amusement. "There are two different answers?"

"Yes. Now pick one."

"The honest one."

"Is it cliché if I say it's because of my parents?"

Derek knew your question was more rhetoric than inquisitive, so he settled with squeezing your hip instead of a literal response.

"The worst thing about that part of my life isn't the memories, nor the nightmares. It's not even about the scars. It's the fear." A shiver ran down your entire body. For a second, Derek thought he had set the AC temperature too cold until he realized he hadn't even turned it on yet. "I knew if they placed me in front of my father again, I would crumble like nothing. I didn't want that. Couldn't accept that. So, I trained myself to stop being afraid in the face of atrocities."

As you finished your explanation, Derek couldn't help but think about how similar the two of you were in a lot of ways. His mind went back to a memory from years ago, back when you were still in the Academy, and back to the first time the both of you had ever met.

"What's your greatest fear?" Derek had asked that question in front of the room full of trainees back then.

Shouts of dying, height, and even my mom filled the air. Derek remembered scanning the crowd of faces in the midst of all of those answers before his eyes had fatedly landed on you.

"You." Your surprise was conspicuous as Derek's finger aimed towards you. "What's your greatest fear?"

"Fear."

"Yeah, what is it?"

"No, I meant that's my answer. Fear. Being afraid. That's what I fear the most."

You might not have been the first person he noticed in that gym full of people, but you were definitely the one who managed to stay on his mind.

After all, he had given the same answer when his trainer asked him the same question back during his time at the Academy.

"That was the honest answer," Derek noted after a lengthy silence had passed. "What's the default one?"

"It's the one I tell people," you responded with a brilliant smile thrown his way. Derek tried not to read too much over the implications that you had excluded him from the word people.

"Which is?"

"That I'm in it for the money."

"Hey." Temples' voice echoed inside the vast space of the factory. "I heard that one before. Didn't you use to say it all the time, Ghost? I didn't think much when you folks said you knew each other, but looks like you know one another quite well."

"I hardly think it's an appropriate time to discuss this, Jimmy."

"Right. My apologies. You have anything else, Ghost?"

Temples' question was a relief for your anxious bones. It gave you the chance to maneuver the conversation towards a more purposeful direction.

"Do you have a working profile for your UnSub?"

Derek studied you for a moment before replying, "We don't have much to work with. All we know is they operate on a network that spans throughout the entire country. It's run by a much smaller group. No greater than ten, most likely fewer than five. We flagged some human trafficking activities we thought could be related to them."

"They contacted me when they found out we have an active op on Kreczmar," Temples explained.

"You do know that we haven't uncovered any conclusive evidence for the trafficking allegations, right?"

During the four years you spent infiltrating Aleksander Kreczmar's empire, you had crawled, climbed, and sprinted your way up to the top. It was arduous work, one that required you to sacrifice a lot of things. Your life was one of them. Your dignity was often another.

For four years, you and your team had succeeded in stopping dozens of narcotics deliveries, along with detaining numerous firearms and explosives before they could fall into the wrong hands. You oversaw most of the trades that went through the eastern coast of Kreczmar's territory, but so far, you had never positively identified a single human trafficking activity connected to Kreczmar's ring.

You knew better than to perceive the lack of evidence as proof of innocence, though. That word didn't fit in any dictionary of a man such as Kreczmar.

"The profile fits," Derek declared. "Kreczmar's routes coincide with the syndicate's hot zones."

"That's a lot of areas to cover, Derek."

"Which is why we start here, at the heart of his operation. Which is why we need you."

That one sentence didn't have any business messing with every neuron in your brain, and you hated the fact that it did. Derek was the only person in the world who possessed that kind of power over you, and you couldn't help wondering if he did it on purpose just for the satisfaction of seeing you wither.

"You're putting a lot of faith in me, Derek."

"I've always had that for you."

The surrounding air seared where it touched your skin. Your tongue stiffened like metal inside your mouth, and beside you, Temples looked as if he was just now noticing the electric field buzzing between you and Derek.

"I need to get going," you rushed out. "People are expecting me."

"Oh? Of course. Thanks for making the time, Ghost," Temples said before bidding you goodbye.

You could barely look Derek in the eye as you offered a lame wave. Your shoes composed a scratchy melody against the ground. As you reached the exit, your eyes caught Derek's from the distance, and suddenly, you were hauled back towards the night that had gnawed at your memories for the past five years.

And just like that night, this time, you were running away from him once again.

Taglist is open. Leave a comment or send me an ask to be added!

Taglist: @citrusiove @kneelforloki @prentissim @bunbunbl0gs @lubunnii @alluring-andrayav @sammyrenae68

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Elation

Today's an Andre episode, so get ready for a lot of shipping fuel that goes nowhere, kids.

Let's get into the ninth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Elation

We start off after an Akuma fight, where Ladybug attempts to make a move on Cat Noir... even though he's about to detransform and needs to hightail it out of there. Ladybug then tries to force a kiss on Cat Noir's cheek, but because she isn't Adrien, she's actually questioned for this violation of personal space. Cat Noir thinks it was all a test for the whole secret identity rule, so the two part ways. It's weird how Cat Noir is the more sensible one in this opening scene.

Back at Marinette's place, Alya is sleeping over while the two talk about the former's feelings for Cat Noir.

Marinette: What if Cat Noir’s declining all my invitations because... because he’s... no longer in love with me?

Alya: You mean, you as Ladybug? You said it yourself a hundred times: Cat Noir and Ladybug just can’t work. You’d end up blabbing your secret identities to each other, Monarch would find out and your Miraculous would go “bye-bye”.

Marinette: Just because you couldn’t keep your secret from Nino when you’re both superheroes doesn’t mean I can’t do it with Cat Noir!

Alya: Hey! Who gave us both a Miraculous at the same time? And if you love a superhero, you’re gonna want to know who's behind the mask. How else are you supposed to live a legit love story?

Hey, remember when Alya was actually able to admit her mistakes last season? Good times.

First of all, Alya clearly forgot to mention that Ladybug giving her and Nino their Miraculous at the same time was because it was an all hands on deck situation, what with Scarletmoth amassing an army of Akumas and all that. Alya was specifically told to keep her identity secret last season because her family was in danger, and she chose her relationship with her boyfriend over keeping her and her loved ones. Second, isn't this the exact opposite of what Alya said last episode? She tried to argue that superheroes shouldn't keep their personal lives involved when fighting crime, but now, she's saying that Marinette needs to know who Cat Noir is in order to “live a legit love story”. I get that they're at least trying to acknowledge the problems with the whole identity stuff, but it contradicts the stuff Alya told Marinette last episode.

Either way, it leads to the same conclusion: Alya's all like “You're still in love with Adrien!”, and Marinette's all like “No, I love Cat Noir now!”, and then Adrien's all like “Hey Marinette, I conveniently chose to talk to you so you have an excuse to be embarrassed.” It's the same stuff we've already seen so far this season, and we're not even halfway through yet.

But yeah, Adrien came over to talk with Marinette, but Marinette's insecurities cause her to tell her mother to tell Adrien that she's busy. Before Adrien can do anything else, he's harassed by some of his fans. It's a pretty amusing scene, as it calls back to an earlier bit where Cat Noir is harassed by some different fans, and it made me smirk a little. Adrien transforms into Cat Noir to get away, only to run into Marinette, attempting to get some privacy after an argument with Alya. The two talk, and their banter is... tolerable. There's some decent chemistry here, and for once, Marinette is talking to a love interest without stuttering. I hate that it took until Season 5 to get a scene like this, but hey, it's better than nothing. There's also a really interesting take on the whole “Marinette is caught in her pajamas” gag (which has nothing to do with the fact that it lets the animators reuse one of their models), in that Cat Noir reassures Marinette that he doesn't mind.

Meanwhile, Alya came to the realization that she shouldn't force Marinette to go after Adrien... a piece of character development that came almost halfway through Season 5... after four seasons of essentially nagging Marinette to keep going after Adrien. You know what? If it makes the episode end faster, I'll go with it. Alya and Tikki go to apologize to Marinette, only to see she left with Cat Noir.

Marinette and Cat Noir decide to go to Andre's for ice cream (because I guess there are no other ice cream shops in the entire city of Paris other than his little ice cream cart), where we see another one of Andre's rules that makes you wonder how the hell he stays in business.

Andre: Marinette and Cat Noir! What are you two doing here?

Cat Noir: We’re here for ice cream, of course! Unless you’re selling hotdogs now. (the two laugh)

Andre: That’s a good one, Cat Noir! But I make sweethearts’ ice cream, not “jokers’ and good friends’” ice cream. Look, who do you see there next to Jean and Serge? (points at one of the photos posted on his cart) Ladybug and Cat Noir! Their flavor is one of my classics! Love is not something you joke about. You, Cat Noir, are in love with Ladybug, and you, Marinette, are supposed to be in love with Adrien Agreste.

Oh, for the love of—GET A LIFE, YOU CREEP!

This is the exact same problem Andre has had in his last two appearances: His entitled belief that he has to be right about love all the time, and how his ships are absolute. This man is way too invested in making sure two teenagers hook up even when it seems like one of them has found someone to love. And just like his last two appearances, Andre gets all pissy because his ice cream is supposedly never wrong, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Thanks to Andre's rambling, Cat Noir learns that Marinette was in love with Adrien, and the two talk about it. They eventually start kissing, but Cat Noir backs out of it, pointing out that he's essentially taking advantage of Marinette thanks to her being a fan of his, as well as his secret identity complicating things. Marinette doesn't take it well.

Marinette: UGH! I AM SICK AND TIRED OF PTHER PEOPLE DECIDING WHAT'S GOOD FOR ME!

Cat Noir: I’m taking you home.

Marinette: SICK! I AM SICK OF IT! WHY CAN'T I BE HAPPY!? WHY CAN'T I LOVE WHOEVER I WANT TO LOVE!? (breaks down sobbing)

Cat Noir: You can. I can’t. Not like this.

Honestly, this is a really great scene. While I think Cristina Vee and Bryce Papenbrook have been kind of phoning in their performances lately, they both do a great job here, with Marinette's breakdown sounding believable, and Cat Noir's somber delivery playing off it well.

Of course, this attracts the attention of Monarch, who attempts to akumatize Marinette, and Marinette seems to give in. Of course, because Astruc himself said Marinette isn't allowed to get akumatized, this potentially interesting idea is shot down thanks to Cat Noir kissing Marinette. Somehow, it works, causing Marinette to reject the Akuma, though Cat Noir still apologizes afterwards.

Cat Noir: I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have kissed you again, but you weren’t listening to me, I was just trying to help you! To save you! That wasn’t a love kiss, it was... ugh, I’m just making it worse!

You know your kiss scene is confusing when one of your characters isn't sure what to make of it. If the moral of the story is that Marinette and Cat Noir can't be in love like this, why have Cat Noir save Marinette from getting akumatized by kissing her?

Of course, we still need an Akuma fight, so of course, Andre is akumatized into Glaciator again through his ice cream scoop. This time, he has the Tiger Miraculous' Clout, giving him the ability to fire bursts of energy in addition to his power to... be an ice cream golem.

Cat Noir gets Marinette to safety and tries to fight Glaciator, who sets his sights on Marinette for having the audacity to criticize his life's work. I wonder if one of the writers is projecting here. Of course, seeing how Glaciator is essentially Bomberman now, Cat Noir is overwhelmed by the sheer destructive power of the Akuma. Right when it seems like Glaciator is about to take his Miraculous, Alya stands up to him and tries to fight back, but is knocked away. Thankfully, Marinette had time to reunite with Tikki and transform into Ladybug. Ladybug meets up with Cat Noir, and after Glaciator temps the two to give up their Miraculous so they can be together without worrying about secret identities, the two refuse and reaffirm their friendship.

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, a parasol, and comes up with a plan. While Cat Noir distracts Glaciator by pretending to struggle to get his Miraculous off (another admittedly funny joke), Ladybug throws the parasol through Glaciator's ice cream body, causing it to open up and blind him. Glaciator stumbles back and starts melting from being near one of the nearby fires, and once the ice cream body melts away to reveal Andre, Cat Noir uses his staff to break the scoop. Ladybug de-evilizes the Akuma, Andre apologizes for going on a homicidal rampage because his OTP didn't happen, Ladybug gives Andre another Magical Charm even though the last one didn't work at all, and uses Miraculous Ladybug to fix the damage.

Meanwhile, Monarch transforms back into Gabriel, revealing that his Cataclysm wound is getting worse.

So remember when Gabriel started actually acting like a parent to Adrien in “Illusion”? It probably means he's only doing it because his days are numbered. Gabriel notes that now he knows that Cat Noir has feelings for Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and that he plans to exploit them.

Yeah, five bucks says he'll go back to ignoring her by the next episode. Marinette and Cat Noir share one last conversation about how it's easy for Marinette to mistake her feelings for Cat Noir for just being a fan (ironically, you could say the same thing about Marinette's feelings for Adrien too) before choosing to break things off, Marinette breaking down crying again as soon as Cat Noir leaves. The episode ends with Adrien realizing that there's a chance that Marinette could fall for him again.

Anyway, this episode was honestly pretty decent. Aside from a few things that have been par for the course this season, I really didn't have a lot of problems with the episode. Marinette and Cat Noir had some okay chemistry, and I liked how Cat Noir was able to acknowledge how he was abusing his status as a superhero by trying to start a relationship with Marinette, even if it never came up last season with Kagami. I also thought the animation was the best so far this season, with a lot of good shots at night and some decent action. Of course, it wasn't perfect. While it was nice to see some character development from Alya, it came across as an afterthought since most of it happened off-screen, and as always, Andre was a gigantic manchild.

While I am glad that there seemed to be some kind of progress being made for character development as evidenced with Cat Noir and Alya, it does feel long overdue. We're almost halfway through the show's fifth season, and only now are we getting stuff like Marinette and Cat Noir developing feelings for each other, Adrien learning that Marinette had feelings for her, and Alya learning to not focus so much on forcing her ships to happen. All of this should have happened a long time ago, but after almost four seasons of nothing but filler, only now are we getting some serious plot and character development. Considering the fact that this was originally planned to be the last season before the show got renewed, I'm worried that the writers are just going to cram a lot of plot progression and character development into the second half of the season without giving the audience time to process all of it, all while acting like we should be grateful because at least something's happening.

Overall, this was a decent episode, though part of me is worried how the rest of the season will handle the story if certain developments only came this late into the show's run.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... ANDRE

Yeah, this wasn't a surprise here. Just like the last two times he got akumatized, he threw a temper tantrum and tried to kill Marinette because one of his predictions based on his ice cream was wrong while ignoring the hundreds of other couples he's brought together as evidenced by “Wishmaker”, and needing to learn the same lesson he learned in “Glaciator 2”, in addition to turning down two paying customers because they're not Lucy and Ricky levels of being in love with each other. Hell, I'm pretty sure if Andre ever saw an asexual person, he'd have a heart attack trying to get them some ice cream.

[asheronangel]

The yokai in the one Hidden City trip episode are shown to be So Inconsistent and incompetent in their ability to recognize people, so my brain kept thinking about it.

for Leo's half, I do think it was his Hair that made the guards suddenly recognize him as a battle nexus champion. And by that I mean the Hair literally altered their perception.

Because either they weren't into the Battle Nexus and therefore didnt recognize him, or knew he was a champion and just didn't care, or idk maybe they just hadn't watched that fight and didn't believe him, but I think the hair saw how Leo felt like he should be respected for being a champion and altered the guard's perception accordingly, then again with the octopus guy to get Leo out of the picture.

(Because that episode is just too wild otherwise. You're telling me that not only did they only recognize him when he had hair, which he did not ORIGINALLY HAVE, but then they recognize an OCTOPUS, DIFFERENT COLOUR, DIFFERENT BUILD AND HEIGHT ENTIRELY, because of the hair, that, again, LEO DIDNT ORIGINALY-)

Anyway.

That doesn't explain the police officers in Raph's episode. And, admittedly, it is a stretch to guess that someone cursed Raph or something.

However, it's weird that they mistook Raph for Heinous Green because, while similar, they had plenty of visual differences, BUT then couldn't recognize the guy who was CLEARLY Heinous Green because he had one tiny difference (until Raph added the mustache to the wanted poster.)

And, yeah, you could say maybe they wanted to Actually Make Sure after already mistaking one guy for him, except. Except. They proceed to turn around and mistake Raph for another guy that looks even LESS like him.

So what's with this inconsistency?

I have a theory that maybe Heinous Green had some sort of spell to make it harder to recognize him? He was a well known, wanted criminal, who was shown to have at least somewhat agreeable relationships with Big Mama, who has plenty of mystic doo-dads and ways to get them, so I don't think it's out of the possibility.

That brings us to Mikey's episode, where I was going to rant about HOW did they recognize the Baron Draxum in a completely different outfit and without the mask that covers 99% of his face (if he didn't have the mask in the poster or had it in the episode please correct me), but if you assume that the difficulty recognizing the real Heinous Green was an exception rather than the rule, it does line up with the police's "pick a guy that looks similar enough I guess" we see with Raph.

Anyway, are the turtles wanted criminals now or...? Cause ignoring that Leo and Raph were cases of mistaken identity, Donnie Did do That and Mikey broke a wanted criminal out of prison.... Actually what even would they think if they knew the turtles were Draxum's experiments would they be considered as people? Do they get a pass on that and their crimes due to saving New York/the world twice? Speculation!

[terrahlee-cup]

I’m just slowly adding more chapters to each of these because otherwise the number of notifications would be a lot lol @raphaelesbian

Foive (The sleep deprivation is invading the main posts more and more teehee)

Aw Donnie no 🥹 I get migraines and owwww. Just wanna… toss pain meds at him. Bonk.

Ah of course Raph can’t relax our boy is so wound up at this point. I do wonder how long Karai messing with the Foot will work. Any time she’s physically present for one of these things she risks being recaptured.

“maybe she just deserved some time without someone trying to hunt her down, friend or foe.” That is very sweet actually. Like, yes she’s still in danger, but she’s getting a bit to do her own thing. 

“If he was pissy when Raph escaped he was livid now that Karai was gone, too.” Yeah that tracks lol. Oh and he’s doing shit himself now that’s… niiiiiiice? Raph is not going to be okay if they actually have to fight him is he.

These kids need somewhere safe to chill where they can get away from each other for a bit. All of them are on edge and stuck in the same space that is never going to go well. “The Lair had become a pressure cooker, and Raph was about ready to burst.” This is not going to be pretty is it.

Lmao how the turn tables— please be careful bud. Aw they’re bonding! They’re so sleep deprived which same, but they’re bonding! Making dark jokes back and forth is a glorious bonding activity.

“They have the self-preservation skills of a group of lemmings.” The jumping off cliffs thing is a myth but- wait Raph’s a fucking lemming. He is THE SAME. FU-

“What if you weren’t alone?” Oh these little shits. You ALL have the self-preservation skills of lemmings. Like these two totally deserve to blow off some steam but I am NOT excited to see them possibly get caught again… anyway BIG SISTER BONDING THROUGH CRIME FUCK YEAH.

“And here I was already planning out the colors for our friendship bracelets.” *stares at a certain piece of fanart and loudly sips drink*

Seex (Hey remember that discord typo-)

Raph being too excited about causing problems to fight with his brothers I can’t lol- these two should never be allowed to go on missions alone.

Bradford hurt Mikey and Raph shall never forget. Good. Karai really said “how in the fuck are you doing that.”

“launder, like laundry?” I mean… close enough? I guess they’re technically washing it? Of the crime? Just not… normally. Um. Yeah close enough.

CRIMES WITH BIG SISTER FUCK YEAH part 2. These two are menaces I am so happy for them. Cause chaos children, go forth. Also MORE BONDING! They’re having so much fun they deserve this.

Sparring instead of committing more crime— yeah a break’s probably a good idea at this point. These two have been through so much recently so seeing them sort of give each other some room to breathe is so nice. They both need it so badly.

Sevan~

Karai gets to be a bad influence the chapter. The teenagers have obtained alcohol everyone, you have been warned. Also Karai, hun, he’d probably have had less intense of a reaction if you’d said what the mystery liquid was before drinking it <3

Raph drank way too much immediately because of course he did lmao. Karai’s “oh dear” reaction— see what you’ve done to him ma’am? His brain is soup. Soup! Stands up and immediately nope HELP-

I really like how these two’s relationship has built up to this point. They’re both a lot more blunt than Raph’s brothers, and it seems to be working in their favor for once. They’ve done a bit of ‘casual’ hanging out, but they also kinda just skipped to having important conversations that they probably both need. Also, these two feel older than the other turtles after everything. Karai just *is*, but the way Raph acts with her is different. I don’t entirely know how to put words to it? They’re being rebellious and doing stupid shit, sure, but it also seems like they’re actually working through things a bit. It’s not just screwing around for the sake of it. I dunno, they have ‘older siblings that are starting to need more of their own space’ vibes.

[peyoso]

In accordance to the principles of pure self-indulgence, I shall now detail the xmen/outsiders au that I have been concocting. Idea sparked by this post

The basic premise is that Ponyboy is a mutant that joins the xmen after the (modified) events of the book.

Okay so Im thinking for Pony's mutant ability something with fire and powerful. I just like the idea of him being really powerful. theres something there. It would also give him an interesting relationship to the church fire and johnnys death. Also like the idea that his power manifests when Darry hits Pony. burning Darry's hand and leaving burn scars. #symbolism

Johnny also was a mutant with vast telekinetic power that put a psionic strain on him and was a part of the reason he died.

Im in the fence about Dallas. im thinking a more subtle ability like hyper-intelligence/instincts with an animalistic secondary mutation. Like a Sage/Sabertooth hybrid. OR like a fear manipulation type thing: he can sense and amplify fears and gets more powerful the more people are afraid, maybe even at a certain threshold he starts transforming into basically a werewolf and also can cause fear hallucinations.

Anyway this au is divided into eras:

The Beginning Era

the events of the book more or less play out the same just with the added mutant layer and a different ending. Dally survives and goes to jail. Pony gets separated from his brothers and put in a boys home

X timeline-wise, Cerebro picks up Pony at the same time as Dazzler and Kitty

Charles finds Pony and he gets sent to the school. maybe the professor makes up something about a scholarship/outreach program. anyway going from dirt poor to living in a mansion with an allowance thats more than his family earned in a year is jarring and at first Pony is very abrasive.

There's also the fact that Pony has already hurt people with his power and believes he started the church fire that ultimately killed Johnny (😏)

I think he would bond with Logan and Kurt and just not like Kitty

Eventually Dally gets out of jail (maybe a year at most) and decides to track down Pony bc he needs something to live for and it might as well be not failing Pony the way he failed to protect Johnny

Tracks him down to the school, gets into a fight and joins the xmen once things are cleared up

The ??? Era

listen. idk the whole of xmen history okay but yk as i read and learn ill expand this section. just know Pony and Dally are doing shenanigans. Pony discovers that hes actually Darry and Soda's half brother and his biological father is a mutant crime lord and he has mutant siblings. Darry gets mutant racist. Dally gets sent to hell and Pony fights the devil about it. Pony hosts the Phoenix for a bit and maybe learns hes got a magical heritage and Dally has weapon x connection idk. stuff just happens. theyre doing things. dont worry about it

The Krakoa Era

Johnny's back babyyyyy and with him a whole can of worms

Pony's in his 20s and has been a xmen for years. He and Dally are dating (surprise! this is a Dalpony au) and he has mutant siblings hes close to etc etc

basically a lot has changed and Johnny is thrown right in it. from an abandoned lot to a lush island paradise. his best friends are superheroes/basically mutant celebrities and crazy shit happens on the daily. its overwhelming to say the least

Pony asks Jean to help Johnny control his powers

Maybe Pony and Dally are also helping Kate with her Marauders. finding and freeing mutants and getting them to Krakoa

A few other things:

Im bad at coming up with superheroes names but im thinking Wildfire for Pony then later as he grows into his powers people start calling him the Dawnbringer. For Dallas maybe something like Grim or Blood Hound...Bugbear...

Pony's relationship to his brothers kinda falls through bc Darry begins to see Pony's mutation as something wrong that needs to be fixed and associates it with everything he perceives as wrong with Pony (think Evelyn from EEAAO or like any homophobic relative) which really destroys their relationship and causes Pony to distant himself from Darry

I dont have a clear idea on Soda yet. maybe something like a part of Soda being afraid of Pony/his fire? like Soda accidentally flinched when Pony gets to close once and things just went downhill from there. something something a relationship becoming defined by guilt something something idk

Here is Pony's mutant family:

Hecatomnus

Black Market dealer and supplier

Control the temperature and brightness of his surroundings. making it really dark/hot/bright/cold/etc

Manipulative and scheming; a businessman through and through

Does genuinely care for his kids and very supportive of them

His goals? run a successful business thank you

Mausolus

Eldest (late 20s) and the only one raised by their father

Hecatomnus' right hand man

Controls stability of things. Can make a building crumble or prevent a person's condition from worsening. Has to keep constant concentration tho

Very mindful, very demure.

Really cares for his siblings and takes his responsibilities as eldest very seriously

Come across as cold/apathetic but is in fact a deeply unserious person

Eysa

Second eldest (late 20s)

Channels heat into objects around her. Usually focuses heat into her weapons for 1000° hot blades that explode stuff on contact.

Warrior Princess type vibe

Chaotic in general but has a strong warrior code

Regularly mails pipe bombs to her dad (its their father-daughter bonding)

Ofelia

Youngest (in her teens)

Hyper-aware of her surroundings and can focus her awareness on something to gain knowledge about its history, characteristics, properties, etc.

Very sweet and kind but not naive. her power means that she often knows more than others

She also tends to passively pick up random details about people around her

[aggressivelyarospec]

itgetsbetter submitted:

“Boston Legal” (2004-2008)

This is a television show with one of the most heartwarming QPR’s I’ve seen. Though this is a legal dramedy with lots of characters, the heart of this show is the bond between main characters Alan Shore and Denny Crane and fighting amatonormativity.

The series has a wonderful depiction of their already strong friendship growing into a beautiful queerplatonic relationship. Though these two have plenty of friendships and some romantic relationships with other characters, it is made clear that the bond between Alan and Denny will always take priority.

I love so many things about these characters. Though they have very different world views, they will always discuss why they feel this way about certain issues and almost always come to a mutual agreement. The few times they don’t, they ‘agree to disagree’ because of not wanting this to come between their bond. Though Denny is kind of a jerk in the beginning and somewhat closed-minded, he can’t help but change for the better due to his bond with Alan. They talk about everything with each other. In later seasons they have a discussion on whether or not their bond is romantic, and they settle on calling themselves (since the characters don’t know the word for QPR) flamingos - so great. They say they love each other, at first privately and then publicly.

They even (huge spoiler, but I’m including it because it’s what made me watch this series in the first place)…

… get married in the final season, and have to defend their marriage in court due to people accusing them it’s not a 'real’ marriage. Alan gives an absolutely beautiful speech about how there are all kinds of love, and while he and Denny do not have anything romantically going on they love each other in a way that is difficult to describe but still there.

If you like legal dramas/comedies this is the show for you; if you don’t you can fast-forward the courtroom scenes and still understand the show - this show was made for Alan and Denny, and the legal parts are just the wrapping paper. Nice wrapping paper, but still wrapping paper.

It should be noted that there are romantic subplots (including Alan and Danny but not between them), but this show does 1) an excellent job of fighting amatonormativity 2) prioritizes the emerging QPR

Additional Information: TV-14 | Comedy, Crime, Drama Trailer:

Added!

[aceywhomps]

RAAAAAAH BSD OCS!!!!

Dan Kazuo:

his namesake is irl dazai's best (?) friend, Dan Kazuo. There's like, probably a bunch of different versions of him already but... yk. he's different...

he's a fairly playful and spontaneous guy, willing to be Dazai's favourite ride-or-die bestie in the face of adversaries.

he'll rather follow after someone else's plans instead of think up his own despite his high iq of 205 because he finds that letting himself do what he wants is boring because it'll just go according to his plans, so he just derails other people's plans instead.

he goes through life just to have fun and kill boredom. he joined the port mafia bc he found dazai interesting after he killed all of dazai's subordinates in a feat of horrendous crime (he found out he had an ability in this fight)

he also has a weird obsession to the point of insanity towards dazai, and it makes people wonder if he has a crush on Dazai or if it's just... him. (it's both)

and when dazai left, he also up and left because if dazai isn't there, it isn't fun

and so he became a government dog. he joined the government's special divisions unit to pass on insider information to dazai and to mess up plans that endanger dazai. anywho, he's also a raging alcoholic, a great cook, and lives life just to make sure dazai stays alive because a dead dazai equals a boring life.

his ability is named after irl dan kazuo's most famous novel, Hanagatami (or Flower Basket). Dan's ability allows him to create sharp projectiles in the shape of flower petals (usually camellia petals, for they signify death) with any nearby sources of any fluid. he usually uses his own blood, however, since it is easier, and so he carries various weapons around that can puncture him to gain access to his own blood. he is also able to use the petals to grab ahold of things, as he can adjust the sharpness of the petals.

his ability has an added effect of stunning blood clotting effectiveness, thus creating more bloodloss for the target. the blood lost turns into more sharp flower petals that cut into the target and causes EVEN more blood loss, thus turning the victims into literal flower baskets of death. Dan is able to control the speed of the bloodloss as well as the sharpness of the petals, like his own petals, and decide if the effect will even happen in the first place.

only Dazai, with his nullification ability, and Dan are able to stop the side effect of Hanagatami.

also he doesn't like Chuuya, but begrudgingly respects him. absolutely despises Mori, though. oddly enough, has an amicable relationship with Fyodor despite their differences.

Probably has major BPD or Obsessive Love Disorder.

Lu Xun:

based off of a real life chinese novelist/essayist named Lu Xun.

Lu Xun is an insane (obviously) & schizophrenic chinese ability user who's running from chinese authorities, as he's a wanted criminal (terrorist AND mass murderer, chinese Fyodor/hj). he has a weird relationship with Nikolai, because they both have the same mentality, except Nikolai tends to find fun in lifw and hide his feelings, but Lu Xun is more flat and gloomy, hiding none of his emotions.

his ability is named Thoughts Before The Mirror, and unironically, it allows him to move himself or items through any mirror-like substance, like water, metal or an actual mirror, as long as there is a clear reflection on its surface.

it also a causation for his schizophrenia, for he feels he is not himself and rather a mirror world version of himself that took his place.

he doesn't like staring into mirrors, not because he's insecure, but because he cannot recognise himself anymore. he thinks he's a completely different person who's replaced the "real" him, and thus he is regularly exploited through his instability and mental health issues, which is kind of ironic considering his ability requires mirrors.

most of his colleagues in crime in his group named "Dawn Blossoms at Dusk" (refering to irl Lu Xun's book, Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk) are female, for Lu Xun is an avid advocator for female rights and prefers the company of women that'd be able to protect him over fickle men that have no use causing him even more harm.

Has schizophrenia, autism, paranoia & anxiety.

[iridescenthor]

Hello! Can I request a tasm peter x reader where they are already dating and the reader comes down with a nasty cold but refuses to rest because she has college and work to do so peter makes her rest cus she's just getting more sick from working

(Aka I actually do have a cold from hell and i am dying)

Thank you!!

AHHH of course! feel better love <3

rest with me

pairing; tasm!peter parker x reader

genre; pure fluff

warnings; strong language

au:/ first ever tasm peter imagine, i haven’t been able to get his portrayal of the character down since 2014 so let’s hope this goes well

If you had been asked the night prior, you would’ve said that there was no way in hell your headache could possibly get any worse. But when another night with barely any sleep was added, and another day filled to the brim with running around at work and then studying until your eyes glazed over went by, your head was pounding in a way you didn’t think was even possible. Tissues covered the floor around your desk, caused by your haphazard attempts at throwing them into the garbage, and a new pack of them was opened to your left next to your laptop.

You’d come down with a cold only a few days prior and what you’d hoped would be only allergies that lasted a day or two had turned into an illness that did nothing but make your work and school life all the more miserable. You’d been pushing yourself to do your absolute best on these midterms - to the point where your normal every day schedule had been completely disheveled. What would normally be time for yourself to relax and eat a nice dinner after work had turned into studying all of the notes you’d written the entirety of the last two quarters. And what would usually be time to spend cleaning up your boyfriend after a night of crime-fighting and cuddling him until he fell asleep peacefully had, once again, turned into just extra time for you to review all your notes.

You’d felt bad about it of course. Peter put so much work into making the city a safer place and helping those in need and yet he still always managed to make time for you at the end of the night, whether he was bleeding half to death or on the brink of passing out halfway inside your window - he was always there. You’d been shitty to him, blocking him out when he tried to help and being too wrapped up in your work to hear your phone pinging or the knocks on your window. In your defense, you were just really determined to get good scores on these exams, and it didn’t help that you were just so tired. And apparently now, so so sick.

But, tonight was different. Tonight Peter was a boy on a mission and he was prepared to do just about anything he could to make sure you left your desk and just got some goddamn sleep. He didn’t bother knocking on your window after a night of patrolling, knowing that you’d either be too invested in your work or too zoned out of the real world to hear his incessant knocking. He pulled his everyday clothes on over his suit in the back alley behind your apartment building, and tucked his mask securely into his backpack before making his way around to the front door.

The doorman had seen him enter with you multiple times throughout the duration of your relationship, so he was let in without any hold-ups. Your apartment was on the seventh floor, three doors down to the left of the elevator. Apartment B73 was one of your proudest possessions, something you had worked so hard to be able to afford yourself while still in college, and you had quite literally turned it into your safe haven of sorts. The only possession you were more proud of, was your Peter. But as much as you loved him deeply, you hadn’t realized how much you’d been neglecting him and your own health in recent weeks.

He stepped through the front door, which had been unlocked much to his concern, and shut it behind him after kicking off his shoes onto the mat. “Y/N?” He called softly, not wanting to startle you in case you hadn’t heard him come in. He received no answer from you, and as he trekked down the hallway he came to realize you weren’t in the living room or kitchen. A long sigh left his lips, squeezing his eyes shut as he rubbed at them in frustration and exasperation.

He swore to God, that if he walked into that bedroom and you were huddled at your desk studying he was going to lose his shit. Low and behold, the second your bedroom door swung open, that was the sight he was met with.

“Y/N…” He began, walking up behind you. You showed no reaction to his voice and he rolled his eyes dramatically as it occurred to him that not only were you literally draining yourself, but you were also putting yourself in extreme danger. What would have happened if someone broke in and you had been too wrapped up in your studies to even realize that there was something going on?

He no longer cared much about startling you, he just wanted you to step back from your school work and just fucking rest. “Y/N, babe.” He spoke curtly, reaching out and grabbed your shoulder. You jumped in surprise and whipped around to face him as you let out a startled yelp.

Your heart was pounding in your chest and you could’ve sworn that you were on the verge of a heart attack but - it was just Peter. How had he gotten in? Did you leave the door unlocked? You didn’t know, but you were thrilled to see him. It’d been quite a few days since you both had gotten the chance to see each other. “Oh! Peter! Baby, you scared me.” You laughed wholeheartedly. He opened his mouth, most likely preparing to send back some half-assed comment about how that wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t been running on four hours of sleep for the past week, but you cut him off before he had the chance to do so. “Just give me a half to wrap up this subject and then I can make you a quick dinner? Have you eaten yet? I bet not with patrol.” You chuckled, turning to face your computer screen once more.

His hand jutted out to grab at the backrest of your chair and twirled you right back to face him. His face was set into a scowl and he narrowed his eyes at you. “When was the last time you ate a meal yourself?”

“Um…” You stuttered, hesitating before giving him an answer. You hadn’t been starving, you’d stopped at a connivence store to pick up some pain medication for your headache and had grabbed some snacks for yourself while you were there. “I had some Pringles earlier. But I just haven’t had much of an appetite with the… you know…” You trailed off, realizing you’d just accidentally exposed that you were also sick on top of everything else.

His facial expression softened drastically and he kneeled down to be at your level, grasping your hands in his and running his thumb over the back of your hand. “Baby, please. I know how passionate you are about school and I respect and adore all the work you put into it. But you cannot put your own health at standby for it. I know it seems like it’s the most important thing in your life right now, but nothing will matter when you’re not healthy enough to keep pushing through.”

You frowned and let out a low sigh. “I know, Pete. I just- I want to do a really good job on these exams and it feels like no matter how hard I try… I’m not grasping enough information. I haven’t learned enough to get me through. It makes me feel better… to constantly go over everything. It makes me a little less anxious.”

He felt his heart clench at your confession. He thought you had just been putting in this much work because it was mandatory of you, not because it helped lessen the pressure you had being forced upon you to get through the midterms with flying colors. He grinned suddenly at you, and you couldn’t help the contagious smile that begin curling at the corners of your lips. “Okay, how about this? We take a break, me from my Spider duties and you from your studying. We both go make ourselves a nice dinner and just relax for the night. We’ll put on a movie or something and just rest. Tomorrow, we can go back to what we do best - but we’ll do it in a healthy way this time. No pushing ourselves past our limit, and no fighting to the breaking point. Just one day at a time, my love.”

He knew the easiest way to get you to agree was to pretend he was doing it along with you. If he had just been trying to get you to take care of yourself, you would’ve continued trying to put up a fight. But, if you knew that he was also taking a breather from all of the pressure put on him - you’d agree in an instant.

You casted one last glance back at your laptop before turning to lock eyes with him once more. “Okay.” You nodded with a smile.

He leaned forward, moving his hands up to cup your face instead. “Okay?” He laughed giddily, pressing his forehead to your own.

You reached up, grabbing his forearms and titling your head to press a gentle kiss to his lips. He kissed you back, pulling you as close to him as possible - trying to soak up all the attention you were giving him after how busy you had been the past few days. You laughed against his lips, pulling back the tiniest bit to whisper to him, “Yeah, okay.”

[rafecameronsversion]

up to something

lo'ak x f!omaticaya!reader

summary: lo'ak gives you that mischievous grin of his and you already know it could end in trouble, yet you accompany him either way.

warning : lo'ak being himself, this kinda sucked idk

you were on the ground with tuk and kiri, telling stories, talking about anything as you teach them how to make necklaces. tuk was very enthusiastic

the three of you shared laughs, barely getting much necklaces done. then you sense someone else join the three of you and you looked up to see lo'ak.

he's your best friend, everyone calls you the partners in crime. despite you two being somehow different, for instance; he was impulsive and you were precautious.

yet he manages to drag you along his rash decisions mostly because you fear for his health and letting him go alone might push him to do stupid shit

neytiri adored the relationship you and lo'ak had, she notices how you pull him down from anything too dangerous yet encourages him in his adventurous nature.

he looks at you and you gave him a soft smile, which makes his heart do backflips.

he gives you a grin you know all too well

"y/n, my best friend, my sidekick, my partner-" he says, obviously trying to persuade you into something he wants to do.

"what are you up to now, boy? i know grin too well" you cut him off, while still adding beads to the necklace you were currently making.

"soren told me he saw some secret tunnel, but he was too pussy to go inside. i wanna go inside!" he says, practically jumping in excitement like a little kid

"lo'ak that tunnel could be dangerous." you pointed out, trying to get him to think things through

"but y/n/n, it could also be beautiful! please please please" he said, trying to tag you along.

"we could get hurt, do you really want an earful from your father again?" you say

he rolls his eyes at that, "oh come on when is he not lecturing me." he said nonchalantly. he grabbed your arm and tugged a little

"please, if anything goes wrong ill do anything you want for a week." he said still tugging your arm.

sighing, "fine, but if you get even a tiny scratch on yourself ill slap you." you said, standing up while he still has his hand wrapped around your arm.

-

here you were, hand in hand with lo'ak as you both walked through the forest.

"where is this damn tunnel lo'ak" you stated more than asked, you've been walking for approximately twenty five minutes and it was getting boring.

"he said it was just about a few blocks from here" he paused looking around, yet he heard a twig snapping and so did you

both your ears perked up,sensing danger, anf getting in a fighting stance.

you hear it growl, and saw these rapid animals that looked somewhat similar to a panther, crouching down, ready to charge and pounce at you two

your eyes widen, "holy shit holy shit holy shit, lo'ak!!" you grabbed his arm and started running, dragging him along.

he mutters some curse words and tried to run faster but these animals were catching up, one even managed to scratch lo'ak's leg

he yelled in pain, and look at the wound.

"fuck, come on let's go!" you said, also looking at his wound. you finally ran away far enough and the animals left you alone.

now you were trying to heal his wound as much as you can with limited resources.

you sigh, "i knew something bad would happen." you said, rubbing some soothing ointment that you bring for emergencies like this on his scratches.

he sheepishly grins "sorry, y/n/n. you know you love me." he said, his teasing nature still in him

you scoff and said, "i hate you."

he grins even wider

"i love you too."

you roll your eyes despite the small smile showing on your face and the blush on your cheeks.

this man was gonna be the death of you, if only he knew the effect he had on you.

you stare into his beautiful eyes and so did he, both of your minds rushing with things you wish you could say yet hesitate with the fear of rejection lingering around.

"let's go back?" you said, breaking the tension

he gets flustered and nods, "y-yeah, we should." stuttering as he spoke. he was lost in your eyes as he wishes you were something more.

everyone could see how you both pined for each other yet both of you were oblivious.

you both had the same wishes yet the same hesitation.

[hannahhook7744]

Arwen kids info part 2;

BASICS:

Full name: Iduna Merlyn Pendragon.

House: Pendragon.

Age: 22 years old.

Birth place: Camelot.

Current location: Camelot.

Titles: The 2nd born daughter, Princess of Camelot, Lady Iduna, and Princess Iduna.

Occupation: Princess of Camelot.

Known as: 'Una, Idu, the drama queen, Duna, Idy, Imp, I.M.P, the lovely Idu, and the love of Sir Edgar.

Known for: Being the love of Sir Edgar of the round table and being a Princess of Camelot.

ATTIRE:

General outfit: Light red poulaline shoes with a matching long sleeved wrap dress.

Weapons/Equipment: A light red handled, Parasol.

Extra accessories: A light red ribbon necklace.

PERSONALITY:

Fears: Not being able to marry Edgar, dying before her 27th birthday, being betrayed, being forgotten, being left alone, evil sorcerers, turning out like Uthur, dying in childbirth, accidentally marrying an evil troll, Wyverns, and snakes.

Dreams: She wants to marry Edgar, become a great queen, and a good mother.

Likes: Reading poetry, watching tournaments, watching Edgar Spar, Edgar, stealing from the kitchens, acting, reading, swimming, listening to music, playing games, dragonback riding, Falconry, and Embroidery.

Dislikes: Not being able to marry Edgar, her family in danger, assassination attempts, kidnapping attempts, her family in danger, her siblings going throw her things, being told what to do, anything Uther related, Merlin and Dragonet being mistreated, classist people, not being apart of council meetings, and not being apart of kingdom decisions and royal parties.

FAVORITES:

Favorite Color: Pinkish Red.

Favorite Food: Beef stew.

Favorite Drink: Cider.

Favorite Animal: Dragon.

Favorite Season: Summer.

Favorite Weapon: Parasol.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Friends: Dragonet, Lucan the Butler, Dindrane, Brangaine, Galahad, Balin, and Balan.

Parents: Arthur and Guinevere Pendragon.

Siblings: Llacheu Pendragon, Nathalia Pendragon, Aedulf Pendragon the 3rd, Amhar Pendragon, Loholt Pendragon, Duran Pendragon, Gwydre Pendragon, Artie Pendragon, Melora Pendragon, and Hilde Pendragon.

Love Interest: Sir Edgar of the Round table.

Children: None yet.

Animal companion: Dragon named Hyperion.

HISTORY:

Childhood: Iduna Merlyn Pendragon was born in Camelot to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere Pendragon a few years after the Battle of Camlann. Spending most of her youth studying and playing with her siblings and the staff's children.

Life: Eventually, she married a disgraced and denounced English prince named Edgar. Later, when he is undenounced Iduna goes back to his kingdom with him but remains in contact with her family despite their differences.

Death: Has not yet happened.

Quote: "He shouldn't force you to earn your stay! You've already earned that!"

Theme Song: "So This Is Love."

BASICS:

Full name: Aedulf Morgan Pendragon the 3rd.

House: Pendragon.

Age: 21 years old.

Birth place: Camelot.

Current location: Camelot.

Titles: The 4th born son, King of Camelot, Prince Aedulf, and Prince of Camelot.

Occupation: Prince/King of Camelot.

Known as: Morgan Le Noir, Ade, Luf, A.P, and King Aedulf ||| of Britain.

Known for: Being King of Britain and Prince of Camelot.

ATTIRE:

General outfit: Black boots, white trousers, blqck gloves, and a red tunic.

Weapons/Equipment: A red handled falchion.

Extra accessories: Emerald pendant.

PERSONALITY:

Fears: Out living his siblings and his friends, being betrayed, his loved ones, turning out like his grandfather, scorpions, evil sorcerers, marrying an evil troll, and Owlman.

Dreams: He wants to be a better king than his grandfather and if he couldn't do that, he'd want to be a Falconer.

Likes: Horseback riding, fighting crime, sparring, training falcons, hunting, taking care of the dogs, fishing, gambling, playing cards, reading ,and bobbing for apples.

Dislikes: Being betrayed, Kidnapping attempts, evil sorcerers, being compared to Uther, freezing water, scorpions, losing in sparring, losing in gambling, and veggie stew.

FAVORITES:

Favorite Color: Rossco Corisa red.

Favorite Food: Beans.

Favorite Drink: Tea.

Favorite Animal: Falcon.

Favorite Season: Spring.

Favorite Weapon: falchion.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Friends: Dragonet, Lucan the Butler, Dindrane, Sir Galahad, Andred, Balin, and Balan.

Parents: Arthur and Guinevere Pendragon.

Siblings: Llacheu Pendragon, Nathalia Pendragon, Iduna Pendragon, Amhar Pendragon, Loholt Pendragon, Duran Pendragon, Gwydre Pendragon, Artie Pendragon, Melora Pendragon, and Hilde Pendragon.

Love Interest: Brangaene.

Children: None as of yet.

Animal companion: Black horse named Akrsna.

HISTORY:

Childhood: Aedulf Morgan Pendragon the 3rd (named partly after Morgana) was born in Camelot to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere Pendragon a few years after the Battle of Camlann. He grew up quite the animal lover-- spending nearly all his free time in the stables, woods, owlry, falconry, fields, and doh kennels. When he wasn't in those places, he'd be playing with his siblings and friends, sparring, and doing his studies. One memorable moment in his childhood was when one of his older brothers convinced him that the owlman was real-- which established a life long fear for the young king.

Life: In his teens, he became a vigilante dressed in all black under the name 'Morgan Le Noir'-- alongside his brother, Duran-- saving people and animals under his parents' and siblings' noses. While also growing more and more fearful of the idea of out living his siblings. Eventually he met Isolde's former handmaiden, Brangaene, and fell in love with her. He grows up to become king of Camelot and marries her.

Death: Has not yet happened.

Quote: "Things didn't exactly go as planned, but we're not dead, so I'll consider it a win."

Theme Song: "Empy Chairs at Empty Tables."

BASICS:

Full name: Duran Patrike Pendragon.

House: Pendragon.

Age: 16 years old.

Birth place: Camelot.

Current location: Avalon (before rebirth).

Titles: The 5th born son, Sir Duran, Prince Duran, and Prince of Camelot.

Occupation: Prince of Camelot and squire.

Known as: Dur, D, 'ran, 'Uran, Patrike le Rous, and Enemy of the crows.

Known for: Dying in a battle and having his face peeked off by a crow, only for it to be batted away by Sanddef.

ATTIRE:

General outfit: Livid cloak, dark grey tunic, livid trousers, and grey boots.

Weapons/Equipment: A livid handled bec de corbin.

Extra accessories: Silver amulet.

PERSONALITY:

Fears: Crows, not making it past 24, evil sorcerers, turning out like Uthur, not being able to help his people, not being able to help his loved ones, birds, and being betrayed.

Dreams: He wants to be a mighty warrior who can protect all innocents. If he couldn't do that, he'd like to be a watchman.

Likes: Horseback riding, sparring, fighting crime, fishing, playing cards, bobbing for apples, sword fighting, reading, swimming, and climbing things.

Dislikes: Birdwatching, Kidnapping attempts, assassination attempts, evil sorcerers, being compared to Uther, crows, birds, ale, wine, beer, rum, being drunk, his loved ones being in danger, and not being able to help people.

FAVORITES:

Favorite Color: Livid (a Blue Grey color).

Favorite Food: Salmon.

Favorite Drink: Tea.

Favorite Animal: Horse.

Favorite Season: Winter.

Favorite Weapon: Bec de corbin.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Friends: Dragonet, Lucan the Butler, Ywain, Melehan, Sanddef, and Calogrenant.

Parents: Arthur and Guinevere Pendragon.

Siblings: Llacheu Pendragon, Nathalia Pendragon, Aedulf Pendragon the 3rd, Amhar Pendragon, Loholt Pendragon, Iduna Pendragon, Gwydre Pendragon, Artie Pendragon, Melora Pendragon, and Hilde Pendragon.

Love Interest: None.

Children: None.

Animal companion: Gray horse named Grayson.

HISTORY:

Childhood: Duran Patrike Pendragon was born in Camelot to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere Pendragon a few years after the Battle of Camlann. But before his birth, a witch prophesied that he'd die because of crows and because of that his parents kept him as far away from crows as possible. Meaning that he spent most of his days inside-- fearing any and all birds. Something he was quite fine with as a kid as he didn't mind reading and playing cards by himself.

Life: In his teens, he grew tired of being stuck inside all day and started sneaking out to fight crime as 'Patrike Le Rous' with the help of his older brother, Aedulf, and they were unstoppable until his older brother gave it all up to marry Brangaene. Unfortunately during this time he lost his protective amulet, which led to his downfall.

Death: He died in battle and got his face pecked off by crows until his friend, Sanddef, swatted them off.

Quote: "Why is it always crows?!"

Theme Song: "Safe and Sound."

BASICS:

Full name: Gwydre Ellis Pendragon.

House: Pendragon.

Age: 13 years old.

Birth place: Camelot.

Current location: Avalon (before rebirth).

Titles: The 6th born son, Sir Gwydre, Prince Gwydre, Gwydre the bard, and Prince of Camelot.

Occupation: Prince, Squire, and bard.

Known as: Gwy, 'Dre, Little G, G.P, G.E.P, 'Wydre, Specs, and Enemy of the Boars.

Known for: Helping Olwen and Culhwch get together and for being slaughtered by the giant boar 'Twrch Trwyth.'

ATTIRE:

General outfit: Pastel yellow shirt with a matching cloak, red boots with a matching tunic, and blue trousers.

Weapons/Equipment: A pastel yellow handled Horseman's pick.

Extra accessories: Silver glasses and a matching amulet.

PERSONALITY:

Fears: Boars, not being able to help his people, not being able to help his loved ones, evil sorcerers, turning out like Uthur, not being able to see, being too weak to fight, and being betrayed.

Dreams: He wants to be knight. If he can't be a knight, he wants to be a mummer and bard.

Likes: Sword fighting, acting, playing various instruments, singing, dancing, storytelling, climbing things, horseback riding, sparring, reading, swimming, playing dress up, and sewing.

Dislikes: Boars, pigs, evil sorcerers, being kidnapped, assassination attempts, being compared to Uther, being compared to anyone really, classist people, ale, wine, beer, rum, being drunk, his siblings invading his space, and his loved ones being in danger.

FAVORITES:

Favorite Color: Silver.

Favorite Food: Berries.

Favorite Drink: Cider.

Favorite Animal: Horse.

Favorite Season: Summer.

Favorite Weapon: Horseman's pick.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Friends: Dragonet, Lucan the Butler, Olwen, and Culhwch.

Parents: Arthur and Guinevere Pendragon.

Siblings: Llacheu Pendragon, Nathalia Pendragon, Aedulf Pendragon the 3rd, Amhar Pendragon, Loholt Pendragon, Iduna Pendragon, Duran Pendragon, Artie Pendragon, Melora Pendragon, and Hilde Pendragon.

Love Interest: None.

Children: None.

Animal companion: A light brown horse named Brainy.

HISTORY:

Childhood: Gwydre Ellis Pendragon was born in Camelot to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere Pendragon a few years after the Battle of Camlann. But before his birth, a witch prophesied that he'd die because of boars and because of that his parents kept him as far away from boars as possible. Unlike his brother, Doran--who had a similar faith--, Gwydre resented this very much and fought his parents on it constantly until they eventually gave in and gave him more freedom.

Life: He became a knight like most of his brothers before him while occasionally doing plays and shows. Eventually he goes on a quest to help Culhwch in winning his soon to he father in law's approval so he can marry Olwen (who is not his stepsister in this relam). Eventually losing his protective amulet in the process, leading to his death.

Death: He was slaughtered by the giant boar 'Twrch Trwyth.'

Quote: "What's life without freedom?"

Theme Song: "Viva La Vida."

[invisibleanonymousmonsters]

This Game of Yours

Father of Mine – Part 1 and Part 2

Jason was beautiful.

And somehow that scar that went from the right corner of his mouth up to his temple only made him that much more beautiful to Y/N.

Those blue eyes were the same color of water on a stormy day in the Irish sea. And somehow Y/N knew they held the same tempestuousness.

The white streak weaved with his jet black hair so naturally that Y/N would’ve believed he was born with it.

His shoulders were so broad, making his 6’3 height feel even more imposing. He had a presence. People noticed every time he walked into a room. It made Y/N wonder how he was ever able to sneak up on people as Red Hood.

He was wearing a black hoodie underneath his black moto jacket.

Y/N knew Jason didn’t give a shit about fashion. Yet he was well-dressed without any effort – more so than most of the models Y/N had shot throughout her career.

Not being able to control herself any longer, Y/N raised her camera and took a photo.

Jason stopped surveying their surroundings and his gaze snapped to her.

“What do you think you’re doing?” 

But his growl didn’t scare her in the slightest.

“Anyone who’s by me when I have a camera is at risk of getting their picture taken. No one is safe. Not even you,” she answered his question unapologetically.

Y/N was working on a personal passion project for her next show. Her collection would be about the poverty and crime of Gotham. Half of the photos would show the heaviest crime areas of the city. And the other half would expose the lifestyles of the wealthiest people in Gotham.

Why did so many suffer from the same system that helped the rich get even richer?

When Bruce found out Y/N was going to Crime Alley and the Bowery by herself, he was visibly upset.

But he realized that Y/N would do as she pleased, so his plan b was to give her protective detail.

However, Y/N didn’t know that Jason had volunteered, almost immediately.

Instead, all she heard was Jason grimly telling her, “You’re lucky you haven’t been fucking murdered yet.”

She had only responded with a roll of her eyes.

“I’m not your escort so you can take my picture. I’m here so you don’t get raped or murdered.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you have a way with words?”

His only response was a glare.

Jason loved playing this game. The game of pretending to be irritated with her when actually he was absolutely infatuated with Y/F/N Y/L/N.

“The easiest way to stop getting your picture taken is to always be the one holding the camera,” Y/N added with a smirk and wink.

Jason didn’t answer, only thinking what a shame it was that no one got to photograph her.

Suddenly, the sunlight hit the top of his head perfectly, creating a halo around that thick and messy hair of his.

Y/N snapped another photo.

“Will you stop?” He warned.

It only succeeded in making her laugh.

And that just excited his heart even more.

“Jason, you were born to get your photo taken.” 

There was no joke underneath her words, only sincerity.

“Whatever,” he mumbled.

Jason had a hard time believing that. His skin was riddled with scars. And he was convinced that she’d be singing a different song if she saw his chest, with its thick autopsy scar amongst the so many others. The absolute last word he’d use to describe himself was beautiful. Strong and imposing? Yes. But never beautiful – or any other positive adjective, for that matter.

“I’m not kidding. If you ever want to stop the whole vigilante thing, you can easily become a model.”

Y/N had noticed it as soon as Jason took of his helmet that night. His domino mask had done nothing to prevent her from noting the obvious.

It didn’t take long for Y/N to realize Jason wasn’t like his “brothers.”

“Brothers.” What a strange word.

Should she consider all of them as hers?

Only Damian was actually related to her – and technically he was only her half-brother.

Y/N had watched Jason get on his motorcycle and leave the cave that night she’d almost died.

She’d agreed to stay for dinner and get to know everyone. And a part of her brain was excited to get a better read on the masked man that sat by her bedside as she’d recovered.

“He’s not staying?” Y/N had asked Bruce as he guided her to the stairs that led back up to the manor.

He only shook his head, but she noticed the disappointed expression.

Soon she found out that Jason was the black sheep of this strange family that had taken her in.

Dick was the one who told her about Jason’s dark past. All of it seemed unbelievable: murdered by Joker and brought back to life from a mysterious pit. Only to return to the family who appeared to have replaced him and never sought vengeance on Jason’s behalf. 

But it was true; Y/N had seen no lie in Dick’s eyes when he filled her in.

Suddenly there was yelling coming from around the corner.

Without hesitation, Jason shoved Y/N behind him.

He reached for one of his guns and then realized that he didn’t have any.

Y/N was rather vocal about hating them, claiming they made her extremely uncomfortable.

Her expression alone as she said it was enough for Jason to swallow his stubbornness and leave the things at home.

Bruce was rather taken aback by the gesture. Nothing he’d ever said was enough to get Jason to do that.

A gang of young men came marching around the corner like they owned the place…because they did. This was their territory.

Jason immediately recognized them as some of the Russian mob.

Despite pulling Y/N behind him, they still caught sight of her and looked her up and down without an ounce of shame.

“Hey, beautiful. How you doing?”

“Продолжай идти, придурки,” Jason growled at them.

He was outnumbered. But there must’ve been something about his body language that made the gang realize they shouldn’t pick a fight with him. Maybe it was the muscles or his height or that he looked like he wouldn’t even blink before murdering them.

So they just…walked away. Some of them mumbled threats or insults at him. But they realized they shouldn’t even so much as look at Y/N.

A split second before they were gone, Y/N took a picture of Jason.

“Really?” He asked.

She shrugged. “You look like a different person when you’re protective.”

Y/N was beautiful.

Jason watched as she passionately explained her work to a potential buyer.

He recognized the man as a local politician – luckily, one of the few that hadn’t been corrupted from this shitty city.

Y/N had the intimidating energy of her father, but the kind eyes of her mother. At least, that was what Bruce had told everyone, and they all took his word for it.

She wore a stylish white jumpsuit that made her look like a 1980s villain and black stiletto heels. 

Jason watched as men cowered in her presence, hating the fact that she proudly stood taller than them. She was just one less woman they could intimidate or manipulate – and they couldn’t stand it.

But Jason loved watching the emasculation in real time.

The bastards didn’t deserve her anyway.

Dick was one of the very few men Jason knew who didn’t blink at a woman towering over him. In fact, his older brother had a track record of preferring it.

“Surprised to see you here,” Bruce said beside him, catching Jason watching Y/N.

“Well, I was her personal bodyguard through all this. Figured I should see if it was worth me wasting my time or not.” Then he tossed back his champagne and slammed it on the tray of a waiter passing by. “Plus, free alcohol.”

Bruce just quirked an eyebrow, silently telling Jason that he knew he was lying.

“Are you buying something?” Jason asked, trying to change the subject.

“I have been strictly forbidden,” Bruce sighed.

Jason chuckled.

He knew if Bruce had his way, he’d buy every single on of Y/N’s pieces.

“I have to know,” Bruce began. “What exactly is holding you back?”

Jason finally ripped his gaze away from Y/N to give Bruce a questioning look.

“What are you talking about?”

“Y/N. You care about her.”

“All of us do,” Jason brushed off. “Even the demon spawn.”

Bruce knew there wasn’t a chance Jason would admit his feelings – especially to him.

“Not that I think you care…but you have my approval.”

Little did Bruce know, Jason did care.

Jason had convinced himself that their rocky relationship and past fights meant that Bruce would die before he let Jason be anywhere near his daughter.

And Jason could hardly blame him.

He didn’t deserve to be loved. He lost that right after he died and came back a monster. And that was the story Jason told himself over and over again.

So he would love Y/N from afar. And hope she would pick someone who was worthy of her love.

“She’s basically my sister,” Jason groaned in fake disgust.

It was quite the performance.

Bruce narrowed his eyes. “We both know that isn’t what’s stopping you. And you’ve made it clear you don’t consider us your family.”

“Whatever, Bruce.”

Jason walked away, having enough of the subject.

“What was that about?” Clark asked as he joined Bruce’s side.

“Jason refusing to let himself be happy,” Bruce sighed.

Clark already knew what Bruce was talking about. He’d seen Y/N and Jason dancing around each other for months now. He’d never really seen Y/N take an interest in anyone before, so it was all new for Clark.

“Don’t worry. Y/N won’t let him get away with it for much longer,” Clark said through a smirk. “She gets what she wants.”

And Bruce believed him.

“It doesn’t bother you – the two of them together?” Clark asked with genuine curiosity.

“Jason reminds me every day that I’m not his father. And I’m hardly Y/N’s.” A soft smile formed on Bruce’s lips. “He’ll look after her. And she…I think she’d be good for him. I just want them to be happy. Both of them.”

——

Jason headed home rather early.

He’d never actually went to say congratulations or even hello to Y/N.

Every time he was about to go over, someone else stole her attention. He didn’t want to get in the way of her talking to potential buyers or even just friends.

Jason was just about to make himself something to eat when there was a knock at his door.

He froze.

Very few people knew where his apartment was.

Jason grabbed a gun and tiptoed to his front door.

With a peak through the peephole, he let out a irritated sigh.

Jason whipped the door open, “You’re lucky I didn’t shoot your head off.”

“Maybe don’t own guns and you wouldn’t have to worry about shit like that,” Y/N snapped back.

“What are you doing here?”

“You come to my gallery opening and don’t even say hi?” Y/N accused as she stepped around him and into the apartment, not waiting for an invitation.

Jason eyed the paper bag that was in one of her hands.

“By all means, come on in,” he called sarcastically as he slammed the door behind her.

Y/N started searching through his cabinets. “Where are your glasses?”

“The one to your right. What are you doing here?”

Y/N had the brightest and almost mischievous smile as she pulled a bottle of champagne from the paper bag.

“I brought this as my thanks for you making sure I don’t – and I quote – ‘get raped and murdered.’”

Jason glared at her.

Here was the game again.

Y/N being charming and hilariously provoking..and Jason pretending like he hadn’t fallen for her.

She poured them both a glass. They weren’t flutes or coupes, but she couldn’t care less.

“We’re chugging these, by the way,” Y/N informed Jason as she handed him a glass.

He sighed, but obediently clinked his glass with hers and tossed it back.

Barely giving them a second, Y/N immediately refilled them.

“So, why didn’t you come over and say hi?” She repeated.

“Didn’t want to bother you,” Jason mumbled with a shrug.

She narrowed her eyes at his answer. “You’ve never bothered me before, Jason.”

Now he felt guilty.

Jason bowed his head. “I should’ve come and talked to you,” he agreed. “Your work…it looked – it’s amazing, Y/N. Congratulations.”

Apparently Y/N hadn’t expected such a sincere compliment from him, and she was stunned to silence.

“Thank you,” she managed to whisper once she’d recovered.

She cleared her throat, trying to maintain her edge. “And really…thank you for being my own little security detail.”

If Jason was healthy about expressing is thoughts and feelings, he would’ve told her that it was the highlight of his weeks. That he looked forward to her calls or texts, telling him that she was going to photograph another shady area. “Be there or don’t. I’m going no matter what,” she’d text him with her usual snark.

But Jason didn’t express his thoughts and feelings.

He kept them bottled up – with the same energy he used to keep Y/N at a distance.

So instead, Jason said, “If it wasn’t me, one of the others would’ve done it.”

Y/N winced slightly at that.

‘You’re such a fucking asshole,’ Jason told himself.

“You know…we can see each other even you’re not my bodyguard.”

Jason was impressed by her boldness. But she didn’t know what she was doing. She didn’t understand that he wasn’t good. He couldn’t play the loving boyfriend role. She belonged with someone like Dick or Clark – or literally anyone but him. And Jason was willing to be an asshole to make sure she understood that.

Y/N took a step closer to him, invading his personal space.

Without breaking eye contact, she threw back her second glass of champagne and then placed it on the nearest counter space.

She stepped even closer.

This was simultaneously Jason’s worst nightmare and most desired dream.

Her eyes moved from his eyes to his lips.

But before she could make her final push, Jason took a step back and cleared his throat.

He looked down at the ground as he said, “You should go.”

When he looked up, he expected to find Y/N heartbroken or embarrassed.

But she was neither.

No. She looked irritated.

Not because she wasn’t getting what she wanted, but because she was sick of his games.

Y/N sighed and stepped back. “Fine.”

Jason rubbed his face in frustration as she grabbed her purse and started for the door she had walked through only minutes ago.

She opened it and paused.

“You know what? No. Fuck that,” Y/N snapped before slamming the door closed.

She whipped around and strutted back to him with purpose.

Jason was suspended with both fervor and awe.

Y/N grabbed his face and pulled him down to her lips.

All self control went out the window. Jason couldn’t continue his game. It was all over for him.

He kissed her back almost immediately. How could he not?

Y/N bit his lip slightly, making him hiss in surprise. It was his punishment for making her wait all this time.

Eventually they needed a moment to breathe.

But Y/N didn’t let go of his face when their lips finally parted.

“Choose your next words very carefully,” she breathed.

He swallowed nervously. “You’re kind of fucking terrifying. You know that?”

Her smile was pure evil.

Apparently this was the right response.

“Are you done being an idiot?” She asked.

He nodded quickly.

Her hands moved down and then lingered on his neck, tracing the bottom lines of his jaw.

She smiled again and then looked him up and down.

“What?” He questioned.

“Nothing,” she laughed. “I’m just…I’m not used to being shorter than men.”

“Is that the only reason you like me? Huh? My height?” Jason goaded.

“Of course not,” Y/N scoffed. “It was the whole ‘I look like I could murder everyone and I can, but deep down I’m a big softie’ that did it for me.”

Jason’s grip tightened on her waist. “Oh, yeah? You’re one to talk…”

“Me?!” She yelped. “I couldn’t kill anyone, even if my life depended on it.”

“Maybe. But your terrifying in basically every other way.”

Y/N laughed at that.

Jason couldn’t stop himself from smiling at the sound

“So…still want me to leave?” She asked.

And this time, she would if that’s really what he wanted.

“Fuck no,” Jason answered, almost threateningly.

Then, for good measure, he picked her up by the back of her thighs and carried her to the couch, before he started to kiss her once again.

Y/N knew things weren’t always going to be this simple.

Jason had his demons. 

And honestly, so did she. They were nothing like his. And maybe they were silly in comparison. But she wouldn’t be the perfect partner. Just like he wouldn’t be. 

They’d drive each other crazy. But it would be the good kind of crazy.

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

+ Childhood