#anyway. one of the tropes of all time. up there with supervillain who is a father and goldfish piloting a mech body.

[ozcarr]

literally the best thing a story can have is two weird guys who stand next to each other.

Like. Bulk and Skull. Troy and Abed. Cannonball and Sunspot. Those freaks from Pirates of the Caribbean. Octavius and Jedediah. Wario and Waluigi. Ornstein and Smough. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Doesn't even matter the nature of their relationship. Most important thing is that they're weird and next to each other.

[cairavende]

Worm Arc 21 thoughts:

Well that was sure a turn around from last arc's "I'm going to rally the students so I don't get captured."

I know my daughter has made some . . . mistakes, but I'm not a fan of her turning herself into the openly corrupted and also bad at their job parahuman cops.

(Parahuman cops as in "cops who police parahumans" not "cops who are parahumans")

Like look, I get it. A precog told her to cut ties. I can't say it's wrong to follow that advice. But she could do that in a lot of ways that don't involve the PRT.

The second not from Dinah just being "I'm sorry" is brutal.

But before she can turn herself in she has to absolutely fucking crush the PRT/Protectorate for outing her civilian identity.

I love how fucking simple taking out the entire PRT headquarters was for Skitter and her girlfriends!

Who needs anyone else? Bitch brings muscle, Tattletale brings information, Skitter brings battlefield control. Lesbian polycule power activate!

Was it an overboard response? Maybe. Was it badass how she just took out so many heroes and PRT troops with ease? Yes.

Poor Dovetail has one of the most embarrassing introductions ever. First time we see her and Skitter is wiping the floor with her and thinking about her "crummy power".

God I hate Tagg so much that he makes me miss Piggot. Like she was absolutely terrible, but he's worse! And making me miss Piggot makes me hate Tagg even more!

Kindly old cemetery groundskeeper who doesn't pay much attention to the news! Never a bad trope.

They gave Butcher 15 to Cherish???!? Like sure they give all the reasoning for it but like ... it just seems like a really high risk situation. If she ever gets out it's going to suck. A lot.

THE SCENE AT RACHEL'S PLACE OH MY GOD!

SHE IS BUILDING A COMMUNITY! I LOVE HER SO MUCH!

Rachel just over here finding everyone like her and giving them a place. Legit crying. Look at that fucking growth!

(Also shout-out to my wife for having basically done the same thing. It's how I met her. It's how I met one of my girlfriends. And so many other important people. So ya. I fucking love this.)

Also you ever like a girl so much you try to give her an entire planet? Cause Taylor sure has.

"Rachel I don't want you to be sad when I'm gone so you can basically have this whole other planet we found."

GGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

Imp let Regent take control of her . . . welp. Like, I'm not really surprised by this. And in a different situation I wouldn't even really find it that weird. I'd do it with the right person. But combination of age and the situation they are in and Regent being Regent annnnnd ya. Welp.

I did love how much of the interactions between Skitter and Regent/Imp really was just her struggling with parenting two teenage supervillains.

IT'S NOT SO EASY, IS IT CHILD?!? MAYBE YOU'LL CUT ME SOME SLACK AND LISTEN TO MY ADVICE IN THE FUTURE!

(She won't)

I fucking LOVE that she made the bible themed hero kneel. Absolutely fucking amazing.

Oh shiiit, Skitter just flat dropped that guy multiple stories. Is she going to far?

. . . wellll, these guys do literally worship the Endbringers so I guess a little aggression is ok.

Damn, Valefor sure has some fucked up powers, I wonder what they're gonna do abou-

. . .

. . .

. . . . . .

. . . wellll, these guys do literally worship the Endbringers so I guess a little aggression is ok.

. . .

Yep.

. . .

. . . I think I preferred when she just used a knife.

So anyway

Not a fan of Taylor having more alone time with Brian (not because I have any issue with the idea, but because I think she needs to be focusing on her girlfriends), but I am a fan of her using bugs to clean her dress and fix her hair afterwords while Brian just kinda sits there and has to contemplate what he has gotten himself into. Queen shit.

Flechette was SO mad that Parian wasn't "cute" anymore, I couldn't stop laughing. Sure, she said "You had to take the playfulness away? The joy?" but we all know what she meant. Of course, it's won't take very long for the new costume to get Flechette's attention. (I have to mention that this is basically exactly what I said when reading the scene, and the interlude a few chapters later just proved me right.)

Flechette is just so hopelessly gay

Miss Militia is actually getting very mild respect from me right now. Like, she's still working for the cops but she is actually agreeing to silently push against some things. Now, she says she doesn't have more power then that but she is a very well known hero and if she would publicly speak out about certain things there is a decent chance she could do more. That would of course be putting her position at risk though. Which is why she only gets very mild respect right now.

OH MY GOD I DIDN'T JUST GET TO SEE TATTLETALE'S MURDER WALL, I GOT TO SEE HER ENTIRE MURDER ROOM!

Fucking multiple bulletin boards with threads connecting them. Everything color coded. Reference numbers to files with more details. Multiple TV screens, computer with constant information dump. God. It's like a literal representation of the inside of my mind while I read Worm. SO MANY THINGS TO FIGURE OUT!

I love a lot of characters, but Tattletale always stays near the top. She gets me.

And from the fucking joy of getting to see that setup I come crashing the fuck down.

Like, I have completely figured out at this point that Skitter is turning herself in. I know what is coming. She's had her moment with everyone else and Tattletale is the last one.

And then. Then just . .

No goodbyes.

😭😭😭😭😭

HOW DARE THIS BOOK MAKE ME FEEL MY OWN FEELINGS!! I'M TOO GAY FOR THIS!

I do find it hysterical that the PRT officers working the front lobby don't all recognize Skitter on sight. Fucking gas station employees will manage to keep track of people with pictures on the "bad check" board, you'd think the PRT could manage to have their officers keep track of the face of one of the most well know villains in the country, if not the world, who also controls their city. PRT is forever bad at their job.

That one guy did notice her eventually though, so I guess he gets to be employee of the month.

The Number Man interlude thoughts:

The inside of this mans mind is one of the sexiest things I have ever seen and the constant reminder of the horrible things he is helping Cauldron do to all their prisoners was very helpful because it was the only thing keeping me from deciding that The Number Man is a perfect soul that can do no wrong.

I have no illusions here. I am weak. This man is a monster and I should not have any trouble remembering that.

But fuck shit fuck oh god fuck I don't even need him to touch me. I just need him to TALK to me. I just need him to get high with me and let me pick apart how his mind works!

He understood numbers, and through them, he understood everything.

That line. Absolute killer. Fucking take me.

. . . anyway yes it's a very interesting interlude!

Loved seeing more of the inner workings of Cauldron

I very much want to see the final level of their basement that only the Doctor goes into because I said that I thought Cauldron had a dead (for values of dead that are non-definable) higher dimensional being in their basement back during arc 15 and now I know for sure that there is something down there. I wanna know if I was right!

Oh my god he was friends with Jack

"Friends"

Look I make everything gay ok? It's not my choice! Sure it means I get to enjoy every tiny bit of Wolfspider and Chatterbug cause I see all of it. But it also means I see the ships I don't want to think about!

I men what was I supposed to think when Jack said “We can live this. Together. Every waking second���”?

Gay

Parian interlude thoughts:

And speaking of gay!

Fucking Flechette just full blown "Fuck all of this I want you to tell me what to do for the rest of my life!"

Full U-Haul lesbian.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

This is Parian's new costume having an effect.

Just so gay. I love it.

Also Bitch just so fucking ready to break Skitter out. So fucking gay.

And the incredible loyalty, which is gonna hurt if she ends up feeling betrayed by Skitter.

Still gay though.

Tattletale, basically without powers, just completely giving Accord the "fuck off, we're in charge" was amazing. All she had to do was promise to consider his binders and he was all in. This poor man just wants somebody to read his ideas! He's like a aspiring screenwriter just begging people to read his script.

[kyliafanfiction]

One of the things I like to do sometimes is imagine the canon - any canon - as the fanfic, with all the tropes and changes that implies, and try to imagine what the notional canon of that would be.

And one of my many fic ideas is a little write up of what the notional canon for what was the 'source media' for Worm would be. It's actually a crossover between three things:

a novel centered around Eidolon and the Triumvirate, includes Scion and the Endbringers,

a fairly dark, aimed at like college-aged people graphic novel series about New Wave (and especially Amy and Vicky) that really delves into how fucked up having superhero parents and them being open about it could really be (like what Worm/Ward canon does with them),

and a cartoon about the Undersiders that's like, aimed at 12-15 year olds. And it would get a little more serious with each season, as the initial audience got older or something. Though obviously not as much as Worm canon did. Vaguely 'saturday morning cartoon network superman/batman/etc' vibes perhaps.

And the idea would be that Worm is a crossover fic between all three media, taking bits and pieces of all three and combining them into one surprisingly cohesive fanfic world.

And the Undersiders cartoon idea just really sticks with me.

Like, I envision the Undersiders cartoon being about them as like, friendly neighborhood supervillains, they rob sure, but it's mostly harmless and they usually go up against supervillians (like sanitized versions of Bakuda and Lung) most of the time in their robberies anyway.

Coil could still be their boss, but he'd be played for laughs, probably regularly exasperated in a comedic way by the Undersiders antics. Armsmaster would the hapless superhero who keeps trying to bring the Undersiders in but eventually has to accept they're not actually that bad (because of course that would be an arc of the cartoon, them becoming heroes of a sort).

I have this image of Piggot being a police captain or something that keeps having to not prioritize the Undersiders or something, and at one point she lectures and scolds them like a principal. Just seems like a funny mental image and fitting for the medium/genre/target audience there.

The show would start with Taylor joining the team. There'd probably be a lot more chance of the Trio getting punished, maybe near the end of the first season, and some of what they do would be toned down. Sophia being a hero who bullies in her civilian life could be kept. Taylor's power would probably not be exploited to the fullest in the cartoon, but I think they could make it work. Rachel couldn't be called Bitch, of course, and Regent and Heartbreaker, etc, would need to be toned down some, but I think you could keep the broad strokes and put it on implication.

Uber and Leet would probably be in the cartoon, and they'd probably be more the mostly fun and friendly version of them some fics paint them as, rather than the jerky assholes who also beat up hookers just for the bit version they are in canon.

I hardly have the whole idea worked out, and the notional fic Idea would probably be like, an outline of the 3-4 season show (and related summaries of the other two media) focusing on what Worm took in from the media and how the 'OG' version differs, etc. All in good fun. No idea if I'll ever write it, but the idea of an Undersiders Cartoon is just an alluring notion that I can't get out of my head.

[escapedaudios]

I was thinking about my notorious disrespect for the yandere trope, which is weird because I have written yandere audios before (as a script writer on behalf of other VAs) and enjoyed writing them. Sometimes I'm just like "ok do I hate this trope in audios or not".

And I think I realized that I just hated how watered-down it was by people who fundamentally misunderstand the point of that trope. It was really, really popular in the early 2020s, so tons of people jumped on it as a trend but fucked it up. Audios are usually based around romance to some degree, especially one-shot boyfriend/girlfriend ASMR roleplay, which kind of conflicts with the point of the yandere.

One problem is that yandere is a character trope, not a genre, but it gets treated like a genre and therefore has no direction for plot. The other problem is that the yandere is not *supposed* to be appealing, I see the appeal of wanting to imagine yourself desired by someone so obsessed that they'd do horrible things to have you, but that appeal is supposed to be IN SPITE of the mega-creepiness at the surface. Yandere is not a romance trope, it's a horror trope, and writing them as romantic love interests will clash with writing them as yanderes.

Some people who like the trope will say "oh well my yanderes are softer" or "my yanderes aren't toxic". My liege, the toxicity is what makes them yanderes. When you try to make them sympathetic, soft, or non-toxic you hollow them out into a husk. You didn't improve the trope by making them good people, they're supposed to be fundamentally frightening and immoral.

I see a lot of eagerness among VAs/writers to use bad guy tropes (ex: mafia bosses, monsters, supervillains, delinquents, etc) but a lot of hesitancy to actually make them bad. The mafia bosses actually have a code of honor and won't victimize innocent people, the monsters behave indistinguishably from regular people, the villains and delinquents are just misunderstood well-meaning people. It's actually so whack.

Let them be bad, I promise you, it won't damage their appeal. People salivate over pure fucking evil fictional bad guys all the time. The listeners who pick your video hoping for monsters, yandere freaks, and villainy are there for it, otherwise they wouldn't have chosen to watch it. Don't worry about making them non toxic. This is all fiction, there's tons of stuff that would ve horrifying and wrong in real life that is appealing and fun in fiction.

Anyway, I'm hoping for a classic yandere comeback one day where they are just god damn terrible people with no regard for being non-toxic soft yandere bullshit characters.

[besttropeveershowdown]

Propaganda Time!

I am back with more Propaganda about why "All just a Dream" is NOT an inherently bad/annoying trope and just frequently misused!

And I bring more examples, funnily enough also all from DC animated shows (someone in their writing department knows what they are doing, damn!)

The first two examples I wont spoil, they are both episodes of Batman the Animated Series, and while they both follow the classic formula to a T, they also make it very clear that the point was never about what happened in the dream, but what the dream can tell us about the dreamer and how they view themselves and the world around them.

That also makes both episodes very re-watchable because the context of the dream makes if very easy to pick up on all the details hidden everywhere, though it also helps that this show was a "villain-of-the-week"-style anthology with almost no overlapping storytelling or arcs that could be disrupted by dream plots.

But wait, there's more:

The follow up Shows Justice League and Justice League Unlimited have their own Dream-Plots and they try something else: Both the two-parter "Only a Dream" and "For the Man Who has Everything" reveal that they are Dream-Plots very early on and add an outside perspective from the Dreamers allies & friends (both dreams are caused by supervillain shenanigans).

One could argue that that disqualifies them as "Only a Dream" Episodes, but I would disagree. Both episodes center their main-plot around characters in a dream world that, ultimately, can have no consequences in the real world.

What they do is, once again, show us those characters hopes, fears, and, well, dreams. And due to the early reveal, we are aware of that and can pick up all those bits of characterization immediately as we watch the characters struggle with them. As a bonus on top, due to the outside perspective there is an easy way for those stories to show the consequences the dream-sequences can actually have, as the dreamers, once they are awake, have to deal with and can (or refuse to!) share the contents of their dreams and what they might say about them.

Lastly, I realized while writing this, that, in recent years, episodes that enrage me like the worst dream-plots used to, are no longer dream plots!

Both Time-travel and Alternate Dimensions/Universes have become very popular to pull basically the same thing as a dream plot would: Show cool crazy twists and turns and then just undo everything with the snap of a finger.

(If you want to hurt yourself for no reason, Ladybug season 3 has an episode that is half time-travel, half dimension-travel and all terrible.)

It's as if some writers remembered how hated dream-plots were and thought that the dreams were the problem, not everything else, which, if you ask me, is just more proof that dream-plots are unfairly maligned.

Anyway, wall of text over, thanks for coming to my Ted talk!

Your propaganda has been noted!

[zahri-melitor]

#okay this is a very localized example but#you know that stupid fridge joke tom taylor made with barbara???#people were tweeting gail simone panels of that like 'haha look at this clever reference to that list you made! :)'#and like. i mean i don't know gail simone#and she's definitely done some stuff in her time. for all i know she thinks that's funny#but *i* would have killed him#i would have snapped his fucking neck and stepped over his corpse#glowing faintly with a righteous metaphysical rage as i walked into my supervillain era#and no jury on earth would convict me (h/t @upswings)

Because I need to rant about this and I think putting this over in the original post is just going to be drama: I could not cope, being Gail Simone.

Yes, she's done some shit in her time, agreed. But it is nothing compared to the steaming pile of nonsense she's had to put up with for the past 24 years.

Like. If you've ever read the original "Women in Refrigerators" website (and why haven't you, it's short and damning and there's a reason we all reference it), the fact that anyone would think it's 'funny' to send Gail Simone jokes referencing the trope is disgusting.

This is a woman who is one of the four central figures of Barbara's post-A Killing Joke characterisation, who was forced into a position by editorial to decide whether to be complicit in destroying Oracle or to walk away and let someone else do it with even less respect (and we know what 'worse' looked like, because Burnside exists). Who was given dictates that she could not reference almost anything from characterisation and imagery she'd helped develop.

Who was stuck being one of the only prominent women writers for DC to point to during periods where there were more men named 'Chris' or 'Tom' writing comics for DC than women. We're not sexist, we've got uhhhh Gail Simone! Who else? We forgot. During periods editorial was doubling down on 'can't we just shut the women up anyway about their complaints', they were leaning on the fact that Gail 'Women in Refrigerators' Simone was still writing for them, as if it wasn't abundantly clear that some of the time she was only doing that to try and head off MORE female characters being shafted.

If she wants to make those jokes herself? I'm not going to get in her way. But the utter gall of thinking it was in any way funny to make those jokes to her? I'm steaming.

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

Arc 11 - Halfway Reflections

I'm gonna guess, based on what I know, that the Arc 11 Interludes are gonna be pretty different from 11.1 to 11.8, so probably worth doing a Arc reflection here, after having Read 11.8, but before I do the interludes.

Arc 11 is pretty good. Gives us a much closer look at just how shitty the city has gotten - very reminiscent of like... post-Katrina New Orleans... but with superpowered gangs making the recovery efforts harder.

We get to see Taylor actually starting her Warlord career, we get to see Taylor taking requests from her subjects, as it were, and actually going out on a little quest. We see how her power can give her the ability to police her zone in a way that no one else really can - the ability to see what's coming and then deal with it from a distance. Again, bug control - seems lame. Isn't. Isn't at all.

The Merchants get their moment in the sun after having been lurking uselessly at the edge of the narrative for a while... and they get wrecked by Faultline and Co who are just trying to get some Case 53 Intel. We get another hint of Cauldron... well, existing, and a sign of their supposed reach and power. It's definitely a long time for that to get a payoff, but I know we'll get it.

the Merchants as being the sort of... embrace the madness of the times kind of faction makes sense, and the way that Skiddy is deciding to try and manufacture triggers is believable - obviously people would try that - and also clearly only works on the scale that he's doing it because of the state of the Bay. And the Merchants, like the short-sighted idiots they are, have decided that they're gonna try to prolong this process, which is... a choice.

Admittedly, I didn't expect this to be Arc 11's main part - I kind of expected S9 to play a larger role, and I'm sure a blind reader coming in would be like 'where's these serial killers I'm getting teased about?, what about that end of the world shit?!'

Arc 11's first half gives us more 'Taylor fighting villains, being a less bad option' which is a regular fare to make her further descent into supervillainy more palatable to the reader but the thing is... Taylor never really becomes a Supervillain in anything but the surface? Like, yes, she does bad things, but villain is really not a great descriptor of her so far, and probably never will be. She never loses sight of her ultimately heroic goals, and she's not going like... she's not pulling a 'Knight Templar' trope, where she does so many horrible things in the name of a righteous cause, believing in her righteousness.

I am led to believe that there is a common notion in large swaths of the fandom that we aren't supposed to believe that Taylor is making good choices here. Like, good as in 'correct' or 'most effective', and Taylor is definitely a biased POV and all, but honestly, it's hard to see her being effective at what she's doing, or at what's coming, if she doesn't make them? Very few of her choices have actually made things significantly worse for much of anyone who doesn't deserve it at this point (She's hardly solely responsible for Dinah) beyond maybe Amy after the bank thing, and as with Dinah, that probably would have happened without her anyway.

Overall, I like Arc 11. I think 8 still wins as the best so far, but 11 is up there.

[fern-writes-whump]

Fernnn I’m back with more promptsss

“Caretaker no! It’s not worth it-“ *gets tazered*

“She’s not looking to good, hero. Better make a choice fast. Her… or the world?”

(Used as bait trope. Caretaker/hero x whumpee villain whumper) all of our favorite things. HAPPY WRITING

YES this is great thank youu ✨✨✨ I ended up slightly off script here but I hope you like it <3

warning for violence and captivity, please tell me if I should tag more stuff ! ft generic Hero, Villain & Supervillain bc I still haven't made super ocs lol

---

Villain was starting to lose what little sliver of optimism had rubbed off on her from Hero. She was kneeling at the top of a skyscraper, in a fucking shock collar, and with a gun pointed at her head. Not to mention the concussion Supervillain's men had most likely caused her on their way there. All to say: she wasn't looking good and she sure as shit didn't feel it.

"Did you really think I wouldn't find out about this rat, Hero?"

Ah, that too. She wasn't stupid, of course double-crossing Supervillain couldn't last and it was a miracle she managed it as long as she did. But it wasn't like her line of work allowed her to put in a two weeks now, did it? She wanted out, and Hero said he could help her if she helped him first. And what a great deal that was.

"You don't have to do this- let her go!" Sweet, brave, dumb Hero. She never understood why they always bothered with that, trying to reason with a man that was holding the whole city hostage.

Supervillain predictably replied by simply cackling, looking at Hero like he was a toy that was starting to get dangerously boring. "I can't do that. Forgiveness really isn't my style…" He drawled out twirling the collar's remote in his left hand. "What kind of message would it send if I spared a traitor?" His voice was dripping with venom now, his whole act depended on him seeming cold and uninterested but she knew her betrayal had stung him deep.

"What do you want?" Hero asked through gritted teeth, way too meek compared to his usually boisterous persona. He was only looking at her, just like she was only looking at him. He was tired. Nobody could tell but her but the fight had dragged on for hours and no kind of superpowers could save him from exhaustion.

"Oh! That's the fun part, Hero." Supervillain's tone was amused, mocking, alarmingly cheerful. "I already have what I want." He cocked his head to the side looking at Villain and repositioning his gun to the side of her head, making sure Hero had a good view. "The only question is if you'll make things more complicated for yourself"

"Now Hero, there's two ways this can go." The silence stretched for seconds that felt like hours. Villain tried to ease her breathing, she couldn't think of a single way this would end well for her. "Option number one. You drop your weapon and let me carry on with my plans. I'll let her go and turn a blind eye as long as you stay away from my… endeavors. Who cares about a few thousand civilians anyway?"

Hero was growing restless, just on the verge of doing something stupid and impulsive. He stayed perfectly still, glaring daggers at Supervillain and forcing himself to hear the rest of his threats before throwing himself at him.

Supervillain grinned at Hero's display of self-control, he could see the way his muscles were tensing and it amused him to no end knowing he was scared enough to think instead of acting for once. "Option number two." He carried on, taking his sweet time. "You try and save the day as you usually do, follow your moral compass and all that crap. But…" He pretended to stop and think, looking almost genuinely puzzled. "…Hero, are you really sure you're fast enough to stop me before I blow her brains out?"

She swallowed. She looked at Hero, but he wasn't looking at her anymore, he was looking somewhere just over her head. The gun. There was no point in wiping her tears in the state that she already was in, not that she could have with her hands bound behind her back. "Do it."

Hero's face went from panicked to confused and terrified within seconds. She didn't give him time to react before she was shouting at him. "Run!" She was calmer than she ever thought she'd be in a situation like that. She had to come to terms with the idea of getting hurt or even killed years ago but nobody could really predict how they'd react knowing they were seconds away from leaving this world. "You can still make it in time to stop it!"

"You know I'm not worth it, Hero! You can't let-" Her words were cut short by a surge of pain coursing through her whole body. She crumpled to the ground, shaking and seizing, her vision abandoning her immediately from the pain. Hero was screaming her name but she couldn't hear him over the ringing in her ears. While she was catching her breath, Supervillain turned his attention back to Hero.

"Choose!" He screamed, cocking the gun.

Two gunshots rang out almost simultaneously. The first thing she registered was how loud it was, then she saw Supervillain fall to the ground beside her.

Within seconds Hero was by her side, cursing and apologizing all at once, he was holding her, pulling her against his chest. Her vision was still blurry and she felt so lightheaded. At some point, he must have untied her because she was looking at her hand on Hero's cheek. She wiped a tear off of his face and distantly wondered why she had left a red stain behind instead.

[marypsue]

fic writer self-recs

I was tagged by the lovely and talented @titleleaf!

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

I'm gonna try not to just reproduce the same list from the last time I did this (although I can't fucking find it, so who knows), and also shine the spotlight on some that I think don't get as much attention but that I'm still very proud of anyway!

(But also, the road goes ever on. It's always gonna be the road goes ever on.)

1. house rule #3 (MCU Thor, Avengers [2012])

“Darcy,” Jane says, firmly. “Breathe.” “I am totally breathing,” Darcy protests. “Look, after you offered me the job, she bought us a bottle of sparkling wine and thanked me really cryptically and I basically haven’t seen her since. And in that time, Selvig’s dropped off the map, and a supervillain calling himself Loki who could be her fraternal twin pops up and starts chewing German scenery in a helmet that looks exactly like the one in this book.” Darcy sits back in her chair, bouncing off the back. “Also, I told her about this professor who was a total pain in my ass, and like two weeks later he was on leave for ‘undisclosed reasons’ and he still hasn’t come back.” “This…could all be a coincidence,” Jane says, lamely. “Oh yeah. Same way that weird homeless guy you kept hitting with your car showing up inside that storm was all a coincidence,” Darcy says. “Oh, my god. I’ve been watching ANTM highlights with a supervillain.”

I love Darcy Lewis, I think the narrative voice in this one hits her sense of humour just right, and it makes me astoundingly nostalgic for the early 2010s.

2. definitely not bfu rpf (definitely not Buzzfeed Unsolved/Watcher Unsolved?)

“Even Scully took it seriously when the shadow government gave her cancer, man,” Bryan says, when he sees the glitchy footage. “There – okay, there are two issues with that line of logic,” Zane says. “First, cancer. That’s detectable by current medical science. It’s not exactly a matter of belief. Second, Dana Scully is a fictional character.” “So you won’t get an exorcism?” Bryan says, sounding defeated. “Bryan, my dear, I think you already know the answer to that one.”

Back when the Watcher guys were still attached to Buzzfeed, there was a really popular fandom trope that went around that Shane was secretly a demon. However, nobody seemed to have taken the next logical step - that if Shane was a demon, he wouldn't believe it.

(I don't write RPF, because I tried it and felt weird about it, but I just had to get this written, so I changed everybody's names to something that rhymed with the real-life people's names. Legally Distinct Buzzfeed Unresolved.)

3. Girls In White Dresses (Supernatural)

Mary’s the first to appear in the kitchen doorway, pistol raised, eyes flinty. But she pauses, just for a moment, when she sees Dean, and Jess’ stomach drops. Whoever - whatever - Dean really is, he at least hadn’t lied when he’d said he was Sam’s brother. He’s Mary’s son. And Mary’d just had to watch, helpless, while one of her sons died. Mary’s going to hesitate. But Jess can already tell that Dean won’t. By the way Dean's grinning, she can tell he knows it too.

I had to unfridge some of SPN's many, many freezer-burned women. Also it was so much fun to try to think up ways to hurt all of them emotionally as badly as the show likes to hurt its big strong men emotionally. (Lady Gaga voice) It's equality.

4. i hold with those who favour fire (Crimson Peak)

Perhaps she looks too long. Perhaps her eyes are playing tricks on her, perhaps it is only the lingering warmth of the body melting away the fallen snow, but it seems there are more autumn leaves gathered under Edith’s frozen form, more reds and golds spilling from beneath her nightdress and her hands and her golden head. The leaves flicker and dance, as though caught in a high October wind, though any such wind would be stymied by Allerdale’s protective walls. It isn’t until the hem of Edith’s gown begins to blacken that Lucille sees that what she had taken for autumn leaves are flames.

This one was written for a prompt meme where I asked for a character and a monster/mythical being, and wrote something short connecting the two. I should do that again, that was fun.

5. Boiling a Frog (Rick and Morty)

“It’s strange,” she says, tipping the contents of her cup carefully into the drain under the vending machine’s dispenser and crumpling the cardboard cup in one hand. “None of this feels really...real. Like, Grandpa Rick should be here complaining about how hospitals are breeding grounds for superbugs and how sitting in waiting rooms is pointless because unless you’re a doctor, there’s fuckall you can do to help anyway.” Morty suddenly looks uneasy, but Summer’s not sure if that’s because of what she said or because of the coffee. “I’m glad he’s not,” he says, and then looks horrified.

I broke up with this show when it became clear it was going to wallow and spin its own wheels and suck Rick's dick forever and that at least one of its creative minds genuinely seemed to think that was great and smart and good storytelling and if you didn't love it then you were just too stupid to appreciate his brilliance. But every once in a while the show managed to do something really interesting by approaching something heavy and awful sidelong with absurdist sci-fi and gross-out humour in a way that just worked for me.

I tried to do that here and found out just how hard it is to get a handle on that tone of almost manic energy with total black despair oozing out around all the edges. I think it really turned out, here, and despite no longer having any interest in anything to do with the show, I'm proud of it.

Also, I still love Summer.

I'm going to tag @daddygrandpaandthebeaver, @bixxelated, @marzipanandminutiae, @definitely-not-a-bug, @aquitainequeen, and, as usual, anybody who'd like to do it!

[itswhumpday]

Hardened and no-nonsense (can come across as callous/exasperated) Medic + inexperienced and slightly terrified Whumpee, and Whumpee needs stitches or other painful field treatment without pain meds available?

I went with firemen, because they are a blast. Haha! Get it! Anyway, love this trope. Thanks for requesting it.

A building had collapsed. Again. 

Caretaker barely noticed it anymore. It was just a part of living in a world of superpeople. They broke things to “save the city”, then ran off when it was time to pay the bill. And today seemed to be some major battle because the earth had been shaking more than usual and calls had been coming in from everywhere. 

Before they left, the Caretaker saw the rookies getting ready. It would be their first mission. They looked so excited: eyes gleaming, hands nervously checking their equipment. Caretaker hoped they would get a good first run: something chill, to ease them onto the job. They would have many years like Caretaker had to regret going into this career. They could have a couple of days to believe they were heroes. 

The building was pretty standard. Most people were already outside. Caretaker stayed out to help with first aid. Some of their comrades went inside to search for the rest of the victims. Everything was running smoothly: people were being put into ambulances and evacuated, bit by bit. 

Which, of course, was when the world went to shit. Figures. 

The Caretaker’s walkie-talkie blared. Their team was going to be split in two because they were the closest location to the attack. Supervillains trying to destroy City Hall. Caretaker didn’t know why they kept building that place up since it got blown up all the time. 

“Some of ours were inside.” Said dispatch as the Caretaker got into the truck. “The rookies. They were picking up donations for last week’s victims.” 

Caretaker swore. The truck lit up its lights and sirens and they raced to city hall. Another truck had arrived and was already trying to put out the fire. Caretaker runs inside, with two others right behind them. One separates once they enter the hall. The ceiling has a gaping, flaming hole, which isn’t very encouraging. As they went from room to room, their colleague gathered the people who could walk and started walking them back to the entrance. Caretaker was alone. But that was fine. That had happened many times before. 

Caretaker helped a worker whose desk had fallen on her and handed her off through the window to a colleague. The rest of the floor was mostly evacuated. Then, as they walked past the elevator towards the stairs, they heard whimpering. 

“Hello?” They called out. 

“Here!” They heard, from below, through the elevator doors. Caretaker quickly took out the tool and got the doors opened. The elevator car was halfway here, halfway down. The cables were all twisted and it looked like it was the only thing holding it in place and keeping it from breaking down. “I- I’m here.” 

Called the person again. Caretaker carefully looked inside. At the bottom of the car, laid one of her rookies, Whumpee. Boxes and boxes of donations were around them on the floor under the little light coming from her flashlight. Their body however, was on the floor. An insane amount of blood covered the floor of the elevator. 

“They had—” They tried to say, eyes so pained they were unfocused. “They had donations— The… the elevator.” 

“Shh. It’s fine. I get it. Let’s get you out of here.” 

Caretaker assessed. Down was always better than up, especially in a flaming building. They raced down the stairs into the basement until they found the entrance to the elevator. Luckily, the doors were already opened there.

As soon as they arrived, they noticed the rookie was breathing too fast. “Stop that.” Caretaker said, drier than they meant to. “You’re going to hyperventilate.” 

The rookie looked at them with tears in their eyes. 

“I thought you’d left.” 

“Why would I leave? You’re stuck with me. Now, where are you hurt?” 

They pointed. 

“My leg. It’s pretty busted.” 

One look confirmed it. It was badly dislocated. But not broken. 

“We need to get you out of that elevator before it falls. Got that?” 

Rookie shook their head. 

“I don’t want to.” 

“I didn’t ask. Give me your arms.” 

Caretaker pushed the boxer aside and grabbed the Whumpee’s arms, slowly dragging them. Whumpee yelled, but didn’t squirm. Caretaker grabbed them by the shoulders and finally got them out of the elevator, grabbing their knees before they fell. 

That, of course, didn’t help their injury, and they yelled again, staring to hyperventilate again. 

“Hey, hey. No. None of that.” Caretaker placed them down on the floor. They took out the cylinder of oxygen at their back, opened it and placed the mask on their face. “This is a burning building and we have to get out of it, right?” 

Whumpee was looking at Caretaker as if they were speaking Greek. 

“Right?!” They pushed. 

“Right.” Rookie said in a small voice. 

“And what to we need to make that happen?” 

Rookie blinked and then looked at themselves. 

“For me to walk?” 

“Fantastic. And how do we do that?” 

Caretaker placed themselves in front of their dislocated knee.

“No.” 

“Yes. Count to three.” 

“No! You’re going to do it on two!” 

“They give you too much training on that school! One!” 

“No, no, no, no!” Rookie cried, hiding their face, but otherwise firmly secure by Caretaker’s experienced hands. 

“Two!” 

“Just go already!” Whumpee yelled, read in the face!” 

“Three!”

“You’re supposed to go on two!” 

“Four!” Caretaker pulled the leg back in its place and Rookie screamed in pain. Whumpee slumped back, their eyes rolling back, their body covered in sweat, breathing heavily. 

Caretaker slapped their face lightly. 

“Hey. Wake up. This is still a burning building. We have to get out.” Whumpee blinked, in pain, their breathing difficult. Caretaker held the mask closer to their face. “Deep breaths, rookie. You can do it. I’m right here.” 

Caretaker sat them down. Whumpee slumped, looking like they would fall. Their hand grabbed the mask and they took two deep breaths before nodding they were ready. 

Caretaker stood them up, one of their arms around their shoulders. They were carrying the Rookie more than helping them, but it was alright. They stepped once. Then twice and Caretaker had to use their injured knee. They gritted their teeth and gave another step. 

Together, they would make it out of this burning building.

Thank you for reading all the way here! Reminder I take requests, I just take a VERY long time to get through them.

[cleromancy]

actually. still thinking about the stuff i mentioned in this post about like. people getting disproportionately mad at jason for mia compared to. like. any other supervillain that is *absolutely* also supposed to be somewhat sympathetic. like, thinking of two-face here in robin: year one (the dixon/beatty version).

because harveys role in the plot is adjacent to what Jason's is. he poses a clear danger to robin that makes the guardian/mentor reconsider the wisdom of having a kid sidekick at all. jason's actually there to make mia think about it, moreso than ollie, but their role as the antagonist of the story raises similar questions.

and i get that with comics in particular, your emotional reaction to what you read will always be influenced by what you see the fandom doing, and you do have... like im fairly sure the harv apologists are just like "i dont care who he hurt he looked good doing it" (and tbeyre so valid for that). and by comparison the jason legion, for we are many, are this whole scatterplot range of--some people only like him as a villain/think hes "unredeemable" (🙄), and some people want every bad thing hes ever done to be whooshed away by "pit madness" (🙄), and some people who. i have no ill will towards them but theyre fans of the new guy, the prime earth guy, and thats just a different character from my guy to the point that hes not even really relevant to ga 69-72 when we talk about it-- but nevertheless theyre in the same fandom, and the guy they like has the same name. so that can color peoples interpretations of whats on the page jf, for example, any of those factions really grates their cheese.

anyway. all that aside i do still feel like people get very angry at jason for being the antagonist--being a supervillain, even--maybe because he's so sympathetic by comparison in under the red hood/lost days (or i guess stuff the new guy's been in, if thats more your speed). like why did he terrorize mia! why did he scare her and beat her up!

and while i think the answer to that, from a character motivation perspective, is so obvious as to be. fucking asinine to need it spelled out-- the real answer is because as the storys antagonist he is there to challenge the protagonist. and in this case the challenge is not only the physical fight, its also a challenge to the question of whether or not plucky teen sidekicks should still exist in a post-death in the family dcu, where the baddies are badder and anyone can die.

r:yo was never asking that *specific* question, so lets just set it aside. thank you for your help harvey.

jason is a much easier target for reader anger than ollie because well. jason is absolutely doing something *wrong,* and he knows it, but he also has a fucking point, *and he knows it.*

ga01 was ABSOLUTELY engaging with and exploring aspects of the kid/teen sidekick trope that we know and love--mia kills a man on her test run, and the responsibility for mia being in a position where she felt like she had to do that, and the resulting trauma, is placed squarely and correctly on ollies shoulders. mias origin story meant she was never safe in her fucking life until she moved in with ollie, and now she finds out its left her with something permanent and life-changing--shes HIV+. what is safety? what is childhood? what does she want out of life, faced with her own mortality? she wants to help people. she wants to be a hero. and the way this unfolds, in the context of the dcu and how it works, you can see why ollie says yes this time. (and im so so glad he did.)

and jason shows up 20ish issues later when shes good and established to be like, "hi. you sure about that?"

and this is a chicken or the egg kind of situation where jason would not have done this to a civilian. shes a superhero. shes in uniform. there is an inherent danger to doing that and while you know that--both you the reader and you, speedy, green arrows junior partner and teen titan--nobody demonstrates it like jason "trolley problem" todd, both as the first notable dead sidekick and an incredibly dangerous, incredibly *terrifying* person. one who is *hell-bent* on *proving* it to you.

and when i say chicken and egg i mean while jason's responsible for his own actions, Ollie is explicitly responsible for mia's safety. imo blowing up the school wasn't to scare mia--it was to scare ollie. jason took the stakes of what it means to be speedy, or to *have* a speedy, and made them concrete. and that takes the concept of a plucky teen sidekick and makes it uncomfortable again because, god, she's just a kid. should she really be fucking doing this? (should her guardian really be *letting* her do this?)

(and people forget this, or purposely ignore it, but jason cant be more than 2 years older than her in this continuity, using tim as a benchmark. and i say this not because i want to emphasize that he would see mia as a peer rather than a child--though he would--or to imply he wasnt responsible for his actions--he was. i say this bc what was he doing in the supervillainy, he should have been at the club)

what i was getting at was i think rather than allowing the concept to exist in that gray area it is so much easier, so much more comfortable, to instead just be like. Well jason shouldn't have done that. he could have done it a different way. if he never put her in danger she wouldn't have been in that danger that night. and yknow all of those things are true but they don't negate the point he was making (and he was also doing more than that yk but this post is already Long lol), which was that that uniform puts a target on her chest. are you prepared for what that means?

and the difference between jason doing this, and Harvey, aside from the relative annoyingness of the people who want to condemn or exonerate them, is that. jason is not just a supervillain. he is a victim of *exactly* this thorny question. and he became a supervillain directly in response to this. you can not separate his actions here from the part where he knows what the fuck hes talking about, because it happened to him. and to make that less thorny, less uncomfortable, the focus turns away from the point he was making back to. Well he shouldn't have done it like he did it. while also ignoring that...... he did it like he did it because he knew how it felt, what it meant, to be a hero. if he didn't do it like he did it, would it have gotten through to them at all? would we still be talking about it like 20 years later?

anyway jason did such a good job posing uncomfortable questions in the narrative 🥰 im so proud of him for all his hard work!

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon?

Welcome back to my look at the ArchieSonic comic series, and how it shared a lot of the same story tropes as a typical ‘80’s or ‘90’s syndicated cartoon.

Episode 8: Now they're giant! 

Our first example today comes from the Knuckles Chaotix special! If you’ve played the game, then you probably won’t be surprised by what happens: 

Yup. Metal Sonic Kai, also known as “O lord he comin’!” But those of you who played the game might be surprised at how this is resolved in the comic:

Yup, Knuckles gets big too! Why? Because Ken Penders, that’s why. 

For our next example we’re going back to Sonic Super Special #12, which had a secondary story called, “Zone Wars: Giant Robotno.” Sonic gets recruited by Zonic the Zone Cop (long story) to help an alternate world that’s in peril. 

Sonic finds himself in a dimension where the local Eggman is actually a good-hearted scientist called Dr. Kintobor. Unfortunately he was experimenting with splitting a Chaos Emerald on a distant island, resulting in the radiation mutating the “wildlife” - Sonic’s friends in this dimension - into kaijus. 

Sonic uses a giant robot to fight them off as he’s trying to get the split Chaos Emerald back, but accidentally kills his alternate-world father in the process. Big oof.

Also in the category of “Now they’re giant,” I present: Titan Tails.

…I will not be answering any questions regarding Titan Tails at this time.

Woof, that was a lot of messed up stuff. Maybe the Sonic X comics will give us something a little less dramatic? Oh yes, here we go. Sonic X #6 featured a story where Eggman tried to take over the world with an army of dark chao.

But as we all know, if you mess with the Chao then a certain God of destruction is going to have something to say about it. This time though he uses the positive energies of the Chaos Emeralds to become a very different Perfect Chaos.

Oh, and we of course have to mention the more traditional form of Perfect Chaos too, as it certainly falls under the category of suddenly becoming a giant.

Oh, and apparently there is one other giant story from Sonic X. Issue #39 featured the evil supervillain group “S.O.N.I.C.X” turned Vector the Crocodile into a kaiju.

…and apparently he was defeated by a giant Bokkun?!

What even was this comic?!

Whew, that was a lot. And in some instances, it was a lot. Hopefully tomorrow’s post will be more lighthearted. What is the next episode, anyway? Let’s see… ahhh. “Episode 9: Fall in love at first sight! Oh wait, turns out she’s evil.” …oh. Well, I’m sure you all know where this one is going. 😛

Thanks for reading, everyone! Did I miss any other examples of anyone suddenly becoming giant? Drop me a comment and let me know!

[microsuedemouse]

you know the character trope - pretty much exclusively used for villains - of the woman who possesses the power to make any and every man around her fall in love (lust) with her, and thus she builds an army of slobbering man-drones to do her bidding? I often seem to have a similar effect, except only on men maybe 20+ years my senior, and instead of inspiring sexual desire I bring out their fatherly affections.

I don’t know exactly why this happens, but it’s been pretty consistent throughout my adult life, and especially obvious when I’m working in retail (and also during my summer at the optometrist’s office). it comes up a lot at the grocery store. I can think of a couple instances of this phenomenon off the top of my head, like the time I quipped to a customer that I had to do something ‘so I don’t get in trouble.’

“Pshh, that doesn’t happen!” said the guy behind him in line, immediately.

“Yeah, I can’t really imagine it,” agreed the man in front of me.

“All she’d have to do is smile and all would be forgiven!”

“Exactly!”

(Both older gentlemen, both being utterly sweet even while joking around. 😭)

Or, as another example - if you’re working in the last hour-ish of the day, you’ll see a lot of the night crew trickling in, and many of them will do a quick shopping run before they clock in, so at cash we get to know their faces. One of the night managers, Mark, is a very pleasant guy around my parents’ age. One evening I was bagging Mark’s groceries while my coworker Colin rung him up, and Mark glanced over and commented how much he liked seeing me when he came in. “Her smile just lights everything right up, eh? Don’t you think?” he asked, looking expectantly at Colin.

Colin, who is nine years my junior and did not know me well enough yet at that point to be 100% smooth playing along, initially just grinned, with a touch of amusement (whether more at Mark or at my own mild floundering at the compliment, I’m still not sure). When he realised Mark was looking for an actual response, he just chuckled, “I’d say so, yeah.” At which point Mark nodded, pleased to be in agreement, and paid for his groceries.

I do not know how I have this effect on people at 28 years old, even taking into account the fact that I’m often mistaken for younger. When I was an adorable (plus smart and polite - killer combo with the grownups) little girl, it made sense that dads loved me. Now? Who knows! I mean, I’ll certainly take it over being hit on, which I’m extremely grateful to say has never happened to me at work. The only flirting I receive is the silly and decidedly harmless kind that comes from grandpa-type men who are, sincerely, just being playful. These interactions aren’t the untoward kind - they’re more reminiscent, to me, of the way my own dad treats my female friends: respectful, fond and sweet, caring. The vibe is like, this man would probably be happy to give me some sound advice and a lift home from the slumber party.

But yeah. I very consistently bring out the fatherly/grandfatherly affection in seemingly any man over the age of 50 or so who has an ounce of paternal kindness in him. And I do so more than many of my female friends or coworkers do. Is it because I look so young? Because I don’t wear makeup and I dress more like a kid than a ~Grown Woman~? It’s true that in my head I’m little more than an overgrown child, but does that energy actually come through - in a positive fashion, no less - to other people (and especially dad types)? Do I just exude some kind of undefinable Beloved (Grand)Daughter vibes?

I don’t actually remember what on earth got me thinking about this tonight, tbh. But I had to get my rambles out, so here you are. This is my weird tiny useless superpower: I attract fatherliness, entirely without meaning to. I feel like there must be a way to leverage this ability, but I’m not sure what it is? Also I’d be a terrible supervillain anyway.

[whump-a-la-mode]

Idea: villain whumpee who was coerced somehow into working for the bad guys. They were abused by Supervillain who leads the bad guys. Somehow Supervillain lost their hold over villain, and villain is now going to the heroes to beg for sanctuary and offer to help and tell the heroes everything they know.

Maybe the heroes know about Supervillain. Maybe they don't; Supervillain works from the shadows and uses their minions as the face of the "bad guys". Either way, the heroes have mixed feelings about a villain joining them.

Prompts? Ideas? (I hope this wasn't too specific I just had a craving suddenly.)

Oh I absolutely love this trope! Abused villains make the very best whumpees. Even better, there’s so many ways you can go with this, all of which are fantastic.

If you can’t tell by the length of this post, this is one of my all time favorite tropes. It has everything: Villain whumpees, forced caretaking, self-hatred, captivity, bad power dynamics. So good!

So, if anyone ever wants a drabble, or even a series... My askbox is always open.

Anyways, prompts!

• Do the heroes accept Villain immediately? Perhaps they believe that this is another one of their tricks. Instead of a refuge, Villain has instead found themself in a cell. Yet, even their captors treat them better than Supervillain ever did. Slowly, the heroes start to believe Villain. Yet, some are still in favor of keeping their prisoner on a short leash...

• Alternatively, perhaps the Leader of the heroes takes pity on Villain. Even if they don’t quite believe their story, they’re decent enough to give them a hot meal, a bed, and a check-over by a doctor. But, not everyone on the team approves of Villain being there. As they try to recover, they’re forced to take abuse from the people supposed to be their new allies.

• Perhaps, Villain grows tired of this treatment. After one too many insults, they snap, screaming at their new teammates-- only to find themself right back at square one, locked in a cell.

• Whether or not Villain is initially accepted into the team, their recovery is going to full of hardships. Even if one member of the hero team trusts them, not all of the heroes do.

• Instead of resting and recovering from their ordeal with Supervillain, Villain decides to do everything in their power to attempt to prove themself. They take up all the chores in the base, making sure the whole place is spotless. Yet, it’s never enough. Never enough, never enough, never enough... And then they collapse

• Even when Villain is allowed some free reign, they still aren’t allowed to go on missions. Instead, when the team is out, they’re left behind. Of course, with Villain still being a prisoner, the doors are kept locked to stop them from escaping. This is fine, up until another villain attacks the home, leaving Villain defenseless and desperate for a way out. Will they find a way out, breaking the heroes’ trust? Will they fight their old friend? Will they maybe even go with them?

• Despite their abuse by Supervillain, Villain still can’t help but thinking of themself as evil. The heroes can’t help but notice the self-hating words that they mutter under their breath, or the way the villain tosses and turns in the night, unable to get a peaceful night’s sleep. What will it take to make them realize that it wasn’t their fault?

• In the early days of their rescue/captivity, Villain makes a mistake. Perhaps they lose their temper, get into a fight. Perhaps they lose control of their powers and break something. Either way, a more distrusting member of the team decides that Villain must be punished. Dragged to an unused storage room at the back of the house, this hero gets out a baseball bat...

[i-am-bitterly-jittery]

On Death’s Doorstep (pt 1/?)

Word Count: 1060

Rating: Teen

Pairings: parental Moxiety, future Anxceit (literally none in this part, I’m just letting you know where it’s going)

Warnings: escaping an abusive relationship, aftermath of violence, blood and injury, murder, abusive government organization

Showing up on your enemy’s doorstep injured and in need of help trope

~~~START~~~

Virgil trudged through the dark streets, doing his best to avoid the streetlights as he went — he couldn’t risk anyone noticing that both he and the child he was carrying were covered in blood. He was exhausted, and his cracked ribs were screaming in protest with every step, but he couldn’t rest yet.

As a Registered Superhero™, Virgil — or Knightcaster, as he was more widely known — was a public figure. He lived in a government-funded home with a government-funded car and government-funded security; his son went to a secure, government-funded daycare; if he ever wanted a dog, he’d be able to get a trained government agent to be his dog-walker. Every aspect of Virgil’s life was funded by the government, and in return, Virgil and his husband (ex-husband?) stopped the city’s supervillains from wreaking havoc. It had seemed like a good deal when Orin — AKA Atlas — had convinced him to do it when he was eighteen.

And for seven years, it had been a good deal. But now Virgil was twenty-five, escaping an abusive marriage, and completely devoid of any kind of money.

Oh and the government was probably going to be after him soon for leaving his residence without permission (not to mention the dead body he’d left in the kitchen).

When he and Orin had signed up to be government-sponsored superheroes, they had to submit detailed lists of their powers, and were subject to thorough physicals to test the extent of them. Virgil’s powers, as listed by the government (and public knowledge to anyone who submitted a freedom of information act request), were light-manipulation level 9, teleportation level 4, and healing level 7; which basically means he’s really good at manipulating light — to the point of even being about to make it solid for up to an hour — alright at teleporting — he can only get to places he’s been to before or can see, and he can only teleport himself, but he can go pretty far — and can heal some pretty bad injuries completely — given enough time and energy.

Actually, all of those powers required a lot of energy, and in his injured and tired state, he couldn’t use them.

But he did have one power that the government didn’t know about, and since it was a mental power and not a physical one, he didn’t need to expend any energy to use it (it would leave him with a massive headache later, but Virgil would take headache over jail cell any day).

His dads used to call it his “homing beacon”, if he spent enough time around a person, he would form a bond with them that would allow him to follow a mental compass right to them. When he was younger he could use this on almost every kid in his class (not that he did), but as he hadn’t seen any classmates since high school graduation, the bonds were gone, faded beyond recognition. He could sense his dads, but they lived two states away, and he’d never be able to make it to them without teleporting — and even if he could, he wouldn’t be able to take his son with him.

His dads’ house was the first place the government would look for him anyway, they wouldn’t be safe there even if Virgil could get them that far.

Virgil hitched Patton a little higher on his hip. The toddler let out a small whimper in his sleep as the movement accidentally jostled his broken arm. Virgil placed a kiss on the boy’s hair, mentally promising him that his arm would be the first thing he healed once they were safe.

With his bonds to dads and any of his old friends either too far away or too faded, his son in his arms, and his bond to Orin severed as soon as that knife had pierced his heart, he was left with only his government handlers themselves, or the supervillains he fought repeatedly.

(And yeah, looking at it now, stumbling down the deserted streets, bleeding and carrying an injured toddler, Virgil could see how being a government-sponsored superhero was actually a crap deal. He didn’t have any money of his own, he had to fill out a thirty-page request form just to see his dads for two hours at a time, and he had no contact with anyone outside of work… It sucked. A lot.)

The government handlers were definitely out (though having a sense of where they were could definitely work in his favor), but the supervillains might not be too bad, they did work against the government after all.

Of Virgil’s repeated villains — and of the ones he thought might not just kill him on sight — there were three real options: Gemini, Dr. Frankenstein, or Serpentine. Luckily, Virgil could feel all three (well four) of their bonds coming from the same general direction, so he could continue moving while he made a decision.

Gemini had the power to duplicate themself, Virgil wasn’t sure how many duplicates they could make, but there were almost always two of them, hence the two bonds Virgil could feel leading to them. Gemini’s usual M.O. was hitting jewelry stores or museums (places with lots of shiny things for them to steal); they had a tendency towards property damage, but left civilians unharmed whenever they could.

Dr. Frankenstein could animate inanimate objects for a short time, as well as being a clearly gifted inventor. The man was cold and logical, but Virgil wasn’t sure which option would be more logical for him: help Virgil, who could be a valuable ally, and potentially give him government secrets; or take his revenge on an already injured enemy.

Serpentine was a master of illusion, both of the light projection, and mental variety. Their motives were a little bit harder to figure out, and as far as Virgil could tell, they were just as likely to rob a bank as they were to destroy a government building; but Virgil had a certain… rapport with them… he thought that they might…

They might not kill him if he showed up on their doorstep.

Patton whimpered again, his good hand gripping the collar of Virgil’s jacket tightly.

Virgil really hoped that Serpentine wouldn’t kill them when they showed up on their doorstep.

~~~END~~~

Part 2, Part 3, Part 3.5

ODD Masterlist

I wasn’t gonna post this until I finished the whole thing, but then I remembered that the whole reason I started posting fics on tumblr was so that I could post things that weren’t done yet

Anyway there will definitely be at least two more parts, so let me know if you wanna be on the taglist

General taglist:

@royalty-of-all-things-snuggly @pixelated-pineapple @knight-shives

[comicaurora]

When you created the Ferin, were you trying to avoid certain tropes about fantastic racism? Because Ferin discrimination seems much more realistic to me than how racism is portrayed in a lot of other fantasy works. I really like the page about Ferin on the extra Lore, the way it’s written feels a lot like paternalistic prejudice, with how the writer talks about how Ferin were initially pitied, and how even ‘open minded’ mages today feel uneasy about Ferin creating a mageless future.

Fantasy racism is… a very weird space of tropes. This is not an area I feel particularly confident discussing, but there were definitely some specific pitfalls I really wanted to avoid.

This group is a one-for-one allegory for a real-world marginalized community and experiences aggressively real real-world racism, atrocities and stereotypes because god forbid any audience that isn't white get some escapism in their fantasy (shadow and bone netflix edition, bright, some parts of game of thrones apparently)

This group is a heavily exoticized allegory for roma or native americans or some other marginalized group the author thinks is really mystical and cool and evidently doesn't really think of as real living people so they're all magical and sexy and in tune with nature or something and almost unilaterally adopt our (white) hero (avatar the blue cat people one)

This group of gorgeous white people is very oppressed in this fantasy world for being sexy elves or wizards or catgirls or angels or having some other exceptionally dope trait nobody in their right mind would complain about so I can write racism without writing anyone who isn't white

This character is sad because they experience fantasy racism, but the protagonist thinks they're hot, which makes everything okay

It's not fantasy racism, these guys really ARE all evil except maybe this one token heroic exception (orc/drow/goblin racism)

Racism = cartoon villainy. Any character who isn't a maniacal murderer or faceless mook is a 100% certified Good Boi(tm) with absolutely zero racist tendencies because everyone knows nuanced and sympathetic human beings are immune to being racist. This of course also indicates that systemic or passive racism can't exist in this world, because only cackling supervillains are racist and everyone even slightly chill or sympathetic is a Certified Ally with zero in-between. Aims to portray racism as a very bad thing so the audience recognizes it's bad and doesn't do it, but wildly overshoots and guarantees the audience will never see these cartoon bullies as reflections of their own flaws or blind spots. It aims to induce introspection and fails on the most basic level.

In this Very Special Episode our heroes cure a racist character of their racism by teaching them the bare minimum critical thinking required to recognize that other people have feelings, thus solving all racism forever and never speaking of it again, because everyone knows the worst form of racism is individually shitty people being slightly rude

Everyone oppresses these poor misunderstood people because of this real actual reason like their ridiculously deadly superpowers or bloodline curse or that one time one of them did something really bad, because it's confusing when people hate people for no reason

Oh yea, some of the heroes are racist towards (group X) because they belong to (group Y) and those groups uncritically hate each other, it's a charming character quirk of theirs that's very unlikely to change more than superficially because the writer seems to think it's cute (most forms of vampire-werewolf and elf-dwarf racism)

racism is bad…… but the characters rebelling against a racist system are villains… because they're rebelling and ALSO doing a bunch of unrelated atrocities on the side…… and anyway none of our heroes are racist because everyone knows racism is bad so the system can't really be THAT racist… so these guys are probably just making a big deal out of nothing……… so our heroes should beat them up…………