#babs is fascinated by what these three have got going on

[elizabethemerald]

Barbara Gordon had been enjoying Gotham City Comic Con so far. She had gone to a few signings and a few panels, and even did some signing of her own for those who recognized her as Babs-on-wheels. Dick was just enjoying being her handler for the Con. He had a cloth mask on and was ignored by most of the con goers, just like he liked it. 

She loved conventions so much, even though they sucked in a lot of ways. They were hard on her body, she needed to take time away from being Oracle, and she somehow always ended up catching something no matter how much she masked or washed her hands. Even with all that, they were still fun, having a convention in Gotham just made things so much easier. 

Of course GC3 still wasn't a popular Con. The risk of rogue attacks was too high for the Gotham locals and the non locals were too afraid of getting mugged or murdered on the way. GC3 struggled to get any real stars to show up for panels or signings and the artist alley was always distressingly empty compared to the size of the space. 

At least this year the con was slightly bigger than usual. Bruce had used WE funds to sponsor personal security for any actor who showed up and Jason was personally paying for a bunch of Crime Alley artists to attend with their goods, including a lady who was selling extremely cute duck shaped candles. Babs was hopeful that if the others could keep the rogues at bay that this year might actually see the con's growth become the norm. 

The best part of attending cons and especially of going in her costumes with her wheelchair was meeting all the people who had some disability coming up to her and showing off what she had inspired them to do. So many different amazing costumes for people in wheelchairs, with canes, or otherwise showing off their aids. 

Like these three out of towners who had excitedly approached her. 

The leader, who eventually was introduced as Tucker was excitedly stimming, his hands flapping and his words slurring together in his excitement. Every few seconds he would rock up on his toes like he was about to take off into the air. Barbara felt a small, fond smile creep up her face, Dick actually did the same thing though for a different reason. 

Sam, the only girl of the group, also was the one who translated Tucker’s excitement into understandable words. She leaned heavily on a cane with a shoot of some vine growing up it. 

The last of the group, Danny, introduced by both of the others as their boyfriend, was just as excited as Tucker. His wheelchair was beautifully disguised as the Curiosity Rover. The accuracy on the rover was truly stunning. 

Tucker and his partners were all dressed up as Martian Warriors. 5th Dynasty if Bab’s recollections of J’onn’s lectures were correct. Actually some of the details were more accurate than the publicly available information. It made her raise her eyebrows a little, she didn’t think they were actually Martians, but it wasn’t impossible. More likely, however, they had some computer skills and were able to get access to some of NASA’s private files. 

Barbara enjoyed the conversation with the trio, and Dick volunteered to take pictures of the four of them together. He had to take a couple of pictures before he could get one where nobody was blurry from stimming right as the flash went off. Finally he was able to get a good picture of all of them, including her pretending to be making first contact with them in character. 

Their photo op was interrupted by the screens throughout the convention center that usually displayed maps or room numbers all went dark at the same time. Even the jumbotron that had been showing clips of happy con attendees in between advertisements for the corporate sponsors went black. 

Babs felt Dick tense next to her, and surprisingly so did Danny in his chair. Their tension was immediately rewarded as all the screens came back on with Edward Nigma’s smarmy face. Babs had felt that Riddler had a very punchable face ever since she first started as Batgirl, and her opinion hasn’t changed since then. He looked even more punchable with his face that large on the jumbotron. 

“Hello attendees of Gotham City Comic Con!” Riddler shouted out, deafening many. 

Sam flinched violently from his voice and pressed her hands to her ears. She immediately wobbled like she was going to fall, but Tucker stepped up to her side and pressed her towards Danny’s wheelchair so she could steady herself. 

“Sorry babe. They’re going to need me.” Dick whispered in Babara’s ear. She nodded and pressed a kiss to his cheek, both of them ignoring Riddler’s self-aggrandizing. “Stay safe, I love you.” 

He stood up and hurried away. Riddler was an all hands on deck rogue, his preference for vastly complex plans featuring multiple threats across a wide area meant the Bats needed as much help as they could get to prevent any casualties. Sam had recovered enough to steady herself and glared after Dick. 

“Where is he going?” She snarled. 

Babs grimaced, she could see how it looked from an outside perspective. It looked like Dick had abandoned her as soon as a threat occurred. The way the trio grouped together to watch each other’s backs showed clearly how inappropriate they found his supposed actions. 

“Dick is a police officer, I assume the GCPD will need his help.” Babs could almost laugh at the way the trio reacted as if she had said he wanted to go sniff toilet seats. They would probably prefer he was just a coward rather than a cop. Even with her father being the Commissioner, she couldn’t quite bring herself to disagree. There was a reason she had become a vigilante rather than help her father directly. 

“Maybe we should get off the expo floor.” Danny interrupted what would probably have been a breathtaking rant from Sam. “Two people in wheelchairs might look like attractive hostages if it comes to that.” 

“Good thinking.” Tucker was tapping away at his phone for a second before he looked up and pointed at a set of double doors nearby. “There should be a storage closet there, it usually holds all the tables and stuff for the artist alley, so it should be empty now.” 

Barbara followed, wheeling after them as the trio made for the storage closet. She wondered if she could get away with calling one of the Birds to pick the lock, or maybe it wouldn’t be too suspicious for her to pick it herself. 

“May I touch your wheelchair?” Babs was knocked out of her thoughts by Sam’s words. Tucker had taken over pushing Danny’s chair, in fact he had turned them both around so they were both going backwards. Then Sam was holding one of Danny’s hands and holding out her other. Barbara nodded her consent, confused and curious as to what they were planning. 

They were almost to the double doors and Sam laid her hand on the back of Babs’ wheelchair. Barbara could feel a tingling sensation pass over her body from her contact with Sam. Then to her surprise, Tucker looked around to see if anyone was watching them then passed effortlessly through the door. He pulled Danny’s chair through and Sam guided Babs as all four of them walked through the door as if it wasn’t there. 

She wasn’t entirely certain that the trio weren’t actually Martian warriors despite the fact that they were supposedly extinct. Either way she was certain that J’onn J’onzz would want to have a word with these three. Tucker had passed his phone to Sam, who was using it to watch Riddler’s broadcast while he knelt down and pulled out his laptop. He nudged Danny as he did so. 

“I’m going to try and back trace the broadcast, see if I can find Riddler’s location. Are you going to go deal with him?” Tucker asked. 

Barbara watched Danny consider his partner’s words. It was almost like the trio had forgotten she was there as Tucker very clearly started to hack on his laptop, with the computer resting on Danny’s head. 

“No. Gotham has her own heroes.” Danny said, shaking his head and almost dislodging Tucker’s computer. “If they need help I’ll jump in, but I don’t want to step on any toes.” 

“In that case, I’ll take this seat.” Tucker said before plopping himself down on Danny’s lap. He continued typing away even as Danny wrapped his arms around him to keep him stable. Sam leaned over their shoulders to look at what Tucker was typing. “Ok, I think I’ve found the source, he’s bounced the signal around a couple of times but the Mark of Horus was able to track him down.” 

Barbara felt her brows climb toward her hairline. The Mark of Horus was an infamous tracking software created by the hacker Duat_Pharoh, one of the best hackers on the planet. Duat_Pharoh could even challenge Oracle in a few fields, which was no small feat if Barbara said so. The Mark of Horus could track an IP against just about any defenses, like the mythological hunter it was named after. And worse the code had only been approximated a few times (once by Barbara herself) and required a supercomputer to run successfully. Tucker just whipped that out in a few minutes on a laptop in a supply closet. Either he was lying or he was secretly a major player in the hacker world. 

“Do you mind if I help you?” Barbara asked, as she pulled her laptop from its hidden compartment in her chair and set it on her lap. 

“Hmm? Oh sure.” Unlike other hackers Barbara had encountered, he didn’t seem to be talking down to her when he accepted her offer for help. She slipped her earpiece into place and dialed her number at the Clocktower. A few key presses and she had forwarded her call to the comms of the Bats. 

“Nightwing, this is Barbara Gordon.” Barbara said as she connected, subtly showing the Bats that she was in her civilian guise. She ignored the whispered, “She has Nightwing’s number? That’s so cool!” 

“Go ahead Mrs. Gordon, this Nightwing.” 

“Some civilian hackers from the convention and I were able to backtrace the Riddler’s signal.” She got a notification that Tucker was attempting to airdrop the data he had to her computer. Technically it shouldn’t have been possible for him to find her computer, but she guessed she shouldn’t be worried about what was supposed to be possible right then. 

Barbara accessed the information and forwarded it to her husband. 

“Riddler has several bombs hidden throughout the convention center, each clue will direct you to the next, eventually culminating in a showdown between himself and the Bats with several hostages as the stakes.” Barbara said, giving her directions to the family. “He does not currently have any hostages, but will be acquiring them from the convention, using the bombs as a distraction.” 

“I haven’t found the location of the bombs yet, but I’ve got access to his computer, and it looks like he has his speech notes prepared on it.” Tucker said, still typing away at his computer. He paused, then looked at something closely. “Ugh. Riddles. I hate riddles. I have the full list of riddles which should give Batman a headstart on disarming the bombs.” 

“Send them to me. I’m great at riddles.” Sam said from where she was leaning on Tucker’s shoulder. A ping on her phone and she leaned away to look closer at the riddles. 

Barbara was impressed. Between herself and the trio the Bats were well on their way to clearing Riddler’s entire plot. She had managed to narrow down her search using the information Sam and Spoiler were coming up from the riddles to find several of the bombs around the center, directing the Bats to intervene and disarm them. 

Tucker was able to create a virus that would isolate the bombs from exterior signals preventing a detonator from being used. Again, Barbara was fairly certain that Riddler usually was better about isolating his explosives than that, but she was certain now that Tucker was doing the impossible. 

“Now for your next clue!” Riddler said loudly from where he was recording. “I am tall- what the fuck!”

His broadcast was interrupted by several members of the Batfamily crashing into his location. He lunged for the detonator on the table and managed to press the button but there was no explosion, he looked at it in disgust before throwing it at Batman. 

“Someone skipped ahead on the show! Haven’t you ever heard of spoilers!” He shouted as he dodged a batarang. 

“Spoiler? I hardly know ‘er!” Spoiler said as she swung in and knocked the Riddler flat. “Next time, keep my name outta your mouth!” 

 Barbara smiled and watched as the trio laughed and high fived, congratulating her and Tucker on their hacking job. 

“Hey, I hope you don’t mind,” Barbara said, hating to kill the mood. “But maybe we can talk about what just happened? Because you all were very impressive.” 

They looked at each other for a moment before nodding. 

“Sure, but do you mind if we go somewhere with some fresh air, I can’t breathe in this closet.” Sam said. 

DP x DC Prompt #83

Tucker loved going to conventions. He loved sharing the love of his favorite characters with other people who loved the same characters. Mostly, he looks forward to seeing the cosplayers who show up. And this convention is extra special. 

A cosplayer he follows online is going to this one! She calls herself Babs, and Tucker hopes he’ll run into her. Her cosplays are always insane and detailed! Maybe she’ll even be willing to sign some fan art he made of her cosplays if he asks nicely enough.

[i-smoke-chapstick]

'DON'T BLAME ME, [PART FOUR]

-GOTHAM!JERVIS TETCH X READER-

⋆ 𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒 ; You're in oddly high spirits tonight.

⋆ tags/warnings. GOTHAM!jervis x female reader. SLOW BURN!!! Not sure how many chapters this will be yet! LOTS OF PLOT SET-UP!! AGE GAP ROMANCE! (reader is Jim and Barbara's daughter) The slow burn is slow burning, no really, it's on fire. She fell first, he fell harder. Readers more like Alice than Alice is, tbh. Writing this kind of artistically and as character studies for everyone. Reader and Butch have a shared trauma bond from Barbara and Tabs. Jervis being an obsessive freak, per usual. Jim Gordon is still...Jim Gordoning. I'm taking canon out back and beating it with a stick until it stops twitching.

⋆ tag list (tell me if you want to be removed!) @adalwolfgang @jervis-tetch-my-beloved @honestmrdual @moonlightnyx @all-things-fandomstuck @killingboredom

⋆ 'PART ONE, - 'PART TWO, - 'PART THREE, - 'PART FOUR, - ‘PART FIVE, - ‘PART SIX, - 'PART SEVEN, - 'PART EIGHT, - 'PART NINE, -'PART TEN, - 'PART ELEVEN, - 'PART TWELVE, - 'PART THIRTEEN, - 'PART FOURTEEN,

♫ “Don't blame me, love made me crazy, if it doesn't, you ain't doin' it right.” Don't Blame Me by Taylor Swift

Time slows sometimes in Gotham. Todays one of those days. You frequently think it's always one of those days. You wish you could up and leave the city. You made that promise to yourself- a long time ago, when your mom and dad got turned all upside down. You wouldn't let this city kill you.

Obviously, though, you often wonder if they'd ever even let you leave. Dad- maybe. You like to think he'd understand. But you think he might kill himself without you, too.

It's your mom that's the issue, you find. She intends to cling onto you for the rest of your lives. You remember a conversation you had with Selina not too long ago.

"When Bab's buries her claws in something, she never lets go. How do you think she got the club from Penguin?" You often wonder if she has her claws buried in you. You often wonder how deep they really go.

You can hear the faint clapping in the back of the crowd. You stare at the stage, intently, seeing Jervis and your mom parade around. They look like they are having the time of their lives, Jervis hypnotizing her to dance with him. You watch Tabitha look on, in an odd mix of disdain and fascination.

Letting them finish their act, you walk along the bar floor. You pretend to ignore the gaze held on you, both by Mr. Tetch and your mom.

You find Butch, sitting alone, nursing one-too-many shot glasses.

"Hey kid." He says, huffing a sigh, when he notices you sit down next to him. You both share an exasperated look, looking between Barbara and Jervis and Tabitha.

"What's up with you?" You ask, and he grumbles.

"Headache."

"And you think drinking more is gonna help?"

He rolls his eyes, effectively fed up. You lightly pat his shoulder in sympathy.

You didn't mind Butch. The first time you'd met him was when he tried to kill you, and hold you and your mom captive for Falcone. Oh, how the times have changed.

"You and Tabitha doing okay?" You ask. You know he's dying to shout about it to someone, if not on the surface, then deep down. But his resolve is as strong as ever. He shakes his head, and swallows air.

"We're fine." You know it's a lie. You know he thinks your mom is a bitch. It used to bother you, but now it just makes you shrug. "You...uh...wanna put in a good word for me? With Tabs?" He asks, hopeful.

You look at him, eyes softening. "Yeah. I can." You nod, and he nods back. Ah, mutual discontentment. You remember why you like him.

The sound of clapping grows louder, and takes the two of you out of your somewhat comfortable silence. Butch raises a glass to you, abet sarcastically, and downs it.

You watch as Jervis and Barbara flood down the stage, bowing. Your mother looks absolutely enamored with the praise. Jervis does as well. They murmur thank you's as they push past the crowd. You offer Butch a parting glance, before moving toward the pair.

"Not half bad." Tabitha remarks, coming up from behind you. It almost startles you, and you catch the way Jervis's eyes glimmer at your jump.

"Please. That was the best dancing you've ever seen in your life." Your mother rolls her eyes. The comment surprisingly brings a smile to your face. It's something the old her would've said too.

"Thank you for the dance, Ms. Kean." Jervis offers a gentlemanly grin, and Barbara nods. You watch her and Tabitha fall into a conversation, talking and laughing through playful insults. When the band starts, Tabitha brings Barbara to the floor to dance with her instead. It's...surprisingly sweet.

Jervis must take note of your longing gaze. He speaks, gently.

"Why don't you dance with them?" He urges- and he reminds you of a teacher, trying to get you to play with the other kids. It almost makes you giggle.

"I'm not a good dancer." You click your tongue. He makes a noise of understanding.

"How unfortunate," He remarks. "You must allow me a dance, one day. I would be delighted to teach you."

Between your mother being a bit like her old self, and your conversation with Butch, you somehow feel elated at his words.

"I'd like that." You whisper, and out of the corner of your eye, you watch his smile falter, as if he wasn't expecting your immediate agreeance. The thought strangely makes you even happier. You're in high spirits tonight.

Said spirits seem to fall quite quickly though, when you notice your father marching into the club. The smile on your face, as well as Jervis's, seem to slowly evaporate at the sight. Jervis hurries towards him, and you weave your way behind, following him like a child.

"Did you find her?" Jervis asks, excitable. But you know the look on your fathers face. Somethings wrong.

"I found her. Lost her. She shot a man and set fire to his body. Said she had an infection," Jim growls out. You attempt to digest the information, whilst Jervis looks far less bothered than he should look. "Also, said she doesn't want anything to do with you."

Oh, I look at Jervis. He looks bothered at that.

"You want to tell me what the hell is going on?" Your dad looks pissed. You want to bang your head against a wall. Nothing in Gotham is ever easy, is it?

"It's complicated-" Jervis begins, before your dad steps in to grab him by his suit jacket. Your eyes widen at the move. When he goes to make a threat, you push him off. Both Jervis and your dad look at you bewildered.

"Hands off, dad. This is mom's club. Don't make a scene. Not with him." You nod to Jervis, and you find his mouth is slightly agape, eyes focused solely on you.

Your dad backs away a bit, looking at the ground, and clenching his jaw.

"Let's talk somewhere private, shall we? Allow me to explain the situation?" Jervis manages to speak with civility. They stare at each other for a moment, tense, before heading out without a word. Before your dad follows him out, he shoots you a look of chagrin.

You stand alone in the club, unaware where your mother and Tabitha have disappeared off too. You look back to find Butch missing from his seat at the bar.

Time slows sometimes in Gotham. Todays one of those days.

[zahri-melitor]

Prelude to Joker War

Thinking about the state of play as I go into this:

City of Bane: notably the supporting characters who were involved in this were Damian, Tim, Helena, Babs, Duke and Cass. They're currently the crew who were worrying about Bruce's state of mind. Alfred is dead; half the rogues have recently got to romp around the streets controlling things and clearly sort of miss it.

Batman: Pennyworth RIP just made clear for everyone that Jason, Tim, Damian and Babs are all supposed to be sorta annoyed at Bruce for various reasons right now.

Tynion's lead in to the event in Batman has been focused on the plans of someone called The Designer, whose outfit has been giving me serious Vandal Savage vibes (it is very very like what he's been swanning around in in the current Zdarsky run), but at present has been revealed to NOT be Vandal. Sus. The Designer's thing is that he helps villains improve their plans, and back in the Early Days (TM) - it's pitched as Robin!Dick period, but the costumes look 90s - he helped Joker, Riddler, Catwoman and Penguin refine overarching dream plans for how to take down Batman and conquer Gotham. Someone's just had all four of them activate those plans: assassins going after major political figures with the intention of getting Penguin to be Mayor; Riddler locked the city down with a grand crossword puzzle that was supposed to be a labyrinth for Bruce but that he solved on the fly (oh Eddie you are in a bad place right now, with this both having Year Zero vibes and also being shirtless and scarred); Selina wanted to become the richest person alive by...stealing Bruce Wayne's wealth for herself; and Joker's busy with an evil plan to exploit the other three's plans and 'become the devil'.

In Detective Comics Two-Face is currently having issues where he's concealing information between his personalities and is currently running a Two-Face cult based on his coin flips in the bowels of the courthouse; Bruce has just discovered this and got captured, and the cultists are following the orders of the coin flips.

Dick has just been brainwashed and is transitioning out of Ric Grayson as a personality - he is currently trying to distinguish between memories of being raised by William Cobb as a Talon and being raised by Bruce in a combined post-Crisis&Rebirth shaped timeline (Dick was definitely fostered around 10, he just confirmed a bunch of Bludhaven memories that he definitely did not have before this storyline started).

Babs is very very confused right now (a bunch of her writers clearly aren't talking), but she's at the present working for Congresswoman Luciana Alejo and exhibiting a very 'it's not gentrification unless it happened AFTER I arrived' attitude. She's mad that Bruce is busy rebuilding half of Gotham after City of Bane tore it apart, because...she doesn't trust that the rebuild will happen in all communities? Because systemic racism and classism or something? Even though she can just talk to Bruce? I dunno, it's a whole plot that could be sorted out if Babs raised her concerns with Bruce and asked him a few questions, someone she's known for more than a decade.

Oh and Selina is also getting dragged around quite a bit by the demands of the plot, from King, where she was back to essentially dating Bruce, everything's fine in City of Bane, to her own title, where she's had to leave Villa Hermosa as everything became too hot for her to handle and she's just started a roadtrip across country with Maggie (and Ram V is about to pick up the book), to Tynion's story where she's stealing all of Bruce's money because...I can't actually tell? She's been forced into setting off her plan by Joker?

In any case, there are a lot of balls in the air, and I hate to say it but it looks like Joker is about to crash everything in a fascinating manner.

[zahri-melitor]

Okay, let’s go with a list, given I’ve read (checks) 27 titles from it.

I like the Prez reboot. I wish it hadn’t been cut short as the story being set up looked fascinating. Beth Ross is a very modern character.

Kate Kane/Maggie Sawyer: I both like the romance, and I have a soft spot for the breakup and the fun involved in vampire shenanigans causing it.

Superman: American Alien is an incredible book and has some very memorable lore additions in it (the Clark-Deathstroke fight!)

Poison Ivy: Circle of Life and Death is the second best Ivy focused story written, right up until we got the Wilson run.

That moment when Bruce kneels down to talk to Damian in Batman & Robin Eternal is almost worth the entire title.

Bruce giving Damian Titus in Batman & Robin.

Just the entire Gotham By Midnight squad solving crimes with Spectre.

Mister Freeze living in an igloo on Wayne Manor’s lawn and making snow angels in Arkham Manor.

The way Dick looks after little Jen in Nightwing #29

All of Batgirl #30, which is Marguerite Bennett’s fill where Babs reacts to Dick’s ‘death’.

I think the n52 Blue Beetle reboot is actually the most concise and straightforward explanation of Jaime’s origin of the three versions.

Grayson #5 is haunting and has spun off so many good stories.

I really love ‘Tec #35-36 with the way the airport plague story is told

‘Tec #30 is just a lovely look at what Bruce does for Gotham.

Batgirl #9: the Night of the Owls tie in that creates Strix has some beautiful imagery with the balloon bombs.

What's something/a detail from the New52 that you actually quite like?

E.g. I like that Tim canonically loses a tooth (at the front) and has to get a replacement. Sucks for Tim but a fun detail to show how the work might impact them.

[verymuchimmortalcat]

Maribat March Day 1: Found Family

Yes, I'm aware it's not March. It's already up on ao3 but I wanted to cross post it onto this.

ao3

@maribatmarch-2k21 

Hawkmoth was gone. There wasn’t even a battle, Adrien had come to her as soon as he found out about his father. Having the element of surprise and Chloe as Queen Bee, they managed to get the miraculi with minimum damage. Everything afterwards was a blur. Hawkmoth was gone. She thought for the hundredth time emptily.

She’d been staying with Chloe when Adrien had come to her, they’d known their identities for the past three years after Hawkmoth’s threat became worse. Adrien and Chloe had been the only two people she had spoken to in the last month after a horrible argument with her parents about her continuous disappearances. And the Bats, but they didn’t know she was no longer staying with her parents. All her conversations with them were mostly check-ins over text. She hadn’t visited or called, they would have known something was up so she texted Tim that she’d be busy for the next few months with commissions and Ladybug and that she wouldn’t be able to talk or visit as often. She had convinced Tikki that using the Horse miraculous to go to Gotham wasn’t using the Miraculous for personal uses, she trained when she was there and it was a good break from the tension in Paris and it reduced her chance of akumatisation. Tikki had agreed to those points but had only caved when Marinette started trying to bribe her with extra cookies.

She missed those visits. She was with Adrien when she voiced that thought. They were at the Eiffel tower, sitting in complete silence as the two of them stared out at the city. The news of Hawkmoth’s defeat would spread throughout the city in the next hour or so and it was sure to erupt into celebration. Adrien’s aunt had already been told and she was coming the next day to take him to London.

He had smiled sadly at her and said, “Go to Gotham, Bug. Go to your Family.”

When she started to speak, he cut her off, “You and me both know they’re exactly that. They’re more your Family than Tom and Sabine will ever be.”

“And you? I don’t want to leave you alone, especially after everything.”

“I’ll be fine. I have Chloé, and Aunt Amelie will be here tomorrow. I want you to go. You deserve someone to be there for you too, and they’ll be there. Even though the whole lot of you have issues with processing emotions and talking things out.”

She laughed at that, a sad sounding crying laugh, but a laugh all the same

“Talk to you later?”

“Talk to you later. Come visit, we can explore London together once things calm down. Feel free to drag the others along.”

“You’re begging for chaos.”

“And you’re stalling. Go or I’ll call them myself.”

“Ok, ok, I’m going. See you soon.”

She swung off leaving Adrien on the tower still staring out at the city the two of them had protected since they were thirteen. She headed to the hotel first to tell Chloé. Chloé was in her room, talking to Pollen as if it was the last time she would see her. “Here to take the miraculous?”

“Actually no.”

“Great. You’re finally going to talk to the Bats then.”

“It hasn’t been that long, and anyways Adrien’s on the tower. Bring him back and spoil him for me, will you?”

“Of course, now shoo. The news was just released, they’re probably already waiting for you,” and then Chloe transformed and jumped out of her Balcony.

Chloé had been right. The news had already spread throughout the world and the second Marinette detransformed her phone started going crazy. There were messages and missed calls from all of the Waynes, official and unofficial. Ignoring most of them. She opened her messaging history with Tim and sent him a message.

Batcave. I’ll be there in 2 minutes.

She didn’t need to bring anything with her, she visited them often enough to have her own room filled with her things and everything. Transforming with Kaalki she created a portal and stepped into the Batcave. Tim was already there. Knowing him he’d probably been there for the past few hours regardless of how early it was. She fell into his arms as soon as she got there. Crying, with relief, happiness and so many other emotions. And he just hugged her back and stroked her hair. “Let’s go up, Dick wants to have a movie night. Cass and Steph will be back from Hong Kong tomorrow morning and Babs already went home.”

“Tim, it’s past 4 in the morning. And I’m going to assume you mean today morning”

“well, technically, yes. Today morning and it’s not like we were asleep anyways. The news came just after we had finished with Patrol,” he said defensively.

She sighed, “you Bats and your sleeping habits.”

“Hey, yours isn’t much better.”

“Guess that makes me one of you, then”

He scoffed, “please, Damian thinks you’re skilled and that’s more than what he thinks of the rest of us. You’ve been one of us for ages now. All that’s left are official documents.”

“Please don’t fake those.”

“Do you seriously think I would do that?” He said mock offended.

“Obviously,” she deadpanned.

They continued making their way through the rest of the Manor in comfortable silence. Leaving Marinette with her thoughts for the first time since she had entered the Manor. She remembered, when she had first met Tim when he had come to Paris to train with Master Fu’s friend who had at the time been teaching her too. When they weren’t practicing, Marinette took him around the city. He had become like a brother to her. An annoying one, but she’d been continuously reassured that all siblings were just like that. And then she met the rest of the Bats and she found the way they behaved around each other fascinating. Teasing and rude until someone outside their family did the same then they were nothing but defensive and dangerous. And somehow Marinette had seamlessly joined their chaotic Family some point in the five years it had been since she had first met Tim. They had become family even before they trusted the other with their Identities which was as weird as it sounds. With Marinette dropping by Gotham to help with Patrol and the Bats occasionally coming to Paris to help her and Adrien train.

They had reached the media room and she entered the room only to be swept into a hug by Dick. Damian was sitting on one of the blankets surrounded by his pets. Jason was sitting on the couch with a book, he reaches out and ruffles her hair when she’s near him and quietly says, “you did good.” She whispers back a thank you. Duke waves to her from his spot on of the bean bags. Bruce was Bruce. So, Marinette as soon as she was free from Dick’s hug, hugged him and said, “Good to see you too B.” And then Bruce smiles and Marinette takes that as an opening and cuddles into his side. Tim sits on her other side and Marinette leans onto him too.

Jason leaves his book and joins Damian and Dick on the blanket pile on the floor, despite the large amount of space left on the sofa. Duke stretches out in the now empty space. They finally settle on watching the Avengers movies.

Damian falls asleep halfway through the first movie and Dick brings Damian closer to him. Marinette feels Tim’s breathing slowly even out towards the start of the second movie and she smiles softly, Tim needs more sleep. She falls asleep around the time the Avengers start trying to pick up Thor’s hammer.

She wakes up the next morning to Stephanie jumping on her and hugging her and as soon as she’s calmed down from the instant panic any hero gets when they think they’re getting attacked in their sleep, she hugs Steph back and laughs. Cass is standing behind Steph and engulfs her in a hug the second Steph lets go, and Marinette is filled with a sense of safety in her sisters’ arms. Steph starts talking excitedly, shooting rapid fire questions, before Cass gets her to stop by bringing her attention to Marinette’s expression. The rest of the boys start to wake. And Steph and Cass go around with the round of hugs and greetings after being gone for a while. Steph’s phone chimes with a notification. Checking her phone, Steph grins. “Babs said she’s coming by for breakfast. Oh, and Alfred said he’s making crepes and we should probably go before they cool down.”

Jason groans, “Couldn’t you have started with that.”

Stephanie crosses her arms, “Of course not. What do you take me for?”

Jason just grumbles and walks out of the room, probably to get ready before breakfast. Marinette, giggling, follows the rest of them as they all rush to get ready so they don’t miss Alfred’s crepes.

Five minutes later, the whole Wayne Family and their friends are there at the table eating breakfast. And it’s a beautiful chaos that Marinette thrives in. Babs and Dick are talking. Steph and Damian arguing spectacularly loudly about something or the other. Jason and Duke are fighting about books again. Next to her, Cass tries to make sure Tim doesn’t fall asleep on his food. And throughout the chaos Bruce just has an exasperated and tired but somehow fond look on his face. While Alfred comes and goes, offering sarcastic remarks occasionally.

Marinette knows they’ll have to talk later about Hawkmoth and Tom and Sabine. But right now, she’s eating breakfast with her family and having fun and all the worries can be for future Marinette. Present Marinette is going to wreak chaos with her batshit crazy family. The one that she chose.

[octalove]

V: Letting Lie

(Batgirl/Red Hood)

Description: There’s a breakthrough in the case, and Reader takes things into her own hands. Part one, two, three, and four.

The hospital was white. All white. Like a dream. White walls, white floors, white curtains, white stretchers, white papers fluttering around on clipboards, doctors in white coats. Mr. Wayne’s suit was black, so I focused on him. Black suit, blue tie. Black hair, blue eyes. He was filling out whatever paper the nurse had given him. Something about seeing it all play out, despite the face he had put on for me, made my eyes well up with tears. He was afraid, so I was afraid.

“Mr. Wayne?” His eyes shot up as he looked desperately at the nurse. He was so helplessly at the mercy of whatever news they brought us. We both were. “Will you come with us? We’ll have a nurse stay with the girl.” The nurse looked down at me with a warm smile. White teeth.

“We need to borrow Mr. Wayne for just a second. That okay, baby?” I just nodded, not really considering it something I could say no to. No, please, I want him to stay. I’m scared and I want him to stay. A male nurse came and sat by me. He talked to me about school, my favorite subjects- science, math. He asked me what I wanted to be, and I shrugged.

“People who like science and math make good doctors.” He said. I shrugged again, but then considered it more.

“Is it hard?” I asked.

“It’s very hard. Not a lot of people can do it.”

“…”

“But it’s worth it. You help people, you know?”

Mr. Wayne appeared from around the corridor. The look on his face made all the papers stop fluttering. Made all the doctors stop rushing. Made the world stop where it was. Somewhere, maybe, in retrospect, I knew before he said it. I kept my eyes trained on his face, even though I wanted to look away.

“Y/N…” He said, taking a seat beside me. “Listen to me, sweetpea. Your parents-” His voice was cautious, considerate as he tried again. “Your moms got hurt really badly tonight… They- they’re both…“ A tear landed on my hand as the memory grew into a reality, which was bigger than I was. White sheets, red blood. He took my hand, and wiped it away.

“They’re gone now.”

*

They didn’t talk about Jason Todd.

And since they were the only people in his life at the time he died, nobody talked about Jason Todd. We met a couple of times, before Bruce took me in. I hated my expensive gowns, and he hated his expensive obligations, and we hid together at parties, all the while Dick insisted we’d get married. He lived, albeit briefly, as a smart, capable boy, and died as a smart, capable Robin. I had trouble looking at his face- pictures and old year books. When I did, I was looking into the face of a boy who died an untimely, tragic death. That was it. That was his story. Jason Todd died alone, afraid, and probably in a lot of pain. I went to his funeral.

If at all he came up (I could only think of one or two occasions), Bruce would tense, his eyes falling away, and Alfred’s gaze would cloud with memory. Dick, at least, could share a story or two, coveting the fondness and pride he had for his brother without dismissing the whole subject. Tim and Damian didn’t ask. They just tried not to die with the uniform on.

So walking into the cave and seeing Jason Todd’s face plastered on the central monitor seemed like the single most unlikely thing to occur in the Wayne household. I would’ve placed Bruce adopting another child before digging up and displaying dead ones.

Tim, Dick, and Babs were huddled close, faces wound and tight, while Bruce looked distracted, fascinated with his W.E. ballpoint pen. I dragged my feet a little to alert them all of my entry, but only Babs looked up.

“Y/N.” She said.

“Hey. What’s going on?”

Everyone just sort of concluded that someone else would explain, or take the lead, but no one made any attempt to do so. Finally, Bruce sighed.

“Come here. Sit down.” Okay. If there was anything in the world that could make your intestines feel like they were getting turned to ramen noodles by a paper shredder, it was Bruce Wayne telling you to come here, sit down. I searched the others’ faces as I did so.

“What happened?” I asked quietly, trying to fill the chasmic silence.

“I’m going to go over everything. Do you remember…” He trailed off- just for a second. It wasn’t often I saw him battle with something like that. His face was tired, and his eyes revealed a struggle as he fought whatever emotion he was grappling with. “Do you remember Jason?”

I nodded. “Sort of.” An echoing memory passed. Lacy table cloth curtains and chocolate covered strawberries as we camped under gala snack tables, whispering and laughing. Bruce watching me when my parents went out of town, and Jason giving me a tour of the library. The red roses on his burial. Sure, sort of. His blurry picture was on the monitor, anyway.

“Okay. Very good.” Bruce began again, perhaps relieved he would have to go into detail to refresh my memory.

“We’ve been putting a lot of information together regarding the Red Hood. We’ve been able to deduce his origins were The Viper House, but before that, Arkham. He began working out of the Asylum, and contacts there had a lot of information about him.”

That, I didn’t know. I supposed I wasn’t the only one slinking around in shadows. He was addressing everyone now, going through visuals on the monitor.

“He began to placate what was left of Joker’s operations in Coventry before he started on general crime. Oracle was even able to get some information from Harley Quinn.” I looked at Babs with some surprise, and she just nodded along.

“The very first sighting of him- in Coventry- was April 27th, seven months ago. The fifth anniversary of…”

I nodded. I knew what April 27th was. A vapid, despairing day in the manor that Bruce spent in his office and Dick didn’t call. I didn’t follow, but if Bruce had linked Jason’s death to Red Hood, I knew he must have something big.

“All of the information we gathered, on top of his intimate knowledge of us, vigilante or otherwise, has lead us to a clear conclusion. The encounter in Crime Alley on the 21st was just another confirmation.”

I almost flinched as my eyes flew to Tim, but no one seemed particularly interested in me. I texted him quickly, careful to avoid Bruce’s eye.

You told him?

- I told him I was the one who saw it. It was important information.

Shit, Tim. Was he mad?

He didn’t answer, looking back up to the briefing. I slid my phone into my pocket, guilt weighing in my chest alongside the other myriad of emotions building.

“He’s been around longer than seven months. Much longer. And it began with Jason’s death.”

I furrowed my brow, putting together a puzzle with with bent, broken edges, like trying to fit a triangle into a square-shaped hole- just one angle missing.

“Are you saying… Joker didn’t kill Jason? That this guy did?” My body felt cold.

Bruce looked at Dick, who didn’t return his gaze. Then, he turned back to me.

“I’m saying... that Jason is Red Hood.”

I let confusion twist on my face. “What? How? That’s not possible. You think he lived? We- I mean, we had a funeral.”

Dick shook his head, answering on Bruce’s behalf. “He did die, but… are you familiar with the Lazarus Pit?”

I went over my tangling thoughts. The crime scenes. The anger. The vigilante justice packaged in a case of blood and bullets, shipped right to Gotham’s largest looming criminals. The warehouse, the alley. The button. The leather on his gloves as he ran his fingers along my face and pressed it, leaving me all alone.

Tell Batman,

It was all falling in line; bubbling up and searing together like hot, melding flesh pulled together in the burning waters of the Lazarus.

I’m getting impatient.

“So… what are you going to do?” I asked.

Dick’s face was pained. Solemn. “I… we want to try to talk to him. There’s a reason he’s doing all this, and there’s a reason he chose now. If we want to figure it out, we have to find him.”

I swallowed. “I can help.”

“No.” Bruce declared swiftly. “Absolutely not. The only thing we know about him is that he’s dangerous. Red Hood may have Jason’s DNA, but we need to work under the assumption that he isn’t the same person.”

I could answer that. He wasn’t.

“Do not look for him. Do not engage him. Is that clear?” He was talking to me, Tim, and Damian. We all nodded.

“Any unapproved interaction could jeopardize the case, and give him more insight into our movements. We want to try and remain one step ahead. That is all.” The explanation was for Damian, who operated on bargains, not orders. Again, we all nodded. After a moment, I sighed.

“Well… I have school in the morning. Will you tell me if you learn anything else?” I asked. The three of them nodded, and Dick muttered a ‘goodnight’. I turned, mind working against the grain of what I should do and what I wanted to do.

Just go to bed, I willed myself.

Just go.

*

Night fell, black and smoggy. The sea was hissing and writhing, unsettled with the gale of a promised storm. I wasn’t entirely certain what would catch Red Hood’s attention. It seemed that our history comprised of him finding us, and not the other way around. Gotham Docks seemed like a good place to start. Ever since Kuznetsov was found in his watery grave, his men belonged to Hood. They moved drug imports that came to Port Adams- actual drugs- pharmaceuticals, over-the-counters, hydrocodone, acetaminophen; all legal things. But Gotham City taxed the living hell out of medicine imports, so people like Kuznetsov (may he rest in peace) smuggled them in fishing vessels for cheap, and got them into the hands of big pharma and medicare companies for a lot of money.

I’d picked a cozy spot on the roof of a bait shop that made me feel safely invisible as my eyes swept over the docks. Batman didn’t typically prioritize crime of this caliber; over the counter meds weren’t going to blow anyone’s heads off the way crazy clowns and mafia bosses were. It made the busy henchmen on the boardwalks nice and blatant. It wasn’t hard to find tonight’s operation.

I needed to make a scene. Make some noise, throw out some names- one name in particular. Wherever he was, I hoped it’d be enough to make it worth dropping in. I was used to making quick, efficient work of criminals, not stalling. Making a scene meant no disappearing in shadows, or quieting the sound of my breath.

There were a couple of men dollying crates in and out of a packaging plant. Disguised as fishermen, naturally. As they approached the building, several feet from the propped-open door, I dropped. Embracing the momentum, my weight striking the old wood made a salient sound, and sent the startled men gasping and staggering backward.

“Holy shit!”

“B-Batma-

“B-B-Batgirl?” I clipped. “Were you gonna say Batgirl?” It didn’t really matter which bat they thought it was. The fear all worked to the necessary effect.

“Jesus, Joseph, and Mary,” The man muttered, scooting backward along the wood as I let my step fall heavy against it.

“Where is he?” I asked, drumming up my vicious, raspy voice, like smoke on the sea.

“Where-where’s who?” He stuttered. The other man was taking advantage of my focus and scrambling to his feet. Any second, he would bolt into the building. Perfect.

“Red. Hood.” I said, loud enough that the fleeing man would hear.

“I don’t know! Hand to god, I don’t know!” The man on the ground pleaded. I looked down at him, letting the fear and shadow distort my face.

“I don’t believe you.” I kicked him in the chest, sufficiently knocking the wind out of him, but left him there, turning my attention to the packaging plant.

Adrenaline was in my limbs, pushing and pulling with the running blood under my skin. When was the last time I had a good fight? Carjackings and bank robberies felt so small, and predictable. Everything was always stable. Batman always had it under control, watching dutifully from rooftops, appearing in split second if I needed help.

Tonight, Batman wasn’t here. I felt no eyes on my back, no voices in my ear. It was under control, but it was my control.

The men inside had already sufficiently scattered. I didn’t bother to hush my footsteps as I entered. The icy breeze from the open door made my cape flutter, despite its weight- and that was the only sound.

Suddenly, boots on concrete, and a man let out a defiant cry as he shot toward me, with a rusted tire iron raised above his head. I moved on practiced instinct, side stepping and leaving him stumbling, before delivering a hard, well-aimed kick that he wasn’t getting up from. Two other men concluded (incorrectly) if they went together, they could take me.

It was a blur of fists and make-shift weapons comprised of packaging tools, but they were easy to parry and subdue. I kicked the second one back with enough force to send him through a thin wooden partition, which cracked and splintered under his weight. I swung my eyes around the scene.

“Anyone else?” I knew they were there. Tucked behind conveyor belts and crouched low, using fish barrels for cover. No one answered the call of duty.

“I’ll ask again,” I called. “Where. Is. Red. Hood?”

Suddenly, a flash of color, and I went backward and downward, catching myself enough that my arm slid across the concrete instead of my face. I let out a sharp breath just in time to dodge another blow.

“All this,” The computerized tilt of his voice couldn’t smother the anger in it. “For little old me?”

I kept my eyes trained on his hands, because I could entertain close combat, but knew I’d need to bolt if he drew his guns. That didn’t appear to be his intention. I dipped away from one of his swings, but he swiped at the fabric of my cape, grip closing, and used it to heave me into a barrel. I gasped at the force of it as I reckoned with shattered wood. Barely recovering, I rolled out of the way as he swung low. I went for the door, figuring I could use a little more space, since he had a hundred pounds and a few feet on me.

Outside, a frigid wind was cascading across the docks, biting my skin and casting droplets of salt water all around. Red Hood moved imposingly slow-paced, attending the cuff of his jacket sleeve, while I put a hand on the railing and tried to find my footing again.

“There are easier ways to get my attention, sweet thing.” Drawing to a halt, he didn’t look like he was going to attack me again, so I wiped the blood from my lip and straightened.

“Sorry. You forgot..” I was still breathing heavily. “To give me.. your number… last time.”

He laughed; a terrible, beautiful thing. “I guess I did, didn’t I?”

I fought to remember why I was here, and consequently, tried to pull together Jason Todd with the faceless man before me. They seemed to foil one another- a triangle through a square-shaped hole.

“So what do you want?” He asked, more serious this time. Though a reasonable question, it almost sounded rhetorical for the sheer lack of curiosity in it. I swallowed.

“Show me your face.” I said. It was so quiet, so hushed by the jeering sea that I was surprised when he tilted his head in response.

“Liked our little game that much? Had to crack a few skulls just to play it again?” I was frustrated, wishing he would come close, like he had in the alley, and let me touch him. Let me push away the helmet and know.

I tried to convey my seriousness with a look, but he just rolled his shoulders.

“Is that all, little bird?” He seemed annoyed; like I’d dragged him here only to concern myself with the small matter of his secret identity. The secret identity of Gotham’s most prolific crimelord. I wanted to make him understand, but I didn’t know what to say. He didn’t say anything else, either. He didn’t say “no” or “whatever” or “goodbye”. He just started walking away.

Jason.

Suddenly, I stopped myself. What if he wasn’t? What if Bruce was wrong? I’d throw out a name- an accusation- at a monstrous stranger who had no connection to me or my family. He’d laugh his terrible laugh and know that the world’s greatest detectives weren’t so great after all. Nervousness consumed me, tightening around my throat, placating me while I watched his form get smaller as he walked away, the darkness threatening to swallow him up.

“Jason!”

He stopped. His boots dragged to a jarring halt on the wood. Slowly, then, he turned around. The shadows were long and cast over him, turning his helm the color of old blood.

“Come back.” I said. “Please.”

His body language was unreadable, a mix between relaxed and hesitant that left him standing there, looming, and left me unsure as to whether he was going to leave, or pull a glock on me. Then, he lifted his hands. His thumbs dragged beneath his jaw methodically, until there came a hiss from his helmet, and he pulled it off.

“Jason.” I repeated. My voice was tight. It shook. His gaze followed me in the dark before he approached, gate slow and heavy, and sat down on a fishing crate.

“What? Do I look different? Put on a little weight?” Maybe he was joking- I couldn’t tell. The soft rasping of his voice startlingly contrasted the voice scrambler, and blended with the bubbling waters below our feet. But something eerie laced it. It was still foreign to me. “It’s okay. You can tell me.”

I had previously thought I might be able to do this; face him. After all- I should be happy to see him again, alive after five years of Bruce’s grief and wretched hollowness. Years of operating in the long, dark shadow cast by his headstone. But somehow, the man before me was instead a confirmation. A walking death certificate. Jason Todd- the other Jason Todd- was still gone. Bronze skin, of which small, light colored scars adorned. Midnight hair mussed from his helmet, leaving a couple strands to fall over his dark eyes; eyes that used to hold warmth, and now held a malefic coldness. When I drank in the features of his face, I found my chalice empty. He didn’t approach me this time- didn’t draw near enough to feel his heat. Just sat there, elbows resting on his thighs, leaning forward and looking at me. I had trouble holding his gaze, but I did. Then, he gave me a chilling grin.

“Did you miss me?”

His voice knocked something loose, as my mind placed him as a memory. Someone I’d actually known. I had a million burning questions. “How? What happened?”

He pulled out a cigarette, shrugging. “I’ve been busy. Dying’s a lotta work.”

“Why- why are doing this?” This being spending seven months as the most prolific crimelord in Gotham. There was a spark of his lighter. Using his hand to shield the flame from the winds and misting water, it nurtured an orange glow on his face, bathing his skin in auburn light for just a moment. I blinked, and it was extinguished, replaced, again, by the blue darkness. He took a deep drag.

“Know how I died, dollface?” He asked. I did, so I nodded.

“Remember what happened to the bastard who killed me? After.” I studied him, still reeling a bit from accepting the man before me as the boy he’d been. I remembered there was another attack after Jason’s death. Joker took forty pounds of C4 to a shopping center in Fashion district at the beginning of May. Amidst the rubble were Robin: Missing posters. Bruce didn’t make them. Joker kept up his streak thereafter. He didn’t stop until his death, last year.

“Nothin’.” Jason supplied the answer. A hard, bitter, sorrowful nothing. It burned cold, like an inverse flame.

“Batman doesn’t kill. He doesn’t kill, and killers do. So they walk, and keep killing, and he calls it justice.”

I let it all sink in. Batman was the only thing standing between Gotham and complete corruption. I saw, in my memory, all the people I’d helped. All the victims who’d ever clung to me or thanked me through tears. All the pride I’d ever felt carrying the mantle. Batman didn’t kill because you can’t go back from killing. If he did, it wouldn’t be vigilantes against criminals- it’d be dogs eating dogs. Domestic war. Jason had been Robin. Surely he understood the philosophy of it?

But, then, what did it get him? He took those philosophies to the grave. When he finally crawled back out, he did what anyone with a vendetta might do. He overcorrected.

“Tell me somethin’, little bird.” His eyes leveled steadily on mine as I looked back up. “You call that justice?” I swayed under the intensity of it. I was afraid to disagree with him, but I didn’t even know if I wanted to. There were a lot of times I watched Joker slip through Batman’s hands, free to blow up another shopping center, when he could’ve stopped him if he just-

“I don’t… I don’t know.”

He got up, cigarette hanging from his lips, gaunt eyes burning through the blue dark.

“I think you do.”

The sea hissed, and the wind writhed, and I watched as the night swallowed him up.

[blouisparadise]

Upon request, here is a rec list of bottom Louis fics that are more plot-heavy in nature. We tried to choose fics that had a plot beyond Louis and Harry’s relationship. Happy reading!

1) Once Upon A Dream | Explicit | 33319 words | Sequel

Louis is psychic and gets caught in the middle of a murder investigation led by FBI Special Agent Harry Styles.

2) Boiling Blood Will Circulate | Explicit | 42420 words

The wait isn’t long before something starts rustling in the bushes. Harry takes aim, squeezes the trigger, body moving unconsciously. They’re motions he’s done a thousand times before, and his body knows how to do it without the input of his brain now. It’s what makes him such a good shot.

He misses. The shot misses.

Something howls in the woods, a pretty clear indication that Harry hit it, but there’s no telltale sounds of a big body dropping, no animal charging out at him to take him out before he can finish the job.

Something does turn and run, though. “Fuck,” Harry spits out, scrambling to his feet and slinging the rifle back over his shoulder, giving chase. He’s not going to lose this hunt.

The trail of blood goes on longer than Harry thought it would. He doesn’t know how long he runs for, but his muscles are burning, chest heaving with exertion, until the trail just - goes dead. No more blood, just like that.

“Fuck,” Harry says.

3) The Fairy Ring | Explicit | 46170 words

A medieval fantasy AU in which Harry is a prince in disguise and Louis is the king of the faeries.

4) Tied Down | Explicit | 48551 words

The most interesting case in Liam and Niall's careers falls directly into their laps, courtesy of an epic fuck-up of one Harry Styles, partner to the almost-infamous drug dealer Louis Tomlinson.   The investigation yields an unexpected yet satisfactory outcome for Liam and Niall.  For Harry and Louis, however, things are far more complicated.

5) Now That This Old World Is Ending | Explicit | 49184 words

Needing a good distraction from his broken heart, Louis Tomlinson goes on a camping trip with his friends to Northern England. However, a different kind of distraction arises when his friends disappear from their camp. Hellbent on finding them, Louis soon discovers that the area has been taken over by a cult and teams up with a resentful archer with fire in his eyes and blood on his hands.

Far Cry inspired AU.

6) It's A Long Way Down | Explicit | 52658 words

It’s June 2013, and the legalization of gay marriage is the most discussed political issue in the country. As a member of parliament Louis Tomlinson has decided to do everything under his power to keep marriage between a man and a woman. Little does he know a boy with green eyes and pink lips from his past is on a mission to change his mind.

7) We’ve Got the World in Our Hands | Explicit | 54964 words

Note: This fic is locked and can only be read by AO3 users.

A mutants/superpowers AU. Louis and his friends attend the Cowell Institute for General Education and Mutant Training in London; when Louis meets Harry, the newest student at the Cowell Institute, he immediately recruits Harry to help play matchmaker for his friend Zayn. Harry and Louis are so caught up in meddling in Zayn's love life, though, that they don't notice that their own friendship is progressing into something more. Meanwhile, an ominous threat up north grows slowly until suddenly, no mutant - or human - is safe.

8) Somethin’ Bout You | Explicit | 59855 words

Of all the government agents in the world, Louis had to go and land the most charming one.

9) Like Real People Do | Explicit | 64175 words

Louis didn’t ask for a lot of things. He didn’t ask for his entire family to die in a car crash that may or may not have been his fault. He didn’t ask to get powers out of that accident, either, powers that eventually led him into a two-year relationship with a man who was far more than met the eye. But one night, he chose to ask for a replacement to a broken camera from someone he hadn’t spoken to in a year and a half. He did ask for that. And that kind of led to everything else.

10) We’ll Cast Some Light (You’ll Be Alright) | Not Rated | 74409 words

There’s a standard procedure for this. Scan, track, kill. But with a solar eclipse and a Greater Demon with unfinished business looming, the path to keeping England safe from harm becomes complicated and shadowed by mystery and secrets. For Harry and his team, times have never been harder, especially when a few old friends turned foes show up. Harry is left with just over forty days to overcome the hurdle of tension between them and reconcile their past, and figure out just what Louis is hiding from him before it’s too late.

11) Waiting On You | Explicit | 76584 words

“Vampires,” Louis says with disgust, glaring over at the vampire who is noisily slurping from the woman’s neck nearby.

 Zayn gives the neat fang marks on Louis’ neck a meaningful look.

“Can’t live with them, can’t live without them,” Louis finishes, ignoring Zayn when he rolls his eyes.

Louis takes a long sip of his milkshake, presses his fingers against the marks on his neck, and definitely doesn’t think about the vampire who left them there.

12) Through Struggles, To The Stars | Explicit | 80582 words

Louis is a Starfleet captain trying to find his place in the universe. Harry is a prince just trying to do what's right.

13) Cameras Flashing | Explicit | 81773 words

With his breakout single platinum three times over and his second album still selling out in stores around the world, Louis Tomlinson has made it to the top. However, his position as Pop Heartthrob of the Decade is threatened by the edgier, more artistic Zayn, who happens to be releasing an album a week after Louis’ upcoming third. Louis needs something groundbreaking- scandalous, even- to push past him in the charts. Much to Louis’ dismay, his PR team calls in The Sexpert.

Consulting with PR firm Shady, Lane and Associates pays the bills so that Harry Styles can spend his down time doing what he really loves: poring over data. On weekends and late into the evenings, he researches gender, presentation, and sexual orientation, analysing the longitudinal study that is his father’s life’s work. That is, until his newest client, the popstar with the fascinating secret, drags him off his couch and frighteningly close to the spotlight.

As the album’s release date approaches, will Tomlinson and Styles be able to pull off the most risky PR scheme of the millennium and beat Zayn in sales or will the heat of their feelings for each other compromise everything?

14) And Down the Long and Silent Street | Mature | 86090 words

Wherein Louis and Harry are on the opposite ends of the social ladder, but their paths still cross on the filthy streets Louis calls his home. The odds are staked against them from the beginning, and even more when Louis' past finally catches up with him.

15) A Taste Of Desire | Explicit | 104414 words

A Victorian ABO where Harry is the owner of the most successful cotton mill in Manchester, and Louis is an opinionated social activist about to disrupt Harry’s world.

16) Saving Symphony Hall | Mature | 124766 words

Note: This fic is locked and can only be read by AO3 users. This fic is also a sequel to this fic, so you probably want to read that fic first.

“I think I have an idea,” Louis said. Slowly, and reluctantly, but with a growing sense of the inevitable. “God damnit, I think I have a really good idea.”

“Oh christ, that's the problem-solving face,” Babs said. “Last time we saw that face, he sold a company.”

“Wait, what?” Zayn asked.

“Right place, right time,” Louis said. “Also, fuck my life,”

“What?” Zayn repeated. Niall patted his hand.

“I usually just roll with whatever Louis is about to do,” he said. “It’s better for us all.”

“That’s the attitude,” said Louis, “I’ll tell you tomorrow. Tonight, I need to do some research. Zayn, give me your number. I’m gonna save our symphony.”

17) Tainted Saints And Velvet Vices | Mature | 126057 words

A self-fulfilling Hogwarts AU in which Louis is new to seventh year and Harry is the resident devil-may-care Slytherin set to make his entire experience a living misery. Due to less than favourable circumstances they're forced to forge an unwilling, tentative relationship for their own survival. Repressed emotions, decidedly unromantic ballroom dancing, Triwizard Tournament tasks, creative jinxes and twilight flying above the Forbidden Forest ensue.

18) Run Like the Devil | Explicit | 138095 words

Note: This fic has BH mentions.

Supernatural AU. Louis hunts demons; Harry's the strangest demon he's ever met, and he keeps fucking meeting him.

19) You Are The Blood | Explicit | 175151 words

Note: This fic has BH mentions.

A seventh-year Hogwarts AU in which Niall gets all the girls, Liam goes on a journey of self-discovery, Zayn falls in love, Harry wants something more, and Louis tries to figure out once and for all why he, a Muggleborn, was sorted into Slytherin.

20) Collision | Not Rated | 209473 words

Mythology/Fairytale!AU in which Louis is a dainty fairy with a temper who wants to be intimidating and Harry hurts people. Naturally, they hate each other.

Check out our other fic rec lists by category here and by title here.

[dilfdoctordoom]

thots on. um. legacy characters!! any this is open to. the concept of legacy characters but also any specific characters u have Thots on dhdbdbdb

LEGACY CHARACTERS ARE LITERALLY MY FAVORITE THING EVER and they're never done well and it drives me absolutely insane. Dinah Lance was a legacy character and the N52 erased that completely and IMO it made her a much worse character.

Legacies characters... Like they can help flesh out the original so much and it makes the mantle hold a lot more weight. Like, if Green Lantern had stopped at Alan Scott.... I can't even imagine a DC Universe like that. Legacies are just so much fun and do a lot of work at fleshing out a universe and allowing for a load of really fun character interactions.

Like GOD one of the reasons that I even got into Marvel in the first place was Miles Morales because legacies!!!!! Make me go insane!!!!!

Also you said I could get specific with legacy characters SO the concept of the Batgirls legacy is completely screwed at the moment. Even if we ignore Bette Kane (so we pretend we're DC, I guess), it feels.... So off to have Babs be Batgirl at the same time as Stephanie and Cassandra. Steph and Cass being Batgirl at the same time works, it's a solid compromise (because Batgirl was important to both of them but there's no denying that Cass giving up the Batgirl identity was bad). Babs, though... She's supposed to be, what, thirty at this point? So like it's weird off that alone for her to be Batgirl but I digress because I think that keeping her as Batgirl (and she's apparently. Switching between oracle and batgirl now?????) is kind of tying the name to ableism for me which I hate. Batgirl is one of my favourite legacies in all of comics but idk... It feels like DC doesn't understand what Batgirl means anymore.

And they don't... Utilise the other Batgirls enough. I mean, obviously, Cass and Steph were paid dirt in the N52 but we did get introduced to some new Batgirls that could've been really cool to explore. Especially Tiffany Fox, like it feels like a massive missed opportunity not to play with the idea of her as Batgirl since Jace is becoming Batwing. And Nissa... We still don't know Nissa's last name.

The fact that we haven't gotten a Batgirls book or, hell, even an event centered on at least the main three feels weird.

I'm also... Very mad that the Batgirl movie is gonna be about Babs because, and I'm just gonna be brutally honest here, Barbara Gordon was so goddamn boring when she was Batgirl. When she was Oracle? One of my favourite characters in all of DC. Amazing and iconic and complex. Batgirl, though, was a snooze fest. And the other Batgirls they could've used (ie Cass -- who's already introduced to movie audiencesish!!! -- and Steph) are... Utterly fascinating in their Batgirl eras. And they're the ones that defined what it meant to be Batgirl, I think. Like, I would not have connected that name to hope without those two characters. Also I'm now gonna call DC ableist if Babs is 20+ and Batgirl please for the love of fuck let her be Oracle let her be disabled if goddamn Titans has you beat... You know you've messed up (sincerely, someone who loves Titans).

[elementalwriter67]

The Void Chapter Nine

Pairings: (eventual) Jason Todd x Reader

Tag list: @clea-nightingale, @wittedhat, @reclusive-chicken-nugget, @undertheredhood

Word Count: 3709

Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7a, 7b, 8

Summary:  The Void is a hellish place filled with screams that echoed throughout the place at all the hours of the night, and where pain is a very close friend. You’ve spent your entire life in the Void, having been there since you were ten and you’ve just recently gotten a new cellmate… Who’s a little more hopeful than you are that either of you are going to make it out of this place alive. Though you have to admit that maybe his hope is rubbing off on you because you slowly find yourself hoping that the two of you do get out of here

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Barbara panted as she raced through the hallways of Wayne manor, her hand tightly gripping her tablet as she slid around the corner nearly falling on her ass in the process. 

“Shit!” Barbara shouted barely managing to catch herself on the corner, pulling herself up and out of her fall and pushing herself off the wall in the process. 

“You’re running late too?” Barbara heard behind her and she glanced behind her to see Kate running towards her as well and a small smile spread across her face. 

“Yeah I got caught in traffic, you?” Barbara panted out the two of them sliding to a stop in the study where the manor entrance to the batcave was located. 

“Had to stop a bank robbery.” Kate panted out as she leaned against the desk catching her breath as Barbara walked up to the grandfather clock. Reaching up Barbara moved the hour hand to the number nine then to the number three before reaching down and pulling one of the weights. Taking a step back Barbara breathed heavily as the clock slid back and to the side revealing a long dark hallway and Barbara glanced back at Kate as she walked up to her. 

“How pissed do you think Bruce will be?” Barbara asked as the two of them started lightly jogging down the hallway. 

“On a scale of one to ten he’s going to at least be a solid annoyed/disappointed father.” Kate commented as the two of them turned and jogged down a slope before they came out onto a catwalk that stood over the batcomputer. From where they were they could see the others standing around the holographic map of Gotham that was situated behind the batcomputer near the railing that separated them from the second floor where the vehicles were. As the two of them stepped out onto the catwalk the others immediately looked up at them with unimpressed expressions. 

“You’re late.” Damian stated as he watched the two of them make their way down the stairs. Barbara and Kate both rolled their eyes as they shared a look as they walked over to them. 

“Sorry I got caught up in traffic on the way over.” Barbara stated giving Damian a look that he ‘tsked’ at before looking away from Barbara and back at the map. 

“And I had to stop a bank robbery on the way here.” Kate explained as she dropped her bag to the ground as she leaned against the map still trying to catch her breath. Bruce ‘hmmed’ as he watched the two of them giving them a silent look of disappointment.

“Dick, Roy, what did you two manage to find?” Bruce asked, turning and looking at them causing the two of them to stand up a little straighter at suddenly having Bruce’s attention. 

“Nothing much at first. Half the people we tried to talk to wouldn’t talk to us and the other half would all just repeat what the others that had walked about which was that the Void was a very very scary place and that if we had crossed paths with it we should count ourselves lucky that we didn’t get caught up in their shit, so nothing overall useful. But it does cross off the Hoovervilles near Amusement Mile, Old Gotham, and Main St.” Dick told them as he reached out and tapped at the map creating red x’s wherever his finger touched. 

“Crime Alley’s Hoovervilles however proved to be kinder to us, oddly enough. I managed to convince a few people to actually explain to me what these people do and basically they go around kidnaping people off the streets, mainly the homeless. Sometimes they kidnap them just by right grabbing them, other times they promise people food and shelter and then they’re never seen again. Some of the people I talked to even said that they’ve seen them take normal people off the streets.” Roy added on as he circled his finger over the areas in Crime Alley where the Hoovervilles that had given him the information. 

“Did you manage to get any names?” Bruce asked and Roy nodded.

“A few names, I handed them over to Kate and Babs to see if they showed up in any of the databases.” Roy said as he looked over at Kate and Barbara. Barbara nodded as she shifted, lifting her tablet up so that she could see the screen and she tapped at it a couple of times before swiping up. The map fell away from the table and was replaced with the files that Barbara had on her tablet. 

“So out of the ten names that Roy gave us two of them ended up having no connection to the Void whatsoever.” Barbara started explaining as she tapped at her screen moving the files around on her tablet to bring up the one she was talking about. 

“Which one is that?” Roy asked as he looked down at the table watching as Barbara opened up the file for everyone to see the information inside. 

“This is Ryan Haywood, he went missing sometime around May 6th according to the witness who reported him missing to the police. At first the initial case revealed that Haywood hadn’t gone missing but had actually killed himself by driving his car off of a cliff. But as it turns out he faked his own death, and having looked through his extensive medical history, to escape from someone. He now lives in Los Santos with someone called Jeremy Dooley.” Barbara explained as she tapped on Haywood’s case file, closing it, before she swiped it away leaving only the other name. 

“And this one is Ray Narvaez Jr. he went missing a little after Haywood did and at first there were no leads as to where he had gone and we thought that he might have been taken by the void. But then we ran his picture through the facial recognition program and came back with a possible match on a John Doe that was brought into the morgue a couple of months ago with multiple stab wounds. I went and got some samples from the John Doe at the morgue and we ran it through the system and it came back with a positive match to Narvaez. So while Narvaez is no longer missing it is now an open murder investigation.” Kate finished off as Barbara swiped away Narvaez’s file.

“And what exactly makes these two different from the other cases?” Damian asked as he crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned back against the railing as he watched Barbara and Kate. 

“You mean other than the fact that we were able to solve these cases?” Kate asked and Damian nodded.

“Simple really because these people left absolutely no trace as to where they could have gone, who could have taken them, and no one in all of the background checks that we did had a history that would warrant them being kidnapped. And when I say that they didn’t have a history I mean these people never once stole anything, not even as a kid, do you guys have any idea how rare that is?” Kate asked and the others shrugged in agreement. 

“So you’re absolutely certain that these people are connected to the Void?” Bruce asked and both Kate and Barbara nodded.

“As certain as we can be with the amount of information that we have, yes.” Barbara stated as she nodded her head once. Bruce ‘hmmed’ as he stared at the case files still up on the table scanning through each one before looking towards Tim, Cass, and Damian. 

“What did you all manage to find in the alley where Jason went missing?” He asked and Cass stepped forward picking up a back and dumped it out. Jason’s helmet, phone, wallet, knife, and the trackers fell out onto the table and everyone was silent for a moment as they stared at the items before Cass spoke.

“The only things missing are Jason’s guns and the rest of his knives and explosives, we can only assume that the people who took him ran out of time to disarm him and took everything else.” Cass stated as she looked up at Bruce. 

“After combing the area for anything else that could have been left behind we were able to find some tire tracks.” Damian added on as he moved Jason’s stuff off to the side of the table, careful to stop it from falling to the ground as he tapped at the screen, swiping it away to another screen, and pulled up the pictures of the tire tracks. 

“Initially it was only a partial of the actual track but I decided to run it through the systems anyways and I got 160 matches,” Tim stated as he took control of the table away from Damian and pulled up all the possible matches that he had found. “Once I had my baseline I narrowed it down to a van or a truck with a cover cause I figured that the Void would need a vehicle that could handle transporting several people at once and that narrowed my matches down to 60.” 

“Then I-”

“Tim please, this is all very fascinating but time isn’t really something that we have in abundance right now so if you could please.” Dick interrupted his explanation and Tim cleared his throat as he swiped at the screen. 

“Right, well needless to say I took 160 matches and narrowed it down to a manageable five. One belongs to the Penguin, one belongs to Falcone, the hospital, Black Mask, and some rich guy in upper east side Gotham.” Tim told them and Bruce was silent as he looked at the matches.

“Cass, Damian you take Penguin.” “Yes, father.” Damian said as him and Cass took off without another word. 

“Dick, Roy, you two check the hospital.” Dick and Roy nodded the two of them rushing to their own vehicles.

“Babs, Kate, you handle Black Mask. Tim, Stephanie, you two take the Rich guy, I’ve got Falcone.” Bruce stated, the four of them already leaving as he turned around and grabbed his cowl and started walking towards the batmobile. This was going to be a long, long, night he could already tell. 

~The Void~

Jason grunted as he hit the ground, his hands scraping against the harsh concrete which only served to add to the throbbing pain that was his body at this point. Behind him the guards towered over him laughing at him as they watched him flinch in pain as he pushed off the floor, rolling on to his back. He glared up at the guards who were grinning evil down at him. 

“Well, well well would you look at that boys, looks like he’s still got a little fight left in him.” One of the guards said as he stepped into the room his smile turned vicious as he cracked his knuckles.

“So it would seem and here I was thinking we had actually managed to beat it out of him. Oh well I guess that just means we’ll have to go for round two.” The second guard said as he watched Jason, who continued to glare up at them. His hands balled into fists and despite the pain, and the blackness creeping in around the edges of his vision, if it was a fight they wanted it was a fight they were going to get. 

“Didn’t Dr. Roberts say that the punishments were supposed to be kept in their designated rooms?” The third guard asked as he glanced around the hallway, watching the other guards and nurses doing their rounds before looking back at the other two. 

“Relax newbie, what the dear old doc doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” The first guard said as he walked up to standing next to Jason who was eying him wearily. His muscles tensing which caused him to clench his jaw as he pulled on bruised and torn muscles, sprained and fractured bones. 

“Besides how many of our men did he kill and put in the hospital wing with that little show him and that bitch put on? I’d say he’s got more than one beating coming to him.” The second guard said as he stepped into the room as well and Jason grunted as he went to push himself up into a standing position. He wasn’t going down without a fight, not this time. Before he could even think of getting on to his knees the guard standing next to him sent a swift kick to Jason’s side sending him sprawling to the ground coughing and wheezing as he struggled to breath. He would be lucky if that kick hadn’t broken one of his ribs and punctured his lung. Hell he’d be lucky if he came out with anything in tack period. 

“Yeah but don’t we have somewhere to be?” The new guard asked as he hesitantly looked around the corridor, terrified of seeing either Dr. Roberts or Dr. Stevens coming down the hall. 

“Pfft, please it’s just a subject transfer for Dr. Smith but tell you what kid if you’re really worried about what’ll happen if we get caught why don’t you go and take care of that transport for us huh?” The guard who had kicked Jason stated as he looked away from Jason to the newbie. The newbie hesitated for a moment shifting back and forth as he looked between the door and his fellow guards before stepping into the room, the other two grinning. 

“Good, now why don’t you give him a good kick, I’m sure it’ll make you feel better.” The second guard said as he stepped over to the door to keep watch and the newbie stepped forward. Jason glared up at him, his jaw clenched and the newbie looked towards the first guard who nodded once and then back at Jason. Before he brought his foot down on Jason’s outstretched hand grinding his heel into the back of Jason’s hand. Jason couldn’t stop the scream that tore free from his throat as he curled in on himself, his other hand flying out to grip at the guard’s ankle pushing at him desperately trying to free his hand from the torment. 

“Gah! Let go of me!” The guard shouted as he jerked his leg free from Jason’s grasp glaring down at him. The guard kicked Jason in his side again, snarling as he did so and the guard opened his mouth to say something but was stopped as the guard in the doorway was pushed aside by Dr. Stephen. 

“Hey! What the hell do you three idiots do you think you’re doing?” Dr. Stephen shouted as he stormed into the room, the guards jumping back from Jason who grinned internally as he watched the guards cower away from the doctor. 

“Giving this subject what he deserves.” The first guard stated his voice surprisingly firm despite the fear that shown in his eyes. 

“By breaking his fucking ribs?” Dr. Stephen growled out as he stalked forward, the guards taking another step back, eyes moving between Dr. Stephen and Jason unsure of what to do. Dr. Stephen crouched down next to Jason, who tensed at the closeness of the doctor, and peeled back Jason’s shirt. Dr. Stephen stared at his already wrapped ribs and the cuts and bruises that littered his torso before he reached out and pressed on Jason’s ribs. Jason sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth, his hands curling into fists which only increased the pain he was feeling as his right hand throbbed. 

“You’re fucking lucky they’re not broken you dumbasses. Get the fuck out of here and go do your fucking jobs and when you’re done come and see me.” Dr. Stephen commanded them as he threw Jason’s shirt down and stood up. 

“Did I fucking stutter? Get moving!” Dr. Stephen shouted when the guards didn’t get moving right away. The guards scrambled out of the room and Dr. Stephen sighed heavily as he followed after them grumbling under his breath about how they were all stupid pig headed idiots. 

The door slammed closed behind Dr. Stephen. Jason laid there for several more minutes just staring up at the ceiling trying to get his breathing and pain back under control before he grunted and pushed himself up into a sitting position. His muscles screamed in protest, the pain spiking again, and Jason did his best to ignore it as he moved on to his knees. Panting heavily, Jason held that position, fighting the urge to throw up, before he climbed up on his feet. His legs shook violently as they threatened to give out on him and for a brief moment he was terrified that his legs were going to give out on him but he still managed to stagger his way over to his bed before he collapsed. Groaning Jason dragged the rest of his body up onto the bed before rolling over to stare up at the ceiling.

~Several Hours Later~

Jason groaned as he sat up on the bed leaning back against the wall as he stared across at your empty bed. It had been hours since he had been brought back from his “punishment” and they had yet to bring you back. He would have thought by now that they would have brought you back, after all how long could a punishment possibly take? His certainly hadn’t taken that long so it wasn’t like yours could be longer. But then again you had been nervous about attempting to escape, hesitant and unwilling even, so there had to be a reason for all of that right? There had to be a reason as to why you were so afraid to escape, obviously the punishment was one of the reasons but you couldn’t possibly be that scared of a guard beating not when it was clear you had gone through so much else. So what made you so afraid? What made you so nervous about escaping?

Jason froze as he realized the path that his mind was beginning to travel down, his hands curling around the edge of the bed as he glared at the floor. He hated this. Hated the fear that came with not knowing if you would come back from your punishment or not. Hated the guilt that was eating him alive right now. Hated the worry that came with the guilt that i-when you got back you wouldn’t talk to him again, that it would be just like day one all over again. Hated the uncertainty of not knowing when the guards would come back. Hated the anger that was slowly building up inside of him, it was the same sort of anger that he had felt when he had come back from the pit all those years ago, the anger that had driven him to murdering and slaughtering his way through every back alley criminal he had come across. The same sort of anger that had turned him into a monster and had broken him more than the Joker and Bruce already had. But most importantly he hated how all those emotions, all that anger, were because of you, for you. He hated how without saying much of anything, without doing anything, you had still managed to worm your way past his defenses, past all his walls, and carefully crafted facades, and make him feel things that he had thought he buried long ago, and he was powerless to do anything against the growing changes inside of him and he hated it. Hated it. 

His thoughts were interrupted however by the door to the cell opening once again, his body tensing as he turned his glare away from the floor and towards the door. Sucking in a sharp breath through his teeth Jason’s eyes widened at the scene before him watching as the guards dragged your unconscious form through the door.

Water dripped from your hair and blood stained the stark white bandages that had been wrapped around your entire upper body providing some form of cover to your otherwise naked upper half. Your arms were covered in rivlets of dried blood and your wrists had been bandaged as well. Jason watched as the guards laid you down on the floor not dropping you as they had him but also not moving you to the bed either. The door closed with a slam and the rest of the world seemed to drown out as Jason stared at your unconscious form. His heart beat starting to race as he jumped from the bed, his pain a distant memory. 

“Oh god. Oh god. (Y/N)? (Y/N)? (Y/N)?!” Jason shouted as he dropped to his knees beside you, his hands reaching out and cupping your face, turning you to look at him. Your eyes remained closed and he could feel his heart beating against his chest as he let go of your face. 

“Oh god, please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead.” Jason repeated over and over as he pressed his fingers to your neck desperately trying to feel around for a pulse. He couldn’t find one. 

“No, no , no, no, no. No. Come on, come on.” Jason muttered as he pressed his fingers harder against your throat moving them up and down and across but still unable to feel your pulse. 

“Fuck.” Moving further down your body Jason bent down pressing his ear against your chest and forcing his own heart beat to settle down as he strained to listen for your heartbeat. After what felt like an eternity though he finally heard it, it was faint, barely even there, but it was there nonetheless and so wasn’t you’re breathing as shallow as that may be. Falling back onto his knees Jason breathed out a sigh of relief as he ran his fingers through his hair and stared down at you. Another moment of silence passed as he continued to stare at you the relief he felt at hearing your heartbeat steadily being eaten away by guilt the longer he stared at you. 

“I’m sorry.”

[brynnmck]

So. BIRDS OF PREY. (Non-spoilery outside the cut.) The short-short version is that this is the woman-driven superhero/action movie I've been waiting for and I have been fizzing with excitement and glee ever since I saw it and I really REALLY encourage you all to check it out because a) I truly feel it might very well improve your lives and b) I want it to make a billion dollars so that they make more because I NEED IT.

Also I want to make clear that you do not have to have seen or liked Suicide Squad, or have read the comics, in order to understand and enjoy this movie. (One of the best tributes I can pay to it, though, is that BOP was/is my first and truest comics love, and even though this movie is a pretty drastically different take on them and in fact leaves out my favorite character entirely, I still ADORED it. In large part because it DOES contain one of things I loved most about the comics, namely: a variety of interesting, complex, and multifaceted women interacting with and supporting each other. And ALSO kicking ass using a variety of skill sets!)

Just. THIS MOVIE IS SO FUN. As a warning, there is some pretty brutal violence in it (though mostly not against women, for a pleasant change). But it's also hilarious, and really cleverly set up and executed, and grounded in real and relatable feelings, and bright candy colored and just the right amount of unhinged and the soundtrack is PHENOMENAL and the costumes are incredible and the fights were fantastic and honestly, I don't recall a single line in the whole movie that made me cringe for the person saying it. All the performances are brilliant, especially Margot Robbie (who gets the most to do, since Harley is the central character here, but she crushes it all), and Ewan McGregor cheerfully devouring scenery, and Jurnee Smollet-Bell is just. The PERFECT stunning badass Dinah. (Also I found out that she does her own singing in this and it has ruined my life because ONE PERSON SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO DO AND BE ALL OF THOSE THINGS it's TOO MUCH.) Also it is just generally PACKED with extraordinarily hot women who have agency and depth. So. I THOROUGHLY enjoyed the ride and I wanted it to be at least an hour longer and I am absolutely going again as soon as I feasibly can.

Spoilery thoughts and feelings under the cut!

Okay, first of all, I have never had strong feelings about Harley as a character but holy shit, I had no idea Margot Robbie was such a good actress, and I loooooooooved what they did with Harley here. She's definitely unstable, but I adored that they kept reminding us how smart she is, and the fact that she's got all this education and this ability to analyze people that's a vital element of her power. And she's so much FUN, and her drive to be her own person and to figure out what that means is so poignant and so relatable, I really thought they struck the ideal balance with her of making her larger-than-life but still grounded and complex, someone we could care about and sympathize with. And I loved that she ultimately came into her own, and ultimately did it in part because she chose to make connections with people who fundamentally value her.

And then DINAH. MY BELOVED. I love that even though she starts out working for the enemy, she still has that essential kindness and sense of justice that I feel like is so crucial to the character, and I thought using her mother's death as context for how she ended up where she is now was really clever and gave the story space to show her becoming a hero instead of just being born as one. (And she ALSO gets to parallel what Harley is experiencing, i.e. she's not sure who she is without the man who's been exerting control over her for so long, but she's increasingly ready to find out.) I loved seeing the way that slowly built in her over the course of the movie, that "I'm not getting involved I'm not getting involved FUCK IT I'M GETTING EXTREMELY INVOLVED" bursting of the dam that happened a few different times in a few different ways, all leading up to the Canary Cry moment, which was SO MUCH MORE than the plot device it could have been because we know EXACTLY what she's choosing to embrace by using her powers, backed by all the catharsis of "I'm not fucking taking this anymore and I'm going to defend what I love and what is right with every ounce of my strength and RAAAAAAAAAAAAR." SO GOOD. Also I never thought I would ship Harley/Dinah but here I am? That first meeting between them in Roman's club hit me HARD, just that moment of connection, and actually that was one of my favorite things about the way the movie was structured: a lot of times with team-up movies I feel like things don't really get going until the team-up happens, but here I thought they included so many lovely moments with different combinations of the characters that they felt connected even when they weren't actually all together, so the team-up was still enormously satisfying but it also didn't feel to me like the rest of the movie was just waiting for that moment. (Also clearly the shipping potential here is OFF THE CHARTS because any or all of the four adults in this movie would be FASCINATING together so I'm very much here for THAT.)

Cass was also DELIGHTFUL despite bearing almost no resemblance to any canon version of Cass that I've ever seen, but she was still a LOT of fun and resourceful and snarky and secretly sweet and her pragmatic-and-then-actually-affectionate bond with Harley was absolutely adorable. I love that Cass is the only one who doesn't know anything about the Joker, so she just takes Harley for who she is, and that's part of what Harley responds to (eventually).

I also LOVED Renee, how SMART she is (her breaking down that crime scene early on was soooooo fucking cool and also HOT AF), how snarky she is, how OVER IT she is. I also loved that she was a little bit older, and obviously CANON LESBIAN YAY (as was Harley being canonically bi!!! see how easy that was???), and I loved that she was flawed but still doing her best (as are all of them, really). I loved the way they used her to illustrate all the bullshit that women face in so many workplaces, and it was INCREDIBLY satisfying when she quit at the end. (Also her telling Dinah that Dinah wouldn't have been abandoned on her watch gave me CHILLS. The conviction!!! The dedication!!!)

Huntress gets left out a little, and I wouldn't have minded seeing her explored more, though I ADORE BEYOND WORDS what they chose to do with her, up to and including her being kind of disconnected until she shows up at the end and she's like "uhhhh, look, I'm just here to kill this guy, I don't want any of this drama," HEEEEEE. But Helena is so broody (though also extremely snarky!) in the comics and I love her very much but it's not my favorite quality, so choosing to show her deliberately cultivating that broody exterior (and somewhat failing at it) was GENIUS and made me love her SO MUCH. Her moment with Cass during the last battle was such a fantastic one, too--that was a moment that very easily could have been skimmed over, and honestly I don't know that I'd have thought of it, but it was PERFECT and such economical character development for her and just generally evidence of a writer/writers who think of all these characters as three-dimensional people with their own thoughts and feelings and experiences. Also Harley's heart-eyes when Helena rolls up on her motorcycle to save her were BEAUTIFUL.

Also beautiful: the fight scene once they all team up, seeing all their different styles and how they support each other and how they take care of Cass. And that scene in the diner at the end was just. ALL I EVER WANT IS THAT SCENE AND THEY GAVE IT TO ME. The snark! The margaritas and shitty food! The exhausted, semi-awkward bonding (Helena being like, "Um… you also… did cool things…! Is this how humans communicate?" was AMAZING)! And even ending with Harley stealing Canary's car was perfect, because at the end of the day she's not really a long-term team player, so I loved them all kind of sharing this moment and then Harley and Cass go on to do their thing, their way, and Renee/Dinah/Helena do THEIR thing, their way, and everyone gets to live their best lives, fundamentally. And it would also be VERY VERY EASY to slot in Babs (Oracle Babs PLEASE, this movie was so good in a lot of ways about diverse casting and I'd love to see them take that a step further) in a future iteration of this, like, I can perfectly see her just being like, "Uh, you guys are doing okay but you could really use some help" and coming in with all her technology and her strategic bat brain and taking things to the next level. (Also Christina Hodson, who wrote this, is also supposedly writing the Batgirl movie, so… hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.)

Basically it was just… everything I wanted and pretty much nothing that I didn't (though I couldn’t help noticing that there were a lot of POC in this movie who were… not great people, though there were also three central POC who WERE great people, and the two main villains were white, so maybe that helps give a more multi-faceted perspective, but). It has SO MUCH POTENTIAL as a franchise but even if this is all we ever get, I think it's a glorious shiny batshit heartfelt gift and I'm so SO glad we got it, and hats off to all of the amazing women involved who pushed so hard to make this as amazing as it was. YOU ALL DID FANTASTICALLY.

[geodebright-fr]

BREED REVIEWS NOONE ASKED FOR 2/?*

*i have not read any breed lore except something about Gaurdians are super protective of treasure and the sizes are hilariously rediculous so this does not include that

Rules for myself: Doing 3 breeds a post and sharing my top fave 3 from my lair. This is on no particular order of favorit breeds.

Last starter breed and ancients, why not lol

So to start with the last of the four starters is the Tundra. I wanna love these fluff balls, I really do. They’re perfect for an ice lair like mine and I like their little ears, thier horn shape, those MANES and omg how squishy thier faces are but... they are naked around the belly. It makes no sense and ruins them completely. They’re supposed to be made for cold, but thier vital tummy organs would freeze right the fuck off. Having thinner fur would make sense cause that’s how it goes but none? None??? Sorry tundies, I can’t collect you cause I can’t get over that. Plus the male pose completely hides the tail and I really like the glow tail tert. I still have one girl I love to pieces tho, when I draw art of her in the future she’s going to have all her fur. So she gets her own spotlight at the least. Below is she: Frosted Spring, she swims and lights the spring that feeds into the lake Charcoal lives in.

So first ancient has to be Goaler. I can’t believe I didn’t like them at all at first. Might have been the awkward female pose but I def have fallen for these ice giants now. Thier genes absolutly fascinate me, I only wish they had my fave tert Glimmer too. I don’t have beef with the female pose but I def have collected way more males because of my preference. Plus, they got paw pads! Look at those wing paw pads! Below is MagicStarfall the leader of my ancients, sweet little baby FrostMane, and Xanderfall of the ancient fallen.

And for the only other ancient out rights now are the Banscales. In this case, highly prefer the female pose over the male. The ferocity and fluid motion of them is awe inspiring and terrifying like I’m sure was intended, they’re the wyverns of the dragon world but carry so much dragon-punch to them they really aren’t at all. They’ve got some crazy terts and not all of them I like but they went OFF on the wraith like wow, had to get it for my boy ASAP to make up for his lackluster pose lol. Unfortunate I don’t have three yet but thier next nest I’m gonna be keeping a bab from so maybe later I’ll update this. Shown are: Legacy the hunter and Shadowbane the protectorate.

Reblog this with some of your faves of these breeds and maybe I’ll get around to what I think of yours! Heck, maybe you can change my mind about Tunds lol

[midnightrooftops]

Stephanie Brown saved my life

Once upon a time, Stephanie Brown saved my life. 

Maybe those in the tag remember me, under a different name, because the story is still the same but more prominent as the years go on. 

I went to college and got super depressed. Suicidal even. I defeated the initial wave but had to face year 2 of college. I didn’t want to drop out so I went back with a strong, determined ambition to join a club. I joined the Comic Books Club.

Years before, my first comic was Robin 126. I saw online that Robin had become a female and was fascinated. I asked a friend to take me to the comic book store on Free Comic Book Day and bought Robin 126, 127 and 128.   Those that know Stephanie’s past know what that meant. Despite Stephanie being /gone/, I couldn’t let her go. I went online to learn everything about her and the Batman comics. By the time I joined the Comic Book Club, I was one of the most versed in Batman. I lived through her coming back to life, to becoming /BATGIRL/ and surviving. STRIVING. 

That club allowed me to live the next three years. That sound hyperbole but Stephanie introduced me to cosplay. To friends. To the bravery of speaking my mind. I was a rare female in the club but it quickly gained more. I became the officer of the club. I RPed online in my spare time to combat loneliness and tbh, it saved my life.  Eventually, DC gave up on Stephanie and the other Batgirls beside Barabara. It was hard to adjust to the new status quo of things because as much as I value Babs, Stephanie was the one that saved me. I’m not... I don’t read comics any more. Life has been hard, stories have been pretty bad. But when I’m on the edge of things, I still think about Stephanie.  In the end, I still think about how she’d fight, to be better, to not take anyone’s shit. 

There’s a few stories in my past that I still think about. Idk why I wrote this, maybe it’s because even if your fanfic isn’t the best.... maybe your book isn’t an award-winning story... someone relates to it. It’s someone’s favorite.

Stephanie Brown is not popular. Most comic book readers don’t know her. But she saved my life.

It doesn’t matter what helps you. Just hang on to the things that do.

[secretlystephaniebrown]

If Steph got to stay robin for a bit longer, who would you’ve wanted on her Teen Titans line up?

HMMM 

Well, so presuming the Titans dis-and-rebanded between Tim and Steph’s runs with the team, here’s what I’d go with:

Kory as the cool big-sis mentor figure for sure and if she has some sexual tension with Babs when she comes to check in on Steph in Gotham, well, who’s to say? 

Jaime Reyes, because I really think those two could get some good bonding in, and could have a really interesting dynamic

Kara and Steph’s dynamic as Robin would be interesting, especially because Robin!Steph is a bit more serious and in touch with her trauma and anger than Batgirl!Steph

also Kara is kind of… quasi-unaging bc comics and always the same age as the current Batgirl, so potentially this means that Kara is older than Steph in this dynamic, and it could be really funny

Bart/Kon/Cassie - it could add some really fascinating undercurrents, with the three of them struggling to accept Steph on her own merits as Robin, and eventually becoming solid friends with her, not just viewing her as Tim’s girlfriend/replacement

Tim can show up sometimes, but he’s only allowed in once per story arc

Rose Wilson is a generally solid addition, and she and Steph could get some good “wow, don’t dads suck” bonding in (Raven almost makes the cut here for the same reason, but I like viewing her as part of the older generation with Kory and Donna and Dick, so she might pop in now and then, but again, as a Titan alumnae, not as a current Titan, cuz Kory’s house mother)

These are just the ones off the top of my head, because I’m sure that there are plenty of other characters who would be really fun to have in a lineup! 

[marigoldbaker]

2019 fic roundup

december was INSANE and i spent most of january dealing with the aftermath of Terrible Parents, but i am finally doing this! in nearly-february! good grief!

tagged by @catty-words​! always a delight, cori <3

Total 2019 Word Count: 541,906 Total 2019 Hits: 29,555 Other 2019 AO3 Stats: Kudos: 3,184; Comment threads: 787; Bookmarks: 509; Subscriptions: 223.

Total 2018 Word Count: 338,835 Total 2018 Hits: 22,374 Other 2018 AO3 Stats: Kudos: 2,192; Comment threads: 453; Bookmarks: 280; Subscriptions: 69.

links and titles to 2019 works (buckle up, folks.)

[btvs] imperfections (148,374 words) y’all know about the braveryverse already but i’ll bring up some good points: jenny and giles accidentally adopt the entire scooby gang. also faith gets some actual support and is actually eventually stable enough to date buffy. good times.

[btvs] deliberate obstruction (5,492 words) the one where jenny is petty as fuck and attempts to sabotage every single one of giles’s dates after their breakup. not her best look, but it was really fun to write jenny being Not Great. she deserves to have that option.

[btvs] arch-nemeses (2,171 words) who doesn’t love some of that good old-fashioned ripper au nonsense? particularly when it’s spike and ripper being confusing nemeses who sometimes drunkenly make out (jenny thinks this is very funny).

[btvs] sick day (3,097 words) written because someone should take care of giles, damnit! probably not jenny, tho. she’s not the best at it. lucky for her giles loves her so much.

[btvs] simpatico (10,096 words) sister fic to the grieving process! set circa btvs season six! jenny is connor’s awkward aunt! giles is a repressed disaster who’s still pining but refuses to admit it! 

[btvs] honesty’s the best policy (3,830 words) that one where giles and buffy are hit with a Truth Spell that means they say exactly what they’re thinking. is that all that bad for buffy? not too much. is it a little iffy when you’re a repressed watcher man who still haven’t told your girlfriend how much you love her? uh.

[btvs comics] i router, you giles (1,111 words) GOD this was written BEFORE i knew that giles and jenny were dating in the reboot comics and isn’t that a concept? a snarky-cute first meeting! ok not really that cute bc they just yell at each other a lot! but definitely snarky!

[btvs] transitional (3,152 words) good golly this is cute and i honestly forgot that i wrote it. which makes sense, bc there is a lot of stuff on this list. set in between season one and season two, in an attempt to bridge the giles/jenny gap between “awkwardly friendly coworkers” and “oh my god i think i like you”

[btvs] across the pond (5,323 words) FUN FACT this got nominated for a headline award and i’m SO PROUD OF THAT?! epistolary fic! giles leaves for england in s6 but without his wife! his wife is very mad and writes him VERY MANY LETTERS TO YELL AT HIM! perfect for those people who sometimes think “god, i wish jenny had been in s6 to yell at giles.” 

[btvs] very really married (66,987 words) giles and jenny got drunk-married in las vegas and are keeping the marriage going so they don’t look like terrible authority figures. giles does not want buffy to know about his fake wife. giles does not want his fake wife to know about his real slayer. giles has a lot of problems and it doesn’t help that he might be catching feelings. big mess.

[btvs] bad dreams (2,267 words) GILES/JENNY/ANYA IS BEST SHIP NEXT QUESTION

[btvs comics] an open mic enthusiast (2,250 words) yet another giles/jenny comic-reboot meet-cute written before i knew they were dating!!! this time: jenny gets to see giles playing guitar. repeatedly. because she keeps going back to watch him at the open mic.

[btvs comics] blindsided (2,024 words) my first (and definitely not last) giles/anya fic! a shorter version of a plot bunny i hope to chase down in 2020 (ahaha did i say that WHOOPS)

[btvs] uncharted (16,469 words) my jenny calendar day fic! also known as “jenny calendar has a guilt complex: a novella.” no prophecy dream outs jenny to the group -- but she tells them anyway. and blames herself. and breaks up with giles while she’s trying to Fix Things. absolute mess. (thank god there’s a happy ending, right?)

[btvs] on the mending of hearts (9,236 words) that giles/anya fic where giles shows up at anya’s failed wedding and sweeps her off her feet and they have sex in his hotel room! except uhhh there’s a lot more drama and crying and anya really just needs some cuddles, tbh.

[btvs] extracurricular activities (1,003 words) straight up this one BARELY counts as a 2019 fic. i wrote it back in 2016 and forgot about it and found it on my hard drive and wrote an ending to it. it’s tiny, but it’s cute! lots of early-relationship calendiles fluff, as is My Brand.

[btvs] cookie dough and boy talk (a remix) (3,976 words) dawn, but in the ripper au! she’s a precocious little bab and ripper babysits her and gets semi-adopted by joyce. it’s a thing.

[btvs] a history lesson (698 words) a brief ripper au interlude between jenny and dru. dru tries to point out that jenny and ripper are in love. jenny very unconvincingly denies it.

[btvs] faith, hope, and pancakes (3,236 words) ripper au, now with faith! and she gets to hang with college-age jenny! who is dating her idiot boyfriend ripper! the Most Fun of times.

[btvs] compromises (750 words) this....was supposed to be a three-sentence prompt but I Can’t Do That. giles and jenny discuss (read: jenny yells at giles about) giles attempting to attack angel on sight.

[btvs] valentine buzz (3,422 words) i wrote this in may lmao but i just REALLY WANTED to write fluffy braveryverse valentine’s day nonsense!!! lots of cuddles and kisses and softness abound in this fic.

[btvs] days in goodness spent (5,893 words) this fic's point was a little more abstract and a little less blunt than most of the rest of these, but i wanted to explore the concept of giles slowly going from idealizing jenny to genuinely loving her. i hope i did it justice.

[btvs] to have and to hold (7,861 words) giles and jenny get married in the braveryverse. that’s really all there is. also i posted this on my birthday (may 23rd) AND it is the 23rd fic on this list!!!! WILD!!!!!)

[btvs] saw her in the streetlight, making all the world bright (5,738 words) took me like a year and a half to write the first fic in the ripper au, lmao. in which jenny is a snarky eighteen-year-old, ripper is a snarky college dropout in a band, and neither of them are at ALL good at communicating. especially not ripper.

[btvs] perfect (1,465 words) ripper au: it’s revealed that jenny hasn’t had sex before. ripper handles this with his characteristic maturity and grace (just kidding lmao he FREAKS. but it’s bc he loves her.)

[btvs] respite (1,106 words) i wrote this after issue 5 of the reboot dropped bc i was very emotional about canon power couple giles and jenny. in retrospect, i gave giles’s emotional maturity WAY too much credit--esp. given what’s going on now--but it was still fun as heck to write.

[btvs] shouldn’t we be getting together (3,193 words) this fic’s existence is a combo of me reading a summer camp ya novel and liking the Aesthetic but not the Culture & me talking endlessly w/ @jackalopingintothevoid​ about ripper and jenny’s teenage dynamic. so many of these fics have her galaxy brain takes woven in and i KNOW she knows that. lov u, jack.

[btvs] fragmented (6,158 words) written because of that one time my brain was like “but what if jenny WAS haunting the school?” happy ending because it’s me and g/j deserve some kisses.

[btvs/hp crossover] buffy summers, muggle-born (22,070 words) i CAME BACK TO THIS in 2019 and wrote a few chapters and DROPPED IT LIKE A HOT POTATO. hopefully 2020 will bring me the courage to pick it up again!!!!!! who DOESN’T want a carelessly-mashed-together crossover where the scoobies and the golden trio are all going to hogwarts together for some reason????

[btvs] in bloom (8,452 words) this was SUPPOSED to be the end of the jenny-anya-tara trilogy. it was not. (more on that later.) this was also supposed to be a fic where giles and jenny get together. jenny and anya got together. writing things is wild sometimes.

[btvs] i still want to be your girl (35,165 words) straight up i am so proud of this fic! s7 au: jenny was chased out of town by angelus. giles does not know this. jenny has been working with angel in la, but left with faith to try and help defeat the first. giles is not the guy she remembers. (but jenny’s not exactly the lady giles remembers, either. so maybe things might work out.)

[btvs/leverage crossover] what’s in a name (4,421 words) sophie’s & jenny’s relationship to their names & identities always so totally fascinated me! this fic was my way of exploring that. (also i got to give giles and jenny a toddler. that was fun too.)

[btvs comics] live a little (6,700 words) i had so much fun coming up with a backstory for giles and jenny in the comics that i am kinda tempted to eventually try and do it again. this one was fun to write, tho.

[btvs] kind of like hydrogen peroxide (7,501 words) THIS was FUN. ripper au, but it explores both jenny’s longing for High School Normalcy AND ripper’s fucked-up relationship to magic. also senior prom is a thing.

[btvs] mending fences (6,093 words) sequel to the aforementioned epistolary fic! lots of first-person self-loathing from giles, but also a LOT of love for jenny and his kids. also the man really truly needs to stop repressing.

[btvs] her father’s daughter (1,982 words) 2020 will bring us another chapter of this fic i swear to GOD. literally there’s only one chapter up so i cannot even TALK about my plans for it but uhhh if you want giles and jenny and their three daughters pls feel free to go to that prologue and check it out.

[btvs] a thousand different ways we fell apart (4,888 words) the au fic to encompass all au fics! inspired by the comic reboot and me being like. christ. do they go through this ridiculous shit in EVERY universe? ....and then i wrote a fic where jenny was a space traveler looking through multiple universe to try and fix her marriage with giles. extra fun.

[btvs] no such roses (4,814 words) this one turned out a TINY bit rushed, but the concept of jenny bringing giles back from the dead is always something that i love exploring. i might come back and rewrite this, someday.

[btvs comics] no perfect choice (4,801 words) OOF. wrote this one after issue 8 dropped. a lot softer and more tender than what actually happened, tbh. maybe i will reread it again to make myself feel better about comic calendiles and their brutal split.

[btvs] family (3,545 words) wrote this one p early in the year and came up with an ending to it much later! ripper au: the story of how xander came to live with giles and leave his parents. angst-with-a-happy-ending abounds.

[btvs] a california january (2,206 words) jenny and giles attend a funeral together. that’s pretty much it. this is defs one of the best things i wrote this year, tho.

[btvs] how i survived my summer vacation (volume two) (25,027 words) swear to god this is gonna be the next thing i update. the braveryverse NEEDS to continue. it’s got married calendiles, for god’s sake.

[btvs] clear and impartial judgment (3,977 words) that fic i wrote when i got mad at a lack of resolution wrt helpless. like!!! giles drugged buffy!!! do we not get to talk about the psychological ramifications that would have on her???? (well. canon doesn’t. but i do.)

[btvs] sunshine ladies (10,188 words) THIS FIC WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN and i say that with incandescent love in my heart. i intended for the ‘verse to be giles/jenny, and then i intended it to be jenny/anya, and then i was like....jenny has two goddamn hands, and there’s foreshadowing here for endgame giles/jenny, and i wanna write some giles/anya. let’s fuckin go. (DEFINITELY writing another installment in 2020 about this iconic ot3 of mine.) 

[btvs] spirit-touched (4,769 words) the first smut i write and it’s calendiles ghost sex. i really think this is on brand for me, esp. considering that swath of asks in 2016ish where everyone wanted to know if ghosts could jack off. incredible.

[btvs] dear friend (28,865 words) this fic had such a rushed ending :( it’s a cute premise (you’ve got mail giles/jenny au!!!!!), but i lost interest halfway through, and as a writer i can rlly see that when i read it. another thing i might like to go back and rewrite at some point, tbh!

[btvs] familiar (2,034 words) AUGH i am SO proud of this fic. SO SO PROUD. it’s a concept i really can’t explain and the little twist at the end is something i really really like, so...just read it.

[miss fisher’s murder mysteries] unbearable (5,670 words) i need to write more mfmm in 2020 but the amount of good fic out there is deeply intimidating/delightful. this one was my little “what if it was phryne who thought jack was dead” and tbqh i had a lot of fun with it? bc pining phryne (who makes brief but extremely poignant appearances throughout the series) is an awkwardly, heart-meltingly sincere lady.

[ace attorney] man’s duty to society (544 words) wrote this as my first foray into aa fic while getting emo about miles edgeworth. would absolutely still die for that man.

[ace attorney] fancy running into you (5,887 words) lots of schmoopy narumitsu fluff! gregory edgeworth is alive! miles is trauma-free! phoenix is an artist! just!!! goodness!!!!!!!

[ace attorney] big sister (2,741 words) set in the same gregory-edgeworth-is-alive ‘verse: babey franziska comes to live with miles and his dad. she is a little impossible but miles kinda does love her.

[ace attorney] prince charming edgeworth and his incredible tux (8,042 words) this fic came from me being like “i want to write phoenix swooning over miles in a tuxedo and being like HE LOOKS LIKE A DISNEY PRINCE” and spiraled into something much longer!

[ace attorney] fate, choice, and everything in between (4,384 words) SOULMATE AU. nothing i love more than deconstructing soulmate aus. but like. in a romantic way. also phoenix and miles ARE soulmates and that is JUST facts.

Favorite Fic: I WROTE SO MUCH STUFF THO LIKE !?!??! how can one expect me to distill it to just one fic? i’ll make it my top threeL

a california january (I AM SO PROUD OF THIS FIC. it is soft and angsty and silly and devastating and tender. all the calendiles feels.)

i still want to be your girl (same mood!!! i’ve wanted to write this fic for literal years, and it’s one of those rare occasions where the picture in my head actually turned out BETTER when written out!)

sunshine ladies (this is like my giles/jenny/anya ship manifesto and it still makes me happy to think about them all co-running the magic box together and smooching a lot.)

Hardest Fic: OOF uh i went through a rocky period of writing when transitioning into college? no such roses and dear friend were hit the hardest by my insecurity & my desire to Finish Things rather than actually spend time on the craft. but i’m much more settled in now and my writing is DEFINITELY in an upward swing (as my newest fic -- as day follows night -- attests to quite nicely, imo)

Do You Plan to Take Prompts in 2020? always always yes! (i’m bad at following through with them, but am ALWAYS accepting them.)

What was the best thing about 2019? there were almost too many good things to COUNT, but i think all of them were made possible by me working extremely hard to get myself the FUCK out of my abusive parents’ house and into my first choice college!! i’m thriving, y’all.

What was the worst thing about 2019? realizing that both of my parents are fundamentally terrible people. that part kinda sucked.

Any last thoughts for 2019? i finally understand what it’s like to fall asleep feeling safe, and to notice the way the leaves change color, and to get excited about self-indulgent things like food and cuddly stuffed animals and my own fic and art. 2019 brought a lot of happiness into my life, and oh yeah also i’m in love! lots of cool stuff going on.

Goals for 2020

finish the latest braveryverse installment!

MORE ART JUST IN GENERAL. i love drawing, but there’s not a lot of free time for artsy celia when they prioritize writing so often!

write one of the many incredible longfic ideas that’s floating around in my head. it’s honestly probably only like two or three big ones, but at least DECIDE which one i’m gonna focus my energy on.

more giles/anya this year!

more giles/jenny/anya this year!

diversify! still gonna be writing about jenny forever, but like. it might be fun to write about a few new things here and there.

maybe some more ace attorney fic? maybe even some mfmm fic again? phryne and jack are never far from my heart.

not tagging anyone bc this is....january. but if you wanna do it, feel free!

[sirro85-blog]

Dark Horses: 1

Humans are unusual, in most other races the classification of attractiveness is simple. In the Flet it was size, the larger males and females were deemed more desirable. Amongst the Rhul the more colourful the skin the more attractive the potential mate, I could go on. With humans however it appears to be personal choice or perhaps I should say preference as humans don't get to choose who they find attractive.

Captain Becca was drawn to, in her words, "muscle bound dickheads" while Knickers preferred men who were less heavily muscled but extremely well groomed and Barbie preferred what she referred to as "pretty boys".

These three women were themselves all considered attractive but were physically all different (note that they were all of white European descent so their appearance was not as varied as humans can be) Becca was tall and had a slender build beneath her muscled frame. The two Cassidies Knickers and Barbie were very different in appearance. Knickers was slim and lightly built with delicate features; Barbie was named for her appearance, full figured with almost impossible proportions she was named for the old child's toy she so resembled.

Most fascinating to me was the response these physical appearances drew from others.

The soft "tock" "crack" of a snooker cue knocking two balls together was the background noise of the conversation as Becca watched Knickers clean up the table.

"I dunno, he's really handsome Knix but do you really want a guy that takes longer to get ready than you do?" They were discussing the liaison they were meeting with, one that Knickers had expressed appreciation of.

"Well now I know why Kovac always looks so rough, he's only got the time it takes for you to apply that one brand of eyeliner and put on some heels," laughed Barbie.

"Yeah but at least with Kovac, you know he can go all night," said Knickers in a knowing voice.

"How would you know?" Snapped Becca a little defensive.

"Oh not first hand but you forget I used to share a wall with Kovac, boy has stamina," Knickers and Barbie laughed at Becca's face.

"Well, you're not wrong," the Captain admitted grudgingly.

"At least you two get some eye candy, you don't see many of my type out here," Barbie said sulkily.

"We'll be back in Pelcar-3 soon enough and we'll all have something to look at," Becca said.

"Speaking of eye-candy, Bex somthin' for you to enjoy," Knickers said nodding to the bar.

Looking up Becca saw what Knickers was talking about, 12 soldiers of the Earth Defence Corps had just walked in.

"To look at maybe, I prefer my meatheads to be able to think...well now I do."

"No danger of that with this lot, they're not just EDC they're marines" muttered Barbie, she looked nervous.

The Earth Defence Corps was a partly private enterprise set up on earth when certain individuals and countries rejected the decision by the UN to entrust their military power to the Galactic Council. The EDC were founded to defend earth but since their inception has started to be used for "furthering the human cause" this usually meant trouble was close behind. Worst of all were the EDC marines the shocktroops of the corps, they viewed themselves as highly trained elites but most former UN troops called them "cannon fodder" and spoke of them with derision.

"That's game," said Knickers.

"That's me v Barbie to see who sucks more," said Becca.

"We all know that's your title sweet," said Barbie a little nastily.

"Being good at snooker is a legacy of a misspent youth," replied Becca haughtily.

"Right and we all know you spent your teenage years flat on your back with your ankles on your forehead." Knickers heckled, Barbie laughed so hard she spilled her drink.

Becca pouted and then glanced at the EDC soldiers, "where's Kovac and Wolf?"

"Relax Kovac won't let Wolf start a bar fight, he's responsible remember," Barbie said gesturing two tables over where the two men also played snooker.

"Sure, sober Kovac is responsible but let's not forget Bottle-of-Rum-Kovac is a mischievous deviant who takes great delight in upsetting people like local security forces, the Galactic Defence Air Command and the Korlax Dominion." Becca cautioned.

"True, Fun-Kovac would definitely enjoy embarrassing the EDC," Knickers agreed.

"You shouldn't call it Fun-Kovac, maybe Troubl-" Becca was cut off when one of the EDC marines pressed his groin against Barbie's backside as she bent over to take her shot.

As so often happened when humans grew violent I could not follow the flow of actions but one moment Barbie was bent over the snooker table and the marine was pressed up behind her and then Barbie was standing, the marine was face down on the table with the pool cue was jammed into the marine's throat turning him a purple colour and Barbie had a grip of the man's wrist, twisting it at a funny angle.

"Now I can only assume that as I found this hand in my skirt that it somehow belongs to me," Barbie said calmly into the sudden silence of the snooker hall. "Now I'm willing to return this hand perfectly undamaged if you promise to take it away and not bother me again...whimper pathetically if you agree."

Around the table a crowd had gathered, several EDC marines moved to help their friend but Wolf and Kovac were quick to block their way.

Barbie's victim stayed silent for a few more seconds before she applied a little more pressure to his arm and a wail escaped the marine's lips. "Good, all settled then," said Barbie and she shoved the marine away from her so he sprawled onto the floor, he received a kick to the rump as he struggled to his feet.

The marine regained his feet and nurses his arm for a moment before turning to regard the smaller woman before him. He appeared to gain some swagger back when he realised he was several inches taller and significantly heavier than Barbie.

He swore at Barbie and moved as if to grab her but she moved quicker, the snooker cue snapped out striking him in the throat and then as he staggered back Barbie connected a kick to the groin hard enough to lift him from the ground.

Chaos broke out, Kovac planted his forehead into the nearest marine and Wolf brought his drinking utensil into the face of his opponent. Knickers threw the snooker balls at the four marines approaching from the farside of the table, driving them back.

Becca backed up hurriedly as two marines closed on her. She staggered and flung up two hands, the marines paused, "wait, wait for God's sake these are 6 inch heels," and then delivered a kick to the closest marine's head that caught his jaw and snapped his head to the right and he dropped to the floor insensate, "even I need to get my balance right in these damn things," she said as the other marine rushed her. Becca fell back onto a table pulled both legs in and then kicked out hard, her left foot ineffectively struck the marine's arm but her right caught his thigh, her narrow heel puncturing his flesh and causing him to fall, Becca's swinging left foot caught him under the chin.

Wolf hurdled the snooker table to land crossbody on four marines sending them all sprawling, Barbie and Knickers had both used snooker cues to good effect beating two attackers down. Kovac was facing one more marine who appeared to be the leader, he eyed Kovac then drew a large knife from his belt. Kovac cast around for a weapon and realising nothing useful was near him stepped back and to his left putting an overturned stool between him and his armed opponent.

"Its a shame there isn't a fruit bowl here, you'd be amazed at what I can do with a pineapple," remarked Kovac.

The marine looked a little confused as Kovac edged back further muttering, "even a banana in a pinch," Kovac looked past the marine to the barman, "got any fruit?" He called.

"Fruit won't help," growled the marine.

"It'll keep you distracted," said Kovac as Becca hit the marine with a stool.

Only Wolf was still fighting, he was a blur of fists and feet as he pounded all four marines at once. Seeing his friends watching he stepped back, "take your friends and get out," he yelled gesturing at the various supine marines in the snooker hall, the bloodied marines gathered up their more unfortunate members and delarted.

Kovac paid for the damages and the friends left the bar.

"It's possible that we may live to regret upsetting the EDC," Wolf said as the five of them arrived at their rooms.

"God knows they regret pissing off Barbie," Kovac said.

"What are they doing this far out?" Wolf insisted.

"At a guess...The new colony on planet 1D.F7 will need security with its proximity to the Xhost controlled space. I think they're here for that."

"1D.F7? I'm no good with designations," Becca asked.

"They're calling it Thresh-28 as it's technically part of the Thresh system."

"That's a huge contract, it's going to be a major hub for this regions expansion, the Galactic Council won't employ EDC troops for that." Becca said.

"My guess...they will if the EDC are doing it cheap, and they will, they'll do it to get their foot in the door so they can take a pop at the Xhost, they haven't forgiven them for the incident with the Saturn defences. Once the EDC rile the Xhost up the Galactic Council will be forced to involve themselves to protect the Thresh and Galun systems. "

"Great so they're here looking for a fight and Barbie gave them one, good job Babs you saved the galaxy," Knickers laughed.

"Goodnight Knickers, Barbie, goodnight Captain," Kovac said steering Becca through the door to their rooms.

Humans unlike many races have the ability to overlook rational facts and logic and to trust opinions and their preferred versions of events to reality. Often they convince themselves that these alternative views are the "true" facts, such creatures would certainly be capable of starting a war over pride and imagined offence but I did not truly believe that even the EDC would look to provoke a war with the Xhost fanatics.

[the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars]

Chapter 24: The Zodiac Alliance

Mike woke up sleepy. Not really motivated to get up, feeling like he should just pull the blanket over his head and go back to sleep. He pulled the blanket higher and buried his nose in Matt's neck. Today was Sunday, so that meant that Matt was going to be home all day. Smiling contently, Mike wrapped his arms around Matt's midsection and pulled him closer.

“Cuore, it's time to wake up, come on”, whispered Matt softly. “No more hogging me.”

Mike grumbled and buried his face in Matt's shoulder-blades. “Please, just... five more hours?”

“...Hours”, echoed Matt amused, shaking his head. “No, babe. Come on, time to see if the house still stands. We're not living alone anymore. Don't you wanna go see Jamie?”

Damn it. Matt knew exactly what to say to get to him. Mike perked up at that. Quickly, he crawled out of the bed and made his way out of their room. Jamie's room was right next to theirs. It was very tempting to check in on Jamie. The brunette probably slept like a kitten – all curled together. That was how he watched TV too. It was really cute. But no. Privacy. Boundaries. All that stuff.

Instead, Mike skipped down the stairs and right into the kitchen. Maybe he could surprise Jamie with breakfast today? It was hard, because Jamie was a notorious early riser. Most of the time, Matt and Mike woke up to Jamie already showered and cooking an elaborate breakfast.

“Morning, Mike! We're making breakfast for dad!”

Mike paused, eyebrows raised. Ally and Andy were in the kitchen, doing something alright. But Mike would definitely not go so far to call that 'breakfast'. Putting on his nicest smile, he quickly took the pan from the nine year old boy before the bacon would be total coal.

“That's... very... nice of you”, drawled Mike amused. “But... uhm...”

“Dios mio, he didn't actually teach you how to cook, did he?”, sighed Matt as he entered the kitchen. “The effort is appreciated, but we had your home just torn down, maybe let's not burn down ours too, I don't know anyone with enough room to take us all in.”

Ally smiled sheepishly, tucking her long braids behind her ear. Andy pouted a bit as he sat down.

“It's very sweet that you guys want to do this for your dad”, assured Matt, patting Andy's shoulder. “It really is, but Jamie would be very sad if you would burn yourself cooking for him.”

“Yeah. Why don't you two go and wake your dad up?”, suggested Mike.

“It's real weird that he isn't up already”, noted Ally. “C'mon, Andy.”

“It really is”, whispered Matt with furrowed brows. “Did he sneak out for patrol?”

“No, last night was Angel Fish's turn. We made a schedule for a reason”, grunted Mike. “So we can all get rest. And Babs says that while reckless, he is at least reasonable enough to not go all alone. You know Babara, she would definitely not let him go all alone.”

Matt grunted at that, though didn't say anything else. Mike didn't really feel right about it either. It wasn't like Jamie to go all alone, that much was true. They had made team schedules, so one set of four heroes would be patrolling the streets at night. During the day, it was a bit of a who was available kind of situation. They couldn't well go by teams, considering their own work and private life, however they did try to put two heroes on each attack.

“Dia duit ar maidin...”

Mike adapted a dopey smile at that. He loved the way Gaelic Irish rolled off Jamie's tongue. He didn't speak it often, but sometimes a phrase, curse, or nickname slipped out.

“Buongiorno”, countered Matt amused. “Slept well?”

The question answered itself when Mike and Matt turned to look at Jamie. He had dark bags beneath his eyes. He looked exhausted. Ready to keen over. That at least explained why he hadn't been awake before them. Concerned, Mike went to take Jamie by the arm, guiding him toward a chair to sit down on. What was currently happening was weighting everyone down, the more often they encountered the... bad guys (who really needed a cool name to be referred to. This bothered Mike a lot), the more people got hurt, the more often they failed to end this mess...?

“You got any plans today, kids?”, asked Jamie, trying to ignore his exhaustion.

“I'm hanging out with Julio and Cleo”, stated Ally with a shrug.

Mike grinned a little bit. Julio and Cleo were the younger cousins of Mike's partner and best friend Rick. They were about Ally's age and with the whole chaos going on, Mike had suggested for Rick to bring the teens along one time when they had still been building Ally and Andy's rooms. Apparently, she had really hit it off with the two siblings. Which was good, because according to Jamie, she didn't make a lot of friends. Andy, he just shrugged.

“Dunno. Video games?”, offered Andy after a moment. “What about you guys?”

“I'm spending all day at the bar. We're so short of it being ready to open again”, stated Jamie.

“You're gonna work yourself to death”, noted Mike with a pointed glare. “Take a day off.”

“And do... what exactly?”, asked Jamie with a glower.

“Relax. Sleep. Watch TV. Read a book. Play video games with your son”, suggested Mike.

“Oh, I second that last one!”, exclaimed Andy with a broad grin.

And with that, they got Jamie. He really couldn't say no to his kids. Mike grinned victoriously. He just... he worried so much about Jamie. Because he had feelings for Jamie. Real feelings. Not just a crush on a pretty bartender. But even in a ratty shirt, hair messy, bags beneath his eyes, Jamie was absolutely beautiful and Mike wanted to make sure he slept better. Turning a bit, he exchanged a look with Matt, knowing his fiance felt the exact same way. Ever since Jamie and the kids had moved in with Matt and Mike, things had become far more real.

~*~

Tanya smiled softly as she chanced a glance at Melanie. The oldest Maguire looked so gorgeous when she was deep in thought, her nose scrunched up, glasses perched on the scrunched up nose framing her brilliant blue-green eyes, her long black hair in a perfect bun today. Usually Melanie wore it loose, no hair out of place. But with how much they were running around the library, she had let Tanya put it up in a bun. Tanya was good at research, she often times did it for Matt, so she had offered her services with their little research department. Melanie Maguire, Sebastian Weinberg, Sander Hancock and Joss Parker. They were working well together – all of them, in general. They had formed their three teams to go out at night, they teamed up even outside their teams to take care of attacks, they tried to spend much time together outside of official missions to get to know each other. Training together, sparring together, talking. Because if they knew each other well, they would fight better together. They could trust each other.

“You know, I liked our book-club better when it was not about this”, sighed Sebastian.

“Shush, Sebastian”, chided Melanie without looking up. “This is important.”

They were going through history, trying to figure out the past of the Zodiac Alliance. How they had operated before, when they had operated before. Gods. They had been gods before. Their supernatural power and strength, things no one could explain. It figured that in ancient times, they would have the status of gods. They were supposed to be the forces of good though, the thirteen of them. Including Serpentarius. Yes, he had a bit of a shady past – Loki, Seth; not always fully good. There were always monsters to be fought; the constellations being used to possess people. A lot of fairy tales proved to be true too – talking animals, right here next to them. Guardians, fairy godmother like figures. Regular humans who were bestowed with magic.

Robin Hood, the legend based on a carrier of Sagittarius the archer. Supposedly, his entire crew had been carriers who had fought back then. Figures and forces of good, turned into myths just like the gods of ancient times. Tanya had to admit, she was fascinated by it all.

“What do we gain from this though?”, questioned Joss with furrowed brows. “I now know that Gemini had been handled by Odin when she had been the leader of this team. So what?”

“Odin was the god of knowledge, war and death”, offered Sander, smiling charmingly at Joss. “If nothing else, this is... going to show you what your power-set is capable of.”

The way Sander smiled at Joss made Joss blush a soft pink. Whatever kind of love-triangle nonsense was going on over there, Tanya was definitely going to keep her nose out of it. Drama had always been one thing Tanya didn't want in her life. She liked things easy and orderly. Again did her eyes find Melanie. She was, well, certainly not easy, but definitely orderly. Well, her apartment – the first day Tanya had met her – had been a mess, however that had been due to stress and thinking she was going crazy. If given sleep and a support system, she was actually very tidy, which pleased Tanya; she needed things orderly, everything had its place.

“Mikey is worried about James”, noted Melanie softly, turning toward Tanya.

“Mh...?”, grunted Tanya confused, leaning in a little so they could talk quietly.

Melanie flushed as the two stood so close. “I... It seems he's not been sleeping a lot. I figured, I mean you were... dating him... so I guess you do know him better. Is he... alright?”

“The best to ask about that would be Varya, but...”, drawled Tanya, eyebrows drawn together. “He's a complicated man, Lanya. He's had... There are things he doesn't talk about, with no one. It's why our relationship didn't last for every long and wasn't very deep.”

“Wh... What are you saying?”, asked Melanie, cheeks even darker at the nickname.

“That there are things in his past that he doesn't talk about and the fact that our best bet right now is that these attacks are linked to him and his sister... it brings back memories of whatever he keeps buried. I don't know what it is, but I assume not good”, offered Tanya gently.

“Wouldn't it be best if someone confronted him upfront then?”, injected Sebastian as he looked up at the two women. “I mean, this is about more than him. It's about... the fate of Los Angeles at least, if not the world – and I'm not trying to sound dramatic here, however there is an alien attack.”

“I don't know him well yet, however from everything I've seen, I gather that he is the kind to run when cornered so maybe cornering him is not the best plan”, offered Joss seriously.

“So what? We wait and hope he'll talk to us on his own?”, snorted Sebastian.

“Better than having him run off”, argued Tanya softly. “Maybe... Maybe we should just... send Varya to go and try talk to him? Far as I can tell, she may just be the only one able to get through to him. Just the two. The question is if Varya will do it.”

“Oh, she will”, sighed Sebastian. “She's worried about him too. Babs and Jamie are best friends and when my cousin cares about someone, she does so rather fiercely.”

“So we sic Babara on him. Good attack-plan”, nodded Melanie bemused.

~*~

“There you go, gorgeous. And an additional doughnut for you.”

Babara flushed and blinked a couple of times as she accepted the order from their barista. A pretty redhead wearing green. Her name-tag said Kit. Thanking her, Babara carried their order over to the table. Jamie sat there, glaring. He looked worse for wear these days. She knew he was having nightmares of his past these days. Ever since it had been suggested that someone may be after them, his fantasy was running wild with worst case scenarios.

“Talk to me, James”, ordered Babara softly as she sat down.

She tucked her neon-green hair behind her ear, leaning forward some as she placed his coffee in front of him. He glowered and nearly emptied the whole mug in one go. Sighing, Babara started picking on that free doughnut she had scored. Purple icing. Her eyes went to the redhead once more.

“Nothing to talk about”, grunted Jamie gruffly, not looking at her.

“Jay, come on. It's me. If not anyone else, at least talk to me”, pleaded Babara.

“What... if he comes back? What if it's him?”, muttered Jamie, looking at her desperately. “I can't-”

So that was it. That was where his mind had gone. If someone was targeting him, and his sister, then his biggest fear was that it was him. Sighing softly, she reached out, squeezed his hand.

“Jay. Maybe you should tell the others, to prepare the whole team for the possibility? So they know who to look out for?”, suggested Babara gently.

“No. Absolutely not. Jessie can't, shouldn't know any of this”, whispered James, shaking his head.

Babara heaved a sigh and shook her head. What was she supposed to say to that...? How could she help him? Part of her thought she should tell the rest of the team, but the majority of them were still kind of strangers and they shouldn't be entitled to something so personal from Jamie. Besides, they didn't have any actual lead just yet. This was all wild speculation.

~*~

Savitri was sipping her wine slowly as she sat on the couch in her own apartment. Considering that Matt, Mike and James had the two children living with them and Elizabeth had her fiance, this was the largest apartment apartment available to the team to meet up and operate from. Sonia Gold had offered, however... that seemed to draw too much attention – she was famous, her villa was off to the beach so the distance also made a difference. Savitri lived relatively central, everyone having definitely less distance to travel to get there. Savitri liked this, liked being their home-base of sorts. Her apartment was definitely large enough to hold meetings for twelve people.

Right now, it was a smaller circle. Angel, Jessie and Lizzy were over, Angel having brought the research their 'book-worms' had done (as Jessie liked to refer to their research group). Together, they had rearranged Savitri's living room, put a large white-board onto a wall and the couches facing it. A conspiracy-theory wall. The compilation of Joss' and Tanya's original gathered evidence, to be edited along the way. It was terrifying and fascinating at the same time.

They did have themselves on it. Well, pictures of their gems, with a list of powers, element infliction and prior carriers below, so they could keep track of them. They were still getting used to them, still learning about themselves and to be quite honest, Savitri couldn't be asked to remember all twelve Zodiacs' powers just yet; she still struggled with names sometimes. It was a lot!

On the other side, they had their enemies though. Nicely named the Snake Nest Villains, by Tanya and the rest of the team had just adapted it; it was as good as anything, really.

“So we had Serpentarius at the top so far”, started Lizzy, moving the purple magnet with a cute snake drawing (they had not met Serpentarius yet and had no good picture). “Below, he have Serpens on the second rank, Hydra and Hydrus.”

“Now, we're suspecting someone else is even higher. That makes me wonder if Serpentarius is... equal to Serpens then? Or still higher because we have had contact with Serpens already”, offered Jessie thoughtfully, head tilted. “I mean, maybe Serpentarius isn't even active and maybe more of like a... messenger between the Biggest Bad and the... uh... underlings? Minons?”

“Not minions”, requested Lizzy and made a face.

“At the top of the food-chain... on... on either side are the Crowns”, stated Angel as she hopped up and put two cute crown-images up. “Corona Australis, the Black Crown, and Corona Borealis, the White Crown. The ancient rulers, behind the screen. Very exciting.”

“Question: Why don't we just... get help... from that White Crown?”, asked Jessie.

“Oh, you know how it is. Superiors never do the work themselves”, huffed Lizzy dismissively. “This White Crown is like some higher up deity who just supervises.”

Savitri furrowed her brows. Highest priority would be to take out the Black Crown – they are the one who gives the power to those beneath them. If the Black Crown was taken out, those under their control would lose the influence. As it was, they didn't even know who Serpentarius was and barely had seen Serpens; the bad guys were playing things close to their chest.

“We're at a disadvantage”, mused Savitri, gaining the others' attention. “We can barely name the five higher ups but haven't even seen the two most dangerous ones. Meanwhile, the bad guys know... all about us. I mean, not our secret identities, but... but they know exactly what Zodiacs they have to face and they know exactly what powers we have.”

“You're right”, agreed Angel with a sigh. “Oh well, we're going to... do this. Somehow.”

“The optimism is overwhelming”, huffed Lizzy amused. “I need more wine for this.”

“I'm coming with you”, agreed Jessie, gathering glasses and following to the kitchen.

“How are you and Joss doing?”, asked Angel curiously, turning toward Savitri.

“Right to the point”, laughed Savitri. “I mean, we were busy enough with work already, but now with all this superhero business? They took a mission with Babara and Tanya two days ago and was too exhausted for our date, I was out late with you and Sebastian yesterday and had to postpone.”

“It really is straining”, agreed Angel solemnly. “Bastien is spending a lot of time complaining too. But that wasn't what I meant. Uh... I meant to very subtly ask how you are doing with... Sander.”

“Truly subtle”, agreed Savitri amused, her legs pulled up.

Daisy barked as she hopped up onto the couch, first sniffing her human and then turning toward the new, more interesting human, her tiny tail wagging. Angel cooed and picked the tiny dog up to hold her above her head and then kiss her little head just below the pink bow.

“Oh, you are a precious tiny thing”, whispered Angel, placing the puppy on her lap.

“Okay so, I admit I was very nervous about meeting Sander for the first time. Joss had been upfront about their feelings from the get-go, told me about their crush on Sander, so I would know what I was signing up for. I... knew that, at one point, I would get to meet the guy they had a crush on, however... I didn't expect these circumstances”, sighed Savitri. “So that changes things, because we didn't just meet about Joss, as friends. We... We're working together now.”

“That changes the dynamic from 'romantic rival' to 'working as a team'...”, agreed Angel.

“Yes, exactly”, groaned Savitri. “We're working together rather well. He is a very brilliant and... very handsome man. I understand where Joss is coming from. And it is evident that Joss has a type... I mean, I am only four years older than Joss, but Sander is about five years older than me.”

“Ye—eah”, giggled Angel delighted. “I mean, Joss is thirty-four, they can make their own decisions. But yes, definitely a type. Intellectual, older, gorgeous.”

Angel winked playfully at Savitri, making her laugh. Angel may be heterosexual, but she was definitely a flirt regardless. Angel called it 'being French', which had only made Savitri laugh even more. She really liked Joss' best friend a lot, the tiny blonde was delightful.

“I do think that saving Los Angeles has higher priority than sorting our... relationship out”, sighed Savitri softly. “And in the end, it's up to Joss anyway. If they... enjoy our relationship enough to stay with me, or if the feelings they have for Sander are... too strong.”

“It's okay”, smiled Angel, reaching out to pat Savitri.

“And it will be even more okay now that we have more wine!”, exclaimed Lizzy. “What are we talking about? You two look so serious. We were out for like five minutes.”

“Nothing, just... hand me that wine”, demanded Angel with a smile.

~*~

“The place is looking good”, praised Matt as he looked around.

Jamie couldn't help but smile pleased at that. He knew it was by far not all him. Honestly, if not for the whole team – and the more than generous 'donations' Matt had done (Jamie knew it came from him, even after Jamie had said that he wasn't going to just accept the billionaire's money). Thanks to everyone actually working together, they had been able to rebuild it like this.

“I'm gonna reopen tomorrow”, declared Jamie. “But... it'll be a while longer before the apartment is... livable again. I prioritized the pub, because it's... my place of business. Income.”

“Of course. You and the kids are welcomed to stay as long as you please”, assured Matt.

It really did mean the world to Jamie. He startled a little when Babs clasped a hand on his shoulder. Babs was smiling broadly. Jessie and even Chess and Ryuu stood on his other side. His cook and barkeeper both smiled encouragingly. They too relied on the income from the pub, after all.

“It really looks good. Let's hope there won't be any more attacks on it”, chuckled Chess.

“Well, at least insurance covers monster-attacks”, offered Ryuu dryly.

“Séamas! Hah. There you are. I knew it. Séamas!”

James froze, eyes widening. He slowly turned toward the source of the voice, while Ryuu reached out for the man who had spoken. The blonde man laughed startled as he was being stopped.

“Excuse you, sir. We are not yet opened. Grand reopening is tomorrow”, informed Ryuu.

“Ye—eah. Saw that in the newspaper. It's why I'm here”, laughed the blonde.

James swallowed hard, feeling like he was swallowing a whole rock as he stared at the man. He was aware of Babs and Matt looking curiously at the stranger, who was trying to get past Ryuu.

“Then you can come back tomorrow”, grunted Chess pointedly.

“Not here to drink. Just here to see Séamas.”

“Well, tough luck then because there is no... whoever here”, countered Chess.

“Nonsense. He's literally standing right there.” The blonde grunted and pointed at James.

“You're mistaking me for someone else”, hissed James as he walked briskly past him.

~*~

“Your brother's been avoiding me since yesterday”, sighed Matt with a frown.

“Mhmh”, grunted Jessie, kicking the possessed giant lizard in front of her. “Can we like maybe talk about my brother after we took out the constellation at hand?”

“That would be much appreciated”, agreed Melanie loudly, irritated.

Matt bit his lips. He just couldn't shake it. Yesterday had been weird. That stranger, that weird blonde with the Irish accent. The way Jamie had frozen up, how much seeing the man had upset him. Matt really didn't like the way Jamie had reacted to this guy. Still, Jessie had a point. Concentrate on the fight for now. Squaring his shoulders, he notched another arrow.

With the right amount of pressure – Melanie was using her vines to hold their enemy down and Jessie and Matt were quite literally bringing the heat – they managed to separate the person from the constellation that had possessed them. Melanie pocketed the gem.

“Okay. Now, what was that?”, sighed Jessie, wiping her face. “Taurus?”

“Yeah, my place to regroup and... clean up”, muttered Melanie, wiping goo off her face.

The trio headed to Melanie's place together and, once inside, Matt had to note that it looked surprisingly clean. She was a bit of a chaotic scatterbrained professor, really. Matt wondered a little if it had anything to do with Tanya and her obsessive orderliness. Melanie and Tanya had been spending a whole lot of time with each other lately, after all. And Melanie was not exactly the subtle kind of lesbian, she was more the heart-eyed, pining with a loud sigh kind.

“Okay. I bite. What about my brother?”, asked Jessie with furrowed brows.

“There was a guy at the pub yesterday”, offered Matt as they started cleaning themselves with some towels, all three crowding into Melanie's bathroom. “Blonde white boy, about our age.”

“Blonde white millennials in LA. Shockingly rare sight”, nodded Melanie sarcastically.

“He had an Irish accent”, continued Matt, glaring at his future sister-in-law before he turned toward Jessie again. “He... called James by a weird name. Called him... Sean? Or something, I think.”

“Séamas?”, offered Jessie, eyebrows raised.

“Yeah. Yeah, that was it”, nodded Matt.

“That's the same name”, stated Melanie casually, waving a hand at Matt's confused look. “Séamas and James, it's the same name. Like... Matteo and Matthew. Just... regional difference.”

“Ye—ep”, confirmed Jessie with a shrug. “Séamas is Jamie's name. Actual name. Birth... name.”

“...Oh”, whispered Matt, feeling even more confused now. “Wh... Why? I mean, why...”

Jessie gave him a thoughtful look and then shrugged once more. “When we came to the US, Jamie said we should change our names. Ain't nobody got time to hear Americans try and stumble over it. You heard yourself there? Remembering Sean like Séamas is too hard. The thought of any ignorant American trying and failing to spell my name feels like pulling teeth.”

“...What is your name?”, asked Melanie curiously at that.

“Seasidh. S-e-a-s-id-h. Didn't see that spelling coming, huh?”, snorted Jessie playfully before shrugging. “So yeah, James and Jessica seemed easier.”

Matt nodded slowly, warily. “So... that means... this man, he was... from your... past?”

“Must be someone my brother knows from Dublin, yeah”, shrugged Jessie.

Matt sat down heavily, eyebrows drawn together.

~*~

“Babe, you are working too hard.”

Lizzy startled a little, but then she smiled softly and tilted her head back to look at Rick. Rick returned her smile as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders after putting down a cup right in front of her, the scent filling her senses. He was so sweet.

“You made me chocolate”, sighed Lizzy pleased. “You're amazing.”

“I am going to call Miss Gold personally one of these days though”, grunted Rick seriously. “You... You have been working so hard, even at home. And all of the after-hours. We barely get to see each other in the morning anymore... and in the evening, we just fall asleep. It's... I miss you.”

Lizzy took a very slow, long sip from the hot chocolate. “It... It's just this one... project. It's... very important, not just to the firm, but to me, personally. This is huge for me, babe. I'm not just a designer on it, I'm head on this project.”

It was only partially a lie. The project was something that kept her busy, but mostly, it was the mission. Lying to Rick was awful, but she was also confident that this would be resolved soon. If not, she would be telling him the truth, she couldn't endure lying to him for forever.

“He—ello, roommates”, called Jessie out as she walked in. “How are you?”

Lizzy was partially relieved to hear her best friend and how awful was that? She was relieved to have her alone time with her handsome boyfriend interrupted like this? Horrible.

“Well... I am tired and what about you?”, sighed Rick.

“Full of energy”, offered Jessie with a broad grin. “Wanna watch a movie?”

“Yes!”, exclaimed Lizzy eagerly, scooting over.

Rick heaved a sigh, but he followed after all. Even if it was just a movie, at the very least it was spending time with his fiance. Looking at him, Lizzy leaned in to kiss his cheek.

“I promise, once the project's done, I'll have all the time in the world for you, babe”, whispered Lizzy gently before snuggling up to him. “Be patient.”

“Of course”, huffed Rick, nearly offended. “I mean, you were all patient for me when I trained to become a detective. I'll always have your back and support your career. You know how proud I am of you, Lizabella. I'm just... concerned about you, my love.”

Lizzy smiled faintly before snuggling up right between her boyfriend and her best friend. Closing her eyes, she leaned back to relax after a long day of work and fighting evil.

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