#between 12 and 16 she actually had her dad taking care of her

[leal-hound]

some anihita lore

last of her clan, all of her clan, caro of the sweet meat. ship of theseus, do you own your crew? or are you a vessel for something outside of your flesh?

[breakandbuildfiction]

My rant about Danny Phantom and DPxDC tropes

This is just going to be a listing and rant about some of the Danny Phantom and DPxDC story and prompt trends I tend to see around Tumblr. I want to make it clear that I don’t care if you like the things I don’t like or dislike the things I do. Everyone is entitled to their own tastes so long as they don’t harm others and that includes headcannons and fanfics. So don’t be a dick.

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Danny is the Ghost King: I admit I really like this one, but I also admit it doesn’t make a ton of sense.

I like OP Danny, I think it’s fun and it fits how several of his enemies can easily be called gods or have global-level powers— Vortex with his storms and Ember with her mind control/power siphoning being key examples— and having him basically be the leader of an entire infinite dimension filled with several godlike beings makes him come off as super badass.

On the other hand, this headcanon typically leans into Danny getting the job via Right Of Conquest against Pariah Dark. The thing is, Pariah wasn’t a recognized ruler. He was a tyrant and conqueror that few if any actually wanted to follow. He didn’t have ‘divine right’ or the willing submission of his subjects. He was the Ghost King because he had the power and desire to force his will against the rest of the Realms. Hell, he was so hated that a cabal of super-powerful/ancient spirits deposed him and locked him away for hundreds/thousands/millions of years and NO ONE other than Vlad tried to free him! So Danny beating him shouldn’t suddenly make him a legitimate ruler.

That all said if you go with the less used reasoning that the Ghost Zone NEEDS to have a single ruler for whatever reason and Danny beating the previous singular ruler/being one of the few ghosts/spirits who have the power and fame required for the position I have no problem with the idea.

Danny is Dani’s dad: Another thing I like, but also another thing that gets messy when you think about it.

Cloning as I understand it basically gives you a genetic twin, not a genetic child. So even with Dani’s genes being modified somehow she’d read more like Danny’s sister than his daughter. So unless you want to throw in that Vlad used some third party’s genes to help stabilize her, Dani is not genetically Danny’s kid.

Ignoring genetics and sticking to emotions and such, emotionally and mentally Danny is a teenager and Dani is somewhere between 8 and 12, way too close of an age difference for Danny to really take on a paternal role for Dani. And even if you say that Dani is mentally younger due to her being force grown it would still leave Danny as a very young teenage parent of a preteen and Dani in a very weird state as her physical and mental development would be at gross odds with how she can filter information.

If you deage Dani to a toddler however and have Danny be AT LEAST 16, things could make more sense as far as them seeing each other as parent and child go.

Danny gives off Uncanny Valley vibes: This has no basis in canon, be it for full ghosts or Halfas or anything else. That said, I love this idea and have no further notes.

Danny is an engineering genius: This is one that comes up pretty sporadically, and I guess it MIGHT have some basis in canon if you stretch some things, but it’s not something that was ever explicitly stated or even heavily implied. I still like it though and think it’s really fun when used for things other than just saying Danny is smart.

Tucker is a master hacker: I get where this is coming from and I understand the vibes, plus it has more of a basis than Danny being an engineering genius, but this also doesn’t really have any real basis in canon. The only ‘hacking’ that he really does is against Skulker and that involves the ghost first assimilating Tucker’s PDA, giving him a back door into Skulker’s systems to do one specific thing. So while fun in some cases, I don’t like it when it gets blown out of proportion and having Tucker being on par with the likes of Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon, or Cyborg as a computer genius. He is smart and he is a programmer, but he’s not a super genius.

Everyone is Liminal: I don’t know who popularized this idea, but I don’t like it. The idea that just being around ectoplasm makes someone liminal sounds like something that the Fenton parents would have been at least vaguely aware of if they were already smart enough to wear hazmat suits for protection when working with ectoplasm, so if they knew it would make people basically proto ghosts/ensure they would become ghosts, they sure as hell wouldn’t have set up shop in a city.

Not only that but we already know that the GIW is willing to use heavy artillery and lethal force on people they think MIGHT be under the influence of a ghost or could be ghostly themselves. So if a whole town was showing up as being so ‘ecto-contaminated’ that they are not even registering as fully human anymore you KNOW they’d start coming in to commit genocide.

The GIW isn’t a legal government body/their actions have violated their purview: Admittedly this one isn’t very common, but I HAVE seen it used a few times, so I’m going to talk about it.

First, I really like this because it avoids the trap of just saying ‘Oh the government is inherently evil and wants nothing more than to commit war crimes and genocide’, so big points there. Beyond that though I also just think it makes sense. I mean the US Government has a LOT of departments and I can see them having a small agency dedicated to keeping track of ‘supposedly’ paranormal shit for one reason or another, but I can’t see them getting a lot of funding— like the amount of discretionary funds needed to buy out all of Fentonworks— without them having to bring up the evidence before Congress and the Senate. From there there would definitely be ethical concerns regarding their actions, legislation would be introduced en-mass, and it would cause a national if not international uproar.

So for the GIW to work they’d either need to be a whole sale corrupt and rouge agency taking money from third parties— like Vlad— and going way beyond whatever authority they might have been legitimately granted to do most of the shit they end up doing, or they were never a government body to begin with but a special interest group funded and staffed by fanatics from around the world and are committing several additional crimes in addition to war crimes by impersinating a government agency.

The Anti-Ecto Acts: I honestly can’t remember if these are canon in some form or not, but I see them brought up a lot so I’m talking about them either way.

These make NO SENSE.

Getting something like this through Congress and the Senate would be INSANELY difficult even if you had evidence of an immediate threat. You can say ‘they hid it in another bill’ all you like but that kind of thing is way harder than you think. Even minor bills about laws and regulations that are just being put through for renewal get read over to make sure things aren’t slipped into them. And bigger, more complex laws take months if not YEARS to get passed and end up getting combed over with a fine comb. There would be no way these Acts could be passed without it being a major event that would be dragged out and debated for ages seeing as it’s literally about declaring a complex species non-sentient and opening them for no-holds-barred scientific experimentation and termination. Religious concerns would be brought up, ethical bodies would be formed and disbanded every day, calls would be made for third-party research, and more than a few people would demand that diplomacy be tried.

And if you tie this into DPxDC it makes even LESS sense as it would be against several laws, acts, and clauses that are meant to protect metahumans– please note that metahuman does not just mean having the metagene in DC, it means having extra-human abilities and powers including magic or alien blood.

Sam and Tucker have powers: I mean, there were entire episodes dedicated to Tucker being jealous about Danny having power and Sam pushing Danny to use his powers for social and/or political causes, but I can get behind the idea of the trio all having powers. So long as Sam and Tucker’s powers aren’t based around ghosts at least.

A big point of Danny Phantom’s story is that ghosts were super rare and believed to not exist before the start of the show and that Danny and Vlad’s powers are unheard-of anomalies caused by the Doctors Fentons’ experiments and creations so having other people get ghost powers in more ‘natural’ ways really undermines that and isn’t supported by canon at all. Yes Tucker was being used to resurrect a Pharaoh or something and Sam was the favored puppet of Undergrowth, but that doesn’t mean they would KEEP their powers after the ghosts giving them to them were removed from play. We see this in the episode where a bunch of Casper students get infected by ghost bugs, they got powers while infected and they lost them when the ghosts were removed. Beyond that we also have the time Jazz was almost sacrificed by Johnny to get Kitty back into the living world, she never got any powers from that despite being infused with Kitty’s power and essence and when said essence was removed she returned to a fully mortal human teenager with no powers.

Make Sam a witch or give Tucker nanite implants or something and I have no problem with this idea.

Danny becomes the Ancient of Space: I’ve already said that I like OP Danny, but I don’t think this title makes sense.

Yes I like giving Danny space powers and/or an eldritch space form, but I don’t like calling Danny the Ancient of Space because we don’t know how a ghost gets that title. Giving him this title seems to stem heavily from Space being the equal of Time which is Clockwork’s domain, but the thing is Clockwork isn’t called the Ancient of Time, he’s called the Master of Time. So I just generally feel like calling Danny the Master of Space fits better even if Ancient of Space sounds cooler.

Now onto more DPxDC exclusive stuff–

Jason is a Halfa/a developing Halfa: This is another one of those things where I just think goes too hard against the lore of Danny Phantom to make sense. Just dying and coming back to life does not make someone a Halfa, even if they don’t come back as fully alive. Not only that but it takes a LOT of ectoplasm and power to make a Halfa with Vlad and Danny being blasted with an opening portal and Dani being specifically grown from the DNA and ectoplasm of an existing Halfa. It just feels like its cheapening the existence of Hafas if they could have been created at any point in history using natural resources or general necromancy magic.

The Lazarus Pits are just rancid Ectoplasm: This just doesn’t work in my mind. Yes they are both green and are connected to death, but they don’t function or act anything like each other. Ectoplasm has shown no indication that it can be used to heal wounds or that it can be used to resurrect the dead outside of the creation of Hafas. The Lazarus pits have showcased no ability to be used as an energy source or for the waters to be in any state other than liquid, though it is a highly flammable substance in some interpretations while Ectoplasm can apparently be volatile enough to explode if not properly treated and filtered.

This idea also just cheapens both the Pits and Ectoplasm in different ways, with the Pits making it so Ectoplasm isn’t nearly as rare or tied to ghostly phenomena in the mortal world as we were lead to believe and Ectoplasm being readily available post-Fenton Portal activation making the constant search and hoarding of the Pits kind of useless. That and the Fentons apparently have Ectoplasm filters that I’m guessing could at least partially purify the Pits.

Backtracking a bit to the Jason is a Hafa/developing Halfa thing, a common way for that to be implemented is by saying the Pits are rancid Ectoplasm and he’s got a stunted Core. Well if that was the case than Ra’s Al Ghul would be just as far along as a Halfa as Jason if not being a fully fledged one himself at this point because while he might not have stayed dead as long as Jason in a single stretch– depending on how you look at the timeline of Jason’s revival– he did definitely spend more communicative time being dead over the centuries he’s been alive.

And finally, we know what rancid/corrupted Ectoplasm does to a person. It gives them Ecto-Acne. Which at best puts you in the hospital for years before giving you superpowers and usually would just slowly and painfully kill you.

Danny goes to Gotham: This one really just depends on WHY he goes to Gotham. Like, there’s nothing wrong with having a character go to a new city as the basis for a crossover, but I feel like it should make sense at least you know? And to be fair, most of the posts I’ve seen that talk about Danny going to Gotham do in fact make sense. So yeah, solid trope.

Danny and Damien are Twins: I have no problem with this in a vacuum, but I think people take it too far and ignore things like basic logic. Namely, the fact that for them to be secret twins then you have to acknowledge their looks. If they are fraternal twins then there is no real issue here, but if they are supposed to look super alike or even be capable of being mistaken for each other then there is the minor issue of their ethnicities.

No one ever suspects that Danny isn’t Jack Fenton’s son, and since both Jack and Maddie Fenton are caucasian, that means that Danny looks fully caucasian. Meanwhile, Damien is at very least one-quarter Arabic through his mother– I can’t recall if Talia is one hundred percent Arabic or not but I know Ra’s is– and is often depicted as having at least a dusky skin tone. So if you want them to be identical twins you’d have to say that both Damien and Danny appear to be completely white ethnically.

Maddie Fenton is a former member of the League of Assassins: Two issues with this: One, the League isn’t exactly big on letting people walk away from it, and Maddie isn’t exactly trying to hide from them. And two, we have seen Maddie’s canonical biological sister so unless both of them got away– which is even less likely than one person being allowed to leave– and only Alicia is smart enough to stay low-key, this one doesn’t make much sense.

Danny is dating Jason Todd: I get it, Jason is the second hottest Batfam member and he has some surface level similarities with their temporary white streaks and dead guy themes. But outside of that this one just doesn’t make sense. At least not to me.

For hobbies/civilian life, Jason is semi-canonically and very heavily fan-canonly a literature nerd. Danny hates his English class. Danny is often depicted as liking rock music and video games in his downtime, Jason… I don’t know his music taste is, but he is a neat and tidy book nerd.

For vigilante/hero life, Jason is extremely violent and open to using lethal options to the point where he has attempted to kill at least one of his brothers in nearly every timeline and is a mass murderer/serial killer with a higher body count than some of Batman’s rogues. Danny won’t even keep his worst enemies like Skulker trapped in the Fenton Thermos long-term and never even tries to injure potentially dangerous humans like the Guys In White.

These two personalities aren’t a case of being mix and matched, they are very strongly opposed to each other on a philosophical level and a moral level.

Danny is dating Tim Drake: Again, I get where this comes from, and to be fair it makes a bit more sense than Danny X Jason in so far as Tim not being a violent bipolar and him actually seeming to share some hobbies with Danny, but it still doesn’t work in my mind. That stuff that Vlad did to cause Danny to call him a fruitloop? Tim has done almost all of it. He’s a stalker, he clones people when he can’t have the real version, he has used his resources to fuck with people– though Tim’s actions in that sense aren’t nearly as bad as Vlad’s–, he has gone batshit crazy in grief before… need I go on?

So yeah, as much as I like the idea of neurotic sleep-deprived heroes falling into each other’s arms, this doesn’t work. Tim is too fucked up for Danny to want to get involved with. It would be too much like Maddie deciding to give Vlad a shot.

Danny is dating Cassandra Cain: Not as popular as Danny X Jason or Danny X Tim, but I’ve seen a couple of these.

This has some of the same problems as Danny X Jason in that they don’t seem to have any real hobbies in common, but it has the advantage in that their temperaments and personalities are at least somewhat more in line with each other. They both really like and really don’t like fighting, they both have issues with their parents who want them to follow in their footsteps while also being open to killing them, they latch onto friend groups as family, are both anti-killing despite being super lethal living weapons, they tend to be pretty chill out of combat situations to the point where they can even be blase about pretty crazy shit, et cetera. But they don’t have many if any overlapping interests… then again, most people tend to say that Cass and Stephanie are pretty close friends, and I think that is canon in some timelines, and as I will be talking about soon Danny and Steph have a fair bit in common so… yeah.

This one has some really good fanfics running for it though, such as ‘lex luthor's ascent from supervillainy to fatherhood’ by Halfgone over on AO3. A fic that I highly recommend.

Danny is dating Stephanie Brown: Even rarer than Danny X Cass as far as I have been able to see, but it’s also the one that makes the most sense in my eyes. The same snarky attitude, love of puns and messing with the people they are fight, they both have issues with their parents, they fight for things that their fathers’ are completely opposed to, and depending on the DC timeline and your stance on Danny being Dani’s father both are teenaged parents.

They also don’t, as far as I can tell, have anything that makes them opposed to each other. So while this one doesn’t have a ton of civilian weight behind it, it also doesn’t have anything against it. A solid choice despite not being very popular.

I still prefer Danny X Cass or Danny X Raven though.

Danny is gay/bi: I have no problem with this. Let me say that again, I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THIS. I think that as a fictional character being used in fanfiction things like sexuality can be altered in whatever way the writer desires– it’s different when it’s a canon continuation of an existing work, but fanfiction is anything goes– but dear gods people PLEASE pick better dating options for Danny. I know that people think Jason Todd and Tim Drake are hot and fun characters, and they are, but as I already ranted about they are NOT good dating options for Danny.

Personally, I think Cyborg works better, or some incarnations of Conner Kent.

Danny has been to Krypton: For most timelines used this requires some time travel along with the intergalactic travel, but I find this one to be very fun. Be it just Danny having visited Krypton and having some stories about the place, maybe some souvenirs, or Danny accidentally/on purpose being revered as a god of the planet. It’s a fun addition or starting point to a story.

Kryptonite is Ecto-Candy: This makes no sense and I don’t like it enough to ignore that. Krypton blew up in the mortal universe within the last fifty years according to most canon timelines and even if the ENTIRE planet became Kryptonite– which it might have to be honest, I’m not sure about that– and 50% of it fell into the Infinite Realms– which makes no sense statistically even with natural portals being a thing– that still isn’t a lot of mass for an INFINITE dimension, plus the timeline would make it a relatively very recent thing to ghosts. And that’s ignoring the fact that Kryptonite is not in any way, shape, or form the same thing as Ectoplasm no matter how you split it outside of that one issue that says Kryptonite is the crystalized screams of horror and pain of everyone who died on Krypton.

Danny is a Martian Manhunter Fanboy: No real notes here. It fits, makes sense, and is often used in a fun way. 

Danny hates rich people: This one is funny sure, but it doesn’t make sense. Sam is rich. Danny was rich for a bit. Ghost King Danny is beyond rich. Danny is often written in fanfics to be friends with the likes of Pandora and Dorthea who are both rich. Really he just doesn’t like Vlad because of who he is, it has nothing to do with him being rich.

The Justice League abandoned Amity Park: I don’t like this one. It just doesn’t seem like something the Justice League would do. They have too many heroes that specialize in the paranormal and Batman sure as hell wouldn’t let something like an interdimensional portal remain open without being super on top of it and studying it in case of a worst-case scenario like what happened in Reign Storm.

I’ve seen variants of this where the reasoning is that John Constantine labeled it a no go zone to avoid the possibility of a superhero getting possessed and used as a meat suit to cause mass destruction and chaos, which does make more sense, but if that were the case then the JLD would be aware of the situation and would at the very least check in on some of the bigger events like when Undergrowth attacked, Vortex’s whole deal– particularly when his storm covered the entire world except for Amity park– Pariah Dark’s invasion/abduction, when Fright Knight attacked, and when Clockwork showed up and Dark Danny followed suit.

So really this idea just seems like a way to include shallow drama where Danny hates the Justice League or other heroes in general and feels upset that he, as an untrained teenager, was left to defend his town all by himself… just like Static Shock tends to do.

The Justice League thinks Danny is Immortal and hundreds/thousands of years old: No real notes here either. Danny has time traveled in canon, there are a lot of fanon things involving him doing it even more, and I can definitely see him playing into the bit to avoid being treated like a kid who needs to listen to his elders ala Billy Batson as Shazam.

Clockwork is Chronos: This requires a LOT of hoops being jumped through and a lot of ignoring of the mythology of Chronos himself, but they are both super powerful time deities so… I see where it comes from at least. And it allows for stuff like saying Danny and Wonder Woman are family.

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There are a lot more tropes and such that I’ve seen here and on dedicated fanfic sites in the Danny Phantom and DPxDC fandoms, but this is already an incredibly long post so I’m going to end things here. If anyone has anything they want to add or comments they want to give, feel free to leave them! Just don’t be a dick and don’t PM me anonymously with insults and threats. I’ll just report and block you.

[yellowocaballero]

finally got around to finishing weekenders and read the cat byleth fic, and had a great time! reading from felix's perspective of everyone dealing with catleth was very fun, and finding out that felix made the active choice to not do anything actually made me laugh. also, seeing sylvain and his thoughts about felipe, after how you described felipe when he's older just seems very interesting (and funny). all that's to say, i was curious if you'd care to share something about what future shenanigans the oc kids got up to? they seem fun

One of the nicest possible asks you can send someone. Tell me more about your OCs. JALKDSjflkasjdf.

I had to write Byleth's idyllic future family, these people do in fact live in a society where they're all obligated to reproduce, I made up like 10 characters on the spot, the end. Afterwards I got really stressed out due to various and assorted reasons and started stress writing, as I do, and I ended up stress writing a WAY too long OC story. Various facts:

In a heartwarming act of found family, supportive co-parenting, and hating the way your parents raised you, the next gen kids are raised very differently than how their parents raised them. The BL split their time between their homes and the palace, so all of the kids are raised as one big family. All equals! All of you kids are way more important than chivalry! The princess and prince are just like the rest of you! The king isn't stealing ANYONE'S dad!

So that's nine extremely spoiled cousins whose only persistent social circle is each other.

Sometimes a found family are ex-classmates who run a nation together and a group of cousins who are endlessly trying to claw each other's faces off.

Sara (story covers her age from 10-16 but let's randomly anchor this at 12; Dimileth; crown princess) is overly emotional with a temper and is prone towards acts of ringleading and bullying. Terry (10; Felix/Annette; gifted kid before the syndrome; Sephora 10yo) is the meanest preteen girl ever. Leif (12; Ingrid/Ashe; absolute jock; arch nemesis of Sara) would wear Supreme. Felipe says he's too good to be the meanest person ever, but he's just catty about it. Luca (10; Dimileth; crown prince; looks like M!Morgan from FE:A, if he's named after Lucina Byleth does not realize; breaks half of what he touches), Sigurd (10; Ingrid/Ashe; limp noodle of a nerd), and Lailah (6; Felix/Annette; will predict the time and date of your death) are the victims of this. When they are not worse. Sven (Ingrid/Ashe; daydreams about dragons constantly; inherited all of the nice) and Callum (Felix/Annette; inherited all of the nice) will grow up to be nice only because they weren't in baby thunderdome.

The deuteragonist of the story is Derrick von Aegir (13; Ferdinand/F!OC; a truly unfortunate boy) who was sent to live in the Fhaergus Empire's palace at age 11 as a political hostage. The other protagonist is the princess whose greatest problem in life, age 10, was that Father said she isn't allowed to be mean to the political hostage. Derrick's greatest problem in life, age 11, is not accidentally getting his entire family super executed.

(This is the sort of political hostage thing that was very common in the Medieval era, which was basically "hey conquered territory send your kid to live with us, we'll treat them great and school them and teach them how great we are, and YOU won't break any treaties", it's pretty comfy for the kid. Effective way to stop Duke Ferdinand of Adrestia from rebelling, too. Byleth's idea. Bloodless and effective, only slightly traumatizes one kid)

They're all one big family anyway, so let's just toss Derrick into the pile of cousins. He is absorbed into the cousin conglomerate instantly. He's annoyingly perfect: perfect grades, perfect manners, perfect attitude, perfect work. Overachiever who takes up a role as tiny ambassador quickly and dreams of becoming a political ambassador between the territory of Adrestia and the Faerghus kingdom, now empire. Does Felix's paperwork. Tripes to stop himself from wanting to go home. Dimitri taught him how to shave. Gets a horse every year for his birthday. Is perfect. Stops wanting to go home. Is perfect.

The story is largely about the struggle of trying to be a good person when you don't really know how and aren't very good at it. It's about a massive confusion of identity and trying to parse out where you belong when you're from two worlds and belong in neither. It's about having a parent who is severely mentally ill. It's about deciding what a princess means and what a political hostage means; what a family means and what a friend means. It's also about children who are so so so mean to each other.

Glad that's not INSANELY long. It's just stress writing and it's all very off the cuff, so the story's just a pot of ideas, but here's a short-ish excerpt of it underneath the cut that I think summarizes a lot of this.

A week later, Derrick received a letter from his father. It had probably arrived several days before, but all of Derrick’s incoming and outgoing mail was monitored and censored. Derrick had gotten good at talking around anything that made security mad, but sometimes his father’s letters still held long streaks of black.

Sara had barged into his palace in pursuit of a training partner, but she only found him sitting at his dining room table staring blankly at several pieces of paper. They were laid out carefully next to each other, as if Derrick needed to cross-reference each individual sentence. It seemed as if he had been looking at them for a while.

Derrick’s quarters were in the Steel Palace, which was where they kept their diplomats. When he first came to live with them, Father let him choose which suite he wanted and gave him a budget for decorating the room. The quarters had never seen a two year visitor before, but it had adjusted well. Sara was petitioning to move his room into the main palace so she didn’t have to walk so far to visit him, but Derrick had blathered on about stations and appropriateness and laid out his extensive plan on how to be as useful to the crown of Faerghus as possible. Sara said it would be more useful if she didn’t have to walk so far. 

As usual, Derrick’s plans went off without a hitch. Whenever they had visitors from other parts of Faerghus, or even from outside of Fodlan, Derrick was their one-person welcome wagon. It was his sacred self-appointed duty that nobody asked him to do, and he was really good at it. The Adrestian lords were all over him. So were the knights, but Derrick said that he barely registered them anymore. 

Sara stood in the doorway and coughed pointedly, waiting for Derrick to jump up and treat her respectfully. But he just sat and stared at pieces of paper. He obviously knew she was here, but he wasn’t reacting at all.

Sara crept forward until she could grab the back of the ridged chair and hoist herself upwards on the beams. She peered over Derrick’s shoulder at the pieces of paper, finally recognizing it as a letter. She recognized his father’s handwriting. 

“Um,” Sara said, “are you okay?”

That was as emotionally supportive as she got, and probably as emotionally supportive as she was physically capable of being. Derrick seemed to appreciate the effort, ‘cause he actually responded. His voice was dull, as it sometimes was. 

“My mother just had another baby,” Derrick said. All life and spirit was drained from his voice. He sounded very empty. “A full sibling. Boy.”

What? That was so weird. “You didn’t tell me your mom was pregnant!” 

“I didn’t know.” 

Sara couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose. How could the von Aegirs not even say anything? Why was Derrick so upset? News of an upcoming baby in her family was always such a massive deal. The last time Aunt Ingrid got pregnant nobody shut up about it for weeks. And it was a million times worse when the baby was actually born. Sara had forbidden Mother and Father from having any more children, just in case. She wouldn’t survive the commotion. 

“Congratulations?” Sara said, baffled. “Isn’t this a good thing?”

“I guess.”

“But you’re gonna be a brother!”

“Apparently.” 

“Having a sibling does suck,” Sara said contemplatively, “but maybe you’ll luck out and have a nice sibling. Collum’s the best baby ever. Terry and Lilah and I put him in little dresses. And Luca’s whatever I guess.” Sara paused a second, thinking harder. “Two boys must be tougher, though. Leif and his siblings just punch each other all the time.”

“A year,” Derrick said, and Sara finally quieted. “They waited a year until Mother grew pregnant. Father said he didn’t care about having crested kids. That’s what he said.” Derrick’s voice shook, and Sara started feeling really uncomfortable. “They just wrote me off.” 

“No they didn’t. Your parents wouldn’t do that.” Sara hopped off the chair. She put a hand on his arm, squeezing tightly. “Your parents are so nice. Maybe they just…I don’t know. Everybody has, like, five kids. It’s weirder that he waited so long, right?”

“He stopped waiting after I left.” Derrick picked up one of the pages, smoothing it carefully between his fingers. He always treated his parent’s letters carefully. “Does he need a new heir? Does he think I’m not coming back?” Derrick’s voice grew thick. “He said I was coming back. He said I was coming home for sure…”

Sara couldn’t think of anything to say that didn’t sound ridiculously dumb, so she just hugged him. Derrick dropped the letter on the table and hugged her back, limp and weak and clutching onto the folds of her stiff dress, and although she didn’t like very long hugs she refused to let go until he did. 

There was nothing to do about any of it. Adrestians were idiots and Derrick’s stupid parents were constantly making his life miserable. Sara made a noble sacrifice the next day and asked Derrick to teach her how to ride Aqua. Sara was great at riding horses, but she let Derrick teach her anyway. He always forgot about everything else when there was a horse in front of him, so her plan worked perfectly. 

That night, after the boring yet productive horse adventure, Mother found Sara, Derrick, and her family in the kitchens. They were sequestered in the secret nook behind the cold room, chomping down on purloined fruits and shoving apple cores down each other’s shirts. Mother pulled back the curtain on their fun very dramatically, freezing Leif in the middle of his attempts to pull Sigurd’s shirt over his head and dunk it in apple juice.

Felipe scrambled upwards, abandoning his half-eaten pie on the table. He bowed hastily, and everybody else hurriedly copied him. “Greetings to Her Grace, Lady of Faerghus.” 

As usual, Felipe and Derrick did everything pitch-perfect and everybody else stumbled through it. Sigurd’s shirt was still half-hanging off his shoulder. Terry didn’t even let go of her grapes. 

“I need to borrow Derrick,” Mother said. “Now.”

Derrick bowed again and quietly followed Mother’s direction out of the nook. Everybody awkwardly looked at each other. Even Leif looked worried. 

Felipe ran his hand through his near-white hair, gnawing on his cheek. It was still a little weird to have Felipe in the castle so often. It was like summer, but all the time. He didn’t have as much time to spend with them as he used to, though - Uncle Sylvain was officially training him in chamberlain duties. Luca critically deemed Felipe old. “I hope he’s not in trouble.” 

Terry stuffed grapes in her mouth, cherry red pigtails swinging. Through mangled fruity flesh, she said, “Derrick can’t get in trouble. He’s too good at everything. Messing up is Luca’s job.”

Luca sat back down, grabbing his book and pulling sad cow eyes at Terry. Lilah, who was six and liked doing what Luca did, imitated him dolefully. “I’m not that bad, am I?”

“You suck.”

“If he sucks then why did you fail your literature examination?” Sara snapped. “Look in a mirror sometime!”

Terry gasped in affront, and Lilah made a little ‘oooh’. Luca’s jaw dropped. But Sara had enough. She stood up, shoving a final few apples in her dress pocket before stomping out of the enclave. She was distantly aware that Felipe scrambled upwards to follow her, cursing in Duscuran, but she resolutely decided to ignore him. She didn’t have time to soothe ten year old feelings. She had to find Derrick and make a stirring case to her mother on why he shouldn’t be in trouble. 

She made it to the door of the kitchens before Felipe caught up to her. He slid in front of the door, and Sara was once again confronted by his stupid growth spurt as he towered after her. Sara tried to duck and weave around him, purposefully ignoring the bustling kitchen staff steering wide and clear of them, but Felipe held his ground. 

“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but this is important.”

Felipe’s voice still carried a distinct Duscuran accent, and it always made his words sound strange and harsh. Sara heard Uncle Dedue scold him for it several times, but Felipe had dug in his heels on the matter. He could imitate Uncle Dedue’s accent perfectly when he was speaking to important people who they didn’t know and didn’t like - which had the terrible side-effect of making him speak like Father - but around his family he refused to talk like the rest of them. It was one of the many reasons why he was super cool. Unfortunately, he was also a drag.

“Fighting Her Grace won’t help him,” Felipe said sternly. “Have you ever successfully changed her mind on anything? Anything at all?” Sara scowled, but she didn’t say anything. It was effectively a concession of the point. “I know your intentions are good. But charging in might hurt more than it helps. You must begin to stop and think things through first.”

“I stop to think all the time,” Sara complained. “I can do tactics. We can all do tactics. We couldn’t survive Mother if we couldn’t do tactics.”

“Yes, and you lose all ability to ‘do tactics’ the second you get worked up about something.” Felipe frowned down at her. Sara wanted to wilt. Another point she wished she could refute, and was perfectly aware she couldn’t. “Derrick’s living in reality, you know that? Not this castle fantasy land. You can’t mess around.” 

“Fantasy land -”

But Felipe just rolled his eyes. “I grew up in a Duscur orphanage. Trust me, I know what the real world looks like.” 

“Your hideously wealthy and powerful mother owns a Duscur orphanage,” Sara said flatly. This was why Felipe wasn’t always cool. “You saw the real world outside your glass window. Stop borrowing other people’s actual problems.” 

“Age has not dulled your tongue,” Felipe said, equally flat. “Will insulting your entire family fix your problems, Your Highness?” Sara pursed her lips, looking away. “You were defending Luca. Out of character, but sweet. Now Terry’s probably mad at Luca because you reminded him that Luca aced his test and she didn’t. Did you solve anything? Or did you just take out your anger on a ten year old?” 

“Literally all we do is insult each other, it’s family culture.”

“Yes, it’s why we’re all mean and insane.” 

Sara crossed her arms. “I thought that was because we’re all spoiled brats.” 

“It’s a feedback loop. We make each other worse. And yes, I’m a spoiled brat too.” Felipe sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Goddess knows I can’t stop you from doing what you want. But please, Sara. Stop thinking about what you want and start thinking about what Derrick needs. If you’re capable of that.”

“Uncle Sylvain would kick your ass if he heard you talking to me like that.” 

Brightly, Felipe said something to her in Duscuran. Sara squinted at him. In Adrestrian, he said, “There. I’ll say that in front of my father as much as you want. He’s too scared of brown people to learn my other language, so I think I’m in the clear.”

“Uncle Dedue would kick your ass,” Sara amended. 

Felipe blanched. “You won’t tell Uncle.” 

“Watch me.”

“No, you won’t. You won’t.”

“Make me.”

“If you tell Uncle I will actually -”

“You’ll actually what?” Sara sang. “Go ahead, tell me. Tell me what I should tell Uncle Dedue you would actually do.”

“You are such a little -”

Sara ducked left and dove for the door. The kitchen door, made for servants carrying armfuls of plates and meat, swung open when she pressed on it, and she ignored Felipe’s yelp as she broke free into the hallway. 

She sped-walk (‘Princesses don’t -’ Take a guess.) down the hallway, craning her head for a glimpse of Mother. Empty of everything but a shitton of servants. She reached an intersection of hallways, frantically looking left and right in search of the right path. Would tactics help? 

Tactics were unnecessary. Balad was standing in front of a door in the hallway to her left. Sara gracefully speedwalked straight towards him.

Despite her best efforts at dignity, Balad still seemed amused when he saw her. Mother’s personal knight didn’t follow her around most of the time, so she must either be coming from some official business or going towards it. Court had been yesterday, so it couldn’t be that. Sara remembered when court was. So organized and yet so chaotic. 

“Whoah, tiger,” Balad said. “Looking for somebody?”

Balad wasn’t very formal when it was just them, which was nice. Like Felipe, he had a fancy accent at his disposal but tended to prefer his native accent around them. Unlike Felipe, Balad was the real deal. “Is Mother inside?” Sara asked urgently. “Is she with Derrick?”

“The Adrestrian boy? Sure, she needed to meet with him.” Balad shifted on his feet, giant suit of armor rattling. How did he wear that all day? “Is something wrong?” 

Sara did her best not to look shifty. Balad raised an eyebrow. Too many people in this world had known her since she was a baby. Balad especially used to look after her in Mother’s stead while he was a squire. “Depends. Is Derrick in trouble?”

“I think your mother would say that this isn’t your fight, Your Highness.”

That was ominously vague. “But Derrick’s my responsibility,” Sara insisted. Balad’s eyebrow climbed higher. “If he’s in trouble I have to be there. As, like, defensive counsel. In a court of law.” 

“Who made Derrick your responsibility?”

Sara halted. Come to think of it…well, technically nobody. She had really just decided. But that didn’t invalidate her point. She was just taking initiative or whatever. 

Diversion tactic. Sara sniffed. “It’s a princess responsibility. A princess takes responsibility for all her subjects.”

Slowly, Balad drawled,”Uh-huh. And blaming Lilah for breaking that vase was…?”

“That was not a clear-cut situation - agh, never mind! Can I see them or not?” Balad stared at her. “May I see Her Grace and That Adrestian Boy please, Knight Balad.” 

“Let me ask, Your Highness.” 

Good enough!

Balad opened the door and stepped inside, quickly closing it. Sara focused hard on clearing her mind, summoning her logic, and drafting an argument. Yes, it was physically impossible to change Mother’s mind on literally anything. Mother and Father took each other’s counsels, but Father generally just obeyed her while she took his opinion and priorities into account (“Honey, is there a tactic with less casualties?”). When Father was indisposed and Mother assumed rulership, very little changed. And everything, but that was just because Father was nicer. 

But she still had to try. Especially since Sara was pretty certain she knew what this was about. 

The expression on Derrick’s mind was still burned into her mind. Derrick lived his life afraid of punishment, but he was never punished. It was the first time Sara had seen Derrick look punished. Derrick had looked as if he was being punished. 

He had been punished enough already. Sara couldn’t allow him to be punished one more time. King and Queen responsibilities meant that they had to choose the option with the least disruption and bloodshed. It was their responsibility to give Derrick a hard time. But Sara’s responsibility was to figure out some way to imitate a good person, and this was pretty much the only method that interested her. 

The door opened, and Balad gestured her inside. Sara’s heart leapt into her throat, and she forcibly stopped and allowed Felipe’s obnoxious words to stampede through her mind. Plan of attack.  Never begin a fight without knowing where you’re going. Never enter an unsecured building during a battle - oh, forget it. 

The room was just another of their sitting rooms, distinctly less fancy than the rest and doubtlessly used by lesser nobles. Still stupidly fancy, but that was life. Mother was standing in the center of the room, Derrick across from her. Well, he wasn’t crying. He didn’t look distinctly happy, but he didn’t seem desolate. A positive direction, right?

Sara bowed. “Good evening, Your Grace. Are you finished with Derrick? He promised to take me horseback riding, and we should leave while there’s still daylight.” 

Mother nodded. “Sure. We’re mostly done here.” She looked back at Derrick, who was making the Eyebrow of Incredulity at her. Sara wondered if her plan was successful, before deciding that it definitely was. “I might as well say this in front of Sara. Do you know why the king has very few memories of your father from school?” Derrick looked at the ground and silently shook his head. “Because I knew that the king would probably stand on the opposite side of a battlefield from Ferdinand von Aegir, and I didn’t want him to grow attached.”

That sentence would sound insane if Sara wasn’t used to it. “How did you know that?”

“It was a precautionary measure.” 

Weakly, Derrick said, “That sounds a little extreme…”

Mother’s pale eyes locked onto Derrick, and he froze. “You’re here, aren’t you?”

Derrick locked his eyes onto the floor. “Yes, Your Grace. It’s an honor to be here and serving the royal family.” 

“I dislike lies.” Derrick swallowed a flinch, and Sara bristled. But Mother’s eyes just softened, and she took a small step closer to Derrick. “I’m sorry, Derrick. I failed to make something clear to you. Considering your new concerns, this is the appropriate time to divulge this. Please look at me.”

Derrick looked up at her, and Sara had to fight the urge to run to him. She didn’t want him to look at Mother like that. Just once, just for once, Sara wanted the world to look at Mother and see what Sara saw. Everybody knew that Mother was level-headed, always the one to calm down Father when he grew agitated, but everybody seemed to interpret her words as detachment instead of kindness. 

“There is almost nothing you can do that would make us harm you or your family.” Mother said the sentence easily, as if she hadn’t just mildly rocked Sara and Derrick’s worlds. “Short of endangering or harming the royal family and Faerghus, your actions cannot result in punishment for your family. The king and I decided years ago to never punish you further than we might punish one of our own family’s children. There is certainly nothing you may do by accident that would get you in trouble.”

Sara and Derrick gaped at Mother. Somewhat insanely, Sara attempted to divine why Mother would sit on information that would reframe Derrick’s entire life.

Derrick was stunned even worse than her. He was shaking his head faintly, in pure denial. “But I’m a political hostage. The whole point of that is…”

“Did you want us to send one of your toes home?” Byleth asked wryly. Derrick shivered. “Sorry. Bad joke. You’re not a parent, Derrick. Parents would do anything to protect the children they love. Your parents wouldn’t put your safety and well-treatment at risk.” Sheesh, did she have to specify it like that? “Your father loves you immensely. You…should have seen his face when he signed the forms to give you up. It was…” Mother frowned, a little troubled. “I felt one of my least favorite emotions. But it was an important emotion for me to feel. I had to remind myself of that.”

Quietly, Derrick said, “But he didn’t really seem that upset…”

“Yes, he was very brave for you.” It was clear that Derrick had never thought of it like that, and he was struck dumb. “All that matters is the threat. The king’s reputation is - among us adults, it’s fearsome.” The corner of Mother’s lips turned down. “Quite fearsome. He’s ashamed of it, but it is useful.”

Sara wouldn’t understand this comment until two years later, when she will see Father crush skulls with one hand. She will rush home and tell Derrick all about it, mime the motion with one hand. And Derrick will look up from his book and say - did you not know?

“What if Father doesn’t pay attention to my letter?” Derrick asked, expression creasing. “With a new heir, I’m not…”

“Your father will know perfectly well who told you what to say in that letter.” What letter? Was that what Mother had pulled him away to speak about? “He’s not stupid enough to ignore it. I wouldn’t be surprised if a letter reaffirming his loyalty to us was already on the way. Even if the duke declared a rebellion tomorrow, Derrick, we wouldn’t harm you.” Mother paused a beat. “We wouldn’t allow you to return to Adrestria, of course. But you’d be treated no differently.” 

They wouldn’t send him home? Somewhat tactlessly, Sara cried, “Can we adopt Derrick?”

“No.” 

“But his father would obviously be unfit if he did that -”

“Yuri would kill us. No.” 

If there was one person in Fodlan who could tell Mother what to do, it was Yuri. He told Mother to do things and she did them. Obviously he also told Father to do things and Father did them, but Mother was the tougher nut to crack. Mother said it was because he was the only person who didn’t respect her.

“I will do everything I can to prevent that from happening, Your Grace.” Derrick said it as if he really meant it - as if it was his responsibility. Maybe it was, but it was a responsibility he fulfilled by waking up every morning to a Faerghus ceiling. “I never want our nobility to fight ever again. That’s my word, as a von Aegir.”

“Vows and promises have never impressed me,” Mother said blandly. Derrick winced. “Nobles bearing nothing but high words are the easiest to kill. I respect hard work, productivity, and growth. You’re a Blue Lion now, Derrick. I expect these things from you.” 

Derrick froze. He practically wasn’t breathing. Sara wanted to put her hand on his arm again, but yet again she was standing far away from them. Why did she never stand closer? “That’s - I thought that was your family.” 

“It’s people I trust. And people I expect great things from. That includes you, Derrick.” She glanced at Sara, who was masterfully repressing a sulk. “It’s not our children. We want them to find their own way. But this is the path I’m asking of you. Can you handle it?”

Derrick straightened, chin out, and for a strange second he looked every inch the high nobility that he was. Why did it feel so rare? His bloodline was impossibly prestigious. He ought to carry himself tall. But Derrick was always trying to make himself seem smaller - eyes down, shoulders hunched. He only unfolded in front of Sara.

Perfect, accomplished, hard-working Derrick. Derrick, who always stood larger than life to Sara. Felipe was right - Derrick lived in an adult’s world, while Sara still played around and messed with her cousins. He was alone in that world.

In that second, the thought was intolerable to Sara. 

“Yes, Your Grace,” Derrick said. “I only ask that you help me work hard.”

“Good. Goodbye.” Mother glanced at Sara, who froze. “Sara.”

She didn’t say anything else.

Sara cleared her throat. “Yes, Mother.”

Mother tilted an eyebrow.

Sara was crushed. That eyebrow was like an anvil on her head. She was used to it from Father, who was absolutely relentless when he wasn’t feeling guilty for being relentless, but Mother was sparse with that eyebrow. It meant a lot more coming from her. 

That eyebrow meant something different to everybody. To Luca, it probably only meant ‘be a good boy, baby, I love you’. To Sara’s cousins, it closely resembled ‘the Queen of Faerghus and Saint of Seiros is watching you So Closely and the Goddess won’t help you if she doesn’t like what she sees’. Sara’s aunts and uncles were visibly terrified of it. Counter-intuitively, they were more terrified of it than any of the kids. Sara still heard them threaten each other with The Look. Only Uncle Felix was unaffected, but Sara quietly suspected that Uncle Felix was Mother’s favorite. She didn’t know which one came first. 

But to Sara, it always meant ‘don’t disappoint me’. It meant ‘be better’. No matter what she did or how she did it, Sara must be better. Endlessly better, and never good enough. 

If she was good enough…could she stand by Derrick? Was it really Mother who she wanted to save him from?

“Yes, Mother,” Sara said. “I will.”

“I know. Goodbye.”

Mother left, as dramatically as she had come, and took Balad with her. She left Sara and Derrick standing alone in a sitting room, locked in their own wandering minds. 

Derrick broke the tension by sagging, releasing a full-body exhale. Sara walked closer to him, so close that she could finally reach out and touch his shoulder. She didn’t, but she could.

“I thought she’d get less scary eventually,” Derrick mumbled. “Everybody else got less scary. How did she get scarier…”

“It’s ‘cause Mother’s the boss,” Sara said. “She’s just tough ‘cause she takes responsibility for everybody. Like you! You’re a Blue Lion now. That means she’ll get scarier, but, like, in a good way.”

“I don’t know if I want Queen Byleth to keep a closer eye on me.” Derrick’s voice sounded a little faint. “I’ve just tried to stay underneath her radar…”

“Too bad.” Sarah firmly patted him on the shoulder. “Exceptional people always catch Mother’s eye. You were just too good at being good at things.” Derrick moaned, hanging his head. “Oh, stop whining, it’s a compliment. I came expecting way worse, you know.” 

Derrick eyed her wearily. “Do I want to know why you followed us?”

Sara coughed. “I was planning on rescuing you, actually. You’re welcome.”

“Saints, Sara,” Derrick groaned. Expected reaction. “What could you have done? I wasn’t even in trouble.”

“What else was I supposed to do?” Honestly! As if it mattered that she couldn’t do anything! “I couldn’t leave you hanging in the wind like that. Besides, I did help, didn’t I? I definitely changed the subject. What did Mother even want, anyway?”

“I guess you distracted her.” Left unsaid: a monkey could do that, idiot. “It was about the new sibling. The King and Queen know this means von Aegir has a spare now.”

“Come on, Derrick -”

“It’s true.” Derrick shook off her hand, and Sara let it drop. “My value’s gone down. They want me to remind my father about some stuff. Don’t worry about it. It’s our problem.” 

Our, as in Mother and Father and Duke von Aegir and Duchess von Aegir. Not Sara. 

“I forbid you from talking about yourself like that.” Sara tried to use her best princess voice, but it was a little weaker than usual. “It’s not about your value -”

“It’s all about my value!” Derrick yelled, stopping Sara short. He backed away from her, face flushed, but Sara couldn’t move. She had never heard Derrick raise his voice before. “Are you stupid? You don’t know what you’re talking about! You can’t understand! I work so hard to keep my value up and my stupid parents waste it just because they wanted another baby! If that stupid baby has a crest it’s all over for me! They’re the ones trying to take everything away from me, not the king and queen!”

“Who cares about a stupid crest!” Sara yelled back. “So you won’t be heir anymore, big deal! Mom and Dad don’t care!”

Derrick rounded on her, and Sara jerked backwards. His face was flushed, and his nose was scrunched up. Sara knew what it looked like when Derrick was trying not to cry. “Do you seriously think I want to hear that from the Crest of Flames? Shut up! I worked so hard, I did everything I physically could, and it doesn’t matter! If that baby has a crest then Dad’s advisors will tell him to let me die, it’ll tie up a freaking loose end! They can’t exactly keep a crested baby hostage, can they? It’d be convenient! That would be my value! They’ll stop caring what happens to me and I’ll be worth nothing!”

“Mom and Dad care about you!” Sara screamed, and Derrick finally fell silent. “Mom wants to train you, Mom promised you everything, and I bet Dad wishes you were his kid instead of me!” Derrick opened his mouth to protest, but Sara didn’t let him interrupt. “You’d be the best prince ever! You’d be a thousand times better than Dad’s shitty real kids. Luca’s always breaking things and I’m stupid and mean. We’re spoiled brats, everyone says so, and you’re perfect! Stop telling me we don’t care about you! You don’t know me either!”

Derrick was fully crying now. As always, it was silent. 

Sara fought to calm down. Derrick’s words just upset her so much. She didn’t want him to talk about loose ends and dying. She didn’t want him to say that nobody back home cared about him. That had always been Derrick’s anchor, the faith that saved him - that his parents loved him. If Derrick let go of that, then…then…

“Who cares if some stupid Adrestrians want you dead? What are they going to do about it? Mom just said that you’re perfect and we love you. Mom physically can’t lie, she doesn’t know how.”

“That’s not what she said at all -”

“Who knows my mom better, me or you?” Derrick hiccuped, rubbing at his face. Sara ignored him. She had been right after all - Derrick needed defensive counsel from his one and only lawyer. “So they throw you to the lions. Big deal. The lions think you’re great. Hang out and do Uncle Felix’s job, he hates it. Just stay here and keep being my best friend.” For the first time, Sara faltered. “Is that really so bad?”

Derrick shook his head, and Sara could see his tears dry. He looked way too exhausted for a thirteen year old. Derrick always felt old, but in that moment he felt even older than Felipe. “It’s not so simple, Sara…”

“You don’t want to be my best friend?” Sara asked. Her own words squeezed her heart painfully. “That’s okay, you know. You don’t have to be my best friend. But…you’re still mine, so…”

“Of course I want to be your best friend.” Derrick rubbed at his eyes, digging around so harshly that it had to be painful. “But…Sara, please don’t be stupid. Okay? Being your best friend gives me value. Like, a lot. I didn’t want to be your best - I mean, it just sort of happened, it just wasn’t my intention - and I promise I’m not pretending to be your friend. But I don’t want to pretend that’s not important. The king says we…shouldn’t pretend it’s a nice situation. So I don’t want to lie about that.”

Sara thought about this for a long minute. Derrick looked a little embarrassed - at the fact that their friendship was politically useful, or that they were actually friends, she didn’t know. They’d only said the ‘best friend’ word, like, once. It was so embarrassing. 

Sara thought about tactics. 

Finally, she crossed her arms and said, “So I’m useful to you.”

Derrick blanched. “I swear, I’m not using -”

“Why not? Go ahead. Flex it. Why wouldn’t you use that?” When you thought about it, really thought about it - when you thought about the big picture - this was the only thing that made sense. “Everybody keeps saying I can’t help you because I’m just a stupid princess. Including you.” Derrick winced, but it was whatever. She said mean things when she was upset too. “If I’m a stupid crown princess, I’ll use being a stupid crown princess. The Crest of Flames has to be good for something besides that stupid prophecy. If that’s how I can help you, then let me help you.” 

Derrick only shook his head, face pale. “I can’t do that.”

“Mother says to use every advantage available to you. This is your advantage. Don’t go on and on about how hard you work if you’re going to pass on opportunities.” Sara paused a beat. “And I need to get one up on Felipe. He said I was useless.”

Derrick looked at her for a long, inscrutable moment, before sighing. Sara knew that face. She had totally won. “So this is what Lord Dedue was talking about…”

“Eh?”

“Nothing.” Derrick picked at the sleeve of his rich and humble shirt. Sara would have to get him some nicer clothing. “Fine. I’ll use you. But…” He redoubled his focus on the sleeve again, cheeks flushed. “Does this mean we can’t be best friends anymore? For real?”

“I wouldn’t care about you and your problems if we weren’t best friends, so…uh, we have to. Right?” This was so embarrassing. This was a lot of feelings. How was Sara meant to handle this. “I guess this is mean of me. But…I’m glad your parents are having another baby. I didn’t want you to leave and stop being my best friend. That’s a really mean thing to think, right?”

“Nah,” Derrick said. “It’s kinda nice, actually. To know that somebody wants me here.” 

“It was super boring when you were nice to me, so don’t start doing that.”

“Trust me, Sara. It’s impossible to be nice to you.”

“Liar! Why are so many people nice to me, then?”

Derrick nodded sagely. “They get paid. And crown princess bullshit.” 

This perturbed Sara. “I really gotta make up for the princess thing, huh…like, karmically…”

“Just be nicer.”

“What, and die?!”

[hero-deserves-to-be-happy]

Thank you so much for the ask, 🩶 Anon!! It's always so wonderful to hear from you!

We'd be thrilled to answer all of these questions for you, but to keep the posts from being too long we've decided to divide them between canon characters and OCs into two separate posts (the other is linked here). The canon character answers are below, and in keeping with the interview part of the game, we tried our best to answer in the respective character's POV (and included some game sprites just for added fun!).

We hope you'll like what we come up with! Take care! 💙

HERO Answers:

3. What is your favorite childhood memory?

I have so many wonderful childhood memories that it's hard to choose just one, especially if I had to choose between memories of my family or my friends. They're both very important to me.

In terms of childhood memories of my family, I loved learning how to cook from my grandma, Mamá Alma, and cooking big family dinners with her. My parents taught me a lot too. Kel and I used to build bird feeders with our dad, and our mom tried to teach us how to knit once but Kel ended up tangled in all the yarn (which he insisted was way more fun than knitting anyway).

Kel and I had a lot of fun together when we were young! We'd stay up late building blanket forts or telling stories, and we loved playing adventure games especially pretending we were pirates looking for buried treasure in our backyard. Sometimes our friends would play too.

I have a lot of fond memories of them as well. I loved spending time at the park or visiting the beach, watching cartoons on Saturday mornings, playing cards or board games, and especially having picnics together. I think some of my fondest memories are of when we would all cook or bake things together to pack in our picnic baskets. Mari and I always tried to make everyone's favorite foods, so we'd spend a lot of time preparing, and honestly, I think I sometimes enjoyed that more than the actual picnics themselves.

Looking back on it all now, it's hard to choose just one favorite moment. It's all those little things that are most meaningful to me: helping Basil plant seeds in his flower garden or building blanket forts with Kel or how we'd all stay up all night playing video games, reading comics, or watching funny movies. The way Aubrey laughed when her face was covered with watermelon seeds or the way Sunny was always way more excited about the box and wrapping paper than any present you ever got him. How Mari's face would always light up when she pulled her cookies out of the oven or how she smiled whenever she played piano for us and we'd all stand around singing along.

So I think it’s not just one favorite moment. It's so many, and they're all precious to me.

16. Describe your perfect day.

I don't think I need anything too big or exciting for the perfect day. If I got to do anything I wanted, I guess I'd cook a big meal for all my friends and family and invite them over for dinner. Everyone's so busy these days, it would be great to have a quiet evening where we could all get together and catch up, eat good food, and spend time together.

KEL Answers:

18. What's the best way to cheer you up?

With my favorite stuff probably! If someone brought me an Orange Joe, I'm sure I'd be happy again!

(Hero: Kel...I think they're hoping for something a little more specific...)

Oh, uh...okay! Mmmmm... When I'm having a bad day, I like to distract myself and try to take my mind off it by doing something else I like. I'll play basketball or ride my bike, listen to my boombox, or play video games, or yeah, have an Orange Joe!

Watching funny movies or tv shows are always good too because when you're laughing you can't feel as sad anymore!

SUNNY Answers:

13. You're given an unlimited budget to build anything you want!  What do you build and where do you build it?

A perfect, comfortable bed as big as my room. Then my room would be a bed.

It would be at a 12/10. Maybe more if it had a high-density viscoelastic polyurethane mattress, but I don't know if they can make one as big as a room.

[spnhunter4life]

So Long Version 2 Chapter 2

Word Count: 5k

Warnings: Canon typical violence

A/N: If version 2 is the first time you're reading this, I hope you enjoy! If you've read version 1 and are reading this also, thanks for the support! Let me know which version you prefer.

Series Masterlist

Ages 12 and 16 July 23, 1995

Dean’s POV

The beds at this motel were probably some of the best quality I’d ever seen. The mattresses weren’t lumpy or too hard and they didn’t smell musty or like cigarette smoke. There weren’t any questionable stains on the blankets either. It was actually a comfortable bed, and I didn’t take that for granted. I would undoubtedly be sleeping on a bed that was much less comfortable and much more sketchy in the next day or two. 

We were in Washington right now, but we’d just finished the job last night. It had been my second official hunt, and I was still thrilled that I was finally allowed to be involved, to actually get to chase down and kill the monster instead of being stuck at home doing research. 

It was only a simple salt and burn case, but I’d still had a lot of fun. Things had gotten exciting when the ghost showed up as we were searching the abandoned house she used to live in for the object she was tied to – it turned out to be the knife she had been killed with, still covered in her blood – but other than getting a little bruised up from being thrown across the room, nobody had gotten hurt. 

It had been a long night though, and so, exhausted, I hadn’t been able to do more than strip down to my t-shirt and boxers before collapsing on top of the bed and falling asleep almost immediately. 

I had slept deeply. I was slowly making my way towards consciousness, clinging to the dream I was already forgetting. It was about me and Jenna. We were… out with friends? On a date? The details were hazy and fading quick. I think we were at the movies maybe. I was startled into alertness by Sam’s gasp.

I grabbed the knife from under my pillow, rolled onto my back, and sat up, scanning the room for a threat. There was nothing though. Dad was gone, probably either talking with Ben or gone out to grab breakfast and coffee. There was just Sam standing at the foot of my bed, eyes wide, mouth slightly open, staring intently at my ankle. Staring at the name that was tattooed there.

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” He cried out in the voice of a little brother outraged at being left in the dark.

“Shit,” I muttered as I got out of bed and started getting dressed to hide the evidence. But the damage had already been done.

“Dean!” Sam protested.

“Let it go Sammy,” I ordered, rifling through my duffel bag for some clean clothes, deciding a shower was in order. 

“Let it go?” Sam echoed, trailing me towards the bathroom. “Dean, this is huge! I thought we didn’t have secrets. You guys should have told me!” he insisted.

I set my clothes on the counter and was ready to threaten him to keep his mouth shut when something seemed to occur to him.

“Wait,” he said, backtracking a little. “Jenna does know, doesn’t she?”

“I’m only going to tell you this once Sam, so listen up. I don’t care if you’re my brother. If you ever tell anyone, especially her, I will end you,” I warned before slamming the door in his face.

Great, I thought. I’d been able to keep this thing a secret for less than a year. I wasn’t at all sure that I could trust Sam not to say something. Sure, he could keep a secret if he wanted to, but I didn’t know if I would be able to convince him that this needed to stay between us. Anxious thoughts swirled in my head throughout my shower, but by the time I got out I had a persuasive argument ready to go.

When I stepped out of the bathroom, Sam was on the couch, restlessly tapping his fingers against his knee. He looked up at the sound of the door opening and stood to face me.

“I won’t say anything,” Sam rushed out at the same time I said, “We need to talk.”

“What?” I asked, not having heard him over my own statement.

“I won’t say anything,” he promised. “But… why haven’t you told her?”

I sighed. I should have expected this. Should have, but didn’t. I’d planned out how to persuade him not to tell anyone, had considered potential arguments he might throw my way. I hadn’t anticipated him immediately complying or the simple question that followed. I ran a hand through my hair as I considered how to answer. 

“You know why,” I finally said, deciding that the argument I’d planned out would work as an explanation to his question. He just stared at me expectantly.

“I haven’t exactly made a secret of the fact that I don’t want to know my soulmate. That I don’t want her stuck living this life,” I told him.

“You love this life,” he pointed out.

“Yeah. I do. But it’s dangerous and it means never having a home. I won’t force her into that,” I explained.

“But she’s already a part of it. You won’t be forcing her into anything,” he responded.

“Just because she’s in this life now doesn’t mean she has to be in it forever. She’ll be able to make her own decisions in a few years. She can find somewhere she likes and stay there. She can get out of hunting.”

“Who says she wants to?” Sam asked. 

“Well then that’s her choice if she doesn’t want to quit. I’m not going to be the reason though. I don’t want her hunting with me out of a feeling of obligation. I won’t do that to her.” I told him.

“You keep talking about her being able to do what she wants. What if what she wants is to be with you? Did you consider that?” he argued.

I had considered it. I decided that until I had a reason to think that she was interested in something more, I would leave things the way they were. I was happy just to have her in my life, in any way. I wasn’t going to push for more when what I had was already more than I could have ever hoped for. My soulmate was with me every day. And I didn’t have to worry about scaring her away. She already knew the whole truth about me and my life.

Frustrated that he kept pushing, I snapped, “I thought you weren’t going to say anything.”

“I’m not,” he insisted.

“Then why won’t you let it go?” I demanded. He scowled at me.

“If I’m going to be keeping this a secret for you, you can at least tell me why it has to be a secret. I told you I won’t say anything and I won’t, but I still don’t see why you don’t just tell her.”

“I don’t know how to explain it in a way you’ll understand,” I told him. “Can you just believe that I’m doing what’s best?” 

He thought about it for a while.

“Fine,” he agreed.

“Fine?” I asked, relieved, but surprised he wasn’t putting up more of a fight.

“Yeah. Fine. Because you have less than a year before Jenna turns 16. You know she’s going to find out then,” he said confidently. 

I hadn’t been letting myself think that far ahead. I wasn’t sure what to expect when her birthday came around again. Would she find my name somewhere on her body? Would she be happy or disappointed? Would she want to be with me or would she rather stay away and have a normal life? Would it even be my name she found?

“Maybe,” I said, humoring him for the moment. “But until then, this stays between us. Actually, this stays between us until I say otherwise,” I told him.

"Fine," he agreed. He wasn't happy about it, but he felt secure in the knowledge that he had less than a year before it would no longer be a secret. I both hoped he was wrong and hoped he was right. "Jerk," he added a little frustratedly. 

I just smirked at him. 

"Bitch."

Ages 15 and 16 September 13, 1995

I was sitting at the table in the Winchester’s motel room with John and my dad, discussing the case they were working on. Sam was in our motel room studying for a big test and Dean was just getting back from his afternoon out with the sister of the latest victim, trying to get more information. 

“Hopefully Dean learned something useful so we can go in more prepared,” John was saying as we all heard the familiar rumble of the Impala’s engine. He had come up with a plan to catch the monster, but though we had theories, we still weren’t 100% sure what it was. 

When the two of them had caught wind of this case, finding a newspaper article about a 14 year old girl who had gone missing – the third missing girl in this Colorado town this month – they’d immediately packed us up. The latest girl’s body hadn’t been found at the time, but the previous two were found a few days after their disappearances, covered in deep cuts, bodies drained of blood and dumped in rarely used alleyways. The girl from the newspaper article was found a day after we got to town.

My dad and John were able to find out almost immediately that the girl had an older sister and instructed Dean to start trying to get close to her. They figured the teenage girl might spill a little more information – especially when a mysterious new boy with a handsome face and charming smile was asking the questions – than her parents would. 

“Well?” John asked as soon as Dean had the door closed behind him.

“Sorry, I’ve got nothing,” Dean admitted disappointedly. “She didn’t say anything different than what everyone else has been saying. And she was more than happy to answer my questions so I don’t think she was hiding anything. Maybe I just didn’t ask the right questions.”

“Alright. Don’t be too hard on yourself. We knew she might not know anything. I’m sure you did just fine,” my dad reassured Dean.

“Maybe. I��ll try to figure out if there’s anything else I can ask her that might give us something useful,” Dean said.

“No need. Jenna, why don’t you go get ready to head to the library,” John said. I stood up to follow his instructions and he turned to the array of weapons on the table.

“The library?” Dean asked. “You guys are doing research? We don’t even have enough information to go off of to know where to start.”

“Don’t we?” John countered, already irritated. I froze where I was. He never handled it well when Dean questioned him, no matter how innocently. He always expected instant compliance, a “Yes, sir!” kind of attitude. 

“Ok, well I’ll come with then,” Dean replied.

“No you won’t. You’ll stay here with your brother,” John told him.

“Why? What’s the point in me sitting in a motel room when I could be with you guys doing something useful?” He argued. “The more people we have looking, the more information we can get through.”

“We don’t need more people. Jenna’s going alone.” John told him, the “end of discussion” clear in his voice.

“What?” Dean spit out through clenched teeth. I looked at him and saw him looking disbelievingly between the two men. 

“You heard me,” John said, daring his son to question his decision. “We made a plan while you were out.”

“While I was out?” Dean said incredulously. “You mean while I was working the case? While I was doing what you told me to, you ‘made a plan’ to send Jenna out by herself?” 

I’d never seen him argue like this with his father. With jerks at school, sure. With me and Sam, occasionally. But with John? I’d never seen him truly question his father, and I was worried where this might be headed and how ugly it might get.

“Yes, we did,” John said. “And the plan isn’t going to change just because we don’t have all the information.”

“Did the three of you somehow forget that this… this thing is taking teenage girls? Did you forget that all three of the girls he took had dark brown hair, pretty much exactly the same color as Jenna’s? What about the fact that he’s taking these girls from the library? That he only goes after them when they’re alone? Tell me how this isn’t enough information to know that sending her in is a terrible plan!”

“We’re not discussing this any further Dean,” John said with finality, moving to usher me from the room. Dean stepped between us, back to me, breath heaving. 

“You can’t use her as bait!” he yelled. He ran his hands through his hair, a sure sign that he was beyond stressed. I set my hand on his shoulder, wanting to comfort him. He took one quick look at me, his eyes wild, before he turned to look at my dad. 

“Ben, how could you be ok with this?” He asked.

“I don’t like the idea either,” my dad said as he looked at me.

“So why-” Dean started.

“Because it’s the only plan I can see that catches this thing before another innocent girl is taken,” he said firmly.

“Jenna is an innocent girl,” Dean said.

“But not an ignorant one,” John countered. “She knows what she’s getting into. We have no leads on this thing other than it being in the library. It’s managed to avoid all security cameras so we don’t have any idea what it looks like. We don’t even know if it managed to sneak around so well because it works there or if it was just that careful about scouting out the place ahead of time.”

“Exactly! That’s why you can’t just let this thing take her, Dad! How bad do you think it’ll hurt her before we manage to find her? Who says we even find her on time? You can’t do it.”

John stiffened.

“Excuse me? I can’t do it? You’re giving me orders now?” he asked in a dangerously quiet voice. Dean squared his shoulders and lifted his chin.

“You heard me,” he said, repeating his dad’s earlier words. “You can’t. I won’t let you.”

Sensing that the situation was about to escalate to a point of no return, my dad stepped in.

“We’re not going to let it take her, Dean. Of course not. We’ll be there, waiting for it to try and grab her. And when it does, we’ll be ready.”

“You’ll be ready?” Dean said with an edge to his voice, never taking his eyes off of John. “You don’t know what the thing even is. How can you be ready?”

“We’re bringing everything. Whatever it ends up being, we’ll have what we need to kill it. I’m not going to risk my only daughter,” Dad said, trying to reason with him.

After a few tense seconds of silence, Dean finally turned to me.

“And you?” he asked. “You’ve been awfully quiet through this whole thing. Are you ok with this? They can’t make you if you don’t want to.”

“Dean,” I started, trying to decide the words to say that would calm him down, ease his nerves. “I’m ok with it,” I finally decided on. There was nothing more I could really say.

“You’re ok with it? You’re fine with being bait? Jenna, I know you. You try to hide it, but I can see how scared you are every time you come on a hunt. You’re telling me you’re not scared now?”

“No,” I said, and was surprised to realize I meant it.

“No?” He questioned disbelievingly.

“No,” I repeated. “Because I know you’ll be there,” I told him confidently, looking at John to see if he would contradict me and insist Dean stay behind. That’s what the plan had been originally, both John and my dad thinking he wouldn’t be able to handle it. When he just shook his head – not in denial but in irritated acquiescence – I continued. “Because I trust you. Because I’ve never had to worry about not being safe when you’re around. Because I know you would die before you would let anything happen to me.”

He looked at me for a few moments, processing the words I’d spoken with such conviction.

“You’re sure?” He asked one more time.

“I’m sure,” I told him. He nodded, resigned to the plan if not happy about it.

“Alright,” was all he said.

“Great,” John said sourly. “Now that that’s settled, we’ve got a job to finish. Get moving.”

~~~~~

An hour later I sat at a table in the most secluded corner of the library I could find. My biology textbook was laying open in front of me and the rest of the table was scattered with my notes and some old assignment sheets. We’d only been at this school for a few days, but I tried to carry all my notes from previous schools. It wasn’t uncommon to cover the same topic multiple times with all of the school-hopping we did.

Dean, John, and my dad were hiding behind one of the big bookcases behind me, waiting. I was actually doing homework, partly to keep myself calm and pass the time, partly because it’s what the monster would be expecting.

We were covering the digestive system currently and the teacher had assigned the class an essay taking her through the full digestive process from the perspective of the food that was being digested. It was definitely one of the weirdest assignments I’d ever been given. Unfortunately, I let myself concentrate a little too hard on my work, not paying attention to my surroundings the way I should have been.

“Excuse me,” a voice said to my right, causing me to jump a little in my seat. He was a man, probably in his 40s, wearing a little name tag identifying him as Trevor. “Sorry to startle you. I’m just letting you know the library will be closing soon, so if you could please finish up, that would be great.”

“Yes, of course,” I said, a little flustered. I couldn’t believe I’d been so careless. I started packing up my stuff, already mentally preparing myself for having to come back here tomorrow to try again, when I realized the man wasn’t leaving. Tense now, I looked at him. “Was there something else?” I asked.

“Actually, now that you mention it.” He pulled a syringe out of his pocket and grabbed me, moving the needle towards my arm. He was quick, but I was quicker, reflexively swatting the incoming hand away with the arm he wasn’t holding in place, knocking the syringe out of his grasp and onto the floor where it rolled away. 

“You little bitch,” he spat as he caught the fist I threw at his face. “Hard way it is then. You’re going to regret that. I enjoy a fight.”

I threw my knee straight up towards his crotch and he dropped one of my arms to block it. In blocking this attack, just as I’d anticipated, he’d dropped his head down to see. I grabbed the back of his head and pulled him closer as I rammed the top of my head as hard as I could into his nose. 

Momentarily stunned, he let me go and I ran in the other direction, wondering where the guys were. I meant it when I said I trusted Dean with my life. I obviously trusted my dad just as much and John too. But that didn’t mean something hadn’t happened to them. Trevor took only a second to recover before he lunged forward and grabbed me. He wrestled my hands behind my back and started to force me towards the back exit but he was stopped by my dad stepping out in front of him, gun pointed at his face. 

“Let her go,” he commanded.

“How cute,” Trevor said. “I suppose you guys figured you’d set an easy trap for me in what I can only guess is some misguided revenge attempt. I’m afraid you’ve underestimated your opponent though. Those bullets won’t kill me. So now you both die.”

“I suggest you listen to the man,” John said from behind and slightly to the left of us. He also had a gun trained on the man. And then I understood. They’d taken so long to intervene because they were getting into position, sneaking around behind the bookshelves to surround us. I knew where Dean would be, behind and slightly to the right, but I didn’t look. Didn’t let this monster know we had a fourth person on our side.

“I don’t think so. Like I said,” Trevor said, still unconcerned about his odds, “It’ll take more than a bullet to kill me.”

“You mean because you’re a shapeshifter?” John asked as if he were having a casual conversation. “That’s why all three of our guns are loaded with silver bullets.”

That’s when I heard the gun cocking directly beside me. John had been the distraction, the way to get Trevor to turn his back so that Dean could get close.

“You’ve got one more chance to let her go,” Dean warned, gun pressed up directly against the man’s head.

“And why would I do that? I let her go and you kill me.” He breathed out, afraid now that he understood the guns were a very real threat to his life.

“If you don’t let her go, if you hurt her in any way, you can be sure that you’ll be wishing for death by the time we’re done,” Dad said. Dean grunted his agreement.

I could feel the hands on my wrists minutely tightening and loosening as he made a decision. The next thing I knew I was being shoved into Dean and the monster – shapeshifter, apparently– bolted for the door.

Dean and I fell in a heap on the floor, him flat on his back, me on his chest. I heard a gunshot, only one, and knew it was over. I didn’t know which of our dads had been the one to fire the shot. 

I took a deep breath, letting Dean pull me into a seated position and hold me against his chest while murmuring into my hair, “Don’t you ever do that to me again. I don’t think I can handle it.”

I didn’t respond. He knew I would do it again if it was ever needed the same way he would always offer himself up for the sake of others. I just listened to the sound of his elevated heartbeat and let myself enjoy the feeling of being held by him.

“How did you know it was a shapeshifter?” I asked once Dean had let me go.

“The real guy is dead behind one of the bookshelves,” John answered. “We knew what he was the second he came over to talk to you. Now let’s get this cleaned up and get out of here.”

I mentally rolled my eyes at his order, but I knew he was right. The real Trevor’s body would be left for the police to find. We needed to take care of the shapeshifter though. 

We drove to an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town. It was mostly empty inside and everything was made of concrete or metal. It was the closest and safest place we could find to burn a body.

Once it was taken care of, we piled back into John’s truck and drove back to the motel.

Ages 15 and 17 March 18, 1996

“Jenna!” I heard Dean call from down the hall as he stalked towards me. He sounded annoyed. I knew how it looked, Tony casually leaning next to me, arm braced against the lockers. The halls were mostly empty as everyone went home for the day. I knew I had a big smile on my face too, knew the conclusion Dean had undoubtedly come to, but I wasn’t in the mood to deal with him playing overprotective big brother. Rolling my eyes, I turned to face him as he stopped within inches of me.

“What’s up, Dean?” I asked calmly. I didn’t fail to notice the way he angled his body slightly between the two of us.

“I was going to ask the same thing,” he answered. “I thought you were going to meet me and Sam outside.”

“I was. I am.” I corrected myself. “Tony was just telling me about all the horses his family owns and he said I could come over and ride if I want.” I told him, getting excited again. I looked at Tony who looked slightly nervous. He was a fairly attractive, semi popular guy. A sophomore, like me, he was still growing into his long legs and widening shoulders.

“You really think your dad is going to let you go to some guy’s house?” Dean scoffed.

“Why not?” I answered defensively. “You and Sam go to your friends’ houses all the time.” I noticed Tony wince a little and pushed Dean away, only able to do so because I took him by surprise. He still only backed away a single step.

“That’s because our dad doesn’t care what we do and you know it. Your dad is way more protective,” he countered. “It’ll be a cold day in hell before he lets you do something as stupid as go to the home of some random boy by yourself.”

“You mean before you let me go,” I retorted. “Well news flash Dean, you don’t get to decide what I can and can’t do. And what do you mean ‘stupid’? I want to go ride horses with a friend, not bungee jumping off a cliff above a shallow lake.”

“You’ve never ridden a horse before, Jenna! What if something goes wrong? You could fall off and hurt yourself!” 

I was surprised he wasn’t backing down. He never used to have these kinds of arguments in public. He’d always been protective, but for the past year he’d been even worse. While deep down I appreciated his concern, right now I was just irritated. 

“I have to drop my stuff off and let my dad know what’s going on, but I’ll try to be there by four if that works for you.” I told Tony, ignoring Dean for the moment.

“Yeah, sounds good,” Tony said warily. “Whenever works for you. And if you don’t come, I’ll just assume your dad said no.” He told me, eyeing Dean before making a hasty escape. I huffed and turned to punch Dean in the shoulder.

“Really?! Why do you have to do this to me? You know how much I love horses! Why can’t you stop scaring away everyone I make friends with?!” I ranted. Dean just started walking for the door.

“I don’t scare away all of your friends. Only the jerks that are making moves on you. I mean, really Jenna? You think all he wants is to show you a few horses?” He mocked. He held the door open for me and, choosing to ignore his jab, I made a beeline for Sam, who had started walking once he saw us come out. Sighing, he closed the door and jogged a couple steps to catch up to me.

“Hey,” he said, grabbing my shoulder and turning me to face him. “I’m not trying to ruin your life, you know. I’m just trying to protect you.”

“Well maybe I don’t need you to protect me! Did you think of that? I’m not an idiot, I know he’s hoping for more, but I also know he’ll back off if I tell him to. And even if he didn’t, don’t you think I can handle one teenage boy? My dad doesn’t have me train for nothing.”

“That’s not the point.”

“Then what is?” I asked him, exasperated.

I watched as he physically reigned in the automatic response that wanted to shoot past his lips. He worked his jaw back and forth and took a breath as he thought of the best way to say it.

“Guys suck. Ok? And I can say that with absolute certainty seeing as I am one.”

“Dean-” I tried to interject.

“No, let me finish. I just don’t want to see you get involved with some guy who's only going to end up hurting you.”

I waited to make sure he was finished before answering.

“Yeah, but did you miss the part where I said I wasn’t interested?” How could I be? There wasn’t a boy in the world who stood a chance of gaining my attention when the most perfect one was already in my life, completely oblivious to how thoroughly he had ruined the chances of me ever being interested in anyone else. Of course I couldn’t tell him this, so there was no real way to assure him that I was telling the truth. “Zero chance of me being hurt. I promise.”

“Maybe,” he said, clearly not sure if he believed me or not. “You could still fall off a horse though. I’m sure that would hurt.”

“Because the risk of falling off a horse is so much greater than getting hurt on a hunt?” I asked pointedly.

“Okay. You’re right,” he sighed after a moment of deciding whether or not to argue. “I’m sorry. You still have to get your dad to agree to it though,” he pointed out. I groaned and squared my shoulders, readying myself for the upcoming argument.

~~~~~

I was practically vibrating with excitement as Dean pulled into the driveway of Tony’s home. It had been one of Dad’s conditions, that Dean drove me. I could see several horses already and knew I’d be on one of them soon.

“Thanks Dean!” I said as I moved to get out of the car.

“Just a second,” he said, putting a hand on my knee to stop me. I paused with my hand on the handle and turned to him. “Just… promise you’ll be careful.” He finally got out. My heart stuttered a little like it always did when he worried. I knew it was only a brotherly concern no matter how much I might wish it was more.

“I will.” I told him with a soft smile. Then I jumped out of the car and headed towards where I saw Tony at the barn.

Chapter 3

[lynmars79]

My mother does NOT use computers. AT ALL. She can barely use some basic features on her smartphone. She's an absolute Luddite.

My father uses the computer...to pay bills, to make orders, to look up addresses and phone numbers and information. Maybe porn. He doesn't use social media. He has a Facebook but is barely ever on it, I can't remember the last time he posted something.

They've been aware of knowing maybe a handful of queer people in their entire lives. They do use outdated language and slurs unknowingly. They do not know memes. They do not know the proper terms and information--for queer people, for disabled people, for BIPOC...because they are rural people who moved to an even more remote rural area for their health in their retirement (my mom can no longer breathe in Lancaster County with how built up the former farmland is now). They spend a lot of time outdoors, working on their new house, and interacting with their neighbors.

They wouldn't know where to begin to look, either, without some handholding and encouragement.

I spend 12-16 hours a day at a computer, for work and personal hobbies and fandom. My life, and my knowledge, looks very, very different from my family's. Even from my siblings, who take after my parents in how they live and work. Even my brother and nephews, who play video games and spend time on Facebook, don't have the same groups, nor the same knowledge I do.

Your life is likely not as common an experience as you think, even if so many others online seem to share it with you. It's a world of 7 billion or so people. Not everyone is plugged in, aware, educated, or seeing feeling hearing experiencing anything close to what you are.

OP's first example is a crasser version of my mom; she's a caring person, has made friends with local lesbians and loved my late gay uncle, defended my cousin's Black stepkids and their friends from nastier relatives, and so on. I've had to explain a few things about language to her now and then, gently and casually. Have had to explain how if my brother is Depressed, it's an actual physical illness, not just him being moody despite life going well, and she's like "oh!" She means well! She wants to be helpful and kind!

She just does. Not. Know.

And you can not, ever, assume "everyone knows." And in cases like OP, context is everything.

--

(can't explain anything to Dad, he's a stubborn old white man blind to his privilege, so just kinda nod and while he'll be tolerable in person, I know how he votes and he isn't safe, and there's Such A Difference between my parents; it's not hard to figure out, folks)

"The trannies should be able to piss in whatever toilet they want and change their bodies however they want. Why is it my business if some chick has a dick or a guy has a pie? I'm not a trannie or a fag so I don't care, just give 'em the medicine they need."

"This is an LGBT safe space. Of COURSE I fully support individuals who identify as transgender and their right to self-determination! I just think that transitioning is a very serious choice and should be heavily regulated. And there could be a lot of harm in exposing cis children to such topics, so we should be really careful about when it is appropriate to mention trans issues or have too much trans visibility."

One of the above statements is Problematic and the other is slightly annoying. If we disagree on which is which then working together for a better future is going to get really fucking difficult.

[untamedyouth]

12/16/23

3 AM

How ironic is it that I wrote an entry less than 24 hours ago saying how so many things have happened— good, bad, everything in between, but I was too tired to discuss all of it.

Tonight, right before going to bed, I started to debrief with my mom.

I asked her how she had her day planned for tomorrow, and then I began to tell her mine.

After saying all that I intended to do; my dad suggests I take my dog Talulah for a walk.

I completely understand my dad meant no hard in this suggestion, but because I have felt pressured to be active in the past due to my weight and laziness.

I wanted to explain to him how that suggestion makes me uncomfortable for that reason BUT I know he doesn’t mean it maliciously, I only wanted to talk about how it made me feel…. Especially knowing that he meant no harm. I know it wasn’t necessary to tell him, but I am trying to create a bond between he and I where we understand each other… and the only way to do that is by talking about our feelings.

But upon trying to tell him, I didn’t make it past “daddy, it kinda makes me uncomfortable when..” before he threw his hands up in the air out of obvious frustration. Upon that reaction, I react hurt and angrily “seriously? I can’t even communicate with you??”

I tried to be so gentle, I wasn’t angry or upset, I tried my best to ease into what I was about to say but that still wasn’t good enough.

They say they want to talk to me, but when I try to talk to them it seems as though I’m trying to start an argument.

Mom intervenes and we all agree to stop the fight.

Still feeling very upset, I go upstairs to my mother and I ask for validation that that just happened.

I started to complain about daddy, too cruelly I will admit. … It’s only because I love him so much. I wish I was born a boy so then both of my parents would like me.

I took my complaining too far, I should have known better. Here I am bad mouthing her husband.

It turns volatile. Screaming ensues, threats, sobbing, cruel things said between all three of us, but ultimately I take the brunt of it.

I’m not trying to live in the past… I only wanted to communicate and explain, It wasn’t an attack, because I was well aware that he didn’t mean it badly. It wasn’t until his reaction triggered my reaction to him.

I should have known better. I am the one in therapy, not them.

As I sit sobbing in the corner of my parents bedroom, I am told that; they are bending over backwards for me, they’re taking care of my chores for me, they are doing everything they can to change for me, and yet I still continue to attack them even though they’re doing everything they best they can.

But I know that already… I just wanted to talk..

Once I realized that it doesn’t matter how I perceived the interaction, I was wrong no matter what; thus I forced myself to get up and allow them to comfort me.

That was the hardest thing in the world. After hearing about all the responsibilities I am neglecting because I am so mentally ill, only to be hugged, comforted, and told “I’m sorry for what I said, I didn’t mean it, I was just angry”

I realized that the only way I’ll be a good girl in the eyes of my parents is I maintain a happy, pleasant persona, and bottle up any and all emotions to appear appropriate.

This realization made me spiral even further into my darkness. If I’m unable to make my parents happy, why am I even here? Why was I born. To be a burden on my parents?

I tried to kill myself in the shower with a broken razor. I was too much of a coward to press deep enough to actually draw blood.

I am left now only with evidence of the attempt.

My mom was furious when she saw I attempted and immediately began angrily telling me to get my shit and that we’re going to the hospital.

I did not want to go. I wanted to die. I didn’t want to be abandoned again at the hospital, only to come home 48 hours later because I was behaving perfectly normal in the hospital.

My triggers, are at home.

My mom tells me that she can’t live like this anymore, worrying about me constantly. Whatever remains of my heart, that statement alone shattered into it another million pieces.

Partly because I hurt my mama so much, and partly because I don’t want to live like this either. I didn’t ask for this. I don’t want to be like this. I never wanted to hurt anyone.

Without my family, I would be nothing. If I am so bad that I need to be put in a residential, then I will cut all contact. The last thing I want to be is both a financial burden and a disappointment as a daughter.

I wish I was never born.

M.R

[littleharpethcrossfit]

Sunday, 13 August, 2023.....Warmup......Push Press.....Ladder WOD.....Curls

The Admiral led our afternoon session in a warmup.

Warmup

4 Rounds

10 Scap Pull-Ups

10 Scap Push-Ups

Strength

Push Press: 2 Reps EMOM X 10 Minutes

Work up to a 2 Rep Max

Bernie/Armando=185 Ed=175 Timmy/Dyer/Smoothie=145 Herb=125 Dana=115 Rodney=105 Alicia=95 Cheri=85 Linda/Coach/Warren A/Sue=75 Shannon/Kayla/Sandy=65 Big Lew=Biked Others=?

LADDER WOD

10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 /

One Dumb Bell (50/35/20)

Even=Right Arm Odd=Left Arm

Single Dumb Bell Bench Press

Single Dumb Bell Row

/ 100m Dumb Bell Carry After Each (10X)

Bernie=11:25 Timmy=12:50 Armando=13:40 Kayla=13:45 Alicia=14:22Cheri=14:32 Smoothie=15:25 Ed=16:00 Shannon=16:10 Herb=16:20 Sue=17:19 Dyer=17:50 Dana=17:53 Rodney=18:40 Warren A=18:52 Sandy=20:53 Linda=21:53 Coach=24:11 Lew=Biked forever

Cool-Down

Single Arm Dumb Bell Curl 10 / 10 5 Sets

There was approximately 30% participation.

Notes:

Warren A and Big Lew finished the morning session at 0830. Big Lew didn't do the workout and only biked 1000 cal as is his accepted custom post shoulder surgery. By 0930, both were sending me insulting text messages demanding that their WOD results be blog posted. Sometimes some people are even more un-enjoyable members than Robert.

The aforementioned dinner at the Schwartz's last PM was better than anticipated. The food and drinks and newly met company were very enjoyable. Unfortunately, Herb deliberately stacked the deck with 2 Orthopedic Surgeons versus 1 retired Anesthesiologist. Reporting of events will be understandably biased, but I think that the Anesthesiologist wound up superior due to his CV having the extra boost of a CrossFit Level 2 Coaching Certificate.

Permanently precious Kayla brought a coffee cup I was to give to Miss Linda. It had a sweet picture of Jasper reclining in his field. As I was trying to carry the cup plus 10 other things into the house, I dropped the cup and broke it. Suicidal thoughts prevailed.

Esther and Miss Linda brought home a new pup this afternoon. She is from the Davidson County Rescue, is about 4 months old, and has the same name as Alicia's dog. Our Penny is authentically copper colored and we will stubbornly keep her name. You might wonder about the rapid recovery of grief from Jasper The Wonder Dog's death, but 10 days is probably twice as long as it would take them to get over my sudden demise.

The new layout and function of TUMBLR is not allowing me to post results with 5 blank spaces between entrants. Of course I type them that way, but TUMBLR jams them in back-to-back. Kayla keeps telling me to change to some other engine (sp?) but she won't take the time to actually show me how.

Due to these changes in TUMBLR the love offers from within 2.3 miles of the Barn continue unabated. It is surprising how many desperate housewives there are living in Brentwood. Accordingly, this makes me appraise our Mom gym members in a different light. They don't care that I am almost 79 y.o and all they want is a credit card to prove my sincerity. Somehow this seems much more legit than how some of the girls at the Barn search on-line for life-time Dad's for their many future children. BTW, none of their prospects have come to the Barn so that I can inspect their portfolio's.

Tuesday at 4 PM.

[boogiewrites]

Eddie Munson Masterlist

Eddie Munson x OFC

Cherry Bomb  Multi Part Series - COMPLETE

Chapters in bold contain NSFW Content

Mary Cherry, a peer-proclaimed good church girl decides once turning 18 that she no longer wants to be that angelic good girl. She wants to be bad. She wants to live a little and have some fun. She's made a list of things she wants to do before graduating to complete her bad girl transformation. But she'll need someone to help her learn how. Eddie Munson, the school "freak" and resident bad boy seems like the perfect teacher. Eddie takes her under his wing, but they both start to question what being "good" or "bad" means throughout the process. Who's reputation will actually change, and will the student become the teacher? Slow burn. Everyone's over 18.

Part One Part Two Part Three Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

Seeing Stars Multi-Part Series (COMPLETE)

Chapters in bold contain NSFW Content

A reimagining of Eddie's '86 senior year that ends with him walking the graduation stage, flipping the bird, and getting the hell out of there. With the girl he loves. A new girl with a mysterious air to her and a questionable past comes to Hawkins. After a chance encounter at a party, Eddie becomes a bit smitten with her. The problem is, she's an unreadable brick wall when she's sober. Despite her hesitation to letting men in her life, they become best friends. Will Eddie's attentive persistence help him break down the walls she's put up to protect herself from not getting hurt? Will Star learn she can be in love and be loved in return after her last relationship left her traumatized? Will her spiritual guidance help her see that Eddie really is the one for her? A story of strangers to best friends to lovers with a splash of witchiness and a lot of trauma healing.

Part One Part Two Part Three Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25 Part 26 Part 27

Eddie Munson Reader One Shots

Repentance (NSFW)

Reader gave up her former life to become popular but it turns out it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. By her senior year, she’s grown weary of having to be someone else and stands up for herself one too many times before the cutthroat members of Hawkins royalty get tired of her and decide to ruin her reputation. With no one left who knows the real her, she’s left to reach out to her former best friend, Eddie Munson. We follow her and Eddie through key moments in their best friends to enemies to lovers' journey ending with a reconciliation that shows her what kind of love she's been missing out on.

Hindsight's Always 19/84. (Multi Part - In Process)

Single Dad Eddie/Reader AU. Old Lovers Reunited. First Love's.

You left Hawkins in 1984. You had no intentions of ever coming back. But life had other plans. You grew sick of the fake people and conversations, the classism and nauseating academic personalities of your past life. You craved life with its highs and lows, its triumphs and heartbreak over the beige monotony of white-collar progress. Now divorced and happy to be, you move back home. You run into an old friend, Eddie Munson. He was a memory that had haunted you for years. You haven't been the only one whose life has changed drastically. He's working two jobs and taking care of his son alone. You came back to Hawkins to find a new path, but you're faced with your younger self instead. Will you finally give her the answers she's always needed? Are you brave enough to say the things you couldn't before you left? With the growing connection between two broken adults, it looks like you never should've left.

You know what they say, Hindsight's always 20/20.

Part One Part Two

[miredinmiddleearth]

Rings of Power, Ep. 7 Review - RIP

I’ve made it this far...Buckle up, mellon. Time for my thoughts on episode seven:

1. Dang. Everyone survived. Whelp, except that guy whose name I neither remember nor care to remember.

2. Wait, they SURVIVED?! Heat alone would do the trick, but pretending they survive the heat, that’s not snow they’re walking through! The ash would finish off anyone left! Look, LotR doesn’t have the best history with believability when it comes to volcanoes, but Rings of Power keeps professing it is meant to feel grittier and more realistic. So much for that, I guess.

3. The scene where Durin begs his father to help Elrond is actually poignant...and it makes me angry. Here’s why -

Lore/book reason the dwarves awake a Balrog: they were too greedy and dug too deep.

RoP reason the dwarves awake a Balrog: Durin is desperate to help his friend.

Writers, do you not see how thematically misaligned and stupid you are being?!

4. So now we know how the mithril cures the darkness. Apparently you just sit beside it. Wait, that begs the question, why do you even need to mine for mithril? Couldn’t the elves just book a mithril session and hang out int he caves for a bit? Totally cured.

5. Miss Pro-Genocide Galadriel gives a lecture on goodness and letting go of revenge. HA. That’s rich! Have we seen literally any evidence of a mind-change or reason she grew between the last episode and this one? Psh, no. Why would we need such a thing? 

6. I actually found the scene where Miriel realizes she’s been blinded quite decent, as well! Amazing! In an ACTUAL display of strength (not whatever fake nonsense we’ve seen the women display prior), Miriel must maintain composure and pretend she can see so she can be strong for her people. They actually did something good? 

Don’t make me laugh. The next time we see her, she’s wearing a blindfold, not hiding her blindness in ANY way. Apparently she only needed to fake being strong for a short horse ride.

7. When the heck did they have time to set up camp? At least the show is consistent. They’ll always fail to include what’s actually relevant. 

8. Apparently we need to waste time worrying that Isildur, the incredibly vital character from later tales, is dead. Great use of time. Proof upon proof upon proof of the ineptitude of the writers.

9. Galadriel finally said her brother’s name! Her primary motivation, and it only took 7 episodes for his name to get dropped.

10. Celeborn DEAD?! They had me going for a second. But no. Clearly gotta come back (Galadriel says he went away to war and never returned). Still, super stupid. Brother motivates her but apparently couldn’t care less about her hubby. Also, she met Celeborn because he came upon her dancing? Seriously? You couldn’t give them their own meet cure? You had to steal Luthien and Beren’s?

11. Durin is going to mine all the mithril by himself? Great plan, dude.

12. So are we supposed to dislike the dwarf king? Because I don’t dislike him. Mining mithril is not safe. Period.

13. Cool burning of harfoot carts, but unclear how many perished. Unfortunately, I think they all survived. Alas.

14. SIgh. Bronwyn survived, too. Also, watching her fling her arms around her son’s neck reminds me that she was shot through the shoulder the day before. Healed up nice and dandy, apparently. Also, she’s awfully clean for someone that went through a volcanic blast.

15. I laughed the hardest I’ve ever laughed in this show when Nori’s dad gives his brethren a pep talk. He says the harfoots, better than anyone else, “stay true to each other.” I CACKLED. Harfoots stick together? The same harfoots who wanted to leave you behind. Who wanted to take off your wheels and leave you to die. Who didn’t offer a single ounce of assistance when you were injured. THOSE harfoots?! (The laughter continued when harfoot who proposed murder is declared “always right.”)

16. Halbrand survives to show his pretty face another day. HIs wound is infected and he must be gotten to the elves!

Oh wait, he’s fine. Walking around like the wound is nothing. No? He still needs immediate aid that will require a very long horseride? Okay...

17. I know they’re shooting for Disa sounding inspirational and supportive of her husband, but to me she just sounds straight up evil in that speech at the end? SHE sounds greedy and possessive and manipulative. Definitely don’t think that’s what they were going for...

18. Ah. She we’re not just changing greedy dwarvish motivations to helping a friend, we’re adding that a leaf woke the Balrog. What is this, Kung Fu Panda?

19. The introduction of Mordor’s name made me roll my eyes.

Just one episode left. Just one. The end is in sight. (Yes, I know they’ve started filming season 2).

[girl-of-many-fandoms]

Stitches // 19

Pairing: Frank Castle x Reader

Summary: Family ain't who you're born with it's who you'd kill for.

Warnings: gun & knife violence, blood, Frank being adorable with puppies!!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 BONUS

MASTERLIST

—

Frank’s POV

My head is pounding but I can’t let it get the best of me right now. I’m restrained to a chair in the middle of Amy’s father’s office, the bastard himself has been sitting on his desk observing me for the past five minutes, no words spoken, just staring at me.

“How’s my girl doing? I assume you checked in on her before coming here.”

“Your girl? Man, go fuck yourself.” He gestured for one of his two men to strike me and the buffest one of the pair struck me in the face. Darting my tongue across my lip I smirked at the metallic taste of blood.

Oh this is going to be fun.

“That’s the best you’ve got?” My snarky comment earned me another punch to the face, blood escaping my nose.

“How is she Frank?”

“You don’t have the right to know a damned fucking thing about her. If you actually gave a fuck about her, you wouldn’t have walked out when she needed you the most. What father abandons his newborn knowing that the mother wasn’t capable of raising her right?”

“The same kind that repeatedly chose deployment rather than staying home with his wife and two kids. Maybe if you had done that, your perfect little family would still be alive today.”

“Shut your goddamn mouth right now.”

Who the fuck does he think he is bringing up Mariah and the kids? The more he opens that mouth of his the more I want to choke the life out of him.

He unknowingly signed his death certificate.

“I’m surprised that this lovely lady is giving you a second chance to have it all, Y/N is her name right?” He turned his computer screen to show me a photo taken of Y/N and I opening gifts at the baby shower, no doubt he got that from Jacob.

“She’s very beautiful and feisty, I see why you’re so in love with her. By the way, congratulations, your second boy is due any day now.”

“Is there a point to all this bullshit talking?”

“All I’m asking for is my daughter to come home with me once she’s discharged from the hospital, I’d like a second chance at being her dad. You’ve got your second chance, don’t you think I should at least have that?”

“You don’t deserve jack shit, you left Amy eighteen years ago. That kid has been through hell to get where she is right now. She grew up without your sorry ass around and survived all these years on her own!” If he thinks that I’m going to allow him to so much as breathe the same air as her, he’s got another thing coming.

“Leave us.” He instructed his men and waited for the door to shut behind them before he quickly pushed off the desk to close the distance between us, landing a couple blows to my head.

“You can’t keep my daughter away from me.” His bloody fist hovered in the air as he huffed and puffed. Spitting the blood that pooled into my mouth onto him, I spoke.

“She’s not your daughter”

“What, she’s yours?”

“Damn right she is.” I continued to pull against my restraints, the ropes slowly becoming slack with each movement.

“I’ve been there for that girl for the past two years, I took care of her while we were both going through some shit. All those years you had to find your way back into her life but you chose not too and now that she has fucking stability in her life you want to take it away from her.”

“She wouldn’t have been in this position if that boy had followed my instructions.”

“Do you hear how fucking crazy you sound? I’m going to say no, you don’t. Regular people would introduce themselves and properly get to know the kid they abandoned, not pay someone to kidnap them.” The ropes came undone just in time for me to catch his fist and twist it before he could land another strike to my face. He whined in pain as my grip tightened, I stood up and bent his arm even further.

“Fuck!”

“Shhh, nobody heard me scream in pain when you were beating on me.” Using my other hand I gripped onto his hair and pulled him upright, increasing his pain.

“Look man, I’m sorry, alright! I just wanted to see my dau- Amy!”

“She doesn’t want to see you, walk.” He took a couple steps forward towards his desk as I directed him to retrieve my gun that sat on top of his folders. I reached for it and hissed in pain from the gash the bastard just sliced on my forearm.

Frank let him go and ducked in time as Harry swung his switchblade in his direction. The two men went at it, toe to toe, knocking over the lamp that was perched on the desk and a couple other items as well. Frank disarmed him, the blade clattering to the floor. Frank slammed Harry into the wall, beating his face in returning the blows he got and Harry screaming was all it took for his men to come inside the office, guns blazing.

Bullets were exchanged among the men but the gunfight didn’t last too long as Frank successfully took them out, their lifeless bodies sprawled out on the ground.

“Fuck!” Harry drove his blade into my shoulder from behind and I shot him in the foot, screaming he dropped to the floor. Blood is oozing from his wound, he looks like shit; his face is all messed up from my relentless punches.

“Please don’t kill me.” He scrambled backwards until his back hit the wall. Ignoring him I pointed my gun at him and pulled the trigger.

He had it coming, bringing up both my families the way he did, stalking, planning and executing his sick idea of ‘reuniting’ with Amy, he’s lucky I didn’t shoot him on site to begin with.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I fished it out, Y/N texted me.

Our girl’s awake and responsive

With a final look at the bastard I left, I’ve got to get cleaned up before returning to the hospital.

I did this because I had to protect my family and I’d damn well do it again..

—

Y/N’s POV

“I feel like crap, my head hurts.”

“You’re going to feel that way for a while so make sure you get as much rest as possible.”

The doctor went on to announce that she’s cleared to be moved from this room to a much more private room out of the ICU. The swelling in her brain has gone away and she hasn’t had any complaints other than a headache which is minor. I stepped out into the hallway giving them all the space they needed to transfer her out of the room.

“Hey sweetheart.” Frank pulled the hood of his sweater further over his head to block prying eyes from seeing the cuts and bruises that now decorated his face. As best as I could I threw my arms around him, not missing his groan of discomfort.

“Take it easy with the squeezing, I took a knife to the shoulder.”

“You found him? What’d he want, why’d he do this?” He kissed my temple, avoiding my questions completely.

“Let’s follow them.” Frank gently guided me down the hall.

“Did you-” His jaw clenched knowing what I was about to ask.

“Yes.”

"I was starting to think you forgot about me, what happened?" Frank left my side, making his way over to her bedside.

"You're the one in a hospital bed but you're worried about me." He kissed her head and she held onto his hand, her eyes fluttering shut.

"Did you get him, Jacob. He was trying to-"

"I found him but he wasn't behind all this." Amy adjusted herself, sitting upright as she pressed him to further explain.

"Do you remember this man?" He held his phone up showing her the photo of the stranger and she nodded, drawing her eyebrows together in confusion.

"Gregory, yeah he came in everyday and would stay for a couple hours."

"Well kid, he lied. His name was Harry Bendix.”

“You’re telling me that her father-” Amy’s laugh cut me off, catching both Frank and myself off guard. Frank glanced at me and I shrugged.

“He’s not my father, never was.”

“Amy-”

“You’re my dad. It’s like you said, blood doesn't make us family.” She opened her arms for a hug which he gladly gave her. From where I’m standing I could see just how much impact Amy’s words made on him just by looking at his eyes; he sniffled a couple times holding in his emotions.

“You know I had to do what I did, right?”

“He never cared if I lived or died so why should I? Also, she’s been in pain for quite some time now and refuses to let the nurse take a look at her.” Rolling my eyes I sat down on the chair, ignoring the look Frank shot me.

“I’m fine, really.”

“You’re not.” in sync they both responded, ganging up against me.

“I've been stressed out with everything, I’ll be alright. I’m just glad that you’re okay. ”

—

Frank’s POV

It’s been two weeks since everything went down and everyday Amy’s been doing better, something Y/N and I have been extremely grateful for. Speaking of the kid, Amy popped her head in the room.

“What’s up kid, you alright?”

“She’s been bouncing on that ball for an hour now, it’s hurting my eyes.”

Y/N’s due to give birth any day now but the little guy has other plans. For the past two days she’s been bouncing on her exercise ball trying to induce labor. I rolled out of bed and started making my way to the living room and sure enough, Y/N was lightly bouncing on her ball completely lost in the movie that played on the TV.

“If you keep that up little man is going to come out with a headache.”

“Ha ha very funny Castle. You’re the last person I want to see right now.”

“What did I do?” leaning down I kissed the top of her head, groaning as she punched me in my nuts.

“This! You got me pregnant and now your spawn refuses to come out, I guess stubborn does run in the Castle family.” Ignoring the pain I gently massaged her shoulders, halting her movements as she relaxed into my touch.

“I could think of something that might help. Let’s go for a walk.”

“If I wanted to leave the house I would’ve been on my way to work right now.” She’s extra snappy today and she has all right to be, she’s at that point where she’d physically remove the kid herself if it was possible.

“We’re going for a walk.”

It took me all of ten minutes to get the both of us ready and out of the house, most of it was spent fighting her to get her shoes on. I’ve never had to fight Lisa or Frank Junior to get their shoes on but here I am, battling with my lady.

“Regular people would usually move in together and get a couple dogs before even thinking about starting a family.”

“I hate to break it to ya sweetheart, we’re anything but normal.”

“No shit, the first time we crossed paths you nearly blew my head off.” Our shoulders bumped with each step we took on the relatively empty sidewalk.

“If I was after you, you wouldn’t be here today.”

“That is true. The day Matt came into the office and said that we were going to be taking your case, I asked him if he was crazy. You definitely weren’t an easy client.”

“Really? I thought I was the best client you’ve ever had, after all I did buy you flowers in the midst of all my crap.” She laughed out loud, holding onto my hand tighter as we rounded the corner into the alley.

“That was an apology for wasting my time to keep you out of jail and that was after I slept with you the first time. Stop.” She stopped walking as she looked around the alley.

“What-”

“Shh, listen.” I was about to ask her what’s going on but the sound of puppies crying became louder as we inched closer to the cardboard box next to the dumpster. I quickly opened the top of the box and two grey and white pit bull pups that couldn’t have been more than three weeks old.

“Oh hello.” They clamoured to get out of the box to get to me and I scooped them up, Y/N immediately taking one from me, cuddling it close to her chest.

“What were you saying earlier about getting dogs?” The male dog in my arms licked away at my cheeks and chin while I looked over at my girl and the other pup.

“We’re taking them home, we can’t leave them here. You didn’t deserve that.” She giggled as the pup liked her face.

“Amy’s going to love this.”

—-

MARVEL Taglist:

@dorks2022 @n3ssm0nique @chrisfucksblog @sophiaedits @peakascum @anonymoustip217 @iiddaaa @mintphoenix @hardcoppizzasludge @panaitbeatrice @tanyaherondale @creatingjana @calimoi @rootcrop @louisianalady @thummbelina @vicmc624 @leyannrae @janaev4ns @queenofkings1212 @believinghurts @poor-unfortunate-soul-85 @stumbleonmywords @inas-thing @blackcat420 @badasseddy @spiderlaufeyson @yesimwriting @blondekel77 @4-everm-0-re @sketch-and-write-lover @farfromjustordinary @haoluvver @garbinge @emmamooney @chanaaaannel @moonofheroin @glitch-bitch777 @overly-obsessed-with-you @marvel-swagger @bernthalbabe @avada-kedavra-bitch-187 @youarethereasonimsmiling @bookloverfilmoholic @kobababy @mshannah @eliwinchester-barnes @punkdalek @myguiltypleasures21 @louloudeug99 @meowmeowyoongles @stitchattacks @bakingpotatoes21 @lemonlime09 @andrewgarfieldsbae @stitchattacks @inpraizeof @nightmonkeyparker @trinkets01 @friskae @rose-bliss @imagineadream @leilani788

[goth-girlfriend]

Just wondering and no pressure here! Are you ever gonna finish the Endeavor fic? Love ur works bby and stay safe out there! <3

Yes yes yes 😤😭 Anything for you sweetheart and especially anything for Enji. Take care of yourself ❤️❤️

✨✨✨

“What?” I yawned out loud to myself pushing myself up. My arm was sore from sleeping on it, I looked around and blinked at the light that had made itself known. I tried to push to sit up being held down by a familiar weight. I yawned again, before rolling over under Enji’s arm. I pressed my back against his warm side resting on my arm that wasn’t sore. I pulled his arm around my waist to feel like I was being held in place.

“Ah, security.” I sighed using his shoulder and bicep as a pillow, “Not soft at all.” I snuggled against the firm muscle until I heard a throaty chuckle. His chest shook lightly and I looked up at him he was awake. His eyes lidded from sleep still fighting against consciousness, I watched a faint smile pull at the corners of his lips, I couldn’t fight the most likely idiotic looking grin that surfaced. I laughed and shook my head as quietly as I could. I turned in his arm and hugged his chest. I watched as he moved his free arm behind his head, his bicep bulged at the unintentional flexing.

“Good morning.” I smiled and let my head fall against his shoulder while I looked up at him. It felt perfect, this moment. The morning sun filtered by the beige curtains lighting the room in gold with a few thin slits of white sunlight breaking through. The white duvet stopping at waist, open sleeping shirt, messy hair, pressed into his side sighing content. The rumble of the AC filling the silence, soft breathing, its perfect. In this moment, in this place, there is no history, there is no future, its us in this moment. With nothing to ruin the moment I sighed and closed my eyes feeling the faint heat of his rising chest.

“Good morning.” He finally answered, voice deeper than usual, I felt him shuffle, before I felt his lips pressed onto the top of my head. I felt my eyes flutter involuntary, and my heart swelling. I smiled closing my eyes enjoying the closeness, perfect, this is perfect.

“DDAAAAAAADD!!” I blinked a few times remembering where we were, I watched as he groaned rubbing his face with his hand and sitting up leaving me behind.

“Yes, Fuyumi?” He called starting to stand up doing a few basic stretches.

”Y/N IS GONE DID YOU HEAR ANYTHING THIS MORNING MAYBE SHE LEFT TO GET BREAKFAST?!” She screamed through the door, I watched the door handle jiggle, thanking God I locked it last night.

“Yes, I heard someone moving this morning. It could have been (L/N), why don’t you go look around down stairs, I need to shower and get ready.” He yawned before he stood popping his back.

“Mmm...” there was a pause and some shuffling.

I heard Sho’s faint voice “Fuyumi, look y/n sent me message this morning saying she was going to a nearby convinience store to buy some things she had forgotten. She’ll be back soon.” I sighed thanking God once again that I had told Shoto my password all those weeks ago.

“Alright, DON’T MIND DAD!” She screamed before I heard them walk away, Great, now how am I supposed to leave? I looked around, “Does that window open?” I asked pointing to the window in the room. “It‘s a balcony.” Enji pulled back the curtains revealing an pretty good sized balcony with fancy railing. I was wearing sleeping shorts and a long sleeve shirt with some socks, I‘ll fly down, and just walk back in... but I went to the store.... so I need to come back with something. “Can I have ten dollars?” I smiled sheepishly looking at Enji.“

He sighed before turning to the dresser and pulled out a bill out of his wallet. I grinned and thanked him, “I’ll be back in, five or ten minutes.” I shrugged and opened the Balcony window. Taking eagle form, I dived down into an alley way barrel rolling and lading back on human feet. I walked out and stopped outside a tourist shop. The shop owner was placing out a box of mini hero figures, the same figures from that night we patrolled. These were a new release with the change to get Gold or Silver All Might, Endeavour or Hawks. I got excited and rushed in, I “went to the store”, but I never said what for. the packs were on sale, 2 for $5.00. And lucky for me, I had managed to get a $50. Each box comes with 12 lucky bags each bag has 3 mini figures, there are only 10 Pro hero’s currently released in this line. I have a ten percent chance of getting Endeavour, All Might or Hawks, if you add the 6 new figures to the line thats 16 characters in total. Meaning there are three possible Endeavor, All Might and Hawks,,, But, the chances of getting a special edition, would be 2 of 16 which should be 12.5 out of 100. If I multiply by three that raises the chance 37.5 of 100. So out of all 36 Figures that means I have to at least get 1 limited edition Per box, bu counting in these are the first boxes to pull in customers, they overload the limited ones to make it look easy so people will be convinced to buy them because it’s “easy” to find a limited figure... meaning... “ill give you $50 even for both boxes.”

I turned to look at the cashier guy who seemed unimpressed but nodded, “I usually sell boxes for $30 dollars each but  I feel generous 25 each plus taxes.”

“How about $20 plus taxes.” I counter offered. He squinted at me before he made another offer, we went at this until we were back at my original offer. “Alright, this is my last offer,” he huffed and stared at me hard, “$50 dollars cash, no taxes, and IF you become a Pro Hero you do advertising free for my shop.”

I laughed and nodded, “Deal.” He packed the boxes and I paid him before we parted ways. By the time I made it back to the hotel Fuyumi rushed to me with a look of worry. “Where were yOU I WAS WORRIED?!” 

I smiled, “I was in the middle of a very serious conversation about some very serious things.” 

“A toy store, that bag says you were at a toy store.” Shoto said sounding very unimpressed.

I smiled and let out a sheepish laugh, “well...” I looked down and hid the bag behind me, “I never said I went to buy anything important.” 

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“Ow......ow.......nooooo stop.” I whined feeling one more tug at my hair and finally it fell down.

“There, we’re done.” Fuyumi fluffed my hair a bit before smoothing it out again, “Now lets go, before Natsuo starts causing a fuss.” She ushered me to move and I did leading our way to the elevator.

“Alright,“ I sighed slouching a little... “....Wanna see something cool?” I asked standing back up, Fuyumi cocked a brow by smiled a little, “Alright, I do actually.”

I dug into my pocket and pulled out a gold endeavor figure, “Boom, its your dad.“ I took her hand and placed it in her palm, “You can have that, I have another one.” I smiled when she let out a slight laugh. “Thank you, I’ll keep him with my keys.” We stood in a comfortable silence until the doors opened and we started to move out I asked, “Soooo, what are we doing after this award ceremony?” I asked tilting my head in curiosity.”

“I don’t know, she said he lips pulling to the side in a displeased way, “They didn’t let me plan out this trip so its a surprise for the both of us.” My only answer was to nod while I smiled down at the ground, “Sounds Fun.”

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”Aren’t those kids from UA?” The voices of photographers were loud with there questions as flashes went of left and right, “Why are they with Pro Hero Endeavor?” “I don’t know but these kids could pull in the views!”

“Todoroki! A question if you Will!” “Hey Midoriya Over here!” “L/N! Can you pose for a few photos!” “Todoroki look over here!” Midoriya whats it like to learn from Pro Hero All Might??” “L/N! L/N! Are you affiliated with Todoroki or Midoriya?”

As much as I love getting my photo taken, I knew sticking around for pictures and questions in this scenario is probably the last thing I should do. So instead I stayed close to Natsuo almost sandwiched between him and Fuyumi. I stayed betwen them as we kept moving, Sho and Deku were behind us not rushing, Sho seemed unaffected and Deku was looking down red faced and embarrassed. It was kinda cute. I looked back ahead watching Enji ignore everyone moving forward with purpose and carrying himself with pride. I smiled watching him I know not everyone can see him or respect him as the number one hero but, to me, He can be so much more if only people would give him a chance. I know he’s not the most kind person in public, but with the right sidekick or partner that could change easy. When Hawks was with him those brief days, his like ability actually raised. So I know all it takes is someone pushing him to be more interactive with his fans, he knows now there are some that like him, bit i also understand why it’s so hard for him to accept it...

“Alright, were in, lets go find some seats.”

The ceremony went by slowly, I was bored listening to a bunch of speeches but at least made it look like I was paying attention. I couldn’t even sit by Enji because Fuyumi took my place, and then I managed to get stuck between Natsuo and Sho and they kept talking and we had to refrain from laughing to loud at a few things. Midoriya was so interested in everything that was happening and i started to pay attention when they actually started calling name, Sho and Natsuo stopped after Fuyumi told them to shut up. Which I appreciated now that things were getting interesting. I listened to the awards leaning forward more and more as more hero’s showed up collecting awards and moving on with speeches each with their own rounds of applause. I got this twisted feeling about Eniji going so I whispered to Sho who voiced the idea of us cheering for their dad and Fuyumi praised him for caring about their dad and he took the praise. So when Enji was called for an award of Achievement and a few other things the crowd applauded but how it normaly had so I stood up pulling Sho and Natsuo with me which caused Fuyumi and Midoriya to stand we clapped louder and cheered “For the new Number one Hero!” I screamed and then the five of us cheered more as others started to stand and clap louder. I looked at Fuyumi who smiled back and nodded. After the crowd calmed down and sat he gave a short speech, almost another thirty minutes of closing speech we finally got to leave.

“Finally! I’m free!” I cheered running straigh into Natsuo’s back as he stopped out of nowhere. “My face.” I groaned pushing away from him, it was in that moment I realized how big he actually was, “Wow, you’re actually tall.” I leaned to use his head to block the sun.

He looked back over his shoulder at me, “huh? Did you say something down there?” He... he just... he just bullied me for my height... “I-...” I look esta him and swallowed, “IM TELLING FUYUMI YOURE BULLYING ME!”

I watched his eyes widen and turned to rush to Fuyumi and he screamed, “wait...NO”

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“Natsuuoooooo?” I poked his cheek as he sat pouting arms crossed, “Nat...Suo? Nat... pssst hey Nat, you still mad?” I poked his cheek again and smiled watching him force back a smile. “Come one, you cant be mad.” I poked his cheek causing him to smile briefly before he forced it back again, so I quickly summoned a feather and poked his cheek distracting him before using it to tickle his other side causing him to laugh.

“Alright fine fine, I’m not mad anymore.” He wheezed as I pulled my feather away, plucking it from the air. “A hero’s work is never done.” I gave an exaggerated sigh and he a single laugh kinda like a scoff, “Some hero you are, you get innocent pedestrians hurt to save them.” he crossed his arms and snapped his head the other way, unamused I felt me brows go up, “Innocent? Pedestrian? You?” I paused when he gave me an offended look. “I don’t think so.”

“Natsuo-“ We turned to look at Shoto, the two of having been sitting outside on a stone bench after Fuyumi scolded him strongly and I pulled into it.

“Yes?” He asked standing up and popping his back.

“Our father, asked if you could head back with Fuyumi to the hotel to pick up her bag of clothes. She left it when she was rushing out. Well meet for lunch before we do anything else.” Shoto said leaning his head to the side slightly.

“Oh,” he looked at me and then over his shoulder at the doors we had both just sulked out of, “yeah, well take a Taxi. I’ll get Fuyumi and we’ll leave.” He nodded and turned to leave.

I moved to stand by Sho, “So?” I asked elbowing him slightly, “how was last night?” “Well, I could ask you the same.” He side eyed me, “Take your phone with you next time you jump out a window.” I didn’t miss the amusement in his eyes, “Right,” I nodded and he closed his eyes a small smile on his lips. “Now, where are we going for lunch?”

“Oh! I read about this American style fondue place! It’s supposed to be really good! So I kinda wanted to try it and I was going to suggest it but, it’s pricey so, eheh, ya know.” I shrugged and Shoto’s brief look of amusement came back, you want what Kaminari told me is a Glucose Guardian, someone who pays for what you want.” I choked, “Sugar daddy.”

“What?”

“What. Nothing, so, lunch? I’m hungry? Also I’m riding in front move.” I rushed past him jumping into the passenger seat before he followed after Deku had met him. I was buzzing in my seat and the took Enji’s hand the moment he was sat and started driving, I squeezed his hand staring out the window, watching the building and cars pass. It felt so nostalgic, but how could it be nostalgic?

“Where are we eating?” I turned to Enji at his question, before looking at Sho through the mirror, “There’s this place Y/n was talking about.” I felt a squeeze to my hand meeting Enji’s stare as he looked at me briefly before looking at the road, “Where is it?”

I smiled and used my free hand to grab my phone, “it’s not to far from here, we should be able to make it in ten minutes if traffic is good.” I clicked away typing the address, “Yup, go straight, take a right at the light, and it should be a large glass building on the corner! It’s a fondue place, more American style!” I tried to talk and explain while squeezing Enji’s hand at the excitement I was feeling. Upon getting to the restaurant we waited a while, having sent Fuyumi and Natsuo the address we waited at least half an hour until we got a call.

“Dad, I don’t think we’ll be able to do lunch today, a really bad wreck caused a traffic jam on this side of the city, it’s an estimated two hour wait until we can move, well find a place to eat once we get closer if you all want to go ahead and eat we’ll be fine.” Before he could answer Shoto spoke “Thank you for your sacrifice.”

“We should go then?” I questioned looking around the car.

“Yes.” Enji said turning the key and opening his door to get out.

After we all got out the car, we started our way towards the restaurant. I awed at it, we made it in met with a nice man, “Welcome to The Melting Hot Pot! How many will be in your party?”

We all looked up at Enji, “Four.” We all nodded, it felt as if we were judging him.

“Would you like a private room or to be seated in our public seating area.”

“Private.” He nodded and the host nodded, “You can follow me this way.”

“Will this be you’re first time dining with us?” We all slid into seats in the large luxurious looking booth, it’s was in a room with a sliding screen door for privacy.

“Yes it will.”

“Great! I’ll give you the crash course before you’re waiter comes to attend to your table.”

After about seven minutes and looking at a menu the Host left and we started to talk about what sounded good.

“Wisconsin cheddar cheese?” Shoto asked.

“Flaming turtle... sounds painful...” Midoriya was staring at the opposite side of the menu.

“Maybe... we should start with a salad? Before we start looking at the fondue, there’s.. Wisconsin Wedge... California... Caesar... and a house, so, what sounds good?”

We tried to talk it out but no luck, we ended up right where we started, until Midoriya looked at Enji, “Mr.Endeavor sir,” I held back a laugh.

He hummed staring at Deku, his face didn’t change making him seem angry or annoyed, “What?”

Midoriya flinched.

“Maybe you.... you have more experience with this than we do, do you have a-any... advice?”

Enji nodded, “Get a California Salad, you’re allowed two cheeses, well get the Wisconsin Cheddar and Quattro Formaggio, for entree you’ll get a classic plate that comes with Pork, shrimp, chicken and steak cooked in a Mojo style broth, and for two desserts you’ll get a flaming turtle and Yin & Yang mix.”

We all stared at him, “Have you been here before?” I asked interested.

“No,” he held up a rectangular piece of plastic lined paper, “It’s a recommended course.”

“That’s very convenient.” I mumbled and we all looked as our waiter slid the door open finally entering.

“Hello, sorry for being late, what can I bring you to drink.”

“A tea, please.” Shoto and Midoriya spoke at the same time.

“Alright, two sweet iced teas,” and for you, she turned to me, “A spirit free watermelon cooler.”

“Good choice, and for you sir?” She turned to Enji who was looking at the menu, “A Billionaire’s Coffee.” He didn’t even look at her.

“Alright,” she looked at us, “I’ll get your drinks and be right back to take your order.”

She left and we casually just sat there looking around at the decor.

“I like the low lights, it’s nice kinda cosy.” I talked out loud to no one, before I looked at Midoriya locking eyes contact, “perfect place for a date.”

He chocked on air and brought his arm to his face blushing stuttering out things I didn’t understand. I laughed a bit, enjoying the show before he calmed down when the waiter appeared.

“Alright, what are we getting?” She looked at us and all I did was look up at Enji, he sighed, “We’d like to try the Complete Fondue experience for four.” He tapped the plastic with his finger and she noted it, “in that exact order.”

She nodded again, “An exact copy of the full experience, now before I head out, does anyone want to add a lobster tail or any extra meats to their plates?”

“No,”

“No thank you.”

“No, I’m good.”

“No.”

“Alright then, I’ll be turning on the burners, they will get hot, please do not touch them.” She pulled out a small metal stand with a promotional flyer and placed it on the burners before she left.

“I’m excited.” I reached over under the table and took Enji’s hand and brought it back to my lap squeezing his bigger hand between mine.

His hand squeezed mine, I smiled up at him before looking down at his hand, callused, warm. Scars were present but hardly noticeable, I ran my thumb over his knuckles, losing myself in the patterns I began to draw, feeling myself fall into a feeling of nostalgia.

“Y/n,” I looked up at the sound, “Hm?” I hummed in response looking around.

“Are you fine?” Shoto asked his voice soft but his brows were furrowed.

“Yeah, just thinking about school and the internships.” I shrugged, “We’ve been through a lot with everything that’s happened, it’s hard to believe we’re just first year.”

“Hm.” Shoto nodded and I pulled a hand up and lates it palm up on the table.

“Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I see and the more we do, it kinda scares me,” I looked at a scar it ran from the side of my wrist to the back of my hand, it was a deep wound from my Internship, “But seeing everything also makes me realize,” I balled my fist up smiling, “There’s so much space for new hero’s to rise and it excites me knowing one day I’ll be out there fighting for a chance to be number one.”

“Ambitious.” I flinched at the waiters voice who slid the door closed as she entered, “You must be in a hero school then.”

“I, yes, I am.” I nodded and looked away.

“I’ve never heard of you, you must not be that well known. Everyone however would be able to notice our lovely new number one hero Endeavor.” She smiled and patted Enji who just gave her a side eye and she quickly pulled her hand away.

I let out a mix of a scoff and a laugh, “You must live under a rock, or be uncultured, I’m from UA, were our sports festival is streamed publicly almost everywhere throughout the prefecture and surrounding cities, not to mention I was in the news quite a few times with Endeavor and Pro Hero Hawks, I was on headlines and on front page covers of newspapers and magazines, if you can’t recognize me it really goes to show what kind of woman you are.” I made a face and she made a face back.

Before we started a stare down another person walked in, “Alright, here comes a hot pot, everyone be careful.”

As the second waiter was setting up the meal I couldn’t help but mumble to myself, “Bite me, it’s what rabid dogs do anyways.”

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After eating and Midoriya and I burning ourselves multiple times on hot cheese fondue we finished our desserts and started to head out.

We stepped out into the dark, the afternoon sun had set and the cities night life was crawling out into the streets, lights lit up outside patios, rooftops had flames lit lighting tables, tinted windows were lit up showing the chandeliers that hide during the day. Ladies in fancy dresses and men in suits and flashy attire. It was in that moment I realized how wrong our relationship is, I’m in UA, I’m only 16, sure the consent age is lower then that but, I, this is morally wrong in some eyes... I could ruin Enji’s career if anyone ever found out... I felt a sense of worry fill me. No one knew, I didn’t care before. So what scares me now?

“So! What are we doing tomorrow?” I looked at Enji and Shoto as we walked, Midoriya was unintentionally hidden by Shoto.

“It’s a surprise.” Shoto answered very bluntly and I squinted at him, “Very helpful.”

“How are Fuyumi and....” I paused the name leaving me and looked down, embarrassed, thinking, his name just couldn’t be Naruto because it’s pretty close to that anyways, “Natsuo! Heh! I remembered.”

“Fuyumi messaged me, they tried a curry at an Indian restaurant near the hotel, Natsuo also now holds the title for eating a plate of the spiciest curry in under an hour.” Shoto said flashing us his phone which had a very red smiling Natsuo holding a certificate and a $200 dollar check.

“That’s... impressive.” I was impressed, but it seemed like a painful thing.

I felt my phone buzz, I answered if, “Hello?”

“Hey y/n! It’s Fuyumi, I’d you don’t mind when you get to the hotel can you stop by the hotel shop and pick up something for indigestion or upset stomach, maybe heart burn?”

“Oh,” I smiled, “Yeah, I can do that, we’re on the way back about to get in the car, the streets are empty so we should be there soon, so, I’ll get it for you.”

“Thank you, sorry for the burden but I feel bad for leaving Natsuo while his stomach is hurting this much.”

“Don’t worry! I’m a hero, it’s what I do.” I smiled getting into the car as we reached it.

“Still, thank you y/n.” She sounds like she was smiling, I could feel it, in that moment how much she really cared for her family. It kinda warmed my heart in a way I can’t describe.

“Alright, see you then.” I ended the call and explained everything on the way over, Enji sighed and rubbed his forehead before pinching the bridge of his knows shaking his head. I smiled, noticing the edge of his lips twitch upwards a bit before he forced it down mumbling out Natsuo’s name and something I couldn’t hear.

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Tag list

@waffleees-world @daedaep69 @gabrielislovegabrielislife @sabrinakishi @mae3solo

[calehenituseappreciation]

Ive seen a lot of Dream (and usually Techno and Phil too) as gods au (i have one too dw) but all of you are sleeping on the funniest option.

Tommy is the god.

Tommy.

hes the only one in that galaxy (other than drista ofc)

Just imagine how fucking funny it is like 

it would be so fucking hilarious

and tommy just doesnt tell them

so techno is just there making all these blood god jokes and jokingly telling tommy to serve him and tommys just laughing

imagine a god in the form of a chaotic 16 year old racoon gremlin just walts into your land commits arson and gets banned, only to come back with another person who he helps start a nation for drugs?

imagine how fucking funny it is

just

imagine tubbo banning a literal god from his lands and he just doesnt come back? he just plays by the rules? then goes and like sits in the corner all sad because some humans/dreamons told him to leave

ranboo, just joining the server: hi-  a chaotic gremlin god: wanna commit arson with me?  ranboo, just trying to vibe and maybe not disturb this god: sure 

Phil and Ranboo recongnize Tommy as a god on sight.

Everyone else just refuses to believe it. hes Tommy. Tommyinnit. hes just weird lol

And Drista being a fucking chaotic blood god? 

drista is open about her godhood and does not hesitate to spawn blocks

Drista finds Dream and decides she likes this small human, and dream just has to deal with it lmao.

drista and tommy are both born at the same time.

Tommy is a god of music, chaos, war and theivery (the last one bc he is a BITCH)

Drista is the blood god, chaos, deception, and theatre

okay but imagine the sbi interactions... like ig in this au tommy joins at like 12/13 years of age (in their minds) so he doesnt really grow much 

and like tommy, a literal god, just claiming phil as his father???

phil, in his house making eggs, assuming one of his sons woke up and came to the kitchen, not looking: hey son  tommy, from their couch, already deciding hes phils son now: whats up dad? phil: looks up at tommy who are you tommy: idk dad, who am i  phil: *stares at tommy for a second* eh i made extra eggs you can stay 

ASJIDGASUIOG IMAGINE TOMMY TELLING THEM HES A GOD BUT THEY THINK HES JOKING AND IGNORE HIM

everyone on the server: tommy is the youngest! tommy, as old as the universe: no im not!!!! im not a child!!!! he doesnt pout because pouting is for children and hes not a child but hes pouting tubbo: lol im older than you by a month tommy dont try to hide it tommy: im not a child!!!! techno: laughs

tommy doesn't try to hide that hes a god just its tommy

thats all the evedince anyone needs to think tommy isnt a god or powerful its like mcc hes good but only when he doesnt throw for content

quackity: sees drista written in bedrock lmao drista visited? tommy: yeah! i wrote that for her!  quackity: snorts yeahhhh sureee tommy

imagine like how fucking funny it is jsut like 

a fucking chaotic god breaks into your house androbs you makes a room under your house and decides to live in your floorboards

imagine dream like trying to manipulate tommy, and tommy a fucking anchient diety immeditly recongnizes what hes doing

but decides to play along for the angst and giggles and then actually gets mad when no one fucking cares for his theatrics

tommy, storming off to technos base to rob and build under: >:///// cant believe none of them acknoledged my  deppression 

i love that tommy stills robs everyone, he doesnt need to he can spawn in anything he wants

he just does it for the sport of robbery

JAKOGFSDOH

THE HOLY LAND

dream: im god actually tommy: thats so fucking funny lets make a cult about that :)  dream: see! look! im god! and jesus!  tommy: wheezing

imagine tommy getting stressed and letting go of his mortal form

Tommy, his human form peeling away, showing his actual form a bit: WH̸͘A͠T̷ ̶̢T͞H͢E ̡͘F̴̵͘Ù̧C͜K҉ ̶T͘͜͞E͟CHǸ͏Ǫ  Techno: HAH?

tommy just saw tubbo and got emotionally attached

Tommy, a literal god: hello Tubbo: oh hi do you like my pet bee? Tommy: you’re mine now Tubbo: im okay with this

tommy, a bored god: gives techno shapeshifting powers  techno, not even caring: changes into more human to pig-ishg forms as he wishes this is my life now ig 

phil lets tommy do fuck all in exile bc he knows hes a god hes fine

phil: IDC IF YOURE A GOD! YOU WILL DO THE DISHES NOW YOUNG MAN! tommy: grumbles but does them

phil is the only one who can control tommy

god... tommy... with star freckles... on his human form... (as well as his god one)

tommy: f̷͛͠a̵̋t̵̒̑h̸̚e̶̓͝r̸͊ ̸̐̒i̴ ̸̅̿d̷̉͆o̵͂͋ ̵̛̆ñ̸̾ő̶́t̸̎́ w̶͆͘i̴͠s̵̓̈́h̸͗́ ̵̯͗f̶͋́ő̴͑r̷̐̌ ̶͝é̵̽g̸͊͂g̵̒s̷͂̃  phil: idc, eat your goddamn eggs tommy: pouts

tommy, despite being able to get supplies himself by fucking spawning them in: hey tubbo? we need supplies 

In this au ig like if a god claims you you get a mark on your skin showing that. Drista’s would be like a green crown, Tommys would be a red and white disk (white as the outer ring and red as the center) (its different enough that if you don’t realise tommy is a god you wouldnt realise whos it is) (schlatt is the only one who never had one which shoulda been a sign dude :/)

Dream has two from the beginning, everyone else has only one, well until they meet drista. (sbi have had one since they met tommy, though they dont remember the first time they met tommy)

wait what if tommy like found them all as children one by one and later kinda pulled some strings to get them all in one kingdom. (he still joined sbi through forcing phil to adopt him) 

OKAY BUT IMAGINE IF TOMMY MET TECHNO WHEN TECHNO WAS YOUNG ENOUGH TO NOT REMEMBER

tommy would hang out with baby techno and tell him stories

once he told him the story of a man named thesus

another time he told him the story of a blood god

like for example tommys first time meeting techno would be like

(for context techno lived in a shitty village and was an orphan and it was kinda a dog eat dog place, he learned how to be strong because of it)(he was young enough that he doesn’t remember this well, just like learning about the blood god and someone giving him gold)

baby techno: sighs tommy, appearing out of nowhere: oh heyyy whyre you sad? techno: jumps turning around with a knife up ready for a fight who are you tommy: im tommy! :) techno: what do you want from me! you dont scare me! tommy: whats your name! techno: i have a knife! i'll use it! tommy: of course, thats a given, but its rude not to tell people your name techno, confused: t-technoblade? tommy: smiles thats a nice name techno: so. tommy: hm? techno: why're you here tommy: i don't have a reason. im just a traveller! techno: then why hole to this terrible village! theres nothing nice here! everyone is terrible and so are you! tommy: hmmmm i dont agree techno: what are you? a child? i thought adults were supposed to know that everyone is mean tommy: mmhmm looks at the bruise on technos face where'd you get that? techno: fight. i won. i'll win against you too! so don't try anything. tommy: of course. i would never win in a fight against a blood god techno, putting down his knife a bit, stars in his eyes: blood god? tommy: grins blood. god. i think she'd like you. techno, muttering: maybe i can give the blood god some of your blood tommy: laughs yeah, she'd defenitly find you intresting tommy: here tosses techno a golden crown at techno, he spawned it in in the moment techno: whats this? tommy: a crown, thought it suit you screams in the distance tommy: huh. i need to go. have fun lil piglin. ruffles technos hair before running off towards the screaming unbeknownst to the pig the blood god was actually the one waiting for the god he met. techno: stares at the crown 

Techno found a pouch of gold in his ‘house’ later that day. he didnt know who left it but it helped him get food for that night. (he kept the crown)

okay but imagine tommy not taking the war seriously at all, and only seeing it as a squabble between mortals, Like toddlers fighting

dream: SURENDER BY TOMMOROW OR WE'LL DECLARE WAR! wilbur: FUCK YOU WE'LL NEVER SURENDER AND JOIN YOUR SMP! Tommy: how cute

tommy doesnt realise that theyre serious until wilbur dies

tommy would usually go apeshit against anyone who dares messes with his humans, but what is he supposed to do when his humans are fighting Eachother?

wilbur: fucking goes insane and dies  tommy: hey- hey can you guys let me talk to wil for a sec? everyone else leaves tommy, unsually somber: sorry i didnt help you i forgot how easily breakable mortals are tommy: this time you wont die, and i'll make it so that you dont break again, okay? tommy: brings wilburs soul out of its body and enters his mindscape ghostbur: wakes up what- where am i? tommy: hi there ghostbur: who are you tommy: i go by a lot of names all, one, you, the world, the universe, god, but you can just call me tommy ghostbur: oh okay. who am i? tommy: you're name was wilbur soot. you were the son of philza minecraft and brother to Technoblade, Tubbo and myself. ghostbur: was? tommy: well you see, you died. ghostbur: oh... well what am i then? tommy: a ghost! well actually its your choice. would you like to continue your existance or fade away with your body? ghostbur: i dont want to fade away! tommy: smiles thats what i thought you'd say stretches his hand to wilbur ghostbur: grabs tommy hand tommy: lets go home

ghostbur doesnt remember that though

he only remembers the good

tommy wont let him remember the bad, what if he breaks again? mortals are so fragile

phil realises what tommy did as soon as he sees ghostbur 

drista, painting tommys nails (there both in god form btw) (after wilburs death btw): tommy shouldn't you of all gods realise how fragile they are?  tommy: i know just... forgot  drista: sighs and nods i get what you mean, especially with the ones we found... they act a lot like gods sometimes i forgot they arent  tommy: ikr? wait- drista here gets drista's hair out of her face you were gonna get it on my nails, anyways, don't judge me. we all know if dream died you would turn him into a ghost too drista: smirks not if you do it first, we all know you would tommy: you say that as if you wouldn't fight me to do it first  drista: .... tommy: ... drista: both of us when he dies? tommy: nods tommy: anyways my turn to do your nails 

or like tommy with ghostbur like

ghostbur: i don't like this :( tommy, a worried brother and god: whats wrong? ghostbur: everyone is mad at me and i d-dont know why- why are they mad at me tommy: theyre mad at something alivebur did ghostbur: b-but im not alivebur sniffs it hurts. i dont like it. tommy: spawns in some blue here ghostbur: whats that? tommy: its some blue! it'll help you not hurt anymore! ghostbur: how does it work? tommy: see how its blue? ghostbur: nods tommy: well its blue because it sucks up all the bad feelings! it'll help ghostbur: !!!!! ghostbur: presses the blue into his chest ghostbur: !!!!its working!!!! :D tommy: smiles good

wilbur fucking died and tommy went from annoying little brother to caring older brother

tommy just wants to help his brother :) though he doesnt realise that not letting ghostbur remember bad memories isnt good

*at logsted shire btw* ghostbur: who are you? tommy, chuckling: did you forget me already ghostbur? ghostbur: i didnt forget you! i think! you're tommy! i just... you're different tommy, looks over at ghostbur: different how? ghostbur: you're not normal are you? tommy: grins whaaaaat? you think im weirdddd? how heartbreaking... my own brother thinks im weird, this is terrible ghostbur: giggles tommy: but really, don't worry about it bur. ghostbur: you sure? tommy: yeah, dont worry about me ghostbur: smiles okay! do you want some blue anyways? tommy: giggles sure! ghostbur: grins

ghostbur isnt worried about tommy

he knows hes strong

phil having to tell tommy that he cant just not let wilbur remember the bad memories

and tommys like "what if he breaks again!" and phil hugs him and tells him to at least ask ghostbur if he wants to remember and tommys like ‘fine’

tommy: hey bur? ghostbur: yeah? tommy: do you like you're memories? ghostbur: i mean, yeah its hard not to when you only remember the good tommy, quietly: would you want to remember the bad? ghostbur: w-what brought this question on tommy: answer the question ghostbur: no- alivebur was badi shouldn't want to- tommy: but what do you want bur? wilbur, silent for a moment: yeah- yeah i do. not that i like the bad memories! they hurt... but i wish i could remember tommy: ... ghostbur: hey tommy? tommy: yeah? ghostbur, with tears in his eyes: do you think they'd be less mad at me if i could remember, maybe then i could repair my relationships, what the hell am i supposed to do when i dont even remember hurting them? tommy: what if they dont? what if you break again? ghostbur, saltily: we'll maybe i'll be able at least be able to say i know why everyone hates me tommy: i know how to get all of your memories back ghostbur, looks towards tommy in shock: you do??? tommy: nods ghostbur, voice wavering: for how long tommy: since the beginning ghostbur: and you didnt tell me tommy: i did what i thought was best. i just didnt want you to hurt anymore. ghostbur, angrily: WELL THAT CLEARLY WORKED DIDNT IT? tommy: sorry wilbur, sometimes i forget how to handle humans ghostbur: what- tommy: sighs and taps ghostbur on the forehead and ghostbur does the ghost equivilent of passing out tommy: wont hide any memories this time

ghostbur doesnt wake up, instead wilbur wakes up weither thats good or bad we'll see

wilbur, waking up with all his memories: HOLY SHIT TOMMY WASN'T KIDDING phil, who was reading beside the bed tommy placed wilbur into, which was in technos house. yes he broke into technos house with a passed out wilbur. move on.: hm? wilbur: holy shit phil: huh? yeah. wilbur: wait you knew? phil: yeah i recongnized him as soon as i saw him about 5 years ago now? wilbur: excuse me while i freak out because my little brother is an actual god

it really hits wilbur that tommy is a god later

wilbur: hey tommy? tommy: yeah? wilbur: how fucking old are you? tommy: snorts of course thats the first thing you ask wilbur: well? tommy: i dont really know the exact years since years are kind of a human thing that were invented recently wilbur: they were invented thousands of years ago- tommy: but it was around the beginning of this galaxy wilbur, softly: what the fuck

tommy telling wilbur stories about different heros and villains and different humans he met during his life.

Adsjbffsg what if Tommy made himself blonde and blue eyed and white bc thats hyow the first human he met looked like asjfhsd

and just didnt change that, despite meeting new humans, its just his defult settings.

he would totally do this tho im crying.

drista just based her human form off dream because she is his sister now. he must deal with this. trying disowning me when i look like you BITCH.

thats my take anyways later might continue this

[whumpily-ever-after]

Go Ahead Whump List

If you are interested in emotional whump then this is the show for you!

Go Ahead is a Chinese romance, comedy, melodrama from 2020. It follows three youths, two of whom were abandoned by their mothers and join the third's family. As they grow up their bio families return and cause heaps of emotional whump for all three.

Possible spoilers ahead...

Whumpee #1: Ling Xiao played by Song Weilong

Episode 1: None

Episode 2: Abandoned by his mother as a child

Episode 3: Talk of his mother

Episode 4: Sees his mom, family concerned for him, nightmare

Episodes 5-8: None

Episode 9: Concerned for his grandmother, learns that his mother was in a car accident and doing poorly in the hospital at the same time his grandmother was dying, forced to take care of his severely injured mother (she is the worst)

Episode 10: Made to feel guilty about not being more concerned for the mother who abandoned him, punched by his brother

Episode 11: None

Episode 12: No whump, just one traumatized bb

Episode 13: None

Episode 14: Family finds out he has a large scar on his shoulder

Episodes 15-16: None

Episode 17: Family finds out he is hiding sedatives

Episode 18: None

Episode 19: Returns to his super manipulative mother

Episode 20: Asks his mother to return his documents to him so he can return home

Episodes 21-23: None

Episode 24: Nightmare, holding his head between his hands

Episodes 25-26: None

Episode 27: Feels sad/guilty about his brother

Episode 28: His dad is worried about him (because he has trouble sleeping), (flashback) burned from a pot of porridge

Episodes 29-31: None

Episode 32: His mom shows up at his door unexpectedly

Episode 33: Awkward birthday dinner with his mom and sister continuing to be the worst

Episode 34: None

Episode 35: Learns his mom plans to move back to China

Episode 36: His mom is still the worst and every interaction with her causes him (and us) pain

Episode 37: (Flashback) his mother manipulated him into staying in Singapore

Episode 38: None

Episode 39: More terrible interactions with his manipulative mother

Episode 40: *Attempted suicide mention in this episode* Tells his dad that his mom did horrible things when he was in Singapore and that he wanted to call his dad to bring him home, sleeping on his dad’s shoulder while in a cab, his mother leaves a suicide for him, frantically searches for his mother, crying

Whumpee #2: He Ziqiu played by Zhang Xincheng

Episode 1: None

Episode 2: Abandoned by his mother as a child

Episode 3: Threatened, grabbed by the shirt collar

Episode 4: Crying, remembering his mom

Episode 5: Made to feel like a burden

Episode 6: Father he has never met finds him, feels that his life is going too well and someone will ruin it (he’s got issues :()

Episode 7: Some emotional distress when his foster father and godfather find out his biological father found him

Episode 8: Made to feel like a burden, bio-dad makes vague threats to get him to go with him

Episode 9: Feels like an outcast as he watches his sister and foster father, he is a sad boy and I want him to be happy and feel like he belongs

Episode 10: Crying after he tells his foster father he will study abroad, punched by his brother, falls to the ground

Episode 11: None

Episode 12: These boys be traumatized, No actual whump though

Episode 13: None

Episode 14: Sees his mother passing him by (for the first time in 20ish years)

Episodes 15-16: None

Episode 17: In a car accident (not shown), on a stretcher with an oxygen mask, in a hospital bed with bandages on his face and hands, accidentally took a bunch of sedatives (prior to accident), feverish, little winces as he lays in the hospital bed

Episode 18: Still injured from the previous episode, helped to walk

Episodes 19-20: None

Episode 21: Feels about his mother

Episode 22: Finds out that his mother is married and had another kid but did not tell them about him, sends an invitation to his mother but she fails to show up

Episode 23: Finally meets with his mother, sad conversation with her, crying

Episode 24: Talk of his bio dad not willingly letting him return home

Episode 25: None

Episode 26: Siblings find out his bio dad cut him off financially while abroad

Episode 27: Asks why nobody wants him

Episode 28: Not whump, but he adopts an adorable lonely stray dog

Episode 29: Has a mental breakdown, runs away, family concerned for him, flashback to his terrible bio dad disowning him

Episode 30: Asks why he is always the one being abandoned (he is real sad y’all)

Episodes 31-32: None

Episode 33: Discovers the truth about why his mom abandoned him

Episode 34: Family worried about him

Episodes 35-39: None

Episode 40: *Attempted suicide mention in this episode* Not whump, but he has a really cute moment with his mom

[littlelordalphinaud]

gib Yiyiyte Yite Soft OC pls

Soft OC Asks!

1. What’s something that puts them to sleep without fail?

The sound of water. If she ever has to go anywhere by boat, they're asleep pretty much instantly!

2. What’s their perfect “sleeping environment”?

With people! It feels unnatural and unsafe to sleep alone. Extra bonus if they get to monopolise someone's -coughcoughSnowOrValenOrG'raha- chest as a mattress!

3. How do they laugh?

Big and loud and uproarious. The kind of noise you don't expect coming from a Lalafell!

4. What's one of their comfort foods

Fruit pies. Their Dad used to make them, and after hearing that, Snow learned to bake them too. Of course, if you feed Yiyite one now she might cry, but they'll be good tears!

5. Fuzzy Socks or Comfy Slippers

Slippers. They need some amount of support on her feet on the days where they're ambulatory, so slippers are better for her.

6. What's something that will always make them smile no matter how many times they've seen it?

Valen blushing. She loves making him go red in one way or another. ESPECIALLY now he is some big serious hero.

7. What song are they dancing along to in the kitchen or singing in the shower?

Firstly, rude to ask this of the wheelchair user! Secondly, she tends to sing old Dalmascan songs in the shower, or if distracted.

8. How often do they pull all nighters doing something they like?

She doesn't. Yiyite pulls plenty of all nighters thinking of ways to improve harmony between different groups, but the things they like doing aren't things she'd sacrifice sleep for. Plus, there's nothing better than bedding down on a comfy partner for some sleep!

9. What is a small detail about them that if someone remembers will make them extremely happy?

That, although she doesn't wear it very often, Yiyite loves collecting perfume. Best way to bribe them? Give her perfume!

10. Do they prefer cuddling or holding hands (platonically or romantically <3))?

Cuddling! Although it's unclear how much of that is an actual preference and how much is due to her being a wheelchair bound Lalafell which does somewhat make hand holding difficult.

11. Do they have any talents?

Surprisingly (or at least, surprising to those who knew her before the attempted uprising), Yiyite is a talented diplomat. Even they're not sure how she got so good at it, but it's a skill they pride herself on.

12. Where would they travel if they didn't have to worry about any of the plans/prices?

Funnily enough, exactly where she is right now! Thavnair! (& They're eternally grateful to Vrtra for her accessibility Hamza)

13. Do they have any pets?

Not technically, no. As mentioned above, when she was brought to Thavnair to help with the allocation of funds due to their diplomatic prowess, Vrtra realised that being a wheelchair user, Yiyite would be severely limited in where she could go within the city, and reliant upon others for access to basically everywhere. So he had a saddle made with the necessary back support and gifted Yiyite a Hamza to ride, making it that they could traverse the many stairs in Radz at Han and reach various towns in Thavnair too. (Said Hamza is called Sleet. She named him somewhat after Snow, who also used to carry her around everywhere, although for very different reasons)

14. How Sappy are they?

Before the uprising? Oh so very. Not quite to the level of Nina, the designated Romantic™ of that polycule, but still notably sappy. But afterwards, Yiyite tries to keep that part of herself under lock and key, not letting people in to avoid feeling the pain of losing them again. But deep inside? They still are that sappy person

15. Can they take care of plants? Do they have any?

Yes! But alas, no.

16. What's their favourite weather?

BAKING sun.

[forestlingincorporated]

How old is the Batfamily (in New Earth)?

These are my personal calculations. Comics are bad at continuity, I’m sure we’re all aware. 

I use Tim as my north star in my calculations because we have a couple sure fire ages for him, unlike people like Dick or Bruce whose continuity is less concrete. Tim was 3 when the Graysons died, 13 after Jason died, and he just turned 16 shortly before Jason turned 18. 

Tim’s birthday is July 19th, and Jason’s is August 16th. Since Tim turns 16 the same year Jason would turn 18, Jason is exactly 1 year, 11 months, and 3 days older than Tim - almost 2 years. Jason’s death certificate says he died April 27, at 15 years old; this means Jason was turning 16 that year, and it also means when Tim arrives at 13, it’s not yet summer, so Tim is turning 14 soon. Batman #436 confirms Jason was with Bruce for 2 years, making him 13-going-on-14 when Bruce adopted him, and Tim the same age when he comes in behind him. 

Dick has multiple dates presented for his birthday, so exact age is a no go. In 1940, Dick was 8 years old when he became Robin. That is impossible now, if Tim attended Haly’s Circus when he was 3, and Jason was between them as Robin. In Final Crisis, Dick’s depicted as 12 when his parents die. This would make him about 9 years older than Tim, and 7 years older than Jason. That would mean when Jason was adopted, Dick would be 20, and he’d be 22 when Jason died, and 26 when he became Batman. 

Tim is 9yo when he realizes Robin is Dick Grayson. That makes Dick about 18yo. Two years later, Jason is Robin for another two years, take 6 months for his training. These ages fit together nicely. 

Bruce was 25 when he finished his Batman training. Batman: Year One is probably a full year, and The Long Halloween is DEFIANTELY a year, so let’s say Bruce adopts Dick (Dark Victory) two years after returning to Gotham - 27yo. This makes Bruce 15 years older than Dick. This works for their fuzzy awkward family dynamic, where Bruce is something between a big brother and a dad, getting more parental as Bruce gets older, and grating on Dick’s growing independence as he’s being given MORE restrictions as he ages, not less. It makes Bruce 22 years older than Jason (35yo when he adopts him), a more reasonable age gap for a parent and child, which plays into Bruce’s more immediately parental relationship with Jason (and thus Dick’s jealousy over it). It then makes Bruce 24 years older than Tim (37 after Jason’s death and upon meeting Tim). Bruce’s birthday is Feb. 19th, early in the year, so its not as awkward to juggle months into the equation. This makes Bruce 41 at the end of New Earth; I was honestly surprised, it’s a pretty reasonable age for a fit man to be Batman-ing, if there is ANY age considered reasonable to be Batman-ing. 

Cassandra Cain is already 18 when Jason turns 18, and her birthday is January 26, so Cass is exactly 6 months and 21 days older than Jason. 

Early on, Stephanie says she’s “older” than Tim, though I don’t know how she’d know that at the time. Later, Stephanie’s attending freshman year of college when she first becomes Batgirl, so I think it’s safe to say she’s about 1 year older than Tim, making her 15 when they meet when Tim is 14, and 18 when Tim is 17 at the end of the New Earth run. 

Damian... I feel like someone told me Damian was slightly hyper-aged as a toddler, but I can’t find that information r/n, and also I don’t care, so I’m moving forward as if Damian was born naturally, and not artificially altered at all. I’m convinced the more we see Damian drawn to look more like Thalia, the more we’re just casually being asked to kindly forget about the racist “genetically modified to be perfect, i.e. look more like Bruce” Thing. So I’m gonna. 

Since I think the fathers day comic between Tim and Bruce occurs before we meet Damian, and father’s day is in June, and his birthday’s in July, I’m going to assume Tim is 17 when he meets Damian for the first time, who is described as 10. This means Damian is 7 years younger than Tim, 9 years younger than Jason, 16 years younger than Dick, and 31 years younger than Bruce. This is particularly interesting, because Bruce and Dick’s age gap is about the same as Dick and Damian’s age gap, which draws more of a parallel between Bruce and Dick’s awkward pseudo-big-brother/actual-adopted-dad relationship and Dick and Damian’s pseudo-dad/actual-big-brother relationship. 

And then there’s Barbara. What to do with Barbara. Barbara's got de-aged over the years to make her a more palatable ship for Dick (no hatin’, just true). It’s cute for a teenage boy to have a widdle crush on his adult friend/big sister figure who’s old enough to have a doctorate, and then have him fall in love with an alien girl closer to his own age, but when they decided they wanted this ship to be viable, they had to close that 8-10 year age gap, or Babs was gonna look like a creep. Detective Comics 871 aged her all the way down to Dick’s exact age, having them go to prom together, but you can make Barbara anywhere between 26 and 36+ by the end of New Earth and I’m not sure anyone can say you’re wrong. I have Much Fear they’re going to try to de-age her again, though, with this potential Jason romance hanging in the air. 

And Alfred... look, man, I don’t know, he was 18 when he joined the British military, and that’s the extent of my understanding of how old Alfred is. 

And, you know, Duke didn’t exist in New Earth, and the Prime ages are all fucked to hell. Usually, I make Duke about a year or two younger than Tim, just because it kinda sounds right. 

tl;dr: By the end of New Earth, the Batfam is probably: Alfred (???), Bruce (41), Babs (26-36+), Dick (26), Cass (19), Jason (19), Steph (18), Tim (17), and Damian (10).