#carrying on the family legacy

[beanstroni]

Okay so the "Damian volunteers at a hospital" thing is going around and I saw a post about how happy it would make Alfred and I just.

No.

It would not make Alfred happy.

It would crush him.

He would tell Damian he was proud.

And that night he would sit down on his bed. (In his outside clothes!)

Pull the flask from under his pillow.

Tap it up against the photo on his nightstand of the first black-haired blue-eyed boy who had kept him up until the wee hours of the night asking for a plate of sandwiches.

The first boy who had come home with blood on his clothes and a broken heart and cried on Alfred's shoulder when he lost a patient.

The first boy who looked at the man equal to him in age but greater in composure (an act , an act, it was all a role to play) and fell apart in the safety he found in gloved hands holding onto his shoulders.

The boy he had to convince to turn back around and go ASK HER PROPERLY when he came in distraught but delighted over Martha's proposal to him.

The boy who had been his friend and more, his brother.

The boy who had brought HIS son in, and placed him in his arms, saying quietly, "I don't know what to do, Martha needs sleep and you always calm me down when it's this late..."

Alfred would tap his flask to Thomas' picture, down the contents, and sigh.

"When will I learn how to keep my boys away from sorrow? It's all you and your big heart's fault, you know, Thom. You started this path."

The next day, the manor will wake to find a note - "Do try to leave my kitchen in one piece," and "don't touch the crock pot," "yes, that includes lifting the lid for 'just a peek.'" Alfred is back by dinner. He mans the comms, patches them up, and sends them to bed.

When Damian makes it upstairs, he finds two things:

- a skeleton in a bowler hat, plaque denoting "Anonymous Donor, given to Thomas Wayne" (when he flips the plaque over, "Falcone" is found in the cipher on the back, written in his grandmother's pen)

- a labcoat, freshly pressed, with no identifying marks until he slips it on to find patches of the Wayne crest in the cuffs. One hand makes its way to the pocket, where a strong hand has written in the script that Damian has come to learn means safety and love and harbor, "This was your grandfather's favorite lab coat. He found the reminder of who he was and who he had to return home to helpful. May it serve the same for you, dear boy."

The next day, there is no comment from either party.

But that night, when Alfred returns to his own quarters, there is a new frame on his nightstand. An embellished "P" in charcoal. "Who we come home to." Lettered precisely underneath.

[fatedroses]

That one teacher/mentor moment and Zenos feeling embarrassed for the first time in years (and reacting just about as well as you'd expect him to).

[rileys-battlecats]

my problem is that i love my ocs and want them to be happy. but. i am a tragedy enjoyer at heart

[whoblewboobear]

I still think about this everyday like no matter how much of an asshole Porter was or how much he said it was all an act, you don’t get teary-eyed and weep with pride over your students if you don’t care.

Plus like 👀 I don’t think Mr ‘ifs and buts were candy and nuts’ is all that good of an actor. That man gave a shit and you just know he hates admitting it.

[unsiredtribrid]

“Klaus Mikaelson the Great Evil”

“He wasn’t very popular around here”

[fizzytoo]

she’s just like me

[syn0vial]

also, thinking now about how boba’s relationship with mirta is practically the polar opposite of the one jango had with him him. like,

jango with boba: you are my heir, you are an extension of myself, you are everything i could have been, and i will do everything in my power to make you a perfect and uncompromising carrier of this legacy.

boba with mirta, gripping her shoulders: our bloodline is fucking cursed and i will do everything in my power, including literally actually dying, to prevent it from dragging you down with us

[toasterdrake]

youngest child with multiple older brothers astrid hofferson my beloved

[bbygirl-aemond]

daeron: if i had a nickel for everytime my targaryen love interest expressed a desire to connect with their non-targaryen dead parent and they ended up as the head of that dead parent's house i'd have two nickels daeron: i know that isn't a lot of nickels but it's really weird that it's happened twice

[completeoveranalysis]

[4]

And Tomoyo just whips it out immediately, because she knew he was going to bring it up in this conversation. Not even as a seer, because she can't do that anymore - just because she knows him so well.

AND OH THAT FINAL PANEL, WITH KUROGANE REFLECTED IN TOMOYO’S EYES. AMAZING. BEAUTIFUL. 

Also the SECOND funniest way to tie the theme of doubles into Kurogane’s plot - there are just… two of him when reflected in someone’s eyes. 

I WILL TAKE IT. THANK YOU CLAMP.

The fact that Kurogane is surprised to see it is SUCH a nice touch. Even though he had a copy of it for such a long time, this is the ACTUAL link to his family. This is the ACTUAL symbol of his past and everything his family legacy means. It's not just a memory anymore - it's sitting right here in front of him, carefully wrapped up and cared for all this time.

It's the final stage in Kurogane's backstory coming back around. It's the continuation of the exact conversation they had in this exact room about this exact sword all those years ago. It's Kurogane finally returning home, not to be with Tomoyo as he once thought, but to continue the promise he made to his family all those years ago, and to take down the man who slaughtered everyone he loved.

It's, once again, everything coming full circle.

Proof that Tomoyo is the best: SHE EVEN PROVIDED THE FLASHBACKS TO THE EXACT SCENE I WENT LOOKING FOR.

THANK YOU TOMOYO, MY BELOVED. If I did not just hunt this down moments ago this would have been the EXACT context I needed.

That aside, Tomoyo pulling a “So I kept it” is infinitely funny to me and this is such a good turn of events. 

It turns out that Kurogane’s mother foresaw certain future events and ALSO prepared for them ahead of time. 

Or at least that would fit the pattern of every other seer we have in the series. It’s possible she didn’t foresee anything at all and she just talked to Tomoyo as a general precaution, but either way! Here we are!

[fatedroses]

Zenos, but he uses his grandfather's name and imagery for his new armor so he can actually feel like a hero.

[y-rhywbeth2]

Not entirely sure what Astarion's issues with gnomes happens to be (it's fantasy racism, I know) but in my heart I would like to believe that it's at least partly connected to the original games and during his magistrate days he had to deal with a case involving the Jansen Clan's smuggling operations; possibly Jan himself. Possibly one of his first cases. (Gnomes live long enough for one of the gnome companions to have been alive at the same time as Astarion.)

It was supposed to be an open and shut case about the smuggling of strange explosives and weaponry ("...and turnips??") between the Sword Coast and Amn and somehow stretched on for several months. Somehow every round of questioning ended in an insane story that got everyone even further from the closing the case than they started. The courtroom still smells of turnip stew to this day.

Bonus points if he also had to deal with Tiax or Quayle on other occasions.

At some point Jaheira, Minsc and Astarion all realise they share the Jansen experience. It will be a bonding moment.

(SIlly headcanon aside, I'd love the opportunity to inflict Jan on everyone, but especially Astarion. He's hilarious, I miss him.)

[gotticalavera]

Sozin’s gotta be jealous if his descendant actually gets to keep his avatar boyfriend when Sozin couldn’t keep Roku.

Not only jealous, I also think he would be very upset that Gyatso's disciple (Sozin knows about Gyatso because Roku spoke highly of him).

It's not enough for him to make his only heir fall in love with him (this only headcanon that Azulon and Aang had their summer romance).

So that 100 years later he does the same thing again with the great-grandson who was the black sheep of the family, and together with him, they throw away what they worked for all this time

[livefromtheyard]

this is the bridge that aiden hiked to see btw

i think if i hiked for six hours and i was met with this at the end i would leave and do something evil at a waffle house

[sapphic-woes]

Karlach and Astarion literally cannot have a happy ending if they... actually do good and stay true to themselves. Wtf.

[fizzytoo]

they’re expecting!