#decide whether to stay in wonderland or to go back to the real world

[radioisntdead]

alright y'all wish me luck I'm gonna try to bulldoze through my requests because there's 25 of them and some have been there for MONTHS, I gotta watch a movie for one of em' [I mean I don't have to but like its better if I do]

[riddle-me-ri]

A/N: No real explanation for this, it’s just a super, super self-indulgent piece for me to do a character deep dive into Jervis Tetch. Don’t mind me! Lol. I was stuck between doing this with either Arkhamverse or BTAS Jervis(pls request btas jervis i only have one idea for him and its meh to me rip), but decided to just do a general overall version of him. I bring up a lot of familiar character beats and woes so this can really fit most Jervi anyway. There’s a hint of smut but nothing crazy, cause it’s not entirely what it’s about. 

and I guess a wee late b-day gift for @mischievous-marchie they’re mostly to blame for this anyway given the few deep discussions we’ve had in general lmao. 

Trigger Warnings: depressive and anxious thoughts, venting, explicit sexual content (handjobs all about Jervis here sorry not sorry), mentions of violence and criminal acts, and strong language

Word Count: 3.4 k

General Mad Hatter x Reader - Love and Suds

One of the most dangerous places for anyone to go is the deep recesses of their own brain. 

People often spend many years trying to repress their horrid anxious inducing memories of their shortcomings. 

Jervis found himself lamenting his very life, in the cold solitude of his tiny living room in his tiny apartment. 

On his lucid days, he's aware…he's there in reality, painfully aware of everything; past and present.  

Jervis sees what he's done, and it shudders his whole body in shame. He doesn't mean to hurt anyone. He doesn't mean to take away their free will…well most of them anyhow. 

It's just how else can he be noticed? Be respected and be shown an iota of love? That's all anyone really needs right? That's all everyone wants. 

Suffice it to say, people want things from Jervis…they want them all the time. But never the man himself.

Fellow rogues and evil masterminds constantly come to steal or bargain for a smidgen of his technology. 

He hates to admit the times he agreed to such dealings, whether it was for the money or just a shot at actually developing some kind of alliance.

Only for it all to be spit back in his face. Nobody wanted Jervis the person…just the genius and what he could provide. 

No, Jervis was always too freakish, too awkward, too…creepy to some. 

Jervis could feel the walls slowly caving in on himself. 

All his atrocities from his raging escapades to find companionship only to find someone wasn't the one or only to be taken for a fool and used all this time. 

Which caused him to lash out in the most violent ways…

All the times he was used, chewed on and spit back out, no longer of use to them or anyone really. 

His fingers raked through his hair. Nails scratching at his scalp, fingertips pulling at his hair strands. 

He just wanted to make his Wonderland a reality. He wanted to find happiness in reality but it just wasn't possible so he had to resort to desperate…horrible…measures. 

"Didn't want to…I didn't want to…wanted company, wanted to feel loved, respected…h-h-heard…" 

Heard…heard..what's that noise?

Someone was knocking at his door.

Jervis blinked rapidly. Trying to come back into the external after spiraling into his internal conflicts. 

Who could it be? He debated just staying quiet and staying put and continuing his downward spiral. 

Yet, much like Alice of old, he was curious. 

Jervis slowly, almost reluctantly approached the door. He looked through the peephole. 

Oh, it was you. What're you doing here?

"Jervis? Are you there? I haven't heard from you…" 

Guilt welled up in his gut like bile in his throat he wanted to puke. In all his damning thoughts, you were completely void of them. Probably because you're one of the only few people in the whole world that seemed genuine. 

You…actually seemed to like him for him. Something so rare there were many days Jervis found it hard to believe you existed. 

Yet, he knew he didn't have any chips on you. Jervis has looked you over a time or two to ensure he didn’t plant one on your during any of his stupors. 

There you were though. You were a free roaming person…that willingly came to see him. 

Jervis slowly unlocked the door and was greeted by your bright relieved smile. 

"Oh my god, Jervis you're okay! I-I haven't heard from you. You haven't invited me over in awhile…umm, can I come in?" 

Back in Jervis' days before his Mad Hatter escapades, you were the only one that showed him any friendly camaraderie. 

You, of course, being the only one wasn't enough to prevent Jervis from succumbing to his last resort for more connections and more semblance of respect he lacked. 

Many times, Batman and the psychiatrists at Arkham called upon you to help him, but it was like talking to a bunch of brick walls when they asked for your opinion. 

Jervis nodded and stepped to the side and let you in. 

You looked around at the clear disarray of his living room. Blankets and comforters were scattered on the couch and floor. Lamp shades torn off. Cups and saucers littered and stacked on the table and floor. 

You hung your bag up by the door and took off your shoes, before looking back over to Jervis. 

He had definitely seen better days as well. 

His hair was coated in grease, his face sweaty and paler than usual. He looked like he had been wearing the same forest green bathrobe for days if not weeks. 

Jervis was rocking on the heels of his feet as he let you take in the outer representation of his inner turmoil and depression. 

"I…um…" Jervis tried to speak up. His heart cracked as you waited on him to continue with sincere ears. 

"Wasn't planning on having company…" He scratched behind his ear, nervously. 

"It's okay, I did pop in unannounced but…I was worried–" You began to explain your motive but was cut off. 

"Why? W-why bother…" 

You quirk your eyebrow at him for a moment. "Because I care about you…I know I haven't been around much and I feel guilty for it but I just wanted-"

"Don't waste your time or breath on me…I'm far from forgiveness and beyond help…"

You walked over and attempted to grab his hands in yours. "Jervis, that's not true, who told you that?" 

Jervis looked down at his feet, as his hands rested in yours but didn't return your endearing grip. 

You had a tight smile as Jervis decided to stop responding to you. He tended to shut down when words became too much, swirling in his head between the rhymes, his thoughts, and what he wishes to say. 

"It's okay, you don't have to say anything. But I'm not going anywhere. I'm sorry it took me so long to come back." 

You started running some water into the bathtub. Occasionally putting your hand through the water until it was warm enough to start filling the tub.

Jervis was still in the living room. Too exhausted to really argue with you to leave him be. Plus deep down he supposes he was glad to see you, before things got too dark again. 

"Hey, Jervy!" 

His heart skipped a beat, you hadn't called him that in…years. 

He turned his head down the corridor and saw your head sticking out of the bathroom. 

"I ran you a warm bath, you don't have to wash or anything, just relax, yeah? I'll pick up a little in the living room in the meantime…" You offered. 

You, you did what? You're going to do that? 

Panic softly set in, he knows this feeling. 

Something he's always felt for you, but reserved it. Pushed it down. Not wanting to hurt you after so long…or worse, like he did to most…

He hopped off the couch and made his way to the bathroom. Your smile almost made him smile back in return. 

"Just take it easy, I'll be back in a bit with a change of clothes. Just yell for me if you need anything." You pat him on the shoulder, before closing the door and you start cleaning up the living room. 

Jervis had to admit, it did feel nice being in here. The water felt like an engulfing warm hug, slowly rinsing off the grime, sweat, and dirt off his skin. The warm water caused his skin to redden a soft pink. 

His swarming thoughts from before still lingered but they were much fuzzier. Hidden behind some weird mental fog. 

The weight remained however as he fought on how to conduct himself with you. He could hear you moving around just outside the door. The clinking of dishes, the roaring of a vacuum. 

A knocking sound broke him once again from his reverie. 

"Are you doing okay, Jervy?" 

No response. Jervis tried to move his mouth and conduct words but nothing came out. 

"I'm coming in, okay? So…hide yourself." You chuckled softly. 

You entered the bathroom and were happy to see he at least got into the tub. You wanted to ask how he was, but felt it would fall on deaf ears. You set his change of clothes by the bathroom door. 

"Here, you don't need to do anything, but…" You walked over to the side of the tub, making Jervis slightly jump. 

"Sorry, sorry. Didn't mean to scare you, but, we gotta do something with this hair, okay? Will you let me wash it?" 

Jervis hated to admit it but that sounded splendid right now. He was sick of his hair sticking to his face and being everywhere. He nodded. 

You smiled brightly, excited for the positive response. "Thank you, I promise I'll be gentle."

"N-no…uh…thank you…" Jervis mumbled. 

"Don't mention it. I just wish I got here sooner. Looks like you had tea parties without me." You joked, giggling softly. 

He softly mustered an amused scoff in return. You were always one to entertain his Wonderland fixation. You didn't question it or ridicule it. You understood and encouraged it. Even made a claim to being The March Hare (or The Dormouse on days when you were particularly sleepy and longed for a nap.)

You got behind Jervis' head with the bottle of shampoo and conditioner by your side and a couple of rags. You put a generous amount of shampoo in your hand and began scrubbing his strands. 

The contact was really nice and felt amazing. Better than all the beatings from Batman or the Arkham Asylum wards he was used too. 

He almost whined when you stopped. "Jervis…I'm gonna need you to breathe for me, okay?"

Jervis didn't even realize he was holding in his breath as you scrubbed his scalp. After a moment he slowly exhaled and began breathing in and out. You continued washing and rinsing his hair before repeating the process with conditioner. 

You two sat in comfortable silence with the occasional sloshing of water whenever you had to rinse Jervis' hair. 

The swelling panic deep in Jervis' gut was throbbing at this point…along with something else. 

You weren't under his mind control. 

You were still your own being. How were you so nice? You know better than anyone what he's capable of, but you choose to come anyway and you chose to stay. No matter how much distance he tried to keep from you so he didn't result in his usual…antics. 

There was no denying his feelings for you anymore, in this vulnerable and intimate state. He loves and adores you. His only friend, his March Hare…he just didn't know how to respond or react…how they say…appropriately. 

"Y-you don't have to stay here any longer. You're free to leave." Jervis came back up from rinsing the rest of the conditioner out of his hair. 

"Jervis…if you want me to go. I can, but I don't want to. I've missed you and I wanna help you." Your hands were still on either side of him in the water. 

"Why? Why do you wanna stay? Knowing very well what I can do…what I do to…what I've done." 

You took your hand out of the water and cupped his chin in the palm of your hand so he could look at you.

"Jervis, I've known you for a decade…and you've never not once offered or tricked me with any mind control whatsoever. And you want to know why?" 

Jervis nodded, but you still answered anyway. 

"Because you don't need to. You know you don't need to. And you never will need too. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to explain that to that dark dingus." You rolled your eyes at the mention of Batman. 

You could count on both hands and then some the nights that Batman was literally breaking and entering into your home to ask about Jervis and what made you special. 

It's because you were fucking kind to him. You liked Jervis. He's quirky, intelligent, and can be kind but you could only be so kind anymore after the world kicked you down so many times. 

You wondered just how small Batman's so-called "rogues gallery" would be if people were kinder to others and didn't seek to take advantage of other human beings. 

It saddened you immensely to see him go down the path he did when there was no way for you to interfere but you couldn't say it surprised you either. 

You looked back into his eyes, your hands moving from his chin to his cheek. "I'm aware of your past…transgressions. Your m/o but I'm not scared or worried. I do mean it, and you can quote that it's actually me…" 

You turned and rotated your head around to show the lack of headgear, microchips, and any other cranium influences. 

"...I care…no…I do love you Jervis Tetch. I'm not going anywhere…not anytime soon." 

There was a beat of silence as Jervis took in what you said.

You saw his lower lip start quivering as they fought to speak or keep in the growing pressure in his eyes and throat to cry. 

You smiled softly, and with zero care for getting wet; you wrapped your arms around him and embraced him. 

It took a minute but he slowly returned the gesture. You could feel him press his fingers down into your lower back and his arms tighten around you. 

"T-thank you…" He whispered softly in between sniffles. 

"Don't mention it." You let him go and sink back into the tub only to realize you're just as soaked as well.

You couldn't help but laugh as Jervis looked at you nervously when he realized he had gotten you wet. 

"It's okay. It'll dry, I figured it was a good idea to pack an overnight bag." You chuckled. 

Jervis felt guilty now, not for any reasons before, but for the way he kept stealing glances at your skin that was see through the wet white shirt. 

"Do you think you can clean yourself while I go change?" 

He could, he absolutely could. He wasn't a child. But damn it if he wasn't just the tiniest bit selfish for your touch and attention now. He didn't want you to get away. 

As if you possessed mind powers of your own, you jokingly rolled your eyes. "Okay, okay, I'll just finish what I started and then change, how is that?" 

You laughed in disbelief as for the first time that night Jervis actually gave you one of his signature giddy grins and an encouraging nod. 

You got back down on your knees beside the tub and grabbed one of the rags and lathered it with soap. 

Before you began washing his body, you playfully plopped the rag onto his face, causing you both to laugh. You did take the chance to clean his face and head but being mindful of his eyes. 

You were relieved to see Jervis start feeling better but it was even more satisfying to feel the tension in his neck and shoulders finally disappear. He was actually relaxed and loose. 

When you got lower under the water however, something stood at attention that you didn't think about and Jervis forgot to mention. 

Jervis gasped as you got closer to his groin and grabbed your wrist. "I-I can take it from here-I…I'm sorry." He ruined it. His one chance of true companionship was dashed because of stupid primal responses and desires.

"It's fine, Jervy, really." It really was fine, you didn't mind one bit. You were kind of flattered more than anything. 

"Y-You mean you don't mind?" 

You shook your head, "not at all, in fact if you allow me too…" 

Jervis gulped. He would love it if you did, actually. You caused it after all. 

"Y-yes, please." 

You leaned in and kissed his temple as your hands dove back into the water. You let your hand trail up his leg, occasionally groping his thigh as you got closer to his cock. 

Jervis gasped when your hand finally gripped the base of his cock. You slowly began stroking and tugging at the base, just to start the pace slow. With every pump you went higher and higher up until you finally got to the head. 

Jervis was a flushed red panting mess as you continued your gentle but steady strokes, occasionally squeezing his head in a way that made him whimper louder. 

Above the water's surface, you continued to peck sweet, endearing kisses along his face. His forehead, temple, cheek, nose. Everywhere he was comfortable with for now. 

You were still somewhat shaky from your confession and Jervis' lack of reciprocating or response of one, but you knew he would say it when he’s ready in due time. The fact he’s letting you stay, treat him, and “help” him…that was enough. 

You began picking up the pace, with faster and tighter strokes from his base to the tip. You saw Jervis slightly convulsing and his breathing became more raggedy and heavy. You were so focused on getting him to the precipice of pleasure that you almost didn’t feel his hand come up to your cheek. 

“C-can I…can we…k-kiss?” He managed through his groans and whimpers. 

The elation you felt as you happily leaned in and pressed your lips gently with Jervis’. You felt the quick intake of air through his nostrils. Your lips vibrated slightly as he groaned into your lips, before sighing contently. When you pulled back and broke the kiss, you smiled at the look of pure bliss on his face. 

A complete opposite of the stern, tensed forlorn expression he had when you first walked into the door. 

You removed your hand from the tub and got up and began actually drying off your hands and arms.

Jervis was about to finally get out of the water that has already gone cold a long time ago, but was taken aback by your next actions.  

Without so much as a second thought you removed your top and bottoms right there in front of him and changed into the light blue puffy shirt that he was supposed to change into. 

You didn’t notice how you absolutely stunted the neuroscientist as you quickly made your way out of the bathroom. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back with a change of clothes for you!” 

When the door shut and you left. Jervis was left alone again, to really let it all sink in what just transpired. 

The way his heart was skipping beats but with love and elation more so than anxiety and guilt. The smile on his face wasn’t turned up, crooked and mad. It was natural and it felt nice for once. 

Jervis quickly got out before you could shock him again and began drying himself off. His back was towards the door as you opened it with a fresh shirt, pants, and underwear. You slowly crept behind him and put your hands over his eyes. 

Jervis gasped slightly from the shock, before chuckling at your playfulness. 

“Guess who?” You whispered sing-songy in his ear. 

“Hmm…oh is it the Cheshire Cat? The Carpenter? Or-or the Walrus?”

You laughed softly. “Nope, I’m actually invited to the Tea Party.” 

“Dormy?” 

You shrugged. “On my more sleepy days, absolutely.”

“Oh, I know.” Jervis reached up and grabbed your hands and removed them from his eyes. He turns around and smiles at you. “It’s my darling March Hare.”

“But of course.” You smiled as you pulled him into your arms. You gave him a kiss on his nose and reluctantly let him go. 

“I’ll let you get dressed, its not too late and I doubt you’ve eaten anything. I’ll make something quick and then we can head to bed, how does that sound?” You opened the door, about to head to the kitchen. 

Jervis smiled widely, beaming with happiness and love he hasn’t felt in such a long time. “That sounds splendid, my dear.” 

“Perfect! See you soon!” With that you left the bathroom again and began whipping some stuff up in the kitchen. 

As he changed, Jervis couldn’t help but smile in pure delight. All his memories and thoughts that were weighing on him and suffocating him finally dissipated like steam from a tea pot. He had someone that cared for him, not just for what he could do but for who he is. 

The notorious Mad Hatter of Rogue Gallery infamy. The lonely wretch that is Jervis Tetch. 

When he is with you. He felt he actually had a chance.

[star-vessel1237]

Digimon Partners for the TWST Cast | Pt. Savanaclaw

( Summary: Basically how they met and more. )

(Warning: This is a LONG post.)

Heartslabyul, Savanaclaw, Octavinelle, Scarabia, Pomefiore, Ignihyde, Diasomnia

(A/N: Sorry if any of these characters seem out of character.)

(Löwemon)

Pronouns: He/Him

They met a few days after Chapter 2

What happened was that Baal!Yuu and Grim were helping the Savanaclaw students clean up the Magift arena from Leona’s overblot

Suddenly a Duskmon appeared and suddenly attacked in blind fury

In the end, it took the combined efforts of Baal!Yuu and the Savnaclaw trio in order to subdue Duskmon

When he was defeated, Duskmon reverted back to Lowemon and was taken into the dorm to help recover

When he came to and heard what happened, he immediately apologized for his actions and explained what happened

Before he came to Twisted Wonderland, Löwemon got into an argument with his brother about whether it was okay for digimon to keep going to the real world as more reports of digimon troubling humans and disappearances kept piling up

Löwemon got so furious at his brother, Lobomon, that he left to calm down in the human world

But something went wrong and he found himself in a dark decrepit world he could barely see through

After which he was infected by a virus that played on his inner rage and jealousy, warping him into Duskmon and unleashing him on Twisted Wonderland

Baal!Yuu theorized this could've been residue of Leona's blot, but they have no further evidence

Löwemon, for a time, decided to stay at Ramshackle before moving to Savanaclaw

Why? He wanted to mostly help Ruggie as he felt bad for him doing most of the work

It was also to get Leona to stop wasting his potential, reminding Löwemon a bit of how he was in the past and still is presently

All in all, Leona's personality did clash with the more diligent and responsible Löwemon, but they ended up forming an odd partnership based on shared experiences

Plus, they do have some qualities shared between them (They’re both terrible at looking after kids)

Evolution Line

Liollmon > Löwemon > Kaiser Leomon > Raihimon

(Fangmon)

Pronouns: They/Them

Ruggie met Fangmon two weeks before the event of Chapter 2

At first, Ruggie thought that it was just some stray cat, and took pity by leaving some of his lunch

But he quickly caught on that something, or someone, was tricking him

So he set some bait in the botanical garden and when he saw Fangmon he used “Laugh With Me” to trap them in their place

Ruggie was kinda impressed, if not a little ticked, that they managed to trick him for this long

Fangmon had been stuck in Twisted Wonderland for a week and wanted more food than just scraps, but couldn’t due to the number of students watching

When Ruggie gave them some of his lunch the first time, that wasn’t Fangmon tricking them, they thought they could just kept up the act until they got home

Ruggie didn’t know exactly what to do here, on one hand the wolf digimon was tricking him for nearly a week, but on the other hand he kinda relates to the digimon

So, Ruggie made a deal with Fangmon that if they helped Ruggie with anything he needs then he can split his food with him 50/50

After which, Fangmon followed around Ruggie whenever he needed help or just because they could

They’re pretty independent, often only coming to Ruggie for food or to help him out with anything he needs

Fangmon also likes bringing any spare change they “found” to Ruggie, never telling where they got from though

Ruggie is a little suspicious on where his digimon “finds” the money, but they’re good company and a greater partner in crime

Evolution Line

Gazimon > Fangmon > Weregarurumon (Black) > Metal Garurumon (Black)

(Strabimon)

Pronouns: He/Him

Jack met Strabimon a few days after Löwemon moved into the dorm (Also during Riddle’s Labwear vignette)

Jack was staying late for track and field and just as he was going back to the dorm he smelled something off

Following the scent, Jack found an badly injured Strabimon

Thinking on instinct, Jack took the digimon and rushed to the infirmary to try and help him

When Strabimon came to he was weary of Jack, but he let his guard down after he saw other digimon in the infirmary

Strabimon felt a bit comfortable around Jack, but preferred being around other digimon so he stayed in Ramshackle for the first few days

Strabimon had lived a mostly secluded life and never interacted with humans before, therefore was nervous around them

Before he arrived in Twisted Wonderland, he got into a fight with some territorial digimon and passed out in a cave 

The two wolves got along slower than the other first years with their digimon, but they eventually were able to bound and form a partnership

Strabimon tends to stay close to those he trusts, mostly Jack or other digimon, but will wander off on his own if it’s to help someone he cares for

He also likes cacti, like Jack, but it comes from more of a sense of curiosity as he never seen plants like them before

He often helps Jack with his cacti if he gets too busy

Evolution Line

Strabimon > Garumon > Beowolfmon > Magna Garurumon

That’s all for now, hope you enjoyed!

[emeraldtart]

Twst X Digimon

Some ideas for Digimons, takes place after each arcs. (Heartslabyul - Pomefiore)

Heartslabyul/Manticoremon Arc

Many students from the dorms started to go missing. Most of them are known to be prone to rbeaking rules, whether they meant it or not.

While Yuu, Impmon and Braincell Trio TM tries to find clue along with the rest of the Heartslabyul gang, a clawed handed grabs both Ace and Deuce, pulling them into a digital space.

There they find Manticoremon, who absorbed the data of the Queen of Hearts, turning it into a tyrant.

The students from the dorm became her prisoners, and are going to be executed at exactly 12 o'clock.

Riddle manages to distract Manticoremon long enough by making her list off all the Queen's rules, saying, "If you are the Queen of Hearts, then surely you are able to list off all the rules you make, right?"

In the end, Manticoremon is sent back to the Digital World after the Queen's data is removed.

Savanaclaw/Velgrmon Arc

The first year team, Leona and Ruggie are fixing up the Colosseum when Velgrmon appears.

No one can put a scratch on it, and when Yuu realizes that it's going to destroy the entire school, drags Leona along to destroy the circle it was making.

After an intense Arial battle that ends up with Impmon evolving into Wizarmon, they finally wins.

Velgrmon became Kaiser Leomon and stays at Savanaclaw.

Octavinelle/Phelesmon Arc

A rumor spreads out of a fortune teller that can grant wishes without any costs.

Because of this, Azul's business starts to have troubles since they're losing customers.

Curious, they decided to see the fortune-teller, who is a man by the name of Memphis. Jade asked him for a book about a certain mushroom and gets it the very next day. Seeing that nothing seems wrong, everyone go back to the dorms for the night.

However, that exact night Jade suddenly wakes up in pain as he transforms into a Neo Devimon. He attacks Floyd and Azul before escaping.

The first years, Azul and Floyd confronts Memphis, who reveals himself to be Phelesmon. His goal is to conquer Twisted Wonderland, and by granting the student's wishes their souls now belongs to him, and he can do whatever he wishes.

Floyd manages to wake Jade up, and with a Perfect level Digimon on their side, manages to defeat Phelesmon and turn the transformed students back.

Phelesmon stayed at Sam's shop as an assistant for punishment. Although, he seems to enjoy it somehow.

Jade has small horns because of this event.

Scarabia/Wisemon Arc

Continuing their joint camp (this time for real), Jamil notices that some students are unable to catch up. In fact, some of them are having trouble to recall things like where their rooms are and which ones are their clothing.

He lets them rest for the day, but the next day their condition worsens to the point the second years thought that they're still first years.

That night Yuu, Jamil, Kalim, Grim and Wizarmon all followed the students and discovered that Wisemon was stealing their knowledge each time they get a riddle wrong.

Wizarmon evolves into Baalmon and uses Leak Information, taking knowledge from Jamil and managing to answer every single one of Wisemon's questions right.

Wisemon admits defeat, and stays at Scarabia as their personal tutor.

Kalim gets 91 marks on the next quiz.

Pomefiore/Splashmon Arc

Sets after the competition, there are rumours around Pomefiore that some students have been acting... Strange.

Epel is seen walking around the halls at midnight, even though he was at Ramshackle for a first-year sleepover.

Rook was struggling with his bows and arrows even though he's the school's best archer.

And Vil. A student saw him downing a glass of the former Dorm Leader's most lethal poison and walks away like he had just drink water.

All this happens in the span of a week, and more and more strange things keep happening. Such as seeing doubles of students, and strange footsteps.

They managed to find the doppelganger, which had taken on Vil's form. However, they have no way of telling who's the real one, and Rook didn't use his UM, so they're on a dead end.

Until Ace come up with the clever idea of throwing mud at both Vil's faces.

The real Vil is upset, but the Doppelganger immediately went on a rage and transforms into their true form, Splashmon.

They managed to corner him into a reinforced glass box in the Science Club after chasing him through the entire school.

Apparently Splashmon had gotten lost, and seeing Pomefiore they transform into the students. And being a Digimon that has no internal organs or nerves is not affected by the poison. He also finds that it is delicious.

Is currently working as the dorm's janitor. Doesn't seem to mind, except he sometimes transforms into one of the students while doing so.

[violetren]

My first theory for volume 9 while the second half of volume 8 is fresh in my mind!

Volume 9 is gonna be the therapy season, but in the most traumatic you'll need different therapy afterwards kind of way. Instead of paying a therapist they're all just be bargaining with the universe like "yo I've had this trauma for a while, and I'm feeling pretty done with it. Here you take it back and uhhh I'll take a new guilt complex. Maybe a fear of falling? IDK, fuck me up bro."

The foreshadow-y Alice in Wonderland-esque fairy tale Oscar told to himself/Oz while in captivity is my guide post here.

Aaaand this is gonna get long so! 10 ideas of shit that's gonna go down next volume beneath the readmore, each one about 1-2 paragraphs each.

In the fairy tale the girl runs away from her problems into a new land, but because she never learned from her problems they just followed after her. Yeah? So first--second? First discounting the volume therapy theme theory.

FIRST BIG THEORY: The girl from the fairy tale was real, and she used the Spear of Creation. And like Weiss and the crew, she was fucking smart about her wording. She offered up materials that'd last even after someone else inevitably used the staff. IDK what materials she woulda used. Maybe there's a story about a missing continent we just haven't heard of yet? Maybe the Brother of Light's pool, since Salem seens to have claimed the Brother of Darkness's one but no sign of BoL's these days. Maybe there is a reason the land beyond Menagerie is so uninhabitable beyond desert + grimm? idk. Point is, it's a thing that happened, and since Ambrosius can't destroy/directly kill she's still in her wonderland. For themes sake I'm gonna call her Alice from here on out.

So Alice made a pocket dimension to flee from her problems from.

SECOND BIG THEORY: Her problems were relic related. She needed to hide em, and hide herself from Salem. Tbh I'm not sure how into this one I am. Maybe she had other shit going and some version of Oz was like "hey you don't want to be here, I have some property that I don't want to be here, lets make this happen!" THE POINT IS, the little pocket realities the relics are in, are aalllllll places in her pocket reality. When the team said "hey Ambrosius just make the middle ground into one of these type places" that's what he did, cause that's how he do. What better way to make sure it works like those places than to be kinda connected to em?

THIRD BIG THEORY: Ambrosius was buds with Alice once upon a time, but knew staying in her pocket world ultimately drove her crazy. He knew his middle ground worked like the pocket dimensions because it touched em or something, so he gave a vague ass warning not to fall, because he knew where they'd fall to.

Back to the fairy tale. It's implied Alice was never able to leave/give up her wonderland because she never learned from her mistakes.

FOURTH BIG THEORY VERSION 1: RWBY + Jaune can't figure their way back to reality until they adress a major personal issue and break out of whatever cycle it's got them in. This one I feel is shaky because they all have such different issues and are in very different places with each of them, trying to do one big arc on em would be too much of a mess. Plus it doesn't account for saving any of the many civilians that may have survived the fall.

FOURTH BIG THEORY VERSION 2: nobody can leave until Alice either leaves, dies, OR is convinced to let them go. As we're following good kind people this means we watch the kids try to give someone else therapy that THEY need. RWBY+J work through their shit through variations & combinations of witnessing mirrors of their struggles in Alice/other wonderland inhabitants, and just having time and space to slow down and breathe whether they want it or not.

FIFTH BIG THEORY: Alice is the "antagonist" of the underworld because she is the obstacle to overcome.

What about Neo you may be asking. Well I want her to let go of the revenge schtick, or at least redirect it back onto Cinder thus calling a truce with Ruby. However it's more than likely she's gonna be on team keep Alice as an obstacle at least as long as it takes to kill Ruby, and so Neo will be the "real" Antagonist™ within wonderland.

SIXTH BIG THEORY: Neo because of her unwavering determination to enact revenge is gonna die this volume. She'll be the comparison against which RWBY+J will be measured. As they grow and get closer to leaving she'll become more wrapped up with whatever strange classic wonderland logic this pocket universe has. Potentially depending on how things go with helping Alice, Neo may just end up trading spots with her, and end up trapped while everyone else goes back. But dead or trapped, I have a sad feeling this could be our last volume with Neo. My only hope of her surviving at this point is that she like Emerald switches sides, and in doing so joins Winter as a Cinder foil. While Neo grows and lets go of revenge and thus survives, Cinder stays dedicated to her own desires for revenge and other self serving instincts ringing her own death toll for either the end of the volume, or maybe somewhere in vol.10.

SEVENTH BIG THEORY: Ruby is gonna be grieving and maybe even getting full on angry about being expected to fix everything just because she's the optimistic one. She shouldn't have to deal with this brand and advanced level of childhood stealing just because she wanted to do what was right and won(lost) a genetic lottery for magic powers type anger. Jaune is going to have SO MUCH GUILT to work through, mostly the survivors kind. The bees will be experiencing couples therapy, they've both been pretty solid about individual growth leading up to this, Underworld will be them learning what it means to them to be partners now that they are so different to who they were. Weiss is different. Weiss is at first gonna feel like she's there just because it was a way to really shove all the other Schnee's into their therapy arcs and gave RBY+J neutral presence to rely on. Weiss is gonna go in the most stable of the bunch. But then, slow boil style, she'll start to realise how fucked up basically her whole life has been, especially upon realising that her "good years" with her new family have been spent getting sucked into being the last line of defense against the apocalypse, but will be too busy helping the others, so at the end of the volume when everyone else is actually doing pretty good and refreshed for the fight against Salem she'll only just be beginning her breakdown.

EIGHTH BIG THEORY: All this therapy shit is gonna be mirrored back on Remnant by the others grieving the percieved loss of the hearts of the team. Both sides of these story are gonna deal with some heavy shit, but the Remnant side is gonna be the depressed side, at least as long as it takes for Oz to tell them maybe the other's aren't dead leading to desperate attempts to get the staff OR the make desperate attempts to get the relics back anyways and inadvertently find out from Ambrosius what is up. But anyways. Winter is gonna be dealing with survivors guilt and the loss of both her little sisters (friends are great but Penny was little sister zoned and it's a hill I am prepared to die on. good sisterly relationships are friendships too). Nora is gonna be doing her self discovery thing. Ren is gonna be building on his end of vol.8 developments. Oscar will continue his grappling with the merge stuff. Qrow and Willow might get forced into AA. Whitely is gonna learn his own definition of being a Schnee instead of what his dad taught him.

NINTH BIG THEORY (OR FOURTH VERSION 3): The other way they get out is QORN obtain and use the staff to bring them home, potentially by trading enemy lives for them.

BONUS CONSPIRACY THEORY: QORN if presented with needing to trade for their loved ones & lost civilians have a lightbulb moment and decide hey why not trap Salem in a pocket universe since that is a thing Ambrosius can make? Like, if this bitch hasn't budged on her not learning to appreaciate life and humanity or whatever (which I'n pretty sure is the other way to break her curse instead of stopping remnant from turning) then she's a prime candidate for shoving into a personal reality that you can only escape if you can face your problems long enough to break the cycle they have you in. It'd be really fucked up but I think it might actually be possible to run the place using her as her own material component. Like kill her over and over and redistribute the energy to make the pocket world, but because god given power + Ambrosius can't actually destroy she just reforms anyways. MIght take a few hundred thousand deaths but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Or use the BoD oasis/grimm pools to make a world that mirrored the one she chose to live in on Remnant really make it hard for her to break that cycle....

Anyways.

TENTH BIG THEORY: Working on the idea that the relics are actually hidden in secret protected pockets of the underworld RWBY+J are gonna have a secondary quest of trying to get the relics from this side, and either finding a new place to hide them ages away from their vault doors. If you wanna make it a FOURTH VERSION 4, they're specifically gonna seek out the sword of destruction (HOLY VORPAL BLADE ALLUSIONS BATMAN) either with the intent of cutting their way out underworld--ahem wonderland--or with the assumption that someone is inevitably gonna have to open the vault door, because that's just how things be these days and they'll be able to cross to Vacuo from there.

[archived-gtronpa-account]

cld yu do shiftr!shuichi nd norm sized ouma? hhsjsjx btw i. love yr writing sm...!!!!

Thank you sm hun I'm glad you enjoy my stuff! And you've got such good taste, the world needs more of shifter anxious detective hhehehehhhahaha

____

Word count: 1700

Summary: No one else has, but Kokichi is sure he saw something strange about Saihara, and he won't rest until he's proven right or wrong about the oddity.

____

He wasn’t as surprised by sudden, uncharacteristic outburst as he was by the fact that Shuichi must have grown a good few inches while he’d been yelling.

Tense, Kokichi let his gaze wander over the class and his classmates. Most seemed discomforted by the usually meek detective’s mood shift, none seemed otherwise bothered by his changing height. Had they not noticed? Kokichi found that hard to believe. He knew to differentiate between his eyes tricking him and truth standing right in front of him; the truth of the moment was that he’d decided to sneak up on the emo boy from behind to scare him, and succeeded so well that instead of being loosely scolded like he’d expected, he’d gotten yelled at more harshly than a parent who’d caught their kid doing drugs. And while scared and angry, Shuichi Saihara had grown at least three inches in height and had been still getting taller.

Kokichi didn’t bother the boy more several days after the uncanny accident. He sat at the back of the classroom like a silent bystander, and watched. He’d heard the boy tell his pianist friend that conducting an investigation was easier when there was an answer to confirm rather than a question to answer. That much was true; it was much easier for Kokichi, since he knew, to catch the signs. Everything made more sense, from the way the ultimate detective hunched over when he felt nervous, to the way he’d straighten up when something made him smile or laugh, yet never seemed any taller or shorter despite the difference in stance.

If it was creepy at first, it became fascinating for the supreme leader to watch over his classmate and understand the logistics of his strange ability. The highlight of Kokichi’s day was to observe the others interact with Shuichi, predict what they would say and how the strange boy would react, and watch as his predictions came true and Shuichi shifted in posture and readjusted his hat; sometimes so large it fell over his eyes and sometimes too small to fit on top of his head. His changes in height seemed to follow his emotions more than his will, and the accident that had occurred between them a few days ago was a testament to that.

When his curiosity grew disproportionate, Kokichi decided to put his newly acquired knowledge to test and challenged himself to make the boy’s height change beyond any possible denial. Either he could slowly befriend Shuichi, make him feel safe and happy in his presence until he loosened up, or he could give him another good scare that would send his head flying to the ceiling. The choice was easily made.

It started slow. First, Kokichi sent a few ominous stares at the detective, which were only met with annoyance and stubborn ignorance. Then came the letters left on his desk; ‘I know your secret,’ ‘Isn’t your hat too small for your head?’ ‘Wanna watch "Honey I shrunk the kids" together?’

Shuichi didn’t come to class for two days after that. When he came back, more distant and avoidant than ever, Kokichi decided to drop the theatrics and catch him in the act as fast as he could before he slipped out of his fingers again.

By late afternoon, when most of their classmates had left, only he and Shuichi stayed in the classroom; the latter waiting for him to leave the room so he could leave safely after. When Kokichi didn’t move from his seat and made it obvious enough he wouldn’t budge, it was Shuichi who quickly gathered his belongings and slunk out of the classroom. Kokichi followed.

The hallways were dark and vacant. Four walls met neatly and threatened to enclose around the taller boy who kept his eyes downcast and pace quick. From behind, Kokichi’s footsteps echoed in the empty space. The tension was palpable and Kokichi relished the feeling, his heart pounding in his chest and blood roaring in his ears. The atmosphere had nothing to envy to a horror or thriller movie. Kokichi was starting to doubt his decision, good thing. If he felt so tense then Shuichi must have been on the verge of breaking out.

Like the most cliché thriller teen movie, Shuichi sped around a corner and tumbled in the boy’s bathroom. What a bad move, Kokichi could’ve almost thought the detective wanted to be caught like that. He seized the opportunity, and took his sweet time to follow after his prey.

Whistling a merry tune, Kokichi skipped over to the only closed stall. He knocked several times, following the rhythm of his tune for added annoyance, but Shuichi didn’t say a word. He could hear rapid breathing beyond the wooden door, and he could already see the tip of a familiar hat poking out from the top.

Kokichi bent down and peeked under the door. “Hey, Saihara? What shoe size do you wear?” He didn’t respond, didn’t move. “I don’t think even my clown shoes could fit you.”

“Kokichi, I don’t know why you’re following me, but please leave me alone.” There it was, the small, wavering voice, begging for him to keep the secret. A grin came over the leader’s face.

“Oh, fine, fine. I'll even do you a favor and tell our classmates how you can totally change height, and then they'll leave you alone, too.”

There was a sputter, the knob moved, and Kokichi backed away just in time for the door to be nearly ripped off. A second too late, and the smaller boy would have been knocked down.

Kokichi scooted back until his back was pressed against a wall, unable to control his fear for a split second. Shuichi emerged from hiding; his head met the ceiling with a thud. He was much taller than anticipated, at least four times as tall as himself. He looked like a real life giant; one that could snatch the smaller leader’s entire leg in a fist. One wrong move could cause the worst accident; one purposeful attack to him could send him to the hospital.

Shuichi gasped and stumbled a few steps back, cornering himself. His hands shot up to head level like some murderer caught red handed, face twisted in fear, and Kokichi was immediately able to push his own fright to the back of his mind, reminding himself of who exactly he was facing. Still, it was easy to remember what kind of person Shuichi was, but it was hard to keep in mind when he was still growing taller by the second.

“Please don’t-” he didn’t even look him in the eyes, instead keeping them shut as he curled in on himself and laced shaky hands over his head for protection. The ceiling whined and cracked, ready to give out at any moment under the inhumane force. Kokichi took a few steps away, staying safe and out of arm’s length of the too large boy. “Don’t freak out- Don’t tell anyone- Please!”

For a second, Kokichi felt like Bill, the lizard from Alice in wonderland. He had to get out; he didn’t want to end up like the lizard from Alice in wonderland.

Thankfully though, his emo Alice wasn’t blocking out the exit with his elbow, and Kokichi was able to slip out of the room in the next second without being stopped. Morbid curiosity kept his feet rooted right at the door, and he listened for the commotion. There was ragged breathing and feverish mumbles, the creaking and cracking got louder and louder till it reached a monstrous, terrifying peak, and Kokichi debated for several moments whether or not he should go back in. But when he was sure he would hear the ceiling fall off and his hand had already grasped and twisted the doorknob, ready to jump in action should he help the other boy get out, the commotion subsided, slow at first, until there was nothing but deafening silence lying beyond the door.

Kokichi’s grip remained tense on the knob. His entire plan had built up to that very moment. He’d made a grandiose mess, but he couldn’t leave without taking at least one last look at it; all villains looked back at their explosion in the climax.

Breath still hitched in his throat, Kokichi pushed the door open and poked his head in. Save for a few cracks on the walls and ceiling, the room looked fine. Shuichi didn’t look as fine; hunched over a sink and eyes glued to his shoes, breathing heavily and body trembling. Taunts easily came to Kokichi’s mind in dozens, but he didn’t have it in him to tease the messy-looking boy anymore at the moment. “Man…” He breathed out.

Shuichi’s eyes snapped to him, wide with fear for a second, until his gaze settled more firmly on the shorter boy’s face. Slowly, his face clenched up in a frown, the deathly pale tint to his cheeks disappeared under bloody crimson. He straightened up, shoulders tense, and breathed in.

“Get out!”

Kokichi didn’t flinch at the screech. That reaction was to be expected. Still, it wasn’t his fault Shuichi was so bad at pushing the reset button to his feelings; Kokichi had just done so at that very moment. Without another word and like a good villain owning up to his evil deed, Kokichi retreated and closed the door. Maybe he should have gone the anticlimactic route and let the boy alone.

[charmandhex]

For @terezis. It’s still April 15 somewhere in the world, so Happy Birthday, Ginny!

~

Taako and Kravitz don’t have an anniversary. Or, they don’t have a set anniversary. Or they can’t decide on a set anniversary because, really, what would they even choose?

There’s Candlenights, of course. Or, sometimes there’s Candlenights, not so much of course but as muttered around a cough. Embarrassed about being beaten by Tres Horny Boys (twice! He’d lost to Merle fuckin’ Highchurch!), getting his ass kicked by Legion (hadn’t even seen them coming), and by Taako’s smug reminders that he had successfully tentacled Kravitz (smug because, yes, this will still make Kravitz blush years later), Kravitz will try to cross Candlenights off the metaphorical list of dates. An even more smug Taako will add it right back in, pointing out that it was when they met, Kravitz had met (some of) Taako’s family, and Kravitz had in fact expressed a desire to take Taako home to meet his mother. So. It’s debatable.

Then there’s their second meeting. Neither of them puts much stock in that one, given that you can hardly call sitting in someone’s apartment in the dark until they show up only to discuss whether or not you are going to drag them to the Astral Plane a date. Kravitz had had his first headache in millennia (before that day, he hadn’t even been sure his construct form could have headaches) trying to understand how, exactly, Tres Horny Boys had added eleven deaths to their already non-zero death count and walked away unscathed, to say nothing of the thousands of deaths within the town of Refuge in the space of an hour. Taako, meanwhile, had been understandably tense, what with the whole risk of being dragged off to the Astral Plane after dying eleven times. All that notwithstanding, both will still grudgingly agree that the conversation had gone on far longer than expected and Taako had made tea for them and Kravitz had hurriedly given Taako his frequency before rushing off to his next job. No way that one counts. Definitely not. Right?

And of course. There’s the Chug and Squeeze. Their first real date. That had also started with Taako concerned about being dragged to the Astral Plane and Kravitz wondering if Taako had intended this to be a date or simply had strange ideas about appropriate meeting places. Nevertheless. It’s a date. A real, actual date with wine and pottery and significant (clammy) hand touches. A real date with openness and honesty and analogies involving bowls. A real date where they’d both felt something there, even if that something had maybe been a certain sister lich. Even if it had ended with Lup, y’know, shooting a Scorching Ray and nearly toasting Taako’s new boyfriend.

There are the dates that follow: a street fair, a play, a night in, a concert, and one memorable instance of going out dancing that may have required Taako to cast Chain Lightning. And with those dates had come their first kiss (and second and third and so on), the first time Taako had cooked for Kravitz (and the first time Taako had let Kravitz help), the first time Kravitz had sneakily stayed the night (though both will admit, it is easier to sneak out when you can simply tear a hole in the fabric of reality and plane-hop), the first time Taako had seen Kravitz go full skeleton when startled (by a squirrel), the first time Kravitz had heard Taako snort while laughing (Kravitz had gone skeleton because of a squirrel), the first time they’d nearly (nearly) been arrested together.

There’s the Day of Story and Song. When Taako saved Kravitz. When Taako kissed Kravitz without giving one singular fuck about who was watching or what was happening around them (the literal apocalypse). When Taako told (showed) Kravitz what happened in Wonderland. When Kravitz told (showed) Taako that he loved him. When Kravitz met Taako’s family. When Taako and Kravitz both helped saved the whole entire multiverse, thank you very much.

And after. There are more dates, more firsts. There’s Taako meeting Kravitz’s family. There are impromptu visits at work (and even more impromptu kraken ex machinas). There’s a wedding where, for the first time, Taako realizes that Kravitz’s hand is warm. And more still to come.

Maybe they really don’t have an anniversary. Or maybe they don’t have one anniversary. Maybe they have many, made from extraordinary days and quiet moments, all of them a piece of the greater whole and each worth remembering and celebrating.

“Does that mean Candlenights is finally off the list?” Kravitz asks after one particularly long, thoughtful conversation on the subject.

“You fuckin’ wish,” Taako retorts with a smug grin. “You’re not getting out of it that easy, babe.”

Kravitz just shakes his head, laughing. And then he kisses the smug grin right off Taako.

[akeshuu]

Ikerev HC

Fenrir going to the Land of Reason with MC to meet her friends

Also MC is from our time period, because a) I forgot whether she was from the 18th or 19th century and had no internet to check it and b) I’m a lazy dumbass and couldn’t stay historically accurate regarding scenery, inventions, etc. anyway.

So. EXCITED.

Alice had spent long hours talking about her friends and family back home in the Land of Reason. Fenrir knew that she loved him and her new home in Cradle, but it was also obvious how much she missed some aspects of her old life. Especially her friends.

Alice was happy most of the time, but he had caught glimpses of the shadow in her eyes whenever something reminded her of her old friends, the regret that sometimes found its way into her heart for leaving without a single goodbye.

A few months had passed and those moments had begun occurring more and more

So, of course, Fenrir decided to take matters into his own hands. He spoke with Ray and arranged for them both to be free for the next month.

When he told her that he was sending her to the Land of Reason, at first Alice was confused. Last time he had done that, it was to protect her from danger. But why this time?

“We’re going together,” he assured her. “I know you left without saying goodbye and you miss everyone from your old life. So we’re going to spend a month with your family and friends so you can assure them that you’re doing alright and see them once more. Sounds good?” When Alice just nods, overwhelmed with happiness at the thought, Fenrir smiles and embraces her.

Alice didn’t regret her decision to stay in Cradle, even for a second. But for some reason she had thought that once she had made a choice, it was final. If she decided to live in this magic Wonderland, she had to abandon her home forever.

But there was Fenrir, the love of her life, who had seen right into her heart and found a way to erase her worries and gift her with even more happiness than she thought possible.

Thus they found themselves in the garden at the next full moon, with quite more luggage than necessary. It was mostly Seth’s fault, though. At first MC had taken only a small bag with necessities, since most of her things were still in her old apartment. They only needed to get Fenrir’s stuff. But seeing how little she had planned to take for an entire month, Seth switched to panicked-big-sis mode and packed an entire suitcase in the span of mere minutes. However, he did remind her to get her friends and family gifts from Cradle, so she was grateful.

“Ready?”

“I should be the one asking. Prepared to fall into the rabbit hole into an entirely new world with no magic, where you aren’t allowed to shoot guns?”

“I’m ready for the fight of my life!”

The Land of Reason sure wasn’t as epic as he made it sound, but it was reassurance enough.

Although he hadn’t really expected the fall. Why hadn’t he expected it? Alice warned him beforehand. But boy, that didn’t make sense. She had fallen into Cradle from the sky. So why were they falling out Cradle as well? Shouldn’t they be, I don’t know, flying towards the sky or something?

Magic is weird.

It was late when they found themselves in the park, so they headed towards her old apartment for the night.

On their way, Fenrir was taking everything in and always asking questions. He knew her world was different, but it was another thing to see it for himself. “These weird rectangles all people seem to be holding. Are those the smartphones you mentioned?” “Was this fast thing the car you once told me about? It does indeed seem more comfortable than a carriage.” “Those screens are lighten up and are moving! How the hell does this work without magic crystals?”

“…I don’t actually know. I’ve always been bad at this stuff.” (same, Alice, same. Let me fall into Cradle and forget that science is a thing)

You decide to meet your friends first, because you know it’ll be easier to explain them the whole situation. (and because I only wanna write their meeting with her gang, which was meant to be a shameless self-insert with my friend group, but I got tired writing it)

After they wake up the next day, Alice texts her old friends she hadn’t used a phone in months, what is this? in their group chat, that has hundreds of missed messages, many of which aimed at her or regarding her disappearance. She ignored those for now, still feeling that ping of guilt, and asked to meet them all at their usual spot, which was a little playground with some benches, surrounded by grass. It was where they had played as kids and later on kept as a hangout spot, since barely any people went there anymore. Right after he message was sent, her friends freaked out and texted her back, mostly in all caps, asking where she had been. Alice didn’t respond for less than ten seconds, but her phone was already ringing.

“WHAT HAPPENED, GIRL? WHERE WERE YOU? IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT?” It was a bit overwhelming, but it was nice hearing her friend’s voice.

“Hey, Rhia, I promise I’m fine. I’ll explain everything later”.

Fenrir placed a soothing hand on her knee and offered a smile. He knows how much she hates making people worry and could practically feel the anxiety pouring out of her in that moment.

An hour later, they were walking towards the place. They’re still a few minutes early, but MC knew her friends well enough to guess that they’ve all talked to each other previously and decided to go early so they were all together when she arrived. Fenrir held her hand during the whole way and didn’t say a word. She had a lot on her mind and he gives her the space she needs to sort those thought out.

As she thought, the others were already waiting for them when they arrived. Two girls and one boy. Fenrir had heard about them already. They lived in the same neighborhood and had always been together. Many people had joined and left their group, but in the end, they were the four that always stayed, always chose each other before anyone else.

Until Alice had left them to live in Cradle without saying anything. From what he had heart, Fenrir was sure that they would acknowledge her happiness and understand and respect her decision. She didn’t seem that confident, though.

“We thought you had been kidnapped! Murdered even! And now you come with a boy? Did you abandon us for some stupid boyfriend?”, one of the girls, probably Rhia, from what he knew, screamed at her.

“I was actually kidnapped at one point,” argued Alice. Probably not the best way to start the conversation.

All her friends froze, not knowing whether it was one of her usual jokes or something real. Fenrir spoke up, hoping to break at least some of the tension. “Hi, I’m Fenrir. Indeed her boyfriend, but definitely not the one who kidnapped her.” And then softly, only so Alice could hear him “Do you want me to leave you alone for this?” She shook her head and so he stayed.

She started her story. She told them about meeting Blanc and falling down the rabbit hole, discovering that the fantasy land from “Alice in Wonderland” was real, albeit a bit different than the book. She told them how she was stuck there for a month, but then didn’t want to leave when she had to. Told them of the world and the armies and all her adventures there.

“Thanks for listening to everything. I don’t know if you can believe me, but I promise that-“

“Of course we believe you”, the boy, Kian, said. “We made a promise when we were kids, remember? If something supernatural happens to one of us, the others have to hear them out and believe them. Or at least believe that they believe themselves.” The last part wasn’t that reassuring, but the fact that they all remembered that silly children’s promise was all she needed. (here comes the self-insert. It’s a promise I have with my friends, because we’re all obsessed with magic and stuff and honestly, it’s the best thing)

“I do believe you” her other friend said, a girl with green hair. That must be Lena. “And I respect those little mind tricks. Letting us know how much you enjoy the world, adventures and new friends, but skipping out on all details on your boyfriend so we don’t assume you’re just ditching us for some boy”

Fenrir tensed at that. He had never thought about it that way, but her friends hadn’t been there when they had fallen in love. Of course they would assume the worst. He himself wouldn’t have believed it if someone had told him he would find another person to be his partner in crime. There had never been someone equally as important to him as Ray, until he met Alice. She was their Ray, but they had lost her for a while and didn’t know why.

“I know you’re all mad that I disappeared, but I also know that you’re worried because you care. Because of that, I wanted to assure you that I’ve got it all figured out. I’ve got an amazing home, awesome friends, a job that makes me happy and all in a world that feels more like home than anything here ever has. So you don’t need to worry about me. I’m doing it for myself, not for him. However, I do love Fenrir. I’m pretty sure I always will.”

That was enough for them to accept it. They all offered her a smile and Fenrir could almost see the tension falling off her shoulders. Keeping Cradle a secret seemed to be more of a burden to her than even he had noticed. Now, she glowed with newly discovered freedom and Fenrir could feel his heart responding to it with a wave of warmth.

Her friends had accepted Cradle and, seeing the loving looks they gave each other, their relationship as well. However, there was still much they had to know about Fenrir. And so, they took turns asking… Or rather, testing him. Luckily, he was cool with it, amused even and Alice seemed to share his feelings.

“Weapon of choice?” “Guns” *sparkling eyes* “Swords are more badass” *angry mode activated*

“Did you know that Alice loved ghost stories so much, she had a notebook where she wrote down all her favorite ones, but doodled silly ghosties around them, because they were “too scary otherwise?”, this was supposed to be a way to embarrass Alice, but eventually lead to teasing Fenrir. “Well, I might’ve skipped that part for his sake?” “What? Too embarrassed to let him know you’re scared of your own interests?” “More like, I think that even the silly ghost doodles would’ve scared the shit out of him”

“Will you protect Alice at all cost?” “I’ll always be there if she needs me, but honestly, I’m not sure she needs it. She’s so badass, even our king is scared of her at this point” *flashback to that one time Alice took all his books out of his room and used them to close off the entrance to the place where all the cats meet. No one knew how she had managed to bring that a good hundred books into the city without anyone noticing. Whoever had helped her kept silent to this day*

“Do you accept that Alice is allowed to speak and be as friendly as she wishes with whomever she wishes and you, even as her boyfriend, have no say in it?”

Alice responded before Fenrir can: “One, he knows I’m not his property and can have my own friends. Two, I’m pretty much the only girl in the whole Black Army, so if that was an issue, we would’ve had a fight ages ago. And three, even if he gets jealous sometimes, he has no right to control my friendships in anyway without being a hypocrite, because I know he and his best friend were making out in high school.”

“Wait, who told you about that?” *baby was confused, he hadn’t told her yet*

“A girl never tells her secrets” *actually, it was just a pure guess*

Yeah, her friends loved him at the end of the day. There was no need to worry this much.

Now Alice could return to Cradle without all the guilt. And who knows, perhaps they could come visit every now and then.

[we-want-mini-mini]

I’m currently listening to like, old FNAF songs because nostalgia and they’re fuckin’ bops y’all don’t @ me.

Anyways, because of this, I new prompt/oneshot came to mind. The Batfam somehow end up being kidnapped and they enter a version (of the version) of the first (or whichever game) FNAF game.

Like, say that the creator of the game was a Robotics engineer who had hopes of creating a game. So, they create this horror game, and get hella into it, so much so they wrote books, created a sort of real life version of it (miniature tho) and etc etc. Then the Dev presents the game to another branch of the company they work at and it gets shut down. They get laughed at and everything being told that the game would never succeed and etc etc. And adding onto the Developer’s tragic backstory is that they got back stabbed and got their designs stolen by a coworker and got fired for whatever reason.

Anyways, the Developer not only got humiliated, got their work stolen but they even got fired from their dream job. Resentment breeds and then they cronstructe a real life version of the game(s) they created. They went so far as to stay as close to their games lore (in FNAF the animatronics were possessed by kids, same thing applies here). So, this Creator got jilted, back stabbed and humiliated and went a bit crazy and killed a couple kids who “possessed” the animatronics (the kids could actually possess the animatronics or not, up to y’all, but let’s say in this prompt/oneshot, that they did).

Anyways, let’s say Red Hood heard about five kids from Crime Alley that went missing in the exact same location at different dates. This catches his eye and he researches it some more. The more he researches the more he finds out. For one, more then ten kids went missing at this one location (which is this kids pizzeria party hall). Jason, whose known to protect kids, especially if they’re from Crime Alley or are street kids. But, he finds these series of suspected kidnappings/disappearance of these kids really particular. Something is off and he wants to investigate it.

Switch to Red Robin’s POV were he’s out on patrol and finds crates full of various mechanical/robotic parts. He’s, rightfully so, confused as all hell and tries to investigate were the fuck these robotic parts are being shipped and who shipped them. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find anything of substance as whoever ordered these hid their tracks very well. He takes a couple of the parts to analyze back at the Batcave/the Nest. He opens a couple more crates but finds other shit, like painting equipment, marble titles, plaster and other shit that is usually used when someone is renovating a place. They all have the same markings and the like and RR is confused but starts to suspect that one of the Rogues might be up to something. He also has a theory that this might be the work of a new, and upcoming Rogue as the stuff he found doesn’t fit any of their current Rogues MO but he doesn’t ignore the possibility this might be one of their other Rogues work.

Then we switch to Batman’s POV where he was working a different case but then notices something. He notices that someone is skimming money (a fuck load of money) off of this one companies branch and no ones noticed as its covered up pretty well (but Batman caught some minor, but significant inconsistencies). He tried to track the money transcations as he’s worried one of the Rogues might be planning something or something akin to that. The more he digs, the less he can find because everything leads back to shell companies and to stuff that doesn’t exist. The trail is covered up pretty well but this is Batman, he’s the worlds greatest Detective so he manages to find out that the money is being used to buy... paint, titles, chairs, and various other household renovating items? He’s a bit confused but then thinks that this might be Mad Hatter but when he looks into all the stuff that’s being bought, it doesn’t fit Mad Hatters Wonderland Aesthetic/MO. Still, he keeps on eye on the transactions.

Cut to Nightwing & Robin out in Blüdhaven. They’re out on biweekly patrol together. It’s a rather slow night but Robin and Nightwing are having fun (and bonding ofc!). Then, at one point, when the duo stop a mugging, the lady that they saved made an offhand comment about some kids going missing. Robin’s instinct goes off and he asks the woman whats she’s talking about. The woman explains that some street kids she knew from her job at a youth center just stopped coming. She chalks it’s up to her paranoia but she thinks they might have been nabbed. Nightwing cuts in and offers to walk the woman home which they do. Robin is thinking back on the woman’s comment about a few “missing” street kids. He tries to rationalize it as these kids probably just leaving or ending up in a Dention Center but he can’t help but think about it. He remembers something RH said about street kids going missing at this one specific place. He can’t stop thinking about throughout the rest of his and Nightwings patrol. Nightwing notices that Robin isn’t very focused so he asks what wrong. Robin dances around the topic but eventually does tell Nightwing what’s on his mind.

“That woman we saved earlier said something that stuck with me.”

Nightwing raises his eyebrow. “What did she say that stuck with you?” Nightwing knew that trusting ones gut instinct is important. There’s a reason why something’s that might send alarms off. He just hoped Damian could trust those instincts.

“She offhandedly remarked about missing kids. She told us that some kids she knew from the youth center she worked at haven’t showed up in three months. I remembered, earlier something that Red Hood said about streets kids going missing from a specific location, all at varying times.”

Nightwing is a bit surprised, but he’s heard Jason talk about the case. He makes a note to investigate the missing kids in here and compare notes with Jason afterwards. He has a feeling that the missing kids in ‘Haven might be related to the one in Gotham (considering street kids are the ones going missing. That stuck out to him). He reassures Robin that he’ll investigate it, and Robin replies that he wants in. Dick sighs but let’s him (it’s be a great bonding experience! No matter how morbid in retrospect...).

Batgirl (Stephanie!) is out on patrol with Red Robin when they talk about any recent activity they’ve seen. Red Robin makes an offhand comment about how he found crates filled with house renovating shit but he couldn’t trace them back to anyone. Batgirl stops, as she remembered when two weeks back she was at the Harbor and found crates filled with tech and... house renovating stuff. Batgirl then asks Red Robin for the serial number that the crates had, he’s but confused but tells her. Batgirl then realizes, those weird ass crates she found and she couldn’t trace back were the same one Red Robin were investigating. She tells him this, and tells him that she found were one of the crates were being hauled off to. They both decide to cut patrol short (it was almost finished either way, but tonight was uncharacteristically quiet). They both head off to Red Robin’s Nest. They both exchange info about the weird ass crates and theories. Batgirl thinks that this might be the work of a new up and coming Rogue as everything she found in the crates doesn’t suit any of their current Rogues MO. Tim agrees with her, but can’t find anyone that could be their new Rogue.

Now with everyone having different cases, which are all interlocked together let’s get into...

Five Nights At Genni’s

Ft. The Batfam, the Developer, FNAF Case Fic AU, fuck canon because everyone is on pretty good terms, Lots of Dead Kids (👀), And Scary Ass Probably Possessed Animatronics!

COMING SOON!

because I’m to lazy to continue on with the prompt/oneshot but I’ll finish it don’t worry lol

Now, if anyone wants to write a whole ass AU case fix stemming from this prompt/oneshot, go ahead! I’d honestly love to read the Batfam try and piece together the FNAF lore, while within the game itself, while trying to figure who tf is doing all this shit. It’s perfect for like, writing a great case fic, an exploration of the Batfam’s relationship and the Batfam themselves. But, it doesn’t have to be serious! Like, if y’all don’t want to write the part about several dead kids and want to write a semi crack fic centered around the Batfam being within the FNAF games then go for it!

Anyone who sees this, tag your fav Batfam writer! Because I haven’t found when fics where the Batfam ever interact with the FNAF games (whether them as actual games or something like what I wrote above). I’d love to see their takes on this prompt!

[moonbeambucky]

Winter WonderLance

Pairing: Lance Tucker x Reader Word Count: 2354 Warnings: fluff

Summary: The Tuckers are in for a beautiful sight as they spend winter in the glistening snow of New York

“Bye bye Florida!” 

You waved your hands at the small window of the airplane as your children excitedly copied you.

Warm weather and palm trees would soon be traded for the bitter chill of barren, snow-covered branches that line the busy streets of New York. Ariel and Theodore were eager to go on their first airplane ride. Unfortunately, the real experience was less than exciting.

Despite pre-boarding bathroom visits Ariel needed to go again just as the plane was navigating towards the runaway. She bounced in her seat as you begged for her to hold it, hoping for a quick take off so you could fly towards the bathroom. 

It didn’t help that she insisted her mommy take her, despite your focus on attempting to try and calm a very upset Theo.

In all your travels you never gave much thought to parents flying with children. Noise blocking headphones were a lifesaver as you worked on your laptop, unaware of the frustration they were going through. 

“It’s okay Theo. Yawn, like this.”

You tried to show him how in an effort to help with the pressure in his ears but he wasn’t having it. Trying to reason with an agitated near-three year old was futile.

Over your shoulder you turned your head towards Lance, sitting in the aisle seat beside you. You couldn’t help the pout your lips formed, an expression of the mental exhaustion to come considering you had barely left Florida. 

Your hands swept across Theo’s hair as you tried to get him to lean into you but he was not having it, frustratedly kicking his legs against the back of the seat in front of him. You offered an apology to the young man that turned around glaring at your son, fighting back your urge to punch his childless self in the face. Now you had all the sympathy in the world for what parents go through.

When the plane had finally evened out its course you asked Lance to sit beside Theo as you took Ariel. 

“C’mere buddy.” Lance tried his best to hold a very fussy Theo against him and rocking to soothe the discomfort in his ears.

Obviously it didn’t work as you heard Theo’s cries from inside the cramped bathroom. 

Running your hands down your face you let out a frustrated sigh. In another week you would be returning home and you were already worrying about how Theo would handle the flight. But you know you shouldn’t be thinking about this. Your vacation has barely begun and you want to focus on all the fun the kids would be having instead. 

You hadn’t been back to New York in a few years. Amidst your previous travels you had dropped by once or twice but they were quick visits, to say hello to colleagues or sign new employment contracts. When you and Lance were deciding on where you should travel during the winter break you wanted to go all out and give the kids a new experience, and snow was certainly something new!

After washing your hands along with Ariel, you found your way back to your row, guided by the sound of Theo’s sobs. 

“I think he wants you,” Lance sighed, upset he hadn’t been able to make progress in calming Theodore.

“Daddy sit next to me!” Ariel exclaimed, bouncing as she squeezed past him to get to her seat by the window.

After a bit of musical chairs, with Lance now sitting in between you and Ariel, and Theo back in your arms, you sat up a little straighter, determined to at least stop Theo from crying. 

Lance’s attention was taken by Ariel who pulled out her bright LeapFrog learning tablet from your bag so they could read together. Sticking out from the corner of your bag was something you had forgotten about, the most beautiful sight that would help save you and Theo for the rest of the flight, goldfish crackers.

Asking Ariel to get them for you, Lance opened the package and suddenly a tiny smile pulled at the corner of Theo’s mouth as you offered one to him. Whether it was the crunching that helped or Theo was distracted by food you really didn’t care but thankfully the crying stopped.

Finally, Theo was calm as he picked goldfish out of your palm. With Lance’s assistance you were able to find a movie for Theo to watch, an animated one you could recite by heart thanks to the amount of times the kids have watched it. 

The rest of the ride went mostly smooth until it was time to prepare for landing. Ariel whined, wanting her dad to still sit next to her. Theo whined when you put him back in his seat, wanting to stay on your lap, and you and Lance smiled exhaustedly, holding back your own whines because you really want to take a nap. 

Juggling two young children was a hassle, especially trying to keep their hats and scarves bundled on, and making sure Ariel didn’t forget Teddy in the taxi because she insisted on bringing him along. 

“Teddy will be sad if we left him home alone.” You tried to reason that Teddy needed to stay home so he could watch the house while you were gone. “But that’s Oinky’s job.” Oh, of course, your mistake. 

By the time you reached your hotel you got your wish. Theo went down easy after the cry he had and Ariel tried to fight the way her lids were shutting; for your own sake you were happy she lost. 

Nuzzled against Lance’s chest, you felt his lips against your forehead before you fell asleep, waking up reenergizing to really begin your vacation. 

“Mmmm how I missed you,” you purred sensually, gently caressing the thing you longed for the most in your hand, opening your mouth with wanton need.

Lance chuckled, shaking his head. “Mommy’s silly, right?” he said to Ariel and Theo as you bit into your slice of pizza.

Maybe your kids can’t appreciate just how delicious New York pizza is compared to what’s available at home but you can and will, savoring every bite as if it was the last time you would taste the magical combination of cheese, sauce and dough.

Your phone buzzed on the table and quickly moving your half chewed food to the other side of your mouth you answered the call. 

“Hi! Yes. Okay, we’ll see you soon.”

Your boss Sue was stopping by, coming from the ESPN offices a few blocks away. She wanted to say hello while you were in town and meet the kids for the first time as she had only seen them in the pictures you’ve sent. Despite loving your job you were not going to parade the kids and Lance around the office in front of eager reporters hungry for any story. 

A tingle of bad memories ran down your spine but you quickly brushed it off, focusing instead on the happily smiles surrounding you.

“Daddy, ca’ I have a napkin?” Theo asked, placing the large slice down on his plate.

While watching the meticulous way his little hands worked to clean off sauce you heard an enthusiastic voice call your name out. Standing up, you turned to face Sue, wrapping your arms around the heavy coat that seemed to swallow her up. 

Lance greeted her as well, pulling up a chair at the end of the booth for her to join. 

Sue placed her hands against her cheeks as she smiled at your children. “Look at how big they’ve gotten!”

“Ariel, Theodore, this is my friend Susan. Do you want to say hi?”

“Hi!” Theo said with a mouthful of food. Ariel’s greeting was a bit softer as she nuzzled against her Dad feeling a little shy.

“They’re beautiful,” she said, shrugging off her coat. She wasn’t going to stay long but the heavy material was too much to bear indoors.

With some coaxing from you and Lance, Ariel opened up a bit as she and Theo told Sue all the things they’ve done so far on their vacation.

“And we saw a big tree!” Ariel stretched her arms high above her head. “It had pretty lights and a really pretty star.”

“And it was bigger than the whole world!” Theo exclaimed.

Sue’s mouth dropped open in shock. “No way! Bigger than the whole world!?” Theo nodded as he used both hands to grab his drink.

“What was your favorite thing you’ve seen so far?” Sue asked.

“Ummm, I liked the carousel!” Ariel beamed. The SeaGlass carousel in Battery Park was a favorite of yours as well.

“And who did we wave to that was near the carousel?” Lance asked, testing his children’s memory. 

Ariel concentrated as she thought and Theo honestly didn’t bother to think but you snuck him the answer anyway.

“Sta-choot of Liberty!” he giggled.

You and Lance also took the kids to a children’s museum, to the top of the Empire State Building and tonight you were surprising them with tickets to see The Lion King on Broadway.

After saying goodbye to Sue and finishing lunch, you stopped in at FAO Schwarz. The kids were mesmerized by the toy store and the giant plush animals that surrounded them but secretly Lance had been dying to visit so he could play on the giant floor piano from Big.

It wasn’t much of a secret, not by the way he practically ran towards the line that was formed beside it. Twenty long minutes were spent waiting and during that time you had to convince Lance that he needed to share the piano with Ariel and Theo.

Your phone recorded every moment of giggling joy as Lance bounced on the keys that lit with bright colors as he played “Chopsticks” accompanied by random musical notes as Ariel and Theo ran across the piano.

“You were amazing!” you said, planting a kiss on Ariel and Theo’s cheeks as you and Lance helped them back into their winter coats. “And you were adorable,” you cooed, pressing a sweet kiss on Lance’s lips, feeling him smile against you.

Central Park was covered in a blanket of white, a crystalline landscape of snow that glittered in the sunlight.

It was the day before you had to leave and you wanted to make the most of the freshly fallen weather. Bundled in layers, wrapped with scarves and thick gloves, you ventured out to play in the winter wonderland. 

“Let’s make a snowman!” Ariel declared.

You helped her gather the soft powder snow in a ball, rolling it along the unblemished landscape for it to grow larger. Lance and Theo were doing the same, sort of. 

Theo scooped up as much snow as his gloves could carry and he dropped them down onto the base Lance was attempting to form. Theo smiled as the soft flurries sprinkled to the ground. Lance crouched down, trying to show him a better way to do it as he attempted to pack more snow into the pile but Theo didn’t care.

“No, it’s this way,” he insisted, looking for the perfect patch of snow to scoop up and bring over.

His excitement may have gotten the best of him as Theo threw the snow down haphazardly, getting more than half on his dad. Lance wiped the wetness of his face against the sleeve of his coat. Another shock of cold came as Theo did it again happily “building” his snowman.

“Daddy look how big we made it!” Ariel huffed as the both of you rolled the large ball of snow back towards Lance and Theo.

“Wow Starfish that’s grea– ” Lance muffled his words as Theo excitedly threw down another pile of snow, doing so once again with terrible aim.

“Theo! Did you just throw snow at your daddy?” 

He froze, cautiously shaking his head back and forth in case you were upset. 

“C’mere Pumpkin,” you called to him.

You scooped up a small handful of snow, pressing it together into a ball and placing it in Theo’s palm. Quickly you scooped another ball for yourself. 

“This is how you throw a snowball.”

Winding your arm back, you aimed and threw the ball hitting Lance in the back as he was working on the snowman. 

“Hey!” he yelped in surprise. 

Theo threw his that hit Lance’s leg. Ariel abandoned her snowman in favor of joining the snowball fight. 

“Three against one isn’t fair!” he shouted, trying to dodge the attack.

Lance retaliated, mainly aiming for you as you laughed, running around with Ariel and Theo beside you. His cheeks were bright red as he chased you, blowing visible breaths while playfully yelling, “I’m gonna get you!”

Taking cover behind a tree you quickly bent down to make snowballs for Theo as Ariel made her own, slowly creeping around the tree to throw them at Lance but he wasn’t there. Then you felt it; the close range hit of a snowball on your backside.

The shock made you scream, and a few more rapid fire hits had you stumbling. Reaching your arm back to rub your icy buns you called for a truce and Lance dropped his frozen ammo. Ariel and Theo threw their remaining snowballs at their dad, ignoring the armistice. 

“Ow!” you laughed, still rubbing your backside. Lance offered a hand for you to stand up. “I’m definitely going to have a bruise thanks to you.”

“I’ll be happy to kiss it better,” he smirked. “Now, who wants to make snow angels?!”

“Me! Me! Me!” came the chorus of excited squeals. 

The rest of the day was spent inside the hotel, warm and snuggled together while watching movies and having hot chocolate with marshmallows. With Ariel and Theo asleep at your sides Lance leaned down to caress your lips with his in a languid articulation of love.

When he pulled away he smiled, a soft mirror of your own expression. It’s an appreciation for all the memories you’ve made on this trip that now share space in your heart with every moment of your lives together.

[tsukikoayanosuke]

Behind the Fic: TW:OPT - Chapter 63 - 66

We are four episodes in and finally wrapping of 'what in the world happens with Jonah Argentum' section of this filler arc.

I decided to lump these notes into one per section/mini-arc unlike in Jonah Argentum's Declassified School Survival Guide

I think I'm getting rusty. I forget how my note format goes XD

WARNING: This will contain a bit of spoiler for the newest chapters of my fan fiction Twisted-Wonderland: Our Precious Treasure. Click here to read the whole mini-arc from the beginning!

All of the titles of these four chapters are from the lyrics of ‘get well soon’ by Ariana Grande. Look. I searched on Google for a song about sickness and get-well-soon and this is the first thing that appeared. I don't know any song about sickness and recovery, okay?

This is sort of based on a real-life event. No, I didn't lose my hand, but I did break my left arm, more like dislocated my elbow. Right now, there are still pins in there to set it in place and this year I'm supposed to take it off but because of the pandemic and quarantine, we're kinda avoiding going to the hospital.

During the hospital stay, I had a terrible fever too and it was terrible. 

During the early draft, I was debating whether I should give Jonah a prosthetic arm or not. My reasoning can be seen here. But, in the end, I give him a new metal hand, because I think it’s the most suited result in this scenario and angst.

Said metal hand is inspired by Iron Man's gauntlet.

“Chapter 64: Just Know That There's Up and Downs and There's Drops!” and “Chapter 65: Ain't No Time to Deny It, That Is Why We Talking About It!” were supposed to be one chapter but the former filled with angst while the other is fluff, it sort of crashing, so I ended up splitting them.

Because of the splitting, the draft  “Chapter 64: Just Know That There's Up and Downs and There's Drops!” was shorter, so I wrote that entire Savanaclaw scene.

Ruggie's conflicting feelings toward Leona was actually hard to write. We see in canon that Ruggie is really loyal to Leona even after he got Thanos-ed, which is... how and why? Canon has been taking the overblot aftermath a bit too lightly in my opinion. Are we sure Ruggie has no hard feeling toward Leona who hurt him?

Idia making a prosthetic hand is a reference to his and Ortho's Personal Stories. You can see my 'research' here and here. But the thing is, Idia is a genius, surely he has some prosthetic hand laying around his workshop back when he was fixing Ortho. My only problem here is we don't get to see more interaction of Idia and Jonah, so I'm a bit worried that this came out awkward.

Ace and Deuce was supposed to appear during the Octavinelle Trio's visit that was cut. But I have to cut them because the scene is a bit too overcrowded.

Speaking of Octavinelle's visit, Jonah has his usual staredown, but this time is with Azul. You'll notice a pattern if you look back during the staredown with Riddle and Leona.

Floyd feeding Jonah to fulfill Jonah's promise back in “ Chapter 47: Conspiracy Chasers! ”

Ruggie's flashback was improvised and related to Ruggie's conflicting feelings in the previous chapter. I figure that Leona must've done something very noble that can gain Ruggie's eternal loyalty. So, saving the grandma it is.

Riddle's hug here is my favorite scene I've written between these four chapters. I just need them to hug. And not to mention, Jonah has been hugging Riddle during his recovery, now it's Riddle's turn.

“ Chapter 66: Want You To Get Better! ” is sort of started awkwardly because I really don't know who to end this?

The conversation between Crowley and Jonah was supposed to be longer with Cowley actually explaining in detail how the school works and his job. But this might be a great mystery to be solved, so I decided not to info-dump it this early. Maybe I can make the Golden Trio figure this out on their own.

Same wise, the party was supposed to be longer, with a complete argument why pineapple on pizza is a great idea. But it was cut because I can't think of an argument.

There was supposed to be an additional scene between Grim and Jonah, in fact, Grim was supposed to see the orb-vision to. However, the last-minute change I made is so Jonah be the only one who can open and see the vision. And the additional scene with Grim will appear in the future chapter.

[the-story-of-the-tucks]

Just breathe

(Alice and Alfred get to audition for a theater college! But what happens when Alfred starts to have a panic attack mid audition?

TW: descriptive panic attack

(I projected myself onto Alfred for the first time, it was fun. Shoutout to the West of words discord for screaming about theater kids! alice/alfred so much. I love every single one of y'all <3) 

Also posted on AO3 by @the_story_of_the_tucks

--

Alfred was sitting backstage while his best friend, Alice nailed her audition song.

Since they were little they always knew they would be actors someday. That dream grew into a reality when they started middle school and got into the theater program.

He remembers it like it was yesterday-

They were putting up a production of grease junior and the pair was so excited to be part of it. Sure they didn't get big roles since it was their first year but they fell in love with theater more than ever.

They started to get bigger roles until they ended up performing in the show Wonderland their senior year. Alice -of course- playing Alice and Alfred playing the white rabbit. Just like they have done so many times when they read the book.

He was so freaking proud of her for landing the leading role. Alice had an amazing voice and absolutely deserved everything.

Even now, she was on stage singing Whispering from Spring awakening to the judges who will determine if they get into this college or not.

That's why Alfred felt like he should run while he can. He did not consider himself as someone with stage fright since he could always perform in front of a crowd when he did his high school musicals.

But this was not a high school musical.

This was an audition that will determine his future. Will he get into the college of his dreams with her best friend? or will he fail at the audition and go to a normal college, leaving Alice behind and shattering his dreams?

He started to feel anxious a week before the auditions, everything became too real for Alfred.

This was not a silly high school audition were it didn’t even matter if he got ensemble or the fucking scarecrow from Wizard of Oz.

This was real life and had real life stakes. The teacher was not gonna take pity on him and cast him anyways! If he was not perfect in the audition he could kiss goodbye to his dreams.

So he started practicing a lot.

He read his song over and over again, sometimes staying past midnight and skipped meals just so he could study the lyrics.

He chose Tonight at eight from the musical She loves me. He knew it was a mouthful of a song but it also showcased his vocal range and acting skills.

“It's fitting since you always seem to be nervous about everything” Alice joked when Alfred told her which song he was auditioning with. At the moment they laughed about it but right now Alfred felt like throwing up from the nerves.

He just needed to calm down and concentrate on something else, how hard could it be?

Alice was still singing-

Her sweet but powerful voice filled the whole building and made Alfred´s heart melt. He could hear how much emotion she was putting on the song. She was not Alice at the moment; she was Wendla Bergmann, and she was fucking great at it.

-Listening... For the hope, for the new life— Something beautiful, a new chance. Hear, it's whispering, There, again…-

She held the last note at the end and then there was just silence. He heard her say her thank yous and then she ran backstage to Alfred´s arms.

“You did amazing!” Alfred smiled widely while hugging and spinning her a bit.

Alice laughed melodically “Thanks! I think the judges liked it too!” She was grinning like crazy, still having the rush from performing onstage.

They both stayed there, giggling for a few seconds as if nothing else in the world mattered but them. Then they hear Alfred's name called out on the speaker.

“Hallam, Alfred?”

He froze. He was not prepared for this! What was he even thinking? He was just going to turn around and get home just to not get humiliated in front of the judges.

Alice saw the look of panic in his face and held his hand. “Hey, hey-, you're gonna do great” she placed her hand in his shoulder to confort him “just don't get nervous, ok? you already practiced and you know everything by heart” she winked.

“Right” Alfred, nodded trying to convince himself “I’m fine- I’m not nervous at all-”

“Alfie, your hands are shaking”

“shit” Alfred held both of his hands at his chest and took a deep breath trying to calm down.

“You can do this” Alice smiled and squeezed his shoulder.

He can do this.

--

Alfred stood in front of the jury paralyzed by fear for what felt like forever but it was probably a few seconds.

“I- uh Hello” He cringed at how his voice sounded. “My name is Alfred Hallam and I will be performing Tonight at eight by the musical She loves me”

His hands were still shaking and he tried to crack his knuckles to cover it.

He squeezed his eyes shut for a few seconds and exhaled

He can do this

-I'm nervous and upset Because this girl I've never met-

He started singing, ok so far so good.

-I get to meet Tonight at eight-

He almost smiled, he was actually doing great!

-I'm taking her to dinner At a charming old cafe, But who can eat Tonight at eight?-

Alfred made the mistake of glancing at the judges' table and saw them writing something down in their notepads. shit.

Were they writing something good about him? something bad?

-It's early in the morning, And our date is not till eight o'clock tonight, And yet already I can see What a nightmare this whole day will be-

Maybe he had to get into the character a bit more? that's it! but he couldn't concentrate at all, his heart was beating too loudly and he felt the jury’s eyes burning holes at him.

-I haven't slept a wink, I only think Of our approaching tete-a-tete, Tonight at eight.-

'C’mon Alfred' he thought. 'Just fucking concentrate on the song and don’t think about the jury watching you, or your too loud beating heart, or the fact that your hands started shaking again, or-'

-I feel a combination Of depression and elation; What a state! To wait Till eight!-

Why did he feel like he was getting out of breath? did the jury notice? were they writing on their notepads again?

-Three more minutes, two more seconds, ten more hours to go!-

He felt the room getting smaller and hotter.

-In spite of what I've written, She may not be very- very-

He paused.

God, what was the word? his mind was too foggy to think and it was getting harder and harder to breathe.

“Mr Hallam?” One of the people in the jury asked “Are you alright?”

Was he? Alfred couldn't breathe at all. His hands were shaking and his heart felt like it was threatening to fall out of his chest.

“Mr Hallam, do you need a minute?”

“I uh-” He swallowed thickly, forcing himself to talk “I’m sorry-”

And with that he ran backstage.

--

Alfred managed to reach the stairs outside the theater and sit down.

His hand were still shaking and they were starting to feel numb. He tried to wipe the sweat that was dripping down from his forehead but he couldn't control his hands enough to do it.

And worst of all? He felt like there was and elephant sitting on his chest.

Alfred couldn’t help but repeat the moment in his head.

He choked in front of the jury who would decide if he went to the school of his dreams or not- He forgot a song he had known all his life and had been practicing non stop for at least a month-

All those sleepless nights were for absolutely nothing- The judges probably thought that if he got freaked out by a simple audition he will most likely get worse in an actual play or with any performance.

What was he even thinking? he’s never gonna have a future as an actor! he’d probably was gonna end up being thirty and working in an office while Alice wins her third tony award and he won’t even be able to attend to the ceremony because he’d have to do the office reports or else he’ll get fired and-

“Alfie?”

He heard a familiar voice and looked up only to face the one and only Alice spencer.

He wanted to talk, he wanted to tell her he was okay and that she didn’t need to worry or make a fuss about him but only choked sobs came out of his mouth every time he tried to explain.

“Hey hey it’s ok-” Alice tried to soothe him, she gently took Alfred’s shaky hand and squeezed it.

“Try to match my breathing, ok?” she started to inhale and exhale slowly and Alfred tried to follow suit.

They have done this many times when they were kinds, whether it be because he was having an asthma attack and couldn’t find his inhaler, a panic attack or he was just freaking out. He could guarantee that Alice was gonna be always by his side helping him breathe.

But it was not gonna be like that after college started, right?

But it was not gonna be like that after college started, right?

“I fucked it up” He whispered between shaky breaths “I- I got too nervous and I choked mid audition”

“I know” Alice just squeezed his hand tighter, eyebrows furrowed in concern.

“My future is ruined-”

“Hey, no its not” she said simply “We can go back and talk to the jury and explain you were having a panic attack”

“I-I can’t go back there! I don’t even know if they’ll even hear me and-”

“Alife” Alice looked directly at his green eyes “You’re probably not the first person who had a panic attack mid audition, they’ll understand”

“And if they don’t?”

“They will” she assured him.

Alfred was too tired to protest so he just limited himself to nod.

“After the other auditions finish we’ll go back and ask for another audition date, alright?”

Alice started ramble about her plan, it was kinda endearing.

“I don’t think i’m ready to go back just yet” Alfred said miserably

“I’ll go with you” Alice assured him “i’m not letting you face those judges alone, they’re scary”

Alfred laughed a bit “yeah, they are”

Alfred realized that no matter were they went Alice will always have his back and vice versa. It was relieving to know you have someone who will catch you if you fall and you’d have to catch them too sometimes.

They ended up talking to the judges together and agreed on scheduling another audition the next week, which gave Alfred a bit more time to go over the lyrics and prepare himself.

They both got their acceptance letters at the same time.

[ophiebot]

okay but that wonderland au is my SHIT and it’s such a wonderful wonderful idea!! No one ever knows whether Gaster is good man or bad man at any time of the year who mcfreaking knows. And all of those whacked out skeletons??? HOW whacked out can they be? 👀

So I spent like, all day thinking about this and I’ve decided on a rough layout for A.) the sketetons I wanna see in this au, and B.) their roles in the context of the world

***

Saffron (Underswap Papyrus):

I like the flowers in the original cartoon so I wanted to do something with that. Saffron is a reanimated skeleton of a dead man who was buried in the flower fields. He and hangs out in the grass and with all these flowers that whisper when the sun goes down. He’s super handy with herbs and creating different sorts of medicine or drugs. Generally can be found smoking his own blends and lazing about, in a generally lackadaisical mood. He holds a certain respect from his peers (monsters and other underland locals in the forests) for his botanical skills and immunity to some of the very dangerous or poisonous flora that inhabit Underland.

Tab (Classic Sans):

Tab is a sub for the Cheshire Cat. In this AU he’s a shapeshifter who’s preferred form to take is a fat lazy (and surprisingly lithe) cat. His default form is a stout skeleton man and his powers are slightly limited due to a mysterious injury (blow to his HP) which prevents him from having more then these two forms. However, the injury also gave him the ability to effectively glitch through the world. Walk through walls, teleport, disappear into thin air, things like that. With this power tab can almost literally be in two places at once and has the low down on practically everyone’s business. He knows way more then he’ll let on. Very mysterious but ultimately a helpful ally.

Red (Underfell Sans):

I think his default au name might work well for this AU too? Red is also a shapeshifter but he’s considerably more powerful then tab in that area. He likes to take the shape of large and vicious animals when he does turn (lion, bear, even ...rarely.... a dragon). But he does not have the same glitch power that Tab does. Hes the estranged brother of the red king and spends his time drinking way too much special elixir at a pub in a run down and dangerous corner of underland as far from the red kings palace as he could get.

Edge (Underfell Papyrus):

So again with the nickname I can’t think of something better so I’ll stick to the tried and true. Edge is Red’s OTHER estranged brother who stayed back at the palace and became a knight under their oldest sibling who is the red king. He mostly does a lot of his physical dirty work and occasionally seeks out red to try and aggressively convince him to come back. He’s stressed.

Diablo/ The Red King/ The King of Hearts (Underfell Gaster):

Diablo is a power hungry mad king who has a bit of a thing for public executions. Not often of course but when the time calls for an execution you’ll bet your ass it’s going to be right before the eyes of the fearful public. He’s a quiet and terrifying type and has held rule over the land for about a few decades. He’s been studying a prophecy for what appears to be the end of the world as they know it in Underland...but he knows better. (Spoilers if I go on)

Bellos (Horrortale Sans):

Now this guy is a real mystery. He was lined up for execution but when the time came....and his head rolled off....he didn’t dust. He blinked. And suddenly and violently tore himself from the guillotine, grabbed his no longer attached skull. And ran off, narrowly avoiding the guards as he slashed his way out. There was shouting and confusion....but he escaped. And he made it to the edge of the kingdom to the dark forests. He roams there now. Just another anomaly to add to the list. A glitch.

***

So yeah anyway if you guys want I have headcanons about this storied MC. The aforementioned “prophecy” and all kinds of other shit for this au. Hit up my ask box I think I might write something for it. But I’m currently working on some art!

Oh also! Classic gaster our mysterious benefactor.... I have a lot of thoughts on this au haha I forgot to add some stuff

[liskantope]

Some not-so-brief reactions to major Disney films 1968-1988

A little while ago I wrote another collection of quick commentaries on major Disney films (which I’m watching one by one through Disney+) from their inception with Snow White in 1937 to The Jungle Book in 1967. I was planning to round off my next collection at another 30-year mark, but the little mini-reviews I’ve been writing are beginning to look so long-winded in aggregate that tonight I decided maybe I should stop at this point. Also, last time, without fully being aware of it, I stopped at the end of what is considered Disney’s Silver Age (coming after Disney’s Golden Age, also included in the last set of commentaries), and apparently 1968 to 1988 is considered Disney’s (Bronze and/or) Dark Age (the Disney Renaissance kicking off with The Little Mermaid in 1989), so there’s another reason it makes sense to cut it off here.

I’ll keep watching the major Disney features, one a day, through the 90′s works, but whether I’ll find time to keep writing about my impressions of each film I watch, I can’t guarantee anything.

The Aristocats, 1970

This is a beloved favorite of mine. I got the video in later childhood, having previously admired the main number “Everybody Wants To Be a Cat” (still the highlight of the movie, from my adult point of view) and having read the story in a Disney book. After seeing it many times in childhood, I rewatched it only a few years ago when it showed up on Netflix. Around that time (or maybe just afterwards), I noticed that my favorite cartoon/Disney reviewer YouTuber Phantom Strider occasionally mentions that he dislikes The Aristocats -- he doesn’t put it on his top 10 worst Disney movie list or anything, but he’s made some disparaging remarks without going into detail. Watching it once again this month on Disney+, my verdict is that, yeah, it’s subpar in quite a few ways, but my more critical adult sensibilities will never override the fond feelings I have for this movie.

Since this is the next movie on the list after The Jungle Book, I couldn’t help constantly comparing the two, and I did see some parallels. In both cases, the story is pretty weak: this time, a family of cats gets kidnapped and stranded far from home by the greedy butler villain and have to pass through several adventures to get back to their owner. In both cases, the plot is a very linear one involving small adventures and minor characters having little bearing on the overall arc (this is perhaps slightly less the case with The Aristocats, where the new acquaintance Thomas O’Malley stays with them the whole time, and at least Scat Cat’s gang makes a return at the end -- minus the unfortunate and entirely unnecessary character of the Chinese cat -- to fight for the protagonists). In both cases, the voice acting is great and includes Phil Harris and Sterling Holloway. In both cases, the villain’s motives are rather flimsily stated -- the butler villain is more comical and slightly more rounded out, and the fact that his motive doesn’t make a lot of sense is perhaps meant to be part of the comedy. The Aristocats has far more filler material, including a useless but somewhat amusing and ultra-cartoonish sideplot about our butler villain losing his hat and umbrella and having to return to the countryside to get them (it’s more amusing than it sounds, trust me).

The Aristocats is simply weaker in almost every way than The Jungle Book. Although I like all the music, including “Scales and Arpeggios” which I only just learned was written by the Sherman Brothers and I appreciated a lot as a kid who practiced the piano every day, the only truly memorable song was “Everybody Wants To Be a Cat” (not written by the Sherman Brothers), whereas in The Jungle Book there are multiple numbers of that caliber written by the Sherman Brothers at nearly the top of their form. This film can also be compared to One Hundred and One Dalmatians and again comes out looking worse -- Dalmations sort of perfected the whole “animals coordinating a rescue” type plot, and The Aristocats only seems to make a feeble attempt at it.

One interesting thing about the pacing of the film that as an adult I’m a bit taken aback by is how quickly the ending of the movie runs. I was shocked when I rewatched this for the first time as an adult on Netflix, got to the ending of “Everybody Wants To Be a Cat”, and saw that there were only 15 minutes of running time left: that includes the late-night discussion between the romantic leads, the arrival at their home, Edgar re-kidnapping them, Roquefort going for help and nearly getting himself killed by Scat Cat’s gang, the whole action sequence of the actual rescue, a final scene with Madame welcoming O’Malley and rewriting the will, and the final song. We don’t even get to see Madame’s reaction at seeing her beloved cats alive and well, which is one of the ways this movie compares unfavorably with Dalmatians. There is some real artistry in The Aristocats, but the amount of effort put in is clearly not up to the standard of Disney’s finest.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks, 1971

I mainly knew this movie through the song “Beautiful Briny Sea” growing up. Eventually I did watch the film one time; I also read the book it was based on (I can’t remember which came first). I remembered very little outside of that one song, the fact that the characters travel in a bed, and David Tomlinson (who I knew well as Mr. Banks) being in it as an jarringly un-Banks-like character. I had entirely forgotten the fact that the story takes place during World War II and that this is crucial to the plot. I knew this as the Disney movie that tried to be Mary Poppins and failed to be anywhere near as exciting or resonant. However, I was still very curious to rediscover, two decades later, what the movie was really all about.

The story is really quite good on a level that appeals to grownups as well as children -- not as deeply as Mary Poppins, mind you, but distinctive and captivating. (I think this has something to do with the story being as much to do with the adult characters as with the children.) The acting is also solid. It only increased my respect for David Tomlinson’s versatility as an actor, in fact, and it was fun to see the likeness of the dignified and proper George Banks display so much awkward vulnerability and eventually get himself into so many slapstick situations. Unfortunately, the only memorable song is “Beautiful Briny Sea” -- I mean that quite literally, as sitting down to write this a couple of weeks after watching, I’m finding it hard to remember much about any of the other songs.

Also unfortunately, the song “Beautiful Briny Sea” is sort of a beacon in a murky area as, halfway through the film when we switch to the animated portion, the movie suddenly gets... quite bad. The live-animation hybrid is consistently done to weak effect, first of all. For some reason, only Mary Poppins made this effect believable, ahead of its time. Secondly, I understand that we have to suspend our disbelief to enjoy a children’s fantasy film, but having the group plunged into water without themselves or their book appearing wet or having any issue breathing is pushing this a bit far. Thirdly, the writing gets rather silly. As soon as they come across an animated codfish who welcomes them to the area, the oldest kid Charles (always the skeptic) says, “Now I’m hearing things! Fish don’t talk.” Nor do fish “walk” along the bottom of the sea with a cane while fully clothed and smoking a cigar, Charlie, so what was your first clue that you’re in a story where things you thought impossible are happening?

The whole crew later gets up onto the animated island of Naboombu, where Mr. Banks Professor Browne is forced to referee a soccer game between teams of anthropomorphic animals as part of his efforts (somehow) to get his hands on the lanyard of the island’s arrogant monarch (who rather resembles Prince John from the next film on this list) which winds up evaporating as soon as they get back to their own world anyway. The ensuing soccer match is by far the most bizarre part of the film, or of any of these films really -- it feels much more like some wacky Saturday morning cartoon than Disney animation. Browne the referee winds up getting (literally) dragged into the game; the live/animation hybrid is done especially poorly here. Once the characters get back to the “real” world, however, the movie becomes good again, with a fantastic climactic conclusion that left me smiling at the overall effect of the film despite its weaknesses.

Robin Hood, 1973

This was a Disney classic that we owned from the time I was fairly small, and that I watched more times than almost any other one, with Alice in Wonderland being the only possible rival I can think of. I went what was probably close to a twenty-year period without seeing it or missing it until a couple of years ago, on a transatlantic flight when it was one of the movie options on the plane. I was taken aback on that rewatching by the fact that... Robin Hood just isn’t that good. When I later saw my parents (I think this was on the way to visiting them), I told them of this revelation, and they told me, “We never thought it was that good either, but you seemed to like it.” I guess I can see some of the appeal to my much younger self, but less easily than I can see the appeal of the some of the other so-so films like The Aristocats -- there is something about Robin Hood that is eye-catching on the superficial level but ultimately shallow. At the same time, I’ll always have to feel a bit sentimental about this one because of the role it played in an early period of my life, introducing me to words like outlaw and in-law and taxes (I vividly remember thinking in early watchings that Taxes was just the name of the unpleasant wolf character), helping to develop my understanding of what poverty looks like, and also introducing me to the concept of political satire (under an anti-free-speech monarchy no less. The scene shown in the video just linked is my favorite scene of the movie, by the way.)

I think my main criticism of Disney’s Robin Hood could be summarized by saying it oversimplifies what could have been a nuanced story, way more than it needs to. This shows most starkly in its clearly-marked division between good characters and evil characters. Naive Good-vs.-Evil plots are very much part of the Disney brand, but I can’t think of any of their other films which takes that aspect to this much of an extreme in developing the characters, so that the entire cast is very openly divided between the white caps and the black caps and (this is the most important part) to the detriment of individuation between the characters. The personalities of all the characters on the Good Side seem pretty much interchangeable throughout the film. Oh sure, Robin Hood has Plucky Hero stamped on him with Designated Sidekick Little John, and Maid Marian has Love Interest stamped on her, and so on. They get into different situations because they all play different roles in the community. But there are no deeper differences between them. Friar Tuck, for instance, is the local religious leader, and you think he might present a more thoughtful, pacifistic, and spiritual point of view to his comrades and enemies. But no, he shouts at the Sheriff and chest-bumps him out of the church and engages him in physical combat just like all the other characters do. All of the people on the Good Side are in complete lockstep throughout, and this makes their part of the story deeply uninteresting.

King Richard is never developed as a character; he is a faraway abstract entity throughout the film, which makes his sudden appearance at the end (which is what really saves Nottingham and finishes the story) very ineffective. (Let’s not get into the fact that he’s described as heroic for going off to participate in the Crusades -- “While bonny good King Richard leads the great crusade he’s on” -- talk about sugarcoating history!) This is part of what I mean about oversimplifying: they could have injected some complexity into the political story beyond “usurper taxes all the money out of the people because of his personal greed until the real king returns and makes everything lovely again”. I strongly believe it is possible to present real issues in a way that is both mature and engaging to children and that it has been done even in other Disney features. Disney didn’t try very hard to do it here.

I’ll give the writers credit in that the three main bad guys, Prince John, Sir Hiss, and the Sheriff of Nottingham, are somewhat individuated, partly I think out of necessity because the Bad Side of any story has to consist of people who quarrel amongst themselves. Prince John is actually well enough developed as an insecure, petulant child with no idea what it means to lead a country that I enjoy watching him even as an adult. The parallels between him and President Trump are unmistakable, and I’m surprised that I haven’t seen more memes about this. Still, by the end of the film, even he was starting to wear on me.

Another aspect of the movie that bypassed my attention as a child but bothers me as an adult is its blatant American-ness in retelling a very old, extremely British story. As in One Hundred and One Dalmatians, all of the accents, except for those of two of the main bad guys, are American. The rooster narrator of the story sounds particularly American and plays folk music throughout of a style that strikes me as the epitome of American.

The way the script and animation deal with bodies and obesity is particularly interesting in this one. Four of the characters I can think of are portrayed as fat, including one of the main bad guys (the Sheriff “Old Bushel-Britches” of Nottingham) but also three of the good guys. Minor quips are made about this by some of the characters, but overall it could arguably be considered a rather positive, good-natured treatment of this issue for its time. It is the source of some physical humor, and some of the body-related physical humor in general slightly raises my eyebrows as an adult -- there is a boob grab, for instance (well, fake boobs as part of a disguise, but still).

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, 1977

I had avoided watching any Disney rendition of Pooh for a long time before watching this one last week. I got to see a lot of Pooh in earlier childhood because of videos given as gifts by other kids’ parents, which my mom (who loves the original books by Milne and hates Disney’s interpretation of them) let me watch only with great reluctance. I soured to the Disney Pooh franchise as I got older and remember in high school getting sick of how many things were decorated with animated Pooh characters, and how few people knew the original books.

Starting to watch this film, I had no idea which of the Pooh stories would be included or whether I would remember seeing them before. As it turned out, I remembered almost none of it: I knew the theme song well and was slightly familiar with the early song about Pooh climbing the honey tree (it must have been on one of the Disney Sing-Along videos) but didn’t remember anything else until vaguely recalling some of the later Tigger stuff (I remembered, before it happened, that Tigger escapes from the tree by sliding down a paragraph of text in the book, one of many instances of extreme fourth-wall-breaking that runs as a theme throughout). As it happens, although The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh seems to go along pretty smoothly given that it makes no pretense of having a unified story arc -- something I give it credit for -- it is actually composed of four short films produced throughout the decade beforehand. This explains why I only remembered the Tigger stuff near the end: we must have had the quarter-length film Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too at my house for a while, but not the other three. (What I actually watched the most, I think, was a video of TV episodes called “Newfound Friends”, which I’ll look up on Disney+ out of curiosity but probably won’t include in this list.)

I remain anti-Pooh[Disney_version], but this anthology film wasn’t as bad as I had thought it might be. The first story about Pooh and the honey tree was actually pretty good. I am not opposed to Sterling Hollaway’s portrayal of the title character. Eeyore’s voice is way too flat, but otherwise most of the characters are portrayed okay. I distinctly remember reading Rabbit as a female character as a kid, and on hearing his voice again I suppose I can understand why. Tigger is the most offensively adapted: he is one-dimensional in a very obnoxious, not-so-amusing slapstick way. His portrayal would have come off better if they had given him more of a child’s voice, which is more appropriate to the book version of his character anyway. The gopher character is pretty annoying as well; he’s rather useless and unnecessary given that he’s not in the books (he even has a fourth-wall-breaking line about not being in the book). Some of the stories from the book are meshed together in a way that does a disservice to each of them, and the movie might have been better if it had committed to adapting fewer of Milne’s chapters. The story about Pooh getting stuck in Rabbit’s front door is done in a distasteful way, with Rabbit turning the back half of his body into part of the upholstery (an idea that Walt Disney had himself when he first read the book!). The songs weren’t great, and I wish that some of Pooh’s poetry from the books had been adapted to song instead.

Leaving those details aside, this is an earnest attempt at turning Pooh into an animated feature which turned out to be not too terrible given my low expectations.

The Rescuers, 1977

I remember watching this once as a kid and almost nothing sticking with me apart from the fact that the main villain (who I remembered nothing about, not even really the gender) had two pet crocodiles. I watched it a second time on Netflix a few years ago, I think within the same week of watching The Aristocats on Netflix.

I have one word for this Disney animated classic: weak. The story is not all that interesting. Having watched Dalmatians and The Aristocats in the few weeks before hand, coordinated animal rescue plots were starting to wear on me. There is no music except for a few forgettable songs not sung by the characters. Eva Gabor makes Ms. Bianca a beguiling character, but the rest of the characters are completely forgettable. The main male character, Bernard, has the blandest voice ever. Even the little girl being rescued, while sympathetic, is not very unique or interesting. (There is something subtly heavy and haunting about having her teddy bear as her best friend through most of the film, though.) At the time of writing, I’ve already halfway forgotten what the villain’s sidekick was like. There are a bunch of other animals who are fun to watch in animation but don’t stick in my mind, apart from Pat Buttram’s drunken rat character (because it wouldn’t be a Disney film of the 40′s-80′s without some alcoholism in it).

The villain, Medusa, is a particular fail here. She is basically a lame Cruella de Vil 2.0: modern, non-fairy-tale-ish, greedy and materialistic, drives like a lunatic, etc. After watching, I found out that the story writers initially thought of simply bringing Cruella back as the villain in this movie, but decided against the idea of it being in any way a sequel to Dalmatians (remember that at this point no Disney sequel had ever been done -- the 1990 sequel to this film was the very first!). I think they should have gone with that idea: bring back one of the most celebrated Disney villains, rather than come up with a new one who is a lot like her but with subtly less pizazz.

Random observation: this has to be one of the only classic Disney stories where the animals can talk to exactly one sympathetic human (the girl) but no other human. If I remember right, I don’t think even Cinderella can understand the words of her mouse friends.

Anyway. Some people say the sequel is much better than the original here. I haven’t seen The Rescuers Down Under yet, but I hope it’s true.

Pete’s Dragon, 1977

This is the first movie on this whole journey that is so obscure that I don’t think I’d even heard of before, let alone seen, and that’s despite the fact that there was a remake in 2016. (The one thing that rang a bell for me while watching was the idea of a dragon playing tic-tac-toe on its belly, an image I possibly saw in an isolated context.) I questioned whether I should watch yet another 1977 Disney film at all, when it would be mostly live-action and was obviously so obscure. In the end, I’m glad I watched this, partly because the story did grip me on some level, but mostly because this film is so very entertaining in how badly done it is.

Pete’s Dragon, in almost every way, is bad -- hilariously bad -- the sweet spot of Bad: the kind of bad that’s actually interesting to examine and yet also shallow enough to make for good Bad Movie Night watching. It’s hard to know where even to begin. The consistently terrible acting of almost everyone, especially in every single line of the boy protagonist (I hate to trash a child actor like this, and part of it was probably bad direction: for instance, someone should have taught him to go easy on the pointy finger). Almost none of the right emotional notes are hit at the right time in what is a very heartfelt story. Only Helen Reddy as the female lead and Jim Dale as the charlatan doctor strike me as good actors doing the best they can with a terrible script and bad acting around them. Then there are the cheesy, poorly-written, often poorly-sung songs. (Did I mention that in one song, each of Pete’s main abusive guardians continue to sing, each in an unperturbed, full-throated voice while being flung in the air by an invisible dragon and plunged into the water?) The awkward choreography. The weak visual effects (as with Bedknobs and Broomsticks, they really didn’t know how to pull of hybrid animation well. I’d go easier on them for this if Mary Poppins hadn’t nailed it 13 years earlier.) I could go on and on.

It made a lot of sense to me when I read afterwards that Pete’s Dragon was originally written as a stage musical, because there is something unusually stage-musical-ish about how the songs are written (for instance, having subsets of the ensemble throw out response lines in unison) and the way the choreography is done. I’ll say as someone who has been in stage musicals that these elements can feel a bit awkward even on the stage; they look to me more awkward in the medium of film; and they’re especially awkward when the songs, choreography, etc. is as poorly written as it is in this film -- someone who hates musicals wanting to teach a friend to hate them too might well choose to show their friend this movie and pretend that it’s a representative example.

Even through all this, I was able to appreciate that the story is pretty good, and I came to care for the sympathetic characters, however badly acted they were. I also enjoyed the atmosphere of a small coastal village in northeast US (called Passammaquoddy, apparently a real bay in Maine). So, by the time I was partly through watching this (fairly long) movie, I felt very committed to continuing, enjoying it as I was just as much for its entertaining badness as for anything else.

I want to end by mentioning one musical scene in the movie that took me by surprise because it was actually good, and funny and catchy and overall entertaining. It’s our introduction to the charlatan Dr. Terminus, and so it’s self-contained. If you want a taste of a part of the movie that I think is head and shoulders better than the rest while reflecting exactly what I mean by a stage-musical-style musical number (not making any claims about how good in absolute terms this scene is, though), here is a YouTube video of it (the song “Passammaquoddy”) (warning: mildly off-color taste on body type and disability stuff). I would actually enjoy leading a song like this in a musical.

The Fox and the Hound, 1981

These more obscure Disney films are getting more and more interesting. I distinctly remember knowing about this one as a kid, seeing VHS boxes of it at friends’ houses, etc., but I never had much interest in actually seeing it. I watched it for the first time on Disney+ with great curiosity, coming in knowing literally nothing about what the story would be about except “a fox and a hound are friends”. I was pleasantly taken aback by the new setting of backwoods American farmland and by unusually quiet, low-key tone.

The main thing I can say about this movie is that it’s far and away the least Disney-ish of the animated ones I’ve seen so far. If nobody had told me which company made this movie, it would never even occur to me that it was done by Disney, except for the presence of Disney icon Pat Buttram’s very recognizable twangy voice (perfect for this movie, not really appropriate for the setting of Robin Hood). It’s hard to explain just why I feel this way. Maybe it’s something to do with the pacing and the sort of quiet story. Or maybe it’s the fact that none of the animals seem to be drawn in the traditional Disney fashion (that is, we’ve seen fox and owl characters before in Disney, and for some reason their counterparts in The Fox and the Hound aren’t recognizable to me.) Or maybe it was the almost complete lack of songs. Honestly, trying to write this, I can’t quite pin down what made this a slightly offputting Disney-watching experience.

Despite feeling affection for the characters from the get-go, I actually found myself rather bored throughout the first half of the slowly-progressing movie. Then I perked up in the middle, actually thinking there might be a death, and of a rather morally ambiguous character too (this didn’t feel like a Disney film, so it might break the rules?). After that I felt enthralled to the point of breaking down and finishing it after having previously decided to leave a bit left over for the next day. I’m really not used to not having any idea how stories will end when going through Disney movies, and I guess I couldn’t handle even that small bit of suspense.

In the end, I thought the story, and how the story was rendered, was pretty good -- not stellar, but genuine. I don’t know about how overly-neatly everything was wrapped up with the main antagonist Amos Slade doing a complete 180 at the end, but after all this is Disney even if it doesn’t particularly feel like it and I shouldn’t be surprised at a happy ending.

Random side note: I wonder if Big Mama (the owl character) could be criticized as sort of an African-American stereotype and thus what Disney+ would call an “outdated cultural depiction”, or if it will be in another ten years.

The Black Cauldron, 1985

We continue with our sequence of more obscure Disney flicks. I guess this era is called the Dark Age of Disney for a reason, and one could say that this movie epitomizes such an era both in its role in the evolution of Disney and in its actual content. I don’t recall even hearing about this one as a child. I’ve heard it referred to as an adult only in the context of its successor being advertised as fun to provide a contrast with the overly-dark box office failure that had just come out, so I came in expecting a not-very-worthwhile movie that would be uncharacteristically dark and un-fun.

All I can say is, wow! The Black Cauldron, while indeed uncharacteristically dark (in ambiance at least, less so in subject matter), is genuinely, seriously good!

Within literally the first two seconds of the film, I knew that I was in a Medieval setting (not having known anything whatsoever about the story prior to watching) both from the music and from the backdrop. This remained the case throughout the movie. Everything in its style is boldly, wholeheartedly Medieval, not like some other Disney movies where the Medieval setting is watered-down and phony *cough*swordinthestone*cough*robinhood*hack. The only other movie on this list so far which comes close to succeeding at this was Sleeping Beauty, but that is such a different type of film, with such a different animation style, that comparing the two is like comparing apples to oranges. Honestly, I don’t think that the flavor is so thick even in Sleeping Beauty. The art of The Black Cauldron actually feels closer to that of Magic the Gathering than anything else I can think of from Disney. The effects of the animation are absolutely gorgeous -- in a rather dark way, mind you, not bright and colorful like what is usually associated with Disney.

The story is complex by Disney standards and I had zero familiarity with it beforehand, so for the first time I actually had to check myself to make sure I was paying attention. The characters are reasonably developed with engaging dialog (though slightly hesitant and sparse, with unusually little humor). It was a little jarring to hear “the Forbidden Forest” mentioned by one of the characters and remember that Harry Potter wouldn’t be around for over a decade. The main villain is one of the scariest ones of Disney and I would imagine may have been somewhat influenced by Ian McDiarmid’s Emperor, who had made his debut only a couple of years earlier.

I said that the last film on this list seemed distinctly un-Disney-ish, and I can say the same about this one in its own way -- maybe this was an experimental trend at Disney studios during the first half of the 80′s. The Black Cauldron has even less music in it than The Fox and the Hound and may be the only animated feature I’ve seen here with nothing resembling a song at all. One strong impression I got throughout, especially when the dungeon sequence started and the princess was introduced -- and this isn’t exactly a compliment -- is that something about the pacing, dialog, body movements, etc. seriously makes this movie feel like I’m watching a video game. (For personal context, I’ve never been a gamer, and most of my exposure to video games comes from watching college roommates play during the late 00′s.) I can’t justify exactly where I get this feeling. Also, the princess is strangely voiced and feels particularly like a non-player (video game) character somehow. I’m now curious as to whether there have ever been any games based on this movie or whether it had faded too much into oblivion by the time gaming reached the right level of progress.

Anyway, The Black Cauldron may not be especially fun or enjoyable to kids, but for an older person in the mood for some spooky Medieval fantasy animated entertainment, I recommend it as a fine movie.

(Fun trivia: I had believed that the successor on this list was the first animated feature to use computers to assist in animation, in the clock/gear sequence, but apparently this one actually was. Also, to date it was the most expensive animated film created.)

The Great Mouse Detective, 1986

Now for a classic that I had been greatly looking forward to. We didn’t have The Great Mouse Detective at my home growing up, but I know I saw it a number of times and later remembered liking it so much that on a whim in college, around the time I revisited Mary Poppins, I borrowed it from the local Blockbuster. I distinctly remembering feeling a little sheepish checking it out, but the young guy at the register actually said something like, “Yeah, that’s one of the best ones.” Years later, one of my best friends during graduate school was hanging out at my place and the conversation went to us agreeing on how excellent The Great Mouse Detective is and musing over the fact that nobody ever seems to talk about it, and we decided to watch it together as it was on Netflix at the time. We didn’t bother to log out of my roommate’s Netflix account to watch it, and he was later very irritated at me about the fact that Netflix was now constantly offering him children’s animated features. Anyway, it seems I’m far from the only one who has often viewed this one as perhaps the most underrated Disney classic of all time. (Further evidence: it comes second in WatchMojo’s list, with their winner being its predecessor!)

The Great Mouse Detective was billed as “All new! All fun!” to assure audiences that it would be a departure from the heavy seriousness of its predecessor, and in this it generously delivers all the way through. It’s based on the just-silly-enough-to-be-delightful premise that in late Victorian London there was a mouse version of Queen Victoria living in Buckingham Palace and a mouse version of Sherlock Holmes (our title character) living under the human Holmes’ flat in Baker Street. Our villain, the dastardly Ratigan, is hatching a plan to take over all of Mousedom via a plot which is incredibly silly, but the movie, which is consistent in its unpretentiousness, is able to pull this off just fine. All of the characters are nicely fleshed out (there’s a case to be made about Fidget’s character reflecting ableism but let’s leave that aside). Ratigan is the juiciest villain we’ve seen since Cruella de Vil. The plot is actually pretty complex, not at all like the predictable fairy tale / fantasy type plots we’ve often seen, yet not so complicated that it would lose the audience (or if it loses some kids, they will still be entertained by the great voicing, music, and animation). The action is, bar none, the very best I’ve seen so far on the animated movies of this list, and the movie is somehow packed with action -- every single sequence of it is superb, and the climactic scene inside of Big Ben is a revolutionary masterpiece of animation (by the standards that existed at the time). The abrupt transition to that scene, beginning in near-silence, is one of the more delightfully, deliciously chilling Disney moments for me.

This is not one of the great Disney musicals, but all three of its three musical numbers are still very enjoyable. I remember learning in college that the same person wrote “The World’s Greatest Criminal Mind” and “Goodbye So Soon”, but I only just now internalized that the composer was Henry Mancini who I love from The Pink Panther and Victor Victoria. There is a certain type of wit and humor in the lyrics of both of those songs which I don’t know how to characterize in words except to say that it’s sprinkled with phrases either containing self-contradictons (“You’re the best of the worst around”, “You’re more evil than even you”) or redundancy (“No one can doubt what we know you can do”) or just plain wordplay (“Even meaner? You mean it?”, “With time so short I’ll say so long”). None of it makes a pretense of being extremely witty or anything; it’s just mildly dry. I don’t know what to call this kind of humor and can’t think of another example of it, but it consciously (though subtly) influenced the vibe I was going for with the section headings in certain of my earlier Wordpress essays.

Perhaps Lady and the Tramp can make a case for winning the Most Underrated Disney Animated Feature prize, as it seems more mature and elegant, but I’m not ashamed to say that I find The Great Mouse Detective every bit as enjoyable and that I still have enough inner child in me that I can rewatch the movie in my early 30′s and come out of it smiling broadly.

Oliver and Company, 1988

The first major Disney feature that came out in my lifetime! As with The Fox and the Hound, I always knew about this one growing up but was never really interested enough to watch it (even despite the fact that it was somehow loosely based on Oliver Twist, whose musical adaptation I was raised on pretty heavily) -- at least, I don’t think I ever saw any of it until one day in my young adulthood cable days when I caught it on TV. By “caught it on TV”, of course I mean that I probably didn’t see all of it, and it was interrupted by commercials and I was probably doing something else at the same time and not paying much attention. Literally the only thing I could remember was the line “Don’t want to mix with the riffraff?”

It’s just as well because in the grander progression of Disney creations, Oliver and Company turns out to be pretty skipable. Now I will say that I appreciate the variety of locations and cultural backdrops in Disney films and the amount of effort the creators put into carrying them out (something that was mostly lost on me as a kid). In this case, we are transported for the first time to contemporary New York, and it’s clear that the writers, voice actors, and animators went full throttle on making everything seem as in-your-face New-York-ish as possible. I don’t fault them for doing this, but it’s all done in a slightly brash way that doesn’t at all attract me to late-80′s New York culture.

I was struck in the first few minutes by a change I don’t quite know how to describe in words, except to say that the animation and even more the music feel palpably distinctly more modern than anything I’ve visited so far. The animation is simpler and more generic (luckily I have a fondness for kittens and they do succeed in making Oliver look adorable, but otherwise the visuals left me cold), and the music is a sharp reminder of the blander forms of pop music I remember growing up hearing. “Why Should I Worry?” triggered a recognition of the song that I had long forgotten -- apparently I used to know it very well but I’m not entirely sure how. The other songs are forgettable enough that I’ve already forgotten them. Interesting to find out that the principal voices were done mainly by Billy Joel and Bette Midler, marking another step on Disney’s road towards featuring more big-time celebrities in their voice acting (culminating in Robin Williams’ role in Aladdin several years later).

The story is very watered down compared to either the book or the musical version of Oliver -- understandable, I suppose, but I didn’t find it very interesting. The characters were lackluster, and the main villain Sykes managed to be even more forgettable than What’s-her-name from The Rescuers. This movie normalizes hitting on women by making catcalling noises, as done by two of the non-evil characters -- I wonder if this was put in because it’s considered a distinctive feature of New York culture, but either way I found its presence in the film obnoxious. I will say that the character of Georgette (played by Midler) stood out as very funny, and I enjoyed all of her scenes, but I don’t have much else positively positive to say about this one.

[narrators-journal]

Into Wonderland part 8

All of this is prone to massive changes

   Luna did eventually go to sleep, waking up in the late morning out of the habit of being a maid. She would've gone back to sleep after she remembered she didn't have to work that day, but just as she was rolling over to snuggle back into her plush pillow she remembered where she was, and that Nico couldn't be trusted to keep to himself if she wasn't around to be his filter. So, begrudgingly, she threw open her canopy and scanned over her room with her tired green eyes.     It still looked like a lifeless display room, generalized pictures on the walls, impeccably cleaned without even Luna's clothes on the floor from her changing into pajamas, because she hadn't, and little to no other sign of life, not even a blonde hare with an attitude sitting in the chair that was pushed into one of the corners of the room. That earned a relieved sigh as the ravenette got up and straightened her clothes and hair before heading out to get breakfast.      When she got down to the kitchen, Nico was already at the table, chatting with a woman dressed in an elegant gown of red with hair of a darker, slightly browner crimson.      "Uhhh, hey Nico? Who's that?" she asked, watching her brother turn to her and smile brilliantly,      "Oh cool! you're up at last, Luna, this is Queenie, she's my Guardian!" he explained, making the elegant woman scoff airily,    "I'm a Guardian, not yours." she corrected with a sniff, but Nico ignored that, just smiling and gesturing for his sister to say hi, and knowing he wouldn't leave her alone about if she didn't, Luna greeted Queenie with a small wave and a hello. she got a disdainful look and a huffy wave in response. She sensed the pompous Guardian and her would not get along.      Despite that, Luna sat by her brother and did try to be at least polite to the woman while she ate the food some servants gave her. Meanwhile, Bacchus sat nearby, chatting animatedly with Lucy about his own things, which Luna didn't listen to, she had already pushed some of his buttons the night before, she didn't want to aggravate him more by eavesdropping.     All during breakfast Luna talked to her twin and the pompous Guardian, Queenie. When the meal was over, Nico smiled,     "Hey Luna, how about you come outside and we can see what Queenie can do?" her twin suggested, but Luna decided against it, needing a break from the snooty woman who did not seem to like her at all. Instead, while Nico and Bacchus headed outside, Luna went over to Lucy, the red haired girl being a more veteran Call member who she hadn't aggravated the night before.     Lucy had gone to one of the many sitting rooms or lounges the mega mansion they stayed in had once she was done eating, so Luna followed,      "Um excuse me? Can we talk, because I've got a few questions." She said, a bit awkward under the pressure of Lucy's intimidating air. The girl wasn't much older than 13 maybe, but where Bacchus was an expressive, happy dude with a bit of a dark humor, the girl didn't seem to be very open with her emotions,      "Oh? Regretting your choice to join The Call?" she guessed, and sheepishly, Luna nodded,      "I know it's stupid to suddenly be wary after going through the whole initiation, but...I dunno I just feel like I should at least start asking questions, it'd be better than not doing so." she babbled, the younger girl just looking at her calmly until she took a breath.      "It's good to start asking about stuff, even if it might be seen as late." she confirmed, "what do you want to know about?" With that awkward part out of the way, Luna let out a small breath,      "Well, first I want to know why The Call was created. I don't know a whole lot about the group," she admitted, feeling more stupid for joining after she'd said that, but Lucy just nodded,      "The Call was formed after the Harding family vanished after a destructive blast wrecked their estate. People were aware that magical beings existed, angels, demons, other little creatures, they were all known about, but we didn't know of anything that could cause so much damage. So, The Call was created to investigate the odd occurance." she explained.     Luna sat for a moment and let this information settle in. Than, she offered up her next question,      "and...what about this Ink stuff? And the dimension it opens?"      "Ink was found, not created. The blue-black substance began seemingly leaking up in random places. Sometimes in the roads, sometimes in bathtubs and sinks, we just collected it and now use it to help in our investigation into the world we call Wonderland."     "why do you call it Wonderland?"      "Because when our first team went into the dimension the survivor described it as very childish, debris, toys, stuff like that was floating around. At the core of it was a pieced together mish-mash of a child's decor and pieces of the Harding home. Since the Harding family had a young daughter named Alice, we sort of just began calling the place Wonderland." she said with a shrug, and Luna nodded, that was sort of understandable,      "you said 'the survivor,' singular, did no one else come back?" she asked after a moment, her stomach tying itself into knots as she debated with whether she really wanted to know,      "Yeah, only one came back. He's the one who told us of the first possible Guardian we've met. He said he met the 'author of our story' or something like that, so he called the creature 'the narrator'. We still aren't sure whether or not he was hallucinating or something, but since he was the only one who returned, we took his word." she explained, "Of course, that's a very shortened version of what happened, Henry or Bacchus can tell you more." she added,      "Have you ever met The narrator?" Luna asked, but Lucy shook her head,      "I assume we have, but there is no way to confirm because if we have met him, no one has survived to tell of it." That left a cold pit in Luna's stomach.      "D-did this survivor describe The narrator?" she asked, some part of her already knowing what The narrator looked like.      "Narrator is described as a bipedal black cat in a purple tail coat with a bowtie of the same color. Why do you ask?" The way Lucy looked at the ravenette didn't ease the pit of unease in her gut. It was bad enough that her dream now seemed a bit too real to be a dream, meaning she'd barely escaped without dying, she didn't need Lucy prying into her and making that worse. So, she laughed it off,      "Was just curious, I'm gonna go talk with Henry," she said quickly, getting up and scurrying out of the room before Lucy could stop her. Instead, she went upstairs and went into her room.      Luna was never a super social person, she was always more focused on helping her family than talking to others and making a bunch of friends. The thought made her sigh, her stomach twisting like a bundle of snakes of regret fighting in her gut, but she tried to ignore it.

[supervillain-smut]

Edward Nygma Fluff Alphabet

Anonymous requested I do a Fluff Alphabet for Edward Nygma, so these are a thing you can request now! Here you go, Anon! This one’s pretty long. - Mod Babydoll

A = Attractive (What do they find attractive about the other?) He's a huge fan of people's eyes. He always makes a point to look everyone in the eyes and yours completely floored him.

B = Baby (Do they want a family? Why/Why not?) He likes being a rogue too much, and already has a daughter whom you take care of to the best of your abilities. She's 15 now and completely accepts you.

C = Cuddle (How do they cuddle?) Whenever you cuddle with Eddie, it's usually all arms and legs tangled up with you lying on his chest or him spooning you once he's finally come to bed.

D = Dates (What are dates with them like?) Extravagant, pricey, more often than you'd think. He'll only take you to the Iceberg Lounge if you're comfortable with Oswald.

E = Everything (You are my ____ (e.g. my life, my world…)) Greatest Riddle. He can never fully figure you out, and once he thinks he has it you change it up again. He loves it, keeps him always guessing and on his toes.

F = Feelings (When did they know they were in love?) First, it was your eyes. Sure, they were stunning but that's not all it takes to swoon the Riddler. No, it was the way you carried yourself, the way you barely payed him any mind and loved to attempt any Riddles he had for you. Even if you got some wrong, you laughed it off, admitted defeat and asked him what the answer was. It was like the game he had always intended his riddles to be. That's when he was in love.

G = Gentle (Are they gentle? If so, how?) Eddie never shelters you, but he always touches you as if you were made of glass. The mosaic kind. Something to be admired and coveted.

H = Hands (How do they like to hold hands?) Not so much in front of other rogues, considering he's mostly concentrated on the task at hand or what someone else is saying. In private, however when all his attention is on you, even if you're just watching a movie he'll intertwine your fingers and pull you into his lap.

I = Impression (What was their first impression?) He thought you'd never want anything to do with him same as everyone else, or you'd just want him for his scores like a couple before you.

J = Jealousy (Do they get jealous?) Oh yeah he does. He will literally stand in between you and Dent, and glare daggers at Jonathan when he kisses the back of your hand after you finished a very in-depth conversation with him. Of course Jonathan does it to mess with him and he would never dare chase you, in fact he's among the few rogues you actually get along with and Eddie trusts enough to leave you alone together. Besides, he's Asexual. Eddie gets jealous but he's not possessive, he knows that's wrong of him.

K = Kiss (How do they kiss? Who initiated the first kiss?) The brave Edward Nygma did in a moment of pure anxiety and trust. He kisses deeply and with a lot of passion every time. A little liquid courage didn't hurt either even though he hates drinking, he needed it.

L = Love (Who says ‘I love you’ first?) Edward, right after he first kissed you. He looked like he was ready to cry and his voice cracked mid-sentence, he's never looked so terrified and unsure. He immediately sighed when you kissed him back and said that you loved him too.

M = Memory (What’s their favorite memory together?) After you found out he was the Riddler. You didn't get mad, you weren't afraid of him and recoil from his touch like he thought you would after he came in all tattered, distressed and bruised after the Batman had found his hideout. You just slowly nodded your head at the sight of him. 

Question mark tie all askew, domino mask half broken with a bruised cheek and a split lip, clutching his rib cage breathing hard yet shallow. He had tears in his eyes as he begged you for forgiveness and a place to stay, and was confused as you took excruciatingly slow steps towards him and breathed a shuddered sigh as you took his face in your hands and removed what was left of his mask off his face and kissed his bruised cheek as gently as possible.

N = Nickel (Do they spoil? Do they buy the person they love everything?) Oh, absolutely! He doesn't do it to show off, either he just loves when your face lights up. Depending on whether you're a jewelry person, or just simply nostalgic he will do everything in his power and maybe a little more to make you happy. At the end of the day though, he only wants you from you. He feels unworthy of any expensive things you get him, he's supposed to spoil you, dammit.

O = Orange (What color reminds them of their other half?) Whatever your favorite color or shade is, whenever he sees it when out on a job or on his own or hell even in Arkham he can't help but smile to himself. Once, a doctor in Arkham had a clipboard the same color/shade and he was grinning like an idiot. Considering he's always miserable when under analysis, they inquired why he was suddenly so happy and he confessed that he had someone special in his life that he loved very much and would do anything for, including staying in Arkham to get better (which would probably never happen, you asking that of him I mean.)

P = Pet names (What pet names do they use?) He doesn't really... Use pet names. It just never really was a thing, he's passionate about loving you but he's not all lovey-dovey.

Q = Quaint (What is their favorite non-modern thing?) Unsolved mysteries, reasons behind cryptids, debunking photo-shopped images, images too old to be photo-shopped and theories.

R = Rainy Day (What do they like to do on a rainy day?) Sit inside, preferably with a little fireplace and a book or classic movie. He doesn't like the horror ones too much, especially the more modern ones.

S = Sad (How do they cheer themselves/others up?) He delves into his work, refuses food and anything else to distract him from whatever’s hurting him. If he doesn't mention it, he doesn't want to talk about it. In those times it's best to just hug him while he works and eventually he'll snap out of it and go cuddle with you, and maybe tell you what's bothering him.

T = Talking (What do they like to talk about?) Anything deep. What is the meaning of life? Is religion real or just a hoax meant to keep everyone in line? Give him tongue twisters for some fun, or do a puzzle with him for quality time.

U = Unencumbered (What helps them relax?) Massages from you are his favorite, but a blanket burrito will do the trick as well as your company.

V = Vaunt (What do they like to show off? What are they proud of?) He's proud of his ability to keep up with you, what you like and what you like to do. He shows off in many ways, whether it's just you on his arm or what exciting thing is coming up next for the two of you.

W = Wedding (When, how, where do they propose?) The rogues have to help him out on this one, and he sends you on a scavenger hunt throughout their 'trials'. Answering questions about him or things the two of you did, in each rogues fashion. Such as what significant things happened in the winter as you walk through Victor Fries' winter world, or what was the best time you had while out for some fun as Jervis guides you through wonderland. Crane would ask what was the hardest thing you've had to go through together, etc. Finally it all leads up to Eddie and he asks you to marry him in the dorkiest riddle ever, so easy even Batman could answer it! 

You tie the knot at the Iceberg lounge, where Oswald decided to cover the whole thing because it's Oswald and this is his best friend we're talking about. Batman is invited, and shows up in a tux and cowl along with Selina on his arm. Crane and Harley are also there as Best Man and Bridesmaid respectively. Oswald turned down best man and Eddie handed it to Crane because Crane never shows up to any rogues events and everyone was surprised he agreed. This all comes after many hardships and years together as a couple.

X = Xylophone (What’s their song?) Edward gave you 'Do I Wanna Know' by the Arctic Monkeys, and you gave him 'Everything At Once' by Lenka.

Y = Yes (Do they ever think of getting married/proposing?) In your first two years, no. He was terrified of the commitment and the fear of betrayal was all too much, that and he figured no woman except for Harleen would want to marry a Gotham Rogue. About four years in, however he considered it almost every week and once he confided in Oswald and Jonathan they would help him figure out when was right and how.

Z = Zebra (If they wanted a pet, what would they get?) He always enjoyed the loyalty and smarts of dogs, but also the cunning and adaptability of cats. Probably one of both, for a dog he would bring home a puppy easy to start training like a Chocolate Lab or a German Shepherd. Maybe even a mix if he could find one. For a cat, classic tabby is just fine. 

Selina fosters cats, and one day as Eddie was stopping by she was finishing up on a stray kitten with one green eye one blue eye and it warmed up to him immediately. As soon as he heard Selina was looking for a home for the little curious rascal, he swooped in and claimed she wasn't getting it back. She was fine with it, of course.