#every choice made here was just 'what would be funnier'

[diningndashing]

i had a vision

[bookshelfdreams]

So the German dub is out and I would like to offer up to all of you how it deals with the problem of formal/informal form of address because it's really interesting

(Preface: all of this applies how we as modern people use these forms of address. In the actual 18th century, addressing any adult informally was very uncommon, even between close friends. But we're doing a DJenkins approach here)

(@rocketrouquine wrote about how it is handled in the French dub here; also very interesting!)

The thing to understand about formal vs informal you is that it's about politeness, yes - but that's just a very basic understanding. Yes, you are supposed to be formal with people you don't know, but what they don't teach you in highschool foreign language class are all the things choice of address can communicate. Namely, what distance there is between people. About the closeness of a relationship, what level you're interacting on, about signaling how far you will let a person into your life.

The crew of the Revenge all call each other Du (informal) - except for Stede, who everyone calls Sie (formal). Du is for friends and Stede is not their friend, he is the boss. There is a camaraderie and solidarity among the crew that Stede can't partake in. Sie, in this case, is like a barrier that you put up to keep someone from becoming too friendly with you and reminding them what kind of relationship this is (namely, a purely professional one).

This is underlined by the crew obviously and openly thinking Stede is an idiot - and by Stede calling everyone Du. Is it because he sees himself as a social superior who can address people informally but insists on formal address for himself? That's one way to read it! But more interesting and more accurate, in my opinion, is to read this as an attempt by Stede to make himself part of their ingroup. It's especially obvious when Stede invites Olu and Jim to sit with him on the couch in ep1; he's using Du while Olu very poignantly keeps insisting on Sie. It underlines how visibly uncomfortable Olu is sitting there trying to explain to Stede that people choose a life of crime out of necessity, while making Stede seem even more oblivious and out of place.

Interestingly, Stede uses Sie himself to put some professional distance between himself and someone else. Namely, with the tribe elder from ep2, who he addresses formally. Is this a sign of respect? Sure, he has a tendency to go for Sie by default. But it reminds me more of how one would be per Sie with a doctor or therapist; as a reminder that this is a strictly professional relationship. It's easier to be open and vulnerable with someone who you know isn't emotionally invested in your wellbeing, isn't it?

Stede comes from a background where one is expected to address everyone with Sie unless granted permission otherwise. This is a sign of respect, the same way lower class people on this show tend to use Du as sign of solidarity; on Nigel's ship, all the officers call each other Sie. So when Nigel uses Du with Stede, it adds a layer of disrespect, despite it being perfectly acceptable, since they have known each other as children. This is even more evident with Chauncey, who we see interact more with other pirates; when he wants something from someone (Izzy, Spanish Jackie) he calls them Sie, no problem, while Nigel's crew doesn't even make an attempt at showing some respect at the ep1 tea party.

And then there's Izzy. Izzy and Stede call each other every insult under the sun and also address each other formally the whole time, which is the funniest possible choice. Like. I'm not sure why "Sie Arschloch!" is 1000x more bitchy than "Du Arschloch!" but it just is. It's taking this whole game of distance and closeness to a whole new level; I despise you so much I would never entertain the notion of being friendly enough with you to use your first name. Sie Wichser. It's made even funnier by the fact that for Stede, Sie is much more intuitive than for Izzy. It seems like Izzy has to make a lot more of an effort to keep the Sie up, but he's not gonna be the one to break this particular stalemate first, goddammit.

Finally (because that's the really interesting bit, isn't it) Ed. Initially, in ep3, Stede calls Ed Sie, which, of course he would think to do that while he's laying there half dead and bleeding, I love him. Ed echoes this back, because he's determined to "do this right", make a good first impression, and I thought this would be it, they'd be per Sie until the kiss, like it often goes in media translated from English. Fine, I guess.

But then.

When Ed wakes Stede up, he immediately goes for Du. No warm up, no getting to know each other first at all. And it's great! First of all, because Ed of course is the type of person to just call everyone Du, but also because of what happens next: Stede calls him Du back. This is the first time this particular hand has been extended to him, and oh, is he excited to take it.

(Other people call Stede Du first, Spanish Jackie, the chief, but it's not like this; not an invitation)

Stede isn't meeting Blackbeard, he's meeting some guy named Ed. Someone he instantly makes friends with; someone who has already seen him at his worst and so, who he can be himself with. Someone he doesn't need to put up pretenses or worry about proper behaviour with. This scene would have lost so much had they decided to keep up the Sie.

Remember that camaraderie I talked about earlier? Solidarity among the crew that Stede tries but can't manage to share in? Here it is! Here is the guy who will play dress up with him, who will delight in his interests, who will be his friend.

Yes, sometimes an unprompted Du can be disrespectful. But sometimes it is like this: Hey. I see you. Want to be friends?

[queenwendy]

My favorite thing with Relativity Falls is trying to wrangle Dipper and Mabel’s gender with the identity theft. Are one of them trans? If so, which one? If they don’t have any siblings, that means one of them is Stan and Ford’s grandparent. Is the remaining twin pretending to be the other or are they honest about being a different one? There’s a lot of fun combinations:

I flip flop on which twin works better as the author, but I really love Grauntie Mabel so if I ever made Relatively Falls fanfic I’d probably have Dipper be the Author with Mabel running the shack. I also really like the secret identity angle so I fully support Mabel impersonating her brother. To solve the gender issue you can either go the trans route or the crossdressing for 30 years route. The most “natural” feeling one, at least fanon wise imo, is that Dipper is transmac but fell into the portal before transitioning. But the dipper as transmac headcanon bugs me for reasons not relevant here, and I like Grauntie Mabel too much to make her crossdress as a man for 30 years; so I actually prefer transfemme dipper who fell into the portal after transitioning (I am also definitely not impartial, I am a trans woman lol). That also ties into Dipper feeling like a weird outcast who would study cryptids a la Ford, as opposed to him just being a mystery loving nerd with a constellation birthmark (of course, that’s if you make Dipper study the same things as Ford, which lots of people don’t).

Of course, that line of reasoning leads to all sorts of interesting questions as a result: who is the McGucket analogue? I usually see Candy or Pacifica, but if you wanted to mirror the show (and lean into the queer angle/a relatively falls fiddauthor), Wendy works pretty well. That also helps put Fiddleford in the shack so he can go on adventures with Stan and Ford. And Shermie? Oh god, Shermie.

Shermie is his own can of worms. If he’s Stan and Ford’s brother, is he older or younger? Is he there with them over the summer or is he back with Filbrick and Caryn? Maybe he’s still the unseen grandpa, making him Dipper and Mabel’s brother and sidestepping which one of them is the grandparent. Imo, Shermie works best as Stan and Ford’s older brother adventuring with them. Maybe even as a Soos analogue.

As for who the grandparent is, I dunno! Maybe Soos is, making him Dipper and Mabel’s brother. Maybe Mabel was, making the fact she faked her death and impersonated Dipper all the more tragic and gut punch-y (and very different from Stan, who Alex Hirsch thought never would do that). Maybe Dipper was, and so Mabel is pretending to be a grandparent. If it was Mabel or Dipper, who’s the spouse?

I like swapping Soos and Aubelita too much to make Soos Stan and Ford’s grandpa (though it’s a fun idea I don’t see anyone do). So then one of the mystery twins has to be the grandparent. I don’t think Mabel would abandon her family, so Dipper as the real grandparent has to happen via process of elimination (meaning until Not What (S)he Seems, Mabel goes by “grandma mabel”). Who the other parent is up in the air; Wendy or Pacifica are already popular ships with Dipper, and also potential McGucket analogues. If you wanna get really weird with it, Bill is, imo, a valid choice given the implied romance between him and Ford.

And that snowballs into dealing with Bill. Does he get swapped? If so, with who? Gideon kinda makes sense, especially if you want to keep the Hand that Rocks the Mabel(Ford? Stan?) plotline (as opposed to Stan x Bud which… okay that’s actually funnier). But Dream Demon Gideon sounds kinda stupid to me, even if it fits oddly well (I actually think that works better if Mabel is the author). Do you swap Bill with Euclid and Scalene? Then there’s two dream demons and baby bill running around, but Bill’s parents are kinda nothing burgers of characters. Why do they want a portal? You can also just keep Bill as Bill. I mean, the Book of Bill indicated that there’s a Bill for every universe. I dunno where I stand there, but I lean towards keeping Bill as himself. But swapping any obsessive ex tendencies of his from Ford to Dipper for obvious reasons.

I dunno if I’ll ever write anything, and that’s obviously not all the questions this AU raises (if Pacifica is swapped with Preston, how does Double Dipper play out? Does Boyish Dan work at the shack or is he the estranged son? Who do Candy and Grenda swap with? Are they the Rico and Jorge of Mabel’s backstory? How different is Mabel and Dipper’s backstory to a Tale of Two Stans?) but this AU is probably my favorite and every time I reblog art or an idea about it I get more and more drawn in. It’s really thought provoking.

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Mr. Egg, Mr. Pickle, and Mr. Hot Dog

Debut: BurgerTime

BurgerTime is one of those retro games and that's about it. It existed, and it's Retro!, and I feel like people don't really care about it aside from that. It never even got an awkward attempt at a scrimblo adventure reboot, like Frogger did! Poor BurgerTime.

Anyway, my first time playing BurgerTime was not by playing BurgerTime at all, but a SpongeBob Flash game clone of it. I have no personal connection to BurgerTime itself... but I know it has some enemies that are living foods! I always get a kick out of that! So I'm going to talk about some of the various design incarnations of them!

These original designs are exactly what you would expect from a 1982 arcade game. I feel like I've seen Pac-Man ghosts drawn EXACTLY like this. I like how Mr. Egg has the strangely realistic crispy bubbling detail around his edges. They're all fine.

...is what I felt before I noticed their elbows and knees! Ew! Bones! Wretched creatures!

Ohoho... now what have we here? The in-game sprites are delightful! The simplicity makes them very cute! Their feet are interesting, being just little floating lines, except for Mr. Egg's, because his legs are made of amorphous albumen! Mr. Egg is really the breakout star here. Look at his yolk! That's his EYE! This is so awesome! That's such a rare design choice to see, especially since egg creatures that are not of the "creature hatching from them" variety are pretty rare themselves.

Mr. Pickle is no slouch either! I appreciate him being specifically a pickle slice, often portrayed as nicely crinkle-cut. I just have to question why he is a villain! Pickles are one of Burger's best friends! This is like if Cheese was a villain! I think if anything Mr. Pickle should be a cute little sidekick on the side of burgers, and in his place can be, I don't know, Mr. Olive? Of course, pickles are much funnier than olives!

Mr. Hot Dog is not as interesting as the other two, but a simple sausage with eyes and feet is still cute. He is like the leader of the bunch, the main antagonist of our hero, Peter Pepper, who I do not really care about. I like that it's him! Burgers and hot dogs are like counterparts, but in no way equals. Hot dogs are easier to hold and eat, but burgers are just Better. And hot dogs have finally decided to give burgers a piece of their mind!

This flyer art is funny. I don't LIKE any of the designs showcased, but they're funny! Faces are moved around on the foods, noses are introduced to the series, and Mr. Egg is now a slice of a hard-boiled egg. You will also notice the elusive Mr. Lemon! Mr. Lemon is not real! I don't know why there is such an emphasis on lemon here. Finally, of course, you will notice the personified Cheese, as she noselessly beckons Peter to recline atop a beef patty. Ooh la la! Don't you wish you were invited to hang out with such a beautiful female cheese who is a girl woman?

Really, the designs of the core food fiends never diverged much from the classic cartoon-style versions they started out with, appearing like that in pretty much every sequel. Except...!

In BurgerTime World Tour, which was not a good game at all, these guys have been utterly rebooted! Now known as Frank Furter, Ruthless Dill, and Sonny! Are these their real names? Or just some similar guys?

The designs are rather basic, as to be expected from Foods With Faces, but it IS interesting seeing them generally made so much more monstrous. Something ESPECIALLY interesting is that Sonny the egg is the only one with limbs, reminding me of how Mr. Egg is the only one to have actual legs in the original sprites!

Ready for the SCARIEST redesign from World Tour?

This game's version of Peter Pepper is this horrible gentrifying millenial and I'm glad his game was prematurely delisted. I hope he got eaten by an egg and chewed by teeth made of yolk. I hate him!

[britcision]

Hey guys guess what? We’re finally out of the dang gala! However, because we did go back in for the explosion, now the boys don’t get to kiss until chapter 15 at the earliest

This chapter’s a little darker than the rest, we’re getting back into Jason’s death and Tim has finally done a google on Amity Park

Most prominently featured is Jason’s self loathing however, so do prepare yourselves for that after the Mariokart

The link to AO3 is in the first chapter

First chapter:

Last chapter:

——————

Not Over Til The Goth Lady Says Fuck

Well, Brucie Wayne hadn’t died. Gotham escaped annihilation by a sliver. There might still be something of worth left in this dump.

Vlad wandered amongst the guests as they returned to the main hall, wondering idly where those bloody Wayne “children” had all gone.

For all that people were sooo protective of them, no one seemed to care where they were during the actual danger. Typical.

Not that he minded. Vlad would be quite happy not to run into any of them again for quite some time. He had fences to mend first, and no desire to provide more fuel to the fire.

There was some form of commotion off to one side of the hall, yet more yelling, and Vlad let himself drift over. Honestly, the voices were almost familiar…

Although some of the more choice words weren’t. Vlad assumed they were vile exhortations of some sort, especially from the gasps of those around him.

It was actually rather impressive. He thought he had a rather extensive vocabulary of curses, but someone was putting him to shame.

At least his little moving bubble of space was useful as he made his way through the crowds. People who got too close soon realised who he was and pushed their way into the crowds to avoid him.

No jostling for Vladdie today. Maybe it wasn’t the very worst after all.

He was honestly a little surprised to find Samantha and Pamela Manson in full duet. As much as Samantha always wanted to scream herself hoarse at these events, usually she kept a lid on it.

It took a moment for the words to sink in, to realise that Daniel and young Jason were at the center of even this little ball of ire. His jaw dropped.

“I CANNOT believe you?! Why is it ALWAYS like this, EVERY TIME?! I was DEFENDING YOU and you can’t keep your legs shut for a minute at a time!” Samantha bellowed, fists clenched and a glint of tears in her eye.

“You utter HARLOT! Shameless STRUMPET, leading that INNOCENT BOY astray! DISGRACING my poor baby girl, you are WORSE THAN YOUR PARENTS Daniel Fenton!”

Pamela was actually crying, being held by her husband to prevent her from either running to Sam or full on attacking Daniel.

Vlad was going to put his money on attacking. The Manson women had a worrying streak of rage. Although…

Brows furrowing he tuned out the noise for a moment (Pamela had clearly been reading a lot of period romances) and focused on the thread of emotion he’d picked up.

Samantha was… delighted. Vlad might have suspected it was just at the chance to finally scream at a gala, but there were no darker feelings anywhere.

She was having a wonderful time. And Daniel and Jason, for all that they looked contrite, for all that Daniel’s head was slumped, were equally delighted.

Something was going on here, something all three young people had orchestrated. From the content of the yelling and the state of undress…

Vlad’s eyes widened. Daniel was wearing Jason’s tie. Jason’s shirt was missing three buttons.

Well that would certainly put both young men in an excellent mood, but at a gala?!

He was quite sure his cheeks must have blanched at just the thought. He’d noticed they were fond of each other, but so soon?

Perhaps Jason would have to be a son-in-law rather than an actual son. He simply wouldn’t accept the other way round, no matter how much Daniel might resist.

Daniel was perfect… if apparently a little easy. Not disloyal though, which was something of a relief. He’d never have considered Daniel capable, since he was loyal to his friends long past the point of fault.

Even now, he was perfectly happy to be harangued by both Samantha and her mother to allow Sam to make some sort of point.

He was distantly aware of the crowd parting again, but didn’t turn to acknowledge the arrival of… Brucie. He looked a little the worse for wear, likely from the thermos more than the actual rogues.

A thin smear of blood at his hairline betrayed where the thermos had struck, and the faint shadow of an oncoming bruise. He should probably be having someone scan his head, but since it usually appeared to be empty that was probably of little concern.

Well, he wasn’t likely to pay Vlad any mind.

Not with this little display.

**

Bruce had barely had time to pull Damian aside in the hopes of a debrief before shrieks and yelling once more filled the dining hall.

It couldn’t be Harvey after all, could it? As annoyed as Robin clearly was by the distraction, Bruce had no choice. He headed to the center of the yelling.

No matter how much it made his throbbing head pulse.

It definitely wasn’t Harvey at least. While Two Face probably knew all of the words being yelled, he would never say more than half of them. Not even at his worst.

The thought almost dragged a smile out of him, but a particularly loud curse rang off the marble and set up echoes in his skull. At least one of the voices was almost familiar.

The crowd parted without him having to jostle through it, and he’d never been more grateful to Gotham’s high society. Didn’t quite think about why they might want to help him get to the center of the action.

Damian - no, still Robin until he changed, had disappeared into the crowd at some point, but Bruce forged on anyway. He’d probably gone back to help Red Robin watch over Croc.

For now, he just had to focus on whatever else had gone wrong this evening, finally stepping through into an almost clear patch of floor and what must have been the commotion.

And arrived just in time to see Sam Manson turning from berating Danny and Jason, to point an accusing finger at her mother. Pamela actually shut up in surprise.

“And YOU! This is ALL your fault! If you had just let me be with Valerie this NEVER would have happened! She would NEVER do this to me! I’m NEVER dating another man again!”

Pamela looked like she might faint, her face pale as her daughter’s words sank in.

It didn’t take Gotham’s best detective to work out what must have happened. A quick glance at Danny and Jason showed them both… far more dishevelled than simply making out in the closet would allow.

Bruce’s eyes narrowed, clocking the missing buttons, ruffled hair, Jason’s still partially open pants, and his stomach sank.

At a gala. Even in the height of his playboy days, Brucie had never gotten caught at a gala. He had a sudden sympathy for Alfred and resolved to give the man his most sincere apologies.

If Bruce’s heyday was anything like this for the old man, he owed him far more than that. Maybe a fruit basket. A nice new shotgun.

He stepped forward quickly, taking advantage as Sam drew in a breath to try and inject some calm.

“I’m terribly sorry, but what has happened here?”

All eyes turned immediately to him and he spread his hands, gesturing for peace. Pamela rallied at once, pulling free of her husband and shooting Danny an utterly poisonous look.

“Oh I am so sorry Brucie, this is entirely my fault! We should never have brought that awful Fenton boy, he’s been CORRUPTING your poor Jason, taking advantage of him, he’s a dreadful influence!” She fluttered, clearly unsure where to direct her attention.

Behind her mother, Sam snorted loudly.

“It was Jason’s dick in Danny’s ass, MOM, I’m pretty sure he was involved!”

And that seemed to fluster both boys more than any of the previous yelling, Danny’s cheeks burning as he clapped both hands over his mouth. Jason was doing his best not to laugh.

Bruce gave him a Look, because they Would be discussing this later, and wasn’t in the least surprised when Jason just rolled his eyes. Still, there had to be limits.

Danny clearly had a far greater hold over Jason than he’d feared. It was an effort to force himself to remember Danny’s youth.

Bruce had been that age not all that long ago. And, as he’d just realised, probably a lot worse in certain specific ways. Perhaps they were just indiscrete. It didn’t all have to be a devious plot.

He gave Pam his very best soothing smile, taking her hand gently.

“It has been a very dramatic evening already, I’m sure the boys were just over excited. They will go and wash up and then Jason and I will have a quiet. Word.” He layered the last two words with intent.

Honestly, this was perfect. An excuse to get Jason alone, get a report direct from the source. Jason wouldn’t tell the truth, but Bruce knew him well enough to know what the lies he told concealed.

Sam Manson seemed equally derisive of the idea as Jason himself, shooting Bruce a vicious glare that looked eerily like her mother’s.

He almost took a step back. But she didn’t have that thermos anymore.

“Of course Famous Playboy Brucie doesn’t think fucking around with someone else’s partner is a big deal! Where do you think Jason learned it?” She snarked, sending an icy dagger straight into Bruce’s heart.

Had he done that? No, it was just his aching head. And the building wave of exhaustion. Jason knew as well as the others that the playboy thing was a front.

Had Jason ever had good relationship role models though? His parents certainly weren’t, and Bruce himself had definitely never been much of one.

If the closest thing he had was Talia, perhaps that explained why he’d fallen so easily under Danny’s sway…

His mind was wandering. Perhaps he should have one of his boys check him for a concussion.

As if summoned by his thoughts, suddenly Nightwing and Signal were there, pushing through the crowd. Thank all that was good that this was about to be not his problem for a while.

“Alright everyone, calm down, the cops are already on their way, let’s not also give them a murder,” Nightwing declared far too gleefully. It set off… something, but Bruce couldn’t quite put his finger on what.

Maybe taking the chance to head home early was a good idea after all. It wasn’t as though Jason would be courting donors for his own projects today.

No, Jason was courting much worse things, a dark little part of Bruce grumbled, and he fought to squash it down.

Jason was an adult, and whatever choices he made with other consenting adults, no matter how bad said choices were, were his own.

Since when were any of his baby boys old enough to be caught fooling around in closets?

Maybe he also needed to go and sit down.

**

Not getting to witness the explosion as himself kinda sucked, but Dick could accept getting to be there in costume instead.

It actually gave him an excuse to intervene, and meant he had a reason to try and pull Danny and Jason aside for Signal to get a good look at Danny.

They had hung back for a while, Nightwing not wanting to interrupt Sam’s frankly incredible vocabulary of curses, Signal just… trying desperately to work out what was going on.

Poor guy. Someone should have warned him.

Nightwing specifically probably should have warned him, but hey, too late for that now. Once Bruce had things mostly quieted down, Nightwing figured they should move in to wrap it up.

And sure, Sam was glaring at him again, but the big taser wasn’t actually in her hand yet so he was probably fine. He turned, giving Jason and Danny sweeping looks.

Not laughing got a whole lot harder when he took in the extent of their dishevelment. And the mostly unrepentant look on Jason’s face.

“Look, perhaps we should get these two young men to a bathroom, do some clean up and get you presentable again? And the young lady, wouldn’t you rather discuss this in private?” He offered brightly.

He knew full well Sam would not want to discuss it in private. But it gave her an excellent starting off point for another explosion.

Only helped when Pamela Manson immediately jumped on the idea.

“Oh yes, of course, we can all go and talk about things away from prying eyes,” she trilled, giving her daughter a significant look and not looking at their audience so obviously she might as well have stared.

Sam rallied magnificently, drawing herself up and sucking in a deep breath.

“And WHAT do you think I have to talk about with them?!” She demanded, and Danny took a very quick step back. Right into Jason, who caught him automatically.

Adorable. Nightwing wished he had a camera. The domino’s would had to do, and he took a couple quick snaps before turning back, not wanting to miss the fun.

Pam was now trying to calm her daughter down, like she hadn’t also been screaming invective and slut shaming Danny seven ways to Sunday.

She stepped forwards, hands held out placatingly, and stopped at Sam’s glare.

“Sammykins… I know you’re upset, but…”

“I would definitely like to leave,” Danny stage whispered, deliberately shifting in place.

Nightwing pressed his lips tight together to keep the smile from showing. Whether or not Danny and Jason were actually fucking in the closet, the boy committed to the bit.

“UPSET?!” Sam demanded, stepping closer to her mother now and making her back up.

As much fun as this part of the show was about to be, there was still a lil actual work to be done. Signal had definitely gotten a good look at Danny by now, but might as well get him alone.

Just to be able to prove it wasn’t anyone else in this room. Glancing around, he caught sight of Steph back in the crowd.

At least someone would still be there to enjoy the show.

He debated hauling Danny over his shoulder and carrying him out, but decided against it. Not least because he had no fucking idea where that thermos had gone, and didn’t want to find out.

Instead he clapped Danny on the shoulder, gave Signal a significant nod, and headed for the door.

“Seems like you might need a little protection, and I need to give you a once over anyway after tangling with Croc.” Fuck you Spoiler, he could steal her excuse.

Danny actually laughed at that, turning to head away as Sam gained rapidly in volume.

“Oh Jason gave me an extremely thorough going over, but you’re welcome to look too,” he agreed and Nightwing actually giggled. Just a little.

Flirty little shit. He could feel Pamela Manson trying to develop eye lasers. Danny was the perfect addition to the family.

Covered the giggle up before someone noticed and rushed them both to the nearest door, and down towards the backrooms. Following behind, Signal cleared his throat awkwardly.

“So, uh… do either of you actually need a bathroom?” He still sounded lost, so Jason took pity on him once they had a closed door between themselves and others.

“Nah, we faked it to fuck with Sam’s parents. Danny does need a check for any broken ribs though,” he added.

Danny rolled his eyes, waving a hand in Jason’s direction.

“I’m fine, the big guy just tossed me around a little. I’m not even gonna bruise,” he said casually enough that Nightwing was gonna add like, 50 points to his “worry about New Favourite Guy” meter.

He raised a hand cautiously.

“That might just be the adrenaline. I’ve taken more than a couple rounds with Killer Croc and he can do some pretty nasty damage,” he offered warily.

Danny sighed like he was being asked something completely unreasonable and yanked his shirt up, showing off a skinny pale chest and stomach.

“Look, I’m fine, alright? Maybe if you considered getting good he wouldn’t hurt you either.” And yeah, Danny was a sassy little fuck and Nightwing snickered, but he was still worried.

Sure enough though, there wasn’t a mark on the kid. Not on his chest from being hit by Croc, not on his back from an impact that shattered tiles.

Signal let out a low whistle off to one side, and Nightwing had to wonder what the hell the meta could see. He himself though, he just had to raise his hands and admit defeat.

“Hey, if you say so. I’m just doin’ my job here.”

There was a moment of… something. Jason and Danny didn’t so much as glance at each other, but Dick would swear there was a moment of charge in the air, a bolt of communication.

Shared understanding that they’d done nothing outward to share.

Then Danny’s lips tipped up in a cocky grin and he snickered, looking Nightwing full in the eye.

“Yeah, whatever you say, cop.”

**

Danny wasn’t gonna mention it. Partially because of the way Jason had looked at him, calculating, sizing him up.

He’d never been looked at like that by someone who wasn’t immediately about to attack him. Even seeing Jason’s aura, no hint of aggression or malice in it, hadn’t helped.

It. He didn’t like it. Not from a friend.

He remembered the fear though, from back in the early days when Wes called him out. The fear of what losing that secret would mean for his friends, his family, the ones he loved.

Back before he knew everyone would roll their eyes and write it off. Back when he thought someone learning his secret was a threat.

Guess all vigilantes had some common experiences.

But hell, it wasn’t like the bats weren’t gonna know who he was by tomorrow morning at the latest. That was fine, so long as it didn’t lead them on to what Jason was.

They’d probably have questions, and if they were super lucky he might even bother to answer some of them. Hell, he might know the answers at all; that wasn’t a given.

But if they were gonna go nosing about in his life, he might as well really underline that he wasn’t just some little puppy that’d roll over and play dead.

He was a strong, independent half ghost who didn’t need no man.

So when Jason heard him sassing Nightwing and his whole aura became a gleeful mix of happy-amazing-get his ass, Danny sent a gentle nudge back.

Mischief-secrets-should I?

Felt Jason hesitate. Didn’t have to look at him to know the calculations he’d be running. Jason knew his family best. Would know how careful they needed to be.

Mischief-glee-fucking do it.

Maybe they were bad influences on each other.

And, well, it was unofficially Bully Dick Day. Danny might have been a little less confident on his identification the other way around, but having just spent a couple hours with the guy?

Yeah, Danny would risk it. The look on Dick’s face was way worth it. His jaw dropped, and while Danny couldn’t see his eyes behind the little domino, that pretty much just made it better.

Dick’s head turned to Jason and Jason sighed, raising his hands.

“He told me he knew on the way into the closet. Fucked if I know how.” So they weren’t just dropping the Ghost King thing. Good to know.

Danny just grinned. He’d seen plenty of Gotham’s message boards and while he’d never cared, he’d heard the theories.

Especially Nightwing’s. Even if the actual poster was a little… fruit loopy. And thought Nightwing was Condiment King’s alter ego.

“The butts match. And I mean, I was just hanging out with you for like an hour. Doing a different voice isn’t really changing much, y’know?” Which was technically all true.

Pretty much every one of the Waynes mysteriously disappearing wasn’t all that subtle either, but he’d point that out when there were more of them around to be ashamed of themselves.

Dick’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he visibly shook himself and closed it. The eye slits on the domino narrowed, and yeah, Danny wasn’t going to resist that one.

“Are you fucking serious? The mask makes faces too? How the hell did you get it to do that?” He asked, rising on tiptoes to wave a hand in front of Dick’s face.

Signal was trying not to laugh, arms folded as he leaned back against the small table.

“Are you going to tell anyone?” He asked like he already knew the answer, checking something off on a list.

This was going better than Danny thought. Good vibes.

Danny shrugged and stuffed his hands in his jacket pocket, grinning.

“Who would believe me? It’s fine, you guys are gonna get like, 30 seconds into googling me and find my old secret identity anyway. I used to go by Phantom,” he added in case it made Dick feel better.

Poor guy was clearly still having a crisis. Maybe they didn’t have their own Wes Weston here and hadn’t been outed before.

He just stared at Danny for a moment longer, then sighed heavily and ran both hands through his hair. Not much point in continuing to pretend, even if no one had said the words “yes you are right.”

It wasn’t like Danny had said the words “you are Dick Grayson”. Plausible deniability all round.

“Just pinky swear you were never a villain,” Dick finally sighed, holding out a hand, pinky extended.

Danny obediently locked pinkies, snickering as he thought about Dan. Technicalities.

“I pinky swear I, specifically, in this timeline, have never been a villain,” he agreed. The overly specific wording didn’t seem to bother anyone.

Maybe fighting yourself from the future was just something all vigilantes had to do. He was pretty sure he’d heard something about the Justice League and time travel before.

Not paid attention to it, but he heard it.

Dick then turned and got Jason in a headlock, noogie-ing him.

“And you have to stop giving the lot of us heart attacks,” he declared, flipping over Jason’s back and away when Jason grabbed for him.

Danny snickered as the tension left the room, Jason clearly considering continuing the chase. Then he just shrugged, dropping down onto one of the two couches and waving to Signal.

“Danny, this is Signal, apparently you’ve almost met before?”

That caught Signal’s attention and he cocked his head, question all over his face. Danny grinned.

“You were the first vigilante I saw in Gotham. Like, 8 months ago, after that thing at the mall where you were teaching the kids to do backflips.”

He saw the moment Signal placed it, nodding and grinning. He held out a hand and Danny shook it.

“Nice to remeet you then, Danny. Jason’s told us nothing at all about you,” he added, grinning over at Jason. Who flipped him off.

“You call yourselves detectives, you’d get bored if I didn’t give you enrichment one way or another,” he refuted and Danny cackled.

“Oh, is that all I am? Enrichment?” He teased and Jason grinned at him.

“Was there another reason you were riding Croc like a rodeo bull?” He asked back. Danny raised his hands, still grinning.

“Yeah, alright. I guess I don’t mind being enrichment for your bored detectives,” he agreed, grinning at the two costumed heroes.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he paused, pulling it out to check it. Tuck had texted.

‘$50 for you two to disappear out a window’

Stifling a snicker, Danny tossed his phone to Jason and returned his attention to the heroes.

“So, was there anything you guys wanted from getting us away, or were you just doing us a solid?” He asked casually. He’d disappear out a window for way less than $50. If Jason was down.

From his snort of laughter, yeah, he was.

Dick gave his phone a slightly suspicious look, then shrugged cheerfully.

“Well, we could also try and find Jay a new shirt before we get back out there if you wanna catch the rest of the show?” He offered.

As tempted as Danny was to ask where the fuck they’d find a new shirt at a party venue… they had shit to do.

Well, they could find shit to do. Same difference.

Jason rolled easily to his feet tossing Danny his phone back. He totally didn’t almost drop it.

“Nah, we’re probably gonna dip. Better for Sam if we mysteriously disappear together and you guys can go catch the show,” he explained with a slight shrug.

Dick’s mouth opened and closed a few more times, then he grinned and shook his head. Obviously a man who knew the finer points of escalating a situation.

“Steph’s recording, if you wanna catch up later?” He offered instead and Jason snickered and nodded.

“Okay. Don’t have my bike today, Danny, so can you sort out transport?” He asked and it took Danny a second to work out what he meant.

He’d come in the Manson’s limo. But Jason didn’t mean a vehicle type of ride.

Eh, why not give the bats something else to wonder about? There was only so long they’d be confused by his more useful powers.

He had to get the good times in while he could.

He kinda missed the old days, sometimes. No one expected a dead hero to have a living alter ego, so he’d flown under the radar with basically no effort.

Alright, the old days had also not included an inquisitive and protective bat clan sniffing around because he was friends with their own dead guy.

Jason had only died a year after him though. Maybe it could have… man, how different would his life had been if he’d known it wasn’t just him and Vlad and Dani at fifteen?

But he might not have been able to help Jason back then. Just the thought of trying to guide someone else while his ice core formed made him flinch.

No thank you, that would have fucking sucked. It was probably for the best that things had happened like this.

If it wasn’t, a certain nosey fucking regent would have pulled his thumb out of his ass and poked Danny in Jason’s direction years ago. He certainly seemed to like the guy enough.

Today though, Danny crossed to the window and slid it open, hopping up to take a seat on the sill. They weren’t too far off the ground here, so it’d be an easy enough slide.

The snow might have been more of a problem, but it wasn’t like he’d be walking for long. It wasn’t deep anyway, just a couple of inches out here.

He dropped carefully down, turned and grinned back through the window.

“Alright Jay, your turn!”

Jason was already there, snickering as he climbed carefully over the sill. Danny could still just about see Dick and Signal around his shoulders, so he figured fuck it.

Held out his arms.

Jason didn’t notice right away, but hesitated the second he did. It was like Danny could see the cogs turning inside his head, a faint rush of pink rising in his cheeks.

Jason really did have the cutest blush. Danny hoped he’d see a lot more of it.

He waggled his eyebrows at Jason, holding his arms out.

“C’mon, I’ve got you,” he prompted cheerfully, and saw the exact moment when Jason figured “fuck it”.

The window being lower worked against them there, Jason still being a good chunk taller than Danny, so the positioning was a little awkward. Finally Jason just sighed, gave Danny a look, and shifted most of his weight out the window.

“If you drop me I’ll kick your ass,” he warned and Danny grinned, stepping closer and slipping his arms in under Jason’s knees and back.

“Wasn’t even thinking it until you said that,” he pointed out and Jason groaned, but let himself drop into Danny’s arms.

Despite hefty temptation, Danny did not drop him. He gave Signal and Dick a cheery nod and walked away, princess carrying a snickering Jason through the snow.

Once they were almost but not quite out of sight, he took off.

“So, where we going?” He asked Jason, who looked a little uncomfortable being carried, but hadn’t stopped snickering yet.

It was probably the whole “not seeming weak” thing again. Or it could be the flying. He and Jason had flown in the Zone, but that wasn’t really the same.

The bigger man hesitated for a moment, then shrugged.

“I could honestly go for something else to eat,” he offered and Danny hummed thoughtfully.

The gala food had been good, but really not up to a half ghost appetite.

“Yeah, I could eat. We should also talk about the whole bomb thing,” he added more reluctantly, not wanting to kill the mood, but… well.

They were still in Gotham. The literal same shit could pop up tomorrow too.

Jason stilled in his arms, his aura suddenly nothing but dread. Danny squeezed him in a little tighter, blanketing him in comfort-acceptance-warmth.

“Doesn’t have to be today,” he said softly, felt something in Jason relax. Felt the pit curl in reluctance-anger-pleading-help.

It made him hold Jason all the closer, holding down the comforting trills his core demanded. No, dropping a startled Jason in mid air would help no one.

But Danny would help them. Both of them. Help the pit fix whatever had been done to all that ectoplasm, and help Jason get his life back.

What was left of it anyway. It was the least he deserved.

**

Inside the quieter backroom, Nightwing and Signal exchanged looks.

“Did he just…” Signal started and Nightwing sighed, looking as weary as he’d ever seen the older hero.

“It’s been the kind of night where I’m just not gonna ask,” Nightwing said dryly, rolling his shoulders and glancing around the room, “Danny seems to think we’ll work it out eventually.”

Signal shook his head, snickering softly. It wasn’t that he’d really had time to form any expectations from how Jason had described the guy, but Danny…

Yeah, Danny was pretty much exactly what he’d expect so far. An egregious little shit whose sense of humour fit Jason’s perfectly.

He’d have to hurry to get on their side of the inevitable prank war. Shouldn’t be that hard; Narrows and Crime Alley stuck together.

Nightwing leaned in abruptly then, his voice low. Back to serious hero time.

“So, you get more of a read on him alone?” He asked quietly.

Signal paused, brows furrowing under his helmet as he ran back through their minor interactions thus far. He still had the beginning of a headache dancing around from the windows, but…

He’d gotten a pretty good look at just Danny, on the walk from the hall back here and while he was teasing Dick.

Finally he shrugged.

“Honestly? No fuckin’ clue. He barely even registered an aura at all, I don’t think he could be bright enough to flare me out?” Not that it had happened before, but the kid barely glowed.

Most metas at least had enough of an aura to give him some kind of guess about their powers. Colour, shape, the way it moved, it was usually pretty obvious even for the weaker ones.

“So you don’t think he’s particularly powerful?” Nightwing asked, clearly adding it to his own mental notes. Hey, if it meant Duke could skip the paperwork on this run…

He shifted into proper report mode, straightening and turning to face Dick full on, voice lower and more serious. Nightwing obligingly flipped his computer up.

“Either he’s not a dangerous threat from powers alone, or he has serious control over the amount of energy he emits. If you guys hadn’t said anything, I might not even have pegged him as a meta. I did notice something though,” he added with a slight frown.

Nightwing typed a moment longer then glanced up and nodded for him to continue. Signal sucked in a breath.

He didn’t… well, he didn’t like discussing peoples’ auras, outside of a case. It was kinda invasive, especially for people he actually knew in day to day life.

Not least because he didn’t want other people trying to over analyse it. It wasn’t like he got a detailed rundown or list of descriptions; it was just a feeling. A light, a colour.

But this one felt important.

“Jason’s aura. It usually has this… red kinda funk clouding over it. Sometimes it’s thick and murky, and that seems to be when he’s… having a bad day. It’s always kinda red though. But today, it was just… clear. Soft and yellow. Whatever Danny’s doing with the pit, I think it’s working.”

Nightwing’s expression visibly softened, drifting almost all the way back into Dick before he got control again. He nodded, entering the data and then giving Signal a cheeky grin.

“I wouldn’t say you’re fully off the hook for your report, Signal, but if you wanna head out you could probably finish the rest in time for bed,” he teased and Signal rolled his eyes.

And his shoulders a couple times, posture relaxing out of the debriefing stiffness.

“Fuck off. I’m not missing whatever other bullshit you lot are getting up to tonight, fill me in on the way back to the hall.”

He’d be tired tomorrow, but he had too many questions to sleep anyway. They were a full family of nosey bastards - sorry, detectives, and he wasn’t waiting twelve hours for the details.

Not with practically all his siblings visibly sparking off with glee. There was a fuckery afoot, and that was worth a late night.

Nightwing snickered but nodded, tapping his computer closed and heading for the door.

“Short forms of course, but you’ve got the basics,” he agreed, and Signal chuckled, moving to follow.

He’d gotten plenty of pieces over the comms on his way in, but none of them were particularly coherent.

This was already a whole lot more interesting than what he’d been led to expect from a Gotham gala. Hopefully only showing up in costume wouldn’t count as actually attending.

He was still going for that record, Jason’s new boyfriend notwithstanding.

“Oh, and I think Tim’s falling in love.”

Wait.

“What now?”

**

Bruce was doing his best to keep up with events in the entry hall, but the rapidly rising lump on his head now throbbed with Samantha Manson’s every screamed curse, and he’d let himself be led away.

Someone had found him a chair closer to the back hall, a glass of water, and Stephanie had made her way over with an ice pack and a deeply amused smile.

Probably at the dramatics still ongoing around the closet. She had given him a few tests and declared it a mild concussion, most eyes still firmly fixed on the Mansons.

She wouldn’t smile like that at his pain. Unless she had been the cause. But he would be fine, so he was happy that she wasn’t fussing or worrying over him.

He supposed.

Sam not only had impressive volume, but an extensive vocabulary. Bruce’s attention occasionally faded in and out, making him miss some words, but Steph’s reactions were enough to clue him in.

The young lady had somewhat moved on from what Danny and Jason had actually done now that neither of them were present, and was now roundly denouncing men in general, her parents’ preferences in specific, and the historical trend of mistresses.

Bruce might almost think he was imagining the last one, but it was quite the impassioned rant and Steph at least was definitely following it.

Samantha Manson was a very opinionated young lady, with an extremely firm sense of justice. Maybe she would have been good for Jason he mused morosely, pressing the ice to his head.

And then the hall rang with an ominous silence.

Bruce’s head snapped up, ignoring the immediate twinge of pain, and he looked around sharply for what had captured her attention.

Ah. Nightwing and Signal had returned.

Alone. He perked up a little, hoping this might be his chance to speak with Jason.

Hopes that were immediately dashed when Nightwing caught his eye and minutely shook his head.

What?

Where was Jason? What could possibly have happened to him on the way to get a new shirt?

He couldn’t have some kind of venereal disease already, could he?

The swirling confusion definitely came from his head injury and he took another careful sip of water with Steph’s prompting, unsure of when she’d moved to steady him.

His boys had moved away, closer to the mother daughter drama but before Bruce could try to rise, young Sam saw fit to fill him in on what they’d said. At volume.

“They fucking LEFT?!”

The crowd parted immediately, eyes darting between the Manson heiress and Bruce himself, hungry for some kind of reaction from him.

At least he didn’t have to pretend to look confused. Maybe the head wound was a blessing in disguise.

Nightwing was definitely still enjoying himself far more than he had any right to be. His Dickiebird could always find the bright side in any situation…

Sucking in a breath, he let the Brucie mask fall fully into place, relaxing his facial features.

He may need an MRI when they got back to the cave. Just to check for any internal damage.

Steph leaned helpfully down, blocking him from view from about half the crowd to stage whisper,

“They said Jason and Danny climbed out the window, Brucie,” she said sweetly, and Bruce just about resisted dropping his head to thump into her hand.

That would not make his headache any better.

Of course they climbed out the window. Of course they did.

The gala had been Jason’s idea, hadn’t it? He’d wanted to be reintroduced to society so he could do things under his own name.

In all fairness, Bruce hadn’t checked that the first thing he wanted to do in his own name wasn’t cause a massive scandal. He probably should have.

If Jason thought he’d be avoiding this talk just by skipping out tonight, he had another thing coming. Bruce would rather do it as civilians but he’d hunt Jason down in his mask if he had to.

He’d never been unreasonable when bringing his children to galas; they weren’t dress up dolls to be seen and not heard and oh boy they all knew it. There just had to be some standards.

If Jason wanted to sneak away and have sex at a gala he could at least actually sneak. There were plenty of places to go without the risk of being caught that weren’t the closet just off the main hall.

The back rooms weren’t even that much farther away.

Maybe he’d have to give Jason a talk on appropriate gala behaviour. He hadn’t been to one since he… in a long time, he might not remember.

Maybe he should give Jason a sex talk. Had he given any of them a sex talk? He must have done. Surely.

Dick must know. He’d had plenty of girlfriends. Boyfriends. And… shorter encounters.

What if he hadn’t though.

Maybe he’d have to do it again. To be safe. Maybe Alfred would give them the one he’d given Bruce.

He could feel his thoughts spiralling away out of control.

Sam had reached new levels, possibly prompted by his lack of reaction to the news. Even Bruce had never heard half the words coming out of her now, some of which felt like they crackled in his head.

Just what he needed.

She’d also moved on to roundly denouncing the concept of virginity as a tool to control people with wombs. Selina would have loved having her around the house.

Steph was certainly enjoying herself, now cheering Sam on any time she stopped for breath. That also wasn’t helping his head, but he enjoyed seeing her happy too much to say.

Steph had never really come under his wing the way his other Robins had. She held herself apart, “family friend” more than family for a long time… possibly because of the history between her and Tim.

She hadn’t stood a chance against Dick. He wore people down like a cheerful, gentle waterfall, and once he claimed a sibling it was over.

He’d joke about Dick taking his adoption problem but even he could admit Dick did it better. He was just so good at affection. It came naturally to him.

Bruce was so proud of him. Of all the kids who’d taken up a mask to stand beside him. His babies.

He could feel his throat closing, choking up with tears and hurriedly forced them down. THAT was not going in any of the papers.

Whatever other disaster there was, no one would say he was anything but proud of his baby birds. At least he had the head injury to blame for his maudlin thoughts.

Casting around the room, he clocked someone checking their phone and squinted for the time. Barely past 9pm.

It felt like this gala had been going on for weeks, but there were still hours to go. And he wouldn’t even get the chance to hear Jason’s report tonight, knowing his second son.

Well, he could at least get Steph’s report. Loathe as he was to pull her away when she was having so much fun, he needed someone’s opinion on the Fenton boy that he could trust.

Leaning forward, he touched her wrist gently, letting his expression muzzy further.

“Steph, I think perhaps I need a little space. Could you bring me to one of the back rooms?” He asked softly, gaze flicking meaningfully to hers.

She hesitated a moment, clearly torn between the continuing show and the knowledge she could get at least a little of her report out of the way early.

Finally she sighed and slipped his arm carefully around her shoulders.

“Yeah, come on old man. Let’s get you somewhere quiet,” she agreed, steadying him as he hauled himself to his feet.

They could record part of her report. She wouldn’t even have to write it down later.

At least something good could come out of all this.

**

Sam was burning with satisfaction as she slipped back into her parents’ rented limo. She’d finally gotten to say every single stupid thing she hated about the galas and a little more besides.

The looks on their faces as she’d torn apart their precious little Jason (who, yeah, she owed a really big favour; that disappearing act was the cherry on the cake)? Wonderful.

When she started in on their homophobic bullshit, the stupid frilly dresses, the way she wasn’t just a present they could wrap how they wanted and ignore who she was?

It felt fucking amazing. Every frustration she’d been holding onto since her teen years, every time they’d shared those “meaningful looks” over her head, every huge sigh, every time they tried to change who she was.

If they wanted a pet they should have got a chihuahua, not had a damn kid.

She’d gotten a round of applause for that one. She hadn’t been expecting any support except for her boys, but having the Waynes on her side had changed a lot.

She’d swear she’d even seen Nightwing clapping along, but he’d stopped before she looked back.

Guess vigilantes couldn’t be seen condoning any of the shit disturbing. Signal had definitely given her a subtle thumbs up though, and a secret high five when she finally let them lead her away to “calm down”.

She’d spent the rest of the evening with the Wayne affiliated girls and Tucker, texting occasionally with Danny and Jason to let them know how the meltdown had gone.

Apparently Tim had some kind of medical thing that had acted up during the attack so Dick had taken him home. Tucker was heartbroken and adorable, but Steph promised to bring his well wishes back to Tim’s bedside.

They kept him distracted anyway by making some videos for Tim to enjoy, both with and without the various Gotham vigilantes as they waited for the cops to finish clearing the goons out.

Sam was a little bummed that Black Bat hadn’t stuck around, but while the gala was big it also wasn’t gonna be the only target in town.

Nightwing did a flip for them anyway, without being asked. He was a dork. Signal was cool though, and he sounded really sincere when he wished Tim well.

They both seemed at least passingly familiar with the Waynes, but it was Gotham. Who wasn’t? Especially with the number of galas that’d bring them into close contact.

Sam hadn’t spent much time with any of them before, mostly because her parents kept her on a very short leash with the rogues around. Not tonight though, she thought with satisfaction.

No, tonight she’d had free reign, especially after their little dust up. Maybe it helped that she still was kind of hanging out with the Waynes’ associates?

She liked Steph and Cass a lot, for sure. Steph was funny in a bold, outrageous way, and while she dressed a little brightly for Sam’s tastes, it was at least a classy purple.

She liked noise and attention and making people laugh when they took a drink to see if she could get it to come out of their nose. Tucker? Easy prey. But she got Sam more than once.

Cass was quieter in every way, but just like Sam had thought it wasn’t because she had nothing to say. She just didn’t need to be noticed.

Steph and Tucker ducked through the hall, recording people saying specific words one word at a time to build Tim a message about what he was missing.

Sam and Cass went around stealing empty glasses until they could write “Get Well Soon Tim” on the floor in front of the bathrooms.

They attracted stares for the entire rest of the evening but not a soul over the age of thirty dared approach. It was the best gala evening Sam’d ever had.

Her favourite part though? That had to be the number of people who were Absolutely Convinced that Danny had to be one of the Robins.

He fit the profile, sure; black hair, blue eyes. Just like more than half the Waynes, and a weirdly large chunk of Gotham in general. He’d jumped in to wrestle Croc.

Imagine if they knew he actually was a vigilante - just not a living one.

She’d actually passed someone passionately explaining that “you never saw him and Red Robin at the same time”, like Red Robin hadn’t been fucking desperately trying to pull Danny off Croc’s back.

That? That they made a video compilation of on Steph’s phone. She was keeping hold of it til they could see Danny in person tomorrow, because no way was she missing his face.

The crowning glory was a lady with a fan earnestly insisting that Danny must be the Red Hood, Noted 6’ Tall Tank Of A Man, while Vlad fucking fumed in the background.

It was wonderful. She was going to play it at Vlad’s next run for mayor. And his birthday. And maybe every time she saw him for the rest of her life.

She’d also seen more than one person meaningfully approaching her parents from the corner of her eye. Among their other shenanigans.

She was fully expecting some form of lecture, maybe some more hysteria from her mother, but honestly? It would hurt them more than Sam to cut her off.

Sam could walk away from the Manson money tomorrow. The greenhouse and nursery might not cover her full rent, but she could move.

Pamela and Jeremy Manson, having to explain why their daughter was never seen with them again? After tonight? Social hell, especially for her mother.

Maybe Pam saw something of that future in the set of Sam’s shoulders, because the drive back to their hotel was almost completely silent, even through Gotham’s slow crawl of traffic.

Didn’t bother Sam. She was perfectly happy to relive some of their more pointed shenanigans, maybe debate asking Danny if they could call him RH whenever Vlad was around.

That’d be fun. Or Hoodie. He wore the damn sweaters enough, Vlad couldn’t prove that wasn’t what they meant.

They’d actually reached the hotel, Jeremy stepping out to deal with the valet when Pamela turned hesitantly to her daughter.

“Sammikins… darling… I know you had an awful evening,” (and how appropriate that her mom had completely missed her having some of the most fun of her life), “and I know you said you wouldn’t date men…”

Sam steeled herself, wondering if another rant might be in order. Her mom clearly noticed, raising a hand in immediate surrender,

“And I fully understand, it’s entirely your choice whether you ever change your mind or not,” she added quickly, and Sam’s shoulders settled somewhat reluctantly.

Pamela gave her a very soft, hopeful sort of smile.

“It’s just. You looked so happy when you were talking with Cassandra. I didn’t know you knew sign at all, so if you wanted to see her again while we’re here…” she wheedled, and something in Sam’s brain shut down.

“What?” She asked, genuinely dumbfounded.

Pamela raised both hands this time, looking actually… kind of contrite. Like she’d actually been listening to Sam’s rants.

Like Sam might have finally gotten through to her.

Like the woman who hadn’t let her bring her girlfriend to a gala was actually immediately moving on to pushing her at another woman.

What. The fuck.

“I don’t want you to feel pressured, darling, I know we got far too pushy when you met Jason, I just. We’ll be in town for another day. And you made a very sweet pair.”

The hope in her face was unmistakeable, and Sam found herself gaping. There were just. Too many questions, all forming up in her head.

She found the words for at least one just as her mother reached for the door, almost ending their moment.

“Wait. You mean you don’t mind that I’m a lesbian?” She asked suspiciously, brows drawing down as she tried to make sense of what was happening.

Pamela gave her a soft smile and gently cupped her cheek.

“Sammy, darling, I know we’ve been… pushing an image on you,” almost the same words Sam had used, and they clearly pained her, “but I would never reject you for who you loved.”

Which made absolutely no fucking sense.

“So why the hell wouldn’t you let me bring Valerie?” Sam demanded weakly, shoulders sagging as confusion warred with the sudden wash of tears threatening to break out.

Acceptance. Her mother was finally accepting her. In the one thing she hadn’t asked for or expected.

Pamela’s face immediately pinched at Val’s name and she huffed, drawing herself up and resettling in her seat like a broody hen.

Not accepting everything, then. No surprise there.

“I don’t mind if you date or marry a woman, darling, but I most certainly do not trust that young Gray woman. The way she cosied up to you and your friends when her father lost his position! Wealth comes with many detractors, Sammy, and sometimes that means people will try to prey on your gentle heart and use you for your money!”

Sam’s jaw dropped as Pamela talked, passion flaring up until Sam had some idea what the others had seen when she got going.

She wanted to beat her head against the window. It was like they’d gotten absolutely fucking nowhere.

“Val isn’t a fucking gold digger, Mom!” She argued with a frustrated groan, tossing her hands into the air.

Pamela sniffed, turning her nose up.

“She is not good enough for my baby girl. Honestly, what does she even do at school?”

“Not fuck strangers in the closet!” Sam snapped back, and Pamela glared at her. Then deflated with a soft sigh.

“I just want what’s best for you, Sammy. If you think it’s Valerie… I suppose I can try. But I will be talking to her,” she added sharply, that Manson family steel shining through again, “just to let her know that I will be watching, and if she hurts you she will have me to deal with!”

The thought of the Red Huntress dealing with her mother almost made Sam laugh. As if the older woman would stand a chance.

But it was a compromise, if not an actual apology. She could work with that.

And, actually, while her mom was apparently in a compromising mood…

“And I can choose my dress for the next gala?” Sam asked quickly, again interrupting her mother’s move for the door.

Pamela hesitated for a long moment, then gave her daughter a wary look.

“So long as there are no spiders…” she said slowly.

“I want that in writing,” Sam warned sharply and Pamela sighed again, then nodded.

“By tomorrow morning, dear,” she agreed.

Sam’s triumphant grin carried her all the way into the elevator, up the stairs, and back to her bedroom where she pulled out her phone to update the group chat.

‘2Goth2Glorious: you guys aren’t going to fucking believe what my mom just said.’

**

“Huh,” Danny chuckled, glancing at his phone and then dropping it on a table and stepping over the back of Jason’s couch to slide down and sit like a fucking animal.

Already sprawled on the couch, Jason tipped his head back to frown over at him. They were in one of Jason’s less shitty safe houses this time (and Danny’s relief that he didn’t actually live in the first one was hilarious) after raiding a Denny’s.

And a convenience store. And a Batburger. For once Jason really didn’t feel bad about how much he ate; at least he chewed.

He’d swear Danny unhinged his jaw to just inhale an entire double cheeseburger. Maybe that was all Sam meant by “Jawbreaker”…

Jason wasn’t gonna think about that though.

Nope.

They were in a much more comfortable living room now, with actual decent furniture, and Danny was climbing it like a mountain goat. And being cryptic.

The first thing he’d done after walking through the doors was drop their food on the table. The second was drop his pants, kicking them away and throwing the tie and jacket after them.

Jason could sympathise, the monkey suits sucked and he’d abandoned jacket and tie not long after. Not the pants yet. But the sweatpants in the bedroom were calling to him.

“What? He prompted Danny instead, pushing over the second controller. Mariokart. The traditional way the bats kept score.

Easier to track than the number of crimes that didn’t happen. No one else liked his idea of counting heads.

Danny scooped it up and settled in, immediately picking his racer and getting comfy.

Baby Mario. Interesting.

Jason mained Peach, mostly so Dick couldn’t.

“So apparently we read the whole gala thing wrong,” he said casually, just as the countdown to begin the race began, “the Mansons aren’t homophobic.”

Classic distraction techniques. Motherfucker. Jason was so focused on gunning the engine and blasting off the starting line it took him a moment to process the words.

He had to actually glance over at Danny at that, brows furrowed, and missed an item drop.

Doublefucker.

“Fuck off.”

Danny snickered, effortlessly drifting into a turn.

“No shit. They’re trying to set Sam up with Cass,” he added as proof, and Jason snapped his attention back to the game.

He could play this with Damian standing on his shoulders and Steph tickling him, fuck Danny and his conversational bomb dropping.

First time he could say he’d side with the elder Mansons though.

“They were cute,” he offered with a slight shrug, casting back. Sam and Cass hadn’t interacted much, but Sam knowing ASL was a good sign.

No pun intended. He wasn’t Dick.

Danny snickered again and leaned sharply to the left as he skidded around another turn.

“And Sam woulda killed for a chance before Val. She learned sign language to try and talk to her, always said it was because she seemed like the only tolerable person in the room. That’s Sam for “she’s really pretty”,” he added slyly, dropping a red shell in Jason’s path.

Triplefucker. Jason skidded for a double set of items, then burnt a few coins to speed back up.

Digested new information. Both about the elder Mansons and Sam herself. But he didn’t have enough yet.

“So why wouldn’t they let her bring Val?” He asked instead, popping up a pirahna plant as they approached another turn. Not a great item, so he might as well make space.

“They think Val specifically is a gold digger,” Danny actually cackled this time, shaking his head and still not missing a beat.

He was a pretty good player. But they’d see how good he was under pressure later.

For now he snorted most of a laugh through his nose, shaking his head.

“Delightful. Bet Val will love that,” he snickered, hitting another double item. Mushrooms. Fucked again.

“It’s practically a mark of quality,” Danny agreed, grinning broadly, and dropped a row of bananas across the whole path. Dodgy little fucking shit.

Paused, then skimmed half way across the road for another double item box.

“By the way, do you mind if Val knows you’re a halfa?”

Jason, just about to launch a brand new green shell, frowned. They’d definitely been over this.

“I thought you already texted your team’s group chat?” It had been the most efficient way to share info with everyone who needed it.

And they’d shared more information since, mostly planning for the gala tonight. He’d kind of assumed the lot of them already knew.

He’d figured he’d meet Val and Jazz eventually, the same way Danny was probably gonna run into B’s brood again at least one more time.

Probably more now that Dick knew how much he liked puns. But Bludhaven was a ways out of Gotham, so Jason’s sanity might survive.

Danny shrugged, now glancing at Jason from the corner of his eye, and Jason took advantage to nail him with the shell. Fucking deserved it.

“Yeah but Val wasn’t in at the time, new phone- oh you cheating motherfucker!”

“Look me in the eye and say you wouldn’t have done the exact fucking same,” Jason taunted, not taking his eyes off the screen this time.

Fuck the other laps, the only thing that counted was who crossed that final finish line first. They were close, both neck and neck and if Danny had an item worth a damn he’d have used it.

Nor did Jason, but fuck it, who cared?

Just as they reached the final stretch, that dreaded alert popped up.

A blue shell. Whoever got hit, the other would win.

Half the family would have backed off, hit their breaks and let Jason take the hit. Because Jason? Jason never backed off.

He’d race the damn blue shell to the finish line and if he couldn’t beat that he didn’t want the race. And lucky him, he had coins to burn.

Danny hit his boosters right alongside Jason, the two of them careening towards the line. In the corner of his eye Jason could see the blue shell closing in, eating up the map behind them.

Reaching out suddenly, he caught Danny by the face and pushed just as the younger man shoved a foot into his other elbow.

The blue shell hit, explosion spinning both their carts to a stop. Before they could recover, a third cart sped past them, finishing the race.

Danny groaned, dropping his controller as the rest of the players passed them.

“FUCKING baby park!” He swore, and Jason nodded, flicking his controller to finish the race before tossing it down.

Then he turned back to Danny and shrugged. Ultimately he just… didn’t really care. Sam and Tucker had gone over well.

As prickly as he usually was about sharing intimate details with strangers, his death was basically common knowledge. Now, so was his revival.

So what if another stranger from a small town knew he’d fucked that up too? Precedent suggested she wouldn’t give a fuck, and it felt really, really good not having to hide.

“Yeah, I don’t care if Val knows. Do we really wanna add her back to the group chat right after the gold digger thing though?” He’d never met Valerie, even in text, but he knew she could be hot headed.

Half the stories of her trying to kill Danny proved that; it was how Danny survived.

Jason could relate. He’d been too fucking annoying to kill since he first put on a cape.

Well. Almost too annoying.

Danny just shrugged, shaking his head and rolling off the couch to grab his phone again.

“Sam’ll have told her in a private chat. Legal permission to tag her back in, or do you wanna tell her face to face?” He asked, and Jason had to wonder how much he’d talked to the others about it.

Mostly because Danny, thinking something through? He didn’t need to have known the guy this long to know that didn’t happen.

How the fuck did you even tell anyone something like this? He still had no idea how he was going to explain to his family that he was only mostly dead.

Maybe a stranger to practice on would be a good idea, and Val at least had the benefit of context. Knowing what a halfa was had put her one over him until last week.

Yet when he had an easy option, letting the others explain for him, he couldn’t help reaching for it. He didn’t even fucking know what it meant to him yet; how was he supposed to explain to anyone else?

And hey, Danny’s “new halfa just dropped” was elegance and perfection. If only he could just toss that in the family chat and call it good.

He shot Danny a thumbs up, scooping up the controller he’d dropped and tapping back to a new game screen.

“Go for it. You fill her in and I’ll get us a new game?” He offered, part of him resenting the vulnerability. The part that he kind of hated knowing was all his, and not the pit.

It wasn’t like he was even asking for help. He was delegating.

There was nothing fucking wrong with asking for fucking help. He wasn’t fucking alone anymore. He didn’t fucking have to be.

He was allowed to have friends who cared about him, and he was allowed to let them help with the things he didn’t know how to do.

His aura must have been a goddamn mess because Danny didn’t even open the chat, just hopped the back of the couch again and shoved his feet in Jason’s lap.

Soft-calm-understanding-been there.

Jason glared down at socked toes. More than anything else, he fucking hated bringing the mood down. Felt like it was all he did some days.

Socked toes scrunched to wave up at him. It looked so fucking bizarre he had the sudden urge to laugh, despite the mess in his head.

Well, he’d already ruined the fucking mood. It was easier to talk to Danny’s toes rather than look up, habits he’d learned to cope with surging green that was conspicuously absent now.

No pit rage. Just himself, still fucked up, still unable to look someone else in the eye when he was sure he’d see pity reflected back.

“Why do we need to talk about my death?” He asked the socks quietly, hands still curled around a game controller. Knowing the answer couldn’t be good.

“Because the first time you transform, you’re going to look the way you did when you died.” Fucking Danny scrunched his toes in time with his voice like the sock was the one talking.

That did knock a shaky snicker out, and Jason gave the man himself a half hearted glare. But it did suck the seriousness out of the situation.

Cuz yeah, that? That wasn’t a situation he was going to think about right now.

“Well fuck,” seemed to sum it up, and he stared back down at Danny’s feet. Couldn’t bring himself to face the sympathetic smile.

It didn’t help that Danny was the only person in the world who’d understand. Who’d already faced the horror of his own death, and now popped in and out of a ghost form like a cape.

Socked feet patted the top of his thigh.

“Yeah. You’ll be able to change it, and with some practice you can accessorize however you want just by thinking about it. But. Yeah. It’s going to suck,” Danny explained softly, thankfully abandoning the sock talking.

Jason chanced a glance up from the corner of his eye.

“How did…” how did you handle it? The words stuck somewhere below his collarbone, wedged sideways in his throat.

It didn’t seem to matter. Danny was good at hearing the ghosts of words he couldn’t say.

“Well, I transformed the first time the day I died, so it wasn’t like the memory had time to percolate,” Danny explained airily.

Like that was a good and normal sentence to say. Snorting a laugh, well aware that’s what Danny was going for, Jason pinched one of Danny’s toes.

The whole foot jerked back, coiling protectively. Motherfucker was ticklish. Yeah, Jason remembered that from their first wrestling session.

The temptation to knock Danny back to the floor and tickle him breathless was strong. It’d end the conversation, distract them both, get a more cheerful evening back on track.

Hell, they still had to tease Tucker about his massive crush on Tim. They were young, half alive, and had a truly obscene amount of snacks to get through.

They had every reason in the world to have a good night.

Just, y’know, the lingering spectre of Jason’s death between them. He’d never actually spoken about it to anyone, except to rub it in B’s face.

He’d made a joke a little too close once and watched Dick’s face crumple.

Fuck, he didn’t even like thinking about the event itself. Crawling out of his grave, well, he didn’t actually remember that.

Didn’t remember anything until Talia pulled him from a pool of bubbling green. Not the way he remembered what had come before.

Danny’s foot rose to poke gently into his face and Jason reared back, train of thought effectively derailed and he swatted for Danny’s ankle.

“What the fuck, dude?” He asked, giving Danny a mock glare as he knocked the foot away.

Danny was watching him just a little too closely for the casual smile on his face, or the lazy shrug.

“Well, you didn’t listen to your fucking name,” he pointed out, and it was news to Jason that anyone had been saying it. Obviously.

Then Danny sat up and moved closer, leaning in shoulder to shoulder with Jason.

“You don’t have to tell me. But. I’m gonna be with you when it happens, unless you don’t want me to be. And I need to know how bad I need to kick Batman’s ass.”

The last knocked a proper startled laugh out of Jason, but he didn’t move away. It. Helped having Danny close.

Close enough he didn’t have to look at his face. Close enough to feel his admittedly lacking body heat as comfort. Six of one.

“Pretty sure Sam has the brutalizing father figures part on lock already,” he said instead of asking, grin solidifying as he remembered the look on Bruce’s face.

It was never Bruce’s ass he’d wanted kicked. Alright, that was a lie, but it wasn’t Bruce he blamed for his death. That… that had always been on him.

He’d just expected B to save him like he’d done on all Jason’s other fuck ups.

Danny snickered along with him, reaching for Jason’s old controller and settling in.

“I see you still not saying Bruce is Batman,” he said innocently, and Jason fought free of the ghosts in his head.

Might as well kick their king’s ass at Mariokart before wrestling the ghosts of his past.

And if they were sat much closer, much better able to jostle each other, that’d work to his advantage. He had more bulk to use.

“Bruce knows Batman,” he repeated instead, clicking through to choose a map. Danny snickered again.

“Sam thinks Bruce is Batman’s sugar daddy,” he said innocently, just as the countdown ended.

Again.

Jason dropped his controller and lunged for his phone. Fuck the race, THAT was going straight to the family group chat.

**

Tim threw his domino aside as he stormed into the bat cave, slamming into the chair in front of the batcomputer. His fingers hit the keys before his ass hit the seat, clacking furiously.

Dick and Damian exchanged glances and shrugs, entering more slowly. Duke had skipped the cave altogether, heading straight to bed.

The actual hand off from the gala had gone smoothly. All the goons were in custody, and Croc had gone quietly. Probably because all four of them were still around, but that didn’t matter.

Tim ignored the company. It was still bothering him. He didn’t know what they’d missed when they’d raided the Riddler, and the mystery case hadn’t helped.

He’d gone to look at it when Nightwing and Signal returned to the dining hall; Damian had been right, it needed the building’s power supply.

And Dick had also been right - it was some kind of games cabinet. He’d gotten the touch screen off without setting off any of the traps and powered independently it did indeed produce a riddle.

Tim hadn’t bothered solving it, just gone back into the guts to trace what was supposed to be the threat. It wasn’t like Riddler not to include a backup battery, at least to prevent tampering.

(And alright, Tim had found and removed two, but that didn’t count. They were easy. Easy was how they’d missed something on the raid. Easy was hiding something.)

The fucking case was empty. There were spaces wired to take nearly double the explosives they’d found, and there was nothing in it. It just didn’t make sense.

As far as Damian cared, Tim was just getting up his own ass again. The brat had said as much on their way home, while Tim worked furiously at the tablet.

Tucker Foley had broken it open straight to the OS, all memory and data laid bare, except for one encrypted folder. That was too easy too, but Tim couldn’t fault his work.

It was perfect but for that one folder. Tim could trace back how he’d done it, the hack as clean and easy as one of his own.

And he’d done it with enough spare time to get right through to summer in Stardew Valley. While Tim fretted in the next room searching for the damn tablet.

That meant he’d given up on the folder, or been the one to place it. That was a clue, but if that was the case it wouldn’t help him solve the Riddler mystery.

Sighing to himself, he opened a connection through to Oracle on his comm.

“Hey O. Busy?”

“Not more than most nights,” came the easy reply. As usual, Babs sounded like she was calling from a LAN party, not rewriting the traffic grid.

Unless Bluebird was done already. Could be. Tim hadn’t checked.

“There’s a mystery folder on the Riddler tablet. I think Foley left it, but I don’t have time to break his encryption. Is Batwoman with Nygma?” He asked, running both hands through his hair.

Dick was hovering. Probably worried. He could stuff that in his own ass.

Barbara chuckled, and beside him the tablet screen sprang to life.

“Batwoman dropped him off before your guys came for Croc. He’s very upset, apparently. Sure you don’t want to take another run at the tablet? I hear your flirting has been adorable.”

Tim shot Dick a glare. Dick, entirely unrepentant, gave him worried puppy eyes.

“I have a boyfriend,” Tim grumbled, glancing back at the tablet again. Glaring at his brother was a waste of time when there was a puzzle to solve.

“So don’t marry Foley. Your nerd flirting is still adorable,” Babs shot back immediately. Tim could practically see her hands hovering over her own keyboard, waiting for his go ahead.

Riddler was actually in custody this time. That probably meant the threat was neutralised, at least for now. It also meant Red Robin could pay him a visit.

Red Robin could go check over the hideout. There might be some more answers there too.

His hands stilled on the keys, body tensing. A large hand landed on his shoulder and Dick leaned in.

“Actually, can I put a rush on that? Danny seemed pretty sure we’d learn more about him overnight. This’d explain it,” he added, tapping the tablet screen.

That caught Damian’s attention, the boy leaning back in from the locker room with his eyes narrowed.

“Does it pertain to his meta abilities?” He called, and Tim groaned, shoving both hands through his hair. Dick chuckled softly and gave him a gentle shake.

“Well it definitely has to do with him recognising us in costume, and I’m pretty sure he flew away, so I’m gonna say yes,” Dick agreed, and when the fuck had he been planning to mention that.

Tim’s neck cricked as he snapped his head around.

“He what?!” Danny had left maybe half an hour after the attack, at most. How the fuck had Tim missed so much?

Dick grinned down at him, still without shame, and one day Tim was damn well going to crack that facade. Possibly with his fist.

“You seemed so busy with the case, Red. I didn’t like to bother you.”

Damian materialised at their sides, glowering up at Dick too. It wasn’t all that often that they were on the same side but it wasn’t the kind of thing they could enjoy.

“Richard. He recognised you?” Damian asked sharply, and Dick sighed.

“Well he called me a fucking cop again and said the butts match, so I’m going with yeah. He seemed to think we would find something equally important on him though, and Jason didn’t seem concerned,” he explained a little less cheerfully.

Tim sucked in a deep, calming breath. Closed his eyes. And Damian snapped the question before he reached ten.

“So why do we not simply ask Todd?” The youngest growled, already reaching for his comm.

Dick shrugged.

“Go for it. He’s still with Danny, just pinged the group chat,” he added, raising his civilian phone to wiggle it.

Damian and Tim fell silent, both aware that Jason… well, for one would not react well to demands for information, no matter how much Danny helped with the pit.

And two… wasn’t likely to give them a full Danny download in Danny’s immediate presence. And they couldn’t swing by to ask, even if they did know where they were.

Sighing to himself, Tim pulled his phone out.

“O, if you could take a turn at the tablet hack I’m just gonna… check… Oracle check the group chat.” He pressed his lips together firmly, fighting back laughter.

All three heard Babs’ curious hum, keyboard clacking resuming a little slower than her usual. A one handed job while she checked.

Damian glared from Dick to Tim this time, then went back to the locker room for his own phone. Significant improvement from a year ago, where he’d have grabbed for Tim’s.

Fuck school, socialising him with Superboy the Younger was doing him good.

Tim’s head snapped up again, staring at Dick.

“Does the demon brat know what a sugar daddy is?” He hissed, and Dick’s eyes widened.

“Uh… dibs on not telling him.”

“You are the one he likes!” Tim hissed, Barbara’s snickering a new sudden baseline.

“And I’m keeping it that way,” Dick shot back, dancing away from the table, “you have nothing to lose!”

“Because his grandfather stole my fucking spleen, are you even Damian’s family if he hasn’t tried to stab you at least once?”

“Boys, boys,” Barbara cut in, still snickering, “think of it this way: do you want Jason to tell him?”

Both vigilantes turned back to the phone, where Damian’s icon was showing the distinctive three dots of a message in the making.

Tim glanced at Dick.

“Honestly? Kinda.” Better Jason than either of them, Jason was at least out of the immediate line of fire. And would probably weather Damian’s later vengeance attempts reasonably well.

Damian might have missed the original fireworks but he’d known Jason in the League; the fact that even he was wary of the pit rage said a lot.

But then, Damian had experienced the rage himself too.

Tim was kinda glad Ra’s hadn’t wanted to risk his mind to it. Would have been more glad if the old fucker had just left him alone instead of again, stealing his fucking spleen about it.

Wasn’t much of a surprise that Damian was stabby, honestly. But even he wouldn’t seriously pick a fight with Jason.

Nobody wanted to set off the rage that permanently broke him. Because that was what would happen if he ever did seriously hurt one of them again; Tim could see it.

Jason already thought he was broken. But they’d persuaded him he didn’t have to be. Putting one of them in the hospital, after all of his progress, would only confirm what he already believed.

Tim remembered the sharp, bleeding, fractured edges on the Red Hood he’d first met. He hadn’t seen that man in years.

He never wanted to see him again.

Not when he’d finally met his childhood hero, the Jason Todd he’d followed around with a camera in the night. Not when he finally had a Jason who called him his little brother.

They didn’t talk about it. But he could see it haunting behind Jason’s eyes some nights, a darkness different than when the pit was bad.

The pit’s anger spilled outwards, but Tim had learned to differentiate it from Jason’s. Jason’s anger spilled in, turned on himself. The kind of anger Tim was intimately familiar with.

Tim wouldn’t push. Not something so delicate. But one day, he’d really like some answers.

He’d like some damn answers about Riddler’s plans, Danny’s powers, and Tucker’s encrypted fucking file too though, and those were all a lot more urgent.

And why Killer Croc was in Gotham. And what Two Face wanted with Jason, not Red Hood. And what Killer Croc and Riddler wanted with Two Face.

And why Sam Manson’s grandmother knew Poison Ivy well enough to request a hit. What the hell was happening in Amity Park. If ghosts were actually-seriously-for-real-a-thing.

The speedsters were going to be intolerable if they presented that to the Justice League. Tim would definitely be hacking that footage with popcorn.

Heaving another sigh, he flopped back into the computer chair and just stared at the screens.

Alfred had made him weak. He’d been in bed less than thirty hours ago and his eyes were beginning to itch. But there was way, way too much to do for him to rest.

Scrubbing both hands down his face, he sat up again just as Babs let out a curious little “huh” over comms. That helped revive him.

“What’s up, O?” He asked, glancing back at Dick.

Some time while he was zoning out, the older had changed back into civvies and was leaning against the railing, checking his phone.

He must still have a comm in though, because he looked up too.

Why wasn’t he going back to Bludhaven? Another mystery for Tim’s eternally growing pile, but a minor one.

Babs was chuckling again, and the tablet screen flickered back to life.

“I got your folder open, RR. Very interesting encryption, the big bat isn’t going to be happy.” Babs sounded extremely pleased though.

“What did he use?” Tim asked idly, glancing down at the screen. Stilled. Was dimly aware of Dick moving curiously forward to peek at the tablet too.

There was only one thing in the encrypted folder, or at least one thing Babs wanted him to look at first. A simple text file.

‘To the Oracle. Love your work. Expressing my deepest admiration and eternal devotion. - TooFine’

And then an IP address that Tim couldn’t automatically place to a country. Was Tucker challenging Oracle?

Babs was talking again and Tim quickly refocused, already tapping the IP into the batcomputer.

“Three dates of my latest hacks into Lex Luthor, Vandal Savage, and the Legion of Doom. He even helpfully provided a hint in that Stardew Valley file.”

That caught Tim’s attention. He’d ignored the game, assumed the name was irrelevant.

“What’s the farm called?” He asked quickly, not wanting to scroll into the game to check.

Babs chuckled again, clearly back to work on one of the other problems.

“L85tH1t5. Or “Latest Hits”, for anyone that hasn’t used substitutions in a while. The kid’s good, and he’s been paying attention. The IP address has me in a private server, and it’s locked down with something I’ve never seen before. I think he wants to play a game.”

Tim’s brows furrowed, his attention refocusing on his own screens tracking the IP. It hadn’t even let him in.

“I’m blocked,” he admitted grumpily as Dick let out a low whistle, leaning back against the railing again.

“Must be a private invitation,” Babs teased, then sobered up. “I don’t think this is going to be the easy answers Nightwing’s looking for though. You’ll just have to run a search on Danny Fenton separately.”

Dick moved forward again, probably to lean over his shoulder or steal the keyboard, and Tim swatted him away.

“Wanna loop me in, O? I can get started on the server if you’re busy with the others.”

“Someone’s feeling left out,” Dick snickered, leaning on the back of Tim’s chair instead. Tim flipped him off.

“No need, Red Robin,” Babs replied, her own amusement just as clear as Dick’s. They were the worst. “It’s a quiet night for Gotham, I have time to flex a little.”

“Search Fenton,” Damian demanded, brows drawn down in a glower as he appeared beside the chair. Like that’d get him a big reaction.

Tim flipped him off too on principle, but sullenly pulled up a new window.

He didn’t feel left out. He wasn’t jealous. Tucker had been talking to him for half the gala, they’d had a great time and Tim really did like the guy.

They’d exchanged numbers and everything. He was gonna have to send over a real internship offer too.

Tucker hadn’t even met Babs. He was Tim’s friend.

Tim had a boyfriend. A wonderful boyfriend, whom he loved with all his heart. He wasn’t even lonely.

He just.

Didn’t see why Tucker would invite Oracle to his mysteriously secured server and not Tim.

**

By the time Bruce returned to the manor (and more importantly, to the cave) Tim was the only one down there.

No matter, Signal, Nightwing, and Robin had all had plenty of time to complete their after action reports. He could peruse those and prepare questions for later.

It was Tim he had wanted to talk to anyway. Whatever Tim had seen about Masters. About Danny Fenton.

Bruce headed over to the batcomputer, noting a cold mug of coffee that Tim somehow hadn’t finished. He’d been in for a while. And looked frustrated, not busy.

The perfect time to divert his attention for a report.

“Tim,” he said in greeting, brows drawing in as Tim turned a hazy glare on him.

He knew the boy had slept more this week than he usually did in a fortnight, but the bags under his eyes had barely lessened. Still, it had never affected his efficiency before.

“Your report on the gala. Particularly Masters and Fenton,” he prodded gently, and Tim groaned loudly, tugging at his hair.

“Honestly Bruce? Vlad’s a shifty son of a bitch that I wouldn’t trust as far as I could comfortably spit a rat, and Danny Fenton’s a fucking mystery. Who knows who we are, by the way.”

That was more than just concerning, and Bruce tensed. If Danny had approached Jason as a way to get to them…

“You’re sure?” He asked almost hopefully; he’d never actually had reason to doubt Tim. Who clearly also remembered that, from his archly raised brow.

“He called Dick out in costume. Hinted he’d done some vigilante work under the name “Phantom”, which I cannot find in any database anywhere, and I can’t find a damn thing about Amity Park from anyone who actually lives there ANYWHERE online.”

Tim spun back to the batcomputer, gesturing angrily at the three biggest screens. Bruce scanned them all, brows furrowing.

Tourist websites. An article about the “most haunted town in America”, clearly the hard earned result of their constant ghost claims, and… social media?

“They don’t have fucking Twitter, Bruce,” Tim growled, tapping through browser window after window. He’d clearly been doing this for a long time.

“No Facebook pages for restaurants, city hall, nothing. Except that Tucker showed me their weather station’s Facebook on his PDA. And that isn’t how fucking Twitter or Facebook WORK.” He slapped the keyboard, and the screen jumped.

Bruce carefully edged the cold coffee mug a little further away, but didn’t interrupt Tim’s rant.

“They don’t have a single server dedicated to one tiny town in Bumfuck, Illinois, to isolate their posts, or the kind of protections that would keep people from one town from connecting to the wider internet. It shouldn’t be possible! Nothing the government has on them even raises a blip but beyond those records, they’re just gone!”

Tim flipped quickly through various different government databases, too quickly for Bruce to do more than scan, but he didn’t need to.

Amity Park existed. There were a few accounts linked, email addresses, websites, that should have gone to city hall. The school board. Local businesses.

Tim clicked viciously on one of the links, and the window immediately blanked.

“Something is seriously fucking wrong with this town, Bruce,” Tim declared, the anger gone as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving only a dangerous sobriety in its place, “and we’ve been ignoring them.”

Bruce’s eyes narrowed, his concerns about Danny Fenton slotting neatly into a sudden, much larger concern.

Tim had pulled up the Justice League’s records on Amity Park. There were thousands of requests for help, every single one bearing the same status: Rejected.

Hundreds came from a single day, someone clearly hitting the button over and over and over again in a panic, desperate to get through.

And then nothing. Not a single request for years since. As if the residents had given up.

Bruce nodded to the screen.

“That cluster. I take it you’ve looked?” He asked tersely, slipping straight into Batman. Tim clicked a request at random.

“Not all of them,” he admitted bitterly, “but they’re pretty consistent.”

The panic was clear in the wording too, no attempt at spellchecking or grammar. Tim scrolled through the next few.

Key smashes. Curses, swearing, pleading for help. One phrase stuck out especially clearly to Bruce, repeated over and over.

‘The sky is green. Earth is gone and the sky is green.’

What the hell had happened in Amity Park?

Anger firming his jaw, Batman reached for his Justice League comm.

“I need to speak to John Constantine. Now.”

—————————

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Next chapter:

[crazy000567]

Ok I wanted to talk about this on my twitter but realized it will appeal to no one so its going here. Being autistic about critter character designs. VERY LONG

Pim/Charlie/Allan/Glep have interesting designs to me like they are some of my favorite character designs possibly in any cartoon cause they're all very well balanced - easy to draw, cute, but slightly ugly also. Well maybe not ugly but certainly not Conventional.

(Glep applies slightly less there, he's just straight up a cute lil guy, how plushies don't exist of him yet baffles me)

I like their slight offputting quirks, like, Allan's spine is visible, Pim's Teeth. They are just strange creatures and I enjoy that. Of course there's also the fact all of their frontfacings (maybe slightly excluding pim's) are just kinda goofy and bizarre looking.

Its just, the choices being made here are really good, okay. They're very appealing lined up, yknow.

The fact they are just kinda cute sometimes makes the expressions being pushed and the weird quirks funnier. If pim was an ugly lil freak all the time it would be less effective when he does that weird awkward toothy laugh. Which brings me to my next "Point" which is like, I really enjoy that they are some of the only critters that arent.... fugly as hell

There are some few exceptions with BG/side characters (just look at amy, shes a pretty gal) but like, most of the side critters that have gotten screentime are very very strange. Allan's landlord is a prime recent example. Look at that guy. Jesus christ.

This is not to say the uglier designs are Bad, quite the opposite, I love when they are hideous <3 But the whole thing is, if the main characters we see every episode were on the same level as them appearance-wise it would get very tired. This is probably like, entry level design stuff for a cartoon, and not very interesting to anyone lol, but with adult cartoons it feels like it can go way too hard on the ugly scale.

Onto the next thing thats been on my mind lately when it comes to critters - I enjoy that their appearances truly are pretty random. Its fun to make things like crittersonas cause like, you can almost do whatever the hell you want lol

I like that some of them just dont feel like wearing clothes, this was talked about by Michael on twitter at some point a few years back I think.

Their hair is a topic that kind of mystifies me lmfao like we see the wiry sparse hair a lot (gnarly, filmore, etc) but then there are characters like amy, pims dad and duncan that have more full human-esque hair. This makes me wonder if its like, randomly possible for some critters to get full heads of hair, or if wigs/hair transplants are a thing, or even if hairloss is just more common which results in the wiry hair later in life. Really NOT important or compelling to anyone but me but I seriously do think about this. Critter Hair Essay coming soon (i'm kidding ............. or am i?)

Also just like, the concept of what critter beauty standards or smth could be sort of interests me, but this is getting incomprehensibly long and stupid anyway, and I would have to be going into heavy Speculation Mode there. so BYE Goodbye

[saika077]

I made this tier list of where I'd put r:1999 playable characters in twst kind of like in the twst manga as the MC a while ago and here's some interactions I thought of:

(While making this tier list, I realized that a lot of these characters are way too op for this verse and could 100% end the story earlier than it needs to.)

Some of the adults are hired as a faculty member in their respective AUs while being Grim's guardian.

Book 1 is mostly filled with children who are full of joy whimsy and wonder. Something Riddle probably lacked growing up.

I feel like Sotheby and Sonetto could memorize the entirety of the Queen of Heart's rules. Sonetto would try her hardest to make sense of it while Sotheby would be like "oh! That completely makes sense!"

Regulus immediately getting "Of with Your Head"ed.

Cater and TTT would share so many gossip together.

Book 2 is half filled with people who I think would be very much interested in participating in the tournament, thus accepting Crowley's offer to investigate the recent incident.

Lowkey Book 2 is pretty much your typical situation Matilda would find herself in.

Desert Flannel and Ruggie would either be friends or have beef with each other since both of them are 17 year old parentless broke mfs who was raised by their grandma, constantly on that grindset. Also I'd like to see Ruggie getting drop kicked by an ostrich when they were chasing him in this au.

Mondlicht would try to kill Jack every single day without any success.

Book 3 is mostly filled with people who I think can outsmart Azul and/or scam him back. That and people who have connections to the ocean.

Literally what's stopping Pavia from stealing the contracts when he can move and hide in the shadows?

Melania could probably come up with a better plan to steal that picture than walking through the front door and immediately getting ambushed.

I want Lisa and Louise to do what they did to Pandora Wilson in their interview to Azul when he tries to make a deal with them. Instant Win.

I know I put Tuesday in Book 7, but imagine her and the baby getting evicted from the ramshackle dorm and was like "y'all would do that to a single mother and her baby...?" And the twins are like "heh.... Sorry.... Azul's orders..." Or some shit like that but that night they stayed up contemplating their life choices bc damn... They fr did that to a poor single mom and her baby... (Even funnier if you consider the hc that Floyd is a mama's boy.)

I put Oliver in book 3 specifically for the capitalist vs union worker thing.

Book 4 is mostly people who I think could be a tutor for the Scarabia students. "Oh, your dorm is staying over the winter breaks to study? I can help with that."

Kalim and Yenisei could bond over their respective water magic.

Mercuria would meet Jamil and just know his vibes are off. I just know she'd immediately know what's going on.

Book 5 is pretty much filled with people who knows a thing or to about stage performance (J is canonically good at acting btw).

Epel🤝Ezra canonically pretty enough to get mistaken as a girl except one of them has a more fragile masculinity than the other.

I just found out about this the other day but apparently J's en va also voiced Vil in a fandub project

Deuce and Epel in J's au:

Books 6 are mostly Laplace people (for obvious reasons)

Then there's 6 who is basically Idia if the stuff that happened to him happen when he's older and grew up without internet access

Book 7 are some of the people who I feel like could solo Malleus.

The way that Barbara's arcane skill is like Silver's UM but better. Bro lost to a 12 year old.

The way Sebek can't call J, Satsuki, Pavia and Jiu Niangzi "HUMAN!" bc like him, they're also only human and that'd be hypocritical for him. Also Barbara for more reason than one.

Kakania giving these kids free therapy session.

In Pickles' AU Ace would make fun of Deuce for not being smarter than a dog

There's a rumor going around about a new school nurse with a fascination for teeth especially beastfolk's.

Deuce would be extra extra mindful around Tuesday.

I feel like Jade would get along with Ezra (bc of their shared interest in mushrooms) and Tuesday (for their shared interest in finding out people's weakness and fears)

Speaking of, imagine the first years being tasked with babysitting Tuesday's baby and they're shocked to see the baby for the first time. Ace was the first one who spoke up saying "lmao it looks like you Sebek."

I think these people would assume that Ortho is an Awakened when they first met him and after Book 6 where he's like "I'm finally a real living boy!" They'd be like "you weren't alive this whole time???"

[fagsystem]

Headcanons/Prompts centred around Mario and Luigi being brothers.

1. In high school Mario got super insecure about his height, so Luigi acquired every single movie with Danny DeVito in it and made him watch it. Then if he ever suspected Mario was being insecure about his height, he would hand him a printed out photo/screenshot of Danny DeVito.

Mario found this so hilarious that it would usually distract him and cheer him up. He also found it so sweet how much effort Luigi put into it.

2. Luigi is chronically ill and disabled (long headcanons of this here) and as a kid and into adulthood Mario was the one who cared for him. Mario got a job in high school to help cover Luigi's medical bills. He spent a lot of time researching to try and figure out the problem when doctors were dismissing Luigi. He made sure Luigi ate three full meals a day and drank enough water. He helped Luigi get outside to get sun and fresh air.

When they finally figured out what exactly Luigi had and began treating it (I personally headcanon POTS and EDS) Mario ensured Luigi followed his treatment plan to a T.

Once Luigi's symtoms were managed quite well, he and Mario had quite a bit of tension of Luigi feeling smothered by Mario and Mario feeling overprotective after so long of caring for him. It caused one of the worst fights they have ever had, which ended with a, "YOU'RE NOT MY MOM!" "MOM WASN'T THE ONE WHO [long rant about all the things he's done for Luigi]." After Mario finished the ranting, they were both just sad about being mad at each other. They communicated about it and got better.

Once they got older, and especially after they became adventures, Luigi took on the role of caring for Mario's wellbeing. He was Mario's player 2 not because he was less skilled or capable, but because he wanted to be. He liked being there for his brother in the way his brother always was for him. He didn't care when people called him 'Green Mario' because there's no one in the world who he would rather be more like.

Although, when he had to fight Mario about taking breaks to eat, he thought it was absolutely karma for the hell he gave Mario when he was nauseous and did not wish to eat.

3. All Mario wants for Luigi is for him to be safe and happy. If he were to, say, get a romantic partner who will keep him safe and happy, values that above any personal hard feelings against the person. I am going to use Bowser as the example partner here, but any work.

A funnier route for this is Mario giving Bowser the biggest death glare possible whenever Luigi is not looking.

A less funny route is Mario bottling up his negative feelings as opposed to processing him, and something happens that shakes him and he pops like a shaken carbonated beverage. (I mean, the illustrative language I have used could also be comedic.)

4. Luigi has very high standards for people Mario date. I feel as though the only person who maybe would meet those standards would be Peach, and that's only because she is good at figuring out how to frame things she's done in a way that matches what people want from her. You know, political leader who has to make hard choices sometimes.

I am not a big DK x Mario shipper, but I will say DK would never meet Luigi's standards in 1000 years. I would say Luigi wouldn't necessarily oppose the relationship (unless you want some good comedy surrounding that) because he wants Mario to be happy and DK makes him happy. However, he thinks Mario could do better.

5. Luigi has bad taste in men. He is absolutely the sort of person to see an aggressive man with no ability to handle his feelings or self control and go, "I could fix him."

Mario always relentlessly bullied him for this. Then he ended up dating DK. Luigi seemingly remembered every single thing he ever said about his taste in men and is just parroting it back to him.

6. Luigi really likes dressing up all fancy, and Mario hates it. Luigi likes their matching outfits, especially likes it for adventures, but also prefers to dress up if going out anywhere. Going to see Peach casually for tea? Going to see a kids film? Going to the store? Dress pants, perfectly polished shoes, and a high quality, well fitting, tastefully coloured and patterned button down.

Mario on the other hand does Not like it. It's uncomfortable. It's expensive and he doesn't want to worry about running it. Usually doesn't fit well on him, and then tailoring is even more expenses. If he is not in their matching outfits, he is in shorts and a t-shirt.

They often go out together to a variety of events, some more formal than others, but at least one of them is always underdressed or (more often) overdressed.

7. The reason Luigi is afraid of animals is because he is afraid of accidentally hurting him. (Polterpup was the perfect dog for him.)

Mario helps his brother do exposure therapy for this fear. Luigi has made a lot of progress. When they were teens Luigi would back up as far as he could from any animals he saw because he was convinced he'd hurt them. Now, he just tends to freeze up and wait to see if he is making the animal uncomfortable by being close.

-

If you have made it this far, please comment or reblog with more ideas.

[lwamonstergirls]

(NEW) Little Witch Academia: Monster Witches List

Yep, that's right, starting fresh with a new list~! In this, I'm going to be listing what kind of monster each witch is in this AU, and this time it will include EVERY WITCH!!! Or at least Every Witch I have a monster for at the moment. Will get back to some just in case I missed a background character, or random professor, or character exclusive to the games or manga. But for now, here is the new list~.

Student Teams

Red Team:

Atsuko "Akko" Kagari - Werecat

Lotte Jansson - Barn Owlman

Sucy Manbavaran - Kraken Cecaelia

Blue Team:

Diana Cavendish - Lamia

Hannah England - Demoness

Barbara Parker - Black Widow Drider

Green Team:

Amanda O'Neill - Peregrine Falcon Harpy

Jasminka Antonenko - Pink Slime Girl

Constanze Amalie Von Braunschbank Albrechtsberger - Cyborg

Violet Team:

Avery - Vampire

Mary - Were-Jackalope

Blair - Dryad

Yellow Team:

Wangari - Wereleopard

Kimberly - Mothman

Joanna - Selkie

Peach Team:

Sarah Bernhardt - Giant Western Dragon Girl

Chloe - Cervitaur

Elfriede - Werewolf

Pale-Green Team:

Sóla - Salamander Girl

Rajani & Rashmi - Naga

Pale-Blue Team:

Shao-Yi - Giant Eastern Dragon Girl

Catarina - Arctic Kitsune

Katie - Weresheep

Light-Green Team:

Dorotea - Alphyn Girl

Irene - Strigoi

Eleanor - Enfield Girl

Light - Aqua Team:

Bianca - Rokurokubi

Aileen - Blue Slime Girl

Hilda - Osprey Harpy

Pale-Lavender Team:

Heather - Orca Mermaid

Rosie - Jellyfish Mermaid

Daisy - Siren

Lavender Team:

Katya - Shedu Girl

Carmen - Electric Eel Mermaid

Maria - Matango

Lime Team:

Gaëlle - Regular/Common Mermaid

Aira - Werecheetah

Isabelle - Griffon Girl

Aqua Team:

Abigail - Chimera Girl

Rachel - Giant Wyrm Girl

Rita - Coatyl/Boitatá/Cockatrice Tribrid

Light-Yellow Team:

Molly McIntyre - Wraith

Elsa - Tiger Mershark

Amelia - Ichthyocentaur

Pale-Yellow Team:

Erika - Peacock Jumping Drider

Bridget - Leafy Seadragon Mermaid

Bice - Giant Wyvern Girl

Pink Team:

Alice - Giant Drake Girl

Eliza - Seahorse Mermaid

Priscilla - Imp

Teal Team:

Verochka - Giant Sea Serpent Girl

Nina - Angelic Monster

Francine - Manticore Girl

Lime-Yellow Team:

Aisha - Buraq Girl

Esther - Eurasian Eagle Owl Harpy/Golden Weretiger Hybrid

Henrietta - Fairy

Orange Team:

Michelle - Wedge-Tailed Eagle Harpy/Frilled Lizardman Hybrid

Li Na - Common Lizardman

Theodora - Weretiger

Purple Team:

Teresa - Deathstalker Scorrow

Julietta - Giant Squid Cecaelia

Alma - Minotaur

Miscellaneous Students

Katherine - Honeypot Ant Girl

Lin Lin - Werepanda

Jeanne - Dullahan

Shiki - Medusa Lamia

Balsa McVinegar - Crow Harpy

Marianne - Sailfish Mermaid

Verde Shidariza - Peacock Harpy

Jiji Delevingne - Dolphin Mermaid

Professors

Professor Ursula/Chariot - Centaur

Professor Croix - ShapeShifter

Professor Finnelan - Banshee

Professor Nelson - Golden Eagle Harpy

Professor Lukic - Goblin Mershark

Professor Meme - Cyclops

Professors Abby & Britt - Giant Hydra Women

Shao-Yi's Mother - Giant Eastern Dragon Woman

Professor Matilda - Were-Jackalope

Professor Badcock - Great Horned Owlman

Headmistress Holbrooke - Papillon Fae

As for Professor Pisces, she's basically the same. I could make her a mermaid, but I feel like keeping her as a regular fish that's just sapient would be funnier. Besides, she know has an entire section of the school she can swim around in freely~! Yeah, I'll be getting to that eventually.

Finally, I've gotten this list all done and typed! Not lying, this took me literal days to finish since I couldn't think of monsters for some girls and kept switching species around! Luckily, the people I've asked say this list is good, which at least gives me some hope that I made the right choices for these characters. I'm not gonna lie, I can't wait to make spec evo bios for these girls and go into the culture and worldbuilding for monster/non-human societies~! And I'm gonna remake my old Bios now that there are more characters and I have some new abilities for them~! But for now, hold on tight, because this AU Revamp is just getting started!

[heartofroses112]

Our Own Choices Deleted Scenes — finding Ahsoka and Rex pt. 4

Cody looked down at his comm. A slow smile broke out across his face. “The Jedi are here,” he said as if it wasn’t the most life-changing sentence Ahsoka had ever heard.

Her chest tightened, and she couldn’t help the way her hands clasped the hilts of her lightsabers. If she opened herself to the Force, what would she find? Two councilors, that was what Cody had said. But which two? She knew who it could not be, but that still left so many it could.

Cody turned his smile on her. “Relax, Ahsoka. It’s okay.”

Ahsoka sighed, meeting Cody’s gaze. “I’m not a Jedi anymore,” she said. “And… well, last time I spoke to the Council, it didn’t go very well.”

“You’re worried about what they’ll think of you,” Cody supplied. “Worried they’ll be disappointed when they find you and not someone else.”

She fought back a flinch. That was exactly what she worried about. Cody and Obi-Wan had always had the innate ability to see right to the heart of any problem. Cody pressed on. “They’ll be happy to see you. Not because you’re a former Jedi, not because you’re a soldier, not because you’re an agent of the Rebellion. They’ll be happy to see you, Ahsoka, and know that one more child survived.”

“I haven’t been a child in a long time,” Ahsoka responded.

Cody searched her face. “And wasn’t the point of our discussion last night that it’s okay for you to let down your guard again? Sure, you’re not a Jedi. But, well, technically they aren’t either.”

Ahsoka raised her brow. “Is talking in circles and exploiting every technicality something Obi-Wan taught you, or did you leave Kamino with that ability?”

The cheeky grin Cody gave her was something she had missed seeing from Rex. It made her insides flip around in a weird way. Had it truly been so long since she had seen her best friend so happy that a smile from his brother made her ache for better times?

The door behind her slid open before she could let her anxieties run any farther. Ahsoka turned and found herself face-to-face with Commander Wolffe.

The old commander was already speaking as he walked in, head down as he fiddled with his gloves. Perhaps that was why he didn’t see her at first. “All right, Cody, we’re here after you dragged us out of our nice warm beds in the middle of the night, so where’s this padawan and captain you—” Wolffe raised his head, words halting in his mouth as he finally met Ahsoka’s eyes.

She smiled, warmth tugging at her heart and shockjoydisbeliefwonder filling the Force around the commander. “Hello, Wolffe.”

“Commander Tano!” Wolffe snapped off a quick salute, eyes wide and grin big. “What, I mean, you’re the Jedi Cody was talking about?” Wolffe’s gaze shot to Cody. Ahsoka could feel how Cody radiated smugness. “Why the kriff wouldn’t you just say it was her?”

“It’s funnier this way,” Cody replied. “Bet you can’t guess who the clone with her is.”

Wolffe dragged his eyes from Cody to Ahsoka and back again. “But he… I thought Rex died on Felucia?”

“And I though you died on Cato Neimoidia,” Ahsoka shot back. Then the implications of Wolffe, Commander Wolffe, Wolffe of the 104th, standing before her truly sank in. She looked at Cody as well, his smugness shifting to something far more genuine. “Cody. You said two councilors.”

“I also said they would be happy to see you, didn’t I?” Cody jerked his head toward the door. “Go on. They shouldn’t be far.”

Ahsoka turned slowly, gaze dragging across the walls of the room until it felt as if she was staring through the very heart of the ship. Ahsoka let herself open up to the Force once more, let down her shields and stretched her senses as far as she could reach. There, so strong, so close, closer than anything had been in years. Wolffe was saying something at her side, but she wasn’t listening. How could she when all of her focus was on the bright lights in the Force?

“I’ll,” she breathed out. “I’ll be back. I have to…”

And then she bolted out of the door.

She’d like to say she had more dignity and walked serenely through the ship. That would have been a lie, however. Ahsoka raced through the halls, nearly falling over herself in her haste. Troopers saluted her as she passed, and she called greetings over her shoulder. She didn’t have time to stop, not now.

Time and distance worked against her; she could not tell who it was that she was running to. But she knew them, even if names were far from her tongue. They were home, family, safe. She had to get there, had to see them.

A door appeared before her. One of the troopers who saw her coming slammed the control, and she waved at him as the door slid open without her having to stop. He laughed and cheered her on.

Ahsoka burst into a room, one she didn’t recognize. Maybe it had once been the officers’ rec, or even one of the smaller messes. She didn’t have time to think about what it was now. Because there… there…

Ahsoka burst into the room, and she found herself face-to-face with Plo Koon and Mace Windu. Scarred and weathered, no longer the same men she had once known, and yet…

“Master Plo?” she breathed out, eyes already burning. The Kel Dor exhaled, eyes growing wide behind his mask. His hands dropped to his side, claws clenching in the long robes he still wore.

“Little ‘Soka,” Plo rumbled. “Young one, I never thought to see you again.”

“Ahsoka Tano.” Mace Windu folded his arms across his chest. Under his gaze, she felt like a padawan once more, hiding behind her master. “It is good to see you alive.”

Unable to differentiate between the past and the present, Ahsoka dipped into a bow, heart thundering in her chest. “You as well, masters. I am glad to know that I am not the only survivor.” She swallowed as she raised her head, back straightening beneath the weight of the two masters’ attention.

Plo searched her face, and she felt the brush of his Force presence against hers. Ahsoka sucked in a breath, hands meeting behind her back as she tried to hold herself together. “There are not many of us,” the Kel Dor said, the cadence of his voice familiar and comforting, “but enough that all hope is not lost.”

“How many?” Ahsoka asked.

“Less than a dozen masters,” Master Windu answered, “but about thirty knights and padawans, and nearly twice that of younglings.”

Ahsoka closed her eyes. “That is… that’s wonderful. I never expected our—” She paused. “I never thought so many Jedi would have escaped the Purge.”

“I am glad we can add your name to our numbers,” Plo said.

Ahsoka shook her head with a small smile. “I’m no Jedi, Master Plo. I haven’t been for years.”

Master Windu tilted his head, arms still crossed. Like Master Plo, his Force presence was reaching out to hers, an unreadable wall that blocked out the cold touch of the galaxy. She’d forgotten the simple pleasure of her fellow—no. Not fellow. But she’d forgotten how the presence of the Jedi had always made her feel so much safer.

Ahsoka could not help but remember the last time she and Mace Windu had spoken. It had not gone as well as it could have. She could blame him. She could blame the war. Or she could simply accept that it had once happened.

“Ahsoka,” Windu started. Ahsoka had no idea where his next statement might take them. Master Windu had always been the hardest councilor to read. “There is much to regret about the fall of the Republic. Much that I wish had gone differently. I want to apologize for how you were treated, on behalf of the Council and myself.”

Ahsoka shook her head again. “There is no need, Master Windu. Over these long years, I’ve had many opportunities to think about it all. And while the decision made perhaps wasn’t the best one, it was likely the only one available. And… well, I like to believe that my departure from the Order was meant to be. I know it helped me understand my place in the galaxy.”

“Nonetheless,” Windu pushed on. “An explanation is not an excuse. I could have fought harder for you, as Masters Koon and Kenobi did. It was a poor precedence to set, abandoning you as we did.”

“You were Master of the Order,” Ahsoka said. “You had to focus on what was best for all Jedi, and that was complying with the Chancellor. It wasn’t right. But I understand why. And you and the other councilors have long been forgiven.”

Master Windu was still examining her. She lifted her chin, confident in a way she had not been in some time. Ahsoka had always wondered what she might have said to the Council had she seen them again.

Windu’s arms dropped to his side, face softening in an expression she had only ever seen him reserve for his lineage. “You would have made an excellent Jedi Knight, Ahsoka Tano. One of the best the Order had ever seen.”

Choking down the swell of emotion in her throat, Ahsoka bowed once more, hands shaking at her side. “Thank you, Master,” she got out. She raised her head once more, unsurprised by the familiar burning at the back of her eyes. Master Windu met her gaze with a small smile.

“Little ‘Soka,” Master Plo rumbled again, hands reaching up and out toward her. “We are so very proud of you.”

And then she was crushed against his chest, in the arms of the father she thought she would never see again. Ahsoka inhaled deeply, forgotten scent heady in her nose.

She opened her eyes, chin tucked against Plo’s shoulder. She reached out a hand, barely able to focus through the film of tears. Master Windu took her hand and pressed it to his chest. His heart thundered beneath her palm, strong and reassuring.

Ahsoka gasped, every tear locked in these last twelve years now hot and heavy in the back of her throat. Master Plo tucked her tight, claws gentle on her back as he held her. Her fingers twined in his robes, the fabric rough and familiar and warm. Master Windu let her hand go, but she did not take her eyes off of him.

Master Plo pulled back, lifting his arm to bring his sleeve to her face. With gentle motions, Plo wiped the tears from Ahsoka’s face, his other hand cupping her cheek.

pt 1 | pt 2 | pt 3 | pt 4

[skylarmoon71]

Aaron Hotchner (Criminal Minds) Chapter 34

The spot he’s chosen is fairly popular. You both arrive a few minutes outside of the given time, but your seat is ready. You both sit down, and your waiter goes off to get you drinks as you think about what you’d like to have.

“Nice choice.”

Glancing through the menu, there seems to be so much that you’ll enjoy.

“I’ve noticed that you’re very fond of seafood.”

The fact that he pays attention to that isn’t even strange. It’s a bit difficult to turn off his profiler brain.

“I do. My mother was obsessed with that cuisine. I think it rubbed off. Especially-”

“Shrimp.” He finishes. 

You grin.

“Yep. It’s my favorite. It’s even funnier because my dad isn’t as crazy about it. This one time my mom had just eaten shrimp. My dad wanted a kiss. So he had to decide between a smooch or shrimp breath."

 The memory you share makes even Hotch laugh.

“I take it he chose the former. “

“He really did.”

You were a bit worried that this would be awkward, but it’s going very well.

“I know I don’t say it enough, but your contribution to this team is valuable. “

“I’m glad to hear you say that. You all are like family to me. I know I haven’t been here long, but it feels like I’m where I’m supposed to be.”

“I’m happy you feel that way. I know I never made it easy for you. I apologize if my actions made you doubt your place here.”

“Hotch, you never have to apologize for protecting the people you care about. I understand. I’d do anything to make sure the people I love are happy, safe.”

There’s a pain that follows those words, he sees it for a second in your eyes. But you school your features too quickly for him to make any real conclusions.

“I’m glad to be a part of this team.”

You mean it. You wouldn’t trade it, not for anything.

~

Three hours later and Hotch is dropping you off at your apartment. Since you’d left your car at Quantico, Hotch has offered to pick you up in the morning.

“Thank you for the dinner sir. I really did enjoy it.”

For Hotch, you know this is a treat to sort of welcome you to the team. There were points when you thought there was interest on his part. He did ask you out. But you convince yourself that this is purely platonic.

Because you aren't sure you can take any more heartache if you’d created it in your head. He has Hailey. Although they are still divorced, there will always be that love. You won’t get in the way of that. Not after all you’d gone through to bring her back to him.

“You’re welcome.”

It’s one of the rare times where he smiles. You’d almost forgotten what they looked like. When the both of you were together, he wore them so often. But this isn’t then. Right now you’re practically strangers. He isn’t yours anymore. You're not entitled to those looks.

Standing at your doorstep is a bit daunting. It just resurfaces those old feelings. The ones you’d train your body months to forget. You can’t accidentally touch him when you think he needs comfort. Or kiss him when you know all he really wants is support.

“Why do you always look at me that way?”

You snap out of your pity party when he speaks. In that moment, you can physically feel your heart drop. You scramble to gain a neutral expression.

“I-I’m sorry I don’t know what you mean sir.”

“I’ve been watching you. Since the moment Strauss recommended you. The way you interact with the team displays ease, as if you’ve known them for months. Your resume was extraordinary, and your work in the field is remarkable. “

“Ummm, thank you. I’m just trying to be an asset to the team sir.” 

Hotch takes a step closer, and you swallow.

“The fact that Strauss was the one who placed you on my team has always made me weary. But when I look at you, when I’m around you every bone in my body tells me to trust you. Yet whenever you look at me, all I see in your eyes is grief..and love..”

You want to scramble away. Make a break for it before he says anymore and you fall apart right there. It’s only when his palm rests on your cheek that your body has regained the ability to move.

“S-Sir we shouldn’t be..doing this..”

“Can I kiss you.”

You feel as though you stop breathing altogether, and you no longer have the ability to stop the tears. Hotch looks shocked at the way your eyes water. He doesn’t even get a chance to ask, because you kiss him.

It’s like Deja vu.

You’re very first kiss, both this time, and the one before.

Hotch is slow to respond, but when he does, he wraps his hands around your waist, pulling you as close as your bodies will allow. He can feel the wetness of your tears on his cheeks, but it doesn’t stop him, if anything it encourages him. His hand is pressed to the door for support as he deepens the kiss. You open your mouth and your tongues collide. It’s so raw and wet. You’re begging to taste every bit of him, and Hotch complies wholeheartedly. Your fingers dig into his suit, and you’re both so taken in the kiss that you don’t see the lights flickering above your head.

Hotch is the one who parts. It’s slow, and he pulls in heavy breaths. You’re not much better. Your eyes open simultaneously. When Hotch looks back at you something is different. There’s a recognition in his eyes that you hadn’t seen before.

“(Y/N)...”

His tone is so familiar, but that’s

“Impossible.”

You read right through his thoughts, and when he looks at you, that’s when you know.

“A-Aaron..?”

His smile is weak, like he’s apologizing.

“ I’m sorry that it took so long.”

You sob, and pretty soon you’re crying. Not those controlled tears you always see on television. No, this is messy. You’re full on bawling as you clutch onto him. Because the last six months have been hell for you. Watching the man you love walk around with no memory of you. Potentially losing him. It’s finally caught up.

Hotch just holds you, because he knows right now, that’s all you need. 

[n0sewise]

hi! 1 & 12 for choose violence game, if its okay to ask

hi, yes it's totally okay to ask!

1. Oh god, it could be any of them, honestly. I see a lot of UwU Killua, but also there's a ton of really great Killua too. I'm going with Gon since we never get to hear his inner thoughts. There's a tendency in fandom to go really extreme with him either as The Sweetest Most Innocent Boy In The World or Selfish 8ft Monster Who Hurt Killua. I don't see him as either, and even in my own writing I've had people misinterpret him as being dumb for the sake of it, or an alpha bro type when in reality, he's got the mother (father?) of all abandonment issues. This is the kid that went out to see what's so great about smoking bc his dad left to get a pack of cigarettes(someone funnier than me made this comparison and i forget who). Gon is Complex. His morality is a little weird. He loses his arms like it's a hobby. Anyway. Yeah, Gon is my pick for 1.

12. Illumiiiiii. I love Illumi, but this won't be in defense of him (I don't even think he's unpopular). Something about him makes my brain go brrrr. He is The Worst and here is why I love him:

1) a fantastic villain. We don't even know who he is until his big reveal in the exam arc when we find out Why Gittarackur has been in disguise this entire time. He's got those big, empty shark eyes. He's an assassin and yet he walks around in weird, green, puffy sleeved outfits when it would clearly be more practical to dress in literally any other way. He hardly emotes until He Does, at which point he becomes Terrifying to behold.

2) he's the kid that Silva and Kikyo fucked up first. Look, that Speaks To Me as an only child gifted kid burnout. Illumi is their firstborn, but he's not the heir, and he's Very Good at what he does. Was he born with the right temperament, or was it beaten out of him? We don't get that info, but I think it's fucking fascinating, and even more so when you consider that Milluki must have been the overcorrection of whatever was done to Illumi to make him the way he is. Was there any point where they looked at this perfect assassin and were like, "...we might have messed him up a little" ? Was he told to have a hand in Killua's upbringing, or did he take that on by choice? The Implications of his childhood and that of the rest of the Zoldycks are some of the most interesting in the series to me.

3) he's a hypocrite! He's delusional! Mr. Assassins Don't Have Friends went and got engaged to a magician clown? Illumi is so delulu for his entire conversation with Hisoka where he assumes he is the person Killua loves most and it makes me choke on my coffee every single time. He's removed from reality, which is a charming and horrifying trait to have, and it has endless au potential.

So far I've only written him as The Worst Person Killua Knows, but can you imagine au Illumi as the most embarrassing older brother? Illumi showing up while Killua has Gon over after school and thinking he killed it because he just dabbed like the kids do, and Killua is hoping the ground will open up and swallow him bc his big brother Did Not just do that in front of his crush? Illumi bringing his awful, creepy boyfriend to An Important Zoldyck Function and not understanding (or caring) when they manage to clear the room because their combined vibes are just too rancid?

I love Illumi. I don't want to see him succeed. I do not think he has a healthy relationship with any of his siblings. He is Not a good person in the series, and it makes him so fun to watch. Hisoka makes my skin crawl, but I could watch 8 hours of Illumi failing at human interaction.

This came out longer than I intended, whoops. Thanks for the ask!

[myjustice]

🌿🍒

it was something she never thought she would ever get to do. to see the fortress from within herself & see all of the people within it, some vaguely familiar given the many trials she had been present in. everybody was so hard at work here & being able to see just how much wriothesley changed things down here ... she found herself almost speechless. it was still a thorn 'pon her finger, he really never should have gotten sent down here but he had grown into a fine man, the fruits to his labor were evidence & proof enough. he was well respected down here.

as it was the holiday season, it seemed like even within the fortress the duke allowed some semblance of celebrations, it was easy to tell with some of the lights & choice of decorations. she was the one who presented the idea of her coming down here actually ... ideally without neuvillette knowing if only to spare him a headache was all. she wanted to perform for the people here, she wanted to sing for them. it was hardly anything, she was well aware, but it was a start. the majority took well to her presence, some didn't seem huge fans, which she hardly blamed them, & they probably kept to themselves because the duke was present the entire time.

when she took to the stage & sung her song for them, she beckoned that their hearts find it within themselves to forgive her. it was selfish, she knew, but when she sang she poured her heart into every word & vocal. she saw stars in their eyes, admiration, & awe, shades were all too familiar. the white dress she donned stuck out like a sore thumb here, but she had to look the part of course. even if she, as an individual, was not fully well received by everybody, her performance was. when she concluded her song, furina bowed to them & the applause was loud, echoed throughout meropide from both those who inhabited it & its guards. though the hearts of many she may not have down here, it was without question that while she was on the stage she did if only temporarily. it was fragile & sensitive, but she would find a way.

after her performance she mingled among them alongside the duke by the cafeteria. compliments & praises, those came in abundance, it came with her territory. some so happy to see her in person & some found it in them to share their woes with her & their concerns. throughout the entire night, furina listened & listened & listened, & she would remember everything, all of it. her heart ached for most, but she would remember & she would make sure to at some point bring this to attention to those above.

' you have done so much down here, wriothesley. ' it was admirable & even she knew it. everybody here had nothing but good things to say about him to her. her eyes wandered towards the crowd before them, some merely conversing whilst others engaged in some of the activities that were set up for them. this community of his ... she could only imagine how hard it must have been to get to this point. furina's eyes then wandered to the decorations if only out of her own curiosity, quite taken by how well they fit the fortress & it was in the wandering of her eyes that she noticed a certain ... festive ornamental plant hanging above their heads up high. was that always there? & it was upon realizing that single one that she also takes notice that there's actually quite a few hanging here & about down here. why does this almost feel like ... a setup of sorts? a trap for those unsuspecting even? & why does that sound so like the duke? now she wondered if he found entertainment or enjoyment out of playing some sort of cupid. she'd laugh, but she couldn't find that want to laugh even if the thought was rather humorous to her.

he seemed oblivious to the fact that he had fallen into one of his own traps as well & that only made it that much funnier to her. what prompted her following actions were many things, though mostly to play the hand that got dealt ... she felt a sense of gratitude & a need to display that for him.

furina reached for the duke's face, his cheeks cupped warmly by her gloved hands as she guided him downward to meet with her height halfway & pressed a soft lasting kiss upon his cheek, right underneath the scar under his eye. ' happy holidays your grace. ' she bid him a festive time as she pulled away & released him with a smile. ' thank you for giving so many people a second chance here. ' there was still so much about her people that she didn't know, so much that she was blind to, but over time she would see more, & on that journey she'll find a way to help. stepped down she had to, but she was not going to abandon them, divinity or not, she was not going to leave them.

... she hoped he wouldn't mind the lipstick stain, that was completely unintentional from her part.

mistletoe meme. / @vaultingfist

[postguiltypleasures]

My Peak TV journey *The Marvelous Mrs Maisel*

Prior to the final I made some predictions about where the show would end up. one was that Esther would grow up to resent her mother like Lorelei resented Emily Gilmore. I was right about that. I also speculated that maybe this was the story of how Midge could make anybody laugh, but could not make it as a comic. I was wrong about Midge’s career.

I liked the flash forwards but some of the choices of people she would be involved with seemed more funny peculiar than funny haha. It implies she was involved with Mike Nichols. In the first season there was an episode where she did not know about his act with Elaine May and almost ended up in a Nichols and May knock off act, making this later implication funnier. The flash forwards made a big deal about her working with Bob Hope which tracks with aspirational dialogue from earlier in the series. While Hope had a long and successful career, (meaning I understand why he was chosen as the symbol of what success in the field looked like), he also fell incredibly out of fashion starting in the late sixties. As a choice, it says Midge never quite seemed “young” in her career. Which, I guess makes sense.

That said I really liked the final season. In earlier posts about the show I acknowledge criticism that the Weisman’s players by goy actors were so much more likable than the Maisels, played by actually Jewish actors. This season seemed to recognize it and subtly correct.

The elder Maisels were suddenly hilarious, if still crass and unkind. The Wiseman’s reliance on their housekeeper Zelda, who got married and retired over the season revealed some very unappealing aspects of their characters.

The show sometimes felt like it took place in 1960 for multiple years. As a series The Marvelous Mrs Maisel didn’t exact love the time period in which it took place, so much as it loves the pop culture from its time. It never made me want to be there, just to keep watching people in their colorful, well tailored clothes. But it was not particularly critical, nor interested in a “this is what led to things being the way they are now” type of rational for its existence. As a choice it’s doesn’t clarify, but doesn’t let you wallow for the good old days either. Sometimes it felt like every year on screen was 1960. This disinterested ambivalence occasionally led to wanting to me I’d want to fact check it, but rarely actually doing it. The one time I did was regarding Clark Gable’s death, which I thought took place a year after the season was set. I was wrong. 

In the final episode there was an establishing shot of the Ansonia indicating that is where Midge live in 2005. Later she makes a comment about Yoko Ono being one of her neighbors. Ono famously lives in the Dakota, several avenues from the Ansonia. I was going list this as another thing that makes me doubt the interest in veracity o the series. Then I found this discussed in this post finale interview with Amy Sherman-Palladino. It’s a fictional building in a fictional timeline. Don’t make a big deal about it. Some how this made define with it.

I want to end this by praising the actors who joined the series late players. 

Some how I forgot that Julie Klausner joined the series late in the fourth season, but she regularly had me giggling over her appearances in the final season.  (Interestingly, Klausner is not a Lenny Bruce fan.)

Alfie Fuller is new to me and she was so great as Dinah. I hope Dinah has as great a management career and I look forward to seeing Fuller in something soon.

Reid Scott is such a charming bully as Gordon Ford, you almost don’t resent his character’s success. (Though I think the no writer on the show rule was a good one) 

I’ve liked Chris Eigeman since those Whit Stillman films and I really liked seeing him run the Village Voice here.

Jason Ralph, (Rachel Brosnahan’s real life husband) had some very funny bits as Mike, especially in relation to Suzie. Seeing him here mostly made me think how I want to see him as a lead again. 

Nina Arianda has intrigued me since I saw her play Stan Laurel’s wife in Stan and Ollie. She still does as Gordon’s wife/Susie’s ex, Hedy. 

[beesflowers]

𝒮𝒽𝒾𝓃 - "𝒜𝒸𝒸𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓃𝓉"

Characters: Shin Hinomori, Shizuku Hinomori

Type: OC Lore

Note: again, I hope it's not cringey- As for song recommendation I'd say "Pity Party" by Melanie Martinez suits!

Shin was now in 6th grade, he was 12 and had figurd out his own style which was pretty quick but he was happy and proud! He discovered he felt comfortable with long hair and clothes in kind of goth style. He had bunch of them in his closet and no one mind! The thing that they mind was his hair... everyone said it looks too girly because it almost touched his waist...

But right now, that was none of boy's worries! He was currently in library looking for a nice book so he can relax his mind a little~

"Here's the butch girl!"

He wished he could say he didn't knew who's voice it is but unfortunely he knew way too well... As the years passed, people would think that kids matured and stopped bullying Shin but as he discovered his style, it only got worse...

Hinomori didn't felt like dealing with group of boys he knew way too well so he deicded to take his leave and try to find the right book some other time. But his path was blocked... he had no other choice than face those boys.

"Why are you in such a hurry?! We just wanted to give you a surprise!"

"Yeah! You'll thank us later for it!"

Shin was nowhere to be scared. More likely annoyed... he was simply done with every day ideas that were simply so childish... But at this point what's the worse that can happen? He already was trapped in a trash bin with rats by them, can something worse even happen?

When he was so sure nothing bad can happen to him, he could feel his hair being held, keeping him in place before he hears sound of scissors... that was the moment when boy was simply scared. His hair was something that kept him confidence, that made him feel like himself, that made him happy and it was now being taken away from him... so of course he tried getting away from their grip but it seemed like he wasn't strong enough...

"Stop moving so much!"

"Shut up Harry! It's funnier when he does!"

Hinomori wasn't giving up tho, even if he would loose, he wanted to make sure he won't be mad at himself later so he tried escaping with all his strenght but it seemed that it still was of no use...

Those may've been just few minutes for Shin sat there for more... he felt so... sad without his signature... even tho the group of boys already left, the boy with now extremely short hair was staring at the floor full of light blue hair, he couldn't help but let ouf few tears... maybe it wasn't the manliest thing but there was no one around so surely he could allow himself for it...

"Shinny~ Are you here?"

But then Hinomori froze... he didn't want his sister to see him like that! Worrying her is the least he want's to do right now! He'd prefer ANYONE but her! But it seems like he couldn't do anything before his twin found him.

"Here you are! Why didn't you sai- W-What happened?! Why is your hair so short all of the sudden...?"

Shizuku was so worried... he could see tears forming in her eyes... did she knew? There was no way! After all he made sure to hide this not so friendly relationship of his...

"I just... wanted to try out new style!"

"Oh I see! You still look pretty!" girl gave him a smile and clapped her hands as a sign of approval "We should go. Mom is already waiting for us!"

"You go without me. I... need to find a book before I go."

"Okey! I'll reserve your favorite seat for you~!"

Both twins exchanged small waves and smiles. Once Shizuku left tho, boy immidietly got up and cleaned the mess in library. He doesn't want to have problems after all... He made sure there's no signs of him crying and came up to car.

"Where's the book you were talking about?"

"I couldn't find it..."

[neverchecking]

Sweetpea is like the Ultimate Golden Retriever Energy, but I also feel like he's weirdly good at Emotional Intelligence and that's the thing that got him into Aaliyah's and then Sage's good books. (We gotta give him something.)

Since this is a yandere verse and Sage is the older version of Wild and Cal, they would probably be yanderes as well. But maybe not as intense? (I think that's the flavour I'm going for) as Sage because the moment Sweetpea realises where he's seen that look before, he's coming down on them like an avalanche.

Because the idea of them thinking Aaliyah didn't choose Sage or them trying to manipulate her genuinely makes him angry. Not a lot makes him angry, but people forcing a choice onto others is one of them. From before the moment he woke up in the Shrine, Tia hammered into his head that no matter what people or even Gods said, the decision to be The Hero was always his. It was always his choice to take up the sword, to save the champions and her, to protect Hyrule. She straight up told him if he felt like the Calamity or Ganon was too much, he could just leave. So Sweetpea is very big on Freedom of Choice. (She's trying to hammer the same thing into the other two but its a bit slower going due to habits and *Trauma*.)

So these little puppies turning into genuine threats to Aaliyah's safety and happiness? Yeah, no. Not happening. Wanna love her? Go right ahead. Want her attention? Fine by him. Want to protect her? Here's a sword. Think she's the most divine person to ever grace the land? You're delusional, that's Sidon and Yona, but each to their own.

Want to steal her away and strip her of her own choices and autonomy? Over your dead bodies.

He's pinned them in private and tearing into them, ripping apart every single excuse they can have that Sage isn't good enough for her. He tells them they have no idea what Sage and Aaliyah went through together, even he and Tia will never truly know. That it was never about deserving between them, only choices.

Sweetpea, who's not-so-sweet at this point, really hammers the point home by sarcastically apologising that he didn't recognise the two as being Flora and Fauna because only a version of Natura would dare to assume things are as they think they should be.

His parting shot is that the two should think about whether they respect Aaliyah enough to understand she made her choice of Sage freely and only if they respect that choice, then she might choose them too. And wouldn't that be better, to know she chose them even with her and Sage's history?

But if they don't? Well, Sweetpea was always the more efficient between him and Sage and a threat to Aaliyah, Sheikah Champion and Sage of Spirit, is a threat to Hyrule and it's Queen.

(He's going to need Tia snuggles afterwards. He won't tell anyone about the duo yet but goddesses he needs snuggles. Maybe even group snuggles. Sage can suck it up. He wants Snuggles.)

The relationship between Tia and Aaliyah and Sage is phenomenal. Tia was just like 'psst psst psst' at first and now she has two cats disguised as Hylians drifting in and out of her home all hours of the day.

Sage and Tia started bonding pretty early on, mostly due to Tia being very different to Natura and willing to go with Sage instead of trying to lead. The 'Dumpling' name came out late one night as they cooked together and Tia was tired. Previously, she'd been trying to respect the space Sage clearly wanted but she slipped. Sage didn't say anything so she let her guard down even further which made Sage drop his guard and it just spiralled from there. (Sweetpea and Tia are Siblings with a hint of 'That's my Mom/Woman that raised me' cause Tia did basically reraise Sweetpea through his amnesia so They are Family which also makes his Red Alert system even funnier cause 'That's his mom you heathens!' 'Don't call me mom. It makes me feel old.' 'But you are old though.')

Tia was really anxious to meet Aaliyah because she really really really wanted Aaliyah to like her. Sage couldn't stop waxing lyrical about her once he got comfortable enough to do so and Sweetpea kept bragging about all the stuff they did together and how cool she is but don't tell her I said that. But then they finally properly meet and it's like "Hi We're the Brain Cells of this operation."

It doesn't take all that long for Tia to scoop Aaliyah under her wing as well because she sees and hears all the shit Aaliyah went through and is just 'We're not doing that again. Mine now.' It starts with a single invitation to tea (because you can't really go wrong with tea) and then spirals into weekly gossip sessions disguised as Important Political Conversations and occasionally Tia trimming Aaliyah's hair for her.

Tia is also big on casual displays of affection so she's dishing out forehead kisses, hand squeezes, linking arms, side hugs and head pats like they're going out of style. Once they get used to it, Sage and Aaliyah are competing with Sweetpea over who gets the first hug. Or just hugging her randomly to annoy her 'Suitors'.

(Eventually, First, Warriors and Twilight tag team with each other to get some sundelions to her. This is a Team Effort now. They wait until Sweetpea is away with his Zora, distract Sage and Aaliyah while one of them quietly passes the bouquet to her. All three of them get shy cheek kisses and her guard dogs are so pissed.

Sweetpea really wishes he'd never accidentally mentioned that of all the Heroes Tia had 'visions' of, the Hero of Twilight was her favourite closely followed by the Hero of Warriors. He has so many regrets :) and those two have been insufferably smug ever since.)

(I feel like Sweetpea is the only one who definitely knows about the whole reincarnation thing. Tia wanted to explain it to Sage and Aaliyah once they were assured the merged Hyrules were permanent but they both saw how visibly uncomfortable it made her. They do at least know her 'Visions' aren't exactly the whole story.)

He seems like the most emotional intelligent out of all of them. Like his own emotions? He has no clue. But Sage has this miniscule twitch in left brow and his right ear flickered? He's gonna commit manslaughter. He's pinpointing every single one of these things. Like you said, it probably is what gets him into their good books because he's explaining that while yes, he does understand that person deserves to be drowned, they can't. And the two are just shocked he could pick that much up when they were certain they remained neutral faced.

They haven't had the same devastation of the upheaval that positively broke poor Sage, so you're right that they wouldn't be as intense. They're a little more mellow, less quick to latch on. The worst is when Sweetpea figures it out and is just D:< That can't happen! He won't let his SIL Leave are you CRAZY?!

Because you're right. Aaliyah did choose Sage. She chose him every time. Pre-Calamity when circumstance forced her to choose between preforming her duty to her people or ensuring his safety, she chose him. After her revival when she could've chose to live blissfully unaware or join him and put herself right back into the fire of it all, she chose him. After the upheaval when she fought several realities to get back, she chose him. And she'll continue to choose him. Over and over and over again. While it's probably unhealthy, it works for them and Sweetpea is going to preserve that to the best of his ability.

It's funny because Aaliyah isn't scary to Sweetpea. Everyone else has a healthy fear of her, but Sweetpea has no shits given. He's willing to do everything to protect her despite the fact she's the one wiping the blood off her face after a fight. Sure, they can wrongly think she's a piece of pure divinity blessing Hyrule, but the second they try taking the piece from his brother is the second he's proving why he's strong enough to roll with those two.

If Sage doesn't get to them first, you bet that he's a little thankful (In his own constipated way) that Sweetpea is willing to go to bat for him and Aaliyah. What they have been through has made their connection so unbreakable, at this point he's convinced they're actual soulmates. Not even Tia or Sweetpea will probably ever know what the true extent of the devastation they went through did to them, but they trust that they are only products of their environment.

Him comparing them to Flora and Fauna probably makes them so angry because how dare he, but it does get them thinking. They don't ever want to cage Aaliyah because A) It would destroy her and B) she would find a way out and then, not only despise them, but make them wish they hadn't met her at all.

Sweetpea probably inspires that idea that should they want any chance with the Sheikah, they'll have to get close to Sage. Hence starts a new plan where they are now working on getting into Sage's good graces, because if he trusts them enough they can get closer to her.

He probably comes stomping back to camp, straight up fuming, throwing shit, reminding everyone that yes, him and Sage are closer in spirit then people think. Even Sage is raising a brow. Sweetpea was supposed to be the nicer of the two? He doesn't even complain when Sweetpea, mid-rant, grabs him by the back of his shirt and all but throws him into their combined bedrolls all put into a pile. He's only watching as Aaliyah is picked up and dropped onto his lap and Sweetpea is turning to Tia. When he returns with Said woman, going into a silent grumble as he moves them around to suit his every whim, they just sit there like O-O wat-

Tia with these two shadows following her like vengeful deities only to calm them with a gentle head scratch rfnofnf Them just coming and going whenever they please is so funny. Like the door opens, "Hi Sage." Incomprehensible grunt. Clanging around "Hyrule herb is to the left." Another grunt. Then a cabinet shutting. "Bye Sage. Tell Aaliyah I said hello. Love you both." A third grunt, a soft "...love you too." and then he's gone. AND THATS JUST NORMAL

I love their bond sm <33 It warms my soul. Especially because Sweetpea's relationship with Tia is more motherly I can only imagine that extending to Sage. At first he's skeptical but beneath all that trauma he's still just a soft boi who's scared of getting hurt again. Which makes it even funnier when her suitors are talking about it and the two are just disgusted because EW?! That's Tia? (They just can't see Tia being romantic in any sense.) It's like watching your school principal flirt with your mom.

Okay that's funny you bring it up because for all Aaliyah plays, she's such an anxious person. So while Tia is freaking out, so is she. Sweetpea spoke so highly of this woman and Aaliyah was two bits short of being absolute insane. So she wants to prove herself to this being who Sweetpea just sings of. She at least knows a version of Sidon and Yona, but not a Tia. Which is probably where Tia is. She knows a version of Sage, has met a few Sheikah, but never an Aaliyah. And when she gets past his barriers and hears him just talk about all the soft things written in books?

When they meet it's probably a little tense because they wanna impress the other so much but if only takes a little while before they're breaking and explaining that they just want to impress the other. And then they soon realize that they are, in fact, the brain cells.

OMG Them having weekly gossip sessions is now so important to me. Especially the hair bit. they're talking about who's sleeping with who, who's Sarah's actual baby daddy, did you hear what happened to Trixie's son? Beatrice caught Tommy and Lucas in the barn. All the juicy details. The one time the boys joined they were left O^O Because wha- they didn't know Hyrule was this deep?!

Tia slowly turning Physical touch into the others love language is so funny to me because it works. With the puppets, they could never touch them. Just see them. so when Tia is jumping all over them and brushing their bangs back to kiss their forehead, holding hands as they walk, it's such a nice reassurance. Even if it does in fact turn into a competition. there's a scoreboard. And they abuse they're privileges for bragging rights as well.

(THEM TURNING THIS INTO A TEAM EFFORT IS SO FUNNY TO ME- The guard dogs are trying to blame each other only to fall short as Tia looks so happy. And while they love seeing her happy, they hate seeing the possibility of her being taken away.

The other two are >:( When Sweetpea admits he told Twilight he was one of her favorites because WHY WOULD YOU TELL THEM THAT?! Wars smug face especially pisses him off.)

(Aaliyah and Sage are probably the best for understanding that talking about trauma is hard. So they easily let Tia take it at her pace just as she lets them. It'll come when it comes. They aren't in any rush and Tia shouldn't be either <3)