#fallout verses are ALWAYS FUN

[thevalicemultiverse]

((Further context about possible BG3 shenanigans that ALSO highlights just how obsessed I am with Valicer In The Dark! Double whammy!))

AU Thursday: Valicer In The Dark Vs Baldur's Gate III

Okay, so, yesterday I happened to mention that I'd gotten into Baldur's Gate III -- and that a certain Crime Trio of mine (based on an entirely different RPG, I might add), had decided to lay claim to it as a potential AU of their OWN AU. No, I don't know why I'm like this either. *sigh* Anyway, there's not really that much to it at this point in time -- while I have spoiled myself on the story (and seen a bunch of cutscenes thanks to my friend @gaydragonwizards), I haven't actually played that much of the game itself and thus don't know exactly how the trio would react to EVERY quest and NPC in the game. I do know some basics, though:

-->The AU starts with the Nautiloid happening to pop into the Valicer In The Dark universe by mistake while navigating -- the mind flayers decide they may as well abduct some people while they're here, and unfortunately Victor, Alice, and Smiler, walking the streets of Six Towers, are in range of the tentacles and taken aboard to be infected

-->Smiler wakes up in the canonical pod and finds their way to Us, saving them and immediately bonding with the little intellect devourer ("I'm a they/them too!"); Alice wakes up in a different pod nearby and is the first to meet Lae'zel, and helps her fight the imps; and Victor wakes up in the same room as Shadowheart, and is working on freeing her when the others arrive -- they get her out, get to the helm, and manage to fight their way to the transponder and connect the nerves

-->If you're wondering about potential language barriers, one of the good things about the tadpoles randomly connecting your mind to other people's is that it allows you to pick up Common super fast -- I basically see them getting a bit of an "information dump" on a few key things about the reality they're currently in during the initial connections

-->Also, in the process of freeing Shadowheart, the group find that woman in the other room and mess with her console, accidentally causing her to change -- a creepy moment made even creepier by Victor's Ghost Mind ability letting him briefly see the woman's soul escape...and then burn up as she transforms into a mind flayer. We will come back to this later

-->After the crash landing, Victor, Alice, and Smiler are very confused when they wake up to see a blue sky...and then, after waking up Shadowheart and being told, essentially, "it's blue because it's sunny?" are utterly GOBSMACKED to find themselves in a world with an ACTUAL SUN. Though shock and delight quickly turn to "oh wow, this is actually a lot hotter than we're used to, we need to find lighter clothes fast" XD

-->From there, they pick up the rest of the companions and work their way through the main plot, hoping to both find a way to get the damn tadpoles out of their heads and get home (because as nice as a world with a sun is, it's not Duskwall, and Smiler in particular would like to see their parents again plz)

-->Naturally, being pretty good-hearted people, they do the nice versions of the quests and help people out as much as possible -- though, also being a group of Shadows who nick things and sabotage schemes for their living, I can see them offering tips to the gang of tiefling children thieves and scam artists to help them in their chosen path. XD Also, Alice probably has to be talked out of killing Kagha right then and there when she threatens Arabella, and I'm not sure the snake survives THAT little encounter. Alice has a thing about people threatening children, as you might expect!

-->I foresee a lot of confusion on both sides about how different Duskwall and the Shattered Isles are from Faerun -- not just the sun thing, but also Victor having access to an entirely different form of magic (Gale in particular is like "wtf is this??? This is not Weave???"); the group not knowing what horses or cows are (both animals are extinct in their world) and having to be introduced to them -- while, on the flip side, being perfectly cool with eating rat; and the trio being briefly like "well, it's horrible what happened to that poor woman on the Nautiloid, but at least her ghost won't be slowly going insane and trying to feast on the life essence of the living" and the others being like "what." Leading to Victor, Alice, and Smiler learning that this world has an afterlife and being like D: as it dawns on them that the total destruction of the soul is not an accepted way to keep the world from being riddled from ghosts here. (The others are once again like "what the FUCK is wrong with your reality?")

-->Smiler spends a good portion of the early game looking for Us, before finally accepting sadly that the intellect devourer probably didn't survive the crash...and then they get to the mind flayer colony under Moonrise in Act Two and "Friend! You found the helm!" :D They are beyond happy to see Us and won't hear a word said against them from the other companions (who are naturally BAFFLED as to why Smiler wants an intellect devourer as a pet) -- and Us, for their part, is entirely loyal to their friend Smiler and all THEIR friends, because the kindness Smiler showed to them on the Nautiloid caused them to bond more closely with them than the rest of the hive :) Victor and Alice warm up to the little thing pretty quick, while the others...well, they get used to having a brain wandering around pretending to be a kitty. XD

-->Part of me would like Shar to somehow be responsible for the Shattered Isles no longer having a sun...and thus be real annoyed that people are still living in that world eight hundred and forty-seven years later (as Alice puts it, "you brought the darkness, and we just lit it back up again")

-->And in the "overpowered nonsense that wouldn't make it into any actual story stuff but is fun to think about," I enjoy pondering the possibility of the trio, when faced with the Avatar of Myrkul, using Victor's Whisper ghost-fighting stuff on it -- and successfully forcing it into a spirit bottle. I imagine the other companions would be like "how the FUCK did you bottle part of a GOD?!" while Myrkul would be just "...guess it beats dying again." Oh, and Withers finds it hilarious in his droll way. XD Bonus points for talking to Myrkul about what the damn plan with the Absolute even gets him, Myrkul realizing that he's somehow been had by the Netherbrain, and switching sides against his former compatriots because, yeah, this mind flayer invasion does NOT benefit him in any way, wtf.

-->Or, if you would like DIFFERENT godly intervention, I did have an idea where Mar-Mal is also able to access Faerun through the blessing they gave Smiler, and uses its influence to protect Smiler from the tadpole instead of Smiler having to rely on the Dream Visitor and the artifact. They task Smiler with spreading their influence and getting worshipers so Mar-Mal can do more on this plane, and Smiler happily talks up their god to anyone who will listen (also sharing what samples they have left of their Joy Serum). And fortunately for them, people are willing to throw at least a few prayers the way of a god of pure happiness...meaning that during the endgame, when it's time to fight the Netherbrain, Mar-Mal's gotten just enough power to come into Faerun, filling the sky with spiral clouds as they manifest. The gang still has to fight the Netherbrain, but it's easier as the Netherbrain is, um, a bit distracted trying to not be mindwarped by Mar-Mal! XD And once the threat is defeated, Mar-Mal is able to open up a temporary portal to bring Victor, Alice, and Smiler home. With the implication that they could get back eventually...like, say, in six months to catch up. :p

Whew -- bit more than I expected here! I don't know if anything is actually going to come from this -- I mean, I definitely have to get the REGULAR Valicer In The Dark stuff done first -- but it's fun to think about as I play the game. And it has inspired me to make a few not-incorrect quotes/shitposty scenes...

[gingerkunoichii]

Hi, I'm Mimi! I'm a amateur artist/writer who is currently only doing works for Naruto (planning to start jjk) :)) I go by she/her pronouns I mostly try to do reader focused things since I find it more fun and fluid. A lot of my work is nsfw and often breaches on uncomfortable subjects.

My asks are open, so please send me ideas for headcanons/imagines for any character in the naruto verse!!

How They'd React to You Teasing Them - Naruto Men. - nsfw Itachi as Your College Boyfriend. - nsfw

Yandere Naruto Men and their Obsession with You. - nsfw

Borderline - nsfw - SHIKAMARU X READER ✮ tags // rough sex, angst, toxic relationship, love/hate, mindgames, intense infidelity You and Shikamaru have been messing around for years now - never making things official, making eachother jealous in sick games, purposefully going back and forth to eachother, arguing, hating, fucking. now after months of not speaking to him after he got a new girlfriend, you decide its time to cause chaos in his life again.

Troublesome - nsfw - SHIKAMARU X READER - (carry on from Borderline) ✮ tags // rough sex, angst, toxic relationship, love/hate, mindgames, intense infidelity After the Fourth Great Ninja War, peace blankets the shinobi world—but hearts. Shikamaru Nara, finds himself entangled in a toxic, tantalizing web with you. A female kunoichi his equal in intellect, his rival in manipulation, and his downfall in every way that matters.

For two years, your relationship has been a volatile dance: friends with benefits one moment, bitter enemies the next. You break apart only to fall back together, leaving a trail of jealousy, betrayal, and passion in your wake. The twisted game has consumed them both—playing with the hearts of others, pushing each other’s buttons, and always circling back like moths to a flame.

You're toxic, playful, and seductive; he’s mean, calculating, and knows exactly how to provoke you. playlist ‪‪❤︎‬

Negative Space - nsfw - Modern AU - (check tags on AO3 for pairings!) ‪‪❤︎‬ SMS between Naruto and Y/N ‪‪❤︎‬ ✮ tags // college AU, drug abuse, abusive relationships, past blackmail, bad decisions, a lot of smut, messy

After leaving your old university under a cloud of scandal, you arrive at Konoha University, ready for a fresh start.

Once queen of the party scene, your killer smile and sharp edge left a trail of broken hearts. The drug fuelled nights, bad decisions, and neon-lit chaos follows you. Alpha Kappa Blossom, a sorority with varying characters welcomes you and you feel like you've known these people for a lifetime very quickly—but nothing comes without strings.

Your past still lingers. No matter how loud the music and whatever you take to sedate yourself from reality, you can’t outrun the fallout. playlist ❤︎‬

Fade Into You - nsfw - Canon Divergence - ITACHI X OC ✮ tags // slowburn, angst, emotional hurt, arranged marriage, eventual smut, alternate universe

In an alternate universe where the Uchiha Massacre never occurred nor the suffering that came alongside it, peace and weary trust is brokered through a fragile political alliance: an arranged marriage between Itachi Uchiha and Fumika Senju, the granddaughter of Tobirama Senju. The union, meant to symbolise unity between the clans that had rivalled for many hundreds of years, comes at a personal cost for both—Itachi, still mourning a forbidden love, and Fumika, forced to leave behind her life as a kunoichi to become a dutiful wife. playlist ❤︎‬

My Art - Mostly Naruto Related :))

Modern Sasuke for Negative Space Modern Shikamaru for Negative Space Gojo Satoru Digital Pencil Drunk w/ Toji Shigaraki Tomura waiting for us

[ghoulbrain]

hello! my name is amy. i'm a long time on-and-off fanfic writer new to fallout. i made this blog to cater to my newfound infatuation with the ghoul. i like mature and taboo themes with a throughline of toxic obsessive love. there has to be love (or something masquerading as it) for me to be invested, so while you can expect dark content, it generally comes packaged with an attempt at a happy to bittersweet ending.

currently i'm very interested in writing ghoul x lucy (vaultghoul) and ghoul x reader.

my asks are always open! i love sharing my headcanons and taking requests, but please remember that i'm under no obligation to answer every single one. this is a fun hobby for me and i'd like to keep it that way.

because of my own age and the type of stories/content i enjoy and create, i'd prefer not to engage with minors. thank you! 🖤

fanfic tag | headcanon tag

The Saddle Up Verse: a series of snap-shot fics. can be read as standalones, but were written with continuity in mind.

"Saddle up, sweetheart." - the ghoul x reader

Animal Instinct - the ghoul x reader

Happiness is a Warm Gun - the ghoul x reader

Standalone

The Cost of Flesh - the ghoul x reader

"Open your mouth." - the ghoul x reader

"Where'd you learn that? - the ghoul x lucy

(banner credit)

[luxaofhesperides]

decided to make an actually useful pinned post so here we go:

i have a newsletter that goes out every so often with my thoughts on things, what i'm reading, and occasionally a look at my original wips. it's totally free bc this is just a little thing i do for fun. subscribe if u want! here's the link

all of my writing can be found under the 'my writing' tag. edits, usually book edits, are under 'my edit'.

my ao3 is aryelee and every fic i post in here is also posted over there so if youre having trouble finding something, that's where you should go!

all my random thoughts are tagged as 'rambles' and when i live blog the comics im reading, i use 'comic read' so block either of those if you don't want me clogging ur dash.

below the cut is a look at all of my wips at the tags i use for them

ORIGINAL WIPS

this darkness swallows us whole ; the very first wip i ever started when i first began writing. it's a hot mess with too many uncompleted first drafts, but i love it so much. demons, gray morality, and one mute girl ready to start throwing hands. - #camellia

every other face ; superhero wip! with a villain taking in a child and trying to live a normal life despite the hero, her main nemesis, constantly popping in to make sure the kid is safe and she hasn't decided to cause trouble. - #caerleon community

past the pages ; isekai wip focusing on the characters trying to figure out what went wrong when the 'villainess' goes missing, ruining the happy ending the protagonist was expecting

- no tag yet! will update once i post about the wip on here.

DC

these aren't wings, they're futures ; in which tim and damian travel back in time to when jason was robin, and try to make this new timeline better while avoiding being caught by the bats for the illegal things they're doing as very young children. - ao3 link - #these arent wings

medium!tim verse ; in which tim is a medium who helps ghosts. three timelines planned: canon, polaris, and civilian. - ao3 link - #medium tim verse

manako ; my dc oc, a very tired, no nonsense baker in gotham who doesn't want to deal with bats begging for snacks in the middle of the night. ocs everywhere, and a look into the community of gotham and the life of civilians. - ao3 link (to be made) - #manako

OTHER

ghostlights requests (dc x dp) ; fics made for danny fenton/duke thomas prompts sent in to me. currently not accepting prompts. - ao3 link - #prompt fill

those who serve (dc x dp) ; danny is taken in by alfred and works as his apprentice in wayne manor. - ao3 link - #alfred's apprentice au

the harmless series (dc x dp) ; danny is reincarnated as damian's older brother + the fallout of remembering - masterpost of all parts - #the harmless series

my askbox is always open if you want to know more about any of these!

(last edited: 7.21.24)

[fayedartmouth]

Hey! I’m kind of curious to hear about what you have in planned for Rafe in the fix it. I know you said he kind of really helps drive forward a lot of the questionable plans in Lisbon. I’m wondering if you are willing to share a bit about how witnessing JJs “death” and the way that it impacts the pogues effects him and his relationships with the pogues individually and as a group. I think he’s interesting because he’s kind of an outsider perspective as somebody who didn’t know JJ as well as the others and as someone who has been one of their main antagonists. are you planning on giving him a POV?

Okay, so the thing with Rafe is that I sincerely don't even like him as a character. I only find him interesting as an antagonist and if he wasn't already in the plot by necessity, I might have just avoided him altogether.

Keep reading if you want to know more -- and for a snippet because I have no self control.

That said, as I started writing it, he became a much more integral part. And a much more interesting character. I've found writing his POVs to be entertaining and useful -- and he continues to become a bigger and more important part of things, especially in the second fic.

Here's what I'll say about him. I think I give him a full redemption arc -- in the sense that he becomes not the villain. That said, my Rafe will always be an asshole and he's never going to particularly like the Pogues. His main motivation is making things right with Sarah, especially now that she's pregnant. For that reason, he'll tolerate the rest of them.

However, I think his relationship with Kie does become of particular interest. I obviously have no idea what will really happen in S5 but I do feel like the writers are strongly entertaining the idea of Riara. I don't intend on watching S5, and I strongly 100% reject that on a lot of levels. First, it would be absolutely insulting to have Kiara get over JJ so quickly (though I expect it'll be more like the groundwork for Riara, where they build a friendship, and then we'll see a flash forward to after the baby is born and it's implied that Kie and Rafe are seeing each other in the future -- like holding hands, etc.). And second, how stupid of them to literally have Kiara pair off with every male character who comes on screen. Plus, Rafe's done irredeemable things.

BUT I get the dynamic in that Kiara goes to a very very dark place, and Rafe's already been there. Kiara's looking for someone to affirm her darkest impulses after she loses JJ, and Rafe's more than happy to do that. So in the fix it, Kiara and Rafe will gravitate naturally toward each other, especially as Kiara rejects the Pogues' attempts to pull her back in and remind her of who she is. She absolutely does not want that, so Rafe is a welcome respite for her. In a lot of ways, Kiara becomes very self destructive, and her friendship with Rafe is a big part of that.

By the time they get in Lisbon, Rafe just wants to get stuff done. He wants to get Groff and get back to the OBX to set his life in order. He wants his money. He wants his stature.

Over the course of things, he will soften and question some things -- and will ultimately become a better person. My end game is to get him back with Sofia and let him have a happily ever after -- not with the Pogues. He'll always be Sarah's brother, after this, and he'll care about his niece/nephew, but he does not go full Pogue or ever incorporate into their friend group. He tolerates them -- maybe respects them at times -- but that's it.

I have plans for him further on down in the fix-it verse, but a lot of that is pretty far away, and he plays a crucial role in the emotional climax of the second fic -- and all its fallout.

So yeah, he's going to get POVs -- maybe not as much as the rest of the Pogues and not until the back half of the fic -- and into the second fic as needed. For fun -- because I wish I could just be DONE with the fic -- I'm posting a rather long snippet of Sarah and Rafe below!

Sarah was aware – truly, very aware – that things were going poorly.  In an honest assessment, they’d been going poorly for awhile now, since they lost Poguelania and JJ burned the town down in protest.  But there was bad–

And then there was <i>bad</i>.

They had crossed then, wallowed in it, and were now mowing headlong into the worst case scenarios.  JJ was dead; they were on the run.  They were turning on each other, and Rafe was suddenly the only person she could count on.

That was just the broad strokes, too.  At a fundamental level, Sarah’s boyfriend was in the grips of total denial, refusing to accept that his best friend was dead.  Kiara, on the other hand, was hellbent on revenge, shutting down all her emotions in a desperate attempt to avoid her grief.  Pope was a murderer and Cleo was oddly quiet and <i>what the hell</i> was Sarah even supposed to do.

Not to mention the fact that she was pregnant.

So.

<i>Great</i>.

She had done what she could so far to keep them together, and to keep them sane.  Cleo seemed to be keeping Pope mostly in check, though she could see the way his mind started working on the problem at breakneck speed sometimes, trying too hard to compensate for the loss of JJ.  Kiara was harder, because as much as she needed the comfort, the less she seemed willing to take it.  The first few nights, she’d held her as she slept.  Now, she wasn’t sure Kie was sleeping at all, completely consumed by the idea of getting back at Groff, taking from him what he’d taken from her.

Which one was worse?  At this point, it was a tossup, and she was so stressed out that she couldn’t tell if she was sick from pregnancy hormones or just how awful life was right then.

Fortunately, the Corsairs had stocked the kitchen before they left, with plenty of beer and ice cream for everyone.

Ice cream wouldn’t bring JJ back – nothing could do that, it seemed, and she still cried in the shower every morning when she thought about him – but it at least provided a small distraction from the fact that everyone around her was falling apart in his wake.

“I’m going to have to buy more, aren’t I?” Rafe quipped when he found her there late that night.  “I’d make a fat joke, but dad would roll over in his grave to call me out on it.”

Sarah glared at him.  “Double bad when I’m pregnant – not fat,” she reminded him.

He smirked lightly, getting himself a can of beer.  “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

She sighed, taking another spoonful as the good humor faded.  “I don’t sleep that great these days.”

“Hormones?” Rafe asked.

Sarah made a face.  “If you want to call flashbacks to JJ’s death that.”

He didn’t reply to that, and he looked down as he took a drink.  

She got another spoonful and shook her head.  “There was so much blood, you know?”

He nodded, still looking at the drink in front of him.  “I mean, if it’s any consolation, it probably happened fast,” he said.  He looked up with a small shrug.  “I think blood loss knocks you out pretty quick.  He probably didn’t feel it long.”

As if that made it better.  As if that made it easier to accept that he’d been murdered in cold blood by his own father.  <i>For nothing</i>.

It had been trivial.  Groff had done it in spite.

“I just hate it, you know?” she said softly, unable to put the bite in her mouth.  “The last thing I ever saw was the way his body just – stopped.  Like he was empty.  Like he was just gone.”

A puppet with his strings cut.  A discarded toy.  A shell of himself.

<i>Nothing</i>.

“JJ was always – so alive,” she said, and she smiled sadly.  “He was stupid as shit sometimes, but so, so alive.”

She thought of the way he used to make them laugh.  The way he never backed down when they needed him.  He was the first to fight, the first to back them up.  When she was hurting, he was the first to see it.  Bright eyes, dimple in his cheek.  A broad smile and a laugh that filled you up.

“Yeah,” Rafe said with a long breath.  “You always knew when he was around, for better or worse.”

She looked at Rafe, finding some solace there now.  He was being surprisingly magnanimous.  Like he was actually trying.

He took a drink and swallowed it hard.  “For what it’s worth, I think the intel is legit,” he said.  “The note Luke gave you guys.  It matches up with what I found out.  So, I think we might actually be on to something.”

She tried to be encouraged by that, but it was hard to muster up much of anything.  

When she didn’t reply, Rafe took another drink.”  “I’m not sure the others are dealing with it.”

She shoved the bite in her mouth then.  She didn’t want to talk about that.

“Maybank, I mean,” he said.  “I’m not sure the others are dealing with what happened to JJ.”

He said it like that, like JJ hadn’t been murdered in front of them.  Like they hadn’t just lost part of themselves – possibly the best part of themselves.

“Like are you not worried?” Rafe asked expectantly.

“Kiara just hasn’t let herself grieve yet,” she said quietly.  “Once we get to Lisbon, once we have a plan–”

He raised his eyebrows.  “I’m not worried about Kiara.  She pulls off the crazy pretty well.”

She frowned now, eyes narrowing at Rafe.

“I’m talking John B,” he said, like it was obvious.  He waited a second and scoffed at her.  “I mean, you know, right?”

She worked her jaw, stiffening her stance.  Of course she knew. How could she not know?

But admitting it.  To <i>Rafe</i>.

“He’s in denial, Sarah,” he said flatly.  “Like, full on.  I’ve gone along with it for now, because you asked me to.  But come on.  He’s delusional.”

Her brow darkened.  “That’s not fair.”

Rafe didn’t flinch, though.  “He is,” he retorted, with a short, bitter laugh.  “I mean, tell me that you know it, right?  You know that JJ’s dead.  I mean, he bled out.  Maybank’s gone.”

Even as he said it, it <i>hurt</i>.  Like a fresh wound, still seeping blood.  It was still so hard to imagine – that he was gone – and still so impossible to deny the loss.  “Yeah,” she said, even though the admission hurt.  “I know.”

The ice cream wasn’t enough.

It wasn’t even close.

She wasn’t sure if anything would be.  If some losses just kept hurting and never healed.  If some things just got worse instead of better.  If it was possible to be dead when your heart was still beating.

Rafe waited, though, like he was still expecting more.  “Then why are you not telling him that?” he said.  He waited until she looked at him again.  “You know it’s going to be a lot harder for him to face it later.  You’ve been coddling him since Morocco, and it’s not doing him any favors.”

It wasn’t a question of truth.  This wasn’t about right or wrong.  She shook her head, the feeling twisting in her gut and tightening in her chest.  “I can’t do that to him.”

Rafe looked like he couldn’t believe it as he gaped at her.  “You’re not helping him this way.”

She pushed her spoon into the ice cream, feeling smaller.  “John B’s different,” she said, trying to find a way to put it.  “He’s just – he’s not going to accept it, you know?  He won’t accept that JJ’s gone until we go back.”

The thought lingered, only half realized.

Rafe didn’t leave it, though.  “Go back and what?” he said, sounding incredulous now.  “Find his body?”

He was looking to shock her, but the answer was the one she’d been trying to say.  She looked up, steadier now.  “Yeah,” she said, lifting one shoulder helplessly.  “Pretty much.”

John B would have to hold him.  John B would have to feel the coldness of his skin, the silence of his heart.  He would have to see the stiffness of his body, the emptiness of who he used to be.  They would have to take him home and bury him.  They would carve JJ’s name into the tree and then – and only then – would John B accept it.

Rafe stared at her a moment longer, still in disbelief.  “And then?”

It was painfully obvious.  Horribly easy.

“And then, I’m there for him,” she said.  “I’ll hold him while he grieves.”

She’d pick up the piece while he fell apart.  She’d catch his tears so he didn’t drown in them.  She’d be there for him when he finally looked up from the loss.

“Seriously?” Rafe asked.  “You think that’s the best way to let him do it?”

He wasn’t being mean, even though he sounded that way.  Rafe could be cruel, and she knew that about him.

But that wasn’t what this was.

This wasn’t spiteful or hurtful.

He just didn’t get it.

He had no idea.

“I don’t know,” she said. “But hope’s not always a terrible thing.”

He shook his head, still unable to grasp it. “Even when it’s blind?”

“Miracles can happen,” she told him, confident in that much.

He scoffed again, taking a longer swig.  “That’s bullshit, Sarah.”

Her own ice cream was long forgotten. “Is it?” she pressed.  “I mean, look at us.  Maybe believing in the impossible pays out sometimes.”

He considered it at least, lips pursed for a long moment.  “It’ll hurt just as much if you wait,” he said.  “You can’t put that shit off.”

She sighed, pushing the ice cream away entirely.  “I know,” she said.  “But I don’t know what else to do.  JJ’s gone, Rafe.  We lost JJ, and I don’t know what to do.”

It didn’t make sense.  None of it made sense.

What was the point of it without JJ?  What was the point of any of it?

It would never be worth it.  Nothing they gained.  They couldn’t fix it.  

It was incomprehensible, the loss.  It was impossible.

Rafe looked down again, and Sarah closed her eyes while she tried to get the emotions back in check, tears burning unshed in her head and chest tight.  She breathed for a moment, and a long moment longer before she opened her eyes and pressed her lips together and inhaled.  Letting it out, she looked at her brother helplessly.  “I don’t know what things will be like in Lisbon.  I don’t know if we’ll find Groff.  I don’t know,” she said.  “But can you help me look out for Kie?”

It clearly wasn’t the question he was expecting.  His nose wrinkled reflexively.  “Why would I do that?”

It was an asshole answer, but Sarah knew her brother.  The fact that he was genuine made her give him just that much leeway.  She didn’t like to fall back on blaming her father for everything.  She knew her dad’s faults and flaws, but he had loved his children.  Rafe included.

That said, Rafe had learned entitlement from him.

And that habit hadn’t died with him.

“Because she’s hurting right now,” she explained, as simply as she could.  Then, she drove the point home.  “We all are.”

Rafe, even with his efforts, didn’t seem to get it.  He shrugged, shaking his head.  “It’s nothing to me.”

She sighed, feeling her exasperation rise.  She wanted to be patient with Rafe; she knew he was trying.

But they’d just lost JJ.  The weight of that loss was heavy on all of them, and Sarah was trying to shoulder the burden for John B and Kiara while grappling with her own grief.  She had loved JJ, too.  The idea of him being gone was still surreal, impossible to grasp.

She shouldn’t have to explain that to anyone.

Especially not her brother.

“It costs you nothing, you know,” she reminded him, lip curling with tired bitterness.  “To have the bare minimum of compassion.”

“Oh,” he said, gesturing with his drink in one hand.  “Here we go.”

She didn’t back down, though.  Not now.  Not with him.  “No, you want to be a better brother,” she reminded him.  “So start by being a better person.”

To that, he had no comeback.

She kept going.  “I know you didn’t just come on this trip to get back at Groff.  I know this isn’t just about revenge,” she said.  “You came because you wanted to do the right thing by me.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, somewhat emphatic.  “<i>You</i>.  My sister.”

He wanted that to be the distinction, but she couldn’t – she wouldn’t.  Especially not now.  “Okay, and they’re my family, too,” she said.  “In fact, we may as well be honest about it.  JJ has been a better brother to me than you ever have been.”

That one seemed to hit Rafe where it hurt.  She saw him recoil, just slightly, the pain quickly turning hard.  “Right, since losing all your money and making you all fugitives was awesome of him.  Brother of the year material, right there.”

At that, she bristled.  “He was trying to do the right thing,” she said.  “He may do the wrong things, but he always does them for the right reasons.”

“Really?” Rafe said, voice dripping with doubt.

She didn’t yield, not on this.  Not about JJ.  “Really.  You tried to drown me once, remember?  Held me under?"

Rafe went still, mouth pressed closed as he knew he couldn’t argue that.

“JJ jumped in to save me.  He kept me afloat the whole storm, and swam me back to the shore by himself,” she said, the memory making her throat tight.  “He didn’t think.  He didn’t hesitate.  Because that’s how JJ loves.  Action.  Always action.”

Rafe pursed his lips, his gaze falling.

Sarah released a breath, trying to unfurl some of the tension.  “I know you want it to be different, and I’m willing to try,” she said, waiting until he looked at her again.  “But if you’re going to love me, then you have to love them.”

Rafe exhaled heavily, short and incredulous.  “So, what?  It’s a package deal?”

She drew herself up and nodded.  “Pretty much.”

Rafe didn't like that — clearly.  “It’s not like they want me around.”

“So?” she asked, nonplussed.

“So, how am I supposed to help when they don’t even trust me,” he said.

“Well, you have to start somewhere,” she said.

He sighed, rolling his eyes like he was put out.  But when he looked at her, there was concession in his expression.  “I don’t even know what you want me to do.”

The edge had diminished to something softer, and the admission was almost genuine.  Sarah softened, too.  “Just – ask people how they are.”

“And if they tell me?” he asked.

“Be compassionate,” she said. 

“I didn’t give a shit about JJ,” Rafe reminded her.

She sighed, nodding a little.  “But you know what it’s like to lose someone you love,” she said.  “And you saw what Groff did to JJ.  You may not have liked him, but you know he didn’t deserve that.”

Rafe considered that, nodding slowly to himself.  He studied the ground for a moment before he looked up at Sarah again.  “Maybank did get a shitty deal.”

“The shittiest,” Sarah agreed softly.

With that, Rafe nodded again.  He seemed to buck himself up, coming to full attention.  “Fine.”

She raised her eyebrows.  “Fine?”

“I’ll help look out for them,” he said, as though it exasperated him.  

The smile tugged her lips up.  “Really?”

“I mean, I came this far,”  he said, almost in resignation.  “And if I’m really going to be an uncle–”

“You are,” she said.

He went quiet for a moment, and he nodded.  “Then, I’ll do it,” he said.  And then, with a shrug.  “They need all the help they can get.”

“It’s okay to need help,” she said.  “That’s what family does.”

He looked at her and considered it.  He looked at her and nodded.  “Yeah,” he agreed finally.  “Yeah, it does.”

[picnokinesis]

PART SEVEN CHAPTER ONE!!! oh my god I was so excited when this email came through I’ve never clicked so fast in my life!

DOCTOR!! I MISSED HER!! god I love her doctor and her terrible coping mechanisms. how close her emotions are to the surface right now and her reaction even to the name john yeah she is NOT doing well

‘Even just thinking his name sends a shiver rushing through her. Like finding a groove worn into an ancient stone and realising that it fits the contours of her hand perfectly. Like it was made for her.’ HELLO?? how close he is to her thoughts and the fact that the fam aren’t even aware she’s been looking for him…

DONNA MENTION!!!!

I love your characterisation of the lake geneva group! honestly from what I’ve read of these people’s lives you’ve got the vibe of this friend group down cold bc they are FASCINATING to learn about

“Well, yes, John, you’re such a drip I thought I’d cheer you up by making myself a walking metaphor for your whole personality” SKSKSKSK

“it’s sick to play mind games with someone for years. Isn’t it?” the dramatic irony!!!! how mary manages to mention something that’s already been on the doctor’s mind

in conclusion I LOVE the chapter and I cannot wait to see where this is going!

Ahhh hello again!! I'm so glad you liked this chapter :D

It makes me so happy that you had basically the same reaction as me when I wrote that first chapter haha - it was the same with part 5 and especially with part 6, writing that first chapter from the Doctor's pov after soooooo so long writing everyone else's parts, I'd missed her SO so much! And she always crashes back in with a whole ton of emotional baggage hahaha, but she really is hanging on by a thread in this one hahaha. She needs to take a nap, but she never does what I say rip

The thing I really wanted to do with this story is have Koschei be this constant presence and undercurrent throughout the entire series, without actually BEING in most of the story. It parallels nicely with how the Doctor haunts Koschei - he haunts her right back. I think as well, with regards to his name feeling familiar, is that before her amnesia she clearly thought about him a lot as well. He's a key part of the past that she's always been running from, but he's also someone who really shaped the person that she is now. The last couple of days, I've ended up exploring a completely different (but adjacent) set of alternate universes to campervan where things go unrecognisably differently, and it's been absolutely fascinating to see what impact that has on both Koschei and the Doctor's characters and personalities (although, in those verses, neither of them use those names).

Donna mention!! I don't know how clear it is in the chapter, but for that part I actually mashed the 'Journey's End' storyline with the 'Planet of the Ood' one - so the human trafficking ring is the Ood plot, but the consequences are inspired by what happens to Donna at the end of the s4. I think what actually happens is that she hits her head or something during the fallout of everything, and that Has Consequences. I don't think she actually gets amnesia in this (that would be too on the nose considering the rest of the plot) but I do think she ends up with some other kind of brain injury. The Doctor doesn't ever go back to her after that night though.

So glad you liked how I wrote the lake geneva crew, they were SO fun to write! I especially loved the difference between characters like George and John lmao, I'm so glad you pulled out the line about John being a drip because that was one of my favourite parts hahaha. AND THEN YES the mind games line!! My favourite part of that is just the Doctor going 'Um.' in the prose on the next line HAHAH she's like. Okay. Not gonna dissect that one.

ANYWAY thank you so so much!! :D I hope you enjoy the next chapter, I'm pretty excited to share that one (but not as excited as for chapter 3 👀)

[dear-space-cadet]

audacious first listen ...

what i liked:

alex actually singing in his range. his vocals are actually a high point here

fun riff reminiscent of franz 1.0; reminds me more of the strokes though. it's missing the darkness we associate with franz ferdinand. it is def a high point though

bob's bassline is actually very good. he continues to stay employed. maybe the hair was weighing him down. bald and beautiful

sounds like they're self-aware of their own flanderization if that makes sense? like it's kind of smart in a way

what i didn't like

lyrics sounded AI generated. alex just tossed together all of his favorite motifs (fabric/ripping, nakedness, existence, freezing) and called it a day. shit just makes no sense

idk maybe im a downer but i hate the recent franz trend of starting a song with a fun-ish riff, interesting-ish lyrics, good bassline, and then just randomly switching to a big band major chorus about Being A Good Person. like baby you're not winning the war, your album cover is a selfie Shot On iPhone and edited on Instagram Stories, you lied about the tow truck to get press for your new album, everybody knows you like to groom little girls (and you abandoned your twitter because you got caught), your former bandmates hate you, you're past your prime, just give it up. stop trying to convince everybody through your lyrics that you're a good person or even worth listening to at all. you're telling on yourself!!!!!!!

what i found interesting

julian unemployment like the one little keyboard melody is just 😭😭

i can't tell if alex is playing the game or not, as in i can't tell if he's giving us nick fallout breadcrumbs or not. alex is credited as the author so i'm assuming he'll be doing most (if not all) of the songwriting on this album. and obviously he hasn't experienced the nick fallout through the same lens as the fandom, and he actually knew him and could reference things we don't know about, but the holly tree verse really feels pointed in a way the rest of the song isn't. could also be paul related because he has a tattoo of a holly leaf/berry thing if i'm remembering correctly (need confirmation). like this genuinely feels like he's playing the game, but also how much of 'the game' is just to reel the 2010s franzdom back in and make him more money bc he had us under his thumb for so long?

it sounds like they're trying really, really hard to pay homage to the ychismb b-sides (similarly to billy goodbye) and try to continue the narrative of those 'characters' (i see a lot of swallow smile, ghost in a ditch, wine in the afternoon, even a little bit of l. wells in this song) which is cool but the way they do it kind of misses the mark because of how they do the chorus. they keep doing this!!!!! it sucks

so far, this album sounds like a narrative successor to rtrwra and the ychismb b-sides, which have always felt connected in my head. maybe that's just me though. i do like that narrative though so i'm excited to hear more :)

... so tldr, i will be tuning into the album and i will try not to hate-listen

[pinklocksoflove]

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Adding this but call me Boomsta, I'm 30+ and go by he/him

Feel free to bug me whenever

So something i'm going to be doing from now on:

The idea of fantasy elements in a modern world has always interested me. So for my modern muses I'm placing them in such a setting. Everything is the same except with adding like Elves, Dwarves and the like as well as magic, though magic isn't as common as it is in medieval fantasy.

For most interactions it's mostly going to be mentioned not always a primary thing say like

That Elf in a Porsche just cut me off!

You hear about that new Dwarf YouTuber?

Stuff like that.

Also a new note: due to being asked numerous times: I am not only focusing on wlw ships. Yes they are pretty dominant but not the sole focus. I am very much open to other ships.

Yes I am more than willing to ship with non birnary folks!

All my fantasy muses are going to have modern fantasy setting versions

I'm also going to try to work up a muse specific to the modern fantasy setting. Open to suggestions too

A note: there are a number of muses who are semi-active but do not have about pages yet. Feel free to ask about them

Krista "Vex" Sutter (the reformed ex convict in modern verse, a very tough mercenary in fallout verse)

Tizzi Pepperspark (the cute, dirty minded goblin bartender)

Vasilisa Von Rosengart (the delightfully mad, incredibly gorgeous vampire countess)

Jilyra (the dorky IT succubus)

Anninka Pavlona (Russian spetsnatz sniper working in counter terrorism)

F31IX (the robot cowboy in the fallout universe originally a robco prototype) Now has a verse for FNAF Gilda Volsbacher- Veteran Sister of Battle Celestian, Order of The Argent Shroud.

Felu - A proud, often quiet Zora swordswoman who favors the use of a bastard sword with great prowess in one hand, two hand and half handing styles of the weapon. She often works with Nafiif as part of her team during more dangerous expeditions

Sylfina the Fairy 

Soria Desai

Illendra the Gerudo Sorceress 

Bounty Hunter K4Z0-4 AKA Kaz

Mystra, Goetia Wizard (Helluva Boss Oc)

Lucatiel the Nurturer (fallen angel hazbin hotel oc)

Iron Knuckle Zavira (Gerudo OC mainly affiliated with the Age of Heroes setting)

Verosika Mayday (with some deviation from canon)

Verse info for Hazbin Iggy

Lisenka Zinchenko (Sinner oc for Hazbin Hotel)

Charlie Morningstar

Lucienne Cambrioleuse (Sinner Oc)

Nomiya Kuri (historical fantasy/unintentional time traveler samurai oc)

Nomiya Inuko (Kuri's younger sister, a spiritual medium and monster hunter)

Olivina (Ollie) Knightly Exorcist tasked with taking on the most dangerous threats, to both heaven and hell.

Cherri Bomb

Captain Emberblade: Infernal pirate overlord that wanders the wastes of hell in search of treasure, hunter of horrific beasts and hoarder of booze.

"Crackers": Runaway royal pirate and former member of the Goetia family

Siren: Musical succubus a part of Captain Emberblade's crew. Main recruiter for new crewmates

Didi Sparks: Fun loving Succubus with a passion for fashion and art. MtF trans and happy (has full human verse too)

[puimoo]

Hurt/Comfort Exchange letter: Dick Grayson centric.

Firstly, an apology!

And it’s a big one 😊.  I am new to the fandom, and this is my first time requesting it in an exchange.  As a result, I ramble a lot.  I have no justification for it, I just like to talk about these characters and the letter has given me a structured outlet for doing so!

General notes on tags/plot ideas:

Please know that these tags and plot ideas are all interchangeable.  If you see a tag listed for Dick and Bruce that you would like to write a Jason and Dick fic for, go ahead!  Please also note that while I go into more detail about young!Dick plot ideas, this doesn’t mean I prefer them over adult!Dick fic ideas – it’s just that the tags are generally more self-explanatory for adult versions of the character.  Please also know that I am not fixated on any of the ideas mentioned below – feel free to go in a completely different direction with the prompts/tags.

What I love about Dick:

I love that Dick is so competent, skilled, and really quite extraordinary.  I love the way he can seem superficially fine until he’s not, and how the sudden shift can take people by surprise even though – if you’ve had access to his inner dialogue – he’s usually been spiralling for some time.  I love the way he is charismatic, yet his leadership style can also sometimes have an almost stern, relentless edge to it.  I love that he cares deeply, but that his own issues sometimes result in him completely misreading the intentions of people he is the closest to.  I love that his relationship with Bruce is complicated and messy, but that underneath that they both clearly adore each other (even if it is isn’t always obvious to the other person).  I love that his relationship with Jason is a sometimes uncomfortable work in process, that there are days when it’s easier and light-hearted, and there are days when they barely seem to be in the same book, let alone on the same page. I like both Bruce and Jason to be clever in their own ways, picking up appropriate cues.

With young!Dick, I tend to prefer traumatised and depressed!Dick vs angry and only cares about killing Zucco!Dick.

General notes about Dick and trauma:

Dick is a character who canonically has a lot of trauma, and I feel it’s important to be clear with what I am comfortable with being explored.  I am fine with your exploring both canonical and non-canonical abuse, sexual assault, torture, and trauma.  I’m happy for violence to go up to any rating, but for any on-screen acts of SA to be kept to PG-13/low M.  Implied acts can go up to explicit.  My preference for SA is for the act itself to not be the main focus of the fic, but the fallout etc. I know this is probably worded in quite a clunky way/seem oddly specific (and it's not the sort of thing I would normally specify, TBH), but I thought it might be helpful :)

Because of familial experience with amnesia, I’m a bit particular about how this trauma is written.  I’m really happy to read about the long-term consequences of Dick’s head injury (migraines, memory loss, difficulties with thought processing, vertigo etc), but please don’t focus on the time when Dick had fully (and seemingly permanently) lost his memory.  It brings up a whole host of not-so-fun memories 😊

DNWs:

Omega verse, unrequested gender head-canons, Dick currently being in a relationship with Barbara or Kori (it’s fine if they are referenced as being in a relationship in the past if required, but I wouldn’t want their relationships to be in any kind of focus).  Anything else I’m happy with if it serves a purpose!

Dick and Bruce (Dick hurt):

Tags: Abuse - Abuse secretly escalates and victim feels like they cannot tell anyone, Character A finds out Character B has been captured by people who had hurt/tortured them before, Character A is given photos & details about Character B's torture, Character A is under a Spell/Curse and Character B's Love sets them free, Character A Protects Character B From B's Abuser, Character acts casual about their scars from childhood abuse, Character Cradling Hurt Character's Head In Their Lap, Character harmed in public to set an example, Character is slandered online/in print/in the court of public opinion, Concealing illness/injury at a formal event, Parent-Child Relationship Prevented by Outside Party; Characters Navigate Second Chance Years Later, Corporal Punishment, Prison Guards Take It Upon Themselves To Severely Punish A Prisoner, Torture - Set up in the form of a game/challenge, Rubbing salt in the wound (Literally), Whipped/flogged in front of an audience, Current case/mission has parallels to character's previous trauma

Dark Knights of Steel limited series verse

I adore anything in the Knights of Steel universe (https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Dark-Knights-of-Steel), especially the very short story (https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Dark-Knights-of-Steel-Tales-From-the-Three-Kingdoms, pages 23-32) where Bruce and Dick meet pre-series.  It’s such a perfect way to capture how and why the Bruce in this universe would fall so quickly for Dick.  I’d love anything related to the early days of their relationship, when Bruce is trying to be the light and Dick is struggling with trust issues. Anything where Dick is slowly starting to come to trust Bruce, where he’s incredibly competent while also only one bad decision/one moment of bad luck away from everything falling to pieces. Dick has likely made a whole host of enemies amongst the elite/guards/soldiers – does Bruce find out about things that have happened between Dick and those who have targeted him in the past, with all those little (and not so little) physical and emotional scars slowly revealing themselves?  Or, does something new pop up now that Dick is perhaps more visible.  Does it start as small barbs, but things escalate quickly/Dick takes a punishment meant for another Robin, and Dick tries to hide what is going on from Bruce.   

Juvie!Dick, Bullied!Dick.

Anything that explores some of the darkness of Dick being in Juvie as an 8-year-old, and the impact this had. I really adore how he is portrayed while at Juvie as not wanting revenge for his parents' deaths because he can barely even think beyond survival at that point.  Maybe Bruce visits him several times on the rooftop, noting each time how quickly Dick is deteriorating as things become worse and worse for Dick.  That might include Dick being punished each time he is found to have escaped up to the rooftop, something he doesn’t share with Bruce because those brief moments with him are the only thing that gives him a sense of hope.

I also love anything that explores how badly Dick was bullied at school when he first came into Bruce’s care.  This is almost always portrayed in canon as physically and verbally abusive.  I could see things escalating at school – even potentially involving a teacher that doesn’t think Dick is a ‘good fit’ for the school, but Dick trying to hide what is going on for various reasons.

Tag: “Parent-Child Relationship Prevented by Outside Party; Characters Navigate Second Chance Years Later.”

I am a simple woman 😊.  There are a couple of routes that I would love in regards to this:

Deathstroke gets involved. Perhaps we still get the meetings between Batman and Dick on the Juvie rooftop, or Dick is briefly in Bruce’s care, but Deathstroke sweeps in before Dick realises that Bruce and Batman are the same person.  We then get a 13-year-old apprentice!Dick who starts to have run-ins with Batman/Bruce that become increasingly more dangerous/desperate, with all of Dick’s Deathstroke!related trauma being revealed along the way.

Social services don’t allow Bruce guardianship (possibly because Dick is considered ‘too difficult’ and requires a more experienced hand), and they meet up again when Dick is 13-14, with Dick trying to hide form everyone that he is an abusive foster situation.  Maybe Batman is investigating the foster parents for unrelated reasons, and Dick slowly becomes involved in the case.  It may even be that Dick is put with another wealthy family who end up exploiting/treating Dick exactly as social services had feared that Bruce would.

Tag: “Character A is under a Spell/Curse and Character B's Love sets them free.”

I was thinking something akin to a platonic Dick and Bruce version of Beauty and the Beast.  Initially, I assumed the roles would be beast!Bruce and Belle!Dick, but then I realised that tiny beast!Dick would be absolutely amazing, and I ended up rambling about it in this tumblr post here (https://puimoo.tumblr.com/post/777517314879913984/bruce-and-dick-beauty-and-the-beast-au).  If you choose this prompt, please don’t feel like you have to go with the particular storyline in my tumblr post, you can take it in whatever direction you like 😊

Adult!Dick

I do also love adult!Dick and Bruce hurt/comfort, and there are plenty of prompts in my taglist that give some specific ideas of the kinds of things I enjoy.  There’s a theme of secrets being revealed, unresolved trauma, etc.  Bruce finding out about his time with Deathstroke, the media getting a hold of some of the Dick’s early psychology reports from juvie or his social services reviews.  A mission going terribly wrong and having to deal with some deeply hidden secrets as a result.  Or, just a mission going terribly wrong and them dealing with it together.

Dick and Jason.

Tags: Trapped in a bad memory, Whipped/flogged in front of an audience including character's loved one(s), Corporal Punishment, Prison Guards Take It Upon Themselves To Severely Punish A Prisoner, Time Travel - Comforting future loved one while trying to figure out what the fuck happened to them, Time Travel - Meeting younger version of loved one and finding them in a bad state, Torture - Set up in the form of a game/challenge, Slave auctions, Soulbond as punishment, Old abuser shows up in character a's new life, Natural disaster leads to survival situation, Increasingly risk-taking behaviour to avoid coping with trauma, Forced to Relive Past Trauma, Forced To Relive Trauma for Mission Report/Debrief, Emotional and Psychological Trauma from Prolonged Solitary Confinement, Emotional/mental scars manifesting as physical wounds, A Discovers the Extent of De-Aged B's Tragic Backstory While B Is De-Aged, Current case/mission has parallels to character's previous trauma, characters currently on the outs or in a fight having to take care of each other or work together, Characters trapped together in psychological hellscape

Time traveling/De-aging (with a slice of reverse robin)

There are several time-travelling/de-aged prompts list for these two, largely because I love the idea of different parts of Dick’s past being revealed (this is a theme in some other prompts, as well).  As with the Bruce prompts, anything that covers that earlier period after/before Dick’s parents die is always really interesting.  Jason time travelling back to when Dick is still in Juvie, or Dick has been de-aged to when he has JUST been released into Bruce’s care and is still clearly traumatised by his time there.  Jason time travelling back to when Dick was still in the circus, and it being revealed that – actually – circuses were terrible places for children, especially acrobatic children who were often exploited and trained in a way that quite frankly broke their bodies for later in life.  I’m all for a grittier, more transient Haley’s Circus where people end up when there is nowhere else to escape to (resulting in a whole cluster of different people), where, if you don’t work, you don’t get paid, and even then you still get paid very little.  It’s a business, not a family, and while 8-year-old Dick might see it that way, an older Jason would see more of the reality of the situation.  We do get some slightly darker hints of John Grayson in chapter 4 of The Long Halloween, the Last Halloween (https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Batman-The-Long-Halloween-The-Last-Halloween/Issue-4?id=235985#1), and the Court of Owls feels like a direct parallel of the child trafficking that often went on in circuses, so this doesn’t feel too much of a stretch to explore something a bit darker 😊.  Dick also talks in canon about being dirt poor while living with the circus, and having to resort to pickpocketing at times.

With time travel/de-aging fics, I do love if there is an opportunity for current!Dick and Jason to have a chat about what happened when Jason goes back to the past as well, if possible.

You could also flip this a little if you like and get some of the same impact of time travel by reverse-robining some plot ideas. Maybe Dick is stuck in Juvie for several months vs weeks, and as Dick’s situation becomes increasingly dire, a 14-16 year Jason goes in undercover as another inmate at Bruce’s request (while Bruce is still trying to wrangle the legal/foster side of things). Maybe Jason is reluctant at the beginning (he can’t see why Bruce is interested in this kid), but he realises quickly how had things have gotten and can’t help but feel his own tug towards Dick the more he gets to know him.  I do love Damian and Dick in reverse robins as well, so if it feels natural to include him as a guard/adult figure in the facility, please feel free to do so!

Blockbuster and Catalina.

Jason states at one point that he knows everything that went down with Blockbuster.  This could really only have happened if Jason at some point had a discussion with Catalina Flores, as she is the only other person who was there.  Something where Dick knows that Jason probably knows, Jason knows that Dick knows that he knows, but it never gets brought up or acknowledged until suddenly it does – be it for any of the array of reasons in my tags/ones that you can come up with.

Adult!Dick.

To be honest, very similar to my adult!Dick section for Bruce, but with Jason 😊

[Added note 14/03/25 ! I know that my letter is prompt heavy, but please PLEASE don't feel that you have to write any of the actual prompts - they're there for inspiration if it's helpful, but nothing else. Please feel free to interpret the tags any which way you like :)]

[collectingmuses]

🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧 Colt -> 5 songs with the reason why pls :)

🎧 - Search & Destroy - Iggy Pop (The Stooges)

"And I'm the world's forgotten boy The one who's searchin', searchin' to destroy And honey, I'm the world's forgotten boy The one who's searchin', searchin' to destroy"

It's an angry, energetic song of Colt's era, and one that resonates with him. Colt's a former soldier, one that hates that period of his life, but also someone who's forced to fall back on those skills to deal with the various threats and challenges he's presented with. He wants peace. He knows he'll probably never truly fully have it. He's been forgotten by a world that really has no place for him, that he's determined to carve a space for himself out in.

Whatever evil slithers its way into his path to do him or his friends harm, he'll do what he does best. Stomp its skull in.

🎧 - Who Do You Love? - Juicy Lucy

"I walked 47 miles on barbed-wire Cobra-snake for a necktie Built a house by the roadside Made of rattlesnake hide Brand new chimney up on top Made out of human skulls Come on baby take a walk with me Tell me who do you love?"

There's so many versions of this song, but this particular one I was listening to a lot when I first came up with the idea of Colt (and the novel). It's got this gleefully unhinged energy to it compared to the usually more bluesy takes. It gave me this picture of a pulp 70s anti-hero tough guy type trying to get by in this surreal world of horror and monsters.

🎧 - Wasted Life - Stiff Little Fingers

"I won't be a soldier I won't take no orders from no one Stuff their fucking armies Killing isn't my idea of fun And they wanna waste my life They wanna waste my time They wanna waste my life And they've stolen it away"

*grasps you all by the shoulders and looks you deeply in the eyes* Listen, Colt hates authority. Colt hates the government. Colt hates the military industrial complex. He was drafted and trained to kill and dropped into war at a young age and left to deal with the trauma, guilt and fallout all that entails. Maggie introduces Colt to punk and metal and goth music and he finds a new outlet through it. He gravitates to this song almost instantly. He relates to it on a very deep level.

🎧 - Tyrants Better Run - RJ Lake

"Watch your throne fall, napalm, ashes and slivers It's the death knell knockin' and I'm here to deliver With the riot shield crushing through the gates you erect Why you screamin' motherfucker, thought this wasn't a threat? Thought our contract was good, that betrayal's theoretical Cold sweat, nightmare, with the red reticle Now the bodies around me, say your word's not worth shit Call your favorite agents, Imma teach you to quit. Stop You know I've seen your kind before You use flags, patriots, and metaphor You made an army of twice cheated hearts They don't need targets, you're where we start."

So this is from a game and it touches on a lot of the same themes I kinda play with here on Colt. The song I always kinda related to my modernverse/comicverse headcanons where he's press ganged into a suicide squad/howling commandos/creature commandos team.

He despises that he's being used as a tool for war again. He's there to make sure his fellow squad members survive and no innocents get hurt. At the end of the day, he'd biding his time. He will be free. His team will be free....and SHIELD/Fury/Waller/whoever (verse dependent) will answer to him.

"Hit 'em with a slaughter they won't forget, huh?"

🎧 - Close to Me - The Cure

"I've waited hours for this, I've made myself so sick I wish I'd stayed asleep today I never thought this day would end I never thought tonight could ever be this close to me Just try to see in the dark, just try to make it work To feel the fear before you're here"

I wanted to end on something kind of cute/feelsy >.> I had this idea that Colt and Maggie get separated for a long period of time. Years. By the time he has the chance to reunite with her, she's back home in England, now a musician herself, about to play a gig.

Colt, who is always so deadpan and laid back is just a nervous wreck about walking into it. Will she recognize him? Will she want to see him?

He's going back and forth, back and forth...this man who has faced countless horrors without batting an eye is very afraid of what this 5'4 goth punk will think.

@emmatriarchy

[protovoxxed]

Do you think there's a timeline where Proto could have ended up staying a woman? Not to ignore him being trans, but I'm curious, what if he realized much later in the afterlife?

What about if he discovered he was trans when he was alive?

For RAM verse, Since VHS is technically "reset" in a way, does he recognize himself as transmasc? Does he recall what happened to him that lead up to the event of identifying as male?

I hope these aren't too weird to ask.

Unprompted | Always Accepting

Oh absolutely, I've told, I can't remember who, that if he went to heaven and his husband went to hell instead, his husband would have ended up as Vox, and he'd have gone to heaven without ever really having explored his gender identity or had the revelation yet. While in heaven I do believe that he'd discover it EVENTUALLY, but it'd be a lot slower and a pretty healing process for him. His discovering he was male in hell was/is one of the most traumatic experiences for him, if not worse than his fallout with Alastor.

I think that's fun to think about! If it's in the timeline his husband dies and goes to hell first, I don't think it'd happen. HOWEVER, if both were to live and die later, I think so. They'd stay married. His husband Vincent would realize he's bisexual and Vox would realize he's trans and gay. Pretty favorable results in that case.

I don't think he really... thinks about it? Everyone calls him a guy and male and namely, so is Alastor, so he's not questioned it once. Unfortunately, I do write VHS not being fully able to just critically think about things for too long, he's hard set to being pretty jovial and agreeable. Anything outside of his directives that could cause him to have like basically an identity crisis (again), would be harder to hit, though with some pushing he could have it... with a sizable crisis. Speaking from someone who has schizophrenic delusions... I think he'd have a full breakdown/meltdown. Having your believed reality challenged even minor can cause some detrimental psychotic breaks.

[shdwtouch]

like for a sims build inspired by your muse / blog ! || accepting @butnobodyhome, specifically for annas fallout verse !

welcome to the flowering vine, a speakeasy style jazz bar known for its elegant atmosphere, strong cocktails, and the gilded nightingale that graces the stage. said to be a favorite haunt of Mr. House, his back corner booth has the best view in the -ahem- house of the stage and the singer on it, rumored to be one of his "girls". whether the countless gifts she receives are from him or any one of her many admirers, it can certainly be said her performance isn't one to miss !

listen, I came up with LORE for this build. it was really fun, honestly. it kinda all came together once I put the booths in and was like !! but then, as I was adding details... I got this "gilded cage" energy, like whoever was singing in this bar was trapped. it kinda became a purgatory space in my mind. thus the concept of a gilded cage, and maybe a bird that likes to sing but doesn't necessarily like the attention.

still, thats just the lore I came up with. you can take this at face value, I actually really enjoyed it. I don't make a lot of commercial lots, so this was different ! also, just want to say, I'm very proud of the stage area and the booths. a bit of finnagling was required, but I think it all turned out quite nice in the end !

I also tried taking some first person screenshots to really showcase, those are below the cut. as always, you are welcome to reblog <3

as a note, in my head the painting backstage is supposed to be of anna, and the painting on the stage + all the flowers and gifts etc are courtesy of Mr. House.

P.S. I love your fallout verse, even if I don't know a lot about it.

[azurdlywisterious]

OC Pride Parade (9/12)

Danburite "Danny" Skinner

Who would've thought Danny's happy ending would've been in a Fallout 3 fanfic that reads like a rejected season of Supernatural?

Some fun facts about him:

Okay, so, he's going through it. Possessed and tormented by the demon prince, Paimon (thx mom) as well as getting the pleasure of hearing the voice of his sister (who's stuck in a mirror dimension) taunt him.

Even worse he's had a crush on Butch DeLoria for the past... forever.

Oh and also has a smaller crush on Amata.

I mean eventually through a series of even more unfortunate and wacky events the three of them end up in a polycule but that is a story for like another post that also features a chart and at least three musical numbers

Maxed out an offbrand version of Just Dance with Amata when they were younger (to the point that they started making up weird challenges because it was either that or play baseball)

As is my nature, my Fallout 3 fanfic is half told in jukebox musical format (including and I'm not joking, literally singing a line from "Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf" during one of the tutorial scenes because I thought that I was gonna have to make up some scenario to shoehorn in the second verse of "Unrequited Love and He Who Sleeps Beneath" and apparently no thats just in the actual game if i ignore what everyone is saying which is easy since Danny's perception is canonically a 3 and then i opened my mouth and it was a very similar worded line from a song about infidelity)

Oh and also at least one Crazy Ex Girlfriend song (but more accurately it's probably five)

And a song about Security Breach: Ruin and like half of MARINA's discography. Anyways.

Oh yeah he also blew up Megaton because Paimon made him and said sister trapped in the mirror dimension tried to kill him when they were kids (this is why she's in the mirror dimension long story)

thanks to the demon possession, his strength is an 8 and charisma is a 1. His intelligence being a 10 is caused by everything else (literally i wrote a scene where butch is bleeding out long story and one of danny's many thoughts is "I remember my dad telling me in middle school that the human body has about five liters of blood in it when I helped him with the yearly blood drive." cool danny. very normal)

Has a sledgehammer that he found back in the grayditch subway that he named "Clarisse."

And some fun facts about his creation:

So much of Danny's life in the Vault is just me projecting my time in private school onto him. And also changing things because dammit I would've much rather have played Just Dance than play kickball again I fucking hate kickball and its been nearly a decade since I last played kickball but that resentment is still buried deep inside my psyche. (Funny enough I actually like baseball).

He was originally made as ttrpg character for a sequel campaign (his mom was a reverse psychologist and also a catgirl). One of our party members had a cousin named Leonid which our dm made the mistake of using Butch as the face claim for him. And i have been utterly smitten for the fucking t-bird reject ever since.

Danny's whole thing was originally thought reading and this is the only version of him that can't do that (funny enough this is the version my friends hate the least).

From the very beginning hes been a bi oriented ace, though this is the only version that actually gets some sort of a happy ending

The glasses he wears are fakes and always have been (the ttrpg was set in a magic world and both of his original parents were magic doctors and my dm said there was no reason for him to have bad eyesight but I wanted him to have glasses so I just said that they were fakes. And now it's a quintessential part of his character!)

Butch canonically dyed his hair for this picture

[casualblacklight]

Ok I need to write this down somewhere else or I'll go insane but I finally have a direction I want for my Fallout/Saints Row crossover qwq

I have so many wips for this crossover so maybe somebody wants read this to understand the weird stuff I'll post soon? idk? maybe? 😅 uhh

Also I like writing things down so why not...

Since I can't draw a full comic or anything close I might actually write down everything more detailed at some point or even write a FF but the vague idea is like this:

I'm gonna connect the story directly to SRIV.

Yeah ...SRIV. Not my fave part of the series but definitely the easiest way to connect both universes 👉👈

The Saints wanna use the time machine to make the destruction of earth never happen but some programming of the machine got really wrong and they end up in the Commonwealth 2287.

(I actually have an idea how it happened but too much to write for now)

Boss will wake up in Vault 111 and find Nate as the only Survivor but all of the other Saints seem to have disappeared.

Since Nate wants search for his son, Boss will 'join' him occasionally to search for his friends.

The story will practically be an altered FO4s story, with Boss travelling with Nate and during their journey Boss will find his friends that ended up in the different factions.

For example Gat got picked up by the Brotherhood of Steel. They liked his skills and gave him an opportunity to join. So Gat joined them to have better access to weapons and armour to also search for the other Saints.

Which fractions I'll gave to which Saint is something I'm still figuring out but I want to bring back some 'forgotten' Saints from earlier games since the travelling with the time-machine actually managed to bring some Saints back.

And I'm kinda happy about this idea, bcs that way I am able to give every Saint a own small story for this AU 👉👈

I honestly have also already an idea for an ending of the story as well and that will happen after FO4 story and return them all to the SR verse... ugh I can't wait to talk about it at some point.

------------------

Also random side infos but since Boss and Nate are the mains of my AU I think alot about their relationship and they will definitely have some struggles getting along xD

Nate is canonly described with the patience of a Saint while Boss is definitely the other way around ...

...they end up arguing ... alot ... and some bad decisions will happen.

But then again I can see them getting along after all ... they probably happen to have deep talk when they can't sleep. Both have been through alot of shit and I just can see them talking about that and their past.

...

Also can't get rid of the idea of Boss calling Nate 'Mr. Dad' as some kind of mocking.

(I always used british Boss and in SRTT/IV he uses nicknames all the time... so yeah... felt right adding some fun stuff here and there too.)

----

.... If you read through all of this. I LOVE YOU FOR THAT. THANK YOU ( ꒦ິ ³꒦ີ)

[philcoulsonismyhero]

I've sent in many asks about OCs and I'm not going to stop: can I ask about Kevin and Jay adventures?

So 'Kevin and Jay adventures' is a doc with the current iteration of a 'verse I've been playing around with for literal years, which an urban fantasy thing set in Scotland and mostly just an excuse for me to set little stories about Magical Weird in places that I know. It's also called 'Brownies and Bogles', which I think I'm going to keep as a title (and the doc with that title is actually the one I'd been writing bits in, I got them mixed up, but whatever).

The basic gist is this: magical creatures from folklore and such exist, but people don't really notice because there's a magical perception filter of sorts. But the more you run across magical stuff, the more of it you start to notice going forward, so there's always going to be some people who end up aware of Everything, whether they like it or not. And, since I love stories about organisations that deal with weird stuff, there's an in-universe organisation I've yet to name whose job is to keep things ticking along and smooth over the complicated times when magic stuff and the human world interact a bit too closely. Their beat involves things like making sure the fairies who want to put on their own show during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival have signed all the paperwork promising not to abduct any humans at the end of it, keeping track of the kelpie population (not a job for the faint-hearted), and just generally making sure that both worlds coexist relatively peacefully. They're not exactly upholding the masquerade, more making sure that it never gets broken in Too Dramatic a fashion, and they're also the ones that deal with the fallout (a lot of which is paperwork) when it does.

Enter Kevin Merrick and Jay (currently making do without a surname), our protagonists and two employees of said organisation. Kevin is an almost hilariously normal middle-aged white bloke who likes sci-fi and Top Gear and should never have been introduced to the concept of Mythbusters, and he ran into a bunch of weird fey stuff in his 20s when he was still figuring his life out and turned out to be a very good fit for the organisation. He likes helping people, and these days that includes fairies and selkies and wulvers and all manner of other interesting folks, so he's having a great time. Oh, and one other thing about Kevin - he's aroace and he's been platonically married to his best mate Dave ever since that was legalised, and they were civil partners before that. He enjoys leveraging his Normal Middle-Aged White Bloke-ness when people are being queerphobic, he likes seeing the looks on their faces when they realise he's not on their side.

And then there's Jay, who's grumpy, queer, and about 300 years old thanks to being left on a fairy hill by parents who thought they were a changeling, and then taken in by said fairies who thought it would be really funny to send an actual changeling back in exchange for this perfectly human (and what we'd now call autistic) child. A century in a fairy hill will make anyone a bit weird, so by the time Jay got back out into the world they were immortal and gifted with the sort of shapeshifting that lets them trans their gender however they want at will, which is helpful because they turned out to be very gender weird. Jay's had a lot of identities and gotten into a lot of adventures over the last two centuries, and they've been working with the organisation (which I really need to name eventually...) on and off for decades. They've been partnered up with Kevin for a bunch of years now, and the two of them have a very entertaining odd friendship.

I'm currently thinking that their adventures would make for some fun short comics, 1-3 page kind of things even, exploring the wacky situations they get into while dealing with all sorts of magic stuff and giving me an excuse to poke at fun worldbuilding without worrying about a lot of plot. It's a lot of 'wouldn't it be amusing if' stuff centred around local folklore and places I'm fond of, but I'm sure it'll probably grow an arc plot eventually if I think about it for too long.

Here's a snippet of dialogue from the assignment that involves them visiting various castles in order to update the records on how many ghosts are currently active, one that Jay always hates because they've had to do it every five years or so for decades and have developed beef with most of the ghosts in question:

Jay: “I hate the ghost survey.”

Kevin: “You’ve said this before. Multiple times today, in fact.”

Jay, clearly not listening to him at all: “I hate the ghost survey, and you want to know why?”

Kevin: “You’re going to tell me anyway.”

Jay: “I hate the ghost survey, because do you have any idea how many Grey Ladies there are? Or Green Ladies? And don’t get me started on ghostly pipers! And then they get offended when you assign them numbers so that you can tell them apart, but oh, no, they’re not just going to give your their real names either because that would ruin their mystique and- You stopped listening a while ago, didn’t you?”

Kevin, patting them on the shoulder: “Only a wee while.”

[summerxmelodies]

⭐ !!!

This meme

Dante

So I haven't played any of the Devil May Cry games, but I think tossing Hellhound Melody at Dante could be lots of fun. Or Angel Melody! I actually haven't used her angel verse much and it's been years since I've explored anything in it.

Matthew Murdock

I've got a Marvel verse for Melody we could definitely explore with these two! The poor girl could always use more friends in that verse. Especially ones that will be a good influence.

John Hancock

I don't have a Fallout verse for Melody, but tweaking her nurse verse to fill in the Fallout universe wouldn't be hard. Either a vault survivor or a wasteland survivor. I think either option (or both!) could be lots of fun.

John Shepard

The same applies for a Mass Effect verse, I don't have one for Melody, but her Star Trek verse could be tweaked to fit the Mass Effect universe with ease. I'd love to explore something in that universe.

Ichiban Kasuga & Takayuki Yagami

I'm not familiar with either game, but I think Melody's nurse verse could work for both.