#has been writing BOTH OF THEM

[seyaryminamoto]

Zuko has showed quite the character development over the course of the story. However, I can’t help but wonder if he will fall back into his old ways ? Will he fight Azula over the throne now that things are in a chaotic state?

Hmmm... well, as usual, under the cut because this sounds like very distant and dangerous territory, haha.

You know, I might try to be mysterious all I want but the truth might be a little obvious if you think about the story's direction so far, haha.

So to make this more interesting, let's stroll through the history of Gladiator's development: initially, I had no idea where this story was going past the Combustion Man confrontation. Now that we all saw it happen, I can safely say that my first real goal in the story was always that seemingly world-ending battle between Sokka and Combustion Man, the battle that seals the fate of the Gladiator League and changes the story's rhythm irremediably, for it was always going to happen as a consequence of Sokka and Azula's relationship being discovered. I did hope Sokka might rise enough in the ranking to rival him? But as the story progressed, I realized that was going to be very difficult, no matter how many events and points boots I gave him, haha.

Anyway, I digress: at that stage of building up the story, Zuko became a wild card I had no idea what to do with. For a long time, I wanted him in the South Pole. I thought it could be interesting if he found Aang indeed, but didn't just drag him back to the Fire Nation right away. How to make that happen, how to realistically develop Zuko to not be that impulsive? I didn't know right away (fortunately, my Zuki shipping buddy helped me see the light with that particular problem before long!). I actually pondered making Zuko a gladiator, fighting as the Blue Spirit (a relatively popular concept back when the story was still starting out, people REALLY loved this idea... and the minute I started writing Zuko directly, I realized it was never going to work, haha). I remember that, back when I had no idea what I'd do for the future of the story (aka, Part 3 wasn't even a blip in the radar because I was just LOST in my ultimate narrative direction back in year 1, haha), I even considered Zuko and Aang being the ones fighting Ozai, and Sokka and Azula were basically just together and reuniting? But the thing is that their reunion was going to be different back then, because... shit, this all sounds so ridiculous right now XD but at a point in time, I had in mind that Ozai would basically steal Sokka from Azula and make him his own gladiator (again, something that just made zero sense with Ozai's character). Azula would've been left bereft of what to do, and I even pondered her teaming up with Katara to save Sokka from Ozai while Zuko and Aang basically started a coup... all of which made so very little sense! I had no idea how Azula and Katara would join forces, no idea how Aang and Zuko would get that far, no clue how Sokka and Azula would be "reuniting", considering that Sokka was going to be right in the same Palace as Azula all along?? ... So, uh, yeah. That kind of weird shit went through my head.

Let that be a lesson on NOT sticking with your gut instincts in storytelling every time: marinate your ideas! Test other possibilities! Sometimes you'll strike gold right away... but if you don't, be open to other ideas. If I hadn't been? I would've fucked up this story BIG TIME x'D

So, in all of that, one of the prominent problems was obviously Zuko: wtf was I going to do with this guy if not THAT? I was rewriting his character from scratch and I knew where I'd take him by the end of Part 1, but I wasn't 100% sure of where he would go from there. After my Zuki shipping associate helped me see the light, his story became much stronger once I brought him and Suki together, and the South Pole story also became that much better because them being there would make things much more dynamic for Katara and Aang (and then also for Kino).

But the ultimate direction for Zuko isn't really something my friend could help me with, because even though she sparked the idea of Whaletail Island, I took that to a whole other level once I backtracked on the "and then they sailed away and Katara and Sokka didn't reunite" concept (which, yes, was the original way that arc was going to wrap up X'D again, as a storyteller, it's good to go against your initial impulses at times, it can be soooo much better when you do that...). We always did want Azula and Zuko's relationship to improve... but my friend certainly believed that Zuko would be fighting for the Fire Lord hairpiece and throne quite hard, and I was a little unsure of what to make of that.

Thus, for a long time, after I finally started figuring out Part 3 and how things would turn out by then, I thought I might have to write Zuko and Azula having a huge, long, tedious discussion over which of them would be better suited for the role of Fire Lord, and the decision would have been basically left to other people once they put all they could offer on the table. Back then, the idea that Zuko would have become embittered and frustrated if he lost the throne certainly was prevalent...

... But I'd dare say I'm very pleased to have discarded that concept entirely :'D

Back then, I didn't have the Southern Air Temple arc in mind. That I didn't plot that one from the get-go sure didn't help, either xD so, putting that together with the extended Azula-Zuko bonding in Whaletail Island, adding as well how much more thorough Zuko's growth wound up being all across the story... and we get a Zuko who doesn't believe his entire existence is justified by sitting on that throne.

Gladiator's Zuko has stopped basing his identity on succeeding his father as Fire Lord and proving himself better than the failure Ozai thinks he is. He already proved it plenty as it is: he has a family that loves him, he's part of a community that he earned his place in, friends who cherish him and that he bonded with on his own, even a crazy brother-like bond with a dork like Kino, for whom he's basically a hero (even if Kino doesn't go all the way to hero-worship other than for comedic purposes, the guy can defy Zuko and disagree with him when he wants to...). So, does he need Ozai's approval at this point? Does his identity hinge on it that much? Or on someone else's approval?

Thanks to Guru Pathik's lessons, it really doesn't. After all the self-reflection Zuko did in that arc, this guy has reached the strongest state of balance I have EVER written him in, in ANY storyline. Even my most optimistic Zuko characterizations in canon settings, or even my non-ATLA AUs, are nowhere near as fulfilling, balanced and mature as the current Zuko in Gladiator. This is a guy who finds his mother, she tells him a LOT of wild and disturbing things, and he still manages to keep his center, even as he processes the reality of what had been going on in his life when he was a child and he was too young to pick up on any of it. It's a guy who can love his uncle without forgetting that he has done TERRIBLE THINGS. A guy who, regardless of their many differences, has grown to cherish his sister and truly wants to save her.

So... for him? The throne is not this big prize that justifies his very existence anymore. He knows he's much more than a prospect Fire Lord -- and he knows his sister is much more than that, too. Neither one is going to approach the burden and responsibility of becoming Fire Lord with the same childish attitude as in canon. They've both come way too far to treat it as some competition where they have to constantly measure against each other to prove which sibling is "better". Both have solid things to bring to the table as Fire Lords, and both will have to think about, above all else, if they want to become Fire Lord at all!

So, to answer your question more specifically...

There MAY be a fight. That fight wouldn't be like what we saw in canon. It wouldn't be chaotic, it wouldn't be overly violent, it wouldn't be the ugliest sides of these two characters colliding in a battle of mutual hubris... no, it would be a battle to conform to traditions to determine the fate of the Fire Nation. It would be a battle that truly would show how far they have come, how much they have grown, and how much respect and genuine appreciation they have for each other. Neither one would step into the dueling area under the belief that they must crush/kill/destroy the other.

And that they can do comes as the result of a ton of character growth and development for these two, in which, unbeknownst to them, they have broken the cycle of abuse in their generation, putting an end to the absolutely catastrophic mess the Fire Nation's Royal Family has constantly been engulfed by. That toxicity, as seen frequently in Ozai's flashbacks, finally comes to an end when both Zuko and Azula learn to break free from that ideology, from the terrible weights of expectations of their family, and learn to see the world through much clearer eyes than any of their relatives ever did.

... I hope that's a satisfactory answer :'D

[the-raindeer-king]

Going off my headcanon that Ghost doesn't keep up with celebrities or musicians because he just doesn't care. Imagine if he was dating someone famous. Maybe not super famous because I imagine that would be difficult, but maybe famous in the right circles (thinking like Spiritbox or even Mother Mother type famous.)

Like he genuinely has no idea that you're famous. He's never heard of you or your band before. When you first meet and you say something about it, he stares at you before asking if he's supposed to know what that means, voice monotone.

When he talks about you to the others, he never uses your name. You're always just his bird, his love, maybe the missus (regardless of gender). He talks about how hectic both of your schedules are, and they just assume that maybe you work on a different base or you're in the medical field or something. It's always vague enough to keep them all wondering, and he refuses to elaborate.

Now imagine Soap's surprise when everything finally lines up and the team gets to meet Ghost's birdie, and none other than the leader singer of his favorite band saunters in.

(but also imagine if you were super famous. Like how the hell does this behemoth not know who you are? but you're also so relieved because at least you know he likes you for you.)

[annasofthe11thdimension]

Waltz

[hoshiina]

— a guy asks for your number ft. hoshina, narumi, reno

warnings: mentions dick and profanities in hoshina's

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

He is at his limit.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[itsmespicaa]

The way I literally lost my mind when I saw them in the movie omg...after 40 years, my beloved twins are finally back together 😭🫶💖

(I spent like a good chunk of rewatches just trying to spot every single appearances of them HAHAHA- OTL i hope we DO get a sequel and when we do, hopefully the twins will be there too :"D)

[beargregor]

wait i'm curious, what makes you say that gregor doesn't like everyone else (if i read that post right)? just curious since i've never seen anyone else say that

i don't necessarily think gregor dislikes everyone else at lcb but i do think that gregor is an incredibly petty person that isn't nearly as close to the rest of the sinners and even outright dislikes some of them cough cough rodya cough cough which a lot of people just Refuse to see because he's as much of a doormat as he is. there's several examples i could get into to try and prove my point however i'll just focus on what i personally think to be the biggest ones.

additionally, this is going to be kind of long, so i'm adding a read more. read more! read it. sorry for being so wordy. i have several diseases.

Pt1. gregor is the type to try and get along at least decently with everyone, especially if he gets a good first impression from them.

this is less a point in favor of gregor's distance w/ the rest of the sinners and more just a contributing factor to it. once again there's several examples i could point to here but i think the most in your face one happened in canto I with yuri, as several people have pointed out. even before gregor comes clean about growing attached to her as quickly as he did because she reminds him of his sister, we get this interaction.

i'll go ahead and make the disclaimer now that i don't necessarily think gregor is the most reliable of narrators, especially when it comes to his feelings and interactions with most people, but from the way he acts when the topic of yuri comes up (and the way we still see him act even all the way up to c7, nearly a whole year after yuri's death) i don't see reason to question his sentiment here. gregor immediately got that aya and yuri were close, potentially even taking note of their traded belts, and went out of his way to get something nice for yuri despite hardly knowing her.

i feel like a lot of people have forgotten as much, especially since it's been so long since c1, but gregor actually spent a good bit of season 1 doing the exact same thing with the other sinners! gregor reads a connection between him and ishmael pretty quickly despite getting off to a rocky start

mostly because gregor can tell that ishmael is pretty sardonic in a very similar way to him. there's been multiple instances where ishmael and gregor have essentially expressed the same sentiment at different moments, most notably gregor's little argument after ishmael got shot with a decay ampule in c4

and ishmael's response to pilot talking about self-sacrifice in c5

i could go ahead and pull up more examples, but in general pm has gone out of their way to show us that gregor and ishmael are pretty similar, so it makes sense for gregor to assume that they're friends, right?

this will be pushpin 1. keep note of this for Later.

ishmael's only the first sinner we see gregor trying to do this with in s1, we also see him try it out with heathcliff, sinclair, and ryoushuu

he's tried to get along with charon, being one of very few sinners that we've seen actually try to establish a connection with her at all

even rodya, despite my insistence that gregor doesn't like her nearly as much as the fandom thinks he does

all of these seem pretty fine and dandy, right? sure it frequently leans towards self-degradation, micromanaging, and commiseration, but gregor can at least be pretty chummy with most of the sinners, can't he?

Pt2. hell's chicken was more than just comic relief guys please

i'm fully aware that this is quite the hot take, but i think hell's chicken deserves a lot more credit for character writing than the fandom gives it. hell's chicken gave us foreshadowing for several events, such as the donqui bloodfiend reveal

heathcliff's distortion in c6 (as well as hong lu's highly speculated distortion at some point in the future)

and ryoushuu and sinclair's continued connection by making him the odd one out on her team

which, hey! that implies something about gregor's odd one out, don quixote, too, doesn't it? yes. yes it does. that's pushpin 2. keep note of that for later.

speaking of pushpins, hey! that's pushpin 1!

splitting into teams is one of the major events in hell's chicken, and most of the sinner's choices are either motivated by very little, backhanded, or motivated primarily by not wanting to be on the opposite leader's side. i didn't include all of the picks, just because i feel like including most of them already gets this across, but i think gregor took one major thing from this: most of the sinners, when push comes to shove, will only side with gregor when they refuse to or can't take his opponent's side.

now, don't get me wrong, i'm fully aware that this is primarily intended to be comedic relief, but when gregor is being described as having his trust broken by ishmael or nearly crying because no one on his team properly sided with him for him, i feel like it's pretty fair to read into this.

something that i think is pretty important to remember in conjunction with this is that we know that gregor is the type to hold a grudge, both from his general attitude towards the G corp soldiers in c1 as well as his continued distaste for vergilius

even beyond the splitting into teams of hell's chicken, the sinners have given gregor plenty of reasons to feel bitter. i feel like this is something people have noticed but haven't really put a finger on, but it's kind of wild just how often the rest of the sinners make gregor the butt of the joke

and sure, we could argue that a fair few of these aren't really made with any ill intent. quite a bit of it could have been meant as harmless teasing, but with gregor being more sensitive than most, it coming from nearly all sides, and as often as it does? yeah, i think he's prone to taking it a bit personally.

Pt3. yes i do still think gregor was the third most important character in canto VII you guys gotta hear me out okay

of course, all of this leads up to the bit of the story i highlighted, doesn't it? c7? i totally get why people haven't really picked up on all the gregor things i did in it, seeing as they were mostly not *directly* said about him or by him.

personally, i think that gregor's distaste for talking about himself on any serious level and thus leading to him getting sort of "sidelined" narratively (which i take issue with that claim, but still. it's effective for getting what i mean across atm) is supposed to lead players to take a deeper look at the times gregor gets held up to other characters and compare and contrast what's being said about them by the matchup. as i showed earlier with his immediate latching onto ishmael, i think this is something gregor himself is at least partially aware of too.

so, that begs the question, who was gregor compared to in canto VII that makes me think it's one of the most critical pieces in understanding his character?

really, i'd like to avoid getting too lost in the analysis of this canto specifically, since i'd like to do a proper post about this later, but i figure i can bury the lede a little before doing it properly.

c7 features several characters being made to perform in sansón's play, acting out the relevant backstory for this segment of the plot. a lot of these characters have rather direct, degrading reasons for playing the roles they do.

outis, a character with an inflated ego who wants her journey to have a purpose, is made to play an aimlessly wandering villager with a single line.

hong lu and ryoushuu, two characters for whom families and the expectations placed upon them are likely going to play a major role, are made to play bloodfiends.

rodya, a character who resents her lot in life and is constantly shown to be eager to leave her destitution behind her and become someone special, is made to play a helpless villager that's too poor to even offer any money to the hero that saves her.

heathcliff, a character that has spent most of his life getting dehumanized by comparing him to beastly animals, is made to play a literal bear whose sole purpose in the plot is to get beat up and then quickly left by the wayside.

sinclair, a character that has two opposed parties essentially treating him as a macguffin to procure for their side, is made to play the character who was arguably the catalyst for this entire canto, not to mention playing a decently major role in ruina.

our star don quixote is made to play her father, the first kindred, but there's someone by their side the entire time, isn't there? don quixote's dear, steadfastly loyal companion. a character which don quixote has tasked themself with getting to come out of their shell?

hello again, pushpin 2.

gregor has been made to play our unreachable star, sancho. someone had to, of course. you can't really tell a story without it's main character, now can you?

now, i should once again give a disclaimer. i am not trying to say that i think adapting what happens to donqui/sancho in c7 to gregor is the road pm is going to take here, not only would that toe a bit past the line of foreshadowing, but it'd also just amount to rehashing that plotline again, which i don't think would make for a particularly exciting story.

what i DO think is that we can take a lot of the things that are said to either directly be the case for sancho and use them to inform how we see gregor.

and god, does playing sancho have some fucking implications for our favorite ossan archetype.

starting off, the earliest moment we get to see of sancho is quite literally her just waiting for death to take her in a pile of ashes.

which, i should remind everyone, is actually pretty damn close to what happens to gregor's literary counterpart at the end of the metamorphosis. gregor samsa experiences one final breaking point that pushes him over the edge and makes him decide to just wait for starvation to take him.

gregor and sancho both consider themselves to no longer be human, something which sancho goes out of her way to highlight repeatedly throughout the canto and gregor is quick to get defensive on her behalf for when outis starts really tearing into her

sancho spends quite a lot of this story denying herself the joys of community and friendship, despite knowing that, even with the rest of the sinners frequently making jokes at her expense and outright insulting her, they were things that she desperately craved.

and, while this is getting into my "outis is a red herring meant to distract us from gregor's eventual betrayal" theorizing, i also think it's worth noting for this discussion that sancho's fellow kindreds, her family, all seem to be under the impression that she dislikes them and ultimately her departure was an act of betrayal

and that, despite gregor being one of LCB's resident mood makers and attempted conflict de-escalators, one of the sinners that's most prone to making appeals to the bonds they've all forged together, only him and faust remained silent during everyone's speech

so yeah, i think there's quite a lot of little details and hints building up to the reveal that gregor's not quite as fond of everyone as he presents himself to be. i do think a lot of this ultimately comes down to gregor getting in the way of his own happiness, similarly to donqui, particularly because he's been frequently portrayed as something of a self fulfilling prophecy, especially by giving him as many christ allegories as they have by way of priest and garden of thorns. gregor is convinced that the rest of the sinners don't like him because he's not convinced anyone could like him, so he convinces himself that he hates them because why should he care if someone that he hates hates him too?

a lot of this ultimately ties back to my personal interpretation of what happens in the metamorphosis as well as my own theories regarding all the times gregor has made weird callbacks and references to lobcorp and ruina, but yeah. i think about this guy and his deeper characterization a fairly normal amount, i think.

to end this off i'll highlight one of my favorite little "gregor is fucking seething and trying so hard to keep it cool" moments, in the credits CG for c7 we see rodya teasing him by drawing a little horse on his window and actively pointing and laughing at it, which gregor really doesn't seem all too pleased about.

i personally think this ties into the other cruel part of sansón forcing gregor to play rocinante, which is the more literal "he's actually just straight up playing rocinante" side of things. gregor was quite literally made to play something less than human, less than even animal really, as he was reduced to nothing more than the shoes don quixote wore as she got to play the leading role. sansón directly makes jokes about gregor being nothing more than shoes in the play twice, which adds to this reading, i think.

this, imo, really plays into the adaptation of the metamorphosis! i've seen a lot of readings for the book that posit that, despite being the protagonist, gregor samsa can't really be considered the main character due to nearly everything he experiences in it being used to further his family's character development at his expense, which i think fits nicely with limbus gregor seemingly having the most said about him through indirect means by holding him up to other characters. also it's rodya carelessly making fun of His Big Major Insecurities™ again like she did in c1 which i always find fun. rodya i love you but god you're the worst.

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

imagine being a shy little intern at jujutsu high and getting the fattest crush on gojo because he’s just. so strong and cool. you idolize him. you want to be his friend. and he seems to take a liking to you; he’s cheery and encouraging and sweet in a roundabout way. you feel like you’ve grown pretty close to him.

imagine him falling asleep right next to you on a sofa in the cafeteria. you can barely tell, with his blindfold still on. but you scurry away to find a blanket, happy that he trusts you enough to rest in your proximity, ready to wrap it around him —

only for it to slip right off. rejected by his infinity.

(he never turns it off, around you.)

[tennessoui]

You feed us so well, you spoil us rotten!

I’ve loved every single one of the little creations. My absolute favorite is kenobi’s trial. I’ve been thinking about it the whole evening after reading. If you ever think that it needs a continuation, I am so here for it.

Also, reverse vaderwan had me frothing at the mouth. Which is not surprising since I love throat fic so much.

If you have more, then #29 or 30 for the ask game? 🥺

i am a simple woman, you tell me you like reverse vaderwan i give you more reverse vaderwan (though a slightly different flavor this time)

[from this list of prompts]

[5. 'are you jealous' - 14. 'hey, i'm with you, okay? always.' - 18. 'this is the stupidest plan you've ever had. of course i'm in.' - 24. 'you're the only one i trust to do this' (LATEST) - 27. 'i'm pregnant' - 28. 'marry me?' 32. 'i think i'm in love with you and i'm terrified' - 37. 'wanna dance?' - 44. 'if you die, i'm gonna kill you' - 41. 'you did all of this for me?' - 46. 'hey, have you seen...? oh']

29. 'i thought you were dead.'

Darth Tyranus puts his teacup down onto his saucer with a small clink. "Ah," he says, turning his head to examine something in the Force that Solence is unable to feel. His eyes stare unseeingly out at the storm currently battering against the castle's walls. "Yes, I wondered when it would be time."

"Master?" Solence says, placing his own untouched piece of toast down onto the plate in front of him. "What is wrong?"

Tyranus blinks at him, mouth tightening for a moment as he seems to weigh his words and his options carefully. Darth Solence has only been apprenticed under Tyranus for six months, but he understands the importance of such care in choosing one's plan of action. His first master never was able to teach him such things.

His first master, when he was called Obi-Wan--when he was a Jedi padawan, when Anakin Skywalker was his master--

"It seems my former master has sent his new apprentice to kill me," Tyranus tells him. "Retire to your quarters for the morning."

Solence blinks. Automatically, his hand clenches and unclenches in his lap, jerking towards the hilt of his lightsaber. "What? No."

Tyranus sneers as he stands from the table. "You are no match for Vader, boy. He would kill you in a heartbeat."

"You said I'm powerful in the Force," Solence argues, standing as well and rushing after Tyranus' form. "That you were impressed by my control of the Dark side--and you saw me neutralize the whole legion of Imperial troops we encountered on Fielen!"

"No, Solence," Tyranus' voice leaves no room for any further argument. He stops short of the door to the grand hall, turning to look down at Solence with a severe expression. "Though your control of the Force is impressive for someone your age--" Solence is twenty-two, not exactly a youngling-- "and though your control over the Dark side is commendable for someone as Light as you once were--" Obi-Wan, padawan, little star, focus on me, alright? Your katas were sloppy today, let's work on them... "--your power is that of a vibroblade compared to Vader's ion cannon. Now go."

"Tyranus, two Sith are--"

The back of Tyranus' ringed hand connects with a smack across Solence's upturned face. He can feel the instant split of his bottom lip as Tyranus' ring cuts it open.

"No," Tyranus' voice is final, the hit a punctuation mark and a warning all in one. As he turns away from him, Solence lifts his hand to press it to the stinging skin. He has had worse. Endured worse at the hands of this master. The Dark side cannot be taught to an apprentice as delicately as Master Skywalker had once taught Obi-Wan Kenobi the powers of the Light.

And yet...he frowns as he watches Tyranus stroll through the open doors, out of the safety of the fortress, presumably to meet Sidious' apprentice--Vader--at his ship. To catch him off guard? To negotiate? To die?

Perhaps if Tyranus had not told him the truth, the reason behind his sudden dismissal, Solence would have gone to his quarters none the wiser. But he can't leave now, can't stand to watch another one of his masters die, even though the respect he holds for this one is a tiny spark compared to the love Obi-Wan Kenobi once nurtured for Anakin Skywalker.

Darth Solence grabs his dark cloak from the side room and pulls the hood up over his face before following Tyranus out into the storm.

It does not matter if he cannot win a duel against Darth Vader. He must try. He must try, not even because of his respect for Tyranus. Not even because he does not want to lose another master.

He must try because Tyranus said that Vader is Sidious' apprentice, and there is nothing in the galaxy that Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Solence, hates more than he hates Darth Sidious, emperor of the galaxy.

It had been this hate that had led him to the Dark side. Hatred and grief at the death of his master in the final days of the war. Sidious had burned the Jedi Order to ash and from its corpse built the empire, and Obi-Wan will die with hatred in his heart for the monster who killed the Jedi. For the monster who killed his master.

He'd been on his first solo mission of the entire war, the day the Order fell. Anakin had been so stubbornly against it, so wary of having his padawan out of his sight during those last few months. Obi-Wan thinks of it now, though it's always painful, and he wonders if perhaps Anakin knew that something terrible was going to happen. His master was always so in tune with the Force.

Perhaps if Obi-Wan hadn't been so insistent, so eager to prove himself as a man, as his master's equal--perhaps if he'd been just a little less obsessed, just a little less in love--

It matters not. In the final days of the war, Obi-Wan had gone behind his master's back and requested a mission from the Council themselves. Stretched thin as they were, they'd agreed in a heartbeat, and Obi-Wan had been sent to Mandalore.

Then the clone troopers on his ship had turned their weapons onto him. Then the Jedi Order had fallen. Then the training bond between his master and him had broken, snapped in two by the weight of the man's demise.

And Obi-Wan, broken and bleeding and grieving and full of poisonous hatred, had found himself on Serrenno, at Darth Tyranus' feet. Tyranus had explained it to him. All of it. How Sidious had manipulated the Order, the galaxy. How he'd consolidated power during the sham of the war effort. How Tyranus had helped him until the moment that Sidious had another younger and more powerful apprentice in his claws. The day Darth Vader had risen, Tyranus had fled. "There can only be two," Tyranus had told Obi-Wan. "One sith master and one apprentice."

It had been so simple, so easy to look back at Tyranus and ask him to take him as his apprentice. A new Sith lineage with only one goal in mind: revenge. Freedom in revenge, power in it.

As the empire rose from the ashes of the Order, so did Solence rise out of the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi--out of the ashes of his hatred.

He'd sworn the day his eyes turned gold that he would dedicate the rest of his life to Sidious' demise. It would not bring his master back to life, but it would feel good to kill the monster who had taken him in the first place. It would feel right.

Tyranus should have known better. He should have known that the moment he'd mentioned Sidious, Solence would throw aside every shred of logic, every bare thread of a plan.

Vader is Sidious' apprentice, not Sidious himself. But Solence thinks it would be so sweet to kill Vader. It would be like practice for the day he faces the emperor.

The rain beats down on him as he follows Tyranus to the shipyard, rocks turning slippery beneath his feet. Tyranus' saber is already lit, a dull red in the darkness of the storm.

As they close the distance from the castle to the yard, Solence can make out another beam of red light, standing still--waiting. Vader.

Tyranus does not attempt to negotiate. The moment he is within striking distance, the old man has his saber above his head, bringing the blade down upon Vader's with all the force he can muster.

And yet, Vader deflects the blow as if batting away a fly. Solence inhales sharply as he ducks beneath the engine of a ship and peers out at the two sith lords. Vader is--Tyranus was right. His presence in the Force is like an ion cannon. It is like a miniature sun, though without any of the warmth.

Tyranus stands no chance.

Obi-Wan wouldn't either, not if he fought with honor and integrity as the Jedi taught him. But Solence is a sith in his own right, and Vader is not expecting two sith. He has the upperhand of surprise. If he can ambush Vader--stab him in the back while he is focused on Tyranus--

Vader's voice is mechanical through the black mask that covers the expanse of his face. "Pathetic," he tells Tyranus as he extends a black glove through the air. The Force bends to his will, and Tyranus is thrown back into a different ship. "Surrender, and your death will be quick and merciful."

Tyranus spits onto the ground before him. It is perhaps the most uncouth thing Solence has ever seen the Count do. "I do not want your mercy."

"Then you shall feel my wrath," Vader intones and he tightens his fist. For a moment, Solence isn't sure what the sith is doing, until Tyranus' hands come up to scrabble uselessly at his throat. He's choking him, Solence realizes, legs tensing beneath him. He's choking him with the Force.

"Goodbye, Grandmaster," Vader says, and Solence isn't quick enough to mask the gasp that the word draws from his lips.

Grandmaster. It--there is something there, something that doesn't make sense because Tyranus was once in the Jedi Order, once had a padawan who had once had a padawan of his own, but how could he be Vader's---

Vader's mask is staring straight at him.

Before he can fight back, the Force is wrapped around his arms and legs, pulling him out from beneath the star jumper. He lands on his hands and knees at Vader's feet, head pushed down so that the edge of Vader's boots is all that he can see.

The Force eases around Tyranus, though the bonds around Solence's wrists hold so strong that Solence is unable to even twitch. "You have an apprentice?" Vader asks, derision dripping from each word, and Solence wishes he were able to speak. Wishes he could spit at the sith the same way Tyranus had.

"Not a very wise one," Tyranus gets out, voice thin and gasping from the strangulation.

"Then I will end this lineage before it has a chance to grow into a problem," Vader decides, and the Force flexes around Solence, screams as it tightens along his throat. Solence makes a noise, small and automatic. Even as he tries to push against Vader's control, he cannot move. He feels like a piece of prey caught between a predator's locked jaw.

This is how he dies. He sees it now, understands. He'd survived everything else, but this--Vader is what kills him. Anakin, I'm sorry, Anakin, Obi-Wan thinks as his eyes darken from the lack of oxygen. I couldn't do it, I couldn't avenge your death, I'm sorry

"Don't," Tyranus yells, and the sound is so distant it feels as if it has come from a past life. "Look at him, look at his face, Vader!"

The Force loosens its grip marginally, and Obi-Wan gasps for what little air he can get. Around him, the Force--Vader--sways. Curious. Vader is curious as he looks at the top of Obi-Wan's hooded head.

But what reprieve Tyranus thinks this will grant them, Obi-Wan doesn't know. After all, Sidious killed the entirety of the Jedi Order. Why would Vader, his apprentice, refrain from killing one former Jedi padawan? His hands are probably darkened with the blood of many.

It is useless to fight the press of the Force as it yanks his head back, forcing his hood to fall and his face to be exposed to the pouring rain. Instead, Obi-Wan musters the power to glare at the downturned, monstrous slopes of Vader's black mask as it stares back at him.

"E chu ta," he spits, because his master, Anakin, used to curse the same way, and it makes Obi-Wan feel warmer in the face of his certain demise to take something of Anakin's and make it his own.

Vader stares down at him, wordless. Even the Force has frozen in the air around them, binds still tight against Obi-Wan's body but loose enough around his throat that he can breathe.

He can't look away, though he wants desperately to look at Tyranus, to see if Tyranus has managed to free himself in the face of Vader's distraction. Perhaps that had been his plan all along.

"What is the meaning of this?" Vader finally says. His voice is flat through the vocodor. Mechanical, but loud. The Force unfreezes and begins to whirl around them. "What is this trickery? Who are you?"

The mask swings around to look at Tyranus, and the Force grows darker with Vader's fury. Obi-Wan glances at his master as well, but Tyranus has done nothing but struggle to his feet. His saber is still several paces away.

If he is to survive and mount a counterattack, Obi-Wan needs to distract Vader again.

He doesn't understand the sith's reaction, but that doesn't mean he can't use it against him.

"I am Darth Solence," he declares, pushing up and against Vader's control of his body. "Tyranus is my master--"

"Is it a clone?" Vader roars, striding through the mud of the shipyard until he has reached Tyranus' side. His physical hand wraps around Tyranus' throat and lifts him into the air, even though Tyranus is not a slight man. "Tell me!"

Obi-Wan pushes himself to his knees, though he is powerless to do more than watch. "Master!" he hears himself say, even though he never calls Tyranus that. Even though the word is reserved for one man alone, one man who will never hear him say it again.

It feels right in the moment, and it must mean something because both Tyranus and Vader's heads snap to him.

"He is dead," Vader growls, and the leather of his glove creaks with the force of his fist clenching around Tyranus' neck. "What--"

"He survived," Tyranus grunts, hand scrabbling at Vader's arm as he tries to take in oxygen. "Sidious lied to you--he came to me, I have been training him, for you, to give to you, to--"

The words cut out as Vader's lightsaber ignites and cuts through Tyranus' throat. Obi-Wan yells out before he can stop himself as he watches the body of his master, his second master, fall to the ground.

And he can do nothing but kneel there, frozen, as Vader turns around to look at him.

The sith is breathing heavily, shoulders rising and falling with the Force of it. In his hand, the still-lit saber trembles. "You are dead," Vader tells him.

Obi-Wan can't disagree. He is dead. Vader will see to that in a moment. He has been dead since the moment Vader's attention caught on him beneath the star jumper. He will be dead shortly. He will--at least he will rejoin Anakin. He has missed him so terribly.

He does not even realize that he's begun to cry until he feels the fingertip of a rough glove touch his cheek, catch one of his tears and lift it away from his face.

"I don't understand," Vader says. The Force is whipping itself into a hurricane around them, but if Vader doesn't understand then Obi-Wan doesn't understand either. "I thought you dead."

Vader must have known him then, Obi-Wan realizes. When he was a Jedi padawan. He must have been an older Knight or Master, the way Tyranus was once Yan Dooku before he Fell. But in the face of Vader's confusion, the pain that lances through his Force signature at those words, Obi-Wan shakes his head, unable to bring himself to agree. He is dead. Obi-Wan died the day his master did.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi is dead," he says. "I am what remains."

Vader takes a step away from him, hand tightening around his saber. Obi-Wan closes his eyes braces for the blow, prays that it will be quick and painless and that when he opens his eyes once more, he will see his master again.

And--and he does, though he feels no lightsaber connect with his body.

Yet when he blinks open his eyes, Anakin Skywalker's face is staring down at him, Darth Vader's mask held in his hands.

Obi-Wan opens his mouth, but no words come out in the face of the impossible. It is impossible.

This is impossible.

And yet--

And yet, Anakin Skywalker is there before him, red saber tossed to the side and mask dropped at his feet so that his hands are free to grab at Obi-Wan and pull him closer, pull him into his lap.

"I thought you were dead," Anakin is muttering as his nose runs along the planes of Obi-Wan's face, as his hands grab at his hair and then his cheeks, then further down, along his shoulders and chest. "Sidious said you were killed, I thought the worst--"

"No," Obi-Wan whispers, nonsensical. Nothing makes sense. This does not make sense. Obi-Wan's master is dead. Obi-Wan's master is here, holding him. But he can't be because he is dead. He died when the Temple fell. He died. His master is gone.

His master pulls his face away from his neck so that he can stare at him fully, hand stroking along his cheek, thumb rubbing at Obi-Wan's split lip. "Little star," his master murmurs. "You've come back to me, my pretty little star."

His master's eyes are golden, dark and crazed, and his Force signature is dangerous, possessive and heady. A firestorm, a hurricane. A black hole. Something that seems intent upon swallowing Obi-Wan and never letting him go again.

But he calls him little star.

And Obi-Wan throws his arms around his master and begins to sob.

[arthernity]

thank god for those small anti-sun booths in the park

[bebrave-live]

Love the flavor of soulmates that is a main m/f partnership dynamic that's mostly platonic but also romantic but also dysfunctional and yet completely essential - like these characters would not work without each other, but they barely work with each other, and most importantly they know each other carnally better than anyone else, but it's also not about sex at all it's about the partnership and navigating the highs and lows of intimacy and letting someone in, but also maybe they do fuck, but also maybe don't, but also...

[turtleblogatlast]

Small but significant character moments that I actually really adore are from both the times we see the boys as tots. There is a reoccurrence that happens in both of them that I find so incredibly interesting.

For the turtle tot short, Splinter leaves the boys with weapons. In the short, Raph is the one who suggests they do “what Lou Jitsu would do” and Leo is the one who takes point when Splinter comes back to reprimand them. Leo, in taking point, is the one to defend them and get Splinter off their tails.

And then, in the flashback regarding the Kuroi Yōroi helmet, Raph is the one who grabs and throws “Skully” as a way to replace their missing ball which breaks it into pieces, but Leo is the one who speaks for the group and rushes into action to fix the teapot.

I love this for multiple reasons, but the biggest are how it shows that Raph has always been inclined toward the bold and fun and making the plans to include his brothers in what he loves and believes they’d love, whereas Leo has always been inclined to be the “Face” of the group and shoulder the attention even if it’s potentially negative all while coming up with on the spot attempts to fix the situation.

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

So, uh, to recap on the ladies of Andor, the pinnacle of progressive writing according to internet consensus:

Bix: After her character consisting only of "good at mechanics", formerly crafty (in the first Ferrix arc) and "traumatised", Bix gains a new character trait this arc - helpless rage and ✨✨✨drug addiction✨✨✨! Goodie. I'm so mad at this arc for her. We never see this woman happy independent of her trauma. We see her make happy for men - the shopkeep, Cassian occasionally, Brasso and co. in the first arc - but the only time we get an unobserved smile is when she gets her big Girlboss Yay Feminism revenge. And the featurette has everyone going "oh this is her moment", "this scene is about her" - IT'S NOT!! It's about Gorst! It's more trauma porn! Her happiness and functionality once again are dependent on men! She couldn't save herself from her trauma - she needed Cassian to help her get the drop on Gorst (and let's ignore how fucking improbable all that is for a moment, how does he even know where Gorst is???), and her happiness is fully dependent on Gorst living or dying. Her character does not EXIST without him this season. Why do we only ever see her take charge of her life to kill her abusers? The only other positive thing she's done for her life this whole season is to clean up the apartment, and she was doing that to *checks notes* hide her drug habit from her overprotective boyfriend. Feminism!! Please don't read this as an indictment of people struggling to cope with trauma, or substance abuse - I'm just so tired of everyone acting like this is such an uplifting, empowering narrative for this character, because I really, really, really don't see it.

Bringing up Maarva and Kerri as people Cassian failed to protect and nothing else is so telling. That's not even what happened! He was abducted as a child, he didn't abandon his sister, and what was he going to save Maarva from? Old age?? But that's their whole narrative purpose to the writers I guess...

Mothma: Well, I know the constant political downward trajectory is her whole thing, but we really spend the whole arc seeing her do nothing but failing to convince other politicians (mostly men) of anything and being made to look like a fool for even bothering. So far all we've given her this season is being too soft and emotional (which, by the way, is why it's a little odd to me they're pinning the same thing on Cassian - why do we need this narrative redundancy here?). And her one "big moment" (read: over thirty seconds of uninterrupted talking) she gets to have this arc is either a front for Kleya's and Luthen's business or a pointless and reckless lashing out at Krennic's overt imperialism and propaganda.

Dedra: Yeah, she's holding all the strings, but in a weird way, her whole narrative is dependent on Syril now, and I have a bad feeling this is all leading up to him being butthurt about being used. It's a great spy storyline, but just like Mothma's part, great as it is, in combo with the deeply uncool treatment of Bix, it starts to feel like an unfortunate pattern.

Cinta: I actually liked her scenes a lot! Especially the scene in the café - it had an interesting ambiguity, for a moment there I was wondering if Cinta was running Vel, getting back with her to keep her on track on someone's orders. I think I may be giving the script too much credit here, given how weirdly stilted the other two romances were handled this arc it might have rather been a case of "the writer really thinks lovers talk that way". But even if it was an accident, I think that would be an interesting feature in the show, because they're the one couple who genuinely seem to be compatible and on the same page about what they want! And I get that they were making a point to get her killed so uselessly, by friendly fire, on accident. But man, this show refuses to give a woman happiness, even for the span of a timeskip. Whenever any of the ladies seems happy or get something she wants for herself, you can already be sure she's about to die or have something incredibly heinous happen to her immediately after. And the execution of that scene pissed me off, because if that scuffle had even just been relocated to the tunnel entrance, I would have bought it. But no, they're in a really wide, mostly empty alleyway, the blaster was mostly pointed at a wall and trapped between the two men wrestling for it, and you don't even see anyone being close behind them, and yet Cinta not only manages to get hit but instantly killed - what are the fucking chances? And yes, it's a metaphor, but again, with the overall bad aftertaste, it feels targeted and cruel at this point. With how little we got to see of Cinta, it really made her death seem like an afterthought. Like Brasso, this could have packed a punch, but we knew so little about her and had seen her even less, so it just fell flat.

My only positives(ish):

Vel: Her character is really growing on me! She has such a nice, well-executed, subtle development compared to most other characters on this show. She's clearly learned from Aldhani, and she's learning from Mothma and Luthen, too, and her resentment at the life she's leading is so beautifully expressed by her last scene: The greatest punishment she can imagine is recruitment to her cause. Because that's what she's doing to this guy. Recruitment. This is on you forever, this is all your life is now, you owe me and everyone whatever you have to make up for this. That's so heartbreaking, and so real. Am I pissed that Vel is constantly and pointedly denied happiness at absolutely every turn? Yeah! But at least for her, it feels like there is a little more agency, because she chose this life, even though she clearly has options. For her, it feels a little more tragic and narratively weighty, and less like a pointless onslaught of misery.

Kleya: I love her so much. And I could (and should) point out that it feels a little shallow to have her be completely reduced to "being the only competent person among men who are losing their shit at all times". We know nothing else about her, other than that she is Girlboss(TM). But, unlike with Bix, we actually see her be outstandingly competent completely on her own merit all the time, and even though the script neglects her, too, there is an implication that she has actively and deliberately sacrificed the rest of herself to be this spymaster - instead of the writers simply forgetting to give her anything more. And I just think Elizabeth Dulau is KILLING IT. In a weird way, Kleya is giving me the power fantasy that most Star Wars gave to little boys. It's not exactly a win for feminism - it's yet another flavour of "women can either be competent and powerful OR express their emotions and be vulnerable with people" - but I do have a soft spot for her, and her moment at the exhibition was the tensest shit I've seen this whole season. Nothing more gripping so far than watching this woman attempt to turn a screw.

[theactualsunshinechild]

I think Aventio and Screwtio shippers shouldn't fight. After all, Ratio has two hands!

That's right. Two hands.

One for his chalk.

One for his codex.

Both of which he's holding in an embarrassed death grip as they chat away with each other about him.

[luxaofhesperides]

For ghostlights: baby Ellie + tired Danny + Duke the baby whisperer?

He has no idea how his parents did it. 

Babies are exhausting. Toddlers more so. Any infants in the strange stage in-between? Doubly so. 

Ellie is wonderful and sweet and cute and such a terror that Danny genuinely has no idea how his parents managed to raise not one, but two kids. For all their eccentricities and absent-mindedness, he and Jazz turned out pretty well. Ignoring the whole halfa thing because that’s more his fault than theirs even if Jazz says they shouldn’t have created the dangerous environment in the first place.

That environment is exactly why Danny refuses to let Ellie go to his house in Amity Park. His parents say they’ve disabled all the weapons and ecto-sensors since he’s had to reveal himself as Phantom, but he knows that things slip their minds and if they can’t guarantee that the house is safe, then Ellie isn’t going in there. Simple as that. 

This means that they live somewhere else now. Danny had thought about it, during the hours Ellie was asleep and he was awake, exhausted and worn down to his bones, and took Jazz’s advice to accept Vlad’s offer of buying a house for him. Except he argued Vlad down to an apartment in a city of his choosing where he wouldn’t stand out too much and he would be safe, or as safe as he can be, from anyone trying to hunt down ghosts. 

So here they are. Standing in the empty living room of their new apartment in Gotham. 

Gotham may not be very safe as a city, but it’s good for two ghosts trying to pass as normal. 

Danny sighs yet again, and looks at the space he’ll need to fill. At least Vlad is footing the bill. It’s the least he can do for creating Ellie. Frostbite was the one who was able to stabilize her, though it was almost too late and resulted in her reforming as a baby, just one and a half years old. Jazz is the one who’s choosing most of the furniture, thankfully, so it’s something that Danny doesn’t need to worry about it.

It’s a new start to their lives and it feels so empty. So overwhelming. How did his parents do it? How do any parents do it?

Ellie smacks a small palm against his cheek and babbles lightly.

“I know, Ellie,” Danny says, giving her a tired smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll have this place looking good in no time.”

He adjusts her in his arms, then heads towards the bedroom. It’s the only room that has any furniture, and all that’s there is a bed, a crib, and a bookcase. There are a few boxes on the floor, labeled ‘bedroom’ and ‘clothing’ and ‘books’. Most of it came from his bedroom in Amity Park, but he’s pretty sure he caught Jazz sneaking a few things in before they closed the boxes and loaded them up into the car. 

“Can you be good for five minutes?” he asks Ellie. 

She babbles again and smacks his shoulder.

“I’m taking that as an agreement. Just let me open these boxes and start unpacking before you start causing trouble, okay?”

Ellie makes another sound, but it seems agreeable so Danny carefully lays her down in the crib and gets to peeling off the tape on the boxes. The opens the one labeled ‘bedroom’ first, finding blankets and sheets folded and stacked in vacuum sealed bags. One of them is his old childhood blanket, the one he carried around everywhere that was faded with age, barely blue, with white bunnies decorating it. 

He was so small when he had this. It makes him oddly emotional to unpack it and pass it on to Ellie, draping it over her so her pudgy little hands can grab at it. 

This is no time to cry, though! He forces himself to focus and makes his own bed, shaking out the sheets and fluffing up the pillows. He’ll worry about washing everything later; Vlad made sure to get an apartment with an in-unit washer and dryer, which means he was actually sensible while apartment hunting for Danny. 

He doesn’t mean to flop onto the bed once it’s made, but he ends up there anyways. He’s barely gotten a full six hours of uninterrupted sleep since Frostbite deemed Ellie healthy enough to leave his care. The drive up to Gotham was long and wore him down to his bones.

He doesn’t mean to fall asleep, but he does, drifting off as he wonders, distantly, when Jazz will be back from getting them dinner.

Ellie wakes him up at dawn with a loud cry. Danny jolts awake, heart pounding in his chest as he panics because Ellie isn’t here, she’s supposed to be in his arms, where is she? And then he sees the crib, where Ellie is staring at him through the bars, and he nearly collapses with relief. 

“Morning, El,” he says, voice rough from sleep, as he picks her up. She just stares up at him, then leans forward and rests her head against his shoulder.

It’s quiet moments like these that make his heart melt. Ellie’s had a hard life already; he wants to give her a better one, this time around. 

A quick check of the time on his nearly dead phone shows that it’s barely past six in the morning, and Jazz texted him a few times. All about furniture, saying that she didn’t want to wake them and that food is in the fridge. 

It’s only the mention of food that makes him realize how ravenous he’s feeling. Danny makes a beeline for the kitchen, ignoring everything else, and pulls out the boxes of take-out Jazz left stacked in the fridge. He devours it like he’s been starving for weeks, then gives Ellie her Ecto-Jello, the only food she’s allowed to eat until Frostbite gives the okay for solid, human food. 

Once he’s got her burped and cleaned up, Danny looks out of the kitchen and realizes that Jazz was very productive while he was asleep. The living room isn’t empty anymore; a dark green couch is against the wall, a low, rectangular coffee table made of dark wood in front of it. Two armchairs are on both sides of the couch, and a television has been installed, fixed into the wall. 

Jazz is asleep on the couch. Her legs hang off an armrest and she’s drooling slightly. 

Her phone is charging on the floor, so Danny takes it and snaps a picture of her for later teasing, then sends it to himself and writes a note to her that he’s going out with Ellie to explore the neighborhood.

He’s finally feeling more settled, energized from sleep and food.

In the warm dawn light spilling in through the windows, Danny looks down at Ellie and thinks that they’ll be just fine after all. 

. . .

Four months ago, Danny had hope. He was optimistic. 

Gotham was a fresh start, a new lease of life for Ellie. It is Danny’s attempt to be a single parent, sacrificing college for Ellie, and he’s planning to go out and beat the gangs black and blue if they start anymore shootouts in the next year.

He had just gotten Ellie to sleep. She was actually peacefully taking a nap.

And then a drive by shooter raced down the street, gunshots echoing down the road, and Ellie work up crying. She still hasn’t stopped, despite how Danny rocked her, soothing her as best he could.

They had been outside when Ellie fell asleep, her head on his shoulder. He had been catching up with Sam and Tucker when the car drove by, people ducking and crying out to avoid the bullets. Danny instinctively covered Ellie and made them both intangible, saving them from any stray bullets, but they ruined her nap and he needs to make them pay for that. 

“Shh,” he soothes, “You’re okay. We’re both fine. It’s okay, El, it’s okay.” 

Her little hands clutch at his back, twisting the fabric of his shirt, and she lets out a heartbreaking wail. He pats her back, hurrying down the street to get back to his apartment building, ignoring the looks people were giving them as they passed by. 

“I know it was scary, but you’re alright. You’re always safe with me, El.”

Ellie’s cries down down a little, but they don’t stop. She whimpers, burying her face against his shoulder as he finally reaches their apartment building.

The door’s locked, which wouldn’t be a problem except Danny can’t get his keys from his pocket. He knows he has them! But his pocket refuses to relinquish them and he has to stop every few seconds to pat Ellie’s back, trying in vain to calm her down. 

“We’ll be inside in a second,” he tells her, trying to keep the frustration out of his voice, “as soon as I can get these freaking keys!”

“Hey, you alright?”

Danny startles, whirling around so fast it makes Ellie go quiet, clinging to him so she doesn’t get flung into the air. There’s a guy standing before him in a gray hoodie, looking at him with clear concern. It speaks to Danny’s level of constant exhaustion that he hadn’t clocked someone sneaking up behind him. 

The guy offers an awkward smile. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you or anything. Um, do you need me to open to door? I live here too.”

Danny wonders for a moment if this someone dangerous, someone hoping to hurt Ellie, but she starts to cry again and he steps to the side. “Please. I can’t get my keys.”

“I’m Duke, by the way. I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.”

“Danny,” he replies, watching as Duke pulls out a large key ring, jangling with the amount of keychains on it, and easily opens the door. “I’ve been here a few months, but I’m usually inside. Or walking around in the mornings with this little monster.”

“That would explain it,” Duke says as he holds the door open, letting Danny in first. “I’m usually in classes at GCU, but I decided to take a mental health day after my lab, so here I am.”

Danny walks in and waits for Duke to follow, making sure the door closes properly behind them. “Thanks. How is GCU? What do you study? I was thinking of going there myself once she gets a little older and can go to school.”

“Oh, I’m majoring in English and Human Services.” He goes to say more, but Ellie wails again and Danny winces.

“I’m so sorry. That drive by woke her up and it’s really rattled her.”

“Hey, no need to apologize. I get it, Gotham is rough to kids.”

Danny tries rocking her back and forth, but it doesn’t help. He resigns himself to another hour of her crying before she exhausts herself, and makes for the stairs, going up to the fourth floor. Duke holds open the door again, then follows after them. It makes Danny wonder if Duke is planning to do something to them, then decides he can beat Duke in a fight, so it’s fine.

Duke doesn’t try to hurt them or steal Ellie away. He opens the door to their floor and stops before they do. “I’m in here,” he says, “If you ever need me to open more doors.”

“Thanks. Um, actually, I might need help opening mine?”

Duke just smiles and makes his way back to them, following them farther into the hall until Danny stops in front of his apartment. 

“If I could just get my keys,” he starts.

“Here, let me hold her for a second so you can get them,” Duke offers. Danny wants to insist that it’s fine, but Ellie cries directly into his ear and Danny, at the end of his rope, passes her over. 

Like magic, Ellie settles as soon as she’s in Duke’s arms. She sniffles and hides her face away, clutching to Duke’s hoodie, but she stops crying. They both go still, surprised, and stare down at her. 

“Seriously?” Danny says as he finally pulls out his keys, “Are you trying to say that I’m the problem?”

Ellie babbles lightly, and Duke turns his head to futilely hide his grin.

He grumbles as he unlocks the door and pushes it open. Ellie is acting as if she’s never been upset before a day in her life, making herself at home in Duke’s arms. 

“I can’t believe this. Betrayed by my own blood.”

Duke laughs as he follows Danny into his apartment, lightly patting Ellie’s back. “It’s always the smallest, cutest ones that do this.”

“Yeah? Do you work with a lot of kids or something? Used to being betrayed by the little ones?”

“I don’t work with kids per se,” Duke says, “But my foster family is a hot mess and the youngest of them likes to keep us all on our toes.”

“Family,” Danny says in a tired, fond tone.

“Family,” Duke agrees.

With his door open and Ellie calm, Danny’s ready to just lay face down on the floor for the rest of the day and not deal with anything else. He moves to take Ellie back, holding his arms out, and Duke tries to pass her over.

The key word being tries. 

Ellie tightens her grip and kicks at Danny. She refuses to be taken away from Duke, making him awkwardly try to pry her off his hoodie. Danny really hopes Duke doesn’t notice how she goes slightly intangible to make his hands fall through her arms and legs. It shouldn’t be noticeable, but it’s hard to focus on anything but a kid that clings to you, so Danny holds out for Duke’s goodwill and silence.

“As nice as it is to meet you, you need to go back to your… parent?” Danny nods when Duke looks at him in askance. “You need to go back to your parent. Okay? Come on, kid, he’s waiting for you.”

Ellie shakes her head, makes a frustrated noise, and then turns and reaches out a grabby hand towards Danny. 

She still refuses to be taken from Duke when Danny tries to pick her up again, so he settles with just letting her hold two of his fingers. 

“I’m so sorry about this,” he says to Duke, face burning. This is why he hasn’t been going out and being social since he moved in; Ellie is a handful even on the best days, and Danny doesn’t want someone to judge him as unfit to parent her and have her taken away.

Duke shakes his head, stepping closer. “It’s all good, man. I don’t mind. It’s not like I had any plans today. I’m already skipping my classes, might as well spend it with you two than sleep all day.”

“Are you sure? I’d be happy to invite you in, but I know Ellie can be a lot and not everyone wants to spend their day off with a baby.”

“I’m sure. Besides, I’d just be down the hall anyways. It’s no skin off my back, man.”

“Well,” Danny says, stepping to the side to give Duke full access to his open doorway, “Come on in, then.”

Ellie keeps them connected, one hand in Duke’s hoodie and the other holding Danny’s fingers, and though her cheeks are still red from how hard she had been crying, she’s calm now with her eyes shining with mischief. 

As the door closes behind them, Danny realizes that this is the first time someone he’s not related to has been inside his apartment. Not even Vlad has come in, always choosing to invite Danny and Ellie out for lunch instead. 

It should make him nervous, but Duke is calm and easy going and kind. 

He’s making silly faces at Ellie to make her laugh, completely at ease with her in his arms, as if he’s done this a thousand times before. 

Gotham is a second chance at life for Ellie. It’s a sacrifice for Danny, to be alone and without friends or family around. He’d been ready to give up everything for Ellie, to focus solely on raising her, but with Duke filling his apartment with laughter, he thinks that he can make a life here too.

All he needs to do is take that first step, reach his hand out, ask Duke to stick around.

He can do this.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

In Stars and Disco

(Disco side of the swap)