#hatter writes meta

[imadhatt3r]

There's a sort of small personal story arc happening in Koujaku's route that I haven't seen talked about much, and it is one relating to Aoba's struggles with his masculinity and his perception as a man by others.

This story arc heavily deals with cultural gender norms and expectations, and so I will be working with them; This doesn't reflect my personal view on gender roles and expectations in real life. This is also not for or against any headcanons regarding any character's gender- I have no opinions on them or problems with people seeing any character as trans.

Okay, without further ado:

The moment where Koujaku and Aoba canonically meet for the first time happens during their childhood. Aoba was bullied by other children for his long hair and for "looking like a girl". Koujaku stepped in to protect him, thinking that Aoba's a girl, and was allegedly suprised when Aoba turned out to be a boy, but his attitude towards Aoba never changed.

This event clearly had a big influence on Aoba, on how he views himself, Koujaku, and how he thinks Koujaku views him. When we first meet Koujaku in-game, he is seen defending himself from a woman's overly protective boyfriend and being a charmer to her in turn when she apologizes for his behavior. It's established that Koujaku has a lot of female admirers, and a bit later it's revealed that he attracts a lot of men too, but moreso as a kind of role model/aspirational figure- that's why benishigure exists in the first place.

Aoba is shown to be annoyed or downright kinda scared of Koujaku's fans; Of course, it makes sense- Aoba is shown to be a private person that dislikes attention, but I believe that there is a second layer to all that- jealousy.

Aoba identifies as a man in-game and asserts it multiple times. He is aware of his gender. Koujaku is shown to be both flirty and chivalrous towards women around him- he spends time with them, initiates physical contact, compliments them etc. Aoba is always annoyed whenever he sees Koujaku doing that, but his reasons aren't fully clear- it seems like he feels like Koujaku's behavior is, in some way, fake, or that he just dislikes PDA in general. Aoba isn't jealous of the female attention Koujaku gets- he doesn't want to be in his place, because, as we established, he doesn't like being the center of attention. This isn't a dick measuring contest with Aoba being salty that he's coming up short.

Aoba is jealous of the women. He's the one who wants Koujaku to flirt with him, touch him, be chivalrous to him, protect him, but he believes that it will never happen, because Koujaku only acts this way towards women. Men want to be him, women want to be with him, but Aoba is neither; He's not a man who wants to be him, nor is he a woman who wants to be with him- there's not a place he can comfortably occupy, in his mind.

Mind you, I don't believe that he is aware of his feelings- hence his clusterfuck of an attempt to make Koujaku's flirting with women a bad thing. It's not coherent, it doesn't really make any internal sense, because Aoba has no idea he's even trying to lead himself away from something.

In the good ending, Koujaku briefly mentions that he thinks Aoba sleeps in so much because he wants to get his attention, and I can 100% see it as being true- Aoba doesn't know how to get Koujaku to treat him like he does women around him, so he chooses more covert ways to get that desired attention and care.

I also see Aoba's haircut to be symbolic/meaningful of his relation to his masculinity being percieved by others. Aoba's hair was the reason why he and Koujaku met as kids and established their friendship and later relationship. When they were cut, Aoba started to look more conventionally "masculine", and yet the haircut is also, in a way, representative of the beginning of his and Koujaku's relationship. It's because Koujaku doesn't care that Aoba is a man- hell, in the CD drama, he even admits that he's straight up attracted to Aoba's masculinity. If Koujaku liked Aoba BECAUSE he saw him as female-like, wouldn't he want to keep his hair long/feminine?

This is kinda explored in various extra material like the summer side story and valentine's day story- Aoba seems to believe that while Koujaku is with him out of love/attraction, he's being treated more as a novelty, a "girl-boy" that's going to be replaced by an "actual woman" one day. He's afraid that the chocolates he made for Koujaku for valentine's day will be seen as "gross", and he expects to see a mountain of chocolate given to Koujaku by women when he comes to his apartment. In the summer story, he expects Koujaku to deny their relationship when they're being harassed by drunk benishigure, and that he will be left behind when Koujaku is approached by female admirers. This never happens- Koujaku actually reassures Aoba that he's never going anywhere, and that Aoba has nothing to worry about. This is framed as Aoba being simply jealous, but I think that there is enough evidence to imply that his gender has a lot to do with it. We don’t know how would he react if Koujaku was approached by a man, but it's mentioned multiple times that it's seeing and thinking of Koujaku being surrounded by women gets Aoba down especially hard.

I feel like it's also important to look into the bad ending for Koujaku's route too, because if you look at it through that lense, you can see some interesting stuff. First and foremost, Shiroba is dressed in a sexualized version of the miko garb (miko are shinto shrine maidens, and they are exclusively women) that includes stockings, and his hair is just as long, if not longer, than Aoba's. He also has red tassels in his hair, right behind his ears, which sort of look like earrings. In short, it would almost appear like Shiroba is trying to look more "feminine" in order to appeal more to the way he percieved Koujaku's tastes- after all, Shiroba/Desire is all of Aoba's impulses, thoughts, and desires taken to the extreme. Aoba thought that Koujaku likes women and femininity, so Shiroba WILL make himself look as feminine as he can to make Koujaku like him more.

There's also the fact that, compared to their good end sex scene, Shiroba is much more... Placid. In the good end, Aoba speaks, he laughs, he laughs AT Koujaku, he tries to turn his head away but agrees to look at Koujaku in the end; He is an active participant who is willing to laugh at his partner (in a way) and make demands. In contrast, Shiroba mostly goes with what Koujaku wants to do; He participates to a degree, sure, but he allows Koujaku to bite him, lick his blood, and fuck him pretty violently without any sort of resistance. This might be a stretch, but it can be seen as Shiroba trying to play a more "feminine" role- which means being passive, allowing your (male) partner to do whatever he wants to do with you (even when it's painful or uncomfortable), and let him essentially use you as a receptacle of his emotions and bodily fluids.

This is a very narrow understand of conventional gender roles, but given that Shiroba is a being of extremes, it makes sense for him to see his own gender and dynamic with Koujaku as that simple and two-dimensional. This whole ending is all about misunderstood intentions/desires, so Shiroba is doing all he can to embody the most extreme conventional femininity in an attempt to appeal to Koujaku, while not having a clue that Koujaku was actually attracted to Aoba's masculinity.

The funniest part of it all is that Koujaku is actually a pretty feminine man himself; His very design blends masculine and feminine elements, which @asarigg points it out in her excellent essay on Koujaku, (among plenty other things), and the way he acts mixes masculinity and femininity too. However, Aoba either doesn't see it, or he treats Koujaku as a "special case"; It's probably the most clear in the scene in the CD drama where Aoba says that hairpins "usually" look bad on men (after Koujaku asked him if he'd like to wear one), but that Koujaku makes it work. The whole plotline/emotional core of this route centers on Aoba relying on his simplified image of Koujaku when it comes to how he thinks about him, only to be proven dead wrong and forced to confront how multi-layered of a person Koujaku is- to reject the image he made of him in his head as a child and make a new, more nuanced one as an adult.

When Aoba was a kid, he saw Koujaku as his hero, someone who protected him, watched over him; He was kind of his masculine ideal, someone he wanted to be when he'll be older. Now that they're adults, Aoba still sees Koujaku as someone hyper-masculine, whose feminine traits and behaviors are glossed over because Koujaku is "allowed to" be feminine a bit. The sad thing is that a lot of Koujaku's masculinity is kind of a ruse that was taken on as a defense mechanic, learned back when Koujaku was living in an abusive household, when he was a victim of abuse, saw abuse inflicted onto his mother, and was possibly forced to perform violence to some degree as means of "education" (things like learning to fight hand-to-hand or swordfighting).

Koujaku can fight because he tried to fight his abusive father and was trained to kill in the future, once he takes over the criminal empire. He flirts with women to fill the void he feels due to his rock bottom self-esteem and because he doesn't want to see women sad or mistreated after what he saw his mother go through. Koujaku's persona is carefully build and maintained, because all masculinity (or gender in general) is performed- this is what people around him expected him to be, that's what he was taught to be, and so he performs, even if it twists him up inside (we know he bottles up any negative emotions and doesn't share his struggles and trauma with anyone, which is also a part of toxic masculinity). It also seems like he's often out drinking with someone and he's a smoker- that's more of a theory, but people often find brief respite from their stress/unadressed emotions in substances, and while people of all genders do it, there seems to be a bigger social acceptance for men to indulge in order to "deal" with their problems and avoid showing "weakness" for just a bit longer.

The good thing is that Koujaku seems quite comfortable in his femininity. He loves his (stereotypically feminine) job, he remains kind and gentle to those who need it, he respects women around him and treats them well (even if that relationship is far from ideal of course), he's always considerate and caring towards Aoba, etc. It's interesting that despite liking and being attracted to Aoba's masculinity, he encourages him to branch out and seemingly embrace his own femininity more (he tells him he'd look nice in a hairpin, or that he'd love him no matter how he'd look like). I wonder if Koujaku found some kind of respite in his femininity back when he lived in his father's house and was potentially held to strict masculine gender roles enforced through violence.

It feels like one of these things that Aoba needs time to process and accept; In a couple years, he'll be doing deliveries with the most complex braid with flamboyant decorations and the most bitching eyeliner ever performed on Japanese soil.

[clockwayswrites]

Bird Brained, or something. Part 22

masterpost NGL this part might be really rough. This migraine is killing my, but I wanted to get it written.

“Just stay behind us, Mr. Wayne,” Maria Ramirez ordered.

Bruce nodded as he paced. Facts about her ran through his head without his bidding. Ex Air Force. Bruce had hired her after she left, angry and with an honorable discharge the Air Force hoped would keep her quiet while the man who assaulted her got a pension. She was a little hot headed, took shit from no one, and was impressively competent.

If she continued this way, she’d be Bruce’s choice for the next head of security.

He still didn’t want to listen to her.

His kids were at the end of that stairwell along with the Mad Hatter and several of the man’s goons. Bruce was confident in Robin and Red Robin’s abilities to protect themselves from the threat, but this was different. This was Damian and Tim.

Robin might be magic, but the child in the suit was just a child. And children could die.

Bruce shook his arms out to try and get rid of the nerves. He could afford the motion as Bruce Wayne where he couldn’t as Batman.

As Batman he could have been at the front of pack and already through the door.

Bruce measured his breathing, forcing it to slow.

Ramirez held up a fist. The rest of the security force readied themselves.

One—

Two—

Three—

They breached the door with shouts of ‘hands in the air’ and ‘get down on the ground’.

“I work here! Doctor Daniel Fenton, R&D,” Danny’s voice called out.

“Get on the ground, hands behind your head slowly,” Ramirez ordered.

Bruce burst out of the stairwell. “I can vouch for—” Wings. Danny had wings. He was still human, human enough, but he had inky black wings that were spread wide along with his raised hands. “—Dr. Fenton.”

Ramirez glanced at Bruce, but kept her tranq gun trained on Danny. “Sir?”

“I can vouch for Dr. Fenton, he’s a friend of the family,” Bruce said more evenly as he took in the rest of the scene.

There was a remarkable lack of blood for the bodies scattered across the small space. Some were unconscious while others clutched their heads. The floor was scattered with crushed mind control devices and the occasional feather. The Mad Hatter was as far back in the elevator as possible, mumbling about ravens and writing desks. Danny stood in front of the door to the safe room. His spread wings assured no one got past him. The outside of Danny’s wings were white, Bruce realized. It was like they were inverted from the larger bird form.

“Tim and Damian are in the safe room,” Danny said quickly, breaking through Bruce’s thoughts. “They’re not hurt.”

Bruce’s shoulders slumped. “Thank you.” He ran his hands over his face and sucked in a purposefully even breath. Then he dropped his hands and looked at the security squad. “Dr. Fenton’s meta status is a personal mater not to be discussed, am I clear?”

There was a course of ‘yes sir’ from security and a soft, relieved, ‘thank you’ from Danny. Bruce nodded and strode towards the safe room. He snagged Danny by the wrist as he passed and pulled the stunned man along with him.

“Bruce?”

“Thank you,” Bruce said again as he started the biometric scans for the safe room. His thumb ran rhythmically over the back of Danny’s hand. The skin there was soft, like the down feathers of a chick. “Thank you for protecting my boys.”

“Of course, I always will,” Danny said, sounding completely serious, though Bruce could feel Danny’s hand trembling in his own.

The vault like door hissed as the air seal released and it started to open. Bruce knew that Danny said that the boys were fine, but as soon as the door was open enough, Bruce pulled Danny into the room and the semblance of privacy that it offered.

“Are you alright? Are you both alright?” Bruce asked. He rested his hand on Tim’s cheek while he looked to Damian, who was standing against the side wall, arms angrily crossed.

“No one even laid a hand on us or got close,” Tim said. “Danny, Dr. Fenton, made sure of that.”

“Which was completely stupid,” Damian bit out, his words harsh and angry and hurt.

“Damian,” Danny tried.

“No! It was stupid! You willing deprived yourself of allies! If you insisted on us being in the safe room then you should have been in it also!”

Danny’s wings drooped. “Damian, honey, this… this form of mine is still new. I didn’t want to risk—”

“You said you wouldn’t hurt us.”

“I would never, but there’s still things that could go wrong—”

“Shut up!”

Danny flinched back at the should, wings pulled tight against his body. Then he took a carefully measured breath and made himself relax. The wings opened up again a little and, with clear uncertainty, Danny opened his arms.

With all the speed of his training, Damian dashed forward. He rammed into Danny hard and wrapped his arms around Danny, clutching him tightly. Danny leaned down a little. His wings came forward to wrap protectively around Bruce’s youngest.

“You are an idiot,” Damian said harshly into Danny’s sweater.

“Some times,” Danny agreed, “but it’s alright. We’re all safe. It’s alright, little chickadee.”

[desultory-novice]

Have you ever just looked at a unimportant character no one cares about, and you just go

“They could have so much depth”

- the necrodeus anon

...I've been passively trying to come up with a compelling backstory for Brobo of all characters so yeah, I do...

Jokes aside (though I was being serious about Brobo!) I sympathize, Necrodeus fan! Some people might notice that I don't ever seem to draw the Dream Team as a whole? Or even all that much indidivually.

It's not because I don't love them. In contrast, I love them all sooooo much! But I also know that as a fan-artist (1) I don't NEED to do anything for them. They're so important to the, err, "brand" that I'm going to get my daily dosage of Kirby and others being cute by checking Twitter for merch announcements!

King Dedede, who is not as well loved by merch as the other three, gets a lot of fan-made content exploring his backstory, relationships, traumas etc, so I'm feasting on his majesty that way! (...I-is that phrasing too weird?)

--

It might seem weird to position myself like I'm some champion of giving minor characters depth when I draw a lot of Magolor and Marx, characters who are also showered in love and attention. But as much as I love jester boy, I know that for a variety of reasons, Marx is still in the exact same tier of cameo character as Daroach is, regardless of the difference in merch-love and fan content for the two. Neither of them are going to top the list for "characters to make important in the next Kirby game." That's just facts.

That's why, instead of producing a whole bunch of Meta Knight content, even though I do have ideas for him, I lean towards characters who were important once and are likely never to be important again. (The exception is Magolor, who has been made so important lately, he's likely to stay a reoccurring character. My excuse there is just that I'm biased. (2) Though even I start to feel his spread too much lately? He's trended on JP Twitter twice this last month and I don't even think it was for anything special.)

I LOVE Elfy but I didn't have much for them in the wake of FL's release because Elfy was everywhere I turned. A year later the fire has died down somewhat and I'm ready to write and draw more about Elfy in a relatively collected way. It's weird but sometimes hot news characters can turn into unimportant characters?!

I wasn't here for this, but Daroach was an important figure in two games, back to back! Imagine at that point, he must have seemed like frickin' Magolor to people! Isn't that wild? And the Animal Friends too! They WERE Kirby's friends, allies, family, supporting cast! They were Kirby's everything! ...Fast forward to the years between 64 and Star Allies and it's like... who?

And even then, trying to "spread the love around" is something I have to make a conscious effort to do, and I still know I'm WAY lacking in this department! I'm sorry, my other precious blorbos! Someday I will give you all each the visual masterpiece you are deserving of!

--

A thought struck me, as I watched a longplay of Kirby's Pinball, Kirby's Blockball and Kirby's Dream Course (three games I didn't play because even as a Kirby fan, young Dess avoided anything that reminded me of "sports.") that there are more "tiers" of Kirby characters than I typically think of!

If you love even the non-Dedede and non-Magolor last bosses or if you love the Dream Friends, you're still eating good. Because in the early games, our "supporting cast" to develop were things like the Poppy Bros, Squishy, Broom Hatter, and Kabu!

And I LIKE those guys! I like the Helpers! I like Wheelie and I like Bonkers! I mean, Chilly, right?! We all love Chilly! These guys were actually treated as kinda important in the older games! (The older manga gave focus to them too.) They didn't have compelling narratives out of the box, but they were staples in Kirby's world!

Have I ever drawn something for them? Have I ever stopped to think up a story about Simirror or Gim...? I'm not trying to guilt anyone or myself. After all, they really don't have compelling narratives, and I think you'd have to do some serious stretching to come up with one. (It might be a little easier for Gigant Edge and Bonkers and Mr. Frosty since they all spent time in the Forgotten Land...)

--

I think what I'm getting at is that we, who love characters who were important, if only for a single game, are kind of blessed to have that experience. Even if it's only for the length of the Milky Way Wishes sub-game or Mass Attack's main campaign. Our favorites were the shining stars with their own arc: triumphant rise and downfall.

So of course we want to plumb their depths! We got attached! And we're still better off than the Brobo fans or... dare I say it... the GRYLL FANS who dearly love a tough as nails last boss with a great design and... that's it...? We Gryll fans (because I am one of them) have pretty much had to make up their character whole cloth.

(On that note, even Gryll being non-binary is not a 100% canon thing. Gryll's just a character who we know so little about, even their gender is "unknown." There are artists all over the world who have settled on either a strictly fem or strictly masc interpretation for our onion witch. Though I prefer enby Gryll and am actually pretty confident that should they make a future appearance, the official localization will go that way themselves.)

For a long time, what informed Gryll's character was "Gryll introduces themselves with the same line that Marx does. Marx Soul and Drawcia Soul share the same attacks. All three use magic. Maybe these three who have never interacted know each other?!" That is, as far as I'm aware, the "origin" of the semi-popular HC that Marx and Gryll are friends/rivals/pseudo-siblings and both of them know/respect/fear Drawcia.

When Magolor came along and hinted he knew Marx, suddenly that lent some credence to all the magic-users knowing each other. Then Taranza came in with some weird hints of his own about knowing Magolor, and then Drawcia started to get pushed out because she was a little bit less "fun" seeming than the others...?

But I want to highlight that this is all made up!!

And I think it was made up because of people like us. People who still hold fondness for the characters that sparked their imagination and, because they were never likely to appear again, started making connections between other benchwarmers.

:cough: currently in the middle of a lengthy comic connecting Adeleine and Dark Matter Swordsman :cough:

--

I'm not going to say that we "keep the fandom going" or are somehow more important than people who just draw gorgeous fanart of Kirby. Everyone please keep doing that, btw! (Although it's funny that prolific Kirby fanart master, Suyasuyabi, will often draw these bottom-tier no-personality characters alongside Kirby. We don't get to see what motivates Chip or Blipper but we do get gorgeous visuals of them just living their lives) But our weird little hyperfixations are valuable and do have a purpose!

Still, if we want depth for the non-tier 0 characters, we will need to act on it. We can be helped along by inspiration from other people via weird, off-hand ideas that will make you think "Oh my god, wait what?! Oh, that's PERFECT!"(2) but your brain is going to be the one that makes the most fulfilling connections to you. Thus, my "compelling Brobo backstory" quest.

(I'm currently thinking he could be made by King Dedede? His majesty has a way with robots, after all. Or DOES he? What if there's a person or a place or a Weapon Shop Waddle Dee or Planet Mecheye that his majesty goes to to make his golf robots, blockball robots, and rocket hammer??)

-

Have I mentioned this about myself? As everyone knows by now, I'm one of the oldies. Not old as in I've been in the fandom forever. I've only been here for like, a year or two? But I am physically older than the rest of the people I know here, at least. But I only started drawing a few months before officially joining the fandom. (I did write fanfic when I was much younger but I hate all of it. Whee!)

Part of the reason I started drawing at my age was when it finally hit me that I would have these utterly brilliant ideas for cool things! "Oh my gosh, this would be SO perfect for X!" And I would patiently wait for someone to make this same connection and draw or write something for it that I could then love...!

:insert crickets chirping:

And...yeah... This could basically summarize my participation in my last fandom. Now, I actually wrote a lot of essays/answereds some ask questions. I didn't just sit quietly in the corner. But no matter how much I emphasized "This is a really cool thing more people should do something with!!" no one, outside of my one fandom friend, ever did.

I began to despair that maybe no talented artist/writer would ever come along and wave their magic brush/magic pen and fill me up with serotonin in accordance with my dreams. And it's a good thing I realized that because, oops, that's actually kind of true?!

Anyway, not to hammer on Dess's Philosopy of Fandom: that you should make the works you most want to see, regardless of how poor a job you do at the beginning but... yeah, actually. That.

Anyway, keep giving depth to characters! In whatever form you can!

I want to say once more to everyone who follows me and likes my art that I learned all this in like... two years. It just takes obsession :cough: dedication. But yeah, also obsession.

Also insomnia and sacrificing your free time to devouring every piece of beautiful art you come across and dissecting it lovingly. You can do the same with fiction, if you lean more towards writing. Not that I am recommending anyone pick up my regemin...

...Regemen? Regimin? RrrghI JUST looked up this word the other day. How could I have forgotten how to spell it so quickly?!

Aha! It's "Regimen."

...Wow. That's not how I pronounce it at all.

--

--

(1) Note that I seemed to talk a lot about drawing fan art up above, because to me, that IS giving them depth. When you draw a character participating in a hobby, enjoying a certain food, or talking with another character, you are giving them depth! You're rounding them out and making them feel whole!

(2) Another reason I draw a lot of Magolor is that I follow a bunch of obsessive Magolor fans on twitter who seem to do almost nothing but speculate on things that could have happened to Magolor all day(?) Just the other day, someone wrote something like "What if Magolor didn't immediately threaten to take over Popstar in front of Kirby et al? What if he just calmly took over Halcandra on his own and then realized too late that he couldn't take off the crown?"

I found that idea so compelling that five minutes later, I was scribbling this script down...

So, yeah. I want to apologize because for all of my nattering up there, it really isn't all that fair across the board when you like an unloved, unimportant character because the popular characters ALSO get talked about more, which leads to more sparks of inspiration and opportunities to explore ideas and plumb their depths. And that does suck. It just does. It can drain the inspiration you have to work on growing your favorites and make you feel alone and unloved yourself until the love you once felt for your beloved fictional muse is more like a heart-shaped hole in your chest...

...On the bright side, sometimes you can use another character's popularity to grow the less important characters too! I saw another gorgeous and scary comic (in JP) the other day about Magolor and the Master Crown that treated Dark Nebula as a cruel, dangerous, highly intelligent and threatening rival to both of them!! How awesome was that?!

So yeah, try riding the coattails of popular characters to make your favorite blorbo more interesting! Merry Magoland as much as confirms that Magolor has interacted with a stunning amount of Kirby characters. Use the squishsy wizard egg's popularity for your own benefit! (You could argue that's what I do with Marx all the time! Use Magolor's constant appearances to loop Marx into his activities and keep Marx relevant/give him stuff to do...!)

So, what WOULD the fandom's darling think of X canon character we don't see enough of? Or King Dedede. Or Meta Knight. Make connections between the characters that everyone is devouring up content for and draw people's attention that way!

--

This is a bit of a silly thing but... my Dark Matter + Adeleine comic-in-progress? The actual base comic did really CRAZY numbers! To the point that it's not even a month old and it's almost as popular as my most popular post! (That being my "moon's haunted" meme I drew when Forgotten Land came out - and oh.my.god it looks so bad?! I want to redraw it just to wipe off the shame... I feel that way about a couple of my more popular pieces tbh...)

Legitimately one of the reasons it became so popular initially was because it featured King Dedede in a sympathetic role. So it got boosted by certain Dedede fans and, not to diminish my own talent, spread way further than it would have on my art/storytelling abilities alone! (To which I'm thankful. And also, I love Dedede myself and love seeing him in serious roles, so it all worked out.)

Anyway, I hope that proved entertaining and maybe a little hopeful?

[justlookatthosesausages]

How would you interpret a Frozen/Wonderland AU?

You mean Alice In Wonderland? based on what? the book? the Disney animated movie? Tim Burton's movie? the video games? jgklfdhjfds I'm gonna take a random guess and think it's Wonderland in general. boy that's an odd world to work with.

the lore of Wonderland is nuts in general so everything just drives Frohana mad when they accidentally land in it. (I picture them to walk through in a similar way to when they discovered the Enchanted Forest). Elsa is in awe at everything but is one inch away from going crazy because nothing makes sense there, not only do gravity and physics laws go wrong, her magic also goes awry. When she sprays ice the snowflakes are liquid dust and they seem to mock her and she hates it lol. Anna loves it at every step, it's an insane world that vibes positivity but she admits that her head hurts with all the mental puzzles. Kristoff has to physically restrain her and Olaf to eat and drink everything they put their hands on because in Wonderland it has CONSEQUENCES and him and Elsa don't want to deal with a giant Olaf and a small Anna (who tripped on every tree root) like they did on day one.

Queen Anna confronting the Queen of Hearts in an amazing showdown like, both politically and in fight when the army of cards is unleashed on Anna and she insists on fighting all of them

OMG ANNA WIELDING THE VORPAL SWORD AND SLAYING THE JABBERWOCKY (she kills it within three days there. the Knave completely loses it)

Elsa being genuinely admirative of the Mad Hatter's work and dedication and creativity and she's heartbroken when she realizes what drove him mad and how it affects his talent (tons of conversations about fabric between them)

Sven and the Cheshire Cat keeps giving each other looks like they know they're in a crossover and they keep doing meta stuff like looking at a non existent camera as if they're on The Office. Kristoff keeps frantically looking around for it.

They're all mad there 🤣

Send me a Frozen AU and I'll write 5 headcanons about it!

[anddreadful]

I'm curious, I really like all your dnd characters, and I was wondering how you come up with them! Do you write all your own backstory and motivations?

thank you!! I adore inflicting my blorbos on people online and i’m always thrilled to hear that they enjoy it. the short answer is yes— I like to leave gaps in my backstory for my DMs to exploit, and obviously those DMs are running the overall story, but my PCs (player characters) are all original characters of mine, and their assorted bullshit is entirely up to me. (in case it’s unclear, that only applies to my PCs, Teddy and Aster being the ones I mostly talk about On Here. Clay, Borakov, Strahd, etc are all created and run by friends who are generous enough to occasionally let me gnaw on their characters like chew toys).

"How I come up with them" varies a lot! One of my PCs, Tailor, is a repurposed side character from an old book I was writing (which was itself inspired by Alice in Wonderland -- he was the Mad Hatter character). With my storm sorcerer Marin, I knew I wanted to do an Ocean Aesthetic, so I gave her a mysterious shipwrecked-with-amnesia backstory and a pirate found family. Teddy's backstory is lightly plagiarized from Alina's in Shadow & Bone, and Aster's antiquities expert background and general archetype is inspired by Evelyn in the Mummy. Like coming up with any character, it's just a game of picking one cool thing and then scaffolding out other elements that interest you and complement the core idea.

And what's great is that character creation is just coming up with a STARTING PLACE. A PC's Whole Deal emerges over time, a combination of discovery and deliberate choice that's really fun to craft.

These days, I try to keep my backstories to a tight 2-3 paragraphs with 1-3 meaningful NPCs. I've done the long convoluted backstory thing with Tailor, and it turned out very cool -- my DM knocked it out of the park incorporating everything -- but I wouldn't do it again. Aster, my most recent character, has probably the most minimal backstory I've ever done. I wanted to do something simple and strong, do it well, and be free from the traditional backstory resolution D&D arc in favor of whatever else the campaign is going to throw at her.

I love that you mention motive! Puzzling out what my characters want and feel as the story progresses is sooooo fun for me. Inbetween sessions I try to look at what's happened in game lately and ask what it changes for my character, logistically or emotionally, and how I can incorporate that moving forward. And this has increasing returns! Over time, asking myself a lot of small questions about how I want them to react, why they might do that or feel that way, and then playing that out -- taking into account all the improv RP decisions that happen along the way!! -- builds up to a strong sense of who they are. And that becomes REALLY helpful when dramatic narrative choices have to be made in-game.

This is a big part of all the fic and meta I write -- it's an exercise in bringing into alignment what's happening in game and my conception of who these characters ARE in a detailed, specific way. Because the better I can reconcile them, the more they'll feed each other and make each other richer and more interesting, and the easier and better my realtime RP will be. Of course, this is an optional thing I do for funsies, and it doesn’t pay to overthink it -- this stuff is organic and always evolving, and we’re here to have fun at the table first and foremost. BUT it’s super rewarding for me and has become a huge part of why I enjoy the game so much.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Thursday, March 23

WILLOW: Let the spell be ended. XANDER: You gotta be kidding. "Let the spell be ended," that's not gonna work-- OH! ANYA: I liked it the other way. Put him back.

~~The Replacement~~

The Sunnydale Herald is looking for at least one new editor. Contributing to the Herald is a great way to get your Buffy on! Find out more here.

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Enduring (Buffy/Angel, PG) by badly_knitted

a buried and a burning flame (Buffy/Spike, E) by untiljanuary

Bored (WIllow, NR) by heckate

Sunlight Only (Buffy/Spike, T) by wickedrum

[Chaptered Fiction]

Echoes of Beljoxa, Chapter 42 (Spike/Buffy, 18+) by myrabeth

Talkative Minds, Chapter 12 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Jws1993

I Violently Dislike You, Chapter 15 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by scratchmeout

something wretched, something precious, Chapter 15 (Spike/Buffy, R) by LittleTayy

Found Family Ties, Chapter 23 (Spike/Buffy, G) by Julikobold

We Are Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On, Chapter 23 (Spike/Buffy, R) by VeroNyxK84

30 Days of Spuffy, Chapter 23 (Spike/Buffy, R) by TheSunnySlayer

Now That I Saw You, Chapter 23 (Spike/Buffy, NC-17) by scratchmeout

Fire Starter, Chapter 22 (Spike/Buffy, NC-17) by Teuntje

Behind Blue Eyes, Chapter 22 (Spike/Buffy, PG) by Passion4Spike

Make Me Stay, Chapter 23 (Spike/Buffy, NC-17) by Grief Counseling

Belonging, Chapter 19 (Spike/Buffy, NC-17) by honeygirl51885

Jigsaw, Chapter 23 (Spike/Buffy, R) by Dusty

Mad Hatter - My Cuppa Tea, Chapter 23 (Spike/Buffy, NC-17) by MissLuci

March Drabbles, Chapter 20 (Spike/Buffy, R) by Slaymesoftly

[Images, Audio & Video]

After Hours Chronicles - Artwork Collection, Chapter 3 by VeroNyxK84

Artwork:thinkin bout mr gordo by sundayroadkill

Gifset:Giles in Every Episode, S1:E02 - The Harvest (Part 6) by thecrazyknight

Video: EPIC DEEP DIVE walkthrough of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Tarot by Lisa Papez

[Reviews & Recaps]

SPIDER FREAK OUT| Buffy the Vampire Slayer 3x19 "Choices" | The Normies Group Reaction! by The Normies

*BUFFYS THE VILLAIN?* Buffy the Vampire Slayer S4 Ep 15 "This Year's Girl" Reaction FIRST TIME WATCH by Thor Reacts

Buffy Review - 4x15 This Year's Girl | Reverse Angle by Reverse Angle

Wild at Heart: Buffy The Vampire Slayer 4x06 Reaction - Dakara by Dakara

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER - SEASON 5 EPISODE 14 CRUSH (2000) REACTION VIDEO! FIRST TIME WATCHING! by Reel Reviews With Jen!

WHEN SHE WAS BAD. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Season 2 Episode 1 review by Here's Rodders Reviews

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Season 2 Episode 2 review. by Here's Rodders Reviews

[Fandom Discussions]

Unpopular Opinion Ask- Fred dislike by coraniaid

Unpopular Opinion Ask- Bad Eggs is a good episode by coraniaid

Giles & parenthood meta ask by cauldronofmorning and anonymous

Faith and Season 7 by BlackWitchWicca and Bop

Fred and Spike by nightshade and Miss Muffet

The show reaches it's peak when Dawn shows up, like it or not. The writing, plot, character development, and themes all go crazy hard once season 5 begins. by multiple authors

Angel in buffy season 2-3 by multiple authors

You know, Kennedy has a ton of confidence for someone who's killed less vampires than Dawn. by multiple authors

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

PUBLICATION: How Buffy's James Marsters Made Sure Spike Wasn't Killed Off Right Away via ScreenRant

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[mask131]

All above, and there's even more - I tried to explain before how the Alice books are, yes, part of the "nonsense" genre, but are definitively NOT that nonsensical, and that they are in fact perfectly logical when you actually HAVE the references. When you know all the nursery rhymes and figures of speech Carrol borrowed from - the whole Queen of Heart segment makes no sense if you don't know the original nursery rhyme about the theft of her tarts ; and the March Hare and Mad Hatter episode is more delightful when you know the expressions they come from. When you actually get the wordplays everything is built upon - this has always been the most difficult part of the translators, trying to convey for example the wordplays of the Looking-Glass insects which only really work in English. When you also get the general context - if you choose to ignore that "Alice Through the Looking-Glass" is a literal chess game, following the rules of chess, then you are losing a lot.

Yes, the lands Alice visits are nonsensical and absurdity and madness - but only in appearance, because meta-fictional wise, cultural reference-wise, and from a writing/worldbuilding point of view, there are actually specific recurring motifs and strong "untold rules" that do make these lands "feel" in a specific way.

Hot Take: Wonderland has some kind of internal logic and isn't complete random nonsense. And the Alice books have themes.

First, Wonderland's internal logic is based on five things:

Broken sillogisms: premises based on absolutes that lead to absurd conclusions

Extreme literal interpretations of figures of speech, songs, popular names of things, nursery rhymes, and metaphors, along with appearances of characters from said expressions, songs, and rhymes

Board or card games rules extended to the real world

Parodies of popular Victorian customs

Physical forms of logic paradoxes

So much Wonderland-inspired works just add any colorful nonsense, and end up not feeling like Carrol's Wonderland.

Carrol's Wonderland is a mixture between logical paradoxes, parodies, and extreme literal interpretations of sayings, with a dash of old-school fairy tale aesthetic thrown into the mix. That's the core of the idea.

And the themes of the Alice books are pretty obvious.

They open with short poems saluting nostalgic memories of summers gonna bye and end with the bittersweet realization of childhood's end.

They are very thin themes, but both Alice books end with the realization that no matter how cruel and mean the Wonderlandians are with Alice, they still represent wonder, whimsy, and imagination, and there's this dreadful sense that as Alice grows older, this delightful and dreadful insanity will be taken away from her.

@princesssarisa @ariel-seagull-wings @mask131

[thatfoolsophie]

it was big brain hours in the shower yesterday, and I was thinking about the poem curse from Howl’s Moving Castle, and I have a harebrained and fascinating theory: the curse the Witch places on Howl applies equally to Sophie. A closer look:

Go and catch a falling star Get with child a mandrake root Line one is fulfilled pre-canon when Howl catches Calcifer. Line two is fulfilled when Sophie (accidentally) coaxes a bloom from a mandrake root. Note that: it’s not Howl that gets with child the mandrake root-- it’s a direct result of Sophie’s actions. And although Sophie chases a falling star with Michael across a marsh, she doesn’t catch it-- except, I realized, isn’t the big finale of the book her kneeling over Howl, cupping a fallen star in her hands, breaking his contract and returning his heart? INTERESTING. Let’s keep going!

Tell me where all past years are, Or who cleft the devil’s foot, Here we have an either/or statement, suggesting that only one of the conditions has to be fulfilled. Howl claims to know where all past years are and who cleft the devil’s foot, but Sophie only learns one-- where all his past years are, which he shows her by taking her to Wales, revealing the land of his childhood and giving her insight into his past.

Teach me to hear the mermaids singing, Or to keep off envy’s stinging Another either/or, and once again Sophie only learns one. During Howl’s fight over Porthaven with the Witch of the Waste, Sophie hears mermaids for the first time. (I think she even says that before living in the castle she had never seen the sea bc Market Chipping is landlocked-- so it’s doubly a result of her association with Howl that this line comes true). Sophie does NOT learn to “keep off envy’s stinging”-- she never recognizes her emotions towards Miss Angorian as envy, and tries with limited success to treat her fairly, but it’s pretty clear she’s jealous.

And find What wind Serves to advance an honest mind Sophie quickly notices that Howl is forced to honesty as he raises a wind to get them back from the castle to confront Miss Angorian, but she too is unusually honest with him. She admits to Howl that Miss Angorian has been visiting, that she touched the guitar, and that she told Calcifer not to tell Howl about the visits, before shouting the doubt that has held her back the whole time-- “I’m the eldest! I’m a failure!” (to which Howl shouts “Garbage! You just never stop to think!”) The wind they find is a moment of honesty for both Howl and Sophie.

(Note: while technically a three-stanza poem, only the first two stanzas appear in the book, and the third stanza does not appear to be part of the curse, nor does it apply especially well to Howl or Sophie. Carrying on to stanza 2!)

If thou be’st born to strange sights Things invisible to see “Strange sights” and “things invisible to see” seem to refer to magic, and Sophie proves to have an instinctive grasp of magic that contrasts with Howl (and Michael’s) more academic approach. Additionally, unlike Howl, Sophie is from Ingary and may even have a genetic predisposition towards magic, based on the fact that both of her sisters are able to work magic. She’s undoubtedly born to magic-- and strange sights in general (yes I’m thinking about the green slime).

Ride ten thousand days and nights Till age snow white hairs on thee, !!!! this was about where I started getting really excited about the theory because it fits Sophie so well. Of all the characters, who gets thrown forward decades until she’s old and white-haired?? Sophie!

Thou, when thou return’st wilt tell me, All strange wonders that befell thee, If we’re interpreting the last line as a journey to old age rather than a journey that takes a long time, Sophie’s return would be her transformation back into her young self. Interpreting “strange wonders” to mean magic again, this would refer to Sophie returning from old age with WAY more adventures and magical experience than she had before the Witch of the Waste turned her old.

And swear, No where Lives a woman true and fair. This is where the witch’s curse breaks down, for Howl AND Sophie. Howl does find a woman “true and fair”-- Sophie is ride-or-die as well as extremely pretty, as corroborated by Howl, Abdullah, and Charmain at various points. But Sophie also finds a woman true and fair: herself. When she “returns” from old age she has an understanding and acceptance of herself that she didn’t have before. As explained in this excellent meta by @mystery-ink, Sophie’s (unknowing) perpetuation of her old age disguise is both self-defense and self-denial. She stays old to be safe from heartless Howl, but once she realizes he isn’t wicked she still clings to it to be safe from soft-hearted Howl-- the idea of him winning her heart scares her as much as the idea of him eating it! By remaining old, she’s able to avoid confronting her feelings for him, which we see in Ch. 19: “Too late!” she muttered as she marched. “What nonsense! Howl’s not only heartless, he’s impossible! Besides,” she added. “I am an old woman.” When, after the honest wind, she allows herself to return to her young self, she proves herself to be fair and simultaneously, finally, is true to herself.

Do I think Diana Wynne Jones did all this on purpose? I have no freaking idea! From a narrative perspective, Sophie needed to be involved in several of the events (mandrake root, mermaids, honest wind) just so the reader was aware they happened. But magic is a tricky and open-ended thing in Wynne Jones’ books, and it seems very much in the spirit of the story to reinterpret and reimagine the possibilities of this spell outside its original meaning. Whether it was on purpose or not, it shows how closely linked Howl and Sophie’s arcs are and has given me Many Thoughts about how she plays into the narrative foil situation Howl and the Witch of the Waste have going.

Cheers for reading this far, and feel free to reply with your thoughts!

[cookinguptales]

your meta is next level good! you give this way more thought than the writers. tbh i don't think any of the writers thought things through this much. they threw a bunch of comedy tropes at the wall on their lunch break and say 'yeah that'll do. whatever' hit print and sent it to the producers. i'm also 100% behind you on your 'the wedding and freddie episodes were retconned in editing' conspiracy. neither of those episodes made SENSE with the other episodes. like... what happened??? what went on?? the scenes with the djinn where he gives extra wishes and makes a new freddie were definitely filmed later in both of those episodes.

haha, thanks!

But yeah, I'm laboring under no delusions there. I know I've probably put a lot more thought into this than the writers did, and whatever conclusions I come to are probably fabrications to some extent. But I write fic, so I have to come up with something to bring everything together lmao.

(And it's also one thing that disappointed me so much about 4.09! I know that I've always been kind of self-indulgent on the fic/meta front, but I've always believed that the writers were thinking deeply about their decisions! Until 4.09!)

And goddd, right, it makes me sound like such a tinfoil hatter but... I can't think of anything else to explain everything! If they really did extend the Djinn's role, which is a thing they've been clear about in interviews, then like... it had to have somewhere to expand, right? And the back half of the show couldn't have happened the same way without wishes to do it. I think similar things still would have happened... but I do think they had to give the Djinn things to do and they did. I'd love to know if the original plans were particularly different, or if they lined up a little more with the themes introduced earlier in the season a little more!

like I mean... who knows, I guess they could've been worse! But it scratches at me in all the worst ways, not knowing. lmao

[verobatto]

Destiel is Canon

Then Destiel is censored

Destiel meta. 15x20 meta.

I know I said I will write the meta tomorrow, but i just had to do this because I won't sleep untill I scream what it just came out to my head.

I always said i don't like Dabb, I love Berens and Yockey, and then Yockey left earlier, and i guess now i know why.

Put the Wincest subtext to a side, and hear the desperate message from the writers.

Ordinary Life

Ordinary Life sounded like some kind of monotonous prison. They woke up each morning, and search for cases... Saving people hunting things. But not with good enthusiasm.

Dabb's pie burried on the face

Dean goes to eat a huge amount of Dabb's pie but Sam hurries one on his face, that's symbolism of a bad joke, a mocking. Just like the last ending from 15x19, this was like OKAY, ALL THE TEAM.WORK, RIGHT ON YOUR FACE. Do you follow me?

Because the whole clues and evidences about subtext we saw the writers delivered us, went right buried as that pie on our faces. And that was the writers feelings about it too.

Just Berens finished the work, as someone said in Twitter.

They killed the Destiel Mirror

The guy in blue (Cas mirror) and the wan I'm green (Dean mirror) were savagely killed by the EVIL VAMP CLOWNS (WINCEST SHIPPER) then, they kidnapped the two kids (Sam and Dean mirror, they even had the looks and the hair) THEY CUT DEAN AND CAS MIRROR TONGUES AS A SYMBOLISM OF THEY COULDN'T TALK ABOUT IT. THEY COULDN'T TALK ANOUT DESTIEL. And then they took the kids to slowly preparing them for food.

Castiel mirror even died like Cas died in 12x23.

Kill the clowns

Another symbolism and message was how all the vamp clowns were killed. That was us. They killed our hopes. And then they killed Dean, because the Carry On song says it. Because it was his destiny. Dean even said it. That was the ending that 30% old the fandom wanted. Because they will be reunited in Heaven. And be together forever. With the third lead: Baby.

Oh, don't forget Sam with random chick had a son named Dean, and dies old. He had his apple pie life with hunting addition.

Okay. This wasn't our ending neither.

Stealing Subtext

All my specs about holding hands, The ILY from Dean to Cas, were stolen and given to Wincest. There you go. The pie burried on our faces.

Bobby comes to save it

Bobby as a representation of FAMILY DOESN'T END IN BLOOD embassador is sitting on the bench, drinking a beer. He offers Dean the beer and then asks if Dean likes it. And Dean says HE DOESN'T LIKE IT.

Symbolically we can take it DEAN DOESN'T LIKE THE ENDING. JENSEN DIDN'T LIKE THE ENDING. NO OME LIKS THE ENDING.

Then, this scene we stick...

Gif set credit my dear friend @spnsmile

Look at Bobby face after Dean makes that question. Is like kind of anxious bc he is about to reveal something that is supposed not to talk about it, but he knows Dean will like to hear. Because Bobby knows Dean's feelings for Cas.

And he goes with the news of Cas is out, he is in Heaven. He went out from the Empty. And helped Jack. And immediately looks at Dean to see his reaction.

Dean and Bobby exchange silent looks, but then Bobby goes: SEE? YOU HAVE A SECOND CHANCE, YOU HAVE YOUR ANGEL HERE. and the hint of YES I KNOW IT.

Then Dean chuckles, okay, of course, he has the whole time to go get Cas, but this is another message. Because it looks like Bobby didn't know if telling or not at first.

Should I tell Cas is alive?

Is the sensation you got when you see him doubting in the first gif. He purses his lips but then he decides to say it. Because he is our embassador. Thank you Bobby.

To Conclude:

They kidnapped Sam and Dean, they obligated to feed the bad clowns. They cut the Destiel's tongue. They buried the pie on Dean's face. They mocked again the bro-only ending. They wrote something that some worst that Chuck wanted: Censoring Network.

They weren't free after all.

So we didn't carry on.

Let's fix this mess together.

I want to say I'm sorry deeply for spreading hopes, but as I said, all the analysis and subtext and evidences i put into words were real, and it was there. They just didn't decide to do it. At last not entirely. Thank you for reading me and cementing.

Love you all!

Destiel is Forever!

Tagging @gneisscastiel @emblue-sparks @magnificent-winged-beast @weird-dorky-little-d @michyribeiro @maleansu @legendary-destiel @a-bit-of-influence @thatwitchydestielfan @misha-moose-dean-burger-lover @lykanyouko @evvvissticante @savannadarkbaby @dea-stiel @mybonsai1976 @anarchiana @angelwithashotgunandtrenchcoat @trashblackrainbow @mishtho @dancingtuesdaymorning @feathered-castiel @bre95611 @zoerayne2426 @justmeand-myinsight @that-one-fandom-chick @proccastinate @studio-hatter @pepevons @poorreputation @mrsaquaman187 @dizzypinwheel @jawnlockwinchester @dwstiel @ladygon @shippsblog @la-random-fangirl @lets-try-this-again-please @mychemicalobsession514 @destiel-shipper-11

@asphodelesauvage @2musiclover2 @thedeductionmistress

Buenos Aires, November 20th 2020 3:56 AM

[dark-nymphs-fanfiction]

List of unpostet fics

Hey :)

Just a list of ideas (fic i want to write, but haven't yet), Wips (fic I started writing, but didn't finish yet) and untranslated fics (Fanfictions I have only written in German so far).

All fanfictions are Batman or DC Comic related.

If you are interested in one or more, you can always let me know. I will informe you, when they are published.

Ideas

Under the Beige Hood

Jason teams up with an unexpected magic-user.

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WIPs

It has your name on it

Dick, Jason and tatoos.

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Under the White Hood

Jason helps a clone to flee from the lab.

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As you wish

Under the Crimson Hood

JayxRoy

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Djinn!Dick FF.

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No way out

Mad Hatter controls Dick's mind to kill the Batfamily.

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Under the Yellow Hood

Jason meets a meta, which parents where attacked by the Joker.

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Laugh and grin, grin, grin

Joker Jr. FF (claimed prompt)

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I see the house, I just don’t live (there)

Batman can’t figure out the Red Hood. He blames it on the fact that he would rather deal with his returned son Jason at the moment. What he doesn’t know is that Tim has promised Jason to do everything he can to ensure that Batman never learns the Red Hood’s true identity.

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A wedding to fall in love

Tim Drake works as a private investigator and shares his office room with Dick Grayson, a wedding planner. Somehow it works.

Tim never thought that he would fall in love with one of Dicks clients. Somehow he did.

-> Snippet

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Untranslated fics

Endless Robins

A few of the Endless learn to love the Robins.

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Last Update: 10.04.2024

[imadhatt3r]

LOVE IS EVERYWHERE

BELOW: CYBERPUNK 2077 META, DISCUSSION OF KERRY’S QUESTLINE AND RELATIONSHIP WITH V, JOHNNY, US CRACKS AND CORPOS, SONG LYRICS READINGS, MORE ANIMAL METAPHORS.

INTRO

Recently, some kind soul has ripped an (seemingly) unused song by Us Cracks and Kerry Eurodyne, titled “Off the leash”, which you can listen to here.

The first thing that suprised me was the title, “Off the leash”. It’s the same title as next-to-last mission in Kerry’s questline, and the first one where the player is allowed to openly flirt with him. During that mission, you manage to catch the end of Kerry’s and Us Cracks’ show, but the song playing will be “User Friendly” and not “Off The Leash”, which to me at least is kinda odd, especially since “Off The Leash” doesn’t play anywhere else in the game. It’s listed to play on one of the radio stations, but as far as I know, it doesn’t. Due to the same titles, however, it’s safe to assume that the song and the mission are connected in some shape or form.

What struck me is that this isn’t the first time the leash metaphor is used in this line of quests and in relation to Kerry.

CORPO LAPDOG, INDEPENDED CAT AND BIRDS IN A CAGE

There are multiple ocasions where Kerry is referred to as being on some kind of leash, or, more broadly, he’s associated with some kind of confinement; it’s established early that he almost never leaves his house (he can, he just doesn’t want to, but I still feel like I should mention that). Johnny mocks him a couple times by saying that Kerry is “chained” to the corpos, or that he’s on a corpo leash. During his and V’s elevator ride in “Off The Leash”, he says that “(singing without an audience, with nobody hearing you is) just another kind of cage”. 

In my previous piece of meta, I’ve written about Johnny’s heavy association with cats. In comparison, Kerry could be likened to a dog (although his theming isn’t as overt as Johnny’s and doesn’t go beyond the leash metaphor, or at least I can’t come up with anything). Dogs are associated with obedience, sometimes even blind, they’re easy to train and loyal. Cats, on the other hand, are finnicky and independent. 

I think it differentiates the two nicely, at least in terms of their approach to life and their careers: Johnny stayed independent till the end, playing up anti-corporate sentiments and being a part of the Arasaka raid, ultimately dying a free man (relatively, of course. He probably didn’t count on the engram/biochip). 

Kerry was never about that; he cared about music first and foremost, and he was more willing to cooperate with the corpos (or at least their labels) after Johnny’s death. 

I also think it’s pretty amusing that he calls Us Cracks (in “Rebel, Rebel!”) “three little birds from Japan”. Birds are also commonly kept as companion animals, usually in cages, unable to leave, and can only sing and chirp to entertain their owners. “Bird in a gilded cage” is a common metaphor for someone who’s trapped in luxurious conditions, and yet is still unhappy and yearns for freedom. 

UNLEASHED

When we first meet Kerry proper, and not in Johnny’s memories, he’s pretty much stagnating: he lives by himself in his huge house, almost never leaves, his relationship with his ex-wife and kids seems civil, but strained, his old bandmades avoid him, he’s beefing with his manager and seems desperate for his aquaintance (Ariel) to move in so he can have some company. He’s also not creating any new music, or at least nothing serious that would go beyond any rough drafts. 

Only when V and Johnny crash into his life, something starts to change; he gets Samurai back together for the last gig, contacts his old friends again, develops a friendship or a relationship with V, and starts to create new music.

A big theme in Kerry’s arc is his insecurity regarding Johnny and the feeling of losing the autonomy over his music. In short, he is being held back by something, be it more tangible executive meddling with his art, or more metaphorical one, like his attachment to Johnny. 

I think that the fact that so many of the things you do with Kerry (car robbery, arson, running from cops, breaking into Us Cracks’ warderobe and setting the yacht on fire) are pretty aggressive, violent acts is kinda metaphorical regarding the lack of agency he feels over his own life. It’s pretty common for people who feel this way to lash out (maybe not to Kerry’s extent). I think it’s also worth noting that Kerry’s aggression is directed towards objects and not people (except for smacking Johnny on their first meeting and threatning Us Cracks, but I sincerely doubt he actually wanted to hurt them). He doesn’t want to hurt people.

The fact that you set things on fire specifically seems significant to me too. Fire is associated with destruction, but also with clensing and rebirth. This seems to be the case with setting the yacht on fire in “Boat Drinks”: it’s both an act of vandalism and destruction, but also of starting something new, of Kerry finally taking the autonomy over his music back, and, if you chose to romance him, also a final act that kinda seals the fact that he’s over Johnny and wants to start something new with V. 

One could say, he wants to “unlesh” his emotions. I know that “to unleash” means something slightly different that “off the leash”, but I still thought it was worth mentioning. 

Another big part of Kerry’s arc is him getting over Johnny. To me, it seems like he wants to move on, but something is stopping him, and he just can’t. I think it’s telling that, after his arc is complete, he describes his feelings towards Johnny as “sometimes resentment, and sometimes something like longing”. He both hated and loved him, which probably frustrated him even more: it would be one thing to remember him entirely fondly or entirely horribly, but that mixture of conflicting feelings made it even harder to get over him. In a way, he feels, again, held back by his feelings for Johnny. He WANTS to forget him, get over him and live his life, but CAN’T.

It’s another kind of leash/binding he has on himself. 

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

I think it’s pretty interesting that Kerry calls V (in “Off The Leash”) “The little bird (that shows up when I have to wrap things up and run)”. Like I’ve said above, that’s also how he calls Us Cracks, but I feel like this time it has different connotations. Birds are also a common symbol of freedom, which parellels how V helped Kerry live a “freer” life, unburdened by his feelings for Johnny (either by doing the concert in “A Like Supreme” or also by pursuing a romantic relationship with him) and allowed to take control over his own art.

In general, there’s a lot of similarities between Us Cracks’ and V. They’re both young people who come into Kerry’s life very suddenly and force him to confront feelings he’d rather not (how he feels about his music and Johnny, respecitively). I don’t think it’s a coincidence that their first meeting with Kerry is essentially the same: in both cases, Kerry holds them at gunpoint after some kind of breaking and entering. That’s why I think it’s safe to say they can be read as parellels to some degree. 

If you stand for long enough on the balcony after the Us Cracks concert and listen to the interviews, you can hear the following exchange (though I only have it in Polish and have to translate, sorry if it diverges from the English translation).

“(Interviewer): Girls, how was working with the legendary Kerry Eurodyne?

(Red Menace): Kerry-san is the sweetest, most wonderful man on the planet! Suteki! Kakkoki! Kawaii!  

(Blue Moon): We’ve met Kerry-san not long ago, when he visited us in our backstage- and it was dokidoki- how do you say it? Love at first sight!

 (Purple Force): He’s a genius, sensitive and very, very naughty! Rawr!”

Can’t help but feel like this parellels at least some of the feelings V has about Kerry at this point in time, especially since after V goes down to the stage to greet Kerry and Us Cracks, they can say:

“(V): “Love at first sight, huh?”

With the answer being:

“(Purple Force): Many different kinds of loving. And different beginnings!”

I think they’re kinda teasing V and Kerry about their feelings here, either because Kerry told them (unlikely, knowing him, but possible I suppose) or because they noticed something the two won’t admit to/aren’t aware of. 

“Different beginnings” bit is interesting too, seeing how loops/cycles are another prominent motive in his storyline. 

TOUCH ME, CATCH ME

Okay, now that we have everything set up, let’s come back to “Off The Leash”, both the song and the mission.

I think this mission is the crowning of Kerry’s arc, especially since this is the last mission with him you get if you play as female V (male V gets “Boat Drinks” and various endings). 

His happiness is visible in the song (”Off the leash”) itself. For starters, it’s very light and preppy, unlike his usual work (his song “Stimulation of real” is described in-universe as “Slick raw metal, with a wounded sound”), though how much is due to the influence of Us Cracks’ usual style is debatable. The sheer fact that this is a collab between the two is pretty important too: Kerry doesn’t see them as competitors or threats, but as fellow artists and allies, allowing him to put his demons of jealousy and inferiority to rest. 

(Before we go any further, I should mention that any lyrics I write down here are what I THINK they are, since there aren’t any official lyrics written everywhere. I’d love to come back to this analisys if they come out one day.)

The lyric “Touch me, catch me, love is everywhere” is very sweet and flirty, and I think it’s directed to V. If you remember, after you meet Kerry and Us Cracks, Kerry asks you to go to the roof with him, where you get an option to kiss him (”Touch me”) for the first time. Kerry is “off the leash”, he’s free, and he’s inviting V to pursue him to the rooftop (”Catch me”). “Love is everywhere” is very optimistic and happy, showing the change in how Kerry sees the world (at least in this mission). It can be read as either “Love is all around us”, referencing how people in love see everything around them through rose-tinted glasses, but also as “love can be found anywhere”, prehaps showing that Kerry’s and V’s love was pretty unexpected for both of them.

The concert scene with Us Cracks shows that he broke through one of his bindings (regaining control of his music and identity as an artist), and now he’s going to break through another one (his feelings towards Johnny). 

THE QUINTESENCE OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION

I was originally going to finish this meta about here, but something tempted me to check Kerry’s cyberpunk wiki article, and BOY am I glad I did. 

As some of you probably know, Kerry has three different songs he’s working on on his computer. Their titles are “A visions of your memories”, “Shivers” and “Dark matter”. You can read them here.

“A vision of your memories” is actually used in game... kinda. It’s the song he’s writing about V. In one of the text exchanges with him he says that he’s writing a song about V, and some of the lyrics are “ Where you whisper, open up your heart / Reveal the place where I once had a heart”. They also show up in “A vision...” so it’’s safe to assume this is the same song. 

The one that caught my attention was actually “Dark Matter”. Because it’s the name of the club Kerry invites V for Us Cracks concert in “Off The Leash”. The brunt of the song is about Kerry’s and V’s relationship and emotions towards eachother after the whole questline. With that lense established, let’s look at the lyrics.

The titular “Dark Matter” can be read as the love between V and Kerry ( This space between us / Filling up with dark matter). “Dark Matter” is an... unusual way of describing love, I’ll give him that, since to me it sounds quite morbid and sad, like the subject is uncomfortable with the feeling. A more charitable reading would be something like “overwhelming”, and let’s just say it’s established that Kerry doesn’t half-ass anything. Also, “This space between us” reminds me of Kerry saying that after getting over Johnny he feels like he has “A new space to fill with someone (he cares) about” in the “Path Of Glory” epilogue.

“Dark matter binds us together With particles of anger With atoms of hope With the ancient dust of distant stars”

“Particles of anger” and “atoms of hope” might refer to the things V and Kerry did together during the time they’ve spend together: “particles of anger” to blowing up the car delivering the Us Cracks’ gear and breaking into their wardrobe. “Atoms of hope” might be the reunion concert and drinking coffee with him after “Rebel, Rebel!”. Or it might be more broad: Kerry’s anger over his life, and the hope V brought back into it. “Ancient dust of distant stars” can be referring to Johnny, since, let’s be honest, he brought the two together. “Ancient dust” because he died fifty years ago, and Kerry has moved on from him thanks to V (and it’s also like, a pun. “Distant star” because Johnny was a rockstar when he was alive and he was distant to Kerry who was hopelessly in love with him, geddit?)

“How many years has our universe been expanding Still waiting for the big bang”

“Big Bang” can be their first meeting, since that was what got Kerry out of his stupor. The narrator seems kinda in disbelief about how long it took.

“I'm dark energy, baby And you're dark matter You and I, we're unfathomable And nobody can sink to our depths”

Kerry clearly sees himself as someone important in Night City (with good reasons), and he also sees V as someone extrordinary not only to him personally, but also in general (in one dialogue tree he can say that he thinks V will achieve their goal of becoming the legend of Night City). 

(Bilingual bonus: “Off The Leash” and “Boat Drinks” are called “Czarna Materia” (Dark matter) and “Teoria Wielkiego Wybuchu” (The Big Bang Theory) respectively in the Polish version. And no, the second mission doesn’t have a sexual connotation in the title equivalent to “bang” in English and it’s also not a reference to the show (since it’s called differently in Polish). I’m mentioning this because it drives the connection to the song lyrics: The yacht scene IS that definitive “Big Bang”, both literal, since boat blows up, and metaphorical, since this is when you confirm you relationship status with him, referencing the lyrics in “Dark Matter”.)

KNOWING YOU, IT HAS MULTIPLE MEANINGS

I think I’ve said most of what I came up with, but I still have some assorted thoughts.

The odd song out I can’t place anywhere is “Shivers”. I honestly have no idea where (if anywhere) does it fit in Kerry’s sidequest line, or even in the game in general. It does feature a casino metaphor (In the casino of Neglected Dreams / The dealer gives you a wicked grin) and a space metaphor (You see future constellations). Maybe it references the “Path Of Glory” epilogue, since this is arguably the best ending for Kerry and V should they get together? I’m thinking this might be a clue as to what ending the player should go for if they want to get the best ending for Kerry. Judy has something similar: one of her email exchanges references a firetruck she fixed up as a teen and got busted for taking it for a ride, and the best ending for her and V is “The Star”, where they go with the Aldecaldos. The whole story doesn’t get bring up anywhere in the game AFAIK and is just flavor text without the context of “The Star” ending. MAAAAYBE it’s a foreshadowing for the DLC/him being in it? Some people speculate that the casino heist might be a future DLC, and Kerry mentions that his dream/goal is to play a concert there one day? Just don’t quote me on that if it turns out I’m wrong ‘:D

Somebody managed to find a lost Samurai song that you can’t properly hear in the game. It’s called “Archangel”, and you can listen to it here, but keep in mind this is a fan version made from splicing up available audio, so lyrics are, once again, sadly unavailable for the time being. A version of this song plays during the yacht destruction in “Boat Drinks” and during the following sex scene. It features the lyric “The desire for destruction”, and I just have to say, in context of that scene? Love the pun on “desire”. Also a big fan of “(violence?) sweet as a kiss”, which is just... cute, in the context of the scene :) lyrics in general seem to blend the concept of destruction of property and sexual desire, which just fits perfectly. Wonder what was created (by the developers) first, the scene setup or the song.

Also, the gun Kerry gives you after “A Like Supreme” is called Archangel. I shan’t elaborate further, you’re picking up what I’m putting down ;)

In the Polish version, during the scene on the rooftop at the end of the game, if you’ve romanced Kerry, you can call him and ask him about his new song. He’ll say that he’s working on a song based your yacht adventure titled “Seamurai goes down”. For some goddamn reason this was changed to “Seamurai in smoke”, and I’m sincerely sad that ya’ll lost the best double entendre in the game. 

It seems like Kerry’s outburst about Us Cracks has some deeper context if you know the tabletop lore. @saintsofvoid​ wrote a great meta about this here, I recommend checking it out.

ENDING

Thank you for reading this long-ass meta! It was honestly so fun to write, noticing one thing led to like, three different ones. I hope it’s coherent and I didn’t make it too messy ‘:D I love how many details, puns, metaphors and parellels this storyline has, I’m honestly impressed. I know many people think that Kerry’s sidequest/romance is much more barren than, let’s say, Judy’s or Panam’s, but I have to disagree. Kerry has plenty going on for him, if you’re willing to engage with his story on a more subtextual level. 

Even if you disagree with my observations (which is fine, of course), I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it and maybe can look at some aspects of this storyline with a different perspective :) 

[aboxofhope]

wild pink and blue hair cast up in two pigtails, pieces of blonde cascading along her features. with dark blue eyes she watches as winter ends. hearing the news they found the culprate, the daughter of the mad hatter wonders if they got it wrong. she wonders if something else is afoot and with quiet contemplation she thinks of the others. she thinks of what this means and who pays the price. because pandora hatter has no real objective. she is a watcher, swinging back and forth always keeping those on their toes. to pin her down would be nothing less then a miracle. so swings and swings and flitters like a whirlwind. but she thinks. never think that pandora doesn’t think, the wonderlandian girl is always thinking, is always moving, thoughts racing. and she thinks about who is going to suffer more, whose side declares Pyrrhic victory. a wicked grin dances upon pretty features. “well a pyrrhic victory is still that. a victory.”

[monster-bcrn]

SPOOKY’S 100 FOLLOWER SHOUTOUT!

Okay for real this is the fastest growing blog I’ve ever had hehehe. Never expected Grundy to get this popular this quickly!

Freaking love this zombaby and I’m so glad y’all love him too! As promised, gonna shout out some fantabulous bloggos that helped get Grundy to where he is today. XD

@akasupergirl/ @azombieme (I FREAKING ADORE GRUNDY AND KARA AND LIV. I swear Grundy’s loyal to Kara like he was to Shayera and Jade and Liv is totally his baby sister and is gonna protect her from.....everything. :P

Even pigeons, because they’re legion.)

@thecatgoddessbast (A blast from the past! Glad to see you again after I rampaged and caused chaos as a certain deranged pincushion of a mushroom way back in the time before present. XD

Now I get to do that as a zombie. :D Win/win!)

@starcityvigilante (OLLIE. FFFFFF-okay for real I’m HYPED to plot wacky ideas with you. Grundy has a MASSIVE grudge against Green Arrow and I’m like......*push these two together* you both get along right now.)

@folcire (We literally just started talking and I’m loving your Ivy already! Can’t wait to see how Grundy grows to see her the more he talks to her because they’re both sassy plant people that way. XD)

@themartlans (FFFFFF-J’ONN. Everyone’s favorite green uncle :D I freaking adore him and I HATE how the most he ever interacted with Grundy was him being tossed into the bay. >_<

They really need to talk more, and MAN! That Injustice verse of yours is SICK. Definitely hyped for making Grundy into an insurgent and a good zombie instead of Supes’ lapdog.

( Look at this face....LOOK AT IT.)

@blackwingsbluedings (One of the best Dick Grayson’s out there and definitely loving seeing Grundy be less smash and more “......hug?” They both need hugs I swear.)

@marvelousdamsels (We haven’t talked much but I adore your muses and I just hope Grundy doesn’t come off as too weird or clingy.......wait.......that’s......literally Grundy.....

:D)

@theirfirstexperiment (GRUNDY ON A RAMPAGE YOOOOOO! Better run fast. XD)

@amazonexile/ @gothamprens/ @captainstevertrevor ( Freaking love your muses and I love seeing Diana and Bruce actually WANT to help Grundy. It’s too easy just beating on Grundy and I love seeing them actually bother to try to get to the gentler side of the Hulk’s crazy cousin. XD)

@justiceebound / @nighttfight ( *slams fist on the table* YOU ARE AWESOME! Your Shayera is awesome, your Bruce is a national treasure and I can’t wait to throw Grundy at Supes and Diana, because these guys need a big reconciliation thing after all the chaos from literal years of slugging it out.

And I LOVE it. >:D)

@ofamazonia 

@theamazondiana   (Both of you are AWESOME Wonder Women and MAN I love plotting ideas. I’m tired of seeing Diana being turned into too much of a warrior while negating her role as a peace-maker and y’all NAIL her kindness and wisdom and need to give everyone a chance. Freaking LOVE IT!)

@raininginkyxto (LOL I always love imagining Grundy in Marvel and now poor Weasel is kind of stuck with him. XD Man, if the Hulks meet Grundy then that poor bar is going to really get smashed.....)

@notatomo (GIANT. Man I loved that movie as a kid and I LOVE the subsequent giant robot and tiny kid works inspired from it (example being the CRIMINALLY under-appreciated Sentinel series by UDON.) Can’t wait to see what happens when Grundy talks more to someone bigger than him. XD)

@liminalstctic (GRUNDY HEARTS TINY GIRL. XD Yeah he’s trying his hardest to help her. ;A;)

@dolceclavier

@gobsnacc

@adrenalinesaint

@ninelivesruined

@yellowskinnedwackyman  (CREEPER! I’ll forever ADORE these two butts because they’re team Tree Lobsters.)

@collidingxworlds/ @thecursedhellblazer (I. Love. Your. Constantine. I swear I have so much fun writing Grundy trying to get drunk (and failing) and learning to cuss up a storm while still being a mad lad ready to throw down with mega-zombies to protect his tiny friend.

DC, make this friendship canon or so help me Grodd...)

@chaosmultiverse (I love your Klarion so much! He’s so much fun! XD And Teekl for the epic win!)

@raichoose (Herbert West and Solomon Grundy? THAT aIN’T GOOD! D:>)

@gctjinxd (Freaking LOVE your Jinx! LOL how she manipulates Freeze and how Grundy isn’t even REMOTELY phased by her powers. Like he is TOUGH. Even bad luck won’t stop him.)

@killcrcroc (BIG BAD KILLER CROC! I love your Waylon and I adore how he has a collection of watches and that awesome suit. XD Croc definitely deserves more love since he’s much smarter than he looks, and tough enough to even get Grundy to back down in a serious fight.)

@babydxhl (Baby Doll is criminally underappreciated and I love how she’s the opposite to Grundy. She looks child-like but is very crafty, mature and knows how to get what she wants, while Grundy is physically strong and big enough to bully his way into anything he wants, but is very simple and child-like and would rather watch the birds. XD)

@theednygma (An awesome Ed Nygma and I love how Grundy is so unsure of everything yet still goes along for the ride as a support. XD)

@sleightlyoffhand (BUNNY MAN! Okay the idea of Josiah monching on carrots in Grundy’s pocket makes me smile so much. XD)

@thanagrian (BIRD-NOSE! Honestly every time I think of Grundy and Shayera I get the feels big time. These two definitely deserved more than just two episides to give them a unique friendship.

(I love that STAR Labs mission so much in Injustice. XD)

@the-arkham-librarian ( I love Eliza so much! She’s crafty, stubborn, sweet and kind and just cares about everyone so much when few don’t. Grundy grew so attached to her I swear she’s like his little sister at this point. XD And he’s totes the best uncle along with Eddie.)

@fatherdamned ( I LOVE YOUR RIDDLER OMG! He’s so snarky but man he is SO DAMN FUN to write with! Grundy is there for his green friend, no matter what!)

@fartemis-crockpot

( I freaking LOVE Artemis and Grundy, especially in the Injustice Society stuff. Yeah Grundy’s been a butt before but he genuinely likes and cares about her and the rest of the team and I’m like....

Look at these bunch of a-holes. Yeah they’re a family and even if they’re bad.....they’ve got each other. And that’s what counts. C:)

@powerhours/ @lastofmars (Green dad? Green dad. I love your J’onn so much and I’m like *throws Grundy at green dad* Here give this disaster some love. XD)

@gothamdad (YET ANOTHER AWESOME BATMAN. :D)

@redsleuthed (TIM! I love Tim and I swear these two should talk more because Grundy doesn’t WANT to fight and I think just letting someone hear him out would help him immensely.

Plus that stuff with Freeze? Poetic cinema.)

@themusespace

@12thlevel​ (On this blog we stan socially awkward green boi with angery grandpa genius mastermind. XD)

@pluckyingenue

@seekthedarknesswithin (SHADE! I love Shade in Justice League where he constantly throws Shade at everyone so you can imagine how excited I was to see Shade on Tumblr! We haven’t done much but man.....even Grundy was excited to see an old friend from the Injustice Society/ Injustice Gang.)

@youstolemycoat (Okay, hands down, Nick Necro is so much fun to plot with. His Robin verse is so fun too and poor Grundy tries to help but a certain birdy won’t let him. XD)

@ufotm (Tiny alien baby. :3)

@thetrigonborn

@kitfreeman

@partcfyouruniverse/ @diamondcladclown ( An awesome mun and my goodness her Harley is EPIC! I love the metas about Harley too and you just GET HER. And that????? Is the sign of an excellent writer and mun.)

@bigbadkillercroc ( I love your Croc and the brotherly bond he has with Grundy! It’s so refreshing to see these two bonding instead of Grundy tearing off Waylon’s face like he did in the Solomon Grundy mini-series. :C)

@blizzardmuses (I LOVE YOUR MUSES OMG. Your Batgirl?????? I ADORE HER. I love Freeze as a member of the Birds of Prey and I love tossing Grundy at your muses because the guy needs love and an excuse to smash.....and I really love both lol.)

@starfirechan (You’re Starfire is so freaking CUTE! I love how she and Grundy get along so well since they’re kind of two misfits that aren’t very well-versed in city life. XD)

@gotham-crusader/ @maximummuses (One of the best Batman and Damian Wayne RPers out there! I have a lot of fun with our threads and even if they fizzle out there is so much heart to them that they’re some of my absolute favorites no matter what muse I put on. C:)

@teufortsquidman (PRAWN! Okay, a giant mega-zombie and an Eldritch abomination? Yeah they’re gonna be good pals lol. XD)

@tragedybcrn (Hands down one of the BEST Batman RPers I’ve talked to and plotted with. I love how Bruce helps Freeze and even Grundy try to be better than just crooks. Grundy though has had so many bad experiences that he can’t trust anyone anymore unless there is some SERIOUS help. But he’ll learn to at least try to trust Batman.....because Batman was genuinely nice to him.)

@krygothite ( I freaking LOVE your Bane! We haven’t written much but FFFFF0yeah he’s epic. XD And Grundy is kind of nervous about bringing Bane to Slaughter Swamp because Bane is tough but not kaiju-sized gators and snakes tough....

Or....maybe he is.....let’s test him. >:D)

@batvvmn

@redwinefangs (VAmpire Batman? Vampire Batman. We have an epic trifecta of vampire Bats, Freezy-wolf and zombaby Grundy and I LOVE it. These three are so much fun to plit ideas around. XD)

@bclaur

@stcrshnes

@titanicscionofthestars ( I freaking LOVE Sara! All across my blogs I love her and the way you write her! And I swear her reaction to Grundy being impaled????? MY HEART. ;A;)

@jcinthedance  (JERVIS! Okat for real I love the image of Hatter and Grundy just enjoying a tea party at the asylum and being weird dorks. XD)

@adventurepunks (I absolutelky LOVE your Zatanna! She’s so fun and I’d love to plot more with her! :D)

@shesquiinnsane

@laughter-in-white (YOU????? Are??? Like the BEST Joker. Hands down. Your Croptop J is so much fun to plot with and he’s funny and being dramatic for Bats. And Grundy is like ‘yeah he’s crazy but he’s my crazy.’)

@yourfavoritesidekick

@smartvulpix (* glomps on you for being epic*)

@thehouseofivo (Your Freeze and Julian are AWESOME! Love throwing my guys at them both lol)

@lil-miss-romano

@sweet-tea-solly

@slauhter

@occultsleuth

@wiisectrpillar

@wonderlandcarpenter

@gunborn

[noladyme]

Chess. Chapter 6

Y/N never hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it. She only took what she needed, or what she felt others needed. She’d stayed out of sight for a long time, avoiding anything that could get her in to too much trouble. But for some reason Rick Flag shows up in her life, and in an instant, everything changes.

TW: Violence, language, sexual themes, blood

(This story is obviously non-canon, i.e. Diablo and GQ, but I hope you’ll enjoy it either way. Let me know if you want to be added to the tag list.)

“St. Roch, Louisiana. We’re staying in our own backyard”. Flag was reading from a tablet; as we were taken through a long hallway, leading from the cellblock, to what seemed to be a large garage.

I had a guards pistol aimed at me, as it’s owner followed my every move, with cold eyes.

I had spent the rest the day before, trying to wrap my mind around my new situation.

I was officially a prisoner at Belle Reve – a high security penitentiary, in the sweatiest asscrack of the Louisiana swamps. I was there for the kidnapping and assault of judge Jeremiah Kelper. 

The assault and maiming had been of such a horrible nature, that I was committed to this facility, without trial. My conviction was a formality, as I apparently confessed to the guards of Belle Reve, the night of my arrival.

I was to serve life, without parole.

There was no mention of the incident in Wayne Tower in my file.

Unofficially, I was the newest member of Task Force X, a top-secret group of meta-humans, and people with exceptional skills, required to complete missions of a classified nature.

These individuals also happened to all be convicted felons, and the scum of the earth.

There was Floyd Lawton; a.k.a. Deadshot. The man who never missed a shot. During dinner – sloppy joes, yum… – he’d shown me a picture of a cute 8 year old girl, who had his eyes.

“She’s a bit older now, writes me every day. She just got an A on her biology report!”, he’d exclaimed proudly. It was clear Floyd loved his daughter, more than anything.

Killer Croc – Waylon Jones. He was huge, terrifying; and made me feel safer than I had in weeks, just by his presence. Croc – as he insisted on being called – had won me over, by calling me cher’.

I’d talked to him about Sammy, and recounted some of the trucker stories he’d told me.

After Croc’d told me he’d once eaten a truckdriver, he said: “I’m glad it wasn’t your boss. He seems like a decent guy”.

I’d been surprised by the gentle and kind demeanor of Chato Santana; or, Diablo, as they called him. I’d seen a videoclip on the news once, of him torching a group of inmates at a prison he was held at. I thought he’d be a hothead – pun intended – but he turned out to be calm and remorseful about his violent past.

Harley. Now, she was a different story. She was about as calm as a puppy on poppers. She also seemed to have no remorse for anything she’d done, as the sidekick and girlfriend of the Joker. I was equal parts terrified and enthralled by her person.

She’d spent most of the rest of the day, singing lullabies to a picture of a hyena, and doing her nails. Once, she’d disappeared for about an hour, before returning to her former activities, with a satisfied smile plastered over her pretty face.

We soon discovered what Harley had been doing, when the napping Digger Harkness – Captain Boomerang, the australian – suddenly screamed; jumping up and down, scratching at his body.

“Ants! Bloody fire ants!”, he’d yelped with a shrill voice; running towards the bathroom.

He’d returned a while later, shaking his coat, and sending the giggling Harley a deadly look. His arms and neck were covered in tiny and angry red welts; that he’d scratched at for the rest of the day.

This was my new family. I was very aware that none of us had chosen to be here, but it seemed that we were all determined to make the best of it, until such an opportunity arose, that we’d be able to leave.

Apparently, Harley had tried to run multiple times – even having made it back to the Clown; and stayed of the grid for a few months, before arriving back at Belle Reve, with a pair of roller skates, and a taxidermized beaver.

I didn’t know when or if I’d be able to escape; so for now, I decided to settle in.

---

In the middle of the large garage stood a helicopter the size of a tank. In front of it stood six crates; each of our names written on the side of one of them.

The rest of the squad seemed to know the procedure. They opened their crates, and dug through them. Flag paced back and forth in front of us, carrying a machinegun.

“You know the deal”, he hollered. “Three weapons. Two ranged, one for close combat. Croc and Diablo, you are both the exceptions”. No weapons for them, I guessed.

“Oy, colonel”, Digger called.

“No, Digger”, Flag answered, before the aussie had a chance to ask. “Boomerangs do not count as close range, though they can be used as such. You bring two. No more”. Digger cursed under his breath.

They’d all been through this before. I couldn’t help but feel like it was the first day of school, and that I’d forgotten my backpack at home.

“You alright?”, Floyd asked from behind me.

“Yeah”, I answered. “It’s just…new. How do you do this? How do you work for these people, who treat you like shit, and then demand that you risk your lives for them?”. I bent to open my crate, and started going through the equipment in it.

“Look”, said Floyd. “Ain’t none of us here who wants to be here. Except for maybe Harley”, he smiled, and looked at the person in question.

She was swinging an oversized fairground hammer, almost knocking over a soldier who was busy checking out her ass.

“We do this, because we have to, for one reason or another”. He looked at me seriously. “I’m here for my little girl. Every time I finish one of these missions, I’m one step closer to seeing her again; and to show her that her daddy’s not a monster”.

I pulled out my jacket, stood up, and looked at it.

“You find whatever reason you need to do this, but make sure it’s important enough, not just to survive for, but to live for”, Floyd finished, patted my shoulder, and walked away.

I sighed and returned to my crate. I had no idea what in my life was important enough to live for at this point.

I didn’t have a family to protect or impress. That had all ended after Hatter had entered my life.

Sammy… he was a friend, but he’d be better of if I didn’t return. Ever.

That left my cats. But they were fine where they were.

So what?

I was interrupted in my train of thought by Flag, who suddenly appeared next to me.

“Hey. You need to get ready. Liftoff in 10”.

“Sir, yes, sir”, I retorted, and rolled my eyes.

I went behind a tall crate to change into my outfit. Leggings, top, boots, jacket; and finally, my claws. I tested the knives once, against the crate in front of me, carving through the thin metal easily.

Retracting the claws, I went to join the others.

Flag stopped me before I had a chance to enter the chopper with the rest of the crew.

“One last thing, Chess”, he said, and pulled out a strange looking harness, made out of some synthetic material and wires.

“What’s that?”, I asked, skeptically.

“This is an armed device, that will explode, should you decide to… smile, without being ordered to do so, by myself”.

I looked him, dumbfounded. “You’re gonna blow me up if I go invisible?”, I guffawed.

“No”, he answered. “I’ll blow that nano-bomb in your neck if you try to run away. This device will explode on it’s own, whenever its sensors recognize that you are using your powers”.

I shook my head, confused.

“If I’m not here to do that, then why am I here?”.

Flag used a strange key to unlock the harness.

“After what happened yesterday…” he started. I interrupted him.

“You mean when I didn’t run away?”, I spat.

He was unmoved by my exclamation.

“After what happened yesterday”, he repeated, “Waller seems to think it would be better if I take control of when you should… do your thing. You’ll be able to make things you touch invisible, as usual; but you cannot disappear yourself”.

He held up the newest addition to my outfit, to let me put it on.

“From now on, you will be wearing this whenever you are not in your cell. I can disarm the device at any time, for as long as I deem necessary”.

I stepped back, shaking my head.

“No”.

Flag frowned.

“Put it on”, he said, a slight edge to his voice.

“No”, I repeated, and crossed my arms in front of me.

Flag exhaled through his nose.

“Put it on, or I’ll put it on you myself”, he growled. I tilted my head, and raised my eyebrows at him.

“Is that a promise?”, I asked.

He raised his chin, and looked down at me.

“I can have one of GQs men do it”.

I ripped the harness from his hands, and begun to put it on; trying to figure out where each strap was supposed to go.

There were two straps, one going over each shoulder. One strap went around my torso, from my back to my front. Holding it all together, was one last strap, starting from my back, going down between my legs, and connecting with the others, on the middle of my chest.

Flag grabbed the straps in front of me, connecting them to a round disc, with a small red light in the middle. He tightened the harness as much as he could, making me bump against him; and locked the disc with the key.

“You go invisible; you die. You try to take it off; you die. You even think of trying to steal the key, guess what…”.

“I die?”, I jestered.

“You die”, he answered.

I tried to move around in the strange contraption.

“How am I supposed to pee in this?”, I asked angrily.

“We’ll climb that mountain when we get to it”, he answered, and turned his back to me, walking away.

“Old Fashioned”, I called after him. He turned around.

“What?”, he asked.

“If you’re gonna ride me this hard, it’s only polite to buy me a drink”, I said; turned my back to him, and walked away to join the squad.

---

Landing in St. Roch, our first destination was an old gas station just outside of town. It was abandoned by its owners; probably due to the explosions going off less than a mile away.

“You have your orders”, Flag called. “We go in discretely, locate our target, and take them out”.

“It’s probably going to be more complicated than that”, Diablo muttered next to me. Croc growled in agreement.

“You know, Flag, we’d probably be even more discrete, if you didn’t have Y/N here tied up like a Christmas ham”, Floyd smirked at him.

Flag frowned.

“This is Chess’ first mission. Let her find her legs before we throw her into it”, he said. “Let’s head out!”.

“Someone’s got a crush”, Harley said in a singsong voice, skipping past me.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”, I asked.

Digger chuckled, and followed her.

“She means, he wants a gander at your map of Tassie”, he winked back at me, and took a swig of the can of beer he’d taken from one of the fridges in the small store.

I shook my head, and feeling a machinegun between my shoulders – I was just thrilled that the Tweedles had joined us on this little fieldtrip – I followed the rest of the group.

Sneaking past a checkpoint – Floyd taking out the inhabitants from afar – we made our way downtown.

I heard crying from behind a dumpster, and stopped to see what it was. A young woman was hiding behind it; shaking in fear.

“Are you ok?”, I asked, reaching a hand towards her.

“Chess!”, Flag called, from a few yards away. “Get your ass over here”.

“She might need help”, I said, and stepped towards the crying woman.

She recoiled from my touch.

“No! Please leave me alone!”, she cried.

Floyd came up behind me.

“She’s afraid of us, Chess”, he said. “Just leave her alone”. He went back to the group, who continued down the street, leaving me alone with Flag and the terrified woman.

I backed away from her, a lump in my throat. Turning around, I walked up to Flag, trying desperately to hold back tears. Behind me, I heard the woman get up, and run down the street, away from us.

I looked up at Flag.

“I wasn’t going to hurt her”, I said quietly.

“I know”, he said shortly. “But she doesn’t”. He made to touch my shoulder; but changed his mind, straightened his back, and turned around.

“Let’s go, kitten”.

We joined the others.

“That was quick”, Harley smiled. “It’s ok, colonel. It happens to all men”.

“Lady, I will rip your pigtails off with my bare hands”, he growled at her, stomping to the front of the group.

“Never happened to me”, Croc winked at Harley, who beamed back at him.

Another checkpoint. Digger took care of this one.

Huddling up behind a couple of cars, we finally saw our target. A lieutenant of Ra’s Al Ghul, who had been stirring up trouble, laying the groundwork for a new stronghold for his master. They had chosen to set up shop in the town square; having tied up a group of around 10 hostages to a statue in the middle.

Flag started barking orders in a hushed voice.

“Alright. Floyd, you got the roofs. Keep in radio contact”. It was clear he trusted Floyd more than the rest of the group.

“Croc, see that van? Make sure anyone in it, and in the immediate vicinity of it, don’t have the chance to warn the target”. Croc went down on all fours, and disappeared into a nearby shrubbery.

“Diablo and Digger. I want you on each side of that building. If they do spot us; I want you to bottleneck them into that alley”, he said, pointing in the direction he meant. “GQ, you and your men join them. One on the flame, two on boomer”. Digger scoffed at the nickname.

“Harley; I want you… actually you just do whatever it is you do, without giving the rest of us away”, he sighed at her.

“Sure thing, boss”, she mock-saluted him. “Go team!”.

“You got your orders. Go!”, he finished; and the group scattered, each to their assigned positions.

“What am I supposed to do?”, I asked, feeling slightly left over.

“You stay on me”, he answered, and looked through his binoculars.

A few minutes went by. Hearing a growl from the direction of Crocs assigned post, I saw blood spatter on the inside of the windows of the van.

I heard Harleys voice yelling; “Batter up!”, followed by a clank and a loud scream.

Some of the lieutenants soldiers began scrambling.

“Goddamnit, Quinn!”, Flag cussed. “You! Stay here!”, he growled at me, and ran in the direction of Harleys voice, leaving behind his binoculars. I picked them up, and looked through them.

In the square, the soldiers were rigging up chains and wires around the hostages. Connected to the wires were multiple red sticks I recognized from movies I’d seen. Dynamite.

I looked in the direction Flag had gone. He and Harley were arguing quietly behind a bus.

I looked back at the town square. Our target was walking back and forth in front of the hostages, ranting about something I couldn’t make out.

I tried zooming in with the binoculars. Military tech for the win, I thought, and looked through them again.

In his hand, the lieutenant was holding what seemed to be a tablet. Large numbers read 5:00. The bastard walked up to a teenage boy, who had a stick of dynamite strapped to his chest. He put his hand on his cheek, and said something to him, that made the boy break down in tears. He then pressed a button on the screen. The numbers began to count down.

4:59.

4:58.

4:57…

Fuck!, I thought, and threw the binoculars on the ground.

Reminded of my harness, I rolled my eyes. Ok. So I couldn’t smile. But I did know how to move quietly and quickly. I pulled up my hood, and closed my jacket.

I snuck forward. I heard a gunshot and a grunt behind me, and looked back; seeing an enemy soldier on the ground, a bullet hole right between his eyes. Thanks, Floyd, I smiled up at the roof of a nearby building, seeing Deadshots white hood disappear back into the darkness.

I moved forward again, hiding behind a truck. A stone landed on the ground next to me; and looking in the direction of the thrower, I saw Flag waving at me.

“Get back!”, he mouthed at me angrily. I shook my head, and looked towards the hostages. Continuing forward, I suddenly heard a beep. Looking down, I saw the light on the disc on my chest turn from red to green.

Looking back at Flag – his wrist raised, pushing some buttons on what looked like a watch – I smirked, and nodded at him. Thanks, I thought.

A purr moving through my body; I smiled.

Readying my claws, I ran towards the square. A soldier looked in my direction, having heard my movement, but unable to see me. Oops. Quietly now, I thought, and scaled a car next to him, making as little sound as I could.

I saw Digger and the Tweedles running towards a group of soldiers exiting a building. They finished them of quickly, but not before having drawn enough attention to make the lieutenant aware of their presence.

He yelled something I couldn’t I understand, and dropped the tablet he had been holding.

Gunfire sounded, and I ran faster, making my way to the group of hostages.

I reappeared, startling a few of the hostages who screamed at me.

Picking up the tablet from the ground, I desperately began pushing the screen, trying to make the countdown stop.

2:35.

2:34.

2:33…

There was no way I could stop the detonation.

I spun around, ran to the statue, and began pulling at the wires.

“You’ll make it go off!”, the teenage boy from before shouted at me.

I ran to the back of the statue, finding a simple lock, holding together the two ends of the chain intertwined with the wires.

This I can handle, I smiled, and got out my kit.

I managed to break two of the lockpicks, my hands shaking from the stress of the situation. I looked at the tablet on the ground.

1:01.

1:00.

0:59…

Taking a deep breath, I gave it one more try. Please, please, please!.

The lock opened.

I grabbed one end of the chain, and ran with it around the statue, releasing the hostages. The teenage boy carefully pulled at the tape that held the stick of dynamite to his chest, and put the red stick gingerly on the ground.

“Thanks!”, he smiled at me, and ran. I smiled after him.

An elderly woman was having trouble keeping up with the others.

0:37.

0:36.

0:35…

“Just go on”, she yelled at me.

“No!”, I answered, and ran to put her arm around my neck. Stumbling a few steps forward, the woman was suddenly lifted from the ground, screaming, as Croc – with a smile plastered across his gruesome face – ran to safety, the old woman hanging over his shoulder.

We did it!, I thought, and went to run after him.

Someone grabbed my leg, holding me in place. Looking down, I saw the lieutenant – a gash across his face, and a gunshot to his chest – laughing up at me. His strong hands were holding on to my leg, making it impossible for me to move.

I looked towards the group waiting for me at a safe distance. The hostages were continuing down the street, running towards sirens and blinking lights.

0:15.

0:14.

0:13…

Flag screamed something at me, Edwards and his soldiers holding him back.

I yanked at my leg, desperately trying to get the dying man to let me go.

0:09.

0:08.

0:07…

I lifted my fist and screamed; cutting through my captors arm. He let go with a yelp; and I ran.

0:03.

0.02.

0:01…

0:00.....

Tag list:

@gloriousgam3r​

@hyp-oh-critical​

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hey Steph. I saw your answer to the other Jonny about how you do t follow any tjlc blogs and I have to say I find that extremely hard to believe considering in your own header you call yourself a “tin-hatter and old-school TJLC-er.” Also you’ve posted TJLC meta yourself. So you suddenly don’t follow any others? What are you trying to hide?

Uh... Nothing??

Anon, honestly, with all due respect, who the heck are you to tell me how to curate my enjoyment and manage my Tumblr experience? Pretty much all the meta blogs I followed for years left after S4 – I’ve been on this fucking hellsite for nearly 7 years and that header has been the same for nearly that long, and I can’t change it because Tumblr fucking won’t let me edit my custom template – so that left my friends and artists, and I recently started following mostly writers and fic reccers since I now do fic recs. LSiT, Hush, Beekeeper, NewSexy, and Sarah are still a few of the ones I used to follow that are left, and they only write meta these days when the inspiration hits, like I do. And then, when I did write meta, the smaller, lesser-known people I befriended often reblogged the bigger posts, which I then tacked my own thoughts to.

And, as I mentioned in the post, I follow some Good Omens blogs and Red Dwarf blogs these days too, which I then reblog content to my additional blogs.

Jesus Christmascrackers, what is this gatekeeping?? Why do I have to explain myself to you? Why does it matter? Sorry that I choose to curate my content so I don’t spend my entire day on Tumblr, I guess? I genuinely don’t know what you want me to say. Oy.

Honestly Anon, you’re looking kinda like a dick. I don’t know if you meant this to be offensive, but it’s certainly coming off like it.