#honestly i want to draw more cass too

[aealzx]

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Prologue | AO3

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“So…Let me just summarize to make sure I understand,” Jazz requested, feeling a little overwhelmed by all the new information Bruce, Barry, and Leslie had explained to her, but at least not so overwhelmed to the point of breaking down anymore. She’d just never heard of something like hemoperfusion before, so it had been a lot to take in. “Danny has blood blossom toxin throughout his blood stream, and since blood blossoms don’t exist here there’s no antitoxin to inject him with. And since developing one would take too long and be too risky, you want to try hemoperfusion. Which is like hemodialysis, except it removes toxins instead of fluids. And since hemoperfusion is known to cause a mild decrease in various common blood components, you want to have a blood donation from Danielle to offset that. Because she’s the only one here who also has ectoplasm in her blood, and you don’t want to dilute that in Danny since he’s already low…Did I get all of that?”

“Yes,” Bruce answered simply, giving a small nod. He was ready to go over anything they needed to again, a tablet in his hand ready to be used to open any of the files he’d already shown Jazz a second time. She had reacted to the information about Danny’s condition with anxious fear, but overall she was managing to remain significantly calmer than earlier that day.

Jazz was silent as she ran through everything she could remember just one more time, as well as trying to think of anything that they may have missed. Either because it was an oversight, or they simply just didn’t know. But she couldn’t see any risks other than the ones they had already told her they were aware of. She honestly wasn’t sure she would have caught the risk of diluting the ectoplasm in Danny’s blood herself. Amity always had an abundance of ectoplasm leaking everywhere, so even when Danny has spent a lot he’d always been able to recover some from the ambient. It, and the way they had addressed this situation, was enough for her to finally look to Bruce and nod. “Okay. Go ahead.”

Bruce was admittedly pleasantly surprised at the response, but kept his response in check other than a content smile. Barry’s shoulders sagged with his sigh of relief, and he barely waited for Bruce to give him a nod before he dashed from the room in a blink.

“Barry and Wally will take care of getting the supplies. We’ll test the types of resin with the blood samples we already have to make sure we use the correct one. But it shouldn’t take too long. Is it alright if we inform the rest of your family of what’s going on?” Bruce requested, not wanting Sam, Tucker and Danielle to be left out just because his own children were doing a good job keeping them occupied. Barbara had come over to meet them already, and she and Tim were indulging Tucker’s questions as well as getting some of their own answers. Then Stephanie and Cass had spent some time letting Danielle pick out some different clothes before they had joined Wally in the gym. Danielle had been ecstatic to find out about Wally’s abilities, and all four of them were having fun showing off and messing around together. Which left Sam talking with Duke, Damian, and Alfred about some of Duke’s adventures, Damian’s menagerie of pets, and Alfred’s recipes and food sources. The news would be an interruption to their fun, but Bruce had confidence that his team could help them stay occupied and taken care of instead of relying only on Jazz.

“...Sure,” Jazz agreed once more, giving another nod. They had already told her that they would have Danielle stop by the room to draw her blood, so having the three of them back in the room for a bit wasn’t a bad idea.

It didn’t take long at all for Barry and Wally to return with the equipment, getting it set up in record speed next to the bed before Barry joined Bruce back in the lab to test the different resins. They were simple tests that could all be done at the same time, so they were back upstairs soon after Leslie had finished drawing Danielle’s blood.

“Here’s the lucky winner,” Barry chimed, holding a second canister of the resin that they had found cleared the blood blossom toxin from Danny’s blood while having minimal effect on the important parts that needed to stay.

“Woah… I was expecting something bigger,” Sam admitted, watching Barry from where she was hovering near Danielle.

Barry just chuckled as he headed to the machine and popped the canister in. “It doesn’t need to be that big. We’re only pulling a tiny amount of toxin from him and putting the rest back after all.”

“Fair enough,” Sam accepted, attention shifting slightly as Danielle flexed her arm and moved around to make sure she wasn’t dizzy or anything.

“And you’re sure it’s going to work?” Tucker asked, his nervous nature prompting him to reach for reassurance despite the procedure not being used on him.

“It’s not as common as dialysis, but it’s still something that’s been used thousands of times on thousands of different people. I’m sure it’ll get most, if not all of the toxin,” Barry assured, stepping out of the way so Leslie could proceed to get Danny connected to the device. Unfortunately the IV needle that had been used was too small, so Leslie couldn’t use it for one of the tubes, even if it had been in the right place. So it was simply pinched closed, and disconnected to use again later while the other two tubes were inserted.

The others continued to chatter lightly, but Jazz was more focused on what Leslie was doing. How she was prepping Danny’s arm, where she put the tubes, trying to guess what she was looking for. She didn’t think this would be the last time Danny, or Danielle got poisoned, so she felt she should learn as much as she could while she could. It also helped her feel like she was being useful. Adding to her skillset to maybe use later instead of just sitting and being worried. It certainly helped even though once Leslie finally started the machine nothing seemed to be happening. It was a good thing though. No immediate adverse reactions, no sudden drop in vitals. Nothing but the quiet hum of the machine added to the soft beeps of the heart monitor and puffs from the oxygen tank.

Within an hour the others had gotten bored enough to easily be lured away by the rest of Bruce’s family once again.

Thirty minutes after and Jazz was the only one left, having moved to sit on the floor at the side of the bed. She wanted to be close to Danny, but she felt in the way if she sat on the bed. There were too many tubes now. Before he could have been mistaken for just sleeping. But now he really was looking like a coma patient. It made it hard to watch him, even though she refused to leave.

A short time later Jason was knocking on the doorframe to announce his presence, causing Jazz to look up.

“...Hey,” she greeted, a little confused.

“Hey,” Jason returned, “Just checking in. You need anything?” A half lie. He’d actually volunteered to hang out for a while to make sure the hemoperfusion process was going well. Luckily it looked like Danny’s vitals hadn’t changed much from two hours ago.

Jazz blinked in mild surprise at the offer, but even after thinking for a moment she couldn’t come up with anything. Part of her knew there were probably a multitude of things that she should be at least curious about, but mostly she just felt tired. The near quiet of the room while she knew everyone was okay and having fun was nice. She was content to just relax as well as she could for now. “No, I’m good,” she responded.

Jason didn’t quite believe her, his brow raising. “Says the girl sitting on the floor wearing random spare clothes borrowed from someone else, and doing nothing but stare at the other side of the room,” he commented dryly with a half smirk, stepping into the room and taking a seat on the floor near Jazz.

The comment caught Jazz off guard, but she could only give a small giggle. She probably did look at least a little unwell huh. “...I guess I just haven’t fully realized I’m safe yet,” she admitted. “It’s hard to think about anything.”

“Fair enough,” Jason accepted, being able to understand the feeling. “...Do you mind if I ask you something then?”

Another mild surprise, but Jazz just nodded after a moment. “Sure.”

“You mentioned before…” Jason started, thinking back to something Jazz had said before lunch, “that your parents tried to hurt Danny before they knew….” The reminder was potentially a very unhappy topic, but it was prodding he felt was necessary. Were they safe at home? Were they runaways? Were their parents involved with the ones that had hurt Danny recently? They needed to know if it was a good idea to try and get these kids back to their family or not. And if he was going to keep Jazz company and monitor the hemoperfusion process he didn’t feel like spending the time in silence.

“....Yeah… Our parents used to be ghost hunters,” Jazz admitted, a sorrowful smile as she stared at her hands. It seemed she was in the mood to talk, for she continued unprompted. “We grew up with their crazy antics. Making machines that could track down and destroy ghosts. Always talking about dissecting them, or using them as a power source. They had so many studies supporting the idea that ghosts were just residual emotions from people, given human form, but not actually human. So many things that convinced others that ghosts weren’t people anymore.”

“And yet… all it took was them finding out that Danny was half ghost, half dead, and it made them rethink everything they had developed. He was fourteen when… And I didn’t find out until a few months later. I didn’t even tell him I knew, because I knew if I did he would get scared. Why wouldn’t he, after all? With the idea that his mom and dad might cut into him just to satiate their curiosity looming over his head. It was an accident that they found out, and I was so scared he was going to run away. But mom just tried her best to treat him like Danny, and nothing else. Dropped her gun and told us we should go home and get a snack, because we were probably hungry. It…. it was enough to keep him home, but it wasn’t enough for everything to be okay. It was like everyone was trying to pretend everything was normal, but we all knew it wasn’t. They stopped doing their experiments. Started pretending they were oblivious to anything related to ghosts. It was awful. I felt so… so useless.”

“It was months of this stupid, awkward fake normal family facade before it finally broke. Danny accidentally got burned when mom was cooking, and she had a breakdown. We found out that our dad was okay with everything, but mom was having a hard time because she couldn’t believe that she had hurt Danny before. Even if she didn’t know it was him. But, after she had a really long talk with my brother, things started to look more normal again. Only this time, instead of being ghost hunters my parents dove headfirst into trying to figure out how to help ghosts. We realized we couldn’t take Danny to the doctors anymore, so my parents and I tried to make sure we could fill in that role. Mom would try all sorts of new, ectoplasm rich meals for him, making sure they tasted good to him. She started making smoothies for him every morning once she found ones he liked. On top of helping him study for school every day when there weren’t other ghosts causing trouble. There’s so many nights I found them asleep together on the couch. Danny was always mom’s favorite, and I think dad got jealous about how close they got. Until Danielle came back from her world exploration adventures and Danny convinced her to officially meet my parents. Then Dad and Danielle latched onto each other so quickly, and became inseparable.”

The retelling had seemed a little painful at first, but it was easy to see that Jazz was at least content with the way her family life was now. It wasn’t perfect, but then again families never were. Jason couldn’t help notice the tone of voice she took when talking about her parents favoring her siblings. She didn’t seem too upset, but there definitely wasn’t complete indifference to the facts. “...Does it make you upset? Having your siblings be your parents’ favorites?” he couldn’t help asking.

Jazz could only snicker at the question, falling quiet for a beat before answering. “Sometimes,” she admitted, then looked over with a mildly mischievous grin that made Jason semi think of Danielle. “But then I remember I’m Danny’s favorite, and I’m usually okay.”

The proud declaration made Jason snicker, glad to hear she had at least one thing keeping her from devolving into jealousy. She didn’t seem to want to talk much more though, and Jason wanted to leave the conversation on a happier note and therefore didn’t ask about the ‘Guys in White’ Danielle had mentioned before. So instead, after another stretch of quiet, he just chose to reassure her. “... He’ll be okay.”

Jazz didn’t answer immediately, drawing in a sigh and letting it go. She seemed to be doing much better as the day had stretched on, handling the news that Danny had poison throughout his bloodstream much better than the suggestion of drawing his blood. And being reassured that he would be okay, she gained a smile. “... He better be,” she commented, gaining a glint in her eye that Jason had seen in others he knew. “Otherwise the government back home will have to deal with a new super villain family.”

The comment only caught Jason slightly off guard, eyes widening just for a moment as he looked at Jazz before bursting into a hearty laugh. “Fair enough,” he agreed. The son of a family getting killed by the government was a legit enough back story for super villains in his opinion.

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lil bit of home situation dump and hopefully the last bit of the part that was giving me trouble. Nice to get to draw Jason without the suit XD though I almost forgot to draw the bandage on his fingers.

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Tag list: @galaxy-sharks-and-bottled-ships, @starscreamlover, @nerdynonnativenarnian, @dragongoblet, @megacharizardx99

@bellathecatastrophe, @cj-ghostemoji-destielpie, @asexual-insomniac, @wolfeyedwitch, @tkiesai, 

@fanaroff, @raven1508, @nebulainajar, @serasvictoria02, @oliocelottafanfics,

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@op-sys-chaos, @kirasigncomics, @ehobep

[kapi-tanka]

thanks to chimaerakid, werewolfnoir and f3arofmusic for inspiration! had so much fun drawing these, more about my characters will be under the cut. honestly i'm obsessed with this meme template now. i wish there were more fallout oc symbolism drawings. so um.. mutuals and fallout people in general, maybe you want to draw these too? maybe it could become some sort of a tag, even? (i hope it's okay to tag you. i'd tag even more people but it's too much tags already and i'm not sure if some of you have ocs)

template

i'm tagging: @asougi-engineerin @auntiemurdoc @crystallizedmiracle @hatmause @cyberobsessed @thebigolbee @datura-tea @boowomp @plasma-packin-mama @xykcta @somethingaboutmint @fnvne @wastelandhell @milramemo @thapunqueen @zeniffzen @super-shishkebab

i basically have 3 couriers who are relatives. my main one is oscar, but there's also his sibling andrea/andy and their uncle ovidio aka the ramirez of their family (oscar and andy are almost never referred to by their last name). all of them exist in the same timeline but they don't interact much during the events of the game (because of lots of family drama basically). i made three main characters because i feel like oscar can't cover a lot of fnv content due to lack of time plus dlcs don't match his vibes at all. so andy is my old world blues and dead money protag, and ovidio is honest hearts and lonesome road protag. i "gave" them some base game content too.

andy travels with raul and lily, she's a huge non-humans sympathizer. ovidio travels with cass and boone and he's very ncr-aligned. and my man oscar works towards the independence with arcade and veronica. i'm glad to tell more if you're interested!

[too-much-tma-stuff]

I Don’t Believe You Care

Y’all are my beta readers XD if you see any errors please let me know. I’m going to post this on AO3 later.

Part one here

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The scolding that Bruce gave Damian was the gentlest either of them had ever received, but it did cow Damian enough that he behaved while meeting Cass and Stephanie. It helped that they were sweet, Stephanie was a bit energetic and overwhelming but Cass was quiet and seemed to understand them better. She helped reign in the over-enthusiastic family friend and Danny was glad to have her as a sister. She didn’t speak much, she communicated in signs that he didn’t understand but he thought that he could learn in time, and he wanted to. When he told her so she smiled and Steph squealed, insisting loudly and brightly that they would be happy to teach him!

He couldn’t help but feel relieved that when Alfred asked Stephanie if she would be staying for dinner she joked that she should actually spend some time at home for once. It seemed like she didn’t live here, though they knew of her identity as Spoiler and her involvement with the bats, all her noise and movement wouldn’t be a consistent presence around the house. Not that Danny didn’t like her! He just thought he’d like her best in relatively small doses before she could overwhelm him.

He would ask Cass to teach him when Steph wasn’t here, it might be just slightly trickier, but he could use the excuse of letting the two friends spend the time they had together. And maybe Tim could help him practice? He must know how to communicate with his sibling after all, and Danny could already tell he and Tim were going to get along.

He was even more glad that Steph had gone when Dick arrived because as the man came barrelling in like a hurricane Danny didn’t want to think of how much chaos and noise they would be together! For all his practice in social graces they really should have prepared him for this chaos, crowds, and friendly contact. But the compound had been short sighted and ill prepared in such regards.

Dick was the worst, Danny was almost jealous of Damian who could snarl and squirm and draw a knife on the man when Dick tried to hug him. Danny put on a smile and forced a laugh and pretended that his instinctual reaction to being held like this didn’t make him want to bite and rend. He knew that Dick meant well, or at least he thought so, the man was honestly famously good natured and cared for his family. Danny wanted to be on his good side, and couldn’t bring himself to actually say he didn’t want to be touched, or at least wasn’t used to it. The sudden, quick, and broad movements Dick favoured with his dramatics made Danny want to flinch though he had better self control then that!

He dodged hugs as gracefully as he could for the rest of the night and managed to sit him and Damian between Bruce and Tim for dinner, with Danny sitting next to Tim of course. The food was good, and everyone in the family was very welcoming, but by the end of it Danny was exhausted.

He was good at this sort of thing, trained to charm, and redirect apparently effortlessly, but the thing was it wasn’t effortless, and these sorts of situations were harder to simulate then battle. Danny had done a good job, he could tell that he had them charmed, and had them warming up to Damian too actually, but he also knew that he was drooping. He should hide his fatigue, but he was still human, he yawned.

“You’ve had a long day young masters,” Alfred said, instantly picking up on the mood, he was an impressive man and they both knew it. “Now that you’ve eaten why don’t you go settle in your rooms and get some rest? I took the liberty of going to buy you some pajamas and basics that should fit the two of you. I’m sure Master Bruce will be happy to take you both out to buy clothes more suited to your taste tomorrow,” he added.

“I think that’s a good idea, don’t you Damian,” Danny asked, glancing over at his brother.

“I’m not tired,” Damian harrumphed, of course he wouldn’t admit defeat. “But I would like to see where we will be staying,” He added. No doubt he’d thoroughly check security and for any potential surveillance before he slept. Danny wasn’t going to bother.

“Very good young Masters,” Alfred said with a nod, pausing to look back at Dick. “Will you be staying the night as well?” He asked the older man, who gave a rueful smile and shook his head.

“I’m needed in Bludhaven, I was able to come for the day on such short notice but I couldn’t get more time off. I’ll schedule a proper vacation as soon as possible so I can come back and visit!” He said giving Danyal and Damian an encouraging smile, and Danny did a good job of looking disappointed that Dick was leaving even though he was glad to have some time to get his feet under him before more of the family would be under the same roof once more. Maybe he hadn’t been as subtle as he thought about dodging Dick’s affection though, because he didn’t try to hug either of the boys goodbye.

He bid their siblings farewell and followed Alfred up to his bedroom, seeing Damian into his first and then going into his own. He was quick to brush his teeth and change into the comfortable, soft pajamas they’d been bought which did fit perfectly. Unfortunately when he flopped down into bed, regardless of how exhausted he was, he couldn’t sleep. He kept replaying the events of the day, how he did, how he could have done better, what he had learned about the family and what it meant.

After maybe an hour once things had gone quiet on the other side of the wall and he thought Damian was asleep Danny sighed and got up. He opened his window and climbed out, he braced his feet on the sill and shoved off, jumping unnaturally high for a human to grab on the edge of the roof and drag himself up onto it. He scrambled up gracefully and silently, finding a comfortable place to lay, looking up at the sky. He stayed there, zoning out for a while before he heard a soft thump on the roof near him.

“How did you get up here?” Bruce asked, dressed as Batman this time, Danny glanced over and gave him a small smile.

“You can’t really see the stars here,” he said, looking back up at the sky. “I won’t miss much about the compound, but I’ll miss the stars.”

“Not settling in particularly well?” Batman asked, sitting down on the ridge of the roof, a respectable distance between them.

“Oh I’ll be alright,” Danny said with a shrug. “They always raised me to be your heir after all, Damian will have more trouble than me. Want some advice?”

“Hm,” Batman said, an affirmative sound.

“Take him to a zoo, buy him art supplies. He’ll deny he cares about such things, but I know him better then anyone and he does. Once he realizes he really can be himself out here, that’ll help start undoing the brainwashing.”

“How are you so insightful about the situation? You can’t have avoided the brain washing.” Batman asked, and Danny shrugged. “What about you?”

“What about me?” Danny asked, glancing over just for a moment.

“How do I bond with you?” Bruce asked, and Danny laughed.

“You don’t have to. I don’t need to be won over or convinced. Our grandfather is a violent fool who only cares for himself, teaching me to recognize manipulation showed me what he really was years ago. If you turned me away entirely I still wouldn’t go back to the league.” He said with a wry smile.

“Hm,” Batman sounded unimpressed. “You’re still my son. I’d like to bond with you?”

Danny sighed, not sure why Batman was being stubborn when his energy was best spent elsewhere. He sat up and looked over at Batman, tilting his head slightly. “I don’t need you,” He said somewhat bluntly. “Damian does, give him your focus. If you truly want you can buy me an instrument, and books on astronomy.”

Batman nodded thoughtfully and Danny lay back down, there was a few moments of quiet between them before B spoke up again. “How did you get up here?” He asked again and Danny sighed.

“I guess you have to know eventually,” He murmured. “Part of the reason we’re both here is because Grandfather couldn’t decide who he wanted to be his heir, it was always supposed to be Damian but something happened and suddenly I was a much more attractive choice.”

“What happened?” B prompted after a moment.

“You know about the Pits? Most people dunked in it come back less, in the mind usually, sometimes less human, feral and monstrous. But rarely, once in the blue moon, someone comes back more.” Danny glanced over at Batman, and when he blinked he let his eyes flash green, glowing with the vile waters the kept Ra’s limping along. He could have explained more about the ways that he was different now, but he didn’t want to let on more then he had to at this point. He wasn’t naive enough to trust Bruce just because they shared blood, so he simply said; “I came back More, and I mean, I’m still a trained assassin, I probably could still have gotten up here even if I hadn’t.”

“But seemingly being chosen by Lazarus made me seem like a better option to grandfather, and your… complicated feelings towards empowered people is well known. So they didn’t know if you’d like me anymore.” His eyes faded back to blue and he looked up at the sky again, he couldn’t read Bruce’s expression under the cowl anyway. “It took a lot of subtle work to convince them to send us both so you could ‘decide which of us you wanted’.”

“Do you expect me to choose one of you?” Bruce asked, unreadable as ever.

“No, not really, you clearly like having many children. Damian still thinks now that you have a biological heir you’ll turn your adopted children away, but that’s grandfather talking and he’s a fool. If you do choose one then choose Damian, I’ll be fine on my own but he needs the help navigating this world. He’s strong, he’s clever, he’s more observant than me, he’ll make a good detective. He’ll be more loyal than me once you win him over too. He’ll be harder to break of the bad habits, I’ve never been as good at killing as him, but once he learns the way you do things I think he’ll be a good Robin.” Danny said, pulling up his knees and wrapping his arms around them, it was a bit chilly on the roof.

Batman hummed and nodded, which was good, if he had continued to push Danny would have had to bring up Jason. He knew that Jason was alive of course, but Bruce didn’t and Danyal would say he was more likely to end up like Jason if he had to but that was a last resort.

“Well I want you to know that both of you are very welcome here. And neither of you have to be Robin, or anything that you don’t want to be. I’ll support you in whatever you want to do, and you being a meta doesn’t change that at all. Both of you have a home here,” Bruce assured.

Danny nodded and gave Bruce a smile before standing up and smiling. “That’s good to hear,” He said, while not believing it at all. Bruce couldn’t and shouldn’t offer such unconditional support after just meeting them. “I should get back inside, it’s getting cold, and I am tired,” He said, wandering over the edge of the roof and stepping off, twisting around to grab the edge and swung off and back through the window before closing the window and brushing himself off so he wouldn’t get to much dirt in his sheets before crawling into bed.

He wasn’t fully asleep before the door to his room opened just enough for Damian to slip inside, he wasn’t surprised, Damian and he weren’t as independent from each other as they acted like they were. “You should have locked your door and blocked it somehow. We cannot trust the mongrels Father has taken in,” he hissed at Danny.

“Damian, shut up and get over here,” Danny mumbled sleepily, not bothering to open his eyes as he lifted the blankets on the other side of the bed. He heard a scoff and waited as Damian did whatever he needed to to feel like the room was secure and then came over to slide into bed next to Danny. Danny held out his arm, they didn’t exactly cuddle even when like this, but Damian liked to hold Danny’s wrist and feel his pulse. He had done it when they were younger but he had stopped for a while, it had only started up again after he had watched Danny die, it was understandable.

Damian wrapped one hand around Danny’s wrist, seeking out his pulse and tucked the other arm under his pillow, no doubt stashing a knife there. “None of them are going to hurt us Dami. They’re used to having multiple siblings, they probably compete, but other then one notable exception we’ve never heard of any of them trying to kill each other have we?”

“You don’t know that, Father’s has never had a biological child before, they must recognize we’re more of a threat then the others,” Damian argued in hushed tones.

“They won’t, we haven’t even proven ourselves yet. We could be incompetent.”

“We’re not!” Damian objected, his voice raising just a little and Danny hushed him softly.

“No, we’re not, but they don’t know that. I would suggest we keep out heads down for at least a month, we learned what we could about them from a distance but we should observe them. We’ve never been out of the compound except on missions, we have a lot to learn and whoever does end up his heir will have to be able to pretend to be normal. I intend to take Tim up on the lessons on popular media, perhaps it isn’t practical, but what about when we inevitably have to interact with people our own age at parties? What about interviews?

“We don’t want to reflect badly on father and if we don’t know Anything about such thing, or have any hobbies, or anything of the sort people will assume he treats us poorly.” Danny murmured and Damian harumphed, even without opening his eyes Danny could tell Damian was gritting his teeth.

“Why should we care what the uncultured masses think?” He hissed furiously and Danny cracked a small smile.

“Because father does. As the Bat his reputation is half of his weapon, and his identity as Bruce Wayne is carefully crafted to both divert suspicion from him being Batman and to make people like him. Father understands well how ones image is a tool, and being a good father is part of his image as Bruce Wayne, we will have to play into it if we want to succeed.” Danyal explained as gently as he could, he didn’t believe all of what he was saying really, or at least the way that he was framing it. He was framing it in the way he thought was best to make Damian start giving the outside world a chance, and hoping that when he did give it a chance he would find he liked it.

It was quiet for a long time which was good, it meant that Damian was properly considering what Danny had to say. He was nearly asleep before Damian spoke again, rousing Danny from his half doze. “Alright, knowing these ‘siblings’ patterns would help, and I can concede the point on the importance of reputation,” He said stiffly.

Danyal had to suppress a smile at his brother’s tone. “Good. And try to remember that unlike Mother and Grandfather batman has a rule against killing. Anything you do you must make sure it is never tracked back to us, especially because he’s not going to suddenly stop caring about them because we share his blood. If he finds out we hurt one of them it would absolutely ruin our chances, or be a huge set back at the very least,” He added, again trying to gently steer his brother in the direction he wanted. He was being manipulative, but it was the way he knew that worked.

“Father should know better then to develop such misplaced attachments,” Damian grumbled but then after a moment of silence he sighed and nodded. “All of our missions have had to be done in secret anyway, with time and planning we’ll manage.”

Well, it had bought them time and that had been Danyal’s goal so he nodded as well. “Good, now sleep Ahki, we’ve both had a long day and I’m tired.”

Damian let out a soft hum and that was all, he kept hold of Danny’s wrist even as he fell asleep, as he always did. Danny liked it too, the physical reminder that Damian was there, that they were safely together. He didn’t think that either of them would have to sneak out before dawn to make sure they weren’t caught and punished for such childish behaviour, he truly felt like they could rest.

Part three

[new-revenant]

Dannymay Day 24: Electricity

She’s back! A redraw-and redesign-of Dani as a Batman vigilante, Bataze! Why did name her Bantaze before. The bat theming was right there. Also Battaze is a good variant, can’t decide which is better.

The story I was writing for her, “Only God is my Judge in Wayne Manor” is on indefinite hiatus, like my other dp x dc story. I just tried to juggle too many characters with no idea of what I was really doing, which gave me massive burnout. If I were to start over the story from scratch, I would have Duke meet her and have him take her in as her sidekick. And by that I mean Dani would force her way into becoming his sidekick. I honestly should’ve focused the story on him more, I don’t think I even mentioned him much in the fic ha ha. I love you Cass, but this wasn’t supposed to be your story. Anyways, design notes, the original drawing, and a link to the original drawing is under the cut. Oh, and an alt version of his outfit with split color is also under the cut. I dunno, I just like these colors better personally, but you might like the alt version!

This is what the original looked like. While it’s not bad, I still kinda like how it looks actually, there are some noticeable anatomy mistakes. What are those legs. I’ve gotten better but I’m still not perfect. But I am better. Also I don’t know why I drew her boobs like that, idk it just looks weird. And while the fit does look good on her, it also doesn’t look superheroy enough. Which is where this new design comes in:

I made her look more like Danny with the suit. I know I have made a ghost form suit for her before, but I wanted her design to be more simple. Her logo is based on Danny’s and Robin’s, more specifically the fact that Robins have logos on them, so it wouldn’t look too out of place for Dani to have one. The logo looks like a D, P, and B, all in one. People-and probably also the BatFam-would be a bit confused as to why her logo looks so weird, but she knows what it’s supposed to be, so she doesn’t really care ha.

The whole suit is rubber like Danny’s suit, with stainless steal tips on her fingers and the soles of her shoes. I also changed her mask to be more in line with the other Batfam’s masks. And her hair is more symmetrical, it looks like she has little devil horns haha.

Here’s the alt version! And here’s the link to the original drawing -> here. I’m glad I came back to this design, I’ve gotten much better at character design since I first made it. Maybe I’ll came back to again, but it’ll be more like deciding with version of this outfit to use than a total rework.

[that-basic-simp]

That's My Wife

Star and Stripe X Fem!Reader CW: N/A WC: 1.1k+

"You have everything?" I asked Cassie as she was getting ready for the celebration.

"I believe I do," she said.

"I don't know why they're doing this," I chuckled, shaking my head.

"A parade isn't too bad," she said.

"I get that, but it's not like you haven't taken down most of the bad guys here."

"Well that, and also it's to commemorate those we have lost," she said.

"That is true. I just know they're going to make it a big deal."

"The people there are going to make a big deal about it because I'm there. I honestly don't want to be," she let out a sigh. "I just want to sit with you in the crowd and watch the parade go by."

"I know. But I will be out there cheering you on," I smiled, a thought popping into my head.

A few friends of mine have done this prank on their significant other. It was a harmless prank, but it was basically they call their significant other either their husband or their wife to someone else. And their significant other is thrown off by it. I've been wanting to try this out on Cassie, but I haven't found the right time. Maybe this parade isn't the best time since the media would be all over us, considering that they hardly know about us being together. Not even my friends know about our relationship. But maybe with all the commotion, no one would hear me beside her.

"I've gotta run, I'll see you out there. I'll be looking for you," she said and pecked my lips.

"See you out there, Cass. I love you."

"I love you, too," she opened the apartment door and closed it behind her.

Once I had finished getting ready, I left the apartment and my friends were waiting for me with their significant others. Of course I felt left out whenever we'd go out since I couldn't bring Cassie with me. But Cassie didn't want anything bad happening to me if others knew, but I could trust my friends with that information. We walked down a few blocks since the parade was being held close by where we lived.

"We saw Star and Stripe on our way here!" my friend smiled at me, practically bouncing on her feet.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah. I had no idea she was going to be in the parade."

"It's the talk of the country," her significant other said. "Why wouldn't they have her there?"

"Maybe to ensure no one attacks," my other friend said.

"Or they're trying to draw out a villain that's been hard to track right now."

"Either way, it's always nice to see Star and Stripe. She's always active with the community," I said. "As much as she can be."

"Since when do you know about that?" the first friend asked, poking my arm.

"I just read up on all the things she has done."

"I sense a fangirl," the second friend said.

"So what if I'm a fangirl of her?" I chuckled. "I'll be her biggest fan yet."

I technically was, since I literally knew everything about her since she shares a lot with me. Even when she doesn't, I still know what is going on with her. We reached one of the roads of where the parade was going to be taking place today. It was more on the back end of the parade, which I didn't mind. That just meant Cassie could come home earlier than if this was the beginning section.

"We have some time to kill," the first friend said.

"And there's not many people here," said their significant other.

"We get some nice seats then!" the second friend said.

"Front row, too," I said, leaning against the road barrier they had set up the night before.

As we were waiting, more and more people started to show up. They were watching the live stream of the parade since they were unable to head towards the beginning. We were watching it on my phone and my friends were always pointing out Cassie. I want to say they knew, but I didn't want to ask. Right in the middle of the live stream, I get a text notification from Cassie. My heart dropped as my friends looked at the name. I had put her in as Cass with a little heart emoji next to her name.

"Who is Cass?" the first friend asked.

"N-No one," I swiped up on the notification, making it disappear.

"Hey, look, they're rounding the corner!" a watcher nearby yelled.

My friends turned to look to find they were indeed rounding the corner. I turned off the live stream and went to see what Cassie had texted me.

"I used New Order so I am able to hear what you say. I'll see you soon. ;)"

I smiled and texted her back.

"See you soon."

"There she is! Star!" the crowd cheered as the car she was in passed by. She was in a convertible with Ethan driving her. She sat on the back seats and were waving to the people.

Since there was a lot of commotion and no one could really hear me, or they weren't paying attention, I locked eyes with her and smiled.

"That's my wife right there!" I said loud enough to if someone was listening, they would hear me.

Her face dropped, a shocked expression came across before blush crawled onto her face. She smiled warmly at me, blowing a kiss in my general direction before winking. That got the crowd going. After the parade had ended, my friends and I headed back to my apartment.

"Did you see what happened to Star?" one of them asked.

"What happened?" I asked, turning to face them.

"Her expression changed. Maybe someone complimented her when she was driving by or something," another said.

"It's the talk of the media right now. It's going viral," said a third.

They handed their phone around. It was true. Someone had caught it on camera and they were asking what just happened. I smiled to myself, knowing it was I who caused that. Maybe it wasn't for the best, but I know Cassie enjoyed it. I waved goodbye to them and headed inside and found Cassie was already back before I was.

"Cass?"

She came up behind me and picked me up, sweeping me off my feet.

"Cassie!" I squealed, which turned into laughter as I pressed my forehead against hers, a hand resting on her cheek while the other was on her shoulder.

"Hey, love," she smiled.

"You looked great out there," I said, caressing her cheek.

"I heard what you said."

"I know. Why do you think I said it?" I giggled.

"One day, Y/N," she said, pressing a quick peck to my lips. "One day it will happen and you can finally say that Star and Stripe is yours and no one else's."

I smiled, "So we'll finally come out?"

"If you're ok with that. I don't think we need to hide anymore. I don't want to."

I nodded my head, "Besides, I want to show off my wife to my friends."

She shuddered slightly, "I'm totally marrying you now."

I chuckled as we headed towards the bedroom. I had an inkling of an idea of what was going to happen next.

[dailycass-cain]

Birds of Prey #12 brings the Cass action to the forefront!

It also gets me something I always wanted to see: Sophie Campbell drawing Cass. But it comes-- with a TWIST!!

We're nearing the end point of this arc, and we get the craziest issue yet of the world hoping. This time the Birds getting "toonnified".

And that is "the twist"

Since I first saw her work on IDW TMNT. I always wanted to see Sophie Campbell draw Cass. Well wish granted this issue. But it's an utterly adorable Cass.

Though, what shall we call this Cass version? Toon Cass? Cass Toon? No wait that one is taken. 🤪

Anyhoot, this toon world feels honestly the most fleshed out of them all. Like it felt there was this underlying unease with each world the Birds visited.

Here this is the first one that feels like a world onto itself. I wonder where this will go with the "final world" teased at the end.

Even though, last issue Cass was put on the back burner, this issue she gets A LOT of focus. So much so I believe this issue she has more dialogue than the prior ELEVEN issues!

Even with all this Cass, all the Birds get a moment this issue. Barda and Vixen get absolute banger moments this issue and their toon designs are just perfection. Likewise so does Sin, and even Babs. Everyone gets something this issue.

And it all starts with Cela walking out, and Cass following. Now I now there was A LOT of shippers jumping onto the two this issue.

So let's dissect the real bonding, and maybe-- it can go to be more?

Writer Kelly Thompson has touched on many dimensions to Cass in the series thus far. Here she digs into the core of Cass: compassion.

A few issues ago, we learned Cela's origins, and last issue put it on the back burner, but this issue we get the forefront as she knows the Birds reunited that time is almost up with her newfound companions and the hope of being free from this prison.

I think Cass can really relate to Cela. That she's stuck in this world, and really is trying to be good despite the world wanting otherwise. Not to mention losing A LOT of sisters?

It sounds FAMILAIR doesn't it?

think Cass relates a lot to Cela and is trying to break that ice with her being there for her. She can see how her body is screaming for someone to vent with.

And well... we get the scene between the two.

Now as to WHY people are jumping on this ship bandwagon so much? Well, when was the last time Cass had an honest to god love interest in the main DCU?

You could say Stephanie Brown (Batgirls 2021-2023). Or... Harper Row (2016).

But if we're going to her honest-to-goodness CONFIRMED she's interested in?

It was Sal from Batgirl Vol. 2 (2009).

It's been THAT long since Cassandra Cain had a CONFIRMED love interest.

I think fan interest in wanting Cass to get SOME loving is WHY we're at this point. The girl deserves it. Though personally I see ANOTHER option (if not Harper), who just happens to show up this issue too.

So I get WHY many shipping vibes are there for Cass/Cela.

But the rest of the issue is Cass coming up with a plan to FINALLY be free while also dealing with Maia problem too.

And here we get our SECOND bit of Cass in the issue.

This and a few other reaction images are so getting memed by us Cass fans. I know it.

But yeah it's a nice "character progression" from someone who told a "bad story" in #1 to now coming up with a good plan in #12.

And the plan even involves a homage to what Sophie Campbell is most famous for. 😁😁😁

You thought I wouldn't notice the streams crossed did ya? BUT I DID!

Birds of Prey #12 is an emotional ride but with a toony twist. It has such a glorious cute edge this issue. And this world with the Birds REALLY clicked. I've gone back to reading this issue more over than the prior bits of this arc.

I feel there's nothing more to say than I'm REALLY curious where this all goes next issue and how this will tie into the Spirit World?

I guess we'll see. Other than, I'm curious what your thoughts are on Cass/Cela?

And are you surprised it's been THAT LONG Cass had a love interest?

*this is me now waiting for comments*

[bomber-grl]

Hiro Hamada + Artist reader

Pairing(s): Hiro Hamada x Gn!reader (no pronouns used)

He definitely asks you to draw him

Mostly to just get on your nerves but still-

He’d still want you to draw him even if it’s mostly all jokes and stuff

And if ur here reading this then ur most likely the artist of the family )

I see u

Anyway, he loves all your drawings

He’s always complimenting them and stuff

And if you’re into painting and stuff then he loves it even more

Honestly I kinda hc him as an artist too

And not like a young art prodigy way

But in a cringe 2012 tumblr art way

Just cuz he’s smart doesn’t mean he’s good at art 😭)

He mostly just draws mecha suits and his projects and stuff

He also just draws u and him with that one anime art style everyone had in the beginning of their art journey

Beautiful 😍/s

He always leaves these drawings in ur backpack/bag man

U just wanna open up ur binder or notebook? Well jumpscare cuz of the whiplash those horrendous ass drawing broski be making.

Most cursed thing ever…

U can never escape

Anyway

Going back to him wanting to be drawn

U do draw him at some point, just not w much effort

Atleast that’s the one you actually give him

And he put it in his phone case to display it😍

True romance guys

Anyway, he ended up finding out you actually draw him /srs and not /j

And bc he’s super nosey once he sees ur sketchbook he just open that shi up

So when he skips through a few pages

Low and behold those beautiful ass masterpieces

Either that or u unknowingly accidentally left a drawing of hiro behind and cass saw them

She was so proud and impressed by u that she showed hiro

Regardless of either scenario,

Hiro never thought he could be perceived as good looking but he’s not complainin

Then here comes living hell

He gets a huge ass ego and starts teasing u

Stops cuz u started ignoring him 😭

Eventually apologizes but only agrees to fully drop it if u give him one of those scrumptious drawings of him

He’s so annoying 😤(cute 🤭)

Eventually tries to casually bring it up but when u press behind his and knees and trip him randomly he knows to drop it

Embarrassing 🤭

But yea pookie bear loves your drawings

Real message sent to you by hiro, said in the third person)

Extra - def the type to draw cursed drawings of him as super buff or sum carrying u or vise versa w u as super buff and him all kawaii and shi

Timbers and shivered ✅

———————————————————————————

A/n: hope you liked :))

[winchester-reload]

I have a few thoughts about the Winchesters finale, and though I wasn’t gonna weigh in on this, it turns out I needed to write this down to get it out of my head, so here we go.

I understand that Misha was approached to be included on the show and that there was a “scheduling conflict” that included multiple conversations with Jensen. Here’s my interpretation of that: 

I believe Cas was supposed to make a cameo in episode 13 to tee up the confession resolution—this was always the episode where they were going to crack open the “surprise twist” even before learning they would only get 13 episodes total. In the original scenario, episode 13 would have been the hellatus episode rather than a finale, leaving room for everything to come to a head with episode 22 instead. It’s then they would have given us the actual Dean and Cas reunion. This would have wrapped both stories nicely with each group going off into their own respective sunsets—their own happy endings, while still leaving all the room for the new crew to explore more seasons; all along, we see, The Winchesters was about Dean and Cas as much as it was about Mary and John.

When they didn’t get the back half of the season picked up, I assume they feared it would be more dangerous to show a Cas cameo without getting to address the confession, so Misha likely opted to be left out instead. With the only hint to Cas being Dean’s line that he was looking for his family when he found the Akrida, then directly drawing the parallel that Jack and Bobby were “family.” The core crew for Dean has always been Bobby, Sam, Jack, AND Cas. And he wasn’t looking for Sam because he was still on earth. So who’s left? You might be compelled to believe he was window shopping AU versions of his parents, but he confirms he ran into the Akrida in this world and then sought to interfere with the order by approaching John in an effort to prevent it from spreading to Sam's world. (Why Cas would be AU hopping, idk. The boy is really afraid of being shot down, I guess.)

It goes far to explain the vast narrative parallels we saw reflected in the Monster Club crew if it was intended as a setup for the confession payoff. It honestly doesn’t make a lot of sense otherwise. There’s no reason these people should be living Dean's experiences and regrets every episode unless the writers wanted the viewer to be thinking about the lessons and resolutions in how they relate to Dean too.

Additionally, as this has been a largely uncontested take, this is Jensen's well-funded fanfic come to life. Complete with the embracing of many of our favorite fanfic tropes and emphasized by Dean’s own words throughout the season. Because this is an obvious embrace of that “write your own story” fan side, I believe the reason Dean couldn’t even say Cas’ name in the episode is because they were going to change the spelling from “Cass” as it was in the show proper to the fan-adopted (and more accurate) spelling of “Cas,” which would have appeared in the subtitles and later the script pages.  And even that little thing right there would have been a huge giveaway to the whole game. And a very dangerous thing to do if there wasn’t going to be enough time for follow-through. 

But the truth is, this isn’t a game for many people, and the harm that can be caused by good intentions is just as real. It also begs the question: why should this be so difficult? The answer is it’s not. Edging forever isn’t fun. It’s torture. I understand there’s an art to storytelling, but your audience is weary, and trust has been violated too many times. Even still, the flip side of that coin is honest to god respect for DeanCas endgame means taking the story and the reveal seriously. It’s a tightrope walk. And one that Robbie somehow managed to keep balanced after the finale, without it falling either way.  Also we also need to consider the possibility that Jensen did pitch a full-on destiel love story spin-off but got shot down, opting to couch it in a more CW-branded world instead. He’s mentioned over half a dozen pitches were rejected. It's up to you whether you want to give him the benefit of the doubt on that.

But, I’m gonna be honest here, I don’t know that we will ever get that resolution we crave. Even Robbie confirmed The Winchesters were always meant to “go it alone” after the first season. It’s hard to imagine Dean popping in there to fuck around again after that handoff. But the dude is clearly a very restless sea-faring*, swoopy-haired mofo right now, so I’ll leave that one up to the SPN multiverse and the new Mr. Superwholock’s magical universe-traveling impala. (This show used to be about what again? *looks at notes*.) And FWIW, if they do get green-lit for a whole second season or are allowed to move networks, I believe a good-faith effort will be made to tie the narrative parallels we saw in season one to some real Dean and Cas resolution. If there gets to be a world where John *might* not turn into an abusive dick, then this possibility has to be true too.

For the record, I enjoyed The Winchesters, all the new characters, and the doors the finale opened for the possibility of more. I would have been fine half-watching it with no promises, empty head no thoughts, but I got my clown** suit on again, and though I mostly kept quiet, unlike last time, I did regrettably manage to drag a few friends down with me yet again.  Though the spec sessions were epic, and we did get some art out of it—it still rocks the boat when the base level expectations were only 1. Dean alive, and 2. seeing Cas again. 

But for anyone, like me, upset by the (likely unintentional) Cas-baiting or anyone still reeling about why this stuff can hit so hard, here’s an interesting article about the way our brains respond to fictional characters. Tl;dr: There’s nothing wrong with you. This is science. And while you’re at it, take a look at this article about the very real power of disenfranchised grief over character loss.

Ramble on, fam. And take care of yourselves.

<3 Jackie

*Um hi he appears as a sailor? Literally, on a show with a story Dean is writing whose audience is looking for a resolution to a conversation between two people who’re famously the “most shipped” characters of all time? That’s not an accident. That’s intentional. And it’s another reason why there might be a bitter taste in your mouth. These nods came without resolution, so it still feels dirty, despite the brilliant Easter egg.

**I hesitate to say “clown” here because the lesson on episode 12 was that the clowns were the ones who chose a self-induced limbo rather than face some personal hard revelations. That sounds more like a certain closeted character than it does the people cheering him on, and that felt like an intentional nod too.

***obviously, this is my own rambling spec as I try to reorder my thoughts in the wake of the finale.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

out of curiosity, do you have any preferred headcanons for how tall the members of the Batfam are? who's the tallest to shortest?

listen I don't have exact measurements but I do have vibes. I'm going to say right out of the gate that I simply do not hold with DC artists and their habit of Russian nesting dolling the Robins so they're each a little bit shorter with age, it's a useful visual shorthand but it's also not my truth even if I sometimes agree with portions.

for instance: I do have to concede that Bruce needs to be the tallest of the Batboys in order to enable a lot of his whole schtick, especially your modern era Batmans who are built to be tanks as opposed to the sleeker, more acrobatically-oriented Batman of earlier ages. Batfleck honestly had a great build for it, 6'4 and built to loom.

on the other hand, I Know what male gymnasts look like and Dick came from a whole family of them; he doesn't need to be SHORT short but brother he is not the tallest Robin by any stretch. he's 5'8 if he's Lucky, likely shorter. and he's fine with it! he isn't insecure about being a compact king!

I strongly dislike the recent development towards drawing adult Jason as a brute, but I have long enjoyed the headcanon that he would have had a hard growth spurt after Bruce took him in and he didn't have to worry about food insecurity. he is absolutely taller than Dick but, HOT TAKE, I don't think he's a Lot taller. as Red Hood he's definitely exaggerating the difference with chunky boots + his stupid full-face mask for extra height, + his jacket and all his gear make him look taller and broader than Nightwing in his little skintight getup. out of costume they physically look much more similar.

I also super hate when Tim is drawn as a skinny short little waif, genuinely there's no reason for that. that's a little American rich boy who grew up on milk and white bread, there's no reason for him to look like he has Victorian urchin wasting disease. fuck this, Tim is taller than both Dick and Jason. same energy as the improv kid I went to high school with who was 5'11 but cool about it.

completing the circle and fully reversing the Robins, I know that other fans have pointed out that Damian's Asian heritage conspires against him being hugelarge as an adult, but genetics are a grab bag and I think he deserves to be Bruce-sized. adult Damian can pick Dick up and put him in the fridge if he wants. at present though his growth spurt is really taking its sweet time and he's hovering around Cass-height (see below).

Duke is hovering in a zone right between Jason and Tim but everyone forgets that and imagines him being taller because the little bat ears on his helmet give him a couple extra inches.

a lot of older comics, especially the Dixon run, frequently have Selina drawn like she's tall as all hell, and I honestly love that for her. 5'11, Megan Thee Stallion kind of build for her.

Cass is frequently drawn as tiny to an extent that is, frankly, implausible and borderline upsetting (if memory serves she literally got folded up and carried in a backpack once?) but listen: she's certainly not tall. I'm willing to offer her 5'3 as an absolute maximum. also literally no one asked but Michelle Yeoh is the Lady Shiva of my heart and shes 5'4, so that's canon To Me.

however tall Dick is in your head I want you to add one (1) inch and that's Barbara. this is so crucial to me.

Steph is like a deeply average 5'4 and a half, and I realize this Does mean that I've Russian nesting dolled the Batgirls (at least in order of appearance in comics, not the actual order they Batgirls) and I am Fine with that. throw Harper Row in here too, she and Steph are just chilling being average height gal pals.

Helena is freakishly tall by Italian woman standards, by which I mean like 5'7.

this is vile and I'm sorry to the Robins but unfortunately Jean Paul is a genetically engineered freak bred to kill so he's probably taller than all of them save for an adult Damian. 6'2 to my miserable boy. beginning to think I was lying when I said I didn't have exact numbers.

so I think in descending order the lineup I've created is Bruce, JP, Selina and Tim, Duke, Jason and Babs, Dick, Helena, Steph and Harper, Damian, Cass.

did I skip anyone vital you want to know about?

[snersona]

Hi! I have followed you for some time on different platforms, and I'm sorry if this comes of weird or something, but I just want to say I love how you draw Cassandra Cain! Honestly, I want to be her... like embody the vibes. 😅 Also, I love your take on Laura Kinney, too! I was wondering what inspired both? I don't usually do these asks. Sorry if this is too vague or something. 😑 Thanks in advance ✌️

- V

p.s. I sent the same ask on IG, but you can just ignore it.

hi!!! im so sorry about not seeing your ig ask!! i really need to be more active over there

my cass design is inspired 50% by L death note and 50% by crona soul eater and i say that with both the utmost shame and the utmost pride

my laura design isnt too final right now but i can confidently say its all on that wolverine (animal). but also in my head she looks like this

thank you so much for the ask and the kind words!!

[thedawningofthehour]

didn't you say you were making Draxum's house in the sims? Did you ever finish? :(

So I whined about this on my main blog, but I'm having issues with my computer. The power port, and I've noticed this for a while, gets extremely hot whenever I try to run anything more intensive than Powerwash Simulator, and the past few months it's become harder and harder to get it to charge. (I'm not overclocking or anything-I bought this computer for gaming and made sure it had the specs to run shit like my heavily modded Skyrim and Fallout, it should be able to run Sims) I contacted Acer about a repair and they quoted me over eight hundred dollars. The actual computer was about 1200-1300, for comparison. There's other issues with it as well-there's a chip on the screen that's really obvious on a white background, and they advertised that it would support a second hard drive, but it's never recognized the one I bought. The power port is the most grievous though, and power ports on laptops are notoriously hard to repair.

And this computer isn't old. I bought it last spring. Less than a year and a half-and I've barely been gaming on it because I've been writing this, so I spent over a thousand dollars on a turtles fanfiction machine essentially. (there's been other reasons, depression funk caused a complete disinterest in gaming and after so many mass shootings I've started feeling guilty whenever playing games with guns, but writing is mostly what I've been using this expensive gaming PC for) I only had the one-year warranty that came with the computer, but honestly I can't find it in myself to regret that too much because I have never once had a company actually honor a warranty. It's like safety deposits on apartments or insurance claims-they'll do everything they can to weasel out of doing what they're supposed to.

So back to your question-I currently don't trust my computer to run the Sims. Or anything else. And I can afford to buy another gaming PC right now, but it would be financially pretty irresponsible. I returned the tablet I bought to draw with, and I think I'm going to get one of those two-in-one laptop/tablets so I can use it for drawing and writing. Maybe I'll be able to run the Sims 4 on that-it doesn't have to run great, I use it mostly as a building simulator. Kind of sucks though, Crusader Kings 3 came out with another expansion pack and the new Cities Skylines is coming out this fall, plus I've been getting a hankering to play Skyrim again.

But enough about my computer woes, I do think I have some screenshots I could show...

First floor, I apparently took these during the first round of building because I made a lot of changes. The lab is way bigger now, and I have the rest of the house shell done. The blank space in the back right is where I was going to put in the multi-story room where the turtles find the weapons-which is probably the least completed part of the entire house because holy hell the building controls do not want to work with me.

But in the back left you can see Cass and Gale's rooms! :)

I do like how the main hallway turned out. I know it was mostly destroyed on Creation Day, but let's just say Draxum redid it in the same style. The middle picture, that's the little storage room that hides the door to the part of the house where Gale's room is. If you know the Sims you can tell where the secret door is.

And yes, I know the half-walls under the stairs look ridiculous, I've fixed it since then. I couldn't just extend the half-wall all the way back because it would delete the upper staircase, for some reason.

I'm pretty proud of how the living room is turning out. Could be a little bigger, but the symmetry of the bookshelves are just too perfect. (also the curved walls get fussy, FUCK CURVED WALLS) Needs some clutter on the mantle though.

The kitchen no longer looks like this, I moved around a lot of the pictures and added another layer of cabinets, because Draxum probably has like six sets of fine china he's received as gifts throughout the years and refuses to part with. I added more retro-looking décor, because the last time he remodeled this room was in the sixties and I wanted it to look a little old-fashioned. I also imagine he refuses to get an electric stove, saying his mystic wood-burning stove works just fine. I tried to work a pantry in, but it didn't really pan out. (lol) And the more I think about it, he probably has a legit larder somewhere in the basement, since Draxum is from a time before refrigeration and would have grown up storing food in underground cellars. (and he deffo has like several years worth of food stored away, he's pretty much a doomsday prepper)

This is also incidentally the layout of the kitchen at my old house, hence the weird octagon dining area. Except we had windows. With no curtains. In the woods. It was unsettling to cook at night.

Draxum's study is bigger now, and I think I added a fireplace? He absolutely has eight bazillion degrees and awards and he puts them ALL on his wall. He earned that shit, dammit.

His bedroom's nothing to write home about. It's comfortable, not luxurious. There's no electric lights because he prefers candlelight.

Just imagine that white bathroom counter stained with pink splotches from Draxum's hair dye.

I had BARELY done anything with the pool, but as you can see it is indeed a tank. Draxum was planning to keep a mutant or something in there.

I was actually in the process of redoing the entire greenery lol, but I think I did an okay job on 1.0. Not the mason jar lamps though, I'm not sure what I was thinking there.

Some pictures of Lab 1.0. The ooze-vine-thing looks terrible; I straight up haven't even started to recreate it in 2.0. I pushed back Draxum's alchemy area and gave him an actual medical bay in the back, which is where The Table would have been located.

That's mostly Gale's area on the left, I think it still broadly looks this way? I didn't put in stuff like the robotics table because it just looked silly-and besides, we're not actually playing this build. We know Galois only needs two hands and a welder to make a robot.

I will leave you off with a slightly more clutterfied Gale's room! Oh, but also, I GOT PURPLE CC CURTAINS FOR HIM. :D After I took this picture, but just know he has them now. He has no reason to have them because he does not have a window, but I'm happy for him.

[pansy-picnics]

Okay hi! I first want to apologize for how long this will be, but I just found your page and am sort of new to tumblr.

For one, your art is amazzingggg! Every fandom you're in is heavily blessed. It's especially awesome for myself as a tts geek, to see so many dedicated to creating content. As far as the unknighted ship goes, from what I can tell, and this may be totally wrong so please correct me if it is, you want more people to be in the ship? I 100% agree that the division in this fandom is honestly detrimental to its growth, however, I feel like it keeps the peace in a way.

I myself like new dream and am fine with the poly ship, but, i was speaking with a friend who doesn't ship unkighted and cassunzel at all. They were explaining to me how it seems like most of the unknighted shippers do prefer cassunzel, which is again fine. I'm not sure if that's a fact through and through but the sentiment is there. But it got me thinking about how that perception in itself could disuade newcomers who are more into the Eugene/Rapunzel relationship? As far as division goes, I mean.

Again it's no problem to have favorites, in fact it's actually great that this fandom has so many spaces to include people who have a particular liking to any one thing, but it's rare to see anyone here really neutral on pairings if that makes sense? I know those people exist, but even beyond ships, our favorite characters, platonic relationships, and much more are pushed usually, very individually.

Love Cass? Great there's a ton of blogs for that! Rapunzel? Eugene? Varian? So many blogs for them too with art, concepts, etc! But with this fandom being so tiny- and that other weird anon we shall not mention by name, I think as long as people aren't flat out rude to each other, maybe a little separation is alright. Not everyone mingles well together. Maybe it's for the better?

I hope this wasn't annoying to read oops- but I am interested to hear your thoughts, if you feel comfortable responding.

oh no absolutely and i really enjoy these kinds of discussions!! i 100% agree lol and i’ve never meant to make it seem like i don’t. the distance between the fandom is absolutely what keeps the peace and as much as i SAY i want people to branch out more i know if it actually happened it would probably just leave us with even more division and infighting LOL😭

the neutrality is VERY rare and it’s honestly the only reason i’m so passionate about it, because i’ve never fallen into any of those divisions and it makes it really hard to find likeminded people!!! it’s why i put so much effort into my characterizations and how i portray all the dynamics, it tends to cater to everyone because i’ve never been able to pick and choose favorites myself haha

i would love for more people to find enjoyment in uknighted dream especially, since the dynamic is so important to me, but i totally understand it’s just not everyones thing and thats cool too!! :) i’m a bit surprised about the idea that most of us prefer cassunzel though, i never thought about it that way especially since i’ve never had a preference myself. i do sometimes find myself drawing cassunzel more, but that’s less because i prefer them over new dream and moreso because i feel the need to be super upfront about it…💀 i’ve had a lot of new dream fans comment on my uknighted dream art who seem to COMPLETELY miss the point and/or just disregard cass entirely. when i try to be subtle abt it most people don’t acknowledge it so most of my art is just me like violently pointing to them like LOOK!! she’s in love with BOTH of them!!! THEY’RE KISSING!!!!

as someone who’s been super involved with the uknighted dream community i’ve never felt like any of us really have a “preference”, a lot of us are hardcore cassunzel fans but that’s a given cuz that’s usually what drives us to the polyam ship in the first place. i have seen a lot of people argue that like “its just an excuse to ship new dream and cassunzel at the same time” and like….Yeah???? thats kind of the point??? 😭 i really don’t understand how people make it out to be a BAD thing bc like. the point of fandom is just to do whatever and have fun. so what if we wanna ship two pairings at the same time. why NOT just shove them into a polycule

it’s not like cass and eugene don’t have chemistry either???? they obviously care about each other and they don’t get along solely for rapunzel!!! i can’t speak for all ukd fans obviously but i think in my experience most of us did just start off “shipping two things at the same time” but with all the substance involved they VERY quickly become a set. cass and eugene’s dynamic whether platonic or romantic is really fun to explore and they all bounce so well off of each other i think it’s perfect!! they all just mean so much to me ok. they’re all equals and at the end of the day that’s really what i try to portray most in my work :3

[slothspamsstuff]

On your sexuality post. Can you elaborate on why cass and tims interactions would prove shes into dudes, id get it if you used kon but TIM?? TIM AS IN HER BROTHER TIM?? I hope to god your not implying what i tbink 🤢

They're not related by blood you know... How is that kind of shipping disgusting in anyway if one does not think of them as brother and sister since oh, you know? They're not actual siblings! The only thing that's closest to them being siblings is Bruce adopting them and he isn't even their biological dad. I don't personally ship them fyi, but I just don't understand what is not right about him into her or vice versa if they are not related by blood?

I sincerely hope you do read the comics and I'm not saying for sure or if it's even a fact that they're into each other cuz you can never be so certain, but the hint is there. Fandom can be fun and enjoyable but sometimes maybe you're just forcing yourself into the headcanon that they're something like blood brother and sister which is not true at all. They're simply close in age, are colleagues in the comics and even if the relationship was retconned later on, it was still a thing written by DC so idk, it's official?! Like okay, maybe by that logic you implied right there, shouldn't Steph and Cass be siblings too, since Steph is literally Robin no.4 or do gods forbid them to be like siblings since they're quite often shipped together and they're best friends? Yeah I just don't understand what you're trying to tell me here.

Though the reason I don't ship them is because the idea of Cass dating her best friend's boyfriend just doesn't sit right with me but that doesn't mean it wasn't implied she might have been into guys too. And admittedly, I haven't caught up on Cass and Kon so I still have a lot of reading to do.

Okay, since you've asked, first off: Batgirl #18, their first platonic interaction after No Man's land.

Then secondly, War Games and Identity Crisis, Tim losing Steph and his father, Cass losing her best friend, and so they bonded over mutual trauma and loss. And they bonded in Batgirl/Robin: Fresh Blood.

Then we have these:

Batgirl #58

Red Robin #25

Ok to be fair, she stabbed Tim on that one.

And this one, idk which comic it's from but there you have it.

Also, Solo (2004) #10, a married couple.

Like come on, are you really gonna tell me I'm problematic when the comics do be drawing them interacting like this? If this isn't enough then I dunno, maybe you should spend more time researching on each of their interactions, or take time to read the comics then go back and tell me what is wrong with everything I said, honestly. And yes, I will read up on Cass and Kon to see more, but you really need to understand that the batfam is a found family and not strictly related by blood, except for the case of Damian, so let people ship whatever they want, even if it's not your thing, because they. are. not .related. by. blood!

[mamawasatesttube]

from the ficlet prompts, “you don’t get it, do you? how can you be so blind! don’t you understand how much i care about you?” or “all my choices lead me to you.”?

By the time the dust settles, all that remains of the pain is a dull, tingly ache running from the left side of his chest up his shoulder and down part of his arm. The sun beats down, hot and strong, and Kon knows he'll be fine by nightfall.

No, the problem isn't the injury. The problem is the person who inadvertently caused it.

"—would you do that?! You're vulnerable to magic! What were you thinking?!" Cassie whirls on him, glaring through unshed tears, and begins pacing again. "I can't—I couldn't—I could have killed you!"

God. Kon has a particular hatred of every single villain they've ever fought who comes in with mind control. It's sick.

"I was thinking, better I take the hit than the busload of civilians behind us," Kon answers honestly. He shifts a little to the side, making room for her to sit on the slab of rubble next to him, but she sucks in a breath and whips around, back into her explosive pacing. "Cass, listen. It wasn't your fault. I can take—"

"You don't get it, do you?!" Cassie actually stamps her foot, like a kid throwing a tantrum. Unlike a kid throwing a tantrum, she cracks the dusty tarmac beneath her shoe. "How can you be so blind?! Don't you understand how much I care about you?! It's not about whether you can take it! I hurt my friend, because he let me!"

Caught, helpless, Kon stares at her. "Cass," he starts, but finds no words. Cassie glares back at him, arms wrapped around herself; there's dirt smeared across her cheek, and her hair sticks up all over her head in hopelessly messy spikes. Her tears have not fallen.

There's only one thing Kon can do. He opens his arms, offering a slight smile.

Cassie crashes into him like a tsunami. One of her arms latches onto his shoulder, tight; the other hand, mindful of the burn from her lasso, instead tangles her fingers into his hair so she can tuck his face into her neck and hold him. He wraps his arms around her just as fiercely, not knowing which of them needs it more.

"You could've fought me off," Cassie whispers, almost but not quite a sob. "You should've."

"Didn't wanna hurt you," Kon admits, and winces, because it feels like he was just trying to avoid the exact guilt she's feeling now. That isn't it, though; it's different. He knows exactly what the guilt she feels now is. The last thing he wants is for her to feel like she deserved to be hurt for it.

"And instead I hurt you!" Her voice cracks. "I didn't... I didn't want to, I just—I couldn't—"

Kon holds her tighter. Her jacket is torn; his fingers catch on a loose thread. "It wasn't you," he tells her. He'll tell her as many times as she needs. "It wasn't you."

Finally, finally, Cassie lets herself start to cry. "I'm sorry," she whispers into his hair. "I was—I was so scared, I thought I'd—if I'd seriously hurt you, I don't know what I would've done—"

Kon really, really fucking hates that she knows how this feels, now. He would've preferred less company in this particular club. "I know," he murmurs, and knows she's thinking of that day, too. "We're okay, Cass. We're okay."

Cassie sniffles once, then takes a breath. She draws back enough to look at him, scrutinizing his face for signs of distress; when she doesn't seem to find any, she relaxes incrementally, drawing him back into her arms. "...I'm just glad it's sunny out."

Kon huffs out a laugh. "Yeah," he says. "Me too."

♥ soft sentence starters ♥

[deadletterpoets]

I genuinely forgot that Birds of Prey was a current title until the mention of Barbara again. Could you give us your thoughts on it? If we are going by editorial do you think titles are given out based on preferences? It’s been shown that artist are being commissioned to draw covers based on preferences of editors. What if a certain editors likes Barbara as Batgirl so certain titles are more important to show her as Batgirl to them whereas a Batman title where nothing really big happens to her and she plays a small part is the exception?

I wrote some thoughts I had on the series here.

But a quick version is really, it's...okay? Like a big reason I was so hard on Batgirls for like the first year of it's run is how insulting I felt as a reader and fan of Cass/the Batgirl brand. It felt like Cloonrad/Chen/Bat office were purposefully putting out a book that was made to insult fans of every Batgirl book that wasn't Burnside. Is that true? (Honestly kinda) Probably not, but it's how it felt when I read it so I continued to have strong negative feelings when reading it literally until the Annual issue.

With Birds I don't feel insulted reading it, but I also don't think it's that good. I don't think Thompson is the "Savior" of Cass or Dinah or Babs or any of these characters like I keep seeing some ppl want to believe. At this point she's barely writing a Birds of Prey book anyway. She's writing a Dinah book and everyone else is just playing second (except Harley) and for some reason ppl seem okay with that. I think the story is paced incredibly bad and the entire plot is dumb and is making a lot of the characters look dumb. But again ppl seem okay with that. A lot of things I think other writers would get crucified for Thompson is doing and ppl are praising her. I'll admit I'm surprised ppl are upset that Babsgirl is gonna show up cause I figured Thompson was bulletproof at this point.

My understanding is that editorial decides what books they want to make, sometimes even the story/plot/characters used in the books and then find the creatives they want to make the book a reality. I believe they also hear pitches and then either work together to make the pitch something worthwhile, or take the pitch bastardize it into something else entirely and then the writer now has to make that book.

I have heard she doesn't work at DC anymore, but Jessica Chen was loud and proud Babsgirl fan and most of her editorial work when it came to Babs had her as Babsgirl a lot of the time. I think editors definitely can and do influence decisions on whether or not Babsgirl or Oracle gets used when it comes to a title based on their preference as oppose to what the story needs or what is best for the character. It definitely often feels like if she doesn't have a major role then she's allowed to be Oracle, but if she's supposed to be important to the story then the writers suddenly don't know how to write her only as Oracle and must use her as Batgirl again cause now it's important.

Better people than me are way more knowledgeable about stuff like this so these are just my random thoughts, but frankly Thompson writing Babsgirl was inevitable. I mean this is a writer that didn't think ppl cared about Huntress being part of the Birds of Prey, I didn't have high hopes she was gonna put too much thought into thinking ppl would prefer Oracle vs Babsgirl in a Birds book. Whether she was forced to do it or not, idk. I don't believe she was, but I'm not in the room.

[somatheking]

@cassiopeiagarcia can we talk? I think there's been a misunderstanding this morning, given how you just kicked me out of your room out of nowhere. Before reaching... hasty conclusions, I'd like to actually talk about the situation, like mature adults.

also please don't leave me I'll get on my knees if I have to

(under the cut is what happened right after Cass kicked him out of her room)

Soma exhales one last word and takes a deep breath to replenish all the air he’s lost from his sudden rant, staring at the man standing in front of him and blinking, expectantly waiting to see what he made of all this. Kuzuryuu looks dumbfounded. He’s not having the easiest time processing the words that have come out of Soma’s mouth like verbiage, though to be fair, Soma himself isn’t very much aware of what he’d said for the past ten minutes. All he could grasp from the thoughts flying across his mind were the words ‘Cass’, ‘Niragi’, and ‘Taylor Swift’.

“It’s… not possible, Soma,” offers Kuzuryuu tentatively, immediately drawing an exasperated expression from the younger man. 

“Why not?” He asks, impatient. “Listen, time works differently here, and all I’m saying is maybe we could ask the Joker to keep an eye out in case Taylor Swift maybe falls down the stairs, or suffers a heart attack.”

“I…” Kuzuryuu pauses for a second to pinch his furrowed brow. He’s usually a rather patient man when it comes to Soma’s ravings, but they’d apparently found the limit of it today and it involved trying to get Taylor Swift in the borderlands. “You’re not suggesting this seriously, are you?”

��Keiichi, you’re acting like I’m saying we should kill her!” Outrageous, frankly! Soma wouldn’t hurt a fly, especially not one who released such albums like Folklore. “I’m not! I’m just saying, if the occasion presented itself…”

“You want Taylor Swift, the singer, to come to the borderlands because you want her to write a breakup song for Cass and you,” Keiichi blurts, so quick and suddenly that his chest deflates after he’s done with the sentence. Maybe Soma should’ve suggested they sit down for this conversation, but it’s too late now. 

Soma nods enthusiastically. “You get it. I feel like this could help me process what’s going on; I could just cry it all out and try to stop thinking about it.”

“Couldn’t you do that with an existing song?”

“I mean I could try to, but IF I had the chance —because this is all just me hoping for a best case scenario!— if I had it, then a custom one would be better, no? Besides, it’s Taylor Swift. I’m usually more of a Lana del Rey type of dude, but I feel like Taylor could understand better what I’m going through. Though Marina could perhaps—“

“Soma,” Kuzuryuu interrupts. “How do you know if Cass has actually broken up with you?”

“Well, I mean…” okay, maybe they hadn’t had that conversation yet, but they hadn’t had the conversation of them being a formal couple either, so it’s not like having conversations about things was the glue holding them together. “She’s been flirting with Niragi after I joked about kissing Karube. Which, honestly, such a gorgeous man, so I don’t get wh—“

“No,” says Keiichi, taking off his glasses and slumping on the chair, something that looked like he’d been wanting to do for a while now. “Just… no. Talk to her.”

“But—“

“I’m not entertaining this further until you’ve talked to her and you actually know for a fact she’s broken up with you.”

“And if she has, then we can talk about getting Taylor—“

“Still no,” Kuzuryuu interrupts, turning his chair around to face the desk like there’s work he has to do, but the table’s empty, so the action feels a bit off. “But I could show you a few books that contain the themes of grief and loss which I think you’d rather apprecia—“

Before he can finish the sentence, the door of Keiichi’s room is closed shut and Soma is nowhere to be seen.