#i like a lot of things about ATLA but it doesn’t feel as real to me because it’s okay for kids to be in war

[burst-of-iridescent]

yall need to stop this “but katara choose aang!” nonsense because a) idk how she personally told you that when she doesn’t exist and b) even if katara were a real woman, this is some choice feminism bs that willfully ignores a lot of the social pressures and dynamics within heterosexual relationships that kat.aang as a relationship taps into both within the world of atla & as a narrative.

the creators themselves have alluded to the fact that katara & aang’s relationship draws from the trope of a younger boy pining after an older, more mature woman who doesn’t give him the time of day at first but is eventually brought around with his persistence and determination to win her heart.

and this dynamic bleeds through into the show itself, especially when aang is talking to people about katara. he is told multiple times that she’ll come around because he’s the avatar and that all he needs to do is not give up. the social dynamics of the kat.aang relationship even within atla reflects the prevalent narrative around straight relationships in our world: if you keep trying, the girl you like will obviously give you a chance eventually, because how could she not?

that’s troubling enough but then comes the second half of book 3, and now this narrative isn’t reflected just in those around aang, but in aang himself. what began as a sweet, harmless adolescent crush warps into something more dangerous, more familiar: entitlement. the aang of ember island players is one who demands katara’s love, not one who wishes for it. just look at the language used here:

i thought we were going to be together, but we’re not.

why don’t you know?

when is the right time?

the line delivery here is frustrated, almost accusing — this is not the way you talk to a girl you claim to love. this is the irritation of a long-promised reward that continues to be denied, something you wanted but cannot yet possess. this is eerily, intensely reminiscent of real-world gender dynamics, and it continues to be reinforced when katara responds according to the same gendered script:

aang, i don’t know.

we’re in the middle of a war. this isn’t the right time.

i’m sorry but right now, i’m just a little confused.

katara gives neither a yes nor a no but a neutral, noncommittal in-between. her tone and body language are apologetic yet clearly tense, uncomfortable — dancing that fine line most women are familiar with, of having to let down a man yet protect his feelings at the same time.

it’s one thing for the narrative of kat.aang to be misogynistic from a doylist perspective, but when the same applies within a watsonian analysis as well, that’s a far bigger problem. when you set up this dynamic for kat.aang in the show and double down on it as their last romantic interaction, you cannot then remove the implications that follow when katara inexplicably, wordlessly, obediently kisses aang in the finale:

that she loved him because she felt she had to.

because that is the underlying societal expectation of this particular dynamic, the same expectation the show itself has set up within the advice aang receives: that a woman’s affections are owed to the man who fights for them, and if he fulfils his obligations in pursuing her, she will fulfill hers in turn by dutifully rewarding him.

as with women in the real world, no choice katara makes in her world is free of the delicate, insidious entanglement of social pressures and gendered expectations that underlie and drive those choices, even subconsciously.

so yes — katara chose aang. but as the show ends with no insight on her part as to the nature of this choice, the question still remains: did she choose him freely, joyfully, unfettered and unburdened by the weight of expectation? or did she choose him as the girl who always did what had to be done, who took on duties that she was too young to shoulder for the sake of the people she loved, who could never let down the child she fiercely, lovingly protected from the moment she met him?

[anthurak]

So by this point, I think many of us are likely familiar with the idea that the breakup of Team RWBY at the end of Volume 3 is meant to thematically parallel the breakup of Team STRQ in the wake of Summer’s death, ie; Ruby falls into a coma for a few days while Summer disappears and then both their teams fracture. Along with a popular sub-theory that Blake leaving Yang after the Fall is meant to parallel Raven leaving Tai.

But the thing is, if Ruby falling into a coma at the end of Volume 3 is meant to parallel Summer’s (supposed) death and the way this loss caused the fracturing and breakup of their respective teams, then Raven’s actions DON’T really parallel Blake nearly as well as a lot of people think.

And in fact, I feel like Qrow could potentially have paralleled Blake’s actions FAR better.

Like people talk about how Raven ‘abandoned’ Tai just like Blake ran away from Yang after the Fall of Beacon. Except if the point of parallel to the Fall of Beacon is Summer’s death, then the parallel doesn’t work because Raven was ALREADY GONE from Team STRQ by the time Summer disappeared. To the point where Tai, Qrow and Ozpin had (and still have) NO IDEA she was even involved in whatever happened to Summer. Raven can’t exactly have abandoned Tai just like Blake did to Yang if Raven wasn’t even around.

Instead, as I’ve discussed in the past, I think Raven’s actions following Summer’s ‘death’ potentially line up far better with WEISS. Like if it turns out that losing Summer was what actually drove Raven to return to her tribe, then that lines up very nicely with Weiss being taken back to her family/Atlas in the wake of the Fall of Beacon: Both return to the shitty, abusive family that raised them. And given how much of Weiss’s character is tied up in her family and their ‘legacy’, then the way Raven eventually took over her tribe makes her an ideal foil; effectively representing a Weiss who did eventually take over the Schnee family and company, but in the process internalized all the pain and trauma her family gave her.

And as for a cherry on top; if Ruby falling into a coma after the Fall of Beacon is meant to parallel Summer’s supposed ‘death’, then what was one of the last things Ruby did at the Fall?

Run off on a special mission with Weiss, just like we now know Summer did with Raven.

Now going back to my point about how Raven was not even around to abandon Tai just like Blake did to Yang, you know who WAS presumably around when Summer ‘died’?

Yeah; Qrow.

Let’s consider what exactly Blake actually did following the Fall of Beacon beyond just a surface-level reading: Yes, she did go back to her family, similar to what Raven may have done, but given that the Belladonnas are NOT actually shitty and abusive, I maintain that Weiss is still the better parallel to Raven. Instead, let’s consider Blake’s whole arc across Volumes 4 and 5 relating to the White Fang: At first being depressed over loss and perceived failure before being inspired to start working for a better cause, in this case pushing back against and stopping Adam’s takeover of the White Fang.

So I have to wonder; what if this reflects what Qrow did with Ozpin and the conspiracy following Summer’s ‘death’? Maybe Qrow and his teammates had helped Ozpin in the past and knew what he was doing, but what if THIS was the point where Qrow became fully committed to Ozpin’s cause and joined the Ozluminati full-time? Perhaps seeing it as a way of ‘honoring’ Summer’s memory.

Instead of staying with the one teammate he had left (and possible partner) who was now in a massive depressive spiral AND had two kids to take care of.

It starts to make Qrow and Tai feel a lot like Blake and Yang, doesn’t it?

This is one of the big reasons why I think Qrow and Tai are the REAL foil to Bumbleby on Team STRQ. They effectively give us a look at a version of Blake and Yang whose relationship failed. Or rather, were never able to ‘take the next step’ and actually form their relationship.

Qrow is a Blake who fully internalized her self-loathing and belief that she didn’t deserve Yang or that Yang was better off without her and has simply been pining for Yang from afar.

Meanwhile Tai is a Yang who likewise fully internalized her fears of abandonment and fully resents Blake for leaving her or may not have ever even fully recognized her feelings for Blake in the first place.

Essentially, Qrow and Tai are the version of Blake and Yang who weren’t able to work through all the problems, issues and baggage which allowed them to actually start their relationship. Like a Blake who didn’t get that vital pep-talk from Sun at the end of Volume 4, or a Yang who likewise didn’t get that vital talk from Weiss in Volume 5.

Which in turn leads us to what I brought up earlier with Qrow joining up with the Ozluminati full-time, essentially representing a Blake who threw herself into reforming the White Fang instead of returning to Team RWBY and reconnecting with Yang. Meanwhile Tai simply throws himself into a deep depression, grief and ‘moping’, ironically all the things he would later accuse Yang of doing (at some point I’m going to do a post on just how much PROJECTING Tai has likely been doing…)

So now Qrow and Tai have this low-key toxic relationship where Qrow is more-or-less aware of Tai’s extremely dysfunctional parenting but has also been enabling it and a lot of Tai’s unhealthy coping mechanisms over the years because he’s been pining for Tai ever since their Beacon days and still is pining in a very depressed, self-loathing ‘I don’t deserve him/to be happy’ way and also doesn’t want to risk conflict with his former partner and also the only teammate he has left.

Thus Qrow keeps his distance and just goes along with Tai’s dysfunctions and/or lets Tai push him away. Which in turn just reinforces Tai’s abandonment issues.

And Ruby and Yang are still stuck with utterly dysfunctional parental figures.

Oh, and if you need more proof about the deliberate parallels between Blake and Qrow…

Then how about the whole damn song where they sing about how they’ve always felt terrible about themselves but now things are looking up for them.

[lynzishell]

The Present 🤍 San Myshuno

Prev // Next

Transcript + Bonus below the cut:

Li: I just made some tea, would you like some? Dawn: I’d love some, thank you.

Li: So, tell me what’s going on. You sounded upset on the phone. Dawn: [sighs] I’m just exhausted. We’ve been fighting for days. Every time it feels like we might be okay, we get dragged right back into it again. It’s the first time we haven’t been able to work through something. I don’t know what to do.

Li: Do you think it would help to see a counselor? Dawn: Oh, I don’t know. It’s not that serious, is it? Li: Probably not, but why wait until it is?

Dawn: That’s a good point. It’ll have to wait a while though. He went out of town, left yesterday to go to Copperdale to see his uncle. He was supposed to be back tonight because we have plans tomorrow to take Aspen to the pumpkin patch, but apparently, he’s going to Chestnut Ridge now.

Li: What’s in Chestnut Ridge? Dawn: His dad. Li: I thought he didn’t want anything to do with him.

Dawn: Me too. I don’t know what changed. I couldn’t even get him to read the letter, but now he’s going to see him? And he won’t let Aspen and me go with him. Honestly, it just feels like he’s punishing me at this point. Li: I’m sure that’s not true. Dawn: I don’t know. But now I’m not sure if I even want to go to the pumpkin patch tomorrow.

Li: Why not? Dawn: It’s with Asher’s family, which is fine, but with him and Atlas and Phoenix all out of town, I’ll be on my own with them. Li: And that’s a bad thing?

Dawn: Yes. No. I mean, they’re so sweet, and they’ve done so much for us. And having a big family again is all I’ve ever really wanted, but it all just feels so… fake. Like I can’t trust it. Li: Why do you think that is?

Dawn: I don’t know. I guess… if my own parents didn’t care about me, how am I supposed to believe they do?  Li: What about Atlas? Do you believe Ash’s family cares about him? Dawn: Of course. Li: So, what’s the difference? Why doesn’t your logic apply to him?

Dawn: I- I don’t know. I guess because he’s with Ash, it makes more sense that he belongs. Like, if they ever get married, then they will be his family. Maybe I hoped, with Phoenix’s family, that it would be like that for me.

Li: Dawn, I’m going to tell you something and I want you to hear it, okay? Dawn: Okay.

Li: Your parents’ lack of love toward you and your brother is about their inability to love, not your inability to be loved. You are perfectly lovable just as you are. You don’t need them. Nor do you need Phoenix’s family to come in and fill that role. Being someone’s relative doesn’t make them family. Sometimes the two go hand-in-hand, but sometimes they don’t. That doesn’t make it any less real or any less valuable.

Dawn: I feel like Atlas would say the same thing. Li: Well, if so, he’s very wise. Dawn: [smiles] He has his moments. Li: So do you. Dawn: Doesn’t feel like it. I’ve made a real mess of things. What am I supposed to do?

Li: You want my advice? Dawn: Very much.

Li: I think you should try to open your heart to the people that have earned it. Those that have been there for you and your husband and your daughter. Not some strange man who crashes your wedding to leave a letter. Kinda creepy if you ask me.

Dawn: [laughs] Oh god, when you say it like that, it is a little creepy, isn’t it? Li: [laughs] It’s a lot creepy!

Li: But, in all seriousness, I’m sure none of this is easy for Phoenix, and he could probably use your support right now. Dawn: I know. You’re right. Li: And if that feels hard to do, then I can recommend a good therapist. Dawn: I might just take you up on that.

[physalian]

On Fight Scenes (Or, getting creative with your magic system)

This is coming from a reader’s perspective, not a writer’s, in what I like to see and what my thought process was when writing my fight scenes—I hate these things and can’t call myself any authority on the matter. They’re tedious and translating what’s in my head onto page is always frustrating.

This is also for fantasy and sci-fi: Fight scenes that have some magical or technological element to them, not a straight-up action story with two dudes punching each other. This includes anything from fights in Harry Potter to battling a Xenomorph to bending in ATLA to a throwdown between superheroes.

Side note: I really, truly hate “two dudes punching each other”.

—

I have a friend who loves comics, specifically DC Comics, and watches all the DCAU films. When we lived together, I often watched a lot with them. My favorite remains Constantine: City of Demons because unlike literally every other DCAU movie, it doesn’t drop the ball in the third act and devolve into a stakes-less fistfight. This dude faces *consequences*.

I’m not a comics (like actual, paper comic books) fan, but without fail, every time the setup is good, the characters are good, the first 2/3s are good with pacing and usually a mystery and passable character development like Batman: Under the Red Hood…. The last 15 minutes or so always abandon what had been a good plot for just superheroes punching each other and I get so bored. I’m invested and then they rarely deliver any payoff.

But I do like Constantine. Dude needs a nap.

Point is: On top of those fight scenes not really mattering, by the nature of what comic books are in that they can never stray too far from the status quo, or if they do, it doesn’t stay that way for long, the people who made these characters don’t get all that creative with their powers.

I think, actually, I liked Constantine so much because his stuff is rated R and it doesn’t shy away from the more realistic effects of living in a superhero society… without being gratuitous like The Boys.

I just get bored. The fight stops when the plot says so. Knockouts are arbitrary, power scaling is arbitrary. Someone can get thrown through a wall and walk it off but the villain or their buddy can come up behind them and hit them really hard on the head and that’s enough.

Anime is its own thing and would take far too much time to address here but I do want to talk about My Hero Academia real quick, following up on a previous post about tournament arcs.

Season 2 of the show has three main arcs: The tournament in the first half, and the Stain fight/final exams in the second.

For a while, the show actually seemed to take injuries rather seriously (for shonen, at least), and got insanely creative with characters’ very niche powers. In season 1, their teacher, Aizawa, gets pretty brutally beaten by a horde of villains and his powers are permanently impacted by his recovery—he can’t use them for as long as he used to, and he has a new scar.

Midoriya, too, whose powers break his bones on the regular, has consequences for overusing them, like his hands and forearms not healing properly despite superpowered medical intervention.

Power scaling, too, was fantastic…. Until the Stain fight.

I will never understand the thought process behind this logic:

“Hey let’s show how powerful Todoroki is by having him manifest an entire glacier in about 3 seconds!” *9 episodes later* “Hey let’s make this fight with a dude who only has various blades to work with super tense by making Todoroki completely nerfed in a legit life or death situation!”

Buddy couldn’t take two seconds to yell at his friends to get the fuck out of the way? Was he worried about damage to the buildings? I feel like nepotism could have spared him from some consequences if breaking a few windows meant him not getting murdered. It wasn’t like he had daddy issues over his ice powers.

The rest of the show (until I DNFed) had similar issues. Powers were as competent as the plot allowed at any given moment, which I guess is the nature of shonen, but if you’re going to go out of your way to establish realistic rules and consequences really early on, breaking them willy-nilly because it looks cool later is annoying.

Which is applicable across all fantasy sub-genres: Consistency.

I might not be the best at writing the step-by-step choreography, but damn it if I don’t know how to make sure I’m not opening up plot holes in how much damage my characters take and dish out.

—

So. How I approach fight scenes as told by Eternal Night and my sci-fi WIP.

Before anything else, establish a reason that this has to be a fight, that it has to happen now, and what’s happening beneath the combat to keep the story progressing. The plot will not stop just for fisticuffs.

A magic system is only as cool as what its characters cannot do with it, and breaking those limits ruins the magic system.

Make sure this is a fight that can only happen in this story, taking full advantage of the various powers/abilities/magic system rules, if this is meant to be flashy and grand.

Eternal Night is about vampires, thus my vampires, being immortal, can take a lot of hits and not suffer long-term consequences compared to a mortal. I adhere to a lot of classic vampire lore while also making up my own rules. They don’t have super speed, super strength, or compulsion, they just have a lot of experience and know how to use their weapons well, and can essentially go at 100% without mortal limitations of fatigue.

Basically: My vampires are only as strong as a mortal in absolute life-or-death situations, but that’s also dependent on how strong they were in life. Somebody who was a couch potato isn’t going to be as strong as a bodybuilder, and that carries over. I don’t have “younger/older vampires are supernaturally stronger” rules.

They have the same immortality risks as most versions: Stakes, beheadings, sunlight. Anything else is survivable.

Simple magic systems tend to be the most robust because there’s less rules available to risk breaking or forgetting (why ATLA's bending feels so real).

So when I was writing ENNS’s big fight, on top of making sure they weren’t all gods with their weapons—they missed shots, got tired, made bad calls—priority one was making sure I kept killing blows consistent, and when they’re temporarily “dead,” that the timing of when they revive isn’t determined by the plot.

Meaning: If I have a vampire who, idk, gets stabbed by a regular sword and it “kills” them, they have to stay “dead” for whatever amount of time I’d previously established and not wake them up early to participate in the plot again. Those are my rules and I have to work with them.

And in that way, yes the choreography is frustrating, but even if it’s an average description of a fight, I will appreciate that the writer respects their own rules and still be entertained.

With that, in the sci-fi WIP I had incredibly complex and diverse magic systems, 3 complete and unique practices split between two characters. One of which was incredibly OP.

This was a very reluctant OP character who wouldn’t use the full extent of his powers even to save his own life, often to the ire of his team who suffers the consequences of unnecessarily complicated battles when he could one-shot the enemy but chooses not to.

Internal limits tend to be stronger than external ones if you have an OP character, because they’re more believably toggled on and off without breaking the lore.

Even with OP character stubbornly making life harder for himself, he was still OP. He had two different magic systems at his disposal, and beyond his internal limits, they had two very easily exploitable external limits.

Magic system A was tied to a physical artifact he had on his person. If he got separated from it, he couldn’t use it. A is also a lot harder to use if B is also busted.

Magic system B was counteracted easily by users of Magic system A, and by the enemy military who’d developed weapons specifically to nullify those powers, and that weapon was everywhere.

Which meant my fights concerning OP character were rarely “why doesn’t he insta-kill them” it was “oh shit, he can’t insta-kill them, now he has to be clever to get out of this alive”.

One of my favorite fights was at the tail end of Book 2 where he was stuck with two of his non-powered teammates, on a ship dead in the water being overrun by the enemy. The ship had no power, the radios were dead, and the engines were fried.

He had already been sick for half the book and physically and mentally exhausted, and when the enemy arrived, they nullified the rest of his powers. All he had was Magic System A, but in his condition, it was like being asked to do long division on paper by hand, because his calculator was broken.

Dude was not having a good time.

Which meant he was basically useless, with two of his basically useless teammates, who all had to work together to get creative and clever with the tools that they had, on a ship they all knew like the backs of their hands.

So many things they would not have had to do in any other situation, with stakes so much higher because OP was powerless. The characters came first, not their powers, which I think is the most crucial ingredient to any fight you want people to keep talking about for years to come.

—

I can’t tell you how to choreograph your scenes, but I do think that why they’re fighting matters far more than what they’re fighting about, and especially in fantasy: What’s the point of writing magic if you don’t take full advantage of your magical characters?

[survivalove]

Thinking about why I like Kataang so much

so a lot of my posts/asks lately have been about things I dislike so I decided to balance it out by talking about something I actually do like! ofc I immediately thought of kataang and started thing about why i like them so much compared to other couples in media I watched growing up.

first thing is, I don’t actually like romance in visual media. I much prefer it in books but having to actually watch it gives me the ick idk why. also when i first watched atla I was like 5, so the romance really had no appeal to me and I was super focused on katara and the other girls on the show because they were girls! i would completely block out the boys and all the ship scenes for years after that because my attitude to romance never really changed.

right up until I was about 11/12 and became aware of romance from hearing people my age start to talk about crushes, boyfriends/girlfriends, kissing etc. suddenly I had entered this phase in real life where romance was suddenly relevant among my peers and this made me start paying attention when it played out in the shows I was watching like Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, etc. this also included ATLA as my dad and I would rewatch it together on DVD throughout the year.

as I watched with my katara blinders, like I always do, for the first time I started to notice the boys in the show, particularly aang, (yes I finally started focusing on the main character after 6 years 😭) and certain interactions katara had with him that I never noticed before.

*dramatic pause*

and the way I consumed media would never be the same.

jk, but really tho.

fast forward to now, and I’ve recently started watching anime after consuming a bunch of western media my whole life from cartoons and disney shows to contemporary literature and Y/A movies/TV shows. and one thing that stands out to me with kataang compared to most of the romance i see in shonen animes (one of atla’s biggest inspiration as a TV show) is the way katara and aang develop in a way that is realistic, yet too good to be true.

let me elaborate:

starting from the very first episode, katara and aang have that classic meet-cute interaction. the music is playing, their eyes are widening, aang’s acting like he’s never seen a girl before and katara is impressed by literally every single thing he does. this is pretty much how every ship is set up, anime or otherwise, and kanna basically spells out their imminent connection when she sends katara and sokka off and sokka even explicitly says the word boyfriend seconds before that. obviously, these two characters are gonna get together at some point and it’s just a matter of when.

this is where it gets more than that:

the more katara and aang spend time together, the more they start to get on each other’s nerves.

I’m sure everyone’s had a crush at some point, where you see someone for the first time and go “oh they’re so cute” and you feel the butterflies blah blah. you either fantasize about them for a while and move on, or you pursue the crush and start to actively make moves to get to know them better.

and as you get to know them, you notice some things about them that kinda piss you off. the way they pick their nose, the way they bounce their knee, the way they chew. it’s always something. it can even affect friendships because that’s life. we are humans, not concepts. no one is perfect, there is nobody on this planet that you will 100% agree with or like about them. it just doesn’t work like that. and for some relationships, there is that one irritating thing about them that breaks the camel’s back and it doesn’t work out. you learn what annoys you and move on to the next relationship. or you have the lucky ones who actually stay together and the relationship continues to blossom as you get to know each other better.

similarly, kataang in the beginning are completely enamored with the other. until they’re not. throughout season 1, we see katara becoming more and more disillusioned with aang going from “aang’s so brave. he’s the avatar!” to realizing he’s just a boy with insecurities and flaws just like her. some of which get on her nerves BAD. similarly, aang goes from trying to impress katara and going along with every single plan she has, to disagreeing with her and even getting annoyed by her as the seasons go on.

despite this, it doesn’t stop that thing they have for each other from growing and flourishing. that is the magic part. watching two characters fall in love as they continue to annoy and irritate each other more and more. the more katara and aang butt heads throughout the seasons, the more and more unambiguous their romantic interactions become.

aang bluntly telling katara she’s not funny like he didn’t just ask her to dance with him in a candlelit cave in front of dozens of people a few days ago? katara constantly getting annoyed at aang’s antics to turn around and ask him for his opinion on the way she looks or kiss him on the cheek? right.

this is what makes them stand out from other fictional couples I’ve seen, where the girl and guy’s opinion on the other never changes significantly from that first interaction they have. one person, usually the girl because of course, worships the ground our main character walks on, meanwhile he seems to barely notice her apart from that first scene where she looked pretty and his jaw dropped or something. and even if they do interact a lot, their dynamic hardly evolves from that initial setup. they never get upset with each other or at the least, visibly annoyed. their dynamic is static, stagnant, mostly affected by major events in the plot rather than personal characteristics and minor misgivings the characters may have.

there’s no juice. it’s stale. and for me, very unrealistic.

I was watching this video about writing couples in media and one comment stood out to me in particular:

What you said about charm is so true. Entertaining chemistry to watch ≠ chemistry that pairs people together. A lot of sitcoms try to pair opposites romantically or as best friends, because opposites are good for comedy and conflict, but I find myself not understanding why they’re so into each other.

instantly i was reminded of the way people call kataang vanilla/boring, in favor of pairings that are far less similar. and while katara and aang do fight a lot, fundamentally they are very similar which is why they are so believable and realistic. I love watching them slowly become disillusioned with the idealized version of each other they had in the first episode to seeing all the ways they manage to piss each other off, and still being drawn by that initial mutual attraction.

katara learns the hard way that aang isn’t the infallible savior from her grandma’s stories, but she never stops believing in him. aang comes to discover katara’s flaws and conflicting opinions, but he still encourages her belief in hope, affirms her as a waterbender/healer and yes still calls her beautiful every chance he gets.

and what I love about this, is, it gives them reasons to fall in love that go beyond the superficial reasons that drew them towards each other in the first place.

they don’t fall in love with each other in spite of those little minor flaws, but because of them.

katara doesn’t love aang because he’s the avatar. she loves him because he is the goofy fun boy that allowed her to be a kid while taking up this heavy responsibility. aang doesn’t love katara because she’s beautiful. he falls in love witnessing those moments of her being determined, speak up for herself and others, and even going to great lengths to inspire hope in everyone she meets.

[bestworstcase]

Your thoughts on semblances are fascinating! Have you pondered the possible semblance our favorite war machine magical girl Penny might’ve had? If she’d had the time to discover it for herself. Thoughts on why she didn’t have a semblance?

i think the answer to why she never manifested a semblance is probably right there: she was built to be a weapon of war. the atlesian military built a robotic super-soldier and then gave it the soul of an idealistic young girl who just wanted everyone—including herself—to be safe, free, and happy. she was was kept isolated and taught to expect harsh rejection from anyone who found out she wasn’t a “real girl,” then murdered to make a political statement, then brought back and isolated again and made responsible for the safety of an entire city where civilian self-defense is criminalized. whatever her semblance might have been, penny wasn’t going to find it while being crushed in the jaws of that machine.

this is not true of every character, but it is true of a lot: a character’s semblance often reflects or represents how they deal with problems. when ruby’s on her game, she thinks miles ahead of anyone else and zips around obstacles like they’re not even there—when she isn’t, she falls apart and runs away. yang takes whatever life throws at her and finds strength in adversity through sheer refusal to give up. blake knows how to mask her vulnerability and retreats from things she isn’t ready to face, but when she is ready she’ll fling herself headlong at the problem with everything she has. jaune doesn’t care what happens to him, but he’ll do anything for his friends. ironwood will sacrifice whatever it takes to achieve his ends, no matter the cost. et cetera.

penny is a character so defined by the unstoppable force-meets-immovable object struggle between duty and desire, what she needs to do versus what she wants to do versus what she’s able to do, that i feel any semblance posited for her has to speak to that somehow or another to feel right for her.

how does penny deal with her problems? how does she try to extricate herself from between the rock and the hard place?

tries to have the rock and eat the hard place too, mainly. penny needs to be the protector of mantle and she wants friends, which the protector of mantle “doesn’t have time for,” so she tries to befriend everyone up and down her chain of command. but when the chips are down and penny has to make a choice, she chooses to do what she wants—holds her best friend in her final thoughts so she can say goodbye, rather than take the pragmatic/strategically correct option of giving the magic to weiss.

and. there is also: “let me take the relic to salem, and maybe she will call off her attack on the kingdom.”

penny is at best passively suicidal in v8 and i do think that influences her thinking here, but also—it’s safe to assume team rwby looped jnor in on what went down in ironwood’s office, including salem offering the terms of her siege, because oscar’s response (“i don’t think we can trust salem to actually do that”) suggests awareness of what salem said (“the people of atlas have suffered enough; surrender the lamp and the staff to me, and they needn’t suffer any further.”)

everyone else takes it for granted that salem is lying through her teeth. penny does not. she doesn’t take salem at her word either—maybe she will call off her attack—but she is the only character who even considers that salem might have been honest. as the winter maiden, penny is also the one who gets final say over whether or not that vault is opened, and it is her responsibility to decide. her instinct, in this situation, with this burden on her shoulders, is to spend a lot of time quietly thinking about it in the corner while everyone else quarrels, and then hesitantly question the assumption that salem cannot be negotiated with. oscar shuts that down and yang adds “no one is turning you over to anybody” (notice how penny goes from active subject to passive object there? “let me take the relic to salem” -> “no one’s turning you over.”) so nothing comes of it.

but it’s uh. probably not an accident that Penny Polendina is the first Good Guy to consider taking a risk on salem.

and i think it’s instructive to imagine how things might have gone if penny put her foot down and said no, let’s really talk about this. because “let me take the relic to salem” does not mean “let me deliver the relic to salem on a silver platter and then lie down for cinder fall to kill me” necessarily, penny is thinking in terms of a bargaining chip, and this is penny we’re talking about. penny is not a pushover penny is absolutely, one hundred percent, the kind of person who would have flown up there with the staff and very bluntly demanded to know Why Salem Is Doing This and Will She Really Leave If Penny Gives Her The Staff. and then done her level best to explode the whale if she didn’t find salem’s answers persuasive.

which—bringing this back to the question at hand—is sort of the distilled essence of how penny Deals With Things when she’s acting in accordance with her own best judgment. see also, amity, and “i can fix this,” and holding up an entire satellite on her shoulders.

she does not do half measures or harm reduction or damage control; she does i can fix this. she does maybe i can get salem to turn around and leave.

unstoppable force, immovable object.

so what’s her semblance? how do we convey this essence symbolically? (there is the obvious answer of just taking “immovable force” literally, but i don’t think penny would have a combat-oriented semblance for thematic reasons.)

have you ever heard of the pinocchio paradox? it’s a variant of the liar’s paradox (“this sentence is false”) occurring when pinocchio says “my nose grows now”—if it is true, then his nose does not grow, which means he is lying, which means his nose does grow, which means he is telling the truth and so forth. there is, i think, some appealing thematic strings to pluck here in that it’s a fairly common trope in science fiction for artificial intelligences to be stymied by liar’s paradoxes; penny, being a person, would not have this problem. likewise she is honest to a fault whereas pinocchio is, famously, a liar. and infinite regress is an unstoppable force of a kind.

what’s the immovable force? how do you solve the liar’s paradox? there are many ways, some more interesting than others, but one is to reject the bivalent logic and conclude that the statement is neither true nor false. take the excluded middle road. if the unstoppable force is true-false-true-false-true-false in a vicious spiral, the immovable object might be equivocation. maybe. it depends.

i tend to think penny’s semblance would entail splitting the difference in some form or another. the thorny piece for me is deciding in what form and context, because again i think for thematic reasons it can’t be combat-oriented. some way of refusing a fight is conceptually interesting to me; something like creating a space or a moment where violence isn’t just not the answer but isn’t possible. maybe a sort of reverse of gus caspian’s semblance, a wind that banishes volatile feelings and brings emotional clarity. an answer to “i do not like it when friends fight.”

[riah-yorke-lex]

Spoilers for Sonic Prime, like all of it.

^^^^^^^^^^

Sonic has ADHD and Nine has autism.

I mean I know the regular headcanons for Sonic and Tails are already there, but hear me out.

Neurodivergent people have trouble communicating a lot of times and miscommunicate.

Btw I have both, so I’m just speaking from my own experience.

Both characters are flawed. Sonic has lost his entire home and friends. Nine never really had friends and prefers to be alone.

Anyone who wants to say Nine is a villain can leave my page.

It’s a kid’s show, and Nine is the second most important character. The writers won’t kill him off or make him pure evil. Sonic will make up with everyone and find ways to save everyone in the end. Sorry to ruin suspense, but it is a kids show. I’m not saying that means it can’t have awesome character arcs. (ATLA has awesome character arcs, betrayal and redemption + lots of dark elements, but none of the main characters DIED)

Nine will probably cause something bad to happen in his rage, constructing something dangerous with the shards or he’ll cause the entire council to come after him, or both. Nine might cause something bad to happen and then feel guilty and help Sonic. If sonic can find a solution that doesn’t destroy those living in the shatter spaces, then Nine would probably come around. I don’t think Sonic realizes the consequences of his actions.

And that’s just the thing. Sonic jumps into every situation without thinking it through, something which irritates everyone around him. Meanwhile, Nine is incredibly methodical and thoughtful in his approach. Nine is driven by LOGIC while Sonic is driven by EMOTIONS. Not to say Nine doesn’t have emotions and can’t lose control, as we will likely see in S3. However, it’s generally how their brains work.

Sonic is gullible and falls into lots of traps. He isn’t all that smart. He’s good at thinking on his feet, but he often doesn’t think before he leaps into something. Shadow did mention about how the people in the shatterspaces aren’t real or whatever. He means that if they just put the prism back together, all those variants will cease to exist since they are all just different parts of the originals. Sonic sees them as real people though, and wants to help them, but he also desperately wants his reality back. He doesn’t realize that Nine would likely cease to exist if he simply put the prisms together. This would devastate sonic if he found out.

Nine is very rational in his actions. He doesn’t feel he can trust anyone as he has been traumatized by the world he grew up on. He longs for a place of solitude, a place he can go to whenever he needs to be away from everyone. He’s rather sit in his own head with his inventions. He wants Sonic to join him here because Sonic is the first friend he ever had. He intentionally doesn’t tell Sonic everything, because he has thought this through. He hopes Sonic will see his side and see him as a real person and not just another version of Tails. Sonic has an issue of projecting his vision of Tails onto Nine. He does it because he misses Tails. I know Sonic, DOES respect Nine as his own person, but Nine does not understand that, and Sonic, not thinking before he speaks, says something hurtful. Nine can come across as selfish, but all he wants is a safe place. As a neurodivergent person, that is so relatable. Sonic’s safe place is Green Hill, and he wants its back. From what we know (although I’m sure they’ll find a solution where everyone can live, again, it’s a kids show), those two things cannot coexist. If Sonic realizes this, he’ll realize he has to sacrifice his shatterapace friends to get Green Hill back, and is that a good thing after all? Nine is scared for his life basically, as he might not exist anymore. It’s a very valid fear.

They didn’t communicate their needs to each other because they were in the middle of fighting the council and didn’t have time to think it through, plus Sonic is impatient and also bad at communicating.

Nine is NOT a villain. He’s a traumatized autistic kid who has trouble thinking with other people’s needs in mind. Sonic wants to help EVERYONE, even people he doesn’t like much like Dread and Shadow, but he doesn’t consider the wider consequences of his actions.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[rapturemctro]

I like to imagine that Andre has a bad habit of self sabotaging any potential relationship he’s ever had, you can’t convince me he doesn’t have some kind of commitment issues. Like for him hook ups and his sexual endeavors are easy as they’re superficial and rarely ever have real feelings involved, so it’s easier to distance himself emotionally. So when him and Atlas enter into an actual relationship it scares the shit out of him. He’s not used to someone giving a shit about him, he’s not used to someone taking a genuine interest in him, he’s not used to comfort, he’s not used to stability. He comes to recognize very quickly that he likes Atlas, like really, really likes them. More than he’s probably liked anyone else, and suddenly he’s so worried. He’s worried about screwing up the relationship, worried that he’ll end up disappointing them one way or another. Andre unfortunately does a lot of things at the beginning of their relationship to self sabotage and push them away, and it almost works. 

Atlas does get fed up with the way Andre is acting, one moment he’s so warm and affectionate and then the next he’s cold and closed off, saying intentionally hurtful things or all together avoiding Atlas. Eventually they’ve had enough and demand to know what’s going on and why Andre’s been acting so coldly towards them, it’s only then that Andre recognizes how much he’s hurt Atlas with his actions and apologizes. He opens up to them about his relationship insecurities and issues with vulnerability and even though it doesn’t excuse his behavior it at least helps give Atlas a little more insight into why he’s been acting the way he has. They both agree to start over and take things slow for Andre’s comfort, and Andre starts to be more open and upfront about his feelings and insecurities with Atlas, and their relationship ends up stronger because of it. 

[botherkupo]

i think people let nostalgia blind them a little when it comes to atla. don’t get me wrong, it’s great cartoon and i’ve rewatched it countless times but i also recognise it’s fine for the live action to make changes because that’s what happens when you adapt something. the live action is not perfect, but i had fun watching it and it feels like some people are just watching to nitpick and hate

Big agree. There are weak spots in the cartoon and also weak spots in the live action show. Are both enjoyable shows, though? Yes.

And that’s what I feel people can’t grasp. They’re like oooh they cut this, or why did they add that, or this character isn’t the same blah blah — and like yeah it’s not the same. I had zero interest in watching a replica with real people. I’ll just watch the cartoon and enjoy it

Like shows with real people have a lot of limitations, and not just because of budgets. It shouldn’t be news to people that there would be changes and a lot of stuff will get condensed, cut, or adapted in a different way. That was always going to happen.

I’ve seen people complain about Bumi and I’m like you know what I really loved the live action show Bumi. It’s a different take on it — him feeling bitter, showing obvious trauma from the pressure of ruling during a war that’s lasted this long, and being more unhinged rather than all super goofy guy like hey Aang just wait till you realise who I am. It’s different, more serious, and that’s okay. You can still enjoy cartoon Bumi. He ain’t going anywhere

Ppl complain about Katara, and like yeah I get it. She’s not as “fierce” in some aspects. But she suits this version of atla. She suits feeling more like a younger sister instead of a pseudo mum. She suits getting angry when Sokka treats her like a little girl rather than angry he doesn’t wash his own socks. She suits being paralyzed during fights at first because she has major ptsd and has been hiding her bending gif so long. It is realistic and fits the show, just as Cartoon Katara fit the cartoon and is still there. You can enjoy her. Cartoon Katara is not going anywhere

Like please will ppl stop looking for the things to complain about and instead see what we’re being given — an adaptation that is intense, funny, emotional and yes different.

We get Jet and the freedom fighters bombing places in omashu than wanting to flood a fire nation village. That’s not a bad thing. It cut out a whole lot of unnecessary stuff and also gave us an emotional scene with Jet and Katara. Did the part where she freezes him and says goodbye feel less dramatic? Yeah, honestly I would have been down to see her angrier. But I also think part of that is the limitations with special effects and waterbending (which always looks the weakest). the actress playing Katara is also dojng her interpretation of the character. (And can I just Jet was perfectly cast and I couldn’t imagine a better Jet)

So we didn’t get Sokka being with Jet? Who cares. Sokka’s story arc is focusing on different things. I loved how his interactions with Suki went. I love even more the scene where he’s listening in on Hakoda and Bato’s conversation and that line “some people aren’t made to be responsible for others lives” or whatever it was. It was so powerful.

And the cave of two lovers being resolved through family love? YES. I love that so much. Like thank you for giving non-romantic love a moment to shine. Katara and Sokka’s argument in that cave had so much weight and emotional intensity. It’s different from the arguments we get in the cartoon and that’s okay. Their dynamic is slightly different and that’s okay. THE CARTOON IS STILL THERE. YOU CAN ENJOY THE CARTOON OKAY

And honestly I could scream for days about what they’ve been doing with Zuko and Aang. I love them both so much and I love the extra stuff we’ve been getting with them. The Blue spirit stuff and that scene after was sooooooooo good. The little smile, the way they start to connect, and then Aang says t he wrong thing (bringing up Ozai) and Zuko lashes out and it’s just perfect ahhhhh

Also Zuko actually fighting back in the Agni Kai but hesitating to hurt his father was such a good choice. I love the cartoon for having him cry and beg to the end, but I also love the live actuon show for giving us something different. I WANT TO SEE THESE KIND OF CHANGES

And maybe I’m in the minority for that and I really don’t care if ppl think my opinion is rubbish. I love the cartoon. I love tye live action show

I wish ppl would understand that it’s okay they are different

[jasntodds]

Caving In [11]

Pairing: Gar Logan x Fem!Powered!Reader, Jason Todd x Fem!Powered!Reader

Words: 12,364

Chapter Warnings: Swearing, angst :), blood, injuries, canon violence, canon injuries, violence, lots of self doubt from the reader and Jason, a panic attack, heights, Jason, reader, and gar blaming themselves a lot, “go through me” trope

Summary: ❝Tell me Atlas: What is heavier, The world or its people’s hearts?❞ You never expected your life to end up this way, turned upside down by an infamous Gotham villain. It’s been a living hell, every single day, until Dick Grayson brings you to Titans tower where you meet Gar Logan and Jason Todd.

A/N: I’ll tell y’all who the endgame is next chapter for reasons lol it’ll be in an author’s note at the end by my taglist!! Also, I did post some of this as a two-shot lol I changed quite a bit of it when I posted it so it’s different but some of it is the same lol I am easily motivated to post more often when I get feedback 😂 You can add yourself to the tag list below, ask me to be tagged, or you can follow my library blog @jasntoddslibrary​​ and turn on notifications if you prefer that!!

series masterlist | masterlist | tag list

Jason comes to, his arms hung and tied above his head. His arms are supporting his weight, his feet dangling a foot from the floor. His head is pounding, spinning a little as his head nods. The weight of his eyelids feels like cinderblocks. Everything comes back to him like a leak in a boat, slowly but fluidly. The panic starts to settle in again as the flash of you with the sword to your face, Deathstroke on the other end, hits him.

He looks around, seeing you tied to a second beam about ten feet away from him. You’re dangling further from the ground than he is, your arms tied above your head and your head is hung. From where Jason is hanging, he can’t make out if you’re breathing or not and the every idea that you might not be, makes his head spin and his stomach nauseous.

“Y/n?” Jason calls but he doesn’t get a response. “Y/n!” Jason raises his voice a little louder, trying to look around for any sign of Deathstroke or Dr. Light but he doesn’t see either of them. “Y/n!” Jason calls again, this time his voice breaking slightly.

You aren’t answering and he fights the rope holding him up, trying to free himself. He uses all of his strength to lift himself up, trying to get enough momentum to loosen the rope but it doesn’t work. He does this a few times before he hears someone walk in from behind him.

Jason can see hints of light from over his shoulder and the sound of energy being used fills the, what seems to be, basement. The walking sounded off to Jason and now the use of energy does, too. It sounds muffled and at first, he thought it was because he was still just coming to but now he’s thinking he took some real damage. But he pushes that thought away and Jason gets an idea. Dr. Light didn’t like Jason making fun of him so all he has to do is keep talking. Get Dr. Light to come over to him. Jason can free himself and if he takes out Dr. Light right now, it’ll be one less psycho to deal with. So, he looks at you once more and shakes his head, pushing the thought of you being dead as far away from his mind as possible so he can be annoying.

“Ah, Dr. Light.” Jason calls out before gaining the energy to give up a chortle. “Did you come up with that shit by yourself or did your parents saddle you with that bullshit? I mean, come on, what a lame fucking name.”

“Shut it!” Dr. Light yells, his voice already annoyed. Jason knows this guy stands no chance against him. He could do this for hours.

“What? Is my talking annoying you, dickweed?” Jason chortles once more. “Cause that’s the thing,” Jason’s voice is breathy. “I can do it all day.” Jason states as he hears Dr. Light moving towards him and he knows he’s just won. “All night and if you’re nice, twice on a Sunday.” Jason finishes just as Dr. Light stands in front of him.

“I said, shut the fuck u--” Dr. Light starts but he’s cut off as Jason kicks him in the lower abdomen.

Dr. Light curls over in pain and Jason doesn’t let up. He kicks him a few more times, once in the chest and then in the face. The kick to the face gets Dr. Light to turn on his knees, his back towards Jason now. Jason wraps his leg around Dr. Light’s neck and squeezes as hard as he can. It’s taking every bit of energy Jason has to hold himself to do this but he knows he has to if he wants to get him and you out of here. So, he holds on and fights through the pain until he feels Dr. Light go limp.

“Night, night, asshole.” Jason states with a slight relief in his voice.

He takes no time in dislocating his thumbs to free himself. It’s not always ideal, it’s not exactly comfortable to do but it’s his only option. He pops the digits out of place and is able to free himself. He drops to the ground and pops the thumbs back into place before running over to you.

Jason cups your face, the panic pooling back in his stomach. “Y/n? Come on, you gotta wake the fuck up.” Jason mutters, shaking your head slightly. Jason peaks behind you, not seeing any sign of Deathstroke. “Please…” Jason shakes your head again, his brows furrowed and hands shaking. He doesn’t even realize he’s shaking. He just wants you to wake up. “Y/n.” Jason’s voice breaks as the burning behind his eyes becomes almost unbearable. “Wake up. His teeth grit between words.

You groan and Jason lets out the biggest breath. Your eyes peek up slowly, your eyelids heavy as if you’ve only been sleeping for an hour after pulling an all-nighter. Your arms feel heavy and weak above your head, almost completely numb. Your head is pounding and there’s a ringing in your ears.  And your eyes finally open fully, seeing Jason.

“Jay?” Your voice is raw as you say his name.

“You okay?” He asks, his eyes rapidly moving across your face, his hands not moving from your face.

There’s blood coming from his right ear and you wonder why he’s asking you if you’re okay. He’s very clearly injured. But, you are the one still tied up.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m…I’m okay.” You nod, pulling at the restraints.

You’ve never seen Jason anything but confident and cocky and angry. A part of you wondered if he could even feel anxiety because he never showed it, not until now. You can feel his hands shaking against your face and his lip is trembling just a little bit. How is he ever going to recover from this?

Jason nods with you. “I’m gonna cut you down.” He finally moves his hands and lifts your hoodie only to see they, of course, took your knives. Your heart sinks and Jason sees the look of defeat cross your face. “No, it’s fine.” Jason brushes it off, pressing the R on his chest, and releasing one of the blades. “Got it covered.” Jason smirks at you and it makes you feel a little better about this.

You’ve been captured and it’s devastating. You swore it would never happen again and it did. How did you even let this happen? There were two of you and your one job should have been keeping a lookout. You both knew Deathstroke was out there because of Rose and yet, you were focused on Jason beating a fucking lightbulb. The throbbing kicked it because it always fucking does but you didn’t move fast enough. You’re not fucking good enough even with powers to save you and Jason. You can’t even free yourself, Jason is the one cutting you down and grabbing you to make sure you can walk.

“Can you walk?” Jason asks, his voice isn’t flat but it’s like he’s trying to hold it together.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” You nod at him and Jason grabs your hand, squeezing it tightly as he leads you both to the stairs.

But, when you get there, Deathstroke meets you right at the top holding out a sword an inch from Jason’s face. Jason gulps and you want to scream out of pure frustration. Jason holds his arm out in front of you, not even thinking about it.

“Leaving so soon.” Deathstroke taunts.

Deathstroke takes a step forward making Jason step back, protecting you with his arm. The two of you back off the stairs carefully, Deathstroke not moving the sword. There are two of you and two against one is better odds. But, this is Deathstroke. He gave all of the Titans a run for their money and killed one of them. How are you and Jason supposed to escape this guy? You and Jason are confident, absolutely, but you are not stupid.

Dr. Light walks over, finally coming to. He is pissed. He walks right over to Jason, Jason pushing you back a bit more and more behind him, blocking you with his entire body. Dr. Light takes a swing at Jason, getting him in the face and that’s the straw that breaks you. Your hands glow more than they ever have before, your hands feeling like they’re on fire. Jason tries to fight back but Dr. Light has him by the collar again and that’s it.

“Leave him the fuck alone, you environmental hazardous fuck!” You yell moving from behind Jason, eyes narrowed and teeth gritted with your hands right in front of you. The green illuminates Dr. Light and his eyes widen. He knew you had powers from the tunnel but it didn’t look to be that serious. He pauses and Jason is able to free himself. “Touch him and I’ll turn into a puddle.” You move in front of Jason this time.

“Try it, kid. See how far that gets you.” Dr. Light taunts and you know it’s a trap. But, you can’t see how.

If Deathstroke were going to kill either of you, he would have done it. He’s waiting for something. It’s not you or Jason fighting back, though, he would have killed Jason already. But, he’s not and he’s just standing there as if watching to see what happens. Dr. Light isn’t who either of you have to fear. So, you shoot acid at him anyway, intentionally missing most of him. The acid touches a part of his forearm and he lets out a scream of agony, the acid melting some of his skin. Dr. Light charges you but you already had your arm out towards Jason and you move yourselves just as Dr. Light tries to grab you.

“Too slow.” You taunt and Jason can’t help but crack a smile from behind you.

“What? A little acid too much for ya, huh?” Jason taunts back, yours and Jason’s attention focused on Dr. Light but your attention becomes split between Dr. Light and Deathstroke as Deathstroke walks behind you. Your head is throbbing, following the direction of Deathstroke until it falls short. Nothing. And then you know.

“Don’t fucking touch him.” You spin around, facing Deathstroke as he’s pulling up his sword standing right behind Jason.

Jason pauses, unsure if he should move and instead, he looks to you. How the fuck did you know that? The combat clairvoyance only works for you so how would you know he was going after Jason? You glare at him, your jaw squared as your hands are pointed at him but Deathstroke isn’t scared of you or threatened. While he finds this interaction at least interesting, he isn’t bothered. He doesn’t care. He pulls his sword up and holds it against Jason’s back. Jason arches his back as he feels the blade touch him, but not penetrate.

“You will stop or I’ll kill him.” Deathstroke says, keeping his voice flat and unbothered.

You look to Jason and you knew this wouldn’t go well. You knew you didn’t stand a chance against him but you both tried. You lower your hands and Dr. Light grabs you. You don’t fight him and Jason hangs his head, the guilt seeping into his blood. But, neither of you have much time to even think about it before Deathstroke knocks Jason out and Dr. Light takes a few good swings at you before you’re knocked out again.

Gar rushes back to the tower and goes straight to Rachel’s room. He knows he needs to tell Dick but Dick is busy with other Titans and he’s freaking out. He knows Dick is gonna be pissed and he just needs to tell someone that isn’t Dick right now. Rachel will know how to help, if she can. Rachel is logical like Gar. She’ll help. But, when Gar enters her room, she’s asleep and this thick, gelatin like smoke is surrounding her just like in the training room when she attacked Jason. Gar sticks his hands out, trying to see if he can stop it or wake up Rachel. But, it attacks him instead, clawing right as his wrist and impaling him. Gar yells, jumping back and waking up Rachel.

“What? I’m up.” Rachel shoots up, looking at Gar who’s visibly scared and in pain. “Gar? What happened?” She asks as Gar stands back, holding his wrist. “Shit.” Rachel sighs, quickly getting up from the bed to check on him. “I’m so sorry.” Rachel’s words are rushed as she tries to see the damage to Gar’s wrist. “Please, don’t tell Dick.” Rachel begs.

“Y/n and Jason…” Gar pauses, the words bitter and sour in his throat. “They’re gone.” He chokes out.

“What?” Rachel searches his face, confused. You all were in the tower when she fell asleep, how are you both…gone?

“What happened to Y/n and Jason?” Dick’s voice asks from the door, overhearing Gar. He doesn’t even look mad, he just looks scared.

Gar lets out a shameful sigh, looking to ground. “Dr. Light has them.” Gar says quietly, barely looking at Dick.

“What?” Now Dick is mad. “What do you mean, Gar?” Dick almost demands the answer but Gar is visibly upset and his head is hung. “Okay, come with me, now.” Dick’s jaw clenches and Gar follows him to the comms lab. The walk there is silent and he hates being in trouble. “Explain, now.” Dick says as he sits at the computer, pulling up Jason’s tracking information to try and locate him.

Gar starts pacing behind Dick. “We…we figured out that Dr. Light was in the train tunnels.” Gar keeps his hands in his pockets as he walks. “Jason wanted to prove to you that he wasn’t a reject. And y/n…well, Jason went with her to fight Jerry so she felt she had to go with Jason. I think she wanted to prove to you that she was useful.” Gar explains, his voice unwavering in shame and guilt. “We were gonna come right back. And then Jason wanted to split up.” Gar stops pacing, standing behind Dick. “Y/n said she would go with him to make sure he was safe and he didn’t do anything stupid because we both have powers and Jason doesn’t. And then…I-I heard them scream.” Gar’s voice cracks, hearing the two of you echo in his head. “And I ran but they were already gone.”

“Why did you go out there in the first place?” Dick says through gritted teeth, nearly cutting Gar off. He is fuming. “On your own, with no weapons, no backup?”

Dick fully expects this from Jason and you. It's part of why Jason was even sent to Dick. He's too reckless, doesn't put any thought into anything, he's a little violent. Bruce hoped some time with Dick would help but clearly, nothing is getting through to him. As for you, you did already go off on your own, Jason in tow to do what you were told not to do. Jason bringing up this idea, of course, you would go with him. The two of you together doesn't seem like it's the best for anyone. Now, Dick has to rescue the both of you while Deathstroke is out there. It was stupid and you both should known better and Gar should have known better and expected this to happen.

Gar feels bad enough and Dick is making him feel worse. It’s kind of his fault. He should have just called Dick. He should have known with the two of you. Gar knows you and Jason better than anyone else in the tower. He gets you and you both tell him things. And he sees how you both are. You are the same side of the same coin. You’re reckless and eager to prove yourselves. Jason just has so much to prove and you’re new. You think a little more about the consequences of everything and maybe that’s why Gar didn’t think this would end poorly because you’re supposed to be the responsible one out of you and Jason. But, Gar is supposed to be the responsible one of all of three of you and he’s just let you both down.

“I’m sorry.” Gar apologizes, the guilt still slithered in his words.

“I just need details.” Dick says. “Specifics. Just write down everything you remember.” Dick says as he hands Gar a notepad. “I’m searching for Jason’s tracker right now.” Dick has a suspicion there’s more going on because how could Dr. Light have captured the both of you? Reckless sure, but there’s not a doubt in Dick’s mind that the two of you wouldn’t have put up a hell of a fight against him.

“Subject offline.” The computer says once it’s finished loading.

Dick closes his eyes and Gar gets an idea.

“IF-if-if Jason and Y/n are still down there, all-all that concrete and stone it-it, it would mask the GPS signal from the satellite.” Gar offers, hoping he's right. He can't think about Jason's tracker being offline for any other reason. It's too grave.

“Yes…it would.” Dick says as if he has an idea.

When Jason comes to, he’s blindfolded, tied to a chair, and his ears are covered with, what he assumed to be, noise-cancelling headphones. He can’t hear anything or see anything. He can’t move. He’s just trapped and his mind starts to race. It goes against everything he’s been taught by Bruce. He’s supposed to remain calm but how is he supposed to be calm when he can’t see or hear anything and doesn’t know if you’re here with him? He doesn’t know if they took you somewhere else. He doesn’t know if they killed you. He knows absolutely fucking nothing and it’s driving him insane. If it were just him, he’d be able to be calm and start thinking of his next way to escape. He’d figure something out because he’s clever but he’s not sure how he can escape and get you without getting caught again and he won’t leave you here.

You come to not long after and the throbbing of your head is worse this time. You’re certain you have a concussion and would really appreciate it if these grown men stopped using force. But, you’re tied to a chair, just like Jason with a blindfold covering your eyes and noise-canceling headphones covering your ears. You can feel that your hands are tied awkwardly. Your wrists are in agony, feeling like they might break if you move the wrong way. Your palms are facing up and outward from the back of the chair, the rope digging into your skin.

A lump forms in your throat because you’re back in a fucking basement and tied up. How fucking unfair is that? TWICE. TWICE. How does this happen twice? And now you’re here with Jason and this is your fault because you should have called Dick. You should have reacted quicker. You should have yelled for him. Done fucking something. You should have been faster, should have just shot Dr. Light with the acid and called it a fucking day. But, you didn’t. Because it was Jason’s mission and you wanted him to have this win. And then you fucking froze.

Not long after coming to, Jason feels something near his face and then it’s gone. He twitches in his seat, unsure of what’s going on. His heart rate spikes slightly as he waits. Deathstroke has a plan and the plan can’t be to randomly kill him now. Him and you are being used as bait. And he repeats that, over and over to try and calm himself down. If you’re bait, you won’t be killed right now. But, the thought flees his mind as he feels a stabbing and agonizing pain in his leg. Jason screams out.

“FUCK.” He bends his back forward and then back.

His legs is being carved into. The knife digs through skin and muscle as tears sting Jason’s eyes. And just when the knife stops the carving, he feel fingers in the wound and he flinches his leg, trying to get away but he’s legs are bound to the legs of the chair. He’s guessing it’s Deathstroke digging the tracker. The thing he felt near his face was likely some sort of device to detect a tracker and now he’s paying for it.

His stomach twists, nausea filling him as his mouth waters. He swears he’s going to lose it when the fingers are finally pulled away from the wound. Jason is left with the open cut on his leg, it pulsates with every passing second and he’s begging to pass out again just so he doesn’t have to feel it. Right about now, he’s starting to think Dick just might have had the right idea about taking the tracker out.

And a part of him, somehow, is so relieved that you don’t have a tracker. He wore the tracker as some sort of badge of honor. It meant that Bruce, fucking Batman, would be able to always find him. He was worth finding. Jason Todd was worth saving. And he liked that feeling but you never had one because Dick doesn’t like them and you weren’t picked up by Bruce. And he’s so happy about that because if you were, you’d be in the same pain he’s in right now and he never wants you to be in pain again. And the thought of this being his fault comes back to him.

This is his fault. This was his big idea to go rogue and prove himself. Dr. Light was easy and maybe that should have been the red flag but he was too arrogant to even think of that. He was on his little high horse about getting one over on Dick, taking down Dr. Light. It was accelerating. But, he never thought you would follow him. He never thought Deathstroke would be there. He never thought he’d be kidnapped with you. None of this he accounted for. It never even crossed his mind because he never thought of the consequences that could come from this. And that’s on him now. He should have been more careful. He should have listened to Gar. And maybe a part of him wishes he would have listened to Dick.

An hour goes by, and you and Jason have been trapped in complete darkness and silence. It’s a bit boring and concerning. All you want to do is go the fuck home, wake up from this nightmare. You want to hear Jason make some sort of fucked up joke about the situation that you’ll find tasteless and funny. And you want to see Gar’s smile that brings you so much happiness. You want to be in the safety of either of their rooms. Anywhere but fucking hear.

And Jason’s leg is still throbbing. It’s not pulsating anymore which is nice but it’s still throbbing and it’s exhausting. Being in pain, is absolutely exhausting. And he doesn’t know how much blood he’s lost but he’s guessing it’s probably enough to be a slight concern. And the only thing he wants to do, is get the fuck out of here. Then, apologize to you every single day he’s alive after this. He’ll never live it down. It’ll eat him alive and he knows it. If he doesn’t get you both out of here, that’s on him. This was his thing, his responsibility. He’s Robin, for fuck’s sake. How can he be Robin if he can’t even protect the one fucking person who he genuinely and truly and whole-heartedly cares about? The one person who doesn’t care about him being damaged goods?

But, the two of you are ripped from your thoughts as Deathstroke yanks your headphones off your heads, Jason’s first then yours.

“You mean your little sidekicks?” Deathstroke asks and you wonder who the fuck he’s talking to. Jason doesn’t miss a beat though.

“Hey! Who you calling a sidekick, asshole?” Jason yells and you can’t help but crack the faintest smile. He’s alive and still definitely kicking.

You’re honestly just glad to hear him. You aren’t really sure how he does it. You assumes he’s under the same treatment you’ve been getting which is silence and darkness. It’s kind of driving you insane and you’ve been kidnapped by a raging homicidal maniac. But, Jason has so much fire in him and you don’t get it. Of course, you’ve been through this before and you weren’t pleasant the first few months but you weren’t like Jason. Jason will fight against anything and everything and you’re beginning to think Jason is the reason parents tell their kids a kidnapper would bring that for being annoying. Dr. Light probably would have tossed Jason to the street if it were up to him. But, then you hear what you assume to be a fist connect with Jason’s face and Jason yells out.

“Hey! Shitface! Leave him the fuck alone!” You scream out and you don’t even know why you do it. You’re tied to a fucking chair. And that proved to be a mistake because Deathstroke decides to take a turn at you, punching you in the face.

Jason’s heart shatters. It immediately consumed him. He hears you gasping and groaning and he wants nothing more than to kill this fucker. He knows you’re trying to help, trying to get Deathstroke to leave him alone but a part of Jason thinks he deserves this. He thinks maybe he deserves the beatings to teach him some kind of lesson because if it weren’t for him, you would be safe at the tower right now. Not, kidnapped and being beaten…again.

“Yeah? You like picking on girls? Fuck, man, get a better fucking hobby. How’s knitting? Maybe it’ll calm you down? Or, trying getting laid.” Jason snarls, the taste of iron on his tongue. "Release some of that pent-up tension."

Deathstroke goes back to Jason and starts punching him in the stomach then in the face and then back to his stomach. Jason groans and yells out in pain. And just for good measure, he moves back to you for a final punch to you stomach as you groan out in pain.

“You fucking bastard!” You can hear Hank yelling and that’s when you realize it’s a phone call. “Come try that shit with me!”

“Just tell us what you want.” Dick states from the other end.

You hear Jason struggle for a breath and your eyes dart behind the blindfold. Your heart plummets into your stomach. Is Deathstroke strangling him?

“As I was saying,” Deathstroke starts, the slightest annoyance in his voice. “If you want them back, hand over Rose.”

Jason struggles more and more to breathe and you’re filled of panic. You aren’t sure how much fight you have left in you and you know the only reason both of you are even still alive right now is because Rose is safe at the tower. If she wasn’t, Deathstroke would have killed at least one of you and then been forced to kill the other. Neither of you would go down without a fight, especially with the other knocking on death’s door. But, you also know Dick won’t give up Rose and you’re panicking because what if he doesn’t? Deathstroke will kill you both.

“How do we know you’re gonna keep your promise?” Dick asks.

Jason gasps and coughs beside you, and you almost breathe a sigh of relief knowing that he’s actually still breathing. Not well, but breathing.

“Tonight, 3am. Embarcadero Plaza. Outside, use this phone to confirm.” Deathstroke says before hanging up the phone.

He puts your headphones back on and your heart breaks for the boy beside you. A part of you blame him, blames Gar. It was Jason’s idiotic, impulsive idea. He never thinks anything through and you’re so fucking mad at him. But, you didn’t put up a fight against it because as much as you love picking on him, you want him to feel wanted and worthy and loved. You know he thinks this, had it gone well, would have been his thing. This would have been Jason’s big win for the older Titans. And you wanted that so fucking bad for him that you can’t say no. And you owed him one because he’s the only one that fucking gets it. So, you blames Gar.

Gar is the logical one, the one who thinks things through. He’s the one that listens. When you and Jason are going behind Dick’s back doing something he absolutely told you not to do, Gar is doing what he’s asked or not getting involved and just not ratting you out. He doesn’t argue with Dick or fight with Rachel. That’s all you and Jason. He’s the level-headed one. And he should have known better, too. He should have known better with you and Jason being together because surely, the only thing that comes out of the two of you teaming up is utter chaos. But you know it’s wrong to blame him, too.

You have powers and training. You can produce deadly acid at the drop of a hat and your control over it is a win. You don’t miss targets with knives anymore, it all came back to you within a few weeks. You’re better now than you ever were in Gotham because Jason helped train you with those, too. But, you could have tried to shoot Deathstroke from behind you with the acid. And you had something to prove tonight, too. Maybe you didn’t want it as bad as Jason, but if this had gone how it should have, it would have been enough for you, too. You would have been able to prove you’re useful, that you can do more than sit around a tower and train. You could have done a lot of things to prevent this. Instead, you froze and Titans aren’t supposed to freeze. How can you call yourself a Titan if you freeze? This is your fault.

At some point, Deathstroke finds it in himself to remove yours and Jason’s blindfolds and headphones. The first thing Jason does is look to you but you avoid looking at him, keeping your stare at your lap. You know that if you look over, he’ll have a fat lip, blood probably on his face. Maybe he’ll have a black eye and it’ll eat you alive because his injuries are on you. If anyone could talk Jason out of this stupid, deluded idea, it would have been you. And you didn’t even try to stop him. And Jason’s heart sinks further into the pit of his stomach with you unable to look at him.

He looks away and he knows this is his fault but it hurts anyway because of all people, he expected you to make sure he was okay. To look at him and yell at him for this stupid idea but you’re quiet and looking to your lap. Your face looks defeated and there’s blood around your mouth.  Your injuries are his fault this time. You just fully healed not that long ago and now you’re back to being beaten and bloody and bruised and Jason never should have dragged you into this.

He should have insisted you turn around and go back with Gar. That would have been the right thing to do but he was selfish because he likes you. And that’s the first time he’s actually really thinking that but he knows that’s the reason. He likes you and he likes when you fight, he likes when you spar and he likes this look you give him when you watch him spar. It’s such an ego boost and if anyone would cheer him on fighting some psycho like Dr. Light, it’d be you. And Jason should have thought about what was best for you, not what he wanted. How are you ever going to forgive him for this?

“Y/n?” Jason says your name once Deathstroke leaves you alone. But, you don’t even move. No glance, nothing. You’re silent. “Y/n?” Jason’s voice is a little louder this time, riddled in guilt.

Part of your silence is just anxiety. You’re wrapping yourself in spinning anxiety, trying to figure out what to do. You can’t escape, not right now. But, you’ll probably be moved to a new location. Deathstroke hasn’t killed you now. If the plan was to use you as bait, it worked. The older Titans know you’re alive and kicking so Deathstroke could kill you now. Titans have the security that you’re alive. But, Deathstroke keeps you alive and you think it’s because he has something else planned. A guy like Deathstroke isn’t going to just give you up if Dick actually hands over Rose which you know Dick won’t do. So, you’re stuck worrying about that and you’re also just so fucking tired.

No one told you life could be so fucking exhausting. Your mom dies, you’re tortured, you get these powers you don’t even like, and now you’ve been kidnapped again. Seriously, you’re stuck on the fact this has happened twice and you want to know what kind of unlucky person actually gets kidnapped twice, in under two years. Why is it so much to ask to feel safe?

“Can you fucking look at me or something?” The frustration breaks Jason’s voice. You listen to him and Jason gets a better look at your face and he swears he’ll never forgive himself for it. And you think the same. Sure enough, he has a fat lip with blood around the corner and there’s a bruise starting on his cheek. “I’m so sorry.” Jason apologized. “I-I should have fucking listened to Gar.”

You shake your head and you won’t let him do this to himself. “Not your fault, Jay.”

“The fuck it is!” Jason nearly whines it out. “This was my idea!”

“Yeah, I know.” You scoff, shaking your head but your voice is flat. “And I didn’t stop you like you didn’t with me. I didn’t even put up a fight. So, it’s not your fucking fault, alright?” You look away, hanging your head slightly.

“I’m gonna get us out here, alright? I swear, I’ll-”

“You’ll what?” You snap, your attention is back at him and there’s venom in your voice. “What? You gonna kill him? Yeah, okay and look where that’s gotten us, Jay. Have ya noticed that Dr. Light isn’t around? You heard him lately? See him anywhere? Why the fuck do you think that is?” You ramble off and you’re just so mad at yourself over this, you don’t know how to handle it and you feel so much guilt it’s like it’s squeezing the breath out of your lungs.

“I’m sorry.” Jason doesn’t have any remark back, he’s just sorry.

You look back at him, tears welling behind your eyes as you swallow a lump. You open your mouth to say something but then stop yourself for just a second. “I’m sorry, I’m just….I’m fucking tired, Jay.” Your voice breaks.

“You giving up?” Jason asks, his voice like glass.

He didn’t think you knew how to give up. You got a guy to beat you an inch from your life to escape. You’ve been experimented on and tortured. You were thrown into this whole new environment. You’ve been through hell and back more than once. Jason just thought you didn’t know what quitting even was but he can see the tears in your eyes that you’re done. You don’t have anything left in you anymore. It’s broken you and that is something Jason will have to live with for the rest of your lives. 

“If he was going to kill us, he would have done it when he got off the phone with Dick. He’s planning something but my head fucking hurts and I’m tired and I don’t know what it is. I’m just…I’m just tired.” You let out a sigh.

“Well…you can’t give up, Y/n.” Jason states as if it’s the easiest thing in the world. “You fucking can’t, I won’t let you.” Jason boasts his chest, you quirking a brow at him. And hey, if one thing gets you going, it’s Jason being a flirty smartass and if you’re going to get the fuck out of here, he needs to give you a little bit of fight. “Don’t you wanna get the fuck outta here so you can…jump Gar or something? Have one of those shitty-ass cheesy reunions like in those movies you like so much?”

You shake your head once in either direction, as if processing the question. “What?” Your voice breaks as you nearly start laughing. What the fuck is he doing?

Jason gets that grin you like so much. “Ya know, isn’t there one in like the Notebook or some shit? They meet again and have this barf-worthy reunion? Don’t you want that with Gar?”

“Are you trying to distract me from being in here, right now?” You blink at him.

“Is it working?” Jason chuckles softly at you.

“No, because that’s stupid.” You can’t help but laugh.

“It’s your fucking thing!” Jason defends his stance and he feels a little bit better because you’re laughing.

“I don’t daydream about it!”

“It might help, you’re a bit uptight sometimes.” Jason offers with that infamous cocky smirk of his.

Your eyes widen, mouth ajar as you blink at him a few times. “Me?!” You laugh and Jason sees the light back in your eyes. “Dude, you’re a bit uptight! Maybe you're the one that needs to get laid!”

Jason bursts into a fit of laughter. “I’ve been trying!” The comment leaves his mouth without him even thinking about it.

"Not hard enough, evidently." You continue to laugh with him and you aren't sure what he meant by the comment so you play along. It is making you feel better anyway and it's a good distraction. "Maybe you'll get lucky if you survive this."

"That an offer, babe?" Jason quips right back.

"Oh, you fucking wish, Birdboy." You chuckle with the roll of your eye.

"Yeah, I do. The fuck you gonna do about it then?" Jason strikes back and this is different than the other banter you normally get into. Jason doesn't normally admit to it. He dodges it, he dodges it better than you but dodges it nonetheless. This is new.

"Fuck you." You let out a sheepish laugh because you can't believe he didn't respond the way he normally does. You have a lot of things you'd rather say than telling him to fuck off but none of them seem right, especially right now. They all just seem like bad ideas. Distractions.

"See, you avoided it again." Jason holds a triumphant smile because no matter exactly what he's thinking about everything, he was just trying to get you to talk to him and cheer you up a bit. It worked. It doesn't matter if his comments were serious or not.

"One day, I'll be the one who's gonna commit to your little game and then you're not gonna know what to do." You fire back with a shy smile. "And I'll win."

"Yeah? Cause that still sounds like I'd win in that scenario." Jason grins at you, wiggling his grows while you laugh. He's so enduringly obnoxious. You adore him for it, too. Maybe one day, if you both survive this, you'll actually commit to it all. Maybe.

“Thanks.” Your laughing subsides as you offer Jason a cornered smile.

“Look,” Jason lets out a sigh. “Jokes fucking aside and shit, you know, I never wanted you to get hurt.”

“I know.” You nod your head. “I never wanted you to get hurt either.” You let out a breath.

You take a good look at him now, realizing that you’ll have to eventually and decide to get to it over with. There’s a part of you that fears whatever Deathstroke has planned isn’t going to be something so easily escapable. It’s probably something big, something to make some sort of point to Dick and the other Titans. You’re already pretty pessimistic and this is adding onto that. A part of you really thinks this might be it and maybe it’ll be the last time you get to see and talk with Jason. It nearly brings you to tears, the very thought of it is enough to destroy you. You’d be devastated if he died.

“Did he do that to you?!” You raise your voice as you can see the blood on his thigh, part of his suit cut open.

Jason moves his leg, as if to try and hide it like he isn’t tied down to the chair. “Yeah, bastard cut out my tracker.”

Your face drops and nausea fillsyouer stomach. “I’m so sorry, Jay. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Jason brushes it off, pretending like his leg isn’t in excruciating pain. “All good, barely even feel it now.”

“Ya know, I’m like…the one person you don’t have to bullshit, right?” You ask, knowing damn well he’s lying. If it didn’t hurt, he wouldn’t have tried to move it away.

“I’m not.” Jason scoffs.

“If you’re in pain, that’s okay. I’m in pain, for the record.”

Jason hangs his head slightly before looking to you. “Yeah, it fucking hurts.”

You shake your head. “Jason, I’m….I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing, it’s not your fucking fault, alright?” Jason grits his teeth. “I got us into it.” You watch Jason’s face fall as he scoffs to himself. He’s not being so witty right now, he didn’t fight you on bullshitting you. You’re worried.

“I just…I don't wanna die, ya know?” You lets out this ragged laugh. “I’ve been through so much.” Your eyes water again. “And I made it out of those things and I thought….ya know? I’d be happy and now we’re here.” You shake your head. “I don’t wanna die.”

“You’re not gonna fucking die.” Jason urges. “I don’t fucking care what I have to do, that fuck isn’t gonna kill you.” Jason’s eyes scan over your face.

“I don’t want you to die either.” Your voice is broken and soft. You suck in a breath, looking at him for maybe a second too long before looking away. "I just can't lose you."

Jason scoffs. “Dickweed can’t kill me. I’m not scared of him.” He's terrified of losing you, too. But, he can't bring himself to say it. It doesn't matter how, but he won't let you die. It's not gonna happen, one way or another, he won't let it happen. So he bites the comment back.

“Right,” You roll your eyes. “Well, I’m scared of him. Dude is fucking scary. And I’m scared he’s gonna kill you. I can’t…” You pause. “I can’t lose you, Jay.”

“You won’t.” Jason states, his voice low. “I’ll get us both out of here, alright?”

Jason is actually afraid of this whole situation. He’s hurt, his ear is bleeding and his hearing is still muffled. Deathstroke doesn’t care, he’d beat the both of you just because he could. Jason’s throat is sore from being choked. He’s tired. You look physically and mentally exhausted. It’s rough. This is the hardest night of his life and he has no idea how he’s supposed to get either of you out of here but he swears he’ll do it. He has to. He owes it to you.

He owes you for caring about him when he breathes pain into the very air you breathe. He owes it to you for giving him a chance. Jason doesn’t think you will be so forgiving when you make it out of this, and he doesn’t think he deserves to be forgiven. But, even if you never talk to him again for getting you kidnapped and beaten again, it’ll be worth it. If Jason is to save one person, it has to be you.

Jason loves to deny his feelings until he’s certain he’s safe with someone. Feelings are scary because they’re real. Once he says how he feels about something, it gets taken away. In one way or another, it gets ripped from him and torn to shreds. It’s like he’s this disease that spreads to everything good even when he really tries not to let it happen. Everything he touches turns into a fucked up mess. And saying how he feels, that’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back. But, he really cares about you more than he’s ever cared about anyone in that way. You just make him happy and he can’t let anything else happen to you. He’s let you down already and he needs to get you the fuck out of here.

Your eyes go distant again as you let out a breath so Jason keeps the conversation going. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Go for it.” You look over to him.

“How’d you know he was gonna go for me and not you? Your combat shit only works for you.” Jason’s eyes are slightly narrowed.

You shrug a shoulder. “Well, that’s the kind of the point.” You clear your throat. “Throbbing started, then it came to a dead stop and Deathstroke wasn’t gonna not do anything. So, it would have been you.”

“So, because the throbbing stopped, you knew he’d come for me?”

Jason’s never really felt completely protected before. Even with Bruce. At first, Jason didn’t trust Bruce because he was new, just some guy. It was all a little weird but then Bruce trusted him enough to ask him to be Robin. That changed things a little. He got the be the boy wonder and in a way, he felt protected because Gotham’s very own Batman was looking out for him and gave him these trackers to make sure he could always be found. But, with that also came being directly thrown into the line of fire. Jason loves it, wouldn’t trade it for the entire world. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to him, but he is in the line of a fire a lot. You knowing your combat clairvoyance enough to know it meant Deathstroke would go for Jason, it makes him feel completely protected.

“Pretty much, would have looked really dumb if I were wrong.” You laugh softly. “Guess, uh, it can protect more than me, sometimes, right?” Jason gains a cheeky smile with your words.

Before Jason can say anything though, Deathstroke reappears with a large bowl filled with water and his sword. Jason pushes away his thoughts about you, focusing his head on Deathstroke. He’s just going to try to annoy him. It is his best quality.

“You really are a pathetic piece of shit, you know that?” Jason snarks and you roll your eyes. “Rose deserves better than you for a father.” The comment makes you look back at him, a bit surprised by the remark. Ballsy. “Some freak in a ski mask whose name sounds like a bad case of VD.” Deathstroke completely ignores him and at least the guy has that going for him. “My friends will never give her up. You know that.”

You wonder how Jason can just talk and talk and talk. He never gets tired, he never has a sore throat. That boy could actually talk someone’s ear off. You just don’t get how he does it and how he is so unwavering. You know he’s freaked out, maybe he isn’t scared, but the whole thing has definitely got him on edge. But, no one would ever know that if they didn’t know him. You think even Gar wouldn’t notice and Gar notices a lot more than other people. Jason hides it so well and you admire him for it. Maybe, not trying to piss off Deathstroke of all people, but admirable in most situations.

“Well, then, you’re both the price they pay.” Deathstroke says in his standard calm tone, picking up his sword from the table.

If you could, you’d bang your head against a wall because you didn’t even do anything. You’re not even saying anything. How is this right? Eye for an eye? HOW?

“Fuck you, you pretentious asshole. Hey, look at me,” Jason demands and Deathstroke does as he says. “I’m not scared of you.” Jason taunts and if you could slap him upside the head, you would. Deathstroke should untie you just to let you do it. Why does Jason have to taunt your captor? Deathstroke, of all people. There is death right in his name.

“You should be terrified.” Deathstroke warns. “But instead, you’ve been played by that charlatan, Dick Grayson who gives costumes to foolish kids making them believe that they’re heroes, leading you like lambs to slaughter. But, not to worry, soon, you’ll learn. For death leads to purification.” Deathstroke says while sharpening his sword.

This isn’t good for either of you. Deathstroke really is going to kill the both of you over some fight with Dick. You can’t quite figure out how that all adds up. It’s something you never understood in movies or tv shows. Going after kids because some dude is mad at the parent or mentor. What is the point? But, you’ve been through this before.

Jerry had issues with Batman once upon a time which prompted the experiments. You’ve been through this. Life or death. Do or die. You want to give up because this life is exhausting but you can’t because Jason fucking Todd is next to you bleeding and in pain and as long as you’re alive, you’ll protect him against everything in your power. You’ll fight for him because he does for you. You’ll do everything to make sure he’s okay because as far as you’re concerned, Jason Todd deserves a break and to know that he’s fucking cared about by someone. In spite of any fuck up he might do.

A few hours go by, Jason and you not making much conversation with Deathstroke still around. You both thought Deathstroke might go find something to do and you could talk, but instead, Deathstroke walks towards you and unties Jason first, holding a sword to your throat. You eye him with annoyance as Jason stands up, his legs feeling a bit weak. The wound in his leg is much worse than he originally thought. It is agonizing trying to put weight on it but he looks at you with the blade to your neck and acts like he doesn’t want to burst into a screaming fit.

“Do something stupid, I will kill her here.” Deathstroke threatens and you roll your eyes. Jason nods his head, his expression clearly annoyed even through the mask. Deathstroke unties you with one hand and moves the sword just enough for you to get to your feet. “Walk.” Deathstroke demands, pointing in the direction of the elevator.

Jason leads, followed by you, and then Deathstroke with the sword held against your back. Jason wants to fight it. He wants to spin around and throw one of the Robin blades at him but he doesn’t. He keeps a steady pace to the elevator because if he misses, he gets you. If he hits anything short of a kill shot, Deathstroke kills you. Deathstroke knew exactly how to control the both of you. Just threaten the other. You and Jason think you aren’t transparent but you are. It’s obvious that you care about each other, more than just teammates and anyone within a 10-mile radius can see that, including Deathstroke. It’s a cruel, cruel form of control but it’s effective and Deathstroke doesn’t fucking care how cruel it is. So, you walk peacefully to the elevator and get inside, Deathstroke holding the blade against you the entire ride to the top floor.

Once at the top floor, you all file out of the elevator and go up a set of stairs that lead to the roof. Panic starts to hit you as you walk up the stairs. You’re terrified of heights. Petrified and now you’re going onto a roof. You just look around because of fucking course you’re on top of a skyscraper as if the night couldn’t possibly get any worse. Does Deathstroke plan to push you both off? That seems a little too easy for him. But, you’re worried anyway. Why else would he bring you to a roof of a skyscraper?

Deathstroke walks you and Jason onto a window cage that window washers use. It’s easy for him because you won’t make any sudden moves, not with Jason’s life at risk and not with you being twenty stories in the air. And Jason won’t risk Deathstroke killing you. This is in Deathstroke's control and it’s terrifying. He ties you both tightly to one of the railings and your hands start to shake behind your back as Deathstroke walks off. He uses a control in his hand to lower the two of you down a few floors. Your eyes nearly bug out of your head as you watch Deathstroke disappear the further down he sends you.

You look to Jason, fear in your eyes and you never told him you were afraid of heights. Sure, the two of you talk about trauma in a nonchalant joking way but actual real-life fears? No. That is unknown territory to talk about with the two of you but he can tell with your wide eyes and rapid breathing that you’re terrified. He can visibly see your chest heaving and your teeth chattering.

“You’re afraid of heights, aren’t you?” He asks as the cage comes to a halt, still several stories up.

“Uh-huh.” You nod, swallowing thickly as your mouth starts to feel like cotton mouth. “I hate heights. I hate them. I don’t go on Ferris wheels because I’m terrified of being at the top. Like what if I get stuck there? Some Final Destination rollercoaster kind of shit. What if we fall? That sounds like a fucking terrible way to go out.” You start speaking a mile a minute, half of your words almost slurring together from the rapid speech and chattering of your teeth. “OR WORSE WHAT IF WE LIVE?!?!? DO YOU HOW BAD IT’S GONNA HURT IF THIS FUCKER DROPS US AND WE LIVE?” The panic spits out like venom.

Jason has no idea what to tell you. He could lie to you and tell you it’s all gonna be okay, he’ll figure something out. Dick will save you both but he doesn’t think that’ll happen. Deathstroke has seemed to have a pretty solid plan up until this point. And he knows Dick won’t give up Rose which he kind of admires if he wants to be honest. But, there are two of you and one of her. Sacrifice two people that he knows for one girl he’s known for a day? That’s a bit unfair. But, he needs to find a way to calm you down because you’re going to pass out if you don’t. And he cannot believe heights are going to be the thing that freaks you out the most. Not Deathstroke or being kidnapped again. Or Jerry or fighting Jerry. No, heights.

“Can you get your hands out?” Jason moves his eyes behind you and back to your face. You shake your head rapidly, making the dizziness worse. You swear you’re about to go into cardiac arrest.

“Can someone actually die from a panic attack? Like is that something that can happen? Because it really feels like I’m about to die because I think my heart rate is like 150 or something. I don’t know what to do. Jason, you need to figure something out because I am literally going to lose it and I’m gonna have a heart attack and–”

“Y/n!” Jason yells just to get your attention and stop your rambling. He knows you’re scared, though he can’t pinpoint what about heights has you more afraid than Deathstroke. “Look at me.” He sucks in a breath. Your eyes lock with his and it’s like a switch flips in him. “The fuck you so afraid of heights for? Scared a bird is gonna attack you or some shit?” He snaps, just trying to get you to fight back, hoping it’ll be enough to distract you. “That’s stupid fucking fear, you know that?”

Your brows furrow and normally you’d understand what he’s doing. But, your mind is so blacked out with panic, you can’t find the reason screaming at your face. Instead, your heart sinks, still beating a mile a minute and you don’t know why he’s being mean, now of all times.

“We could–”

“Die?!” Jason argues. “Yeah, been a fucking possibility all fucking night but you’re freaking out now? We can escape, he’s not fucking here. Calm the fuck down and use the acid shit to get us the out of here.” Jason scoffs, trying his best to seem annoyed with you.

Jason thinks if he can make you mad enough, maybe you can concentrate on anything besides the heights. Maybe you can get you both out of this. It’s not fair and it’s mean and he knows it. He’ll have to feel bad about it later but right now, he can’t. You panicking next to him isn’t going to do either of you any good. It’ll distract him, too and you can’t afford that. You talked about your do or die moment with Jerry, well this is a do or die moment with Deathstroke and he needs you to focus on that. If Deathstroke drops you, at least you both can say you tried in some sort of afterlife Jason thinks will resemble Hell.

“T-that’s not…that’s not fair.” You shake your head, unsure if you can focus enough to produce any acid. “Why are you being mean?” You scream at him as your voice breaks.

It hurts a lot more than you would like to admit. Jason can be mean, he’s an asshole and you can be mean right back because you’re the same sometimes. It’s how you both function but you swore you could count on Jason to be understanding in a situation like this. You can’t help that heights are your downfall. And of all people, based on everything that’s happened between the two of you, you thought he’d be understanding but he’s just berating you and it hurts.

“Because this is fucking stupid!” Jason groans and he feels really guilty about being mean but it seems to be working. “You’re a Titan for fuck’s sake, get a fucking grip. Do something about it!”

“You do something about it!” You scream back at him. “You’re fucking Robin, aren’t you? You fucking do something! This was your idea!” The second it leaves your mouth, you knew you went too far and it’s all a lie anyway. But, you’re pissed and you’re scared.

“I can’t.” Jason grits his teeth as he tugs his arms against the rope and in any normal circumstance, he’d be pissed about you calling him out about Robin and he’d never admit to not being able to do something. He struggles against the restraints. “You have those freak powers, I don’t! Do you not fucking see my hands also tied?”

“I can’t focus enough to do it!” You scream at him and you’re actually worried that maybe you won’t be able to use your powers just because you’re scared. Maybe there’s a line with it. Maybe if you’re too scared, it shuts down. Maybe it stops working, then what? You’re too distracted anyway.

“Bullshit! You have more control over those stupid powers than anyone!” Jason fires back at you. “How fucking useless are you that you can’t use the acid to melt through some fucking rope?” He scoffs and he knows he’ll pay for this later but you’re not focused on the height anymore. And maybe if you can free both of you, he could scale the building and find a way to get you down. He doubts you’d start scaling the building with him if he finds a way to do that but there should be a wench or something on top of the roof.

You let out a scoff and look away from him. You already felt useless. You know. But, hearing Jason confirm it is devastating. You hate, more than anything, feeling useless and weak and now you’re trapped here, at your most exposed feeling just that with the person you swore you could trust more than anyone. And it just fucking hurts.

You dodge his reflection in the window and if you weren’t tied up right now. If you were a worse person, you’d fire back and call him useless because he’s fucking ROBIN and you are still stuck here in the same position. But, then you bounce back to this being your fault and maybe that’s not fair to only blame Jason for being mad at you.

You swear you have to be cursed. Kidnapped twice? Tortured twice? On two different occasions? It’s gotta be some sort of curse and maybe had you stayed behind, Jason would have been fine. Maybe Gar would have insisted to follow Jason and they would have been fine. But, you didn’t. You went with and you’re both kidnapped and stuck fifteen stories in the air.

Jason knows he went a step too far. The useless comment was a risk but he was hoping you’d prove him wrong. That’s more of your style anyway, prove someone wrong out of spite alone. It’s one of the things he likes most about you but this is a very different situation. Jason knows you aren’t useless, you’re just scared. There’s no doubt in his mind that if he weren’t here, you would have put up a hell of a fight against Dr. Light and Deathstroke. The only reason you didn’t was to protect him and he couldn’t protect you. So, Jason needs to find a way to either get you to use the acid or find a way to get you both out here. He owes you that much.

As Jason struggles, the blinds covering the windows go up, making him freeze. There’s Dick looking at the two of you with panic in his wide eyes. Any hope you had of Dick saving you went out of the window with the look on his face. He’s in the building and you’re pretty sure there’s some type of explosive on the side of Jason, you could see it when you looked at him. Deathstroke has the detonator with him and all he has to do is push a button and there you both go. Falling to your deaths.

Jason starts fighting harder as if coming to the same conclusion as you. He yanks and tugs, nearly pulling his shoulder out of socket. Deathstroke tied the rope a bit better than Dr. Light did. But he’s going to fight until the very last second. And you’re about at the breaking point. Why does this happen to you? And the people you care about? What is so fucking bad about you that it has to happen? You’re so sick of it and you’re going to fucking lose it. So, you struggle, too, pulling just as hard as Jason and focusing on the useless comment because it was fucking mean. And you focus on both of you probably dying.

“Jay?” You ask, looking over at him as you tug the rope harder. “We’re gonna die, aren’t we?”

Jason pauses, looking to at you and there’s this darkness to your eyes, similar to what he saw at Jerry’s. “No.” He shakes his head, not even convincing himself. “No, Dick will figure it out.” He gains a little bit of hope with the look in your eye, maybe you have a plan. You’re at least fighting.

“He’s gonna blow the bomb and we’re gonna fall.” You state.

“Dick will get to it first.” Jason defends. Jason has his issues with Dick but he knows Dick won’t let either of you fall, not if he can stop it.

“And if he doesn’t?”

“He will.” Jason says and it’s almost a plea that leaves his lips before he starts fighting the restraint some more. You both see Dick try to make a move, Deathstroke moving in front of him with a gun pointed at him. “He will.” Jason repeats.

As Jason fights, keeping his head forward, you both spot Kory. You piece together that the woman must be Kory given the lifted look Jason gets and the fact she’s the only one you haven’t met yet. That’s when slight relief kicks in for you. Two against one is a lot better odds especially when one of them is fucking Kory. Kory is such a badass from what everyone has said about her, including Jason and it’s like Jason gains the same hope because he tugs even harder as a fight starts going down in front of you, a helicopter circling from above you.

As the fight continues in front of you, you and Jason make work on your restraints, you can feel your hands finally starting to warm up. This is why you don’t like this power. It’s unpredictable. You can warm your hands with it, use it without even a thought, but when you’re in a dire situation, it decides to not wanna work. It is literally like there’s a block around it when you’re panicked and that’s bullshit. But, you get why Jason was so mean. He knew before you did and that means a lot, even if it was hurtful.

You pause for a second, hoping that if you stand still and talk, maybe it’ll work quicker. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.” You state, keeping your head straight.

Jason pauses, looking to you with brows furrowed. “Don’t do that.” Jason scoffs before he continues tugging. It’s not your fault and he’ll go to his grave screaming it if he has to. “Not your fault.”

You nod. “I should have been able to though and I just… thought you should know that I’m sorry. And I care about you a lot.” You look at him, watching him struggle and it breaks your heart because he’s giving it all he has and you can tell by how he’s favoring his left leg that it hurts.

“This is on me, alright? My idea! My impulsive fucking plan! I’m sorry I dragged you into it.” Jason lets out a huff and he refuses to admit he couldn’t save you because there’s still time to be saved.

Dick rushes over to the window as Kory fights Deathstroke. “Hang in there.” He says before he starts hitting the glass.

Jason and you blink at him as if you were supposed to know what he had just said. You can only assume you were told to hang on or he’s coming to get you, something along those lines. Dick and Kory are putting up a hell of a fight and maybe they’ll win. Dick has been Robin for years and Kory, well, from what you’re told she blew up a hospital and from what you’re seeing, she’s fucking cool. So, you fight harder and you think about Jason reading to you and playing video games with Gar. And you choose to focus on those things and Jason telling you to put all your shit on him and Gar taking walks around the tower with you to make sure it’s safe. And your hands start burning.

Dick starts hitting the glass before Deathstroke throws something at Kory, the blue cylinders exploding as Kory uses fire against them. Dick looks over his shoulder, seeing Deathstroke walk over toward Kory. He has a choice to make and unfortunately, it’s not you and Jason right now. Kory is the priority because Deathstroke is a few feet away from killing her so he runs to her.

“Don’t tell anyone that I’m afraid of heights.” You warn him as acid drips from your hands and onto the restraints.

“Is that what you’re fucking concerned about?” Jason nearly laughs at your comment as you continue to tug, your arms and legs burning with every movement.

“HA!” You cheer, pulling your hands in front of yourself. “Yes.” You state looking at him, deliberately keeping your entire focus on him.

Jason lets out a relieved yell, a smile coming to his face. “Get me the fuck out of here!”

You move towards him and bend down. “I might burn--”

“Don’t care, do it!” Jason pulls the restraints taught, trying to give you room so hopefully you don’t burn him.

You’re able to free him and the two of you have a second of relief before you turn to face the building again. Inside, it looks like it’s getting messier. Deathstroke is putting up a really good fight against Dick and Kory. It’s actually completely insane to be watching right now. But Jason has an idea.

“Melt the glass of the window.” Jason nods his head towards the window.

Your eyes widen as you realize you’ll have to bend over the railing in order to do that. But you look back to Jason and he is unwavering. Maybe other people would think this whole night would mean you shouldn’t put your full trust into each other. You both got too caught up in everything to notice Deathstroke. You both didn’t think of backup and all of the bad shit that could happen. Both of you have failed to protect each other up until right now. But, for you, it proves you have every right to trust Jason because he fights like hell to keep you safe.

“I’ll hold onto you, you’ll be fine.” Jason assures you with a nod.

“If you drop me, I’ll come back from the fucking dead and murder you.” You blink at him and Jason chuckles to himself.

“Good luck with that, babe.”

You roll your eyes before walking over to the railing, taking a few seconds to let yourself panic about it. Your heart rate spikes but you lean over the railing anyway, Jason holding your hips so tight you swear it’ll leave bruises. Your hands press against the cool glass while your hands start to heat up once more. You keep your focus on melting the glass and Jason holding you. 

The window starts to crack beneath your palms and Jason gains a triumphant smile. He might have called you useless but he always believed in you. You’re bruised, broken, traumatized, and damaged, just like him and he gets up over and over and over again. You can do it, too and you do and he adores that part of you. Determined and resilient and he swears he’ll never let something like this happen to you ever again. But just a sense of relief fills your chests, a flashbang goes off inside the building, right in front of you.

The flash of the window shatters right from under you. You fall forward, Jason leaning back and holding onto you as tight as he possibly can while you scream. Your hands land on shards of glass sticking right up from the windowsill. Jason’s blinded for just a few seconds and when he gets a look inside the building, he spots Deathstroke off to the side with the detonator. His heart sinks and he knows. In a split second, Jason lets go of you right as Deathstroke presses the button.

Gar is watching from the living room at Titans Tower. He was holding his breath the entire time. He saw you free yourself and then free Jason. He had this sliver of hope because surely Jason had some type of repelling system with the Robin suit and you’d be home free but then you went for the window. And he saw the flowing of your hands against the window. Gar was so sure you and Jason would make it out. You were melting the window and you could escape that way but then, the glass shattered.

Gar watched you fall forward and Jason nearly fall backward holding his grip on you and Gar’s heart sunk. He heard Rachel gasp from behind him. No one in the living room even moved, not a centimeter. Everyone became frozen. Gar had hoped that you would pull yourself inside and then Jason but his hope fell short. The bomb goes off and Gar spins away from the TV because he can’t watch the two of you die. It feels like a bomb went off in his chest and he can’t breathe anymore. His feet are cemented to the floor and everything in him aches and screams, wishing it had been him. Wishing misery had been kinder to him and let this happen to him instead.

“Gar.” Rachel calls because her eyes are still glued to TV, she couldn’t bare to look away like a bad train wreck. And Gar stays silent. “Look.” Rachel’s voice is quiet.

You have your grip on the windowsill and everything in you cries, sobs. Every bone in your body is letting out a wail of unfiltered pain. You can’t feel Jason anymore. You don’t care that there’s glass sticking nearly all the way through your hands because you can’t feel him anymore and the bomb went off. Your arms are weak and your eyes hurt.

Dick slides over to the edge, spotting Jason and he lets out a breath. “Hold on.”

He looks to you before looking over the edge. His rationale isn’t solid. The smart thing to do would be to drag you in because you’re closer to Dick, but Jason is more at risk right now. You’re right there, he can grab you in an instant. You should be able to pull yourself up but Jason is a few feet below and he looks like he’s struggling. Dick has to save Jason. Jason grabs Dick’s hand.

“Don’t let go.” Dick’s words are breathy and you nearly choke because you know that means Jason hasn’t fallen to his death. Not yet. But, then you hear him scream and see Dick freeze from the corner of your eye.

prev. chapter | next chapter 

series masterlist | masterlist | tag list

Tag list: @fairyofshampoo // @italiana-20 // @jasontoddsmentaldisorders // @purplerose291 // @lovelessamai  // @makaelaseresin // @lenidaslenchen // @thatfangirl42 // @ghostkingblake // @im-done-with-this-im-out // @velvetskies // @lilylovelyxo // @cryinghotmess // @yesimwriting // @vivian-555​

[strangled-mangoes]

As a person who also likes Robin a lot and likes TT03, I really like a lot of your takes on the characters.

Speaking of which, do you ship/support Robstar?

OMG THANK U‼️ :D

and as for ur question, yes! i do ship robstar!

i think they’re a really cute and sweet couple, and i’m so happy that they’re 100% canon!!!! a lot of times, if a couple does become official, it doesn’t rlly go beyond the surface of “girl likes boy, boy thinks girl is pretty” BUT THATS NOT THEM‼️

teen titans did a really good job of developing their relationship over the course of the show, which is also impressive because it’s not entirely story-driven. yes, every season has an arc that it builds up to, but not every episode in that season is made for that arc. and yes, there is a greater story being built over the course of the seasons— but it’s not the same kind of story where it’s all leading up to defeating one single big bad. in ATLA, for example, it’s very story-driven, and each episode is connected to each other as they inch closer to their goal of defeating the Fire Lord.

but teen titans doesn’t do that. instead, every episode, even the season-arc related ones, are focused on developing the characters and sometimes their dynamics with each other.

over the course of the seasons, no matter who the big villain was, robin and starfire’s relationship grew. not only that, but they themselves grew, which is another awesome thing that the show did to make these feel like real people with a real relationship.

i know that the other big ship for robin is with raven, but tbh i really don’t like it. a lot of people care about the ship a lot so i don’t mean to sound rude, but imo, that’s just not their dynamic. to me, robin and raven are 100% sibling coded.

it’s true that they grow to be very close with each other, and as the show goes on, they’re shown to care for each other a lot— but it’s not the kind of love that robin and star have. i think my biggest point towards them being siblings is in The End, when robin goes to basically-hell to save raven. when he finds her, she’s physically and mentally younger, and doesn’t even recognize him at first. robin does approach her as her friend, but also treats her as one would with a real child. even when she remembers him, he doesn’t change his behavior with her. i really do think he sees her as his younger sister.

i know that normally they are very close in age, and have similar levels of maturity. but lemme tell u something. i have a younger brother, and we’re very similar to each other. i mean ok his interests r a bit different (he was on a wrestling team during hs while i sat on my computer and studied the tt wiki (which is amazing u should go look at it if u haven’t)). but other than the parts that make us unique (and the fact we aren’t related to each other at all), i often find myself forgetting that he’s younger than me. until we’re sitting in the backseat of our older brother’s car after a long day of walking, and he starts to fall asleep. and he falls to my side. and suddenly my brain starts running a mile a minute, as i realize that because we’re so close he isn’t afraid to sleep beside me. and ok yes this absolutely the brainrot talking but i believe this is how robin was feeling when raven trusted him to save her, to defeat her father— to protect her. of course robin is better trained and therefore didn’t freeze up like i did but whatever!

as a sidenote, i wanna say that while i do ship robstar 100%, i also ship robx :3 (and before u or anyone else that may see this says something like “wait but isn’t the new red x Jason Todd???” i’m just gonna tell u that he isn’t. i don’t wanna talk about it rn but believe me that i do have evidence i am just tired lol)

shipping stuff on the side is really fun, and i personally love robx so so much!!! do i think that they should be canon? no not really. i think it’s a fun little ship that gets to exist in our hearts (and in my phone wallpaper). red x is bisexual btw. i know this because i paid attention

anyway sorry if any of this didn’t make sense or whatever, i was gonna go to sleep (coincidentally after watching several tt episodes) when i saw ur ask and i had to reply immediately. it is 3 am now i am eepy… but also i wanna say that ive seen ur reblogs on my posts and they made me very happy so thank u very much!!!!!!! when i got the first notif i sent my friend very excited keyboard smashes (they also like tt and theyre the person that i usually talk to about it, like the cyrob parallels i noticed)

[burst-of-iridescent]

at the moment, 5.7k people are following the kataang tag, not 2.9k, as you said, why would you lie? in addition, even on Tumblr (which remained almost the last popular zk place among all fan platforms), Zukka is ahead of Zutara in popularity, and a lot of talented and popular creators of fan art and fan fiction are now concentrated in the Zukka and Maiko fandom. It is fundamentally a mistake to focus on the popularity of the ship, because shipping should be for personal pleasure, but this only shows that most people are ATLA fans (namely fans, not casual viewers) they actively love ATLA and did not see zutara in the canon. In addition, can you give evidence of your words that «almost all of the main cast and most of the writers» love zutara? From the cast, only Dante actively confessed his love for zutara, but he also spoke about his love for zukka, Mae Whitman not against Zutara and joked about it, but she also said in podcast that she also loves kataang, the rest of the actors did not speak at all about their preferences in shipping (except Grey DeLisle who prefers zucest).

none of the screenwriters has ever confessed his love for Zutara, on the contrary, Ehasz has said several times that he loves Maiko, he also wrote almost all the most significant maiko and kataang episodes. The only one of the 13 main writers of ATLA who spoke about sympathy for Zutara is John O'Bryan. Zutara never featured in any of the original scripts, and in ATLA's "bible," the only love triangle that was originally planned was Aang-Katara-Toph (who was a boy in the original script). In a recent interview, Ehaz also answered the question of how he feels about zutara vs kataang, that he, as a professional screenwriter, "follows his characters" and their final canonical choice of love interest is the choice of the character himself, not the writers.

.

i wrote 2.9k the first time around by mistake. the original post has since been amended to reflect the actual numbers of the kat.aang tag, though frankly the disparity between the two tags is still so large that i don’t even think it matters. anyway, my bad. thanks for letting me know.

many cast members and former writers on the official atla podcast, braving the elements, have talked about shipping zutara — including, but not limited to, dante basco, jack de sena, michaela murphy, joshua hamilton, and john o’bryan. grey delisle, mae whitman & greg baldwin have also spoken about being zutara shippers. i’m not sure why them liking or showing support for other ships somehow means they don’t ship zutara, because people don’t need to ship only a single couple to prove they’re “real” shippers lmao. i like azutara, sukitara, ty luko & even book 1 kat.aang myself; that doesn’t make me any less of a zutara shipper.

i’m also not sure why you expect me to do the work of providing evidence for you when, given the fact that you’re here, i’m certain you have just as much access to google as i do. this information is freely available online. feel free to fact check me.

and let me say this again, in case it was not clear enough: i truly do not care about zutara’s popularity. even if none of the cast and writers shipped it, even if the tag only had 10 people, even if every single wonderfully talented writer & artist & AMV editor & GIF maker in this fandom left, i would still ship it. because it’s a better story, because it is more thematically and narratively cohesive, and because it makes me happy.

and if you disagree with that, that’s fine by me. but somehow trying to “prove” to me that zutara is unpopular and no one likes it is not only a) factually false it’s also b) not going to do a damn thing to change my mind lmao. the opinions of other people have never been a reason for me to ship zutara, and they never will be.

[lynzishell]

List 5 facts about a favorite sim of yours, and send this to 10 simblrs whose sims you adore ♥♥♥

TYSM for this ask!!! 💖

Okay! Up next from last week’s poll is my MC: ✨Phoenix Realta✨

❄️He loves to cook… as you may have guessed considering he’s always the one cooking every meal.  But… a little background (and I’ll split this into two)… He grew up poor and his mom wasn’t big on cooking, so the times when his kitchen was stocked, it consisted of a lot of frozen and canned/boxed meals like soup, tuna, mac and cheese, and frozen pizza. His favorite thing growing up was peanut butter and banana on toast. He’d toast the bread so that the peanut butter would be all melty and gooey.

❄️He learned how to cook properly from Julian during the year he lived with him in Copperdale. It was the only real quality time they spent together, but they both really enjoyed it. When Phoenix moved to the city, he fell in love with the variety of food and restaurants available. He started collecting cookbooks and watching cooking shows to learn more and more complicated recipes. It can be difficult to cook for only 1-2 people, so it’s nice that Atlas and Asher come over for dinner every Sunday. (fun fact: all of these things are very important to the future of Aspen’s story btw)

❄️The man cannot sit still. He’s even worse than Dawn in that regard. He always needs to be doing something. He actually misses the days when he was training and climbing to prepare for the Mt. Komorebi excursion. It kept him busy and active all the time. After that was over, it was kind of a bittersweet moment, like he didn’t know what to do with himself. So, he got into running. Luckily, Aspen keeps him quite busy now, but he still runs every day, rain or shine.

❄️He is very much addicted to coffee and has been for years. He likes it strong and black. He can’t start his day without it, and he drinks multiple cups throughout the day, especially at work. At this point, he can barely function without it and gets really bad headaches if he goes a day without a cup.

❄️And, of course, he’s a new father! And he is soooo happy! Aspen is a lot of work, but like I said, Phoenix always needs to be up doing something, so he’s happy to be taking care of her. He’s just so grateful she’s finally here. 🥹 And honestly, he’s pretty bummed about having to go back to work sooner than expected. I think there’s a part of him that would’ve loved to be the one staying home with Aspen. Once Dawn mentioned wanting to stay home, I think a part of him wanted to say that he does too and maybe she should be the one to go back since she makes more money. Instead, he signed himself up for a more demanding, higher paying, career path, and cut his own time at home short, so that he could support Dawn in staying home with their daughter. It’s in his nature to put her first, and he genuinely wants to do whatever he can to make her happy, that’s his priority, but I don’t think we should ignore the immense sacrifice he's making. He doesn’t want to be away from Aspen or miss out on any big moments in her development any more than Dawn does, but he also doesn’t feel right about taking that away from her. My heart kinda aches for him a little, y’know.

I love him so much! And it’s been too long since I’ve gotten in his head and done a proper character development exercise for him, so I really enjoyed this! TYSM for sending me this ask!! 🫶🏻

[fangirlshrewt97]

Story Summary - RRR x ATLA AU

Hey guys, another story summary. I have a lot of ideas I want to write, but I am also feeling slightly frustrated with lack of responses. Like I’m screaming into the void. I know that in the last few months we have been lucky to have so many new people join the fandom, but because of the increased number of works, I am also seeing this almost apathy/works getting taken for granted. Real life takes priority, but if anyone else has noticed many previously active people in the fandom have gone quiet, I do wonder if this is one reason. I am definitely feeling it. 

Anyways, that’s just my opinion. Here is the ATLA AU story summary I had written way back when. It’s not very detailed and I did stick close to the plot of the movie, but it’s just food for thought. 

///

For context about the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe, the population is divided into four nations that each have an affinity over one of the elements (Air, Water, Earth, Fire). Of the general population, a smaller subset have the ability to "bend" or manipulate their element of affinity, and can train to strengthen their skills. In addition to control over the "raw" elements, each element also has a special ability associated with it (Air -> Oxygenbending; Water -> Bloodbending; Earth -> Metalbending; Fire -> Lightingbending). While each individual only has affinity for one element, every generation an "Avatar" is born who is capable of learning mastery over all four elements. The "nation" of birth for the avatar also cycles, so if in one generation they are born an Airbender, then in the next they are a Waterbender, and so on. The "Avatar" is typically the strongest bender alive for this reason, and discovers their ability to bend other elements in late childhood.

Ok onto the story. Let's modify these rules just a bit, so that while there are people who can bend who have an affinity to a single element, the strongest also have an affinity for a second element. And the Avatar is not one individual per generation, but there are a handful.

Let's keep the movie's plot the same, but now we have a Bheem who grew up as an extremely powerful and natural waterbender, with a strong affinity for earthbending as well. He never tries to bend either of the other two elements, because in the forests, Water and Earth are the most important elements anyways. And none of the tribespeople think about the possibility Bheem might be an "Avatar" because the last time an "Avatar" was born among them was a couple centuries ago.

Let's also have a Ram who is a very talented Firebender, but who downplays his abilities in front of the British. True that if she showed his power he could have a better chance of getting a promotion. But the British are not total idiots, and are very wary of the Indian benders, not hesitating to lock away any bender who shows even the slightest threat against them. So Ram keeps his abilities hidden, never doing more than the occasional fireball or providing light during night time escorts.

When the child is in danger after the train explosion, the men still stage their rescue, with a little subtle aid from their elements. Ram concentrates on the flames that surround Bheem to make sure he is not burned. He doesn't realize that the fire couldn't burn Bheem anymore than him. In the water, Bheem propels them to land without Ram the wiser. Their friendship remains the same, though Bheem only reveals his Earthbending to Ram, who in turn shows his simplest Firebending tricks.

Good things with so many secrets involved can never last, and the Interval fight has to happen eventually. The battle is a true fight with both of them showing all their prowess for bending. Ultimately the outcome is the same. Even if there is one moment when Ram is walking towards an injured Bheem on the ground, and the flames seem to listen to Bheem instead of him. He must have been imagining things.

During the whipping scene, the leaf blowing directly onto Bheem's cheek when he was thinking so hard of his tribe is not a result of coincidence, but accidental bending. The platform seems to shake as the Earth quakes with each strike of the whip upon her child's flesh.

When Ram revists the platform that night, the earth beneath his feet seems to still burn with the heat of the sun where Bheem's blood has soaked the soil. Deciding to help Bheem escape, making his survival Ram's new mission is the easiest choice he has made in a long time.

As Malli runs from them all, Ram pursues her, wanting to make sure she reaches Bheem safely. As he runs out of bullets, he creates a fireball for the Britisher aiming his gun at her. From Bheem's perspective, he sees Ram with fire in his hands running straight at Malli. He redirects the fireball, so that it blasts back onto Ram's face. His anger takes over as he starts to create fireballs and throw them at Ram till he gets to him. He is still unable to stab him, instead pinning him to the ground with shackles buried in the soil. He picks up Malli and runs as fast as he can, feeling the air beneath his feet nearly letting him fly. He does not look back.

Ram realizes Bheem is not just an above average bender, but one of those legendary Benders with the ability to control all four elements. A kind of weapon the Britishers could never properly defeat.

Ram then gets imprisoned, and Bheem goes into hiding. He meets Sita (an Airbender), and gets to know Ram's backstory. For Ram's side, the prison cell they throw him in an ice-box style cell that is specifically meant to surpress the bending ability of Firebenders by keeping them on the verge of hypothermia. The rescue and the subsequent fight are twice as badass as before as both boys unleash their full bending abilities on the soldiers. The climax fight features fire bending Ram, but in that final scene where he confronts Scott, he teaches Bheem not just how to fire the gun, but to do Firebending.

The movie ends with them reuniting with their compatriots with the weapons. But instead of Bheem asking Ram to teach him how to read, it had Ram asking Bheem if he would be willing to join the fight. That he knows it is not fair to ask of Bheem, but with his powers, he cannot not ask either. Bheem has a minute of hesitation, because he still has his mission to fulfill, but looking at Malli, he also knows he never wants another child to go through what she has gone through. He tells Ram that once he has returned Malli to her family, he will come to Ram's village and train with him (and Sita) to learn about Firebending and Airbending, as well as bring a few other benders from his tribe who can help them.

Then they go on to train and become even more badass. Plus they kick a lot of Britishers's asses, and really what more could you ask for?

///

@rambheem-is-real @budugu @bromance-minus-the-b @hissterical-nyaan @obsessedtoafault @hufhkbgg @yehsahihai @rorapostsbl @fangirl-from-discord @fadedscarlets @alikokinav @chaotic-moonlight @rambheemisgoated @rambheemlove @jaganmaya @burningsheepcrown @lovingperfectionwonderland @rosayounan @iam-siriuslysher-lokid @thewinchestergirl1208 @dumdaradumdaradum @ronaldofandom @jjwolfesworld @jrntrtitties @kashpaymentsonly @jeonmahi1864  @stanleykubricks @m3gs1mps4a @tulodiscord @teddybat24 @sally-for-sally @ssabriel @jadebomani @stuckyandlarrystuff @veteran-fanperson @ohfuckoffpls @bheemaxrama @chaidrivenwhore @gifseafins @keyhunter04 @umbrulla

[adozentothedawn]

Okay so the Atla timeline for the Fire Nation is a bit knotted up huh

We have Fire Lord Sozin starting the 100 year war when he’s this old: (technically even older cause this was when Roku died, but it's close enough for this purpose. He old is the point.)

The wiki tells me he was 82 at that point,yeah, makes sense. He rules for 20 years longer according to the wiki, which sure, I can deal with that, strong benders live long, whatever. However. We then have Azulon which is where it gets weird, because the show explicitely states he rules for 23 years. That is a direct citation from the funeral flashback in Zuko Alone. 23 years. We definitely know when he died though, namely 5 years before Zuko was banished, so in the year 95 (techincally 94? The wiki says 95 and it doesn’t matter for this discussion so I’ll just roll with it). That means he started his reign in the year 72 a whole 52 years after his father died. I have questions. Now, the wiki completely ignores the 23 years line and I cannot blame them for it cause it doesn’t make sense. It also claims that Azulon was 95 when he died, which. That would make his father 82 when he was born. Guy must have had some real virility, damn. Now we don’t have a birth year for Ozai, but Ursa was born in 63, and they seem to be around the same age so if we roll with that Azulon would have also been old when Ozai was born but it would be at least slightly less insane. Now, having a child at 82 is not technically impossible for a guy, so the only thing that is just plain wrong is the 23 years line, but it is unlikely. I guess that family just has a thing for getting children when they’re old. 

However, to my amusement, that 23 years line isn’t the only thing they kinda tried to retcon. Here we have a young Azulon training as his father watches: (Although I am unable to cite from where that picture originates, the wiki doesn’t source its pictures very well and I don’t recognize the watermark. I am assuming its from one of the lore books but if the wiki is just lying and this isn’t official feel free to correct me)

So this is probably like year 12 to 15, right? It seems Mr Sozin Fire Lord is Benjamin Button aging up there. xD Either that or in his old age he got vain and started dying his hair.

Yeah so anyway, the only actually impossible thing is the 23 years line, the other stuff I just think is funny. We have two options to fix the inconsistencies: 

Option #1: We add another Fire Lord before Azulon. It’s smoother but quite a bit of work to justify in canon if you’re not already ham for rewriting a bunch of lore. 

Option #2: We just yeet out the 23 years line as the fire sage got high off herbs or something and was talking bullshit. Definitely the easier option and it’s not unreasonable that Azulon ruled for 75 years. Also I think that option opens up a lot of interesting lore debates, because while Sozin started the war, Azulon kept it going for 75 years. That’s almost 4 times the length Sozin ruled in the war. It’s basically just that guy’s war at this point. Sozin is interesting as a character and I liked that episode about him, don’t get me wrong but Azulon ruled for 3/4s of the whole war and we get basically nothing about him, which I find a little disappointing. Although since that was a bit of retcon I suppose it makes sense. 

Alright, rant over, summary: the show had a line that makes no sense and also Zuko better keep using protection if he still has hookups in Legend of Korra. 

Edit: actually this is even wilder cause I calculated wrong. The war started 12 years after Roku died, so Sozin only ruled for 8 years during the war and Azulon for 86.

[bestworstcase]

I don’t know what it means but.

Ruby talking with Qrow (I believe) in V7 when she compares herself to Oz, and Qrow saying “No you’re better than him you’re waiting to see who you can trust vs never giving anyone the chance to be trusted”

And now Ruby saying what’s the point of anything if Salem has the relics now and Yang saying “That’s how Ironwood thought. You don’t mean that”

The WAY Oz and Ironwood carried out their plans was Bad but they didn’t start at the deep end. Their thoughts didn’t spawn all of their actions. Ruby having doubts and seeing Oz’s perspective of being wary of who to trust doesn’t mean she’ll turn out like him. Ruby showing she’s upset and mad that things seem to be turning out useless despite their efforts doesn’t mean she regrets saving the people they saved. Or trying to save them.

The way Ruby hasn’t been able to openly doubt herself around others or say things that others see as “thinking like Ironwood” or “you’re better than Oz” is so prominent in episode 7. And I’m not saying she was wrong in anything I’m on her defense squad rn from ppl who are doing what the characters in the show did. They are Hearing her words but they aren’t Listening. WHY is she better than Oz when she thinks she’s doing the same thing. WHAT has caused her to Think like Ironwood. Why can’t she mean what she says why can’t she be negative. Where is the person to lift her up about herself. Not the plan not the team but just Ruby Rose

I don’t think I’m explaining this properly I’m not mad at anyone bc they didn’t know how she felt. I’m just trying to point out connecting things in the show and how “We’ll be better than blank”, in Ruby’s mind, can’t just be something to say when Qrow is mad at Oz (rightfully) or Yang is worried she sounds like Ironwood (the man they just had to save a kingdom from)

V9. Misinformation. Miscommunication. Blinded by your own emotions. Resistant to change. Not listening. It’s felt so Real it’s been so good I hope what I said makes sense it’s just the Be Better Than The Old Mentors vs just bc we won’t do things the same way doesn’t mean we won’t ever feel like they felt or have the same doubts or worry that what they did might’ve been The Best in their mind at the time. Lack of perspective. How you can be the villain to those you’re trying to save. It’s a lot sorry I rambled so much

pushing pause real quick here, anon, the anxiety pouring out of this ask about being misinterpreted as bashing this or that character is really palpable and bc of that i just want to like directly affirm that analytical discussion of character flaw or the narrative construction of a conflict isn’t accusatory or condemnatory of the characters themselves. in this household we go buckwild for characters whose human imperfection is fully and honestly realized by the narrative <3

anyway yeah yeah exactly like

ever since these kids got looped into ozpin’s cult they’ve just been in this emotional vortex of—don’t be negative, don’t spread negativity. salem wants to divide us. we can’t let salem divide us. LOOK at how terrified they were in V8 of not being in unanimous agreement about whether to prioritize a long-term or short-term goal, how much jaune’s proposed compromise scared them. it’s profoundly dysfunctional. they don’t know how to differentiate normal, constructive debate and infighting, or critical self-reflection and harmful negativity, so they are constantly hyper-vigilant constantly monitoring and policing each other for the smallest sign of bad thoughts, bad feelings, because this war they inherited isn’t a war against salem, not really, it’s a war against this nebulous idea of division, of conflict, of negativity, of the bad things that will see humankind condemned to extermination when the gods come back.

and like:

YANG: Okay, Ironwood wants Penny, otherwise Mantle is done for. So, how do we stop him?

BLAKE: Qrow and Robyn are still in his custody, and May said that the Atlas security drones are watching the crater, so they’re trapped too.

OSCAR: And Salem isn’t going to stay gone forever.

RUBY: So then it’s impossible.

EMERALD: See? If Miss Hero with all the answers doesn’t have an answer, then we have ours.

WEISS: Shut up.

YANG: Why don’t you just leave?!

OSCAR: Can we please just give each other a chance? Emerald’s not with Salem anymore, and Ozpin is back. All this doubt and worry and distrust, it isn’t getting us anywhere—

RUBY: Then nothing has CHANGED! We’re in the exact same spot we were yesterday, arguing what to do while the kingdom waits to die.

^ she ran away then, too. and yang went after her thinking that ruby needed a pep talk, needed to be told that sure things are bad and risks don’t always pay off, but the mom who abandoned them both for the world’s sake is still her hero—when what ruby actually, desperately needed to hear, what she’s PLEADING for now, is for someone to tell her it’s okay to feel bad, it’s okay to have doubts, it’s okay to just be overwhelmed. that it ISN’T FAIR for the fate of the world to sit on her shoulders and that the world will not end if she admits that it’s too fucking heavy, if she asks for help, if she puts it down.

and that’s what makes it sting so much when her doubts and fears and frustration get brushed off like those feelings don’t matter or aren’t true or, worse, like it’s wrong for her to feel this way at all—it’s a manifestation of this, like, existential terror of Innate Badness that lurks in the heart of ozpin’s cult, don’t feel bad don’t think bad thoughts or else—or else what? “salem will divide us” but it’s so easy for that line of thinking to shade into “only bad people have bad thoughts,” because feeling bad IS bad in and of itself, right. like fundamentally this is how the strict ideological delineation between hero, villain, and passive narrative object enforces itself: the villains surrender to negativity and so become themselves agents of this Badness while the heroes stand as beacons of hope and inspiration to the defenseless masses—who otherwise would of course succumb to negativity (“panic”) and be obliterated. baked into the cult’s ideology is an unspoken but perilously thin line between feeling bad and being bad.

you don’t mean that. that’s how ironwood thought. (you can’t mean that. only bad people think that way.)

and the real world just doesn’t fucking work that way—the world of remnant does not work that way—so this is an emotional poison, it’s toxic, they’re swimming around in a noxious soup of unspoken ideas that seeped into all of them to varying depth but percolated right down into the very bedrock of who ruby is—and while it killed them slowly it ate ruby alive. and now the bones of her are poking through the cracks and she has nothing left to give so the only way to move forward is to claw herself out of the soup!! (<- this metaphor ran away from me a bit.)

which somewhat ironically given what the first layer of her crisis is about, means ruby is going to lead the way out of this festering mess of a fairytale cult. by way of the desolate howl that this way of thinking is dehumanizing and inhumane