#i’m staying in this redemption arc au | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

dumbass-tumbler-cryptid · 1 month ago

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Would you ever write a modern AU one shot/headcanons that would include Varang in any way? I don't think I've seen anyone write anything about her in the modern world. Can you see any universe where she would date Quaritch and be Spider's stepmother?

I’m not opposed to it and as I thought about your ask I definitely got ideas that I’m excited to share!

First I’m personally not into the idea of Quaritch and Varang getting together. I think she’s going to be way more crazy and evil than he is pushing Quaritch more towards the good guys. I don’t think he going to have a redemption arc by any means (nor does he deserve one) but I think for the sake of Spider he’ll be a begrudging anti hero. Also I can’t deny despite the fact the actors are playing characters that our roughly in the same physical age range I can’t separate the actors massive age gap from their characters. If they got together I’d just be thinking about how someone in their thirties is making out with someone in their seventies and cringe. So yeah I just don’t want to see that.

As for some modern au ideas:

So I don’t think I’m really theorizing when I say Varang is going to be a cult leader. It seems pretty clear from everything we’ve learned.

So in a modern a.u she’d still be a cult leader. She runs a compound down in Texas that’s fully self sufficient and off the grid. On the surface it’s a utopia. She takes in every “lost soul” who comes her way. Drug addicts, homeless, queer people, gender non conforming people and just people disillusioned with life and wanting something better. And at first it is great. Everyone gets a room to themselves. They get to pick a job on property, farming, taking care of livestock, managing the power grid, making clothes, cooking, those kind of things. If they need medical care or mental health care they get it completely for free. There’s a real sense of community that most people have never felt before.

It creates the foundation for complete devotion to Varang. Varang saved you. Varang gave you a life. A family. And she is the head of that family. They worship her like their god every night. Listen to her preach about life and the way things should be. How the rest of the world is evil and cruel. How she is the only one that can protect them from that.

If you want to move up the ladder you have to show how devoted you are to Varang. The first step is getting Varang’s symbol branded on your body, typically on the shoulder or wrist. They wear bright red and all wear their hair in the same style regardless of gender identity.

Of course the cult gets into legal trouble every once in a while. Family members of cult members who are worried sick about their child, or sibling, or spouse and try to sue or involve the police to get them back. Varang orders her most loyal to send them a message. They send snakes and dead animals in boxes. Draw messages in blood on their driveways. Stand outside their work for hours to intimidate them.

Varang starts stockpiling weapons preparing for the day when they’ll have to make a stand against the government. It hasn’t come yet but they are ready. Ready for full on war.

As for a story since I write manly about Quaritch and Spider I have an idea set more in my Military Brat au where Quaritch is an overbearing dad raising his son as a single parent. He’s so strict and smothering that at age 16, Miles Jr, who he refuses to call by his chosen name Spider runs away from home. Spider having been raised like he was in the military is really good at staying gone, having no issue living in the woods, sneaking onto delivery trucks, trains and buses until he ends up in Texas. Quaritch is hunting him down the entire time terrified for his son.

While in Texas Spider gets found by a truck driver and the driver is pissed at his hitchhiker. Spider is running for dear life. The driver chases him with a gun. At some point in the chase Spider trips, falls down a steep hill and into the dense foliage at the bottom. On his way down his ankle catches on something and twists. Luckily he loses the truck driver but now he can’t walk. He wads up his shirt to bit down on while he sets his own ankle. Then he rips it into strips, takes some thick sticks and wraps it around his ankle to stabilize it. He painfully limps his way to the road. Cars pass him up for hours. It’s one in the morning he’s freezing cold and starving when a bright red car pulls up. There’s two people in there mid thirties inside dressed completely the same in the same shade of red as the car. It totally creeps him out but he’s desperate for help. He gets in the car.

The compound seems really nice on the surface but Spider’s stomach is still squirming. He’s immediately taken to the med bay to get his ankle properly treated. Then they show him to the bathroom so he can have a hot bath. A hearty meal and fresh clothes are waiting for him in his room. Spider stays there while he heals but of course he never gives into their brain washing. The nightly gatherings where they all worship Varang freak him the fuck out and everyone is just too docile. Like a heard of sheep. Once he’s fully healed he’ll run again.

After some investigating Quaritch finds out Spider is there. He calls the cops to get his son back but they drag their feet. They explain to Quaritch that his son is in a dangerous cult. A cult that will violently retaliate if they go after them. The authorities know it’s them but they have no real evidence. But if they could get some evidence of wrongdoing then they’d have reason to shut the whole place down. Quaritch agrees to enter the cult to get back his son and find a way to shut them down.

Spider’s been there for months at this point and he’s completely healed. But when he tries to escape he’s caught and brought straight to Varang. Her voice is smooth like a cats purr. She seems so gentle and understanding. To the motherless boy it’s so inviting and part of him want to give into her. But theirs a cruelty in her eyes. A harshness in her smile that puts him off. He wants to try and run again but instinct tells him that’s a dangerous idea. He’d have to bide his time, be observant and wait for the perfect opportunity if he was going to get away.

But one day he’s sitting in his room trying and failing to read a book, daydreaming out the window. At first he can’t believe but when he realizes what he’s seeing he’s insanely relieved to sees his dad walking up to the main house flanked by two higher up. He almost can’t remember why he ran away as he races from the room. He’s scared of this weird creepy place and he wants to go home. “Dad,” he yells running up to him.

His dad wraps him up in fierce hug, sighing in relief. “There’s my boy.”

“This is your son,” one of the higher ups says, clearly unhappy and defensive.

“He sure is,” Quaritch says putting an arm around Spider’s shoulders, “of course I was terrified when I’d first learned where my boy had run off too. But as I learned more about your place here - it seemed like paradise. I want to start again. I want to serve Varang.”

Spider gives him a look that screams, “what the fuck kind of koolaid have you been sipping.” The higher ups are satisfied with this answer though. But this is such a strange situation for them that they take father and son right to Varang.

The woman stoically takes them both in as a subordinate whispers in her ear. There’s a sharp intelligence in her eyes as she mentally dissect them. “Well, now I can see where Spider got his good looks.”

Quaritch scoffs, “his name is Miles,” the boy’s shoulders slump, gaze going to the ground, “and he takes after my late wife not me.”

Varang clicks her tongue her eyes saying sure whatever . “It’s been a joy having Spider here with us. He was in quite the state when we found him…”

“State? What state?” Quaritch asks in a panic his attention going to his son. He grabs the boy’s shoulder trying to get him to look him in the eye. “Miles? What happened to you?” He mumbles a response making his father’s anger flare. “Don’t mumble, answer me like a man!”

“I just twisted my ankle!”

Quaritch automatically went into helicopter mode, “twisted your ankle! Which one! How were you treated! Are you completely healed?! I want x-rays! I want your medical record! I��

Varang clears her throat to get his attention. “Well I see why you ran away.”

Quaritch snarls, “he was just being rebellious.”

“Why don’t you let Spider speak for himself.” All eyes turn to him. Spider stays quiet. “Were you afraid of your father Spider?”

“What? No!”

“I’ve never laid a hand on my boy!”

Varang raises a skeptical eyebrow, “well how was I to know? People who feel loved, safe and supported typically don’t run away from home.” Quaritch growls. “I have a proposition. I don’t believe that you are here for the reasons you say and I do not believe that you are as decent of a father as you think you are. But I would love to be proven wrong. So, tonight, unburden yourself.”

“What?”

Spider’s blood runs cold. He’s heard people talking about the “unburdening”. You sit around a fire and tell everyone your deepest secrets. It sounds simple but he’s seen it at a distance and it looks freaky.

Varang explains a simple version of it to Quaritch. He agrees to go through it.

That night father and son are led out to a field. The fire is already burning bright. Drummers are playing a stirring beat. Varang and her closest followers are decked out in bright red but more notable Varang is wearing a terrifyingly impressive head dress while everyone else is in horrific masks. On instinct Quaritch pulls Spider into his side. Spider happily accepts the protection, feeling like he’s about to be a human sacrifice. “Sit on opposite sides of the fire,” Varang purrs. Quaritch is reluctant to let go of his son but he does. They stair into each other’s eyes through the flames. Varang throws some kind of powder into the fire sending up a purplish red smoke.

Quaritch wants to run to cover Spider’s mouth. The boy is asthmatic and this smoke could cause him to have an attack. But he stays put. He has a sneaking suspicion that some kind of drug is in this smoke. He takes short slow breaths. He doesn’t want to get so stoned that he lets slip all the reasons he’s there. “Breathe deep,” Varang says. Neither do. A whole ten minutes of pounding music go by, the others gathered dancing around them. Spider is so dizzy. Quaritch isn’t as bad but he’s feeling it. Finally Varang asks, “Spider, why did you run away?”

“Because of my dad,” Spider says his words slurring. Quaritch knew that deep down. He just made excuses for himself and blamed his son so he didn’t have to deal with the pain of rejection and failure.

“What did your father do?”

“He’s so fucking controlling! I feel like a prisoner in my own home. I can’t hang out with my friends, I can’t join clubs or go on school field trips unless he’s chaperone. He tracks my location. He won’t let me eat junk food. He has a schedule for every day of the week. It’s down to the fucking minute! I can’t even express myself! He won’t use the name I picked. I can’t wear the clothes I want or style my hair the way I want. He wants me to be a mini him! And I couldn’t take it anymore! I couldn’t….”

Spider starts crying. Quaritch’s heart is breaking for him. “I just wanted to do what I thought was best for you…”

“This is what’s best for me! I feel like you’re crushing me! You reject everything I want to be! Can you even love me if I’m not like you!”

“Of course I love you! Don’t you ever think that I don’t!” It has to be the drugs getting to him because now Quaritch thinks he might start crying. “Every day you were away from me all I wanted was to have you back. God, I laid awake all night stairing at disgusting motel room walls thinkin’ I’d give anything just to know that you were okay. I don’t care how you dress or if you go hang out with your friends. None of that matters to me anymore! I just want you to come home.”

Spider is sobbing now, “I want to go home too dad!”

“But you are home,” Varang says dangerously sweet, “right.”

Quaritch is having trouble thinking through the fog around his brain. Focus he wills himself. “Yes,” he slurs, “we’re home now. We’re going to start over.”

“Excellent.”

“No dad!” Spider shrieks, “I want to go home! Please! I can’t stay here!”

“It’s okay son. Everything is going to be okay. You’ll see.”

The ceremony ends. It’s eerily quiet without the drums. Everyone is still. “Help them to their new home,” Varang says.

They’re brought to a decently sized two bedroom apartment. The furniture looks like it was all made by hand. Everything is painted in warm dark browns and bright reds. It’s not super inviting but it has everything they need.

It takes a couple hours but they eventually sober up. The first thing Quaritch does is checks the place for cameras and microphones. Sure enough he finds them in every room but the bathroom. He takes Spider in there to talk.

“Let me get a good look at y’a,” Quaritch says gently. Despite their reunion earlier in the day Quaritch feels like he’s really seeing his son for the first time. He cups Spider’s face in both his hands. He’s not my little boy anymore. It’s a painful realization but he’s looking at a young man. He’s lost a little bit of weight without his father’s workout regime and hearty protein rich home cooking. He’s wearing ripped jeans and a band t-shirt. His hair has gotten really long. It’s pulled back in a ponytail but Quaritch takes it out combing the curly strands with his fingers. His son looks insanely uncomfortable probably thinking his dad was about to go for the scissors. Quaritch smiles softly at him, “it suits you.”

Spider brightens, “thanks dad.”

Quaritch’s hand move to the back of Spider’s head. He pulls him in close so their foreheads touch. “I’m so sorry. For everything. I love you so much Spider.”

Spider feels like he might cry again. “I know. I love you too dad.” They stay like that a moment before breaking away. “You don’t seriously want to stay here right?”

“Fuck no. But they’re not just gonna let us walk out the front door. This cult is dangerous. Even the cops won’t mess with them. So we need to be quiet and careful. We’ll play along. Get evidence of any laws they might be breaking. That way we have something to use against them when we escape because you know they’ll come after us when we do.” Spider nods determined for them both to get free.

They move to the living room where they cuddle up on the couch. Quaritch wants to see Spider’s recently twisted ankle so Spider lays it across his lap. He turns it this way and that determining that it actually was well taken care of. Then they just relax together, happy to be together again. It’s a nice moment of peace despite the danger surrounding them.

And I’m going to end it there! I know how I would end this but I always love hearing from people. You all have given me some great ideas before and made me think about things I never would have on my own so feel free to reach out. 💞

#spider socorro #miles spider socorro #miles quaritch #colonel miles quaritch #varang #my fanfic #avatar fanfiction #avatar modern au

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wildwheatfields · 1 year ago

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🐈🎤🐈🎤

I didn’t expect to have so much fun with her..ima really need a Torelai redemption arc this gen. I made her real fluffy!! 🐈 Also really playing with the werebeasts in general. I don’t like the idea they’re furry all over so in my au they look like this lol

I’m so glad I finished the core series!! I’ll continue drawing more of the dolls so please stay tuned n see you soon boos ✨💕

#torelai stripe #torelai #monster high #monster high gen 3 #my art #mhg3 #mh #inventory is gonna suck before labor day so I’m glad I got the series done now!!#my hands #hurt #watch me disappear for a few days #mh g3

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starswhisperwritershear · 3 months ago

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First Chapter Up!

Basically, I was inspired by @tatumsdrawing mechanic au and I started this project mainly cause I found a severe lack of fics with stuff I wanted to read and decided to contribute.

Of All The Stories In The Stars, Ours Has Yet To Be Told (7031 words) by StarsWhisper Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Danny Phantom Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Dash Baxter/Danny Fenton Characters: Danny Fenton, Dash Baxter, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Paulina Sanchez, Kwan (Danny Phantom) Additional Tags: Aged-Up Character(s), on the way to college, mentions of child abuse, Mentions of homophobia, Redemption Arcs, Bisexual Danny Fenton, everyone becoming good friends, learning how to live, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Second Chances, lots of classical literature references, lots of astrology references, more tags coming when i think of them Summary: It's the end of senior year and Dash and Danny are having the worst time of their lives. Dash's father finds out he's queer and tries to kill him. That lands him in prison with divorce papers. Dash goes to therapy to cope and learn how to change his behaviors while taking some time off from school. He now needs to learn how to navigate the world and figure himself out. Danny fears he'll never figure out what he wants for his future beyond being the hero of Amity Park forever and he's running out of time to figure it out as he watches everyone he knows move on without him. Plus there are always the people hunting him down that he has to worry about on top of that.

“Do you blame yourself?”

Dash eyed his therapist for a moment before dropping his gaze to the floor. She was sitting comfortably on her big fluffy chair, legs crossed and clipboard in hand; Dash wondered how she was able to be at such ease all the time while the people she talked with were always so visibly on edge. The couch he sat on always felt too wide and isolating for just one person. It didn’t have enough stuffing and the wood always dug into his skin and made his bones sore.

“What?”

“Well, it is quite common for children in these situations to assume the blame for-”

“I’m not a child. I’m almost nineteen.”

She hummed, scribbling something in her notebook. Dash hated when she did that. He knew it was helpful, but it made him feel small. He didn’t like feeling small. She stared at him, waiting for him to continue the conversation. He hated when she did that too.

Dash snorted. “Blame myself for what? My dad trying to kill me? The disappointment in my mom’s eyes when she looks at me? That half the school hates me because of how I’ve treated them? You’re going to have to be more specific.”

“The divorce,” she answered, uncrossing and recrossing her legs, “but it sounds like there are other things on your mind. Would you like to talk about those?”

“No.” Dash sighed, shifting and failing once again to get comfortable. “I just… I feel so…” Angry? Sad? Guilty? Relieved? Scared? “...ashamed.”

“And why do you feel that way?”

“I don’t know.”

She waited patiently in silence. He shrunk in on himself, head tucking into his shoulders like a turtle.

“I just should have known better.”

“What should you have known?”

Dash huffed. “I don’t know, everything! That I was treating my mom like garbage; that I was acting just like my father even though I hated him; and that if I stayed on that path I would end up alone and angry and awful just like him. I just should have known better…” He let his words trail off, threading his fingers together and squeezing, hoping his therapist wouldn’t notice them shake.

“Dash, no one can be expected to know everything right away, or else every baby born would be Albert Einstein. We have to give ourselves the grace to learn. Shame is a powerful tool; it tells us what we feel the need to improve on. If we feel shame over our actions, we then know where to start to correct our course.”

Dash sighed and leaned back into the couch. “Then I have a lot to learn.”

“What have you learned so far?”

“That I suck.”

“Let’s try again with more constructive language. What have you learned so far?”

He took a deep breath, trying to keep the tears at bay. It was okay to cry, he just didn’t want to. “I need to start actively making decisions in my life to change. That I can’t keep going the way I’ve been going and expect to end up happy.”

“What does change look like to you?”

“I don’t know.”

She quirked her eyebrow, remaining silent.

“I actually don’t know. I mean, it’s not like I can convince my friends to stop bullying people.”

“You stopped, right?”

“Well, yeah. I did, but every time I tried to tell them why, they just laughed at me. How am I supposed to get them to change?”

“Let’s try focusing on the things that you can control. You may not be able to control other people, but you can control your environment. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, but that’s really hard to do. I mean, a quarterback with no friends during his senior year isn’t exactly a fun time.”

“I understand. Maybe you could try taking it in baby steps. For your homework today, I’d like you to write out at least a five-step plan for the change you want to see in your life.”

Dash took a deep breath, resetting his lungs. “Okay.”

“Is there anything else, you’d like to talk about, we’re almost out of time.”

“No,” then, “thank you.”

“Of course, it’s what you pay me for.”

Dash stepped outside, letting the door to the building slam shut behind him. No one ever talked about just how physically exhausting therapy could be. He wanted nothing more than to curl up with Pookie on his comfortable couch with some snacks and mindless T.V. But, he’d promised his mom he’d pick up groceries on his way back. He turned down the main road and began his long trek to the store.

“Shame is a powerful tool,” He grumbled under his breath. “It sucks.” He kicked a rock down the road. Maybe step one of his plan would be to finally convince himself to go back to school tomorrow. He kicked the rock again. Or maybe he could get away with graduating from home.

“Duck!”

Dash threw himself to the ground; growing up in Amity Park you learn not to hesitate. If someone says duck, you duck, no questions asked. A bird ghost smashed into the brick wall behind him; ghost feathers showering around him. He scrambled over to the alleyway, ducking behind the trashcans. Once he was safe, he peeked his head out to see the bird ghost stand up and shake its head. Phantom rushed past him, landing a kick straight to its chest.

He pulled his ghost-catching thermos out of apparently thin air and pointed it at the ghost. It screeched at him as it got caught in the blue whirlwind and clawed at the edges of the device; ultimately losing as Phantom capped it. He turned toward Dash. “Sorry, are you o-”

A bright, sickly green light shot through the air, clipping Phantom’s arm, glowing ectoplasm splattered across the ground. He screamed and dropped to the ground, cradling the injury with his other hand.

Dash leaned around the corner, straining to see what could have happened. The Fentons were standing there, Mr. Fenton holding a gun pointed right at Phantom.

“Ha-ha! Did you see that, Maddie! I got him on the first try!”

“Great job, honey. But go easy on the Fenton Venom; we want him alive or we’ll be limited in the experiments we can do.”

Dash frantically waved in Phantom’s direction; he was struggling to pull himself off the floor and was flickering like he was trying to disappear but couldn’t. They made eye contact- Phantom’s wide and panicked- and Dash pointed to the alley behind him, hoping against everything that the hero would understand what he meant. Then he full sprinted out of the alley and collided with Mrs. Fenton, knocking her into her husband and successfully grabbing their attention.

“Mrs. Fenton!” He screamed once they had all regained their balance. “Thank god you’re here. I saw a ghost!”

“You saw a ghost!” Mr. Fenton whipped around, gun in hand completely forgotten.

“It was huge! Like the size of a car! And it had like these, these, giant fangs and I couldn’t-”

“Dash, calm down.” Mrs. Fenton chirped. “Where did you see this ghost?”

Danny waited until he knew for sure his parents were distracted by Dash before making a B-line for the alley, trying not to let any of his blood fall onto the ground and give him away. He tucked himself behind the trashcan, desperate to keep all of him out of sight. The smell of burning flesh permeated the air. He moved his hand to check on his injury.

There was a fairly decent-sized chunk taken out of his arm and the area around it was bubbling and falling away, dissolving before it could actually fall off. It burned like hell. His hand was tingling from where he’d touched the injury.

“Figures they’d make a poison at some point,” He hissed, blinking his eyes to keep the tears at bay, he needed to be able to see right now. He tried turning invisible again, but this time he didn’t even flicker. “Fuck, what is this?”

“Oh, man that looks bad.”

Danny whipped his head around to see Dash staring at him. Panic swelled in his chest.

“Don’t worry, they’re gone, chasing a ghost that’s not even there.”

Danny sighed, resting his head on the building behind him. “Thank you.” When Dash didn’t immediately leave he added, “I’ll be okay in a moment, when I can get my powers back.” He left the ‘please go away’ to be implied.

“Right,” Dash nodded, swinging his backpack around and digging through it. “You wouldn’t happen to have like a ghost doctor or something would you?”

“No,” Danny bit back the scream of pain crawling up his throat. God, it felt like he was being torn apart molecule by molecule. It didn’t matter how many times he did this torture thing, it never got any easier to handle the pain. “Ow!”

“Right, okay,” Dash pulled a first aid kit out of his bag and then tossed the bag to the side of the alley, before dropping to his knees next to him. “Okay, I’ve got this.”

Danny leaned away from him. “What have you got?”

“Don’t worry, my mom’s a nurse and she’s taught me a lot of first aid. We need to wash that poison off before it does some real damage.” Dash looked around for a container of some kind and had to settle with one of the trash can lids. He put it next to Danny and started rummaging through his kit.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing? What if you make it worse?”

Dash inhaled sharply, like he was practicing extreme amounts of patience. “Look, you’ve saved my ass, like a lot, now let me save yours. Plus, it’s not like you have a lot of options right now, right?”

Danny wanted to argue, but Dash was right. Short of crawling across town to either Sam or Tucker’s house without his parents catching him or his arm falling off, he didn’t have any other options. He was still hesitant about it; at least he was until the poison hit a major nerve and his entire arm blazed with pain. “Shit!” He yelped, a few tears trickling down his cheeks. “Okay, fine. But fuck up my arm and I’m haunting you for eternity.”

“Deal.” Dash uncapped a bottle of distilled water and gently grabbed Danny��s arm, moving it over the lid and rotating it so the poison wouldn’t run over more of his skin. “Okay, this is probably going to sting. Just try not to move.” He tipped the bottle.

The water hit his skin and it did in fact sting. Danny inhaled sharply through gritted teeth and yanked his arm away. The water splashed off his arm and hit his leg, burning less than the direct poison, but still burning. “Shit!”

“I said sit still!” Dash whisper-yelled, quickly rinsing off his leg. “Sorry,” Dash frowned, “I’m sorry. Just, please try not to move. We don’t know what this stuff is and we definitely don’t want it getting anywhere else.”

Danny dug his nails into his palm, a few more tears falling from his eyes. He took deep breaths, trying to ignore the sting of the water. He flinched when the water hit the deepest part of his wound. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m sorry, I yelled. I didn’t mean to.” Dash threw the empty bottle of water away and grabbed a second one. “Hang in there, I need to make sure I got all of it out before we bandage it. Did it get anywhere else?”

Danny held his hand out to him. Dash grabbed his hand as gently as possible. His hand got off easier, looking more like road rash than poison. It didn’t sting as much when he poured the water over it. “Sorry.”Dash apologized anyway.

Danny chuckled.

“What’s so funny.”

“Nothing, I just don’t think I’ve ever heard you apologize this much. Are you sure I haven’t died again?”

Dash’s face turned red with shame. He capped the water bottle and turned to grab the antibiotic ointment. Figures Phantom would know about his past, he’s been around a long time and he was pretty sure ghosts saw things that others might not.“Thanks for noticing. My therapist says I’ve been making exceptional progress lately.”

Phantom burst out laughing, tears flowing freely now. His shoulders shook with the strength of his laughter, causing his hair to fall into his face. Is laugh was big and boisterous and deep. A soft pink glow illuminated his cheeks. He placed his free hand on his forehead, desperately trying to reign it in. His eyes were scrunched shut and his lashes were wet with tears.

It was ethereal.

Dash shook his head; focus!

“Sorry,” Phantom finally choked out, still gasping on the remnants of laughter, “sorry. I’m not laughing at you. Therapy is so cool. I promise I’m not laughing at that. It’s just-” another giggle- “I’m asking you about your vocabulary while I bleed out in an alleyway. What a crazy Tuesday, huh?”

“I’m just glad you’re not crying anymore.” Dash hyper-focused on putting the antibiotic ointment on the burns on Phantom’s hand and wrapping it with gauze.

“I wasn’t crying.”

“It’s okay to cry.”

“I know it’s okay, I just wasn’t.”

“Okay.” Dash chuckled, moving over to bandage his arm.

“Really, I wasn’t.”

“I bet this is handy, huh?” Dash changed the subject, pointing to his arm where the flesh was slowly, but surely stitching itself back together.

“What is?” Phantom turned to look where he was pointing.

“Your ghost healing stuff. Now that the poison is gone it looks like you’re doing fine.”

“Oh, yeah. I guess it is.”

Dash finished securing the bandages in place. “Not that I don’t- that everyone doesn’t appreciate it, but why do you do it? The hero stuff I mean. Surely a ghost would have better things to do in the afterlife?”

Phantom gingerly moved his arm around, testing its movement. He grinned at Dash. “Well, yeah, but who else is going to do it?”

“The Fentons and the Guys in White don’t seem too keen on retiring anytime soon.”

Phantom frowned, his brows furrowing. “Uh, yeah, and while they can be helpful, they’re not always the most reliable or efficient ghost hunters. Plus, they don’t know half the things I know about ghosts.”

“Right, that makes sense, I guess.” Dash began picking up the first aid stuff. “Has anyone ever said thank you?”

Phantom startled, looking up at him with wide eyes. “Um, no. Surprisingly, you’d be the first.”

A shout echoed in the distance. “Let’s circle back around, Jack. Maybe we missed an alleyway.” It was Mrs. Fenton and she was close by.

“If you can, you’d better,” Dash said to Phantom, who- when he turned around- was already gone, “go.”

He hurried to collect the pieces of his first aid kit and packed it up. His heart was beating so fast. Who would have thought he’d be the one to help his- the town’s hero out? And that he was really pretty when he laughed?

Dash reached for his backpack and stuffed everything in, before dumping the mixture of water and viscera into the trashcan and fixing the lid back in place. He sprinted out of the alley and down the road before the Fentons could find him and ask what he was still doing there.

He stopped to catch his breath and calm his racing heart. He had (in a less than technical sense) held Phantom’s hand today. Paulina was going to be so jealous. That was if she even wanted to talk to him. He didn’t really know what his friends would think about him now.

He sighed, that was a tomorrow problem. Right now his problem was getting to the store before they closed. And getting new supplies for his first aid kit.

Dash walked toward his old table as slowly as he could. Step one of his plan was just to see how everyone reacted. He’d go wherever he needed to from there, whether that be going friendless for the last month of high school or explaining to everyone why he wanted to stop being mean to people and hoping they’d agree.

Dash’s heart fell when he saw his usual spot next to Kwan was taken. In fact, the whole table was full. Paulina and Star were laughing at something one of the football players had said. Kwan was the first one to notice him.

“Oh, Hi, Dash!” He waved.

Dash waved back. “Uh, hi, Kwan.” Dash looked between them and instantly knew he had lost the battle.

Star kicked Kwan under the table. “Uh-hem.”

Kwan retracted his hand.

Paulina wouldn’t look at him. She looked sad, torn.

“Sorry, Dash,” Star murmured, “but one of the club rules is you have to be in a certain tax bracket to sit at the table.”

“My mom’s not poor.” Dash weakly defended.

“It’s the rules,” Star fiddled with her fork, “you know that.”

Dash inhaled. “Alright, whatever.”

“Dash, just so you know,” Kwan said before Dash could leave, “it’s not because you’re gay.”

“Thanks, Kwan.”

“We’re not homophobic.”

“Thanks, Kwan.”

“It is just because you’re poor.”

“Thanks, Kwan.”

“We’ll need your hall pass punch card back,” Paulina spoke softly, still not meeting his eyes.

“Fine, I’ll bring it by after school. I really thought you guys were better than this by now.” He turned and left. He glanced around the cafeteria and then headed for the door outside. Not a lot of people used the ones out there anymore because of all the ghost attacks. He’d be able to do some homework at least.

Dash sighed. A part of him still really wanted to tell Paulina about yesterday. And he’d had plans with Kwan to go see the new Nightmerica movie later this month that he’d been really excited for. Guess that was out of the question now.

As predicted, there were only a few freshmen at one of the tables. Dash sat at the one furthest from them. This was alright; a change of environment, just like his therapist had said, just on an expedited schedule. He sighed and pulled out his book for English class. Might as well get started on that homework.

Danny watched as Dash sat down. He hesitated all of about five seconds before he started walking over. A tug on his shirt stopped him.

“You’re joking, right?” Sam snorted, letting go of his shirt.

“What?” Danny shrugged, his best convincing smile plastered on his face. “Look at how sad he is.”

“He looks pathetic.” Tucker chided.

“And it’s what he deserves, to be sad and lonely.” Valerie glared in Dash’s direction.

“Oh come on, guys! He’s not that bad. When’s the last time he even bothered us?”

“So, what he patches you up and bats his big jock eyelashes at you one time and you’re stuck to him like a freshman with a crush?”Tuckertaunted.

“What!? It’s not like that! He’s just trying really hard to change and I think we should give him a chance.”

“Yeah, 'cause he totally gave all of us a chance.” Valerie sneered.

“Look, let’s just go talk to him and if he’s an ass about it, we can leave and you can all say, I told you so.”

“And if he’s not an ass we can invite him over for a sleepover and braid each other’s hair?” Sam giggled, excitedly flapping her hands.

“Yeah! Hey!” Danny frowned. “Come on, Sam. Can’t you be nice for once in your life?” Danny rolled his eyes and walked over to Dash’s table, not caring if the others followed him or not. They did, of course.

He sat his tray down, confidently he hoped. Dash startled, looking up from his book.

“Mind if we sit here?”

Dash hesitated, blinking. He rubbed his eyes, looked around the group like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and blinked again. “Uh, sure, I guess.”

Danny threw a grin behind him at Sam and Valerie and sat down in front of Dash. The others sighed and sat down on his side of the table. Dash was staring.

After a moment, Danny casually- oh so casually- pointed at the book in Dash’s hands. “That for Lancer’s advanced class?”

“Uh, yeah; the concurrent enrollment one. I didn’t really want to deal with it in college.” Dash closed the book and dropped it on the bench next to him, cheeks turning a little pink. He fumbled with his hands like he didn’t know what to do with them now.

“Hey, me too. I’m in the morning section though.” Danny punctured the side of his milk carton with a straw, wincing at the pressure it put on his arm. The wound wasn’t a giant hole anymore, but it still had a little more internal healing to do before his nerves would be back to normal. “Don’t tell Lancer this, but I didn’t really like The Scarlet Letter .”

“Wait, you didn’t?” Sam scolded, leaning around Tucker to make sure Danny visibly saw her disappointment. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” Danny shrugged, glancing at Dash who was still staring at him like he’d grown a second head. “I just didn’t like the vibes.”

“I figured if anyone would understand the vibes of having a giant painted letter on their chest, it would be you,” Valerie smirked at him, picking distastefully at her mashed potatoes.

“It’s probably cause he didn’t finish it.” Tucker, oh-so-helpfully interjected as he tapped away at his PDA.

“You didn’t even finish it!?” Sam huffed, flinging her fork down, failing to startle Dash out of whatever staring contest he was having with Danny’s nose.

“No, I got bored.” Danny gazed back at Dash. Had he even blinked? “What did you think Dash?”

Dash didn’t react to the sound of his name. He was completely zoned out, a confused and panicked expression stuck on his face. His nose was scrunched up in thought.

“Dash?”

Dash finally blinked, jerking upright and hitting his hands on the table. He flinched, blood rushing to his face. “Uh, what?”

Sam rolled her eyes.

Danny chuckled. “ The Scarlet Letter , what do you think about it?”

“Oh,” Dash dropped eye contact, “I just barely started it.” He shoved some food in his mouth, remembering that it was there.

“Dude,” Danny laughed, “the test is in like two days.”

“Uh, dude , the test is tomorrow.” Tucker corrected, turning his PDA to show Danny the schedule.

“Shit, it’s tomorrow?” Valerie groaned. “I’ve got to finish those last two chapters fast.”

“You’ll tell me how it ends, right?” Danny batted his eyelashes at her.

“As if, Fenton. Do your own homework.” Valerie playfully shoved his shoulder.

“Ow!”

“Oops, sorry. I forgot.” She shoved his side instead.

“I’m sorry.” Dash blurted. His eyes were fixed intensely on the table this time and Danny thought he saw him shaking just the tiniest bit. “I’m really sorry that I bullied you guys for so long. I was told that I was better than certain people and I had a lot of anger from… everything happening at home and I never stopped to think about what I was doing and that’s not really an excuse, but you guys didn’t deserve that and I’m really sorry.” He took a deep breath, relaxing slightly now that he had gotten everything out.

Danny smiled at him. “Thank you, Dash. I appreciate that.”

Tucker couldn’t help the grin that crossed his face. He had to admit, an apology certainly felt nice. “Yeah, man. That was surprisingly mature.”

“I guess taking a few weeks off has really changed you, huh?” Sam sneered. Danny kicked her under the table. “It is nice to hear you say it though.”

Everyone turned to Valerie who was staring off to the side. Dash held his breath. She turned to him, her gaze softening.

“I suppose it’s been long enough and considering you just got a taste of your own medicine, I’m willing to give you another chance. Just make sure you don’t squander it, yeah?”

Dash released his breath, eternally grateful for Valerie’s good nature. “Thank you, guys. And again, I’m really sorry.”

“Keep saying it and I’m going to vomit.” Sam teased.

A silence fell over their table, everyone trying to release tension by eating their food. Danny wasn’t really sure what he should bring up after something like that and there wasn’t really anything he knew about Dash that Danny Fenton could ask him about. He wracked his brain, hoping to pull something out of thin air.

“So,” Tucker beat him to it, “Danny’s bisexual.”

“Tucker!” Everyone but Dash- who reeled back like he’d just been called a slur- yelled at him.

“What?! I just wanted him to know we’re not homophobic.”

“So, you just decide to out Danny?” Valerie scolded.

“Not cool dude.” Sam punched him in the arm.

“Ow! Sorry, you know how I am with uncomfortable silence.”

Dash was staring at him again.

“Tucker,” Danny sighed, “I am amazed you are capable of keeping any secret.”

“Are you really?” Dash whispered like he wasn’t sure he was allowed to ask such things out loud.

“Uh, yeah, I am.” Danny drew back, hunching in on himself. “Does that bother you?”

“No. Why would it bother me ?”

Danny just shrugged.

Dash cleared his throat. “Have you, uh, have you told your parents yet?”

Danny sighed, making Dash tense like he’d overstepped. “Yeah, I have.”

Dash glanced at him, making eye contact with him for the first time in a moment. “Can I ask how they reacted?”

Danny frowned. “Well, they didn’t try to kill me or beat me up if that’s what you’re asking. But, they didn’t leap for joy either. They kind of just-”

“That’s nice, Danny,” Tucker interrupted, clearly mocking his mother, “but have you seen the Fenton blaster anywhere? I swear I just had it.”

“Hey, that’s great, Danny! Now you can pick two of your chores to do today!” Sam bellowed, doing a really good impression of how his dad laughed.

“Oh.” Dash glanced down at his half-eaten lunch.

“Yeah, not the best reaction, but better than what you got, I guess.” Danny gave him a small, pitying smile.

“Basically everybody knows what happened then?” Dash picked at the table, getting a few slivers in the process.

“Yup, pretty much.” Sam drawled.

“You know how news travels through the A-listers and their parents.” Valerie scoffed. “Everyone had pretty much known what had gone down and why by Monday.”

“Awesome.” Dash sighed.

The lunch bell rang, saving everyone from the depressing turn the conversation had taken. Tucker quickly devoured the last few bites of his burger as everyone but Dash, who was taking his time to pack up his stuff, stood and headed for the door.

“I’m gonna invite him to study with us,” Danny stated.

“He’s good with History, so I’m okay with it,” Valerie shouldered the door open and sped walked down the hall. She had a class at the complete opposite end of the building so she had no time to waste.

“I still think you’re making a mistake Danny. Not a lot of people have what it takes to change.” Sam chided, throwing her lunch wrappers into the recycling bin.

“Come on, Sam.” Danny sighed. “When are you going to start trusting my decisions?”

“I trust you. It’s him I don’t trust.”

“Okay, then trust me when I say I trust him. He apologized. Isn’t that proof of something at least?”

Sam rolled her eyes. “Fine, but I’ll keep my I-told-you-so ready.”

“Good enough. Tucker?”

“I am currently making a betting chart, I’ll let you know what I decide based on how the bets are going.” He didn’t even bother to look up from his PDA.

“Okay, I’ll catch up to you guys.” Danny waved and waited for Dash while the other two walked inside.

Dash took longer than necessary to pack his bag. He needed a moment to decompress. Lunch had been a lot of big emotions all at once and he really just wanted a nap. He kept his book out, maybe he’d be able to get through some of it during his next class.

Dash watched as Danny leaned against the door, flinching when his shoulder hit it wrong. He rubbed his arm, wincing and taking a step away from it.

“Did you hurt your shoulder or something?” Dash asked as he opened the door, waiting for Danny to slip inside first.

“Oh, uh, I, um, sprained it while helping my parents in their lab. No big deal.” Danny trailed after him like Dash had hoped he wouldn’t. He didn’t know how much more awkward conversation he could take right now.

“Hey, I wanted to ask you if you’d like to join our study group after school today?” Danny somehow kept perfect pace with him, not even once bumping into anyone. It was like he didn’t exist in the same place as the crowd. Meanwhile, Dash kept bumping shoulders with people walking entirely too slow.

“I haven’t even really started the book.” They arrived at Dash’s locker. He opened it, hoping it would save him from this.

Danny leaned on his good shoulder against the locker next to his, clearly having no intention of leaving until he got his answer. “And I haven’t even finished it. Besides, we study for all our classes and Valerie says you’re really good at History. Plus, we can always just listen to the others discuss it and hope that’s enough to get us at least a C+.”

“Is that how you pass all your classes? Cheating off your friends?” He didn’t really know how to talk to Danny now that their dynamic had changed so rapidly. He was still reeling from the fact that Danny chose to sit next to him at lunch and talk casually about an assignment like nothing had ever happened between them.

Danny gasped. “How dare you, it’s not cheating. It’s studying. I’ll have you know I’m not a cheater.”

His eyes were so blue, like they had an internal light glowing behind them. And he had gotten taller over the years, much taller. He was at the very least as tall as Dash if not a few inches taller. He looked a lot less like the twig from freshman year and more like someone who could dominate professional basketball. Well, if professional basketball players dressed like an angsty theater kid. His hair had grown longer in the back and he’d dyed the underside white, creating a (fashionable) mullet situation. He’d started wearing black t-shirts and red flannels; chains dangled from the side of his jeans; he’d pierced his ears and Dash could have sworn he’d seen him wearing fingerless gloves on a few occasions. The only part of his outfit that was the same, were the red sneakers he wore.

“So?”

Dash blinked. That was the third time today he’d been caught staring. Come on, Baxter, focus! “So?”

“So, are you coming?”

“Why are you suddenly so keen to hang out with me? Usually, people tend to avoid the guy that was a piece of shit to them.” He reached for his math book, shoving it in his bag.

A lazy grin crawled its way onto Danny’s face. “Eh, you’re just not as big and scary as you think you are.” He fucking winked at him. Jesus Christ. “Besides, I may not have thrown you in a locker or chased you down the hallway or hung you from a flag pole, but I have played my fair share of nasty pranks on you in the past. And you’ve just apologized so we’re on even ground here.”

“Wait, what pranks?”

Danny spoke over him, “So are you coming or what?”

Dash gazed heavily into his locker. Danny was staring and it made him nervous. He weighed his options; he could either go home and take a much needed nap, tiptoe around his mother at dinner, and then hide in his room all night, or he could go study and maybe catch up on all the assignments he’d missed and had put off doing. “What subject are you good at?”

“Physics.”

“You’re good at physics but not math?”

“I choose not to question it.”

Dash made sure to sigh as dramatically as possible. “Fine, I’ll come.”

“Awesome!” Danny cheered, peeling himself away from the locker and walking backward to his class. “See you after school!” He turned and booked it down the hallway, almost disappearing into the crowd.

Dash sighed again, this time for his own benefit. He closed his locker and leaned his forehead against it. So much for his nap. At least he could tell his therapist he’d started making changes before he’d even finished writing out his five steps. She’d be proud.

Much later that night, Dash pushed open his front door, dropped his bag on the floor, and braced for impact. Pookie came running around the corner, yapping away, and slammed into his ankles. Dash knelt down, vigorously petting his dog.

“Hey, boy! Who’s a good boy? Who’s a sweet little guy? You are! You are!”

Pookie barked lovingly at him, shaking every molecule in his body from sheer excitement. He licked at his hands.

“Gross, Pookie. You’re gonna get a stomach ache from school germs.”

“Dash? You home, sweetie?” His mom called from the kitchen.

He drew in a deep breath, his body tensing from the anxiety rushing through his veins. His mom hadn’t really talked about what happened beyond making sure Dash knew she loved him no matter what. She’s been avoiding the subject. “Yeah!” He slowly made his way to the kitchen, Pookie following dutifully behind.

His mom was standing over the stove, spoon in hand as she stirred something that smelled amazing. She looked tired. She probably just barely got home from work.

“You’re home pretty late, did something happen?” She asked reaching for the spice cabinet.

Dash walked over and reached for the salt, handing it to her. She always put it back just a shelf too high. He peeked into the pan; stir-fry, his favorite. He avoided her eyes, he didn’t want to see the disappointment he knew he’d find there. “No, I was just at a study group trying to catch up on some homework.”

“With Kwan and Paulina?” She asked slowly, like he would fall apart if she made one wrong misstep.

He washed his hands in the sink. “No, actually, Danny Fenton invited me to join his group.”

She stirred the pot in front of her, falling silent for a moment. “That’s certainly a change.”

Dash felt like he was swimming in ice water. “Yeah, I, um, well, I apologized to him for giving him such a hard time and he sat with me at lunch.” Dash figured she didn’t need to know the exact order of events. “Kwan and Paulina don’t want anything to do with me.”

She frowned. “Oh, sweetie. I’m sorry. It’s not because…” She trailed off. She hadn’t said the word yet. Dash hated that she wouldn’t say it.

“No. At least they said it wasn’t; just that I’m apparently too poor for them now. Club rules.”

She pulled some plates down from the cabinets. “That’s probably just their parents spewing venom in their ears.”

“It’s the same thing we did to Valerie freshman year. I kind of knew it was coming, I just hoped things had changed.” Dash grabbed the filtered water from the fridge, pouring them both a glass.

“Thank you.” She plated the food and walked over to the table, Dash following her. “I’m sorry your friends turned out to not be so friendly.”

“It’s okay.” They sat down, eating in silence for a moment. Dash hated the silence the most.

His mom glanced up at him. “So, you apologized to the Fenton boy?”

Dash sat up straight, taking a deep breath before answering. “Yeah. I did.”

“How’d it go? I mean, obviously, you guys hung out, so pretty well?” She added even more salt to her plate.

“It was hard. And scary. But I think it went pretty well. Some of the others were there too, including Valerie. I think they were more hesitant to forgive me and I can’t blame them. But, I think it worked out okay. At the very least they were glad to have my help with History.” He picked a piece of meat off his plate to feed to Pookie, who was lying down by his feet like a good boy.

“I’m really proud of you, Dash.” His mom was looking at him, a smile on her face. He hadn’t seen her smile since the incident. He felt the shame covering him again.

“Don’t say that mom.”

“Why not? I’m very proud of the man you’re becoming.”

He set his fork down, focusing on controlling his breathing, he did not want to start crying in front of his mom again. “Cause I don’t deserve it. I was awful to you and to Fenton and the other kids at school. I haven’t even begun to make up for it, so how can you say you’re proud of me?” Too late, the tears were already halfway down his cheeks. He heard his mom stand up, but he was more focused on rubbing the tears away. Pookie was trying his best to comfort him by rubbing against his leg.

She gently held his face. “Dash, look at me son, please look at me.”

He did.

She was crying too.

“You have nothing to apologize to me for.”

“I said so many awful things to you and I destroyed our family.” He was full-on sobbing now.

“I’m sorry.” She choked out. “I’m so sorry I didn’t see what was going on sooner. You did not destroy our family. Your father destroyed this family. He destroyed this family when he taught my son to see others as less than. He destroyed this family when he taught both me and my son that we were unworthy of love. He destroyed this family when he started hitting my son. And he destroyed this family when he was ready to kill my son over who he loved. You didn’t deserve any of the things he did to you and I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you. It’s my fault, Dash, not yours.”

She pulled him into a tight hug, her tears spilling onto his shoulders. Dash hugged her back and for the first time in a long time, allowed himself to fall apart. He sobbed and cried and yelled and held her tight like his mother’s touch alone would keep every bad thing away from him. When he had calmed a little, just enough to hear her, she spoke again.

“Of course, I’m proud of you. Despite everything you’ve been through, you chose to get help and you chose to still be you. That’s so hard to do and you did it anyway. When I look at you I see someone who wanted something better for himself and went for it; I see someone who is becoming who he wants to be, not who he was taught to be; I see someone who apologized to the people they’d hurt even though it was incredibly hard to do; I see my son. And I am so very proud of my son. I’m sorry if I ever made you feel any other way.”

Dash sniffled, holding on because he wasn’t ready to let go yet. “I thought you were disappointed in me.”

“Disappointed? Never.” She sniffled too. “I was just sad. Sad that my son was sad. And sad that I married someone so evil. But, I love you. And I’m sorry I don’t say it enough.”

Dash finally pulled away, wiping his tears away. “I love you too.”

She gave him a watery smile. She sniffed, inhaled a deep breath, and stood up. “Look at us.” She chuckled. “We’re a mess and our food is probably cold. I’m sorry, I know it’s your favorite.”

Dash leaned down and picked Pookie up. The dog had been going crazy at the two emotionally unstable humans in his house. “I think we’ve said enough ‘I’m sorry’s’ for the night.”

“Ugh, you’re right. Let’s just order some takeout and we can watch The Bachelorette or something and you can tell me which guys you think are the hottest.”

“Mom!” Dash was mortified.

“What? We haven’t talked about this yet.” She had the restaurant page and phone in hand, already typing in the number for the pizza place down the street. “I need to make sure you have better taste in men than I do. What pizza toppings do you want?”

Dash found himself laughing. It was nice to have his house feel like home again. He helped his mom clean the kitchen and get the couch blankets out of the closet for their impromptu movie night. Just as they were getting ready to hit play, his phone beeped with a text message.

Unknown Number: I stole ur # from, Val. :P Walk with us 2 school tmrw?

Unknown Number: It’s Danny.

Dash smiled down at his phone. What a dork. Dash saved the number in his phone, heart nearly caving in. It’d been all of one day and suddenly his entire life was different. He’d have to remember to thank Danny for being so forgiving.

“Who is it?” His mom asked.

“Uh, it’s Danny. He wants to walk to school together.” He twiddled his thumbs, not sure how to respond to the text.

His mom smirked at him. “Wow, that must have been some apology.”

Dash wanted to crawl under a rock and never come back out.

“Does he know you drive to school?”

“Probably not. I’ll just walk with him and tell him tomorrow.”

“Okay, whatever you say. Hit play, mister.”

Dash hit play on the TV. and typed a quick reply on his phone.

Dash: See you tomorrow

Nerd: Meet @ my place?

Dash: I’ll be there.

Nerd: See u tmrw :D

#danny phantom #fanfiction #writers on tumblr #ao3 #archive of our own #dandash #swagger bishie #teddy ghost #whatever other ship names they have #of all the stories in the stars ours has yet to be told

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totallyradicalmucky · 1 year ago

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This is me giving you permission to talk about your SuperChargers AU!! Literally just anything about it!! I love seeing people’s different takes on what a Kaos redemption arc would look like. I still get so sad when I think about how Kaos just goes back to being evil in Imaginators. Like man c’mon. We could’ve had it all.

The power you’ve given me..unreal. But I think about a Kaos redemption arc pretty often since multiple people on here have talked about Kaos’s childhood and stuff like that.

Which is why I think in this Superchargers AU, instead of fighting Kaos before the darkness. You’d fight his mom.

I didn’t bring it up in this. But I wanted to talk about how maybe after Kaos’s button scene with the darkness. Kaos is still not entirely faithful to him, which means that the Darkness can’t get entirely in his head. To get everything he wants from him, for the absolute destruction of Skylands. Without that, Kaos is practically useless, not truely a devoted Kaos Clan member. Unlike his mother. Who at this point I believe the darkness could use as a manipulative way to get Kaos to do things for him and a threat, but only now sees her as a way to progress in his own plans.

The Darkness brings Kaossandra out of her prison, her devotion to the dark is far stronger than the absolute lack of affection she’d ever felt for her family. Taking away Kaos’s head-thing, they leave him with only the most weakest of magical powers on some random isle for him to hopefully die. You (The skylander) find him awkwardly standing there in his torn emperor robes, beaten up, and swearing to the ancients he hasn’t cried.

He doesn’t really have any other options other than to go with you, but he isn’t seen anywhere. Opting to stay inside the airship for a long while. Paranoid about the looming chance of the world ending at any minute, and the fact that it’s all his fault, missing Glumshanks. Flynn mentions him now and again, talking about how he’s feeling and not really eating. Cali doesn’t trust him, blaming him for their problems but she can’t help but feel a little bad. Hugo continues to assist with the next mission, fearing Kaos’s presence, but is curious about the lack of his usual ‘mark of darkness’.

Over the long run, which I mean Kaos being dragged along every trip and having to help Flynn and Cali unload and reload the airship with things. He warms up just a bit, standing in the overworld. Never-not next to one of the two, as the citizens still distrust him. (And he’s not good at being normally social on his own, not a fan of small talk) He’s still strange and egotistical, but less- evil. Kaos finds it strange that he can still preform magic without the mark of darkness, frustratingly weaker than before-but still magic. He often “steals�� spell books from the archive, much to Hugo’s minor inconvenience. Since he always announces when he’s taking one.

I don’t really know how the ending would go specifically. But I know that Kaos would be furious, fed up with the endless manipulation from both his mother and The Darkness. Using familiar voices and faces to try and get him back on their side, he just can’t take it. Trapping his own mother inside the rift engine, the Darkness laughs believing that it’s tricked itself into being free forever.

[que epic fight sequence for Kaos and the Skylander that I’m too lazy to describe]

Being knocked out of the darkness’s rift thing from the very end of superchargers- the Skylander is fine. Having the portal master’s power to help them. But Kaos is scarred. Once again landing on the isle below, his arms and back, inky black with…whatever it is. As if to silently let him know that the darkness would be coming back. He doesn’t rlly care though, just staring at his hands. Taking in every decision he’s made this far, he almost regrets it, thinking about his mother. Until the voices of Cali and the others finally snap him out of it, with Flynn’s coat being draped over him. He didn’t even notice how destroyed he had become. Damn. Wait…does this mean he has to relearn magic again?

#mucktalk #skylanders #kaos skylanders #long post #skylanders superchargers #Kaos #erm… kinda cringe but idk #I’m a bit crazy #i really wrote 5 paragraphs about skylanders #nobody reading this #i’m so sorry #skylander #au talk #skylanders au

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zepskies · 1 year ago

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Oh my god, I just binged your Break Me Down series and all the one shots and drabbles that are part of this AU and it is so fucking good!! Haven’t been able to put my phone down the last 2 Days! The way you write their dynamic, their blooming relationship, Soldier Boy himself is so, so good! I absolutely loved it! If you ever write more of the BMD-verse, I’m here for it! ❤️❤️

Oh my, thank you so much, lovely!!! I'm so glad you've been enjoying the Break Me Down verse! It's been such a joy to write and seeing how you guys have responded to it has been so fulfilling for me as a writer. 🥹🥹

I just wanted to write a redemption arc for Soldier Boy that made sense to me. That's legit how it started. And now it's become this massive story verse that I can't stop writing lol.

But don't worry, I already have a short one-shot written that takes place after Strong as Blood...

It's coming out soon, and it's called "Until Morning":

Pairing: Soldier Boy/Ben x Female Reader (BMD-verse) Summary: A quiet moment between you, Ben, and your newborn daughter.

And I have more planned after I finish Smoke Eater. Just stay tuned! 😘

#ask me stuff #new BMD story #coming soon #Until Morning #soldier boy x reader #the boys #soldier boy #soldier boy x you #BMD verse #break me down #soldier boy/ben #soldier boy x female reader #reader appreciation #zepskies answers

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ravenpoefan · 1 year ago

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Ben and the kids going to an amusement park and he’s so tired because they kept waking him up ready to go. The kids drag him all over the entire park. He rides some rides. But by the time they get back to the limo Ben just falls asleep the entire ride home. Oh and they were there all day from opening til close.

#I’m staying in this redemption arc au #redemption arc au #Benedict uno #father knd #knd villains #delightful family shenanigans #rosy maple moth dad #the whole family just immediately falls asleep the second they get home

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bunthebreadboy · 7 months ago

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Azutara Ask Au/scenario could take place during book 2 or 3 or perhaps even a few years after the war.

So what if Azula and Katara are in a battle. While they’re fighting they get interrupted by an annoyed spirit. The displeased spirit with his rest disturbed, decides to curse Azula and Katara.

This curse did not remove either of their bending abilities. Instead the spirit switched them. Or rather forcefully gave Azula and Katara each other’s bending powers. Rendering Azula a Water bender, and Katara a Fire bender.

What happens from there? Do Azula and Katara continue to fight? Do they freak out? Do they decide to stay together and teach each other? How/when does a relationship form?

oh i love this. ok so in my head this happens in book two. in the catacombs maybe? after katara revives aang because i want him to survive and there’s no way azula as a freshly minted waterbender could do that.

anyways. both of them flip when they realize their bending switched. katara is a natural with firebending because she’s a super passionate person. azula can’t waterbend for shit.

they end up teaching each other basics because katara is like “ok i hate her but i can’t just leave her defenseless” (having a lapse in judgement and forgetting that azula can do hand-to-hand combat) and azula’s somewhat worried that angry katara would set her on fire if she refused to help.

canon stuff proceeds as normally but with random katara and azula fights thrown in there for “training”.

somehow (i haven’t decided how) azula shows up at the same time the combustion bender shows up and their bending goes back to normal. this is mostly because i refuse to not include a bloodbending arc for katara.

once again proceed with canon until the final agni kai. katara, being the prodigy she is, has figured out azula’s technique by experiencing it herself. she manages to take down azula quicker than in canon, but the azula reaction is the same (absolutely gut wrenching).

zuko does the asylum thing but katara is 100% against it and fully decides to break azula out (i’m thinking painted lady style since that episode wouldn’t happen in this au??) and they become travel buddies! azula still hates katara but also finds her attractive (although she’d never admit it) and they get along like a house on fire for awhile but we do get an azula redemption arc cause i said so!

i’d have to think about how that happens, but for a while the katara/azula dynamic is murder buddies without the murder (katara says no). so basically vigilante stuff. that’s legal because zuko and aang are too scared of katara to say no to her medically advised azula therapy program (azula in a rage room, basically).

but yeah it’s definitely super slow burn. katara falls first, azula falls harder type of beat. i don’t think they’d get together until they were at least 18, azula definitely wouldn’t be in the headspace for a healthy romantic relationship for years.

i am now considering writing this.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #katara #azula #azutara #kazula

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an-autistic-with-personhood · 1 year ago

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PLEASE tell me about your littlest pet shop town that you made with your sister omg i’m on the edge of my seat

Oh my god oh my god ok

So we used to play with them with a semi-normal town setup, with the animals as pretty normal modern townsfolk. Our town had a king (as you do when you're eight years old), most of the animals had families, and the many, many children left over stayed in an orphanage run by a Miss Hannigan from Annie-esque cat. I'll just list the ways it devolved from there. Relevant quotes attached.

The dog king got divorced every time we found a prettier dog wife for him (his first wife Daisy was an absolute bitch)

Jessica the orphanage caretaker hates kids and only works there because she's serving community service. We never explored what got her there.

Whenever we got new animals, we'd welcome them to town with a hazing-but-not-really-hazing ceremony (They'd very menacingly tell them they'd give them a "Nice. Warm. Welcome." But then it'd be the most wholesome cutesy song)

During our NCIS phase, we killed off a cat so we could do a murder investigation episode. She dangled from a makeshift noose in the corner for a few years before we brought her back

Some of the children from the orphanage ran away to live in the dump. They sell spiked lemonade. "The feral trash children spiked the lemonade!"

Somewhere down the line, a campsite went up with a pair of manipulative elephants hoarding the biggest campfire for themselves

The cat that ran the orphanage (Jessica) divorced her husband, and he got a redemption arc (and a bad haircut) out of it. I think one of the things that solidified his decision was when she spent the children's food money on a spa day. "Chad, I NEED this!!"

Accidental Krampus Christmas Special. "Saaanta's waaatching..."

Horror Christmas Special with children-eating snow bunnies. "🎵Frosty the Snow Bunny🎵 is gonna eat you now!"

Strained marriage between a husky and her idiot golden retriever husband (he loved her so much but he was just such a himbo that she sometimes couldn't take it)

Several character deaths after our family dogs chewed on the toys

I came home once to find my sister and cousin had been basically playing Survivor. Yet another cat was hanging from the bannister by a noose

Himbo golden retriever saw a lady bug (Carlos) for the first time and dubbed him the "chosen one", essentially starting a cult. Carlos was just the adopted son of the local cat polycule, but ce la vie

We have an au fanfiction somewhere of the himbo entering the town for the first time. au town was named Larpeville, pronounced "larpay villay". He met a vegan lion named Leoche (the "che" was silent) and nearly crashed a scooter into the town's new leaders. "*Sister making 'putputput' motor noises* *screaming*"

Triplet horse sisters (Sandy, Brownie, and Snowy) fell in love with a zebra, but all took different strategies to win his heart. Sandy took a pretty normal "get to know you" route. Snowy was the blondest of blondes and just blurted whatever. Brownie went full stalker. "My name is Snowy, but my friends call me Tanya"

The zebra befriended the orphans and talked to them on his morning runs. Pretty normal, but I had to mention my sister's genius improv when she blurted out Carlos's line, "I don't live here!!!"

The last time we played was exactly a year ago. My sister was 25, I was 24, and our cousin was 21. We made a playboy kink mansion. The himbo and his wife were trying out a sex therapist and she suggested they explore said playboy mansion.

Co-signed by my sister and my cousin - they just read the post and added some ridiculousness I'd forgotten

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blurhawaii · 25 days ago

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yuletide 2024

dear yuletide writer,

hello and happy yuletide! thanks for checking out my letter, whether you’re my writer, someone looking to write some treats, or you’re just curious. i’m pretty easy to please and i always try to leave comments befitting the effort you’ve gone to write me something, because i’m well aware that managing to write anything is incredibly tough.

all of the prompts below are merely suggestions, jumping off points for if you’re struggling to come up with anything. if you’ve got something else that you’re excited to write about, go right ahead. trust me, i’ll happily read it, no matter how out there it might be.

and, most importantly, have fun!

+ treats are very welcome and much appreciated.

++ this is easily my longest letter yet. sorry about that.

general likes:

dysfunctional relationships eg. codependency, messed up father/son dynamics, enemies to lovers (with or without the friend step in the middle), power imbalances, age gaps

unexpected team ups with unlikely characters OR bottle episodes as fic where characters are stuck together in a place/room, unable to leave

vulnerability in men, uncertain intimacy, UST, slow burns first times, forehead kisses, emphasis on hands and touch, touch starved characters, tough love as a means of showing affection

canon divergence and what-if fics, missing scenes, post-canon, fix-it fics, outsider POV, character studies over purely plot driven fics, go way weirder if you like as long as it still feels in universe

bonding through shared trauma—bonus if that leads to messy codependency, PTSD, redemption arcs, found family tropes, difficult family relationships, characters that can’t seem to stay away from each other

supernatural horror, magical realism, cosmic horror, body horror, gothic horror, noir tropes, dark humour, monsters of any kind, ghosts, time loops

size difference, age difference, rough manhandling, competence kink, incompetence kink, loyalty kink, praise kink, pilot kink, clothes sharing, cigarette sharing, character studies as porn, breathplay, clothed sex, rough sex, biting, hair pulling, awkward sex, crying especially during sex, blunt communication between sexual partners

angst (with or without a happy ending) and hurt/comfort fics (heavy on the hurt)

polyamory—especially when an established couple brings in a third, and the journey towards getting it to work

consent issues in terms of characters having sex for reasons that aren’t just straight up attraction, such as for comfort, loneliness, thinking it’s what the other person wants, hero worship, being undercover, previous emotional and personal baggage, a difficult family history leading to messed up dynamics with other parental figures, avoidance of bigger problems

soulmate and daemon fics (this is mostly fandom specific, see prompts for more info)

any rating from gen to porn

DNWs:

AUs that are completely disconnected from canon e.g. high school and coffee shop AUs

crossovers with other fandoms

genderbending, trans headcanons, and asexual headcanons

extreme feminisation of male characters

fics that are entirely tooth rotting fluff

permanent character death and terminal illness (temporary death, ghosts, resurrections are all fine though)

A/B/O fics

scat/watersports

mpreg

first person fics, crackfic, chatfic, songfic, and reader inserts

the departed (2006)

*billy costigan *sean dignam

one of my favourite films ever. i request it every year so you can't really go wrong with this. trust me, i will devour anything you write for these two.

my number one love is dignam. i love his filthy mouthed defense of his undercovers (which includes billy) and his obvious loyalty towards the job and his partnership with queenan. i get a lot of enjoyment from how much he seems to hate sullivan on vibes alone. he’s basically got legend status in both the cop world and the criminal world, and i would be very interested in seeing how and why that came to be.

i have a vague headcanon that dignam was once a younger undercover who got out somehow, and since that rarely happens cleanly i can see a lot of potential for a fic that delves into the trauma of that, and how it relates to billy’s time undercover—which definitely DOES NOT end cleanly.

billy spends the entire film struggling with repressed violent tendencies, crippling isolation, constantly being reminded of and compared to his well-liked father (his uncle and cousin too, but less favourably), and having to juggle various different identities to the point where he doesn’t know which one is real anymore. all of which are themes i would also love to see be explored further.

and obviously i am fascinated by every interaction between these two. from dignam’s attack dog interview tactics, which are fully designed to verbally tenderise billy. dignam expertly reading and needling every one of billy’s weak spots, tearing him down to nothing, ready for queenan’s slightly softer good cop approach meant to reshape him to fit their purpose. to the very rare moments where dignam actually softens too (we need you, pal and my personal favourite why don’t we meet up, sweetheart. let me buy you an ice cream), all leading up to the ultimate loyalty moment of dignam killing sullivan at the end as revenge for billy’s death (and probably queenan too.)

i have written a couple of departed fics myself, centred around shipping costigan/dignam. but in all honesty, i would be happy with anything involving them both. shipping is preferred but whatever you are comfortable with is fine. due to the nature of the film, i am perfectly comfortable with physical violence and the screwed up relationship they are bound to have. the friction born of the situation they are in vs the fact that they need each other to get through this is what i am all about.

prompts:

i have already promised my eternal gratitude to a previous gifter who wrote me a wonderfully odd fic for this prompt. so i can only offer something lesser like an arm or a leg if you write me another fic that incorporates the why don’t we meet up, sweetheart. let me buy you an ice cream line. if you can make that happen in-universe, during the time billy is still undercover, my arm and/or leg is yours to do with what you wish.

any fic where billy survives is always welcome. whether it centres around the very real consequences of taking a bullet to the head, the recovery period that follows, and the long term future billy is looking down barrel of. OR billy never takes the bullet. maybe dignam shows up in time and a mexican standoff in the elevator goes very differently.

maybe some kind of role reversal where instead of madolyn being billy’s therapist point of contact outside of both the cop world and the criminal world, billy could show up on dignam’s doorstep looking for some of the world’s worst therapy. if dignam was a previous undercover, it could be perfect for some trauma bonding.

i’ve always been of the opinion that a time loop fic could work well with this. whether it’s billy having the knowledge to avoid his ending (only for an actual good ending still being hard to get), dignam feeling guilty for not answering billy’s calls by the end and wanting to fix both billy’s outcome and queenan’s. OR maybe go really wild and have an outsider POV stuck in a loop, someone striving for their own personal outcome that somehow also benefits billy’s and/or dignam’s fate, like sullivan or queenan.

as i said in my general likes i think some kind of soulmate or daemon fic could be very interesting in a world where undercover work is the setting. billy and dignam having each other’s names on their person could lend itself to some interesting scenarios. just imagine the interview scene with that fact in dignam’s back pocket. and something about daemons being a true reflection of souls really appeals to me when dropped into these circumstances. bonus points here if you twist or subvert these tropes into some unusual take on them.

slow horses (tv)

*river cartwright *jackson lamb

first of all, i’ll definitely be all caught up on the show by the time that yuletide goes live, so no worries there. i’m also currently reading through the first book and will probably continue after that. feel free to throw in some later book canon if you feel you need to, i’m not too bothered by spoilers, but i am mostly familiar with the show canon and the characterisation we’ve been shown so far.

so from what i can gather most people seem to view these two purely through the lense of a father/son relationship. and while i definitely see it and agree it’s there, it doesn’t exactly stop me from being interested in the shipping potential. honestly, river’s slew of mother issues, father issues, grandfather issues, and so on…combined with the reluctant hero worship and the unwanted mentor/mentee relationship, the vaguely father/son relationship he has with lamb just makes the whole dynamic way more deliciously dense for me.

i am fascinated by all the history lamb has with river’s grandfather, both the personal and the work related, and how that ultimately affects how he views river. i love the reality of lamb slowly divorcing the preconceptions and assumptions he first has about river being just the grandson of the OB who fucked up majorly on the job, to lamb seeing river as his very own messed up individual who fucked up on the job. BUT ALSO as someone who still continues to do good and always strives to do better. as two opposing characters, i very much enjoy that dichotomy of river working so hard to escape slough house and lamb barely working to stay where he is.

i’m a massive fan of loyalty in characters, especially when they try so hard to hide the fact that they care, so obviously i love lamb’s fierce defense of his joes, all while constantly berating them and making sure they know they’re losers. which also brings me to river’s coin flip bouts of competence and incompetence as a spy, both of which delight me in equal measure, just as much as it delights me to see lamb’s reaction to both extremes. on top of that, pretty much any time that river gets roughed up and bloody, i cheer and gleefully drink it up.

i love the spy craft elements of this universe, the blend of the old world and the more modern practises, depending on the generation of spy doing the spying. also, just the unrelenting bureaucracy of the job and how being a slow horse puts them right at the bottom of the totem pole, as i’m always pulling for the underdogs in any story.

i enjoy every other character doomed to work at slough house (particularly river’s work buddie louisa, standish’s motherly concern and her own history with both river and lamb, and shirley just because), along with taverner, spider, and even duffy. if any one of them were to show up in something here, i would be a-okay with that. just remember i’m mostly familiar with the show.

prompts:

as i said above, i do ship it and i would be over the moon to receive a gift that manages to craft a believable, in character reason for these two to fuck. i’m envisioning any one of the scenarios i mentioned in the consent issues paragraph from my general likes. from hero worship reasons, weird comfort, loneliness, spy mission in which they’re stuck together and the safe house only has one bed, what starts as twisted payback for lamb’s hatred of david cartwright turning into something else, whatever you can think of. if you draw attention to the vague father/son and mentor/mentee relationship here, i’ll award bonus points.

if you’re not comfortable writing anything shippy, i’d be very happy with any fic where river and lamb have to work together in the field for whatever reason. maybe lamb has to come to river’s rescue OR even the reverse of that. and you can’t really go wrong with in media res-ing a situation where river is hurt and lamb is begrudgingly fixing things.

i’ve given a lot of thought to the idea that lamb has known river since he was young, or at least has been aware of him ever since river was left behind in his grandfather’s care. i’m not too sure of the actual timelines, having less familiarity with the books, but i would be very interested in a kind 5+1 fic detailing moments they’ve met before, back when river was just a boy, growing up, leading to him joining the service, and inevitably the mistake that lands him at slough house. i’m not looking for any shipping content when river is still underage, but after that is fair game to me.

the color of money (1986)

*eddie felson *vincent lauria *carmen

this film manages to cover so many of my interests and i can’t believe it took me as long as it did to watch it. but watch it i have, many times since, and i’ve even gone back and watched the hustler for extra context and more paul newman.

for this request i would like for all three characters to play a part in any fic. i ship all configurations and, if you’re willing, i’ve been craving an ot3 fic since the moment i first watched it. if you’re not comfortable writing explicit content, that’s fine too. please just include everyone.

for me, the draw of this film is the theme of corrupted goodness. by the end, i think all three of these characters have fed into each other’s worst traits and made each other even worse—and honestly i love that. the case is strongest for vincent, i’d say, who starts this film being pretty naïve, whereas eddie and carmen are definitely more streetwise. or professionals, as they call themselves. although, eddie running into them again at the end of the film goes to show that eddie hasn’t managed to change all that much either.

there’s also the amazing line: you make him feel, i teach him how to run—and that very much sums up the dynamic i love here, of accidently creating a monster out of vincent, who eventually turns on them, which in turn keeps both eddie and carmen from rising to anything better. let them all wallow in the gutter where they belong, just as long as they’re together.

there’s the older/younger dynamic between all of them, there’s the mentor/protege relationship between all of them. there’s even the special mention of a father/son relationship which the film wonderfully lampoons with eddie allowing vincent to get hurt in order to teach him a lesson. the way eddie gingerly wipes the blood from vincent’s face afterwards while carmen drives the car is one of my favourite scenes. a fic that explores these many criss-crossing connections would be amazing.

the whole road trip setting leads to some very interesting moments where personal boundaries are tested. i’m fascinated by the way vincent and carmen keep openly pushing eddie when it comes to their relationship, flipping between teasing him and enticing him when they let him into their room while they’re showering and getting dressed. contrast that against the moments where we see them happily hanging out, watching tv, and eating meals together. they seem to genuinely enjoy each other’s company sometimes—the odd kindness vincent and carmen show eddie when he gets played himself is so strangely sweet—all of which makes the later jealousy and betrayal even juicier for me.

i love kitschy americana diners and cheap motel rooms as vibes and atmospheres, along with smokey pool halls and less than reputable bars. i love the passing of different generations, eddie having to come to terms with the fact that times are changing, especially after the events of the hustler, and him now being confronted by vincent and carmen’s youth.

and lastly, i’ve always been of the opinion that eddie passing down his pool cue to vincent is pretty phallic in nature. i don’t really know what to do with this knowledge, i just know i enjoy it, and now it’s yours to do with what you wish.

prompts:

i would love any fic that’s set during their time on the road, going from pool hall to pool hall, getting more familiar with each other. maybe to save their hustled money they have to share a motel room, making it a perfect opportunity for a ‘only one bed’ scenario. i can imagine vincent and carmen having to coax eddie into bed with them because an old man like him shouldn’t be sleeping in a chair. it could also include: stopping at diners, driving late into the night, deep conversations, falling asleep on people’s shoulders, fooling around in the backseat and the voyeurism of a third person pretending not to watch.

maybe lean into the whole playing pool thing and the art of the hustle. only, this time, bring carmen into it more. have eddie and vincent teach her how to play, both the game and other people. or they could be the only ones left at a deserted hall, because no one goes to halls to play pool anymore, and what starts as a teaching moment quickly becomes a game of one-upmanship.

anything post-canon where they continue to run into each other, tripping up the other’s plans and grifts on purpose. real childish nonsense of deliberately getting in each other’s ways, all because they can’t seem to stay away, for better and for worse.

from (tv)

*jade herrera

i’m currently watching the new season as it airs, and will definitely be all caught up by the time that yuletide goes live. any potential writer or gifter, i’m giving you a blanket statement allowing you to include and reference anything that happens this season. as i will definitely be craving some supplemental material to go with whatever craziness they see fit to leave us with.

having said that, if jade dies, i will riot, as he has been my favourite since the very beginning. this weed smoking, schrodinger’s bisexual, arrogant tech company guy who thinks his money can buy him everything, including a way out of this (vr) nightmare.

since his arrival in town, he’s maybe the character that has changed the most. a lot of his arrogance has been stripped away by the cruel reality of this place, and his tailored capris pants and expensive shirts have been replaced by practical sweaters and winter coats. his transformation from pretty boy to mountain man initially caused me some distress, but i have since come to accept it, if only because i do love to see a character in decline. i think it succinctly conveys his new state of mind and his humbled acceptance of his place in the town. it most definitely helps that we are still occasionally graced with his kitty cat shirt, which is maybe my favourite thing about him—and i’m barely even kidding.

i am enamoured by his tendency to rub people the wrong way, despite the fact that he is always trying to help fix things and figure out the mystery of the town. his obsessive personality is both a boon and a hindrance in that regard. though i do still believe he believes he’s the smartest person in any room, only that nothing about the town makes any logical sense.

on that note, the connection the town seems to have with him fascinates me too. it’s very supernaturally psychological in nature. journals full of mad scribblings, visions and cryptic symbols and, of course, we can’t forget the screaming ventriloquist dummy. any fic that delves into this weirdness would be amazing.

i devour each and every small bit of info we learn about him. his long term friendship with tobey, growing up in paris with his grandmother but having to come back to the states to live with his uncle when she dies (really makes me wonder what happened to his parents), his ability and his contentment of playing the violin, his apparent habit of playing dress up as a kid, the million dollar software company he just sold before arriving in town. if you want to write backstory about any one of these things, i’d love to read it.

more generally, i love the horror tropes of this show. the constant looming threat of the monsters, the confusing mess of shit they find in the woods every time they venture out there, being confined inside during the night, the body horror, the teleporting trees, the japanese water spirit, the looping nature of the road in and out of town, the forced comradery of living with strangers, whatever the hell the cromenockle actually is. and so on and so on. feel free to make up your own weird shit and throw it into the pot. as long as jade is there and suffering, i will read anything you can come up with.

prompts:

i requested only jade this year for ease of matching and, rest assured, i will be perfectly happy with a gift featuring only him. pick anything i’ve rambled about above and you’re golden.

on the other hand, if you are willing, a lot of my joy of jade does come from his interactions with others. i ship him with so many people in town, and love his platonic interactions with so many others too. if you would be interested in including them, for my gifter and the potential blessed occurrence of treaters, i’ll briefly touch on a couple of my favourites:

jade & tian chen: from the moment she yelled at him, I knew i was in for a wonderful ride. maternal figures just cut straight through jade’s bullshit and i love it. the scene where jade monologues about his grandmother to tian chen and, despite the language barrier, she just GETS him. ah, chefs kiss. recent events in the show have completely gutted me however. she made him tea :( a soft or bittersweet missing scene before that with the two of them might help piece my heart back together.

jade/jim & jade/tabitha & jade/jim/tabitha: i love both of the relationships jade has with jim and tabitha separately. the logical experiments and science based worldview of the town that he shared with jim—against the supernatural, scooby doo mystery sleuthing, vibes based view that he shares with tabitha. they also both yell at him a lot and that’s always good. as for the ot3, i just think jade has the capacity to fix their fail marriage by being so annoying it brings jim and tabitha closer together again, by them wanting to fuck him just as much as punch him.

jade/boyd // jade & boyd: i just think if they pooled their knowledge and means together they could finally get some serious shit done. there’s nothing more to it than that, really.

jade & victor: bring back the violin. i love how much it meant to victor, and that victor eventually trusted jade to even touch it. i also love the idea that word might spread that jade can play, and others might miss music so much that they force him to play to a bigger crowd.

jade/khatri // jade & khatri: a real missed opportunity here, i think. jade called him beautiful while high, and since he loses his oldest friend tobey on the same day that he arrives, maybe talking to a friendly priest is all he needs. there’s also the fact that jade is one of the few people who also regularly sees ghosts of dead residents in town. other than boyd, who better to bond with a dead khatri?

as for more general prompts, i think the necessity of the talismans could lead to a great bottle episode type of fic, as well as contriving an in-universe reason to stick an unusual combination of characters together in a place overnight. roll a die, if you want, and force them to play monopoly or two truths and lies. whatever gets them talking.

if you want to go really weird, how about a fic where jade’s right about it being a large scale larping situation, or a VR simulation that tobey has actually did set up. what happens then when people die in town?

24 (tv)

*tony almeida *jack bauer

i was a huge fan of this show back when dvd boxsets were still a thing, and i pretty much wore my sets out watching them on repeat. more recently, it showed up on disney+ and i’ve since been reliving my obsession again.

seasons 1-4 were the golden years for me. i continued to watch past that and enjoyed it, but certain events of season 5 (namely: the deaths of tony, michelle and david palmer) were hard for me to get over. i give special dispensation to season 7 because they brought my very special boy tony almeida back as a villain (which i admittedly hated at the time, but have since come to love and really appreciate as a legitimate path for his character to take. more on that below in my prompts.)

it’s so amusing for me to go back to the first season and see tony as this smug, soul patch having loser. a minor character that i’m pretty sure we’re meant to dislike just for the crime of being opposed to jack and nina, all while knowing the amazing journey his character goes on. just know that i appreciate every era he goes through.

tony manages to stay very dry and sardonic throughout, which i adore in a character (i still mimic his flat yah every time he answers a phone.) he shows that he can hold his own in the field too (heart eyes for the times tony shows up with a gun at the last second to save the day, like with terri in season 1 and jack and audrey in season 4.) but he’s also savvy enough at the bureaucracy side of things to rise up the ranks to head of CTU. (RIP to george mason, my absolute favourite side character, despite lasting only last two seasons. xander berkeley the GOAT.)

i love tony’s relationship with michelle because i find it fascinating how similar she is to jack at times. the thing with jack and michelle is that they are very much believers of the adage the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and the one, which is obviously very important for the job they do. whereas tony is always more interested in saving the people around him, the people he cares about, and ultimately his wife. it’s what leads to his arrest later, tony putting michelle above his country, and that kind of loyalty, him damning all the consequences, is numero uno in my book.

as for jack, i definitely grew up thinking he was the coolest person alive (i find ways to bring up the moment at the la coliseum when he runs up the wall and snaps that guy’s neck an embarrassing amount.) he’s a one man army, a terminator, endlessly persistent, and yet he can still find the time to sit in his car at the end of a long day and cry. he really can do it all and there’s not much more i need to say.

there’s an underlining of loyalty between these two that starts, i think, from the moment they learn about nina’s status as a mole. the fact that they both slept with her at different times (possibly even overlapping) lends itself to a certain bond going forward. a mutual betrayal building a weird commiserating trust. from there, i love seeing tony become one of the few people at CTU jack trusts pretty implicitly. he entrusts kim’s safety (*sighs* oh, kim) to tony on numerous occasions, to the point where tony and michelle even help jack fake his death. can’t get much more trusting than that.

the 24h clock format for the show really was groundbreaking at the time, and i think it still continues to be a major positive that the show has going for it. i love all the subterfuge and having spies working both sides right under your nose. the quick and sudden violence underscored by the ticking clock. the technology is also hilariously dated at this point too that payphones were a legitimate defense against terrorism and secret agendas.

prompts:

i do ship it, along with liking a lot of their canon relationships. i would love a shipping fic involving tony/jack, but gen is fine. depending on the season setting you choose to write in, i’m fine with references to past relationships like tony/michelle, tony/nina, jack/nina, jack/kate, jack/audrey. i do love ot3 fics as well, so if you want to write any combination of jack/tony/nina and jack/tony/michelle too, it will eat it right up.

straight out of prison, depressed and alcoholic tony is a personal favourite of mine. the way jack relays all the sad facts to audrey so casually has always blown my mind. it means jack was there at the sidelines to see it, and he even mentions michelle’s side of things too, showing that he’s familiar with her too. i once read a post where someone wrote: do you think jack was the best man at tony’s wedding? that question has haunted me ever since, and being confronted with tony at rock bottom always brings it to the front of my mind.

there’s so much potential in a fic set pre-season 3. the whole secret OP that jack, tony and gael organise off the record, which involves getting jack addicted to heroin and in with the salazars. it’s rife for further exploring, maybe something messy and uncomfortably intimate with tony being jack’s only point of contact during this period, and having to sneak behind michelle’s back out of necessity.

i’m weirdly fascinated by the reality of working at CTU during the non-disaster days. the boring, day to day stuff we don’t ever get to see. anything set during any era could honestly be interesting. whether that’s early season 1 during the break in jack’s marriage, or season three when jack is head of OPS and tony is his equal. hell, bring back george mason for a day and let him and tony bitch about jack and their coworkers while standing at the water cooler together. i’m game for anything and anyone, as long as tony and jack are present.

season 7 villain tony. i love the angst jack experiences when learning that tony is alive. i think the show fumbles tony’s true motivations a little by having him flip flop between real villain, undercover good guy, back to actual villain getting revenge for michelle. if they had picked one and stuck with it all the way, i think it might have worked better. having said that, i can get behind both versions, and would love a fic detailing either paths. especially something post-season 7 that explores jack reaching out to tony while he’s back in custody.

#yuletide #yuletide 2024

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