#i'm starting to really look forward to my reread

[frownyalfred]

Lurking reader here! Decided it was past time to chime in. :)

So, just reread the latest chapter again and so so many lovely / interesting moments.

1. If Joker was able to smell Batman without suppressants, guessing it is fairly likely that Joker knows exactly who is under the cowl.

2. "I do. God, Jay, I do." Followed immediately by Alfred and his sass.

3.Loved the nod to Alfred chopping wood! "he likes fires" made me laugh.

4. Bruce is such a little brat isn't he? Purposely putting a very specific scent on Clark just as he is going to work.

5. 2pm Metropolis time? I always assumed that Gotham and Metropolis were like NY and NJ, close by so in the same time zone. Is that not the case?

6. "Deep into his third trimester" => questions about the pregnancy and time line. I didn't think Bruce was that far along. Can you give a rough time line of the pregnancy so far? Bruce found out when he was three weeks along. I assume the events of ASOH took maybe 2 months? So Bruce was around 3 months pregnant when they went to the gala? When Alfred mentions Dan working on repairs over the last 6 months, is that the time jump between stories? Btw, how long is a Kryptonian pregnancy/ hybrid pregnancy?

7. Gotta love how Alfred is like oh year I handled the installation of a whole elevator by myself. 😂

8. I feel like there is a ton of symbolism in the section when Bruce passes out. Vision going green. Tasting blood and soot. And of course the oh so lovely rut accelerant!

As usual, an amazing chapter and I cannot wait to see what comes next. So many details to catch in rereads to look forward to as well.

Hope your Monday has been a good start to the week.

Thank you so much!!!! I'm so glad you're enjoying. Rapidfire responses below:

Yes. Not good news at all. Joker has a very keen sense of smell and Bruce was very, very smellable (is that a word?) at that point in the story

I'm glad you caught that, poor Bruce really has so much self-hatred but he will not put it on Jason's shoulders! Love that for him

I could not help but add that reference to BVS Alfred's woodchopping scene, I think about it like every day

He is SUCH a brat and knows exactly what he did. I almost wrote this scene from his POV but it's funnier if it's from Clark's. I also cut a scene with Lois smelling it at work for space.

This is my own personal headcanon I snuck in there and forgot to explain. Yes they're still across the bay from each other but I thought they'd be petty and maintain the rivalry by insisting on being in different time zones

Bingo, right on the money. Bruce is near the end of his pregnancy, so we jumped a few months. It's roughly the same length as a human pregnancy with some minor changes in gestational speed etc. I have another post on this somewhere, I'll dig it up later

Alfred really knew exactly what Bruce's hesitation about the space would be and ensured he had no reason to say no. I imagined it was already a space (vent, HVAC, etc) that was fairly easy to re-purpose into a one-person elevator. Especially if he got Dan to haul the parts up there without opening them :)

Yes, there's a ton of stuff I was teasing just in that little section. So far, no one has put all of the pieces together yet, but folks in the comments are close.

[lesbianherald]

Bee, I just wanted to let you know, I've been rereading Coming Home and I've been able to appreciate it more this time around. I'm thankful for that.

I just finished reading chapter 3 and I gotta say, I fully sobbed during the flashback scene. The emotions described felt so raw to me, it caught me off guard to be crying while reading it considering this didn't happen the first time. I like to think I'm no longer running on dopamine over Arcane which helped me appreciate everything going on more carefully.

You're a magnificent writer and I hope you know that. Your understanding of these characters is something very special to me. Thank you infinitely for writing such a beautiful story, I'm waiting anxiously for the next one.

waaaaaaaaahhhhh ! this is so so kind oh my gosh. It means the world it truly does. It's so hard to put into words how much messages like this mean to me but just know thank you ! so motivating.

so glad you like my take on them. so glad you're looking forward to the next.

the end of chapter 3 is definetly when I started losing my mind a bit, but I also think that's when I started kind of getting into the rhythm of the story maybe lol. there's a definite noticeable shift I think. i was really nervous about it. i got incredibly close to not posting it. so the fact that that's where most people say they started enjoying it means a lot.

its been a very hard few days so thank you for this.

[phoebe-ofthe-cosmos]

going through my tweets from last fall to try to remember when i read each book in the series

i did them on audiobook last year. i remember it took me a while to really get into acotar (i went in verrry skeptical because it was a "tiktok book" and i'm pretentious). goodreads data tells me that i finished normal people in early september and then there's a bigggg gap until my next logged book at the end of december (which was the first book i read after finishing acosf). so i think i started acotar sometime in september, but i don't have an exact date (i curse my past self for being too stuck up to log audiobooks in goodreads).

i think this tweet was right around when i finished acotar, although it's possible i had finished it and moved on to acomaf by this point:

i loved the action-packed, fast-paced ending of acotar and so even though it took me a while to get through that one i started acomaf right away. i did acotar on audible with a credit but did the rest of the series on youtube because i'm broke, so definitely by november 5th i had started acomaf:

november 6th 2022 is when my brain broke irreparably:

november 7th is also when the first acotar memes/fan arts start showing up in my camera roll.

i ended up extending that ban from 3 days to a "weekends only" rule. i proceeded to spend all weekend every weekend in november holed up in my bedroom knitting and listening to these books. i began to structure my weekends around listening to them. i spent my entire week looking forward to friday night. if i had to do something on a saturday or sunday i did it as early as possible to maximize my available listening time. as soon as i could, i closed myself in my bedroom for 4-6 hours every weekend night to listen.

there's a great text post in my drafts from november 14th where i talk about how mentally ill these books were making me (and to be clear i consider this a good thing, as frustrating as it was, because this was the first book series i'd read since middle school that was making me feel this way and isn't it incredible that a story can affect someone so deeply??). at this point if i wasn't listening to the audiobooks, i was listening to midnights by taylor swift. that album and this book series are inextricably linked in my mind, i can't hear a song from midnights and NOT associate it with some plot point or character from the books. i couldn't sleep. i would wake up sweating and gasping for air in the middle of the night thinking about feyre or lucien or cassian and simultaneously have a song from midnights stuck in my head. i couldn't turn my brain off EVER because these two pieces of media were consuming me. the shared starry nighttime aesthetic of midnights and acomaf absolutely did not help this.

i remember i did acofas right around thanksgiving, because that book (heavily) influenced me making up my mind about having a baby someday and it was after coming back from seeing our families for the holiday that i told my bf about it. i have a picture in my camera roll from november 26th of the physical copies of the books that i'd bought. i remember that the youtube video i listened to acofas on had a chunk of a scene missing and i had to read my physical book to fill in the blank.

and then by the end of november i was onto acosf, according to another text post that i have saved in my drafts from the 29th. here's a dramatic tweet from the same day, vaguely referencing my acotar-induced mental illness again:

i was much more normal about this book and was able to consume it in smaller doses and during the work week. i remember being so eager to know what would happen but also knowing that i was approaching the end of the ride and wanting it to last as long as possible. still pretentious about it though lol:

i finished acosf on december 19th, i think, because my next logged book in goodreads was started on december 20th and i remember going to the library immediately to check out books and keep the reading bug going. i don't think i've gone more than a day or two without a book in progress since.

it isn't an exaggeration to say that these books have changed me as a person and by extension have changed my life

[sysig]

Requestober 2024 Sketches

The playlist is...well, it will be posting very soon! Keep an eye out for your req(s) every Wednesday and/or Friday after the 6th (I think?), pretty sure I got ‘em all >:3c

Doing the full season this time around! The entire mixed bag o’ candy haha

Day 1 had my beautiful boys!! ♥ I’m so happy that Yanderapy took the lead this year ah! It’s too bad I’m so out of practice with them haha, unconfident lines, but the idea was solidly in place from the word go - this was really the only image that came to mind for them, their weird dynamic hehe <3 Made for each other! I am glad their expressions came together so well in the final version, though I didn’t get to show Micchan kneeling! That’s alright tho ♪ Cute enough here hehe

Day 2 got a lot of notes! Kabu’s clothing design is So complex lol, just toss him behind Larry who’s like second nature to draw, suits are so so simple in comparison haha ♪ Still only ended up hiding bits of him! He did end up with his shoe on the outside of Larry’s, boxing him in that little bit <3 And look! His smirk!! As well as the “hiragana” on his sleeves while I was still under the impression that it was text and not Flame Texture lol

And yes, as you can see, I ended up going with the alt doodle, they got more! I was quite tempted by Larry holding Kabu since he’s so tiny lol, but that would’ve required drawing his details! No! Hide him!! The pose is fun and silly and cute tho haha, very plush-coded ♪ And then also a little smech for funsies <3 Just to follow up their staring-at-each-other-in-a-gay-way they ended up with ♥ Rather a fan of Kabu’s hands pulling Larry in :)

Day 3′s was such a pose change!!! Mostly for Edgar, though he’s still kneeling here, inexplicably haha - the angle changed for the final version, and both of their head angles and just, ah, nothing more than a general outline of what I was going for. I’m pleased with both tho! I think the final is much more clear and readable, but there’s always a bit of fun with Edgar looking down/Scriabin looking up haha. I suppose it’s more appropriate than an angel would be looking down on a devil, isn’t it? Haha

Day 4 was another easy one at least, the pose immediately came to mind to show off Nny’s clothes on an even ganglier, thinner frame haha. Like I said, I really tried for more fullbodies this year, so I had to give the tiny version a proper swing on-page! Ran out of room for the larger one, but I really wanted to draw him holding his shoe with his hand haha. You can see the goopmonster on his shirt here too! :D I think his annoyed face is quite cute hehe <3

Day 5 was practically a freebie, and I took absolute full advantage hehehe ♪ If I get the prompt of “soft” of course I’m going to opt for plushies! I’m back in my Webkinz era, and Tala is big big big on Webkinz as well :) And her being a plushie has something of an impact there too lol, but it was really fun to look over all my little guys! I ended up having an extra handful of thoughts about all of them so they’ll be getting their own post(s) :D Good too, since I didn’t talk much about Embroidery’s closet cosplay haha

Day 6 was actually a bit of a question mark for me at first! :0 Not as though I don’t love when Edgar has to clean up Scriabin’s self-inflicted problems haha, I just wasn’t sure what it should be! Making it seasonal helped a bit there - lots of sticker burrs around here when we go walking haha. The bonus ended up being a digital-only, but it was a good motivator to finish these, and then the full poses came to mind - I’m not sure why I was more excited to work on full body poses, but I really was! Maybe the success of meeting my self-imposed challenge haha

I ended up scrapping the alt since it reminded me a little too much of one of the ‘22 reqs - trying to keep things fairly fresh! It was also a little too cartoony haha, where would Edgar suddenly pull such strength from! This doesn’t look like a dream! At least it wouldn’t have been a nightmare of Scriabin being hurt :’) Rescue!

Day 7 was another insta-idea! Really going back and forth on those lol, it sprouted into my head fully formed! This was actually one of a couple I wrote down as I was away from my notebook while brainstorming, so it came back as a mini script; one of more dialogue-heavy ones! Chicken or egg, I wonder, hmm. I always draw Smoker with her sleeves up even though she usually wears them down haha, I dunno. Had a heck of a time with Angie’s hair! I tend to make hair super super fluffy but hers is long and straight and presumably weighs itself down! Doesn’t floof! You’d think having heavy hair myself would incline me towards knowing anything about it but nope lol

Little bouncy concepts haha, and poor Mousey so jealous in the middle, surrounded with them having the most fun!

Day 8 was fairly simple with such a focused ask of them eating Specific Food - can do! Chibis just felt right for such a cute food haha. Would Edgar have a crepe pan, I wonder... I suppose a lot of it comes down to the batter, I haven’t made crepes in such a long time so I wouldn’t know anymore haha

Day 9 featured the slouchy throne! You can see I like the little leggies haha, I did make it a touch more proportional in the final version but who can resist the sillies! Had to draw it and Mettaton separately so I could easily see their silhouettes, I think it all came together in the end fairly well :) Had one heck of a time getting the bottom of his shoes to play nice, but I’m proud of how it turned out!!

Day 10′s, who can resist skelehugs ♥ No I! Not me!! The original had them a lot more upright, I’m glad I went with my note of leaning them back a bit more. Also had Papyrus’ legs on either side of Sans, protective <3 I do like both, but I think they look a bit more reasonably comfortable in the final version, figuring out contact points with one of Papyrus’ legs all the way to one side was too much haha. No boots on the couch! I think they look a bit younger in the final version too, maybe from their eyebrow expressions? Interesting how such small changes can make a big difference ♪

Day 11 was originally going to feature a bunch more Pokemon!! Several of my pink-and-purple faves all gathered around MewTwo <3 Flaafy and Musharna and Sableye my beloved 💜 And of course Whismur!! Can’t but Whismur all the time haha, but in the end I opted to go for the simpler(?) option of just the two ‘mons interacting

Whismur is so spooked by you, even lying down!! Even tho I drew it so I can see it right in front of me, I just can’t imagine MewTwo lying down to investigate haha. More posing changes! Lot of ‘em this year. Pls to quiet, cats have very sensitive hearing, you don’t need to shout

Day 12 started off with probably the Correct Amount of confusion lol, considering even @cutiebetutie​ didn’t expect this to be the matchup lolol, still deeply hilarious to me. But hey, what was I going to do, question a crackship?? Do I look like the kind of person who would say no to exploring some possibilities? Of course I had to give them a scope lol

Haha, “Alt” in quotes as I knew this would actually be the full version, the handholding is cute but where’s the dynamic! There is something there after all! I think so anyway, some tiny tiny sliver that they could start from, and what more foot in the door do you really need? If Nny’s on his charm that drew Devi in, I don’t see why someone a little more airheaded like Jake couldn’t be beguiled haha, if he lasts long enough for that ♪ It’s very tense! I wish him well, I wonder if he could protect himself... Just cut and run, Jake!! Makes for an interesting suspense, that’s for sure haha

Day 13‘s kigurumis!!! Yay!!!! Smol and I successfully wore ours for Halloween this year, we’re them fr fr haha, definitely one of my favourites from this season <3 <3 They’re so cute! Biggest change from here to there is probably where the legs start/end haha, kigurumi have funny little legs hehe. And also Papyrus’ gloves! Sans ended up without any, I can’t resist a hand plate here or there ♪ Also him closing his one good eye to pun about was an accident until it wasn’t haha, just another excuse to do a touch of rereading :3

Day 14‘s turned out so good for how cramped the sketch was!!! Gaster’s hardly there at all! Which is appropriate in its own way haha, filling in the rest of his details was pretty fun tho :) Papyrus looks a lot more desperate in this version which I do like, but him openly enjoying himself is very sweet, who could deny him that <3 Quite pleased with how his arm and hand posing came together in the end as well, fairly minor changes but I think it all flows together much nicer :D

Day 15′s word bubbles turned out way cleaner in the sketch than the final version?? Calls for more practice I suppose; it is asymmetrical, but it does look nice! Maybe needed more colour swatches haha, more and more rows! Edgar’s unimpressed look in the final version is quite good I think but there’s almost a kind of urgency with no eyes behind blank glasses hmm, they both have their merits! I applaud everyone who caught Scriabin holding the bi flag as his swatches! :D Good eye!

Day 16 began The Sleepies lol, I was a bit tired while doodling the first go and it uhm. Well. I mean. You can see lol. S’a bit goofy haha

The alt was much much better! I did end up leaving out the grass which I’m a Little disappointed about - feels too manicured, too sterile in the final version! But I really couldn’t figure a way of adding a bit of visual noise that wouldn’t look flat as well! Minecraft, eh, lol. I am quite pleased with how round Moomin turned out tho :D He looks like a marshmallow in the final version! Yay!

I actually doodled Day 17′s concept before 16 since it came to me so strongly - I do kind of like how much more upright Mob is here, him being as hunched over as he is in the final version adds to the moodiness of the piece I feel. He really is such a good boy! I don’t wish him dark and upsettings!

Day 18‘s didn’t get a paper sketch as I was verrryyyyy tired and had no energy to scan, so skipped the step that would make scanning necessary haha. For all that, I do rather like the digital sketch tho! I think Snufkin’s left leg is a bit better proportioned, and his expression is maybe a bit cheekier? Moomin’s perfect, no notes haha. I also ended up really liking their tail expressions, how Snuf’s is kind of straight and flat while Moomin’s is very roundy hehe <3

I know I said Day 20 doesn’t count but I mean, it’s on the same page! It got the “Day 20″ label! Sketch can go here why not haha. Happy belated Ace Week! I thought it was fun to put a bunch of pink lovehearts around the big central ace heart for me specifically hehe 💜💗

I mentioned in the tags that Day 26‘s original concept was too big to try to do all at once and ahhhh I wish I’d been able to swing it!! I wish I’d been able to do the whole thing!!!! I love scenes like this the most!! Little isometric rooms with little isometric characters all chatting and interacting and being cute and silly and tiny!! I love that! Alas, it had to stay a sketch, but here it is!! Can you recognize everyone here? The main three got the center, but who could the rest be :3c And what of their costumes! Hehe ♪

Still fighting back the sleepies for what ended up being the final version so the dialogue was left much more vague than the caption haha, the aliens don’t even have feet here! I suppose they are meant to be in fish costumes lol, it tracks that only the fully-human Captain’s legs would end there, but definitely not intentionally done so lol. I like ZEX’s expression here so muuuuch ahh I wish I’d been able to capture it a bit better in the digital version! Always something for next time haha

I actually ended up drawing Day 30′s sketch very very last, so this was the last doodle of the season! Me, projecting my tiredness onto the Vargases? Nooo <3 Another one that ended up very very different from the final version, I just needed Something down to paper and out of my head to work with really - I knew even while drawing this that I was going to end up with something very different haha. Sometimes hand just does whatever it wants pft. The dialogue was the star of the show here! And you can see what Scriabin was up to, obscured by the couch haha

Day 31, penultimate sketches for the final day! I really do love Scriabin hiding behind Edgar - wants to be included but not That close, very much with Edgar in the way of anything bad happening to him haha. More pose changes! I like both versions, Todd holding Shmee for comfort or him spilling out of his lap as he focuses all his attention on Joel <3 Both cute in different ways!

Cats are still not one of my strong-suits, but I have been drawing them a bit more recently! Admittedly of the cartoon variety, but even that has had some effect I think! Like their little triangle noses, and the way their ears scoop inwards, and whiskers - little things! I like it! I had fun with these little concept poses, Joel kind of curiously huddling on Edgar’s chest, looking at the world from a safe vantage spot haha. Hold him gently! He deserves it!

All the sketches from this year! I ended up having a lot of fun this season even if it was a little lighter than previous years haha, thank you again to everyone who joined!! ♥

[hollowflight-propaganda]

Ngl, I'm pretty excited to revisit arc 3 + Dragonslayer for my series reread because book 11 is the only one of those I've done a proper reread of, and that was 4 years ago

I'm also excited about that because then I can imagine my own complex rewrite for it all :)

[rin-may-1103]

The Eyes of Death.

This story is mostly inspired by Jaybirbie's prompt | Master post | Next?

"Hey, sweetheart?" Danny called, quickly jotting down the last sentence for his paper. He'd have to remember to go back and reread it and make sure he didn't trail off into another tangent. He swears he wasn't this bad at managing his ADHD back in Amity...

"Yes, Danny?" Damian asked, turning back from the door to face him as he scrolled further down the story he was reading. The familiar font of Gotham City's gazette blurred as a picture of Mr. Freeze and Penguin finally loaded. So that's what was going on. Danny should have known; the bats already dealt with the other usual rouges, and these two were next on the list.

"Can you walk with me? I just know Nancy and her boyfriend are out there, waiting. I really don't want to deal with them again... We could spend more time at my place? Tucker sent me another movie, and I'm unsure if I should watch it alone after last time." Danny pleaded, quickly shoving all of his papers into his bag. He'd deal with straightening them out later, it wasn't like his professors weren't used to his wrinkled essays at this point.

However, he should probably redo the blueprints for Workshop. Mr. Anthlow was a hardass, but nothing could compare to his anger when a student handed in wrinkled blueprints; he claimed he wasn't going to have another 'Tanner' incident on his watch, whatever the heck that meant.

He was not looking forward to whatever Nancy wanted to talk to him about, she looked excited. Which could only mean bad things for him; considering the last time she was excited, he ended up spending time with Bane of all people. And there was no way her boyfriend was just going to let Danny get away again.

Damian grimaces, finally looking up and away from his phone. "I'm sorry beloved..." he held up the device just in time to show an incoming text from his Father, "I promised Father I'd be home a while ago. And with what's happening down on-"

"It's ok, I'll just head out the back door," Danny cut in, seeing the start of guilt on his boyfriend's face. He knew how much Danny hated having to deal with those two, and the fact Damian hasn't been able to even introduce himself to them hasn't helped. With a smile, Danny scooped up his textbooks and made his way to stand in front of Damian, "They can't bother me if they don't see me!"

Unsurprisingly, Danny could feel the guilt grow and start to float around Damian as the boy glanced at his phone, the message tone sounding out again in warning.

Danny only met Damian's father once; it was just a simple shake of hands and sharing names before the man ran off, but it did leave an impression. The man felt tired and paranoid; like, to the point Danny kind of wanted to drag Jazz over and lock the two of them in a room, paranoid. (Danny wants to say he's never seen someone that paranoid, but he'd be lying. He looks in the mirror after all.)

The point is; Danny's only met the man once, but that was enough for him to know that the man would tear down the world if he thought for even a second that one of his kids was in danger. This meant, that if Damian didn't go and reassure his father that he was alive and safe within the next sixty or so seconds, then there was a possibility that there wouldn't be another date for at least another week.

And considering this "study date" was supposed to make up for the last one Damian had missed because of his Father? Yeah, Danny wasn't going to be happy if Damian got grounded or dragged into another 'surprise' family road trip because his father was convinced his children would be dead before the 'yearly' planned get-together in November.

They had a trip to the zoo planned for tomorrow, and Delilah was supposed to be allowed out with her kids. This would be Delilah's first public outing since her kids' birth. There's no way Danny was going to allow Damian to miss that. (he swears to the ancients, if there was a rouge attack he was going to kill someone, Dark Dan's future be damned.)

Lifting his heels off the ground so he could stand on his tiptoes, Danny snagged Damian's arm and pulled him down so he could kiss his cheek. "I'll get home safe, just focus on keeping your dad from going insane. We've got a date at the zoo tomorrow and we're not missing it even if your father becomes the next city rogue."

Damian wrapped his arms around Danny, trapping him in a hug as he sighed in fond frustration. "I promise I won't miss it, ok? I'll be there."

Danny rolled his eyes and pushed Damian back, dropping back to stand on the ground, "You better, 'cause hell hath no fury like a gorilla denied the chance to meet her human best friend's boyfriend."

Damian snorted, before looking away and pretending to cough. Danny moved his textbooks to rest more securely in one of his arms, so he could point at his boyfriend. "I'm not kidding, if I show up tomorrow and tell her all about my life and you're not there, she will break out and track you down. I won't stop her either, you'd deserve whatever she does to you."

"Alright, alright. I get it, and I already promised I'd be there didn't I?" Damian chuckled, raising his hands up in surrender. Which would have been cute if it wasn't for the fact that his phone went off again, this time in an insistent buzzing. His eldest brother's ringtone; which meant Damian was going to be busy for a while.

Cursing, Damian turned and answered, "I'm in the middle of something, this better be important Grayson," glancing back at Danny, he mouthed for him to wait a moment as his brother started talking.

Smiling, Danny shook his head, snatched Damian's jacket, and started making his way out the door. There was no way Damian would finish this phone call any time soon. Danny's learned not to wait after the last four times this happened. Damian turned back with betrayed eyes, but the urgent voice of his brother buzzing even louder held him back. Waving goodbye with a smile, Danny shut the door and started making his way down the hall.

He'd have to ask Damian what happened tomorrow, Grayson didn't usually call him, especially when he knew Damian was spending time with Danny. He said it had something to do with how it was sacrilege to interrupt time spent with a significant other. Danny had wanted to ask him more about it but hadn't gotten the chance when The Riddler crashed their spontaneous meeting.

Speaking of The Riddler, Danny's social science paper wasn't looking too hot right now. He'd have to block out a time for him to work on that at some point this week. He wasn't doing anything on Friday, well, besides his early morning classes. That should work...

"Hey, Danny!" someone called, pulling him out of his musing. Glancing up, Danny internally groaned when he noticed Nancy waving at him in sheer delight. Giving her a half-hearted wave, Danny sped up and continued making his way to the back of the library. If he was quick enough maybe he could-

To his dismay, Nancy's boyfriend stepped out from behind one of the shelves and latched onto his arm. Tightly.

Just great, this is exactly what he wanted to avoid. Curse his inability to pay attention when he got lost in thought. Damn ADHD. Blasted non-existent spatial awareness. This was what he got for relying on his ghost sense, he just knows it.

"She said hi, kind of rude of you to just keep walking, Kid." Wyatt huffed, roughly dragging Danny back and towards his girlfriend. Nancy smiled brightly as Wyatt let him go, allowing Nancy to weave her arm with Danny's and practically drag him toward the front of the building.

"There's this big party going on tonight, some Jr invited us. He said it was going to be a night to remember! You should totally come with us, Danny! My friend Shela said she was bringing her nerdy freshmen too! I just know you'd fit right in with them!" Nancy squealed excitedly, shaking Danny as they finally made it to the front doors.

One of the desk attendants rolled their eyes at them as Danny glanced over, hoping that Barbara might intervene. No such luck, she was nowhere in sight, probably off somewhere shelving books. So much for that plan.

"uh, thanks, but I already-" Danny tried, stopping when Nancy scoffed and yanked him out the door and into the frosty night. "Damn, it's cold!" Wyatt cursed, taking his jacket off and quickly handing it over to Nancy. She let go of Danny and pulled it on, then stared at Danny for a moment, "Put your coat on Danny, no way in hell am I letting my kid catch a cold!"

Rolling his eyes, Danny wrapped Damian's coat over his shoulders. He was too lazy to actually put it on, not when that meant handing his textbooks over. The last time he did that, Nancy got bored and started doodling all over them. (how she had managed to do that in the little time it took to put a hoodie on, Danny wasn't sure.)

"I just want to go home, Nancy. I'm not really a party person." Danny sighed, allowing Nancy to drag him down the dark streets. His apartment was in this general direction anyway. Nancy turned to her boyfriend with a huff, "Wyatt! make him come with us!"

"Let the nerd do what he wants, it's not like it affects us if he kicks the bucket all alone," Wyatt grumbled, rolling his eyes.

Ouch, but true. Please listen to your grumpy boyfriend, please listen to your grumpy boyfriend, please listen-

"But Shela said she was bringing Carly!" Nancy turned back to Danny, a pout clear on her face, "You two would be so cute together! she's nerdy just like you! And she's totally into all those murder mystery shows you watch!"

Damn it. Not this crap again.

"That's nice, Nancy, but I'm not interested. I already told you guys, I have a boyfriend," Danny sighed, trying to gently extract his arm from hers; for a human, Nancy sure had one heck of a grip.

"Yeah, right," Wyatt snorted, patting Danny's back, completely ignoring the fact that Danny was literally wearing someone else's jacket. "We'll believe you when you introduce us, until then. You're a virgin loser."

And there we go, people; the reason Danny wanted to crawl into the sewer and die whenever he saw these two. They were nice, don't get him wrong, but they were also stubborn idiots.

"Being a virgin has nothing to do with my relationship status, Wyatt. I'm ace. you've known this since the first time we talked." Danny grumbled, allowing Nancy to drag him down another street. He wasn't sure exactly where they were going now, but he was too tired to care at this point.

If these self-claimed 'Parents' of his wanted to drag him to this stupid party, then fine. Whatever. It's not like Danny had any other plans tonight anyway.

"Asexuality isn't a thing man," Wyatt huffed, speeding up so he could guide them in the right direction now that they were heading into a rougher patch of buildings. Danny could see the man was shivering, though trying to act tough in front of Nancy. Smirking, Danny sent a cold breeze his way. The man scowled up at the sky, cursing quietly.

"Yeah!" Nancy agreed, smiling brightly down at Danny without a care in the world. Like they didn't have this conversation every other week. "You just haven't met the right person yet, Danny! And I know how awkward it is to admit that you're staying celibate until marriage, but you don't have to hide it behind being ace."

Taking a deep breath, Danny closed his eyes and focused on not shouting out of frustration. The celibate comment was new, the acephobia, not so much. "Ok, first of all; Asexuality is a thing, which many people ARE. Literally, 1% of the world is ace. That's over 70 million people. Second of all, I'm not celibate, and I'm not sure if you even know what that means, considering you know I was raised Atheist."

"What does being an Atheist have to do with celibacy?" Nancy asked, tilting her head to look at him. Danny groaned, smacking his forehead against his textbooks. He was NOT going to explain this to them tonight.

"You know what, Nancy? It doesn't matter." Danny huffed, trying again to gently pry her hands off. He wanted to go home. He wanted to cuddle with his boyfriend. He wanted to go back to Amity. Maybe go to the realms and play with Cujo. He did NOT want to deal with these idiots.

Wyatt stopped walking and turned to face them, rolling his eyes as Nancy pouted at Danny. "Come on babe, let the loser go. He obviously doesn't appreciate your efforts."

"but who else is going to convince him to live a little? He's just going to go back to his apartment and sulk by himself!" Nancy cried, tightening her grip again.

"Who cares what the kid does, Nancy? let the dude die a virgin loser. Now let's go, we're already late as is."

"But I really want him to-," Nancy tried, cutting herself off, as both she and Danny spotted a cloaked person appear out of the shadows behind Wyatt.

Wyatt lifted his brow before slowly turning to see what the two of them were staring at. The cloaked figure suddenly whacked him over the head with a metal pole before he could fully turn around. Wyatt's body dropped to the ground with a heavy thump, making Nancy scream, "Wyatt!"

Shit, Danny stepped back, trying to pull Nancy with him as the cloak dude tossed the metal pole to the side with a loud clank. Which was confusing, why would he through away his weapon?

"Shut her up!" the cloak dude cried, bending down to grab Wyatt's arms. He better not be telling Danny to do that, because that would just be stupid and- Suddenly, a dozen more cloaked people flooded out of the darkness and surrounded them. That answered Danny's questions at least.

Danny tensed up as a couple of the people tried to grab onto him. Quickly pulling Nancy back, successfully this time, Danny glanced around to try and find an exit. He couldn't do anything crazy right now, not unless he wanted to give away his secret, but some self-defense should be fine.

Nancy suddenly let go of his arm and smacked one of the cloaked people in the face, "Don't you fucking dare touch me! Wyatt! Kid, get out of here!"

Danny turned to her in alarm, eyes wide in horror as she quickly disappeared into the cloaked crowd. Another cloaked person managed to latch onto Danny's shoulder, reminding him to focus on his situation. Quickly stepping back, he slammed into the man grabbing him, knocking his grip loose. Ducking under another attempt, Danny swung out his leg and tripped the dude into two others.

Twisting to try and make his way over to where he figured Nancy was, Danny dropped his textbooks and punched someone in the face. Damian's jacket was yanked off his shoulders, making him turn with a growl. Punching another person in the face, Danny lunged at the group.

"Hurry! before the bats find us!" the supposed leader cried, making even more cloaked people surround Danny. There was no way a normal civilian would be able to fight their way out of this, so Danny would have to allow himself to be caught soon. Only after biting and scratching the fuck out of them though. Just because he had to let them catch him, doesn't mean he has to make it easy.

~30 min later

Danny stared at the leader as the man droned on and on about needing the right sacrifice for the ritual to work. Nancy and Wyatt grumbled behind him, agreements from the other kidnapped victims filling Danny's ears like bees.

"The sacrifice shall be the one who treads the veil between life and death, the one who's beloved by the spirits as their own! He shall be pale as a corpse, his body kissed by death many times throughout his life. His hair as black as the sky on a moonless night, cradled by the moon since birth." Mr. totally-read-one-fake-ritual-book-when-he-was-a-teen-and-now-has-to-make-it-everyone's-problem droned on dramatically, reverently dragging his finger down the old dusty tome's page,

"so Mr. Wayne?" Nancy huffed, pressing her back into Danny's side. Wyatt chuckled, shoving his foot into Danny's knee, "No, it's totally Mr. Drake he's talking about. Have you seen that dude's eyebags? they make him look like a ghost."

One of the strangers leaned over, rolling their eyes, "No, it's got to be Mr. Dent. The dude's literally half living half not."

"No, Two-Face is half insane, half burnt chicken. Ain't nothing about him going to please ghosts. He was a fucking lawyer, for Christ shake." another guy added.

"the dude said 'he' which crossed out half of y'all," Danny added, glancing at the group around him. The women blinked and then rolled their eyes; only in Gotham would they get kidnapped and not actually be needed.

"Assholes," Nancy huffed, she glanced over her shoulder and down at him, her face set into a frown, "You good, kid? you're like freezing cold."

"I'm fine," Danny huffed, focusing back on the leader. He could just feel the old magic rolling off the book; this was something dangerous, especially in this dipshit's hands. Ancients, he was going to have to do everything he could to keep the man from actually doing the ritual or mess it up if the bats didn't get here in time.

One of the cloaked people suddenly dragged a camera out from a side room, grumbling about networks and livestreams being shit. Huh, well that would definitely help provide their location to the bats. They must be really inexperienced cultists then...

"The sacrifice shall fall into our hands by fate's design. The sacrifice is here and waiting for what his whole life was meant for. Now-"

"Elder!" one of the other cloaked figures cried, waving their phone in the air in excitement. Dread quickly filled Danny's stomach.

"All the bats and birds are busy dealing with those scoundrels they call rouges! If we hurry, we can complete the ritual before they can interfere!"

"Perfect!" Mr. 'Elder', cheered, slamming the tome closed and handing it off to one of the others. "So?" Mr. Elder started, turning to face them with a sharp grin, "Who's it going to be?"

Danny glanced at the group behind him, all of them having gone silent as the cloaked group started pulling out their ritual things, one of which was a very blood-stained knife.

Mr. Elder started circling them, humming and hawing as he studied each one of them. He stopped next to Wyatt, studying him intently.

Quickly weighing his options, Danny straightened up and glared at the man, "I'll be your sacrifice."

Immediately Nancy leaned away from him with a gasp, Wyatt's foot dropping to the floor with a thud. "Danny, no!" Nancy hissed, turning her body so she could face him. Danny didn't glance at her, just continued glaring at the cultist. The cult leader laughed, "Well then. So it shall be! You heard the sacrifice, tie him to the chair!"

With everyone watching, all Danny could do was tense as four of the followers walked over and pulled him up. "No!" Nancy shouted, leaning over and grabbing onto him. Wyatt reached out to Nancy, wanting to pull her back. The men tensed up, ready to interfere. Quickly pulling back, Danny frowned at Nancy and Wyatt, "I'll be ok, just don't do anything stupid!"

They harshly pulled him up and away again, before Nancy could reply. And because he was already pissed off, he made it as difficult for them as possible as they dragged him to the wooden chair. The camera person focused the lens on them, recording it as they shoved him down to sit and wrapped a bloody rope around his limbs.

So much for thinking they were inexperienced... They've done this before, he knows now. How many times? He wasn't sure, but if he had any say in it after tonight, they'd never do it again.

Once he was securely tied to the chair and gagged, because Danny couldn't help himself but insult them, the cultist started preparing the ritual. Why they hadn't done so beforehand, Danny wasn't sure; that is until one of them sliced a deep gash into his right arm and collected his blood into a bowl.

With a grimace, Danny watched as they mixed his blood with black paint and started drawing a circle around him. The camera dude stepped closer and practically shoved the camera into his face. leaning back, Danny glanced between the camera and the people drawing with his blood.

Suddenly, his arm tingled with ectoplasm, making him panic for a second. he can't heal the wound! not with all the people around him and being recorded! Shit, what had Vlad done last time?? Uh, right! core smothering. He could just smother his core to stop his body from healing. Man, acting like a civilian was a pain in the ass.

Glaring up at the camera now that he wasn't as panicked, Danny watched as the dude stepped back, pulled out a paper, and started reading out loud. "GOTHAM! tonight you shall join us as we summon the most powerful being in the world!"

Did he seriously need the paper just to remember that?

The leader stepped forward when the circle was complete, "Now!" His voice echoed around the silent warehouse, startling the other kidnapped victims. The cameraman turned and focused on him, stepping out of the circle altogether. Danny watched the kidnapped people out of the corner of his eye, wanting to make sure they weren't hurt during this whole fiasco.

"Let us begin!" the leader cheered, suddenly gripping Danny's shoulders tightly. "Join me as we summon our lord and savior! The great tyrant of the dead! The embodiment of war and bloodshed! The one named PARIAH DARK! THE HORRIFIC GHOST KING!!!!"

Immediately, Danny was both completely terrified and amused. He had been worried that they were going to try and summon some great evil demon, not the fucking old tyrant. He could fight Pariah any day of the week.

No, what terrified him was the fact that because Danny won the right to the crown by defeating Pariah the first time, he had no idea what this summoning was going to do. Was it going to work like they wanted and summon Pariah? cool, great even. He can deal with that, might have to reveal his ghost powers if the fight got dirty, but nothing too bad.

or was it going to summon him because he was the king, and if so? how? Would that even work considering he's the sacrifice? would he just disappear and reappear? This could lead to a lot of questions Danny was NOT ready to answer. Gaslighting everyone here into believing he could fight Pariah as a 'meta' human would be easy, convincing everyone that he's not the ghost king or a ghost AFTER getting summoned; not so easy.

The leader released Danny from his grip as he walked over and snatched the tome from one of his followers. Snapping the book open, the man started chanting without warning, pointing at random people to notify them when it was their turn to start.

It was like watching a school play; all the student's doing as they were taught as their teacher directed from the side. Cultist A slammed the bowl of leftover blood on the ground, splattering the black remnants all over Danny and the circle. Which was gross, Danny was going to have to burn this shirt, because there was no way he was going to get this stain out. Cultist B tossed salt at Danny a few minutes later, smacking him in the face with the small white crystals. Shaking his head, Danny glared at him. Cultist B threw the salt again.

The leader's smile grew as he continued chanting.

Seven other cultists joined in the chanting, waving their hands up and down as their voices echoed around them. Danny glanced nervously around the warehouse, hoping he'd spot one of the bats. This was being broadcast, they should be on their way at the very least.

After another minute of looking, Danny glanced back at the other kidnapped victims. Nancy was balling her eyes out, burying herself into her boyfriend's chest. Wyatt was staring at him with wide eyes, clearly unsure about what to do. Probably feeling guilty because they both knew the leader was going to choose him. A few others were looking away, clearly fearing for his life. The rest watched on, trying to show him through their actions that they were there with him till the end. (whether he 'died' or not)

It was weird, but Danny had to give it to them; Gothmites were badass. He doubted anyone in Amity besides his friends would have been brave enough to watch what was happening. Even if they didn't know if he would live or not.

His core crackled, making him choke a little as he finally felt the pull of the summoning. Well, that's just great. Shaking his head, Danny tried to clear his throat. The summoning was making him feel weird and he did not appreciate it.

The chanting got louder as one of the people walked up to him, holding the knife in a white-knuckled grasp. Danny eyed it wearily, glancing between it and the rafters above. Where the hell were the bats when he needed them???

The cultist kneeled before him and raised the blade, slamming it down into his chest right as the leader stopped chanting; Danny gasped, more out of surprise than pain as he stared at the knife. The dude gave him no warning that he was going to stab him. Usually, cultists slit people's throats, right? What the fuck was up with stabbing him???

His blood slowly bubbled up and around the knife, slowly staining his shirt red. Yeah, there was no way in the realms he was going to be able to save this shirt now. Man, he had liked this one too.

He could hear Nancy's sobs turn to wails as the cultist yanked out the knife and handed it to the leader, who Danny just now noticed had joined them in the circle. His blood started gushing down his chest with every beat of his heart, again he held back his core. (what does he do now??? faint? scream? how do normal people react to getting stabbed?????)

"Take this lowly sacrifice as a sign of our eternal loyalty, and grace us with your presence! Your humble servants plead that your godly ears hear our prayers! Join us in this mortal realm and bequeath us your power and name to rectify the sins of our brethren!"

Ok, first of all Danny was no where near lowly you piece of fuck-

Danny's core pulsed, sending out nauseating pain up and down his spine. Gasping, Danny leaned as far forward as he could, trying in vain to grasp at his chest without using his powers. His core crackled, striking a blinding flash through his brain. The echoes of his death crawled up his left arm, waking the old dead nerves into firing signals at his brain.

Danny couldn't help himself, he screamed as the pain grew worse and worse. His thoughts turned hazy, his body cold as his core pulsed again. His heart stuttered and then froze, his core flooding his body with freezing ecto not a moment later. Absently, he could feel the wash of ectoplasm crawl over his body, changing his body minutely. He didn't transform, but he definitely looked more ghostly than human.

All the pain disappeared a moment later, allowing Danny to slump forward, his head hanging low and blocking his face from view. His chest did not rise in ragged breaths, nor did his fingers twitch with life. His mind was still sluggish and clouded with something, making it nearly impossible to think. Squeezing his eyes shut, Danny tried to focus.

"Your Highness?" someone asked, their voice too loud as it rang in Danny's ears. His core pulsed, another flood of ectoplasm flooding his body. His eyes slid open again, allowing him to see the green glow lighting up his chest and lap as he stared down at them.

Slowly, Danny lifted his head, his bright green gaze locking with the man in front of him.

Next

[starglitterz]

♡ YOU KNOW YOU LOVE ME!

what was meant to be a simple heist goes awry when you're interrupted by a shockingly cute security guard & a couple of rival art thieves. did you mention that one of them is kind of your ex?

✧ feat ; ayato, childe, diluc, scaramouche x gn!reader (3.6k words)

✧ warnings ; highly suggestive, thief + cop au, robbery, weapons, reader is a tease, one (1) ginger insult, reader loves bullying men (as they should)

✧ a/n ; be gay do crime that's all i have to say! jk HJSDSJD this has been rotting in my drafts for almost THREE years. i reread it and the writing style was so unserious that i suddenly got motivated to continue it and then i finished it in a night. Yeah. anyways this is my #grandcomeback and also first post of 2025! i really hope you all enjoy this :> if it flops i will cry myself to sleep /j btw this was proofread by the loml @musings-of-miss-j who has a SUPERB harbingers series that u should totally check out 🙂‍↕️😋

please reblog with comments ! it helps a lot :)

"hey! you there!" a baritone voice behind you yells, shattering the midnight peace of the museum and jolting you out of your reverie. tightening your grip around the gleaming purple gnosis you came here for, you slip it into your pocket quickly before turning around with a smile that would assure anybody of your innocence. "who? little old me?" you bat your eyes, blinking slowly at the man. your eyes have long adjusted to the darkness, so even with his similarly coloured outfit you're able to pick out the faded gold badge at his chest reading 'diluc'. "what are you doing back here?" his tone doesn't change in the slightest as he flicks his flashlight over to you, the beam practically blinding against the dark surroundings. 

"it appears that i've gotten lost," you laugh awkwardly, doing your best to feign being a naive tourist, "i was told that there were late tours offered at the teyvat museum." diluc still looks exceedingly suspicious, and as his gaze travels behind you your mind snaps into overdrive so he doesn't notice the missing artifact. suddenly bursting into tears, you run forward and bury your face in his shirt, "i! was! so! scared!" you punctuate each word with an even louder wail and he freezes beneath you, the close contact entirely unexpected. "there, there…" he pats your back with the enthusiasm and warmth of a polar ice cap, and with your face hidden in the fabric you permit yourself a triumphant smile - you've managed to divert his attention for now, at least.

"i am so terribly sorry about this," you begin to apologise profusely before looking up at him with teary eyes, "but would you mind walking me to the exit? i'm afraid i'll get lost again." at his hesitant expression you sniffle loudly, exaggerating it as much as possible until he caves, "fine. but stay close, there's been rumours floating around about artifact thieves lately." when he starts marching away, you hurry to catch up and ask curiously as if you aren't one of them, "artifact thieves?!" "yes. the type to steal priceless elements of history and sell them on the black market," he spits with disgust in his eyes. "oh, how terrible! i can't understand why anyone would do that instead of leaving them here for the public to enjoy," you gush, "surely there are other ways to make money." 

yeah, you could become an art thief instead. not that you haven't tried that; you just found it too tedious to craft a believable enough fake and ensure the painting wasn't damaged while sneaking it out. diluc doesn't deign to reply besides a single nod of his head, and you try to start up another conversation, "i suppose you're not the type to befriend random visitors, huh?" the corner of his lips tug up into a barely perceptible smile, "only the ones who appear after closing hours." "can't you make an exception for me?" you wink, though you doubt he can even see it through the darkness blanketing the museum. "hmph," is the only answer you receive, and your chit-chat ends with a dramatic sigh from your end.

to be frank, you couldn't care less whether this ‘diluc’ likes you or not. it's just in your best interests for him to remember you as some flirty ditz who'd leave their head at home if it wasn't screwed on and not a calculating, manipulative burglar. this heist is one to remember for sure though, you don't think you've ever escaped with the goods in your pocket while talking to the security guard on duty. you've knocked them out beforehand and slept with them after, but never during the job, so tonight marks a first for you. 

through your eyelashes, you glance at diluc, absorbing every detail about him in a split second; it's a trick you've learned from years of living on the street where figuring out who's going to hurt you and who won't is crucial for survival. he's pretty enough that you wouldn't mind spending the night with him, with fiery red locks tied neatly into a high ponytail and crimson eyes which sparkle like rubies. perhaps you could make this a double heist and steal his heart too!

your train of thought is interrupted as diluc comes to a halt without warning and you bump into his back (which you note is surprisingly toned). "what-" you start to complain, but he holds a hand up which silences you immediately. "i heard something," he whispers, practically inaudible, and you instantly start to babble, "what?! are they artifact thieves?! are we going to die?!" diluc groans before grabbing you and hiding behind a wall, pulling you flush against his torso as one of his gloved hands covers your mouth, "shut up." 

now this is close contact; you can feel the quick rise and fall of his chest, his racing heartbeat, and his every muscle tensing in preparation for a fight. if you weren't so preoccupied with the fact that this is delaying your getaway, you'd probably make a stupid quip. actually scratch that, you're going to do it anyway, "at least take me on a date first," you mumble as you shrug away his hand, and he looks at you with the most disbelieving expression, "you can still make idiotic comments in a situation like this? you've either got nerves of steel or you're a total dumbass." "depends on your type," you smile, and he drags a palm down his face exasperatedly, "i- you know what, never mind."

"ow!" "shut the fuck up, idiot. it's bad enough that i had to get paired with you, but if you get us caught i'm going to kill you." "rude. you could just ask nicely." "i have no interest in talking to you." "yet here we are." "can you seriously keep quiet? i'm telling the tsaritsa never to put me in a team with you again." "aw, stop, you'll hurt my feelings." "do you even have any of those left?" "hey! i'll have you know i am a very emotional person." "that's like me saying i'm an upstanding member of society."

you freeze in diluc's arms, running through every curse word in every language you know in your mind. you'd recognise those two voices anywhere. out of all the nights the fatui could have been planning a robbery, it had to be tonight?! archons, your luck is awful. "okay, this has been fun and all, but i've got to go," you start wriggling out of his embrace, planning to smash a window and escape because you'd honestly risk getting caught by the cops instead of the fatui. "what?! are you insane?! there are obviously two robbers there," diluc whisper-shouts, brows furrowing in a peculiar mix of confusion and worry. "and i'd prefer not to die, so i'm going to leave before they come here!" you retort, continuing to slide out of his arms. however, he doesn't relax his grip and you roll your eyes before elbowing him in the stomach. the sudden attack surprises him and he lets go with a groan, which is more than enough time for you to make a break for it.

unfortunately, diluc delayed you long enough that you end up running right into the two fatui members' line of vision. "wait, who are you?!" one of them asks, and the other one continues, "turn around, or i'll shoot you right now." fuck, is all you can think as you slowly rotate to face them with a sheepish smile, perhaps they wouldn't recognise you. "hey, aren't you y/n?!" well, there goes that plan. "no…? who's that?" "nah, you definitely are," the ginger walks towards you slowly before tilting your chin up to face him with his index finger. the game's up, so you sigh, "hey, childe... it's been a while." 

"i knew it was you! i'd know that pretty face of yours anywhere," he beams gleefully, and you smirk, "you still find me pretty? never knew you had a thing for criminals." "i do, it's my fatal flaw," he frowns before continuing, "except when they steal my money, in which case they become my enemies instead." double fuck. he still remembers that. "it wasn't that much! just about ten million mora or so, i know you've got tons left where that came from," you hurry to defend yourself. "that's not the point! the point is that you stole my money after i oh-so-kindly let you stay in my house!" childe says, and you're not taking this one lying down, "liar! you invited me over after you saw me at the bar!"

"can you both shut up? i'm losing braincells just listening to this shit," scaramouche cuts in, rolling his eyes so far back you swear they're going to get stuck that way. "really? because when you opened your mouth i think my iq just dropped by 10 points," you retort. scaramouche gapes at you for a second, clearly not used to someone talking back to him. "take a picture, it'll last longer," you wink, feeling the situation slide itself back into your grasp once more; you aren't planning on going down without a fight. "i don't have a kamera, and anyway who wants photos of dead people?" he fumbles for a reply and childe snickers, "cat got your tongue, scara?" "more like y/n's got your wallet," the balladeer jabs back, a smug grin curving his lips at the witty reply. childe's eyes widen at the insult, "hey! i'll have you know that i gave it to them willingly-"

taking advantage of the argument between the two of them, you unhook a rope from your waist and toss it up to the skylight. you're in the common center area of the museum, which has a square gap up to the roof and offers you a perfect shot for your hook to sail upwards and catch at the ledge. the instant you press a button the cord retracts, pulling you up with it. "and now y/n's getting away! so long, suckers!" you cheer as you zip upwards. "isn't that my line?!" you hear scaramouche yell as they scramble to find a way after you. seconds before you slam into the window like an unfortunate bug, you pull out a gun and shoot the glass, watching with glee as a spiderweb of cracks forms across it. thanks to the momentum of you gliding through the air, your boots easily smash through it when you kick harshly as you reach it, and you land with a loud thud on the roof. "ouch," you groan, "that's going to leave a bruise tomorrow." glancing at your surroundings, you inhale the fresh night air stained with the smog from all the polluting factories and listen to the buzz of the highways, busy even past midnight, "nothing like the city."

just then, you hear a thump behind you, and then a deep voice that sounds strangely familiar, "you'll be admiring it from a prison window after this." you spin around sharply, and the sight nearly makes you fall off the edge of the building with surprise, "diluc?!" at this, he freezes, and it's evident that he thought his disguise would be more than enough to conceal his identity. with a cough, he says, "no, i'm the darknight hero." "no, you're clearly diluc. i just met you like fifteen minutes ago and even i can recognise your hair in that stupid suit, it practically glows," you fold your arms over your chest, making idle conversation while your mind races to come up with an idea to save yourself. "my suit isn't stupid," diluc can't stop himself from defending his outfit, just because he had barely any sewing skills did not give you the right to insult the piece of clothing. "it's literally a mask and a black coat." 

"back to the matter at hand," diluc- sorry, the darknight hero, clears his throat loudly, clearly eager to change the topic, "you're under arrest." "oh yeah? since when are you a cop?" "i'm not." "then you obviously don't have the power to arrest me, idiot." smarting from yet another insult, diluc tries his best to maintain his composure, "i meant that i'm going to take you in to the police station and then you'll be under arrest." "should have just said that," you shrug, and you can almost see diluc fighting to rein his temper in - this is too easy.

"okay, well, this actually hasn't been fun at all, so i'm leaving," you turn around again and stroll away, hoping that there'll be a ladder on the edge of the roof. you don't really see a diluc as a threat, because to be honest he seems more like a kid playing dress-up. what kind of self-respecting adult who cared as much for the law as he did would choose to be a vigilante? maybe if he got a better costume you could take him seriously. and that turned out to be a huge mistake on your part, because the next moment, a lasso whizzes through the air and loops around your ankles, quickly pulling into a deadknot that would take you ages to untie. 

you want to throw a tantrum, crying and stomping your feet at diluc, but what good would that do when this issue sprung from your own cockiness? "listen, how much do you want? i'll give it to you, any amount. i know how much security guards make, and trust me, it'll be nothing compared to what i could give you," the words spill out of your mouth in a jumble, and you seem to take on the role of a confident salesman selling a product you know is worthless. it's embarrassing how much this sounds like a plea. "i don't want money. i want the streets and artifacts of teyvat to be safe from people like you," diluc ignores your further attempts at bribing him, although he does give you a strange look when you offer up a kiss, as if he's genuinely considering it. does this man actually get no bitches?

“ah, a kiss, hm? is that what you want?” you lean forward almost desperately, grinning at him like a maniac, “c’mon, mr darknight hero! i promise i’m a really good kisser~” you lick your lips as if to prove your point, and your smirk deepens when his ruby gaze follows the motion. “just give me a second to touch up my lipstick, ‘kay?” while he’s still stunned from your offer, you fumble in your pocket and pull out a taser. diluc only snaps back into action when he sees the weapon clutched in your hands, and though he dodges, you manage to stumble forward without your bound ankles and ram the buzzing probes into his chest. 

a strange noise, a mixture of a whimper and a groan escapes his throat as he falls to his knees in front of you, body twitching like a dying bug. rummaging in his pockets, you find a knife and giggle as you slice through the ties on your legs, “see? this is why it’s always great to have men on their knees for you. i forgot my knife today, so i hope you’ll be okay with me borrowing this.” as he glares at you through blurry vision, a mockingly pitiful smile curves your lips and you pat his head like you’re petting an overzealous guard dog, “now be a good boy and stay here, okay, diluc? ah, sorry, i mean mr darknight hero!” dipping your head, you press a fleeting kiss to his cheek, relishing in his flustered gasp, “i’ll give you a proper kiss next time~” you burst into laughter and skip off, leaving him tied up and blushing with the same restraints he had used on you. 

“why is this stupid place so big?!” you mutter to yourself as you whiz across the rooftop. the museum is under renovation, so a lot of the walls of the rear wing are covered in scaffolding and tarp that only serve to slow you down as you try to escape. you’re seriously regretting being a cheapskate earlier and not parking at the official parking lot, instead you had hid your getaway car almost a kilometre away from the location just to avoid a parking fee. don’t judge! things like this are how rich people stay rich. but just as you’re skidding across the glass-roofed observatory, you hear a familiar voice behind you. 

“not so fast, thief.”

you groan as exaggeratedly as you can, making a big show of how troublesome it is for you to turn around, “hello again, childe. hat guy.” “my name is scaramouche!” he seethes, scowling at you with a glare furious enough to thaw antarctica. “listen, y/n,” childe steps forward, raising both hands in magnanimous surrender, “let’s make a deal.” “not interested.” you stick your tongue out, slowly backing away. childe continues as if he didn’t hear you, but the twitch in his brow is enough to give away his act, “you give us the gnosis, and i’ll forget all about the money you owe me.” “i don’t owe you, genius,” you scoff, “i stole it. i’m obviously not going to repay it.” “you really are an idiot,” scaramouche massages his temples, looking for all the world like he’d rather be anywhere else on earth than here at this moment.

“well!” childe puffs himself up, pretending that his ego isn’t hurt, “i thought you and i had chemistry, y’know? we could hang out again if you just give me the gnosis.” his voice drops an octave lower to emphasise his last few words, and you feel a familiar shiver up your spine. “childe, we slept together once, and sleeping with a ginger was not one of my proudest moments,” you retort, though you feel a twinge of guilt as childe fusses with his hair, “hey! uncalled for!” to be honest, he’s not wrong. the two of you did have chemistry, and the night you spent together was… well, let’s just say you could barely walk the next day. but dating isn’t your style, especially not when it’s someone who belongs to a rival group in the world of art theft. you  prefer one night stands – it’s easier to keep things simple with no strings attached. 

“just give us the gnosis, and we won’t kill you. is that a better deal?” scaramouche interrupts, evidently tired of childe beating around the bush. “scara! i was this close to getting them to crack!” childe pouts, and scaramouche rolls his eyes heavenward – if there was ever a time for him to believe in the gods, it would be now as he prays for mercy from his partner’s stupidity. “you’re cracked in the head if you think so,” scaramouche drags a palm down his face and sighs, “you only think with your dick.” “what?!” childe’s aghast at this accusation, “that’s not true!” “i think it is.” you helpfully supply, and that draws both men’s attention back to you.

“whatever! just hand us the gnosis, and things won’t get messy.” childe withdraws his blades, and you realise he’s finally getting serious. scaramouche steps closer as well, and you can’t move backwards anymore, you’re already teetering on the ledge. a fall from this height definitely wouldn’t leave you in the best condition. it’s too early for you to die, you haven’t even seen your favourite artist live yet! “fine. you want it?” you pull the gnosis out from your pocket and a wicked smirk graces your features, “then come and get it~!” you toss the item up in the air, letting the way it sparkles in the moonlight speak for itself as you lean backwards and salute, “see you on the other side, losers!” 

with that, you fall off the roof while scaramouche and childe fumble to catch the gnosis.

“hey! that dumbass!” childe rushes to the edge to check on you, only to realise that… you aren’t there?! contrary to what he expected, your bloody corpse isn’t lying there. you’re climbing down the scaffolding like a monkey, weaving in and out of the metal bars until you reach the ground. looking back up at him, childe thinks he can make out a final playful wink before you hop into a black car that’s just pulled up at the back. behind him, scaramouche yells, “childe!” “what is it now, balladeer- what?!” the gnosis is shattered on the stone roof, shards of purple and silver gleaming in a manner that almost seems taunting. “it was a fucking fake!” scaramouche yells, kicking the broken pieces furiously, and childe can’t stop the lovestruck expression that plays across his face, “y/n really is a master thief…” “snap out of it, idiot! what are we going to tell the boss?!”

meanwhile, you’re in the passenger seat of an inconspicuous black car, chuckling to yourself as you toy with the real gnosis. “you’re lucky i told you to bring more than one imitation,” a suave voice sounds from the driver’s seat, “and that i was there to save you.” “thank you, oh great master ayato,” you giggle, pretending to bow, “you’re a lifesaver. literally.” he smirks, gloved fingers tapping idly against the steering wheel, “you could have been in and out. you just like playing too much.” “hey!” you whine dramatically, “it’s not my fault the security guard was so cute!” “hmm…” he reaches out and tilts your chin to face his piercing blue eyes, “don’t say stuff like that or i’ll get jealous, you know?” “s-shut up.” you pout, folding your arms across your chest and turning away to look out the window, “just drive, you blue-haired weirdo.” “that’s no way to talk to your boss now, is it?” he laughs goodnaturedly as the two of you speed away, “i just wish i could be there to see the look on captain wriothesley’s face when he realises it was us again.” 

© starglitterz 2025. do not repost or modify in any way – reblog / follow if you enjoyed !

[yoitsjay]

A Family

Summary: after reading some old letters, Jason feels it's time to make things really official.

Warnings: soft smut, protected sex, p in v, use of condoms, mentions of birth control and periods, mentions of babies, talk and agreeing on marriage.

Word count: 5543

A/n: this was a work in progress for a while, I'm glad I finished it tho-

He had been sitting, reading his father's letters for quite a while now. He was only a young kid, a teenager, at the time he didn't really understand what his father's letters meant, or what his dad was saying, but reading them now, again as an adult, it finally clicked... and he cried.

Jason, deep down, did miss his father. He loved Willis Todd, yeah his father was a goon for several villains in the city, but at the time that's what it took to survive. Jason's childhood might not have been grand, or rich or amazingly awesome but, he remembered the small things, the valley fair with his father...

He reads over his father's last letter. "*one day when you have a son, or daughter... you'll understand*" the letter read... Jason glanced up, and his gaze wandered over to the kitchen, where you, his girlfriend of 3 or so years, was cooking dinner and baking cookies, without a ring on your finger. You and Jason agreed that marriage was kind of far-fetched and expensive, and that just being there for each other, loving each other was good enough..

Now he was wondering if he shouldn't get down on one knee... and start a family... for Willis Todd.

You looked over at Jason when you had felt him staring for long enough. You slipped the cookies into the oven then shut the door before dusting your hands off on your pants, looking over at your boyfriend with a light smile, before making your way over, placing your hand on his shoulder, rubbing it gently. "Hey handsome, you alright? You look like you're thinking." You stated softly, moving your knee up on the couch beside his leg, lifting yourself up on top of his lap, arms loosely wrapped around his shoulders, fingers playing with the wisps if hair at the back of his neck

Jason looks up at you, his gaze a combination of both sadness and contemplation as he feels you move onto his lap. His hands moved to your hips to keep you steady there as he wrapped his arms around your waist and pulled you close so you couldn't squirm away.

"I'm... alright." He mumbled as you started to gently play with his hair, your touch eliciting a small rumble of contentment from his throat. "Just thinking... you ever considered marriage?" He inquired.

You looked down at him, raising an eyebrow at his question. "I thought we agreed marriage was for noobs." You replied playfully, continuing to play with the ends of his hair.

"Why?" You then asked softly, pulling one hand away as you tucked some of your hair behind your ear, staring into his eyes. "Changing your mind?" You asked, voice softer now as you glanced back to the letters Jason was reading.

Jason rolled his eyes at your playful reply, his hands giving your hips a gentle squeeze, his fingers tracing small circles against the hips that were now against his lap. "Yeah so? I'm allowed to change my mind..." He mumbled, his gaze watching you as your attention shifted back to the letters he held.

"I just..." He trailed off before groaning and giving his head a shake. "I was rereading these letters my father left for me after he died... I'm just... thinking about him a lot lately…”

You frowned slightly, though nodded in understanding, leaning forward as you gently pressed your lips to his forehead, before hugging him gently. "Your father might have been a criminal, but despite that he was an amazing man." You whispered, pulling back as you cupped his face in your hands. "Which letter got you thinking about marriage? Can I read it?" You asked softly.

A small hum escaped his throat as your lips gently pressed against his forehead, a warm and small gesture that gave him comfort. His hands continued to gently rub and grip your hips and held onto you , needing to feel you against him as he spoke up again.

"One that he wrote the night before his death..."

Jason reached out, grabbing the letter he was reading and slowly handed it over to you, his eyes watching you intensely, curious about your reaction.

You gently took the letter, leaning back but staying seated on his lap as you started reading it over. You frowned at certain points, the words clearly having an emotional effect on you.

You then smiled lightly, reading the last words. "His dying wish was for you to have a family you're proud of." You whispered, setting the letter down gently, looking back at your lover. "I'll marry you, put it on paper, if that makes you happy." You said softly, brushing some hair from his face. "It can be small, just us, our families.”

Jason's hands remained on your hips, though his fingers gently stroked your fabric covered skin in comforting and soothing motions. He couldn't help but watch you as you read over the letter, saw the expressions you made and the emotions and thoughts that went through your head as you did so.

You could clearly read between the lines, see what he wanted, what he needed. And hearing you agree made his heart jump. "Are you sure?" He asked, his hand moving up to gently cup your cheek.

"You know... this means forever…” you simply nodded your head.

"We agreed a year ago that you and I were forever Jason, at the time we just didn't care about it on paper. But if you want this, I do too." You stated, smiling down at him. "I can call my dad, arrange something. And hey- maybe you can finally meet my estranged sisters." You snickered, staring into his eyes.

"I love you Jason, I'd be happy to take your last name, honored, even.” You confirmed.

Hearing you say that, confirming how committed and dedicated you both were to each other made his heart soar, though the last part had him raise an eyebrow. He looked up at her with a raised eyebrow, a confused look strewn across his face.

"You... have sisters?" He inquired curiously, realizing he never had asked that or discussed it before. You nodded your head. " I have four of them, I'm the second oldest." You stated.

"They all live across Europe or the Mediterranean, living rich and loving every second." You then snickered. "I'm the only one who stayed in Gotham." You added on, and continued. "So you never got to meet them.”

The revelation that you had several sisters surprised Jason, though it also intrigued him. He knew his girlfriend/fiancé/whatever you call it was quite wealthy, your father owned the Gotham General, after all, but knowing you had four siblings who had all scattered across the world living the life of luxury was still a surprise to him.

"Damn..." He mumbled, the smile on his face growing. "You come from a pretty impressive family, don't you?”

"You do too." You replied with a smile. "Bruce may not be your bio dad, not like Willis Todd was, but he's still your family, still raised you. And let me tell you, Bruce Wayne is pretty impressive. I've known him my whole life." You giggled, staring into his eyes. "But even if your father was here, and you'd been raised by him... I have a feeling we would still be here, and I'd still be madly in love with you.”

He couldn't help but huff out a small chuckle from your giggly comment, rolling his eyes but still smiling at you.

He continued gently stroke your side with one hand while the other was on your hip, tracing small circles there.

"You're too soft for your own good," he teased, though his eyes gazing into yours were loving. "And here I was thinking you'd be swooning over Dick Grayson before me.”

"Ugh- dick might be my best friend but he's too- bubbly, for me." You groaned, then snickered, grinning at Jason.

"Trust me, I thought about it... then you came around, and I, the starstruck 17 year old I was... fell in love." You mused softly. Jason chuckled faintly at your description of Dick, unable to help it. He was close with him as well, but he knew how much of a flirt his older brother was, probably the only one in the bat family who loved having a casual and short-term relationship.

"And I, the broody 15 year old I was, fell at your feet." He replied in a joking manner, reaching out one of his hands and gently caressing your cheek, his gaze never leaving hers, watching as she winced at his words.

"Oof, don't remind me I'm older than you." You pleaded playfully, leaning into his touch before you leaned in and kissed him softly. "Loved making you wait until you were 18 though to let you take me on a date." You added teasingly, pulling back from the kiss. "It was cute, seeing you grovel.”Jason rolled his eyes once again, though a smile played on his lips.

He remembered all those years ago, when the two had made it official on his eighteenth birthday. "You just found it adorable that you had such a younger man pining for you." He replied with a smirk, enjoying the tease between them.

"Well it definitely made me amused." You giggled. "I won't lie, I had plenty of guys at my age, younger, and older all begging for my hand... but I knew I always wanted you... I just wanted to see you work for it." You snickered, kissing his nose. "I loved it when you'd sneak in through my window in my dad's mansion. God's it was like three stories up and I always freaked out when you climbed up, worried you'd fall.”

A small chuckle escaped from Jason's throat at your tease, remembering all those years ago when he was much smaller and a lot more reckless than he currently was. "I was... kind of an adrenaline junkie at that age." He admitted, his smile taking on a hint of fondness, recalling all those nights he snuck into your room and spent the night.

"Not much has changed, I suppose.” he added, and she snickered again, kissing his forehead before perking up as your cookie timer went off. You gently pulled his arms away, and you slid off his lap, ruffling his hair before walking into the kitchen, pulling out the tray of cookies, then shutting off the oven.

"Well, three years ago since that happened, two years since you died and came back." You mused, looking over at him with a warm smile. "I'll marry you Jason, whenever, wherever, however you want." You stated. "I'm just glad I'm marrying you, in the end. And not some rich asshole.” She added

Jason watched as you pulled yourself off his lap and moved into the kitchen, watching as you removed the cookies from the oven. He remains in his place on the couch, listening to her words, a hint of amusement appears on his features as you say you're glad you'd be marrying him instead of some rich jerk. "Well... you're still technically marrying someone rich." He teased, referring to the Wayne money that was attached to him.

You rolled your eyes. "Not your money, doesn't count" you replied playfully, bringing over a couple fresh cookies on a plate, perching right back in his lap, breaking a cookie in half sticking part of that half between your teeth.

Jason chuckled faintly, his hands moving back to her hips, gently holding her there as she perched back onto his lap. A small smirk appeared on his face as she broke the cookie in half.

He then leaned forward, and rather than taking his own cookie, he gently took a bite of the other half of the cookie that was between your teeth - keeping his gaze locked with yours.

You grinned a little bit, and leaned further in, biting into the cookie as you pressed your lips against his, your eyes fluttering closed as you wrapped your arms around his neck.

One of his hands gently came up and rested against the back of your head, holding you against him as your lips met and he leaned into the kiss, closing his eyes and wrapping his other arm around your waist to pull you closer to him.

His tongue ran over her bottom lip as he nipped it, silently asking for entrance.

You hummed softly, swallowing the food in your mouth before you parted your lips for him, tilting your head to the slide so your lips slotted together better, your hand sliding from his cheek, up to his hair, pressing your body up against his.

Jason gently pushed his tongue into your mouth, gently exploring and tasting you, relishing the small hum of contentment that escaped you as you pressed against him.

His hand that was on the back of your head moved down and gently gripped the back of your thighs as his other hand slid up to your ass.

He broke the kiss, trailing his lips down to your jaw and neck, gently nipping at her skin.

You let out a low hum against his lips as you felt his hands slide down to her ass and thigh, and as he started trailing his lips down your neck, you let your head fall back. You hummed, and let out short, soft breaths every time he nipped at your skin.

Jason continued to gently trail kisses and nips down your neck, enjoying the taste and the feel of your soft, bare skin against his lips and tongue. His hands roamed, slowly sliding further up your thighs until his fingers were under the hem of your shirt, tracing patterns against your skin as they slowly moved up higher, almost to the edge of the lacy red underwear you were wearing.

He gently tugged on your shirt, lifting it slightly, silently asking you to take it off

A cheshire like smile made its way onto your lips upon feeling his silent request. You pulled back, staring into his eyes before grabbing the hem of your shirt and pulling it up, tossing it over your head and somewhere on the ground, revealing the lacy red bra you almost always wore around him, it was his favorite color after all.

You leaned back into him, pressing your lips against his again, before you broke the kiss and started peppering his neck with kisses too. Jason groaned lowly as you pulled your shirt over your head and revealed yourself to him, his blue eyes immediately taking in your soft curves and skin before he felt you press your lips to his neck.

With one arm remaining on your hips, he used his other hand to gently comb his fingers through your hair, enjoying the feeling as your lips and teeth left marks on his skin.

His head tilted back, giving you more of his neck to mark, his fingers gently teasing the edge of your bra, slowly slipping under the lace.

Suddenly, you pulled away, letting his hands slip away from you as you flashed him a teasing grin. "Uh uh uh." You spoke up, waving your finger side to side as you got up and took a few steps back, gesturing for him to follow as you made your way towards your shared bedroom.

Jason huffed out a small laugh, the corners of his lips curving into a sly smirk as his eyes followed you, watching the way you moved and how the loose pants hugged your figure, particularly around your hips and legs.

He watched as you headed into the bedroom, and like always, he followed you, pushing himself up from the sofa before striding into the bedroom after you. "Tease." He muttered under his breath, his gaze fixed on you.

You entered the room and quickly unbuttoned your pants and slid them off before crawling onto the bed, looking back at him with a grin as you teasingly shook your hips at him.

"Want a show?" You cooed, "Have some fun?”

Jason felt his breath catch in his throat as you stripped out of your pants, the way your hips swayed and the fact that you were now only in a set of red, lacy underwear and nothing else was enough to have his blood rushing straight to his cock.

And he felt his smirk grow more wolfish as he approached the side of the bed and gave you a firm, but playful smack on the ass.

"You know me too well, darlin.”

You let out a soft squeal as he smacked your ass, you nudged him with her foot, sitting down on the bed as she grinned. "How do you want me? Yunno-, for optimal breeding." You spoke up playfully, remembering the part of the letter about children, but also joking somewhat. "Or should we wait until after marriage.”

Jason chuckled as you asked your question, his gaze running over your form on the bed while he considered that question. On the one hand, he wanted to take you like this, now, make no mistake about that.

On the other hand, he knew you had a point. You had made that agreement earlier, after all.

"Marriage." He replied simply, his voice coming out gruff and slightly breathless as he kept his gaze on you. "We agreed that marriage comes first.”

You looked up at him, and smiled. "If that's what you want, I'm all for anything." You stated, leaning back on her elbows as you studied him. "Are we good on condoms? Or do we need to buy some." You asked, looking into his soft blue eyes.

Jason's eyes roamed your body as you leaned back on your elbows, taking in your form and the way your chest was pushed forward. His gaze lingered a little on your lips before going back up to your eyes. He nodded a little as you asked your question, trying to remember if they had any condoms left.

"Maybe I have to pick up some more." He answered simply with a small shrug. "We almost out?” he asked.

"I think so." You mused, sitting up again as you opened up the bedside table closest to you, pulling out the box of condoms before emptying it out, watching as two packets fell out.

You hummed, and tossed the box into the corner of the room before tossing your boyfriend- fiancé, a condom packet. "Two will do for now." You mused.

Jason caught the packet of condoms before looking down at the small thing in his hand and letting out a quiet huff, a hint of irritation in his voice. "Damn, we're down to two." He grumbled, gently tossing it to the side for now, and moving back over to you.

He stood there for a moment, looking down at you on the bed where you sat, his gaze studying your form while he reached up and undid the button on his jeans. "This might be a problem.” he stated.

However you snickered. "What, you don't think using two condoms is enough? How many times do you plan on cumming tonight?" You asked teasingly, looking up at him with a smile, watching as he began unbuttoning his jeans.

"Either we use the condoms, and end it after the second one, or you just be really careful and remember to pull out. I'm not on the pill right now because it fucked with my period n' shit.” you explained bluntly.

Jason chuckled as you teased him, watching as you gave him that mischievous smile. He let a soft groan escape from the back of his throat as you spoke, his hands pausing on his jeans for a moment.

"Yeah, I think I might have some issues being careful with you." He admitted with a bit of ego surfacing in his words, remembering how he tended to get a bit carried away when he got inside of you and how you felt around him... "I think I could deal with two.” He stated.

you smiled lightly, nodding your head, sitting in the middle of the bed, legs crossed as you watched him, eyeing where his hand was paused on his jeans, silently waiting for him to continue. Jason studied you for a moment, standing there with unbuttoned jeans and a growing bulge in his boxers, his eyes taking in the way you were sitting on the bed and watching him, no hint of impatience on your face.

He had to admit, he loved just how patient you were, how eager you are to just go along with things.

"You're eager today, aren't you, doll?" He mused, his smirk growing as he finished unbuttoning his jeans and began pushing them down along his thighs. You looked up to his eyes, and smiled.

"I'm happy."

You replied softly, sucking your bottom lip between your teeth as he started pushing down his pants. "Happy to spend the rest of my life with you, excited for everything that comes with it... and- i know we have sex a lot, if the empty box of 200 2xl condoms has anything to say about it." You snickered. "But this feels different... I wanna take it slow.”

Jason felt himself flush faintly when you remarked about the box of condoms, fully knowing it'd be gone within the next three months, if not sooner. He pushed his jeans down and kicked them off, standing there in his boxers for a moment while he listened to you and watched you.

A small, tender smile appeared on his face as you said you wanted to take things slow for the night, his gaze softening. "Slow, hm?" He asked, a hint of playfulness in his voice. "How slow?”

You grinned up at him. "Slow enough to savor it." You replied, checking the time on the nightstand. "We have 3 hours until you leave for patrol." You added, looking back over at him. "You always love being fashionably late too, and I'd love to send you off with some lipstick stains on your helmet”

Jason raised an eyebrow as you looked over at the clock on the nightstand, the thought of how much time they had before he had to leave for patrol popping into his mind. A small, amused huff escaped his lips as you mentioned he liked being fashionably late and how you wanted to send him off with some lipstick stains on his helmet.

"Oh, I can definitely work with that." He replied, his smirk growing as he closed the gap between you and leaned down, crawling onto the bed over you.

You giggled softly, opening up your legs so he could slot in between them. Your arms immediately went to his shirt, and as he crawled over you, you swiftly pulled off the white T, and tossed it to the floor, running your hands up his scarred chest, before moving to cup his face as you leaned in and kissed him softly, slowly, lovingly, with just a bit of tongue, like how porn stars would make out- probably.

Jason hummed into the kiss, his lips pressing against yours in return, gently kissing and nipping at your lower lip as he felt your hands glide up his chest and rest on his face. He gently pushed his tongue into your mouth, exploring and tasting, his own hands slowly moving and running up and down your sides, enjoying the feel of your soft, smooth skin.

He gently pushed you down and laid you on your back, his body fully above yours as he continued to kiss you, slow and unhurried, as if he had all the time in the world.

And you would kiss him like this for hours if you could, smiling, thinking back to the times where you would sit on the couch with Jason, and you would just kiss for hours, sometimes it wouldn't lead to anything, most of the time it did, but you loved the feeling of his lips on yours.

You sighed happily against him, sliding your fingers up into his hair, gliding your tongue across his bottom lip as you continued to kiss him, unhurried.

You tasted like fruit, probably because of what you ate for lunch, strawberry banana protein smoothie. You always did taste sweet though.

Jason hummed and groaned against your lips, enjoying the sweet taste of you, enjoying the feeling of your hands in his hair and your tongue on his lip.

He slowly broke the kiss to lean up, taking a moment to look down at you, taking you in, she whined in response, looking and admiring as he did the same.

His eyes roamed over your half naked form, your soft curves and skin and how you looked laying on the bed beneath him.

"God, you're beautiful." He muttered after a moment, his voice coming out gruff and a bit of a low rumble.

You smiled at his words, scratching your nails along his scalp as you hummed softly.

"And I'm all yours." You replied, resting your head against the pillows, your hair spread out around your head. Jason leaned back down with a low hum, taking his time as he slowly peppered kisses and nips down your neck, his lips and tongue lingering on your skin and marking it, leaving little love bites for only you and him to see.

He knew the marks would disappear within the week, but he liked to leave them all the same, as a reminder of his presence, evidence of how he loved you.

His hands roamed your sides and continued to trail over your skin as his mouth reached your collarbone, gently nipping at the sensitive skin there. You hummed and sighed as he left kisses and marks along your neck, down to your collarbone.

Your leg twitched slightly when he nipped at it, and you smiled, wrapping your legs around his torso loosely, sitting up just enough for him to reach behind you and unclasp your bra.

Jason felt her leg twitch and smiled against your skin, his hands trailing up your sides and pausing at the straps of your bra, feeling for the clasp before he found it and popped it open with a careful flick of his fingers.

He pulled up for a moment to discard the bra, throwing it somewhere behind him, before he continued his trail of kisses down your neck and collarbone, moving down to her chest. You continued to sigh happily, laying back on the bed, in his arms, relaxed, happy. You let your eyes flutter closed, sliding your hand from his hair, down to his forearm, gripping it gently as if to reassure him that this was good, everything was perfect.

Jason continued his slow, unhurried trail down your body, his lips and tongue marking the spot he left with every kiss and nip, enjoying the sounds you were making and the way you responded to his touch.

He felt your hand slide down his arm and gently grip him, a small hum escaping his lips as he continued down your chest, eventually pausing to leave a bite between your breasts.

Upon feeling the bite, you let out a soft laugh, opening your eyes and looking down at him, raising an eyebrow. "I honestly thought you'd be lining up to me right now, who knew that Jason Todd knew what slow was." She teased softly, looking down at him with a loving expression.

Jason let out a snort that quickly turned into a soft laugh as he looked up at her, a smirk present on his lips. "Oh, trust me, darlin, it ain't easy for me." He replied, looking up at you as he slowly continued his trail down your body, placing kisses on her stomach as he went. "I'm only being patient 'cause of what you said, otherwise I'd just be-"

His words were interrupted by a bite on her hip, nipping at the skin.

You let out a squealish laugh as he bit your hip, leaving a mark behind on your skin. "You'd just be what Jason? Finish your sentence." You goaded softly, pushing up to lean back on your elbows so you could watch him.

Jason continued his trail of kisses and bites down your stomach and over your hip bone, marking your skin as he went, enjoying the sounds and little laugh you made when he nipped at your skin.

His hands gently gripped your hips, and he paused for a moment, looking up at you with a smirk. "Well, I'd just skip all the-" He paused and dipped his head, leaving a soft kiss on where your thigh met her hip. "-and get right to-" he continued, nipping at the skin there. "this part.”

You hummed softly, relishing in all the soft kisses he left behind on your skin as he moved his head lower, and lower.

"Which part?" You asked breathlessly, hooking one leg up on his shoulder, the other laying to the side, your lacy red panties still covering the real treasure.

"I want you to talk me through it.”

Jason hummed as he felt you hook your leg on his shoulder, his hands moving and gently gliding up your legs, moving up your inner thigh until they gently stopped at the edge of your lacy red panties, his fingers gently gripping at the edge.

He paused as she spoke, your words making a shiver run down his spine, and he slowly looked up at you, his gaze meeting yours. "You want me to talk you through it, doll?”

You nodded your head. "Yeah." You replied softly. "Adds to the intimacy, I think." You added, watching him with a genuine smile. "You look tense Jay." You started softly, running your fingers through his hair. "Maybe talking me through it, while you do it, will relax you, hm? And after this we can have a bath.” You mused.

He chuckled to your words, face heating up slightly as he thought ahead to how you'd react under him, as he narrated the way he'd be eating you out…

“I'm gonna spread your cunt open.” He started, and you bit your lip as he started going through the motions.

“M’ gonna devour this pretty pussy.” He whispered, his hot breath fanning across your exposed, glistening folds, making you shiver.

And he did just that, his tongue sliding up your folds, teasing your entrance, flicking against your clit, the sucking, slurping noises quickly filling the room as he sucked on your downstairs lips, then payed more attention to your clit, drawing out more moans from your lips.

He would stay between your thighs for hours if he wanted too… though he had other plans..

As soon as your orgasm was on the horizon, he suddenly stopped, and pulled his head back. You let out a gasp, sitting up as you looked at Jason with a desperate look in your eyes. You were about to speak up until he moved you onto your side, and laid down behind you, one hand holding up your leg, while the other quickly grabbed a condom. “Put this on for me baby?” Jason asked softly.

You smiled, taking the condom from his hand, tearing open the package before you stretched the condom slightly, then rolled it over his cock, pumping it a few times which caused him to groan.

He then nudged his tip to your entrance, and you let out a soft whine, your eyes falling shut as that familiar stretch began to occur, as he started sliding inside of you, inch by brutal inch until he was bottomed out inside you.

He was keeping things slow, though, for your sake, as he began thrusting inside of you, his hand still gripping your thigh, while the other slid underneath you, and wrapped around your waist, holding you close as he began to kiss and suck at your neck, while rocking your hips into you, groaning against your neck.

Gradually, he started picking up the pace, not going hard, like he could, but definitely faster… with this position, he was hitting spots inside you that were bringing you to the edge quickly, having been denied once, he wasn't going to deny you again.

As you came, he quickly pressed his lips to yours, swallowing up your sweet moans as he continued to thrust into you, now chasing his own orgasm.

One… two-

Three more thrusts before he goes as deep as he can inside you, and he releases, filling up the condom.

Once it finally subsided, he slowly pulled out, and grabbed the condom, tying it off before tossing it into the nearby trash bin, nuzzling his nose into the crook of your neck.

“I love you.” He whispered, holding you tightly in his arms.

“I can't wait until you're my wife… and you have my child in your belly.” He muttered, and you smiled.

“You won't have to wait long, baby. Promise.” You whispered in response, shifting so you were facing him now, pulling him into a soft kiss.

This…

This was something you could get used to.

And this was something he craved.

A family.

Tag list:

All: @francesfarhadi @only-my-unexistent-fiances

Batfam:

Jason Todd: @ilaiise

Jason Todd Smut: @ilaiise

[dropsnectar]

Pollen and Potions: Bee-men x afab!reader

PART TWO

Some fluff and a little spice. Don't know if ill do the smut in part three or four, we will see how things develop. Either way it gets hot so! You were warned!

You woke up the next morning with a huge headache. Not a great start to a day where you were scheduled to do large batches of magic.

You swore as you got up, swore as you made your coffee, swore as you did some last minute rereading of the soil testing spell you already knew by heart.

You tried to nap, but couldn't get your sore muscles to relax, so Lyith found you in quite a disgruntled mood. He frowned.

“We can do this tomorrow if you are not feeling well. You smell like you are about to throw a fit.”

You shook your head and took a long, cleansing breath.

“I'm really fine. Im excited about meeting your friend though. Its not everyday you meet a Bee-man.” You cracked a small smile.

Lyith gave you one last appraising look before sighing and beckoning you out of the house. Once you were on the porch step he held out his arms. You stared at him, eyes raised.

“Uh, do you want another hug? For support or something?”

His nose flared and he seemed to be failing to keep a straight face.

“It'll be faster to fly you to the hive. Its a good five mile walk for you if we don't. And with so much to do, I doubt my friend is going to be patient with us.”

You blinked.

“Oh. Um. Okay.” Your heart tightened. You started to feel a little sick.

“If you are scared of heights, I will stay close to the ground. It is faster that way anyway.”

He reached forward and patted your head affectionately. “I don't have to dodge branches that way, so it is a… “win win”? That's how the saying goes, right?”

His hand stayed on your head and you had to admit it made you feel a little braver. His smile was so gentle, it sent a wave of calm through you. 

“Yeah I can do that.” You swallow and force the ends of your lips upwards. 

Lyith holds his arms out again, and you walk into them, letting him hoist you up, and take off. The sound of his wings were particularly loud now and you noticed it had a habit of spreading his lemony scent around. 

You quickly diverted your attention to the feeling of the wind stretching back your skin. Which only made you realize that Lyith had nuzzled his neck close to your own face. You had to admit that the warmth felt nice against the cold spring air. It may have been Lyiths own way of making sure you didn't freeze too much. Your mind lingered on his touch, which was acting like a scarf, in the face of rollercoaster-like winds. Your stomach turned.

It was only 6 minutes until Lyith dropped you off in a small glade. The clearings floor was covered in grasses and large orange flowers. The flowers themselves were funnel shaped with purple star like splotches in the middle. The air was fragrant. 

Lyith grabbed your arm gently. Out from the other side of the clearing came what could only be another bee-man. Lyiths face lit up and he floated upwards, making a few excitable jerking motions. The other Bee-men copied his motions and let out a lovely hum sound, which Lyith harmonized. The two both looked at you and Lyith started the introductions.

“This is the witch I was talking about. And this-” he gestured to the bee-man by giving them a clingy hug. “-is Rena. She is a scholar, and also looks after a quarter of these… gardens, is the term you use. She has given you permission to use magic in her garden.”

“Only if you show me you can help, that is. Witches are so rare these days. I have to measure your…” she seemed to be chewing the word, “Qual-it-ications?”

“Qualifications.” Corrected Lyith, adjust some Rena's long strawberry blond hair. She had the same big black eyes as Lyith, but her form was shorter. Sturdier. But just as fluffy. Unlike Lyith, she had a second pair of hands, which she had crossed over her chest. Her gaze was curious, but her nose was slightly wrinkled in concern.

“Lyith speaks human the best of us. You are lucky to have met such a good orator. Now. What is it that you exactly plan to do?” her voice was deep and textured, as she jutted out her jaw.

You paused for a moment and held up a hand. You rummaged through your bag and pulled out some twine and popsicle sticks.

Lyith bit his lip like he was trying not to smile. Rena laughed openly. “You wish to do an art project?”

“No. If we are going to do this right, we need to be careful. I want to do experiments. First, we section three groups of flowers far away from each other so as not to contaminate eachotger. We use the twine and sticks to section those area off. Then, we do one group for the quick-grow powder, one group for the fertility spell, and one group of both. We will then keep track of them, and you guys will see which one keeps the most magic. You guys can tell magic quality by taste right?”

Rena nodded back at you, her expression a bit surprised. You continue.

“Ideally, we would have four different glens of these same flowers to compare. I'm not sure if the magic will be affected by rainwater. But I feel like it's a solid idea. Whichever works better for nectar quality, is what I'll use in case of emergency. If the fertility spell works properly, I can then help you guys grow your fields. But we wanna make sure that my magic is compatible with the flowers and your guyses nectar. I don't wanna accidentally poison you guys or something.” You scratch the back of your head awkwardly.

Lyith smiled over at Rena, who was nodding as she seemed to be thinking.

“Tell you what, ill give you two glens. One for your powder, one for the fertility spell. At one end of the both the glens you can do both. Sound good?”

You smiled. “Fantastic.”

From their, the three of you got to work sectioning off the ends of the glade. Rena herself flew off and sectioned the other glade herself, while you tested the soil. After the third time of getting the same reading, you calculated your powder amount. It was very important to get the amounts right. If you got it wrong, they would get one huge flower, and a comatose witch all at once. 

You did your spell, and it seemed to work, a more potent smell sweeping through the clearing. You continued your work, taking your time to channel your power as not to stress yourself out and mess with results. You were flown to the other glen, and did your thing. 

When you were finished, one clearings wildflowers had grown their reach twice as far, and the other flowers had grown to be the size of a human head. But it was the combination spell that really seemed to excite Rena. The flower's hue had changed from mostly orange, to mostly purple, and the scent had shifted to something headier.

“These more closely resemble the flowers of old! And they smell perfectly nutritious!”

Lyith chirped in. “The real test is to see how they will age. We don't know how long the magic will last. If the soil will breed more.”

You smile. “Thats what the experiments for. We wait, and each week you tell me if the magic quality has gone down.” 

Admiring the flowers, Rena grabbed one and flew towards you. She put the flower in your hands, then motioned to you as if it was a teacup. “Drink.”

Experimentally you tipped the flower to your mouth. A hint of nectar trickled in. It was sweet, but unlike your normal honeysuckle, their seemed to be a kick to it. Your gaze went back to Rena. She gave you a knowing smile. “Thats what your magic tastes like. It will make such good honey. Thank you.”

With that she leapt forward and gave you a huge hug. She smelled citrusy too, but in a different way, almost tropical. Her hair tickled your neck and ears, as she purred in contentment. She stayed there for a minute longer, seemingly giving you a warm nuzzle before pulling away. It wasn't until she did so that you were able to register how tired and sore your body was. You were shivering. The cold was getting to you now.

Lyith noticed immediately and drew himself close to you. “Is it too cold? I knew we should have waited a day. You've overdone it.” He then threw his arms around you, and started rubbing your arms, your back. He was using the friction and closeness to bring you warmth. It was innocent, but your cheeks warmed just a little too quickly. 

Rena watched and grabbed onto your free arm. “You'll get manasick at this rate. I've got a shelter nearby. Its no hive, but the heat will do you some good.” It seemed that Rena had decided she liked you, because she kissed your cheek twice before motioning the three of you onward.

Lyiath took you up in his arms again, the pressure of his touch much more intense. 

Its just to maintain heat. You tried to convince yourself. 

You had spent a lot more time spellcasting then you thought, as you noticed the sun was starting to set behind the trees. You tried to get Lyiths attention, perhaps you should be heading home instead, but it was very hard to do as you guys were hurtling through the air at 20mph. 

You passed through a few more fields of flowers then made it to a small structure. It was an off-white, sort of oblong shed. It truly looked like some human sized animal cocoon. There was a ridge, which Rena pulled away using her glowing light magic. 

When you all went inside, you were glad to find the structure warm. Light radiated from the ceiling, as if their was a glowing cloud above. In the middle of the room was a yellow orb that radiated heat. There wasn't much else in the room except for… a beanbag chair? 

Rena saw you staring and gushed, “I saw it in a shop window on one of our grocery trips! You humans make the silliest things sometimes!! Look!!” She maneuvered you over and onto it with relative ease. The cushion was heaven to your aching limbs. That, coupled with the radiating heat from the orb, started to make you relax. Sleepy even.

Lyith and Rena took their seats on the floor next to you, seeming comfortable. The room was full of light that made their black eyes shine. Lyith, looked at you with concern, and started fussing over you, pulling your sleeves over your wrists and inching you closer to the orb. 

“You haven't eaten since lunch! Its already dusk.” he tutted, pulling your hair over onto one shoulder. He always had this habit of touching you whenever he could. It must be a Bee-man trait.

You looked over at Rena, who had decided to pass the time by examining your fingers; Then lacing them with hers. Her antennas were twitching about in an adorable way, meaning she must have been pleased. You let her touch you, happy for the companionship. If a human had touched you as much as Rena and Lyith did, you would be beyond flustered, but for some reason, the two of them made you feel safe. Comfortable. 

“I might have an old granola bar in my bag.” You volunteered groggily. Lyith took the bag from your lap and started going through it carefully. You spent that time marveling over just how cute he was. His fluff, more pronounced around the neck and chest, seemed even more fluffy after all the high speed flying. A part of you just wanted to go over and hug him like a big teddy bear. Affection filled your heart.

“No, I don't see anything.” He frowned, rearranging everything back into your bag.

Rena clasped your hand harder, you looked over and saw her smile at you.

“Oh thats fine, I still have some nectar I collected from earlier. Do you want some?” She batted her eyelashes.

Lyith quirked an eyebrow, before staring “ Rena-”

Without waiting for an answer, Rena moved forward and brought her lips to yours, locking in a tight kiss. Too shocked to move, you felt her tongue on yours, then a sudden rush of sweetness. It kept coming, filling your mouth until you were forced to swallow it down. You sputtered, whole body now hot.

“I-wah?” 

Lyith looked like he was trying to contain his laughter. “Rena doesn't spend much time with humans, please forgive her. But just know that sharing nectar this way is very normal for us.” Despite this, a glint of mischief started to twinkle in his eyes, a smirk on his lips.

“ Oooh um really?” You sputter.

He nodded. “You didn't get a lot to drink though. I took some nectar from your garden before I picked you up. Would you like to try it? The magic will refortify you.”

He bent over until he was eye level with you. His eyes went to your lips, then back up to your gaze. You swallowed quickly, opening your mouth to say… something? But Lyith took this as an invitation, pushing his lips to yours. His mouth tasted sweet even before the nectar came. And this somehow was better. Just like the nectar from the flower earlier, there was a small tartness, a bite.

Lyith held you close to himself, the pressure of his body pleasant. A warmth started to curl in your stomach as he pulled you even closer, tipping you back into Rena, who embraced you from behind as you drank. You somehow managed to swallow as he pushed your lips together even tighter, his tongue teasing yours as he fed you. 

You were not sure how long this went on. But you knew you were full, and you were dizzy when he finally pulled away, his eyes glassy. His gaze was heated as he stared you down. It was as if he might change his mind and eat you up himself. You gasped for breath, eyes fixed on him. The room was filled with purring noises from both of them. You could feel the vibrations through both of their chests. You swallowed thickly.

After what felt like an eternity, Lyith straightened himself up and his expression changed to one of laughter. He giggled then bumped his forehead against yours affectionately. Rena gave a little giggle herself then a hum behind you.

“If you're feeling better now, can we fly you home?” Lyith offered. You nodded dumbly, still shaking off the heavy atmosphere which had now turned light. You mumbled your goodbye to Rena, and explained you'd be back in a week to check on the progress of the flowers. She beamed and gave you another hug. Whatever reservations she had had about you in the beginning seemed to be gone now. You gave her one last wave before letting Lyith scoop you up again for the third time today. 

The ride home went by in a flash. The moon shone light onto your porch as he dropped you off. 

“I'll be back tomorrow for your garden.” He breathed, his face the same happy calm it usually was. His antennas twitched as you nodded at him. He leaned foreward and kissed your cheek.

“Get some rest. You did good today.” He didn't wait for an answer before he flew off into the night. 

You knew he had probably been referring to all the magic you had been working today, but a part of you hoped that maybe he had been referring to something else. You slapped your cheeks. 

“Hes a Bee-man.” You tried to remind yourself. You repeated it a few more times that night, as if it would help with your stupid warming cheeks, and pooling gut.

***

Part Three

Hi everybody! This part was a bit longer than the others but I hope you enjoy! So it turns out that bees do kiss! They share food and information this way through a process called trophallaxis. Hope that doesn't ruin the mood for you. Anywho, thanks for reading!

[thewertsearch]

@necrowyrm asked: happy new year!!! enjoy the last little bit of homestuck before act 6! Anonymous asked: You have NO IDEA how much I was looking forward to your reaction to this flash :D @teddy-bearer-of-bad-news asked: a very late congratulations from me for making it this far! i gotta say, saving CASCADE for new year's is probably the smartest thing i've heard all week. may your experience be nothing short of righteous, comrade Anonymous asked: Cascade … Even years latter knowing it almost by heart, every once in a while I will take a little quarter of an hour to rewatch it, Say what you want about Hussie but there is a good reason Homestuck became so iconic. @adeptarcanist asked: The leadup to Cascade was honestly my favorite sequence in Homestuck, and maybe one of my favorites in any media ever? The way the narrative splits apart into all of the different scenes swirling in towards the critical moment, both advancing main plots and finding time to spend a moment of melancholy with characters who’d been left behind (The Jaspers and Nepeta scene :( )… it’s such a strong narrative device, and the tone it generates is impeccable. @calamitascalliope asked: I literally watched the flash again, and it still gives me chills every single time. Welcome to your post-Cascade life. You won't be able to think about anything the same ever again @iris-in-the-dark-world asked: "she looks so cool… but she’s so tragic… but she looks so cool…" has become a brainworm for me. i too love the handmaid's design btw, cascade time has been i think the most anticipated non-personal event of the entire year for me. i'm so excited @publicuniversalworstie asked: I want you to know that I also opened Cascade and started watching with you right after I saw your "oh my god it has chapters" ask, and I finished just as you posted "I will never be the same" !! And I bet lots of other people did too <3 so it's like we all watched it together!!!! Happy New Year and thank you for liveblogging!!!! It's been a pleasure！(and will continue to be) @krixwell asked: I would like you to know that your "Right, we're good to go!" and "oh my god it has chapters" posts were posted right as I was outside watching midnight fireworks ring in 2025 for the Central European timezone. Happy new year! @captorations asked:

hey remember when rose just up and fucking said that. anyway congrats on reaching cascade! it absolutely wrecked me back in the day, i think i stared at those flaming curtains for a solid ten minutes as my brain permanently reconfigured. the first few notes of the track alone still give shivers. getting your reaction to cascade was a wonderful birthday present. (speaking of getting older: aradia 🤝 dulcinea also got that "distressingly short lifespan only to die early anyway" story thread going on. the parallels are paralleling.) anyway happy new year and congrats you are… slightly less than halfway done with homestuck. have fun!

Hey, guys. Cascade was so fucking good.

Like, there's really no competition; this is the best Flash page in the comic thus far. Peak music, peak animation, and absolutely a peak narrative. It tied up mountains of plot threads, providing complete answer to questions we're been asking for literally thousands of pages. It completed over a dozen arcs, both big and small. It made me gasp three times in fourteen minutes. It let Jade become a furry.

11/10, and I'm glad people had as much fun here as I did on New Year's Eve. Happy 2025, and happy Act 6!

@morganwick asked: Sally, predicting Cascade: "I have approximate knowledge of many things." @morganwick asked: "You literally have the whole world in the palm of your hands." -Sally to Jadesprite, December 16, 2024 (You might also want to reread post/770701212350857216 in light of recent developments.)

Hah!

I mean, based on her powerset, it made sense that Jadesprite would do something like this eventually, but it's pretty funny that she did it more or less immediately.

And in the end, CD really was a tricky little bastard. We'll definitely need to keep a closer eye on him, next time around.

Anonymous asked: Take a moment to consider that if anyone were to use the Homestuck website as it stands now instead of the Collection program, Cascade would have been presented in the YouTube player in Standard Definition, artifacted to hell, with a clear boundary showing the dimensions of the video from the very start. Preservation is so important.

Jeez, you're not kidding. The 1080p is fine, I guess, but it certainly doesn't hit like the Flash version does, especially with its lack of moving panels.

I know something had to change when Flash kicked the bucket, but surely there was a better way to preserve the video's soul.

Anonymous asked: to give you some of an idea of what homestuck fandom looked like during this time period, im cribbing from a very popular homestuck post: “first, this upd8 was something that we had been waiting for for WEEKS. A literally unprecedented wait period at the time. We were used to suckling at the teat of daily updates, a constant stream of conversation and plot twists and buildup, and as EOA5, we were finally going to figure out what all these countdowns and plot threads and disconnected elements were building up for. And when the progress bar reached 100%, and when the page FINALLY loaded on 10/25/11, it was chaos. This was 2011, a primetime peak point and growth period of Homestuck fan density.” (…) “MSPA crashed, as it had started to during the last few big [S] updates. Hussie had already bought new servers in advance, but even when allegedly thousands of dollars were spent it couldn't handle the accidental DDOS attack of Homestuck fans. People were up all night waiting for this upd8, the curiosity was killing me. I know at some point he was receiving at least 1 million unique visitors per day to his site [correction: according to Hussie’s tumblr, upwards of 2 million during this time], and even though Hussie had foreseen such traffic and thusly hosted [S] Cascade on Newgrounds, a dedicated video streaming site, Newgrounds was similarly unprepared for the sheer amount of people frantically mashing the play and refresh buttons, and also crashed. Immediately. MSPA and Newgrounds crashed definitively for at least two nights in a row” (…) “Andrew Hussie has gone on record to say this was one of the few times he thought Homestuck wasn’t worth it, because the sheer unbelievable cost (was it $10,000?) [correction: according to Hussie’s tumblr, it looked like it was going to cost $100,000 to keep [S] Cascade up for several days] of servers and the chaos of no one able to see the upd8 and crashing nearly every site after. He was tweeting during the whole debacle, stating he was reluctant to put it up on Youtube because of all the moving elements of the flash, and style, and how youtube degraded the quality of the file size, and how he tried to scratch out buffer time and pauses by putting periods of silence between each section of the 14 minute upd8, the longest upd8 yet” “So after Newgrounds patooted, he didn’t put it on youtube and instead put up the entire flash file on Megaupload, where it could be downloaded in it’s entirety to be watched. UNFORTUNATELY, Megaupload also crashed very quickly, which Hussie felt much headache over. But before that happened I managed to get the file, since I happened to be up very early that night! Next it was on dropbox, which didn’t crash but had “link unavailable” on and off. ”Spoilers were flying everywhere, people didn’t understand everything that had happened, and by the time the timeline of events in and out of [S] Cascade was all straightened out, people became even MORE hype. Like this whole thing lasted at least four days, and on top of that, the upd8 was good. Fandom exploded.” it is impossible to quantify the experience. The fact hussie was going to have to fork over A HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS to host it is crazy. I am never going to be over it.

Cascade's complete obliteration of the Flash-hosting internet says a lot about huge Homestuck truly was - but I think an even bigger indicator of the comic's success is the fact that Hussie dropped literally thousands of dollars on server upgrades to host the thing. That's not an investment you make unless you're expecting some serious returns.

[gorgeys]

enemies to lovers with santana lopez

you and santana hate each other. you know it, she knows it, everyone knows it. until the lines start to blur.

word count: 1150 warnings: kissing a/n: this idea came to mind during my 47th glee rewatch and i'm lowk a little sad this fic didn't turn out as good as i expected :(

also, if you sent me a yellowjackets ask, i'm working on it! i've been a little busy lately but i'm going to try to get them done asap!!

you pressed your hand to your forehead as you reread the same chunk of the textbook you had been stuck on for the past ten minutes.  using your free period to study for your math test had seemed like a good idea, but it really only stressed you out more.

you look up when the door to the otherwise empty classroom swings open and groan when you see who it is.

"don't think i don't know what you're doing," she says, charging toward you.  she stops on the other side of the desk you're sitting at with her arms defensively crossed over her chest.

"hello to you too," you say before reverting your gaze back to the book.  despite your attempts to ignore her, she continues.

"i see you with schue," santana says, slapping her hands onto the table top and leaning forward so she's completely towering over you. her gaze is anything but kind. 

"i don't know what you're talking about," you mindlessly mumble, head still in the book and finger re-tracing one of the lines.

she suddenly slams your textbook shut, almost catching your fingers between the pages.  you finally look up at her, and she almost smiles at your irritation.

"please, everyone sees you sucking up to him and following him around like a lost puppy.  i mean, i knew you were pathetic, but i didn't realize you'd go that low just to get the solo," she says.  you swear her tone is extra venomous when it comes to you.

you roll your eyes before leaning forward onto your elbows, pushing your face closer to hers.

"you're so full of it, you know that?  not everything's about getting the solo or being head bitch in charge.  not that you would know, since you're too busy bitching and moaning all the time."

good thing the glee club wasn't here to see this.  they were beyond tired of this daily routine between the two of you.

"oh, please, birdbrain," she says without missing a beat.  "you just sit there looking all nice and pretty until there's something you want, and then you swoop in and shit all over everyone.  you might be able to fool schuester and the rest of those glee dorks, but i know you."

"and what if i was sucking up?" you suggest, abruptly standing from your chair and meeting her face-to-face.  "what would you do then?"

she notices your clenched jaw and feels accomplished knowing she's riled you up like this.  it's her favorite hobby, after all.

"it doesn't matter to me.  i'm gonna get the solo anyway," she says with a self-satisfied smirk.

"why are you even here, then?  if you're already going to beat me at auditions so badly," you say, mocking her with the pout of your lips.

there's a hitch in your well-rehearsed routine when santana pauses.  she opens her mouth to shoot back, but she's too busy staring at those shiny lips of yours.  they're taunting her.  they make her so...angry.

you raise your eyebrows when she doesn't respond right away.

"what?  cat got your tongue?" you ask, her smile falling and finding it's way to your face.

god, she just wants to wipe it right off those pretty, puffy lips.

she catches herself and steps back, arms crossing over her chest once more.  her eyes narrow at you.

"i'm sorry, your voice was just so grating that i couldn't listen any longer.  you really give berry a run for her money, you know."

"yeah, of course," you say.  as you walk around the desk, santana carefully watches you drag a manicured finger across the tabletop.  "you sure you're not a little scared?"

"scared of what? you?" she asks, turning to face you.  she scoffs as if it's outrageous.  "i'm more scared of those creepy cabbage patch kids."

"you're scared that i'm gonna beat you, right?  that's why you're here trying to scare me."

you inch closer to her, and her chest tightens because you're just so infuriating.  you and that smug grin, always taunting her.  those captivating eyes that seem to speak louder than your words.  the luscious hair she imagines pulling on just to hear you yelp out in pain.  infuriating is definitely the word.

"you're..."

santana starts, but for the first time in her life, she can't find the words.  creative insults usually rocket out of her mouth faster than the speed of light, but when you're looking at her like that, closer to her than you've ever been, her brain can't seem to function.

all she can see and smell is you.  stupid, annoying, frustrating you.

"pathetic," she finally finishes, trying to sound as sharp as usually does though it's all smoke and mirrors.

"ouch, santana, i'm so hurt," you mock, placing a hand over your chest.  a short-lived laugh leaves your lips.  "that's really the best you've got?  you've really lost your edge."  you're so lost in your own words that you don't notice the slight furrow of santana's eyebrow as her eyes flicker up and down your face.  "god, i can't wait to kill my audition and look over and see your stupid face.  i think it's gonna be even better than-"

acting on total impulse, santana reaches forward and grabs you by the sides of your neck.  you release a surprised squeal before she pulls you into her and silences you with a hard kiss.  you nearly tumble into her, but stop yourself by gripping onto her shoulders over her cheerios jacket.  without another thought, you kiss her back with just as much fervor.

santana takes charge as if she'd been planning this all along.  she forcefully backs you up until your back hits another desk and she settles between your legs.  one hand finds the small of your back and pulls your body flush against hers.

while her teeth clash with yours and she sucks harshly on your bottom lip, you can only think of how soft her lips are.  their sloppy, desperate movements convey a sense of longing that had been disguised as hate for so long.  finally, they were free to express everything she felt for you.

you thought you could kiss her for forever, but you reluctantly let her pull away for her air.  as soon as she does, the gravity of her actions sinks in.  she blinks back at you, staring at the mixture of both your lip glosses smeared all over your parted lips and chin.  still breathless, you squeeze her shoulders and try to subtly pull her back into you, but she's already stepping back.

you see the panic written all over her face before she abruptly turns and dashes out of the classroom just as quickly as she had entered.

you can only stand there, completely shell-shocked and math test totally forgotten.

you thought you hated santana lopez, but after she had walked in, rocked your world, and walked out, you weren't so sure.

[merakiui]

I love your Octavinelle fics so much 🥹 I didn't think it was possible to love Jade and Floyd more, but the way you write them is so charming!! I really love how you take your time building up to smut, so the payoff hits much harder!! I freaking love Ebb & Flow, the brothers are so sleazy and Floyd in particular so shameless. Are you planning on more fics featuring the reader as a sibling or ones where Jade & Floyd both want the reader?

Looking forward to anything you write though honestly

( ∩´͈ ᐜ `͈∩) thank you, thank youuuu!!!! Maybe it's purely self-indulgent, but I love a story that has a build-up to smut. orz it makes the energy and the tension and every other emotion even more delicious! Of course I'm also not immune to getting into the smut right from the start. >:D loving both so that I can have the best of two worlds~

I reread Ebb & Flow because I forgot all about that story and your ask reminded me of it. ^^;;; omg I forgot how much I loved those versions of Octavinelle!!! Rebellious Jade transitioning into his punk phase, sleazy Floyd who is so in love with his stepsister, and awkward childhood friend Azul...... aaaa they are so beloved!!! I listened to a lot of bossa nova while writing that fic, so maybe it's just me but I love how smoothly it reads!!!

I definitely want to write more stepcest fics like that one! I have one planned that's more of a pseudo-incest, in which a bunny!reader adopts two orphaned puppies (Jade and Floyd) and raises them as her own. But it turns out they were wolves all along and they grow up to be much bigger and stronger than bunny mama was expecting. In short, it's a story where Jade and Floyd are hopelessly obsessed with their mama. :D just two good bois who often fight for your attention and affection... so spoiled, those two........ >_< there was also another fic where Azul is crushing on you, but your mean stepbrothers get to you before he can... ntr situation for poor tako. </3 I think that was the basic plot inspiration for Ebb & Flow.

I'm happy you're looking forward to my writings!! ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡

[evergreenlake]

And Fate was on His Side

Chapter 3

1.5k words

MDNI 18+

tw: mentions of terrorists, tiny bits of angst, and some medical inaccuracies

an: I'm so sorry this is late, winter is really kicking my butt lol. But anyway, I wanted to get this out to you as soon as I could so it may not be edited well. But I did go thru and reread it and let Grammarly have a go at it lol. But if you guys see any mistakes please let me know

series masterlist

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Sighing, he listened to Kate droning on about what had happened at the mall that night. Price watches her impatiently, he wants this over with to figure out where the woman he loves and their children are. He knows that they are at a hospital but not which one. Simon looks over at his Capitan a little worried as the tapping from his leg becomes louder. He glanced up at the woman in front of the room. She glanced between him and the man who wasn't paying attention and she nodded. Closing her laptop, the woman clears her throat. " Okay, we will finish this later. Get some rest, don't be late."

Most of the people in the meeting room leave, but the team of four stays, and Kate stays. The three men look towards their captain as Kate reopens her laptop. " I can try to find what hospital she'll be at. Then we can head that way." Price looks at her, his eyes shining a little as he nods before whispering a small thanks.

The boy's leg was bouncing just like his father's as he and his sister sat in the waiting room. Mia was holding onto his arm and sniffling a little. They were told to wait there as they took their mother back. Apparently, they had to take her back into surgery. Danny didn't know how long they would have to stay there, so he called his grandma. Now they were just waiting on her and an update on their mother.

When he heard Mia clear her throat a little, he looked down at her. She was just watching the doors as she whispered. " Did you hear what mom said to that man? She said their yours… was she talking about us?" Daniel furrows his brow a little as he sighs and looks away. " I don't know, with how close they were being probably. But, I don't want to assume. Especially if we've never seen him before. " Mia nodded a little before she was whispering again." But did you see how close they were acting tho? They know each other. You even look like him a little Danny. What if he is our dad? " Danny's jaw tenses a little. "Then I'll give him a piece of my mind. I know what Mom told us when she finally caved in. But still couldn't he have gotten her number or something. " Danny looks away as Mia smiles a little.

The teenage girl shakes her head before she lets it rest on her brother's shoulder. She had started dozing off a little but jumped some as her brother sat forward. She sits up some and looks over at him confused. He was glaring towards the door a little, she slowly turned towards the door and gasped a little. It was the group of men who saved them, and a woman she didn't recognize. The one leading the group was the one who acted very close to their mom. The twins watched him a little warily.

But their attention is taken by someone hurrying past the group. They both started to smile as they realized it was their grandma. She walks over to them and takes both of them into her arms. She didn't care if she got the blood from their hands on her.

" Oh you two I'm sorry I wasn't faster. Has there been any news on your mom?" Her voice was a little shakey as she looked over her grandchildren. She had to stay strong for them, even tho it was her daughter back in surgery. Danny quickly got up so the woman could sit between the kids.

They all just sat there quietly for a second as Mia almost immediately attached herself to her grandmother. The group who had walked in before the older woman looked at the trio. Price takes in a deep breath, looking behind him. " Go find somewhere else to sit. Don't wanna overwhelm them." The four nodded and headed to the other side of the lobby as the man slowly made his way to his children and their grandma.

Daniel watches the man a little skeptically as his sister lifts her head. Mary watched her grandchildren a little confused before she too looked over at Price. The man looked a little nervous as he hesitantly stood in front of them. He smiles at them as Mary raises her eyebrows already clocking the similarities between the man and her grandson.

Price opens his mouth to say something, but a nurse comes from behind the double doors. The twins jump to their feet looking at him. The man who worked on their mother walked over to them. " Good news, your mother is okay. We have her back in a room right now. She's still sleeping off the anesthesia though." All four of the people around the doctor let out a sigh of relief. The doctor gives them an even bigger smile.

" We successfully pulled the bullet out, tho it did hit some important parts of her shoulder. It was fractured a little from the force of the bullet. But it also hit her brachial plexus and the subclavian artery. Even though she lost a lot of blood we were able to repair them both before anything worse could happen." The twins looked at each other and Mia was tearing up some as Mary stood up. " So what does this mean?" The doctor nodded as he looked at each person. " She'll have some recovery time, and she will be using a sling. Thought her brachial plexus may recover faster than the fracture. She'll have to put off physical therapy until she's cleared to use her shoulder."

They all nodded a little as Price cleared his throat. " Are her kids allowed to go back and see her?" The doctor nods a little eagerly as he glances down at the teenagers. " yeah they can go ahead and come on back. There's a limit of 3 visitors for now until she wakes up." The twins immediately looked towards their grandmother before she nodded at them. " Go ahead and go on back. I'll meet you two back there." The twins nodded and before the doctor left he had let the woman know that her daughter was in room 210.

Once the twins are out of sight the older woman turns towards Price and points her finger against his chest. " What are you doing here? Does my daughter know you here?" The woman started glaring at him and Price's eyes widened as he gulped some. He wasn't expecting the older woman to act like this. He lets out a small sigh. " She told me that those two are mine. So I'm here for them, and I'm here for the woman I'll be marrying in the future."

Mary's eyes widened a little, she was quiet for a few seconds before she was laughing. " Oh boy, you think she's gonna marry you after you left her alone that morning? I mean I hope my daughter holds a grudge against you for that." She gives him a small smile before she hits his shoulder at his suddenly downcast look. " Don't worry, she doesn't hate you over that. She's secretly been hoping you pop up somewhere. Sadly, a terrorist attack had to be the reason you two reunited."

Price looked at her a little surprised before he nodded a little. " I knew she was American but I was secretly hoping she stayed across the pond. Was a little selfish of me, but I didn't get the chance to get her number."

Mary nodded softly as she looked to the side. " After she had the twins, she wanted to come back over. She thought if she came back she could just run into you again at that pub."

John laughs a little before he nods. " If she had come over when I was on leave, we may have run into each other. But that's in the past. I'm just glad I found 'em" Mary started smiling a little more.

She squeezes his arm before taking a step toward the direction the twins had gone " Well don't worry, I'm sure she'll want to talk to you about everything. Hopefully, you get to stay in town for a little while." John just nodded as he watched her. The woman gave him one more smile before waking off.

When the woman was out of sight John sighed and frowned a little. He scratched at his head worried, he didn't know how long they were staying. The man then turned around and walked back to the little group that had come with them.

Sadly when he got over there the atmosphere was tense. The boys had varying worried, or angry looks on their faces. Kate slowly stood up as he stood in front of them. She licks her lips slowly before clearing her throat.

"We've got bad, news John.." He looks at all four of them. Gaz looked away awkwardly, as Johnny looked downright mad. But Ghost was just silent, a faraway look in his eyes.

Kate takes a step towards John as he clenches his hands. " Well outright with it then! What is it?" Kate sighs as suddenly Ghost says " They were after them… The group was after your kids and their mum"

Taglist:

@miss-vanta-likes-to-write

@galactict3a

@fruitymoonbeams-blog

@spongelistener

@wizzdot

@beebeechaos

@eatingtheworldsoffanfiction

@royalty-cashinout

[argyleheir]

Top books to read this year!

Thanks for the tag @tideoftrash <3

High Fidelity (Nick Hornby) - part of my background research into 1990s London, which I am really nervous to write into in my WIP.

The Stars Did Wander Darkling (Colin Meloy) - newish novel by one of my favorite songwriters. Possibly YA? Already bought the soundtrack on vinyl lol <3

The Great War and Modern Memory (Paul Fussell) - classic book about WWI that has been on my shelf a very long time.

The Vampire Lestat (Anne Rice) - if I get to this, it means I've actually finished my reread of IWTV, which has been taking me months. Haven't read TVL since about 2002.

What Manner of Man (St. John Starling) - read this as it was being released weekly and looking forward to taking in the lot.

A Dowry of Blood (ST Gibson) - Dracula tangential novel recced to me a while ago!

We Both Laughed in Pleasure (Lou Sullivan) - have started this before and had to put it down because ~feelings~. Will make it through this time.

Bath Haus (PJ Vernon) - looks sexy and has been sitting on my Kindle for about three years.

Less is Lost (Andrew Sean Greer) - one of those situations where I loved the first book to the extent that it made me not want to read the sequel because I'm weird like that. But I'm going to do it <3

Tagging @0nelittlebirdtoldme @tigerballoons @17panicattacksinatrenchcoat @nightmarist @grimgrinningghost456 or anyone who wants to play!

[johaerys-writes]

Thank you for the tag @spineless-lobster!! I decided to make a new post for it bc the other one was getting too long 😊

Last song: Familiar by Agnes Obel

Fav colour: it changes constantly but right now I'm really into red and black tbh! 

Last book: Persuasion by Jane Austen (also I just finished my Farseer Trilogy reread and I'm NOT OKAY 😭)

Last movie: Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World by Radu Jude (amazing! Incredible! Show stopping! One of the funniest/cleverest/most interesting things I've seen in a long while!! Everyone should be watching Jude's work, the man's a genius, European cinema at its finest) 

Last show: Finished Arcane only a few days ago! And I'm watching Castlevania Nocturne now. I missed my boy Alucard so much 😭😭

Sweet/savoury/spicy: lately I've been more into sweet snacks but I usually prefer savoury 

Last thing I searched up: "classics podcasts" because I'm looking for, well, classics podcasts 😅 if anyone has any recommendations I'd love to check them out!

Current obsession: I've recently started playing Pyre and I LOVE it it's so cool!!! I'm kind of bad at it lmao but it's very cool!! SGG never disappoint

Looking forward to: Updating Fates later tonight FINALLY 😩 it's been too long

Tagging forth to: @elveny @calciumyum @hekateinhell @monstersinthecosmos @gloriesunsung @vimlos @annalyia @emotionalspitfire @tender-wolf @maxdurden @rowanisawriter @aymayzing anyone else who'd like to do it!

[asleepyy]

Hello! Popping in your inbox for no other reason than to say I STILL LOVE YOUR COMIC SO MUCH and I look forward to every update! I'm so intrigued by the Armageddon era of the comic and all your clever alterations. Still reeling over Jophiel dressing like I did in elementary school. No notes, stellar.

I don't have notifs on for Tumblr on my phone EXCEPT for when you post. So your art is often what greets me in the morning, be it a new part or new art or a reblog or anything else. Great way to start a day.

Also I really want to write more oopsie fics but we shall see if the muse strikes. Guess I'll have to reread the whole thing again as "research" oh no....

Anyway that's all love you byyyeeee ✨️

i've never been in a fanbase as loving and giving as the good omens one, i barely even know what to say at this point without sounding like a broken record!! THANK YOU < 3 it rly is my main drive to keep making stuff ;, ) INEFFABLE DOLL I LOVEEEE UR FICS!! i reread practically all the oopsie fics like once a week because... im a softie and i cant help it i love everyone's writing