#idk where this was going but i guess they are gonna be okay?

[peppermintquartz]

angsty prompt for ya if it pleases you - Eddie and Tommy trapped together (maybe a basketball game 👀) after some kind of event (explosion, shootout, pick your poison) and Buck has to respond, his anxiety off the charts over his bestie and boo in trouble 😭

Tommy's friend Denson just opened a new gym that boasts an entire level for combat training, so Eddie and Tommy are checking it out. It's almost as good as it claims to be.

They're taping up their hands for a good sparring session when they feel it: a slight, sudden sense of vertigo. The heavy bags sway from where they're hung, and three of the mirrors crack and shatter.

"Denson, get everyone out!" Tommy shouts. "Call 911!"

Tommy and Eddie both run towards the back of the gym where the sauna and showers are, behind the lockers.

"I'll check the sauna!" Tommy calls out to Eddie.

"i'll take the showers!" Eddie shouts in reply.

They're running past the lockers when a second, more powerful quake hits. Eddie almost loses his footing, and then something crashes into him from above.

When he swims back into consciousness, it's to someone chanting his voice. It is utterly dark. Eddie feels nauseated. "Where... What the hell?"

"Hey," says a familiar voice. "Good, I've been trying to wake you."

Eddie feels a work-roughed hand grasp his. "Tommy?"

"One and the same. Toes, fingers?"

Eddie wiggles his extremities. "Right foot okay, left foot okay. Right hand is okay." He tries his left hand and hisses out a curse. Sweat beads all over his upper lip.

"Yeah, your left hand was caught by a locker. You probably fractured something in it. Good thing it was already taped up though."

"Good thing." Eddie closes his eyes. "Possibly concussed too. I mean. Locker on my head."

"I didn't see any bleeding when I dragged you away from the lockers," says Tommy. "We're in the sauna, by the way. The path back to the gym was blocked by all the falling lockers and the sauna has thicker walls."

Eddie groans. "Any phone on you?"

"Nope. Gonna need to wait." Tommy sighs. "At least we're together. Push comes to shove, we could eat each other's legs or something."

"Without any seasoning? Please." Eddie breathes out slowly. "Anyway, let's hope we don't suffocate first."

Tommy chuckles. "Don't hold your breath."

---

"I can't get hold of either of them," Buck tells Bobby after they gear up. "Tommy told me he and Eddie were checking out a gym. They could still be there."

"We have to go where we're sent, Buck," says Bobby. He pushes the younger man towards their ladder truck. "Lots to do today, come on."

Buck bites back a protest and gets to work. His hands are dry but they are shaking; the tremor of the vehicle hides his nerves well enough.

Every first responder able to be out working will be out there, he tells himself. Eddie and Tommy are capable. They'll be fine. They'll be fine. They'll be fine. They'll be fine. They'll be fine. They'll be fine.

He wishes he can get in touch with either of them, at least. Everything in him is screaming to race through the streets to look for them. But the call was sent out and he had reported at the station and now everyone is sent out to do what they can where they can for who they can.

That's what he will focus on. That is all he can focus on.

They're sent north to Weddington Street, where several of the condo buildings suffered structural damage. But as Bobby calls out instructions, a guy in black tank top and green shorts with compression pants runs up to them.

"My friend Tommy and his pal, uh, E-Eddie, they were inside," he says, gesturing to a collapsed building on the left. "Tommy told me to get everyone out and they ran to check if anyone was in the showers and sauna and I called 911 but everyone was calling and I think th-the cell service is down."

"Tommy and Eddie? Showers and sauna - which direction is that?" Buck asks before Bobby can.

---

It's another count of hundred. Tommy winces and stretches out his legs. It's been hours, he feels, but the darkness has blurred his sense of time, and to add to all that, he's been fighting his claustrophobia as they wait.

But he knows what he hears: people digging into concrete.

He swallows down his nausea and nudges Eddie. "We're gon' have company soon."

"Good," Eddie slurs. His speech is becoming slower.

Tommy pushes at him more insistently. "Hey. No dying on me."

"I'm so freakin' tired, man."

"Yeah, well, so am I, but I'm not bitching about that now." He shakes off the scream that is threatening to erupt from his throat and pretends that the perspiration he's drenched in is all from the stuffiness of their location. It's getting very hard to breathe.

"Eddie? You there?"

"That's Bobby," Eddie groans.

"Tommy? Tommy, you okay?"

Tommy grins. "That's my boy."

Coughing, Eddie drawls, "You guys gonna role-play this whole rescue thing?"

"That's for me to know," Tommy teases. He can see daylight behind Buck and Bobby. Just a smidgen, but it's enough to ease the tightness wrapped around his chest. Clearing his throat, he calls out, "Bobby! Evan!"

Evan is the one who climbs into the gap once it's big enough. Tommy only has superficial injuries, so he climbs out first, squinting against the daylight, and when he gets to the ground Denson hugs him tightly enough that Tommy thinks he may crack a rib.

"Man, if you died in there because I invited you..." Denson heaves a sigh.

Tommy slaps his friend's arm. "Hope you have earthquake insurance, man. Sorry about all that."

Off to the side, Eddie is complaining about being fussed over, but Bobby tells him to quieten down, he has a likely concussion and a broken hand.

Evan jogs over and kisses Tommy. Denson whistles and walks away, leaving them alone.

"I'm glad you're okay," Evan says with a smile. "I gotta keep working."

Tommy takes his boyfriend's hands and pulls him down for another kiss. "I know. I'm gonna get my cuts cleaned up and then go into Harbor, see how I can help."

"Stay safe."

"You too." Tommy kisses Evan a third time. "My place after?"

Evan nuzzles his nose against Tommy's. "Sure. See ya."

[egophiliac]

the lovers, reversed

(aka I'm still freaking out about Jou)

[r0semultiverse]

I hope Jorge keeps the streams up until the next live stream like he did with the last Saga.

I had trouble getting into Epic: The Musical without the visual aid of the animatics as visuals help me absorb the material. I kinda wish he would upload each song with the lyrics and animatics in them instead of just the animatics by themselves without the full song, but maybe that’s just me. I’m an audio and visual gal otherwise I have trouble absorbing information. Besides the streams there’s no current way to watch the musical seamlessly with actual visuals and yet it is called a musical. A medium I’ve kinda expected to have visuals by this point, that was my one big criticism going into this series was “so it’s just songs? And I have to watch the script as I listen to know what’s happening? That’s hard to keep up with.”

Though if this is a consistent change going forward of having the full musical with visuals until the next iteration premiers, then great & honestly my only criticisms are a lack of trans voice actors (seemingly but I could be wrong) and a lack of fat characters in the animatics because Aphrodite was fat in her depictions throughout history in the very least. Which I’m not even sure if this counts as a criticism so much as an observation and something that gives me a bit of pause? Again, not series ruining, but just more an observation I guess?

That being said, I’m super excited for the Vengeance Saga tonight! Probably gonna stay up just to watch it! Sleep be damned I wanna see it as it comes out! 💜

Edit: Okay actually not risking tummy issues by napping and can’t stay awake any longer. If I have tummy issues I couldn’t even watch it as it premieres anyway because I’d be fighting for my life in the bathroom. ANYWAY DON’T GO ATTACKING ANYONE INVOLVED WITH THE PROJECT, I WAS JUST MAKING AN OBSERVATION.

[moe-broey]

Conflicted about something (actually has been on my mind for a long time, it's just never been brought up), but like. I do like portraying Moe with self-harm scars. I like to treat the scars the same way I treat its acne/the scarring that comes from that. Just like, a candid portrayal of Well, that's just how it looks. Because of this, I also don't like the idea that self-harm scars should always be trigger-tagged. Kind of gets into the idea of what bodies should be "censored", and like, man, sometimes people just look like that...

But I also do wanna be mindful... I wonder if the rule of thumb should be, if the self-harm is the focus of the piece? Then you should probably tag it? But then that kind of gets ambiguous fast like. Usually I color Moe's scars to be pink/faded. So even when they are visible, they don't jump out at you really. But this recent piece I wanted to emphasize the scarring. Is it emphasized enough to warrant a tag...? But the piece really isn't focused on that. It makes up part of the storytelling/theming of the piece, but also does sort of fall into the category of "Well Moe just looks like that".

Do you. See the conflict here.

[rhymer]

is it controversial to say i don't enjoy the jastblue translation for dmmd. it's giving DRAMAtical Murder If It Was Written By Viziepop, i'm sorry......

[fappellmoan]

real life drama moment eye roll sams apparently struggling bc he wants to move out and is touring this building hes been eyeing but his roommates dont want him to but also apparently theres beef and he just 'doesnt want to be friends with those people anymore' and he was really vague about what that was all abt and his friend group and who he wanted to even still talk to. and well. not my circus not my monkeys....... but im gonna go ahead and keep my feet in two lanes here does that make me a shady bitch. girl i literally dk any details and thats fine but like. idk whatever..

[phagodyke]

kind of annoys me sometimes how I can happily listen to my roommate explain the entire plot of whatever she's currently into but when it comes to my interests she can only listen for a few mins before wordlessly walking out of the room

[whatkindofnameisella]

UHM. so i read the chapter where paragon and vivacia meet!! and

[fnvbennygecko]

erm. well im going to talk about my dream in the tags i guess

[eggmeralda]

god I should read the secret history again

[milo-is-rambling]

I forget how much I hate the taste of vodka but the whipped cream vodka is so much better my god

[iholli]

bro Superman: Man of Tomorrow was pretty good but (spoilers)

can I get a "does the dog die" for J'onn because I was not ready for that scene and I was sitting on my front porch sobbing even though I KNEW he was going to come back bc it's a superhero movie and nobody actually fucking dies right

THAT STILL FUCKING HURT. DC WHY.

(at least he got to come back all cool and dramatic and then deliver his "so I could save your ass" line to try to be cool but just ended up being kinda awkward and adorable okay. 10/10 let Lobo teach him more swears)

[lanihaluki]

addition to the fyrus little mermaid au in tags!!

[smartichokes]

going fucking crazy because i procrastinated and i cant find a good instrumental song for the short film i have to edit before class tomorrow

[keeps-ache]

ooo that's minty babyyy

[phanboyo]

Everyone, immediately: yeah yeah, evil alternate universe Batman, we've all seen it. Good alternate universe Joker??? I mean it's not technically unheard of but it's really not as common, and still a little bit of a new concept. Like, who would ever think the Joker would be the good guy? Especially if Danny mentions he has an evil alternate future self who kills everyone and takes over the world??? Everyone's immediately like, oh yeah that sounds more like what we'd have expected of an alternate universe Joker.

"But don't worry guys I screamed at him and now hes in a thermos outside of time so that universe doesn't exist anymore." <<Danny doing more to protect people from the ""Joker"" than Batman ever did, or so think the JL.

Haha kidding.

But still, the idea of a good Joker is so strange, people think that Danny's just pretending to not be a horrible person so that they let their guards down and he can set up an evil plan to stab everyone in the back. It takes a while for them to warm up to him. Especially when he brings up weird science haha

I like to think that some Gothamites saw a confused Baby Joker step out of a portal and immediately thought time travel. This must be Joker before he became the clown prince of crime. Quick someone kill it before it becomes more powerful!

But when Joker sees internet videos of a confused Baby Joker stepping out of a portal? 50/50 whether it's fight on sight or a new protege with some good taste. It probably changes from moment to moment tbh. But even if he decides on the latter, he's immediately outraged as soon as Danny takes more of Batman's attention than the Joker does, let's be honest.

Danny, seeing another billionaire vampire wannabe taking an interest in him:

In other words, this kid is definitely not like any Joker Batman's ever seen before lol

Oh! But can you imagine if Danny mentions Red Huntress as the frenemy ("well, she thinks we're enemies but I think she's starting to warm up to me") who's always trying to shoot him? And he refers to her as Red? "—with this red mask on all the time and new gadgets she steals from Plasmius—yeah the rich vampire guy—cause she used to work with him but now she hates him—" and now they're all convinced she's Red Hood's alternate universe counterpart?

(Not) Another Joker

Over time, effects from Danny’s ghost form starts to bleed over into his human form.

His skin gains a deathly pallor. His hair turns white before gaining an ectoplasmic green tinge. When he smiles, it looks just a bit too wide to be human.

He, completely coincidentally, looks a lot like the Joker.

Not that he realized that fact for a while. Sure, Joker’s crimes may make the news sometimes, but it’s not like anyone in Amity Park paid that much thought to a criminal in an entirely different state. The connection just… never occurred to anyone.

Well, that was until Danny ended up in Gotham for [dealer’s choice of reason—college, vacation, runaway, etc]

Because then everyone noticed, and it started to cause lots of problems for him.