#instead he’s just a brick wall a robot

[rigginsstreet]

Steve canonically not ever dealing with any emotional situation is actually why Nancy broke up with him but y’all don’t want that conversation….

[fanfics-i-find-here]

Do I know you?

Jason Todd X Reader

Synopsis: In the aftermath of a brief Kidnapping, Red Hood seems to think your important and wont stop hanging around your apartment.

Or in other terms, Jason got scared you were gonna die and doesn’t want to leave you alone

Notes: Reader is a waitress at a local bookstore/coffee shop that Jason frequents and he has grown very fond of her. They are vague acquaintances And she does not know that Jason is Red Hood. This is literally my first-ever attempt at a fanfic and Jason Todd has been rattling around in my brain. I might attempt to make this like a short series or something. Anyway, I hope it's enjoyed!!

“I think I have a new favorite stalker,” you say loudly out your open window.

 Keeping your window open in Gotham was probably the worst idea you could ever have but your curiosity got the better of you when started to notice the fleeting red hanging out across the street and occasionally on your fire escape over the past two weeks. At first you were worried considering your recent encounter with Scarecrow as an attempted research rat.

However, the longer the red stayed near the easier it became to recognize. His helmet was shiny, which is what made it so easy to spot him. How that was helpful to a vigilante you didn’t know. Red hood was watching you and you had a feeling it was to make sure you were okay. You had heard of other bats checking on Civilians after traumatic incidents when they could, but every night for two weeks seems a bit excessive and he hasn’t actually talked to you. So what was he doing?

With no response to your jab, you lean out your window and repeat yourself, making a point to stare at the red helmet on the building across the street.

“I said I think I have a new favorite stalker!” You continue to stare him down.

Even in the minimal street lighting you can see his body tense, ready to run.

“Maybe he’d like to chat?” you tilt your head in questioning. You don’t why you asked. You were bad at keeping a regular conversation. If he came over and did, in fact, decide to chat, it might end up a short conversation. 

A clattered thud pulls you from your thoughts and you gaze turns from the opposite roof top to the very large man now standing on your fire escape next to your window. You can’t help but stare at him. 6” something and built like a brick wall. Intimidating even leaning against the building.

Was he this big when he saved me?

“Hi?” is the only response you could muster. The urge to slam the window closed and shut your curtains itches at your finger tips. He stares at you, or at least you assume as much, the helmets white eyes giving away nothing. No wonder people were terrified of Red Hood. You haven’t even done anything wrong and you could wet yourself  right here and now.

“Hi” You don’t know why your shocked to hear the modulated voice. He had talked to when he saved you from Scarecrow but it was still strange to hear. Slightly robotic but definitely a person underneath.

You realize that, maybe, you’ve been staring for too long.

“Tea?” you back away from the window and head for the kitchen expecting him to follow, as well as taking a moment to breath.

You just invited a good/bad vigilante into your home! What is wrong with you?  Your mind is a swirling, anxious debate as you fill your kettle.

“I only have Green tea, I hope you don’t mind.” you yell from the kitchen, unsure if he was even in the apartment.

“Not at all” His voice is close then you anticipated, assuming he stay close to the window.

Instead you turn to find him sitting comfortably at your dining room table, watching you move about the kitchen. He looks out of place in your soft warm toned home. His brown leather jacket the only thing that could blend in. The harsh red bat on his chest sticking out like a sore thumb. Your gaze lingers a moment at the holsters on his thighs, suddenly realizing that if he wanted to do something to you, you were screwed. You turn back to your cabinets and pull out a couple of mugs, pushing away the thoughts. Red Hood was good guy, despite what previous attempts at bad he had in the past. You stand at the counter and stare at your kettle, willing it to heat faster. After a moment, You hear a distorted sigh.

“You wanted to talk?” Red Hood asks

You shrug your shoulders without turning, not entirely prepared for a conversation just yet. Red Hood doesn’t push you. The kettle begins to whistle, and you pour the two mugs, settling tea bags into them. You pick them up and set one in front of red hood, and settle into the seat opposite his, blowing on your tea. You take a sip and promptly burn your tongue, hissing in pain.

“it’s hot”

Your eyes fly up to Red Hood. You choke out a thanks, Having not realized he had taken off his Helmet. You let eye linger across his face, very handsome. A scar on his lips, that rests in a smirk, and another across his cheek. As you eye move up you let out a startled laugh, Another mask keeps his eyes hidden.

“What?” He asks, The smirk on his lips grows.

As your laughing fit slows, you pause to breath.

“You wear two masks.” You pause waiting for him to laugh. All he does is furrow his brows.

“it’s funny” you insist but he doesn’t respond. You settle down again. Well as much as you can considering the man in front of you, staring at your mug, slightly embarrassed

“So I’m your favorite stalker? You got a few?” Red's voice rings out in the silence. It’s rough and deep, like he’d been yelling.

A flush creeps up your face. If you were embarrassed before, you were definitely embarrassed now. It had taken you all day to come up with the throw away comment. You thought It was funny. You also didn’t think you would get this far in your interaction with Red Hood.

“Not really, just the one I hope” you chance a glance at him to find him still unsettlingly staring at you as a he takes a sip of his tea, now cooled. Your mind searches for what else to say.

“That’s good, I wouldn’t want that either” Jason finally breaks eye contact with you, looking around your apartment.

With his stare no longer on you, you take the opportunity to really take him in. Despite the scars on his face, there was kindness there. And despite his intimidating stature, he seemed to pull himself in, like he was afraid to take up space. His forearms exposed through his suit. What a weird design. Not that you were complaining. Overall, Red Hood was hot. You flush at the thought.

“Thank you, by the way” you rush out, “for saving me… it really means a lot”

Jason turns his gaze back to you. You brave up and hold his stare. Suddenly thinking, he looks familiar. You furrow your brows for a moment.

“Do I know you?” You ask before you can stop yourself. You physically cringe and try to back track.

“I mean, obviously I know you, you saved my life and all but I mean like I know your face? Maybe, not that it matters. Course you wouldn’t tell me if I did know your civilian identity because then it wouldn’t be a secret. I just think I know your face but that doesn’t mean that I want you to tell me. And maybe you just have one of those faces…” you continue to ramble some more. Jason watches you carefully and finishes his tea. You pause to breath in your rant and he jumps in.

“Thanks for the tea” he grabs his Helmet, sliding it on before continuing, voice changed, “and your welcome, for saving you.”

You watches as he walks back toward the window, frozen and unsure what to do. As climbs out onto the fire escape you yell out.

“Your welcome and you don’t have to hide outside, you can come in next time.”

He’s gone before even finish the sentence. You sink back in your chair.

What is wrong with you? Why are you so awkward? That was terrible!

You try to push the interaction from your mind as you close the window and go about spot cleaning your apartment. Once done your anxious thoughts return.

This is going to be a long night. You think as you turn into bed.

[too-much-tma-stuff]

Mutually Assured Disaster

How I imagine the first meeting from @the-b1ah  AU here. I plan to write Danny’s first patrol with Jason and maybe the training as well.

This isn’t edited so if you see any errors please let me know.

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Danny skidded around a corner, his shoulder slamming into the brick wall but there was no time to worry about that bruise and it did stop him faster. He took off again down this ally, a energy blast slammed into the wall just behind him and he gritted his teeth, flinching but not making any noise or slowing down, he needed all the air he had to run. He was already so weak from what the GIW had already done to him but this was his only chance, the transfer to their facility in Gotham. He could sense that the city was a never-born in its own way and it was closing ranks to protect him, walls shifting in perceptible ways to open up passages for him, guiding him towards something and slowing the agents down.

He was so weak and the cuffs still on his wrists stopped him from phasing through anything, all he could do was run, feeling the blood and ecto pumping through his veins quicker with each step. It stained the white pants and scrub shirt they had given him, he was getting dizzy, his quick breathing rasping over a dry throat and his legs burning but he couldn’t stop. Not when he had just now started to sense what Gotham was sending him towards.

It was a signature like his own! Another undead, someone who could help him and hopefully would. Gotham felt to warm to be sending him to someone who would hurt him or be taken too, he trusted her as one of the never-born ancients, she wanted what was best for the city that was hers. He tried to turn another corner, fell, rolled and managed to stagger back to his feet though it sapped his momentum and tore open a few more old wounds. His eyes landed on a tall, broad man wearing a red helmet that completely covered his face. That was him!

“Help me,” Danny gasped desperately, “Please.” He hadn’t even noticed there was a gun trained on him until it snapped to the opening of the ally. Danny scrambled behind the strange man, making himself small as the guys and white came sprinting around the corner as well, blasters pointed at them.

“Return the fugitive!” They demanded as Danny’s abused legs finally gave out and he sunk to his knees with a soft whine, praying that this man would be enough to keep them both safe.

“Fugitive? That’s a whole ass child, why are you chasing a child with guns?” Red Hood demanded furiously, his own guns trained on the two agents.

“They might look like a child but their an extremely dangerous meta. We know Batman doesn’t like metas in Gotham, so we’ll just take him and go.” The agent said starting to approach only for hood to fire a warning shot at his feet making the man step back.

“Fuck what batman wants, this is my territory and I don’t let anyone hurt kids. Meta or not,” He snarled.

Danny heard the sound of one of the blasters charging up and gasped, looking up frantically. “Look out,” He yelled, lunging forward just in time to accidentally take the blast to the side instead, well he had meant to push hood out of the way but this worked too he supposed. He didn’t even have enough air to scream, whining through gritted teeth as he collapsed to the ground, curling in on himself and shielding his head as the air around him was filled with the sound of gun shots. It felt like forever that he lay there curled in on himself defensively as his head swam and blood and ectoplasm seeped out the new hole in his side, joining the dozens of other injuries he had.

Then it was quiet, and after another second there was a hand on his shoulder, Danny flinched violently away from the touch. “Hey kid, it’s just me,” the robotic voice assured and in that moment Danny had never found anything more comforting. He looked up and around, seeing that he and the man in the red hood were the only things left alive in that alley.

Danny gasped and nearly threw himself into the older man’s arms, he gave a startled sound but caught Danny as he trembled and clung, tears running down his cheeks as he struggled to catch his breath. “It’s alright kid, I’ve got you,” Red assured, shifting his hold on Danny so he could pick up the teenager when he stood. “Let’s get you to a hospital huh?” He asked, only for Danny to choke and frantically shake his head. “Alright, no hospital, will you let me patch you up then?” He asked, nodding firmly when Danny sniffled and nodded as well.

“Alright, I have a safe house near here,” He said, turning away from the small pile of bodies he’d left in the alley and carrying Danny towards, hopefully somewhere safe. The way that Gotham curled protectively around them seemed to say it would be. “I’m Red Hood, what’re you called kid?”

“Danny Phantom,” The kid whispered against Jason’s chest.

“That’s an odd name,” Hood said blandly and Danny might have laughed if he had the breath, if it wouldn’t have hurt to much to do so.

“So is Red Hood. I had another name, but I can’t use it anymore,” he murmured brokenly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jason asked, and only received a little shrug in return. “Alright fair enough,” Jason said with a shrug, shifting to hold Danny with one arm so he could jump up and drag down the fire escape, climbing up so he could duck through the window of one of his many apartments scattered through his territory.

He carried Danny through into the bathroom, putting him down on the edge of the tub carefully before flipping on the light. “You up to having a shower before I look after your wounds, just to rinse off the blood? I’ll grab you some clean clothes, my little brother left some stuff here that should fit you.”

“Sure,” Danny agreed softly. “It’s not as bad as it looks, I’m pretty damn tough. But, before that could you.. try and take these off please?” He asked, holding out his arms to show Hood the cuffs still around his wrists, the suppressors. There had been a chain between them but it was broken, he’d managed to snap it during the chase.

“You’re not going to cause any problems for me or my city are you? I know suppressors when I see them,” Jason asked, low and dangerous. Danny’s eyes widened and he shook his head vigorously, slowly pulling his arms back and hugging himself.

“No, I know what they said, but I’m not actually dangerous I promise. I mean I probably could be dangerous if I wanted to be, but I don’t, I’ve only ever wanted to protect people but they-, they just didn’t see that.”

Shit the kid was crying again, Jason hadn’t meant to do that, but he had needed to know and Danny’s answer was obviously true, kid wore his heart on his sleeve. Jason sighed and dug in his pocket for his lockpicks before holding out his hand for Danny’s. “Alright, I believe you, let me get those off for you,” He agreed.

Danny reluctantly let Jason take one of his wrists, watching as Jason struggled a little with the cuff, muttering a little about paranoid people. The second one was faster, Danny rubbed his wrist and murmured thanks. “No worries,” Jason said as he stood. “Now you shower, I’m going to grab you some clean clothes.

Danny watched Hood leave, taking the cuffs with him before quickly stripping off the bloody clothes and getting into the shower. He flushed out the worst wounds before icing them over and scrubbing the blood and filth off of him from weeks of imprisonment. Jason knocked to make sure he was alright a couple of times before Danny finished and got out, wrapping a towel around his waist and sitting back down on the edge of the tub. “Alright, you can come in. You don’t have to worry about the cuts really though, I’ll heal.”

Jason let himself in, pausing for a moment when he saw the ice, or maybe the extent of Danny’s wounds which were… well they were pretty damn bad. At least they hadn’t gotten around to fully vivisecting him yet. “Whether you’ll heal or not you’ll heal faster and with less scarring with some proper stitches. Can you melt the ice as well?” Hood asked and Danny nodded. “Good, you can melt it as we deal with them then. Do you want a painkiller first?”

“No point, they don’t work properly on me,” Danny said with a shrug making Jason wince.

“That must suck,” He sympathized as he got out the first aid kit and set up what he’d need to clean and suture the wounds. Danny shrugged again, he didn’t seem talkative but he was very cooperative as Jason asked him to melt the ice on various wounds to let him check them.

“So did those guys do all this to you?” Jason asked and Danny blinked at him.

“You don’t know about them?” He asked, already knowing the answer when Red hood gave him a pointed look Danny could sense even through that helmet.

“Nooo,” he drawled, “Should I?”

“They’re a government agency called the Ghost Investigation Ward,” Danny told him softly. Jason snorted only to realize Danny was completely serious. “They’ve been hunting anything with a high enough ecto-signiture for years, so you need to be careful Red. Gotham is hiding you, but especially after they see how they helped me they’ll be after you too.”

“Ecto-signiture?” Jason asked blankly, what the Fuck was that?

“Anything like us. People who died, and didn’t come back, or came back wrong,” Danny explained and Jason let out a soft startled sound.

“How the fuck did you know that?!” he asked, defensive on instinct, only calming down a little when Danny lifted his hands in a pacifying gesture.

“Like often recognizes like,” Danny said with a little shrug again.

“Fine,” Jason grumbled, letting it go for now rather then thinking anymore about his own death, or Danny’s for that matter, the kid didn’t look any older then Jason had been when he had died, younger maybe. “Are you hungry?”

“Starving,” Danny said, sounding relieved. Grabbing the clothes that Jason had brought for him since they were done looking after his wounds now. “Those idiots wouldn’t believe I actually needed to eat no matter how many times I told them I did. They just punished me for pretending to be human,” Danny said making Jason freeze as rage flared inside him, breathing through the green flickering on the edges of his vision as he thought about how Danny had been treated. “Hood,” Danny said softly, and Jason felt a hand on the vigilantes arm.

Danny started to hum, an odd purring sound that didn’t sound particularly human, and to Jason’s surprise after a moment something within Jason started to resonate to the sound. Jason calmed quickly as the place reverberating inside him sent waves of calm the way the pit usually radiated rage. “Okay now?” Danny asked with a smile and Jason nodded, blinking out of the slight daze before he cleared his throat and turned away abruptly, heading to the kitchen to start cooking, Danny following him like a silent shadow, his feet not making any sound on the floor.

“You just lay down on the couch and rest, any allergies?” Jason glanced over and Danny shook his head, Jason nodded, made a choice and took off his helmet, glad he’d warn a mask under it tonight. He wouldn’t exactly be able to taste the food or eat with the mask on after all, and he had a feeling that he was going to be spending more time with Danny, at least until he was healed.

“Do you have anywhere else to go?” He asked, just to confirm his thoughts. He decided to make omelettes since they were quick and it was fun to have breakfast for dinner sometimes.

“No, my sister doesn’t have a place of her own, and my parents would either sell me back to the GIW or dissect me themselves. I can look after myself though, now that you’ve got the cuffs off and the GIW off my tail I can avoid them from here. Something to eat and a little sleep and  I can be gone by morning,” he said with a determined set to his jaw.

“Absolutely not!” Jason said, pointing the spatula at Danny and lowering it quickly when the boy flinched. “I’m not leaving a kid alone on the streets, let along one who’s not from Gotham! You’ll stay with me till we find you somewhere else safe to go,” Jason said firmly and Danny hesitated for a moment before nodding.

“Okay, but once I’m healed I can help! You’re one of Gotham’s vigilantes right? I’ll fight with you.”

“Also no, I’m a vigilante but I’m no Batman, I don’t do kid-heroes, you’re to young for this life,” Hood insisted, flipping the eggs.

“You’re about two years to late for that,” Danny snorted and Jason nearly dropped the food, cursing softly when he messed up the omelette. Oh well it would still taste good it just looked a bit more ugly.

“Excuse me? How old are you?”

“I’ll be 16 in a bit more then a month,” Danny said sounding sulky. “And I’m not going to stop helping people no matter what you think. I have these powers, I want to use it for something good.”

“You’ve been acting as a hero on your own since 14!?” Jason demanded, and the look of shame on Danny’s face was all the answer Jason needed. “Fine, you can come with me. But you have to hang back, stay safe, and fucking listen to me. Got it? I’m not having your death on my conscious!” Jason insisted and tried not to be pleased by how Danny immediately brightened and grinned at him.

“Thank you! It’s going to be so nice not to have to do all this alone! To have a proper mentor, maybe?” He asked, getting softer and more uncertain at the end.

“Sure, sure. The bats are gonna have a heart attack when they find out. They’re probably going to try to steal you,” Jason joked and Danny snorted.

“I don’t want that, they’re too goody goody for me thanks. Besides, you’re like me and I was able to calm you down wasn’t I? I can help you more,” Danny said, and Jason decided not to suggest Danny might be better off with the bats. Maybe it was selfish, but he did want the help Danny offered, and he was already attached to the kid.

“Fine, but you’re not going anywhere until you’re completely healed, and you’ve showed me what you can do. We’ll practice together and once I think we’re a good enough team then you can come out with me. And I want to know everything you know about the GIW and whatever laws enable them to get away with this bullshit, because we’re going to have to do something about that too.”

“Of course!” Danny agreed and Jason could see him practically vibrating with excitement, he had to suppress a smile so Danny wouldn’t catch on to how cute Jason found that. He really shouldn’t, but it was to late now.

“Good. Now come eat,” Jason grumbled, transferring the first omelet onto a plate and handing it to Danny.

Part 2: here

[whynotjohnlock]

Doctor x ADHD reader

^ My mental state at any given time when anyone asks about what happened yesterday.

Warnings: fluff, It might be a tad long, Grammar mistakes, you may feel slightly offended if you're a nerotipical person, the author wrote this because they didn't want to sleep and needed comfort.

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You'd forgotten something again. Was it about your job? Your family? Your friends you hadn't kept up with because you had misremembered the dates for? That one hyper fixation that you had today?

Nothing matched. Your brain was screaming at you for the time you wasted rethinking about what you had forgotten; but nothing came to mind.

A normal day then.

Then, as a distraction from your thoghts a high tech laser blaster thing punched through a brick wall and you started running for your life. Again.

There were alien pepper shaker robots with plungers. Why where they just repeating themselves over and over? Was that just how they spoke, or was there more to it? Was it nessasary to the way they shot lasers?

"Exterminate! Exterminate!" A laser jolted and swished right next to you.

"Right, I have to run."

And run.

And run.

And run. Except, now you had to not crash onto the person-

To late.

"Oh, hello humans! Is this your way of saying hello? Did I miss a decade?"

You reluctanly graped the strange man's hand. You were not fazed by the oddness in the queston; your thoghts were stranger. "I don't think so. It's just the fact that there are alien pepper shakers with plungers after us."

The man's face darkened, his youthful peesona flown out the window. "Where?"

You knew that the police would be of no help and the sadness in this man's eyes seemed to be familiar. "Can you help us if I tell you?"

"Short answer: Most likely."

"Now witch way?"

The question prompted eternal panic. Witch way was left? You couldn't remember. Were you facing north or south? You couldn't just point in a direction, because you had run in a extremely non-linear way.

Words had never been an accurate source of communication for you. Why were you this way? Well, you knew why; you had been diagnosed with ADHD, but that didn't answer your question. Why did you always forget the things you wanted to remember most? The strange man looked rather inpatient at your mental sputtering. You had to do something! So, you did the only thing you could think of at the time. Quickly you grabbed his outstretched hand and ran, guiding him though the chaotic path you had taken.

Your mind had not managed to retain much running for your life, but your feet did.

 ...Pass the blue house. 

...Turning 90 degrees at the broken stop sign. 

...Jaywalking around the stopped cars in the street.

...Turning again after the nameless black dog.

...Though a corporate building.

…And to the familiar building with the tin tanks.

your hand still fully clasped with this stranger you had just met, you spoke in between panting and gasping for air. "This is it. These are the alien metal tank creatures."

As if on cue, the screams not even across the blook started up again and an army of daleks (Not that you knew what they were called at the time) turned into view.

The madman lurched forward in outrage much like a predator looming in on their prey. He was unnerving. "Alright listen up! I am the Doctor, and you are the daleks! You have no right to this world, and It’s protected by none other than me. And you have made a grave mistake messing with me when I don’t have a companion, or anyone to holding me back. Leave before I run out of mercy."

"THE DOCTOR IS UNARMED. WE WILL DO NO SUCH THING."

EXTERMINATE!

A laser shot from the thingy that would have hit the silly man instead wiped by him as I pulled him into a run again.

Hiding behind a dumpster in an abandoned alley the Doctor fiddled around with a metal glowy stick and welded something together from his pockets quickly. "What are you doing?"

"No time to explain, get me some sort of electrical circuit board!"

"Will my phone work?"

Wordlessly the Doctor takes my phone, prys it from it's cashing, snaps it in half, and conects it to a very peculiar looking device.

EXTERMINATE!

The Daleks find us again but this time we don't run. The Doctor chucks the machine at the invasion party they aim towards us ready to end us.

EXTER-

The Doctor aims his tech stick toward the sky causing his device to activate. The result is instantaneous. Every dalek that was in front of us and firing ends up blowing up in several malformed chunks.

More daleks screech out words as they approach us. "EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!"

"Ha! I've rerouted the your primary weapon to your self-distruct sequence by changing the commands signals! The doctor is never helpless unarmed, you lot should know that by now."

"RETREAT! RETREAT!"

The Daleks start to be enveloped by an otherworldly white glow and disappear all at once.

The mad man seems to return to an upbeat face and seems to slip his mask back on seamlessly as if the darkness never touched his eyes. He looked again to be a harmless Nerodiverrgent, clumsy and meek as if he hadn't just felled a armada of aliens ready to destroy the earth. he muttered under his breath about inter-galactic law, blissfully unaware of all the odd looks his direction who believed him insane.

It reminded you of the mask you had to put up for all the "Normal" people in your life. How many times had you stopped being every thing you were just for a brief connection?

"Hello, I think introductions are in order! what did you say your name was?"

You plunged back into the real world from your thoghts. "Y/N."

"Well, Y/N, you seem awfully calm considering your planet was just invaded."

"I could say the same thing about you. Also how did you do all that? Are you even human?"

"I'm the Doctor." The man enthusiasticly spoke as if that explained the anomalys of the day.

"Is the your last name or did you just have mean parents that named you Doctor?"

"I'm not human, and it's common for my species to have titles we choose for names."

"Right. I suppose another alien species isn't the weirdest thing that's happened today."

The Doctor broke out into a brilliant little grin. And reached into his coat pocket to grab a little black wallet thing. "Hold on I want to see if I'm right real quick. What's on this paper?"

"Um, It's blank?" I don't think I was catching whatever the silly man wanted me to see.

"You are clever! I knew it! And I do need a companion after...." The Doctor pauses in sorrow and pain.

"Y/N, how would you like to come with me?"

"Um, do you travel or something?"

"Oh, I forgot to mention it, haven't I? I go to lots and lots of different places and meet all sorts of aliens all the time. I hope you know most of them aren't like the Daleks. Millions of planets and galaxys and pulsars and planets up in the sky, one day I'll see them all."

It took a while to comprehend what silly man had just said. You adored the stars. And now this man you'd just met had really just asked you to go with him to see and go to places humans wouldn't go for maybe billions of years!? To boldy go were no one has gone before? (I'm an unapologetically ing references and I'm not sorry.) Was this heaven? Had you died in the Dalek attack?

"That sounds utterly fantastic! You're sure you want someone like me?"

"What are you talking about? You just saved my life and were fearless in the face of a world ending threat. If course I want someone like you."

"I just, usually people don't like the way I think."

The Doctor almost seemed offended. "Do I look like a usual person?"

"Good point."

I looked down in slight embarrassment for bringing it up.

"Hey look at me." The Doctor softly grabbed my shoulder and I tilted my face up to meet his sincere eyes.

"You know what I've found in my nine hundred years of life? I found out the people who get called Quiet or shy have the most interesting thoughts. I found out that the loneliest people end up being the kindest, that the people with disabilities have so much more grit and determination than the people that don't, that the people called slow are the most brilliant when they're done analyzing. that the so called freaks and weirdos of the world are twice as clever and twice as kind."

"Do you know why?" I was near tears and shook my head.

"Because people like you and me have to work twice as hard only to get half as far. We have strength, far beyond that the average eye can see because we're trying to make up for faults by working twice as hard. Our struggles make us more resilient, more creative, and better people. We take it apon ourselves to attempt to appear normal in an attempt to make connections, when in really they should be the ones understanding us."

"You humans are so silly we it comes to different ways of thinking. On gallifrey, you'd be celebrated, not punished for what you call a quote 'disorder'."

I hugged him. I hugged him harder and tighter than any stranger I'd ever hugged before.

Tears. Happy tears flew down my cheek. I loved this stranger, not for his looks or wacky demeanor.

But because there is that silly man's arms I knew again what it felt like to be understood.

We were standing in a world of unknowns, at top a street that had just been invaded but I knew one thing:

"I want to travel with you, Doctor."

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A/N: I'm sorry if you personally don't feel represented in the way I wrote (Y/N) having ADHD and ADD, but I want you to know that I'm only trying to share my experiences as I myself have been diagnosed. I don't want to shame anyone that shares my experiences; just bring them into the light.

[manygeese]

CHAPTER 11 WHICH IM JUST NOW REALIZING I NEVER PUT OUT A TEASER FOR ‼️‼️‼️

Leo found it depressing that every choice he had made in his entire life brought him here: trying to make small talk with his one and only ex on a wooden swinging bench that got more uncomfortable by the second. Oh, and had he mentioned that it was fucking freezing?

He kept his eyes fixed on his swaying feet, unsure whether the dizziness was from the motion of his perch or his own nausea.

There were a million things he wanted to say to Calypso. Most of them started with “I’m sorry.”

I’m sorry for that one time I yelled at you for going to the arcade without me.

I’m sorry for bothering you with my Rubik’s cube while you were trying to focus.

I’m sorry for ignoring you all of spirit week even though you really wanted to wear matching outfits on twin day.

I’m sorry for being a bad boyfriend.

I’m sorry for being your boyfriend.

All he had to do was utter one of those phrases out loud, get it out of his cluttered head. But instead, he used the birdsong and the whistle of the wind as an excuse. Anything he said would be swept away with it anyways.

“I’m sorry,” someone said. It wasn’t Leo. He was too much of a coward to let those words out.

Leo cleared his captured throat. His voice came out choked as he coughed up the word “what?”

“I said I’m sorry.” Calypso clutched at where the fabric of her dress scrunched around her knees, bunching it up and letting it go again like a substitution for a breath.

He coughed. “You don’t have to.”

She knitted her cinnamon eyebrows together. “Aren’t you supposed to ask me for what?”

He was afraid he’d be disappointed if he did, but he did it anyway. “For what?”

“I suppose I’ll start with the small things. Do you remember when you lost your Rubik’s cube, back in junior year?”

“… yes.”

“I threw it away. I’m sorry.”

Leo let out a low whistle because it was either that or cry like a little baby. “Yikes.”

“I’m sorry for not listening to you whenever you talked about the robotics stuff you really liked. Sometimes, I would just use it as background noise. That was rude of me.”

“I’m sorry, too. For the record.” He tapped nervously on the armrest.

“For what?”

“Basically everything I did in college,” Leo said, making a pathetic attempt at a laugh. “I was such a loser back then.”

She forced a chuckle- Leo could tell, her smile was too square at the corners, like her lips were subconsciously drawn downwards even as they were pulled up- and knocked her shoulder against his. “Weren’t we all?”

“I was especially a loser. I’m sorry I never helped you with your theater projects. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you practice the oboe. I’m sorry I never took you out as much as you would’ve liked. And one time, the day after we had our first big college fight, I got us both coffees with your cash and gave yours to some other kid on campus.”

“You told me you’d spilled it on your way to class,” Calypso murmured.

“Yeah. Have I mentioned I’m sorry?”

She snorted halfheartedly. “I think so.”

Silence settled over them, looming like a piano over a cartoon character’s head.

“I’m starting to think we just shouldn’t have gotten together in the first place,” Calypso admitted. She picked at her already chipped aqua nail polish.

“Well, you’d be right.”

“Just like that?” She laughed, but it came out strangled. “You’re not gonna even try to say otherwise?”

Leo met her eyes, only because he felt she deserved it. “I can’t lie to you, Cal, we were horrible for each other. To each other.”

“Why?”

The piano came crashing down. If it had actually been a cartoon, Leo reasoned, his head would be popping out of the lid and he’d have piano keys instead of teeth. Maybe Calypso would have taken the opportunity to scurry away, leaving a silhouette of herself in whichever brick wall she decided to escape through, but he had no such luck.

Calypso’s eyes never left his, acting like jackhammers boring into his skull. Her question was repeated in their roundness: why?

“Cal…” he started, just to keep up the illusion that he was actually going to answer her, “it wasn’t your fault.”

“Just tell me. Why would we never have worked?”

He took a deep breath and suppressed the urge to hop over the porch railing and abscond into the corn fields, never to be seen again. “I’m gay.”

Calypso’s eyes widened impossibly further. Her mouth stayed mercifully shut for a moment before it uttered the words “so many things make sense now.”

Leo couldn’t help but snort at her response. “Oh yeah? Like what?”

“You always acted weird when we had gym with Percy, for starters.”

“Oh my (god,)” Leo groaned as he buried his face in his hands, “I was so obvious, wasn’t I?”

Calypso chuckled. “Yeah, you were. And there was also Frank. Was that fake flirting… was it actually…?”

“I can’t tell you what teenage me was thinking, but I can tell you it wasn’t entirely straight.”

She hummed, voice lilting with humor and melancholy. Her eyes moved off to the horizon, though Leo’s stayed fixed to her face, reading it (or at least trying to) like a manual.

Step One: get together with a girl of literally anybody’s dreams in 7th grade.

Step Two: spend the rest of your middle school, high school, and college years with each other.

Step Three: fight. A lot. Which leads to a messy breakup, and it’s like, this whole entire thing.

Step Four: don’t speak to each other for three years.

Step Five: tell her you’re gay and make her realize that she wasted a decade on you.

“I know I’ve said it a lot, but I’m sorry, Cal,” Leo whispered. “You deserved somebody who loved you romantically. You still do. And I couldn’t give you that, but I got us into this mess anyway, and here we are ten years later with one toxic relationship under our belts and not much else.”

“I’m honestly not sure I even wanted a relationship,” Calypso said. “I think that… my father may have pressured me into it when I didn’t want it or need it.”

Leo nodded.

“I don’t want one now, either. What does that say about me? Am I… am I going to be alone forever?” She turned towards him. The sunlight caught her eyes, making them glint like glossy pearls with tears not yet shed.

“Cal, no,” Leo said gently, somewhere between a whimper and a sigh. He shook his head and placed a cautious hand on her shoulder. “No. You’re not gonna be alone. You, you’re a wonderful person. You’re so passionate and you always know what you want and you’re really smart. There are people out there that are gonna love that, whether it be romantic or not. There are people out there that will love you however you want them to.

“I… I couldn’t do that for you. We couldn’t give each other what we wanted from that type of relationship, if we wanted one at all. And that’s okay. We’re not kids anymore, nobody can pressure you into anything.

“And, if it makes you feel any better,” he offered, “I still want to be friends.”

Had those words really just left his mouth? And had he meant it?

Calypso gave him a watery smile. “Do you mean that?”

Leo found himself returning it. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

She tackled him in a hug, nearly knocking them both off the porch with the force of it. They laughed and the sound was familiar. It came from sunny summer days spent playing video games, and chilly walks from class to class when fall came around, and sharing an umbrella when the frigid winter rain hit, and goofing around at the spring dance. It was a bit of his childhood coming back to him.

She practically performed the heimlich on him, the way she was squeezing him like a stress toy. He threw his arms around her neck and patted her awkwardly as he tried not to turn too red (between all the laughing and back breaking hugs, it was sure to be a failure). “God, I missed you, Cal.”

“I missed you, too.”

~*~

They sat there for hours, talking about interests both shared and not so shared. She would talk about her travels in Greece, he would chat about his students, she would explain what she learned about music, he would describe all the projects he’d made. Eventually, the subject turned from work to social life, from social life to friends, and from friends to love. Leo wasn’t quite sure how he felt discussing his (mostly nonexistent) love life with his ex, but with an old friend? Yeah. Yeah, he could do that.

“There was this one girl in Greece, Echo. I wanted to be her friend for the longest time, I’m not even kidding you. I found out the bar she usually went to on Friday nights, and yeah I know that sounds creepy but I just had my friend Zoë tell me. So it wasn’t that weird. Anyways, I got up to talk to her, right? And turns out, she’s mute, and I didn’t know sign language yet, so we ended up having a written conversation on her receipt. And at the end, she gave it to me, and it had her number on the back!” Calypso giggled, and he couldn’t help but giggle with her. What else could he do? That was one hell of a meet cute.

“Are you two still friends?” He asked.

“Oh, yeah. It’s kind of easier, we communicated mostly by text anyways because she doesn’t like using paper a whole lot. She’s toying with the idea of spending summer here, actually.”

Leo hummed acknowledgingly.

“What about you? Any pretty ladi- uh, handsome guys around here?”

He snorted, but that didn’t keep him from blushing hard. “Nice save,” he deflected.

Calypso got a smug look on her face. “Oh, yeah. There’s a handsome guy alright. You look like a tomato.”

“Fine. There’s a handsome guy.”

Calypso squealed and kicked her feet. “Tell me everything.”

“You want to know all of it? There hasn’t even been that much.”

“I mean, you listened to me about Echo, so consider it payback. Now tell me.”

“Ugh, fine,” he sighed. “Um, Frank and Hazel moved away a few months back, so Piper had to find a new farmhand to replace the guy. Um. And his name is Jason. He’s a big buff blonde dude.”

“Is that your type?”

“I don’t know! Maybe? I think my type is just man.”

“No way. You had a crush on Percy, captain of the swim team and known athlete, and probably Frank, too, and he’s literally the strongest person I’ve ever met. And now Jason? Who, when you describe him, the first words that come to mind are ‘big’ and ‘buff’? You have a type, and it’s men who could throw you like a football.”

“Oh my god! Shut up! Never psychoanalyze me again!”

“That wasn’t psychoanalysis, my good man, but simple observation.”

“You’re such a nerd.”

“And you aren’t?”

Leo decided not to dignify that comment with a response, half out of offense and half out of seeing Jason appear from over the crest of the hill. “Oh my god, oh my god, shut up, he’s coming. If you say one word about this to him I will kill you.”

“My lips are sealed.”

Leo squirmed in his seat, trying to fix his posture and look natural at the same time. “Does my hair look good?”

Calypso snorted, which caused her to wheeze, which caused her to cackle. “No, no, I’m not laughing at you, you’re just…” she trailed off when Jason came into earshot. “You haven’t changed a bit.”

“I sure hope I have, actually,” he retorted. Jason was coming up the path. Should he stop him and have a chat? Could he trust Calypso not to embarrass him? “I was pretty fucking annoying back then.”

“I didn’t mean it that way. You’ve changed, of course, but you’re still the same guy, just more you, if that makes sense.” Calypso left him with that, opting to turn around and face the porch stairs with a polite smile prepared. Before he could protest, she waved Jason over and offered him a hand. “Hi, you must be Jason! I’m Calypso, Leo’s friend.”

“I believe he’s mentioned you before,” Jason said, tone even, hand shaking hers calmly. He met Leo’s eyes and held the contact with a soft expression and gently sloped brows- concern. It was probably something else, though, but a boy could dream.

Calypso continued, her eyes screwed shut with the intensity of her smile. “It’s been so nice seeing him again after all these years. He’s so funny, don’t you agree?”

Jason smiled. “Certainly.” His eyes drifted back to Leo and the smile turned slightly mischievous. Wait, was that a wink? Did he just wink at Leo?

Leo was going to be sick.

“Oh, and so smart, right? I mean, back in college, he could attend three math classes the entire year and still pass with an A,” Calypso flattered.

“No, nope, that’s not true, she’s exaggerating,” Leo interjected. “And besides, I had a shit grade in language arts so it didn’t matter anyway.”

“He’s just trying to stay humble. He was the star of the robotics club at our high school-”

“Cal, please-”

“And the computer science teachers adored him-”

“Oh my god-”

“He had the math grades worthy of valedictorian-”

“Cal-”

“You should have seen him in shop class-”

“Cal!”

“As much as I’d like to continue, it seems someone-” she shot a pointed yet fond look over to him, but he didn’t notice, as he was covering his face in his hands in an effort to conceal the redness- “doesn’t appreciate it. Long story short, I was lucky to have met him. I’m sure you feel the same.”

“I do.” Jason breathed. Okay, so maybe Leo was hallucinating, but that was definitely a blush on Jason’s cheeks, right?

“Well, I’ll let you go now. I’ve held you up long enough, haven’t I? It was nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Jason chirped, heading into the farmhouse and, god, he actually winked.

He froze for a second after Jason shut the door, and he’d like to say he recovered himself quickly, but he didn’t. “What the fuck was that,” he managed.

“That, my good man, is called wingmanning.”

“No the fuck it is not.”

“Well, sure, if you wanna get into the nitty gritty, it’s wingwomaning, but same difference. Now, I’m going to have to head out soon if I want to get to family dinner on time, but can I give you some advice?”

“…fine.”

She grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him fully towards her. “You need to ask him out. He’s smitten with you. He will say yes.”

“…how do you know that?”

“How can you watch so many romcoms and not realize the signs that someone’s in love? Did you seriously not see him look at you? Or hear him, for that matter? Listen, Leo, I want you to be happy. Just ask him out, okay? For me.”

“…fine.”

Calypso smiled brilliantly and waved goodbye and headed for the gate. She looked happier now. Her grin was less restrained, and so was her hair. It was in a low ponytail instead of that tight braid she always used to have. She looked more like Calypso.

“Cal?” He called, moving to lean on the porch railing.

“Yeah?” She shouted back.

“Come back for dinner sometime, will you?”

Her smile got a few watts brighter. It made his own smile widen. “Of course.”

Now that he had reconciled with Calypso, there was only one problem left to solve:

Ask Jason out. Huh, it sounded easier when put into words. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all.

@katiefromcabin7 @iwannascreameurekaa @froglyberrys @justlikearat @existential-life-crisis @jasonisntboring @poppitron360 @erosjournal @ihatenotreading @reggie-the-dyke

[niki-phoria]

Heyo! I was wondering if you could make a gn reader chishiya fic based on the aib characters saying sorry. I really liked what you made the argument about and can totally see it happening so pretty please if you are taking requests could you do this.

doctor chishiya >>>

pairing: chishiya x gn!reader (they/them pronouns) genre: hurt comfort word count: 1.7k

warnings: ooc chishiya, blood, stitches, are stitches considered gore?, canon typical violence, canon divergent game (i have run out of games to write about), arguments, kuina threatens to punch chishiya (kuina best girl !!), reader is called beautiful (if that needs a warning ??) but boys are beautiful too, this kinda turned into a journal entry at the end lmao

a/n: thank you for requesting !! i'm glad you liked the post about them apologizing. i didn't want to leave this as angst so it has a happy ending and i changed a few things so that it wasn't exactly the same. i hope you like it :))

the post they're talking about -> chishiya, arisu, and kuina apologizing after an argument

requests open !! read my rules first

“y/n!” you can hear chishiya yelling at you as you rush to push the man out of the way, taking the blow for him instead. you hit the ground hard. your shoulder aches, both from the stinging cut and the impact. 

the man you saved is quick to scramble to his feet, kicking your attacker away from you before grabbing your arm and pulling you to safety. “thank you,” he pants. chishiya presses a hand against your back. blood seeps through your shirt. you nod at the man, trying to catch your own breath. 

the man rushes off in a different direction afterwards. you watch him leave, hiding further into the shadows to avoid detection. “shit,” chishiya curses. “this is deep. we need to get out of here. you need stitches.” 

you nod, forcing yourself to stand up. you reach back, replacing his hand with your own. “i’ll be fine. go win the game.” chishiya glances between you and the tagger before you gently push him away. “go!”

you’re not sure how long you stand in the shadows. the brick feels uncomfortable against your back as you hold your breath, waiting for the tagger to pass by the alley you’re hiding in. thankfully, they don’t notice you before your phone chimes, ending your torment with a simple “game clear. congratulations.”

the drive back to the beach feels awkward. chishiya keeps a close eye on your shoulder. you know he needs to keep pressure on it, but you can almost feel the irritation radiating off of him. 

he remains silent as you arrive at the beach, picking you up and carrying you into the basement. he sets you on the metal table, searching through various different cabinets for bandages, gauze, and supplies for stitches. the metal is cold against your skin. it feels nice against the warm blood still flowing from your wound. 

you don’t say anything about the slight tremble in chishiya’s hands as he presses the bandages against the cut. his stitches are quick and efficient - almost robotic in his movements. worry builds in your stomach. 

“we need to talk about this.” it sounds more like a question than a statement. like you’re asking if he’s ready to interact with you when he’s still so obviously angry, though you still aren’t sure exactly why. 

“after i finish this.” his words do little to console you. so, you simply nod, trying to relax your body as he continues tending to your wounds. 

“okay.” 

the air feels tense around you as you follow chishiya back to your shared room. he closes the door after you, silently leaning back against the wall. you awkwardly sit across from him on your bed, waiting for him to make the first move. chishiya crosses his arms over his chest, jaw clenched. you avoid eye contact, fidgeting with your hands. 

“that was stupid.” he finally says. 

“saving someone’s life is stupid to you?” 

“he was going to die anyways and you almost got yourself killed with him.” 

“i couldn’t just leave him there! he was begging for help!” 

“he could’ve gotten it from someone else!” his voice raises as yours does. chishiya sighs, running a hand through his hair. “what about these people makes them so worth saving?” 

“what about them makes them not worth saving? they’re people, chishiya, isn’t that enough of a reason?” 

“not when it puts you in danger! it was reckless!” 

“what else was i supposed to do?” 

“why can’t you admit you were wrong for once?” his words sting, but his demeanor is what makes you flinch. chishiya nearly glares at you from across the room. “have you ever considered that i know what’s best? you made a stupid decision, get over it!” you can see the immediate regret spread across his face. he almost shrinks back away from you. you bite your tongue, willing the tears building in your eyes not to fall. “y/n…” 

his words trail off when you stand up. “i need to be alone for a while. come find me when you’re ready to talk to me like an adult.” 

you furiously wipe the tears away from your cheeks as you rush out of the room. 

“y/n?” kuina furrows her eyebrows, opening the door to her room to let you inside. “what’s wrong?” 

you’re sure she can see the dried tears on your face. “i got in a fight with chishiya.” 

“oh, honey,” she wraps her arms around you, pulling you into a hug. you cling to her as she rubs a hand against your back. she pulls away after a few minutes, wiping another few stray tears you hadn’t realized had fallen. “do you want to talk about it?” 

“not really. i just… i got hurt helping someone and he yelled at me because it was reckless.” 

“are you okay?” 

you nod. “i’m fine. just a little sad, i guess.” 

kuina reaches over to grab your hand. it’s a welcome feeling of affection that breaks against the swirling thoughts in your head. “whatever happens, i’ll always be here for you, okay? you can tell me anything.” 

this time the tears that build in your eyes are ones of thankfulness. trust in the borderland is hard to come by, but when kuina squeezes your hand with a small smile and starts telling you about new gossip she heard around the beach, you know that you’ve found an ally. a friend. “thank you.” 

“kuina,” chishiya calls. he walks over to where she’s sitting, awkwardly stuffing his hands deeper into his pockets. “do you know where y/n is?” 

she briefly glances up at him, taking the wooden cigarette out of her mouth. “they’re on the roof.” 

“thanks.” 

“hey, chishiya,” she stands up from the beach chair, stepping closer. “if y/n ever shows up at my door crying because of you ever again, i’ll punch you.” 

he steps back a little, nodding. “it won’t happen again.” 

“good. now, go talk to them. they’ve been waiting for you.”

chishiya doesn’t wait any longer, quickly making his way back into the hotel to the roof. true to kuina’s word, you sit at the edge of the building, staring out at the coastline. the sun has just barely begun to set, casting a golden glow on everything. “y/n?” you turn to look at him over your shoulder, gesturing for him to sit beside you. chishiya obeys, dangling his legs over the edge of the building. you don’t move away when his knee brushes against yours.

you sit in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the sunset. finally, he speaks. “i’m sorry.” you glance over at him, waiting for him to continue. “i shouldn’t have yelled at you. i was scared because you got hurt and i blamed you because it happened while you were trying to help someone.” 

“i’m sorry too.” you pull your knees up to your chest, resting your hand in the space between you and chishiya. “i know it was reckless and i understand why you were upset.” 

chishiya hesitantly reaches over, taking your hand into his. you reciprocate by intertwining your fingers, storking your thumb against his skin. “none of what happened was your fault. i’m sorry i yelled at you. you didn’t deserve that.” 

“i forgive you.” you turn to face him, bringing your right hand up to cup his cheek. you move it behind his head to the nape of his neck, slowly pulling him in to press your lips against his. chishiya takes your cue to lean in, pressing another peck against your lips when you pull away. 

he smiles a little when you pull away, coaxing you to lean against his chest. the sun glistens against the water, hues of pink and purple painting the sky. chishiya tucks his chin over your head. 

“do you know why i helped him?” your voice is quiet when you speak again. it’s getting darker now. the temperature drops as the sun disappears further behind the coastline. 

“no.” chishiya murmurs. he wraps an arm around your waist, rubbing your side. 

“i know it’s hard for you to open up to people, and i’m grateful everyday that you let me in. but it’s hard to survive out here. you survive by shutting everyone out. you built your walls up so high that it takes years to scale them, and even then, you didn’t fully let your guard down for months.” you pause, taking a breath. “i survive out here by relying on my humanity. i have to believe that people are good, because if they aren’t, then nothing else matters. none of the good deeds or random acts of kindness or small moments that remind me that love is everywhere around us matter. i don’t want to live believing that. so, i help people. i put myself in danger for strangers because i rely on my humanity. if i lose my humanity, then i lose everything.” 

silence falls over you once again. chishiya pulls you even closer so you’re fully sitting in his lap, wrapping his arms around you. he leans over your shoulder as the sun fully disappears behind the horizon. the stars are just beginning to appear above you. “i think there’s good in humanity too.” he finally murmurs. “i let you in because i know you’re good. and you’ve done nothing but show me that i was right about you.” he leans down to press a kiss against your shoulder. “you’re strong,” another kiss - this time against your neck. “and loyal,“ his lips brush against the underside of your jawline. “and beautiful,” this time they’re against your cheek. “and good. you’re a good person. one i don’t deserve. i’m thankful for everyday you’re with me.” 

you take the initiative this time, pulling him into a sweet kiss. chishiya pulls you back in again. you sit on the roof together, kissing underneath the stars until your lungs are begging for air and the air chills your bones. you rest your forehead against his when you pull away, letting yourself drown in the overwhelming love you feel. “i’ll take you home,” chishiya whispers. “i promise.” 

[weakly-skoodge]

Week Seventy Six!

“Was today really the best day to come here?” Skoodge asks, finally, his jittery movements easing only slightly as he turns to look over to Zim.

“Of course it was!” Zim’s attention snaps to Skoodge, his movements much faster than the taller irken’s, with a snippy, snapping hand waved in front of his minion’s fleshy pudge-face. “Entry is halved on the meat-hearts day.”

Despite his snide gestures and overall disregard for Skoodge’s feelings, Zim can at least understand the reasons as to why Skoodge is so concerned over coming out today.

It’s that time of year.

The one where the humans embark on complex and ultimately pointless quests of love and frankly concerning infatuation for others of their species, only to end in heartbreak within the month. Or week. Whichever comes first, really. Zim has heard once of a relationship between two humans that lasted only a day.

Utterly pointless. It’s a relief that these rituals are designed to be strictly for humans. Not irkens. No self-respecting person from his superior race would be caught deactivated with some stupid meat-hearts or flowers or cards on hand.

“Now then,” Zim says, nodding his head in the direction of the expansive enclosures and gift shops and restaurants in front of him and his minions (and Skoodge). “Lets go see if they have any moose.”

He’s already marching onwards in the direction of a stationary wall-map of the Zoo, barely paying any mind to the delayed pitter-patter of Gir and the even more delayed splat-plap of Skoodge behind him. His attention is pulled to the map, drawn in by flashy colors and tiny little cartoonish prints of animals that he’s only heard of in passing, never sparing any more attention than necessary.

Though, this trip may change that. After all, knowledge is power, and if there’s anything Zim likes having, it’s absolutely power.

He’s still scanning through the large map, unable to make heads nor tails of it (even though most of these animals supposedly have tails) when a short, pudgy finger taps at a smaller, tucked away section, labeled in that wretched comic sans font that was used for some reason by whoever designed this big map: Moose.

Zim had already seen it. He waves his hand over at Skoodge, dismissing his unwanted assistance. “YES yes I saw! Of course!” He was waiting for everyone else to see, first — so they wouldn’t get lost following behind him and his incredible internal compass. And stuff.

“Follow me! We’re going to see the moose first!”

“YAYYY!” Gir screams and attempts to run off in the direction Zim was headed, but Skoodge cuts the little robot short by grabbing the scruff of his human-suit.

Ignoring Gir is a difficult task, but Skoodge seems to be capable of doing it just fine, speaking through the squeaky protests of the flailing robot held firmly in place by him. “Zim, that’s the wrong way.”

“Eh? No? This is the right way.”

“But the moose are on the left…” Skoodge points in the supposed direction of the moose. There’s a mini zoo-map paper clenched in his hand.

Zim scoffs at him.

“If you do not wish to see the moose so badly, then you are free to leave. But it would disappoint me GREATLY!” He tilts his head and there’s a lilt to his tone that could almost be mistaken for teasing.

“Would you like to disappoint me greatly, Skoodge?”

Skoodge lets go of Gir, who plops down on the brick pathway with a soft plush squeak, and waves his hands in front of him so fast that he almost drops his map. “No! No, never ever!”

“Then you will follow me and we will go this way!” Zim insists again, pointing towards the right with all the confidence of a general leading an army to victory.

Skoodge opens his mouth again, but thinks better of it, clamping it shut and nodding at Zim instead.

[loveislandthegame]

thoughts on today's volume! first off, let me say i really, realllllly hope that the next season doesn't have horrible couples acting like children at the finale 😭 hazel & hari were ruining the vibe . i gave FB props for not making her a villain, but i'm rescinding that now because they made both her and hari look absolutely ridiculous. it's astounding how much they manage to ruin their own characters. now let's get into the rest of it

FB you better be joking ! i've lost count of how many times they've used this box. at this point the feather is crusty, the silk is shattering, the massage lotion got bacteria in it, the whipped cream can is squirting out straight up nitrous oxide, etc.

i don't know what's more horrendous , the glitched massage oil overlay or this dress . what in the penny, nickel, dime is this ??

when i picked castle ruins for the final date i was envisioning like, a cute grassy hill with rocks scattered around, overlooking the sea . cute romantic vibes ... only for that shit to end up being a brick wall 😭 it's still a cute background though, and the date was nice

FB, where's my damn suit ! (i know i'm probably the only person that wants one but like, even the queen herself, s2 MC, had a suit option at prom) i ended up going with the black dress, which was a good shout because it actually looks really good with claudia . we're giving sun and moon 🌚🌞 <3

of course we won, but with the way this season's been going i wouldn't have been surprised if we somehow had a tie with sienna (i know it's not possible though because she gets dumped if you aren't wlw. if you're wondering about the ranking it was 4th: hazel/hari 3rd: sienna/kyle 2nd: bea/theo)

before going outside MC had a conversation with claudia's mother, and i loved this. minus the land part, this is the kinda shit i'd want as gifts IRL

when i tell you i groaned out loud when i saw who the VIP guest was. also, during the recap of our villa journey i have no clue why he was acting like i chose to be with jin in the recoupling prior the final one, did FB forget it was boy's choice ? (the AI is AI-ing girl...)

spin the block...? You can’t be talking like that White Baby

FB really screwed over the people who were romancing finn, i'm actually gagged . granted i think you're a bit delulu if you picked love instead of money with anybody besides lulu , but finn actually was an LI option. this is worse than hamish getting with ivy, i genuinely wanna know wtf were they thinking

the diamond scene with finn was the least robotic conversation this whole season, perhaps the misogynistic creeps that wrote season 5 came back to write that pile of bullshit. don't bother buying it. if you really wanna know: finn got back with kat, they tried to have an open relationship and it flopped

is he an option to run away with or what? i don't know because i slammed the tf out of the "i'm in a relationship" option 👹

love or money time, and i picked love of course ! i would say we walked off into the sunset but it's already night time

next week's volume is gonna be a reunion and ... ugh 😐 respectfully, they should've just pulled the plug here . at this point the only other islanders i care about are bea & theo, but after the final recoupling they pretty much became nonexistent (and knowing FB, this reunion is probably gonna be dedicated to helping one of these wack ass couples fix their relationship drama ...)

[marcyification]

"Get down." The loud voice above you echoed, but you didn't pay any mind to him. You pulled yourself up onto the small house roof, you could feel his frustration building.

"I don't want to get you down myself. Get down." His voice dropped to a low growl. You didn't listen, instead you began to dash across the roof. The snow fell heavy around you and you didn't know why or how it happened but- you felt yourself loose your footing.

You let out a scream as you fell onto your back, your body involuntarily rolling to the side. You weren't able to stop- you hit the snow covered ground with a soft thud.

Pain shot through every inch of your body and you laid there, squeezing your knees to your chest. Thankfully the snow had broken the fall but..it still hurt. Badly.

There was a sharp exhale that broke the silence and a shadow cast over you. There wasn't much light to begin with, but as you peaked out from your arms- what was left of it was blocked by the biggest hand you'd ever seen. You gasped and tried to back up but you hit the rough brick wall. You groaned and began to cry as the hand stopped in front of you.

You were waiting for him to grab you- but it never happened. Instead he laid his hand out as much as he could in the slightly narrow walkway for you to climb on. That was unusual. Normally he just grabbed you whenever he wanted. You looked up and he had an unreadable expression on his face.

"Let me make sure you didn't hurt yourself." He said in a slightly commanding voice. You shook your head and tried to turn away, but his hand got just a bit closer. "Please." He added, though it still wasn't very genuine. He sounded monotone, almost robotic.

You shook your head and looked away, upset and angry that he was even trying to help. "I don't want to force you. Please let me see." He said in a still-cold voice. You whimpered but looked back at his hand, slowly nodding. You stood up and shakily approached his hands, limping rather terribly.

You stared at his hand..the fact that it was so much bigger than you was horrifying. He could crush you with a finger if he wanted too, without even realizing it too. You..you didn't want to think about that.

You shakily climbed onto his hand, avoiding eye contact. He couldn't tell if you were cold or scared..he guessed it was both. The man was completely still as you climbed onto his hand. You made your way to his palm and almost collapsed against him. He was so overwhelmingly warm..

He raised you up to his face, which honestly made you feel rather dizzy and almost sick. He was so large, it felt like forever before his hand stopped just short of his chin. He gently moved your weak body with his finger..for somebody so large he was scarily cautious. "You don't appear to be harmed. Why would you do something like that?" He huffed, making you flinch.

You were too weak to respond..you just shook your head and cried into his hand. He looked slightly uncomfortable..but he let you cry. He slowly lowered his hand down to his chest, depositing you just below one of the buttons on his shirt. You were confused for a moment, before realizing he'd put you there for a reason.

"Rest. Take a nap, just lay there, I don't care. Just please don't move around too much." He said. You didn't even have time to respond before his hand covered your body- and the space around you. You laid there for a moment before curling onto his side. This was better than just laying out in the cold like you usually did.

At least you had somewhere warm to sleep.

[ominous-feychild-writes]

Check out Part 1 first!

Arachno’s giant spider-like robot kicks Noah in midair, sending him flying through the air. His trip ends as he’s slammed into the new brick-and-mortar apartment that was finished just yesterday.

If I had the wherewithal to do anything but worry about Noah, I’d wonder if supervillains do these sorts of things on purpose. Do they huddle up every morning, debating with each other where to strike next? Do they share current news with each other? Do they go out of their way to figure out what could cause the most pain every single day?

But I don’t have the wherewithal to do that. I don’t even have enough sense left in me to stand still and wait for Noah to come to me for healing. Because, instead of digging himself out of the wall and flying to me or joining Supernova against Arachno, he slumps in place against the wall.

Then he starts falling.

I don’t even scream.

Without hesitating, I swipe up my repurposed glider stolen from one of the endless villains Noah’s fought, throw it out in front of me, and zip toward him as quickly as the glider lets me.

“Elixir, what are you—” Supernova screams, but I barely hear her.

Mechanical pistons whir, hiss, and creak as Arachno’s mech flings its legs around again. I weave through them and lean forward to descend and—

I nearly sob as I catch Noah, but the momentum flips my glider in circles before it’s able to righten itself.

Tears fill my eyes, and I don’t know if it’s from the pain of my arms breaking and instantly healing or the relief of saving Noah. But we’re not in the clear yet. Another spider-mech leg tries swiping me out of the air, but I cling tighter to Noah as I let my powers heal him and continue to weave through them.

He’s unconscious. He’s still breathing, but he’s unconscious.

Noah has never passed out mid-fight before.

I look down at him for just a second.

A second too long.

Something dark flashes in front of me, then everything goes dark.

Part 1 | Part 3

Divider from @cafekitsune

[rowavolo]

how dare you not elaborate on maleko,,,, “oh he’s basically just my take on capitano” what Is It,,,,, holds out a plate like a poor victorian boy,,,,

— blue (ty for the acct and the tag btw!! i will go snooping now)

HELLO im so sorry. i genuinely forgot not everyone has the same exact brand of capitano brainrot that my partner and i do . so some ramblies below the cut in a very disorganised fashion :3

there may also be some spoilers in here for the capitano x kemonomimi reader fic im working on which will totally get updated one day i prommy

Ok so Maleko (hereby referred to as capitano) is indeed my take on GI capitano but better in every single way (joking but only a little)

I sort of passively imagine him to also be from the old mondstadt, so he has some knowledge surrounding that, and it's extra jarring when he tries to speak Mondstad's native language, people are just sort of like. "um. why are you speaking in ye olde german mondstadt"

despite what his muscle and strength might have you believe, he's genuinely not a very violent guy, he just happens to be willing to use anything and everything at his disposal to reach whatever end goals are in his mind (presumably something god-hating. or maybe hes just tagging along for the funny)

he's also fiercely loyal, as in would die and kill for someone at a moment's notice level of loyal. its almost unnerving.

he's also very very quiet - folks dont tend to notice it due to how loud his presence seems, but he barely utters a word - his orders usually get passed through his generals or simple grunts or hand gestures. it's shockingly effective.

on a similar note, i do imagine he actually has selective mutism that kicks in around more than a handful of people, but it's not really something that seems to hinder him

I know he's some species of Creature to me. not entirely sure which. definitely dragon-adjacent (of course), but there's also a part of me that wants him to be something with an exoskeleton, so that in some places, the armour is literally just Him. He definitely has a more beasty form to go along with the humanoid one too!

hes actually a huge softie, but hides it well enough that nobody ever really notices or questions it (though his fellow harbingers do like to speculate behind his back. theyre just Like That. gossipy mom group)

wears his hair tightly wound/braided in protective styles, it's super long and he needs it out of the way especially during battle (yes hes creature. yes he can have hair. these two can coexist). He'll occasionally adorn it with little trinkets and the like, but his main concern is keeping it from hindering him Without lopping it all off (he finds it more difficult to care for and make look Good when it's short. it just goes FLOOF).

Actually really enjoys strategizing. He's a powerhouse on the field and can turn the tide of a battle at a moments notice, but given time to plan ahead, he usually doesn't need to (i imagine him and kokomi would actually have a lot to talk about!). Because of this, there are also some board games he enjoys, as well as genius invocation.

he is not very expressive. it is very hard to tell when/if he likes someone because the line between tolerance and annoyance is so so blurred. folks say it's due to the helmet but in actuality his face is just Like That.

he is, however, very polite. unless someone is actively hindering him in some way while hes trying to do something, he will not do anything about it. but if they start getting in the way, theyre getting grabbed by the scruff like a kitten and put at arm's length.

oh hes also very big. VERY BIG. closer in size to the robot we see sandrone with in the trailer, if anything. like. brick wall of a man big. has to duck under most doorways big. HUUUUGE. foul legacy sized at the very LEAST. just broader.

he doesn't often find time to indulge in any hobbies, and even if he does, he tends to spend it training instead because the idea of not doing useful things sets him on edge.

HOWEVER if someone (cough . me . cough. ) were to force him to take a break, he'd enjoy hobbies that involve creating things for the ones he loves. Woodcarving is definitely a past time of his, he's a very good cook (but refuses to do it because he knows others will bother him about it), and he has a soft spot for cheesy romance books (like.. they stare wistfully at each other from across the ballroom level cheesy) and period pieces.

i feel like theres so so much more to say about him but i cant THINK of it right now. but anyways my cappy my beloved hes soooo silly <3!!!!!!

I hope this was enough to feed you, Blue!!

Friendly reminder not to copy or repost my work, feed it to AI learning modules, or otherwise steal it!

[normaltothemax]

Pinned against a wall prompts [ KISS ]: sender pins receiver against the wall and kisses them passionately. [dick @ clint owo]

He did something stupid. Again. It was stupid and reckless and he just about killed himself out in the field and he knows someone’s going to rip him a new asshole for it. Whether that’s Natasha or Dick or Coulson (now that they’re back on speaking terms) or literally anyone else that knows him. Someone’s going to tear into him because he just took a running jump off the roof of a skyscraper with no warning. No grappling arrows left, no safety net, just the knowledge that he couldn’t stay up there any longer (considering he wanted to not have all his limbs torn off by the robot-alien-thingys that’d been swarming) and that Tony was in the area and would (probably) catch him.

Which he did.

At the last second.

Thank god.

That doesn’t make the jump any less stupid, though, he knows that. Which might be why he cringes when he sees Nightwing stalking towards him. Shit. He didn’t realize Dick had been close by, thought he’d at least have a bit more time to come up with some sort of explanation other than “it seemed like a good idea, at the time.”

He’s unsurprised when he’s slammed into a nearby brick wall, half-expects to get punched for that stunt. So he’s completely taken off guard when, instead, he’s kissed.

Oh.

Okay, sure, why not. He’s glad to see Dick too. Is happy to kiss him back just as desperately, just as passionately, adrenaline still coursing through his veins. He’s flushed, breathless, barely registering someone (probably Tony) wolf whistling through the comms, when Dick eventually pulls back enough to let them breathe again. Not a single coherent thought in his brain. It’s all white noise. It takes him a full minute before he’s able to speak, and when he does, it’s not very eloquent.

“What?”

@dramatisperscnae (x)

[seagull-scribbles]

Lie Awake

A TMNT 2012 Casey and Raph ficlet [AO3]

word count: 1,191

just a small drabble focusing on Casey and his view of their relationship. I didn't write this as a ship fic, but I do ship them so you can interpret it as platonic or romantic

Casey hates people seeing him as weak. He wears every cut, bruise and mark like a medal, a badge of honour for a hockey game well played or a fight well fought. He hates when neighbours or the school populace look at him with pity in their eyes and sympathy coating their words like sponge covering a toddlers playroom or bubble wrap suffocating a porcelain doll.

So what if he doesn't have a mom anymore? Who cares about his deadbeat dad? Casey is keeping his promise and at almost 17 is protecting and looking after his sister, the best player on a hockey team within the region and a vigilante the purple dragons will write legends about. He is strong and brave. He bounces back from anything with a witty comment and a toothy grin. Missing incisors be damned.

So why is this different? Strong, calloused, leathery hands gently graze over fragile skin. Instead of the usual burn of anger such caution would ignite, Casey Jones feels a sense of calm and his breath almost gets caught in his throat. Almost. Arms he has seen tear robots to shreds, dislocate joints from vigilantes, break monstrous jaws are now delicately tracing over his pale soft surface, well- it should be pale but the current complection is primarily a mixture of injuries, marks and dirt. Purple, blue, green, yellow, pinks, reds- any colour besides a natural skin tone coats his body like a vandalised back alley wall.

The hand stops moving and instead a comforting weight is placed across Casey's chest and torso. The weight he has seen choke and crush wrong-dooers, crack brick walls and dent spaceship walls now comfortably rests along his side like a weighted blanket, the arm across his middle.

Awareness of his current location comes back. Why's the ceiling looking blurry suddenly? Casey realises his eyes are starting to water. These can't be tears of frustration though? Maybe these are not new tears but the remnants of the storm that leaked from those eyes earlier this evening, in the privacy of these four walls as his own inner walls crumbled in Front of his current companion. No mask or face paint or armour, no facade of cokyness and happiness. His emotions are raw and his mind is still screaming at him, maybe that's why he hadn't noticed the burning eyes. These tears can't be new. Definitely not! He's happy and safe now, why would they be? He is brought from his thoughts as a hard smooth surface buts the bottom of his jaw, sending a short vibration of pain through his skull.

"'Ya sure this is alright?" A gruff voice nervously whispers.

"Yeah, 's fine" he mumbles back before finally looking down at the friend pressed against him. His own voice sounds raspy and sore. Perfect.

Raph has put his head back down on the pillow, his beak fitting like a jigsaw puzzle in the gap above Casey's shoulder. The bolt he'd felt had been from Ralph bucking his head to hit his jaw with the top curve of his beak. It hurt a little but he isn't fragile. Raph knows that. All he can feel now is that comforting weight on his side. He's focusing on it. Raph certainly wasn't scared to touch him. Why else would he hit him to gain his attention?

Soft cold breath gently brushes against Casey's neck in delicate puffs.

"I can sleep on the floor y'know?" tiredly drifts out of the terrapin creatures mouth "This bed ain't exactly made for two"

"Nah it's your room, I'm the intruder"

"Hmm" Raph lazily hums and slightly squeezes his ribs, getting comfortable in his squashed position on the edge of the bed "a warm one".

Casey sits there in silence for a bit, his friend drifting off to sleep. The overwhelming smell of sweat and blood and the sewers clogging his nose. Raphael is the only person Casey talks to about his home life, the only one he talks about his troubles too. He knows Raph instils that same comfort and confidence in him as he tells the lanky teen his own insecurities and secrets.

Tender moments like these however? They usually proceed fights. Fights they start coated in darkness or just heated spars between friends who are shouting and blowing off steam. They'd collapse with exhaustion on some random rooftop and through jagged breaths become vulnerable, no eye contact, maybe a squeeze of the hand or a punch in the side to let the other one know they're there. Kind, soft and comforting pain. Like the kind you get from laughing too hard or playing a game. It is strange to think they are now squashed and laid across each other, even if the reptile insists the body warmth was an exciting upgrade to his sleeping arrangement.

Casey was kicked out tonight after a particularly bad fight at home, he limped his way to his usual meeting spot and a few texts later Raph was on his way. He's going to be staying here with his friend, just tonight... he'll go home tomorrow. No one else in the sewer family needs to know why, Raph will come up with a lame excuse to torment him with. The thought makes him smile a little. Raph is the epitome of masculinity. Testosterone coats his existence like a second shell. He's violent and abrasive and yet here he is, not throwing punches, but still being gentle. His body weight is not entirely on top of the teen, but it is there along his right side nonetheless. He wasn't repulsed by Casey and he hadn't tried sugar coating anything all night. When he 'picked him up' he'd joked at Casey's expense and made the boy laugh. Casey wasn't too sure how Raph managed to create such a strong positive moment up on that rooftop in those circumstances. But none of the Hamato clan followed logic by nature so maybe that is not so surprising.

Casey isn't sure why this isn't affecting him the way it usually does. He feels calm and safe, even stripped down to his boxers and pressed into an old smelly matrice and cold metal wall.

Maybe it's because he keeps reminding himself that Raph doesn't see the squishy, thin human as delicate. He knows the turtle enough to know he considers Casey a great enough fighter to stand amongst his brothers, without any formal training or skill.

Maybe that's why this tender moment is nice? Raph isn't scared Casey will break, he wouldn't touch him if he thought he'd be hurt. Raph wouldn't joke with him and invite him here like this. The ninja had seen the boy break earlier, as he broke down and sobbed on the bed when they first arrived at the decorated subway car. The weight against him now is heavy, not crushing. It's grounding him.

Why is being treated tenderly so nice right now? Maybe that's the kind of privilege having a best friend creates? He doesn't remember his childhood friend creating such a welcoming environment before though.

Casey hates people seeing him as weak. Raph doesn't, even now.

[matchamilkislover]

In The Darkest Corners, 11.

pairing: vi x fem!oc (reader with a name)

warnings: mature themes, just an overall minors beware, violence, just general arcane-ness.

word count: 1868

synopsis: just when everything can’t get worse, of course, it does. olive might finally be close to finding answers…but not in the way she wanted to. not like this.

author’s note: yikes! anyways, this is the last chapter i previously wrote and posted elsewhere before finally posting it here. we’ll see how long it takes me to write the next chapter ;)

don’t forget to read the other parts first!!

⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆ ⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆ ⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ

Olive had always known that returning to the undercity would be dangerous, but she hadn't expected it to be this difficult. As Olive stumbled through the dimly lit streets of the undercity, she couldn't help but feel like she might have made the wrong choice. It was hard enough to adjust after just barely grasping onto Vi, and especially Cait, and now that she lost them, she found herself back in the place she had tried so hard to forget. Soon enough, she found herself drinking for hours at The Last Drop more often than not.

She pushed open the doors of the dingy bar again, the stench of alcohol and sweat hitting her like a brick wall as she made her way to the counter. Grint, the familiar bartender, grimaced as she came in. “Your usual?” Olive gave a heavy sigh and nodded, taking a long blink and leaning both arms on the counter. Grint eyed her warily before pouring her a shot of something that looked like it could strip paint off a wall. Olive downed the shot and motioned for another, her mind beginning to cloud. It wasn't long before she had reached that tipping point where all of her struggles seemed to trickle away.

That's when she saw a familiar face and giant figure approaching her from across the room. Sevika. Olive clenched her jaw and looked away, hoping and begging that Silo’s giant rat was heading for someone else. The thud in the barstool next to her confirmed her fears.

“What do you want?” Olive spat, slightly turning her head to glare at the larger woman. Sevika met her eyes and smirked.

“Same thing as you. To have a drink,” she replied smugly. Grint’s eyes flicked quickly to Olive before he slid Sevika a drink. Olive’s pleading eyes tried to meet his, but he had already looked away and moved across the bar. Olive cursed him in her head, but couldn’t blame him for not wanting to get involved. She threw back the rest of her drink and stood up. Unfortunately, Sevika had the upper hand on her, and when Olive stumbled the moment she tried to take a step, Sevika’s strong arm shot out and grabbed hers with a firmer grip than Olive would’ve liked.

“Why don’t you take a seat,” Sevika suggested in a voice laced with venom and dripping with honey. Olive took a shaky breath and returned to her seat. Last time she had tangled with Sevika, she had had Vi with her, so she felt almost unstoppable; alone, not so much.

"What do you want?" Olive tried to sound confident and forceful. Her voice came out slurred instead.

“Oh, just some company,” Sevika replied with a smirk. “But you know, it’s no fun to drink alone.” She gestured a robotic finger towards Grint, who seemed to gulp before pulling out a drink that looked fairly similar to Sevika’s and sliding it to her, who then slid it to Olive. “Drink up.” She lit a small cigar and began to smoke. Olive ran her fingers on the rim of the glass, but didn’t drink.

“Leave me alone, or you’ll be leaving here with one less arm than the last time we crossed paths.” Olive’s courage had appeared in a surge, but would be quick to fade. Sevika chuckled darkly.

“Oh, come one,” she crooned. “If you really meant that, you would’ve already done it. Or at least, you would have tried,” she said. Olive’s fickle courage vanished, and her hands grew clammy. A shiver went down her spine.

She tried to muster her courage again. “G-get away from me.” Fuck. Her stutter gave her away. She tried to stand again, but Sevika’s hand landed on her shoulder before she could even rise from her seat and kept her firmly in place.

“I’m not going to ask you again.” Sevika growled. “Drink.” Olive gulped and took a nervous sip. If Sevika was going to seek revenge on her now, at least Vi wouldn’t be there to see it. But still, she couldn’t help but wish that Vi was there. To her surprise, the world stayed relatively in focus, and her head didn’t start to spin out of control. She let go of a tightly held breath. Sevika had the nerve to laugh again.

“What, little birdy, thought I put something in your drink?” She asked mockingly. Olive rolled her eyes and continued drinking. The smirk remained on Sevika’s face. Releasing a puff of smoke into the air, she spoke again. “You know, I really do see what Vi saw in you.”

Olive was caught off guard. “Excuse me?” She spluttered, and her face grew red. Sevika leaned in.

“Just look at you,” she murmured slowly, head tilting as she looked the smaller up and down. She leaned back again. “Who could resist?” She took a long drag from her cigar and blew her smoke into the air above them, watching as it curled over their heads. Olive scoffed.

“You’re disgusting,” She shook her head as she replied and took another drink. Sevika shrugged and took yet another drag, paired with a sip from her drink.

“No, it’s true. I really do wonder what I’d have to do to get in your pretty little pants,” Sevika continued. “Maybe I should get myself thrown in prison to ask Vi.”

Olive was too taken aback by what Sevika said to even throw a retort back. Prison? Why would Vi be back in prison? Her mind flew back and forth from Sevika’s disgusting comment and what she had said about Vi. She clenched her jaw. “Fuck. You.” She stood up so angrily and forcefully that her seat clattered onto the floor behind her. But as soon as she had stood up, she was hit with a wave of dizziness and nausea, and the world went black, and she herself clattered to the floor.

Vi sat alone in her prison cell, her back against the cold stone wall. She had been locked up for only a few weeks now, but it felt like an eternity. It was as if time had stopped, and she was stuck in this endless cycle of pain and regret. The memories of Olive haunted her day and night, but all she could do was hope and convince herself that she had made the right choice. That Olive would be safe without her.

Vi had fallen back into her old habits in prison. She would pick fights with anyone who crossed her path, no matter how big or small they were. It was her way of coping with the pain and nightmares that consumed her. Soon enough, a vaguely familiar face crossed her path in the mess hall. Vulcar. A higher level henchman of Silco’s, known for his twisted habits but relatively low IQ. This was sure to be fun.

Vi stepped back and raised her fists, ready for a fight. "You don't scare me, Vulcar," she said, her voice low and threatening. "I'll take you on any day of the week."

Vulcar laughed, his deep, menacing chuckle sending shivers down Vi's spine. "Is that so?" he said, his eyes glittering with malice. "Well, I'm looking forward to it."

The two of them circled each other, each waiting for the other to make the first move. Finally, Vi lunged forward, throwing a hard punch at Vulcar's face. He dodged it easily, grabbing her arm and twisting it behind her back. Vi winced in pain but refused to give up.

"You're not getting off that easy," she growled, kicking out at Vulcar's knees. He stumbled back, and Vi used the opportunity to break free of his grip. She landed a solid punch to his jaw, and he retaliated with a vicious uppercut.

Vi stumbled back, her head spinning. She shook it off and charged at Vulcar again, but this time, he was ready for her. He grabbed her by the neck, lifting her off the ground and choking her. Vi gasped for breath, her vision starting to fade. She struggled against Vulcar's grip, but he was too strong. Just when she thought it was all over, he suddenly released her, shoving her to the ground.

"You're not worth the trouble," he spat, turning to leave. Vi lay on the ground, panting and wheezing, feeling defeated. But as Vulcar walked away, he tossed a crumpled piece of paper at her. "Here," he said. "Something to remember me by."

Once back in her cell, Vi slumped against the familiar stone wall and opened the envelope with hands she was desperately trying to hide the shaking of. Anything that Silco directed towards her intentionally couldn’t be good. But it was even worse than she expected.

She pulled out a torn piece of paper from the envelope, and her heart stopped. Words scrawled in purple ink littered the paper, but that’s not what caught her eye. What caught her eye was the lock of hair attached to the paper that had an unmistakable hue. Olive. Her heart sank deeper as she noticed the drops of blood near the hair and read the clearly threatening message written. It was short, and vague, but Vi knew what it meant. She knew what Silco wanted her to do. Soon enough, her fear turned to rage, and her blood boiled. First Powder, and now Olive? Trap or not, Vi would be damned if she let prison stop her again.

She stuffed the letter in her pocket and stood, slamming herself against her cell bars. “HEY!” she yelled at the top of her lungs, disregarding the sting in her throat. “LET ME OUT! NOW!” her continued yelling only received cruel chuckles from the few other inmates and lone guard that resided on her floor. She ignored the desperate emotions clawing at her as she banged on the door. “God fucking damnit…” she moaned, sliding to the floor in front of her cell door. She punched the bars once more before she brought her hands up to hold her head. “No…”

As time passed, Caitlyn grew more and more anxious about Olive. She hoped she might’ve heard from her by now, but no such luck. Jayce had been avoiding her like the plague as well, which couldn’t mean anything good. As she paced around her room for the millionth time, repeating in her head over and over again what had happened the last time they saw each other, her resolve finally hardened. If Olive wasn’t going to come to her, Caitlyn at least had to go to her to make sure that she was okay. The thought of going into the Undercity for the first time, let alone going by herself, of course terrified her; but what terrified her more was the thought that something might have happened to Olive. That she knew now where Olive was, but if she didn’t go searching for her this time, the guilt she would have if something happened to her best friend would eat her alive. So, under the cover of night, Caitlyn slipped out of her room and off of her balcony, headed directly for the very place she swore she would never go.

[maxwell-grant]

Soooooooooooooo, Lavender Jack Season 3, and overall thoughts on the series proper?

Anonymous asked: So... end of Lavender Jack... what did you think of it and more generally of the season 3 ?

(spoilers)

Gonna do this by bullet points to cover Season 3 specifically, because if you follow me I really do not have to tell you that Lavender Jack is an all-timer comic that fulfills everything it set out to do and then so much more and that it's one of my favorite things ever and an endless source of joy and inspiration to me, and that I am being perfectly normal right now about the fact that it's ended for good. I think Season 3 is as much of a seismic jump in quality from Season 2 as Season 2 was to Season 1, and I was singing this thing’s praises to high heaven off Season 1 alone.

So here goes:

Of all characters that I expected to come back I actually did not think Lord Hawthorne would be one of them, I really did think he was gone completely. Instead, he jumped from Tarzan to Frankenstein-Bane to achieve his final form as Lavender Jack’s twisted opposite and the ultimate brick wall for Mimley to crash against, the fighter that Mimley cannot defeat but needs to try anyway, and all of this is framed as an unspeakable violation of what little personhood he even had left by church, state and capitalism combined, a physical embodiment of institutional violence that co-opts heroic imagery and nobility and turns lonely and broken men into robotic instruments of slaughter.

Hawthorne is the story’s Ultimate Monster once again, more terrifying and violent and destructive than ever, and he once again he winds up being one of it’s biggest victims too. From one of my favorite takes on Tarzan, he became one of my favorite takes on Frankenstein’s Monster, which is a MUCH higher competition.

I truly adored that he was allowed a redemptive finale, and that the bulk of his and Mimley’s end conflict hinged not on Mimley being finally able to defeat him, but Mimley’s attempts to save him, to make up to him for his death, to be the only man in all of existence who looked at this horrible wild man with kindness and the insistence that someone should try to save him, finally reaching out to him in some form, and that leading to Hawthorne finally, at long last, using all of his potential for something more than just “another laborious climb to a locked-room murder” at the orders of someone else.

I loved that his finale was him adorned with that classic Frankenstein imagery of the lonely Creature in a cloak atop the alps, but here, the sun shines warmly in the background as Hawthorne at last is given a moment of peace. I’m gonna be thinking about Hawthorne quite a while.

Worst Face 2022

I KNEW IT I KNEW THAT THE BLACK NOTE WAS ALIVE SOMEHOW, I was very glad to have him come back for the finale and especially as an ally, he’s such a delightfully weird creature

“I took many other names in the course of my duties...and many more during my tutelage under the Five-Shadowed Man” YesHaHaYesSicko.png

I was definitely not expecting Cragen to make out of this alive but, a second death would have been reduntant. His final fate is one I find incredibly interesting, delightfully twisted in a way that only fits him too well. The bulk of his arc this season was inspired by him escaping from death only to realize that all of his efforts as a masked villain did nothing but embolden his father’s tyranny and the growing rot within Gallery he strove so hard to destroy, and so he assisted his once mortal enemies in finishing off said threat once for all and, given another chance at life and a final mask to put on, he will be using said chance to effect lasting political change as Gallery’s mayor, not as himself but pretending to be the monstrous tyrant he threw his life away to destroy.

I find it such an interesting note to leave out the character on, a supervillain vigilante realizing that all of his incredible talents and efforts put into masked terrorism only ever emboldened the systems he wished to destroy, finding out his explosive revolutionary anarchy only filled in craters and vacuums to be filled and exploited by fascist war dogs and capitalist puppetmasters, and in response he does the one thing you never expect supervillain vigilantes to do: He changes, he makes amends with the heroes, and he reshapes himself to affect change through the “boring” systemic route, putting his supervillain persona behind him to prove that he’s actually serious about his desire for political change.

It’s a change that you just wouldn’t see in a long-form superhero comic book that would inevitably require the character to be brought back again, but it being placed here at the end of the story means The Black Note gets to actually put his money where his mouth is and do what none of the Magnetos and Ra’s al Ghuls and Doctors Doom can do without that being inevitably averted.

I dearly, dearly adored all the additions to the supporting cast and they are a major factor why I’ve adored this season so much, easily the saddest thing about Lavender Jack ending is that I would have liked to see all of these characters and more show up more often. Sister Rex was a delightfully excessive cartoon with some really wonderful expressions, I loved seeing how the Princess of Pilaf concept set up way back in Season 1 played out. I really liked Uncle Salazar and his chapters, loved his dynamic with Ducky and what an excellent wild card he turned out to be in the finale. And GOD the Captain Berrada chapters, I could have read those forever, truly wonderful.

You can’t just make up all these interesting and wonderful new characters and make this world so much more vibrant and lively when we’re hitting the home stretch of never seeing them again, that shouldn’t be legal.

Johnny Summer is the coolest character and I really wish he’d appeared more, the chapters he shared with Mimley were some of my favorites and I was rooting for them so much, I really don’t wanna say goodbye to him.

“Mine’s for cutting the checks, I suppose” I DID NOT THINK THAT WAS GONNA HAVE THE PAYOFF IT DID

I loved the progression of how things escalated, with Mimley and the League escalating in members and tactics as the villains and exes all join forces. I loved the inclusion of new members like Sergeant Bethke and Miss Crow and Vassar as one-off agents as everyone, all the characters, all come back or debut as the fate of everyone hangs in the balance. It’s the kind of thing you really have to reserve for a no-holds-barred finale

I really do wanna dedicate a post specifically to Honoria Crabb, I was waiting for the series to end to talk about her arc in full but I will say: I utterly loved her growing role and particularly that moment where Ducky tells her that she is the reason why there is a Lavender League in the first place, that she turned this mutually-shared mask of revenge into a mission statement and force of good.

So much of the plan the villains had for the finale hinged on the war, a thing that so many pulp-inspired heroes inevitably deal with in some form or capacity, but that it all came down specifically to a scheme for money, Lady Hawthorne puppeteering war mongers and capitalists alike in a scheme to bleed Gallery dry to start over elsewhere, that the looming war was only part of the greater problem at hand. That Lady Hawthorne’s final plan was merely a long-winded and petty ploy at weaponizing bloodsucking capitalism for the sake of her all-consuming revenge, one that ends with her fleeing without putting up a fight and simply letting others to take the fall

Honestly, if anyone was gonna get shanked to death in this comic, it had to be Giddy and Marco.

Lady Hawthorne’s plan foiled by the Lavender League coming together stronger than ever and turning her own tactics against her, really there was no way this could end but with a pointed statement of Lavender Jack as the titular “Villains”, who win by being better villains than everyone else.

Whether it was Ducky at last cracking Lady Hawthorne’s cool (As your sister in kind, you...you embarass me), Cragen cracking open Endo Gall’s mask to reveal the sheer animal viciousness he hid until his dying breath, only to then steal it, Ferrier solving mankind’s ultimate crimes by turning the tables on those who control the systems allowing for said crimes to go unchecked, and Mimley saving the day by extending softness and understanding to his personal boogeyman and giving his life for a chance to save the Ultimate Monster, and have that favor repaid in turn, every character had the perfect ending. It works very hard to make it’s overally happy ending feel incredibly earned.

The ending does leave open the possibility of these characters returning in some form, but it really is a farewell and it’s the best farewell it could have gotten.

I still stand by an earlier assertion that Lavender Jack is a seismic cracking of the code in regards not just to adapting or approaching pulp heroes, but superhero fiction as well. It breaks them down and rebuilds them in the most wonderfully fascinating ways, it remains one of the most enjoyable and fascinating things I’ve ever read and will be reading again very soon.

[toastess-with-the-mostess]

Let's Rewind! Toast watches Voltron: Defender of The Universe (1984)

Season 1, Episode 5: The Princess Joins Up

Just from the episode title alone, I know my boy Sven is about to be tossed out like TRASH

I wonder what Zarkon wants with Allura, Lotor hasn't been introduced yet so maybe just a political prisoner or something

All the guards and prisoners are like ??? because haggar swears she'll upgrade the winner of this next gladiator fight so they can go against voltron if they didn't push the "all the soldiers were robots not people" narrative so much I'd agree but one of them asked how she could improve robots,, many ways sir and it's worse because she uses magic

Again some of these robeast and alien designs are so cool, very creative and reminds me biology is a suggestion when it comes to making a new species

A look into haggar lab, interesting actually it's just being used as a torture chamber where she infuses magic into them while they're still awake to feel the pain, horrifying

On Arus again, now it's the team calling out to the remaining Arusians into the tunnel to give them safety in the castle AND LANCE ALMOST FALLS OFF A CLIFF, GREAT START It's ok Keith grabs him before he dies

Pidge and Hunk are also trying to convince some people to come by, too bad their main selling point is wanting their cooking because it doesn't work with them either

I couldn't find a gif of the team sitting on this brick wall which I thought was super cute, and I don't want to screenshot that rn, so now it's up to imagination but fr trust me the team are all cuties

"I hate to give [Allura] the bad news :(" to "Sorry! No one wants to help!" PIDGE A LITTLE MORE TACT PLEASE LMAO

Something interesting, Hunk points out that they can't use Voltron to outright attack Zarkon and Allura agrees because he's a defender Knowing that they defeat everyone at the end after outright attacking castle doom, it seems kind of ironic BUT ALSO in Voltron Force (2011) we get an episode that revisits this legit subject and answers why or why not that would change That'll be a fun episode to review when I get to it

Again why would he want Princess Allura so bad, political prisoner is my best idea here This is probably where the Keith/Allura shipping started because after Coran mentions that Keith is super quick to threaten violence against the guy if he tries to touch her I mean ignoring the fact that it's one of the more obvious pairings lol

An attack! And they destroyed that satellite dish thing that Sven and Allura just finished building, rip

They routinely call the lions "space lions" which I guess makes sense but if Earth or at least the GG have been in contact with aliens for god knows how long it feels like it's kind of redundant to specifically say they're from space

Again with the GoLion references, I don't remember it being this abundant it's just them saying the name GoLion btw, nothing subtle LMAO

This week's robeast is called the Dieklops! They named this one pretty well, so there's some hope for the future, This one is heavier than the last one at only 4100 short tons!

I like to think that the team fights in the lions first before forming Voltron because they're trying to see what it can do, and it's a lot easier to annoy a robeast into showing its cards when there's more of you

Activate interlocks, dynotherms connected, infracells up, mega thrusters are go! They finally did the chant this time! Maybe it's because I religiously rewatch Voltron Force (2011) but I expected them to say "Let's go voltron force!" but instead they just shouted Voltron that's ok too I guess

I didn't comment on the transformation sequence last time, but it's pretty cool because it reminds me of some frankenstein's monster type stuff especially because there are a lot of electricity crackles and zaps seen and heard when voltron forms

AND IM FREEEE FREEE FALLIN

Ok but actually though that's a really interesting landscape near the castle, pretty secure in case of ground attacks but what about when natural disasters hit? It probably isn't that safe

I know the show just pulls phrases out of its ass to sound futuristic but "nucleonic circut" is wild

Alfor CREATED voltron?? Again I'm twisting it to my own version because I can't trust them telling a linear story here, but my thinking is that after Voltron was officially split into five, Alfor later discovered them and had them slowly rebuilt as mechs which is why they form like this now

Man these guys suck at dodging

oh shit now the castle is getting taken apart I know what happens next but it's still wild

HELLO?? CORAN WHY WOULD YOU TELL HER TO SURRENDER WHEN YOU SAID THAT ZARKON NEVER BACKS DOWN

I think it's a nice touch that Voltron has expressions whenever he fights, kind of hints at his magical nature even though in this show they're just treated as machines and nothing more

Alfor ex machina returns and confirmation that Zarkon is the one who killed Alfor

Goodbye decrepit old castle of Arus, hellooo new futuristic version!

OH SHIT WATCH OUT ALLURA STAYS STRAPPED ok maybe I was wrong about this episode being the one where Sven gets nerfed

Robeast is defeated but as Allura monologues they show a slide show of all the lions with their pilots on top, except the first one we see is blue and Allura on top lol that must've been weird for kids who saw it air

Episode end! Another short one it feels like, or is it because it was such a simple premise This is the last one for tonight, and hopefully I'll be able to do one tomorrow, but it's my busiest day of the week :/