#iris' late night rambles

[the-red-thread-that-strangles]

Alright. Let's talk about Akai's and Furuya's fighting styles, control, and the ferris wheel fight, featuring some tangents on professionalism.

The second reason is the implied: Akai is (in general, probably not in this situation, because he is going along with the fight Rei wants) a professional, and professionals do not fight. A professional will either ambush or assassinate (you know, like the sniping Akai is so well-known for), and generally do everything in his power to avoid a fight. It's about gaining the advantage, pressing and keeping it, to maintain control over the situation. For comparison, fights are between people of roughly equal footing, and fighting follows rules. As a person who lives in the world of actual violence, Akai does not need the fancy dances of a fighting sport, he needs his rifles, guns, and a self-defense technique for when things go really bad and personal. (Incidentally, a professional will also plan, won't let his emotions get in the way, stay calm, and keep working in bad conditions - we also see these traits in Akai.) I can remember two instances of Akai fighting (there might be more)- the ferris wheel fight, and the one time he knocked out the people after Yumi (and arguably, they didn't really have a chance and it wasn't really a fight). Other than that, he's just coordinating and providing tactical support.

Akai using Jeet Kune Do for fighting is an interesting choice. It's not as well-known as many other fighting styles (hell, it's not even a fighting style, it's a self defense technique and really more of a philosophy or a principle), but it has a couple of key values that characterize him well. First off, it's hugely individualistic. Practitioner's are encouraged to find their own way, to find what works for them, which really is Akai in a nutshell, doing what he wants. Secondly, it is described as a highly efficient way to fight. There are few, if any, rules to Jeet Kune Do, you're expected to use whatever technique will help you the most in the moment. For this reason, it is also highly adaptable, and requires an appropriate mindset to use. This latter point, I think, really mirrors the approach the FBI has in the series - do what you need to in order to get the results we want, at whatever the cost.

The fact that it's a self defense technique is important for two reasons: one is the immediate one for our context - Akai's defending himself from an angry Rei on the ferris wheel.

With all that out of the way, let's get into the ferris wheel fight, and what we learn about them there.

For contrast, let's look at Rei. It's almost funny how little professionalism Rei has compared to Akai, when it comes to the world they're living in. Rei's choice of fighting style is boxing, and he's practicing a rather straightforward, aggresive version, with barely any defense, at great personal risk. That point about professionals not letting their emotions get in their way? Well, either Rei has never heard it, or he's deliberately ignoring it. Either way, it really holds him back from gaining and maintaing control.

(I would be remiss not to point out that boxing is also done for show, fitting for this show-off.)

Boxing might honestly be good for Rei in order get out his anger and to up his pain tolerance, but for the purpose of keeping him alive, it sucks. It's up close, it's personal, and it's dirty (that tagline might as well describe Furuya himself). A threat who's gotten into that range is already a problem. Sure, usually - though not in this instance - he's also got his handgun, with its limited reach, limited firepower. For his purposes, it might suffice - he's not supposed to be a fighter, and the advantage of his gun is in its concealability. I suppose he gets a couple points in professionalism for that choice, and for often bringing back-up, whether he's working for the PSB or the BO. For what it's worth, he's also likely trained in Kendo or something similar, as we see in Wild Police Story, but he doesn't really use it. We see Rei fighting rarely, but it happens; with Matsuda at the beginning of WPS, casually inflicting violence on a kidnapper, and now here on the ferris wheel.

It's so interesting to me how they interact here.

Despite both of them bleeding, it starts to feel like Akai is in control, or at least not dated by the fighting - he gets Rei good with Jeet Kune Do's signature One Inch Punch, but has enough presence of mind to casually grabs him so he doesn't fall to his death (which gets him shoved off with a foot. Give Furuya an inch, and he'll try to take your head). Furuya's meanwhile clearly enjoying himself, might have even entered the zone, a sort of battlejoy/trance, asking for a second round (here we go again, this is a fight, with certain rules, like rounds), and Akai, well, he's beaten up, but it doesn't look like he'd surrender to get Furuya off his back - despite it being an option that would end the fight early. We see both of them smiling at points in this exchange, and I think it speaks to both of them, inherently, being thrillseekers. Putting all they are into the outcome of this fight against a dangerous enemy is a thrilling brush with mortality.

Them fighting at all, on top of the ferris wheel, is stupid, plain and simple. They expect the BO to show up any minute, and they'd better be in peak condition - instead they indulge in this fight. Really, it's Rei launching himself at Akai, who's mostly dodging and defending where necessary (I say indulge, because he is armed, and could probably escalate/end the fight early). Fights happen for a variety of reasons, usually social (because otherwise we'd be talking about violence, not a fight), and this implies Rei sees Akai as roughly equal/wants him to have a fair fighting chance, following the social contract of announcing his presence. He launches the attack, takes the initiative but the distance is so large, and he telegraphs his intentions clearly enough that his advantage is minimal.

Akai has the distinct disadvantage of carrying his rifle case, protecting its contents, because he'll need them later. He is, as the series lets us know, a capable fighter (described stronger as Masumi, who can deal with Ran, an established capable martial artist), and we can see it in this fight. He's reading Rei's movements and blocking most of the hits - for what it's worth, Rei's style seems more focused on quantity of attacks over quality. He does get Akai with some unconventional angles of attack (like swinging up into a kick from falling), and mostly this initial struggle is about them fighting for control.

When we cut back to the fight, they're still at it. I find it interesting that Akai tries to talk Rei down throughout the fight. Because the presence of mind necessary to form coherent sentences in a fight is not nothing, and the fact that he at least tries to go for a different solution is noteworthy, even if it is ultimately useless.

Then Conan calls Akai. This is in a small pause to the fight, because, surprise surprise, fighting takes effort (another reason professionals avoid it). It is really funny to me how Rei respects the rules of a fight, but he also sees an opportunity in his opponent's distraction, and seizes it (at the cost of also throwing himself down into a chasm, the self-sacrificial bastard).

Only at this point does it feel like Akai is taking the fight more seriously. I'd wager this is a) because Rei has displayed the willingness to destroy himself to take Akai with him, b) due to the enclosed space - less space to dodge and c) because at least he is aware time is ticking. They're both injured, and the enemy is coming soon. This fight better be over quick.

They only don't fight each other to the death because of Conan's timely intervention. He calls to Akai for help, and just like that, the conflict is resolved, for now. Akai wordlessly rejects Rei's request for a second round, which Rei just...accepts. Allows Akai that level of control, and the control of the flow of information (namely, they don't tell Conan they've been at it). It baffles me, but then again, I suppose it is a fight, the fight has rules, and, clearly, something more important takes precedence. Then again, this whole damn exchange makes no logical sense. Rei has sworn bloody revenge on Akai, who just saved his life today, and instead of doing something about the BO they're fighting a little. Logic is nowhere to be seen, all of this is emotional. On both sides.

I guess bonus points in professionalism for working together for the rest of the rest of the movie, even if they're sharing intel with/depending on a literal child for the solutions to their problem. It's a very unusual set of circumstances indubitably not covered by their training, granted, so what can you do (I'd still love for the adults in this universe to do their job, sue me).

Last point of note for the movie, in my opinion, is Akai waiting after all the chaos is over for Rei to spot him. Is this a case of checking in and simultaneously showing that he, too, made it out alive? He is clearly noticed by Rei, and only then walks away. And Rei just lets him. Akai is in control, in the end.

[dark-muse-iris]

I don't have the energy for fanwar shit, especially when the songs aren't even good--or worse, not good anymore. 🤷‍♀️

[the-red-thread-that-strangles]

In honour of this motto, meet our cursed yet adorable ceiling lamp

2023

LOCATE THE WHIMSY

IF NONE, CREATE THE WHIMSY

MAINTAIN THE WHIMSY

[lficanthaveloveiwantpower]

nyallo nah! I crave more Idis rambling… 🗣️ 🌙 hehe if it’s not too much 🏃‍➡️

🗣️: Who’s the one that will ramble on about their highly specific interest while the other just sits back and nods along?

Idia is 100% the rambler. Iris doesn’t really talk about herself and her interests to others and prefers listening to Idia’s ramblings. It’s a bit hard to understand what he’s talking about because he 1)frequently uses ‘otaku’/internet slang a lot, 2)mostly talks about games, mechanics, codings, etc. which she isn’t really familiar with, 3)is really intelligent, 4)talks really fast especially when he’s excited. Despite this, the way he passionately talks about his interests makes her genuinely want to know more about them, so she tries her best to engage with this conversation instead of just listening to him. The more she’s interested in his ramblings the more she’ll bombard him with questions.

Once she warms up to Idia she’ll talk about herself and her interests, though sporadically.

🌙: Who has to force the other into having healthy sleeping habits? How well does that go for em?

Neither of them. Even before meeting Idia online Iris frequently stayed up late at night but ever since she met Idia online her sleeping habits worsened. They text for hours online till 3 AM, Idia in the midst of a gaming session while Iris is drawing. Grim feels too guilty to nag about her not getting enough sleep so if someone had to force her into having more sleep, it would be Ortho. She likes him too much to let him down, and will try to go to bed earlier than usual if he scans her vitals and asks her to get more sleep.

Ask game

[somewhere-at-the-burrow]

𝐵𝒰𝑅𝑅𝒪𝒲 𝒮𝒰𝑀𝑀𝐸𝑅𝒮

⤹ 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐖𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲

(( what the summer has looked like in my recent shifts! ))

(( this is a long post I'M SORRY I RAMBLE A TON))

✯ Ginny and I always read the new editions of Seeker Weekly when they are delivered on sunday mornings. this usually consists of her running into my room and flopping onto my bed, teasing me with the magazine if I am not awake already. otherwise, we read it together at the kitchen table while keeping it away from the boys until we are done reading!

✯ in the first two weeks of summer, Bill was staying at the Burrow and telling us all about his adventures in Egypt. let's just say that every single breakfast with him ended on a super mysterious note or with Molly (mum) passing him more food and giving him a look of "motherly protection"

✯ with Arthur's (dad's) help, I have been building my own broom over the summer. I have always had the idea in mind, and with the collaboration of many different wizarding families, it is turning out really well!! I still have no idea if anyone will actually allow it in quidditch games though :')

✯ this might be very mundane, but I always help with the farm chores every morning. we have lots of chickens (and we have had pigs in the past), and it is so refreshing to use grounding techniques while listening to the radio through the open window

✯ speaking of radio... that is one thing that is always going in the Burrow. I look forward to walking downstairs in the morning and hearing the latest hits or listening to the WWN news broadcast.

✯ also, mum always has the Witching Hour (with Glenda Chittock) going in the mornings. in the wizarding world, there is kind of a love-hate with that talk show, as many younger people see it as something that only older women listen to.

✯ however, the Witching Hour was one of the first things I listened to in my first shift, so the memories are all positive and I find myself listening most mornings (despite the incessant teasing from the boys)

✯ in my first shift, I found out that the Holyhead Harpies made it to the League Cup against the Kenmare Kestrels. Ginny and I are obsessed with the Harpies' new seeker (grace belling my lovee <3) so you know I had to script that we would go to the game!!

✯ because this is the first summer where Fred, George and I can do magic outside of school, they have been tinkering away at new joke projects while I work on magically designing the labels and packaging! many late nights with that one!!

✯ my best friend Iris has visited many many times, and sometimes we invite Angelina too and we all bunker down in my room reading our silly witch magazines and looking at photos until the late hours. usually this ends with Ginny knocking on my door and she too curls up on the floor to talk <3

✯ Ginny also found this antique book of muggle victorian slang in the work shed, and she has been saying extremely ridiculous things in random conversation and it has honestly become a bit at this point. we are all on the edge of our seats wondering what that girl is going to say next, especially during meals!

✯ Hermione and Harry visited once, but Ron has such a sporadic schedule and he ended up doing the most random things and dragging them with him. I kid you not, they went and looked at the garden? for no reason??

✯ between Ron and Fred, those two would sleep past noon if we let them. mum will absolutely not have that though, so after she has called them down for breakfast multiple times, she tasks George and I with waking them up. some days we are kind and we gently shove them awake, but those are becoming very rare and I find absolute joy in being a morning menace <3

✯ when Bill was over, we had these fake broom races at dusk in the back field, but they were mostly so we could see the sunset on the horizon and that was a moment when I felt the most alive.

note:

talking about the burrow is my favorite and my mum is tired of hearing about it every time i shift back! so, i guess you all will be graced with my rants AND I HAVE A LOT OF THEM

thank you for reading if you have made it this far!

[ariseur]

you stood there as you and zack both stared at each other. his hands, once holding cardboard swords similar to the ones you used as kids when you two would sneak off to whatever small clearing you could get in gongaga and clash, now held a thick metal sword. a sword that you recalled was the first class SOLDIER, angeal hewley’s, most prized possession. at least that’s what you heard from zack. he always did admire him, you wondered where angeal was at now.

you almost felt guilty that zack trusted you enough to tell you all these things, even with you as a turk. you felt guilty standing there, knowing that the man you loved was the man who you were supposed to kill. you felt guilty as you reminisced on the missions where you saw zack so excited, the two of you following tseng’s orders. you felt guilty knowing that zack just dreamed of being a soldier, he didn’t ask to be roped into all of this.

his hands stayed firm around the handle of the sword, the sheen metal glimmering in the sun as it practically blinded you. in his eyes, they stayed not the blue you were so used to, but instead a glowing aqua as the mako infused itself with the natural color of his iris.

“how did we get here?” you asked, your weapon remained in its holster as you not dared to use it on zack. a frown graced itself upon his lips although his weapon never faltered.

“i don’t know.” he said.

you spotted the man behind him, obviously unconscious as his head hung low. his blond hair covered his face but you could clearly see the calm rise and fall of his bulky uniform-clad shoulders.

you looked back up, zack’s eyes never leaving yours as they held such a solemn slant. you could’ve sworn his eyes started to glaze over, tears washing out the glowing tones of mako resonating in his irises. swallowing thickly, you spoke again, “you have to go, zack. they’re on their way. you don’t understand—“

with a soft call of your name, you looked up again. god, look at you. a turk, one of shinra’s goons, and there you were choking up at someone who had a manhunt out for him.

“i’ll be alright.”

“zack, no—“

“go.” he said, managing to give you one last meager smile before nodding his head to the other side of the cliff, a small opening where one could pass through and flee. with your bottom lip quivering, you glanced back at zack. he nodded his head at you in reassurance, lowering his sword and sheathing it once again.

your breath quivered as you sighed and began walking to the small crawl space, your footsteps heavy with each aching step you took.

the cool wind suddenly felt more evident in the air against your sweaty palms, wiping them against your black sleek uniformed pants. you could feel zack’s eyes on you, watching you trail away— and you almost didn’t turn around until you were face to face with your exit ticket out of there. his name felt thick on your tongue as you breathed out a call of his name, “zack?”

just the syllable was enough to leave a bittersweet taste in the back of your throat, swallowing in hopes of moistening your now dry mouth. you turned your head slowly to look at him. he adorned that same smile as he always did, the same smile he’d wear when he’d get good news from lazard or when he had triumphed in a sparring session.

you recalled the numerous times you two would rant to each other. he’d talk about how well it was going over there, how much work he had put into himself and his job.

and you recalled how you’d talk about your latest victories and accomplished missions, although you always rambled about your latest failures as well. that memory shifted to the front of your mind as you managed to flash a poignant smile whilst you talked once more, mimicking the tone you’d use during your late night talks, “man, you know what sucked today?”

he cocked his head.

“i failed my mission.” and with a wistful grin, he gave you one last nod.

[someone-always-cares]

chapter 5, page 79

first - previous - next

[image description: an sac webcomic page. "hold on, stay still for a second". rami says, as he puts his hand close to lewis, the angle making him almost look like he's cupping lewis's face, as lewis stares back at him with very wide shining eyes. he then rips off the duct tape off, lewis jolting and making a weird face, the panel borders shaking from the shock, before lewis makes a different face like a grimace or like a cat would make after smelling something foul right before slapping the shit out of it. "sorry. you alright?" rami asks, holding a swiss army knife down near lewis's bound arm, the knife already out. "i- what- i will be? not important. what the fuck are you doing here??". lewis replies. "saving you, apparently. and your friend- sorry i'll get to you in a minute" "no really, why the fuck are you here? how did you find us? why did you come?" lewis says. this last panel is entirely black, aside from the speech bubbles. "you're the one that sent me the location. Is your friend concussed? They're not responding to me. Or you. And are either of you injured in general?" rami responds. "What? I don't think either of us are. And no, she can't hear you, just wave or something. Uh, not with the knife, like a friendly not about to kill you wave, like-" lewis's rambling is interrupted. "It's pitch black in here? Waving won't help?" end id]

edit: a bit late but forgot to mention: next con i have is on june 1st, at animangapop cardiff! feel free to say hi if you're going!

i've always gone back and forth internally if rami's supervision gave him better night vision or not but i'm going to go with yes, it does. lewis also has better night vision on account of his eyes being cat-like. jade has normal human vision unfortunatly. on the bright side (pun not intended), she can make her fingernails glow.

also, thought on book cover? tried a few ideas and this is what i came up with

[id: concept a book cover. mostly sketched, styalised like a corkboard with various photos, pins, ect. the front side (right) has a piece of torn paper with the title and a couple stickers, one star and the other rami's logo. below is a drawing of rami surrounded by eyes. the spine has a strip of washi tape, blue with star patterns, with the title and a "1" at the bottom. the back (right) has a few photos of various panels from chapter 1 and two, a top corner of a missing poster, a business card for iris's ice cream shop, pins of mindforce's eye, and pride pins of the asexual and transgender flags, and lastly a scrap of notebook paper with eye doodles (like iris's eyes), rami's logo, titled "blah blah blah" and placeholder text of the bee movie script opening. red string is scattered around. end id]

note: the panels featured will be redrawn (for the cover. the actual pages will not be) and the one on the front is just a placeholder. not sure what i'll change it to, but something with both rami and lewis.

so, this is fashioned similar to the back of the flyer i use to advertise my comic at conventions, it allows me to show off multiple things, allows me to put in easter eggs and similar, and it feels right, yknow? it looks like the same board i use for story planning, concept art, to do lists, and trinkets for conventions, ect.

i look up and i see my corkboard covered in all that, so it feels like me. like i'm already pouring everything i have into my comic, why not this? also, red string murder board. thematically appropriate, and similar to the one omen has. expecially fitting since they appear end of chapter two bonus pages, which is where issue 1 of the physical book ends (not including bonus pages)

anyway would love to hear your thoughts!

more rambling under the cut

keep jumping from task to task. eg started planning the cover. jumped from irl task to task and then got back but then needed to figure out 100% how big the book is page-wise, because spine width

so i go do the bonus pages first but despite me collecting all the stuff for that before i keep finding more. because i have been making pages for 7 years and worked on it for longer with just having them as ocs roatating in my mind

and, yknow, i am not an organised person at the best of times. and over the past 10 years, not much has been the best of times. so you can imagine the chaos i've gone looking through. most of it isn't too recent, because turns out i had a lot more time working to draw when i was still in school. and also right after school. also 2020.and most of it is bad due to me improving my skill over time! which is good but still. going to have to carefully pick out what to use

also unrelated but i want to make one of the exclusive kickstarter print rewards foiled because i just love how they look. specifically i want to do one of tsunami and the foil (silver or holo) being the sparkles his water does because it'd look cool!

[the-drayster]

OOC!

Late night ramblings from Yee Olde Mod.

What the heck is up with this guys family tree. Like.

The only CANON bit we have is that he's Drayden's grandson. This is confirmed by Hassel. Other than that, nothing (That I've found, at least).

Which dives into headcanon zone. (This is all personal conjecture, by the way!)

So far, I have a vague idea of what I'm planning. I know what his mother is going to be like, and the idea of a design if I ever get around to drawing her. I don't know about his dad, though. I'm considering having his parents be divorced, or his father be otherwise out of the picture. This would give him another reason to idolize his grandfather as much as he does, but I'm not 100% sure I'll go through with that. Either way, his mother is Drayden's daughter.

That gets immediate family (mostly) out of the way.

Extended family is slightly more complicated. I'm not entirely sure how exactly I want to factor Iris in yet. I was thinking about having her be adopted by Drayden, but generally considered his granddaughter by the family? Drayton himself sees her as a cousin anyways, so that makes the most sense to me.

Iris as Leon/Hop's cousin gets even MORE complicated. But they also live in Galar, so I don't have to worry about them too much.

I've seen other people headcanon the Submas twins as being Drayden's nephews, but I'm not sure if I'll factor that in or not. It could be fun, but I'm not set on it.

That above point brings me to a sort of random (but funny to specifically me) idea, which is that I might give Drayton twin cousins. I thought of this without even considering Submas, which is funny to me. But, either way, they'd be younger than him, around 4-6, and very energetic. The idea of Drayton being set to carting around two very energetic kids is entertaining.

Besides, him having a fairly big family is something I'd like to play into anyways.

Feel free to chime in with your own thoughts or ideas!

[smoliboops]

late night thought/ramble: in the past, we've always seen anti reaching out to us, and anomaly found was the first time that he successfully reached us.

what if it's because all those times before we were just watching behind a normal lens, but this time was different because this time we were watching through the wtchr cameras? cameras that are known to have antimatter in it? antimatter that not only probably helped anti in becoming more corporeal/powerful, but couldve also provided that connection/bridge across the multiverse he needed to finally connect him with us?

maybe that's also how we were able to hack into iris. because we were also watching thru the wtchr cams during the livestream too.

maybe anti not only was establishing the connection to the iris mainframe:

he was also establishing the connection to us (the host?)? because a "call and response," or a request-response according to wikipedia:

sounds a lot like what we ended up doing. we literally were the second computer, which is kinda ironic in a way aha. anti sent the request to us to hack into iris, we processed the response and boy did we respond back to his request effectively...

[linettefox]

How to watch Sally Bollywood in the 2020s?

TL;DR: I wanted to watch an obscure childhood favorite of mine but struggled to find it. Eventually found it right there on YouTube.

RAMBLING INTRO:

During my kid to early teen years, I was obsessed with a show called Sally Bollywood: Super Detectives. I made YTPs, wrote her into a butt ton of fanfiction, and made my PfP on Sonic Amino and Wattpad an image of her. But like most things for some reason I stopped watching it, this has happened a lot with my interests as a child I would make up an excuse like me growing up, worry people would judge me for it, or deem the series as being the devil? (I still don't know how that last one got into my child-brain, it was about Yokai Watch btw). But in the past few years starting from late 2020 onwards, I have started revisiting these things. Some I still have little interest in for actually valid reasons but the important ones have all stuck around. (I.e Yokai Watch, MySims, etc) So my next move is to let Sally back in. But without Quobo the channel it was most known for being on how was I supposed to watch it?

SENSICAL:

Sally Bollywood's first season is streamable in full on what claims to be "the safest free streaming service for kids" Sensical. At first, the layout of this site confused me but once I found the search bar I was good.

This is all well and good but how do I watch season 2? Sensical excludes the second season entirely and Wikipedia has little information on it besides episode names and a few air dates. At first, I thought this meant season 2 was lost media but I have actually seen episode 11 Night At The Museum on YouTube. How did they get the episode?

EDIT: The one I found on YouTube is actually season 1 episode 7 Trouble At the Museum not Night At the Museum. Still, there are season 2 episodes reuploaded onto YouTube so still, how did they get the episode?

PRIME VIDEO:

Likely this is how. In some parts of the world, I'm not sure where the series is available on Prime Video. If you have a VPN and know exactly where it can be found then you can watch it there, I unfortunately cannot. For some reason, they do appear to be missing episode 1 and likely a few others. This will not do.

🏴‍☠️:

The full series is available on a site, just out of order... For the most part, there is very loose continuity so I suppose it doesn't matter which order it is watched but I personally hate this! Everything I watch I strive to watch in chronological order oldest to newest so for me there is no way in hell I'm watching it on this site.

Episode 1 is supposed to be Cockroach Capers.

YOUTUBE:

Finally, after much searching, I found it where I should have gone in the first place, YouTube. The official Sally Bollywood channel has every single episode in both English and French separated in playlists but also combined into hour-long videos and mixed around into compilations. All the Sally you could ever want is right here.

Another thing I found particularly interesting is their affiliation with LoliRock. This is another nostalgic show I have always loved, never in my life would I have imagined Iris, Talia, and Aurianna being friends with Sally and Doowee. The category is translated via Google Translate to: "Other friends for more adventures!". They are also both now connected to Totally Spies which I have not seen but know some people may find that interesting.

IN CONCLUSION:

If you want to watch this obscure children's show after the death of Qubo, here it is! Qubo had a very diverse catalog of shows and when it ended these shows belonged to so many different people who know what happened to them! I hope that all of them at least found a home somewhere whether it's YouTube or a free streaming service. I was so worried this would be partially lost now but glad it is alive. This is off-topic but there are four Sally Flash games I'm not sure of the origins of, I'm not sure how to get them working so that is actually lost media right there.

I do have a plugin that can make some Flash games playable again but it only works for games that have been archived. Anyway, enough rambling I have a show to watch bye!

[thewildsorcerer]

[ OPEN STARTER ]

' CASTOR STOP-! '

Caspian shot up from his sleep, his glamor off and his true self showing as he gripped tight onto the sheets. Panting heavily, Caspian closed his eyes as he tried to calm himself down, feeling their hair calm as well and rest on their shoulders. He was thankful for the single bedrooms. They moved to sit on the edge of the bed, closing his eyes as they ran a hand through their hair and pulled all of it to one side. He liked the feeling of his hair, feeling both like water and curls of real hair. He had always been fascinated with their own hair, and their brothers.

His Brother. One Year, Four Months, and 13 days since that incident. And Caspian blamed themselves every day for not stopping him sooner. Yellow eyes glowing with guilt and anger, he looked up and walked to their bathroom. Caspian was glad that the only magic that seemed to work was Prestidigitation and Alter Self. Because if his Wild Magic was active, they didn't know what would happen. He was able to feel somewhat in control here.

Muttering softly, their watery curls transformed into the long black hair and his eyes changed from glowing thin slits to normal hazel eyes. Their skin now fair instead of a light blue. Staring at this beautiful stranger in the mirror, Caspian felt out of place yet again. How he longed to hear the crashes of the waves against his ship, to hear Dashie's voice ramble on about another adventure she may or may not have gone on, or to hear Everand chastising them about focusing in on channeling his Wild Magic.

What he longs for the most though, is to hear their brother. Anything. About those stupid pens he seems to find from anyone and anything, one always set behind that fin of his. He'd even be okay with listening to him ramble on about Captain Iris Gold. Hell- They’d settle for catching up with Nico and Castor about how to find Nico's brother.

Not wanting to think about that anymore in the Hotel Bathroom, Caspian grabbed their brown coat-- the one they arrived in but stopped wearing because of the rules the so called leader ' Hatter ' proclaimed. But it was late at night, most people were either sleeping or partying it up down in the club. Where he was going, Caspian didn't care about those fucking rules.

Caspian arrived at the roof, a place that Hinata had mentioned that he went to sometime. Thankfully, the ray of sunshine wasn't here and Caspian was thankful because he did not want to hear the boy ramble.

They sat down on the edge, sitting out and staring at the unfamiliar place. It did not feel like home. It felt empty to him and they so desperately wished for Plane Shift to work. The People he had met were nice, or most of them were. But they weren't home, and he was honestly scared that they may get attached to this place. To the people who were welcoming him in.

There was a noise of the door opening again and Caspian jumped, reaching to grab their weapon that was usually by his side but grabbed nothing. He remembered that they did not in fact have their Crossbow and he cursed. Standing up, he stared at whoever interrupted his moment of peace

[the-red-thread-that-strangles]

Telling you I play DnD without telling you I play DnD: A list of picrews I found helpful/lovely over the years ^^

Cute twin/two character maker, where you can customize each of them individually: https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/165901

Make a flat cat: https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/47882

*Very* anime character maker. Originally intended for guys, but you can also make girls: https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/1011016

Very adorable and soft character maker for young girls: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/338622

Rather. Gothic and somewhat strange twin character designer: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/696589

Another very anime character maker, I like the clothing options here a lot: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/69653

Another soft-style character maker for girls: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/229486

Self-ascribed Magnus Archive fear avatar maker, has some very neat fire/eldritch options: https://picrew.me/en/secret_image_maker/TUpt5gokcYbd7w1d/

Picrew for witches, funky tattoo options etc included: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1493001

Frog-maker: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1509994

Fancy lady character generator: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/227881

Cute cat maker: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/35494

Twin character maker, sewn dolls edition: https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/230505

Character maker for students in class: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1666059

Stylish cartoony character maker: https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/1944831

Pixel art rpg character maker: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/2177347

Anime witch girl character maker: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/45252

Doll-ish cute little guy (or girl) character maker: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/2069970

Calls itself Tiefling character maker; in reality it's a pretty fantasy character maker: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1564386

Pixel art dating sim characters: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1922983

[saiilorstars]

Ch. 1: The Paradox of Heaven

Pairing: Barry Allen x OFC  // Fandom: The Flash

Story summary: Barry changed the timeline without ever thinking it would harm everyone he loved - literally everyone. Flashpoint planted the seeds for the team’s misfortunes and as much as Belén tries to help Barry fix things, the prophecies still come rolling out and the biggest one they fear is the one that includes all of them: ‘Fear Savitar who will lead the Bringer and help Amalgam rise and together rule over all.’ No one of Team Flash understands the prophecy but they’re smart enough to know that three new foes won’t bode well for their city. And when they see just how bleak their future really is, team Flash enters the race of a lifetime...but Belén will be damned if she leaves her entire future to her friends. She’ll work with whoever it takes, make whatever deals, to save herself and her friends but in doing so, she might just play right into the cycle that Savitar foretold and help bring Amalgam to life.

1. Story Masterlist 2. Previous Stories: Rise Up • It Had To Be You 3. Belén’s Masterlist

�� Can also be found on Fanfic and Ao3 •

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @arrthurpendragon​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @anotherunreadblog​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @maaaaarveeeeel​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @stareyedplanet​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @foxesandmagic​​

Life was great — no, it was perfect.

That's what Barry thought every day he woke up and every night he went to sleep. He had his parents, both happily married and, best of all, safe and sound. It was really a treat remembering that every time. Things couldn't get better, well...there was one thing that could make it truly perfect but that one 'thing' didn't exactly pertain to an object.

It was a person...and my what a lovely person she was.

"Can I get a hot chocolate please?" Belén Palayta was bright and cheery in front of the Jitters' counter, her dark brown eyes flickering to each beverage on the menu. She had taken a bit longer to choose a drink that morning and it seemed like even when she did order, she wasn't 100% convinced she made the right call.

Barry sat just across the counter and was watching her like she was the most fascinating thing in the world. He kept telling himself to stand up and just...say hello. He'd done it on other several occasions now but each time it seemed even more difficult than the last.

"Actually, no, scratch that, I'm not supposed to be having a lot of sugar," Belén shook her head, her blonde tips bopping over her shoulders with the move. The barista on the other side nodded to follow Belén's order but Belén just kept going on a ramble. "But then again I really do deserve some sugar and, really, how much sugar is in your hot chocolates? Actually, I don't want to know the answer to that—

"Lady, are you going to order anytime soon?" the customer behind Belén piped up, rather irritated.

It might have seemed rude to others since they didn't know the story but Barry stifled a small laugh behind his mug. Something like that had happened to Belén in the other timeline multiple times.

Belén cleared her throat and apologized to the rude customer then quickly made her order...a hot chocolate. She payed for her drink and turned to find a table.

Say hi, Barry scolded himself for being so weak. He finally made a decent push out of his seat when he heard Belén calling out...just not to him.

"You're late," she pointed an accusatory finger at Iris West who was flouncing her way to the woman.

"I was on a lead!" Iris exclaimed and motioned to her laptop case in her arms.

"You said you were done an hour ago — what were you doing since then?" Iris' eyes flickered to the side, withholding her answer. Belén shook her head at her and turned to the counter.

Barry smiled at the two women. At least them two were still friends. In the new timeline, he had come to the disappointment of not meeting Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon and only briefly Iris West. They were all separated and he really wanted to fix it...he just didn't know how. Well, maybe he could fix that starting now. Kill two birds with the same stone.

GetupGetupGetupGetup, he heard in his mind over and over until he finally acted on it. He brought his empty mug for the perfect excuse.

"Can I get a refill please?" he kindly asked the barista. "Espresso."

The barista took his mug and went to go fill the order. When he turned around, he saw Iris showing a video on her phone to Belén, no doubt one of Iris' new article stories. Iris was still a reporter in this new timeline but Belén was not.

"You're gonna get yourself killed if you keep putting yourself out on the front lines of these superheroes," Belén said with honest concern for her friend.

Iris played it off with a roll of her eyes. "It's fine. The Flash has our backs, remember?"

Ah yes, the new Flash of the timeline. Barry had no clue who it was underneath that new yellow mask but he didn't care. The vigilante saved the day always.

"Hot chocolate?" called one of the baristas.

Belén eagerly went up for her drink and finally noticed Barry. She smiled at him as she reached for her drink. "Hi, Barry, are you on your break?"

Barry opened his mouth to answer her but nothing came out. Dammit. How was he so unprepared when he literally practiced his words beforehand every time? Barry hated how weak he was, honestly. He settled on a half-smile for the awaiting woman.

"Uh...yeah."

"Is my mother working you hard?"

Barry wished he could say he was used to Veronica Green-Palayta's attitude because he had known her outside the job, but this was no longer that timeline. In this timeline, Belén's parents had never divorced but had still moved into Central City along Belén's childhood. Now Veronica worked at the precinct as a Detective, and because she had no reason to treat Barry as anything more than the forensics guy, she didn't. The only good thing about it nonetheless was that it provided Barry with multiple chances to talk to Belén. She came often into the precinct and he made himself known by crashing into her.

Yeah, that just had to happen.

It at least opened the door for some conversations, albeit short ones since neither of them seemed to be very good at talking with each other. There were nervous laughs, pauses - a lot of pauses - and the occasional, almost mandatory, accident.

"Everything's just fine," Barry ultimately answered the question. "And you? Out of practice today?"

If there was one thing that got Belén even more cheery about, it was talking about her job. She was a full time aerial dancer and the best one in the city if Barry had anything to say about it. He'd gone to her last shows and sat right up front.

"Yeah," Belén nodded. "Just having lunch with my friend. Iris?"

Iris put away her phone and walked over. "Hey," she gave a wave. "So you work at the precinct too?"

Barry gave a small nod. Iris barely walked into the precinct. She and Joe did not have a good relation - yet another downside of this new timeline.

"Espresso?" a barista slid Barry's mug on the counter.

"Thanks," Barry picked it up and awkwardly met Belén's gaze. "Uh, I, um...did you…would you...?" No, he couldn't do it. He was that weak, yes he was.

There was a trace of disappointment in Belén's face that did not go unnoticed by Iris but did to Barry. "Your break is ending soon, huh?" she ended up asking.

"Uh, in a bit," Barry went to check his watch then remembered he didn't actually wear one. That oughta make him look cool. "I'll uh, I'll...see you around?"

"Mhm," Belén nodded and watched him go...or rather stared after him.

That's what Iris was gonna call it. Iris moved around Belén so that they were face to face. "Oh my God you have got it bad." Belén quickly tore her gaze from Barry and met Iris' teasing face.

"I do not!"

Iris scoffed. "Yes, you do. With those big eyes—" she waved her finger in front of Belén's eyes, "—and that soft voice—" she then mimicked Belén's last words to Barry, "Really?" Belén scrunched face and looked to the side with a huff. Iris had to laugh. "It's okay, girl, just admit it. I could help if I can."

Belén let it go with a sigh. "I can't help it. He's so sweet. You'd think after seeing so many corpses he'd have a hard time being so...cheery."

"He's the forensics right?"

"Yeah," Belén replied, rather dreamily as she stole a glance of Barry. "Kind of a hot job huh?"

Iris' face didn't quite indicate she agreed. "Sure...in a weird, nerdy kind of way." Belén's look on her turned hard. Iris raised her hands in defense. "Right, sorry. Well, go talk to him again!"

Belén seemed as if Iris had suggested something completely out of this world. "What? No!"

Iris rolled her eyes. By this point she was used to her friend's way of being. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"I could die!" Belén responded all too fast. Iris shook her head and made to push her towards Barry's table. "I'm serious, Iris! You know last week I accidentally stapled him? He was holding the stapler, Iris! What does that tell you?"

"Uh, that you're both ridiculous klutzes?" Iris thought logically and gave Belén one final push forwards. "Now go. I'll pretend I have a new lead to go to. Call me later, I wanna know everything."

"I hate you," Belén huffed.

"And you can say that at your wedding!" Iris waved a happy goodbye with her fingers.

Belén really hated this. She had no speaking skills - at least that's what it seemed like whenever she was around Barry. It was ironic, really, considering she had the nickname 'motormouth Belén' growing up. Well, she supposed there was no turning back now. After taking a deep breath, and perhaps gripping her hot chocolate mug just a bit too tight, she walked forwards and did not stop until she reached Barry's table. "Hey," she said a little too quietly but she congratulated herself for reaching this part of the plan anyways.

That alone was a milestone.

Barry nearly choked on his drink when he saw Belén right next to him. He hadn't thought this out very well, he saw that now. "H-hey...uh…?" He immediately scanned the area for Iris but saw she was nowhere to be found.

"Um, Iris just got some new important lead, um...do you mind if I sit with you?" Belén pointed to the empty seat across Barry. "I, uh, it's stupid but I...I don't like eating alone."

Barry remembered that perfectly. It wasn't a fear of Belén's per say but it was certainly something she disliked. She never liked being alone. "Of course," he said. He took her mug and placed it on the table for her while she sat down.

Channel 52 breaking news. The latest from Central City, where the mysterious meta-human criminal, known only as the Rival is once again terrorizing the populous with his incredible speed.

Belén looked up at the television screen and sighed. "Is he ever going to stop?"

"Oh, you know, the Flash will get him eventually," Barry said, seeing the concern fill her eyes.

"I worry that the cops will get hurt in one of those battles of theirs," Belén admitted. "Mom loves to catch the bad guy. You know how she is right?"

Bad talking the mother was never the way to go. "I mean, she's just...you know, doing her job…"

"I don't think I could ever do that…"

"What? Be a hero?" Barry smiled, now the words just coming to him naturally. It felt like any conversation they had back then. "I think you'd be a perfect one."

Belén's face garnered a pink tint from his words. "I'm not...I'm not brave enough."

"Yeah you are, you just don't realize it," Barry kept going. He loved seeing her reaction. If only she knew who she had been in another timeline.

"Okay, then…" Belén trailed off, her eyes once again going up to the screen as a new report broadcasted. "Oh, maybe I could've worked with Solar, huh?"

Barry followed her gaze to the screen and could not help his smile upon seeing his once adoptive daughter from another world, Anais, in the guise of her superhero identity Solar. At least in this timeline, Anais existed (although Barry had never found out if she had existed or not in the last reality). Here, she lived in their version of National City and was the superhero she always wanted to be. Too bad they would probably never meet.

"Definitely," he said knowingly for Belén, making her chuckle. His phone went off then and when he pulled it out he saw a notice from the precinct.

"Work?" Belén guessed.

"Yeah, yeah, uh…" he pushed his mug to the side and sighed. They were having such a nice time together and now he had work. It was a cruel fate.

It doesn't have to be a complete failure, he reminded himself. He looked up at Belén who had reached for a napkin at the time. "Belén, would you… would you…" He really needed to get ahold of himself. He gave her an apologetic smile before deciding to just go.

Belén went back to her hot chocolate, suddenly finding its taste therapeutic for that failed attempt of talking with him. Iris would have her head no doubt.

Barry made it halfway to the door when he stopped. Oh my god he hated himself, yes he did. He was really just going to let Belén go without even trying? He loved her, dammit. And sure, she didn't feel the same way for him in this world but...maybe she would if they tried again. He had already found her just like she promised him that they would. It could be a sign that they were simply meant to be. If everything happened the same way as the last time, they would be together again and they would be happy.

But that couldn't happen until he stopped being stupid and just asked her out.

Barry turned back and determinedly strode back to Belén's table. "Belén—" he unintentionally startled her into almost dropping her mug. He quickly caught it but it did splash some of his face in the process.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed and rushed to get some napkins...all in the meanwhile he laughed. Belén somewhat calmed seeing he wasn't upset with her. She gently dabbed the drink from his cheek, trying not to be as red as she felt. "Figures this would happen to us, huh?"

"I... don't think it would really be us if it didn't," Barry couldn't help his widening smile. It felt infectious as Belén slowly matched it.

"I staple you, I crash into you, I make you drop things and now I spill hot chocolate on your face...why do you still talk to me again?" Belén counted her lucky stars that he did but it never made sense to her why. He could easily avoid these accidents by simply not talking to her. Any other guy would.

"Because I like you," Barry blurted. Belén froze for a second but ultimately ended up smiling again. "Uh...Belén, would you want get a coffee?" He shook his head suddenly when he realized that's exactly what they just did. "I mean, I know we were having a coffee right now. I meant, like, you know, at a different time. With me—" he was talking and he could not stop, "—or it doesn't even have to be a coffee. It could be any kind of beverage, like a wine or a beer, or - not that I wanna get you drunk! We... we could get iced tea. Do you like iced tea? Do...would you wanna get an iced tea with me? Um—"

Belén promptly covered his mouth with her hand and chuckled. "You talk just like me!" She raised her hand from his mouth and leaned forwards. "And yes, I would really like to get an iced tea with you...or any other beverage you listed. If we feel spontaneous, we could even try some..." she paused for dramatic effect then whispered: "Dinner."

Barry laughed. This is what he thoroughly missed with her. "Yeah, that would be good. And I will make an effort not to talk so...fast."

Belén leaned back and smiled. "Nah, it's cute. Plus, it'll make competition between us."

Barry chuckled with her. "Alright then. Is tomorrow okay, then? Lunch? Dinner?"

"Let's start with lunch tomorrow," she beamed and was all too ecstatic to exchange phone numbers with him.

~ 0 ~

When Barry returned to the precinct, he was finally wearing something besides the glumness that usually followed to work. It was inevitable, really. In a very short time Barry had learned Joe and he no longer had a deep bond. They weren't even on a first name basis. At the same time, Cisco no longer worked there as "meta advisor". Barry didn't even like to think about Cisco that much anymore because of who Cisco turned out to be in this world. Work was just work now.

That was really unfortunate.

"What's up, Barry?" A middle-aged man stopped Barry before he could reach the staircase.

Another difference was that even Captain Singh wasn't there anymore. It took some getting used to but at least he got there. "Hey."

"You look a little less glum this day's afternoon…"

The big smile worked its way across Barry's face again. "Captain Mendez, I asked out a girl and she said yes!"

"Ah, there's no better feeling, is there?" Mendez laughed. "No better feeling. Well, until the day she says, 'I do'."

Barry coughed. "Yeah, we got a ways to go before that, I think." It was basically starting back from 'zero' but he didn't mind.

"Great, well that'll give you a lot of time to catch me up on where we are with the Rival?"

"Nothing substantive. He hasn't left any hair or skin samples at any of his attacks on the CCPD."

That put a damper on the mood. "So you're telling me there's no way to ID this guy."

"We'll figure out who he is when the Flash stops him," Barry stayed positive.

"Well The Flash better hurry up. Pun intended," Mendez turned away searching specifically for someone. "Has anybody seen Detective West?"

Barry didn't even need to do a quick scan of his own. Joe was probably nowhere near work...he learned that rather quick too. "You know, I think he had to stop by evidence." Mendez gave him a sharp look. "I don't know where he is, actually. Sorry. Oh, Captain, is it okay if I leave a little early today?"

"For your hot date?"

"No, I'm, uh, just meeting a friend for dinner."

Unfortunately on that matter it was more for humanitarian reasons than anything else.

At an abandoned warehouse that once used to be stockrooms, Barry walked into the very last room where only one prisoner stood. He admitted he very much liked seeing Eobard Thawne stuck behind a glass prison that rendered him useless. It was the same glass Zoom once kept Barry in and that was perhaps the only thing he was grateful of learning from the demon speedster.

"Dinner," Barry waved said dinner bag in the air.

Thawne merely gave the bag a glance from his spot and muttered, "There better be curly fries in there."

Barry set the bag on an old chair behind him and shrugged. "Yeah, human beings can go almost three weeks without food so I'd sound a little bit more grateful if I were you."

And yet, Thawne found the situation ironic. "Well, you wouldn't do that to me, Barry. After all, you're the hero. Or did you forget that? Too busy leading your reverse 'It's a Wonderful Life'?" he laughed but all Barry did was just stare. The words were literally flying over his head.

"Reverse, huh? That's irony for you."

Thawne paced in the little space his prison allowed. "So, uh, what should we call this, uh, brave new world that you've whipped up for us? I was thinking... Flashpoint?"

"So you don't want this?" Barry pointed back to the bag.

"You may have figured out a way to dampen my speed with this glass cage, but I will get out of here and I will destroy your life, Flash, one way or the other."

Now it was Barry's turn to laugh. "No, you won't. Ah, you're never getting out of here. And you're never gonna hurt anybody ever again," he said with the utmost certainty. "I have everything back that you took from me. I have everything Zoom took. I'm finally free. I'm home."

"This isn't your home, Barry. This is a mirage," Thawne purposely enunciated slowly like he was talking to a child. "A fiction that will end us both, unless you let me the hell out of this thing!"

"Well, you're not listening, Don. Why would I want to get out of here? I'm whole, here. There's even a Flash so I don't have to be."

Thawne mildly cared about that small detail. "Yeah, who is this dashing young speedster, huh? Do you know? You even care? While you sit around and hide like a lost, lonely little boy, letting someone else risk their life to protect the city, our common enemy is coming for us both."

"What common enemy is that?" asked Barry, mildly bores.

"Time. It's already screwing with you and everyone you love. And pretty soon, it's gonna take me right down along with you—"

"Wow," Barry almost clapped for the show he was being given. "You know, you've got some nerve. I'll give you that. Warning me about messing with other people's lives. You...you know the whole reason I did this is because of what you did to my life. To my family. To my mother."

"Yeah, well, one day, soon, Barry, you'll be begging me to kill her again," and that was a promise Thawne made.

Barry, however, could care less what kind of promises Thawne vowed to make. As far as Barry knew, there was no escape. This was the happy ending he deserved.

And he was enjoying every waking moment of it.

~0~

The next morning, like the one before and the one before that, Barry smelled the delicious scent of breakfast in his room. See, how the hell could this be wrong? His mother was up and early, cheery as usual, humming as she made breakfast for the family. Barry would come down the stairs and just stare from the last step at his mother while she came in and out of the kitchen. He sometimes couldn't imagine how he'd gone so much time without her.

"Morning, Barry," Nora greeted when she finally noticed he'd been standing there.

A big smile immediately spread across Barry's face. "Morning," he walked into the dining room and found his father already at his place. He hugged his mother before anything. It was a rule.

"What is up with you?" Nora asked through a small chuckle as she hugged back.

"What do you mean?" Barry pulled back.

"Lately, you hug me every morning as if it's the first time you've seen me in months."

Barry knew she was bound to notice his unique attitude. He just didn't think it would be this early. "Well, I mean, I'll stop if you really want me to."

But Nora smiled and shook his head. "Never. I love it."

Barry laughed and hugged her again before taking his usual seat at the table. He didn't stop himself from serving himself a rather full plate, not even when his father jokingly told him to leave some for them. He'd forgotten how his mother's meals tasted and he wanted to savor every bit he could. Plus, he always ate a lot anyways.

"Oh, Barry, I wanted to tell you, I sold a house to a nice older couple a few weeks ago," Nora began after finally sitting down with them. Barry was a bit focused on the bit of bacon in his mouth to speak so he just nodded. "The basement apartment. They emailed me this morning to tell me they wanted to rent it."

Barry swallowed and dove for another piece. Man he really loves his mother's cooking.

"Very reasonably," Nora added and when Barry finally looked up he saw the meaningful stares of both his parents directed at him.

"You want me to move out?" he couldn't help the sad tinge in his voice. It wasn't that he was planning on staying with them forever - because he had other plans indeed - but maybe for longer than three months.

Henry quickly jumped in to explain their motives. "No, no, son, come on. It's just, you know, if you ever thought about dating…"

Barry dropped his fork when he remembered the amazing thing that had happened the day before. "Oh, I forgot to tell you guys. I've got a date - finally." Three months was far too much time to be away from Belén.

Nora gasped and called for an explanation. "With who?"

"The one with the boy scouts selling cookies?" Henry took a stab at it.

Barry shook his head but then halfway started nodding. "Well, no... that's her nephew, Axel, actually." He had been taken by surprise when little Axel Palayta had shown up at their front door three months ago offering some truthfully good cookies for his boy scout team.

"Oh, the adorable little one with the jelly cookies?" Nora cooed at the memory of the five year old. "I had to buy two boxes from him last week. I didn't know his mother had a sister."

"Maritza's younger sister, Belén," Barry nodded. "She was the aerial dancer we saw three months ago, remember? The whole Earth Day show the city put up?"

"I knew you couldn't be the least interested in Earth Day," Henry sarcastically narrowed his eyes on Barry.

"I was…" Barry weakly argued. "I was just a little more focused on the girl behind the azalea mask."

"Oh, she was a talented dancer," Nora remarked when she fully remembered the event.

"Yeah…" Barry smiled to himself. It'd been the first time he saw Belén since he created the new timeline. After getting a little vague information from Axel and Maritza, he'd figured out Belén wasn't a journalist and was instead a fully committed dancer. As if he would miss her upcoming show. She was absolutely gorgeous and talented in her dancing.

"This girl just got the best guy, huh?" Nora pulled him out of his thoughts. Barry laughed instead of saying anything more. He was sure he was completely red in the face anyways.

~ 0 ~

"There you go, all set to sell some more cookies," Belén laughed as her nephew, Axel, fixed his boy scout hat. "Do you purposely tilt your hat to look more adorable?"

Axel shared a toothy grin. "Mommy says it's a good tactic."

"Your mother is awful," Belén purposely said louder as Maritza came out from the kitchen. "And your Dad will agree when he picks you up later."

"Hey, it sold him out in a week," she raised her hands in defense.

"Business is all about strategies," Belén's twin brother, Rayan, spoke from the dining table. Belén turned sideways to look at both of her older siblings. "So you're both awful. He's five!"

"You better not be arguing," the siblings' mother, Veronica, came in with a black folder in hand. "It's too early for that."

"They're—" Belén gestured to Rayan and Maritza, "—turning your grandson into a businessman already. He's five!"

"Nothing wrong with getting some business skills," David Palayta came into the conversation as he walked past them to the kitchen.

"Dad! Oh my God!" Belén shook her head at all of them.

Maritza walked to the dining table to gather her son's things. "Oh quit your whining and go get ready for your hot date already. We all know that's what you're killing time for."

"You've got a date?" Their brother scrutinized Belén. "With who?"

"I'd like to know that too." Their father returned with a mug of coffee.

"Maritza!" Belén exclaimed. She hadn't planned on this being a whole family discussion.

"It slipped," Maritza said, but the trace of a smirk left Belén suspicious.

"Who is it, sweetheart?" their father asked again.

Belén nervously looked from one family member to the next, knowing she wouldn't get out of it until she gave a name. "It's...fine," she sighed. "It's Barry, from the precinct?" She was left looking at her mother.

"I knew you didn't care how I was doing at work," Veronica rolled her eyes. "Those visits weren't to see me."

"50% of them were," Belén apologetically said.

"And we're the awful ones," Maritza laughed with Rayan.

"Shut up!" Belén exclaimed.

"Please don't argue like children," Veronica sighed. "And Belén, I don't think it's a good idea to date someone I have to work with every day."

"Mom, he's professional, and I doubt you two have more than a sentence per conversation anyways," Belén shrugged.

"Plus—" Rayan began and Belén assumed another tease was coming, "—it's pretty funny seeing her drool over the guy." Rayan smirked at Belén who was utterly offended. "Yeah, that's right, I noticed."

"You met him once and — leave me alone!" Belén crossed her arms. "Don't you have to go to work today?"

Rayan was getting over his smirk while he gathered his things from the table. "No. My day off, remember? I will be upstairs watching Netflix all-day."

"Good, so you can leave me alone then," Belén pointed him to go already.

"You know Rayan is just poking fun at you, dear," her father began getting his work stuff ready for the day.

"It was suited for when we were in high school!"

"Let it go, Belén," her mother turned back for the living room.

"Gotta go too," Maritza took Axel's hand and held onto his backpack. "Off to sell 100 cookie boxes. Hey, maybe we'll stop by Mrs. Allen and see if she's all buttered up enough to buy five cookie boxes."

"Yaaay!" Axel cheered as they started on their way.

"I hate this family," Belén muttered, but it only made the others laugh. She wouldn't let them ruin her day, though. In the end, their jokes made her feel all that more excited over her date. It's not that she'd pined after Barry so much that any minimal contact would make her lose it, but she'd been waiting far too long for a simple date.

It was too bad what was coming next was utter disappointment.

It was in the afternoon when Belén decided to face the fact the date wasn't happening. She thankfully met Iris on her way out of Jitters. Iris was completely disappointed to hear of Belén's misfortune.

"I don't understand, you two seemed so…" Iris didn't know how to explain it but Belén got it.

"I don't get it either," Belén sighed. She gripped the strap of her purse and looked ahead. "He sent me a text. A quick one by the looks of it." She gave the phone to Iris for her to see said message.

"'So sorry, something came up.' What?" Iris looked up with a big frown. "What the hell is that?"

"Right?" Belén took her phone back and dropped it inside her purse. "It's a stupid excuse. If he didn't want to go out anymore he could've just said it…"

Police cars zoomed past the two women, startling them into a stop. A third police car stopped by them, furthering their confusion.

"What's going on?" Iris was the one to ask.

"The Flash and the Rival had a run in at the Werther Building. This entire area is in evacuation mode," the policeman made the motion the evacuation included them two as well.

Iris entered some sort of panic state after the police car left. "I am so sorry. I have to go!"

Belén blinked. "What—"

Iris started backtracking from Belén, truly sorry for the sudden departure. "It's important!"

"But we were talking—"

"I know! I'm so sorry!" Iris turned around and hastily hurried away.

Belén was left with further deception and anger. "Why not?" she muttered and walked home alone the rest of the way.

Two bails in one day? That was a record alright.

~0~

Barry was not having the day he'd expected. He'd been set on having a perfect date with Belén and then suddenly came face to face with Wally West...who turned out to be the Flash. Barry didn't plan on jumping into the fight between the Flash and the Rival but the the latter was getting dangerous enough to put a serious blow on Wally. Barry had to go in and help as much as he could. The Rival managed to escape them both but it left Barry with Wally's identity. Now Barry stood in the "quarters" of Wally with an awestruck face. It was nothing like what STAR Labs had been in their world. It was rarely secure, even less than STAR Labs, and it seemed more like a regular, cluttered room.

"So this is your base of operations, huh?" He tried not sounding so...

"Yeah. What were you expecting? A fortress?" Wally was smart enough to know where Barry was intending on going.

"Uh, no, you know, no. Just something a little more secure. I mean, you never know who's gonna come walking through that door." Barry pointed to the front entrance that he knew probably wasn't even locked.

A minute later, Iris walked in and found the unusual sight before her. "What are you doing here?"

Barry was just as shocked as she was. "I... you're...you knew?"

"He showed up when I was fighting the Rival, and he already knew who I was," Wally explained.

Iris put down her things and scrutinized Barry. "You stood my friend up."

Barry sighed. "I-I didn't mean to!" He was definitely on his way to his date with Belén when he came across Wally.

"She's upset and she's mad."

"I know, I deserve it—"

"Can we not do this here?" Wally cut into what was sure to be a spectacular argument.

"Fine," Iris raised her hands in defense but then warned Barry he had bigger problems with Belén anyways. "So how did you know who my brother was?"

"Um, uh, CSI. You know, so I just, uh... Put it together," Barry cleared his throat. "So what I don't know is how you got your speed…" he looked to Wally.

"Oh, okay, so before I went on the straight and narrow, I used to drive illegal cars. I was messing around with a new nitro formula to get my engine revving faster. Then one night, I'm racing in a thunder storm, my car get struck by lightning. And it must have mixed with the formula because...boom!" Wally made a gesture in the air. "I was in a coma for nine months. Then when I woke up, I was the fastest man alive. The Flash."

"More like Kid Flash," Barry remarked.

Wally shook his head. "Don't call me that."

"I call you that," Iris reminded.

"Okay, how about no one calls me that?"

"And how did you get involved?" Barry asked Iris.

"I'm a reporter for CCPN. Instead of just reporting on crimes that are happening in the city, I decided to do something about it."

"Brother/sister crime-fighting unit," Barry smiled at them, getting some nostalgia from their old team. "So does your dad know about you two?"

Iris scoffed. "You work with the guy. What do you think?"

Touche, thought Barry. "I think that...we need to stop the Rival."

Wally sighed. "Yeah. We're open to suggestions. I've been trying to run him down for months. No luck. He's fast. Maybe faster than me."

"You know...there might be another way," Iris spoke up again, throwing her brother a sharp look.

Barry watched as Wally shook his head, clearly on the fence about whatever idea Iris was talking about. "I'll help in anyway that I can," Barry promised, eliciting a smirk from Iris.

"Good, because the way to get that help is to go to someone else first. She can get us to him."

"What do you mean?"

Iris' smirk widened. "You're gonna have to face Belén today."

Barry gulped. Yup, there was some dread there.

[kitkatt0430]

The Pied Piper's Army of Rats for Fic Ramble Asks please!

This series is getting closer and closer to the end, which is also what inspired the entire series in the first place.

So the idea is this'll go through a bit of an AU S2. No Ronnie or Eddie deaths to worry about when I tie up the S1 plots and while there'll still be hints that Zoom's coming, the series will leave off well before that happens.

After wrapping things up with Eobard, they'll get a bit of a silly breather episode set during the summer in there with Hero Day where Central City celebrates Flash and Firestorm. Cisco and Hartley will be picking out a new apartment with room for themselves + Jerrie. And if I haven't made Westhallen official before then, that's when it'll finally happen. Barry is oblivious, so getting him to realize the two people he has crushes on are trying to seduce him will take quite an effort on Iris and Eddie's parts.

There'll be at least one story between the breather episode and the final fic of the series. I'm thinking it'll be Firestorm centered, but we'll see when I get there.

The final story of the series will be a rewrite of Family of Rogues. The events of the episode will get spaced out over a slightly longer time period, giving Lisa time to bond more with Hartley and Cisco. Leading to a late night shopping spree at a dollar store where they find packs of five plushie rats on sale for 50 cents a pack. And, uh, they go a bit crazy. Cue the rest of Team Flash arriving to the Pied Piper's army of (plushie) rats having conquered STAR Labs in the night. With Vibe and Golden Glider's help, of course.

It'll be implied that Lisa is sticking around in an epilogue where, unlike in canon, they run into her again at Jitters. And maybe joke about it becoming a thing.

[vulturevanity]

I got so excited to finally talk to Iris again I completely forgot to make a post for yesterday so I'll have to make today's about POKEMON WHITE DAYS 7 AND 8. This gets long, fellas, get comfy.

We'd left off at the Desert Resort as I was about to go find the Dark Stone. Cher did chase after me there to yell that there was no way she'd let me go there alone, so we went in together. As expected, there were a lot of team Plasma grunts in the Relic Castle, but they were simple enough to beat. I thankfully didn't run into any ghosts this time, but Ghetsis was there rambling to Alder about how the Dark Stone wasn't there and how humans are bad or something, idk, I was too distracted thinking about who would have the Dark Stone. Cher suggested we check the Nacrene History Museum, since Relic Castle is an archeological diging site and everything found here ends up there. Ghetsis left, Cher said she'd take another look around just in case he was lying, and Alder and I made our way to Nacrene City.

And it turns out they did have the Dark Stone there! Cher is a genius. Both professors Juniper were there with Lenora, and Bianca with them, but no one knows how the stone works, so it's up to me to figure it out. Every adult around me was understandably upset that Unova's fate is at the hands of a teenager, but you know how it is with these journeys. Bianca looked like she was trying really hard to not show how scared she was, but I could tell. To be honest, this is all pretty scary. Alder eventually suggested I go to Opelucid City and talk to the dragon experts, and I agreed before he even finished talking because I'd been meaning to meet those two since we started the journey, before this whole mess. I'm just a huge fan of dragon pokemon, okay?! Besides, N told me to do the League to prove I'm on his level, so I needed the eighth badge anyway. Bianca said she wanted to at least accompany me there because she felt awful just sitting around waiting to hear news of me.

We flew to Icirrus and crossed the moors, Prince leading us across the water so we wouldn't fall into the deeper ponds. It was pouring, as it always is in the area, so we shared an umbrella and talked about our plans for the future. You know, after this mess is all over. I told her I've always wanted to visit Kalos and learn about their pokemon classification system: apparently they've been considering an entirely new pokemon type, and that sounds fascinating to me. She told me she'd been thinking about becoming a pokemon professor, so that sounds right up her alley. She said maybe we could go together one day -- all three of us, Cher as well. She'd surely be interested too, we agreed.

But even our talk didn't calm Bianca's nerves about me going all anime protagonist on N, so at Tubeline Bridge I challenged her to a pokemon battle, just to show her how far we'd both come. Despite her always saying otherwise, she's a really tough trainer! She knocked out two of my team and I had to switch around and heal before I eventually won. It took the edge off her shoulders, and after we dried off in the gate we spent the evening at the Shopping Mall Nine (it was too late in the day for me to challenge the eighth gym anyway, we decided to enjoy ourselves before we headed to an inn in Opelucid for the night). We tried to call Cher, but her crosstransciever wasn't taking calls (I guessed she was still scouring Relic Castle, there's no signal down there). Bianca said she'd check in on her the next day and we eventually made it to Opelucid to settle for the night.

I woke up the next day with a mild headache, took a tylenol and went straight to the gym to talk to the dragon experts about the Dark Stone. Meeting Iris again was wonderful, she's a delightful presence and Jasper loved her neck scritches (to Yuri's mild annoyance).

Drayden said the Legendary Pokemon will respond to one whose convictions are strong enough to change the world, which... had me concerned. I really don't want to be a part of this, I really don't want to have to fight someone who cares as much about pokemon as I do just because he's been fed some nonsense about trainers being bad. I'd love to be able to talk him out of this absurd plan of holding Unova hostage and forcing everyone to abandon their pokemon. I don't know if I have what it takes to awaken the Legendary Dragon. Iris then asked if I cared about my friends. I said yes, of course. She asked if I would do anything to keep them from having to live in a world where people and pokemon are apart. I said yes, but hesitated. She asked me to prove it in a battle against her, for the eighth gym badge. I smiled. I could do that.

And do that I did. Yuri wanted to go first for some reason (it was jealousy. Yuri was jealous.), and she did a good job wearing out Fraxure despite her resisting both of her attacks, but she was one level below and fainted first. Then Orion went out. He outsped and flinched the Fraxure, prompting Iris to use one of her max potions. Druddigon came next, and Orion managed to set up a Swords Dance without being Dragon Tail'd out of the arena, which I'm sure was the reason he was ready to sweep without fear. Druddigon was a little sturdy but she used Night Slash for some reason and got knocked out fast. Haxorus looked really scary, but a single crit +2 STAB Earthquake + soft sand oneshot her so hard I felt bad for her. Iris smiled. She said that if I still had doubts about whether I have what it takes, there was my answer. I got the eighth badge.

Leaving for route 10, Bianca and Cher caught up to me before I left for the Victory Road. Cher was really serious and challenged me to one last battle, saying she wanted to confirm something. Bianca was giggling to herself for some reason. We fought and, predictably, I won. She sighed in relief, and I asked what this was all about. Cher said she just had to make sure I'd win against N, because I had to be ready to save the world if we were going to travel to Kalos together in the future. She was so serious while saying that, Bianca and I couldn't help but laugh, which annoyed and flustered her, and she stomped out saying we were the worst. Bianca said she had to go with her because they had plans for the afternoon, but she gave me some revives for the last leg of my journey.

Gosh, I love those doofuses.

[salad-of-potatoes]

Gonna ramble about this more :D

Besides getting back into youtube, Chase is a stay at home hubby.

He’s in the process of healing from IRIS and Anti, so also in therapy. He makes sure to treat his new step kid(s) as their own people and not just replacing his bio kids

It is healing to just- raise those kids tho c: he loves them so much and tries to be active in their lives, even taking their suggestions on videos!

Their basement is like a second living room and studio for Chase’s videos :D

When they’re old enough to say yes or no (late teens I wanna say) the kiddos make cameos. Never to the point of it being a Family Channel tho

I can see Stan putting a good word in when it comes to sponsors at the water company so Chase got a stable sponsor :D

Stan does overnight truck deliveries once in awhile so he’s out of the house for weeks sometimes

Stan watches Chase’s videos during his breaks <3 or video calls him and the kids!!

After Stan learns about Anti he keeps salt water in his fanny pack. Salt water so he knows if he accidentally drinks it or not lol

They make sure to do date nights, so JJ and Marv being fun uncles / babysitters :D

I haven’t watched Stan’s GTA movie yet so don’t have much on him, may add more after I watch c:

Also trying to think of ship names, first one that comes to mind is WaterBro so that’s how imma tag it. If there’s a popular one I dunno about please lemme know!!

Chase Brody x Stan the Water Man hit post