#it's just that it would definitely involve the whole bat clan

[whenshesdown]

idk if any of my followers have played fallen hero before(basically a huge choose ur own adventure novel) but i have been ITCHING and DYING to make some kind of jason x reader fic based on that premise

[veliseraptor]

In the case of SongXiaoXue going perfectly fix it style (XY meets the other two early, has a life-changing field trip and so manages to just pull himself back from massacring all the Chang Clan, decreases his canon atrocities and joins them in a polycule and becomes A-Qing's annoying uncle), how would JGY interact with them?

Like, thanks to them Chingmei isn't causing too much of a hassle, they'd be supportive of the Watchtower programme, he broadly likes their sect ideas etc, so I guess he'd like them, and it would add another base of support for him.

putting aside that I think convincing Xue Yang to not kill the Chang is...not impossible but pretty damn hard to do, which is why I don't think I've ever written him just straight up not doing it--

(working with novel timeline here, for the most part, because it just makes more sense)

man, that changes a lot of things, though. like, how does that interact with Xue Yang being a Jin disciple at the time (which he would be, if this is pre-Chang massacre, or even if it was afterwards), and specifically while Jin Guangshan is the sect leader? Because while I can see Jin Guangyao being willing to let Xue Yang fuck off and have quality independent daoshi time, I do not think Jin Guangshan would be so inclined; if anything, the second Xue Yang had a remotely positive relationship with Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan, Jin Guangshan wants to use that to draw the pair of them into association with the Jin Sect, which Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan are vehemently going to be not in favor of. That's going to be a hard and probably somewhat insulting nope!

(I mean, I'm picturing Song Lan giving a slightly more diplomatic refusal and Xiao Xingchen is just straight up like "no thank you, I don't want to participate in the corrupt and self-serving sect system :)" which. great move on his part for sure! not going to make him any powerful enemies! one of my favorite things about Xiao Xingchen is his complete indifference to social norms and refusal to be politic about anything, ever. It makes Song Lan's life harder even if he agrees with him most of the time; Xue Yang thinks it's great.)

and while Xue Yang would be happy to ignore Jin Guangshan and fuck off without permission, but that's going to, uh, not go over well and end up with everyone involved in a whole lot of trouble, and as we know, Jin Guangshan is very good at making problems for people when he doesn't like them.

so...that's a problem, and it's not really up to Jin Guangyao.

If they did figure out a way to make it work, and it comes up down the line with Jin Guangyao in trouble...unfortunately, even if they were to get involved (and I think Xue Yang's instinct, friendship or not, would be to go "nope! not getting in that, sorry a-Yao," and Song Lan would be equally disinclined to get into the political morass that's...everything there. Xiao Xingchen might be a little more inclined toward intervention, but I don't think enough to overrule the other two. I do think they'd approve of the watchtowers, you're right! but ultimately there's probably a general sort of distrust of everyone in that whole system (while Xiao Xingchen in this universe might actually still have more faith in the existing systems because he hasn't witnessed via Xue Yang's exculpation how corrupt it is, Song Lan is more jaded, and Xue Yang is the most jaded.). And they definitely wouldn't approve of Jin Guangyao's killing Nie Mingjue or Jin Guangshan, just on principle. So that's going to outweigh any casual existing goodwill from the daoshi, and Xue Yang has too much of a sense of self-preservation to not look at that whole situation and go "yeah that's a lost cause."

and even if they did go to bat for Jin Guangyao, in the face of everyone else turning on him...their word is not going to carry a lot of weight, and by that I mean their word is going to carry no weight at all. I think the most likely outcome there would be Xue Yang getting tarred by association (regardless of what he's actually done, as we know that's not really relevant when the accusations start flying in the cultivation world) and the daoshi getting labeled as poor naive fools taken in by the sinister wiles of Jin Guangyao, etc. etc. It would be very condescending "you don't know what you're talking about."

so...yeah, regardless of how they felt about it, I don't think it would ultimately matter. which is the general tragedy of the Yi City characters, actually (or one of them) - their sheer unimportance and insignificance. nobody, in the larger sense, cares what happens to them! Xiao Xingchen's pleas for justice are ignored. A-Qing's attempts to get people to listen to her before Xue Yang kills her are ignored. Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen both disappear without a trace and, once he falls out of the Jin orbit, so does Xue Yang. I know people don't like the Yi City Arc because they feel it's "pointless" or "sidetracks the plot" and to that I say yes absolutely it sidetracks the plot and it is pointless (in the sense of it all already being over by the time anybody else arrives) and that's part of what makes it so good and so painful because nobody! cares!!! and that makes me so miserable.

anyway that's kind of a sidetrack from the content of your ask, but, well. ask me a question and get a rambling five paragraph essay, as always

[leviiackrman]

18-21 for saeka and mineyo 💕💕💕

18. How easy is it to become their enemy?

All you’d need to do is hurt someone she cared about!! You touch a hair on any of her siblings heads and you’d be dead instantly, and any of her students she’d be ready to throw hands for so fast!!

19. How easy is it to become their friend?

It’s harder to become her friend than enemy… Saeka is quite reclusive and solitary most of the time, not because she wants to be but because she doesn’t really know any different when she’s not with her family yknow? That being said, her bestie Anzu was the one to make a space for herself in Saekas life so she didn’t have much control of that (and wouldn’t change it for the world either🤍) she’s polite and friendly to an extent, but her social battery drains v quickly these days, so she needs people that run on her kinda wave length!

20. Do they have a strong connection to their culture?

She was raised to carry the weight of her family name, and they have some cultural significance in terms of clans in Japan! They follow traditions and festivities which she upholds even when she’s not at home! Saeka is the one most connected to that side of the family, and tends to have to rope her other siblings into joining her otherwise it’s her alone to celebrate, but her brothers especially make a point to join her because they know it’ll make her happy!

21. What is more important to them, friends or family?

OOF ALYSSA THATS A LOW BLOW!! I would say family, as her drive in life is to protect them all, but after leaving home and being an adult etc when her siblings are older (and no longer fully her responsibility), she gets to be more herself so her friends that share that with her are on just as high of a pedestal to her as her siblings! (Her parents can get fucked in her opinion, tho she’d never actually say that to them haha)

18. How easy is it to become their enemy?

Almost everyone is instantly Mineyos enemy off the bat. She thinks everyone sees her a certain way, so if they’ll judge before knowing her then she’ll judge them too! Only those that are fearless enough to push past her brash exterior are able to see her true colours and carefree personality!

19. How easy is it to become their friend?

Again, not v easy! If you share similar passions to her then it’s easier to talk to her for definite! That’s how Rin and all his friends were able to befriend her, but most of the time she is closed off and distant because she has no need or longing to have friends, they’ll only stand in her way in her eyes!

20. Do they have a strong connection to their culture?

Not really… she definitely has habits that’s she’s developed from living in Australia her whole life, so moving to Japan was a bit of a culture shock; BUT, her mama is Japanese and encouraged her to speak Japanese/enjoy their traditions as she grew up so she has a lot of respect for Japanese culture as a whole!

21. What is more important to them, friends or family?

Family. Her mama, step dad and half siblings (as well as kitty Coral) are her go to people for anything, she trusts them with her life and they are her safe place! They support her in all that she does and respect what she’s like as a person based off of her traumas.

That can also be said for her friends tho, she just doesn’t know it. Rin makes it clear to her how much her cares (and his friends do over time too), but she will always go to her family first before getting friends involved - even if they’re adamant they wanna be involved!

OC QUESTIONS

[robininthelabyrinth]

Same universe as the one where LXC kills JGY on a boat to not-Japan. JRS-centric as he grows up in the Nie clan and deals with his reputation as an inbred son of a traitorous bastard.

so I don't think I've ever written a fic in which LXC kills JGY on a boat, and definitely not one where JRS is a character? I mean, I've written a lot of fics, so possibly I did and I forgot, but I'm pretty sure about this one.

That being said, I don't think I've gotten any Jin Rusong prompts before so I'm reinterpreting this to be a prompt for a fic about JRS growing up in the Nie clan. Fic below!

ao3

-

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, Nie Huaisang reminded himself. Risk is proportionate with reward. Your spine should be made of steel, just as your saber is.

He licked his lips, thought of his brother who had loved him, and threw himself forward with tears in his eyes.

“Oh, gongzi!” he blubbered. “Can you help me? I’ve gotten completelylost, I don’t even know where to begin –”

Xue Yang blinked at him, the lids of his eyes moving slowly like a reptile.

“Maybe you know where my san-ge is? Lianfeng-zun?”

The feeling of immediate threat lessened. It seemed he’d gambled right, and the rabid dog that was Xue Yang could still be controlled by reference to Jin Guangyao.

“I’d really appreciate it if you could just give me some guidance on where to find him,” Nie Huaisang said, lowering his voice confidentially. “I’d be sure to pay you back! If there’s anything you want –”

“Do you have any snacks?” Xue Yang asked.

Nie Huaisang, who had come prepared based on the rumors he’d painstakingly collected, produced some dragons’ beard candy.

“Not bad,” Xue Yang said. “Okay, sure.”

Nie Huaisang smiled, and even meant it.

-

“Hey, good-for-nothing,” Xue Yang said, and Nie Huaisang turned to look at his least favorite but nevertheless highly useful source of information in Lanling Jin. The fact that Xue Yang had no idea that he was functioning as such just made it more satisfactory. “You like kids, right?”

Nie Huaisang blinked. “Yes?” he hazarded, not so much because he actually did – he’d never had strong feelings about children one way or the other, though perhaps he was being presumptuous in thinking that the reference did not involve goats – but because that seemed to be the answer Xue Yang was looking for.

Xue Yang wrinkled his nose in distaste, though not, Nie Huaisang thought, at him.

“Theoretically,” he said, and he wouldn’t know ‘theoretical’ if it hit him in the face, “if there were, I don’t know, a whole bunch of them hanging around somewhere without parents, you’d be able to do something about that, right? Especially if they had a talent for cultivation?”

It took only a moment to piece together what must have happened to lead to such a question, given the ruthlessness of the cultivation world and of Jin Guangyao in particular, and Nie Huaisang marveled briefly at the idea that Xue Yang might draw a moral line in the sand over something. Presumably he felt some kinship to the children, being similarly utterly infantile, amoral, and fond of sweet things.

“Oh sure!” he said, playing up the brainless idiot who didn’t know to ask questions. “My sect is always recruiting, you know. We took some losses in the war and, well, I feel like adult cultivators aren’t really all that interestedin joining ever since I took over…”

“Because you’re a waste of space,” Xue Yang said, and Nie Huaisang pouted at him. “Whatever, the important thing is that you have space for kids. Orphans. Think, like, a whole orphanage getting shut down or whatever – anyway, not important. You’d take them back to Qinghe, right?”

“Oh, that would be so wonderful!” Nie Huaisang clapped. “That would suit everyone, wouldn’t it? They don’t have to worry about the children, and we get new disciples. I should tell san-ge – no, on second thought, he might be too busy –”

“Definitely too busy,” Xue Yang said quickly. “Wouldn’t it be nice to accomplish something yourself? You could casually show him that your numbers went up at the end of the month instead so he gives you the credit, without explaining that it’s kids making up the increase.”

“That’s a great idea! He’ll be much more impressed by that, I should definitely do that. Where is the orphanage?”

“…uh, in the forest. The back forest.”

You couldn’t come up with a better lie?

“You already brought them here?” Nie Huaisang asked, batting his eyelashes. “You’re so nice, Xue-xiong! I’ll go tell my second in command to go deal with it right away!”

-

It was in the fifth round of kids getting picked up – small cultivation clans being massacred and there was nothing Nie Huaisang could do about it, because there was either no evidence or else Jin Guangyao had come up with some motive to justify his actions and, inevitably, Lan Xichen would be there behind him, soothing over tempers and providing explanations because he believed him, every time – that something unusual happened.

“Sect Leader Nie,” one of his most trusted subordinates murmured into his ear. “There’s a problem.”

Nie Huaisang found a reason to leave the party early, a reason to go to the rendezvous point, and, once there, found the reason for the problem.

“Oh, hey there,” he said with a smile fixed onto his face by sheer force of willpower, crouching down to make himself seem less intimidating. Not that he was ever particularly intimidating, though given the rage coursing through his veins right now, he thought he might be able to pull it off if he tried. “What a lucky chance! It’s so funny, finding you here, Songsong. How are you?”

Jin Rusong wiped his eyes and looked tearily at him, recognized that the person asking was his Little Uncle Nie, and threw himself into Nie Huaisang’s arms with a howl.

This was pretty typical – Jin Rusong wasn’t much of a crier, but when he did he definitely took Nie Huaisang as his model, something all the other adults in the cultivation world had a tendency to give Nie Huaisang dirty looks over.

The only problem here, of course, was that Jin Rusong was dead.

Or, rather…he was supposed to be dead.

And if Jin Rusong was here – here, in the rendezvous point where Xue Yang put those of his prospective victims that happened to be a little too young for even him to stomach killing, at least without the personal grudge that had driven him to slaughter the Chang clan in its entirety – that meant only one thing.

Jin Guangyao had ordered his own son to be murdered.

Through demonic cultivation, no less, which was a pretty nasty way to go. There was a reason everyone implicitly countenanced Jiang Cheng’s vendetta against demonic cultivators no matter where they were, even when he ignored all territory lines and forgot to not ask for permission – the things a demonic cultivator gone bad could do were just so much worse than what anyone else could that they couldn’t risk any delay in dealing with the problem.

Well, shit, Nie Huaisang thought, even as he comforted Jin Rusong, petting the toddler’s back to try to get him to calm down. What do I do now?

-

“There has to be a reason,” Nie Huaisang insisted. “He’s not rabid. Songsong was his son!”

“Sect Leader Nie, we can’t find anything that might explain it.”

“Look harder. I don’t care how minor it is, I want to know everythingto do with Songsong. Every little detail – every person who saw him – every medical report, every compliment, every good grade –”

“He placed last in one of his classes,” one of his spies volunteered.

“What?”

“He placed last in one of his classes. About two months before his ‘assassination’, and shortly before his father started collecting evidence against the other sects that were in his way, which he later used to ‘prove’ that they had been involved in the alleged murder.”

“He wouldn’t kill his son for failing a class,” one of the others objected. “The kid’s barely more than a baby. What’s he expecting, genius from birth?”

“He’s a genius himself. Why not?”

“If everyone inherited everything directly from their parents, he’d be a whore.”

“He’d be a Jin. They’ve all got that nose, every one of them…”

“I heard he’s having the other Jin bastards killed. All of them, even the women…”

Something snapped in Nie Huaisang’s hands.

They all turned to look at him.

“Investigate Qin Su,” he said, looking down at the mess of wood and paper that had once been a fan. “Come to think of it, she has a Jin nose, too.”

-

“I don’t want to go!”

“I don’t want you to go, either,” Nie Huaisang said, feeling tired and also much more in sympathy with his poor older brother than he’d ever been while Nie Mingjue had been alive. “But you disobeyed me, and that means we don’t have a choice. You have to go.”

Nie Songsong looked down at the ground, his lip quivering. “I didn’t mean to…”

“You did,” Nie Huaisang said. “You have to own your decisions, Songsong. You can’t take them back once they’re done, no matter what the consequences. Not even if you feel bad, but definitely not because you feel bad for having to pay for what you did.”

“But…”

“No, Songsong. You cannot be in the Unclean Realm when – when he’s here.”

Nie Songsong hung his head.

“He’s not your father anymore,” Nie Huaisang said. “You know that, right?”

Nie Songsong nodded.

Nie Huaisang sighed and held out his hands, and his arms were full of a teary-eyed child a moment later.

“He loved you once,” Nie Huaisang murmured into his child’s hair. “I love you now. I wish I could give you more than that – I wish I could give you an answer, tell you why he didn’t love you enough to keep from doing what he did. But I can’t. All I can do…”

Is what I’m already doing.

“You’re enough, er-ge,” Nie Songsong whispered back. “You’re enough. I promise.”

-

“When will I get to go night-hunting?”

“You go night-hunting all the time,” Nie Huaisang grumbled. “You’re a fraction my age, and already my height, my weight, yet you wield a saber like my brother was around to raise you properly. You’re ruining my reputation, you know; now no one will believe that my incompetence comes from how short I am…”

“Not night-hunting with the rest of the sect, er-ge,” Nie Songsong said, rolling his eyes. “With other juniors!”

“Not long now,” Nie Huaisang said, looking down at the paper beneath his hands. It was all finally coming together. “Not long now. Just give er-ge a little more time to finish taking care of matters for da-ge, and you’ll be able to go night-hunting with anyone you like.”

-

“Er-ge! Are you all right? You look so pale…”

“I’m sorry,” Nie Huaisang whispered. “Songsong – I’m sorry. I’m so sorry –”

“What happened? Are you injured?” Nie Songsong demanded, already starting to pat him over, looking for wounds. “Er-ge, what’s wrong –”

“Your mother’s dead.”

Nie Songsong’s hands stilled.

“I told her about your heritage,” Nie Huaisang said, his lips numb. He’d never tried to hide it from Nie Songsong, although he’d introduced the subject very gradually and only once he thought that he’d be able to handle the revelation. “About your father – your grandfather. What they did. I wanted her to be angry at him, to turn against him, to distract him…instead, she killed herself.”

“Er-ge…”

“I shouldn’t have told her. If I knew –”

“Er-ge.”

“I should have brought her in earlier – told her about you surviving – I kept her from you for years –”

“Er-ge!”

Nie Huaisang looked at the child he had raised as a little brother the way his older brother had raised him, a father in everything but name, and who he had the constant feeling of having failed.

He wondered, as he always did, whether his brother had felt the same about him.

“Er-ge, it’s all right,” his little brother, his adopted son, said, and took his hands in his. “It’s all right. You tried, remember? Time after time, you tried to talk to her, but every single time you concluded that she would’ve told her husband instead of trusting you. She would’ve ruined everything. If she did that, I’d be dead all over again, and you with me.”

That had been what Nie Huaisang had concluded. That was why he’d never told her.

But…

“She’s your mother.”

“And you’re my er-ge. As long as you don’t die on me, too, it’ll be all right. Okay? It’ll be all right. It’ll be worth it in the end.”

Nie Huaisang shook his head. He’d already done so much, caused so much chaos and strife, and yet this moment – this was the step too far.

This was the first time he realized that he wasn’t sure he believed that it would be worth it anymore.

But by now…what else was left to do? There were no ways out of the plan he’d made himself; he’d designed it that way on purpose, because he’d known that if there was a way out, that snake would find a way to slither through it. He just hadn’t thought that he would be the one looking for it.

It didn’t matter.

He had to keep going.

His older brother deserved it, even if the younger one didn’t.

-

“I represent the Nie sect,” the young man – just about their age, though shorter than either of them – said with a smile. He seemed kind, gentle and polite, easy-going, but Lan Jingyi and Lan Sizhui looked at each other, and then at Jin Ling, who just scowled. “Can I come in?”

“Were you even invited?” Jin Ling asked in bitten off words. He was still bitter about some of the things that had happened in the Guayin Temple a month before, and of all them the one he was most bitter about was his second uncle’s retreat into seclusion – they were all upset about that.

“But it’s a discussion conference,” the young man said, blinking in confusion. “We’re a Great Sect. Why wouldn’t we be invited?”

In the face of such profound ignorance, there really wasn’t very much they could say, and eventually Lan Sizhui stepped forward with a smile, welcoming the young man – Nie Songsong, he introduced himself – into the Cloud Recesses.

Everything seemed fine for a little while. Lan Sizhui was able to talk to the people in charge of arranging juniors into finding another place for Nie Songsong to stay, although it would be a little delayed – Nie Songsong assured them that there was no issue – and as recompense they even showed him, at his request, a few of the main landmarks.

And then they turned around and their guest had disappeared.

“I knew he was up to no good!” Jin Ling exclaimed.

“Don’t jump to conclusions,” Lan Sizhui told him.

“I’m with Jin Ling,” Lan Jingyi said. “He seemed so nice and understated – just like you know –”

“Don’t talk about my little uncle,” Jin Ling hissed at him. “I know it’s true, but just – don’t, okay?”

“We should find where he went,” Lan Sizhui decided.

It took them a while, but in the end they found him in the most unexpected place: in the rooms their sect leader had chosen for his seclusion, sitting on the bed with Lan Xichen’s head on his shoulder, sobbing as if his heart had been broken.

“What are you doing?” Lan Sizhui exclaimed, unnerved even out of his own habitual politeness.

“I came to greet my uncle,” Nie Songsong said, his manner just as gentle and polite as it had been from the beginning, although it was now evident that he was as stubborn as a rock and not easy-going at all.

“Your uncle?” Lan Jingyi gaped. “How can he be your uncle?”

“You’re Sect Leader Nie’s son!” Jin Ling accused.

“I’m Sect Leader Nie’s little brother by adoption,” Nie Songsong corrected. “It’s through my father that he’s my uncle – and you my cousin, I suppose.”

“Your – father?”

“Oh, yes. My birth name, you see,” Nie Songsong said, “was Jin Rusong.”

-

“Why did you choose to reveal yourself?” Lan Sizhui asked. “Given that everyone knows – well –”

Nie Songsong finished the character he was writing and put down his brush. “Wondering if you should let it be known that you were born with the surname Wen?”

Lan Sizhui jerked in surprise, then flushed. “How did you – that didn’t come out in Guanyin Temple.”

“No, I knew it before,” Nie Songsong said. “My er-ge is very clever, you know.”

“Yes, I suppose I do...why do you call him brother? Shouldn’t he be uncle, or – or –”

“Uncle is probably right,” Nie Songsong said. “But he raised me like a son, just as his brother did for him.”

Lan Sizhui looked down at his hands.

“Why did he publicly reveal your background, knowing that you were still around?” he asked again. “Everyone will know. Who your father was, all those terrible things he did, his relationship with your mother –”

“Why shouldn’t he? He did do all those things, and he did have that relationship with my mother.”

“But what about you? What about your reputation –”

“Are you planning on sweeping Wen Ruohan’s grave?”

Lan Sizhui stared at him.

“He’s your grandfather, isn’t he?” Nie Songsong looked calmly back at him. “Who he was, all those terrible things he did –”

“That’s nothing to do with me!”

“And the crimes of my father are nothing to do with me. My er-ge gave me his surname, just as Hanguang-jun gave you his, and for the same reason – to cut us off from the sins of our original family.”

“I suppose that’s true. But – no one knew about you, just as no one knew about me until I told them, and I only told them because they were my friends. Why’d you tell us? Aren’t you worried we’d tell more people?”

“Of course I am,” Nie Songsong said. “I hope you don’t, of course, but you would’ve found out regardless – second uncle wasn’t exactly subtle in his grief. And I had to tell him.”

“Why? To bring him out of seclusion?” Lan Sizhui hesitated. “Do you care so much for him?”

“Of course not. The last time I met him, I was a small child, and my father was just about to order me murdered; that’s not much of a basis to build a relationship. But having him lock himself away like that, as if he were in mourning…it hurt er-ge. And I won’t let anything hurt my er-ge. Anything, or anyone.”

They looked at each other for a long moment.

“I understand,” Lan Sizhui said.

“I’m glad you do,” Nie Songsong said, and then smiled. “I would’ve had to escalate to threats next, and I’m given to understand that I’m too short to really pull them off properly.”

Lan Sizhui snorted. “I think we’ve all learned that that’snot true.”

-

“Should we talk about this?” Jin Ling asked, arms crossed over his chest and glaring.

“What do you want to talk about?” Nie Songsong replied.

“How about the fact that your father tried to kill me?”

“Sure. Can we talk about the fact that you got all of his affection for years and years after he tried to kill me?”

Jin Ling blanched.

“I wonder if he would’ve gotten me a dog, too,” Nie Songsong mused. “I was too young for that when he ordered his demonic cultivator to feed me to fierce corpses and have my body ravaged until it was barely recognizable…but sure, let’s talk about how he tried to kill you.”

“I was talking about Sect Leader Nie!”

“Well, then, you should have been more specific. Sect Leader Nie’s my brother, not my father.”

“He’s a whole generation older than you!”

“My little uncle, then.”

Jin Ling flinched. “That’s worse. Go back to calling him your brother.”

Nie Songsong shrugged. “Would it help if we fought?”

“…what?”

“It makes me feel better, sometimes. Besides, I may be short, but I’m pretty good with the saber. I bet I could match your sword…maybe not your arrows. But I’ve always wanted to try.”

Jin Ling looked at him suspiciously for a long moment.

“Okay,” he finally said. “Sure. Why not?”

-

“I really hate that you’re kind of cool,” Lan Jingyi told him.

“I am so cool,” Nie Songsong said, and passed him another jar of wine. “Want to see my spring book collection?”

“…yes please.”

-

“Thank you for taking care of him,” Lan Xichen said to Nie Huaisang, who shrugged. “I’m sorry that you couldn’t trust me to help.”

“It’s only what I should have done,” Nie Huaisang said, not for the first time. He’d said it so often these past few days that it felt like a new refrain, an alternative to the old I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know. He preferred the original. “I was his little uncle, remember? I held him on his first month party. How could I do any less?”

He did not say that Lan Xichen, who could be classified as Jin Rusong’s older uncle, had done much less, but from Lan Xichen’s expression, he’d taken it that way anyway.

“You never…” Lan Xichen hesitated. “Did you ever have any – concerns?”

“That he’d turn out an idiot? No. I figured he’d be in good company, with me.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“Oh, you meant whether I was worried that he’d grow up longing for his blood family over his adopted family and turn against me in favor of his real father?” Nie Huaisang asked mildly. “No, not really. The memory of your father ordering you to be mauled by fierce corpses and to make sure your face is destroyed so that there’s a reason to refuse to let your mother see the body, as it would only upset her, is a fairly effective panacea against things like that.”

“No,” Lan Xichen said, though he looked sick all over again at the reminder of how considerate Jin Guangyao could be when it came to those he thought of as people, and how monstrous he was towards those he didn’t. “No, just – your brother always took such a hard line against the Wen sect…”

“Because they were raised with the philosophy that they were superior to the rest of us and my brother purposefully made himself into the symbol of their fallibility, thereby making himself and all the rest of us the primary target for their traumatic realization that they’re just as weak and vulnerable as everyone else,” Nie Huaisang said, rolling his eyes. “Our Nie sect cultivators were always especially targeted whenever we were captured – our survival rate as prisoners of war was less than half all the other sects, and it wasn’t just because we were usually more injured when we got caught. Even the civilians surnamed Wen would pull out knives and try to stab us in the back if they had half a chance! We were in a blood feud with them, er-ge. You don’t put down blood feuds just like that, not even if you want to. That’s not how it works.”

Lan Xichen nodded slowly, thoughtful.

“Anyway, Songsong is mine now,” Nie Huaisang said. “Just as Lan Sizhui is your brother’s, and Jin Ling Jiang Cheng’s. Can’t we all just agree to not care about the rest?”

“I suppose we have to,” Lan Xichen said, bowing his head. “Huaisang…did you ever think about what happens now? I mean – what should we do next?”

“I don’t know,” Nie Huaisang said, and smiled humorlessly when Lan Xichen looked at him. “I’m not joking. I didn’t know what to do when I got Songsong for the first time, er-ge, and I don’t know what to do now, either. I just wanted to see justice done for my da-ge, and I did, and for the rest – I don’t know.”

“That’s fine,” Lan Xichen said. “I don’t know, either.”

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, Nie Huaisang thought. Spine as steel as your saber.

“Would you like to come visit the Unclean Realm sometime?” he asked, pretending to be casual. “Perhaps we can figure out what we don’t know together. If you like.”

“…perhaps I will,” Lan Xichen said.

[theangrycomet-art]

First Day of 6th Grade: Introductions

First Page >>> Next Page

So far so Good?

Lots of Kiddo designs for page 2 ^.^

OC Context/Summary for those who don’t want to dig through the character tags:

-//-

In order of Appearance:

Tyrone Fulbright: Son of Butch Jojo (last name JoHimson here) and Fanny Fulbright. He has pretty much 0 affiliation with his father excluding the annual mandatory visit to Townsville Penitentiary.

Danny Test Utonium: Eldest of Johnny Test and Buttercup Utonium. Heart of gold, dumb of a**, a Himbo in training. This is before his powers kick in so he’s a bit more confident.

Rueben Gilligan: Eldest of Abigail Lincoln and Hoagie Gilligan. The unoffical leader of “the Teddybears” as Becka has dubbed the three of them, he tends to be the first with a joke and a plan.

Courtney Green: Daughter of Ace Green (Gangreen Gang). Oily and slick, she just as likely to tear you down verbally as physically. Stupid loyal to her friends though. Mess with them, get a bat to the face. Before her updated wardrobe

Britney MacFarlane: Daughter of Mindy, think Heather Duke post getting power. She gets what she wants whether she has to grind others to dust to do it. Britney knows best after all.

Carter VonMarzian: Middle child and only son of Henrietta VonMarzipan and Eddward Vincent (i.e. Double D). Definitely the detective of the family, he’s quick to right a wrong or disprove conspiracy theories. Brit calls him “Pig Pen” in reference to his recent interest in Palynology. (Said interest causes his father high levels of distress, thx for nothing OCD)

Shang McCraigen: Fourth eldest of the McCraigen Clan and by far the sassiest. This is about a 2 years since he was fostered first fostered (and a few months since he was officially adopted) by Mac and Rachel. He’s picked up Mac’s ability to read the room- hence his checking in on Jordan.

Jordan Universe: Eldest daughter of Steven Universe and Connie Maheswaran. Given her family’s history with Kevin 11k, she’s not really sure how to feel about his son being at her school. Either way, it’s gonna be awkward for a little bit.

Violeta E. Salazar: Daughter of Caesar Salazar. Easily the smartest of the room, she tends to keep more to herself at this age- only really interacting with her cousin and his friends. Not super involved with alien politics/criminal activity, she doesn’t get the big whoop at the name Levin.

Roman Salazar: Son of Rex Salazar. Far more confident than when he was first starting off, he’s pretty calm in the school environment- if a bit bored. Like his cousin, he tends to learn more back at Providence between his Tio and his Aunt. Equally ignorant on the whole big deal on the name Levin, he’s indifferent.

Kaiden Kincaid: Son of KO. Normally really attentive in class- he kind of wiped himself out brawling with Boxbots the day before. This particular model of Robbie had some unexpected kicks to him.

Mildred “Millie” Billions Morbucks: The only child of Billy Billions and the younger daughter of Princess Morbucks, Millie’s got a lot on her plate to be the best. The youngest in the class at age 8, she is the child prodigy her father had hoped for. The only reason she isn’t at the private school is (pettily enough) that both her parents want to prove she’s smarter than their rivals kids. She is VERY familiar with the capabilities of a Levin so she VERY much would like to stay on Devlin’s good side on the opposite side of the classroom.

[krispydefendorpolice]

The Demon’s Bride (4)

Call out to @vitaliciouscreations for their “Drop of Paradise” story. I’m using the same name Tiān but they came up with it (to best of my knowledge). Another fun read. Anyone interested in me putting up a random maribat recomendation in this part?

On to the story

Beginning Previous Next Masterpost

_________________

Chapter 4

After dropping Mari in front of the hotel she was staying at, where the teacher definitely had not noticed she was missing he fumed, Damian returned to the Bat cave. His father, all three of his brothers, his sister, Alfred and the rest of the extended Bat Clan were waiting.

“You never turned your comm back on,” Bruce commented.

“I needed to speak with Mari before talking to you,” Damian said, passing his father and pulling up files on the Bat computer.

“We had noticed. It would have been nice to know you were alright after she took down Jason the way she did.”

“Hence the reason I left my tracker on instead of disabling it. You knew where I was.”

“Who is this mystery girl the boys are talking about?” Barbara, aka Oracle, asked.

Damian ignored the question while he filtered through the files of the Wayne conference attendees for the school group staying at Mari’s hotel and down to the students on the trip. He pulled up the school picture of Mari and the information they had on her.

“She is a friend from my childhood,” he finally said looking at the information. He saw that her name was Marinette Dupain-Cheng, her parents on file were listed as Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng. So they hadn’t changed it, he thought, disappointed in himself because he never looked.

Damian turned when no one said anything after his declaration. Leaning against the console he waited for their responses.

“Bull shit Demon Spawn. You’ve never mentioned friends other than Jon and the Titans before,” Jason said, “and even then it’s because they are not your friends.”

“I assure you she is,” Damian said.

“Then why is this the first time any of us have ever heard about her?” Dick asked.

“None of you have ever shown a particular interest in my childhood with the League of Assassins before now, so why would I have talked about her to you?” Damian answered with a question of his own.

“Because you bit off our heads every time we asked anything,” Tim argued.

Damian narrowed his eyes, “The last time anyone asked me anything about the League I was 11 years old, had just moved in with a bunch of strangers, and had witnessed my family and my whole life destroyed by a madman. Of course I fucking yelled at you. I couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t cry, yell or rage about the unfairness of watching my family, my family,” he emphasized, “die because I was with strangers and emotions make you vulnerable and I could not afford any more vulnerabilities with the unknown situation I was in.”

The entire clan was silent during his tirade, and a bit ashamed at what he was revealing to them years afterwards.

“I’m sorry Damian. We should have realized that and asked you how you were handling the changes at the time,” Bruce was the first to apologize.

“So you weren’t just rabid from Mom’s Tender Loving Care?” Jason asked.

“Master Jason,” Alfred chided while the rest of the clan just gave Jason a Really? look.

“In the 10 years I lived with her I probably spent less than two in her actual company,” Damian said. “I don’t think I would have responded well at the time even if you had realized,” he acknowledged Bruce’s apology.

“Can you tell us about her?” Bruce asked.

“I can but there’s a lot to talk about to really understand everything. I’m meeting her tomorrow for her free day, we can come here for dinner. I can give you some of that background information now and she can answer any of the questions about herself that I can’t answer.”

“Alright. So tell us what we need to know.”

“Might I suggest we move this discussion out of the cave and to the parlor where we might be more comfortable while we talk,” Alfred interrupted.

“That sounds like a good idea Alfred,” Dick said.

**************************

They did as Alfred suggested and moved to the sitting room so they could sit comfortably while talking about Damian’s past. They were all aware that before he came to them at the age of 10 he had lived with his mother and grandfather and with the League of Assassins. He had been volatile and reckless even while he was taking up the mantle of Robin and began following the others into the vigilante lifestyle.

But apparently there was more to his actions as a kid than just being a snobbish brat raised to believe he was better than everyone else.

Damian sipped at his cup of Black tea while settling his mind around what he was going to discuss. He had spent the last 7 years trying not to think of the other half of his biological family and believing the rest were dead so that he hadn’t had any other reason to reflect on his youth in the League. But that had obviously been a mistake. If Mari survived did anyone else? Can I get my family back? He wondered to himself while the rest of the clan settled down with their drinks of choice.

Finally everyone was settled. Bruce was the one to set the ball rolling.

“So what should we know?”

“Before I start about what I know,” Damian began turning to Jason, “I need to know more about what you know of the League, Todd.”

Jason raised an eyebrow and looked at him stonily. If Damian was quiet about the League as a kid (lies, he really wasn’t because he was an Al Ghul dammit) then Todd was a monk who had taken a vow of silence (slightly less a lie, he didn’t talk about it but he did rant about what a bitch Talia was). None of the Bats knew much about his time with the League other than he met Talia before returning to Gotham to seek vengeance on the Joker.

“Like what, Demon Spawn?” Jason asked.

“Well, first, did you have a designation?”

“A what?”

“That’s a no then. Consider yourself lucky, or not, since you were one of mother’s various pet projects then.”

“Damian,” Dick warned as Damian still had a tendency to be very blunt, to the point of being abrasive, when talking about other’s trauma’s.

Damian frowned before nodding in acknowledgement of the warning and in apology for his tone.

“I suppose the first thing you should know is that the League of Assassins is only about two hundred years old, while Tiān the city from which it was established is thousand of years old. Grandfather found it years ago and started to recruit certain prized and influential citizens and families into following him. Eventually the majority of the city were members of his cult and doing his bidding. We can get more into why the League as its own city is important tomorrow.

“Now, since the League is a cult and it was born out of an independent city how has it maintained it’s membership for so long? And I assure you it wasn’t because grandfather shared the secret of the Lazarus Pits with anyone” he asked.

“They recruited new members,” Dick answered with a shrug.

Damian gave him his own Really? look. “Recruits only account for about 25% of the new trainees and they are usually older teens and young adults. The people that are disenfranchised from the society outside of the League. Individuals with knowledge of the world outside shaped by influences from outside and not by Ras Al Ghul,” Damian said. “I was one of 79 children born in my year group. I was not raised by Talia no matter how she spins it. Despite having a personal bodyguard, private tutors and a nursemaid because I was an Al Ghul heir, I was raised with the other children my age in the al’akadimia*.”

“Talia didn’t raise you?” Barbara asked.

“She oversaw my training, instruction and education which seems to be her impression of parenting, but no, she was not involved in the day to day of my life growing up. I got more of that with Father in the first few months than I did from her in the entirety of my time with her,” Damian answered.

The Bats were silent as they digested this new piece of information from their youngest.

“In the cave you mentioned losing your family. It sounded like it happened in Slade’s attack. If not Talia, who were you thinking of? The girl?” Tim asked.

*academy- Arabic via Google translate

_________________

So, this chapter f*cked with my head. I was just writing and playing with the story and had to come up with a reason for Damian being such a little shit as a kid. And I threw in the line about him losing his family and moving in with strangers when I had an oh shit moment of enlightenment.

In the Son of Batman, Damian witnessed his grandfathers death. His mother brought him to strangers and essentially dropped him on their doorstep. Then we get into the fact that most likely he was essentially abused growing up (how else do you get a kid that wont show emotions) but they were still his family and yeah...

I try throwing in a flippant reason but really it kinda sounds like a canon reason too.

I had never thought about why canon Damian was the way he was especially in that first movie and now my head hurts. I’m curious if anyone else has ever given that a thought or if you’re just now having that oh shit reaction?

Taglist: I’m so happy so many are enjoying it. I’m trying to get everyone but if I miss you I’m sorry but it’s not intentional. Also, I appreciate the comments but unless you ask I won’t tag you so if you’ve commented and not been tagged it’s cuz you didn’t ask or because I overlooked it trying to find everyone who’s asking to be tagged. And I’m going to ask that you message me since I’m having trouble finding all the asks in the comments. Thank you.

And thank you all!

@ozmav @multifandomscribette @mochinek0 @inevitableenquere @zebrabaker @poshplumcot @tog84 @luciferge @sonif50 @ravennightingaleandavatempus @northernbluetongue @actual-human-disaster @clumsy-owl-4178 @aarushi-03 @bluerosette23 @g-arya @moonyloonyx @fertileleaf @shreky-boi @thanks-captain-obvious @panda3506 @hinata3487 @thequestionablyhuman @dontgiveaflyinflip @dast218 @chocolatecatstheron @asianfrustration13 @slytherinsheashire @weird-pale-blonde-person @yin-390 @mycupisbroken @vixen-uchiha @kuroko26 @autisticlinx @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @mariae2900 @zalladane @hypnosharkrebeldreamer @tbehartoo @novicevoice @violatiger8 @thebookish3lf @fandomkitty8 @redscarlet95 @gingersnapnoir @chewbaccaatemythoughts

[we-want-mini-mini]

Since I have no self restraint, I’m writing another prompt/one shot.

Essentially, normal girl Lia (or some OC) whose a big fan of DC comics and the like ends up in a weird inter dimensional accident and ends up in the DC universe (it can be a mix of canon because fuck canon, up to you).

But, where did Lia end up exactly? Fucking Gotham.

The moment she realizes this is decides: Nope. Nah. Nada. No sir-y. This is NOT happening. Fuck this. I might end dying, or, worse, BECOME A FUCKING MAIN CHARACTER IN THE BAT CLAN. NAH. HELL NO.

Lia decides that, no, she will not involve herself in the Bat Clan/Wayne’s at all. Nope. Nah. Too much drama. Too much angst. Too much fucking skin tight suits and my poor Pan heart can’t TAKE all the HOT, RIPPED hero’s like what the fuck.

Now, this can play out in a variety of ways:

Lia is, say, around the same age as one of the Batboys. It can be any of them, up to you. Now, she some how ends up in Gotham Acdemy and begrudgingly befriends them. Cue angst (especially if its Jason. Considering in canon, if Jason survives he becomes Red Robin thats all I know lmao). If Lia is friends with the second Robin, it’d bring up the deliemma of: does she tell him that he’s gonna fucking die and then come back to life. Oh and, she’s actually from an alternate world were everyone thats like a superhero/vigilante is a fictional character. Honestly, if done well, can definitely stir the feelings of the poor saps who read the moral deliemma of Lia. Now, who is Lia? Someone who doesn’t want to get involved. If she avoids Jason in the beginning, does she have doubts and wants to warn Batman of Jason impending death or not? Like, that sort of shit panic attack inducing. There’s a lot of things you guys can do to torture not only Lia, but also the readers who might be like: “TELL HIM! TELL HIMMMMM!!!” or, “fuck, even I don’t know what I’d do” and etc. There’s a lot of leeway.

They are grown, and are in college (let’s say the events of Death in The Family happened and everything surrounding Red Robin striking out to find Bruce whose lost in time). This Lia is much older, recently graduated from college and currently interns for Wayne Enterprises. See, Lia is just another intern in a global colgomerate cooperation, there’s no way she’d ever run into any of the Wayne’s. None at all. But. But. She does. Some how she becomes the Executive Assistant to Tim (he once saw how she managed an entire fucking department’s schedule even though a group of people spontaneously quit. She was able to somehow salvage that shit in under three hours. And, Tim might or might not have fallen slightly in love with her—). Lia, now, a fresh 20-something year old, is now the Executive Assistant to another 20-something year old who happened to run one of the most rich and powerful companies in the entire world holy shit. Now, we follow the adventures of Lia, whose now one of the most powerful persons in the entire company (and proxy the world, I guess 🤷🏻‍♀️). Lia, let’s say, is a fucking god at manipulating people, making connections, accounting and management, and also a Very Tired Recently Graduate of GU. She, cannot, and will not deal with the constant bullshit that the Bats pull regularly. So, Lia can either passive aggressively hint that, yeah Tim, you definitely got that broken arm from a golf accident. Oh hey, I also heard the Red Robin foughy Killer Croc and also sported a broken left arm like you! What a coincidence, right? And she’d say this with a straight face. Tim knows that she knows, and Lia knows that Tim knows and yeah. Alternatively, she could outright tell him: “look, Tim, I swear to god, if you put off another meeting without a day notice just because some gang member got the better of you.” “Wait, gang member—?” “—do NOT interrupt me. Look, I know Bruce Wayne is Batman. Not the whole, ‘Bruce Wayne and Batman are the same person! The butts match!’ type of thing. I know he is Batman, you Red Robin, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Red Hood is the weirdly alive Jason Todd, etc etc. There’s no point in feigning the fact that I don’t know. Because, I do.” They stare at eachother for a bit, and Tim falls just a little more in love. “How... Actually it’s dumb to ask you how you know, but, how long?” “Good tactic to ask me how long I’ve know instead of how I know. But, to answer your question: I’ve know since I was around...” THE FRAME FREEZES now, should Lia say 8, since, technically, she’s know since she was 8 that Bruce Wayne is Batman, considering the whole parallel universe thing. Or, does she say 18, the age in which she arrived into this world? Now, that decision can prompt many things to happen. For one, if Lia says 8, Tim is gonna be so awestruck and also be dry curious. If 18, Tim is still amazed (that she knows at all). Either answer would also illicit this response: “...you’ve known for so long, yet never told anyone?” Lia shakes her head. “You guys have a secret identity for a reason. Plus, I’m not in the business of becoming a vigilante or whatever. I’ve tried my best to steer clear of all of that, in all honesty.” “Huh. Makes sense. Wait. Then... why did you start working at WE, if you knew our identities?” Lia stares at him like he’s grown three heads. “Dude. This is WE. One of the most powerful companies out there, why wouldn’t I work here? But, the ither fact of the matter is that I didn’t expect to become your fucking Executive Assistant. Like, I couldn’t just deny the offer, my mother would’ve disowned my ass the second she heard I turned down such a prestigious position.” Lia shuddered. “Fuck, I can hear her curse me out in like, five different languages.” Let’s also say, at one point or another, Lia’s mother arrives, and say, is the most terrifying person Tim has ever met (and Tim’s faced off against Ra’s al Ghul, a functionally immortal man with a fucking army of highly trained assassin at his disposal).

Lia is tame honest to god tame compared to her mother (if her mother is like, 5’3”, that’s even more hilarious tbh). Essentially, if Lia’s older and somehow become Executive Assistant to Tim (or Bruce, because, fuck canon) it would be so god damn funny (read “The Executive Assistant To Batman” in which Tim nene became Robin but still knows the identities of the various Gotham vigilantes. Oh, and, he’s the Executive Assistant to Batman. It’s so fucking hilarious and y’all gotta check it out. It’s on AO3).

Number 2, is a lot more light hearted compared to the moral deliemma of Number 1 (as, is Lia is the same age as Robin!Jason, and knows that he’s gonna die, but she also doesn’t want to get involved with the vigilantes presents a very large problem). Number 1 is great for angst and a character study for this OC. Number 2, is a more light hearted, fun scenario (as it avoids the can of worms called “Do I Warn the Bats of Robin!Jasons impending death or not because I honestly don’t want to get involved with the Bat.”.

I, personally, would love to read Number 2 (please make Lia, or whatever OC, a god damn Tired of Your Bullshit, amazing assistant to the CEO of WE, competent af and very, Very Tired of the Bats BS, and, PR is Going To Skin Me Alive and Roast Me Over A Flame). Maybe some drama, angst sprinkled in (there’s the blatant fact that, Lia is a completely different world. One that has superhero’s, aliens, magic and so, so much more. The fact that she’s in her doppelgänger’s body could cause some dissociation/body dysphoria and that sort of stuff. It’s a great opportunity for a character study for Lia/your OC).

Regardless of you choose 1 or 2, the basic premise is:

Some rando kid (or young adult, whichever strikes your fancy) who loves to read Batman/DC in general. Ends up in some weird ass accident that lands them in the DC universe, specifically Gotham. Everything about their pervious life and the life in his world is the same (or not, up to you), only difference is that there’s an alien powered by the Sun and that cannot he injured (unless it’s by a glowing green rock). They decide, pretty early on, that they want nothing to do with the vigilantes of Gotham (which also means they have to avoid the Wayne’s and Co, which should be ways right? Right?? Gotham is really big, I’ll probably only ever see them in passing, I’ll be fine—). But, the universe said, LOL, nope. And they end up befriending the Wayne’s somehow. The rest? Up to you. If they befriend Robin!Jason they have to cope with the moral deliemma of getting involved to save his life or not. Or, maybe this is the world where Dick is still Robin. Do we save Jason early on, or not? What about Tim? Cass? Stephanie? Or, what if, they end up in a world in which Jason died and came back, Bruce came back from being lost in the time stream and Damian is now Robin.

Essentially: OC ends up in the DC universe, specifically Gotham. Decided not to ever get in involved with the Vigilantes/Wayne’s. However, the universe said nope and they become friends with one of the Bats/Waynes regardless. Now, how the fuck do they cope?

BONUS: Lia manages to avoid the Wayne’s/Vigilantes of Gotham completely. How? She ends working for LexCorp. As Lex Luthors Executive Assistant (basically the same way as she became the Executive Assistant to Tim). Now, she has to cope with the fact that she works as the Executive Assistant for Lex fucking Luthor of all people. She can hear her mother shaking her head in Disappointment™️. She hates the universe. Also, Lex Luthor is pretty open about his Evil, Bastard Schemes with Lia for whatever reason (much to Lia’s utter fucking chargin). She discreetly sends info about these Evil, Bastard, Devious plans to the Bats. Cue her realizing that, to ensure Luthor doesn’t suspect her, she’s gotta get GOOD at hacking and computer science. And get good she does. Like, her utter fucking Done-ness over Luthors Supervillain ways and her wanted to never be found out by the Bats is like taken to Infinty in the 10 dial scale. Somehow, she manages to both avoid suspicion from Luthor (cue intense moments in which Luthor is talking to her, and he’s speaking in a weird direct way that makes Lia think he found out and she mentally plans for her subsequent “death” and fleeing of the country and when Luthor finishes his sentences it just him praising her or something else innocuous. Lia felt like the sun was lifted off her shoulders.) She’s always on edge. Her hair is slowly turning grey. Luthor notices and makes a comment and Lia simply laughs while making a underhand comment about how Luthors bald so he doesn’t need to deal with greying hairs. Lia stops laughing realizing oh shit I just insulted my boss in the most underhand way. What ghe fuck. But Luthor just laughs, much to Lia’s relief. Her hair is still greying from the stress. Anyways, she inadvertently becomes a techno vigilante that can rival the famed Oracle (let’s say, for the sake of this prompt, Lia’s code name is Reaper because she was drunk and apparently in the mind of her 13 year old self when she came up with it). Reaper’s name is slowly growing, as Lia does some other stuff with her new found skills in hacking. She mostly helps the Bats by giving them crucial info on Luthors dealings and the like.

One day, she realizes, that, oh shit. I became the one thing swore I’d never become. What type of Shakespearean shit is my life—

If someone does the situation in which Lia/their OC becomes Luthor Executive Assistant and then inadvertently becomes a Vigilante themselves because, sure, they don’t want to get involved, but, fuck Luthor and Eat the Rich. Also, I would love it if said fic included the most stress inducing scenes were it seems like Luthor found out about Lia and the whole Reaper situation but he actually DIDN’T and Lia is here like, sweating god damn bucks while her hair slowly falls out. Please. Write this shit. It would be

✨Immaculate✨

Anyways, hope you like this prompt/one shot because I damn well enjoyed writing it!

[certainglitterhologram]

Lysander Scamander and Lily Potter II

I have a feeling that growing up, Lily and Lysander were best friends. Lorcan was super, super, SUPER close friends with Lily, and obviously Lysander, since they are twins, (trust me on this,), but Lily and Lysander just shared a bond the tiniest bit stronger. 

Lily being an adventure seeking, adrenaline junky, while was Lysander, also adventure loving, but with limits. He knew his boundries and where to draw the line, but struggled to show that line to Lily, who would just jumped into every tree, every river, wanting to ride the hippogriff that she found in the woods behind the Scamander’s house. 

Lysander putting his head into his hands each time, saying “Lily. It’s dangerous. It could bite you, you could fall off, it could have rabies, fleas or something even worse. “

Lily rolling her eyes and attempting to do it anyway, running up to the hippogriff and almost getting trampled to death. Like Scorpius’ dad, but actually life threatening. 

After getting her out of there, Lysander smirked at her and said, “Don’t really wanna say I told you so, but....... *Pause* Oh who am I kidding, of course I do. Never tell me I’m wrong Lily, and expect to succeed in whatever dumb thing you’re doing. Lily just scoffing and said “I’m Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley’s daughter. The only reason I almost got trampled was obviously because the hippogriff sensed you behind that tree.”

Lysander, used to these egotistical comments, says “Oh yes, how could  I be so stupid. It’s not like I’m the great-grandson of Newt Scamander, or anything. And the situation we are talking about involves a damn hippogriff. “

 On the Hogwarts Express, Lily, Hugo, Lysander and Lorcan in the same compartment and a tall, lanky dark haired boy comes in. He introduced himself as Matthew Corner, and Lysander, being the best with people, gets up and politely introduces himself, and introduced the others.

Matt is immediately liked by everyone in the compartment, and they form their own little quintet, bonding over candy and pranks in the compartment. 

When Albus and James come in to check on Lily, she just giggles and waves, before redirecting her attention to Lorcan, who had eaten one of those cool sweets that make you grow features of an animal, that Hugo had brought on the train.

The Sorting Ceremony went as expected, really.

Matthew, was one of the first, and had barely sat on the stool, before the hat shouted “RAVENCLAW”

Hugo went next. He was on the stool for a long time with that hat on his head. Not enough to be a hat stall, but just enough to be notably long, before the hat yelled “HU-GRYFFINDOR!”

When Lily was called, she sashayed up to the stool, with an overwhelming amount of confidence, and James yelled “YES, LILS! WHOO!”. The hat suprisingly sat there for a while, debating between Slytherin and Gryffindor, before ultimately deciding on Gryffindor. 

Lysander had a feeling of dread at that moment. He did have seperation anxiety from Lorcan, just a mild case, but enough to make him dread the thought of them being in different houses. He hadn’t thought of it until that moment, becuase Lorcan and him were so alike. He ruled out that thought, and focused on relaxing himself

Lorcan jumped on the stool and only had a couple seconds of deliberation, before  “HUFFLEPUFF!”

Lysander knew even before going up there, that there was no way he would be in Hufflepuff. He wasn’t exactly the definition of hardworking. Not that he wasn’t, no, he just had a tendency to quit things that no longer interested him, rather than working throught it.

When his name was called, he was immediately sorted into Ravenclaw. He knew he should feel proud, as he was taking after his mother, and had one of his closest friends with him, Matthew, but being away from his twin, best friend and other close friend, was paining him. But Lysander was known to almost always be happy, so shut these feelings down, sucked it up and got used to it. Eventually, he found that it wasn’t that bad, and that Lily and him were still best friends, and Lorcan was still his right hand man. And vice versa.

In their second year, Lily tried out for the Gryffindor quidditch team, and made it, as their Seeker. A few weeks into the season, it was Lily’s third match, Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff and literal miliseconds after Lily caught the snitch and secured the win for Gryffindor, in a rage, one of the Hufflepuff beaters bat a bludger straight at the back of her head, knocking her out. 

Lysander, Lorcan, Hugo and Matt sprinted down the stands, running over towards her. She was crumpled on the grass and being levitated onto a stretcher by Headmistress McGonagall. 

The culprit of the injury had jumped on his broom and flew towards the castle, and Lysander was trembling with rage. He snapped at the other boys (Hugo, Matt and Lorcan,) to follow him to see if they could find the boy. They found him trying to run into the castle without being seen, but Lysander jumped on him, and pinned him down, so he couldn’t get away, while Lorcan and Hugo sent red sparks to the teachers, letting them know the found him.

Then, of course, Lysander did the unexpected. Just when the teacher and the student were coming into view, he let go of the boy and punch him straight in the nose, breaking it, as soon as the first met the boy’s face. A single punch before Lysander pulled him close and whispered in a deadly calm tone 

“Never. NEVER touch my Lily, EVER again.” Dropping the boy on the ground, before walking over to a shocked twin and Matthew. Leaning against the wall behind them and wiping the blood from the boy’s broken nose in the white-blond hair, not even caring at the streak of red in his hair. 

Consequently, he recived three weeks of detention. Could have been worse, I suppose, was his attitude. For the next month, he recived fist bumps from James in the hallways and tiny smirks from Albus, telling him, they were proud. 

Three years later, in fifth year, Lysander was noticing that he was catching feelings for Lily, but then, Matt had shyly asked her out, and she replied with “Why not?”.

Everytime they held hands, hugged, kissed or did anything of the sort, Lysander felt a rage build up inside of him. But for Lily’s sake, he tried to be happy. For Lily. 

Lorcan noticed immediately, and after teasing that Albus owed him 12 Galleons, comforted him and said that he was sure that Lily felt the same way, but just hadn’t noticed it yet, and told Ly to just play along and calm down.

Hugo noticed it in History of Magic, his first class after breakfast, where after seeing Lily and Matthew snog right in front of him, Lysander had crushed a goblet with his hands. After giving him some kind of twin telepathic look that Hugo couldn’t interpret, Lorcan sighed and muttered “Reparo”.

Hugo thought it was weird, but thought not much of it until he realized in the middle of HOM. (He is Ron Weasley’s kid. Ofc he wouldn’t fucking notice.) 

Hugo sent a note to the table where Ly and Matt were sitting, across the room, in a oragami swan (^-^) that read on the outside

Matt, if you’re reading this, just give it straight to Ly. Nothing really that interesting here, 

In it, read 

Lysander, mate...I realized you like Lily. Or Matt. I’m not sure, mate, i’m not going to make any assumptions. If it is Matt though, good for you. If it’s Lily, It was kinda obvious, so maybe, don’t crush a goblet next time they snog... just trying to help, but just know, that if Lily doesn’t choose you or doesn’t feel the same way, (Which she does.) the whole Potter-Weasley-Granger-Johnson-Delacour clan is on your side. 

If you need anyone to talk to, I’m always here, mate. Just say the word.

-Hugo

and Hugo got a paper dragon back, saying

Well, I shouldn’t really suprised, but it’s Lily. I’m not fucking gay. But thanks for being supportive. Love you, bro.

~Ly

Lysander walked out of that class feeling a lot better,  while Hugo felt smug. Hugo ran up to Fred II saying how he was about to have won his little bet with Rose. But they walked into the middle of the hallway to see Lily and Matthew, both looking solemn, (which was a first for Lily, who was almost always happy.)

They were speaking in hushed tones, Matt nodded and hugged Lily in an almost friendly manner, before walking away, with a smile on his face.

“What happened?” Lysander asked Lily, plainly curious.

“Oh, Matt and I both agreed that this relationship wasn’t working. We did like eachother.. but we agreed that being friends was more benefical for both of us. 

Lysander tried very hard not to break out into a grin, while saying “Aw.. You two were cute together. “

Lily snorted and just walked into the Transfiguration classroom and plopped down in her chair.

During the passing period after the next class, Lysander quickly told Lorcan the news, who encouraged him to ask her out at dinner. And Lysander agreed

Lysander worked up his courage to ask her out and was about to walk over to the Gryffindor table, went she walked into the Great Hall, smirking. 

“YOU!” she yelled, pointing at Lysander. The hall went silent. 

“ME!” Lysander yelled back, sticking his toungue out at her. 

“GO ON A DATE WITH ME ON THE NEXT HOGSMEADE TRIP?” Lily shouted, across the hall and out of nowhere. 

“ANYTHING FOR YOU LILS!” The sentence slipped out of Lysander’s mouth before he could stop it, but he was glad he did. 

Lily ran over to them, while Lorcan and Matt nudged Lysander, but Lily ignored them, pulling Lysander into a kiss that lasted a good forty five seconds. 

The Great Hall cheered, and Lily whispered “I saw you crush that goblet at breakfast today, Ly. I didn’t even remember it until an hour ago. I knew you felt the same as me, so I did something so you wouldn’t have to ask me out. Carriages to Hogsmeade at 10 sound good?”

Lysander couldn’t say anything, so he nodded. 

“Perfect! “ And Lysander watched Lily walk to her awed girl friends and a particularly smug Hugo. 

Let’s just say a lot of money was exchanged that day.

[wordsysayswords]

Someone needs to put down a wet floor sign because Tucker’s pretty sure his heart has melted into a puddle around his shoes.

Or, Tucker gets to see Wash interact with children, including Junior, for the first time ever and, to quote Grif, he's so fucked.

--

Merry Christmas @washingtubb!  I hope you enjoyed this fluffy Blue Team bonding with just a pinch of Tuckington thrown in for good measure. Thanks for being so patient with this fic getting posted. @redvsbluesecretsanta

--

“Have you guys seen Junior?” Tucker asks, poking his head into the common room.

Carolina, who is sat perfectly still on the couch and in the process of having her long hair braided by three children, glances Tucker’s way without turning her head.

“He was with Caboose’s group earlier,” she says, blowing a stray strand of hair out of her face. “In the mess hall.”

“Yeah, apparently they got told to leave because Grif tried to organize the kids into storming the kitchen. The things that guy will do for chocolate pudding.”

“BLARG!” Cries one of the twin Sangheili infants in Carolina’s lap. She rubs the alien’s back soothingly and raises an eyebrow at Tucker in a silent question.

“She’s ready for a nap,” Tucker translates.

There haven’t been a whole lot of opportunities for Tucker to exercise his Sangheili conversation skills on Chorus. That all changed two days ago when a ship full of Sangheili and human refugees landed, fleeing their own war-ravaged planet halfway across the galaxy. They had received Epsilon’s message and come seeking help because the reported conditions on their planet made Chorus seem like an idyllic paradise. Among the refugees were an almost comical number of children, outnumbering the adults six to one. The situation became a lot less funny when you realized 80 percent of the children were orphans.

“Here,” Tucker says, pulling out his datapad and selecting a playlist of classic Sangheili nursery rhymes. “They’ll recognize these. Puts ‘em right to sleep. You’ll have the songs stuck in your head for days, though.”

“Thanks for the warning.” Carolina gives a crooked smile as she accepts the datapad. “Can’t be worse than the crap Wash listens to.”

“Speaking of Wash, any idea where he’s hiding?”

Carolina cocks her head—as much as she can considering one of the aliens curled up against her shoulder is batting at her braid like a particularly curious cat. The kids finish up on her hair, and a little boy passes Carolina a pink hand mirror. Tucker bites his lip to keep from laughing as the Freelancer turns her head this way and that, inspecting the no less than eight messy braids sticking off her head at ridiculous angles.

“Looks great,” Carolina whispers, causing the kids to giggle and blush.

She turns her attention back to Tucker. “What makes you think Wash is hiding?”

“I don’t know, have you seen what it’s like out there?” Tucker asks, gesturing towards a window overlooking the track where groups of kids are playing frisbee or jumping rope, supervised by the lieutenants. “I’m having trouble keeping up, and I’m a dad!”

“Eh,” Carolina shrugs, “you’d be surprised.” She looks around at the cluster of children, “Do you remember our deal?”

The kids nod excitedly.

“If we take a nap, you’ll show us how to punch good!” A girl with wilting daisies woven into her hair punches the air, beaming.

Carolina raises an eyebrow. “And the rule?”

“Only in s-self, um,” lisps the boy missing his two front teeth, “s-self defenssse!”

“That’s right,” Carolina says, tapping the datapad. Plucky music starts to play as the kids curl up on the couch. She looks over at Tucker.

“Try the barracks,” she tells him. “They might have gone to get Caboose’s crayons and coloring books.”

“Thanks,” Tucker says, tossing a salute her way as he backs out the door. “Let me know if you need another teacher for punching class.”

“Sure thing. Watch out for—”

“HONK BLARG!”

A dark shape shoots out from under the couch and latches on to Tucker’s leg before he has time to blink.

“Holy fu—” Tucker catches himself. “Fudgsicles. Holy fudgsicles. Definitely what I was going to say. Right, little buddy?”

The small Sangheili wrapped around his leg hoots happily and starts gnawing on his boot laces.

“I think she’s teething,” Carolina explains. “Her brother is with Caboose’s group. Mind taking her with you?”

“No problem,” Tucker says, lifting his foot to get a better look at the alien. “And what’s your name, champ?”

“Firo 'Srattin,” yawns the little girl draped over Carolina’s shoulder.

“Strattin,” muses Tucker. “Good, strong clan name. Well, come on, Firo. Let’s go find your brother.”

“Say goodbye to Captain Tucker,” Carolina tells the children. A chorus of honks and goodbyes follows the teal soldier out of the room.

In the hall, Tucker looks down at his passenger. She’s given up on his laces and is now digging through his cargo pants pocket looking for snacks.

“All right,” Tucker says. “Which way should we try first, hm?”

Firo sniffs the air for a moment before pointing down the hall. “BLARG!”

“The barracks? Good choice. Let’s roll out, soldier.”

It ends up being a long walk to the barracks—and not just because Tucker has a honking deadweight wrapped around one leg.

Passing the empty lot behind the mess hall, he and Firo walk past the Reds organizing a game of football for the kids, and the pair promptly get roped into playing referees. They leave at halftime while Donut’s group of kids performs an impromptu cheerleading routine (The man’s created surprisingly passable pompoms out of old caution tape).

Despite the rest of the base swarming with children, the barracks are oddly quiet.

“I could’ve sworn they’d be here,” Tucker tells Firo after checking Caboose’s room and finding it empty.

“BLARG,” she agrees around a mouthful of a granola bar—wrapper included.

“I mean, I guess we could check bomb disposal range. Maybe they’re playing fetch with Freckles?”

“BLARG?”

“No, fetch with Freckles basically involves vaporizing tennis balls straight out of the sky. So, there’s no real ‘fetching’ happening.”

“BLARG CHONK.”

“I know, right? That’s what I said!”

“CHONKA CHONKA.”

“Watch the language!” Tucker chides. “I don’t want the parents thinking I taught you that.”

Just then, Firo perks up, her large grey snout sniffing the air intently.

Tucker stops walking. “What is it? Did you get their scent aga—whoa, hold up!”

In the blink of an eye, Firo lets go of Tucker’s leg and tears off down the hall.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Tucker calls, sprinting after her. “Firo 'Srattin, get back here! If you had a middle name, you bet I’d be using it right now!”

Firo only stops long enough to stick her tongue out at the sim trooper before racing away down another corridor.

“Why you little,” Tucker mutters to himself and looks up at the ceiling. “Mom, if this is what I was like as a kid, I am so sorry. Firo!”

Tucker skids around a corner just in time to see Firo squeeze through an ajar door and disappear inside.

“Oh fuck,” Tucker groans, picking up speed. He hisses. “Firo! Get out here! That’s somebody’s room, and they don’t want to wake up to an alien chewing on their socks!”

The maze of two-person bunk rooms all looks the same to Tucker, so he’s halfway up the hall before he realizes the alien just escaped into his room. His and Wash’s room.

“Damn it,” Tucker mumbles, screeching to a halt outside the door, a hesitant hand on the handle.

Okay, okay. No need to panic. Maybe Firo hasn’t turned any of Wash’s meager possessions into chew toys yet. The Freelancer isn’t one for trinkets or homely touches. If it wasn’t for Tucker, the man would still be living out of his footlocker rather than the closet and chest of drawers available to him. But that means any nonessential items Wash does keep around are all the more meaningful. Like Caboose’s messy drawings or the ugly-ass cat figurine that Tucker carved him out of a bar of soap (“No, no, Tucker, I appreciate the gift. It’s a cute giraffe.” “It’s supposed to be a cat!” “Uh, cat. Right. That’s what I said.”)

“Alright, whose turn is it to turn the page?”

Tucker freezes. Fucking of course Wash is hiding out in the desolate barracks while the base is swarming with children. Tucker’s never seen him interact with someone younger than the lieutenants outside of a military setting. You don’t exactly see a whole lot of kindergarteners toddling around an active military base (Caboose doesn’t count). Long story short, Tucker has been putting off even introducing him to Junior because everything about Wash; his anxiety, his control-freak nature, his stickler-for-the-rules attitude; screams that he and children do not mix.

So who the hell is Wash talking to?

“BLARG!” A high-pitched Sangheili voice shouts.

Tucker’s brow furrows. He’s just about to push the door open when someone else speaks up.

“It’s Ure’s turn,” a young voice translates.

“Alright, Ure, you can do the honors,” Wash says. “Careful this time.”

Tucker hears the sound of a page being turned.

“Great, where were we? Right,” Wash clears his throat. “The BR55HB Service Rifle entered service in 2548 and is employed as a medium-to-long-range marksman rifle.”

The fuck?

“Though its barrel is longer than that of the BR55, the weapon performs almost identically to its predecessor,” Wash continues. “The magazine housing is built directly into the underside of the stock of the rifle and is located behind the grip. And look, here’s a picture.”

That’s it; Tucker can’t stop himself from sneaking a peek around the door.

Wash is sat on the floor, leaning back against his cot. And around him are no less than twelve children and young Sangheili, cuddled up against him, hanging off his arms, sprawled across his lap, and peering over his shoulders at the yellowed paper gun manual in his hands. After turning the book for everyone to see the battle rifle diagram, Wash goes back to reading,

“Though the BR55HB SR is a select-fire weapon, it is most often used in its three-round burst mode.”

“This is my favorite part,” whispers Caboose to the three kids comfortably sharing his lap.

“Despite firing a very powerful cartridge, the weapon is subject to little recoil, even when being fired automatically.”

Curled up in the arms of one of the Sangheili is Firo, happily sucking on her brother’s shirt as she listens to Wash read with rapt attention, along with the rest of the children. Huddled up among them sits Junior, head resting in his hands as he drowsily listens with a content smile on his face.

Someone needs to put down a wet floor sign because Tucker’s pretty sure his heart has melted into a puddle around his shoes.

“Whose turn is it to turn the page now?” Wash asks, and a tiny boy pulls his thumb out of his mouth just long enough to raise his hand.

Wash smiles, and it’s so warm and natural Tucker momentarily forgets how to breathe. “Want some help?”

Thumb back in his mouth, the boy nods, and the Freelancer helps him turn the page with his free, chubby little hand.

“Great job. Now, it fires M634 X-HP-SAP round from a 36-round magazine, which fits flush in the receiver...”

Suddenly, Grif is there next to Tucker, whispering. “You’re so fucked, dude.”

Tucker startles so hard he stumbles face-first into the door. He turns to glare at Grif who disappears into his own room next door with a little wave. Tucker turns back around to find he’s accidentally pushed the door open and the entire room staring at him.

“I, uh, just...Firo!” Tucker recovers quickly. “There you are! I’ve been, ah, looking everywhere for you. Yeah.” Hell yeah. Fucking smooth. Definitely doesn’t sound like you’ve been creeping outside the door.

Wash has gone bright red. “I, uh. There aren’t any, er, kids books on base,” he stammers and starts to stand up. “They kept asking to read this one cause it has pictures. It’s stupid, I kno—”

“What happens next?”

“I—” Wash stops. His brow furrows. “What happens what?”

“What happens next?” Tucker asks again, coming to sit cross-legged on the floor beside Junior. “Dude, you can’t leave us in suspense. I gotta know who lives happily ever after, right guys?” He winks at the kids who giggle. Junior slings a massive arm around his father’s shoulders and pulls him close.

Wash just sits there, ears and cheeks still tinged with red. “You’re sure?” he asks, narrowing his eyes in the way he does when he’s trying to figure out if Tucker’s fucking with him or not.

Tucker settled in, leaning back against his son. “Just read the story, dude,” he says, grinning.

Wash flips the manual open, laughing under his breath. “Okay then,” he concedes. “Section 1.4 Service History. The introduction of the BR55HB SR led to an immediate increase in the BR55's popularity, prompting all branches of the UNSC Armed Forces, except the Army, to replace the M392 with the newer weapon...”

[whateverthought]

Arrow Season 2 was such a mess. Like, there was such backpedaling, retconning and changes in character and shoehorned stupidity. 

Like, we go through all of Season 1 with Oliver claiming guilt because ‘he killed Sara’ because she died on that boat. And all season we watch him trying to connect with Laurel and apologize to Quentin. Then they end it with Tommy’s death, opening the door for the GreenArrow/BlackCanary relationship they built up and people wanted. They wrote Laurel as a strong and smart justice-seeking woman with prior knowledge on fighting and criminals.

But then, Season 2 and now Laurel is so weak and inexperienced and impulsive. And they bring in Sara by way of the League of Assasins, a group that has never been involved with Green Arrow, Oliver especially. Something that is a large chunk of Batman/The Bat Clan’s lore. As if they weren’t already getting complaints about their Oliver’s personality. The only Arrow Family member with even a remote connection with the League is Black Canary, Dinah Lance is the rival/friend of Lady Shiva, who is only vaguely connected to the League. Mostly because she’s an Asian Morelly-Grey Martial Artist and no one has any creativity, and because she’s connected to the Bat Clan! 

And why would they bring Sara from the dead? To fill up a year of Oliver’s absence? For shock? Drama? Character-Development? The only thing it did was make everyone despicable. Now Oliver is a cruel disloyal horndog that doesn’t understand how his actions could possibly hurt someone while backtracking on a big part of the already established backstory of the Island and his trauma. Oliver cared so much for Laurel, she was half of why he didn’t kill himself, what he said he wanted right after returning to Starling, what he wanted to fix, what he undermined his best friend for. Then he’s an unempathetic piece of shit who takes Laurel’s alcoholism and both makes it about himself and how terrible she is because of it. How Laurel can’t be hurt by Oliver’s and Sara’s decisions because they came back from the dead so she should be happy they’re- what? Gracing her with their presence? 

Did Laurel need a wake-up call? Yes. Should it have been from Oliver? Probably not. Should it have been done the way it was? Definitely not. 

It made Sara a trashy-er hoe who would rather jump on Oliver’s dick than connect with her family. Both her and Oliver had no respect for Laurel who had no respect for herself. Both Sara and Oliver were now self-motivated and pursued the idea that trauma and mental illnesses were an ‘inner darkness’ that they could never beat and it would define them, Sara and Laurel, their whole lives. Both Lance parents preferred Sara so much to the point that they would attack and undermine Laurel.

And the League? Oliver had no previous connection or training with them but for some reason,Ra’s fell in love with him so much that he wanted to give the whole organization and his daughter to Oliver. Why? Ra’s wasn’t sick or dying, the man has been alive for what, a hundred years? More? There was no history between him and Olver. Yeah, Oliver had been trained by Talia, except Talia left the League before that. And Ra’s obviously doesn’t care about his daughters’ connections. He hated Sara but not Oliver for having almost the same relationship with Talia, y’know the relationship that almost was a copy of Bruce and Talia’s, Bruce Wayne the Batman. Admittedly that happened a little later but still, canonly a year after meeting Oliver and now he’s the Heir? 

And what was even the point? The next season they take all of their shoehorning and retconning they did for Sara and just murder her. It was a season of pain and messy writing that just got steamrolled and glanced over.

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day Two Hundred Six: Graduation ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata, Uzumaki Naruto, Umino Iruka, Hatake Kakashi ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: A Light Amongst Shadows ] [ AO3 Link ]

“...you did what…?”

Grinning sheepishly with a hand behind his head, Naruto replies, “I mean, it all turned out fine in the end! Iruka-sensei stepped in, and uh...I got to learn a new jutsu!”

“...and that let you graduate…?”

“Yeah! I guess he figured I did so well on the part I failed before - the clone, y’know - it kinda, like...made up for it!” The blond’s expression then shifts cheeky, adjusting the hitai-ate on his brow. “So I got this!”

Eye twitching, Sasuke gives his classmate a scowl. “...I can’t believe this…”

“Right? It’s great, isn’t it? Maybe I’ll end up on a team with Sakura-chan…!” Naruto beams, giving a little wiggle.

...great isn’t the word Sasuke would use. While he doesn’t really care what Naruto does...this opens up a slim but very real possibility that he might - might - end up on his team. And if that happens...he just might burst a blood vessel. It’s been bad enough having to put up with his attitude and behavior in the Academy. But if he has to do so as a genin, for gods know how long until he can start taking solo or assembled squad missions…? He’s going to be pissed.

The last thing Sasuke needs is a deadweight like the Uzumaki holding him back. He has to train, get stronger, reach a level worthy of facing his brother...and win. There’s nothing else that matters, nothing else he has to strive for. Once that task is complete...he can consider what to do with what remains of his life.

But for now...he either has to have decent teammates, or none at all.

Scoffing, he turns and leaves Naruto behind.

“Hey, hey! Where ya goin’?”

“To the Academy. We’re supposed to get our teams assigned, remember? Or did you miss that memo, seeing how you weren’t officially at graduation?”

Lips pout, running to catch up. “Hey, that’s not fair!”

“Neither is you getting a second exam chance and passing, but here we are.”

The pair bicker all the way to the proper building, others of their graduating class gathering and heading inside to their classroom for what will likely be the last time. Everyone talks anxiously amongst themselves, speculating about teammates, teachers, and missions once they get cleared to start.

“Huh, I hadn’t considered what jōnin I might end up with,” Naruto muses, a finger itching his chin thoughtfully.

“All I know is mine better be decent,” Sasuke replies, taking his seat and folding his arms. The sooner they get this over with, the better.

A few rowdy minutes pass before Iruka arrives, calling for quiet and ruffling a stack of papers.

Sasuke stares at them intensely. There they are...the results sheets and team assignments. The next leg of his journey hangs in the balance: whatever luck he ends up with now could make or break it.

“All right, that’s enough, settle down. Now...when your name and team are called, please remain in your seats. You’ll all be dispersed to meet your jōnin instructors afterward, and we want things to be orderly!” Clearing his throat, Iruka starts with the first team, and Sasuke listens only for his name.

“Team seven! Uzumaki Naruto…”

He can’t help but tense. Time to see who’s stuck with the dead last…!

“Hyūga Hinata!”

In another row, a dark-haired girl tenses, face flushing pink.

“And...Uchiha Sasuke!”

...you’ve got to be kidding…!

Looking around a rather forlorn Sakura, the boys give each other a glower. Naruto, it seems, is also anything but thrilled.

...but what about their third teammate?

The rest of the teams are announced, but Sasuke barely pays them any mind, too busy fuming over his rotten luck. Shackled to the knucklehead...wonderful. Their only possible saving grace is their instructor. Maybe they can help even the odds.

The new sensei are showed in, assigned to their groups before heading out. But by the time the room mostly clears...team seven is sensei-less.

Iruka sighs. “Sorry you three...your new teacher is a bit...chronically late. I’ll go see about ensuring he gets here soon. Stay here, all right?” Opening the door, he steps out, looking a bit disgruntled.

That leaves the newly-formed trio behind.

Remaining in his seat, Sasuke weaves fingers, resting his chin against his hands. So...their teacher has issues with timeliness...great. Just great.

“Um...N-Naruto-kun…? What are you...doing?”

Looking up as Hinata speaks, Sasuke watches the blond carefully balance a dusty chalkboard eraser in the doorframe.

“Just delivering a little welcome present to our new teacher! If he’s gonna have the gall to be late, I’m gonna make him regret it!”

Hesitating, Hinata curls a hand to her chest. “I...I don’t know if that’s a good -?”

Before she can finish the thought, footsteps sound to the door, and all three look up. A hand grasps it, tugging it open and...letting the eraser plop harmlessly (and dustily) atop a head of grey hair.

Naruto bursts out into laughter, Hinata clasping shocked hands to her mouth. Sasuke just...stares. Did...did he really just fall for that…? So...he’s late, and inept.

The man blinks owlishly, picking up the eraser as Hinata fumbles an apology. “S-sensei, I’m so sorry! Naruto-kun, he was just...um…”

“Hm...so this is my new team, is it? Well, right off that bat, I’d say...you’re a bunch of fools.”

Naruto deadpans, Hinata flinching at the insult. Sasuke just...stares. He still can’t believe he’s being called names by a supposedly high-ranked shinobi who fell for an eraser in a doorway.

Nonetheless, the new team heads outside, their teacher leaning on a railing and suggesting they have a little ‘bonding’ exercise.

“Tell us about yourselves,” he suggests.

“Uh...like what?”

“Well...your name, likes and dislikes, goals...hobbies...that sort of thing.”

Naruto squints. “...how about you go first?”

“Me, huh…? Hatake Kakashi’s the name. Likes and dislikes...eh, no point in saying. Goals, I...don’t really consider. And, well...I have lots of hobbies.”

Brows wilted a bit in confusion, Hinata murmurs, “That...didn’t really t-tell us much...did it?”

“Basically just his name…”

“All right, next? You, blondie on the right.”

“Uh...Uzumaki Naruto! I like ramen, mostly! But having to wait for it to cook is definitely on my dislike list. For a hobby I like trying new ramen flavors, and...my goal is to someday be Hokage!”

Kakashi and Sasuke both deadpan, Hinata giving a small, encouraging smile. “...all right, how about you, little Hyūga?”

“My name is - is Hyūga Hinata. I like, um...cinnamon buns, and flowers. I dislike when people get angry, o-or yell. I like to press flowers in my spare time, a-and train. As for a goal, um…” She goes quiet for a moment, cheeks flushing a light pink. “I...I want to be worthy to stand by the side of...of someone I admire!”

A grey brow perks. “...I see. All right, you last, tough guy on the left.”

Posture still closed off, Sasuke simply replies, “Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike a lot of things...and don’t like much of anything. I don’t have time for hobbies beyond training. And my goal...is to avenge my clan by killing a certain someone…”

Both Naruto and Hinata glance to him almost warily...but Kakashi only lets his eye narrow a hair.

“...well, we’ll have our first mission tomorrow,” he then announces, straightening. “We’ll meet at training ground three, five am sharp...be sure to bring your gear.”

“A...mission at the training ground…?” Hinata echoes. “But...what kind of mission involves training…?”

“Well...perhaps it’s less like a mission, and more like...a test.”

“What?!” Naruto points an accusatory finger. “We just passed a test!”

“A preliminary one...but this is the real deal. Only one third of the first pool of graduates will be allowed to remain as genin...the rest? Straight back to the Academy.”

The trio tense, eyes widening.

Back to the Academy…? No, impossible…! I can’t waste another year before getting the training I need! Sasuke’s fists tremble as his grip tightens. He won’t fail...he can’t!

“Ah, and...a word of advice. Skip breakfast, or you’ll just lose it on the training grounds. Dismissed!” With that, Kakashi flickers...and disappears.

Still sitting in shocked silence, the remaining students seem to mull over their task.

“Hngh…! Well, I'm gonna pass that test!” Naruto insists, jumping to his feet. “There’s no way I’ll fail! So you two better keep up!”

Jolting a bit, Hinata nods. “I’ll...I-I’ll do my best, Naruto-kun! I won’t let you down!”

“Tch...it’s you we need to worry about, dead last...you’ll be eating my dust,” Sasuke scoffs.

“Whatever! I’m gonna go home and get ready...you two better be there early!” With that, the blond leaps from their perch, Hinata reaching after him only to wilt.

“...well...I guess I better go, too…” Standing, she glances to Sasuke. “I’ll, um...I’ll see you tomorrow morning, Sasuke-kun.”

“...Hyūga…”

“Um...yes?”

After a pause, he sighs. “...never mind. See you tomorrow.”

“O...okay, then. Goodbye...” Bobbing a short, polite bow, she takes her leave.

Once alone, Sasuke relaxes his posture, staring out over the village. So...a loudmouth moron, a cheeky lazybones, and a timid tagalong...this is what he’s stuck with. Well...at least the Hyūga might have potential, if only she gets over her fear. Whatever it’s rooted in. He knows almost nothing about her...maybe if they pass, he’ll have to investigate a bit. Naruto he knows all too well...and Kakashi seems the type to avoid his snooping. He even wears a mask, after all…

Sighing, he moves to his feet. Better head home...and prepare.

                                                             .oOo.

     Tiiiired OTL      Just your typical "swap Hinata for Sakura in team seven" kinda thing. Was the first idea I had for the given prompt. Tbh, I've always wanted to do a whole fic dedicated to the idea, but...guh, it'd be so long to cover all of canon...or, a canon equivalent given how much one could change. Which I definitely don't have time for tonight, so here's a possible introduction scene xD      Anywho, this nerd needs to get to bed. Thanks for reading!

[twitchesandstitches]

the Titans aren’t a formal group, exactly. they’re not a team but they ARE officially their clan. probabloy has a longer name invoking the word Titanomachy but they’re the Titans. its official. they’re basically all married to each other now, all titan ships are simultaneously canon.

(granted the Fleet don’t DO marriage but making a clan together or joining into one is basically similar for romantic purposes)

the Titans formed at some point after the Great Library is discovered by the Fleet; the formation of the Titans clan is fairly minor compared to things such as bringing the world of the Benders into joining the Fleet (Katara, Korra, Aang, Zuko and everyone else joining the Fleet as BIg Name Heroes), Magnus the Red and his astartes rejoining with his kin like Vulkan, and Optimus Prime being discovered in the Library and finding his Autobots again and also Grimlock’s very angry fist in the face, but its important to THEM

as it is, they are an up and coming clan; they’re hardly the most powerful or accomplished, being too young to outdo the likes of the Fleet champions or the oldest heroines of the Fleet like the legendary Redglare, but they are doing their best to be the finest heroes they can. Already they have their own clan ship, presently occupied by their entire extended clan, allies and the offspring they have chosen to raise with the clan’s traditions. Their clan ship, a massive craft meant as a colony ship, has few weaponry because THEY are the weapons, and it is very much a place to live in. They tend to drift at the edges of the Fleet’s routes, or go off and do their own thing. Sometimes they assist with the works of their elders, mentors and creche leaders, but they are fiercely independant and prefer not to if they can help it.

Robin: mentioned before but it bears repeating; there is no SINGULAR robin here! like the teen titans cartoon, it’s ALL the robins, at once. not combined into a single character, but everyone who has ever been A robin is here and occupied the same role: most predominantly Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and the rest. Others in this group include Terry Mcginnis from the Batman Beyond incarnation (a clone of Bruce, adopted a kid here) and Damien Wayne, and I’m including Batgirls here and those in the general vibe of a Batgirl, like Spoiler and Cassandra Cain. finally, all the Robins can fuse! they’re in fact USUALLY fused and the resulting super-Robin is similar to Teen Titans Robin but generally has it better together; usually identifies as male but if the gals of the Robin flock are involved, they can become agender or female. Depends on the gestalt’s mood.

The Robins took a real shine to Raven after she was introduced to the Fleet; the Bat clan (the extended Batfamily, including Batman himself, associated close friends, and nominally includes Bruce’s loved ones like Diana’s mortal incarnations) was closely involved in working with the library and so they helped acclimitize her to the multiverse. They had the idea to start the clan in the first place. Raven usually has at least one Robin on her, SOMEWHERE.

Cyborg: dropping the ‘angsting over what he has become’ thing in favor of him full out embracing his nature, in keeping with his concept of being a sort of futurism man. his exact lineage isn’t clear but he was definitely an established hero in his own right! Definitely a major science hero and super engineer. Has a bad tendency to go through bodies and need new ones, which he promptly overhauls with cybernetics; its a toss-up if his chosen hero name is actually accurate, or if he opts for purely android bodies that happen to still look partially organic for the Aesthetic.

sort of the Team Dad, he’s closest to his boisterous portrayal from the cartoon, but he can get serious when required and is basically the leader of the group as a whole.

Starfire: the feline origin of her species is a lot more explicit her; Tamaranians aren’t anthro cat people, exactly, but they’re obviously very feline aliens. sort of like how Mass Effect turian’s are birdlike; her massive mane of hair is a LITERAL mane. She’s not adverse to taking on a human-like form or getting a body with that look; she invariably has dark brown skin that gets a gold-yellow effect when she powers up, like a solar battery.

Very, VERY big! 70 feet is one of her SMALLER sizes and she can get far larger, usually scaling up to be bigger than Raven. she’s actually taller than Raven in general, even when not at full power, and she tends towards a broad amazonian body; thick, large muscles, and when she flexes you thank her. She’s warm and loving, but she is a warrior and is rather brutal in battle, and ferociously overprotective of her clanmates. Just insulting them can get her to totally destroy you, often without her even blinking. not so much a powerhouse as a flying juggernaut lady

beast boy: adopted child of the famous heroine Helen Parr/Elastigirl, got his powers naturally but his powers were quite limited until he went through the rite of heroism (Which confers full hero status and is the adulthood rite in the Fleet), and his powers were fully upgraded into his suite of abilities that allow him to transform into any living animal. this incudes mechanical ones, mutants (provided he has seen them) and he can pool the traits of any animal he knows to modify his ‘library’ of animal forms, but it takes work to do so and he has a limited stock of altered animal forms.

the team’s heart and the one who initally kept them together, he’s a sweet guy as lovable as a super kittenpup (a fusion of cats AND dogs, a popular pet on the Fleet), he’s spent the most time around a long-term inter-clan alliance known as the Doom Patrol and he knows the hero business inside and out. despite being the youngest member, he techically has the most experience if you don’t count the Robin fusions. Raven’s number one friend!

some other titans of note. Bear in mind that pretty much ALL titans from any continuity are present as part of the extended clan, but others get more important.

The Young Justice crew: the characters specific to the first two seasons of Young Justice (haven’t seen the 3rd season at all so withholding ideas for that), and assumed to be older than the main group. They include the likes of Static Shock, Aqualad (Kaldur’ahm. a Picuss Volanns here), the Young Justice incarnations of the Superfriends originals like Longshadow and Sam, and so forth. Assume species that do NOT generlaly correlate to their abilities, and they probably predate the Titans as an older group of sorts.

Miss Martian: Mars’ people are quite fine, and in fact are involved in a complex conflict with the other species Mars is populated by in various forms of fiction; they get along fine with the Malacandran races from the Silent Planet books, but the War of the Worlds Martians and the more classic sci fi villain empires have forced the desert and pole martians off-world; M’gan is one born far from the red homeworld, and feels obliged to live up to the great example of her uncle J’onn, one of the greatest heroes to ever honor the Fleet. (Because he is just the BEST.) Raised in a creche of others, including Beast Boy, she became an older sister to them all and a great heroine in her own right! Martians naturally look as they do in Young Justice, though around 14 feet tall at minimum; stronger ones don’t grow larger, but their ability to shapeshift into bigger forms improves.

Terra: The Titans do not talk about Terra. It’s a sore point. Slade from the Task Force seems disinclined to talk about it, but it has something to do with his service on the Task Force.

Jinx: Not actually a member of the Titans! She’s part of a group of up and coming villain gals and boys from the Stingers, operating in roughly the same capacity as the Titans, and the two groups are friendly rivals. She’s very curvaceous and you would THINK her massive hips and breasts would get in the way of acrobatics, but nope! Some possibilities for her species; kobold, really tall goblin, an anthro Jynx from Pokemon (just for the sake of name puns).

[spectrumscribe]

So adding to the list of things I wanted to get my name on, I’m slapping my name on this AU before anyone else to my knowledge at least and releasing my spin on

The 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters set as Voltron Paladins (and co.)

(long post, sorry about that.)

-----

First is the most obvious selection, Donnie. 

He’s the Green Paladin, an easy choice. Intuitive, creative, and curious, can and will engineer/build his way out of any situation, and also glasses. He’s the most like Pidge in personality, and his character also lines up easily to be her parallel. And since I don’t have to justify my reasoning behind his placement, I’ll give a quick tid-bit on his part in the story-

In the AU, he’s a trans male character, and has gone undercover as a woman in the garrison after getting himself banned from the premises. Much like Pidge did by pretending to be a boy. Basically he plays all of Pidge’s role in things, but with a side of getting crushes on aliens and being unsure of what to do with that. cue drama

-----

Second selection, Raph. 

He’s set as the Yellow Paladin in my version of the AU, despite the fact that most people in the fandom would assign him to Red right off the bat. My reasoning behind it is that he’s solid, steady, dependable when needed, and won't move period, even if you push him. Plus, him being put into the heavy tank like lion will force him to better think his moves in battle, and suits his role as the heaviest hitter on the team.

He’s not as quick to anger as most people portray him, either. His temper is fearsome yes, but he doesn’t get angry without good reason majority of times. Usually, its because someone or something has pushed him there that he snaps. Further point for not putting him as the Red Paladin, he’s got a firm control of how he expresses his anger. Red wouldn’t have much impulsiveness to work with there. And that leads me to the next choice.

-----

Third selection, Mikey.

Another twist for most fans I think, I’m placing him in the AU as the Red Paladin. My reasons behind that is because of how I view his character in 2012. He’s more than a bit brash, definitely impulsive, very quick to react to the situation, and has 0 to 60 emotion. He's deadly af, but uses it recklessly so it's not as effective as it could be, much like Kieth. Over all, the Red Lion’s method of fighting (charge in head first and just go for it) matches best with Mikey’s method of fighting, and temperament in general.

He’s also the most likely to pull a Keith, and bugger off into the unknown without telling anyone where he is. He’s done it before, with Dimension-X and all that. It’s not hard to see him being the rebellious youngest brother, and hiding out in the desert on his own. (and without telling any of his siblings he was alright, either. for shame.)

-----

Fourth selection, Leo.

I’m realizing that basically all my choices are plot twists for everyone except me. Point being, I’m assigning Leo to the Blue Paladin role for the AU. He’s good with morale, relatively level-headed in a fight majority of the time at least, and already holds place as the sharp-shooter in TMNT canon anyways. It’s a better fit than being the Black Paladin would be, in my opinion, because while Leo displays some qualities for leadership, he’s not always the completely even-tempered influence he tries to portray. 

He’s impulsive and vain at times, and often fails to use his team members’ full potential. His foresight is short sighted, though that could likely be remedied with better training. He still makes an excellent second in command though, and a good fall back leader when their actual one is out of commission.

-----

Which brings me to the final pick. I’m sure you’re all wondering at this point “But there’s only four brothers, who fills the fifth Lion position?” 

See, I wondered that too for a long while, until it came to me:

They have a sister.

Fifth selection, Karai.

She’s the Black Paladin for a number of reasons. In TMNT canon, she was groomed her whole life to step into the role of a leader, and was trained subsequently. Her prowess in battle is notable for both planning and adaptability, and not to mention, she has unrelenting perseverance towards her goals. Summarized: she's a leader, she's calm in a fight, she's got a plan and will follow it, and has indomitable spirit. Karai’s overall tenacity, determination, and leadership abilities make her an excellent Black Paladin, and a good fit for the leader of Voltron.

Plus, she’s got two toned hair, an under-cut, eyeliner on fleek, and was forced to undergo unwanted changes to her body by the series’ Big Bad. She and Shiro would probably have a lot to talk about together.

-----

That being said, the other characters fall into place relatively easily:

April is the last princess (soon to be queen) of Altea, fresh from hyper-sleep. And, she’s accompanied by her adviser, mechanic, closest companion and general repair-man, Casey. (there’s a lot of requirements for a common born soul to make it into the palace, and Casey some how managed to meet them all. Some how.)

April having the ability to grow to seven plus feet tall excites me as much as the drama of Donnie’s crush on her. Similarly how Casey’s jury-rigging to keep the castle airborne excites me. who let this boy even near the controls, honestly

Splinter is the missing father, (Hamato Yoshi in this AU), lost somewhere in space, and is the parent to all five Paladins. Said five paladins are all siblings, though Karai is the only biological child of Yoshi. Adoption or something more mysterious idk yet was involved in the boys’ heritage/addition to the Hamato family.

Similarly lost with Yoshi is Shini (nickname of her nickname, Shinigami), placed in the role of Matt in the AU. She also happens to be Karai’s sort of un-voiced major crush and best friend. the arena scene will be fun to write for those two, i’m hype for it

And Shredder obviously plays the role of Zarkon in this AU, with his miscellaneous lackies spread throughout in general villain roles. The Foot Clan = The Galra Empire basically.

Other characters of TMNT yet to be assigned, but are definitely around. Somewhere.

-----

Long post, apologies, but I figured I’d give a sort of quick once over of my version of things before other people did. Also: fanfiction. By me. It will be happening soon. It’s too tempting to not.

[pixelonline]

(I am so sorry, mobile users. This is really long.)

My Mass Effect Andromeda thoughts:

1. I was gonna stream the trial, but proceeded to use almost all 10 hours at once because I couldn’t stop playing. I suppose this is a good thing. I’m definitely streaming it once it’s actually out.

2. I hate the character customization. Mass Effect has always been ugly as fuck when it comes to making characters, but my dudes it is 2017 what is going on here.

2a. Side note but I laughed for like 15 minutes that there is only one “White People” face and it is honestly the ugliest thing. Cool feature (sorta not but I’m viewing it as a positive) is that there are designated skin tones with each face set. Speaking of sets, all facial features are stuck to a specific preset face. You can slightly move them, but there’s no changing. I’m hoping this is just for the trial, as other things in the game were locked off until it’s official release.

2b. so many pony tails. no undercut. despite reports saying that hairstyles would be less militaristic as you’re not a soldier, they’re more or less the same. let me be the woman i want to be dammit. There were braids, but only one style. Still double the representation compared to previously I guess? I have very much so white people hair so I don’t feel comfortable having an opinion on that subject. I will say that the braids are exclusive to fem!Ryder and m!Ryder gets 2 different textured styles. I, personally, cannot wait for the beautiful mod community to fix this hair travesty, both with representation variation and all these fucking ponytails. Maybe they can make something happen with the faces, but I hold little hope. They had “alt” hair colors, so it’s already way better than ME Original Trilogy. My Ryder has blue hair, because of course she does. There’s not much shade difference in the colors available, and some of the unnatural colors were, in fact, so unnatural looking that it was hard to accept as a hair color. dyed hair doesn’t reflect light the way it did in game and it didn’t look like much shade variation between the strands so it occasionally looked like the hair hadn’t actually finished rendering. The color selection suggested a more soft ombre look than was actually present.

3. I like that you can customize your twin also, but limits on the CC still drives me crazy. Male hair diversity isn’t super, like I said before, but it just felt like more than the female counterpart. I just really, really hate ponytails you guys.

3a. In your CC options, you can pick story bits. The only options that connect to the previous games is a selection between your Shepard having been male or female. I suppose that’s so pronouns are correct later on.

4. Prologue: I feel it takes too long, the tutorial is honestly not that great. SAM, your AI, is down for most of it, so you have no idea what anything is. It was fine at first, adding to the worldbuilding and urgency and whatnot but it got irritating by the 30th “unknown” enemy.

5. The Omni-Scanner is a neat addition, but it felt sort of...forced at times. More on that later.

6. The prologue story is okay. The ending of it, and the beginning of the actual game, was actually pretty dramatic and I didn’t expect it given the hype around certain characters that Bioware has tried to generate.

6a. Dad Ryder seemed really one dimensional with his kid. Like, never referred to them affectionately even at the last bit. This is sort of explained when you go to his room later, but it felt really hollow to me as a whole. Cool dad fact: CC of your Ryder and their twin decides what Dad looks like. Mine had obscenely blue eyes but grey hair.

6b. Evil dude looked really sad during his introduction and I wanted to be friends with him. This feels like a failed attempt at showing off the ominous silent bad guy, as I immediately started rooting for him. You go, evil dude, touch the stuff and let your dreams be true.

7. I hate the weapon interface. Inventory functions like ME1, allowing you to see the items you’ve picked up (both upgrades and actual weapons) but you cannot equip them. I couldn’t until the first mission after getting my ship. Which is terrible, as I got a sniper rifle I wanted to use and couldn’t for the prologue portion.

8. The Hyperion’s travel system is awful. There’s very little instruction about it. The tram looks as if it’s a one way thing, from the ark to the new citadel-like port, but in actuality you use it to travel around the ark itself too. Didn’t notice until my camera turned slightly to the right and another thing on the board was selectable.

8a. Not travel related, but you do get more info about the ending of the prologue and a new ongoing mission on the Hyperion. It felt like a bit of a slap. It’s all “Here’s this cool new power and a friend BUT ALSO FUCK YOU JON SNOW YOU KNOW NOTHING and you’ll never find out until you go look for these things randomly around. But not around here! Fuck you twice!” It was clearly created to push the story more later on, which is all fine and good, it just ticked me off at this moment.

9. The new Citadel is a goddamn mess. I’m not a huge fan of it right now, though what I’m 100% sure will happen is that as you make more homesteads, the place gets nicer until you’re at endgame and have a fully functional hub. I’ll like it more once it starts changing. It looks like it has really good potential. I hope it functions more than the keep in DA:I, and your choices really DO have an effect on what is opened up and how the society there builds itself.

9a. The Original Trilogy made each race very distinct, with their own speech patterns and everything. I didn’t really get that from this game’s other races. The Salarians didn’t speak in fast bursts with lots of words jammed together, and the Turians more often than not didn’t have that robotic twinge to their speech, and weren’t all that hostile. It seems unlikely to me that there wouldn’t be any left over anger as they left for Andromeda seeing as it’s possible some actually fought in the first contact war. It is about 30 years apart. It was something constantly prevalent in the previous trilogy, which every NPC lived during (at least ME1)

9b. I do, however, love super not Krogan Krogan lady. She’s perfect and I wish I could romance her. You do talk about the genophage. Sucks that she and her clan have no idea that there’s been a cure for over 500 years now.

10. The ship, Tempest, is really nice. I always felt like Normandy was very irritating to navigate around. ME1 especially, but 3 wasn’t so hot either. This one isn’t as large, but it has a really nice flow that I liked. Pathfinder quarters were way better than Shepard’s.

10a. It has a system like the Dragon Age: Inquisition war table where you have timed missions that NPC complete for materials, items, and intel. Seems interesting, but I didn’t see one to completion. They’re still running.

10b. the R&D table is interesting, and I like the separation between the two, but it didn’t feel like a huge asset so early in the game.

11. The traveling system is beautiful. Visually it gets 100% approval. However, it’s extremely slow paced. any selection of a new planet or system takes you back to where you were originally, lets you stare at it a moment, then flies you to the next place where you zoom in for another moment before zooming out and then FINALLY getting information about it. It’s nice, but by the 12th time I was incredibly tired of it.

12. Your Salarian pilot is cool. Not especially Salarian-like, but still I liked him. Cannot kiss. I tried.

13. Material gathering is kind of limited. You scan a whole system, and you have the option to scan planets, but there’s not much point to it as SAM tells you if there’s something worth scanning there. Usually it’s a single deposit of a mineral.

14. I hated the MAKO in ME1, but this one isn’t so bad. I think it helps knowing that I can customize it later.

15. Speaking of customization, you can change the colors of your casual clothes and your armor. It’s the same color selection tool as in CC, so it’s awful. The dial to change the color overlaps with the bubble to select the actual shade so there’s a lot of trial and error involved. Once again, no indication that [SPACE] is necessary to confirm your color choices. I hate the whole design of it.

16. You do meet some companions that you’ll pick up, but you barely interact with them. Good intros though. Really gave them personality right off the bat.

17. ROMANCE: Being fem!Ryder is rough at the start.

17a. Gil is one of the ship’s crew. He’s one of the few genuinely attractive males in all of Mass Effect’s history. As a woman, you can flirt with him, but he turns you down solidly. He’s kind, but firm. He states that he’s interested in men. Which is awesome, because now I have a reason to play a male Ryder after my first play through is done. Female Ryder apologizes, nothing is weird (unlike other interactions) and it actually made me like him more as a character.

17b. Liam kind of blows off your advances but it definitely felt like a rejection. As he wasn’t very clear, I don’t know if he’s a bi character that you have to develop a friendship with first, or if he’s gay and just doesn’t want to come out to your Ryder. I didn’t like the wishy-washiness of the interaction but we’ll just have to see what’s what when the full game is out.

17c. Doc. I forgot her name, so now she’s Doc. I knew this interaction wouldn’t go well, as I’ve read articles about it. She definitely turns you down because you’re a patient. I’ve read that she has a crush on the Krogan that joins you, so is he not a patient too? Either way, she’s very professional about it and as with Gil it made me appreciate her character. Knowing that it’s Natalie Dormer and I’ll never hear her tell me she loves me hurts me deep in my soul though. Why does the world hate me like this???

17d. Blonde biotic woman with the goddamn hair that I want on my Ryder. Cora. I don’t like her. You have the option to hit on her early on, and her reaction felt really awful to me. She gets kind of hostile and all “I already told [person you never met] that I’m not interested in women and I’m telling you too.” Like, ok. Damn. You aren’t my type anyways. I just wanted to see the option play out. 0/10 poor way to handle the interaction. I’m not super fond of the Asari commando thing either. Jack was a kickass biotic too and she was treated like a monster. This woman gets to take part in something very culturally specific like it’s nbd? jnasdlfknasdivhbna, not a fan of her. She looks somewhere between confused and murderous all the time. Also, she walks like Stretch Armstrong. It makes me laugh.

17e. Vetra. The only individual that actually reacts positively to fem!Ryder flirting with her. Even then she really only takes it like a compliment. But, as I love Vetra and much like Garrus I would die for her from first glance, I’ll take it. I think it’ll be a beautiful relationship. She’s also really tall. And pretty. One thing I thought was strange with her is that it always looks like she’s posing when she’s just standing around. One hip is thrust out and her arms are crossed. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think they rigged her to always be in mysterious seductress pose.

17f. I couldn’t flirt with the pilot. Let me kiss the Salarian, damn you Bioware. Also, our nice Scottish friend Suvi can’t be flirted with, but she sounds really soothing to talk to. I’m def a fan of all these non-American, thicker than previously heard, accents on the ship. The Original Trilogy was full of light British accents or full on American. Sort of hard to believe the Alliance was multinational when everyone spoke like they were from the US.

18. Combat: I mostly use the sniper rifle and the pistol. Pistol was nice. I love the sniper rifle in this game. Other ME games it was hard for me to confirm headshots but this one was a clean and clear animation. Very nice. The companion AI was strange at times, as they’d just use their abilities but in odd places so the skills would get stuck in corners or just go off to nowhere. There was combat stutter on the first planet you can visit but I think that’s more my graphics card. The update refuses to finish so I’m stuck 2 updates behind where I should be.

I have, like, an hour I think left so I’m gonna try to rush through a male Ryder play and see how companion reactions differ. I’m really only in this for the romance, you know.

[angelavengedinspo-blog]

Two days previously, Simon had showed up at the Institute, breathless and wide-eyed.

...

“Simon!” Clary had exclaimed. “I didn’t know you were in town.” Simon was a graduate of Shadowhunter Academy, Clary’s parabatai, and a Recruiter, a job created by the Consul to help replenish the diminished ranks of Shadowhunters. When likely candidates for Ascension were found, Simon would talk to them about what it meant to become a Shadowhunter after a mundane life. It was a job that often took him away from New York, which was its downside; in the plus column, Simon seemed to truly enjoy helping scared mundanes with the Sight feel like they weren’t alone.  Not that Simon looked like a dependable voice of reassurance at the moment. He looked like a tornado had hit him.  “I just proposed to Isabelle,” he announced.  Beatriz screamed with excitement. Some of the students, fearing a demon attack, also screamed. One of them fell off a rafter and thumped to the ground on a training mat. Clary burst into happy tears and threw her arms around Simon. Jace lay down on the floor, arms thrown wide. “We’re going to be family,” he said glumly. “You and me, Simon, we’re going to be brothers. People will think we’re related.” “No one will think that,” Simon said, his voice muffled against Clary’s hair. “I’m so delighted for you, Simon,” Clary said. “You and Izzy will be so, so happy.” She turned and looked at Jace. “As for you, get up and congratulate Simon or I’ll pour all your expensive shampoo down the drain.” Jace bounced up, and he and Simon pounded each other on the back in a manly way, which Clary was pleased to feel she had engineered. 

.....

“Did the proposal go well? Was it romantic? Did you surprise her? I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were going to do it?” Clary smacked Simon on the arm. “Did you have roses? Izzy loves roses.” “It was on impulse,” Simon said. “An impulse proposal. We were on the Brooklyn Bridge. Izzy had just snipped the head off a Shax demon.”  “Covered in ichor, she had never appeared to you more luminous?” said Jace. “Something like that,” said Simon.  “That’s the most Shadowhunterish thing I’ve ever heard,” said Clary. “So, details? Did you get down on one knee?” “Shadowhunters don’t do that,” said Jace. “That’s a pity,” said Clary. “I love that part in movies.” “So why are you looking so wide-eyed?” Jace asked. “She said yes, didn’t she?” Simon raked his fingers through his hair. “She wants an engagement party.” “Open bar,” said Jace, who had developed an interest in mixology that Clary found amusing. “Definitely open bar.” “No, you don’t get it,” said Simon. “She wants it in two days.” “Um,” Clary said. “I can see why she’d be excited to share this with her friends and family, but surely it can wait a little longer...?” When Jace spoke, his voice was flat. “She wants to do it on Max’s birthday.”  “Oh,” Clary had softly. Max, the smallest, the sweetest Lightwood, izzy and Alec’s little brother. He would be fourteen now, almost the same age as Tiberius and Livvy Blackthorn. She could understand entirely why Isabelle would want to have her engagement party at a time when it would feel most genuinely to her that Max was there. “Well, did you think of asking Magnus?” “Of course I did,” said Simon. “And he said he’d help if he could, but they have that whole situation with Rafael...”  “Right,” Clary said. “So you want our help?” “I was hoping we could have it here,” Simon said. “In the Institute. And you could help me with a few things I don’t really understand?” Clary felt a growing sense of dread. The Institute had undergone major renovations recently; some were still ongoing. The ballroom that was hardly ever used was being turned into a second training room, and several floors were full of stacks of tiles and lumber. There was the music room, which was enormous, but packed with old cellos, pianos, and even an organ. “What kind of things?” Simon looked at her with big brown puppy eyes. “Flowers, catering, decorations.” 

....

“And that was how Clary had come to be standing in the Institute’s music room, with Magnus’s sparkling icicles dripping down onto her green dress. Every once in a while Magnus would change it up a little, and illusory rose petals would blow through the room. Some of Maia’s werewolf pack had helped move the harp, the organ, and a smatter of other instruments into the adjoining empty room. (Its door was closed firmly now, half-obscured by a glamoured waterfall of tumbling butterflies.) 

....

Beatriz’s students were standing in as waiters, carrying platters of canapés around the room - the canapés had been provided by Simon’s sister, who worked at a restaurant in Brooklyn, and the platters and cutlery were pewter, not silver, out of deference to werewolves present.  Speaking of Downworlders, Maia was laughing in a corner of the room with her hand in Bat’s. She wore a floating orange dress, her curls piled on her head and her Praetor Lupus medallion gleaming at her brown throat. 

-----

Jocelyn had gone off to one of the offices to have a long chat with Maryse Lightwood, Simon’s prospective mother-in-law. Clary couldn’t help but wonder if she was delivering the maternal speech about how the Lightwoods were lucky to have Simon in their family and they’d better not forget it.  Julie Beauvale, Beatriz’s parabatai, passed by them, carrying a platter of tiny puff pastries. As Clary watched, Lily, the head of the New York vampire clan, snagged a pastry off the platter, winked at Bat and Maia, and sashayed over to the piano -- passing by Simon, who was making conversation with Isabelle’s father, Robert Lightwood - on her way. Simon wore a charcoal-gray suit and looked nervous enough to jump out of his skin.  Jace was playing, his velvet blazer tossed over the back of his chair, his slim hands dancing over the piano keys.  ..... They had been as surprised as anyone when the Conclave had voted them in as the new heads of the Institute when Maryse had left. They’d been only nineteen years old, and she supposed they’d assumed Alec or Isabelle would take over, but neither of them wanted it. Isabelle wanted to travel, and Alec was involved with the Downworlder-Shadowhunter Alliance he was building. 

------

Magnus was seated on it, his son Max, a three-year-old warlock with navy-blue skin, curled up against his side. Also on the blanket was a five-year-old boy, this one a Shadowhunter, with tangled black hair, who reached for a book Magnus held out to him and gave the warlock a shy smile. Beatriz was suddenly at Clary’s side. “Where’s Isabelle?” she whispered.  “She wants to make an entrance,” Clary whispered back. “She was waiting for everyone to get here. Why?” Beatriz gave her a meaningful look and cocked her head towards the door. A few seconds later, Clary was following her down the hall, the skirt of her dress hoisted up so she wouldn’t trip on the hem. She could see herself in the mirror along the corridor wall, her green dress the color of a flower stem. 

.......

Beatriz led her into the dining room, which was full of flowers.  Dutch tulips, Clary was pretty sure. They were piled on the chairs, on the table, on the sideboard. “These just got delivered,” Beatriz said in a dire tone, as if they were a dead body and not some local flora. “Okay, so what’s the problem?” Clary said.  “Isabelle’s allergic to tulips,” said a voice from the shadows. Clary jumped. Alec Lightwood was seated in a chair at the far end of the table, wearing an untucked white shirt over black suit pants and holding a yellow tulip in one hand. He was busy plucking off the petals with his long fingers. “Beatriz, can I talk to Clary for a second?”  .... “Why are you in here and not with the rest of the party?” “My mother told me the Consul might drop by,” he said darkly. Clary started. “And?” she said. It wasn’t as if Alec was a wanted criminal. “You know about Rafe, right?” he said. “I mean, all the details?” Clary hesitated. A few months previously, Alec had been sent to Buenos Aires to follow up on a set of vampire attacks. While there, he had come across a five-year-old Shadowhunter boy, a survivor of the decimation of the Buenos Aires Institute during the Dark War. HE and Magnus had Portaled back and forth from Argentina over and over, telling no one what they were doing, until one day they appeared in New York with a skinny, wide-eyed little boy and announced that they were adopting him. He would be their son, and Max’s brother.  They named him Rafael Santiago Lightwood.  “When I found Rafe, he was living on the street, starving.” Alec said. “Stealing food from mundanes, having nightmares because he had the Sight and could see monsters.” He bit his lip. “The thing is, they let us adopt Max because Max is a Downworlder.” “Nobody wanted him. Nobody cared. But Rafe is a Shadowhunter and Magnus - isn’t. I don’t know how the Council will feel about a Downworlder parenting a Nephiliim kid, especially when they’re desperate for new Shadowhunters.”  “Alec,” Clary said firmly. “They won’t take Rafe away from you. We won’t let them.” “I won’t let them,” said Alec. “I’d kill them all first. But that would be awkward and ruin the party.”

----------------

“He’s really happy,” Rebecca said. “With his life, with Isabelle.”

[comicsbeat]

Writeris known for some controversial runs on some top books, mixing a lot of inside knowledge on character history with some alarming mayhem. He’s just picked up one of the plum roles in all of comics: writing the Harley Quinn ongoing title.  With artist Inaki Miranda on board (and some help from Mirka Andolfo, colors by Jeremiah Skipper and covers by the one and only Amanda Conner), Harley is as unfettered as ever, but a bunch of Gotham’s best known villains are standing by to give her evern more to worry about

Tieri’s also the writer on the Jughead: The Hunger ongoing from Archie, another title that turns things you think you know into a topsy turvy bloodbath.

We thought it was high time to discuss Harley and Jughead with Tieri, who reveals his plans for both titles and maybe a little insider New York knowledge..along with some prodigious hunger of his own.

THE BEAT:  I know you are good friends with Jimmy and Amanda, but you have some big platform boots to fill taking over after their iconic run on the character. (I know the word iconic is overused but it really was!) Were you at all trepidatious when you agreed to take over the book?

FRANK TIERI:  Well…Yes and no, I guess.

For one thing, I absolutely agree, while people throw around the word iconic, to me there’s no doubt about it that Jimmy and Amanda deserve their run to be called that. There may be multiple reasons why Harley is as popular as she is these days but I think it’s undeniable that they are definitely one of them.

So yeah, you do take that into account a bit when you do a book like this. You realize you have big shoes to fill. But at the same time, it’s what you work for in this industry, for gigs like this. I’ve been lucky enough throughout my career to have had runs on big books—WOLVERINE, IRON MAN, DEADPOOL, etc—so I know what comes with the territory… and hey, I welcome the challenge. All I think you can do is be yourself in these instances so don’t expect me to be aping Jimmy and Amanda—some things I do similar to what they do, some things I do different. By now at this point in my career I think fans know what I bring to the table—some humor, some violence, a lot of villain stuff, etc—and they can expect me to bring all that to my HARLEY QUINN run as well. Should be fun.

THE BEAT: J&A’s run on the book ended with the death of her friend, Mason. What’s her mind set right now? She didn’t seem quite herself when your first issue (HARLEY QUINN #35) hit last week

TIERI: She’s still reeling from Mason’s death, to be honest. It’s hit her hard and she fears that anyone around her may be in danger and she doesn’t want that. She doesn’t want that pain of losing someone again so instead, she pushes her friends away.

The problem is, of course, when you have friends like the Gang of Harleys and Red Tool and all the rest… well, they’re not exactly the listening sort, as we saw in the first iss. They’re concerned so, whether she approves or not, they’re going to keep tabs on her. (Or “Stalking” her, as Harley put it. )

So when Tony goes missing, kidnapped by a Man-Bat thing,  Harley wants to “Scooby-Doo” the mystery herself. But despite the Gang sending Red Tool after her, Harley only ends up getting taken herself.

THE BEAT: And this all leads to Harley getting changed into a bat…

TIERI: Well, we figured DC didn’t have enough versions of Harley for action figures, statues, home pregnancy tests, etc. So now you’ve got Bat-Harley to play with, kids! You’re welcome.

Anyway, yes, Harley was turned into a bat creature by Francine Langstrom last issue. Now the Gang and Red Tool have to stop the two She-bats from wrecking havoc on Coney. And, ya know… eventually turning Harley back from a giant flying rat would be nice, too

THE BEAT: I’ve also heard that you’ll be making the book a little bit more involved with the DCU, including an appearance by some other Batman villains… as you did with Man-Bat in issue 35. What can you tell us about that?

TIERI: Man-Bat and “Batter Up” is just the start, really. This arc leads directly into “Angry Bird” which basically sees Penguin declare war on Harley and all of NYC after he discovers Harley tricked him and cost him the casino he was planning in Coney (As seen in my fill in issue, HARLEY QUINN #27. See everything ties together, folks! There’s a possibility I know what I’m doing after all…).

Penguin brings a huge chunk of Batman’s Rogues Gallery with him—which for my money is the greatest Rogues Gallery in all of comics, by the way. And I’m not exaggerating when I say huge chunk—everyone from heavy hitters like Mr Freeze and Killer Croc to guys like Condiment King and Egghead… and everyone in between. It’ll be mass chaos and Coney will be worse the wear as all these villains descend on it, looking for a piece of it, even fighting amongst themselves. Needless to say, Harley will have her work cut out for her.

THE BEAT: You mention Coney…Her Brooklyn setting was a big part of the last run, will it continue to be?

TIERI: Coney will still be the focal point, yes, with a lot of jostling between the villains there and with the Gang and the rest of the supporting cast still there… but we will be branching out a bit. Harley will find herself fighting street gangs in Hell’s Kitchen, Mr Zsasaz in Yankee Stadium, the Gorilla Gang in the Empire State building… really every part of NYC.

(Living here in New York and knowing what locales would make for interesting and fun fight venues helps with a storyline like this, let me tell ya.)

THE BEAT: You’re also reuniting with your CATWOMAN artist Inaki Miranda, who I’ve admired for a long time. What are his qualities as an artist that he’ll bring to drawing Harley?

TIERI: Both Inaki and I were excited to be paired up again since we worked together so well on CATWOMAN. And, like with CATWOMAN, Inaki is really capable of handling anything I throw at him… whether it’s humorous stuff with the Gang of Harleys and Condiment King or more serious, darker stuff with Man Bat and Killer Croc.  And by the way, the guy draws a ridiculously awesome Penguin. Really could be my favorite version of the character.

And also joining us on “Angry Bird” will be the very talented Mirka Andolfo. She designed a new outfit for Harley for this arc that I just love and she’s also totally killing it.

Really, I got very lucky with the artists I’m getting to work with on this, I have to say.

THE BEAT: You had written Harley before in Harley Quinn and Her Gang of Harleys and then in a Harley fill in before taking over. Do you have any thoughts on what has made her such a hugely popular character? 

TIERI: I think there’s certain characters that just hit at the right time, for whatever reason. I think Deadpool is a character like that. And I think Harley is another. Both of them seem to me to have taken off at around the same time and I think the cosplay community plays a big role with both. Go to any convention around the country and I would say those are the top two that are cosplayed. The cons are literally swarming with them.

But with Harley in particular, I think the feminist angle also comes into play. Here’s a character that was under the thumb of arguably the greatest villain of all time—the Joker—and she broke free and now she’s doing her own thing. That’s very powerful and you can see why female comic book fans in particular would gravitate to that.

And also, lastly… I just think people like fart and dick jokes. So there’s that.

THE BEAT: You said I could ask some Jughead questions, so I’m going to sneak in a couple! You’re writing the Jughead: The Hunger ongoing in which a lycanthropic Jughead terrorizes the countryside. This launched with a one shot last year, I believe. Did you think the idea would be this popular?

TIERI: We suspected it might hit—the reason I pitched an Archie Horror comic in the first place was because the line was popular—but I don’t think any of us thought it would hit like it did. When we saw cast members from the Riverdale show tweeting about it and then it getting referenced on the Big Bang Theory, then we knew we really had something here.

THE BEAT: Seriously, Werewolf Jughead. What’s your basic approach to morphing America’s harmless teenagers into blood soaked monsters? 

TIERI: Well, my initial thought was simple really–what if there was more to Jughead’s hunger than just a big appetite ? What if there was something deeper behind it… and that led to the whole werewolf concept and him munching down on the good people of Riverdale instead of hamburgers.

Add to that Betty, who was secretly a werewolf hunter who was charged with hunting down Jug and his family of werewolves, and we had ourselves a book, kids.

THE BEAT: Any hints as to where his rampage will take him?

TIERI: Jughead’s pretty much been on the run since our initial one shot, but in this week’s JUGHEAD: THE HUNGER #3, we finally get that JugWolf Vs Betty Cooper Werewolf Hunter rematch fans have been clamoring for. And it’s a doozy, let me tell ya.

Plus, we’ll get to meet the matriarch of Betty’s little werewolf hunter clan, Elena Cooper, who’ll play a big role down the line. And we’ll find up what Reggie—who was turned into a werewolf by Jug and is out for his blood—is up to, and more importantly and much more scary, WHO he’s been up to it with. Suffice to say, ain’t none of this is good for good ol’ Jug.

THE BEAT: Speaking of hunger, are you ever going to eat another giant matzoh ball?

TIERI: Ha! As a matter of fact, I did.

For those of you who don’t know what the hell we’re talking about, Heidi and I were at a con in Jersey and a bunch of us went to dinner at this deli called Harold’s where they had giant EVERYTHING. So anyway, I ended up eating a matzoh ball that was the size of a small child.

Flash forward a few months and my son’s got a karate tournament around there and yes, I ended up eating another kaiju matzoh ball with my kid. My wife thinks I’m a disgusting human being now but eh, that’s not exactly anything new.

Jughead: The Hunger #3 goes on sales this Wednesday, and Harley Quinn #35 is on sale now.

  INTERVIEW: Frank Tieri on turning Harley Quinn into a bat and Jughead into a werewolf Writeris known for some controversial runs on some top books, mixing a lot of inside knowledge on character history with some alarming mayhem.